BIG C CATHOLICS

On Sundays when homilies by Fr. Butler and Fr. Irvin are not available, we will feature homilies by Fr. Thomas Lane. Fr. Lane is a Professor of Sacred Scripture at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD on the campus of Mt. St. Mary’s University. He previously ministered in Ireland. (Originally delivered in 2013). Fr. Thomas J. Lane S.T.D. Associate Professor of Sacred Scripture Mt. St. Mary's Seminary Emmitsburg, MD  Fr. Lane's website Jesus is the Promised Messiah Listen to Him even as He predicts His Passion What a grace for Peter and James and John to see Jesus transfigured. They got a preview of the glory of Jesus risen from the dead and his glory in heaven. It was also a preview of the glory we all hope to share in heaven. This was a very special grace for Peter and James and John. It was not the only special grace Jesus shared with Peter, James and John. Earlier in the Gospel (Mark and Luke) we read that Jesus only allowed Peter and Jam

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Sparrows are the most common and the most plentiful of all birds. This being so, they are not valued very highly at all. If as a species they were becoming extinct you can safely bet, however, that committees and campaigns would spring up to save them. But what about human life? There are over seven billion human beings alive on this earth today. In this century, more than in any other century in human history, human life is less and less valued. Paradoxically the baby-boomer generation, namely all those born after the end of WWII, is committed to individual rights, to individual expression and personal choice, to the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and the sexual revolution as no other generation in human history. But what about commitment to the right to life? Perversely and paradoxically, the people of this century are given to abortion and euthanasia as never be

May 22nd, is the optional memorial of Saint Rita of Cascia. Most Catholics are familiar with Saint Jude as the patron saint of hopeless causes. What they might not know, however, is that there is another patron of the impossible, whose very life reflects faith in God despite difficult circumstances. She is St. Rita of Cascia. Born in Italy in 1381, Rita expressed an interest in religious life at a very early age. In obedience to her parent’s wishes, she married at 18. The union was not a happy one. Her husband was a violent man, who passed his violent nature on to their twin sons. Rita did everything she could to be a model wife and mother. She was dedicated to converting her husband and sons, praying constantly for them. After nearly 20 years of marriage, her husband was stabbed to death by an enemy and her two sons died shortly afterward. Alone, Rita decided to fulfill her lifelong wish to enter a religious order. Denied admittance three times because she was a widow, eventual

The story of Saint Peregrine Laziosi is actually one of two healings—the first occurring when he was a young man, and the second when he was in his mid-60s. Had the first healing not taken place, the second might not have, either. St. Peregrine was born around the year 1260 in Forli, Italy, the only son of an affluent and politically active family. Forli was part of the Papal States at the time, and was the center of a medieval partisan conflict over who should rule in Italy. The Ghibelline faction, of which the Laziosi family was a part, supported the the Holy Roman Emperor, while the Guelphs supported the popes. Because of its stand, Forli was under interdict and Peregrine himself was strongly anti-Catholic. In an attempt to reconcile their differences, Pope Martin V sent St. Philip Benizi, the head of the Servite Order, to Forli to act as a mediator between that city and the pontiff. Peregrine was 18 and inclined to hotheadedness when St. Philip arrived, to the point where he

April 27, 2017 The origin of the devotion to Our Lady at the shrine of Montserrat according to the earliest written records dates from 932, when the Count of Barcelona confirmed and renewed an endowment to the shrine made by his father in 888. This gift was again confirmed in 982 by Lothaire, King of France. Constant and unbroken tradition is that even previous to 888, an image of Our Lady was miraculously found among the rocks of Montserrat. Montserrat itself is a fantastic mountain group, four thousand feet high, about twenty miles from Barcelona. The name, Montserrat, of Latin origin, means saw-edged mountain. It is formed by huge boulders that raise their immense bulk perpendicularly to that four-thousand-foot summit. Outwardly, it resembles the seemingly inaccessible monasteries seen on high Mount Athos in Greece: "Montserrat is, and will forever be, a source of deep impressions caused by the singularity of the place. There, what is material becomes cyclopean, the my

Prayer to Our Crucified Lord Lord Jesus, I thank You, who laid down Your life for me so meekly. You bore the nails so patiently, You were raised upon the cross so mercilessly, You hung there so painfully, You wept so bitterly, You cried aloud piercingly, You shed Your blood plentifully, and for me, a sinner, You suffered death unquestionably. Now, Lord Jesus, I commend myself to Your love, to the power of Your passion, to the depths of Your endless mercy. Jesus Christ, in Your immeasurable pity, keep alive within me the memory of Your bitter death, of Your holy wounds, so that in sickness and in health, I may remember always Your abounding mercy. Amen. ___________________________________________________ Prayer in Homage to Christ's Passion and Death Jesus, my God, I adore You, present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, where You wait day and night to be our comfort while we await Your unveiled presence in Heaven. Jesus Christ, who for my sake has deigned to s

Good Friday commemorates the Passion of the Lord, the day of the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Nowhere in the world is Mass offered on this day. Reception of the Most Holy Eucharist is possible because hosts were consecrated the evening before at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The veneration of the cross, the instrument of Christ’s death that brought about our redemption, is a powerful reminder that each of us were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured (Council of Trent, I, 5, 11). Jesus was executed on the charge of being King of the Jews. The idea that Jesus was a king was brutally mocked. Roman soldiers dressed Him in a robe of royal purple and placed a crown of thorns on His head. Jesus was made to walk to his execution, carrying his own cross. His destination was a place outside of the city called Golgotha or "place of the skull". Crucifixion was the most horrific form of death the Romans devised

We often speak of the “Seven Last Words” of Jesus on the cross. All four gospels mention them. Three are unique to Luke; three more are unique to John; there is only the one in Matthew and Mark, “last words” in the usual sense of the term. It is the most troubling of all, an expression of despair: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Below, we examine each of our Lord’s final statements. 1. Jesus addresses the Father. Then Jesus said, " Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. " [Luke 23:34] This first saying of Christ on the cross is traditionally called "The Word of Forgiveness". It is theologically understood as Christ’s prayer for forgiveness for those who were crucifying him: the Roman soldiers and all others involved in his torture and death. By virtue of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, forgiveness is possible, the gates of Heaven are opened, and sin is forever conquered. 2. Jesus speaks to Dismas.  And he said t

"Every other person who ever came into this world came into it to live. [Christ] came into it to die. Death was a stumbling block to Socrates — it interrupted his teaching. But to Christ, death was the goal and fulfillment of His life, the gold that He was seeking. Few of His words or actions are intelligible without reference to His Cross. …. The story of every human life begins with birth and ends with death. In the Person of Christ, however, it was His death that was first and His life that was last. …. It was not so much that His birth cast a shadow on His life and thus led to His death; it was rather that the Cross was first, and cast its shadow back to His birth. His has been the only life in the world that was ever lived backward." — Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen ___________________________________________________ Prayer to Christ Crucified Jesus, my God, I adore You, present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, where You wait day and night to be o

There is very little known about Dismas apart from the account of the crucifixion chronicled in the Gospel of Luke. Traditionally given the title of the “Good Thief” for rebuking the criminal who mocked Jesus, Dismas, who was also under the sentence of crucifixion, asked to be remembered by Jesus “when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus then replied, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23: 42-43). The Christian community took seriously Jesus’ words that the good thief was saved, and honors him as a saint. Dismas’ response to Jesus is an articulation of the steps in conversion away from sin: he came to an honest awareness of his sin and renounced it, seeking Jesus as the source of eternal life. The words of our Savior to Dismas, assuring him of heaven is understood by the Church as the first granting of a plenary indulgence. A legend arose in the Middle Ages that Dismas and Jesus had met one time prior to the events at Calvary. According to the story

On the 4th Sunday of Lent, we read in John’s Gospel about Christ healing a man blind from birth. We identify with the man who came to see and believe in Jesus as the Son of God. The Lord has anointed our eyes with His own divine hands and washed them with the waters of our baptism. Jesus used mud made with his own saliva, and told the man to wash in the waters of Siloam. Jesus did this because it was the Sabbath, the day, when it was strictly forbidden to make mud, spit, and wash. By breaking these Jewish ritual laws, Jesus proved that He is indeed the Lord of the Sabbath. As such, He is co-equal to God the Father, the One who works even on the Sabbath, the holiest of days, directing the world He created. The scandal totally transcends the fact that Jesus has healed the blind man, who is expelled from the synagogue because of his faith in Christ. The whole Church follows this man in his destiny, knowing that the truly blind are those who do not recognize Jesus as the Lord and pers

A plenary indulgence may be obtained on each Friday of Lent by the faithful, who after worthily receiving Communion, piously recite the following prayer before an image of Christ crucified – provided the conditions for a plenary indulgence are met (see below after prayer). A plenary indulgence remits all temporal punishment due to personal sins. Prayer Before a Crucifix/Prayer to Christ Crucified. Behold, O kind and most sweet Jesus, I cast myself upon my knees in thy sight, and with the most fervent desire of my soul, pray and beseech thee that thou wouldst impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, with true contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment; while with deep affection and grief of soul I ponder within myself and mentally contemplate thy five wounds, having before my eyes the words which David the prophet put on thy lips concerning thee: “My hands and my feet they have pierced, they have numbered all my bones" (Ps 21, 17-18).

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) If there is no divine being above us we will be consumed by all that is around us. If Christ in His kingship is removed from our lives we will be at the mercy of any and all forces in this world that are more powerful than our own powers. In the world of philosophers those who reject God or the reality of God are known as nihilists who claim we exist in nothingness. What we think to be real is, they claim, only a construction that we have made in our own minds. The problem with nihilism is that it leads to anarchy, the complete loss of order in a world that they view to be essentially irrational. Tyrants come to power and thrive in such a world view. Our nation’s Founding Fathers recognized the threat and grip of tyrants when they wrote: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, tha

Robert Gidley This article is disturbing; there is nothing pleasant about crucifixion. However, having an understanding of crucifixion helps us understand what Jesus went through on the day of his death. This article is based on various articles written by medical doctors, including a study by the Mayo Clinic published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1989. Crucifixion probably started first with the Persians (what is modern day Iran). Initially, the victim was suspended to keep their feet from touching holy ground. The Phoenicians, traders to many lands, seem to have also acquired the practice and probably spread it to other cultures, including the Greeks. Alexander the Great (a Greek) introduced the practice to Carthage, where it was picked up by the Romans. The Romans started using it around the time Jesus was born. The Romans perfected crucifixion as a punishment designed to maximize pain and suffering. It wasn't about killing somebody — it was a

[This prayer may be recited individually or as a family before an image of Christ crucified on Palm Sunday and throughout Holy Week. It is taken from the words of Pope Pius XII On the Sacred Liturgy .] "Dearly beloved, in Holy Week, when the most bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ are put before us by the liturgy, the Church invites us to come to Calvary and follow in the blood-stained footsteps of the Divine Redeemer, to carry the Cross willingly with Him, to reproduce in our hearts His spirit of expiation and atonement, and to die together with Him." V/ We ought to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ R/ in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection. V/ Let us pray. All-powerful, eternal God, You have chosen to give mankind a model of humility; our Savior took on our flesh, and subjected Himself to the Cross. Grant us the grace to preserve faithfully the lessons He has given us in his Passion and to have a share in His Resurrection. This we ask of You

A plenary indulgence may be obtained on each Friday of Lent by the faithful, who after worthily receiving Communion, piously recite the following prayer before an image of Christ crucified – provided the conditions for a plenary indulgence are met (see below after prayer). A plenary indulgence remits all temporal punishment due to personal sins. Prayer Before a Crucifix/Prayer to Christ Crucified. Behold, O kind and most sweet Jesus, I cast myself upon my knees in thy sight, and with the most fervent desire of my soul, pray and beseech thee that thou wouldst impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, with true contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment; while with deep affection and grief of soul I ponder within myself and mentally contemplate thy five wounds, having before my eyes the words which David the prophet put on thy lips concerning thee: “My hands and my feet they have pierced, they have numbered all my bones" (Ps 21, 17-18).

A plenary indulgence may be obtained on each Friday of Lent by the faithful, who after worthily receiving Communion, piously recite the following prayer before an image of Christ crucified – provided the conditions for a plenary indulgence are met (see below after prayer). A plenary indulgence remits all temporal punishment due to personal sins. Prayer Before a Crucifix/Prayer to Christ Crucified. Behold, O kind and most sweet Jesus, I cast myself upon my knees in thy sight, and with the most fervent desire of my soul, pray and beseech thee that thou wouldst impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, with true contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment; while with deep affection and grief of soul I ponder within myself and mentally contemplate thy five wounds, having before my eyes the words which David the prophet put on thy lips concerning thee: “My hands and my feet they have pierced, they have numbered all my bones" (Ps 21, 17-18).

No serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus.   — Otto Betz One assertion detractors of Christianity make to sow seeds of doubt about Jesus is the alleged lack of historical evidence for Christ outside of Sacred Scripture. Such claims are counterfactual and easily refuted. Here are five, first-century, non-biblical, historical references to Jesus of Nazareth. Publius Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 c. AD) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. His two major works, the Annals and the Histories, record the reigns of seven Roman Emperors: Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who ruled in the Year of the Four Emperors (69 AD). These works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus in 14 AD to the 1st Jewish – Roman War in 70 AD. In the Annals , [XV,44] Tacitus mentions the death of Christ and the existence of Christians in Rome at the time of the great fire: "But not all the relief that could come from man, not al