To Jesus through Mary! Happy feast of Sts. Cosmas and Damian! Well, we are officially entering the Fall season here in Joy Valley. The trees are changing a little every day and there’s just a Fall scent in the air. It’s that lovely time of year where the mornings are a bit crisp and the days a little shorter. These changes all around us have an intuitive way of leading us into something new. We instinctively react to the waning daylight as a time of preparation for the colder months ahead.
And this applies to the spiritual life as well. Let us take a moment and set aside the Fall decor, the warm apple cider, and the cozy sweaters to ponder the things of Heaven. This week we celebrate the feasts of the Archangels and Guardian Angels and St. Therese, the Little Flower- what a great time to think of eternal things!
Next Saturday, October 3, we will have our annual celebration of the Feast of the Archangels. Fr. Peter Wigton will be celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at 11:00 am, followed by refreshments and snacks. The public is welcome. We ask that people bring a mask and practice social distancing.
Today we’ve put together a lot of information on angels and other interesting finds from the Catholic internet this week. So, without further ado, let’s get into this!
Archangels
This coming Tuesday we celebrate the feast of the Archangels — Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. These powerful messengers each play an important role in scripture. To learn more about them, check out this link. To learn what their names mean, head over to ChurchPop. We also found this great prayer to the Archangels for protection of your family!
Guardian Angels
At our conception, we each received an angel to intercede before God on our behalf — what a gift! Our angel’s primary goal regarding us, their charges, is to have us eventually join them in Heaven praising God for eternity. If you are doubting the existence of angels, we found this resource helpful. We also really enjoyed 20 Things Guardian Angels Do For Us. Thank you, God, for the incredible gift of our guardian angel!
Fallen Angels and Spiritual Warfare
We read in the twelfth chapter of Revelation that war broke out in Heaven and Satan and the fallen angels were cast out by St. Michael. Many folks have a lot of questions about how this affects us today. First, if you haven’t read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, we highly recommend it. But in terms of some basic knowledge of the enemy, we found this piece by Fr. Gabriele Amorth to have a lot of good information that cleared up some misconceptions that we had.
Saint Spotlight
We will celebrate the Feast Day of St. Therese of the Little Flower on October 1. She is perhaps one of the most popular intercessors and well-loved saints of modern times. She promised to spend her heaven doing good on earth. If you’d like to learn more about her short, but holy life, follow this link. We also found a really neat article with a slide show which contains 24 quotes by St. Therese which are sure to inspire you.
Marian Minute
One of the panels in our exhibit is about Our Lady of Walsingham. A devout widow desired to do something special to honor Our Lady. Mary then appeared to the young widow and revealed to her the house in Nazareth where the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her. The Blessed Mother asked the widow to construct a replica, promising that “whoever seeks my help there will not go away empty handed.” Read more here.
Nifty News
Carlo Acutis, the young man who created the Exhibit on Eucharistic Miracles as well as the Marian Apparition Exhibit, both of which we have hosted here at the Marian Center, will be beatified in Assisi in October. His beatification is set to take place over 17 days with vigils, youth events, Masses, Adoration and more to celebrate the life of this young man who used the internet for good, to evangelize millions. We are currently hosting the Exhibit on Marian Apparitions at the Marian Center. Stop in some time to see the fruit of his labor.
Liturgical Living
Here are some links to celebrate some important feast days this week.
—The Archangels, September 29
—St. Therese of Lisieux, October 1
—Guardian Angels, October 2
Marian Center Update
It’s easy to practice social distancing while attending our exhibit on Marian Apparitions! And you can shop at the Marian Center Gift Shop.
We are now on our Fall schedule. Come visit us from Tuesday-Saturday, 10 to 3. And don’t forget about Mass at 11 am on Saturday, October 3. Hope to see you soon!
To Christ Through Mary,
Katie Moe and Lori Mercer
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