By Plinio Correa de Oliveira On 11 February, we will celebrate the centenary of the first apparitions at Lourdes. No one is unaware of this fact, in its simplest terms. In 1854, in the papal bull ‘Ineffabilis’, the great Pope Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady as dogma. In 1858, from 11 February...
By Gary Isbell It is a peculiar irony of modern life that while most people strive to improve their lives with technology and sophistication, language is sliding comfortably into the gutter. Profanity has become the linguistic wallpaper today, increasingly commonplace among the youth and emblematic of a shift toward a lifestyle that is as casual as...
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Our spiritual life is the life of grace within us; through it we become children of God. For our spiritual life to be preserved and to develop, a series of actions are required that constitute the life of piety. How must that life of piety be? What deviations must be avoided? These are...
The Two Aspects of Death: Sordid and Repulsive v. August and Epic
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Death has two aspects. The first one is its biological component. We witness the decomposition of an unstable chemical mass that can no longer maintain itself. An outpouring of body fluids and a deplorable and irrepressible organic breakdown destroy all composure and propriety. After having spent a lifetime expelling repugnant by-products,...
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Someone asked me how I came to love suffering. To answer this question, we need to realise that, naturally speaking, nobody loves suffering; it horrifies us. For example, I am horrified by the thought of a drop of boiling water or, even worse, a drop of sealing wax falling on my...
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira I highly recommend the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a wonderful prayer for our times. Thus, I will comment on some of its invocations and the lessons they can teach us. Heart of Jesus Formed by the Holy Spirit in the Womb of the Virgin Mother The first...
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira In the context of the book Revolution and Counter-Revolution, we can ask: If there had been a counter-revolutionary tsar, what would his policies have been? First of all, he obviously would have converted to the Catholic Faith and had it established throughout Russia. Then, from the temporal perspective, he should have found...
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira We will consider Our Lady under the title of Help of Christians. Our Lady is indeed our help, but that does not mean we should expect immediate relief. We should not be surprised when Our Lady delays in coming to our aid. At times, Our Lady begins a relationship with us...
A Lesson From the Early Education of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The biographical notes about Saint Aloysius Gonzaga are as follows: “Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591) was the eldest son of Ferdinand, Marquis of Castiglione. Coupled with his precocious piety, he also displayed the bellicose bubbling of his ancestral blood. The Marquis gave him a small armor, a helmet, a little sword and a...
How the Immaculate Conception Can Help Us Understand the Crisis in the Church
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira There is a kind of interchangeability between the attributes of Our Lady and the Catholic Church. The things that are said of Our Lady, in their own way, can be said of the Catholic Church. Thus, when reciting the Litany of Our Lady or the Hail Holy Queen, we can apply...
