and descend on Rome, "all the way to the altar of Saint Peter." In August 1683, an Italian Capuchin and great mystic, Fr. Marco d'Aviano (beatified by Saint John Paul II) was appointed grand chaplain of all

shrugged their shoulders and sniggered at this invitation. So, turning to Brother Nicholas, the Saint ordered, "On your knees and we shall recite our Rosary!" Under an avalanche of gibes, the two men [...] the next Rosary had been completed, there was such earnest supplication in the expression on the Saint's face, and his voice had taken on such sweetness and authority that, when he entreated his companions

among women, and blessed in the fruit of your womb!"(Lk 1:41-42). Again, Mary - unlike the other saints (...) - is "blessed" in life, from the first moment we see her, and not merely in death, having "died [...] this poor Nazarene village girl. Mary's blessedness - her beatitude - is not merely a peculiarity of Saint Luke's Gospel. It is in the Book of Revelation as well. At the dramatic climax of John's vision, he

Serpent’s Head In 580 Pope Gregory the Great gave the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a gift to Saint Leander, Bishop of Seville. Later, in the 8th century, due to Muslim invasions, this great religious [...] Estremadura Mountains. This much-venerated statue of the Madonna and Child is said to have been carved by Saint Luke himself. After the overthrow of Moorish occupation, the image was uncovered in the year 1326

then through Joseph You have decided that the providential channels of your graces would be your saintly parents; that your benefits would habitually reach us, in the supernatural order, first through Mary

Our Lady of the Abandoned (Manila, Philippines) Philosophy is an integral part of the life of faith Saint John Paul II's encyclical Fides et Ratio deals with a theme that is very important for the Church [...] I started studying it in high school. And because I have made of it my profession, these words of Saint John Paul II (written in 1998) especially resonate with me. Indeed they tell us that philosophy is [...] the pagans, the Fathers of the Church, and the great doctors of the Church, including of course Saint Thomas Aquinas—knew that intelligence is a mother because it gives birth to the truth that it receives

in believing (as I have often heard say) that her qualities make her eclipse the glory of all the saints - like the sun, when it rises, makes the stars disappear. Lord Almighty, how strange that sounds

often remember the name of Mary, who invoke it with devotion, and who seek to imitate her , says Saint Bonaventure. Ah! How the demons tremble on simply hearing the name of Mary , says St. Bernard. As

we get attached to it, and the more we become attached to Mary. Guillaume, 21, a cadet officer at Saint-Cyr Military School Famille Chrétienne magazine

dear to us Dominicans? Perhaps because at the heart of our tradition lies a longing for simplicity. Saint Thomas Aquinas said that we do not understand God because He is perfectly simple. The real simplicity