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The saint of the day is St. Etheldreda (also known as: Audrey, Ethelreda, Æthelthryth, Edilthride, Ediltrudis, Edeltrude), a widow and a Benedictine nun. She was born in Exning, Suffolk, England and died at Ely, 679. To her friends and family, this once most famous female Anglo-Saxon saint was Etheldreda. To poor people she was Audrey, and the word "tawdry" originally came from the cheap necklaces that were sold on the feast of Saint Audrey and which were believed to cure illness of the throat and neck. This was because Etheldreda had suffered from neck cancer, which she attributed to divine punishment because she was once vain enough to wear a costly necklace. She had a huge tumor on her neck when she died, but, according the Saint Bede, when her tomb was opened by her sister Saint Sexburga, her successor as abbess at Ely Abbey, ten (or 16) years after her death, her body was found incorrupt and the tumor had healed. Etheldreda was a woman of noble birth, the daughter o

By Allison Salerno During my eighth period hall-walking duty, I heard a commotion in the downstairs hallway by the high school's gym. The school nurse, who was standing with the school's security officer and a local police officer, told me a deer had given birth to two fawns in an outside alcove. Staff and students had watched while the new mom hustled into the woods with one of her newborns, leaving the other fawn in the shade of our concrete building. Worry filled the air: what would happen to the new fawn?

Picture source "...And I saw the river over which every soul must pass to reach the Kingdom of Heaven and the name of that river was Suffering...And I saw the boat which carries souls across the river, and the name of that boat was Love..." Source: Universal Living Rosary Association

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BBC News - New Archbishop of Cardiff George Stack is installed

I have posted this on my own blog, Autumn's Leaves , but thought it worth reproducing here too. A conundrum. As we all know, the new revised order of Mass will be upon us from the first week of Advent this year. This will be a challenge for Priests and parishioners alike, especially those who have memorised the Liturgy by rote after years of repetition. All of a sudden, the familiar words have changed, and will necessitate a slower, more thoughtful reading, which can't be a bad thing. But for a while, I would expect a fumbling through Missals, or printed Mass sheets for a while... But no, our Priest has decided that a PowerPoint screen above the altar with the revised words on will do. When he announced this at the end of Vigil Mass on Saturday, there was an audible gasp which rippled around the sanctuary. He assured us that it wouldn't "get in the way of the Sacrament" but that it was about time the Church "joined the modern world". My heart plu

 The link to the video was sent by my friend Frances Molloy (photo below), founder of the Pastoral Care Project in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England. I was involved with the Project to a limited degree while based in Solihull, near Birmingham, from 2000 to 2002.   Here is a brief history of the Project from its website: In 1989, I was leading a Spiritual Development programme (Light Out of Darkness written by Sr Kathleen O’Sullivan SSL) and the theme of that particular week was ‘finding God in my weakness’, Romans 8.26-27. I met a lady with dementia in an EMI (Elderly and Mentally Infirm) Ward at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, while visiting as a church volunteer. She was also blind and yet seemed to have an awareness which captured my attention. She couldn't remember her name – and yet she had this great awareness of God and others. Reflecting on the scripture and the visit, I became aware of how special and unique each person is. The visit highlighted that Go

No matter where you fall on your opinion of this man , it is time now to pray for everyone concerned. In particular, we should be praying for the many people who placed so much faith in his ministry. They are finding all of this quite devastating. Let us pray. . . . For priests who are ill or in any kind of difficulty, that our prayer may reach them all and give them true spiritual consolation, that it may strengthen their certainty of the Lord's love for them, which is also manifest in the sign of his Cross. For those called to the priesthood, that their choice may be motivated solely by the desire to glorify God and to serve him in their brethren, communicating to them the gifts of the divine mercy of the Lord who came to find those who were lost and to restore to life those who lived no longer. For priests who are in difficulty, so that, through prayer, they may accept enlightenment from the Lord in order to rediscover the joy of their identity as men in the world but n

Today's saint of the day is Blessed Osanna Andreasi  of Mantua (1449 - 1505), a Dominican tertiary, stigmatic, and mystic. The daughter of Italian nobles Nicolaus and Agnes, she is reported to have had her first mystical experience at the age of five: a vision of the Trinity, the nine choirs of angels, and Jesus as a child her own age, carrying His Cross. Feeling called to the religious life, Osanna rejected an arranged marriage and became a Dominican tertiary at the age of 17; however, she waited 37 years to complete her vows so she could care for her brothers and sisters after the death of her parents. At the age of eighteen she experienced mystical espousal to Jesus -- like St. Catherine of Siena , she had a vision in which Our Blessed Mother made her a bride of Christ, placing a ring on her finger. When she was thirty she received the stigmata on her head, then her side, and finally on her feet. She also had a vision in which her heart was transformed and divi

Little Voice: Terry Pratchett - choosing to die : "I caught Terry Pratchett's BBC2 documentary on assisted suicide by chance last night. Watching it was depressing and desperately sad. The fo..."

The Trinity , El Greco, painted 1577, Museo del Prado, Madrid Readings   (New American Bible, used in the Philippines and USA). Gospel John 3:16-18 (Jerusalem Bible, used in Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, Scotland)  Jesus said to Nicodemus,  God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God's only Son. An Soiscéal Eoin 3:16-18 (Gaeilge, Irish) San am sin dúirt Íosa lena dheisceabail: Óir ghráigh Dia an domhan chomh mór sin gur thug sé a Aonghin Mic uaidh i dtreo, gach duine a chreideann ann, nach gcaillfí é ach go mbeadh an bheatha shioraí aige. Óir ní chun daorbhreith a thabhairt ar an saol a chuir

My husband and I are the parents of 3 wonderful children, well one is grown, married, and on his own, so he isn’t a child anymore. But the two remaining at home are daughters...... in their teens. You got it, in their teens. I swore that when they reached their teenaged years, we would not label them the dreaded “teenager” in a negative way. Fast-film forward and here we are and the label is unavoidable. Mood-swings, temper-tantrums, and sullen eyes have been the norm around the house lately, all from me! It all started a few years ago when sweaters were not fitting nicely on our eldest daughter, until I realized that she needed a bra. What a different THAT made! Shocked as I drove home to report that new development to my knight, who couldn’t believe it either. “I’m not ready for this!” I told him, he just nodded in agreement. Our son was fairly even-keeled, the only annoyance he brought to the teenaged table was his phrase, “I can handle it, Mom, I am 16 now!” Driving infractions

 by Alexandre Grellet inspired by the post on this sweet child of God I had a look around the web and found this touching image.

I recently had some discussions with a blogger who identifies herself as a "Recovering Catholic." The first time I heard that phrase was when a columnist in our local paper used it to describe herself too. She never said really why she was recovering or what happened to her. When I used to debate on AOL boards, another debator and my comrad-in-arms, Eileen came up with the theory that a majority of Catholics who leave the church, don't know anything or very little about their Catholic Faith. In discussion after discussion the amount of basic knowledge of Catholicism that these people did not know was stunning. They in fact weren't recovering from Catholicism, because in fact they never knew what Catholicism really was, what it really taught, or how it was really to be lived. It may be that they had a run in with a mean nun, or an abusive priest or something. But that's not recovering from Catholicism - that's recovery from physical, emotional, intellectual

Today is the is the feast day of St. Germaine Cousin, a simple and pious young girl who lived in Pibrac, France in the late 1500s. Germaine was born in 1579 to poor parents. Her father was a farmer, and her mother died when she was still an infant. She was born with a deformed right arm and hand, as well as the disease of scrofula, a tubercular condition. Her father remarried soon after the death of her mother, but his new wife was filled with disgust by Germaine's condition. She tormented and neglected Germaine, and taught her siblings to do so as well. Starving and sick, Germaine was eventually kicked out of the house and forced to sleep under the stairway in the barn, on a pile of leaves and twigs, because of her stepmother’s dislike of her and disgust of her condition. She tended to the family's flock of sheep everyday. Despite her hardships, she lived each day full of thanksgiving and joy, and spent much of her time praying the Rosary and teaching the village childr

I recently wrote a post on my blog about how deadly silence can be and how, we, as Catholics, are called upon by God to speak up against the "shroud of sin" which encompasses our world today. After writing this post about silence, I began reflecting on the power of words. On how words have the power to build up or the power to destroy; the power to hurt others or the power to help. During this reflection I thought about one simple word and the effect it can have on humankind. This word is "yes". Every single "yes" to God has the power to change the world forever. Mother Mary gave her "yes" to God and changed the course of human history. "Yes" - such a simple word to say to God....yet its effects ripple into eternity.

Listening to the radio this lunchtime, I heard a woman on a discussion show describe how she aborted her 3rd child, the fruit of a stable relationship, because the family income was just a little too much to qualify for Child Benefit. She talked about the "wonderful counsellors" at the abortion agency who helped her come to this decision, and their "care and support". For the sake of a few pounds a week, a human life was torn from what should be the safest place in the world, his/her Mother's womb. When my children were small, we were living on an extremely low wage and had no luxuries. There were times when we had to rely on the generosity of others, and help from the state. And yet our girls were richly blessed with love, joy and laughter, and have grown to be lovely young women with children of their own. I feel such pity and sorrow for this Mother, who has been led to believe that we can put a price on a human life. May God have mercy on her, and may w

Joanna Bogle is one of my "heroines". She writes in a hopeful & joyful way about our Catholic faith & church. Here is a snippet from FAITH Magazine which might be helpful for us all to read & maybe discuss. My personal view of the Catholic Church is that it extols women & femininity & indeed it's great to be a Catholic woman! Contemporary Catholicism on Femininity: An Appreciation Joanna Bogle FAITH Magazine May – June 2011 In a frank reflection Joanna Bogle, writer and journalist, helpfully offers a short case study concerning the necessary interaction of Catholic tradition and contemporary culture. The arrival in the Church of new groups of Anglicans, whose journey to Rome was begun by the decision of the Church of England to ordain women, has thrown a new spotlight on the whole topic of the Church and women. "They think we're all misogynists" sighed one of the group heading for the Ordinariate, who had had spiteful - there is

In Wales the prefix Llan means 'church of..' and there are many Llanfair's (St Mary's) and Llandewi's (St Davids) but only one Tyddewi which means David's house and it was here in what is now Britain and possibly Europe's smallest city, that St David was born and built his house. It was called Menevia and his monastery following the Celtic monastic tradition was a community of small huts in the valley of the Alan.Today it is a very popular spot for holidays and walking tours of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path,  http://www.stdavids.co.uk/ We have just got back from a short camping break there, here are some photos of the great cathedral built in the valley to hide it from the viking raiders, in the days of catholic Britain 3 pilgrimages to St Davids equalled 1 to Rome. Like most of the ancient Welsh Bishoprics St Davids is older than Canterbury. Dewi Sant is Britain's only native principal Patron. Patrick was Welsh too and left to convert Ireland from Wh

I found these beautiful, relaxed pictures of our dear Pope Benedict at his summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, and just wanted to share them with you... We love you, dear Papa!