BIG C CATHOLICS

(9/9/2015: This list includes the non-apostle Evangelists & Paul of Tarsus. See also " How the Apostles Where Martyred " ) Matthew Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia - Killed by a sword wound Mark Died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead Luke Was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost. John Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death.   John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos .   He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey.   He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully. Peter He was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross. According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that he felt u

True Magnificence from Our Lady of Good Counsel on Vimeo .

Father Michael J. Woolley Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, my reward with me. Jesus, who this past Thursday Ascended into Heaven, is coming soon back to us. On Pentecost Sunday He will come into the hearts of the disciples in the Upper Room, bringing them “His reward”, the Holy Spirit, with Him. (St. Paul, incidentally, calls the Holy Spirit the “down payment” of that reward given to all who follow Jesus in this life. On judgment day, Jesus will “pay in full” each person according to his or her deeds.) This time between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday is kind of a mini-Advent for the Church, it is a time of waiting for God to come to us in a more powerful way. On Ascension Thursday Jesus told the disciples Go and make disciples of all nations . . . .but first, wait. Wait in the Upper Room and pray for the coming of my Holy Spirit. And this “mini-Advent” period of waiting for the coming of God the Holy Spirit into the world was much shor

In early non-Christian cultures goddesses of fertility were honoured in May, the first month of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. As part of its evangelising practice the new religion of Christianity substituted Christian feasts for pagan ones e.g. St Brigid for the first day of Spring. Later, a connection developed between the blossoms of May and the custom of offering flowers to Mary. By the Middle Ages, particularly in Spain, Mary was honoured on individual days in May, but it is due to the Italians that the whole month of Mary was given over to Marian devotion from the 18th Century onwards The Ascension is celebrated on the first Sunday of May. According to the account in the Acts of the Apostles (1: 6-14), Mary did not witness the Ascension of Jesus. She was present in Jerusalem with the other women when the Apostles returned, and surely drank in every word they said. The following Sunday is Pentecost Sunday We commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the tradition