"Not 100 people in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is.” - - Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Mary....converting souls

I HONESTLY believe with every cell of my body....that through Mary, this world will become converted....here is a Lutheran who began saying the rosary....this is NOT the first time I have heard that more & more Protestants are becoming converts BECAUSE they have taken up the saying of the rosary...THANK YOU MOTHER MARY....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z05Fdz6KQI

Pray the rosary friends...it changes your LIFE...please don't take my word for it, do it & I beg any of you to write in & share with us how it has effected your lives...

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Oh Louis...you said it brother

It was with Mary and in Mary and of Mary that the Holy Spirit produced His Masterpiece ...God Made Man... For this reason the more He finds Mary His dear and inseparable Spouse in a soul, the more powerful and effective He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul...and that soul in Jesus Christ.... Mary was never led be her own will but always by the Will of God, who made Himself master of h...er to such an extent that He became her very Spirit.... Our Mother told St. Mechtilde: “At the words of the Rosary...Hail Mary full of grace...I am aware that the Holy Spirit has showered so many graces upon me that I am able to give these graces in abundance to those who ask for them through me as Mediatrix.”

St Louis de Monfort

Sunday, May 27, 2012

I Love This Artist

"Sola Scriptura"

Sorry's it's been a while...been SWAMPED....lets get back to proving the TRUTH....
Here is a great piece from Integrated Catholic on "Sola Scriptura" and how the concept is just fundamentally flawed.  God bless America on this wonderful Memorial Day weekend!  Enjoy.

http://www.integratedcatholiclife.org/2012/05/deacon-bickerstaff-sola-scriptura-is-unbiblica/

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day

I found this on UCatholic.com today thought you'd enjoy.

Next to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Monica is one of the best examples of Christian motherhood. For years, she prayed for the conversion of her only son. Her persistence was answered with abundant grace: Her son, Augustine, became a saint and a doctor of the Church.
Saint Monica faced a culture in which Christianity had not yet fully taken hold; we live in a culture in which Christianity is increasingly marginalized and children are pulled from the Faith. This prayer for her intercession, therefore, is particularly appropriate today.


Prayer To St. Monica For MothersExemplary Mother of the great Augustine,
you perseveringly pursued your wayward son
not with wild threats
but with prayerful cries to heaven.
Intercede for all mothers in our day
so that they may learn to draw their children to God.
Teach them how to remain close to their children,
even the prodigal sons and daughters
who have sadly gone astray.
Amen.

Holy Orders

Thank you Intergrated Catholic for your efforts in apologetics.  This is a great piece in defense of the sacrament of Holy Orders...something that comes under fire by many Protestant faiths and secular circles.

http://www.integratedcatholiclife.org/2012/05/deacon-bickerstaff-in-defense-of-holy-orders/

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

So Beautifully Done...

The USCCB..so beautifully done...on marriage


Men and Women Matter: Let’s Start with the Human Person
Anthropology – the study of the human person – is an indispensable starting point for thinking about marriage. After all, marriage has to do with persons; it is a personal relationship. We must ask, “What does it mean to be a human person, as a man or as a woman?” Fundamentally, three points are important:
  • Imago Dei: Human persons, male and female, are created in the image and likeness of God; every human person has inviolable dignity and worth.
  • Vocation to love: Because “God is love” (see 1 John 4:8), human persons, as male and female created in God’s image, are given the vocation, and the responsibility, to love (see CCC, no. 1604 and FC, no. 11).
  • Male and female: The body (masculine or feminine) is not an afterthought but is essential to the identity of the human person created in the image of God.
Where does marriage fit into this? Well, the Catechism tells us that “the vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator” (CCC, no. 1603). In other words, marriage comes into existence at the same moment that man and woman are created. Marriage is a particularly significant way that men and women can live out their vocation to love (see FC, no. 11).
Gift and Promise: Essential characteristics of marriage
Keeping in mind the nature of the human person – created male and female and called to the vocation of love – let’s now talk about the essential characteristics of marriage. As with any work of defining terms, it’s important to identify those things that make marriage unique, different from any other type of relationship. Yes, there are characteristics marriage shares in common with other relationships between people (for example, affection, longevity, shared interests, and so on). But marriage is a unique bond. If we were to explain to a visitor from Mars what makes marriage different from other relationships, what would we say?
The following list identifies those properties without which marriage wouldn’t be marriage – just like without peanuts, peanut butter wouldn’t be the same thing. We’re talking about essential characteristics – those things that are part of marriage’s very essence.
Marriage is total (gift of self)
Pope Paul VI describes beautifully what is meant by the totality of marriage in Humanae Vitae:
“It is a love which is total – that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner’s own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself” (HV, no. 9).
The totality of marriage, then, refers to the immensity of the gift husband and wife give to each other – a gift not just of time, or money, or possessions, but a gift of their very selves. This gift is total because husband and wife hold absolutely nothing back from each other. As we’ll see, the “totality of the gift” helps illuminate the other characteristics of marriage.
Marriage is faithful and exclusive (a truthful gift)
Precisely because the gift of one’s self exchanged in marriage is total, it can only be given to one person at a time! (Picture the parody of a man saying to woman after woman, “I’m all yours!” “And yours!” “And yours!”) The totality of the gift demands exclusivity.
As the Catechism puts it,
“By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable fidelity of the spouses. This is the consequences of the gift of themselves which they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it cannot be an arrangement ‘until further notice’” (CCC, no. 1647).
Marriage is forever (the gift of one’s future)
Contained within the gift of self that one gives in marriage is the gift of one’s future—the promise. Again, how could the gift be total if a time limit were placed on it? As Bl. Pope John Paul II said, a total self-gift must include “the temporal dimension”:
“If the person were to withhold something or reserve the possibility of deciding otherwise in the future, by this very fact he or she would not be giving totally” (FC, no. 11).
But how can anyone promise their future to another person…today? Here we see the awesome beauty of a vow: in one moment, on one day, husband and wife promise each other every moment, every day that is to come. The vow they exchange on their wedding day “takes up” every future moment, freeing husband and wife to know that they are entirely given to each other – forever.
Marriage is life-giving (the gift of one’s fertility)
We read in the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et Spes, “Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the begetting and educating of children” (GS, no. 50). One way to understand this is to think that in giving themselves completely and unreservedly to each other in marriage, husband and wife give each other the gift of their fertility. In fact, the capacity to procreate new life is inscribed in the very nature of man and woman and in their coming together as “one flesh.”
As Bl. John Paul II explains, “the conjugal act ‘means’ not only love, but also potential fruitfulness” (TOB, no. 123.6). To be clear, this doesn’t mean that a child will – or should – be conceived in every marital act. What it does mean is that the love expressed by husband and wife is of its very nature both unitive and procreative: “one as well as the other [meaning] belong to the innermost truth of the conjugal act” (TOB, no. 123.6). To pledge everything to one’s spouse includes pledging the possibility of becoming a mother or a father together.

God bless ALL American's

As the religious CONTINUE to get beaten up by this administration...it got me thinking...we Catholic's are usually the glaring spotlight of intolerance on this topic...but I knew we weren't the ONLY ones, just he ones that the media loves to demonize...I found this article that highlight 16 major religious groups and their postions on same-sex marriage...as you will see MOST believe that MARRIAGE (NOT Civil UNIONS) should be protected by God. This topic is difficult for me because I have dear love for quite a few homosexuals and it is a topic that without FULL understanding of where the Catholic faith stands on this (something beyond "NO") so much offense is taken. I tred lightly on this topic because of how much deep seeded anger & hurt comes of it's discussion when not compassionately and truthfully explained. I pray for our country & ALL Americans that there can be a respectful solution for all involved and for all religions to remain intact and protected.    
 
 
I have supplied some information recently by the USCCB who clearly spent a great deal of time collecting the data to thoroughly expalin the Catholic's position on ths topic and WHY & I thought it was very thoughtfully done.  I will pull out some info from that in regard to this and do a follow up post.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Check out these kids...

Thanks to my friend Tricia for this great submission!  Check out THIS Catholic school in Cleveland...man do I wish we had more schools like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zugxKlvvDfc&feature=share

YAY for Texas....

In Texas, an ultrasound law has just gone into effect today that will give women considering abortions the chance to view an ultrsound & hear the fetal heartbeat of their babies...the estimation is it will save one out of every 5 babies threatened by abortion in a state where approx. 80,000 abortions take place a year.  It is a HOTLY debated issue but I believe it is God's hand at work...pray that this law spreads throughout the states folks.  Read more....

 http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-sonogram-law-goes-into-effect-today-3085314.ph 

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Mary Conceived Without Sin

Another question regularly asked about Mary....Catholic Answers have all the answers of course!

http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/hail-mary-conceived-without-sin

Why we Pray to Mary

This video is great...it is a talk given by a convert who I love listening to.  Another wonderful resource from "Catholic Answers"  ENJOY

http://www.catholic.com/video/praying-to-mary-a-biblical-defense

It's May....why not devote it to learning more about our Mother Mary

So I'll try & post at LEAST one thing on the different arguments against Mother Mary & why we Catholic's are so in love with our Mother....

This one is on Mary's Perpetual Virginity....

http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/the-case-for-mary%E2%80%99s-perpetual-virginity

Mother Mary and her Role...

I just went to a talk on Marian devotion, it was truly great.  Afterwards, a Protestant friend had some additional questions about Mary & I found this WONDERFUL piece taken from "Catholic Answers" who authentically answers ALL of our Catholic questions...just a great resource for all.  Enjoy the piece!

http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/mary-mother-of-salvation

Friday, May 4, 2012

There Can Be No Salvation Outside The Church

OK, I am truly in love with the "Shadow Priest!!!"

Listen to him here explain this truth of the Church.  One of the harder tenants of our faith to understand.  I LOVE how he speaks, so truthfully and so compassionately.  And the one thing I have come to understand over the past few years that YES...the more I learn about our beautiful faith, the more I realize how "common sense" it truly is.  That is why it is such the perfect "blueprint" for us to lead our life by.  "Picking up our cross" may not be easy everyday BUT all the reasons why we HAVE to IS...because in the end...God has always given us a common sense plan to navigate through this human life...enjoy this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shur1_uqeyk&sns=fb