Catholic Fire

Visitation Mariotto Albertinelli 1503 - Oil on wood, 232 x 146 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said,“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has m...

Today is the 91st anniversary of the first appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three shepherd children Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco in 1917. Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, the three children received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for: world peace, the end of World War I, for sinners, and for the conversion of Russia. Here is a description of that event in Lucia's own words: High up on the slope in the Cova da Ira, I was playing with Jacinta and Francisco at building a little stone wall around a clump of furze. Suddenly we saw what seemed to be a flash of lightning. "We'd better go home," I said to my cousins, "that's lightning, we may have a thunderstorm." "Yes, indeed!" they answered. We began to go down the slope, hurrying the sheep towards the road. We were more or less halfway down the slope, and almost level with a large hol...

I first saw The Song of Bernadette when I was a child, growing up in the 1950's and I have loved it ever since. It is the true story of St. Bernadette and her apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Song of Bernadette stars Jennifer Jones, William Eythe, Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb,and Gladys Cooper. The Song of Bernadette opened in late December of 1943 to qualify for the Academy Awards. It was an immediate critical and commercial success and Jennifer Jones was a new star. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards When the award were announced on March 2, 1944, the film won 4 awards (Actress, Cinematography, Interior Decoration, Scoring). Related Posts: 150th Anniversary of Our Lady of Lourdes The History of Our Lady of Lourdes FEBRUARY 11th HAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART

We read in the Book of Leviticus how the Lord tells Moses about the serious crime of offering children to Molech, referring to the Canaanite custom of sacrificing children to the god Molech. The little victims were first slain and then cremated. (Leviticus 20,1-5 and 18,21). In the Americas, five centuries ago, cruel human sacrificing rituals were performed in the Aztec empire. Between 20,000 and 50,000 were sacrificed a year. The rituals included cannibalism of the victims limbs. Most of them were captives or slaves, and besides men they included women and children. The early Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl estimated that one out of every five children in Mexico were sacrificed. The climax of these ritual killings came in 1487 for the dedication of the new and richly decorated with serpents temple of Huitzilopochtli, in Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), when in a single ceremony that lasted four days and four nights, with the constant beating of giant drums made of snakeskin, the Aztec...

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Loreto. The title Our Lady of Loreto refers to the Holy House of Loreto, the house in which Mary was born, and where the Annunciation occurred, and to an ancient statue of Our Lady which is found there. Tradition says that a band of angels scooped up the little house from the Holy Land, and transported it first to Tersato, Dalmatia in 1291, Reananti in 1294, and finally to Loreto, Italy where it has been for centuries. It was this flight that led to her patronage of people involved in aviation, and the long life of the house that has led to the patronage of builders, construction workers, etc. It is the first shrine of international renown dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and has been known as a Marian center for centuries. Popes have always held the Shrine of Loreto in special esteem, and it is under their direct authority and protection. For More Information, go here and here. Pray the Litany of Loretto.

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception Old Calendar: The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Today's Mass Readings Today's Gospel Meditation with Fr. Philippe on the Immaculate Conception On This Day in Catholic History 1854 Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) issued his encyclical letter Ineffabilis Deus declaring the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 1864 Pope Pius IX issued an encyclical letter, Quanta Cura , in which he denounced modern heresies and errors and stated that the purpose of civil government was “to protect the Church” and to resist any encroachment on its liberty. 1869 The First Vatican Council began. 1962 The first session of the Second Vatican Council closed. Birthdays 1765 - Eli Whitney , American inventor (d. 1825) 1861 - William C. Durant , American automobile pioneer (d. 1947) 1894 - James Thurber , American writer (d. 1961) 1911 - Lee J. Cobb , American actor, The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Miracle of the Bells (1948), (d. 19...

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the solemn dogma defined by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854. As Our Lady Immaculately Conceived is the patroness of the United States of America, this is a holy day of obligation in the United States. Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1854: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." ~ Catechism of the Catholic Church Via Catholic Culture. The Immaculate Conception Today's meditation with Fr. Philippe, OP: Gospel Lk 1:26-38 Today we celebrate Mary as the Father's bel...

Related Posts: Prayer to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal FEAST OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL

Today, November 27, is the Feast of the Miraculous Medal. Devotion to and wearing of the Miraculous Medal is second to the Rosary in popularity among traditional Catholic devotions. History In 1830, the Blessed Virgin Mary revealed the design of the Miraculous Medal to St. Catherine Laboure in an apparition. In Paris, on June 6, 1830, the Lord appeared to the young (age 24) Daughter of Charity novice Catherine at Mass, and again on the nights of July 18-19 when she was summoned to the chapel by a beautiful "child clothed in white" to converse with the Virgin Mary. Catherine was told prophecies and charged with "a mission" that manifested itself on November 27 in an early morning (5:30am) appearance of the Blessed Virgin who was "clothed in white" standing on a globe and "a serpent." Rays of light issued forth from rings on her fingers and Catherine was told to commission a medal of what she was seeing. Then, turning the letter "M surmounted ...