Your life will change...

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I want to announce and encourage you to mark you calendar now for Notre Dame's Parish Lenten Mission.  After so many centuries of wisdom and great Saints who came from the Dominican Order, Notre Dame has asked the Order to send us a priest who would come to share the Wisdom and Love of God for us.

Fr. Chris Saliga currently serves as assistant novice master for the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.  He has previously served in campus ministry at Aquinas House at Dartmouth College and as university chaplain at Walsh University; he has served as postulant director and assistant novice master for the Dominican Vicariate of Eastern African; and he has served as health care chaplain and ethicist with the Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York, Saint Catherine of Siena Priory.

He has taught philosophical bioethics at Walsh University; he has taught courses on human freedom and human happiness for the Waterman Institute at Dartmouth College; he has facilitated ethical reflections grounded in natural law for interested Medical Students at Dartmouth College; he has taught various clinical rotations for Franciscan University of Steubenville Department of Nursing; he has served on the Hospital for Special Surgery Ethics Committee; and he has served on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Akron.

He has presented on a variety of topics in health care ethics and spirituality at various hospitals, universities, and churches; he has written on select topics in health care ethics and spirituality; and he has led numerous retreats, days of recollection, and missions in schools, religious communities, and parishes.

Father Chris is a military veteran having served as a United States Army combat medic and a paratrooper, and later as a United States Navy nurse corps officer with both active Naval and reserve Marine Corps branches.   

Fr. Chris comes very highly recommended, and I pray that you will join the Parish in looking forward to  hearing his message of God love in a Mission that will be focused on the theme:

The Cross: Our Lenten Journey to Eternal Life.  This will take place from Saturday March 22nd until Wednesday March 26th.  Fr. Saliga will preach all Sunday Masses (including the Sat. evening mass), he will preach each morning at the morning masses, and then offer a reflection each night beginning on Sunday Mar. 23rd until Wednesday Mar. 26th at 7pm.  Come and consider the love and mercy of God for each of our human souls and bodies! 

To learn a little more about Fr. Chris, here is an explanation of some of the things he has done:

VIEW DISCRETION ADVISED & prayers for True Men of Christ.

This post has ADULT CONTENT! PLEASE BE ADVISED! VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED.

Do you know a true man of God?  What does he look like?  Certainly he serves Christ above all else, in his family, in his relationships, in his priesthood (whether as an ordained priest or as a lay man who offers spiritual sacrifices to God), but how would know.  A few months back a horrific display of the lusts and rebelliousness of mankind against God took place when self-proclaimed Feminists took to the streets of Argentina to attack the Cathedral there.  While the Bishop prayed with others for these people, some men took up arms (literally) to defend the Church and the Holy Eucharist inside.  Pray for these men of Argentina, pray for the women in this video, pray for Holy Mother Church who now is being beset on all sides from the vicious and bold attacks of mankind that has forgotten the Love of God:




Before you read further, please watch the above video, if you have not.

Michael Voris over at ChurchMilitant.TV had this to say:


We must ask ourselves: could we have done this as well?  Could we defend the Holy Eucharist from those who would seek to desecrate it.  And, perhaps more necessarily, do we know others and associate with others who are able to do this as well?  For our parish, the Men's Group meets on the First Wednesday of each month at 8:30pm.  The Daughters of Jerusalem Women's Group meets on the 4th Wednesday of most every month.  The Militia Immaculata meets on the 1st Wednesday from 7pm-8pm.  Consider joining others as we learn, encourage and live our Holy Catholic Faith.  The time may be coming when we will need each other to fight and endure persecution.

To all the Married "Peeps", and those on the way...

Are you married?  Are you looking to be?  For your consideration:

Why bother with a Catholic University!?!?!

Because you get amazing creativity and hilariousness like this:



My alma mater, Franciscan University of the Steubenville!  I would recommend it for any young Catholic seeking to be serious in their Faith!

Before logging on to the internet

Found here: http://wdtprs.com/blog/a-prayer-before-connecting-to-the-internet/, Fr. Z has done a great service to all of us at his blog, by offering this prayer before you log onto the internet:

A prayer before logging onto the internet:
Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

Not much more can be said about this....

Other than, please God may it be so:

Do you understand the historic significance of this?

Dear Fellow Parishioners and fellow Catholics everywhere, Pray. Pray for our country. Pray for our president. You may be a person who believes that "gay marriage" should be legal; heck, you may even be for abortion. But understand this: our country has been hijacked from the Christian principles it once stood on. This can be seen in this article posted a few days ago. If you don't have the time, then the jist is this: recently Satanists have unveiled their plans for a Satanic Monument in Oklahoma.

And this comes from society where the mindset is no longer concerned with the only Living and True God who has sent His only begotten Son for the sake of our salvation. This can be seen particularly in our president who holds a syncretistic view of America. And particularly, that our current American President proclaimed these amazing words:

In the American Imagination, the hallmark of our nation has been its Christian underpinnings, which quickly were established as NOT CATHOLIC by society as a whole. Then, and thus where we are now, the Protestant mindset is now waning. Certainly, this is of a piece with Protestant Christianity: If one does not like or agree with something, then they should reject it and change it to what makes them more comfortable. I have heard this from various Catholics who have been told strange things from clergy members - including that HELL no longer exists or that no one is likely there. This kind of erosion is what Satan loves. Yes, Satan and the Hell which he directs are very much real. Satan knows that we Catholics can not be outright changed once we have accepted and decided to serve Christ. But he also knows that if we slowly begin to slack on the grandeur and demands of the Christian Life, then he already has a claw on us. Even WORSE, that we lead one of Christ's little ones astray, "for it would be better if we had a millstone tied to our neck and we were thrown in the sea (Lk 17:2)." To quote G.K. Chesterton, "The Christian life [and here read Catholic, as ONLY it is the fulness of Christianity] has not been tried and found wanting; it has been tried and found difficult." Yes, to claim the title of "Catholic" today and to live up to its demands is NOT for the weak, it is only for those of great courage and faith. Thanks be to God that all of us who are weak will be granted the grace of courage and faith to do this, if we accept it, and become the Saints God intends for us to be!

Consider,as well, our own nearby Christian sisters, dedicated to Christ our Lord and to his service. The Little Sisters of the Poor will NOT (PLEASE GOD) give up the fight against the imposition of so-called "Obamacare" because it violates the basic teaching of what the suffering and wounded Christ died for so that mankind might know him and the way for our Salvation from Sin. In case, you have not heard (or don't have time to read the link): the Little Sisters of the Poor have been wantonly attacked by our own American Government. Thank God for the Becketfund.org that is defending them and proving that Catholics, true Catholics, do NOT back down from the encroachment of this world on our belief in Christ. These Little Sisters of the Poor have been told by the current Administration that it is "no big deal" to sign a waiver which allows them to let another company provide their employees with access to abortion and contraception. This, my dear brothers and sisters, IS the new "PINCH OF INCENSE" that so many of our early Christian brothers and sisters would NOT put on a fire before a statue of the Emperor (seen by the Romans to be a God). They understand well that to do so would be to violate their belief in Jesus Christ as the only true Lord of Life. Their Trinitarian Faith, belief in the Holy Trinity that Jesus came to reveal (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), allowed them to endure what seemed like "no big deal" - the pinch of incense before the idol - and to be faithful to Christ even in what seemed like a small thing. Though, in fact, it was an immense rejection of the Only Living and True God.

Mark these words: the Church is now sinking into persecution. Are you ready to prepare for fidelity to Christ, for as he himself taught us, "he who is faithful in small things, will be faithful in big things." Pray for me, as I pray for all of you, that we ALL may be faithful to him who has given us New Life in the waters of Baptism. I pray persecution is not upon us, but I don't think it can be avoided now - mind you, this is only ONE man's opinion (namely mine!). A showdown seems to be coming in the life of every Faithful Catholic. Pray that we might have an Elijah to help us be faithful against Baal!