"The humbler the work, the greater should be your love and efficiency. Be not afraid of the life of sacrifice."
~Blessed Mother Teresa
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~Blessed Mother Teresa
The feast of St. Thomas the Apostle is of double rite and its liturgical colour is red. According to tradition St. Thomas preached the Gospel in Asia and the Indian sub-continent. He is believed to have founded, inter alia, the St. Thomas Christians on the West coast of India, one of several groups using the East-Syrian family of liturgies
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.All of us also experience some form of dryness in the spiritual life or doubting that our prayers will be heard. The words of St. Thomas, as many saints have taught, are incredibly helpful for our salvation. The exclamation of Thomas: "My Lord and My God" is one of the chief pieces of Scripture used to refute the heresy of Arianism. In those situations of spiritual dryness we should keep in mind the words of Thomas and Our Lord's reply to Him:
(Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
John 20:19-25
Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."Even though St. Thomas was not with the apostles when they received the power to forgive sins, he did receive that power at a later time. That leads many scholars to admit that the apostles passed the power down to him through the imposition of hands. This same power has been passed down even until the present era. Our bishops and priests have that power because of Jesus Christ. If you have never gone to Confession, I highly encourage you to experience the greatest source of forgiveness on this earth in the confessional.
John 20:26-29
Would you like background music added to this blog? I'm thinking of adding something that is in Latin.
I think I've given a fair amount of time for all of my readers to comment. Here are the results:
YES - 12 votes 40%
NO - 15 votes 50%
NO OPINION - 3 votes 10%
While Curves itself supports no one cause, Heavin himself is an avid Catholic with a firm belief in pro-life causes. Heavin matches the first $1,000 that each franchise raises for community causes such as walkathons to benefit pro-life pregnancy-care centers. In 2003, Heavin pledged one-million dollars (profit from Curves franchises and his two books on the Curves philosophy and phenomenon) to Care Net, a Christian organization that is pro-life and anti-Planned Parenthood (source)
In Spain, one of Europe’s most staunchly Catholic countries, large numbers of Catholics were butchered during the 1936-1939 Civil War solely for being Catholic. Unlike the martyrdom in most parts of the world, whole sectors of the religious community were liquidated. At least 6,832 priests and religious were martyred, including 13 bishops. In the 20th century, probably no country witnessed so much bloodshed among its clergy.
The male religious martyred included 259 Claretians, 226 Franciscans, 204 Piarists, 176 Brothers of Mary, 165 Christian Brothers, 155 Augustinians, 132 Dominicans, and 114 Jesuits. The toll among the female orders was lower, but still shocking when we recall that these women could have had virtually nothing to do with the political struggle: 30 Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, 26 Carmelites of Charity, 26 Adoratrices, and 20 Capuchins, along with many others.
Source: Catholic Herald
"The veneration of the Precious Blood of Our Divine Saviour is as old as the Passion in which it was shed. It is founded on the simple doctrine of the Incarnation, namely that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took a human nature to Himself, and that this human nature is the human nature of God. We call this the hypostatic union. Every part of Christ’s human nature is united to the second divine Person. This includes his Precious Blood, to which is consequently owed the adoration that is owed to God Himself, that of Latria. We consequently do not need any private revelation to tell us about devotion to the Precious Blood, but find it deeply rooted in the deposit of the Faith."