To Pray for Rihanna and the Farmer

Rihanna showing too much skin? So says an Irish farmer. Around his neck of the woods he's known as "the Christian." Rihanna & Co. wanted to shoot a music video on his property, and he agreed until he saw how scantily clad she was. Here's the scoop,

Quote of the Week

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There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind. -Hannah Senesh, poet, playwright, and paratrooper (1921-1944)

A Tale of the Laity and Priestly Scandal, Circa 1400 AD

This is Part III of a recently started series about on-going personal conversion. Part I started us off with thoughts from a vision of St. Catherine of Siena. Part II continued with words of a Franciscan friar giving an intelligence brief on our adversary. What follows is either miraculous or not depending on how you view things.

Because My Boys Needed to Know About Hildegard of Bingen

-Feast of St. Lydwine 

I received a note the other day in my e-mail inbox informing me of a movie that would soon be released on DVD. I noted the title of the film and realized that it was still playing in one of the theaters in our town.

The movie I'm referring to is Visions: From the Life of Hildegard of Bingen.

Because the Disciples Were Just Like You (Friday Funnies)

Let me start this post with a hat-tip to Brandon Vogt, convert and Catholic blogger over at The Thin Veil. You may recall that Brandon hosted one of our book club meetings once.

He posted a link on his Facebook page today to a blog of a fellow named Don Miller who, you guessed it, I had never heard of before today. This is reason #1367 for why I didn't give up Facebook for Lent.

Because of the Way This Desert Father Handled a Calumny

—Feast of St. Joseph  

There are scandals, and rumors of scandals and there always will be. To be tainted by scandal, whether you are wrongly accused or guilty, is really a no-win situation. How does one take on the burden of this situation?

Christ was wrongly accused and He barely said a word to defend himself. But others have been wrongly accused and have borne their accusations in a similar manner.

For All the Saints: Louise de Marillac

Earlier this morning, I posted a book review in which the author states that one of his problems with the Catholic Church is that it treats women like second-class citizens. Well, surprise! The LORD works in mysterious ways. 

And although the word mystery is an irritant to some, including the author of that particular book, today's feast of St. Louise de Marillac is "Exhibit A" in the refutation of that preposterous idea. I don't think it is a coincidence that today is her feast day.

Because There Is Good News

You have heard it said, "it is always darkest before the dawn," and you have nodded your head in agreement. At least those of you who have ever camped out know this to be true, right?

These have been dark days for our Church. Scandals, parishes and schools closing, doom and gloom, etc. But it is not always so, and no single one of us can see the "big picture."

Jacques Maritain, writing in 1966 said,

Thanks to Pope John Paul II, For Helping Me Survive Ovarian Cancer

Guest Post by Dee Sparacio

Dee lives New Jersey, where she blogs about how she survived ovarian cancer. Here, she shares how her faith was instrumental in her victory.

I have written about my experience as an ovarian cancer survivor for over three years now. I've shared stories about my CT and PET scans, the anxiety of waiting for CA-125 results, the options I had when I recurred, the sadness I felt when friends lost their battle and the decisions I made when it recurred.

For the Love of Saint Andrew: A Christmas Novena, Day 12

Feast of Pope Saint Damasus I

Guest post by Julie Cragon

Last Christmas, I watched a young couple holding a newborn and playing with young children at a Christmas party. I knew the couple wanted children and was having a difficult time. They have seen doctors and talked to many people and even thought about adoption. I have stayed out of the conversation because they and their family have “thought of and tried everything.”

From the Time Capsule: The Making of a Chinese Nun, circa 1917.

Here is something I stumbled upon recently. It's from the year 1917, when even in the United States women didn't have the right to vote yet. I have been to many places in the world, and although as a culture we Americans like to think we have really come "a long way" and solved all the major problems, many of the women of the world still live in the way this young Chinese Catholic nun describes. Tell us a story Father Truarrizaga.



The Making Of A Chinese Nun by Rev. J. M. Truarrizaga, O.F.M.

The roads by which Chinese girls reach Christianity are often devious and full of danger. But not only do many of the rescued and converted children become fervent Catholics, but a few of them choose the religious life. Sad, indeed, is the early history of Shensi's native nun, but a special Providence protected her and she is now safe among the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.--J.M.T.

Thérèse of Lisieux: the Mind of Lao Tzu, with the Heart of Confucius

—Feast of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Today we celebrate the feast of a Doctor of the Church, the little nun who could, the Little Flower, Thérèse of Lisieux. Responsible for countless conversions to the Faith, she bowled over Thomas Merton, pulled a fast one on Webster Bull, and sank, for all intents and purposes, John C.H. Wu's battleship, with a direct hit amidships.

Do you have friends that left the Church to follow the lights of Eastern Spirituality? Introduce them to the Little Flower. John was so impressed with her Story of a Soul, that he immediately resolved to become a Catholic as soon as possible.

For the Love of St. Joan of Arc: A Novena (Day 8)

St. Joan of Arc knew she would die a martyr's death long before those around her did. She crowned Charles VII king at the Cathedral at Reims in July 1429, fulfilling a central part of her mission. Two months later, she led an unsuccessful attempt to liberate Paris. The following May she was captured by the Burgundians, allies of the English. Betrayed by King Charles VII, she was sold to the English for 10,000 gold francs. Charged with heresy and witchcraft, she was tried, and found guilty of heresy in a church court (they had to throw out the witchcraft charges because an examination by a duchess found St. Joan to be a virgin) by men with a clearly political agenda.

For the Love of St. Joan of Arc: A Novena (Day 7)

One remarkable aspect of exploring the life of St. Joan of Arc through this novena is all the characters I have discovered; folks who helped her to achieve her mission or who played a role in letting the world know about it. I've met Yolande of Aquitaine, a royal dynamo who was among the first to believe Joan's visions were divine, and Étienne de Vignolles , the crude knight she convinced to join her cause and whose heart she converted.

Just last night I met Venetian-born poet, mother, widow and nun Christine de Pisan, (above) who challenged the prevalent misogyny of medieval times and was its most prolific female writer. Hers is the only record of St. Joan of Arc that exists outside of court documents of her trial.

For the Love of St. Joan of Arc: A Novena (Day 6)

St. Joan of Arc is both a saint and a warrior. As a military leader, she is best known for marshaling French troops during the Siege of Orléans (1428 to 1429), breaking 80 years of English dominance during the Hundred Years' War between the two nations. She was 17 years old at the time

Orléans is a city on the Loire River in north-central France and had major significance to both the French and English during the Hundred Years' War. This siege was the high-water mark  of English power during the long conflict.

For the Love of St. Joan of Arc: A Novena (Day 5)

To some who are not Catholic, and heck to some who are, novenas seems like superstition, a relic of folk religion. Novenas are not incantations; they do not offer us magic if only we say certain words or do certain things. Alas, some Catholics are misguided about novenas. Have you ever attended a Mass where someone had stuck a copy of a novena to St. Jude in a pew? The flier says that if you go to church for nine days and leave a copy of the prayer behind, your request will be granted. This is a misuse of the Catholic treasure of a novena.

Father William P. Saunders, refers to this practice as "dispensing—machine Catholicism; just as a person puts the coin in the vending machine and presses the button to get the desired soda, here a person says the prayer, goes to Church, and is supposedly guaranteed that the request will be granted. So much for God's will. What is really sad these days is that the person simply Xeroxes the letter; one would think they could at least hand-write it." So what is a novena, exactly?

To Pray for Freida Pinto

I'm getting to the age where a young lady in her midtwenties could be my daughter. And so when I learned that Freida Pinto, the beautiful actress from Mumbai, is Catholic, I started to pray for her.

Last week, a neighbor loaned my family a DVD of Slumdog Millionaire, which won eight Academy Awards in early 2009. Neither Greg nor I had seen this inspirational movie about an orphaned young man from the slums of Mumbai who competes in "Kaun Banega Crorepati?" the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" His love interest is another orphan from the slums of Mumbai, a girl named Lakita, played by the lovely Freida Pinto.

For the Love of St. Joan of Arc: A Novena (Day 3)

Joan of Arc's public ministry began and ended the year she was 17. She had grown up in a loving family who provided her with concrete examples of Christian charity. Historical records describe the D'Arc family as "willing to open their home to strangers and to share what they could with them.

People remembered how Joan would willingly give up her bed to these strangers while she herself slept by the hearth." To leave her childhood home (pictured above, with the village church beside it) and follow her destiny, St. Joan left home without telling them her true destination and goal: fight the English at Orleans and have the Dauphin crowned king.

With Gratitude to Yolande of Aragon

I'd never heard of Yolande of Aragon until I began delving into the life of Saint Joan of Arc. Now I know that without this medieval dynamo, the world might never have been blessed with the gifts of St. Joan.

Yolande's role in St. Joan's mission tells me a few things. First, none of us work Christ's plan for our lives in isolation. Second, women have played key roles in history and their importance in Church history is no exception. In fact, one could argue that the Catholic Church stands alone in the degree to which it honors women and their role in securing salvation.Third, perhaps behind every powerful woman there is another woman, cheering her on.

For All the Saints: Edith Stein

Guest Post by William “Mac” McCarthy
My dormitory neighbor from 40+ years ago, who posted on the Martyrs of Compiègne in July, is back with some powerful material on St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, born to a Jewish family and still widely known by her given name of Edith Stein. I’ll pass along the material just as Mac sent it to me—only lacking his careful footnoting. There’s a lot here for reflection and inspiration:

“We are travelling East,” Last Letters from a Martyr
St. Edith Stein, 1891-1942, feast day August 9, also called Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, brilliant German philosopher, Catholic convert, Carmelite nun . . .