BIG C CATHOLICS

Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. Such attraction fades quickly – it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation.  — Pope Benedict XVI

A year before becoming Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a confidential memorandum to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick entitled Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion: General Principles that became public shortly thereafter. His Eminence Cardinal Ratzinger, explaining the norms for reception of the Eucharist, states in part: A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons. At issue was whether Catholics who vote for pro-choice and/or pro-euthanasia politicians are complicit i

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) We are all quite conscious of the fact that only one of the cured lepers returned to give thanks to Jesus. And we are conscious, too, that the one returning was a Samaritan, one of those people despised by the pious and orthodox Jews of Jesus’s time. But have we given any thought at all to what happened to the other nine? Well, what DID happen to them? Did their families receive them back into their homes or was there a lingering fear that they were still diseased and so they faced a frosty and unwelcome return home? Did their children recognize them? Did those who were cured experience greater devotion to God? Were they more consciously religious in how they lived their lives? Did any of them become followers of Christ and join the early Christians of their day? We don’t know the answers to these questions. But we can have answers to a question I want to put to you now. My question is:

As the moral and linguistic confusions, subterfuges, and just plain falsehoods surrounding a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Colorado graphically illustrate, euthanasia kills more than a disturbed human being facing life’s most challenging moment. The proponents of the culture of death are persistent and assiduous in their efforts to undermine and replace Christian values. George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, in an article for National Review Online , explains what is at stake as Colorado voters prepare to decide on Proposition 106, the "End-of-Life Options Act," that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in the Centennial State. Weigel notes that the citizens of Colorado should bear in mind the unintended consequences and implicit dangers of such a law. He writes: "The more apt mot about all of this lethality masquerading as compassion, however, is from the quotable quotes of... [Fr.] Richard John N

The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christ-centered prayer. It has all the depth of the gospel message in its entirety.  It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb. With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.  — St. John Paul II, from the apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae

O God, Whose only-begotten Son by His life, death and resurrection hath purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation, grant we beseech Thee, that meditating on these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may both imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise through Christ our Lord. On October 7, the Church celebrates the memorial of our Lady of the Rosary. Originally known as "Our Lady of Victory," the feast recalls the Battle of Lepanto, a 16th century naval action in which Christian forces (the Holy League) repelled a massive Turkish invasion. Pope Saint Pius V attributed the victory to the divine intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary after urging Europe's Christians to pray the Rosary for our Lady's intercession. Some accounts contend St. Pius V was granted a miraculous vision of the Holy League's victory. In 1573, St. Pius V established the feast. Clement XI extended it to the universal Church in 1716. History

October 6th, is the optional memorial of Saint Bruno, (1030 – 1101) the founder of the Carthusian Order, who emphasized prayer, meditation and contemplation in loving God. He was born in Cologne about the year 1030. His family belonged to the principle families of the city. At a young age, he was sent to the episcopal school at Reims to complete his education. Bruno studied Sacred Scripture and the Fathers and perfected himself in both the human and divine sciences. Finally, he returned to Cologne to serve in the canonry. In 1056, the Bishop of Reims, Bishop Gervais, asked him to lead the episcopal school. Entering religious life, Bruno fulfilled this task from 1057 – 1075. Bruno’s extraordinary teaching ability is evidenced by the fact that many of his former students became great and consequential figures. When in 1075, Bruno was appointed chancellor, the pious Bishop Gervais was succeeded by Manasses de Gournai, a violent and impious man. Due to grievances, Bruno demanded the su