Archive for October, 2015

St. Quintin, Martyr
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St. Quintin, Martyr

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ST. QUINTIN was a Roman, descended from a senatorial family. Full of zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, he left his country, and, attended by St. Lucian of Beauvais, made his way to Gaul. They preached the Faith together in that country till they reached Amiens in Picardy, where they parted. Lucian went to […]

All Saints Icon (detail)
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Is Praying to the Saints Idolatrous?

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Praying to the Saints is the opposite of idolatry.

Just Say These Words and Walk on into Heaven
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Just Say These Words and Walk on into Heaven

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Why aren’t there some words – profound, insightful, loving, deep, meaningful, powerful words– which, when read, heard, or said will immediately and instantaneously make a person perfectly good in this life and remain so until they die, thus enjoying eternal glory in Heaven? Why cannot words such as these be written which, once read, change […]

St. Marcellus, the Centurion, Martyr
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St. Marcellus, the Centurion, Martyr

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THE birthday of the Emperor Maximian Herculeus, in the year 298, was celebrated with extraordinary feasting and solemnity. Marcellus, a Christian centurion or captain in the legion of Trajan, then posted in Spain, not to defile himself with taking part in those impious abominations, left his company, declaring aloud that he was a soldier of […]

Planned Parenthood Flouts FDA Guidelines for RU-486
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Planned Parenthood Flouts FDA Guidelines for RU-486

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Planned Parenthood and the abortion-provider Tucson Women’s Center spearheaded a lawsuit to strike down an Arizona law requiring doctors to abide by FDA guidelines when administering a “drug or substance” used to induce abortion. And they prevailed. An Arizona state court ruled in their favor, a ruling which allows doctors to continue off-label usage of […]

Giving God Deadlines
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Giving God Deadlines

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Having recently been divinely schooled on this very topic, I thought I might share the lesson I believe the Lord is trying to teach me. Perhaps some, less dense than myself, will pick up a valuable nugget for their own spiritual lives. As with most petitionary prayers, it began with a need. For us, it […]

Jesus's Door
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Jesus’s Door

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I have always been pro-life, and so when we were faced with an unexpected prenatal diagnosis with our 5th daughter at her 19 week scan, there was no question we would bring her in to this world and face her challenges along side of her.  Immediate thoughts included just keeping her alive, getting her through […]

St. Narcissus, Bishop
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St. Narcissus, Bishop

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ST. NARCISSUS was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem about the year 180. He was already an old man, and God attested his merits by many miracles, which were long held in memory by the Christians of Jerusalem. One Holy Saturday in the church the faithful were in great trouble, because no oil could be found for […]

Talkin’ Marriage Online: The Trouble with TMI
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Talkin’ Marriage Online: The Trouble with TMI

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It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as […]

Faith in Suffering: Kristi's Gift to All of Us
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Faith in Suffering: Kristi’s Gift to All of Us

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I crawled into the bed with Kristi and we lay together all afternoon talking and laughing. We talked about everything under the sun: our childhoods, our hopes and dreams, our disappointments, homeschooling, our faith, our husbands, our children, and her cancer. It’s been a year ago already and I can remember everything about that day. […]

Movie Review: <em>Hyena Road</em>
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Movie Review: Hyena Road

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Hyena Road is the latest film about the war-with-no-end-in-sight: Afghanistan. Canadian writer-director-actor, Paul Gross, delivers what is now a standard, sand-infiltrated, camo-dappled screen adventure in the nouveau tradition of Jarhead, Hurt Locker and American Sniper. Hyena Road looks and feels pretty much the same as these movies, except that this tale is exclusively about Canadian […]

Suicidal "Dignity"
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Suicidal “Dignity”

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The secular progressive tactic of advocating death in the name of liberty continues, this time in the state of California, where Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide in that state. This makes California the fourth state to embrace the practice, after Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. Commenting on his decision to sign […]

All Saints Icon (detail)
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Does Scripture Teach Us to Pray for the Departed, and to Pray to the Saints?

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Answer: Yes.

CL3 - hbratton notxt
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Sts. Simon and Jude

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St. Simon was a simple Galilean, called by Our Lord to be one of the twelve pillars of His Church. Zelotes, “the zealot,” was the surname which he bore among the disciples. Armed with this zeal he went forth to the combat against unbelief and sin, and made conquest of many souls for His divine […]

Democrat Senators Want Abortion Funding for Refugees
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Democrat Senators Want Abortion Funding for Refugees

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As refugees are welcomed into neighboring Middle East countries Democrat senators want to make sure abortion in available funded by US taxpayers. Senator Richard Blumenthal drafted a letter to President Obama signed by 27 of his Democrat colleagues asking that the longstanding Helms amendment be gutted. Current law prohibits any US foreign aid be used […]

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St. Frumentius, Bishop

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St. Frumentius was yet a child when his uncle, Meropins of Tyre, took him and his brother Edesius on a voyage to Ethiopia. In the course of their voyage the vessel touched at a certain port, and the barbarians of that country put the crew and all the passengers to the sword, except the two […]

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel
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Front Row With Francis: Family and Fidelity

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Pope Francis’s Wednesday General Audience, on October 21, focused on the promise of love and fidelity made between husbands and wives.  The resulting fidelity in turn sets the couple and their family free. A couple’s fidelity to their promise to love is a blessing for the whole world because “no other school can teach the […]

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Three Things You’re Probably Getting Wrong About Praying to the Saints

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The Saints in Heaven are living witnesses and members of the Church.

Sperm Donation: A Seedy Enterprise
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Sperm Donation: A Seedy Enterprise

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In 2011, Yale sociologist Rene Almeling published Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm, a fascinating book that details how sperm and egg banks do business. Of particular interest are the different ways potential sperm and egg donors are marketed to during the recruitment process. Egg donors are told they are “an angel” […]

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St. Evaristus — Pope, Martyr

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St. Evaristus succeeded St Clement in the See of Rome during the reign of Trajan and governed the Church for about eight years, as the fourth successor of St. Peter. The Liber Pontificalis says that he was the son of a Hellenic Jew of Bethlehem. In his first epistle addressed to the bishops of Africa, […]

Poem: "The Sign of the Cross"
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Poem: “The Sign of the Cross”

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The Sign of the Cross Whenever across this sinful flesh of mine I draw the Holy Sign, All good thoughts stir within me, and renew Their slumbering strength divine; Till there springs up a courage high and true To suffer and to do. And who shall say, but hateful spirits around, For their brief hour […]

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Sts. Crispin and Crispinian, Martyrs

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THESE two glorious martyrs came from Rome to preach the Faith in Gaul toward the middle of the third century. Fixing their residence at Soissons, they instructed many in the Faith of Christ, which they preached publicly in the day.  At night they worked at making shoes, though they are said to have been nobly […]

St. Anthony Mary Claret
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St. Anthony Mary Claret

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Anthony Mary Claret was a Catalan Spanish Roman Catholic archbishop and missionary, and was confessor of Isabella II of Spain.  Born in Sallent, Bages comarca, near Barcelona, on December 23, 1807, the son of a small woolen manufacturer. He received an elementary education in his native village, and at the age of twelve became a […]