Communio – Page 481 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Saint Rose Catholic Forum

Saint Rose Catholic Forum

is pleased to present

“Celebrating
the Faith”

Luncheon with special guest Dr. Peter Kreeft

Professor of
Philosophy at Boston College

October 25th – 1:00 pm

St. Rose Church, 46 Church
Hill Road, Newtown, CT

$10 dollar donation for adults, $5 for children requested not required. Please reserve your place by email: Strosecatholicforum@gmail.com or call the St. Rose Parish Office at 203.426.1014.

Luncheon from 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Event #1

1:30pm: “Is the Church ‘beautiful’? And is
that a good reason to be a Catholic?”

Event #2

3:30 pm: Book signing and talk- Monsignor Conroy Room – Precious
& practical profundities in the greatest book of the 20th Century: The Lord
of the Rings

Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at Boston
College and at the King’s College (Empire State Building), in New York City. He
is a regular contributor to several Christian publications, is in wide demand
as a speaker at conferences, and is the author of over 45 books. For more
information, go to www.peterkreeft.com

Weak but love by You, O God

We are weak, O God, and capable of giving in at the
first assault. By your pure loving kindness you have called us; may your
infinite goodness, please, now help us persevere. For our part, with your
holy grace, we will try with all our strength to summon up all the service and
all the faithfulness that you ask of us. So give us, O God, give us the
grace to persevere until death. This is what I ask of you through the
merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ with confidence that you will remember me.

Saint
Vincent de Paul

Blessed Josephine Leroux

God our Father, You give us joy each year in honoring the memory of blessed Josephine. May her prayers be a source of help for us, and may her example and chastity be our inspiration.

The 18th century was a nasty time in history, it is also the time in which Blessed Josephine gave her life for Christ and the Church because of her call to the monastic life. A note on her background.

Ecumenical Patriarch visits USA

The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, is making a pastoral visit to the US these next two weeks that is taking him on a multi-city tour, doing some wide ranging things like speaking about the environment, to meet with church leaders and faithful, lunching with the Fordham University President to breakfasting with schoolmates.

Patriarch Bartholomew has been a key figure in naming environmental concerns while making the faith an interpretative key for understanding and action. On the website noted below there are a number of items to sink your teeth into regarding this topic.

Bartholomew has been the Ecumenical Patriarch since 1991 looking after 250 million world-wide Orthodox Christians.

For more information the Patriarch’s 2009 US visit see the website.

Blessed Contardo Ferrini

Almighty God, You made blessed Contardo admirable in combining knowledge and piety. Grant us Your servants to acknowledge You the true God and to love You above all things.

“Our life,” he said, “must reach out toward the Infinite, and from that source we must draw whatever we can expect of merit and dignity.”

Blessed Contardo is an interesting man, read his brief bio.

In some places Blessed Contardo’s memorial is on October 17, in the Friars Minor ordo the blessed is honored today.

Pope gives Anglicans a path to union with the Catholic Church

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the name of Pope Benedict, is providing a formal way (a canonical structure) of allowing Anglicans to enter in Full Communion with the Catholic that sets up a structure similar to that of Opus Dei. Instead of calling the structure a “prelature” it is being called a “Personal Ordinariat.” Many things attributed to the Anglican Communion may be brought into their being Catholic including the Liturgy, married clergy, and other customs not in conflict with the Roman faith.

This step is a concrete realization of the hard work done in the ecumenical dialogues the goal of which is full, visible union in the Church of Christ.

Read the CDF’s statement

Read the joint statement of the Archbishops of Westminster and Canterbury

Blessed James of Strepar

All-powerful God, You renewed the apostolic spirit in the gospel preaching of blessed James the bishop. Through his prayers may Your Church ever receive an increase in faith and in holiness.

A brief bio

Note: in some calendars the liturgical memorial Blessed James is noted for June 1 but in the ordo for the Friars Minor October 20 is the date of observance.

North American Martyrs

In the eyes of the world they suffered pain, but God was testing them and found them worthy.

Father, You consecrated the first beginnings of the faith in North America by the preaching and martyrdom of Saints John and Isaac and their companions. By the help of their prayers may the Christian faith continue to grow throughout the world.

These 8 Jesuits were martyred in North America between 1642 and 1649 after being tortured. Three were tomahawked at Auriesville, NY and five died in Canada. Six were priests and two were donnés. May we be renewed in faith in Christ through His witnesses:

St. John de Brébeuf

St. Isaac Jogues

St. Gabriel Lalemant

St. Anthony Daniel

St. Charles Garnier

St. Noël Chabanel

St. René Goupil

St. John de la Lande

Music is an epiphany of beauty in man & woman

In a piano concert in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Pope and a full house friends listened to the music of great composers in a concert sponsored by the International Piano Academy of Imola. The experience of the music was joined by some reflections of Benedict XVI’s which said in part, music is the union of persons and peoples in that it accompanies every human experience. He also observed that music gives shape to what you cannot do with words because it arouses the emotions that are difficult to communicate. Likewise, he pointed out what we all know, that is, great music relaxes the mind, stirs deep emotions, and elevates the mind to God. Hear the report of the evening.

Prayer is our nature

Prayer is more essential to us, more an integral part of
ourselves, than the rhythm of our breathing or the beating of our heart.
Without prayer there is no life. Prayer is our nature. As humans we are created
for prayer just as we are created to speak and to think. The human animal is
best described, not as a logical or tool-making animal or an animal that
laughs, but rather as an animal that prays, a eucharistic animal, capable of
offering the world back to God in thanksgiving and intercession. (Bishop Kallistos Ware)