BIG C CATHOLICS

There is a wonderful article on the power of prayer written by Monsignor Pope available here .

This is a great Catholic IQ test online.  It is quite lengthy so be prepared to answer questions for 20-25 minutes.  It's well worth your time.  Go here to take the test.

Excerpted from Father Michael J. Woolley's Trinity Sunday homily. Read it in its entirety   here : [ ... ] And so today we celebrate this wonderful and central mystery of our Faith: that the One True God is a community of Persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit. The Bond of Love that Unites these Three Persons into One is like a Triple Linked Chain that nothing could ever break. This Strong Love of the Most Blessed Trinity has been poured into our hearts at Baptism. And so long as we remain united with the Trinity through loving God and loving our neighbor, even now in this life we get a foretaste of that Love we will abide in forever in Heaven. But while chains of Love uniting the Persons of the Holy Trinity with each other are unbreakable, the chains of Love which unite us to God are not. As the saying goes, a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link. And when we commit sin, we may break only one link in the chain that binds us to God, but that one link ...

The Catholic Churches Teaching on Sexuality is What Every Woman Wants from LoveAndResponsibility.Org on Vimeo .

Order Out of Confusion Fr. Rene Butler Remember learning about mixed metaphors, where two or more incompatible images are used to describe one thing? Years ago I saw a cartoon from the New Yorker magazine, where an executive speaking to his staff says, “Gentlemen, I smell a rat. I can feel it in the air. And I will nip it in the bud!” We seem to have a similar confusion about the Holy Spirit, presented in the New Testament as a dove, wind, fire, and called “Paraclete,” which in turn is translated sometimes as Comforter and sometimes as Advocate. The hymn “ Veni Sancte Spiritus ” calls on the Spirit to “melt the frozen, warm the chill,” just after describing the Spirit as “Grateful coolness in the heat.” But all this isn’t so strange as it might at first appear. The key lies in  John 3:8 , “The wind blows where it wills… but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” (See  1 Corinthians 12 ,  Galatians 5:22-23  for just a few examples.) T...

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Imagine you are one of the disciples gathered in the upper room, Acts 1:14 “All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” You hear something like a mighty wind. You see something like tongues of fire. You feel something happening within you and in the whole group. You do something: you start to speak in ways you have never spoken before. This is a pivotal event in the life of the disciples. The death and resurrection of Jesus were pivotal for their faith. Pentecost is pivotal for their life. Nothing will ever be the same again. We have all had experiences we will never forget. Whether they are positive or negative, they are pivotal. They are more than memories to us. In the creed we say: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life.” This is more than remembering. “The Lord formed man from the earth and blew into his nostril...

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...