Catholic Fire

The word Advent comes from the Latin word advenio, which means "to come to," and denotes the coming of Christ. Advent is a time to prepare our hearts and souls for the Savior’s three comings: (1) the Lord's coming into the world as the incarnate God of love at Christmas, (2) Christ’s coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and (3) His final coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world. In her inspirational book, Advent with St. Teresa of Calcutta: Daily Meditations , author Heidi Hess Saxton presents twenty-eight daily meditations based on the wisdom of St. Teresa of Calcutta as it relates to each day’s Scripture readings. With an Introduction written by Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle and a Foreword by Bishop Robert Barron, this beautiful devotional assists us in entering into the peace, joy, and love of this liturgical season. The book is divided into six sections: each of the four weeks of Advent, the Christmas week through Epiphany, and the feasts days a...

Today marks the feast day of Saint Teresa of Calcutta - a beautiful servant of God who is one of our most celebrated mothers and a universal symbol of God's merciful and preferential love for the poor and forgotten. She has been widely known as both a model of mercy and of charity. There is no one more renowned for practicing the heroic virtue of charity than Blessed Teresa of Calcutta! A diminutive figure, just under five feet tall, she gave every ounce of strength she had to care for the poorest of the poor with love, prayer, and all the gifts God had given her. Mother Teresa’s parents named her Agnes—or Gonxha in her own language. One of four children born to an Albanian chemist and his wife, Agnes had a comfortable childhood. However, when she was about eight years old, her father died suddenly, which left the family in financial straits.  At the age of twelve, Agnes felt called to religious life to help the sick and the poor, and by the age of fifteen, she had focuse...