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When they entered the city, they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:13 – 14).
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It’s probably safe to say that many Americans have been experiencing trouble sleeping in recent weeks, given the unprecedented circumstances we’ve been facing for quite some time. For anyone waking suddenly out of a deep sleep, a sensation of fear – that powerful emotion so very prominent in our national consciousness of late – would not be at all unusual.
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By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet and in trust shall be your strength. (Is. 30:15)God is never heard as a clanging gong nor a clanging cymbal. God speaks the language of silence, almost in a whisper. He can be heard in our prayer time in the quiet of our hearts. To those whose ear is attuned to His wisdom, He can be heard amid the noise of this world, loud and clear even when there is dead silence.
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Reflections and meditations written around the May 1st Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker generally tend to focus on the many sterling qualities of the carpenter of Nazareth. His closeness to God, upright character, and masculine strength as husband to Mary and foster father to Jesus often provide the lead-in to the main point of the writing as appropriate to the feast: Joseph’s role as breadwinner. As the sole support of the Holy Family, surely he worked diligently at his craft, passing it on to Jesus, father to son.
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St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), a religious sister known as the “Apostle of Divine Mercy,” wrote this story about a priest in her spiritual diary:
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Liturgically, we’re taking a brief breath in ordinary time. We’ve lived the long wait of Advent, and Christmas has been celebrated and it’s trappings stored away – nativity sets snuggled in attic alcoves and ornaments stacked in garage bins.
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By Kathleen Beckman
The renowned Pope John Paul II biographer George Weigel gave a moving keynote presentation on suffering in the life of St. John Paul II at the 2005 national conference of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious. The conference theme was Healing and the Mystery of Suffering. I was there to give my testimony of suffering and healing in the family but the greatest witness we heard was Weigel on the life of Karol Wojtyla. In the latter days of his life that played out on the theater of the world, the Polish Pope became an image of the Suffering Servant of whom the prophet Isaiah wrote so eloquently.
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We have never needed the message in this video (below) more.
Our nation-and the world-are slowly grinding to a standstill in the wake of a virus we were barely aware of a few weeks ago. How quickly things change…it wasn’t part of my ‘plan’ this year to have my kids doing all schoolwork at home, my college son’s commencement canceled, all public Masses halted. I don’t even think it has totally sunk in, honestly. I’ve been wandering around in a daze, trying to figure out what to do next and where to get Lysol wipes and eggs.
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The Oratory of Saint Joseph at Mount Royal is a magnificent structure, its imposing dome dominating the highest point of the cosmopolitan city of Montreal. In the incomprehensible ways of God, this majestic basilica, the largest church in Canada, is named for and dedicated to one of His humblest creatures: the carpenter of Nazareth, whose feast day we celebrate on March 19th.
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By Susan Tassone
It is our duty to pray especially for the souls of our family, friends, and benefactors. Pray especially for our priests, and consecrated religious. We tend to “canonize” our clergy and loved ones immediately after their death. Fr. Frederick Faber tells us: “We are apt to leave off too soon praying for our parents, friends, or relatives, imagining with a foolish enlightened esteem for the holiness of their lives, that they are freed from purgatory much sooner than they really are.”
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