The CIN Blog

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

2010-11-28T16:25:00.001-06:00

The Drama of
Christian Humanism
In the tradition of Charles Péguy's Cahiers: a journal vrai, the most beautiful thing in the world, a friendship and a city and a perfectly free association of men who all believe in something.
http://www.peguy.net/2010/11/26/hallelujah-chorus-surprise/

FR. TINO NEEDS ROSARIES!

2010-10-22T07:19:00.002-06:00

Videos Posted by Real Men Pray The Rosary

FR. TINO NEEDS ROSARIES!

Thanks to Mr. BRENT CROWE from Grants Pass, Oregon for the beautiful Rosaries that they sent for Fr. Tino's prison ministry. Anyone else? if you have any extra or would like to make a few, please mail or deliver to "Fr. Tino Needs Rosaries" c/o Real Men Pray the Rosary, Inc., 6316 N. 10th Street, Bldg B, Suite 201, McAllen, Texas 78504.

Pope beatifies Cardinal John Henry Newman

2010-09-23T20:36:00.000-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly1c964vK4M&feature=related

Project Truth: A Youth Defence Project

2010-09-20T10:24:00.002-06:00

Truth is a very important part of real choice.

http://www.youtube.com/user/youthdefence

100th Birthday of Bl. Mother Teresa

2010-08-26T07:36:00.003-06:00

Videos from Mother Teresa's Commencement Address at Thomas Aquinas College will be available at through September 5, 2010

Mother Teresa on YouTube

http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/news/pressroom/releases/2010/Mthr_Teresa_Address_BDay.html

Sistine Chapel

2010-06-25T08:11:00.003-06:00

* Virtual online Tour of the Vatican Museums (explore the Sistine Chapel)
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

A Prayer To The Most Blessed Trinity

2010-05-29T08:59:00.000-06:00

God of all creation,
who led the chosen people into the promised land,
lead the homeless to a place of refreshment and rest.

Lord Jesus Christ,
who descended into hell, and rose again,
raise up all who are fallen, broken or alone.

Spirit of life,
inspire our hearts and give us the strength
to come to help of our brothers and sisters in need.

Our Lady of Bon Secours, patroness of New Orleans, pray for us.

Saint Joseph the Worker, patron of Biloxi, pray for us.

© 2005 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted for reproduction and free distribution
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nationalcollections/rebuildchurch/prayer.pdf

Fiat Voluntas Tuua

2010-05-23T12:33:00.005-06:00

The Kingdom of the Divine Fiat in the Midst of Creatures
Luisa Piccarreta
The Call of the Creature to Return to the Order, to the Place,
and to the Purpose for Which It was Created by God.
Volume 17, May 17, 1925

Now I continue by saying that my sweet Jesus told me: “My daughter, to what you have said on fusing yourself in my Will, another appeal must be added – that of fusing yourself in the order of grace, in everything that the Sanctifier – the Holy Spirit - has done and will do for those who are to be sanctified. More so since, while We, the Three Divine Persons, are always united in operating, if the Creation points to the Father, and Redemption to the Son, the Fiat Voluntas Tua will point to the Holy Spirit. And it is precisely in the Fiat Voluntas Tua that the Divine Spirit will make display of His work. You do it when, on coming before the Supreme Majesty, you say: ‘I come to requite You in love for everything that the Sanctifier does for those who are to be sanctified. I come to enter into the order of grace, so as to be able to give You the glory and the requital of love as if all had made themselves saints, and to repair You for all the oppositions and lack of correspondence to grace’. And as much as you can, you search within Our Will for the acts of grace of the Spirit Sanctifier, so as to make His sorrow your own, as well as His secret moans, His anguishing sighs in the depth of the hearts, in seeing Himself so unwelcome. And since the first act He does is to bring Our Will as the complete act of their sanctification, in seeing Himself rejected, He moans with inexpressible moans. And you, in your childlike simplicity, say to Him: ‘Spirit Sanctifier, hurry, I implore You, I pray You again – make your Will known to all, so that, by knowing It, they may love It, and may welcome your first act of their complete sanctification – which is your Holy Will.’ My daughter, We, the Three Divine Persons, are inseparable and distinct, and in this way do We want to manifest to the human generations Our works for them - that while being united among Ourselves, each One of Us wants to manifest individually His love and His work toward the creatures.”

The Great Prayer Project - End Abortion

2010-03-05T14:19:00.002-06:00

We believe that an end to abortion is very possible! Scripture tells us that nothing is impossible when God is involved! (Luke 1:37). The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St. John Chrysostom saying:
“Nothing is equal to prayer; for what is impossible it makes possible, what is difficult, easy...”

The Great Prayer Project - End Abortion
http://www.luke181.com/our_mission.php

Reflection for Lent

2010-02-16T21:23:00.003-06:00

This Lenten reflection acknowledges the brokenness of our lives and in our world and encourages us to find repentance through Christ. You can purchase, a high resolution copy can be downloaded from http://www.lulu.com/content/6167446 ...

Reflection for Lent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gePC_XfXujE

Worshiping God for His Own Sake

2010-02-15T09:01:00.003-06:00

Thomas Aquinas College Alumni Fuel
"Vocations Boom" at Clear Creek Monastery

"Truth is not the only transcendental," Fr. Morey explains. "Like in the College's motto (verum, bonum, pulchrum), there's also the good and the beautiful in addition to the truth.… Yes, it's the experience in the classroom setting and learning, but it's also the smell of the orange blossoms on campus as it floats up the canyon in the spring, or playing beach volleyball in Ventura, or smoking cigars at Dr. Nieto's, or eating burgers and shakes at In-N-Out, orange milkshakes at The Summit. These aren't the noblest of all reasons, but the multifaceted reflections that you see all around you, and they are good, beautiful, and true."

Worshiping God for His Own Sake
http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/news/newsletter/2010/Winter/09%20Worshiping%20God%20for%20His%20Own%20Sake.html

Father de Feydeau R.I.P.

2009-11-17T08:46:00.001-06:00

Fr. de Feydeau in foreground in black and white

On November 15, 2009, strengthened by the sacraments of our Holy Mother Church,

Dom Francois de FEYDEAU DE SAINT-CHRISTOPHE

a priest and monk of Our Lady of Fontgombault Abbey, of the Congregation of Solesmes, of the Order of Saint Benedict, rendered his soul to God in Our Lady of Clear Creek Priory.
http://clearcreekmonks.org/

He was in the 57th year of his age, the 33rd of his monastic profession, and the 27th of his priesthood.

May his soul and those of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God and the intercession of Our Lady, rest in peace.

Father Benedict Groeschel

2009-11-12T09:27:00.002-06:00

Father Benedict Groeschel
http://www.youtube.com/v/NZePc6hIMio&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

unable to speak and preach - and yet

2009-11-09T08:44:00.006-06:00

A priest, who is totally committed to the work of evangelization, a priest, who as a result of a terrible accident lost the ability to speak and preach, who offers up his pain; a group of lay people who open up new avenues so that he can continue preaching, . . . this is a story that could be a movie about motivation for evangelization through the new media. However, this is not a movie; it is a true story.

Now we also joyfully offer the virtual retreats of Father Nicolás Schwizer - written by Javier Cabral of the Family Federation in Paraguay, a free service that sends the bi-monthly Reflections via Internet in four languages: Spanish, Portuguese, English, and German.
If you would like to subscribe, send a request to pn.reflexiones@gmail.com

unable to speak and preach - and yet
http://cmsms.schoenstatt.de/en/index.php/resources/periodicals/virtual-retreat.htm

Cell phone vs ..Bible

2009-09-28T09:28:00.002-06:00

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we flipped through it several time a day?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it when we traveled?

What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to make you go....hmm....where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing..
Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.

Makes you stop and think 'where are my priorities? And no dropped calls!

Prayer for Daily Neglects

2009-09-22T21:30:00.001-06:00

(Adapted for the Divine Will)

Eternal Father, through the Heart of Mary and in your Spirit of Love, I offer You, as mine, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with all Its Love, all Its Sufferings, and all Its Merits.

1st: To expiate all the sins I've committed this day and during all my life, and all the sins committed throughout the world throughout time. Glory be....

2nd: To purify the good I've done poorly this day and during all my life, and all the good done poorly throughout time. Glory be....

3rd: To supply for the good I ought to have done, and that I have neglected this day and during all my life, and all the good that's been neglected throughout time — especially the neglected good of not living and acting in the Divine Will. Glory be....

Ending Your Day in the Divine Will
http://www.sicutincaelo.org/14bfa.html

A Nine Day Novena to Saint Therese

2009-09-22T02:06:00.001-06:00

The Twenty-four 'Glory Be's’ Novena to St. Therese

Father Putigan received the favours he had petitioned of the Little Flower of Jesus, and promised to spread the novena to increase devotion to, and bring her more honour. In this fashion, from the ninth to the seventeenth of each month, those who want to participate in the 24 Glory Be’s novena, should add to those of their own, the intentions of all who are at that time making the novena, thus forming one great prayer in common. This novena can be said at any time, however.

The Glory Be is said 24 times each day for nine days, in thanksgiving for all the blessings and favours given to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus during the 24 years of her life. Start the novena each day with this prayer:

“Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, I thank You for all the blessings and favours You have showered upon the soul of Your servant Therese of the Child Jesus, during the 24 years she spent here on earth, and in consideration of the merits of this, Your most beloved Saint, I beseech You to grant me this favour, if it is in accordance with Your most Holy Will and is not an obstacle to my salvation.”

After this prayer, follow with the 24 Glory Be’s, between each of which should be included this short prayer”

“Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, pray for us.”

A Nine Day Novena to Saint Therese
http://www.carmeldundee.co.uk/carmel_novena_St_Therese.htm

The Human Experience

2009-09-14T17:46:00.002-06:00

From Grassroots Films of Brooklyn, New York comes
THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE – the story of a band of brothers who travel the world in search of the answers to the burning questions: Who am I? Who is Man? Why do we search for meaning? Their journey brings them into the middle of the lives of the homeless on the streets of New York City, the orphans and disabled children of Peru, and the abandoned lepers in the forests of Ghana, Africa. What the young men discover changes them forever. Through one on one interviews and real life encounters, the brothers are awakened to the beauty of the human person and the resilience of the human spirit.

Grassroots Films, Inc.
http://www.grassrootsfilms.com/thehumanexperience/

USCCB on Health Care

2009-08-27T07:27:00.001-06:00

"Genuine health care reform that protects the life and dignity of all is a moral imperative and a vital national obligation" - Bishop William F. Murphy

USCCB on Health Care
http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/

free computer bible download

2009-08-24T10:06:00.001-06:00

The Douay-Rheims Bible with concordance capability in digitized form...

Fully indexed
chapter by chapter!
Fully searchable
by any word or name!

A perfect scriptural reference
right at your fingertips!

Courtesy of Preserving
Christian Publications
http://www.pcpbooks.com/

Ad Caeli Reginam

2009-08-22T08:19:00.004-06:00

Queen of Heaven

. . . . 51. By this Encyclical Letter We are instituting a feast so that all may recognize more clearly and venerate more devoutly the merciful and maternal sway of the Mother of God. We are convinced that this feast will help to preserve, strengthen and prolong that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recurring crises. Is she not a rainbow in the clouds reaching towards God, the pledge of a covenant of peace?[62] "Look upon the rainbow, and bless Him that made it; surely it is beautiful in its brightness. It encompasses the heaven about with the circle of its glory, the hands of the Most High have displayed it."[63] Whoever, therefore, reverences the Queen of heaven and earth - and let no one consider himself exempt from this tribute of a grateful and loving soul - let him invoke the most effective of Queens, the Mediatrix of peace; let him respect and preserve peace, which is not wickedness unpunished nor freedom without restraint, but a well-ordered harmony under the rule of the will of God; to its safeguarding and growth the gentle urgings and commands of the Virgin Mary impel us.

52. Earnestly desiring that the Queen and Mother of Christendom may hear these Our prayers, and by her peace make happy a world shaken by hate, and may, after this exile show unto us all Jesus, Who will be our eternal peace and joy, to you, Venerable Brothers, and to your flocks, as a promise of God's divine help and a pledge of Our love, from Our heart We impart the Apostolic Benediction. . . . .

AD CAELI REGINAM ("Queen of Heaven")
Given at Rome, from St. Peter's, on the feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the eleventh day of October, 1954, in the sixteenth year of our Pontificate. Pius XII
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_11101954_ad-caeli-reginam_en.html

Lesson of the Queen of Heaven

2009-08-16T09:14:00.002-06:00

Luisa Piccarreta

. . . Since I had never done my human will, my presence requited Them of the love and the glory of the great work of all Creation, and therefore They entrusted to Me the secret of the history of mankind. And I prayed and prayed again for peace to come between God and man.
Now, my child, you must know that the human will alone closed Heaven, and therefore it was not given to man to penetrate into those celestial regions, or to have a familiar relationship with his Creator. On the contrary, the human will had cast him away from the One who had created him. As soon as man withdrew from the Divine Will, he became fearful, timid; he lost the dominion of himself and of the whole Creation. All the elements, because they were dominated by the Fiat, had remained superior to him and could do harm to him. Man was afraid of everything; and do you think it is trivial, my child, that the one who had been created as king, dominator of everything, reached the point of being afraid of the One who had created him? It is strange, my child, and I would say almost against nature, that a child would be afraid of his father; while it is according to nature that, as one generates, love and trust between father and child are also generated. This can be called the primary inheritance that is due to the child, and the primary right that is due to the father. So, by doing his will, Adam lost the inheritance of his Father; he lost his Kingdom, and rendered himself the laughing stock of all created things. . . .

The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will
http://catholicdivinewill.blogspot.com/2008/06/virgin-mary-in-kingdom-of-divine-will.html

Conformity To God's Will

2009-08-14T12:17:00.001-06:00

St. Alphonsus Mary Ligouri

Translated by Thomas W. Tobin, C.SS.R.

Above all, let us bend all our energies to serve God in the way he wishes. This remark is made so that we may avoid the mistake of him who wastes his time in idle day-dreaming. Such a one says, “If I were to become a hermit, I would become a saint” or “If I were to enter a monastery, I would practice penance” or “If I were to go away from here, leaving friends and companions, I would devote long hours to prayer.” If, If, If -- all these if’s! In the meantime such a person goes from bad to worse. These idle fancies are often temptations of the devil, because they are not in accord with God’s will. Hence we should dismiss them summarily and rouse ourselves to serve God only in that way which he has marked out for us. Doing his holy will, we shall certainly become holy in those surroundings in which he has placed us.

Let us will always and ever only what God wills; for so doing, he will press us to his heart. To this end let us familiarize ourselves with certain texts of sacred scripture that invite us to unite ourselves constantly with the divine will: “Lord, what wilt thou have me do[80]?” Tell me, my God, what thou wilt have me do, that I may will it also, with all my heart. “I am thine, save thou me[81].” I am no longer my own, I am thine, O Lord, do with me as thou wilt.

If some particularly crashing misfortune comes upon us, for example, the death of a relative, loss of goods, let us say: “Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight[82].” Yes, my God and my Father, so be it, for such is thy good pleasure. Above all, let us cherish that prayer of our Lord, which he himself taught us: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven[83].” Our Lord bade St. Catherine of Genoa to make a notable pause at these words whenever she said the Our Father, praying that God’s holy will be fulfilled on earth with the same perfection with which the saints do it in heaven. Let this be our practice also, and we shall certainly become saints.

May the divine will be loved and praised! May the Immaculate Virgin be also praised!

Conformity To God's Will
http://www.stalphonsusbalt.org/conformity.htm

"In God We Trust"

2009-07-21T12:49:00.003-06:00

Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?

Here's your chance to let the media know where the people stand on our faith in God, as a nation. NBC is taking a poll on "In God We Trust" to stay on American currency.

Please send this to every Christian you know so they can vote on this important subject. Please do it right away, before NBC takes this off their web page.

The Poll is still open so you can vote.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/

Results to this time:
Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency? * 15089942 responses
Yes. It's a violation of the principle of separation of church and state.
12%
No. The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion.
88%

Live Vote: Should ‘In God We Trust’ be yanked? - Faith- msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/

Divine Will Volume 17

2009-07-18T09:01:00.005-06:00

March 1, 1925
How each additional act which the soul does in the Divine Will is one more filament of light which renders the light within her more intense, more strong and more bright. . .

"But do you know what this light is? It is all the interior operating that you do. Each additional act you do is one more filament of your will which you bind to the current of the eternal light; and that filament turns into light. So, the more acts you do, adding more filaments, the more full, intense and bright the light will become. Therefore, what you have done is the light that you see, and what is left for you to do is the void that you see within that same light. And I will remain always in the midst of this light, not only to enjoy it, but to bind the filaments of the human will to the current of the eternal light, because I am the origin, the foundation, the current of the light. But do you know what true light is? True light is the truth. The truth, known, embraced, loved and put into practice by the soul, is the true light, which transforms her into light itself, and causes new and continuous births of light to be placed inside and outside of her. This truth forms the true Life of God within the soul, because God is truth, and the soul is bound to the truth - even more, she possesses it. God is light, and she is bound to the light, and is nourished with light and with truth. However, while I nourish the soul with truth and with light, she must keep the current of her will opened, in order to receive the current of the divine communication." . . .

Divine Will Volume 17
http://catholicdivinewill.blogspot.com/2008/06/divine-will-volume-seventeen.html

The 24 Hours of the Passion

2009-07-15T07:46:00.003-06:00

First Hour From 5 to 6 PM
Jesus takes leave of His Most Holy Mother

O Celestial Mama, the hour of the separation is approaching, and I come to You. O Mother, give me your love and your reparations; give me your sorrow, because together with You I want to follow, step by step, adored Jesus.

And now Jesus comes to You, and You, with heart overflowing with love, run toward Him and in seeing Him so pale and sad, your Heart aches with pain, your strengths leave You and You are about to fall at His feet.

O my sweet Mama, do You know why adorable Jesus has come to You? Ah, He has come to say the last good-bye, to tell You the last word, to receive the last embrace!

O Mother, I cling to You with all the tenderness of which my poor heart is capable, so that clinging and bound to You, I too may receive the embraces of adored Jesus. Will You perhaps disdain me? Isn’t it rather a comfort for your Heart to have a soul near You, who would share its pains, affections and reparations?

O Jesus, in such a harrowing hour for your most tender Heart, what a lesson of filial and loving obedience to your Mama You give us! What a sweet harmony passes between You and Mary! What a sweet enchantment of love rises up to the throne of the Eternal One and extends for the salvation of all creatures of the earth!

O my Celestial Mama, do You know what adored Jesus wants from You? Nothing but your last blessing. It is true that from every particle of your being nothing but blessings and praises come out for your Creator; but Jesus, in taking leave of You, wants to hear the sweet word: “I bless You, O Son”. And that “I bless You” removes all the blasphemies from His hearing, and descends, sweet and gentle, into His Heart. Jesus wants your “I bless You”, almost to place it as a shelter from all the offenses of creatures.

I too unite myself to You, O sweet Mama. Upon the wings of the winds I want to go around the heavens to ask the Father, the Holy Spirit and all the Angels, for an “I bless You” for Jesus, so that, as I go to Him, I may bring Him their blessings. And here on earth, I want to go to all creatures and ask, from every lip, from every heartbeat, from every step, from every breath, from every gaze, from every thought - blessings and praises for Jesus. And if no one wants to give them to me, I intend to give them for them.

O sweet Mama, after going round and round, to ask the Sacrosanct Trinity, the Angels, all creatures, the light of the sun, the fragrance of the flowers, the waves of the sea, every breath of wind, every spark of fire, every moving leaf, the twinkling of the stars, every movement of nature, for an “I bless You”, I come to You and I place all my blessings together with yours.

My sweet Mama, I see that You receive comfort and relief, and that You offer Jesus all my blessings in reparation for the blasphemies and the maledictions which He receives from creatures. But as I offer You everything, I hear your trembling voice saying: “Son, bless me too!”

O my sweet Love, Jesus, bless me also, together with your Mama; bless my thoughts, my heart, my hands, my works, my steps, and with your Mother, all creatures.

O my Mother, in looking at the face of sorrowful Jesus, pale, sad, harrowing, the memory of the pains which He is about to suffer awakens in You. You foresee His face covered with spit and You bless it, His head pierced by the thorns, His eyes blinded, His body tortured by the scourges, His hands and feet pierced by the nails; and wherever He is about to go, You follow Him with your blessings. And I too will follow Him together with You. When Jesus is struck by the scourges, crowned with thorns, slapped, pierced by the nails, everywhere He will find my “I bless You” together with yours.

O Jesus, O Mother, I compassionate You. Immense is your pain in these last moments. The Heart of one seems to tear the Heart of the other.

O Mother, snatch my heart from the earth and bind it tightly to Jesus, so that, clinging to Him, I may share in His pains, and as You cling to each other, as You embrace, as You exchange the last glances, the last kisses, being in-between your two Hearts, may I receive your last kisses, your last embraces. Don’t You see that I cannot be without You, in spite of my misery and my coldness?

Jesus, Mama, keep me close to You; give me your love, your Will. Dart through my poor heart, hold me tightly in your arms; and together with You, O sweet Mother, I want to follow, step by step, adored Jesus, with the intention of giving Him comfort, relief, love and reparation for all.

O Jesus, together with your Mama, I kiss your left foot, asking You to forgive me and all creatures, for all the times we have not walked toward God.

I kiss your right foot: forgive me and all for all the times we have not followed the perfection You wanted from us.

I kiss your left hand: communicate to us your purity.

I kiss your right hand: bless all of my heartbeats, thoughts, affections, so that, given value by your blessing, they all may be sanctified. And with me, bless all creatures, and seal the salvation of their souls with your blessing.

O Jesus, I embrace You together with your Mama, and kissing your Heart, I pray You to place my heart between your two Hearts, that it may be nourished continuously by your love, by your sorrows, by your very affections and desires, and by your own Life. Amen.

Reflections and Practices

Before giving start to His Passion, Jesus goes to His Mother to ask for Her blessing. In this act Jesus teaches us obedience, not only external but also interior, which we must have in order to reciprocate the inspirations of grace. Sometimes we are not ready to put into practice a good inspiration, either because we are held back by love of self united to temptation, or because of human respect, or in order not to use holy violence on ourselves.

But rejecting the good inspiration of exercising a virtue, of accomplishing a virtuous act, of doing a good work, or of practicing a devotion, makes the Lord withdraw, depriving us of new inspirations.

On the other hand, the prompt correspondence, pious and prudent, to holy inspirations attracts more lights and graces upon us.

In the cases of doubt, one should turn promptly and with righteous intention to the great means of prayer and to upright and experienced advice. In this way, the good God will enlighten the soul to execute the healthy inspiration, increasing it for her greater benefit.

We must do our actions, our acts, our prayers, the Hours of the Passion, with the same intentions of Jesus, in His Will, sacrificing ourselves as He did, for the glory of the Father and for the good of souls.

We must place ourselves in the disposition of sacrificing ourselves in everything for love of our lovable Jesus, conforming to His spirit, operating with His own sentiments, and abandoning ourselves in Him, not only in all the external sufferings and adversities, but much more in all that He will dispose in our interior. In this way, at any time, we will find ourselves ready to accept any suffering. By doing this, we will give sweet sips to our Jesus. Then, if we do all this in the Will of God which contains all sweetnesses and all contentments in immense proportion, we will give to Jesus large sweet sips, so as to mitigate the poisoning which other creatures cause Him, and to console His Divine Heart.

Before starting any action, let us always invoke the blessing of God, so that our actions may have the touch of the Divinity, and may attract His blessings not only on us, but upon all creatures.

My Jesus, may your blessing precede me, accompany me and follow me, so that everything I do may carry the seal of your ‘I bless you.’

The Twenty Four Hours of the Passion (Blog)
http://catholicdivinewill.blogspot.com/2008/06/twenty-four-hours-of-passion.html
The Twenty Four Hours of the Passion (PDF file)
http://www.asylcity.com/hours_of_passion.pdf

Who then are you, O Immaculate Conception?

2009-07-14T07:23:00.003-06:00

. . .

Who then are you, O Immaculate Conception?

Not God, of course, because He has no beginning. Not an angel, created directly out of nothing. Not Adam, formed out of the dust of the earth. Not Eve, molded from Adam's rib. Not the Incarnate Word, Who exists before all ages, and of Whom we should use the word "conceived" rather than "conception."

Humans do not exist before their conception, so we might call them created "conceptions." But you, O Mary, are different from all other children of Eve. They are conceptions stained by Original Sin; whereas you are the unique, Immaculate Conception.

Everything which exists, outside of God Himself, since it is from God and depends on Him in every way, bears within itself some semblance to its Creator; there is nothing in any creature which does not betray this resemblance, because every created thing is an effect of the Primal Cause.

It is true that the words we use to speak of created realities express the Divine perfections only in a halting, limited and analogical manner. They are only a more or less distant echo----as are the created realities that they signify ---- of the properties of God himself. Would not "conception" be an exception to this rule? No, there is never any such exception. The Father begets the Son; the Son proceeds from the Father and the Son. Theses few words sum up the mystery of the life of the Most Blessed trinity and of all the perfections in creatures which are nothing else but echoes, a hymn of praise of this primary and most wondrous of all mysteries.

We must perforce use our vocabulary, since it is all we have; but we must never forget that our vocabulary is very inadequate.

Who is the Father? What is His personal life like? It consists in begetting, eternally because He begets His Son from the beginning and forever.
Who is the Son? He is the Begotten-One, because from the beginning and for all eternity He is begotten by the Father.

And Who is the Holy Spirit? The flowering of the love of the Father and the Son. If the fruit of created is a created conception, then the fruit of Divine love, that prototype of all created love, is necessarily a Divine "conception." The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the "uncreated, eternal conception," the prototype of all the conceptions that multiply life throughout the whole universe.

The Father begets; the Son is begotten; the Spirit is the "conception" that springs from their love; there we have the intimate life of the Three Persons by which They can be distinguished from one another. But They are united in the Oneness of Their Nature, of Their Divine existence. The Spirit is, then, this thrice holy "conception," this infinitely holy Immaculate Conception . . .

The creature most completely filled with this love, filled with God Himself, was the Immaculata, who never contacted the slightest stain of sin, who never departed in the least from God's will. United to the Holy Spirit as His spouse, she is one with God in an incomparably more perfect way than can be predicated of any other creature.
. . .

Who then are you, O Immaculate Conception?
Excerpted and compiled from, "Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit",
The Marian Teachings of Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, Fr. H.M. Manteau-Bonamy, O.P. http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/conception.htm

Novena in Honor of the Immaculate Conception
By St. Maximilian Kolbe
http://www.corazones.org/oraciones/oraciones_maria/novena_inmaculate_conception_kolbe.htm

The Pope on 'Love in Truth'

2009-07-11T05:13:00.001-06:00

Caritas in Veritate is a reminder that we cannot understand ourselves as a human community if we do not understand ourselves as something more than the sum or our material parts; if we do not understand our capacity for sin; and if we do not understand the principle of communion rooted in the gratuitousness of God's grace. Simply put, to this pope's mind, there is no just or moral system without just and moral people.

Father Sirico is president and co-founder of the Acton Institute.

The Pope on 'Love in Truth'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124718187188120189.html

Listen to Caritas in Veritate

2009-07-07T17:48:00.004-06:00

Narrated by Joe McClane
Anyone want to listen to the text of Caritas in Veritate?

Listen or Read: Caritas in Veritate
http://catholichack.blogspot.com/2009/07/caritas-in-veritate-from-newadventorg.html

Caritas in Veritate (Vatican Site)
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

The Revenge of Conscience

2009-06-30T16:57:00.006-06:00

Unfortunately, the condition of human beings since before recorded history is that we don't want to learn hard lessons. We would rather remain in denial. What power can break through such a barrier?

The only Power that ever has. Thomas Aquinas writes that when a nation suffers tyranny, those who enthroned the tyrant may first try to remove him, then call upon the emperor for help. When these human means fail, they should consider their sins and pray. We are now so thoroughly under the tyranny of our vices that it would be difficult for us to recognize an external tyrant at all. By our own hands we enthroned them: our strength no longer suffices for their removal: they have suspended the senate of right reason and the assembly of the virtues: the emperor, our will, is held hostage: and it is time to pray.

Nothing new can be written on the heart, but nothing needs to be; all we need is the grace of God to see what is already there. We don't want to read the letters, because they burn; but they do burn, so at last we must read them. This is why the nation can repent. This is why the plague can be arrested. This is why the culture of death can be redeemed. “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before thee . . . a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

J. Buziszewski is Associate Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of Texas and author of Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law (InterVarsity). An earlier version of this article was published in William D. Gairdner, ed., After Liberalism (Stoddart).
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/12/001-the-revenge-of-conscience-38

"Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an unuprooted small corner of evil.

Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person."
— Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956)

The Stoning of Soraya M.

2009-06-30T10:36:00.005-06:00

Posted by Bruce Edward Walker
on Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tomorrow, June 26, theaters across the nation will begin screening for the general public “The Stoning of Soraya M.” This drama reenacts the true story of an Iranian woman falsely accused of adultery and punished according to sharia law. The film is produced by Stephen McEveety (“The Passion of the Christ”) and features an impressive international cast.

Since the movie’s title gives the climax away, rest assured that the film contains much that is suspenseful. Jim Caviezel portrays French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam. Much like Spencer Tracy’s character in the 1955 John Sturges film, “Bad Day at Black Rock,” Sahebjam chances upon a town with a dark secret – in this instance, the stoning of the title character through the manipulations of a husband who wishes to take a 14-year-old child as a wife and fears he cannot afford to maintain two households.

When Soraya refuses her husband a divorce, he puts in place the dramatic machinery leading to her death. The filmmakers ably display how a less-than-free society can be easily corrupted, but doesn’t adopt the too easy tropes that all men are bad, all women victims – or even that Islam is a bad religion.

I highly recommend this film, but must warn that the violent act of stoning is graphically depicted. The direction of the script is taut and suspenseful, and the acting and production values superb.

Stephen McEveety: "I believe this is a very pro-Muslim movie. From the beginning we approached this as very respectful toward the true Islamic faith. This wonderful, beautiful Muslim woman keeps her faith to the end. She’s representative of the Muslim faith. The film is an illustration of how any religion can be abused in a repressive environment. It’s a true story made by persons familiar with the world Soraya M. lived in. We have shown it to Middle Eastern audiences and they have embraced it."
(Go to website for the rest of the interview)

The Stoning of Soraya M.
http://blog.acton.org/archives/10807-interview-with-stephen-mceveety-producer-of-the-stoning-of-soraya-m.html

Jesus Christ the Returning King

2009-06-28T09:40:00.008-06:00

Lay Apostolate

Love of Neighbor (from "Climbing The Mountain" By Anne, a lay apostle

Sometimes a soul living outside of the Kingdom is bitter. This bitterness is like a sore. When a soul in bitterness views Christ in us, it can be like salt in the wound or sore because our unity with Christ highlights his isolation from Him. This is good. The soul then comes closer to an understanding of what it lacks. Our experience of this may not be pleasant. It may be necessarily painful because in its pain the soul may strike out at us. This can be understood as an almost instinctual lashing out or crying out in the distress of their disconnectedness from Christ. We must accept these strikes as beneficial penance and part of standing with Christ as a companion on the Way of the Cross.

Lay Apostolate of Jesus Christ the Returning King

In April, 2005, Our Lord revealed to Anne a set of guidelines for those called to assist in the work of the mission. Anne's bishop then gave permission for the formation of The Lay Apostolate of Jesus Christ the Returning King. Their mission is to serve as conduits of divine grace, spreading the messages of the Volumes throughout the earth.

Online version of the The Volumes now available.
--Free Download.
http://www.directionforourtimes.com/onlinevolumes.html

Prayer, charity and the joy of forgiveness

2009-06-27T07:38:00.003-06:00

This is the prepared text of the homily delivered by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley at the St. Padre Pio anniversary Mass that took place Sept. 23 2006 at St. Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. The cardinal delivered the homily in Italian.

. . . . .
St. Gregory the Great says: “The present life is but a road by which we advance to our homeland. Because of this, by a secret judgment we are subjected to frequent disturbance so that we do not have more love for the journey than for the destination. The suffering St. Pio experienced in his ill health, in the persecution by the very Church he loved, the trials and setbacks in establishing the hospital, the pain of the stigmata -- all kept before his eyes the pilgrim nature of his vocation. What allowed St. Pio to persevere was the intense prayer life that he lived faithfully. He prayed more in a week than most people pray in a year. The test of authentic prayer is growth in goodness, growth in humanity, greater serenity in living and in facing hardship. Above all genuine contact with God effects a real displacement of self as the center of our existence.

Prayer is not withdrawing from the rest of humanity. It is more like a wedding feast to which we welcome all who cross our path. A strange thing takes place in prayer. There is a mysterious coupling of our own life with the lives of others -- an embrace that includes the whole of humanity. At first prayer stems from a sense of personal neediness. Prayer progressively becomes less a self-centered plea for personal deliverance than a universal cry for help and for the coming of God’s kingdom.

Prayer and suffering transformed the life of Padre Pio and made him a living icon of God’s unfailing mercy and love. Too often we try to follow Jesus at a safe distance, like Peter after he fled from Gethsemane. Padre Pio’s life and teaching encourages us to climb Calvary to join Jesus in the moments of greatest pain and greatest love.

In today’s Gospel, planted at the foot of the cross are these few brave disciples. I am sure that Mary’s faith and courage was a source of strength for all of them. Mary stood at the foot of the cross. At that dramatic moment, before His death Jesus gives us a gift, His most precious possession, His Mother. Behold your mother. Mary is now not only Jesus’ Mother. She is also our Mother.

For Padre Pio, as for St. Francis, the cross was his book, the book where he read the greatest love story in history. Padre Pio lived his life planted at the foot of the cross in the company of Mary.

Mary full of grace, the costly grace of discipleship, the grace that allowed Mary to renew her fiat, her yes to the Lord even in the face of the cross. There by the cross is our Mother, Our Lady of Grace.

Recently Our Holy Father Pope Benedict said, “He who believes is not alone.” Here we have a host of witnesses. We stand before the beloved cross of Our Blessed Savior, we stand with Our Mother, Our Lady of Grace, and Padre Pio. We are not alone. When the Apostles came down from Tabor, they carried in their hearts a glimpse of God’s Glory. When you return to your homes, share with your families and neighbors the graces of this pilgrimage and the message of our beloved Padre Pio: Prayer, charity and the joy of forgiveness.

Prayer, charity and the joy of forgiveness
By Cardinal O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap.
Archdiocese of Boston
http://www.piercedhearts.org/theology_heart/prayer_charity_joy_forgiveness_padrepio.htm

Suffering and the Will of God

2009-06-25T00:08:00.002-06:00

Most of us in the West have been raised on sort of a reward/punishment system. In a nominally functional home if we were “good” we were rewarded and felt good, if we misbehaved we were punished and felt bad.

Consequently, as adults we tend to carry those paradigms around with us. This can be a problem in the spiritual life if we project these patterns on God’s care for us. When things go wrong, or painful things happen in the normal course of life, for example, the death of a loved one, a brutal financial crisis out of which it takes us years climb, a bitter divorce, etc. We think if bad things happen to us we must have done something wrong. We may tend to cry, “What have I done to deserve this?”

We are not perfect, but very likely, we’ve done nothing to deserve it. These things happen in a fallen world. This is especially poignant when an innocent person is the victim of violence. People sin. And sin results, ultimately, in death. When someone sins innocent people suffer. The sinner suffers too, but that is the subject for another article.

A terrorist blows up a building killing hundreds or even thousands of innocent people including children, plunging the survivors and their families into a lifetime of trauma and grief. They did nothing to deserve this. One person or a group of people made a decision to commit the sin of murder and the result is dead and suffering survivors and families. Victims.

Sometimes we have a tendency to think that if we make the decision to follow Christ and grow in the spiritual life our lives will smooth out. And this will happen to a degree if we abandon a life of chaotic sin. As we grow in repentance and transformation there will be healing from the damage we’ve done to ourselves. But sometimes others damage us. We are sinned against. Being a Christian does not provide immunity from suffering. Following Christ necessarily leads to the Cross. . . . . . .

Suffering and the Will of God
© 2005 by John Mallon
Catholic Online
http://www.catholic.org/featured/reality.php?ID=2437

I am the Immaculate Conception

2009-06-24T09:19:00.003-06:00

Anthropological Implications for a Pedagogy of Holiness in the
Teaching of John Paul II and Father Joseph Kentenich
Danielle M. Peters

This paper was presented during the Twenty-second International Marian and Mariological Congress in Lourdes from September 4-8, 2008. The topic of the congress was: The apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in history, faith and theology.

. . . Magnificat

In reciting the Magnificat, Mary expresses optimistic realism in God’s power, mercy and faithfulness. With her song Our Lady teaches us an eloquent lesson of a harmonious human-divine relationship. Father Kentenich observed that with the exception of one fragment in which Our Lady speaks of herself (cf. Lk 1:48b), “all other parts of the Magnificat … circle around the eternal God, around His way of government.”[82] What are the implications concerning a healthy human-divine relationship accentuated in and through Our Lady’s Song?

Schoenstatt’s founder pointed to today’s danger of anthromorphism. By that he referred to a person’s lack of esteem and appreciation of God’s greatness and power.[83] Mary answers to this danger by acknowledging her smallness before Almighty God. The opposite approach to God is typical for our age as well. When God is acknowledged as the totally Other and Transcendental, we fail to see the divine-human analogies.[84]

Finally, Father Kentenich observed a certain tendency of depersonalizing God.[85] This occurs when the biblical-personal God becomes an abstract idea and when love for God is replaced by merely following rules; in other words, when love for the lawgiver is replaced by love for the law.

Mary’s Magnificat highlights her personal relationship to God who is mighty, holy, merciful and capable of performing great deeds. Looking at the Immaculata, we have a presentiment of God’s holiness. Love for Him has made her the sacred space where God abides. By approaching her we find God whose name is unending, overflowing love, mercy and goodness.[86]

As object lesson, Our Lady can be likened to a book which leads heavenwards. Father Kentenich encouraged his spiritual family to frequently page in this book in order to gaze at our model whose reflection we may and should become. With her and like her our entire life should become an unending sursum corda. . . .
(by Father Joseph Kentenich)

Anthropological Implications for a Pedagogy of Holiness in the
Teaching of John Paul II and Father Joseph Kentenich
Danielle M. Peters
http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/immaculate1.html

Questionnaire on The 4 Temperaments

2009-06-22T09:48:00.004-06:00

1. Modern educators realize more and more that a well rounded, complete education demands not only training of the intellect but training of the will and of the heart as well. In other words, the formation of character is as important as, if not more important than, the acquisition of knowledge.

2. Intellectual ability is no proof that a man will be able to master the difficulties of life and to adhere to right principles of action in times of distress. Only a strong will and a firm character enable man to stand such trials unshaken. Life is filled with trials; hence the necessity of character formation.

3. The formation of character requires, first of all, the knowledge of an ideal that will "give direction, measure, and value to effort," (Monsignor William J. Kerby) from which the aim and the ways and means of education must be derived. The man who aims at being the perfect gentleman, i.e., the Christian, will of necessity follow other ways and use other means than he whose aim is only to make as much money as possible.

4. It requires also a fair knowledge of one's self, of one's powers of body and soul, of one's strong and weak points, of one's assets and defects. The old Greek saying, "Know yourself!" holds true also today.

5. There is no lack of, nor interest in, books on self-improvement. Man is painfully conscious of his many shortcomings and feels a great desire to eliminate unsatisfactory personality traits in order to achieve greater harmony within himself and with his environment.

Such self-knowledge is often offered in learned and high sounding phrases, but more often than not is of little help in daily life. A knowledge of the Four Temperaments, (though sometimes frowned upon by modem psychology), has proved very helpful in meeting and mastering the situations of everyday living. A short but valuable knowledge with practical suggestions is supplied by Conrad Hock, 'The Four Temperaments'. Having been out of print for some years it is now herewith revised, enlarged and offered to the public.

The Pallottine Fathers Milwaukee
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS
by REV. CONRAD HOCK
Revised and enlarged by Rev. Nicholas M. Wilwers, S.A.C.; M.A.; S.T.B.

NIHIL OBSTAT:
H. B. RIES
Censor librorum

IMPRIMI POTEST:
OTTO BOENKI, S.A.C.
Superior Maior

Questionnaire on The 4 Temperaments
For the complete booklet visit:
http://www.angelicum.net/html/four_temperaments.html

Four Temperaments

2009-06-21T21:41:00.002-06:00

What's your personality?
Posted by Danielle Bean, Faith and Family Live!

A few months ago, I read "The Temperament God Gave You: The Classic Key to Knowing Yourself, Getting Along with Others, and Growing Closer to the Lord".

I was fascinated.

I quizzed myself, my husband, my kids, and my extended family members. I labeled the temperament of everyone I knew. Some appreciated my analysis. Some didn’t.

“You are such a ... choleric melancholic!” I accused my unsuspecting husband.

Well, he is.

It’s not just about the fun of labeling and name-calling, though. Personally, I find that personality tests and categories are really useful tools. Legitimate personality analysis helps us to better know ourselves and gives us insight into our relationships. It helps us to analyze our tendencies, our strengths, and our weaknesses in an objective manner.

What I found especially helpful about the Bennetts’ book was that it is written from a Catholic perspective. It helped me figure out what my natural strengths and weaknesses are in my relationships with God, with my husband, and with my children.

Once we recognize our personal weaknesses, temptations, and tendencies toward sin, we are in a much better position to do something about remedying them. Conversely, once we recognize our strengths, we are in a better position to maximize those parts of our personality and put them to good use in our work and in our families.

I won’t tell you my temperament yet. I want you to figure out yours and share your findings first. I really do recommend reading the book, but if you are in a hurry, you can use this online quiz. It’s quick and pretty easy. I took it and my results were the same as the ones I got using the book’s more involved questionnaire, so as far as I can report, it’s accurate.

For those of you entirely unfamiliar with the four temperaments, here’s a very basic overview.

So. Two things: What’s your temperament? And I am curious how well you all can know me through blogging—what do you think mine is? I’ll update later with the answer.

What's your personality?
Posted by Danielle Bean
Faith and Family Live! includes important links.
http://www.faithandfamilylive.com/blog/four_temperaments/

The Sacred Heart, Tepeyac and Us

2009-06-19T21:29:00.003-06:00

Friday, June 19, 2009 Bishop Olmsted

Nine heart-shaped flower blossoms decorate the tunic worn by Our Lady of Guadalupe, surrounding her hands, which are gently folded in prayer. This artistic technique told the Native peoples that the Virgin Mary was holding hearts in her maternal hands, protecting them from harm. This image mesmerized them as they gazed with awe and wonder at the sight. It filled them with new hope at a time when they teetered on the edge of despair. Why?

Hearts, they had thought, were what you offered to the gods in order to restore harmony in the world. In their own practice of human sacrifice, hearts were torn out of victims, usually enemies captured in battle, and then offered as a peace offering. But that effort to win peace with their “gods” had failed to save them from defeat by the Conquistadors. Worse, after the conquest, they no longer knew how to pray or even to whom to pray.

But then, Our Lady of Guadalupe came to them, gently holding their hearts in her hands. Harmony, they realized, was again possible! Her hands held their hearts just above the divine Child in her womb, the One whose Sacred Heart conquers violence and restores peace to the world.

Heart violently pierced

The Indians of the New World were not the first and not the last to think that violence can bring about peace. The Romans, in putting Jesus to death on the Cross, thrust a lance through His Heart, “…and immediately blood and water flowed out” (Jn 19:34). Pilate thought this violent death would calm the clamoring crowd and give him temporary peace. The Evangelist knew it would do far more than that, since Jesus freely chose to suffer the violence as an act of reparation for the whole world. Thus, he immediately adds the following (Jn 19:35-37), “An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe. For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled: ‘Not a bone of it will be broken,’ and again another passage says: ‘They will look upon Him whom they have pierced’.”

How could this violent act against the heart of Jesus, made possible by the cowardice of Pilate, help us “come to believe”? Why is it so central to our faith in Christ? Where is the “good news” here?

Recall what Jesus says about the human heart (Mt 15:19), “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy.” What comes from the heart of Christ is the opposite of these. In fact, what pours forth is far more than the opposite of evil; it is total victory over evil. What flows from His heart is the mercy that conquers violence and all evil, the mercy that restores life where death had reigned. This is why His pierced heart is good news.

A Heart that purifies hearts

The people of the New World were right in thinking that their own hearts needed to be redeemed. They were even right in thinking that another ‘heart’ needed to be sacrificed in order to redeem them. But what they did not know, until Our Lady of Guadalupe helped them to see, was that it needed to be a heart that was both human and divine. It had to be a heart full of divine love that, when violently attacked, returned good for evil, and forgiveness in place of vengeance. What flowed from the heart of Jesus was not cursing and threats but “blood and water,” which redeem the world and become the fountain of sacramental life in the Church. By suffering in our place, Christ ransomed us from death and restored us to life.

In a marvelous way, God the Father fashioned the heart of Mary to serve the heart of His Beloved Son. He preserved her heart from every stain of sin; then, He invited her to share vicariously in the suffering and death of her Son. Simeon told Mary at the time that she presented her little child in the Temple (Lk 2:34-35), “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted, and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

What Simeon foretold was fulfilled as Mary stood at the foot of the Cross. It was fulfilled in another way when she stood on Tepeyac hill in Mexico and brought to the people of the New World, with the help of St. Juan Diego, the Good News of her Son’s Heart as a fountain of mercy and life. . .

The Catholic Key Blog: Bishop Olmsted - The Sacred Heart, Tepeyac and Us
http://catholickey.blogspot.com/2009/06/bishop-olmstead-sacred-heart-tepeyac.html

Sacred Heart Devotion

2009-06-18T07:09:00.006-06:00

"And He showed me that it was His great desire of being loved by men and of withdrawing them from the path of ruin into which Satan hurls such crowds of them, that made Him form the design of manifesting His Heart to men, with all the treasures of love, of mercy, of grace, of sanctification and salvation which it contains, in order that those who desire to render Him and procure for Him all the honor and love possible, might themselves be abundantly enriched with those divine treasures of which this Heart is the source.

He should be honored under the figure of this Heart of flesh, and its image should be exposed...He promised me that wherever this image should be exposed with a view to showing it special honor, He would pour forth His blessings and graces. This devotion was the last effort of His love that He would grant to men in these latter ages, in order to withdraw them from the empire of Satan which He desired to destroy, and thus to introduce them into the sweet liberty of the rule of His love, which He wished to restore in the hearts of all those who should embrace this devotion."..... "The devotion is so pleasing to Him that He can refuse nothing to those who practice it."

from Revelations of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Personal Attitudes Needed for the Successful Practice of the Devotion:

A true love of Jesus Christ and His Sacred Heart,
the source of His excessive mercy, help, graces and blessings.

Special respect for, and veneration of, the Blessed Sacrament.

A desire to make Reparation for the neglect, indifference and ingratitude of the majority that results in Jesus Christ being left alone, abandoned and forgotten on our altars, never visited to offer consolation for such neglect, though He has given us the miracle of His Divine Presence in the Blessed Sacrament as a supreme gift to us in His desire to be always with us.

For those who have the above attitudes and desire to faithfully practice the Devotion, Our Lord Jesus Christ has made special promises. "12 Promises"
http://www.sacredheartdevotion.com/promises.htm

Painting by Joseph Fanelli © 1994 New York,N.Y.

Devotion to The Sacred Heart of Jesus
http://www.sacredheartdevotion.com/

Year For Priests 2009-2010

2009-06-17T07:49:00.003-06:00

Article - Year for Priests

. . . Father Alberto Cutie wrote about his own experience of priesthood, when he said: “The Lord has called me to be a man of faith in a world full of doubt, to build bridges where walls have been erected… he has called me to be a ‘man for others’ in a world full of selfish men; to belong completely to him and to his people, without reservation; to unite my heart with those who are in greatest need; and to try lifting them up when they are down. The Lord has also called me to be a ‘sign of contradiction’, to live the Gospel in a radical way… he calls me to be faithful, even while not always successful… he calls me to say the Lord’s words at the consecration: the words which make him present sacramentally in our world…”

If a priest tries to be like Christ and has the courage to start every day again and again, then he can count on the great love of Our Lady. She is close to Christ, and she will also be close to his priests. Every priest has the mission to bring Christ to the world. Who can help us with this great task? Her only and burning desire was to share Jesus with everyone. That has to be the wish of every priest.

I think the words of the Dominican Father Jean-Baptiste Lacordaire wisely say a great deal about being a priest:

'To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures;
to be a member of each family, yet belonging to none;
to share all sufferings;
to penetrate all secrets;
to heal all wounds;
to go from men to God and offer him their prayers;
to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope;
to have a heart of fire for charity
and a heart of bronze for chastity;
to teach and to pardon,
console and bless always.
My God, what a life!
And it is yours,
O priest of Jesus Christ.'

Father Duncan McVicar SI

Year For Priests 2009-2010
http://www.schoenstatt.org.uk/material/material.html

Confessions of a Young Fogey

2009-06-15T08:57:00.003-06:00

. . . Young Fogeys do not want to go back to the time before the Second Vatican Council. We know that things were not perfect in the years before Vatican II. Not every pastor behaved like Barry Fitzgerald, not every priest sang like Bing Crosby, not every nun looked like Ingrid Bergman, and not every Tridentine Mass was flawless and devout. We’ve never said they were. But in their years of studies for the Priesthood, YFs have come to realize that in many ways the teachings of Vatican II were misinterpreted, misrepresented, and sadly in some cases lied about, to a naïve and uninformed laity who had no access to the Council documents, but always assumed the best; their Priests would do what the Church taught. For years the lay faithful watched as the things they knew as distinctly "Catholic" were changed or removed, always with the reason, "It’s what Vatican II has called for", when in reality a truer sentence would have been, "It’s what I, Father X and/or Sister Y, have called for." But we’re a generation that learned wiffleball and football in schoolyards and backyards with the magic rule of "Do-over". That’s what we want. This "Young Fogey" generation of Roman Catholic Priests wants to take their best collective shot at learning the rich teachings of Vatican II, and then making these documents known, understood, and appreciated by the laity that has lived under their shadow for more than forty years without knowing what the Council actually said.

"Why do we need to re-implement Vatican II?", you ask? "Its all been done before", you opine? Well, yes and no. Young Fogeys who grew up in the 60s and 70s have lived through every "gimmick" Mass imaginable. As children they attended the "clown Mass" and the "folk Mass". They sang the songs from "Godspell" at Mass, along with more versions of "Kumbaya" and "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" then they care to remember. Even today when they hear such overused Catholic music as "Here I am, Lord" (published in 1981) they realize it sounds remarkably like the 1969 theme from TV's The Brady Bunch, while 1982's "Gather Us In" resembles 1976's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". They remember the self-styled "cool" Priests who wore blue jeans instead of the usual black pants, the ones who let their hair and beards grow in an effort to look like Jesus, and even the few who got to wear sandals at Mass when parents made kids wear shoes and socks. The YF’s experiences with religious education were mostly benign. It may have taken an hour out of playtime, but it usually involved arts and crafts and music, and at least they didn’t have to sit with a book and memorize questions and answers like their parents and aunts and uncles (another thing we grew up hearing about as family gathered for holidays). The generation before us may not have understood as children what they memorized, but when they grew up the facts were there in their head to tap into like a safe deposit box; our generation left CCD with lots of pictures for the refrigerator door and ornaments for the Christmas tree, but not a whole lot in our heads. Just because it was done before doesn’t mean it was done well.

In the midst of all of that (and some would say "in spite of all that"), some of them found their vocation. In the best case, Young Fogeys had contact with a Priest who gave them the sense that being a Priest was not just a career choice ("Dear God, should I be a Priest or a CEO?"), but a call from God, something indescribable, and a little bit scary (something Pope John Paul captured in the title for his reflections after fifty years of priesthood: Gift and Mystery). These Priests, who told the truth when it was not so popular, who came to the hospital or the nursing home when called at 4am, and who showed by their demeanor that this was something bigger than themselves, inspired many to give their lives to God, and for that I pray God abundantly rewards them. They did what every Priest used to be charged to do: they "replaced" themselves in the next generation. In the worst case, YFs remember parish Priests who left the Priesthood and became therapists and counselors in the same towns in which they used to be assigned ("Dad, doesn’t his girlfriend look a lot like that nun that used to be assigned to our parish?"). They remember getting ready to serve Mass while overhearing Father X complain to a sacristy filled with Lectors, Cantors, and Eucharistic Ministers about how saying Mass or hearing confessions on his "day off" was driving him crazy, and about how, if he were to "quit this job" and get another one, he could be making a lot more money. I firmly believe that amongst all the questions that every Priest will face from Jesus Christ when it comes to whether we merit heaven, the one that could help us the most or hurt us the worst will be something like, "Did your example of priestly identity inspire others to follow you into the priesthood?" I think what has Fr. Greeley so upset is that his research shows him plenty of (to use his term) conservative young priests and a scarcity of any liberal young priests.

Herein lies what’s at the core of the resentment of "Young Fogeys". For all of the changes and gimmicks and watering down of the Faith that was done while we were kids, YFs didn’t buy into it. The crowd that resents us now faces their retirement realizing they have not replaced themselves with Priests "in their image and likeness", but rather with men who say, "Been there. Done that. Don’t want the T-shirt." (Religious sisters have fared even worse, but that’s another story). The faction of Catholic Priests who didn’t accept Humanae Vitae’s teaching on contraception and told couples to "use their consciences" actually ended up "contracepting" themselves out of existence, by not being open to new Priestly life and through their own lack of desire to promote priestly vocations and intentionally blocking the seeds of vocations from growing. Don’t you just love the irony? YFs were told as kids to "let their consciences be their guide", and now that their consciences have told them that what they were told as kids was wrong, they’re resented and despised by the gang that taught it to them! Some of today’s Young Fogey Priests learned "what to do" from the previous generation; other YFs saw some of the previous generation and determined that they would never become like that.

That, in a nutshell, is where I'm coming from. If you've found this blog and it provokes a response, keep coming back. If you came here by accident and want out, I respect that too.

Confessions of a Young Fogey
http://youngfogeys.blogspot.com/2006/10/confessions-of-young-fogey.html

G.K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

2009-06-14T10:09:00.004-06:00

G.K. Chesterton died June 14 1936.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) cannot be summed up in one sentence. Nor in one paragraph. In fact, in spite of the fine biographies that have been written of him, he has never been captured between the covers of one book. But rather than waiting to separate the goats from the sheep, let’s just come right out and say it: G.K. Chesterton was the best writer of the 20th century. He said something about everything and he said it better than anybody else. But he was no mere wordsmith. He was very good at expressing himself, but more importantly, he had something very good to express. The reason he was the greatest writer of the 20th century was because he was also the greatest thinker of the 20th century.

Born in London, Chesterton was educated at St. Paul’s, but never went to college. He went to art school. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly. (To put it into perspective, four thousand essays is the equivalent of writing an essay a day, every day, for 11 years. If you’re not impressed, try it some time. But they have to be good essays - all of them – as funny as they are serious, and as readable and rewarding a century after you’ve written them.)

Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology. His style is unmistakable, always marked by humility, consistency, paradox, wit, and wonder. His writing remains as timely and as timeless today as when it first appeared, even though much of it was published in throw away papers.

This man who composed such profound and perfect lines as "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried," stood 6’4" and weighed about 300 pounds, usually had a cigar in his mouth, and walked around wearing a cape and a crumpled hat, tiny glasses pinched to the end of his nose, swordstick in hand, laughter blowing through his moustache. And usually had no idea where or when his next appointment was. He did much of his writing in train stations, since he usually missed the train he was supposed to catch. In one famous anecdote, he wired his wife, saying, "Am at Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?" His faithful wife, Frances, attended to all the details of his life, since he continually proved he had no way of doing it himself. She was later assisted by a secretary, Dorothy Collins, who became the couple’s surrogate daughter, and went on to become the writer’s literary executrix, continuing to make his work available after his death.

This absent-minded, overgrown elf of a man, who laughed at his own jokes and amused children at birthday parties by catching buns in his mouth, this was the man who wrote a book called The Everlasting Man, which led a young atheist named C.S. Lewis to become a Christian. This was the man who wrote a novel called The Napoleon of Notting Hill, which inspired Michael Collins to lead a movement for Irish Independence. This was the man who wrote an essay in the Illustrated London News that inspired Mohandas Gandhi to lead a movement to end British colonial rule in India. This was a man who, when commissioned to write a book on St. Thomas Aquinas, had his secretary check out a stack of books on St. Thomas from the library, opened the top book on the stack, thumbed through it, closed it, and proceeded to dictate a book on St. Thomas. Not just any book. The renowned Thomistic scholar, Ettienne Gilson, had this to say about it:

"I consider it as being without possible comparison the best book ever written on St. Thomas. Nothing short of genius can account for such an achievement. Everybody will no doubt admit that it is a 'clever' book, but the few readers who have spent twenty or thirty years in studying St. Thomas. . . cannot fail to perceive that the so-called 'wit' of Chesterton has put their scholarship to shame. He has guessed all that which we had tried to demonstrate, and he has said all that which they were more or less clumsily attempting to express in academic formulas. Chesterton was one of the deepest thinkers who ever existed; he was deep because he was right; and he could not help being right; but he could not either help being modest and charitable, so he left it to those who could understand him to know that he was right, and deep; to the others, he apologized for being right, and he made up for being deep by being witty. That is all they can see of him."

Chesterton debated many of the celebrated intellectuals of his time: George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, Clarence Darrow. According to contemporary accounts, Chesterton usually emerged as the winner of these contests, however, the world has immortalized his opponents and forgotten Chesterton, and now we hear only one side of the argument, and we are enduring the legacies of socialism, relativism, materialism, and skepticism. Ironically, all of his opponents regarded Chesterton with the greatest affection. And George Bernard Shaw said: "The world is not thankful enough for Chesterton."

His writing has been praised by Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Karel Capek, Marshall McLuhan, Paul Claudel, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Sigrid Undset, Ronald Knox, Kingsley Amis, W.H. Auden, Anthony Burgess, E.F. Schumacher, Neil Gaiman, and Orson Welles. To name a few.

T.S. Eliot said that Chesterton "deserves a permanent claim on our loyalty."

"Who is this guy and why haven’t I heard of him?"
by Dale Ahlquist, President American Chesterton Society
http://chesterton.org/discover/who.html

Chesterton 101 - A basic, basic course on Chesterton's works. Every six weeks a new "lecture" will be added.
http://chesterton.org/discover/chesterton101.html

The apostle of conversion

2009-06-13T08:55:00.002-06:00

Saint Anthony is the great apostle of conversion. He disseminates the Word of God as an invitation to change life and to hope for the infinite mercy of God.

Let us not be unclear. Both for the priest and for the penitent, divine grace is the main character in "repentance" and Christian reconciliation. It is that which incites the preacher to speak of sin, of its gravity, of the necessity to renounce it, asking for forgiveness; in the same way, it is not a man who can take us from death to life.

That which opens the heart to conversion is the omnipotent, merciful and mysterious love of the Father.

http://www.saintanthonyofpadua.net/portale/santantonio/spirito/conversione/conv1.asp

Frequent Confession

2009-06-11T19:15:00.003-06:00

Fr. Bill McCarthy, MSA

Carl Jung, the great psychologist, estimated that more than 95 percent of all Americans walk around loaded with sin, guilt, bitterness, and unforgiveness. He said that it is the way the average person throughout the world lives. They pile on all the sin and guilt and unforgiveness of their childhood, their young adulthood, their twenties and their thirties, and try to enter a new day with peace, love and joy - the three great gifts of the Spirit.

Obviously, they cannot do so. So often, they settle with a quick fix of drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, sports, shopping, TV, and carnal living.

For thirty years, Carl Jung searched for an answer. When he was 84, God gave him the answer. One of his clients, he noticed, showed no signs of guilt or bitterness. He excitedly asked her why not. She mentioned that she was a practicing Catholic, and that she believed that Jesus, by His death and resurrection, had suffered and died for her sins; and then on Easter Sunday evening, He gave the power to forgive sins to His priests by saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven.” He looked at her with great amazement and said, “You’ve found the pearl of great price for which I’ve searched diligently for more than thirty years. Please never stop going to confession.”

Karl Menninger, another great psychologist, who decried the fact that psychologists were denying sin, wrote the now famous book, “Whatever Happened to Sin?” He claimed that sin and guilt as well as bitterness were the most crippling emotions in the human soul.

The Greatest Psychologist
Jesus is the greatest psychologist. He alone knows what the soul needs - a way to cleanse sin, guilt, bitterness, and hatred through His shed blood. That is why He said to His priests, “As the Father has sent me, I now send you.” Then He breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven.”

Enter John Paul II and Sister Faustina
Realizing the darkness that has overcome mankind and the culture of death to which mankind has descended, Pope John Paul II--this great apostle of mercy, who has already beatified Sister Faustina--encourages every baptized Catholic to go to confession frequently. It is in the Sacrament of Confession that three awesome, wondrous miracles of grace take place. First, every bit of sin and guilt is washed clean through the Blood of the Lamb administered through the absolution of the priest. Second, all bitterness, unjust anger and resentment are released. Third, the penitents are given the awesome power to completely forgive themselves and get on with their lives.

The late Holy Father stated:
“I am also asking for renewed pastoral courage in ensuring that the day-to-day teaching of Christian communities persuasively and effectively presents the practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As you will recall, in 1984 I dealt with this subject in the Post-Synodal Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, which synthesized the results of an Assembly of the Synod of Bishops devoted to this question. My invitation then was to make every effort to face the crisis of “the sense of sin” apparent in today’s culture. But I was even more insistent in calling for a rediscovery of Christ as mysterium pietatis, the one in whom God shows us His compassionate heart and reconciles us fully with Himself. It is this face of Christ that must be rediscovered through the Sacrament of Penance, which for the faithful is ‘the ordinary way of obtaining forgiveness and the remission of serious sins committed after Baptism’.”

If you want to live a life with real joy, true peace of soul and awesome love, an integral part of the answer is frequent confession. The more you are cleansed of sin, guilt and unforgiveness, the more receptive your soul is for all the fruits of the Spirit.

Frequent Confession
Fr. Bill McCarthy, MSA
http://www.myfathershouse.com/pdf/Frequent-Confession.pdf

USCCB - Year For Priests

2009-06-09T11:46:00.003-06:00

Pope Benedict XVI has declared a "Year for Priests" beginning with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2009.

The year will conclude in Rome with an international gathering of priests with the Holy Father on June 19, 2010.

With the announcement of this Year for Priests, the Pope has declared St. John Vianney the Universal Patron of Priests on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the Curé d’Ars.

On this website you will find a number of resources to aid your parish’s celebration of the year for priests. There is also information regarding events for priests that will occur throughout the Year for Priests.

Please pray for our priests that they might always be faithful to their sacred calling.

USCCB - Year For Priests June 19, 2009 to June 19, 2010
http://www.usccb.org/yearforpriests/index.shtml

Jumped into the Tiber to Swim Across

2009-06-08T14:26:00.003-06:00

I am writing to make the announcement that I am becoming a Roman Catholic along with my wife Rhea and our six children. I realise that this decision is going to make some really happy, some very sad and others possibily angry. But, I have made the decision with the deepest sense of integrity and by conscience. I would like to share a bit of my faith journey though there are many gaps here, it is descriptive of my heart over the past few months. This is not particularly an academic account of what I have done in my studies but rather the spiritual wrestling that went on within me. The announcement was made this morning in all three parishes where I serve and is now a matter of public knowledge. My duties and licence in the parish end on 14 June 2009 (Corpus Christi Sunday) and my reception into Holy Mother Church is forthcoming.

My PhD studies really set me on my Catholic journey in a deep theological way though I did not realise it at the time. I have been looking at Bishop Lancelot Andrewes as a catalyst for ecumenism with the Catholic Church in the area of Eucharistic sacrifice. Andrewes was in regular dialogue with S. Robert Bellarmine SJ and it is in this dialogue and Andrewes’ other writings that I saw how Catholic he was with regards to the Eucharist being the Christian offering which consisted of more than a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It was and is propitiatory as well as other things.

Yes, there is much more:
Journey Home to the Catholic Church: I Have Jumped into the Tiber to Swim Across
http://frjeffreysteel.blogspot.com/2009/06/journey-home-to-catholic-church-i-have.html

The Monk and the Murderer

2009-06-04T15:00:00.004-06:00

by Annie Calovich

This is a story about how God leveled time and space, breaching prison bars and cloister walls, lining up the Catacombs of Rome with Death Row in McAlester, Oklahoma, through the life of a hidden monk in the 21st century.

The monk, Brother Vianney-Marie Graham of the contemplative Clear Creek Monastery in Hulbert, Oklahoma, had long been praying for inmates on Death Row because he considered them "the abandoned of the abandoned."

He had a famous precedent for his prayers. St. Therese of Lisieux had prayed for the conversion of the notorious and unrepentant killer Henri Pranzini in 1887 and was able to read in the newspaper of his last-minute grab for a crucifix as he approached the scaffold. He kissed the wounds of Jesus three times before being guillotined.

In 2001, Brother Vianney-Marie decided to ask his superior for permission to write a few inmates, "to tell them not to despair, to tell them that God's mercy is available to them no matter what their crimes."

In deciding whom to write, Brother Vianney-Marie sought out the worst cases. He started with James Malicoat, a man who had brutally killed his 13 month-old daughter through a series of beatings over two weeks.

"When I first saw the crime, I thought, 'He needs a friend more than the others. Everyone is going to shrink back because the crime was so horrendous,'" Brother Vianney-Marie said.

He received permission from his superior to write to Malicoat, and did so for the first time on the feast of the Assumption, 2001. Malicoat took a month and a half to respond, dating his letter October 1, which is the feast of St. Therese.

Brother Vianney-Marie wrote faithfully to Malicoat and two other inmates once a month. "I would talk about their families, the way they were brought up," he said. "They would talk about themselves."

The monk said it was like shooting arrows in the dark, making contact with the worst of society's offenders from a cloistered Benedictine monastery. He had no idea where — or how — the arrows would fall.

Contemplative monks such as those at Clear Creek rarely leave the monastery. The monks work and pray in obscurity. Brother Vianney-Marie has a certain identity to outsiders only because he can be seen from the road tending the monastery's chickens.

there is so much more:
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7954&CFID=3920215&CFTOKEN=56894940

" . . . I am generous?" (Mt 20: 1-16)

Rosary Confraternity Prayer

2009-05-30T13:22:00.005-06:00

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary and Mother of us all, we come to you for help in our sorrows, trials and necessities. Sin leaves us weak and helpless but Divine Grace heals and strengthens.

We ask for the grace to love Jesus as you loved Him, to believe as you believed, to hope as you hoped; we ask to share your purity of mind and heart. Give us true sorrow for sin and make us love people as you and Jesus loved them. Obtain for us the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we may be wise with your wisdom, understand with your understanding, know with your knowledge, prudent with your prudence, patient with your patience, courageous with your fortitude and desire justice ardently for everyone with the all consuming desire of the Sacred Heart of Jesus your Son.

Open our minds that as we pray the Rosary we will understand the teachings of the Gospel contained in its mysteries.

We pray especially for the members of the Rosary Confraternity whom we love. Help them wherever they may be; guide them, watch over them and make them strong in their trials and suffering. We are drawn together by a common bond of great charity for you and for each other; keep us faithful to your Son and to your Rosary till death.

Intercede for the souls in Purgatory, especially for the members of the Rosary Confraternity who have died. May they rest in peace. Finally we ask for grace of final perseverance for ourselves and for our loved ones that we may all be reunited in heaven forever.

Saint Dominic, you who received so much Grace and Strength from the Rosary, Pray for Us.

Imprimi Potest:
Thomas P. Raftery O.P., Lect. S.Th., J.C.D.
Provincial

Nihil Obstat:
+ Paul E. Waldschmidt CSC, D.D., S.T.D.

Imprimatur:
+ Cornelius M. Power, D.D., J.C.D.
Archbishop of Portland - March 30, 1979

To Enroll The Rosary Confraternity:
http://www.rosary-center.org/nconform.htm
The Cure of Ars said: "If anyone has the happiness of being in the Confraternity of the Rosary, he has in all corners of the world brothers and sisters who pray for him."

Is It Possible To Live This Way? Vol. 2: Hope

2009-05-29T21:54:00.004-06:00

. . . Hope is like a fire that draws out faith, draws out knowledge. Faith can be a struggle; hope makes it less of a struggle, it draws out faith.
. . .
Faith founds, makes known, what man is made for, and therefore reveals to man what he desires; then man starts to move because he desires, and this is hope. Faith feels drawn bumpily along by hope. But the seriousness, the degree of seriousness, isn't given by hope, but by faith. The degree of seriousness is given by the truth, while the degree of zest and fascination is given by hope. . . .

Is It Possible To Live This Way? Vol. 2: Hope
http://mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=2295

The living water of the Holy Spirit

2009-05-25T08:27:00.003-06:00

St Cyril of Jerusalem
The living water of the Holy Spirit
The water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of living water, welling up into eternal life. This is a new kind of water, a living, leaping water, welling up for those who are worthy. But why did Christ call the grace of the Spirit water? Because all things are dependent on water; plants and animals have their origin in water. Water comes down from heaven as rain, and although it is always the same in itself, it produces many different effects, one in the palm tree, another in the vine, and so on throughout the whole of creation. It does not come down, now as one thing, now as another, but while remaining essentially the same, it adapts itself to the needs of every creature that receives it.
In the same way the Holy Spirit, whose nature is always the same, simple and indivisible, apportions grace to each man as he wills. Like a dry tree which puts forth shoots when watered, the soul bears the fruit of holiness when repentance has made it worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit. Although the Spirit never changes, the effects of his action, by the will of God and in the name of Christ, are both many and marvellous.
The Spirit makes one man a teacher of divine truth, inspires another to prophesy, gives another the power of casting out devils, enables another to interpret holy Scripture. The Spirit strengthens one man’s self-control, shows another how to help the poor, teaches another to fast and lead a life of asceticism, makes another oblivious to the needs of the body, trains another for martyrdom. His action is different in different people, but the Spirit himself is always the same. In each person, Scripture says, the Spirit reveals his presence in a particular way for the common good.
The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden, for he is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as he approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. The Spirit comes to enlighten the mind first of the one who receives him, and then, through him, the minds of others as well.
As light strikes the eyes of a man who comes out of darkness into the sunshine and enables him to see clearly things he could not discern before, so light floods the soul of the man counted worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit and enables him to see things beyond the range of human vision, things hitherto undreamed of.

The living water of the Holy Spirit
http://www.universalis.com/-600/readings.htm

Saint Dominic de Guzman and the Rosary

2009-05-24T09:24:00.003-06:00

St. Dominic's work in France was hindered by the sin of the people, who as 'christians' (Albigensians) were the bad example blocking his apostolic work.
The Albigensian heresy:
The Albigensians were a form of the Cathart religion. The Albigenses taught that anything material is evil, and is a creation of the devil. They taught that marriage was evil. (Wheresas Catholics know marriage to be a sacrament - Jesus often uses images of marriage in his teachings.)
Catholics beleive that we have a creator God, (who loves what He creates, and creates it so that He may love it.)
The Albigensians taught that the body was evil, and should be denied to the point that people were taking their own lives.
Because of their beleif that anything material was evil, for them, Christ could not have become fully man and fully divine at the same time.
These beliefs therefore led to serious errors in Catholic and Christian doctrine, in particular the understanding of the incarnation and resurrection of a Christ, who chose to win our salvation through his share in our own human suffering.
Dominic withdrew into a forest in Toulouse, spending three days and nights in prayer and harsh penance. Whilst in deep prayer, Our Lady, accompanied by three angels appeared to him and told him that the principal weapon with which the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world is that of the Angelic Psalter. She said:
'Wonder not that you have obtained so little fruit by your labors, you have spent them on barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine Grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore preach my Psalter... and you will obtain an abundant harvest'“ I want you to know that in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter, which is the foundation-stone of the New Testament.”
She told him that if he wanted to reach hardened souls and win them over to God, that he must preach her Psalter.
St. Dominic set off with great determination to fulfill the mission Mary had entrusted to him. As Mary had promised, the people of Toulouse were duly converted. Dominic continued to preach the beauty, power and efficacy of the Rosary for the remainder of his life. God chose to work many miracles through him including the raising to life of Napoleone Orsini; which attests to the spirit of St. Dominic after that of the great Apostles Peter and Paul. His use of the Rosary during Exorcisms of individuals is also known.
He died around the year 1221, after three weeks of sickness, and many trials which he bore with heroic patience.

Saint Dominic de Guzman and the Rosary
http://blessedvirginmarysbower.blogspot.com/2008/10/saint-dominic-de-guzman-and-rosary.html

Christ, my Passion – Ordained in Dachau

2009-05-23T08:25:00.006-06:00

Karl Leisner was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996 in Berlin. For Karl Leisner, who as a student for the priesthood joined a Schoenstatt Federation group – one member of this group being the later Bishop of Münster, Heinrich Tenhumberg –, the "moments spent in the Blessed Mother's Shrine of Grace", the Original Shrine in Schoenstatt, were decisive hours of grace on turning points of this life. Christ – my passion: led by this ideal, he worked as a committed youth leader, and fought his way towards the decision for the priesthood. A remark on the failed assassination attempt on Hitler, uttered during a recovery stay in a sanatorium, brought the recently ordained deacon first to jail and then to the concentration camp. The almost healed tuberculosis broke out again in Dachau. Although his health rapidly deteriorated, his contagious joy – he asked to send his guitar to Dachau– remained unbroken. When a French Bishop was confined to the concentration camp, Karl Leisner's dream came true. On December 17, 1944, he was ordained priest in Dachau, and celebrated his first and only Holy Mass on December 26, 1944. He died soon after he was freed from the concentration camp in a sanatorium in Planegg.

One of the Jewels in Schoenstatt's Collection
Christ, my Passion – Ordained in Dachau
http://www.schoenstatt.de/news2002/03maerz/2t0305_en_emilie_pkh.htm

The Fetishism of Dialogue

2009-05-22T11:01:00.003-06:00

. . . G.K. Chesterton said that the mind should remain open, but only so that it might, in time, chomp down on something nourishing. The Church has come to the considered judgment that abortion is morally objectionable and that Roe v. Wade is terrible law, as bad as the laws that once protected the practices of slavery and segregation in our country. To suggest, therefore, that a Catholic university is a place where dialogue on this matter is still a desideratum is as ludicrous as suggesting that a Catholic university should be the setting for a discussion of the merits of slavery and Jim Crow laws. I would like, actually, to stay with these last examples. Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, the legendary retired President of Notre Dame, was mentioned several times in President Obama’s speech as a model of the dialogue and openness to conversation that he was extolling. Does anyone think for a moment that Fr. Hesburgh, at the height of the civil rights movement, would have invited, say, George Wallace to be the commencement speaker and recipient of an honorary degree at Notre Dame? Does anyone think that Fr. Hesburgh would have been open to a dialogue with Wallace about the merits of his unambiguously racist policies? For that matter, does anyone think that Dr. Martin Luther King would have sought out common ground with Wallace or Bull Connor in the hopes of hammering out a compromise on this pesky question of civil rights for blacks? The questions answer themselves.

Then why in the world does anyone think that we should be less resolute in regard to the heinous practice of abortion which, since 1973, has taken the lives of 43 million children? Why does anyone think that further dialogue and conversation on this score is a good idea? I think those questions answer themselves too.

The Fetishism of Dialogue
http://www.wordonfire.org/Written-Word/articles-commentaries/May-2009/The-Fetishism-of-Dialogue.aspx

"Does God exist?" -- Social campaign on Ed. (TV com.)

2009-05-19T08:48:00.001-06:00

"Does God exist?" -- Social campaign on Ed. (TV com.)
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=96171202268&h=9xjNE&u=xW_67&ref=nf

May Feelings

2009-05-15T12:13:00.001-06:00

May Feelings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxjjyXhO9EA

May Feelings II

2009-05-15T12:05:00.003-06:00

May Feelings II
http://www.youtube.com/user/Belomasan

Schoenstatt Prayers for the East

2009-05-14T18:32:00.001-06:00

Schoenstatt Prayers for the East

Eternal Father, you have sent your beloved Son as Savior of the world and through Him offered salvation to all nations of the earth. You open the fountains of grace in your Church. You also called Schoenstatt to cooperate so that the Mother of God from her Shrine can grant a beginning of new life and unity in the Churches of the East and the West.

With faith your fatherly kindness we present to you our petitions:

- Grant unity and peace to the universal Church and to all mankind.

Response: Through the intercession of the Mother of God, hear our prayer.

- Bless the Holy Father, all Patriarchs, Bishops and Priests, and the whole Church of the East and the West.

- Unite us with the Eastern Churches in the joyful veneration of Mary, ever virgin Mother of God.

- Through the Covenant of Love with Mary, let Schoenstatt contribute effectively to the unity between the Churches of the East and the West.

- Show the International Schoenstatt Movement the way to the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches and grant all Schoenstatt communities graces and vocations for this mission.

- Grant that the future Apostolic World Federation of St. Vincent Pallotti may also include the Christians of the Orient, as it was the wish of Father Kentenich.

- Bless and strengthen all those who work in the spirit of the mission for the East, that Father Kentenich may soon be honored as Saint of Unity through out the universal Church.

- Strengthen those Christians in the East who suffer for the sake of their faith. Awaken our hearts that we may help them continuously with our prayers and deeds of fraternal charity.

- Give to the Christians in the West the readiness to be enriched by the mystical depth and supernatural orientation of the Christian East, and let the salvific mission of the West once again become a blessing for the world.

- Fulfill the desire of Father Kentenich that all minds unite in truth and all hearts become one in love.

Lord our God, your mercy is infinite and your love knows no bounds. Accept these petitions through the hands of our Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt and glorify yourself from all Shrines.

For all honor, all gratitude and all adoration is due to you, most merciful Father, to your all-loving Son, and to the life-giving Holy Spirit, now and always, for all eternity. Amen.

Other Prayers and Suggestions

1. Thursday – Day for the East

Every Thursday, the Eastern Cross is placed in the Original Shrine and in many other Schoenstatt Shrines as a reminder to pray, to offer sacrifices, and to work in the spirit of Schoenstatt’s mission for the East, in memory of Holy Thursday, when Jesus, at the Last Supper, instituted the Holy Eucharist as the sacrament of unity and asked his father „that all may be one“ (Jn. 17:21).

2. Prayers by Father Kentenich for Unity

Grant, o God, that all minds unite in truth and all hearts become one in love.

Let us work towards unity with the Churches of the East so that the sun of peace may shine in the world. Mother, I place this petition into your heart. Take my prayer heavenward to the Father.
(Dachau prayers)

3. Prayers to Jesus and Mary

There is a widespread custom among priests and lay people in the Churches of the East to recite frequently during the day these prayers:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!

Most Holy Mother of God and Blessed Virgin, I greet you!
(We may add: ...greet me also and help the Christians in the East.)

Prayer that Father Kentenich often said while in Dachau:

Mother, greet me!

(He did this, recalling the great things that happened when Our Lady greeted Elizabeth, mother of St. John, the Baptist.)

We may silently say these prayers during the day, even at work, if possible. Thus our daily lives become more related to God and will draw God’s blessing upon us and our fellow-men.

Schoenstatt Prayers for the East are available at the Schoenstatt Center, Waukesha, Wisconsin USA. - With ecclesiastical approval for private use. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sept. 8, 1981.
Rev. Msgr. Sylvester F. Gass, Vicar General.

Dieser Gebetstext und weitere Informationen sind erhältlich beim:
Ostsekretariat Maria Mater Schönstatt, Hillscheider Str. 9, 56179 Vallendar
http://www.schoenstatt-patres.de/grill/ostsekretariat/ostfuerbitten/ostfuerb_eng.htm

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal [video]

2009-05-07T18:59:00.003-06:00

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal [video]
http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0ba0eeef93f6e0501bbe

Ave Maris Stella

2009-05-01T19:59:00.004-06:00

Ave Maris Stella
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnWHUT0VNiI

Ave Maria Stella

Hail, bright star of ocean,
God's own Mother blest,
Ever sinless Virgin,
Gate of heavenly rest.

Taking that sweet Ave,
Which from Gabriel came,
Peace confirm within us,
Changing Eva's name.

Break the captives' fetters,
Light on blindness pour,
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.

Show thyself a Mother;
May the Word Divine,
Born for us thine Infant,
Hear our prayers through thine.

Virgin all excelling,
Mildest of the mild,
Freed from guilt, preserve us,
Pure and undefiled.

Keep our life all spotless,
Make our way secure,
Till we find in Jesus
Joy for evermore.

Through the highest heaven,
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son and Spirit,
One same glory be. Amen.
Ave Maria Stella
http://www.themostholyrosary.com/appendix9.htm

Thirty Days' Prayer to St. Joseph

2009-04-30T19:30:00.002-06:00

for any special intention.

Ever blessed and glorious Joseph, kind and loving father, and helpful friend of all in sorrow! You are the good father and protector of orphans, the defender of the defenseless, the patron of those in need and sorrow. Look kindly on my request. My sins have drawn down on me the just displeasure of my God, and so I am surrounded with unhappiness. To you, loving guardian of the Family of Nazareth, do I go for help and protection.

Listen, then, I beg you, with fatherly concern, to my earnest prayers, and obtain for me the favor I ask.

I ask it by the infinite mercy of the eternal Son of God, which moved Him to take our nature and to be born into this world of sorrow.

I ask it by the weariness and suffering you endured when you found no shelter at the inn of Bethlehem for the holy Virgin, nor a place where the Son of God could be born. Then, being everywhere refused, you had to allow the Queen of Heaven to give birth to the world's Redeemer in a cave.

I ask it by the loveliness and power of that sacred Name, Jesus, which you conferred on the adorable Infant.

I ask it by that painful torture you felt at the prophecy of holy Simeon,which declared the Child Jesus and his holy Mother future victims of our sins and of their great love for us.

I ask it through your sorrow and pain of soul when the angel declared to you that the life of the Child Jesus was sought by His enemies. From their evil plan you had to flee with Him and His Blessed Mother into Egypt. I ask it by all the suffering, weariness, and labors of that long and dangerous journey.

I ask it by all your care to protect the Sacred Child and His Immaculate Mother during your second journey, when you were ordered to return to your own country. I ask it by your peaceful life in Nazareth where you met with so many joys and sorrows.

I ask it by your great distress when the adorable Child was lost to you andHis Mother for three days. I ask it by your joy at finding Him in the Temple,and by the comfort you found at Nazareth, while living in the company of the Child Jesus. I ask it by the wonderful submission He showed in His obedience to you.

I ask it by the perfect love and conformity you showed in accepting the Divine order to depart from this life, and from the company of Jesus and Mary. I ask it by the joy which filled your soul, when the Redeemer of the world,triumphant over death and hell, entered into the possession of His kingdom and led you into it with special honors.

I ask it through Mary's glorious Assumption, and through that endless happiness you have with her in the presence of God.

O good father! I beg you, by all your sufferings, sorrows, and joys, to hear me and obtain for me what I ask. (Here name your petitions or think of them.)

Obtain for all those who have asked my prayers everything that is useful to them in the plan of God. Finally, my dear patron and father, be with me and all who are dear to me in our last moments, that we may eternally sing the praises of

"JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH,
A blameless life, St. Joseph, may we lead,
by your kind patronage from danger freed."

This prayer may be said during any 30 days of the year.

The Josephites
Priests & Brothers
1130 N. Calvert Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
http://www.josephite.com/

With permission of:
Very Rev. John L. M. Filippelli, SSJ, Superior General

NIHIL OBSTAT:
Rev. Msgr. Carroll E. Satterfield, Censor Librorum

IMPRIMATUR:
His Eminence Lawrence Cardinal Shehan, Archbishop of Baltimore

Recovering The Lost Art of Common Sense

2009-04-25T09:12:00.004-06:00

The most famous thing Chesterton said is something he didn't say. He is always quoted as saying that when a man stops believing in God he doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything. It is a great line, and it is well worth quoting, and I have no doubt that Chesterton would agree with it and would be pleased to hear it quoted. But it's just not what he said. What he said was, "The first effect of not believing in God, is that you lose your common sense." [1]

Since the line never gets quoted correctly, let's quote it correctly again: "The first effect of not believing in God, is that you lose your common sense." That means that in order for us to recover our common sense, we have to recover our faith. In order for us to recover our faith we need religious renewal and reform. History shows that reform is a thing that is indeed needed from time to time. And usually it is botched up every time it is needed.
In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road.

The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away."

To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."
for more . . .
Recovering The Lost Art of Common Sense
Dale Ahlquist
An Excerpt from Common Sense 101: Lessons From G.K. Chesterton
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/dahlquist_commonsense_jun06.asp

CCC I. The Natural Moral Law

2009-04-21T21:25:00.003-06:00

1954 Man participates in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to govern himself with a view to the true and the good.

The natural law expresses the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason the good and the evil, the truth and the lie:
The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good and forbidding him to sin . . . But this command of human reason would not have the force of law if it were not the voice and interpreter of a higher reason to which our spirit and our freedom must be submitted.5
1955 The "divine and natural" law6 shows man the way to follow so as to practice the good and attain his end. the natural law states the first and essential precepts which govern the moral life. It hinges upon the desire for God and submission to him, who is the source and judge of all that is good, as well as upon the sense that the other is one's equal. Its principal precepts are expressed in the Decalogue. This law is called "natural," not in reference to the nature of irrational beings, but because reason which decrees it properly belongs to human nature:
Where then are these rules written, if not in the book of that light we call the truth? In it is written every just law; from it the law passes into the heart of the man who does justice, not that it migrates into it, but that it places its imprint on it, like a seal on a ring that passes onto wax, without leaving the ring.7

The natural law is nothing other than the light of understanding placed in us by God; through it we know what we must do and what we must avoid. God has given this light or law at the creation.8
1956 The natural law, present in the heart of each man and established by reason, is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights and duties:
For there is a true law: right reason. It is in conformity with nature, is diffused among all men, and is immutable and eternal; its orders summon to duty; its prohibitions turn away from offense .... To replace it with a contrary law is a sacrilege; failure to apply even one of its provisions is forbidden; no one can abrogate it entirely.9

Catechism of the Catholic Church, I. The Natural Moral Law
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6U.HTM

Natural Law and Natural Rights

2009-04-20T21:36:00.005-06:00

Treatise on the Laws [51 BC]
Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

"For he who knows himself must be conscious that he is inspired by a divine principle. He will look upon his rational part as a resemblance to some divinity consecrated within him, and will always be careful that his sentiments, as well as his external behaviour, be worthy of this inestimable gift of God. A serious and thorough examination of all his powers, will inform him what signal advantages he has received from nature, and with what infinite help he is furnished for the attainment of wisdom. For, from his first entrance into the world, he has, as it were, the intelligible principles of things delineated on his mind, by the enlightening assistance of which, and the guidance of wisdom, he may become a good, and, consequently, a happy man." (par. 293)

—If then in the majority of nations, many pernicious and mischievous enactments are made, as far removed from the law of justice we have defined as the mutual engagements of robbers, are we bound to call them laws? For as we cannot call the recipes of ignorant empirics, who give poisons instead of medicines, the prescriptions of a physician, we cannot call that the true law of the people, whatever be its name, if it enjoins what is injurious, let the people receive it as they will. For law is the just distinction between right and wrong, conformable to nature, the original and principal regulator of all things, by which the laws of men should be measured, whether they punish the guilty or protect the innocent. (par. 374)

“There is indeed (says he) a law agreeable to nature, and no other than right reason, made known to all men, constant and perpetual; which calls us to duty by commands, and deters us from sin by threats; and whose commands and threats are neither of them in vain to the good, though they may seem of little force to the wicked. This law we are neither allowed to disannual, nor to diminish; nor is it possible it should be totally reversed; the senate or the people cannot free us from its authority. Nor do we need any other explainer or interpreter of it besides ourselves. Nor will it be different at Rome and at Athens, now and hereafter; but will eternally and unchangeably affect all persons in all places: God himself appearing the universal master, the universal king. It is he who is the inventor, the expounder, the enactor of this law; which whosoever shall refuse to obey, shall fly and loath his own person, and renounce his title to humanity; and shall thus undergo the severest penalties, though he escape everything else which falls under our common name and notion of punishment?” (par. 795)

Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=545&layout=html

What is Schoenstatt?

2009-04-20T12:01:00.005-06:00

This page (site) has a series of video clips that explain the key components of Schoenstatt Spirituality.
http://www.schoenstattwisconsin.org//Schoenstatt.cfm?Page=docs/About.htm

As a movement of moral and religious renewal in the Catholic Church, Schoenstatt works to help renew the Church and society in the spirit of the Gospel. It seeks to reconnect faith with daily life, especially through a deep love of Mary, the Mother of God.

As an international movement it is present on all continents and has members from all vocations and walks of life. It is a spiritual family whose many branches and communities join to form a single Schoenstatt Family.

As a place of grace, Schoenstatt has touched the lives of millions. The Schoenstatt Shrine is the movement's spiritual home and center of life. The shrine is dedicated to Mary as the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen , and Victress of Schoenstatt. In addition to the original Shrine in Germany, there are over 180 replica daughter shrines around the world (including four in Wisconsin) where people gather for prayer, renewal, and inspiration.

http://www.schoenstattwisconsin.org//Schoenstatt.cfm?Page=docs/About.htm

Christ is risen!

2009-04-11T09:01:00.003-06:00

In the Evening Tears, but Joy in the Morning, Resurrection, Easter

Since the most ancient times the Church has underlined her great feasts by not restricting them to a single day but giving them a whole octave of days. The celebration resounds for a whole week and is renewed on the eighth day. The seven days, completed by the eighth, symbolize the totality of time and its transcendence into eternity. The week-long feast encompasses a basic unit of human life and thus stands as a foretaste of the freedom of eternal life, a sign of hope and peace in the midst of earthly days of toil. The Church has endeavored to help us experience Easter as the feast of feasts, as the basic reason for all celebration and all joy, by causing the Easter octave to last for seven times seven days. So the feast of Pentecost on the fiftieth day after Easter is not in fact an entirely new feast; it rounds off the circle of the seven times seven days which signify our breaking out of subservience to time into the boundless joy of the children of God, a joy uninterrupted by any striking of the hour.

These fifty days of joy are the answer to the forty days of tribulation and preparation by which the Church leads up to Easter. In Old Testament numerology, forty signified the age of the world: it is an intensification of four, which recalls the four corners of the earth and hence the brokenness, the finite, incomplete, and toilsome nature of all earthly existence. The forty prepare for the fifty, the fragmentary for the complete; and the Lord's Resurrection is at the axis of both. Even through this temporal arrangement the Church has provided a profound psychological interpretation of what Easter means and of how we can and should celebrate it. For all these things, far from being liturgical games, are translations of the mystery in terms of our life; they are where the unique and once-and-for-all Event meets life in its daily newness.

I would like to elaborate on this by referring to another psalm which plays a part in the liturgy of Holy Week. In Psalm 30 the believer speaks with gratitude of his experience of God: "His anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning." For Christians these words, read on Holy Saturday, gained an entirely new significance. In the evening tears, but joy in the morning: they saw the evening of Good Friday, the weeping Mother with her dead Son in her lap. But as an answer to this evening picture, in the dusk of history, there comes the morning picture: "The Lord is risen and is going before you into Galilee."

The other words are interpreted similarly: his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. The somber moment of the Cross gives way to everlasting life; the moment yields to eternity. The forty days are followed by the fifty, the fragmented by the whole, the momentary by the everlasting and indestructible, the tears of the evening scene by the morning of full life.

Those who read Holy Scripture in a reflective spirit found this experience in Paul, translated into the profession of Christian hope: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Rom 8:18). The center of gravity of existence has shifted as a result of this certainty: now it lies at the morning of life, which means that it takes away the oppressiveness and the pressure of the moment and dissolves the tears of evening by the power of a grace which lasts for ever. This is precisely what Easter faith is designed to give us: the ability to look across from the evening to the morning, from the part to the whole, and thus to journey toward the joy of the redeemed which springs from that morning of the third day which first heard the message: Christ is risen!

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
http://www.cin.org/easter3.html

Walking the Way of the Cross

2009-04-06T21:11:00.006-06:00

Good Friday, April 10, 2009
CL will offer the Way of the Cross
in cities across the United States.

Atlanta, GA
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Duluth, MN
Evansville, IN
Greenville, SC
Houston, TX
Los Angeles, CA
Montgomery, AL
New Bedford, MA
New York, NY
Norman, OK
Philadelphia, PA
Rochester, MN
Sacramento, CA
Salem, OR
San Francisco, CA
St. Cloud, MN
St. Louis, MO
Washington, DC

http://www.clonline.us/wayofthecross2009.cfm

Catholic Church prepares for tens of thousands of U.S. converts

2009-04-02T11:05:00.003-06:00

Washington D.C., Apr 1, 2009 / 04:09 am (CNA).- Tens of thousands of new Catholics are expected to join the Catholic Church in the U.S. in 2009, with many doing so at the Easter Vigil liturgies on April 11.Converts to Catholicism are known as catechumens if they have never been baptized and as candidates if they have received baptism in another Christian community and now seek full communion with the Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese of Atlanta, where Catholics have traditionally been a minority, estimates that 513 catechumens and 2,195 candidates will enter the Catholic Church in 2009, about 1,800 doing so at Easter. The figures do not include infant baptisms.

Father Theodore Book, director of the Office of Divine Worship for the Atlanta Archdiocese, said the archdiocese has been “blessed with an authentic dynamism” during recent years. He cited the archdiocese’s annual Eucharistic Congress, saying it draws nearly 30,000 participants.

“One of the many blessings that we have received from the Lord is the large number of individuals entering the Church,” he said.

The Archdiocese of Seattle will reportedly welcome 736 catechumens and 506 candidates, while the Diocese of San Diego will baptize 305 and receive into communion 920 other baptized Christians.

The mostly rural Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama reportedly will have 445 new converts. The diocese’s Cathedral of St. Paul could not hold them and their families for the Rite of Election, which had to be held in three separate ceremonies.

At St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, California resident Heidi Sierras will represent North America at the Easter Vigil, where she will be baptized by Pope Benedict XVI.

The 2008 Official Catholic Directory listed 49,415 adult baptisms and 87,363 people received into full communion in 2007.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=15551

Seven Last Words Father, Forgive Them

2009-04-01T20:12:00.001-06:00

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=63802198596&h=w3yGQ&u=dMgii&ref=nf

Prayer for Healing the Family Tree

2009-03-30T11:58:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking a lot about my extended family lately, especially those who are far from God. God has been tugging at my heart to pray for them more fervently. This morning I came across the following prayer and I think Lent would be a perfect time to start praying it. Although I don't have all the hurts mentioned in this prayer, I pray for those in my family who are hurting and struggling, that they will find peace and healing in God's love and mercy.

Prayer for Healing the Family Tree

By Rev. John H. Hampsch, CMF

Heavenly Father, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help; I have physical health needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, and interpersonal needs. Many of my problems have been caused by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness, for which I humbly beg your forgiveness, Lord. But I also ask you to forgive the sins of my ancestors whose failures have left their effects on me in the form of unwanted tendencies, behavior patterns and defects in body, mind and spirit. Heal me, Lord, of all these disorders.

With your help I sincerely forgive everyone, especially living or dead members of my family tree, who have directly offended me or my loved ones in any way, or those whose sins have resulted in our present sufferings and disorders. In the name of your divine Son, Jesus, and in the power of his Holy Spirit, I ask you, Father, to deliver me and my entire family tree from the influence of the evil one. Free all living and dead members of my family tree, including those in adoptive relationships, and those in extended family relationships, from every contaminating form of bondage. By your loving concern for us, heavenly Father, and by the shed blood of your precious Son, Jesus, I beg you to extend your blessing to me and to all my living and deceased relatives. Heal every negative effect transmitted through all past generations, and prevent such negative effects in future generations of my family tree.

I symbolically place the cross of Jesus over the head of each person in my family tree, and between each generation; I ask you to let the cleansing blood of Jesus purify the bloodlines in my family lineage. Set your protective angels to encamp around us, and permit Archangel Raphael, the patron of healing, to administer your divine healing power to all of us, even in areas of genetic disability. Give special power to our family members' guardian angels to heal, protect, guide and encourage each of us in all our needs. Let your healing power be released at this very moment, and let it continue as long as your sovereignty permits.

In our family tree, Lord, replace all bondage with a holy bonding in family love. And let there be an ever-deeper bonding with you, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, to your Son, Jesus. Let the family of the Holy Trinity pervade our family with its tender, warm, loving presence, so that our family may recognize and manifest that love in all our relationships. All of our unknown needs we include with this petition that we pray in Jesus' precious Name. Amen.

+++++++++++++++
St. Joseph, Patron of family life, pray for us.

Revolution of Love.com Blog
I am a Catholic wife and mama, loving God and striving to find Him in the midst of dishes, diapers, and dirty laundry.
http://revolutionoflove.stblogs.org/archives/2009/02/prayer-for-heal.html

The Approach of Passiontide

2009-03-28T10:06:00.003-06:00

Saturday, Fourth Week of Lent

Jeremiah 11:18-20, Psalm 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12, John 7:40-53

Passiontide

Everything in today's Mass indicates that Passiontide is upon us. Our Lord, most especially in the liturgy of this fortnight preceding Pascha, teaches us the mystery of the Cross. Our part is to listen well with the ear of the heart, so as to understand. We are already on the threshold of the great fortnight leading up to Easter.

The reformed liturgy conserves the substance of these fifteen days. Even a cursory study of the texts reveals that, beginning this evening, we will be plunged into the mystery of Jesus suffering and of His sorrowful Mother. The hymns at the Hours sing of the Passion, the readings speak of it, and the responsories meditate it. At Mass during the Fifth Week of Lent, the Preface presents the Passion of Christ as the healing of the world, and his Cross as the sign of victory:

Through the saving passion of your Son
the whole world has been called
to acknowledge and to praise your majesty;
for in the ineffable power of the Cross
the judgment of the world
and the power of the Crucified shines forth.

A Prayer Not Without Tears

Already today, the Entrance Antiphon was the cry of the suffering Christ to the Father: "Groanings of death surrounded me, hell's sorrows compassed me about. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice out of His holy temple" (Ps 17:5-7). What is this antiphon if not the prayer described in the Letter to the Hebrews? "Christ, during his earthly life, offered prayer and entreaty to the God who could save Him from death, not without a piercing cry, not without tears; yet with such piety as won him a hearing" (Heb 5:7). In the First Reading from Jeremiah, we are given, already, the image of the "gentle lamb led to the slaughter" (Jer 11:19), and in the Responsorial Psalm, we hear the voice of Christ raised to the Father in a prayer of anguish and, at the same time, of utter trust: "O Lord, my God, my confidence is in thee" (Ps 7:2).

The Blood of the Lamb

Yesterday and today, there is a marked change in the tenor of the Communion Antiphon. The focus is on the precious Blood of the Lamb. In yesterday's Communion Antiphon, we heard, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins" (Eph 1:7), and in today's we will hear, "We are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 P 1:19). Hear the resonance with the "gentle lamb led to the slaughter" (Jer 11:9) in the First Reading. The "Lamb of God" during the rite of the Fraction takes on a richer tone today. So too will the invitation to Holy Communion: "Behold the Lamb of God." The moment of Holy Communion will be yet another voice in the symphony: "The Body and Blood of Christ." The liturgy is all of a piece. We grasp its meaning only in the relationship of each part with the whole.

Vexilla Regis Prodeunt

By means of an ensemble of allusions and resonances, the liturgy directs our steps to the threshold of Passiontide. This evening the Church returns to the ancient hymn in praise of the Cross: Vexilla regis prodeunt: Fulget crucis mysterium; "The royal banners forward go: The Cross shines forth its mystery." The reading at Vespers will repeat this morning's Communion Antiphon: "The ransom that freed you . . . was paid in the precious blood of Christ; no lamb was ever so pure, so spotless a victim" (1 P 1:19). Our gaze, directed by the liturgy, goes to the radiant mystery of the Cross and to the Blood of the Lamb, and remains there.

The Silence of the Word

Just a word on today's gospel. It is extraordinary in that it contains not a single word spoken by the Lord Jesus himself. The Word is silent while all around him others speak. Those who were listening to him speak. The police speak. The Pharisees speak. Nicodemus speaks. But the Word is silent, for "He came to what was his own, and they who were his own gave him no welcome" (Jn 1:11).

The Fall and Rise of Many in Israel

There is no agreement about Jesus and his mission; there is nothing but dissension, discussion and wrangling. "Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, believe me, I have come to bring dissension. Henceforward five in the same house will be found at variance, three against two and two against three" (Lk 12:51-52). Thus is the prophecy of Simeon to the Virgin Mary fulfilled: "Behold, this child is destined to bring about the fall of many and the rise of many in Israel; to be a sign which men will refuse to recognize; and so the thoughts of many hearts shall be made manifest; as for thy own soul, it shall have a sword to pierce it" (Lk 2:34-35).

Jesus is the sign of contradiction. He unsettles the established order. He disturbs the tranquil. He causes the complacent to ask questions. "Do not imagine that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have come to bring a sword, not peace" (Mt 10:34).

Listen

Often we experience dissension and wrangling within our own hearts! Often we hear within ourselves the voices of the many: voices of the faithless crowd, of the police, of the Pharisees, and of Nicodemus, voices of doubt, of accusation, of bewilderment, of contradiction, of inconsistency, of cautious acceptance and of refusal. And in the midst of all this speaking, the one voice of the Word falls silent, or rather, becomes inaudible except to the ear of the heart, for the silence of the Word speaks always to anyone who will be silent long enough to listen. Listen then, during this "great fortnight" to the silence of the Word.
His Excellency, Bishop Edward J. Slattery of the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma has given Father Mark a special mandate to live in adoration before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, offering thanksgiving, intercession,and reparation for all his brothers in Holy Orders. Father is available to the priests and deacons of the Diocese for spiritual and sacramental support in their pursuit of holiness. He is also charged with the spiritual formation of women who desire to dedicate themselves to spiritual motherhood in favour of priests.
http://vultus.stblogs.org/2009/03/the-approach-of-passiontide.html

A human & spiritual wake-up call

2009-03-27T09:26:00.006-06:00

Vatican officials estimate that around the world the Catholic Church now provides more than 25 percent of all care administered to those with HIV/AIDS. The proportion is naturally higher in Africa, nearly 100% in the remotest areas. Let an HIV-positive Burundian on antiretroviral drugs explain the service:
When we go to other places, they only see numbers in us. We become hospital cases to be dealt with. We are problems. We lose our sense of dignity and worth. Yet we never feel that when we come to our Church programme. This is because we get a complete approach to our problems, whether spiritual, medical, mental, social or economic.
(Personal testimony)

Michael Czerny SJ is Director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN)
http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20090325_1.htm

Impossible Novena

2009-03-25T14:52:00.004-06:00

Nine month Novena - March 25th to December 25th

There's a beautiful nine month novena that starts on the feast of the Annunciation, and ends on Christmas; commemorating the nine months that our saviour was in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It's fairly simple and easy to memorize. You pick three "impossible" intentions to pray for and I've heard (and experienced) many amazing stories of prayers answered.

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, most holy mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

All Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand times we greet you, a thousand times we praise you for thy joy you had when God was incarnated in you. Because you are so powerful O Virgin and Mother of God, grant what we ask of you for the love of God.

[state your first intention]

Repeat all of the above for your second and third intentions

Remember, O most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Blessed and praised be the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in Heaven, on earth and everywhere. Amen.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Impossible Novena Begins Soon...
http://studeo.blogspot.com/2008/03/impossible-novena-begins-soon.html

WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?

2009-03-23T09:46:00.002-06:00

I. WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?

456 With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."

457 The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins":70

Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?71

458 The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him."72 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."73

459 The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."74 On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: "Listen to him!"75 Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have loved you."76 This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example.77

460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":78 "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."79 "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."80 "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."81

Paragraph 1. The Son of God Became Man
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p122a3p1.htm

Without God, man is stunted.

2009-03-21T08:27:00.005-06:00

March 21

Without God, man is stunted. But he is without God if he can no longer talk to God. That is why prayer is not just a private exercise for weak souls, with nothing to offer those who are strong. On the contrary, the real concern of prayer is all that relates to the future of mankind, to the humanity of man as such. For when a person no longer rises above himself in his search for God, he becomes changed - narrower, smaller. Essential organs become atrophied in him. His soul becomes coarser and less discriminating. Eventually he can no longer love the other or even himself. "We can love people only when they bear God within them." Only when we see God in other people despite all their faults can we be genuinely human. But how can we see a God whom we do not know? And how are we to know him when there is no contact between him and us, when we have forgotten how to speak with him? We must renew the practice of speaking with God; however extensive our knowledge of other languages, we must relearn the noblest use of language - that of speaking with God. To do so, we must let ourselves be guided by the traditional Christian prayers already in existence. I would like just to mention here a prayerful phrase that is especially dear to me because it seems to embody the innermost foundation and the innermost core of every conceivable prayer. I am referring to the words” our Father", which are the source from which all further prayer flows and by which it is sustained.

From:Saarland radio broadcast
Joseph Cardinal * Ratzinger
Co-Workers of the Truth
Meditations for Every Day of the Year
Ignatius Press
http://www.ignatius.com/ViewProduct.aspx?SID=1&Product_ID=673&AFID=12&

The kingdom of God is now said to be on earth and a product of man's own efforts. Even Kant, the pope noted, suspected that this new kingdom might in fact turn against man. It is very nice to have a pope who reads Kant carefully.
Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/schall_onspesalvi2_dec07.asp

Second Confession

2009-03-20T07:50:00.003-06:00

. . . At some point it was announced that confession would be available for those who desired it. No pressure was made to go. It was simply an invitation, an opportunity.

To my own surprise, I went. It was face to face, which I didn’t relish in the least. I was nervous, but once I got in the door, I couldn’t leave. Father sat on a chair and I kneeled.

“How long has it been since your last confession,” he asked.

“A long time,” I said.

“Two months?”
“More like ten years.”

With such a novice, Father figured he’d better go through the ten commandments to help me recognize my sins. I stopped him and told him, defiantly, that I knew what my sins were. They had been in my conscience, bothering me all my waking hours.

After a few minutes, as I was rattling them off, Father began to cry silently.

He gave my absolution and I left feeling no particular emotion.

A while later I went on a hike by myself and thought over the whole experience. I began to cry, which I don’t remember ever doing. It was a cry of elation. I knew from all my Catholic upbringing that God had forgiven me. I was able to start having a relationship with Him. . . . (more)

Second Confession, By Jack Smith
http://catholickey.blogspot.com/2009/03/second-confession.html

Ethical Blind Spots

2009-03-18T10:36:00.003-06:00

. . . When the full horror of Nazism was revealed at the end of the war, the German people responded, "We didn't know." When a local townsperson was asked whether he knew what was going on in the camp, he gave a more complete answer. "Yes, we knew something was up, but we didn't talk about it, we didn't want to know too much." Primo Levi, a writer and a survivor of Auschwitz, described the German ethical blind spot this way:

"In spite of the varied possibilities for information, most Germans didn't know because they didn't want to know. Because, indeed they wanted not to know. ...Those who knew did not talk; those who did not know did not ask questions; those who did ask questions received no answers. In this way the typical German citizen won and defended his ignorance, which seemed to him sufficient justification of his adherence to Nazism. Shutting his mouth, his eyes and his ears, he built for himself the illusion of not knowing, hence not being an accomplice to the things taking place in front of his door."

Martin Luther King, Jr. used to say that what pained him the most was the silence of the good. Albert Einstein, who fled Germany when Hitler came to power, articulated the same sentiment in an interview for Time Magazine on December 23, 1940. He stressed that sometimes it was only the Church and religion that could challenge the status quo as evil made inroads into a society:

"Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany I looked for the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom. But they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I had never any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom."

The courageous, even daring question we must ask is, "What is our own response to the evil around us?"

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as the Director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.
See www.ncbcenter.org

“Pray the Lord of the harvest

2009-03-16T08:08:00.004-06:00

to send out labourers”

This means that the harvest is ready, but God wishes to enlist helpers to bring it into the storehouse. God needs them. He needs people to say: yes, I am ready to become your harvest labourer; I am ready to offer help so that this harvest which is ripening in people’s hearts may truly be brought into the storehouses of eternity and become an enduring, divine communion of joy and love. “Pray the Lord of the harvest” also means that we cannot simply “produce” vocations; they must come from God. This is not like other professions, we cannot simply recruit people by using the right kind of publicity or the correct type of strategy. The call which comes from the heart of God must always finds its way into the heart of man. And yet, precisely so that it may reach into hearts, our cooperation is needed. To pray the Lord of the harvest means above all to ask him for this, to stir his heart and say: “Please do this! Rouse labourers! Enkindle in them enthusiasm and joy for the Gospel! Make them understand that this is a treasure greater than any other, and that whoever has discovered it, must hand it on!”

We stir the heart of God. But our prayer to God does not consist of words alone; the words must lead to action so that from our praying heart a spark of our joy in God and in the Gospel may arise, enkindling in the hearts of others a readiness to say “yes”. As people of prayer, filled with his light, we reach out to others and bring them into our prayer and into the presence of God, who will not fail to do his part. In this sense we must continue to pray the Lord of the harvest, to stir his heart, and together with God touch the hearts of others through our prayer. And he, according to his purpose, will bring to maturity their “yes”, their readiness to respond; the constancy, in other words, through all this world’s perplexity, through the heat of the day and the darkness of the night, to persevere faithfully in his service. Hence they will know that their efforts, however arduous, are noble and worthwhile because they lead to what is essential, they ensure that people receive what they hope for: God’s light and God’s love.

BENEDICT XVI
Meeting with Priests and Deacons – Freising 14 September 2006
http://www2.clerus.org/

The Holy Curé and his message

2009-03-16T07:50:00.003-06:00

A man of prayer
Long periods spent in front of the tabernacle, a true intimacy with God, a total surrender to His will, a face transfigured… elements such touched deeply those who met him and made the depth of his prayer life and union with God perceptible. They were his greatest joy and the ground for a true friendship with God : “I love you, oh my God, and my only desire is to love you until my dying breath”. This was a friendship that implied a reciprocity which Mr. Vianney compared to two pieces of wax which are melted together and can no longer be separated or identified as distinct from each other ; it is thus for our soul with God when we pray…

At the heart of his life, the Eucharist celebrated and adored
“He is there”, the Holy Curé would exclaim as he stared at the tabernacle. He was a man of the Eucharist celebrated and adored ; “There is no reality greater than the Eucharist”, he used to affirm. What touched him most deeply perhaps was the realisation that his God was there, for us, present in the tabernacle : “He awaits us !” The awareness of the real presence of God in the Blessed Sacrament was perhaps one of his greatest graces and one of his greatest joys. Giving God to men and men to God, the eucharistic sacrifice, very quickly became the heart of his day and of his pastoral life.

Tormented by the salvation of mankind
It is perhaps this which best summarises who the Holy Curé was during his 41 years as a priest at Ars. He was tormented by his own salvation and that of others, most especially that of those who came to him or for whom he was responsible. As a priest, he was "accountable to God” he used to say. That each person taste the joy of knowing and loving God, of knowing how much He loves us… this was what Mr. Vianney strove relentlessly to achieve.

A martyr of the confessional
As from 1830 thousands of people came to Ars for confession with him, and more than 100,000 in the last year of his life…. The Curé of Ars was a true martyr of the confessional, John Paul II declared, for he spent up to 17 hours a day ‘imprisoned’ in order to reconcile men with God and among themselves. Smitten by the love of God, filled with wonder at the vocation of mankind, he had grasped the full measure of the folly in wanting to be separated from God. He wanted each person to be freed in order to be capable of receiving a taste of the love of God.

At the heart of his parish, a man with a social awareness
“We cannot imagine what the Holy Curé did not accomplish by way of social work” one of his biographers comments. He saw the Lord present in each of his brothers and sisters and did not rest until he had assisted them, brought relief, appeased their suffering or soothed their wounds, and enabled each one to be free and happy. Nothing was beyond him…starting an orphanage, setting up schools, being attentive to the poorest and the sick, a tireless builder of the Church that he was. He accompanied the families and sought to protect them from all that destroys them (alcohol, violence, egoism…). At the heart of his village he sought to take into account each of the dimensions of the human person (human, spiritual, social).

The patron saint of the priests of the whole world
He was beatified in 1905, and in the same year on April 12th he was declared patron saint of the priests of France by Pius X. In 1929, four years after his canonisation, Pope Pius XI declared him “patron saint of the priests of the whole world”. Pope John Paul II said no less by repeating three times that “The Curé of Ars remains an outstanding and unparalleled model for all nations both of the accomplishment of the ministry and the holiness of the minister”. “Oh, how great a reality lies in the priest !” Jean-Marie Vianney would exclaim, for he can give God to men and men to God ; he is the witness of the tenderness of the Father for each person and the artisan of salvation.

The Curé of Ars, an elder brother in the priesthood, is the saint to whom every priest in the world can come in order to entrust his ministry or his priestly life to the Curé’s intercession.

A universal call to holiness
“I will show you the path to Heaven” he replied to the little shepherd boy who showed him the way to Ars. By this he meant ‘I will help you to become a saint’. “There where the saints go their way, God goes with them”, he would remark later on. Ultimately he invited each and everyone to let themselves be sanctified by God, to seek the means to achieve this union with God here on earth and for all eternity.

The Holy Curé and his message
http://www.arsnet.org/113_en.php

The Three Self-Evident Truths

2009-03-15T09:08:00.004-06:00

In our consideration of Argument - indeed, in our consideration of Reason - we must accept what are called the Three Self-Evident Truths. These are not debatable, and are not provable. Like the axioms of Geometry, they are "Given" - they are starting points without which one cannot proceed. We need to know them - and know them well.

1. The First Fact is "the existence of the thinking subject". I (who am presently thinking about something) exist.

2. The First Principle is "the principle of contradiction": A thing cannot both BE and NOT BE in the same way at the same time.

3. The First Condition of Certain Knowledge is "the natural capacity of our reason to know the truth". Our brains, minds, reasoning powers are ABLE to know the truth of things. Truth in the general sense is NOT a "mystery" which cannot be attained.

Perhaps the tightest statement which summarizes all this as a basis for thought is this famous little fragment from one of Chesterton's letters:

A cosmos one day being rebuked by a pessimist replied, "How can you who revile me consent to speak by my machinery? Permit me to reduce you to nothingness and then we will discuss the matter."
Moral. You should not look a gift universe in the mouth.
[quoted in Ward's Gilbert Keith Chesterton 49-50]

GKC's Favourite
"The object of my school is to is to show how many extraordinary things even a lazy and ordinary man may see if he can spur himself to the single activity of seeing."
-- G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles
blogspot.com/2009/02/three-self-evident-truths.html

Stations of the Cross

2009-03-13T11:24:00.000-06:00

with Latin and English Prayers
Meditations by John Henry Cardinal Newman (1860)
Photographs of Mosaic Stations of the Cross
http://www.cin.org/LatinEngPrayers.html

Stations of the Cross with St. Therese
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-hpC65oUr8&eurl=http://blog-by-the-sea.typepad.com/blog_bythesea/

Thousands at Rally for Religious Liberty

2009-03-11T15:39:00.004-06:00

Supreme Knight Addresses Crowd of Thousands at Rally for Religious Liberty More than 5,000 Catholics attended a rally for religious freedom at the State Capitol in Hartford today. The rally, which featured the state's bishops and Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, came a day after a bill that would strip Connecticut Catholic bishops and priests of their administrative powers was abruptly withdrawn by its legislative sponsors.

. . . In Connectict, Catholics were legally forbidden from holding public office, or owning land into the 19th century. In fact, it took the Constitution State nearly three decades after ratification of the U.S. Constitution to grant something resembling First Amendment religious freedom to Catholics.

Even then attacks continued. Know-Nothings often tried to restrict the actions of the Catholic Church. One of their favorite tools was “trusteeism” – precisely what Bill 1098 would impose.

There has never been any doubt that government-mandated trusteeism was simply a tool to impose severe, unconstitutional limits on the Catholic Church.

Though the stated purpose for this bill is to prevent financial mismanagement of parishes, the bill’s sponsors ignore two facts: not only are such incidences incredibly rare, but the Catholic Church has adopted effective measures to prevent a repeat of such situations.

And so the bill is not only unconstitutional, it’s unnecessary.The bill’s sponsors might consider history's verdict on the Know-Nothings - whose tactics they have now adopted, for these Connecticut politicians are not only on the wrong side of the First Amendment, but on the wrong side of history.

It has been more than 150 years since a state was misguided enough to attempt such legislation, and for good reason.

In 1855, in the state of New York, the Know-Nothings scored a victory with the passage of the Putnam Bill in that state's legislature. This bill forced trusteeism on the Catholic Church, and created serious legal problems for its administration. It also presented the same fiction as the current bill: priests and bishops should focus only on matters of faith.

The Putnam Bill was repealed in 1863. . . .

http://www.kofc.org/un/index.cfm

World Youth Alliance

2009-03-11T07:25:00.002-06:00

The WYA Declaration on the Human Person explores the question “Who am I?,” or “Who is the human person?” Drafted in 2002 for World Youth Day Toronto, Canada, the declaration was presented to Pope John Paul II.

We, young people of all nations, in solidarity with one another, believe that every human being has intrinsic and inalienable dignity that begins at conception and extends to natural death. This dignity, the most precious endowment of the human person, is inviolable. The dignity of the human person must be cherished in custom and protected by law. We recognize, celebrate, and pledge ourselves to defend the intrinsic dignity of every human person.

At the same time, as young people seeking our vocations, we ask ourselves, “Who am I?”

We know that the human person is free. Yet freedom, exercised solely for selfish or self-assertive ends, is radically incomplete.

We believe that the freedom of the human person is most fully and rightly lived in the gift of ourselves to others.

In the act of self-gift, the human person answers the question “Who am I?”, through the experience of love. Love is the experience of freedom lived for the good of the other, the goods that make for genuine human flourishing. Thus, true love, freely given and received, is the experience of the transcendent which fulfills and completes every human being within the human family.
http://www.wya.net/

Sisters of Life

2009-03-10T13:50:00.002-06:00

The Sisters of Life is a contemplative / active religious community of women founded in 1991 by John Cardinal O’Connor for the protection and enhancement of the sacredness of every human life. Like all religious communities, we take the three traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. We also are consecrated under a special, fourth vow to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life.

Reverence and gratitude for the unique and unrepeatable gift of each human life made in the image and likeness of God fuels the prayer of each Sister, our first mission in building the Kingdom of God and the “Culture of Life.” It also provides the starting point for our interactions with others, and especially relationships in community between our 64 Sisters (who come from across the United States, Canada and New Zealand) and in our apostolates.

Inspired by the love of Christ our Spouse, the author of Life, we desire to pour out all our gifts of nature and grace in the apostolate, that nothing of the gift of life, and no one to whom it has been given, should be lost.

Our missions are carried out with the heart of the Church and with the hope of revealing to those we serve the inherent goodness and beauty of their own lives, so that each person may see and experience the truth that they are an unrepeatable creation of the Master.

We welcome pregnant guests to live with us in the Holy Respite of one of our convents
Assist pregnant women in need of practical assistance through our Visitation Mission
Host retreats at Villa Maria Guadalupe Retreat Center
Invite those who have suffered abortion to hope and healing through day and weekend Entering Canaan Retreats
Direct the New York Archdiocesan Family Life / Respect Life Office
Toronto Mission
Dr. Joseph Stanton Human Life Issues Library
http://sistersoflife.org

backache

2009-03-08T10:38:00.002-06:00

“I want to describe how the Master has made me find joy in the cross. After my profession, folio wing the advice that had been given me, I hastened to the “bleeding Flower of Calvary ” and plucked it continually with the cross for its stem. This cross was the daily, perpetual mortification of our austere life: austere indeed for one who refuses nothing to the good God and who is perfectly faithful to the Rule and duty. I no longer sought for imaginary crosses and dreamt of them no more, and as I received each day the grace to bear my daily cross, I carried it cheerfully, finding by experience that the first step is the hardest, and that the generous acceptance of a light cross brings with it a deep peace which gives strength for greater and harder mortifications.

Fasting tried me very much, I found it very hard to work in the morning on fast-days, as I was obliged to do for several years while I had sole charge of the refectory and swept and dusted it. The weight of the Breviary at Matins gave me a back-ache which was so increased by the weight of our mantle on feast days that as a rule, my prayer only consisted in offering to God my poor back, which occupied all my thoughts. When, later on, I was forbidden to perform the penance of the Rule in such matters as fasting, want of sleep, and other things, illness supplied their place. I was very glad, as, had it been left to me, I should have preferred, except in certain moments of temptation, to take no care of my health and to keep my Rule exactly.”

MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART CARMELITE NUN OF LISIEUX. 1882-1914

”I am the lowly herald of the “LITTLE QUEEN. With an introduction by Dom Benedict Weld-Blundell, O.S.B. THE KINGSCOTE PRESS, 3 DYER S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN, LONDON, E.G. 1916 Authorised translation from the French.
http://www.meditationsfromcarmel.com/podcast/?p=125

"transmission of human life" 1968

2009-03-04T13:56:00.009-06:00

Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 25th day of July, the feast of St. James the Apostle, in the year 1968, the sixth of Our pontificate. PAUL VI

The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships.

The fulfillment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant changes have provoked new questions. The Church cannot ignore these questions, for they concern matters intimately connected with the life and happiness of human beings. . . .

17. Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.

HUMANAE VITAE
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

Catholic Athletes For Christ - CAC

2009-03-03T23:20:00.003-06:00

Catholic Athletes for Christ (CAC) serves Catholic athletes in the practice of their faith and shares the Gospel in and through sports. We work with athletes at all levels of sport in an effort to promote a Catholic sports culture. CAC was formed in response to Pope John Paul II's call to evangelize the world of sports and his establishment of the Vatican's Office of Sports.

As St. Paul's epistles teach us, Christ is God’s true athlete and we are made perfect when, and only when, we imitate Him. John Paul II advises us that, "Every Christian is called to become a strong athlete of Christ, that is a faithful and courageous witness to His Gospel." We invite you to join us as an "athlete for Christ."

Ray McKenna, Founder of Catholic Athletes for Christ
Our Mission: The mission of Catholics Athletes for Christ (CAC) is to serve Catholic athletes and share the Gospel of Christ in and through athletics.

Our Goal: The goal of Catholic Athletes for Christ (CAC) is to provide an integrated network of sports oriented clergy and lay people to serve Catholic athletes, coaches and staff in the practice of their faith and to utilize the unique platform given to them to reach the world for Jesus Christ and His Church.

Our Vision:
• To provide solid Catholic role models
• To work with the Church leadership and Catholic organizations
• To minister to Catholic athletes, coaches and staff
• To reverse the moral crisis in sports today
• To create a network of Catholic athletes, coaches and staff
• To organize sports conferences, pilgrimages, retreats and days of reflection

"Sport, properly directed, develops character, makes a man courageous, a generous loser, and a gracious victor; it refines the senses, gives intellectual penetration, and steels the will to endurance. It is not merely a physical development then. Sport, rightly understood, is an occupation of the whole man, and while perfecting the body as an instrument of the mind, it also makes the mind itself a more refined instrument for the search and communication of truth and helps man to achieve that end to which all others must be subservient, the service and praise of his Creator."
– Pope Pius XII, Sport at the Service of the Spirit, July 29, 1945

Catholic Athletes For Christ - CAC
http://www.catholicathletesforchrist.com/index.htm

St. Katharine Drexel

2009-03-03T09:00:00.002-06:00

Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.

She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O'Connor. The pope replied, "Why don't you become a missionary?" His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.

Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Native American missions.

She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O'Connor, she wrote in 1889, "The feast of Saint Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored." Newspaper headlines screamed "Gives Up Seven Million!" . . .

At seventy-seven, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost twenty years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at ninety-six and was canonized in 2000.

St. Katharine Drexel
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2009-03-03

Introduction to a Devoute Life

2009-03-02T10:20:00.010-06:00

19. On Confession
. . . Some people go on confessing venial sins out of mere habit, and conventionally, without making any effort to correct them, thereby losing a great deal of spiritual good. Supposing that you confess having said something untrue, although without evil consequences, or some careless words, or excessive amusement;-- repent, and make a firm resolution of amendment: it is a mere abuse to confess any sin whatever, be it mortal or venial, without intending to put it altogether away, that being the express object of confession.

Beware of unmeaning self-accusations, made out of a mere routine, such as, "I have not loved God as much as I ought; I have not prayed with as much devotion as I ought; I have not loved my neighbour as I ought; I have not received the Sacraments with sufficient reverence;" and the like. Such things as these are altogether useless in setting the state of your conscience before your Confessor, inasmuch as all the Saints in Paradise and all men living would say the same. But examine closely what special reason you have for accusing yourself thus, and when you have discovered it, accuse yourself simply and plainly of your fault.

For instance, when confessing that you have not loved your neighbour as you ought, it may be that what you mean is, that having seen some one in great want whom you could have succoured, you have failed to do so. Well then, accuse yourself of that special omission: say, "Having come across a person in need, I did not help him as I might have done," either through negligence, or hardness, or indifference, according as the case may be. So again, do not accuse yourself of not having prayed to God with sufficient devotion; but if you have given way to voluntary distractions, or if you have neglected the proper circumstances of devout prayer--whether place, time, or attitude--say so plainly, just as it is, and do not deal in generalities, which, so to say, blow neither hot nor cold.

Again, do not be satisfied with mentioning the bare fact of your venial sins, but accuse yourself of the motive cause which led to them. For instance, do not be content with saying that you told an untruth which injured no one; but say whether it was out of vanity, in order to win praise or avoid blame, out of heedlessness, or from obstinacy. If you have exceeded in society, say whether it was from the love of talking, or gambling for the sake of money, and so on. Say whether you continued long to commit the fault in question, as the importance of a fault depends greatly upon its continuance: e.g., there is a wide difference between a passing act of vanity which is over in a quarter of an hour, and one which fills the heart for one or more days. So you must mention the fact, the motive and the duration of your faults. It is true that we are not bound to be so precise in confessing venial sins, or even, technically speaking, to confess them at all; but all who aim at purifying their souls in order to attain a really devout life, will be careful to show all their spiritual maladies, however slight, to their spiritual physician, in order to be healed.

Do not spare yourself in telling whatever is necessary to explain the nature of your fault, as, for instance, the reason why you lost your temper, or why you encouraged another in wrong-doing. Thus, some one whom I dislike says a chance word in joke, I take it ill, and put myself in a passion. If one I like had said a stronger thing I should not have taken it amiss; so in confession, I ought to say that I lost my temper with a person, not because of the words spoken so much as because I disliked the speaker; and if in order to explain yourself clearly it is necessary to particularize the words, it is well to do so; because accusing one's self thus simply one discovers not merely one's actual sins, but one's bad habits, inclinations and ways, and the other roots of sin, by which means one's spiritual Father acquires a fuller knowledge of the heart he is dealing with, and knows better what remedies to apply.

But you must always avoid exposing any one who has borne any part in your sin as far as possible. Keep watch over a variety of sins, which are apt to spring up and flourish, often insensibly, in the conscience, so that you may confess them and put them away; and with this view read Chapters 6, 27, 29, 35 and 36. of Part 3, and Chapter 7. of Part 4 attentively.

Do not lightly change your Confessor, but having chosen him, be regular in giving account of your conscience to him at the appointed seasons, telling him your faults simply and frankly, and from time to time--say every month or every two months, show him the general state of your inclinations, although there be nothing wrong in them; as, for instance, whether you are depressed and anxious, or cheerful, desirous of advancement, or money, and the like.

Introduction to a Devoute Life (cont)
PART II. Containing sundry counsels as to uplifting the soul to God in prayer and the use of the Sacraments (cont).
19. On Confession
http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/devout_life/dev42.php

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

2009-03-01T22:40:00.003-06:00

THE UNICORN WRITER, RIP

This week the world lost a rare writer at the age of 43. He was not a media fixture and certainly not one of those writers making appearances at the literary salons. He was a Dublin homebody. But what an astounding person Christopher Nolan was.

Nolan was born with cerebral palsy, could not speak, nor control his extremities. Confined to a wheelchair, he was the type of person our society looks at with pity or largely ignores. Thankfully, his family never saw him that way. They loved him unconditionally, interacted with him and taught him as one would any child. He would go on to school, though no one fully appreciated his mental acuity.

A drug was discovered that allowed Nolan to move one muscle in his neck. (Bono of U2, who attended school with Nolan wrote the song “Miracle Drug” about the boy). At the age of 11 he was equipped with a “unicorn stick” which was fastened to his head. With it Nolan would peck at a typewriter. His mother had to apply pressure to his chin to stabilize the boy’s head, allowing him to work his art. It was a torturous process, taking him more than 15 minutes to produce one word on the page. And what words they were.

He published his first book at 15, a collection of poems appropriately titled “Dam-burst of Dreams.” His second book won Britain’s prestigious “Whitbread Book of the Year:” in 1988. It was called Under the Eye of the Clock a biographical work in which he refers to himself as Joseph Meehan. At one point in the book Nolan writes of crying upon the realization that he is not like other children:

``Looking through his tears he saw [his mother] bent low in order to look into his eyes. `... Listen here Joseph, you can see, you can hear, you can think, you can understand everything you hear. You like your food, you like nice clothes, you are loved by me and Dad. We love you just as you are.' Pussing still, sniveling still, he was listening to his mother's voice. She spoke sort of matter-of-factly but he blubbered moaning sounds. His mother said her say and that was that. She got on with her work while he got on with his crying.
``The decision arrived at that day, was burnt forever in his mind. He was only three years in age but he was now fanning the only spark he saw, his being alive and more immediate, his being wanted just as he was....
``That day looked out through his eyes for the rest of his life. Comfort came in child-like notions, his clumsy body was his, but molested by mother-love he looked lollying looks at his limbs, and liked Joseph Meehan.'

Nolan was a Catholic, one who was often frustrated by his inability to open his mouth at communion time. But the mark of his faith is evident in his work. In “Under the Eye of the Clock” he wrote of Christmas:
“Bells pealed in all the Dublin churches as midnight nudged home its bashful meaning to all the crazy longing. Christ the God-child now breathed a human breath. The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst man. Manger-cradled the Saviour lay. Midnight Mass marked the moment for Joseph; crested now with knowing, he marvelled at the nobility of the human person.”

His Mother, Bernadette told the Christian Science Monitor in the late 80’s: “``He has shown (people with disabilities) that life is worth living, and it doesn't matter whether you're in a wheelchair or a bed; it's what's going on in your mind and your soul that is important.''

Beyond his somersaulting innovation with language, the thing that lingers about Nolan is the improbable miracle of the man himself. I am in awe of the great sacrifices he made each day to share his voice with the world. Each overwhelming obstacle to communication was soberly considered, and ruthlessly overcome. Of writing he once said: ``My mind is just like a spin dryer at full speed. My thoughts fly around my skull, while millions of beautiful words cascade down into my lap. Images gunfire across my consciousness and, while trying to discipline them, I jump in awe at the soul-filled bounty of mind's expanse.''

How many able bodied people put off their calling, or make needless excuses for doing nothing. The next time those deadening temptations bubble up, we should think of Christopher Nolan. With a stick affixed to his head, in a body he could not control, his mother holding his chin, Nolan managed to produce a book of poetry, a play, a novel, a biography and an incredible witness for us all.
May Christopher Nolan rest in peace.

Raymond's Blog - February 25, 2009
http://raymondarroyo.com/blog/2009/02/christopher_nolan_the_unicorn.html

'pay it forward'

2009-02-28T11:38:00.005-06:00

Several Arkansans answered the call and said they wanted to "pay it forward" during Lent.

Three $100 grants were handed out by Arkansas Catholic this week to an individual, school and Catholic organization that will grow their investment through Holy Week and hopefully make a difference in their community or world.

It is the first year the diocesan newspaper has hosted The Pay It Forward Campaign. An anonymous donor provided the grant money.

The campaign's concept is based on the New Testament parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-28. A 2000 dramatic movie, starring Kevin Spacey, made the phrase "pay it forward" popular. According to the movie, "When someone does you a big favor, don't pay it back. Pay it forward."

This year's winners are:

St. John School, Hot Springs

Linda Good, eighth grade teacher, will work with her students to make cupcakes and trail mix and sell them on Mondays at the school and to other Catholic churches in the county after weekend Masses. Good said her students were eager to help the parish's sister church and school in Haiti and came up with the idea of the bake sale to support St. Andrew School in Calladere.

"I only have 12 students (which I call my disciples), but look what Jesus accomplished with only his 12 apostles," Good wrote in their application. "We just hope to follow the greatest teacher that ever lived and raise money for Mission Haiti."

Ladies of Charity of Arkansas, Little Rock

Sandy DeCoursey, executive vice president for the Ladies of Charity of Arkansas, wrote that each member will be given $5, a copy of parable and the "Pay It Forward" challenge. Each member will be asked to grow their $5 by participating with one of their current projects, such as making cookies for the homeless, assisting with the urban garden for the elderly and immigrants or making layettes for pregnant, unwed mothers.

"The Pay It Forward campaign is the perfect Lenten challenge for each LCArk member to promote the mission of the Ladies of Charity: to serve rather than be served in humility, simplicity and charity," she wrote.

Elizabeth J. Thomas, Immaculate Heart of March Church, North Little Rock (Marche)

She will be challenging 100 parishioners to make a commitment to "living a giving life through Christ." Each participant or family will get $1 and be challenged to make sacrifices during Lent, such as not eating at restaurants, going to movies or buying video games. The money saved would be donated to the cause.

"With the prayer time, reflection and learning to think of others' needs before our own fleshly desires, the person or family ... will benefit first and then a worthy cause like those without necessities will have basic needs provided to them."

Thomas wrote that she would like the money to support a sister parish or third-world mission.

By Malea Hargett, Editor
Three winners using Lent to 'pay it forward' | Arkansas Catholic | February 28, 2009
http://www.arkansascatholic.org/article.php?id=1636

Scriptural Stations Meditations - First Station

2009-02-27T08:46:00.005-06:00

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You.
Because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples,"Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me." He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will." When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, "So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." ~Matthew 25:36-41

We pray:
Lord Jesus, Your whole life has been a perfect offering to the Father, and here in the garden You will not withdraw from Your mission of freeing all of Creation
by taking upon Yourself every falleness and transforming it. Yet we see You struggling with what is before You.

Your friends recently saw You transfigured on the mountain and then You demonstrated that love means service by washing their feet, but now they cannot reach beyond themselves or be available to You in this profound sorrow; a sorrow so deep Your sweat is mingled with blood. You are alone with the Father. So often we feel overwhelmed and want to ask that we might be relieved of our burdens. You have shown us that these feelings are natural and this cry is acceptable, as long as we echo Your ultimate submission to the Father.

Lord, give us the strength to surrender our wills to You, so that in all things we may know the wisdom of letting go, and we might always say, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Teach us to trust in the power of self-giving love and to understand that we need not rely on our own strength, because Your grace is sufficient (2 Cor 12:9).
Sometimes, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) means simply remaining where we are when we want to run.

May Your submission to the Father encourage us to trust in Love.

These Forty Days
http://thesefortydays.blogspot.com/2009/02/scriptural-stations-meditations-first.html

Keeping the Lord's passion & death before us

2009-02-26T10:35:00.009-06:00

Lent is not everyone's cup of tea. I find myself at odds with the discipline of this holy season in part because I am not always up to the call of conversion. AND yet, what is Christian life but a constant change of heart, moving from sin to grace, from spiritual antipathy to greater freedom in Christ, from being a yahoo to being the person God the Father wants me to be. Several things come to mind at the beginning of Lent: has the Paschal Mystery (the Lord's life, death, resurrection & ascension) made a lasting impression on me? Does the Lord's self-giving open or close the doors of my heart?

In some way there is an impression made on us by the Lord's Paschal Mystery otherwise we wouldn't begin the season of Lent with prayer, fasting and almsgiving symbolized by the mark of ash. But a possible danger is allowing the spiritual life to be mired in mere routines and moralisms which kill off a relationship with the Blessed Trinity and with our neighbor. Human nature, however, is a funny thing sometimes. We often think that everyone else is expected to change except for me. While it is the acceptable time to change heart and mind, as the Apostle says, often the practice of change is left to the other person in the pew or the one sharing the bathroom. Therefore there is a disconnect with reality here because of a lack of awareness of hod God is inviting us to new life.

It is our Christian belief, that is, the reality of being a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, that God loved us so much so as to suffer death and to rise three days later for me. The question becomes: does Christ's death/resurrection make a real difference in my life? How do my attitudes toward an ego-centric sister or a crazy aunt change as a result of this awareness? Do we have a hope based on faith that can show the world there is real, substantial hope in an era where there's so little trust, love and belief in the hundred-fold promised by the Lord?

God is patient with us via truce he offered and which is spoken of by Saint Benedict. Abbot Placid reminded us at last evening's Mass, God has provided us

...a truce granted us for this very reason, that we may amend our evil ways. As the Apostle says, "Do you not know that God's patience is inviting you to repent" (Rom. 2:4)? For the merciful Lord tells us, "I desire not the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should be converted and live" (RB, Prol.).

The hallmarks of Lent are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. I would contend that every day of our Christian life is marked this way with prayer, sacrifice and charity. So this time of the year is characterized by a more intense living of our commitment to Christ by encountering him in old and perhaps new ways. If we don't pray at the side of the cross can we really call ourselves Christian? Is there a real obedience (following and listening) to the example Christ gave us? Can we receive give to others the alms of patience, forgiveness and love? Do we have affection for ourselves as a condition for loving others? And can we be intentional in not being controlled by sin and sinful tendencies? Can we remove ourselves from those things that denigrate our dignity as a son and daughter of God, or are we going to exist in a cycle of destructive attitudes and actions? Now is the acceptable time, now is the time to act.

By Paul Zalonski on February 26, 2009
http://communio.stblogs.org/2009/02/keeping-the-lords-passion-deat.html

The Baptism -Temptation of Jesus

2009-02-25T07:46:00.008-06:00

"Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who for our sake endured temptation and suffering." The Liturgy of the Hours

At the hour of trial, at the moment of temptation, it is faith that recalls to us God’s sovereign right to the obedience of His creature, His infinite holiness, the adorable exigencies of His justice, the indescribable sufferings with which Jesus expiated sin, the gratuity of grace, the necessity of prayer, the eternity of pain with which God punishes the sinner who dies unrepentant, the endless beatitude with which He magnificently rewards the fidelity of a few years. All these truths are repeated to us by faith; and however redoutable the darts of the enemy may be, however violent his suggestions, however prolonged the combat, a soul that has living faith finds in her faith and in her union with Christ, which is born of faith, the power of resistance, the very principle of her stability in good, the true secret of victory.

Blessed is the soul,—God Himself tells us so—blessed is the soul that endures temptation without exposing herself to it; who, relying upon the Divine promises, passes through fire, with the eye of faith intent upon Christ’s words and example; that soul will triumph even here below, and will later receive the reward of her generosity and love: BEATUS vir qui suffert tentationem quoniam cum pro batus fuerit, accipiet coronam vitae quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se (Jac. I, 12).

The Baptism -Temptation of Jesus
by Abbot Marmion, OSB
Christ in His Mysteries for Lent
http://www.cin.org/liter/baptmarm.html

How can I better prepare for Lent?

2009-02-24T08:29:00.003-06:00

Q: Father John, How can I better prepare for Lent this year?

A: You have no idea what God has in store for you this Lent (but God does, and he is looking forward to it!). On the other hand, you do know that God has chosen to work in our souls through the Liturgy, and that includes the liturgical seasons. So preparing for Lent means getting ready to hear and heed what God wants to say to you during those days. The Church gives us three general directives in this regard.

First, intensify our prayer life. Start thinking now about how you can do this. It’s a good topic to talk about in spiritual direction. Do you need to increase your Eucharistic life, give more discipline to your personal prayer time, inculcate family prayer time, go on a retreat? God will put something on your heart. But be realistic. Don’t let your eyes be bigger than your stomach (in the spiritual sense).

Second, embrace the Cross. Lent is a penitential season, a time when we remember how self-centered we have been and tend to be, and renew our commitment and efforts at repenting and growing in Christian love. This is the origin of the tradition of “giving something up for Lent.” The idea is to make a sacrifice, denying our naturally self-indulgent tendencies in some way in order to unite ourselves more fully to Christ’s redeeming sacrifice on Calvary. This is not merely a self-help kind of resolution. It is a self-offering to God: “Lord, many times I have chosen to do my own will instead of yours. By offering this sacrifice I want to learn to take up my cross, to say “yes” to you and your will, following in Jesus’ footsteps.” Whatever we give up (e.g. watching sports, eating desert) or take on (e.g. daily Mass, weekly Way of the Cross) as our Lenten sacrifice (again, be realistic), the key is to give it that truly Christ-centered meaning.

Third, the practice Christian charity. Lent is a time to prepare for the fruitful celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection during Holy Week. That Paschal Mystery was God’s unfathomable and amazing testimony of love for us sinners. There is no better way to get in tune with that self-forgetful and self-sacrificial love than by imitating it. During Lent we should make a special point of serving our neighbors – but here again, be realistic. Here the traditional corporal works of mercy can spark ideas. The Catechism reminds us of them (#2447):

Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.243 Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God

Something in the air of spring brings out new buds, new branches, new life. The word “Lent” has its etymological roots in an Old English word meaning “spring.” Something in the air of Lent will bring out new buds, new branches, new life in our relationship with Christ; we just have to open up some windows.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek

Catholic Spiritual Direction
http://rcspiritualdirection.blogspot.com/

Sacred Space On-Line Retreat

2009-02-24T07:40:00.004-06:00

Thinking of doing a Lent Retreat?

It's a good thought and Lent is the ideal time for it.

For many centuries Christians have made these forty days a special time of preparation to celebrate the mystery of God's boundless love in Jesus. The reality of Good Friday is too terrible and the wonder of Easter Day too glorious for us to comprehend without making some effort to ready our hearts.

We hope that Sacred Space can help you on your Lenten journey in 2009.

Ash Wednesday is on 25 February.

The Sacred Space Retreat is available for you to use online. You can also download a version suitable for print to use on your own computer.

There is no charge, and there is so much more.
Sacred Space On-Line Retreat
http://sacredspace.ie/en/lent/

Poor Banished Children of Eve

2009-02-23T01:33:00.004-06:00

. . . So perhaps we ought to look at the “exile” of Lent, as well as that of our whole earthly life, as a time of preparation for the vision of God, for the return to Paradise, because “there we shall behold the surpassing beauty of the Master.” For Christians, all of life has this ultimate goal and we ought to be clear about it and order our lives accordingly. . . .
Word Incarnate Blog
http://wordincarnate.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/poor-banished-children-of-eve/

Abbot Joseph's Final-hour Mop-up Ministry:
This ministry is probably going to arouse the ire of those dark powers who are about to pop the corks on their champagne bottles as they prepare to receive more wretched souls into their infernal houses of horror, only to find them suddenly snatched away into Paradise by the power of Jesus’ Sacrifice. But hey, you only live once.
Word Incarnate Blog
http://wordincarnate.wordpress.com/mop-up-ministry/

Are Women The Deadliest Sinners?

2009-02-22T20:01:00.003-06:00

It's a good thing Dominican Father Wojciech Giertych is a priest. Otherwise he'd be in the dog house.

As reported by Catholic News Service, the theologian of the Papal Household has penned an article in L'Osservatore Romano arguing that men and women are tempted by sin differently:

"Often the most difficult (sin) men face is lust, and then comes gluttony, sloth, wrath, pride, envy, and greed," wrote Father Giertych.

"For women, the most dangerous is pride, followed by envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and lastly, sloth," he said.

The Catholic Key Blog
http://catholickey.blogspot.com/

St. Peter Damian

2009-02-21T09:33:00.002-06:00

Memorial 21 February

Youngest child in a large family. Orphaned. Sent to live with a brother, he was mistreated and forced to work as a swine-herd. Cared for another brother, a priest in Ravenna, Italy. Well educated in Fienza and Parma. Professor. Lived a life of strict austerity.

Gave up his teaching to become a Benedictine monk. His health suffered, especially when he tried to replace sleep with prayer. Abbot. Founded hermitage. Occasionally called on by the Vatican to make peace between arguing monastic houses, clergymen, and government officials, etc.

See: http://saints.sqpn.com/saintp25.htm

Lent and the Passion of Christ

2009-02-17T17:37:00.007-06:00

on CIN - Catholic Information Network

Ash Wednesday - February 25th

Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for LENT 2009
. . . "Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.” With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing."
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20081211_lent-2009_en.html

The Seven Holy Founders

2009-02-16T18:26:00.003-06:00

of the Servite Order
(Thirteenth Century)

Between the years 1225 and 1227 seven young Florentines joined the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin-popularly known as the 'Laudesi' or Praisers. It was a period when the prosperous city of Florence was being rent by political factions and distracted by the heresy of the Cathari: it was also a time of general relaxation of morals even where devotional practices were retained. These young men were members of the most prominent families of the city. Whether they were all friends before they joined the Laudesi is not clear, but in that confraternity they became closely allied.

The eldest was Buonfiglio Monaldo, who became their leader. The others were Alexis Falconieri, Benedict dell' Antella, Bartholomew Amidei, Ricovero Uguccione, Gerardino Sostegni, and John Buonagiunta. They had as their spiritual director James of Poggibonsi, who was chaplain of the Laudesi, a man of great holiness and spiritual insight. All of them came to realize the call to a life of renunciation, and they determined to have recourse to our Lady in their perplexity.

On the feast of the Assumption, as they were absorbed in prayer, they saw her in a vision, and were inspired by her to withdraw from the world into a solitary place and to live for God alone. There were difficulties, because, though three of them were celibates, four had been married and had ties, although two had become widowers. Suitable provision for their dependents was arranged, and with the approval of the bishop they withdrew from the world and betook themselves to a house called La Carmarzia, outside the gates of Florence, twenty-three days after they had received their call. Before long they found themselves so much disturbed by constant visitors from Florence that they decided to withdraw to the wild and deserted slopes of Monte Senario, where they built a simple church and hermitage and lived a life of almost incredible austerity.

In spite of difficulties, visitors sometimes found their way to the hermits and many wished to join them, but they refused to accept recruits. So they continued to live for several years, - until they were visited by their bishop, Ardingo, and Cardinal Castiglione, who had heard about their sanctity. He was greatly edified, but made one adverse criticism: 'You treat yourselves in a manner bordering on barbarity: and you seem more desirous of dying to time than of living for eternity. Take heed: the enemy of souls often hides himself under the appearance of an angel of light . .. Hearken to the counsels of your superiors.'

Again the solitaries gave themselves up to prayer for light, and again they had a vision of our Lady, who bore in her hand a black habit while an angel held a scroll inscribed with the title of Servants of Mary. She told them she -had chosen them to be her servants, that she wished them to wear the black habit, and to follow the Rule of St. Augustine. From that date, April 13, 1240, they were known as the Servants of Mary, or Servites.

For more info: http://cin.org/saints/7servite.html