Search Page
Showing 101 - 120 of 221
There are all sort of trials that must be faced by Christians who are trying to be faithful. This should not surprise us. Christ was not surprised by the jeering crowds who lined the streets of Jerusalem as He staggered along the road the Calvary.
A Christian marriage, lived as it should be lived, is like a lamp set on a hill, for society; a sacramental union full of grace. It provides a loving home for children who are not rejected by contraceptive use or abortion; it is a place of care for elderly relations, provides warmth for the lonely, and is an example to all of love and compassion.
A Christian marriage, lived as it should be lived, is like a lamp set on a hill, for society; a sacramental union full of grace. It provides a loving home for children who are not rejected by contraceptive use or abortion; it is a place of care for elderly relations, provides warmth for the lonely, and is an example to all of love and compassion.
A Christian marriage, lived as it should be lived, is like a lamp set on a hill, for society; a sacramental union full of grace. It provides a loving home for children who are not rejected by contraceptive use or abortion; it is a place of care for elderly relations, provides warmth for the lonely, and is an example to all of love and compassion.
We must not worry if we cannot always 'compose' ourselves for prayer, or must pray in a hospital bed or a railway carriage. Christ's greatest prayer, the most beautiful, was prayed from the Cross, when He surrendered to the Father's Will, in death, in love and obedience.
Christ asked me to place two pictures side by side in a new published card, so that people can see that the prayer He offers, as our High-Priest, from the sanctuary at Mass, is the very same sacrificial prayer and offering that He once offered from the Cross.
For a life that is truly worthwhile we need faith in God, trust in His goodness and power, and in the merits of Jesus' Passion and death. Even a person stranded on a desert island, with no-one in sight, is connected to God the Father, through Jesus, and to the Saints and Angels of Heaven, and to the Catholic Church throughout the world, as long as he has faith. We must do all we can to make that faith grow.
When Christ was in the Upper Room, praying before His Passion, He was praying in the Holy Spirit to His Heavenly Father. The Three are One God, distinct Persons but undivided; and we should remember that salvation is the work of the Holy Trinity. The Father's goodness, the Son's obedience and the Spirit's power have made our salvation possible.
When Christ was in the Upper Room, praying before His Passion, He was praying in the Holy Spirit to His Heavenly Father. The Three are One God, distinct Persons but undivided; and we should remember that salvation is the work of the Holy Trinity. The Father's goodness, the Son's obedience and the Spirit's power have made our salvation possible.
Men in storybooks have undertaken long journeys to prove their love for a princess. Christ has undertaken the longest journey of all, to prove His love for Mankind. He descended from the heights of glory in Heaven, not just to Earth, but to the bottom of the dungeon in which He huddled, bleeding and deserted, during His Passion.
Christ was paraded by His captors before jeering crowds; yet He accepted without hatred or impatience the humiliating treatment he received because of His words. He let nothing stop Him from His mission to show out His Divine nature and to rescue us from our sins. We cannot repay Him for all He suffered to bring truth and salvation to the world; but we give joy to Him when, in gratitude, we show love towards Him and our neighbour.
Christ was paraded by His captors before jeering crowds; yet He accepted without hatred or impatience the humiliating treatment he received because of His words. He let nothing stop Him from His mission to show out His Divine nature and to rescue us from our sins. We cannot repay Him for all He suffered to bring truth and salvation to the world; but we give joy to Him when, in gratitude, we show love towards Him and our neighbour.
Christ spoke to me about the devout remembrance of His Passion which has been made by so many of His followers during the past two thousand years. He said, about the 'Stations of the Cross' which I had just prayed, "You comfort my heart by your devotion". From the Cross, He could see and hear His friends of future ages comforting Him, including ourselves today.
Through prayer, especially through the cycle of the Church's Liturgical prayer, we can enter the Mysteries of Christ's earthly life. At each of the feasts of His life we can address Him in that event, and benefit from the graces He won for us, in it. Simple people who pray to the 'infant Jesus' have an instinctive knowledge of this truth.
When people show true kindness and compassion towards the sick, disabled, injured or dying, and care for them tenderly until God choose to call the sick person away from earthly life, they show respect for life; and they show out God's love which is in their hearts.
The faith of Catholics is not based on a theory, or a calculation, but a Person. It's as if a special person has been sent in a capsule from outer space! Some people picture the many religions, sects and cults as being like goods in a shop. We survey the shelves until we find the one that suits us - we are told. Christianity is different. We are given, above all, a Person: the Divine Person who gave Himself to us, in our world, as a baby. He lived, taught, grew up, was killed, and rose from the dead, so proving His power, and making a way back to Heaven for all who would repent of sin and follow Him.
Christ bore horrible insults in His Passion, as He was mocked by the soldiers for His preaching, His claim to be the Son of God, His Galilean background, and also His purity and innocence.
When a 'child of God' offers in conversation not words of charity or compassion, but malicious gossip or salacious comments, that soul is like a holy shrine from which now emerges no spring, no living water of grace, but from which oozes drops of evil-smelling puss. Such a serious infection needs powerful help.
As Jesus's Sacred Body was carried in a Monstrance past the crowd, at the prayer festival, I saw Jesus walking amongst us, happy to be amongst a different sort of crowd from the one that first called 'Hosanna', on seeing Him, but then rejected Him, and shouted 'Crucify Him'.
Just as Christ is no longer a poor carpenter, but our Radiant Saviour, and King of Heaven, so His ever-Virgin Mother, Mary most holy, is no longer a lowly peasant woman but is the Queen of Heaven. There, everyone praises the Father not only for Christ's love and compassion, but also for the amazing purity-of-soul of Christ's Virgin Mother, and for her humility and courage.
Showing 101 - 120 of 221