tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84104472024-03-27T19:54:03.732-04:00CatholicLand!where you can revel in the JOY of being CatholicSWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.comBlogger1799125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-78780622627979246462024-03-26T12:43:00.000-04:002024-03-26T12:43:01.009-04:00Sheen's Insightsvia Happy CatholicFulton Sheen notes the connection between Cana and the Cross:He worked in the full gaze of men what He had refused to do before Satan. Satan asked Him to turn stones into bread in order that He might become an economic Messiah; His mother asked Him to change water into wine that He might become a Savior. SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-52813202574256011632024-03-26T12:37:00.003-04:002024-03-26T12:37:44.599-04:00Blackbird from the poem by Wallace StevensIVA man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one. SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-43485513917174054402024-03-05T09:55:00.001-05:002024-03-05T09:55:15.823-05:00Boomer 'tude"Disbelief in the Christian revelation is, for most people, not a matter of philosophical argument or historical evidence, it is simply a matter of desire: a desire not to believe, and almost invariably not to be judged, especially in matters of sexual morality.Secularization in the West is, in effect, an alternative faith, entirely fictitious, subjective, and driven by short-term self-interest. SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-67907590193155848172024-03-04T19:42:00.004-05:002024-03-04T19:42:38.403-05:00Guadalupe NovenaPrayerOF THE NINE-MONTH NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPETo be prayed daily throughout the nine-month novena from March 12 to December 12, 2024.O Virgin Mother of God, we fly to your protection and beg your intercession against the darkness and sin, which ever more envelope the world and menace the Church. Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, gave you to us as our mother as He died on the Cross for SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-22441909382256306272024-02-27T12:35:00.001-05:002024-02-27T12:37:36.610-05:00Lamentation “The voice of a sighing heart, Its sob and mournful cries,I offer up to you, O Seer of Secrets.I play the fruits of my wavering mindas a savory sacrifice on the fire of my grieving soulto be delivered to you In the censer of my will.Compassionate Lord, Breathe in this offering.Look more favorably upon itthan upon a more sumptuous sacrifice,offered with rich smoke.Please find SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-88368988102014071842024-02-26T15:12:00.002-05:002024-02-26T15:12:19.534-05:00Diaconal Conscience “I like to meet you now, while you are deacons, because one does not become a pastor without first being a deacon. The diaconate does not disappear with priesthood: on the contrary, it is the foundation on which it is based. You will be priests in order to serve, conforming with Jesus who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life” (cf Mk 10:45). I would say, then, that that SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-69066740975282125722024-02-26T15:08:00.002-05:002024-02-26T15:08:33.933-05:00Masculine Genius Many discussions of the feminine or masculine "geniuses" open themselves up to anecdotal rebuttals about particular men or women who defy the characterization. Here we do not define "genius" as something essential to each of the sexes, such as capacity for motherhood or fatherhood, but, rather as: "a set of characteristics, and proclivities that derive from those essential and SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-23947108974858291202024-01-29T10:09:00.000-05:002024-01-29T10:09:22.223-05:00My Confirmation Saintspeaks to my soul, from the Dominicana blog:Aquinas identifies sorrow as arising from the recognition of something lacking, a lacking that effects us in a painful and interior way (ST I-II, q. 35). When we are mourning a loved one, we feel this interior pain because we are coming to terms with the reality: this person whom we loved so much is no longer with us. It is precisely in this painful SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-63005706348073629302023-12-25T12:17:00.001-05:002023-12-26T12:20:06.427-05:00God Rest Ye Merry Ah, the true meaning of a MERRY Christmas is a Mercy-filled Christmas, one where we wish passersby that they should be as filled with the sensation of both impending doom & redemption as we are who know Christ truly. SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-57701480452008484512023-12-24T12:15:00.001-05:002023-12-26T12:17:25.202-05:00Abide with me A beautiful reflection from Spiritual Direction about finding the Still Point.SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-45753320958564110482023-12-23T12:10:00.001-05:002023-12-26T12:13:29.311-05:00Chaput rhymes with Slap You, and that he certainly does:https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/12/the-cost-of-making-a-messBravo!SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-54242842517306357992023-12-18T14:08:00.001-05:002023-12-18T14:08:17.202-05:00Do I not love you as a Mother?from a homily by Abp.Cordileone in honor of Guadalupe and Little Juan:"From the enlightenment he received in his baptism he learned that this was the way to live his life in this world already with a foretaste of the Flower World. That only comes from the imitation of the woman who appeared to him: the Mother of the one who is the source of all beauty and truth. That is the way of SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-16886910367330768932023-12-02T09:24:00.000-05:002023-12-02T09:24:06.089-05:00The real north poleWhy I love the liturgical cycle, because of insights like this one:I have often thought of December as being the last month of the
year. The perception has, I suppose, been tacitly reinforced by any number of
calendars I’ve owned. But just looking at the world around me, calendars aside,
I was particularly struck last month at how very deathlike the landscape (in
the northern hemisphere) becomes SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-47925223582103509082023-11-25T16:02:00.001-05:002023-11-25T16:04:11.282-05:00To go before the LordWe emphatically do NOT become angels. Language matters:But when those who believe in the Christian view of the world—or any view that involves the survival of the soul—use “departed” and “passed away,” we are using literal language. Death is the end of this bodily life, but it is not the end of our human being. To be “at home in the body” is to be “away from the Lord,” St. Paul wrote to the SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-41649628190743714232023-11-11T07:51:00.003-05:002023-11-11T08:14:59.303-05:00Let this chalice not pass my lipsDuring Holy Mass, I saw the Lord, who said to me, Lean your head on My breast and rest. The Lord pressed me to His Heart and said, I shall give you a small portion of My Passion, but do not be afraid, be brave; do not seek relief, but accept everything with submission to My will (Diary, 1053).When the Beloved was at the Last Supper in John 13:23, he leaned on Jesus to rest. Yet, that rest means SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-57045761630188383432023-11-02T07:31:00.001-04:002023-11-02T07:31:06.852-04:00God Bless Africa! from the Register's interview with a Cameroon archbishop:One of the biggest contributions that Africa brought to this synod is the idea of Small Christian Communities. If we don’t go back to Small Christian Communities, all this about broad-based consultation, getting everybody involved, is a pipe dream […] When you are looking at those Small Christian Communities, you’re looking at SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-26387326030049930632023-10-30T23:56:00.004-04:002023-10-30T23:56:47.089-04:00Yellow “The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.” - ThoreauSWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-39952348455042216452023-10-18T12:36:00.000-04:002023-10-18T12:36:07.550-04:00Niche issue vs. Mission Well, thank the Lord, and God bless Renee Ryan:Australian laywoman Reneé Ryan, a professor of theology and philosophy at the University of Notre Dame in Australia, said, “It’s always good to know, always good to get a bit of a lead on what the Holy Father would like to guide us in as our spiritual leader.”Regarding the question of women’s priestly ordination, Ryan said that “as a woman, I’mSWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-11827817729325312402023-10-06T09:55:00.000-04:002023-10-06T09:55:28.162-04:00St. Basil on the Holy SpiritPope Francis asked the Synod participants to reflect on the writings of St. Basil about the Holy Spirit, so that is what I will be reading over the weekend. The Synod is a path made by the Holy Spirit. We have handed you some sheets with Patristic texts that will help us at the opening of the Synod. They are Saint Basil’s, who wrote that beautiful treatise on the Holy Spirit. Why? Because weSWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-63775919174087475622023-09-29T11:56:00.000-04:002023-09-29T11:56:07.349-04:00Good quote “I've never been tempted by discouragement. I think evangelization is a question of patience and trust.”-Cardinal-elect BustilloSWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-90259121459870226622023-09-20T12:02:00.003-04:002023-09-20T12:02:57.303-04:00Tyranny of HypersubjectivismChristianity itself is beset by the third existential crisis in its history, a contemporary crisis over the nature of humanity itself, a crisis manifest on the same global scale as the Church herself. More than ever, the question for our times is “What is man?” For Christians, it’s a crisis over the concept of creation, over Genesis itself. Is man created in God’s image? Or are we our own SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-4226175352732156852023-09-16T15:17:00.003-04:002023-09-16T15:17:34.280-04:00from my inboxGive away everything at the first sign of a demand, even if they were the most necessary things. Do not ask for anything without consulting Me. Allow them to take away even what is due you — respect, your good name — let your spirit rise above all that. And so, set free from everything, rest close to My Heart, not allowing your peace to be disturbed by anything. My pupil, consider the words whichSWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-81136403910776207942023-08-31T07:57:00.000-04:002023-08-31T07:57:06.470-04:00HospitalityCarl Trueman suggests an antidote in "The Death of Church and Pub" --The West is currently engaged in an experiment doomed to fail. Human beings crave real relationships, and there will come a backlash to the isolated wasteland of modern life, marked by the frictionless “friendships” of the online “community.” After all, nobody on his deathbed wants his loved ones appearing before him by Zoom. HeSWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-71031237516406594012023-07-29T09:52:00.003-04:002023-07-31T09:59:18.064-04:00The role of women in the ChurchThe women who supported the apostolic ministry:The very first mention of Mary Magdalene is often missed. In Luke 8:1-3, the writer notes that the twelve disciples were with Jesus: “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.”These three verses from Luke are often SWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8410447.post-7009902717867189162023-07-14T01:03:00.000-04:002023-07-14T01:03:15.741-04:00Acedia The Noonday Devilhttps://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/recognizing-noonday-devil/https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/fellows/acedia-beating-back-the-noonday-devil/https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/spiritual-life/acedia-30-06-17.htmlSWPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04155345901625257661noreply@blogger.com0