COLLECTION OF CATHOLIC PRAYERS ETC.
St. Zita was born into a poor but holy Christian family. Her older sister became a Cistercian nun and her uncle Graziano was a hermit whom the local people regarded as a saint. Zita herself always tried to do God’s will obediently whenever it was pointed out to her by her mother. At the age…
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When Pope Francis was elected as the first Latin American pontiff, he said his brother cardinals went out of their way to pick someone from the “ends of the earth.” He spent the rest of his pontificate going back out to those peripheries, traveling to more than 65 nations, preferring those…
Read More “Pope spent pontificate going to peripheries; at funeral, they came to him” »
ROME (CNS) — The casket bearing the body of Pope Francis made its final journey through the streets of Rome accompanied by applause and shouts of gratitude from thousands of mourners. After the funeral Mass April 26, pallbearers carried Pope Francis’ coffin through St. Peter’s Basilica, stopping briefly at the steps leading to St. Peter’s…
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis was “a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, as he presided over the funeral of the pope, who died April 21 at the age of 88. And the people — an estimated 200,000 of…
Read More “Poor and powerful pray for eternal repose of a pope ‘with an open heart’” »
St. Ludger was born around 742 in Friesland (present-day Netherlands). As a young man, he studied under St. Gregory of Utrecht and later at the renowned monastery of York under Alcuin. Deeply inspired by missionary work, Ludger was ordained a priest and dedicated his life to spreading the Gospel among the pagan Saxons and Frisians….
Reading 1 Acts 4:13-21 Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus. Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them, they could say nothing in reply….
ROME (CNS) — “The Virgin Mary told me, ‘Prepare the tomb.’” That is what Pope Francis said Mary told him when he was discerning whether to be buried in the historic Marian church where his body will be laid to rest April 26. Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major,…
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St. Cletus was the third bishop of Rome, and succeeded St. Linus, which circumstance alone shows his eminent virtue among the first disciples of St. Peter in the West. He sat twelve years, from 76 to 89. The canon of the Roman mass, (which Bossuet and all others agree to be of primitive antiquity,) Bede,…
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Rome is a city of nostalgia. It’s a place you seem to have visited even if it’s your first time. The initial sights, sounds, and smells deeply penetrate your psyche, especially if you’re Christian. That’s because, if you’re Christian, Rome is your home. A self-confessed homebody, Pope Francis didn’t “return” to Rome until 2001 when…
Read More “The Basilica of Saint Mary Major: A Fitting Resting Place for a Marian Pope” »
During the Great Jubilee Year 2000, now twenty-five years ago (April 30, 2000, specifically) Pope St. John Paul II instituted the great feast of Divine Mercy Sunday. By his declaration, the feast is to be celebrated throughout the Church on the Second Sunday of Easter each year. On that same day, he canonized Maria Faustina…