Hail Holy Queen!

Happy feast of the Queenship of Mary!!

Our Queen mother is so awesome and I pray that all who read this will take her as their mother. May we take her as our Mother just as Jesus gave her to John the beloved disciple at the foot of the cross.

Here's a fun video of the song "Hail Holy Queen" that have entertained my boys at home:


Although I don't really like applause during Mass because it disrupts meditation and takes the focus away from God, this is still a great video.

On a separate note, please keep the city of Ferguson, MO in your prayers. This is a great article that I read recently about the situation to date:

http://www.aleteia.org/en/society/article/the-challenge-of-ferguson-establish-justice-and-ensure-domestic-tranquility-5791242105389056

Also please pray for those being persecuted in Iraq and especially the parents of James Foley who was a freelance journalist (and a Catholic) who was beheaded this week by ISIS. Here's a great story about the Pope making a personal call to the parents of James Foley:

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-calls-family-of-us-journalist-james-foley-94357/

Lots to pray about, but with the Queen Mother assisting us and joining us in prayer - God's will will be done.

Total Consecration & the Assumption

Today is the most beautiful of Church Feast Days for Mary the Mother of God. I know there were a lot of capital letters in that sentence but I don't care! It's the Assumption! It's also the date I've chosen to be my consecration day using the St. Louis-Maria deMontfort Total Consecration Method (I had a post about this saint a while back).

I couldn't be more excited about this consecration. I'm not too good at expressing things beautifully so instead I'll use a youtube video on what this is and just how awesome it is:

I also wanted to alert all you readers out there to a beautiful post by my good friend and fellow blogger Gabriel on this feast day (it's one of his favorites too).

App Review: Holy Rosary Deluxe Edition

Hello my faithful blog followers (pun intended). Welcome to my second iPhone App Review. This time we review a beautiful app simply called, "Rosary".

I really like this app. It's very simple and beautifully made. It has all the prayers written out in case you need them. The part I really like though is you can double tap the image of the particular mystery and it will go full screen and there's an image of Mary behind the mystery that you're meditating on. I love that it's almost like Mary is presenting this time in Christ's life to you. The images are very important for me so that I don't get distracted and I always remember what I should be meditating on. Also an iPhone Rosary saves your place in case you get interrupted - even if it's in the middle of a mystery. The other kind of cool thing is that people think you're just reading email or something on your phone when in fact you're praying and meditating. I guess it depends on how you look at that whether that's a good thing or not. Oh, it also includes the Divine Mercy Chaplet which is also hugely awesome.

I can't stress enough how important and powerful it is to say a daily Rosary. It's truly a beautiful way to meditate on the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So with this App it's much easier to integrate in your life by taking a break and praying, or pray it on the bus or train, etc.

When I searched 'rosary' over 100 apps came up! That's awesome! I remember when I first got this app it was pretty much the only app out there to pray the Rosary. Anyway, if you search for 'Holy Rosary Deluxe Version' you should find it. Looks like it's $1.99 now, but it's very worth the price. Much cheaper than a gold, diamond encrusted Rosary that you have to lug around. I haven't really tried other apps so this isn't like a huge well researched post about what the best Rosary app is, this is just what I use and like. God Bless!

Thoughts on The Visitation

On May 31st we celebrated the feast of the Visitation. This is the scene of Mary travelling with haste into the hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth who also has just conceived. This is the occasion where we not only get part of the Hail Mary from the lips of St. Elizabeth, but we also get the beautiful and poetic Magnificat from Mary. It's such a joyous moment. Elizabeth is filled with the holy spirit, she's overjoyed to meet the mother of her Lord. Mary is honored but diverts all that attention back to God: "My soul magnifies the Lord". Then there's John the Baptist leaping in the womb for joy. It's the first public procession of Jesus. It's the first adoration of Jesus in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the most holy and blessed Virgin.

It's also a great pro-life message. During the annunciation Mary is visited by the Angel Gabriel and asked to bear Jesus the Messiah. She then gives her acceptance, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your will". It's at this moment, the moment of her agreement to God's plan, that Jesus is conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit. The angel also tells her about her kinswoman Elizabeth bearing a child late in life and so it says that Mary went 'with haste' to the hill countries to visit her. So when she arrives for this scene of the Visitation, the pre-born Jesus is no more than a week or two old in the womb, however both Elizabeth and her pre-born son John recognize this tiny savior as who He is.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hello everyone. I wanted to say a big Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. I want to especially recognize my mother Lucy, and my wife Suzanne who herself is a brand new mother. I don't have too much to say but I wanted to share this little passage I read in my Magnificat for May regarding mothers and I think it sums it up nicely how important your role is:

To be a mother is to stretch yourself as far as you can possibly go. It is to say, There! That is everything I have; that is my blood, my heart, my bone marrow. And it is then to be called to give in yet a different way, a different direction. Just when the mother wants to rest, she is called to more openness of heart, more self-emptying, more patience, more work, more letting go, more love…

App Review: iPeita

Here's my first blog post App review. There's an App called "iPieta" (link) for iOS that is one of the best Catholic apps, nay one of the best apps period I've ever seen. Well worth the $2.99 fee. It's filled, packed full of so much wonderful material. It's basically an explosion of great Catholic writings, prayers and scripture. It has all of the books of the Bible, has a calendar with Mass readings and feast days, a huge amount of prayers, and for me the biggest element - a Massive library of Catholic writings. It includes Thomas Kempis's Imitation of Christ, Augustine's Confessions, St. Theresa's Story of a Soul, The entire Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, Papal encyclicals, and the writings of all church councils and more. It's a great treasure trove. You can also read multiple things at once and save bookmarks of each. If you get it, let me know what you think! In Christ,

Dan

Happy Easter and some thoughts on Mary

Happy Easter! How are you all doing? What a great and beautiful season. I wanted to share some audio files that I've been listening too recently. There's some free talks from catholicity.com that are just incredible (follow this link and then click download your free talks now). So far I've listened to five of the talks and they are each Amazing! I particularly like the conversion of Scott Hahn and the seven secrets of the eucharist. The one I just finished is all about Mary and the Rosary. At about 29 minutes into the recording they start talking about the importance of Mary and the Rosary. I've heard some of these points before but there were some great new ones that I wanted to mention.

It's incredible to realize that Mary is the new ark of the covenant. The new dwelling place of God incarnate. King David in the old testament says, "Who am I that the ark of my lord should come to me". This is a direct parallel to when Elizabeth says to Mary, "Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Then there's the part in the old testament when David does a dance in front of the Ark. It's described in the old testament as 'leaping'. So in the new testament we have John the Baptist taking this role and leaping before the new ark of the covenant. It also discusses how much Jesus loved his mother Mary. She is present at all of the major points in his life. His conception, birth, first miracle, and his death.

What I don't think a lot of people realize is how simple it is to explain Marian devotion. It goes like this: Jesus Loves Mary his mother. We are called to imitate Jesus, therefore we must love Mary, Jesus's mother. It's straight from the 10 commandments. Honor thy Mother and thy Father. Also since we are called to be the brothers and sisters of Jesus and together call God our Father, it follows very easily that Mary is our mother also.

Again, hope your Easter is going well! God Bless!

-Dan

p.s. - The Picture at the top is a picture of Lloyd I took today at the tulip garden in Baltimore. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk. Gotta Love Spring!!