Please pray for the dioceses of Penonomé and Chitré, whose churches were damaged by the earthquake in Panama, leaving many people homeless, mostly farmers. Thankfully, there were no fatalities.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/09/panama-earthquake

Patroness of Brazil. Pray for us.

Just wanted to share a good thing that happened to me. In short I was feeling kinda down and was about to have a long night driving. I stopped by the gas station for some coffee and privately thought: “When in doubt, I’ve got God and coffee.”

The cashier proceeded to give me the coffee for free.

Thank God for coffee and all the other small blessings that go over my head.

Gran Turismo 4 included a 1:1 street circuit in Assisi: Città di Aria.
Driving this in reverse you will see Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore, the resting place of our beloved (unofficial patron of video games) St. Carlo.

There could be a chance this was one of the games he once played, it being one of the best selling games in 2005

Our Lady of the Pillar

Our Lady of the Pillar appeared to St. James at Zaragoza in 40 AD, the first recorded Marian apparition. She is patroness of Spain and the Hispanic world.

This feast commemorates the tradition that on October 12, 40 AD, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the Apostle St. James the Greater on the banks of the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) in Spain.

Mary, who was still living in Jerusalem, appeared standing on a pillar of jasper, carried by angels, and asked James to build a church on the spot. This apparition is considered the first recorded Marian apparition in history.

The Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza has been one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Spain for nearly two millennia. Our Lady of the Pillar is the patroness of Spain and of the Hispanic world.

Here are 5 things he is best known for:

Love for the Eucharist — He called the Eucharist his “highway to heaven” and attended Mass frequently.

The Eucharistic miracles exhibition — He created a website cataloguing Eucharistic miracles from around the world.

A young saint — He was born in 1991 and died in 2006 at just 15 years old.

Using technology for God — He used his computer skills to evangelize and help others learn about Jesus.

A saint for young people — He showed that holiness is possible in everyday life, even for young people who love computers, games, and the internet.

He was canonized on 7 September 2025 by Pope Leo XIV.

Our Lady of the Pillar (Spanish: Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is the name given to the Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD 40 while he was preaching in what is now Spain. Those who adhere to this belief consider this appearance to be the only recorded instance of Mary exhibiting the mystical phenomenon of bilocation. Among Catholics, it is also considered the first Marian apparition, and unique because it happened while Mary was still living on Earth.

This title is also associated with a wooden image commemorating the apparition, which is now enshrined at the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. Pope Callixtus III granted indulgences for visitors to the shrine in 1456. Pope Innocent XIII in 1730 mandated her veneration throughout the Spanish Empire. On 20 May 1905, Pope Pius X granted the image a canonical coronation.

Our Lady of the Pillar is considered the Patroness of Aragon and its capital Zaragoza, Hispanic people, the Hispanic world, and of the Spanish Civil Guard. Her feast day is 12 October, which coincides with the National Day of Spain.

Hi y’all. In the spirit of “pray for thy enemies” and “honor the dignity of human life,” and not making violence normalized, I’d like to pray the rosary during the live stream of the Fort Hood shooter’s execution.

Does anyone know if a live stream Rosary is being organized for that same time, to maximize the impact? I don’t think I should organize one just from my prayer corner, but if no organization steps up I will 😮‍💨

The news lately has been filling me with sadness. The public execution news is making me sick. How can we as Catholic’s stay positive even when negative news is going on the world. Do we block it out? Just pray? Talk to others? I’m scared for the world’s future.

I converted from being a Methodist, and after a lot of deep study and prayer, I decided to pursue Catholicism. I’m currently going through catechism. But to be completely honest, I am finding it so hard to stay motivated.

First, it is so antisocial. In Protestant churches I'm used to people actually talking to you, welcoming visitors, and hanging out. I made so many friends in my Methodist church.

At Catholic Mass, people roll in right as it starts, sit in total silence, and then sprint to their cars the second it ends. Nobody talks to anyone. Nobody even looks at anyone.

Second, the vibe from some cradle Catholics is exhausting. They can be downright mean to converts.It’s wild to me how much some cradle Catholics look down on converts, considering how many of them are completely lukewarm or barely practicing themselves. I've literally seen "vert" used as an insult. The word convert -- is an insult. Why would anyone want to convert to a religion where they're looked down on for not being born into it? What?

I used to always ask why Catholicism is dying out to Protestantism in places like Guatemala and Brazil but i think the answer is simple. Protestants are actually nice. They are nice and welcoming and they build a community and invite you into it.

In my experience, Catholics can be very unwelcoming, antisocial, and they look down on you.

That includes myself, so I am in good company. I don't know if its just me, but the local young adult community has a lot of single men and women. I am relatively new to the church, but I am used to most of my non-Catholic peers being in a relationship by now. And I don't think it is for the lack of trying, there are a lot of them trying to put themselves out there on dating apps (Including Catholic Match) and "Catholic Speed dating" events. A lot of them I am surprised are in their late 30s and early 40s and have never been in a serious relationship- there are so many of them that are genuinely charismatic, nice, funny, charming, and popular within the parish and the greater young adult community.

This isn't so much of a "rant" but more of something I have noticed and was wondering if this is something you have noticed as well? In other Christian denomination circles (Especially Evangelicals), there seem to be more people that are married with kids by the time they are 30. In the Catholic community, I notice more singles.

I find it odd how alot of Christian’s think Russia is this bastion of Christianity because the goverment imposes a level of social Christian morality I’ve talked to Russians and looked at statistics church attendance is lower, HIV rates are higher, the people themselves may be culturally Christian but don’t really practice it in reality the women and women are having premarital sex and living like people in the west. something that people gloss over is they think because the Russian goverment doesn’t allow some degeneracy that Russia is moral however Russias degeneracy is imperialism and a complete disregard for human life. I’ve cried over some videos of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers dying in the war it’s heartbreaking theres been news articles and videos on X showing people from Africa and Asia being offered jobs in Russia then they are forced to sign a military contract and are treated like cannon fodder ik there’s alot of propaganda on both sides but even Russian military channels know the death toll and disregard for human life it would be nice to see this satanic goverment fall and see Russia consecrated to the Virgin Mary as Russia has potential but instead it’s destroying itself physically and spiritually I saw this Canadian family going to Russia because Canada promoted LGBTQ yes that’s bad but what’s worse turn ur tv or your phone off of have your sons conscripted to the war just to be blown up by a drone within 30 minutes on the front and there’s instances where some people in rural Russia are individually forced to sign contracts against there will essentially forced conscription

12 October

Saint Carlo Acutis was an Italian teenager renowned for his devotion to the Eucharist and his work documenting Eucharistic miracles online. Born in 1991, he lived a deeply spiritual life, attending daily Mass and helping the poor. He used his computer skills to create a website cataloging Eucharistic miracles around the world. Carlo died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, was beatified in 2020 and canonised in 2025.

#catholic #faith #cathoplus #saint #saintoftheday

Hi! I posted a little while ago on here about my catholic friend inviting me (a protestant) to mass. I haven’t been able to go yet (he’s been out of town), we’ve been texting though and he really wants me to read the catechism, I went online thinking it would be easy to get at the library but it’s SO long and there’s so many different versions and I’m very confused, which is the official one and is it worth reading as a protestant? How long did it take yall to get through the whole thing? I’m obviously interested but also I’d honestly rather be reading other things than books on catholicism.

Hi,

I was confirmed at 17, didn’t attend church as an atheist until 34, and now have been going to church for the past few months. I have been willing and ready to turn my will and life over to Jesus…is it really that simple?
I really hope this isn’t a stupid question, because I’m asking earnestly as someone who apparently didn’t pay very much attention during CCD and Confirmation.
My “reservation” is feeling almost guilty that I can just give all my burdens and anxieties to the lord with no strings attached. I’m not used to relationships like that. I always assumed it was mostly our works as good people.
Set me right and my mind at ease on this please.

I recently read a post on someone who got a vasectomy and was feeling like he couldn't join the church because of it. Got me thinking on the matter. I would love someone's take who knows more then I do on the matter.

Contraceptives are not allowed in the church, but natural practices to prevent children are allowed. Even though the intentions are the exact same why is one allowed but not the other?

When I first converted I used to pray a long prayer thanking whoever cooked the food, all the steps on getting it to my table, and the animals and plants sacrificed. It got too long, wanting to pray for everyone, so I shortened it. Eventually I remembered St Benedict when given a glass of poisoned wine, and he made the sign of the cross, then the glass broke.

I started doing that, the sign of the cross on the food, so I can pray for any meal fast, so I spend less time on the meal. Useful when eating outside between classes or in work. But I've seen many people doing the sign of the cross on themselves, or even more people having a prayer.

I'm Curious about what anyone else does if they want to coment it.

Hello I am a Catholic convert that was originally born in a Muslim-majority country. I moved to a Western country about 20+ years ago as a child with my parents and converted earlier this year. We came legally, are working, and have integrated. My family both here and in the country that I was born in are secular, and I have had no issues with them knowing my faith.

With that said, I have become increasingly scared regarding the political situation. I am seeing many political parties and movements come up that are calling for mass deportations some of them connected to extreme movements and they specifically target those from Muslim countries. For the past while this has resulted in a lot of anxiety for me (I should mention that I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder). I am so worried about what will happen in the future. I have tried to unburden myself and leave my worries with the Lord as the Scripture tells us but my mind still keeps thinking. Similarly, Lord Jesus teaches us to focus on today’s troubles instead of worrying about the future…but my mind does not turn off. Needless to say I have not slept well and am becoming physically strained.

I keep thinking what would happen if a radical movement comes to power that strips my Citizenship and sends me to a country that, outside of birth and a few family members, I have little connection to (and I would lose my friends, living standards, my livelihood, and freedoms). I worry also because in my birth country conversion is not legal, so how would i practice my Faith and partake in the sacraments (I pray for all those in that situation, since my country of birth has many Christian converts ; though not many are Catholics ) and what if the authorities somehow find out. I am praying yet always worried. I am hoping some of my worries will be assuaged so I can rest easy.

I keep thinking of the courage St. Paul had as he wrote letters while he was imprisoned and likely knowing he would be executed. Similarly, St. Thomas More displayed immense strength by sticking with his Faith despite being imprisoned and later burned. I have not had anything even close to what these went through happen (and I truly pray I don’t suffer like they did because I don’t think I could withstand it), yet I am crumbling thinking of what might happen. I know one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit is courage, yet I am weak and trembling in constant fear even though many say the scenarios I think of are unlikely and nothing has happened. I am on edge all the time waiting for the other show to drop, with my mind constantly making up the worse possible scenarios. Please pray for me and please pray for others in the world who are anxious, overwhelmed, and those of our Faith in nations where they cannot easily/safely practice.

Firstly I want to apologize if this may be hard to read: I'm not very good at expressing myself, I could've used AI to optimize it but I decided it's better to try and do it on my own.

To begin, this is a three level question, and it's mainly intellectual. First, why I started believing in God, which began my search for who he is; secondly, why I think Christianity is the truth; third, why Catholicism specifically. The third reason makes all the others true as well, especially Vittorio Micheli's case which I'll cover at the very end. Thanks to this I have intellectual assent to Jesus' divinity, but probably could lack some passionate faith, which may make it worse as I know the truth and sometimes miss to act in accordance to it. But let's start now.

The first level is about why I believe God exists, it's scientific and philosophical, and it's three reasons: the fine tuning argument, consciousness being fundamental to the universe, and morality being objective. The first emphasizes how statistically almost impossible current cosmic circumstances are and how perfectly engineered for life they are. The counterargument is that there may be a multiverse and this type of universe should've come into existence at some point; the reply is what gave this multiverse these specific laws allowing universes like this? There is hardly any answer besides a law giver as God; secondly, how conscience should have no reason to exist, copies of us without experience could've easily developed, and there is no explanation for how matter produced experience, yet it exists; third, morality is objectively felt by everyone, which is weird since we are just random particles that happened to come together, which points to a law giver.

The second level relates to why I think Christianity is true, and there are two reasons: first, the fact that people genuinely experienced the resurrection, which can't be a fabricated tradition due to Paul mentioning it early on and personally naming witnesses of it which he personally met, and the second reason is the apparitions to Paul and James, who went from being anti Christian to being major figures in the religion, even paying a price for it, like James, whose martyrdom is independently attested by the non Christian Josephus; secondly, it can be noted how much of Jesus' life facts are to be found in the old testament, which mention a Messiah who is also an Everlasting God, that should be crucified and despised, and also the translation of the names of the genealogy of one of the starting chapters of the old testament make up a sentence mentioning an appointed mortal man who descends and by his death shall bring peace, mirroring Jesus, though some names are of less certain etymology but the bigger picture is this.

The third level is why I believe Catholicism to be the truth, and it's mainly about the miracles. The ones I found to resist skepticism are: the Lourdes miracles, where 72 scientifically unexplainable healings are attested (more on this later); four eucharistic miracles, namely the Buenos Aires' and Sokolka's one, where independent blind tests found actual human cardiac tissue, in agony, on a Mass's bread (DNA tests found low human trace but this could be because it was very degraded); India's two apparitions of Jesus' face on bread, one of which was thoroughly scientifically examined for possible ink or any contaminations and it resulted not to be the case; Padre Pio's stigmata, which was thoroughly examined by numerous doctors and they all agreed it passed all tests on counterfeiting; Charbel's body incorruptibility, which, even in bad conditions, stayed mostly intact for decades, defying every law of decomposition, just to decompose suddenly and very quickly after sanctification, which is a notable connection; the apparitions, like the Fatima one where there are thousands witnessing the sun miracles, and the Lourdes apparition, where a poor ignorant girl was guided to find a major subterranean spring that soon after would have the fame of being curative, and she refused any money from pilgrims, even though she was dirt poor, to show she wasn't lying for profit, she even became a nun which forbids lying and shows great faith; lastly, numerous scientifically saints' healings. The healing I find most compelling, though, is that of Vittorio Micheli, someone who had his hip bone so deteriorated that, if I remember correctly, most of it was gone due to an illness, couldn't even move, had to be transported on a stretcher, and suffered from anoressia and pains which made him took painkillers. But the moment he immersed himself in the Lourdes water, all the pain disappeared, he didn't need painkillers anymore, and his anorexia was gone, and he could move alone with sticks, and a few weeks after his bone began regenerating alone almost perfectly, something unprecedented in medical knowledge to this day. He was ill, and the moment he took the holy bath, coincidentally, everything changed. This can't be more clear of a miracle to me.

So these are all the main reasons I converted, and the one that flipped the intellectual question for me was Vittorio Micheli's case. Sorry for being too long.