Monthly Archives: March 2025

Book . Retreat at Home

Fr Boniface’s Book . WEB

Reader comments

If you’re looking for a book that takes you outside of the usual Marian consecration and the dredging language in most Marian consecration booklets, look no further. Father Boniface has truly created a work of spiritual art. The daily reflections will leave you in a meditative State of mind and allow you to dwell in the Hermitage of the heart all day. Well this particular book of consecration is a very easy and comfortable read (almost as if you are having a conversation with Father Boniface himself), it is full of meat that will leave you both intellectually and spiritually full. – JD

Beautiful art work and passages. Highly recommend – Lola

Of all the versions of 33 day Marian consecration I think that this one is perhaps the finest. The level of devotion and trustful surrender possible through these beautiful meditations is profound. – CLW 84

St Frances of Rome

Patron Saint of Oblates

After the plague swept through Rome and left one of Frances’ children dead, she began to turn again to charitable work. Frances gave up all her wealth to the sick and poor and began to go door to door raising money to aid the sick and poor. After the plague claimed Frances’ daughter, she opened up a wing of her home as a hospital for the poor.

As Frances became more deeply involved in charitable work, she began to realize the great need for it in the world and began to seek permission from the pope to form a charitable society of women to do this work. The women followed the ideals of the Benedictine order and carried on active charity and assistance of the poor.

Source CNA news

the Purpose of Life

Purification of Spirit through Fasting and Alms giving

Dear friends, at every moment the earth is full of the mercy of God, and nature itself is a lesson for all the faithful in the worship of God. The heavens, the sea and all that is in them bear witness to the goodness and omnipotence of their Creator, and the marvelous beauty of the elements as they obey him demands from the intelligent creation a fitting expression of its gratitude.

But with the return of that season marked out in a special way by the mystery of our redemption, and of the days that lead up to the paschal feast, we are summoned more urgently to prepare ourselves by a purification of spirit.

The special note of the paschal feast is this: the whole Church rejoices in the forgiveness of sins. It rejoices in the forgiveness not only of those who are then reborn in holy baptism but also of those who are already numbered among God’s adopted children.

Dear friends, what the Christian should be doing at all times should be done now with greater care and devotion, so that the Lenten fast enjoined by the apostles may be fulfilled, not simply by abstinence from food but above all by the renunciation of sin.

From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope

Ash Wednesday

Prayer the highest good

The highest good is prayer and conversation with God, because it means that we are in God’s company and in union with him. When light enters our bodily eyes our eyesight is sharpened; when a soul is intent on God, God’s inextinguishable light shines into it and makes it bright and clear. I am talking, of course, of prayer that comes from the heart and not from routine: not the prayer that is assigned to particular days or particular moments in time, but the prayer that happens continuously by day and by night.

Indeed the soul should not only turn to God at times of explicit prayer. Whatever we are engaged in, whether it is care for the poor, or some other duty, or some act of generosity, we should remember God and long for God. The love of God will be as salt is to food, making our actions into a perfect dish to set before the Lord of all things. Then it is right that we should receive the fruits of our labors, overflowing onto us through all eternity, if we have been offering them to him throughout our lives.

St John Chrysostom

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We should be humble in mind, putting aside all arrogance, pride and foolish anger. Rather, let him who glories glory in the Lord by seeking him and doing what is right and just. Recall especially what the Lord Jesus said when he taught gentleness and forbearance. Be merciful, he said, so that you may have mercy shown to you. Let these commandments and precepts strengthen us to live in humble obedience to his sacred words. As Scripture asks: Whom shall I look upon with favour except the humble, peaceful man who trembles at my words?

Sharing then in the heritage of so many vast and glorious achievements, Let us hasten towards the Goal of PEACE, set before us from the beginning. Let us keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Father and Creator of the whole universe, and hold fast to his splendid and transcendent gifts of PEACE and all his blessings.

Pope St Clement
Letter to the Corinthians

Saint Casimir

Daily, Daily, Sing to Mary

Daily, daily sing to Mary,
Sing, my soul, her praises due.
All her glorious actions cherish,
With the heart’s devotion true.
Lost in wond’ring contemplation,
Be her majesty confessed!
Call her Mother, call her Virgin,
Happy Mother, Virgin blest!

Hymn by St Casimir

Ash this Wednesday

the Morning Star

We possess the prophetic message as something altogether reliable. Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would on a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your hearts.

You have tasted that the Lord is good.* Come to him, a living stone,*.. chosen and precious in the sight of God and like living stones, let yourselves be built* into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

2nd Letter of Peter

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