Catholic Fire

I have been reading and reviewing Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle’s books for the past seven years and have been a big fan. Donna-Marie has served as an inspiration to me and to all women, speaking to us in a gentle, gracious manner, guiding us spiritually, with wisdom and love. Now, she has written a book (her twentieth) that tops them all. In The Kiss of Jesus: How Mother Teresa and the Saints Helped Me to Discover the Beauty of the Cross , she shares her life story. And, what a story it is! In this candid, astonishing autobiographical account, this soft-spoken, delicate, and devout Catholic media celebrity reveals the shocking struggles she has tackled in life. She became engaged to a drug addict who held her against her will, threatening harm to her family. She faced miscarriages, abuse, serious illness, divorce, financial difficulties, custody battles, and single motherhood – all with great inner strength and tremendous courage. Through God’s providence, she met Mother Teresa, th...

Catholics are called to treat all human beings with dignity and respect. We are called to be compassionate in imitation of Jesus Christ. However, the Church maintains that people may not change what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has referred to as “their very essence.” In a 2012 speech, Pope Benedict XVI directly addressed transgender issues by warning Catholics about “destroying the very essence of the human creature through manipulating their God-given gender to suit their sexual choices.” Pope Benedict cautioned that “when freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God.” Certainly, Church teaching recognizes that there can be a biological reason for gender-identity disorder. But it also acknowledges the possibility of other causes for this disorder—sociological factors and psychological factors—that can never be resolved through cross-dressing or surg...

Today is the memorial of St Andre Bessette, who struggled with illness for much of his life, humbly devoted his life to prayer, and served the Lord by comforting the sick and afflicted. Through his intercessory prayers to St. Joseph, many received God’s healing graces. Saint Andre was born on August 9, 1845, near Montreal, Canada as Alfred Bessette. The son of a woodcutter, her was the eighth of twelve children. His father died in a work-related accident and his mother died of tuberculosis. He was adopted at age 12 by a farmer who insisted that he work to pay for his keep. After working as a farmhand, he labored at various trades: shoemaker, baker, blacksmith -- all failures. He was a factory worker during the Civil War. At age 25, he applied to join the Congregation of the Holy Cross, but was initially refused due to his poor health. He latter gained the support of Bishop Bourget, and was finally accepted. Alfred entered the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1870, taking the name ...

Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- one of my favorite Marian feast days. Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, brings hope into our lives. She covers us in the folds of her heavenly mantle and cradles us. She is the Mother who tenderly consoles us and protects us from evil. She is the one who carries Divine Life within her and crushed the head of the wicked serpent. She brings us life and love; hope and healing. She brought conversion to Mexico and will renew the Americas again if we pray for her intercession. History Five centuries ago, in the country now known as Mexico, senseless human sacrifices were performed. Between 20,000 and 50,000 human beings were murdered a year in the Aztec empire. Most of them were slaves and included men, as well as women, and children. An early Mexican historian estimated that one out of every five children in Mexico was sacrificed to the gods. The climax of these ritualistic killings came in 1487 when a new...

Today is the feast of the Archangels: Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. These three Archangels are the only angels named in Sacred Scripture and all three have important roles in the history of salvation. Michael's name means "Who is like God? "  St. Michael’s name is mentioned four times in the Bible: twice in Daniel and once in both the Book of Revelation and the Epistle of St. Jude. In the book of Revelation 12:7-9, we read of a great war that took place in heaven, in which Michael and his angels battled with Satan and the other fallen angels (devils). Michael became the great champion of faithfulness to God and the victor over evil. Today, he is our protector. He guards the people of God, defends the souls of the just, and brings the souls to their final judgment.  To combat the forces of evil in our world today, we pray the St. Michael the Archangel prayer.  Pope Leo XIII composed the prayer after experiencing a horrific vision of attacks against the Church...

“What happened should never have happened in the Church of Jesus Christ. We can argue that the sexual abuse of children takes place right across society and that it is unfair to single out the Catholic Church. We can regurgitate statistics which will tell us that the incidence of such abuse is not significantly higher within the Catholic clergy than in society. But if we come back and repeat to ourselves that what happened should never have happened in the Church of Jesus Christ then we have to put all the comforting statistics to one side and begin to think in a different light..." “The Church must not just be transformed into a place where children are safe. It must also be transformed into a privileged place of healing for survivors. It must be transformed into a place where survivors, with all their reticence and with all their repeated anger towards the Church, can genuinely come to feel that the Church is a place where they will encounter healing.” --  Archbisho...

Passage for Reflection: "He has chosen our impotence in order to give us the power of his love, our weakness to give us his strength, our fear to give us his courage, our ignominy to give us his majesty, our pain to give us his peace, our wounds to give us his power to heal, our dying to give us his life, our interdependence that we may give him to one another..." ~ Caryll Houselander (March Magnificat, 353) Caryll Houselander († 1954) was a British mystic, poet, and spiritual teacher. Related Scripture Passages: "I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world." - John 16:33 "I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me." - Philippians 4:13 "Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard y...

When Therese Daoud arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital with a huge cancerous tumor, doctors said her only chance of survival would be to amputate the leg. What happened during the following months has left the medical staff and the nation speechless. “If someone had told me the story of what happened to Therese, I would have said they are crazy and sent them to a mental hospital,” said Professor Yaakov Bickels, head of the Orthopedic- Oncology Department at the hospital. “But I was there. I saw it with my own eyes.” Read more.

October 22, 2013. (Romereports.com) Pope Francis spoke about the mystery of God during his homily at the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta. He said that God challenges Christians by “meddling” in their lives. He added that it's something that can only be understood by contemplation in prayer. POPE FRANCIS “The image that comes to my mind is that of a nurse in a hospital who heals our wounds, one at a time. Just like God, who gets involved and meddles in our miseries, He gets close to our wounds and heals them with His hands. And to actually have hands, He became man.” Pope Francis also recalled that God did not save humanity by decree, but rather with his own life. EXCERPT FROM THE POPE'S HOMILY Source: Vatican Radio “One man created sin, Francis explained, and one man saved us. God is close, he is close to our history. From the very first moment when he chose our father, Abraham, he walked with His people. And Jesus himself had a craftsman’s job: a worker who uses hi...

Many years ago, I went through inner healing with a spiritual director to rid myself of a block in my spiritual life – unforgiveness. I wanted to grow spiritually, but was unable to due to this obstacle. I wanted to experience the fullness of God’s peace, which He gives so freely to those who open their hearts to Him. When I went through this process, I realized that in my life, there was not just one person I needed to forgive, but many, throughout the various stages of my life. It was not an easy journey, but one that taught me valuable lessons. Here are a few of the lessons I learned: First, without forgiveness in our lives, we cannot experience the fullness of God’s love and the peace and joy that comes with it. Second, I learned that forgiveness is not an emotion, but an act of the will. You can still feel hurt by the injustice that was done to you, but make the decision to forgive the person who hurt you. Third, I began to think of all the times that I needed to be forgiven for t...

Another beautiful video from Catholic author/singer/songwriter Elizabeth Schmeidler .

Priests for Life, in partnership with Anglicans for Life, coordinates the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, the largest mobilization of women and men who have lost children to abortion. Hear their stirring testimonies of pain and hope. ~ Via FrFrankPavone .

Life begins at conception, which is when parenting begins for both the mother and father. Destroying a human life at any stage of development is murder. To find a crisis pregnancy center, go here. If you have had an abortion and need help, go here.

By Maureen Pratt Chronic pain can make us feel isolated and helpless, especially if its cause is an illness or physical condition for which there's no cure or effective medical treatment. At times of deepest despair, finding ways to nurture our spirits can help us not only cope with the pain, but also discover nuggets of grace, comfort, and productivity that can move us through and beyond the helplessness and hopelessness we feel. Here are ten spiritual tools that can help you get started toward peace in spite of and in the midst of pain. MORE Maureen Pratt is a Catholic speaker and author who focuses on spirituality, faith and wellness. Her most recent book is "Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness" Her website is www.maureenpratt.com .

As Christians, all of us are weary of the deception of the culture of death in our world today - the lies and the horrible consequences of those lies - immodest dress and behavior, sexual relationships outside of marriage, sexual promiscuity, adultery, contraception, abortion, same sex relationships, embryonic stem cell research, and cloning. But what can we do about it? What has been most successful in changing our culture? St. John of Kanty, a professor of Scripture at the University of Krakow said, "Fight all false opinions, but let your weapons be patience, sweetness, and love. Roughness is bad for your own soul and spoils the best cause." St. John of Kanty, a university professor turned priest, lived a life of poverty and humility and gave the money he saved to the poor. He genuinely loved people and they could not help but love him. He effectively utilized the virtues of love, sweetness, and patience to conquer deception. This is needed so much in our world today, espec...

In The Wake of Choice - Watch the Trailer here. A documentary film. Filmmaker Miguel S. Campbell follows Ann Marie Cosgrove as she talks with people affected by abortion. Women, men, families and friends bravely share their stories. See the pain of living with a terrible secret. Come to understand the suffering in silence. Experience the journey toward healing. Find the hope that begins to grow. We live in a world full of choices. This film documents the effects of abortion in a pro-choice world. Via After Abortion.com , Dawn Eden , and Pro-life blogs.

His Suffering and Ours: Words of Hope for Pierced and Wounded Hearts , by Kathryn Mulderink, Lulu Press ( www.lulu.com ), 175 pages, $6.65 Download, $14.91 paperback. Reviewed by JEAN M. HEIMANN, a freelance writer, retired psychologist, poet and Oblate with the Community of St. John, who is involved with several ministries in the Diocese of Wichita. Kathryn Mulderink has done it again – created a masterpiece for the Lord. In her second book, His Suffering and Ours: Words of Hope for Pierced and Wounded Hearts, Kathryn once again takes us on a journey into the Heart of Christ, this time enabling us to draw closer to His wounded Heart as we unite our sufferings and pain with His. With gentleness and mercy, Kathryn beckons each one of us to draw closer to the One who loves us and remains with us in times of trial. She conveys the transforming and purifying power that makes suffering more meaningful and comforts us with the knowledge that Christ Himself suffers with us. In His Suffering...

Today is the feast 0f Our Lady of Lourdes and the 15th World Day of the Sick. To read the Holy Father's Message on this day, go here. Just a reminder that Catholics who, under the usual conditions, participate in prayer services for the World Day of the Sick today, February 11 — ordinarily the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes — can obtain a plenary indulgence . For details, go here. For a a virtual pilgrimage to Lourdes that explores the life of this great saint of poverty and penance – many high quality and unique photos, go here . Official Site of Lourdes Place Your Petition at the Grotto of Lourdes The 150th Anniversary of the Apparitions