Day 5 - The Novena to St. Maria Goretti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 07/29/2017 - 23:48

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O St. Maria Goretti, beautiful model of mercy, pray for me.

God’s mercy is the only hope for mankind. I know we are called to imitate our Father’s mercy to those around us, but it is hard, and I often fail.

But you, even at the age of 11, were strong and courageous enough to offer mercy to your attacker, the one who hurt you the very most.

Day 4 - The Novena to St. Maria Goretti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 07/29/2017 - 15:49

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O St. Maria Goretti, beautiful model of chastity, you guarded your virginity with such fervor. Even at the age of 11, you knew the value of the virtue of chastity.

Please pray that I will become better at practising chastity in my own life.

Pray that I will learn to live a life in which desire is subservient to reason. Please pray that I will be able to love as Jesus does: selflessly.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Christ offers to us the treasure of life

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 07/29/2017 - 01:17

Roman Rite

XVII Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A – July 30, 2017

1King 3.5.7-12; Ps 119; Rm 8, 28-30; Mt 13.44-52

Ambrosian Rite

1Sam 3: 1-20; Ps 62; Ephesians 3: 1-12; Mt 4: 18-22

Sunday VIII after Pentecost

1) The Treasure of Life

This Sunday’s Gospel offers us the final part of chapter 13 of St. Matthew‘s gospel with the parables that compare the Kingdom of God to a treasure, to a precious stone and to a net thrown into the sea that gathers all kinds of fish.

The offer of life in the causes of saints

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/28/2017 - 19:31

With the Motu Proprio “Maiorem hac dilectionem” on the offer of life, Pope Francis has opened the path to beatification for those faithful who, inspired by charity, have heroically offered their life for their neighbour, freely and voluntarily accepting certain and untimely death in their determination to follow Jesus: he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn 3:16).

As we know, for centuries the norms of the Catholic Church have provided that one may proceed to the beatification of a Servant of God along one of three paths:

Shouldn’t Christian unity be more important than we make it?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/28/2017 - 14:13

When Jesus prayed, in the Gospel of John, for all future Christians he prayed, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” (John 17:21a)

This kind of closeness—this kind of unity—is difficult to imagine.

God, as we understand Him, is triune: Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit existing in one and the same Being. One beautiful old hymn reminds us, “The Godhead, three-in-one.”

This is a closeness we cannot yet fathom.

St. Augustine reminds us that no prayer is useless

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/28/2017 - 00:57

We learn as children that praying doesn’t always “work”: we prayed and still failed that math test, we prayed and still were ignored by our crush, we prayed and our sick grandmother never got better. As adults, our worries increase, as do our disappointments in prayer: we pray and still don’t get hired, we pray and still our spouse wanders, we pray and we ourselves never get better. So, what’s the point? Why pray for things that we want if we don’t always get them? Is God listening? Does God care?