Walmart Bows to Pressure, Fills Morning After Pill

The company has announced that as of March 20, 2006, its 3,700 pharmacies will begin filling prescriptions for the morning after pill. This form of artificial contraception is opposed to the Catholic faith, and we as Catholics can not support its use.

I ask you to join me in writing to Walmart and voicing your opposition. Lent is a great time of year to stand up for our faith. Just write a short comment voicing your opposition to their decision.

Write to Walmart

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Prayer Intentions This Evening

Today we have celebrated the Holy Mass and received the Sacred Body and Blood of Our Savior, let us remember this joy as we sleep. Remember, we received the Bread of Angels - let us end the day in prayer.

O my God, at the end of this day I thank you most heartily for all the graces I have received from you. I am sorry that I have not made a better use of them. I am sorry for all the sins I have committed against you. Forgive me, O my God, and graciously protect me this night. Blessed Virgin Mary, my dear heavenly mother, take me under your protection. St. Joseph, my dear guardian angel, and all you saints of God, pray for me. Sweet Jesus, have pity on all poor sinners, and save them from hell. Have mercy on the suffering souls in purgatory.

Tonight's Intentions:

Since this is Lent I am trying to follow the Lenten calendar outlined by Operation Rice Bowl. I will be posting their prayer intentions onward now.

Tonight I pray for those in third world countries that went to bed hungry, and for the small business owners of their countries. May they be safeguarded and find work and food but also saved by Christ.

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Beautiful Churches

I've been wanting to post about this for awhile, but I haven't had a chance until today. We, as Catholics, have thousands of beautiful churches, cathedrals, and basilicas around the world. I want to share pictures of some of these.

Please comment below and leave links to information and pictures on some of your favorite Catholic Churches. Here's some of mine:

1. The Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, which houses St. Louise and St. Catherines' bodies.
2. The Basilica of St John Lateran
3. Holy Name Cathedral
4. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

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Cardinal George's Lenten Message

His Emminence, Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I of Chicago issued a very sentimental Lenten message for 2006.

Lent has begun. Last Wednesday we took the blessed ashes upon our foreheads and accepted the invitation of the Church to go into the desert with the Lord.

The desert is the place where Jesus prays and fasts to prepare for his public ministry. It was not the fasting sometimes fashionable today—dieting to have better health or a more attractive figure or to train for a sporting event.

Like Moses in the desert, the pious Jew of Jesus’ day would fast from earthly nourishment in order to become hungry for divine food, to become hungry for God. In the desert for 40 days, Jesus fasted to become empty in order to receive and carry out the will of his Father.

We, the followers of Jesus, need to fast to become free for God. The Church no longer has precise rules for substantial Lenten fasting, except for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and the result might be that we too easily drift through Lent and find at Easter that we have not made any serious effort. This is greatly to our spiritual loss and that of the Church.

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Image Source: Cardinal George Fan Club

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St. Catherine of Genoa

The feastday of St. Catherine of Genoa who lived from 1447-1510 is kept on March 22nd in some places. It is not on the Universal Calendar. And since it is during the Holy Season of Lent, it is often not commemorated. However, even despite the Lenten penance, we can find great inspiration in St. Catherine of Genoa for how to better conform our lives to Christ this Lenten season.

St. Catherine was born in the nobility as the youngest of five children in an era when only luxury and art mattered in Europe. However, at the age of 13, St. Catherine sought to become a nun. She was however denied because of her age. So, at the age of 16, immediately following her father's death, St. Catherine married a man named Julian. Julian was a cruel man that didn't provide for Catherine; his unfaithfulness nearly led them to bankruptcy.

It was not until Confession one day that St. Catherine realized how much Jesus loved her even though she sinned. This realization helped St. Catherine to immediately reform her life and in doing so Julian also left his self-centered life behind. St. Catherine shows us the necessity of Confession. St. Catherine even received the Stigmata.

St. Catherine and Julian worked together from that day to help the poor and suffering. They continued this until Julian's death in 1497. In 1493, St. Catherine of Genoa caught the plague yet she miraculously survived.

She was a mystic, visionary, and a writer. She died on September 15, 1510. She was canonized in 1737.

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St. Casimir of Poland

Optional Memorial (1969 Calendar): March 4
Semidouble (1955 Calendar): March 4

Today the Church remembers St. Casimir of Poland (1458-1483). He was born in 1458 third in the line to the throne of Poland. Yet, even his adolescence was filled with acts of penance including sleeping on the ground, spending a great part of the night in prayer, dedicating himself to lifelong celibacy. He lived for a penitential life for Christ. St. Casimir also had a devotion to Mary and a love for helping the poor.

At the age of fifteen, St. Casimir was made king of Hungaria, but he refused to exercise his intense power. His army was outnumbered and deserted because they were unpaid, so St. Casimir returned home. He once again took up intense prayer. He reigned as king briefly during his father's absence and remained celibate his entire life even when asked to marry the emperor's daughter.

St. Casimir died March 4, 1484 at the age of 26 in Grondo, Lithuania of tuberculosis.

Visit the Sisters of St. Casimir for more information

Prayer:

O God, Who didst strengthen holy Casimir with the virtue of constancy in the midst of royal luxury and the snares of the world: we beseech Thee, that by his intercession Thy faithful people may despise earthly things, and ever aspire to those of heaven. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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Mother Teresa Wisdom: March 3, 2006

Blessed Mother Teresa -

"Christ must be the light that shines through you, and the people looking at you must see only Jesus."

"You have a challenge from Jesus to meet: He has shed the light, and you will take His light and lighten every heart you meet."

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Cardinal Antonio Cañizares

The new Cardinal-elect from Toledo, Spain, Antonio Cañizares recently sat down for an interview.

Here is just a small portion:

"Q: A cardinal is he who sheds his blood for the Pope. What does this mean in the present-day context?

Archbishop Cañizares: To be a cardinal is reflected in the [red] color that implies giving witness with the Pope of the faith unto death, if necessary. It is to give witness of the living God and, with Peter, to confess that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, the only hope for the whole of humanity.

It implies living with the Pope, servant of servants, in a life of service and full commitment without any reservations, to spend oneself and exhaust oneself for the hard works of the Gospel, to lose one's life so that the world will believe.

It is to serve in communion, in unbreakable unity with the Successor of Peter; it is to defend the dignity of the injured and poor man, to give him to Jesus Christ.

It is a very beautiful mission, a grace to be able to be associated with the Holy Father in his ministry of confirming the faith, in his ministry of concern for all the Church and of love for all, with that love of which Benedict XVI has spoken to us so beautifully in his encyclical."

Read more on Zenit

Photo Source

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Papal Title "Patriarch of the West" Dropped

In what appears to be an effort to bridge the differences between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, Pope Benedict XVI has dropped the papal title "Patriarch of the West."

Vatican, Mar. 01 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI has dropped one of the traditional titles of the Roman Pontiff. Evidently hoping to eliminate one possible obstacle to ecumenical progress with the Orthodox world, the Holy Father has renounced the title "Patriarch of the West."

The Catholic News Service writes more...

I hope it is evident that the Pope is not just the Patriarch of the West but of the whole Universal Church - He is the Successor of the Chief of the Apostles, St. Peter, and is the leader of the flock of Jesus Christ.

The Pope's other titles remain the "Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of (Peter) the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, and Servant of the Servants of God."

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Words of Inspiration: March 3, 2006

Padre Pio: "Don’t be upset when you are unable to meditate, receive Communion or carry out all the pious practices. In the meantime, try to make up for this in different manner, by keeping yourself united to Our Lord with a loving will, with ejaculatory prayers and Spiritual Communions."

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