BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Christ’s resurrection from the dead immediately caused controversy brought on by those who sought to suppress that event. That controversy continues even in our time some 2000 years later. There are those in our own times who for their own various reasons want to discredit the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The leaders of ISIS torture and put to death Christians who, like the Apostles, are witnesses to the resurrected Christ. Just the apostles told the members of the Sanhedrin, Christians in the Middle East are by their lives saying: “we are witnesses of these things.” Christ’s resurrection from the dead just won’t go away. The immediate reaction of the Jewish religious authorities is presented to us in the first reading of today’s Mass where it is reported: When the captain and the court officers had brought the apostles in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, the high pr

Late last night, news organizations began reporting that Senator Bernie Sanders [I-VT] had been invited to the Vatican by none other than Pope Francis himself. When asked about such reports, Sanders said he was invited by the Vatican, was a fan of the pontiff, and looked forward to speaking with Pope Francis during the senator's upcoming visit to Rome. The Vatican has since denied Sanders' version of events. Bloomberg News reports that: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ plan to attend a Vatican-sponsored conference put him in the middle of a diplomatic row as a senior Vatican official accused the senator of showing "monumental discourtesy" in angling for an invitation that puts a political cast on the gathering. Sanders, whose foreign policy experience is under attack by competitor Hillary Clinton, said Friday he was "very excited" about being invited to the conference on economic and social issues hosted by a pontifical academy in

Pope Francis' long awaited post-synod apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia , "The Joy of Love", was released this morning. It is available on the Vatican's website in PDF form . Speculation has been rampant about its content. In the wake of the document's release, the secular media is reacting predictably. Time online's headline proclaims, " Pope Francis Pushes Church to be More Open to the Divorced ".  Newsday's headline is even worse, " Pope Francis' 'The Joy of Love' says individual conscience should guide sex, marriage, family ". The International Business Times says this, " Pope Francis’ Long-Awaited Document ‘Joy Of Love’ May Open Doors For Communion To Remarried Divorcées  The National Catholic Reporter and other like minded publications are calling this an outright about face in Church doctrine. Perhaps the best analysis thus far was offered by EWTN's Raymond Arroyo who said in an in

These seven videos examine Baptism, The Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Matrimony, Anointing of the Sick and Holy Orders. Fr. Charles Irvin, Senior Priest of the Diocese of Lansing and a past member of the U.S. Bishops Advisory Board, reflects on each of the sacraments of the Church as an occasion of grace and a divine gift. Baptism The Eucharist Confirmation Reconciliation Matrimony Holy Orders Anointing of the Sick Visit Fr. Irvin's website for more videos and related content.

Fr. Michael J. Woolley If you’ve been away from Confession for a long time and want to come back, don’t be afraid! Below is a good guide to confession I took from the website of a Church in Missouri , including How to Go to Confession, an Act of Contrition, and an Examination of Conscience. Guide for Examination of Conscience for Confession of Sins 1. Examine your conscience — what sins have you committed since your last good confession? 2. Be sincerely sorry for your sins. 3. Confess your sins to the priest 4. Make certain that you confess all your mortal sins and the number of them. 5. After your confession, do the penance the priest gives to you. 6. Pray daily for the strength to avoid the occasion of sin, especially for those sins you were just absolved from.  ______________ ACT OF CONTRITION O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but mo

Historically, April 6 is the feast of Saint Juliana of Liège, also known as, Juliana of Cornillon who was a medieval Norbertine canoness regular and mystic in what is now Belgium. She has long been recognized as the promoter of the Feast of Corpus Christi. She is also designated as the Apostle of the Blessed Sacrament for her love and devotion to our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist. When Juliana was 16 she had her first vision which recurred several times. Her vision presented the moon in its full splendour, crossed diametrically by a dark stripe. Juliana came to understand that the moon symbolized the life of the Church on earth, the opaque line, on the other hand, represented the absence of a liturgical feast in honor of Christ's Body and Blood. Such mystical experiences continued throughout her life. Juliana died on April 5, 1258. She was canonized in 1869 by Pope Pius IX and later celebrated by Pope St. John Paul II, on May 28, 1996, in his  letter mentioning her on the 750th

The month of April is dedicated to the Third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Every time we recite the Nicene Creed we worship the Holy Spirit as God. The love of the Father for the Son is total. God the Father empties Himself completely, holding nothing back from the Son. The love of the Son for the Father is total. God the Son empties Himself completely, holding nothing back from the Father. The love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father is the Holy Spirit. The love that is the exchange of Persons between Father and Son is the Life that is the Spirit, with no beginning and no end. The Creed affirms that the Third Person of the Trinity is coequal with and proceeds from the Father and the Son: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son He is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets. The Holy Spirit is the Person of Love in the life of God. He is als