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  Lord, Teach Us To Pray The Lord’s Prayer Table of Contents     By every standard of comparison, the most popular prayer in existence is the Our Father. One sign of its popularity is the number of polyglot collections of the Lord’s Prayer which have been published at various times since the invention of printing. Already in 1787 the Spaniard Hervaz printed the Pater Noster in three hundred and seven dialects and languages, and the practice of multi-lingual editions has been going on ever since. But the Lord’s Prayer is not only the most popular prayer in existence, it is...

Ann Conway, an engaging 38-year-old mother of six, including triplets, sits at the dining-room table of her mother, Anne Ruddy. They live across the street from one another on a leafy hill overlooking the city of Scranton. It is the Irish Roman Catholic home in which Ms. Conway was raised to be a true daughter of the Church. It was the home, too, of fiercely loyal Democrats, like most Catholic homes in the region. But things are changing and this is in evidence on this rainy autumn night. The two women talk about the race between John McCain and Barack...

October 11, 2008                                 Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week                                     in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gal 3:22-29 Brothers and sisters:Scripture confined all things under the power of sin,that through faith in Jesus Christthe promise might be given to those who believe. Before faith came, we were held in custody under law,confined for the faith that was to be revealed.Consequently, the law was our disciplinarian for Christ,that we might be justified by faith.But now that faith has come, we are no...

In any age, there are end-of-the-world predictions in time of societal upset (as well as unusual elections). When there is turmoil -- as there is now turmoil -- the prophetic pulse quickens. It grows dramatic. Or, past dramatic prophecies are rehashed. The question becomes: when does it go beyond credibility? Events such as September 11, the Iraq war, and the Asian tsunami caused a flurry of apocalyptic prophecy, and now we have the "9/11 of finances" (occurring, again -- for those with ears to hear -- in Lower Manhattan). And so now there are many prophecies circulating. Some are extreme...

October 10, 2008                                 Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week                                 in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gal 3:7-14 Brothers and sisters:Realize that it is those who have faithwho are children of Abraham.Scripture, which saw in advance that Godwould justify the Gentiles by faith,foretold the good news to Abraham, saying,Through you shall all the nations be blessed.Consequently, those who have faith are blessedalong with Abraham who had faith.For all who depend on works of the law are under a curse;for it is written,...

As the world watches the indices of global stock markets plummet and succumbs to the dull fear which the collapse of much of the financial system has caused, we need to examine what truly brought us – and keeps us- here. We also need to ask, honestly and forthrightly, what, and who, can help lead us out of the wasteland. I suggest that the financial collapse is simply the sordid fruit of the greed and the idolatry which has elevated the accumulation of stuff over persons to the level of something to actually be emulated - and dragged us all...

Denver, Oct 9, 2008 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- Archbishop of Denver Charles J. Chaput and Denver’s Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley have issued a statement insisting that Catholic teaching holds that human life is sacred from the moment of fertilization, calling claims insisting otherwise, reportedly made by the governor of Colorado, “bad theology and bad public policy.” Governor Bill Ritter, who is Catholic, on Tuesday commented on the Colorado ballot measure Amendment 48, which would define personhood as beginning at conception. He reportedly said: “My understanding is that there are things about calling a fertilized egg a person that do...

On October 11, tens of thousands of Catholics will take to the public square in 3,500 locations nationwide to pray for the nation in these troubled times. The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and its America Needs Fatima campaign are inviting the public to join these Public Square Rosary rallies as a way of spiritually countering same-sex “marriage,” abortion and other immoral customs that are threatening the nation. The campaign believes human efforts to solve America ’s problems are failing. We must turn to God for real solutions. The 3,500 Rosary Rallies in the...

October 9, 2008                                 Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week                                 in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gal 3:1-5 O stupid Galatians!Who has bewitched you,before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?I want to learn only this from you:did you receive the Spirit from works of the law,or from faith in what you heard?Are you so stupid?After beginning with the Spirit,are you now ending with the flesh?Did you experience so many things in vain?–if indeed it was in vain.Does, then, the...

Good News for the Liturgy Posted Oct. 7, 2008 3:32 PM || by Dr. Jeff Mirus || category Commentary For liturgical changes over the past generation or so, official preparation of the faithful has been minimal. The vacuum has too often been filled by professional liturgists and liturgical publishing houses with their own agendas, agendas sometimes at odds with the unbroken Tradition of the Catholic Church. But not any more.The Mass is currently being re-translated in a long project arising from two important Vatican initiatives. In 2001, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued new principles of proper translation in Liturgiam Authenticam, a...

Washington DC, Oct 8, 2008 / 06:21 am (CNA).- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s early work as a community organizer has brought to the fore the Catholic Campaign for Human Development’s (CCHD) longstanding support for political organizations accused of promoting radical left-wing politics and distorting Catholic teaching under the pretense of helping the poor. Over the past several decades, the CCHD has annually directed tens of thousands of dollars to several community organizing groups, including one headed by Obama in the 1980s. Obama was lead organizer of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago, Stephanie Block reports in a September...

Statement on Senator Biden's Recent Comments on Church Teachings on Abortion Bishop W. Francis MaloolyDiocese of Wilmington, Delaware Statement of Bishop W. Francis Malooly, Bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington, regarding Senator Biden’s statements on Catholic Church teachings on abortion: September 10, 2008 Earlier today, our United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement to clarify remarks recently made by Senator Joseph Biden. They explain the truth of the matter in a clear and concise way. As your Bishop, I want you to understand our Church teaching, embrace it and promote it. The USCCB statement is as...

October 8, 2008                                 Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week                             in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gal 2:1-2, 7-14 Brothers and sisters:After fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas,taking Titus along also.I went up in accord with a revelation,and I presented to them the Gospel that I preach to the Gentiles–but privately to those of repute–so that I might not be running, or have run, in vain.On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel...

Cardinal Says Scripture Inseparably United to Tradition Synod Considers Word of God as More Than Bible VATICAN CITY, OCT. 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Scripture and Tradition are inseparably united since they both come from the same source, says the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal William Levada, a delegate president of the synod on the word of God, affirmed this Monday when he addressed the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. "As the dogmatic constitution 'Dei Verbum' reminds us, there exists an indissoluble unity between sacred Scripture and Tradition since both flow from...

What Is Needed for a Bible Comeback (Part 1) Interview With Cardinal Albert Vanhoye By Father Lucas Teixeira, LC ROME, OCT. 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- For the Bible to become an integral part of Catholics' spiritual life, education and mediation are the two things needed, according to a renowned biblical scholar who will be participating in the synod of bishops on the word of God this month. Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, a Jesuit priest and former rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and former secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, spoke with ZENIT about sacred Scripture and the synod that...

14 Bishops and counting correct Senator Biden...LifeSiteNews.com reported on September 15, 2008: Catholic bishops across the nation have rebuked Senator Joe Biden for claiming, during a September 7 appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, that his support for abortion is in keeping with his Catholic faith. To date at least 14 bishops have responded to Biden's erroneous statement about Catholic teaching and abortion.Responding to a question from Meet the Press Moderator Tom Brokaw, Biden stated that he agreed with the Catholic Church that life begins at conception. He then continued, "I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that...

A Call To Prayer: This Lepanto Moment Politics/Elections Announcement Keywords: PRAYSource: EWTNAuthor: Bowie KuhnPosted on 11/16/2000 17:00:02 PST by big'ol_freeper This Lepanto Moment   A Call To Prayer:This Lepanto Moment  Let me take you back over 400 years ago.  The Ottoman Turks were off the coast of Greece. A powerful Ottoman armada advanced on a badly out manned and out gunned Christian navy. All that stood between the Ottomans and Western Civilization were a relatively few ships, a small number of valiant men and one Rosary. So the men knelt in prayer and invoked the intercession of their Heavenly...

Madrid, Oct 7, 2008 / 06:35 am (CNA).- Father Joan Manuel Serra, a priest of the Diocese of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, has asked King Juan Carlos of Spain not to sign a royal decree that would modify mortuary policies and would make it legal to use “baby crushing machines” that would be used on the remains of babies aborted up to the seventh month of pregnancy in abortion clinics. In an open letter, Father Serra recalled that current policy “obliges abortion ‘clinics’ to consider the remains of an abortion as cadavers, when they are human remains ‘of a sufficient...

If there is anyone who are confused by our present day crisis and have questions with no answers, you have to look no further for what is coming to America. I'm begging for everyone to go the source url and pay particular attention to 5 minutes 30 seconds into the interview. Yuri Bezmenov prediction has reached a stage, unless we act, this Republic will be lost. I also would ask everyone to save the url from disappearing forever. As noted on the site most links are no longer available but the top link with the video of the interview, 'The...

October 7, 2008                                 Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gal 1:13-24 Brothers and sisters:You heard of my former way of life in Judaism,how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measureand tried to destroy it, and progressed in Judaismbeyond many of my contemporaries among my race,since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions.But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apartand called me through his grace,was pleased to reveal his Son to me,so that I might proclaim him...

    Responses to Catholic Politicians on Abortion   In recent weeks Catholic politicians have wrongly asserted the nature and history of Catholic teaching on abortion, confusing it with philosophical theories based on pre-modern biology. In various statements Catholic bishops and theologians have refuted these claims that Catholic teaching regarding the evil of abortion has evolved (it has been the same since the first century), AND, that life's beginning depends on when ensoulment takes place (modern embryology and genetics knows exactly when every human life begins, at conception). Below are statements and resources on this controversy, so that Catholics...

"Abortion IS a social justice issue"             PRO-LIFE PRIORITY – Springfield BishopTimothy A. McDonnell said he intends to make the issue of respecting life at all stages a priority in the Springfield, [MA] Diocese. (Photo by Jeffrey Krasner) Bishop McDonnell responds to questions about pro-life issues By Carolee McGrath SPRINGFIELD – Catholic Communications interviewed Springfield Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell recently about why Catholics are called to be pro-life. Bishop McDonnell has made the respect life issue a priority in the diocese. He said he hopes to inspire people to get involved to help save the lives of the unborn, and to...

Pope Benedict XVI today said that the global credit crisis shows that the world's financial systems are "built on sand" and that only the works of God have "solid reality". Opening a Synod of Bishops in the Vatican the Pope referred to a passage from St Matthew's Gospel on false prophets, saying ''He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand''. He added: ''We are now seeing, in the collapse of major banks, that money vanishes, it is nothing. All these things that appear to be real...

(The following is the legend of the breviary for St. Bruno, as quoted in Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for October 6, in Volume XIV of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian Order, was born at Cologne [Germany], and from his very cradle gave great promise of future sanctity. Favoured by divine grace, the gravity of his character made him shun all childishness; so that, even at that age, one might have foreseen in him the future father of monks and restorer...

October 6, 2008                                 Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week                                 in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gal 1:6-12 Brothers and sisters:I am amazed that you are so quickly forsakingthe one who called you by the grace of Christfor a different gospel (not that there is another).But there are some who are disturbing youand wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ.But even if we or an angel from heavenshould preach to you a gospel other than the one that we preached to you,let...

Catholics Keeping Catholics in the Dark October 4th, 2008 by Brad OLeary At a family gathering I was shocked when I learned I had children and grandchildren planning to vote for Barack Obama.  Their reasoning was he was handsome, articulate, and “for change.”  Yet none of them could tell me what he stood for on any of the issues.  I thought the best way to educate them would be to draft a letter, detailing Obama’s stances on the important issues of the day.  However, I soon realized that I had a enough material for a book, and so, The Audacity...

"When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the evil one and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism. Jesus performed exorcisms and from him the Church has received the power and office of exorcising. In a simple form exorcism is performed at the celebration of Baptism. In solemn exorcism, called a 'major' exorcism, can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of the bishop. The priest must proceed with prudence, strictly observing the rules established by the Church. Exorcism...

A group of Christian supporters of Barack Obama – who has a 100 percent pro-abortion Senate voting record – have created a website touting the Democratic presidential candidate as the most pro-life choice in November's election. The Pro-Life Pro-Obama website argues that Obama's economic and health care plans and support of programs for the poor will do more for reducing abortions in the U.S. than the positions of his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain.

The grave of the 19th Century Cardinal John Henry Newman did not contain his body, the Catholic Church has revealed.The plot, at the Oratory House, Rednal, near Birmingham, was excavated on Thursday at the Vatican's instruction. His remains were to have been moved to the Birmingham Oratory, in preparation for Newman's anticipated beatification. Newman's body may have decomposed, as his coffin was not lead-lined. Its absence will not affect the progress of his cause in Rome, a spokesman said.In a statement released on Saturday, Peter Jennings from the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory, said: "Brass, wooden and cloth artefacts from...

The most striking difference of opinion between the major presidential candidates on social issues is their opposing views on abortion. Democrat Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is a staunch supporter of a woman’s right to reproductive choice while Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona is a steadfast advocate for the right to life of the unborn. And in a potential swing state that has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, tens to hundreds of thousands of Catholics filling church pews today in Luzerne County are hearing a message from their bishop to withhold their vote from...

Pope Benedict XVI will kick off a week-long reading of the Bible on Italian television starting Sunday, with readers to include three former presidents and Oscar-winning actor Roberto Benigni. Some 2,000 people will take turns reading the Bible's 73 books, from the Old Testament's Genesis to the New Testament's Book of Revelations, at Rome's Holy Cross in Jerusalem basilica. The pope will record the first reading at the Vatican. Senator for life Giulio Andreotti, former presidents Francesco Cossiga, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as well as several ministers in the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi including his top...

October 5, 2008                                 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Is 5:1-7 Let me now sing of my friend,my friend's song concerning his vineyard.My friend had a vineyardon a fertile hillside;he spaded it, cleared it of stones,and planted the choicest vines;within it he built a watchtower,and hewed out a wine press.Then he looked for the crop of grapes,but what it yielded was wild grapes. Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,judge between me and my vineyard:What more was there to do for my vineyardthat I...

What is the Stigmata?FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERSI am so happy about Padre Pio being beatified. I know that he had the stigmata, but I have had some trouble explaining it to my Protestant friends. Could you please explain what that is and if any other saints have had it. The stigmata is the spontaneous appearance of the wound marks of our crucified Lord on a person's body. These marks include the nail wounds at the feet and the hands, the lance wound at the side, the head wounds from the crown of thorns, and the scourge marks over the entire body, particularly...

A Humble Plea

It was Cardinal Newman's dying wish that he be buried with his closest friend in the grounds of the house they had shared as priests. But now, nearly 120 years after his death, Britain's most famous convert to Roman Catholicism is to be reinterred in a sarcophagus in preparation for his becoming a saint, leaving the remains of his friend behind. The decision to separate the remains of John Henry Newman and Ambrose St John has upset figures in the Church and led some to question whether it is embarrassed about their relationship. They are buried in a grave in...

US Bishop Clarifies Reasoning of Pro-life Ballot SCRANTON, Pennsylvania, OCT. 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Issues beside abortion should be taken into account when voting, but should not be given the same relevance unless they carry the same level of moral gravity, says the bishop of Scranton. In a letter to be read at all Masses this weekend in the diocese, Bishop Joseph Martino considers the argument: "As wrong as abortion is, I don't think it is the only relevant 'life' issue that should be considered when deciding for whom to vote." The prelate clarifies: "This reasoning is sound only if...

The 12th European temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be built in Rome.-SNIP- The Rome Italy Temple will be the first to be constructed near the worldwide headquarters for the Roman Catholic Church. It will serve church members from a variety of countries and greatly reduce travel time and expense to the Latter-day Saints living in the area, the release states. President Monson said the church also plans to build temples in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Cordoba, Argentina; the greater Kansas City area; and in Philadelphia. The announcement of the temple in Rome brought an audible...

...Steve Marshall, 20, made his pro-Proposition 8 video, "Four Men In Black,” as a college project. "I go to a Catholic film school in San Diego," he said in explaining why he focused his film on the "activist judges" who legalized same-sex marriage in California in spring. "It's an issue we really feel passionate about, and we had the resources available to take some action." Other students at John Paul the Great Catholic University also made videos in support of the proposition. One of them, "Marriage Rights,” features a man haplessly trying to fit two electrical plugs together instead of...

Nicholas P. Cafardi, a law professor and former law school dean at Duquesne University, a Catholic school in Pittsburgh, writes that as a Catholic, he is staunchly opposed to abortion. Pic of Cafardi: In fact, he calls it "an unspeakable evil." But he's voting for Barack Obama. Here is Cafardi on the topic of abortion: "Obama's support for abortion rights has led some to the conclusion that no Catholic can vote for him. That's a mistake. While I have never swayed in my conviction that abortion is an unspeakable evil, I believe that we have lost the abortion battle --...

I thank your Archbishop, His Eminence Cardinal Roger Mahony, for his invitation to join you at this annual Prayer Breakfast. It is a sign of strength in the Catholic community when you respond to the innate desire that is planted within us by the gift of the Holy Spirit in our baptism and confirmation to want to know God and his holy will better. In this way we can better be his instruments in helping humanity fulfill its true destiny as one human family, where every person has the opportunity to respond to God's invitation to know and love him...

October 4, 2008                            Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, religious       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Jb 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17 Job answered the LORD and said: I know that you can do all things,and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.I have dealt with great things that I do not understand;things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.I had heard of you by word of mouth,but now my eye has seen you.Therefore I disown what I have said,and repent in dust and ashes. Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Jobmore than his earlier ones.For he...

Wednesday October 1, 2008 Oregon Archbishop Criticizes Catholic Governor for Hosting Pro-Abortion Event By Kathleen GilbertPORTLAND, October 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Portland Archbishop John Vlazny has criticized Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon for bringing scandal to fellow Catholics by hosting an abortion rights fundraiser only two days before Portland's annual "Respect Life" Mass.  Kulongoski and his wife, both professed Catholics, are the honorary hosts of a two-day fundraiser for NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon."This is a source of embarrassment for our church and a scandal for the Catholic community," Vlazny said in a statement. "For a Catholic governor to host...

St Giles' in Cheadle, Staffordshire is an exceptional Catholic church. Built between 1841-46 and financed by John Talbot, the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, A. W. N. Pugin endeavoured to create "a perfect revival of an English parish church of the time of Edward I". Often, Pugin's ambitions had to be scaled down because of the lack of funds, but here at Cheadle, Pugin's patron had seemingly ample resources to match Pugin's imagination and skill. Consequently, the church possesses a soaring 200ft spire, so that the church dominates the town as no other Catholic church in England does, and inside, the...

The "Freedom of Choice Act" ("FOCA") has many Congressional sponsors, some of whom have pledged to act swiftly to help enact this proposed legislation when Congress reconvenes in January.FOCA establishes abortion as a "fundamental right" throughout the nine months of pregnancy, and forbids any law or policy that could "interfere" with that right or "discriminate" against it in public funding and programs. If FOCA became law, hundreds of reasonable, widely supported, and constitutionally sound abortion regulations now in place would be invalidated. Gone would be laws providing for informed consent, and parental consent or notification in the case of minors....

October 3, 2008                                 Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week                                in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Jb 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5 The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said: Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morningand shown the dawn its placeFor taking hold of the ends of the earth,till the wicked are shaken from its surface?The earth is changed as is clay by the seal,and dyed as though it were a garment;But from the wicked the light is withheld,and the...

Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Jesus Christ wrote a book or commanded anyone else to write a Gospel. In fact the only place where it is recorded that He wrote anything at all, is in John 8:6-8. He wrote on the ground with His finger, and to this day, we do not even know what He wrote. However, He did found a beautiful Church. He made her His Bride, and He made her a teaching Church.His teaching Church had been in existence for over a decade before the first book of the New Testament was even written.By the...

Rediscovering traditionalism By John Casey On 14th June this year about 1,500 people filled Westminster Cathedral. Every seat was taken; people stood in the aisles and spilled out on to the piazza outside. The occasion was a mass, but not an ordinary mass. It was indeed a mass in what is now officially called the ``extraordinary form'' of the Roman rite, i.e. the mass as it had existed before the changes that followed the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). It was celebrated by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, and was the first mass in the traditional form to be celebrated in the Cathedral...

TORONTO, October 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's disturbing statements to the media that he will undemocratically not permit anyone to reopen the debate on abortion are a stark betrayal of conservative principles and should prompt his electoral defeat in Calgary Southwest in the coming federal election, says the editor of Canada's national Catholic magazine of news, analysis and opinion. In addition, Father Alphonse de Valk, editor of Catholic Insight magazine, is calling for the removal of Harper as Conservative party leader. "For Mr. Harper to state that he would not personally support a law limiting abortion is...

Bishop Joseph F. Martino Scranton, PA, Oct 2, 2008 / 04:12 am (CNA).- Bishop Joseph F. Martino of the Diocese of Scranton has directed a pastoral letter on pro-life matters to be read at all weekend Masses of the upcoming Respect Life Weekend, saying Catholic efforts on such issues have “more significance than ever.” Discussing the societal breakdown in the wake of the sexual revolution, Bishop Martino explains Catholic teaching, and pledges “vigilance” in correcting Catholic pro-abortion rights public figures.The pastoral letter, which is also to be circulated with all parish bulletins this weekend, could have political ramifications for...

Edward Cardinal Egan and the Catholic Bishops of New York State have issued an appeal to Catholic New Yorkers, urging them to vote in the coming general election. In a statement entitled Our Cherished Right, Our Solemn Duty , the bishops present a list of questions on important issues for voters to consider as they inform their consciences in preparation for entering the voting booth. Read the whole statement here . In the statement, the bishops warn against voting solely out of party loyalty or self interest. Instead, they wrote, Catholics should be guided by the Gospel teachings of Jesus...