When was the word "Catholic" first used?

Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue

The Church Suffering

Catholic Answers

The Pope has routed his enemies and brought joy to the faithful

From CatholicHerald.co.uk

How does one sum up the papal visit in a few words? A survey of the four days, event by event – four days which began (so far as I am concerned) in anxiety which quickly turned to relief and ended finally in euphoria – simply can’t be done in less than the length of a short book, and I have only 400 or 500 words for this post, though in the print edition of the paper which appears later this week I shall be given more than double the space for an extended version of it, in which I shall look also at the very interesting coverage of the visit by the secular media. That aspect of the visit will have to be briefly summarised here by the words of Dr George Carey in the News of the World: “he came, he saw, he conquered”. more

The 'Cheeky' Pope

God and Woman at Harvard - Article - National Review Online

God and Woman at Harvard - Article - National Review Online

Excerpt from Miracles of Jesus (DVD): The Wedding at Cana

An Out-of-Touch Ogre?

"I am gravely concerned by the fact that an abortion was performed several months ago in a Catholic hospital in this diocese. I am further concerned by the hospital’s statement that the termination of a human life was necessary to treat the mother’s underlying medical condition.

An unborn child is not a disease. While medical professionals should certainly try to save a pregnant mother’s life, the means by which they do it can never be by directly killing her unborn child. The end does not justify the means.

Every Catholic institution is obliged to defend human life at all its stages; from conception to natural death. This obligation is also placed upon every Catholic individual. If a Catholic formally cooperates in the procurement of an abortion, they are automatically excommunicated by that action. The Catholic Church will continue to defend life and proclaim the evil of abortion without compromise, and must act to correct even her own members if they fail in this duty…." Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix

Read the full story An Out-of-Touch Ogre?

EWTN Family Celebration 2010

"Epic :120" Catholics Come Home

I love the Catholic Church!

From a friend....and I must say, I do agree!

It is of utmost importance to expose the extremes of both the "left and right" leaning "Catholics"; they both hold the same level of contempt for the Holy Father, Pope benedict XVI, and they are equally corrosive to the faith.

I love this publication!

JBM

Catholic World Report

"Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart and kindle in it the fire of Your Love..."

Questions Protestants Can't Answer #1 - Is a Dead Body Really a Body?

Great YouTube video series from EWTN Radio Openline Monday host, John Martignoni.

Homily 06-13-2010 - Fr. Wade Menezes, C.P.M. - Eleventh Sunday in OT

Fr. Wade Menezes, CPM - Monday 6/7/10 Homily on the Beautitudes

 

A Trial Which the Whole Church Must Take Up

"We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church must take up." The Venerable John Paul II.

We are called by the Church to dedicate the month of June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

'We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through'.

Pray, fast and sacrifice for the sins, outrages and blasphemy committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His Most Holy Catholic Church.

Click the link above for the article at www.catholic.org

Do Protestants Pray the Rosary?

I found the following at www.rosaryworkshop.com  and found it interesting. 

~PROTESTANTS and the ROSARY ~

 ... praying the Catholic rosary with intensity ...
"I've just recently discovered the Anglican and the Catholic rosaries, and have been praying the Catholic rosary with intensity. I will pray through the fifteen mysteries of the full rosary three times a day (that's a lot of "Hail Mary's" for a Protestant!) and feel the anointing of the Lord upon me. I am convinced the rosary releases the super natural power of God into our lives. It cleanses us, sanctifies us and draws us closer to Jesus, through the help of his Blessed Mother Mary.
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     In my present (Episcopal) parish, I have shared my enthusiasm for the rosary, and many of my parishioners, who are former Catholics, have retained this devotion and have been delighted in my encouragement of their using it.  Now, I feel that Mary is asking me to pray the rosary with intensity,  as I prepare to serve a new church as rector.

     Thank You! Thank You! -  Fr. JJ  (USA)

 

 ... The words were foreign to me ...
Recently we were at a Catholic Charismatic Retreat at the Mary Grove Retreat House in the Upper Michigan Peninsula.   After dinner we we went back to our rooms to kill time before the evening prayer meeting started.  It had been snowing so we stayed in to keep warm instead of taking our usual walk.  Several gals came into our room and we ended up sharing stories.  One gal was telling us she was Lutheran - born and raised a Lutheran and was not too impressed with Catholics.
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One day she was praying and felt prompted to say these words - 'Hail Mary'  so she did, although she said, 'these words were foreign to me'.  Then the words 'full of grace' came to her.  She thought it strange but curious so she decided to go along.  'The Lord is with you' and on -  before long, she had learned this little prayer and continued to say it over and over again.  It gave her great joy so she adopted the words as her very own.
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Then one day she was with some Catholic friends and was sharing her little prayer with them.  They told her that her little prayer was called the 'AVE MARIA' or HAIL MARY' and had been around for -  almost - two thousand years.  She was shocked. When they explained the rosary to her, she decided to say it, now knowing in her heart that Mary herself had taught this little prayer to her. Today she is a Catholic and loves to tell people about how Mary drew her home by teaching her this sweet prayer of love.

The Secret of Sanctity and Happiness

Pope John Paul II, when he was a little boy, was given a prayer of surrender to the Holy Spirit by his father, and he told him to pray that every day -- and he did. John Paul II changed the world! The Holy Spirit can use us, also, if we too have devotion to Him and surrender to Him every day! So I would like to share this prayer and thoughts with you and encourage you to pray this prayer every day for the rest of your life:

"I am going to reveal to you the secret of sanctity and happiness. Every day for five minutes control your imagination and close your eyes to the things of sense and your ears to all the noises of the world, in order to enter into yourself. Then, in the sanctity of your baptized soul (which is the temple of the Holy Spirit) speak to that Divine Spirit, saying to Him:

Oh, Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore you. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me. Tell me what I should do; give me Your orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and to accept all that You permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your will. 

If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely and full of consolation, even in the midst of trials. Grace will be proportioned to the trial, giving you the strength to carry it and you will arrive at the gate of  Paradise, laden with merit. This submission to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity."

http://adriennescatholiccorner.blogspot.com/2010/05/rev-richard-perozich-is-not-afraid-to.html

Sunshine Award

I received this beautiful award from my friend Byrn! It's called the Sunshine Award. This type of recognition from a fellow blogger makes my day!

GO AHEAD AND PASS IT ON...

Of course, blog awards come with rules…

1. Put the logo on your blog and/or within your post.
2. Pass the award on to twelve bloggers.
3. Link to the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and the link to the person from whom you received this award.
 
Thank you Byrn . This is my first AWARD!

MY AWARDS GO TO...
A Catholic Mom in Hawaii
The Beautiful Gate
Anne Bender
Thoughts on Grace
Conversion Diary
Adrienne's Corner
Catholic Fire
Daughter of the King
Fumbling Toward Grace
Gabriella's Blog
Mary's Mantle
True Confessions of a Prodigal Daughter
Colleen  Hammond
The following blogs are listed separately on my blog under the heading INTO CARMEL.
Praise of Glory - Elizabeth of the Trinity
Saint John of the Cross
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus
The Interior Castle
Vocation Talks and Prayers
There are many, many more blogs I follow which are very worthy of recieving this AWARD, I just can't name them all.

Four Franciscan friars take on Irelands toughest city

I love this order of Franciscans! They make such a difference where ever they are! ...and I'm Irish so this article especially touches my heart.

"What happens when a former US Marine becomes a Franciscan friar and then goes on to found a monastery in the toughest district of Ireland’s toughest city?

In 2007, Father Sylvester and a small group of American friars from the Bronx, N.Y., did just that ...more

Did the Apostles Pray the Rosary

I ran across this article at Catholic Exchange and thought I'd share it.  For those of us faithful to praying the daily rosary and in so doing, meditating on the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; this article articulates in a beautiful way that which we already know.

"It sounds like a ridiculous question for me to pose. It’s common knowledge that the Rosary didn’t take shape for at least another thousand years! Something stood out to me the other night however, which makes me think that the “soul” of the Rosary was always present in the Apostles’ prayer....more

The Pill at 50: science, stigma, self-empowerment...and the BIG LIE

You may have been unfortunate enough to see this horrendous news story (which is really all about the use and exploitation of women) on the Today Show Friday May 7.

I would not have seen this myself had I not been at the car dealership having some maintenance work done.

The Pill at 50: Science, stigma, self-empowerment

If you are interested in the truth concerning the Pill and the legacy it has left.  I recommend here only a few of the many resources available.

1) Dr. Janet Smith blasts AFP for 'inaccurate' contraception article :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Concerning another erroneous article applauding 'the Pill', this article begins: "Responding to a recent Agence France Presse (AFP) article that criticized Catholic teaching on contraception, well-known professor, Dr. Janet Smith, said that in her opinion, the poorly researched piece “was inaccurate and slanted from the beginning.”

2) One More Soul is a website filled with morally (biblically) acceptable resources for married couples, as well as a variety of other resources documenting the sanctity and dignity of human life from conception to natural death.

3) Concerning human sexuality and true marital happiness, joy and unity with God, take a look at the resources found at Ascension Press, Christopher West, Catholic Exchange: Theology of the Body, Theology of the Body Institute,  Theology of the Body General Audiences of Pope John Paul the Great, or St John Cantius.

4) For a prophetic review of our current moral and cultural condition; read the very short (only 31 paragraphs), but in depth encyclical letter given to the Church on July 25, 1968 by Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae.

Take it from someone who's marriage and life was all but destroyed by artificial contraception..the Pill and tubiligation; [in Janet Smith's words] “who looks foolish?”...she asked. “The Church for not changing a teaching that almost guarantees happiness or a culture that is pushing an agenda that almost guarantees misery?”

But for the grace of God my marriage would have been included in the divorce statistics, instead the Holy Spirit led my husband and I after 29 years of marriage (through EWTN television and radio) on a whirlwind of a surprising, yet exciting and grace-filled journey of spiritual renewal and reversion. We whole-heartedly embrace the Church's teaching on marriage and sexuality and engage in ministries to help others not make the same mistakes we did in our marriage during our furtile years.

Pray for sins committed against marriage and all sins committed against life

A Holy Father

by Kathryn Jean Lopez | Headline Bistro
It was Holy Week. It was Holy Week and everywhere I turned – or so it seemed to this news junkie -- I heard calls for the pope’s resignation. He would step down, pundits on MSNBC could have had you believing, as if it were a foregone conclusion and absolutely necessity. The veritable end of the Catholic Church – or at least the Vatican -- if you were to believe some writing for the New York Times, was both imminent and welcome....more

What Every Catholic Should Know

 "A colleague asked me what Church documents every Catholic should read.

I decided to put together this list and I hope it isn't too long. This list contains writings, primarily Magisterial documents (official Church teaching), but it also has a few that are not. It should be helpful for those who don't know where to start or what to read next."

So begins this wonderful list What Every Catholic Should Know I found at the blog Aggie Catholic.

Many of the items listed are found on the web, particularly the Vatican website.  This being so, I thought this was one of the most helpful lists of Catholic information, church documents and books I have run across. 

Fr. Apostoli: Bp. Fulton Sheen on Laity & Poor-Part I

Divine Intimacy - Part Four of a Series

Easter Sunday to the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

All the following links come from Catholic-Pages.

In this fourth part of the series, I will provide links to some of the readings for the book Divine Intimacy, by Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., available from Aquinas and More.  The focus of these meditations will be on one of the following; The Life of prayer: Vocal and Mental Prayer, Development of Contemplative Prayer, Liturgical Prayer - Our Blessed Lady: Her Privileges and Virtues - The Holy Spirit and His Action in Us.

Briefly, this book is a goldmine of inspirational thoughts and spiritual meditations from those who lived heroic virtue, to help the soul enter more deeply into the treasures of the Truth of the Faith; so that ones thinking and acting might become transformed and unity or Divine Intimacy might be achieved.

140) The Resurrection of the Lord - Easter Sunday

141) Stay with Us - Easter Monday

142) Whom Seek You?

143) The Living Water

144) God Invites All Souls

145) Our Preparation

146) Prayer

147) The Paschal Harvest - Low Sunday

148) Vocal Prayer

149) Meditative Reading

150) Meditation

151) Intimate Converses With God

152) Prayer of Recollection

153) Aridity

154) The Good Shepherd - Second Sunday After Easter

155) Aridity and Progress

156) Energetic Resolve

157) Aridity and Contemplation

158) Loving Attention to God

159) Practical Conduct

160)  The Life of Prayer

161) God's Pilgrims - Third Sunday after Easter

162) Practice of the Presence of God

163) The Spirit of Faith

164) Liturgical Prayer

165) Holy Mass

166) Participating in Holy Mass

167) The Divine Office

168) The Great Promise - Fourth Sunday after Easter

169) Mary Our Guide and Model

170) The Handmaid of the Lord

171) Spouse of the Holy Spirit

172) The Mother of God

173) Our Mother

174) The Marian Life

175) Efficacious Prayer - Fifth Sunday after Easter

176) Mary's Humility

177) Mary's Faith

178) Mary's Hope

179) The Ascension of Our Lord - Forty Days after Easter

180) The Growth of Charity in Mary

181) Mary and Fraternal Charity

182) Waiting - Sunday after Ascension

183) Mary's Prayer

184) Mary's Apostolate

185) Mary Our Mediatrix

186) The Holy Spirit

187) The Spirit of Christ

188) Sweet Guest of the Soul

189) The Descent of the Holy Spirit - Pentecost Sunday

190) The Action of the Holy Spirit

191) The Initiatives of the Holy Spirit

192) Our Cooperation

193) Conformity with Christ through the Action of the Holy Spirit

194) The Way of the Cross

195) The Gifts of the Spirit

196) Feast of the Most Holy Trinity - First Sunday after Pentecost

197) The Virtues and the Gifts

198) The Holy Spirit and Prayer

199) The Holy Spirit and Activity

Indianapolis Archdiocesan Pro-Life Youth Pilgrimage

The Link below takes you to a video made by Father Jacinto from the Our Lady of the Redeemer Retreat Center in Bloomington IN.  Father Jacinto was one of the chaperones on our Pro-Life Youth Pilgrimage to Washington D.C., many of the folks in this video were from our buses.

Video – Roving Reporter #106: Interviews From DC March for Life

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Divine Mercy Celebration in Indianapolis

Our Lord's words to St. Faustina regarding His image

 

Our Lord speaks:
"Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world." "I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not parish. I promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death, I Myself will defend it as My own glory." (Diary of St. Faustina, #47 & #48)

"I am the King of Mercy . . . I desire that this image be displayed in public on the first Sunday after Easter. That Sunday is the Feast of Mercy." (Diary of St. Faustina #88)

"I want this image . . . to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy." (Diary of St. Faustina #49) 

Divine Mercy Sunday will be celebrated today by Monsignor Joseph F. Schaedel, V.G. at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Indianapolis. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will be from 2:00-3:00 P.M. with the Divine Mercy Celebration and recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet following.

Coming to Indy in January 2011

Rebecca Kiessling Pro-life Speaker, Conceived in Rape

Rebecca Kiessling's story of being conceived in rape and nearly aborted at two back-alley abortions. Information for having Rebecca as a Pro-Life Speaker at your crisis pregnancy center banquet, right to life fundraiser, church, Students for Life event, school, or rally.

We've all heard someone say:  "I'm pro-life, well, except in cases of rape . . ." or "I'm pro-choice, especially in cases of rape !"

Have you ever considered how really insulting it is to say to someone, "I think your mother should have been able to abort you."?  It's like saying, "If I had my way, you'd be dead right now."  And that is the reality with which I live every time someone says they are pro-choice or pro-life "except in cases of rape" because I absolutely would have been aborted if it had been legal in Michigan when I was an unborn child, and I can tell you that it hurts.  More

Rebecca Kiessling will be the keynote speaker at the Indianapolis March and Rally for Life in January 2011, more details will follow as they develop.

The 2010 Archdiocesan Sanctity of Life Dinner

The 2010 Archdiocesan Sanctity of Life Dinner

is just around the corner!

Tables are filling up quickly for this year’s Archdiocesan Office for Pro-Life Ministry Sanctity of Life Dinner.  Be sure to get your reservations while seats are still available.  Learn how you can be part of the mission and ministry of the Office for Pro-Life Ministry offering service to poor women and children and to those suffering pain and trauma from decisions made while feeling desperate, alone and without life-giving choices. Read the following for more information.

 

The 2010 Archdiocesan Sanctity of Life Dinner promises to be the best ever with our featured speaker Jill Stanek, RN. Jill worked at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn , Ill. , as a registered nurse in the Labor and Delivery Department. Stanek discovered that the hospital staff was aborting babies in the second trimester. Hear the amazing story of how she retrieved, cradled and rocked an aborted Down’s syndrome baby who had been discarded in the Soiled Utility Room. After battling with the hospital, Stanek was fired on Aug. 31, 2001. Her life has never been the same.

 

At this year’s Sanctity of Life Dinner you will enjoy a lovely meal served at the beautiful Riverwalk Banquet Center , after which the Office for Pro-Life Ministry will present awards to 5 individuals who have shown outstanding service and sacrifice as volunteers in various pro-life ministries provided by the Pro-Life Office . In addition, our much anticipated and popular raffle will consist of over 20 theme baskets.  You will also be taking part in a special surprise celebration for our speaker who graciously agreed to attend our event on her birthday!

 

We will also be unveiling some new initiatives that the Office for Pro-Life Ministry will be launching in November 2010 and January 2011.  You will want to be sure you hear first-hand about these exciting new ministries that will begin in our local area.

 

The Annual Archdiocesan Sanctity of Life Dinner is being held on Thursday April 22, 2010 at Riverwalk Banquet Center , 6729 Westfield Blvd. Registration and Cash Bar begin at 6:00.  Dinner, speaker and awards are from 7:00 – 9:00 PM. For more information contact Patty at 317-236-1569 or parthur@archindy.org

 

If you are unable to attend this year’s Sanctity of Life Dinner, please consider a one time or monthly donation. Your generous DONATIONS are greatly appreciated and enable the Office for Pro-Life Ministry and our network of faithful volunteers to respond to the systematic assaults against human life by the evil emerging from the culture of death. By promoting pro-life education, evangelization, pastoral outreach, and charity to women and babies in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis we hope to help build a culture that supports and protects human life from the moment of conception to natural death.

 

Office for Pro-Life Ministry, 1400 N. Meridian Street , Indianapolis IN 46202

"Eyes to See and Ears to Hear: Reading and Heeding the Signs of the Times"

Facebook post from Johnnette Benkovic, click link below to watch live this week's program.

Johnnette Benkovic If you missed this week's The Abundant Life program "Eyes to See and Ears to Hear: Reading and Heeding the Signs of the Times" with Fr. John Corapi, SOLT you can now watch it at the link below:

Watch The Abundant Life TV Shows Online

www.lhla.org

It is clear that our day and time is unprecedented in human history. Technology, communication capabilities, and neo-pagan and neo-atheistic ideologies have coalesced to not only threaten, but all but bury, the Judeo-Christian ethos in the marketplaces of ideas and public policy. ...

The Practice of Prayer

This post comes from Father Barron's blog Word on Fire.  I post this link as a reminder of how prayer and suffering are powerful means by which those who mourn for family and friends who have fallen away from the Church established by Jesus Christ can serve as intercessors on their behalf. As we enter into the most Holy Week of the liturgical year let us remember to join our prayer and sufferings with Jesus our Lord.

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Prayer is one of the three classical penitential practices of Lent. It serves as the ground in which the two other practices, fasting and almsgiving, must be rooted. Father Barron offers a reflection on this essential participation in the Divine Life.

“I am almost hesitant to speak of prayer because the usual descriptions of it have become so vague, abstract, and unchristian. But particular modes of prayer are indispensable practices of the first path [to holiness], since they are conscious attempts to focus our lives on Christ the center. First, as we saw, when Christians pray, they are not addressing God from some external standpoint; they are not approaching the divine simply as a seeker or supplicant or penitent. They are in the divine life, speaking to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. It has been said that Christian prayer is listening intently as the Father and the Son speak about you. It is this peculiar intimacy—praying in God and not just to him—that gives the Christian practice of prayer its unique texture..."

View Original Article

SUFFERING. The disagreeable experience of soul that comes with the presence of evil or the privation of some good. Although commonly synonymous with pain, suffering is rather the reaction to pain, and in this sense suffering is a decisive factor in Christian spirituality. Absolutely speaking, suffering is possible because we are creatures, but in the present order of Providence suffering is the result of sin having entered the world. Its purpose, however, is not only to expiate wrongdoing, but to enable the believer to offer God a sacrifice of praise of his divine right over creatures, to unite oneself with Christ in his sufferings as an expression of love, and in the process to become more like Christ, who, having joy set before him, chose the Cross, and thus "to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of His body, the Church" (I Colossians 1:24). (Etym. Latin sufferre, to sustain, to bear up: sub-, up from under + ferre, to bear.) Modern Catholic Dictionary; John A. Hardon, S.J.

Chick Tracts and the Truth

Chick Tracts and the Truth

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In My Name

Divine Intimacy - Part Three of a Series

Divine Intimacy - Part Three of a Series

Septuagesima Sunday to Holy Saturday

All the following links come from Catholic-Pages.

In this third part of the series, I will provide links to some of the readings for the book Divine Intimacy, by Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., available from Aquinas and More.  The focus of these meditations will be on one of the following; the purification of the senses and the practice of abnegation - the struggle against sin - humility, obedience, and the acceptance of the cross - the Passion of Jesus.

Briefly, this book is a goldmine of inspirational thoughts and spiritual meditations from those who lived heroic virtue, to help the soul enter more deeply into the treasures of the Truth of the Faith; so that ones thinking and acting might become transformed and unity or Divine Intimacy might be achieved.

77) A New Program - Septuagesima Sunday

78) The Necessity for Interior Purification

79) Voluntary Attachments

80) The Essence of Attachments

81) The Way of the "Nothing"

82) Rules for Discernment

83) The Night of the Senses

84) The Divine Seed - Sexagesima Sunday

85) Evangelical Poverty

86) Voluntary poverty

87) The Spirit of Poverty

88) Chastity

89) Modesty

90) Chastity of the Heart

91) Prediction of the Passion - Quinquagesima Sunday

92) Corporal Mortification

93) With Jesus Crucified

94) Ash Wednesday

95) Death

96) The Proof of Love

97)  The Spirit of Mortification

98) The Great Combat - First Sunday of Lent

99) Conversion

100) Sin

101) Venial Sin

102) Imperfections

103) Examination of Conscience

104) Confession

105) The Transfiguration - Second Sunday of Lent

106) Humility

107) Our Place

108) Humility and Confidence

109) Humility in Our Falls

110) Humiliations

111) Humility of Heart

112) The Power of Jesus - Third Sunday of Lent

113) The Lowest Place

114) The Hidden Life

115) To Be Hidden from Myself

116) To Be Hidden with Christ in God

117) True Glory

118) Not Excusing Oneself

119) The Multiplication of the Loaves - Fourth Sunday of Lent

120) The Value of Obedience

121) Come, Follow Me

122) Free Sacrifice of Liberty

123) Supernatural Obedience

124) Blind Obedience

125) Difficulties in Obedience

126) Jesus Persecuted - First Sunday of the Passion

127) The Value of Suffering

128) Patience

129) The Daily Cross

130) Suffering and Abandonment

131) The Seven Sorrows of Mary

132) Love of the Cross

133) The Triumph of the Cross - Second Sunday of the Passion or Palm Sunday

134) The Supper at Bethany - Monday of Holy Week

135) The Meek Lamb - Tuesday of Holy Week

136) The Man of Sorrows - Wednesday of Holy Week

137) The Gift of Love - Holy Thursday

138) The Mystery of the Cross - Good Friday

139) The Victory of the Cross - Holy Saturday

7 Quick Takes Friday - March 5, 2010

Stop by Jen's site at Conversion Diary to link-up with 7 Quick Takes.

JMJ

I have been focusing on a the spiritual side of things this Lent so I will continue that theme today with  The Seven Daily Habits of Holy Apostolic People. This post was named after and prompted by a really good article by Father John McCloskey.

1. The Morning Offering -My Morning Offering goes like this:

O Jesus, through the Immacuate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers works, joys, and sufferings of this day; along with every beat of my heart and every breath I take for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my associates, for Archbishop Daniel, for Monsignor Schaedel, that priests may be imbued with apostolic zeal in the Vineyard of the Master, and for the converson of my children and granchildren, Christine and her children, all fallen away Catholics and the enemies of the Church.

O my Jesus, I include myself in all the Holy Masses which are celebrated this day throughout the world, and offer them to You in union with the intentions of Your Sacred Heart. I implore You to reserve for me, from each Holy Mass, Your most precious Blood to atone for my sins and their punishment.

Grant me also the grace of obtaining through the merits of every holy sacrifice the release of one poor soul from the pains of purgatory, the conversion of one sinner, and also that one soul in the agony of death may obtain mercy, and that one mortal sin, which is so painful to Your Sacred Heart may be prevented. Amen.

2. Spiritual Reading - My Spiritual reading consists of:

The daily Mass readings
The Liturgy of the Hours
Divine Intimacy

3. The Rosary - Generally this is a quick recitation with my husband in the morning, but my favorite thing is to really take some time with a scriptural rosary or a CD. A nice selection can be found at Catholic Company.

4. Holy Mass and Communion - Daily Mass seems to be the toughest thing for me....if I could leave my home each morning about 20 minutes sooner, I would have the opportunity to begin my work day with Mass at the Cathedral; but no matter what I do, it seems I am not able to get this accomplished.  If any of you would find it in your heart to keep me in your prayers concerning this aspect of my life I would greatly appreciate it. If We Knew the Value of the Mass is worth reading at this point.

5. At Least 15 Minutes of Mental Prayer - For me this is the last part of my Morning Prayer more like reflection/contemplation/meditation on the reading for the day from the Divine Intimacy.  This is generally where I really enter into a Sabbath Moment. This is where I enter into the peace and joy that is attainable only through an intimate relationship with Christ Jesus.

6. Recitation of the Angelus at Noon - As I get into the busy-ness of my day; this too has been a difficult habit to maintain.  However, at this point I have begun setting the alarm on my cell phone for "noon" and  for 3pm to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy or, if I am not in a position to offer formal prayer at the 3 o'clock hour I can at least offer a short mental pray such as the Jesus Pray, Jesus, Mary and Joseph Save Souls, or one of the short Fatima Prayers.

7. Evening Examen - This is another holy habit that has been difficult for me. One symptom of Lupus is extreme fatigue. By the end of the day which for me is; whatever time I get home in the evening...whether that is 2 in the afternoon or 10 at night, it is difficlut to mentally make the switch to: "ok, it's time to do the things that need to be done at home". I'm doing good to get dinner prepared and be sure I have everything together for the next day. So here I have implemented through my Rule of Life (which will be the topic of a new Page sometime in the future) a personally customized Day Planner. Within the pages of this Day Planner, I have included the Prayer aspect of my Rule of Life with includes an Examination of Conscience published by the Fathers of Mercy. After my Examen I journal on these three questions; Where have I fallen? How has virtue been exercised? Which Ones? What special gift has Jesus given me today? I end my Examen and journaling with the following prayer.  I think this is actually suppose to be prayed following Holy Communion, but it expresses my inner thoughts after reviewing my moral condition, so this is my closing prayer. Also, I wish I knew where I found it, but I don't have a clue....

From the depths of my heart I thank You, Dear Lord, for Your infinite kindness in coming to me. How good You are to me! With Your most holy Mother and all the angels, I praise Your mercy and generosity toward me, a poor sinner. I thank You for nourishing my soul with Your Sacred Body and Precious Blood. I will try to show my gratitude to You in the Sacrament of Your love, by obedience to Your holy commandments, by fidelity to my duties, by kindness to my neighbors and by an earnest endeavor to become more like You in my daily conduct. Amen

There are many formal Examens available.  I've seen one (although I am not quite sure where) that is quite long and I believe is intended as a yearly meditation. Then of course the 10 Commandments are the reliable standby and another option is the Examen of Conscience by Father John Hardon.

God willing...until next Friday.