BIG C CATHOLICS

January 5th the Church observes the memorial of the 19th century Redemptorist Bishop John Neumann, the fourth bishop of Philadelphia. His life was marked by incessant travel, service and compassion. John Nepomucene Neumann was born on March 28, 1811, in Bohemia [now the Czech Republic] to a poor but religious family. As a young seminarian, he longed to be a missionary priest in America. Traveling to the United States, Neumann looked for a bishop to ordain him. He mastered Italian, Spanish, English, French and Gaelic besides speaking his native German and Bohemian. Neumann's early priesthood was difficult and lonely, working with poor farming immigrants near Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York. Eventually, he found companionship among the Redemptorists, a religious order that ministered to the German-American population. Neumann professed his priestly vows and five years later, owing to his remarkable leadership abilities and vast pastoral skills, became the Redemptorist Order’

In a letter read at the funeral of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop emeritus of Cologne, Germany and one of four cardinals who wrote the dubia to Pope Francis last year . Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI praised his late friend as a "passionate shepherd and pastor", who died at peace with God and his will for the Church. According to CNA/EWTN News : "Benedict, who had known Meisner personally, noted that the late prelate... had found it difficult to leave his post in Cologne upon retirement, especially at a time when the Church needs persuasive priests 'who resist the dictatorship of the Zeitgeist and who live and think the faith with complete determination.'" The Pope Emeritus continued "However, what moved me all the more was that, in this last period of his life, he learned to let go and to live out of a deep conviction that the Lord does not abandon His Church, even if the boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) When we go to a football game, a baseball game, or any other sports event we go to watch it being played. We watch television shows; we watch and listen to concerts. We watch so many events in our lives. But when we come to Mass, we should participate. The Church wants us to fully, actively, and consciously offer the Mass with the priest, not simply watch the priest and ministers offer Mass for us while we remain passive observers. When we hear the term “Corpus Christi” we may tend to think of its meaning only in terms of Christ’s Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. That is an unworthy notion. In reality, in the Eucharist we receive not only Christ in His Body and Blood but Christ in His entirety, an entirety that encompasses His activity, His project among us, His mission and purpose in engaging us and in engaging the world in which we live, move, and have our being. God our Fat

Christ Reproving the Pharisees , James Tissot, c. 1890. Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) When we give someone a gift at Christmas, or at a birthday party or anniversary event, we call it a present. Why? Because you are close to that person, that friend, that loved one. Your presence is contained within your gift, your present. When you twitter someone with a tweet, or e-mail that person, you are present to them. When you send someone a hand-written letter you are more personally present than you are when you tweet them. I suppose that’s because sending a letter in your own handwriting requires more effort than reaching you friend or loved one with a few electronic bytes. Isn’t a handwritten letter more personal than an electronic note? Also, there are types of closeness. Think, for instance, of the differences between shaking hands, holding hands, and kissing someone. The qualities of closeness and of presence d

An earlier post included this quote from Pope Pius XI in part. Below are the Holy Father's words in their entirety. As Pius XI notes, the Eucharist abounds in grace. "When Christ manifested Himself to Margaret Mary, and declared to her the infinitude of His love, at the same time, in the manner of a mourner, He complained that so many and such great injuries were done to Him by ungrateful men — and we would that these words in which He made this complaint were fixed in the minds of the faithful, and were never blotted out by oblivion: 'Behold this Heart' — He said — 'which has loved men so much and has loaded them with all benefits, and for this boundless love has had no return but neglect, and contumely, and this often from those who were bound by a debt and duty of more special love.' In order that these faults might be washed away, He then recommended several things to be done, and in particular the following as most pleasing to Himself, namely that men

Clockwise from L to R: Pope Pius XI, Pope Paul VI, Pope St. John XXIII and Pope St. Pius X. The Eucharist is the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. If not for the Incarnation, there could be no Eucharist. In the words of Servant of God Father John Hardon: "We are to believe that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ - simply, without qualification. It is God become man in the fullness of His divine nature, in the fullness of His human nature, in the fullness of His body and soul, in the fullness of everything that makes Jesus Jesus. He is in the Eucharist with His human mind and will united with the Divinity… That is what our Catholic Faith demands of us… If we believe this, we are Catholic. If we do not, we are not, no matter what people may think we are." Below are quotes on the Most Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of our Faith, from 20th century pontiffs. The faith of the Church is this: That one and identical is the Word of God an

The following quotations from Pope Benedict XVI concern the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist: Receiving the Eucharist means adoring Him whom we receive. Only in this way do we become one with Him, and are given, as it were, a foretaste of the beauty of the heavenly liturgy. The act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself. ***  In the Eucharist, the Son of God comes to meet us and desires to become one with us; eucharistic adoration is simply the natural consequence of the eucharistic celebration, which is itself the Church’s supreme act of adoration . *** In a world where there is so much noise, so much bewilderment, there is a need for silent adoration of Jesus concealed in the Host. Be assiduous in the prayer of adoration and teach it to the faithful. It is a source of comfort and light, particularly to those who are suffering .  The first two statements are from Pope Benedict's addr