For those of us who think that the faith and zeal of the early Christians died out as the Church grew more safe and powerful through the centuries, the martyrs of Uganda are a reminder that persecution of Christians continues in modern times, even to the present day.

The Society of Missionaries of Africa (known as the White Fathers) had only been in Uganda for 6 years and yet they had built up a community of converts whose faith would outshine their own. The earliest converts were soon instructing and leading new converts that the White Fathers couldn't reach. Many of these converts lived and taught at King Mwanga's court.

At the end of the sixth century anyone would have said that Augustine had found his niche in life. Looking at this respected prior of a monastery, almost anyone would have predicted he would spend his last days there, instructing, governing, and settling even further into this sedentary life.

But Pope St. Gregory the Great had lived under Augustine's rule in that same monastery. When he decided it was time to send missionaries to Anglo-Saxon England, he didn't choose those with restless natures or the young looking for new worlds to conquer. He chose Augustine and thirty monks to make the unexpected, and dangerous, trip to England.

For some time, I have worn a brown scapular. If you don’t know much about this devotional practice, here is a very quick-and-dirty version, greatly lacking in detail: it’s two little pieces of brown cloth, connected by a cord and worn around the neck beneath one’s clothing. One of the cloth pieces depicts Our Lady of Mount Carmel appearing to St. Simon Stock, and the other piece — the one that is sometimes visible at the nape of my neck — depicts Our Lady’s “scapular promise:” Whosoever dies clothed in this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.

Our Lady Travels the World

The world-famous International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima is recognized as the primary way in which the message of Fatima spread throughout the world and continues today.

• Sculpted by Jose Thedim—“the Michelangelo of Portugal”—the statue has been traveling internationally since 1947.
• On October 13, 1947, in the presence of 200,000 pilgrims at Fatima, the statue was blessed by the Bishop of Lieria-Fatima and commissioned to serve as the Pilgrim Virgin.
• The bishop prayed that Mary herself accompany the statue wherever it goes.
• She was then flown to America, where she was crowned in Ottawa, Canada, and began a 2-year tour of Canada and the U.S.
• She has since traveled to over 100 countries, claiming her dominion and carrying Fatima’s blessings and urgent message to people worldwide.

The Pastoral Care Ministry is an outreach ministry of Saint Mary Magdalene Catholic Church that allows our lay Eucharistic Ministers to bring communion to the sick and homebound.

This is a great ministry that our faith provides which allows Catholics, unable to attend mass due to illness and mobility issues and who are properly dispensed, to receive our Lord at their home or care facility. We wanted to provide you with the testimonies of some of these lay Eucharistic Ministers of Holy Communion describing what their participation in this ministry means to them and how it has affected their own lives and the lives of those they serve. Enjoy.

St. Catherine of Siena was born during the outbreak of the plague in Siena, Italy on March 25, 1347. She was the 25th child born to her mother, although half of her brothers and sisters did not survive childhood. Catherine herself was a twin, but her sister did not survive infancy. Her mother was 40 when she was born. Her father was a cloth dyer.

At the age of 16, Catherine's sister, Bonaventura, died, leaving her husband as a widower. Catherine's parents proposed that he marry Catherine as a replacement, but Catherine opposed this. She began fasting and cut her hair short to mar her appearance.

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament was born as Helena Kowalska, in Glogowiec, Leczyca County, north-west of Lódz in Poland on August 25, 1905. She was the third of 10 children to a poor and religious family.

Faustina first felt a calling to the religious life when she was just seven-years-old and attended the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. After finishing her schooling, Faustina wanted to immediately join a convent. However, her parents refused to let her.

Is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead. It is celebrated on Sunday, and marks the end of Holy Week, the end of Lent, the last day of the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday), and is the beginning of the Easter season of the liturgical year. As we know from the Gospels, Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day following his crucifixion, which would be Sunday. His resurrection marks the triumph of good over evil, sin and death. It is the singular event which proves that those who trust in God and accept Christ will be raised from the dead.

Hello St. Mary Magdalene,

Happy Palm Sunday! We begin Holy Week by accompanying Christ into Jerusalem. He enters in glory amid songs and hymns of praise and yet, only four days later, those same voices that now cheer for our Lord in glory and majesty will be the same voices that cheer for His death! How moving and yet telling too about the human heart, especially how often we turn away from the Lord through sin. This most sacred and powerful week highlights for us the full weight that Our Lord paid for our sins and His most splendid victory as He rises in glory on Easter.

Several years ago, I followed the “take something up” opportunity during lent and made a weekly adoration commitment. I didn’t have much experience with adoration and had never fully understood the practice. Armed with meditation and reflection booklets composed for adoration, enriched by YouTube descriptions, and equipped with my journal, I began my commitment. My biggest challenge was “Be still and know that I am God.”

Flagstaff, AZ The second Sunday of Lent, focused on the Gospel account of Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop, found SMM's Schola Justitiae with fresh take on "garments white as snow." 20 choristers plus crew of chaperones spent the weekend in an old convent-turned-retreathouse amidst frozen blanket thicker than locals have seen in years. "It's like we entered Narnia!" quipped chorister.