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Do whatever He tells you ! Mary's last words in the Bible (John 2:5) Our Lady has been reportedly appearing and giving messages in  Medjugorje  since 1981.  In our times, another heavenly apparition of major significance is  Medjugorje .  It is the greatest reported Marian apparition in history, and it will be the final of her apparitions given in this way until the end of time.  Unprecedented in history, Our Lady Queen of Peace has been visiting with visionaries  daily  for over a quarter century, so as to form us in her  School of Prayer and Holiness ,  just as she did her Son in His daily life in Nazareth.  The Church confirms that the faithful may meditate on the messages, spread them and that  private pilgrimages to Medjugorje are permitted .  There have been many significant supporters of this still-ongoing apparition. Hundreds of cardinals and bishops have visited Medjugorje as pilgrims (or have expressed their support for what is happening there), along with te

Young adult books are big sellers…for the over 18 crowd. This, according to a recent Nielson poll and reported by CBS news. I’m not surprised by this "new" poll—and you shouldn’t be either. And I would hazard a guess that the numbers are mostly women—or are even higher if only women were polled. After all, we want more than pornography and vampires. We want to be transported to that place of hope and kindness despite odds. Speak to us about the realities of our lives and remind us of all the great potential we have! Long ago (okay, about 3 years ago), I reviewed Nancy Carabio Belanger’s “Olivia”books. What I couldn’t get over—and tried to get across in my posted reviews—was how much I enjoyed the books that were written for tweens and teens. Me, a slightly older than middle-aged woman truly loved them. I likened them to Anne of Green Gables: a timeless book that can be read by anyone of any age. Nancy’s books are that good. They take you back to a place filled with

ADVENT PRAYER  Father in heaven, our hearts desire the warmth of your love and our minds are searching for the light of your Word.Increase our longing for Christ our Savior and give us the strength to grow in love, that the dawn of his coming may find us rejoicing in his presence and welcoming the light of his truth.We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen ADVENT PRAYER  Father, in the wilderness of the Jordan you sent a messenger to prepare people's hearts for the coming of your Son. Help me to hear his words and repent of my sins, so that I may clearly see the way to walk, the truth to speak, and the life to live for Him, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In our secular, we're-doing-fine-by-ourselves world, there appears in this season an amazing and unique window of opportunity. A slot. A crack in the Everyday. An opening through which the call of God might be heard through carol or card.    In recent years, we have seen that crack narrow.  The Court House steps of my youth haven't seen a nativity display in years.  Store clerks wish me "happy holidays" at best.  But even now, somewhere between shoppers lined up for black Friday and the queues awaiting after-Christmas sales, there is still a window of opportunity.  A time when someone rushing through a store might catch the strains of an old familiar carol, one she's heard every Christmas since childhood.   Yet this time, the words sound.... different.  She remembers pictures of a babe in a manger, and some part of her seems to thaw.... This is a season when we can acknowledge (like at no other time) the One Who was born for us. After all,

The Savior is coming!  The Savior is coming! You Also Must Be Prepared [Mt 24] While sitting in my car recently, waiting for my son, a song (from earlier this year) came on the radio that I never heard of before… A song that very unexpectedly led me into thinking about THE coming.  It was just a few days before Advent at the time, when Catholics are especially reminded of the “last things”, nearing the threshold of our season of hope & preparation. The song, however, is actually about the ruin of Pompeii , the ancient Roman city near modern-day Naples , as it was suddenly buried under the volcanic ash of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.  Apparently, the songwriter was inspired by the people of Pompeii ; that is, in how their remains were forever preserved in their positions, at that exact moment in time... “caught up and lost in… vices.”  It made me wonder… Will I (we), too, be caught, off-guard & unprepared for last things; for judgment?  …Which led me to also consider how

The mystery of Mary, captured  exquisitely   throughout history, continues to seize the heart and imagination of artists. 

Advent is here! It's time to prepare our hearts for Jesus. Here are a few things we are implementing into our Advent season....  Each year when we set up our Nativity we leave Jesus out until Christmas morning. We also leave the wise men out of the scene until the Epiphany. I really don't like seeing Mary and Joseph adoring and empty manger so I am on a hunt for a wooden figurine of the expectant Mary on the donkey, on their way to Bethlehem. My plan is to have this figure outside the stable until Christmas and then move The Holy Family into the stable on Christmas morning. I am loving this idea of the changing scene throughout the month. Another idea I just recently heard about is to place a piece of straw in the manger each time someone sacrifices something or does something kind for another. This is in an effort to build a soft bed for Jesus through acts of love.  I can't wait to see the stable fill with straw over the next few weeks! T

We’ve got lots of great deals on our books for Christmas! If you are pinching your pennies, you’ve found the right place to begin your Christmas shopping with presents that entertain and engage! TheGreen Coat: A Tale from the Dust Bowl Years by Rosemary McDunn has been on Amazon’s best-seller list and is a favorite among homeschool families and Catholic classrooms. Right now it is available on Kindle for $2.99 and we know this will become a favorite in your home! SaintsAlive: New Stories of Old Saints is hagiography at its very best! Endorsed by Catholic Editors and Librarians alike, this is a perfect stocking stuffer for the Kindle at $4.99. FindingGrace by Laura Pearl and Hiding the Stranger: The Trilogy by Joan L. Kelly both have received the prestigious Catholic Writer’s Guild Seal of Approval. Finding Grace is now on Kindle at $4.99. Hiding the Stranger is $2.99! If you are huge fan of devotionals, you can beat Tending the Temple by best-selling authors Kevin Vo

Since  Julianne B. McCullagh    has written such a beautiful article on  Feast of the Immaculate Conception , I will just compliment her article with images. Because there are thousands of beautiful paintings, icons and stained glass images which celcebrate our Lady's Immacualte Conception, I need three separate posts. This one is dedicated to stained glass images.

There was a fashion for a while to scoff at the very idea of the Immaculate Conception of Mary--a fashion, I think, from those who thought they were too smart to believe such stuff of poetry. One such scoffer, a bestselling author who has a background similar to my own (we attended the same all girls Catholic Academy) told me she is annoyed with the teaching of the Immaculate Conception because it implies that Mary is better than us. Imagine that, the Mother of Our Lord, better than us!! Frankly, I was dumbfounded by that bit of reasoning from someone I thought had a big enough brain to overcome postmodern Catholic university intellectual fashion. Remember when Moses was harangued by his group of grumbling nomads (who, having escaped from Pharaoh, built a golden calf to worship while Moses was communing with YAHWEH and receiving ten very sensible commandments to help this disparate group become a people) demanded to see YAHWEH themselves? Who did Moses think he was anyway to be

Two Girls Praying,  Emile Munier Are you a contemplative? Some people, faced with this question, would answer an enthusiastic, “Yes!” Perhaps they are saints, at a high stage of union with God. Or perhaps they practice Eastern (as in Hindu or Buddhist) forms of meditation that they equate with contemplation. Some would call themselves contemplative because they are thoughtful and quiet. The rest of us might answer, “No.” Since we are not saints, we wouldn’t dare think of ourselves as contemplatives in the proper sense. Nevertheless, everyone, no matter his stage in the spiritual journey or his vocation, can live a contemplative life. A contemplative life is a life ordered toward union with God If you have read The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila, you know Teresa divides the spiritual life into seven stages, which she called mansions.  (To be completely accurate, she says that a soul goes back and forth among these stages, rather than proceeding from one to

I never believed in Santa.  Ever.  I have no memory of believing in Santa and that's because (according to my parents) I discovered them putting Christmas presents under the tree at the age of three. My parents saw no need to lie about what they were doing and so I never had the excitement of waking up Christmas morning and discovering presents.  Christmas was kind of boring.  I usually got my gifts Christmas Eve and I always knew what I was getting. You can read the rest here .

St John the Baptist , El Greco, c.1600 [ 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  Matthew 3:1-12  (Canadian Lectionary,  New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition )  In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,   “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”   This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,      make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.   Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,     and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confess

Mary's Magnificent God “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” —Luke 1:46–55 Mary sees clearly a most remarkable thing about God: He is about to change the course of all human history. The most important three decades in all of time are about to begin. And where

“When we are secretly cynical, we will not receive a thing, not a crumb of Light and we will cement our cynicism in place for another year.” Advent is a time of waiting, waiting in the dark.  In Canada, it is cold and it is also the darkest time of the year, so the image of lighting one candle each week is powerful. The flames are hot and bright, the exact opposite to the weather, to the physical reality that we see around us in our daily lives. If we are open and humble, the flames of the Advent candles shine as a beacon of hope in the darkness, symbols of the Light of   the world who will come on Christmas morning.  But how do we wait?   Do we wait stoically or with joy? Do we wait like a child, a child who trusts that his daddy will keep His promises or have life’s disappointments left us jaded and closed off to any spiritual surprises? Come to think of it, how many of us actually expect anything to happen to us on Christmas morning? When we are secretly cynical, we will

Sorry to keep you waiting on pins & pine-needles for more Holiday-Time Tips!  After all, it won’t be too long before we find ourselves entering our Super Bowl season here instead... But, thankfully, it’s still only the first week of Advent: our Season of Hope & Preparation. How Wonderful! Yet it can also be a season of many challenges—to body, mind, & spirit... A time of year that's well known for setting us back (if not completely derailing us) on the way of wellness & weight management. So is it hopeless, then, to believe our year should be ending [and our liturgical year beginning] in a better, more healthful way??    Of course, it’s not hopeless!!  ...And hope (& triumph) can certainly be found through the very thing that the Season itself proclaims to us with joy … Be Prepared ! :)  It is in being prepared that we will best meet the extra challenges of this extra busy time of year! And in recalling the initial “Tis a New Season” post

There is no better way to prepare our hearts to receive Christ than to light the candles of the Advent wreath every evening in the weeks leading up to Christmas.The Catholic Church understand the power of symbols and the physical act of lighting candles and saying short prayers really does open our spiritual selves to the real Light of the World, Christ. [On the Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent, the family gathers around the wreath decorated with greens. One candle should be lit.] Leader:  We gather around our wreath to begin the celebration of Advent. Let us ask our Father in heaven to fill our hearts with grace. Silent pause for prayer Heavenly Father, we look forward to the celebration of Christmas and to the coming of the Lord in glory. Bless this Advent wreath and all of us. As we pray daily around it, fill us with your life and strengthen us for our daily tasks. We ask this through Christ our Lord. All:  Amen. The First Week of Advent [One candle

UBI CARITAS ET AMOR. DEUS IBI EST. Time was when priests were more approachable and people felt more at ease discussing their problems with them and seeking guidance. But times change and with them habits and customs change too.  Nowadays people are more willing to spend their hard-earned cash consulting psychiatrists and counselors than asking the man of God for his wisdom and opinions.  Somehow, this distancing from one’s flock has been precipitated by busy modern lifestyles where people are working all hours at their disposal. And priests too are pre-occupied with Parish meetings, Ecumenical Councils, and various other tasks and targets set upon them by their clerical hierarchies. Father Ignatius was well aware of this changing trend, and being an old-fashioned old-school type of priest he did his utmost to keep in touch with grass roots in his church. He knew most people personally by first name, he visited them at hom

healing, illness  joy, suffering  success, failure  birth, death past memories, future dreams   everything allowed by God  adds to the beauty of His love for us En Los Corazones de Jesús y María  @ Camino La Mancha

Advent activities for your family December 3, 2013 By Connie Rossini Leave a Comment (Edit) D lights the first Advent candle a few years ago. Advent is here and with it our six-week break from homeschooling. Instead of doing school work, we do an activity each day preparing for Christmas. Some are distinctly religious. Others are not. Here are some ideas for activities you can do with your family. Learn and sing Advent hymns   Sunday at Mass, D was amazed that I knew many of the verses of O Come, O Come, Emanuel by heart. Well, that was the only Advent hymn I learned in Catholic school, and I don’t recall singing any other one at Mass in the 70s and 80s. It wasn’t until I started praying the Divine Office as an adult that I learned some of the beautiful hymns I had been missing. Here are some you will want to learn along with your kids, if you don’t know them already: People, Look East . This song by poet Eleanor Farjeon helps you to see all the prepar