Catholic Fire

When life throws challenge after challenge at us, it is easy to just give in and think we are helpless. In this video, Fr. Mike Schmitz offers an uplifting message for those tough times. No matter how dire the circumstances, with God’s grace, there is always something we can do.

Via Pinterest. A female reader from Africa writes: I am on the verge of giving up. I feel very different from every other person in the world and I am wondering what reward I would get for my being chaste from birth. I have never accepted intimate relationships with anyone, part of me wonders if that is what the church preaches, part of me is unhappy, part of me finds my way of life satisfying. The other part wonders if I have a life at all. I don't exactly need a relationship, but I wonder what to do with my life when I need one. I wonder if I would join a convent when I don't get one, and I wonder if that's the life I want for myself. I need advice on how to live despite the way the world projects virginity with such negativity. I need an assurance that I am not insanely weird, and I need to know that God would be there to direct my life for the best. Hang in there! Don’t give up! God is with you and will give you the grace you need to keep you strong in the bat...

Spiritual direction has been an essential part of Catholic tradition since the earliest days of the Church when desert fathers were sought out for their wisdom and guidance. Today, a renewed interest in attaining personal holiness and an ever-increasing attraction to monastic spirituality has put spiritual direction in the spotlight. In 2012, Emmaus Road Publishing released Navigating the Interior Life: Spiritual Direction and the Journey to God by Executive Director of the National Catholic Register, Dan Burke. In it, Burke emphatically emphasized the importance and necessity of spiritual direction for Catholics in their spiritual journey. Now Peter Kreeft, a seasoned author whom I greatly admire for his natural genius on topics of faith, has written a book on spiritual direction that Dan Burke describes as “his opus.” In Practical Theology: Spiritual Direction from Saint Thomas Aquinas , Kreeft has combined 358 useful insights from Aquinas’ masterpiece, the 4000 page Summa ...

By Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, to be released May 9, 2013, Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Indiana, Paperback. Available from Our Sunday Visitor, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Catholic  book stores. Autographed copies are available at Donna- Marie's website HERE . Reviewed by Jean M. Heimann, M. A. Theology, wife, mother, freelance writer, and oblate with the Community of St. John. In her latest book, Catholic Mom’s Café: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year , Donna-Marie Cooper-O’Boyle offers busy Catholic moms a wonderful way to grow closer to God by rejuvenating their prayer lives. She provides 365 days of devotions based on the virtues of faith, hope, and love that are brief enough to be enjoyed in just five minutes.  Each meditation consists of four parts: Ponder, which is the reading of a Scripture verse or quote, Offer, which entails offering yourself to the Lord through an activity or idea, Pray, which consists of the recitation of a few short prayers ...

By Daniel Burke with Fr. John Bartunek , released November, 2012, Emmaus Road Publishing, Steubenville, Ohio, 161 pages. Paperback. Available from Navigating the Interior Life , EWTN Religious Catalogue,   Emmaus Road Publishing , Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Major book stores and Catholic book stores. Reviewed by Jean M. Heimann, M.A. in Theology, freelance writer, retired psychologist, and oblate with the Community of St. John. The great Dominican St. Vincent Ferrer once said: “A person who has a director by whom he allows himself to be guided, whom he obeys in all actions, great and small, will more easily and quickly arrive at perfection than he ever could by himself, even were he gifted with an extraordinary degree of intelligence and supplied with books explaining the nature of all virtues and the means of acquiring them.” As Catholics, we know that there is nothing more important in our present life than that of preparing for our future life. This is exactly what ...

At Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction , Fr. John Bartunek and Dan Burke discuss forgiveness, and ways that we can overcome the challenges we face when wounded by others.

Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction offers a digital retreat for Lent presented by Fr John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D. Check it out here.

Dan Burke at Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction lists seven of them here . In addition to these, I would like to share three of my own: 1.    Conversation With Christ: The Teachings of St. Teresa of Avila about Personal Prayer b y Peter Thomas Rorhbach 2.   A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ and St. Therese of Lisieux by Fr. John F. Russell O. Carm. 3.   A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ and St. John of the Cross by Fr. George Mangiaracina, O.C.D.