March: Saint Joseph

March is the month for Saint Joseph and I thought it would be good to have a novena prayed for fathers. 
Intention: For the spiritual and physical welfare of our fathers (living and dead) and for all priests who have celebrated Mass at our chapel.

Here is the prayer which should be started 3/1:
 

Glorious St. Joseph, foster-father and protector of Jesus Christ! To you do I raise my heart and hands to implore your powerful intercession. Please obtain for me from the kind Heart of Jesus the help and graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I ask particularly for the grace of a happy death, and the special favor I now implore (name it).

Guardian of the Word Incarnate, I feel animated with confidence that your prayers in my behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God.

V. O glorious St. Joseph, through the love you bear to Jesus Christ, and for the glory of His name,
R. Hear my prayers and obtain my petitions.
 

All Saints Day

 

1. 

I Want My Money Back

Read in full here.

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Vatican City
January, 2016
Dear Holy Father
I am a Jew. I have the assurance, as did Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, of direct descent from King David on my father’s side (my mother, I was assured was descended of Hillel).
I am 74-years-old. I converted to the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 17 in the last year of the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. I did so because I was under the conviction that I had to accept and have faith that Jesus Christ was my savior, and I believed it. And I believed that I had to be a baptized member of his Church to have a chance of salvation. So I converted and was baptized in the Catholic Church, and then I was confirmed.
Over the years I have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to both Peters’ Pence (the pope’s own treasury about which you of course must be very familiar), and my local parish and diocese.
During that time I attended thousands of Masses, hundreds of holy hours and novenas, said thousands of rosaries, and made hundreds of trips to the Confessional.
Now in 2015 and 2016 I have read your words and those of your “Pontifical Commission.” You now teach that because I am a racial Jew, God’s covenant with me was never broken, and cannot be broken. You don’t qualify that teaching by specifying anything I might do that would threaten the Covenant, which you say God has with me because I am a Jew. You teach that it’s an unbreakable Covenant. You don’t even say that it depends on me being a good person. Logically speaking, if God’s Covenant with me is unbreakable, then a racial Jew such as I am can do anything he wants and God will still maintain a Covenant with me and I will go to heaven.
Your Pontifical Commission wrote last December, “The Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews…it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.”
You are the Pontiff. I believe what your Commission teaches under your banner and in your name, and what you declared during your visit to the synagogue in January. As a result, I no longer see any point in getting up every Sunday morning to go to Mass, say rosaries, or attend the Rite of Reconciliation on Saturday afternoon. All of those acts are superfluous for me. Predicated on your teaching, I now know that due to my special racial superiority in God’s eyes, I don’t need any of it.
I don’t see any reason now as to why I was baptized in 1958. There was no need for me to be baptized. I no longer see why there was a need for Jesus to come to earth either, or preach to the Jewish children of Abraham of his day. As you state, they were already saved as a result of their racial descent from the Biblical patriarchs. What would they need him for?
In light of what you and your Pontifical Commission have taught me, it appears that the New Testament is a fraud, at least as it applies to Jews. All of those preachings and disputations to the Jews were for no purpose. Jesus had to know this, yet he persisted in causing a lot of trouble for the Jews by insisting they had to be born again, they had to believe he was their Messiah, they had to stop following their traditions of men, and that they couldn’t get to heaven unless they believed that he was the Son of God.
Your holiness, you and your Commission have instructed me in the true path to my salvation: my race. It’s all I need and all I have ever needed. God has a covenant with my genes. It’s my genes that save me. My eyes are open now.
Consequently, you will be hearing from my lawyer. I am filing suit against the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. I want my money back, with interest, and I am seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the psychological harm your Church caused me, by making me think I needed something besides my own exalted racial identity, in order to go to heaven after I die.
I am litigating as well over the time that I wasted that I could have spent working in my business, instead of squandering it worshipping a Jesus that your Church now says I don’t need to believe in for my salvation. Your prelates and clerics told me something very different in 1958. I’ve been robbed!
Sincerely,
Pinchus Feinstein
2617646 Ocean View Ave.
Miami Beach, Florida 33239
P.S. I’m transmitting this letter to Hoffman, an ex-AP reporter from New York, in the expectation that he will bring it to the attention of those who should know about it. I am transmitting it to him in the form of a dream, but nevertheless, it represents the feelings of many victims of your robber Church.—Pinch

Mothers, Wives, Sisters, Daughters Do You Meet This In Church and In Public?

"A dress cannot be called decent which is cut deeper than two fingers breadth under the pit of the throat; which does not cover the arms at least to the elbows; and scarcely reaches a bit beyond the knees.  Furthermore, dresses of transparent materials are improper."

The Cardinal Vicar of  Pius XI

Sometimes we all need a good reminder.

When You Just Can't Sit Down And Read....

I was talking with a lady after Mass today and we were discussing how we could continue throughout the week with Christ more and more in our thoughts and actions. I mentioned to her that I had found this website with links to various books in both written and audio format.
These books are recorded chapter to chapter so you can listen to one chapter at a time and even listen to the same chapter a few times.  I have been using books and sermons via audio; at my place of employment, when I am cooking meals, getting ready for work/Mass, or working on my monthly budget and bills.



This one is St. Bonaventure:


Here is the full link to all sorts of audiobooks and online books:


Let me know if you attempt this and how it works for you!

St. John of the Cross

"Withdraw from creatures if you desire to preserve, clear and simple in your soul the image of God. Empty your spirit and withdraw far from them and you will walk in divine lights, for God is not like creatures."

As We Near Lent

The Sum of Perfection

By: Saint John of the Cross

Forgetfulness of created things,

remembrance of the Creator,

 attention turned toward inward things,

 and loving the Beloved.

Kindness

By: Father Lovasik
Part 1
The Blessings of Kindness

" When your soul cherishes a gracious thought, it is as if God saw His own being reflected in a silent, sacred likeness. A kind thought is like the image of the Savior in your soul. God beholds it and rejoices at it and blesses your soul because your thoughts and sentiments are so much after His own Heart."

Lent and the Spirit of Sacrifice

Read Full Article Here

Whatever sacrifices we make, we must always keep in mind the way a Catholic should do penance.  We must be balanced in our approach. We should challenge ourselves and push ourselves to do a little extra.  It should be a sacrifice.  But we must also not bite off more than we can chew.  One of the most important parts of our Lenten mortification must be the ability to persevere through the entire season and if we take on too much, then human nature will all too often cause us not to cut back a little, but rather fall away from almost all the sacrifices together. Then we are back to doing just the minimum or, God forbid, no sacrifice at all.  It would be better to offer a little and persevere than to offer a lot and fail to complete our Lent.

Lenten Promises

Just a snippet of my Lenten Promises this year.

1. Spiritual reading and prayer each night with Hubby.
2. Keep Lenten fast.
3. Stations of the Cross once per week.
3. No television/internet (except blog, email, work, bookstore stuff) Monday through Thursday.

Do you have any ideas to share?

Thoughtful Thursday.....A Page From My Mamma

As we celebrate the glorious Feast of Our Blessed Mother's Assumption, I can't help but reflect upon my own little mamma.  I think we forget what a blessing it is to grow up with Catholic parents- especially when one parent comes from generations of Catholicism. So, I would like to present a list of little sayings/devotions that have stayed with me all of these years.

1. Never cross your legs in church.

2. If you can't make it to Mass- you can't make it anywhere.

3. We don't listen to music during Lent.

4. Young ladies (unmarried) wear white mantillas in church.

5. You sit with your family, sing in choir or (if a boy) serve at Mass. You do not sit with your friends.

6. Church is for offering worship to God- not socializing. You do not go to church for your friends-you go for Christ.

7. Offer your crosses  up for poor souls in purgatory.

8. Be modest and clean in your dress/appearance.

Sisters, can you think of any?