Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Pluto may have nitrogen glaciers, and the planet's air pressure is much lower than scientists expected. Kepler 452b, "Earth 2.0," isn't the first roughly Earth-size planet found in a star's habitable zone: but the star, Kepler 452, is remarkably similar to our sun. Another planet, HIP 11915b, is the first we've found that's around Jupiter's size: and orbiting its star at about the same distance as Jupiter. This is the first other planetary system that 'looks like' our Solar system. Scientists still haven't found life elsewhere in the universe: but the odds seem to be getting better that we will, eventually.... ...A 'science threatens faith' op-ed got my attention this week, so I wrote about beliefs, reasonable and otherwise, before getting around to the interesting stuff. Feel free to skip ahead to Pluto's Probable Glaciers , take a walk, or whatever suits your fancy.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The older I get, the more I love summer. Despite the fact that I have my own "private" summers, I treasure every day during the summer. You can read the rest of the article at Being Catholic ... Really .

I recently came across this video, "Atheists Who Oppose Abortion." Watch these atheists eloquently speak about being pro-life. To view the video, go to Being Catholic ... Really .

What have you been reading?  I've been reading a lot lately and on a regular basis.  I do that sometimes.  Then other times, I go for long stretches and I don't read anything at all.  I also like to mix it up.  I love fiction, but I also like a variety of other genres.  For a long time I read one western after another. You can read the article and view the photo gallery at Being Catholic ... Really .

Poverty Can Be Eliminated Poverty can be eliminated if we, to whom much has been given, were to share with those less fortunate. Everything that we have comes from the providence of God. Nothing that we think we own, do we actually own, for it could all be taken away in the blink of an eye. Everything belongs to God, and we are merely the stewards of his benefaction. Saint Francis de Sales says: …our possessions are not our own; God has given them to us that we may cultivate them, and it is His will that we should render them useful and fruitful . 1 Therefore, what we do with our surplus matters in the eyes of God. Do we use it for the benefit of others, or do we consume it for ourselves? Read more...

Before the Age of Starbucks and Costa Coffee I used to travel all over the country trying to spread the Good News that I hadn’t really understood myself.   Then, thanks to my aversion to the motorway coffee that looked like sepia soup that tasted like dishwater with a hint of soap suds, I bought two twelve vault kettles at a car boot sale to brew my own in the car. The good news is that it worked, the bad news is that it took two hour to boil and made me lose my temper. As soon as I got home I plugged the kettle into the mains and watched the flash as it went up in smoke. It was as the smell of burning rubber was invading my nostrils that I saw the light, this time it was a spiritual flash of light that enabled me to see what I’d never seen before. Just as I discovered the hard way that 240 volts into 12 volts will not go I simultaneously saw that infinite love into finite love will not go either. That was why, before Jesus came, nobody could get close to God, nobody ever saw him...

Prayer is as essential to our spiritual life as breathing is to our physical life. It is getting in touch with God, our Creator, and communicating with him. This deepens our relationship with God. We wouldn’t want to arrive at the pearly gates of heaven and have God say to us, “And who are you?” Many of us who know the value of prayer also know that it may be plagued with difficulties. As one woman bemoaned, “I would pray more if I knew how to do it.” Let’s investigate some of the complaints about prayer and possible solutions. Click to continue

It is neither popular nor politically correct to say so, but one of the most important "jobs" Christians have is to save souls. Esmeralda Kiczek's book  The Adoption Movement   approaches the subject with love, dignity and grace. Featured in a recent Catholic Digest article,  The Adoption Movement  addresses the issue of saving souls head on. There's a lot at stake and the business of saving souls--our own as well as others--is something that can't be ignored.

Why does Planned Parenthood need to be funded in the first place?  Don't they make enough money to do their genocide (oops! I mean women's health care) in poor neighborhoods for free? You can read the rest of the article at Being Catholic ... Really .

WHAT CAN YOU LEARN FROM THE TOILET ROLL? BET YOU WILL IGNORE THIS AND NOT CLICK HERE

Why be a giver? You might be thinking, “Why should I part with my hard earned money and give it to someone else? No one’s done any favors for me?” The short answer is that you do it because Jesus commanded you to when He said “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). How can you love your neighbor as yourself, if you allow your neighbor to do without while you live comfortably? You, in essence, love yourself more than your neighbor. We are all in this together. We are all on the same journey, heading hopefully to the same place – eternal life with Christ. Are you ready to stand before Christ for your particular judgment and answer these questions? Read more...

Touring Chicago's beautiful churches continues with   St. Thérèse Chinese Catholic Church .  It is a church close to my heart as our choir has been singing there since September 25, 2011. You can read the rest of the article and view the photo gallery at Being Catholic ... Really .

In my life-long journey with God, I v grown from,  innocent faith (inheriting it from mom and grand dad as a child) to teenage liberal-Christianity (when I figured out my own convenient brand of Christianity-meets-new age-secular  theology) to reaching a point where my new-age-theology failed me miserably to seeking to know Him to busying myself with activities for His kingdom to a genuine realization that actually I didn't know the person of God And then, there is love:) Read the complete post at J.A.M.

J ohn 6:1-15, from  The Gospel of John  (2003)  Directed by Philip Saville. Jesus played by Henry Ian Cusick; narrator, Christopher Plummer. Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Gospel   John 6:1-15  ( New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition , Canada)    After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.   A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.     Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.   Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.   When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”   He said this to test him, for he hi...

(from The Cloistered Heart)

(From NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); ESA/Hubble Collaboration; used w/o permission.) " The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky proclaims its builder's craft. " ( Psalms 19:2 ) Genesis 1:1 - 31 says that God created the universe, and us, and found everything "very good." Psalms 19:2 says that the celestial light show declares the glory of God. Who is this message being directed at? More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I understand modern man often glibly, glosses over the atrocity of abortion, justifying it by focusing on the mother and not on what really happens during abortions. There is a place for shock tactics in the battle to save our unborn children.  Yet our society is bombarded by grotesque images of war, starvation and torture; it is almost immune to the  most horrific scenes flashing across the media. Sometimes humour, warmth and humanity gets the point across.   With this thought in my mind. I have collected or created a few pro-life memes which use humour rather than horror to celebrate the miracle of life and birth.  continue

From The Breadbox Letters

Pluto's still in the news, as New Horizons starts sending data from its July 14 flyby. That will take more than a year, but there have already been surprises: including "not easy to explain terrain" near Pluto's equator. Meanwhile, the DSCOVR Solar weather monitor sent back a snapshot of Earth; and Professor Stephen Hawking is supporting a new search for intelligent life in the universe. I think the Royal Society in London's Breakthrough Initiatives group will collect interesting facts while listening for extraterrestrial radio broadcasts. But I also think that our neighbors could easily have been using wireless telegraphy when Oldowan tools were our high tech. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

In honor of NFP awareness week I thought I'd share my journey in NFP. Not an easy one. You will find real honestly here . Blessings, Jen

    I recently decided to dig deeper into understanding Centering Prayer, so I could advise readers on it. I bought Fr. Thomas Keating’s book Open Heart, Open Mind and wrote a review that will appear at SpiritualDirection.com in September. But one blog post was not enough. The errors in this book were so many and so serious, I decided it needed a more thorough response. So I am writing a quick ebook called Teresa of Avila Debunks Centering Prayer. It should be ready for publication in a couple of weeks. Here is an excerpt, on Centering Prayer’s errors about God. It still needs to be edited, so please excuse anything my editor/husband would refer to as “infelicities.” The first error concerns the distinction between God and man. Continue reading at Contemplative Homeschool.

As a child, I had a record that played the song, “Mr. I. Magination.” I believe the first line continued, “the man with the magic reputation.” Our imagination truly is magical.  We thank God for our gifts of sight, hearing, and—especially after a scrumptious meal—taste, but how many of us thank for the gift of imagination?  Recently I heard a homily in which the priest pointed out that imagination is a power of our soul that we share with God. After all, God first imagined the world and us—conceived it in his mind—before he brought it into being! Our imagination helps us to create too. Author Jules Verne imagined things like lunar modules, diving bells, and tasers before they became realities. As Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” No doubt Michelangelo, Monet, and Van Gogh first visualized their masterpieces in their mind’s eye. Click to continue

Touring Chicago's beautiful churches brings us to  St. Viator  located at 4170 W. Addison.  St. Viator was established in 1888 by the clerics of St. Viator and the original site was at Belmont and Crawford (Pulaski). You can see the photo gallery of St. Viator at Being Catholic ... Really .

As a Christian, living in the Mystical Body off Christ, I can choose to live in the joy of the Lord or stay in my misery, isolated from the Spirit of God who dwells within. When I live in my head, I live in a prison of whirling thoughts cut off from others and God. If I go deeper into my being and live in my human emotions, in pain or in self-manufactured “happiness”, I end up stuck as a victim of others and in my sinful, independent self. However, if I allow God to draw me even deeper into my core, united to Him, joy springs up automatically.  Now I exist in a state of effortless prayer connected to God. Living in my spirit , as a child of God, I am in my true self.  continue

Give freely from your wealth to alleviate the suffering of the poor; that is the easiest way to define the virtually unknown virtue of Munificence. A person truly practices Munificence when he/she uses his/her wealth to alleviate the suffering of the poor, while acknowledging the merit of poverty for oneself in regards to eternal life. Remember, you can’t take it with you! As with the virtue of Magnanimity, with Munificence, intention matters. The primary purpose must be to alleviate the suffering of the poor; to address poverty. If the primary purpose for donating from one’s wealth was for a tax deduction, then the person would not be munificent, albeit generous. As a society, we should be... Read more...

Michele, over at My Domestic Monastery, had a really nice post the other day,  I'm Wasting My Life (and So Should You) , about the purpose for motherhood, and the transition of going from a working Mom to a stay-at-home,  writing Mom.  She wrote about working and then choosing to stay home, as well as the link between the monastic vocation and the vocation of motherhood... and plus,  why it matters. It  really  resonated with me.  oh, ya know... just wasting my life... on this preciousness.  just two of the sweetest little munchkins  ever .... nothing special. ;) I did the whole working wife/working Mom thing for about 3 1/2 years. I was a (Pre-School, Classical School Co-op/Dance) teacher and a nanny in Maryland, helping put my hubby through grad school and helping to pay the bills. I then transitioned to stay-at-home Mom turned Homeschooling mom, which was its own vocation, surely. ;) Now that I am a writer and mostly a stay-at-h...

Congratulations to Jared Zimmerer for his Honorable Mention win in the Gender Issues category at the 2015 Catholic Press Awards! Jared's book  Man Up! Becoming the New Renaissance Man  is a gathering of twelve voices who speak to a variety of topics.   They include:  Fr. Dwight Longenecker: Foreword;  Jared Zimmerer: Where Have All The Good Men Gone?;  Jesse Romero: Do Not Be Afraid of the Culture of Death;  Marlon De La Torre: Theological Manhood; D eacon Harold Burke-Sivers: Biblical Manhood and many more! Author Zimmerer  is an avid weight lifter and sought-after conference speaker whose first book is the popular   Ten Commandments of Lifting Weights . 

(from The Cloistered Heart)

I'm pretty sure that the current Pope's 'communist crucifix' will be as well-remembered in the mid-22nd century as Leo XIII's tricycle is today. Pope Francis called it "protest art," said he understands the idea behind it, and isn't offended by the gift. I think that's reasonable. (From PA, via The Telegraph, used w/o permission.) (" The table, which is called an EVO 8000, came with customised bats painted with the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes flags " ( The Telegraph ) Sometimes diplomatic gifts aren't very diplomatic. For example — the pingpong table British Prime Minister David Cameron gave the American president was a great idea, with just one problem: it was made in China. That was in 2012, so maybe the fuss about a "best of Britain" being made in China has stopped. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Flock of Sheep in the Campagna , Claude Lorrain Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna [ Web Gallery of Art ] Gospel   Mark 6:30-34  ( NRV,Version, Catholic Edition , Canada)    The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.   He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.   And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.   Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.   As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.   Fr Ragheed Aziz Ganni  (20 January 1972 - 3 June 2007) I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, o...

5 Catholic mum bloggers challenge today’s culture on the value of motherhood Ontario, Canadian mum Melanie Jean Juneau is a love rebel— one of 5 moms who have chosen to pursue the vocation of motherhood over their careers or personal goals. Along with four other Catholic moms, she shares her stories of mothering despite living in a culture that belittles their efforts in  Love Rebel: Reclaiming Motherhood. Compiled and edited by Roberta Cottam, this slender anthology aspires to encourage today’s moms in their vocation of motherhood. From inspiring poetry to practical tips, essays that capture the small moments of motherhood and reflections on mothering in today’s world, this anthology brings together a wealth of wisdom from five ordinary yet inspiring moms. ebook Coming out July 21, paperback available now on Amazon continue reading

New Horizons has started sending back data from its Pluto flyby on July 14, 2015. Pluto and Charon don't have nearly as many craters as scientists expected. One patch, at least, seems to be very new, on the cosmic time scale. Something, maybe Pluto's equivalent of volcanic eruptions, resurfaced that terrain in the last 100,000,000 years. There's something odd about Charon's north polar region, too. Interesting, anyway. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

All about  ingrained anxiety and growing in trust. Anxiety   makes us ill in body, mind, and spirit. Yet worry is ingrained in our nature from the moment we are born, part of original sin. Babies are not simply empty slates; they are complex little people who just happen to be preverbal. Babies are born with more than simply inherited physical characteristics but personalities and even inherited blessings and curses passed down through the generations. .......  I must let go of worry and control, even though it goes against every fiber of my being. My Lord is God and I am not. I am simply His child.  I love to control so God often must shatter my safe little world because this is the only way I would step out of my comfort zone. continue reading

I was recently asked to do a post about a new doll company and thought, "Why not make it into a {p, h, f, r} post ?  I am a doll lover!!! ( I know, technically, I cannot love a doll because it is incapable of sharing emotions, but the English language is so limited in this capacity).  So I am pleased to introduce Dolls from Heaven and their heavenly dolls PRETTY The picture speaks for itself as far as beauty, but let me add a little information.  This is the first prototype doll.  She is St Therese.  Who doesn't love St Therese?  (Yes, I know I used the same word, and this time it was genuine, lets come up with a new, useful word to add to our lexicon instead of all these texting abbreviations, please!) She is gorgeous.  Her habit is well designed with much attention to detail.  At $100, she easily competes with those other 18" dolls that are quickly losing their appeal in my opinion.  This is a doll that can be treasured for ma...

Twenty years ago this week, Chicago experienced the worst heat wave in recent history.  According to the  Chicago Tribune , the temperature was 106 degrees on July 13, 1995.  Over 700 victims were claimed by the intensity of that heat and our city was left reeling. You can read the rest of the article at Being Catholic ... Really .

The statistics on homelessness is staggering--while it is hard to get an accurate number, all told it is in the millions just in the United States.  Sadly, the fasting growing population of homeless is children.  Here are five ways that you and your family can help in five really quick bites. 1 Support Habitat for Humanity.   It is an incredible organization, changing the lives of homeless people and families, one simple house at a time.  In high school, I did a lot of fundraising and publicity for Habitat for Humanity.  At that point, it was not as well known as today.  I have never gotten to actually work on a Habitat house, but I think I am going to try to find a project near by that Buddy and I can support with a little elbow grease.  He loves to build and I miss getting to, wood shop was my favorite class in middle school. Even if you can't swing a hammer, you can help out and save money at the same time.  Check out one of their Re-Store...

The Church celebrates the Feast of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor on July 15 with a beautiful selection in the Office of Readings from his book The Journey of the Mind to God ; a treatise about the ascent of the soul to the Lord. St. Bonaventure describes this ascent, this longing for the Lord as something that is possible only with the assistance of the Lord himself. The key to unlocking this flood of grace - of divine assistance, is prayer.  St. Bonaventure tells us, "This divine aid is available for all who seek it with a truly humble and devout heart, that is by sighing for it in this vale of tears by fervent prayer. Prayer is the mother and origin of every upward striving of the soul." The enemy #1 of this ascent to God is sin. "Sin", according to St. Bonaventure, "deforms nature." Once again, the antidote to sin that he prescribes is prayer and the living of a holy life. He encourages detachment in order to pursue this journey towards God say...

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Going from good to great sounds daunting, doesn’t it? It need not be so. To be magnanimous or noble-minded, to be great, simply means that we need to recognize the talents that God has given us and use them to the best of our abilities for the benefit of others. That added extra phrase, ‘for the benefit of others,’ marks the clear distinction of intention between self-sacrificing love for one’s neighbor and self-serving love. Where do you start? Take an honest assessment of your talents. Perhaps you are a good listener. If so, be magnanimous with your time and give a listening ear to those in need. Perhaps you are a good communicator/teacher. If so, share your knowledge with others. God gave each of us talents, differing talents, which is a good thing. Read more...

I crawled literally on my hands and knees in the dark. The grass was cool beneath me; the tears were hot streaming down my cheeks. I searched for the Crosses I'd flung across the backyard earlier. I was hurt. I was terrified. I was mad at God. What had happened to my life? To the lives of my children? To my family? To our whole world? So often during those first couple of years I'd run images in my head trying to figure out what had happened. My husband and I had been best friends and had renewed our vows on Valentine's Day 2009. What had happened to change him so drastically? Had he changed or had I misjudged him the entire time? I couldn't know. What I did know is that shortly before we renewed our vows, he reconnected with an ex-girlfriend on Facebook and that on Mother's Day of that same year he suddenly announced he was leaving, moving out just a week later. I was also five months pregnant with our fifth little boy. I went to church Sund...

Pluto is the brightest of many objects orbiting the sun in what is known as the Kuiper Belt. Yesterday, the NASA probe New Horizons  going 31,000 mph passed Pluto, snapping pictures and recording data. The 3-billion-mile journey there took nine years. This is an awesome feat for the human race. When Pluto was discovered in 1930, it was hailed as a planet. Now that we know more, it has been re-dubbed as a “dwarf planet.” Pondering the immensity of the universe beyond earth gives me vertigo. It’s impossible to fathom the mind-boggling distances and seemingly endless number of extraterrestial bodies—stars, asteroids, planets, and black holes—surrounding our little blue and green Earth hurtling through space. No wonder some Jewish man ages ago gazing at the breathtaking night sky exclaimed, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care fo...

Dozens of times in the Gospels, Jesus "amazes" his listeners. Here are a few of my favorites: They were amazed, saying "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?" -Matthew 8:27 They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. -Mark 10:32 And all who were with him were amazed at the catch.  -Luke 5:9 Does Jesus amaze us? Is he so shockingly unique that we, his followers, are sometimes a little afraid of him? Read on at Praying with Grace ! Gold Aurei of the Twelve Caesars. Gift of C. Ruxton Love Jr., 1967.  www.metmuseum.or