CATHOLIC FAITH AT HOME RESOURCES
for our STELLA MARIS
Family of Parishes
including:
St. Thomas More, St. Bernadette,
St. Mary & St. Peter
February 18
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START SOMEWHERE CHALLENGE
GET BACK INTO SPIRITUAL SHAPE
The Start Somewhere Challenge at Stella Maris invites all Catholics
to attend at least one Eucharistic event
(Mass, quiet prayer in a church, a talk, a concert)
between February and July 2024.
There’s plenty to choose from because we’re
launching our own Eucharistic Revival.
Click the link below to watch Brad Bursa explain this challenge:
START SOMEWHERE CHALLENGE
Click the link below to learn more about the
Stella Maris Eucharistic Revival opportunities:
STELLA MARIS EUCHARISTIC REVIVAL 2024
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FR. MIKE SCHMITZ
OUR LENTEN GUIDE
Have you ever wondered things like...
What's the significance of Ash Wednesday?
Where is Lent in the Bible?
What should I give up for Lent?
What is the point of Lent anyway?
To help you experience these 40 days of Lent,
check out this ultimate guide from Fr. Mike Schmitz
to answer your questions and encourage you along the way.
Click the link below to see Fr. Schmitz's guide:
ULTIMATE GUIDE TO LENT WITH FR. SCHMITZ
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40 Unique Penances for Lent
Many Catholics traditionally do something like
give up a favorite food,
watch less TV, etc. for Lent.
These are good ideas, but there are other ways
to increase your prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Click the link below to check out
40 unique ideas to choose this Lent:
40 UNIQUE PENANCES
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A JOURNEY WITH
CHRIST INTO
CONVERSION
In the Gospel of Mark, the first words of Jesus are an invitation
to metanoia, to repent, to change, to be converted.
Join Fr. Dave as well as personal testimonies from
men and women as they tell their stories
that will inspire you to seek to encounter Jesus
and the new life he is constantly inviting us to.
This 10-episode series titled Metanoia and filmed
on location in the Holy Land explores topics
such as who is Jesus,
what must we do to inherit eternal life,
and many other significant matters of faith.
Click the link below to get started:
METANOIA
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A NEW CATHOLIC APP
The world is noisy—
take refuge on the new app called Vineyard!
Social media, fake news, AI, data privacy… In an ocean of over-stimulation, Vineyard offers a secluded alternative.
Part meditative, part social, Vineyard is a
sanctuary for virtuous content,
conversation, and contemplation, centered on balance.
Click the link below to check it out:
VINEYARD
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NOVENA PRAYERS
SPECIAL 30 DAY NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH
STARTS: FEBRUARY 19
ENDS: MARCH 19
This special novena to St. Joseph is prayed
for thirty days and can be prayed anytime of the year,
for any special intention.
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Ever blessed and glorious Joseph, kind and loving father, and helpful friend of all in sorrow! You are the good father and protector of orphans, the defender of the defenseless, the patron of those in need and sorrow. Look kindly on my request. My sins have drawn down on me the just displeasure of my God, and so I am surrounded with unhappiness. To you, loving guardian of the Family of Nazareth, do I go for help and protection.
Listen, then, I beg you, with fatherly concern, to my earnest prayers, and obtain for me the favors I ask.
I ask it by the infinite mercy of the eternal Son of God, which moved Him to take our nature and to be born into this world of sorrow.
I ask it by the weariness and suffering you endured when you found no shelter at the inn of Bethlehem for the holy Virgin, nor a house where the Son of God could be born. Then, being everywhere refused, you had to allow the Queen of Heaven to give birth to the world’s Redeemer in a cave.
I ask it by the loveliness and power of that sacred Name, Jesus, which you conferred on the adorable infant.
I ask it by that painful torture you felt at the prophecy of holy Simeon, which declared the Child Jesus and His holy Mother future victims of our sins and of their great love for us.
I ask it through your sorrow and pain of soul when the angel declared to you that the life of the Child Jesus was sought by His enemies. From their evil plan you had to flee with Him and His Blessed Mother to Egypt. I ask it by all the suffering, weariness, and labors of that long and dangerous journey.
I ask it by all your care to protect the Sacred Child and His Immaculate Mother during your second journey, when you were ordered to return to your own country. I ask it by your peaceful life in Nazareth where you met with so many joys and sorrows.
I ask it by your great distress when the adorable Child was lost to you and His Mother for three days. I ask it by your joy at finding Him in the Temple, and by the comfort you found at Nazareth, while living in the company of the Child Jesus. I ask it by the wonderful submission He showed in His obedience to you.
I ask it by the perfect love and conformity you showed in accepting the Divine order to depart from this life, and from the company of Jesus and Mary. I ask it by the joy which filled your soul, when the Redeemer of the world, triumphant over death and hell, entered into the possession of His kingdom and led you into it with special honors.
I ask it through Mary’s glorious Assumption, and through that endless happiness you have with her in the presence of God.
O good Father! I beg you, by all your sufferings, sorrows, and joys, to hear me and obtain for me what I ask.
(mention request here…)
Obtain for all those who have asked my prayers everything that is useful to them in the plan of God. Finally, my dear patron and father, be with me and all who are dear to me in our last moments, that we may eternally sing the praises of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Amen.
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2024 YEAR OF PRAYER
The Vatican presented initiatives to
"rediscover the value of prayer"
during the 2024 Year of Prayer
in preparation of the Jubilee 2025.
Pope Francis officially launched the Year of Prayer
during the Sunday Angelus on January 21, 2024
This year is “a time to discover how to pray,
and above all how to educate the people of
today in prayer, in this age of digital culture.”
Click the link below to read more bout this Year of Prayer Initiative:
2024 YEAR OF PRAYER
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The prayer for this week during this Year of Prayer
is a moving prayer known as “Learning Christ”
by St. John Henry Newman.
It is a poignant plea to live a
deeply authentic, faith-centered life in God:
Teach me, my Lord, to be sweet and gentle in all the events of life: in disappointments, in the thoughtlessness of others, in the insincerity of those I trusted, in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied.
Let me put myself aside, to think of the happiness of others, to hide my little pains and heartaches, so that I may be the only one to suffer them.
Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path. Let me so use it that it may mellow me, not harden nor embitter me; that it may make me patient, not irritable, that it may make me broad in my forgiveness, not narrow, haughty and overbearing.
May no one be less good for having come within my influence. No one less pure, less noble for having been a fellow-traveller in our journey toward eternal life.
As I go my rounds from one distraction to another, let me whisper, from time to time, a word of love to You.
May our life be lived in the supernatural, full of power for good, and strong in its purpose of sanctity.
Amen.
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NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC REVIVAL
NEW WEEKLY INFO
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Lenten Eucharistic Prayer Companions are ready!
These beautiful prayer guides will help you
keep prayer at the center of your Lenten practices
this year by guiding you in connecting
an hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament with the Mass.
Click below to download the Prayer Companion:
LENTEN EUCHARISTIC PRAYER COMPANION
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NEW Revival Special on EWTN In-Depth
Hear from key Revival voices
一including Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Archbishop Charles Thompson,
Will Peterson of Modern Catholic Pilgrim
and Sr. Josephine Garrett, CSFN一
and learn how the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
and Congress will play a pivotal role in animating the vision of the Revival.
Click the link below for this EWTN Special:
EWTN SPECIAL
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DETAILS AVAILABLE
A daily schedule for the National
Eucharistic Congress is live on our website.
You can now explore what this incredible
experience will look like day by day.
Preview the options for impact sessions in the morning
that speak to your particular vocation and mission.
Then, get excited for the dynamic revival sessions,
when the whole assembly will gather in Lucas Oil Stadium
to experience the power and love of Jesus.
These sessions—and the soon-to-be-announced
afternoon breakout sessions—
will be led by the expansive list of faithful speakers
who will join us in Indianapolis this summer.
Scroll through the updated schedule to
see many powerful opportunities for
encounters with Christ through prayer and the sacraments.
Click the link below for EVENT schedules:
EVENT SCHEDULES
Click the link below for IMPACT Sessions:
IMPACT SESSIONS
Click the link below for the SPEAKERS list:
SPEAKERS LIST
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REGISTRATION INFO FOR THE CONGRESS
WILL YOU BE THERE, TOO?
You can join us!
July, 2024
for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress.
Directly experience the fruits of your intercession and
see its impact around the country.
Click the link below to REGISTER:
REGISTRATION FOR 10TH
NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONFERENCE
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QUIZ! FOR THE WEEK
HAS SOMEONE EVER
ASKED YOU:
ARE YOU SAVED ?
Scroll down to find the answer!
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HUMOR
HIGHLIGHT
A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE
"Doctor, I have an ear ache."
2000 BC - "Here, eat this root."
1000 BC - "That root is heathen, say this prayer."
1850 AD - "That prayer is superstition, drink this potion."
1940 AD - "That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill."
1985 AD - "That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic."
2000 AD - "That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root!"
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GOSPEL READING REFLECTION
For February 18, 2024
1st SUNDAY IN LENT
Mk 1:12-15
SIN AND ITS REMEDY
- Our Lord ended his ordinary, hidden life and inaugurated his public life with his baptism by John at the Jordan. Then he endured forty days of penance as immediate preparation. Then he began his public ministry in Galilee.
- We imitate Christ’s forty days in the desert with our forty days of Lenten discipline each year.
- Christ completely fasted for forty days—the limit of human endurance—so his discipline was much more severe than anything we undertake.
- Yet, unlike Christ, who was only tempted from without, we are also tempted from within, because we have concupiscence. Christ was physically hungry for food but when we give up anything our entire being seems to go into rebellion.
- Christ’s reply to Satan—in our verse before the Gospel—when Our Lord was tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread—is useful to us when our mind, will, and senses demand we abandon our suddenly, now-seemingly senseless self-deprivation: “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
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ANSWER TO QUIZ
HAS SOMEONE EVER
ASKED YOU:
ARE YOU SAVED ?
It is true that the first step to our salvation is accepting
Jesus as our Lord and Savior through the sacrament of baptism,
but our road to salvation does not end there.
Salvation doesn’t take place in a single moment.
Getting to Heaven is a process that
we must cooperate with every day.
Jesus Himself said that “he who endures to the end will be saved”
(Matthew 24:13).
Salvation requires perseverance in faith.
We need to receive God’s grace and repent of our sins continually
in order to lead holier lives and prepare our hearts for Heaven.
So when someone asks, “Are you saved?” you can respond,
“I have been saved,
I am being saved,
and I hope to be saved.”
That’s the true answer!
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BOOK
RECOMMENDATION
We need to be armed for battle!
At all times, and especially during these crazy times in this vale of tears,
we need to lay our foundation in Christ Jesus.
Spiritual reading helps us build and strengthen that foundation.
Order through your favorite book dealer.
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This week's recommendation is:
Why We're Catholic:
Our Reasons for Faith, Hope, and Love
BY
Trent Horn
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Why do we believe that God exists,
that he became a man and came to save us,
that what looks like a wafer of bread is actually his body?
Why do we believe that he inspired a holy book and
founded an infallible Church to teach us the one true way to live?
Ever since he became Catholic, Trent Horn has spent
a lot of time answering these questions,
trying to explain to friends, family, and
total strangers the reasons for his Catholic faith.
Some didn't believe in God, or even in the existence of truth.
Others said they were spiritual but didn't think
you needed religion to be happy.
Some were Christians who thought Catholic doctrines
over-complicated the pure gospel.
And some were fellow Catholics who had a hard time
understanding everything they professed to believe on Sunday.
Why We re Catholic assembles the clearest, friendliest,
most helpful answers that Trent learned
to give to all these people and more.
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We pray you will be excited to embark on purposeful
spiritual reading as a way to build a more prayer-filled,
Christ centered life.
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