Dcn. Larry Vaclavik

Catholic deacon of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston & St. Theresa Church. Sharing prayer starters & words of spiritual encouragement.

[U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops @USCCB]

Saint Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church, pray for us!

[Jan 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @RosaryMum]

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have Mercy on us and on the whole world.

[Kathleen Winchell ❤️🤍💙🇺🇸🇺🇸 @KathleenWinche3]

Never forget the sacrifices made by these brave young men. 🙏🇺🇸

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

In the Mystery of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – we are at home, just as Nicodemus felt at ease when he was in Jesus’ presence. The life of God is marvelous and captivating. It gives peace to our heart, which is often very restless, and it allows us to encounter our brothers and sisters in the joy of the Spirit. #GospelOfTheDay (Jn 3:16-18)

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

In the era of #ArtificialIntelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human. We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor of which no machine can ever replace. #MagnificaHumanitas
https://t.co/6i9MWs6LJl

[CatholicRelief @CatholicRelief]

Happy Mother's Day! Today we honor mothers around the world—whose love, strength and sacrifices shape families and communities everywhere. 💐

[Joe Tobin @CardinalJWTobin]

Today marks one year since the election of Pope Leo XIV. With joy, we give thanks for his witness to mercy, care for creation, and a Church that walks together. His call—“Peace be with you”—urges us to reject violence and indifference and be instruments of Christ’s peace.

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

There is a way past the absurd and deeply divisive “war” between the President and the Pope, which has been enthusiastically ginned up by the press. And it is indicated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2309 to be precise. After laying out the various criteria for determining a just war—proportionality, last resort, declaration by a competent authority, reasonable hope of success, etc.—the Catechism points out that “the evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.” The assumption is that the just war principles function, to use the technical term, as heuristic devices, designed to guide the practical decision-making of those civil authorities who have to adjudicate matters of war and peace.

The role of the Church, therefore, is to call for peace and to urge that any conflict be strictly circumscribed by the moral constraints of the just war criteria. But it is not the role of the Church to evaluate whether a particular war is just or unjust. That appraisal belongs to the civil authorities, who, one presumes, have requisite knowledge of conditions on the ground. So, is the war in question truly the last resort? Is there really a balance between the good to be attained and the destruction caused by the war? Are combatants and non-combatants being properly distinguished in the waging of the conflict? Do the belligerents have right intention? Is there a reasonable hope of success? The posing of those questions—indeed the insistence upon their moral relevance—belongs rightly to the Church, but the answering of them belongs to the civil authorities.

The Pope has said, on numerous occasions, that he is not a politician and that his role is not the determination of any nation's foreign policy. But he has just as clearly said that he will continue to speak for peace and for moral constraint. In making both of these claims, he is operating perfectly within the framework of paragraph 2309 of the Catechism. If we understand that the Pope and the President have qualitatively different roles to play in the determination of moral action in regard to war, we can, I hope, extricate ourselves from the completely unhelpful narrative of “Pope vs. President.”

[Vérité (i.e. Learing The Truth) @Verite411]

@RealMrJohnJr @s66554694 The young woman in this video is 1000% correct! Man fell in the Garden because of lies. God equates lying with murder. It’s time to oppose the lies with every ounce of our being.

Hannah Arendt clearly recognized the same problem over 50 years ago.

[Robert P. George @McCormickProf]

To their great credit, the US Catholic Bishops and prominent Catholic lay leaders are pushing back forcefully against those who want to spread hostility to Jews and Judaism in the Catholic community. They are standing up for the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the modern popes, and the Catholic Catechism on the brotherhood of Jews and Christians and the sinfulness of antisemitism. A fine article on this in The Jewish Chronicle.
https://t.co/w4sWTQzdx4

[Talk Church @churchtalkative]

This Prayer Could Change Your Entire Day 🙏

[Jan 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @RosaryMum]

Happy Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas! 🕊️

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, I would like to recall that the Church remains faithful to the unwavering position of the Declaration #NostraAetate against every form of antisemitism. The Church rejects any discrimination or harassment based on ethnicity, language, nationality, or religion. https://t.co/e6GS1xDhRf

[Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith]

Picture of one rugged individualist standing against the warmth of collectivism on June 5, 1989.

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

There was a line from Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural address yesterday that took my breath away. He said he intended to replace “the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Collectivism in its various forms is responsible for the deaths of at least one hundred million people in the last century. Socialist and Communist forms of government around the world today—Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, etc.—are disastrous. Catholic social teaching has consistently condemned socialism and has embraced the market economy, which people like Mayor Mamdani caricature as “rugged individualism.” In fact, it is the economic system that is based upon the rights, freedom, and dignity of the human person. For God’s sake, spare me the “warmth of collectivism.”

[U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops @USCCB]

As our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate Hanukkah, we grieve in the wake of the shooting in Sydney. In this season of light, we join you in prayerful solidarity, trusting that darkness will not overcome the light (cf. Isaiah 9:1). We stand with you in friendship and reject antisemitism in all its forms.
- Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, USCCB President

Read the full statement at: https://t.co/dcxn2bvV84

@ArchOKC

[U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops @USCCB]

Today, the church celebrates Venerable Fulton J. Sheen. May his life and legacy embolden us to share the Gospel with all we encounter.

[Become A Saint @BeSaintly]

It is the 60th anniversary of Vatican 2.

V2 is a particularly special council to me because reading the conciliar documents was my final step before I converted.

The haters are all wrong.

Praise God for giving us the Church, the only Ark of Salvation.

[Jan 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @RosaryMum]

Today is the feast day of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music and musicians 🎶

Saint Cecilia and the Angels, Paul Delaroche.