Nov

8

Freemen Established Under Grace (Video)

November 8, 2011 | 3 Comments

This is a short video clip from the talk I gave at our most recent conference: Freemen Established Under Grace.

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Nov

8

Monologue with a Madman

November 8, 2011 | 4 Comments

Some months back, I received a telephone call from a sedevacantist madman who challenged me to a debate on whether Pope Benedict XVI is the pope. This individual should know that debates are not the way we do our apostolate. I have nothing against debating, but we engage in other apostolates that take up our time, I believe, more profitably: publishing, street evangelism, our school, night classes here at the Center, putting on conferences, various youth apostolates, public outreach to spread the traditional Mass, and giving talks on a Catholic America.

Besides, I am of the opinion that debating the undebatable is not a prudent thing. Debating whether the pope is the pope is like debating the wetness of water, the heat of the sun, or the fourness of two plus two.

Scripture admonishes us to “Talk not much with a fool, and go not with him that hath no sense” (Ecclus. 22:14). This man fits the description. Read more

Oct

12

I’m Available

October 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Brother André Marie is available to speak to groups on various topics of Catholic interest: Catholic Dogma, Catholic America, Marian consecration, evangelism, prayer, vocations and states in life, etc. Contact Saint Benedict Center to arrange a presentation.

I can travel virtually anywhere, as long as my expenses are covered. If your parish, men’s group, sodality, or conference would like a Catholic speaker, give us a call.

Sep

8

Good Coffee

September 8, 2011 | 2 Comments

If you purchase Mystic Monk Coffee from this link or from the ad on the right side of this site, you help support this blog. Thank you!

Jul

8

Conserving Something or Other

July 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment

[Originally published on June 16, 2009]

Over at Taki’s Magazine, Charles Coulombe playfully takes readers on a fast-paced romp through the unfamiliar (for most people) political spectrum of what is called “Paleoconservatism.” His article, The Old Paleos and the New, seeks to explain the contrasts and often bizarre alliances within this recently-coined label. Read more

May

4

Saint Benedict Center Will Host Papal Knight at Conference

May 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment

The theme of this year’s conference will be Right and Freedom: Catholic Considerations on Misused Concepts.

Included in the list of speakers is author, papal historian, and lecturer, Charles A. Coulombe, K.C.S.S. By order of Pope John Paul II, Mr. Coulombe was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Sylvester for his services rendered to the Holy See. Author of the chart-climbing The Pope’s Legion, and Puritan’s Empire: A Catholic Perspective on American History, Coulombe is recognized internationally for his in-depth knowledge of Vatican politics and the influence of Catholicism in America and Europe. His audiences regularly range from graduate students at Oxford University, England to the New Mexico Military Institute, from which he graduated. His international articles have appeared in the New Oxford Review, National Catholic Register, American Thinker, Los Angeles Catholic Mission, Monarchy Canada, and The Irish Democrat.

Read the full press release here. Learn more about the conference here.

Here is a YouTube video of Mr. Coulombe speaking on one of his favorite subjects, monarchy:

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Apr

21

Delivering What We Have Received

April 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment

(Originally  published on June 16, 2009)

We are still in what used to be the Octave of Corpus Christi. Even though this octave was done away with in the 1962 rubrics, its ghost still lurks about the liturgy. We will, this Friday, have the feast of the Sacred Heart, whose placement was determined by its relation to the octave. What follows are some considerations on the Epistle for Corpus Christi (I Cor. 11:23-39). It is not an in-depth reading or scholarly exegesis. These are merely some meditations I offer for your consideration. Read more

Apr

14

The Better Part: The Religious or Priestly Vocation

April 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment

(This was written in preparation for a series of conferences on vocations and states in life that I gave at Saint Benedict Center in the Spring of 2005. Please see the end of this piece for a small table of contents with links to the other conferences.)

In the previous conference, we introduced the general subject of states in life. We said that the importance of choosing the right state in life, which we call a “secondary vocation” has to do with the fact that your primary vocation — to the life of grace here and of glory hereafter — is very much related to it. We talked about the teaching of St. Alphonsus and others that your salvation has very much to do with choosing that state in life that God had already chosen for you from all eternity. We gave an overview of the four states in life and made the point that, contrary to popular belief, discerning your vocation is not very difficult. Read more

Apr

14

What Happened in the Tomb?

April 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment

[We're posting this at a liturgically inopportune time. It's a matter of scheduling. Read it after the Easter Vigil, if you will.]

Every year around Holy Week, the refuse that forms America’s popular reading material comes out with a volley of blasphemies against our Lord’s holy Resurrection. Citing one or another perfidious “noted scholar,” the glossy-covered journals that accost us at the checkout counter vie with one another to see who can pervert the populace with greater contempt for the divine. These reheated leftovers from last year’s editions would be laughable in their dogmatic adherence to pseudoscientific “scholarship,” but we dare not laugh at the offense against our Savior. Read more

Apr

7

The Hands of the King

April 7, 2011 | 2 Comments

(Originally published on June 25, 2009)

The comical reaction I got from a television anchor may never leave my memory. When I told her that the people who lived under King Saint Louis IX of France were freer than we are now in America, she looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. If you are a Monarchist, or a “monsymp,” you have probably gotten similar reactions when a banal conversation about current events terminates in a statement challenging the fundamental and flawed presuppositions of modernity. Read more

Mar

25

American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper

March 25, 2011 | 4 Comments

(Originally published on May 30, 2009)

From a Russian blogger comes a stinging critique of America under President Obama. Stanislav Mishin originally published this on his blog, Mat Rodina, but I’ve linked to Pravda’s reprint of it (the printer-friendly version, to spare you some grossly immodest ads).

Those who don’t think we’re living in a socialist oligarchy might want to look at this outsider’s view. A few lines are worth reproducing here: Read more

Mar

10

Something Real Men Must Know, on Chivalry

March 10, 2011 | 1 Comment

A friend sent me this, and I thought it worth sharing. All young men considering Holy Matrimony should keep this in mind for that time when they engage in Christian Courtship. Married men, and even celibates, should also know this, too. In the realm of religious devotion, there is a Lady worth dying for. In the ages of faith, She was both the object of Chivalric veneration, and the ideal of the lady.

Chivalry: Not all girls like it. Just the ones worth dying for.

Mar

3

My Own Notre Dame

March 3, 2011 | 3 Comments

I went to a school run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Holy Cross School. The brothers there are part of that same Congregation still affiliated with Notre Dame. We even had the same fight song, the euphonium part to which goes through my mind any time I hear the tune mentioned, so often did I play it. It is because of this background, by the way, that I took the name I did in religion, after Saint André Bessette, a Holy Cross Brother from Montreal, Canada. Read more

Jan

18

The Chair of Unity Octave

January 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

Today begins the traditional Chair of Unity octave, originally planned to last from the feast of Saint Peter’s Chair at Rome until the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on January 25. The devotion has evolved into the “Week of Prayer,” since the removal from the calendar of the feast that opened the octave. But in the 1962 rubrics, a priest may offer the votive Mass of Saint Peter’s Chair at Rome (which we had this morning), so we still have our octave in the traditional rite. Readers may find an inelegant but useful PDF file with the appropriate prayers. Regarding these prayers, be it observed that they are not vague requests for an undefined unity, but explicit petitions for the conversion of all (baptized and non) to Catholic faith and unity under the Supreme Pontiff, the Bishop of Rome and Successor of Saint Peter.

With the conversion to Rome of certain Anglican groups finally a reality thanks to Anglicanorum Coetibus, the octave takes on a fresh luster. In the third day of the octave, we pray for the conversion of all Anglicans. Besides that, Father Paul of Graymoor developed this devotion while yet an Anglican. His subsequent conversion and founding of a Catholic religious order proved that, at least in his case, the prayers worked.

See also:



Dec

27

The Virgin Mary Said WHAT?

December 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment

The Virgin confirmed that children need to be taught what they need for salvation. Read the emphasized part below, an excerpt from the recently approved message of Our Lady of Good Help to the visionary, Adele Brise:

” ‘In God’s name, who are you and what do you want of me?’ asked Adele, as she had been directed.

“ ‘I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received Holy Communion this morning, and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession, and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them’

“ ‘Adele, who is it?” said one of the women. ‘O why can’t we see her as you do?’ said another weeping.

“ ‘Kneel,’ said Adele, ‘the Lady says she is the Queen of Heaven.’ Our Blessed Lady turned, looked kindly at them, and said, ‘Blessed are they that believe without seeing. What are you doing here in idleness…while your companions are working in the vineyard of my Son?’

“ ‘What more can I do, dear Lady?’ said Adele, weeping.

“ ‘Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation’

“ ‘But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?’ replied Adele.

“ ‘Teach them,’ replied her radiant visitor, ‘their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing. I will help you.’ “

Read all about it here…

Dec

23

Why God Hates Sin

December 23, 2010 | 1 Comment

[Originally posted on January 22, 2009]

To hear the words, “God hates sin,” may, for certain modern men, invoke images of a deity too demanding to be very comfortable. Such moderns would find the proposition savoring of a dogmatism that borders on the primitive. For them, it sounds so arbitrary for God to label certain forms of behavior — often forms we find enjoyable — to be evil and therefore “sinful.” Read more

Sep

23

Chuck Baldwin Praises Generals Lee and Jackson

September 23, 2010 | 4 Comments

<Originally Published on: Jan. 17 2009 >

Chuck Baldwin and I do not see eye-to-eye on religious matters. I am an avowed Catholic, he an avowed Protestant. That said, the man has some uncommon common sense on social and political questions. Witness his recent laudatory comments about two real American heroes. Read more

Sep

9

Questions and Answers on the Catholic America Tour

September 9, 2010 | 1 Comment

<Originally Published on: Jan. 10 2009 >

This is an update on the February-March Catholic America Tour. (If you have not read it, please take a look at Ad Rem No. 95 for the announcement of the road trip.)

We have received several inquiries from interested persons, and replies to the commoner questions are now given on the Conference Site. For your convenience, we reproduce the questions below, with links. Read more

Sep

2

The Holy Name of Jesus and Free Will

September 2, 2010 | 3 Comments

Originally published on <Jan. 4, 2009>

“But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.” (John 1:12)

On this Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, it was my privilege to hear the best sermon on the Holy Name that I’ve ever heard. Read more

Aug

26

Our Lady of the “O”

August 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Tomorrow, December 18, is a feast of long standing in the Latin Church. Though its Mass and office will not be offered liturgically in most places (owing to its not being a universal feast), the “Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary” has origins going back at least to seventh-century Spain. Read more