Dear Lord, who art high in the Heavens,
Giver of Love and Passion,
And He who strings the heartÂ?s cords,
Lead the Lovers this day, February ten plus four.
The day during the month of two,
When the date is the perfect number of God
Greater two souls and two hearts.
Some Loves are fleeting ,
But that which is built on you will never fail.
So guide the Lovers to know what is to be.
Your truths the LoversÂ? mouths should speak,
For Your truth is that which is honest to the …
Author: WebDept ParishAdmin
The Beauty of the Beatitudes
“Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”
The Beatitudes are an invitation to place Christ first in our life and follow His ways so as to better experience the joy of the Gospel and use the things of this world for His glory, such as using wealth, power, popularity, influence, or success to build up what is good, beautiful and holy.
The Lord invites us to encounter Him and experience Heaven here on Earth. Jesus reminds us that God’s ways are not the ways of this world, so we are not called to be troubled or discouraged when others mock us or persecute us, but instead, we are invited to rejoice in our trials and difficulties, for we know God can use all things to His greater glory. When we experience difficult times, Jesus wants us to not grow hard-hearted during these trials but rather serve as a witness to Christ and love them.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in Heaven.”The word “blessed” means truly happy, filled with joy, and knowing God blesses you. The Sermon on the Mount is a path to not only growing closer to Christ but living out our Catholic faith and experiencing Christian joy despite what is going on around us.
The Beatitudes remind us that we live for Heaven and Heaven’s reward, not an earthly reward. In an age where we want “instant success and reward,” it is essential to cling to the Beatitudes and make sure that we seek to encounter the Lord and follow His ways.
Emily Jaminet is a Catholic author, speaker, radio personality, wife, and mother of seven children. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mental health and human services from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is the co-founder of www.inspirethefaith.com and the Executive Director of The Sacred Heart Enthronement Network www.WelcomeHisHeart.com. She has co-authored several Catholic books and her next one, Secrets of the Sacred Heart: Claiming Jesus’ Twelve Promises in Your Life, comes out in Oct. 2020. Emily serves on the board of the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference, contributes to Relevant Radio and Catholic Mom.com.
Feature Image Credit: cathopic.com
St. Catherine de Ricci: Saint of the Day for Sunday, February 13, 2022
St. Catherine was born in Florence in 1522. Her baptismal name was Alexandrina, but she took the name of Catherine upon entering religion. From her earliest infancy she manifested a great love of prayer, and in her sixth year, her father placed her in the convent of Monticelli in Florence, where her aunt, Louisa de Ricci, was a nun. After a brief return home, she entered the convent of the Dominican nuns at Prat in Tuscany, in her fourteenth year. While very young, she was chosen Mistress of …
Prayer against Depression – by Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Prayer of the Day for Sunday, February 13, 2022
O Christ Jesus,
when all is darkness
and we feel our weakness and helplessness,
give us the sense of Your presence,
Your love, and Your strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
in Your protecting love
and strengthening power,
so that nothing may frighten or worry us,
for, living close to You,
we shall see Your hand,
Your purpose, Your will through all things.
By Saint Ignatius of Loyola
A Heart That Beats With Love For Us
Have you ever been so hungry that you were in danger of collapsing? Jesus is not usually prone to hyperbole, so his comment here seems factual: if he sends the crowd that has been following him for three days away to their homes, “they will collapse on the way.”
Jesus’ heart is moved with pity for them and is determined to do something to help these thousands of people, while the disciples seem to be somber realists. “What else can we possibly do?” they say. They are out of options.
But love is never out of options. Love finds a way. And the endless, creative, Love of God can make a way where there is no way. And so, Jesus orders them all to sit down and he takes the seven loaves and gives thanks. To Whom? To the Father in Heaven, undoubtedly. Then he breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples to distribute.
Does this sound familiar? This thanksgiving and blessing and breaking of bread is the way Jesus prefigures the Eucharist over and over in the Gospels. As a prefiguring of the Eucharist, we see that Jesus does the blessing and his disciples take care of the distribution. And we see that there is always, always enough to satisfy all. There is always an abundance, for all. An OVERabundance, even. When everyone has eaten and is satisfied, the disciples gather the fragments and fill seven baskets! This Living Bread that came down from Heaven may seem small, but it will never run out.
And we are reminded that the Eucharist we receive is a prefiguring of the Heavenly Banquet to which we are all called, even as it is our sustenance along the way. Without the Eucharist, we are in danger of collapsing on our way to the Wedding Feast, but Jesus has made certain that we will have all we need to arrive whole and prepared!
The next time we approach the altar to receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, let’s recall with confidence that this is the same Jesus who fed the multitude because his heart had pity on them, and we can be confident that he feeds us his very SELF because his heart is beating with love for us as well.
Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including Father Rob), and four grandchildren. She is President of the local community of Secular Discalced Carmelites and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 30 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio. Currently, she serves the Church by writing and speaking, and by collaborating with various parishes and to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is www.KathrynTherese.com
Feature Image Credit: Innviertlerin, https://pixabay.com/photos/bread-loaf-food-basket-baked-6995092/
St. Buonfiglio Monaldo: Saint of the Day for Saturday, February 12, 2022
He was one of seven Florentines who had joined the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin (the Laudesi) in a particularly lax period in the city’s history and who were inspired by a vision on the feast of the Assumption to take up a life of solitude and prayer. After nearly fifteen years of austerity at a hermitage on Monte Senario he took the name in 1240 of Servants of Mary, or Servites. Six were ordained, developed as mendicant friars under the direction of James of Poggibonsi and Bishop …
A Prayer for America: Prayer of the Day for Saturday, February 12, 2022
Father, we beg Your blessing for the Right to Life, the Unborn, the weak, the sick and the old; all who are finding themselves being targets of the vicious culture of death; that our Lord Jesus bless and protect all who stand up for the Christian dignity of persons. That God enlighten those who are traveling down death’s highway by their involvement, in any way, with either the contemporary death culture, selfism, relativeism, or any of the new age errors of our times, that God envelop our …
Be Opened!
In today’s Gospel, Mark tells the story of Jesus healing the man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. Jesus put His fingers in the man’s ear, put spit on his tongue, and looked up to heaven saying: “Be opened.” The man could then hear and speak without the impediment.
Metaphorically, we are a lot like the man who could not hear and didn’t speak well. When it comes to the word of God and teaching others about God, we often have difficulty listening and speaking.
God only asks for one hour a week, but we know that we cannot build a relationship with Him in just 1/168 of the week. Imagine telling your children or your significant other that you want to just spend one hour each week with them. I suspect they would feel cast aside or unimportant. Now stand in front of a crucifix, look at Christ, and tell Him He only deserves one hour a week. It hurts to do that, doesn’t it?
If we really want to get to know God better, we must talk to Him and learn about Him every day.
We can make it easy to include Him in our daily lives, but it does take a little effort to find the way that suits our life the best. Additionally, it takes some determination to put away the phones, to shut out the outside world, and to really reflect on those two words we want to hear from Christ: “Be opened!”
So take some time today to decide how you want to start improving your relationship with Christ. Do you like to read about Him? Do you want someone to read to you or talk to you about Him—like in a podcast? Do you want to watch videos? Do you want to just spend quiet time in prayer? Do you want to do something different every day?
There’s so much we can do to praise God, to acknowledge His presence, and then to welcome Him into our daily lives.
With Lent fast approaching, we may have already thought about how we will prepare, but let us not wait until then to transform our spiritual life. Let us make a life change that will last way beyond Lent.
From this point on, give God 20 minutes of your day. Open your heart, open your mind, and open your life to Him. And rejoice that He is calling you and saying: “Be opened!”
Susan Ciancio has a BA in psychology and a BA in sociology from the University of Notre Dame, with an MA in liberal studies from Indiana University. For the past 17 years, she has worked as a professional editor and writer, editing both fiction and nonfiction books, magazine articles, blogs, educational lessons, professional materials and website content. Eleven of those years have been in the pro-life sector. Currently Susan freelances and writes weekly for HLI, edits for American Life League, and is the editor of Celebrate Life Magazine. She also serves as executive editor for the Culture of Life Studies Program-an educational nonprofit program for K-12 students.
Feature Image Credit: Angelo Senchuke, LC, https://www.cathopic.com/photo/11583-alabado-sea-mi-creador
St. Paschal: Saint of the Day for Friday, February 11, 2022
Paschal was the son of Bonosus, a Roman. He studied at the Lateran, was named head of St. Stephen’s monastery, which housed pilgrims to Rome, and was elected Pope to succeed Pope Stephen IV (V) on the day Stephen died, January 25, 817. Emperor Louis the Pious agreed to respect papal jurisdiction, but when Louis’ son Lothair I came to Rome in 823 to be consecrated king, he broke the pact by presiding at a trial involving a group of nobles opposing the Pope. When the two papal officials who had …
Prayer for Faith: Prayer of the Day for Friday, February 11, 2022
Lord, I believe:
I wish to believe in Thee.
Lord, let my faith be full and unreserved,
and let it penetrate my thought,
my way of judging Divine things and human things.
Lord, let my faith be joyful
and give peace and gladness to my spirit,
and dispose it for prayer with God
and conversation with men,
so that the inner bliss of its fortunate possession
may shine forth in sacred and secular conversation.
Lord, let my faith be humble and not presume
to be based on the …