Friday, March 5, 2021
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Lent is Upon Us
Ash Wednesday - February 17, 2021
During Lent, we are asked to devote ourselves to seeking the Lord in prayer and reading Scripture, to service by giving alms, and to practice self-control through fasting.
Many know of the tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, but we are also called to practice self-discipline and fast in other ways throughout the season. In addition, the giving of alms is one way to share God's gifts—not only through the distribution of money, but through the sharing of our time and talents.
As St. John Chrysostom reminds us: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2446).
-Guest Blogger, Bart Tesoriero
Friday, February 12, 2021
Happy Saint Valentine's Day!
In 270 A.D. Emperor Claudius issued an edict forbidding marriage
because he believed that married men made poor soldiers, not wanting to leave
their families to go to battle. Bishop Valentine disagreed with the emperor and
invited young lovers to come to him in secret to be married. When Claudius
found that Valentine was performing marriages secretly, he was incensed. He had
Valentine seized and brought before him. When Valentine refused to change his
views and renounce Christianity, he was put in prison to await execution. The
judge, whose name was Asterius, had a daughter who was blind. Valentine prayed
for little girl, and God healed her. Before Valentine was executed, he wrote a
letter to the girl, and signed it, “From your
Valentine”. The next day,
Valentine was clubbed, stoned, and then beheaded. He remained faithful to Jesus
to the end.
Guest Blogger - Bart Tesoriero
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Happy Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes!
Bernadette Soubirous was born to a poor family in Lourdes, in southern France, on January 7, 1844. Her family lived in a small one-room cottage that had once been a jail. Bernadette was often sick and had a hard time at school. One day the 14-year old Bernadette went with some friends to gather firewood. Suddenly, in a cave beside a river, she saw a beautiful Lady wearing a blue and white dress above a rose bush. The Lady smiled at Bernadette and made the Sign of the Cross with a golden rosary. Bernadette knelt down and began to pray.
Crowds began to follow Bernadette to the cave as the Virgin Mary’s visits continued. Our Lady appeared a total of 18 times to Bernadette, revealing herself as the Immaculate Conception. (The Church teaches that Mary was conceived without sin by a singular grace of God so that Jesus could be born from an immaculate womb.) Our Lady asked Bernadette to dig at a spot near the grotto, and suddenly a fresh cool spring of healing waters began to flow. Mary asked Bernadette to have a chapel built nearby, so people could come there to wash and drink. The water from this spring continues to show remarkable healing power to this day, bringing medically documented healings to many people.
Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity in Nevers, France, and died there from tuberculosis at the young age of 35. Lourdes is today the most famous modern shrine of Our Lady. Each year more than 5 million people come to the grotto of Massabielle to pray to God Our Father, to honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and to seek healing of spirit, soul, and body.
The response of so many has made Lourdes a Town of Friendship, a world center of pilgrimage, and a special place where God meets His people.
Pope Pius XI canonized Saint Bernadette in 1933, and to this day, her body remains entirely and miraculously incorrupt, at her convent in Nevers, France.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas was born into a noble Italian family around 1226. At the age of 10, he was judged ready to enter the University of Naples. At 17, he joined the newly founded Dominican Order, against his family’s wishes. His brothers, generals in the Italian army, kidnapped Thomas and held him prisoner for two years in their castle. However, Thomas escaped in a basket over the wall and went to Germany to study under Saint Albert the Great. He became a priest and was sent to the University of Paris, where he taught philosophy and theology for many years.
Saint Thomas deeply loved and revered Our Lord Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. He wrote special prayers and hymns for the feast of Corpus Christi—the Body of Christ. His greatest and probably best-known work is a summary of the theology of the Church—the Summa Theologia.
One day God gave Saint Thomas a special experience of His presence. After this, Saint Thomas stopped writing, saying his writing was like “so much straw” when compared to God’s glory. Saint Thomas died four months later, in 1274. He was named the “Angelic Doctor”— one of the 33 Doctors, or Teachers—of the Church, because the Church considers his teachings to be as wise and holy as those of the angels in heaven.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!
Submitted by Guest Blogger Bart Tesoriero
Friday, January 8, 2021
Friday, October 23, 2020
Feast of Saint Pope John Paul II - October 22
In 1939, the German army invaded Poland and tyrannically ruled that country for the next few years. After World War II, the Communists took over. Meanwhile, Karol studied secretly to become a priest, and he was soon ordained a bishop at the age of 38. He was elected as the first Polish pope ever, Pope John Paul II, in 1978. His first words were, “Be not afraid!”
Pope John Paul had a very deep love for the Mother of Jesus, and his motto was: “Totus Tuus,” which means, “I am all yours, Jesus and Mary!”
Pope John Paul II traveled to more countries and spoke to more people than any other pope in history. He helped to defeat Communism and worked very hard to promote a culture of life. After suffering for some years from a debilitating case of Parkinson’s disease, Pope John Paul II died on April 2nd, 2005—the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday. Pope Francis canonized him along with Pope John XXIII on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2014.
A Final Prayer:
“Abide in Me, and I in you… for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)
I leave you now with this prayer: that the Lord Jesus will reveal Himself to each one of you, that He will give you the strength to go out and profess that you are Christian, that He will show you that He alone can fill your hearts.
Accept His freedom and embrace His truth, and be messengers of the certainty that you have been truly liberated through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
This will be the new experience, the powerful experience, that will generate, through you, a more just society and a better world. God bless you and may the joy of Jesus be always with you!
~Pope John Paul II
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