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"Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return." This life is a pilgrimage to our eternal destination whether you realize you are on it or not. The goal should always be to journey towards our true home--Heaven. I pray that you live the faith boldly this Lent and travel well. Have a blessed Ash Wednesday.
Continue ReadingYou all know that I'm a convert and that my cradle Catholic husband and I fought a lot in our early years of marriage on whether to be Catholic or Protestant. I had such a hard heart during those years. For one, I thought I knew everything about Christianity, which is so laughable, because I barely, if ever, read the Bible, I had a Sunday-class level of understanding of the Faith, and I really didn't go to church. I thought Catholics were a small, cultish group of Marian worshippers, so that was the extent of my understanding of Catholicism. Because of my hard heart, I just could not understand anything my husband was saying to me when he would try to explain the Catholic Faith. His words just ricocheted off my forehead. Nothing was getting in. It's like where Jesus asks his disciples today in Mark, "Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?" So, I had this one Sunday when we were attending Mass where I decided that I was going up to receive Communion even though I wasn't Catholic. Nobody was gonna tell me what to do. As soon as I consumed the Eucharist, I felt sick. I went back to my pew utterly bewildered at what just happened. For me, it was just a symbol. If that was true, why did I feel awful? It was in that moment that the ice around my heart started to melt. I vowed never to take the Eucharist again without being Catholic and I started researching and trying to understand the Church's teachings on Holy Communion and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The second I "got" it, I knew I had to become Catholic immediately. It's not that I figured the mystery of the Eucharist out completely, it's that I came to understand that Christ was serious when He said, "This is My Body; This is my Blood." I realized that everything Christ did had to be elevated over what foreshadowed Holy Communion in the Old Testament. It could never be equal to and, most certainly, it could never be less than. It is impossible to understand anything with a hard heart, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank God that He finds ways to break through. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Tuesday. *St. Rose Catholic Church, Lone Pine, CA
Continue ReadingAlthough George Washington was never a Catholic, his belief in religious freedom made him a friend to Catholics. An Anglican--or Episcopalian until his death--he did attend services of different churches in order to show religious tolerance. While in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress, he attended Mass at St. Mary's. St. Mary's is the second oldest Catholic Church in Philly. He, also, helped to support the building of a Catholic Church in Baltimore and in Alexandria. The church in Alexandria is the Basilica of St. Mary where my family attended daily Mass on Fridays when we were stationed in Virginia. In addition, Washington had a friendly and positive relationship with Bishop John Carroll, the first bishop of the United States. In March of 1790, Bishop Carroll wrote a letter to Washington on behalf of Catholics in America. Washington responded with a letter to Catholics, dated March 1790. In it, he wrote: "I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishment of their Revolution, and the establishment of their Government: or the important assistance which they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic faith is professed." There's your President's Day history lesson, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a blessed day!
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