Marriage only makes sense as a public institution if it serves a public good. If it is reduced to private romantic attachment or sexual companionship, then the state has no coherent reason to recognize it, limit it, incentivize it, or treat it as distinct from any other consenting arrangement.
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0:00 – The conservative nightmare scenario
What if today’s radical progressivism becomes tomorrow’s “conservatism”?
1:05 – Steubenville Promo
Details on the Franciscan University conference, speakers, and discount code.
1:34 – Why conservatives keeps losing
Conservatism often settles for “this far and no further,” while progressivism keeps advancing.
4:38 – The one conservative counterattack that worked
Matt Walsh’s “What is a woman?” exposed gender ideology by forcing progressives to define their own claims.
6:31 – The next question conservatives should ask
The same strategy can be applied to the redefinition of marriage: “What is a marriage?”
7:42 – Why the new definition collapses
If marriage is merely consenting adults in a romantic relationship, why not relatives, three people, or more?
10:28 – The problem with modern commitment
No-fault divorce has hollowed out the meaning of marital vows and lifelong commitment.
11:23 – Why the state cares about marriage
Marriage is not just a private romantic arrangement; it matters publicly because of children, family, and social stability.
14:06 – The real purpose of marriage
Marriage deserves recognition because it orders sexual union toward family life, sacrifice, and the common good.
13 June 2026
Dom Prosper Guéranger's Prayer to St Anthony of Padua
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In return for thy loving submission to God our Father in heaven, the populace obeyed thee, and fiercest tyrants trembled at thy voice. (Wisdom 8:14-15) Heresy alone dared once to disobey thee, dared to refuse to hearken to thy word: thereupon, the very fishes of the sea took up thy defense; for they came swimming in shoals, before the eyes of the whole city, to listen to thy preaching which heretics had scorned. Alas! error, having long ago recovered from the vigorous blows dealt by thee, is yet more emboldened in these days, claiming even sole right to speak. The offspring of Manes, whom, under the name of Albigenses, thou didst so successfully combat, would now, under the new appellation of Freemasonry, have all France at its beck; thy native Portugal beholds the same monster stalking in broad daylight almost up to the very Altar; and the whole world is being intoxicated by its poison. O thou who dost daily fly to the aid of thy devoted clients in their private necessities, thou whose power is the same in heaven as heretofore upon earth, succor the Church, aid God’s people, have pity upon society, now more universally and deeply menaced than ever. O thou Ark of the Covenant, bring back our generation, so terribly devoid of love and faith, to the serious study of sacred letters, wherein is so energizing a power. O thou Hammer of heretics, strike once more such blows as will make hell tremble and the heavenly powers thrill with joy.
Tony, Tony Come Around. Something's Lost and Must be Found
Today is the Feast of St Anthony of Padua, Patron of lost objects. Here's my St Anthony story in honour of his Feast.
Years ago, I was a storekeeper at the gymnasium at Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas. One of my duties was to unlock the gym and Allen Field House in the morning when I was on the early shift so I had all the keys to both buildings. One cold, snowy winter morning, when I wasn't on the early shift, the C&SH needed the car to drive to work, so I helped her get the kids ready for day-care and rode with her while we dropped them off. Then I walked from the day-care to the gym. I was wearing an old army great coat with my keys on a belt loop. When I got to the gym, I took my coat off and instinctively reached for my keys. They were gone!
I panicked and called the building supervisor and told him I was taking off to look for them. I carefully retraced my path all the way to where I had started and then back, looking at the ground the whole way. No luck! I got back to the gym and called the university locksmith to tell him that he would need to change all the locks on the buildings. The locksmith, a fellow Catholic, reminded me of St Anthony, so I asked him for his intercession and promised a Mass in his honour if he would help me.
During the lunch hour, as people were coming in to work out or play sports, someone asked me how I was doing. I replied, 'Not so good' and told him what had happened. He told me to check in his department office across the street because one of their grad students had found some keys that morning. I ran across the street to find that my keys had been found in the slush in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in town with no damage and no evidence that they had even been run over.
Another one for the Miracle Worker of Padua! The humourous end to the story is that I sent the Mass stipend to the missions via 'The Irish Catholic' which publishes thanksgiving prayers. I signed my letter in full form as Jovan Weismiller, T.O.Carm. They publish only initials and when it was printed it came out as 'JWT O'Carm'!
The Forgotten Customs of the Sacred Heart
Mr Plese, an unending fount of information on Catholic customs, takes us through some of the sadly discarded customs of the Feast of the Sacred Heart.
From One Peter Five
By Matthew Plese, TOP
The Carillon-Sacré-Coeur – flag of French Canadians.
Look at this Heart which has loved men so much, and yet men do not want to love Me in return. Through you My divine Heart wishes to spread its love everywhere on earth (Words of our Lord Jesus Christ to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)
The History of the Feast of the Sacred Heart & Its Forgotten Octave
While the entire month of June is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Feast of the Sacred Heart is unique kept to honor the mercy and love of God while making reparation for the serious sins committed against Our Blessed Lord. Traditionally up until 1955, the Feast of the Sacred Heart immediately follows the Octave Day of Corpus Christi. After having celebrated 8 days devoted to the Blessed Sacrament, we immediately turn to the Sacred Heart, which also traditionally had its own octave as well.
The Institution of the Feast of the Sacred Heart was a result of the appearances of our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1675. St. Margaret Mary suffered contempt from many people who refused to believe the authenticity of the visions. In these appearances, Our Lord told her twelve graces that He would give to anyone devoted to His Sacred Heart. Our Lord said to her, “I ask thee that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be set apart as a special feast to honor My Heart.” He also promised 12 promises to those who are devoted to the Sacred Heart:
- I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life.
- I will give peace in their families.
- I will console them in all their troubles.
- They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of death.
- I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
- Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
- Tepid souls shall become fervent.
- Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
- I will bless the homes in which the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honoured.
- I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
- Those who propagate this devotion shall have their name written in My Heart, and it shall never be effaced.
- The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under My displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Heart shall be their assured refuge at the last hour.
In 1693, three years after the death of St. Margaret Mary, the Holy See imparted indulgences to the Confraternities of the Sacred Heart, and in 1697 granted the feast to the Visitandines with the Mass of the Five Wounds, but refused a feast common to all, with special Mass and Office. The devotion spread, particularly in religious communities. The Marseille plague in 1720 furnished perhaps the first occasion for a solemn consecration and public worship outside of religious communities. Other cities of southern Europe followed the example of Marseille. In 1726 Rome was again asked for a feast with a Mass and Office of its own; this was refused in 1729 but granted in 1765. In that year, at the request of the queen, the feast was received quasi-officially by the episcopate of France. Hence, the Mass and Office in Honor of the Sacred Heart were not approved for any use until 1765 by Pope Clement XIII – one hundred years after the request was made by our Lord!
Finally, in 1856, at the urgent entreaties of the French bishops, Pope Pius IX extended the Feast of the Sacred Heart to the Latin Church under the rite of double major. In 1889 it was raised by the Latin Church to the double rite of first class. In 1928, Pope Pius XI raised the feast to the highest rank, Double of the First Class, and added an octave; the 1955 reforms of the general Roman calendar suppressed this octave and removed most other octaves.
On November 9, 1921, Pope Benedict XV established the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus on the Thursday within the Octave of the Sacred Heart, which in a sense, further established the connection of the Sacred Heart with Corpus Christi and its just-concluded Octave.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart Dates Back to the Middle Ages
Long before the apparition to St. Margaret Mary, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus existed. On the December 27th feast day of St. John the Evangelist in 1256 AD, St. Gertrude the Great had a profound vision in which she laid her head near the wound in the side of Jesus and heard the beating of the Sacred Heart. This is especially profound since St. John the Evangelist reclined his head to the heart of the Divine Savior at the Last Supper.
The First Friday Devotion
When Our Lord later appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1600s, He appeared to her on the feast day of St. John the Evangelist. Our Lord requested three things: frequently receiving Holy Communion, receiving Holy Communion especially on the first Friday of each month, and observing a Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament, with the aforementioned promises.
Father Weiser writes in Christian Feasts and Customs this short excerpt on Devotions to the Sacred Heart, mentioning this practice:
As a result of the revelations granted to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1690), the practice developed from the seventeenth century on of devoting the first Friday of every month in a special way to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Since 1889 a Roman indult has given this custom a liturgical expression through the “Mass of the Sacred Heart” which, under certain conditions, may be celebrated as a solemn votive Mass. Other liturgical devotions, too, have been provided for “First Friday”; they may be held in churches with the approval of the bishop and according to his regulations. Through the pious exercises of the “Nine Fridays” and the “First Fridays,” the custom grew in many places of performing on every Friday some devotion in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, partly in church (by attendance at Mass, Communion, evening devotions), partly at home (by family prayer, burning of vigil lights before the Sacred Heart statue.
Hence, priests should be offering extra Masses each Friday in honor of the Sacred Heart and encouraging the faithful to make the nine First Fridays (and repeating it often throughout life). And families should also have statues of the Sacred Heart in their home which are housed on or near our home prayer altars.
Act of Dedication to the Sacred Heart
What is Consecration to the Sacred Heart? Fr. Peter Scott explains:
Consecration to the Sacred Heart is consequently an act of individuals, of families, of parishes, of nations, and will bring all the more graces as it is clearly understood as an act of returning love for love, and is accomplished fervently by an entire community. What, then, is consecration? It is much more than a formula, a passing pious act to be repeated from time to time. It is a complete gift of oneself, in this case to divine love. It is an interior belonging to Christ, that might be accomplished the words of the Apostle: “it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives within me” (Gal 2:20). It is a donation of our whole being and life, as of a victim, to be immolated to divine love. It is the living of our baptismal vows, by which we renounced entirely Satan and his allurements to serve Christ our King and Him alone.
There is no one act of consecration to the Sacred Heart. St. Margaret Mary in fact requested that her novices write their own, as she herself did. However, in a letter of 1684 to one of her superiors, she describes what it must contain: “If you desire to live for Him alone and to attain to the perfection that He desires from you, you must offer to his Sacred Heart the entire sacrifice of yourself and all that belongs to you, without any reserve, so that you may no longer like anything but what he likes; may act only according to his inspirations, undertaking nothing without first asking his counsel and his aid, giving unto him the glory of all-glorifying Him for everything… (Cf J.B. Bainvel SJ).
We can honor Heaven’s request to honor the Sacred Heart by making the Act of Consecration as written by St. Margaret Mary:
I, ______________, give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being, save to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him. I therefore take Thee, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death.
Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God Thy Father, and turn away from me the strokes of His righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in Thee, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Thy goodness and bounty. Do Thou consume in me all that can displease Thee or resist Thy holy will; let Thy pure love imprint Thee so deeply upon my heart, that I shall nevermore be able to forget Thee or to be separated from Thee; may I obtain from all Thy loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Thee, for in Thee I desire to place all my happiness and all my glory, living and dying in very bondage to Thee.
We can also pray the Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart which was written by Pope Leo XIII.
Honor the Sacred Heart as a Family Throughout June
This Feast of the Sacred Heart, in addition to dedicating ourselves and our families to the Sacred Heart, we can and should make the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart (which is an indulged prayer) and having our home enthroned to the Sacred Heart (if it has not already been). Lastly, after we conclude our daily Rosaries, each day of June we can add the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Other less common prayers like the Daily Offering to the Sacred Heart for the Dying are also worth practicing with fervor during this month.
While the Sacred Heart is a newer feast day in the life of the Church and has not developed customs like more ancient feast days, we can nevertheless live out the customs that have arisen in the past few centuries. After all, Our Lord asked for reparation to the Sacred Heart in the form of the nine First Fridays and if God Himself asks it of us, who can dare refuse?
St Anthony of Padua, Confessor
From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:
“Rejoice thee, happy Padua, rich in thy priceless treasure!” (ANT. to Benedictus, for the feast of the Franciscan Breviary) Anthony in bequeathing thee his body, has done more for thy glory, than the heroes who founded thee on so favored a site, or the doctors who have illustrated thy famous university!
The days of Charlemagne were past and gone: yet the work of Leo III still lived on, despite a thousand difficulties. The enemy, now at large, had sown cockle in the field of the divine Householder; heresy was cropping up here and there, whilst vice was growing apace in every direction. In many an heroic combat, the Popes aided by the Monastic Order, had succeeded in casting disorder from out the Sanctuary itself: still the people, too long scandalized by venal pastors, were fast slipping away from the Church. Who could rally them once more? who wrest from Satan a reconquest of the world? At this trying moment, the Spirit of Pentecost, ever-living, ever-present in Holy Church, raised up the Sons of St. Dominic and of St. Francis. The brave soldiers of this new militia, organized to meet fresh necessities, threw themselves into the field, pursuing heresy into its most secret lurking holes, and thundering against vice in every shape and wheresoever found. In town or in country, they were everywhere to be seen confounding false teachers, by the strong argument of miracle as well as of doctrine; mixing with the people whom the sight of their heroic detachment easily won over to repentance. Crowds flocked to be enrolled in the Third Orders instituted by these two holy founders, to afford a secure refuge for the Christian life in the midst of the world.
The best known and most popular of all the sons of St. Francis, is Anthony whom we are celebrating this day. His life was short: at the age of thirty-five, he winged his flight to heaven. But a span so limited, allowed nevertheless of a considerable portion of time being directed by our Lord, to preparing this chosen servant unto the ministry destined for him. The all-important thing in God’s esteem, where there is question of fitting apostolic men to become instruments of salvation to a greater number of souls, — is not the length of time which they may devote to exterior works, but rather, the degree of personal sanctification attained by them, and the thoroughness of their self-abandonment to the ways of divine Providence. As to Anthony, it may almost be said, that up to the last day of his life, Eternal Wisdom seemed to take pleasure in disconcerting all his thoughts and plans. Out of his twenty years of religious life, he passed ten amongst the Canons Regular, whither the divine call had invited him at the age of fifteen, in the full bloom of his innocence; and there, wholly captivated by the splendor of the Liturgy, occupied in the sweet study of the Holy Scriptures and of the Fathers, blissfully lost in the silence of the cloister, — his seraphic soul was ever being wafted to sublime heights, where (so it seemed) he was always to remain, held and hidden in the secret of God’s Face, When on a sudden, behold! the Divine Spirit urges him to seek the martyr’s crown: and presently, he is seen emerging from his beloved monastery, and following the Friars Minor to distant shores, where already some of their number had snatched the blood-stained palm. Not this, however, but the martyrdom of love, was to be his. Falling sick and reduced to impotence, before his zeal could effect anything on the African soil, — obedience recalled him to Spain; but, instead of that, he was cast by a tempest, on the Italian coast.
It happened that Saint Francis was just then convoking his entire family, for the third time, in General Chapter. Anthony unknown, lost in this vast assembly, beheld at its close, each of the Friars in turn, receive his appointed destination, whereas to him not a thought was given. What a sight! — the scion of the illustrious family de Bouillon and of the kings of the Asturias, completely overlooked in the throng of holy poverty’s sons! At the moment of departure, the Father Minister of the Bologna Province, remarking the isolated condition of the young religious whom no one had received in charge, — admitted him, out of charity, into his company. Accordingly having reached the Hermitage of Monte Paolo, Anthony was deputed to help in the kitchen and in sweeping the house, being supposed quite unfitted for anything else. Meanwhile, the Augustinian Canons, on the contrary, were bitterly lamenting the loss of one whose remarkable learning and sanctity, far more even than his nobility, had up to this, been the glory of their Order.
The hour at last came, chosen by Providence, to manifest Anthony to the world; and immediately, as was said of Christ Himself, the whole world went after him. (John 12:19) Around the pulpits where this humble Friar preached, there were wrought endless prodigies, in the order of nature and of grace. At Rome, he earned the surname of Ark of the Covenant; in France, that of Hammer of heretics. It would be impossible for us here, to follow him throughout his luminous course; but suffice it to say, that France as well as Italy, owes much to his zealous ministry.
St. Francis had yearned to be himself the bearer of the Gospel of peace, through all the fair realm of France, then sorely ravaged by heresy; but in his stead, he sent thither, Anthony, his well-beloved son and, as it were, his living portrait. What St. Dominic had been in the first crusade against the Albigenses, — Anthony was in the second. At Toulouse, was wrought that wondrous miracle of the famished mule turning aside from the proffered grain, in order to prostrate in homage before the Sacred Host. From the Province of Berry, his burning word was heard thundering in various distant provinces; whilst Heaven lavished delicious favors on his soul, that remained ever childlike amidst the marvelous victories achieved by him, and the intoxicating applause of an admiring crowd. Under the very eyes of his host, at a lonely house in Limousin, the Infant Jesus came to him radiant in beauty; and throwing Himself into his arms covered him with sweetest caresses, pressing the humble Friar to lavish the like on Him. One feast of the Assumption, Anthony was sad, because of a phrase then to be found in the Office, seeming to throw a shade of discredit on the fact of Mary’s body being assumed into heaven, together with her soul. Presently, the divine Mother herself came to console her devoted servant, in his lowly cell, assuring him of the truth of the doctrine of her glorious Assumption; and so left him, ravished with the sweet charms of her countenance and the melodious sound of her voice. Suddenly, as he was preaching at Montpellier, in a church of that city thronged with people, Anthony remembered that he had been appointed to chant the Alleluia, at the conventual Mass in his own convent, and he had quite forgotten to get his place supplied. Deeply pained at this involuntary omission, he bent his head upon his breast: whilst standing thus motionless and silent in the pulpit, as though asleep, his brethren saw him enter their choir, sing his verse, and depart; at once, his auditory beheld him recover his animation, and continue his sermon with the same eloquence as before. In this same town of Montpellier, another well-known incident occurred. When engaged in teaching a course of theology to his brethren, his commentary on the Psalms disappeared; but the thief was presently constrained, even by the fiend himself, to bring back the volume, the loss whereof had caused our Saint so much regret. Such is commonly thought to be the origin of the popular devotion, whereby a special power of recovering lost things, is ascribed to Saint Anthony. However this may be, it is certain, that from the very outset, this devotion rests on the testimony of startling miracles of this kind; and in our own day, constantly repeated favors of a similar nature, still confirm the same.
The following is the abridgment of this beautiful life, as given in the Liturgy.
Anthony was born at Lisbon, in Portugal, of noble parents, who brought him up in the love of God. Whilst he was still a youth, he joined the institute of the Canons Regular. But when the bodies of the five holy martyred Friars Minor, who had just suffered in Morocco for Christ’s sake were brought to Coimbra, the desire to be himself a martyr enkindled his soul, and he therefore passed over to the Franciscan Order. Presently, still urged by the same yearning, he had well-nigh reached the land of the Saracens, when falling sick on the road, he was enforced to turn back; but the ship bound for Spain, was drifted towards Sicily.
From Sicily, he came to Assisi, to attend the General Chapter of his Order, and thence withdrew himself to the Hermitage of Monte Paolo near Bologna, where he gave himself up for a long while, to contemplation of the things of God, to fastings and to watchings. Being afterwards ordained Priest and sent to preach the Gospel, his wisdom and eloquence drew on him such marked admiration of men, that the Sovereign Pontiff once, on hearing him preach, called him “The Ark of the Covenant.” Chiefly against heresies did he put forth the whole force of his vigor, whence he gained the name of “Perpetual hammer of heretics.”
He was the first of his Order, who, on account of his excellent gift of teaching, publicly lectured at Bologna on the interpretation of Holy Scripture, and directed the studies of his brethren. Then, having travelled through many provinces, he came one year before his death, to Padua where he left some remarkable monuments of the sanctity of his life. At length, having undergone much toil for the glory of God, full of merits and conspicuous for miracles, he fell asleep in the Lord, upon the Ides of June, in the year of salvation, one thousand two hundred and thirty-one. The Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory IX enrolled his name among those of Holy Confessors.
Want of space obliges us to be very meager in the number we give of liturgical pieces; but we cannot omit here the Miraculous Responsory, as it is called, the composition whereof is attributed to Saint Bonaventure. It continues still to justify its name, in favor of those who recite it in the hour of need. In the Franciscan Breviary it is the eighth Responsory of the Office of Saint Anthony of Padua. At a very early date, this, together with the Nine Tuesdays in our Saint’s honor, became a very popular devotion and was fraught with immense fruits of grace.
RESPONSORY
(called the “miraculous”)
If ye seek miracles, —lo! death, error, calamities, the demon and the leprosy, flee all away; the sick also arise healed. * Sea and chains give way; young and old alike, ask and receive again the use of members, as well as things lost.
℣. Dangers vanish; necessity ceased: let those who have experienced such things relate these facts; let the Paduans repeat:
* Sea and etc. Gloria. etc. * Sea, etc.
℣. Pray for us, O blessed Anthony,
℟. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
LET US PRAY
May the votive solemnity of blessed Anthony, thy Confessor, give joy to thy Church, O God; that it may be ever defended by spiritual assistance, and deserve to possess eternal joys. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
O glorious Anthony, the simplicity of thine innocent soul made thee a docile instrument in the hand of the Spirit of Love. The Seraphic Doctor, Saint Bonaventure, hymning thy praises, takes for his first theme thy childlike spirit, and for his second thy wisdom which flowed therefrom. Wise indeed wast thou, 0 Anthony, for, from thy tenderest years, thou wast in earnest pursuit of divine Wisdom; and wishing to have her alone for thy portion, thou didst hasten to shelter thy love in some cloister, to hide thee in the secret of God’s face, the better to enjoy her chaste delights. Silence and obscurity in her sweet company was thine heart’s one ambition; and even here below her hands were pleased to adorn thee with incomparable splendor. She walked before thee; and blithely didst thou follow, for her own sake alone, without suspecting how all other good things were to become thine in her company. (Wisdom 7) Happy a childlike spirit such as thine, to which are ever reserved the more lavish favors of eternal Wisdom! “But,” exclaims thy sainted panegyrist Bonaventure, “who is really a child nowadays? Humble littleness is no more; therefore love is no more. Naught is to be seen now but valleys bulging into hills, and hills swelling into mountains. What saith Holy Writ? When they were lifted up, thou hast cast them down. (Psalms 72:18) To such towering vaunters, God saith again: Behold I have made thee a small child; but exceedingly contemptible among the nations such infancy is. Wherefore will ye keep to this childishness, 0 men, making your days an endless series of inconstancy, boisterous and vain effort at garnering wretched chaff? Other is that infancy which is declared to be the greatest in the land of true greatness. (Matthew 18:4) Such was thine, O Anthony! and thereby wast thou wholly yielded up to Wisdom’s sacred influence.”
In return for thy loving submission to God our Father in heaven, the populace obeyed thee, and fiercest tyrants trembled at thy voice. (Wisdom 8:14-15) Heresy alone dared once to disobey thee, dared to refuse to hearken to thy word: thereupon, the very fishes of the sea took up thy defense; for they came swimming in shoals, before the eyes of the whole city, to listen to thy preaching which heretics had scorned. Alas! error, having long ago recovered from the vigorous blows dealt by thee, is yet more emboldened in these days, claiming even sole right to speak. The offspring of Manes, whom, under the name of Albigenses, thou didst so successfully combat, would now, under the new appellation of Freemasonry, have all France at its beck; thy native Portugal beholds the same monster stalking in broad daylight almost up to the very Altar; and the whole world is being intoxicated by its poison. O thou who dost daily fly to the aid of thy devoted clients in their private necessities, thou whose power is the same in heaven as heretofore upon earth, succor the Church, aid God’s people, have pity upon society, now more universally and deeply menaced than ever. O thou Ark of the Covenant, bring back our generation, so terribly devoid of love and faith, to the serious study of sacred letters, wherein is so energizing a power. O thou Hammer of heretics, strike once more such blows as will make hell tremble and the heavenly powers thrill with joy.
St Anthony of Padua: The Ark of the Testament
A sermon for today. Please remember to say 3 Hail Marys for the Priest.
St Damhnade, Virgin
From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:
THE eminent spirit of sanctity which the glorious St. Patrick bequeathed as it were to a great number of heroic imitators of his virtue, was most conspicuous in the wonderful life of this holy virgin, famed in Ireland for an extraordinary gift of miracles. She is honored with singular devotion as titular saint of the counties of Fermanagh, Cavan, and others. See Colgan in MSS. ad 13 Jun.
St Antony of Padua, Confessor
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From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:
His genuine life has received several interpolations from popular reports of no authority. But Wadding Annals of his Order furnish us with good memoirs relating to his life and actions. See the judicious notes of the Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum Junii, t. 2. p. 706. Ragnaud, t. 8, Mic. Ant. Bibl. Hisp. and Andreich.
A. D. 1231.
ST. ANTONY, though a native of Lisbon in Portugal, received his surname from his long residence at Padua, which city is possessed of the treasure of his relics. He was born in 1195, and christened by the name of Ferdinand, which he changed for that of Antony when he entered the order of St. Francis, out of devotion to the great patriarch of monks, who was the titular saint of the little chapel of his order in which he took the habit. His father was Martin de Bullones, an officer in the army of Alphonsus I., surnamed el Consultador, who, having defeated five kings of the Moors in the battle of Orique, in 1139, was crowned king of Portugal, and died in 1185. This prince’s father, Henry of Burgundy, grandson of Robert, king of France, had begun the conquest of that country, but never took the title of king. The mother of our saint was Mary of Tevera, one of the most accomplished of women. Both his parents were equally distinguished by their nobility and virtue. They placed their son very young in the community of the canons of the cathedral of Lisbon, where his rising genius was carefully cultivated, and from his tender years he always advanced both in knowledge and devotion. At fifteen years of age he entered among the regular canons of St. Austin, near Lisbon; but not bearing the interruption and distraction which the visits of his friends there gave him, he desired, two years after, to be sent to the convent of the Holy Cross of the same order at Coimbra, a hundred miles from the former city. The close retirement and the austerity in which he there lived astonished his brethren, while he pursued his studies, and read assiduously the holy scriptures and fathers. By his regular method and application, and by his sound and piercing judgment, he made a quick progress, and together with a profound knowledge of theology, acquired a perfect habit of nervous and convincing eloquence. In the mean time he inflamed his devotion by assiduous prayer and holy meditation, and nourished daily in his soul the strongest sentiments and affections of piety, without which means the heart is left spiritually dry, the usual consequence of studies whether sacred or profane unless prayer imparts to them its unction. But the saint was called by God to serve him with greater fervor, and to be the ornament and support of an other illustrious rising order of religious men.
He had lived at Coimbra near eight years, when Don Pedro, infant of Portugal, brought over from Morocco the relics of the five Franciscans, who had been lately there crowned with martyrdom. Ferdinand was strongly affected at the sight, and conceived an ardent desire to lay down his life for Christ. Shortly after, certain Franciscan friars came to his monastery of the Holy Cross to beg an alms for their community. Ferdinand discovered to them his inclination to embrace their institute, and was by them encouraged to put it in execution. No sooner was this known among the canons but they endeavored to dissuade him from such a resolution, and he suffered much from their railleries and bitter reproaches. But he rejoiced in humilia and he began by them to learn to overcome himself, and to root out of his heart all lurking poison of pride. While he examined his vocation, and begged the direction of the Holy Ghost, he found his resolution every day to gain new strength from the esteem he conceived for an order which inspired an eminent spirit of martyrdom, and still enjoyed the direction and living example of its holy founder. Its poverty and austerities had also charms to him. Having, therefore, obtained the consent of his prior, he received this new habit in 1221, in the little Franciscan convent dedicated to the great St. Antony, patriarch of the monks, near Coïmbra. After some time spent in solitude, prayer, and penitential austerities, burning with a desire of martyrdom, he obtained leave to go into Africa to preach the gospel to the Moors. He was scarce arrived there, when God, satisfied with the sacrifice of his heart, visited him with a severe fit of illness, which obliged him to return to Spain for the re-establishment of his health. But by contrary winds, the vessel on which he was embarked was driven to Sicily, and touched at Messina; where he was informed that St. Francis was then holding a general chapter at Assisium. Sick and weak as he was, the desire of seeing the holy founder of his order carried him to Assisium. When he had seen St. Francis he desired to cultivate the happiness which he enjoyed in the company of the saint; and in order to stay nearer his person, offered himself to the provincials and guardians of Italy. St. Francis approved his inclination to renounce his friends and country; but not one of the superiors there assembled would be troubled with him, so unpromising and sickly was his aspect; for he took care to conceal his learning and talents, and presented himself only to serve, in the kitchen. At last a guardian, in the province of Romagna, named Gratiani, took pity of him, and sent him to the hermitage of Mount-Paul, a little solitary convent near Bologna. Antony thought of nothing but of burying himself here in obscurity unknown to the world, joining the sweets of heavenly contemplation with the austerities of a penitential life, and the humiliations of such a state. He never let fall one word which might show his learning, much less any thing of the sublime communications of his soul with God; but listened to everybody, and only spoke when obliged, till an accident made him known to the world. An assembly of the neighboring Dominican and Franciscan friars was held at Forli, in which the Dominicans, as strangers, were desired to make an exhortation to the company. They all excused themselves, every one saying that he was not prepared. Then Antony’s guardian ordered him to speak, and to say whatever the Holy Ghost should put in his mouth. The saint begged to be excused, alleging that he had been only used to wash the dishes in the kitchen, and to sweep the house. But the superior insisting upon his compliance, he spoke with such eloquence, erudition, and unction, as astonished the whole company. He was at that time about twenty-six years old.
St. Francis was informed of the discovery of this hidden treasure in his order and sent him to Vercelli, there to apply himself to the study of theology, and after a short time to teach the sacred sciences; yet recommending to him to make the assiduous exercise of contemplation and prayer his principal employment, lest his studies should otherwise extinguish in him the spirit of devotion and piety. St. Francis’s letter was couched in the following terms: “To my most dear brother Antony, friar Francis wishes health in Jesus Christ. It seemeth good to me, that you should read sacred theology to the friars; yet so, that you do not prejudice yourself by too great earnestness in studies; and be careful that they do not extinguish in yourself or in them the spirit of holy prayer.” St. Antony taught divinity some years with great applause at Bologna, Toulouse, Montpellier, and Padua, and was appointed guardian at Limoges. In all these employments he never made use of the general dispensation allowed to professors, of an exemption from any of the regular duties of his community, and he found time to preach assiduously to the people. He at length forsook the schools to apply himself wholly to the functions of a missionary preacher; for be thought the conversion of souls from vice, and the reformation of manners called for his whole attention and zeal. He seemed formed both by nature and grace for this most important office. He had a polite address, an easy carriage, and a very pleasing countenance. His voice was strong, clear, and agreeable; he was endowed with a happy memory, and was a complete master of all the arts of persuasion. To his other advantages he added that of the most graceful action and accent, by which he knew how to get into the very souls of his hearers by seizing on their senses, having learned that man has as much of a sensible as of a rational creature. He was perfectly versed in the holy scriptures, had an excellent talent of applying them to the purpose on all occasions, and displayed in a clear light, and with inexpressible energy the genuine sense, and the spirit and marrow of the sacred text. But what made his eloquence most prevailing, and rendered it like a torrent of fire which bore down all before it, was the unction with which he spoke: for his heart being filled with the warmest and most feeling sentiments of every virtue, he poured these forth with an energy and zeal that seemed irresistible. His words were so many darts, which pierced the hearts of his hearers: for he had long treasured up by the exercises of humility, silence, mortification, contemplation, and prayer, what he afterwards communicated to his hearers; and his soul was itself all flame before he endeavored to kindle the fire of divine love in others. Full of a sovereign contempt of the world and himself, and burning with a desire to die for Jesus Christ, and to see his pure love reign in all hearts, he was above the reach of all temptations which could warp his integrity, or make him weaken or disguise the maxims of the gospel, which he announced with equal dignity and zeal to the great ones and the small. The learned admired the loftiness of his thoughts, and the strong images with which he painted the most sublime mysteries, and added an unspeakable dignity to the most obvious and common truths of religion and morality; yet a natural simplicity rendered all his discourses no less intelligible and easy to the most vulgar understandings. Charity and prudence took off the edge of harshness from his reprehensions, and his very reproofs were not bitter or austere, but amiable and insinuating. While he beat down presumptuous sinners by the terrors of the divine judgments, he at the same time took care to raise and encourage their sinking souls by confidence in the divine goodness and mercy. He opposed the fashionable vices and growing heresies of those times with equal vigor and success. The most obstinate heretics and the most hardened sinners threw themselves at his feet, declaring themselves conquered. Pope Gregory IX. hearing him preach at Rome in 1227, in his surprise, figuratively called him The Ark of the Covenant, or rich spiritual treasure. The sanctity and severity of his life gave also great weight to his words. Such was the gravity of his countenance and the edifying modesty of his deportment, that he seemed to preach by every action. Having once invited a brother to go out with him to preach, he returned to his convent without making any sermon to the people. His companion asked him why he had not preached. “We have done it,” said the saint, “by our modest looks, and by the gravity of our behavior.” The frequent miracles which were performed by him much enhanced the reputation of his eminent sanctity wherever he came. The crowds were everywhere so great at his sermons that he was often obliged to preach in market-places of fields. He travelled through cities, towns, and villages, with an unwearied zeal, and preached in France, Spain, and Italy. When he was one day going to begin his sermon to a most numerous assembly in the fields in France, the sky was on a sudden covered with thick clouds, and violent claps of thunder presaged a dreadful storm. The people began to disperse, and run to the neighboring city. But the saint encouraged them to stay, and by his prayers obtained that the audience, as if they had been covered with an invisible canopy, felt nothing of the dreadful shower of rain and hail, while the neighboring fields and highways were covered with a deluge.
The saint was no less admirable in the confessional and in the private direction of souls than in the pulpit. Wherever he came, dissensions and animosities were extinguished, usurers restored their unjust gains, sinners melted into tears at his discourses, and by their sobs often interrupted his sermons, and every one sought his particular advice for the direction of his own conscience and conduct. In Lombardy, for the protection of the oppressed people, he put his life in the hands of one of the most furious of tyrants. Ezzelino, a native of the marquisate of Treviso, but of German extraction, having put himself at the head of a party of the Gibellins or Imperialists, made himself master of Verona, Padua, and several other cities in Lombardy, and exercised in them the most horrible tyranny during forty years. He contemned the anathemas of Gregory IX., Innocent IV., and Alexander IV. Hearing that the citizens of Padua had revolted from him, he put to death in one day twelve thousand persons of that country. The city of Verona, which was the place of his residence, had lost most of its inhabitants, and was filled with his guards, whose terrible armor added fierceness to their savage countenances. The saint, who feared no danger in the cause of God and his neighbor, went boldly to Verona: he found the streets solitary and mournful, and advancing to the palace, desired an audience of the prince. Being introduced into his chamber, he saw him seated on a throne, surrounded by his troop of murderers, who stood armed, ready to execute his bloody orders the instant they were issued. Antony, no way dismayed, told the tyrant that his murders, sacrileges, and plunders called to heaven for vengeance upon his head, and that those whom he had slain or oppressed were witnesses before God against him. The saint said many things to the same purpose, and the guards waited every moment to hear the tyrant command him to be cut to pieces. But to their great astonishment, he descended from his throne pale and trembling, and putting his girdle round his neck for a halter, cast himself at the feet of the humble servant of God, and with many tears begged him to intercede with God for the pardon of his sins. The saint lifted him up, and gave him suitable advice to do penance. Some time afterwards he sent a great present to St. Antony, which the holy man refused to accept, saying, the only agreeable present the prince could make him would be to restore to the poor what he had unjustly taken from them. Ezzelino seemed for some time to change his conduct, but after the death of the saint, relapsed into his former disorders. At length being taken prisoner by the confederate princes of Lombardy in 1259, he died distracted in close confinement.
St. Antony, when invested with several dignities in his order, was watchful to maintain the primitive spirit and regularity in the houses under his inspection. He saw it almost in its birth exposed to imminent danger, and saved it by his zeal and prudence. St. Francis dying in 1226, brother Elias, a man of a worldly spirit, was chosen general; who abusing his authority began to introduce several relaxations of the rule, which tended to the ruin of its fundamental constitutions and spirit. He built a church too magnificent for the poverty which the rule required and professed, applied money to his own private use, bought himself a horse, kept servants ate in his own chamber, and had better fare than the community prepared for him. Most of the provincials and guardians, out of human respects, were gained to his way of thinking; and the rest, who saw that the tendency of such an innovation was to open a door to relaxations which must necessarily extinguish the spirit and glory of the order, had not courage to speak against it. Only St. Antony and an Englishman named Adam, boldly opposed and condemned these abuses; but were loaded with injuries and ill treatment, and only by flight escaped perpetual imprisonment in their cells, which the general with several provincials decreed against them as turbulent and seditious men. They addressed themselves to pope Gregory IX., by whom they were graciously received and heard. His holiness summoned Elias to appear before him at Rome, and having examined into the abuses by him introduced, deposed him from the generalship. Antony was at that time provincial of Romagna; but took this occasion to extort by importunities, license from the pope to resign that post, and also to leave the court, where his holiness earnestly desired to detain him. He retired first to mount Alverno; thence returned to his convent at Padua, which he had pitched upon for his abode some time before he was provincial of Romagna, and where he had formerly taught divinity and preached. After his return, he again preached the Lent there with such fruit, that the whole city seemed changed by his sermons. Then it was that he put the last hand to the Latin sermons which we have, though not as he preached them; for he diversified them according to circumstances, and spoke as the ardor of his soul directed him.* They are no more than general heads or commonplaces, destitute of the ornaments and flowers which he added in speaking.
When Lent was over, St. Antony being much spent with labor and his penitential life, finding also his health and strength declining very fast under an inward decay, he desired to give himself some interval between business and eternity. He therefore retired out of town, to a solitary place called Campietro, or Field of Peter, there to attend solely to himself and God, and by fervent prayer to dispose his soul for the enjoyment of God; for he knew that his earthly pilgrimage was drawing to an end, and that he was then called to receive the reward of his labors. He took with him into his solitude two companions, men of great virtue. His distemper increasing very much upon him he desired to be carried back to his convent in Padua; but the crowds of people pressing to kiss the hem of his habit were so great and so troublesome, that he stopped in the suburbs, and was laid in the chamber of the director of the nuns of Arcela, where having received the rites of the church with many tears, he recited the seven penitential psalms, and a hymn in honor of the Blessed Virgin,† till he gave up his happy soul to him who had created it for his own great glory, on the 13th of June, 1231, being only thirty-six years old, of which he had lived ten in the order of St. Francis. At the first news of his departure the children ran about the streets crying out: “The saint is dead!” Innumerable miracles testified his sanctity, and he was immediately canonized by pope Gregory IX., in 1232, whose bull was dated at Spoletto. That pope had been personally acquainted with the saint, and was a great admirer of his virtues. Thirty-two years after his death, a stately church was built in Padua for his order, and his remains were translated into it. The flesh was all consumed except the tongue, which was found incorrupt, red, and as fresh as it was while he was living. St. Bonaventure, who was then general of the order, and present at this ceremony, took it into his hands, and bathing it with his tears, and kissing it with great devotion, said: “O blessed tongue, that didst always praise God, and hast been the cause that an infinite number learned to praise him: now it appears how precious thou art before Him who framed thee to be employed in so excellent and high a function.” The tongue is kept in the same church in a most costly case. This is at present a great and famous house of conventual Franciscan friars, which often furnishes the university, which is certainly to be ranked among the best in Europe, with able professors. The sepulchral monument of the saint in the church is exceeding rich and magnificent, and the basso-relievo with which it is adorned, a masterpiece of art. The costly lamps which hang before it are the several presents of many cities. The Portuguese likewise honor him with singular veneration. On his miracles, Papebroke the Bollandist may be consulted.1 Pope Gregory IX., in the bull of his canonization says: “We therefore commanded the said bishop, (of Padua,) brother Jordan, prior of St. Bennet’s, and brother John, prior of St. Austin’s, a monastery of the Dominicans in Padua, to make diligent scrutiny into the miracles wrought at his sepulchre, and into the merits of his life. Having seen the authentic proofs of the miracles of the aforesaid venerable man, besides what we know ourselves of his holy life and conversation, of which we have had experience, we, by the advice of our brethren, together with all the prelates with us, have enrolled him in the number of the saints.” He had said before, in the same bull: “St. Antony, residing now in heaven, is honored on earth by many miracles daily seen at his tomb, of which we are certified by authentic writings.”
While we admire the graces and extraordinary gifts with which God was pleased to glorify his servant, we must not forget that he was raised so high, only because, by divine grace, through the paths of self-denial and humility, he had learned perfectly to die to himself, and to be nothing in his own eyes. Pride makes our hearts an abomination to God, and puts him at the greatest distance from us. This is the deep wound of our souls, the main-spring of all our passions, the deadly poison of virtue, the fortress of the devil, and the source of all disorders. If we perfectly root out this evil, then will divine grace begin to establish its reign, and display its treasures in our souls.
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