Delivering What We Have Received

21 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. in Articles Published in Other Venues

(Originally published on June 16, 2009)

We are still in what used to be the Octave of Corpus Christi. Even though this octave was done away with in the 1962 rubrics, its ghost still lurks about the liturgy. We will, this Friday, have the feast of the Sacred Heart, whose placement was determined by its relation to the octave. What follows are some considerations on the Epistle for Corpus Christi (I Cor. 11:23-39). It is not an in-depth reading or scholarly exegesis. These are merely some meditations I offer for your consideration. Continue reading →

The Better Part: The Religious or Priestly Vocation

14 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. in Articles Published in Other Venues, Spiritual Theology

≈ 2 Comments

(This was written in preparation for a series of conferences on vocations and states in life that I gave at Saint Benedict Center in the Spring of 2005. Please see the end of this piece for a small table of contents with links to the other conferences.)

In the previous conference, we introduced the general subject of states in life. We said that the importance of choosing the right state in life, which we call a “secondary vocation” has to do with the fact that your primary vocation — to the life of grace here and of glory hereafter — is very much related to it. We talked about the teaching of St. Alphonsus and others that your salvation has very much to do with choosing that state in life that God had already chosen for you from all eternity. We gave an overview of the four states in life and made the point that, contrary to popular belief, discerning your vocation is not very difficult. Continue reading →

The Hands of the King

07 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. in Articles Published in Other Venues, Church History

≈ Leave a comment

(Originally published on June 25, 2009)

The comical reaction I got from a television anchor may never leave my memory. When I told her that the people who lived under King Saint Louis IX of France were freer than we are now in America, she looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. If you are a Monarchist, or a “monsymp,” you have probably gotten similar reactions when a banal conversation about current events terminates in a statement challenging the fundamental and flawed presuppositions of modernity. Continue reading →

American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper

25 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. in Articles Published in Other Venues, Society and Culture

≈ Leave a comment

(Originally published on May 30, 2009)

From a Russian blogger comes a stinging critique of America under President Obama. Stanislav Mishin originally published this on his blog, Mat Rodina, but I’ve linked to Pravda’s reprint of it (the printer-friendly version, to spare you some grossly immodest ads).

Those who don’t think we’re living in a socialist oligarchy might want to look at this outsider’s view. A few lines are worth reproducing here: Continue reading →

My Own Notre Dame

03 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. in Articles Published in Other Venues

≈ Leave a comment

I went to a school run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Holy Cross School. The brothers there are part of that same Congregation still affiliated with Notre Dame. We even had the same fight song, the euphonium part to which goes through my mind any time I hear the tune mentioned, so often did I play it. It is because of this background, by the way, that I took the name I did in religion, after Saint André Bessette, a Holy Cross Brother from Montreal, Canada. Continue reading →

Why God Hates Sin

23 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. in Articles Published in Other Venues, Moral Theology, Spiritual Theology

≈ Leave a comment

[Originally posted on January 22, 2009]

To hear the words, “God hates sin,” may, for certain modern men, invoke images of a deity too demanding to be very comfortable. Such moderns would find the proposition savoring of a dogmatism that borders on the primitive. For them, it sounds so arbitrary for God to label certain forms of behavior — often forms we find enjoyable — to be evil and therefore “sinful.” Continue reading →

Chuck Baldwin Praises Generals Lee and Jackson

23 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. in Articles Published in Other Venues, Society and Culture

≈ Leave a comment

Chuck Baldwin and I do not see eye-to-eye on religious matters. I am an avowed Catholic, he an avowed Protestant. That said, the man has some uncommon common sense on social and political questions. Witness his recent laudatory comments about two real American heroes. Continue reading →