The Fellowship

✨ Looking for a little more peace in your weekly routine? ✨

✨ Vous voulez un peu plus de sérénité dans votre routine hebdomadaire ? ✨

Between work, family, and the constant noise of everyday life, finding time for quiet reflection can feel almost impossible. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and disconnected.

That’s exactly why I started my WordPress fellowship group, and I would love for you to join us! 🤍

Every week, I share short, encouraging personal devotionals designed to help us pause, root ourselves in God’s Word, and trade our anxiety for His peace. Best of all? It is 100% free to subscribe.

Our latest post is all about Philippians 4:6-7 and how God’s peace stands guard over our hearts when life gets loud. We’re already chatting in the comments and lifting each other up!

If you are looking for a welcoming, faith-filled space to grow your spiritual walk alongside a supportive community, we’d love to have you.

👉 Click the link below to read our latest devotional and subscribe for free so you never miss a week: HERE

Group Issue

For the last 48 hours, we experimented with an issue with our website; the cause could be our group-provided service. Now, we have a new group software, so we invite you to join us.

May the Lord remain with you,
in silence and in peace.

May your heart find rest in His presence,
and your path be guided gently through Mary.

In all things—
may you remain in Him,
as He remains in you.

This argument grounds open communion in the theology of grace, hospitality, and radical inclusion exemplified by Jesus and the early church.

The Eucharist, at its heart, is a celebration of God’s inclusive grace made manifest in Jesus Christ. The Last Supper was shared with a group that included doubters, deniers, and even betrayers, yet Jesus offered the bread and cup to all present. The apostle Paul teaches that in Christ, the barriers that once separated people, Jew and Greek, slave and free, are abolished (Galatians 3:28). The early Christian table was a place where all were welcomed, and divisions were overcome (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). Open communion embodies the radical hospitality of Jesus, who welcomed all to his table. Restricting the Eucharist to the baptized or to members of a particular denomination risks turning the sacrament of unity into a mark of exclusion. Instead, open communion testifies to the boundless reach of God’s grace, inviting all who hunger and thirst for righteousness to participate in Christ’s presence. In sharing the Eucharist openly, the church enacts the good news that reconciliation with God and one another is available to all, and that the table of Christ is never closed.

Please read the homily here: Why we choose the Open Communion

Fr. Ashley R. Deutschmann






May the Lord remain with you,
in silence and in peace.

May your heart find rest in His presence,
And your path be guided gently through Mary.

In all things—
may you remain in Him,
As He remains in you.

Friday 15:00

FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2026 | EASTER TRIDUUM
GOOD FRIDAY
YEARS ABC | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

          First Reading       Isaiah 52:13–53:12
          Response            Luke 23:46
          Psalm               Psalm 31:2, 6, 12–13, 15–17, 25
          Second Reading      Hebrews 4:14–16, 5:7–9
          Gospel Acclamation  Philippians 2:8–9
          Gospel              John 18:1–19:42

Anon. 2009. Catholic Daily Readings. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife.

Good Friday holds a sacred place in the hearts of Christians worldwide. It is a day that marks the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, a moment of profound sorrow, sacrifice, and ultimate love. While Easter Sunday is celebrated with joy and resurrection, Good Friday serves as a poignant reminder of the cost of salvation, the price paid for the forgiveness of humanity’s sins.

On this day, we reflect on the unimaginable suffering that Christ endured. His pain was not just physical but emotional and spiritual. Jesus willingly accepted the weight of our sins, taking them upon Himself. His death on the cross symbolizes the profound love of God for His people, a love that would stop at nothing, not even death, to restore humanity’s relationship with the Creator.

For many, Good Friday is a time for deep personal reflection. It is a moment to pause and contemplate the gravity of Christ’s sacrifice and its meaning for our lives today. Jesus’ willingness to endure the cross challenges us to think about our own lives and the sacrifices we are called to make in the name of love, compassion, and faith.

Though the day is dark, Good Friday is also a day of hope. The story does not end with death. Through the agony of the cross, a promise of redemption and eternal life was made. And as Christians, we are reminded that even in the darkest moments, God’s plan is still at work, bringing healing, renewal, and restoration.

As we reflect on Good Friday, it’s also an opportunity to renew our own commitments to live lives of greater kindness, humility, and faith. The challenge, as followers of Christ, is to mirror His love, His sacrifice, and His grace in our interactions with the world around us.

On this day of mourning and reflection, let us remember that the cross is not just a symbol of death, but also a symbol of victory, a victory over sin, over death, and over despair. And that victory is a gift we are called to share with others.

Annunciation to Holy Mary

The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary is a significant event in Christian tradition, especially in the context of the New Testament. It refers to the moment when the Archangel Gabriel visited Mary, a young woman betrothed to Joseph, in the town of Nazareth, and announced to her that she had been chosen by God to conceive and bear a child—Jesus, the Son of God.

Here’s a breakdown of the key points:

Biblical Account:

The Annunciation is recorded in the Gospel of Luke 1:26-38. In this passage, Gabriel appears to Mary and delivers the message that she will conceive a child through the Holy Spirit, despite being a virgin. This is a central moment in the Incarnation, where God becomes flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

  • Gabriel’s Greeting: Gabriel greets Mary with the words, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28). The phrase “full of grace” reflects Mary’s unique role in salvation history.
  • Mary’s Reaction: Mary is initially troubled by the angel’s words and wonders what the greeting means. Gabriel reassures her that she has found favor with God.
  • The Message: Gabriel tells Mary that she will conceive a son, whom she is to name Jesus. He further explains that this child will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. He will inherit the throne of David and reign over the house of Jacob forever.
  • Mary’s Question: Mary asks how this will be possible since she is a virgin. Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her, making the conception miraculous.
  • Mary’s Acceptance: Mary responds with faith, saying, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” This moment is seen as an act of humble obedience and trust in God’s will.

Theological Significance:

  1. Incarnation: The Annunciation marks the moment when the Word (Jesus) became flesh and began His earthly journey. It is the start of God’s plan for salvation through Jesus Christ.
  2. Mary’s Role: The event highlights Mary’s unique and pivotal role in God’s plan. In Catholic and Orthodox theology, she is often referred to as the Mother of God (Theotokos in Greek), emphasizing her role as the mother of Jesus, who is fully God and fully man.
  3. Faith and Obedience: Mary’s acceptance of God’s will is seen as a model of faith and obedience for all believers. Her “fiat” (Latin for “let it be done”) represents her surrender to God’s plan.

Feast of the Annunciation:

The feast celebrating the Annunciation is observed by Christians on March 25, exactly nine months before the celebration of Christmas (the birth of Jesus). In some traditions, it may be called the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord.

Artistic Depictions:

The Annunciation has been a popular subject in Christian art for centuries. Some of the most famous depictions include works by artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Angelico, Jan van Eyck, and Caravaggio. These artworks often show Gabriel’s visit to Mary, with a variety of interpretations that emphasize the divine and the human aspects of the encounter.

Mary’s Role in Other Traditions:

  • Catholicism: The Annunciation is a key event in Catholic Marian doctrine, and it is often connected to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (the belief that Mary was conceived without original sin), as she was seen as specially prepared to be the mother of the Savior.
  • Orthodoxy: In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Annunciation is celebrated as a major feast and is deeply venerated, emphasizing the mystery of the Incarnation.
  • Protestantism: While Protestants acknowledge the Annunciation as an important event in the life of Mary and the life of Jesus, they tend to emphasize the event in terms of Jesus’ divine mission rather than Mary’s unique role.

Symbolism:

  • Light and Darkness: In many depictions, the angel is seen bringing light into the darkness of Mary’s home, symbolizing the coming of the Messiah as the “light of the world.”
  • Humility: Mary’s humility is often symbolized in the way she is depicted—modestly clothed, sometimes kneeling, in an attitude of prayer or acceptance.
  • Dove: The dove, representing the Holy Spirit, is often seen in Annunciation scenes, underscoring the miraculous nature of Jesus’ conception.

The Annunciation is a deeply meaningful moment in Christian theology, as it encapsulates the moment when God’s plan for salvation is revealed and set into motion through the cooperation of Mary’s yes

With joy and reverence, our Franciscan Members of the Third Order of the Immaculate unite on the Feast of the Annunciation to commemorate the angelic message to Mary that she would become the mother of Jesus. Each year, we honour this sacred day with a special prayer service that reflects on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s humility, faith, and acceptance of God’s will.

  • Recitation of the Rosary, focusing on the mysteries of the Annunciation
  • A reading of the Gospel passage recounting the Angel’s visit to Mary
  • Reflections and sharing on Mary’s example of trust and obedience
  • Singing hymns dedicated to Mary
  • Offering flowers at a Marian altar as a sign of our love and devotion

We warmly invite every member of our community to attend this celebration. Join us to participate in the prayer service and activities, honour the Annunciation, and seek Mary’s intercession for grace and guidance in our lives.

March 19, Feast of St Joseph

Introductory Tribute for my Mother Irène

On this day, March 19th, the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Joseph, spouse of Mary and earthly father of Jesus. This year, this date holds an even deeper meaning for me: it is also my mother, Irène’s, 96th birthday. Like Saint Joseph—a discreet but essential figure in the Gospel—my mother has shaped my life with her quiet strength, unwavering love, and deep faith. Both, in their own way, embody devotion, humility, and perseverance—qualities that may not always appear in grand narratives, yet silently transform the world around them.

While we know little about Saint Joseph from the Scriptures, tradition and other sources enrich his portrait: protector, worker, a man of trust and faith. Today, in honour of Saint Joseph, I also give thanks for my mother, Irène, whose life is a living example of these virtues. May this dual tribute inspire us to recognize the strength of daily gestures and the hidden greatness found in silent fidelity.


What Do We Know about St. Joseph?

Although the canonical Gospels offer only a few glimpses into the life of St. Joseph, tradition and other sources have sought to fill in the gaps about this remarkable figure.

From the Scriptures:

  • St. Joseph is described as a “just” or “righteous” man (Matthew 1:19).
  • He was a carpenter or skilled craftsman (Matthew 13:55), sometimes translated as “tekton,” which could mean builder or general contractor.
  • He is presented as Mary’s spouse and the earthly guardian of Jesus.
  • Joseph receives guidance in dreams (Matthew 1–2), showing his openness to God’s will.
  • He protects his family by fleeing to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath.

From the Apocrypha:

  • Several apocryphal texts, such as the Protoevangelium of James (2nd century), the Gospel of the Infancy, and others, offer additional (though non-canonical) stories about Joseph’s life and relationship to Mary and Jesus.
  • In these texts, Joseph is sometimes depicted as an older widower, chosen by divine sign to be Mary’s husband.
  • They portray Joseph as humble, protective, and deeply reverent toward the mystery of Christ’s birth.

From Tradition and Documentaries:

  • Over the centuries, devotion to St. Joseph has grown, especially as a model for fathers, workers, and those who serve quietly behind the scenes.
  • Modern documentaries and Catholic scholarship often emphasize his role as a protector, provider, and man of faith, highlighting the dignity of ordinary work and family life.
  • St. Joseph is also the patron of the universal Church, a title bestowed by Pope Pius IX in 1870.

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2026 | SOLEMNITY
JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF MARY
YEARS ABC | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

          First Reading           2 Samuel 7:4–5a, 12–14a, 16
          Response                Psalm 89:37
          Psalm                   Psalm 89:2–5, 27, 29
          Second Reading          Romans 4:13, 16–18, 22
          Gospel Acclamation      Psalm 84:5
          Gospel                  Matthew 1:16, 18–21, 24a or Luke 2:41–51a

Anon. 2009. Catholic Daily Readings. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife.

.

Miracles and Faith

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The 14 Commandments

01. The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is found in Matthew 22:37, where Jesus identifies it as the foundation of all biblical law.

02. “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31) is the second greatest commandment, calling for selfless, compassionate care for others equivalent to the care one gives themselves. Originating in Leviticus 19:18, it means treating others with kindness, dignity, and grace, often interpreted as the Golden Rule: treating others as you would want to be treated.

03. I am the Lord thy God. You shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

04. Remember the Sunday and keep it holy. Observe the Sunday day and keep it holy.

05. Honour your father and your mother.

06. You shall not commit murder. The reasons for going to war must be defensive, with the ultimate goal being peace and a reasonable chance of success. War should not produce evils greater than those it seeks to eliminate. It is forbidden to use weapons to destroy entire cities or regions with their inhabitants. Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and cared for. Soldiers must disobey orders to commit genocide, and those who violate universal principles are accountable.

07. You shall not commit adultery. Men and women are, by divine design, different and complementary, each with equal dignity and made in the image of God. Sexual acts are sacred. Sexual sins violate not only the body but the whole person. Rape is an evil act that can cause lifelong harm to the victim. The rape of children by parents, relatives, or those responsible for their care or education is considered the most serious of sexual sins.

08. You shall not steal.

09. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. False witness and perjury: statements made in court that obstruct justice by condemning the innocent, exonerating the guilty, or increasing the punishment of the accused. Rash judgment: believing someone is guilty of moral faults without enough evidence. Detraction: revealing another person’s faults without a valid reason. Calumny: lying to harm someone’s reputation and enabling others to make false judgments about them. Flattery: speech meant to deceive others for one’s own benefit. Bragging, boasting, or mocking: speech that only honours oneself or dishonours others.

10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not desire your neighbour’s house, wife, animals, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. Envy is wanting what belongs to someone else, an attitude that fills us with sadness at another’s good fortune.

11. Obedience and honour are due to all who have received authority in society for our good, as given by God.

12. Charity is necessary for any family or society to function. It is the greatest social commandment and requires people to love God and their neighbour. Greed is the desire for more than one needs.

13. Families are expected to help other families.

14. Parents are responsible for the moral education, spiritual formation, and evangelization of their children. Children should be respected as children of God and as human beings. Parents must be good examples for their children.

PODCAST OF 2021-05 NEOTIC PRAYER

✠ Christus Universalis

Welcome to the Podcast of The Notre Dame Monotheism Catholic Ministry

Hello! My name is Ava, and I’m your host for this podcast of Eric Michel Ministries International.

This podcast is the number 21005

We are incredibly blessed and encouraged by the emails we receive every day from our listeners. We want to share some of those with you to show the tremendous impact of monotheistic Christian theology, philosophy, and morality, and the beautiful ways Christ works. Thank you for giving our ministry the chance to broadcast the Monotheism Christian Podcast free throughout the world!

The Notre Dame Monotheism Catholic Ministry sponsor this podcast.

Today’s topic: Prayers

The power of the universe is further strengthened when prayers are made as a Noetic Prayer,

The Noetic Prayer connects us with the Noosphere.

The way is that the brain connects to consciousness, and consciousness to the Cosmic Christ.

“Experiments at facilities like the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab had categorically proven that human thought can affect and change physical mass if properly focused. Their experiments were no “spoon-bending” parlour tricks but instead highly controlled inquiries that all produced the same extraordinary result: our thoughts interacted with the physical world, whether or not we knew it, affecting change down to the subatomic realm.

Not known in the Christian world, but widely used by the Orthodox Churches.

Christian contemplation refers to several Christian practices which aim at “looking at”, “gazing at”, “being aware of” God or the Divine. It includes several methods and theological concepts. Until the sixth century, the practice now called mysticism was referred to as contemplation.

Christianity adopted both Greek (theoria) and Latin (contemplatio) terminology to describe various forms of prayer and the process of coming to know God. Eastern and Western traditions of Christianity grew apart as they incorporated the general notion of contemplation into their respective teachings.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “the Christian tradition comprises three major expressions of the life of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. They have in common the recollection of the heart.” Three stages are discerned in contemplative practice, namely purgative contemplation, contemplation proper, and the vision of God.

Contemplative or mystical practice is a longstanding and integral part of the life of Christian churches. In the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the predominant form is hesychasm (“stillness”). In both Eastern and Western Christianity, it is part of mystical practices.

In discursive meditation, the mind, imagination and other faculties are actively employed to understand our relationship with God. In contemplative prayer, this activity is curtailed, so contemplation has been described as “a gaze of faith” and “a silent love”. There is no clear-cut boundary between Christian meditation and Christian contemplation, and they sometimes overlap. Meditation serves as a foundation on which the contemplative life stands, the practice by which someone begins the state of contemplation.

John of the Cross described the difference between discursive meditation and contemplation by saying:

The difference between these two conditions of the soul is like the difference between working and the enjoyment of the fruit of our work; between receiving a gift and profiting by it; between the toil of travelling and the rest of our journey’s end”.

In the Orthodox Churches, noetic prayer is the first stage of contemplation.

Theoria proper is the vision of God, which is beyond conceptual knowledge, like the difference between reading about the experience of another and reading about one’s own experience.

Natural or acquired contemplation has been compared to the attitude of a mother watching over the cradle of her child: she thinks lovingly of the child without reflection and amid interruptions. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers: ‘Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.’ Contemplative prayer seeks him whom my soul loves. It is Christ because to desire him is always the beginning of love, and we seek him in that pure faith that causes us to be born of him and to live in him. In this inner prayer, we can still meditate, but our attention is fixed on the Lord himself.

Contemplation equals illumination

The Buddha, the Enlightened One, taught a spiritual path that included ethical training and meditative practices such as jhana and mindfulness.
He achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, called “The Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception.” Understanding meditation is the path to awakening,

Fifteen Carmelite nuns allowed scientists to scan their brains with fMRI while meditating in a state known as Unio Mystica. The results showed the brain regions that were activated when they considered themselves to be in mystical union with God.

In philosophy, noetic is a branch of metaphysics concerned with the study of the mind and intellect. There is also a reference to the science of noetics, which encompasses the fields of thinking and knowing, thought and knowledge, mental operations, processes, states, and products, as evidenced by the data of the written word.

Perfect prayer is noetic and at the same time of the heart. The mind prays within the heart, which is the centre of our existence. Thus the whole person, from their innermost self and their centre, prays, fulfilling the injunction of God: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbour as yourself. The whole person is offered to God.

Prayer Request

EMMI Christian Prayers are in a noetic way. When you request prayer for yourself, your family, or your friends, we meditate on your request and transmit it in a noetic fashion.

Several authors who write about consciousness, spirituality, and cosmology have employed the term ” noetic. The Institute of Noetic Sciences proposes noetic sciences as an alternative theory of “how beliefs, thoughts, and intentions affect the physical world.”

Some, such as IONS, claim that Noetics is a form of science. However, noetics have been harshly panned by the scientific community. They have been criticized for not first experimenting in the generally accepted manner and analyzing data afterward, and for equating correlation with human emotions/experiences and with falsifiable evidence.

The scientific literature on consciousness consists of studies that examine the relationship between subjects’ experiences and the activity that simultaneously occurs in their brains, that is, the neural correlates of consciousness. The hope is to find that activity in a particular part of the brain or in a specific global brain activity pattern that is strongly predictive of conscious awareness. Several brain imaging techniques, such as EEG and fMRI, have been used to measure physical brain activity in these studies.

Another idea that has drawn attention for several decades is that consciousness is associated with high-frequency (gamma band) oscillations in brain activity. This idea arose from proposals in the 1980s by Christof von der Malsburg and Wolf Singer that gamma oscillations could solve the so-called binding problem by linking information represented in different parts of the brain to a unified experience.

The Noosphere is a philosophical concept developed and popularized by the biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky and the French philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Vernadsky defined the Noosphere as the new state of the biosphere and described it as the planetary “sphere of reason”. The Noosphere represents the highest stage of biospheric development, its defining factor being the development of humankind’s rational activities.

Teilhard perceived directionality in evolution along an axis of increasing complexity consciousness. For Teilhard, the Noosphere is the sphere of thought encircling the earth that has emerged through evolution due to this growth in complexity/consciousness.

Therefore, the Noosphere is as much a part of nature as the barysphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.

Teilhard sees the “social phenomenon as the culmination of and not the attenuation of the biological phenomenon.” These social phenomena are part of the Noosphere and include, for example, legal, educational, religious, research, industrial and technological systems. In this sense, the Noosphere emerges through and is constituted by the interaction of human minds. The Noosphere thus grows in step with the human mass organization, concerning itself as it populates the earth. Teilhard argued that the Noosphere evolves towards ever greater personalization, individuation and unification of its elements. He saw the Christian notion of love as being the principal driver of noogenesis. Evolution would culminate in the Omega Point, an apex of thought/consciousness, which he identified with the eschatological return of Christ.

When I pray, I’m in tune with the universe to access the noosphere plane, the metaphysical place that resides the Cosmic Christ.

text adapted from wikipedia.org by the Archbishop Eric Michel

Amen

On that, we wish you good mental health and God Bless!

The Eric Michel Ministries International is located at 78 George Street, Unit 204, in Ottawa, Ontario. The postal code is K1N 5W1.

© 2021 Eric Michel Ministries International. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this media may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without Eric Michel Ministries International’s written permission.

✠ Christus Universalis