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Today, we celebrate another Marian Feast Day, the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is on this day that we honor Mary, as Queen of Heaven. As the Mother of God, and the spouse of the Holy Spirit, she holds a special place in the hearts of the faithful. It is only right that, as the Mother of God, she should be crowned as Queen of Heaven, as Christ is the King! As Catholics, when we pray the Rosary, on Wednesdays and Sundays, we recognize the crowning of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven, when we recite the fifth Glorious Mystery. This glorious event deserves some meditation, on our part. As Bishop Barron articulates in this video, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant, in that she is the pure vessel that gives birth to Christ. She is the crowned figure mentioned in Revelation 12:1-3.  Read more...

I stopped believing in coincidences long ago. Our God is not a god of chaos, but a God of order. My heart and my stomach are hurting from reading excerpts of the grand jury report out of Pennsylvania. Horror and betrayal are probably the words that most accurately describe my emotions. It seems like each time we think, “okay, it can’t get worse”, it does. It gets so much worse. And sad to say, this seems to just be the beginning. While we as a Church have spent the last day in anger and mourning, today we are celebrating the great Solemnity of the Assumption. Today is one of the few remaining Holy Days of Obligation on the Church’s calendar. We the faithful are commanded to attend Mass today to pay homage to Our Lady. This is not a coincidence. Read more at Messy Buns & Latin Chant

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We celebrate this day every year, for several reasons: Mary was conceived without Original Sin. In accordance with God’s plan for salvation, Mary should be a pure vessel bringing forth the Son of God, because Jesus is sinless. He deserved a tabernacle (womb) free from sin. Mary never sinned during her entire lifetime. Because she was born without Original Sin, she did not have the concupiscence (tendency to sin) like the rest of us. She was “full of grace” and could therefore resist all temptation, unlike us. Because Mary was free from sin, her body should not, and would not, experience corruption in the grave, as noted by Pope Pius the XII in his Apostolic Constitution,  Munificentissimus Deus : [Mary,] by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not h...

August 8 is a special day for me because not only is it my birthday, but it is also the feast day of one of my favorite saints -- St. Dominic, a Castilian priest and founder of the Dominican Order. In addition, the founder of my Oblate community, Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, is a Dominican. This is a special feast day for the Community of St. John. St. Dominic was a remarkable man – a bold and brilliant priest who is the patron saint of astronomers and scientists. As the saint who preached the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, he converted the Albigensians and set the world on fire with the Truth of the Gospel message. Dominic Guzman was born in Castile (Spain) in 1170 to affluent aristocrats, Blessed Joan of Aza and Felix Guzman. When she was pregnant, Joan had three dreams. First, she dreamed that she would give birth to a son who would be a brilliant light to the Church.  Second, she dreamed that she gave birth to a dog and that it broke away from her, carrying in its mou...

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

(From The Cloistered Heart)

On the Feast Day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, my patron saint, it occurred to me to wonder how others of the faith relate to their own patron saints. Are they perhaps seen as far-off, above our lowly human state, unreachable other than by solemn prayer and petition to intercede on our behalf? Or perhaps (and, to me, better!) as companions and constant friends, ready and willing to be there for us at any time, for any reason? + + + If I may, I'd like to share with you my own relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary, my beloved patron saint. It is ever-changing in the most wonderful and helpful of ways.  When for years I would only reach out to her respectfully and from afar to intercede on my behalf with petitions and requests, I now feel quite comfortable and free to reach out to her in a constant stream of companionable and silent conversation throughout my days, just as I would to a trusted friend and confidante. And what I feel is espec...

I mentioned that I would be hosting a link up (my first ever) on March 16th in last week's post . Well, your dyslexic blogger got her dates confused and it's up today! Never fear, if you're not ready to share your Marian consecration reflections, you have until the actual day of consecration (March 25th, The Annunciation) to link up with us. By us, I mean Elizabeth Reardon of Theology is a Verb . Isn't that a great blog title? I've always loved it. This is my third time making consecration and I have used a couple of different books to do it. This year, I went back to my favorite, 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley . Before we get ahead of ourselves though, what is Marian Consecration anyway? Read more at Filling My Prayer Closet and if you are making consecration now, consider linking up your post !

There is no room in the new economy of God for Arrogant Catholics. We are arrogant about our faith with Protestants, and even arrogant among our selves as we have the Latin Mass click who thinks there's is the only Holy Mass.  Somehow their Mass is 'better' than any other.   Catholics who are arrogant have no clue what it means to truly be a Catholic.   The demon LOVES to see these squabbles!     The Catholic is for the OTHER, not for themselves, that mean's everyone.  There is no Holy Mass greater than another, for it is the same Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, and the same Jesus offered to God.    Is the Latin Mass beautiful, yes.  Is it awesome to kneel and receive Holy Communion, yes, but these are gifts, we have no "rights" to them.  To READ MORE...CLICK HERE!

What God wants is for us to say “yes” to him and “no” to everything else. Of the millions of good things available to us, he wants us to have the best. That’s because he loves us so much. He loved us, even while we were yet sinners. Every one of us doubts that we are loved. After all, each one of us knows who “we” are. It surprises us when someone loves us completely and thoroughly. But the Lord is after us to believe it. He wants us to know that he loves us inside and out. We can begin by saying “yes” to believing that we are worthy of God’s love. We can say “yes” to believing deep within our being, that God, our Creator and Savior, loves us. We belong to him. He loves and cherishes us. He wants to protect us with his gift of faith and trust in him. Before we can serve him and love him fully we must first say “yes”’ to letting him love us.  How does he convince us that he loves us? That’s up to us. He’ll do whatever it takes to convince us, b...

In today's Gospel reading we learn  that Jesus explained to Martha  that what her sister Mary chose, that is, to remain in the presence of Jesus,  lovingly listening to Him,  could not be taken away from her. Continued @ mommynovenas

In the past week we’ve celebrated two major Carmelite feasts: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (July 16) and the prophet Elijah (July 20). These two great saints in different ways exemplify what Carmelite spirituality is about. Elijah demonstrates the prophetic aspect of Carmelite spirituality. The Carmelite seal bears these words of his as a motto: With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts  (1 Kings 19:10). Consumed with zeal for holiness Elijah was not afraid to confront the rulers of his day. He risked death to preach repentance to King Ahab, while Queen Jezebel launched an anti-crusade to wipe out God’s prophets. He challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest on Mt. Carmel to see whose god would consume a sacrifice with fire from Heaven. After winning that contest (surprise!), Elijah had all the false prophets killed. He led the people to re-commit themselves to the true God. Then he went and prayed that, seeing their repentance, God would send rain. E...

It is a Catholic tradition to acknowledge and honor the unselfish and holy life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. One way of doing that is to plant a Mary Garden . In the Middle Ages, missionaries and travelers spread stories across Europe about flowers named after Mary and various times of her life. Mary Gardens that featured these flowers became popular there, and later the tradition made its way to America . Around 1932 it is believed that the first Mary Garden in the United States was constructed on the grounds of St. Joseph 's Church in the Woods on Cape Cod . To read more, please visit http://bezalelbooks.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-mary-garden-great-mother-daughter.html

Back in Advent, Dan and I sang The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came as part of our Evening Prayer. It struck me how perfect this hymn was for teaching children about the Annunciation. I conceived the idea (yes, that’s a pun) of teaching children the meaning of the mysteries of the Rosary through song. Here it was I came up with for the Joyful Mysteries. My primary goal in our Contemplative Homeschool is to teach our children how to grow in union with God. Christian meditation is a vital part of that process, teaching all of us to listen to God’s voice in the Scriptures, and to ponder His character in order to love Him better. The Rosary provides a bridge between the vocal prayers we learn as children and more mature mental prayer. Through the Rosary, we meditate on the most important mysteries of our faith. Many people have created ways to share the Rosary with children. In Singing the Rosary, I have the following goals: leading children to see the Rosary as a mea...

The Virgin Mary Reading by Walters. Here are the posts from 2013 she might recommend to you. 'Tis the season for reviewing the old year. How did you advance towards God this year? Do you remember those blog posts that really struck you at the time, or have you forgotten them? Here are some reminders of how you can grow closer to Christ, taken from my blog posts over the past year. 1. Read the Gospels If you want to advance towards God, you must learn to love Him. Read what He revealed about Himself. Need more motivation to read Scripture? Here are 10 Reasons Catholics should read the Bible. 2. Stop making excuses for missing prayer You’re not going to grow closer to Christ if you aren’t willing to make sacrifices to spend time with Him. Read 7 Ways to make time for prayer. 3. Ponder God’s Word in your heart This follows from #s 1 and 2. It’s a particularly Carmelite way of honoring Mary. See Mary pondered all these things–do you? 4. Choose to become a s...

The Widow’s Mite by Tissot (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons). I was thinking recently about St. Therese and Judgment Day. Therese wanted to stand before God with “empty hands.” As part of her plan to trust in God rather than in her merits, she chose to give away all her spiritual goods. She offered them to God, not for herself, but for others. She left herself spiritually poor and naked. Then she was able to focus, not on her acts of virtue and self-denial, but on the merits of Jesus. She believed that, seeing her with no works on which to be judged, God would apply Jesus’ works to her account. Thus, her confidence was in Jesus alone. Following St. Therese, when I make a sacrifice, accept the trials and disappointments of my day, or act virtuously, I picture myself handing a plain brown box to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is my gift for the Infant Jesus. Mary takes the package and wraps it splendidly with her  love and virtues. Then she passes it on to her S...

I won’t lie; getting permission from Libreria Editrice Vaticana to gather a dozen papal encyclicals together for a unique Marian study was, well, awesome! Holding the contract in hand, gave me goose bumps. To share my excitement, the contract in part reads: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, located in the Vatican City State, in the person of the its Director and pro tempore legal representative, Prof. Don Giuseppe COSTA, sdb and Bezalel Books, A Catholic Publishing Company and Bookstore, Box 300427 Waterford, MI 48330 , in the person of its President and pro tempore legal representative, Cheryl DICKOW. Libreria Editrice Vaticana grants to Bezalel Books, a non exclusive permission to reproduce , in the work entitled:  MARY EVER VIRGIN FULL OF GRACE. A STUDY OF PAPAL ENCYCLICALS ON MARY, by Cheryl Dickow, the following excerpts: The contract then goes on to list the dozen encyclicals that are in the book which begin with Octobri Menseo the September 22, 1891 encyclical of...

  August 15 is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, a Holy Day of Obligation. We celebrate the fact that God took Mary bodily into Heaven. But why did the Church make this a feast? Why is it important for your life? Mary shows us our destiny   Unlike Christ, Mary was a mere human to whom God gave special graces. When Jesus took His mother into Heaven, body and soul, He showed us what is in store for those who die in a state of grace.  At the end of time, He will raise us bodily from the dead. The faithful will have glorified bodies in Heaven. We will not be ghosts for all eternity. We will be complete, perfect versions of ourselves. This is one reason prayers like the Salve Regina call Mary our “hope.” Mary shows us our purpose   God made us to be united with Him in love. In her death, bodily resurrection, and Assumption, Mary embraced Christ’s mission. Since she was free from original and actual sin, M...

Some religious people would maintain that only an active Christian can act lovingly. Yet Pope Francis and even Sacred Scriptures disagree with this narrow view. St. Paul explains that God will judge everyone by  much  how truth God has revealed to them. If a tribe hidden in a jungle has never heard the gospel, God will  judge them based on what they know and St. Paul assures us that all men have the basic laws of God carved into their hearts. In modern language, we all have an awareness of good and evil or a conscience.  God has inscribed a moral code on my heart. It is  hidden in my deepest self. Actually, if  as an adult, I can block out my own ego and simply stop to listen, I can live a holy life. In fact Christ  offers an easy way to sanctity, to loving God and each other.  A spirituality that a child understands. A spirituality that St.Thérèse of Liseux understood .  Relax. Give up striving. Surrende...

Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. ~Apocalypse 13:10 My Peace I Give You by Dawn Eden is a much-needed spiritual resource for those recovering from any type of physical or emotional suffering brought on by the lust, crassness or cruelty of others. It took a long time to read because I had to stop and take time to ponder and absorb, reading several parts of it over again. Not only is Dawn's book well-written but every contention is backed up by solid references. With modesty and restraint, she confronts a topic uncomfortable to many. The misuse of the gift of life-giving sexuality has scourged multiple lives and institutions, not the least of which is our Holy Catholic Church. Too often amid the scandals, the wounded do not receive the treatment which they need in order to heal. This book, coming from the long and painful recovery of a survivor of abuse, will be a grace for many who are hurting from similar wounds. Hopefully, it will inspire all who read it to t...