Bruno was born in Cologne of the prominent Hartenfaust family. He studied at the Cathedral school at Rheims, and on his return to Cologne about 1055, was ordained and became a Canon at St. Cunibert’s. He returned to Rheims in 1056 as professor of theology, became head of the school the following year, and remained there until 1074, when he was appointed chancellor of Rheims by its archbishop, Manasses. Bruno was forced to flee Rheims when he and several other priests denounced Manasses in 1076 …
Category: Parish News & Events
Prayer for Expectant Mothers #2 : Prayer of the Day for Wednesday, October 06, 2021
O Good Saint Anne,
who had the incomparable privilege of bringing into the world
Her who was to become the Mother of God,
I come to place myself
under your special care.
I confide myself to you,
together with the child I am carrying.
Thousands of children owe you,
Glorious Mother of Mary,
the life of the body and the grace of baptism.
Hence I wish, in my turn,
to place my whole confidence in you.
Make me keep in mind the precautions I need to take
so as not to …
Cuteness & Conversion
And just like that, 8 weeks have gone by and I am back to work. My scheduled C-section went off without a hitch, my baby girl is healthy and I am getting back into the swing of things slowly but surely. It seems like such an overused cliche, but time really does fly. How is it that the hours move forward at a snail’s pace when you are in those last couple weeks of pregnancy, but once the baby is out of the womb it’s like the Indy 500!?
My boys adore their new little sister. They want to kiss her and hold her and run their hands along her silky, soft hair. They want to look at her and be with her and say “cute!” over and over again. Even at her baptism, while my dad (a permanent deacon) was speaking, my two youngest boys were holding her hands and smiling at her and my sister whispered to me sarcastically “They don’t love their sister at all do they?!” It is precious to see how they dote on her.
During maternity leave, I had a little more time to be like Mary in today’s Gospel (I am normally very much a Martha). I had more time to pray and I even read a book! I know I am way behind the 8 ball, but I finally read Abby Johnson’s “Unplanned”. Very appropriate as we are now in Respect Life Month and in the midst of 40 Days for Life.
Her journey of conversion could be likened to those of the people of Nineveh in today’s First Reading. Just as they put on sack cloth and ashes in repentance, she left Planned Parenthood and went directly to a pro-life agency and began advocating for life.
Reading her story has reignited my desire to help this cause in any small way that I can. Perhaps I can donate baby items to the local pregnancy center. Perhaps I can commit to an hour of prayer in front of the clinic downtown. Perhaps I can contact my local politicians so they don’t vote to pass a bill that does not protect the lives of the vulnerable…
So my “Mary moments” of stillness and reflection can lead to “Martha moments” of reaching out to others. Reading about others’ conversions can help me consider how I need to change to become more Christ-like.
And while this mother’s heart has so enjoyed being home these past weeks, I am now called to move forward and onward, to continue ministering to others. Life is full. Life is beautiful.
Tami Urcia grew up in Western Michigan, a middle child in a large Catholic family. She spent early young adulthood as a missionary in Mexico, studying theology and philosophy, then worked and traveled extensively before finishing her Bachelor’s Degree in Western Kentucky. She loves tackling projects, finding fun ways to keep her little ones, quiet conversation with the hubby and finding unique ways to love. She works at her parish, is a guest blogger on CatholicMom.com and BlessedIsShe.net, runs her own blog at https://togetherandalways.wordpress.com and has been doing Spanish translations on the side for over 20 years.
Feature Image Credit: Garrett Jackson, https://unsplash.com/photos/oOnJWBMlb5A
St. Faustina Kowalska: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, October 05, 2021
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament was born as Helena Kowalska, in Glogowiec, Leczyca County, north-west of LĂłdz in Poland on August 25, 1905. She was the third of 10 children to a poor and religious family.
Faustina first felt a calling to the religious life when she was just seven-years-old and attended the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. After finishing her schooling, Faustina wanted to immediately join a convent. However, her parents refused to let her.
Instead, …
Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon of St. Francis of Assisi: Prayer of the Day for Tuesday, October 05, 2021
Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,
All praise is Yours, all glory, all honour and all blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars, …
Conversions of Heart
Todays’ readings are so fitting for the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. The Scriptures are wonderful lessons addressing the conversion of the heart.
The First Reading has Jonah not wanting to obey the call of the Lord God. He was pitched into the sea and swallowed and spit out after 3 days of prayer in a whale’s belly.
The Gospel acclamation gives us the new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.” The reading from Luke has a law scholar asking, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ reply is the story of the Good Samaritan.
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (lovingly known as Francis) was born into what we today would call an upper middle class cloth merchant family. He led a carefree life, enjoyed friends and parties. He wanted to be a knight. He was captured, got ill and was imprisoned for a year during which time he read about the lives of the saints.
When Francis returned home he was not the same person. His spirit was troubled. Things he used to enjoy just didn’t make him happy the way they used to. The conversion of his heart was beginning.
The conversion of the human heart is not a one and done process. As with Jonah, who resisted the call of God more than once, Francis too had to pray and listen for God’s call.
Once Francis of Assisi committed his life to follow the Lord God’s call he immersed himself in the Gospel, taking the Gospel teachings (especially the words of Jesus) to heart and applied them to his life; Gospel to life, life to Gospel. For Francis so loved the Lord. He acclaimed frequently, “My God and my all! My God and my all!”
St. Francis did not have an easy life once he chose to follow his Heavenly Father. He made mistakes, faced many challenges and accomplished many things in his own ‘little’ way by choosing to make his life follow Jesus’ way. He made changes (conversions) to how he dealt with life events, even his thoughts to live out the Gospel in a moment by moment, day by day way.
I have been called to this conversion process too, going from Gospel to life, life to Gospel. I am called to love all as Jesus loves me and as the Good Samaritan loves. I thank my own good Samaritans Mark and Missy who stopped and got me some gas while on their way home from dinner with their grandkids when I ran out on an off ramp on my way to get gas last weekend.
Lord, my God and my all, help me to listen to your will in my life. Help my heart to be like Jesus’ and Francis’ heart. Help me to see Your face in every part of the world and my life. Amen.
Beth Price is part of the customer care team at Diocesan. She is a Secular Franciscan (OFS) and a practicing spiritual director. Beth shares smiles, prayers, laughter, a listening ear and her heart with all of creation. Reach her here bprice@diocesan.com.
Feature Image Credit: DESIGNECOLOGIST, https://unsplash.com/photos/ACt2UZwHsIk
St. Francis of Assisi: Saint of the Day for Monday, October 04, 2021
Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181.
In 1182, Pietro Bernardone returned from a trip to France to find out his wife had given birth to a son. Far from being excited or apologetic because he’d been gone, Pietro was furious because she’d had his new son baptized Giovanni after John the Baptist. The last thing Pietro wanted in his son was a man of God — he wanted a man of business, a cloth merchant like he was, and he especially wanted a son who would reflect his …
St. Francis of Assisi’s Vocation Prayer: Prayer of the Day for Monday, October 04, 2021
Most High, Glorious God,
enlighten the darkness of our minds.
Give us a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity,
so that we may always and in all things act according to Your Holy Will. Amen.
God’s Perspective
Poor Jesus. Honestly, sometimes when reading Gospel passages like this one can’t you just feel His sigh before He answers? Jesus is God and possesses patience beyond our understanding, but He is also human and gets frustrated and upset like any of us. If I had to place myself in this scene, I think there may have been some exasperation in Jesus’ voice at this line of questioning the Pharisees go with.
Pharisees: Let’s test Jesus and try to catch him in his words.
Jesus: Oh Israel, when will you ever learn? What did God say to Moses? Why?
Pharisees: He said it was fine.
Jesus: No, it was permitted because of your stubbornness and hardness of heart, which, by the way, is fully on display for all to see today. When will you learn to see with God’s perspective, an eternal perspective?
Pharisees:………
It’s not that Jesus is opposed to laws or rules. Jesus gave us the Beatitudes, the Great Commandment. He instituted the Eucharist within a specific ritual and situation. Jesus, the God of the Universe, is in the business of creating order out of chaos. But, and it’s a big but, He is not in the business of rules for their own sake.
Laws, within God’s perspective, are the things which allow us to become our most free and authentic selves. Bishop Robert Barron of the Los Angeles Diocese likes to use a baseball analogy. You can’t freely and fully play the game of baseball if you don’t know the rules of the game. A 6 yr old playing tee ball knows the basics, but there is much about the game they cannot do or accomplish because they are not using the full rule book. Professionals who have studied the game, practice it daily, discuss the nuances and intricacies, these are the ones who play it with full freedom and enjoyment.
The laws of baseball, and the laws inspired by God’s plan for the world, are there to be in service of us, not the other way around. What had happened in Israel was that the rules were becoming of greater importance than the encounter with God they were intended to create. Instead of bringing greater unity to the community, they had become tools of division, of inequality and judgment. Look at the Pharisees’ question. “Is it lawful…” the subtext here are things like, “Who is excluded?” “Who should be punished?” “How can it be more difficult for x, y, or z persons to have access to the synagogue and temple?”
This isn’t why Jesus came. Jesus did not come to earth to save a few. He came to save all. He didn’t come to make it harder to enter heaven, He came to throw open the gates for those who would come pass through them. This isn’t to say Jesus came to abolish all laws, He tells us specifically this isn’t the intent either. Rather, He is the fulfillment of the law, returning it to its proper place in service of our relationship with God, not in place of it.
Kate Taliaferro is an Air Force wife and mother. She is blessed to be able to homeschool, bake bread and fold endless piles of laundry. When not planning a school day, writing a blog post or cooking pasta, Kate can be found curled up with a book or working with some kind of fiber craft. Kate blogs at DailyGraces.net.
Feature Image Credit: submitted by author from canva.com
St. Ewald & Ewald: Saint of the Day for Sunday, October 03, 2021
Martyred Northumbrian brothers, one called “the Fair” and one called “the Dark”, companions of St. Willibrord. From Northumbria, they were educated in Ireland. These priests of the Benedictine Order went with Willibrord to Frisia, Netherlands. They were martyred together at Aplerbeke, near Dortmund, Germany, by local pagans.