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.
22 Thursday Feb 2018
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Have you ever thought of your marriage as a foretaste of heaven? When marriage is lived as God intended – with permanence, partnership, fidelity, and fruitfulness – your marriage is the image of the love that unites the three persons in the Holy Trinity.
Pope Benedict XVI offered high praise for the family in one of his audiences. Here is what he had to say about the gift of marriage and family:
11 Sunday Feb 2018
In honor of the 50th anniversary of Blessed Pope Paul VI’s visionary letter Humanae Vitae, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver has issued a pastoral letter The Splendor of Love. Archbishop Aquila states that Blessed Paul VI “prophetically defended the integrity of married love and warned us against the danger of reducing sexuality to a source of pleasure alone” (SL, 1).
Archbishop Aquila states that his purpose in writing the pastoral letter is “to affirm the great beauty of the Church’s consistent teaching through the centuries on married love, a love that is so desperately needed today” (SL, 5). He goes on to say:
The family is the foundation of society, and when it is undermined, society itself is threatened with collapse. Therefore, it is crucial to reaffirm our commitment to the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christ’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. SL, 6
13 Wednesday Dec 2017
Today we are celebrating 15 years of marriage. In honor of this blessed day, we would like to share with you the story of how God worked mightily in our lives – even in the midst of hardships, trials, and grief – to bring us together.
It was late in the summer of 2000. Dennis sat there in heavy traffic hoping that he would not be late. He was on the way to the hospital to meet with a group of doctors who were caring for his wife. What was supposed to be a four-day hospital stay had turned into four months. Dennis suspected that this special meeting with the doctors could only mean that his wife’s condition was becoming grave.
During that sad four months, God had reassured him with scripture after scripture that He was going to heal his wife of her illness. They prayed for a miracle, they prayed for healing. Dennis found comfort in God Word’s and he believed that God would grant his wife the miracle of healing.
13 Friday Oct 2017
Today marks the 100th anniversary of last of six apparitions of Our Blessed Mother to three shepherd children – Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta – at Fátima, Portugal. She first appeared to the children on May 13, 1917. In her subsequent appearances, the Virgin Mary requested conversion, prayer (particularly the recitation of the Rosary), and sacrifices on behalf of sinners. She also revealed a three-part secret regarding the fate of the world.
The Children of Fátima: Lúcia dos Santos, Francisco Marto, Jacinta Marto
As word of the apparitions spread, Mary promised a sign from heaven. On October 13, 1917, the “Miracle of the Sun” occurred. The crowd of some 70,000 witnesses reported that the sun began to spin, twirling in the sky, and at one point appeared to veer toward earth before jumping back to its place in the sky.
25 Friday Aug 2017
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The Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt, c. 1667 or 1668
We have a love for Sacred Scripture. It has so much to say about human interactions and is particularly helpful for issues we face every day in marriage and family life. That is why it is so important to immerse yourself in daily Scripture reading. The Father does know best when it comes to issues pertaining to maintaining and developing our relationships with others.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:15-20
18 Friday Aug 2017
Christ Carrying the Cross, Tiziano Vecelli, c. 1565
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” Matthew 16:24-28
In this Gospel passage, Jesus tells us how to be one of His followers. Specifically, to be His disciple requires the denying of self. In this age of the unholy trinity – me, myself and I – these words of Jesus are hard to understand and follow. We live in a culture that honors and admires rugged individualism and personal satisfaction. Sacrifice and suffering are to be avoided at all costs. Yet Jesus is telling us that this is the way to eternal joy and happiness.
11 Friday Aug 2017
Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!” The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Psalm 50:5-6
Our parents grew up during the Great Depression and both of our fathers served in World War II. Back then, self-sacrifice was a normal part of life. However, in modern times, we have an aversion to sacrifice; it is to be avoided at all costs. But, the increasing rates of divorce, suicide and substance abuse suggest that people are not happy. That’s because true happiness is found in giving ourselves totally for the good of another, in imitation of Christ’s self-sacrificial love for His bride, the Church.
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Hebrews 13:15
28 Friday Jul 2017
Sermon on the Mount
Stained Glass Windows – St. Vincent de Paul Chapel, St. Louis, MO
This is the first of a two-part series studying the lessons from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount,” commonly known as the “Beatitudes” (Mt 5:3-10). The Sermon on the Mount challenges us to live in heartfelt obedience to God’s commands. The Beatitudes tell us how to be blessed. This is more than a sense of happiness. It is an experience of hope and joy independent of circumstances, because we are focused on our eternal home in heaven. This hope and joy, the highest form of happiness, can only be found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
15 Saturday Jul 2017
St. Dominic Adoring the Crucifixion, Fra Angelico, c. 1442
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. 1 John 4:7-8
Where do you find your strength to live out your vocation to marriage? Do you look to your spouse to fulfill your every need physically, emotionally, sexually, spiritually? If you are looking to your spouse to fulfill your every need, you are setting yourself up for disappointment and failure in your marriage. We are sinful human beings that struggle with selfishness, mood swings, anger, exhaustion and brokenness. We are incapable of fulfilling our own needs let alone the needs of others. No, we need to look to the source of life and love to give us the grace to love with a perfect love.
