BIG C CATHOLICS

September 1, 2017 Society is built and sustained by families. The sacred foundation of the family is marriage. Today, the family and marriage are under attack. But this did not happen in a vacuum. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput observed, “No society can sustain itself for long if marriage and the family fall apart on a mass scale.” When marriages suffer, families suffer, and society breaks down. Love is rooted in sacrifices, and each member of the family must make many sacrifices. Let us pray that the sacrifices we make are made joyfully. Blessed Virgin, pray for us. Nativity of the Virgin Mary Novena for Marriage and Families - Day 3 Say the following three times: Jesus, I trust in You. Please grant through Your mother’s intercession that I may always bring Your hope into my family. Then say: Our Lady, on this feast of your birth, please pray for stronger and holier marriages. Amen. Immaculate daughter of Saints Joachim and Anne, you are the door to the Eternal Word w...

Thus, every pastor must strive to deepen the understanding of his pastoral office as an instrument of sustaining communion of faith within the body of Christ; he is to grow in fellowship with his bishop — the custodian of the apostolic faith in the diocese; and he must not tire of exercising this office by teaching the revealed truth to his flock, celebrating the Mass with them, and governing his flock in pastoral charity. — Blessed John Henry Newman __________________________________________ Prayer for the Canonization of Bl. John Henry Newman Eternal Father, You led John Henry Newman to follow the kindly light of Truth, and he obediently responded to your heavenly calls at any cost. As writer, preacher, counsellor and educator, as pastor, Oratorian, and servant of the poor he labored to build up your Kingdom. Grant that through your Vicar on Earth we may hear the words, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the company of the canonized saints.'...

Feast Day - September 1st In our culture that often promotes self-aggrandizement, the life of Saint Giles serves as a reminder that it is humility that is actually the road to true greatness. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints the Church venerates because their intercession is believed to be particularly effective against various diseases. The designation dates to the 14th century in the Rhineland. It began as a devotion seeking their aid during the bubonic plague known as the Black Death. Although we do not know the exact date of his birth, scholars speculate that it was sometime in the middle of the 7th century A.D. What is fairly certain is that he was born into a noble Athenian family, and that he left his native country for France, following the death of both his parents. In the depth of a forest near Nimes, he lived in the hollow of a rock in a green glade shaded by four gigantic oaks. When his reputation for piety and miracle-working spread, it wo...

August 31, 2017 Society is built and sustained by families. The sacred foundation of the family is marriage. Today, the family and marriage are under attack. However, this did not happen in a vacuum. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has observed, “No society can sustain itself for long if marriage and the family fall apart on a mass scale.” When marriages suffer, families suffer, and society breaks down. Today, we pray for an increase in holiness, that we may grow to be better members of our families. We pray also for the strength and will to attain this grace. Blessed Virgin, pray for us. Nativity of the Virgin Mary Novena for Marriage and Families - Day 2 Say the following three times: Jesus, I trust in You. Please grant through Your mother’s intercession that I may always bring Your hope into my family. Then say: Our Lady, on this feast of your birth, please pray for stronger and holier marriages. Amen. O most holy daughter of Adam, your precious Son chose you as the ...

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) In the 1932 edition of the Rule of a certain religious order you find this statement: “The professed [= members with vows] cannot be denied anything that is necessary. However, the Superiors occasionally try their inferiors, by giving them an opportunity to feel some privation, and to be made aware of the fact that the poor cannot have everything they could wish for.” How times have changed! The language of “superiors” and “inferiors” is gone from the latest edition (1982), and the very idea of those in charge deliberately depriving others of what they need is unthinkable, repugnant even. Certain things made perfect sense in 1932; they made no sense at all fifty years later. That said, members of religious orders are still by definition different, counter-cultural. They still take the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, which...

Feast Day - August 31st In the latest edition of the Roman Martyrology, the Church has coupled the feast of Saints Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, the two holy men who took the Body of Jesus down from the Cross, helped wrap it in linen cloth and placed it in the tomb. They were both Jews who came to follow Christ at personal great risk. Their devotion to Jesus at the culmination of our Lord's Passion testifies to the charismatic power and transformative nature of Christ’s message and mission. All that is reliably known about these two saints is found in the Gospel passages that mention them. Both were apparently men of authority and means in the first century Jewish community in Jerusalem, and both were respected members of the Sanhedrin there. Each had secretly become a disciple of Jesus, although until His salvific death neither of them spoke publicly about it “for fear of the Jews.” In the Gospel of John, for instance, Nicodemus does indeed approach Jesus in order ...

August 30, 2017 Society is built and sustained by families. The sacred foundation of the family is marriage. Today, the family and marriage are under attack. However, this did not happen in a vacuum. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput observed, “No society can sustain itself for long if marriage and the family fall apart on a mass scale.” When marriages suffer, families suffer. And when families suffer, society breaks down. We say this novena for marriage and family, for all marriages and families that are suffering in any way. Let us pray for peace in our homes, hearts and families. Nativity of the Virgin Mary Novena for Marriage and Families - Day 1 Say the following three times: Jesus, I trust in You. Please grant through Your mother’s intercession that I may always bring Your hope into my family. Then say: Our Lady, on this feast of your birth, please pray for stronger and holier marriages. Amen. Most lovable Mother Mary, our Father in Heaven created you with delight. ...

Pope Saint Pius X’s papacy was both courageous and immensely consequential. The Modernist crisis in biblical exegesis occurred during his reign. Using new methods of historical and literary criticism scholars challenged the meaning of Scripture. Such methodology led to erroneous conclusions that called into question many Church dogmas. St. Pius X published the encyclical, Pascendi dominici gregis , denouncing the Modernist heresy. He also instituted the Oath Against Modernism to be sworn to by all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors, and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries. The oath addressed five solemn tenets central to the Catholic Faith . It reads in part: "I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real and historical Christ when he lived among us, and that the Church was built upon Peter, the prince of the apostolic hierarchy, and his successors...

"We live in a world where the family is under attack. It is safe to say that the institution of both marriage and family has never been as threatened as it is today. In fact, its very survival as an institution is questionable. There is hardly a person reading this who is not touched by the disintegration of family life. It can take many forms; divorce, co-habitation, the acceptance of a contraceptive mentality, abortion, fatherless homes, the rejection of the faith and numerous other dysfunctions which plague and threaten to destroy family life all together. Beyond these problems, as Saint John Paul II himself warned in Familiars consortio , there are strong forces in our society, which are actively seeking to change the very nature, structure, and meaning of both marriage and family: and even in some cases to eradicate them all together. This disintegration of marriage and family has not happened by accident. At one time, they were considered to be sacred institutions havin...

August 29th, the Church celebrates the Passion of Saint John the Baptist. He was the cousin of Jesus, the son of Elizabeth and Zachariah, and the nephew of the Blessed Virgin Mary. John heralds Christ in his miraculous birth and his ministry and martyrdom. Mark's Gospel tells the events of his execution (Mark 6:17-29): "Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife." Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so. Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias’ own daug...

Saint Augustine is numbered among the four great Doctors of the Western Church He was one of the most brilliant minds of ancient Christendom. His influential contribution to theology, especially in clarifying the dogmas of the Trinity, grace, and the Church, have enriched the Faith immensely. Here are his thoughts about loving God belatedly over the false idols and things of the world. Too late came I to love you, O Beauty both so ancient and so new! Too late came I to love you - and behold you were with me all the time... *** You called and shouted and burst my deafness. You flashed, shone, and scattered my blindness. You breathed odors, and I drew in breath and panted for You. I tasted, and I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for Your peace. *** The soul is torn apart in a painful condition as long as it prefers the eternal because of its Truth but does not discard the temporal because of familiarity. *** I was in misery, and misery is the state of eve...

Memorial – August 28th Augustine Aurelius was born on November 13, 354, in Tagaste, North Africa. His father was a pagan, his mother, Saint Monica, was a devote Christian. Still unbaptized and burning for knowledge, he came under the influence of the Manicheans, which caused his mother intense sorrow. He left Africa for Rome, deceiving his mother, who was ever anxious to be near him. She prayed and wept. A bishop consoled her by observing that a son of so many tears would never be lost. Yet the evil spirit drove him constantly deeper into moral degeneracy, capitalizing on his leaning toward pride and stubbornness. Grace was playing a waiting game; there still was time, and the greater the depths into which the evil spirit plunged its fledgling, the stronger would be the reaction. Augustine recognized this vacuum. He observed how the human heart is created with a great abyss. The earthly satisfactions that can be thrown into it are no more than a handful of stones that hardly c...

By Father Thomas Mattison There is no such thing as a Church teaching that is not social. Once upon a time the bishop of the Diocese of Burlington was named Robert F. Joyce. He was a native of Proctor and installed as bishop of Burlington in 1957. He resigned as bishop after 15 years at age 75. He would not have been grateful to be called an ecclesiologist — an expert in the theology of the Church — but he was just that. At every Confirmation ceremony he gave the same sermon -- every one! And he would make everyone in church repeat the message after him: Don’t go to heaven alone; take someone with you. RFJ clearly understood that there is in each of us a tendency — a temptation — to think of ourselves before thinking of anyone else and, even, to the exclusion of everyone else. But he understood, too, that such a focus on the single self was absolutely antithetical to Christianity. Just being a Christian means being — at very least — connected to Jesus. We have no connect...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) We don’t often think of it, but the gospels are loaded with questions. Sometimes it seems like there are more questions than there are answers. Questions imply a quest, a search, and a hunger for knowledge. Genuine questions that is, not trick questions. The word “question” contains within it the word “quest.” That’s what Jesus liked… people who are in search for truth, who are questing for God. So we find Jesus in today’s gospel asking: “Who do you say that I am?” And we find Simon Peter answering the question by identifying Jesus as the Son of God. Evidently Peter recognized something deep within Jesus that was divine, someone coming from God. But Peter came to that as a consequence of Jesus asking him a question. Jesus in response sees something deep within Peter that Peter couldn’t see for himself. In a sense Jesus introduced Peter to himself. “Okay,” Jesus said, “you told me who I am. Now let ...

This feast (also known as The Franciscan Crown Rosary) is August 27th. The Franciscan Crown Rosary, properly known as "The Franciscan Crown of Our Lady's Joys" dates back to approximately the year 1422. According to tradition, as related by the famous Franciscan historian Father Luke Wadding, a very pious young man who had been admitted to the Franciscan Order in that year was saddened and had decided to return to the world and quit the cloister. Before his entry into the Order, it was his custom to adorn a statue of the Blessed Virgin with a wreath of fresh and beautiful flowers. Now, he was unable to continue his act of piety and devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Our Lady appeared to him and prevented him from taking such a step as he had planned. "Do not be sad and cast down, my son," she said, "because you are no longer permitted to place wreaths of flowers on my statue. I shall teach you to change this pious practice into one that will be far mor...

The prayers of Saint Monica, together with God's grace, turned her wayward son, Saint Augustine, from sinner to saint. St. Monica, model of motherhood, your patience and fervent prayers won for the Church a brilliant mind who himself won many souls. We pray especially for loved ones, and anyone who has left the Faith. Dear Saint Monica, exemplary mother of Saint Augustine. You were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Through your constant prayers and petitions to God, he became a great saint. Inspired by your example, we pray that our loved ones who have gone astray may soon be welcomed home to the Church founded by Christ the Lord, to live and love in imitation of the Savior. Amen. ____________________________________________ Prayer for the Intercession of St. Augustine and St. Monica Almighty God and loving Father, who consoles the sorrowful and who mercifully accepted the motherly tears of Saint Monica for the conversion of her son Saint Augustine, grant us...

(In 2017, this feast is superseded by the Sunday liturgy.) August 27th, is the memorial of Saint Monica. She is an example of those holy matrons of the ancient Church who proved very influential in their own quiet way. Through prayer and tears she gave the great Saint Augustine to the Church, and thereby won for herself a place of honor in the history of God's kingdom on earth. The Confessions of St. Augustine provide certain biographical details. Born of Christian parents about the year 331 at Tagaste in Africa, Monica was reared under the strict supervision of an elderly nurse who had likewise reared her father. In the course of time she was given in marriage to a pagan named Patricius. Besides other faults, he possessed a very irascible nature; it was in this school of suffering that Monica learned patience. It was her custom to wait until his anger had cooled; only then did she give a kindly remonstrance. Evil-minded servants had prejudiced her mother-in-law against he...

August 26, 2017 Saint Monica demonstrated heroic patience during her trials. She suffered greatly, but never lost her abiding faith in God's goodness. Let us pray that we may have the faith of St. Monica and so possess heroic patience in the face of all difficulties. Only then can we be instruments of God's peace and show the joy of discipleship. St. Monica Novena - Day 9 Dear Saint Monica, you were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Your faithfulness to prayer brought you and your son so close to God that you are now with him in eternity. By your intercession and God’s grace, your son St. Augustine became a great and venerable Saint of the Church. Please take my request to God with the same fervor and persistence with which you prayed for your son. (Mention your intentions here) With your needs, worries and anxieties, you threw yourself on the mercy and providence of God. Through sorrow and pain, you constantly devoted yourself to God. Pray for me that ...

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Logos, is the embodiment of truth, beauty, and goodness. Aristotle's insight is but a dim reflection of God's perfect wisdom and infinite love. (A version of this article was originally published in July 2016.) ____________________________________________ The brilliant Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) in his treatise on ethical conduct, Nicomachean Ethics , discusses the "Golden Mean." It is a way of acting that enables us to live according to our ideal nature, improve our character, and deal effectively with life's hardships while striving for the good of all. The golden mean is the desired middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. For example, to Aristotle, courage is a virtue, which if taken to its extreme is recklessness, and, in absence or insufficiency, is cowardice. Aristotle's ethics is practical and decidedly teleological. He believed the end of human life is happiness (G...

Feast - August 26th The image of Our Lady of Częstochowa, also known as the Black Madonna, was traditionally believed to have been painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist on a cypress wood panel from a table used by the Holy Family in Nazareth. It was said to have been brought from Jerusalem by Saint Helen and was enshrined in Constantinople for 500 years. It was given to a Greek princess married to a Ruthenian nobleman and it was housed in the royal palace at Belz in the Ukraine for the next 600 years. Art historians believe it is a Byzantine icon of the Hodigitria type dating from the 6th - 9th Century. The image was brought to Poland in 1382 by Ladislaus of Opole who rescued the painting from Belz while escaping an attack by the Tartars who had damaged the painting with an arrow. On his way to Silesia, Ladislaus stopped to rest in the town of Częstochowa near the church on Jasna Góra (Bright Hill). He believed that it was Our Lady’s desire for her image to remain in Częstochow...

August 25, 2017 O God, who consoles the sorrowful and who mercifully accepted the motherly tears of Saint Monica for the conversion of her son Augustine, grant us, through the intercession of them both, that we may bitterly regret our sins and find the grace of your pardon. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. St. Monica Novena - Day 8 Dear Saint Monica, you were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Your faithfulness to prayer brought you and your son so close to God that you are now with him in eternity. By your intercession and God’s grace, your son St. Augustine became a great and venerable Saint of the Church. Please take my request to God with the same fervor and persistence with which you prayed for your son. (Mention your intentions here) With your needs, worries and anxieties, you threw yourself on the mercy and providence of God. Through sorrow and pain, y...

August 25th, is the optional memorial of Saint Louis IX, a wise monarch known for his successful peacemaking and administrative abilities. Reigning from 1226 to 1270, Louis showed how a saint would act on the throne of France. He was a lovable personality, a kind husband, a father of eleven children, and at the same time a strict ascetic. His mother, Blanche of Castile, instructed him in the Faith. His mother’s admonition to him as a child: "Never forget that sin is the only great evil in the world. No mother could love her son more than I love you. But I would rather see you lying dead at my feet than know that you had offended God by one mortal sin." remained indelibly impressed in his mind for the rest of his life. To an energetic and prudent rule Louis added love and zeal for the practice of piety and the reception of the holy sacraments. He was brave in battle, polished at feasts, and addicted to fasting and mortification. His politics were grounded upon strict ju...

By Father David Powers, Sch.P. Saint Joseph Calasanz (1557-1648) was a holy priest and the founder of both the world's first Christian public school and later the Order of the Pious Schools (known today as the Piarist Fathers,) and he devoted his life to the education of poor children. He was born in Spain on September 11, 1557, in a little village in Aragon called Peralta de la Sal.  He was the youngest of five children born to Don Pedro Calasanz and Donna Maria Gastonia. His mother and brother died while he was still in school. He studied at Estadilla, Valencia, and Alcala de Henares.  His father wanted him to become a soldier, to marry, and to continue the family, but a near fatal illness in 1582 caused him to seriously examine his life, and he realized that he was called to the religious life.  He was ordained as a diocesan priest on December 17, 1583, after receiving a doctorate in both canon law and theology from the University of Lereda.  Calasanz serv...

Please remember the Holy Father Pope Francis' intentions in prayer throughout the month of September: Parishes That our parishes, animated by a missionary spirit, may be places where faith is communicated and charity is seen. Specific  Intention - To be Announced Pope Francis has decided to keep one monthly prayer intention. He is no longer proposing an urgent prayer intention. Each Sunday on which he gives an Angelus address, he will request prayers for specific people and situations that are of deep concern to him and to the universal Church.

August 24, 2017 Today we pray for all those who feel abandoned by God for whatever reason, for those waiting for answers to prayer, and for those who are suffering and do not yet see the reasons behind what God is working in their lives. May they be granted the grace of unwavering faith through Saint Monica's holy intercession. St. Monica Novena - Day 7 Dear Saint Monica, you were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Your faithfulness to prayer brought you and your son so close to God that you are now with him in eternity. By your intercession and God’s grace, your son St. Augustine became a great and venerable Saint of the Church. Please take my request to God with the same fervor and persistence with which you prayed for your son. (Mention your intentions here) With your needs, worries and anxieties, you threw yourself on the mercy and providence of God. Through sorrow and pain, you constantly devoted yourself to God. Pray for me that I might join you in suc...

August 24th, is the feast of Saint Bartholomew, one of the twelve Apostles. He is mentioned in all four Gospel accounts. While little is known about his early life, Bartholomew was most certainly a devout Jew. His name means "son of Tolomai". Most scholars believe that he, and the Nathanael referred to in John, are the same person. An authority in the law of Moses, Bartholomew was a close friend of the Apostle Philip. Having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost, Bartholomew evangelized Asia Minor, northwestern India and Greater Armenia. While preaching in Armenia, he was arrested and sentenced to death. Following Pentecost, Bartholomew embarked on a missionary trip to India. Popular piety records him as serving in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt. Bartholomew and Saint Jude are credited with bringing Christianity to Armenia. Both are the patrons of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Fr. Pius Parsch in The Church's Year of Grace writes: ...

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) Who was Shebna? Who was Eliakim? Why did Shebna lose his job to Eliakim? Why should we care? These questions are pretty irrelevant. Today’s reading from Isaiah was clearly selected only because of its reference to keys. The questions in today’s Gospel, on the other hand, are far from irrelevant. Can you imagine a head of state or a pope asking his closest associates, “Who do people say that I am?” The more normal question would be, “What are people saying about me?” The disciples felt no need, apparently, to ask what Jesus meant, and they gave precisely the kind of answer he  was looking for: “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (How anyone could think he was John the Baptist, whose death was so recent, is beyond me.) When Jesus asked the disciples the more pointed...