Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Life is Precious During the Christmas holiday, I was listening to an old Bishop Fulton Sheen episode that was on television, while working around the house. I heard him make a comment that shot directly to my brain: “All life is worth living.” He made this comment decades ago, as if a foretelling of something that we would need to focus on today. He made this prophetic comment well before abortion became legal, or euthanasia became popular; or before the death penalty became the preferred means for seeking justice. I began reflecting on his comment. I began by asking myself some questions: Read more...

I’m all about symbolism. So when we decided to give away copies of the newly released, 2 nd revised edition of All Things Girl: Truth for Teens, symbolism was bound to play a role! LOL! My decision on 18 copies is based upon the number representing “life” in Jewish teaching. That just resonates so deeply with me. I pray for great life for the book and for those who will read it. That is why we are giving away 18 copies of All Things Girl: Truth for Teens. The link to the giveaway is on the new Facebook page being administered by one of the amazing new contributors, Heather Renshaw. Heather is a blast. She’s a mother of five youngsters who somehow found the time to write a chapter on vocations in general and motherhood in particular. Because of her honesty and great sense of humor, I am convinced that her chapter will deeply affect the teen girls who read All Things Girl: Truth for Teens. If you’d like to enter the contest, visit the new Facebook page, like it, share it...

A simple examination of conscience helps build the moral life of a Catholic. It guides a Catholic towards holiness and sainthood. Like taking vitamins or brushing your teeth, it should be done daily! Find a set time where you will have anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes of quiet and solitude. If possible, also find a specific location. This may be 10 minutes of quiet on your couch or it might be 20 minutes in a prayer corner on a prie dieu. No matter what, when you see this as a sacred responsibility, finding those few minutes each day will be easy. An Examination of Conscience is about reviewing your day and seeing it through the eyes of Christ. It is about offering it up for objective examination where the fruit will be your spiritual growth and maturity. Have a number of questions to get yourself started but be willing to allow the Lord to speak to you and guide where the time goes. To create a list of questions, consider your daily life in a general sense and ...

The Way, The Truth and the Life. Dear ______ The reason I am writing you is because I hope that by my witness you would come to know the truth. My dear friend, I have experienced God personally.  If God is love for each of us individually, there will be no “evidence” or “proof” of that love, the love of God is a personal experience and when a soul experiences it, it is for that soul alone, not to be proven.   If God must “prove” his love, doesn't that cheapen it?  We have loved men in our life, how it would hurt us, if in loving someone they turn to us and say,  “Prove it!” .  No.  God provides no proof for what He gives a soul in love, because it IS love, the purest love of all.    There is no greater intimacy than the love of God that He pours out on a soul that He loves.  I have felt this love.  During prayer, I felt the love of God fill me to the brim.  I was given the knowledge that it was only a sm...

Birth of the Baptist , Andrea Pisano 1330 Gilt Bronze (panel of southern door), Baptistry,  Florence, Italy Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Vigil Mass   During the Day    Readings  (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Vigil Mass and Mass During the Day   [The readings for the Vigil Mass are on the upper part of the page, those for the Mass During the Day on the lower part of the page.] Liturgical Note. The Solemnity of the Birth of St John the Baptist, like Easter and some other solemnities, has a Vigil, properly so-called. This is not an ‘anticipated Mass’ but a Vigil Mass in its own right, with its own set of prayers and readings. It fulfils our Sunday obligation. The prayers and readings of the Mass During the Day should not be used for the Vigil Mass, nor those of the Vigil Mass for the Mass During the Day. As a sol...

The Visitation , El Greco, painted 1610-13 El Greco captures the swirling dance of life in today's gospel. When the babe in Elizabeth's womb, St John the Baptist, leaped for joy upon the arrival of his cousin Jesus, in the womb of Mary. St Luke tells us twice that the infant in Elizabeth's womb leaped. My friend Lala below, feeding her friend Jordan, wasn't a source of joy to her mother when she was born 31 years ago. Her mother, probably in great distress but perhaps with hope in her heart, left her newborn baby in a garbage pail where she was found and taken to the orphanage of the Daughters of Charity in Cebu City. today she lives in the L'Arche community in Cainta, Rizal, part of the great urban sprawl of Metro Manila. Lala is certainly a source of joy to all who know her. Jordan, born with multiple disabilities, has been in the L'Arche community for most of his life. While Lala didn't have to go 'with haste into the hill country' to take c...

by Sherry Antonetti **First ran in The Catholic Standard, September 11, 2008.  “Will you accept the blessing of children lovingly from God?” In every Catholic wedding, the priest asks the question and the couple responds. There isn’t a caveat or a footnote or an asterisk to that particular answer or question, designed to explain away exceptions or alternatives. It is a promise a couple makes to God in the process of obediently submitting to the sacrament of marriage. The choice to have children was made on that altar amidst family and friends, prayers and flowers. “Yes.” As the mother of eight, soon to be nine children, even total strangers have remarked to me, “You must have wanted a large family.” No. I have to confess, that wasn’t my plan at all. I planned to get a PhD and run a school, and maybe one day teach English at my Alma Mater. That was my plan. I loved my husband to be and we had dutifully gone through the pre-marital inventory, had the interviews with our bish...