BIG C CATHOLICS

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A By Msgr. Bernard Bourgeois Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; Psalm 103; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48 "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Mt 5:43-44) These are some of the most challenging words of the Bible! Compared to these verses, the rest of the Christian journey is not too difficult. I can go to Mass, pray, give to others, and in general be kind to those around me. Jesus wants His followers to go beyond what is easy and convenient—He wants us to love and pray for our enemies and those who persecute us. You may or may not have enemies as such; worry not, this reading also applies to you! Undoubtedly you have someone in your life with whom there are at least struggles, obstacles, disappointments, harsh words, long periods of silence, on and so forth. By now you have named that person; keep t

The Sermon on the Mount , Fra Angelico, 1436 - 1443. Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Yogi Berra once said: “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” Way back in 1865 Lewis Carroll published a novel for children. Alice in Wonderland was its name. In that novel we find Alice one day wandering around in a dream world. She stops and asks a cat: “Would you tell me, please, which way I should go from here?” The cat replies: “That depends a good deal on where you want to be.” Alice said: “Oh, I don’t much care.” With that the cat responds: “Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.” But Alice persisted: “But I want to get somewhere.” Whereupon the cat, with a wry grin, said: “Oh, you are sure to do that!” We can be a lot like Alice, saying “Oh, it doesn’t much matter” to a whole lot of things. Like it doesn’t much matter which church you go to. It does

Via Greater Fitchburg For Life .   Right to Life of Michigan created a special video project for Black History Month in February that exposes the devastating impact of abortion on the black community. The 1-minute video uses statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and the Guttmacher Institute to show how abortions killed more African Americans than all other causes combined. The number is staggering: 19 million abortions since 1973 in the black community, according to the group’s research. Pro-life leader Walter B. Hoye II of the Issues 4Life Foundation found similar results when he compared abortion data to other leading causes of death in the black community from the U.S. Statistical Abstract for 2013 and the National Vital Statistics Report from 2015. According to the statistics: Heart Disease: 72,010 Abortion kills 5.9 times as many Blacks as heart disease. Malignant Neoplasms: 67,953 Abortion kills 6.3 times as many Blacks as cancer. Cerebrovascular D

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) When Jesus told his disciples to observe the Law in even the smallest detail, the scribes and Pharisees must have been pleased. That’s exactly what they had been saying for generations, and they lived by that principle themselves. But then Jesus adds: “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, the Law is good, but it is a minimum. He gives four examples, and in the coming weeks we will see more, contrasting the Law’s requirements with Jesus’ expectations. Good enough isn’t good enough! Much later, in Chapter 23 of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus makes the same point: "The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach

Ash Wednesday is just eighteen days away. Here, Pope Benedict explains how Our Lady's message to Saint Bernadette is intimately connected with the season of Lent and the joy of Easter morning that is our end should we love heroically. "[T]the message which Our Lady still offers at Lourdes recalls the words Jesus said at the beginning of his public mission and that we hear so often in [the] first days of Lent: ‘Convert and believe in the Gospel, pray and do penance. Let us respond to the call of Mary who echoes that of Christ and let us ask Her to help us 'enter' Lent with faith and live this season of grace with deep joy and generous commitment" — Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus February 10, 2008 ____________________________________________________ Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes O Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, Health of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Comfortess of the Afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings. Look upon me w

Today marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year-old Saint Bernadette Soubirous. Our Lady’s message to humanity stressed devotion to God through Christ, ceaseless prayer, penitence and forgiveness. Three revelations in particular are worth pondering. One concern’s doctrine. The others speak to our earthly pilgrimage and our destiny, if we persevere in love. On February 18th, our Lady began her message telling Bernadette, "I do not promise to make you happy in this life but in the next." On February 24th, Mary asked for penance and prayer for the conversion of sinners. The next day, the feast of the Annunciation, Mary stated, "I am the Immaculate Conception." The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was initially celebrated on February 11th. It was approved by Pope Leo XIII, and first granted to the Diocese of Tarbes in the year 1890. Less than twenty years later, on November 13, 1907, his successor, Pope Saint Pius X pro

February 11th, the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Three years before our Lady's appearance, in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Over the course of eighteen apparitions between February 11th – July 16, 1858, our Lady revealed to the shepherdess Bernadette Soubirous, that she was the "the Immaculate Conception." Here is Father Pius Parsch's account of the events: The many miracles which have been performed through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes prompted the Church to institute a special commemorative feast, the "Apparition of the Immaculate Virgin Mary." The Office gives the historical background. Four years after the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854), the Blessed Virgin appeared a number of times to a very poor and holy girl named Bernadette. The actual spot was in a grotto on the bank of the Gave River near Lour