BIG C CATHOLICS

H/T Love Undefiled

Thought of the Day I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. -- Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The following is taken from Theology of the Body for Teens: Have you ever wondered why the subject of sex is part of nearly every TV show, advertisement, song, and movie? And the sex shown or sung about is usually glorious—with no pain inflicted on those involved. Rarely do we see the pain that comes, for example, from selfishness. Did you ever think about what society would be like without selfishness in relationships? If everyone simply loved the other as he or she wished to be loved, we would have virtually no pain, no problems in relationships. Imagine, for example, if marriages never ended in divorce. Think about the pain that both parents and kids would be spared. Confusion reigns, and it is leading to some seriously broken hearts. People today seem more confused about the meaning of love and the purpose of sex than perhaps ever before. Many people are searching for the meaning of life and love but don’t realize that the answer is actually right in front of us; the key to finding...

Thought of the Day Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important -- C.S. Lewis

Excerpted from "Culture of Life, Culture of Death; and the Family": Conference at the Catholic University of America, Dec. 2004 [originally published in Position Papers, Dublin, 2005] by Monsignor Cormac Burke . [ ... ] Creativity Culture suggests art; and the Chinese are renowned world-wide for an artistic tradition that goes back thousands of years, and is still expressed today with that fine touch of delicacy and beauty so often lacking in modern western art. I was reminded of this just yesterday when looking once again at one of those marvellous representations of Our Lady, Queen and Empress of China. What taste, I thought, the artist has!; what sense of beauty and tenderness!; just to look at that work of art raises one's heart to God. Such works of art, then, inspire us to thank God not only for having made his Mother so beautiful and given her to the world, but for continuing to raise up truly artistic persons today, and to endow them with the talent and th...

St. Maximus the Confessor Thought of the Day To harbor no envy, no anger, no resentment against an offender is still not to have charity for him. It is possible, without any charity, to avoid rendering evil for evil. But to render, spontaneously, good for evil -- such belongs to a perfect spiritual love. -- St Maximus the Confessor

Fr. Phillip Neri Powell The following is an excerpt from the article “Advice from Fr. Philip Neri’s Confessional,” by Fr. Philip Neri Powell, O.P., Ph.D. It's quite long but well worth the read. Visit his website here . Go here for the previous post in this series. III. Resisting Temptation 9. Temptation : Temptation is the pressure we feel when our disordered desires rise up and urge us to indulge them against God’s will for us. Entertaining a temptation is not a sin. Merely thinking about lying is not the sin of lying. However, if you decide to lie and do so “in your heart,” then you have lied whether you actually give voice to the lie or not. 10. Resistance : When you resist temptation on your own you are rejecting God’s grace and denying the victory of the Cross. There is no reason to resist temptation. You are perfectly free not to sin. Rather than steel yourself against temptation and fight like mad to resist the sin, turn and face the temptation square on. Name it. Hand it ...

VATICAN CITY, 14 APRIL 2010 (VIS) - The ordained ministry was again the topic of catechesis by Benedict XVI at today's general audience held in St. Peter's Square and attended by 16,000 people. In particular, the Pope reflected on the "fruitful reality of the priest in the figure of Christ the Head in carrying out the tria munera that he receives, that is, in the three functions of teaching, sanctifying, and governing". "However, in order to understand what it means to act in persona Christi capitis, that is, in the person of Christ the Head, and the consequences of a priest's duty to represent the Lord, it is necessary to understand," the Holy Father said, "that the presbytery represents Jesus 'who is never absent in the Church'". "Therefore, a priest ... never acts in the name of someone absent, but in the person of the Risen Christ" and "the three offices of teaching, sanctifying, and governing are ... a clear spec...

Fr. Phillip Neri Powell The following is an excerpt from the article “Advice from Fr. Philip Neri’s Confessional,” by Fr. Philip Neri Powell, O.P., Ph.D. It's quite long but well worth the read. Visit his website here . Go here for the previous post in this series. 6. Gossip : What sin does gossip pervert? Gossip tends to pervert the gift of Truth, or in other words, gossip distorts our view of objective reality in favor of the illusions generated by lust, envy, jealousy, etc. Depending on the subject of the gossip, gossip is exciting b/c there is the great potential there for making oneself look good or better in front of friends. It is important to us that we appear to be “hooked in,” so we gossip. Gossip, in its worse form, is also a form of tearing people down—lying exaggerating, etc. all build up a false picture that then gets used to make rash judgments. Advice: St. Philip Neri once took a penitent to the top of his church. He handed the woman a feather pillow and told her t...

Thought of the Day We must often draw the comparison between time and eternity. This is the remedy of all our troubles. How small will the present moment appear when we enter that great ocean. -- St. Elizebeth Ann Seton

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday April 11, 2010 You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us. O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in You! Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. For information about the image of Christ shown above click here . To learn about Saint Faustina, the Divine Mercy Chaplet or Divine Mercy Sunday see Who is Saint Faustina? and The Sunday After Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday .

Who is Saint Faustina? Helena Kowalska was the third of ten children, born August 25, 1905, in Głogówiec, Poland. At fifteen she left school to help support her family. Helena felt called by God to a religious vocation. In 1925, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, taking the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. This simple nun with only three years of formal education lived a short but consequential life. Through her, God reveled His compassion, His desire to forgive sins, and reconcile mankind to Himself. She endured great hardships in carrying out this Divine mission. Sister Faustina received visions of our Lord, in which, Jesus instructed her to tell the world of His infinite love and mercy. She kept a diary of these visions; later published under the title Divine Mercy in My Soul: The Diary of St. Faustina . Read it online here . Sister Faustina was thirty-three when she succumbed to tuberculosis. Following her death her writings w...

Last time we talked about the Protoevangelium or “first gospel” in which God promises to send a redeemer to save his people from the slavery of sin. Implicit in this is that sin will grow and spread bringing havoc on humanity. The "fruits" of original sin begin with Adam and Eve's first born son, Cain, killing his brother, Abel. Cain comes from bad seed - Abel good. The murder is, of course, evil, but it also goes to show how human nature was altered and/or perverted by sin. Cain's children will grow numerous and flourish. Unfortunately, they will also spread their sinful ways. More on this in the next installment.

He is Truly Risen Fr. Rene Butler Have you ever noticed how repetitious the Psalms sometimes are? For example, Psalm 117 is only two verses long and the first verse says the same thing twice, in different words: "Praise the LORD, all you nations! Give glory, all you peoples!" Here is another example from Psalm 27: "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear? The LORD is my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid?" This same kind of repetition occurs often in the Prophets. The reason is simple: this is poetry, and one of the most important aspects of poetry in any language is the imaginative use of language to say the same things in many different ways. Here are some examples from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "She doth teach the torches to burn bright!","What light from yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." Shakespeare gives Romeo numerous opportunities to say, "Ain't she gorgeous!" but always...

No one knows exactly when Christ’s resurrection took place only that it was sometime between his burial late on Friday and the discovery of the empty tomb early Sunday morning. There were no eyewitnesses to describe the Resurrection itself. Instead, there are descriptions of appearances of the Risen Lord after the Resurrection. The account of the Passion is one continuous narrative, very similar in all four Gospels. Not so with the narratives of the Resurrection appearances. These are isolated scenes and, while there are some similarities, each Gospel has its own stories to tell. Luke’s Gospel account can be divided into five episodes, all taking place on Easter Sunday: 1) the finding of the empty tomb at dawn, 2) the appearance of the Risen Christ to two disciples walking to Emmaus, 3) the appearance to the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, 4) the commissioning of these disciples to witness and preach in his name, 5) the end of the visible appearances as Christ is carried off to heaven...

Thought of the Day Our own evil inclinations are far more dangerous than any external enemies. -- St Ambrose

EMPTY IS BEAUTIFUL Fr. Rene Butler Usually we think of emptiness as not good, when something that is supposed to fill that space is gone. That was the reaction of most of the disciples who found the tomb of Jesus empty. One important exception was the Beloved Disciple, who ran to the tomb with Peter after Mary Magdalene told them that Jesus’ body was missing. When he entered the tomb after Peter, the Gospel says, “He saw, and he believed.” In other words, he understood what had really happened, and for him that empty tomb became one of the most beautiful places in the world. You can just imagine him thinking the biblical equivalent of “cool!” “awesome!” “wow!” We make our churches as beautiful as possible for Easter. And that beauty is enhanced by the fact that our churches are fuller than usual. Ideally the fruit of the empty tomb is a full church, people of faith gathered together to celebrate the Risen Christ, week after week after week. How wonderful it would be if ...

Heavenly Father, You lifted your dear Son from the grave and made Him a beacon of hope for all mortals. By overcoming sin and death and hell, may He take us by the hand and lead us into the land of bliss and glory where we shall enjoy forever the company of the whole heavenly host. May we trust with all our hearts in His glorious wounds by which He ransomed us for everlasting life. Blessed be the name of Jesus, now and forever. Amen.