To be just like St. Joseph

Posted by John Cavadini on Mar 19, 2021 7:06:00 AM

St. Julian Peter Eymard, in his little devotional handbook called Month of St. Joseph, tells us that “devotion to St. Joseph is one of the choicest graces that God can give to a soul, for it is tantamount to revealing the entire treasury of our Lord’s graces.”

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Topics: saints, Saturdays with the Saints, inspiration

Conformed to Christ: St. Padre Pio

Posted by Carolyn Pirtle on Sep 23, 2020 2:19:55 PM

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, a man better known simply as Padre Pio (1887–1968). Even before his death, Padre Pio was a source of fascination for many people, and stories of his remarkable holiness and supernatural gifts abound, some of which are truly astonishing, some of which border on outlandish, but all of which inspire us to take a closer look at this humble Capuchin friar, who was so intimately united with Christ in his heart, so closely conformed to Christ in his soul, that even his own body was also conformed to Christ, marked with the wounds of Christ’s Crucifixion.

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Topics: communion of saints, Saturdays with the Saints, Padre Pio, A Season with the Saints

Monday Motivation: Weekly Resources

Posted by The Editors on Aug 24, 2020 3:29:46 PM

Looking for new ideas or resources to engage your faith or your ministry? Here are our weekly curated links, including offerings in each of the following categories: Prayer for the Home, Educational Opportunities, Resources (for ministers, educators, parents, etc.), and Flourishing and Fun.

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Topics: catechesis, Saturdays with the Saints, COVID-19 Resources, Monday Motivation Weekly Resources, ministry resources

St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Grace of Self-Sacrificing Love

Posted by Carolyn Pirtle on Aug 14, 2020 3:10:19 PM

Today, the Church honors St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who volunteered to die in place of a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz, thus embodying the teaching of Jesus, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Yet this last and greatest act of St. Maximilian did not emerge from a vacuum; it was the result of a lifetime of being conformed to Christ through prayer and sacrifice. Only by consistently practicing self-denial, by dying to himself and taking up his cross daily, could St. Maximilian have been conformed to Christ to such a degree that he was in that pivotal moment able to imitate Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, laying down his life so that another might live. 

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Topics: human dignity, saints, Saturdays with the Saints, self-giving love, St. Maximilian Kolbe

Embracing Sacrifice

Posted by Carolyn Pirtle on Jun 30, 2020 1:35:54 PM

Today, the Church celebrates the First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church. These men and women were martyred en masse by Emperor Nero in Rome in the year 64 A.D., in his effort to shift the blame for the great fire of Rome from himself to the Christian community. 

While the names of these proto-martyrs of the Church are lost to history, their deaths inspired many to convert to Christianity, proving once again the truth of Tertullian’s statement that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” 

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Topics: communion of saints, Eucharist, Eucharistic Prayer, sacrifice, Saturdays with the Saints, martyrdom

Living and Handing on the Faith

The McGrath Institute Blog helps Catholics live and hand on their faith in Jesus Christ, especially in the family, home and parish, and cultivates and inspires everyday leaders to live out the fullness and richness of their faith in the simple, little ways that make up Church life.

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