Catholic Fire

Your birth, O Blessed Virgin Mary, fills the whole world with a sweet consolation and a holy joy, because of you was born our Jesus, our God, who has taken away from us the curse in which we were plunged by the sin of our first parents, and filled us with all kinds of blessings.  ~ St. John Vianney “The Immaculate Virgin…invites us not to fix our eyes on her but to pass beyond, and as much as possible, to enter into the mystery in which she was conceived: the mystery of God who is One and Three, full of grace and fidelity.”  ~ Pope St. John Paul II The Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne. History of this feast day The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the oldest of the Marian solemnities, was mentioned by the Church Fathers in the early fifth century. ...

1.  On Friday, I participated in Eucharistic Adoration at the Midwest Catholic Family Conference in Wichita, KS interceding for the speakers and participants. On Saturday, I received a real treat: I was able to hear the wonderful witness of Jennifer Fulwiller and meet her in person! What a lovely lady! 2. Amid three digit temperatures and high humidity, I am still attending to the garden with my fractured foot. Here is our first tomato. I had it in a salad with bacon and it was delicious! 3. I had a wonderful birthday on Monday, August 8, which I celebrated with my dear husband. 4. This was a beautiful week for celebrating the saints -- St. Dominic, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) , St. Lawrence , and St. Clare.  5. The new Ben Hur is a movie I am looking forward to watching soon. It releases on the Silver Screen on August 19. Here is a preview: BEN-HUR is the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of tr...

“Your birth, O Blessed Virgin Mary, fills the whole world with a sweet consolation and a holy joy, because of you was born our Jesus, our God, who has taken away from us the curse in which we were plunged by the sin of our first parents, and filled us with all kinds of blessings.”  ~ St. John Vianney The Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne. History of this feast day The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the oldest of the Marian solemnities, was mentioned by the Church Fathers in the early fifth century.  Like other Marian feasts, it began to be celebrated at the local level without any major solemnity. As the feast began to spread throughout the Byzantine world in the sixth and seventh century, it was celebrated with greater solemnity. The solemnity of the fe...

Getting a good spot in St. Peter's Square isn't always easy. But, a group of seminarians managed to not only get front row seats-they also managed to bring in a cake for the Pope's birthday, candles and all.... JOSUÉ MARÍA HERNÁNDEZ Seminarian "We thought about it yesterday. So, we quickly made the cake and brought it here to the audience this morning. We don't know a lot about cooking, but we wanted to make the Pope feel special. The cake was made of apricot jam and whipped cream with blue icing. We wrote, Happy 78th birthday Pope Francis!.” The celebration didn't stop there. The Pope also greeted a large group of about 300 seminarians and took a few sips of Argentinian maté tea. "We are seminarians here in Rome.” "On Saturday, 35 priests from the Legion of Christ were ordained.” Among the seminarians was Raúl, who brought the Pope an image of Our Lady. RAUL LANSING Seminarian "This little statue of Our Lady is from Germany, cl...

April 16th marks Benedict XVI's 87th birthday. It will be the first time he will celebrate the big day as Pope Emeritus at the Vatican. Since last year, for his birthday he was just a few miles away at Castel Gandolfo. Even though a public celebration is unlikely this year, Joseph Ratzinger has had a full list of unforgettable birthdays, with music being the one common denominator. He's seen it all...From Germany's Stuttgart Radio Symphonic Orchestra performing for him at the Vatican. Then all the way to the White House, where he celebrated his birthday with president George W. Bush and the first lady. But sometimes there's no better company than family. Whenever possible Benedict XVI has made it a point to celebrate his birthday with his older brother Georg.  Back in 2012, for his 85th birthday the two brothers celebrated the Pope's birthday with traditional folk music from their native Bavaria, complete with costumes and dancing. This was actually the...

Vatican City, 17 December 2013 (VIS) – Today Pope Francis celebrates his 77th birthday and congratulations have arrived in the Vatican from all over the world. However, also in his city of birth, Buenos Aires, citizens are celebrating the birthday of their former archbishop: the parishioners of the diaconate of Boca-Barrajas, one of the most popular and troubled areas of the city, will spend the day in Plaza Constitucion where a “missionary tent” has been erected to welcome the “invisible” inhabitants of the capital. The area hosts a large railway station and the principal bus terminal, where the “street people” of the city gather - migrants, the unemployed, the homeless, prostitutes – and where every year the then Archbishop Bergoglio used to celebrate Mass for the victims of human trafficking. In Italy, the Constitutional Court sent a telegram to the Pope, through the secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, congratulating him for his “profound and intense pastoral work in...

Pope Francis arrived at the Vatican's Pediatric Dispensary of Santa Marta, a small children's clinic, but with a big mission. -Good morning. -Good morning. -Here I am! The hospital offers treatment and services to some of the poorest families in Rome and the world. It's run by volunteer doctors, as well as the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Following in the footsteps of Benedict XVI, Pope Francis visited the dispensary, and witnessed first hand how they are changing lives. He then welcomed the patients' families and the clinic volunteers at Paul VI Hall. The children at the dispensary lost no time in wishing Pope Francis a happy birthday. First, they gave him a cube picture frame, as Michael Jackson's "Heal the World” played in the background. Then they sang "Happy Birthday” and gave him a white and yellow cake, the Vatican colors. One, two, and three! Everyone! The children's last gift was a white dove, which everyon...

April 15, 2013. (Romereports.com) One more candle on the birthday cake for Benedict XVI, and for the first time as Pope emeritus. He celebrates his 86th birthday in the intimacy of Castel Gandolfo. Eight years ago, on April 16, 2005, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger turned 78 just two days before the start of of the conclave where he was elected Pope. During his pontificate, he celebrated seven birthdays with two concerts and Bavarian folk dances, but always working. In fact, in 2006, his first year as Pope, his birthday coincided with the Easter Sunday, where he asked for peace in Africa, Iraq, Israel and Palestine. In 2007, Benedict XVI celebrated his 80 years at the tune of classical music. The Stuttgart Radio Symphonic Orchestra from Germany performed a concert for him at Paul VI Hall. BENEDICT XVI “At the end of this stupendous concert, which the Radio Symphonic Orchestra of Stuttgart gave us and elevated our spirits, I wish above all to greet all of you very cordially.” ...

'The Birth of the Virgin', fresco by Juan de Borgoña, Cathedral of Toledo, c. 1495 Let us celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary; let us worship her Son, Christ the Lord. Each Year, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated on September 8. Usually the church celebrates the feast day of a saint on the date of their death, which is actually the day remembered as their birth into everlasting life. Mary, however, was conceived without sin as a special grace because God had selected her to become the Mother of His Son. Her birth is a cause for great joy as it is considered the "dawn of our salvation" (Pope Paul VI, Marialis Cultus,1972.) Although there is no reference to Mary's birth in the Sacred Scriptures, the names of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, appear in the Protoevangelium of James (5:2), which is an apocryphal writing from the late 2nd century. According to this account, Joachim and Anna were also beyond the years of chi...

'The Birth of the Virgin', fresco by Juan de Borgoña, Cathedral of Toledo, c. 1495 When the time had come for human nature to encounter the divine and to be so intimately united to it that the two would make but one person, it was necessary that each should already be manifested in its integrity. God, on his part, revealed himself in a manner befitting God, but it was the Virgin alone who threw light on human nature... For it truly seems that if God assumed human nature, not at its origin but in the fullness of time (Gal 4,4), this was because before that time this nature had not yet been fully brought to birth, whereas now, in Mary, it appeared in its integrity for the first time... All this is what we have come to celebrate so festively today. The Virgin's birthday is likewise that of the whole world since this day saw the birth of the first fully human being. Now «the earth» has truly «yielded its fruit» (Ps 67[66],7), the earth that, with its thorns and thistles, always...

This week's Catholic Carnival is up at Living Catholicism and Jay has done a wonderful job of organizing the posts and creating a central theme. Here are just a few of my favorites: I enjoyed Weathering the Storm at Transitus Tiber , which is Kim's reflection on becoming a Benedictine Oblate. I loved reading Leticia's post Happy 11th Birthday, Isabella at Cause of Our Joy , in which she shares a wonderful birthday prayer that really gives you a feel for Isabella's personality! Sarah at Aggie Catholics will open up your spiritual eyes with a lesson she learns in Spelling . Ask Sister Mary Martha has written an entertaining and essential post on humility in Doing a Humble. Pepperdine Professor denied communion at A Catholic View by Christina asks for your take on this event: a Catholic professor was denied communion because of his public support for Obama. The professor is pro-life, but publically supporting a candidate who is pro-abortion. Was the priest correct in ...

Today's Mass Readings Saint of the Day: Sts. Christopher Magallanes, priest, and companions, martyrs Today in Catholic History: 996 Pope Gregory V (ca. 970–999; reigned 996–999) crowned Otto III (980–1002) as emperor. 1864 Joseph de Veuster (better known as Father Damien , 1840–1889) was ordained priest in Honolulu. In 1873 at his own request he was sent to a settlement of lepers on the island of Molokai, where he later contracted the disease and died. 1972 Wielding a hammer, Laszlo Toth damaged one of the world's most celebrated sculptures, Michelangelo's Piet à , in the Vatican at Rome. Birthday: Giuseppe Mercalli , an Italian volcanologist, was born on May 21, 1850 in the Italian city of Milan. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and soon became a professor of the Natural Sciences at the seminary of Milan. He is best remembered today for his Mercalli scale for measuring earthquakes which is still used today. Today's Prayer Intentions/Requests

Happy Birthday, Christine! Praying for a day filled with special blessings. In the love of Jesus and Mary, Jean

Have a beautiful birthday, Marie ! I'm praying for birthday blessings for you today. In His love, Jean

Happy Birthday, dear Papa! We are praying for you for special blessings on your birthday. We love you! Image via Esther.

Happy Birthday 25th Birthday, Chelsea! Chelsea's birthday post is one day late, but you can still read her inspiring posts here and here. I hope she is still celebrating.

I AM THE UNITED STATES I was born on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The bloodlines of the world run in my veins, because I offered freedom to the oppressed. I am the United States. I am 185,000,000 living souls, and the ghost of millions who have died for me. I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere. I stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard around the world. I am Washington, Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. I am Paul Jones, the Green Mountain boys, and Davy Crockett. I am Lee, Grant, and Abe Lincoln. I am the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheat lands of Kansas, and the granite hills of Vermont. I am the coal fields of the Virginias and Pennsylvania; the fertile lands of the West; the Golden Gate and the Grand Canyon. I am Independence Hall, the Monitor and the Merrimac. I am big. I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific, three million square miles throbbing with industry. I am more than 5,000,000 farms; I am forest, field, mountain and dessert. I am quiet...

Today is Pope Benedict XVI's 8oth birthday. It was certainly a joy meeting him last year. Here we are holding hands before we actually shook hands. I'm in the red sweater. You can only see a little of my sleeve and my hand in the photo. American Papist has his tribute and mentions several links here. A Catholic Mom in Hawaii has a beautiful pictoral tribute up here . Suzanne at Big Blue Wave has an entertaining post here. If you haven't sent the Holy Father a birthday greeting yet, it's not too late. Click here to do so.