The Catholic Monitor

By Father Paul K. Raftery, O.P. The Rosary, as a gift of prayer from the Mother of God, leads us to Christ in a way unique among the devotions in the Church. Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, focuses with particular attention on the special way she is active on the soul as we ponder or contemplate Jesus through the eyes of His Mother. We put ourselves under her maternal guidance and allow her to direct our hearts. "The Rosary," he says, "mystically transports us to Mary’s side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is ‘fully formed’ in us" (RVM 16). What is happening through this "contemplation of the face of Christ" in union with Mary, is far more than just a dry and abstract exercise of thought. The Rosary brings us, through a devoted pondering of its mysteries, into intimate union with t...

Is Occupy Wall Street the Obama/Wall Street Machine? An Emergency Program for Anti-Wall Street Protestors: Don’t Let Soros Hijack the Movement Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net September 29, 2011 Political mass strike dynamics have been at work in the United States since the Wisconsin and Ohio mobilizations of February and March. Now, there are demonstrations in lower Manhattan and Boston specifically directed against the Wall Street banks. Another protest demonstration is scheduled for Washington, DC, starting on October 6. Good: a political challenge to Wall Street is indeed long overdue. The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are skeptical in regard to Obama. There is no sizable constituency for Ron Paul, and the crackpot Austrian school of economics is hardly represented. Above all, there is a desire to break the power of Wall Street. This much is promising, but still not enough to win. The demonstrations appear initially as leaderless groups, engaged in an organic process of d...

Prayer and the First Commandment by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. The most generic and fundamental definition of prayer: the conscious adoration of God. We might say it is expressed adoration. Adoration manifest. It is the communication of our minds and wills with God with whom we adore. Prayer is conversation with our adorable God. And my favorite definition, prayer is the voluntary response to the awareness of Gods’ adorable presence. We are still on our introduction. In the present meditation we plan to again ask ourselves the three basic questions: what, why, and how. What are the principle forms of prayer? Why must we pray? And then, this being a retreat, how can we improve our practice of prayer? What are the Principle Forms of Prayer? First then the main forms or kinds of prayer. The Church’s tradition distinguishes not just four but five principle forms of prayer. The adoration of submission, the prayer of adoration of love, the prayer of thanksgiving, the prayer of peti...

-I also believe that he is a carrier of a deadly moral virus, indeed a kind of anti-apostle spreading concepts and agendas that are not only anti-Christ but anti-human as well. In this sense he is of the spirit of Antichrist (perhaps without knowing it), and probably is one of several key figures in the world who (knowingly or unknowingly) will be instrumental in ushering in the time of great trial for the Church under its last and worst persecution, amidst the numerous other tribulations prophesied in the books of Daniel and Revelation, and letters of St Paul, St. John, and St. Peter. StudiObrien newsletter, The U.S. ElectionSaturday, November 1, 2008 1:20 PM From: "studiObrien" Add sender to Contacts To: undisclosed-recipients All Saints Day, 1 November 2008 Dear Friends, From just north of the border, we Canadians, like other people throughout the world, are observing and praying for the coming federal election in the United States of America. I would prefer ...

Stop for a moment of silence, ask God what He want you to do next. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet. http://historycontroversy.blogspot.com/2011/01/jesuits-who-survived-bomb.html The Jesuits who survived the Bomb The priests who survived the atomic bomb The remarkable survival of the Jesuit Fathers in Hiroshima has echoes in the Bible and in the story of Fatima By Donal Anthony Foley on Thursday, 5 August 2010 This Friday, August 6, will see the Feast of the Transfiguration celebrated in the Church. It commemorates the occasion when Christ, accompanied by Peter, James, and John, went up a high mountain – traditionally identified with Mount Tabor in Galilee – and was there “transfigured” before them, so that “his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light” (Mt 17:2). The Greek word for transfiguration is metemorphothe, from which we get the word “metamorphosis”....

"Pray, pray to the Lord with me, because the whole world needs prayer. And every day, when your heart especially feels the loneliness of life, pray. Pray to the Lord, because even God needs our prayers." — St. Pio of Pietrelcina Prayer for the Intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina Dear God,You generously blessed Your servant, St. Pio of Pietrelcina, with the gifts of the Spirit. You marked his body with the five wounds of Christ Crucified, as a powerful witness to the saving Passion and Death of Your Son. Endowed with the gift of discernment, St. Pio labored endlessly in the confessional for the salvation of souls. With reverence and intense devotion in the celebration of Mass, he invited countless men and women to a greater union with Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Through the intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, I confidently beseech You to grant me the grace of (here state your petition). Amen. Glory...

Over 25 year ago Fred Martinez had been heavily involved with sidewalk counseling in New Mexico and California. He finished his master’s degree in Public Affairs. Fred had recently been accepted to study phenomenology, a branch of philosophy in the small European country of Liechtenstein. Only weeks after, Fred was invited by his pro-life ally Angie Mendoza to attend a speech by Bob Pearson. Mr. Pearson had created the first crisis pregnancy center in Hawaii in 1968 in response to the legalization of abortion in that state. Additionally he created a model for the creation of new crisis counseling centers and traveled across the United States inspiring others to follow in his footsteps. Mrs. Mendoza suggested to Fred to start such a center. With his future in Liechtenstein in mind, Fred declined. Undeterred Angie quietly asked him to pray about it. Fred went before the Blessed Sacrament and prayed to our Lord Jesus. He then received an answer with 100% certitude from Our Lord compellin...