FIRE Committee's Embers

Embers April 2025

April 10, 2025

As we experience the Easter Triduum and celebrate Easter Sunday (April 20), we propose the theme for this month to be Sacrificing for the Unity of the Church. We suggest meditating on John 17, Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper, where Jesus said, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” We also suggest offering sacrifices during this time for unity in the Church and reading Lumen Gentium.

The Feast of the Sorrows of the Blessed Mother (April 11) is celebrated the Friday before Palm Sunday. Our Lady of Kibeho asked us to pray the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows on Tuesday and Friday. St. Gemma Galgani (April 11), who was miraculously cured of spinal tuberculosis, experienced the stigmata on her hands and feet from 1899 to 1903 beginning Thursday evening until Friday at 3:00 PM. The Diary of Saint Gemma is available through Sophia Institute Press.

There are saints this month who worked for unity during their lives, including St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. (April 5) who worked to unify the Church during the Western Schism of the 14th century and St. Catherine of Siena (April 29), a Doctor of the Church, who also worked to return the Pope to Rome during this same period when three men claimed the papacy. We suggest Saint Catherine of Siena: Mystic of Fire, Preacher of Freedom by Paul Murray, O.P.

The CMA ZOOM Prayer Group will meet Sat. April 12 at 2:00 PM EDT. Come pray with us! Here is the link.

It is not too late to register for the Catholic Men Physicians’ Retreat May 1 – 4, 2025 at the beautiful Bethany Retreat House outside of Nashville. The topic is Growing in a Mature Prayer Life with Father Christopher Kubat as retreat master. To register contact [email protected].

Registration for the CMA’s 94th Annual Educational Conference, Tradition – Ever Ancient, Ever New will soon be open! Please plan to join us Sept. 4 – 6, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The 13th Annual Sacred Liturgy Conference will take place June 24 – 27 with the theme Manna From Heaven: The Bread of Life in the Eucharist, hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Western Province in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon. Find more information here.

Divine Mercy Sunday (April 27) offers another chance for a plenary indulgence as explained by EWTN. It also is the day that Blessed Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint, will be canonized. He has great appeal to young people in this high-tech age and EWTN is featuring several programs on his life.

Lastly, we suggest the book by Michael Gaitley, M.I.C. entitled, The Second Greatest Story Ever Told: Now is the Time of Mercy and the book, A Song for Nagasaki by Paul Glynn, S.M. which is presented on Hallow’s Pray 40 during Lent.