First Sunday Of Advent

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"When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming."

(CCC524)


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Are We Too Embarrassed To Pray Before Meals In A Restaurant?

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When dining out at a restaurant, do we say Grace, making the Sign of the Cross before and after praying? Or are we more concerned about the people who may laugh at us? Perhaps if they see us Crossing ourselves in public they will be emboldened enough to do it themselves next time. 

Chris

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Healing Ministry

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We must be compassionate and pray for those who are sick and suffering; mentally, physically, as well as spiritually. Never boast if God answers your prayers. Rather praise Him and give Him thanks for His great glory! When He doesn't answer your prayers, know that healing belongs to God alone and not to man and give Him thanks for His great glory. After all, their healing may have come interiorly and not exteriorly. 

Chris

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Happy Thanksgiving !!!!!!!

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I'm going to stay hidden for the next couple days.

Pace e Bene my Brothers and Sisters !!!!!

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The Tau Is Our Franciscan Symbol

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The first recorded reference to the TAU is from Ezekiel 9:4, "Go through the city of Jerusalem and put a TAU on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it." The TAU is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet and looks very much like the letter "T". 

 

At the Fourth Lateran Council, on November 11, 1215, Pope Innocent made reference to the TAU and quoted the above verse in reference to the profaning of the Holy Places by the Saracens. It is widely accepted that St. Francis was present at the Fourth Lateran Council and that he heard the words of Pope Innocent III when he said, "The TAU has exactly the same form as the Cross on which our Lord was crucified on Calvary, and only those will be marked with this sign and will obtain mercy who have mortified their flesh and conformed their life to that of the Crucified Savior. From then on, the TAU became Francis' own coat of arms. 

Francis used the TAU in his writings, painted in on the walls and doors of the places where he stayed, and used it as his only signature on his writings. 

 

St. Bonaventure said, "This TAU symbol had all the veneration and all the devotion of the saint: he spoke of it often in order to recommend it, and he traced it on himself before beginning each of his actions." 

Thomas of Celano, another Franciscan historian writes, "Francis preferred the Tau above all other symbols: he utilized it as his only signature for his letters, and he painted the image of it on the walls of all the places in which he stayed." 

 

In the famous blessing of Brother Leo, Francis wrote on parchment, "May the Lord bless you and keep you! May the Lord show His face to you and be merciful to you! May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace! God bless you Brother Leo!" Francis sketched a head (of Brother Leo) and then drew the TAU over this portrait.

THE TAU AS OUR FRANCISCAN SYMBOL

Where did the TAU come from and what does it mean? (Rhymes with "How") Simply and basically, the TAU represents the Cross. It is also the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. However, the two major influences on Francis concerning the TAU were the Antonians and the Fourth Lateran Council. 

St. Francis borrowed the TAU and what it meant to him from the Antonians. They were a religious community of men founded in 1095 whose sole function was to care for lepers. They were disbanded as an Order by the Church in the 1500's because leprosy was no longer a problem and many of the religious orders had fallen into Theological problems. On their habit was painted a great TAU cross. Francis was very familiar with these men because they staffed the leper house in Assisi and the hospital of St. Blase in Rome where Francis went to stay. This is now the church of San Francisco A Ripa. 

Every time you see St. Anthony, "the Abbot or Hermit" in art, he is portrayed with the TAU. 

St. Francis was exposed to the TAU through the direct influence of the Antonians, but the greatest influence of all that made the TAU so dear to Francis, whereby it became his signature, was the Fourth Lateran Council. 

Pope Innocent III opened the Council on November 11, 1215, with these words: "I have desired with great desire to eat this Passover with you." (Luke 22-15.) Innocent announced that for him, for the Church, and for every Catholic at the time, the symbol they were to take as the sign of their Passover was the TAU Cross. 

He incorporated into his homily the statement from Ezekiel (9:4) that the elect, the chosen, those who are concerned will be marked with the sign of the TAU. He explained that this Passover is a three-fold Passover. 

Every Catholic must be involved in this triple Passover: A Corporal Passover, a Spiritual Passover and an Eternal Passover. 

These became some of the most precious themes of Francis' preaching. He must have taken them so deeply to heart that when Pope Innocent III ended his homily with "BE CHAMPIONS OF THE TAU", Francis evidently took that as a personal statement and made the TAU his own symbol: a symbol for his order, his signature, painted it everywhere, and had great devotion to it for the rest of his life. 

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Taxes

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It is not lawful to take the things of others to give to the poor. It is a sin worthy of punishment, not an act deserving a reward, to give away what belongs to others.

St. Francis of Assisi
Admonitions To The Bretheren



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Class Warfare

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"We have no right to judge the rich. For our part, what we desire is not a class struggle but a class encounter, in which the rich save the poor and the poor save the rich." 

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

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Showing Love

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Giving away money does not show love. Giving away love shows love. 

Chris

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We Should Not Involve Ourselves With Contentious Bickering

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Every person has their own opinions. We should leave them there and not involve ourselves with contentious bickering. If we stand in God's graces and respect His ways, we will more easily be able to do this. 

Chris

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Being Filled With God

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Do you want to be filled with God? Then the first thing you have to do is empty yourself of yourself so that you can make room for Him. The more we empty ourselves, the more room there is for Him to come in. How do we do that? Only through humility are we able to empty ourselves completely so that God can then fill us completely. 

Chris

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Solitude...Silence...Stillness

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Solitude, silence and stillness help us connect to God, but he doesn't intend for us to hoard them. Rather, we are to share them with the world. The genius of the Franciscan Movement is that it balances quiet meditation with preaching. Intimacy with God builds up a foundation through which we discover intimacy with our brothers and sisters in Christ! 

Chris

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Being Alone

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Dickson Old Church Edzell, Scotland

"We seem so frightened today of being alone that we never let it happen... We choke the space with continuous music, chatter, and companionship to which we do not even listen. It is simply there to fill the vacuum. When the noise stops there is no inner music to take its place."  

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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The Breviary Originated From The Franciscans

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Franciscans are itinerant ministers called to travel throughout the world preaching repentance and penance. At first, in the early thirteenth century, this exempted them from praying the Office of the Hours in a church or monastery. Also, the complete Office of the Hours was very large and bulky, consisting of several volumes of books, making it impossible to carry them all around when walking from town to town. Therefore, they developed a briefer version of the Office of Hours called the Breviary. As the friars carpeted Europe they spread the use of the Breviary throughout the entire Church. ~ Fra Chris

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"Stations of the Cross" Originated From The Franciscans

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 FUS students praying at the outdoor Stations of the Cross on the 

campus of the Franciscan University of Steubenville

The emperor Constantine permitted Christians to legally worship in the Roman Empire in 313 after 250 years of persecution. In 335, he erected the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at the site where Jesus’ tomb was believed to have been. Processions of pilgrims to the church, especially during Holy Week, began soon after its completion.

Devotions to the Way of the Cross began in earnest after 1342, when the Franciscan friars were given custody of the holy sites in the Holy Land. The Franciscans have been closely identified with the devotion ever since; for years, Church regulations required a set of the stations to be blessed by a Franciscan when possible.

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"Why Everyone Should Be Baptized In The Holy Spirit" by Dr. Ralph Martin

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Blessing Bags

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Blessing Bags to keep in the car when you pass homeless people. Something special you can do with the kids to teach them about caring for others.


 INGREDIENTS

• band aids
• mouthwash
• coins or predetermined dollar amount, say 5.00 (could be used to make a phone call, or purchase a food item)
• hand wipes
• you could also put in a warm pair of socks
• a packet rain poncho
• tampons (for women)
•  Gallon size Ziplock bags
• chap stick
• packages of tissues
• toothbrush and toothpaste
• comb
• soap
• hotel size shampoos
• trail mix
• granola bars
• crackers
• pack of gum

The ideas could be endless!

 

 Assemble all the items in the bags, and maybe throw in a note of encouragement. Seal the bags and stow in your car for a moment of providence.

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Catholics Are Boycotting Peter's Pence

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Various workers in the Vatican Secretary of State diverted — or ripped off — approximately 400 million euros; that's almost $500 million from the account which administers Peter's Pence.

Let that sink in: half a billion dollars stolen. Those optics immediately look bad — really bad. Francis' "Church of the Poor" has high-level workers stealing from a pot intended to help the poor.

Catholics are closing their wallets to the Peter's Pence collection. The main reason is Pope Francis' controversial gift of a half a million dollars last April, drawn from the Peter's Pence collection, to the illegal immigrant caravan marching over the southern border of the United States.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "The purpose of the Peter's Pence Collection is to provide the Holy Father with the financial means to respond to those who are suffering as a result of war, oppression, natural disaster, and disease."

Catholics are also boycotting because they have noted who Francis did not see as deserving of a half a million dollar donation:

• Christians in Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria who have been persecuted, displaced from their homes and killed by Islamic jihadists
• Underground Catholics in China experiencing massive persecution at the hands of Communists bent on destroying the Church
• Victims of the suicide bombings on Easter Sunday 2019 in Sri Lanka by Islamic terrorists
• Christians in the Middle East and Africa terrorized, raped and killed by Boko Haram operatives.

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Psalm 63

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Book of Psalms

Psalm 63

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.

But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Douay Rheims Version of the Catholic Bible

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There Are So Few Contemplative Persons

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A man ought, therefore, to pass and ascend above everything created, and perfectly to forsake himself and in ecstasy of mind to stand and see that Thou, the Creator of all, infinitely transcendest all creatures.

And this is the reason why there are found so few contemplative persons, because there are few that wholly wean themselves from transitory and created things.

Thomas A' Kempis

The Imitation of Christ

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The New Evangelization

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What is the New Evangelization?

In the Thirteenth Century St. Francis of Assisi is credited with saying, “Preach the gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words,” so the “new evangelization” isn’t exactly new.

What’s changed then? Beginning with the papacy of John Paul II, church leadership has become increasingly concerned with a modern reality: secularism, particularly in the West. In response, John Paul II often talked about a need for a “new evangelization” to bring people back to the church to combat what Pope Benedict XVI later referred to as “the secularization process,” the declining power and position of the church in the historically Christian nations of Western Europe and the proliferation of positions in opposition to church teaching, such as the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, contraception, the death penalty, and lack of attention to the poor and marginalized.

New Evangelization efforts can be seen in the attempts to grow and sustain a Catholic community, which includes calling on all Catholics to share the gospel in their individual lives, creating Anglican ordinariates, establishing ongoing talks with the Society of St. Pius X to lift their excommunication, implementing changes to the liturgy, and instructing church organizations and institutions such as universities and charities to bolster their Catholic identity.

Some of the methods of the New Evangelization aren’t smiled upon by all in the church. Advocates of social justice and missionaries are concerned that an overemphasis on a Catholic identity can impede ecumenical work or even put missionaries in non-Christian nations at risk.

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November 25 - Feast Day Of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr

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According to the Legend of St. Catherine, this young woman converted to Christianity after receiving a vision. At the age of 18, she debated 50 pagan philosophers. Amazed at her wisdom and debating skills, they became Christians—as did about 200 soldiers and members of the emperor’s family, including his wife. All of them were martyred.

Sentenced to be executed on a spiked wheel, Catherine touched the wheel and it shattered. She was beheaded. Centuries later, angels are said to have carried the body of Saint Catherine to a monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

Devotion to her spread as a result of the Crusades. She was invoked as the patroness of students, teachers, librarians and lawyers. Catherine is one of the 14 Holy Helpers, venerated especially in Germany and Hungary.

COLLECT

Almighty ever-living God,
who gave Saint Catherine of Alexandria to your people
as a Virgin and invincible Martyr,
grant that through her intercession
we may be strengthened in faith and constancy
and spend ourselves without reserve
for the unity of the Church.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.


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