How great are the gifts of God? How great is His Mercy? How great is the gift of faith?! May all the world come to know Him and the reign of His Mercy.
Category Archives: Religion
Greatest Story – They Keep Coming
From the Easter Vigil homily of Deacon Greg Kandra:
Here, and now, we are seeing the ongoing miracle of not just any story, but the Greatest Story Ever Told. You and I are a part of it. The seven people who are candidates and catechumens in our church tonight, about to join our faith, they are a part of it. Over a billion people around the world are a part of it.
The statistics are staggering. In 2008, 19 million people entered the Church. That’s 2,169 every hour. 36 every second. And the numbers just keep growing.
We could speculate why that’s so. But ultimately, it comes to this: they are drawn by hope. It is a hope that is stronger than despair… a truth that towers over a world of falsehood… the Light of the World that scatters every darkness.
That, in all its greatness and mystery and wonder, is our faith.
Read Deacon Greg’s homily here.
Easter “Praises of God”
Praises of God
- You are encircling Love.
- You are abiding strength
- You are the constant “Hound of Heaven”
- You are my Spouse, my Love.
- You are my All-in-All.
- You are my surrounding Presence.
- You are the joy of my life.
- You are my dearest Friend.
- You are my “nudger” when I am weak.
- You are my encouraging companion.
- You fill my life with purpose and meaning.
- You are gentle, caring and compassionate.
- Your are beauty, sweet unction for my soul.
- You are impregnating Presence filling all life.
- You are my precious guide and protector.
- You are my Counselor, my Lover, My Friend.
- You are Wisdom, Truth and Peace.
- You are so human and so divine.
- You are mystery, urging us on.
- You draw us to Your Father and give us Your Life-giving Spirit.
- You keep showing us Your Mother to also honor and love.
- You are filled with amazing surprises.
- You mend our broken hearts, mind and body.
- You are water for the thirsty.
- You are bread for the hungry.
- Your are Creator, Redeemer, Risen Lord.
- You enflesh us with Your image and likeness, Your very life-giving breath.
- You are healing when we humbly acknowledge our brokenness.
- You are forgiving when we fail.
- You sense our needs before we know them.
- You are the hand that holds us close to Your Heart.
- You are the Indwelling Presence that makes us special.
- You are the Light that illumines our darkness.
- You are peace for longing, agonizing hearts.
- You are the flower that perfumes our life.
- Your are the smile that brings acceptance.
- You are the most precious friend that we cannot so without.
Amen! Amen!
by Sister La Donna Pinkelman, OSF Sylvania, Ohio
Why I Remain Catholic
Today, On Good Friday, Here’s Why I Remain Catholic
Though the ill aspects of the Catholic Church have recently been highlighted in the news, commentator Elizabeth Scalia says the good aspects have never gotten enough attention.
Published: April 02, 2010
by Elizabeth Scalia
Elizabeth Scalia is a contributing writer to First Things Magazine as the blogger known as The Anchoress.
The question has come my way several times in the past week: “How do you maintain your faith in light of news stories that bring light to the dark places that exist within your church?”
When have darkness and light been anything but co-existent? How do we recognize either without the other?
I remain within, and love, the Catholic Church because it is a church that has lived and wrestled within the mystery of the shadow lands ever since an innocent man was arrested, sentenced and crucified, while the keeper of “the keys” denied him, and his first priests ran away. Through 2,000 imperfect — sometimes glorious, sometimes heinous — years, the church has contemplated and manifested the truth that dark and light, innocence and guilt, justice and injustice all share a kinship, one that waves back and forth like wind-stirred wheat in a field, churning toward something — as yet — unknowable.
The darkness within my church is real, and it has too often gone unaddressed. The light within my church is also real, and has too often gone unappreciated. A small minority has sinned, gravely, against too many. Another minority has assisted or saved the lives of millions.
But then, my country is the most generous and compassionate nation on Earth; it is also the only country that has ever deployed nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
My government is founded upon a singular appreciation of personal liberty; some of those founders owned slaves.
My family was known for its neighborliness and its work ethic; its patriarch was a serial child molester.
Read the complete essay here.
Palm Sunday and Political Correctness Run Amuck
The young maker of this video has been taught well. He bends over backwards not to offend anyone of any other religion who might happen upon this video instruction. He says at the beginning (profusely), “It’s pure entertainment; nothing else!” After transforming the palm frond into a cross, he ends with, ” Don’t take this as anything against your religion; just pure entertainment; no stuff like that.”
Not that it is this young man’s intention, but now that this symbol of the Faith and the palm (distributed to the faithful as a reminder of our fickleness and unfaithfulness) have been devalued to the level of a pass-time, society must be all the better for it; right? The “entertainment” value of the Cross having been established, actually, does emphasize how quickly nice people forget and dissimilate. Little chance here that this young man will die a martyr. Little does he know what he’s missing. Jesus and the message the Cross, does offend and divide.
Be Holy! 