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For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-control.   2 Timothy 1: 7 Reflection by Malcolm Davies : When I was  younger I worked in a team in the public service who were all young men and we decided to have a team lunch. Some of the  men wanted to go to a “topless” lunch place. I said I would not be going as it was disrespectful to women. One of them replied that women were part of creation and therefore what was I worried about. There was a lot of tension between some of the men and myself. I agreed that  women were part of creation and therefore should be honoured and respected and that for that reason I would not be going with them...read on: http://susannetimpani.blogspot.com.au/

Mother Teresa of Kolkata /Calcutta gets canonized today. Here's how she described herself: "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus." (" Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), ," vatican.va ) She established the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 and died in 1997, but the Missionaries of Charity are still around: giving “ wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor ." Their facilities don't look much like Mayo Clinic here in Minnesota, or Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand; and that's another topic. One of these days I'll probably ramble on about Saints, miracles, and canonization. But today I'll say that a Saint is someone recognized by the Church as someone who practiced heroic virtue and is currently dead, and leave it at that. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 828 , and s

Last weekend I experienced the  gift  of an Ignatian silent directed retreat at Campion Retreat House in Weston, MA . Just the thought of an unhurried, unscheduled day and release of self-imposed expectations was enough to fill my heart with joy. Teeming with insights and brimming with grace, my soul longed to soak up every moment and respond in gratitude. Reciprocity The word  gift  used here is a very full word as it implies not only what is received by the retreatant but what each person brings to the retreat as well.It is a  reciprocal   relationship, for truly you are only able to receive when you are willing to offer and surrender all. Read More..

As the Morning Rising: Sparrows : Sparrows Out of the corner of my good eye I saw a shape drop swiftly to the ground Imagining a leaf or cone I was surpri...

ARE YOU IN PAIN RIGHT NOW? DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS? LET US PRAY FOR THEM - HERE

St Paul in Prison , Rembrandt, 1627 Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart Gospel Luke 14:14:25-33 ( NRSV, Catholic Ed , Canada) Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegati

Looking for extraterrestrial life is still a science in search of a subject, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to argue that there couldn’t be critters out there. Today I’ll be talking about the search for life in the universe, a possibly-habitable planet circling the next star over, and a planet that couldn’t possibly be habitable. Make that not habitable by life as we know it. Life using fluorine and carbon as we do hydrogen and carbon, with sulfur as a water-substitute — is a topic for another post.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

When we change ourselves, our mates change. When we quit controlling and demanding change, our better half is free to change. There is nothing more damaging to a marriage than when one partner is a self-righteous, suffering Catholic martyr.  Christ is powerless in the face of such pride; He is free to heal when both the good and bad looking partners when they come before Him with a humble and contrite heart. continue reading

  (from The Breadbox Letters)

 The lastest on my blog, about a memory from Kindergarten. I spent a semester in a public school kindergarten. Back then we not only prayed before we had our snack of milk and graham crackers (“God is great, God is good, and so we bless Him for this food”) but we had a nap during class time. This entailed lying down on floor mats. My teacher, who happened to have somewhere procured a magic wand, came up with the unusual idea of a “Nap Fairy.” continue

According to the Gospels, Jesus was aware of the horrible way his life would end on earth. This might have put a pall on his thirty-three years. He could have spent each day dreading his future. Maybe that is why there is no record of Jesus laughing or even smiling. But when you think about it, Jesus had wonderful experiences that he wouldn’t have had being God alone. He knew the tender love of a mother and the care of a hardworking father. As a lad, he had the joy of racing the other boys in Nazareth and wrestling with them. He had the opportunity to share meals with others and to experience the fellowship of good friends. Because he had five senses, he felt the wind blowing through his hair and the warm sun on his back. He smelled his mother’s freshly baked bread and tasted it. He had the satisfaction of creating things out of wood, singing psalms, and teaching others face to face.  Click to Continue

Do you remember, as a child, those last lazy days of August, soaking up the last bit of summer before the new school year would start? You made every attempt to get that last bit of fun in before your days filled with school work. Preparing for the New School Year Over Labor Day weekend you shopped for new clothes and new supplies. I remember taking brown grocery bags and cutting them up to make book covers for my books. That was back in the day when, as children, we had actual hardcover text books, that our parents paid for and we could keep! (I went to Catholic grade school). Palpable hope exuded in the atmosphere... Read more...

I am super excited to be apart of this project! I love the fact that our company seeks out work with other charitable organizations and institutions. On Oct. 8th we will be hosting a Fall Family Fest in Penns Grove, NJ! I can't wait and I really am excited that if we are successful we will be able to make a difference (even if its small), for the River Walk and surrounding community. If you know an organization or institution that would be fairly local and would like to help out, please feel free to contact me. I am the event manager. All of the information is available on the website.  We I choose to come back to the church and give myself to charity, I never realized how much I would be doing and the impact that those small things make in a community. I am proud to be a part of this and happy to share with you, please feel free to contact me if your are interested in helping out with the event and you are in the area.  Check out out at  http://www.riverwalkjunction.com/h

Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates with the equipoise of all his powers. I praise the dance. O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you.                 Saint Augustine Is joy at the heart of your life in Christ? Many Catholics feel beleaguered as they struggle to stand up for the truth in an increasingly hostile environment. Of course, it is easy to become so busy addressing serious moral and religious issues that our spirituality is relegated to Sunday Mass and a few Hail Marys rattled off on the run.  However, if we are determined to be effective agents of change in society, we must make time to learn how to live in, with, and through Christ. Only when we are filled with the power of Holy Spirit, we will witness effectively with joy, with a dance in our step. The average Catholic probably thinks sanctity is for a select few and certainly does not associate play with holiness continue reading 

One of my greatest attributes is to not only be acutely aware of my many deficiencies; but also very willing to own up to them.  The one deficiency that I regret the most - and try the hardest to overcome is my lack of hospitality and thoughtfulness.  Though, probably a more fair assessment would be my lack of follow through! I often think of the nice or caring things I could do to help others - however, for a myriad of reasons (none of them good); my follow-through statistics are very low.   At first this behavior came from self-preservation and lack of instruction; but as an adult with fully formed conscience it is not longer acceptable behavior.   AWARENESS IS NOT HALF THE BATTLE While I would love to say, that once I realized the necessity of a life in Christ to include reaching out to others my behavior changed - I can not.  I still every day have to resist my self-absorbed ways.  In all too painful ways the Lord has allowed me to feel the DEEP regret of not acting on an inspir

Week four was probably the hardest week of the whole challenge. Week fours questions were longer and even though a question was added every week. As you begin to review the questions in reference to your daily life, the questions became more extensive. You begin to really begin to dig deeper into your soul. As I went through this challenge I think that one that stood out for me was a reoccurring theme for me was trust, faith, and prayer. A friend of mine (whom I love dearly) and we spoke about Ephesians and how "nothing is new under the sun". One of the things I learned from this challenge was that certain problems that plague the world aren't new at all. In fact, it shows that no matter what time period you live in certain things like love, responsibility, faith are universal and span through time even after we return to the dust of the Earth. Click here to continue 

Today we remember the Passion of Saint John the Baptist, who gave his life as a martyr for the sake of moral truths. The backdrop leading up to his death presented much scandal and deceit. It started with a warning by John the Baptist to Herod that Herod should not have taken up with Herod’s own sister-in-law (the wife of Herod’s own brother, Philip). Rather than having John the Baptist killed for having the audacity to call Herod out, Herod placed him in prison. “ Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man ” (Mark 6:20). Yet Herodias, Philip’s wife and now Herod’s lover, had other designs. She wanted... Read more...

I was drawn to the idea of a cloister in my heart. I longed for a place to retreat from the world, to be alone with Jesus. I not only longed for a place where I could escape the noise of life around me, but I also dreamed of providing a place in my heart where Jesus could find respite from this world... (continue) 

As the Morning Rising: Does God Exist? : Is there such a being as God? I asked in the desert of my loneliness, but nothing stirred at all. Is there really a God? I asked the...

I think the universe is billions, not thousands, of years old; Earth isn't flat; Adam and Eve aren't German; poetry isn't science; and thinking is not a sin. If you've been reading my posts, you know why being a Christian doesn't interfere with my interest in science. Feel free to skip the rest of this post. It's mostly about reading the Bible, the universe, and getting a grip. I'll be back next Friday, 1 most likely talking about Proxima Centauri b , a planet orbiting the next star over from ours: in Proxima's habitable zone. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Right now the Kindle version of my novel  Nearer the Dawn  is on sale for just 99¢. You can find it here:  https://www.amazon.com/Nearer-Dawn-J-Avila-ebook/dp/B00J1AVQLM As usual, all net profits go to charity. If you don’t own a Kindle, you can download Kindle onto your computer absolutely free at  https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Digital-Services-LLC-Download/dp/B00UB76290 This is one of the top rated novels on Catholic Fiction.net, where it received a glowing review that will give you some idea what the book’s about:  http://catholicfiction.net/book-review/nearer-th-dawn.php How this book came to be:  I wondered what an atheist would do if he witnessed a miracle.   continue reading

The word  paraclete  means someone who stands by to help. It can be used of a witness, or an advocate to plead our cause. In the Gospel , the Holy Spirit is referred to as the  paraclete . In the day of trouble, we don't need to fear. No less a person than the Holy Spirit of God stands by to help. We just need  to trust. Adapted from Barclay When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how [ a ]  you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:11-12

Por @mujer_catolica   En la sociedad actual, la preocupación por el bienestar de las mujeres es una prioridad, sobre todo a nivel de políticas gubernamentales y líneas de acción de miles de organizaciones que se han entregado a la labor de lograr la llamada “equidad de género”. Con todos los logros que este trabajo ha alcanzado, la mayor parte del esfuerzo se ha quedado en cambios estructurales de leyes y beneficios cuantitativos, que han sido importantes, pero que no han logrado permear esta equidad a la fibra social y cultural, dejando sobrevivir actitudes y métodos de relaciones interpersonales que afectan a las mujeres en su área más vulnerable: su vida personal.

GO TO HEAVEN GO DIRECTLY TO HEAVEN DO NOT PASS GO DO NOT COLLECT ... CLICK HERE AND FIND OUT

Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion at Holy Family Home for Girls, Bacolod City Gospel Luke 14:1, 7-14 ( NRSV, Catholic Ed , Canada) On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be

Archeologists found a big stone structure buried under a 43-century-old garbage dump in the Orkney Islands. Öetzi, Europe’s frozen mummy, got his wardrobe from many different critters: why, we don’t know. Piltdown Man’s in the news again, too. Looks like Dawson was the only culprit. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I struggle, at times, to make myself believe that God is working in our lives. On one level, I know He is always there, guiding us, pouring His graces down on us, but on another level, my doubts and anxieties surface. I don’t recall every asking God, “Why,” but when the pain is burning inside of me, I ask “Why not?” Everyone suffers, some people more than others, but everyone bears a cross. No one gets out of life without something. some kind of pain or suffering. Absolutely no one. Read more at:  Prayerfully Yours

Feeling a little down in the dumps today, so I thought I'd share something humorous I posted back in April. After listening to my sister describe her online debates with anti-Catholics, I put this humble offering together. Your Anti-Catholic Guide As a public service (and with tongue firmly implanted in cheek), I give you the following methods for responding to reasonable arguments made by Catholics. Feel free to choose one or more—whatever’s best suited for you! Shift the burden of proof. It’s true that you are the one who has made the accusation, and you do believe in Innocent Until Proven Guilty, but Catholics  a priori  are guilty, so it falls to them to prove their innocence. Therefore demand that, rather than you proving your claim, it is the Catholic’s responsibility to debunk it. However, don’t forget that because they are guilty, any evidence they provide is always tainted. It’s okay to lie! First of all, you’re saved no matter what you do. Secon

Most people assume that they will spend eternity in heaven. Some of them might be like the Pharisee who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers. . . . I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” This man thought he was right with God, but Jesus said he wasn’t. We ourselves might say, “I never killed anyone. I go to Mass. I donate to charitable organizations.” But is this enough to get us through the narrow gate that Jesus mentioned in Sunday’s Gospel? It’s a bit disconcerting to hear him say that many people will not be able to get through it! In other words, they will not be “saved.” Click to continue

As with every month, during this Year of Mercy, we choose a different corporal or spiritual work of mercy and dive into the details. This month we discuss the spiritual work of mercy to comfort the sorrowful. It seems like every time I attend a wake for someone’s passing, I never know what to say to the bereft family members. Does that happen to you as well? How does one truly comfort the sorrowful at such a time of great loss? Words seem so inadequate; well, at least my words seem inadequate. At such times, I try to remember what it was like when I was on the receiving end, at the wakes of both of my parents. For me, the mere presence of a trusted friend, who did not need to say a single word, brought me much comfort. She showed how much she cared, just by being present. Sometimes all that is needed is... Read more...