If you are a baseball fan and a Catholic, then you will certainly want to see this DVD. Champions of Faith shows how many top baseball players integrate their faith into their performance on the field.
Marie Bellet is a Catholic singer, songwriter, and mother of 9. Her music appeals especially to Catholic mothers since she often sings about the challenges of motherhood and raising a family.
In our interview, Marie talks about her background and family and what led her to start singing and recording. She shares about the singers and topics that have influenced her music, and her plans for her next album.
Music Discussed in this podcast:
What I Wanted to Say
Ordinary Time
Lighten Up
A New Springtime
Special thanks to the kindergarten class at Lumen Christi Catholic School in Indianapolis, Indiana for providing us with our intro and the Our Father in Latin.
Read our call in page to find out how your family, church, or school group can be featured doing our intro. You are also welcome to call in questions and comments to our voice-mail at 206-312-0069. You might just be on our next show.
There’s a really great new book out called “Go in Peace” by Fr. Mitch Pacwa and Sean Brown. I saw an ad for it the other day, with a great tag line – Confession: Where Sinners Become Saints. This sacrament is probably one of the most underutilized sacrament, and the one that really goes hand-in-hand with the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. Written in an easy-to-understand format, it’s a great compendium of 101 Questions & Answers, Examination of Conscience, the Rite of Penance, Prayers and Glossary of Terms. An outstanding resource for Catholics, non-Catholics, parish and school staff, parents, and everyone else!
The April 13 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, was attended by President Bush for the third year in a row. The President is close to Catholics on a number of issues, and included the subject of stem-cell research in his talk. He believes that a life is a life and the government should not use the most innocent of human life as a means to a scientific end.
The event, which is about prayer and fellowship, is generating similar events around the country — two state Catholic prayer breakfasts in California, and discussions for starting one in Illinois, as well as in foreign countries such as Lebanon and Scotland. Our Catholic faith is really blessed with events such as these — no matter how large or small in scale — which provide the opportunity for us to live our faith through local community activities. This is a prime example that the possibilities are really unlimited to share the faith.
The opinions continue to roll in, about what went wrong at Virginia Tech last week. Meanwhile, the students have returned to school this week, and asked that the news media just leave their campus and let them get back to school. I commend them for this attitude (which is part of the healing process) — one that seems far more mature than many of the news media that have camped out there in the past week.
There are many lessons that we can find, as a result of the horrific massacre at VT. One of them, unfortunately, is that we never know when our time to leave this earth will come. I’ve thought this past week about being out shopping, or dining, or even in Church, and that an unhinged person could easily do the very same thing in any of these places. I’m not paralyzed by fear — just facing reality. Being Roman Catholic means that we should always be prepared for the day we are called by the Lord from this earth. Are we prepared? Do we take advantage of the sacraments of Confession and the Holy Eucharist frequently? Do we take a few minutes each day to pray… to examine our conscience at the end of the day… to resolve to do better tomorrow… to call on the saints for guidance? There’s no guarantee of a tomorrow. That’s just the way it is. We will only know the “why” (hopefully) when we meet Our Lord in eternal life (God-willing). Stay prepared every day to meet Our Lord, and be judged favorably by good Catholic daily actions.
One of the readings at Sunday Mass yesterday was about the Apostles being warned not to preach Christianity, or they would be dealt with by the authorities. They continued to preach about Christ and they were joyful in doing so, in spite of (or especially because of) the persecution and punishment they faced. We can sit in the privacy of our homes, and remain completely anonymous if we like, and still “preach Christianity.” And we absolutely should stand for our Catholic faith when it is attacked. When we hear screeching parrots like Rosie O’Donnell harshly criticize the Catholic dominance on the Supreme Court, because they upheld a constitutional ruling on partial birth abortion ban. She doesn’t think Catholics should be on the Court, because of separation of Church and State. This has nothing to do with separation of Church and State, and there were non-Catholics (even non-Christians, perhaps?) that upheld the ruling. (Get some facts to support your opinion, Rosie.) The least we can do is contact ABC (which airs Rosie’s soapbox), and let them know that her tirades against Catholicism should be treated with the same response that others have been treated for making remarks that are racially derogatory. It only takes a couple of minutes to email TV broacasting networks, as well as local, state and national “public servants,” to let them know when their actions are out of line. (… and also when we support what they stand for)
Jim DuBos is the founder of Thy Kingdom Come and the initiator of the Catholic Mass Revealed project. His project wanted to create a resource for use by the church as a tool for formation and evangelization for the mass. The finished product is an incredible resource for anyone who wants to understand the mass better.
Catholic Spotlight #3: Interview With Jim DuBos, Initiator Of Catholic Mass Revealed Project [15:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadBooks Discussed in this podcast:
The Catholic Mass…Revealed! Collection
Read our call in page to find out how your family, church, or school group can be featured doing our intro. You are also welcome to call in questions and comments to our voice-mail at 206-312-0069. Check out our list of upcoming interviews and let us know if you have thoughts. You might just be on our next show.
I heard some comments today by Cal Thomas, nationally syndicated columnist and speaker, about this past week’s events 
of death (the Virginia Tech massacre) and life (the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ban on partial birth abortion). They both involve horrendous death. He was speaking to a friend this week about the Court’s decision (he is Catholic and pro-life), and she (who adopted two children from China) was not in agreement with it. She likened it to being forced to have a pacemaker implanted. Thomas rightly pointed out this ridiculous logic, stating that a “pacemaker is a device… a child in the womb is a life.” He further commented about how this woman was blessed to have adopted two babies from China — thanks to the pro-life position of the women who gave birth to them.
And we thank people like Cal Thomas, who are faithful apostles for the Catholic Faith, in the public square of the airwaves, print media and speaker forums. Be not afraid… to speak the truth!
Good news that the ban on partial birth abortion was upheld today. Although it might seem a small battle in the war against abortion, it’s a victory nonetheless. And it will no doubt save a number of lives that might have otherwise been destroyed. So, we still have a bit of a virtuous society around us, and we recognize that killing the absolutely defenseless is not a good thing. Hear more about this topic in this excellent CD: Catholic Morality -The Battle for America’s Soul.
If there are silver linings to clouds such as the tragedy (the criminal actions) yesterday at Virgina Tech., one of those linings is to remind us to stay close to the Lord and our Catholic faith at times such as these. We do not always know why these things happen — except that there is evil in the world and it visited the VT campus yesterday — but we do know that God will take care of us.
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