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Sue Cifelli

Christ in the Home - Part 1 - 0 views

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    "You are there, my God. I love You." It will take you no more time than that and all that you do will be much better done having such a help. And what help it is! Little by little, you will acquire the habit and you will finally be always aware of this sweet companion within yourself, this God of our hearts... Let us pray for each other that we may both keep this dear Guest of our souls loving company." If husband and wife were equally convinced of the living splendor their souls actually present, how the marital act, so holy to begin with, would become for them an act of divine faith, an act penetrated by the highest supernatural spirit. I want to meditate often on my baptism, and the mystery of the divine life in me. I want to become accustomed to treat myself as a living tabernacle of my Lord, to regard the companion of my life as the thrice holy shrine of the Divinity, for I know this to be a reality. The just live by faith. I want to live by faith. MARRIAGE AND THE MYSTICAL BODY CHRIST came to restore the divine life lost to us by sin. But how? He did not save us only by some act external to Himself as one might lay down a sum of money to ransom a slave but by incorporating us in Himself, by making all of us with Him a single organism. "I am the Vine, you are the branches." Christ is the Head, we the members and together we are the whole body, Christ. The aggregate of all the members, all the branches united constitutes the Church joined by an unbreakable bond to Christ, its Leader and Head. And Christian marriage will be . . . and will only be . . . but the symbol of this union of Christ with His Church, of the Church with its Head Saint. Paul at the end of his Epistle to the Christians at Ephesus gives no other rule of love and of security in their union to the married than the counsel to copy this union in their life. He says to wives. "Let women be subject to their husbands as to the Lord: because the husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of
Sue Cifelli

'Any time I've asked Padre Pio has helped' - Catholic Herald Online - 0 views

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    "They were so ecstatic, just over the moon with happiness and that is what makes this worthwhile." But Kathy says there are also sad moments. "You see people who have lost their loved ones, their children have run away. They have fallen away from their faith. They come here - the people who have had abortions, who have brain tumours - but they get solace and the strength to cope with it and there have been a lot of cures. The shop is open all day six days a week and it's just a constant point for many people where they know they can come and pray." Dog toys litter the floor of the shop and visitors need to beware of stepping on doggie tails. Jasper, the King Charles Spaniel, and Shannon, the German Shepherd cross, are as much part of the shop as Kathy and Padre Pio. A string of dogs have populated the shop over the years and visitors from abroad, returning after many years absence, come to see them as old friends. Kathy's father bred Kerry Blue terriers and she's always had dogs. Many of the people who visit the shop regularly come to see the dogs, not her, she says. When she arrived in London she was surprised that no one had heard of Padre Pio, who was still alive at the time. In Ireland, she says, everyone was aware of the miracle-working friar. Stella Lilley, who founded the Padre Pio Information Centre in the UK in 1972, knew a lot about the friar and Kathy started learning more. Eventually Stella was asked to open a Padre Pio shop to promote his Cause and Kathy, who was running a pub with her husband, helped her set it up. She never dreamed that she would be running it one day. In the 1990s Stella's husband became ill and she couldn't run the shop anymore. A buyer was found but he was going to get rid of Padre Pio. Kathy was horrified when she heard the news from a friend after Mass at Westminster Cathedral. How could the shop continue to run without Padre Pio? The shop was Padre Pio. Then someone suggested Kathy take on the challenge of the bookshop. Her
Sue Cifelli

Novena in Honor of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament - 0 views

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    NOVENA in HONOR of OUR LADY OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT FIRST DAY THE TITLE OF OUR LADY OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine Blessed be the holy and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God! O Virgin Immaculate, Mother of Jesus and our tender Mother, we invoke thee under the title of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, because thou art the Mother of the Savior who lives in the Eucharist, and because it was from thee that He took the Flesh and Blood with which He there feeds us! We invoke thee under that title because, again, thou art the sovereign dispensatrix of all graces and, consequently, of those contained in the august Eucharist, also, because thou didst first fulfill the duties of the Eucharistic life, teaching us by thy example how to assist properly at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, how to communicate worthily, and how to visit frequently and piously the Most Blessed Sacrament. V. Pray for us, O Virgin Immaculate, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament. R. That the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus Christ may come among us! Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, our King and our God, who having become Man to make us sharers in The Divinity, art truly our Bread in the adorable Eucharist, grant, we beseech Thee, that in venerating so great a Mystery, we may be mindful of the most sweet Virgin Mary, of whom Thou didst will to be conceived by the operation of the Holy Ghost! Grant, also that we may imitate the worship that she rendered while on earth to this most august Sacrament, so we may behold Thy Eucharistic Kingdom spread and flourish throughout the whole world! O Thou who livest and reignest forever and ever! Amen. PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT O Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the glory of Christians, the joy of the universal Church, and the hope of the world, pray for us. Kindle in all
Sue Cifelli

Prayers in Time of Suffering - 0 views

  • Why God Gives US Problems Hope this will help you to see opportunities behind the threats! Why God Gives Us Problem? LIFE IS A SERIES OF PROBLEM-SOLVING OPPORTUNITIES. 1. God uses problems to DIRECT you. 2. God uses problems to INSPECT you. 3. God uses problems to CORRECT you. 4. God uses problems to PROTECT you. 5. God uses problems to PERFECT you. The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you -- depending on how you respond to them. Unfortunately most people fail to see how God wants to use problems for good in their lives. They react foolishly and resent their problems rather than pausing to consider what benefit they might bring. Here are five ways God wants to use the problems in your life: 1. God uses problems to DIRECT you. Sometimes God must light a fire under you to get you moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change. Is God trying to get your attention? "Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways." Proverbs 20:30 2. God uses problems to INSPECT you. People are like tea bags ... if you want to know what's inside them, just drop them into hot water! Has God ever tested your faith with a problem? What do problems reveal about you?"When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience." James 1:2-3 3. God uses problems to CORRECT you. Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It's likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch a hot stove. But you probably learned by being burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something ... health, money, a relationship... by losing it. "It was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws." Psalm 119:71-72 4. God uses problems to PROTECT you. A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious. Last year a friend was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem, but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when management's actions were eventually discovered."You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good." Genesis 50:20 5. God uses problems to PERFECT you. Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. God is far more interested in your character than our comfort. Your relationship to God and your character are the only two things you're going to take with you into eternity. "We can rejoice when we run into problems ... they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady." Romans 5:3-4 Here's the point: God is at work in your life even when you do not recognize it or understand it. But it's much easier and profitable when you cooperate with Him! ~~by Mena Haryanto
Sue Cifelli

Is the pope Catholic? - 1 views

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    Is the pope Catholic? 20 Comments Written by Tony Woodlief December 22, 9:49 AM John Allen, senior correspondent for The National Catholic Reporter, offered in Friday's New York Times a moderating interpretation of the Vatican's recent statement, "Dignity of a Person." Allen's concern is that conservative Catholics will view the statement, which condemns embryonic stem cell research among other scientific tinkerings with human life, as a call to arms against a decidedly pro-abortion incoming American president. "Call to arms" is hyperbole, but it pales in comparison to Allen's rhetoric, which claims that Pope Benedict XVI's latest document on life "risks being read as encouragement for the most ardent pro-life forces in America to let slip the dogs of war." He also frets that the pope's document "may be the political equivalent of shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theater." To counteract all this dog unleashing and theater shouting, Allen counsels the pope to find some way to "mobilize those Catholics who hope to build bridges." He doesn't want "strategic silence" on abortion, he says, but this rings a bit hollow after extended hand-wringing at the damage done by vocally Catholic pro-life leaders. Perhaps Allen isn't advocating strategic silence, but he does seem to call for less forceful talk. After all, if the pope says something that convinces Catholics that abortion is truly evil, we might "unleash the dogs of war." By all means, Pope Benedict, don't be strategically silent, but on the other hand, would you mind toning it down a bit? It's the kind of false verbal parsing one expects out of a congressional office. In effect, what Allen is asking is for the pope not to be Catholic. Or at least that he be less conspicuously so out of consideration for the tender American situation, which is fascinating insofar as Allen begins his essay by noting that Americans comprise only 6 percent of the global Catholic populat
Sue Cifelli

Conference attendees experience chills - The Daily Collegian Online - 0 views

  • "The devil is a big trickster. Sometimes when we believe in the devil, he is everywhere," said Lebar, a Catholic exorcist.
  • "Father Lebar said you don't have to have faith in Jesus -- just faith, which is something most priests don't say," Mike Green (senior-archaeology) said.
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