Plane crashes, car accidents, ships sinking, oil refinery explosions, miles long forest fires—many of these sudden and unpredictable disasters terminate with the loss of human life. How easy it is for us to look at these disasters from a distance and discard the fact that one day, one hour, one minute, one second will be the last of our short life on earth.
Even though not the most popular of topics, it is very advantageous and propitious for our spiritual well-being to read, meditate, and reflect upon the reality of our own mortality and death and the precarious and uncertain … Read more
An essential element of Religious Life is knowing the Founder of the Religious Order or Congregation and the specific charism, spirituality, or physiognomy they have transmitted. Every specific Religious must make a concerted effort to be faithful to the writings, the teachings, and the spirituality left by their Founder. This is also expressed in these words: “Being faithful to the charism of one’s Order!”
Maybe you have seen a woman walking down the street or most probably in Church dressed in a Religious habit, perhaps with a veil covering her head, and maybe with a Rosary at her side. All the above point to the person of a Religious Woman, a Sister—commonly we call her a Nun, and you might even call her Sister or Mother! Then it most likely has happened that you saw a man in a car, or a bus, or in the subway with a long black robe, with or without a white-plastic clip covering his neck, perhaps fingering Rosary … 
From the cross, Jesus gave the person He loved most on earth, His Blessed Mother Mary, to Saint John and to us, as our Mother most holy! May we strive to know Mary, to love Mary, and to imitate Mary a little more every day. In his Marian Spiritual Masterpiece, True Devotion to Mary, Saint Louis de Montfort highlights ten of the most important virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us put forth this list of Mary’s principal virtues.
