BIG C CATHOLICS

July 17, 2016 Day 1 - St. Anne Novena Great Saint Anne, engrave indelibly on my heart and in my mind the words that have reclaimed and sanctified so many sinners: “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world if he lose his own soul?” May this be the principal fruit of these prayers by which I will strive to honor you during this novena. At your feet renew my resolution to invoke you daily, not only for the success of my temporal affairs and to be preserved from sickness and suffering, but above all, that I may be preserved from all sin, that I may gain eternal salvation and that I will receive the special grace of… (State your intention here.) O most powerful Saint Anne, do not let me lose my soul, but obtain for me the grace of heaven, there with you and your glorious daughter, to sing the praise of the Most Holy and Adorable Trinity forever and ever. Amen. Pray for us, Saint Anne & Saint Joachim, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace in the world. ***  If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. — Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) In Jesus’ place, what would you have said to Martha? What would you have said to Mary? I know what I would have said: “People are like snowflakes, no two are alike.” It is one of my favorite sayings, which I often use in talks. Sometimes, when there are people in the audience who have never seen snow, I have to show pictures of snowflakes to help them see the point. Probably Martha and Mary had seen snow. It’s mentioned often enough in the Old Testament. They certainly knew it was white, and that the melting snows in the mountains were important for the spring harvests. But the idea of snowflakes not being alike? Well, it’s a nice psychological idea. But the Gospels aren’t about psychology. Still, the image helps us to see how Martha and Mary related differently to Jesus. So the psychological point has very important spiritual

Although Saint Anne is not mentioned in Sacred Scripture, she is the holy mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus. When we pray the St. Anne Novena, we are asking help from our Blessed Mother’s mother. St. Anne’s feast day is July 26th. Her novena traditionally starts on July 17th. Devotion to St. Anne began early in the history of the Catholic Church. As she was favored by God to become the mother of the Virgin Mary. She is often invoked as the patron of: carpenters, childless couples, grandmothers, grandparents, homemakers, housewives, lost articles, miners, mothers, pregnancy,  pregnant women, seamstresses, sterility, and women in labor, among other things. Women seeking a Godly husband may invoke her intercession. O Lord, God of our Fathers, who bestowed on Saints Joachim and Anne this grace, that of them should be born the Mother of your incarnate Son, grant, through the prayers of both, that we may attain the salvation you have promised to your people. Through our Lord Jes

If you have not already done so, have a priest enroll you in the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or popularly known as the "Brown Scapular" and begin wearing it as a sign of your love for Our Lady. A priest enrolls people in the Brown Scapular only once. The Scapular can then be replaced afterwards by other scapulars or the scapular medal, which has on one side the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on the other, the image of Mary. The medal needs to be blessed by a priest, but the cloth scapulars do not require a blessing (separate from enrollment). Wearing the Brown Scapular is not an automatic guarantee of salvation. It is not a magical charm, nor is it an excuse to live in a way contrary to the teachings of the Church. It is a sacramental which has been approved by the Church for over seven centuries and is a sign of one's decision to follow Jesus as did Mary, the perfect model of all the disciples of Christ. In addition to being an introduction into t

July 16th is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is universal. Many Catholics are familiar with the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Brown Scapular. On July 16, 1251, Mary appeared to Saint Simon Stock, giving him the scapular with the following words: "This will be for you and for all Carmelites the privilege, that he who dies in this will not suffer eternal fire." The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was instituted for the Carmelites in 1332, and extended to the whole Church by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. May the venerable intercession of the glorious Virgin Mary come to our aid, so that, fortified by her protection, we may experience eternal beatitude. Story of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Today is the principal feast day of the Carmelite Order. Through the efforts of the crusader Berthold, a group of hermits living on Mount Carmel were organized into an Order after the traditional Western type about the yea

Here is the testimony of a French nun who died, February 22, 1871, at the age of 36. In November 1873, she began appearing to a fellow nun in her convent. This private revelation is not the infallible Word of God. Nonetheless, those who deny or ignore the existence of Purgatory do so at their own peril. "I can tell you about the different degrees of Purgatory because I have passed through them. In the great Purgatory there are several stages. In the lowest and most painful, it is like a temporary hell, and here there are the sinners who have committed terrible crimes during life and whose death surprised them in that state. It was almost a miracle that they were saved, and often by the prayers of holy parents or other pious persons. Sometimes they did not even have time to confess their sins and the world thought them lost, but God, whose mercy is infinite, gave them at the moment of death the contrition necessary for their salvation on account of one or more good actions whi