BIG C CATHOLICS

The End and the Beginning -Pope John Paul II - The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy In this sequel to Witness to Hope , author George Weigel, examines the beginning of John Paul II priestly life in the last months of his pontificate. What emerges in his portrayal is the resoluteness and personal courage of Karol Wojtyla in the face of great adversity and physical suffering. It is revealed that the harassment and internment of Catholic priests during the Nazi and Communist regimes in Poland were not lost on the young Wojtyla. As he began his priestly formation we learn how Communist authorities spied on Wojtyla as a rising star in the Catholic Church. Weigel outlines the future pope’s intellectual pursuits, the development of his thought, and the genesis of his growth into a world class philosopher. What shines through in this biography is the humility and fortitude that Wojtyla exhibited throughout his life. The End and the Beginning – John Paul II is a must read fo

O Catholic Church, true mother of Christians, you are right in teaching that God should be adored with an entirely chaste and pure heart. You unite all brothers and sisters to one another in a bond of religion that is stronger and closer than ties of blood. -- St. Augustine

H/T to the American Papist for alerting me to this video. It encourages all citizens especailly Catholics to get involved in the political process and to vote their conscience on issues concerning life.

Our Lady Of The Holy Rosary Novena Prayer My dearest Mother Mary, behold me, your child, in prayer at your feet. Accept this Holy Rosary, which I offer you in accordance with your requests at Fatima, as a proof of my tender love for you, for the intentions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in atonement for the offenses committed against your Immaculate Heart, and for this special favor which I earnestly request in my Rosary Novena: (Mention your request). I beg you to present my petition to your Divine Son. If you will pray for me, I cannot be refused. I know, dearest Mother, that you want me to seek God?s holy Will concerning my request. If what I ask for should not be granted, pray that I may receive that which will be of greater benefit to my soul. I offer you this spiritual Bouquet of Roses because I love you. I put all my confidence in you, since your prayers before God are most powerful. For the greater glory of God and for the sake of Jesus, your loving Son, he

This is the traditional Catholic prayer to one's guardian angel. Angel of God, my guardian dear to whom God's love commits me here. Ever this day/night be at my side to light, to guard, to rule and guide. Amen. Whether guardian angels attend each and every person is not consistently believed or upheld by the Church Fathers in Christian thought, and hence is not an "article of faith", although the concept is clearly seen in both the Old and New Testaments. According to St. Jerome the concept is in the "mind of the Church" and he stated that: "how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it." The first Christian theologian to outline a specific scheme for guardian angels was Honorius of Autun in the 12th century. He said that every soul was assigned a guardian angel the moment it was put into a body. Scholastic theologians augmented and ordered the taxonomy of angelic guardians. Thomas

More than 3,000 questions were submitted after the initiative was announced a month ago, of which seven were chosen and put to the 84-year-old pontiff. The Pope, speaking from his office in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, admitted there was no answer to why humans have to suffer as he responded to a question from a seven-year-old Japanese girl who was caught up in the tsunami. She asked why so many children had to suffer in natural calamities. "I ask myself the same question," the Pope said. "We don't have the answers, but we know that Jesus suffered as innocent children suffer."

If we possessed every virtue, but lacked humility, those virtues would be without root and would not last. -- St. Vincent de Paul