Text Box: Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley, of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate,     thine eyes of mercy toward us; and             after this our exile show unto us the             blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus; O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God That we may be made worthy of the             promises of Christ. Text Box: “ Bible Quote” of the Week: John 2: 1-11 Jesus Changes Water to Wine NIV 1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."  4 "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come."  5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."  6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons  7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.  8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."    They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."  11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. The Spokesman Text Box: Alleluia Text Box: Alleluia

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Reflection by: Joe Phillips
Text Box: INDULGENCES Can.  992 An indulgence is the remission before God of temporal punishment for sins whose guilt is already forgiven, which a properly disposed member of the Christian faithful gains under certain and defined conditions by the assistance of the Church which as minister of redemption dispenses and applies authoritatively the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints. Do You Know ?

       Code of Canon Law     

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Oval: Click the picture for more information on : Canon Law regarding Indulgences Our Marian PrayerOval: Click Here for an on-line Catholic Calendar Text Box: Alleluia Text Box: Alleluia Text Box: Why Do We Pray to Mary? This is arguably the biggest stumbling block for non-Catholics considering the Catholic faith. Exactly why do we Catholics place such emphasis on Our Lady instead of going directly to God? We must first examine Divine Revelation for the answer. Scripture gives us a few clues. Jesus performed his first public miracle at the wedding feast at Cana. He did this at His mother’s request. This is a powerful lesson: Jesus listens to His mother. This also tells us something crucial about the Catholic understanding of Mary. We do not pray “to” Mary. We ask for her intercession on our behalf to her Son, Jesus. Why do we do this? A couple of important reasons come to mind. Number one, we do it because it works. Jesus listened to His mother at Cana and He listens to her to this day. Mary is fully human and understands us and hears us always, and her intercession is guaranteed to get a fair hearing before God. Number two, we do it because she has asked us to do it at Guadaloupe, Lourdes and Fatima among others, not as adoration, but for the sake of the salvation of the whole world. We can of course, pray directly to God. He alone do we worship and adore. But we can ask Mary for her intercession, as well as any other Saint, because they are members of the Communion of Saints in heaven, they enjoy the Beatific Vision and thus “have the ear” of God. What better way for our petitions to reach Him? Non-Catholics frequently fear that our prayers to Mary “miss the mark” and are potentially idolatrous. I suggest that we ask them gently if they would pray for us. They usually say that sure they would pray for us. I then ask if it is okay if I pray for them. They again say this is not only okay, but is greatly appreciated. I then ask if it is alright to ask the Saints in heaven to pray for us. Well, they say, St. Paul and the other great saints are certainly with God in heaven and asking them to pray for us must be a good thing. I then say that this is all we are doing when we pray the Rosary or any of the other Marian prayers. We are asking for Mary’s intercession and we do this at least partly because it works! When I was in the fourth grade I distinctly remember Sister Mary Inviolata telling us that if we get to that gates of heaven and have trouble getting past St. Peter we should go around the side to a window and call to Our Lady and she will get us in somehow. She was an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister, totally devoted to Our Lady. I am sure that she is with her now, and I hope to follow her advice. Much of what we know about Mary as Catholics comes to us, not from scripture, but rather from Sacred Tradition. Tradition with a capital T consists of Divine Revelation that was not written down like Scripture but comes to us orally over the ages. This is perhaps the reason why many non-Catholics are unaware of our devotion to Our Blessed Mother. Many of our non-Catholic brethren subscribe to “Sola Scriptura,” or the Bible alone. We should not forget that nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Bible alone contains all of God’s Revelation. When the issue arises, we should not be afraid to defend our Catholic devotion to Mary to those who may not fully understand it as we do. Thoughts expressed here are solely my own interpretation of the Gospel in my own life and are not to be confused with teachings of the Catholic Church or of any ordained minister. Oval: Click the picture of the Blessed Virgin for more Marian Prayers Text Box: The 40 Generations before The number 40 seems to have Jesus, starting with Abraham…. great significance in the Bible. Text Box:

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