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Ambria Hammel, Joyce Coronel and I will be covering the Phoenix rally for religious liberty today in Phoenix. I’ll be trying to report using “Cover It Live” Click Here, on www.blogtcs.com.

More information about the event.:

Phoenix Rally for Religious Freedom will be held: Noon-1 p.m., March 23
Sandra Day O’Connor Federal Building East Plaza, 401 W. Washington Street
Details: Phoenix@StandUpFor
ReligousFreedom.com
Map: http://g.co/maps/j8rbz

See our advance story here: Pro-lifers ready to rally for religious freedom in ongoing HHS mandate debacle

You know what has made headlines in our paper and social media feeds in recent weeks. Here’s what made headlines in The Catholic Sun‘s earlier days:

March 1997 (15 years ago)

• (front page) Bishop appoints pastor for Flagstaff. San Francisco de Asís Parish consolidated three churches and the Holy Trinity Newman Center. See what the parish is doing today.
• (Catholic News Service) National abortion supporter admits lying
• 

  The old Catholic Sun logo

  Sisters’ home condemned. The Maricopa County Flood Control District condemned the home of the Sisters of St. Benedict on West Indian School Road. The sisters offered daycare and a chapel there. They also served as foster parents for Catholic Charities. Check out their current property. It offers individual and group retreats, Mass and a thrift store.

• Flagstaff Catholic earns title of Citizen of the Year. Funny how some headlines can repeat themselves. Barbara Packard earned the title this year, largely due to her volunteer role at St. Vincent de Paul’s thrift store, and her husband earned it last year. Before that: Deacon Doug. Here’s the article.
• A vision for the future: Pastoral plan to guide diocese into year 2000
• Pope gets gift: ‘Finally, a new car!’ The semi-convertible included two chrome papal seals, two phones, an intercom and a small painting of Mary
• Two religious with Valley connection take monastic vows. A Tongan man active at St. Theresa and a female lector at St. Timothy both were scheduled to take triennial vows in the coming weeks at Holy Trinity Monastery in St. David, AZ.

March 1992 (20 years ago)

• Short article on St. Matthew parishioners moving from parishioner home to parishioner home for its weekly Stations of the Cross.
• (front page) St. Mary’s nears the finish for home-court advantage. The volunteer-built gym was expected to open April 1 after the school moved to that location in 1988.
• p.6 reports on the first diocesan spelling bee. Melissa Cox from St. Catherine of Siena won. Her final word: perspiration. There was also a student speech contest among 149 seventh and eighth-graders from nine elementary schools. They competed in “original oratory,” “humorous interpretation” and “serious interpretation” categories.
• (Catholic News Service) Pope looks for married couple to canonize

An excerpt from the front page of a recent school newsletter that’s worth reading. It’s written by Preston Colao, principal at Bl. Pope John XXIII School in Scottsdale:

As many of you know, our students regularly attend Adoration in the St. Bernadette’s Chapel. Their teachers bring them over to the chapel to pray as a group at scheduled times throughout the week. After weeks and months of attending Adoration, some 3rd grade students noticed that whenever they went to the Chapel, the same woman was there with them. She never said anything to them, just a quiet smile each day as they entered and left the Chapel.

The school's third-grade students know the fruits of some of their prayer.

Perceptive as 3rd graders are however, many of the students were quick to mention to their teacher how sad she looked each time they saw her. In an effort to try and help “fix” the sadness, the class overwhelming asked their teacher if they could make cards for her wishing her well and telling her that she would be in their prayers.

The next week, as the students entered the Chapel, there was the woman again. Sitting quietly and looking no different than she had in the past, she smiled as they appeared in the doorway. As they entered the Chapel on this day, each student quietly gave her their cards before they took their seat. No words were exchanged between the students and the woman as she accepted the cards filled with the many warm regards and cheerful pictures of each student, but something in her demeanor changed.

You never know who is praying for you. St. Bernadette Parish established perpeutual adoration in 2009. Catholic Sun file photo

A few days later, we found out from a member of the Parish that the woman shared that she had been attending Adoration regularly to pray for her young grandson who had fallen ill, had been hospitalized, and who doctors did not have much hope for surviving. She went to the Chapel regularly looking for a sign, asking for help, and hoping to find a reason for all of this suffering. Just days after receiving the cards from our 3rd graders, her grandson was recovering!    He was soon to leave the hospital after a very long stay and appeared to be on the road to recovery. She adamantly declared that it was the prayers of those children and the purity of their wishes that was heard by God and helped to save her grandson.

Nothing has changed for our 3rd graders. They still attend Adoration. They still see the same woman there regularly. There still remains an unspoken bond between them and her. But lives have been changed! Things will be eternally different!

I heard a “For Your Marriage” commercial on Immaculate Heart Radio the other day. Apparently it’s part of a series of radio and television public service announcements for the campaign, which is an initiative of the U.S. Bishops’ Office.

An initiative of the U.S. Bishops

If you haven’t heard or seen them yet, you have time. They’re being released in three waves over the next year (700 TV stations and 1,200 radio stations nationwide), although I can’t tell when the waves began. All address the theme: “A good marriage goes a long way.”

As far as the radio spots go, the 30-second and 60-second spots will be aired through September 2014. So I’m thinking the “Marriage takes teamwork” spot I heard was among the earlier clips released.

I enjoyed the production value and comments on the 60-second clip. It asks people their thoughts on marriage and specifically has them compare it to a sport. It wasn’t until halfway through that someone said “ping-pong” followed immediately “doubles tennis.” To me, those would be the only acceptable answers.

Some comparisons to consider:

• (A weaker metaphor) It can be a singles match, but you’re still working toward the unified goal of keeping the ball  in play.
• It can be a doubles match, but you act as one — success or failure.
• 

  A Xavier athlete during the 2011 state tournament. Tennis, like a marriage, is about teamwork and running around like crazy to fulfill your responsibility.

  It can be a doubles match where each spouse takes turns in the lead position as server. Plus, you run around like crazy trying to keep the ball in play (in tennis) and your affairs in order (marriage, home, job, kids, etc), but you always return to your home spot.

• Even if you’re losing on the scoreboard (perhaps compared to struggling financially in a marriage or have lost other material possessions), you still have “love.”
• Form isn’t so much important as long as the ball makes it over the net and within boundaries (or the responsibility is adequately taken care of).
• Unusual scoring. What other sport uses such a funny counting system in which the score between teams is either a difference of 15 or 10? Now, this perspective is coming from a never-been-married writer, but there has to be some comparison to make. Perhaps it’s that the first period of marriage takes the longest to get settled financially/start a family, etc. and then couples coast through later years?

 Learn more about the radio and TV spots and explore the marriage website. It offers resources in the following sections:

• Dating and engaged
• Parenting and family (including articles on being the caregiver, raising a special needs child and in-laws)
• For every marriage
• Resource center
• About Catholic marriages

For more about the “For Your Marriage” campaign, contact the Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:
(202) 541-3040 or email marriage@usccb.org

Michael John Poirier spoke and sung at the Feb. 25 Men’s Conference, and I haven’t been able to get his powerful words and voice and song out of my mind. He shared with the 1,800 men gathered there his latest song, “My Brother in Christ.” It’s awesome. He’s planning on recording that soon. You should check out his website, prayerbreaks.org, to learn how to make time for Christ in your everyday life.

Poirier also performed late last year at a benefit concert for Iraqi Christians living in the Phoenix Diocese. Joyce Coronel, who organized the concert, wrote to the story. Read it here.