video source: youtube

No matter how long you have been away from the Catholic Church, you can always come home. You can start going to Mass again (find a parish) and become a part of a parish community that is ready to welcome you with open arms. God is inviting you to dive into your faith in a deeper way than you ever have before

You may already be feeling a strange inner pull to look into the Church again. That spiritual longing you feel is God drawing you back to Himself. God never forces; He only invites. He leaves the decision to return to the Catholic Church up to you.

Video source: youtube.com

Top 10 Reasons to Come Back Home:

• Because we want meaning in life.
• Because childhood memories surface.
• Because we made mistakes.
• Because we need to forgive others.
• Because we want to be healed.
• Because the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth and grace.
• Because we want our children to have a faith foundation.
• Because we want to be part of a faith community.
• Because we want to help other people.
• Because we hunger for the Eucharist.

Most people discover that coming back to the Church is not an event as much as it is a process that involves a little pain, a little laughter, some thinking, some prayer, some discernment and a lot of letting go. “My actual return to full participation in a parish took about three years after I felt the first longing,” one person admitted.

And what do we get in return? The Catholic Church offers union with Jesus Christ:

• in the Scripture
• in prayer
• in the community of others
• in the Eucharist
• and in the other sacraments.

It offers spiritual support in good times and bad. It offers divine wisdom which is thousands of years old from people just like YOU who lived in each and every century throughout Christian history: 33AD, 100AD, 800AD, 1000AD, 1300AD, 1964AD and 2005AD. It offers meaning and purpose in this life and the promise of eternal life with Him after death for those who persevere to the end.

You’ll know you are home when you begin to feel a deep sense of peace.

If  you have any questions, call your local parish. For St. Lambert Parish, CLICK HERE

Tuloy po kayo! Ang inyong pagbabalik ang amin pong ikinagagalak!

Visit:  http://www.catholicscomehome.org/

Join us, the parishioners of St. Lambert Parish in Skokie for one of the  Simbang Gabi Novena Masses for the Archdiocese of Chicago. December 17, Friday at 6:30 in the evening.

A short cultural presentation and a “salu-salu” will follow the Mass. Please bring your friends and family members.

What is Simbang Gabi?

Check the Simbang Gabi Schedule for the Archdiocese of Chicago

View pictures of Simbang Gabi 2009 with His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago as the main Celebrant.

FFOS Comittee members for the Simbang Gabi 2010:

• Bolusan – Chair
• Dulay
• Rosagas
• Mayuga
• Vijitchanton
• Tangonan
• Diaz
• Ducduc

Photos courtesy of Luisa Penepacker Photography. Luisa is the official photographer of the Filipino Families of Skokie (FFOS)

In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin.”

“The Blessed Virgin Mary…”

The subject of this immunity from original sin is the person of Mary at the moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into her body.

“…in the first instance of her conception…”

The term conception does not mean the active or generative conception by her parents. Her body was formed in the womb of the mother, and the father had the usual share in its formation. The question does not concern the immaculateness of the generative activity of her parents. Neither does it concern the passive conception absolutely and simply (conceptio seminis carnis, inchoata), which, according to the order of nature, precedes the infusion of the rational soul. The person is truly conceived when the soul is created and infused into the body. Mary was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin at the first moment of her animation, and sanctifying grace was given to her before sin could have taken effect in her soul.

“…was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin…”

The formal active essence of original sin was not removed from her soul, as it is removed from others by baptism; it was excluded, it never was in her soul. Simultaneously with the exclusion of sin. The state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice, as opposed to original sin, was conferred upon her, by which gift every stain and fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities, essentially pertaining to original sin, were excluded. But she was not made exempt from the temporal penalties of Adam — from sorrow, bodily infirmities, and death.

“…by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race.”

The immunity from original sin was given to Mary by a singular exemption from a universal law through the same merits of Christ, by which other men are cleansed from sin by baptism. Mary needed the redeeming Saviour to obtain this exemption, and to be delivered from the universal necessity and debt (debitum) of being subject to original sin. The person of Mary, in consequence of her origin from Adam, should have been subject to sin, but, being the new Eve who was to be the mother of the new Adam, she was, by the eternal counsel of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the general law of original sin. Her redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ’s redeeming wisdom. He is a greater redeemer who pays the debt that it may not be incurred than he who pays after it has fallen on the debtor.

Such is the meaning of the term “Immaculate Conception.”

(www.newadvent.org/cathen)

A question posed by the Foreign Policy Magazine writer Eden Naby and Jamsheed Chosky last November 2, 2010 post in there website. This was just hours after suicide bombers belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant organization connected to al Qaeda in Iraq, stormed a Chaldean Catholic Church, Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Church in Baghdad and eventually killing 58 people and injuring 75 more.

“But the massacre in Baghdad is only the most spectacular example of mounting discrimination and persecution of the native Christian communities of Iraq and Iran, which are now in the middle of a massive exodus unprecedented in modern times as they confront a rising tide of Islamic militancy and religious chauvinism sweeping the region.”

“Christians are the largest non-Muslim religious minority in both Iraq and Iran, with roots in the Middle East that date back to the earliest days of the faith. Some follow the Apostolic Orthodox Armenian Church. Others subscribe to the 2,000-year-old Syriac tradition represented mainly by the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq and by Aramaic speakers widely known as Assyrians in both Iraq and Iran.” The article said.

The plight of our fellow Catholics and Christians in the Middle East have been a constant subject of news and documentaries. The November hostage taking and massacre clearly highlight the conditions Christians in Middle East, especially in Iran, Iraq and including the Holy Land, are facing everyday. As we prepare for the season of Advent and Christmas, let us keep them in our prayers.

sources: http://www.arabamericannews.com, www.foreignpolicy.com

Catholic Our Father Prayer:

Latin liturgical version:

Dear friends, on this World Mission Sunday in which the heart’s gaze extends to the immense spaces of mission, let us all be protagonists of the Church’s commitment to proclaim the Gospel. The missionary impulse has always been a sign of vitality for our Churches (cf. Encyclical Letter, Redemptoris missio, n. 2), with their cooperation and their unique witness of unity, brotherhood and solidarity that gives credibility to heralds of the Love that saves!

I therefore renew to everyone the invitation to pray and, despite financial difficulties, to offer fraternal and concrete help to support the young Churches. This act of love and sharing, which the precious service of the Pontifical Missionary Societies to which I express my gratitude will see to allocating, will support the formation of priests, seminarians and catechists in the most distant mission lands and will encourage the young ecclesial communities.

At the end of this annual Message for World Mission Sunday, I would like with special affection to express my gratitude to missionaries who bear witness to the coming of the Kingdom of God in the most remote and challenging places, often with their lives. To them, who are in the vanguard of the Gospel’s proclamation, every believer offers friendship, closeness and support. May God who loves a cheerful giver (cf. 2 Cor 9: 7) fill them with spiritual fervour and deep joy.

Read the Holy Father’s  full message.

Organized by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the World Mission Sunday, is a day set aside for Catholics worlwide to recommit themselves to the Church’s missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice.

Your contributions to the Propagation of the Faith on World Mission Sunday and throughout the year help support pastoral and evangelizing programs, catechists and catechetical work, the building of churches and chapels, the work of religious communities in health care and education, and communication and transportation needs. Gifts provided on World Mission Sunday or at other times to the Propagation of the Faith help to ensure that the poor of the missions receive help and the hope that comes from knowing the love of Jesus Christ. The day-to-day service of the Catholic Church in the developing world depends on such financial help.

Missionaries can only do what you make possible! Please be generous on World Mission Sunday. Thank you!

article sources: www.vatican.va, http://archstl.org/missions/and www.drvc.org

photo source: http://archstl.org/missions/

Watch all the 10 Faith based films and vote!

About the Faith Film Festival

Faith Film Festival showcases films that inspire, give hope, and celebrate faith. We also want to give filmmakers a platform to present their work that features a positive message. the Faith Film Festival first season  will air in May, and submissions are now closed. But the call for entries for our second season will start again in June so grab your cameras and start…

About NET

NET is a new faith-centered cable TV network based in Brooklyn, New York. The heart base of our broadcast includes news, entertainment, children’s, and music, as well as religious programs. There are even programs in foreign languages. Today, while most television accentuate materialism, violence, sex, and sensationalism, NET brings viewers back to what really matters, family, fun, and faith in God. Have no fear, NET isn’t a cloistered channel of talking heads and sermons. It’s out on the streets of New York, visiting neighborhoods, talking to the diverse members of our community of faith — listening to the music and sampling the food. NET serves the young and old, the churched and unchurched, and men and women from different social, ethnic and religious backgrounds, showing how they work together to make our world a better place. It’s good TV!

At first glance, Emma Watson looks like the average 7-year-old. She has the curiosity and laughter of any other child her age. And she holds her moms hands with the same innocence of most kids.

But the story of Emmas life is anything but ordinary. She was born with half a heart. In her young life shes already had five open heart surgeries.

Patti Watson, Emmas Mom:
Her birth mother had wanted to have an abortion and decided to back out of that and decided to give her life. And now shes with our family, husband, a huge blessing to our family.

The Watsons leave Rome with a very special moment, one they call breathtaking and that gave them a sense of awe.

Emmas mom says her condition will continue to require special attention. But its evident that she already has two of the most important things a 7-year-old could ask for: love of a family and the gift of life.

-ROME REPORTS