Today is a feast day for St. Therese of Lisieux, the “Little Flower” and Doctor of the Church (due to her doctrine of “The Little Way.”) I say “a feast day” as today’s is from the Ordinary Form Calendar; on the Extraordinary Form Calendar it is October 3rd. One of the more significant books I’ve …
Continue reading ‘Little Flower and the Story of Her Soul’ »
Today I achieved my seventeenth year of sobriety. That’s One Day At A Time repeated 6,209 times. A certain Twelve Step movement helped a lot at first; but I credit my endurance to Our Lord and Saviour’s Church, the Holy Catholic Church and to His Most Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. I think a …
Continue reading ‘Soberversary! Seventeen years sober, today.’ »
This is a story about a Marian feast day, its significance; a saint and what he did with it; and what all this meant for yours truly. Today is February 11th, the 160th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparition to St. Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto near Lourdes, France in 1858. The apparition was significant in …
Continue reading ‘Our Lady of Lourdes/World Day of the Sick’ »
Last Friday I happened to watch the Daily Mass on EWTN. Fr. Joseph Mary had a nice homily on Matt Talbot! He even mentioned that there is a miracle attributed to Matt that is being considered for possible beatification! He also read two prayers written by Matt: Oh most sweet Jesus, mortify within me all …
Today, August 15th, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, is also the beginning of the Franciscan devotion known as “St. Michael’s Lent.” It is a 40-day period of fasting begun by St. Francis of Assisi in the 1220’s similar to the actual Lenten season. It ends September 29th on the feast of St. …
During Sober Catholic’s inaugural year in 2007, I decided to introduce readers to St. Maximilian Kolbe. He is a patron saint of addicts. Last year, on the 75th anniversary of his martyrdom I wrote this on my other blog In Exile : “St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe was executed in the Nazi German concentration camp at …
Continue reading ‘Novena to St. Maximilian Kolbe begins (with updated links to the original)!’ »
…you may have a patron in St. Camillus de Lellis. St. Camillus was born on May 25, 1550, at Bucchianico, which is now in Abruzzo, then part of the Kingdom of Naples. His mother was about 50 when she bore him, and died when he was 12. His father was in the military and seldom …