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	Facebook Twitter Newsletters Email Video News Catholic Life Shopping Saints Bible Prayers Mary Headlines Palm/Passion Sunday: Will We Make This Week Holy By Encountering Jesus Christ? By Deacon Keith Fournier | April 13, 2014 Palm/ Passion Sunday: Make This Holy Week a Deep Encounter With Jesus Christ! During this week called Holy, the Lord Jesus is extending His saving Hand to each one of us anew. The timeless one has broken into time and now transforms it from within. The question is not whether we will mark time but how we will do so? For the Christian time is not meant to be a tyrant ruling over us with impunity. Rather, it is a teacher, inviting and instructing us to choose to enter more fully into our relationship with the Lord and in Him to make progress on the Path of Life. This Holy Week, He invites us to enter into the deep mysteries which will be celebrated liturgically in such a way that they transform us into His Image. Continue Reading... Pope Francis makes special plea, but is asking us - Are you listening? By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) | April 14, 2014 Pope Francis continues to call for aid to the poor as the holiday season ends. The Holy Father has set a goal to eradicate global hunger by distributing food more equitably around the world and he has called on all faithful Catholics to help. It's a call that can't be answered by a single second collection at Mass. Continue Reading... The Protest Against Evil and the Rise of Atheism: Is Evil Really the Problem? By Deacon F. K. Bartels | April 13, 2014 It sounds very nice, a world devoid of suffering and every type of evil. However, there are some problems with such an idea, at least for now, given the present situation. What would it mean for us if there were no potential for evil? Atheists often reject God in protest against the reality of evil in the world. But is the reality of evil a reasonable objection against the existence of a personal, loving God? Perhaps it is helpful to reflect on some of the good that, with God's help, can be brought from evil. Continue Reading... Pope Francis calls for greater effort to combat human trafficking, highlights Church responsibility By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) | April 12, 2014 Pope Francis continues to tackle the problem of human trafficking meeting four victims as well a group of Church sisters and law enforcement leaders in a renewed effort to work together to end human trafficking. Continue Reading... Is Pope Francis Opening the Possibility of Ordaining Mature, Proven Married Men to Priesthood By Deacon Keith Fournier | April 13, 2014 The prophetic witness of voluntary, consecrated celibacy has endured beyond the ranks of celibate clergy. It is also preserved in the inspired vowed life of monastic orders and the sacrificial witness of religious men and women. In addition, in many of the ecclesial movements and associations of lay men and woman, consecrated celibacy is being freely chosen, not to avoid marriage, but to enter more fully into the very nuptial mystery that marriage also reveals, in a unique and prophetic way, and be more available for mission. I write with deep appreciation for the celibate vocation among the ordained ministers of the Church, the religious orders and the growing lay ecclesial movements. I have had the privilege of knowing some profoundly holy consecrated celibates. To use an old cliché, some of my best friends are priests and deacons, both celibate and married. They are all living their vocation with dignity and holiness. Continue Reading... The Gift of Wisdom: Pope Francis Begins Series of Talks on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit By Pope Francis | April 12, 2014 Today we begin a series of reflections on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the soul, the lifeblood of the Church and of every Christian: He is God's Love, who makes our hearts his home and enters into communion with us. The Holy Spirit is always with us, always in us, in our hearts.If we listen to him he teaches us this path of wisdom, he gifts us wisdom which is seeing with God's eyes, listening with God's ears, loving with God's heart, judging things with Gods' judgment. These are the things that Holy Spirit gifts us and we can all have this. We just have to ask the Holy Spirit. Continue Reading... Time for a Movement Rooted in the Real Social Doctrine of the Church By Deacon Keith Fournier | April 13, 2014 Christian social teaching challenges any notion of human freedom which begins and ends with the isolated, atomistic, person as the measure of its application. We are by nature and grace called to relationship. Only in communion can we become fully human and find human flourishing. This is the Christian vision of the human person which must inform a new movement.Human freedom must be exercised within a moral constitution. We currently mouth the word freedom while we build our own shackles, engaging in dehumanizing behavior. There is a moral basis to a truly free society. Freedom is not only about having a right to choose but choosing what is right and embedding within the polity the safeguards of a robust vision of freedom; it is not only a freedom from, but a freedom for. Freedom must be ordered toward choosing the good, respecting the truth about the human person, promoting marriage and the family and fostering the real common good. Our freedom must respect our obligation in solidarity to one another - because we are our brother and sisters keeper. This is the principle of solidarity or social charity. Continue Reading... Holy Thursday: Francis to Wash the Feet of the Disabled, Call Us to Christian Discipleship By Deacon Keith Fournier | April 11, 2014 The Vatican announced that Pope Francis will celebrate Holy Thursday Mass at Our Lady of Providence Center in Rome. The Center is run by the Father Carlo Gnocchi Foundation and is home to many disabled men and women with neuro-degenerative diseases, along with their doctors, caretakers and families. This is in keeping with the beautiful act of love demonstrated by Francis last year when he washed the feet of young prisoners at the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention center in Rome. He will again preside over the Holy Thursday morning chrism Mass in St Peter's Basilica and bless the oils used for the sacraments in the Diocese of Rome.This act of loving witness reveals the interior meaning of the mandatum, the command of love expressed by Jesus at the Last Supper when He washed the feet of His Disciples. It prophetically reveals the meaning of the Social Teaching of the Church and its teaching on the call of all Christians to show a love of preference to the poor. Continue Reading... Most Popular Papyrus that suggests Jesus was married is genuine, but it still doesn't prove much Read More   Ancient temple of the goddess Athena Read More   Palm/Passion Sunday: Will We Make This Week Holy By Encountering Jesus Christ? Read More   Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was crucified and buried Read More   Who are my Mother and My Brothers? Correcting a Mistake, Recovering our Family Read More     News | Catholic Life | PRWire | Encyclopedia | Bible | Prayers | Vocations | Saints & Angels © Copyright 2014 Catholic Online. This e-mail is never sent unsolicited. You have received this Catholic Online e-mail because you subscribed to it or someone forwarded it to you. To opt out, see the links below. 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