St Clement of Rome Catholic Church

In my 50 years of ministerial priesthood, I found myself confronted by situations that elicited in me spontaneous, irrepressible pity.  As a priest, of course, I know, and I preach about the value of suffering in union with Christ. I maintain that euthanasia is a direct interference with God’s plan for a dying person.  But, in hopeless cases, marked by palpable, futile struggles, the prayer that, time and again, rises from my heart and floods my mind is a variation…

During World War II an American airman named John was blinded in an airplane explosion. He was discharged from the Army Air Corps, and for the next twelve years he couldn’t see a thing. During these years he lived for a time with his parents in Texas, and then he married, had two children, and got along as well as he could. One day, while walking down a street using his white cane, John suddenly began to see what looked like “red sand”…

In his book, Jesus Shock, Professor Peter Kreeft declared: “Protestants believe that the sacraments are like ladders that God gave to us by which we can climb up to Him. Catholics believe that they are like ladders that God gave to Himself by which He climbs down to us.” As “outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace,” the sacraments may be categorized as follows: Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist); Healing (Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick); and Commitment (Holy Orders and Marriage). Additionally, each has two unique characteristics: a specific…

Life is to live and life is to give and talents are to use for good if you choose. Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be strong. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks, then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life, which has come to you by the…