The key to the success of the party or celebration depends upon the prior preparation for the party. In other words, the more intense the preparation, normally and in most cases, the more successful the celebration.

This concept can be and should be applied every year in the preparation for the most important Birthday in the history of humanity—the Birthday of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—the day we call CHRISTMAS!

Due to Materialism, Consumerism, Hedonism, growing Agnosticism, as well as militant and rapidly growing Atheism, the true meaning of Christmas is slowly being suffocated in modern society. Once a … Read more

One of the most efficacious meditations to wake us up, to shake our indolence and complacency, to motivate us to focus on the most essential and important things in our lives is the meditation on the so-called Last Things! In theology, this branch of knowledge is called Eschatology—the study of the last things! Seminarians will often have a full semester in this study. Saint Ignatius of Loyola encourages this meditation as a most efficacious means to renounce sin in our lives and choose a life of holiness, pointed to God, our Supreme and Everlasting Good.

What then are the Last … Read more

The story of the ten lepers. (Luke 17: 11-19). A Biblical passage that elicits profound joy but at the same time intense sadness is when Jesus heals the ten men afflicted with the terrible, contagious, terminal, and ugly disease of leprosy—a disease that was highly prevalent in the Biblical times before Jesus and during the lifetime of Jesus on earth.

THE PROFOUND JOY.  Their overflowing joy flows from the fact that the love, mercy, and compassion of Jesus were made manifest by a mere word when He healed these poor men whom society had ostracized and marginalized. As they headed … Read more

Taken from his own experience, after the life-changing battle of Pamplona, Saint Ignatius of Loyola offers us two series of Rules to help us in our battle for the salvation of our immortal souls. The first series is composed of 14 Rules; the second, of 8 Rules!

ORIGIN? After the serious wounds in both of his legs in the Battle of Pamplona, Ignatius had plenty of time for recovery. In this period of convalescence his mind and affections gyrated back and forth between two contrary objects: one was the worldly, the sensual, the vain, the material life he had lived; … Read more

One of the many channels that can be utilized to augment our faith, devotion, and love for the greatest of all Sacraments, the most Holy Eucharist, is by reading and meditating upon key Biblical passages, both in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. The Old Testament presents symbols or what Bible scholars term Types, Biblical Typology of references or allusions to the Eucharist that become a reality in the New Testament. In other words, what is present in hidden, mysterious, and symbolic form in the Old Testament breaks out in transparent Truth in the New Testament.… Read more