Lord, give me grace and strength of character to tear myself away promptly from what, if not bad, is less good, and to give myself earnestly, self-denyingly, perseveringly, to the better and the best. COMMENT: Somebody recently sent me a Fr Doyle prayer card printed in 1923 which contained this prayer composed by Fr Doyle in 1915. I had never seen this particular prayer before and I was very glad …
Saints
July 8, 2011
Fr Emil Kapaun A beatification cause similar to that of Fr Doyle’s is making excellent progress and the documentation has just been sent to Rome. Fr Emil Kapaun was a chaplain in the Korean War. Like Fr Doyle, he risked his life to save wounded soldiers and to bring the sacraments to them. Just like Fr Doyle, this initiative cost him his life. As a result of his dedication he …
July 6, 2011
St Maria Goretti As a boy He gave me something of the kind, so that a passing glance at an immodest picture used to make me shudder; and until I began my theology at 31 I was quite ignorant of most sexual matters. That was His goodness, not mine. COMMENT: Today is the feast of St Maria Goretti, the great champion of purity. She preferred death (at age 12) to …
July 6, 2011
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Today is the memorial of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Amongst other things, Blessed Pier Giorgio was renowned, as a very young man, for his heroic charity towards the poor of Turin. Reading the life of Fr Doyle instantly reminds one of Blessed Pier Giorgio, for he too served the poor of Dalkey while he was himself was just a child. In both cases, very few knew …
July 4, 2011
As a child I was convinced that one day God would give me the grace of martyrdom. When quite small I read and re-read every martyr’s life in the twelve volumes of Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and longed and prayed to be a martyr, and I have often done so ever since. As years went on, the desire grew in intensity, and even now the sufferings of the …
June 30, 2011
Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) on the right, on his ordination day 60 years ago. On his left is Georg Ratzinger, his brother, also ordained on the same day Feast of St Peter and St Paul Jesus during His mortal life practised many virtues; but none is more conspicuous, none appeals more strongly to us, than His infinite mercy, His tender forgiveness of all injuries. A vile sinner is brought …
June 29, 2011
The feast of St Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, falls on June 26. However, this year the feast falls on a Sunday, and in particular it falls on the day on which many countries celebrate Corpus Christi. Thus it seems more appropriate to remember St Josemaria today. Instead of a message from Fr Doyle, we have a message from a saint, ABOUT Fr Doyle. From point 205 …
June 25, 2011
The Birth of St John the Baptist Today the Church celebrates the feast of the birth of St John the Baptist. Fr Doyle does not seem to have written about St John very much, but in one letter to his sister, a nun, written on 19th December 1916, he alludes to the similarities between the harshness of his own life and that of St. John’s. The letter is worth …
June 24, 2011
“No evil shall come upon you”, (Jerem. 23. 17). It is a consoling thought that God watches over us with unceasing care; that no matter where we may be – alone in our humble cell or passing through the crowded streets of the feverish panting city – the hand of God is over us and sheltering us from a thousand unknown dangers, guiding us safely along the path of …
June 22, 2011
Blessed Margaret Ball, one of the Irish martyrs whose feast we celebrate today I have long had the feeling that, since the world is growing so rapidly worse and worse and God has lost His hold, as it were, upon the hearts of men, He is looking all the more earnestly and anxiously for big things from those who are faithful to Him still. He cannot, perhaps, gather a large …
June 20, 2011