Illuminated By Joy

Fantasy is a popular genre among teens, and I  know I love reading it. But honestly, a lot of modern fantasy out there is kind of mediocre or worse. I have read fantasy quite extensively and here are the best fantasy books with age recs.  Best All Round The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.  "In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Rin...

  Your prayers are very much needed for Archie Battersbee now. He is a twelve year old British boy with brain damage who has been unconscious since April 7th. The doctors at the hospital where he is at are going to take away his life support soon. His parents have tried to battle this decision in court but the UK supreme court refused to intervene Right now his parents are asking the  UN's Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to intervene. You can read more about it here:  From Catholic news agency Being pro life is not just about stopping abortion, but also about preserving innocent lives.  So please pray that Archie will not be denied the life support he needs and all chance of recovery. Particularly pray to St Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes!  God bless

 I believe - we say those words at each Mass, at the beginning of every rosary. In fact, we say that phrase frequently in everyday life: "I believe in you", "I believe in this cause", etc. But when we say "I believe" at the start of the Apostles' Creed what do we mean? It's not enough to simply believe that God exists, that Jesus Christ, His Son, died for us, that He established the Catholic Church.  We might superficially know this to be true, but not really believe .  This is where the theological virtues come in. Faith is believing in God and everything He promised and commanded, hope is acting on that belief in our lives, and charity is what makes it pleasing in God's sight.   When we say "I believe" we need to renew with our whole hearts, our faith, hope and charity. We need to believe with everything. Faith is nothing without hope, hope is nothing without charity.  It's easy to believe 2+2=4, we know that by logic, it's...

It's bound to happen-- you meet someone who's annoying, mean, dislikable, or difficult. Or even if they are nice, other people all have traits that we wish we could just magically disappear. It's just part of life. Even so, this can make us weary and want to stop treating them with compassion. Yet, Christ tells us:   "12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."   ~ John 15:12   This means that we must do our best to love these people as our brothers and sisters in Christ. But how can we? It seems like it's so impossible! St. Therese of Liseux must have felt the same way when she dealt with a particular nun who lived at the Carmel with her. The nun was always so annoying that St. Therese must have wanted to shout at her and correct her for her wrongs. But she didn't. Instead, Therese tried to treat the nun as her favorite and speak to her sweetly. And one day, that particularly annoying sister stopped Therese and asked her why...

  The other day, I came across a quote posted on a billboard somewhere. It is quite an old quote, but very relavent to teens today and I thought I would share.  Words for teenagers   Northland college principal John Tapene has offered the following words from a judge who regularly deals with youth.  "Always we hear the cry from teenagers 'what can we do, where can we go?' My answer is this: go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons, and after you've finished, read a book. Your town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun. The world does not owe you a living, you owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy, and talent so no one will be in war, in sickness, and lonely again. In other words, grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and develop a backbone not a wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are importan...

  Today, 97 years ago, a young man, aged only twenty four, lay on his deathbed. He was dying from polio, which he had contracted while helping the poor of Turin.  His family did not realize he was seriously ill until only a couple days before his death. This was because his grandmother had just died, and also because he did not complain of pain and was reluctant to draw attention to his own sufferings.  Finally, after enduring excruciating pain while paralyzed, Pier Giorgio Frassati died on the fourth of July 1925.  I cannot possibly describe how beautiful and holy his death was, I strongly advice reading the last chapter in Man of the Beatitudes by Pier Giorgio's sister, Luciana. You can borrow it for free on internet archive.  Americans will associate the fourth of July, with freedom and liberty. Well, I think it was an appropriate day for him to die on, because then, on the day of his death, he became truly free. Free from the sufferings he had borne, his own...

 After the reversal of Roe Vs Wade there has been some support, but it has been heavily criticized (understatement) for the most part.  The one thing that has come up most on the pro choice side, including sadly some Catholics, is this: the supreme court and all pro lifers are trying to curtail women's rights. They are trying to oppress women because they are bigoted tyrants.  I have a simple answer to that: why? Why would men and women want to take away a woman's right to have an abortion? Because they want to rebirth an oppressive patriarchy by making women give birth? That sounds unlikely.   Why would women want to go through the annoyance and pain of pregnancy and birth when they don't even want the baby? Why would men want to be induced to pay money for the child's upkeep when they don't want the baby? Honestly, why would someone want to stop abortion? If you think about it, there doesn't seem to be a practical reason for it. Certainly not for women, but al...

  We recently celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. The Church has always held the truth that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ, present under the appearances of bread and wine. Yet, the vast majority of Catholics don't really grasp the real meaning of what the Eucharist is.   There was a saint who was not like that. She was so determined to receive the Eucharist, that it took a miracle to convince those around her that she should. That saint was Bl. Imelda Lambertini.                                                          Bl. Imelda was born in the year 1322 to a wealthy family. She was very devout from a young age, and had a deep love for Jesus.   On her fifth birthday, Imelda began asking her parents many questions about the Eucharist. After she received her answers, she suddenly requested to ...