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Saint for Today - St Gerard Majella

10/16/2013

Feastday: October 16
Patron of expectant mothers
Died: 1755

St. Gerard Majella, religious, is the patron of expectant mothers. He was born at Muro, Italy, in 1726 and joined the Redemptorists at the age of 23, becoming a professed lay brother in 1752. He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of religious women.

This humble servant of God also had the faculties of levitation and bi-location associated with certain mystics. His charity, obedience, and selfless service as well as his ceaseless mortification for Christ, made him the perfect model of lay brothers. He was afflicted with tuberculosis and died in 1755 at the age of twenty-nine.

This great saint is invoked as a patron of expectant mothers as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labor.

Prayer: O Great Saint Gerard, beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble Savior, and devoted Child of the Mother of God: enkindle within my heart one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and made you an angel of love. O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine master, without murmur or complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as the Patron and Protector of expectant mothers. Preserve me from danger and from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the lustral waters of baptism through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Chalk Talks - Guardian Angels

10/16/2013

The Guardian Angels

After God creates and places s here on earth, He is so good as to give us os whose main work is to protect us in soul and body. Just as a country has soldiers to protect it from the enemy, so too our guardian angel is ever with us to save us whenever danger threatens us.
Once upon a time a little boy ran after a butterfly. It went out towards a cliff. If he ran farther, he reached the edge, the butterfly turned and lead the boy back from danger. The guardian angel was there to protect the boy. (Draw cliff, then boy and butterfly and finally angel.)

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Again: A stone falls from the top of a tall building and for some reason misses a little girl's

head. She would have been killed had it struck her; but no ... the guardian angel was protecting her. ( Draw building, stone, girl and angel)

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How often are we tempted to do wrong, but a voice seems to whisper in our ear: "No; that is wrong. Don't do it." Our guardian angel is trying to keep us from sin, and we should do what he tells us.

Pray to your guardian angel every morning and night and in all dangers of souls and body.

OFTEN ASK YOURSELF: Will my guardian angel be happy or sad on the last day he reads off to God all the things I did during life?

Chalk Talks - 4 Marks of Church

10/13/2013

Talks based on the Baltimore Catechism, designed for teachers, for home-schooling, to show with graphics either on chalk board or white board Our Faith. We shall include a download of each picture to print out.
HOLY

The Catholic Church can truly be said to be the holiest of all churches. When we say that it is Holy, we mean: (1) that its founder, Jesus Christ, is holy (Draw Church -with name of founder);

(2) that it teaches a holy doctrine and invites all to a holy life (Draw preacher in pulpit);

(3) that so many thousands of its members have become saints (Draw line of saints).

No Protestant church could ever claim all these things for itself. For example, which one of the Protestant-church founders can be compared to Christ? Were any of them really holy men? What Protestant church teaches a really holy doctrine? And finally, who ever heard of a Protestant saint?

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SECOND the Church of Christ must be

APOSTOLIC

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No church except the Catholic Church is Apostolic. When we say that it is Apostolic, we mean that it goes all the way back to Christ and the Apostles. Christ gave Peter charge of His Church, and from that day to this there has been an unbroken line of Popes, who have ruled the Catholic Church as the visible successors of Peter and who represent Christ.   (Draw a line of Popes.)

No Protestant church claims to go back to the time of Christ. Most of these churches started directly or indirectly from Martin Luther in 1517 —but Christ's Church was existing long before that time. So if we are looking for the Church of Christ, we had better not waste time with present-day Protestant churches, which do not go back to Christ.

THIRD the Church   of Christ must be

                                                                                ONE

No church but the Catholic Church is ONE. When we say that it is One, we mean: (1) that it has one faith (i. e, one doctrine)—the entire doctrine or teaching of Christ (Draw cross with words); (2) that all its members all over the world are bound together as ONE BODY (Draw people and their words) ; (3 ) that all these Catholics are governed in spiritual matters by one visible head—the Pope (Draw Pope).

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The Protestant churches even among themselves never agree on the same teaching. What one says, the other denies. This leads them into many divisions; and because one part will not do as another part does, they have no one to rule them. Surely if these were right, Christ could hardly allow them to go to pieces like that.

FOURTH the Church of Christ must be

UNIVERSAL

No church but the Catholic Church is Universal. When we say that it is Universal, we mean that as one united Church it has always existed, is to be found teaching all nations of the world, and contains all truth.

No Protestant church will ever be spread over the whole world as the Catholic Church is, because all these Protestant churches have too many divisions among their own people; they are not united like the Catholics, and they do not contain all the truths that Christ taught.

You see then that the Church which Christ wishes all to join in order to save their souls is the HOLY Church which he founded; the APOSTOLIC Church which goes back to the time of Christ; the UNITED Church which teaches all His doctrine; the UNIVERSAL Church which is spread over the entire earth.

AND THAT CHURCH IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Currently out of print, check Amazon for old copies

Family Life and the Dangers of Today - 1

8/19/2013

The Australian Catholic Truth Society Record
May 20, 1953 (No. 520)
Fr J W Gleeson

THE FAMILY

The family is the basic unit of society. It is essential that this fact should be known and remembered by legislators, educators, and especially by parents. Christ sanctified the family, and the Church has always regarded it as one of her sacred duties to protect family life and to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of the family. It is in and through family life that most people will save their souls. Therefore, we should appreciate the importance of the family and of those things that protect the family. We should also know just how menacing is anything that threatens the stability, the unity, the happiness and the complete development of family life.

A PERSONAL NOTE

Fathers and mothers of the present and future—I am writing these pages in the hope that they may be of help to you in your family life. They are an attempt to point out evils and to suggest the remedies which are an application of Christian principles. If you can discuss these ideas with others, you will gain greater value from them. Further, you may thus be able to take part in the very worthwhile task of promoting Christian family life.

IS ANYTHING WRONG?

Only those who are completely blind to modern trends will be unaware of the fact that vicious attacks from within and without are being made upon the family in these days. The future offers no immediate sign of a change in this. Rather does the position seem to grow worse from day to day with the increasing influence of materialism and naturalism and the concomitant decline in the practice of religion, particularly outside the Catholic Church.

I. WITHIN THE HOME Let us get it clear that a home is not just a building of so many squares. A home is a place (a centre of life is perhaps a better description) in which the mutual love of husband and wife radiate to each other and also to those children who are begotten through loving union. Unless this union of the husband and wife is based on love, respect and discipline, there are positive dangers to all those who live in that house with insecurity, unhappiness, even hatred, as the consequences.

With the mention of dangers to the family our minds usually turn Immediately to such things as comics and films. I think you will agree, however, after more serious reflection, that the most insidious dangers can come from within the home itself. Unless in the home there is mutual love and respect based on the love of God and trust in His Providence, the greatest danger of all is striking at the heart of the family and of the children.

Part 2: RELIGION IN THE HOME

What makes a good Woman?

7/31/2013

Father speaks in a marriage conference to women on their roles as women & wives. What makes a good woman?

Saint for Today - St Gerard Majella

Chalk Talks - Guardian Angels

Chalk Talks - 4 Marks of Church

Family Life and the Dangers of Today - 1

What makes a good Woman?

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