Welcome to Gaudium!

Welcome to Gaudium, a magazine of Catholic Faith, Reason, and Culture. Current events highlight sharply the need for another faithful Catholic presence on the internet… A world that cuts itself off from God can hardly expect to experience it.  G.K. Chesterton once suggested that every age is converted by the saint that contradicts it the most.  Perhaps the age may also be converted by the virtue that contradicts it; hence Gaudium, joy, as a theme and magazine title. 

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Feature: "They Went to Their Deaths Singing:" The Martyrs and the Joyful Death

Recently, Pope Francis has fast tracked the canonization process for a group of 16 Carmelite martyrs, killed during the French Revolution, who went to their deaths singing Laudate Dominum as they mounted the scaffold.  

How did they and countless others do so, going to their deaths in song, in jest, and with utter unconcern for their coming fate?

Read more here.

Reflection: Our Lady’s Way of the Cross

Our Lady walked the Way with Christ, meeting Him once; and after, when she could not reach out to console him with her arms, she suffered with and consoled Our Lord at every moment in her heart.

Read more here.

Faith and Liturgy Corner: Penitential Practices in History

• Have you sworn by the Church, the Gospel, or the relics of the saints, as Christ prohibited? That’s seven or more years of penance for you!

• Silent penances: wear a cilice, or hair-shirt, under your clothes!

See more penitential practices in history here!

Bi-Weekly Round-Up

Our Patroness: Our Lady, Cause of Our Joy

To call Mary, then, the cause of our joy might seem overly bold, to give to a creature glory due to the Creator.  Read more here.

Happy Ember Wednesday!

Read more about Ember Days (from the FSSP) here. If you are observing them, remember that Wednesday and Saturday are days of partial abstinence, and don't forget to pray for priests as we thank the Lord for the blessings of nature.

Call for Submissions

Gaudium welcomes submissions from readers on a broad range of topics on Catholic culture with an emphasis on topics relating to: Faith and the Family, Arts and Literature, and Culture and Society.

For submission guidelines, read more here.