Godzdogz

The great feast of Corpus Christi is a liturgy that was prompted by the vision of a young girl, St. Juliana of Liège, was composed by the literary and theological genius, St. Thomas Aquinas, and draws us into a wondrous mystery at the heart of our faith: the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  Read more

In today’s Gospel Jesus raises the question of his betrayer. The disciples, gathered at the Last Supper, are perplexed at this. And, if we think about it, we too might share in their puzzlement. Why did Judas, who had the great privilege in following the Son of God, choose to betray Jesus? Was it jealousy, disillusionment, lust for money, or simple human weakness? Whatever Judas’ motivations, Jesus knew that it was coming. As God, He always knew it was coming.  Read more

Psalm 38 is the prayer of one who has reached rock bottom. It is the lament of a supplicant who cries out to God for help in physical pain and mental anguish.  Read more

News | Yesterday in Oxford the English Province witnessed and celebrated the solemn professions of four of our brothers (and all contributors to Godzdogz): Toby Lees, Luke Doherty, Samuel Burke, and Jordan Scott. Read more

After a remarkable life, Bl. Adrian Fortescue died a martyr at the strike of an executioner's blade at Tower Hill in 1539. A husband and father, a Justice of the Peace, a Knight of the Realm, a Knight of Malta, and a Dominican Tertiary (Lay Dominican); he was at once a loyal servant of the Crown so far as he could be, but still more, he was a man of unshakeable faith.  Read more

Along with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, over the last couple of weeks, I've done my fair share of mountain climbing. In my case, first on the Polish-Slovak border, before World Youth Day and afterwards in Styria, Austria. Beyond the spectacular vistas, one of the beautiful things about the mountains is the quiet. There is a stillness which is conducive to prayer, and a sense of the beauty of the Father's creation in nature. Our Lord, Peter, John, and James went there to pray, but the latter three were to behold more than they bargained for.

The three disciples saw and understood fully for the first time that Jesus is at once one of the prophets and the one that was prophesied by them; and that he is God, and lives eternally and manifests Himself in a blaze of powerful, radiant light. Thus He came both to fulfil scripture and to make it new.

St. Thomas Aquinas gives over a whole section in his Summa Theologiae to this event in which he draws on the writings of the Church Fathers. Echoing the Venerable Bede, he writes that it was fitting that Christ should reveal his glory at the Transfiguration so that the disciples would know the purpose of their journey: eternal joy in heavenly glory in which our bodies will be transformed. For this reason, Thomas declares that the Transfiguration was "the greatest miracle" because it complemented baptism and revealed the perfection of life in Heaven. Though we have not seen the event like the disciples, today we are challenged to contemplate this miraculous revelation and make it our own. The mind boggles, and so it should. Read more

Seating plans can be a headache. We had one recently for our Doorkeepers’ Dinner. The trouble with seating plans is that if there is a logic underlying the arrangement of people, inevitably someone will feel overlooked whereas others who may have been preferred can feel embarrassed about the honour they have received to the exclusion of someone else. It usually ends in some sense of awkwardness. Incidentally, about six months ago I was at a friend’s birthday where a table plan was displayed with nice little name cards. My friend proudly announced that  had placed people randomly, which seemed to me to defeat the point. I suspect that where he sat was not entirely random. Anyway, the point is that it matters to us as social creatures where we sit, and it was no different in Jesus’s day.
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St. Antoninus Pierozzi was called Antonino – little Anthony – by his contemporaries because of his diminutive stature. He may have been physically small, but he was a spiritual giant. Read more

This is the first post in a new series in which the Student Brothers will write about “Interesting Churches”. The title is deliberately broad in scope so as to allow for variety between the posts. A church might be interesting because of its place in history, its architecture or interior, or because of a special significance it has to a particular brother. I think that the church I have chosen to write about, St. Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster, has all of these qualities. Read more