Fr Doyle was known for his enthusiastic promotion of religious vocations. He wrote a best selling pamphlet on the topic (http://fatherdoyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/vocations.pdf) and another on the priesthood http://fatherdoyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/shall-i-be-a-priest.pdf During his life he received many letters from around the world from people who had found their vocation, thanking him for these pamphlets. The power of his written word continued long after his death – I know of one chaplain in World War 2 who …
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December 8, 2014
St Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church A wooden block used as a pillow by St Teresa The life of St. Teresa teaches us that we should never despair of becoming saints. As a child she was filled with a strange mysterious longing for martyrdom. But the early years of her religious life found her cold or tepid in the service of God, indifferent to the sacred duties of …
October 15, 2014
From the Capuchin Crypt in Rome From the Capuchin Crypt in Rome Death is the end of all things here, the end of time, of merit, of pain and mortification, of a hard life. It is the commencement of an eternal life of happiness and joy. “God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Rev. 21, 4.) In this light, life is short indeed and penance sweet. I thought …
October 14, 2014
EWTN Radio recently re-broadcast an interview about Fr Doyle that I originally gave 2 years ago. The recoding can be found here. The segment about Fr Doyle starts about 20 minutes into the broadcast.
August 24, 2014
St James You ask how to pray well. The answer is, Pray often, in season and out of season, against yourself, in spite of yourself. There is no other way. What a man of prayer St. James, the Apostle must have been since his knees became like those of a camel! When shall we religious realize the power for good that prayer, constant, unflagging prayer, puts into our hands Did …
July 25, 2014
We are now less than a month from Fr Doyle’s anniversary, and increasingly our daily posts will start to focus on Fr Doyle’s last weeks, and his heroism under fire. Those who want to learn more about Fr Doyle’s military service, and read his first hand account of all that he saw and experienced, should buy the definitive guide to Fr Doyle’s war years – Worshipper and Worshipped, by Carole …
July 17, 2014
Blessed Anna Maria Taigi I will strive ever to perform each action as perfectly as possible, paying special attention to small duties e.g. saying grace, odd Hail Marys, etc. It seems to me God is asking this particularly from me, and by this means I am to find the chief road to sanctity. COMMENT: As Fr Doyle tells us today, the chief road to sanctity for all of us is …
June 9, 2014
A devotion which does not consist in any special form of prayer nor in doing anything in particular more than to listen to inspirations, is devotion to the Holy Spirit of God…For, as the work of Creation belongs preeminently to the Father and that of the Redemption to the Son, so the work of our Sanctification and Perfection is the work of the Holy Ghost. We honour Him when …
June 8, 2014
St John Paul II When it was not some infirmity or other than caused him to experience pain, it was he himself who inflicted discomfort and mortification on his own body. Aside from the prescribed fasting, which he followed with great rigour, especially during Lent, when he reduced his nourishment to one complete meal per day, he also abstained from food before ordaining priests and bishops. And it was not …
April 27, 2014
Fr Doyle sent the letter below to his father one year after the gas attack of April 1916 (see yesterday’s post). In this letter, he reveals more details of what had happened on April 26-28 1916. It seems to have been an even closer scrape with death than he had let on in the original letter, and he seems to have held off telling his father about it in …
April 27, 2014