Tag: Devotions

Book Reviews · Reviews

Daily Roman Missal Book Review

Spes in Caritate2 Comments

Hello everyone,

I recently got a book which I have been wanting for some time: the Daily Roman Missal published by the Midwest Theological Forum! It is according to the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal and is the 7th edition, 3rd printing. This is a beautiful book and one which I think will be useful for years to come. The price was $56.47 on Amazon, which was the cheapest price I was able to find.

Physical Characteristics (Standard Print, Bonded Leather, Burgundy) – 5/5 stars

Judging from the pictures, I was expecting a beautiful volume; the book does not disappoint. The cover, as I stated before, is bonded leather. It is not flexible, but does feel  nice in your hands. The one aspect of this book which did surprise me was the size. It was small than I expected (about 4.75″ wide, and about 7″ tall). This feature is a positive one. It makes it more unobtrusive while you use it at Mass. It is a thick book (approximately 2″ deep), but not so heavy that it becomes unwieldy. The necessary trade-off for this, of course, is that the paper is a bit thin. It reminds me of the paper used in a high quality Bible: thin enough that you can read the text from the next page through it, but thick enough that it doesn’t tear easily. The creamy color of the paper is really beautiful.

The text is a readable size and font. This missal has really helped me to learn more about the Mass, and drew my attention to some actions of the priest which I had overlooked before. The pages of the Daily Roman Missal are gilded nicely, and the Order of the Mass is marked in red on the sides for easy access.

There are six differently colored ribbons, each a different color. The ends of the ribbons seem to be sturdy, and I think I can reasonably hope they will not fray soon. Since I did want to have a few more things marked in the missal, I have used a prayer card for that purpose. You could also use some of those tabs designed for textbooks.

Overall, the Daily Roman Missal is a well made, high quality book that I would recommend to anyone looking to follow what happens at the Mass more closely.

 

Commentary

Prayer Spotlight: St. Michael the Archangel

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Hello,

Today’s post is going to be a brief collection of links interspersed with my commentary because I think they contain material which is important for everyone to read! Also, the history behind the St. Michael the Archangel Prayer is fascinating and pertinent to the times in which we live.  Final Commentary Logo

Here is an excellent piece written by Fr. William Saunders about St. Michael, and which mentions the St. Michael Prayer. Here is the text of the St. Michael Prayer from EWTN. Here is the link for a post, which speaks more about the St. Michael Prayer in particular from Church Militant. They give a lot of fascinating history.

I hope that you all enjoy reading these. The St. Michael Prayer is one of my favorite, and I am attempting to learn it in Latin at the moment. Catholic Answers has a fascinating article on their site which dissects some of the original Latin of the prayer and provides some more insight into the meaning of the Latin. I highly encourage reading this! It is available here.

God bless you all! And please – begin to pray the St. Michael prayer for the Church in our days.

St. Michael

Commentary

54 Day Rosary Novena

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Hello everyone,

I thought that I would let you all know that there will be another 54 Day Rosary Novena Rosary Photo (1)led by Novena for Our Nation beginning on August 15 and concluding on October 7. There is more information and daily reflections available here. If any one is wondering exactly what the 54 Day Rosary Novena is, Novena for Our Nation has a wonderful history of it available here. If you are wondering how to pray it, Roman Catholic Man has an excellent “how-to” here. I am very glad that I found out about this before the novena began, and I wanted to let you all know about it in advance. One of the endorsements on the Novena for Our Nation website is from Cardinal Burke!

I encourage you all to sign up for the daily reflections at the Novena for Our Nation website and join in on this prayer campaign. I hope to participate in this novena myself, praying for both my own personal intentions as well as our nation. This novena is so beautiful, and it reminds me a lot of what Our Lady of Fatima asked for in her apparitions (namely, saying the rosary daily). I want to get into that habit myself, and I think that saying this novena is a good way to begin. There are so many ways in which evil has taken hold in the world, and asking Mary’s intercession is an extremely powerful way to combat it. Please consider joining in this novena. May God richly bless you all!

Commentary · Crafts

Enjoying Crafts & An Exhortation

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Hi everyone,

I am sorry there will not be a full length post tonight. I have been very distracted today, Final Commentary Logobut I actually finished a craft which I had been working on for a long while. I am not telling you what it is today, but I should have a post out tomorrow about it! My thoughts have been dwelling especially upon what my favorite crafts are and why I enjoy them. Cross stitch, crochet, beading, and knitting are three of my favorite craft activities.

I was trying to pin down exactly why I like them. I think part of the reason is the fact that I can do them while listening to talks or shows. One of my favorite things to do is to watch videos or listen to podcasts while I work on my projects. I also like crafts because I can make people unique gifts. This is extremely enjoyable!

I do think that I have a tendency to “overdo” it on the crafts. By this I mean that sometimes I allow my enthusiasm for these activities to distract me from prayer. As in all things, temperance is a virtue here!

Moving on to the exhortation section of this blog post. In reading the news today, it becomes clear that the Devil is at work in today’s world. In a thousand different ways, in various times and places, he strives to keep us from Heaven. The power of evil seems so great, so deeply entrenched in our culture. It is important to remember that God always has the upper hand. The Devil is never more powerful or equal to God. We must trust God and be obedient to His Law. We must have faith, hope, and love in these times.

The reason I am writing about all this is simple. I cannot do much about the chaos in our culture. I cannot wave my hand and ban abortion, contraception, euthanasia, or gay “marriage”. What I can do, however, is love all of those who have become ensnared in these sinful activities. I can pray for them. I can beg God’s mercy. More than that, I can ask you all to do the same. So, my request to you is to pick up your rosary beads and say the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for our world. Here is a link to instructions on how to pray it from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. May God richly bless all of you.