The American Heroes Challenge starts today!
We'll begin today with the story of our nation, reflecting on Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492 and the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. Their journey wasn’t easy, and there were no guarantees waiting for them on the other side of the ocean ...
But the Pilgrims' story has endured because they embody something that we recognize as definitively American: the willingness to pay an extraordinary price for religious liberty.
36 years after the Pilgrims arrived, a baby girl was born in a Mohawk village in present-day New York. We remember her today as St. Kateri Tekakwitha — join us in prayer with @GarySinise@CardinalDolan and Sr. Grace Dominic from the Sisters of Life 🙏🇺🇸
Celebrate the saints and heroes who shaped our nation with actor Gary Sinise, Cardinal Dolan, & Sr. Grace Dominic in the new 13-day challenge. Challenge starts June 22!
https://t.co/N4gCXq3vFL
Yesterday, the @usccb consecrated the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — the beautiful Solemnity we celebrate today. ❤️🔥🙏 Join Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the USCCB, in the Consecration prayer today.
❤️🔥”Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.”❤️🔥
https://t.co/iggt4RPX3q
A man crashed a stolen car outside St. Joseph Shrine. Then he bolted.
The Rector heard the crash and someone yelled "stop him."
So Rev. Jean-Baptiste Commins — in full cassock — tackled him, and held him until the police came.
Never underestimate a priest in a cassock.
Calm and Headspace were everywhere. Eric Kerekes used them but felt disconnected from his faith. So he helped build the intersection. @hallowapp now has over 22 million downloads.
Full Tech Series episode on the Executive House YouTube channel. Link in the comments.
From Sister Miriam @onegroovynun -
"Know that Mary already receives you into her sheltering heart, and she protects you by her strong love.
This is her invitation to you, and it's for a time such as this.
She is our mother, and she is gentle and faithful and steadfast and constant.
Mary is unafraid. She's never assuming. She's never obtrusive. She's so loving and so respectful.
And so we can just ask her to lead us and guide us throughout this time of preparation.
She knows what she is doing, and she would love to truly care for us. And so under her mantle and close to Jesus, our lives will never be the same.
I am just so honored to be with you and excited to pray with you and pray for you and just to see what God's going to do in your heart and in my heart as well because it's a lovely journey that we're going to make together as a family.”
To Jesus Through Mary starts today!
Join us: https://t.co/hWrsaJQ0j5
Fun Fact: When Louis Pasteur lay on his deathbed, he held a rosary and asked to hear the story of St. Vincent de Paul, a fellow Frenchman who worked tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of children.
Last November, Daniel McKenna, a personal trainer known by his social-media handle “The Irish Yank,” shared a video on Instagram of himself leaving Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Greenwich Village.
“We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for an ‘I went to Mass’ post,” McKenna wrote, touting the experience as “one of the best Masses I’ve ever been to in my life.”
The video went viral, with hundreds of his followers commenting and thousands sharing it. A week later, McKenna filed another dispatch. “I went back to Mass,” he reported, “and yes it was another banger.”
McKenna’s enthusiasm captures the spirit of a suddenly resurgent Catholic scene in the heart of Manhattan, where college students and young professionals are showing up in force at Masses and other Catholic events as if they are queuing up for the latest hot restaurant or club.
Much of the fervor is focused on three specific parishes, all of which have seen a spike in Mass attendance and converts to the Catholic faith:
At St. Joseph’s, the Sunday evening Mass is standing-room-only, which hardly dissuades the 150 or so people in the overflow who stood in the church’s narthex on a recent Sunday. The church also saw 88 people receiving the sacraments of baptism or confirmation at the Easter vigil this year, up from 35 last year.
At St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral on the Lower East Side, the number of people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, being received into the Church or returning to be confirmed also rose — to 70 from 40 the year before.
And on Manhattan’s Upper East Side at St. Vincent Ferrer, which draws a slightly older demographic of young professionals and a growing number of young families, 77 people were expected to be received into the Church — through baptism or confirmation — compared with 50 last year.
“The Holy Spirit is absolutely 100% in charge of this completely,” the pastor of Old St. Pat’s, Father Daniel Ray, a priest with the Legionaries of Christ, told the Register.
Read the full story at: https://t.co/5yjx9wVsdP
This Saturday, I was confirmed into the Catholic Church 🥹✝️. God has been so faithful in leading me here, and I’m so grateful for every step of this journey.
A special thank you to @alexathallow for creating the @HallowApp ! This app has helped strengthen my relationship w/ the Lord.