Mary and the Christian Life

Amy’s new book is out! Mary and the Christian Life: Scriptural Reflections on the First Disciple

Pope Benedict to Travel to France

This September, to Paris and Lourdes, from AGI News Italy:

The long awaited visit of Pope Benedict 16th to France will take place from 12 to 15 September and there will be two stages: Paris and Lourdes. The news has been broken by “Le Figaro”, giving the date of Friday 12th September for a meeting with French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, returning the latter’s visit to the Vatican on 20th December. In the afternoon, in Paris, there will be “the encounter with the world of culture”, probably at the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, where Ratzinger has been a member since 1992. On Saturday evening, the Pope will set off for Lourdes, where celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin are under way.

Greatest Need in the Modern World

Invoking the Precious Blood of Jesus… so says the Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s St. Therese – A Treasured Love Story which I read on the plane returning from my final Lenten Mission at St. Edward’s Catholic Church in Newark, CA yesterday–which just happens to be staffed by priests of the Missionaries of the  Precious Blood . Father Jeff Keyes, the pastor of St. Edwards maintains an excellent Catholic blog, Refugio San Gaspare, dedicated to promoting devotion to St. Gaspar and the Precious Blood. And of course I have included the novena and history of the devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus in the prayerbook I put together entitled The Church’s Most Powerful Novenas.

Archbishop Sheen points out that the Precious Blood of Jesus, as well as the Holy Name of Jesus is a powerful weapon against the devil–and he also recommends praying that the Precious Blood be applied to the souls of those we pray for who have left the faith or are in need of healing.