CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - As the implementation of the Revised Roman Missal draws near the entire Catholic Church is presented with an invitation to rediscover the heart of Catholic worship and be changed in the encounter.There is a Latin maxim that addresses the centrality of worship in the life, identity and mission of the Catholic Church; "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi".

The phrase in Latin means the law of prayer ("the way we worship"), and the law of belief ("what we believe"...

He also had many visions when he said Mass, and when he was drawing up the constitutions he had them with great frequency. He could now affirm this more easily because every day he wrote down what passed through his soul and he had it now in writing. He then showed me a fairly large bundle of writings and allowed me to read a good part of them. Most were visions that he saw in confirmation of parts of the constitutions, at times seeing God the Father, at other times all three Person...

Mass Readings: July 31

DAILY BREAD

"Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare." –Isaiah 55:2

Isaiah prophesied "rich f...

In 1916 at Fatima an angel of peace came to Francesco, Jacinta, and Lucia. He prepared the way for the later apparitions of Mary. When he appeared the third time in dazzling beauty before the three seers, he held in his left hand a chalice, and in his right over the chalice, a host from which drops of blood could be seen falling into the chalice. Leaving the host and the chalice suspended in mid-air, he prostrated himself touching the ground with his forehead.

Then he said the foll...

Mass Readings: July 30

PARTY LINE

"This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for y...

A most remarkable miracle happened at Walduren in the year 1330: A priest named Otto, during the celebration of his Mass, accidentally upset the chalice after the Consecration, and the Sacred Blood was spilt upon the corporal. All at once there appeared upon the corporal the figure of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, and around it twelve figures of the sacred head crowned with thorns and disfigured with blood. The priest was frightened almost to death and endeavored to conceal the...

Mass Readings: July 28

WHERE IS GOD, AND WHO AM I?

"Moses did exactly as the Lord had commanded him. On the first day of the first month of the second year the D...

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - The Vatican has recalled its apostolic nuncio in Ireland to Rome for consultations after the release of the Cloyne Report on priests' abuse of minors in the Diocese of Cloyne.  The recall is a sign of the Holy See's seriousness in addressing the issue, a Vatican spokesman said.

The recall of Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza shows the seriousness of the situation and the desire of the Holy See to deal with it "objectively and with determination," Fr. Ciro Benedet...

Q. How does Jesus, received in Communion, become a source of healing for living and dead members of the family tree?

A. In two ways: among the living, and between the dead and living.

First, by the unifying (corporate healing) effects of his Eucharistic physical body among living members of his mystical body: "Is not the bread we break a participation in the Body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we [the living] who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf" (I...

Mass Readings: July 27

IN YOUR FACE

"The skin of [Moses'] face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord." –Exodus 34:29

In the Old Covenant, the unclean and ...

Because of this, if we truly understood the wonder of the Eucharist, we would never miss Mass on those days when the Church asks us to be present. We go so many miles at so much inconvenience to attend a concert or a meeting or a theater presentation. And yet, the greatest of actors and singers and musicians who have ever lived are insignificant when we compare them to the living God. The moments of drama which can be portrayed on a stage are elements of lives which do not touch us ...

Mass Readings: July 26

IMPORTANT PEOPLE

"At gatherings their wisdom is retold, and the assembly proclaims their praise." –Sirach 44:15

The Spirit has inspir...

GAINSVILLE, FL. (Catholic Online) - On July 15, 2011 the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida issued a thirteen page opinion in a case entitled ACLU of Florida Inc. v. Dixie County Florida (ND FL, Case 1:07-cv-00018-MP-GRJ). It can be read in . The Court ordered that a large Ten Commandments monument - paid for privately by a local businessman and displayed since 2006 - be removed within thirty days from the front steps of the Courthouse.

On the Feast of St. James the Greater, this Apostle appeared to Gertrude, adorned with the merits of those pilgrims who had visited his shrine. As the Saint was rapt in admiration thereat, she asked our Lord why this Apostle was so honored by pilgrimages, that his relics appeared even more revered than those of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Our Lord replied: "The fervor of his zeal for the salvation of souls has obtained this special privilege for him. As I took him away from the...

EARTHEN VESSELS AND BLOOD-VESSELS

"This treasure we possess in earthen vessels." –2 Corinthians 4:7

Part of today's first reading is very po...

"I live in the midst of sinners that I may be their life, their physician, and the remedy of the diseases bred by corrupt nature. And in return they forsake, insult and despise Me!...

"Poor pitiable sinners, do not turn away from Me... Day and night I am on the watch for you in the tabernacle. I will not reproach you... I will not cast your sins in your face... But I will wash them in My Blood and in My Wounds. No need to be afraid... come to Me... If you but knew how dearly I love...

Mass Readings: July 24

FINISH LINE

"We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love God and are call...

That night I couldn't sleep. I was very disturbed. I felt as though God were trying to tell me something. About four o'clock in the morning, I was still awake. I was turning and twisting. So, I got up and knelt at the side of the bed and said, "Jesus, what is it that you want to say to me?"

I felt the Lord saying to me, "You must make me known in the Eucharist. People are coming to you. People will come from all over looking for healing. They will say, 'Oh, if only we could get Sis...

Mass Readings: July 23

FOREVER FREE

"His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go out and pull them up?' " –Matthew 13:28

In His kingdom, God lets the wheat and...

When Elias was fleeing from Jezabel, he lay down under a tree in the wilderness and longed for death.

And he cast himself down and slept in the shadow of the juniper and behold

an angel of the Lord touched him, and said: arise and eat! He looked, and behold there was at his hand a hearth cake and a vessel of water; and he ate and drank and fell asleep again. And the angel of the Lord came a second time, and touched him and said to him: arise and eat: for thou hast yet a great way t...

Mass Readings: July 22

"MARY-ED" LOVE

"I found Him Whom my heart loves." –Song of Songs 3:4

In His love, Jesus became a human being and even died on the cross for us. B...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Catholic Online) - Jonathan Turley is the J.B. and Maurice Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington Law School in Washington, DC. He has catapulted to National recognition as a "talking head", a kind of legal "go to" guy for a media obsessed with lawyers, litigation and celebrity.

It seems he has an opinion about anything even remotely legal these days - and no lack of media bully pulpits from which he can opine about his views. In addition to...

The privilege of receiving the Holy Eucharist from the hands of Jesus Himself was experienced by a number of saints, including St. Laurence of Brindisi, a Capuchin, whose unusual talents and rare virtue were called upon by Pope Clement VIII for several unusual missions. One of these was his chaplaincy to the Imperial army of Prague.

With the Turks still menacing nearby Christian countries, the Imperial army of 18,000 men assembled to do battle with the Turks, who numbered 80,000. V...

Mass Readings: July 21

THE COMMANDMENTS ARE BEATITUDES, THE BEATITUDES ARE COMMANDMENTS

"To you has been given a knowledge of the mysteries of the reign of God." –Matthew 13:1...

On the evening of Holy Thursday the beloved Apostle John rested his head on the breast of Christ. Now Christ rests His head on the breasts of His friends, and that every day of our lives, if we so wish. On Holy Thursday we recognize the blessing of this Presence, an impression of security, as if we actually heard the Lord say: "It is I, do not be afraid."

I can still picture myself when I was a child remembering that moment of Christian history and reliving it. I can still remember...

Mass Readings: July 20

THE COST OF FREEDOM

"Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!"...

TAKE A WALK

"The Israelites marched into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left." –Exodus 14:22

Moses and the Israelites walked between two walls of water at the Red Sea. Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha stopp...

It is sad to realize that so many believe Jesus is Present in the Blessed Sacrament and seldom visit Him. Men travel across the oceans to see ancient ruins, paintings, landscapes and celebrities, but they do not think of going into a simple church around the corner to visit the Creator of all beauty.

Man complains of his tensions, hang-ups and frustrations and for these human weaknesses he consumes bottles of pills and other remedies. He spends time and money trying to ascertain wh...

Mass Readings: July 18

LIVING ON MIRACLES

"And you, lift up your staff and, with hand outstretched over the sea, split the sea in two, that the Israelites may pass through ...

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The news and blogosphere is filled with responses to the July 14, 2011 story by Joshua Green, the Senior Editor of the Atlantic, entitled  That is because it raises a serious matter which should not be taken lightly, and one which the candidate must address.

First, let me share some personal context. I am what is often called a "revert" to the Catholic Church, someone who returned to the Church ...

"She assisted at Mass with intense devotion. When the celebrant began: 'In nomine Patris,' etc., she contemplated Jesus on the Mount of Olives, and begged for the Faithful the grace of assisting devoutly at the Holy Sacrifice and for priests that of offering It in a manner pleasing to God; lastly, she implored Our Lord to cast upon all as gracious a look as He once cast on St. Peter...

"At the Consecration, she offered the Saviour to His Father for the whole world, chiefly for the ...

Mass Readings: July 17

DO YOU WANT TO BE HOLY?

"Let them grow together until harvest." –Matthew 13:30

If you are living for Jesus, y...

How great a difference there is between the Ark of the Covenant and its relics, and Your most holy Body with its ineffable powers: between those sacrifices of the old Law which foreshadowed the Sacrifice to come, and the true Victim of Your Body, which fulfills all the ancient rites!

Alas, why does not my heart burn within me at Your adorable presence? Why do I not prepare myself to receive Holy Communion, when the Patriarchs and Prophets of old, Kings and Princes with all their p...

Mass Readings: July 16

"LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, FREE AT LAST"

"At the end of four hundred and thirty years, all the hosts of the Lord left the land of Egypt." –Exod...

A July 5 press release from the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) said that while Fr. Corapi was involved in public ministry he had “sexual relations and years of cohabitation with a woman known to him, when the relationship began, as a prostitute.”

The investigative team als...

During a brief period in the life of St. Bonaventure, the saint's humility sometimes prevented him from receiving the Holy Eucharist--this despite his great desire to communicate. But his fears were completely overcome one day, as is recorded in the acts of his canonization:

"Several days had passed, nor durst he yet presume to present himself at the heavenly banquet. But whilst he was hearing Mass and meditating on the Passion of Jesus Christ, Our Saviour, to crown his humility an...

Mass Readings: July 15

MASS EXODUS

"To You will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving." –Psalm 116:17

Try skipping all three meals today. How will your body feel tomorro...

Kateri Tekakwitha, the "Lily of the Mohawks," was born the daughter of a Mohawk chief and a Christian mother at Ossernenon, New York in 1656. She was baptized by a Jesuit in 1676 and moved to a Christian village. She cared for the sick and aged and took a vow of perpetual virginity. Her name, which translates, "she-who-feels-her-way-along," was so named because of her weakness of vision due to a smallpox disease. She made her first Holy Communion on Christmas day, 1677, and from tha...

Mass Readings: July 14

SENT AND SENSIBILITY

"I AM sent me to you." –Exodus 3:14

Throughout Scripture and Church history, the Lord is constantly sending people...

On one occasion, when I was reciting the Hours with the community, my soul suddenly became recollected and seemed to me to become bright all over like a mirror: no part of it–back, sides, top or bottom–but was completely bright, and in the center of it was a picture of Christ Our Lord as I generally see Him. I seemed to see Him in every part of my soul as clearly as in a mirror, and this mirror–I cannot explain how–was wholly sculptured in the same Lord by a most loving commu...

Mass Readings: July 13

HOW TO RECEIVE DIVINE REVELATION

"Father, Lord of heaven and earth, to You I offer praise; for what You have hidden from the learned and the c...

It is with this love that you come to receive my gracious glorious light, the light I have given you as food, to be administered to you by my ministers. But even though all of you receive the light, each of you receives it in proportion to the love and burning desire you bring with you. It is just like the example I gave you of the people whose candles received the flame according to their weight. Each of you carries the light whole and undivided, for it cannot be divided by any impe...

Mass Readings: July 11

THE WORD AND WORDS OF GOD

"He who brings himself to nought for Me discovers who he is." –Matthew 10:39

God's ways and thoughts are very differ...

What reasons have Catholics for believing that Our Saviour gave the Apostles His real body and blood? ... His words, both on the occasion of the promise and at the Last Supper, if taken literally, denote a true, and not a merely symbolic presence of Himself in the Holy Eucharist. He could not have expressed this more clearly or more forcibly than He did: "He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath everlasting life... For My flesh is meat (food) indeed, and My blood is drink i...

Mass Readings: July 10

SOW THE WORD CONSTANTLY

"A farmer went out sowing." –Matthew 13:4

How often have you heard a Scripture passage twenty times...

RICHMOND, VA. (Catholic Online) - By Christian tradition, June is the month that Holy Mother Church dedicates to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, even if due to Easter's late occurrence this year, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart falls at the beginning of July.  Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has specified that his general prayer intention for the month of June to be "that priests, united to the Heart of Christ, may always be true witnesses of the caring and merciful love of God".  Certa...

CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - I am a "revert" to the Catholic Church. Though I was baptized into the Church as an infant and received the other Sacraments of initiation, I wandered from the faith as a teenage "hippie" in search of truth. Fortunately, like Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz" I discovered there really is "no place like home" and came back into full participation in the Catholic Church. That is what is meant by the term "revert", someone who returned home to the Church.

W...

On February 26, 1930, Saint Maximilian celebrated Mass in the "old chapel" of Niepokalanow "according to the intentions of the Immaculate", i.e., to conquer the world through her for the Sacred Heart of Jesus; it was his last homage to the Blessed Sacrament before leaving for the Far East. During the sea voyage, at the hour of adoration in common in Niepokalanow, he united himself spiritually to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament with his heart, adoring Him from afar. He celebrated Mass ...

Mass Readings: July 9

RERUNS

"Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us." –Genesis 50:15

When Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, he ...

Once when my confessor [Father Sopocko] was saying Mass, I saw, as usual, the Child Jesus on the altar, from the time of the Offertory. However, a moment before the Elevation, the priest vanished from my sight, and Jesus alone remained. When the moment of the Elevation approached, Jesus took the Host and the chalice in His little hands and raised them together, looking up to heaven, and a moment later I again saw my confessor. I asked the Child Jesus where the priest had been during...

Mass Readings: July 8

Reprinted from , a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community.

"Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here." –Genesis 46:4

Jacob needed a special r...

Why did Our Blessed Lord use bread and wine as the elements of this Memorial? First of all, because no two substances in nature better symbolize unity than bread and wine. As bread is made from a multiplicity of grains of wheat, and wine is made from a multiplicity of grapes, so the many who believe are one in Christ. Second, no two substances in nature have to suffer more to become what they are than bread and wine. Wheat has to pass through the rigors of winter, be ground beneath ...

Mass Readings: July 7

Reprinted from , a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community.

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY

"Now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of ...

I still remember an evening meditation on Dutch television during which the speaker poured water on hard, dried-out soil, saying, "Look, the soil cannot receive the water and no seed can grow." Then, after crumbling the soil with his hands and pouring water on it again, he said, "It is only the broken soil that can receive the water and make the seed grow and bear fruit."

After seeing this I understood what it meant to begin the Eucharist with a contrite heart, a heart broken open,...

Mass Readings: July 6

THE CROSS OF COMMUNITY

"The names of the twelve apostles are these..." –Matthew 10:2

Jesus shared the last three years of H...

My mother's commitment to the first Friday devotions and to the first Saturday devotions in hail, rain, and snow were a concrete, visible sign of her commitment, reverence, and fidelity to the great gift of the Eucharist. Her tender and consistent devotion to the nightly family rosary and our annual visits to Our Lady's Shrine of Monk always left me with a sense of wonder about life and what was beyond this life.

The beautiful and attractively framed picture of a priest celebratin...

Mass Readings: July 5

Reprinted from , a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community.

A FAMILY OF LIARS

"Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children..." –Genesis 32:23

Jacob's family wa...

In this sense I say the Eucharist makes the Church through contemplation. It is by staying still, in silence, and possibly for long periods, before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, that we perceive what he wants from us, put aside our own plans to make way for his, and let God's light gradually penetrate the heart and heal it. It's something like what happens to the trees in spring with the chlorophyll process. Green leaves sprout from the branches; these absorb certain elements from...

Mass Readings: July 4

SLEEPING ON ROCKS

"Taking one of the stones at the shrine, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep at that spot." –Genesis 28:11

Jacob used a ...

Mother Teresa comments on Eucharistic Adoration/Exposition: "I will tell you a beautiful thing. Up until 1973, we did not have adoration in our houses for one hour daily for each Sister as we do now. But in 1973 there was a unanimous request, 'Mother, please let us have adoration every day.'

"We have much work to do, much. So I said, 'How can we do it, we have so much work to do?' But the Sisters insisted, so we started. And to tell the truth, I have not had to change anything in t...

THE YOKE'S ON YOU

"Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me...My yoke is easy and My burden light." �...

We would see, moreover, how true it is what Our Lord once said to St. Matilda. (Lib. 3, Revel., C. 28). "At the moment of Consecration," said He, "I come down first in such deep humility that there is no one at Mass, no matter how despicable and vile he may be, towards whom I do not humbly incline and approach, if he desires Me to do so and prays for it; secondly, I come down with such great patience that I suffer even My greatest enemies to be present and grant them the full pardon ...

Mass Readings: July 2

DANGER! EXPLOSIVES!

"People do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined." �...

The prophecy of John the Baptist, considered the last of the Old Testament prophecies, is found at the beginning of the New Testament. It is an important prophecy. John the Baptist's life and words were a direct preparation for Christ's coming... John lived in the desert, prayed, fasted and announced the arrival of the Kingdom of God. People came to him from Jerusalem and its surroundings, listened to him and were converted. He baptized them in water and at the same time told them t...

BE-LOVED

"Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God." –1 John 4:7

God calls us "beloved" (1 Jn 4:7, 11). This not only means that He loves us; it also means that He loves us every moment forever. We can live on in His love (Jn 15:10). "Trial, ...

Feast of the First Roman Martyrs

St. Cyprian was martyred in the fierce persecution of Valerian, on 14th September, 258. Pope St. Stephen suffered his martyrdom in Rome in the same persecution, on 2nd August. Having been conducted, by order of Valerian, to the Temple of Mars, that he might offer sacrifice to that idol; at the prayer of the holy Pontiff, the edifice tottered, as if shaken with an earthquake, and was partly ruined; the soldiers and the guards fled in terror: and St. ...

Mass Readings: June 30

IF YOU KNEW WHAT HE KNOWS...

"Jesus was aware of what they were thinking." –Matthew 9:4

Jesus can read people's minds. Probably He read not only ...