Catholic Fire

August 17 is the feast of St. Clare of Montefalco (1268-1308), an Augustinian nun noted for her devotion to the Passion of Christ. For that reason, she is sometimes called St. Clare of the Cross. In her community of sisters, she was a model of religious life according to the ideals of Augustine. As superior of her convent, she constantly urged her sisters to practice self-denial and to seek holiness. She was given the gift of knowledge, which she used to defend the Faith. Clare was born in Montefalco, Italy, around 1268. While still young, she went to live with her sister Joan, who had established a community of cloistered nuns. Together they would spend long hours in prayer. As a young woman she became a member of that community, professing religious vows under the Rule of Saint Augustine. Soon after, she experienced a great trial. Her heart was filled daily with spiritual turmoil. She lost any sense of pleasure in prayer. Temptations assaulted her. She wondered if God had a...

By Jean M. Heimann The saint of the day is St. Canute. He was the illegitimate son of King Sweyn Estrithson of Denmark and the nephew of King Knud of England. He succeeded his older brother Harold to the throne of Denmark in the year 1080. As the King of Denmark, he was known as Knud IV. He married Adela, sister of Count Roberts of Flanders. King Canute was gifted with wisdom, charity, and kindness; he was also an excellent athlete, an expert equestrian, and a great general. At the onset of his reign, he led a war against the barbarians and his army defeated them. In the splendor of his success, kneeling at the foot of the altar, he surrendered himself and his kingdom to Jesus Christ, the King of kings. Through his kingdom, he spread the gospel message, constructed churches, and maintained missionaries. Turmoil arose in his kingdom due to the laws he had made championing the Church and he fled to the Island of Fünen. Dissidents went to the church of Saint Alban where Canute...

The saint of the day for January 14th is St. Macrina the Elder, a learned woman gifted with wisdom and counsel. Our knowledge of her life is limited and comes mainly from the testimony of the great Cappadocian fathers of the Church as well as from her  grandchildren and the panegyric of St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Basil. This lady was the grandmother of saints, the most notable being the brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. It was Macrina and her husband who founded the faith of the family and passed it on as a splendid treasure to her children and grandchildren. That faith was born of suffering and persecution. St. Macrina the elder was a native of Cappadocia, in what is now eastern Turkey. It was here that the great apostle of Cappadocia, St. Gregory the Wonderworker, established the faith around the year 250. When he arrived in the territory, it was said, there were only seventeen Christians in the town of Neo-Caesarea; when he died in 268, there were on...

In his weekly general audience, the Pope described the Holy Spirit as a 'gift from God' that's born from prayer and communion. To see things through the eyes of God, he explained, comes precisely from the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. The Church has traditionally recognized seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. SUMMARY OF POPE'S CATECHESIS IN ENGLISH: Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today we begin a series of catecheses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit is himself the "gift of God” (cf. Jn 4:10), the presence of God’s love in the Church and in our hearts.  Based on a messianic prophecy of Isaiah, the Church has traditionally distinguished seven gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. The first of these is wisdom.  As a spiritual gift, this wisdom is an interior light, a grace enabling us to contemplate all thing...

Vatican City, Nov 14, 2013 / 05:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his daily homily, Pope Francis warned against a misguided ‘spirit of curiosity’ which can lead us away from God, stating that it is only through the spirit of wisdom that we are able to be close to him. “Jesus says that the Kingdom of God does not come in a way that attracts attention: it comes by wisdom,” the Pope said during his Nov. 14 homily. Continue reading. Summary of Pope's Homily: (Source: Vatican Radio) Dear Friends and Colleagues, The spirit of curiosity generates confusion and distances a person from the Spirit of wisdom, which brings peace, said Pope Francis in his homily during this morning's morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta. The Pope began his homily by commenting on the first reading from the Book of Wisdom, which describes “the state of the soul of the spiritual man and woman”, of true Christians, who live “in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. And this wisdom carries them forward with this ...

Father Richard Neuhaus talks about what is means to be a true manly man.

I have recently discovered the entertaining and humorous blog of Carolina Cannonball at The Crescat (I know - I am sometimes a little slow at catching onto new things.) and have really enjoyed this woman's writing and wit. She definitely has a way with words (and pictures, too!) Check out And Yet Abortion Remains Legal and The Cannonball on Strange Parenting Practices.