08 Saturday Jul 2017
The Transfiguration, Raphael, c. 1520
Did you know that you and your spouse are a living icon, called to radiate the love of God?
It’s true. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in his 2005 encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) said that “marriage based on exclusive and definitive love becomes the icon of the relationship between God and his people and vice versa. God’s way of loving becomes the measure of human love” (11).
01 Saturday Jul 2017
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Christ with Martha and Maria, by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1886
At the end of the Great Jubilee 2000, St. John Paul II wrote the apostolic letter Novo Millenio Ieunte (NMI), translated “at the beginning of the new millennium.” The letter summarizes the graces that the Lord poured out on the Church during the Great Jubilee and then looks forward to the mission of the Church in the new millennium, evangelization. This mission is even more urgent today. Souls are being lost and it is the duty and responsibility of all the faithful to evangelize the culture.
25 Sunday Jun 2017
Christ the Teacher (Photo Credit: orthodoxy-icons.com)
This week, we invite you to pray for your marriage and family using Psalms 127 and 128. Pray these passages with your spouse and meditate on a verse that particularly strikes you. God’s Word is a fountain of blessings. May He bless you richly.
18 Sunday Jun 2017
During the entire month of June, Holy Mother Church honors the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated this year on June 23. The Directory of Popular Piety and the Liturgy says, “The term ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus’ denotes the entire mystery of Christ, the totality of his being, and his person…Devotion to the Sacred Heart…calls for a fundamental attitude of conversion and reparation, of love and gratitude, apostolic commitment and dedication to Christ and his saving work” (166, 172).
10 Saturday Jun 2017
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We have found that as we make a greater commitment to loving and serving the Lord with all our hearts, minds and strength, the attacks of the Evil One have increased against us. Satan wants to destroy marriage and families because they are an image of the love of the Triune God. Through prayer and discernment, we see that God is calling us to a greater dependence and trust in His loving care and mercy.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. Psalm 37:5
04 Sunday Jun 2017
The Marriage Feast at Cana, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1672
Marriage has been “wounded by the fall and our own personal sin,” but “the redemptive work of Christ renews and restores the goodness of creation and hence of marriage,” says Dr. Eduardo J. Echeverria, Professor of Philosophy and Systematic Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. He has written an excellent article to dispel the confusion surrounding marriage in our modern culture. The article has been posted to The Catholic Thing website and can be read by clicking on the following link…
13 Saturday May 2017
30 Sunday Apr 2017
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God…does not ration his gift of the Spirit. John 3:34
“No thanks, Lord. I have enough fruits of your Spirit. I’m good. I don’t need any special graces.” Does this sound like you? Do you know that the gifts of the Spirit will help you live out the Sacrament of Matrimony faithfully, fruitfully and forever?
Marriage is hard work. The family is to be the center of the New Evangelization with the mission of witnessing Christ’s life and love to the world. We have to become desperate for the sake of others. We have to become hungry for the souls of our families, our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends. Are you desperate? Are you hungry? Do you want more of the Spirit?
God wants to give you more of His Spirit. However, God only gives us more of His Spirit if we have a burning desire for Him. God feeds us according to our hunger. God has prepared a huge, sumptuous banquet for us and He is the main course. There is always more for those who hunger for God.
Are you hungry for more of God’s Spirit? Are you desperate to receive the Lord? Be a hungry beggar before God: “God, I need more of your Spirit. I need more of your grace. I need more of your mercy. I need more of your love. I have so little of you, Lord. Give me more.”
Be a person hungry to make Jesus known and loved. Be hungry for God so that He will fill you to overflowing with His Spirit. Then go and preach the Good News of the Gospel to those in most need of God’s love and mercy.
Peace be with you.
This is the 100th post to the Calling Couples to Christ blog. Please pray for us and our ministry of building holy and happy marriages as we pray for you.
22 Saturday Apr 2017
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“Beauty will save the world,” said Russian novelist and philosopher Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his 1868 novel The Idiot.
Indeed, God, the one who is all beautiful has saved the world! He is jaw-droppingly beautiful. He is so beautiful that we cannot bear to see Him face-to-face. In the Old Testament, anyone who looked upon the face of God would die. We can get a glimpse of His beauty and grandeur through His resplendent creation. Apostles Peter, James and John were given a glimpse of this beauty during the transfiguration of Jesus, “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light” (Mt 17:2). Nothing is more beautiful than what Jesus did on the cross for the salvation of our souls.
16 Sunday Apr 2017
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The-Resurrection of Christ, Paolo Veronese, c.1570
Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag′dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. John 20:1-9
John’s Gospel account of the morning of Christ’s resurrection tells of Peter and John “running” to see the tomb. ”For as yet, they did not know” that Jesus would rise from the dead. Their emotions had gone from disbelief, to anguish, despair and utter discouragement. Jesus had died. Everything they had experienced with Jesus over the last three years had ended.
Calling Couples to Christ 