Come Holy Spirit!

About Ariel McKinneyAriel is an undergraduate student working towards her bachelor's degree in music, with a minor in theology. She plans on continuing her studies with a master's degree in classical voice performance. Besides blogging, she enjoys photography, poetry, reading, and hiking. You can visit her blog, www.wearehealed.wordpress.com for her writing and photography. She is also the daughter of RCSD founder,... Read More

Interior Pentecost of the Heart

Sometimes we struggle to find heroic lay people to emulate. The stories of many Saints and much spiritual literature describe the spiritual lives of consecrated and/or ordained Christians. But, what about the rest of us, the remaining 99.9% of the Church, do we have any hope for holiness? Vatican II answers in the affirmative with the universal call to holiness (Lumen Gentium 39). Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida,... Read More

Taste of Victory – Retreat Guide for Easter

New Easter Retreat Guide Now Available! Easter Sunday is over, but the Easter Season has just begun. It will last for another seven weeks. Why does the liturgy make the Easter Season so long? And how can we live this Season as God wants us to? Those and more questions are explored in “The Taste of Victory: A Retreat Guide for Easter.” As with all our Retreat Guides, you can use this one by watching it, listening... Read More

Finding the Splendor of Mercy in the Shadow of Humdrum Days

“Oh humdrum days, filled with darkness, I look upon you with a solemn and festive eye.” (Saint Faustina Kowalska, Diary, #1373) Saint Faustina Kowalska wrote these words in 1937 at the brink of falling into a very serious illness from which she would never recover.  She could not have known that this experience of darkness was only the beginning of many difficult days for herself, her native Poland and the Church.... Read More

Open the Floodgates of Mercy!

Beginning on Good Friday and culminating on Divine Mercy Sunday, the second Sunday of the Octave of Easter, the Church turns her attention to the divine mystery of merciful love.  This devotion in different forms is a special gift from the saints of our era.  St. Therese of Lisieux made an offering of herself to this mystery at the end of the 19th Century.   Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity understood her vocation to praise... Read More

Forsake Not the Discipline

“Forsake not the discipline” These words are reported as among the very first and very last teachings of St. Antony of the Desert by his spiritual son, St. Athanasius.   The Christian life is not something we master – but it does give us everything we need to master ourselves in the new and unrepeatable circumstances each day, each moment, brings.  Every day we must choose to begin to live the Christian... Read More

Laughing at Lucifer in Lent

In 1942 C.S. Lewis published one of his most enduring and endearing books. The Screwtape Letters is a collection of imaginative epistles from a senior devil to his junior colleague, outlining how he should handle his “patient.” Lewis wrote the book as a series of essays for The Guardian newspaper and confessed that the pieces were not fun to write. Over the years Lewis’ Luciferian letters have become ever more popular.... Read More

An Advent Resource from Fr. John Bartunek

Dear RCSD Friends, As you know, we believe that Fr. John provides some of the best spiritual resources available in the Church today. Thousands of you agreed when you voted his book The Better Part – A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer in the top of the list of your all-time favorite resources. Many of you have also had the blessing of seeing Fr. John in a few of our recently produced video series on prayer... Read More

Veni Veni Emmanuel

  About Theophilus Mail | More Posts (28)  Read More →

A Reflection on All Souls and Our Souls

All Souls’ Day makes us mindful not only of the death of our dear ones but also of our own. Death is a punishment, bringing with it, of necessity, a feeling of pain, of fear, of uncertainty. The saints experienced it, and Jesus Himself willed to undergo it. Thus the Church puts before us passages from scripture most suited to encourage us: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord… henceforth they rest... Read More

Next Page »