Our Lady of Guadalupe

December 12th, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

"Am I not here who am your

mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection?

Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?" - Our Lady to St. Juan Diego

I love being Catholic. No where else can you get the Eucharist, Christ, and no where else can you get the fullness of the beauty of Our Lady. Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of my special favorites particularly because she reminds me to be open to God. Openness to God. As you can see, if you look closely, this is the only picture of Mary while she is pregnant; she's bringing Him to you. Openness and receptivity.

P.S. AND patroness of the Americas and the pro-life movement. Another great reason to love her.

Quote of the Week

"Have patience with all of the world, but first of all with yourself." - St. Francis de Sales

Quote of the Week

"The way to perfect joy is incredibly simple. It is simply to die - to die to self-will and self-regard - to say to God, "Thy will be done," and mean it. To put God first, to consecrate everything - everything - to him." - Dr. Peter Kreeft

Quote of the Week

"A clean heart is a free heart. A free heart can love Christ with an undivided love in chastity, convinced that nothing and nobody will separate it from his love. Purity, chastity, and virginity created a special beauty in Mary that attracted God’s attention. He showed his great love for the world by giving Jesus to her." - Mother Teresa

Quote of the Week

"Purity is not about following a list of rules so that we'll avoid hell. It's about wanting heaven for the women we love."

- Jason Evert

Quote of the Week

“The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for all that he, in his goodness, sends to us day after day." - St. Gianna Beretta Molla

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quote of the Week

"Life teaches us, in effect, that love - married love - is the foundation stone of all life."

- John Paul II

Quote of the Week

"You will never be happy until you learn to make gratitude part of your daily emotional and psychological diet. You will never have a great relationship until you learn to truly appreciate the wonder of another person. And you will never experience the depths of intimacy until you grow to be thankful for the opportunity to share the journey with another person." - Matthew Kelly

Quote of the Week

"The greater the feeling of responsibility for the person the more true love there is."

- John Paul II

Quote of the Week

"The way one treats a woman corresponds to the way one lives with God."

-Philippe Lefebvre

Quote of the Week

"Every day we have to say yes. To be where he wants you to be . . . To accept whatever he gives and to give whatever he takes with a big smile. This is the surrender. To accept to be cut into pieces, and yet every piece belongs only to him. "

- Mother Teresa

Quote of the Week

"There is a need for a crusade of manliness and purity to counteract and nullify the savage work of those who think man is a beast. And that crusade is your work."

- St. Josemaria Escriva

Quote of the Week

"Whenever you decide firmly to lead a clean life, chastity will not be a burden on you: it will be a crown of triumph." - St. Josemaria Escriva

Quote of the Week: G.K. Chesterton

"Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc. In a word, God paints in many colours; but he never paints so gorgeously . . . as when he paints in white."

- G.K. Chesterton

Weekly Quote

"Rather than be silent, we must instead point out the singular relevance of this teaching of divine Revelation: what St. Paul identified in the culture of the Greco-Roman world prophetically demonstrates its correspondence with what has taken place in Western culture in recent centuries: the exclusion of the Creator - to the point of proclaiming grotesquely that 'God is dead' - has had the consequence, almost as an inevitable punishment, of the spread of an aberrant sexual ideology, with an arrogance unknown to previous times."

- Cardinal Biffi

Quote book

"Holy purity is granted by God when it is asked for with humility."
-- St. Josemaria Escriva

Pope Benedict XVI on preparing for marriage

"The second area, where you are called to express your love and grow in it, is your preparation for the future that awaits you. If you are engaged to be married, God has a project of love for your future as a couple and as a family. Therefore, it is essential that you discover it with the help of the Church, free from the common prejudice that says that Christianity with its commandments and prohibitions places obstacles to the joy of love and impedes you from fully enjoying the happiness that a man and woman seek in their reciprocal love. The love of a man and woman is at the origin of the human family and the couple formed by a man and a woman has its foundation in God’s original plan (cf Gen 2:18-25).

"Learning to love each other as a couple is a wonderful journey, yet it requires a demanding “apprenticeship”. The period of engagement, very necessary in order to form a couple, is a time of expectation and preparation that needs to be lived in purity of gesture and words. It allows you to mature in love, in concern and in attention for each other; it helps you to practise self-control and to develop your respect for each other. These are the characteristics of true love that does not place emphasis on seeking its own satisfaction or its own welfare. In your prayer together, ask the Lord to watch over and increase your love and to purify it of all selfishness.

"Do not hesitate to respond generously to the Lord’s call, for Christian matrimony is truly and wholly a vocation in the Church. Likewise, dear young men and women, be ready to say “yes” if God should call you to follow the path of ministerial priesthood or the consecrated life. Your example will be one of encouragement for many of your peers who are seeking true happiness."

--- Read his entire Message for the 22nd World Youth Day here.

Quote book

"Real love is demanding. I would fail in my mission if I did not tell you so. Love demands a personal commitment to the will of God."- Pope John Paul II

Quote book

"To be pure, to remain pure, can only come at a price, the price of knowing God and loving him enough to do his will. He will always give us the strength we need to keep purity as something as beautiful for him."- Blessed Mother Teresa

Quote book

"Demand of yourself, even if no one else demands of you." -- Pope John Paul II