Association Of Catholic Bloggers

                                             'There are not as many souls who go astray,                         as there are souls who go through life                         half-perfected,                         half-formed,                         half in love with God.                         There are not as many crosses and trials                         trampled down and cast back into the face of God,                         as there are inspirations of grace unheeded,                         and invitations to intimacy with God                         declined.'                        (from In Love With The Divine Outcast, compiled by A Religious,  Pelligrini, Australia, 1934, p. 52)                                              Re-post from The Cloistered Heart                                             Painting:   Johannes Vermeer, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

What would be the absolute worst thing that could happen to a nice Protestant girl? Why Mary, the Blessed Virgin, would do a little interior house cleaning, then make a home for herself in the poor girl’s heart, that’s what! If that was not bad enough, this perplexed young woman’s belief system would stay staunchly anti-Catholic for oh, about another 10 years, even though she had converted to Catholicism. I mean what choice did she have? Nobody but the Catholic Church even wants someone who craves the Eucharist and has a relationship with the Mother of Christ. Obviously this young woman was and is me. God has a peculiar sense of humor and now I can look back and laugh at my dilemma. At the time, though I was shook up. As Pope Francis said at the Easter Vigil, God delights in shaking us up, or as I like to say, ripping the rug from underneath us. Nope, God will not stay in a nice, neat little box of our own making. Just when we think we have Him all figured out, He pulls an

I wonder how Jesus would describe the angels. How brilliant was the light  that surrounded the angel who announced the birth of Jesus? How beautiful were the voices  of the angels who sang when He was born? What words of encouragement were used  by the angel who comforted Him in the desert? Was there sorrow on the face of the angel  who strengthened Him just before His death?  Was the voice of the angel who announced Jesus' Resurrection  soft, ancient, musical, enchanting? Do Jesus and the angels look alike?  How would I feel if I saw Jesus or an angel.  Would I believe my eyes?  Would I die from fear?  I wonder, how many times without realizing it,  I have walked in the presence of Jesus and the angels? En Los Corazones de Jesús y María ~Camino La Mancha

Every year about this time I get a number of inquiries about women’s groups. Summer is winding down and the anticipation of autumn stirs a woman’s spirit towards a more contemplative time of year. I love hearing that women want to start study groups or book clubs; and so I always try to post an article on how to get something like this started. (And I’m always available at Cheryl@BezalelBooks.com to answer questions!) I’ve been invited on Brian Patrick’s EWTN Sonrise Morning Show next week to talk about the great value Catholic fiction in our faith walk so it made sense to also get this post going about starting a women’s book club—to sort of go hand-in-hand with that guest spot next week. Starting a book club is so much easier than you may think and if you’ve been toying with the idea, I’m hoping this will give you the courage to go for it! First: Pick your book. Decide if you want to read fiction or non-fiction. Since I’ll be talking with Brian about fiction books

  When Mary and Joseph “lost” Jesus, and “found” him in the synagogue teaching the teachers, they asked why he would behave this way and cause them anxiety.  If we want to follow and imitate Him,  His answer should give us a clue to our mission.  He answered;  “didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2) As His followers, we need to be about our Father’s business.  When we pray “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, we are recognizing that His will in heaven is our business here on earth , and when we pray for His Kingdom to come , we are lining ourselves up with and agreeing with His will for His Kingdom.  If we are boldly praying for His Kingdom to come, it would behoove us to know what His kingdom looks like.  I think we get a great insight into this by the example Jesus set for us in His prayer  in John 17. According to this passage, His will is: …that He be glorified in me so that He can bring glory

  Maria Stewart is a homeschooling mother of seven. She is a graduate of Franciscan University in Steubenville where she majored in Elementary Education and Theology. Maria and Chris, her husband, are involved in the Casting Nets Ministry ( www.CastingNetsOnline.com ). They are also involved in foster care. One has to wonder how this busy woman ever found time to write her wonderful new children’s story An Omelet Fit for a King —and yet when God asked her to write it, how could she not? In the charmingly illustrated book, Maria explores different aspects of humility using the acronym E.G.G.S. A lesson she admits she learned herself while being hospitalized and relying on the love and kindness of others. An Omelet Fit for a King has been released to rave reviews and consistently ranks in the top 100 in different Amazon categories. Today it is #67in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Education > Children & Teens . Whether you are a mom looking for

Catholic writers, especially those of us who expound on the inner, spiritual life should carefully follow Christ’s example. Jesus used simple stories and parables to explain spiritual truths. It was the only way He could come close to explaining the inexplicable. Although He could discuss complex theological issues with deep insight into scripture from the age of twelve, He preferred to teach using parables and metaphors that even a child or uneducated man could understand. Metaphors, or word pictures, are the language of God in the Old Testament, the language of Jesus in the Gospels and the Holy Spirit in the Epistles because images bypass the sceptical reasoning of our human minds and pierce our hearts. The danger of complicated, wordy theological explanations is illustrated humourously in a short, religious joke. I rarely remember even the simplest joke but I have never forgotten this intellectual one told 30 years ago by a Jesuit priest in front of a University New Testame

The seed pod dropped on the sidewalk and split. I see the ruddy shine through a slit in the spiked orb and wonder at its depth of color, the certain slant of light spent on its creation and its becoming. I hold the sharp husk gingerly between my fingers and thumb and wonder at the satisfaction in prying apart the halves, the silken rip at the pith.  Notions of Autumn’s approach, the colored leaves, the drying bits of grass and flower are upon me.  The death and dormancy that fit beneath the harvest ground conceal a greater thing: Latent energy bursting into fullness, our God blossoming into the son of man ripening into the fullness of his mystery. I am tempted to hold fast the shells and face the blank wall, keep myself hidden within the pointed case and find my way to fullness turned inward.  Yet I strain against the covering, press into the exterior a plain and arching back.  I drop against the ground and split to see a shining depth of light in which death and birth work to

Praying Girl by Heyerdahl (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons). St. Francis de Sales is the master of the spiritual life for lay people. His book, Introduction to the Devout Life teaches us how we can grow closer to God while living out our lives as spouses or single people in the world. One of the practices St. Francis urges his readers to make a habit of is the morning offering. In fact he says, “Never omit this practice.” A morning offering sets the tone for your day. It helps you acknowledge that the day is God’s, not your own. It can give you the strength you need to face trials, peace amid busy schedules, and added grace for unforeseen temptations. I confess I was never taught to make my own morning offering as a child. We sometimes had family prayer in the morning. At Catholic elementary school we started the day with prayer. But no one told me I should make a private morning offering until I was much older. I found it hard to take up the practice, and even

Arise "The Knight to the Miscreant Over the Lady" by Peregrin Keep thy jests and keep thy lies Keep thy secret scorn. Canst thou see I thus despise All thy petty smiles and bows, Thy arrogant boasts, thy meaningless vows? Thou hast preyed upon her much too much Torn out her beating heart Fed her full of lies and such, And thou hast mangled her soul, Told her it was love so kind, Twas all her loss and all thy gain, Duped her mind, Made her blind, Crippled her with pain; Her soul dies, Those silent cries, But I shall tell her to arise. Read the rest  here.

Girl with a Pearl Earring , c.1665, Johannes Vermeer [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                    Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Gospel  Luke 16:1-13 [Short form 10-13]  (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition) Jesus said to the disciples,  ["There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship.' So,

The more I study icons, the more they draw me into the heart of God. Of course this is exactly the reason an iconographer prays and paints.  He paints with, through and in the Holy Spirit so that everyone who gazes on his icon with an open heart will be touched by God . The enduring spiritual power of icons. Icons have been objects of faith, controversy and fascination for centuries.  read more  

Knowing God by name allows us to enter into a relationship with him in a very intimate, personal way. While many of us know him as “God” or “Father,” there are a vast array of names to which he will answer—and each signifies yet another of his unique aspects. The Eternal One The name of God is often represented by the four Hebrew letters Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay and is never actually spoken. The High Priests in the Old Testament would have known the correct pronunciation but in their understanding of its sacredness, would have only uttered it in the silence of their hearts. This four letter name is the name used when God identified Himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM;” thus identifying Himself as The Eternal One. Adonai To overcome the avoidance of uttering the too-sacred name—or of mispronouncing it, the title Adonai is the most often used substitution for Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay. In the Old Testament, the Tetragrammaton is found as the capitalized word “LORD.” Hashem Like Adonai, HaShem is a very

This is a special thank you to a diocesan Priest,  who was our Pastor until he retired a couple of years ago. We thank you with all our hearts for teaching us so much about gardening sharing your garden with us ~Continued~

UBI CARITAS ET AMOR. DEUS IBI EST. Gone Missing. Father Ignatius was a kind and gentle priest, slow to anger and always jovial; and he always put his parishioners first. That’s why most of them thought nothing of approaching him first when they had a problem, no matter the time of day or night. Early one morning, before he’d even had time to have breakfast and prepare for morning Mass, the phone rang. “Father Ignatius … have you seen our Rosemary?” cried a frantic Mrs Butterworth.  “Eh … No … I haven’t seen her … not for a few days or so …” replied the confused priest. “Father …” continued the voice at the other end holding back the obvious tears “we went to wake her up for school and she was not there. Her bed hasn’t been slept in … Jack is out looking for her … we don’t know where to look … we phoned her friends …” “One moment Sally …” interrupted the priest who called most of his parishioners by their first name, except the snooty ones of course! “One moment … are

"...The ordinary observer sees in the ocean only the realm of storms and never guesses that a few feet below the surface its waters are always limpid, and in a scintillating clarity is found vegetation and living creatures of wondrous diversity, marvelous in beauty and structure, mysterious depths where the pearl is formed...." St. Vincent Ferrer continue here...

The worst possible fate for me would be to die and discover that I had lived an existence similar to the allegory described in Plato’s Cave. Plato describes man’s condition similar to living in a cave, chained, only seeing shadows on a wall cast from a candle. Yet the human race believes that this is all there is to life. When one person manages to break free and stumbles out into daylight, he realizes that what he thought was real were actually shadows of real objects. After this messenger makes his way back into the cave to explain this revelation of the real world, no one believes him. No one else has any reference point; they simply cannot grasp this alternate reality. When I speak with someone who is curious about the faith, I realize my revelations about the spiritual life in the Mystical Body of Christ are completely foreign. I might as well be a fantasy character explaining life in an alternate reality. Psychologically speaking, people need to hear a completely new concep

The Prodigal Son , 1651-55, Salvator Rosa [ Web Gallery of Art ] Luke 15:11-32 Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                   Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Gospel  Luke 15:1-32 [1-10, short form]  (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition) Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my

Sleeping Boy by Krylov (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons). If you are a parent trying to grow in holiness, you have no doubt fallen asleep in prayer. Among nursing babies, sick toddlers, wet beds, and waiting up for teenagers, parents spend years being sleep deprived. Then we go to pray and find ourselves nodding off, or even dreaming. How should we handle this? Am I being lazy?   Before reading Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux, I would get mad at myself and feel like a failure when I fell asleep. Of course, if I were to tell the whole truth, I was often at fault. I used to pray mental prayer last thing before going to bed. Even though I’m a night person, this is not a good time to pray. My thoughts are already on sleep. My mind and body are tired, and it feels like I’m giving prayer the lowest priority on my daily agenda. Sometimes I prayed that late due to forgetfulness. ( Whoops, I haven’t prayed yet–better do it now! ) Other times I was putting it o

Sometimes pregnancy makes us glowingly happy and sometimes it makes us miserable. But no matter how it makes us feel, it will change us and the world around us irrevocably. If you want to know more about the physical and spiritual changes that pregnancy can bring, if you're looking for deeper meaning in the little aches and pains, read Sarah Reinhard's book  A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy: Walking with Mary from Conception to Baptism . Sarah's book offers pregnant moms a week-by-week journey in prayer with Our Lady through pregnancy, labor, birth, and beyond. Each chapter of the opening section on pregnancy details the amazing physical developments the baby is undergoing. The chapters also lead us into meditation on the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, helping us to imagine how Mary coped with the dizzying changes from the moment her motherhood was announced until the day she lost Jesus in the Temple and heard his radical declaration of departure from chi

+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" &qu

I don't have a paying job at this time, but I am very busy. Even though I no longer homeschool, my house is messy and my girls are over ten. I spend most of my day on Facebook and Twitter. Why? Christina, my daughter with Down syndrome is growing up in a world where no one invites her over to play. Children avoid her on playgrounds and at school. She has never been insulted to her face, but she certainly gets some weird looks. I imagine that some people who see her are happy they don't have a child like her; she is challenging, and, well, different. She has Down syndrome. The main reason that I am on the Internet all day is to make the world a better place for her to grow up. Sometimes my work involves her particular circumstances, such as seeking out successful speech therapy strategies, sometimes it involves investigating and promoting promising research, passing on inspiring stories or violations of human rights, but most importantly I strive to raise awareness in

It felt as if someone had taken a load of bricks and thrown them onto my chest. Tomorrow marks the 12th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. My husband, who walked out of Tower One 11 minutes before it fell, still is with me. He's alive to help me guide our two boys to adulthood, to make awesome chicken wings, and to coach middle school basketball. So why did I cry - no why did I  sob  - so many tears today? Keep Reading...

If my children could  remember only three things to take with them into their adult life, what would I want them to be? 1 .  I love you ,  believe in you. Let that love be your foundation and your springboard into life. 2.   God loves you,    just as you are. Relax in that  Love, let it sink in , heal you, strengthen you and  release you into freedom and joy. Don’t try to save  yourself and  everybody else on your own because  He   is the only Saviour . Notice that I called  God   Lord.   Let  God be the Lord and don’t steal His job. 3.   Reach out and allow that   Divine Love to flow through you  to your partner, children, neighbours and in doing so discover your unique vocation, your work in the world. A child rooted in love becomes a secure, warm, giving adult who attracts as much light as he reflects. He can live in relative peace with himself and others. With his basic emotional needs fulfilled, he is free to love and serve other people and to develop intel

      Springtime and summer breezes strengthen the stems of these wildflowers as they grow throughout the seasons.      A dear loved one asked that as a family we join in prayer and fasting during a specific forty day time frame. Assuredly, there was no bread and water involved. Our fast was a matter of a more loving engagement in prayer, scripture reading and works of mercy. Now, at the conclusion of this blessed time, we find that some issues may remain unclear to us indefinitely. Driven by the desire for concrete answers, I have to repeatedly remind myself to follow Our Blessed Mother's example. Through her interaction with Jesus during the wedding at Cana she was, as always, the perfect model of Christian demeanor.  Read More

  His prayer for us Part 1 John 17: 4-19 We’ve established context, and we’ve talked about the first three verses of John 17.  After asking to be glorified for doing the work His father gave Him, He turns his attention to the second main part of this prayer, that is focusing specifically on praying for His disciples. Here Jesus affirms that these disciples: were given to Him by God the Father from the world have kept God’s word know that everything Jesus told them is from God have received His words know the truth that God sent Jesus, and know that He came from God He asks on behalf of the disciples that God has given him, and then states that they belong to the Father.  This sets up the next part of this passage where Jesus claims to be one with God the Father, boldly stating “what’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine”, then testifies that they (the disciples that God gave to Him from the world) have glorified Him, the Son. Are you catching all the