Free Republic

March 8, 2017 Wednesday of the First Week in Lent Reading 1 Jon 3:1-10The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:"Set out for the great city of Nineveh,and announce to it the message that I will tell you."So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,according to the LORD's bidding.Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;it took three days to go through it.Jonah began his journey through the city,and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"when the people of Nineveh believed God;they proclaimed a fastand all of them, great...

Fr. Don Miller, OFM Image: Mary and Child with Saints Felicity and Perpetua (Sacra Conversazione) | Anonymous Saints Perpetua and Felicity Saint of the Day for March 7 (d. 203)  Saints Perpetua and Felicity’s Story “When my father in his affection for me was trying to turn me from my purpose by arguments and thus weaken my faith, I said to him, ‘Do you see this vessel—waterpot or whatever it may be? Can it be called by any other name than what it is?’ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘So also I cannot call myself by any other name than what...

The big news about the discovery of a “mass grave” outside the Mother and Baby Home run by the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam is bunk. I just got the chance to explain why when interviewed by Dublin’s Newstalk, the only exclusively talk-radio station in Ireland. The interviewer was cordial but clueless. I will discuss this matter further later today on BBC radio and other Irish radio stations. Almost all of the media in the U.S., the U.K., and elsewhere are promoting a fake news account of a “mass grave” containing the remains of nearly 800 children. Here is the...

God’s Law is Personal, Loving, and Tender Msgr. Charles Pope • March 6, 2017 • In Monday’s first reading (Monday of the First Week of Lent) there is a recitation of the law that features the refrain “I am the Lord.” What does this expression mean and why is it appended to each command?When we think of God’s law, there is a danger that we might think of it as we do of any secular law: as a sort of impersonal code written by nameless legislators or bureaucrats. We have not met them; we do not love, trust, or...

This from Associated Press: "A mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children has been discovered at a former Catholic orphanage in Ireland, government-appointed investigators announced Friday in a finding that offered the first conclusive proof following a historian's efforts to trace the fates of nearly 800 children who perished there." "A great many people are always asking what is the good of keeping these children alive? I quite agree that it would be a great deal kinder to strangle these children at birth than to put them out to nurse." -- Doctor Ella Webb, June 18, 1924,...

March 7, 2017 Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Reading 1 Is 55:10-11Thus says the LORD:Just as from the heavensthe rain and snow come downAnd do not return theretill they have watered the earth,making it fertile and fruitful,Giving seed to the one who sowsand bread to the one who eats,So shall my word bethat goes forth from my mouth;It shall not return to me void,but shall do my will,achieving the end for which I sent it. Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19R. (18b) From all their distress God rescues the just.Glorify the LORD with me,let us together...

Fr. Don Miller, OFM Image: Print of the Ecuatorian Saint Mary Ann of Jesus | photo by Jojagal Saint Mary Ann of Jesus of Paredes Saint of the Day for March 6 (October 31, 1618 – May 26, 1645)  Saint Mary Ann of Jesus of Paredes’ Story Mary Ann grew close to God and his people during her short life.The youngest of eight, Mary Ann was born in Quito, Ecuador, which had been brought under Spanish control in 1534. She joined the Secular Franciscans and led a life of prayer and penance at home, leaving her parents’ house only...

The Truer Purpose of Fasting Msgr. Charles Pope • March 5, 2017 • There is an interesting passage in Isaiah, in which God turns the tables on us and reminds us of the truer purpose of fasting. The key verses come in Isaiah 58, but in order to see them in context, let’s first consider the whole passage.Thus says the Lord GOD: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways,...

March 6, 2017 Monday of the First Week of Lent Reading 1 Lv 19:1-2, 11-18The LORD said to Moses,"Speak to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and tell them:Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy. "You shall not steal.You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another.You shall not swear falsely by my name,thus profaning the name of your God.I am the LORD. "You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor.You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day laborer.You shall not curse the deaf,or put a stumbling block in front of...

Fr. Don Miller, OFM Image: Saint John Joseph of the Cross | Engraving by Alessandri after P.A. Novelli Saint John Joseph of the Cross Saint of the Day for March 5 (August 15, 1654 – March 5, 1734)  Saint John Joseph of the Cross’ Story Self-denial is never an end in itself but is only a help toward greater charity—as the life of Saint John Joseph shows.John Joseph was very ascetic even as a young man. At 16, he joined the Franciscans in Naples; he was the first Italian to follow the reform movement of Saint Peter Alcantara. John Joseph’s...

Archdiocese of Washington Triumph in Temptation – A Homily for the First Sunday of Lent Msgr. Charles Pope • March 4, 2017 • The Gospel today says that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert. Hebrews 4:15 also affirms, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.How exactly a divine person, with a sinless human nature, experiences temptation is somewhat mysterious, and yet the text affirms that He does. A Lenten antiphon from the Breviary teaches that...

March 5, 2017 First Sunday of Lent Reading 1 Gn 2:7-9; 3:1-7The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed.Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and...

Fr. Don Miller, OFM Image: Reliquary of Saint Casimir | Vilnius Cathedral | photo by Albertus teolog Saint Casimir Saint of the Day for March 4 (1458 – 1483)  Saint Casimir’s Story Casimir, born of kings and in line to be a king himself, was filled with exceptional values and learning by a great teacher, John Dlugosz. Even his critics could not say that his conscientious objection indicated softness. As a teenager, Casimir lived a highly disciplined, even severe life, sleeping on the ground, spending a great part of the night in prayer and dedicating himself to lifelong celibacy.When nobles...

A Short Meditation on Truth, as Inspired by a Commercial Msgr. Charles Pope • March 3, 2017 • truth word in mixed vintage metal type printing blocks over grunge woodEven in a relativistic culture we like to think categorically about a lot of things. Is a person good or bad? Is an idea liberal or conservative? Are we a divided nation or a united one?Truth be told, we are all a mixed bag, individually and collectively. God alone is wholly good. Even in the midst of our struggles and flaws there still lurks something good, something true and beautiful....

Fr. Don Miller, OFM Image: Saint Stephen, Martyr Roman Catholic Church, Chesapeake, Virginia | Stained glass of Saint Katharine Drexel | photo by Nheyob . Saint Katharine Drexel Saint of the Day for March 3 (November 26, 1858 -March 3, 1955 )  Katharine Drexel’s Story If your father is an international banker and you ride in a private railroad car, you are not likely to be drawn into a life of voluntary poverty. But if your mother opens your home to the poor three days each week and your father spends half an hour each evening in prayer, it is...

By this stage of Francis' pontificate, faithful Catholics have become all too familiar with the Pope's tendency to misquote and wrest the words of the Holy Gospel and of previous Magisterial documents not only in his "off the cuff" allocutions, homilies, and interviews, but even in his formal, prepared documents. It only makes sense that, as we shall see below, the Pope shows the same disrespect for the Church Fathers. The cite one of the most egregious manglings of the Church's previous Magisterium: While all the faithful are rightly outraged or troubled by his apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia's infamous Footnote...

March 4, 2017 Saturday after Ash Wednesday Reading 1 Is 58:9b-14Thus says the LORD:If you remove from your midst oppression,false accusation and malicious speech;If you bestow your bread on the hungryand satisfy the afflicted;Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,and the gloom shall become for you like midday;Then the LORD will guide you alwaysand give you plenty even on the parched land.He will renew your strength,and you shall be like a watered garden,like a spring whose water never fails.The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake,and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up;"Repairer of...

A private high school in California earned millions from the Snap Inc. public offering, after two students told their dad about the popularity of the app five years ago. Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif., invested $15,000 in Snapchat’s seed round when the dad, Lightspeed partner Barry Eggers, invited the school’s board to participate in the seed round with his firm. That investment has paid off, as Snap started trading Thursday, and closed 44% above its issue price. Shares of Snap soared 11% Friday to $27.09, compared with the S&P 500 SPX, +0.05% which inched up less than...

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Pope Francis will meet with the leaders of all EU nations at the Vatican on March 24 ahead of the bloc’s special summit in Rome, Vatican sources said Thursday. The March 25 summit will mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding treaty. The pontiff will meet the leaders in the afternoon, the sources said.

UK child abuse inquiry Child migrants shipped to Western Australia tell of abuse by Christian Brothers Men now aged 72 and 67 give evidence to London inquiry about abuse in Perth in the 1950s Two men who were shipped from Britain to Western Australia as children in the 1950s have told an inquiry in London of their abuse by Christian Brothers paedophiles. One witness, now 72 and living in Perth and referred to as A4 to protect his identity, told the UK's child sex abuse inquiry he had been in orphanages in Britain since he was a baby before being...