BIG C CATHOLICS

Saint Louise de Marillac served God in numerous ways as a wife, mother, nurse, teacher, mystic, social worker, mentor and foundress. Her veneration of the Eucharist led to profound insights into the Incarnation as found in the Blessed Sacrament that bestows grace and perdures still among us. The following twelve quotes from St. Louise de Marillac speak of God’s goodness, mercy and justice. God never showed greater love for his creatures than when he resolved to become man. *** Be diligent in serving the poor. Love the poor, honor them as you would Christ himself. *** We only hope that God will show us his mercy and restore to us what was taken away by his justice. *** With all my heart, I wish you the joy and interior consolation of a soul that is lovingly submissive to the most holy will of God. *** Our good God has his time and moments for everything. Do not believe that things will always be as they are now. *** O eternal light, lift up my blindness! O perf

March 15, 2017 On the fifth day of the Saint Joseph, husband of Mary novena we remember all those who are hard-pressed to make a living. St. Joseph was a carpenter. He is also the patron of the unemployed. Let us pray for the unemployed, as well as those struggling to provide food, shelter and other necessities for their families. Day 5 – St. Joseph, Husband of Mary Novena Saint Joseph, you are the faithful protector and intercessor of all who love and venerate you. You know that I have confidence in you and that, after Jesus and Mary, I come to you as an example for holiness, for you are especially close with God. Therefore, I humbly commend myself, with all who are dear to me and all that belong to me, to your intercession. I beg of you, by your love for Jesus and Mary, not to abandon me during life and to assist me at the hour of my death. Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Immaculate Virgin, pray for me to have a pure, humble, charitable mind, and perfect resign

Paris in the early 1600’s was not the pleasant tourist attraction that it is today, and no one would become more conscious of this than Louise de Marillac. Disease and famine were common occurrences, wiping out nearly fourteen percent of the population; torture was often used against those accused of crimes, claiming many lives very cruelly and unnecessarily, and children by the hundreds were often abandoned at birth. It was this world that Louise would eventually enter as a Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, but she would not do so quite as soon as she had originally wanted. Though inspired to join a religious community at the age of 16, it was not until she was 33 that the one God intended her to work with would enter her life. Born into wealth near Meux, France, in 1591, she suffered the first in a series of tragedies when her mother died while she was still a young child. Her father followed her mother in death when Louise was just 15. Although her education at the h

Editor's note: On Tuesdays, we will feature posts discussing Saint John Paul the Great's Theology of the Body; his reflection on our nature and life as persons made in the image and likeness of God, conjugal love, the meaning of celibacy and the eternal beatitude to which every human being is called.  _________________________ In the Gospel of Matthew, it is written: “Not all men can receive the precept, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.” (Matthew 19:11-12) If the meaning of life consists in making a gift of one’s self to others and living in a communion of persons, should not all people marry? The answer is that all are called to “marriage,” but not necessarily in the physical sense. Some are called to marriage as we

March 14, 2017 On the fourth day of the Saint Joseph, husband of Mary novena, we remember in prayer families. The family is the domestic church; the place of initial instruction, devotion and witness. Let us pray for the protection of families. May all families grow in holiness and may their love and faith ever multiply with each generation. Day 4 – St. Joseph, Husband of Mary Novena Saint Joseph, you are the faithful protector and intercessor of all who love and venerate you. You know that I have confidence in you and that, after Jesus and Mary, I come to you as an example for holiness, for you are especially close with God. Therefore, I humbly commend myself, with all who are dear to me and all that belong to me, to your intercession. I beg of you, by your love for Jesus and Mary, not to abandon me during life and to assist me at the hour of my death. Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Immaculate Virgin, pray for me to have a pure, humble, charitable mind, and per

Lord Jesus, as once you called the first disciples and made them fishers of men, continue to let resound today your sweet invitation: "Come, and follow me." Grant to men and women in our day the grace and trust to respond to your voice. Sustain our bishops, priests, and consecrated souls in their apostolic work. Give perseverance to our seminarians and to all those living a life of total consecration to your service. Enkindle in our communities missionary zeal. Send, Lord, workers into your fields to feed and guide your flock as Good Shepherds in imitation of You. Mary, mother of the Church and model of vocations, help us to say "YES" to the Lord who calls each one of us to play our part in His plan of salvation. Amen. — St. John Paul II

Father Lance Harlow There is one word to describe the impact that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead has had on those who believe. That one word is joy. In the Gospel of Matthew, which is read at the Easter Vigil Mass (Mt 28:1-10), Mary Magdalene and the other women who go to the tomb on Easter Sunday are “overjoyed” at the news from the angels that Jesus has been raised from the dead. The angels tell the women to go quickly to inform the apostles and to go to Galilee where they will see Jesus with their very own eyes. This sequence of events might remind you of what happened 33 years earlier to some shepherds who were tending their flocks at night, when angels appeared to them and told them to go to Bethlehem to see the newborn King of the Jews. Joy, then, is the proper human response to contact with the realm of angels and the glory of God. It is the disposition of a heavenly life — a Christian life. Joy breaks forth into our human experience like the sunshine breaking