Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Do NOT click HERE DO click HERE

As the Morning Rising: Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Msry : Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary It's a girl! Joachim hurried home His face bright with joy All the neighbours gathering W...

We humans love heroes—people who excel in sports like the Olympians, music like rock stars, politics like senators and presidential candidates, acting like movie stars, and in other endeavors. We not only look up to them, but they serve as models for us. They inspire us to be better. How disappointing and depressing it is to discover that our idols have flaws and sometimes even serious faults. The news is glutted with stories of famous people who acted infamously today and in the past. So how do we deal with these sad turns of events? For one thing, we shouldn't be surprised. There is a saying that idols have clay feet. This adage is derived from an Old Testament story of the king of Babylon's dream in which a statue of gold, silver, bronze, and iron had feet of clay. The prophet Daniel said that the dream symbolized that the powerful nation would be destroyed. We are all children of Adam, who, according to Genesis, was created out of clay. We are all prone to s

I recently attended the National Marketing Network Trade Show / Catholic Writers Guild Conference in Chicago this summer. At the tradeshow/conference, we Guild members got to meet many authors and receive free autographed books! I had a great time. Yet, the most memorable moment for me occurred as I traversed through the Trade Show booths.  I came across a table with a certain children’s book on it: Journey to the Cross . I said to myself, “ Hey, that’s the book that won in my category at the National Indie Excellence Awards contest this year! ” Okay, now I must see what’s so special about this book that it beat out my own book in the contest (mine was named a finalist). What occurred next was beyond awesome. I stepped up to the table... Read more...

Lord give us a sense of humour and a creative intelligence to meet the emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of our children Even when all the kids were still little, I decided to share the magic of a newborn with them. It was one of the best decisions I ever made to enable mutual respect and love to flourish in our family.  However, at the time I was forced to literally watch the clock to ensure everyone would get a chance to hold their new sibling . It seems to me that the children bonded to each other because even our toddlers were given the privilege of holding the baby. With excitement twinkling in their eyes, barely containing their joy long enough to sit still while I propped up one of their little arms with a pillow, they looked extremely proud and pleased as they too held the baby. continue

Today is a glorious day because Teresa of Calcutta is officially a saint, having been canonized yesterday! She died 19 years ago today at the age of 87. How fitting that such a short time passed from her death to her canonization; for she was truly holy and faithful. Her joyful spirit and love for Christ and his mother, Mary radiated from her at all times. Her determination to keep Christ at the forefront of her life, even when darkness and struggles surrounded her, is a testament to her faith. Always putting others first, her humility became her hallmark. Beloved by Catholics and admired greatly by non-Catholic Christians, Teresa of Calcutta was a true witness for Christ. Yesterday, Pope Francis... Read more...

Mother Teresa with Fr Michael Mohally                                     Yesterday, 4 September, Pope Francis canonised St Teresa of Kolkata (Calcuttat). Today is her feast day, the anniversary of her death in 1997. My Columban classmate and close friend, Fr Michael Mohally from the city of Cork, Ireland, wrote the article below for the September-October 2003 issue of   MISYON , the Columban magazine in the Philippines of which I have been editor for 14 years now. We have re-published it in the current September-October issue of the magazine, now known as   MISYONonline.com . Fr Michael is based in Manila. Towards the end of   his homily   at the canonisation Mass Pope Francis made an off-the-cuff comment about what we should call the new saint and figured that everyone would still refer to her as' Mother Teresa'. Very few Catholics would know who St Pius of Pietrelcina is but they would know who 'Padre Pio' is. And in Chile  San Alberto Hurtado SJ   is still

  This year, the United States of North America chooses a new President, that is, not only the head of his Government and nation, but one of the world leaders with more influence over the fate of humanity. Within an electoral bipartisan democratic system as the American, the political parties and its principles had been, until recently, clearly defined and differential in conservative party and liberal party. But in recent decades the differences on the principles of these parties have been disappearing, especially in the area of human and social well being, leaving voters with more of the same. This problem is   becoming critical for Catholic and Christian citizens in general. Aalthough they constitute the majority of the population in that country,   they are facing   the dilemma of whom to vote for   without letting down their Christian principles, because almost none of them are reflected in much of what the candidates propose. (1)

As the Morning Rising: St Teresa of Calcutta pray for us. : “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” (Saint Teresa of Calcutta) Photo courte...

(from The Cloistered Heart)

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