Our Lady of Fatima appeared to three young shepherd children six times in the year 1917, from May 13th up to the great miracle of the sun on October 13th.  These three shepherd children were brother and sister, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, and their older cousin, Lucia de los Santos. In every one of the six apparitions, Our Lady exhorted them, as well as the whole world, to pray the most holy Rosary on a daily basis. Our Lady appeared during the course of World War One in Europe. Many lives were taken, and families devastated. Our Lady revealed some little-known statements to Jacinta ..read more

Has it ever happened that you are with some Catholic friends one Saturday afternoon and about 4:30 you get up to leave (your custom and habit is to go to Confession every first Saturday), and right before exiting, one of your friends asks, “Where are you going”?  You reply: “Going to Church!” Your friend’s rebuttal, “Why now, this is Saturday!” Quite frankly you respond, “I am going to Confession!” His rejoinder: “What have you done that you have to go to Confession? Are you really that bad?” Your next response is: “Well, like all, I am a sinner and in need of conversion, and Confession i ..read more

The well-known, loved, and admired 50-year stigmatic, Saint Padre Pio, was known to have demanded something that may have shocked the listener: “GIVE ME MY WEAPON!” Why would such a prayerful, holy, and peaceful Friar, Franciscan, and priest be requesting a weapon? The Beatitudes! Is not one of the Beatitudes, “Blessed be the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God”? (Mt. 5:9) The reason for this insistent request was because the Modern saint had in mind a different type of weapon—this weapon: the most holy Rosary! (Read I Samuel 17) The young Shepherd David, taken from the fi ..read more

By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV What is prayer? There are many definitions.   The CCC quotes, the Eastern Father of the Church, Sant John Damascene’s classical definition: “Prayer is the lifting up of the mind and heart to God.”   The first woman Doctor of the Church Saint Teresa of Avila defines payer essentially as FRIENDSHIP—spending a long time in silence with the one I know loves me! Another concise catechetical; definition for prayer is the following: “Prayer is listening to God, speaking to God and loving God.”  The Doctor of grace Saint Augustine quips up ..read more

One of the concrete manifestations of good will towards God and a desire to grow in holiness through prayer and living out an attitude of “Magnanimity” by doing the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, is by formulating and writing out in a clear, methodical and practical way a Plan of Life. The variety of ways to hammer out a plan of life are limitless. The Plan of Life proposed in this article focuses on the various areas in our total life, and how we can improve and make our life a fragrance pleasing to God. Let us make the Psalmist’s prayer, our prayer: “O Lord, give success to the work of our ha ..read more

The greatest born of women… Jesus declared:  “Of all men born of women, none was greater than John the Baptist.” (Mt 11:11) Jesus rarely offered praise as to the qualities of others, but He did in the person of His cousin, Saint John the Baptist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church encourages us to honor the saints and highlights two specific areas in which the saints can motivate and encourage us to pursue a pathway of holiness and become the saints that we are all called to become. As Jesus stated: “Be holy as your heavenly Father is holy.” (Mt 5:48) First, the saints can pray for us ..read more

Let us welcome Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ into the very center of our lives; let us give Him a most warm welcome. It seems as if we are always preparing for something or someone! Graduation ceremonies, weddings, quinceaneras, relatives and friends coming for the Holidays, a son coming back from service overseas—all of these are key events that we prepare for and long for with all our heart. Usually the standard is as such: the more detailed the preparation, the more warm and joyful is the moment of encounter. Lent is a time of preparation for the Passion, death and Resurrection of Our L ..read more

On one occasion I planned to greet the catechism children by giving them their Catechism book that they would use for the year. There was a big group of the children. After distributing the texts one at a time, I was expecting to hear something, something very small, but very important: Thank You! To my chagrin not one of the 25 students expressed a word of gratitude. I left the classroom in dismay feeling sad for the children, but also for their parents, for their lack of gratitude—no apparent attitude of gratitude. Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, offers a long list of the virtues i ..read more

Even though such persons claim to be Catholic-Christians, it is not uncommon to hear them call into question some key doctrines; one of these is the reality of Hell. In fact, to deny the truth does not change the reality of such a truth. I can say that there is no wall, but if I walk into it (having denied its existence), I will end up with a bruise or two as well as a bump on my head. Another common phenomenon is to hear the following: “I cannot see how a good God could send anyone to hell.” You probably have heard this assertion more than once. The problem with this assertion is that it is a ..read more

MAY DEATH NOT TAKE US BY SURPRISE… We should not put off reflecting on the LAST THINGS until the last, or if you like, until it is too late!  What then are the Last Things?  The technical theological word is that of ESCHATOLOGY—the theology of the Last Things.  Categorically, they can be listed as the following: death, judgment (particular and general), Heaven, Hell, Purgatory. All of these sober, serious truths are enveloped in the concept of Eternity—that means, forever and ever and ever, no end!!!   The saints, most especially Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Saint Faustina ..read more