June 2nd: The holy martyrs, Saint Marcellinus the priest, and his friend, Saint Peter the Exorcist, are venerated. They were executed in the year 304 AD, during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian, after having converted even their jailer, Artemius, and his wife Candida, to Christianity.
So great was the respect they commanded that it was ordered they be put to death in a forest outside of Rome, so that their relics could not be found and venerated. Nonetheless, their bodies were found by a pious woman who searched the area of martyrdom, and they were then buried in Rome, where a basilica is built over their tomb to honor them.
Because of their venerated status in the Church of Rome, their names are included in the Roman Canon, Eucharistic Prayer I.
“When I was a disciple of Plato, hearing the accusations made against the Christians and seeing them intrepid in the face of death and of all that men fear, I said to myself that it was impossible that they should be living in evil and in the love of pleasure” (II Apol., xviii, 1 of St. Justin Martyr, cerca 100AD to 165AD).
St. Justin wrote extensively about theology and philosophy, but in this passage he recounts what moved him to convert from paganism. He was impressed at how Christianity inspired such courage that people would witness to Jesus even to the shedding of blood. Also, Christianity inspired a conduct of life, a holiness, and a morality which far surpassed the nobility of heart which he could encounter among the pagans.
A few people at Best Buy forgot to delete the pictures they took on the iPad there.
They really were just asking for me to put them all over the internet.
Via *Insert Clever Title*
Ave Maria
This is a prayer in Portuguese. My first language is English, and I’ve picked up Spanish, but my Portuguese is so-so. But so that you might see the sincerity of this prayer, I’ll try to translate it. Please correct me, those whose Portuguese is native or at least better than mine. Here goes. ”Oh Virgin Mother of Fatima, if only the world knew how much suffering you could save us from! That the world might know such a thing! Oh! If only this evil world knew the swamp that inspires my prayer when I am kneeling at the foot of your altar! If only it knew the disgrace, and at the same time, the beauty of souls for whom you pray with outstretched hands. How many thieves there are with numbers on their back, and how many suffering wounds there are without healing! How many gullible young people with dull vision! How much honesty can come from the words of impiety! How many victories can come from wasted journeys! How much eternal life can come from the coffin! If only the world would know! Oh! Perhaps, at long last, you can send armies of angels onto the path of my highway….If only the world would know! But alas, no. The world knows nothing. Oh Virgin Mother of Fatima, you are surrounded by those who could not bring a stain to your holy face.”
Joan of Arc by Harold Piffard
May 30th is the feast of the Maid of Orleans, who was burned at the stake by the English bishops, but later rehabilitated by the Church and raised to the altars. We don’t think about it, but the Church has canonized people who were warriors, which means that they killed people in battle. So I can still get into heaven in spite of my occasional meltdowns and temper tantrums. That’s not as bad as running a sword through someone.
Without the Eucharist, the Church would not exist. The holy Eucharist was the central point of our life. I remember once a priest I met. He never talked at great length about the sufferings, persecutions and tortures, but he mentioned that even in prison, all the priests would celebrate the liturgy. We were amazed; how could this be possible? Where did you get a Chalice and a Paten? He took off his glasses and said: “This is what we used; one lens served as the chalice with a drop of wine and on the other a piece of bread was placed, which served as the paten.” This is how they celebrated the liturgy in the prison or around the premises of the concentration camps.
—Major-Archbishop Swiatoslav Schevchuk,
Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
(Source: zenit.org)
The rest is all cant and repetition and arguing in a circle; all the baseless dogmatism about science forbidding men to believe in miracles; as if SCIENCE could forbid men to believe in something which science does not profess to investigate. Science is the study of the admitted laws of existence; it cannot prove a universal negative about whether those laws could ever be suspended by something admittedly above them. It is as if we were to say that a lawyer was so deeply learned in the American Constitution that he knew there could never be a revolution in America. Or it is as if a man were to say he was so close a student of the text of Hamlet that he was authorised to deny that an actor had dropped the skull and bolted when the theatre caught fire. The constitution follows a certain course, so long as it is there to follow it; the play follows a certain course, so long as it is being played; the visible order of nature follows a certain course if there is nothing behind it to stop it. But that fact throws no sort of light on whether there IS anything behind it to stop it. That is a question of philosophy or metaphysics and not of material science.
–The Thing, G. K. Chesterton (via therealfairytale)
Interesting to note that many do deny that there could be another revolution in America.
(via cdnowak)
Via CDNowak
Ain’t no party like a Catholic party!
We’ve got Italian food, Irish whiskey, German Beer, and Mexican Music!
“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, there’s sure to be laughter, and good red wine. At least I’ve always heard it so, BENEDICAMUS DOMINO!”
About me
Born in the midwest. Angelo. 47. Now I'm a guy in a small town in California. Catholicism is my first love, the Faith once delivered to the Saints. I also like art, history, landscapes, and humor, preferably a little twisted. I grew up with four sisters, so I'm patient since I know what it's like to wait for the bathroom. Love the country life in rural Californian. God bless and welcome to my blog!
