+JMJ+ Welcome! It’s time for part 2 of our second Catholic Book of the Month, Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent and in Times of Suffering, by Susan Tassone. (Seems to me we could have used this book for the whole year of 2020, right on up to the current Lenten season and, undoubtedly, it will be useful for the rest of the year and well beyond.) There will be notes and links at the end of this post.
Continue reading “Book of the Month, March 2021 – Part 2”
+JMJ+ Welcome! We’re already in the second week of Lent and I’m pausing the Re-Reading the New Age series at least until after Lent and the Easter Season, which means until after Pentecost, and maybe longer. Lent is the time to focus on spiritual practice and true religion. (Re true religion, see the first posts about Scott Hahn’s book, It Is Right and Just, in this series.)
So, now it’s time to announce our 2nd Catholic Book of the Month title. Drum roll, please: Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent and in Times of Suffering, by Susan Tassone. (There will be notes and links at the end of this post.)
Continue reading “Book of the Month, March 2021 – Part 1”
I’ve been praying the Rosary using the Five Special Intentions given by Pope St. John Paul II, for use with the Divine Mercy chaplet, for several months. Those intentions are aimed at ending abortion and the whole culture of death. I began adding them to the Rosary threads on Twitter (see the Rosary Project on this site) back when the pro-abortion crowd ramped up their demonic efforts to ram barbaric legislation through in a push that has been more aggressive than any we’ve ever seen in this country. (Links at the end of this post.)
Continue reading “To end the culture of death, pray the Rosary and Chaplet”
I watched a video about the Blessed Virgin Mary and I want to share it one with you: Mary is a Warrior Queen battling the Dragon, by Bishop Robert Barron, referring to The Woman in Revelation 12 and promised in Genesis 3:15. The video is less than 13 minutes long and well worth the time it takes to watch. (Video below, links are at the end of this post.)
Continue reading “Warrior and Queen of the Angels”
Note: This post, originally written in 2012, is no less relevant now than it was then. If we put our hope in the fallen world and our fallen brothers and sisters in it, we are bound to be disappointed and worse. Politicians cannot save us.
“Put not your trust in princes: In the children of men, in whom there is no salvation.” –Ps 146:2-3
“The world’s thy ship and not thy home.” –attributed to St. Thérèse of Lisieux
+JMJ+ Was I surprised by what happened on Election Day? Nope. Am I depressed or in deep despair over the results? No way. I saw it coming in 2008 and I saw it coming in 2012. Do I think we have a huge and serious problem? Oh, yeah, I do. But I think our problem stems more from the fact that we live in a fallen world and the fact that we are a stiff-necked people, much like the ancient Hebrews of the Bible, than the failing of one political party or another. No, the failure was ours. We the people. More particularly, we the Catholic people.
Continue reading “We had forgotten about spiritual warfare but we have now been reminded”
In my most recent post, I wrote about the spiritual war against the culture of death, drawing from a talk on spiritual warfare by Dr. John Cuddeback of the Institute of Catholic Culture. Dr. Cuddeback himself draws upon others in his talk: Saint Paul, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Fr. Edward Leen, Pope John Paul II. Tonight I read an article by Dr. Peter Kreeft, The Winning Strategy at The Integrated Catholic Life website. Continue reading “A strategy for winning the spiritual combat”
Who is to blame for the culture of death? Not atheists or progressives or democrats or republicans or pro-choice advocates. No, according to Dr. John Cuddeback in his talk, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for Life in a Culture of Death, we Christians have no one to blame but ourselves. For we have forgotten who we are. We have forgotten to put on the mind of Christ. We have forgotten how to pray. We have forgotten that prayer is necessary to the life of the Christian. We have forgotten that the Eucharist, the highest form of prayer, is absolutely necessary to the life of the Christian. Prayer and reception of divine grace in the sacraments is not optional, not something extraneous to the Christian way of life but is absolutely central to it. Continue reading “Who is to blame for the culture of death?”
A thought occurred to me this morning during Mass while kneeling after Holy Communion. We’re facing a time of intense (and intensifying!) spiritual combat these days. It’s a sobering thought and a bit chilling too. But think about it: When we stand up for the teachings of Christ and His Church, we stand, not alone, but shoulder to shoulder with all the Church; with all the Saints who have gone before us; and with all the Angels who do the will of God, battling the powers, principalities and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Continue reading “Standing shoulder to shoulder with saints and angels”
Catholic Heart and Mind 