Why should we Console Mary? from the Catholic Kingdom is a brief reading pertinent to September, the month set aside by the Church in honour of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “…when the time of the Passion of Our Lord was approaching, Her eyes were always filled with tears as She thought of Her beloved Son, whom She was about to lose on earth; and that the prospect of that approaching suffering caused Her to be seized with fear, and a cold sweat to cover Her whole body.”
For the Catholic student of American literature making his way through the era of the Protestants Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Oliver Wendell Holmes, the name of Orestes Brownson is like a breath of fresh air. Although it took him some time, this literary figure did eventually find his way to Catholicism, there to remain for the rest of his life. Kevin O’Brien writes an essay on The Distributist Review, Orestes Brownson: Forgotten Prophet, which makes some thoughtful observations and gives a glimpse into Brownson’s world.
Continuing into the next leg of our journey through Saint Alphonsus Liguori’s Nine Discourses for Times of Calamities, today we focus on the sixth part, God Chastises us in this Life for our Good, not for our Destruction, provided by Catholic Harbor of Faith and Morals. Here the great saint beautifully elaborates on the image of the Prodigal Son.
