Association Of Catholic Bloggers

When the Holy Spirit inspires artists to create art with, through and in Him, their creations touch our inner selves. They are not only beautiful but also imbued with a mystical essence which gives them spiritual power. continue

As the Morning Rising: Pentecost Poem - The Fire of God :  St Michael the Archangel Church Belfast  The Holy Spirit Chapel St Anne's Cathedral Belfast  Sacred Heart Church Bel...

My hour of Perpetual Adoration was vastly different than I expected it to be. God has an incredible sense of humor, and he let me know right away who was in control. Click here   continue reading at  The Not So Perfect Catholic.

As the Morning Rising: The Advocate comes to us! : A good father or mother if going away for a while would leave food in the cupboards for those who were staying, and leave instructions ...

It is especially important for Catholics to understand the causes of mental illness, instead of judging those who suffer as lazy or at fault for some reason or other. It is even worse when believers deny their own need for help. When people cannot understand these unseen illnesses, they simply fall back on age-old admonishments, Well, we all have our cross to bear. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You’d feel better if you went to Mass more often. What do you have to be depressed about? Have you been praying/ going to confession? Volunteer and you won’t have time to brood. No one actually believes people are to blame if they need eyeglasses to read or insulin to fight diabetes but they still heap abuse on people with depression or anxiety as if these diseases were signs of a weak character or a lack of faith. continue 

There's a huge telescope under construction in Chile: the E-ELT. When compete, astronomers using it plan plan on looking for new worlds, and observing the early universe. We may have spotted a second super-Saturn. We'll know more about that in September.... ...Telescopes have come a long way since Galileo repurposed the " Dutch perspective glass " for astronomical observation. About Galileo, Copernicus, the sun, and the Church: it's true.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

As the Morning Rising: Sacred Heart : Only the Sacred Heart has capacity for Divine Mercy, but our hearts are tributaries of that great and flowing river. Sacred Heart of Jesu...

DO YOU GO TO CONFESSION REGULARLY? WHAT SINS DO YOU CONFESS? DO YOU TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH? OR DO YOU NOT CONFESS SOME SINS? THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED ONCE AT THE CONFESSIONAL CLICK HERE

Pentecost, Sir Anthony van Dyck [ Web Gallery of Art ] For the readings of the Vigil Mass of Pentecost and of the Mass during the day, and for Reflections on Pentecost click on the following: Pentecost Antiphona ad introitum Alternative Entrance Antiphon [Rom 5: 5; Cf 8:11] Cáritas Dei diffúsa est in córdibus nostris per inhabitántem Spíritum ejus in nobis. Allelúia, allelúia. The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God dwelling within us, alleluia, alleluia. Vs. Benedic, ánima mea, Dómino: et ómnia, quæ intra me sunt, nómini sancto ejus. Vs. Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Vs. Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto.  Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, et in saécula sæculórum. Amen. Vs. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Cáritas Dei diffúsa est in córdibus nostris pe

Al principio de este año surgieron en España dos campañas publicitarias sobre niños y sexualidad que llamaron mi atención por su contenido pero, sobre todo, por los acontecimientos y reacciones que se dieron alrededor de ellas. Porque la forma como se promovieron y   el modo en que fueron atacadas revelaron la naturaleza y fondo de los grupos que las iniciaron. Ambos con la misma intención de ayudar y proteger a los niños en su sexualidad, pero con métodos y formas muy diferentes y contrastantes que, en una de ellas, no lograron su objetivo sino todo lo contrario.

Gifts of the Visitation – Nine Spiritual Encounters with Mary and Elizabeth , by Denise Bossert, is filled with virtue! I thoroughly enjoyed how Bossert took Luke’s accounting of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and highlighted all the virtue contained within it (Luke 1: 39-80). Bossert devotes nine chapters to discuss nine virtues; so beautifully brought to life in her book. She brings a whole new, refreshing outlook to this passage. From Mary’s spontaneous yes, to her courage needed to fulfill God’s word, to the thanksgiving Mary expresses to God for entrusting her with such an important honor, we traverse with Mary to visit Elizabeth. As a mother herself, Denise Bossert, correlates stories from her own life with Luke’s Gospel passage. She peppers her life’s stories; intertwined with the story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. The reality of Denise Bossert’s life makes the story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth that much more enchanting and meaningful. Read more...

My husband Luke was in a journalism class last semester, and he had a homework assignment to watch one of two journalist-themed movies, one of which was the 2016 Oscar winner  Spotlight . Because he had already made his Catholicism known to the rest of the class, he thought he ought to choose that movie for evangelization's sake. Because it's a movie about the exposition of the priest abuse scandal... Continue Reading Sometimes when I look up Oscar-nominated movies (since I often haven't heard of them until they are nominated), I get really excited about them.  The Big Short  was not one of those movies. It's about some guys predicting the housing market cash of the mid-2000s and making a bunch of money off it. Oops, I think I might have dozed off already... Continue Reading

I think God delights more in joyful chaos than in miserable, tight perfection  in our family life. It is a simple fact: there is no better way to form deep relationships and a sense of family unity than conversation over a home-cooked meal, then sharing a good movie afterward. It was our large family’s version of going out for dinner and a movie in town. Life around our dinner table was relaxed and happy because I allowed my children to behave in age appropriate ways. I did not demand adult perfection. The consequences of this decision were messy but well worth the time it took to mop up after meal time. Best of all dinner and a movie at home was a cheap, affordable way to have fun together, no need to spend a lot of money at a restaurant and a movie theater. If you’re looking to save some money too, and check out some wholesome, Christian content, give Pure Flix’s  free month trial  a look continue

As the Morning Rising: The Visitation - Poem : The Visitation  Kinship and kindness meet Bringing Mary far, Road-weary And excited at the thought of       Greeting El...

On Saturday, May 13, 2017, Bishop Carl A. Kemme of the Wichita Diocese ordained ten men to the traditional diaconate. God willing, those men, next May, will be ordained priests. Just one week later, on Saturday, May 20, 2017, Bishop Kemme ordained ten men to the priesthood. TWENTY.PRIESTS.IN.TWO.YEARS. Twenty men have decided to follow Jesus no matter where He leads. Which kind of begs the question, What the heck is going on in the Wichita Diocese? Why have so many men made this decision? As I have watched and studied our priests, I have to tell you some things. We have remarkable priests, each and every one with different personalities and gifts. Some are crazy intelligent. Some are deeply, deeply spiritual.

Here are my latest posts: One post is an excellent article I reposted, that focuses on Traditional Catholic's and how there is some rigidity concerning how (we) use the term " Novus Ordo " in things we do not like. It wraps up wonderfully with reminding us trads how blessed we truly are to know our Faith and Tradition, but that we mustn't judge that others know it as well and just refuse to take part in it.  Another post is on "JUDGING" . Anyone ever hear of Matthew 7;1 "Judge not lest ye be judged" ? It is used so much nowadays to cover a multitude of sins and to keep quiet about the Faith. But then, there IS a large problem with Catholic's judging others ! So what does the Bible really mean when it talks about "judging" ?   We take a look at the meaning between judging and "admonishing", and look at other sources concerning this issue such as Saint Thomas Aquinas and Mother Angelica.  "The Demon of Medjug

As the Morning Rising: The Long Haul : Are the poor, the refugees, the homeless and the dispossessed far more aware of the distance between us and them than we are? It is eas...

With today being Memorial Day, I thought I would use the power of my space to tell you about a fine young man who died serving his country in Vietnam. PFC Thomas Wayne Myers, born on March 9, 1943, was my next-door neighbor. I was just a child of 12 years old, on that warm Spring morning of May 27, 1969, when Tommy died at Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam. Memories I remember being outside, playing by myself, when the Army car pulled up in front of the house, on Saturday, May 31st. It was Memorial Day weekend! Two men, dressed in uniforms, got out of the car and walked up the driveway to ring Mrs. Myers’ doorbell. I stood on my front lawn and watched as they approached Mrs. Myers’ front door to tell her that her son had died in service to his country. From that moment on... Read more...

This past week I was interviewed about saints for a podcast, so I thought I’d share some thoughts about them this week. I believe it was Leon Bloy who noted, “The only failure in life is not to be a saint.” A saint is someone who made it to heaven. Consider the alternative. Sometimes people say (or think) “I’m no saint.” No, none of us earthlings are yet. We still have time to determine our eternal future. Our concept of a saint might be a grim person, a goody-goody, a priest or nun . . . but not us. But saints were as human as we are. They too had failings, as someone put it, “tilted haloes.” St. Jerome had a temper, St. Therese was sensitive, St. Augustine once stole pears—not to mention his other sins. But the saints lived in a way that mattered: they loved God and people the way Jesus did. A youngster was asked what a saint was.  Thinking of stained-glass windows, he replied: “A saint is someone the light shines through.”  Yes, saints let the light and love of Chr

Tennyson said " Locksley Hall " expresses "...young life, its good side, its deficiencies, and its yearnings." I'm inclined to believe him, partly because I was young when I first read the poem. A half-century later, these are still among my favorite lines of poetry: "...For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, "Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;... "...Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd "In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. "There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, "And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law...." (" Locksley Hall ," Alfred, Lord Tennyson) I still think building something like Tennyson's "Federation of the world" is a good idea. I'm quite certain that it will be a long, hard, process. But we're already making some progress....

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It's equivalent to Dodenherdenking in the Netherlands, or Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations. The holiday's original purpose was to honor those who have been killed while serving in our nation's military. That's still the holiday's official purpose. Recent generations have used the three-day weekend as an unofficial start of summer vacation season. That's not, I think, entirely inappropriate. I'll get back to that. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The life of a nun would be impossible for me, because I don't have grace for it. Sometimes, however, I long for the framework of such a life. I long for physical structure to securely fence me in and keep me from getting sidetracked by things that are unimportant, frivolous or even sinful. In the midst of a society that finds the very thought of living "for God" repressive, fanatical, and politically incorrect, I find myself not securely fenced in, but camped out and living on the fence. I don't intend to embrace the world's standards, but in my attempts to blend in with the rest of society, sometimes I just might find myself compromising. The fence is where I settle in to watch a PG-13 movie while trying to close my ears to the language and my eyes to "those scenes." It's where I enter a party determined not to gossip, but wind up laughing along with those who do. It is where I know I'm to stand up for Christ, for life, for morality, f

My husband and I started watching the Netflix Original series “Daredevil” a few months after it was released, kind of on a whim, knowing very little about it, beyond that it looked at least mildly interesting. The premise is basically: blind guy becomes a vigilante/superhero in “Hell's Kitchen” (which is apparently what a part of New York is called). We don't mind a superhero story now and then, so we gave it a whirl, with very few expectations.  A Pleasant Surprise Out of the blue, bam, Catholicism. I think it's pretty rare to happen upon a Catholic character... Continue Reading

There may be evidence for a Big Bang, but there is no evidence that there was simply nothing, ‘no thing’ whatsoever before it. What went bang? ‘Nothing’ cannot go bang. You do not need to be a scientist to know that, a two year old child knows that. What created this surge of energy that has been bursting outward for 13.82 billion years? Energy does not come from nowhere, it comes from somewhere. Only atheists believe that it comes from nothing, because they are terrified of hell which for them is believing in God and having to throw in their lot with, what they call the ‘god-lot,’ who they cannot abide.   read on ...

The average Catholic probably thinks sanctity is for a select few and certainly does not associate play with holiness. Most of us are deaf to God's invitation to join His glorious, cosmic dance. Yet, life in Christ is all about surrender, letting go of control, not labouring in our own puny strength to the point of exhaustion. In fact, once we have been purified and transformed, life in Christ is child’s play, a dance of joy. 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 continue 

Climate change is still in the news. Don't worry, I won't rant about impending doom, or say that Earth's climate isn't changing. This planet's climate has been changing for several billion years. I'd be astounded if it stopped changing now. How much we know and understand about our own past, and Earth's, is also changing. I'll be talking about that, and why I'm not upset that we're learning. I'll also take a look at (real) climate change, why I think we are not doomed, and choices we must make soon. "Soon," in this case, is somewhere in the next millennium or so. My opinion. We really do not want to make these decisions hastily.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Ascension , Andrea della Robbia   [ Web Gallery of Art ] For Readings for the Ascension and the Seventh Sunday of Easter and for Reflections on the Ascension click on the following:   The Ascension Three White Cottages in Saintes-Maries , van Gogh  [ Web Gallery of Art ] A work of art is the fruit of the creative capacity of the human being who stands in wonder before the visible reality, and who seeks to discover the depths of its meaning and to communicate it through the language of forms, colors and sounds. Art has the capacity to express and to make visible man’s need to go beyond what he sees; it manifests his thirst and his search for the infinite. In fact, it is like a door opened to the infinite — to a beauty and a truth that goes beyond the everyday. And a work of art can open the eyes of the mind and heart, carrying them higher .  ( Pope Benedict XVI ).

Hello, my name is Adrienne, and I am very happy to join this network! I recently started a blog of TV and movie reviews from a Catholic perspective. I am a screenwriter and have a background in film/TV analysis, so I love sharing my thoughts on both the artistic merit and the moral quality of things I've watched. I'd love for you to check out my site, and feel free to comment or even debate me if you disagree with my take -- I could talk about this stuff all day!  https://thorneintheflesh.com/

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"WOW" Moments  The Month of May has been trying but also one of the most spiritually fruitful of my life.  After putting off a routine mammogram for nearly 5 years, I finally went.  The test revealed an enlarged lymph node - I am happy to report it was finally determined to be due to inflammation [You can listen to the MIRACULOUS story evolving that on t his special episode of A Seeking Heart with Allison Gingras  - it is NOT everyday one receives a favor from a Almost-Saint]. As the Lord, slowly walked me through this valley, Fr. Horan's words were equal parts comforting and inspiring. This was a time of acute awareness to pray always with urgency but without anxiety.  Here are some other "WOW" moments gleamed during that time from the pages of  God is Not Fair : We are not better than anyone else.  Regardless of what blessings God has allowed in your life, what talents you posses, or how you use them.  Additionally, those gifts that God bestows o