Our Lady

Our Lady is called by the devotional title Morning Star in the mural above the Lady altar in St. Michael's Cathedral.

Our Lady's love is like a stream that has its source in the Eternal Fountains, quenches the thirst of all, can never be drained, and ever flows back to its Source. 

        - St. Marguerite Bourgeoys

An Irish Saint's Wish-list

An angel from above the nativity scene in St. Michael's Cathedral.

I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us. I would like an abundance of peace. I would like full vessels of charity. I would like rich treasures of mercy. I would like cheerfulness to preside over all. I would like Jesus to be present. I would like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us. I would like the friends of Heaven to be gathered around us from all parts. I would like myself to be a rent payer to the Lord; that I should suffer distress, that he would bestow a good blessing upon me. I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. I would like to be watching Heaven's family drinking it through all eternity. 

                      – St Brigid

On the Anniversary of Roe v Wade

The Holy Family in a stained glass window of St. Michael's Cathedral.

America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation...Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign. 

                   – Blessed Mother Teresa

The Holy Trinity

An angel in the stained glass windows of St. Michael's Cathedral.

I adore You, O most Holy Trinity,  O One God in the Holy Trinity,  for having enobled the Immaculate in such a divine way. And I will never cease daily from the first moment I awake to adore You most humbly, O Divine Trinity, with my face to the ground, repeating three times: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now,  and will be for ever. Amen. 

                         – St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe

20+C+M+B+11

The Magi adore Our Little Lord in the Nativity scene at a side altar in St. Michael's Cathedral.

If the Magi had come in search of an earthly King, they would have been disconcerted at finding that they had taken the trouble to come such a long way for nothing. Consequently they would have neither adored nor offered gifts. But since they sought a heavenly King, though they found in Him no signs of royal pre-eminence, yet, content with the testimony of the star alone, they adored: for they saw a man, and they acknowledged a God. 

              - St. John Chrysostom

Fish

Fisheye view of St. Michael's Cathedral.  photo source

The power of obedience! The lake of Gennesareth had denied its fishes to Peter’s nets. A whole night in vain. Then, obedient, he lowered his net again to the water and they caught ‘a huge number of fish.’ Believe me: the miracle is repeated each day.


                      – St. Josemaria Escriva

St. Peter Canisius on CINO Catholics

A few Catholics pray in the back of the nave of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith. 

                   – St. Peter Canisius

A Precious Pearl

A parishioner holds a pearl rosary at St. Michael's Cathedral.

The Hail Mary well said, that is with attention, devotion, and modesty is, according to the saints, the enemy of the devil which puts him to flight and the hammer which crushes him. It is the sanctification of the soul, the joy of the angels, the melody of the predestinate, the canticle of the New Testament, the pleasure of Mary, and the glory of the most Holy Trinity. The Hail Mary is a heavenly dew which fertilizes the soul. It is the chaste and loving kiss which we give to Mary. It is a vermilion rose which we present to her; a precious pearl we offer her; a chalice of divine ambrosial nectar which we proffer to her.  

               – St. Louis Marie de Montfort

Heart of Jesus

Jesus points to His Sacred Heart in the stained glass of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Does our life become from day to day more painful, more oppressive, more replete with afflictions? Blessed be He a thousand times who desires it so.... 

Heart of Jesus, I love Thee; but increase my love. Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee; but give greater vigor to my confidence. Heart of Jesus, I give my heart to Thee; but so enclose it in Thee that it may never be separated from Thee. Heart of Jesus, I am all Thine; but take care of my promise so that I may be able to put it in practice even unto the complete sacrifice of my life. 

            – Bl. Miguel Pro (priest and martyr)

St. Francis Xavier on the Vocations Crisis

The Rector of St. Michael's Cathedral (Fr. Busch) with the Young Adults group.

Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: "What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!"

- a letter of St. Francis Xavier to St. Ignatius Loyola

Think you might be hearing the call? 

Do the charitable thing.

For a Lost Cause

The much-loved statue of St. Jude in St. Michael's Cathedral.

O most holy apostle, Saint Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honoureth and invoketh thee universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, and of things almost despaired of. Pray for me, who am so miserable. Make use, I implore thee, of that particular privilege accorded to thee, to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost despaired of. Come to mine assistance in this great need, that I may receive the consolation and succor of Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly (here make your request) and that I may praise God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity. I promise thee, O blessed Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favour, to always honour thee as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to thee. Amen.

The Good Shepherd

A painting of Jesus as the Good Shepherd on the ceiling of St. Michael's Cathedral. The early Christians especially favored the Good Shepherd image.

O Lord, show Your mercy to me and gladden my heart. I am like the man on the way to Jericho who was overtaken by robbers, wounded and left for dead. O Good Samaritan, come to my aid. I am like the sheep that went astray. O Good Shepherd, seek me out and bring me home in accord with Your will. Let me dwell in Your house all the days of my life and praise You for ever and ever with those who are there.  

              – St. Jerome

For the Poor Souls

A book (wherein you may write the names of your beloved dead) sits on the Lady Altar at St. Michael's Cathedral. Mass is offered for the repose of their souls throughout November.

My love urges Me to release the poor souls...I accept with highest pleasure what is offered to Me for the poor souls, for I long inexpressibly to have near Me those for whom I paid so great a price. By the prayers of thy loving soul, I am induced to free a prisoner from purgatory as often as thou dost move thy tongue to utter a word of prayer! 

    – Jesus in a vision of St. Gertrude the Great

All Saints' Day

A painting of the Canadian martyrs in the nave of St. Michael's Cathedral.  The frame was made from parts of the old reredos.

After Noon today, and until Midnight tomorrow, a person who has been to confession and Communion can gain a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, for the poor souls in Purgatory each time he visits a church or public oratory and recites the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory be to the Father six times. This is a special exception to the ordinary law of the Church according to which a plenary indulgence for the same work can be gained only once a day.

Why not celebrate All Saints' Day by helping make some new saints? Oh think how gladly they shall return your kindness when they reach heaven on the wings of your prayers!

Angels

An angel moves the sun in the mural at the Lady altar at St. Michael's Cathedral.

Let us affectionately love His angels as counselors and defenders appointed by the Father and placed over us. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; Let us only follow them, let us remain close to them, and in the protection of the God of Heaven let us abide. 

                       - St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Inflamed

A burning candle hangs before the Marian shrine in St. Michael's Cathedral.

 My Lord Jesus Christ, I pray You to grant me two graces before I die: the first is that during my life I may feel in my soul and in my body, as much as possible, that pain which You, dear Jesus, sustained in the hour of Your most bitter Passion. The second is that I may feel in my heart, as much as possible, that excessive love with which You, O Son of God, were inflamed in willingly enduring such suffering for us sinners.  – St. Francis of Assisi

Sacred Heart

Jesus reveals his Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary in a stained glass window at St. Michael's Cathedral.

Behold this Heart which has so loved man.

 - Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary

Origen on Baptism

A scallop shell (a common symbol of our Christian baptism) in the moulding in St. John's Chapel at St. Michael's Cathedral.

If you transgress, you write unto yourself the handwriting of sin. But, behold, when you have once approached to the cross of Christ and to the grace of baptism, your handwriting is affixed to the cross and blotted out in the font of baptism.  

                         - Origen

St. Paul on the Love of God

Statue of St. Paul in St. Michael's Cathedral.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   

                           – Romans 8:38-9

An Urgent Reminder

Statue of Mary and Jesus in a niche at the Lady altar in St. Michael's Cathedral.

It’s your mother’s birthday.

Nativitas gloriosæ Virginis Mariæ ex semine Abrahæ, ortæ de tribu Juda, clara ex stirpe David. Nativitas est hodie sanctæ Mariæ Virginis, cujus vita inclyta cunctas illustrat ecclesias.