Catholic Fire

WHAT IS LENT? "Lent is a retreat that the Church gives us in order to re-focus on what should be first in our lives. The purpose of Jesus' life was to glorify the Father and save the world. ..Lent is not first a time of giving up but a time to re-choose to be the victim of Christ, the Lamb. It is a time to live the Beatitudes.” - Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, OP Lent is a 40-day period of preparation for Easter Sunday and one of the major liturgical seasons of the Catholic Church. Signifying the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert after His baptism, it is a penitential season marked by prayer, fasting and abstinence, and almsgiving. Lent is not necessarily about “giving something up” for 40 days only to return to it on day 41 or afterward, but is a period of ongoing conversion so that we may draw closer to Jesus. When we repent for our sins and then make a permanent--rather than temporary--change in our lifestyle, a spiritual transformation can take place. At ...

"It's a very big undertaking. Philadelphia has deep religious roots. And Pope Francis is very well loved both within and outside the Catholic Church in the United States.” Also present at the conference was the Riley family from Philadelphia who are involved in the preparations for the World Meeting of Families. They noted that the city is an appropriate meeting point for people of different cultures. PENELOPE RILEY Daughter "I go to Catholic school in Philadelphia and I think that everyone would love to come and visit and see all the different cultural differences there in comparison to Rome.” The theme of the World Meeting of Families, "Love is our mission: the family fully alive”,  will be at the center of several initiatives that will help prepare for the event. Among them is a catechesis on the family as well as the commissioning of a painting of the Holy Family. ARCH. CHARLES J. CHAPUT Archbishop of Philadelphia (USA) "It's exciting. We ...

Thousands of priests and catechists from the Diocese of Rome met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. They told him of the troubles they deal with in their parishes. In response, the Pope focused on a danger families and society face today: living in a hurry. POPE FRANCIS "When I hear the confession of young couples and they start talking about their children, I always ask them the same question: do you make time to play with your children? The fathers usually say: 'But Father, when I go to work in the morning they are sleeping, and when I'm back home they're also in bed.' This is no way to live.” Not only parents, but especially children pay for this lack of time and attention, the Pope went on, because they might grow up as 'orphans,' who don't get support from neither their family, parish nor society. POPE FRANCIS "This is a society of orphans. Let's think about this, eh? It's important. Dad is tired, mom is tired, they go to sle...