"There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be." (Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen)
Wisdom Wednesday
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"The Mass is the greatest drama in the world, because in a way more real than any play or movie, it makes the story of our salvation come alive in front of us."
Numbers 21:4-9 was the first reading from the daily Mass yesterday (4/8/2025). The passage details what happened to the Israelites who grumbled against Moses & the Lord, questioning why they were led to the desert, only to die. God punished them by sending saraph serpents which bit & killed many of them. They went to Moses, imploring him to intercede & ask God to take the serpents away. God, in turn, had Moses make a serpent & attach it to a bronze pole. Anyone bitten was to look upon it & they would live. The translation used for the Mass reading does not say the people would be “healed” , only that they would “live” . Curious about how the passage had been translated in other Bibles, I went to the Bible Gateway website . I looked up at least 25 Bible translations, most of which used the word “live”. Two used “recovered” , & three said “healed” (Douay Rheims 1899, The Voice, & Wycliffe). That got me thinking…why would God want the Israelites to live, but ...
Joan Carroll Cruz is a favorite Catholic author of ours, so don't be surprised if you see more of her books in future posts! If I remember correctly, I believe Eucharistic Miracles and Eucharistic Phenomena in the Lives of the Saints was the first of hers which I read. Published in 1987, this is a collection of 36 miracles throughout history (as early as the 8th century & as recent as the 20th) which show proof of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The author det ails these miracles, including investigations made into them & even telling where some can still be witnessed today. In the 2nd part of the book, she explains Eucharistic phenomena of saints who lived on the Eucharistic alone, experienced levitations, visions, raptures, & other extraordinary experiences surrounding the Real Presence. Throughout the book, there are photos of some of the miracles, artistic renderings of the miracles & people who experienced them, & photos of the locati...
Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:27-30) Even though we have a short Gospel today, it's big enough to designate this day as Good Shepherd Sunday. According to the Collins Dictionary online, one of the definitions of a shepherd is, "One who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people." Jesus is our Shepherd who does indeed give us eternal life. Just as a shepherd in the field will do anything to protect his sheep, including risk & give up his life, Jesus did the same. Willingly, He suffered a violent death to save & protect us from our sins. How do we repay Jesus? Sadly, many times we don't. Our humanity encompasses our whole being & we often turn our backs to Him. We sh...
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