BIG C CATHOLICS

By Msgr. Bernard Bourgeois  Genesis 9:8-15; Psalm 25; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15 " The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained  in the desert for forty days. " (Mk 1:12) In the midst of winter, February ushers in the great Paschal Season. “Paschal” comes from the ancient Aramaic pasha, meaning passover. Jesus Christ is the new and final lamb of sacrifice of the passover. The Paschal Season celebrates this mystery of faith. The most important liturgical season of the year, it includes Lent, the Sacred Triduum, and Easter Sunday, “The Great Fifty Days” of the Easter Season, and will solemnly conclude with Pentecost. For a little over three months, the Church intensely prepares for Easter (Lent), celebrates it (Sacred Triduum), and rejoices over it (Easter Season). It is the holiest time of the year! On Ash Wednesday, the very beginning of the Paschal Season and Lent, the Christian hits bottom. The actions and words are cold. Ashes are spread

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) This is one scary Gospel. It is part of the inspiration for the Sequence we used to sing at funerals, Dies irae, dies illa ... “That day will be a day of wrath.” Near the end, the text reads: Grant me a place among the sheep, and take me out from among the goats, setting me on the right side. Can it be that our eternal fate depends on our response to those in need? Does faith no longer count for anything? No, faith has not lost its preeminent place. It is precisely as believers that we are challenged to put faith into action. The Letter of James has the famous passage: “If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” And

The Sermon on the Mount , James Tissot, c. 1886-1896. Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) Jesus conjures up two images in today’s famous Gospel passage that, on the surface, do not make sense. One is obvious: you wouldn’t light a lamp and then hide it. What would be the point? The other is the idea that salt could lose its flavor. That doesn’t make sense, either. Sodium chloride is a chemical compound. It’s either sodium chloride or it isn’t. Various explanations have been offered to explain why Jesus would say such a thing. Here is mine. Both images imply the word “suppose.” For example, suppose that in a storm you lost power and someone lit a hurricane lantern and then put it in a closet and closed the door. That would be foolish. Suppose salt could lose its flavor. For example, if someone puts salt and sugar in the same container, the salt, for all practical purposes,

By Msgr. Bernard Bourgeois  Genesis 9:8-15; Psalm 25; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15 " The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained  in the desert for forty days. " (Mk 1:12) In the midst of winter, February ushers in the great Paschal Season. “Paschal” comes from the ancient Aramaic pasha, meaning passover. Jesus Christ is the new and final lamb of sacrifice of the passover. The Paschal Season celebrates this mystery of faith. The most important liturgical season of the year, it includes Lent, the Sacred Triduum, and Easter Sunday, “The Great Fifty Days” of the Easter Season, and will solemnly conclude with Pentecost. For a little over three months, the Church intensely prepares for Easter (Lent), celebrates it (Sacred Triduum), and rejoices over it (Easter Season). It is the holiest time of the year! On Ash Wednesday, the very beginning of the Paschal Season and Lent, the Christian hits bottom. The actions and words are cold. Ashes are spread

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal designates January 22nd each year as a particular day of prayer and penance, called the "Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children". It states: "In all the Dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 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 violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion." America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships.  It has portrayed the child as...an intrusion.  — St. Teresa of Calcutta ________________________________________ Prayer of Blessing Upon the Unborn Child God, author of all life, bless, w

In honor of today's March for Life in Washington, DC, here are two quotations by St. Teresa of Calcutta on abortion and the sanctity of human life at every stage. It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you live as you wish. *** The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. — St. Teresa of Calcutta ________________________________________ Prayer for the Intercession of St. Teresa of Calcutta Jesus, You made Saint Teresa an example of humility, charity and selflessness. She taught us that every human life has value and dignity. May we follow her in heeding Your cry of thirst from the Cross, and in loving the poorest of the poor. Grant us, by her intercession, and according to Your will, the graces we implore knowing that she is numbered among Your saints. We ask this in Your name, through the intercession of Mary, Your Mother and the

We received the following from praymorenovenas.com about their online Advent retreat for 2017. A modest donation is requested to help offset the cost of their ministry. If you are financially unable, or wish to delay doing so, you are welcome to participate for free. For more information and to register, see the links below. ______________________________________________  We all need to pray. This Advent is the perfect time to work on our prayer lives. St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) said, "Are we ready to receive Him? Before the birth of Jesus, his parents asked for a simple dwelling place, but there was none. If Mary and Joseph were looking for a home for Jesus, would they choose … your heart, and all it holds? Let us pray that we shall be able to welcome Jesus at Christmas..." This is exactly our goal with the Pray More Advent Retreat. If you want to answer the questions Saint Mother Teresa asks with a, "Yes," then consider joining us for thi

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) This is one scary Gospel. It is part of the inspiration for the Sequence we used to sing at funerals, Dies irae, dies illa ... “That day will be a day of wrath.” Near the end, the text reads: Grant me a place among the sheep, and take me out from among the goats, setting me on the right side. Can it be that our eternal fate depends on our response to those in need? Does faith no longer count for anything? No, faith has not lost its preeminent place. It is precisely as believers that we are challenged to put faith into action. The Letter of James has the famous passage: “If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have

You may recall a periodical from several years ago called Regeneration Magazine . It focused on theological matters of interest to orthodox Christians with a distinct Catholic bent. One particularly memorable issue featured photographic portraits of various saints contrasted with those of individuals who had publicly rejected God and denigrated Christianity. This is an attempt to recreate that presentation. The Eyes Have It Jesus speaks of forsaking earthly riches to see His call to serve God and others: "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be" Matthew 6: 22-23. The saints are truly men and women of heroic virtue who radiate God's love. St. Gemma Galgani, mystic, victim soul St. Thérèse of Lisieux A young St. Padre Pio St. Teresa of Calcutta

Salesian Indian missionary Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, seized more than eighteen months ago in Yemen by a group of ISIS guerrillas, has been released. According to Indian media, the Salesian priest is now in Muscat, Oman on his way to India. Indian Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, announced his freedom in a Sept. 12th tweet reading: "I am happy to inform that Fr Tom Uzhunnalil has been rescued." The Catholic Herald reporting on his release, recalled the attack : "Fr Tom was kidnapped when his care home in the Yemeni city of Aden was attacked in March 2016. Four gunmen posing as relatives of one of the residents killed four Indian nuns, two Yemeni staff members, eight elderly residents and a security guard." His international profile increased when rumors spread that he was to be crucified on Good Friday, which were later discredited. For many months, following his capture, Fr. Uzhunnalil's martyrdom seemed imminent. Since then, numerous photos and videos

Saint Teresa of Calcutta dedicated her life to serving the sick, the poor, and the marginalized. She founded the Missionaries of Charity to extend that mission throughout the world. She once observed: "I know I would not be able to work one week if it were not for that continual force coming from Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament." The quotes below illustrate her deep love for Christ in the Eucharist. If I can give you any advice, I beg you to get closer to the Eucharist and to Jesus... We must pray to Jesus to give us that tenderness of the Eucharist. *** To be alone with Jesus in adoration and intimate union with Him is the Greatest Gift of Love - the tender love of Our Father in Heaven. *** When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now. *** Each Holy Communion, each breaking of the Bread of Life, each sharing should produce in us the same, for it is th

September 5th, is the feast of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, (1910-1997) the Catholic religious, missionary and foundress of the Missionaries of Charity who experienced a “call within a call” to devote herself to caring for the sick and the poor. She was born, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, in the Ottoman Empire (now the Republic of Macedonia), in the city of Skopje. By the age of 12 she resolved to commit herself to a religious life and to go to India to care of the poverty-stricken. At 18, Agnes left home to enter the Sisters of Loreto Abbey in Ireland as a missionary. She took her first religious vows on May 24, 1931. Six years later, she took her solemn vows on May 14, 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Calcutta. Teresa would serve there for almost twenty years. On September 10, 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" to help the suffering and the marginalized. From her Vatican biography: "On that day, i

We post this because its assertion is unequivocally true. In the words of Saint Teresa of Calcutta: "the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself." We must change hearts and laws so they protect the unborn. Last year, DePaul University, the largest Catholic university in the U.S., banned this poster from being displayed on campus. Like other Catholic institutions of higher learning, Depaul has forsaken its Catholic tradition in favor of secular interests. As Catholics, the dignity of human beings at every stage of life should be our foremost concern; for without "life" all other concerns are non-existent. __________________________________________ Prayer to God the Father of All Life Eternal God, You have revealed Yourself as the Father of all Life. We praise You for the Fatherly care which You extend to all creation, and especially to us, m

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) The three Parables we heard today all speak about growth of one kind or another, and so they also imply some level of patience. This dovetails perfectly with the first reading, from Wisdom, especially its concluding phrase, “You gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.” From that perspective, it might seem almost as if, in the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, that the weeds will be given time to become wheat—impossible in nature, but possible in this kind of imagery, not so different really from other Scriptures, such as Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones being covered with flesh and returning to life. When Jesus explains the Parable, however, we see that the patience on the landowner’s part is just to allow the wheat to mature. The wheat has had only to survive whatever threat might ha

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) Before my present assignment, I was pastor in a small parish in Vermont. The former pastor, Fr. Paul, lived with me, and one of his greatest interests was his garden, one of the most famous in town, not huge—just four raised beds—but always early and always lush. One of the secrets of his success was the soil, just the right mix of soil and his own rich home-made compost, completely organic, no chemicals. Just like the fourth illustration in the Parable of the Sower. Not for nothing he used to say he never felt so close to God as in his garden. I don’t suppose the yield was a hundredfold, but there were plenty of fresh vegetables through the summer, and plenty for canning and freezing. (My specialty was soups.) We ate well on a very moderate budget. One thing Fr. Paul couldn’t plan. The weather. If it was dry, he coul

The Heart of Jesus is an open heart. Spend your time there... It is not an ordinary school... It is a school of Jesus where you come to learn. What have we to learn? To be meek and humble; if we are meek and humble we will learn to pray. If we learn to pray we will belong to Jesus. If we belong to Jesus we will learn to believe and if we believe we will learn to love and if we love we will learn to serve. — St. Teresa of Calcutta ______________________________________________ Prayer for St. Teresa of Calcutta's Intercession Saint Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love. Obtain from the Sacred Heart of Jesus the grace to do God's will. Teach your faithful to be holy and allow Jesus to penetrate and possess our whole being so completely that our lives too, may radiate His love to others in all that we say and do. Amen.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta once observed, "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." One of the leading actresses of the mid-20th century understood this well. At the age of 18, Jane Russell became pregnant while dating her high school sweetheart. Russell's abortion left her infertile and for the remainder of her life she believed that abortion was wrong under any circumstances, even rape or incest. She described the experience: The only solution was to find a quack and get an abortion. I had a botched abortion and it was terrible. Afterwards my own doctor said, 'What butcher did this to you?'. I had to be taken to hospital. I was so ill I nearly died. I've never known pain like it. Note that Ms. Russell said "The only solution was to... get an abortion." Abortion is never a solution. In fact, abortion causes immense physical and emotional damage beginning with the taking of an innocent life. The actress

Detail, The Sermon on the Mount , James Tissot, c. 1886-1896. Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) Jesus conjures up two images in today’s famous Gospel passage that, on the surface, do not make sense. One is obvious: you wouldn’t light a lamp and then hide it. What would be the point? The other is the idea that salt could lose its flavor. That doesn’t make sense, either. Sodium chloride is a chemical compound. It’s either sodium chloride or it isn’t. Various explanations have been offered to explain why Jesus would say such a thing. Here is mine. Both images imply the word “suppose.” For example, suppose that in a storm you lost power and someone lit a hurricane lantern and then put it in a closet and closed the door. That would be foolish. Suppose salt could lose its flavor. For example, if someone puts salt and sugar in the same container, the sal

Twenty-three years ago today, St. Teresa of Calcutta delivered a strident speech in defense of life and opposing abortion as a moral depravity. It was without a doubt a remarkable event, played out on live T.V. Lifenews describes the scene : The occasion was the annual National Prayer Breakfast, a huge ecumenical gathering in Washington. As president, Bill Clinton was a high-profile attendee, with Hillary accompanying him. That year, on Feb. 3, 1994, the keynoter was a very special guest, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and saintly figure who had come all the way from the most impoverished area of the planet, the slums of Kolkata. Mother Teresa was barely visible, being partially obscured by the microphones atop the podium. Her message, delivered in a firm voice was unmistakable. She called abortion "the greatest destroyer of love and peace", saying in part: But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct

September 10th, is the fourth annual Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children in the United States. Join millions of pro-life Americans in remembering the victims of abortion and in praying for a culture of life where no child is unwanted or unloved. Father Shenan J. Boquet, President of Human Life International, explains the power of our collective prayers to change hearts and save lives: "In a world where possessions and power are often valued far above persons, it is important that the pro-life faithful pray in solidarity to remember all the unborn babies — the real treasure of humanity — killed since the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in this country. Our united prayers can help comfort our brothers and sisters who have lost children to abortion. Our united prayers for our aborted little brothers and sisters can testify to their humanity. Our united prayers, through the Holy Spirit, can turn hardened hearts, especially of those who work in the abortion industry,