Antique Holy Cards by Thomas Craughwell

A few weeks ago I was happy to review Saints Behaving Badly by Thomas Craughwell for Double Day Publishing. Yesterday, I received a very interesting email from Thomas Craughwell, the popular Catholic author. Here is a part of the email that he sent me:

"While waiting for the book to come out, I started a sideline business with my family. Using antique holy cards from my own collection, I've started producing Christmas cards and blank note cards. If I do say so myself, they are pretty nice. Actually, they're gorgeous."

Here's the link to his site: www.antiqueholycards.com

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St. Leo the Great

Today is the Memorial of St. Leo the Great. See my article on him from last year for biographical information as well as a prayer for his intercession.

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Words of Inspiration: November 9, 2006

I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them to go out of themselves in order to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself." (Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity)

Make a little cell in your heart for Jesus of the Agony; take refuge there, when you hear Him outraged by men, try to make reparation; you, at least, love Him and keep your heart quite pure for Him. Oh! If you only knew how the good God love pure hearts! It is there that He loves to reign (Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity)

1 Peter 3:8-12

"Finally, all of you, be of one mind, sympathetic, loving toward one another, compassionate, humble. Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult; but, on the contrary, a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might inherit a blessing. For: 'Whoever would love life and see good days must keep the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking deceit, must turn from evil and do good, seek peace and follow after it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears turned to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against evildoers'" (NAB)

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Pope Benedict XVI Reminds the Faithful That Mortal Sin Leads to Damnation

Photo Source: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi (ITALY)

Nov. 06 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) reminded the faithful that mortal sin leads to damnation, in a sobering message at his Angelus audience on November 5.

The Pope devoted most of his Sunday audience to a reflection on the Christian understanding of death. An affluent society, he observed, often avoids the topic of death, but inevitably every mortal is brought face to face with this reality, which seems "radically hostile and contrary to our natural vocation to life and to happiness."

Through his redemptive suffering, the Pope continued, "Jesus revolutionized the meaning of death," making Christians realize that death is not a final end. Since the Resurrection, he continued, "death is not the same; it has been deprived of its sting."

However, the Holy Father remarked, there is a form of death that should be more fearsome to believers: the death of the soul in sin. "Indeed," said the Pope, "those who die in un-repented mortal sin, closed off from God's love by their prideful rejection, exclude themselves from the kingdom of life."

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This Week in Catholicism (November 6 - 12, 2006)

This week in Catholicism...

• Nov. 7th: Election Day (USA). Exercise you right to vote and, as Catholics especially, we sure to vote pro-life (see endorsements)
• Nov. 10th: Memorial of St. Leo the Great
• Nov. 11th: Memorial of St. Martin of Tours
• Nov. 11th: Veterans Day (USA) - a day to remember all of those that have given their lives for freedom.  88th Anniversary of Armistice Day

**A prayer for this week.***

With November being a time to pray for the faithfully departed, let us pray for the souls in purgatory. Look at my post called Prayers and scroll down to the section on prayers for the Holy Souls.

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Bad "Catholic" Websites that Catholics Need to Avoid

I have been meaning to create this post for quite some time. I wanted to put together a list of websites that claim to be "Catholic" but should never be supported by Catholics. I am using Catholic Culture's website reviews for some of the information. Please realize that these websites are generally opposed to the truth of the Faith. If you have a link to one of these websites on your blog/website, I strongly ask you to remove it in an effort for us all to promote the complete truth not a "watering down" of the Catholic Faith.

All links below are to the Catholic Culture review of the website; you may have to register (I believe it's free) to see the review by Catholic Culture. I do not want to post an actual link to the website since that is to be avoided.

• 8th Day Center For Justice - promotes liberation theology
• Association for the Rights of Catholics In the Church - errors include saying that promoting women's ordination is not heresy
• Call to Action - Excommunicated organization seeking to completely undermine Church teaching
• Catholic Women's Ordination - promotes women's ordination
• Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) - promotes contraception and abortion
• Dignity USA - undermines Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality
• Future Church - promotes women's ordination
• Georgetown Center for Liturgy - disobedient with the Vatican on the Liturgy
• Jubilee 2000 Our Lady of the Roses - promotes a condemned apparition
• Just for Catholics - created by Joe Mizzi, a fallen away Catholic and former seminarian, to lead Catholics away from the Church
• Leadership Conference of Women Religious - As Catholic Culture states: "The site is filled with antagonism toward the hierarchy and Church teachings, the emphasis on political activism in a secular humanist context, and feminist rhetoric."
• Maryknoll:  Their political activism fits in very well with their espousal of liberation theology. While it is logical that Maryknoll would care about the material needs of those in the countries that they serve, they are forgetting what they were founded for. Instead of bringing the Truth of Christ to the world, they are politicizing the poor.
• National Catholic Reporter - better named the National Catholic Distorter.
• North American Forum on the Catechumenate - Founded by Rev. James Dunning, a dissenter who does not believe the Eucharist is Jesus. The prayer book has dissenting resources.
• Pax Christi USA - Catholic Culture states: "They seem to care more about finding common ground with abortionists and the gay rights lobby than about working for true peace."
• Roses from Heaven - promotes condemned Bayside New York "apparitions"
• These Last Days Ministries - promotes condemned Bayside New York "apparitions"
• We are Church - a dissenting group following the "spirit of Vatican II"
  
• UnhealthyDevotions.com - This website seems at first to be offering information on a Novena to Saint Jude, but actually tries to sway the reader from saying novenas at all!
• ConsecrationVows.com - Website tries to claim that Saint Louis de Montefort's Total Consecration to Mary is essentially selling your soul to the devil 

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Ebay to Stop Selling Relics and Consecrated, Holy Objects

Update (2014): While Ebay has forbidden the selling of human remains, we need to continue our fight as the enemies of the faith are now selling relics (or fake relics) and calling them “pieces of human hair” since hair is allowed on Ebay.  Please join me in reporting all relics on Ebay and using the counterfeit/fake notation to notify Ebay.

Update: It appears Ebay no longer allows for the sale of consecrated hosts (the Eucharist) or other holy objects.

Catholic News Service has reported, that several Catholic's have petitioned America's online shopping mall, Ebay, to pan the selling of all relics. Why? First because it is a sin called 'simony' to sell or buy blessed objects, and relics are as Pius XII states, "blessed within themselves." So I encourage you to send an email to Ebay and stand up for what it right, for what is Catholic. The more people stand up, the better chance we have of victory. 

Write:

eBay Inc.
2145 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125

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St. Charles Borromeo

Memorial (1969 Calendar): November 4
Double (1955 Calendar): November 4

"If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness. We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and have no other view or end in all our actions but the divine honor." -- St. Charles Borromeo

St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) was born in 1538 to a noble family; he was a nephew of Pope Pius IV. St. Charles was made a Cardinal at the young age of 23, and he assisted the Pope in governing the Church. Soon thereafter St. Charles was made Archbishop of Milan. He is remembered for his efforts on behalf of the 19th Ecumenical Council of Trent (1545-1564). He then proceeded to enforce its decrees in the Archdiocese of Milan. During a plague he even walked barefooted in the public streets carrying a cross with a rope around his neck, offering himself as a victim to God for the transgressions of his people. He prayed the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin daily.

He was a model bishop and is the patron saint of seminarians. St. Charles Borromeo died on November 3, 1584.  His body is incorruptible.

Editae Saepe:

As We have already mentioned,[10] We are of the opinion that the shining example of Christ's soldiers has far greater value in the winning and sanctifying of souls than the words of profound treatises. We therefore gladly take this present opportunity to teach some very useful lessons from the consideration of the life of another holy pastor whom God raised up in more recent times and in the midst of trials very similar to those We are experiencing today. We refer to Saint Charles Borromeo, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Archbishop of Milan, whom Paul V, of holy memory, raised to the altar of the saints less than thirty years after his death. The words of Our Predecessor are to the point: "The Lord alone performs great wonders and in recent times He has accomplished marvelous things among Us. In His wonderful dispensation He has set a great light on the Apostolic rock when He singled Charles out of the heart of the Roman Church as the faithful priest and good servant to be a model for the pastors and their flock. He enlightened the whole Church from the light diffused by his holy works.

Encyclical of Pope Pius X promulgated on May 26, 1910.

Prayer:

Ever keep Thy Church, O Lord, we beseech Thee, under the abiding protection of St. Charles, Thy Confessor and Bishop: that as his watchful care over his flock won him glory, so his intercession may always make us fervent in Thy love. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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Pope Benedict XVI: All Saints and All Souls Day

All Saints Day Mass:


AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino

REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito
"To be holy it is not necessary to accomplish extraordinary acts nor possess exceptional gifts. It is simply necessary to serve Jesus, to listen to him and to follow him without losing courage faced with difficulties" (Benedict XVI's homily on the Solemnity of All Saints, November 1, 2006)

All Souls Day:

Pope Benedict XVI prayed before the tombs of several of his predecessors.


AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano


AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano


AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano

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Words of Inspiration: November 4, 2006

Archbishop Fulton Sheen:

“Our modern world has produced a generation of rich politicians who talk love of the poor, but never prove it in action, and a brood of the poor whose hearts are filled with envy for the rich and covetousness of their money. The rich who are humble help rather than use the poor to pave their way to power.”

Blessed Mother Teresa:

"Silence gives us a new outlook on everything. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us. Jesus is always waiting for us in silence. In that silence, He will listen to us; there He will speak to our soul, and there we will hear His voice."

St. Padre Pio:

"In order to aim at perfection it is necessary to do everything possible to please God, to try to avoid even the smallest fault, and to do everything else with more generosity."

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