Lenten Journey with the Saints: Day 2

March 7
“There are ways of being crucified that do not involve rough wood or heavy nails, but a love beyond our capacity to love, which means a love that has been given to us by God…”
-Servant of God Catherine Doherty
Today’s Reflection
Only with God’s grace can we truly understand that real love knows how to suffer for the beloved, and it does so joyfully. Where might you suffer more cheerfully for others?

 

Can Catholics Use Past Life Regression Therapy?

LN asks: “My friend, a Catholic, went to a therapist who used hypnosis to take her back to a previous life. She was all excited about it and said finding out that she had been a male surgeon in a past life made certain things about her life make more sense. Are Catholics allowed to participate in this kind of therapy?”

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Day 1

March 6

“Ash Wednesday is considered the ‘door’ to Lent.”
-Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

 

Today’s Reflection

Today is the beginning of a 40-day campaign dedicated to ridding ourselves of vice and filling ourselves with virtue. Bring your plans for this Lenten season to the feet of the Crucified and ask for His blessing as you begin this sacred journey.

 

Beyond the Ashes: Embracing the “Interior Spirit” of Lent

In the eyes of the world, Ash Wednesday is the day when people with “dirty foreheads” appear in supermarkets and cafes and order fish instead of steak. But in the eyes of the faithful, this day is the beginning of a season designed to make the weak-kneed-but-willing into true champions.

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Guess What the Girl Scouts Have Been Up to Lately

Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

Mothers who are concerned about the dark direction the Girl Scouts have been taking in recent years will be disappointed to learn that nothing much has changed. This once venerable institution is still aligning itself with radical feminist causes.

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Prayer Blankets

EW writes:I am writing for information about a gift that I received from some Catholic women friends. I have heard them talk about the practice of Reiki and Healing Touch. They are involved with it in the hospital settings. They call it a prayer blanket and they are hand-made from cloth material. It is 17″ x 17″, the back and front are beautifully quilted. In the front is a centered cross. The prayer blanket comes with a prayer blessing for the one that places it on the part of the body that needs prayer. I heard a priest in his homily that Catholic school children made prayer blankets and sent them to the missions for a school project. Does this have anything to do with the New Age?”

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Talk with God

March 4

“We need to be thoroughly convinced of the fact that all God asks of us, in
this conversation, is good will. A soul pestered by distractions, who patiently
comes back each day, like a good child, to talk with God, is making first-rate
mental prayer. God supplies all our deficiencies.”

Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, OCSO
Soul of the Apostolate

 

Today’s Reflection

Are you a “soul pestered by distractions?” Make a resolution this Lent to set aside a specific time for prayer every day and be faithful to this time no matter what. Let God supply for all your deficiencies and persist.

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Inside Planned Parenthood: The Grisly Details

Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

As the public debate over the rise of extreme abortion policies reaches a feverish pitch in the U.S., more former Planned Parenthood employees are coming forward to tell a damning tale about the ghoulish work that goes on inside these clinics.

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Are you listening?

March 3
“Prayer’s worth and progress depend not so much on growth in quantity
as on increase in quality”
-Fr. Segundo Galilea
Temptation and Discernment
Today’s Reflection
Do you do most of the talking in prayer? How much of your prayer time is spent listening to God or to simply sitting in silence and enjoying His company? Five minutes of quiet listening can greatly improve the quality of your prayer!

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