Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia;
Quiz quem meruisti portare, alleluia,
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia:
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.
“Pray the rosary everyday!”

The hidden heroes who help us know the Holy Spirit
on 05/18/24
So many unseen ministries work together to strengthen the life of the Church and help us all feel the movement of the Holy Spirit.
As we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit in such a powerful way on Pentecost, I want to take a minute to thank those who help us to feel the movement of the Spirit through their ministries.
Some of these are obvious, of course, such as priests who bring us the living water of God’s grace through the Sacraments.
But many go unseen and unheralded, yet they do so much to help us know and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Recently I read about the ways that we know the Holy Spirit in the Catechism, which explains how self-effacing is the Holy Spirit:
“No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” Now God’s Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself. The Spirit who “has spoken through the …Mais

Sábado, 18 de mayo de 2024 19:15
Misa, en español, en la Capilla de las Apariciones de Fátima

Do we make God’s name holy in the Lord’s Prayer?
on 05/17/24
When we say, "Hallowed by thy Name," are we the ones who are "making" God's name holy? Or do the words mean something else?
In the English language, we recite the Lord’s prayer by saying the following words, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
Even though we live in the 21st century, Catholics still use the old English word hallow meaning “holy.” It is the same as the word “saint,” which comes from the Latin sanctus.
Most recently the word has become a brand in the Hallow app, which is one of the most downloaded prayer and meditation apps on the app store.
In the context of the Lord’s Prayer, our use of the word can be confusing, as it can appear that we are the ones making God’s name holy.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church helps clarify this phrase in its section on the Lord’s Prayer. The term “to hallow” is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy),…Mais

Will new Vatican norms on apparitions affect Medjugorje?
05/17/24
Many shrines are founded on presumed supernatural phenomena. New Vatican norms aren't intended to apply to them, except in problematic cases such as Medjugorje.
With the Note published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith with the Pope’s assent, the Church has acquired a new instrument to guide the faithful in cases of alleged supernatural phenomena. This will enable it to respond more effectively to questions that may arise concerning an alleged apparition of the Virgin Mary, a purportedly weeping statue of Christ, or the unexplained presence of blood on a host.
Cardinal Victor Fernández, prefect of the dicastery, explained at a press conference in the Vatican that many of the shrines most frequented by the faithful had their origin in phenomena of this type. “In many cases, these phenomena have developed correctly and normally,” he stressed.
The Argentine cardinal cited the case of the Marian shrines of …Mais

viernes, 17 de mayo de 2024 19:15
Misa, en español, en la Capilla de las Apariciones de Fátima

Is heaven a physical place where God lives?
While it can be easy to think of heaven as a physical place where God lives on a throne, the Catholic view of Heaven is much different.
Partially influenced by ancient Roman and Greek mythology, Christians can often think of heaven as a physical location and sometimes point to it in the clouds.
In Western culture its common to imagine heaven as a place where God lives, looking down at us from his white throne.
Yet, the Catholic Church teaches that heaven is not a physical place.
What is heaven?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reflects on the nature of heaven in its section on the Lord’s Prayer:
This biblical expression [Who art in heaven] does not mean a place (“space”), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not “elsewhere”: he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart. CCC 2794 …Mais

AND TODAY WE CELEBRATE...SAINT OF THE DAY
Saint of the Day: St. Brendan “the Navigator”
Abbot (ca. 486-575)
His life
+ Brendan was born near Tralee, Ireland, and educated by Erc, the bishop of Kerry.
+ After becoming a monk, Brendan established new dmonasteries in Clonfert, Annadown, Inishadround, and Ardfert. He is also said to have founded abbeys in Scotland and Wales.
+ Saint Brendan died at the abbey of Clonfert in 575 and he became one of the most popular Celtic saints. He is honored as one of the saints known as the “Twelve Apostles of Ireland.”
+ Devotion to Saint Brendan became widespread after the publication of a fantastic tale called The Navigation of Saint Brendan, which tells of a sea voyage Brendan undertook with a group of his monks to an island across the Atlantic Ocean called “the Land of Promise of the Saints.” + Some of the details of The Navigation of Saint Brendan may be based in fact, as it seems that Irish monks did travel to the Faro Islands and to Iceland. For …Mais

“Pray the rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.”
(First Apparition of Our Lady of Fátima– May 13, 1917)
Happy Feast Day

Would you like to offer yourselves to God to accept all the sufferings which He may send to you in reparation for the sins by which He is offended and for the conversionof sinners…
Our Lady of Fátima

Nossa Senhora de Fátima 13 de maio No dia 13 de maio de 1917 as três crianças, Lúcia, Jacinto e Francisca, estavam pastoreando nas colinas, quando sobre uma pequena árvore, surge um clarão e a figura "de uma Senhora vestida de branco, mais brilhante que o sol, reluzindo mais clara e intensa que um copo de cristal cheio de água cristalina, atravessado pelos raios de sol mais ardente". Lúcia, a mais velha, tinha dez anos, e os primos Francisco e Jacinta, nove e sete anos, respectivamente. Os três eram analfabetos. As crianças mudam radicalmente. Passam a rezar e a fazer sacrifícios diários. Relatam aos pais e autoridades religiosas o que se passou. Logo, uma multidão começa a acompanhar o encontro das crianças com Nossa Senhora. As mensagens trazidas por Ela pediam ao povo orações, penitências, conversão e fé. As aparições só começaram a ser reconhecidas oficialmente pela Igreja em 13 de outubro, quando sinais extraordinários e impressionantes foram vistos por todos no céu, principalmente …Mais

Did you know that you were adopted by God at Baptism?
05/13/24
Through the waters of Baptism, God the Father has adopted you as a son or daughter, pressing you close to his heart with his generous love.
As Christians, it can be easy to forget that we have been adopted into God’s family. This adoption has profound spiritual consequences that we may not always consider.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church comments on this reality in its section on the Our Father:
We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son:by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other “Christs.”
CCC 2782
St. Cyril of Jerusalem puts it this way: “God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called ‘Christs.'” …Mais

Fatima’s “Miracle of the Sun” as visualized by A.I. (Photos)
on 05/13/24
What did the “Miracle of the Sun” look like to eyewitnesses? Generating A.I. images of their accounts produces fascinating results, but we need to be cautious.
With the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima upon us, my mind turned to her apparitions at Fatima and particularly to the last one on October 13, 1917. It is only natural to think about what it would have been like to be among the tens of thousands gathered that day who saw the “Miracle of the Sun.”
Would it be possible, I wondered, to get some idea of what they saw using generative A.I.?
“Revelatory possibilities”
Not surprisingly, others have already pointed out this possibility. In their fascinating paper “Choreographing Shadows,” the scholars Mark Burchick and Diana Pasulka express enthusiasm for the “revelatory possibilities” that A.I. imaging tools present, particularly in regard to religious phenomena. It now becomes possible to create “images for which we …Mais