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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Muslims Attack Catholics Attending A Celebration In France | Lisa Graas

Muslims Attack Catholics Attending A Celebration In France | Lisa Graas

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Blessed Chiara “Luce” Badano (1971-1990)

Read this wonderful story about this young lady. An excerpt follows:

  • Pope Benedict XVI beatified Chiara “Luce” Badano on Sept. 25, 2010, just 20 years after her death. That should not surprise us, for she modeled a joyful, down-to-earth holiness much like that of Blessed Pier-Giorgio Frassati, another young saint.


Please click the link below to read the entire article:

Blessed Chiara “Luce” Badano (1971-1990)

Thursday, October 27, 2011

The National Shrine of Saint Jude



As most of you know from following this blog, today is day nine of our novena to Saint Jude, my patron saint.

Some may not be aware however, that there is The National Shrine of Saint Jude in Chicago, Illinois. The National Shrine of Saint Jude was founded in 1929 by the Claretian Missionaries. The Shrine along with the Saint Jude League has the purpose of bringing together devotees to Saint Jude.

You can visit the website of The National Shrine of Saint Jude by clicking here. You can also post a prayer petition at the Shrine by clicking here or by posting it on The National Shrine of Saint Jude Facebook page by clicking here.

Thank you Saint Jude for prayers answered.

Day 9 -- Saint Jude Novena

St. Jude Novena

Today is the 9th and final day of our Novena to Saint Jude.

Please go to "Pray More Novenas" where you can get the daily prayers for this novena as well as find the intentions of others praying this novena with us.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Day 8 -- Saint Jude Novena

St. Jude Novena

Today is the 8th day of the Novena to Saint Jude.

Please go to "Pray More Novenas" where you can get the daily prayers for this novena as well as find the intentions of others praying this novena with us.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Day 7 -- Saint Jude Novena

St. Jude Novena

Today is the 7th day of the Novena to Saint Jude.

Please go to "Pray More Novenas" where you can get the daily prayers for this novena as well as find the intentions of others praying this novena with us.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Day 6 -- Saint Jude Novena

St. Jude Novena

Today is day 6 of the Novena to Saint Jude.

Please go to "Pray More Novenas" where you can get the daily prayers for this novena as well as find the intentions of others praying this novena with us.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Day 5 -- Saint Jude Novena

St. Jude Novena

Today is the fifth day of the Novena to Saint Jude.

Please go to "Pray More Novenas" where you can get the daily prayers for this novena as well as find the intentions of others praying this novena with us.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Novena to Saint Jude -- Day 4

St. Jude Novena

Just a reminder that today is the fourth day of the Novena to Saint Jude.

Once again you can go to "Pray More Novenas" where you can get the daily prayers for this novena as well as find the intentions of others praying this novena with us.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Day 3 -- The Novena to Saint Jude

St. Jude Novena


Today is day 3 of the Novena to Saint Jude.

Please join us, and the thousands of Catholics participating from around the world in this novena to the Apsotle and martye Saint Jude Thaddeus.

You may go to "Pray More Novenas" where you can get the daily prayers for this novena. Also, when you look at the comments when you scroll down, there you will find the various intentions being prayed for. You can add your intentions there and include the intentions of others in your prayer.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Missal Moment #6: Bowing during the Creed

A video about the new english language translation of the Roman Missal from the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Day 2-- The Novena to Saint Jude

Saint Jude Novena

Just a reminder that today is day 2 of the Novena to Saint Jude, the Patron of desperate situations and impossible causes.

You can go to "Pray More Novenas" where you will find the daily prayers for this novena as well as the intentions of others praying this novena.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Saint Jude Novena--Day 1



Today is the day that we begin the Novena to Saint Jude, the Patron of impossible causes and desperate situations.

You can go to Pray More Novena's to find the prayers for each day, read the over 740 intentions posted for the novena, and to add your own intentions, by clicking here.

Please join us in this novena to the Apostle and martyr, Saint Jude Thaddeus.

Monday, October 17, 2011

POPE BENEDICT XVI : APOSTOLIC LETTER "MOTU PROPRIO DATA", "PORTA FIDEI"



VATICAN CITY, 17 OCT 2011 (VIS) - Made public today was "Porta fidei", the Apostolic Letter "Motu Proprio data" with which Benedict XVI proclaims a "Year of Faith", to begin on 11 October 2012, fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, and due to end on 24 November 2013, Feast of Christ the King. Extracts from the English-language version of the Letter are given below:

"The 'door of faith' is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into His Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace".

"Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ. ... Whereas in the past it was possible to recognise a unitary cultural matrix, broadly accepted in its appeal to the content of the faith and the values inspired by it, today this no longer seems to be the case in large swathes of society, because of a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people".

"In the light of all this, I have decided to announce a Year of Faith. It will begin on 11 October 2012, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, and it will end on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, on 24 November 2013. The starting date of 11 October 2012 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a text promulgated by my Predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, with a view to illustrating for all the faithful the power and beauty of the faith".

"Moreover, the theme of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that I have convoked for October 2012 is 'The New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith'. This will be a good opportunity to usher the whole Church into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith. It is not the first time that the Church has been called to celebrate a Year of Faith. My venerable Predecessor the Servant of God Paul VI announced one in 1967. ... It concluded with the Credo of the People of God, intended to show how much the essential content that for centuries has formed the heritage of all believers needs to be confirmed, understood and explored ever anew, so as to bear consistent witness in historical circumstances very different from those of the past".

"It seemed to me that timing the launch of the Year of Faith to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II would provide a good opportunity to help people understand that the texts bequeathed by the Council Fathers. ... I would also like to emphasise strongly what I had occasion to say concerning the Council a few months after my election as Successor of Peter: 'if we interpret and implement it guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church'.

"The renewal of the Church is also achieved through the witness offered by the lives of believers: by their very existence in the world, Christians are called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us. The Council itself, in the Dogmatic Constitution 'Lumen Gentium', said this: ... the Church ... clasping sinners to her bosom, is at once holy and always in need of purification".

The Year of Faith, from this perspective, is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world. In the mystery of His death and resurrection, God has revealed in its fullness the Love that saves and calls us to conversion of life through the forgiveness of sins. For St. Paul, this Love ushers us into a new life. ... Through faith, this new life shapes the whole of human existence according to the radical new reality of the resurrection. ... 'Faith working through love' becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man's life".

"Through His love, Jesus Christ attracts to Himself the people of every generation: in every age He convokes the Church, entrusting her with the proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new. Today too, there is a need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelisation in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith. In rediscovering His love day by day, the missionary commitment of believers attains force and vigour that can never fade away. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy".

"Only through believing, then, does faith grow and become stronger; there is no other possibility for possessing certitude with regard to one's life apart from self-abandonment, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a love that seems to grow constantly because it has its origin in God".

"We want to celebrate this Year in a worthy and fruitful manner. Reflection on the faith will have to be intensified, so as to help all believers in Christ to acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to the Gospel, especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing. We will have the opportunity to profess our faith in the Risen Lord in our cathedrals and in the churches of the whole world; in our homes and among our families, so that everyone may feel a strong need to know better and to transmit to future generations the faith of all times. Religious communities as well as parish communities, and all ecclesial bodies old and new, are to find a way, during this Year, to make a public profession of the Credo.

"We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope. It will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is 'the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed; ... and also the source from which all its power flows.' At the same time, we make it our prayer that believers' witness of life may grow in credibility. To rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed, and to reflect on the act of faith, is a task that every believer must make his own, especially in the course of this Year".

"A Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with Him. This 'standing with Him' points towards an understanding of the reasons for believing. Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what one believes. ... Profession of faith is an act both personal and communitarian. It is the Church that is the primary subject of faith. In the faith of the Christian community, each individual receives Baptism, an effective sign of entry into the people of believers in order to obtain salvation".

"Evidently, knowledge of the content of faith is essential for giving one's own assent, that is to say for adhering fully with intellect and will to what the Church proposes. Knowledge of faith opens a door into the fullness of the saving mystery revealed by God. The giving of assent implies that, when we believe, we freely accept the whole mystery of faith, because the guarantor of its truth is God who reveals Himself and allows us to know His mystery of love.

"On the other hand, we must not forget that in our cultural context, very many people, while not claiming to have the gift of faith, are nevertheless sincerely searching for the ultimate meaning and definitive truth of their lives and of the world. This search is an authentic 'preamble' to the faith, because it guides people onto the path that leads to the mystery of God. Human reason, in fact, bears within itself a demand for 'what is perennially valid and lasting'. This demand constitutes a permanent summons, indelibly written into the human heart, to set out to find the One Whom we would not be seeking had He not already set out to meet us. To this encounter, faith invites us and it opens us in fullness.

"In order to arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the faith, all can find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church a precious and indispensable tool. It is one of the most important fruits of Vatican Council II. ... It is in this sense that that the Year of Faith will have to see a concerted effort to rediscover and study the fundamental content of the faith that receives its systematic and organic synthesis in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. ... The Catechism provides a permanent record of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the faith and made progress in doctrine so as to offer certitude to believers in their lives of faith".

"In this Year, then, the Catechism of the Catholic Church will serve as a tool providing real support for the faith, especially for those concerned with the formation of Christians, so crucial in our cultural context. To this end, I have invited the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, by agreement with the competent Dicasteries of the Holy See, to draw up a note, providing the Church and individual believers with some guidelines on how to live this Year of Faith in the most effective and appropriate ways, at the service of belief and evangelisation.

"To a greater extent than in the past, faith is now being subjected to a series of questions arising from a changed mentality which, especially today, limits the field of rational certainties to that of scientific and technological discoveries. Nevertheless, the Church has never been afraid of demonstrating that there cannot be any conflict between faith and genuine science, because both, albeit via different routes, tend towards the truth.

"One thing that will be of decisive importance in this Year is retracing the history of our faith, marked as it is by the unfathomable mystery of the interweaving of holiness and sin. While the former highlights the great contribution that men and women have made to the growth and development of the community through the witness of their lives, the latter must provoke in each person a sincere and continuing work of conversion in order to experience the mercy of the Father which is held out to everyone".

"The Year of Faith will also be a good opportunity to intensify the witness of charity. ... Faith and charity each require the other, in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path. Indeed, many Christians dedicate their lives with love to those who are lonely, marginalised or excluded, as to those who are the first with a claim on our attention and the most important for us to support, because it is in them that the reflection of Christ's own face is seen. Through faith, we can recognise the face of the risen Lord in those who ask for our love".

"Having reached the end of his life, St. Paul asks his disciple Timothy to 'aim at faith' with the same constancy as when he was a boy. We hear this invitation directed to each of us, that none of us grow lazy in the faith. It is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the marvels that God works for us. Intent on gathering the signs of the times in the present of history, faith commits every one of us to become a living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord in the world. What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end".
LIT/ VIS 20111017 (2100)

You can find more information at: www.visnews.org

The news items contained in the Vatican Information Service may be used, in part or in their entirety, by quoting the source:
V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service.
Copyright © Vatican Information Service 00120 Vatican City

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Saint Jude Novena Starts October 19, 2011

St. Jude Novena


Beginning Wednesday, October 19, 2011, Faith of the Fathers blogs will be joining "Pray More Novena's" and 5,000 Catholics from around the world in praying a Saint Jude Novena.

For those of you who may not know, Saint Jude is my Patron Saint, and I am extremely happy to be participating in this novena (nine days of prayer) to such a wonderful Apostle, martyr, and powerful intercessor.

Saint Jude (also known as Jude of James and Judas Thaddeus) was a blood relative of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and one of the Twelve Apostles. He was the brother of Saint James the Lesser, and a nephew of Mary and Joseph.

Saint Jude is the patron of lost or impossible causes, desperate situations, forgotten causes, hospitals, hospital workers, and the diocese of Saint Petersburg, Florida.

His patronage of lost or impossible causes derives from the confusion by many early Christians between the names of Jude and the traitor Judas Iscariot. Failing to grasp the difference between the names they never prayed for Saint Jude's help, so devotion to him became something of a lost cause.

So, we invite you to join us, as well as thousands of others in praying the Saint Jude Novena beginning October 19. I will be posting daily reminders here to join the novena in concert with "Pray More Novena's".

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

POPE CALLS FOR RESPECT FOR MINORITIES IN EGYPT



VATICAN CITY, 12 OCT 2011 (VIS) - "I am profoundly saddened by the episodes of violence that took place in Cairo last Sunday", said the Pope today following his customary language greetings at the end of his Wednesday general audience.

  "I share the suffering of the families of the victims and of all the Egyptian people, lacerated by attempts to undermine peaceful coexistence among their communities, a coexistence which it is vital to safeguard, especially in this moment of transition", the Holy Father went on. "I exhort the faithful to pray that that society might enjoy true peace, based on justice and respect for the freedom and dignity of all citizens.

  "I support the efforts made by the civil and religious authorities in Egypt to foster a society in which everyone's human rights are respected, in particular those of minorities, for the benefit of national unity".

  During his greetings to pilgrim groups participating in the audience, the Holy Father also recalled the fact that the month of October is dedicated to the Rosary, inviting the faithful "to discover the beauty of this simple but effective prayer".
AC/                                                                                                   VIS 20111012 (200)


You can find more information at: www.visnews.org

The news items contained in the Vatican Information Service may be used, in part or in their entirety, by quoting the source:
V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service.
Copyright © Vatican Information Service 00120 Vatican City

Monday, October 10, 2011

Defiance: Catholic World Report

The Catholic governor of Maryland joins the gay-marriage juggernaut.

The following is an excerpt from an editorial on "Catholic World Report":

  • One would think this state of affairs might shock bishops into a reassertion of their authority under canon law. But for the most part it doesn’t. Cardinal Raymond Burke’s position remains a lonely one. The head of the Vatican’s Supreme Court has said repeatedly that bishops have not only the right but the duty to withhold Communion from defiant Catholic public figures for the good of souls, the prevention of scandal, and the protection of the sacraments. To the familiar argument from bishops that withholding Communion is contrary to proper pastoral practice, Cardinal Burke says, “What would be profoundly more sorrowful would be the failure of a bishop to call a soul to conversion, the failure to protect the flock from scandal, and the failure to safeguard the worthy reception of Communion.” 


Click the link below to read the entire editorial article, which we wholeheartedly agree with:


Defiance: Catholic World Report

Saturday, October 08, 2011

Bishop Aquila predicts state attempts to silence Catholic Church :: EWTN News

An excerpt from this article is below:

An American bishop has predicted that government authorities may one day attempt to silence the Catholic Church in the United States.

We could see the possibility of it within the United States where we are no longer free to preach the truth from the pulpit or to present Catholic teaching,” Bishop Samuel J. Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota, told CNA on a visit to Rome October 7.


Click the link below to read the entire article from EWTN News:

Bishop Aquila predicts state attempts to silence Catholic Church :: EWTN News

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Father Pavone to meet with Bishop Zurek on October 13

Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Father Pavone to meet with Bishop Zurek on October 13

More than 2,000 Evangelical, Orthodox Chaplains Join Catholics in Opposing Pentagon Directive on Same-Sex Marriage | CNSnews.com

More than 2,000 Evangelical, Orthodox Chaplains Join Catholics in Opposing Pentagon Directive on Same-Sex Marriage | CNSnews.com

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Suggested Reading



Here are some of our most popular posts (according to Blogger) from four of our blogs:












Monday, October 03, 2011

ZENIT - Anti-Christian Censorship and New Media

Read this report from ZENIT regarding censorship of Christian content from Apple, Google, Facebook and others. The study was done by the organization National Religious Broadcasters. Read the article from ZENIT by clicking the link at the bottom of this post, or by clicking the post title. 

If you want to read the entire report on the study "True Liberty In A New Media Age" from the National Religious Broadcasters you can click here to read it in pdf format. Please note that the report is 47 pages.

ZENIT - Anti-Christian Censorship and New Media

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Comfort In Christ or Comfort In Self?

Note:The following was first posted in August 2005 on our blog "Church Under Attack".



There is a most disturbing trend today, and that trend is going unnoticed and unchallenged by a great number of people, especially, in the Christian Community at large. It is something that has began slowly, and continues to grow at an alarming rate, and within every community in the United States, Canada, and around the world in general. That trend is called “Political Correctness”(PC), and people have been beguiled into being “PC” at the expense of their own self-respect, and even more disturbing to the point of denying their faith, and even being ashamed of their faith.

An even more alarming trend, is that “PC” has governments from the local, to the state, provincial, and national levels passing laws with the intent of inhibiting, and in most cases prohibiting Christian morals and Law being expressed from the pulpit. If a Catholic priest or Protestant minister gives a sermon in which homosexuality as seen in God's Law is the subject, they can be charged in many places with inciting “hate crimes”(as if perpetrators of hate crimes need inciting), and face fines and/or jail time. If a Christian opposes heterosexual couples living together outside the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony they are seen as repressive, puritanical, and “old fashioned”. Christians opposing abortion are seen as being “invasive of privacy”. Does Freedom of Religion no longer apply in Christian teaching on morality? Does only freedom from religion apply? Sadly, the answer to both questions is... yes.

This trend raises several questions. Why have people, particularly Christian, people remained so deafeningly silent with the passage of these laws? Why are we allowing ourselves to be so blinded by “PC” that we will not see that we are being told to deny GOD in a very open and yet subtle way? Why do we remain silent on these issues? Why do we want to seem “nice”, “progressive”, or “open minded” when these are code terms for denial of God? Why do we use the feeble excuse, that it “doesn't matter because it doesn't affect me”?

When Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, the great Bishop of Smyrna, was martyred, he was asked to deny Christ by the proconsul, and he refused. When threatened with the “wild beasts” by the proconsul his reply was, “Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous”. In essence, Polycarp proclaimed himself Christian, and refused to exchange God and Eternal Life for what was absolutely evil and unholy. Where is this Spirit of Faith today? Does it exist? I am afraid it exists in too far small numbers anymore, especially with todays “PC” mentality. It is apparent, that today there would be a very, very few who would and could stand like Saint Polycarp did, like Saint Ignatius of Antioch did, like the Apostles did, and not “repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil”.

We have become unwilling, even afraid to call sin just what it is...SIN! We don't do this for the other person, no not at all. We do it for self! Because self has become more important to us than God! We want people to think of us as “nice”, as “kind” and we think only of how we appear to people, when we should be more concerned about how we appear to God! Whenever we say that what God calls sin, is not sin, but, that it is alright, it's OK, then we are denying God and God's Law! When we say what someone else does has no affect on us, we just lied to ourselves, because by saying evil is just, we have called God unjust, and that most assuredly does affect us!

Granted, we are not called to judge, we are not to condemn, because “all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God”. Yet, we ARE called to correct and by not correcting we fail to properly instruct those who falter. We as Christians should place our trust in God who will uphold His Law and those who follow His Law through Christ Jesus and not deny Him by any word from man or man's law.

Luke 17:1-3 He said to his disciples, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 A slave of the Lord should not quarrel, but should be gentle with everyone, able to teach, tolerant, correcting opponents with kindness. It may be that God will grant them repentance that leads to knowledge of the truth, and that they may return to their senses out of the devil's snare, where they are entrapped by him, for his will.

1 Peter 3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.

1 Peter 4:14-16 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let no one among you be made to suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer. But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name.

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour.

Copyright © 2005-2011 Steve Smith. All rights reserved.