Articles For Heart Mind Soul

Saint Andrew Novena Prayer   What is the Saint Andrew Novena? It is a devotion, also known as the Christmas Anticipation Prayer, that starts on the feast day of St Andrew the Apostle, November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve. It consists in reciting the prayer found below 15 times each day of the novena period. Its exact origin is unknown, but it is believed to have begun in Ireland during the 19th century. This is a very meditative prayer that brings about graces, increases our awareness of the real focus of Christmas and prepares us spiritually for His coming.   Novena Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen. Recite the above prayer 15 times a day from Nov...

The secular word Administrator is from the world, the flesh, and the evil one trying to demolish the dignity of priests as good shepherds.   All priests assigned to a parish are Pastors of their flock.   God bless all our shepherds to be conformed to Christ the Good Shepherd.   La palabra secular Administrador es del mundo, de la carne y del maligno tratando de demoler la dignidad de los sacerdotes como buenos pastores. Todos los sacerdotes asignados a una parroquia son Pastores de su rebaño. Dios bendiga a todos nuestros pastores para que se conformen a Cristo el Buen Pastor.

  Personal reflection:  On Giving Tuesday, give the gift of Truth for those desperately seeking and searching for God’s Truth found only in the Deposit of Faith of the Catholic Church.

  Yesterday When I was Young by Gene Chapman Recently turning 85, I long for yesterday’s pre arthritics days, running marathons, effortlessly gliding over the miles, euphorically knowing I could overcome all obstacles, sprinting across the finish line. This very day my country is in a marathon, and I’m not sure she has the will to finish the race. It’s a race against hate and division, and they have the upper hand. Divide and conquer hatred propaganda has the petal pressed to the metal, determined to fundamentally change America. After well over a hundred years of world dominance for good, we are racing for an also ran member of the world, accepting the yoke of mediocrity in nation destroying equity of big government, dictatorial slavery. No longer does America run free in a merit based, opportunity society, reaching ever higher for world educational dominance.   We are now accepting degrees without SAT scores placing one above another which only indicates either disciplin...

  "O Mary, conceived without sin, obtain for us the grace to have recourse to thee, O Mother of Mercy." Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal celebrates a feast day on November 27th. Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal holds a special place in the hearts of many Catholics, as her image and devotion are associated with countless stories of grace, healing, and divine intervention. The story of the Miraculous Medal dates back to 1830 in Paris, France, where Sister Catherine Labouré, a novice in the Daughters of Charity, had a series of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. During one of these apparitions, Our Lady presented Sister Catherine with the design of a medal, instructing her to have it created and distributed. The medal came to be known as the Miraculous Medal due to the numerous miracles and graces reported by those who wore it with faith. The front of the medal features an image of Mary standing on a globe, crushing a serpent beneath her feet, representing her victory over ...

To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King  was written in 1941, by Father Martin B. Hellriegel, a German-American pastor in Saint Louis, as a direct response to the pretensions of the Third Reich and to remind people who actually reigns eternally.  Nothing could be further from the nightmarish ideas that fueled the Third Reich, and Father Martin B. Hellriegel in his magnificent hymn conveys this majestic conception of God and of humanity under God: To Jesus Christ, our Sov’reign King, Who is the world’s salvation, All praise and homage do we bring, And thanks and adoration.   Refrain: Christ Jesus Victor, Christ Jesus Ruler! Christ Jesus, Lord and Redeemer!   2. Thy reign extend, O King benign, To ev’ry land and nation, For in Thy kingdom, Lord divine, Alone we find salvation. (Refrain)   3. To Thee and to Thy Church, great King, We pledge our hearts’ oblation, Until before Thy throne we sing, In endless jubilation. (Refrain) ...

  I wonder how history will record this time of the so-called covid crisis. As Christians we should never have crowned a virus and paid it homage like we did, we should only honor with the Crown of Glory the King of kings - King Jesus, and the Lord of lords - Our Lord Jesus Christ. We made an idol of the virus falsely believing it was so great and powerful, only God is Great and All Powerful. Everything we did or didn’t do revolved around the virus, everything we do or don’t do should only revolve around The Word of God. We obeyed man-made mandates more than we obeyed God’s commandments. Covid shut down our churches because they were considered non-essential, and we were all okay with that. Covid made us all cowards, when trusting in Christ would have made us all courageous. We put all our faith in a worldly injection when we should have put all our faith only on The Word Incarnate. We cannot serve two masters; we either serve covid or we serve Christ. O ye of lit...

Request to Catholic Women of Good Will to Prayerfully Consider . . . . . by Marian Casillas, Ed.D. In order to foster vocations to the priesthood, I humbly plead of you to please step aside from your role as lectors, extraordinary ministers of communion, sacristans, altar servers, acolytes . . . . and faithfully and lovingly allow and encourage boys and young men to practice performing these duties at the altar to prepare them to serve as future priests. Your sacrifice of selfless, self-giving can be offered to God for the merit of inviting and inspiring a boy or young man to become a priest. Please prayerfully discern if it is laid upon your heart by Our Lord Jesus Christ to offer prayers and sacrifices in reparation for the intention of not allowing women to be ordained to the holy priesthood in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Women, for the sake of our Catholic Faith, please step aside and give your privileged place to a boy or young man who might one day be a future ...

  The only Good Friday - Black Friday, that Catholics should rush for the saving of their eternal soul. 

  No Black Friday & No Cyber Monday After such a beautiful national holiday as “Thanksgiving Day”, a day dedicated to being grateful to God for all the blessings He has so generously bestowed upon us as a country, it is unfortunate that what should follow are two days called, “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday”.  These days are solely devoted to selling and shopping for things, not necessarily because we need those things, but solely because those things are on sale and we are made to feel that we need to have those things, because those things are at such bargain prices that we cannot possibly pass up such great deals.  Commercialism and consumerism has commandeered these days, let’s take them back and make them Christ-centered days instead. Let us be Christocentric and not egocentric. What’s with all the hype about “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday”?  “Black Friday” is the day after “Thanksgiving Day” and “Cyber Monday” is the day after the Thanksgiving Weekend....

  Identity-politics at the Thanksgiving-table by Marian Casillas, Ed.D.   Every weekend before Thanksgiving, it’s been a family tradition to go to a turkey farm and find the best turkey to roast for our dining pleasure. I gleefully acclaim, “Look, that one looks good to eat.” Response: “I’m not a turkey. I self-identify as a bald eagle, so there, you can’t touch me. I’m protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act which is a United States federal statute that protects me. I was chosen as a national emblem of the United States by the Continental Congress of 1782 and was given legal protection by the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940. This act was expanded to include the golden eagle in 1962. The Act provides criminal penalties from a maximum fine of $500 and six months imprisonment to a maximum fine of $5,000 and one year's imprisonment. Furthermore, in the case of second conviction, the penalty is increased to $10,000 fine and two years imprisonment. The maximum amoun...

What’s "The Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller Mass & Cocktail"? I hope Mass & Cocktails were in different locations. Why are they celebrating happy hour with cocktails instead of Holy Hour with Christ? Why so much praise and publicity for Catholic Charities by having the Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishops along with several prominent priests concelebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? Catholic Charities is an NGO, non-governmental organization, which has been found complicit in providing funds to agencies and institutions whose stated mission and purpose are contrary to Catholic teachings, and who Congress is currently taking steps to investigate.  

  Book buyers beware! by Marian Casillas, Ed.D. The Scholastic Book Fair is an annual tradition in our public and private schools. As students, teachers and parents of a bygone era may fondly recall looking forward to the Book Fairs which brought a bevy of books for them to peruse and eventually purchase for their home or classroom libraries. Back then, there were no fears or worries about the content of the books, because Scholastic books featured age-appropriate, decent, and wholesome literature. But now, unfortunately, there is a war on children, with their innocence and purity unsuspectingly being the major target of radicalized ideological companies, like Scholastic, intending to purposefully indoctrinate young, impressionable minds at the earliest possible age. Scholastic is the largest children’s book publisher/distributer, easily infiltrating our schools with their hurtful and harmful hedonistic culture, because it proudly brandishes its long established brand to ...

  Thanks to the World Values Survey and to Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate for providing the following information. The current Top Ten list of the world’s largest Catholic countries, that is to say, the number of baptized Catholics in those places.  1) Brazil (120 million) 2) Mexico (90 million) 3) Philippines (80 million) 4) United States (67 million) 5) Italy (47 million) 6) Democratic Republic of Congo (45 million) 7) Colombia (35 million) 8) Poland (33 million) 9) France (32 million) 10) Spain (30 million) Overall, that’s three nations out of Latin America (including Mexico), one in North America, one each for Africa and Asia, and four in Europe. The World Values Survey (WVS) focused on “practicing” Catholics, meaning those who go to Mass at least once a week. Top Ten list for countries with the most practicing Catholics. 1) Philippines (47 million) 2) Mexico (45 million) 3) Democratic Republic of Congo (37.5 million) 4) N...