On November 15th, we celebrate the Feast of a Dominican saint who deserves to be better known in modern times: St. Albert of Cologne (d. 1280), also known as St. Albert the Great. Today, St. Albert is most known as the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose theology and philosophy would eventually eclipse his teacher’s […]
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Our society likes to forget about death. A common motivation for doing so is to avoid the pain of having to deal with the limitedness of our own existence. Nevertheless, just as a student who has a paper due will have to face the deadline no matter how hard he tries to forget it, at […]
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Nearly twenty years ago, when he was a layman, several Dominican friars from all over the world invited Fr. Corwin Low, OP, to a small convocation at the house of studies of the Toulouse province in France. Before he entered the Dominican Order, Fr. Corwin studied electrical engineering and computer science. He used these skills […]
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Whether it is in a silly commercial or a John Lennon song, I keep coming across this notion of forgetting Heaven, or of focusing on building Heaven on earth. The thought claims to free people to think about the here and now, enjoying what they have and trying to make the best of it rather […]
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We’ve all heard the allegation: Halloween is a pagan rite dating back to some pre-Christian festival among the Celtic Druids that escaped church suppression. Even today modern pagans and witches continue to celebrate this ancient festival. If you let your kids go trick-or-treating, they will be worshiping the devil and pagan gods. Nothing could be further from […]
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This past fall, I have often found myself demoralized. There is a seemingly continuous stream of distressing news describing troubles outside, but particularly inside the Church. This is compounded by the stresses of daily life, which for me are mostly due dates and tests. While this is nothing unusual – modern life finds countless ways […]
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The superhero story is a great success and fascination of our time. It holds captive not only children and teenagers, but adults as well. These tales of great feats, formidable dangers, power, and struggle spark our imaginations and make us aspire to great things. We can hardly get enough of them. Why? Do we only […]
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I thank God for the many blessings of living with the Dominican community here in Bologna as I study Italian. I appreciate the robust community life, as well as the possibility of interacting with joyful Italian friars every day. Moreover, there are ample opportunities to pray at the tomb of our Holy Father St. Dominic, […]
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Every Sunday we celebrate Christ’s victory over evil and sin. We might ask ourselves: what does the victory of Christ mean? What happened after His rising from the dead? Why does the world not have fewer wars or less violence? Has the Messiah repaired anything? Where is the kingdom of heaven which Jesus announced? Jesus […]
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Christian sailors joined Pope Pius V (a Dominican) in praying the Most Holy Rosary, and defeated a much larger Turkish force at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The battle was a turning point in repelling the Turkish invasions of Europe. To remember the battle and Our Lady’s intercession, the feast of Our Lady of […]
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