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Venerable Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan spent 13 years in a re-education camp — nine of those in solitary confinement. "After my liberation many people said to me: 'Father, in prison you must have had a lot of time to pray." [But] there were days when I was so worn out by exhaustion and illness that I could not manage to say a single prayer! ... When my strength failed and I could not even pray, I repeated: 'Jesus, here I am, it's Francis.'"
I'm sure your feeds have been inundated with hundreds of goals for the new year. If you're anything like me, you want to do them all at once. But even the most self-disciplined, well-trained individuals can only manage one new habit at a time. If you're feeling overwhelmed, maybe just try saying this simple, three-second prayer: "Jesus, here I am, it's me."
There is a reason for our hope! God bless you all this week. - Meaghen Gonzalez
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"The first indispensable step towards freedom is the willingness to call things by their real names." - George Orwell
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New Resources
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A Simple Way to Pray Always - Venerable Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan - Five Loaves & Two Fish After my liberation many people said to me: "Father, in prison you must have had a lot of time to pray." It was not as simple as one might think.
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Politicizing Language - Theodore Dalrymple - The New English Review The fact that hell was not built in a day, and that language was an important auxiliary in its construction, naturally enough makes us think of our own linguistic situation.
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Boris gets it right on anti-semitism - Rex Murphy - National Post I think, in a way, that the best response to the near-slaughter in Monsey, N.Y., came before the event and from across the water.
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Newman on the Conscience: an idea for our time? - Thomas Carr - The Catholic Education Resource Center On October 13, 2019, tens of thousands of pilgrims crowded St. Peter's square to witness the canonization Mass of John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), the first Englishman to be raised to the altars in over 300 years.
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A Line Through the Human Heart: On Sinning and Being Forgiven - Father James V. Schall, S.J. - from A Line Through the Human Heart: On Sinning and Being Forgiven "Fr. Schall offers us a 21st century syllabus of errors all too common in our culture and country." - Father Kenneth Baker, editor emeritus of Homiletic & Pastoral Review
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Singular Vessel of Devotion - Michael Pakaluk - The Catholic Thing During pregnancy, some cells from the unborn child migrate through the placenta into the mother's bloodstream.
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The cost of bringing sanity into the world - Father George W. Rutler - From the Pastor Who the "Wise Men" were is a recurring question for inventive debate, but the point is that these sophisticated scholars were from "a foreign country."
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Editorials of Interest:
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Editorials of Interest
God Is Light - First Things
As it looks back to the light of Jesus, Epiphany also directs us forward to the eternal day.
Alone in the Clouds: Malick's "A Hidden Life" - The Catholic Thing
Franz Jägerstätter was an Austrian farmer who refused to pledge allegiance to Adolf Hitler and was guillotined by the Nazis on August 9, 1943. He was beatified as a martyr by Benedict XVI in 2007.
Shrouded in Darkness - First Things
Twitter in particular has made it stunningly easy to pick a passage out of context and share it with an unsympathetic audience. Thus the rise of hate-reading, the practice of reading publications not because they edify, but because they outrage.
For 11 Years, She Lived as a Man - The Stream
At age 19, Kathy Grace Duncan decided she was ready to live as a man. Eleven years after her gender transition, Duncan decided she was now going to live as a woman again.
It's Time to Talk About Postpartum - Crisis Magazine
Postpartum is the first full year after giving birth. Currently, postpartum care for the mother is often no more than a simple six-week check-up.
Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love - Ascension Press
Today's episode of All Things Catholic examines that reality through the lens of Adam and Eve's relationship before the Fall, giving you keys to understand how this mystery of love can unfold in your own relationships.
Science Answers the Biggest Pro-Abortion Argument - Catholic Stand
Biology defines eight characteristics that all living things share and that can be objectively verified. All eight criteria are traced back in the human person to the moment of conception.
Taking Sex Differences in Personality Seriously - Scientific American
New approaches are shedding light on the magnitude of sex differences in personality, and the results are so strong and pervasive that they can no longer be ignored.
Transgenderism Is Not Normal - Crisis Magazine
A society that promotes mental illness as a legitimate "alternative lifestyle" is in deep trouble. One that is increasingly subservient to the demands of the mentally ill has entered even more dangerous territory.
St. John Henry Cardinal Newman
and St. Justin Martyr
pray for us |
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