COLLECTION OF CATHOLIC PRAYERS ETC.
Reading I Genesis 1:1—2:2 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss,while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said,“Let there be light,” and there was light.God saw how good the light was.God then separated the light from the darkness.God called…
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ROME (CNS) — Today’s “builders of Babel” are constructing a hell on earth, rejecting everyone they decide are “losers,” Pope Francis wrote in the meditations for the Way of the Cross. “Your way, Jesus, is the way of the Beatitudes. It does not crush, but cultivates, repairs and protects,” the pope wrote for the nighttime…
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Jesus, who redeemed humanity by giving up his life on the cross, shows that it is not strength that saves the world, but the “weakness” of boundless love, the papal preacher told thousands of people gathered for the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance. Today’s world,…
Read More “Love, not power saves the world, papal preacher says at service with Vance” »
Archbishop and “the First Martyr of Canterbury.” He was born in 953 and became a monk in the Deerhurst Monastery in Gloucester, England, asking after a few years to become a hermit. He received permission for this vocation and retired to a small hut near Somerset, England. In 984 Alphege assumed the role of abbot…
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Doce me passionem Tuam—teach me Your suffering. Lord Jesus Christ, I consecrate my whole self, all that I am and all that I am not, all that I have and all that I lack, to Your Most Holy Cross. Your entire Passion—all Your terrible suffering—was for me, alone and individually. And You likewise prepare a…
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In this series I have introduced the brief prayer, doce me passionem Tuam—teach me Your suffering—a simple aspiration we can pray many times a day. I also offered some suggestions on preparing for a Consecration to the Most Holy Cross of Jesus that you can pray today on Good Friday, which I am publishing here,…
Reading I Isaiah 52:13—53:12 See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted. Even as many were amazed at him– so marred was his look beyond human semblance and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man– so shall he startle many nations, because of him…
ROME (CNS) — While he did not celebrate Mass or wash the feet of inmates, Pope Francis made his customary Holy Thursday visit to a detention facility, arriving at Rome’s Regina Coeli jail at about 3 p.m. April 17. The pope was welcomed by Claudia Clementi, the jail’s director, and met with about 70 inmates…
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Martyr whose Apologia, or defense of the faith, is considered one of the most priceless documents of the early Church. Apollonius was a Roman senator who was denounced as a Christian by one of his slaves. The Praetorian Prefect, Sextus Tigidius Perennis, arrested him, also putting the slave to death as an informer. Perennis demanded…
Read More “St. Apollonius the Apologist: Saint of the Day for Friday, April 18, 2025” »
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Especially in a Jubilee Year, but also every day, priests are called to continual conversion so that they can authentically preach the good news of hope, Pope Francis wrote in the homily he prepared for the Holy Thursday chrism Mass. “It is God’s work, not ours: to bring good news to…
Read More “Be ‘heralds of hope,’ pope asks priests in homily for chrism Mass” »