It’s the Feast of St. Raymond of Peñafort , 3rd Class, with the color of White. In this episode: the meditation: “Love and Sacrifice”, today’s news from the Church: “India: No Respite for Christians at Christmas”, a preview of this week’s episode of The SSPX Podcast: “From the Legion of Decency to Netflix: Catholics and Movies”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop.
Saint Raymond of Peñafort was one of the great minds and servants of the medieval Church, a man whose intellectual clarity was always placed at the service of mercy and order. Born around 1175 near Barcelona into a noble Catalan family, Raymond pursued studies in philosophy and law with exceptional ability. He taught canon law at the University of Bologna, where his reputation for precision and balance made him one of the most respected jurists in Europe. Yet despite academic success, he lived simply and remained deeply prayerful, convinced that knowledge divorced from holiness was ultimately empty.
In midlife, Raymond entered the Dominican Order, embracing a life of preaching, study, and disciplined community. His legal expertise soon drew the attention of the wider Church. Pope Gregory IX summoned him to Rome and entrusted him with a monumental task: compiling a clear and authoritative collection of papal decrees and canonical decisions. The result was the Decretals of Gregory IX, a work that brought coherence to centuries of Church law and guided ecclesiastical governance for generations. Raymond undertook this work with humility, often working late into the night, determined that justice in the Church should always be tempered by charity.
Raymond was also deeply involved in pastoral concerns. He served as confessor to the pope and later as Archbishop of Tarragona, though he resigned the office quickly, believing himself unsuited to administration. His heart lay in reconciliation...
