AND AMAZING GRACE

The church will become small

2012-03-07T08:02:00.001-08:00

Catholic church in Colonia, Uruguay
The church will become small

CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER

The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.

She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes . . . she will lose many of her social privileges. . . As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members....
It will be hard-going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek . . . The process will be long and wearisome as was the road from the false progressivism on the eve of the French Revolution — when a bishop might be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even insinuated that the existence of God was by no means certain . . . But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.
And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man's home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.

Sky View: Letter of ’71

2012-03-01T08:13:00.001-08:00

Sky View: Letter of ’71

The Letter of ’71: Abridged and revised (For new Sky View readers)

According to Archbishop Charles Chaput in Render Unto Caesar, in 1970 Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, asserted that the fallout of the Sexual Revolution was nothing that we have seen before. And in response to the precipitous decline in priestly and religious vocations he said that “the city of man is beginning to strike terror in our heart…the Church is becoming extinguished in men’s souls and Christian communities are crumbling.”

Approximately a year later, in 1971, Sister Lucia, one of three seers of the Marian apparitions at Fatima, wrote a letter to her nephew, Valinho, who was a Catholic priest. It could be argued that this letter was one of the most important letters written in the twentieth century. Contained in this letter was her diagnosis as to why “the Church is becoming extinguished in men’s souls.”

To begin with, Father Valinho was equally distressed over the turmoil and the disorientation of the late sixties and early seventies. His concern was validated by Sister Lucia when she wrote, “It is indeed sad that so many are allowing themselves to be dominated by the diabolical wave that is enveloping the world, and they are so blind that they cannot see their error.” To be sure, this “diabolical wave” had been boiling underneath the surface for several decades.

Leading up to the early 1960’s, the Catholic Church had every reason to be optimistic about her future. Indeed, during the forties and fifties vocations and church attendance were on the rise. In addition, Church membership in America had nearly doubled in size. However, what Catholics did not see coming- including many of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council when it opened in 1962 -was that the Culture of Death would overflow from the concentration camps of the Third Reich and the gulags of the Soviet Union to the youth, entertainment industry and universities in the West. The spirit of anti-Catholicism was far from dead.

It would seem that this came as no surprise to Sister Lucia. With regard to the abrupt surge of secularism in the world she said, “…the principal error is that they have abandoned prayer.” But it is not only the world that had abandoned prayer. She indicated that the trend was also in the Church. “I am convinced,” Lucia said, “that the principal cause of evil in the world and the falling away of so many consecrated souls is the lack of union with God in prayer. The devil our weak points we will fall, our times are very bad and we are weak.” Quite often we forget that the Church is the Mother of humanity; and what a mother does, children also do. With this, the devil exploited the spiritual neglect of Catholics to great effect.

Sister Lucia reminds Fr. Valinho that when people turn away from God in prayer “everything is lacking to them.” Christ reminds us that we can do nothing without him. This is why, according to the Fatima seer, we must draw close to the Tabernacle and pray fervently.

She said there are two practical advantages of prayer: First, we receive “more light, more strength, more grace and virtue than you could ever achieve by reading many books, or by great studies.” And second, Sr. Lucia told her nephew that “you will accomplish a lot in a short period of time.” The lesson she learned from Our Lady of Fatima was that we should “let time be lacking for everything else but never for prayer!” Psalm 127 says it best: "Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build."

Sr. Lucia said that especially for those in spiritual authority they need “to keep close to God and to tell Him about all their affairs and all their problems before they discuss them with human beings.” That’s right! Treat God as a best friend- the most important person in your life –by consulting with Him before seeking the counsel of anyone else.

Perhaps in colleges and seminaries too much emphasis was placed on scholarly books rather than holiness as a source of knowledge; or in parishes, perhaps too much was made of meetings and planning and not enough on spiritual exercises; or among the clergy, maybe their administrative function was given more importance than preaching the Gospel and forming souls. This could be why Sr. Lucia cautioned Fr. Valinho that a Christian without prayer is like a “hollow and split reed.” Indeed, in the absence of robust spiritual activity ministry is just another process and mission gets bogged down with planning.

With that said the letter does conclude with a positive and affirming note: “See that you take everything with calmness and with great confidence in God. He will do for us what we cannot do ourselves. He will supply for our insufficiencies.”

What can be said for the individual can also be said for the Church. Whatever insufficiencies we have as a collective body of believers, God can make up the difference. But he can only do what we cannot do for ourselves if we regularly turn to him in prayer. As such, in a short time, the Lord is sure to compensate for what has been lost in the last fifty years.

Sky View: To Question a President’s Christian Identity

2012-02-23T08:39:00.003-08:00

Sky View: To Question a President’s Christian Identity

"To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the end to the rejection of all religion in both theory and practice."

Pope Leo XIII, On the Constitution of States

The public, some politicians and some members of the media have questioned if President Barak Obama is really a Christian. Recently, the media- both Left and to an extent, the Right –sees to it that anyone who is bold enough to question Mr. Obama’s Christian identity is publicly disgraced. Thus far, Senator Rick Santorum has come close to making the charge that Obama is not a Christian by questioning his “phony theology.” However, because of the heat of media pressure, he has politely given the president the benefit of the doubt.

It should be noted, however, that at no time in history has the confusion of what a Christian really means been as prevalent as it is today. Not only do people not know what a follower of Christ is supposed to believe and how he is supposed to be behave, but it is deemed socially and politically inappropriate to give a fixed definition of what a Christian really is. And according to conventional wisdom, it is even more inappropriate to question a person’s Christian identity. Indeed, proponents of secular-liberalism have exploited the weakness of today’s Christianity by mounting public pressure on anyone who questions their religious fidelity or patriotism. And Christians, by and large, have acquiesced to this pressure. They have been silenced; not by edict but through the daily threat of ridicule.

But what exactly is the weakness of today’s Christianity? Well, for starters, Protestant Christianity has been splintering and multiplying into thousands of different denominations since the founding of this country. After the persecution and intolerance of certain churches in 18th century America, it became, over the years, a taboo to criticize others on matters of creed. In the name of tolerance there came a reluctance for any church to proclaim, “We’re right and you’re wrong.” With this arose a growing trend that favored religious relativism (and eventually moral relativism). Indeed, all churches and even Christians came to be deemed more or less good.

Secondly, the Catholic Church did a stellar job of avoiding this kind of relativism for about two hundred years in America. She did not shy away from declaring her God-given superiority as the Church that Christ had founded. But that posture changed in the late 1960’s.

Then it became popular among pastors of the Church to give obstinate, unrepentant sinners equal status to that of faithful and repentant Catholics. As such, there was little distinction between the wolves and the sheep. When I speak of the wolves, I here refer to those who refuse to repent from their advocacy of abortion rights and same-sex marriage, from the practice of contraception and cohabitation, and from many other serious sins which daily cause scandal in the Body of Christ.

The result of all of this is that no one seems to know what a Christian is. And with this kind of ambivalence, moral and spiritual relativism reigns supreme. This is why it is deemed socially and politically inappropriate to say whether or not a person like President Obama is a true Christian.

But we know where President Obama stands on moral and policy issues. He is on record for supporting the following:

• Abortion rights

• Infanticide

• Sex education at the age of 5 years

• Same-sex marriage

• The reinstatement of United States Department of Veterans Affairs manual, the version of which is highly suggestive of favoring euthanasia

• Healthcare rationing of the elderly: His comment about having grandma take a pill instead of opting for a costly surgery is indicative of where the president's priorities lie. And Cass Sunstein, Obama’s Regulatory Czar, said the following: “I urge that the government should indeed focus on life-years rather than lives. A program that saves young people produces more welfare than one that saves old people.”

What is equally disturbing about President Obama’s moral and spiritual philosophy is this: As most know, he was mentored for 20 years under Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Trinity United in Chicago. The reverend publically supported Black Liberation Theology and one of its prominent pioneers, James Cone. Few know that James Cone and Black Liberation Theology in general favors a heavy dose of Marxism. As the president himself maintains, his salvation depends on the collective salvation of the people. Without going into a lot of details, the belief that groups of people should be saved over that of individuals is based on socialistic or Marxist premise. Such a premise is contrary to the Gospel and it is spiritually, morally and politically dangerous to society. The dignity of the individual person has been and will continue to be seriously undermined under such an ideology. We can already see that President Obama and is entourage of Czars and Cabinet members do not hold preborn babies, infants and the elderly in high esteem. Neither do Catholics fare well under their governance.

To be sure, there are certain things we cannot judge. We cannot judge intentions, motives or whether or not a person will be saved in the end. But we can judge whether or not a person is believing and behaving as a follower of Christ should. As our Lord said, "You will know them by their fruits." (Matthew 7:16) In fact, it is the duty of Catholic bishops, pastors, teachers and the laity to make a clear distinction between real Christians and nominal Christians. In the early 20th century, for instance, Pope St. Pius X wrote the following to his priests: "Catholic 'Liberals' are wolves in lambs clothing; hence any priest worthy of the name must unmask for the faithful confided to his care their insidious plotting, their unholy design. You shall be called papists, clericals, retrogressives, intransigents. Be proud of it!" This pastoral wisdom of the saintly pope also applies to Christians in general.

If we cannot say that a “Christian” is not one who would aggressively advances abortion rights, the right to practice infanticide at hospitals and abortion clinics, same-sex rights and healthcare rationing- if we cannot say that this is not what a disciple of Christ does –we are in trouble. We have unnecessarily handicapped ourselves. As such, confusion about what a Christian really is will continue to fog the minds of Americans. The end result is that we will be powerless to resist counterfiet Christianity and those political ideologies which parade themselves in sheeps clothing.

The standard has already been set by Christ, the Apostles, the Church Fathers, the Saints and the Church herself. The legacy of drawing attention to Christians in "name-only" and separating from the flock is legion. There are too many examples to count here. But suffice it to say, this pastoral practice of our Church's watchmen of old secured the moral distinctions between good and evil and the religious distinction between authentic Christians and those who pretended to be Christian for political purposes. We should return to this ancient (and yet not so ancient) practice. The welfare of our country depends on it.

ENTITLEMENTS AND FREEDOMS

2012-02-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

WHEN POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE RIGHTS COLLIDE
BY DANIEL GREENFIELD OF RIGHT SIDE NEWS
The birth control battle is another reminder that entitlements and freedoms do not coexist well, even if we set aside the economic issues, because entitlements end up intruding into the spaces of freedoms. As the United States undergoes the process that replaces the negative right to be left alone with the positive right to be taken care of in every way possible, these conflicts will only worsen.

Americans are getting a taste of life in Europe where social benefits trump individual freedoms, where artificial rights to various government administered benefits and subsidies, along with the protection of national values and social harmony, serve to eliminate most of what Americans have traditionally considered freedom.
While negative rights create safe spaces from outside intervention, positive rights offer a privilege that is overseen by the government. Positive rights are inevitably concerned with social welfare and harmony. They offer universal benefits at the cost of individual liberties.
Every negative right has a mirror image positive right. Freedom of speech meets its evil twin in the right not to be offended by bigotry. Freedom of religion has its evil twin in the imposition of a state religion. Property rights have their evil twin in wealth redistribution and this right is the wellspring of most of the social problems of the state.
The decay of the educational system has created a state of affairs where many can no longer distinguish between the statements, "Everyone has the right to speak their mind" and "Everyone has the right to a home." The inability to make that distinction marks the death of a free society as the former expresses a freedom relative to the state, the latter expresses an obligation on each person to the state.
When people can no longer tell the difference between the right to be left alone and the right to pay for someone else's home, the firewall between freedom and tyranny has successfully broken down. And the most effective way to devalue freedom is by presenting something more seductive in its place, a system that will take care of your needs, that will balance some remaining freedoms with a necessary amount of intrusion that will maximize the collective benefits and harmony of all.
This balance of negative and positive rights is unsustainable, because each new positive rights diminishes the existing negative rights until there are hardly any negative rights left. Each new gift from the government carries with it an invisible price tag in dollars and cents, and in freedoms lost. This loss is often intangible. Like casinos and whorehouses, the progressive way of government is built on befuddling the people so that they don't notice what they are losing.
Positive rights are presented as social obligations, and social obligations are the source of most of the oppressive legislation that exists anywhere. The society is a vague unit which is not represented by a plebiscite, but by the values attributed to it by an elite. It blurs the line between government and the individual by transforming the individual into a collective entity with collective needs and obligations.
Social obligations are often expressed in terms of values. Values are generally code for an emotional appeal to a position that cannot be rationally defended. The values discussed are never individual values, but the collective values of an intangible society as expressed by its cultural and political leaders.
Authentic social obligations and values are not expressed through the state, but through organizations, including religious groups, that reflect those values. A country can and will have groups whose values are in conflict, which is why the universalization and collectivization of values amounts to the creation of a state religion.
Amish values differ from Catholic values which differ from Mormon values which differ from Methodist values which differ from the values of Orthodox Jews, Baptists, Unitarians, Atheists and the whole host of different religious and irreligious value systems that fill the nation. While many of these groups can and do agree on some major points, they don't agree on others, and even when they do, they often differ on the details.
The Catholic Church is strongly in favor of health care for all, it does not however agree on the nature of what health care is with value systems to the left of it. The current controversy is a clash of value systems. Such a clash is easily resolved in a system built around negative rights that leaves all the parties free not to enter into agreements or obligations that they don't want to enter into. However in a system based on positive rights, a clash of values ends with the government compelling one side to abandon its values.
Such clashes are inevitable and so are their conclusions under a system of positive rights. The more positive rights there are, the more clashes develop. And the more they happen, the government begins functioning as a state church enforcing its own values on everyone.
This phenomenon is familiar enough to Europeans where "The Values of the Republic" often replaced the state church and took on an equally sacred meaning. In Israel, Democratic values is often used to mean the same thing, which is particularly confusing as the values involved are never those which have the support of a plurality of the country. In the United States, the progressive Trojan horse way has been to use "American Values" to mean the same thing.
American Values, as used by the progressives to endorse everything from gay marriage to illegal immigration, exists entirely apart from actual Americans who are lectured on the need to do one thing or another in the name of those values. And when there is a conflict between the Constitution and the construct of American Values, then the Values win out over the law. The progressives have done their best to cloak their transformation of the country as a clash between reactionary positions and American Values. Each of their victories is a triumph for the America that they wish to create.
When the state becomes the source of national values, rather than those values residing in religious or other ethical organizations that seek to act out their beliefs in the public space, then the country has taken a significant step toward fascism. The collectivization of values also represents the militarization of a people's beliefs. Such militarization can be found in Muslim theocracies or in any system where allegiance to the nation requires adopting and acting out the values of the state.
The birth control mandate is an example of the collectivization of national values, and the value that every person should have access to subsidized birth control trumps the religious values of major religions. Similar conflicts occur in every arena where progressives create a positive right that conflicts with religious values. The positive right not to be discriminated against conflicts with the negative right of freedom of religion when it comes to gay ceremonies taking place on the property of a church or synagogue.
As the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association found out when it denied the use of their property to two women looking to get married, was sued and lost the case. As the verdict put it, "As to "free exercise," the LAD is a neutral law of general application designed to uncover and eradicate discrimination: it is not focused on or hostile to religion." But that is the genius of positive rights, they do not have to focus on a thing to be hostile to it, so long as the imposition of its guiding virtue is incompatible with the beliefs and values of anyone else.
The decision went on to say: "I do not believe that the facts pose a true question of religious freedom, but were they go, the matter would not be governed by the high bar of "strict scrutiny", but by a much lower standard that tolerates some intrusion into religious freedom to balance other important societal goals." And that is the progressive tyranny of positive rights in a nutshell which tolerates some intrusion into freedoms for the sake of tolerance and other societal goals.
Similarly for the sake of societal goals, we must tolerate some intrusion into our income, into what we may and may not say, into what we must buy, where we must live and how we must arrange our lives until no safe spaces for freedom actually exist. Only a massive iron wall of positive rights that locks us inside our societal obligations to phantom values that are determined for us by progressive activist groups and the functionaries of the state.
Where does it end? It never does. Values are absolute, they represent ideals and ideals can never be met. To enforce values is to conduct an endless war against all that stands in your way. The wars on bigotry, poverty, greed, bad habits and all the other grave societal ills can never be won. Those wars lead into ancillary conflicts against people who want to hold on to their beliefs and their money, against boys who play with toy guns, the overeaters, smokers and jokers, the cranks who tilt at windmills, economic sharks who take advantage of any situation, and the whole endless list of enemies of the state who stand in the way of its societal goals.
The unwavering pursuit of ideals ends up destroying the very ideal being pursued. Trying to give everyone a home may have damaged home ownership, particularly among the poor and minority groups, for a generation to come. Fighting bigotry has created bigotry and in some cases even turned it into a matter of state policy, as is the case with affirmative action. But that is why the pursuit of ideals by the state are dangerous. A government has too much power and too little flexibility to pursue goals which involve the touchstones of human nature.
When positive and negative rights collide, freedom is the first casualty, and the second casualty is the positive right which over time cannot survive the pressures of the self-destruction of the system that imposes it. Negative rights which require state inaction can be sustained so long as the state does not become too powerful. Positive rights can only be sustained so long as the money and power holds up. Their fate is thoroughly tied to the fate of the system. When the state that enforces them weakens, so do they.
Negative rights put their trust in people. Positive rights put their trust in the state. All states fall sooner or later. Only the people survive.
From NY to Jerusalem, Daniel Greenfield Covers the Stories Behind the News

FR. GEORGE RUTLER - PASTOR OF 'CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOR', NEW YORK CITY

2012-02-21T07:57:00.002-08:00

Most Recent Column from Fr. Rutler--Fr. George Rutler is pastor of The Church of Our Saviour in New York City and is a convert to Catholicism from the Anglican Communion. February 19, 2012

In the vault of modern political oratory is a speech of one senator in the 1960's quoting George Bernard Shaw: “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’ ” There are noble dreams, such as those of our nation's Founding Fathers, right up to the last century's civil rights movement. Jacob saw a ladder to heaven in a dream. But dreams can also be the sugar-coated nihilism of John Lennon's song Imagine, which is still dear to the hearts of the mindless.

The Risen Christ ate food to show the Apostles that He was not just a dream, and so the Lenten preparation for the Feast begins with hard reality: “You are dust.” This is an alarm clock that awakens us from moral slumber, and we have been slumbering a lot in our culture. The surest way to guarantee that evil can happen here is to say that evil cannot happen here. God constantly posits a choice between life and death, precisely because both are real, even for those who dream of existence with neither heaven nor hell and “only sky.”

Recent attempts of the Health and Human Services Department to promote a culture of death by violating the Constitutional right to free exercise of religion are in part the work of public officials who have boasted of their admiration for a bad dreamer: Saul Alinsky. That strategist for “community organizers” insisted that there is no objective truth. Pope Benedict XVI would call this the “dictatorship of relativism.” Alinsky, as the common man's Machiavelli, used this relativism to approve of corruption in public officials as a matter of policy, the justification of unethical means to achieve ends and the destruction of any opposition. Alinsky's guide book, Rules for Radicals, is prefaced with a tribute to “the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.”

While some journalists would give the impression that the government mandates are all about contraception, they also cover sterilization and abortifacients. Many Christians themselves do not understand the moral implications of artificial birth prevention as explained in Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. In 1968 his prophetic warnings were widely ridiculed as nonsense: moral breakdown, increased infidelity and illegitimacy, pornographic exploitation of women by men. Then he asked: “Who will prevent public authorities from favoring what they believe to be the most effective contraceptive methods and from mandating that everyone must use them, whenever they consider it necessary?”

Who will prevent them? Only those wise enough to distinguish between noble dreams and nightmares. They will know what many utopian dreamers do not know: The voice in Shaw's play Back to Methuselah that spoke of dreams that never were and asked “Why not?” was the Serpent in the Garden.

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"In many parts of the world, the family is under siege. It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce. ---Cardinal Arinze

Vatican hears Ivan & Jakov and two more visionaries of Medjugorje

2012-02-21T07:04:00.001-08:00

http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/4773/guide-vatican-hears-the-male-seers-now/
Rome hears Ivan, Jakov and two more

Vatican Comitee hears four Medjugorje visionaries | MEDJUGORJE TODAY

By Jakob Marschner on Feb 19, 2012

Experienced Medjugorje guide Anita Pehar says the Vatican Commission has called visionaries Ivan Dragicevic and Jakov Colo to be questioned on Monday. Bosnian news portal confirms this, adding that Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti and Mirjana Dragicvevic-Soldo will join them, in line with the guide’s report that more of the seers are in Rome.

“The Medjugorje Commission is to meet tomorrow, February 20 in Rome. The meeting was postponed for a couple days due to the Cardinal consistory meeting held since Friday” she writes on her blog, Medjugorje Web Journal.The testimonies of visionaries Ivan Dragicevic and Jakov Colo form part of the agenda when the Vatican Commission on Medjugorje meets on February 20 in Rome, pilgrim official guide Anita Pehar informs from Medjugorje.
“We do know that Jakov and Ivan are to give their testimonies but they are not the only Medjugorje visionary in Rome for the same period of time” Anita Pehar also reports.
Early on February 20, Bosnian news portal Dnevnik likewise reported to have learned that Ivan and Jakov were to testify later on Monday, and that visionaries Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti and Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo had also been called.
For both Marija and Mirjana, a meeting on Monday will be their second audience with the international Commission headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini. Both visionaries first gave their testimony in Rome in late November 2011.
After the audiences of Jakov and Ivan, all six Medjugorje visionaries will have appeared before the Commission. Ivanka Ivankovic-Elez opened in early June 2011, followed by Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic in early October.
The Commission will report its findings to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) before the end of 2012, Commission member Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo told a press conference in Rome on February 14. It will be for CDF to issue a final report to Pope Benedict XVI who initiated the investigation on March 17th 2010.
Anita Pehar notes that, like everyone else involved with the Commission, the visionaries have taken an oath of silence. But from watching the seers, Anita Pehar thinks to have a good feeling of how work is moving forward in Rome:
“As I look at them, how they smile, I guess it must be all well.”

Leni Riefenstahl: Congratulations on the HHS Regulations

2012-02-20T08:28:00.001-08:00

This is written like the book, SNAKEBITE LETTERS- (devil to his minions)
Leni Riefenstahl: Congratulations on the HHS Regulations
By Clarice Feldman

Memo: From Leni Riefenstahl
To: President Barack Obama
Schatzi, it's been over a year since I last wrote you. Please forgive me. It's been so hot here I can barely stand to touch the keyboard. Not that I don't appreciate the green energy projects you funded to cool off this place, but dear, you know even with the trillions you spent, those projects just keep going under. Yes, I know it helped put billions in the pockets of your donors, but hell is not freezing over you know and we could use energy for the air conditioners.
Anyway, I forced myself to endure the scorching temperatures and pitchforks to congratulate you on those brilliant HHS regulations forcing people to fund insurance coverage for abortions, sterilizations and birth control against their consciences.
Darling Adolf just loved to do that sort of thing. Remember -- are you old and well read enough to remember? He figured out that if he could get people to operate against their conscience on small things, big things like Judenrein would be easier. Of course, that was just a start.
Martin Bormann said it just right: "National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable." For the party to rule, he said the Churches' influence in the leadership of the people "must absolutely and finally be broken." He was taking about the Nazi party, but heavens, Democrats, Nazis -- state control is state control.
So, this move by your Administration is just a great first step. You had all the social justice crowd in the church supporting you ,and now those wicked bishops -- how many divisions do they have anyway? -- had to step in to try to put a stop to this.
Well, the match is set.
On your side you have some real geniuses. I mean all the media is helping you sell the fairytale that you are battling people who want to force women to forego contraceptives. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a real feather in your cap; arguing that all women deserve free contraceptives and that religious institutions shouldn't be imposing their values on their employees is, you should pardon the expression, pure Goebbels. And you can count on the press to let her get away with this big lie.
The media want to replace old fashioned religion with civic religion as much as you and I do.   So, some Catholics have and continue to threaten to shut down their social welfare services rather than comply with such things? Great. The sooner the people learn that the state is the provider of all things, the better -- for you and your party. Of course, not necessarily better for them or their country, but that's not the point, is it?
I suppose you have some other good ideas in the wings at HHS . Off the top of my head here are some ideas for you: Make public schools serve pork and require all kids to eat it; force Christian Scientists to see physicians and take medicine; make the Mormon Tabernacle Choir admit Moslems; ban religious circumcisions of males; draft the Amish into the military; outlaw Lutheran lutefisk parties and bake sales.
My goodness, the possibilities once you control the levers of power! And what could possibly give you more power than controlling healthcare delivery? Imagine the rake offs, too. Plastic surgeons want liposuction and botox coverage? Let them kick in to your party. Somebody's poor mom is too old for treatment, cross your palm with silver and a hospital bed becomes available. Why am I telling you this, you of all people? I mean Mr. President Chicago Way, right?
And then your opponents are playing this rather stupidly. Letting you and the press frame this as a women's rights issue, not a Constitutional issue. (Is it just gossip or is it true that Harvard Law School where you attended and the University of Chicago Law School where you were a lecturer, are mortified? Who cares. That Constitution is so old and updated anyway. Ask Justice Ginsburg, even she's not crazy about it.) Maybe next year you can wait until Congress is in recess and replace it with something newer from Zimbabwe. Well, you certainly don't need me to advise you on how to destroy religion or the Constitution.
I was delighted to see how you are reviving the Sturmabteilung. Of course, you can't credit us -- we all discussed it here and understand.   Calling it a Truth Team, a "grassroots communications team" will go over much better, but , schatzi, we all know where you got that idea. The explanation is another bit of brilliant propaganda: "The goal is to ensure that when Republicans attack President Obama's record, grassroots supporters can take ownership of the campaign and share the facts with the undecided voters in their lives."
I mean even Michelle Obama's Mirror calls it the "SS. See something, Say something."   I think she means it sarcastically but check out the great logos she's come up for the Truth Team!! We couldn't do better and we tried in between roastings.
She didn't even get to Project Narwhal, a data-mining outreach operation designed to snare even more low information voters than the media can rope in.
And it's working on ill-educated single women, who'd apparently gladly give up their right to worship as they choose in order to get someone else to pick up their contraception tab, never realizing they're giving up something for nothing, because there really is no free lunch.
I figure a couple years of this and there will be no private insurance companies because they'll be run out of business, or employer provided health insurance because it's all going to be too expensive. And then you'll have the entire country in the palm of your hand.
If I had a heart, liebchen, it would be singing right now.
P.S. I keep meaning to tell you -- when you tilt your chin skyward like that, you remind me so of the Italian heart throb Benito.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2012/02/leni_riefenstahl_congratulations_on_the_hhs_regulations.htmlat February 20, 2012 - 10:28:42 AM CST

The Ascent of Prayer

2012-02-19T17:44:00.005-08:00

People climbing Mount Krizevak
in Medjugorje, Bosnia

Nighttime on the Mount: The Ascent of Prayer before the Descent of Tribulation

Saturday's Gospel reading: February 18th, 2012: The Transfiguration

Tradition has it that the transfiguration of Christ on Mt. Tabor transpired forty days before his Passion. Evidently, the Lord wanted at least three of his Apostles- Peter, James and John –to experience his glory before they had to drink the chalice of his suffering. St. Peter would later recount his heavenly experience in his Second Letter when he wrote, “For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory, 'This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.”

Sometimes the Lord guarantees victory before he permits defeats. He might inspire us with an unshakable certitude to take on a mission for his sake and then allow circumstances to contradict that mission. On Mount Tabor, the divinity of Jesus was revealed before his humanity was crucified. Later, in the Upper Room, he would give his resurrected flesh to his Apostles in the form of the Eucharist the night before his death on the Cross and three days before he had actually risen from the dead.

In tasting the goodness of the Lord at the altar, strength is given to us for the trials that are inevitably associated with doing his will. In the Imitation of Christ our Lord speaks to his disciple. He says, “My son, that good and delightful affection, which you sometimes perceive, is the effect of present grace and a certain foretaste of your heavenly country, but you must not rely too much upon it, because it comes and goes.” And this delightful affection and the foretaste of our heavenly country is chiefly to be found in prayer and in meditation. It is, in a real sense, food for the journey and strength for adversity.

To be sure, it was only after an arduous climb up Mt. Tabor and only after the world had fallen asleep that our Lord would give three of his Apostles a glimpse of his glory. But in doing so, Jesus would not stand alone. Moses and Elijah, two prophets who represented the Old Testament and who also experienced the presence of God on Mt. Sinai, stood beside our Lord to give their testimony of support. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke makes reference to these two men as speaking to Jesus about his “exodus,” that is, his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. And who is better qualified to talk about such an exodus than Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land and Elijah who was assumed into heaven on a chariot?

After our Lord’s face had shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light, a bright cloud appeared and the voice of God was heard. It was as if God the Father had bequeathed his authority for the second time (the first time at the river Jordan) to Jesus by saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” This, it would seem, is reminiscent of Psalm 2 when God said in even greater detail, “You are my son; today I am your father. Only ask it of me, and I will make your inheritance the nations, your possession the ends of the earth.”

However, conferring the inheritance of the nations and the power to teach with divine authority did not only issue from the Father to the Son, but it also passed from Moses and Elijah- two of the greatest Old Testament prophets –to St. Peter and the Apostles. Indeed, by "making disciples of all the nations" through the preaching ministry of his Church, Jesus Christ would take back what once belonged to his Father, namely, the world! As the prophet Isaiah said, "In days to come, the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it..."

Every apostle must be equal to his mission. Hence, the work of being God’s mouthpiece to the nations would require spiritual transformation; especially for these frail fishermen. And the symbolic value of the transfiguration of Christ on Mt. Tabor suggests that real transformation can only take place on a mountain of prayer and meditation. When speaking of the soul in contemplation, Cornelius A Lapide, a sixteenth century priest and professor of Scripture, wrote:

“She [the soul] is raised above herself, and is lifted up to God in heaven, where she learns and sees that all the things of earth are fragile and worthless, so that from her lofty height she looks down upon them as fit only for children. She perceives that the true riches, honors and pleasures are nowhere but in heaven.”

Without the foretaste of heaven in prayer and meditation and without eagerly anticipating eternal happiness with God, we will inevitably wince from sacrifice and the price we must pay in bringing souls to Christ. The meditation of heaven inspires a farsightedness that is needed not only for living out the life of Christ on a day to day basis, but also for the challenging work God has called us to do.

No doubt, while St. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome- while St. James was dragged to his death in Jerusalem -and while St. John was in exile on the island of Patmos, recalling this heavenly vision of our Lord on Mt. Tabor was probably of great consolation to them. And although we may not enjoy the vision of the Transfiguration in the way the Apostles did, God will certainly not fail to give us a taste of that heavenly sweetness in prayer and meditation in proportion to our faith. This is God's way of giving us a sneakpeak of eternity so that we might be encouraged to hold nothing back!

http://catholic-skyview-tremblay.blogspot.com/2012/02/nighttime-on-mount-ascent-of-prayer.html

Sky View: Bill O’Reilly’s Observation: The Popularity of Free Stuff

2012-02-18T07:44:00.007-08:00

Sky View-Bill O'Reilly's Observation: The Popularity of Free Stuff
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2012

This week on the O’Reilly Factor, anchor Bill O’Reilly noted a peculiar poll trend that shows President Barak Obama’s job approval rating is on the increase. Some polls have him close to 50 percent. This is peculiar and surprising considering our economic and religious liberty challenges. Although the so-called contraceptive (and abortifacients) mandate is predicted to hurt President Obama’s chances for re-election, he has not yet taken a hit on his job approval rating.

From these observations Bill O’Reilly concluded that it appears that the perks of a welfare and nanny State is beginning to sell with the American people. More and more, Americans like to get free stuff from the government. In fact, on other Fox News programs, statistics have been presented to illustrate that the takers in society are becoming just as numerous as the givers. Call it what you will, but this is but the result of the increasing popularity of “socialism” in the land of the free. As for where this might lead, we do not have to guess. All we have to do is look at Greece and the predicament Europe is currently in. Daniel Hannen, British journalist and member of parliament, said as much at C-PAC on February 13th, 2012. He issued the following warning to Americans:

“If you repeat our mistakes, if you shift power from the 50 states to Washington, from the elected representative to the federal czar, from the citizen to the state, we know exactly what lies in store for you. I've been a member of the European parliament for 12 years. I am living in your future, or at least the future towards which your present leaders seem intent on taking you. And believe me, my friends, you are not going to enjoy it.”

But long before Daniel Hannen gave his eloquent speech at C-PAC, long before conservatives began to oppose Socialism, Communism and Secular-liberalism, the Fathers of the Catholic Church in modern times have sounded alarm well over hundred years ago. For instance, in 1891 we have Pope Leo XIII issuing this warning approximately 120 years before redistribution policies of socialism were accelerated in the United States through the President Obama:

“Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal…The door would be thrown open to envy, to mutual invective, and to discord; the sources of wealth themselves would run dry, for no one would have any interest in exerting his talents or his industry; and that ideal equality about which they entertain pleasant dreams would be in reality the leveling down of all to a like condition of misery and degradation.” (On Capital and Labor, art. 15)

This takes us back to Bill O’Reilly’s observation about more American’s wanting free stuff from the government. Don’t they know where this will lead? And can we really expect them to know?

The answer to the latter question is- not really. First, Catholics have not helped matters by not taking full advantage of those public venues to teach and illustrate the connection between faith and freedom. Even from the pulpit, diocesan pastoral letters and the classroom, there is not much said in this regard! In fact, I would argue that several influential members of the Catholic clergy have promoted big government programs in name of Christian charity. Indeed, the Catholic Church in America used to say (long ago), “If there is a person in need, in the name of Christ, I will help that person.” Today when she finds a person is in need she says, “Wait here, I’ll get the government.”

Secondly, and this where the dereliction of conservatives and Americans who hold to traditional values comes in, one thing has got to change and that is the monopoly of State-run education. Without this change Americans will continue to favor Big Government or the Entitlement State and they will continue to be won over by the illusion that they are getting free stuff without consequence. Being that education is second to the family in terms of shaping how we perceive the world, our public schools are simply making society- and even government –into its own image. Just about everything the way public schools operate and teach favors a secular all-powerful State. Until this changes, until the monopoly of the State on what our children learn is broken and cast away, any political advance at the ballot box which favors America’s heritage of freedom and individual self-sufficiency will be temporary.

You see, the State, as the primary educator our children, has preempted the authority of parents; not only of parents, but of God Himself. As it stands today, God is deemed a rival to the State. When the State wants full control of education, it does not want God to interfere. Before prayer, bible reading and the mention of God was prohibited in public schools beginning in the 1960’s, Etienne Gilson said this,

"To the full extent that it educates, the State educates in view of itself…The only conceivable end of a State-owned education is the State itself. States themselves may not know it. They may sincerely believe that nothing is more foreign to their honest intentions; yet, to put it bluntly, the only reason why a State may not want children to be educated in view of God is that it wants them to be educated in view of itself. Totalitarian education does nothing more than go the whole way along the same line. The result is what we know: political, economic, intellectual and spiritual slavery." (1951)
The last sentence of Gilson’s bears repeating: “The result is what we know: political, economic, intellectual and spiritual slavery.” What people used to know about the hazards of State-run education, we have forgotten. We will continue to be ignorant of why there is political, economic, intellectual and spiritual slavery as long as the agent who is causing that slavery is educating our children!! Indeed, that carrot on the stick- that is, the growing popularity of free stuff held out by the all-powerful State -will continue to allure citizens to surrender their liberty for security. After all, for years the desire to be hand fed by the State has been instilled into the souls of the American people by our State-run education system. This is our Berlin Wall! And to be sure, it must come down if America is to remain free, prosperous and loyal to God!

obama...works for satan.

2012-02-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

During the last presidential election, Catholics voted by a margin of 55-45% for the most pro-death President in history. Of course, he started out by covering up the crucifix at Georgetown before delivering a speech, so as not to offend Muslims or Atheists, proceeded to declare that “America is not a Christian nation,”, then bowed before a Saudi king. Therefore, should we be surprised when this secular humanist, pro-abortion President now attacks religious freedom by backing regulations which force Catholic hospitals—against their will and the tenets of their religion—to fund and or even perform abortions or risk sanctions and closure?

Before it is too late and we re-elect the most pro-abortion politician ever to hit Washington, perhaps we should revisit Obama “family values.”

Let’s start with babies. Of course we know that Obama would not want his daughter to be “punished with a baby” [sic] if she became pregnant. But it gets worse. In February of 2004, Michelle Obama authored a fund raising letter soliciting funds for Obama’s senatorial campaign.

Preaching to the radical, left-wing, pro-abortion, feminist choir, she railed against the federal partial birth abortion ban, and trumpeted the fact that her husband would never allow pro-life judges to interpret the law and would preserve the right of a woman and her doctor not just to perform an abortion, but to kill viable babies who were inches from life, by stabbing them in the head with scissors and sucking their brains out—euphemistically referred to as “partial birth abortion.” (Perhaps if commentators, politicians, and the rest of us referred to the procedure as “stabbing a nearly-born baby in the head and sucking his or her brains out” rather than “partial birth abortion,” people would better understand the hideous nature of this procedure.) But, back to the fund raising letter. Michelle Obama, when raising money for her husband, referred to “partial birth abortion” (“stabbing a nearly born baby in the head and sucking his or her brains out”) as:

“a legitimate medical procedure.” [sic]

This, of course, begs the questions: 1. In whose book is this a “legitimate medical procedure?” and 2. When did Michelle Obama go back to school and get her medical degree?

Obama family values

Of course the salient point is this: The Obamas, when raising money for his senatorial campaign, elicited money from the radical left pro-baby- killing wing of the Democratic party, bragged that Obama would prevent the politicians and the courts from ever presuming to protect babies, and trumpeted the “legitimate medical procedure” [sic] of stabbing babies in the head and removing their brains—just inches and moments from birth. I don’t know whose family values these are, but they are not mine, and certainly not those of Middle America or Kansas either, I presume.

But it gets worse. Forget about “punishing your girl by allowing her to have a baby.” Forget about stabbing live babies moments from birth in the head with scissors and sucking their brains out. The Obama family values go even further. Obama does not even favor protecting innocent babies who actually are “lucky” enough to survive late term abortions. In testimony before the United States Senate just before the federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act was passed (98-0 with Hillary Clinton supporting the Act) the Senators heard of instances in which babies surviving late-term abortions were actually thrown into waste bins or allowed to die by indifferent doctors or mothers who found the babies inconvenient. This is not just an abortion, this is not just a partial birth abortion; this is nothing less than infanticide. However, when a similar measure was brought to committee in the Illinois Senate—a committee chaired by none other than then Illinois Senator Barack Obama—he let the measure die in committee.

Like the babies who survived late-term abortions and then were allowed to die, the bill protecting born alive babies in Illinois was allowed to die by none other than Barack Obama**. Put simply, whenever Barack Obama had the chance to vote on and promote a bill in the Illinois Senate which would have prohibited doctors from allowing born alive babies to die or be killed or be thrown into dumpsters, Obama—the family man with good ole fashion American values—did nothing. Worse yet, he prevented the bill from being passed and argued against it. He would, as it turns out, let born alive babies die rather than prevent their deaths because to do so might some day, restrict a woman’s right to an abortion or result in the questioning of Roe v. Wade—God forbid.

So, before you vote again for the first secular humanist president of the United States, and as you watch the campaign commercials touting the Obamas’ family values, featuring the Obama family sitting around a cozy fireplace, think not of the image that they want to sell you. Think rather about the reality of who they are and what they stand for. If killing nearly born babies, and allowing born alive babies to be thrown in to a dumpster while still alive is your idea of family values, then vote for Obama. He is, after all, the champion of the right to kill babies. But just don’t say you didn’t know. Fifty million American babies have been killed since Roe v. Wade. And the Obamas are proud to have done their part to expedite the slaughter. As Michelle once said: “He is a fighter [for the right to abort and kill babies] and he will be a champion we can be proud of.”

Should it therefore have come as any surprise that Obama once announced to a meeting of Planned Parenthood Action Fund that:

“Well, the first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do”?

That legislation “....applies to every Federal, State and local statute, ordinance, regulations, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action enacted, adopted or implemented before, on, or after the date of enactment of this act” and proscribes any impediment to the delivery of reproductive health services, including abortion, in the provision of benefits, facilities, services and information.

Recently, the Department for Health and Human Services on behalf of the Obama administration released guidelines as part of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The guidelines mandated that by the summer of 2012 all individual and group health insurance plans, including self-insured plans, cover all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that result in abortion.

Government, it seems, has outlawed God, and has, in effect, become God

These regulations apply to all Catholic hospitals and there are no provisions exempting Catholic hospitals (which employ Catholics and non Catholics alike) from their reach. Accordingly, Catholic hospitals and health care providers either have to provide or fund abortion services or drugs which induce abortions or face closure. Clearly, the freedom to kill babies trumps the freedom to exercise religion.

The President worships at the Altar of Choice. He considers freedom of choice so sacrosanct that pro death legislation was and is his top priority; he is more than willing to risk closure of hundreds of hospitals around the country and force them to act against their religious beliefs all for the sake of the right to kill a baby. As remarkable as this seems, it is the tragic truth. Government, it seems, has outlawed God, and has, in effect, become God.

So when, in time, Catholics observe their local Catholic hospitals close down because they refuse to abide by this modern-day Herod’s proclamation that babies must be killed, will they be so anxious to vote again for the man they blindly embraced four years ago? Will they too late suffer buyer’s remorse when they re-elect him? Even worse, will Catholic hospitals accede to his demands that they kill babies or provide the drugs to abort them? That seems unimaginable. Yet, after watching the majority of Catholics embrace the most pro death president in the history of our country, anything, sadly, seems possible.

© 2012 William Kevin Stoos
**The Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act passed the Illinois Senate after Obama left for Washington.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/44378

OLIVER LIVES

2012-01-29T18:39:00.001-08:00

Doctors save baby born with no blood

Published January 27, 2012

| NewsCore

A British baby was miraculously saved after being born with no blood in his body.

A rare condition drained Oliver Morgan's small frame of almost every drop while he was in the womb.

When he was delivered he looked pale and stillborn -- and doctors were unable to find a heartbeat for an astonishing 25 minutes.

But battling Oliver survived against all odds after being given oxygen, gentle heart massage and a lifesaving blood transfusion. Medics fought back tears when his heart monitor let out the first telltale beep.

Oliver is now a happy, healthy 15-month-old toddler.

His mom, 36-year-old Katy Morgan from Maidstone, southern England, said Thursday, "Oliver's birth was so traumatic that I haven't been able to bring myself to tell his story till now. He was born dead with no blood in his body -- but now he's sitting here smiling at me."

"The doctors literally brought him back to life and I will never be able to thank them enough for this wonderful gift," she added.

Oliver almost bled to death after a rare condition called vasa previa formed an extra vein in his mom's womb. It burst -- and she woke up covered in blood 37.5 weeks into her pregnancy.

She was rushed to the Maidstone General Hospital and was shocked to discover it had all come from her baby.

Oliver was born by emergency C-section weighing six pounds and one ounce (2.8 kilograms) at 5.12am local time. After attempts to resuscitate him, he was given a blood transfusion pumped into the still-attached umbilical cord.

At 5.37am local time the first heartbeat was detected and grew stronger as he was given more blood.

Katy Morgan -- who was anesthetized and unaware of the drama -- said, "Doctors said it was one of the most amazing recoveries they'd ever seen. Oliver had no blood, no heartbeat and looked stillborn -- but somehow they got him back."

Oliver was taken to a special care baby unit where doctors decided to lower his body temperature to save his brain from damage. He was placed inside a tiny coat which chilled him to 91 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) to make blood flow away from his skin and to his brain and heart so they would heal more efficiently.

After three nail-biting days, consultants slowly began raising his temperature to the normal 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). And after just 11 days Oliver was well enough to be taken home to start family life.

"It's hard to believe, looking back at what he's been through -- but Ollie's now a bright, happy boy with his whole life ahead of him," his mom said.

GRACE OF THE CHILDLIKE

2012-01-29T18:31:00.000-08:00

Grace of the Childlike

DOM ANSCAR VONIER, O.S.B.

Now what are we to understand by that wonderful thing, spiritual childhood, the one attitude which makes the kingdom of heaven possible?

... We must be converted and become as little children. Our minds must be pure and unsophisticated and natural. We must be converted and get rid of all those accretions which come to us from false training, from false traditions and standards, rid all that hardness of heart which is the natural condition of the human race.

We must become cheerful, ready to receive things much greater than ourselves. We must have the wonderful gift of loving goodness. We must, in one word, be capable of admiration. We must feel elation when we see something that is perfect instead of taking it to pieces and criticizing it, looking at it in a grudging and ungenerous way.

Instead of that, let us be like children clapping their hands and giving vent to their joy in shouts and laughter; they have no reserves, no critical attitude, they have not been embittered yet, their hearts have not been soured; they have still the first, natural faith in goodness and then, through baptism, they have the supernatural faith in it, they admire it, unless, of course, they belong to that pitiable class of little ones who have no real childhood. But the ordinary happy child, who has the privilege of a good mother, has the gift of admiration, and keeps it till the blight of society falls on his mind and darkens it.

This, then, ought to be our great Christian mentality; a readiness to admire the things of God, a readiness to admit that he does great and marvellous things, that he is great in nature; great in heaven, great in grace, that he is the Creator of earth and heaven; that, in the words of our Blessed Lord, heaven is God's throne and earth his footstool; that there is nothing in the vast universe which is not the handiwork of God, and that therefore it is full of endless glories, possibilities and marvels.

We have but one thing to do — a very easy thing at first sight — just to admire it, so love it for its beauty and riches, to clap our hands in our surprise at its glories and its mysteries. This is part of the great natural goodness of creation which we accept everywhere, and we should just admire, as children admire.

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/Interiorlife/ilooo9.htm

Vegan diet for Spiritual Health, Read Daniel in the Bible

2012-01-27T08:29:00.000-08:00

Athlete endures religious fast to grow in spirit and discipline

http://gargoyle.flagler.edu/2012/01/athlete-endures-religious-fast-to-grow-in-spirit-and-discipline/

Submitted by Gargoyle Staff on January 25, 2012 – 3:22 pmOne Comment

By Eric Albury
Photo by Eric Albury

New year’s resolutions are never easy. Nor are they always followed through to the end. But for Elijah Hayes, backup point guard for the Flagler Saints, his first resolution is already coming to a successful close.

Hayes’ aim was to abstain from meat, dairy, refined sugar, starches and flour for 21 days. No easy task when he had practice six days a week and played 1 to 3 games a week. But Hayes said it was worth it.

“It’s called the ‘Daniel Fast.’ It’s a time for spiritual growth, replenishment and sacrifice,” he said. “I wanted to rely on God instead of my own body to replenish me.”

The Daniel Fast is anchored in a few scriptures that make up its guidelines. According to Daniel 1, Daniel ate only fruit, vegetables and water. In Daniel 10, the Prophet ate no bread or wine, which brings about the second guideline, “no sweeteners and no bread.” Also included in the guidelines are that no leaven bread is to be eaten along with artificial or processed foods.

“I was constantly eating vegetables. It wasn’t easy, but part of it was sacrificing and being hungry,” Hayes said.

No easy task for a college athlete in the heart of basketball season. But he said he still managed to get what his body needed to put up with the grind of college basketball.

“At times I did struggle physically, but that was compensated for in spiritual growth and disciple,” he said. “The more I resisted certain foods, the stronger I grew and it became easier.”

Part of Hayes’ success with the diet came from his mother. He said that she raised him not to eat beef or pork for spiritual reasons.

“I’ve never even eaten a hamburger,” Hayes laughed. “It’s OK though. I feel like beef would stay in you longer and is a lot harder to digest.”

Not only has his fast helped him to eat healthier, it has also helped his team to do the same. Hayes said they noticed that his eating habits changed and were curious.

“Man, I like to eat. So when we would go out to Sonny’s or something, I would order a salad, and the rest of the team would laugh and make fun of me at first. But they soon understood how much healthier I was eating, and some even are thinking about doing the same, even if not from a spiritual perspective,” he said. “Even Coach said he was inspired!”

Men’s basketball Coach Bo Clark said he noticed Hayes starting to order salads on their trips out to eat, and discovered that he was on a fast.

“Elijah is an intelligent guy, and his dad was a coach,” said Clark. “He knows what he’s doing, and he’s very health conscious.”

Hayes said that the fast even helped him on the court. He claims the increased level of discipline and spiritual connectedness carried him through.

“The fast even carried over to the court,” Hayes said. “Once you’re in control of your own body, it applies to everything. Giving myself over to God, to let him carry me through. ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but the Word of God.’”

When asked what advice he would give to others looking to partake in this fast, Hayes said to have “a mission or a goal to start with and be ready to commit.” Otherwise, your fast will likely end with a dip into temptation.

“You have to be fed through the Word of God and pray,” said Hayes. “You need to be ready to give up your body as a sacrifice to God, for your body is not your own.”

Mary of Medjugorje comes to save young man through apparition on the Internet!

2012-01-26T15:10:00.001-08:00

Jan 23, 2012 - MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES WITH CHRISTINE WATKINS
I have heard many beautiful stories of Mary coming to a person and pulling them out of darkness in an instant, with her overwhelming embrace of love, and this is perhaps the most immediate conversion I’ve encountered. And, of all ways, it happened through the Internet!

The visionary Ivan and Cardinal Schönborn

As incredible and doubtful as it may be, Mary seems to be blessing people through her live apparitions, live-streamed through Mary TV. This wouldn’t make sense, except for the fact that God can do anything, and testimonies are verifying it. According to the Medjugorje visionary Ivan, Mary blesses those present to the live-streamed apparition, and any objects they bring to be blessed, just as she would those standing next to the visionary. (The next apparition to be broadcast will be January 31st through www.marytv.tv. Click on the link for details.) The theological assistant to Cardinal Schönborn, primary author of the Catholic Catechism, who supports the Medjugorje visionaries, clarified the Church’s teaching: “Section 12 of the ‘Enchirdion Indulgentiarum’ (the ‘Handbook of Indulgences’) can be taken analogically: Through broadcasts or digital transmissions, blessings will be received by those who participate ‘piously and devoutly’ and this includes also religious items brought with them, in the same way as if they had participated personally.” It would follow the mercy and kindness of God to bring His mother close to as many people as possible. The blessings may be an answer to the prayers those who lament not being able to travel to Medjugorje themselves.

I have no doubt that many would balk at this, or at least wonder; but before you assume God would somehow ignore modern day telecommunications to impart His grace in this way, read this story . . .

Coming Home through the Intercession of Our Lady

Scurrying down the steps, I frantically found myself in search of my gym shoes, which I’d misplaced the night before. I was due at the gym in five minutes to meet friends for a Thursday evening workout. Yes, once again, I was running late. At that exact moment, my phone rang. It was my mother: “Did you get a chance to watch Ivan’s and Marija’s apparition yet?” she asked. Responding impatiently, I replied “No mom, I’m already late as it is. I’ll watch it when I get back.” Sitting down to tie my shoes, I suddenly stopped. Feeling drawn towards the webcast of the Medjugorje visionaries’ apparition, and guilty for being reluctant with my mother, I gave in. It was the evening of September the 23^rd, 2010, and my life, as I knew it, was never going to be the same.

My senior picture at Bryan High School in Omaha, Nebraska, back in my "cool" days

Growing up I attended St. Bernadette Catholic grade school. Although tuition was expensive, the sacrifice my parents endured was worth the Catholic-based education my siblings and I received. Their sacrifice instilled in me a foundation I would newly discover later in life. When I was in grade school, we attended weekly Mass, including Sundays. After my eighth grade year, I decided to enroll in a public high school, solely for athletic reasons, and found myself going to Mass on Sundays only. And to be honest, the only reason I went is because my parents forced me and my twin brother to go; if I’d had it my way, I would have slept in until noon.

Life at this time was going as planned. I graduated from high school and entered my first year of college. College was exciting: new friends, new environment, living away from my parents. However, with this newly acquired freedom came the element of choice. I suddenly found myself choosing not to attend Mass. At this stage in my life, I became distant from God and the Catholic Church. I obtained a job working security at a downtown club and started traveling down a dead-end path. I found myself going home with various women whom I met at work. On several occasions, I ended up at strip-clubs until the early morning hours. With after-hour parties taking place weekly, there wasn’t a weekend when I was in bed sleeping before the sun came up. I would drive home intoxicated, past the church I used to attend, observing families arriving at morning Sunday Mass. The devil had me right where he wanted me, and I was only adding fuel to his fire. My life continued on this path for the next several years.

One evening my mother invited me to attend a speaking engagement at our local parish, where a man, having returned from the pilgrimage site of Medjugorje, gave a testimony of his recent trip to the small town located near Bosnia and Herzegovina. I reluctantly went, only because it would make my mother happy. As I sat there that night, I heard the man talk about a place where six visionaries were experiencing apparitions of Our Blessed Mother. I had no clue about Medjugorje, and to be completely honest, I didn’t care and wasn’t really paying attention. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Myself and one of God's greatest gifts to me, my twin brother. We were born on December the 8th, the feast day of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception

Time passed until last September, 2010. As a gift, my mother gave me a book that left a great impression on me. The book was titled, Queen of the Cosmos: Interviews with the Visionaries of Medjugorje. I took the book to work where it sat on my desk for several weeks, collecting dust. One day while sitting at work, with an hour or so to spare, and nothing else to do, I did something that would forever impact the depths of my soul. I opened the book and began to read. In this book, the visionaries shared how they saw the Virgin Mary, as I’ve never heard Her described, comparing Her beauty to beyond our comprehension. As I continued to read, I began to fall completely in love with the lady whom they were describing. After reading the book in just two days, I knew nothing but understood everything. This young, pure, loving, vibrant woman was my Mother, and I was Her son. I developed a passion and curiosity for the apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje, and this marked the beginning of what I call my miraculous conversion through her intercession.

A week after I’d read the Queen of the Cosmos book, my mother informed me that an apparition would be streamed live through the internet to various parts of the globe; and not only this, but according to the visionary Ivan, special graces would be granted to those witnessing the broadcast of the apparition, no matter where they were located. Although I felt somewhat reluctant to take time to observe the apparition, I was extremely excited to see the visionaries Ivan and Marija communicate with the Mother of God.

The visionaries Marija and Ivan at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna for their September 23, 2010 apparition

The date was September 23, 2010, at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. As I sat witnessing this live event on the Internet, I felt someone surround me with her presence, as though she had entered the room. I quickly looked up, expecting to see someone standing there. I didn’t see anyone, yet the person’s presence was becoming more and more intense. I describe it as if someone were standing with their face inches from yours, but you’re unable see anyone. At that moment, I felt a love that was not of this world, a love more pure that anything I’ve ever experienced. I was so overcome with the love radiating from this person in the room with me that I began to cry. In my humanity, I couldn’t comprehend the love that was being bestowed upon me. I could feel it radiating off of me. I compare it to someone running a high fever, being able to physically feel the heat emanating from his body. And I knew exactly who was in the room with me. I yelled out, “Mary!” “Mary!” “Mary!” while crying uncontrollably. My heart expanded like fire, “Mary!” I exclaimed. “Mary, I love you!” “I love you, Mary!” This love became so intense I put my hands over my face and continued crying. I asked aloud, “What’s happening to me?” “What is happening?” and cried, “Mary!” “Mary!” “Mary!” in between sobs. Finally, unable to stop my tears, I yelled out, “Show me yourself!” “Let me see you, Mary!” “Mary, please. I know you’re here. Please allow me to see you with my eyes!”

That night of September 23rd, 2010, I was twenty-four years old, still very young, and with my whole life ahead of me. However, after feeling the love of Mary, I was truly ready to die. I never saw her with my eyes, but I felt her with my whole being. Knowing that I could never receive that same love from anything or anyone here on Earth, I was ready to leave this world and go with Our Blessed Mother. It was a love so indescribable that at one point I cried out, “Mary, I’m ready to go. Mother, if you want to, take me with you, I’m ready.” And I meant this from the depths of my soul.

Growing up Catholic, I had received the Sacrament of Reconciliation many times, confessing my sins, not out of sorrow, but due to the fear of hell. As I sat wondering if my tears were ever going to cease, I realized that for the first time in my life, I was truly sorry for everything I’d done. I mean I was truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. I managed to pick my head up, and with tears streaming down my face, for the first time, I looked to God and said, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” And I truly meant it.

After experiencing this miraculous conversion, I did one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my life. I gave my yes to God; I gave Him complete control over my life. I figured I’d messed things up enough; and by turning the reigns over to Him, I couldn’t go wrong. Ever since giving God and Mother Mary my yes, I’ve been blessed with many gifts. Six months after my conversion, my mother and I flew to Sacramento, California, for a Medjugorje conference. To our surprise, the Medjugorje visionary, Marija, was present there. If you recall, Marija was one of the visionaries I observed at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. At the conference, I was able to meet and receive a hug from Marija: an incredible gift from God and Our Blessed Mother!

My Mother and I at the 2011 Sacramento Marian Conference. Here I was able to meet and be present with Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic during her apparition with Our Blessed Mother.

My life hasn’t been the same since the evening of September 23, 2010. I have taken Our Lady’s messages to heart: fasting, praying the rosary, receiving the sacraments. I also recently joined a Bible study on campus. I have to laugh because growing up I was always extremely close to my mother. God saw that I was slipping away from Him and knew exactly what to do. He sent His Mother to bring Me back to Him. There isn’t a day or hour that goes by when I’m not thinking about Mary. I love her so much, and I’m so happy to have her as my Mother. I recently heard a man quote a wonderful phrase that I knew directly related to me. He said, “When my time comes. When I die and leave this world and am standing in front of Jesus at Heaven’s gates, Jesus will look at me and say, “Oh yes, My Mother has told Me all about you.” I’m so thankful for Our Lady’s intercession. She saved my life and healed my soul, bringing me closer to Her Son. I can’t help but feel excited, as I sit in anticipation, wondering where this new found love will lead me next.

Adam Holubar (Omaha, NE), edited by Christine Watkins

**Read more stories, such as this, in the book, Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Conversion through Mary’s Intercession.**

Sky View: The Pastoral Mandate, Politicians and Religious Liberty

2012-01-25T07:40:00.000-08:00

Sky View: The Pastoral Mandate, Politicians and Religious Liberty
The third reason is that when public sinners can sit next to faithful Catholics on your local church pew, when they can stand before the altar and receive the Eucharist, that is, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ (even after St. Paul’s warning about the dangers of receiving such a Sacred Gift unworthily) and when they enjoy the fellowship of Catholics and intermingle with them, it inevitably creates moral confusion. To say it another way, when there is no public distinction made by the bishops between obstinate sinners and repentant sinners- when there is no separation between them –then in the minds of Catholics and other onlookers, there cannot be but little distinction between error and truth, between sin and holiness, and between vice and virtue. Say what you will from the pulpit, say what you will in your pastoral letters and say what you will in the classroom, the ministry of preaching and teaching will be undermined by this indiscriminate mix of faithful Catholics and the unfaithful. And from this indiscriminate mix emerges a division within the Body of Christ, the Church. What is more, a consensus on the most important issues of life and death is much harder to come by.

Church Fathers on correction and exclusion

1. Bishop of Hippo, St. Augustine, said, “[I]f he [the sinner] should still deny the charge he must be confronted publicly with the other witnesses so as to be convicted not by one mouth alone, but by many. And when his guilt has thus been proved he must submit to such punishment as the superior, whose office it is to inflict penalties, may think fit to impose. Should he refuse to perform his penance, and has not departed of his own accord, he must be cast out of your society. Nor is such treatment cruel, but merciful, for many must not be suffered to perish by the pestilent example of one.” (The Rule of St. Augustine)

2. Pope St. Leo the Great told the bishops in the fifth century that "those who refuse to share in our discipline cannot share in our communion." (Letter IV)

3. Pope St. Gregory the Great said, “[T]he pastor who does not eradicate the evil which he observes, comes to that state which his negligence deserves, namely, not even to recognize the sins of his subjects.” (Pastoral Rule)

Hot Hart: More Joy in Heaven...

2012-01-22T16:32:00.000-08:00

Vicka and Jacko, looking at the Blessed Mother

Hot Hart: More Joy in Heaven...:

More Joy in Heaven...

When I was little, my mother took me to a Catholic mass and asked “did you feel God in church?” I said “no, but I do in the backyard.” Thus began my life journey seeking God in nature. We never went back to church, although my mom was a believer, my dad was raised protestant, we just never went to church. As a young woman, I was a "nature girl" – fiercely independent, ultra-liberal, very vocal in politics, even lived in the Alaskan wilderness for several years. For most of my life, I didn’t know anything about religion, and didn’t want anything to do with it. I was certain that “Christians” were completely delusional, stupid and brainwashed. The idea of a virginal birth was so ludicrous to me, I actually laughed and mocked it. I searched intensely for God in nature, sure that this is where the answers lie.

My mother died of lung cancer when I was 22. The best I could say to her as she slipped away was “in the whole course of the universe, I’ll be right behind, if there is an after -life.” But I firmly didn’t believe that there was. Once, while boarding a bush plane and distraught over the killing of Alaskan wolves, I brazenly cursed the name of Jesus Christ, blaming all the evils of the world on our western “male-centered” culture. I hated the way mankind was destroying the earth, and I think I even hated all humanity. Later I came back to California, and was married in 1990 to David, a wildlife biologist (also agnostic), and in 1993 we had a son. Two years later, I went to mass for the first time in my life. I didn't know why. In hindsight, I see clearly how God led me along the way.

It was a couple weeks after that mass, when I first believed that God became one of us. I was 34. Father Patrick had said "every new Catholic I meet has someone praying for them in heaven, or someone who has just died." Me: "ok, whatever." Over the course of three weeks, I read all the gospels in my mother’s huge, old, dusty, 1950s picture bible that I had hidden in my closet. I had never read the bible, and didn’t know any Christians except far-away relatives. I walked around in a daze for about a week at the thought that it could all be true. I started reading the Pope's book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, and David was livid, and threatened to leave me. This was big. In the past, I had said prayers, half-heartedly, at protestant prayer meetings that I had been “dragged” to. The fact that nothing had ever happened to me was “proof” to me that Jesus was pure fiction. But this time was different... very different... I believed it.

During the next few days, like a flood of fire, God poured the Holy Spirit into my heart. I was in a state of what I can only describe as total amazement (shock really) that this was happening, and told my husband that I would be content to die right then. He was furious - did not understand - but he came to believe eventually. His journey was much different - God treats each of us so uniquely. For him it was slow and steady, gradually building him into a pillar of faith. For the past 13 years he has been working as liturgy coordinator at our church, and this year also as religious education director of St. Joseph's parish. But for me, it was a plunge, an immersion - a feeling of unimaginable bliss – reflecting, but infinitely surpassing human love, and completely fulfilling the deepest longing of my soul. I had never even known that part of me existed.

This experience culminated when I went to Midnight mass on Christmas Eve 1995. I didn’t know anything about the Church, when to sit, stand, kneel, or why. I felt the presence of God in my heart like lightening, and I knew everything there was absolutely real. I stood in the back of the church with tears streaming, and said, “Lord Jesus, I know you’re there, but Mommy, are you there too?” It’s impossible to describe - like stars inside – but I knew beyond a doubt that my mother was alive, somewhere, somehow.

Throughout that night, this Spirit poured deeper and deeper into my heart, until I was completely immersed. God my Creator took up his home in my soul, and I could only welcome Divine Love, now eagerly exploring His new home inside me. This was a love like nothing on this earth – perfect fulfillment, ecstasy - union with God. This was so sweet and all-consuming that for all my life I will live for that moment. Jesus forgave me so much – I think that there is nothing worse than what I had done to Him in my past. It is a total mystery and will forever be the greatest experience of my life.

Had I been single, I would have immediately consecrated my entire life to Christ forever. But I was married, and a mother, and I have often reflected on that. The marriage relationship is an earthly reflection of God’s grace and our ultimate union with Him. I think that sex is not a right, but rather, a singular privilege of marriage. It has been corrupted by all of us to be a self-serving act, but is designed to be self-giving. We are eternal, but our earthly purpose is to learn, know and love God and to love others made in His image. Marriage is meant to be a sacred gift of total self-giving - you literally give yourself away and accept the awesome possibility of creating a new person made in the divine image. It comes with temporal earthly pleasures, but tremendous responsibilities... and eternal consequences.

Marriage can be hard... very hard. Men and women are vastly different, but can sanctify one another. I believe it is through these very difficult struggles, sacrifices and constant forgiveness in marriage and family that we learn to give up ourselves and our selfish desires for the benefit of others. To become more like Christ as we share in His divinity.

The reason for existence is to love purely and perfectly. Because we are fallen creatures who are not faithful to our true selves, it is necessary to sacrifice ourselves for love. In fact, the meaning of the word “sin” is, “missing the mark.” But we are made for divinity, for true One-ness with our Creator and with each other. For many of us, that means marriage and union with a spouse. But Scripture says it can be even better to give your life to Him and live for Him alone rather than the daily struggles that marriage entails. God’s grace is far more than what is needed to sustain us. The paradox of the Christian life though, is that a "higher" life means going lower... facing our true selves. We can only do this by trusting in God’s perfect mercy and love. I feel as St. Paul did: “I boast in my weakness!” Because Christ’s strength is in me, and THAT is infinite and eternal, I can now say with truth and confidence, “I’m not afraid of anything.”

I would like to say something about Christian unity. My dad was Protestant, and my mom Catholic. When I hear of fighting between Christians I am heartsick. I received the Holy Spirit after reading the gospels, so I know that it's true that it's the Word of God. But then, I went to mass and I know that Jesus Christ lives there... it's His home... the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church. No mere man-made organization could have been so vast in scope, time, distance and unwavering in doctrine. It is what it humbly proclaims. Jesus promised that "the gates of hell will not prevail against My church." I believe Him.

Hell has attacked the Catholic Church, as we all know. And now, the Spirit is moving in Catholic faithful in a way never before known. Graces given only to the greatest saints in the past are now waiting at the door of every Catholic heart that dares to face the world in love and welcome them ALL into the family of God. Our strength is Christ Himself, who feeds us in the Eucharist- His very body, blood, soul and divinity given for the world, and our courage is given through His mother, who loves us all and calls us all home to her Son.

One of the greatest treasures of being Catholic is Mary. I remember lying on my bed nursing one of my babies to sleep. My mind suddenly flashed back to impure images I had seen in my past. I said “Mary help me.” Immediately my mind was at peace and God’s grace swept through me, and the sleeping baby started to literally glow - so unexpected – as if she said, “THIS is what it’s for.” Mary is so powerful and loves each one of us so much, her purity is perfect and she desires to guide us through this very confusing world. God has given her power over satan because of her perfect love for both God and humanity – and she has been given to us by Jesus Christ as our mother. Catholic means ‘Universal’ – she is a real mother for the whole world, and for every person. I love my heavenly mother Mary!

At Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, Mary appeared to three shepherd children with a message for the world. She said "God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart." She spoke of the coming wars – a punishment for man’s turning away from God, and Russia's newly developing error of God-less communism. She asked for many prayers for Russia and the world. She said, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Over 70,000 people witnessed the “miracle of the sun” when it spun in the sky and terrifyingly seemed to plunge to earth. It was raining hard, but afterwards, everything was completely dry. In our times, millions believe she has been appearing to six visionaries (then teens, now adults) everyday for 30 years (June 24, 1981) in Medjugorje, a small town in Croatia. She speaks of a coming warning - a correction of conscience - to every person on earth, a miracle for the world, a permanent sign and possible chastisement. She assures us of God’s love and hers, and continually calls us to PRAY, love, sacrifice, confess and to return to and follow Jesus.

The Holy Spirit that pierced my soul that night 16 years ago is now an ever-present warmth inside, like a glowing fire that never leaves me. Sometimes the flame ignites into a raging fire, like when I sit down to pray the rosary with my family. Mary asks us to pray the rosary, because it takes some time (at least 15-20 minutes), and we need to spend undivided time with God. The repetition of prayers is only an outward sign, to “mark the time,” if you will. The deeper (real) meaning is that it is precious time spent with God in contemplation of one of the four profound sets of mysteries of Jesus life: the Joyful Mysteries of His life on earth, the Sorrowful Mysteries of His passion and death, the Luminous teachings of the Kingdom of God, and the Glorious Mysteries of His Resurrection.

The fire of the Holy Spirit is always in me, but sometimes God and the Blessed Mother manifest in a new way. Like this past spring of 2010, after my family prayed the rosary every night for three months – a real struggle with three boys – I was praying it very slowly in my bedroom, and I smelled the unmistakably strong scent of roses. That is Mary’s sign to her faithful children. I honestly never thought it would happen to me. But it did, and it took my breath away. It was so amazing.

I have never written these things for anyone except my priest in 1996. I know there must be a reason that I feel compelled to tell it now. I don’t know how Jesus judges souls, but I know His judgment is perfect. Mary says this is a time of mercy. In 1930s Poland, before the Nazi invasion, Jesus told St. Faustina (a simple, humble nun) that now is the time for Divine Mercy – unfathomable graces poured out on ANY one who turns to Him, no matter what they've done. He said that this time of mercy is given to the world as His last plea to humanity, and He gave us the Feast of Divine Mercy to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter. He also said that "from Poland, I will bring forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming." This year, on May 1, 2011 (Divine Mercy Sunday) we celebrate the Beatification of John Paul the Great – the most beloved pope of all time, and the most-seen person in all of history. Perhaps the Holy Father’s Canonization will be the beginning of a new era. Pope John Paul II always said "be not afraid," and told us all of a "new springtime" coming soon for the Church and for the world.

God has forgiven me everything, and I know it’s not my job to judge others. But I want to say that there is nothing to fear in turning to God. Just believe it (faith), and ask (prayer). Saint Francis said “I would rather be judged by Jesus Christ than my own mother.” As one who has experienced His indescribable love and mercy, I know he waits for every soul He created. I have many other stories that I would be glad to share with anyone who is interested. I pray for you all, and hope for your eternal happiness. I am here for anyone who wants to talk, now or in the future. Be not afraid. “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns to Christ...” I know... heaven threw a celestial party for me.

Sky View: Lawler: The Pope's alarming message on American religious freedom

2012-01-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Sky View: Lawler: The Pope's alarming message on American religious freedom

Teresa Fama's Medjugorje Testimony - 1987

2012-01-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

ALWAYS PROTECTED
UNDER HER MANTLE

MY PILGRIMAGE TO MEDJUGORJE SAVED MY HUSBAND’S LIFE

By Teresa Fama -- THE MEDJUGORJE STAR

Little did I know that my trip with St. Aidan’s group would be life-transforming, not only for my husband,

Augie, but for me as well.

When our group arrived in Yugoslavia in 1987, we were delayed by authorities, which was quite upsetting. Sr. Marci kept us peaceful and was determined nothing was going to take away from our visit. In 1987, there were no hotels, motels or restaurants in the area. We shared a home with nine people, with only one bathroom. Nothing could take away from the mission we had so looked forward to.

The week we spent away was phenomenal! The church was crowded with people at the 6:00 pm Mass, where the Blessed Mother would appear to the visionaries. Flashing lights would signal her arrival and again when she left. I kept praying for some proof to bring back home to those who did not believe in the daily appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary. My prayers were answered when I looked up at the choir loft and saw her image, from floor to ceiling, in pale pink. I was astounded. I asked the Lord, “Is this Your mother?” She took a step closer and be- came a deeper, brighter pink. My friend, Lynn, who was standing with me also saw her. We were so stunned, we started crying. It was incredible!

The visionaries told us when the Blessed Mother would be appearing to them on Mt. Podbrdo, which would be an evening event. The weather was rainy on that particular night, but, as we climbed the small mountain, we all sang, “Ave Ave, Ave Maria.” It was a struggle to keep from falling on the wet, muddy and slippery rocks, while carrying umbrellas and flashlights. When we reached the top, we were disappointed to find that the Blessed Mother had already spoken to the visionaries with Baby Jesus in her arms on a huge rock, and then she left. Standing by the rock, we felt it was so sacred! While on the mountain, I offered my umbrella to a woman who was there for hours. She looked up at me and said, “I’m not getting wet.” Also, the candles were still burning during this very wet night. It was such a humbling experience.

The next day, the visionaries showed us the rock the Blessed Mother stood on. Her message was ... Peace, peace, peace ... only achieved through personal and universal repentance, prayer and fasting, plus a deeply-rooted faith. This will lead to true peace in oneself, as well as peace in the world.

The peace we felt all week was amazing. I lost ten pounds that week. Food did not interest me. That alone was a little miracle. We witnessed the miracle of the sun. It was pulsating like a beating heart, coming down toward us and then returning to the sky again.

The people we saw included a blind man climbing Krizevac barefooted. I kept thinking, “What must heaven be like,” when this awesome feeling of the presence of Jesus and His beloved mother is so great here in this rural village.

The day we were to fly home, I felt that I had to go back to Mr. Podbrdo to touch the “rock” the Blessed Mother had stood on. I had this uneasy feeing. My friends tried to talk me out of going back. They were petrified that I would miss the bus taking us to the airport. I prayed that I could do it all in time, running up the hill, never falling. When I got to the very huge “rock,” I noticed a piece of rock on the ground. I picked it up and molded it into the “rock” like a puzzle peace. This I took with me when I left the mountain. I did get back in time to go to Mass. My intention was to break the stone into small pieces and give them to my fellow travelers, but they had other thoughts.

They told me that the stone was my reward for going back, plus it had the letter T etched all over it. My name is Teresa.

On the plane home to New York, I was deep in thoughts of the supernatural events that had occurred in Medjugorje. I felt very close to Jesus and His beloved mother, looking out the window and thinking that just above the clouds is heaven! Then a very strange thing happened: I kept hearing a voice saying, “Take him to the doctor, take him to the doctor.”

My husband, Augie, was only 60 years old at the time. He seemed to be in good health. He never smoked, drank or ever complained of pain. Why would he need to go to a doctor? I could not let this go. He made an appointment to see a cardiologist who could not understand why we were insisting on a test to check his heart. During the test, it was found that Augie had five blocked arteries in his heart. The cardiologist would not let him get out of bed and performed surgery the next day. The doctor was astonished and told us that my husband could have had a fatal heart attack if the surgery was not performed immediately. That was 24 years ago. Augie is now 85, we are retired, live in Florida, enjoying the extra years the Blessed Mother gave us.

I share my story with you now because I experienced the heavenly intercession of our Blessed Mother. She is only interested in bringing the faithful back to her Son. Her blessing remains alive not only within my heart, but with all who feel her love. The urgent message is to reconcile with Jesus Christ and bring peace to a dangerously troubled world. God bless you.

Liberty Counsel-Eric Holder’s Political Prosecution of Pro-Life Educator Thrown Out of Court

2012-01-17T06:59:00.000-08:00

Liberty Counsel

Press Release

January 16, 2012

Eric Holder’s Political Prosecution of Pro-Life Educator Thrown Out of Court

Judge suspects conspiracy between Eric Holder’s DOJ and abortion clinic to violate pro-lifers’ First Amendment rights

www.LC.org

West Palm Beach, FL – A federal judge has ended Attorney General Eric Holder’s two-year political prosecution of pro-life educator Mary Susan Pine. Holder accused Pine of obstructing the entrance to an abortion clinic, in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (“FACE”). Holder sought thousands of dollars in fines against Pine, as well as a permanent injunction banning her from counseling women on the public sidewalk outside the Presidential Women’s Center (“PWC”) abortion clinic, where she has faithfully ministered for over 20 years. Liberty Counsel successfully defended Pine.

In granting summary judgment, Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp concluded that “the evidence could not lead a rational jury to find that Ms. Pine’s conduct [i.e., having peaceful conversations with clinic visitors on a public sidewalk] constituted a physical obstruction within the meaning of FACE.” He also concluded that the government lacked evidence to prove not just one, but “all three elements of its FACE claim.” Judge Ryskamp chastised Holder for seeking to apply federal law in a clearly unconstitutional manner: “Stretching the terms of FACE to apply to this case … so that a desire to provide people with information about alternatives to abortion constitutes an unlawful motive, would unjustifiably impinge on Ms. Pine’s First Amendment rights.”

The Government’s decision to prosecute Pine despite having no evidence of wrongdoing prompted Judge Ryskamp to suspect a conspiracy at the highest level of the Obama Administration: “The Court is at a loss as to why the Government chose to prosecute this particular case in the first place,” he wrote. “The Court can only wonder whether this action was the product of a concerted effort between the Government and the PWC, which began well before the date of the incident at issue, to quell Ms. Pine's activities rather than to vindicate the rights of those allegedly aggrieved by Ms. Pine's conduct.”

Harry Mihet, Senior Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel, commented: “This is a tremendous victory not just for Susan Pine, but for the First Amendment and the pro-life movement. Attorney General Holder sought to use federal law as a billy club against pro-lifers, but received instead a clobbering from the very Constitution he had sworn to protect. Freedom-loving Americans everywhere should rejoice.”

Sky View: Shacking-up breaks up

2012-01-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

Sky View: Shacking-up breaks up

Shacking-up breaks up

An Irresistible Opportunity:

About fifteen years ago, I used to teach Christian morality at an all-boys Catholic high school in the Chicago area. As is the case now days, many of the students were more influenced by worldly standards than they were of Gospel values. As such, they were convinced by conventional thinking that “shacking-up” with a girl friend or prospective wife would be a good method of determining whether or not a life-long marriage would work out. With that said, I challenged them with an unprecedented and irresistible opportunity: I told them if they could find a study which supported their opinion that living together with a girl friend lends itself to a longer marriage that they would receive so much extra credit that they would not have to another homework assignment for the rest of the year. As soon as my students heard my proposal, there were shouts of “all right!” In no uncertain terms did they express their confidence that the extra credit was theirs for the taking.

Two or three weeks later, one by one, my students approached me in private. They asked, “Mr. Tremblay, could I still have the extra credit if I show that cohabitation increases the chances for divorce.” I did give them some extra credit on the condition that they (especially the most vocal of my opponents) get up in front of the class and present their findings.

A Few Statistics:

“Living together is not a trial of marriage, but rather a training for divorce.” Here are some statistics from the book, Marriage Savers. They can be verified in just about any study on how cohabitation adversely affects the longevity of marriage:

• More than eight out of ten couples who live together will break up either before the wedding or afterwards in divorce.

• Couples who do marry after living together are 50% more likely to divorce than those who did not.

• The number of unmarried couples living together soared 12-fold from 430,000 in 1960 to 5.4 million in 2005.

As to this latter point, the data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey and 2010 Current Population Survey confirmed that marriage is going out of style. This is what they found:

• Between 2000 and 2009, the share of young adults ages 25 to 34 who are married dropped 10 percentage points, from 55 percent to 45 percent.

• Among the total population ages 18 and older, the proportion married dropped from 57 percent in 2000 to 52 percent in 2009.

Trying Them Out:

Supporters of cohabitation reason that a lifelong mate needs to be “tried out.” You know, kind of like a product. Before you buy shoes, you try them on. Before you buy a car, you take it for a test drive. And before you get married, you live together with the prospective spouse without any commitment, see what his or her habits are and, most important, you find out whether or not your partner is “sexually compatible” with you.

However, there is a problem with that reasoning. Human beings are not products. To "try them out" assumes that if the couple’s sex life is good then the relationship too will be good. This cannot be further from the truth. The enjoyment of sex can be experienced between virtual strangers or even between two people who are in no way compatible with one another. Sexual partners are always replaceable; at least as far as a worldly man is concerned. A woman’s appeal, based on mere looks, is never enough incentive for a man to stay committed to the relationship. There can always be another woman that comes along who has an appealing body or a pretty face. Just as important, a man’s attraction to a woman can go just as quickly as it came. All his female partner has to do is become an annoyance, an embarrassment or a burden to him and presto! the magic she once worked on him is gone. Beauty is not only skin deep, with the wrong person it can be like a vapor: here one second, gone the next.

The Bedroom:

What couples also fail to consider- but especially men –is that the bedroom is only one room in the house. A good deal of one’s marriage will be in the kitchen, living room, family room, dining room and yes, sometimes the bathroom. As such, the bedroom is hardly a good laboratory for evaluating the compatibility of one’s relationship. In fact, I would argue that activity in the bedroom before marriage is a significant distraction. After all, the sexual intimacy that is shared- be it real or superficial –can be mistaken for the kind of intimacy needed for a permanent commitment in marriage. And when red flags go up, this part of the relationship can blind a person’s objectivity. Indeed, they may not see each other as they really are because of their attachment to that one aspect of the relationship.

Consider this passage from St. Paul’s letter to St. Timothy. In it he refers to men who sexually exploit women. And from all that I have learned from couples who cohabitate, women are the least happy with this arrangement because it lacks the commitment which would normally make her feel secure in her partner's love. This is what the Apostle wrote:

“For some of these slip into homes and make captives of women weighed down by sins, led by various desires, always trying to learn but never able to reach a knowledge of the truth.” (II Timothy 3: 6-7)

"Always trying to learn but never able to reach the knowledge of the truth." I find this passage very interesting because it speaks to inability of people nowdays to see problem spots in relationships before the big wedding day. I also find it interesting because with the increase of cohabitation comes with it a decrease in understanding...understanding of what real love is.

Never have I heard a couple who was truly in love and compatible with one another come to find out that the sex was not good. So many people have it backwards. A good sex life, by itself, never produces a good and enduring relationship. But a good and loving relationship, based on shared values and commitments, always leads to a good sex life.

The thing to remember is that bed partners are dispensable. But personalities are not. No one can replace a man or a woman who loves certain people and certain things; who possesses certain virtues and certain vices; who has certain habits; who has certain expectations; who comes from a certain family; and who has a certain love God. These features of one's personality makes that special person wholly unique. In discerning a prospective husband or wife, therefore, the real determination should be on the basis of personality not sexual performance.

The Most Important Thing:

Christ thought that romantic and sexual love was so important that He elevated its status from a mere institution to a Sacrament. From the sacramental grace of matrimony comes the strength that is needed to fulfill the dream and aspiration of that “forever kind of love” couples experience. It is in the act of “falling in love” that the couples comes in contact with the eternal love that the Lord has to offer. That is why married love requires three: God, man and woman. And out of this holy union comes forth the miracle of new life.

Therefore, the relationship between a man and a woman is not a trivial thing. It can make or break a person’s life, it determines the welfare of society and it impacts the salvation of souls. This is why when a man and a woman who set out to make a life with each other benefits immensely from a wedding ceremony. Vows before God and the community elicit the support that is needed to ensure a lifelong marriage. Indeed, the Church takes them at their word and blesses their moral determination to love one another forever.

This leads to the most important thing: Cohabitation, because it involves sexual activity outside of wedlock, is a sin against God. It offends him and his goodness. Unfortunately, many dioceses and parishes throughout America routinely fall short in teaching this truth. Often, they do not require the repentance and the practice of virtue which are necessary for the subsequent demands of marriage. Nevertheless, Catholics cannot be afraid to mention the word “sin.” To know its reality is to be one step closer to being liberated from it. Without its mention, Jesus Christ as Savior becomes totally unintelligible. But not only is it a sin to live together, it is a mortal sin; one that compromises the salvation of one’s soul. St. Paul reminded the Christians in Corinth of this sobering reality:

“Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals…will inherit the kingdom of God.” (I Corinthians 6:9-10)

This needs to be mentioned. Couples need to know about this sin because they need God’s blessing. It is precisely because living together before marriage is a sin before God that it breaks up the holiest of unions.

Leah Darrow Conversion Story - fashion model turns model Catholic

2012-01-15T05:09:00.000-08:00

Former model turns talents toward Christian life

Telegram photo by Cole W. Eberle

COLUMBUS - Wearing a pleated blue skirt, black high heels and a flashy ring on her right hand, Leah Darrow doesn't hide her love for fashion.

Former America's Next Top Model contestant, Leah Darrow, speaks to students at Scotus in the Dowd Activity Center Thursday afternoon about her path through life and how it has affected her Catholic faith. Darrow is now an apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers.

She enjoyed it so much that it lead her to become a contestant on the reality TV show "America's Next Top Model," and later, a career in the industry.

She was successful, earning up to $16,000 a day on some fashion shoots. But an incident during one particular shoot for an international magazine changed her life.

Darrow, an Oklahoma native, shared her story in Columbus Thursday, speaking at Scotus Central Catholic. Her journey is one of faith, love and forgiveness of self.

Raised a Catholic, Darrow never shied away from her religion, but admits that she didn't always live her life according to her faith. Those transgressions stayed with her and developed into a self-hate.

"Sometimes you are your own worst enemy because you are reminding yourself over and over and over" of the past, Darrow said.

Those decisions, she said, included abusing her body through "impure" relationships in high school and college and drinking.

"I was Catholic and told everyone I was Catholic. But my actions were definitely not Catholic, definitely not Christian," she said.

Darrow said she knew of God's mercy and forgiveness, but never really believed in it. So she continued on her path that revolved around the material world as she pursued a modeling career in New York. It wasn't until that magazine photo shoot that she began to have a conversion experience.

The people in charge wanted her to give a sexy and sultry look wearing skimpy outfits. During the photography session, there was an instant when she said everything changed. Describing it as a spiritual and mystical moment, it hit her that she was nothing more than a puppet.

"I realized in that moment that nobody in this industry really does care at all about me. They were using me like I used people," she said.

She quit on the spot and left the modeling profession. She called her dad, who was living in St. Louis, to come pick her up in New York and take her home.

"I had no idea what I had just done. I had just ended my career. No more $8,000 checks. No more money. No more fame. No more red carpet events. No more celebrities."

Those were all things she thought would make her happy, but they came at a cost. She felt like she was losing her soul.

Her conversion didn't happen as soon as her dad picked her up. Just wanting change wasn't enough.

"In my mind I had this little fairy-ish girl who just twirls and says, ‘I've changed,' and then it's done. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that," Darrow said.

Her dad pushed her to go to church where she went to confession. It was then that she said she received mercy and forgiveness and felt at peace. That feeling lead her to pledge to never again believe the lies of our culture that lead her on the path that she was on before.

She said she never really understood what love meant and was looking for it in ways of the world. But now she defines love as desiring the greatest good for God.

"If you really love someone you're not taking them to the brink of sin. If you really love someone you are not asking them to engage in something that will hurt you and them," Darrow said.

After returning home to St. Louis, Darrow began working with Catholic Answers, a lay-run apostolates organization. It is a long way from the fashion runways, but a change that she said others can take, too.

"Never let anyone tell you that you can not change. Never let anyone tell you that you can not do something better than what you are doing right now," she said.

Was The Good Thief Saved By Faith Alone?

2012-01-15T05:08:00.000-08:00

SKY VIEW-- ETERNITY FOR SKEPTICS AND NON-BELEIVERS

2012-01-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

SKY VIEW -- ETERNITY FOR SKEPTICS AND NON-BELIEVERS
EXCERPT-II. Conscience and Church:Just as God can reveal himself either indirectly through the design and beauty of his creation or directly by personally revealing himself, let’s say, in a vision or apparition, he can likewise make his law known through the human conscience or through the prophetic and infallible voice of the Catholic Church.

Our conscience is that inner-voice from God (however faint) or that interior sense of right and wrong. It gives us peace when we do right and guilt when we do wrong. But it has one advantage and one disadvantage: The advantage is that it is immediate; it is always ready to be used. When we are forced to make a moral decision in the moment, obviously we don’t always have time to consult the Catholic Catechism. We must, therefore, in times of uncertainty, use the lights of our conscience. The disadvantage is that our conscience is fallible. It is prone to error because it can be diminished or deadened through sin, emotions or personal bias.

As stated, the prophetic voice of the Catholic Church is infallible. We can always rely on it to be the truth coming from God. Jesus said to his Apostles, the first bishops, that those who hear you hear me and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven etc. But the disadvantage is, as mentioned, that access to the truth of Divine Revelation as taught by the Church is not always immediately available. If a Catholic simply does not know what the Church teaches when faced with a moral dilemma or if a person was never told that premarital sex, cohabitation, contraception or homosexuality was a sin, then he would have to rely on his conscience, however uninformed it might be. But being in the state of ignorance he would be less guilty when he comes to meet God face-to-face. After all, St. James says, “So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin.” (James 4:17) To repeat, being guilty of sin presupposes that you know what the right thing to do is and you know what the wrong thing to do is- and then you do the wrong.

SKY VIEW - THE BOOK OF CONFIDENCE

2012-01-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

The Book of Confidence: Try it!

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 10:19 PM PST

Whether you are challenged with overwhelming obstacles or just undertaking your daily responsibilities, The of Book of Confidence by Father Thomas de Saint-Laurent draws upon the wisdom of Saints and great thinkers of the Church in order to persuade the reader that God and his plan can be depended on. In fact, the chosen instrument of God to strengthen our confidence in him is adversity. Yes, virtues are tested by its opposite. Hence, confidence in God is tested by those very circumstances which naturally lend themselves to anxiety and uncertainty.

Excerpts from The Book of Confidence:

Neither the most afflicting temporal misfortunes nor the greatest spiritual difficulties will disturb the peace of the confident soul.

The soul will lean on Him with a certainty that increases in proportion to the degree that she feels herself deprived of human help.

On one of his journeys, Saint Martin fell into the hands of highwaymen. The bandits stripped him and were going to kill him. Suddenly, however, touched by the grace of repentance or moved by a mysterious fear, they turned him loose and, against all expectations, freed him. Later, the illustrious bishop was asked if, during the pressing danger, he had not felt some fear.

"None," he responded. "I knew that as human help became more improbable, the divine intervention was all the more certain."

"Providence," Louis of Granada used to say, "wishes to give the solution to the extraordinary difficulties of life directly, while it leaves to secondary-causes the resolving of ordinary difficulties." But it is always necessary to cry out for divine help.

This is the doctrine taught by St. Francis de Sales: "Providence only delays in coming to our aid in order to excite us to confidence. If our Heavenly Father does not always grant us what we ask, it is because He desires to keep us at His feet and to provide us with an occasion to insist with loving violence in our petitions to Him. He showed this clearly to the two disciples at Emmaus, with whom He did not consent to remain until the close of the day, and even after they had pressed Him."

Therefore, do not be discouraged when the mirage of human assistance fades away. To count on nothing but the help of heaven, is this not already a most high virtue?

Our Lord Jesus says, "Seek, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."

It is not enough for us to skip lightly over this discourse of Our Lord. We must fix our attention on it in order to seek its profound significance and to imbue our souls deeply with its doctrine.

It behooves us, then, not afflict ourselves. We must occupy reasonably with our obligations, not allowing ourselves to be dominated by anguish over the somber prospects of the future, and counting without hesitation on the aid of Divine Providence. The Lord will occupy Himself all the more with our interests when we concern ourselves with His interests.

Mary’s Womb: The Temple of Jesus Christ

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 12:27 PM PST

Excerpts from the writings of Archbishop William Ullathorne (1806-1889), first Catholic bishop of Birmingham, England.

From the moment of His conception He had already made His oblation, for as St. Paul says: ‘Coming into the world, He said, A body you have fitted to me. Holocausts for sin did not please you. Behold I come. In the head of the book it stands written of me: that I should do your will, O God’ (Heb 10:5-7). And Mary was the most pure temple in which the great High Priest made His offering. There He had first offered up that blood, there He first offered up that flesh, of which He said at a later time: ‘If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you shall have life. As the Father lives in me, and I live by the Father, so he who eats me, the same shall live by me’ (John 6:55-58).

But now it is in a far more intimate and constant way that Jesus lives by Mary, and Mary lives by Jesus. Oh, who can tell that mystery of life? Who can comprehend that union between the two hearts of Jesus and Mary? Everyone can understand how much He has been enriched through the heart of His mother, and how His noblest sentiments have been derived from her. But who can understand how Jesus enriched the heart of Mary in that incomparable union? For, next to that union by which Jesus is God and man in one person, there is no union so intimate as that of a mother with a child. The Saints are his brethren by adoption, but Mary is His mother by nature. They have affinity with Him, but she holds with Him the first degree of a relationship through blood. Her graces, then, are quite another order than that which sanctified the very holiest of Saints…Mary is a summary of all the truths of the Gospel, displays all the graces of her Son, strikes down countless errors, and puts sin, and the author of sin, beneath her stainless feet.

Map of Life: Finish what you began

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 11:34 PM PST

The Word of God is that unchangeable yet inexhaustible standard of truth which has served as a reliable map of life for thousands of years. Map of Life is a feature of Sky View where we garner whatever insights or directives Scripture has to offer (if people like it, we'll post this series a couple of times a week). As the saying goes, praying is our way of speaking to God, reading Scripture is God's way of speaking to us. Indeed our relationship with God is a two way street. To take at least 15-30 minutes a day and meditate on the Word of God. It is food for the soul and light for the mind. Slowly but surely, this spiritual exercise is bound to yield its fruit. You will then notice a difference about the way you see God, yourself and the world around you!

Scripture passage: Luke 14:25-33
Great crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and addressed them, "If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, 'This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.'

Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

Sky View Comments:

These two parables are desperately needed for the spiritual growth and salvation of the individual Catholic and for the vitality of the Church.

1. As it regards to the individual, our Lord makes it clear that his followers must put him first; not just in theory, but in practice. Possessions, family and even the one's own life must be put at his disposal. Not only is he calling for total fidelity but he says anything short of that would disqualify the person from being his followers. Here, Jesus is saying, in so many words, that he will not accept half measures. This is not to say that he is intolerant of imperfect Christians. Not at all! What he is saying- and dare I say this escapes the pastoral practices of many dioceses and parishes –is that at the very least he wants a full commitment; a resolve to believe all that he commanded, to obey all of this laws and to do one’s best to live his life to the full! If the intention is not there to go the distance, then Jesus is telling us- do not even bother! Oh! You might say, “That is harsh.” But it sounds “harsh” only because we have not taken these firm requirements by our Lord very seriously.

2. What else do these parables mean? After all, he wants all of us, not part of us. When we observe eight or nine out of Ten Commandments God is not benefiting from our total fidelity. St. James reminds us of the following: "For whoever keeps the whole law, but falls short in one particular, has become guilty in respect to all of it." Somehow we lead people to believe that they can believe in "most" of what Christ taught and do "most" of what he commanded. However, conversion means turning towards him and, at the same time, turning away from sin. Christ and the Apostles never emphasized the former without also insisting upon the latter. It begs the question: What has been result of emphasizing conversion to Christ without turning away from sin? Ministries like "Catholics Come Home" have been created to win back scores of fallen away Catholics.

Jesus says do not be like the builder who quits half way through the construction of the tower or the king who wages war with his enemy without the resources to finish. That means half measures will not cut it with him nor has it attracted prospective converts to the Catholic Church.

As a Church, with regard to our pastoral practices, compassion is defined as “accepting people where they are at.” What this usually translates into is accepting half measures; that is, permitting people to participate in the Sacraments knowing full well that they are not resolved to believe all that Christ taught and do all that he commanded. For instance, when when couples are living in mortal sin via cohabitation, many are not required to repent before the Church blesses their marriage. However, it is important to note that from the early Christian period to the 1950’s, this would not have been allowed.

As these two parables apply to the Church, the pastoral practices from the last fifty years have significantly departed from the standards Jesus had insisted on. If being a disciple of Christ is synonymous with being a Catholic in good standing, then admission into the Church and access to the Sacraments ought to reflect our Lord’s teaching on the parable of the Tower and the King at Battle.

Sky View: In a word: Judging others

2011-12-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

Sky View: In a word: Judging others
In a word: Judging others

In a Word is a feature of Sky View which provides a short commentary or reflection on life, on a current event or a particular book.

People judge others based on who, or rather, what they are. If a politician, for instance, is accustomed to lying and cheating others for short term gain, then when there is a question of someone else’s motive or character he will frequently judge others as he sees himself. This goes for the unjust, narcissistic and bad people in general. Because they are guided only by their own lights and refuse to conform themselves to God's law- a higher standard outside of themselves -it is difficult for them to consider other ways of thinking. And so they project their own ways of thinking and doing unto others.

The gift of faith, on the other hand, trains the mind to see morality and the world from a perspective other than our own. After all, our Lord bids us to take the plank out of our own eye before we attempt to remove the speck out of our brother’s eye. This requires that we take a second look at ourselves; especially from someone else’s vantage point.

With that said, those who are innocent like doves can make the same mistake as people with tainted motives. Those with a well-formed conscience sometimes get into the habit of assigning pure and innocent motives to those who do not merit it. For these who are pure of heart, it is difficult to imagine that someone can deliberately do something we consider to be evil. Perhaps, this is why Jesus said, “Be as simple as doves and wise as serpents.” Simple in that we should do good deeds with honorable motives; wise in that we realize, often painfully, that many in world do not aspire to high moral standards.

The Saints often assumed the best in others and the worst in themselves. Yes, they assume the best in others...until proven otherwise. When evil or immorality can no longer be denied and when trust has been broken, they more than anyone, took strong measures to deal with the evil at hand. They were wise as serpents in that they spared no sacrifice to eliminate and purge the evil in their midst (cf. I Corinthians 5:13). Three motives inspired such moral habits: 1. Love for the sinner. 2. Love for those who would be harmed by the sin 3. And out of love for God and his good will.

Christ calls each of his followers to spiritual and moral vigilance. To think with him is to think big. And to think big brings us to the realization that human beings can achieve the heights of sanctity, and, sadly, fall into the depths of great evil. With informed faith we see the world as it really is and act accordingly.

PROTECTING GOD FROM SKY VIEW BLOG

2011-12-23T07:24:00.000-08:00

THE HARDSHIPS OF PROTECTING GOD

Posted: 22 Dec 2011 09:40 PM PST

Preface:

If only Christians would anticipate hardship as a given, if only they were aware that God’s calling, by design, is not furnished with red carpets and smooth roads, I believe that the Gospel of Life would be accepted by more people. In recent years I have come across both priests and lay people who were inspired by a kind of boldness of faith at the outset of their ministry. Yet, when they encountered rejection and hardships they drew back and had second thoughts about their mission. Indeed, they even asked themselves: “Is this supposed to happen? Is it supposed to be this hard?”

Yes, the best of Catholics have been rattled to the core when it became clear to them that they might have to sit by themselves at lunch or be rebuffed by fellow Catholics or that they might lose some privileges. Sadly, the lives of the Saints and their multiple hardships escape them. Even the inspiration that came with hearing the words of Christ is a distant memory: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)

If anyone’s vocation deserved to be free from the hardships it was St. Joseph’s. After all, he was given the exalted task of protecting God and the Blessed Virgin. Yet from the word “go!” he encountered one hardship after another that could have been easily been prevented by God. In fact, he was given four hardships that gave him great anguish of spirit. If we but seriously meditate on his life we will never approach the work God has for us with the expectation that it should be without hardships. Rejection by our own people, scorn from others, the disappointment of failures, waiting for long periods of time, detours and even the appearance that the Lord himself has abandoned us will not throw us for such a loop. These obstacles will cease to be an excuse not to act and do the right thing! Following the example of St. Joseph, we too can press on and fulfill the mission the Lord has called us to.

Estrangement from His Spouse:

As I mentioned, there are at least four hardships St. Joseph had to endure. As for the first one, here is a short excerpt from a previous Sky View post entitled, St. Joseph and the Sword of Conflict:

“Have you ever wondered why, after appearing to the Blessed Virgin to announce the coming of Christ, the angel Gabriel did not immediately appear to St. Joseph in order to inform him that the Messiah would be conceived of the Holy Spirit; that God would make it possible for Mary to be both virgin and mother?

Instead, there was an interim period of misunderstanding and anguish on the part of St. Joseph. God could have prevented this misunderstanding but he chose not to. And the reason he chose not to was due to some moral and spiritual benefit St. Joseph would gain. Certainly, a lot of tears could have been spared; but often tears can be every bit as redemptive as the blood of martyrs which, as the early Christian adage goes, is the “seed of the Church.”

In his temporary emotional estrangement, St. Joseph, when having the wrong impression about his betrothed, had to rely on God. Indeed, during this short period of time not even the Mother of God could help him because, after all, she was the object of his suspicion and doubt. Alone he stood, confounded over God’s plan and anguished in spirit.”

However, the angel appeared to St. Joseph in a dream in order to vindicate the virginal integrity of Mary’s pregnancy. At last, his anguish was relieved. With a sigh of relief St. Joseph concluded that in good conscience he could remain the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And to be sure, his joy of doing so was revived. But in a matter of a few short months two things were to happen simultaneously that would make his calling as a protector and bread-winner of the Holy Family that much more difficult. Indeed, his hardships were only beginning. After he weathered the first hardship, the second one was soon to follow.

The Edict: Leaving Home

The census edict was issued by Caesar Augustus enjoining the head of each household to register in their hometown just when Mary was due to give birth. From a human point of view, the timing could not be worse. And as for St. Joseph, he probably hadn’t been to his hometown in Bethlehem, where he was to comply with this edict, in quite some time. After all, the traveling distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem was at least a two to three day walk, maybe even more. And because of the edict, traveling from one town to another would be like traveling on a busy holiday. Scores of people would be frequenting the roads and the inns. By the time the Holy Family would get to Bethlehem, St. Joseph’s innate instinct as a husband and father to provide for his Family would be greatly challenged.

St. Joseph's second hardship then was leaving the security of his work and the comforts of his home when his Spouse needed the best kind of care for the birth of her first born child. Such was God's will. But as Jesus would say some thirty years later, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." This man of God would be forced to totally rely on Divine Providence. Once the Holy Family arrived in Bethlehem, another hardship awaited him.

Failure to Provide:

Certainly a man as good as St. Joseph would deserve the hospitality of Bethlehem, his hometown, and any accommodations it could afford to provide. Certainly a nice warm room or a spacious house would be made available to him. And certainly if he was called to make these sacrifices for the Son of God he would get a little cooperation from Divine Providence. God's ways are not our ways. The third hardship that was imposed on St. Joseph was certainly not to his liking. After all, there is no worse feeling for a man than to not be able to provide room and board for his family. A quick glance at this story and images of that cold Christmas night may give the average person warm feelings. But when one really sits down and meditates on the real historic details of that story, one cannot help but consider the angst and worry St. Joseph must have felt after having encountered one closed door after another. It is even conceivable that he was tempted to despair. What a failure he must have felt!

Regarding God’s chosen servants, Fr. Paul Marie de la Croix said that “sometimes they encounter a failure which he permits even though he has first assured victory; sometimes, for no apparent reason, they experience a reversal of God’s relationship to them. They seem to be permanently abandoned or even rejected, though divine favor and friendship had been theirs before. They have not been guilty of the slightest infidelity, but they must become fit for the final mystery of faith.” Indeed, in the eyes of the world being forced to seek shelter in a cave right outside of Bethlehem is not a blessing but a curse. However, it was the will of Jesus Christ himself, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, to be born in humble circumstances. It was fitting that the King of Kings be born in a grotto so that even the despised and yet humble shepherds would approach him and do him homage. Hence, little did St. Joseph know that what appeared to be a failure on his part was a great blessing for the world. The simplicity of the crèche and the manager was not only an invitation for the lowly but it would inspire virtues of detachment and a love of poverty among many Christians.

Off to a Foreign Land:

St. Joseph’s resignation to the designs of providence would pay off. Soon after Christmas night, the Magi brought with them gifts for the newborn Messiah. Among these gifts was gold. This would come in handy for yet another hardship St. Joseph would have to endure. Due to the three kings (the Magi) seeking the new born Messiah in Jerusalem, the jealousy of King Herod was provoked. He launched a military campaign to kill every last child under the age of two in the town of Bethlehem. However, God was one step ahead of this ruler. This is when St. Joseph’s fourth hardship kicked in. “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.’"

“Wait a minute! Where are we going to stay? Just how long do we have to be in Egypt How am I going to provide for Mary and Jesus?” These were just a few of the unanswered questions St. Joseph could have asked. There was no indication as to how long they would have to stay. A short meditation of this episode will bring to our attention how difficult that must have been! Taking refuge in a foreign land amidst a foreign people for safety is one thing; but to do so without knowing for how long is a real test of faith. After six months in Egypt there was no dream telling him to go home; after several months- no dream; and after a year- again, no dream! Ancient tradition has it that the Holy Family lived in Egypt anywhere from two and half years to seven years. The Fathers of the Church differ on this point.

Nevertheless, in order for St. Joseph to fulfill his mission he had to have strength of character, the endurance of faith and a spirit of detachment. For a short period of time, he thought he would have to say good-bye to Mary, his Spouse. And Scripture indicates he was willing to do just that. He also was called to say good-bye to his work and home because of Caesar’s edict. And finally he was forced to say good-bye to his fatherland, namely, his country.

Yet, for all of his sacrifices the Lord blessed him with many years in Nazareth with Mary and Jesus as his companions. What a paradise that Nazareth home must have been! The family conversations, the love and the peace of that household had to be a microcosm of heaven. And just as important, he was blessed with Mary and Jesus at his side on his deathbed. Indeed, the Lord compensated for every hardship St. Joseph was willing to endure for his sake.

For us Christians who are called to protect and advance the causes of God how can we not expect hardships? But if we endure them faithfully and press forward as St. Joseph did, how can we not expect his blessings?

JOSHUA HEALED IN MEDJUGORJE

2011-12-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/4034/medjugorje-visit-cured-boy-from-cancer/ - TO READ ENTIRE STORY

For eight months, 2 years old Joshua battled a last stage cancer that brought him through a transplantation, 80 chemotherapy cures, and 17 radiotherapy sessions. When nothing worked, his parents took their son to Medjugorje. Back home, tests showed 19 tumors and all bone metastases to be gone as the beginning of Joshua’s now complete recovery.

Joshua de Nicolo with his mother, Elizabeth

Before he turned three years old, Joshua de Nicolo had experienced more hardships, drama, and obvious grace than many people do in an entire life.

The boy from Putignano in southern Italy was born with an un-discovered neuroblastoma, the most common form of infancy cancer, in February 2007. It took 22 months for Joshua’s true condition to be found in January 2009 when the illness had progressed to its last stage, 4D, where long-term survival rates are poor despite aggressive multimodal therapy.

Doctors gave Joshua only days or weeks to live when his parents took him to Medjugorje in June 2009. Just before departure, the boy’s white blood cell numbers dramatically improved, and Joshua immediately felt well in Medjugorje, his parents testify. Joshua felt even better after Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo’s apparition on July 2nd 2009 when he was placed beside the visionary. After that, he seemed relieved from pain.

THE ENDING -One year after their first visit, the family returned to Medjugorje to give thanks. For Joshua, that meant one more unusual experience:

“After twelve months, we returned with a cured child” Elizabeth de Nicolo tells.

“There I saw Joshua lift up his eyes and smile. I knew something special was taking place. When I asked him why he smiled and looked at the sky and said “Have a peaceful and joyful Christmas”, he told me he was seeing the Madonna and beside her was Padre Pio who was smiling at him.”

In God's Company 2: A Family On Our Route

2011-12-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

In God's Company 2: A Family On Our Route: Fr. Kevin Scallon & Sr. Briege Mc Kenna A family on our route Recently, we rejoiced over Sr. Briege McKenna's presence at our home. S...

In God's Company 2: The Virgin Mary Appears In Prison.

2011-12-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

In God's Company 2: The Virgin Mary Appears In Prison.: The Virgin Appears In Prison The Medjugorje Sentinel, by Padraig Caughey In 1982, when I was 26 years old, I was captured by the Britis...

I said in despair, "Padre Pio, go to God, and ask Him to prove to me that He really exists in the space of one 'Hail Mary.' If He does not, I will know for certain that He does not exist, and I can go ahead and kill myself."

Our Lady Appeared! As soon as I had said, "Hail Mary," my

In God's Company 2: The Disappearing Priest

2011-12-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

In God's Company 2: The Disappearing Priest: Saint Elijah's Church The Disappearing Priest By Tony Zuniga Fr. Jozo is considered by many to be a living saint. He went to prison t...

At the moment of Consecration, when the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ during the Mass, Fr. Jozo repeated Jesus’s words, “This is My Body!” As he slowly raised the Sacred Host, I heard two loud thumps to my right. Startled, I turned my head in that direction. Two women who were standing nearby had just dropped hard on their knees, as if hit by a two by four. I found out later that one of them did not believe in Jesus, and the other one did not believe in Mary. Apparently their conversion took place in an instant. tant.

Kreeft:Pro-Abort Catholics More Damaging than Sex Abuse Scandal

2011-11-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

Kreeft: Pro-Abort Catholics More Damaging than Sex Abuse Scandal

Boston College Professor and author Peter Kreeft told a group of 500 at the Bishop O’Connor Center in Madison that pro-abortion Catholics have done more damage to the Church than the sex abuse scandal, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Kreeft’s speech was focused on whether Catholics could be liberals and quickly turned to the issue of abortion where he said, “A Catholic cannot be today what is called a liberal about abortion. That’s obvious. That’s a ‘duh.’”

But a question from an audience member had Kreeft elaborating further:

During the Q&A, an audience member brought up the Kennedy political dynasty and how a group of leading theologians and Catholic college professors had met with Kennedy family members in the mid-1960s and came up with a way for Catholic politicians to support a pro-abortion rights platform with clear consciences.

Kreeft said these Catholic advisers “told the Kennedys how they could get away with murder.” Kreeft then made one of his boldest comments of the evening, suggesting the theologians who first convinced Democratic politicians they could support abortion rights and remain Catholic did more damage to the Catholic Church than pedophile priests.

“These were wicked people. These were dishonest people. These were people who, frankly, loved power more than they loved God,” Kreeft said. “Sorry, that’s just the way it is. In fact, I’d say these were even worse than the child molesters — though the immediate damage they did was not as obvious — because they did it deliberately, it wasn’t a sin of weakness. Sins of power are worse than sins of weakness. Cold, calculating sins — that’s straight from the devil.”

A few minutes later, the talk over, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Kreeft: Pro-Abort Catholics More Damaging than Sex Abuse Scandal « Campus Notes

Sky View: The New Translation & Inspired Leadership

2011-11-28T08:43:00.000-08:00

Sky View: The New Translation & Inspired Leadership click on to read entire article

The truth may be surprising. After several decades of our society relegating religion to the private sphere, the average person would be hard pressed to see that the Catholic Liturgy (or Mass) has any relevance to political leadership. But it does, albeit indirectly.

The New Translation of the Catholic Mass is due to be implemented in Catholic churches throughout the world this Advent in 2011. In short, it is an attempt to reflect more accurately the founding principles of Catholicism. Indeed, more expressions from Scripture and the writings of the early Church Fathers will be used. Pope Benedict XVI maintains that the Church stands and falls with the liturgy. He said, “When the faith no longer appears in its fullness in the Liturgy of the Church, when man’s words, his thoughts, his intentions are suffocating him, then faith will have lost the place where it is expressed and where it dwells.” Unfortunately, in the late 1960s going into the 1970s, that fullness of faith had diminished somewhat with the translation of the Mass from Latin into the vernacular. The New Translation, however, is a return to that fullness of faith which the Liturgy has traditionally expressed.

For example,

Sky View: Einstein: Standing Across the Path of Hitler

2011-11-27T09:07:00.000-08:00

Sky View: Einstein: Standing Across the Path of Hitler

St. Catherine of Alexandria-November 25 – She Defied the Emperor

2011-11-25T07:52:00.000-08:00

November 25 – She Defied the Emperor

St. Catherine of Alexandria

Feastday: November 25

St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr whose feast day is November 25th. She is the patroness of philosophers and preachers.

St. Catherine is believed to have been born in Alexandria of a noble family. Converted to Christianity through a vision, she denounced Maxentius for persecuting Christians. Fifty of her converts were then burned to death by Maxentius.

Maxentius offered Catherine a royal marriage if she would deny the Faith. Her refusal landed her in prison. While in prison, and while Maxentius was away, Catherine converted Maxentius' wife and two hundred of his soldiers. He had them all put to death.

Catherine was likewise condemned to death. She was put on a spiked wheel, and when the wheel broke, she was beheaded. She is venerated as the patroness of philosophers and preachers. St. Catherine's was one of the voices heard by St. Joan of Arc.

Maxentius' blind fury against St. Catherine is symbolic of the anger of the world in the face of truth and justice. When we live a life of truth and justice, we can expect the forces of evil to oppose us. Our perseverance in good, however, will be everlasting.

from Wikipedia

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine (Greek ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς) is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted scholar, who became a Christian around the age of fourteen, and herself converted hundreds of people to Christianity. Over 1,100 years following her martyrdom, St. Joan of Arc identified Catherine as one of the Saints who appeared to her and counselled her.[⁴]

The Orthodox Church venerates her as a Great Martyr, and celebrates her feast day on 25 November. In the Catholic Church she is traditionally revered as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. In 1969 the Catholic Church removed her feast day from the General Roman Calendar;[⁵] however, she continued to be commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on November 25.[⁶] In 2002, her feast was restored to the General Roman Calendar as an optional memorial.

Life story

According to the traditional narrative, Catherine was the beautiful daughter of the pagan King Costus and Queen Sabinella, who governed Alexandria. Her superior intelligence combined with diligent study left her exceedingly well-versed in all the arts and sciences, and in philosophy etc. Having decided to remain a virgin all her life, she announced that she would only marry someone who surpassed her in beauty, intelligence, wealth, and dignity. This has been interpreted as an early foreshadowing of her eventual discovery of Christ. "His beauty was more radiant than the shining of the sun, His wisdom governed all creation, His riches were spread throughout all the world."[¹] Though raised a pagan, she became an ardent Christian in her teenage years, having received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, in which the Blessed Virgin gave Catherine to Jesus in mystical marriage.

As a young adult, she visited her contemporary, the Roman Emperor Maxentius, and attempted to convince him of the moral error in persecuting Christians for not worshipping idols. The emperor arranged for a plethora of the best pagan philosophers and orators to dispute with her, hoping that they would refute her pro-Christian arguments, but Catherine won the debate and succeeded in converting all of them to Christianity, for which the philosophers and orators were executed by an enraged Maxentius. Catherine was then scourged and put in prison, during which time over two hundred people came to see her, including Maxentius' wife the empress, all of whom converted to Christianity and were therefore martyred. [⁷] Upon the failure of Maxentius to make Catherine yield by way of torture, he tried to win the beautiful and wise princess over by proposing marriage to her, at which point in time the Saint declared that her spouse was Jesus Christ, to whom she had consecrated her virginity. The furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on the spiked breaking wheel, an instrument of torture. The wheel was miraculously destroyed, however, in answer to St. Catherine's prayer, and so Maxentius had to settle for beheading her.

Icon of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with scenes from her martyrdom.

According to a Christian tradition dating to about 800, angels carried her body to Mount Sinai, where, in the 6th century, the Eastern Emperor Justinian had established what is now known as Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, (in fact dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ). The main church was built between 548 and 565, and the monastery became a major pilgrimage site for Catherine and the other relics and sacred sites there. Saint Catherine's Monastery survives, a famous repository of early Christian art, architecture and illuminated manuscripts that remains open to tourists and visiting scholars.

Historicity

Donald Attwater characterizes the "legend" of St. Catherine as "the most preposterous of its kind" citing the lack of any "positive evidence that she ever existed outside the mind of some Greek writer who first composed what he intended to be simply an edifying romance."[⁸] Harold T. Davis confirms that "assiduous research has failed to identify Catherine with any historical personage" and has theorized that Catherine was an invention inspired to provide a counterpart to the story of the slightly earlier pagan philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria.[⁹][¹⁰]

The earliest surviving account of St. Catherine's life comes over 500 years after the traditional date of her martyrdom, in the monologium attributed to Emperor Basil I (866), although the rediscovery of her relics at Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai was about 800.,[¹¹] and presumably implies an existing cult at that date (the common name of the monastery developed after the discovery).

Medieval cult

St. Catherine was one of the most important saints in the religious culture of the late middle ages, and arguably considered the most important of the virgin martyrs, a group including Saint Agnes, Margaret of Antioch, Saint Barbara, Saint Lucy, Valerie of Limoges and many others. Her power as an intercessor was renowned, and firmly established in most versions of her hagiography, in which she specifically entreats Jesus at the moment of her death to answer the prayers of those who remember her martyrdom and invoke her name.

The development of her medieval cult was spurred by the reported rediscovery of her body around the year 800 at Mount Sinai, with hair still growing and a constant stream of healing oil emitting from her body.[¹¹] There are a handful of pilgrimage narratives that chronicle the journey to Mount Sinai, most notably those of John Mandeville and Friar Felix Fabri.[¹²] However, the monastery at Mount Sinai was the best-known site of Catherine pilgrimage, but was also the most difficult to reach. The most prominent western shrine was the monastery in Rouen that claimed to house Catherine's fingers. It was not alone in the west, however, accompanied by many, scattered shrines and altars dedicated to Catherine, which existed throughout France and England. Some were better known sites, such as Canterbury and Westminster, which claimed a phial of her oil, brought back from Mount Sinai by Edward the Confessor.[¹³] Other shrines, such as St. Catherine's Hill, Hampshire were the focus of generally local pilgrimage, many of which are only identified by brief mentions to them in various texts, rather than by physical evidence.[¹⁴]

Saint Catherine also had a large female following, whose devotion was less likely to be expressed through pilgrimage. The importance of the virgin martyrs as the focus of devotion and models for proper feminine behavior increased during the late middle ages.[¹⁵] Among these, St. Catherine in particular was used as an exemplar for women, a status which at times superseded her intercessory role.[¹⁶] Both Christine de Pizan and Geoffrey de la Tour Landry point to Catherine as a paragon for young women, emphasizing her model of virginity and "wifely chastity."[¹⁷] From the early 14th century the Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine first appears in hagiographical literature and, soon after, in art. In the Western church, concerns over the authenticity of her legend began to reduce her importance in the 18th century.[¹⁸]

Her principal symbol is the spiked wheel, which has become known as the Catherine wheel, and her feast day is celebrated on 25 November by most Christian churches. However, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates it on 24 November. The exact origin of this tradition is not known. In 11th-century Kyivan-Rus, the feast day was celebrated on 25 November. Saint Dimitry of Rostov in his Kniga zhyttia sviatykh (Book of the Lives of the Saints), T.1 (1689) places the date of celebration on 24 November. A story that Empress Catherine the Great did not wish to share her patronal feast with the Leavetaking of the feast of the Presentation of the Theotokos and hence changed the date is not supported by historical evidence. One of the first Roman Catholic churches to be built in Russia, the Catholic Church of St. Catherine, was named after Catherine of Alexandria because she was Catherine the Great's patron.

The 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia describes her historical importance as follows:

Ranked with St Margaret and St Barbara as one of the fourteen most helpful saints in heaven, she was unceasingly praised by preachers and sung by poets. It is believed that Jacques-Benigne Bossuet dedicated to her one of his most beautiful panegyrics and that Adam of St. Victor wrote a magnificent poem in her honour: Vox Sonora nostri chori, etc. In many places her feast was celebrated with the utmost solemnity, servile work being suppressed and the devotions being attended by great numbers of people. In several dioceses of France it was observed as a Holy Day of Obligation up to the beginning of the seventeenth century, the splendour of its ceremonial eclipsing that of the feasts of some of the Apostles. Numberless chapels were placed under her patronage and her statue was found in nearly all churches, representing her according to medieval iconography with a wheel, her instrument of torture. Meanwhile, owing to several circumstances in his life, Saint Nicholas of Myra was considered the patron of young bachelors and students, and Saint Catherine became the patroness of young maidens and female students. Looked upon as the holiest and most illustrious of the virgins of Christ after the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was natural that she, of all others, should be worthy to watch over the virgins of the cloister and the young women of the world. The spiked wheel having become emblematic of the saint, wheelwrights and mechanics placed themselves under her patronage. Finally, as according to tradition, she not only remained a virgin by governing her passions and conquered her executioners by wearying their patience, but triumphed in science by closing the mouths of sophists, her intercession was implored by theologians, apologists, pulpit orators, and philosophers. Before studying, writing, or preaching, they besought her to illumine their minds, guide their pens, and impart eloquence to their words. This devotion to St. Catherine which assumed such vast proportions in Europe after the Crusades, received additional éclat in France in the beginning of the fifteenth century, when it was rumoured that she had spoken to Joan of Arc and, together with St. Margaret, had been divinely appointed Joan's adviser.[¹⁹]

Ring of St. Catherine, given to pilgrims visiting Mount Sinai.

Devotion to Saint Catherine remains strong amongst Orthodox Christians. With the relative ease of travel in the modern age, pilgrimages to Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai have increased. Pilgrims to her monastery on Mt Sinai are given a ring, which has been placed on the relics of the saint as an evlogia (blessing) in remembrance of their visit.

In art

Catherine is very frequently depicted in art, especially in the late Middle Ages, which is also the time that the account of St. Catherine's Mystical Marriage makes its first literary appearance. She can usually be easily recognised as she is richly dressed and crowned, as befits her rank as a princess, and often holds a segment of her wheel as an attribute, or a martyr's palm. She often has long unbound blonde or reddish hair (unbound as she is unmarried). The vision of Saint Catherine of Alexandria usually shows the Infant Christ, held by the Virgin, placing a ring (one of her attributes) on her finger, following some literary accounts, although in the version in the Golden Legend he appears to be adult, and the marriage takes place among a great crowd of angels and "all the celestial court",[²⁰] and these may also be shown.

She is very frequently shown attending on the Virgin and Child, and is usually prominent in scenes of the Master of the Virgo inter Virgines, showing a group of virgin saints surrounding the Virgin and Child. Notable later paintings of Catherine include single figures by Raphael (National Gallery) and Caravaggio (Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum).

Sky View: What you may not know about Christmas

2011-11-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

Sky View: What you may not know about Christmas

If you ever watched the History or Discover Channel you may have come across progressive theologians or historians who dismiss out of hand the historical accounts of Christ's birth as told in the Gospels. Quite often scholars look down upon tradition, the testimonies of the early Christians and their ancient writings. For some of these intellectuals, it is beneath them to give any credibility to traditions associated with piety and religious devotion. Yet, by confining their judgments within the narrow circle of contemporary scholarship, they deprive themselves of valuable insights which the traditions of the Church do provide. Perhaps, this may be one of the reasons why many people do not know the following about Christmas.

Take for instance the date of Christ's birth. Many scholars have said that it is highly unlikely that December 25th was the actual date of our Lord's birth. One principal reason was that shepherds in the Holy Land did not normally graze their pastures with their sheep during the month of December. Rather, the more likely month for such activity would be during the month of March. But, as we shall see, there are reasons to believe that the tradition of the Church got it right.

For starters, early in the fourth century (300's), St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, wrote Pope St. Julius, bishop of Rome, to inquire about the date of Christ’s birth. One might think that if anyone was qualified to answer the question it would be St. Cyril himself; primarily because he was the bishop of Jerusalem, just twelve miles away from Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ. Nevertheless, it just so happened that the city of Jerusalem was pillaged in 70 A.D. by the Roman army, led by General Titus, in order to repress an uprising of Jewish zealots. In the process, the Temple was destroyed and its records- along with the census documents -were brought back to Rome only to be filed among the Roman archives. Less than three hundred years later, these documents were evidently still in existence. Interestingly enough, Pope St. Julius was the acting bishop of Rome after Christianity had been legalized. As such, he had privileged access to the Roman archives. St. Julius wrote back to the Saintly Bishop of Jerusalem and assigned December 25th as the birth date of Jesus Christ. “St. John Chrysostom [Bishop and Father of the Church in the 400's] quotes the same authority of the Roman archives as the source of the date of Christmas.”

As regards to the likelihood shepherds overseeing their sheep on a cold December night, we learn the following: It just so happened that right outside the town of Bethlehem was a watch tower called the Migdal Eder. This was a special watch tower that overlooked a pasture of sheep. But these sheep were no ordinary sheep. The sheep at the Migdal Eder were specially groomed for the temple sacrifice "throughout the year." This pasture land happened to be alongside a road leading to Jerusalem. The Migdal Eder shepherds were trained to keep these sheep unblemished, that is, with no broken bones or any other kind of infirmity. Unblemished lambs, of course, were required by the Law of Moses. These providential circumstances, no doubt, foretold that the Christ-child was the “Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.”

Interestingly, it is believed that the Angel announced the glad tidings of the Saviors birth to these special Migdal Eder shepherds on Christmas night. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that after having witnessed the angelic apparition and having visited the Holy Family, these shepherds got to talking at the temple when they transported the sheep there. Perhaps, this is why St. Simeon and the prophetess Anna (Luke 2) recognized the Christ-child as the long awaited Messiah when he was presented in the temple forty days after his birth. After all, the following prophecy from Micah was well known within the Jewish community: “But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.”

Tradition also has it that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the age of 3 to the time she was betrothed to St. Joseph, had lived in the temple. Just like Hannah did with her son Samuel in the Old Testament, Mary’s parents, St. Anne and St. Joachim, dedicated her to the temple. According to an ancient document known as the Gospel of St. James, Mary was to spend most of her childhood in the temple. As such, her holiness and even her vow of virginity could very well have been made known to the likes of St. Simeon and the prophetess Anna who also lived in the temple (not to be confused with St. Anne, Mary’s mother).

Lastly, some scholars, for their own reasons, have maintained that Christ was not born in Bethlehem but rather in Nazareth. However, the early Christians have something to say about the exact place of Christ’s birth. It was virtually unanimous among the early Christians and Fathers of the Church that Jesus was born just outside of Bethlehem in a cave. St. Justin, a Palestinian by birth and a Christian philosopher who lived about a hundred years after Christ, writes that Jesus was born in a grotto near Bethlehem. He said, “Since Joseph did not find where to lodge in the village of Bethlehem, he repaired to a certain grotto near to it; and being there, Mary brought forth Jesus and laid him in the manger, where the Magi, coming from Arabia, found him.”

About fifty years after St. Justin died (165 A.D.) Origin, a Catholic priest and well known Father of the Church, had this to say: "At Bethlehem is shown a grotto where Jesus was born. The fact is well known throughout the whole country. Even pagans know that in this grotto was born a certain Jesus adored by the Nazarenes." When Christianity finally had become legal in 313 A.D. by the Roman Emperor Constantine, his mother, a canonized Saint, traveled to Bethlehem and found the grotto where our Lord was born. As an ancient Church historian, Eusebius, relates, the Emperors mother restored it. "Helena adorned the holy grotto with rich and varied decorations. Some time later, the Emperor himself, outdoing his mother's munificence, embellished this place in truly royal fashion, lavishing on it gold, silver and sumptuous tapestries.” From that time forward, the grotto, later turned into a shrine, became a favorite holy site for pilgrims.

In conclusion, although modern scholarship has furthered our knowledge about Christ in many ways, it is, nevertheless, comprised of fallible judgments based many premises which may or may not be true. One thing is for sure: If you want to know the truth about Christmas and the circumstances of that wonderful night, we cannot afford to ignore the traditions that have come down to us. They have a lot neat insights to offer. What is more, many of them are credible. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that the story of Jesus Christ’s birth, as it is read to us from the pulpit at Mass on Christmas eve or on Christmas day, really did happen the way the Gospels say they did.

Russians flock to see Virgin Mary relic

2011-11-25T07:11:00.000-08:00

Russians flock to see Virgin Mary relic
Braving freezing cold temperatures and ice-covered sidewalks, tens of thousands of Russians stood in line Wednesday to see and kiss a newly arrived relic of the Virgin Mary in Russia's largest Orthodox cathedral.

The Virgin Mary's Cincture, a belt that Christians believe was worn by Jesus' mother, was brought to Russia last month from Mount Athos, a monastic community in Greece.Kissing the relic, which is encased in an ornamental box, is believed to help barren women conceive and heal other ailments.
The line of people, mostly women, waiting to enter the golden-domed Christ the Savior Cathedral stretched for 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) along the Moscow River despite temperatures that dropped to below minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit).
Hundreds of buses brought pilgrims from other Russian cities. Some 150 buses were parked along the embankment with their engines running so the faithful could get warm as they waited. The city provided free tea and food and put up portable toilets.Police officers announced through bullhorns that it will take worshippers 24 hours to get to the relic as the line swelled to tens of thousands.
Some 1,500 police officers were deployed to prevent people from cutting in line.
Traffic in central Moscow has been snarled since the relic first went on display Saturday. By Wednesday afternoon, as many as 300,000 people had seen the relic, which will remain on display through Sunday.
The St. Andrew's Foundation, which brought the relic to Russia, said it was viewed by 2 million people in 14 other cities before arriving in Moscow.
The Russian Orthodox Church withered under eight decades of Soviet rule, but has enjoyed a resurgence over the past two decades. Russians adopted Christianity in 989 from Byzantine Greeks, and the Russian Orthodox Church has maintained close ties with Greek clergy and monasteries.

Medjugorje Testimony of Fr. & Dr. Erich

2011-11-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

from....www.marytv.tv

Father and Doctor Erich shares his testimony in Vienna

Used with permission from Christian Stelzer

November 24, 2011

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children! Today when Heaven is near to you in a special way, I call you to prayer so that through prayer you place God in the first place. Little children, today I am near you and I bless each of you with my motherly blessing so that you have the strength and love for all the people you meet in your earthly life and that you can give God's love. I rejoice with you and I desire to tell you that your brother Slavko has been born into Heaven and intercedes for you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (November 25, 2000)

Today is the anniversary of the death of Fr. Slavko Barbaric, O.F.M. Fr. Slavko died on Mount Krizevac after completing the Way of the Cross. He remains with us all as an example and an intercessor. Thank you, Fr. Slavko.

Today I want to share this beautiful testimony given in Vienna at St. Stephens Cathedral, on November 17, 2011. Dr. (Rev.) Erich Cohen (I am not sure of the spelling of his name) shared of his journey from a family with no faith to the priesthood. His story is intertwined with Fr. Slavko in a special way. (The video of this testimony may be found atwww.marytv.tv on the video entitled "Ivan's sharing" in the video player entitled Ivan & Cardinal Schoenborn in St. Stephens Cathedral.)

Witness of Dr. Erich Coehn at St. Stephens Cathedral, November 17, 2011:

Yes May Jesus Christ be praised! I am happy that so many people have come to give honor to the Mother of God. In a message she told us: "Be witnesses" and so I wish to give witness to the glory of God and to the Mother of God, who has done so much good in my life.

I come from a family in Tyrol in which faith played no role whatsoever. We were very far away from God, but there was a woman, my Grandmother. She was praying. She was praying for us. She has interceded for us and through her intercession much good has come. She became old, and forgetful. She even forgot to pray, we could say. But in me, God had listened to her, and he planted the seed of faith in my heart.

It began with a crisis. I was in love, and I was looking for the meaning in life. I was thinking about what is important and what is not important. And I found a passage from the Bible in my memory, and it said, "Do unto others what you would have done unto you." And so I thought, if this is in the Bible, I don't need to reflect much more. I will read the Bible, it will be quicker. So I started to spend a lot of time with the Bible, and take a lot of time to read it. I was about 20 years old. I was a student. People came to me, like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the sect of Moon, and they invited me to walk with them, and I actually walked with those sects for a time. It was not easy to get out of those sects. It was not easy.

But I had a very strong experience, and I felt the love of God. And that experience brought me to search for this God. Where does he live, this God? I was allowed to experience God while in the sect of Moon and the Jehovah's Witnesses. I woke up one day and I knew where my home was. I began to know who I was and whom I belonged to. I don't know why. I was living in Innsbruck, in the middle of the city. I went to the window, and the whole city was full of people. There were people on both sides if the street. And I said to them, "Why are you standing in the middle of the street?" And they said, "The Pope is coming to Innsbruck." And I said, "OK." I was standing on the road, and truly, the Pope came in the pope mobile. And he drove straight past the house I was living in and was so close to me. I have never been with him since then. He was 2 meters away, the road was a very narrow one and I was so close to him. And then I went to celebrate the Mass of the Pope, with everybody. It was a very deep experience.

In the spiritual battle [in my soul], the topic was, "Is Jesus really present in the Eucharist or is it just a piece of bread?" That was my spiritual battle. I decided that Jesus is present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. I decided He was there. And I was a member of the Catholic Church from then on. Every Sunday I went to Mass after that, and I was in love with God. I can say that as the Mass continued, when the Pope held up the Cross and he said, "Behold your mother, Behold your son," I didn't know what to do with Our Lady at the time. I didn't understand the Mother of God.

But I was busy with Hildegard of Bingen, and her medicine. And in one of her writings she spoke about Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. And I read in a brochure of Fatima something about this [Heaven, Hell and Purgatory] as well. And when I looked it up, it matched [with what Hildegard had written]. And so I thought "How could the visionaries of Fatima know something of Hildegard of Bingen?" So what happened in Fatima must be true. And that is how I found the Mother of God.

I began to pray the Rosary. Praying the Rosary brought freedom in me, a deliverance in me. When I prayed it for the first time, there was truly dirt and dust around me, and I felt that the dirt and dust was around me and in my soul. I knew it. And I saw that the Rosary is the strongest prayer of protection because we take refuge under Our Lady's mantle. So how did I reach Medjugorje?

My sister did not have much faith and she was talking badly about Medjugorje and making jokes about it. And I said, "If my sister speaks badly about Medjugorje there must be something to it." So how would I get there? I asked and found out about a lady from Innsbruck who did trips to Medjugorje. And that lady didn't do trips in 1993 because there was a war. So she told me to go to Herbert Lebeirer and he told me a bus from the north of Germany, from Bingen, was going to Medjugorje. So I took that bus from Bingen. Just as Hildegard of Bingen was the one to show me the path to Our Lady first, I happened to take a bus from Bingen to go to Medjugorje for the first time - a little detail.

I had a good friend who is a Carthusian. At the time he was a Merciful Brother. He gave me a "Golden Book". He said that when the time has come, then read a bit in that Golden Book. Well without knowing it, I was beginning the Consecration. I didn't know that Medjugorje actually existed, but on the 30th day of that Consecration, I was in Medjugorje. And during the apparition time I made my Consecration to Mary. This is how I arrived in Medjugorje.

I became active in prayer groups, prayer circles. For me this was a very special time because the family of the prayer circle kept me in the faith, encouraged me and carried me. And so I can say that prayer groups, prayer circles are very important now.

Then I finished my studies. I became a medical doctor. After studies, after I began to work, I thought to open my own medical practice. [But first] I thought I would pray a bit, and so I went to the Community of the Beatitudes and lived for a while in Austria. I liked the group very much and I wanted to enter them, and to stay there. But I went to Medjugorje for one year and then things were done I thought. I was going to get married, perhaps stay in Medjugorje as a doctor. There were very few of them at the time. And I was happy with that plan, with what I thought would be my life.

But on one Friday we were doing the Way of the Cross, in November. It was the 24th of November. It was a day when it was raining. And I thought to myself, would I do the Way of the Cross on Krizevac or wouldn't I? It was wet, cold and slippery, and I didn't feel like going. So I had my little battle and I said, "Yes, I will join the Way of the Cross with the parish."

And when I reached the top, Fr. Slavko was before me, with the group of the parish. When I arrived at the 13th Station, I saw young people running, upset, and I thought they were completely crazy, because in the rain you don't run on that slippery earth, on Krizevac, it is very foolish. But I went up and I saw a priest sort of sitting between the rocks. I saw Fr. Slavko was dying. He was already dying. We prayed together and in that moment, it was a mystical moment I must say, the rain stopped, a little rainbow appeared over the church. We all saw it. The clouds had full sun on them. I knew Fr. Slavko had joined heaven.

Six of us carried him down. It was very difficult to carry him down. He was dead, but from the back he banged my back, knocked on my back with his arm. And I remembered that when I spoke with him for the first time that I perhaps had a vocation, he knocked my chest with his hand. First he knocked my heart in my chest, and this time he banged me on my back, saying, "Come on, get going!" And then I went down into the church and without a reason I started to cry for one or two hours in the church. And since that moment, Fr. Slavko has interceded for a great gift for me, a great grace. It is not to look at myself, but to trust in God and serve man. That was the beginning of my path to the priesthood. I then decided to be a priest.

I left the community. I went to Rome. I went to the seminary. I went to the diocese. I became a deacon, I was consecrated. And three years ago, I became a priest. And so I can say that the Mother of God has always been my companion, all my life. Until now she has guided me. She has protected me in very difficult situations. I want to encourage you to always accept this protection. She is here for us. She helps us. She is a great grace. And the vocation for many goes through Medjugorje these days. I want to thank the Mother of God for everything she has done for us and all she is doing for us through her presence. I want to thank Fr. Slavko for his graces and his help. And I want to thank Blessed John Paul II; I want to thank him, who gave birth to me into the Church. He bore me into the Church.

I wish you a beautiful evening full of blessings. And may the Mother of God live in your hearts together with Jesus! (Reverend and Doctor Erich Cohen, Vienna, 11/17/2011)

On this Thanksgiving Day in the USA, we all give thanks for Fr. Slavko Barbaric and his steadfast witness to Our Lady of Medjugorje. And we thank Our Lady for her steadfast love for each of us!

Have a blessed day in Jesus and Mary!

Cathy Nolan

Mary TV

Sky View: T.S. Eliot: God or Dictatorship

2011-11-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

Sky View: T.S. Eliot: God or Dictatorship
Bishop Fulton Sheen (1943): "We do not yet realize this truth, but it is an indisputable fact that a nation's education is far more important than a nation's government. Given one generation educated on the principle that there is no absolute Truth or Justice and our next generation will be a government of power."

Catholic philosopher Etienne Gilson (1951): "To the full extent that it educates, the State educates in view of itself…The only conceivable end of a State-owned education is the State itself. States themselves may not know it. They may sincerely believe that nothing is more foreign to their honest intentions; yet, to put it bluntly, the only reason why a State may not want children to be educated in view of God is that it wants them to be educated in view of itself. Totalitarian education does nothing more than go the whole way along the same line. The result is what we know: political, economic, intellectual and spiritual slavery."

In God's Company 2: The "Hail Mary Prayer" of a Protestant is powerful...

2011-11-19T16:12:00.000-08:00

In God's Company 2: The "Hail Mary Prayer" of a Protestant is powerful...: The "Hail Mary" of a Protestant is powerful!---( A True Story) A little six-year-old Protestant boy had often heard his Catholic companio...

DO NOT APPLAUD AT MASS FOR ANY REASON!!!

2011-11-17T17:51:00.001-08:00

BAKER WON'T BAKE THE CAKE OF LESBIANS

2011-11-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

Baker Won't Play Flour Girl at Gay 'Wedding'

She may be a baker, but Victoria Childress isn't in it for the dough. At her Iowa Cake Cottage, she knows the recipe for success is sticking by your convictions--even if it costs you some business. So when two lesbians asked Childress to make their "wedding" cake this fall, she politely refused. "She introduced herself," Childress told Fox News, "and I said, 'Is this your sister?' She said, 'No, this is my partner.'" At that point, Victoria knew what she had to do. "I was straight-forward with them and explained that I'm a Christian, and that I have very strong [beliefs]." When the couple went to the press with their story, gay activists launched a boycott. "It's not to discriminate against them," Victoria explained on TV. "As I keep saying, it's not so much to do with them as it's to do with me and my walk with God and what I will have to answer for."

The two lesbians don't see it that way. "It was degrading," they told KCCI. But apparently, calling Victoria a bigot is not? Obviously, the only form of discrimination that's acceptable in this country is directed at men and women of faith. Whether this couple likes it or not, religious freedom is for everyone--including Christian business owners. Just because Victoria runs a bakery doesn't mean she has to check her conscience at the kitchen door. Childress is well within her rights to decline an order that would force her to join in the assault on marriage.

Usually, homosexual activists like to sugar-coat their agenda--but not these two. The couple came right out and admitted that this controversy " is not about cake or someone's right to refuse service to a customer." It's about running Christians out of business. Unfortunately, Americans don't seem to understand that religious freedom and same-sex "marriage" can never coexist. Why? Because the Left's definition of "tolerance" is surrender. And until more people like Victoria dig in their heels and refuse, homosexual activists will continue to bully anyone who disagrees with them.

Despite the threats and hate mail, Victoria has no regrets. "People are telling me they were proud of me for standing up for my beliefs because not many people do that these days," she said. "Business people are afraid to because they're afraid to lose money." At the Cake Cottage, Victoria isn't worried about her profits getting battered. This baker's here to serve Jesus.

FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPELS

2011-11-17T06:34:00.000-08:00

OneBreadOneBody-AMER@presentationministries.com

Thursday, November 17, 2011, St. Elizabeth of Hungary

1 Maccabees 2:15-29, Psalm 50:1-2, 5-6, 14-15, Luke 19:41-44
Link to Readings --> http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111711.cfm

THE COST OF FAITHFULNESS

"Mattathias answered in a loud voice...'We will not obey the words of the king nor depart from our religion in the slightest degree.' " -1 Maccabees 2:19, 22

Mattathias would not be manipulated or intimidated into compromising his faith. He refused to be a hypocrite and a phony. He refused to be lukewarm and sickening to God (Rv 3:16). For Mattathias to be uncompromised and faithful, he had to flee "to the mountains with his sons, leaving behind in the city all their possessions" (1 Mc 2:28).
We are much like Mattathias. We live in a "culture of death." We live in a post-Christian, anti-Christian era. In this culture, faithfulness is not cheap. To be faithful, not phony, we will have to make great sacrifices. Like Mattathias, we may need to leave behind our possessions and have the courage to live a radically different lifestyle (The Gospel of Life, 98, Pope John Paul II). To be faithful to the Lord in our "culture of death," we will have to reject the cults of individualism and independence, and choose Christian community and submission to the Lord and His Church. To be hot for Jesus and not lukewarm, we will need to deny our very selves and our selfishness to take up the cross each day (Lk 9:23).
Are you going to be faithful or phony? Will you accept God's grace to pay the price of faithfulness?

Prayer: Father, teach us "the path to peace this day" so we will recognize the time of our visitation (Lk 19:42, 44).

Promise: "Many who sought to live according to righteousness and religious custom went out into the desert to settle there." -1 Mc 2:29

Praise: St. Elizabeth served rather than dominated her people by dressing simply and feeding hundreds who were hungry.

RELEASE UNTO GOD--JUST RELEASE

2011-11-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

RELEASE UNTO GOD--JUST RELEASE

FAMILY HEALING: THE TRUTH SETS US FREE AND TRUTH IS THAT SPIRITS CONGREGATE IN FAMILIES

Every family and ancestry – save for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph -- has tendencies that were or are negative and need to be purged. It could be a family inclination to selfishness, division, pride, or argumentation. It could be occultism. It could be a preoccupation with materialism. It could be lying. These characteristics need to be cast out as “spirits” – blotches of darkness -- or they will repeat themselves like a broken record in our lives and then in the lives of those who come after us. “Loving families lay the foundation for our eternal progress,” writes another who had a near-death episode.

“They help us build strengths, identify and overcome weaknesses, and bring challenges of their own for us to overcome. They significantly influence us in our earthly missions and affect how we influence others in their missions. Every family bond – with spouse, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, uncles, cousins, etcetera – can play a crucial role in teaching us how to love and be loved.”

When the sin is intense, claims Father John Hampsch, who wrote a seminal book called Healing the Family Tree, the effects may go beyond the three or four generations so commonly mentioned. The greater the sin, the more darkness we attract. We also may draw demonic spirits of a higher level. As the Bible tells us, there are powers and principalities. They mimic the hierarchy of angels (seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, and angels).

There are also earthbound or departed “familial” spirits – those who have not “gone on.” These are spirits that have attached themselves to a person, family, things, or locations. If someone commits a murder, this is a strong force that attracts the demonic. If there is a spirit that was addicted to sex, drugs, or alcohol, it may seek to draw from or enter a living person who is indulging in excessive alcohol or illicit sex (in order to re-experience it). An involvement in the occult is a transgression known to greatly enhance spiritual infestation.

When a person invokes spirits of the dead -- or worse, dabbles with black magic, witchcraft, or Satanism -- dark forces congregate. Father Hampsch has advised that all “objects that have been used for occultic or spiritualist activities should be destroyed, for they tend to attract evil spirits,” including charms and astrological symbols. We are told in Leviticus 19:31 that recourse to spirits of the dead or magicians will “defile” us – and they defile our lineages. “When we are around things of the occult, whether it is books, signs, symbols, or even hard-core rock music, it contaminates the spirit,” adds another expert, Father Robert DeGrandis. “This is why oftentimes charismatics can’t listen to hard rock. The Holy Spirit and their spirit are resisting the intrusion of contamination.”

The point: spirits – or darkness, in some form -- may gather around a person. Meanwhile, when a person dies, the spirits look for another host – often opting for whoever is nearest or a weak point in the family tree.

Evil that has accumulated through the generations can concentrate around a “magnet” point, opening a dark conduit. The result can be misfortune not only for the person, but also for those around the person. Sickness. Accidents. Bad luck. A person can have a little train of spirits following him. When it comes down through the family tree, it can be defeated only through humility.

A former priest named Francis MacNutt who ministers in this realm recommends the following prayer:

“Lord Jesus, gently reveal to me, through the Holy Spirit, those ways in which I may be living out certain patterns of inherited weakness or sin.” [Here wait to see what you receive in prayer.] “Now, Jesus, if there is any predisposition in me to (alcoholism, lust, etcetera) that has come down to me through my ancestry, I ask you through your power to set me free. Send your Holy Spirit, and by the power of your Spirit and by the sword of the Spirit, cut me free from that disposition to [here name it]. For any sins I or my ancestors have committed in this regard, I ask your forgiveness, Lord. In the Name of Jesus Christ and His Precious Blood, set me free, heavenly Father. And now, Lord Jesus, in place of this weakness, fill me with the power of your Spirit; fill me with your spirit of (self-control, courage, sobriety or whatever gift counteracts the weakness you have). And Lord, I ask you also to cut my children free from any harmful disposition they may have inherited from me or my ancestors.”

www.spiritdaily.com

May's Miracle Part 1/3

2011-11-15T15:55:00.000-08:00

Confronting cynicism with prudence

2011-11-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

Confronting cynicism with prudence

FATHER GEORGE W. RUTLER

Knowledge of what happened before us is not a hobby.

A majority of New Yorkers surveyed by a classical radio station think Beethoven was a dog. It is the price paid for isolation from a larger culture.

Knowledge of what happened before us is not a hobby. To call someone a history buff is like calling someone a DNA buff. We are walking inheritances, and if we do not know about people who lived before us, we cannot know ourselves. Lacking experience of what Matthew Arnold called "the best which has been thought and said," we cannot prudently reject the worst that has been thought and said.

Prudence is the guide for its fellow natural virtues: it discerns justice, which in turn justifies temperance, which then tempers courage. Aristotle called prudence "right reason in action." Prudence analyzes experience, correctly judges what is right and wrong, and acts accordingly. It is imprudent to underestimate the machinations of evil. Christ requires prudence in a world hostile to Christ: "Behold, I am sending you as lambs among wolves; be therefore crafty as snakes and innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16).

The prudent remember, for example, that the Nazis began the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, a Friday, and that the British cabinet members were taken by surprise because "gentlemen do not start wars on weekends." Better knowledge of history would have taught them that the Devil is not a gentleman.

Craftiness without innocence is cynical, and innocence without craftiness is naive. The cynic mocks those who are naive. It would be naive to be surprised by the increasing mockery of religion in our cynical society. It would be imprudent not to detect cynicism in the current Administration's opposition to the addition of a prayer to the World War II Memorial in our capital. The director of the Bureau of Land Management said that it would "dilute the memorial's message."

That prayer, read over the radio by President Roosevelt on June 6, 1944, at the start of the Normandy invasion, ended:

"O Lord, give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment – let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace – a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen."

Prudence knows that this prayer does not "dilute the message." It is the message.