On St. Conrad of Piacenza, Asceticism, and the Sunday Gospel

On Recluses, Hermits, and Anchorites

We continue in this series by first learning the distinctive
differences, in a religious sense, between recluses, hermits, and
anchorites. The second blog post gives a descriptive guide on
these three kinds of religious and eremetical lives. The third
blog post of this series examines the life of St. Conrad of
Piacenza, an Italian hermit, who followed the spirituality of St.
Francis of Assisi through his membership in the Third Order of
Franciscans. The fourth blog post examines the life of St.
Nicholas of Flüe, patron saint of Switzerland. St. Nicholas began
life in the political scene as a father of ten children, a captain
of the army, a magistrate, a councilor, and a judge. At 50 years
of age, with the consent of his wife, he answered God's call to
the eremetical life.

As we continue to examine the lives of these solitaries, we would
really be amazed at how their way of life as a solitary, had a
great influence not only on leaders and the majority of the
common folk, but also introduce a way of being Christian where
they prioritize prayer, reflection, meditation, and solitude as
a means to union with God. Although St. Anthony of Egypt's life
will not be mentioned at length in this series of blog posts, he
was one of the leaders of the movement that heard the call of God
to leave their worldly life and enter a solitary life of prayer,
penance, and asceticism.

On Asceticism and Mysticism

Since we are learning about the lives of recluses, hermits, and
anchorites, we will learn also about their ascetical practices -
many of which are meant only to inspire us, rather than for us to
imitate. As an example of an ascetical practice, St. Nicholas
of Flüe lived without food or drink for nineteen years and
subsisted only by receiving holy Communion from the chapel near
his cell.

This blog post will try to see what the ascetical and mystical
elements of our Christian faith is about. The difference between
the two is that the ascetical life is more active, while the
mystical life is more passive. As we examine these two elements
of our Catholic tradition, we are then called to reflect on how
we can continue that tradition in our present state of life and
in our contemporary times - given the pressures of a job, a
profession, business, family, position, or ministry.
learn more about asceticism

16th Sunday of the Year (B)

A familiar and popular image of Jesus is His being the Good
Shepherd for all of us who know Him and listen to His voice. A
passage for last Sunday's gospel alludes to that image of Jesus
as a compassionate Shepherd, who takes care not only of the people
He cures and preaches the Good News to, but also takes care of
His apostles by letting them rest and recharge their spent
energies.
learn more about the Sunday gospel

For Catholic web site developers and bloggers

This article will help site owners and bloggers be aware of the
disadvantages of too high an amount of visitor traffic for a small
blog or web site. If the high amount of visitor traffic was to
be prolonged for more than it should be, it can lead to
counterproductivity for the site, as it can invite spamming,
hacking, and web page "hijacking". One solution suggested in case
this happens, is to moderate the amount of traffic to the site by
suggested means. Moderation in optimization and in the placing
of our email addresses are ways by which we can prevent this.
Too high an amount of visitor traffic would also be not
proportionate to the size and purpose of a small Catholic web site
or blog.
learn more about moderate traffic