15 Sunday Apr 2018
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During Lent I read the Manual for Men, a book geared for those who are soldiers for Christ and His Church. These men battle for sanctity in their lives and in the lives of their family. The evil one is attacking families because marriage images Christ’s love for His bride, the Church. It is a battle that men must fight and win.
30 Friday Mar 2018
On this Good Friday, take time to read and meditate on the Suffering Servant foretold in Isaiah 53. Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Do you know what God has done for you? Do you understand all that Jesus accomplished on the cross? Do you comprehend and believe that Jesus is the Christ?
And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him. Colossians 2:13-15
29 Thursday Mar 2018
A chaste and holy young couple was planning their wedding. Everything was coming together beautifully except one aspect. The bride-to-be was fretting over how to maintain her modesty during the traditional garter toss at the wedding reception. The thought of wearing the garter on her upper thigh and bearing her leg in public was contrary to her belief in the sacredness of the human body. She considered wearing the garter on her calf or ankle but decided that would look silly. When the wedding day arrived, she was still without a plan for dealing with this distressing detail.
26 Monday Mar 2018
Priscilla and Aquila were a married Christian couple who worked closely with Paul (Rom 16:2; Acts 18:3; 1 Cor 16:19; 2 Tim 4:29). The just released movie Paul, Apostle of Christ highlights their work in helping persecuted Christians in Roman.
This is an insightful interview with the actors that portrayed Priscilla and Aquila. They share what they learned about marriage.
04 Sunday Feb 2018
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Christ, fidelity, forgive, friendship, fruitfulness, grace, intimacy, Jesus, love, partnership, permanence, sacrifice, trust
Last week we learned about the four goods of marriage and how they are woven into the very fabric of the vows that are part of the Marriage Rite of the Catholic Church. The wedding vows speak of: partnership, permanence, fidelity, and fruitfulness.
This week, we will show you how to live out the four goods in your marriage.
In marriage there are two people wounded by Original Sin with a natural bent to selfishness, who join their lives together for life. There will be struggles, hardships, disagreements, strife, and heartache. But the good news is that Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin and give us the grace we need to live out the four goods of marriage.
17 Sunday Dec 2017
Today is the third Sunday of Advent. Did you notice that the color of the third candle of the Advent wreath lit today was rose? The rose candle is a combination of the purple of the liturgical season mixed with white, which symbolizes joy. At the midpoint of the season of Advent, the Church pauses to celebrate and rejoice with joy at the coming of Christ.
Joy? JOY?! How can we have joy? Our life is a whirlwind of activity: the bills are past due, there are presents still to buy, we are behind on making costumes and set scenery for the kid’s Christmas pageant, the house still needs to be decorated, there are cookies to be baked…and Christmas is right around the corner! We are so glad that Christmas only comes once a year!
10 Sunday Dec 2017
Today is the second Sunday in Advent. In a society that has lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas, many are already suffering burnout from all the pre-Christmas activities. The secular “Holiday” season kicks into gear earlier and earlier with each passing year. The reality of the materialistic Christmas is that people have forgotten the Christ Child. Christmas is not about buying the latest high tech gifts or winning the subdivision’s “Holiday Lights” competition. The four weeks leading up to Christmas are called Advent – from the Latin word Adventus – which means “coming.” This is a time not for the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping and office parties, but is a period of waiting in joyful expectation for the coming of the Messiah. Christmas has been hijacked by commercialism and the secular society; we have forgotten to wait in darkness for the coming of the Light into the world.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. John 1:1-5, 14
03 Sunday Dec 2017
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
This is the first week in Advent. Are you spending time every day contemplating the coming of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Or are you frantically buying gifts, making plans, caught up in the whirlwind of activity that surrounds what our culture now calls “the holiday season?” In our neighborhood, Christmas decorations were up on some houses days before Thanksgiving.
Is this what Advent is all about? What exactly are we supposed to be doing during these four weeks set aside by the Church prior to Christmas? We are to be preparing for Christmas. Our activities however, should not be centered on the busyness of the season. Rather, we should be preparing for the coming of the Lord.
20 Friday Oct 2017
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October is the month of the Rosary. This week, we continue to focus on this amazing prayer by citing excerpts from St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (On the Most Holy Rosary). Again, we invite you to join us in praying the Rosary for peace in the world and for peace, unity, and harmony in all Christian families.
“The Rosary of the Virgin Mary…is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to ‘set out into the deep’ (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, ‘the way, and the truth and the life’ (Jn 14:6), ‘the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn.’[1]
07 Saturday Oct 2017
Tags
Blessed Virgin Mary, Catholic, Christ, family, holiness, John Paul II, peace, prayer, rosary, unity
Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in the Roman rite of the Catholic Church. Since the sixteenth century when St. Dominic was inspired to develop the devotion, the Rosary has been used to combat both physical and spiritual enemies.
This feast was instituted by Pope St. Pius V to honor Mary for the Christian victory over the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571. He attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was invoked through praying the Rosary throughout Europe for protection from the Turkish invasion.
