Daily Prayer for Priest O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church ... give us holy priests. You yourself maintain them in holiness.
O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares, which are continually being set for the souls of priests.
May the power of Your Mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring the naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priest, for You can do all things. - St. Faustina (Diary, 1052)
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My Dear People,
Jesus Needed Permission?
Bartimaeus was blind and begging along the roadside. Coming upon the scene was Jesus, accompanied by a large crowd. Hearing the crowd describe the advancing Healer and Preacher, Bartimaeus cried allowed, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” To be heard above the roar of the crowd, he cried out even louder. Jesus, upon hearing the faith of Bartimaeus, stopped and went to him. The crowd confirmed that Jesus was seeking him. Running to Our Lord, Bartimaeus humbles himself before the Saviour.
Then Jesus asks a very curious question, “What do you want of me to do for you?” Was Jesus not capable of discerning the man’s condition? Of course He was, Jesus needed the man’s permission to give to him what the Father knew He needed. Bartimaeus gave Jesus permission to heal his blindness. Before healing his sickness on the outside, Jesus heals the blindness of Bartimaeus soul on the inside. Jesus states, “Your faith in ME, has saved YOU!” After healing the man’s soul, his physical sight was immediately restored. Bartimaeus then followed Jesus on the WAY. Do you need to be healed? Jesus heals our hearts and souls in the confessional. Jesus still heals from the inside out. Can you humble yourself before Our Saviour in the confessional? What do you want Jesus to do for you?
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark
May we more deeply appreciate and value the gifts of sight, taste, smell, hearing and touch, given by God Himself.
This is what Courageous Priest is all about. Catholic Priest willing to stand strong for the Faith.
By James Tillman
PHOENIX, AZ, October 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) — In remarks delivered to the Phoenix Catholic Physician’s Guild on October 16, 2009, Archbishop Chaput of Denver condemned moral indifference in the face of the culture of death as dishonesty towards God and ruinous to America.
The archbishop began by discussing a single facet of our society: its attitude towards children with Down syndrome.
“Currently about 5,000 children with Down syndrome are born in the United States each year,” he said. “They join a national Down syndrome population of roughly 400,000 persons. But that population may soon dwindle. And the reason why it may decline illustrates, in a vivid way, a struggle within the American soul.”
“That struggle will shape the character of our society in the decades to come.”
Prenatal testing for Down syndrome, he continued, rather than helping parents prepare to care for their child, has become a reason for parents to kill their child. “Studies show that more than 80 percent of unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome now get terminated in the womb.”
But this statistic, he continued, is but a symptom of the sickness that has spread throughout America. The choice that the parents of an infant with Down syndrome make is the same as the choice society faces as a whole.
“The real choice in accepting or rejecting a child with special needs is between love and unlove; between courage and cowardice; between trust and fear,” he said. That’s the choice we face when it happens in our personal experience. And that’s the choice we face as a society in deciding which human lives we will treat as valuable, and which we will not.
“Every child with Down syndrome, every adult with special needs; in fact, every unwanted unborn child, every person who is poor, weak, abandoned or homeless – each one of these persons is an icon of God’s face and a vessel of his love. How we treat these persons – whether we revere them and welcome them, or throw them away in distaste – shows what we really believe about human dignity, both as individuals and as a nation.”
“Religion is Not Private Thing”
Catholics can no longer excuse themselves from combating this disease by saying that their religion is private and separated from every other area of their life, he continued: religion is not simply a private thing.
“Catholic public officials who take God seriously cannot support laws that attack human dignity without lying to themselves, misleading others and abusing the faith of their fellow Catholics. God will demand an accounting.”
“God will demand an accounting”
“Catholic doctors who take God seriously cannot do procedures, prescribe drugs or support health policies that attack the sanctity of unborn children or the elderly; or that undermine the dignity of human sexuality and the family. God will demand an accounting.
“And Catholic citizens who take God seriously cannot claim to love their Church, and then ignore her counsel on vital public issues that shape our nation’s life. God will demand an accounting.”
But the maintenance of public morality is not merely a duty to God but also to our nation, he continued.
“It would seem to be erected on the triple denial that has corrupted Western culture at its roots: the denial of metaphysical reality, of the primacy of the spiritual over the material, [and] of the social over the individual … Its most striking characteristic is its profound materialism … It has given citizens everything to live for and nothing to die for.”
“And its achievement may be summed up thus: It has gained a continent and lost its own soul.”
The Archbishop ended, therefore, by urging men truly to act as Catholics and thereby to change the world.
“Be the best doctors, nurses and medical professionals you can be,” he said. “Your skill gives glory to God. But be the best Catholics you can be first.”
My Dear People,
No U-hauls In Heaven
“What must I do to inherit everlasting life?” This is the central question in the Gospel this weekend. Jesus gives a twofold answer. First, Our Lord says that we must be obedient to Him in all things beginning with the Ten Commandments, not the 10 “options” as some would have you believe. Secondly, Jesus states that we must become “detached” from material goods in order to become “re-attached” to spiritual goods. This is why He tells the young man to go and sell all of his life goods, then come and follow. How hard it is for us to do this.
Peter then inquires, Lord who then can be saved? Jesus tells us that for man, this is impossible; but for God, all things are possible. So it is essential to “let go of our attachment to the things of this world” family, friends, homes, lands, investments, life plan, etc. After all, there are not any U-HAULS in Heaven. It all remains here when we die. And death can happen, any day, any time. We must be ready today, not tomorrow. Pray for the grace to stay obedient to Our Lord, and detached from our earthly goods.
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark Bozada
May we be good stewards by spending more quiet moments with God. Pledging our service and sacrifice to build up God’s Church here on earth.
Lady of Fatima Church needs less programs, more prayer and penance!!
Today is the 92nd anniversary of the last appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three shepherd children Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco in Portugal in 1917. The visions occurred on the 13th day of each month from May to October, and by October huge crowds were gathering at the site of the visions and reporting visions and miraculous occurrences themselves. 
What is the Message of Fatima?
The public message of Fatima recalls that of Lourdes. Through the children Mary urges prayer for sinners, recitation of the Rosary, and works of penance. On October 13 she said: “I have come to exhort the faithful to change their lives, to avoid grieving Our Lord by sin; to pray the Rosary.”
But Mary also confided several “secrets” to the children, some of which Lucy subsequently transmitted. Presumably there was prediction of another war in the near future and a request for special veneration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the spread of communism. The final secret was in-regards to the general falling away from faith that would come upon the world in the not too distant future if men did not amend their lives. Obviously this secret has been playing out over the course of a generation or two.
The message of Fatima is a simple one. If we are to convert sinners and realize peace in our world, we must pray the rosary daily and do penance. As the angel of Portugal said, “In this way, and in no other way, you will obtain peace for yourselves, for your family, for your country, and for your world.
edited by: Jeffrey David
 Although the so called “Freedom of Choice Act” has not been mentioned much lately, I feel that it would be wise to use every spiritual means necessary to assist in the defeat of this evil law. I would like to propose the following list that all Catholics can do to try and defeat this evil law:
1) I would encourage all Catholics to pray the rosary and do penance for the defeat of this law.
2) We should also pray for the enlightenment of our new president, who is a sign of great hope for many, but to quote Pope John Paul II, “a nation that kills its own children is truly a nation without hope.”
3) Lastly, I would strongly encourage all Catholics to pray for the grace to accept more faithfully, in humility and obedience, Our Lord’s teaching, through His Church in-regards to all life issues, including remaining open to life. Thus, by doing so, we can truly begin to build a culture of life, in word and in deed.
Abortion, in general, and specifically, what is proposed in the Freedom of Choice Act is not a right or a freedom, it is an abuse of freedom, and a license to kill, which is never a right. The abuse of freedom always results in the loss of freedom. The unborn already have no right, to their fundamental right, which is life, if someone deems that the child should be killed. If the Freedom of Choice Act passes, then it will be the death of Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, and a host of other liberties.
Ultimately our fight is not with the pro-abortion groups, or pro-abortion politicians, our fight is against the powers and principalities of this world. While we want to save as many babies as possible, our greatest concern should be for the souls of those proponents of death who are so ensnared by the evil one. Let us pray the rosary for their conversions because we are our brothers keeper.
Blogged by: Jeffrey David
My Dear People,
Contraception!
Few would disagree that the sanctity of the family and the holiness of the sacrament of marriage is under attack. Like the Jewish nation in exile in Babylon, American Catholics have so wanted to be like their unbelieving neighbors, that they have assumed many of the same pagan traits as the culture. The divorce rate among married Catholics is the same, if not greater than their pagan counterparts.
So what happened. Back in the early 1900′s, when mainstream Protestants embraced artificial birth control as morally acceptable, their divorce rate skyrocketed. Later in the 1960′s,
when mainstream Catholics embraced artificial birth control as morally acceptable in their own minds (apart from the still official teaching of the Catholic Church otherwise), they too became like their pagan counterparts.
So the real issue is Life and obedience to the law of God. Sin corrupts the heart and mind, and prevents the conscience from proper development. Until ALL Catholics embrace the teaching of Our Lord on the issues of LIFE, we will continue to be just like our pagan neighbors. Pray for the conversion of our Catholic families to return again back to God’s Law. All true conversion begins in the HEART. Place your hearts and those of your families in Jesus’ most Merciful and Divine Heart.
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark Bozada
May we always embrace the law of God in our lives, so that we may be truly free to serve Him.
My Dear People,
Scandal From The Grave
Do “Catholic” Politicians Deserve a Catholic Funeral?
There is an accountability for every one of our sins; even sins confessed and absolved. Impossible for us to achieve, Jesus is the only one who can save us from our sins. Mark’s Gospel reminds us that giving scandal is a very serious sin, especially public scandal. Politicians who are Catholic, and support abortion, cloning, and so called “mercy killing” of the elderly, commit grave public sin and grave public scandal. Archbishop Burke recently reminded all bishops that politicians who have given such scandal, without the benefit of “public conversion and penance” should not receive a Catholic burial; so serious is the sin.
Condoning this sin through such a public display, gives the faithful grave scandal on the part of the clergy. Sin is sin. God’s forgiveness is real and needed, but we should never condone public sin directly or indirectly. It is God’s Law, not man’s. Pray for all of our politicians who daily give scandal to the Catholic Church by their direct support and funding of abortion, cloning and mercy killing of the elderly. We live in very dark times. This does not excuse us from being accountable to one another, no matter what our place and status is in this world.
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark
Remembering that we will be judged by what we do for the least among us. May we give generously and joyfully to support all those in need.
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