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DAY 34 – MARY, HEALTH OF THE SICK, PRAY FOR US THIS DAY WE FIGHT Spiritually speaking, the devil is doing all that he can to catch us isolated and unarmed on the battlefield — no spiritual armor, no spiritual weapons, and no comrades in the heavenly realm to fight alongside of us. In other words, the reason evil is promoted so effectively today is because we’re ignoring God’s offer of supernatural strength and power and ignoring the mightiest of all allied forces: the Communion of Saints. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Enemy-occupied territory — that is what this world is. Christianity...

September 17, 2016 Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49 Brothers and sisters:Someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?” You fool!What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.And what you sow is not the body that is to bebut a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind. So also is the resurrection of the dead.It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.It...

(Vatican Radio) Catholic and Orthodox theologians are meeting in the Italian town of Chieti for the 14th plenary session of their international dialogue commission. The meeting from September 15th to 22nd brings together two representatives from each of the fourteen Orthodox Churches, alongside 28 Catholic participants, under the shared presidency of Cardinal Kurt Koch from the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity and Archbishop Job of Telmessos from the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The meeting will focus on discussion of a draft document, drawn up at the previous two sessions, entitled “Towards a common understanding of Synodality and Primacy in...

Father Gabriele Amorth, perhaps the best known Catholic exorcist in the world, has died at the age of 91, Italian media are reporting.Father Amorth, who frequently made headlines beyond the Diocese of Rome, where he was the official exorcist, had been hospitalized for several weeks for complications from pneumonia at the Saint Lucy Foundation Hospital in Rome, according to Corriere delle Sera.Born in Modena on May 1, 1925, Father Amorth joined the Society of St. Paul in Alba in 1947, and was ordained in Rome in 1951. In 1985, he was appointed exorcist of the Diocese of Rome by Cardinal Ugo Poletti.Over...

Aleteia: You were ordained a priest in Mongolia on August 28, 2016, which makes you the first indigenous priest for almost 1000 years! How do you feel about the historical significance of this?  Joseph Enkhee-Baatar: I am just glad and honored to have been chosen to be ordained here in Mongolia, and to be a small part of the mission. The first missionaries who came to the Mongol Empire were Nestorians. They came as early as the 7th and 8th century. Consequently, several Mongol tribes converted to Christianity. Then, in the thirteenth century under the Yuan dynasty, the first Catholic missionaries arrived. According to some historical...

DAY 33 – MARY, MORNING STAR, PRAY FOR US UNITY IN TRUTH Devil’s Tactic #2 – Divide and Conquer The second modern tactic of the devil is actually the very ancient military strategy of “divide and conquer.” This strategy is defined as one that separates a force that would be stronger if united. As we said, the devil is roaming around like a lion that sizes up the herd to find the easiest target. He is also watching to see who is separated from the herd. Large, coordinated forces are difficult to defeat. If the enemy can separate us into...

The Fading of Earthly Glories, As Seen on TV Msgr. Charles Pope • September 15, 2016 • According to the video below, the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” is being replaced; there is now a new “Most Interesting Man in the World.”And the Verizon “Can you hear me now” guy has defected to Sprint.What is this world coming to? How can this be?Scripture says, We have here no lasting city (Heb 13:14). There is a well-known saying that used to be etched on many fireplaces: Sic transit gloria mundi (Thus passes the glory of the world)....

Information, disinformation, truths, half-truths and lies all seem to be jumbled up in the communication strategy of the Holy See. The history of the Church is being written through interviews, improvised discourses, articles on semi-official blogs and media-rumours, leaving the field wide open to all interpretations possible and giving rise to the suspicion that the confusion is deliberate. Two recent examples. The first regards the expulsion of the President of the IOR (the Vatican Bank), Ettore Gotti Tedeschi in 2012. In Benedict XVI’s latest book “Last Conversations” with Peter Seewald, the “Pope Emeritus” takes responsibility himself for Gotti Tedeschi’s dismissal,...

So now we know. We knew before, really, but didn’t have explicit confirmation. The long, agonizing slog, however, is finally over: from Pope Francis’ invitation to Cardinal Kasper to address the bishops in Rome in February of 2014 to the pope’s letter last week to some Argentinean bishops affirming guidelines they had developed in a joint document that, in “exceptional cases,” people divorced and remarried (living in an “adulterous” relationship as we believed for 2000 years in Western Christianity), may receive Holy Communion. This whole affair is bizarre. No other word will do. As I wrote on this page many...

The archdiocese is refusing to disclose reason behind sudden removalPARAMUS, N.J. (ChurchMilitant.com) - Two administrators at a Catholic high school currently engaged in a legal battle with a lesbian teacher have been ousted without explanation. According to the archdiocese of Newark Tuesday, Pres. James P. Vail and Principal Stephanie Macaluso "are on leave from their posts" at Paramus Catholic High School effective immediately. The reasons, archdiocesan spokesman James Goodness stated, are personal, and further details would not be given. Paramus Catholic High School in northeastern New Jersey is presently fighting a lawsuit filed by Kate Drumgoole, an open lesbian fired...

FEARS are growing for a bishop who has been arrested by Chinese authorities during the regime’s latest crackdown in religion.Bishop Peter Shao Zhu Min was detained by officials who reportedly took him “on a trip” sparking concern he has been transported to a labour camp. The Bishop had recently taken over as the Bishop of Wenzhou following the death of his 89-year-old predecessor. Despite Bishop Shao being recognised by the Vatican, Chinese authorities say he was not approved by the government. The 53-year-old was preparing for his predecessor Bishop Vincent Zhu Weifang’s funeral, which was attended by more than 5,000...

September 16, 2016 Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs Reading 1 1 Cor 15:12-20 Brothers and sisters:If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?If there is no resurrection of the dead,then neither has Christ been raised.And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching;empty, too, your faith.Then we are also false witnesses to God,because we testified against God that he raised Christ,whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised.For if the dead are not...

Beethoven and the Catholic Church MICHAEL DE SAPIO Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart form the great trinity of Western classical composers. Of the three, it is Beethoven whose religious beliefs have proven the most elusive.  We know all about the devout Lutheranism of Bach, who wrote his music "for the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul"; and Mozart was a practicing Catholic, as his letters make clear.  Beethoven, by contrast, was reticent about expressing his religious convictions.  He is often portrayed as a child of the secular-humanist Enlightenment — a freethinking individualist...

Of Dolphins and Man: The Vast Difference between Animals and Humans Msgr. Charles Pope • September 14, 2016 • Those of you who read my posts regularly know that I have often expressed great fascination with and affection for the pets I have had over the years. I am in awe of the whole of the created order, which proclaims God’s glory.However, there are important distinctions between the human person and the created order that sometimes get lost in modern movements such as environmentalism, animal rights, and even in the realms of philosophy and science.Consider a recent article on...

DAY 32 – MARY, GATE OF HEAVEN, PRAY FOR US STATE OF GRACE Devil’s Tactic #1 – Cut us off from our supply lines The first major strategy from the father of lies is actually as old as the Garden of Eden itself. It is simply to convince us we do not need God (Gen. 3:5-6), nor do we need his strength and his power (Eph. 6:10). In modern times, we have witnessed this in the effective campaign of militant secularists who have sought to de-mythologize our faith, a flat out rejection of the supernatural power of God. Once the...

The pro-abortion group Catholics for Choice placed "Abortion in Good Faith" full-page ads in several newspapers around the country on Monday urging the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion. Today, we launched a campaign to show that Catholics support abortion funding #InGoodFaith. Join us. https://t.co/rsmlSxOBDO— Catholics for Choice (@Catholic4Choice) September 12, 2016 On Wednesday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued a statement condemning the group. Cardinal Dolan said that the use of the name "Catholic" to promote abortion is offensive and that they are in no way...

September 15, 2016 Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows Reading 1 1 Cor 15:1-11 I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,of the Gospel I preached to you,which you indeed received and in which you also stand.Through it you are also being saved,if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,unless you believed in vain.For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures;that he was buried;that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;that he appeared to Cephas, then...

MUSLIMS want to eradicate Christianity and conquer Europe - the Catholic cardinal tipped to be the next POPE has incredibly claimed. Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn gave the unexpected warning on Sunday during a special celebration for the Church festival "Holy Name of Mary". According to the Archdiocese of Vienna, the Cardinal said: "Will there be an Islamic conquest of Europe? Many Muslims want that and say: Europe is at its end." He asked God to have mercy on Europe and to show mercy to its people, which he said "are in danger of forfeiting our Christian heritage." Cardinal Schoenborn, who...

The Wisdom and Power of the Cross Msgr. Charles Pope • September 13, 2016 • The readings for Wednesday’s Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross provide rich teachings. Let’s look at five themes, each in turn. I. The Pattern of the Cross – One of the stranger passages in the Old Testamentis the one describing a command Moses received from God to mount a bronze snake on a pole.The people had grumbled against God and Moses because of the “wretched” manna they had to consume (Numbers 21:5). Even though it was the miracle food, the bread from...

DAY 31 – MARY, ARK OF THE COVENANT, PRAY FOR US RECON Any combat training and tactical planning begins with a process of intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination. Recon (reconnaissance) is a military term used to determine the enemy force’s disposition and intention, gathering information (or intelligence) about an enemy’s composition and capabilities. Dr. Peter Kreeft wrote: “You cannot win a war if you are unwilling to admit we are even at war or you don’t know who your enemy is or you don’t know what strategy your enemy is using.” We have all witnessed how the dry wind of...