BIG C CATHOLICS

The Divine Mercy Image At three o'clock on Fridays we solemnly remember Christ's death on the cross. In that moment, the redeeming ministry of our Savior culminated in the sacrificial offering of the Lamb of God for our sins. Three o'clock on Friday is, therefore, an hour of abundant grace and mercy, especially for sinners. Christ told Saint Faustina that: At three o'clock implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy for the whole world. I will allow you to enter into My mortal sorrow. In this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion... (Diary 1320). The Lord asked Sister Faustina to pray especially for sinners at three o'clock in the afternoon, the moment of His death on the cross. This is the hour of great mercy for the world, and can be a moment of reflection o

Today, February 11, marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year-old Marie Bernade Soubirous. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times in the cave at Massabielle [located a mile from Lourdes]. On March 25 our Lady said to Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Lourdes has since become a place of pilgrimage where many cures and conversions have taken place. The message of Lourdes is one of personal conversion, prayer, and charity. On the hundredth anniversary of the Immaculate Conception dogma Pope Pius XII, decreed the first Marian year in Church history. Pius describes the miraculous events in Lourdes in his encyclical Fulgens Corona : It seems that the Blessed Virgin Mary herself wished to confirm by some special sign the definition, which the Vicar of her Divine Son on earth had pronounced amidst the applause of the whole Church. For indeed four years had not yet elapsed when, in a Fren

A plenary indulgence may be obtained on each Friday of Lent by the faithful, who after worthily receiving Communion, piously recite the following prayer before an image of Christ crucified – provided the conditions for a plenary indulgence are met (see below after prayer). A plenary indulgence remits all temporal punishment due to personal sins. Prayer Before a Crucifix/Prayer to Christ Crucified. Behold, O kind and most sweet Jesus, I cast myself upon my knees in thy sight, and with the most fervent desire of my soul, pray and beseech thee that thou wouldst impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, with true contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment; while with deep affection and grief of soul I ponder within myself and mentally contemplate thy five wounds, having before my eyes the words which David the prophet put on thy lips concerning thee: “My hands and my feet they have pierced, they have numbered all my bones" (Ps 21, 17-18).

Jesus said: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see  them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father." [Mt 6:1] Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Womb to tomb is the pattern of all human life. You, and I with you, are on individual and collective pilgrimages, processions, journeys. Here we are this Ash Wednesday walking in procession to God’s altar to receive ashes. In this same hour we will be in a procession to receive Holy Communion, our food, our living Bread, the Bread of Life to nourish us and strengthen us for our individual journeys though life. Yesterday is gone; we can’t go back into it. Tomorrow lies ahead; we cannot stop it from coming. Today we’re on the move. But where are we going? Where are you going? What direction are you taking as you live out your days here on earth? Are you journeying toward God or apart from God? You can’t escape it.

We need to find God and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature — trees, flowers, grass — grow in silence; see the stars, the moon, the sun, how they move in silence. Is not our mission to give God to the poor in the slums? Not a dead God, but a living, loving God. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us. All our words will be useless unless they come from within — words that do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. — Blessed Mother Teresa

"There is one thing I desire from you above everything else: that your normal meditation be, if possible, around the Life, Passion and Death, and also the Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can then meditate on His birth, His flight into Egypt and His life there, His return and His hidden life in the workshop of Nazareth up to the age of thirty, His humility in His desire to be baptized by His precursor St. John. You can meditate on His public life, His most painful Passion and Death, the institution of the most Holy Sacrament, the very evening men were preparing the most atrocious sufferings. You can meditate again on Jesus praying in the Garden of Olives, sweating blood knowing what sufferings men were preparing for Him and the ingratitude of men who would not make use of His merits. You can meditate also on Jesus being dragged and led to the tribunal, flagellated and crowned with thorns, the course He climbed to Calvary laden with the cross, His crucifi

From, the National Catholic Register , comes this article by Father Frank Pavone that is both commonsensical and compelling. He begins with a quote from Justice Kennedy, writing in part: Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child….While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow. — Justice Anthony Kennedy [ Gonzales v. Carhart , April 18, 2007] The abortion industry and its apologists have tried for decades to persuade us that the baby in the womb isn’t a baby.  NARAL, for instance, took exception on Twitter to a Doritos ad that aired during the Super Bowl that, in their words, tried to "humanize" the child in a mother’s womb. A Twitter storm of derision for NARAL followed. Science, common sense, and the ultrasound images