20 Sunday Jan 2019
The Marriage Feast at Cana, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, c. 1675
The Gospel reading for today, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, recounts the Wedding Feast at Cana where Jesus turns water into wine. To understand the significance of Jesus performing His first miracle at a wedding feast let’s look first at the creation of man and woman in Genesis, the first chapter of the Bible.
In the beginning…
24 Sunday Jun 2018
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Virtues are absolutely essential for marriages to thrive. A virtue is the habitual and firm disposition to do the good. The Latin root of the word is virtus, which means “strength” or “power.” Growing in virtue is a lifelong task to strengthen your willpower to choose what is best and right even in the most difficult of circumstances.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) our efforts will be fortified by grace: Continue reading
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.
21 Sunday Jan 2018
Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “The family that prays together stays together.” Did you know the phrase was coined in the 1940s by Father Patrick Peyton a Catholic media pioneer? Known as “The Rosary Priest,” Father Peyton used radio, television, and billboards to promote family prayer, especially praying the Holy Rosary.
14 Sunday Jan 2018
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Revelation 3:20
The following is a meditation by St. Teresa of Calcutta on the above passage from the book of Revelation. May you encounter the living God, come down from heaven, Jesus Christ, in her words. He is the lover of your soul.
07 Sunday Jan 2018
Tags
Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, Evangelization, grace, Jesus, Joy of the Gospel, prayer, salvation, Unleash the Gospel, virtue
Adoration of the Magi
Basilica of the Immaculate Conception
Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”…and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11 (emphasis added)
“The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 528). The joy of the Magi upon seeing the Child is the joy of the Gospel. It is “the joy of one whose heart has received a ray of God’s light and who can now see that his hope has been realized—the joy of one who has found what he sought, and has himself been found” (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, 106). The Magi find “crying in a manger, the one they have followed as he shone in the sky…in swaddling clothes, the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among the stars” (St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 150).
01 Friday Sep 2017
Tags
Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, charity, Evangelization, family, forgiveness, grace, love, mercy, prayer, reconciliation, scripture, Unleash the Gospel
Tawas Point Lighthouse, Michigan, USA
Photo Credit: Dennis Wingfield
Families that live their lives according to Joshua’s proclamation are beacons of light in their neighborhoods. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says “the family home is rightly called ‘the domestic church,’ a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity” (CCC, 1666). If your family is a school of virtue and Christian charity, people will take notice. They will see that your family is different. They will be attracted to what you have.
St. John Paul II is his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World) had this to say about families:
