Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Today marks the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This feast day, in honor of our Blessed Mother, originated in the early 1700’s. It is a day to celebrate the universal church. On this special day, we call on Our Lady to pray for us. We ask for prayers just like when we ask a neighbor to pray for us. Yet, the power of Mary is far greater, as she is the Mother of God. In honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, I found this prayer on catholic.org to share with you: A Prayer to the Most Blessed Virgin, Our Lady of Mount Carmel (State your intention/need) O most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother. Read more...

Because Saint Ann conceived our Blessed Mother in her womb without original sin, and because Mary remained sin-free for her entirely earthly life, God assumed Mary into Heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life. Mary’s refraining from sin resulted in no need for her earthly body to decay; to experience death as we know it. In stark contrast, for everyone else, our souls separate from our bodies at the time of our earthly deaths. Our bodies decay because of the original sin committed by Adam and Eve, and from our own concupiscence to sin. God created Adam from dust, and as a result of Original Sin, unto dust we all shall return. Our departed souls await the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, when He will resurrect our glorified bodies, reunited with our souls, in perfect union with the Blessed Trinity. This is Catholic dogma, a tenet of our faith. Our Blessed Mother, A Cause for Hope Mary’s Assumption into Heaven is cause for our hope in the... Read more...   ...

In my day, if I wanted to increase my tennis prowess, I would watch Chris Evert Lloyd’s moves on the court. When my mother cut my hair in the iconic ‘Dorothy Hamill’ pixie , my whole world revolved around the dream of being an Olympic skater. I watched her every skating competition, eager to pick up even the tiniest trick to hone my skills. For the record, my moves were ample for the make-believe Pond Capades but never truly worthy of the hairdo. Here is a sampling of what I have to learn from Jesus Expert, Mary ...   SEE them here All Rights Reserved, Allison Gingras 2016

Lent is a time to focus on our discipline of prayer. Here is a prayer story from November, 2015: After completing my  54 Day Rosary Novena jaunt around the house  - I felt compelled to begin another when given a small tattered copy of  Rosary Novenas to Our Lady  (see image below) by a stranger when I attended a friend's Ultreya to hear her give her testimony.  As one who believes in GODCIDENCES (if you ask me there are no coincidences in life especially in spiritual matters), there was no way I was going to ignore this invitation from Our Blessed Mother to spend another month and half in prayer with her! The grace and blessings as I closed on the first 54 days was truly remarkable!! One of the most miraculous moments came when I went to my bank on November 30 - prepared to beg for leniency with overdrafts I was sure had been incurred after paying an unexpected HUGE house bill and then a creditor unwilling to hold off on their payment for just a few days,...

Obedience, what does it really entail? Everyone always wants to know just how much we can get away with before we are deemed disobedient. Instead, how about giving some thought to what it means to truly obey God, with our free will fully exercised? Does that concept sound daunting? Well, Peter Kreeft offers an excellent definition of obedience to God while fully exercising our free will, and this quote gives me hope that I can be obedient to God: Since our highest freedom means freedom to be ourselves, we are most free when we are most obedient to God’s will,… Read more...

  (From The Cloistered Heart)

The challenge is to witness to the validity of our Catholic spirituality with a mature love, without stooping to ridicule our Protestant brothers and sisters.   I am proud to proclaim I am a Catholic writer. A saved, born again, Spirit-filled lover of Jesus who expects to be accepted by Protestant lovers of Jesus, because I am a sister in Christ. However, my culture conspires against my attempts at reconciliation, because my language habits sound foreign to Protestant ears.  I am misunderstood and judged to be against the true faith by Bible-based Christians. Initially, I wrote for secular and Protestant sites and felt I had to hide my Catholicism. When I finally wrote about my Catholic faith, I was immediately grilled and interrogated by shocked readers and co-authors. Yet God had His own agenda and through the moderator, forgiveness and unity began. Of course, the site decided to simply ignore my Catholicism and centre on my love of God. When I discovered Cathol...

When we turned rounded the corner to the left and into the Baroque room at the   Virginia Fine Arts Museum   this morning, my eyes welled with tears. There it was; the painting I had visited the museum for, a painting called "The Visitation" by 17th century Baroque master   Mattia Preti , a Calabrian and a protege of  Caravaggian  naturalism. How fitting the painting first went on display here on Christmas Eve. Keep reading: http://ramblingfollower.blogspot.com/2014/12/pretis-visitiation-and-our-search-for.html

Many of the traditions practiced within the Catholic faith—from the priesthood to the burning of incense—can be found by tracing their roots back to the Jewish faith. Marian virtues are also deeply rooted in the lives of the women of the Old Testament. Just as God planted the seeds of preparation for Christ, so, too, did he plant the seeds for the preparation of Mary.  In the Old Testament we witness the commitment and deep faith of women who pre-figure Mary in profound ways. Women whose lives also provide role models for the way we are all called to live as Catholics. Read more here

'A mother's heart is always full of pity  for the erring and the sinner and the fallen.'   Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Painting:  Madonna, Herman Richir;  in US public domain due to age  From The Breadbox Letters

Many of us never know how close we have come to going to hell.  I found out today just how close I really came to being in the place of eternal torment.  Really close. When my husband was alive I had come back to the Catholic Church and I prayed my Rosary and loved to spend time with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.  After my husband died, everything hurt, and I mean everything.  Little things like going to the grocery store or watching t.v. was painful, and yes going to church was painful too because everywhere I was, I could feel his absence.  (He never went to church with me, but I prayed for him much there.)  Well, after his death, I was hurting so bad, that I just didn't care about anything, myself included.  All I wanted was to not hurt just for a little while.  I worked 50 hours a week, because I knew if I kept busy the 'demon' of sadness was kept at bay.  (There is a physical law that you can't think of two things at the sa...

This is the day Pope Francis asked Christians worldwide to fast and to pray for our brothers and sisters in Syria. It also is the feast day of Our Lady of Good Health (Vailankanni). Today, I traveled with our younger son and three of my CL friends from New Jersey to a Staten Island parish where we joined hundreds of others in fasting for Syria and feasting for Our Lady of Good Health. Keep Reading...

James Tissot, La Visitation, Brooklyn Museum, in US public domain I often reflect upon Mary's visitation to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56).  I think about the fact that the original scene probably attracted little attention from observers.   Two women, two relatives, greeted one another.  It was something that happened all the time.    No one watching would have shouted out: "Quick!  Come see!   Here's a scene that will be written about in the Bible!"   Mary visited Elizabeth because both had first BEEN Visited - Mary in a totally unique way, of course.  She came to Elizabeth carrying God Himself within her .... (continue)

Did you ever wonder why in apparitions of the Virgin Mary (approved apparitions please!... Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes, etc) that there is a description of Our Lady's feet?  (...and she had a golden rose on each foot." St. Bernadette)   Even in the picture of the Divine Mercy, Our Lord was barefoot.   Why?  I have learned that the demon cannot hide his hooves , that is why in the true apparitions of the Blessed Virgin or our Lord is shown barefoot to let us know that it is truly our Lord and Savior or our Blessed Mother. We must be VERY WARY of apparitions of our Blessed Mother or Our Lord, etc.  The demon never ceases prowling seeking the ruin of our souls.