Free Republic

16 May 2024 Thursday of the 7th week of Eastertide St. Brendan the Navigator Parish, Camden, MEReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 22:30,23:6-11 ©'You have borne witness in Jerusalem: now you must do the same in Rome'Since the tribune wanted to know what precise charge the Jews were bringing, he freed Paul and gave orders for a meeting of the chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin; then he brought Paul down and stood him in front of them. Now Paul was well aware that one section was made up of Sadducees and the other of Pharisees, so...

Guilt is universal, starting with Adam and Eve’s original sin. And guilt isn’t all bad. It can be God’s divine gut-check for us, a way to recognize we need to be led back to his mercy. But the term “Catholic guilt” can take on different meanings. It’s a cultural phrase that has seeped into generations of Catholics, parishes and pop culture. The phrase even has its own Wikipedia page. Understanding how guilt can be good or dangerous in our lives can help us open our hearts to God’s mercy.

Daily Readings from the USCCB“I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One.” John 17:14–15Unfortunately, the evil one is real. He is the highest of the fallen angels who retain their natural spiritual power given them at their creation. God created all angelic creatures with the purpose of serving His holy will. The Scripture reveals that there are nine levels or “choirs”...

15 May 2024 Wednesday of the 7th week of Eastertide Altar of Saint Isidore the Laborer Parish Church in Lucena City, the PhilippinesReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 20:28-38 ©I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, and its powerPaul addressed these words to the elders of the church of Ephesus: ‘Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the overseers, to feed the Church of God which he bought with his own blood. I know quite well that when I have...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” John 15:16After Judas betrayed our Lord, the Apostles gathered together to pick someone to succeed him. They decided it should be someone who had been with them from the beginning. They prayed for guidance and cast lots “and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles” (Acts 1:26). Little is known about the ministry...

Tuesday 14 May 2024 Saint Matthias, Apostle Feast St. Matthias Catholic Church, Sterling Heights, MIReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: B(II).First readingActs 1:15-17,20-26 ©'Let someone else take his office'One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus – after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of ours. Now...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” John 16:33What did Jesus tell His disciples that produced the “peace” of which He spoke? He is especially referring to His entire Last Supper Discourse from which we have been reading. The words spoken throughout this discourse are meant to give the disciples, and us, “courage” and the ability to conquer the trouble imposed upon us by the world. Throughout Jesus’ discourse, He especially points to the unity...

Churchgoers thwarted a teenager armed with a rifle from entering a Louisiana church full of children Saturday in a service that was being livestreamed, authorities said. Police were called to St. Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville, 20 miles south of Lafayette, at 10:35 a.m. when the 16-year-old suspect tried to get in via the back door.

13 May 2024 Monday of the 7th week of Eastertide Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima, Ourém, Portugal Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 19:1-8 ©The moment Paul laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on themWhile Apollos was in Corinth, Paul made his way overland as far as Ephesus, where he found a number of disciples. When he asked, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ they answered, ‘No, we were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit.’ ‘Then how were you baptised?’ he asked. ‘With...

DOJ’s report on FBI leaked memo on traditionalist Catholics leaves many questions unanswered, omits Biden admin’s targeted persecution of Catholics.In mid-April, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Joe Biden administration released a 10-page report to Congress stating that those who penned an internal memo dated January 23, 2023, likening traditionalist Catholics to violent extremists “failed to adhere to FBI standards” but displayed no proof of “malicious intent”. The memo was subsequently leaked to the public.Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s recent April report to Congress claimed that it found no proof that anyone instructed either of the unnamed authors of...

(For those living in Dioceses celebrating the Ascension this Sunday, Click Here for the My Catholic Life! meditation thread for the Ascension)Daily Readings from the USCCB“Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” John 17:17–19What does it mean to “consecrate” something or someone? Consecration is, of course, a very familiar term within our faith. We speak of the bread and wine being consecrated and becoming the Body, Blood, Soul and...

Sunday 12 May 2024 The Ascension of the Lord SolemnitySt. Pancras, Glendale NYReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).These readings are for the Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast.These readings are for the day of the feast itself.These readings are for the Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast.First readingActs 1:1-11 ©Jesus was lifted up while they looked onIn my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up...

Those of you fortunate enough to live in a diocese where the Ascension is observed on its proper Thursday will be able to hear proclaimed this Sunday the proper Readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Pre-empting this Sunday by the Solemnity of the Ascension is a bit unfortunate, because it damages the pattern of the Lectionary. During the later Sundays of Easter, we read from the Last Supper Discourse (John 13-17), culminating in the Seventh Sunday, on which we read the grande finale of the Last Supper Discourse, namely the High Priestly Prayer (John 17). Ironically, although John 17...

In most of the USA, Ascension Day is observed this Sunday. I wish the traditional observance on Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter was retained, but reality is what it is. Therefore, this weekend we will look at the powerful readings for Ascension Day. This is an unusual Lord’s Day, in which the “action” of the Feast Day actually takes place in the First Reading. We typically think of all the narratives of Jesus’ life as recorded in the Gospels, overlooking that Acts records at least two important narratives about the activity of the Resurrected Lord (Acts 1:1-11; also...

A Catholic priest has been reprimanded ...Father Thomas McHale, the priest at Our Blessed Lady Immaculate in Blackhill, Consett, County Durham, took to the pulpit as normal on Good Friday.

A staunch bishop criticized President Joe Biden for calling himself a “devout” Catholic while at the same time spreading his pro-abortion message. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois accused Biden of “making a mockery of our Catholic faith” after he made the Sign of the Cross while promoting abortion. In a video titled “Biden Mocks Our Catholic Faith,” the bishop noted several times when the president has acted against his faith in a sacrilegious manner to promote something evil. Biden made the Sign of the Cross at an abortion rally in Florida while lambasting fellow Catholic Gov....

11 May 2024 Saturday before Ascension Sunday Saint-Gengoult, Toul, France Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 18:23-28 ©Apollos demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the ChristPaul came down to Antioch, where he spent a short time before continuing his journey through the Galatian country and then through Phrygia, encouraging all the followers. An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos now arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, with a sound knowledge of the scriptures, and yet, though he had been given instruction in the Way of the Lord and preached with great spiritual earnestness and was accurate...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father.” John 16:25When is it that Jesus will speak clearly about the Father? When is that “hour” of which He speaks? First, this “hour” can be understood to be the time after His death, Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven. It is then when the Holy Spirit will come upon them at Pentecost to open their minds to understand all that He has taught with much...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.” John 16:21This truth can certainly be extended to any form of anguish we experience for a good reason. Note that the pain experienced in childbirth is pain for a good and holy reason. Therefore, the pain is forgotten, in a sense, when the mother sees and holds her newborn child. That suffering is...

10 May 2024Friday before Ascension Sunday Church of the Incarnation, Montilla, Córdoba, Spain final resting place of St. John of Ávila Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 18:9-18 ©'I have many people on my side in this city'At Corinth one night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid to speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced: I am with you. I have so many people on my side in this city that no one will even attempt to hurt you.’ So Paul stayed there preaching the word of God among them...