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(For those living in Dioceses celebrating the Ascension this Sunday, Click Here for the My Catholic Life! meditation thread for the Ascension)Daily Readings from the USCCB“Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” John 17:17–19What does it mean to “consecrate” something or someone? Consecration is, of course, a very familiar term within our faith. We speak of the bread and wine being consecrated and becoming the Body, Blood, Soul and...

Sunday 12 May 2024 The Ascension of the Lord SolemnitySt. Pancras, Glendale NYReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).These readings are for the Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast.These readings are for the day of the feast itself.These readings are for the Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast.First readingActs 1:1-11 ©Jesus was lifted up while they looked onIn my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up...

Those of you fortunate enough to live in a diocese where the Ascension is observed on its proper Thursday will be able to hear proclaimed this Sunday the proper Readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Pre-empting this Sunday by the Solemnity of the Ascension is a bit unfortunate, because it damages the pattern of the Lectionary. During the later Sundays of Easter, we read from the Last Supper Discourse (John 13-17), culminating in the Seventh Sunday, on which we read the grande finale of the Last Supper Discourse, namely the High Priestly Prayer (John 17). Ironically, although John 17...

In most of the USA, Ascension Day is observed this Sunday. I wish the traditional observance on Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter was retained, but reality is what it is. Therefore, this weekend we will look at the powerful readings for Ascension Day. This is an unusual Lord’s Day, in which the “action” of the Feast Day actually takes place in the First Reading. We typically think of all the narratives of Jesus’ life as recorded in the Gospels, overlooking that Acts records at least two important narratives about the activity of the Resurrected Lord (Acts 1:1-11; also...

A Catholic priest has been reprimanded ...Father Thomas McHale, the priest at Our Blessed Lady Immaculate in Blackhill, Consett, County Durham, took to the pulpit as normal on Good Friday.

A staunch bishop criticized President Joe Biden for calling himself a “devout” Catholic while at the same time spreading his pro-abortion message. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois accused Biden of “making a mockery of our Catholic faith” after he made the Sign of the Cross while promoting abortion. In a video titled “Biden Mocks Our Catholic Faith,” the bishop noted several times when the president has acted against his faith in a sacrilegious manner to promote something evil. Biden made the Sign of the Cross at an abortion rally in Florida while lambasting fellow Catholic Gov....

11 May 2024 Saturday before Ascension Sunday Saint-Gengoult, Toul, France Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 18:23-28 ©Apollos demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the ChristPaul came down to Antioch, where he spent a short time before continuing his journey through the Galatian country and then through Phrygia, encouraging all the followers. An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos now arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, with a sound knowledge of the scriptures, and yet, though he had been given instruction in the Way of the Lord and preached with great spiritual earnestness and was accurate...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father.” John 16:25When is it that Jesus will speak clearly about the Father? When is that “hour” of which He speaks? First, this “hour” can be understood to be the time after His death, Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven. It is then when the Holy Spirit will come upon them at Pentecost to open their minds to understand all that He has taught with much...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.” John 16:21This truth can certainly be extended to any form of anguish we experience for a good reason. Note that the pain experienced in childbirth is pain for a good and holy reason. Therefore, the pain is forgotten, in a sense, when the mother sees and holds her newborn child. That suffering is...

10 May 2024Friday before Ascension Sunday Church of the Incarnation, Montilla, Córdoba, Spain final resting place of St. John of Ávila Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 18:9-18 ©'I have many people on my side in this city'At Corinth one night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid to speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced: I am with you. I have so many people on my side in this city that no one will even attempt to hurt you.’ So Paul stayed there preaching the word of God among them...

A Catholic school teacher in Washington state says she will not be returning to the school where she has taught for years for the next academic school year because she is marrying a woman. Parents of students at St. Luke School in Shoreline are upset by the school's decision to let go of a talented kindergarten educator who has been with the school for four years. Karen Pala's contract was not renewed by the school's head pastor, Father Brad Hagelin, due to her plans to marry a woman over the summer. In the text of a letter sent to parents,...

CV NEWS FEED // Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, is slated to host the controversial left-wing nun Sr. Simone Campbell, SSS, at its commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11. Campbell is the former longtime executive director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice (“Network”), a leftist activist group. She is also known for leading the Nuns on the Bus – an initiative aimed at boosting Democratic candidates. Over her many years in public life, the heavily scrutinized nun has taken positions supporting abortion, the LGBTQ movement, women’s ordination to the priesthood, the Democratic Party, and the presidency of Joe...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said to his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15–16We celebrate today one more step in the completion of the mission of the Son of God. Humanity had sinned at the beginning of time and fallen from Original Innocence. God immediately began to prepare the world for the gift of eternal redemption by establishing a covenant with Noah, Abraham and Moses. He raised up various prophets and kings to further prepare His...

Daily Readings from the USCCBSo some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ of which he speaks? We do not know what he means.” John 16:17–18How about you? Do you know what Jesus means? Or do you find that you are confused by what He said just like these disciples were? Though pride may tempt...

9 May 2024 Thursday before Ascension SundayThe Remains of Fr. Preca, Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Blata l-Bajda, Malta Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).In some dioceses the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated today. If this applies to you, please reconfigure Universalis to use the appropriate local calendar.First readingActs 18:1-8 ©Paul lodged with them and worked, and held debates in the synagoguesPaul left Athens and went to Corinth, where he met a Jew called Aquila whose family came from Pontus. He and his wife Priscilla had recently left Italy because an edict of Claudius...

Two California teens who were forced to withdraw from an elite Catholic high school over accusations of blackface have been awarded $1 million and tuition reimbursement. A Santa Clara County jury sided with the teens, identified by the initials A.H. and H.H., on two claims concerning breach of oral contract and lack of due process. The boys sued Saint Francis High School in August 2020 after photos circulated of them sporting acne treatment masks. The controversy started when the boys were accused of performing blackface and were ultimately pressured into withdrawing from the prestigious Mountain View school. 'It was quite...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church has effectively buried the concept of limbo, the place where centuries of tradition and teaching held that babies who die without baptism went.

WASHINGTON — President Biden blurted Wednesday that one of his childhood Catholic school teachers was drafted by the Green Bay Packers — an assertion disproven by a simple check of publicly available NFL records. The 81-year-old president shared the false claim as he boasted of his connection to Wisconsin sports fans during a trip to the swing state. “My theology professor at the Catholic school I went to was a guy named Reilly — last name — and he had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers,” Biden said in Racine, south of Milwaukee. “And he decided to become a...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” John 16:12–13This passage still rings true for all of us today. God wants to reveal to us, within the depths of our consciences, the deepest, most profound and transforming truths that flow from the mind of the Father in Heaven. But we cannot bear it all now. Not fully. And eternity will be spent continually deepening our understanding of all that God reveals....

Wednesday 8 May 2024 Wednesday of the 6th week of Eastertide Hermitage of St. Arsenius, Decatur Texas (Eastern Orthodox) Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 17:15,22-18:1 ©I proclaim the God you already worship without knowing itPaul’s escort took him as far as Athens, and went back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin Paul as soon as they could. So Paul stood before the whole Council of the Areopagus and made this speech: ‘Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all religious matters, because I noticed, as I strolled round...