Association Of Catholic Bloggers

+JMJ+ AMDG "Dear young people, you bring us the joy of Faith and you tell us that we must live the Faith with a young heart." ~ Pope Francis Bl Chiara "Luce" Badano Blessed Chiara died in 1990 at the age of eighteen from a form of bone cancer.  When she was diagnosed with the illness, she united her sufferings to Christ's Passion, declaring quietly, "It's for You, Jesus; if You want it, I want it, too."  She fought her illness for two years, always smiling and comforting others ~ truly radiating Christ. When asked how her eyes were so luminous, she responded simply, "I try to love Jesus as much as I can." Before her death, Chiara told her mother, "Y oung people…they are the future. You see, I can’t run anymore, but how I would like to pass on to them the torch, like in the Olympics! Young people have only one life and it’s worthwhile to spend it well." "Verso l'alto" - "ever higher" ...

It is quite easy to see the Face of God in a Newborn...in a Toddler. It gets much more difficult as we grow... Thus, many find it easy to criticize, berate and many times belittle the work, the journey, the discovery and the challenges of a Tween and especially of a Teen. I am just as guilty as the rest for saying that Teens are God's punishment for having sex! For the record, that still and always WILL make me laugh!  Hate to say it, but I know I was to my Mom and my kids can be for me as well. Thank God for Humour! It helps to make the yoke lighter. But in all seriousness, we many times fail to see God in the works or our Youth. We fail to give them the Credit that they deserve. I have read too many articles that go on and on as to how the Church is losing numbers in droves.  How the Youth are apathetic and that there is little hope for Our Future... Well, they are WRONG!  Dead and Thank-God Wrong! Our Youth are Filled with the Holy Spirit!  Our ...

It's been quite a week. Nothing is wrong. It's just been a week filled with work and more work, then parenting and housekeeping and hardly anytime to sleep or to think. And so by the time today rolled in, I was bone tired. My high school juniors, who take a yearlong course in British Literature, have moved on from the Anglo-Saxon Era into the Middle Ages. We're reading Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. So, given the week and the subject matter, don't you think it makes sense during the last class on the last day of a long week to dance? Read more here...

On this last day of the month, let us pray one last time for this month’s papal intentions. May young people find the treasure of their lives in Christ and be rooted and built up in him. May the Christians of the West rediscover the freshness and enthusiasm of their faith. The reflection is from Pope Benedict’s Message for World Youth Day. In the history of the Church, the saints and the martyrs have always drawn from the glorious Cross of Christ the strength to be faithful to God even to the point of offering their own lives. In faith they found the strength to overcome their weaknesses and to prevail over every adversity. Indeed, as the Apostle John says, “Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 Jn 5:5). The victory born of faith is that of love. There have been, and still are, many Christians who are living witnesses of the power of faith that is expressed in charity. They have been peacemakers, promoters of justice and workers f...