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Two independent forensic medicine departments studied a sample of the Host, noting it was human heart tissue. Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski recognized the miracle earlier this year. And on July 2, he installed the Host in a reliquary for veneration.On Christmas Day 2013 at St. Hyacinth’s Shrine in Legnica, an industrial city of 100,000 in southwest Poland, a priest accidentally dropped a consecrated Host on the floor. In accordance with Church procedures, the Host was placed in a dish filled with holy water to dissolve. After two weeks, the Communion wafer dissolved only partially, and a red substance appeared on it....

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of matters ecclesiastical knew it would come. The boat had been rocked so there was bound to be some shouting, mounting insecurity and a sense of control lost. Having lost the battle of the Missal certain forces would be certain to move quickly so as not to lose the battle of the Altar. However it it is not going to work so well this time around. The young laity and the young clergy and seminarians, in whose hands lies the future of the Church on earth for the next few generations at least, are...

July 13, 2016 Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Is 10:5-7, 13b-16 Thus says the LORD:Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger,my staff in wrath.Against an impious nation I send him,and against a people under my wrath I order himTo seize plunder, carry off loot,and tread them down like the mud of the streets.But this is not what he intends,nor does he have this in mind;Rather, it is in his heart to destroy,to make an end of nations not a few. For he says:“By my own power I have done it,and by my wisdom, for...

Philando’s mother, Valerie Castile, requested to hold the service at the Cathedral because she wished the funeral to be an ecumenical opportunity for “people to come together in a new way” and pray for peace and reconciliation, according to a July 12 statement from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The service will not be a Mass, as Philando was from a non-Catholic Christian tradition, according to the archdiocese. At a July 12 press conference on the Minnesota State Capitol lawn, spokespeople for the family said the Castiles are part of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in St. Paul, and...

"This precious value, then, is for you who believe" (1 Pet. 2:7). Love for Christ is the primary characteristic of a true believer. First Peter 2:7 speaks of the believer's affection for Christ as contrasted to an unbeliever's rejection of Him. The first part of that verse could be translated, "To you who believe, He is precious." "Precious" means "valuable," "costly," "without equal," or "irreplaceable." Christ is all that, but only believers recognize His supreme value and regard Him with affection. Affection for Christ is the bottom-line characteristic of true believers. Believing in Him and loving Him are inseparable. In...

“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). True believers obey God’s commandments. Before Jesus ascended to Heaven after His resurrection, He gave the following Great Commission to His disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Notice that a true disciple was to observe, or obey, all of Christ’s commands. The apostle John understood well the Lord’s instruction. He knew...

July 12, 2016 Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Is 7:1-9 In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah,Rezin, king of Aram,and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah,went up to attack Jerusalem,but they were not able to conquer it.When word came to the house of David that Aramwas encamped in Ephraim,the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled,as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind. Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz,you and your son Shear-jashub,at the end...

Although the pope's top official for liturgy recently suggested that priests should adopt the ad orientem posture for celebrating Mass beginning in Advent, meaning facing the east, a Vatican spokesman on Monday said that instructions recommending facing the people are not going to change.ROME- In the wake of recent comments by its chief liturgist recommending that priests celebrate Mass ad orientem, meaning facing east with their backs to the people, beginning in Advent, the Vatican released a statement on Monday saying no new rules along those lines are in the works. A Vatican spokesman also rejected the vocabulary of a...

The Archbishop of Westminster has told clergy Mass is 'not the time for priests to exercise personal preference or taste' Cardinal Vincent Nichols has written to priests in Westminster diocese discouraging them from celebrating Mass facing east. He issued the message to clergy days after the Vatican’s liturgy chief Cardinal Robert Sarah invited priests to celebrate Mass ad orientem from Advent onwards. Cardinal Sarah was speaking at a liturgical conference in London. Following Cardinal Robert Sarah’s appeal at the Sacra Liturgia conference in London, Cardinal Nichols wrote to priests reminding them that, “the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, approved...

“When [Jesus] entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ And he said to them, ‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer’ ” (vv. 28–29). - Mark 9:25–29 Self-reliance and Christian discipleship cannot coexist in anyone who truly follows our Lord and Savior. We are not talking about the kind of self-reliance manifested in a strong work ethic whereby an individual labors hard in order to provide for himself and his family, seeking to meet the needs of his household without outside assistance. Instead, we are referring to the kind...

July 11, 2016 Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot Reading 1 Is 1:10-17 Hear the word of the LORD,princes of Sodom!Listen to the instruction of our God,people of Gomorrah!What care I for the number of your sacrifices?says the LORD.I have had enough of whole-burnt ramsand fat of fatlings;In the blood of calves, lambs and goatsI find no pleasure. When you come in to visit me,who asks these things of you?Trample my courts no more!Bring no more worthless offerings;your incense is loathsome to me.New moon and sabbath, calling of assemblies,octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear.Your new moons and festivals I...

"Offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5). Praise consists of reciting God’s attributes and mighty works. "Praise the Lord" is a common expression today. Some see it as a catchy slogan, others commercialize it, still others reduce it to nothing more than "P.T.L." But despite such attempts to trivialize it, praising the Lord remains the believer's expression of love and gratitude to a God who has been abundantly gracious to him. That was the cry of David's heart when he said, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be...

“What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Enjoying communion with both God and Jesus Christ is solid proof that one’s salvation is real. When we hold baptisms in the church I pastor, invariably every person who gives their testimony will describe the overwhelming sense of forgiveness they now feel and the new purpose they have for their lives. They are expressing a wonderful result of salvation in Christ, of which Jesus...

ather Jacques Clemens attends a mass at St. Benoit church in Nalinnes, Belgium, July 10, 2016. NALINNES, Belgium A strict daily routine is the recipe for a long life, according to the world's oldest priest, Belgian Jacques Clemens, who will celebrate his 107th birthday on Monday.Clemens, who has also celebrated his 80th anniversary as a Catholic priest, gets up every morning at 5.30 a.m. and goes to bed at 9.00 p.m. When Clemens was about to retire at 75, his bishop asked him to remain in service until they found a successor - he only stopped holding regular church services...

The akathist in honor of St. Ambrose of Optina served before his holy relics.

July 10, 2016 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Dt 30:10-14 Moses said to the people:"If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God,and keep his commandments and statutesthat are written in this book of the law,when you return to the LORD, your God,with all your heart and all your soul. "For this command that I enjoin on you todayis not too mysterious and remote for you.It is not up in the sky, that you should say,'Who will go up in the sky to get it for usand tell us of it, that we may...

Archbishop Blaise Cupich of Chicago ranks as one of the most progressive (if not heretical) bishops in the United States. His disdain for Catholic morality is all-too-well known. To wit: As bishop of Spokane Washington he forbade his priests from participating in the 40 Days for Life campaign. When the Supreme Court passed a ruling on "gay mowwidge", the statement he uttered was, at best, limp-wristed lip service to marriage. He issued a statement claiming that gun control and immigration are equal in importance to baby-slaughter. He advocates violations of Canon 915. Despite all these serious and blatant shortcomings, the...

"Offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5). Every faculty you have is to be used for God’s glory. In Romans 12:1 Paul pleads with believers to present their bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice, which is an appropriate and acceptable act of worship. But as someone has rightly said, the problem with living sacrifices is they tend to crawl off the altar. That's because sacrificial living demands spiritual discipline and constant dependence on the Holy Spirit. We as Christians aren't always willing to do that. According to Paul, the motivation and...

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). The apostle John presents eleven objective and subjective tests for assurance of salvation. The New Testament epistles are filled with enough material on assurance to fill volumes of commentaries. Yet there is one small epistle, 1 John, that was written to deal exclusively with the issue of assurance. The apostle John states his reason for writing this letter in our verse for today: “These things I have written to...

"You . . . are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5). Spiritual sacrifices are acts of praise and worship offered to God through Jesus Christ. The primary mission of a Hebrew priest was to offer acceptable sacrifices to God. That's why God gave detailed instructions regarding the kinds of sacrifices He required. For example, if a lamb was offered, it had to be perfect—without deformity or blemish. Then it had to be sacrificed in a prescribed manner. It was a serious...