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Your Love Is Lifting Me Higher, Than I’ve Ever Been Lifted Before! Msgr. Charles Pope • May 8, 2016 • I would like to develop something more concerning the Feast of the Ascension, which was celebrated on Thursday (or Sunday in some dioceses).I wonder if many of us have pondered the great glory of this feast for humanity. For indeed, as Jesus enters into the highest heavens and into the Holy of Holies, unto the very throne of God, He goes there just as God (which He had always done) but also as man. Mystically, we, as members of...

May 9, 2016 Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 19:1-8 While Apollos was in Corinth,Paul traveled through the interior of the countryand down to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them,“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”They answered him,“We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”He said, “How were you baptized?”They replied, “With the baptism of John.”Paul then said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance,telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him,that is, in Jesus.”When they heard this,they were...

What Does the Ascension Accomplish for Us? A Homily for the Feast of the Ascension Msgr. Charles Pope • May 7, 2016 • This marvelous feast is not merely about something that took place two thousand years ago. For although Christ our head has ascended, we the members of His body are ascending with Him. Because He ascended, we too have ascended. In my own life as a Christian, I am brought higher every year by the Lord, who is drawing me up with Him. This is not some mere slogan; it is something I am actually experiencing. An...

Remembering moms, dreams of motherhood lost Katie Scott | Catholic Herald Katie Scott | Catholic Herald Mary McCarthy Hines created a small shrine for her stillborn daughter, Virginia. Along with an ultrasound photo, angels and a porcelain shoe, a relic of St. Gerard once belonging to the Jesuit priest who baptized Hines remember the life of “Gigi.” Mother's Day can be painful for those who have lost their unborn babies — or their own moms. My son was born late last May, and this will be my first Mother’s Day with him outside the womb. Since my husband and I...

May 8, 2016 Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord Reading 1 Acts 1:1-11 In the first book, Theophilus,I dealt with all that Jesus did and taughtuntil the day he was taken up,after giving instructions through the Holy Spiritto the apostles whom he had chosen.He presented himself alive to themby many proofs after he had suffered,appearing to them during forty daysand speaking about the kingdom of God.While meeting with them,he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,but to wait for “the promise of the Fatherabout which you have heard me speak;for John baptized with water,but in a few days...

The Passionist Nuns were founded in the 1700s in Italy by St. Paul of the Cross. In 1910, five of the sisters arrived in the U.S. and went to Pittsburg, PA, eventually spreading out to Erlanger, KY, in 1947. In this video, Sr. Mary Angela, a Passionist sister who lives with eight other women in the Erlanger community, introduces us to their ministry of making wafers for communion at Mass. She particularly addresses children who are making their first Holy Communion. Since May and June are two months when most children make their first communion, Sr. Mary Angela’s tour is a great tool for...

Here’s story about a church closure with a happy ending —and a church transformation that you don’t hear about very often: A Yonkers Roman Catholic church shuttered last year in a parish consolidation will celebrate its rebirth Saturday  as an Eastern Rite congregation.The Rev. Sunny Mathew, 43, the new congregation’s pastor, said the move to Yonkers realizes a longtime dream for his parishioners, who began their congregation in 1984 in New York City. Most Holy Trinity Church at 18 Trinity Plaza will be occupied by St. Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church, an Indian congregation that for 17 years worshiped in the chapel at Salesian High School in New Rochelle.“It...

Doubting Thomas Story of the apostle is not a validation for unbelief but a call to have faith in the risen Lord, his Church Msgr. Charles Pope 5/4/2016 Question: My father constantly holds up the example of St. Thomas the Apostle, who doubted that Jesus had risen even when the others said so. He says this is why it is OK that he should question everything — that doubt isn’t wrong even regarding the teachings of the Church.— Tom O’Neil, via email Answer: Yet the fact is, the Lord rebukes Thomas; he does not praise him for his stubbornness or...

May 7, 2016 Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 18:23-28 After staying in Antioch some time,Paul left and traveled in orderly sequencethrough the Galatian country and Phrygia,bringing strength to all the disciples. A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria,an eloquent speaker, arrived in Ephesus.He was an authority on the Scriptures.He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and,with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus,although he knew only the baptism of John.He began to speak boldly in the synagogue;but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him,they took him asideand explained to him...

Some Thoughts on Privacy - God Is Watching (And so Are Many Others) Msgr. Charles Pope • May 5, 2016 • 0 Comments At the bottom of this post is a 2010 CBS news story reporting hat anything you’ve copied on a digital copier going back years is stored on a hard drive inside the copier. These drives are evidently so large that they can store more than 20,000 documents and hundreds of thousands of pages.Hence if you have ever photocopied personal materials (e.g., social security numbers, checking info, personal data) it is likely on that hard drive. The...

May 6, 2016 Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 18:9-18 One night while Paul was in Corinth, the Lord said to him in a vision,“Do not be afraid.Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you.No one will attack and harm you,for I have many people in this city.”He settled there for a year and a halfand taught the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia,the Jews rose up together against Pauland brought him to the tribunal, saying,“This man is inducing people to worship God contrary...

NEW YORK — To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Priests for Life and to highlight its core mission of empowering clergy to be passionate advocates for the unborn, Father Frank Pavone, National Director, has released today his newest book, Proclaiming the Message of Life: Weekly Reflections from the Lectionary (Servant Books, 2016) The book guides clergy –and laity – through the pro-life themes found in the readings of every Sunday of all three liturgical years. Proclaiming the Message of Life provides an overview of the Scriptural, doctrinal and liturgical bases for preaching the pro-life message, presents homily...

Is It Ever Right to Bend the Law? Msgr. Charles Pope • May 4, 2016 • Our relationship with God’s law is complex and we don’t often get it right. When it comes to God’s law we cannot forget that it is personal. That is, it is given to us by a loving God who wants to save us. Therefore, it is important to know both the law and the lawgiver, who is God.In the Deuteronomic code, each law is often followed by the phrase “I am the Lord.” It is as if the Lord is saying, “This is...

May 5, 2016 Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord Reading 1 Acts 1:1-11 In the first book, Theophilus,I dealt with all that Jesus did and taughtuntil the day he was taken up,after giving instructions through the Holy Spiritto the apostles whom he had chosen.He presented himself alive to themby many proofs after he had suffered,appearing to them during forty daysand speaking about the kingdom of God.While meeting with them,he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,but to wait for “the promise of the Fatherabout which you have heard me speak;for John baptized with water,but in a few days...

Some Things You May Not Know About Vivaldi Msgr. Charles Pope • May 3, 2016 • One of my favorite composers is Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). While I love his secular pieces (such as The Four Seasons), I am especially fond of his Church music. It is so light, bright, and tuneful! Vivaldi loved to go up and down the musical scale, varying the theme a half step at a time.Ah, Vivaldi, he’s right up there with Handel, Bach, and Mozart! I consider him to be an especially Catholic treasure given his large body of sacred Latin liturgical music.Here are...

Police and school investigating incident as a hate crimeLOS ANGELES (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Los Angeles Jesuit university has fired an employee for telling students there are only two genders — male and female. In April, Catholic Loyola Marymount University (LMU) allowed LGBT Student Services (LGBTSS) to hold LGBTQ+ Awareness Week, also known as Rainbow Week. Posters were put up throughout campus, but on April 14 three members of the club noted some were taken down and placed behind a garbage can. They retrieved the posters and put them back up, claiming an unnamed employee of the Alumni Relations office approached...

Blasphemy was committed on a Catholic university campus: An employee at the "Catholic" school stated her belief, rooted in Catholicism, that there are only two genders. An unnamed employee at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles has been suspended and is currently being investigated for a “hate crime” by the university’s Bias Incident Response Team and the LAPD for “denying transgenderism” when she stated that there are only two genders, reports The College Fix. On April 14, the employee engaged in a “dialogue” with three students who were hanging up posters for “Rainbow Week” on campus. Cosette Carleo, who identifies...

May 4, 2016 Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 17:15, 22—18:1 After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens,they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothyto join him as soon as possible. Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:“You Athenians, I see that in every respectyou are very religious.For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.The God who made the world and all that is in it,the Lord of heaven and earth,does not...

With all the hullabaloo on this topic, I have tried valiantly to avoid having a knee-jerk opinion on altar girls. Now, however, I have actually spent some time thinking about it. And I do have an opinion, based on my personal experience both as a Catholic mother and REGINA’s Editor. I raised a son and a daughter in the Catholic Church in Connecticut in the 1990’s and 2000’s. My daughter had zero interest in being an altar ‘server’ and I was somewhat dubious about then-popular claims that serving the altar would somehow prepare her to have a successful career. In...

The Religious War between CIA and KGB in Latin America How the U.S. Supported the Protestant Advance against the Liberation Theology Promoted by Catholic Bishops and KGB By Julio Severo The information and disinformation war by the Soviet Union and the United States in the Cold War days was not limited only to the political sphere in Latin America. According to two Catholic bloggers, while the Soviet Union supported the advance of Liberation Theology, the U.S. supported the advance of evangelicals and Pentecostals. The Soviet Union saw the Catholic Church in Latin America as a natural ally of Marxism...