In King Lear's Last Speech on Dappled Things the author, Michael Rennier, places some lines of Father Robert Southwell side by side with the poignant speech of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Considered together, the works of both cousins convey a message that becomes clearer upon a closer look at the events of the time when the hope that the persecution of Catholics in England had burnt itself out came crashing down. “High hopes were soon brought low, the persecution ceased for about a year but then descended with more weight than ever. The false-flag Gunpowder Plot was put into motion, not only bringing a few Catholic extremists out of the woodwork to charge with treason but also justifying continued persecution of the populace as a whole.”
Alan Scott’s excellent article from One Peter Five, Stop Keeping Up with the Joneses, hits readers between the eyes with the call to live for God and to cease wasting life away in the endless black-hole of materialism and pursuit of worldly satisfaction.
We commence a nine part series of discourses by Saint Alphonsus Liguori today, being within the octave of the feast of this most impressive doctor of law, bishop, theologian, mystic and religious founder and superior of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. Taken from Catholic Harbor of Faith and Morals, here is the first of his Nine Discourses for Times of Calamities, God Threatens to Chastise us in order to deliver us from Chastisement, in which the Doctor of Prayer displays his vast knowledge and understanding of Sacred Scripture while painting a detailed picture of the merciful Father, urging His children to a healthy fear of God and repentance lest His arm be forced in justice to strike. “…this very fear leads to the acquisition of a firm hope in God, which makes the soul happy: He that feareth the Lord shall tremble at nothing, and shall not be afraid, for He is his hope. The soul of him that feareth the Lord is blessed (Ecclus. xxxiv. 17). Yes, blessed, because fear draws man away from sin.”
