St. John Bosco taught his boys to love social inequalities
While the festive oratory was a very effective training ground for the clerics and benefited the boys in many other ways that have already been mentioned, it also helped rid their minds of certain...
View ArticleFabulous Luxembourg Royal Wedding
Luxembourg is celebrating the marriage of its Crown Prince Guillaume to Belgian Countess Stephanie de Lannoy. Hello! Magazine described the ceremony as “full of pomp and grandeur” and continues: In the...
View ArticleHow elites today shirk their responsibility to “set the tone” for society
“My proposition is that the hollow elite is as dysfunctional in its way as the new lower class is in its way. Personally and as families, its members are successful. But they have abdicated their...
View ArticleSaint Margaret of Scotland: In the Middle Ages, the Marvelous Was Something...
Commentaries made by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira … Sovereign and patroness of Scotland, 11th century. Although it is a very good intention to comment on the life of St. Margaret, at times one does...
View ArticleLouis XVIII’s policy of peaceful coexistence paves the way for the French...
In bringing men of the most widely diverse parties around him, Louis XVIII had required them to respect each other. Any allusion to former disputes would have been severely repressed. Political...
View ArticleChristmas Video
Christmas – Navidad – Weihnachten – Natal – Noël St. Alphonsus composed this Christmas Carol, Tu Scendi Delle Stelle, which is still sung throughout Italy, including Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican.
View ArticlePatton used the power of myth to inspire his men
Every evening, Gen. Patton arranged a type of communication which united all soldiers. This “communication” united us with the soldiers of history! Gen. Patton had buglers blow Taps! Every unit down to...
View ArticleEmperor serves the table of the poor and washes their feet in imitation of...
In 1850, Franz Joseph participated…as emperor in the second of the traditional Habsburg expressions of dynastic piety: the Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony, part of the four-day court observance of...
View ArticleVideo: Queen Elizabeth II Opens Parliament 2013
Queen Elizabeth II opens sessions of Parliament 2013
View ArticleTeacups and mugs: quality and quantity
For generations, we have taken teacups for granted. They were a happy part of family life. But today, due to our egalitarian culture, the teacup is coming under some pressure. While formal dining sets...
View ArticleJohn Wayland: On the True Gentleman
“The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his...
View Article“Credo, Domine! Credo, Domine!”
Those were the last recorded words of Queen Mary Christine before her death, on January 31, 1836, days after giving birth to her only son (the future Francis II, last King of the Two Sicilies). She...
View ArticleJanuary 31 – St. John Bosco Meets His First Noble Patroness
Juliette Colbert, a native of Vendée, had married Marquis Tancredi Falletti of Barolo, and of her it could be said, even as we read of Tabitha in the Acts of the Apostles: “This woman had devoted...
View ArticleFebruary 18 – Fra Angelico brought part of heaven to earth
Blessed Fra Angelico A famous painter of the Florentine school, born near Castello di Vicchio in the province of Mugello, Tuscany, 1387; died at Rome, 1455. He was christened Guido, and his father’s...
View ArticleFor Contrast: Two Royal Attitudes to Washing the Feet of the Poor
In February, he returned to Castile, arriving in time to observe Holy Week at San Lorenzo, and to wash the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday “with his usual great tenderness and humility.” On Good...
View ArticleQueen Mary Welcomes the Sick on Good Friday
On [Good] Friday morning the offertory was performed according to custom in the Church of the Franciscan Friars, which is contiguous to the palace. After the Passion, the Queen came down from her...
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