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THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

He was obedient to them.

The Lord Jesus himself recalled the force of this “commandment of God.” The Apostle teaches: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ (This is the first commandment with a promise.) ‘that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.”‘

The fourth commandment opens the second table of the Decalogue. It shows us the order of charity. God has willed that, after him, we should honor our parents to whom we owe life and who have handed on to us the knowledge of God. We are obliged to honor and respect all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority.

The fourth commandment is addressed expre.ssly to children in their relationship to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended family. It requires honor, affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors. Finally, it extends to the duties of pupils to teachers, employees to employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who administer or govern it.

- from the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2197, 2199

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Prayer to St. Monica

Exemplary Mother of the great Augustine,
you perseveringly pursued your wayward son
not with wild threats
but with prayerful cries to heaven.

Intercede for all mothers in our day
so that they may learn to draw their children to God.

Teach them how to remain close to their children,
even the prodigal sons and daughters
who have sadly gone astray.

In May we celebrate the Month of Mary, Mother of God. “Blessed art thou amongst all women!”

The Panagia Icon of the Mother of God

“When we call Mary “our mother,” we grasp instinctively the essential meaning of the title, since it evokes memories of a human experience that is universal and runs deep. But when it comes to explaining clearly and precisely the content of the title, the matter is not so simple. Primarily, this is due to the wealth of content, including as it does practically all aspects of Mary’s activity toward us. Furthermore, Mary is our “Mother” in a way that is necessarily analogical. Theologians are well aware of what this imports, namely certain limitations that have to be remembered, and a transcendence that also must be kept in mind. The limitations come from the obvious fact that as far as we are concerned, we cannot apply to Mary all the realities of natural motherhood, since we are children of Mary not by the flesh, but “in the order of grace.”

Nevertheless, if in certain ways Mary’s motherhood toward us says less than natural motherhood, in other ways it says much more. For example, the quality of our life as children of God, a life Mary helps to obtain for us, ennobles and enriches incomparably our purely human life. And the perfection with which Mary dedicates herself to her maternal mission surpasses the best mothers on earth, plus the fact that Mary’s maternal vocation is universal and calls for her forming a personal bond with each one of us. . . . Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation . . The purpose of Mary’s maternal activity is to unite us with Christ so completely that each might say: “The life I live is not my own; Christ is living in me” (St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 2:20).”

- from the Dictionary of Mary

Christ is Risen!

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Life of Our Lord, please click here.

Mary and the Christian Life Scriptural Reflections on the First Disciple Only $11.95 Author: Amy Welborn	The Greatest Marian Titles Their History, Meaning and Usage Only $16.95 Author: Anthony Buono
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Pope Benedict XVI’s “Apostolic Journey to the United States” begins in April! The theme of his visit is “Christ Our Hope.”

“Since the Virgin Mary’s role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. “The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer. . . . She is ‘clearly the mother of the members of Christ’ . . . since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head.” “Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church.”Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. “This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death”; it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:

Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: “Woman, behold your son.”

After her Son’s Ascension, Mary “aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers.” In her association with the apostles and several women, “we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation.”

- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 963 - 965

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A Brief History Of The Holy Rosary -

Although for many years the origin of the rosary was linked to St. Dominic, who lived in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries, later research showed that strings of beads or knots for counting prayers had been used as prayer aids for centuries before and had become common with European Christians by the middle ages. Around this time, the strings of beads were known by many as Paternosters, indicating that they were used largely to count recitations of the Our Father- Pater Noster in Latin. The Hail Mary wasn’t commonly used as a devotional prayer until the mid-twelfth century. Makers of paternosters belonged to a prominent craft guild of the day. In fact, a street in London, called Paternoster Row, traces its name to the street where these guild members gathered.

By the time of the birth of St. Dominic in 1170, it had already become a widespread custom to use the strings of beads for reciting the Hail Mary, and texts written prior to the preaching of Dominic instructed one how to pray the Hail Mary in sets of ten. For the next few centuries there were many versions of the rosary - some reflecting on as few as five mysteries, and others on as many as two hundred mysteries. It wasn’t until 1569 that the rosary we know today, utilizing fifteen mysteries - joyful, sorrowful, and glorious - become the standard with the publication of an encyclical by Pope Pius V declaring that henceforth this would be the official, Church-authorized rosary. During the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, the holy father himself added a new series of mysteries - the luminous mysteries - to the holy rosary prayer.

The name “Rosary” itself comes from the Latin rosarius, meaning a bouquet or garland of roses. A widely popular medieval legend told the story of the Blessed Virgin taking rosebuds from the lips of a young monk as he recited Hail Marys, and weaving them into a garland for her head. The Hail Mary is recited more times than any other prayer in the rosary, and therefore is the prayer we most commonly associate with the rosary.

- adapted from Mitch Finley’s The Rosary Handbook

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Salve Regina!

Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.

We hope your Easter season, the season our Our Salvation, is an especially blessed and faith-filled one.

- the staff at Aquinas and More Catholic Goods

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Thomas said [to the other Twelve] “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Both [Mark and Matthew] designate Jesus’ preaching with the Greek term evangelion– but what does this actually mean? The term has recently been translated as “good news.” That sounds attractive but it falls far short of the order of the magnitude of what is actually meant by the word evangelion. This term figures in the vocabulary of the Roman emperors, who understood themselves as lords, saviors, and redeemers of the world. The messages issued by the emperor were called in Latin evangelium, regardless of whether or not their content was particularly cheerful and pleasant. The idea was that what comes from the emperor is a saving message, that it is not just a piece of news, but a change of the world for the better. . .The evangelium, the Gospel, is not just informative speech but performative speech– not just the imparting of information, but action, efficacious power that enters into the world to save and transform. Mark speaks of the “Gospel of God,” the point being that it is not the emperors who can save the world but God. And it is here that God’s word, which is at once word and deed, appears; it is here that what the emperors merely assert, but cannot actually perform, truly takes place. For here it is the real Lord of the world– the living God– who goes into action.

- from “Jesus of Nazareth” by Pope Benedict XVI

Christ is Risen!

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about the Life of Christ? To browse our selection of books on the

Life of Our Lord, please click here.

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Christ sent his apostles so that “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations.” “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The mission to baptize, and so the sacramental mission, is implied in the mission to evangelize, because the sacrament is prepared for by the word of God and by the faith which is assent to this word:

The People of God is formed into one in the first place by the Word of the living God . . . . The preaching of the Word is required for the sacramental ministry itself, since the sacraments are sacraments of faith, drawing their origin and nourishment from the Word.

“The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the Body of Christ and, finally, to give worship to God. Because they are signs they also instruct. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it. That is why they are called ’sacraments of faith.’”

- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1122 - 1123

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We hope your Easter season, the season our Our Salvation, is an especially blessed and faith-filled one.

- the staff at Aquinas and More Catholic Goods

Shop online at www.catholicchurchsupply.com for all your parish’s church supply needs - including clergy shirts, vestments, altar linens, censers and boats, incense, candles, chalices, sanctuary lamps, altar breads, official liturgical books, lavabo sets, altar bells, and so much more!

We have one of the largest selections of Clergy Shirts available anywhere. To view our complete selection, please click here.

If your parish is looking for official Catholic Liturgical Books, from Books of Rites and Blessings, to Sacramentaries and Lectionaries, we carry them all. To browse our complete selection of Liturgical Books, please click here.

“The Life of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ”

“The Apostle’s creed speaks of Jesus’ descent “into hell.” This descent not only took place in and after His death, but accompanies him along his entire journey. He must recapitulate the whole of history from it’s beginnings — from Adam on; He must go through, suffer through, the whole of it, in order to transform it. The letter to the Hebrews is particularly eloquent in stressing that Jesus’ mission, the solidarity with all of us he manifested beforehand in His baptism, includes exposure to the risks and perils of human existence: “Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted” (Heb 2:17-18). “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15). The story of the temptations is thus intimately connected with the story of the baptism, for it is there that Jesus enters into solidarity with sinners. . .In his short account of the temptations, Mark brings into relief the parallels between Adam and Jesus, stressing how Jesus “suffers through” the quintessential human drama. Jesus, we read, “was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.” The desert — the opposite image of the garden — becomes the place of reconciliation and healing.”

- from “Jesus of Nazareth” by Pope Benedict XVI

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Jesus of Nazareth Only $24.95 Author: Pope Benedict XVI	My Jesus Thoughts on the Gospel Only $16.95 Author: Cardinal Schoenborn
Life of Christ Meditations on Living the Resurrection Only $16.95 Author: Archbishop Sheen	Walking with Jesus in the Holy Land Only $12.95 Author: Fr. Sertillanges
Lord, Who are You? Meditations on the Names of Christ Only $11.95 Author: Cardinal Estevez	Our Saviour and His Love for Us Catholic Doctrine on the Interior Life of Christ Only $21.00 Author: Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange
Jesus the Christ Only $14.95 Author: Fr. Thomas Weinandy	Jesus Christ: The Holy One of God Only $15.95 Author: Fr. Cantalamessa
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Why Did the Word Become Flesh?

“With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.” The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who “loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins”: “the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world”, and “he was revealed to take away sins”:

Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?

The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God’s love: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 - Catechism of the Catholic Church, 456 - 485

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A Prayer for Easter:

O Jesus! Who art the beginning and end of all things, life and virtue, remember that for our sakes Thou wast plunged into an abyss of suffering, from the soles of They feet to the crown of Thy head. In consideration of the enormity of Thy wounds, teach me to keep, through pure love, Thy commandments, which are a wide and easy path for those who love Thee. Amen.

- from the Magnificent Prayers of St. Bridget of Sweden

We hope your Easter season is an especially blessed and faith-filled one.

 - the staff at Aquinas and More Catholic Goods

 ”. . .  And on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, (the women) came to the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled back from the sepulchre. And going in, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were astonished in their mind at this, behold, two men stood by them, in shining apparel. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their countenance towards the ground, they said unto them: Why seek you the living with the dead?He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke unto you, when he was in Galilee, Saying: The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words. And going back from the sepulchre, they told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. And it was Mary Magdalen, and Joanna, and Mary of James, and the other women that were with them, who told these things to the apostles.”

- The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke, 24: 1-10

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The King, Crucified and Risen: Meditations on the Passion and Glory of Christ Only $8.99 Author: Fr. Benedict Groechel	Life of the Good Thief A Moving, Spiritual Classic Only $14.95 Author: Msgr. Gaume
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Life Out of Death: A Thought a Day for the Easter Season Only $12.95 Author: Fr. Harold Beutow	A Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead? DVD A Critical Examination of the Facts of the Resurrection Only $19.95 Contributors: Fr. Mitch Pacwa, Tim Gray and others