Magnificat

Magnificat, a spiritual guide to help you:

• Develop your prayer life,
• Grow in your spiritual life,
• Find a way to a more profound love for Our Blessed Savior,
• and Participate in the holy Mass with greater fervor.

Join the worldwide Magnificat family and live a life of prayer! Every day, the monthly magazine Magnificat offers:

• Beautiful prayers for both morning and evening, drawn from the treasures of the Liturgy of the Hours,
• The official texts of the daily Mass,
• Meditations written by the renowned Fathers of the Church,
• and a great variety of spiritual writings, essays on the lives of the saints of today and the past.

In each Magnificat, you will also find an article giving valuable spiritual insight, into a masterpiece of sacred art. Magnificat is a lavishly printed, easy-to-read pocket-sized worship aid, of more than 400 pages. It can be used to follow the daily Mass and can also be read at home for personal or family prayer.

Visit www.Magnificat.net.

The Word Among Us

As a result of the movement of the Holy Spirit in this century, many laypeople are seeking practical help in reading scripture and living in greater openness to the Spirit. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council recognized this when they encouraged all believers “to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ’ (Philippians 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures... Let them go gladly to the sacred text itself, whether in the sacred liturgy, which is full of the divine words, or in devout reading... Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For ‘we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles’ ” (Dei Verbum, 25).

Through this magazine, we hope in some way to help our readers to answer this call. In the first letter to our readers (December 1981), we wrote: “The Word Among Us is intended to assist people in reading, meditating on and understanding scripture [and to] provide sound, practical advice for Catholics on the living out of the Christian life... We can have a relationship of love and friendship with the Son of God.”

Throughout its history, The Word Among Us has continued to follow this pattern of encouraging its readers to experience God’s presence in scripture and prayer and thus receive the grace of the Spirit more deeply in their lives.

The magazine’s name, The Word Among Us, comes from the Prologue to the Gospel of John: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14). This passage reflects the vision and purpose of our publication: To be an instrument of the Spirit whose desire is to manifest Jesus’ presence in and to the children of God. In this way, we hope to contribute to the church’s ongoing mission of proclaiming the gospel to the world and growing ever more deeply in our love for the Lord.

Visit www.wau.org.

Symbolon

Symbolon is a dynamic, state-of-the-art video resource for the evangelization and catechesis of adults. It aims at transforming adults on all levels—how they think, how they pray, and how they live—by providing a comprehensive and compelling explanation of the Catholic faith. This resource can be used at the parish, or through our online digital platform, at home or wherever one may be at to bring adults into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church.

Symbolon is a production of the Augustine Institute, and it stems directly from the Institute’s mission of transforming Catholics for a new Evangelization. Symbolon is specifically designed to transform adult Catholics to re-discover their Catholic faith, in order to be witnessing disciples of Jesus Christ for the New Evangelization.

Adam and Eve Poke Fun

One day, in the Garden of Eden, Adam calls out to God, "Lord, I have a problem."

"What is thy problem, Adam?" God asks.

"Lord, I know thou created me and hast provided for me and surrounded me with yon beautiful garden and all of these wonderful animals, but I am just not happy."

"Why is that, Adam?" comes the reply from the heavens.

"Lord, I am lonely."

"Well Adam, in that case, I have the perfect solution. I shall create a 'woman' for thee."

"What manner of creature is a 'woman,' Lord?"

"This 'woman' will be the most intelligent, sensitive, caring, and beautifulcreature I have ever created. She will be so intelligent that she can figure out what thou wantest before thou wantest it. She will be sosensitive and caring that she will know thy every mood and how to make thee happy. Her beauty will rival that of the heavens and earth. She willunquestioningly care for thy every need and desire. She will be the perfect companion for thee," replies the Creator.

"Truly, she soundeth wonderful."

"She will be, but this is going to cost thee, Adam."

"How much will this 'woman' cost me Lord?" Adam asks.

"She will cost thee thy right arm, thy right leg, an eye, and an ear."

Adam ponders this for a moment.

"What can I get for a rib?"

Lest any women get upset, here is the female reply:

Eve walked with the Lord and thanked Him every day for the Beautiful Garden of Eden.

One day, she asked the Creator, "Lord, why is it that creeping things, and the beasts of the field, walk two by two but I am alone?"

The Lord answered, "I have only waiting for you to ask. I have the perfect mate for you. It is called a man. He will care for you. He will be the strong and silent type, and he will be the father of your children. He has some faults, but I believe your generous nature will overlook them."

Eve responded, "Oh, thank you, Lord. I have long wanted a companion like myself. A man sounds fine."

The Lord said, "Eve, there is one thing you must do if you truly wish the man as your life's companion."

"Yes, Lord, I will do whatever you wish," the woman quickly answered.

"Remember that I warned you the man has some faults....One of them is his ego. It will require something of you."

"Ego, Lord? What will a man's ego require of me?" asked Eve.

And the Lord said, "You will have to let the man think that I created him first.

Source: www.keepingitcatholic.org

Women Made New

Crystalina Evert's site challenges women to "Face it. Own it. Heal it." Women Made New encourages women in need of personal healing, empowering them to become the women God created them to be. Visit Women Made New.

Mass Times

The purpose of the Mass Times ministry is to help Catholics get to Mass by helping them find churches and worship times worldwide. We do this by hosting and sharing the most comprehensive database of Catholic churches and worship times in existence. Dioceses, parishes, and many volunteers help us keep the database current. We also host the masstimes.org website that our visitors use to search for Mass times.

It can be difficult for Catholics to find a Mass when traveling or when it is not practical to attend their regular parishes. It is not always easy to find the right diocesan or parish websites. Mass Times makes it much easier to search for a Mass by presenting all the possibilities in a geographical area on one page. We provide worship times, church locations, contact information, website links and maps. There are 117,000 churches in 201 countries/territories.

Since Mass Times began its ministry we have performed over 150 million church lookups for visitors to our website. Mass Times cooperates with parishes, dioceses and bishops, councils and conferences to assemble the information about the churches. Mass Times only lists Catholic churches that are on diocesan web sites or information provided by a dioceses.

Visit MassTimes.org.

PiercedHearts.org

All for the Heart of Jesus through the Heart of Mary.

"We are protagonists of our present; we are the actual builders of this history. God wants to write - through our hearts, through our lives and fiats - the history of salvation: a history of love, of grace, of life, of communion and of holiness."

(Mother Adela, Foundress SCTJM)

Who We Are
The "Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary" are a diocesan religious institute founded in 1990 by Mother Adela Galindo in the Archdiocese of Miami, Florida, USA.

We are members of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR).

“We are called to manifest the reign of love of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary as the building force for the construction of a new civilization.” Mother Adela

Our Foundress offers the Holy Father the love and unconditional fidelity of our foundation.

Our Spiritual Charism
To be a living image and presence of the Heart of Mary in the heart of the Church and place our Marian charism at the service of the Petrine principle.

Fundamental Dimensions of Our Charism:

• EUCHARISTIC...Total dedication of our lives in love to the Eucharistic Heart
• MARIAN...Being a living image and presence of the Heart of Mary
• CHARISMATIC...Actively receiving and communicating the gifts of the Holy Spirit
• IN THE HEART OF THE CHURCH...Generously placing our feminine genius in loving communion and service of the Petrine Principle

Our Four Vows

• Poverty: with a generous and diligent heart, to detach myself of all things to have the Heart of Jesus as my only inheritance and treasure and to freely give all that I am and have for the common good of our Institute.
• Chastity: with a spousal and undivided heart, to love the Heart of Jesus with a total, oblative and unconditional dedication and to be open to receive and communicate the fecundity that flows from the potency of this communion of love.
• Obedience: with a receptive and docile heart, to responsibly and effectively dispose myself to fulfill the designs of love of the Heart of Jesus manifested through my legitimate superiors and the government of our Institute.
• Total Marian Availability: to be a living image and presence of the Heart of Mary and to generously dispose the potentialities of my feminine genius in loving communion and service of the Petrine principle, thus enfleshing our Marian charism in the Heart of the Church.

Some Elements

• Eucharistic adoration and contemplation
• A ready openness to the power or the Holy Spirit and to the charisms
• Total consecration and identification with the Heart of Mary
• To love, think and live in the Heart of the Church
• To daily seek conversion in the active exercise of virtue
• To live and do all things in the spirit of prayer, of heroic love, and of humble service in the fulfillment of duty
• Fraternal life with joy and simplicity of heart
• Mature, generous, and responsible disposition to embrace every mission entrusted
• Integral formation, covering all areas of he consecrated person
• Apostolic ardor: enflaming the world with the love of the Pierced Hearts

Our Patron Saints
"Witnesses to love" of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary

• Saint Joseph
• Saint John the Apostle
• Saint Francis de Sales
• Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
• Saint Therese of Lisieux
• Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe
• Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
• Saint Pope John Paul II

"Each one of them with their life, doctrine and apostolic mission, illuminates a specific area of our charism."

Mother Adela

A Contemplative and Apostolic Community
From our Eucharistic contemplation and communion of love flows the potency of our apostolic fecundity.

Our Apostolic Charism
To be ardent witnesses of the power and fecundity of love and the splendor of the Magisterium and Treasures of the Church so as to form the human heart to build a new civilization of love and life in the heart of the Church and in the heart of the world.

"May the love of the Pierced Hearts reign in all hearts!"

Mother Adela

Learn more at PiercedHearts.org.