Category: Devotions
The spiritual powerhouse of central New Hampshire
Congratulations to Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Concord, NH, which is going to have the bishop over to bless its new perpetual adoration chapel Sunday:
The St. Pio eucharistic chapel is intended to welcome Catholics throughout the Concord deanery. It’s not very big (just the right end of the house), but it’s still something beautiful for God.
I was at the parish today for a workshop on identifying one’s gifts and callings for lay apostolate, presented by a Dominican-sponsored lay formation outfit called the “Catherine of Siena Institute”. I recommend it.
I think I have a charism for insolence, but that wasn’t on the list.
Dem bones!
St. Anthony’s Chapel in the holy city of Pittsburgh has the most prominent collection of relics in the U.S., but a Catholic in Reading (or is it a little lay group?) is no slouch: he’s doing his part to foster veneration of the relics of the saints.
(Via Fr. Sibley.)
Today’s Catholic spam
Today’s Catholic spam
Isn’t it something? Even people promoting pious causes sometimes use spam to spread their messages. It’s still a sleazy and annoying medium, as far as I’m concerned, the tool of scammers and pornographers, so any cause sending out spam is not likely to get any support from me.
A piece came in today from an attorney named Laurence Behr about a project that sounds, well, frankly, a bit grandiose. His group proposes to build a 700-foot arch near Buffalo in honor of Our Lady, “seven being the mystical number of perfection”, don’t-cha know.
The concept of the proposal is to combine an attraction (the arch that tourists will presumably want to ascend) with a shrine promoting pro-life themes, and do it all in the name of the “triumph” of our Lady’s Immaculate Heart – a fulfillment of the Fatima message. All they want is $100 each from a million Catholics.
Now, if you look carefully at your screen, you’ll notice that I have raised one eyebrow in an arch of my own at the mention of our Lady’s “triumph”, because every phony mystic and seer in the past 20 years has been peddling his would-be messages from our Lady as part of said “triumph”. Since about a quarter of the people endorsing the project have some connection with phony apparitions, I have to wonder if this idea came from some would-be messenger from Heaven, or at least wonder about the prudence of the well-intentioned people involved.
To be fair, I should note that the site disclaims: “Laurence Behr is not claiming an apparition from the Virgin Mary. But he and many others do believe that his inspiration comes from God.”
Using the Catholic Light rating system, I’ll give this one a 2 on our 0-7 scale, which is a “slightly nutty bouquet with fruity overtones”.
