Association Of Catholic Bloggers

If your hand leads you to sin, cut it off. If your eye leads you to sin, pluck it out. John 17 These are the words spoken in Sunday's Gospel. Sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? We often think of the words spoken in this Gospel as hypothetical examples of the extreme. Jesus  didn't really mean cut off your hand for taking something that doesn't belong to you; He didn't really mean pluck your eye out for looking greedily or lustfully at another. That sounds more like Sharia law. Surely He couldn't have meant that! Jesus certainly did not want to impose Sharia law upon Christians. He wasn't like that. Sharia law is designed to punish. Sharia law is meant to cause pain. Sharia law is imposed on one person by another. Sharia law is man's weak attempt to impose justice on an unjust world. Sharia law is intended to provide revenge for those who feel, correctly or incorrectly, wronged. Jesus was not about providing justice in an unjust worl

19 folks killed nearly 3,000 other people on September 11, 2001 . They were waging Osama bin Laden's religious war against the United States. 14 years later, Osama bin Laden is dead, and a great many more folks have died in various 'holy wars.'... ...A third of a million people fled their homelands this year, heading for Europe. The survivors may or may not find shelter there. 1 ... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Today, as I was perusing the  New York Times  online edition, I was thrilled to find an absolutely beautiful  photographic essay on life inside a cloistered monastery . I loved the piece for many reasons, not least because it gave me a glimpse of the life I might have led had I chosen to walk through that lovely door, instead of the one that led me to the very lovely life I chose, instead.  I hope you find it as enchanting as I did.   You may find the larger article  here . From  How to Live A Lovely Life  by Sabrina Booth Phillips 

I ran into a familiar sentiment on Twitter: " Sometimes I wish I was religious so I could have an excuse for hating people. " Instead of seething with anger, I did a quick Google search. The phrase, with exactly those words, showed up about 60 times. The earliest example I found was posted by a bot on reddit.com , December 28, 2011. Without the quotes, I got roughly 35,200,000 matches. That's a lot of folks talking about religion and hate. Some agreed with the "excuse for hating people" quote, some didn't, and some were talking about something completely different. The "excuse for hating" quote hadn't been directed at me, and came from an account that Tweets a lot of platitudes and quotations. Instead of firing back a response, I started writing this post. That was on Monday of this week.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I rarely repost but this list is a treasure trove of common sense and practical.  32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 33. Believe in miracles. 34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do. 35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now. 36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young. 37. Your children get only one childhood. 38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved. continue

I was getting ready to talk about 1 Kings 4 - 8 and John 6:41 - 51 , two of today's Bible readings, when I read about Niloy Neel: (From Facebook, via BBC News, used w/o permission.) (" Niloy Neel was an atheist from a Hindu background " (BBC News))... Niloy Neel's killers probably thought they were committing an execution, not a murder. Either way, Niloy Neel is dead: and quite a few other folks in Bangladesh are in serious danger. At first glance, this looks like something that doesn't matter to me. I'm not an atheist; my life hasn't been threatened; and I live in central North America: a long way from Bangladesh. But "atheist" bloggers in Bangladesh are human, I'm Catholic: so I must care about them, and everyone else.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

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

Thousands of people will pour into Philadelphia this September to celebrate the Eighth World Meeting of Families with Pope Francis.  On June 25 , the Vatican officially presented the theme for the event: Love is our mission: the family fully alive Lovely! On the other hand, do I want my family to be  fully  alive? That sounds like a handful. There are, after all, so many ways to be alive. My neighbor is alive at 6:50 am every Saturday and Sunday, cleaning his deck with a leaf blower powered by an engine from a Boeing 747. Alive was the man who cut me off in traffic yesterday, swearing at me colorfully through his open window. Children who fight over whose turn it is to wash the dishes? Very much alive. © ezepov/Getty Images Sometimes "alive" feels more like "undead." But the World Meeting theme recalls the famous line by the second century theologian St. Irenaeus: "The the Glory of God is man fully alive." Pope St. John Paul II admired Irenae

A young man joined a Wednesday evening Bible study group at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier this week After participating for about an hour, he killed nine of the folks there and left. I'm angry, and sad, that nine lives were unjustifiably ended in that church: and am profoundly impressed at the calm shown by some of the victims' relatives. In my considered opinion, what the young man did was wrong. I'll get back to why I think that's true: and what I'm doing about my anger and sorrow. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The truth of our Salvation is far more terrifying on this side of the Cross than for the Jews before the Incarnation of God in the flesh.   When you study His Passion, you only begin to understand the truth of what His Blood truly means to both those who accept Him and those who .....reject Him.  TO READ MORE....CLICK HERE!! 

Sweet reflection Upon returning home and today too as I write, I can’t stop thinking about those wonderful and insightful women and how their daily activities, their “creations,” honor our beautiful Creator. What do you love to do? Do you see it as a way of honoring your Creator? Continue reading ...

This is my most recent column in The Catholic Free Press : Our son called the other day to share a lovely story about a former student. Until recently Stephen had been a pre-school teacher in Brooklyn, NY. Although he had neither experience nor background in education, he took the job because he was desperate, having been unemployed for months. Even as he fumbled in the dark with no idea as to what he was doing, Stephen managed to touch the life of a then 3-year-old boy. Surprising encounter Stephen knew well the thankless nature of teaching. So imagine his surprise when the now five-year-old boy recognized him on the street and ran up to him, throwing his arms around him. The family followed up with a phone call and Stephen is planning an outing with them as a result. Give what little we have We never know how we will affect other people’s lives. We think we have to be experts; my son’s experience says otherwise. We don’t need to know anything—we just need to be open and v

The odds are that you hadn't heard of Barpak , between Kathmandu and Pokhara . It's the April 25, 2015, earthquake's epicenter. Fewer than 10 of 1,200 homes there came through intact. Survivors in Nepal are getting help from many outfits, including Catholic Relief Services . I'll get back to that. (From Reuters, via BBC News, used w/o permission.) (" Residents of Bhaktapur carry their belongs through the rubble of destroyed houses " (BBC News)) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Armenian genocide 's start is rather arbitrarily set as April 24, 1915. That's when Ottoman authorities rounded up and arrested about 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople, and eventually got around to killing them. Armenians had been rounded up and butchered in odd lots before that, though. The Ottoman Empire 's 1915 ethnic cleansing wasn't limited to Armenians . The Ottoman government exterminated Assyrians and Greeks whose crime was living in Ottoman territory and having the 'wrong' ancestry or faith. It wasn't called a genocide at the time. That word first showed up in Raphael Lemkin 's book, "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation - Analysis of Government - Proposals for Redress" (1944). He defined it as "the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group." ( Wikipedia ) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

문화체육관광부 (2014) via  Flickr , CC A Big Heart Open to God . That's what the world's Jesuit magazines titled their interview with Pope Francis six months into his papacy. (You can read the English-language version at America Magazine  here .) Yes, Pope Francis seems to have a big heart open to God, and to all of us. He often reveals his heart for children too. I would like to dedicate today's blog to some of the Pope's inspiring words about children and the adults who care for them. (All excerpts come from the  Vatican Information Service. ) We parents, grandparents, teachers, catechists, and other adults who work for the welfare of children can pray with the Pope. We can pick one or two lines from these passages and ponder them in our hearts, as Jesus' own mother Mary did:  Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. -Luke 2:19 Visit Praying with Grace to be INSPIRED!!

The Offertory,  (Battle of Tears) Now is the time to fight.  Not with weapons or words, but with tears, the tears of a Mother pleading for her children.   Some time ago I prayed the words of Rachel during the stations, I said, "Give me children or I shall die."  I meant spiritual children that I can pray for.  God in His goodness gives me children that I cannot see or touch, that are somewhere in the world and in need of a Mother's tears for them.  At this moment in the Holy Mass He not only gives me these children but also fills my heart with love for them at the same moment.  My heart is pierced and tears flow for the children I love, although I do not know them, I love them no less.    The tears of a Mother pleading for her children before the throne of God is very powerful.  A Mother's heart willing to be pierced for her children to lead them to God can pluck those with the darkest of hearts directly from the demons grasp.  The heavens are opened and ... TO

I do not want to die, only to discover I was playing society’s games,  games which were dependant  on the time and place I was born, rules which changed constantly.   I do not want to be so caught up in work, business, squabbles about doctrine and ritual, that I lose sight of Truth. How devastating to stand before Christ and realize that I could have been His presence on earth, a window of light and joy, radiating His love and mercy but lost my way. I can be His hands and feet and ears and whisper words I hear the Father speak to his little ones   I need to allow Love to transform me, so Love flows through me. Period. I flooded my mind with these verses from scripture today to remind myself everything  turns to ash when we die, everything but His Love in us. continue

He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Why. Why did He desire it, and for how long? He is God, how long can God desire one Passover? I'll tell you how long, since the fall of Adam and Eve. Before there was a Passover, God desired this one. Why this one? Because it is a sacrifice offered that would NEVER be rejected by God... TO READ MORE...CLICK HERE!

As I'm writing this, 19 folks in France have died because — it's complicated. Assuming that the Kouachi brothers had religious motives for killing folks at the Charlie Hebdo offices is, I think, reasonable: but it's an assumption. Assuming that Charlie Hebdo's distinctly irreverent treatment of Islam led to this week's attack is — that's complicated, too.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .