We must serve God with joy and communicate this joy in doing holy things. Saint Thomas Aquinas named the weariness for holy things and the subsequent sadness of living in the service of God, acedia, which means weariness and lack of joy and desire for things. Today, joy is only seen in … Read more
Mary, Joseph, and Therefore Jesus, Were Born of Royal Stock Taken from a sermon of Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) about Saint Joseph: Firstly, let us consider the nobility of the bride the Most Holy Virgin. The Blessed Virgin was nobler than any other creature that had been born in human form … Read more
Indeed, the order of things being destroyed is medieval Christendom. Now, medieval Christendom was not just any order, or merely one of many possible orders. It was the realization, in the circumstances inherent to the times and places, of the only authentic order among men, namely, Christian civilization. In his encyclical Immortale … Read more
During His life in this world, Our Lord exercised aspects of all professions fit for man—from the highest to the lowest. To even begin to appreciate the perfection of His Person, we would have to imagine the archetype of every licit profession known to man. Consider Christ as king. In biblical days, … Read more
The pacifist, and therefore anti-militarist, character of the Revolution is easily understood. 1. Science will bring an end to war, the military and the police. In the technological paradise of the Revolution, peace has to be perpetual, for science has shown that war is evil, and technology can overcome all its causes. … Read more
It is fitting to add some representative texts of Saint Thomas Aquinas to the pontifical texts quoted in testimony of the Church’s social doctrine on the subject of Monarchical regimes given the prominence of his thinking in traditional Catholic teaching. In De Regimine Principum, “having set forth these preliminary points,” it behooves … Read more
Upon describing organic society, questions remain as to how we might build such a society. The answer is quite simple. We must do it in the same manner as our ancestors did at the dawn of this civilization. We must understand, as they understood, that it is not enough that we follow … Read more
In the fourteenth century a transformation of mentality began to take place in Christian Europe; in the course of the fifteenth century it became ever more apparent. The thirst for earthly pleasures became a burning desire. Diversions became more and more frequent and sumptuous, increasingly engrossing men. The growing yearning for a … Read more
Throughout the colonial period of the three Americas, the respective mother countries were governed by a regime that, some differences aside, is known generically as the Old Regime. This was the system European countries implanted in their colonies. With the successive proclamations of independence by the American nations, this regime ceased to … Read more
Perhaps the best way to describe an organic Christian society is to take an example of a society from the past — that which existed in the Christendom of old. In this society, the most vibrant of all the elements was the family. Indeed, although the State and other lower social groups … Read more