Author: Paul Zalonski

25 years later

Today marks the 25th anniversary of death of my dear grandfather, Julius J. Zalonski. I can’t believe the time has moved so quickly. The noon Mass is celebrated for him as the Mass was celebrated for my grandmother last week on her 8th anniversary.

God was very good to me in giving me the grace of good grandparents on both sides of my family. A gift that allows me to be full of gratitude. Much good and love was experienced with my grandfather, more than what I am aware…
With the Church I pray,
O God, giver of pardon and loving author of our salvation, grant, we pray you, in your mercy, that through the intercession of the Blessed Mary, ever-Virign, and all the Saints, my grandfather Julius who has passed from this world 25 years ago, may attain a share in eternal happiness.

7 years since Basil Pennington

M. Basil Pennington.jpegToday marks the 7th anniversary of death of M. Basil Pennington, OCSO, monk, priest, abbot, writer. In 2005 he died on the feast of the Sacred Heart.

Abbot Basil died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident at the age of 73.
He was described aptly as a “great, loving bear of a man” with a terrific sense of humor and laugh. He was energetic and an impressive leader with a very large capacity for friendship. His openness and keen intellect allowed him to publish 57 books and more than a 1000 articles.
Father Charles Cummings’ obit of Dom Basil can be read here. If you’ve not known about Basil, then I would make the humble suggestion to read this piece and find the book, As We Knew Him, to introduce yourself.
Rest in peace, Dom Basil.

Can’t be called a Theist if you don’t believe in a Personal God

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No one is to be called a Theist, who does not believe in a Personal God, whatever difficulty there may be in defining the word “Personal.” Now it is the belief of Catholics about the Supreme Being, that this essential characteristic of His Nature is reiterated in three distinct ways or modes; so that the Almighty God, instead of being One Person only, which is the teaching of Natural Religion, has Three Personalities, and is at once, according as we view him in the one or the other of them, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit–a Divine Three, who bear towards Each Other the several relations which those names indicate, and are {125} in that respect distinct from Each Other, and in that alone.


John Henry Newman

An Essay in aid of a Grammar of Assent, Chapter 5

NEXT World Meeting of Families to be held in Philadelphia, 2015

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The Holy Father concluded the Seventh World Meeting of Families in Milan today but before he said his final prayers of the Mass and good-byes, Benedict announced that the 2015 Meeting will take place in Philadelphia.

Archbishop Charles Chaput made the announcement here.
1979 was the last time the Roman Pontiff visited Philadelphia.

The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity


Holy-Trinity-Peredea.jpgIn the Sacraments of Initiation, God invites us to
share in the life of the Most Blessed Trinity: we become recreated in the image
of Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, and adopted as sons and daughters
of the Father.


In Pope Benedict’s Porta Fidei, the Letter opening the Year of
Faith later in 2012, wrote: To profess faith in the Trinity – Father, Son and
Holy Spirit – is to believe in one God who is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8): the Father,
who in the fullness of time sent his Son for our salvation; Jesus Christ, who
in the mystery of his death and resurrection redeemed the world; the Holy
Spirit, who leads the Church across the centuries as we await the Lord’s
glorious return.

More Pentecost to celebrate

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The Roman Church celebrated Pentecost last weekend thus concluding the Easter season. This weekend the same Church observes the feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

Also this weekend, our Orthodox sisters and brothers are celebrating the Coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:1-4).

Let us beg for the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.

You may read more about the Spirit’s feast here.

The Queen’s 60th on the Throne: Elizabeth celebrates

The Queen in Green.jpgToday, England’s Queen Elizabeth II, 86, begins the 60th anniversary of taking the English Throne. 

Elizabeth is the Head of State and 15 Commonwealths; she’s also the head of the Church of England.

May God bless the Queen for her service.
Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.
Saint George, pray for us.
Saint Augustine of Canterbury, pray for us.
All saints and blesseds of England, pray for us.

Secularism manipulates God

We have to avoid a secularism that excludes faith, that excludes God from public life, and transforms it into a purely subjective factor, and therefore also arbitrary. If God has no public value, if He is not a need for all of us, then He becomes an idea that can be manipulated.


Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Interview in Communion and Liberation Traces

October 2004