Annum Sacrum, Consecration to the Sacred Heart, and the Judiciary Power of Christ
Annum Sacrum is an 1899 encyclical letter by Pope Leo XIII exhorting consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. The Leonine mixture of devotional and political theology in this letter is worthy of study. One interesting feature that stood out to me when reading the letter today was the way in which Pope Leo […]
Commentary in IMTD Footnote 191
Fr. Regis Armstrong writes as follows in footnote 191 (on part 3 of book 3) of his translated and annotated edition of St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis in Deum: The presence of this formula, “one, true, and good,” stands out in the writings of the “giants” of the thirteenth century: the Franciscans—Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, and […]
God’s real presence in my soul imposes on me a threefold duty
One of the more intriguing features of torts is relationality, which is a term to describe the way in which duties exist in relation to particular persons. This idea of relationality has a place in the spiritual life as well. The concluding section of Chapter VII of The Presence of God by Fr. Anselm Moynihan […]
Let us die, then
A useful text in reflecting on the death of Pope Benedict XVI, or other holy theologians, or even on our own death, is the conclusion of St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis in Deum: Let us die, then, and enter into darkness. Let us impose silence upon anxieties, urges of the flesh, and imaginings. Let us pass […]
“Their goal was: quaerere Deum.”
With news of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s death, we may experience a sense of serenity accompanying our sense of deep loss. Here was a man of great faith and understanding. There goes one of our shepherds. In days, weeks, months, and years to come, we can learn so much from what Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph […]
Spe Salvi ¶ 5
5. We must add a further point of view. The First Letter to the Corinthians (1:18-31) tells us that many of the early Christians belonged to the lower social strata, and precisely for this reason were open to the experience of new hope, as we saw in the example of Bakhita. Yet from the beginning there were […]
The urgent need is to reawaken to a full awareness of God
After identifying as a problem “the lack of any interest in God or sense of his reality among reputed Christians,” Fr. Moynihan describes the problem in more detail by reference to “[a]n American writer, speaking of the students at one of the smaller American universities.” This writer describes the students “as living ‘in comfortable disregard […]
The enemy is indifferent atheism
God is Someone. That is the opening of Fr. Anselm Moynihan, O.P.’s The Presence of God. Indifference rather than opposition to this recognition is most frightening about our age, he says: What is most frightening about our age is not so much the fiercely militant atheism that by its very violence gives unwilling testimony to God’s […]
“by touching the will with his love”
The final chapter of The Presence of God, by Anselm Moynihan, O.P., is called The Rock of My Heart. Fr. Moynihan describes various features of God’s presence as indwelling. Here is the third (pp. 61-62): 3. God makes known his presence by touching the will with his love. “The love of God is poured forth in our […]
Justice Alito’s ten questions or concerns about the Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
On September 27, 2022, United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito delivered the inaugural lecture of the Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. This is a Project of the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America, housed initially in Catholic Law’s Center for Law and the Human Person. Its […]
