BIG C CATHOLICS

February 8, 2017 Today, we pray through Our Lady of Lourdes' intercession for those who have become lukewarm in their faith. We solemnly ask that their faith, hope and love of our Lord will be renewed through Our Lady's most benevolent intercession.  Day 7 - The Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes Immaculate Mother, shower us with the love of your pure heart. Our Lady of Lourdes, we come to you like little Bernadette at the grotto. We pray with childlike trust in you. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, when you appeared in Lourdes, you made it a holy sanctuary where many have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. We pray with confidence for your holy intercession. (State your intentions here) Holy Mother of the Rosary, we feel confident that your prayers on our behalf will be graciously heard by God. Immaculate Mother, show us your mercy, O Mother of God. Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that

February 8th, is the optional memorial of Saint Jerome Emiliani (1486 - 1537), the 16th century Italian priest who founded the Congregation of Regular Clerics for the care and education of indigent youth. He was born into a noble family, the son of Angelo Emiliani and Eleonore Mauroceni of Venice, Italy. At 15, he joined the army following the death of his father. A careless and irreligious soldier, he was placed in command of Castelnuovo, a fortress high in the Italian Alps. While defending the outpost from an invasion, he was captured and incarcerated. In prison, Jerome reflected on the immoral choices he had made in his life. He regretted his dissolute youth and thinking so little about God. Jerome began to pray, and promised the Blessed Mother that he would devote himself to imitating Christ in all things if she would help him escape. His prayers were answered and he fled to safety. In gratitude, Jerome immediately went to the church in Trevisio where he laid his prison chains

February 8th, the Church celebrates the optional memorial of St. Josephine Bakhita (1869–1947). For many years, Josephine was a slave, but her spirit was always free and eventually that spirit prevailed. Born in Olgossa in the Darfur region of southern Sudan, at the age of nine, she was kidnapped by slave-traders, beaten till she bled, and sold five times in Sudan's slave-markets. Eventually she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general, and there she was flogged daily till she bled. As a result, she bore 144 scars throughout her life. Finally, in 1882, she was bought by the Italian consul Callisto Legnani in Khartoum, Sudan. Two years later he took Josephine to Italy and gave her to his friend Augusto Michieli. Soon Bakhita became babysitter to Mimmina Michieli, whom she accompanied to Venice's Institute of the Catechumens, run by the Canossian Sisters. While Mimmina was being instructed, Josephine felt drawn to the Catholic Church. She wa

St. John of Matha receiving the approved Order from Pope Innocent II. According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, February 8th is the feast of St. John of Matha, priest and founder. Saint John of Matha (1160 - 1213), the founder of the Trinitarian Order, was born at Faucon, on the borders of Provence, in France. He was trained as a young noble in horsemanship and the use of arms, decided to study for the priesthood, and was ordained in Paris. After some years in solitude, he conceived the idea of founding an order to ransom Christian captives from the Muslims and journeyed to Rome to obtain the blessing of Pope Innocent III. Houses of the order were established at Cerfroid and Rome and in Spain. He was very successful in the work of ransoming captives and his order spread. Very little is known for certain about his life, and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to bolster his reputation, certain members of his order fabricated

February 7, 2017 Today, we pray for those who have fallen away from the Catholic faith. May they experience a sincere conversion and return to the Church founded by Christ. We pray also for their loved ones who patiently await their return, especially parents, that they lead their children to God and the fullness of truth that is his Church. Day 6 - The Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes Immaculate Mother, pray that we may reach the consolation of heaven. Our Lady of Lourdes, we come to you like little Bernadette at the grotto. We pray with childlike trust in you. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, when you appeared in Lourdes, you made it a holy sanctuary where many have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. We pray with confidence for your holy intercession. (State your intentions here) Holy Mother of the Rosary, we feel confident that your prayers on our behalf will be graciously heard by God. Immaculate Mother, show us your mercy

Although they have not been formally canonized, Blessed Miguel Pro and Father Jacques Hamel are most certainly among the elect in heaven by virtue of their glorious martyrdoms in testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior & King. When the court sentenced Stephen to death, the 1st century Protomartyr was taken outside the city to be stoned. Scripture testifies that the participants laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul (the future Saint Paul) who consented to the execution. Before giving up his soul to Christ, Stephen prayed for his persecutors: " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. O Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. " Acts says, "Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him." St. Stephen, help us to be courageously steadfast in faith despite difficulties. St. Agatha (231 – 251 AD) was a girl of immense beauty from a wealthy family in Sicily. The perfect of the city, Quintanius desired her hand in marriage and to gai

February 6, 2017 The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette 18 times. On one of those occasions, Bernadette said that Our Lady told her to pray for sinners. Today, please pray for sinners, starting with ourselves. Pray for the conversion of sinners so that they may experience the joyous peace and infinite promise of God’s love. Day 5- The Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes Immaculate Mother, manifest in us your sweetness and beauty. Our Lady of Lourdes, we come to you like little Bernadette at the grotto. We pray with childlike trust in you. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, when you appeared in Lourdes, you made it a holy sanctuary where many have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. We pray with confidence for your holy intercession. (State your intentions here) Holy Mother of the Rosary, we feel confident that your prayers on our behalf will be graciously heard by God. Immaculate Mother, show us your mercy, O Mother of

Detail of monument to the 26 Jesuit Martyrs at the Nagasaki Museum. Feb. 6th, is the memorial of Saint Paul Miki and companions, the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki comprised of native Japanese Catholics and foreign missionaries who were martyred for their faith in 1597. The most well-known of the martyrs are Saints Paul Miki, John of Goto, and James Kisai. Bro. Miki was studying for the priesthood, Kisai was a lay brother and John was a postulant. The faith and joy they exhibited in imitating Christ to the last impressed their persecutors greatly. Catholicism reached Japan in the 16th century, when the Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Xavier first preached the Good News there. As a result of continued Jesuit catechesis, by 1590, some 200,000 Japanese had entered the Church. So long as the Emperor permitted it, the Jesuits ministered discreetly, with much success. In 1587, the Japanese imperial government, leery of Jesuit influence and the growing number of Christians among their citize

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) All of us know people of good character, people who have a reputation of being decent, respectful of others, law-abiders who lead good lives, or so they appear. We also know of some who, even though they enjoy a good reputation, turn out to be a whole lot less than we thought, some of them going on to bring terrible hurt to others and inflict real damage upon them. As the old saying goes, appearances are deceiving. Looking good does not mean that our hearts are filled with goodness. The scribes and Pharisees had a certain kind of goodness, even holiness. Jesus did not condemn them for the goodness they sought, rather He condemned them for what they did not have in their hearts. They had no depth. They governed their thoughts and actions by their external observance of the Jewish laws and how they appeared in the eyes of others. The love of God and the love of others that flows from our love of God ne

Sermon on the Mount, Basilica of Sant' Apollinare, Ravenna, Italy. Saint Augustine once observed that “anyone who piously and earnestly ponders the Sermon on the Mount — as we read in the Gospel according to Mathew — I believe he will find therein ... the perfect standard of the Christian Life.” Indeed, Christ’s words are the very embodiment of Catholic moral theology. The following is excerpted from Book One on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount by St. Augustine. "If it be asked what is signified by the mountain, the same may well be understood to indicate the higher and greater commandments of righteousness, since those that were given to the Jews are the lesser.  In an excellent order of dispensations, the one and same God gave, by his servants the holy Prophets, his lesser commandments unto the people that still had need to be bound by fear; but by his Son he gave the greater to the people whom it was expedient now to set free by love.  But whether it be the lesser