If you've never listened to it, check out Vatican Radio's 105 Live FM station online. It broadcasts if four different languages (one of them English). At night, you will usually hear some music, but it may be music from any number of genres. You just never know what those DJs are going to play.

Also, a little humor for your day. This is an insightful comic!
- posted by John @ 8:58 PM

 
The vocation director of my community is standing over my shoulder, so I think I better put in a plug for our community... If you are a young man age 18-45 and think you may have a vocation to priesthood in a religious community, check out our Vocations webpage.
- posted by John @ 9:35 PM

 
A "gen-x" perspective on Catholic Social Justice teaching: (from I was robbed! -- a testimony)

"Case in point: The only moral challenges given to the faithful from the pulpit were (and are) calls to help the poor, or admonitions against racism and sexism. But it was obvious to me that every good atheist, pagan or non-believer out there was saying the same thing. So why bother being a Christian? Why get out of bed on Sunday morning and go to Mass when I could turn on any news program or TV series and get the same message? Young Americans generally are sensitive to social justice issues, since we've been immersed in a culture that never ceases to speak out on such things. To this day, when I hear yet another social justice homily, I want to yell out: "We get it! We get it! But what we never hear about is the need for personal morality! For repentance! For conversion! For holiness! What we don't understand is our Faith! Teach us! Challenge us! Help us get to Heaven!" Have too many leaders of the Catholic Church in America forgotten that their mission is to save souls?"

The pendulum swings... Years ago, exactly the opposite was said. (This is all so individual! What about social justice...) Balance is needed! Ye old "via media," as it is known. This "I was robbed" chant is not mine, although I am part of Gen-X. I am not blaming anyone. Faith is a gift, and to have it is wonderful. If it were not for grace, I would be faithless, and wouldn't care about orthodoxy one bit. So, many lost faith in the teachings of the Church, decided orthodoxy was not important, and tried to influence others... That's what happens if you don't have faith! The faithless one does not consider himself to be robbing anyone of anything, because he doesn't think there is something to rob one of... So, you can't tell someone without faith "stop robbing us." It's not going to work. Just pray for them.
- posted by John @ 1:49 PM

 
Here's a neat homily for the day--concerning what is "ours" and "theirs." I've seen territorial attitudes creep into the most unlikely places. Well, it's not necessarily bad to be territorial--just ask momma bear--but since we have a rational soul, we should be able to rise above it when it's just plain selfishness. Let's pray for the grace to do so.

Blessing of a Divine Mercy statue today here at the Marian Scholasticate. Looks to be quite a gathering.
- posted by John @ 9:25 AM

 
Soon it will be... the feast of the Archangels! Yes, Sept. 29th is the feast of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. I found a decent prayer to the Archangel Michael, with a little info on this popular angel. In this day and age, asking these major angels for help is important, and I highly recommend it.

Today is the feast of St. Vincent de Paul. He is a patron of my congregation. Did you know that St. Vincent de Paul appeared to St. Catherine Laboure shortly before she received her apparitions of the Blessed Virgin?
- posted by John @ 9:45 AM

 
A blessed Gypsy: Blessed Ceferino Gimenez Malla (died 1936). He was killed because he wouldn't stop praying the Rosary.

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for opinions on JC-TV, one of those "Christian MTVs." If you don't know what it is, click the link. You can watch it by clicking the "watch" button and then "watch the show." Unfortunately, I don't have the comments feature on my blog, but you can write a comment in my guestbook at the bottom of the screen or send an e-mail to brjohn@maill.com.
- posted by John @ 3:27 PM

 
More from the diary of St. Maria Faustina:

Today the Lord Jesus is giving me an awareness of Himself and of His most tender love and care for me. He is bringing me to understand deeply how everything depends on His will, and how He allows certain difficulties precisely for our merit, so that our fidelity might be clearly manifest. And through this, I have been given strength for suffering and self-denial. (1409)

Blessings on your day. May Our Lady intercede for you in your necessities.
- posted by John @ 8:39 AM

 
From the diary of St. Maria Faustina:

O Jesus, stretched out upon the cross, I implore You, give me the grace of doing faithfully the most holy will of Your Father, in all things, always and everywhere. And when this will of God will seem to me very harsh and difficult to fulfill, it is then I beg You, Jesus, may power and strength flow upon me from Your wounds, and may my lips keep repeating, "Your will be done, O Lord." O Savior of the world, Lover of man's salvation, who in such terrible torment and pain forget Yourself to think only of the salvation of souls, O most compassionate Jesus, grant me the grace to forget myself that I may live totally for souls, helping You in the work of salvation, according to the most holy will of Your Father.... (1265)

Happy Memorial of St. Pio. Learn more about him...
- posted by John @ 9:44 PM

 
So, if you don't have devotion to St. Agnes, you might want to consider having some. Just ask her to help you in some way. Her strong witness to the Gospel makes me think that she's good to ask for fortitude (that's strength). Anyhow, can't hurt.
- posted by John @ 5:19 PM

 
Ever hear of the story of the Blessing Stone? Read it here... (The link to listen to the story doesn't work, so you just have to read it.) God bless Michael John Poirer.

Speaking of Catholic Youth Magazines, Dimensioni Nuove is a famous Italian Catholic mag. It's sometimes a bit secular for my tastes, but I'm not in Italy, so I don't know how they take it there.
- posted by John @ 10:14 AM

 
Must post... I saw the latest issue of Hearts Aflame! It's a Catholic youth magazine (obviously with very little web presence). In the past, YOU! magazine was the splash-o-rama Catholic youth mag, while Hearts Aflame was the shy, quiet, unassuming... um, could you consider possibly reading me? Maybe?

Well now, YOU! is a fading memory and Hearts Aflame keeps going. I think "Hearts" has gotten some stamina, and I like the format. There's a little more color, so it has at least some initial impact. The articles are not totally revealed in the headlines... there is some mystery to the articles. Of course, it assumes that you will actually read the articles... and some are very worth reading! "Hearts" has gotten to the Via Media, the middle way, between splash and extreme shyness. Will it hold on? I think so, with religious sisters editing it... At least it won't get out-of-control with splash.
- posted by John @ 9:13 PM

 
Hey, our power is back here in D.C. The hurricane passeth. Fortunately, our area just had branches down for the most part. Power was on and off by the hour today, but now it seems to have stabalized.

Roe and Doe. They're the big news, except in regular media outlets... (A bit like saying "She's famous everywhere, except in most places.") Well, blogs have a way of spreading news that is ignored by the big media outlets these days...
- posted by John @ 8:23 PM

 
Gasp. I am reminded by one of my brothers that yesterday was the 302nd anniversary of the death of the founder of the Marians: Venerable Stanislaus Papczynski. I didn't blog anything yesterday, but we did remember him at Mass and Evening Prayer. There is a possible miracle being investigated for his beatification. The healing is similar to this one described in the Marian Helper magazine, but more dramatic. Anyhow, I don't want to try to describe it because I might get some details wrong. Ask Ven. Stanislaus for his intercession in your life sometime...
- posted by John @ 10:37 AM

 
The hurricane approacheth, and we are getting ready here in Washington, D.C. It should be a tropical storm by the time it reaches here, but that's still a lot of wind and water.

The Pope made a wonderful statement on Divine Mercy in 1997. The text is here, and when he says, "I give thanks to Divine Providence that I have been enabled to contribute personally to the fulfillment of Christ's will, through the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy," he is referring to the institution of the feast in Poland. In 2000, Divine Mercy Sunday was extended to the Universal Church.
- posted by John @ 10:24 AM

 
An obscure Catholic artist... Angel Dean... has a pretty cool website, and the song Imagine My Surpirse, isn't bad. Maybe he will make some waves someday.

Also, Catholic blogging is discussed on Jeff Cavins' Morning Air show. You can actually listen to the broadcast archived. Jeff talks with Mark Shea and Amy Welbourn... two of the major Catholic bloggers today. Yes, it was only a matter of time...
- posted by John @ 8:09 PM

 
The cool post going around now concerns articles in the Washington Times about Christian colleges. Here's one about Ave Maria College worth looking at.

Is anybody reading this blog out there? Sign the guestbook at the bottom of this page if so.
- posted by John @ 9:45 PM

 
An excellent article from catholicexchange.com: Do Miscarried Babies go to Heaven? Also, I recommend hearing the story of Fr. Dan Papineau on an episode of Divine Mercy in Our Souls. The story occurs in the first few minutes of the program. Fr. Dan was married and his wife died while pregnant (the baby didn't make it either). It's quite a story--worth listening to.

BTW... this blog gets my vote for Most Devout Blog in Existence. I dare you to find one more devout, or, for that matter, to make one more devout. Wow. If they blogged in heaven, it might look something like this.
- posted by John @ 2:54 PM

 
Suppose, just suppose, you want to watch a Papal Mass archived. Right now, the best place I know of is here at KTO TV. You can watch the most recent Mass in Slovakia in its entirety by clicking on the green "archive" button. The language barrier is something of a disadvantage: the sound is direct to Italian translation with a French translation overpowering the Italian. It is perhaps too much at once, but when you hear music, it's in very clear stereo. This video requires a high-speed connection. I hope that some other provider follows in the footsteps of KTO TV and provides high-quality archived video of papal events (the Vatican does for a few, but not many). Some Protestant ministers have archives of their services online, so all-the-more we should be able to have archives of the Holy Father online.
- posted by John @ 2:51 PM

 
For the young and the young at heart... You must check out the Cat Chat website. Try listening to some of the sound files... At least one is guaranteed to stick with you for a while...
- posted by John @ 12:30 AM

 
A prayer for a favor through the intercession of Fr. Patrick Peyton: found here from familyrosary.org.

Remember those who have gone before us...

Quenta-Narwen has a wonderful prayer for the deceased from Cardinal Newman on her site.
- posted by John @ 3:19 PM

 
Continuing on... I refer to the Servant of God Maria Orsola again. The obscure book I Want to Love! (part of the book in Italian is online) tells of her spiritual life, with excerpts from her diary. The English translation sounds a little odd here and there, but at least there is a translation. Here is a portion of a letter from the book (pg. 94):

"...Among the many things wrong with me, there is still my character. I would like to be different, more thoughtful, less impulsive, not even a "little lady" but simply a fifteen-year old girl.

"And now I've realized that there is a remedy for all this. I've found someone as a model: Mary who consumed her life for God. Like her I want to be patient, persevering, poor, detached from everything, even from spiritual riches; silent, pure, meek, and above all impatient to witness to Him and to bring Him to others because Jesus died on the cross not only for us but for all as well.

"I've asked the Lord so much already: to detach me from everything; to put in my heart an immense desire to witness to Him, to choose Him completely, and He is giving me many things. I've asked our Lady to help me become a little like her, but I don't resemble her in the very least. However, I'm certain she will hear me. After all, I'm only asking for a little help to love her Son!"
- posted by John @ 8:10 PM

 
Here's an article about Charles Untz. It stays with the basic, accepted facts, not getting into anything miraculous, although it mentions his ability to do more from heaven than he could have on earth. I like the miraculous stories personally. As I've said before, I don't know why there isn't more being said about Charles. He needs to get more recognition.
- posted by John @ 1:00 AM

 
For those of you who have time to watch a video on the 'net, there is a good interview with Fr. Stan Fortuna on music from an episode of Real Faith TV. The episode itself, well... they're trying, but if you go 11 minutes into the clip (Real Player version seems to work best), you hit the Fr. Stan interview. He has a really neat story about how his music has been used to help some people with moral decisions.

Thank you for reading this blog. I'll say a prayer for you today. Bro. John
- posted by John @ 2:52 PM

 
It's a rather nice day here in Washington, D.C. As long as I'm writing, and you are reading, perhaps you could say a prayer or two for vocations... especially for vocations to my congregation: the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. You can actually look up membership statistics about my congregation if you are so inclined.

The Passion Experience Tour is once again coming around to a venue--possibly near you. I've never attended a concert, but I've viewed the Oneday Link in a church. I hope to go this November.
- posted by John @ 2:11 PM

 
Pope day... POPE DAY... POPE DAY!!!! Yes, you too can participate in Pope Day, and a Rosary-a-thon too. Ok, maybe it sounds crazy, but it's really actually pretty cool.
- posted by John @ 9:24 PM

 
Who is Jennifer O'Neill? As the famous commercial says, "I didn't know." You don't have to ask your doctor, just click on the link.
- posted by John @ 3:26 PM

 
Well, there is in fact a Christian MTV equivalent (ok, there's really more than one, but I'm focused on this particular one), but is it worthwhile? Is it eye-candy with some sort of Christian message mixed in? Who will it reach? The channel I'm talking about is JC-TV, from TBN (the site requires Flash 6). You can watch the channel online, but you might have to turn off your pop-up zapper, because it may eliminate the window to select the speed of the video stream. If you have any thoughts about this channel, go to the bottom of this blog and write something in my guestbook--or put something in your own blog.
- posted by John @ 8:40 PM