Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, and Creation V: Our Lady Mother of Mercy and Saints Vincent de Paul and Louise Marillac

Today begins the Fifth of the Nine Novenas for Justice, Peace, and Creation, and this one is dedicated to the Our Lady Mother of Mercy & Saints Vincent de Paul & Louise Marillac. It runs from July 26 — August 3, 2020. I will not post this every day as the prayers and intentions are …

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Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace and Creation IV: to Our Lady Undoer of Knots and Matthew Talbot

Today begins a special edition of the Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace and Creation. This, the Fourth of the Nine, is dedicated to Our Lady Undoer of Knots and a patron of SoberCatholic and probably many of you, Matthew Talbot. It runs from July 17 to July 25, 2020. I will not post this …

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Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace and Creation III: Our Lady of the Precious Blood and St. Franz Jagerstatter and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Today begins the Third of our Nine Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation, and this one is dedicated to Our Lady of the Precious Blood and St. Franz Jagerstatter and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. It runs from July 8 to July 16, 2020. I will not post this every day as the prayers and …

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Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace and Creation II: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Blessed Stanley Rother, and All the Martyrs of Latin America

And today begins the Second of the Nine Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation, and this one is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Blessed Stanley Rother, and All the Martyrs of Latin America. It runs from June 29 to July 7, 2020. I will not post this every day as the prayers and intentions …

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On Bob Waldrop and introducing the Novena of Novenas

Today begins a special period of prayer, the “Novena of Novenas.” This was started several years ago by Bob Waldrop, the late founder of the St. Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City. Bob died on August 30, 2019. I never met Bob in person although we had been friends on Facebook for around …

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Feast of Matt Talbot

June 19th also happens to be the feast day of Matt Talbot, the Irish hard laborer and ex-drunkard who if he ever gets around to interceding miraculously, will get beatified and then canonized, and become a patron saint of alcoholics and addicts. If you are a reader of this blog, then you probably know of …

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A great and easy way to “get outside” yourself and help others

Last December I posted about Hozana. “It is an online gathering space for Catholics and other Christians to come together in prayer and mutual encouragement. It isn’t a social network on the order of a Facebook, MeWe or whatever else is out there, but you can follow others and communicate with them. Activity is centered …

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Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness

In this excerpt from the Gospel reading from today’s Mass for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time we read: Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Source: EWTN: Catholic Mass, Daily Mass, Catholic Mass Readings, Catholic Mass Online This is one of those …

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St. Maximilian Kolbe: martyr, patron of addicts, died 75 years ago today

NOTE: This is an edited version of a post previously published to “Paul Sofranko’s Blog” St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe was executed in the Nazi German concentration camp at Auschwitz seventy-five years ago today for being a Catholic priest. He was a Conventual Franciscan friar and Guardian (leader, administrator) of Niepokalanow, then the world’s largest friary …

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A fortnight of years in sobriety

Today marks my 14th anniversary of my last drunk. I sort of remember it, although for years I couldn’t recall the exact time (as in hour/minute) I took my last drink. I still can’t. I won’t bother with the details of my last drunk as I’ve written about them before. Question: “How’d I do it?” …

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