If you have never done the first Friday devotion, there is no better time to start than the first Friday of the year.
It’s also the vigil of the Epiphany so be on the lookout for the blessing of Epiphany water which not a few parishes will offer on this day.
My travels having concluded, I am safely on the ground where man was always intended to be. Thank you for all the prayers for safe travels.
Here’s one thing I spied out the window on my circuitous flight home…
I’m just a bit late to this one but I wanted to share it nonetheless. And the easiest way to do that is to share someone else’s copy. Hey, in the TV news business we did this all the time with wire sources. We called it doing a re-write and someone it wasn’t plagiarism. But what do I know?…
On January 2nd his year we celebrate the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Remember, this name is the ONLY name by which we may be saved. I still remember my mom telling me when I was a young boy and had a nightmare, that the remedy to such evil things was to call upon the Name of Our Lord. Say His Name with greatest love and most tender devotion. Call upon His Name when you are in distress and most importantly, when you are tempted to sin.
God saves.
Jesus is His holy Name.
The collect from the Mass:
“O God, Thou Who appointed Thine only-begotten Son to be the Savior of the human race, and commanded that He be called Jesus, mercifully grant that we may enjoy in heaven the vision of Him Whose holy Name we venerate on earth.”
And since I have a love of this song and this group of choristers does a very good job interpreting it, we’ll overlook the fact that they’re, well, not Catholic.
I have shared this video before but it bears sharing again. I will have a priest with me at my New Year’s Eve party tonight. I will ask his blessing upon me and my family and we will pray the Divine Praises together.
“Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His Most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most Holy.
Blessed be her Holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her Glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints.
Amen.”
The transcription form Apple isn’t great but you get the point. I have mentioned having been a premium member to CM years ago. We’re talking I cancelled my membership in 2016. Think they’re hurting for cash? My neighbor and fellow parishioner back in Texas got the exact same voicemail around the same time.
Pathetic.
Don’t give them a penny. They are failing in transparency for starters (there is no shortage of evidence for this fact online).
Where’s Gary and what’s he up to? Where are your financials? These are questions I’d want an answer to before opening my wallet. But you do you.
I have returned to the Fatherland (New Jersey) for New Year’s Eve with the family.
While flying in today with my wife and kids, I snapped a picture of a stunning building.
That, my friends, is where I was born.
