Since this blog is about “Conversion, Prayer, Fasting, Repentance, and Penance,” amongst other things, Lent is a natural time to blog a lot since those ‘abouts’ correspond to the season. I have often in previous Lents blogged daily, or at least a few times a week, taking inspiration from the daily Mass readings or the …
The idea: Popularizing a Triduum of Monthly Marian Consecrations. What’s a Triduum? A Triduum is three consecutive days on the liturgical calendar commemorating or celebrating a feast day. We used to have many back in the olden times before Vatican 2. We’re really down to just the Easter Triduum of the evening of Holy Thursday through Easter …
Continue reading ‘Let’s start a Triduum of Monthly Marian Consecrations!’ »
Today is the First Friday of February. It is also “Sacred Heart Friday” That means it’ll be a basic primer on the First Friday Devotion, one of the ‘pillars’ of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart. Jesus made the following 12 promises to St. Margaret Mary in favor of those who consecrate themselves to the Sacred …
An atheist leads me towards belief in God during a tumultuous time in my life through his use of vivid storytelling within a deeply imaginative universe. It begs the question of, “How can a non-believer help someone to believe?” Saints and spiritual writers often say that God can bring good out of evil. Evil is …
Continue reading ‘Through Nothing to the Infinite: How an Atheist Lead me to God’ »
Today marks the 16th Bloggaversary of Sober Catholic. In honor of that, I’ve edited and cleaned up a messy note I wrote who-knows-when on “The Sober Catholic Way.” It is a summary of everything I’ve been doing since I became sober on May 22, 2002. Some I do better than others. This was originally a …
Continue reading ‘16th Bloggaversary of Sober Catholic: How I stayed sober for almost 21 years’ »
I received an email from the Militia of the Immaculata this morning announcing a new apostolic initiative of theirs! Here’s the email (I copied it.) Join the Militia of the Immaculata for a 31 Day Rosary Challenge set to begin on October 1st!!! The idea is to pray the Rosary at different hours and different places, …
Continue reading ‘Announcing the 31 Day Rosary Challenge!!! Join the Militia of the Immaculata!!!’ »
The Bishops of the United States are launching us on a three-year long Eucharistic Revival. I first heard about it in a recent issue of the Militia of the Immaculata-USA monthly magazine Knight of the Immaculata. (This may initiate a PDF download in some browsers.) Why is this being done? From the he US Bishops site …
Continue reading ‘National Eucharistic Revival: A Grassroots Response to God’s Invitation’ »
The season of Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. Although the obvious point of the season is the Nativity of Jesus, the Mass readings in the weeks leading up to Advent and then in Advent itself serve to remind us that there is not one, but two comings of …
This morning’s Office of Readings for Saturday, 34th Week on Ordinary Time has a sermon by Saint Augustine which I take the following excerpt: “Let us sing Alleluia to God, who is good and frees us from evil”: “O! what a happy alleluia there, how carefree, how safe from all opposition, where nobody will be …
Note: this was originally posted in different form long ago here at Sober Catholic: On October 13, 1917 the final Marian Apparition at Fatima, Portugal took place. I know the anniversary was a few weeks ago, but I decided to post this today, the Feast of All Hallow’s Eve (a/k/a “Halloween”). I’ll explain at the end. …