Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul

St. Paul in the Vatican

St. Peter in the Vatican

Today, the Church celebrates two of our most beloved early Christians, Sts. Peter & Paul.  Peter was the leader of Jesus' handpicked disciples and, together with Paul, the leader of the Early Church.  Paul's influence lives on in his letters to the earliest Christian communities in Rome, Corinth, Thessolonika, and other places.  Although they clashed on at least one recorded occasion (see Galatians 2), their passion for Jesus and their intense desire for discipleship helped them overcome any disagreements and focus on spreading the Good News of Jesus the Christ.

Want to learn more?  Watch this video and St. Paul.

St. Paul

Image Credits: Mary Harrsch on flickr (Paul); Mr. G's Travels on flickr (Peter).

8 Ways to Celebrate Sacred Time as a Family

Family fun

Meaningful moments are lurking around every corner!  Each day presents us with a new opportunity to encounter God as a family.  An article on Loyola Press' website lists eight different ways to harness ordinary daily and yearly moments to bring us closer to God and one another.  Some you can try today, some may require some waiting.

Pay close attention to number five, "make more of your time in the car together."  This summer, as we travel from place to place for camps, hangouts and roadtrips, try to harness that time together in the car.  Besides the recommendation they give, you can try these four other ways of having car conversations.

Check out the rest of the article for other suggestions.

How do you mark sacred moments as a family?  What special things do you do together?

Image Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography on Flickr

Sacred Heart of Jesus

A traditional rendition of the Sacred Heart

Today is the Feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!  We've all seen the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (see image to the right).  As a child, I always thought that must have been painful and, very practically, asked the question, how could Jesus be alive with his heart outside his body?  Now as an adult, I ask a different question: what's the point of the Sacred Heart?

For an answer, let's take a look at an excellent article by Fr. James Martin, SJ, on the Sacred Heart.  It really gets to the heart of this devotion.

For the Sacred Heart is nothing less than an image of the way that Jesus loves us: fully, lavishly, radically, completely, sacrificially. The Sacred Heart invites us to meditate on some of the most important questions in the spiritual life: In what ways did Jesus love his disciples and friends? How did he love strangers and outcasts? How was he able to love his enemies? How did he show his love for humanity? What would it mean to love like Jesus did? What would it mean for me to have a heart like his? How can my heart become more "sacred"? For in the end, the Sacred Heart is about understanding Jesus’s love for us and inviting us to love others as Jesus did.

To emphasize that point, the end of the article tells a story of a priest showing the image to schoolchildren.  The priest asks the students, "why do you think Jesus' heart is shown outside his body?" A girl responds, “because he loves us so much that he can’t keep it in!”


Read the rest of Fr. Martin's article for more information on the history and development of the Sacred Heart devotion. 

Br. Michael Moran's Sacred Heart

40 Hour Devotion: A Time For Prayer

Please join St. Mark on our annual 40 Hour Devotion leading up to this weekend's Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ.  The remaining times are:

• Thursday until 10pm
• Friday after 6:15am Mass to 10pm
• Saturday from 8:00am to Benediction at 3:30pm.

What is Adoration?

Confused about what Adoration is and why we do it?  Read this quote below, which is taken from a small book produced by Ligouri Press called In the Presence, by Sr. Joan Ridley, OSB (PDF).

When we sit in silence in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, we are being gazed upon by the Lord. Actually this is true every moment of our lives, but in church or chapel, we have intentionality in gazing at the Lord. That is why we are there. It is an experience of adoration. We do not have to be rationally aware of this reality. It does not depend on our mind so much as our heart... Adoration is our fundamental stance before God, the essential act of relating ourselves to the Absolute. It involves worship. We worship and adore God alone.

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." -- Jesus, Matthew 11:28

Simply put, Adoration is a time for us to pray, to listen, and to be in the presence of Jesus.  Give it a try.  Bring your family.  Time with God is never wasted.

Image Credit: ElectricDisk on flickr