Showing results by author "A Camaldolese Hermit" in All Categories

Gregory Martin (1540–1582) was an Oxford scholar of Hebrew and Greek, one of the original dons of St. John’s College. He helped bring his fellow don St. Edmund Campion into the Church and later was tutor to St. Philip Howard. Fleeing from Queen Elizabeth I’s persecution in 1570, he entered William Cardinal Allen’s College at Douay and was ordained at Brussels in 1575. He then served the cardinal in various capacities, including as translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible into English. Although assisted by Allen himself and some fellow Oxonian exiles, he was crushed by the work and died...

Unfortunately, today the ascetical part of our spiritual life does not have many admirers, still less, followers. Many would like to reach the peak of perfection in a very short time, without any mortification or self-denial. To them it seems that love is all that is needed because it is the bond of perfection. What they say is correct but incomplete — they do not fully understand how many sacrifices are demanded by Christian love. We cannot really love God and our brothers if we do not die to ourselves. In order to love perfectly God and our neighbor, we must practically give up many ...