Deacon

Husband, Father of 6 (1 in Heaven), Grandfather, Ordained Deacon of the Roman Catholic Church, DRVC, RVCDiocese, Pro Life, We Are A Resurrection People

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

@StevenACohen2 Please retire number 8 for Gary Carter. Well over due and well deserved. A quality human being, a good man and a great Met. Needs to be recognized. God bless

[Cardinal Dolan @CardinalDolan]

A blessed Ash Wednesday! Taking Lent seriously is a Catholic tradition well worth recovering. We quickly forget our Lenten resolutions and try to get out of the minimal requirements that the Church has. On Fridays, we would not eat meat. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, we would fast. Those are relatively easy! @thegnewsroom

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

A recent statement by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez illuminates the Marxist ideology which continues to take hold of American politicians. Here are my thoughts.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The Beatitudes become for us a measure of happiness, leading us to ask whether we consider it an achievement to be bought or a gift to be shared; whether we place it in objects that are consumed or in relationships that accompany us. #GospelOfToday (Mt 5:1-12)

[The 7 Line @The7Line]

🚨FREE! 🚨 RT to be in the running for this Home Run Apple snow globe. These will never be restocked. https://t.co/CupXdBKGb1

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

@SNYtv Sat behind home plate today. He was bad but consistently bad for both teams. It was a mystery all day. Like he was guessing. I am sure he is a lovely person and his mother loves him. #LGM

[Sr. Mary Joseph Calore, SSCJ @sscjusa]

The devil appeared to three monks and said to them: "If I gave you the power to change something in the past, what would you change?"

The first of them, with great apostolic fervor, replied: "I would like to prevent you from leading Adam and Eve to sin, so that humanity does not separate from God."

The second, a man full of mercy, said to him: "I will prevent you from straying from God and condemning you forever."

The third of them was the simplest and instead of answering the tempter, he knelt down, made the sign of the cross, and prayed: "Lord, deliver me from the temptation of what might have been and what was not."

The demon, screaming and trembling with pain, fled.

The other two were surprised and said to him: "Brother, why did you react like this?"

And he answered them: “First, we should never talk to the enemy.”

“Secondly, no one in the world has the power to change the past.”

“Third: Satan’s interest was not to prove our virtue, but to trap us in the past, so that we neglect the present, the only time God gives us His grace and we can cooperate with Him to fulfill His will.”

Of all the demons, the one that most holds men back and prevents them from being happy is “what could have been and was not.” The past is left to the mercy of God and the future to His providence. Only the present is in our hands. Live today loving God with all your heart.

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

@sscjusa #God grant me the #serenity to accept the things I cannot change; #Courage to change the things I can; And #wisdom to know the difference.

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

@SNYtv @SteveGelbs @StevenACohen2 Put another game on the scoreboard!!!

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

Romans 10 - The #word is near you, on your lips & in your heart (the word of #faith which we #preach). For if you #confess with your lips that #Jesus is Lord & believe in your heart that #God raised him from the dead, you will be #saved.

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

@HowieRose Opening Day on Good Friday, not cool. I’ll be at Church again this year

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

This is #EternalLife : to know you, the one true #God, and #Jesus #Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3).

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

If you are #faithful to my teaching, says the #Lord, you will indeed be my #disciples. You will know the #truth and the truth will make you #free.

[Sr. Mary Joseph Calore, SSCJ @sscjusa]

Posted by Msgr Eric Barr

ERNEST BORGNINE:

Back in 1975, he was offered a part in the film Jesus of Nazareth. He tells the story:
Our cast, directed by the renowned Franco Zeffirelli, included Anne Bancroft as Mary Magdalene, and Olivia Hussey as Mary, mother of Jesus. I played the part of the centurion who was present at the crucifixion, the one whose servant had been healed by Jesus.
Much of the film was shot in Tunisia on the Mediterranean during January and February of 1976. A cold, damp wind continually knocked over floodlights and stung us with desert sand.
I was uncomfortable in my thick leather uniform. My neck ached under a ponderous metal helmet, and I even began to pity those ancient Roman soldiers who were called centurions because they commanded 100 men.
When it came time for my scene during the crucifixion, the weather was chill and gray. The camera was to be focused on me at the foot of the cross, and so it was not necessary for Robert Powell, the actor who portrayed Jesus, to be there.
Instead, Zeffirelli put a chalk mark on a piece of scenery beside the cameraman. "I want you to look up at that mark," he told me, "as if you were looking at Jesus."
"Okay," I said, moving into position and looking up at the mark as instructed.
"Ready?"
I hesitated. Somehow I wasn't ready. I was uneasy.
"Do you think it would be possible for somebody to read from the Bible the words Jesus said as He hung on the cross?" I asked.
I knew the words well from the days of my childhood in an Italian-American family in Connecticut, and I'd read them in preparation for the film. Even so, I wanted to hear them now.
"I will do it myself," Zeffirelli said. He found a Bible, opened it to the book of Luke and signaled for the camera to start rolling.
As Zeffirelli began reading Christ's words aloud, I stared up at that chalk mark, thinking what might have gone through the centurion's mind.
That poor Man up there, I thought. I met Him when He healed my servant, who is like a son to me. Jesus says He is the Son of God, an unfortunate claim during these perilous times. But I know He is innocent of any crime.
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." The voice was Zeffirelli's, but the words burned into me—the words of Jesus.
Forgive me, Father, for even being here, was the centurion's prayer that formed in my thoughts. I am so ashamed, so ashamed.
"Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise," said Jesus to the thief hanging next to Him.
If Jesus can forgive that criminal, then He will forgive me, I thought. I will lay down my sword and retire to my little farm outside of Rome.
Then it happened.
As I stared upward, instead of the chalk mark, I suddenly saw the face of Jesus Christ, lifelike and clear. It was not the features of Robert Powell I was used to seeing, but the most beautiful, gentle visage I have ever known.
Pain-seared, sweat-stained, with blood flowing down from thorns pressed deep, His face was still filled with compassion. He looked down at me through tragic, sorrowful eyes with an expression of love beyond description.
Then His cry rose against the desert wind. Not the voice of Zeffirelli, reading from the Bible, but the voice of Jesus Himself: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit."
In awe I watched Jesus' head slump to one side. I knew He was dead. A terrible grief welled within me, and completely oblivious to the camera, I started sobbing uncontrollably.
"Cut!" yelled Zeffirelli. Olivia Hussey and Anne Bancroft were crying too. I wiped my eyes and looked up again to where I had seen Jesus—He was gone.
Whether I saw a vision of Jesus that windswept day or whether it was only something in my mind, I do not know. It doesn't matter. For I do know that it was a profound spiritual experience and that I have not been quite the same person since.

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

James 2:14, 17, 18b - what good is it to profess #faith without practicing it? Such faith has no power to save has it? So it is with faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless. Show me faith without works, and I will show you the faith that underlies my works.

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

If anyone wishes to be my #disciple, he must deny himself, take up his #cross and follow me, says the #Lord. #Lent2024 #Lent

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

@AlexOlszewski An oldie but a goodie!! God Bless

[Deacon @DeaconCoolGuy]

Watch over the #priests and #ministers of your #Church,
— so that after they have #preached to others, they themselves may remain #faithful in your #service. - Our #Lord and our #God, hear us.