Apparition of Mary In Wisconsin Approved

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Tre Cool! The first approved Apparition of Mary in the United States.

Bishop Ricken approves Marian apparitions at Shrine of Our Lady of         Good Help at Champion

GREEN BAY, Wis. (December 8, 2010) – Bishop David Ricken announced today that he officially approves the Marian apparitions at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion.

The announcement was made during a special Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion.

Reading from his decree, the Bishop stated, “I declare with moral certainty and in accord with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions and locutions given to Adele Brise in October of 1859 do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful.”

Today’s declaration makes Our Lady of Good Help at Champion the first and only site in the United States of an approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In October 1859, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared on three occasions to Adele Brise, a young Belgian immigrant. Brise stated that a lady dressed in dazzling white appeared to her and claimed to be the “Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners.” The Lady asked Brise to do the same, as well as to gather the children and teach them what they should know for salvation. The Blessed Virgin followed the commands with these words of assurance to Adele Brise, “Go and fear nothing, I will help you.” Read More here.

Posted in Blessed Virgin Mary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Immaculate Conception of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.  From today’s Gospel reading.

It has always made sense to me that Mary was concieved without the stain of original sin. Mary has to be ‘full of grace” in order to contain Jesus in her womb. Only a sacred vessel can possibly contain the second person of the Trinity.

Monsignor Pope has an excellent post On The Fittingness and Faithfulness of the Immaculate Conception.

Today I celebrate the second anniversary of my 28.5th birthday. It is something that I feel most unworthy of. I also feel unworthy of the many good, and generous, wishes posted on facebook. Thank you all!

Here is a little something from me to thee. A clip from one of my favorite movies The Song of Bernadette. The clip contains the moment when Bernadette reveals that the lady that appears to her said, I am the Immaculate Conception.


Posted in Blessed Virgin Mary | Leave a comment

Advent Retreat, 2nd Week in Advent With St. Alphonsus Liguori

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Finally I continue the retreat that I began here and here.

On Sunday, The Second Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist reminds us what the season is about.

John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea
and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:
A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.

“Advent is about preparing for eternity. St. Alphonsus explains that Salvation is our only duty.

Of all the things we have to do in our lifetime, the most important is to make sure we get to heaven when we die. This is our most important task, yet it is also the one most ignored and overlooked.

When people set out to acquire a good paying job or win a case in court, they are always very diligent and tireless in their efforts. They neither eat nor sleep until the issue is settled. But when it comes to saving souls, how do they act? On this subject, the greater number of Christians do little or nothing. They act as though death, judgment, heaven, hell, and eternity were not truths of faith, but tales told by idiots.”

Today, many Christians are certain that they are going to heaven. Hell is for other people. We forget that holiness is not the same as being nice. Holiness is imitating Christ.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.” (Mt. 16: 24-26)

If I am attached to my short life here on earth, I could very well loose the prize. The prize is eternal life in God’s kingdom. So if I love money and things and power and success and popularity above God and other people, I am in big trouble. It is not enough to believe. St. Augustine said that even the bad angels believed. Heck they more than believed; they knew with certainty that God exists.

They didn’t care. They choose to reign in hell rather than serve in heaven.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that we are all called to the same end: participation in the very life of God. To achieve this end we are called to live in truth and love. “Love of neighbor is inseparable from love of God.” (CCC 1879)

If we are living for our proper end, we will be called fools, or mindless sheep or bigots.

So be it.

St. Liguori writes,

“For us to acquire eternal glory, our life must be conformable to the life of Jesus . Hence we must be careful, on the one hand, to avoid the occasions of sin, and on the other, to use the means necessary to reach heaven. Some people want to be saved without difficulties or trouble.  But Saint Augustine wrote: The devil does not sleep, but works hard to make you lose your soul. Will you then continue to rest when your eternal salvation is at stake?

Well? Are you prepared?

Posted in Four Last Things | Tagged | 1 Comment

A Heroic American Priest In Mexico

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

“The Friars habit is not a bullet proof vest.”

With all of the media attention to the filth in the Church, as the Pope so rightly calls the Clergy sexual abuse  of children, we forget that our Church contains saints as well as sinners.

The Washington Post has a piece, American missionary brings solace to drug-torn Mexican region on a heroic  Capuchin Priest, Father Dave Beaumont,  who has been a missionary in Northern Mexico for over twenty years. He serves in midst of drug cartels and terrible violence to the poorest of the poor.

Excerpt:

“The region now produces billion-dollar crops of marijuana and heroin. The U.S. State Department estimates that marijuana cultivation increased 35 percent in the Sierra Madre last year, despite the Mexican military’s slash-and-burn eradication efforts and the United States’ $1.6 billion Merida regional anti-narcotics initiative. In a single, record-breaking bust in October, Mexican authorities seized 134 tons of marijuana in Tijuana – worth $340 million – some of it likely harvested here.

Hardscrabble Pimas still live in scattered, remote shacks, but in town there are brand-new pickup trucks and ATVs, and mansions going up with three-car garages and crenelated castle motifs. After harvest, the laborers are paid in U.S. dollars, and they fill the rough cantinas near the plaza. “They’ll spend a whole month drinking, and end up with nothing,” Beaumont said. “When you plant corn and beans, at least you have food. But when you work marijuana, your family goes hungry.”

Often it falls to Beaumont to remedy this, providing food and medical help and a dependable presence to children whose own fathers are dead, or missing, or too drunk. For hundreds of families, he is both a spiritual father and a surrogate one. “How are you, my children? I am so happy to see you,” he says wherever he arrives.

The son of a mathematician, Beaumont was an altar boy at 10 and joined the priesthood at 15, stirred by trips to St. Paul’s Cathedral in New York City. He was working as a missionary in South Central Los Angeles, helping Central American refugees, when his superiors in the Capuchin Order asked him to go to Yecora.

Today, Beaumont speaks four local indigenous languages, and English so seldom that his pronunciation has taken on a Mexican lilt. “David has dedicated his life to this place,” said Cesar Lozano, an apprentice friar on a one-year assignment to help Beaumont. “He embraces the people wherever he goes, and he does not judge them. He is completely devoted to Christ.”

Beaumont has also lived in the Sierra Madre long enough that he does not mention the cartels by name, nor speak out against growing marijuana and opium poppies. The friar’s habit is not a bulletproof vest.”

H/T Patrick Madrid

Posted in Catholic Church, Clergy, Holiness | 2 Comments

Saint of the Day: St. Ambrose

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Bishop, Father and Doctor of the Church. Today is the Memorial of St. Ambrose.

“St. Ambrose of Milan’s life (Sant Ambroggio de Milano in Italian) is a particularly fascinating story.  St. Ambrose was born around 339 in what is now France, the son of the Roman prefect of Gaul.  Following his his father’s footsteps, Ambrose embarked upon a career in law and politics and by 370 AD, he had become the Imperial governor of Northern Italy.  When the episcopal see of Milan became vacant in 374, the people demanded that Saint Ambrose be made their bishop.  The neighboring bishops and the Emperor convinced him to accept this call as the will of God, and so the catechumen Ambrose was baptized and ordained first deacon, then priest, then bishop, all in a single week!

This politician-turned churchman was profoundly aware of his lack of preparation for this great responsibility and so set himself immediately to prayer and the study of Scripture.  His deep spirituality and love of God’s Word married together with the oratorical skill acquired in law and politics made St. Ambrose one of the greatest preachers of the early church.”

Read more about St. Ambrose here.

Excerpt from today’s Office of Reading by St. Ambrose:

“The Church of the Lord is built upon the rock of the apostles among so many dangers in the world; it therefore remains unmoved. The Church’s foundation is unshakeable and firm against the assaults of the raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although the elements of this world constantly beat upon the Church with crashing sounds, the Church possesses the safest harbor of salvation for all in distress. Although the Church is tossed about on the sea, it rides easily on rivers, especially those rivers that Scripture speaks of: The rivers have lifted up their voice. These are the rivers flowing from the heart of the man who is given drink by Christ and who receives from the Spirit of God. When these rivers overflow with the grace of the Spirit, they lift up their voice.”

Posted in Saints | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Priest, A Rabbi, and a Buddhist Walk Into a Burger Joint…

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

To bless the place.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Saint of the Day: St. Nicholas

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

“St. Nicholas was born in Lycia, Asia Minor, and died as Bishop of Myra in 352. He performed many miracles and exercised a special power over flames. He practiced both the spiritual and temporal works of mercy, and fasted twice a week. When he heard that a father who had fallen into poverty was about to expose his three daughters to a life of sin, Nicholas took a bag of gold and secretly flung it through the window into the room of the sleeping father. In this way, the three girls were dowered and saved from mortal sin and hell.”   Read more here.

The Saint Nicholas center has more.

A Video on the Saint:

Posted in Saints | Leave a comment

Saint of the Day

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Today is the optional Memorial of Father and Doctor of the Church, St. John of Damascus. (Source The Crossroads Initiative)

“The life of St. John Damascene (also known as Saint John of Damascus) began around 675 AD, already a generation after the area had been conquered by Muslim armies.  Saint John Damascene was born into a rich family and spent the early years of his adult life serving as the official representative of the Christian community to the Muslim Caliph.  He later abandoned this political task to join the monastery of St. Sabas near Jerusalem where he became a priest and ultimately bishop.

St. John Damascene is known as one of the last of the Fathers of the Church.  He was a strong defender of the use of images (icons) in Christian worship against the iconoclasts and wrote a book “On the Orthodox Faith” that sums up the doctrinal heritage of the earlier Greek Fathers.  In this great synthesis we find a systematic treatment of the central Christian doctrines, especially the Trinity, Creation, and the Incarnation.  St. John Damascene’s treatment of the Sacraments is also extensive, and his emphasis on the real bodily presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is very strong.  Notable too in his teaching is a fully developed doctrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary including her perpetual virginity, her freedom from sin throughout the whole of her life, and her bodily assumption into heaven.

St. John Damascene’s influence on later theology was considerable indeed.  In the Latin Middle Ages, he was known to Peter Lombard and St. Thomas Aquinas.  All throughout the Middle Ages his works were known and widely used by Eastern Christian Theologians, especially the Slavs.  He died around the year 749 AD and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1890.”

Catholic Culture has more information here.

Posted in Saints | Tagged | Leave a comment

Strange Tales From the Early Church

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Shortage of Priests?  The early Church had a handy solution (H/T Jimmy Akin)

Posted in Early Church | Tagged | Leave a comment

Life Interrupted

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

This caught my attention! 

Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Ph.D has a post, Adventure or Cautious Mediocrity, where he links Peter, Paul, Isaiah AND Frodo Baggins.

“Peter.  Paul.  Isaiah.  Frodo Baggins.  They have more in common than meets the eye.

Of course there are differences, too.  Peter is a small business man, trying to wring a living for his family out of a lake in Hicksville.  No one expected much from Galilee.  Its inhabitants had a thick country accent that gave them away every time, like when Peter denied Christ in the high priest’s courtyard (Mat 26:73).   Saul, on the other hand, was cosmopolitan, highly educated, well traveled, and even a Roman citizen.  Isaiah lived seven centuries before them, in a very different social context.  Frodo Baggins lived in Middle Earth, which is to say, in the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien, and now lives in the imaginations of millions.

But here’s what they have in common.  They were all minding their own business, intent on their own careers, when they were abruptly interrupted.  They each had an encounter with something, Someone, much bigger than themselves, and were invited to embark upon a Great Adventure.  The same vision was revealed to each of them.  That behind the appearances of the humdrum of everyday life, there was a battle going on, a dramatic struggle with very high stakes.  People were in bondage but D-day had come.  The forces of salvation were on the move.  And each of them, Peter, Paul, Isaiah, and Frodo, were called to enlist.

None of them would have been voted most likely to succeed.  Isaiah thought he’d die.  Peter felt so unworthy that he begged Christ to leave.  Paul lamented the blood that was on his hands.  Frodo staggered under the burden of his appointed task.

But they all said yes.  And though they met hardship, withering resistance, and had to face the bitter disappointment of their own sin, they kept going.  They left behind the familiarity of the lake, the synagogue, the shire, and embarked upon a Great Adventure.  That Adventure brought them through suffering to everlasting glory and made them men that they never imagined they could be.  Isaiah’s words have been sung by innumerable choirs of men and angels over two thousand years of Masses.  Peter’s successor now reigns amidst the ruins of the empire that tormented the martyrs.  And Frodo, the pint-sized Hobbit, completes his mission, despite his weakness, and brings down the power of the Dark Lord.

They all illustrate the words of Jesus that the last shall be first, that the least shall be greatest, that God chooses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.” Read the rest here.

Posted in Discipleship | Leave a comment