During this month of July, as we celebrate the freedom given to us in our great nation, it is well to reflect that the month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. It is through the Precious Blood of the Lord that we are given true freedom — the freedom from the enslavement to sin.
Declaration of Independence and of human dignity
As we celebrate the Fourth of July this year, we give thanks to God that we are blessed to live in our great nation of the United States of America... It is so essential for our nation today to realize that the definition of the human person does not derive from the government. Good order in living in society entails the need for rules, laws and regulations, but not the essential definition of a human person. Political debate centers around the government’s right to supervise those governed by it, but not to define human nature as God created it.
Our World Needs a Heart
Through the human heart of Jesus, the very divine love of God has been made manifest in a manner that we can touch and experience. Just as June holds the center of the year and the brightest day, which was the first day of summer, June 20, so the Sacred Heart reveals the brightness of the center of Christ, both in His human and divine natures. His human heart is from where His Blood and life flowed, and that heart manifests the center of His divinity, which is love and mercy!
The Eucharist is the Highway to Heaven
The miracle of the Eucharist enables us to see that God is always acting in our lives at every moment in what seems to be the most ordinary of events. There is nothing more ordinary than bread and wine, and yet these become the Body and Blood of Christ, God’s presence in our midst.
The Spirit is Alive!
The Church is a family made up of individuals, and the Holy Spirit works through these individuals using their talents and abilities to build up the Body of Christ. All of us have different roles within the Church, but they all cooperate for one purpose under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
My Soul Proclaims the Greatness of the Lord
The Visitation of Our Lady is significant because, throughout the Gospels, whenever Mary is mentioned, it is always while she is doing some visitation. She is a woman who goes out in order to bring the joy of her Son to others.
Memorial Day: The Truce of God
Memorial Day is a special one that reminds us of courage and sacrifice on the part of our military personnel who gave their lives for our country. The witness of these men and women also calls for an end to war so much needed in our world today.
The Celebration of Easter Never Ends
Pentecost is the culmination of Easter, for the Holy Spirit continues the mission of Christ. Pentecost is not the end of what Christ has accomplished for us but merely the beginning. Just as the apostles were able to go forth and accomplish miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit, so does the Spirit work in our lives each day.
Priesthood – A Eucharistic Adventure
As Pope Francis expressed to the deacons to be ordained this year, your ministry will be a “Eucharistic adventure.” You are being ordained a priest during the course of the Eucharistic Revival within our nation. Eucharistic adventure describes well what your priesthood will be about.
The Month of Mary
While Mary was not an apostle, her role preceded that of the apostles. Her role even preceded that of St. Peter among the apostles. She is the perfect Christian who lived the message of her Son in a manner that taught by example. Her role is that of holiness and intimacy with Christ, which is the very mission of the Church.
The Eucharistic Encounter at Easter
As we continue to celebrate this glorious season of Easter, it is in the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread, that we most fully encounter the real presence of the risen Christ. Like the disciples who met Jesus after His Resurrection, we actually see Him in the Eucharist.
This is the Day the Lord has Made
As Pope Francis insightfully said to the priests of Rome in his Chrism Mass homily this year, “Let us stop looking at our life in terms of efficiency and immediate results … by looking for the eternal goal to which we are called, the ultimate purpose of our lives.” What he said about prayer can also be said about obedience on a different level, “It is not about lips that move, but a heart that listens.”
Step up for Catholic Schools
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own personal convictions. This right is fundamental.”
The Heart of Priesthood is the Heart of the Priest
The great St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, spoke often of the heart. He is well known for his insight that “The heart speaks to the heart.” St. John Cardinal Newman took this phrase for his episcopal motto, as he was so influenced by St. Francis de Sales. The world today needs the human heart more than it needs anything else. The heart speaks to the heart, and in this dialogue we encounter God.
Peace Is the Message of Easter
Jesus has taken a wounded glorified body to Himself in a manner that conquers sin through the everlasting effects of His Cross. The peace Jesus has given to each and every one of us is not as the world gives peace but as He gives peace. The world sees peace as coming from power, and Jesus gives peace through the power of love. We so much yearn for true peace in our war-torn world, in our confused nation and in our own personal and family lives.
