Catholic Fire

1. November can be a beautiful month, with the colors of the leaves continuing to change around us. Here are a few nature photos I took recently. When God uses His paint brush, the earth is transformed. Above is the bell tower in front of my parish church just before 5:30pm Mass. Below is a photo of the trees in my back yard. The oak is a brillant reddish brown, while the crabapple is bare, and the mulberry still green. 2 . November is a great month for saints. Just in the past couple weeks we have celebrated the feasts of some of my favorite women saints: St. Francis Xavier Cabrini (Mother Cabrini) ,  St. Gertrude the Great and St. Margaret of Scotland ,  St. Elizabeth of Hungary,   Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne , 3. November is the month we pray for the holy souls in purgatory, but have you ever wondered how to avoid purgatory? Here are Ten Ways to Avoid Purgatory. 4. Want to win a great book? I have just read and reviewed True Radiance: Finding Grac...

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul , which gives us occasion to reflect on our own faith journey and our own conversion experiences. How do we relate to Paul’s conversion story? St. Paul's Conversion Paul was the most ferocious enemy of the Church, who as a zealous Jew and Pharisee was persecuting Christians during the first century. Paul rooted out Christians in the synagogues, taking them into Jerusalem in chains to have them persecuted. In fact, he even assisted in the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr. Then, suddenly, without warning, as he is traveling on the road to Damascus, he hears the voice of God speaking to Him, is blinded by a bright light, and is knocked off his horse. While Paul was an intellectual, a learned Rabbi, a great theologian, his conversion experience was hardly an intellectual one. He was not converted by reason, by an acceptance of Christian ideas, nor was he swayed over by Christian apologetics, but his was...