Those who do not believe in Jesus and those who do not yet know Him

Wow, there is so much wonderful news today! First of all, the bad news. I had to file extensions for my taxes, but preliminary findings look like I'll be getting money back from the Feds and AL, not sure about KY yet.

Now for the best news of all ... Christ is risen! That's right, yesterday Christians across the globe celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The best part about being Christian is that Christ is always risen to us and the best part about being Catholic is that we don't just celebrate special occasions on one day, we've still got 49 days left of Easter! Alleluia!

News bulletin number 2 is a new blog has begun postings. This isn't just another blog. It is the Catholic Catechism Dialogue Blog. That's right, a blog devoted to the teachings of the Church. The CCDB takes a portion of the CCC each day and the writers (a conglomeration of converts, cradle Catholics, seminarians, singles, married, priests, everyday people) give their opinions and insights on the daily readings, and then of course the rest is up to us, the general public to add our 2 cents into the comments box. I encourage everyone to read along and make comments. If you're a Catholic, you should read it to enrich your faith and learn your beliefs; remember, you said you were Catholic, you agreed to ALL of its teachings. The readings are less than 10 paragraphs long, you can't say you don't have time for that. Don't have a personal copy or the money to buy one? No problem, the full version is on sites across the internet and the CCDB has links to some. If you're not Catholic, why not start learning about the largest religion on the globe? I'm not telling you what to believe, but we could all do with understanding each other a little better. Not a Catholic and don't want to read the Catechism passages each day? No problem, just read what the people are saying about it. I'm definitely adding CCDB to the blog roll in the sidebar as well as a button to the top of the sidebar. When they post the daily readings each week, I'll put a copy of that list in a post. So, for the first week ...

Sunday	APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION
Monday	I. The Life of Man - To Know and Love God (#1-3) II. Handing on the Faith: Catechesis (#4-10)
Tuesday	III. The Aim and Intended Readership of This Catechism (#11-12) IV. Structure of This Catechism(#13-17)
Wednesday	V. Practical Directions for Using This Catechism (#18-22) VI. Necessary Adaptations (#23-25)
Thursday	SECTION ONE: "I BELIEVE" - "WE BELIEVE" (#26) I. The Desire for God (#27-30)
Friday	II. Ways of Coming to Know God (#31-35) III. The Knowledge of God According to the Church (#36-38)
Saturday	IV. How Can We Speak about God? (#39-43) IN BRIEF (#44-49)

In other news, our good friend FD at College Catholic is posting again after his 46 day hiatus in order to keep with his lenten promises.

On Easter Sunday, my grandmother turned 71!

The best news of all is that along with the tens of thousand others across the U.S., we had 2 high schoolers join the Church this past Sat. I went home, so I unfortunately was not present, but our Youth Minister said they were so excited. I did hand-make rosaries for them to be from the our youth group. My source says that they had friends in attendance with them that aren't Catholic. After the newly confirmed opened their rosaries, they were excited to get them blessed by Fr. Joy. After their rosaries were blessed one of their friends pulled a rosary out of her pocket and asked the priest to bless it. Apparently, she had received the rosary from one of the girls being confirmed and carries it around with her all of the time. As they were leaving, the friends were excited and wanting to come to youth group. As I said, the friends aren't Catholic, and we are guessing that they might not even be churched at all. Aren't the youth wonderful? The Church belongs to them. They are out best evangelizers and sometimes it is just the simplest actions that draws them in and then once they are drawn in, they get themselves hooked.

The last news of course is that today is the 4th day in the Divine Mercy Novena. And again, we shall close with a prayer:

Most compassionate Jesus, You are the Light of the whole world. Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who do not believe in God and of those who as yet do not know You. Let the rays of Your grace enlighten them that they, too, together with us, may extol Your wonderful mercy; and do not let them escape from the abode which is Your Most Compassionate Heart.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls of those who do not believe in You, and of those who as yet do not know You, but who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Draw them to the light of the Gospel. These souls do not know what great happiness it is to love You. Grant that they, too, may extol the generosity of Your mercy for endless ages. Amen.

Paix du Christ!