BIG C CATHOLICS

March 28th, is the optional memorial of Saint Catherine of Bologna (1413-1463), the 15th century sister, virgin, mystic, miracle worker and patron saint of artists and those facing temptation. Little is known of her formative years. She was born in Bologna, and served as the maid of honor to the Marquis of Ferrara's daughter. (Catherine’s father was an adviser to the Marquis.) Catherine took residence in the palace, and became friends with her mistress, Margaret. When Margaret became engaged, she asked Catherine to remain. Catherine instead perused her religious vocation. At age 14, she dedicated her life to God and entered the Third Order of the Franciscans where she lived as part of a semi-monastic community. Four years later, the community of women in Ferrara to which Catherine belonged joined the Order of the Poor Clares. Catherine continued in prayerful poverty and obedience, joyfully serving the Lord. She held numerous positions, working as a laundress, dressmaker, bread

The Catechism was not written to please you. It will not make life easy for you, because it demands of you a new life. — Pope Benedict XVI ____________________________________________________ A Prayer For Discernment All highest, glorious God, cast your light into the darkness of my heart. Give me right faith, firm hope, perfect charity and profound humility with wisdom and perception, O Lord, so that I may do what is truly Your holy will. Amen.

On March 30th, 2017, canon lawyers, theologians and scholars will attend a first of its kind colloquium titled: " The Pope's Deposition, Theological Sites - Canonical Models - Constitutional Issues ". The two day gathering at the University of Paris will discuss a subject that has never been the topic of a Catholic conference previously, how to depose a heretical pontiff. The colloquium seeks to examine "the mechanisms that are built into the Catholic Church for dealing with a pope who openly teaches falsehood." LifeSiteNews has more on the upcoming event : The conference includes 15 speakers who will be giving a range of talks on the subject matter with titles such as "Conciliarism and the Deposition of a Pope Through the Prism of Gallicanism," "The Downfall of the Pope: Between Renunciation and Deposition," and "The Deposition of John XXII and Benedict XIII at Constance..." Those speaking at the conference include,"Prof

Let us ask the Lord that we might prepare ourselves suitably... Jesus, beloved Son of the Father, grant that we may listen to you and follow you to Calvary, to the Cross, to share with you in the glory of the Resurrection. — Pope Benedict XVI Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord, a spirit of always pondering on what is right and of hastening to carry it out, and, since without you we cannot exist, may we be enabled to live according to your will. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and with the Holy Spirit, one God, forever. Amen.

With Lent just hours away, let us reflect on our lives as disciples of Christ and as members of His mystical body that is the Church on earth. Anyone old enough to remember the election of Pope Saint John Paul II, nearly forty years ago, can recall a Church markedly different from that of today. Growing up in a small New England town, I was blessed to have four native born priests in residence on the alter celebrating Mass each Saturday night. At present, that same parish is administered by a single pastor who is also responsible for the sacramental life of two additional Churches nearby. This is now the norm throughout the diocese. The future priest shortage predicted in the 1970’s and 80’s has come to pass in many dioceses in the United States. Moreover, the forces of secularization, like attacks on Christianity and individual Christians, increase on a daily basis. This Lent, we as Catholics must confront a post-Christian America where-in our Faith and beliefs are persecuted,

From its earliest days, the Church has urged the baptized and catechumens to observe the threefold discipline of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer as a preparation for the celebration of Easter. Failure to observe individual days of penance is not considered serious, but failure to observe penitential days (Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays of Lent) must be considered serious. The penitential season of Lent begins this year on Ash Wednesday, March 1st. The sixth Sunday of Lent, April 9th, marks the beginning of Holy Week and is known as Passion (or Palm) Sunday. Lenten Regulations are summarized as follows: Abstinence: Abstinence from meat is to be observed on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all the Fridays of Lent by all Catholics 14 years of age and older. It should be noted also that “the Fridays of the year outside of Lent remain days of penance, but each individual may substitute for the traditional abstinence from meat some other practice of voluntary self-denial

"Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be 'tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine', seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires. We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An 'adult' faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth." From the homily of Card. Joseph Ratzinger at the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff ( Pro Eligendo Romano Pon

The Cathedra Petri (Chair of Peter) in the apse of Saint Peter's Basilica. On February 22nd, the Church celebrates the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter during which we remember the papacy and Saint Peter as the first bishop of Rome. This feast recalls Christ giving Peter the special mission of teacher and pastor, an office that has continued across time to the present Pope, Francis. We acknowledge the unity of the Church, founded upon the Apostle Peter, and renew our faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, extended both to truths defined ex cathedra , and to all the decrees of the ordinary Magisterium. In Caesarea Philippi, following Peter's profession of faith that Jesus was the Messiah, [Matthew 16: 13-20] Christ declares to Peter: [Y]ou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heav

February 8th, the Church celebrates the optional memorial of St. Josephine Bakhita (1869–1947). For many years, Josephine was a slave, but her spirit was always free and eventually that spirit prevailed. Born in Olgossa in the Darfur region of southern Sudan, at the age of nine, she was kidnapped by slave-traders, beaten till she bled, and sold five times in Sudan's slave-markets. Eventually she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general, and there she was flogged daily till she bled. As a result, she bore 144 scars throughout her life. Finally, in 1882, she was bought by the Italian consul Callisto Legnani in Khartoum, Sudan. Two years later he took Josephine to Italy and gave her to his friend Augusto Michieli. Soon Bakhita became babysitter to Mimmina Michieli, whom she accompanied to Venice's Institute of the Catechumens, run by the Canossian Sisters. While Mimmina was being instructed, Josephine felt drawn to the Catholic Church. She wa

Prayer itself, born in Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know the Lord’s will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God’s call. Programs, plans and projects have their place; but the discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God’s call. — Pope Benedict XVI ____________________________________________________ A Prayer For Discernment All highest, glorious God, cast your light into the darkness of my heart. Give me right faith, firm hope, perfect charity and profound humility with wisdom and perception, O Lord, so that I may do what is truly Your holy will. Amen.

Although it has not published in several years, January's blog of note is Roman Catholic Vocations . Prior to the internet, deciding on which religious order to enter, for one called, was decidedly more serendipitous, if not almost entirely providential. While God has always chosen whom he wills, the notion of entering one religious community over another was owed more to immediate experience, personal encounters or geography than inclination, although the later played a role. At least, this was the case among the religious of previous generations. Modern technology allows current day discerners to simply serf for the best fit. Whether you feel called to be a cloistered nun or a mendicant brother, a diocesan priest or to marriage, Roman Catholic Vocations has something to offer. Faithful to the Magisterium, it's content features prayers, reflections, countless men's and women's religious vocation links and videos. From below the website's masthead: "If

Saint Marianne Cope of Molokaʻi's feast day is January 23rd. Although St. Damien De Veuster has rightly been called the "Apostle to the Lepers" in Hawaii, he would be the first to acknowledge the invaluable help of a most kind, but seemingly unstoppable Sister of St. Francis named Mother Marianne Cope. It was she who, in the last years of the dying priest’s life, not only remained his friend, but assured him that the work he had begun for the lepers of Hawaii would continue long after his death. Mother Marianne was born to Peter and Barbara Cope in Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, in 1838. She emigrated with her parents to the United States two years later, where they would eventually settle in Utica, N.Y. Although she knew at an early age that she had a vocation to the religious life, Barbara delayed entering the convent because she was needed at home; her father had become an invalid, and in order to support her parents and siblings, she went to work in a nearby factory

(Note: Due to January 22nd falling on a Sunday this year, the designated observance for the 2017  Day Of Prayer for the Protection Of the Unborn is Monday, January 23rd.) A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer. — St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae , no. 100 The General Instruction of the Roman Missal designates January 22 as a particular day of prayer and penance, called the "Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children”: “In all the Dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for

In De Trinitate , Hilary writes: Jesus "has commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 28:19), that is, in the confession of the Author, of the Only-Begotten One and of the Gift. The Author of all things is one alone, for one alone is God the Father, from whom all things proceed. And one alone is Our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist (cf. 1 Cor 8:6), and one alone is the Spirit (cf. Eph 4:4), a gift in all…. In nothing can be found to be lacking so great a fullness, in which the immensity in the Eternal One, the revelation in the Image, joy in the Gift, converge in the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit". — Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, October 10, 2007

Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the [seven] spirits of God sent out into the whole world. — Revelation 5:6  The first and fundamental vision of John, in fact, concerns the figure of the Lamb who is slain yet standing (cf. Rv 5: 6), and is placed before the throne on which God himself is already seated. By saying this, John wants first of all to tell us two things: the first is that although Jesus was killed with an act of violence, instead of falling heavily to the ground, he paradoxically stands very firmly on his own feet because, with the Resurrection, he overcame death once and for all. The other thing is that Jesus himself, precisely because he died and was raised, henceforth fully shares in the kingship and saving power of the Father. This is the fundamental vision. — Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, August 23, 2006

Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI Vatican Basilica  Sunday, 1st January 2012 Dear Brothers and Sisters! On the first day of the year, the liturgy resounds in the Church throughout the world with the ancient priestly blessing that we heard during today’s first reading: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Num 6:24-26). This blessing was entrusted by God, through Moses, to Aaron and his sons, that is, to the priests of the people of Israel. It is a triple blessing filled with light, radiating from the repetition of the name of God, the Lord, and from the image of his face. In fact, in order to be blessed, we have to stand in God’s presence, take his Name upon us and remain in the cone of light that issues from his Face, in a space lit up by his gaze, diffusing grace and peace. This was the very experience that the shepherds of Bethlehem had, wh

With the Christmas liturgy the Church ushers us into the great Mystery of the Incarnation. Christmas, in fact, is not merely an anniversary of Jesus’ Birth; it is also this, but it is more, it is celebrating a mystery that has marked and continues to mark human history. God himself came to dwell among us (cf. Jn 1:14), he made himself one of us. It is a mystery that concerns our faith and our life; a mystery that we actually experience in the liturgical celebrations, and, in particular, in Holy Mass.  — Pope Benedict XVI

The Adoration of the Shepherds , Mattia Preti, c. 1660. George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, writes in his weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 21, 2016 about a long conversation he had with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger weeks after 9/11. Ratzinger's observations about Christianity in Europe, moral relativism, and the dangers posed by radicalized Islamists have only grow more salient with time. In concluding, Weigel brilliantly summarizes the state of Western culture as one of loneliness, despair and alienation. Fortunately, for the Christian, the way, the truth and the life is not some abstract or sentimental aspiration. It is a person, Jesus Christ, whose birth is the reason we celebrate Christmas. Weigel writes: "Christmas reminds us what Christians have to say to this pervasive loneliness. We say 'God is with us,' as throughout the Christmas season we celebrate the divine answer to the Advent ple

His significant contribution to catechesis is second only to the example for us of his disciplined Christ-centered spirituality, finding in the liturgy, daily prayer and devotion to the heart of Jesus the strength and inspiration to carry out well his countless tasks. — Pope Benedict XVI Prayer for the Intercession of St. Peter Canisius Lord, you gave Saint Peter Canisius wisdom and courage to defend the Catholic faith. By the help of his prayers may all who seek the truth rejoice in finding you, and may all who believe in you be loyal in professing their faith. 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.

December 21st, is the optional memorial of Saint Peter Canisius (1521-1597) the 16th century Dutch Jesuit priest and Doctor of the Church, who played a major role in the Council of Trent and the Counter Reformation. His extensive writing in theology and powerful preaching in defense of orthodoxy won him great renown, and the Church innumerable souls. He wrote three definitive Catechisms in the span of four years explicating the Faith. These were tremendously influential, especially to those in Austria, Bavaria, and Bohemia where Catholicism was most under siege. Although claimed by both the Dutch and German Churches, Canisius is designated the second Apostle of Germany (after Saint Boniface of Mainz). He was born in Wijmegen, Holland, to Jacob Canisius and mother Egidia van Houweningen, who died soon after Peter's birth. His father was Burgomaster of the town. While a student at the University of Cologne studying the arts, civil law and theology, he regularly visited the Carth