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The Devil And The Democrats

March 21, 2023 saints Comments Off on The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that the next diabolical step is being taken — allowing newborn babies to be killed. And at the end of life, assisted suicide is making inroads in the U.S.Where does our acceptance of legal murder stop?The Democrat Party has become the biggest funnel of evil that history has seen in a Western democratic society. I say “funnel” because it is a…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

March 14, 2023 saints Comments Off on Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks were the laypersons who sheltered these priests. For providing such shelter, Margaret Clitherow met with a horrifying punishment. March 26 is her feast day.Margaret Clitherow née Middleton was born to Protestant parents in York, England, in 1556. Her father, Thomas Middleton, was the Sheriff of York.At age 15 or 16, she married John Clitherow, a widower twice her age and…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Bernardine Of Siena (1380-1444)

February 28, 2023 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Bernardine Of Siena (1380-1444)

By DEB PIROCH The year Siena lost its famed St. Catherine, it gained a new future saint; St. Bernardine Albizeschi, later St. Bernardine of Siena, OFM, known as the “Apostle of Italy.” He was a great friar preacher who would win souls for God.Being born in 1380 of a noble family did not protect him from heartache, but the prayers of his parents may well have; he was orphaned young, having lost both mother and father by the age of six or seven. Raised by a pious aunt, he grew up with a keen sense of purity and love of Our Lady. Someone who once thought to taunt him confronted the saint in the street, using off-color speech. St. Bernardine…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Jane Frances De Chantal

February 21, 2023 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Jane Frances De Chantal

By DEB PIROCH “Should you fall even fifty times a day, never on any account should that surprise or worry you. Instead, ever so gently set your heart back in the right direction and practice the opposite virtue, all the time speaking words of love and trust to our Lord after you have committed a thousand faults, as much as if you’d committed only one. Once we’ve humbled ourselves for the faults God allows us to become aware of in ourselves, we must forget them and go forward” — St. Jane. + + Growing up, I was impressed by religious books which stressed the importance of good company. By surrounding oneself with virtuous friends, one is less likely to sin…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Anthony Of Padua

February 14, 2023 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Anthony Of Padua

By DEB PIROCH “If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with thee: Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest: fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor exact of him any increase of fruits” (Lev. 25:35-27).Why do we no longer hear about the sin of usury? Because our whole world has embraced it. We are acclimated to credit cards, lines of credit, and “lay-it-away” plans. But the Church has traditionally been against usury, condemning it even at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The reason is the simplest of…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Damien Of Molokai

February 7, 2023 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Damien Of Molokai

By DEB PIROCH Born the seventh child to Belgian farming parents, young Joseph de Veuster — later St. Damien — was first called to the priesthood after a mission given by the Redemptorists in 1858, when he was 18. Having been told to stop school because he was needed on the home farm, Joseph, like his two older sisters and a brother, likewise wished to enter the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Given his lack of education, he was at first not seen as a choice candidate. But having prayed hard and being assisted in Latin study by his brother, his superiors soon saw his promise.After a novitiate in Paris, and more studies in Louvain in…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . Saints Pantaleon And Januarius

January 31, 2023 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . Saints Pantaleon And Januarius

By DEB PIROCH “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood [emphasis ours]” (John 5:4-6).Saints Pantaleon and Januarius are two saints linked to the earliest era of the Church. They also have more than one factor in common. Both lived in the Roman Empire during the reign of Diocletian. Both are martyrs. Both were beheaded. While not exact, the blood of St. Januarius was preserved by a pilgrim named Eusebia,…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Peter Damian

January 24, 2023 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Peter Damian

By DEB PIROCH For those in search of a night free of insomnia, it’s said those with a clean conscience sleep blissfully. Yet, many of us know it is not quite that easy to vanquish insomnia and in truth, the longer one tries, the less one is inclined to fall sleep. At the least it can be exhausting, at the most, incapacitating.In searching for help amongst the lives of the saints, we find mainly tales of those offering up the sleep they could have, and or fighting to stay awake. St. Jerome, when he got sleepy, would dash himself against the ground in an attempt to remain alert. Many religious, including saints, fasted from sleep. Or sleeping on rough ground,…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Dunstan

January 17, 2023 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Dunstan

By DEB PIROCH Before St. Thomas Becket, the saint most likely to be invoked by an Englishman was St. Dunstan. He was successively appointed the abbot of Glastonbury, the bishop of Worcester, the bishop of London, archbishop of Canterbury and later, the bishop of Winchester. Additionally, he was related to at least one archbishop and three bishops; perhaps being a priest and confessor was in the blood. He would be an adviser to kings and the first to invent the coronation process as it exists today.Born around AD 909, he was an apt scholar, who learned from Irish monks in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. He dreamt of restoring the abbey, which one day he indeed would do. But before…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . The Pontifical Patron Saint Of Benedict XVI

January 10, 2023 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . The Pontifical Patron Saint Of Benedict XVI

By DEB PIROCH “The abbot . . . must be chaste, sober and merciful, ever preferring mercy to justice, that he himself may obtain mercy. Let him hate sin and love the brethren. And even in his corrections, let him act with prudence, and not go too far, lest . . . the vessel be broken. Let him keep his own frailty ever before his eyes, and remember that the bruised reed must not be broken . . . and let him study rather to be loved than feared.”St. Benedict of Nursia, the St. Benedict who invented the Rule and co-patron of Europe with Saints Cyril and Methodius, was the pontifical patron saint chosen by our dear departed Pope Emeritus…Continue Reading