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Introduction: The Feast Day of Corpus Christi (The Body of Christ) was requested by Our Lord himself. It was not a feast day that the Church in its wisdom decided to include in the liturgical calendar. It was a feast day, rather, that Jesus Christ requested through extraordinary means by appearing to his servant Saint Juliana and showing her a Moon that he said was symbolic of the feast day that was needed, that he wanted, that he requested, the feast day of Corpus Christi. And Saint Juliana said "But Jesus, we have a feast day Holy Thursday". And Our...

April 30, 2015Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter   Reading 1 Acts 13:13-25 From Paphos, Paul and his companionsset sail and arrived at Perga in Pamphylia. But John left them and returned to Jerusalem. They continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath they entered into the synagogue and took their seats. After the reading of the law and the prophets,the synagogue officials sent word to them,“My brothers, if one of you has a word of exhortationfor the people, please speak.” So Paul got up, motioned with his hand, and said,“Fellow children of Israel...

April 29, 2015Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church    Reading 1 Acts 12:24—13:5a The word of God continued to spread and grow. After Barnabas and Saul completed their relief mission,they returned to Jerusalem,taking with them John, who is called Mark. Now there were in the Church at Antioch prophets and teachers:Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,Manaen who was a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saulfor the work to which I...

Hundreds of supportive Catholics fill San Francisco’s Star of the SeaOn Saturday, May 25, the 4:30 p.m. Mass at San Francisco’s Star of the Sea Church resembled Easter or Christmas. The packed Church was a show of support for Star’s faithful Catholic Priests, Father Joseph Illo and Father Patrick Driscoll. The two have earned the enmity of the San Francisco power structure, as well as that of a number of their fellow priests, for their decision to only allow boys to serve at the altar. That decision is at the discretion of each parish’s pastor—at Star of the Sea, Fr....

April 28, 2015Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 11:19-26 Those who had been scattered by the persecutionthat arose because of Stephenwent as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch,preaching the word to no one but Jews.There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however,who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well,proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with themand a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem,and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch.When...

Nineteen men lie prostrate for their ordination as priests for the Diocese of Rome on April 26, 2015. Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA Vatican City, Apr 26, 2015 / 12:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis presided over the ordination of nearly twenty men to the priesthood on Sunday, where he warned them against being vain priests who live first for their own pleasure rather than for God’s. “A priest is ugly who lives for his own pleasure,” Pope Francis said, adding that such a priest “acts like a peacock.” Pope Francis presided over the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Apr. 26,...

April 27, 2015Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 11:1-18 The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judeaheard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalemthe circumcised believers confronted him, saying,‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying,“I was at prayer in the city of Joppawhen in a trance I had a vision,something resembling a large sheet coming down,lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me. Looking...

There is an amusing investing term called a ‘dead cat bounce.’ It follows from the idea that "even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height." A dead cat bounce refers to a temporary recovery from a prolonged decline followed by a continuation of the downtrend. The dead cat bounce is a sucker’s bet. Suckers, thinking that the worst is over and that things have reached bottom, start buying up stock. In reality, the temporary rally is caused by investors shorting the stock purchasing the worthless stock to cover long-term bets against the company creating short-term...

April 26, 2015Fourth Sunday of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 4:8-12 Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:“Leaders of the people and elders:If we are being examined todayabout a good deed done to a cripple,namely, by what means he was saved,then all of you and all the people of Israel should knowthat it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazoreanwhom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;in his name this man stands before you healed.He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,which has become the cornerstone.There is no salvation through anyone else,nor is there any...

Compass Church meets in a movie theater, has no live worship, and keeps its Sunday service meeting to 45 minutes. But the somewhat nontraditional Assemblies of God congregation is making an eternal impact in Winona, Minnesota. Pastored by Aaron Lindholm, Compass "exists to reach the 9,000 people in Winona that are far from God by creating a loving, giving, growing community, where it is safe to belong until you believe," according to the church's website. Lindholm, 38, moved to Winona from Claremore, Oklahoma, in 2009 when around 40 people attended the church regularly. Last year, Compass Church had more salvation...

April 25, 2015Feast of Saint Mark, Evangelist    Reading 1 1 Pt 5:5b-14 Beloved: Clothe yourselves with humilityin your dealings with one another, for: God opposes the proudbut bestows favor on the humble. So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,that he may exalt you in due time.Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you. Be sober and vigilant.Your opponent the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lionlooking for someone to devour.Resist him, steadfast in faith,knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout the worldundergo the same sufferings.The God of all gracewho called you to...

Our Lady’s Maronite Catholic Church I was raised as a Latin Rite Catholic. I did not hear that there was such a thing as the “Eastern Rite” until I was about 20 years of age. I was attending Christian Brothers College (now Christian Brothers University) in Memphis, Tennessee, and I took a concentration of courses in Religion and Culture (one short of a minor). My father, who was not Catholic, and I were talking about religion one day when he mentioned the Eastern Rite.Like many Catholics I have met since then, I asked what is often the question when someone...

April 24, 2015Friday of the Third Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 9:1-20 Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord,went to the high priest and asked himfor letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that,if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way,he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus,a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”He said, “Who are you, sir?” The...

April 23, 2015Thursday of the Third Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 8:26-40 The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip,“Get up and head south on the roadthat goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.” So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch,a court official of the Candace,that is, the queen of the Ethiopians,in charge of her entire treasury,who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home.Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.The Spirit said to Philip,“Go and join up with that chariot.” Philip ran up...

When a faith is highly traditional—so traditional that her Tradition is seen as nothing less than the presence of God living and breathing in the life of the Church—it is sure to clash with the sensibilities of a modern, critical, and pluralistic culture such as our own. One of the many sources of friction between the Orthodox Church and contemporary culture is in the exercise of authority. As Lockean, democratic, social-contract theories, with an emphasis on individual rights, have come to dominate the way we instinctively think about morality and social life over the past few centuries, Christian moral and...

April 22, 2015Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 8:1b-8 There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,and all were scatteredthroughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,except the Apostles.Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;entering house after house and dragging out men and women,he handed them over for imprisonment. Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.Thus Philip went down to the city of Samariaand proclaimed the Christ to them.With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what...

ROME, April 21, 2015 – Last week the Pontifical Oriental Institute mourned the mysterious death of one of its professors, Fr. Lanfranco Rossi, found lifeless in a rural area just outside Rome. But also last week the institute was hit with a genuine institutional earthquake, with the decommissioning of its entire executive staff. The order, signed by the superior general of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás Pachón, the deputy grand chancellor of the institute, was up on the bulletin board for just one day. But many were able to read it and find out. As of Tuesday, April...

April 21, 2015Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 7:51—8:1a Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes:“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,you always oppose the Holy Spirit;you are just like your ancestors.Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one,whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.You received the law as transmitted by angels,but you did not observe it.” When they heard this, they were infuriated,and they ground their teeth at him.But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,looked...

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) The law of Christ misunderstood Some people read this verse out of its context, as if it suddenly fell from the sky, and they conclude that there is a new law given by God under the New Covenant, called the law of Christ, in contrast with the Law which they call “the Law of the Old Testament”. They say the Christian does not have to keep the Law of God (which they call the Law of the Old Testament), because the Christian is not under...

Morning and Evening Charles H. Spurgeon April 20, 2015 Morning Reading That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death. —Hebrews 2:14 O child of God, death hath lost its sting, because the devil's power over it is destroyed. Then cease to fear dying. Ask grace from God the Holy Ghost, that by an intimate knowledge and a firm belief of thy Redeemer's death, thou mayst be strengthened for that dread hour. Living near the cross of Calvary thou mayst think of death with pleasure, and welcome it when it comes with intense delight. It is...