November 2013

New Evangelists Monthly - November 2013

New Evangelists Monthly - November 2013

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...about this eBook

Spiritual Complacency

TASTE and SEE by Kathleen Laplante

One eye in heaven

JOY Alive in our hearts by Nancy Ward

Should Women Pursue Men?

The Veil of Chastity by Cindy Hurla

Random Acts of Blessing

Designs by Birgit by Birgit Jones

The Souls in Purgatory NEED Us

joy of nine9 by Melanie Jean Juneau

I Never Noticed This Either #2

Smaller Manhattans by Christian LeBlanc

People still do missions? Wait... what?

I Have A Reason To Sing by Barbara-Anne Hemrick

The Biggest Announcement I Have Ever Made

by Arleen Spenceley

All Souls Day

Veritatem facientes in caritate. Proclaiming the truth in love. Ephesians 4:15 by Fr. Matthew Albright

The Catholic Gospel Project

Crossed The Tiber by Russ Rentler

What is Hail Mary?

IgnitumToday by Delali

On Discernment, Part 1

Footprints on My Heart by Sarah Maurer

How to make pizza dough with beer

The Catholic Foodie by Jeff Young

What is Purgatory?

JESUSCARITASEST.ORG by Miriam Westen

Just to clarify...

Little Catholic Bubble by Leila Miller

Review: On Heaven and Earth

This That and the Other Thing by Ruth Curcuru

Oh, the Scrapes We Have Seen!

The Breadbox Letters by Nancy Shuman

Your Gym Membership is About to Expire

Forget The Roads by Renee Lin

Melee in the Courtroom - Mary Brings Peace

Plot Line and Sinker by Ellen Gable Hrkach

Question: Can Catholics celebrate Halloween?

Quidquid Est, Est! by Matthew Rose

My Brother Pier Giorgio, His Last Days

String of Pearls by Laura Pearl

Defeating the Poverty of Indifference

8 Kids And A Business by Terry McDermott

What Catholics Believe – Mary, the Virgin Mother of God

Catholicism and Adventism by Stephen Korsman

More than a Sinner

Working to be Worthy by Liana Eisenman-Wolford

On being Catholic

Our Heavenly Homestead by Maria Campbell

Choosing The Path Toward Holiness

Sacred Sharings For The Soul by Celeste Ciarallo

Words That Shouldn't Be Said

A blog for my mom by Rosie Hill

I Bind Unto Myself This Day (St. Patrick's Breastplate)

~ Breviary Hymns ~ by Kevin Shaw

We are not animals

Convert Journal by George Sipe

Why Does the Catholic Church Honour Saints?

The Koala Bear Writer by Bonnie Way

Pro-life Ain't Just About Abortion

Martin Family Moments by Colleen Martin

Listen Up! {a collection of my favorite audio lectures & podcasts}

Amongst Lovely Things by Sarah

Living in the White Space

Campfires and Cleats by Chris Capolino

Consoling the Heart of Jesus

Lord, Make Me a Saint by Jamie Jo

Rafu Yadayim

Journey to Wisdom by Heidi Knofczynski

Common Curiosities

Blessed are the Feet by Colleen

Are Both Possible?

Suffering With Joy by Barbara Schoeneberger

When the Holy Trinity indwells you, you have everything...

The Pelianito Journal Blog by Pelianito

Our Children are Open to Prayer, They Only Need an Invitation

Children's Rosary by Blythe Kaufman

In Him Alone is our Hope (Magnificat)

Stuart's Study

Last Gospels Other Than John 1:1-14

A Catholic Life by Matthew P

I'm a Feminist Because I'm Not a Hypocrite

Catholic Cravings by Laura McAlister

God Never Messes with Our Heads

V for Victory! by Anita Moore

The Obedience of the Stars

Coffee and Canticles by Daria Sockey

The Tridentine Fallacy

Traditium by Patrick Pierce

EXPECT CHANGE: Pope Consecrates World

Christ's Faithful Witness by Lawrence and Susan Fox

It's His Feast Day ~ Read His Book!

Catholic Sistas by Allison Howell

Practice of Prayer

Busy Catholic Moms by Shannon Vandaveer

Recognize, advance and restore all things to Christ

Dolce Domum by Jeff Walker

Lou Reed

Cum Lazaro

Possible solution to the Boy Scouts of America conundrum for Catholics

Kitchen table chats with a Catholic Matriarch by Denise Hunnell

It's Priceless and It's Free

warriorsworlddad by Dennis McGeehan

Why did God take my baby? (a reflection on miscarriage)

Peace Garden Mama by Roxane Salonen

I Am Confused. How About You?

Harvesting The Fruits Of Contemplation by Michael Seagriff

These benefits shed like dew from heaven upon us

Catholic Deacon by Deacon Scott Dodge

Is Your Marriage Exceptional, Conventional, Shipwrecked or Deadly?

Can We Cana? A Community to Support Catholic Marriages by Karee Santos

The Breast-feeding Mother of God

walk the way by John Donaghy

Evangelization by Sequins

New Evangelizers by Celeste Behe

Negation and Running

One Arrow Alone by Eli Stok

Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of Prayer

by Tom Perna

the Homilies of Father J. Michael Venditti

Byzantine Catholic Priest by Fr. Michael Venditti

A Gathering of Like Minded People

Quiet Consecration by Leslie Klinger

With the Saints, Standing

bukas palad by Deacon Adrian Danker

In Feminism a Heresy?

Hosheana

"Why Do You Persecute Me?"

The Crooked Halo by Nanette Carey

My Catholic Repentance on Reformation Sunday

TheOrant by Billy Kangas

Why Nowa Huta is already on my WYD 2016 Itinerary

Quartermaster of the Barque by Adam Bowers

Woman Who Survived Mother's Botched Abortion Tells Her Story

DavidLGray.INFO by David Gray

The Year of Faith...

Making It In Vermont by Lisa Laverty

Florida State Prison

Mercy Me! I've got work to do by Lara Patangan

Week in My Life: Sunday

by Rita Buettner

Faith Sharing

SingleCatholicGirl.com by Molly

The Federal Anti-Life Earthquake and Its Consequences for America

Justin's Corner by Justin

Another anniversary...

crucesignatiblog by Christina Sawchuk

"An Irish Layman Foresees His Death"

The Back of the World by Ryan McLaughlin

How Parishes Can Alienate the Faithful

Naru Hodo by Marie

The Angels: Epiphany

Sue Elvis Writes by Sue Elvis

The Tie That Binds

Chatty Catholic Doll by Charlotte Ostermann

Where There Is Love, There Is No Need for Feminism

and these Thy gifts by Stef Ofhfs

Not Alone Series: Settling

follow and believe by Morgan McFarlin

Living celibacy for the Kingdom

Blog of a Country Priest by Fr. John Corrigan

Pray The Rosary

Em's Estuary by Emily Davis

Evangelization by Sequins

New Evangelizers by Patti Armstrong

The marathon that is sobriety

makingthetrek by Tracy E

Humbly Dependent

Dancing in the Rain

The Stork's Retirement {OB/GYN Career Wrap Up}

Glimpse of Peace by Bridget Adams

Sometimes the Biggest Surprises Come in the Smallest Packages

Raising Angels by Amy Parris

Support for the Infertile

This Cross I Embrace by Amy

The Pope, Kirk and Atheists

Catholic Expression by Christine Fickling

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New Evangelists Monthly is an informal, dynamic, crowd-sourced “meta-magazine” showcasing the best posts faithful Catholic bloggers publish each month. Here you will find many different, but faithfully Catholic viewpoints, insights and perspectives.

Contributing authors submit their very best piece from the prior month between subsequent first and second Saturdays. Readers are welcome to visit anytime, even while contributions are still being accepted for a new issue. Back issues are available in the archive.

eBook editions such as this are available within a few days following submission deadlines (the second Saturday of each month). eBook formats include .mobi for Kindle users, .epub for most other eBook readers and .pdf for everyone else.

For the latest edition of New Evangelists Monthly, or for more information about this New Evangelization initiative, visit us at:

NewEvangelists.org

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:   Regardless of where you enjoy New Evangelists Monthly, either online or in this format, note that copyright is exclusively retained by the respective contributing authors. If you wish to use or redistribute any of their content, please contact them directly for licensing information.

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Spiritual Complacency [at TASTE and SEE]

When I reach a point in my spiritual life where everything seems to flow together, I relax and enjoy it.  I also give Glory to God and thank Him.  I have been in that space for awhile now, and recently I wondered if I am being complacent, when actually, I realized it is not only that I have not stretched myself beyond my long-time practices of the Catholic Faith, but I have let things lapse.

I took an inventory:

Daily Mass - I used to go three times a week, then two times, and now only occasionally.

Sunday Mass - I do make that obligation.

Confession - I used to go every other week, and now I go once every month to month and a half.  I know the obligation is much less often than that, but I also know, I need it much more to maintain a healthy spiritual life for myself.

Eucharistic Adoration - I used to go once a week and now it is once a month.

ProLife Involvement - I founded and ran a walkathon for girls/women facing crisis pregnancies and ran it five times.  Since that has ended, I have not substituted anything active for it.

Now, granted, I have taken on more work, so I have some justification for all of this, but not enough for my comfort level.  When I look at that list above, I panic.  How could I let so much lapse?  How could I let my Faith erode out from under me, without realizing it until now?

Busy-ness, sloth, and distraction, among others.  Busy-ness and distraction are obvious - Do do do; keep up on everything going on with friends, the community, the world, etc. Sloth, on the other hand comes from not doing, i.e., it comes from becoming less intentional with my spiritual growth/life.  The process was so subtle, but so is the Devil.  How much more will result in my selling my soul to him?  I don't want to find out, so I started giving myself a spiritual boost. I went to Adoration more; I still have not gone to Confession; I have gone to Daily Mass, and I have attended a study group on Pope Francis' first encyclical.  I have also made friends with a Religious Education teacher, and our conversations are edifying.  They help to re-enforce what I hold dear about our Faith.  I also contacted the woman in charge of the local Women's Bible Study group.

The Bible study is one that involves several other people, and where there are two or three gathered in Jesus Christ's name, there is Jesus as well.  Or, as the old adage goes, there is strength in numbers, so some type of activity with a group is a good idea.  I have found it to be helpful in pushing myself along the spiritual path.  Examples of groups include:

- Explore and study an encyclical

- Hand out socks and clothing and bath supplies to the homeless once a month

- Explore and study the upcoming Sunday readings each week... and then go out to eat afterward

- Pray together at the local Planned Parenthood

- Take trips together to local churches and/or shrines...  Read about them beforehand

- Read and discuss spiritual books

If a group does not exist in your area, consider starting one.  Be sure to find one other person to do it with... Strength in numbers again.

Why do I write this? 

"..so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises."  ~ Hebrews 6:12 [NABRE]

In other words, I share in the hopes that others who have become less intentional with their spiritual discipline, will receive a wake up call and come back closer to Christ - before it is too late. I also write this to make it more real and compelling for myself.

Here are some other thought provoking quotes about this topic:

There is no place for complacency in a soul confronted with the temptation to turn a blind eye to the plight of the poor and unemployed or the hungry who need to be fed just because you have what they don’t. No excuse for not bothering, not paying attention because you have more important things to think about, more urgent business to attend to, more congenial friends to entertain, more noble causes to pursue, so that, as the writer says, you make “the needy eyes to wait long” for compassion, for the ready hand, for justice you could help obtain. Complacency is contentment with views that are sexist, sexually superior, or with color-prejudice, with social exclusion, with pleasure registered over failure and un-success. All this because as the rich young man in the Gospels we are in the habit of seeking to justify ourselves when we smoothly murmur “And who, just who, is my neighbor?” To the Psalms we just sang: “Not unto us O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name do we give the praise —.” When we remember in the nick of time that “It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves: we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 10 v. 2) Let the Apostle Paul have the last word, It is a zinger: “Who makes you, my friend, so important? What do you possess that was not given me?” (I Cor. 4 v. 7) http://www.saintthomaschurch.org/worship/calendar/archive/view/2611Jesus said the church of the last days would battle a cancer just as insidious as the one Doug’s brother had. It is the cancer of complacency. Jesus describes it using the word “lukewarm.” When you are lukewarm, you’re not close enough to Christ to be sold out, and you are not far enough from Christ to be totally indifferent. Instead, you are somewhere in the middle. Principle: If you settle for lukewarm Christianity, you need to know that it will cost you your fellowship and intimacy with Jesus Christ.http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/what-would-jesus-say-to-a-complacent-christian-tim-huie-sermon-on-commitment-to-christ-121624.asp12 At that time,I will search Jerusalem with lamps,

I will punish the people

who settle like dregs in wine,

Who say in their hearts,

“The Lord will not do good,

nor will he do harm.”  ~ Zephaniah 1:12

..then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.       

..so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises. ~ Hebrews 6:12Rise up, you women who are at ease, And hear my voice; Give ear to my word, You complacent daughters.

  ~Isaiah 32:9

Complacent:  adjective

1. pleased, especially with oneself or one's merits, advantages, situation, etc., often without awareness of some potential danger or defect; self-satisfied.  ~ dictionary.com

Complacent:  adjective1. Contented to a fault; self-satisfied and unconcerned.

  ~ thefreedictionary.com

images - http://vimeo.com/67770479http://www.managingamericans.com/BlogFeed/Leadership-Teambuilding/Complacency-in-the-Workplace.htm 

This contribution is available at http://www.tasteandsee2.blogspot.com/2013/10/spiritual-complacency.html
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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When the nurse removed the bandage the day after cataract surgery on my right eye, immediately I noticed something strange and beautiful. The walls and medical equipment on the left side of the room were the normal tan tones of the office. The right side of the room was aglow with a brilliant blue-white light. The colors on the walls and medical equipment were dazzling. It seemed I had one foot firmly on the earth and the other one in heaven, at least to the threshold of heaven’s supernatural colors.

The doctor explained that the swelling in the right eye with the new lens caused the unreal colors. Okay, but why the brilliant glow surrounding everything within view of the right eye? Whatever the cause, I enjoyed the euphoria.

So for several weeks I’ve lived with these phenomena, even when the swelling went down. I could cover my right eye and see the world in all its dull reality. Then I could cover my left eye and see everything as if bathed in the glow of heaven. The line between these two worlds was as distinguishable as the border between living in the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God.

We live on the border between two worlds. We are so invested in the world that we are often unaware of the kingdom of God so close at hand.

Although we enter into God’s kingdom through our baptism, we often find ourselves on the outskirts.  We are not far enough in to avoid the attacks of the enemy lurking at the border. We have one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the culture of the world around us.

We fight border skirmishes in the facets of our lives that we haven’t surrendered to the Lord. The most common are our mind, our possessions and our relationships. We are trying to have our own way and still be blessed by the Lord.

The voices of the world tell us to exert control over our problems with anger, manipulation and willpower.  We are never to give in to anyone.  Those voices instruct us in our right to invent our own standard, our own moral good, coming from our own desires and idea of happiness. As if we could ever have a better plan than our Lord does! 

So we settle for the dull reality we’ve always known. We miss the mark of total joy because we don’t understand how we can know God’s will or how we can live in God’s will, right across that thin line.

With all the tension, chaos and suffering in our lives, we can choose to live in God’s will in that kingdom of inner peace that no one can steal from us.  For the Lord designed us to freely choose him, to choose the life he created for our happiness. We only need to turn toward God to live in his glowing presence.

This week the left eye got a new lens. When the bandage came off, sure enough, the bright glow appeared, banishing all the dullness that seemed so normal only a few weeks ago. Now the dazzling light surrounds me like a spotlight that allows no hint of darkness to penetrate its territory. It reminds me of a chorus of “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light,”

In him there is no darkness at all.

The night and the day are both alike.

The Lamb is the light of the city of God.

Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.

Are you living on the border?

(© 2013 Nancy H C Ward) 

This contribution is available at http://joyalive.net/one-eye-in-heaven/
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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Should Women Pursue Men? [at The Veil of Chastity]

In early September, the girls participating in the Not Alone Series tackled this question: Can A Woman Pursue A Man?  I love what Morgan from Follow and Believe wrote:

“Can women pursue men?” is very different from “Should women pursue men?”

These are indeed two different questions.  This post will address the “should” question. 

Stephanie

Stephanie from Captive The Heart is happily married and also contributed to this series both on her blog and at Ignitum Today.  I very much agree with what she wrote.  She did not seem to be encouraging single women to pursue men.  I think what she encouraged was for single women to not play games and instead to be honest.  I totally agree.  When you are with the right guy, no games are required.  In fact, I think that when you are with the right guy, you can almost do no wrong (except sin, of course). 

Stephanie’s husband, Andrew, was enamored with her.  He asked her out first.  She said ‘no’ at first and then when she was ready, she asked him to ask her out again.  Totally cute! Stephanie did not pursue him.  She responded enthusiastically to his initiation and pursuit.  She is so darn cute and sassy, when you combine that with him being enamored with her, of course it was fine.

Men Need Cues

In the same Not Alone Series, Jen from Jumping in Puddles wrote:

“….Yes, sometimes we might have to help them out by letting them know we are interested.  Because of our culture today, so many men are knocked down from pursuing us, they are constantly getting rejected.  The more rejection, the less they want to try.  It’s a sad thing, really….”

During my discussion with Gregg about this topic, he wanted me to let you girls know that men need cues!  Before he met me, he experienced some of this rejection that Jen described and it can make a guy gun-shy.  Gregg needed cues from me and he got them!  I was occasionally pretty bold!  You may be surprised at my boldness during our courtship…..

I Was Sort of Bold

Look, I am bossy by nature.  And, Gregg does not seem to mind it that much. I had never been ‘bold’ when dating other guys because they always seemed to be holding back on me.  It felt too risky.  But, during our courtship, I was uncharacteristically bold with Gregg.  And, the reason I was bold was because Gregg gave me the confidence I needed to be my bossy self. And, I knew he was looking for cues from me.

For example, after talking on the phone for about a month, I said, “So, when are you going to come visit me?”  You see, I lived in Virginia and Gregg lived in Kansas City.  Things were going really well and I was curious to know if we had a future.  Figuring that out required that we meet in person (duh).  Gregg was very happy that I asked him to visit me because, again, he was looking for cues from me. 

Another example of my boldness is when Gregg visited me the first time.  I hugged him as soon as he exited the security gate at the airport.  This surprised him, but in a good way.  You see, we had talked on the phone for 4 months.  When he arrived in person, I wanted to hug him.  I was pretty sure he wanted this too.  Again, Gregg was extremely happy to receive this and other positive cues from me. 

Another example of my boldness was in our engagement.  It was March/April 2002 and we had known each other 6 or 7 months.  We both knew this was a ‘go.’  So, one day I was emailing Gregg and I included this major cue:  R.I.N.G

We laugh about it now because when I am bossy in our marriage, I tell him that he really should have paid more attention during the courtship.  It is not like I hid this aspect of my personality! 

All YoursLike Stephanie, when you are with the right guy, you can almost do no wrong.  You are free to be yourself.  I emailed her to ask her permission to quote her in this post and this is what she said, “When it comes to Catholic women’s perception of dating, it seems to me that honesty and candor are sometimes equated with pursuit, which I think is incorrect.” 

So, be your honest self. Give your sweet man some cues. But, first make sure that you have his heart.

Bride Strangling GroomMarriage Is Hard

As the wife, you will be so much happier with a cooperative husband.  I am not saying he needs to be a push over but there are daily things in marriage that need cooperation, teamwork and collaboration.  This is the ‘hard’ part of marriage.

But marriage is easy when you are with someone who decidedly pursued you.  Marriage involves two wills rubbing against and bumping into each other.  The rubbing removes the sharp edges over time which is good.  But, like sand paper on your skin, it can hurt. It is a ‘dying to self’ that is required. 

When the sand paper hits Gregg’s skin, he has to remember who he is dying for.  That girl, Cindy.  His wife.  It is during those times he has to remind himself, “Oh, yeah, I spotted her, pursued her and asked her to marry me.  I have chosen this.  Die, Gregg, die.”

When the sand paper hits my skin, I remember his courageous pursuit.  I remember that he picked me.  He asked me to marry him.  He risked himself for me.  He dies daily for me.  It is during those times that I say, “Die, Cindy, die.”

Should You Pursue?

I think the answer to this question is that it depends on your definition of Pursue.  If you mean Chase, then I say it is not a good idea.  If you mean Respond and Flirt and give Cues, then yes, of course you should.  If you mean, return his efforts with your equal effort, like a tennis ball in a tennis game, then I think that is fine too.  But, I think the relationship should be established first.

For example, after Gregg visited me the first time, he asked me to visit him in Kansas City.  He felt that if things were going to progress, then I needed to be willing to visit him.  I think it was important to him that I see his home life and meet his family and friends.  I took that as a great compliment so of course I said ‘yes’ to his invitation!  He served the ball and I hit it back. 

But, here is the thing.  I never felt like I was pursuing Gregg with my actions and affections.  His pursuit of me was consistent and reliable. I responded, I flirted and I gave cues. I felt no angst or obsession.  I felt happy and cherished.  I was free.  God had finally lifted the Veil.

“…know that if someone gives you anxiety and draws you into obsession, it’s not a relationship coming from God….” Christina from The Little Signs

Preach It Morgan

 I am going to close with a quote from Morgan from Follow and Believe (I added caps for our Lord): 

“…I think there’s a delicate line to walk between being open and approachable and being the desperate throwing-herself-at-you girl.  Because like everything in life, there is an order and all of that was put in place by the One who knows what He’s doing…”

God Love and Bless You!

Related Posts:

http://theveilofchastity.com/2013/06/05/your-smile-is-like-honey/

http://theveilofchastity.com/2013/05/30/do-men-need-help/

http://theveilofchastity.com/2013/06/20/is-he-just-practicing/

This contribution is available at http://theveilofchastity.com/2013/10/01/should-women-pursue-men/
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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Random Acts of Blessing [at Designs by Birgit]

A blog post I recently read about parenting really resonated with me. The suggestion I took to heart was to look at your children and say 'I love you' with your eyes. Here was definitely a concept worth trying - and it was like magic! Those little eyes staring back at me said, "I love you" right back. The loving interactions between us increased exponentially - it became my secret super power. Not willing to leave well enough alone, I made an effort to try my new found skill on others. After all, haven't we been inundated with pleadings to love in scripture verses, parables, and gems of wisdom from our parents?

Forgive Us Our Trespasses, as we Forgive

You see, I have accumulated a lifetime of little regrets - things that I could have, should have done differently. That grouchy waitress, the rude clerk, the driver who cut me off - I have felt smugly irate. But then, like a clap of thunder, it hit me. When

I'm

the one at fault, I make excuses. I'm having a bad day, the kids are distracting, I didn't mean to - it's so easy to explain when it's

me

. Mea Culpa! If I'm so willing to rationalize my faults, why should I not do the same for others? Why not assume the best, instead of the worst?

Whatever You Do to the Least of These

When we begin to look at others with the eyes of God's love, when we see them from the inside out - that's when we are living the Gospel. Over and over, we are told to love others as we love ourselves. The Beatitudes, alone, speak volumes of this type of compassion and love. God loves us all - bumps included. He doesn't care if we're educated, successful, beautiful, or accomplished. What He cares about is something we, humans, can't see - the immortal soul of each of His creatures.

Performing Random Acts of Blessing

So what are we to take away from these thoughts? What's the point of these ponderings? It all began with that silent look of "I love you" and bringing it to the world around me. Looking at others from the inside out, helps me to focus on the love God feels for us all. What he sees is one of His creatures - not the unkempt hair, questionable clothing, or frantic mind - He sees someone He loves. If I am to live like Him, then I must look inside too - seeing the humanity, yes, but more importantly - seeing the eternal soul.

When I see someone who appears unattractive (looks, attitude, behavior), I give them an "I love you smile". It's become a habit - slowly - to whisper a little internal prayer for them. "Jesus, please bless this person, whom I almost judged just now". I know that He loves us all, maybe the more difficult ones are loved even more. Memories of a quip from my mother come to mind, "when a teenager is the least lovable, that's when they need the most love". We have to wonder how many times our Father in Heaven has felt that way about us.

Transforming Your Love a Little at a Time

A little bit of kindness can go a long way. Now, whenever I encounter a stranger - especially one who looks particularly harsh - I silently bless them. When I encounter a home brandishing the rainbow flag of the United States, I offer a silent prayer for the occupants. When I'm feeling particularly impatient with little voices, who insistently call my name, I stop, look into their eyes and silently say, 'I love you'. I'm not always successful, but success is my goal. The bonus is, sometimes we really do receive in return, that which we give. And if we don't?

St. Josemaria Escriva

said it beautifully:

Don't say: "that person gets on my nerves". Think: "that person sanctifies me".

There are so many examples in the lives of the saints. These little random acts of blessing can become like St. Theresa's 'little way' - one person at a time. Just think of the possibilities of spreading the wealth of God's love with everyone we encounter. What a beautiful community of God's love we could build! So let's all join together in performing random acts of blessing. In return, we will be ones who are blessed.

This contribution is available at http://designsbybirgit.blogspot.com/2013/11/random-acts-of-blessing.html
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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The Souls in Purgatory NEED Us [at joy of nine9]

Before I give you all the official Church teaching on the souls in purgatory. I must tell you why this subject is close to my heart. I KNOW  personally, the agony of a soul who is desperate for my prayers. I have learned through personal experience, that souls in purgatory, although they cannot pray for themselves,  press in on the most sensitive of their relatives for prayer.

 My Ukrainian grandmother, who had been in Canada for barely 15 years, died accidentally under extreme duress as a young mother of three boys when her husband was at war. Since this occurred in the 1940′s, she was denied a Christian burial in the Catholic church. When my grandfather returned from the war,  the young family left the Catholic Church and my grandfather remarried a Protestant Presbyterian. In turn, I was raised in this church with no knowledge of any Catholic roots until I converted. My father pleaded with me to reconsider; his childhood memories of how the  Church handled immigrants were horrific.

It took years before I understood that the emotional weight I carried like a rock in my chest was not mine but I what I felt was actually my grandmother’s guilt, shame and sense of unforgiven sin in my own emotions.  I heard her negative words interiorly and again the words I heard seemed to condemn ME.  These spiritual, emotional and even physical burdens were simply the only way my grandmother could get my attention.  After two years of interceding for her, a priest ( who in fact is the official exorcist of my diocese) was finally led by God to give this poor soul absolution in the name of the Church.

Instantly, I mean immediately, I was free and my grandmother was filled with joy as she literally flew into the arms of Christ. I still could burst out into songs of praise every time I think of my grandmother and in thanksgiving for the new joy which replaces the burdens I carried for years.

To use a modern phrase, the  bottom line is that the Holy Souls in Purgatory are not able to pray for themselves or do anything at all to relieve their suffering. Period. The fact alone is enough to call us to pray because they rely on our prayers and efforts to help them.

The truth is we are all connected in the Body of Christ. The communion of saints, of all souls is real, a fact, My grandmother affected me, and I am still  connected to her just as St. Paul tells us in his letters. So I would say that praying for the dead, especially for those we have known, is a not simply a requirement of Christian charity but essential to our own spiritual health and well-being.

Purgatory is part of Catholic doctrine today and always has been from the earliest days of the Church. In addition  the Old Testament mentions the practice:

“It is a holy and wholesome thing to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins.” (II Macab. XII., 46). 

In the modern world, when many have come to doubt the Church’s teaching on Purgatory, the need for such prayers has only increased. The Church devotes the month of November to prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and participation in the Mass of All Souls Day is a good way to begin the month.

Although they cannot pray for themselves, souls in purgatory pray for us, especially for those who pray for them. St. John Vianney said:

“If one knew what we may obtain from God by the intercession of the Poor Souls, they would not be so much abandoned. Let us pray a great deal for them, they will pray for us.”

St. Theresa of Avila (Spain) said that she always obtained the favours, which she asked from God, through the intercession of the Souls in Purgatory. 

 Our Lady of Medjugorje on July 21, 1982 spoke these words in a message to the world,

Concerning Purgatory; “There are many souls in Purgatory. There are also persons who have been consecrated to God – some priests, some Religious. Pray for their intentions, at least the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be seven times each, and the Creed. I recommend it to you. There is a large number of souls who have been in Purgatory for a long time because no one prays for them.” 

 Saintly Padre Pio expressed his thought on Purgatory by simply saying,

“Holy Souls are eager for the prayers of the faithful which can gain indulgences for them. Their intercession is powerful. Pray unceasingly. We must empty Purgatory.”

Prayer for the dead is one of the greatest acts of charity we can perform. Our prayers help them during their time in Purgatory, so that they can enter more quickly into the fullness of heaven. These prayers are especially suited for offering a novena on behalf of the dead, or for praying during those seasons of the year (November, in the Western Church; Lent, in the Eastern Church) designated by the Church as times of fervent prayer for the faithful departed.

 Faithful Departed here is a link for many more prayers for the month of November

Prayer for Mercy on the Souls in Purgatory
While we know that all who are in Purgatory will enter into Heaven, we are still bound by charity to try to lessen the suffering of the Holy Souls through our prayers and deeds. While our first responsibility is to those people we have known, it is important to remember in our prayers those souls who are most forsaken.

The Heroic act of Charity : O my God, in union with the merits of Jesus and Mary, I offer Thee for the Souls in Purgatory, all my Satisfactory Works, as well as those which may be applied to me by others during my life and after my death. And to be more agreeable to the Divine Heart of Jesus and more helpful to the departed I place them all in the hands of the merciful Virgin Mary.

Saint Gertrude’s Purgatory prayer-  ”releases 1000 souls”

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the most precious blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my home, and within my family. Amen. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus “

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I Never Noticed This Either

Last night I attended a mission at

Our Lady of the Rosary

in Greenville, SC. The speaker was

Michael Cumbie

, whose faith journey is not the usual; I was pleasantly surprised by both the plot and the content of his 90-minute presentation (the 2nd of 3).

One of the Bible stories he covered was the Road to Emmaus, per Luke 24. I'm editing a bit:

"That very day two of them were going to Emmaus and talking about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, "What is this conversation which you are holding?" 18 Cleopas answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened?"  "What things?"  "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, and how our chief priests and rulers crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. 22 Moreover, some women of our company were at the tomb early in the morning 23 and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive." 25 And he said to them, "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" 27

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."

In catechism class I always thump on that last line. It reminds us that the disciples were average guys; and unlike scribes and Pharisees, didn't have wads of Scripture committed to memory. They didn't spend their workdays thinking about Isaiah; they thought about, oh, catching fish. Nor would it be obvious to even an expert that golly, Jesus sure has fulfilled an awful lotta Scripture on this, the very first Easter Sunday! So Jesus had to explain it all from God's viewpoint as they were walking; and he probably needed every minute of the journey to do so.

"So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, 29 but they constrained him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. 30* When he was at table with them,

he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened and they recognized him;

and he vanished out of their sight."

And I jump on that as well, and y'all are familiar with  it. The bread-breaking is a big deal, because that's the moment Jesus was recognized, not merely seen. In other words, anyone can see, but does everyone understand what they are seeing? Of course this alludes to Mass, and the necessity of not just seeing what things may look like, like,

you know,

bread; but recognizing what they

are

.

But Cumbie also pointed out that not only was Jesus recognized when he broke bread, but that he was

not recognized during hours of Scripturally enlightening the two disciples about himself.

And the two disciples seem surprised at that: "They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" Yeah....wouldn't that have been the time for recognition? Nope. They knew Jesus when he broke bread; not when he showed them how all Scripture had been fulfilled in himself. Huh.

I never noticed. But boy howdy am I using it in catechism class when we cover this passage in March. I expect to

Go Negative

, like so:

"Later on Easter Sunday, Jesus ran into a couple of sad disciples. Why would they be sad?

'Cause they thought Jesus was dead.

Yes. Let's listen to Luke's Gospel: "That very day two of them were going to Emmaus and talking about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking, Jesus himself drew near and went with them." But y'all just said Jesus was dead.

He's alive again, it's Easter!

Oh, oh yeah, that's right. "But their eyes were kept from recognizing him." Who kept them from recognizing Jesus?

Umm, I guess Jesus did.

Yes, why?

I don't know.

That's ok, let's see if you can figure it out. Then Jesus said, "What is this conversation which you are holding?" 18 Cleopas answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened?"  "What things?"  "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, and how our chief priests and rulers crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. 22 Moreover, some women of our company were at the tomb early in the morning 23 and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive." Who are they telling Jesus about?

They're telling him about himself!

Yes! Do they know who he is yet?

No!

Right! And Jesus said, O foolish men, y'all don't understand all the stuff the prophets predicted! Prophets like who?

Isaiah!

Yes. But are these guys Bible experts?

No!

Right, they need a little help: "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Now once Jesus explained everything to them, did they recognize him?

Yes!

No! Trick Question! Jesus walked with them most of the day explaining how he fulfilled all those prophecies, but they still didn't know who he was!

"So they drew near to the village to which they were going. The disciples said, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them.  When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight."

"So tell me about it.

They knew he was Jesus.

Yes of course, but tell me

how

they knew.

Jesus let them see.

Yes, but why did Jesus let them see

now?

Why

didn't

he do it when they were having Bible Study all day [going negative]? OK, hard question? Y'all listen again and tell me why he waited:  "he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes-"

It's like at Mass!

Yes; what's like at Mass?

That's what we say at Mass.

Yes, what the priests says. So try again: why

didn't

he do it when they were having Bible Study all day?

He wanted to wait until the bread stuff.

Yes, good. Now can y'all recognize Jesus in the Bible?

Yes.

And can you recognize him at Mass?

Yes.

But which one of those ways is Jesus emphasizing in the story?

Mass!

Yes! And even the disciples are surprised: "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" See, even they notice that Jesus didn't let them recognize him until he "blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to them."

The Bible never runs out of Catholic ideas.

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People still do missions? Wait... what? [at I Have A Reason To Sing]

Let's begin with Jesus. What is a better place to begin than with our Lord and savior who came down from Heaven in the form of a slave to suffer a human death and take on all the sins of each and everyone of us giving us the chance to go to heaven if we repent, believe in the Gospel and live a life for Christ based on His example with the help of the Holy Spirit?! Like I said, we'll start with Jesus.

While Jesus was on earth as a rockstar doing awesome ministries like healing the sick, feeding the poor, being a friend to the destitute, he chose 12 disciples to train intensively in order to go out and continue Christ's ministries after his Ascension into heaven. Here's some scripture, which is also starting with Jesus because Jesus is the Word*! (John 1:1-5)

"The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Matthew 28:16-20)

Jesus trained the disciples and then sent them out to ALL nations to preach the Gospel. ALL NATIONS. With that being said, all nations includes the United States, but Jesus meant ALL nations, not just the nation you were born into, that is not enough. See, the disciples left their home, they dropped everything and followed Christ. Christ was not joking about dropping everything and following Him. Let's look at two forms of scripture to show Christ's boldness:

In response to Christ telling his disciples to follow him, one disciple pleaded saying, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But Jesus answered him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead." (Matthew 8:21-22).

Another young man asks Christ what He must do to inherit eternal life. Christ tells him to follow the commandments but the young man said he's been doing that since he was a child. Jesus responds saying, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; them come, follow me" (Mark 10:21).

Christ is telling one disciple to leave his dead father and follow Him. This is a radical thought, but it shows that God is to be loved more than family*. (Matthew 10:37-39) Then Christ tells another that living by the commandments is not enough, he must sell everything he had and follow the Lord. Jesus asks this of ALL of us. Of course, this will look different to everyone. Here at Family Missions Company we are doing just what Christ did. Us new missionaries in Intake are being trained and in January we will be sent out. Unfortunately Joseph and Brooke Summers are not Jesus... but we are being trained through scripture and the call of JPII and Pope Francis to preach the Gospel to all peoples! Those that are not going out as foreign missionaries are also called to sell what they have and give to the poor. We need only to live by our means, not how we "deserve" to live based on our income.

What are we to do when we go out to all nations? Let's look at Mark's account of the commissioning: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 16:15-18)

Everyone go outside and pick up a snake (serpent) with your bare hands. No, but proclaim the GOSPEL to EVERY creature. That means everyone, not just your family, not just the people you feel comfortable to talk to about Christ. That means everyone! It is not enough to be comfortable and hide Jesus from those that need Him the most. Everyone must hear the Gospel. In Christ's name, you can drive out demons. If you go to another country, learn a new language to preach the Gospel. You will lay hands on the sick and Christ will heal them. The best part is that Jesus is with you through all of this ALWAYS. You don't have to have a theology degree or even be an outgoing person. You just need to say yes, smile, and the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

ARE YOU FEELING THE CALL? Contact Family Missions Company and join us on a short-term mission trip for a week.

HERE

NOT FEELING IT? These things Jesus tells us to do can be done right where you are in life. Smile at the person at the cash register at the store. If someone asks how you are doing, say you are blessed and explain how God has blessed you. Smile always. If someone asks why you are so joyful, tell them about Jesus!

If this all sounds scary, start with a smile and say "Come Holy Spirit".

Please

join me on my mission

or email if you have questions or need someone to support you in your decision to be a missionary whether that be full-time or while you do whatever job you are doing now.

YOU CAN DO IT, because in your weakness Christ is made strong, and He is all we need. (2 cor 12:9)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John 1:1-5 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in hte beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race." 
Matthew 10:37-39 "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." 

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The Biggest Announcement I Have Ever Made

Since Feb. 28, 2013 -- the last day of Pope Benedict's papacy -- I've been harboring a secret.

A secret I'm ready to share.

I sat that morning at the kitchen table, typing grateful Tweets to the pope and waiting to receive news that would make or break my day (and potentially change my life). In Notre Dame, Indiana, 1100 miles north of my house, the people gathered who would determine which kind of news I'd get. They discussed, deliberated, and decided, all from a room at a publishing house called Ave Maria Press.

After the meeting, an editor delivered the news to me like this:

"So," he said. "How would you like to write a book for us?"

I SAID YES.

I said yes because

they

 (the fabulous people at

Ave Maria Press

) said yes, too. They had gathered that day to review a book proposal I had written, and to decide whether they'd like me to write the book. Indeed they would, and indeed I am (and it's been a work in progress ever since).

The book -- about love, chastity, and sex -- is slated for a Fall 2014 release (and I will reveal the title and cover when they're ready). In the meantime, three things:

1. A screen shot of the actual first instant message I sent, via Gmail, upon learning I am writing a book:

I was so excited I forgot how to type words. I have since relearned (which is good, 'cause I need like 30,000 of them.).

2. Thank you for your readership. I am more grateful than I adequately can express that you read what I write, respond to what I write, and inspire what I write by sharing or challenging my sentiments. More to come!

3. Your support while I write (and eventually launch) the book is so appreciated.

Here are four ways you can help, if you'd like: First, pray for me, and for the project. Writing a book is officially the greatest feat I ever have attempted (one at which I will succeed by the grace of God, with the help of a wonderful editor). Second, participate in an upcoming series of surveys I will share (which might result in your being quoted in the book!). Third,

invite me

to discuss love, chastity, and sex with young adults or parents at your church, school, or other organization. Fourth, share my work with your friends (and let them know I'd love to connect at 

arleenspenceley.com

, on

Twitter

, on

Facebook

, and on

Google+

).

Hope you all are as pumped as I am. And now, I write.

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All Souls Day [at Veritatem facientes in caritate. Proclaiming the truth in love. Ephesians 4:15]

Today we pause to remember with mixed emotions those whom we love who have gone before us into the hands of the Lord. I remember fond childhood memories with my grandfather and grandmother-working outside with grandpa and enjoying grandmas cooking and baking - and lament that my grandparents did not live to see my ordination. We thank God that in His abundant mercy He allows souls the opportunity to be purfied in purgatory so that hell is not only option if we are in need of purification from the residue of sin which has stained our souls and made us unworthy of heaven. We find consolation in the Lords words: He desires none of us to be lost and all to come to eternal life. We commit a great act of love by praying for all who have died: the poor souls in purgatory, our own loved ones and those who have no one else to pray for them, and those who will die today. May God be merciful to the departed and grant them eternal life. May the light of faith burn brightly in all of us so we may shine with the perpetual light of glory.

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The Catholic Gospel Project [at Crossed The Tiber]

Check out

this new program

to help spread the gospel and assist in the New Evangelization. Aimee Cooper is an Evangelical to Catholic convert and I met her by way of her blog (Historical Christian) several years ago around the time I started blogging in 2006. She had a great writing style and a perspective as a convert that I enjoyed and appreciated.

   She has an MA in Catholic theology and has been working on this program for years and has been speaking and teaching in her diocese in Colorado. The program will be useful to individuals, RCIA, and parish groups interested in getting more involved in the New Evangelization.

 "In developing and testing these course components, she found it was not only equipping people to share the message more effectively than before, it was also feeding a deep spiritual hunger, by giving people the tools and training to enter into a deep, sacramental and prayerful encounter with Christ, both in the Eucharist, and in private immersion in prayer.

"I'm a former Evangelical. I was trained in door to door evangelization, in a very successful program that gave both a simple way of sharing the message, but also provided months-long training in how to share it. Maybe Catholics need something like that - and I have the opportunity to not just write a thesis paper, but to do a practical thesis project! Maybe that can be my project!" 

And the Catholic Gospel Project was born, begun as a thesis project during Aimee's final year at the Augustine Institute. Eight years and a ton of research, development and constant field testing later (not to mention money for all those theology books, sigh), Aimee is launching

the program online

in answer to the Church's call to use new media for evangelization, to make the material available to others and to test and develop online training and formation for people at a distance. "(cf. The Catholicgospelproject website)

Keep Aimee in your prayers as she gets through some technical issues in rolling out the program on line. She is aiming for Advent as the start date.

This contribution is available at http://crossed-the-tiber.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-catholic-gospel-project-tool-for.html
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What is Hail Mary? [at IgnitumToday]

Well, Hail Mary is a historical and biblical phrase used by an angel of God to a virgin called Mary. This historic event is so important that the most ancient Christian Church has made it into a prayer to remind her members who are the Body of Christ about what the Yes of a Virgin in ancient Israel did to the whole of mankind. The Hail Mary prayer goes like this:

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death. Amen.

Let’s examine the Hail Mary prayer.

[Part 1] Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.  This is derived from the greeting of the angel Gabriel to Mary.

And he came to her and said, “Hail, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28 RSV)

And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.  (Luke 1:28 DRB)

The biblical Greek word used by the angel kecharito¯mene¯ is rightly translated as “full of grace,” it is the perfect passive participle of the Greek word charitoo¯  which means, “to grace.”  Mary was “full of grace” because the Lord is united with her, “the Lord is with thee” as the angel added.

We should note that angels are messengers of their masters, in this case an angel of God. So, we can conclude for certain that God Almighty Himself was saying to Mary that she is “full of grace” and that He was with her. How sweet it is to imitate God by saying the “Hail Mary?” [Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  (Ephesians 5:1 RSV)]

In other passages of the New Testament, certain men are said to be “full of the Spirit” and also “full of grace and power” according to Acts 6:3 and Acts 6:8 respectively. How much more grace do you expect to be contained in The Woman who is to bring forth the Son of the Living God?

The moon does not take away from the brightness of the sun, but reflects it.  Likewise, Mary does not take away from the glory of her Son, Jesus, but reflects Him. Without the sun the moon is useless, so also, without Christ, Mary is nothing. She is “full of grace” because of Christ, the Source of grace.

Continue by reading Is the Hail Mary Biblical? Thank you.

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On Discernment, Part 1 [at Footprints on My Heart]

Being Raised in the Faith

I'll be flat out honest: I've always felt that I'm called to the vocation of marriage.  That said, I've also always been interested in religious life.  This, I think, is what makes the discernment process difficult: we must discern between two incredibly beautiful ways of life.

All throughout Elementary and most of high school, I was set on my discernment of one day being a wife and mother.  In high school, though still set on the idea of marriage, I began dating Someone, which really was simply succumbing to peer pressure.  Nevertheless, in that time my spiritual life deepened.  I began purposefully attending Friday night Holy Hours {read: my parents generally took me and my siblings, but one can sit there and do nothing or one can sit there and participate in prayers and add their own reflection during the silence}, making monthly confessions, and - again - purposefully attending daily Mass.  I learned more about God, love, and spirituality that way than I likely would have had I been dating a high school peer.

My Faith, though, contrary to what I thought, was not real to me then.  This reality was presented to me by way of a rejection letter from a missionary program I had applied for directly out of high school.  They told me my Faith was still so young and I should spend a couple more years at home, learning and growing, before venturing out into deeper waters with their mission.  I didn't understand them then, but I do now.  And they were absolutely right.

Getting Deeper in College

My Faith slowly but surely became real to me in college.  I still desired marriage, was interested in the concept of religious life, but had no intention of pursuing that interest.  I became involved in FOCUS Bible Studies and little by little became more open to discovering the true richness and beauty of the Faith.  I thought I already knew so much about the Faith, having received a solid Christian formation as a youth and having been instructed by some very intellectual people.  The truth was that I hadn't yet made it my own.  Surely, I was working on it, but was not there yet.

Before my Junior year of college, I befriended another like-minded girl who was on her way to Freshman year of college.  Yes, at the time, it is that much of an age difference, but it turned out for the better.  Her dedication to discerning God's true plan for her life was so inspiring.  She seriously discerned religious life for a time and, though she found it incredibly beautiful, welcoming, and inviting, she made a decision to more seriously discern marriage and is, today, being courted by a great, very handsome young man.

By watching her, I began to realize that, though I still feel called to marriage, I couldn't be happy and content within marriage until I was peaceful about religious life.  I had to seriously discern religious life first.  The one thing that held me back was a fear that I might discover God was actually calling me to religious life.  I brought that to prayer and discussed it with my spiritual director.  I read the Bible {ladies, Song of Songs.  Read it.}, prayed the rosary and continued attending daily Mass and frequenting the Sacrament of Confession.  And little by little I became more open to discerning religious life.

My friends, this did not happen overnight.  If you find yourself feeling "stuck" like this, bear in mind that it took me nearly a year of prayer before I reached this place in my discernment.  In light of that, please don't feel frustrated either.  Each person's story is a little bit different and God works in different hearts in different ways.  He'll reach out to you differently, perhaps, than the way He reached to me.

Part 2: purposefully discerning the religious and marital vocations.

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Making Pizza Dough with Beer

I love pizza. That’s no secret. As a matter of fact, pizza has it’s very own tab (to the far right) on the secondary navigation menu bar on CatholicFoodie.com. See it?

I love beer too. Good beer. Unfortunately, I don’t make my own beer as often as I would like. But I have lots of friends who are home brewers, and I have made a number of batches of my own brew over the last few years.

I am blessed, though, because I live on the “North Shore” of Lake Pontchartrain… very close to the Abita Brewery. I also live close to the best selection of beer and wine in the state of Louisiana. That would be the beer, wine, and liquor section of Acquistapace’s Covington Supermarket. The prices are unbeatable. And so is the selection.

Cooking is Play – It’s Good to Experiment

I love to cook. For me cooking is like play. It is relaxing and enjoyable. Some folks like to garden or knit or hunt. I like to cook. Part of cooking is experimentation, trying different things, playing with ingredients and flavors. Some ingredients just go so well together. Like peanut butter and chocolate. And like beer and pizza. Maybe it’s the yeast in each one. I don’t know. I do know that beer (especially ales) have historically been referred to as liquid bread, so there is a strong connection between the two. As a matter of fact, monks used to fast on ale during Lent. [Hey, that's not a bad idea!]

Go to any decent pizza parlor and you will most likely find a good selection of beers… because beer and pizza go so well together.

And that got me thinking the other day. If beer and pizza go so well together at the table, then won’t they also go well together at the ingredient level?

I decided that I had to find out.

My Favorite Pizza Dough Recipe

I have been making pizza at home for over 30 years. I’ve been doing it because I enjoy it, but it has also been a quest… a quest to produce restaurant-quality pizza in my home oven. Over the years I have honed my dough recipe, and I have implemented certain “tricks” to try to mimic the results you get from a restaurant pizza oven that reaches 800 to 1200 degrees. That particular quest of mine has finally come to an end. Last October I obtained a tool that revolutionized how I make pizza at home. It’s called The Baking Steel, and wrote all about it in an article (and I interviewed the creator of The Baking Steel too!). Read about it. If you like to make pizza at home, and you want your pizzas to be the best that they can be, then get a Baking Steel. It will change your life.

For years, my favorite pizza dough recipe was inspired by Albert Grande of PizzaTherapy.com. It calls for olive oil, which makes the crust a bit denser. But it also allowed me to roll it out very thinly, and my wife loves a thin crust pizza. Then, last fall, I discovered Jim Lahey’s “no-knead” pizza dough recipe. Wow. Super-simple, super-easy, and it changed the way that I make pizzas. [I wrote about that discovery too. You can find it here: My Pizza by Jim Lahey and the American Dream]

There’s only one catch with Jim Lahey’s recipe and process for pizza dough: You can’t decide spur-of-the-moment that you want to make pizza. Lahey’s process is a slow fermentation that can take between 12 and 18 hours. The results are simply amazing, and I have yet to see any other dough recipe compare to his. But you have to plan ahead… at least a day ahead.

Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together

I often joke that The Catholic Foodie… where food meets faith is like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Two great tastes that taste great together. Food and faith just go together so well, like peanut butter and chocolate. ;-)

The same can certainly be said about pizza and beer.

Just this past weekend, I was on a pizza-making mission. I made a total of 9 pizzas. Three of them were shared with another family that is going through a health crisis. My family had three. Then, as an experiment – because I still had sauce and cheese and other toppings left over – I decided to make another round of pizzas, this time using beer in the dough instead of water.

I didn’t have 12 to 18 hours to wait. So I went back to the older pizza dough recipe… the one inspired by Albert Grande. And it worked beautifully!

I imagine that you can use any type of beer for this recipe. I really love Abita’s Jockamo IPA, and I happened to have one on-hand that was room temperature, so that’s what I used.

Maybe in a week or two I’ll conduct another experiment… with Jim Lahey’s pizza dough recipe and beer!

Check out this recipe and let me know what you think!

How to Make Pizza Dough with Beer

Author: Jeff Young

Cuisine: Pizza, Italian

Recipe type: Main

Ingredients

1½ cups of room temperature beer (I used Abita’s Jockamo IPA)

¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil

4 cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of honey

3 teaspoons of active dry yeast (rapid rise yeast works just as well)

Instructions

Prepare the dough any way you can. If you have a mixer with a dough hook, use it. If you have a bread machine, use it (following the manufacturer’s directions for the “Dough” setting.) Or you can make it by hand. I made my doughs by hand for years. I love the feel. I love the process. I just love being that close to the food. But nowadays time is often in short supply, so more often than not, I use my stand mixer. If you have a bread machine, set it on the “Dough” setting. 90 minutes later, you will be ready to rock in the kitchen.

Essentially, you want the dough to sit, covered, in a warm environment for a couple of hours… until it doubles in size. Divide the dough, roll it out, top it and bake it.

[If you want to know the process I use to make pizzas on a baking stone, then check out this article: Creative Homemade Pizza Recipes. If you want to know the process I use to make pizzas on a Baking Steel, then read this article: Create the Crust You Crave: The Baking Steel Is The Answer for Home Pizza Baking.]

Notes

Will yield 4 large thin-crust pizzas or 3 large regular-crust pizzas.

3.2.2124

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What is Purgatory? [at JESUSCARITASEST.ORG]

The month of NOVEMBER is dedicated to the souls of those who have died. November 2 is a special feast remembering all Souls of those who have have died especially the ones in Purgatory. As Catholics we are especially encouraged to pray for the dead on this day and during November.

PURGATORY - CATHOLIC CATECHISM DEFINITION

 THE FINAL PURIFICATION, OR PURGATORY 1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. 1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.⁶⁰⁶ The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:⁶⁰⁷

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.⁶⁰⁸

1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin."⁶⁰⁹ From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.⁶¹⁰ The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.

PURGATORY - CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA DEFINITIONPurgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.The faith of the Church concerning purgatory is clearly expressed in the Decree of Union drawn up by the Council of Florence (Mansi, t. XXXI, col. 1031), and in the decree of the Council of Trent which (Sess. XXV) defined:

"Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has from the Sacred Scriptures and the ancient tradition of the Fathers taught in Councils and very recently in this Ecumenical synod (Sess. VI, cap. XXX; Sess. XXII cap.ii, iii) that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar; the Holy Synod enjoins on the Bishops that they diligently endeavor to have the sound doctrine of the Fathers in Councils regarding purgatory everywhere taught and preached, held and believed by the faithful" (Denzinger, "Enchiridon", 983).

Further than this the definitions of the Church do not go, but the tradition of the Fathers and the Schoolmen must be consulted to explain the teachings of the councils, and to make clear the belief and the practices of the faithful.

Requiem aeternam: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.

PLENARY INDULGENCE FROM NOV. 1-8 BY PRAYING FOR HOLY SOULS

A PLENARY INDULGENCE, applicable only to the souls in purgatory, is granted to the faithful who (1) on any and each day from November 1 to 8, devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, if only mentally, for the departed; (2) On All Souls' Day...devoutly visit a chruch or an oratory and recite an Our Father and the Creed. [(or if local ordinary gives other options) From the Manual of Indulgences #29] (Memling's Day of Judgement 1400s)

--------------------------------------------------------------------PRAYER OF ST. GERTRUDE THE GREATSt. Gertrude's Prayer," was dictated by Our Lord to St. Gertrude the Great, a Benedictine cloistered nun and a mystic. In the twelfth century, the Lord told the Saint that this prayer (approved and recommended by M. Cardinal Pahiarca of Lisbon, Portugal on March 4, 1936) releases 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is offered.A prayer to release many souls from Purgatory each time it is said and which was extended to include living sinners as well.Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home and in my family. Amen.

NOVENA FOR SOULS IN PURGATORY

Written by St. Alphonsus Liguori this novena has prayers for each day which are followed by the Prayer to Our Suffering Savior for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This Novena, written by St. Alphonsus Liguori, has different prayers for each of the 9 days, followed by the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory which is at the bottom of the section. First Day:
Jesus, my Saviour I have so often deserved to be cast into hell how great would be my suffering if I were now cast away and obliged to think that I myself had caused my damnation. I thank Thee for the patience with which Thou hast endured me. My God, I love Thee above all things and I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee because Thou art infinite goodness. I will rather die than offend Thee again. Grant me the grace of perseverance. Have pity on me and at the same time on those blessed souls suffering in Purgatory. Mary, Mother of God, come to their assistance with thy powerful intercession.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below

Second Day:
Woe to me, unhappy being, so many years have I already spent on earth and have earned naught but hell! I give Thee thanks, O Lord, for granting me time even now to atone for my sins. My good God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee. Send me Thy assistance, that I may apply the time yet remaining to me for Thy love and service; have compassion on me, and, at the same time, on the holy souls suffering in Purgatory. O Mary, Mother of God, come to their assistance with thy powerful intercession.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below

Third Day:
My God! because Thou art infinite goodness, I love Thee above all things, and repent with my whole heart of my offenses against Thee. Grant me the grace of holy perseverance. Have compassion on me, and, at the same, on the holy souls suffering in Purgatory. And thou, Mary, Mother of God, come to their assistance with thy powerful intercession.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below

Fourth Day:
My God! because Thou art infinite goodness, I am sorry with my whole heart for having offended Thee. I promise to die rather than ever offend Thee more. Give me holy perseverance; have pity on me, and have pity on those holy souls that burn in the cleansing fire and love Thee with all their hearts. O Mary, Mother of God, assist them by thy powerful prayers.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below

Fifth Day:
Woe to me, unhappy being, if Thou, O Lord, hadst cast me into hell; for from that dungeon of eternal pain there is no deliverance. I love Thee above all things, O infinite God and I am sincerely sorry for having offended Thee again. Grant me the grace of holy perseverance. Have compassion on me, and, at the same time, on the holy souls suffering in Purgatory. O Mary, Mother of God, come to their assistance with thy powerful intercession.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below

Sixth Day:
My Divine Redeemer, Thou didst die for me on the Cross, and hast so often united Thyself with me in Holy Communion, and I have repaid Thee only with ingratitude. Now, however, I love Thee above all things, O supreme God; and I am more grieved at my offences against Thee than at any other evil. I will rather die than offend Thee again. Grant me the grace of holy perseverance. Have compassion on me, and, at the same time, on the holy souls suffering in Purgatory. Mary, Mother of God, come to their aid with thy powerful intercession.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below

Seventh Day:
God, Father of Mercy, satisfy this their ardent desire! Send them Thy holy Angel to announce to them that Thou, their Father, are now reconciled with them through the suffering and death of Jesus, and that the moment of their deliverance has arrived.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below

Eighth Day:
Oh my God! I also am one of these ungrateful beings, having received so much grace, and yet despised Thy love and deserved to be cast by Thee into hell. But Thy infinite goodness has spared me until now. Therefore, I now love Thee above all things, and I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee. I will rather die than ever offend Thee. Grant me the grace of holy perseverance. Have compassion on me and, at the same time, on the holy souls suffering in Purgatory. Mary, Mother of God, come to their aid with thy powerful intercession.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below

Ninth Day:
My God! How was it possible that I, for so many years, have borne tranquilly the separation from Thee and Thy holy grace! O infinite Goodness, how long-suffering hast Thou shown Thyself to me! Henceforth, I shall love Thee above all things. I am deeply sorry for having offended Thee; I promise rather to die than to again offend Thee. Grant me the grace of holy perseverance, and do not permit that I should ever again fall into sin. Have compassion on the holy souls in Purgatory. I pray Thee, moderate their sufferings; shorten the time of their misery; call them soon unto Thee in heaven, that they may behold Thee face to face, and forever love Thee. Mary, Mother of Mercy, come to their aid with thy powerful intercession, and pray for us also who are still in danger of eternal damnation.

Say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory below 

Prayer to Our Suffering Saviour for the Holy Souls in Purgatory O most sweet Jesus, through the bloody sweat which Thou didst suffer in the Garden of Gethsemani, have mercy on these Blessed Souls. Have mercy on them.
R. Have mercy on them, O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer during Thy most cruel scourging, have mercy on them.
R. Have mercy on them, O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer in Thy most painful crowning with thorns, have mercy on them.
R. Have mercy on them, O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer in carrying Thy cross to Calvary, have mercy on them.
R. Have mercy on them, O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer during Thy most cruel Crucifixion, have mercy on them.
R. Have mercy on them, O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer in Thy most bitter agony on the Cross, have mercy on them.
R. Have mercy on them, O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the immense pain which Thou didst suffer in breathing forth Thy Blessed Soul, have mercy on them.
R. Have mercy on them, O Lord.

(Recommend yourself to the Souls in Purgatory and mention your intentions here) 

Blessed Souls, I have prayed for thee; I entreat thee, who are so dear to God, and who are secure of never losing Him, to pray for me a miserable sinner, who is in danger of being damned, and of losing God forever. Amen.

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Just to clarify... [at Little Catholic Bubble]

…because it can be confusing:

Halloween (or Hallowe'en), October 31: 

The word derives from "All Hallows' Eve", which denotes the evening before All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day), a Christian feast day.

All Saints' Day, November 1:

Also known as the Feast of All Saints. It's the day we Catholics honor

all

the saints in

Heaven

, not only the

canonized, recognized saints

who have their own particular feast days on the Church calendar. There are many millions of saints in Heaven who are not canonized, most of whom are obviously unknown to us, and this is the day we celebrate those myriad holy men and women.

All Saints' Day is a holy day of obligation, and so to willfully miss mass on this day is a grave sin for Catholics. (In other words, get to mass!)

All Souls' Day, November 2:

This is the day we remember and pray for all the souls in

Purgatory

. These souls are not forgotten by the universal Church, and they benefit from the prayers of the faithful as they steadily approach perfection and the Beatific Vision. Often, Catholic parishes invite parishioners to write the names of their deceased loved ones in a "Book of Remembrance", to have prayers and masses offered for these souls during the month of November.

All Souls' Day is not a holy day of obligation.

And, I guess this

very little teaching

qualifies as a Little Teaching, so it gets the icon!

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Review: On Heaven and Earth [at This That and the Other Thing]

About the Book:

For years Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Argentina, and Rabbi Abraham Skorka were tenacious promoters of interreligious dialogues on faith and reason. They both sought to build bridges among Catholicism, Judaism, and the world at large. On Heaven and Earth, originally published in Argentina in 2010, brings together a series of these conversations where both men talked about various theological and worldly issues, including God, fundamentalism, atheism, abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and globalization. From these personal and accessible talks comes a first-hand view of the man who would become pope to 1.2 billion Catholics around the world in March 2013.

My Comments:

When Pope Francis was first elected, publishers seemed to rush to print anything they could to tell the world about this man.  This book is one of those efforts.  It is interesting to see the Jewish perspective on moral issues of our day and religious issues in general and to see how they compare and contrast to the Catholic views of the man who is now Pope Francis.  Both Bergoglio and Skorka and respectful of the positions of the other and yet firm in their own beliefs.  Topics discussed include prayer, women, euthanasia, education, money, politics, same-sex marriage, abortion, divorce and more.  

While this book has its interesting points, the variety of topics covered and the two separate views make it hard to remember who said what about what.  If comparing and contrasting Jewish and Catholic beliefs is of interest to you, this book would be right up your alley. It's not really a theological treatise and it doesn't go deeply enough into any one subject to be an authoritative text, but it is highly readable. 

I'd like to thank the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy through the Blogging for Books program.  Grade:  B-

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Oh, the Scrapes We Have Seen! [at The Breadbox Letters]

If my guardian angel were made of flesh instead of pure spirit, I'd be sending him an October feast day present right about now.  Ice packs, splints, ointment, maybe a tin of aspirin - those might be nice tied together with a bright blue bow.  After all, he deserves something appropriate to thank him for putting up with me all these years.

I should have presented him with a box of chocolates after I wasn't expelled on my first day of school.

At that time, I knew little about Religious Sisters.  Only that they wore long black dresses and starched white bonnets.  And I knew that when a student misbehaved, Sister would swoop toward the child

"with her beads swinging!!!" 

Or so my mother had warned me, using a tone of apocalyptic doom.

I realized, from Mother's words, that the beads  were something worn by Sisters.  Now this, to me, was thoroughly exciting.  I positively loved beads; I was enchanted by the gleaming white pearl ones Mother put on when she and Daddy went out for the evening.  I loved colorful glittery beads worn, usually with matching earrings, by my aunts and cousins.  Oh yes, beads were fine things!  Fine,

fine

things!  They signaled celebration and beauty and times when a lady wore her finest.

I must say, what Sister wore on the first day of school didn't strike me as her finest.  Today must not be particularly special to her, I decided, because she arrived unbeaded.  She stood tall and straight beside a cracked slate blackboard, dressed in a stiff white bonnet and a long plain dress of black.  Around her neck, I saw not one single bead.

I still have a sharp memory of my disappointment.  Not only had I expected beads, I'd anticipated lengthy strands of them (after all, they had to be long enough to "swing").  White, gleaming strings of pearls dancing around Sister's neck as she

swooooooped

.... which was a rather attractive image all on its own to my six year old mind.  I envisioned a large, dark, graceful bird, magically flying forward with its pearly circlet swinging.

But Ah! (I suddenly remembered).  Mother had said I must DO something in order to see the beads swing.  Ah HA!  I suddenly got it.  I had the magic!  I knew the secret. 

I must misbehave!

Sister presented me with the perfect opportunity.  It happened when she told us that whatever we did, no matter what, we MUST NOT WRITE ON OUR DESKS.

Ahhh, that was it.  My ticket to a vision of swinging, gleaming beauty.  I waited until Sister was looking directly at me, I made sure to catch her eye, and I took my big fat long wooden pencil and carved as hard as I could onto the top of my desk.

Here it was:  the moment of

swooooooping! 

Like a rushing hawk, Sister flew down the aisle between desks and swept toward me.  But oh dear.  She had forgotten her pearls.

And then I saw them.  A long strand of fat black beads had been concealed in the gathers of Sister's skirt all along, and now they were swinging.  Back and forth, with every swish of her dress, they were swinging.  I was so focused on the dark, unshiny beads that What Happened Next has always been a  blur.  It had to do with my being grabbed up from my chair, shaken back and forth a bit (remember that to Sister I must have seemed like the most defiant child in all the universe), and a red-haired classmate looking over at me with thumb in mouth and horror on face.  I don't remember what was said; the scene replays in my mind like a silent movie.  It's just as well.  I didn't know words like defiant and disobedient and disrespectful and wicked yet anyway.  It was probably better to learn those later, in some other way.

(I wonder if my guardian angel just read that last sentence and sighed).

Yes, this story of the swinging beads is true.  And the gratitude to my guardian angel:  that's true as well.  Oh, the scrapes we have seen!!  Oh, those sad times when he has watched me race headlong  into sin.  I've gone along my merry, self-appointed, disobedient, defiant path of potential doom so often.  And all the while, he has stayed busy wrestling and fighting and trying to lead me in right paths.  

This is a long overdue public thank you, guardian angel.

Thank you for battling for my soul.

© 2013 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.thebreadboxletters.blogspot.comPainting:  Domenichino, Guardian Angel 

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Your Gym Membership is About to Expire [at Forget The Roads]

Do you ever worry about yourself? Like the time the timer on the microwave went off, and you opened it and realized that the food was sitting on the counter, and you were microwaving nothing? Like the time your 10-year-old was running so late for dance class, and you frantically ran around the house searching for her lost tap shoe, found it, jumped into the car and got halfway to dance class before realizing that you’d left your child at home? Like the time you finally forced yourself to get to the gym so you could start using the membership you paid good money for last January, only to find out that it was a six-month trial membership and had expired already? Times when you began to suspect that there must be a screw loose somewhere?

I had that kind of moment the other day when I realized that four different readers have recently asked me a variation on the same question, and yet there I was sitting in front of the computer drumming my fingers, staring off into space, waiting for inspiration to strike. What should I blog about?

It was a Major Duh Event.

The basic question was: do Catholics think that Protestants can be saved? And the basic answer to that is: honey, Catholics don’t think that Protestants can be saved – we KNOW they can be saved.

It’s pretty straightforward. The Church teaches that anyone who is baptized according to the Trinitarian formula (“in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”) is baptized into Christ (Gal 3:27) and is thus a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:13). That is why when I, a lifelong Protestant, asked to be reconciled to the Church, no one suggested that I needed to be “re-baptized” or any such nonsense – for there is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith and one baptism (Eph 4:4-5). The Catholic perspective on non-Catholic Christians is expressed in Chapter Two (On the People of God) of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium:

The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter. For there are many who honor Sacred Scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and a pattern of life, and who show a sincere zeal. They lovingly believe in God the Father Almighty and in Christ, the Son of God and Savior. They are consecrated by baptism, in which they are united with Christ. They also recognize and accept other sacraments within their own Churches or ecclesiastical communities. Many of them rejoice in the episcopate, celebrate the Holy Eucharist and cultivate devotion toward the Virgin Mother of God. They also share with us in prayer and other spiritual benefits. Likewise we can say that in some real way they are joined with us in the Holy Spirit, for to them too He gives His gifts and graces whereby He is operative among them with His sanctifying power. Some indeed He has strengthened to the extent of the shedding of their blood. In all of Christ’s disciples the Spirit arouses the desire to be peacefully united, in the manner determined by Christ, as one flock under one shepherd, and He prompts them to pursue this end. Mother Church never ceases to pray, hope and work that this may come about. She exhorts her children to purification and renewal so that the sign of Christ may shine more brightly over the face of the earth.

Hang on a second! Doesn’t the Catholic Church teach that “outside the Church there is no salvation”??? St. Francis de Sales, way back when the original versions of Protestant doctrine were fresh out of the oven, wrote:

We should deserve to be wrecked if we were to cast ourselves out of the ship of the public judgment of the Church, to sail in the miserable skiff of these new discordant private inspirations. Our faith would not be Catholic, but private.

Protestants are heretics! Unless they recant, they can’t be saved! Right?

Let’s break that down. First of all, it is correct that outside the Church there is no salvation, but what did we just say? The Church teaches that anyone who is baptized according to the Trinitarian formula (“in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”) is baptized into Christ (Gal 3:27) and is thus a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:13). The Church is the body of Christ. Protestants, as Lumen Gentium puts it, “being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter.”

But aren’t Protestants heretics? Fathers Leslie Rumble and Charles Carty, in their “Radio Replies,” clarified this:

It would be better to say that the Catholic Church regards all forms of Protestantism as heretical. If you say, “But those who profess heretical forms of religion are heretics,” the Church replies that only those who know their Protestantism to be wrong are guilty of heresy if they continue to adhere to it. Those who know no better, and are quite in good faith are not guilty of the sin of heresy.

I suppose I was probably a pretty average Protestant back in the day. I certainly had no idea that my Protestantism was wrong – I thought my beliefs were those of the first-century Christians. I could show you from the Bible that all of my beliefs were correct! And I knew that Catholicism was a man-made religious system – after all, Catholics worship Mary and believe they can work their way to Heaven, whereas the Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith! All my fellow believers held views similar to mine. No, we did not know that our Protestantism was wrong. In fact, when I found out the truth about Catholicism, it was exceedingly difficult for me to accept the fact that I had been born into a heretical sect. I had spent 45 years of my life thinking that I was right, only to finally have to admit that I had been wrong.

Which Protestants would it be, then, who “know their Protestantism to be wrong”? Aside from the original Reformers and their cohorts (the folks St. Francis de Sales was talking about), the most obvious example would be former Catholics, well educated in the Faith, who left the Church because they wanted to contracept or remarry without an annulment. In the Protestant denomination of their choice, they are able to hold their heads high as they sing the praises of the Almighty with all the other remarried, contracepting couples, telling themselves that the doctrines of that Protestant assembly are just as conducive to salvation as the inconvenient Catholic doctrines they left behind. These people know what they are rejecting, and reject it because when push comes to shove, their selfish desires win out over their love for the Truth.

The question is – do you know many people like that?

I think most Catholics who have left the Church were poorly catechized. They didn’t reject Church teaching – they were never exposed to Church teaching! Frank Beckwith, a well-known revert to Catholicism, tells the story of his Catholic education:

My religion teachers often spoke of Catholicism as “our tradition” rather than as a cluster of beliefs that were true. This relativizing of the faith did not engender confidence in the young students under their tutelage. Moreover, basic Catholic doctrine was often presented inadequately. One day, for example, when discussing the issues of sin and salvation, one teacher told us that when you die and meet God, He weighs your sins and good deeds on a scale, and if the latter outweighs the former, one avoids eternal damnation. And because one did not behave perfectly, one had to spend time in purgatory, a place that is like Hell insofar as it is not pleasant. But it is also unlike Hell because it ends. That same teacher used the following illustration to explain the difference between these two posthumous fates: in Hell, there is a clock on the wall, and it never stops, but in purgatory, there is also a clock on the wall and it does stop. None of this, of course, is Catholic theology. It was as if this teacher had learned about Catholic theology from Protestant fundamentalist evangelistic tracts rather than from the works of her own theologians.

Dr. Beckwith asks the pertinent question, “…with a watered-down and intellectually vapid presentation of the Gospel, …is it any wonder that many of us made a mad dash to where we saw Christ lifted up in Evangelical Protestantism?”

I would say, no wonder at all.

The point is, if a person has been exposed to authentic Catholic teaching, understands it, and then rejects it for selfish or rebellious reasons, then yes, he or she is guilty of heresy when preferring Protestant error to Catholic truth. As for the average, run-of-the-mill Protestant who has no clue what the Catholic Church really teaches, he or she does not understand that Protestant doctrine is erroneous, and therefore is not culpably Protestant. He or she can certainly be saved.

But it will be difficult….

That shouldn’t be surprising. Jesus said that the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it, so we already know that salvation isn’t something that just happens to you while you’re busy doing other things. Catholics believe that being saved is difficult for Catholics as well as for Protestants. That’s why God gives Catholics so much help.

We have the sacraments. The sacraments are conduits of God’s grace, grace that we Christians desperately need if we are to avoid mortal sin. Anyone who hopes to die in God’s friendship needs to remain as close to Him as they can, and the sacraments make this possible. This helps to explain Jesus’ adamant insistence on the necessity of eating His flesh and drinking His blood in John 6:

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.
He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

“And that disproves the Catholic argument!” Protestants sometimes argue. If John 6 is to be understood literally, then what Jesus is saying it that Catholics, who believe that they receive His very Body and Blood in Holy Communion, have eternal life, and Jesus will raise them up on the last day. Protestants do not receive the actual Body and Blood in Holy Communion and therefore, according to this argument, have no life in them, ergo, Protestants cannot be saved! Yet, performing a quick reality check, we spy clueless, lethargic, Communion-receiving Catholics and fervent, God-fearing, Bible-reading Protestants. Therefore, what Pope Pius XII called “those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church” really don’t amount to anything at all. The Catholic argument is self-refuting, or so goes the Protestant counter-argument.

Not so fast….

The answer is found in the Gospel according to John, for not only did Jesus say:

“…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” Jn 6:53

He also said:

“…unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Jn 3:3

Remember what we said about baptism – anyone who is baptized into Christ is thus a member of the body of Christ. Does that person have new life? You better believe it! But have you ever heard of peripheral vascular disease? Imagine a part of your body suddenly losing full access to your circulatory system. Do you feel that that wouldn’t be a problem?

A very kind reader shared his “aha!” moment with me, which came when he was reading John 1:4:

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The footnote to this verse in the “Ignatius Catholic Study Bible” offers this comment:

Earthly life is a gift that is given and sustained by God through his eternal Word (Heb 1:3). Ultimately, natural and biological life points beyond itself to the supernatural and divine life that Jesus grants in abundance to the children of God (10:10; 2 Pt 1:4; CCC 1997). This new life comes to us when we give ourselves to Christ in faith (3:16; 20:31), and Christ gives himself to us through the sacramental action of the Church (3:5, 6:53).

Protestants and Catholics alike receive new life when they give themselves to Jesus, i.e,. when they are born again in baptism. Jesus warned us, however, to avail ourselves of the sacrament of Holy Communion that He might give Himself to us.

Remember, Protestants are not entirely cut off from the life Christ continues to pour out upon us. The Church believes that Jesus is spiritually present wherever two or three gather in His Name, meaning, He is present at Protestant worship services. No, they do not receive the graces that we receive in Holy Communion – certainly not. BUT, they DO receive grace in spiritual communion. The difference between the graces available to Protestants through the sacrament of baptism, plus the grace of spiritual communion, plus immersion in the Scriptures versus the graces available to Catholics through the sacraments of baptism, Reconciliation, Holy Communion, and lectio divina is often explained as being comparable to working out with a set of dumbbells versus working out in a fully equipped gym – it is truly awe-inspiring what some Protestants achieve with their dumbbells! Sadly, many Protestants do more with the grace they have access to than Catholics do with the graces from the reception of the Eucharist! This in no way disproves the Catholic notion that John 6 is to be taken literally, however, because remember – no one is forced to accept or act on the grace that Jesus pours out. St. Paul emphasized that fact:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 1 Cor 15:10

We must cooperate with grace. God pours it out lavishly upon Catholics, but we can spurn it. Christians are free to choose to hide their light under a bushel and bury their talents in the ground. Catholics have a special incentive to avoid doing that – we are the slaves who received 5 talents in the parable of Matthew 25 – we are the ones to whom more has been given, the ones from whom more will be required. A dire judgment awaits so many of us because we have received so much, and yet our response is tepid. Let’s not forget that the Church teaches that not only Protestants but also Catholics CAN be saved….

Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Mt 25:30

It may be time to start worrying….

Let me put this bluntly: Get off your tush. Your gym membership is going to expire, and you will be held accountable for the use you’ve made of it. Did you, as a faithful Catholic with full access to the sacraments, avail yourself of those sacraments? And, having availed yourself, did you “work harder than any of them (though not you, but the grace of God that was with you)”? Or has God’s grace towards you been in vain? When you stand in line for your judgment, will there be buff-looking Protestants ahead of you? Will you be the 97-pound Catholic weakling? And what excuse do you propose to give? You had free access to all the fitness equipment you could ever need, and you failed to use it….

You started strong, O Catholic. Finish strong….

On the memorial of St. Phaolô Buòng Viêt Tông

Deo omnis gloria!

Photo credits: Cardio Room at Cole Harbour Place developed in 1999/Wikimedia Commons

This contribution is available at http://forgettheroads.com/2013/10/22/your-gym-membership-is-about-to-expire/
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Melee in the Courtroom - Mary Brings Peace [at Plot Line and Sinker]

Rosary“The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin…If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” Pope Pius XI

Years ago, before I had children, I worked as a court reporter. During one pre-trial hearing involving a dangerous offender, the defendant (who was being uncooperative) had already been restrained in a full body shackle as well as handcuffs. Because he was resisting, the officers sprayed mace in his eyes.

He wasn’t a big man, approximately five feet six or so, but he was muscular. With eyes tearing, he began to spit, first at the crown (prosecuting) attorney, hitting the man’s cheek, and then at the judge (landing on the floor near the clerk’s desk), and finally, his spittle ended up on my desk.

iStockPhoto SLC Minilypse-Judicial CourtI cringed, then continued taking down the testimony on my stenograph machine, making a mental note to disinfect my desk as soon as possible. After the hearing, the defendant, still restrained in a full body shackle, continue to spit. I watched him as the prisoner box was opened. His eyes stared straight ahead and he was frowning.

What frightened me was the glaring expression in his eyes. I had never seen anyone stare with such evil determination. A police officer reached in and pulled him out. As the defendant stepped forward, he immediately rammed his head into the accompanying police officer’s face.

I still remember the look in the defendant’s eyes as he used his head as a weapon against the officer, the officer’s shocked and bloodied face, and six police and correctional officers jumping on the defendant as the defendant hurled each officer off of him. It was all surreal to me, like in a dream or a movie. The defendant seemed to have superhuman strength.

As the melee of defendant and officers started to move in my direction, I immediately became concerned for my own safety. The clerk leaned over and whispered, “We need to get out of here.”

I grabbed my expensive stenograph machine and the two of us slipped into the jury room behind us. We stood close to the door, peeking through the crack to watch was what happening. We were shocked at how seemingly superhuman the defendant was. It took several minutes, but the defendant was finally subdued and taken away. We were all relieved, but in the days following, I began experiencing nightmares.

The real problem began when I was served with a subpoena to testify at the assault trial. Just thinking of this dangerous offender and the apparent evil in his expression frightened me. I couldn’t eat; I couldn’t sleep. I began to conjure up images that he would hunt me down and kill me if I testified.

Finally, I was determined that I was not going to let that man take away my peace of mind. I sat down and recited a rosary for Mary’s intercession that God would protect me and help me to be a good witness for the prosecution.

Weeks later, at the trial, it was nerve-wracking and frightening to testify in front of the defendant and all the others in the courtroom. It was a long half hour while I testified, but I told the truth, to the best of my ability. When I left the courtroom, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was especially happy that it was all over.

Two years later, however, I received a subpoena to testify at another trial involving the same incident. At that time, I was pregnant with my oldest son and all the original worry and fear took hold of me once more.

I brought my anxiety once again to Mary. If they needed me to be a witness, then I would again do my best. I began to make arrangements to travel to court (now three hours away). Thankfully, two weeks before the trial, I received a phone call that they would not need me after all.

I have no idea where this defendant is now all these years later, or if he is still alive. But Mary taught me that if we bring our worry and anxiety to her, she will take care of the rest.

Copyright 2013 Ellen Gable Hrkach (Handcuff photo from iStock. Rosary Photo from iStock).

This contribution is available at http://ellengable.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/melee-in-the-courtroom-mary-brings-peace/
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Question: Can Catholics celebrate Halloween? [at Quidquid Est, Est!]

Kristy, who writes at Granola Vogue, asked a question (and to emphasize just how BEHIND I am, I had joked with her that I hopefully wouldn’t be writing about it around Halloween. . . ) about everybody’s favorite candy-giving, creepy movie watching, totally spiritual holiday: “I read your latest post on Christmas [sorry to interrupt again, but this kinda shows just how old this question was] so I was wondering where does the Catholic Church stand on celebrating Halloween? Where does it fit it, if at all into their beliefs?”

A fine question, Kristy.  Let’s look at the history of Halloween first, compare its historical celebrations to today’s, and see what Catholics say about it.

Halloween got its start as a religious feast.  It is the day before All Saints’ Day, one of the holiest feasts of the year, when the Catholic Church celebrates all of the saints in Heaven, especially those who have not been declared a saint by the Church (remember, the Catholic Church doesn’t make someone a saint; she declares that that person is a saint).  The word “Halloween” is adapted from its proper, liturgical title: “All Hallows’ Eve.”  ”Hallows” is an older English word that we still use in some contexts (for example, in the “Our Father” we say in the first line “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name”).  The word “hallow” means “holy,” and thus “All Hallows’ Eve” celebrates the eve (evening) before the feast of All Saints (the holy ones of God).  The words combine to make Halloween.

The feast of All Saints’ Day wasn’t established in the Church calenders until 615, when Pope Boniface IV established the Feast of All Martyrs to commemorate the conversion of the Pantheon in Rome into the Church of “St. Mary of the Martyrs” (“Santa Maria dei Martiri”).  There had been earlier celebrations commemorating the Church’s martyrs, but this was the first time it was made official by the Pope (it was celebrated on May 13).  This feast was later turned into the Feast of All Saints by Pope Gregory IV in 840 and moved to November 1 in 844 by that same pontiff.  Several commentators note that the establishment of both the feast in honor of All Martyrs and the feast in honor of All Saints marked an attempt to turn a sometimes pagan Europe towards God, baptizing the day in honor of the saints, rather than towards pagan gods.  To highlight the importance of the feast, Pope Sixtus IV made the feast a holy day of obligation in 1484, meaning all Catholics were to attend Mass that day.  Pope Sixtus also established a vigil feast for this major feast day (what is now called Halloween) as well as an octave to extend the feast’s celebration.  However, the octave and the liturgies attached to the eve of All Saints were removed before the mid-1950s.

(Above: Raphael’s “The Disputation of the Sacrament,” aka, What they do in Heaven)

All Souls’ Day (November 2) has a much shorter history.  Since the beginning of the Church (and before, as noted in 2 Maccabees 12:38-46), the faithful have offered prayers for the dead, so that they might be freed from the stain of sin and brought into paradise.  The feast of All Souls’ Day grew out of this practice, first in local monasteries as a way to pray for those monks and loved ones who had died (particularly from the 6th through 11th Centuries), then in the major cities (Liege by 1008, Milan by 1125), and eventually to the whole world.  Pope Sylvester II recommended the feast for the Universal Church (but did not require the feast be added to the universal Church calender) in the 11th century, and as is often the case in matters liturgical, once the feast gained the support of the Pope, it spread throughout Europe.  It wasn’t until very recently (1915, under Pope Benedict XV), however, that the feast became an official one on the universal Church calendar (and a special exemption from the two-Masses-per-day rule was given to priests).

(Above: What happens during a Requiem Mass)

So that’s a quick summary of the history behind All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days and the creation of Halloween as a liturgical celebration.  Halloween is, as you can see, at its roots a Catholic celebration: remembering the saints who dwell with God in Heaven and the departed who left this world in need of our prayers.  In that way, it is very Catholic to celebrate Halloween.

But what about Halloween today?  Where did we get all the holiday stuff, the ghosts, the monsters, the jack-o-lanterns, etc.?  Is the Church ok with all of that?

First, the party stuff.

The connection with All Souls’ Day reveals right away the emphasis on ghosts and things that go bump in the night.  Ghosts are often connected with souls from Purgatory who cannot find rest.  A church in Rome contains relics of visitors from Purgatory (these and other ghost-like visitations were the subject of a recent book, Hungry Souls: Supernatural Visits, Messages, and Warnings from Purgatory), emphasizing the need for prayers for the faithfully departed, especially those who have no one to pray for them.  The accounts attached to those relics are real ghost stories.  It is little wonder, then, that ghosts and other denizens of the night are associated with the two feast days of the Church which focus on the afterlife, not on the lives of heroic men and women but on what happens to us when we die.

Many of the familiar Halloween features stem from pagan European practices.  The most commonly noted is a festival in Celtic areas (Ireland, England, Scotland, etc.) prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries dedicated to Samhain, their god of death.  This feast marked the Celtic New Year.  Rituals included offering burnt sacrifices in huge bonfires and wearing animal skins as costumes.  The hope was that these would keep the god at bay, as well as protect the people of the villages from the evil spirits released into the world by Samhain.  From these Celtic areas, we also find familiar rituals which may be the ancestors of our Halloween celebrations.  In Ireland people joined a parade led by a druidic priest in an animal mask who went from house to house begging for food in the name of another god, Muck Olla (those who would give food were blessed, while those who didn’t were cursed).  The Irish also started carving turnips for the feast.  Scottish peasants wandered the fields at night with torches to keep evil spirits at bay.  When Roman legions conquered the Celtic regions, their Latin customs of autumnal harvest rituals mixed with the Celtic festival.  Christian missionaries attempted to baptize the festivities (as they did with festivals near Christmastime), resulting in a strong emphasis in Celtic Christianity on death and physical mortification.

Similar rituals arose in Frankish and Germanic Christian kingdoms.  French Catholics in particular had a festival known as “Dance Macabre” in honor of departed souls, often dressing in costumes to represent people throughout their life.  French monks in the monasteries in Cluny developed devotions in honor of the souls in Purgatory, offering special Masses for the dead (the Masses of the Clunaic monks inspired Pope Sylvester II, who himself was French, to spread the celebration of Mass for the Dead).  These rites and rituals became popular among the lay faithful, and soon became part of Christian culture.

Our modern understanding of Halloween came about when all of these features mixed together in America, the world’s cultural melting pot.  French, Irish, Scottish, and German immigrants lived near each other, intermarried, and formed a new culture.  The Irish tradition of carving turnips and asking for food became our tradition of carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating.  The French devotion to prayers for the souls in Purgatory and their costume-filled “Dance Macabre” mixed with Celtic fears of ghosts and goblins.  Other cultures mixed and mingled, and eventually our modern holiday of Halloween formed.

This leaves the biggest question of them all: can a Catholic celebrate Halloween?  I would say yes, provided they avoid the more disturbing facets that have slithered into the holiday’s celebration in recent decades.  The focus of the holiday turned from remembering the dead, praying for them, and invoking the saints, to a disturbing obsession with evil.  This evil appears in various forms, and its not always as obvious as the evil in a horror movie.  Many children (and those who wish they were children) dress in costumes for trick-or-treating.  Those costumes speak volumes.  A cute costume might draws “awwws” and “how sweet.”  Gory costumes draw the opposite reaction.  Girls dressed in overtly sexual costumes draw a very disturbing reaction.  Costumes of children dressed as witches and zombies seem more appropriate.  Mix this with attempts by modern witches and druids to claim Halloween as their holy day and the water gets murky.  The Christian origins of the holiday fade into obscurity.

Christians are divided into four groups regarding Halloween.  One group just doesn’t celebrate it, not out of any dislike but simply because they don’t want to.  Another wants nothing to do with it, some because of its connection to pre-Christian Europe, some because of how disturbing some of the celebrations of Halloween have become.  A third group, on the other end of the spectrum, celebrates the holiday like anyone else, without any concern over the controversies mentioned above.  The fourth group, which I lean towards, seeks to embrace what is properly Christian, reclaiming, so to speak, Halloween.  Rather than wandering the streets dressed as monsters, children trick-or-treat dressed as saints or religious figures.  Others dress in some heroic costume (knights, soldiers, policemen, etc).  Other costumes work too (I was a shark when I was very young!) and there is room for some monstrosities, gentle ghosts and lovable witches.  However, it is not my place to say in definite terms “this is wrong” or “the parent who allows this or that costume is a bad, sinful parent.”  These, of course, are mere suggestions.

There is a place for terror during Halloween, for it reminds us of the end of our lives.  Halloween brings to our attention a terrifying reality: we will all die.  Even those who emphasize the spiritual aspect of the holiday know that this reality is at the root of the celebration.  The saints, though heroic and in Heaven, had to die to reach their triumphant state.  The souls in Purgatory likewise had to die to reach their state of purification.  Those in Hell suffer the worst fate, for in their death they have separated themselves from God.  It is of this reality that Halloween seeks to remind us.  Horror has its place in reminding us.  Perhaps it is the easiest way to shock us into drawing back to God.

No matter the costume or the celebration, this main focus of Halloween should be maintained.  We should recall those who have gone before us, either celebrating in the triumph of the saints or pray for those who still journey through Purgatory.  Some suggested practices help refocus our attention during the holiday.  Reflections on the saints form a delightful part of the celebration. Readings from the lives of the saints or their writings might help to remind Christians young and old of the great patrimony of our spiritual siblings in Heaven.  In this way, a new generation of Christians can reorient themselves towards Christ through His saints.

For Further Reading (note: most of these websites are articles discussing the history of Halloween in more detail):

http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/hallween.htm

http://www.fisheaters.com/customstimeafterpentecost12aa.html#1a

http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Oct2001/Family.asp

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/10_2.cfm

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=6210

http://www.wordonfire.org/WoF-Blog/WoF-Blog/October-2012/Culture–Time-for-Catholics-to-Embrace-Halloween.aspx

http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/784/Truth_about_Halloween.html

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/all-hallows-eve-or-halloween

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315a.htm - Catholic Encyclopedia article about All Saints’ Day

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315b.htm - Catholic Encyclopedia article about All Souls’ Day

Van Den Aardweg, Gerard J. M.  Hungry Souls: Supernatural Visits, Messages, and Warnings from Purgatory.  Rockville, IL: TAN Books, 2009.

This contribution is available at http://quidquidestest.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/question-can-catholics-celebrate-halloween/
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My Brother Pier Giorgio, His Last Days [at String of Pearls]

I have become so very fond of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, the future saint who has been called "A Man of the Beatitudes."  Beatified by John Paul II in 1990, he was named the Patron Saint of World Youth Day in 2000.  I'm joining Jessica over at

Housewifespice

for my favorite link-up, to share the title of a book about him that I absolutely love:

My Brother Pier Giorgio, His Last Days by Luciana Frassati.

I haven't read it recently and I'm not reading it today, so I'm cheating I guess.  But I've read this book written by his sister Luciana so many times, it's a good bet that there was at least one Wednesday in the past where it was the one I had my nose in (and said nose was probably running from all the crying I was doing).

If you haven't heard of this extraordinary young man, or if you don't know a whole lot about him, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's life story is utterly fascinating and incredibly inspiring.  This particular book deals only with his final week on earth--with his last days: his "passion" and tragic death at the age of 24.  If you want to read more about him,

here is a short article

.  Or you could read

this biography

, also penned by his sister.

I admire this man so much that I had to include him in my novel

Finding Grace

.  My shy little heroine, who is determined to achieve the goal of sainthood while living in the world, is "introduced" to Pier Giorgio (I won't tell you how--you'll have to read the book to find out!), and she becomes enchanted with him to the point of having a bit of a crush, even though he's been long dead.  After discovering Pier Giorgio in a book about modern saints and reading as much as I could find about him, I can imagine that I, too, might have felt like Grace--if at 15 I hadn't yet met the true man of my dreams: the boy who would become my husband, the boy who made crushes on other males forever a thing of the past for me (and the boy who was my main inspiration for the character of Grace's love interest, Tom Buckley).

I can't recommend this book highly enough.  Not long ago, I wrote a short review about it for Goodreads, which I've copied here.  If you do read it, I'd be interested to know if it affects you as deeply as it affected me.

********************﻿

My Brother Pier Giorgio: His Last Days by Luciana Frassati

It's almost impossible for me to put into words how inspiring this book is. Luciana Frassati's memoir about her brother's last week on earth--when he lay dying of polio at the age of 24, surrounded by his unwitting loved ones in his family home, quietly suffering until the bitter end so as not to divert the attention from his elderly grandmother, who was also dying--is one of the most moving and affecting tributes it has ever been my privilege to read.

I was first introduced to Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925), a perfect model of Christian faith, hope, and charity if there ever was one, when I read a couple of pages about him in a book about modern saints called Faces of Holiness. Something about his story--and his handsome face with its engaging smile--spoke to me, and I wanted to learn all I could about him.

My Brother Pier Giorgio, His Last Days is the first complete book I ever read about this future saint, who was named a Blessed by Pope John Paul II and is considered a patron of young adults (although I went on to read a biography, also penned by his sister, titled A Man of the Beatitudes). I devoured it in one sitting. And not long afterward, I re-read it. Then I re-read it, and for good measure, I re-read it once again...I truly don't know how many times I've read this beautiful book at this point. It's a slim volume, and a quick read; but so much holiness, self-sacrifice, and love are packed in its pages.

This book will inspire you to become a saint, and it will show you that you can be an "average Joe" like this young Italian man was--an athletic mountain climber, a jokester with countless friends, a student who struggled academically, a son who was misunderstood and underappreciated by his family, a man in love who had to renounce the woman of his dreams because his parents didn't approve of her--and yet, you can make the kind of heroic sacrifices in your daily life that will put you on the path to Heaven. You can love God and revere the Blessed Mother. You can treat the poor and the sick with true Christian charity.

It has been said of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati that he always carried a Rosary in his pocket, and that people were moved to imitate him just by seeing the joy on his face when he prayed. I know that I, for one, have been moved by him. And this heartbreaking, but ultimately uplifting, story of his last days is well worth your time--whether you're a Catholic or not.

This contribution is available at http://mumsie2five.blogspot.com/2013/10/what-you-should-be-reading-if-not.html
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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Defeating the Poverty of Indifference [at 8 Kids And A Business]

Posted at Catholic Insight

prayerOn a wet, chilly Saturday morning in October, something wonderful but odd happened at my parish. Wonderful because it was the Mass at which the young confirmandi and their parents took part in a Confirmation Enrollment Ceremony. Odd because the promises that parents and the confirmandi were asked to make ought to be obvious and as natural as breathing for all who were there.

We the parents of the Confirmation class promised to support our children by attending Mass each week and living a Catholic way of life. The confirmandi promised to attend Mass each Sunday, pray regularly, try to love others and be aware of their Christian responsibility in responding to the needs in their home, parish and community.

My seventh child is receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Spring and as I read the promises and prayers along with the other parents, I silently wondered why we even had to make this pledge. As Catholic parents, this should be a given -  prayer, Mass and Catholic living should be part of our family’s routine. But looking around at the other participants, I saw some bored, listless teenagers and parents who didn’t know the Mass responses. Sadly, these were people who didn’t care.

In the First Communion class that I teach, I am once again asking parents of the children to practice making the Sign of the Cross with them. At least half of the more than twenty students haven’t been taught properly, if at all. In honour of October as the month of the rosary, and in response to Pope Francis’ consecration of the world to Mary, we learned about Our Lady of Fatima and prayed one decade of the rosary. Most of the kids had never prayed the rosary. Many of them couldn’t pray the Hail Mary or the Our Father from memory.

At this point I could get on my high-horse and wag my finger at all those less than perfect Catholic parents but what purpose would that serve except to shine a blinding spotlight on my own faults? If my mission as a catechist and as a child of God is to witness and spread the news of God’s love, then having a “you should” attitude is just plain wrong. Besides, it doesn’t work.

How do we change this lack of caring, this poverty of indifference? How do we make the Catholic Faith so attractive that we can do away with promises to attend Mass and kids who fumble with their beads instead of leading the rosary.

Here’s my idea. We can start by persistently praying this: Lord make me holy.

Real, down-to-earth, joyful holiness is attractive. It is overflowing with humility and trust and it witnesses to a personal relationship with Christ. It doesn’t preach at, condemn or point fingers. It is on fire with love of God and neighbour. It will, as Servant of God, Catherine Doherty wrote “set sparks in the hearts of others…Even a few drops of love, of charity, are significant in a sea of complacency, indifference or poverty.”

So that’s the answer? We start with our own desire for holiness. We allow the Holy Spirit to ignite us with love and with our life we share that love with others. We share the beauty of the Catholic Faith and people will find it attractive. Before we know it, the spark of desire is kindled and the poverty of indifference is defeated. It is replaced by authentic Catholic living and zealous hearts on fire.

So once again, pray it with me: Lord make me holy.

This contribution is available at http://8kidsandabusiness.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/defeating-the-poverty-of-indifference/
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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What Catholics Believe - Mary, the Virgin Mother of God [at Catholicism and Adventism]

This post forms part of the What Catholics Believe series.

Luke 1:47-28 (KJV): And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.  For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Mother of God of Vladimir

Mary is a sore point when it comes to Catholics and Protestants.  Some Protestants accuse us of worshipping Mary; Catholics think Protestants ignore her.

Certainly, Catholics do not worship Mary.  Nor do we consider her to be a goddess.  But what do we believe and what do we not believe?

It’s also worth mentioning at this point that Mary is a symbol of the Church, and the first person to directly allow Jesus into her life.  This is quite biblical – just look at Revelation 12:

Rev 12:1-2,5 (KJV): And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. … And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

A woman … who gave birth to Jesus.  Yes, the woman symbolises Israel, and the woman symbolises the Church.  The woman symbolises multiple things, but at the core, the woman is the mother of Jesus.  Only those in denial of Mary could not acknowledge this basic obvious symbol.

As the symbol of the Church, and as the first Christian, Mary is now what we will become.  She birthed God into the world; we are called to bring God to others.  She was sinless; we will be made spotless.  She was taken body and soul into heaven; we will ultimately be resurrected and our bodies reunited with our souls in heaven.

Outline of this post:

Mary is the Mother of God

Mary, Ever Virgin

Mary the Immaculate Conception

Mary, assumed body and soul into heaven

Mary, Queen of Heaven

Mary, Woman and Mother

Mary the Ark of the New Covenant

Mary, the New Eve

Mary, intercessor for Christians

Mary, source of our salvation

1. Mary is the Mother of God

Mary, Mother of God, Eleusa Theotokos

Let’s start with the basics – Mary is Jesus’ mother.  Luke 1:43 explicitly calls Mary “the mother of my Lord“.

Yet Jesus was God.  So, logically, Mary was the mother of God.

Some Protestants will find that hard to accept, because they misunderstand what is meant.  The problem is fairly easily resolved, however, if we look at who Jesus is.  Jesus is one person with two natures.  He is a divine person with a divine nature and a human nature.  As a divine person, he is God.  Mothers are mothers of persons, not mothers of their natures.  We speak of “my mother” and “your mother“, not of “the mother of my human nature“.  So, Mary being Jesus’ mother means that Mary was the mother of a person who was God, and therefore the mother of God.  The Greek “theotokos” (θεοτόκος) explains this more – Mary is the woman who carried God in her womb, and gave birth to God.

What Mary is not: she is not the originator of the 2nd Person of the Trinity; she is not older than God; she is not the mother of God the Father.  She is the human mother of Jesus, who was God.

The reason Mary was declare by the Church to be the Mother of God in the 400′s AD was because some people denied that Jesus was God.  Some claimed that he was never God, while others claimed that he only became God later.

See my post Mary, the Theotokos for more on the historical reasons.

See these two videos for more:
Debunking the arguments against Mary the Mother of God, part 1
Debunking the arguments against Mary the Mother of God, part 2

Further reading:
The Case for Calling Mary “Mother of God”

2. Mary, Ever Virgin

Mary’s virginity even after giving birth to Jesus

Catholics believe that Mary remained a virgin all her life.  The biblical evidence includes Luke 1:34:

Luke 1:34 (KJV): Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

Mary is saying that at that time she was a virgin.  However, it also indicates that she had planned to remain a virgin, in spite of her marriage to Joseph.  Had she not planned this, her automatic assumption would have been, “Ah, when I marry Joseph, he and I will produce a child, and this is what the angel means“.  That is not her reaction.  Only if she had intended to remain a virgin can her lack of comprehension regarding a pregnancy be explained adequately.

Protestants bring up two other points that need addressing – Mary was a virgin until she gave birth (Matthew 1:25), and Jesus had brothers (Matt 12:46; Matt 13:55; Mark 3:31–34; Mark 6:3; Luke 8:19–20; John 2:12; John 7:3-10; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor 9:5).

These points do not refute the Catholic position.

Mary remained a virgin until she gave birth – this doesn’t mean that she didn’t remain a virgin afterwards.  In fact, assuming she did not remain a virgin afterwards is reading something into the text that isn’t there.  The word “until” in English is often used as a delimiting preposition – “I was in England until I went to France“.  However, it does not work that way in the Bible, and that is why it is a case of reading into the text something that isn’t there when people assume “until” means her virginity came to an end.

Three instances if an open-ended “until” in the Bible:

2 Samuel 6:23 (KJV): Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.

Did Michal have a child after her death?  Doubtful.

Psalm 72:7 (KJV): In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

The Hebrew there is “till there be no moon“; the king symbolises God’s reign, especially at the end of the world.  Will the righteous stop flourishing and will peace no longer be abundant at the end of the world, if the moon ceases to exist?  No.

Psalm 123:2 (KJV): Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

Will we cease to look to God and look elsewhere after he has had mercy on us?  No.

1 Corinthians 15:25 (KJV): For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

Would he stop reigning after all enemies had been put under his feet?  No.  Until here is open-ended.  αχρι (not the same as Matt 1:25) – Strong’s G891.

1 Timothy 4:13 (KJV): Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

Were they supposed to stop reading, exhorting, and ignore doctrine after he came?  No.  Until here is open-ended.  εως (same as Matt 1:25) – Strong’s G2193.

Matthew 28:20 (KJV): Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Would Jesus no longer be with them after the end of the world?  No.  Until here is open-ended.  εως (same as Matt 1:25) – Strong’s G2193.

Like the Ark of the Covenant, Mary would not be touched, metaphorically, by men.  And the following verse has been applied to Mary by Christians from the earliest times:

Ezekiel 44:1-2 (KJV): Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.  Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

Jesus’ brethren?

Various people are named as Jesus’ brethren in the Bible.  Yet, if one looks carefully, one can show that Jesus’ brethren actually had different parents.

Also, right throughout the Bible, those labelled as brothers or brethren are often not biological siblings.  In Genesis 11:27 we see that Lot and Abraham were nephew and uncle, yet in Genesis 14:14, Lot is called Abraham’s brother – adelphos (αδελφος) in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint – this is the same word used in the New Testament for Jesus’ brothers.  The same αδελφος is used in Genesis 29:15 for the relationship between Jacob and Laban, also nephew and uncle (see verse 10.)  In cases where the identity of “brothers” can be determined to be cousins, we might expect to find the Greek word for cousin used.  But in Hebrew there was no separate word for cousins, and when such relationships were depicted, usually “brother” was used, with “son of my uncle” as a circumlocutory alternative.  Those who translated the Old Testament into Greek chose to translate directly, and so they used the term αδελφος, brother (cf Gen 14:14, 29:15).  Similarly in the New Testament.  Translating from their own mother tongue, Aramaic, the Apostles likewise would have used αδελφος, as it was a direct translation from Aramaic, which had no word for “cousin”.

In the links below, this is gone into in a lot more detail.

Further reading:
Mary’s children
St. Jude and the “Brothers” of Jesus
Did Mary Have Other Children?
Was Mary an Unwed Mother?
Jesus Christ, the New Temple … Mary as the Temple Gate
Catholic Encyclopedia: The Brethren of the Lord
Mary’s Perpetual Virginity
Why is Mary Considered Ever-Virgin?
The Case for Mary’s Perpetual Virginity
“Brethren of the Lord”
Mary Had Other Children…? Or Did She?

3. Mary the Immaculate Conception

Theotokos Panachranta – The All-Immaculate Mary

Some Protestants teach that we are all either predestined to salvation or to damnation.  Most Christians, Catholics included, teach that we are saved by grace alone, unable to obtain salvation by our own doing.  God alone calls us, and God alone provides the grace by which we have the ability to respond to his call.  Why, then, is it so hard to believe that God predestined Mary to be saved, and furthermore, kept free from sin?  Do we not trust the power of God’s grace?

The term “Immaculate Conception” has two parts.  Immaculate – spotless, without a stain of sin.  Conception – Mary was sinless from the moment of her conception, so she was free of original sin.

Biblically, the concept of Mary’s sinlessness comes from the concept that she was “full of grace“.  The precise word in Luke 1:42 is “kecharitomene” (κεχαριτωμενη).  It means more than just being given grace like the rest of us are.  It indicates a past event with ongoing status.  Mary was given grace, and made full with grace.  To be full with grace means that she did not lose or lack or reject any grace given by God.  To have not lost grace, to be filled with it, means the absence of sin, which results in the loss or absence of grace.

The two main arguments against Mary’s sinlessness are a) that she needed a saviour (Luke 1:47), and b) that all men have sinned (Romans 3:22-23).

Mary needed a saviour.  No human, sinless by his/her own power, could bridge the gap between God and man.  Mary still needed Jesus for that.  And Mary was not sinless by her own power – she was preserved sinless because of the saving act of Jesus on the Cross, not in spite of it.  By his death and resurrection, Jesus will change us all from sinners to spotless saints.  So he did with Mary, who, without him, would have been a sinner.

All men have sinned?  St Paul says this, yes, but he is clearly not including every single human being – after all, Jesus was a man and he did not sin.  St Paul also states (Rom 9:11) that babies are without sin.  What we all, other than Jesus, are – and babies and Mary are included here – are creatures in need of salvation.  But not all men have sinned, by St Paul’s own admission, which means he was stating a generic fact in Romans 3, which was not an absolute all-encompassing statement.

Mary’s sinlessness was to provide a sacred vessel for Jesus by which to enter the world as a man, and a gift to her for her saying Yes to God.

Like Mary, we will too be washed clean of sin, with no stain remaining.

A further interesting fact is that after Jesus’ birth, Jesus’ blood continued to circulate in her body until she died, due to the concept of microchimerism – cells from fetuses get into their mothers’ circulation, and may remain in the mother for the rest of her life.  Mary had the literal Blood of Christ in her body.  This supports the need for both the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.

Further reading:
Immaculate Conception and Assumption
What is the Immaculate Conception?
Why Is the Immaculate Conception Important?
Mary’s Assumption Makes Sense in Light of Microchimerism

4. Mary, assumed body and soul into heaven

Virgin Mary’s Tomb, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem

Catholics believe that after Mary died (and many believe she was spared death as well, although that is not Catholic dogma) her body was taken up into heaven and reunited with her soul.

The dogma states that “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” (Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII)

In the Bible, Enoch and Elijah, and possible Moses, were also assumed into heaven.  So this concept is not biblically impossible.

Jesus’ body also ended up in heaven – he rose from the dead, and then ascended into heaven.  However, there is a big difference here: Jesus ascended into heaven by his own power; Mary was, like Enoch and Elijah, taken up by the power of God.

Biblically, the Assumption is hinted at in Revelation 12, and the early Christians believed in it.

Lastly, Mary’s Assumption is a precursor to our own eventual bodily resurrection.

Further reading:
Ten Facts About the Assumption of Mary That You May Not Know
Did the Virgin Mary Die? The Answer May Surprise You
Mary’s Assumption Makes Sense in Light of Microchimerism

5. Mary, Queen of Heaven

Madonna enthroned with Angels

From early on, Christians saw the parallels between Mary and the Davidic Queens.  The mother of the king was considered to be the queen, and she had significant influence, as can be seen with the case of Solomon and Bathsheba:

1 Kings 2:20 (KJV): Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee, say me not nay. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother: for I will not say thee nay.

The fact that there was idolatry involved in the case of Asherah, a pagan goddess, who was called Queen of Heaven, does not nullify the rest of the Bible’s parallels.

Luke 1:31-33 (KJV): And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Further reading:
Mary’s Queenship
Mary, Mother of God and Queen of Heaven
Mary Queen of Heaven – the Bible Tells Me So

6. Mary, Woman and Mother

Crucifixion, from Polittico di Valle Romita

John 2:4 (KJV): Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

That is unfortunately a bad translation.  It really means “What has that got to do with you or me?“  I.e. Jesus is saying that it’s not his or his mother’s job to ensure there is enough wine.

Also, in modern English, we do not address woman as “Woman“.  “Woman, where is my food??“  No … but we do call them “Lady” sometimes as a title, although it’s more often something like “Lady, you dented my car!!“.  “Madam” is often used to speak of women of inferior morals.  However, generally, “Ma’am” is a way to address a woman with respect – and it is in this way that Jesus addresses his mother.

John 19:26-27 (KJV): When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!  Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

No disrespect there at all.

Important in that verse is that a) it is significant in that the Bible bothers to record it as one of Jesus’ last sayings on the Cross, and b) it indicates that Jesus was giving Mary as a mother to his beloved disciple, John.

Why did Jesus give Mary to John?  Normally the eldest son would be responsible for the care of the mother; if the eldest son died, the job would be given to the next son.  Jesus, according to Catholic teaching and the Bible, had no siblings – Mary remained a virgin all her life.  So Jesus had no siblings to take care of Mary after his death, resurrection, and ascension.  Also, because this event is given the emphasis and importance it is given as one of Jesus’ final statements on the Cross, even the early Christians found it significant – Jesus gave his mother to mankind.

Protestants will sometimes argue that Mary had other children, and that she was only a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus.  I’ll deal with that error lower down, but if they are right, then giving Mary to John has even more significance – Jesus bypassed all his siblings, who would normally have taken on the task of caring for her, and gave her to John.  That is highly unusual, making the universal mothership of Mary even more pronounced.

Further reading:
Was Jesus Dissing His Mother When He Called Her “Woman”?

7. Mary the Ark of the New Covenant

Moses and Joshua in the Tabernacle

One argument Protestants present is that Mary is hardly mentioned in the Bible.  Yet that isn’t entirely true – there are several explicit mentions of her, but there are others that are not as obvious.  These passages show us Mary contrasted in the New Testament with the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament.

In short, both Mary and the Ark were where God’s glory was physically located – the Word of God in Mary’s womb.  The Ark contained several items (Heb 9:4) – the nourishment from God to the Israelites (manna), and the symbol of the Aaronic priesthood, Aaron’s rod, and the word of God given to Moses on stone tablets.  God overshadowed and dwelled in both the Ark (Exodus 40) and Mary (Luke 1).  Mary had in her womb Jesus, who became for us the bread of life, who became the eternal high priest of the order of Melchizedek, the Word of God himself.  The Ark and Mary both then travelled to Judah (2 Sam 6, Luke 1).  King David, dressed in a priest’s girdle, and John the Baptist, son of a priest and a future priest, leapt with joy in front of the Ark/Mary.  Both King David and Elizabeth rejoiced in front of the Ark / Mary, which/who both remained for 3 months.  Then both the Ark and Mary went back to Jerusalem, to the Temple.

Further reading:
4 Biblical Reasons Mary Is The New Ark of the Covenant
The Virgin Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant
Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant

8. Mary, the New Eve

Eve and Mary

St Irenaeus, the disciple of St Polycarp, the disciple of the Apostle John, wrote, around 202 AD, in his Against Heresies:

In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in Paradise “they were both naked, and were not ashamed,” (Genesis 2:25) inasmuch as they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age, and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. And on this account does the law term a woman betrothed to a man, the wife of him who had betrothed her, although she was as yet a virgin; thus indicating the back-reference from Mary to Eve, because what is joined together could not otherwise be put asunder than by inversion of the process by which these bonds of union had arisen; so that the former ties be cancelled by the latter, that the latter may set the former again at liberty. And it has, in fact, happened that the first compact looses from the second tie, but that the second tie takes the position of the first which has been cancelled. For this reason did the Lord declare that the first should in truth be last, and the last first. (Matthew 19:30, Matthew 20:16) And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, “instead of fathers, children have been born unto you.” For the Lord, having been born “the First-begotten of the dead,” (Revelation 1:5) and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having been made Himself the beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die. (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) Wherefore also Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, and not they Him. And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.
- Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter 22)

Further reading:
Mary, the New Eve
Early Church Fathers on Mary as the New Eve
6 Biblical Reasons Mary Is the “New Eve”

9. Mary, intercessor for Christians

The Madonna and Child with Saints

Christ is our only mediator, says the Bible.  The Bible also uses the term “intercession” when speaking of Christ (Heb 7:25).  The terms can be used as synonyms in English, and that is how Catholics often use them – as synonyms.  So do Protestants:

Quite simply, intercessory prayer is the act of praying on behalf of others. The role of mediator in prayer was prevalent in the Old Testament, in the cases of Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel, Hezekiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Christ is pictured in the New Testament as the ultimate intercessor, and because of this, all Christian prayer becomes intercession since it is offered to God through and by Christ.
– What is intercessory prayer?

We are all able to pray for each other, and the Bible teaches the value of intercessory prayer.

1 Tim 2:1 (KJV): I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.

Adventists and others who believe the dead are unconscious in the grave claim that the saints cannot pray for us because they are not in heaven.  However, this is based on an erroneous understanding of the biblical afterlife.  See the following posts on this blog dealing with this topic:

Soul sleep – are the dead alive in heaven, or not?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven
Paradise vs Heaven

Are we allowed to pray to Mary?

Yes, we are.  Nothing in the Bible prohibits the addressing of those in heaven; in fact, in several places, angels in heaven are addressed by humans – Psalm 103:20-21.  Requests are asked of angels – Gen 19:15-21.  Angels could speak to humans from heaven – Gen 21:17-18 – which means that they should be able to hear us from there.  Those in heaven know what we are up to – 1 Samuel 28:18 – Samuel knows what Saul has not done; see also Rev 19:6; Luke 15:7-10 indicates that those in heaven, in the presence of the angels, rejoice when sinners repent.

In Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-4, the angels offer the prayers of humans to God.  In Revelation 6:9-10 we see the souls of the dead praying to God.  If we may address those in heaven, and if they know what is happening on earth, and if prayer by those in heaven is possible, then we can ask them to pray for us.

Is praying to Mary not worship?

No.  For low church Protestants, the average worship consists of prayer and singing hymns and a sermon.  Protestant worship is modelled on the synagogue.  For Catholics, that does still form part of what we call worship, but the ultimate worship service in Catholicism and Orthodoxy is the Mass.  We are in the very presence of the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.  For Catholics, worship is modelled on the Temple.  Jesus, as a first century Jew, would immediately recognise in the Mass many elements of Temple worship.

So, when we have the sacrifice of Calvary as our highest form of communal worship, everything else is synagogue-like in comparison.  Yes, we pray, we read the Bible, and we sing pretty badly.  But these things are lesser forms of communal worship.

Pray, in English, isn’t limited to worship.  Pray simply means to ask.  We explicitly differentiate between the worshipful prayer we offer to God, and the non-worship form of prayer we direct to angels and saints.  If English (and Hebrew and Greek) had developed separate words for these two actions, we would use them.  But in all three languages, the same words are used for both.  That can understandably become confusing for Protestants, who only address God, and never the angels and saints (unless they’re singing one of the psalms that addresses angels, but then they don’t notice.)

Worship is also an act of the intellect and an act of the will, not an act of body posture (kneeling, bowing, which are all legitimately done to humans in the Bible) or vocalisation.  If bowing is done with the intent of worship, then it is worship.  If it is not done with the intent of worship, then it is not worship.  The same applies to prayer.

Further reading:
Why Invocation of the Saints is Essentially Different From the Sin of Necromancy
Biblical Evidence For Invocation of Angels For Intercessory Purposes / Asking For Dead Men’s Intercession, and Their Prayers For Us
Biblical Evidence For Saints in Heaven Being Aware of Earthly Events

10. Mary, source of our salvation

Madonna of Mercy

One of the more blasphemous-sounding concepts is the idea that Mary is the source of our salvation.  Yet in the early Church we see this concept taught.  However, if correctly understood, it should be no problem.

Only Christ saves us, right?  No, not according to the Bible.  Yes, Christ saves us.  But the Bible also speaks of secondary means of salvation – those things Christ uses to save us – as saving us.  He is the primary source of salvation, but he uses faith (Luke 7:50), grace (Acts 15:11), baptism (1 Peter 3:21), and humans to save us (Jude 1:23, 1 Timothy 4:16).

Soon-to-be Father Joe Heschmeyer points out a useful analogy, one commonly found in medicine when talking about the cause of death: Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy; a bullet killed Kennedy.  Both make perfect sense, and both are true.

When we say that Mary saves us, we do not mean that Mary suffered and died for our sins.  What Mary does do is this: she brought Jesus into the world when she said “be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38); she prays for us, and who is more righteous than she is – “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).

Further reading:
Is it Idolatry to say that Mary Saves Us?

Conclusion

Mary is, for Christians, a devout and holy example to follow (cf 1 Cor 11:1).  She is our mother, our queen.  She was kept pure by God, and never touched by men.  She brought Christ into the world, as his mother, and is the Ark of the New Covenant.  She said yes where Eve said no.

Further reading (in addition to the above lists):
Issue 2: Mary (for primary and secondary schools)
Mary
Mary, Why Honor Her?
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Is Marian Devotion Dangerous?

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More than a Sinner [at Working to be Worthy]

-1-

Friends of ours left their church somewhat recently. They had been attending for years, but just got burnt out. Every sermon, it seemed, focused on their sinfulness and how they were compared to God. Repulsive. Disgusting. Worthless. Scum. They left each Sunday either angry or discouraged.

-2-

We

are

sinners. Certainly we need to be aware of our shortcomings, that we might turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. Also, we need to stand in awe of God. It is right and just to give thanks to the Lord, our God. Recognizing his majesty and power is an important component of our spiritual life.

-3-

But both of those can be done without degrading our human dignity. We can own our sin, acknowledge ourselves to be sinners, without being worthless. If we are worthless, then Jesus' sacrifice must have been a waste. What has no value cannot be redeemed. Jesus knew the sins of those with whom he ate and drank. He wasn't repulsed or disgusted by them. He forgave them and called them to conversion. "Your faith has healed you." Our sins are forgiven; we are restored to what we should be.

-4-

As far as worshiping God, our praise proceeds from our (limited) understanding of his greatness, not out of shame. When you see what is beautiful and pure and sacred - perhaps a sunset or a newborn child or a great work of art - the attributes of what you see move you. You don't appreciate them because you're rotten, but because they are wonderful. So it is with God. He doesn't need to tear us down in order to build himself up.

-5-

A shame-based "Gospel" (gospel means

good news

and so is incongruous with shaming) disorders our relationship with God. Ironically, it is narcissistic. Rather then repenting because we desire to turn toward God, we repent because our sins make us gross and we don't want to feel gross. Rather than worshiping God because he is goodness and truth, we worship face-down, naval-gazing and reflecting on how abhorrent we are in comparison. It becomes all about us.

-6-

A shame-based message also disorders our relationship with others - Christians and non-Christians alike. "Love your neighbor as yourself." If my primary understanding of

myself

 is that I am scum, how can I love those around me? They must be scum, too. If even God is repulsed by them, how can he realistically expect me to reach out with genuine love? I may be able to go through the motions, but my heart can't be in it. Not only do I struggle to reach out to scum, but I also feel unworthy to do so. I am disgusting. What could I possibly offer these people?

-7-

Shaming also contradicts the Gospel of Life. All life is sacred, from the moment of conception to natural death. As human beings, created male and female in the image of God, we have an innate human dignity. For sure, we make horrible choices. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God - you, me, each and every one of us. But here's the good news: through Jesus, we are heirs of the Kingdom. We are more than sinners. We are loved and valued children of God.

"You are loved. You are beautiful. You are a child of God." - Kristen Heitzmann

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On being Catholic [at Our Heavenly Homestead]

The catechesis(faith formation) of the last couple of generations of Catholics has been extremely disheartening. Being a product of that poor passing on of the faith, I feel I can say that without a doubt.  Although I feel a bit cheated by the lack of faith formation that I received before adulthood, I am so grateful that God’s mercy and grace kept me grounded enough to eventually own my faith and actively try to understand the Catholic Church and her teachings.

There was a time in our marriage when we both considered leaving the Church.  Why?  Mainly because we thought it was boring.  It didn’t draw us in enough.  We didn’t feel like we fit in.  We couldn’t understand why the Catholic Church seemed so old-fashioned and strict.  We saw other people(Catholic and non-Catholics) embracing their faith with a fire and zest that we just couldn’t get a grasp on.  We figured it must be the church.  Surely we’d feel more on fire if we had a better church that was more exciting and more in line with our beliefs and lifestyle.

By the grace of God, before we made a move to actually step away from the church that we both had been raised in, I personally decided that I first needed to understand why I was baptized Catholic.  I could appreciate the fact that my parents tried their best to raise us in the Church and I wanted to know why.  Like an inquisitive child, I began to constantly ask just that….why?

Why do we do what we do in mass?  Stand up, sit down, kneel, gesture, repeat prayers, etc.  Why do we even have to go to mass?  Why do we have communion every Sunday?  Not to mention every day?  Why the crucifix?  Why do we have a Pope?  What happened during the Reformation?  Why can’t priests get married?  And on and on and on….

I became hungry for knowledge.  By nature, I am not one to do something without a good reason.  I need to understand it, think it through, really get a good understanding of it before I will stick my toes in to test the water.

So I began reading and asking questions.  Then I read some more and asked some more questions.  I was truly amazed by what I learned.  Today I could not imagine not being Catholic.  It is who I am.  Not just in Mass on Sundays.  It is who I am as a woman, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend….every day of my life.  It’s not just my religion, it is my very being.

But that didn’t just happen because I read a lot of books and asked a lot of questions.  It came about because God was transforming me during that time.  He was challenging me and changing me.  That’s right, changing me.  

You see, very little about the Catholic Church has changed in the last couple thousand years since Jesus established it and made Peter our first pope.  It’s not that my church suddenly started playing better music or selling coffee in the northex or that we stopped standing, sitting, and kneeling so much.  None of that changed.

The only thing that changed was me.

I finally understood why we kneel when we do in mass.  I finally understood why the church does not allow priests to marry.  I understood why certain prayers are said and why we genuflect every time we approach the alter.  I finally fully understood that Christ really is present in the Eucharist, it’s not just a symbol of Him, it is Him.  If we can believe as Christians that God can become a man by sending His son Jesus to live and dwell among us and that He could die and then come back from the dead, if we can believe that, it really isn’t that hard to believe that when Jesus gave Himself to us in the form of bread and wine that it could truly be exactly as He said it.

But I also finally understood that I am a sinner.  I realized that I thought I had a whole lot more figured out than I really did.  I just didn’t want to admit to myself that I wasn’t as great as I thought I was.  When I finally got the guts to admit to myself and God that I needed some work, things got interesting.

I think it was Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said that prayer doesn’t change things, it changes us.  I have found that to be so true.  It’s a scary thing to think that we need to be changed.  But when we are willing to be changed for the better we can see more clearly that God just might have even better plans for us than we could have imagined for ourselves.

When I realized that I was only going to get out of Mass as much as I put into it, I began to listen.  I mean really listen.  I realized that I had sat in the very same pews most of my life and had never really heard what was being read, said, etc.  Sounds crazy I know, but true.  What I began to hear, I believe, was the Holy Spirit whispering right into my soul that this is exactly where I am supposed to be.  Right here in the Catholic Church, the One True Church.  And that is exactly where you will find me.

My heart breaks when I hear of people leaving the church for a more hip, modernized church experience without even taking a second look at what they have had all along.  I would like to encourage anyone reading this who may be in that situation to think again.  The grass is not always greener.  Take it upon yourself to learn about what you are considering leaving.  You owe it to yourself to know the truth, not just what you think you already know.  I truly believe that you will not regret it. There are so many completely wrong interpretations of the Catholic Church and what it truly teaches and stands for. You may be surprised at how mislead you have been too.

If it’s a music issue, or a priest issue, or an issue that is likely specific to the actual parish you are in, maybe you would benefit from visiting another parish.  There is nothing wrong with that whatsoever.  But you can’t just throw out the baby with the bathwater.  Just because one parish doesn’t feel quite right, does not mean that you would feel the same way at another.

I would also encourage you to read the testimonials of people who have converted to the Catholic faith.  There is no shortage of former protestant ministers and extremely faith-filled people who have shared their stories and experiences of finding their way home to the Catholic Church.  People like Scott Hahn, Tim Staples, Jimmy Akin, Al Kresta, and so many more have amazing stories to share that can help us to understand the beauty and truth that can only be found in the Catholic Church.  If you’re not much of a book reader, do a quick internet search for Catholic Convert stories and you will find more than you can possibly read.

I still have a long way to go.  I don’t believe that I will ever fully understand and know all that there is to know and appreciate about my faith.  But I will not stop trying until I reach the place where I will finally be made to know.

“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  

Matthew 16:  18-19

bee Stock Photo~Maria

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Choosing The Path Toward Holiness [at Sacred Sharings For The Soul]

"Our choice is not always God's choice. Our will is not necessarily God's will. That is why we get angry and frustrated when our expectations are not met. Those who are godly and at peace are the saints [whose] choice and will are always aligned with God's. Even though in good conscience their wills and choice may not be confirmed and affirmed by God for the time being, the saints always rejoice and simply surrender knowing that God will eventually bring good out of any impossible circumstances."(-Fr. Cassian Sama, OP)

    We can not succeed in our desire for union with God by remaining reserved to our own will. This union requires a complete resignation of self to the will of our heavenly Father. It is to surrender and place complete trust in the Lord. As we seek to follow the will of God in our lives the biggest battle we face is against our own will and our own ideas about what God's will should be for us. 

   "Our choice is not always God's choice" and by this we can open ourselves to understanding the sacrifice required to live in accordance to His plan. The world seeks to entice us with the message of "self-fulfillment" and presents us with the immediate "fix" of many things marketed toward our desire for more; a desire created by God for God that can only be fulfilled by Him.  The world screams "whatever you will can be yours" attempting to silence the voice of our loving Lord. God does not impose Himself upon us we make the choice to follow Him.We must silence the shouts of the world with the silence of prayer, and attune ourselves to hear His voice.   

   "Those who are godly and at peace are the saints whose choice and will are always aligned with God's". To "always" be aligned with God's will is not the result of one single decision. This type of devotion is the result of continual surrender through all things. It is a choice made out of hope and faith toward an all loving and merciful God. The saints did not surrender to our Lord because of security and comfort; they were trusting through trials and tribulations,extending themselves beyond their own comforts and perpetually keeping their eyes on things above. There was doubt and uncertainty, yet they committed themselves to follow the plan of God. As St. Augustine once said "“Father, I am seeking: I am hesitant and uncertain, but will you, O God, watch over each step of mine and guide me.” This statement reveals the human reality of this beloved saint. So often we can see these venerated people of our church as beyond us and separate from the reality we live today. In taking the time to learn more about these holy men and women we come to see ourselves and our journey within their lives. 

   Our beloved saints have left us not only an example to imitate but one through which we can draw immense strength and virtue from if we turn our gaze toward the path that God has set before us.Like them we must strive to see all things as grace and be patient by trusting that "God will eventually bring good out of any impossible circumstances".      A priest once reminded me that when we love God we begin to love everything He loves. I have seen that this love can lead us to embrace the challenges presented in striving toward holiness and aid us in persevering through many trials. Through grace we also begin to realize that any joy or expectation we can imagine for our own lives will never compare with the joy we are able to attain by simply surrendering to the plans of our Lord.         The saints have much to teach us today about life and about the commitment to living out our faith in today's world. We are called like them to a trust in God that exceeds our understanding. Through all things let us seek to align our will with that of our Lord. May we wake each day with the fervency to follow and the humility to say in faith "Thy will be done". (CC)

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Words That Shouldn't Be Said [at A blog for my mom]

As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm kind of a jerk.  Like, a big jerk.  And it was worse in the past.

See, I used to see (Catholic) women with their children spaced more than 3 or 4 years apart and think, "Gee, they must have been using contraception.  Why didn't they have their kids closer together?"

Or, "They can't possibly have *that* grave a reason to abstain - why don't they have kids close together like mine?"  

Or I would even ask, "When are you having more babies?" 

And of course there were those newlywed couples - the immediate question that would come to my lips was, "So when are you having kids?"

Because I thought, these are Catholic couples - of course they're open to life, so they'll want to have kids immediately!

Moms would ask questions about weaning their older babies or toddlers and I would jokingly answer, "Just get pregnant again and your supply will dry up - it's easy to wean then!"

Blissfully unaware and ignorant of the fact that infertility is far more common than I might think, and that miscarriage happens more often than one might suspect.

I had no idea how hurtful these comments (and thoughts) were.  None.  And if I've made any of these comments to you, I'm so sorry.  

And I want to plead with

you

 to make sure that you're watching your words.  I know I post a lot about the

comments people make

about the relatively large size of our family, but it's the comments that come to those on the other side of things that I think are far more hurtful.

There's no way for you to know that one mom has recently miscarried, or is experiencing secondary infertility, or that that newlywed couple has been trying to get pregnant for months with no success, or maybe those parents struggled for years with the health issues of their first child before being able to get pregnant with the second, perhaps she has health issues of her own that make it dangerous to be pregnant, and yet she remains open to life.  

The circumstances aren't immediately apparent to us, and the comments that seem "safe" to make can be far more hurtful than we realize.

Ever since I started reading more and more Catholic blogs (mom blogs and general lifestyle blogs), I've realized what a jerk I've been.  Because I read far more stories about infertility or miscarriage than I'd ever heard in my life.  And I realized that I need to be much more mindful of my thoughts and words.

I think miscarriage and infertility are less taboo topics than they used to be.  And I think that's a really good thing - because how can we ever help another mother (and her family) in her suffering if we don't even know what's going on?

It may seem strange, but miscarriage is a topic I've discussed pretty often with the kids.  My sister comes to visit with prayer intentions for various unborn babies, and we've offered many prayers for other bloggers and their babies, so it's always a little distressing to them (and all of us) when that baby we've been offering prayers for dies.  And yet they seem to deal with it so well - we discuss that the baby's going to Heaven to be with Jesus, and they're always so happy to remind me that this or that baby got taken to Heaven by the angels. They speak of it more frankly than any adult I've ever known, and maybe it would be a good idea to take a page from their book.

For those of you who have experienced a pregnancy loss, my prayers are with you today.  I hope that I can support you and your family, and I apologize if I just don't have the words.  Thank you for having the courage to share your grief.

Others have said it better than I have - read Mary's posts on how to handle a miscarriage for those

experiencing

and those

supporting

 for more specifics, especially how you can help.  And please join me in praying for all those touched by the loss of a pregnancy or an infant today,

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

.

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I Bind Unto Myself This Day (St. Patrick's Breastplate) [at ~ Breviary Hymns ~]

Christ Behind Me, Christ Before Me

I Bind Unto Myself This Day

is a translation of the ancient Gaelic poem, 

St. Patrick’s Breastplate

, also known as

St. Patrick's Lorica 

(the word 'lorica', is Latin for armour). Attributed to the famous 5th century Irish Missionary and Bishop, St. Patrick; the oldest written copy is an 8th century manuscript included in the collection,

Liber Hymnorum

. Scholars have noted that it is similar in style to a Druidic incantation for protection on a journey. St. Patrick is therefore utilizing a

form

of prayer that the Irish people of his time would have understood to invoke the Christian's '

spiritual lorica

': the armour of God that St. Paul speaks of in

Ephesians 6:10-17

: "

Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness

." (v.14). In 1889, working from existing prose translations in English, the Irish hymn-writer and poet, Mrs.

Cecil Francis Alexander

(1818-1895) penned

I Bind Unto Myself This Day

. Her husband,

William Alexander

was a Bishop in the Church of Ireland. In 1902, the Irish composer

Charles V. Stanford

(1852-1924) arranged the piece by adapting two traditional Irish folk tunes:

St. Patrick

and

Deirdre

(note the change in melody for verse #8 below).

Choir Version (Verses: 1-5, 8-9)

ST. PATRICK’S BREASTPLATE translated by Cecil F. Alexander, 1889 (Public Domain)

1. I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same

The Three in One and One in Three.

2. I bind this today to me forever

By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;

His baptism in Jordan river,

His death on Cross for my salvation;

His bursting from the spicèd tomb,

His riding up the heavenly way,

His coming at the day of doom

I bind unto myself today.

3. I bind unto myself the power

Of the great love of cherubim;

The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,

The service of the seraphim,

Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,

The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,

All good deeds done unto the

Lord And purity of virgin souls.

4. I bind unto myself today

The virtues of the star lit heaven,

The glorious sun’s life giving ray,

The whiteness of the moon at even,

The flashing of the lightning free,

The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,

The stable earth, the deep salt sea

Around the old eternal rocks.

5. I bind unto myself today

The power of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, His might to stay,

His ear to hearken to my need.

The wisdom of my God to teach,

His hand to guide, His shield to ward;

The word of God to give me speech,

His heavenly host to be my guard.

6. Against the demon snares of sin,

The vice that gives temptation force,

The natural lusts that war within,

The hostile men that mar my course;

Or few or many, far or nigh,

In every place and in all hours,

Against their fierce hostility

I bind to me these holy powers.

7. Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,

Against false words of heresy,

Against the knowledge that defiles,

Against the heart’s idolatry,

Against the wizard’s evil craft,

Against the death wound and the burning,

The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,

Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

8. Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

9. I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three.

By Whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Instrumental Version (Organ)

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We are not animals [at Convert Journal]

How often do we hear that people are just more highly evolved animals? This is often presented as an indisputable fact in support of other false claims. As animals, our embryos are nothing special. Our rights must also be balanced against those of other animals.

If we were animals, that would make some sense. We are not! While we share some physical characteristics, there remains an immense and uncrossable chasm between us and animals so claims built on our alleged “animal nature” are in fact completely false.

God, the creator of everything, has endowed all living things with a soul. Angels, people, animals and plants. These things all have a nature as God created them and that nature is distinct and never changes. The souls of angels and people are immortal. Those of animals and plants are not. Mortal death does not end the existence of a person’s soul as it does for an animal.

People, not animals, possess reason and self-control. People, not animals, are endowed with an intellectual, rational soul. People are beings who are ends in themselves while animals are beings for the perfection of other beings. People have moral and legal authority of possession and corresponding related duties (i.e. rights). Animals may be possessed by people whereas animals may not possess people nor may people possess people. In possessing animals, we have a moral duty of humane treatment but may otherwise use them for service and food.

Holy Scripture begins by explaining this relationship between people and animals. On the sixth day, God created the animals:

Then God said: Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature: tame animals, crawling things, and every kind of wild animal. And so it happened: God made every kind of wild animal, every kind of tame animal, and every kind of thing that crawls on the ground. God saw that it was good.

Then, separate from creating the animals, He create man:

Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.

God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth. God also said: See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food. And so it happened.

Notice the difference between people and animals: people are (1) created in God’s image and likeness and (2) given dominion over all animals.

The second creation narrative similarly shows people and animals made separately:

then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

and

So the LORD God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each living creature was then its name.

Notice that both people and animals were formed out of the ground, but for people alone God “blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Notice too that in naming the animals, we are given dominion over them.

Secularists are correct in one ironic sense. When we do not recognize human dignity, we can indeed act like animals!

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Why Does the Catholic Church Honour Saints? [at The Koala Bear Writer]

Today is All Saints' Day

, a day which honours all the saints—known and unknown—of the universal church.  I thought this would be a good time to dust off my

Catechism

and explore what exactly a saint is.

Who is a saint?

A saint is simply "a disciple who has lived a life of exemplary fidelity to the Lord" (

Catechism

).  In canonizing saints, the Church is "solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace."  One thing that strikes me as I listen to saint's stories is the fact that they were ordinary people who struggled with many of the same things I do, yet in the little things in their lives, they found a way to serve God and model His love to others.

The saints are "models and intercessors" for us in our journey to holiness.  They can inspire us to live holier lives and to look to God in our problems just as they did.  They are also the "source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments of the Church's history."  Yes, there have been dark moments in the Church; yet in those moments, God has raised up holy men and women to help lead the Church back to himself.

Before the tenth century, saints were chosen by public acclaim.  The first saints were martyrs or people who were otherwise regarded as holy by those around them.  However, sometimes saints' stories were distorted into legends, so the Vatican took over the process of proclaiming saints.  Today, there are three steps to sainthood: veneration, beautification, and canonization.

Leila from Little Catholic Bubble has

a great explanation

of these steps (yes, go read it; I'll wait).

What is the role of the saints? The Catechism

tells us that the saints' "intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan.  We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world."  Just as we are called to pray for ourselves and the world while we are here on earth, so that job will continue when we get to heaven.  But there, we'll be closer to God and be able to see his plan more fully, and thus know better what to ask for in our prayers.  As mentioned above, miracles are considered proof that the saints are working on our behalf in heaven.

Why do we pray to the saints?

One of the biggest problems for me with joining the Catholic Church was understanding why Catholics pray to the saints.  My husband explained this by saying that we don't really pray to the saints; we simply ask them to pray for or with us.  Just as I could ask (and often do) my mom or a good friend to pray for me, I can also ask the saints to pray for me.

The

Catetchism

says that the saints "share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today."  When I know that a particular saint has been through something like what I'm going through, then I feel like I can trust them to pray for me because they understand what I'm going through.  Thus, during my pregnancies, I found it comforting to ask saints like

Gerard Majella

for intercession.

Why All Saints' Day?

As far back as the fourth century, we find saints writing about a common day to celebrate those martyred for their faith.  November 1st was the day picked by Pope Gregory III (731-741) to honour all saints after he consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to them.  A century later, Gregory IV extended this celebration to include the whole church (

New Advent)

.  Later, the celebration of Halloween emerged from All Hallow's Eve—the day before All Saint's Day.

Tonight, we'll be joining some other families at our church for an All Saints' Day Potluck after Mass.  The kids will be dressing up as their favourite saints (Sunshine and Lily want to be

princesses again

, so I'm researching royal saints for them) and have a chance to give a few clues about their chosen saint.  I've organized a few crafts for the kids from

Happy Saints

.  I'm looking forward to dressing up, having fun, and learning more about some cool saints!

Some of my favourite saints:What do you think of the saints?  Who is your favourite saint?

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Pro-life Ain't Just About Abortion [at Martin Family Moments]

Last Sunday was Respect Life Sunday, and we are in the middle of a

40 Days for Life

campaign, so what better time to talk about what being pro-life means to me?  

When you hear the phrase "pro-life", you probably immediately think of abortion, right?  Which is a great thing because it means that all of our efforts against abortion are working!  And what can we do to try to help stop this holocaust known as abortion?  We first and foremost must pray! 

 Both privately:

and publicly:

Many, many uneasy minds have been changed at the last minute upon walking into an abortion clinic and seeing a peaceful prayer group of complete strangers praying to save that baby's life.  I've seen it with my own eyes.  It's amazing.

{Side note: Yes, we bring our kids to pray with us outside the lone abortion clinic in our Diocese.  No, they do not know the horrors of abortion.  They haven't asked.  We tell them we are praying for all the babies in their mom's bellies, and that's been enough for them.  When they are old enough to seriously inquire about it, we will pray for the guidance to tell them in an age appropriate way.}

But there's so much more to being pro-life than praying against the evils of abortion.  Or voting pro-life every time we enter the voting booth.  Both are necessary, but they are also the bare minimum if we truly want to call ourselves pro-life.  Because being pro-life means respecting all LIFE, in all forms, ages, abilities, races, genders, etc.  

Being pro-life is something we should be able to show through our actions in everyday life.  

It's the married couple who may not have the perfect house, or a college tuition saved up, but decide to be open to God's Will and realize having another baby is not a hindrance but a blessing.

It's the friend who brought me two home cooked meals when I was in the throes of morning sickness, even though she has 8 kids of her own to feed.

It's our high-school students who are planning a dance at the nursing home to bring some entertainment and excitement to the elderly.

It's the preschool teacher who offers free babysitting to her friends with children, because she feels that this supports them in their vocation.

It's the opportunities provided by our schools and churches to constantly be giving and donating to those less fortunate - money for the St. Vincent de Paul Society, groceries for the food pantries, blankets and coats for the homeless shelters, toys for children who would normally go without at Christmas...it goes on and on.

It's the parents who feel the strong calling to become foster parents or adopt a baby who needs a family, and are willing to sacrifice everything to be able to make it happen.

It's giving that last dollar in your wallet or hot coffee you just bought to the beggar on the corner.

It's perhaps not buying the bigger house, and increasing your charitable donations instead.

It's holding the door for the handicapped person, and treating them the way that God sees them, which is perfect since He does not make mistakes.

It's smiling at a stranger who may not see another happy face for the rest of the day.

It's holding back a snarky or mean remark that could wound someone's spirit worse than we realize.

It's my parents, whom after every big family party/holiday, bring the leftovers to the Franciscan Friars and Sisters who only eat when food is given to them.

It's serving our family with love and gratitude for the lives with which we've been entrusted.

We have plenty of opportunities every single day to be pro-life, and we don't need to wait for a big event to show where we stand on the issue.  The way we live our lives should allow people to see that, and encourage them to do the same.  

This contribution is available at http://martinfamilymoments.blogspot.com/2013/10/pro-life-aint-just-about-abortion.html
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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I

'm something of an audio lecture junkie. I prefer to listen while nursing babies to sleep or tackling housework (especially those big arduous jobs that I'd otherwise dread getting to)- cleaning out the closet almost feels like a break if I'm listening to one of my favorite speakers.

This is a list of my audio favorites. I've heard all of these more than once- a good lecture begs to be revisited, and I always pick up something new the second (or third!) time around. If you are striving to cultivate wisdom and virtue in your home, you will likely find something here to like as well.

All of these lectures are free (or at least they are right now) unless otherwise noted

. Web URLs change often, so if any of the links break, please let me know so I can try to fix them. I'll keep this post updated as I find new audio gems, so please send recommendations my way.

Also, notice there is a button on my blog sidebar so that you can get here quickly and easily. Happy listening!

:: Audio Lectures ::

Andrew Pudewa
Pudewa was my entryway into the world of classical education. He is one of the most engaging and entertaining speakers I have ever heard. I like all of his talks, but these are a few of my favorites.

Christopher Perrin
Both practical and inspiring, he manages to take the poetic beauty of classical education and marry it to the practical day-to-day. I had a hard time narrowing down his lectures to just these five!

Andrew Kern
If you are new to classical education, I wouldn't recommend starting here. Start with Pudewa and Perrin and then come back to Kern after your brain has had a bit of a warm-up. :) Do come back, though! Kern challenges the listener in ways that other speakers simply don't- he's one of my very favorites.

Jenny Rallens
If you only listen to one lecture from my list, listen to this one. It will revolutionize the way you think about how you teach what you teach.

Brandy VencelIf you need a little reminder of why memorization is so important, check out this lecture by Brandy from the Afterthoughts blog. 

Cindy RollinsLearn about Morning Time on Cindy's blog here and here. She expands on it in this audio lecture, which is worth a purchase. Audio SanctoWhenever I'm tempted to quit homeschooling altogether, I listen to this twelve minute homily. It gives me a boost to keep going.

Meg Meeker
I loved this lecture! Dr. Meeker has a lot of wisdom to share.

Susan Wise BauerI find SWB's lectures to be more inspiring than her written work. If

The Well-Trained Mind

overwhelms or discourages you, join the club. ;) Then listen to one of SWB's lectures and realize that she isn't as rigid as she may seem in print.

:: Podcasts ::

Just today I discovered the podcast of the American Chesterton Society,

Uncommon Sense

- I know what I'll be listening to next! A Chesterton podcast? Yes please. Guess I'd better go find myself a closet to clean! :)

What about you? What do you like to listen to?

This contribution is available at http://www.amongstlovelythings.com/2013/10/listen-up-collection-of-my-favorite.html
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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Living in the White Space [at Campfires and Cleats]

As for my Small Success, this week, we're reveling in living and becoming in that white space on the calendar. Up until recently, we were so overbooked, so harried with our kids' sports, music, theater, choir, auditions, that we had to consciously and with some regret seriously curtail our commitments. I'm no longer running anything. No CYO division coordinator. No rosters, no emails to send,  to organize, no coaches' meetings to set up, uniforms to buy, games to officiate or generally  be in charge of. Nothing. Now I'm just a Mom on the sidelines with a camera. And can I tell you how completely great that is?
And the kids' social lives? They're severely minimized. If you've read my blog for any time, you'll know that my kids have been in numerous shows at local community theaters and they've had a good number of call backs on auditions as well. All that is wonderful, soul building, positive and amazing. But it does come with a price. And I don't mean filling the gas tank.There was much family time missed so that one of them could take an extra curtain call after two weekends of shows and several months of rehearsals four and five times per week. Throw in harried dinners, costume accessory shopping and panicked script-drills. 

Just a few of our theatrical endeavors.........:

Yup, Capt Jas Hook
March 2012

As Egeus and .......

.

........ and as Thisbe in "Midsummer"
Fall 2011

As Robin in Robin in the 'hood, an original production...

 modern day Robin Hood Meets West Side Story
Summer 2013

Hansel and a little forest elf in The Bad Musical
summer 2009

The boy whose love made the 

velveteen bunny real

December 2008

 The Prince of Denmark~
June2011

lots more....those are the biggies.

Given the proximity of our home to The Great White Way ( 70 miles, but nothing compared to those who live across the country) the level of competition is becoming fierce as the kids get older. Those who don't get roles off off Broadway are coming further out into the 'burbs and boy are they good. Which means adrenaline is high and of course, yeah, that's a good thing.

 Competition is good.  Once in a while, rejection is even better.  

Last June Timmy had three call backs for highly acclaimed theaters, each one for the role of Gavroche in Les Mis. The field narrowed and narrowed and alas, after much prep and even some anxiety, he wasn't cast in any theater. But what a lesson in life. 

 ( and in early 1800s French history!) What a feeling to have that potential exist and to have efforts rewarded in being asked  to return.  And in getting used to rejection. Because it's out there at every turn.

But.With a concerted effort to not look at those cast calls and after a serious discussion with the kids about the fact that we are taking time off ( as in, this is the first stretch of time since summer of 2008 that we're not prepping for a show of some sort)...well, those blank spots on the calendar?

Wow. 

They are fruitful. They're certainly not wasted.

And now they're full again. 

Full with  family nothingness.

 Conversation. 

Board  games.

A few quality and fun shows brought home from the library on DVD.

The family novel.

(We're done with Tolkien and may be rereading Narnia.)
And homemaking.

Because use of those blank white space to create a welcoming, 
warm home where memories are made and where rejection hurts but 
we learn to move on and try again.
That's right now, my call to motherhood.

So that is my small success for now.

Glancing at the calendar during the day to double check

our schedules and seeing that our evening is empty.

Only to be filled with the memories that cannot be gotten by driving through rush hour traffic to yet another audition, 

another rehearsal, another hell week.

Yep, those show are simply grand.

Especially those that are  immortal.

Lines that haunt you.

Lines that make you think, laugh, explore your soul.

Now where are the Arthur Millers of our generation??

Timmy as Bert in the Miller classic

February 2013

The cast that breathes life into a playwright's words are genius.

Just genius.

 The standing Os are,,,well, there's nothing like them.

From what they tell me. 

"I was born to perform."

Well, may be. But let's take a break for now.

I'm not a stage person.

Just a behind the scenes kinda Mom.

Trying to hold time still while it blurs past us as a car

 speeding down the highway.

Celebrate the birthdays, the milestones and  yet, the extra ordinariness of it all too.

What are your small success?

Please share!

You are welcome to add your link below if you are a blogger

or to tell us in the comments, too!

Thank you for visiting!
I very much appreciate the time you spemd here at my corner of the web.

Don't forget to subscribe to Campfires and Cleats

 by scrolling to the subscribe button at the  top left sidebar.

I'd love to stay in touch with you regularly!

And please click to

Catholic Mom

for more Small Successes

Please click over to be inspired by others' posts as well! 

Until next time,

This contribution is available at http://campfiresandcleats.blogspot.com/2013/10/small-success-thursday-living-in-white.html
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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Consoling the Heart of Jesus [at Lord, Make Me a Saint]

 Consoling the Heart of Jesus

I've been reading this book over the past 2 1/2 weeks.

I'm almost done

It's actually written to be read in a retreat style weekend

but it can, of course be read like I've been reading

(every chance I get)

I've been wanting to write about this book,

but afraid of not doing it justice.

It's that good!

If you feel your faith life, or spiritual life is in the desert now,

this book is for you.

If you feel your faith life is right where it needs to be,

this book is for you.

If you feel there is no way you can add anything else,

 even one thing more,

this book is for you.

If you feel you need a change, or that God is calling you to a deeper

relationship with Him, 

this book is for you.

My copy is written on, marked up,

 highlighted, tabbed and has pieces of paper all throughout it.

I'm actually glad I am not doing it all in a weekend, 

I get to read some, contemplate it, 

pray about it,

and yearn for more!

(although, it would be very very nice to go to a hotel,

without the kids, and read all weekend!!)

It has been life changing, totally life changing, 

which has changed my soul.

My soul yearns like never before.

For Jesus.

To console Jesus.

Fr Michael E. Gaitley, quotes many saints,

 St Faustina, Saint Mother Theresa, 

St Maximilian Kolbe, St Louis de Montfort, 

Blessed John Paul II and St Therese to name a few.

I have been yearning more than I ever have

 to go to Mass

to go to Adoration, 

and just to pray and be close to Jesus.

(and to read more of this book!)

No wonder.

Fr. Gaitley talks about Christ's words from the Cross:

"I Thirst"

He tells us to tell Jesus,

I thirst for You, Jesus, 

help me to thirst for You more.

Please pour Your grace onto me, I beg You, 

fill me with Your Grace.

(those are my words, but that is what he explains to ask for)

He writes these meditations that take you right to Jesus.

He's really good at writing in terms you understand and can 

relate to.

I'm going to give you an example with the first meditation.

I was so on fire for our Lord after reading this, 

I could hardly contain myself.

(Beginning quote of Meditation)

We're at the bottom of the hill of Calvary, also known as Golgotha.  Look up the hill.  See Jesus at the top, hanging on the Cross.  He doesn't see us because he's surrounded by a huge crowd of people.

The people who surround the Cross laugh at Jesus.  They mock him and insult him right to his face.  They aren't afraid to go to him.  No, they go right up to him, laughing and even spitting at him.  The Lord loves them, but his Heart is broken because of their rejection, which means their own death, 

if they don't change, for he is Life.

Many dark shadows go in and out of the crowd.  They're demons.  They enjoy stirring up the crowd to mock and torture Jesus more.  Seeing us at the bottom of the hill, two of them approach.  The first one stands about seven feet tall, and his face is a featureless void.  He stops directly in front of you.  As he towers over you, he says in a terrible, hissing voice, "You jussst ssstay right where you are and everything will be jussst fine."  Meanwhile, the other demon, a ghost-like little creature no bigger than a sparrow, settles on your shoulder and whispers in your ear:

You don't belong here. Don't you have other things to do?

You don' tneed to be here.  This is much too painful for you to see.

  After all, aren't you the reason for that man's torture?

Don't you have some important business to take care of?

Isn't that television show you like so much going to start soon?

Go ahead.  Go take your mind off this.  There's nothing you can do.

Look at the huge crowd.  What difference is your being here going to make? 

These words are tempting.  Thoughts come into your mind: "Yes, what am I among so many?  Jesus won't notice if I go home.  He'll never even know I was here.  Besides, it's cold, and he'll probably be dead soon anyway."

So there you are at the bottom of the hill.  The crowd is overwhelming.  These demons are frightening.  You're a sinner aren't you?  Perhaps you've lost your right to be here since you've sinned so much, and really, what can one person do amid such a multitude of people?  Standing here, hesitating, you're stuck at the bottom of the hill.  Meanwhile, Jesus suffers alone.

What was that?  Did you hear it?  What's such a beautiful sound doing amid so much blasphemy and raucous laughter?  It's a woman's voice.  Sweetly, it begins to fill your soul, bringing it  light and peace:

Listen and put it into your heart, my dear little child. 

The thing that frightens you, the thing that afflicts you, 

is nothing.  Do not let it disturb you.  Am I not

here who am your Mother?  Are you not under my 

care and protection?  Am I not the source of your joy?

Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing 

of my arms?  Do you need something more?

Let nothing else worry you or disturb you.

Mary is with us.  Let's go with confidence to the foot of the Cross. Let's run there.  Nothing can harm us.  Mary is with us!  She'll teach us what to do.  Let's go console Jesus with Mary.

Filled with courage, we run up the hill.  Demons scream in horror as they're cast aside by some invisible force.  One cries out, "No! Don't let them!  Everything will be ruined!"  The ugly mob parts like the Red Sea, and some are struck dumb.  We arrive at the foot of the Cross.  Look up.  Behold that Heart which loves so much yet is so little loved.  Unfortunately, Jesus still doesn't see us.  His sorrowful gaze is on the crowd.

Turn to Mary.  Speak to her from your helplessness:

"Mary, what can I do?  I'm so weak, and I, too, have hurt Jesus and caused this."

Smiling, despite her tears, she tenderly speaks to you:

Just tell him.  Tell my Son that you love him.  Thank him for

what he is suffering right now out of love for you-

 he only sees the rejection of the crowd.

  You touch his cheek with your hand and direct his face toward yours. 

 Now he sees you.  You smile and speak to him from your heart:

Lord, don't look at them.

  Look at me...Lord Jesus, even though my sins are many,

 I know the mercy of your Heart

I'm sorry I was afraid to go to you.  

I'm sorry I left you alone.  But look, here I am

Please forgive me my sins.

I'm going to try to do better.

Please forgive them their sins, too. 

Lord, if only they knew you, they'd love you.

Lord, I can't offer much right now,

except for my weak trust and love.

Jesus, I do trust in you, and I love you.

Praise you Jesus, and thank you for everything, 

especially for what you're suffering right now

friend.  Don't be sad.  I love you, and there's nowhwere

else I'd rather be than right here, praising you, 

thanking you, and consoling your broken Heart. 

(End of Meditation)

This did it in for me!!

Wow, I was right there!!

Were you?

There are a lot more wonderful meditations 

in this great book! 

I want to keep that yearning 

and still take care of my family.

 I think they go hand in hand.

One makes the other stronger, if I let it.

It's that balance of my vocation as a wife and mother, 

and yet still a child of God.

Although, I'd rather go to Mass and stay for Adoration 

for hours, I know I must take care of my family.

and that makes me thankful to God that I have 

the opportunity to do so.

A main theme of the whole book is Trust, Praise and Thanksgiving 

in all things!

You know I love that, right?

That's what my "Thankful Thursdays" are all about

Seeing all the blessings in our life, no matter how small, 

and even sometimes the hard things, the struggles.

(like snow in October or messy houses)

Here's a quote that spoke to my heart:

"Jesus, I thirst for you. Help me to thirst for you more.

Use me, Jesus.  

Form me into a saint. 

Make up for all my faults.

I trust in you.  With Mary's help, I give you my yes."

"Form me into a saint."  !! 

Did you read that?

Lord, make me a saint. 

A prayer I pray often.

In fact a lot of the things in the book 

were things I do and pray all the time, 

but it was more.

More intense, deeper.  

So much more.

(the above picture is a picture of a Monstrance, which holds Jesus, in the Eucharist, we, as Catholics, believe once the bread and wine is consecrated during Mass, it becomes the Body and Blood of Jesus)

(John chapter 6--Jesus says it 6 times in a row)

Now, of course, if you've ever done daily Mass,

or weekly Adoration, you already know that 

somehow the Holy Spirit works in your soul 

and you start to yearn for more.

More often, more Jesus.

When we do the bare minimum, 

it seems our souls become content and 

the yearning is gone, the fire within extinguishes.

But not completely.

Something like this comes along 

and we are on fire again. 

Gaitley has a lot more in store for you in the book.

He has ways of thinking about prayer,

ways to imagine your soul and your spiritual life

so much so that you feel it.  

You feel the grace working in your soul.

Grace.

We all need grace, right?

I love his spiritual book suggestions, and of course he 

suggests the Bible as the first book to read for your spiritual reading.

I admit, I struggle with what to read in the Bible.

I have my favorite quotes, I love the Sunday Gospels,

but to pick it up and just read...I struggle.

He gives suggestions where to start and how to do it.

(I can't wait!)

He also has an appendix that he includes 

selections from St Faustina's Diary.

I have her whole book 

and it's huge!!  

It's kind of nice to have it broken down

into selections like

 Knowledge/Love and Loneliness/Longing

 like he has done for you.

Have I convinced you yet to order this book?

This contribution is available at http://makemeasaint.blogspot.com/2013/10/consoling-heart-of-jesus.html
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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Rafu Yadayim [at Journey to Wisdom]

A Reflection on Exodus 17:8-13

This Sunday we read about a furious battle between the Amalekites and the Israelites.

⁸At Rephidim, Amalek came and waged war against Israel.

⁹Moses, therefore, said to Joshua, “Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.”

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses told him: he engaged Amalek in battle after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur.

¹¹As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.

¹²Moses’ hands, however, grew tired; so they put a rock in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

¹³And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

The barbarous Amalekites had been scheming to annihilate the Israelites for some time. They waited patiently until Moses and his people were camped at Rephidim before launching their attack. Who were the Amalekites? Josephus, the first century Jewish historian described them as:

They were called the Amalekites, and were the most warlike of the nations that lived around there; and whose kings exhorted one another, and their neighbors, to go to this war against the Hebrews; telling them that an army of strangers, and such a one as had run away from slavery under the Egyptians, lay in wait to ruin them; which army they were not, in common sense and regard to their own safety, to overlook, but to crush them before they gather strength, and come to prosperity, and perhaps attack them first in a hostile manner, (Josephus, Antiq. 3.2.1)

Moses, Aaron, and Hur scrambled to the top of the highest hill at Rephidim; from that vantage point they could watch the battle. Standing erect Moses raised the staff of God heavenward in one hand while reaching out to heaven with the other hand as he gazed intently at the battlefield. As long as he was able to point the staff heavenward, the Israelites dominated the Amalekites, but when his arms became too tired to hold the staff upward and he lowered his arms to rest, the Amalekites gained the upper hand. It didn’t take Aaron and Hur long to analyze the problem and devise a solution– if the Israelites were to survive; they had to help Moses hold up the staff. Wait! Wasn’t this the same staff Moses used to part the Red Sea? Wasn’t it the same staff he used to strike the rock at Horeb to get water for the people? Why did he have to hold it heavenward continually? 

The Jewish Encyclopedia offers the following insight into this incident:

Evidently the colors for this picture are drawn from the palette of later experience. Accordingly, in rabbinical literature stress is rather laid on the moral lesson of the episode. Amalek was but the scourge in the hand of God to punish the people of Israel, who had become "faint and weary" in the observance of God's commands and "feared not God." They lacked the power of faith (play on the name "Rephidim" = rafu yadayim, "the hands became weak"), and therefore said: "Is the Lord among us or not?" (Ex. xvii. 7, 8). Like a wayward child that runs back to its father when a dog comes snarling along, the Israelites were unmindful of God's doings until like a dog Amalek came to bite them. Then Moses fasted and prayed, saying: "O Lord, who will in the future spread Thy Law, if Amalek succeeds in destroying this nation?" And with uplifted arms, holding the staff and pointing heavenward, he inspired Joshua and the people with his faith until the victory was won (Mek.ib.).
 – The Jewish Encyclopedia

The image of Moses with the wooden staff raised heavenward convinced the Israelite warriors that God was with them in their battle against the Amalekites, and they prevailed. Similarly the image of Jesus nailed to the heavenward raised wooden cross on top of the hill has inspired Christians since His resurrection.

Like the Israelites at Rephidim have we become faint and weary in observing God’s commands? Is there a worldwide loss of faith among believers? If we took a trip on the faith roads and highways of our country would there be too many potholes to avoid, and not enough construction in progress? Does God see His children losing their devotion to Him, or does He see their faith increasing? Do we need an occasional time out to mentally picture the battered, bloody, tortured body of Jesus nailed to the wooden cross? Does this mental image, and what it represents, fortify our faith in the same way that the image of Moses at the top of the hill gave hope to the Israelite warriors at Rephidim? Or does our secular world with its dizzying array of distractions surreptitiously disconnect us from the image?

This contribution is available at http://journeytowisdom-ocbs.blogspot.com/2013/10/rafu-yadayim.html
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Common Curiosities [at Blessed are the Feet]

As I immerse myself into life here in Costa Rica once again, I have been thinking a lot about my time in the States and life there. And how different it is from life in most of the rest of the world. I am not one of those guilt tripping missionaries who want you Americans to feel bad about what you have. I just want you to appreciate how strange our lives may look to someone coming in from the outside. The longer I live outside the States, the more I find myself having to mentally coach myself through the process by saying, "Pretend that this is normal. Pretend that you do this all the time. Pretend that you are perfectly calm and okay with this." Because the American lifestyle? It's a little overwhelming. And I think most of you have moments where you would admit the same. I feel a bit more like Alice in Wonderland every time I go back with things that were once common to me becoming curioser and curioser. So, here are my top three (just so you know, I started with five, but was flush and breaking out in hives by three, so I am revising) common curiosities I encountered in the States:

1.

Pavement

: The sheer expanse of concrete in the U.S. is amazing, you guys. Highways with five lanes going in each direction. Parking lots the size of a small town. Sidewalks! Everywhere! The sheer expanse of paved, flat roads on which one can traverse the United States is a wonder to behold. Does it never strike you as curious that you can get from one end of the States to the other, changing altitude and topography drastically on mostly flat, straight roads? That we blow up mountains to keep the road going straight through in the middle of it rather than create a curve in our road? That we really never walk anywhere but we have sidewalks everywhere? That we would rather circle around for an hour and half before using the back half of one of our monstrous parking lots, but we keep building them to house twice as many cars as are ever parked in one place anyway? Look, you guys, I have no big moral feelings on pavement one way or the other. I just want you to appreciate the wonder of being able to get from one place to the other on a paved, wide, flat, straight line. This is truly a marvelous curiosity and unheard of in most other parts of the world. Also, I encourage at least once to seek the adventure of careening through curvy mountain gravel roads while an 18-wheeler careens back at you with no space for either of you to let the other pass. Your adrenaline will get the thrill of its life and you will never take your highways for granted again.

2.

Wegmanns:

Feel free to insert your nearest boutique grocery shopping experience's name here. Grocery stores in America have in general begun to be anxiety provoking experience for me. The bright lights, the hoards of people, the rows and rows of stuff begging you, "choose me! choose me! choose me!" But add in a man rolling sushi, an antipasto bar, an Italian pastry shop, a wine cellar and a place to sip coffee and WATCH OTHER PEOPLE GROCERY SHOP and you have a recipe for a panic attack. Seriously, Wegmanns in Northern Virginia on a Saturday afternoon about did me in. I think my sweet friend 

Mary

 may have feared for my sanity and physical safety. You guys, we have turned to procurement of food into entertainment and recreation.The jury is still out on the moral implications of this in my mind, and I said this blog post was not about the great American guilt trip, but can we. just for a moment, agree on how odd this is? The next time you step into one of these stores, try to imagine it through the eyes of a person who has only ever gone to a small neighborhood shop to grab the basics needed for survival for the next couple of days...rice, 1/2 a kilo of meat, dish soap, bread, oil. And who is one of the well off for the ability to do so. We seem a curious bunch through those eyes. no? I just am not even sure what to say about that. And the pet food selection? I cannot even discuss it without getting all self-righteous preachy...

3.

American Football:

Look, I am a Southern girl and a mom of boys. If I was in charge, I would declare football morally excellent in a heart beat. And Sunday family football gatherings. And Saturday tail gates. And Fantasy leagues. All of it. Yum-malicious goodness where I am concerned. But I do think we tend to forget that almost the entire rest of the world has absolutely no clue what we are doing in our football madness. And that it must seem just a little odd to them. I mean look, they get all crazy like just like us when it comes to soccer. Faces painted. Wild hates. Madness in the streets. Too much beer. It's not that. It's the actual sport of American football. And that none of us feel the need to describe it as AMERICAN football because we call the sport that the entire rest of the world calls football by a random name we made up for it because we have OUR OWN FOOTBALL...a sport in which man wrap themselves in protective padding and tight pants, crush each other with curious vigor to gain possession of small ball and carry it across a field to a painted rectangle and then do a self-glorifying victory dance. Try to fathom making mental sense of that with no frame of reference whatsoever. Curioser and curioser for sure. But like I said, I'm all for proclaiming the moral good of football (except for player salaries...which again ignite my pop up soapbox so we won't go there) so we're going to go with Alice on this one. Is football mad? I'm afraid so. It's entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best sports are.

So there. For what it's worth, these are the things that made me feel like I just stepped into Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Strange things are afoot in the U.S.A. And that just proves that I do not think myself superior to the rest of you. I just quoted one of the strangest of our affinities of all time without guilt. So there.

photo credit:

Brandon Christopher Warren

via

photopin cc

photo credit:

Br3nda

via

photopin cc

photo credit:

Complete Streets

via

photopin cc

photo credit:

elviskennedy

via

photopin cc

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Are Both Possible? [at Suffering With Joy]

October 14, 2013

The Resurrection – Master of the Trebon Altarpiece, 1380s, Národní Galerie, Prague

Have you ever been deeply hurt by someone? By people you trusted? Have you been a victim of a violent crime? Has someone close to you whom you love very much been hurt?

Have you been told by the perpetrator or others to “forgive and forget”? Did you feel angry at this admonishment? Do you now feel guilty because you want to forgive, have tried to forgive, but just can’t forget? Do you think something is wrong with you because you just can’t forget no matter how hard you try? Have you anguished over not being able to forget?

I can answer yes to every one of these questions and I am not alone. The problem lies in conflating forgiveness and forgetting. For years I’ve struggled with guilt, thinking something must be wrong with me because memory of a situation would pop into my head unbidden and I thought that meant I had not truly forgiven the person.

Well, the devil is definitely the master of confusion and able to stir up guilt where no guilt should exist. No matter how often I pondered the idea and accepted intellectually that by logic forgiveness and forgetting had to be separable, my feelings fought the concept because the admonishments to forgive and forget were drilled into me at a very early age. I just could not think my way through my feelings. When trying to explain to friends who were being abused by spouses who told them that they were unforgiving because they couldn’t forget the abuse, and understanding that this is typical psychological abuse in itself favored by perpetrators, I still fumbled for words.

Jesus is the answer – to everything. If He doesn’t say it directly, He shows us. In today’s article at Catholic Spiritual Direction: How Can I Forgive When I Can’t Forget? the answer to my dilemma became perfectly clear, all guilt vanished, and I felt like I had been freed from the chains of Satan. Through spiritual sanity following the example of Christ and by His power I have beaten the devil in a few seconds of grace, and if you are like me you can deal him a death blow, too. You need not any more give him air time in your head over not forgetting wrongs done to you when you have truly forgiven.

Patti Maguire Armstrong wrote about a talk given by Father Justin Waltz, pastor of St. Leo’s Church in Minot, ND. In the article she says, emphasis mine:

Since forgetting is not an option given our memories, Waltz said that God has provided an even better remedy—the divine transformation of a resurrection within our souls. He pointed out that Christ himself retained the wounds of his crucifixion. “Had he wanted to, Jesus could have healed his body so completely that even the scars did not exist,” he explained. “Christ is not ashamed of these scars, rather He wears them as His testament to His victory over sin and death.”

Wow. How could I have overlooked and not understood the meaning of Christ retaining His wounds? Read the entire article because there is a great deal more to learn. For myself, I didn’t realize until I read it just exactly how weighted down I was with unnecessary guilt that haunted me over the years.

Not being able to forget is NOT the same as not forgiving. Now I get it. The sacrament of Confession has freed me in specific circumstances with struggles to forgive and being able to give up nursing old injuries. This article has given me clarity concerning the not forgetting part of the equation. Perhaps the greatest “Aha!” of all for me is that looking at Christ can untangle even the thorniest dilemma, and that in seeking the truth through Him we will eventually find the answer. I knew the latter. I have been shown it many times, and once again He came through for me. Now I can be of even better help to those friends of mine who suffer in the same way as I have.

This post linked to Sunday Snippets.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.)

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When the Holy Trinity indwells you, you have everything... [at The Pelianito Journal Blog]

Acts 3:6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk…”

“My children, you have been given much spiritual treasure. Give more. Share more of the bounty you have been given. Take every opportunity to speak of the joy that abides in you. Give more. Share more. It is in giving that you will receive. Let this mean for you an unending abundance of spiritual fruit. My children the days are dark, but you carry the eternal flame of the Spirit within you. Let not sin obscure what grace has given you. For the light you carry is for the good of all. Grace and peace are yours in Christ Jesus. What more can you want? When the Holy Trinity indwells you, you have everything. Let the peace this gives you permeate your being. Do not let anxiety put out the flame, but cling to hope with joy. You have everything! Let gratitude overflow into your every thought, word, and deed. Then all will see me when they look at you. Children, you are mine and I love you.”

O my Jesus! Thank you for your grace and peace! Blessed Trinity of love I offer you the gratitude of the Gloriana for condescending to dwell in such a lowly soul as mine. Mary and Joseph, please remove everything in me that does not give glory to the Trinity. May the holy light of God shine in me and through me to all those God places in my path. Come Holy Spirit! I love you Lord! Come! Amen.

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Our Children are Open to Prayer, They Only Need an Invitation [at Children's Rosary]

A Story of Hope

A small Children's Rosary in Hartford CT USA

On the Memorial of the Holy Rosary a new Children’s Rosary group met for the first time  at Trinity Academy in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania USA.  This was the first time a Children’s Rosary group was held at a school.  The response was a bit unexpected.

A Children's Rosary in Timor Leste a country in Asia

News came the following day that the first Children’s Rosary had been attended by 52 children and 4 teachers.  Upon further questioning the magnitude of the success became almost incomprehensible.  The children had not been instructed to attend the Children’s Rosary instead they had been given a choice to meet together in prayer of the Rosary or go to recess after lunch.  Fifty-two children mostly ages 6-10 but some as old as 11-13 had voluntarily given up play time to run around and instead chose to come together and kneel in prayer of the Holy Rosary.  How does this happen.  The story seems too good to be true.  But indeed it is true and suggests a truth many are not aware of: children are very open to prayer especially with other children.  Another truth which Maria Montessori has shown with her model of childhood education: children like to be given the choice to participate in activities and when given the choice they are very committed to what they are doing.

A Children's Rosary in Kenya

The Children’s Rosary began in a parish as a prayer group movement for children. On the Memorial of the Holy Rosary 2013 Our Blessed Mother gave us a gift.  She opened the door of the Children’s Rosary prayer groups to our Parochial Schools and provided a window into how one could function quite seamlessly into the school day.  The new Children’s Rosary at Trinity Academy has chosen to hold their Children’s Rosary weekly at 12:20 PM.  The principal and teachers are very supportive of this addition to the week.  On the first day of the meeting the principal talked to the children about the Rosary and the new prayer group at morning assembly.  The children had a second invitation in their home rooms.  At the end of lunch a third invitation was given to children to meet in the prayer room for the Children’s Rosary.  As it was raining that day the children were not able to go across the street to the Church to hold their prayer group.  

While many of our Children’s Rosary prayer groups meet monthly it is a wonderful blessing to have weekly groups as well.  The school setting actually lends itself wonderfully to more frequently meetings.  On October 25th a second Children’s Rosary will begin in a school in Louisiana and we eagerly await the feedback from this group.  While no pictures were taken at Trinity Academy images from our many other Children’s Rosary prayer groups give us a wonderful example of how open children are to prayer they only need an invitation. 

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In Him Alone is our Hope (Magnificat) [at Stuart's Study]

When I take the time to examine my spiritual life, if I am honest with myself I can find a lot of shortcomings: things I wish I did better. It seems that prayer is always at the top of this list. I wish to be better at this discipline. I strive to be better at this discipline. Sometimes I progress. Sometimes I regress. I keep trying though, and that is important. St. Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises have intrigued me. It has always been a practice that has escaped me, but I have been reading about it a lot lately.

Recently, I picked up the book

In Him Alone is Our Hope

, courtesy of

Ignatius Press

. In this book, the then Cardinal Bergoglio preached a Holy Week retreat for the Bishops of Spain using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The retreat starts with Cardinal Bergoglio asking the bishops to reflect on how their vocation started. It quickly progresses to asking the bishiops how their vocation has grown and evolved over time. In this time of prayer, the bishops are asked to also reflect on their tasks, duties, and responsibilities as shepherds of the Church. However, he is also asking them to reflect on their personal lives and grow closer to God in this retreat so that they may serve the Church better.

There is a particularly beautiful passage in this book where Cardinal Bergoglio talks about what it means to "keep watch." He first starts by referencing the Scriptural passage of the Agony in the Garden, where none of the Apostles could stay awake with Jesus and keep watch. Then, he contrasts the task of 'keeping watch' against similar tasks like supervision and diligence. To summarize his points, he says, "To supervise and to be vigilant both entail a certain degree of control. To keep watch, on the other, hand speaks of hope." This means that the bishops are called to be like God - allowing us to make our own choices, but always keeping watch ready to welcome us home when we err. One can see this message of love and forgiveness in his short papal reign so far.

One could argue that the audience for this book is only bishops. However, I believe that there is spiritual wisdom in this book for priests and laity as well. Some might read this book and learn more about the vocation of being a bishop and how our current Pope views their role in the Church. Others might read this book and see Pope Francis' possible reform program for the Church. I personally tried to take some of the advice he gave to his brother bishops and apply it to my own life. We can all stand to grow closer to God, and the way to do that is by surrendering to God and allowing him to form us and mold us in His image.

If you found this review helpful, please click the

link

and hit Yes!

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Last Gospels Other Than John 1:1-14 [at A Catholic Life]

For those Catholics familiar with the Traditional Roman Liturgy, the Last Gospel is a common element of the Mass.  The Last Gospel is the passage from the Gospel according to St. John in chapter 1, verses 1 to 14 inclusive, where Jesus is described as the Word-Man-Flesh. It is so named the Last Gospel because of its place in the Liturgy - namely, at the conclusion of the Mass.

The text of the Last Gospel is perhaps best known for its opening lines:

In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum...

(In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...)

But can the Last Gospel change?

Yes.  In one example, the third Mass on Christmas Day there is no Last Gospel recited since the Gospel from the Mass is of John 1:1-14 already. However, this is according to the 1962 rubrics.  Before 1954, the Gospel of the Epiphany would have been used as the Last Gospel.

Additionally a superseded Mass (e. g. if a feast of a Saint is superseded by a Sunday) could be commemorated by, among other things, having its Gospel as Last Gospel. 

For example, on September 29, 2013, the Feast of the Archangel Michael superseded the 19th Sunday of Pentecost.  As a result, the Last Gospel could have been changed to Matthew 22:1-14, which is the Gospel of the 19th Sunday of Pentecost, if the older rubrics were used.

"The use of a different last Gospel, called a Proper Last Gospel, occurred before 1955 when the Mass of a Feast superseded (called an "occurrence" in the rubrics) either a Sunday Mass, Vigil or Feria of Lent.

"In 1955, changes were made, under the directive of Pope Pius XII, to Holy Week changes, and also to the ranking of feasts. In these changes is included the elimination of all Proper Last Gospels except for the third Mass on Christmas (when the normal Last Gospel was read at Mass, and the Gospel for the Epiphany was substituted for the Last Gospel) and for Mass on Palm Sunday which did not include the blessing of the Palms (the Gospel read before the procession with Palms was read as the Last Gospel).

"The justification for these changes was that originally the Last Gospel was a private devotion, and while it was acceptable to retain the custom of it being recited at the end of Mass, it's purpose was not to serve as a place for commemoration. Thus to replace it only on Christmas when the normal Last Gospel was said and on Palm Sunday when the Gospel for the Blessing was omitted was logical.

"With the 1960 Code of Rubrics, which incorporated the 1955 revisions into a full Codex, all Proper Last Gospels were eliminated with the exception of Palm Sunday in Masses without the blessing of Palms."

Source for Quoted Portions:

Fish Eaters

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I'm a Feminist Because I'm Not a Hypocrite [at Catholic Cravings]

I’m a Feminist.

Considering I am a pro-life, anti-contraception, mantilla-wearing, submission-preaching, chivalry-loving woman, this might be something of surprise.

But today, I want to share the first reason (of at least two, maybe three reasons) why I am a feminist.

Because I’m not a hypocrite.

When I first became Christian, I had something of a backlash against feminism. And with good reason! Why would I want anything to do with a movement that was founded on atheistic existential philosophy like de Beauvoir’s, that promoted abortion and promiscuity as the solution to all women’s problem and that just seemed to hate men? (Who, let’s be honest, can be just marvelous!)

No thank you!

But why did I have such a negative view of feminism? To see that, we have to take a brief tour of feminism.

First wave feminism (1880s-1920s) focused on key legal issues, particularly the right to own property and the right to vote. This is the age of the Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, of suffragettes chaining themselves to railings, and of women pointing out, ever so politely, that they had as much right to a say in how things were run as men.

Second wave feminism (1960s-1980s) had a broader range and was concerned with workplace equality, reproductive “rights”, social inequalities, sexism, and gender discrimination. This wave brought abortion, contraception, and divorce but it also brought equal pay (and then equal pay for equal work), decent education, and the craaaazy notion that sexism is unacceptable.

And then we come to now and third wave feminism (1990s – present). At the beginning of 1990s, Feminists had largely achieved it’s legal goals for women – at least the ones that were easily measurable like votes, pay and discrimination. Still, problems remained. So what’s a feminist to do?

Mainly, feminists turn in on themselves and to the female body as a site of oppression. Rather than being focused on the polling booth or the office cubicle, third wave feminism is focused on the body.

And enter raunch culture and the idea that women should “express” their sexuality, “embrace” their inner slut and maybe even take up pole-dancing for exercise. Take Miley Cyrus any female pop star. Many feminists are adamant they are just expressing their sexuality how they wants to and anyone who says otherwise is slut shaming and buying into our culture’s double standards about female sexuality.

Older feminists, of the Second Wave, tend to disagree (Exhibit A: Sinead O’Connor) But younger feminists, more influenced by postmodern relativism, are unwilling to make that call. If she’s feeling empowered, who are we to say she isn’t? For them, it’s all about choice.

From an orthodox Christian perspective, third wave feminism is deeply troubling. The notion that sexual promiscuity is empowering? That gender is all just a social construction? And that it all ultimately comes down to choice? Not so much.

And yet, I’m not prepared to abandon the term feminist.

Irony of ironies, feminism is the reason I could go to university to write essays arguing against feminism. And feminism is the reason that I could do so with all the assurance that my opinion was as important and valuable as anyone else’s. The truth is that no woman can argue against feminism without biting the hand that fed her.

That’s Reason #1 that I’m a feminist. I’m not a hypocrite.

Feminism has its problems but it’s history is my history. As this history shows, there are many waves and movements within feminism and there will continue to be so. Many contemporary concerns, particularly among Christians, relate specifically to this third wave backlash against second wave feminism. But feminism is so much bigger than that. Even dividing it into waves makes it simplistic.

I’m not prepared to jettison feminism simply because the feminist cri de guerre at the moment is that murdering babies in the womb is pro-woman. Just as feminism has changed over the years, I believe it can keep changing. And when Christians rubbish feminism or treat it like another F-word, all I hear is that they wish I didn’t have a chance to go to school, own property, vote or have a mind of my own.

I am part of this feminist story and without feminism, my life would be drastically different. And by different, I mean worse.

I may be a pro-life, anti-contraception, mantilla-wearing, submission-preaching, chivalry-loving woman but I am also an university-educated, fairly paid, un-oppressed, opinionated, independent human being with no fear of being beaten, sold, or killed — or regarding myself as anything less than completely equal to the wonderful men in my life. And that, at least in part, is thanks to feminism.

Our daughter’s daughters will adore us, and they’ll sing in grateful chorus, “well done, Sister Suffragette!”

The least I can do is say thanks and not be a complete hypocrite about it.

That’s why I’m a feminist.

+JMJ+

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God Never Messes with Our Heads [at V for Victory!]

Our Lady of Fatima pilgrim statue in Boise, 2007.
Photo by Jim Nourse.

When one breaks weeks of silence, one casts about for the best subject with which to do it.  One runs one's mind over affairs both temporal and spiritual, from the government shutdown to the Pope's Big Interviews that have caused such a ruckus.  Today the big news item in the Catholic world was the Holy Father's consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on this, the 96th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, witnessed by tens of thousands of believers and non-believers over a large area of Portugal.  To my way of thinking, this is only the third really comforting thing Pope Francis -- whom I believe can rightly be described as the Pope of our punishment -- has done so far in his reign, the first being the worldwide hour of Eucharistic adoration in June, and the second being the day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria last month.  All of his talk about Mary and about the reality of hell and the devil is good, but not surprising, since, the Pope, no matter who he is, cannot do otherwise than reaffirm authentic Catholic doctrine.

Which brings me to one theme that has underlain my thoughts in recent days: God does not mess with our heads.

In a world saturated in the despairing infidelity of modernism, in which being manipulated by government, media, Madison Avenue, each other, and even ourselves is a daily way of life for nearly all of us, it pays to remind ourselves of this.  God is Truth and Justice, and can no more deceive than He can be deceived.  The beauty and order of creation, from galactic superclusters to the inner workings of the subatomic, testify to the existence of a Creator Who is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful and all-good.  The laws of nature communicate truths about how creatures function and interact, and we try to traduce these laws at our peril.  The very best and highest authority that any proposition can have is that God revealed it.  On that basis alone, it would deserve to be believed and not doubted, even if we do not like it or cannot understand it.  

So how can we know that a proposition comes from God?  We can know it if it has the backing of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, endowed with His authority, under the headship of His Vicar, the Pope.  He gave us a clearly visible and recognizable institution to teach us all that we need to know in order to save our souls, and He has guaranteed it against error in matters of faith and morals.  No matter who the Pope is, no matter how many disconcerting things he may do -- even if he is an unabashed public sinner like Alexander Borgia, or hopelessly incompetent as an administrator, like St. Celestine V -- the Pope could not change even the tiniest particle of doctrine, even if he had all the armies that have ever existed at his back.  When it comes to the most critical business of our lives -- our eternal salvation -- God does not leave us to puzzle things out for ourselves, or pull a bait-and-switch on us.  His justice demands this.  Since He does not leave us without a lamp for our steps, He also does not leave us with any excuses for persisting in darkness.  God does not mess with our heads.

God will not mess with our heads even after we are dead.  Contrary to popular depictions of the afterlife in movies and books, there will be no confused period of wandering disembodied on the earth, no haunting by human spirits of houses or old battlefields, no mistaking hell for heaven, or heaven for hell.  In the very place where we die, we will be judged.  By the time others have figured out that we are dead, we will have already been completely undeceived about ourselves and about God, and about where we deserve to spend eternity -- and we will have already gone there.  At the end of time, all flesh will be confronted with all truth, and all obscurity and confusion will disappear.  We need not allow ourselves to be deceived by charlatans claiming to be the Second Coming.  They aren't.  The real Second Coming will leave us in no possible or impossible doubt as to its authenticity.  Some things really are that simple and straightforward.  God does not mess with our heads.

Since God does not mess with our heads, we can and should allow ourselves to derive consolation from both our Faith and its wholesome outward expressions that, in this modernist age, have been derided from within and without the Church as childish superstition.  We have allowed ourselves to become inured to believing bad news over good, but the Gospel really is good news, and is really true -- more true than anything that bears the stamp of the world, however plausible.  Beauty really is truth, and truth really is beauty: we need not be prisoners of the lie we have been conditioned to believe, that only the gray, the banal, the flat-footed and the pedestrian are real.  The forces of evil may seem to have the upper hand in our age, and in many places, but the truth is that they have already lost, and their time is short.   Jesus really is the Son of God, and really did die on the Cross to save us, and really did rise from the tomb and ascend into heaven.  He really did give us His Immaculate Mother to be our mother.  That is why we can expect good to come of the Holy Father once again consecrating the world to her Immaculate Heart.

We may deceive ourselves and each other.  We may play psychological games, and manipulate, and create frenzy and precipitate crises, one after the other, in order to control others.  The devil may also do this to us in order to lure us into hell.  But God never does any of these things.  If we find ourselves caught in these webs, God is not behind that.  Perversity and sadism are not attributes of God.  God never messes with our heads.

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The Obedience of the Stars [at Coffee and Canticles]

picture credit: maf6355.blogspot.com

This past Saturday's  first reading from the Office of Readings (Baruch3:9-15) again delighted me with words about the stars:

He...before whom the stars at their posts

 shine and rejoice;

When He calls them,

they answer, "Here we are!"

shining with joy for their Maker. 

It's like something out of a child's fairy tale, transforming these vast balls of burning gas into a persons, and friendly ones at that. In fact it transforms them into children eager to please their Father. 

This verse puts me in mind of two things. First, C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.  In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader it is revealed that the stars of Narnia are rational beings, who after their long lives in the heavens may  come to live down on earth. 

Second, I think of medieval theology,  which explains that the movement of the stars and the planets is supervised by the angels: that God delegates  some of his ongoing work in holding all creation together to his mightiest servants. One can read these words and picture the angels, joyful in doing the work God has given them, shouting out their nightly greetings to their Creator.

Third, every created thing, rational or non-rational, animate or inanimate, truly does offer praise to its creator simply by doing that which it was created to do.  So this scripture verse reminds me of how blessed are the stars, how happy they would be if they were rational, because they do fulfill  God's will perfectly. In this we might well envy them.

Then, I read today's (Sunday's) second reading from the OOR, where St. Clement's letter to the Corinthians takes up the topic of order and obedience in nature.
By his direction the heavens are in motion, and they are subject to him in peace. Day and night fulfill the course he has established without interfering with each other. The sun, the moon and the choirs of stars revolve in harmony at his command in their appointed paths without deviation
So if you enjoy stargazing, enjoy this weekend's lessons from the Divine Office.

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The Tridentine Fallacy [at Traditium]

What most people call the “Latin Mass” seems to have a bewildering number of names and many of them are imprecise for one reason or another. Perhaps surprisingly, “Latin Mass” is the least precise of all. But another label, Tridentine, can be used in a way that is downright troublesome.

Among the many names for it, calling the liturgy conducted in Latin and pursuant to the 1962 Missal the “Extraordinary Form” is certainly accurate since Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum formalized the term, along with the term Ordinary Form for the form of the Mass commonly seen today. Pope Francis seems to prefer calling the Extraordinary Form the Vetus Ordo, or Old Form, which lines up nicely given that the Ordinary Form is also called the Novus Ordo, or New Form. So, regardless of any possible connotations, the benefit of the labels Extraordinary Form or Vetus Ordo for the so-called Latin Mass is that they are precise, accurate and used by popes. Many, though, prefer to call the Traditional Latin Mass / Old Form / Extraordinary Form the “Tridentine Mass,” which, historically speaking, can be both right and wrong, and can be a springboard to an increasingly common and often deliberate fallacy.

First, though, what’s the problem with calling it the far more popular term, the “Latin Mass”? In short, the problem is that almost every Catholic Mass celebrated in the west right now is the Latin Mass—new, old, whether it’s presented in English, French or Spanish, it is a Latin Mass. The Roman Rite of the Church, which is to say the churches not including those of the Eastern or other rites, not only share a history of Latin, but indeed the Church’s official language today is Latin (see generally Sacrosanctum Concilium, paragraph 36 and Veterum Sapientia).

To demonstrate this firsthand only requires looking back to events in recent memory. In the United States, the terminology of the Ordinary Form of the Mass was revised in 2011 so that it would more fully comport with the original Latin. If you attend Mass you no doubt remember the change in some of the language. Moreover, Lumen Fidei, released by Pope Francis in July, like all encyclicals, is in Latin, with all other versions being translations; the original of the Canon Law is in Latin, as are many other official documents, including formal correspondence from the Vatican to the other nations of the world. This is because the language of the Roman Catholic Church is, right this very moment, Latin, and its documents are then allowed to be translated into the many local languages (that is, the “vernacular”) within the Church and without. So the ordinary, regular, new Mass, the one we in the United States are used to hearing in English, is a Latin Mass translated into our “vernacular”. It, too, in its original form, is a Latin Mass. If you put the word “Traditional” in front of “Latin Mass” you get closer to the truth, but to call the Extraordinary Form of the Mass the “Latin Mass” as a way to distinguish it from the more Ordinary Form, is merely a useful and convenient bit of nonsense.

The common fallback, then, is to call the Traditional Latin Mass the “Tridentine Mass.” This is done within the Church and is completely accurate, if used with precision. But it also can be used to deliberately set up a fallacy to minimize the history the Traditional Latin Mass within in the Church. To understand this requires looking back to the Council of Trent itself.

With the rise of Protestantism in the late Middle Ages there came a liberality in religious practice. Princes wanted power without having to acknowledge a Church over them, kings wanted the lands and valuables acquired by the religious orders in their countries which were not, at the time, under their control. They embraced the reformation, and within few decades everything Catholic seemed to be turned on its head. In such an age, the liturgy, the doctrines, and the traditions of the Church itself were questioned. Declared protestants and particular nobles seeking power mocked the practices of the Church, and even those faithful to the Church began to lose sight of which essentials had to be preserved and which could be revised. Seeing the need to protect the Church and its ancient traditions, a council was called in Trento, Italy. This, in English, would be called the Council of Trent. It was an important conference that had much to say on a wide range of topics, responding to important issues of the day, clarifying matters, fighting back some of the wilder claims. In many ways the job of the Council was to clarify what was changeable, revisable, or in need of correction and what was not. In order to protect what could not be changed or lost, the Council had to formalize many things that to that point had been informal, or simply tradition.

The documents and proclamations produced by the Council were described as “Tridentine,” derived from the name of the town and the council itself. See generally, Council of Trent at Wikipedia. As a result of the Council, in 1570 Pope St. Pius V issued a revised catechism, missal and the Apostolic Constitution Quo Primum, requiring the use of the historic Latin Mass, with a few revisions. Quo Primum required that any other Order of Mass which did not have 200 years of consistent use by 1570 would cease. Old forms, which had simply fallen out of use, such as from the Celtic Rite, were to cease. Others, such as that of the Dominican Rite, still in practice and with the required history, could continue. But everyone else in the West was to use the same form of the Mass. This version came to be labeled the Tridentine Mass.

So, first, it is important to note that the Council of Trent did not change the language of the Mass to Latin. It had already been Latin in most of the Western World for almost a millenium. Further, the Council did not completely overhaul the Mass. Instead, it was revised and formalized to protect it from the uncontrolled excesses during the age of the Reformation. But the essentials of the ancient Mass were far older than anything that could be called Tridentine.

Indeed, it could certainly be argued that Peter and Paul’s coming to and dying in Rome secured the fact that in the future Latin would be the language of the eternal Church. It is undeniably a fact that the Mass was in Aramaic and Greek before it was in Latin, even in Rome itself. But, inevitably, the Mass would come to be in Latin, the most common translation of the Bible (St. Jerome’s Vulgate) would then be in Latin (around 400 A.D.), and documents written within, and for, the Church would be in Latin. Without question, by about 600 A.D., Pope St. Gregory the Great had formalized the Mass in Latin in the West. This means that the Traditional Latin Mass, now the Extraordinary Form, has been around, admittedly with revisions and additions, for over 1,400 years, not just the 440 years since Trent.

Which brings us full circle to the truth that Latin is still, right now, the language of the Church. In 1963, Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI, allowing for Mass in the vernacular instead of Latin when a territorial decree permits the exception, see Sacrosanctum Concilium p. 36. Permission was obtained by the U.S. Bishops in May of 1964 to use the vernacular, which began almost immediately (causing no small amount of confusion). The new Order of Mass followed with the Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum in 1969. (For a bit of the history of the development of the Novus Ordo see The Mass of Paul VI at Wikipedia.)

These days, those with an incomplete picture compare Vatican II to the Council of Trent, suggesting they are the same because both changed the missal. The result of the Council of Trent, however, was protection of the timeless traditional liturgy. The results of Vatican II are more complicated.

Vatican II, after all, produced wise and inspired documents, in keeping with the great traditions and history of the Church. The media coverage, and the “Spirit of Vatican II” (which people would, and still do, refer to when they wanted to support personal conclusions often not at all a part of the documents of the council), led to teachings and practices that clearly had nothing to do with what Vatican II was about. The Mass was no different—no document of Vatican II suggested the complete abandonment of Latin in the Masses of the Church around the globe. (Quite the contrary. Again see Sacrosanctum Concilium, paragraph 36.) They did, though, allow for the use of the vernacular with permission, and soon afterwards the Novus Ordo was established.

To say that the Novus Ordo, or Ordinary Form, which is to say the Order of Mass seen at most Churches today, is less valid than the Traditional Latin Mass, as some calling themselves Traditionalists do, is to step onto a path that points out of the true Church. To conclude that Vatican II itself was something other than a great council of the Church, in keeping with its great traditions, also puts one on that same perilous path. The documents themselves show otherwise. Conclusions of this type, for the very few who have made them, represent one extreme.

There is, though, another extreme. To suggest that Vatican II addressed the sacred liturgy the same way that the Council of Trent did is factually wrong. To suggest that the Order or Mass, or the language of Mass, is frequently changed in a dramatic way, is a fallacy. To claim that the traditional Mass was Tridentine, as a way of minimizing it from something ancient to something more recent, is disingenuous if not deceptive. To be certain the Extraordinary Form, as it is now called, was formalized at Trent, but it was not invented there.

Just as it is wrong to suggest that the Novus Ordo Mass in the vernacular is less valid than the Traditional Latin Mass, it is equally wrong to suggest that the Traditional Latin Mass is anything other than an ancient and precious part of the Church itself, which the Church should protect, as indeed is mandated by the Magisterium of the Church.

In the end, the Traditional Latin Mass is a great treasure of the Church. It has survived the assaults of tyrants and barbarians, protestors and reformers, complete outsiders and officials within the Church itself. It is, in this age, being recognized again for its great beauty, by young and old alike. It has stood for countless ages, and, despite assaults, and however you refer to it, its long history is undoubtedly just the beginning. It can proudly be called Tridentine, so long as its long history is acknowledged instead of minimized by the people doing so.

This contribution is available at http://traditium.com/2013/10/23/the-tridentine-fallacy/
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EXPECT CHANGE: Pope Consecrates World [at Christ's Faithful Witness]

All lay in ruins. Every bright hope that God held for mankind seemed to be lost.

He had brought matter out of nothing, separated the water from the land, brought forth green life and put living creatures on the earth. God continued to create, making a Paradise --- a garden full of lush fruit trees, sweet animals, rushing water and one beautiful companion. All this was done for one man,  whom He had made from the clay of the earth, touched with His breath, and marked with His living image. His name was Adam.

There was only one rule in that garden: Do not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  

Every day, Adam and God walked together in the garden in the cool of afternoon. They were the best of friends, sharing everything.  But on one inky black afternoon, overrun with snakes and self-doubt, Adam and Eve, his companion, knowingly ate the wrong fruit.  They forgot the gratitude they owed to God.

Now God went to the garden as usual, looking for them. “Where are you?” He called. But they were hiding. How that hurt. Now Paradise would unravel. The snake would crawl on his belly, the woman would labor in pain, and the man’s work would turn cruel.

But wait. What was that? God said something to the snake that didn’t make sense. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;  he will crush your head,  and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15)

And so God offered man a prophetic ray of hope. He promised a Woman and He promised a Son. Together, they would untie the knot that Adam and Eve had made with their sin.

On Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, the anniversary of the last apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, Portugal, the ever-wonderful and controversial Pope Francis entrusted everyone in the world to this Woman, so that she in turn could entrust us to Her Seed, Our Lord Jesus Christ, with the result that the snake’s head (all resistance to God) would be crushed once and for all.

“Bring everyone under your protection and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus,” the Pope implored the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ offered the first Marian Consecration as He hung upon the cross dying:  "When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother "Woman, behold your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home." (John 19:26-27) Each Christian is asked to do the same thing – take Mary into your home.

 “It is a fact: Mary always brings us to Jesus,” the pope said on the vigil night before the consecration.

That was Our Lady’s purpose on Oct. 13, 1917, when she appeared to three Portuguese children and God made the sun dance for as many as 70,000 witnesses. In the sun, the children saw an image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Before the apparition, it rained terribly and everyone was wet until the sun whirled in the sky and seemed to rush to the earth. Then everyone’s clothes were dried, the mud hardened and the puddles emptied, leaving the ground as if it had never rained. The people knelt and prayed.

Such a fervent response to a miracle recalled Elijah’s triumph over the prophets of the god Ba’al on Mount Carmel. The people of Israel had been dithering between the Lord God and the god Ba’al. The Prophet Elijah asked the people, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Ba’al, then follow him.”

So he set up a test with the 450 prophets of Ba’al: two altars, two dead bulls, one for Ba’al and one for God. They would ask their gods to consume the sacrifice without lighting a fire themselves. So the priests of Ba’al prayed, cutting themselves and began using many words morning to night. When nothing happened, Elijah teased them, asking, “Has your god gone aside? (to the bathroom) Is he sleeping?”

But the god Ba’al did not consume his sacrifice. So Elijah built a moat around his altar and filled it with water, then soaked the sacrifice as well. He prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.” Then he prayed that the people’s hearts would turn back to the one true God.  

“Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” (1Kings18:38)

Elijah’s prayer was answered. The priests of Ba’al were slaughtered, and the drought the people had been suffering was ended. It rained. We heard a crunching sound and found a dead snake on the ground.

The water evaporated suddenly at Mount Carmel just like it did on Oct. 13, 1917 in Fatima, Portugal. The two miracles are related. The world was given a choice at Mount Carmel, and the world was given a choice at Fatima in 1917. Unfortunately, we postponed our response in 1917. And the price was quite high.

The consecration of Russia requested by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 was delayed almost 70 years. In 1984 with the participation of the willing bishops of the world, Pope John Paul II consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Fatima visionary Sr. Lucia confirmed this consecration – unlike previous ones -- finally satisfied heaven’s 1917 request to consecrate Russia.

But Our Lady had warned that unless this consecration was done promptly, Russia would spread her errors around the world. Her errors – including abortion, euthanasia, contraception and its related gay marriage, loss of property rights, loss of religious freedom, mass murders -- have indeed spread all over the world. In the name of racial purity, Nazi Germany – with gays in all key positions in the military and homeland forces --killed 6 million Jews in World War II, but the total death toll was over 20 million from 1933 to 1945. Religious persecution played a prominent role in the deaths as well. Millions of Catholics died.

China adopted communism in 1949 and purged her population of property owners and business people, and tried to wipe out Catholicism. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia killed an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 million from 1975-1979 on the same principle – get rid of the rich, get rid of teachers. Anyone with glasses was likely to be killed, so the killing fields were full of eyeglasses!  

The same thinking now infests the United States. Our current U.S. president is trying to whip up class envy and hatred for the rich while increasing the government-dependent population. He has imposed legislation on the people that will result in forced euthanasia. It’s called ironically, Obama “care.” So in the U.S. we are suffering a loss of religious freedom, and a loss of the right to private property as the cost of health care is dramatically rising thanks to the federal government. We adopted abortion in 1973, and since then have killed 56 million Americans, a holocaust far worse than what happened in Nazi Germany, but no one seems to understand that.

In more recent years, from the vantage point of a UN pro-life lobbyist, I watched those errors – abortion and contraception -- start to slide into to Ireland, Africa and Catholic South America. And Ireland has lost its religious freedom completely as Catholic hospitals now MUST provide abortion and contraception.

However, only five years after the pope consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Iron Curtain did fall in 1989 – without any bloodshed. NO ONE ANTICIPATED THIS WOULD HAPPEN. The Cold War, which seemed so intractable for decades, ended. Communist governments collapsed in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union was dissolved. And who’s to say that we didn’t avert a nuclear disaster in the making?

We should be dancing in the streets because Pope Francis said those few and momentous words on Oct. 13! Addressing the Woman of Genesis, he said, “Bring everyone under your protection and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus!”

Instead, traditional Catholics are wondering whether he did a “real” consecration. “It didn’t sound like a consecration to me,” one Catholic posted on the National Catholic Register. Another said, “I agree that Pope Francis’ prayer … was clearly not a real consecration.  A nice gesture in commemoration of the anniversary, perhaps, but that appears to be all that was intended by it.”

“I’m sorry, but every prayer of “consecration” that I have seen and prayed for decades involves the total submission of oneself—including all our thoughts, deeds and possessions—to the divine Entity (God, Jesus or Mary) to be used by them as they wish.  In reading the “Consecration” prayer used by Pope Francis, it seems this is glaringly missing.  It is more of a prayer offering love and devotion as well as asking for guidance—not a true turning over of one’s heart, mind, body and soul,” another said, who was most familiar with the consecration prayer composed by St. Louis Marie de Montfort in the 17th century.

Too bad Jesus wasn’t familiar with St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s consecration. He could have recited it on the cross. Instead, He just said seven words, four to his mother, “WOMAN, behold your son.” And three words to his disciple John, who stood in place of all mankind at the foot of the cross, “Behold your Mother.” Compared to Jesus, Pope Francis is a total blabbermouth.

“Bring everyone under your protection and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus.” These words mean he gives every living human being to Jesus through Mary. I am glad to be handed over to Our Lord in such a manner. He didn’t need to say the rest of the prayer. Those words alone were adequate to consecrate the world. 

Now it is 2013 and the world lies again in ruins. God asks the people, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Ba’al, then follow him.”

Too many people have gone after the false god Ba’al – abortion, contraception, gay marriage, euthanasia, collectivism, and religious intolerance.

Stop dithering. Make a choice.

This contribution is available at http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com/2013/10/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-ja-x.html
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10.28.13

It’s His Feast Day ~ Read His Book!

Jude, Judah, Judas, Thaddeus ~ this man was one of the Twelve, a New Testament author, and is the patron saint of desperate cases (given his unfortunate name-sharing with the infamous traitor). Tradition recounts that Jude gathered the Lord’s burial cloth and brought it to Turkey, then traveled to Armenia, whose Church Rite can be traced to the Saint. He continued moving and preaching and was eventually joined by Simon (who is also honored this feast day). They were both martyred in Persia. This man was a missionary from the get-go, asking Jesus during the Last Supper, “Why reveal Yourself just to us and not the whole world?” He was already thinking about “the whole world.” Jesus explained that all who love Him and are true to His Word will be loved by the Father and filled with the Spirit (John 14:22-3).

His short book of twenty-four verses is a warning to be watchful and wise in dealing with false teachers, whom he unexpectedly describes with passionate poetry in verses 12-13. His audience was thoroughly Jewish, for he expected them to be familiar with references Biblical (verses 5-7, 11), apocryphal (verses 9, 14-15), and apostolic (verses 17-18). He presented them with practical, real advice:

Fight (3),
Remember (17),
Learn ( 20),
Pray (20),
Wait (21),
Convince (22),
Save and snatch (23).

And he blessed them with an oft-memorized, inspiring benediction:

“Now to Him Who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of His glory with rejoicing; to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen”

Breathe that in. Now, where’s the fight?
Dear Saint Jude, pray for us!

Apologetics notes:

1.) Jude refers to himself as a servant of Jesus and brother of James, a well-known church leader in Jerusalem. They are kin to Jesus. Here is an excellent explanation of the familial language.

2.) Although the book was listed in the Muratorian fragment of the second century as acceptable for reading, it continued being disputed for 200 years until the Carthage councils included it in the final canon. This is the New Testament we all know and love, including our separated brethren.

3.) Verse 23 calls on believers to “save some,” proving that people do co-operate with God in salvation. This does not lessen God’s power and glory; He does the saving (and healing and forgiving and prayer-listening, etc). We work with Him. Consider also Colossians 1:24, James 5:16, and John 20:23.

Allison is a 40-something mother of seven, living in Alaska, accepted into the Church (together with her husband, thank God) in 2004. She spends her days homeschooling and packaging meat that her menfolk hunt and bring home. She cannot garden to save her life but picks wild blueberries like a champ. She has been published in an edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul and keeps a blog at www.northerncffamily.blogspot.com, writing about living out the Faith with children with cystic fibrosis.

This contribution is available at http://www.catholicsistas.com/2013/10/28/feast-day-read-book/
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Practice of Prayer

I have been hearing recently from a number of friends how they are working on their prayer life or how they would like to work on their prayer lives.  They inspire me to enrich my own prayer life.  In thinking about how I would like to become a better pray-er, I first tried to identify what keeps me from becoming closer to God in prayer.

Barriers in my prayer life:

 Unanswered prayers.  Who wants to keep asking for something when an answer is never received?  It’s difficult to continue to ask when the answer doesn’t come easily or at the time I want it to.

Loss of control.   Turning my day over to God means truly turning everything over to God and that loss of control can be scary.  It can leave me feeling helpless – one of my least favorite feelings!

Lack of time.  Finding time to just be with God in prayer can be challenging especially with all the demands that family, community and we ourselves place on our lives.

Fear of vulnerability.   Whenever we put our true feelings out there for others to see, we face rejection and ridicule.  Even though, I should know that God would never reject me, that fear can be real.

Fear of grace.  I know that sounds ridiculous but I can find myself cautious for what I ask for because I’m not sure if I truly want it.  If I ask for more patience, are my kids going to test me more?

So now it’s time to work out solutions to overcome these barriers.  Here’s what I am struggling with and working toward.

God always answers prayers.  He just answers them in His own way and in His own time.  I have heard this all my life, but I’ve got to remind myself regularly.  Like a mother whose child asks if he can have yet another snack, she pauses to think… how long until dinner, when the last snack was, what is in the pantry.  I wonder if God too pauses before answering our prayers so that He can make sure that the rest of his plan for us is ready to come to fruition.  Sometimes though, his pause is much longer than we would like!

Losing control can be freeing.  Knowing that someone else is in the driver’s seat and I get to be the passenger, always makes road trips easier on me.  And I find that is true in life too.  If I just let God take over, He will always get me to where I need to be and where He needs me to go.  And I don’t have to worry about the big picture or how it will all work out in the end because He’s got it all mapped out.  I just need to be willing to go along for the ride.

We don’t have to have a certain time for God.   He is with us every moment of every day.  He is by our side, hoping that we share the latest frustration or latest joy with Him.  Yes, I do need to set aside time for prayer, but it doesn’t have to be in any particular location or at any exact time.  I can talk to Him as I clean a shower or sit in a pick-up line at school.  He just wants to be with us – at all moments of our day.  And I need to invite Him to share all of my experiences with me.

Being vulnerable opens us to a closer relationship with God.  When I am real with myself and truly talk to God, I have to know that this is the one person who totally gets me.  He knows where I am coming from.  He knows why I react a certain way.  He knows what I think even before I do.  And to be closer to Him, Jesus said that we must become like a little child.  Who is more vulnerable and more real than a little child?  I need to take on that spirit and let the Holy Spirit draw me ever closer to our Father.

 Trusting in God means being showered with unexpected graces.  I remember a few years ago I was lamenting the fact that I never had time to pray the rosary.  Oh, how I wished that I could take just a few minutes away from my young family just to run those rosary beads through my fingers in prayer.  One week, when my prayers for the rosary were especially fervent, a storm blew through our neighborhood.  A microburst took down two trees in our yard.  We suddenly had a very large weekend project in the heat of the summer.  While my husband and our neighbor worked on cutting up the limbs of the large one in the front yard, I worked on the one in the backyard – huge limbs had come down but the tree wasn’t a total loss.  And as I spent hours cutting on the wood and dragging them out to the trailer in the front yard, I found myself with plenty of time to pray the rosary.  I counted by limbs rather than beads in my hands, but the decades that passed made the time and the work go easier.  And now when I pray, I try to be willing to accept whatever way that God answers my prayers because his prayers always result in more graces!

How are you working on your prayer lives?prayers

This contribution is available at http://busycatholicmoms.com/practice-of-prayer/
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Recognize, advance and restore all things to Christ [at Dolce Domum]

Having spiritual courage cannot mean overpowering trials. It means accepting that some trials do not pass lightly but rather take up a permanent residence in our lives and age along with us. The courage then is not in determining to put up a tough-minded fight. It is in conceding to divine providence the sovereign right to return in various guises of discomfort to draw our deeper submission to the divine will. – Fr. Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations, page 144.

*****

At 10:17am on Monday morning while seated at my desk I received a call on my mobile phone from a local number I did not recognize. I answered to hear following recording:

There is a stabbing victim at Pius X High School.  She has been sent to the hospital, and police are on the scene.  The injury does not appear to be life-threatening.  I will send a further update as more information comes available.  Please do not come to the school or call. Please pray for all involved.

A stabbing? At my son’s high school? The voice said it was a girl so I immediately processed that he was not injured. But what was going on? Within seconds I sent my first text to my son Nolan, a senior.

“There’s been a stabbing at Pius? What’s going on? You OK?”

“Yeah we’re fine. Police are here, in lockdown.”

“Do you know who is involved?”

“No one knows what happened.”

Pius students were quick to notice the verse from Exodus 14:14 on the school sign when this photo was published Monday afternoon in the local paper. (Lincoln Journal Star photo)

I later learned that Nolan was in a classroom on another floor on the other side of the school and hadn’t heard any of the commotion. I sent him a link to the local newspaper report a few minutes later. I also logged on to his Facebook account to see if other students inside the school were talking and found remarkably little. Part of this is I assume due to the restriction on the use of cell phones during the lockdown and also because most students these days communicate on Twitter, something neither me or my son use.

At 10:28am I received a second phone call from the same number:

This is (Principal) Tom Korta from Pius X High School.  The parents of the students involved in the stabbing have been notified.  Your child has not been involved, and is safely sitting in his or her classroom. This message is going to all parents.

A short time later, around 11am, the Lincoln Police Department released the following statement on their Facebook page:

Lincoln Police are looking for 17 year old Sarah* for her involvement in a stabbing this morning at Pius X. She may be driving a grey 1992 Buick Park Avenue (Nebraska plate XYZ 123*). Sarah is a white female, 5’5″, 105 pounds with brown hair. Call police immediately with any information.

The newspaper report gave the approximate location of the suspect’s home and said that a police officer had knocked and found no one home. The address was blocks away from my own home and I wondered for the first time if the suspect involved was a member of my parish.

I asked Nolan if he knew Sarah and he said that she was a year or two behind him at our Catholic grade school. That’s when I realized I did recognize her name and was acquainted with her and her family through our parish. Looking at her family’s photo in our parish directory Monday night confirmed this. While we have over 1200 families that comprise our parish and I do not know everyone personally the odds are that we’ve bumped into one another at a social event or school function.

At noon I asked Nolan if he knew who the victim was. The news reports still hadn’t named her. He said no one he had talked with knew yet either, but he added that “Someone put pray for Ellen on Facebook.”

An hour later he texted me with Ellen’s full name and told me to tell my wife. Janell had once worked with Ellen’s mom and knew the family.

The students quickly created a hashtag for Twitter: #PrayForPius. I also saw #PrayersForEllen and #PrayersForSarah.

Late on Monday afternoon the following statement was released by the victim’s family through the Southern Nebraska Register, our diocesan newspaper:

LINCOLN (SNR) – The family of a Pius X High School student who was injured this morning in an incident at the school are with her as she recovers. They released a statement today:

This morning our daughter Ellen was injured at Pius X High School. Ellen was taken for medical treatment, and is recovering with her family. We’re blessed by the outreach of friends in our community and across the country. Thank you for your prayers, your compassion, and your well-wishes. By God’s grace, Ellen will recover.

We ask you to join us in prayer for Sarah and her family. We pray that she may be treated with respect and with mercy, and that our community will also support her family. The love of God can conquer all things.

Thank you for all that you have done for us. At this time, we ask that you respect the privacy of our family as Ellen recovers.

At 8:30pm Monday night, students organized a rosary to pray for Ellen, Sarah, and their families.

Photo courtesy of the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln’s Facebook page.

While I sat outside around 10pm under the stars on a cool autumn night I asked out loud “Where are you Sarah?” I asked because I suddenly felt the weight of her father’s heart who I knew was worried sick and asking the same question.

Within minutes of sitting down at my desk at work on Tuesday morning the wild speculation and gossip commenced once more. Slandering the victim. Projecting motives onto the suspect. Creating their own little crime drama-induced fantasy. Deciding not to get sucked into the conversation and needing a release of my frustration with all of the innuendo and soft anti-Catholic bigotry I’d heard and read the past 24 hours I wrote a new status on Facebook:

It’s been amazing the past 24 hours to listen to and read the comments of people who have no clue about an event yet fancy themselves as a character in CSI or some other crime drama wildly speculating about people, their motives and events, that again, they have no clue about while looking like fools. Or braying jackasses. Hard to differentiate between the two at times.

(Lord, I know I’m rough around the edges. Grant me a spirit of charity and humility.)

I should have just quoted Pope Francis who in his September 13th homily said:

People who judge and criticise others are hypocrites and cowards who are unable to face their own defects. Gossip, too, is “criminal” as it destroys, rather than exalts the image of God present in others. Those who live judging their neighbours, speaking badly of them, are hypocrites because they don’t have the strength, the courage to look at their own defects. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?

Yowza! Go papa!

Desiring to drown out the conversations I put on my headphones and found something calming to listen to. Mozart did the trick.

Late on Tuesday morning the following announcement from the Lincoln Police Department showed up in my Facebook feed:

**Sarah located** At 10am this morning, Sarah was located by law enforcement in Woodson County, Kansas. They responded to a call regarding someone with car trouble. She will be detained in Kansas until she can be returned to Lincoln. Pius X and her family have been notified.

Sarah had made it to a point halfway between Topeka and the Oklahoma border, around five hours and 275 miles away. Seventeen, little or no money, scared and frightened, and driving her boyfriend’s stolen car.

Shortly after this announcement an e-mail came from the Principal Korta:

Dear Pius family,

We are pleased to share with you that the police just informed us that Sarah has been found. She is safe and in police custody.

As we move forward, first and foremost I ask that you continue to pray for Sarah and her family, as well as for Ellen and her family. I ask you to continue to respect both families’ requests for privacy. Part of respecting their privacy is refraining from speculation about motives and/or spreading gossip and rumors about the situation. Please help us in delivering that message to your kids as well.

We give thanks to God for the safety of all who were involved in this incident, and pray for His continued peace and comfort as all who were impacted by this event continue to heal.

Being weak from a continuing battle with pneumonia I made the decision to head home at noon and finish my work from there.  I also knew that in my weary state I would be more likely to inject myself into the conversations and stridently correct some of the more grievous misnomers and slander taking place. This would likely not have ended well.

Later in the afternoon Ellen’s family released a second statement through the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln on Facebook:

Our family is happy to report that our daughter Ellen has returned home to continue her recovery. We’re overwhelmed by the kindness of our community in this difficult moment.

Today, we are rejoicing that Sarah has been found, and that she is safe. We are continuing our prayers for her and her family. We hope that she will be treated with respect, with charity, and with dignity. We pray especially that her family will be supported by this community as we have been.

We’re grateful for the leadership and support of the administration and staff of St. Pius X High School. Surely, God will “restore all things in Christ.”

We ask you to continue to respect our privacy as our family moves forward from this incident.

Tonight I paused to read the latest weekly column by Bishop James Conley in the SNR. He writes:

Christ brought peace to Pius X High School in the midst of turmoil. When chaos broke out at Pius, the principal Mr. Tom Korta and the leadership team at Pius acted swiftly and decisively to bring peace. Lincoln police did the same. And our students responded to crisis with maturity and virtue. Turmoil broke out at Pius X this week. But Christ has begun restoring peace.

An administrator shared with me the experience of watching Sister Maria Meza, M.S., standing in the hallway, hugging students as they passed. Father Meysenburg and his brother priests prayed with every student who desired it. And the school’s counseling team, and teachers, and coaches, and administrators, made sure that every student knew that Jesus Christ was present at Pius X High School.

Students organized a Rosary on Monday evening at Saint Peter Parish in Lincoln, asking Our Lady of the Rosary on her feast day to restore peace and healing to all those traumatized by the events of the day. Hundreds of students participated.

In the past twenty-four hours I’ve seen the same old bigotry rear its ugly head in a few office comments and the internet comboxes. Students at our high school are “holier than thou.” “Oh, but things like this don’t happen at a Catholic high school. Parents must be shocked to learn their little precious saints are no better than the heathen at public schools.”

And on. And on. My God it went on.

Here’s the thing: I send my children to Catholic schools not because I think this will insulate them from the evils of this world. I recognize that most if not all of the same temptations that public school students experience are ready and waiting: drugs, alcohol, sex, peer pressure, bullying, broken homes, etc. Evil does not discriminate.

I send my children to Catholic schools because in addition to the fine education they receive they are being prepared to deal with evil when it happens and meet it head on. They don’t slink away from it, laugh at it dismissively, or hide from it. They recognize it for what it is and advance towards it together. They learn from the actions modeled by the faculty and adults at the schools. They learn from their peers.

Bishop Conley continued:

I don’t know why violence broke out at Pius. Even as more facts unfold, we’ll understand very little. We can not assign motives or blame. Violence is always the consequence of the mystery of evil: of sinfulness, or sickness, or confusion. Violence ensnares those who act violently, and those who are harmed. When evil acts, it seeks to destroy.

But we know that Christ restores all things. This week, I am praying for restoration at Pius X High School. I am praying that a sense of security will be restored; that a sense of peace will reign. And I am praying that all who were involved in Monday’s incident—in any capacity—will know the restoring peace of Jesus Christ.

I don’t know why this happened either. I have learned while listening to and reading the gossip-mongers that they understand very little indeed, but feel the very real human impulse to understand by injecting themselves into the conversation, right or wrong. While I get that, they are not the models I would choose for my children.

I’ve witnessed the outpouring of support organized for a senior after his home burned to the ground in the first weeks of the school year, and how it inspired a rival high school student body to help out.

I’ve watched as the student body organized a rosary after a home football game that saw hundreds and hundreds of students and parents kneel in a large circle at midfield to pray for the mom of a student who had been recently diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Young ones knelt too. I know this because my ten year old son was on his knees beside me.

I’ve listened to the student section roar at halftime of the homecoming football game as the homecoming candidates were introduced with their parents, the loudest roar reserved for a student named Jory. Jory was in a wheelchair, having recently returned to school after battling a debilitating disease. He and his parents were positively beaming, and when his name was announced as homecoming king the roof would have blown off the place had there been one.

I’ve watched over the past day. The victim and her family. The school’s faculty. The student’s themselves. I’ve observed their actions.

They are the models I choose for my children. They are the models I choose for myself as well.

Not the critics. Not the trolls. Not the sarcastic and lost souls looking to score points in the comboxes of this world.

I choose the students at Pius X High School who have taken the mission of Pope Pius X into their hearts to “restore all things to Christ.”

They’ve proven they will not slink away from this challenge while submitting to the divine will.

PS: Pray for Ellen. Pray for Sarah.

*****

*I have chosen to omit the last names of the families involved and the plates of the car she was driving. While they are easily found on the internet due to the media coverage here in town, I chose not to do so here. I have also left out several anecdotes that I’ve heard, but cannot confirm. I’ve tried to stick to the facts as they have been documented and occurred.

This contribution is available at http://jeffwalker.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/recognize-advance-and-restore-all-things-to-christ/
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Lou Reed [at Cum Lazaro]

                                               Lou Reed: 1942-2013

One of the oddities of the modern age is the way that, unlike Prufrock and his coffee spoons, we tend to measure out our lives with pop songs.

Lou Reed was I suppose one of those singers who was always buzzing around in the background of my life. I remember hearing 'Walk on the Wildside' for the first time, thinking it seemed longer than the usual record, had some overarching sense of a story unusual in pop, and then cottoning on (gradually) to what it was about... I remember a flatmate buying a (vinyl) copy of Metal Machine Music, playing its endless variations on white noise, and not noticing (until I tentatively suggested the possibility) that the needle had got stuck...

There are splits in Catholic thinking -the precise nature of which is much disputed- between our natural end and our supernatural end, between what can be discovered by reason and what has to be revealed to us by God. Analogous to this, perhaps even intertwined with this, there is the existential split between that common modern culture in which all of us swim, and the specific culture of Catholicism, and the complex meetings between the two.

Here's a narrative about the two that crops up quite often although in different, detailed forms. Once, there was a shared traditional view which had a sense of human agency, the existence of God, the nature of the virtues etc etc. (Such was the perennial philosophy or the philosophy of commonsense.) Although Catholicism wasn't this, it built on it:  commonsense created the natural foundations on which revealed truth erected its Holy City. And then some time (take your pick: 1600s? 1960s?) this common, natural foundation was undermined by various cultural movements which make it more difficult for Catholicism to engage with non-Catholics (and even to understand themselves).

If that sort of narrative has any truth, a plausible candidate for the prime destructive influence must be modern popular music. As I've noted, it permeates most of our lives in enormously powerful ways. The crassest elements of that are easy to spot (Mylie Cyrus and her twerking). But perhaps far more damaging are the serious musicians such as Lou Reed: you couldn't take Ms Cyrus seriously at a conscious level, whatever damage she may be doing underneath; but you certainly might take Lou Reed seriously as propounding a

style

of life.

OK. So what is that

style

? Well, having given all of a half an hour's thought to this, I think that one (just for me perhaps) attractions of Lou Reed was the combination of outrageous subject matter (drugs, gender bending) with a rather detached, stoned take on it: we observed the circus animals, but we didn't whoop and cheer and get involved. 'So it goes', as Vonnegut puts it. That disengagement, the lack of care, strikes me as one of the most pernicious aspects of modern popular culture, leading on the characteristic modern lurch from indifference ('it's his life') to manufactured outrage (take your pick): the replacement of an aesthetic judgment (what is striking or entertaining) for an ethical one (what is good).

Poor old Lou Reed. Not yet cold in his grave and already a minor scion of the traditionalist tendency is mulling over why he's a bad thing... Well, no, not exactly. From the audio clips I heard on radio this morning, Lou Reed was given to making fairly strong claims about the influence of rock and roll.

Wikipedia has him saying

:

My God is rock’n’roll. It’s an obscure power that can change your life. 

I'll grant him that, at least for the moment. And given that assumption, I'd like to think through how he's changed my life, why I find him and his music so attractive, and why I find so much other popular music so engaging. Because, so far as I can see, the values purveyed in them aren't terribly good ones, and yet I know that I am, as a matter of fact, soaked in this

via moderna,

and am having to live with the consequences.

He sold his soul to rock and roll, but he started off Jewish. So I hope some out there will be saying Kaddish for him:

May His great Name grow exalted and sanctifiedin the world that He created as He willed.May He give reign to His kingship in your lifetimes and in your days,and in the lifetimes of the entire Family of Israel,swiftly and soon. Now respond: Amen.May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled,mighty, upraised, and lauded be the Name of the Holy One, Blessed is Hebeyond any blessing and song,praise and consolation that are uttered in the world. Now respond: Amen.May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and lifeupon us and upon all Israel. Now respond: Amen.He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace,upon us and upon all Israel. Now respond: Amen.

This contribution is available at http://cumlazaro.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/lou-reed.html
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Possible solution to the Boy Scouts of America conundrum for Catholics [at Kitchen table chats with a Catholic Matriarch]

In a previous article, I outlined the serious ethical dilemma faced by Catholic Boy Scouts now that the Boy Scouts of America approved a policy allowing openly homosexual boys to be Scouts. As written, the new membership norms require all troops to welcome boys who proudly proclaim themselves to be gay. This is a significant obstacle to Catholic participation in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Because while having same-sex attractions is not a sin, it is disordered. This revised BSA membership policy rejects this view and essentially normalizes homosexuality.

But all may not be lost for Catholic Boy Scouts. The web site Scout-wire.org is reporting that Boy Scouts of America and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to accommodate Lutheran principles on sexual morality. The key paragraphs state:

Resolved, That the Boy Scouts of America will respect the spiritual and moral responsibility of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s chartering congregations with the understanding that there is no Boy Scout authority which supersedes the authority of the local pastor and the congregation in any phase of the program affecting the spiritual welfare of those who participate; and be it further 

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod will respect the membership standard of the Boy Scouts of America, including the stipulation that membership in Scouting may not be denied to a child on the basis of sexual attraction alone, and the further stipulation that the local pastor of the chartering congregation and the leaders of the local troop have the authority to set boundaries, including the determination of whether a Scout is promoting a particular social or political agenda, advocating for a moral view that is inconsistent with the church, or becoming a distraction to the troop, and take such action to enforce set boundaries up to and including removal from the troop;

A similar memorandum of understanding with the Catholic Church could preserve Catholic ties with the Boy Scouts. Same-sex attraction in and of itself has never been a reason to remove a boy from a Catholic Scout troop. If a boy admits privately to a Scout leader that he is suffering from same-sex attractions, realizes it is a disordered inclination, and is seeking to live chastely, the Scout leader is not compelled to remove the boy from the troop. Scouting can offer the compassion and spiritual support needed to help this young man grow in virtue.

On the other hand, with such an MOU, a young man who publicly announces he is gay and who supports and celebrates a gay lifestyle could be seen as promoting a moral view inconsistent with Catholic teaching and be removed from the troop. Without such an official agreement, the revised membership policy would only allow for a boy to be removed if he were engaging in sexual activity, be it homosexual or heterosexual. The dilemma is then defining “sexual activity”. If a Scout holds hands with another boy in a romantic way, is he being sexual? What if he kisses another boy? The agreement BSA forged with the Lutherans cedes the authority for this determination to the local pastor and congregation.

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By making such a concession, the BSA is declaring that there is no institutional definition of sexual morality. This approach is not without precedent. They currently require a belief in God but do not specify exactly what form this belief must take. There are Hindu and Buddhist Scouts and their concept of God is very different than a Judeo-Christian view. BSA leaves the theological formation to the chartering organizations. With this memorandum of understanding, they are taking a similar stance with regards to homosexuality.

There have been no public reports of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting (NCCS) seeking a memorandum of understanding to clarify the rights of Catholic Boy Scout troops to expect all Scouts to act in accordance with Catholic principles. In fact, published statements by the NCCS suggest this organization may not see the need for such an effort. I believe securing a MOU is essential to protecting Catholic scouts and the failure to do so would be a cavalier approach. The NCCS would be trusting that the BSA would support Catholic troops when they face legal challenges to their compliance with the revised membership standards. But the Boy Scouts already violated that trust when they bowed to the pressure of homosexual activists and changed the membership policy to include openly homosexual Scouts. They must repair the breach by formalizing their pledge of respect and support for the rights of Catholic Scouts to operate their troops in accord with Catholic teaching on all issues. Without such an official acknowledgement, current Catholic Scouts have no assurance that in the future they can be both Catholic and Scouts.

This contribution is available at http://www.truthandcharityforum.org/a-way-forward-for-the-boy-scouts-of-america-and-the-catholic-church/
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It's Priceless and It's Free [at warriorsworlddad]

I get them in the mail with some regularity. Sometimes they are postcards, sometimes they’re fancy gold embossed envelopes that contain heavy bonded letters written in calligraphic script. They are invitations to a free lunch or a free dinner. If I invest only 60 minutes of my time, I will learn how to become financially independent.

The pitch is always about the same few come-ons. A multi-level marketing opportunity, a investment strategy, a franchise opportunity. The promise is also always the same, I can become as rich as I want.

Photo attributed to ihatemarchmadness2010

I learned from my mother a long time ago, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is. In fact, if it sounds to good to be true you are better off running away from it. But I have found one opportunity that is definitely worth running towards. It is priceless, even though it is free as far as monetary cost, and it will definitely change your life in a most profound way. That opportunity is Eucharistic Adoration.

As a Catholic I accept the teaching that Jesus is truly and substantially present in the Eucharistic Host. He is more real than I am. He is Truly and Really Present in every tabernacle of the World. Once I accepted that it required some actions on my part. Fortunately for me, Jesus did not wait for me to figure it out, he called and pulled me to Him as I was struggling with the demands of life.

Since then I have made it a practice to at least spend an hour a week in silent prayer in front of the tabernacle. Our church is open Tuesday night for a Holy Hour. It is the best time of the week to refresh and recharge my batteries.

Many Tuesday evenings I am more exhausted than normal and the last thing I want to do is to go to church.  It is almost as if something (or someone) does not want me to go and spend time with Jesus. Every time I feel this way I drag myself to church and at the end of the hour I feel totally refreshed and renewed.

eucharistThe King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, my Messiah, my Savior, my God, is waiting in the tabernacle. Disguised as a wafer of bread, He through Whom the entire Universe was created by the Father, patiently waits for all of us to come and be nourished by His Presence!

The same Jesus who Joseph carried to Egypt, who as a child astounded the Priests in the Temple, who called the Apostles, raised the dead, fed the multitudes, cured the sick, drove out demons, Died and Rose again is now physically present in the nearest Catholic Church.

He is there for us to adore and thank, to apologize to, to beg His help, to complain about our problems or to just spend time with.

We do not have pay an admission fee. We do not have to make an appointment or sneak past a gatekeeper that guard access to the rich and powerful. No! He who is above all simply waits for us to use some of the time He has given us to come on over for a visit.

We hope to join the souls of the just in heaven who are in the presence of Jesus along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We can get a taste of that right now by putting ourselves in front of the nearest tabernacle. It is so much more satisfying than the rubber chicken served at those free dinners and it is an investment that will yield immense benefits.

This contribution is available at http://warriorsworlddad.com/
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Why did God take my baby? (a reflection on miscarriage) [at Peace Garden Mama]

Living Faith: God's role in miscarriage considered [The following column was printed in The Forum newspaper, on Oct. 26 2013. Reprinted with permission.]

In Sunday’s opinion section, the essay, “Surely God plays role in miscarriages,” caught my attention. As both a believer in God and a mother who has experienced miscarriage, I wanted to respond.

The writer was referencing a recent cover article on the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil taking place near the abortion facility downtown. He posed that if the faithful really believe God to be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, then God has taken more lives through miscarriage than humans have through abortion.

The writer seems to assume that believers who have gone through miscarriage wouldn’t have grappled with tough questions, including why God would will their child to die.

Certainly, when we lost our third child in utero, I wondered about God’s role. Since I do believe in God’s omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent qualities, it didn’t make sense to me that God would set a life in motion only to yank it away.

If true, God had just played a cruel joke on our family, as if to say, “Here, I’m giving you this gift” and then, “Oops, just kidding.”

And so during my own grieving and questioning, I returned to what I know most about God, which is that God is the giver of life. Without God, none of us would be here. And I believe that the gift of life in every circumstance – even the imperfect ones – is an infinitely precious thing.

Though we can know much about God, in large part God’s ways remains a mystery. But I don’t plan on turning this into a cop-out. There’s an answer here.

As much as I believe God to be directly and intimately involved in our lives, God also is a God of free will. Like a good parent, God stays near to guide us but without imposing the divine will on us.

While it’s true our good God invented the universe, which we have come to understand partly through science, we also know bad things happen, so how do we make sense of that?

If our God is a God of the good, then it follows that the bad things that happen can be attributed to something other than God. If God allows it, that either means a higher good will come from it or that evil has had its way.

After our miscarriage, I learned my body had been deficient in progesterone. Rather than a sinister God reaching into my womb to take the life growing within, it turns out my body’s lack of a life-sustaining hormone likely prevented my pregnancy from reaching maturity.

Which begs the question, couldn’t God have intervened? I believe so, but I also know now that I wouldn’t have grown in the ways I have from experiencing this loss, and God knew that, too.

I firmly believe that while we wept for loss of the life we’d already begun celebrating, so did God.

Instead of blaming God, I attribute God for helping me see that in losing our third child, Gabriel, we gained a prayer warrior for our family who is already in the place we all hope to go someday. He is leading us home, lighting the way.

After Gabriel’s death we welcomed into our family three more children, all of whom are with us in part due to natural progesterone, which helped assure the lives God set in motion would come to be. If we hadn’t lost Gabriel, none of them would exist. That thought often brings me to my knees in gratitude.

It was painful losing our child, but instead of allowing the loss to become a barrier between myself and God, I drew closer than ever and firmer in my conviction of the sacredness of all life.

This contribution is available at http://roxanesalonen.blogspot.com/2013/10/meaningful-mondays-why-did-god-take-my.html
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I Am Confused. How About You? [at Harvesting The Fruits Of Contemplation]

﻿﻿﻿

((Image from Biblebios.com)

If God used Balaam’s donkey to get that prophet’s attention, I guess he can use me to get yours. May these periodic postings on the second and fourth Mondays of each month (God willing) generate fruitful discussion and faithful change.

From much of what has been written recently, some would have us conclude that the problems with, within the Catholic Church and with how the secular world views the Church are the result of the Church’s obstinate insistence on hammering home one difficult moral principle after another and its failure to make its primary mission the physical, emotional, medical, and social well-being of all those in need.

(Abbey at Genesee)

Correct me if I am wrong. Is it not beyond dispute that most individuals claiming to be Catholic (and certainly most non-Catholics) do not even know the essential Truths of the Catholic Faith or the reason why the Church teaches these Truths?

Is this not the result of poor or non-existent catechesis and tepid preaching rather than the Church’s “obstinate insistence on hammering home difficult moral principles”?  

Is not our Church the largest non-governmental provider of charitable, social and health services in this nation? Has not much of the Church’s effort during the past four decades (at least in this country) focused upon various pressing secular and political issues of our time rather than the salvation of souls?

Have these approaches not led to an erroneous but widespread belief that our eternal salvation is assured?

I think so and I am not alone in thinking that to be the case.

Christ loved. He fed. He healed. He consoled. He forgave. And through Him and in His Name we must do likewise.

Yes, we must be the face and hands of Christ to everyone who crosses our path. We must help our brothers and sisters in need.

But Jesus also taught the Truth - the full, complete, absolute, undiluted, “hard spiritual Truths”. He did so because He was about saving the souls of the men and women He created in His image, not making their temporary journey on this earth carefree and comfortable.

And so must we! - with our mouths and by our actions. Speaking, sharing and teaching the Truth is an act of love.

So I am uncomfortable whenever I hear anyone suggest otherwise and/or speak only of God’s mercy and rarely, if ever, of His Justice.

It is for that reason I urge you to read Monsignor Charles Pope's most recent posting, “Hard Spiritual Truths That Will Set You Free!”

You can find it here.

Nothing is more important than the salvation of souls – ours and the souls of every other human being. Absolutely, nothing!

Are the good Monsignor and I wrong?

This contribution is available at http://harvestingthefruitsofcontemplation.blogspot.com/2013/10/monday-musings-i-am-confused-how-about.html
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These benefits shed like dew from heaven upon us [at Catholic Deacon]

In a passage from his

Operationis in psalmos

, which he wrote between 1519-1521, Martin Luther observed, "For just as, according to Bernard [of Clairvaux], knowledge of self without knowledge of God leads to despair, so knowledge of God without the knowledge of the self leads to presumption." Indeed, this insight, which the reformer gleaned from a sermon by St. Bernard, a Doctor of the Church, is but one demonstration (of many that could be made) of just how much of monastic theology, which is both biblical and humanist (I would argue it is humanist in an authentic way because it is biblical), was preserved by the reformers, who by and large resisted the systematic taxonomy of the scholastics.

In his wonderful book,

Pater Bernhardus: Martin Luther and Bernard of Clairvaux

, which I have been savoring for several months, Franz Posset, commenting on Luther's citation of the Doctor Mellifluous above, wrote, "This monastic mind-set encouraged the search for the knowledge of God and of self and recognized man's nothingness, his need for salvation, and his dependence on God's mercy, all of which are included in the mystery of the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of Christ" (226).

Being increasingly wary of commenting on mysteries that are too great for me, I want to note that Book I of John Calvin's

magnum opus

,

Institutes of the Christian Religion

, is "Knowledge of the Creator." Chapter I of Book One is entitled, "The Knowledge of God and That of Ourselves Are Connected. How They Are Interrelated." Article One of Chapter I is "Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God" and Article Two of Chapter I is "Without knowledge of God there is no knowledge of self." Hence, the first words of the

Institutes

are, "Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and or ourselves." Calvin went on to immediately note-

while joined by many bonds, which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern. In the first place, no one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he "lives and moves" [Acts 17:28]. For, quite clearly, the mighty gifts with which we are endowed are hardly from ourselves; indeed, our very being is nothing but subsistence in the one God. Then, by these benefits shed like dew from heaven upon us, we are led as by rivulets to the spring itself. Indeed, our very poverty better discloses the infinitude of benefits reposing in God

Yesterday the Roman Catholic Church observed the liturgical Memorial of Bl. John Henry Newman, who remains perhaps the most well-known and beloved convert of modern times. Newman, a former priest of the Church of England, was a self-described Evangelical in his youth, having had a profound conversion experience, which occurred in 1816, when he was 15. Mentioning a Rev. Walter Mayers, who was at Pemboke College, Oxford, Newman recalls towards the beginning of the first chapter of his autobiographical

Apologia pro sua vita

, that this man "was the human means of this beginning of divine faith in me." He also mentioned the effect of the books Mayers had him read, "all of which were of the school of Calvin." One of these books, the title of which Newman could not recall while writing his religious memoir, was by an author named Romaine. He remembered that he "received it at once, and believed that the inward conversion of which I was conscious (and of which I still am more certain than that I have hands and feet,) would last into the next life, and that I was elected to eternal glory."

Later in life Newman insisted, "To be steeped in history, is to cease being a Protestant." This may well be true. However, I would insist, even as a Catholic convert (though not from Protestantism) and clergyman myself, that there are those with whom we do not enjoy communion and who are not in the Orthodox Church, or one of the ancient Oriental Churches, who are better described as "Reformed" Christians than as mere "Protestants." We do well, I think, to make this distinction. After all, to follow Christ is not to live one's life as a protest, but as a surrender, as a selfless sacrifice of love best manifested by serving others (

Luke 9:23-27

;

Rom 12:1-2

). Besides, Jesus loves us too much to ever allow us to be smug, especially towards those who also love Him.

This contribution is available at http://scottdodge.blogspot.com/2013/10/these-benefits-shed-like-dew-from.html
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Is Your Marriage Exceptional, Conventional, Shipwrecked or Deadly? [at Can We Cana? A Community to Support Catholic Marriages]

While researching the marriage advice book I'm writing with my husband,

Manuel P. Santos, M.D.

, I started reading Greg Popcak's For Better...Forever!: A Catholic Guide to Lifelong Marriage. Popcak's book asks where your marriage is on the Relationship Pathway: Exceptional, Conventional, Shipwrecked, or Deadly. My husband and I didn't fit perfectly into any of the categories, but it was interesting to see how we measured up. Why don't you try it?

1.  Exceptional Marriages:

At the top of the relationship food chain, these marriages exhibit high longevity and high satisfaction. Exceptional spouses are:

Committed to life-long love.  That's an easy one! Manny and I definitely consider life-long love as one of our top goals, and you probably do, too.

Equally skilled at communication.  Manny has a slight edge on me here. As a lawyer, I'm a pretty good talker, but as a psychiatrist, he's by far the better listener. Fortunately, a lot of educational and professional training programs stress communication. Transferring these skills to your marriage will provide a big boost in satisfaction.

Never doubt the value they bring to the marriage. Here's where my insecurities come roaring to the fore. Intellectually, I know being a stay-at-home mom has great value for our marriage and our kids. But I struggle all the time with feelings of unimportance -- that anyone could do the menial labor which dominates my working hours, and that almost anyone else could do it better. Many Catholic moms are way past me on this one.

2.  Conventional Marriages: These marriages, the most common kind according to Popcak, have moderate longevity and moderate satisfaction. I could definitely see our marriage fitting into this category in some ways, too. Conventional spouses:

Have good communication and relationship skills. Their skills are not great, but not that bad either. Their skills are sufficient to give them a "good-enough marriage of a good-enough Christian."

Have work that's meaningful to them. The husbands usually can provide for more than their family's basic needs. The wives are mostly happy with the work they do, whether it's at the office, in community volunteering activities, or home with the children.

Sometimes value their work more than their family. This is a real temptation today, given how much people identify with "what they do." Materialism can also cause people to place a higher value on time spent earning money than time spent with family. Dissatisfaction may drive these spouses to seek deeper answers. To grow, these couples need to invest more time in the marriage and in helping each other to achieve their highest calling.

3. Shipwrecked Marriages: These marriages are only quasi-healthy, but can recover with help. Spouses have often suffered from deep traumas in their lives prior to getting married. I recognize some of these characteristics in people I know. Maybe you do, too. Shipwrecked spouses:

Value economic security and a stable family life more than anything else. Men may be workaholics, and even functional alcoholics. Women are often dutiful and lonely, but may act out their unhappiness in compulsive shopping binges. The couple at best pays lip service to a system of religious beliefs.

Don't argue because they don't communicate. These couples will do anything to keep the peace, even sacrifice a chance at growing closer and understanding each other better.

May be more attached to their kids than each other. In the past, Popcak says, these couples might stay together because of a societal taboo against divorce and for the sake of the children. Nowadays, many of these marriages will end unless the spouses learn to look past their immediate needs and focus on bettering themselves as individuals and as a couple, often through therapy.

4. Deadly Marriages: According to Popcak, this is the only category of marriages in which divorce may actually be the better course. Sad to say, I've seen this type of marriage also. These spouses:

Seriously abuse drugs and alcohol. Domestic abuse and a violent home atmosphere are common.

Have little or no work ethic. They can't get a job or hold a job. They don't care about their work and rarely set goals for themselves.

Don't expect even the basics of life. With this criteria, Popcak limits these marriages to a lower socioeconomic level. 

Popcak cautions against canonizing yourself and demonizing your spouse -- don't assume you're an exceptional spouse while relegating your spouse to the deadly category. He even asserts that most people in your social circle have marriages in the same category as your own. But, in my experience, the lines are more blurred than Popcak implies. Problems like alcoholism and domestic abuse cut across socioeconomic categories. Mental illness can impact anyone, regardless of how good a communicator they are, how advanced their professional life is, or even how often they pray and visit the sacraments. Severe traumas like sudden job loss, chronic illness, and grief over miscarriages or past abortions can threaten to shipwreck any individual and therefore any relationship. So, in my opinion, Popcak's categories aren't perfect. But they help to identify the bright spots, the danger zones, and the room for improvement in almost any marriage.

Do you recognize any of these characteristics in your own marriage or the marriages of people you know? Do you think Popcak's categories provide a helpful way of evaluating a marriage? Please let us know in the comments!

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The Breast-feeding Mother of God [at walk the way]

Today is the feast of Our Lady of La Leche. Though it is not celebrated many places in the world, it commemorates the first shrine of Mary in what is now the US, in Saint Augustine, Florida.

This past February in Italy I saw several images of Mary breastfeeding, which might surprise some people in the US where breastfeeding in public is often frowned upon. It some places breastfeeding mothers have been hassled.

Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome

But I was prepared for these images because public breastfeeding is common here. I am not surprised to see mothers in catechists’ training sessions or at Mass.

About two years ago Fr. Jon Seda, the pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames, was visiting Dulce Nombre and concelebrated a Saturday morning Mass, which included two weddings.

During the Mass, one of the brides in a bridal gown turned to her mother who handed her a baby. She proceeded to nurse the baby during the Mass. Father Jon was astounded.

The image of Mary breastfeeding Jesus is a reminder that Jesus is fully human; He is God made flesh.

Icon from Crete, 16th century

It is so easy to forget this, to make Jesus a god masquerading as a human being.

But he was like us, in all things but sin, as St. Paul puts it.

And so when you see a woman breast-feeding a child, think of Jesus and Mary.

Think of the tenderness of God who is our brother.

Think of Mary, the poor young woman of Nazareth, who fed God!

And rejoice that God nourishes us with love.

Duomo Museum, Florence

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Evangelization by Sequins [at New Evangelizers]

I called her The-Lady-Who-Sits-in-the-Pew-in-Front-of-Us.  She was there every Sunday at the 10:15 a.m. Mass, about eight rows from the altar on the pulpit side of the church.  Whether I ever saw her face I can’t recall.

What I do remember, and with great clarity, is her hat.  Its color was a sort of gray-yellow-brown hybrid that today’s Etsy merchants might call ecru, but which at the time reminded me of soft cheese mold.  The really interesting thing about that hat was the panoply of matching ecru sequins that dangled from it: nickel-sized discs that would make the slightest clicking noise whenever the hat-wearer bent her head in prayer.

That was around 1968.  All through that long-ago winter, the sequined hat of T-L-W-S-I-T-P-I-F-O-U was a reliable marker of my family’s place in church.  My little brother, who was too young to count pews, would just head for the glinting discs when my mother, late as usual, hurried us into church during the Epistle.

After our quarter-mile walk through winter weather, the hardwood pew was as inviting as a hearthside.  There, after completing our weekly shuffle of glove-peeling and hat-doffing, my brother and I would be hastily placed in reverent postures by maternal hands.

Once settled, I knew that I would be free to indulge my senses without interruption until the Concluding Rite.  I would listen blissfully to the church sounds:  the voice of the priest echoing in the cavernous church, the click of rosary beads, the hiss of dwindling candles, the clink of coins in the collection basket.  I would smell the lingering incense, the melting wax, the wet wool of my coat, my mother’s Sunday perfume.

And I would watch the light shimmer, dance, and wink on the ecru sequins in front of me.  In those moments, the world was as perfect a place as I could imagine.  There was comfort, light, security, and warmth.  My family was with me, and God was there.  Right there.

Now, forty-five years later, my children tease me about my fascination with sequins.  Whenever we’re in a craft store, I will pick up a packet of sequins and turn it this way and that, watching the light play on the smooth, shiny shapes.  Fingering sequins transports me to a time and place that’s warm and secure, that smells good, and that dates back almost half a century.

It’s easy to see how sequins and church-going might be linked in my own mind.  It’s harder to see why New Evangelists should care.

Consider this: What if parents made an effort to create certain associations for their children; for example, during family Rosary?  Suppose that Mom always nursed or cuddled the baby at that time?  Or that an uber busy father could give his family only one hour, and chose to spend some of it saying the Rosary with them?  Or that family Rosary was routinely prayed in an area of the home that was lovingly prepared for that purpose?

Would that baby grow to associate the Rosary prayers with comfort and maternal love?  Would the children, when they became adults, remember the closeness of Dad when praying the Rosary with their own kids?  And would the recitation of the Rosary bring back memories of a bright candle burning before a lovely Madonna in a cozy room?

It breaks my heart to say that one of my sons has become an atheist.  Another has begun to turn away from the Faith.   Although neither of these young men will actually recite the Rosary prayers, they are both attracted by the warmth and the sense of togetherness that arises when we pray the Rosary as a family.  I like to think that, in their earliest years, my sons formed happy associations with Catholic family life; associations that time and circumstance cannot break.

Fond memories and sentiment may not be standard-issue in the evangelizer’s toolkit, but they can certainly soften hearts, thus making them more open to receiving – or, in my sons’ case, accepting — the Gospel.   After all, God can use all things to the good.

Even sequins.

Copyright © 2013, Celeste Behe

Celeste Behe

Celeste Behe is a storyteller and sometime humorist who, according to one book author, "writes like Garrison Keillor would, if he were Catholic and had nine kids." She is also a contributor to Faith & Family magazine, the National Catholic Register, and the Integrated Catholic Life, and she blogs at A Perpetual Jubilee. As a designated Toastmaster, Celeste entertains audiences with both nostalgic tales of her childhood in the Bronx, and modern-day tales of adventure that could only be told by the mother of nine. Celeste's memoir--cum-cookbook, Nine Kids, No Dishwasher: A Celebration of Life, Love, and Table, is a work in progress.

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Negation and Running [at One Arrow Alone]

In mid-October, a discussion evening took place, attended by five seminarians and eight others of varying backgrounds and religious beliefs. The topic was the origin and development of man, whether Darwinian evolutionary theory offered the best explanation for it. Like most Catholics, I’m not an opponent of physical evolution

per se

(Pope John Paul II called it ‘more than a hypothesis’), but I do think that the breakthrough of humanity is not adequately explained by Darwinism. The minor differences in DNA between humans and chimpanzees do not account for the vast difference in rational capacities.

In the course of the discussion, I brought up a point that has fascinated me for some time: negation. This seems to be a phenomenon beyond the reach of animals. They have signals to indicate that something is edible or dangerous, but they cannot express that something is ‘not-dangerous’.

The point was missed by people who argued that animals were quite capable of designating something as not dangerous, or indicating that they themselves posed no threat. The point is that animals have no negative particles or prefixes. The debaters seemed to think this a matter purely of symbolic conventions, but I think it goes deeper than that. Human reason is capable of understanding that something can be or not be: this is pure abstraction. They understand that a thing can have properties or lack them – which is different from the manipulation of the properties of things, which animals do every day.

Animals make boundaries for their territories, but only man can conceive the un-bounded, the in-finite. Man reaches up to God not only through his imagination or his memory (remembering divine interventions, supposed or real), but also very powerfully through his capacity of negation.

This capacity is powerfully exercised by anyone who reads the

Summa theologiae

, First Part, Questions 3-13, with comprehension. For me, a time of sustained wonderment, a revelation – with the emphasis on ‘revel’.

On Saturday, I went running with a priest in his forties and a younger friend of his. We started at 6.30am with a cup of coffee, then ran just over 8 km (5 miles) in 50 minutes, not without conversation.

The priest in question found it difficult to remain hopeful about the Church’s future. Whole dioceses were being reorganized, but very little was done to bring lost sheep back into the fold. There were (almost) no vocations, and the priests whom he had seen coming out of seminary were remarkably unproductive and stressed out after five or ten years. He had hoped that the new generation of priests would forge a new connection with the youth, because the young, including young priests, are naturally approachable and non-threatening (oh our capacity for negation!). Besides, they were the peers of the youth, they came out of the same world.

(I thought: me, out of the same world as today’s youth? Really? Of the seminarians who actually were in touch with youth culture, almost all were dismissed or ran into problems towards the end of their studies. On the plus side, the sole survivor is from my diocese. But this might not have cheered the priest, who ministers to another region.)

Part of the problem he blamed on seminary formation. We were still being prepared for an orderly situation, for parishes as they existed a few decades ago. Instead of learning to administer the sacraments and preach the Gospel to ever-dwindling communities, much more focus should be on establishing relationships (of the ‘mustard seed’ type: no poorly-disguised, result-oriented ‘conversion projects’, but actual friendships). Our missionary drive, though patient, should be urgent.

He gave me food for thought, and for breakfast he baked us an egg. When I got up to make tea, my legs hurt. I limped for the rest of the day. Next week I might go again, but pay more attention to the cooling-down.

Physical exercise is actually good for the spirit. It gives one renewed vigour.

Later in the day I went to Confession. Also known as the Sacrament of Truth. The truth makes us free indeed.

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Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of Prayer

Out of the 35 Doctors of the Church, today’s Doctor has to be in the top 5, if such a list even existed. Why would this Doctor be in the Top 5? Simply, in my humble opinion, because she is the Doctor of Prayer. Although the other 34 Doctors mention prayer, today’s Doctor has some of the greatest writings about “our simple conversation with God.” She would say, people who don’t pray are like people who don’t use their hands or feet. For excerpts on some of her teachings, please see the complementary post, The Words of Saint Teresa of Avila. 

Saint Teresa was born on March 28, 1515 near Avila in Castile. At a very young age, she loved reading about the Lives of the Saints, with her younger brother. They both loved the martyrs so much that they left in secret at the young age of seven to enter the land of the Moors, in the hopes to die for Jesus Christ. However, before they could get there, their uncle met them and he brought them home to their very upset mother.

After being reprimanded by their mother for what they did, they then tried to build hermitages in their backyard made of stone. Teresa had a longing to be in solicitude with Our Lord and would often reflect on the image of the Samaritan Woman at The Well with Jesus. She often say, “Lord, give me of that water that I may not thirst.”

After her mother died when she was fourteen, Teresa was sent by her father to an Augustinian convent to be educated with girls her own age, however, she had to be taken out after only 1 ½ years due to an illness. Not being home long, Teresa went to her father and told him that she was thinking about becoming a nun. He refused immediately. So she secretly left and entered the convent of the Incarnation of the Carmelite Nuns in Avila.

At the age of 21, at the point of her profession, she became very sick with malignant malaria. Her father came again, removed her, and placed her in the care of doctors who made her illness worse and eventually gave up on her. Faced with this great suffering, Teresa began to pray and to pray hard.  Her uncle, a devout man of God, gave her the book, Third Spiritual Alphabet. She engaged in mental prayer, but did not make great progress since she lacked a spiritual director. After three years of severe suffering, she regained her health.

At the death of her father, his confessor, a Dominican friar, warned her that her prayer life was truly lacking and needed to be rediscovered. Instantly, she returned to her prayer life and would never abandon it again. She began devotions to two of the great penitent saints – St. Mary Magdalene and St. Augustine. She removed herself from the social world focusing on deep quiet prayer, which brought her joy and love. On different occasions, she had encounters with Our Lord, but fearing what these meant, kept them in secret. Eventually through the suggestion of a dear friend, the one she claimed brought her salvation and comfort, she spoke with a Jesuit priest. He told her that her interior life was not correctly founded and although her prayer experiences were valid and from God, she should ignore them for two months. She could not resist them!

After speaking with a variety of other spiritual directors, who all claimed that her experiences were from God, she fell into a rapture after saying the Veni Creator Spiritus one day. She heard a voice say, “I will not have you hold conversation with men, but with angels.” Her sufferings and persecutions continued while she remained in deep prayer and seclusion. The Heavenly conversations purified her soul and gave her a humble heart. She often was caught into raptures. She experienced spiritual espousals, mystical marriages, and a piercing of her heart.

Bernini’s – Ecstasy of St. Teresa

During these many years, as she founded the reformed Carmelite convents, she wrote one of her greatest writings, the Interior Castle, a text written for the instruction of the Church. She also wrote the Way of Perfection for the direction of her nuns, which was accompanied by Foundations, a book of encouragement for her nuns.

After being a Carmelite Nun for nearly twenty-five years, St. Teresa took on her greatest challenge yet. The Carmelites had lost their great austerity and enthusiasm by the early 16th century. Many of the nuns entered the convent for a relaxed life. They did not live up to their professions and were often found socializing with the townspeople instead of praying or doing their daily work.

Although her movement to reform the Carmelite Order was approved by Church officials, she was met with violent opposition from her fellow nuns, the nobility, the magistrates, and the people of Avila. She was constantly encouraged by a Dominican friar to take on this gut-wrenching endeavor, since it needed to be done! Along with her married sister, Dona Juana de Ahumada and her husband, they began to build a new convent in Avila in 1561. Rome approved of the new house and through the authority of the Bishop, the house was set-up under the name of St. Joseph, Mass was celebrated, and three new nuns entered the Discalced Carmelites.

Life was very strict for the new nuns. There was nearly perpetual silence and a very austere and poverty stricken way of life. Since the new order did not have a lot of revenue, the nuns wore habits of coarse serge, sandals instead of shoes (why they are known as “discalced”), and were bound to perpetual abstinence. For the first five years, St. Teresa could only take on 13 nuns.

In 1567, John Baptist Rossi, the prior general of the Carmelites came to Avila. He was impressed so much with the reforms St. Teresa made, even though he was not informed of the creation of St. Joseph’s convent, he charged her to reform other Carmelite convents across Spain as well as to reform two Carmelite friaries in Castile.

St John of the CrossWhile traveling at Medina del Campo in Toledo, she met two Carmelite friars; both were very open to her reforms of the order. They were Antony-of-Jesus (de Heredia) and John Yepes, who would become St. John-of-the-Cross. In 1568-1569, St. Teresa founded two convents for men, both in extreme poverty and austerity. She left St. John-of-the-Cross in charge of the male convents.

At this time in the Church, Pope St. Pius V sent out apostolic visitors to look upon the religious orders Rome felt needed to be reformed because of their lax lifestyles. After the Dominican, Peter Fernandez, visited the Carmelites at Castile (St. Teresa’s original convent) and found great disorder there, he sent for Teresa and made her prioress. Many of the nuns disobeyed her and some went into hysterics when she told them what they needed to do. She told them she was there to serve them, but could not coerce them.

The prior general who charged St. Teresa to make the necessary reforms now supported the objectors. St. Teresa was told to choose one of her convents where she would reside no longer establishing or reforming other convents. St. John-of-the-Cross was imprisoned in a monastery by his Carmelite Brothers, but eventually escaped out a window. Eventually, after some Church officials were replaced, the reform of the Carmelites continued with great zeal and fruit.

Saint Teresa of Avila received many great talents from God. She had a calm and beautiful personality that resounded from the tenderness of her heart. She had a great understanding of people and how they interacted with one another. She had a mature wit and intelligence that was known by many.  When choosing novices for her convents, she wanted them first to have intelligence and good judgment. Although piety was important, she believed that could be trained.

St. Teresa found 17 Discalced Carmelite convents. At the end of her life, she chose to return to Avila, but never made it back because a friend who was a Duchess wanted her to visit. Arriving at the Duchess’ home, ill nourished and sick, St. Teresa knew the hour of her death was upon her.

St. Teresa of Avila 3On October 4, 1582, in the arms of Blessed Anne-of-St-Bartholomew, Saint Teresa Avila entered Eternal glory. In 1622, Pope Gregory XV canonized her a Saint of the Church. In 1970, Pope Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church.

Sources:

Walsh, Michael, Butler’s Lives of the Saints. HarperSanFrancisco, 1991

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Byzantine Catholic Priest: the Homilies of Father J. Michael Venditti

12:07 PM 10/21/2013 — The Gospel Book from which I read uses what is probably the most common translation of the Scriptures in use among Catholics in our country, called the New American Bible. In the Latin Church, it is the only translation allowed in public worship—our Church, thankfully, has no such regulation. As you know, there are a plethora of translations of the Bible into English; some are better than others. The New American Bible makes an attempt to translate the Scriptures into common American English, which is fine; but, every once in a while you come across a subtlety in the original Greek or Hebrew which is lost in the attempt. Case in point: the opening verse of this passage we just heard, the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. What we heard was that the a rich man had a certain beggar laying at his gate. What it actually says, in fact, is “a certain beggar εβέβλητο...had been laid at his gate,” which implies that the beggar didn’t just show up one day; somebody put him there deliberately; and there was nothing the rich man could do about it; which, when you think about it, is crucial to understanding the meaning of the passage.
     The rich man, like most rich people, has used his wealth to isolate himself from what is ugly in the world around him, as rich people often do. But it doesn’t work, because the beggar, Lazarus, "had been laid at his gate" as our Lord puts it. Which puts the rich man in an awkward position; because, now, in order to continue to isolate himself, he has to pretend that Lazarus isn’t there;—he has to literally step over him as whenever he walks into his house—he has to ignore him, which he does, for which he ends up paying the penalty by being sent to hell.
     Now, there are two points that are worth noticing here: first, the obvious fact that the rich man’s retribution, and consequently Lazarus’ reward, do not come in this life; they come in the next, when Lazarus is sent to heaven and the Rich Man goes to hell. It’s an important point to keep in mind, especially when we run into people who are having a hard time and who say, “I lived a good life; why is God letting this happen?”
     But what’s really remarkable—to me, anyway—is that, having had this explained to him, the Rich Man lapses into a fit of charity: in the midst of this unbearable torment, brought on, of course, by his own neglect, the Rich Man wants to spare his brothers, who are also rich, from the same fate. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus to them, so they can be warned to change their ways before it’s too late. It seems—on the surface, anyway—to be an extremely magnanimous gesture; and it occurs to us, I think, that Abraham should look favorably on such a request. After all, it’s probably the first time in this Rich Man’s existence that he’s thought of the needs of others rather than his own. But Abraham rejects the idea. He tells the Rich Man that, even for his brothers, it’s too late. And the reason we should find that so sobering is because his brothers are not yet dead. Presumably they still have a chance to change their ways; but they are not to be permitted this warning.
     It seems so unfair, but then Abraham explains why: they have Moses, they have the prophets, they have the Scriptures; they need nothing else. Everything they need to learn what they must do to be saved has already been provided. If they choose not to heed it, it is their own choice and their own fault. It’s a hard position for Abraham to take, but it’s a just position.
     Why were the writings of Moses and the Prophets not enough to teach these men how to live in order to be saved? Well, one reason may be because, even by our Lord’s time, the books of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament were already a thousand years old. Everyone was familiar with them;—they were read regularly as part of the synagogue service—and maybe that was the problem. They had become ritualized. Just like the gospel is for us. Father chants the words of our Divine Savior and we sing in response; but how often do we pause to listen to what is being sung, to hear what those words are trying to tell us? It’s not as if the gospels are written in some kind of peculiar code which we need a theologian to decipher. Our Lord’s lessons in these parables are too often painfully clear. It’s just that we don’t listen. Just like the Rich Man didn’t listen, just like his bothers didn’t listen...until it was too late. And then we run the risk of having one of those head-slapping moments wherein we say, “Oh, you mean I was supposed to actually apply that to my own life?! Who would have thought?”
     There is a second point about this parable, as I said, to which I would draw your attention; and it’s a point that’s made by St. Cyril of Alexandria in his commentary on Luke’s gospel. He points out the fact that the Rich Man is never named by Jesus in the parable, he simply calls him “a rich man”; but the poor man he mentions by name. Why? Because the Rich Man, lacking in compassion and being totally unconcerned about the state of his soul, was nameless in God’s presence. And then he quotes Psalm 15, verse 4, in which God says, concerning those who do not fear him, “I will not make mention of their names with My Lips.” It’s a chilling statement about the harshness and finality of God’s judgment.
     It is so easy for us, Sunday after Sunday, to come to church, sing the songs, say the prayers and go home to all the other “important” things that occupy our lives, having fulfilled our obligation to go to church for another week. If it’s going to be more than that, as I think we all agree it should be, then that’s an adjustment that has to be made by each one of us in our own hearts. It’s not up the priest to inspire us, although if we have a priest that does that for us it’s helpful; but ultimately it’s up to each one of us to decide what we’re doing when we’re here: what we’re thinking about, what we’re praying about, whether we are truly listening to what’s being sung and said and examining our lives in light of it. No one is responsible for doing that for us. As Cardinal Newman once said, “I can no more think with thoughts not my own than I can breath with lungs not my own, nor can I pray with words not my own.” Everything that we need to be inspired and consoled, to be sanctified and saved has been provided to us by Christ through his Church. What we do with it is entirely up to us.

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A Gathering of Like Minded People [at Quiet Consecration]

I spent last weekend in a gathering of like minded and similarly afflicted people and by Sunday I was exhausted. It was joyful, maddening, fun, slightly hysterical and flat our invigorating. These people, from various backgrounds and traditions, gather together as members of a 12 Step program, eager to combat the disease that strikes without any regard to race, religion, social status or education.

I have been an active member of this program for 21 years (my sobriety date is May 4, 1992. It is not the day I stopped; rather it is the day I first went 24 hours without a drink of alcohol, a line of cocaine, some marijuana and maybe a pill or two of various colors and configurations. In other words, it is my first SOBER day). I have been back in the arms of Holy Mother Church for at least 19 of those years. I have never been able to turn away from either one; however, I have a keen sense of the necessity to bifurcate the two. One is for my eternal salvation and the other makes my participation in my eternal salvation possible. One will help me avoid eternity in Hell. The other keeps the door shut on that place while I am still walking around on earth.

It is sad that so many people who suffer from the disease of alcoholism cannot find a home in my 12 step program. However, our literature is very specific regarding our place in the world of recovery. We are NOT the only game in town. There are people who cannot stomach the idea of praying to God, even a God so loosely defined as 'a god of your own understanding'. It is just too much for them. There are others who cannot stand the idea of anyone speaking about God as someone other than Jesus Christ or the God of the Holy Trinity. I understand that but have been able to make room in my heart for those who need to give Him another name. I figure it is up to Him to touch their hearts and if the man who once got drunk and tried to have sex with 14 year old prostitutes doesn't do that any more and says a morning prayer to Harold, then who am I to argue with him (unless, of course, he asks me at which point all bets are off. I am, after all, a Dominican).

What I will never understand, however, is why so many of our shining lights want to make vice the thing they are promoting, rather than promoting a life based on love and sound moral judgement. Why make the icky stuff you are doing seem so damn funny? It isn't - and personally, I think one of the biggest mistakes we make is not saying to the newcomer. "This is how we strive to live our lives - and while we may fall occasionally, we do not regard those falls as the highlights...we talk about them with regret. We say we did wrong and we apologize and we try to go forward but even if they SOUND funny? They are NOT funny".

That being said, it is understandable that human beings will try and make sin attractive. Look, I have done it myself. It is called concupiscence and I am just as much a Fallen creature as the next guy.

I think my improvement comes from being able to recognize it faster, to be able to stop my thoughts from going too far down the path of sin and regret and to be able to hold my actions in check. The worse that happens for me is I cry in frustration or feel sort of bad.

I do have a reputation as a crier.

Which is fine. I could have a reputation as a puncher.

The most difficult part of dealing with human beings, for me, is the ones who seem to have no regard for the protection and care of those around them. They prey on newcomers and take advantage of them. They can be male or female, it does not matter. What I see is inappropriate behavior and it bugs the bejeeeezuz out of me.

However, and I mean this in all sincerity, I understand how simple it sounds to say to someone, "Keep your hands to yourself, buddy boy. She is only 60 days sober". Sometimes the heart and will are very strong and I hope to GOD I do not become one of those Bleeding Deacons who want people who make an error in judgement sentenced to 12 Step Prison. I have made pretty dumb mistakes in my own past and no one has ever said to me, "That's it for you - you are out of here".

The difference is, I think, that the people I hung with in early sobriety made my 'repentance' (for want of a better word) an intricate part of my life. If I wanted to stay, and grown, I would acknowledge my error, make the appropriate amends and then STOP DOING IT.

I have to tell you all, it was a fantastic weekend. I loved every minute of it. I loved that my weekend included another 49r win and ended with Holy Mass.

I am so grateful to be sober, to be human and to be Catholic Out Loud!

This contribution is available at http://quietconsecration.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-gathering-of-like-minded-people.html
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With the Saints, Standing [at bukas palad]

All Saints  Solemnity

Readings: Revelation 7.2-4,9-14 /Responsorial Pslam 24 (R/v  6) /1 John 3.1-3 / 

Matthew 5.1-12a

"The Christian vocation is to stand before God as we are." 

These words by Edith Stein, 

philosopher, Carmelite nun, Holocaust victim, saint,

have been in my thoughts and prayers as I prepared 

for our celebration of All Saints.

Today, with the Church Universal we thank and worship God 

for the gift of saints in our lives. 

Saints who are standing with God in heaven, 

saints whom we stand with to acclaim together

that salvation comes from God and from Jesus 

as we heard in our first reading.

An experience I had of standing in the good company of the saints

was when I stood in the middle of the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels 

in Los Angeles one hot summer afternoon four years ago.

There we stood in the nave, my Jesuit companions and I, 

amidst the tapestries lining its walls,

tapestries which tried to express  in limited human ways

what the communion of saints is.

Saints young and old, saints male and female, 

saints of every tongue and colour, 

of every historical age and every geographical space.

Saints from the beginnings of our faith 

to more recent saints of our lifetime.

There we stood between these tapestries, 

stood amidst the communion of saints, 

standing together with them, standing before God.

Let me offer three thoughts about standing 

in the good company of the saints we celebrate today 

for our prayer and our life.

First, standing amongst the saints.

Our Christian faith reminds us 

that we are part of the communion of saints.

Our creed and teachings, our worship and ministry tell us so.

The saints surround us. 

They inspire us with their life and faith, their prayer and service. 

They come to our aid in our intercession

and they intercede for us through our devotion.

More significantly, the saints show us how to walk towards our salvation better

because they have walked ahead of us 

on the road of life and faith towards God.

Indeed, with the saints we can stand strong in our faith 

for they will guide us towards the fullness of life in God.

Second,standing beside the saints.

Our Christian hope is that we will all one day join the saints 

to feast at heavenly banquet 

where each of us, saint and sinner alike, will have a place.

The saints along the nave in the cathedral all face the altar. 

The faithful standing in the pews in the cathedral all face the altar.

Together, our faces are turn to this space 

where we hope in our belief and we express through our liturgy 

that God’s word and God’s bread will nourish us, will make us whole.

Indeed, by standing beside the saints

we can imitate that one proper posture they model for us: 

which is this: to lean into each moment, into each future, 

with our whole being, and there find God in all things,

a posture,  our psalmist today describes, as longing to see the Lord’s face.

Then, as we do this now, do this here before the altar,

we might recognize better recognize 

that we already being fed, already being transfigured, 

as they were once, to become more and more the Body of Christ,

not in spite but because of our sinfulness, our weaknesses, our faults. 

Then, standing beside them, we will also learn again and again 

how they faithfully, fully and joyfully lived the Beatitudes 

Jesus teaches us once again today. 

And then we might rightfully claim that our lives are meant for sainthood too.

Indeed, with the saints we can stand firm in our hope 

for they show us how to live our Christian faith well.

Third, standing in for the Saints.

Christian love is love when it is expressed in deeds.

Jesus lived this way of loving to and on the Cross. 

The saints imitated Jesus’ way of loving 

in their lives, their prayer, their service for others. 

We too are called to this way of loving. 

In the saints who inspire us to live like them, 

we have the way to become saintly ,

and the way to stand in for the saints in each other’s lives. 

We know what this looks like; 

we are all recipients of another’s goodness, another’s saintly actions 

whether on at home, or here in school, or even on the street. 

Indeed, with the saints we can stand up for love,

stand up for the value of Jesus’ way of loving.

The saints knew this as the way to evangelization,

as well as the way to their perfection and salvation,

even as they struggled, like we do, with selfishness, greediness, indifference.

With them, we learn we can give love 

because we have first receive it through another’s saintly action.

And with them, we learn to grow in holiness for our redemption.

Ultimately, what we celebrate today is 

that the saints, once on earth, and now in heaven, 

have always stood before God with the certain, grace-filled knowledge  

that they are God’s beloved, as John teaches in his letter.

They recognized and embraced this good news

to make the long journey towards sainthood all are called to. 

Shall we, then, sisters and brothers, 

not only celebrate this blessed example the saints give us

but choose again today to stand more honestly before God

who desires us to one day stand with the saints,

praising God’s good self for loving us into sainthood too?

Preached at The School of Theology and Ministry, Boston College, Boston

photo: interior of the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, from www.discoverlosangeles.com

This contribution is available at http://bukas-palad.blogspot.com/2013/11/homily-with-saints-standing.html
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Tony asked me very nicely to comment here in the blogsphere in response to

this article

. Here you go. My comments are in bold. As a little preview, the author attempts to argue that feminism is fundamentally about acting on a marxist-inspired critique of the natural family and that as such it is at odds with Christianity; I think the former premise is totally incorrect. Enjoy.

this is what a feminist looks like. taken by my son.

Is Feminism a Heresy?

The following essay first appeared in Disorientation: How to Go to College Without Losing Your Mind, ed., John Zmirak. It is reprinted with permission of the publisher.

…

Some highly reputable Catholics call themselves “pro-life feminists,” and maintain that Feminism, if it could be purged of its attachment to abortion on demand, would be fundamentally good and compatible with the Faith.

Correct… because feminism is about fighting (drawing attention to, resisting, contemplating and weaving alternatives to) dominant misogynistic structures; it is not limited to any one issue, and embraces feminists of many different ethical perspectives, who believe in different theories of the origins of oppression, and with different motivations for identifying as “feminist”.Test Yourself: Are You a Feminist?

… Nevertheless, most of us in the West have, often unwittingly, absorbed feminist premises that involve a wholesale re-evaluation of human nature and family life, and are in many respects incompatible with Christianity.

At its core, Feminism teaches that:

I object to this wording… please provide references to this nonexistent “Feminism” in whose mouth you are putting words if you want me to take you seriously…

Men and women tend to behave differently because of social conditioning, not because there are innate biological and psychological differences between them.

The chief reason women have been less often represented in the first ranks of public achievement in scholarship, the arts, politics, and war, is that in every human society of which we have evidence, throughout all of recorded history, they were repressed by a patriarchal power structure maintained through force and indoctrination.

Because large numbers of children in a family constitute both a barrier to the advancement of women and a threat to our ecology, small families should be the cultural norm.

It is unjust that the consequences of sexual behavior are biologically unequal for men and women. As much as possible, those consequences must be equalized through medical technology and reformed cultural attitudes.

To find meaning in their lives, women should look first to their careers, rather than to their role as lifegivers, culture bearers, nurturers, and educators of the next generation of human beings.

Women who regard themselves as mothers first are wasting their education and smothering their talents by staying home to raise their children.

I will simply say that not all feminists believe these things or consider them fundamental to their feminist worldview. The onus of proof is, I think, on the writer originally making the claim…

…

Our purpose here is not only to define Feminism but also to determine whether being a feminist is compatible with being a Christian. In any such assessment, an ideology must be judged by its “body count.” We need not argue political theory with proponents of National Socialism; we can simply point to the Holocaust.

Wrong. National Socialism, as a series or system of proposed truth-statements, can and must be judged on the truth value of its propositions. National Socialism would be wrong whether or not it had killed anybody. It is hard to take an author seriously when so early in her piece she apparently washes her hands of academic and human obligation to engage with truth and logic.

…

Feminism’s Marxist Roots

…

Where did feminists get the idea that family life needed a “revolution”? From those specialists in revolution, the Marxists (see Chapter 13). In his 1884 treatise,

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,

Karl Marx’s best friend and co-author, Frederich Engels, asserted that the “bourgeois” family with its division of labor—men working, women raising children—was one of the greatest obstacles to the achievement of a socialist society. Engels argued that this barrier should be dismantled by encouraging women to see themselves as an oppressed class, like exploited factory workers, who must engage in Marxist “class warfare” against their fathers and husbands. Of course, “class warfare” in the workplace has been condemned by numerous popes, including Leo XIII and Pius XI.

[ii] Applying that socialist principle to the intimate relations of the family is even more destructive: women who accept such a principle cease to see the family as a unit joined by common goals, and instead feel morally justified in seeking their own selfish interests—at the expense not just of their husbands but of their children

. If a woman’s own children can be her enemies, it is no wonder that feminists came to endorse first contraception and then abortion as central requirements for the progress of women in society.

I don’t think feminists need to feel, or generally even do feel, as though their husbands or partners are the enemy. I think generally that women who identify as feminists are likely to seek partners whose worldview is supportive; with whom a real and fruitful, mutually supportive partnership can be sustained. I do not feel oppressed by my husband. Further, in the age of contraception or NFP, depending on where you fall on the spectrum, generally educated women in stable partnerships conceive children intentionally. I do not perceive my son as an enemy; he is the light of my life, my greatest earthly blessing. I object to the phrase “seeking their own selfish interests” as such without it being qualified – painting women with a brush that makes the pursuit of their interests and passions seem ugly or sinful is not okay unless that brush is used equally for her husband and children, which it is not in this article. I do think NFP is a central requirement for the progress of women in society.From Class Struggle to Contraception

It is true, as “pro-life feminists” like to say, that early feminists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton accepted the belief, common in their era, that abortion is a barbaric crime committed by selfish men against women victims. Most nineteenth century suffragists thought that women voters, with their presumably nobler morality, would heal a world wounded by male selfishness. But their fundamental premise—that women were an oppressed social class, a “domestic proletariat”— eventually eroded the wholesome social principles they had inherited from a deeply Christian society

(?)

. …

…

 A libertarian might suppose Feminism to be merely a strategy to give women more options, enabling those not called to motherhood to achieve other highly valued positions in society. Alas, no. For women who don’t embrace their agenda, feminists tend to advocate coercion instead of liberty. Simone de Beauvoir, author of the pioneering feminist work

The Second Sex

, admitted as much in 1975:

[A]s long as the family and the myth of the family and the myth of maternity and the maternal instinct are not destroyed, women will still be oppressed…. No woman should be authorized to stay at home and raise her children. Society should be totally different. Women should not have that choice, precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one. It is a way of forcing women in a certain direction.

[iv]I suppose I should rouse myself from my irritation-turned-inertia to point out that not all feminists must or do believe that second wave feminist writers such as de Beauvoir were correct in their analysis and their proposals.  I think de Beauvoir was totally wrong… and I am not the only feminist who thinks so.The Catholic Alternative

In contrast to the bleak vision of family life held by feminists, the Church has always taught that the family, not the individual, is the basic unit of society. Children are gifts from God, to be cherished in love and educated for life in Christ, and a just society must ensure that a mother has adequate means to stay home with her children, doing that irreplaceable work.

First of all, we see here the first strands of turning a very short period in history in a particular part of the world into “the ideal just Christian society”, which I don’t buy. We are pilgrims on this fallen earth, and there are many ways we can structure our socioeconomic lives that are compatible with Christ’s Lordship in our lives.

Because of this, as Leo XIII and Pius XI wrote with papal authority,

[v]

a working man has a right in justice to a living wage—that is, a salary that can support his family in decent comfort. Indeed, as Allan Carlson documents in

The Family Way

,

[vi]

by the end of the Second World War, most American employers—influenced by politically active Catholics close to Franklin Roosevelt— were paying “family wages”—that is, offering higher wages to married men with children than to single or childless employees. The practice prevailed widely until 1964, when it was outlawed as “sex discrimination” by the Civil Rights Act. Ironically, that otherwise valuable legislation stripped from every mother the basic right to be supported as she cares for her baby—and replaced it with the feminist objective of uniform pay for anonymous workers in factories or offices.

Well, like it or not, we live in a capitalistic meritocracy. I’m sure lots of anarcho-feminists would be happy to discuss how remuneration paradigms could be structured to meet family needs rather than structured around merit and productivity, but the latter is our reality and I don’t think it is sinful that such be the case. If your skill, experience and productivity only earn you a certain wage, you plan your family size according to that and/or get more training to beef up your wage-earning potential… that is not an unCatholic solution.From Contraception to Abortion

…

Yet, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, many Catholics—consciously or not—had also accepted the feminist premise that women must be freed from the “burden” of frequent child-bearing to take their place alongside men as breadwinners.

It’s a reality that in a market economy you have to have flexibility and freedom to earn wages. That’s not a “feminist premise”. The position that women “must” pursue careers is a different one, which again is not shared by all feminists and must be evaluated on its own terms.

…

Single mothers with children make up the majority of the newly poor. Three generations of latch-key children have grown up neglected, emotionally stunted victims of fatherlessness and inadequate mothering, in a culture warped into moral confusion by perverse sex education, doctrinally empty religious instruction, coarsely sexualized television, and raw pornography online. For the first time in our history, married women are more likely to be employed than married men, and according to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau Report “Families and Living Arrangements,”

[ix]

only one woman in four with children under fifteen stays home to care for them.  

My only comment here is that I’m not sure why it’s relevant that “married women are more likely to be employed than married men”. Is that bad as such?Was It Worth the Price?

…

Consistently, the popes have called the relationship between husband and wife one of equality in dignity and complementarity in function. Pope John Paul II was ridiculed when he cautioned men not to treat their wives as objects of lust, though what he advocated was the very mutuality feminists claim they seek.[xi]  

Great. We Catholic feminists have no problem with that…

The sole advantage of living in a lawless time is that you can refuse to be a child of your age. Almost everyone in this workers’ society is too preoccupied with his own place on the treadmill to pay much attention to your eccentricities. What devastated our culture was the flight of mothers from their homes. Society is drowning in the consequences, but nothing prevents you and your family from living your lives differently.

Our culture will never be restored until women again take up rearing their children as their chief and indispensable task—and men make the sacrifices needed to support them in that decision.

While aggressive forces continue to push the nation toward family disintegration, a healthy resistance movement is awake and growing. It is made up of uncompromising religious believers, pro-lifers, and homeschoolers, both organized and autonomous, along with back-to-the-land agrarians and Tea Party independents. One Virginia women’s organization summed things up in a bumper sticker reading “Be Countercultural: Raise Your Own Kids.”.

Market economies are not universal in time and space. Nor is the relative anomaly of women “raising” their children in this particular extended view, in which staying at home to homeschool is perceived as the ideal. “In a survey of 186 cultures around the world, researchers found that older kids, rather than mothers or fathers or other adults, are the primary caretakers of young children… To be sure, infants until they are mobile at around one year of age, and often until they are weaned at two or three years of age, are the responsibility of mothers. But once those babies move into early childhood, again usually at one year of age, older children, usually siblings, are in charge” (Small, 2001, p. 28). Adults work, whether or not they are paid for it, and children do not need to be with their biological parents, much less their mothers, to learn and thrive. 

An appetite for achievement is built into human nature. If women choose to model their lives on the Valiant Woman of Proverbs (31:10-31) by raising and educating their children in a genuinely Christian environment, they will have to find ways to present them with a culture no longer found in society’s mainstream.

This will be their most demanding, most absorbing, most gratifying task, requiring all their gifts, but eminently worth doing.

Human imperfection always makes the future uncertain, but choosing freedom offers you and your family the best hope of finding joy in a deeply Catholic life.

Maybe… maybe not. Depends on how much you love your day job, how much money you make at work, the educational options in your area, how many children you have, whether or not you have local friends to spend time with during the day, whether you can afford paying for domestic help, etc… The Church has not at any time made the homeschooling lifestyle the ideal for Catholic families. Some families try homeschooling and hate it. There are no promises that it will be enjoyable, that it will use all of the mother’s gifts, that it will be gratifying or worth doing or any of it. Sometimes the right choice is to enjoy the career you love so you can pay for your kid to go to an awesome school, and enjoy good food and wine, be able to give to charity, share your gifts to the world, and have lots to talk about with your husband, whom you see as your partner. It sure works for me.

This contribution is available at http://hosheana.blogspot.ca/2013/10/in-feminism-heresy-response.html
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"Why Do You Persecute Me?" [at The Crooked Halo]

As I looked up at the spires of the magnificent Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, Georgia, I was startled when our walking tour guide, stated, “When Savannah was established lawyers, Jews, slaves and Catholics were not allowed to live here.” It had been the second time in a week that I felt the sting of prejudice toward Catholics. 

The first: While visiting Pinehurst, No. Carolina, I stopped into a lovely shop that displayed many Christian items along with delicious looking fudge. As I wandered about, I spotted Jack Chick booklets …some of the most anti-Catholic literature of modern days…I left, wiping the dust of that store off my feet. It was a hurtful reminder of how some Christian brethren still feel about Catholics. 

In this day of political correctness, Catholic bashing is still the #1 sport.  I could only imagine what it must have been like in 1700 America esp. in the deep south. It’s ironic that in our great nation, built on religious freedom, early settlers discriminated against the Catholic faith. What religious freedom really referred to was…As long as you are not Catholic then Religious Liberty is afforded you. Upon hearing what our guide said, I wondered  how extensive was prejudice against Catholics in American history.

I discovered, to my dismay, that admired persons such as, Mark Twain (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court), Edgar Allan Poe, (Pit & the Pendulum), cartoonist, Thomas Nast, & President Ulysses S. Grant supporter of the Blaine Amendment, rallied against Catholics through their professions.

American Anti-Catholicism has its roots in the Reformation, no surprise. It was thought that common hatred of the Roman Catholic Church could bring together Anglicans and Puritans despite their many other disagreements. 

In the years between 1642-1776, Wikipedia states:

The colonial charter of Savannah prohibited Roman Catholics from settling in Savannah. The English trustees feared that Catholics would be more loyal to the Spanish authorities in Florida than to the English government in Georgia.

Even though the Bill of Rights was in place, Catholics in the United States encountered prejudice on many levels based on: 1. Catholics were accused of being superstitious, and of practicing magic because of the misunderstanding of Catholic sacraments and sacramentals such as holy water. 2. The Catholic religion was charged with anti-freedom and democracy because of the failure to understand the teaching authority of the Church.

1800-1900

Until the 1830s, Catholics remained a very small minority. This changed dramatically with Irish and German immigration. Catholic immigrants in the 1800s, notably the Irish, were seen as conformists unable to be fully assimilated into the American system.  In time, the influx of millions of Catholic immigrants in the 19th-Century added to the religious diversity of the United States despite fierce opposition and occasional violent actions. 

Anti-Catholicism was widespread in the 1920s. Catholic churches were targeted by the Klu Klux Klan. Restriction laws placed a quota on how many people were allowed to enter from each foreign country. Quotas for Catholic countries were set so low that Catholic immigration virtually halted by 1924.

In Alabama, Hugo Black was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1926 having built a political base by denouncing the Catholic Church at local Klan gatherings. Christianity Today editorialized that, "Black's advocacy of church-state separation, in turn, found its roots in the fierce anti-Catholicism of the Masons and the Klu Klux Klan…” My, my, my!! No wonder the Blessed Mother warns against the Masons.

Famous 1876 editorial cartoon by Thomas Nast depicting 

Roman Catholic bishops as crocodiles 

 attacking public schools, with the connivance 

of Irish Catholic politicians

(Wikipedia)

In 1928, Al Smith became the first Roman Catholic to win the nomination for President, but Protestant ministers spoke out against him because of his faith. However, Smith's strong anti-Klan position split the South, carrying the Deep South. The surge proved permanent, as Catholics comprised a major portion of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition. President Roosevelt depended heavily in his four elections on the Catholic vote.

World War II was the decisive event that brought religious tolerance to the front in American life. Differences in religious belief fell away as military life reminded man of all they had in common as Americans. Friendships and trust were forged in the fire of war.

Then there was Eleanor Roosevelt….who had a public disagreement with Francis Joseph Spellman, the Catholic Archbishop of New York. Roosevelt had attacked proposals for federal funding of certain nonreligious activities at parochial schools, such as bus transportation for students. She feared the Catholic Church gaining school aid, stating, "Once that is done they control the schools, or at least a great part of them."  Really?

John F. Kennedy had a smear against him because of his Catholicism. Famed preacher & author, Norman Vincent Peale, rallied the aid of Protestant ministers to preach against having a Catholic in the White House. His efforts were exposed by the press in a time when the main stream media was fair & balanced.

On the surface, after 1980 the historic tensions between evangelical Protestants and Catholics seemed to fade. Political leanings shifted. By 2000, the Republican coalition included about half the Catholics and a large majority of white evangelicals.

Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. characterized prejudice against Catholics as "the deepest bias in the history of the American people."Conservative writer Peter Viereck once commented that "Catholic baiting is the anti-Semitism of the liberals."Historian John Highham described anti-Catholicism as "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history".

LGBT activists and others criticize the Catholic Church for its policies on issues relating to human sexuality, contraception and abortion. In 1989, Gay Rights protesters stormed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYCity during Sunday Mass, desecrating Holy Communion hosts. One hundred eleven protesters were arrested.

On January 30, 2007, John Edwards' presidential campaign  hired Amanda Marcotte as blogmaster. The Catholic League took offense at her obscenity- and profanity-laced invective against Catholic doctrine and satiric rants against Catholic leaders, including some of her earlier writings, where she described sexual activity of the Holy Spirit. She eventually resigned.

No one can deny Catholic prejudices in the Mainstream Media and the Entertainment Industry with attacks on television shows such as, "Nothing Sacred," Broadway offerings like "Corpus Christi" and exhibits like "Sensation" at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In an advertisement for Grateful Palate, a food and wine wholesaler, a nun named Sister Mary Lemon Curd is featured (in full habit) with the following quote: "I love Grateful Palate products, especially Burton & Co. curds.... Sometimes I just rub it all over my...oops. Never mind.... I’d rather eat curd than anything else, except the holy sacrament." http://americamagazine.org/issue/281/article/last-acceptable-prejudice. Can you expect less from industries that have sold their immortal souls? 

Sadly, Catholic churches continue to be vandalized; statues decapitated and defaced. The persecution of Catholics continues world-wide. In Maalaula, Syria, priests are imprisoned. Nuns are abused and arrested and century old churches destroyed. This sacred place where Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still spoken has been a safe haven for Catholic/Christians for 2,000 years--until now. The United States & other nations turn a blind eye to this tragedy.

In this modern era, there's no reason for ignorance of the Catholic faith. One need only go to the Internet to be properly educated. God-willing, someday, people of different faiths will realize the enormous contributions the Catholic Church has made & the veil of prejudice may be lifted. Read: Violating Catholic Conscience for this info As the beloved Bishop Fulton J. Sheen said, "Not 100 in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is." 

This contribution is available at http://crookedhalocatholicblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/why-do-you-persecute-me.html
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My Catholic Repentance on Reformation Sunday [at TheOrant]

Today is reformation Sunday, a day where protestants honor the reformation, and in particularly the story of Luther's nailing of the 95 thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg, where he was a teacher. On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther is purported to have nailed 95 thesis, all attacking the practice of indulgences in the Catholic Church, about which Luther wanted to debate. These were serious concerns about a problematic growth of corrupt practices related to an abusive understanding of the theology of purgatory within the Catholic Church. These 95 concerns were translated, and gave voice to many of the concerns of people throughout Germany. People took hold of Luther and soon he was at the center of a movement, which we know today af the reformation.

I grew up Lutheran, and Reformation Sunday was always a big deal, and even though I'm now a Catholic I still like to remember it. As a Catholic

 it offers me a good opportunity to repent. 

The reformation is one of the great tragedies in the Church, resulting in thousands of Christian sects and a scandal of disunity in the global Christian church that continues until today. I long to see the church united, but I know that until the Catholic Church can live out the Gospel message consistently, there is little hope that our separated brethren will  return to the fold.... and so I repent and ask others to do the same.

I repent of denying the love of Christ to other Christians because I didn't agree with how they sought to love Christ

I repent of loving myself more then my neighbor

I repent of holding my own possessions too tightly, and not seeing them as blessings given so that I might bless

I repent of making excuses for the sex abuse scandal

I repent of putting political ideology above Gospel fidelity 

I repent of denying my cross daily

I repent of viewing others as simply means to my own fulfillment, rather then fulfilling my love for Christ by loving them with my means.

I repent for staying quiet when I needed to raise my voice, and raising my voice because I was afraid to stay quiet.

I repent of taking the seat of honor, putting myself first

I repent of exchanging the Pearl of Great price for the most menial comforts

I repent of betraying my Lord for much less then 30 pieces of silver

I repent of selectively living the Gospel

I repent of using Church teaching as a way to avoid the hard task of actually loving people

I repent of believing that I don't need God's grace

I repent of pretending I have all the answers

If I have ever hurt you through any of these things, or through some other failing on my part I ask your forgiveness, and pray that as God works in my life day by day that the brokenness that keeps the churches separated might find some small healing at work.

This is my heart's cry this reformation Sunday

One final confession... I still love Martin Luther.

Luther is the writer and thinker who first introduced me to the radical grace of God, and for that I will be forever grateful. I hold out hope that I will meet him someday at the wedding supper of the lamb. Here are a few Luther related things that I love...

This contribution is available at http://www.theorant.com/2013/10/my-catholic-repentance-on-reformation.html
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Why Nowa Huta is already on my WYD 2016 Itinerary [at Quartermaster of the Barque]

At the close of World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis announced that the next WYD (to be held in 2016) would be in Kraków, the home of Bl. John Paul II (soon to be canonized April 27, 2014). I hope to make the pilgrimage there with my oldest son, and when we go, I hope that I will be able to take him to Nowa Huta (literally, “New Steel Mill”), the model Soviet town, intentionally built without a church.

Nowa Huta is the story of what happens when society or government attempts to deny the existence of God, thinking it can disrupt man’s desire for God, which “…is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.” (CCC, para. 27).

In George Weigel’s biography on John Paul II, Witness to Hope, he describes Nowa Huta as:

“…the model workers’ town-without-a-church built by the communists on the outskirts of Kraków… Nowa Huta’s apartment blocks were aptly described as human filing cabinets, and the cabinets were deliberately designed to keep the files separated. Churches, places for communities independent of the regime, had no place in Nowa Huta… The great symbol of the struggle for Nowa Huta’s soul was the building of what became known as the ‘Ark Church,’ which arose from the field in the Bienczyce neighborhood where Wojtyla had celebrated Christmas midnight Mass since 1959.” (Id., 189-190).

The Poles persisted in their faithful refusal to leave Nowa Huta without its church. For years, masses were said in the open air, on makeshift altars, in the rain, in the snow, in the heat of summer. People stood through services. People knelt in the grass and dirt. People walked to that field on a hill from miles away. Crosses would reappear whenever the Soviets removed them. God exists, He desires relationship with us, and we with Him, and the full might of the Soviet Union was powerless against this Truth, contributing to its own end.

According to Weigel, in his homily for the dedication Mass, Cardinal Wojtyla “…put a new definition on the model workers’ town. ‘This is not a city of people who belong to no one,’ the cardinal insisted, ‘of people to whom one may do whatever one wants, who may be manipulated according to the laws or rules of production and consumption. This is a city of the children of God… This temple was necessary so that this could be expressed, that it could be emphasized…” (Id., 190).

After being elected Pope, the Soviets attempted to prevent him from including Nowa Huta on the official itinerary. At the homily from his visit to the Shrine of the Holy Cross at Mogila on June 9, 1979, Bl. John Paul II said:

Let us go together, pilgrims, to the Lord’s Cross. With it begins a new era in human history. This is the time of grace, the time of salvation. Through the Cross man has been able to understand the meaning of his own destiny, of his life on earth. He has discovered how much God has loved him. He has discovered, and he continues to discover by the light of faith, how great is his own worth. He has learnt to measure his own dignity by the measure of the Sacrifice that God offered in his Son for man’s salvation: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

Even if times change, even if what was once countryside near Krakow has given way to the emergence of a huge industrial complex, even if we are living in an age of dizzy advances in the natural sciences and equally amazing advances in technology, nevertheless the truth about the life of the human spirit, which is expressed by means of the Cross, knows no decline, is always relevant, never grows old.

The history of Nowa Huta is also written by means of the Cross—first by means of the ancient Cross of Mogila, the heritage of centuries, and then by means of the other Cross, the new one, which has been raised close by. Where the Cross is raised, there is raised the sign that that place has now been reached by the Good News of Man’s salvation through Love. Where the cross is raised, there is the sign that evangelization has begun. Once our fathers raised the Cross in various places in the land of Poland as a sign that the Gospel had arrived there, that there had been a beginning of the evangelization that was to continue without break until today. It was with this thought also that the first Cross was raised in Mogila, near Krakow, near Stara Huta.

The new wooden Cross was raised not far from here at the very time we were celebrating the Millennium. With it we were given a sign that on the threshold of the new millennium, in these new times, these new conditions of life, the Gospel is again being proclaimed. A new evangelization has begun, as if it were a new proclamation, even if in reality it is the same as ever. The Cross stands high over the revolving world.

Today, before the Cross of Mogila, the Cross of Nowa Huta, let us give thanks for the new beginning of evangelization that has been brought about here. And let us all pray that it may be as fruitful as the first evangelization—indeed, even more fruitful.

From the Cross of Nowa Huta began the new evangelization, the evangelization of the second Millennium. This church is a witness and confirmation of it. It arose from a living awareness and responsible faith and must continue to serve that faith.

I wish to visit Nowa Huta, because going there is to be a pilgrim to the place where, in the words of Bl. John Paul II the “new evangelization has begun”. This is a place where we as Catholics can look for assurance that God will triumph over any attempt to deny the dignity of man and God’s supreme providence over all.

As we observe our own American government moving incrementally toward the perilous edge of abrogating our religious liberty, Nowa Huta serves as an excellent reminder that the Church has seen the beginning and end of many empires. There is no divine guarantee that any human institution will survive through the ages, except the Church: “…thou art Peter, and it is upon this rock that I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt. 16:18). No power can successfully deny God. No force can prevent man’s desire for Him.

I suspect, though the official schedule is far from being announced, that in making a pilgrimage to Nowa Huta, we might encounter a few other people doing the same, including His Holiness Pope Francis. The cross is raised.

Blessed John Paul II, pray for us!

This contribution is available at http://qmbarque.com/2013/10/04/why-nowa-huta-is-already-on-my-wyd-2016-itinerary/
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Woman Who Survived Mother's Botched Abortion Tells Her Story [at DavidLGray.INFO]

My name is Starr and I am a 37 year old mother of an 18 year old daughter and 14 year old son. However, this is not how my story actually begins. Let me take you all the way back to my conception. My mother was a single, never married woman who had 3 children before I was conceived. My mother was one of five children. She grew up in a household with both parents. Two of my oldest siblings were starrbeing raised by my mother’s aunt and the other sibling was being raised by his father’s family. All of the siblings, up to me had different fathers. At the time of my conception in April of 1975 she was 24 years old and addicted to drugs and fast hard living.

Now, some of the details have been confirmed (through documentations) and some are from the family that raised me. Here begins my story. My mother got pregnant with me and continued in her addiction/illness (drugs). She sought someone who could perform an abortion in the very early phase of the “legalization” of abortion. The abortionist she chose was either back alley, inexperienced or maybe both. She went on about her life, thinking she had ended mine.

One day (February 25, 1976) she was at home, which was my grandmother’s house and thought she had to relieve herself and ended up giving birth to me on the toilet in my grandmother’s bathroom. Her uncle’s wife and two daughters were there. My mother tried to flush me down the toilet as she was surprised that I was here and was also high off drugs and probably freaked out. She may have even thought I wasn’t alive. My mother’s uncle and wife (the one there when I was born) adopted me and then my brother in September of 1977. They raised us as their children.

We never really had a relationship with our mother, even though we lived with her family and in the same city until I was 12 years old. I realize, now that my mother had a disease but when I was a child I had no respect for her. I felt abandoned and could not understand how a woman could have 7 children and not raise one. I never really felt any resentment about her trying to end my life, I just felt rejected, abandoned and unwanted. For most of my life that is how I felt and I made life decisions based off those feelings. For many years these words repeated in my head. “Your own mother didn’t want you, she thought you were waste”.

When I became pregnant with my 14 year old I was pressured to have an abortion. I was not happy about the pregnancy, it was very much unplanned and I was already a young mother of a 4 year old. When I tell you that all things worked against me going through with that I really mean ALL things. From me being in denial for months that I was actually pregnant, to being too far along but then finding a place that would do it and then my sons father (who was in favor of the decision) flat out refusing to take me the morning of the procedure (which was the very last day I could have it done).

I ended up having my son 2 months premature the month after I was to have the abortion. He weighed just 3 pounds but was a fighter from day one. He did not need any assistance breathing or eating or anything for that matter. All he needed was to live. He gained 2 pounds and was released from the hospital. I am so thankful to God that I did not go through with that abortion because now I realize that my son is truly a gift from God. He is the apple of my eye. He is the best, most well behaved, well mannered, loving, smart, funny, athletic, talented and handsome young man a woman could even dream of having. God blessed me far more than I could ever deserve, especially considering the choice I almost made. I would have also had to deal with the guilt of doing the same thing my mother tried to do to me…take away my right to live.

My mother passed away just 5 months after I gave birth to my son, before I had the chance to reconcile with her. Looking back over my life, I have always been a very strong and resilient person and I admit that was in my own strength. It was because I had built a wall as a defense mechanism. Shortly after my mother’s passing I was introduced to the love of God.

I gave my life to Christ and through much soul searching I found it in my heart to forgive my mother. I realized that my mother was diseased and was unknowingly being used by my enemy to destroy me….but it didn’t work.

I have talked to many women who have made this choice because they thought it best but they end up living a life of regret, shame and guilt. Some women hear phantom babies cry and have to deal with awful shameful thoughts of what they have done to their child. Just like the adversary to encourage one to do something so heinous and then condemn them over and over for something he enticed and encouraged them to do.

Two of my favorite scriptures relate to my experience. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future and Jeremiah 1:5: “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.”

God had a plan for me before I was even born so much so that He orchestrated these events. He had His hand on me and His grace is, has been and will be sufficient (another one of my favorite scriptures (11 Corinthians 12:9). This is not only true for me but for my son and every other living being…BEFORE we are even in our mother’s womb, REGARDLESS of any and every situation or circumstance that leads up to our conception He has a plan for each and every one of us and to fulfill that plan we have to live! This is not only my story but the reason I am Pro-Life.

This contribution is available at http://www.davidlgray.info/blog/2013/10/woman-survived-abortion-tells-story/
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The Year of Faith... [at Making It In Vermont]

I’ve been letting ~G take his naps in the living room lately.  He and ~O’s nap times do not exactly correlate and if I bring him into the bedroom they share I risk waking ~O up prematurely.  And well it’s peaceful having ~G out here with me.

I was doing a little reading as I was eating lunch and I realized that it was one year ago this month that we found out that ~G had Down syndrome.  I was about 21 weeks along by the time the blood test that I took (Materny21) came back positive.  I had no idea really what the results meant for our family and my life.  Truly.  I had never closely known anyone with Down syndrome and always admired people who worked with others who had disabilities, because as much as I desired to relate and be that sort of person, I felt like I just wasn’t.

My biggest worry however when we had my 19 week ultrasound and the announcement of our 1 in 3 odds was that our baby would be in pain.   I look back at that worry now and I’m not sure why I was thinking that.  His heart looked good in the ultrasound.  All I can think of is that it was fear mixed with ignorance.

I cried for no more than 45 minutes after that ultrasound and then the tears were gone.  It was not my miraculous courage or wonderful spirit or great outlook that brought me calm, it was my FAITH.  That faith stayed with me when we got the positive results two weeks later and throughout my pregnancy.

Pope Benedict XVI initiated, in order to bring a renewal to the life of Christian faith and witness, what he has called The Year of Faith from last October 11, 2012 to this Nov. 24, 2013.

This has been my year of faith.

Trusting, that no matter what everything was going to be ok.  Yes ~G is pretty healthy so far, he is not far off from “typical” babies’ milestones at this point.  But if he were sick, if he didn’t make it, if we were stretched as thin as our family could go, we would be ok.  God is with us. That means today, tomorrow, the day we take our last breath, and beyond.

Faith:  taking steps into the darkness and believing that there will be light (no matter what nature that light may take) ahead.

I could not have told you one year ago about how ~G’s gentle smiles make my knees weak or how he and ~O have their own special smile language (they are two little peas in a pod), or how his therapy appointments are actually fun, not drudgery or scary.  I know lots of little one’s with Down syndrome that have had heart surgeries their first year of life, who have some difficulty with hearing, feeding, seizures, as well as other issues, and I know babies with Down syndrome that have none of these.  All of our children’s paths and our journey’s with them are different.

We’ve all got our “stuff”, but no matter how far apart the depth of life’s challenges, faith is there for every one of us to tap into.  It brings us forward in hope with a steady hand leading us through our personal darkness whatever it may be.

I could have had a terrible pregnancy, I could have worried, I could have put all sorts of ideas into my head of what the future would be and driven myself crazy.  I chose faith instead and I’ll choose it again and again and again.  It’s more than The Year of Faith for me, I’m in it for life.

~Lisa

This contribution is available at http://www.makingitinvermont.com/2013/10/the-year-of-faith/
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Florida State Prison [at Mercy Me! I've got work to do]

An eye for an eye has been realized.

Every horror that has ever been wished on convicted felons by those of us in civilized society reveals itself in prison.

I saw it for myself on my visit to Florida State Prison in Raiford.  I heard it in the stories told by the Deacon who goes several times a week to minister to the imprisoned.

They have committed horrible crimes, and for that they are punished in a way that seems inhumane and unfathomable.

This may please you. This may comfort you.  This may somehow validate your righteousness or your sense of justice.

It did none of those things for me.

I entered into a concrete world of razor wire, metal bars, shackles, bolts and locks.  There is a tower guard with a gun perched high at the entrance.  There are gates that open and close intuitively and imposingly.  I didn’t go very far without encountering another gate, making me ever aware that I am going farther and farther from the life I know into the cavernous depth of depravity.

In the vast oversized hallway, I felt conspicuous walking under the fluorescent lights, my dark clothes meant to make me look drab and androgynous popped like a gun against the monochromatic beige walls and floors.

I thought of how much time I had spent putting together that outfit.  My mom even went shopping to find me something appropriate.  Ah, but the tables had turned, what she picked showed a thin horizontal line of flesh that I refused to reveal.  Instead, I chose a gray linen shirt in the shape of a box from her closet. I wore another shirt under it and a sweater on top.

I thought, irrationally, of how those soft layers of cotton were designed to shield me like armor from prying eyes.  I tied my hair haphazardly in a bun.  I wore no jewelry, except my wedding band and no makeup.  I looked perfectly hideous, like some homely girl living in a commune, the dubious choice of her polygamous husband.

On the hour-long drive that morning, the Deacon told stories of redemption, forgiveness, and God’s love that he had witnessed ministering to inmates.

He also shared horrors that made me lurch in my seat and grab his arm, surprising us both with my grip — my desperate attempt to stop the cruel reality of his words.

The Deacon told me of one prison fight with a head rolling into the prison hallway.

He told me about one inmate who had surgery for a brain tumor and was back in his cell the following day.   The prisoner was in extraordinary pain, and wasn’t given any painkillers until he intervened with officials.

Oh, and all those jokes about prison rapes, I think maybe it’s not funny to the prisoner who is now HIV positive from the repeated brutality of forced sex.

Men exist in 6 by 9 foot cells.   They shower every other day and only go outside a few times a week.  When they do, they remain completely fenced in a sort of dog run.

These are adult men sustained on 1,500 calories of food, which is justified by their sedentary existence.

These are men who can’t flush their own toilets.

These are men who are at the mercy of the guards who decide if and when the lights will turn on or turn off within their individual cell.

These are men who live without air-conditioning or heat.

I can’t compare it to anything because I’ve never seen anything like it. After all, these are humans seemingly no different from us, but living in cages.

Intellectually, I knew that going in.  Conversely seeing it made it somehow unbelievable.

Maybe it’s not as bad in jails or other correctional facilities, but prison and my walk on death row were sobering.

I never aspired to go to death row either – that wasn’t part of my plan.  Yet there I was trying to be inconspicuous, when the Deacon suddenly shouted FEMALE WALKING, down the quiet hall.  I snapped in a whisper, “why did you do that?” The Deacon explained it was to make sure the prisoners were all decent.  Perhaps, I am not the only with a sense of modesty, as I assumed.

Most of the inmates were sleeping or otherwise in the dark except for the broken light the jalousie windows mercifully permitted.  They were snug in their cell and we were separated by another row of bars more than an arms-length beyond that.  I walked face-forward with my eyes straining sideways to catch glimpses.  Most of them seemed disinterested in being part of the freak show and ignored us.

At the very end of the row, the last two cells had their lights on and we stopped to talk.  The Deacon introduced them as his friends.  One of them had been in prison 32 years, the other 20 years.  I had to wonder if they were completely different people now that a generation had passed.

I hoped so.

The inmate spoke about the letters he writes to pen pals and the marriage proposals they initiate.  He told us how his oldest son has disowned him.  We talked briefly about God.  The guard stood behind us looking a little impatient with all our do-gooding and niceties.

Mostly, I liked the prisoner.  He was socially appropriate, engaging, and seemed sincere.

Later, I learned he drowned a 10-year-old girl.

So began my vacillating between feeling incredibly compassionate for their incomprehensible lack of freedom and dignity, to conflicting and valid justifications for their punishment.

No doubt, these life-takers have to be restrained from society.  Even within the confines of prison, there occasionally was need for further constraints.

We visited a wing referred to by the letter Q.  In it prisoners were held in a cell inside of another cell, an extra layer of concrete insulation between them and the other inmates.

A large dry erase board hung on the wall with prisoner names and the corresponding reasons for their relegation to such extreme confines.  It was a checkerboard of violations that zigzagged between attacks on guards, to murdering other inmates.

Clearly, these people needed caging. That’s not a judgment. That is a brutal reality.

I don’t forget for a second what got them in there either.  To be sure, when I went home I went on-line and looked up some of the death row inmates that are warehoused at Florida State Prison.  I read news articles about their senseless crimes.  I sat quietly and thought about their victims and their families.

I compared it to the misery I saw in prison.  There was no mercy on either side, no matter how many ways I looked.

The injustice of murder, the depravity of torture, the senseless disregard for life, the endless grieving of victims’ families, these were not things I could forget.

Undoubtedly, these people don’t deserve to live in our society.  They made that choice through their actions.  I can’t own that for them.  That can’t be risked for everyone else.

Yet as someone who values life, dignity and decency, as someone who spoke with these men, shared the Eucharist with them, prayed with them, shook their hands, listened and laughed with them, I can’t celebrate the fact that they live in a state-manifested hell.

Why would a Christian celebrate hell?

Maybe prison can be best described as purgatory – a holding place suspended between the choices of good and evil.  The incarcerated are the only ones who can choose the salvation that God offers all of us.

The experience forces me to acknowledge that evil exists and as badly as I want to have hope for every single person incarcerated, as much as I want to believe that when given the choice of forgiveness that God offers, which even the state cannot take away, they would pick the generous gift of redemption every time.

But even I am not that naïve.

By far, the saddest part of my experience was seeing an elderly lady waiting in the prison foyer who best emulated God’s unconditional love.

She looked far prettier than I did.

She had carefully applied bright pink lips and a rosy shade of blush dusting both sides of her cheeks as if she was somehow applying the dew of happiness to her face instead of merely drugstore makeup.  She wore dainty jeweled barrettes, which held back parts of her soft grey hair.

Even though I looked as asexual as an amoeba that day, I recognized the effort she put into her appearance for her visit.

The Deacon knew her and began talking to her about her incarcerated son, and remarked kindly that he was a good boy.  As I watched her face twist in uncertainty and gratitude, all those shades of pink contorting until tears filled her eyes, my heart sank as the message of the Deacon’s words contrasted sharply with the reality of his imprisonment.

She nodded affirmatively despite the circumstances. Of course, her son was good because she knew him with a mother’s love.  How crushing it must be for her to know how different the world sees him, to know the child she gave life unmercifully took it from someone else.

Later when we were in the visiting area, I saw her with her son. He seemed like a shell of a person.  His eyes were gray and glossed over.  I wasn’t quite sure if they ever focused.

When we talked to them, I learned that she drives 300 miles each way every week just to visit him.

Whatever he did, she still loves him.

In one of the news articles about the death row inmates that I read, another mother had just learned her daughter’s killer was sentenced to death.  She commented that her daughter would be dancing in heaven at the verdict.

While I would never begrudge anyone the joy of a dance, when I think of these two mothers and the loss they both endure, I feel nothing but sorrow.

I remind myself though that as impenetrable as all those prison bars, locks and razor wires are, the hope of God’s love can always find a way in.

Maybe they won’t all be saved, but the same can be said of people on the outside.

So, I remember the old lady and her pink cheeks.  I picture her in a matching pink dress, cocooned in layers of tulle dancing in heaven with her son not as the world knew him, but as she did — not as a murderer, but a child of God redeemed by salvation.

May their dance last for eternity.

Categories: Corporal Works of Mercy, Uncategorized | Tags: catholic, community, Deacon, Death row, Eucharist, Florida State Prison, Forgiveness, God, hope, life, Prison, prison ministry, redemption, volunteer | Permalink.

I am using my 40th birthday as an impetus to embark on mid-life mission to perform spiritual and corporal works of mercy– that unlike aging promise to defy gravity.

This contribution is available at http://mercyme40.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/florida-state-prison/
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Week in My Life: Sunday

Over the past week I've blogged every day as part of the Week in My Life series. This is my final entry in the series. I hope you've enjoyed it.

It’s Sunday and we have finally persuaded the boys to sleep past 7—just in time for tomorrow when we’ll need them to be up earlier. We aren't going to church until noon, so the whole morning is free.

Breakfast is chicken noodle soup yet again, and I also offer pop-tarts, which the boys bite into puzzle-pieces.

Leo asks—as he does almost every Sunday—why he has to go to church. I usually give some brief comment, either about expressing gratitude to God or following the Ten Commandments, but today John is ready. He casually goes and gets the Catechism of the Catholic Church, looks up “Sunday obligation,” and reads the excerpt, which is surprisingly accessible for an almost-6-year-old.

I’m not sure how much Leo takes away from it, but I love the line, “They strengthen one another under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

We have so much extra time that I decide to go grocery shopping before we go to Mass, and I leave the boys with John. I have also promised to bring a baked good to the fellowship event after Mass, and naturally I haven’t baked one, so I’ll need to buy one.

As I’m checking out in the self-check-out lane, six or seven coupons come rolling out of the printer. The last one is the first of six or seven vouchers I need to save to get a gallon of milk. There is no way I can keep track of this piece of paper, never mind the next five or six I’m expected to collect.

I’m wondering how many people are that organized as I head toward our van, and I’ve clicked the button for the tailgate to open before I remember that there’s no way the groceries will fit in the back of the van because this is what it looks like.

Ever since we moved out of my parents’ house a few weeks ago, my mother keeps finding items that are ours. The most recent load is still in the van. And there just happen to be a lot of games.

As I’m standing there, looking into our van, a car pulls up alongside me, and the window rolls down.

“Where did you get all those games from?” the driver asks. I tell her we’ve moved recently and are slow to empty our car.

“Oh,” she says, and I see her face fall. “I thought there was a great sale somewhere.”

Later I realize that my husband might have offered her the whole lot for $50 just to get them out of the car.

On the way home I hear a Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton song on the radio and, because I tend to listen to whatever the boys want to hear in the car, I don’t know whether it’s 30 years old or 30 days old. It turns out that it is a recent release, and I love it (but I can’t find a working YouTube video to share it with you).

When I get home, John is installing curtains in our dining room, and the boys are pretending to be Ninjago characters. I feed them an early lunch to increase our chances of good Mass behavior.

Then we’re off to church, and we sit together for the first time in ages. Typically we divide and conquer and sit in two separate pews. Before Mass, though, we designate one parent for each child, to try to prevent everyone from wanting Mama, and I pack separate bags of books to limit conflict.

Everything goes reasonably well, and the priest tells us at the start of his homily that he doesn’t worry about what the children take away from it, that that’s in the Holy Spirit’s hands. When the priest asks the congregation whether they pray, Leo’s hand shoots into the air, and the same thing happens when he asks whether we believe in our guardian angels. I catch Leo humming Star Wars music under his breath a few times, and Daniel covers my mouth when I am singing, but overall it is a good experience, and we are able to stay in our pew for the whole service.

At the fellowship time afterward, both boys do some coloring.

Then they try hula hooping.

Often we run errands after going to church, but today we just wanted to get home to get work done around the house. John finished the curtain installation. Doesn’t it look beautiful?

I spot a caterpillar on the sidewalk outside and I take Daniel out to see it.

“Don’t touch it,” he warns me. “It might be poisonous!”

He’s thinking of the orange mushrooms growing in our yard. But I take his hand and let him touch it very gently. He’s very excited about it. He loves small creatures—and large ones too, but small ones are less scary.

John finishes making our third bedroom into a playroom for the boys, and he unpacks some of the toys they haven’t seen in months since a lot of what we own has been in storage. The afternoon is full of excitement over toys Leo and Daniel rediscover. I hear a little voice yelling, “Do you remember these handcuffs?” and there’s a mini-celebration each time.

Halloween is coming up quickly, and with kindergarten homework filling our weekday evenings, we figure we’d better get the pumpkins carved today. For some reason we have three small ones. Leo wants one to be a Darth Vader pumpkin, and Daniel wants one to be happy and one to be spooky.

My work—pun fully intended here—is cut out for me.

John is busy with house projects, so I take the lead and the knife and the boys out to our back porch. Everyone is enthusiastic about the carving until they realize I am not going to let them use the knife.

This year we cut the bottoms off instead of the tops because last year we learned that was the better way to do it—I can’t recall why.

Leo helps with some scooping, but the “goop” makes Daniel nervous.

Daniel keeps talking about how his teacher says you can cook the seeds and eat them, so I tell him we’ll save the seeds, and I send him inside to get a bowl. I try to think of tasks he can accomplish, and I send him to the cupboard full of plastic and metal bowls. He comes back with a glass one, naturally, and I’m holding my breath as he carries it out, tucked under one arm. The bowl survives and I start breathing again.

Soon enough, though, Leo drifts back inside and Daniel starts building a cannon on the lawn.

Leo is satisfied with my Darth Vader, and Daniel is happy with the other two, so we’ll take that as a win.

...I start on the seeds.

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The recipe is a bit labor-intensive, and the seeds don’t turn out that well. I think I piled too many in the pan, and maybe I should have dried them more after I boiled them.

This contribution is available at http://catholicreview.org/blogs/open-window/2013/10/27/week-in-my-life-sunday
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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Little and big ways; Sharing your faith everyday

This past weekend I had a strange happening. Two different sects approached me and within the same hour. It’s not everyday that someone says hey Molly, check out our religion, but this weekend it happened twice. 

The first occurence was through a very direct email sent to me through my website, basically asking me to check out their ‘vatican’ website. Well, that said website uncovers the ‘truth’ of the Catholic Church post Vatican II. I guess Pope Francis is an anti-pope, along with Benedict and John Paul. Who knew.

Then, not an hour later, my doorbell rings. Two smartly dressed gentlemen were standing there. The younger one, in a shaky voice, asks me if I ever read scripture. I light up, I love scripture, I tell him! He reads from 1 Thessalonians and asks if I would take the pahmplet. So I did. Just to make him happy. Will I read it? Probably not. I’ve skimmed through them before. Of course my environmental side is screaming at me, don’t take the paper! You’re just going to throw it away, but I didn’t want to be rude to their face and be like, ‘Yo I don’t want to read your pamplet, I’ve seen them before and there is no way, not now, not ever, that I will leave the Catholic Church. Why? Because we have the Sacraments, the Eucharist and confession and apostolic succession and cool incense and night prayer and sacramentals and Padre Pio and have you seen St. Catherine of Siena’s finger?’ Maybe next time I will defer the pamphlet….

What I find interesting is that these people are willing to go out there and share their ‘good news’. Well, maybe not the website people, I mean, it is just an email, but they are trying to do something (even though it is heretical and causing more harm than good) but they are willing to spread their message.

But the later group, I have to give props to for their dedication. It takes courage to ring someone’s doorbell and ‘sell Jesus’. It does. They recognize the importance of sharing their message and they are trying to get out there and do it.

One of the very first times I remember being proselytized was at Texas A&M, down in the Bible Belt of south Texas. I was sitting on a bench outside and a student approached me.

Have you received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?

I just looked at Him and said, why yes I have, everyday at daily Mass.

He was taken aback and didn’t know what to say at first, but he went on. Do you know for sure that you are going to Heaven?

Hell ya. (I said it to be funny, not to offend.)

Now really taken aback he just said, oh, that’s good and walked away. Sometimes I wonder if that guy was Taylor Marshall. But that’s another story for another time.

I wanted to explain to him that I wasn’t ‘for sure for sure’ that I was going to Heaven, because I wasn’t. Everyday I have to choose my faith. Everyday I make the choice to follow God. And if for some reason down the road I choose NOT to choose Him, then, by golly, I wouldn’t go to Heaven. Because Heaven is being with God. And if I reject God, how can I be with Him? But he walked away and was probably praying for my soul as he went.

This brings me to the thought of sharing one’s faith. How do you share your faith?

I think God gives us little and big opportunities each day to share our faith. In St. Therese style, by offering up our silent sufferings and praying for mankind. In contrast, St. Francis style, by giving away our extra tunic and feeding the poor. God provides the little and big opportunities, we just have to recognize them. Like the time I gave a stranger a holy medal and told them I would pray for them to the time I said, ok God, I will serve with NET Ministries. Little and big ways, everyday.

My favorite way to share the faith is through the everyday occorunces. It’s where I recoegnize His will. And it’s where I grow in my faith as well.

Have you been approached recently?

How do you share your faith?

This contribution is available at http://singlecatholicgirl.com/thoughts/faith-sharing/
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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The Federal Anti-Life Earthquake and Its Consequences for America [at Justin's Corner]

by Justin Soutar

Within a year and a few short months, the United States of America will be rocked to its core by a devastating earthquake of unprecedented magnitude and proportions. The powerful shock waves of this tremendous seismic event will unleash a flood of damage and destruction unlike anything the United States has ever experienced in its 237-year history. This massive earthquake will be triggered by the collision of two giant tectonic plates on which our country rests—the Constitution and our federal government. The resulting shock wave will destroy our religious liberties, our moral conscience rights, and our freedom to act in accord with the law of God. And the long-lasting moral, social, demographic, environmental, legal, economic, civil, and health effects of the quake will include millions upon millions of innocent unborn children slaughtered in their mother’s wombs; millions of families torn apart by immorality and love of pleasure; tens of thousands of hospitals, dispensaries, orphanages, nursing homes, soup kitchens, and crisis pregnancy centers, as well as thousands of businesses and scores of colleges and universities, shut down; record poverty rates; low birth rates and population decline; pollution of our rivers and farm soil by large quantities of toxic artificial chemicals; thousands of lawsuits; financial instability; economic collapse; civil unrest and conflict; and a nationwide healthcare crisis that will impact every corner of America, leaving not a single person untouched.

An Artificial Disaster—President Obama’s Anti-Life Mandate

The worst part of this tragic ordeal will be its unnecessary and preventable nature. Rather than a natural disaster, this horrendous and destructive earthquake will be an unnatural disaster—an entirely artificial event deliberately inflicted upon our country by the godless, immoral, corrupt, irresponsible, and arrogant administration of President Barack Obama. That administration has decreed that ALL employers (except narrowly defined “religious employers”) MUST purchase health insurance coverage for their employees that includes abortifacients, contraceptives, and sterilizations (pills and surgical operations that murder the unborn child or prevent parents from conceiving children); furthermore, ALL charitable agencies MUST provide these filthy anti-life drugs and procedures or referrals for such drugs and procedures to their clients. On January 1, 2015, the massive law enforcement apparatus of our powerful federal government will come down hard on all American employers and charitable agencies who fail to comply with this immoral, draconian, and outrageous new “law” known as the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate. This abominable so-called “healthcare law” flagrantly violates the law of God, the Constitution of the United States, our fundamental rights and liberties as American citizens and as human beings, and our dignity as human persons created in the image and likeness of God. It violates the Fifth Commandment by ordering employers and charity workers to help their employees and clients murder their own unborn children; it also violates the Sixth Commandment by requiring the purchase and distribution of immoral drugs that prevent married couples from conceiving new children. It violates the First Amendment by forcing religious believers and organizations to act contrary to their sacred beliefs. It violates our fundamental rights as American citizens to freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, as well as our fundamental right as human beings to act in accord with the moral law. And it violates our dignity as human persons created in the image and likeness of God by reducing us to mere sexual and economic objects whose sexuality and fertility are arbitrarily manipulated by our government for the financial benefit of large private corporations.

Abortion is always a grave moral evil regardless of the circumstances. It should not be legalized, much less promoted or mandated, by any government. Forty years ago, our nation suffered a similarly cataclysmic jolt when seven men on our Supreme Court arbitrarily decided that any pregnant woman who wishes to do so has a “right” to kill her innocent unborn child for any reason whatsoever. That terrible ruling opened the floodgates to a torrent of mass murder that dwarfs the Holocaust and cries out to Heaven for vengeance. Even as the American people become increasingly pro-life and abortion rates decline, our society and nation are still suffering the bitter effects of that devastating High Court error known as Roe v. Wade. It is bad enough that the horrible crime of abortion has been legally permitted for decades here in the United States, in a country founded on explicit acknowledgement of the inalienable rights to life and liberty with which all human beings are endowed by their Creator. But it is much worse for a government to go beyond mere legal permission of abortion to actively promoting and encouraging the murder of the unborn by compelling the citizenry to get involved in spreading this grave evil—as our own government is now doing with the HHS mandate.

Artificial contraception is always a grave moral evil when used by married couples. Prior to the advent of Margaret Sanger and the pill in the 1920s, every Christian denomination in the United States echoed the Catholic Church in condemning the use of artificial contraception by married couples as a gravely immoral practice. The fact that most denominations no longer teach this does not change the objective moral law in this regard. God designed marriage as a permanent union of love and life between a man and a woman for their mutual happiness and the propagation of the human species. Love and life are supposed to go together in marriage; conversely, selfishness and death go hand in hand. When a married couple uses artificial contraception, they reduce each other to mere objects of sexual pleasure and refuse to cooperate with their Creator to bring new life into the world—thus foiling both the unitive and the procreative ends of marriage. Instead of being the stable, happy and fruitful union of love and life that it’s meant to be, their marriage becomes an unstable, miserable and fruitless union of selfishness and death. Artificial contraception has destroyed millions of marriages in our country over the last fifty years, with devastating consequences for our society and nation. Thus our government, which is responsible for promoting the common good of families and of society in accord with the law of God, should strongly discourage the widespread production and sale of artificial contraceptives. Instead, it is apparently determined to hasten the destruction of our society by forcing us to purchase and distribute these immoral anti-life drugs.

Besides being immoral, unconstitutional, coercive, and anti-human, the HHS mandate is also an impractical and downright foolish law. Abortion has done irreparable harm to the physical and mental health of more than 56 million American women over the past forty years. To keep it legal and make it even more widespread is irresponsible in the extreme. To encourage all Americans to kill their own children and refrain from conceiving them with a compulsory national anti-life policy is a recipe for national suicide. Moreover, artificial contraceptives are destructive to the environment; they pollute our nation’s waterways and eventually work their way into our farm soil and our food supply. To make them a product that all insurance carriers must supply is to invite further degradation of our natural resources. In addition, the mandate will deal a fatal blow to our fragile economy—still struggling to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression—by imposing unsustainable tax burdens on thousands of business owners and charity leaders; by discouraging the establishment of new businesses and charities; by further reducing the available spending money of the average working American individual and family; by further exacerbating an already unmanageable national debt; and by artificially reducing the population of the next generation of American entrepreneurs and business leaders. Furthermore, complete enforcement of this untenable law in the face of massive civil disobedience would be a tremendous feat of executive action for our swollen federal bureaucracy and our overburdened criminal justice system. Even if they were doubled in size overnight, our existing police force, court system, and prison accommodations would prove hopelessly inadequate for the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of, say, 100 million Americans who refuse to obey the mandate or pay the fines. And some states may even secede from the Union over this draconian federal order, just as the southern states did over unjust federal banking and financial laws in the mid-1800s.

Why is our federal government so hell-bent on throwing our nation into turmoil with this evil and senseless anti-life decree? Because it is currently dominated by a godless, immoral, corrupt, irresponsible, and arrogant administration. President Obama mocks faith in God and denies our fundamental identity as a Christian nation. He rejects the law of God and arbitrarily decides for himself what is right and wrong. His administration faithfully serves the interests of large private corporations while pretending concern for the common good. His policies have fueled and continue to fuel rising poverty rates, a prolonged recession, and uncontrollable national debt. And he arrogantly rammed his costly, unconstitutional, coercive, and anti-life healthcare reform legislation (the deceptively named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which authorizes the HHS mandate) through Congress despite overwhelming opposition from the American people—and then publicly threatened the Supreme Court not to get in the way.

The HHS mandate is the joint brainchild of abortion moguls, pharmaceutical executives, insurance tycoons, and our well-fed establishment politicians in the White House and the Senate. These elite folks are the masterminds of the traumatic, artificial, and unnecessary earthquake soon to disrupt our nation. And they have carefully designed and engineered this unnatural disaster exclusively for their own financial benefit.

Dishonesty, Deception, and Death for Profit

In the presentation of its so-called “healthcare” mandate to the American public, the Obama administration has exhibited blatant dishonesty and deception. For one thing, abortion, artificial contraception, and sterilization have nothing whatsoever to do with “health care.” Killing unborn children in their mother’s wombs is not health care, and preventing married couples from having children is not health care either. These immoral drugs and procedures are designed to kill developing human life in the embryonic and fetal stages or to prevent its conception altogether. Had the Department of Health and Human Services more accurately labeled its disgusting order the “life kill” mandate, the evil nature of this law would be clearer to the American people.

The Obama administration is also being dishonest about why it is forcing coverage of abortifacient drugs, birth control pills, and sterilization surgeries by all health insurance providers. The official reason for the compulsion given by HHS is that the public health interest requires unlimited access to these anti-life drugs and procedures. This is nonsense. Inexpensive artificial contraceptives are already widely available and purchased by millions of Americans each year. In reality, abortion, contraception, and sterilization are not forms of health care but rather methods of population control. The real reason for the anti-life mandate is that our federal government wants to control and dominate human life for its own dark purposes, including the eradication of the poor and the financial security of wealthy abortion tycoons.

Margaret Sanger, the eugenicist and racist foundress of Planned Parenthood, deliberately introduced abortion and artificial contraceptives into poor African-American neighborhoods in the 1920s to reduce our black population; even today, most Planned Parenthood abortion mills are situated in inner-city black and Hispanic neighborhoods, resulting in high abortion rates among these social and ethnic groups—and lots of income for Planned Parenthood abortion “doctors.” Population control of the many generates lucrative business profits for a few, with poverty providing a convenient excuse for wealthy abortionists and pharmaceutical manufacturers to increase their profits under the guise of “health care.” Furthermore, sterilizing the poor makes the rich feel less guilty about refusing to help them. When the financial crisis struck in 2008, our federal government spent hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue big banks from imminent collapse due to their own irresponsible lending practices; but the Obama administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package did nothing to stave off rising unemployment and poverty rates. Since that time, the number of Americans in poverty has continued to grow steadily, reaching the current all-time high values. The right way to deal with this worsening problem—the loving, humane, pro-life, Christian way—would be to give the poor food and clothing and shelter and medical assistance and education. The wrong way to deal with it—the selfish, inhumane, anti-life, demonic way—is to sterilize and kill off the poor like rats. Our government has chosen the latter method.

If the Obama administration was honest about what it was doing with the mandate, it would say to us, “Our radically anti-life agenda is driven by the money-hungry abortion, pharmaceutical and insurance industries, and we’re being paid handsomely to advance their interests. The purpose of the mandate is to enable these big companies to stay in business and make even bigger profits. We don’t care a whit about the old-fashioned Ten Commandments or the antiquated Constitution or the runaway national debt or the health of the public or the well-being of the country or the growing millions of struggling folks out there on Main Street. All we really care about is fattening our wallets, retaining our grip on power and expanding that power as necessary to preserve and increase the wealth of the financial kings that govern Wall Street. Too bad if the America you once knew, the America that trusted in God and respected human rights, has to go down the drain; we worship and serve the golden calf of the Almighty Dollar. Too bad if you don’t like the new America; we’re in charge now, and you must do whatever we say or face the consequences.”

Now, the sacred duty of our federal government is to promote the common good of all Americans based on fundamental principles of justice and charity that come from God—principles that form the very foundations of human society, as Pope Benedict XVI reminded us in Caritas in Veritate. And the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Authority is exercised legitimately when it acts for the common good and employs morally licit means to obtain it.” (1) By issuing and enforcing its abominable HHS decree, the Obama administration is engaging in an illegitimate exercise of government authority because the mandate is diametrically opposed to the common good and employs morally illicit means to achieve immoral ends. Our elected representatives in Congress and the White House and those whom they appoint to head the various federal offices and departments bear a solemn responsibility before Almighty God to act as our public servants by consistently placing the good of the whole country ahead of private interest or personal gain. With their dangerous anti-life law, President Obama and his cronies are doing exactly the opposite, elevating private interest and personal gain above the common good. Their mandate constitutes a direct violation of the fundamental social principles of justice and charity. It’s unjust because it encourages the murder of innocent unborn children and attempts to force individuals and institutions to participate in such murder, thereby violating God’s law, our moral consciences, and our religious beliefs. And it’s uncharitable because it will result in the closure of thousands of privately run charitable institutions upon which millions of Americans depend for basic necessities of life.

A Reign of Sin and Evil

At the bottom of the federal anti-life mandate lies a twisted logic of evil, injustice and selfishness. The Obama administration seems perversely intent on preventing the conception and birth of children as though children were a dangerous plague to be eradicated. Children are in fact the greatest possible blessing for a nation, and lack of children the greatest possible curse. Unstinting champions of abortion “rights” such as President Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi never seem to reflect on the fact that they were babies themselves once, and that they would not be alive today if their mothers had aborted them or artificially prevented their conception. These selfish politicians don’t care about protecting the lives of other innocent human beings as long as their own right to life is preserved inviolate.

The HHS mandate is what The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls a “structure of sin,” (2) a social situation or institution that is contrary to the divine law. (3) Structures of sin are the expression and effect of personal sins. (4) The federal anti-life mandate is an expression and effect of sins of greed, injustice and selfishness being committed by abortion, pharmaceutical, and insurance executives and by our corrupt elected and appointed officials in the Obama administration. “Sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them.” (5) As a structure of sin, the “life kill” mandate attempts to weave government officials, religious leaders, charity directors, business owners, and individual citizens together in a seamless web of deception, betrayal, exploitation, violence, and sexual immorality.

Unlike any other law in our nation’s history, the HHS decree is inherently destabilizing for America because it officially prescribes immorality as the law of the land. As Father John Corapi used to remind us, “Immorality is un-American and a threat to national security!” By punishing good and rewarding evil, the anti-life mandate turns the moral law established by our Creator upside down, thus betraying its demonic origin. For this evil law is ultimately inspired by Satan himself, the old archenemy of God and humanity, whom Scripture calls “the father of lies” and “a murderer from the beginning,” (6) to further his wicked agenda of death and destruction in our country. The Devil wants to kill off the American people and destroy the one true Church of Christ—and he is using Obama administration officials to get the job done. His faithful servants Vice President Biden, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi—all of whom claim to be members of Christ’s Church—are fanatically pushing anti-life drugs and procedures contrary to God’s law and attacking the freedom of the Church to act in accord with the moral law and with its religious beliefs. Some 2,000 years ago, Judas betrayed Christ for a bag of silver money; today Biden, Sebelius, and Pelosi are betraying Him for exactly the same thing. The Obama administration has fallen for the same old temptation with which the serpent ensnared our first parents in the Garden of Eden more than 6,000 years ago: the temptation to reject God in order to become God. Deceived by Satan, Adam and Eve arrogantly rejected God their Creator, denied their creaturely status and their dependence on Him, and subjectively and arbitrarily decided for themselves what was good and what was evil, abusing their freedom by transgressing the moral law. Now our elected and appointed federal officials have reached out and grasped the same forbidden fruit out of a desire to be like God but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God.” (7)

Government Gone Wild

As unbelievable as it sounds, within a year and a few short months, here in a majority Christian nation whose official motto is “In God We Trust,” in a “nation under God…with liberty and justice for all,” nearly all business and charitable employers who refuse to purchase and distribute gravely immoral anti-life drugs and procedures will automatically become “lawbreakers,” subject to punishment by their own government for obeying the law of God, their moral consciences, and their religious beliefs. This artificial earthquake will unleash such widespread, severe, and lasting chaos, destruction, distress, and human misery, that it will dwarf previous national emergencies such as the Civil War, the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, Watergate, and the Iranian hostage crisis. Enforcement of the federal anti-life mandate will make even the terrorist attacks of 9/11 look like a walk in the park. That tragedy was inflicted upon us by a foreign enemy, confined to three locations and a single day, killed thousands of innocent people, and affected tens of thousands of others. This tragedy will be inflicted upon us by our own government, is a permanent nationwide policy, will kill millions upon millions of innocent unborn children, and will affect the life of every single American.

No government has the right to compel anyone to act contrary to God’s law, to their moral consciences, or to their religious beliefs. We the people simply cannot obey this immoral, unjust, and uncharitable HHS decree. To do so would be an act of treason against God, our consciences, our religions, our families, and our country. As citizens of the United States, we have not only the right but the sacred duty to refuse to obey this law and to work hard for its full repeal as soon as possible. Moreover, we should refuse to pay the tax fines imposed for noncompliance with the HHS directive. These tax fines are unjust—not only because of the dollar amounts involved, and not only because they constitute a form of religious persecution explicitly forbidden by the First Amendment—but even more fundamentally because they are an attack on our freedom as human persons to act in accord with the objective law of God.

The role of government is to protect human rights, not to take them away. By issuing and intending to enforce its cruel and inhuman anti-life mandate, the Obama administration has criminally abused its rightful authority, betrayed the American people, turned the power of government against the citizenry, and sacrificed the common good to the “wealth care” interests of giant abortion, pharmaceutical, and insurance companies. We must hold our elected representatives and appointed officials in the federal government accountable for the unconscionable crimes they are perpetrating against the law of God, against our Constitution, against our fundamental rights and liberties as American citizens and as human beings, and against our dignity as human persons. President Obama and his lackeys should be removed from office immediately and justly punished for their misdeeds.

Where’s the Fire?

It may be true that most of us Americans are shocked, disgusted, and angry with the Obama administration for attacking our religious liberties and moral conscience rights with its draconian anti-life mandate. But apparently we are not shocked, disgusted, or angry enough. If we the people have been so upset about this obscene anti-life law from its inception, then why did we re-elect President Obama and his loyal accomplices in the Senate who are responsible for it, instead of demanding their impeachment and voting them out of office? Why aren’t we knocking down the doors of the White House and Congress at this hour and demanding the immediate repeal of the mandate? Why aren’t churches, pro-life organizations and religious liberty groups organizing massive fundraising events, letter writing campaigns, voter registration drives, and marches on Washington to make perfectly clear to the government that the American people will not tolerate this wicked law? Where is the courage, the zeal, and the determination to stand up and defend our bedrock American values of religion and morality, life and liberty, marriage and family?

Unfortunately, we Americans in general and Catholics in particular seem to lack the courage of our convictions. Millions of people have participated in Stand Up for Religious Freedom rallies in major cities across the country; God bless them for doing so. Our Catholic bishops have mobilized millions of their faithful to fight for religious freedom with the weapons of prayer, fasting, and political action; God bless them for doing so. But this is not enough. We the people need to rise up together in a highly visible and sustained fashion—not by the millions, but by the tens of millions—to send our government a clear and unmistakable message that it must respect our fundamental rights to freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and freedom to act in accord with the law of God—rights on which our nation is built, rights for which our Founders risked their lives, rights which hundreds of thousands of Americans across the years have fought and died to preserve and hand on to us.

How much longer will we, the people of the United States—a large majority of whom call ourselves Christians—continue to sit back and allow an extreme radically secularist minority to illegitimately control and dominate the affairs of our nation? It’s time we put our Christian faith into meaningful action and translated our great numbers into political effectiveness. The time for passive indifference, for timid submissiveness, for discreet fence-sitting, and for quiet toleration of a dictatorship of evil, is over. The time for active resistance is upon us. It’s time we the sleeping “silent majority” of the American people—and Catholics in particular—rose up courageously to do battle with the enemies of our country.

We Must Act Now

As Edmund Burke famously wrote four hundred years ago, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. America now stands at a critical juncture, threatened by certain massive destruction to be unleashed by President Obama and his accomplices. To sit idly on the sidelines, cowardly tolerating an abusive government and surrendering our nation to the dominion of evil, would be a crime. All Americans of good will who love their country must unite to defend their Ship of State from destruction by the opportunistic and unscrupulous Washington politicians who have commandeered it and will soon be wrecking it for their own advantage. What can—and must—we do to avert this impending national catastrophe?

1. Repent and convert. Before national laws and government policies can change, human hearts must change. And before we can change the hearts of others, we must change our own. During this Year of Faith, we Catholics in particular are called “to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Savior of the world.” (8) Let’s clean out our hearts, repent of our sins and faults, and strive to live more faithfully as true followers of Christ.

2. Pray and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners and the reversal of the HHS mandate. Prayer is the most powerful weapon we have to defeat the forces of evil. Our Lady of Fatima said that many souls go to Hell because there is no one to pray and sacrifice on their behalf. We Catholics should pray and offer sacrifices daily for the conversion of those in the abortion, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries and in our federal government who are responsible for this evil anti-life law. Bishops and priests should offer Masses for the conversion of sinners and the reversal of the mandate. Every Catholic family and individual in America should pray the Rosary daily for these intentions, and those who can do so should make a weekly Holy Hour for these intentions. Since we are engaged in a spiritual battle with the Evil One and his minions, we should also request the help of the angels, especially that of Saint Michael the Archangel, Prince of the heavenly host. In addition, our bishops should join with other religious leaders in organizing a national campaign of prayer and fasting for the reversal of the mandate, culminating (if possible) in a nationally televised candlelight prayer vigil to be held on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on the evening of December 31, 2014.

3. Strengthen our defenses. In the battle against the HHS mandate thus far, our good Catholic bishops have rightly focused attention on our religious liberties and moral conscience rights. However, as long as we focus only on our religious and moral rights as Catholics and as American citizens and avoid getting into more challenging philosophical discussions of the natural law on which our nation’s Founders built our republic and to which all human beings are subject, a major weakness will remain in our approach. By failing to squarely and consistently challenge the false modern doctrine of moral relativism on the sure ground of objective moral truth, we unwisely surrender this ground to our radically secularist opponents, who then dictate the rules of the game for public moral discussion and strengthen their illegitimate occupation of the public square. We must take back what rightly belongs to us. That is, we must articulate a clear defense of the objective moral law written by God in all human hearts, revealed to Israel in the Ten Commandments of the Decalogue, and fully revealed in Jesus Christ and His Church. We must show how this divinely revealed moral compass guided the Founders in charting the course of our nation, and that it is adherence to the law of God that makes us a great nation. We must show how the Ten Commandments, together with the ancient Roman language and law, form the basis of our modern legal system. We must explain how former U.S. laws against abortion, obscenity and pornography were grounded in the objective moral law, and why our nation should enact such laws once again notwithstanding faulty judicial decisions to the contrary. We must demonstrate the universal and unchanging nature of this objective moral law by highlighting its ubiquitous presence in societies and cultures throughout human history. We must show how adherence to the moral law has enabled peoples and nations to flourish and become great (e.g. ancient Rome, medieval Europe, modern America)—and how conversely, abandonment of the moral law has led to the decline and destruction of once-great nations (e.g. ancient Carthage, modern Communist countries). By showing that the immutable law of God is the foundation of our republic and the common heritage of all mankind, it will become clear that we American Catholics are not just demanding freedom to act in accord with our particular religious beliefs and moral consciences, but in accord with objective moral truth. Freedom to act in accord with the moral law is the most basic, the most fundamental of all human rights—even more fundamental than freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, for religion and conscience can both be abused to justify grave violations of the moral law. The HHS mandate doesn’t just violate the religious and conscience rights of American believers; even more fundamentally, it violates the right of all Americans as human beings to act in accord with the objective law of God. By moving beyond a somewhat shallow and subjective “religious liberties and moral conscience rights” approach to a deeper, more profound way of reasoning based on the objective truth of the natural law itself, our logic will resonate not only with fellow American Catholics but also with all people of goodwill in America and beyond, thus enabling us to recruit a broader coalition of allies and mount a more united and effective challenge to the mandate. While defending our specific religious liberties and moral conscience rights as Catholic Americans, we must also defend the timeless freedom of all Americans and all peoples to act in accord with the law of God.

4. Organize our resistance. To fight and win a war, the ground troops and their leaders must not only be well trained, but also properly organized and directed under a central command. Hundreds of religious, civil rights, and patriotic organizations—some recently founded, others well established—are scoring frequent minor victories for life and liberty against the tyrannical anti-life Obama regime independently and on their own, but their efforts must be better organized and coordinated to achieve major success on Capitol Hill. All 501 (c)(3) charitable, educational, and legal associations committed to defending human life and liberty in accord with the law of God and the Constitution of the United States (e.g. Priests for Life, the National Pro-Life Alliance, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Hillsdale College, Project Moses, and the Heritage Foundation) should unite to form a Foundation for Life and Liberty, while all 501 (c)(4) political lobby groups committed to defending the same (e.g. Fidelis, Patriot Voices, and Senator Rand Paul’s Campaign for Liberty) should unite to form a Campaign for Life and Liberty. Furthermore, these two parallel groups of agencies should jointly establish a larger umbrella organization called the American League for the Defense of Life and Liberty. This League and its member organizations should be publicized in its own website and print periodical as well as through EWTN, the National Catholic Register, blogs, and social media. By uniting and coordinating their efforts, these disparate religious, civil rights, and patriotic groups will achieve more effective results at the federal level.

5. Take action. Our Constitution’s Bill of Rights expressly guarantees our God-given rights to freedom of speech and of the press, to peaceably assemble, to petition the government for a redress of grievances, (9) and to vote. (10) As American citizens, we should take full advantage of each of these rights to bring the maximum possible pressure to bear against the Obama administration. We should write letters to the editors of local newspapers exposing the evil nature and folly of the federal anti-life mandate, and calling for its prompt reversal. We should join at least one of the above-mentioned groups, take action when urged to do so, and donate whatever we can to help support their efforts. We should write, call, fax and email President Obama, Vice President Biden, HHS Secretary Sebelius, and our senators and representatives in Congress to demand the immediate and full reversal of the HHS mandate—and we should keep doing this over and over until they comply. And if, despite massive public pressure, our elected representatives and appointed officials still refuse to yield to our demands, we must seize the opportunity presented by the Congressional elections of 2014 to rescue our nation from the appalling crisis into which it will otherwise be so needlessly and recklessly thrown by the Obama administration. By getting sufficiently large pro-life and pro-liberty majorities in both the House and the Senate, we can reverse the mandate and impeach President Obama and his cronies.

Will America Survive the Impact?

One of America’s Founding Fathers, John Adams, once observed: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The HHS mandate is a direct assault on religion and morality, what George Washington called “indispensable supports” of our nation’s liberty. It remains to be seen whether these twin foundations will prove strong enough to withstand the enormous assault about to be unleashed upon them by the Obama administration. As the close election of 2012 demonstrated, our nation is at a critical juncture in its history. Do the American people still believe that religion and morality are essential to the prosperity of their nation? That human life and freedom as well as human sexuality are sacred gifts from their Creator, to be used wisely in accord with His law for His glory and the good of their fellow citizens? That heterosexual marriage and the traditional family are divine institutions of love and life and the basic building blocks of authentic human society? That both the government and the governed are equally subject to an objective and unchanging law of God? These traditional convictions which the Founders took for granted appear to be steadily eroding under the forceful and well-coordinated propaganda onslaught of an aggressive radically secularist minority in Hollywood, the mass media, the universities, the courts, and the federal government. The rhetorical question posed by Thomas Jefferson more than two hundred years ago rings especially pertinent today: “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?” If twenty-first century Americans lose this conviction, they will lose their freedom as well.

The Choice Is Ours

Now as never before, the fate of America hangs in the balance. Our future depends on the course we chart in the coming months and years. Two ways are set before our country: the way of life and the way of death. (11) If we choose the way of life, returning and clinging wholeheartedly to the principles of religion and morality on which the Founders built our nation, America will overcome her present difficulties and survive to prosper and become once again a great nation. God delivered Jerusalem from destruction by the Assyrian King Sennacherib at the humble prayer of King Hezekiah. (12) He also saved Nineveh from threatened destruction when its inhabitants turned away from sin. (13) If we Americans—-individually and as a nation—-humbly and sincerely repent of our sins and ask God for mercy, He will likewise forgive us and deliver our nation from evil.

On the other hand, if we choose the way of death, God will allow our nation to suffer the dreadful consequences of that choice. A black curtain will be drawn across our Constitution. Our cherished freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and freedom to act in accord with the moral law will be crushed under the heavy boots of a tyrannical and totalitarian government. And we will be invaded and occupied by a foreign power—perhaps China—just as decadent Israel was conquered by the Babylonians and evil Carthage was destroyed by the Romans. America would do well to heed this divine warning from the prophet Isaiah:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!... To those who acquit the guilty for bribes, and deprive the just man of his rights! Therefore, as the tongue of fire licks up stubble, as dry grass shrivels in the flame, Even so their root shall become rotten and their blossom scatter like dust; For they have spurned the law of the LORD of hosts, and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the LORD blazes against his people, he raises his hand to strike them; When the mountains quake, their corpses shall be like refuse in the streets… He will give a signal to a far-off nation, and whistle to them from the ends of the earth; speedily and promptly will they come. None of them will stumble with weariness, none will slumber and none will sleep. None will have his waist belt loose, nor the thong of his sandal broken. Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses seem like flint, and their chariot wheels like the hurricane. Their roar is that of the lion, like the lion’s whelps they roar; They growl and seize the prey, they carry it off and none will rescue it. (14)

And President Abraham Lincoln echoed this biblical prophecy in a national call for prayer and fasting issued during a previous moment of great national crisis, 150 years ago:

Those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord… We know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world… We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Will we become once again “a wise and understanding people, a great nation” (15) that trusts in God, a nation “under God…with liberty and justice for all,” or will we foolishly reject God and trust in our own strength? The choice is ours.

The Return of the King

Although the powers of evil may do their utmost to kill the American people and destroy Christ’s Church, all their efforts are doomed to ultimate failure. With his Cross and Resurrection, Christ the King of the Universe has already begun God’s final triumph over sin, death, and Satan. This triumph will be definitively completed at the end of the world, when He will return in glory to judge all mankind. Every second brings us nearer to that final day. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the LORD…His truth is marching on!” (16) For those who have served Christ faithfully in this life, it will be an indescribably joyful and glorious day of victory that heralds entrance into the eternal life, liberty, and happiness of Heaven, where they will reign with Him forever. On the other hand, for those who have betrayed Christ in this life, it will be an unimaginably sorrowful and horrible day of defeat that signals entrance into the eternal death, slavery, and misery of Hell, where they will be tormented by Satan and his demonic hordes forever.

Copyright © 2013 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

ENDNOTES

1. Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 406.

2. § 1869.

3. Ibid; Cf. Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 400.

4. Ibid.

5. Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1869.

6. John 8:44.

7. Saint Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua: J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca (Paris, 1857—1866), 1156C.

8. Pope Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei (The Door of Faith), no. 6.

9. Amendment I: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

10. Amendment XV: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude--.” Amendment XIX: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Amendment XXIV: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.” Amendment XXVI: “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.”

11. Cf. Deut. 30:19.

12. 2 Kings 18 & 19.

13. Jonah 3.

14. Isaiah 5:20, 23--25b, 26--29.

15. Deut. 4:6 (Douay-Rheims version).

16. Julia Ward Howe, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” verse 1.

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Another anniversary... [at crucesignatiblog]

Today is another special day for me. Not only is the Solemnity of All Saints; its my anniversary with Jesus.

On October 31, 2010, after almost a year of doubt and disbelief in God, I was struck by how much He loved me, even when I didn’t deserve it. I decided to come back into the fullness of the faith and follow Jesus. So the very next morning I started out by praying the Rosary and asking Mary to pray for me, and almost every day since then I have prayed the Rosary. I also promised God that I would remain pure according to my state in life, practice virtue (especially charity), and I would always strive to do His Will. As time went on, I gradually started adding more and more prayers to my daily routine, so that now I pray and read the Bible for almost an hour a day.

After a few months of praying a daily Rosary and a couple of other prayers, I started to see changes in myself. I went to Confession more frequently. Before that decision to follow Jesus, I would only go to Confession two or three times each year, but once I saw myself for who I truly was (a sinner), I realized how much I needed His mercy. Another effect was the desire to learn more about my faith. A new family had started attending Mass at our parish, and I learned that they attended Mass in Latin occasionally. Prior to that, I had never even heard of such a thing! So I looked through all of the Catholic books on our bookshelf, researched on the computer, and found a few answers. One of the websites where I found the most information is Catholic Answers Forum. I met lots of wonderful people on this forum who attend the Latin Mass and could give me a few answers to my questions. Soon, I saw that there were many other things that I didn’t know about the Catholic faith, like that the USA has more holy days of obligation than Canada, and that Saint Therese’s parents were beatified. I will freely admit, though, I still have lots to learn.

God has greatly blessed me, both in the past three years and on this special day. He gave me the life and strength to rise early and praise Him, the sunrise this morning was absolutely glorious, and most importantly, He has given me the hope of seeing Him in heaven someday. Praise the Lord!

This contribution is available at http://crucesignatiblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/another-anniversary/
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"An Irish Layman Foresees His Death" [at The Back of the World]

Being of Irish descent, I think about death a lot. We can’t help it, really, it’s been bred into our blood by many long centuries of tragedy. I’m quite sure that our obsession with the Reaper is part of why G.K. Chesterton called us “the men whom God made mad”, and it’s gotta be a huge part of why Freud said that the Irish were “the only race impervious to psychoanalysis.”

And naturally, being Irish-American, in addition to death I also think a lot about poetry.

In his great poem, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, William Butler Yeats displays the Emerald Isle’s tragic relationship with Thanatos with terrible beauty:

“I know that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate

Those that I guard I do not love;

My country is Kiltartan Cross,

My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,

No likely end could bring them loss

Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,

Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to mind,

The years to come seemed waste of breath,

A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death.

The reader is left with the haunting sadness that can only come from a life pointlessly sacrificed into the jaws of human depravity. Yeats wrote this poem during World War I, and one is pulled towards the thought: if  Country and Continent and Ecclesia have been ripped apart, what else is there but Nihilism? Where else can meaning come from?

And naturally, the poem forces us to face the Irish Airman’s dilemma ourselves: are our own lives a “waste of breath”? If we cannot find anything to care about in this life, why should we bother delaying death? Is the only chance for “delight” to come from “this tumult in the clouds,” this embrace of the end?

Freud said that, in addition to Eros, the love drive, human beings also have Thanatos, the death drive…Thanatos is a longing to return to our original inorganic state, an irrepressible desire to meet our fate “Somewhere among the clouds above.” And indeed, if we look at our modern world, we see Thanatos on full display, in so much fuller a form than was even apparent in Yeats’ time. We see the embrace of Thanatos in abortion and euthanasia and drug abuse and war and capital punishment…what’s to keep us from counting it all “a waste of breath”?

Really, the only reason to deny Thanatos is another “tumult in the clouds”, one that St. Athanasius writes about:

“But the Lord came to overthrow the devil and to purify the air and to make ‘a way’ for us up to Heaven, as the apostle says, ‘through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.’ This had to be done through death, and by what other kind of death could it have been done, save by a death in the air, that is, on the cross? Here, again, you see how right and natural it was that the Lord should suffer thus; for being thus ‘lifted up’, He cleansed the air from all the evil influences of the enemy… it was we who needed it, we whom He Himself upbore in His own body–that body which He first offered to death on behalf of all, and then made through it a path to Heaven.”

You see, it was not Thanatos that drove Jesus to His death in the air, but purest Eros, a desire that our own deaths would not be meaningless, but would instead bring us to the Father. For it is written, “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,” and they are made precious because the God-Man died “among the clouds” on our behalf. We now have an open path to Heaven that we are free to take, if we will leave behind the idea that there can be a “balance” between life and death: Life must be our all, for what do Existence and non-existence have in common?

In the end this is my choice, and this is also your choice: Nothing or Everything, Thanatos or Eros, Yeats or Athanasius, Love of Death… or Death by Love.

“The Seven Churches” Graveyard, Aran Islands, Ireland

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How Parishes Can Alienate the Faithful [at Naru Hodo]

This week I was involved in a conversation in a closed discussion group among Catholic women (across the country) that I found so enlightening. The conversation began with a simple question: Am I the only one who cringes at the terms "fellowship" and "church community"?

Many women chimed in, assuring the commenter she was by no means alone. Fellowship as a verb, church family, church community, building community -- many were agreeing these terms were the source of great irritation.

This was fascinating to me. As I thought about it, these used to bother me, too. Even the word "our" used in some parish contexts did not seem right to me, as when I first started attending Mass and a priest made a comment that such and such a fundraiser would "benefit our school." "Faith community" was one that I used to not be able to stand.

I knew this, and yet I realize that now I hear, read, and even use terms like this frequently, and I don't even bat an eye.

The important thing in this conversation was

why

these terms elicited so much irritation among this group.

"It all feels so fake and forced."
"Our local Catholic school requires parents to put in 20 hours of community service to the school to 'build fellowship and a sense of community.'"
"It is like putting the cart before the horse. Those things naturally flow when you live a Christian life. Backwards, it doesn't last, and is just another club."
"It all sounds warm and lovely, but there's no skeleton, no structure. Completely rudderless. Holding hands doesn't 'make us community.'"

I realized that these women truly resented having their own relationships with God and others, and the fruits and blossoms of their own spiritual quests minimalized, disrespected, and set aside for someone else's vision or agenda for making Christians live together as Christians. I was seeing alienation in the very process of happening.

It reminded me of a friendship I once had with someone who was quite adamant about imposing her terms on others. Because her terms had to do with being "giving" and "loving," it was easy to feel confused and guilty about sensing something wrong with her "kindness." But because there was a clear element of force involved, what should have fostered closeness repelled instead.

I inquired among these women: what is it that you need to see instead of this kind of forced, programmatic, "let's build community" emphasis. The answer was not surprising:  authenticity.

First of all, only persons can be authentic. Programs, work committees, a pastoral persona, these things can't be authentic.

Secondly, persons must authentically relate to other persons. Forum members related experiences of the sting of judgmentalism aimed at them and at others. As one woman pointed out, what is needed is hospitality. This is not merely having pals over for tea. Hospitality includes the ability to look at someone who is completely not you, and to communicate "I accept you." I accept you, regardless of your political views, I accept you regardless of your age or marital status, your history. I accept you, regardless of how or whether you express any faith in Christ, and despite any obvious sins you may be in the midst of. I accept

you

.

Because deep down, we all have insecurities. We all have things we find questionable about ourselves, and especially when acceptance is not explicitly communicated, it is easy to paint ourselves into a corner and see Holier than Thou attitudes even where they

aren't

present. And we all hunger for the love of God that we

know

the Church hides away somewhere! We don't want it hidden any more. We want to see it. We want to experience it. We want to see Catholics accepting each other and everyone, not communicating silently that only those meeting the unwritten standard will be accepted.

We also desire our parishes to welcome of the gifts and talents God has given us that we have already developed apart from some parish program to orchestrate us into community. We want the community we are already experiencing to be acknowledged and nurtured. When parishes act like we have nothing brewing based on God's work already present in us, we feel a deep disconnect. We feel un-known. Oh, we know God knows us, but somewhere between God and the parish, it is clear that something fell apart. And all those "community formation" efforts ring hollow and fake. Eventually they become a mockery of all that is holy.

The two-day discussion was topped off by a lovely homily from Pope Francis, touching on the very same theme.

The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh? Already the Apostle John, in his first Letter, spoke of this. Christians who lose the faith and prefer the ideologies. His attitude is: be rigid, moralistic, ethical, but without kindness. This can be the question, no? But why is it that a Christian can become like this? Just one thing: this Christian does not pray...   http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-prayer-keeps-us-from-losing-faith

We can make an ideology out of forming community, out of "fellowship," but it will not satisfy, and it will not bear any fruit. There is one thing that draws all people, and that is the cross of Jesus Christ. The true experience of the Savior is the only means for true Christian fellowship. And when we stand at the cross, either we authentically confess our sins and look with mercy on every single other sinner who is called to stand with us, or we make a terrible mockery of that holy place, and leave unjustified. The key? Open your heart. Pray. Look at Jesus' suffering on the cross, and know it is for you. Receive that love pouring down. Pray.

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The Angels: Epiphany [at Sue Elvis Writes]

This is a draft version of Chapter 2 of my children's novel, The Angels of Gum Tree Road.
Have you read Chapter 1: Mrs Perkins' Garden Party Part 1 and Part 2?If anyone has a moment to stop and comment, I would appreciate a little help with this next Angels' story. The events in this story really did happen but do they make a suitable children's story? Let me explain...
My children are very aware of suffering. I guess it's difficult to hide the death of a brother. They know life isn't always happy. But they also know all pain has meaning. God is looking after us and we have to look after each other. So when it comes to books, they can deal with a sad story. But what about other children? Do sad stories belong in a little children's collection? 
I wrote about the death of a pet in the previous Angel's book. We all know how this can be a traumatic event for a little child. In this story, I wrote about the Holy Innocents which as everyone knows involved killing and little children. Mum, Annie and her Godmother cry. I did try to end the story very positively. Do all stories have to be completely happy? Please let me know what you think. 
There are a lot of characters in this story. The Angels' extended family is quite large. There seem to be many children. This is just the way of some Catholic families but does it all become too confusing?
This time I posted the complete chapter all at once, due to a request. It's long. Sorry!

Tomorrow is the feast of the Epiphany. Everyone will be remembering when the Three Kings followed the star to Bethlehem. On the Epiphany, after a long journey, the Three Kings found the baby Jesus. They knelt down and worshipped him.

The Angel family has a nativity set with small statues of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus who is lying in a manger. There are also some shepherds with a few sheep, and three magnificent looking men who are the Three Kings. The Kings have been travelling all around the house since the beginning of Advent. Every night when the children have gone to bed, Mum has moved the Kings to a new hiding place. And every morning all the children have wanted to be the first to find them. 

At the moment, the Kings are hiding behind a Christmas card on top of the piano. Mum is going to move them one more time. Tonight when everyone is asleep, she is going to place them near the manger in the nativity scene on the family altar. When the children get up in the morning, they will discover the Three Kings adoring the baby Jesus. 

Annie is the first person to get up on the feast of the Epiphany. She runs to the family room. Yes, there are the Kings next to the shepherds, looking at Jesus. Mum didn’t forget to add them to the nativity scene.

Annie can’t help waking everyone up. All the children stagger out of bed, yawning widely. They want to see the Kings too.

Mum is glad everyone is up early. It is going to be a busy day. The Angel family are going to visit Annie’s Godparents, Auntie Rebecca and Uncle James. Auntie Rebecca is Mum’s sister. Mum has four sisters. Mum is the oldest. Then there is Auntie Vanessa. Auntie Rebecca is the middle sister. Auntie Miriam is next and finally there is Auntie Jenny, the baby of the family. All the sisters and their families are going to celebrate the Epiphany together.

“There will be lots of people at Auntie Rebecca’s today,” says Mum. “Auntie Vanessa and Uncle David are coming. And Auntie Miriam and Uncle Dan will be there. Of course, Auntie Jenny has been invited too.” The children are looking forward to seeing all their cousins.

“We mustn’t forget to take the costumes with us,” says Mum.

All the cousins are going to perform an Epiphany play. Auntie Rebecca wrote the script. She has given parts to all the children. Everyone has been busy learning their lines. Edward is going to be King Herod as he is the oldest cousin. Kate will be the narrator. Joe will be one of the Three Kings. He will be a king on crutches. Celeste will be the angel. Lizzie and Annie are going to be some of the Holy Innocents.

Of course, Dad has been busy cooking. There will be lots of very hungry people coming to Auntie Rebecca’s house. They will all enjoy Dad’s cake. He has made a huge cake that looks like a king’s crown. It is covered in delicious sweet jewels.

Auntie Rebecca and Uncle James live on a farm. It is not a big farm, just a few cattle, a milking goat, some dogs and some pigs.

Uncle James didn’t really want pigs. But one day Auntie Rebecca was reading the newspaper and saw an advertisement. A farmer had six piglets for sale. Auntie Rebecca arranged to meet the farmer in town. When she saw the piglets, she wanted to buy them all. But how was she going to get them home? She didn’t have a farm truck. All she had was the family van. That would have to do. She opened the van door and popped the piglets inside. All the way home, the piglets squealed and ran around and around. They were worse than a van full of noisy children. Auntie Rebecca’s head began to ache. She was very glad when she finally got back to the farm.

Auntie Rebecca’s children were delighted with the pigs. Uncle James wasn’t delighted at all. When he came home from work and found he was a pig farmer, he sighed.

“Think of all the bacon we’ll have,” said Auntie Rebecca.

“Bacon?” said the children. Surely they weren’t going to eat the pigs?

Uncle James thought about crispy bacon and fried eggs. Perhaps being a pig farmer would be good after all.

All the Angel children are looking forward to seeing the pigs. They are no longer piglets. How big will they now be?

“Everyone into the van,” shouts Dad. “It’s time to go!”

Kate grabs the crown cake and Mum grabs the bag of costumes for the play. It is only when they are all outside, they realise that no one grabbed Annie. She is still inside the house. Dad goes back. “I knew we would leave someone behind some time,” he says.

After a long drive, the Angel family arrive at a huge rusty gate with a sign attached. It says, Sheepwash Hill. All the children say the words out loud, just like they do every time they visit: “Sheepwash.” It is such a delicious sounding word.

Dad drives through the open gate and down the long rutted driveway. The van lurches from side to side as Dad tries to avoid the potholes. Finally they arrive at a pretty stone cottage with roses growing under the windows. Dad pulls up alongside the house and everyone piles out.

Suddenly a crowd of children appears from inside the house. These are the cousins.

Auntie Vanessa and Uncle David have five children: Ben, Claire, Rose, Marie and Patrick. Ben is twelve and Patrick is three.

Auntie Rebecca and Uncle James have three children. Monica is six like Lizzie. And Felicity and Perpetua are three just like Annie. Felicity and Perpetua are of course twins.

Auntie Miriam and Uncle Dan only have one baby and her name is Lucy.

Of course, Auntie Jenny doesn’t have any children but she does have lots of nephews and nieces who love her very much.

The Angel children disappear into the crowd. Annie, Patrick and the twins all head for the sandpit together. Lizzie, Marie and Monica are all about the same age. They are going to play with Monica’s dolls. Celeste and Rose link arms as they head towards the trampoline.

That leaves the five older children: Edward, Kate, Ben, Joe and Claire. Kate decides they’d better check all the costumes for the play and make sure they have everything they need. But Joe protests. He wants to go and visit the pigs first. He wants to see his favourite pig, Captain Pugwash. Kate sighs but Joe is already clomping towards the pigpen on his crutches. He is clomping very fast. Joe is getting very good at walking with his crutches.

All the aunties gather in Auntie Rebecca’s kitchen. They are going to have coffee while Auntie Rebecca finishes cooking the lunch. All the uncles are helping Uncle Dan assemble trestle tables and arrange chairs. There will be a lot of people sitting down to lunch.

Auntie Jenny offers to set the tables. She has made lots of cardboard crowns. Everyone will wear them while they eat the special Epiphany meal. They can all pretend to be kings. Auntie Jenny has a bag of gold cellophane parcels. Inside each parcel are a few gold foil covered chocolate coins. These are gifts from the Three Kings. She places one parcel next to each plate.

Lunch is ready. Uncle Dan shouts, "Time to eat!” and all the hungry children come running. Everyone finds a chair and Uncle Dan says grace. Then they put their crowns on their heads. They all smile. Everyone looks very grand. Annie’s crown keeps slipping over her eyes.

The meal is delicious. Auntie Rebecca has cooked lots of pasta and sauce. Then the children have ice creams in cones for dessert. They will eat Dad’s crown cake for afternoon tea, after the children have performed the Epiphany play.

After the dishes have been washed, it is time for the play. The children change into their costumes. One end of the outside deck will be the stage. A row of chairs has been arranged for the audience to sit on. All the aunts and uncles are going to be the audience.

Kate appears on the stage first. She speaks in a clear loud voice so everyone can hear her. “We are going to tell you the story of the Three Kings who followed the star to Bethlehem to find baby Jesus.”

Edward strides onto the stage. He has a cloak around his shoulders. The cloak is really a tablecloth. In a loud voice Edward orders his servants to bring in the Three Kings. Joe and Ben and Claire appear. They are wearing cardboard crowns. They are dressed in brightly coloured robes. Auntie Jenny made the robes. Joe’s robe keeps getting caught under his crutches.

“Where is he that has been born to be King of the Jews?” asks the first King. This is Joe.

“We have seen his star in the east,” says the second King, who is really Ben.

“We have come to honour him,” finishes Claire. She is pretending to be the third King.

“King Herod was very disturbed to hear that a baby had been born who was going to be King of the Jews,” says Kate. “He was an evil man. He wanted to be the only king in the land.”

Now Herod, who is really Edward, says, “Go to Bethlehem and when you have found the child who is to be king come back and tell me, so I can worship him too.” He is smiling but everyone can see it’s not a real smile.

The Three Kings bow before Herod. Claire’s crown falls off and someone in the audience giggles. Then Joe gets his robe tangled up with his crutches again. One of the crutches falls to the floor and Joe starts to wobble. Luckily Ben catches Joe just in time. Everyone claps and Ben gives another bow.

“The Three Kings follow the star which has appeared again in the sky,” says Kate. “It leads them to Jesus.”

Rose is Mary. There are not enough boy cousins for all the boy parts, so Monica is Joseph. Patrick is baby Jesus.

The Three Kings bow down before the Holy Family and offer their gifts. This time Joe is very careful not to fall over his crutches. But Joe has forgotten about his crown. It slips over his eyes as he lowers his head. Ben has to help Joe off the stage because he can’t see where he is going. Herod is trying not to giggle.

Kate continues to tell the story. “That night as the Kings slept, an angel appeared to them in a dream.”

Celeste is the angel. She is wearing Lizzie’s fairy wings and a long white nightdress. On her head is a circle of wire covered in tinsel. This is her halo. She stands next to the sleeping Kings and says, “Do not go back to Herod. Return to your own country a different way.”

The Kings wake up. Ben and Claire help Joe get up, and they all leave the stage.

Now it is Mary and Joseph’s turn to pretend to be sleeping. The angel appears again. The angel has another warning. This time she warns Joseph to leave Bethlehem and to take Mary and Jesus to safety. Herod wants to kill baby Jesus.

Herod is very upset that the Kings didn’t return. He tells his soldiers to kill every child two years or younger. He shouts in a very loud voice. Claire and Ben and Joe are no longer kings. Now they are pretending to be the soldiers. They are wearing helmets and carrying swords. They try to look fierce as they walk off the stage.

It’s time for the next scene. Annie and Perpetua and Felicity are playing on the stage. The soldiers appear. The little girls know that when they are touched by the soldiers’ swords, they have to lie down and pretend to be dead. Joe clomps towards Perpetua and holds out his sword. Perpetua drops to the ground. So does Felicity as Ben touches her with his sword. The twins like pretending. They are having lots of fun. They can’t help smiling. They don’t look very dead. Someone in the audience giggles again.

But Annie doesn’t lie down when Claire comes near her. She screams. She looks around for a place to hide. She doesn’t like the soldiers at all. She doesn’t want to pretend to be a Holy Innocent. Tears roll down her face.

Mum is watching Annie. Tears start to fall down her face too. Mum looks at Auntie Rebecca. Annie’s Godmother is crying too. Mum wonders if she should go onto the stage and pick up Annie. She doesn’t like to see her upset. She wants to make her feel better. But then Mum sees Kate. Kate has Annie in her arms. She strokes her hair and tells her they are only pretending.

The play finishes. All the children line up at the front of the stage and bow. The aunts and uncles clap and clap. It was a good play. But Mum is glad it is all over. She enjoyed watching all the children act but she didn’t like seeing how upset Annie was. But Annie’s tears are gone. She is happy once again. She is not thinking about the play anymore. She is thinking about cake. It’s time for Dad’s crown cake and she is very hungry.

The cake is a huge success. Dad cuts slices for everyone. Before long all that is left is a few crumbs on the plate.

Soon it is time to go home. Everyone thanks Auntie Rebecca and Uncle Dan for inviting them to their Epiphany party. Then the Angel family climb into the van, and Dad drives back down the pot-holed driveway, past the Sheepwash Farm sign and onto the road.

On the way home everyone talks about the day.

“I loved playing with all the cousins,” says Lizzie. “I am glad I have two girl cousins my age.”

“I enjoyed Dad’s cake,” says Annie. So did everyone else.

“That was an excellent play,” says Dad. “You all did very well.”

Mum is thinking about Annie crying. “I felt very sad when Annie cried,” she says. "I know it was only a play but the Holy Innocents really did die. Think of how their parents must have felt. They must have suffered so much.”

Everyone is silent for a few minutes. They are all feeling very sad. Then Dad says, “The Holy Innocents died in place of Jesus. He must love them so much. They are special saints in Heaven.”

Then Edward says, “Did you see Joe get his crutches tangled up in his robe? It was very funny when his crown slipped over his eyes. I wanted to giggle.”  Now Edward does giggle. Then Kate giggles. Soon everyone is laughing, even Joe. All the sad feelings have gone. Epiphany was a good day. It was a lot of fun.

But no one forgets the Holy Innocents. That night they all say a special prayer. They remember to ask God and the Holy Innocents to protect all the babies in the world. They think about their own unborn baby. They can’t wait until their brother or sister is born.

Next... Chapter 3: Auntie Jenny's Birthday. 

This contribution is available at http://www.sueelviswrites.com/2013/10/the-angels-epiphany.html
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There is a dimension of freedom I consider to be its highest realization. I tell my kids all the time that the highest form of freedom is to do in freedom what you must do. Good luck with that! It’s easier said than done, but it’s also not as impossible as it sounds. It’s a paradox!

Are you free if you are obligated to act? It sounds like a contradiction, but a high form of freedom is to fulfill obligations with an interior freedom that is not sacrificed, but placed in service. In freedom, we bind ourselves to religious vows, marital faithfulness, and to the rules of our voluntary organizations. In such cases the difference between freedom and bondage is our capacity to maintain interior freedom while our actions are constrained by the rules and promises we’ve made.

Social courtesies are a  small training ground for this capacity, but in our day they are often dismissed as old-fashioned, lost for lack of common usage, or resented as empty formalities. Take, for example, the obligation placed upon you to respond to an invitation. Granted, you did not ask for the invitation, yet it does (or it used to) impose upon you a duty to say yes, or no. Sadly, many recipients today simply dismiss this opportunity to re-weave the social fabric and another opportunity is lost. When non-response becomes the norm, then bondage becomes the norm as our response-ability atrophies.

A gift invites the response of gratitude. Sure, you could write that blasted thank-you note just because you have to, or you could write it in true freedom, realizing it is an ennobling responsibility. It’s not that the giver only gave in order to force you to write that note! A person who always just assumes the giver knows he’s grateful, but never expresses it is missing opportunities to enlarge his sphere of response-ability. No one can make you go to Mass, return phone calls, keep appointments, accept invitations, offer help, contribute, participate, or  vote. But if you do what you should, you’ll grow in freedom.

This contribution is available at http://www.chattycatholicdoll.com/the-tie-that-binds/
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Where There Is Love, There Is No Need for Feminism [at and these Thy gifts]

Feminism supposedly has accomplished much, but apparently, still not enough. When/where does it end?

Most feminism, especially the radical, militant kind, seems to stem from places of anger, fear, and unrest. There is no peace to be found. These women are always waging battles, and more often than not, battle against themselves. There is a disconnect, because in the end, who wins? A woman who is fighting against her own essence isn’t an empowered woman. That kind of life, where one’s identity or purpose or end goal is always in question, doesn’t come across as particularly attractive or inspirational.

Yes, many women suffer deep mental, physical, psychological, and spiritual wounds, and often at the hands of men; healing is obviously needed in those situations. Prevention would be even better.

The whole woman, however, who has not been touched by abuse — rarely, if ever, has the need to be a feminist. When a woman is loved fully, she can be everything God has created her to be. She exercises her free will as it is meant to be exercised — for her own good and for the good of those around her.

Much has already been written about feminism, so this post isn’t scholarly or research-based — but I promise an honest look, even if mostly anecdotal and experiential.

Image Credit: http://johnthelutheran.tumblr.com/post/16107563572/what-would-mary-do

My mom and I have been fathered by and are married to heroic men, men who aren’t afraid of self-sacrifice. I have many friends both online and off who are in happy, stable marriages. This is what I see: When women find themselves in a place where they are valued for everything they are and what they bring to the table, there is no need for power plays or mind games. There’s no need to tear each other down. I know it sounds simplistic (and given more space and time I’m sure I could expound ;) ), but I’ve seen it happen too many times to deny that reality.

I have seen many terms thrown around when it comes to women’s rights, issues, empowerment, etc.: patriarchal, sexist, oppression, liberation. It isn’t possible to do a full treatment of all these in this post, but for what it’s worth:

It is not patriarchal to say that women are needed in the home. They are. Ask the numerous children who grew up without a mother. It goes without saying, fathers are needed too.

It is not sexist to say that women have a unique role that only women can play. It’s the truth. There’s a reason we have wombs. There’s a reason our hormones are the way they are. I can’t understand the logic of pro-choicers who say we have genitals because we’re meant to have sex. Well, sure, honey, but by your logic, I could also say, all women are meant to be mothers because they have wombs. I’m sure you won’t agree. But if we were to define ourselves by our sexuality as you want to do, you have to admit our wombs ARE an essential part of that sexuality.

A woman serving her husband and her family is not an oppressed woman. It’s all in the perspective. No, I didn’t say we exist solely to please men. That’s where the message gets skewed. But happy families make for happy children. Happy, of course, is shorthand for well-adjusted, positive contributors to their community, to society, to the world.

Liberation — from what? Is there greater freedom than being free from the fetters of contraception? From dependence on a combo of chemicals designed in a pharmaceutical laboratory, whose owners are more concerned about profit than they are about protecting your body from disease? And when the only way that they could sell it to you is to tell you that the natural function of your body — preparing for motherhood — is a MALFUNCTION that needs curing?

Empowerment is nonexistent where women are imprisoned by language that deceives.

Those of us who are able to embrace our womanhood, every single bit of it — the fact that we are often physically “the weaker sex”, the fact that we have wombs meant to carry babies, the fact that we think and feel and relate differently to people and situations — are happy because we don’t have to be anything other than our authentic selves. As St. Catherine of Siena puts it, “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” That’s exactly what Mama Mary did. She was the ultimate pro-choicer AND pro-lifer! She chose to say YES to God’s proposal. She chose to carry, in her womb, God Incarnate! Feminists complain about not having influence and power. Well, what do they think of Mary, who probably taught Jesus to wash his hands after playing and to eat his veggies? They say the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. In a lot of ways, it’s true. We women are powerful in so many ways — but most of the focus has been on what’s visible, tangible and quantifiable. And that’s where we make the biggest mistakes. Empowering women means more than money, or recognition or any of the other “gods” that are held up these days for us to worship. Real empowerment of a woman means seeing her true worth as God’s creation, as a daughter of the King, as someone whose real home isn’t here on earth but in heaven.

I do have “references”, but they are quite basic:

Mulieris Dignitatem — which apparently is considered a hate document by many feminists,

The Authentic Catholic Woman,

The Privilege of Being a Woman,

and the collective wisdom and example of the moms at our homeschooling forum.

Often, I look to my mom’s example since she IS a happy woman.

And of course, more than anything or anyone I try to look at Mama Mary’s example, and through the years of learning from other Catholic wives and moms, I’ve learned to ask more and more when faced with decisions, “What Would Mary Do?”. There is one definite answer: she followed God’s will.

This contribution is available at http://www.andthesethygifts.com/2013/10/31/where-there-is-love-there-is-no-need-for-feminism-an-f4l-blogging-event-post/
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Not Alone Series: Settling [at follow and believe]

No one would encourage you to "settle" when it comes to relationships...but would you ever consider it? What are your thoughts on settling in relationships in general?

Great topic this week, no? I love it because it is SO relevant and pertinent in our society today.

And I have a lot of opinions on the subject, so I'll try to formulate my thoughts clearly.

Ok, so settling. Would I ever consider it?

I've considered it. Definitely.

I had a moment with my family on our way to my cousin's wedding this year when we were talking about a relative who's never married. This lead to someone telling me that I better stop being so picky otherwise I'll end up like this relative. That hurt. A lot.
I really don't think I'm that picky...I just know what I want and I know that I'm not willing to bend on certain things.
But despite me knowing all of this, it still led me to wonder if maybe I was too picky.
Maybe that's why I'm single.
Maybe that's why I haven't been on a date in 3 years.
Maybe that's why I've only dated 2 guys.

We all have moments of weakness where thoughts of "my standards are too high" or "no one will ever meet my expectations" or "all the great guys are taken" creep in...which then lead us to thinking/considering that maybe, just maybe, we should lower our standards and be more "realistic".

Well I'm just going to come out and say it: that's a bunch of crap.

Your standards are not too high.

All the great guys are not taken.

Now, it's here that I think we need to understand the difference between our non-negotiable standards and preferences.

Non-negotiable standards are things like good morals, a strong faith, enthusiasm or [at the very least] a willingness to practice NFP and raise children in the Church. We've all got non-negotiables. Some are different than others, some people have more than others.

Preferences, on the other hand, are things like "I like tall guys", "

I appreciate good facial hair

", "it would be so great to marry someone who can play guitar", etc etc etc. This list could go on and on and on.

The importance behind understanding the difference between your non-negotiables and preferences is that if you are going around thinking that EVERYTHING on your "dream husband laundry list" is non-negotiable, well, then you might think that you're going to have to "settle". But really, while I prefer tall, musical, dark-haired guys, if I meet a guy who is perfect for me in all ways except for the fact that he's my height, blonde, and can't carry a tune in a bucket....well, am I really settling? Because he still sounds pretty great.

So, you might have to be a bit flexible in certain areas. But let me affirm you in this: looking for a chaste, Christ-centered, fun relationship? That is not unrealistic.

Does this make sense? Hopefully...because I'm moving on. :)

Another thing that I think is important when talking about standards and expectations in your future mate is the understanding that your standards/preference might change. What I wanted in a husband when I was 18 is really very different from what I now look for in a potential spouse.

Cindy at The Veil of Chastity

so eloquently touches on this in her

Sexual Attraction

post. What you're looking for and are attracted to at 18, 23, or 25, will likely be different! Does that mean that you're settling if you marry someone who your 18, 23, or 25 year-old self would shake their head at? I don't think so.

Even some "non-negotiables"

might

change slightly. When I first began college, I was convinced that I would never ever ever consider dating a guy who wasn't Catholic. It would be too hard, I told myself, if we got married and he wasn't Catholic. I couldn't do it. But as I've grown in my faith and trust in the Lord, I know that if He calls me to marry a man who is not Catholic, His plan is perfect and it's going to be just fine.

Now, some women will "change" their standards and be more "flexible" because they're simply afraid that they'll never find a holy, Catholic man to marry....that's not ok. Because that's not complete and total trust in the Lord and His goodness.

Don't act in fear. That isn't from the Lord.

Overall, I think the best way to ensure that you don't "settle" is to know yourself and to know Jesus. If you know yourself, who you are, what you need, what your deepest desires are, you won't be tempted to "settle". And if you know Jesus, you'll have the faith and trust to allow Him to guide you and He will not lead you astray.

What do you think? Would you ever settle just for the sake of being with someone? Link up with us over at

Jen's blog

!

Reminder:
If you would like to have an accountability partner, and haven't emailed us, please do so today!! We will be sending out an email very soon to let you know who your partner is! :)

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Next week's topic:

Fav single-person websites/blogs

Share other single-person blogs or websites that you love! Include posts/articles that you've enjoyed that pertain to the single life, too if you want!

November 12: Vulnerability with friends

Do you find that your non-single friends struggle with relating to you or vice versa? If so, in what ways? How do you handle it? What is something that you would like them to know or understand that they just don't seem to get?

November 19: Surviving events/parties as a singleton

The holidays are coming up! Family parties, friend gatherings... and you're single. How do you "cope"? Any tips or tricks?

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BREAK!

Ladies, we have decided to take a break from the Not Alone Series until January 14, 2014. I know it seems like a long time, but we are coming up on a busy season of travel and family time. We don't want to take away your time from what's most important. Feel free to continue to blog about your single life experiences, but we just won't be having anything formal until January.

This contribution is available at http://follow-and-believe.blogspot.com/2013/10/not-alone-series-settling.html
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Living celibacy for the Kingdom

Today is the anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s papal installation. This time next year, it will be the feast of St John Paul II.

22 October is also the anniversary of my ordination as a deacon, which is the day I committed myself to celibacy for the Kingdom. Since celibacy was one of the things we studied and prayed about during my annual course, I’ve been thinking a lot about it.

I thought I would share some of the practical resolutions I thought and prayed about. Consecrated celibacy is peculiar to a few, but it’s easily related to the virtue of chastity, which is relevant to every Christian, whatever their state of life.

An affirmation of love

Celibacy for the kingdom is a positive affirmation, not a negative denial. It sounds cliched, but I often pray on this. The notion of self-sacrifice, however noble and heroic, is inadequate.

Speaking personally, my primary motivation is love and affection for a person. I’m doing this for our Lord, not for a collective, or for an abstraction.

Absolute sincerity

The struggle to be chaste demands absolute sincerity in spiritual direction and confession. In the first place, this means being sincere with God. It compels me to recognise when my heart desires something that God does not desire. (This seldom constitutes a sin of course, but I’m talking about virtue here, not the avoidance of sin.)

In the second place this this means being sincere and speak frankly with another person, which is hard for me. I demand this of myself not only for the sake of chastity, but much more for progress in humility. I struggle with this, so I often meditate on these words of St Josemaría when I’m preparing for confession or spiritual direction:

How shall we be able to overcome our meanness? Let me make the point again because it is so important: by being humble and by being sincere in spiritual direction and in the sacrament of Penance. Go to those who direct your souls with your hearts open wide. Do not close your hearts, for if the dumb devil gets in, it is very difficult to get rid of him.

Forgive me for insisting on these points, but I believe it is absolutely necessary for you to have deeply impressed on your minds the fact that humility, together with its immediate consequence, sincerity, are the thread which links the other means together. These two virtues act as a foundation on which a solid victory can be built. If the dumb devil gets inside a soul, he ruins everything. On the other hand, if he is cast out immediately, everything turns out well; we are happy and life goes forward properly. Let us always be brutally sincere, but in a good-mannered way.

I want one thing to be clear: I am not as worried about the heart or the flesh as I am about pride. Be humble. If you ever think that you are completely and utterly right, you are not right at all. Go to spiritual direction with your soul wide open. Don’t close it because, I repeat, the dumb devil will get in, and it is difficult to get him out again.

Temperance (= moderation)

I laughed out loud the first time I read these lines from C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, because I felt like I’d swallowed “the grand lie” hook, line and sinker:

[The] chief use [of excess in food] is as a kind of artillery preparation for attacks on chastity. On that, as on every other subject, keep your man in a condition of false spirituality. Never let him notice the medical aspect. Keep him wondering what pride or lack of faith has delivered him into your hands when a simple enquiry into what he has been eating or drinking for the last twenty-four hours would show him whence your ammunition comes and thus enable him by a very little abstinence to imperil your lines of communication.

If he must think of the medical side of chastity, feed him the grand lie which we have made the English humans believe, that physical exercise in excess and consequent fatigue are specially favourable to this virtue. How they can believe this, in face of the notorious lustfulness of sailors and soldiers, may well be asked. But we used the schoolmasters to put the story about — men who were really interested in chastity as an excuse for games and therefore recommended games as an aid to chastity.

Lewis’ point is that we often tend to see virtue as the polar opposite of its corresponding vice, but this approach only encourages excess. Authentic virtue is never excessive, but always temperate. Aristotle called virtue “the golden mean” between opposing excesses. (Chastity is not the opposite of lust for example, it’s the golden mean between lust and frigidity.)

Practically speaking, I attend to the details of moderation in what I eat and drink, in my relaxation and exercise, and especially in my use of time. I seldom over-eat, but I’m easily tempted to spend too much time on a single task, upsetting my schedule and my prayer life, which typically precedes a temptation against chastity.

Devotion to Our Lady

I have a friend whose mother trained him to ask, “Would I continue watching this if the Blessed Virgin Mary was in the room?” “Would I be having this conversation?” “Would I tolerate this occasion?” I laughed when I first heard it, but I gradually find myself adopting this measure more and more.

I ask our Lady and St Joseph to pray the Rosary with me, and I commend to them my struggle to be chaste. When I started in the seminary, the Spiritual Director of the College encouraged us to look to St Joseph as a model of masculine chastity, and a powerful intercessor. It’s a good point I think.

I try to renew every day — when it is possible — the consecration and entrustment I made to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on my first day as a priest.

I’m training myself to pray the Memorare out loud whenever I am tempted against chastity. Not for myself. For someone else, somewhere in the world, who is also at that instant afflicted with temptation. My thinking is, even if I fall, maybe my prayer has helped someone else, and built up the Kingdom.

I don’t really have any explanation for why these Marian means work. No explanation based on psychology or anthropology, anyway. But they do work, that’s for sure! It’s purely supernatural I guess.

This contribution is available at http://www.acountrypriest.com/celibacy/
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Pray The Rosary [at Em's Estuary]

Happy Thursday All!

My unsolicited advice today – PRAY THE ROSARY!

I have a special relationship with Mary. She has always been with me, since we met long ago. I needed a mother and she stepped in. Praise God!  And – Because I have an affinity with Mary, I love to pray the Rosary.  It helps that my birthday month celebrates praying the Holy Rosary. How lucky am I?

What is The Rosary?  Below is the explanation found HERE.

The word rosary comes from Latin and means a garland of roses, the rose being one of the flowers used to symbolize the Virgin Mary. If you were to ask what object is most emblematic of Catholics, people would probably say, “The rosary, of course.” We’re familiar with the images: the silently moving lips of the old woman fingering her beads; the oversized rosary hanging from the waist of the wimpled nun; more recently, the merely decorative rosary hanging from the rearview mirror.

After Vatican II the rosary fell into relative disuse. The same is true for Marian devotions as a whole. But in recent years the rosary has made a comeback, and not just among Catholics. Many Protestants now say the rosary, recognizing it as a truly biblical form of prayer—after all, the prayers that comprise it come mainly from the Bible.

The rosary is a devotion in honor of the Virgin Mary. It consists of a set number of specific prayers. First are the introductory prayers: one Apostles’ Creed (Credo), one Our Father (the Pater Noster or the Lord’s Prayer), three Hail Mary’s (Ave’s), one Glory Be (Gloria Patri).

The Rosary is one of the most powerful weapons against the Devil. Yes it is! Just search on “The Rosary is a weapon”. You will come up with powerful links like these:

I recently saw this quote by a Sister who was, I believe, traveling Internationally. I love it. That’s right Sister – declare your Rosary! Love it.

As I was saying, October is the month of The Rosary. Here is a quote I found online explaining it:

October, the month of the Rosary is dedicated to increasing the devotion of the recitation of the Rosary daily. The month of October was dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary by Pope Leo XIII in 1883 as a means of encouraging the faithful to increase devotion to the Blessed Mother, thereby increasing our Faith. Praying the Rosary daily is a good and holy practice. Knowing this, the Church encourages us to do so. Instituting the month of the Rosary dedicated to praying the Rosary is a great way to get more faithful into the habit of praying it daily. ~ Month of The Rosary

Here is another explanation of what the month is and a great source for teaching how to pray the Rosary, found on The Religion Teacher – The Month of the Rosary,

Why is October the Month of the Rosary? October 7th is the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, sometimes referred to as the Feast of the Holy Rosary. The day was dedicated by St. Pius V who credited a victory over the invading Turks to the intercession of Mary through the rosary.

Pope Benedict XVI described the image of Our Lady of the Rosary in a 2007 Angelus: “The traditional image of Our Lady of the Rosary portrays Mary who with one arm supports the Child Jesus and with the other is offering the rosary beads to St Dominic.

This important iconography shows that the Rosary is a means given by the Virgin to contemplate Jesus and, in meditating on his life, to love him and follow him ever more faithfully. It is this message that Our Lady has also bequeathed to us in her various apparitions.” (Benedict XVI, Angelus, October 7, 2009)

If you are a regular on my blog, you know I was once separated from our Church, by confusion, pride, self-degradation.  I am so thankful though, that I always had The Rosary and it’s prayers. We say these prayers by themselves and in The Rosary. Together, they provide the arsenal we need fortitude and peace.

For me, The Rosary is PERSONAL!

I pray The Rosary, I keep my sanity.

I pray The Rosary, I meet my husband and get married.

I pray The Rosary, I get and stay pregnant and bring home a healthy baby.

We pray The Rosary, we work through marital angst.

We pray The Rosary, our finances start to improve.

My friends and I prayed The Rosary in Austin (there were Pro-Life Rallies for Anti-Abortion Laws) and people thanked us.  It got ugly, but we were largely protected.

For me, The Rosary is a direct communication with my Mother, our Mother, YOUR MOTHER!  She helps me every day with my parenting, mothering, teaching, wifing, homing.

When I was lost, I remembered to pray The Rosary now and then. Now that I am found, I pray it like my life depends on it. And it does. I’m telling you the God’s honest truth.

Did you know there are 15 Rosary Promises? Mary made 15 promises to those who say the Rosary daily. She shared these promises with St. Dominic.  You will find them HERE plus the meaning of each one. The rewards of The Rosary promises are very valuable, since we must cooperate with God’s grace in order to earn eternal life. They enable us to accept God’s grace and follow His commands more readily.

Learn how to pray The Rosary HERE.
There is honestly no better, unsolicited advice I can give you. Praying it will change your life, bring you peace, make you stronger and more faithful.

If you do pray The Rosary, I would LOVE to hear how it has changed your life. If you don’t, I’d love to know if you start up. I’m praying for you!

Edited to add – I am entering this post in the .

Love, Hugs & Blessings,

Emily

This contribution is available at http://emilysestuary.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/unsolicited-advice-vol-5-pray-the-rosary/
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Evangelization by Sequins [at New Evangelizers]

Let’s play the “What if…” game.

What if you just lost your job while your co-worker received a promotion and a big raise?  Would you be happy for him?

What if a parent that was often critical of your children found out that her child was just caught for cheating?  Would you feel the slightest bit of satisfaction?

What if your child dropped out of school while a friend’s child was just awarded a four-year scholarship to a prestigious university?   Does the news make you feel sick with envy?

What if you just learned your spouse was having an adulterous affair and a friend calls to share that her husband just surprised her by planning a second honeymoon to Hawaii. Would you share her happiness?

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

In the Christian world, this is where the rubber meets the road.  Going to Mass and praying is easy compared to mustering up the love for those that tempt us to envy.  It’s as if someone has punched us in the stomach. They did not do it intentionally, but they did it just the same.

When someone’s success makes our failure feel bigger, the temptation is to feel envy and to even desire his or her failure.  Misery truly does love company.  No one understands our suffering like a fellow sufferer and no one can deepen our pain like someone who has great success in the place we feel loss.

For example, someone with an abusive, unloving spouse could best find comfort in a fellow betrayed spouse. On the contrary, if the abused spouse has to sit next to a person with a publicly adoring husband or wife, a new seating arrangement might be necessary before nausea sets in.  Then if, down the road, the adoring husband or wife was found out to be having an affair, the abused spouse would be tempted to feel some level of satisfaction. This is where the sin of envy lies.

Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  If we cannot love those whose success is greater than ours, then we are not loving them as ourselves.  And if we rejoice in their failure, again, that is not love but sin.

Please! you might be thinking.  Am is supposed to be a saint?  Yeah, actually you are.  But how on earth can we muster such love?  From earth, we don’t, but from heaven, we can.  It will take prayer and an iron will, because it ain’t easy.  Yet, if we succeed, we truly follow Christ and in the end, the reward is ours.

“Give and it will be given to you.  They will pour into your lap a good measure–pressed down, shaken together, and running over.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” (Luke 6:38)

What does this have to do with envy? It’s about giving love even when it’s hard so that we may receive love in return.  We may be helpless to change the circumstances that cause us pain, but God never wants us to wallow in it.

Loss and failure cause us sadness.  But if we rejoice or desire failure for others, then we have sinned.  Instead, we should force ourselves to pray twice; once for the person who experienced the success and once for ourselves for help not to be envious.  By praying for the person with the success, we are taking a step to protect ourselves against envy.

You may think, That person is already experiencing success, do they even need our prayers?  Yes, everyone needs prayers.  By saying prayers for a person tempting us to envy, we are giving a truly Christian love that might at that point, take every ounce of energy to muster up.

By loving others under such difficult circumstances, it will be returned.   Love always comes back to us; if not from the world, from God.  For the measure with which you measure will be measured back to you.

Jealousy and Envy

There is a difference between jealousy and envy. They are often used in the same way, but are two different things.  Jealousy is the feeling that someone has something that rightfully belongs to us. Thus, a person might feel jealous that a sibling seems to be getting favored treatment. In sports, there might be jealousy that a fellow teammate viewed as an equal or lesser, is being given more playing time.

With jealousy, on some level, the person feels something was taken from him. If an attractive person is flirting with our partner, we are apt to feel jealous because our partner belongs to us.

Envy, on the other hand, is when a person has a desire for something that someone else has. Not in a shared-goal sort of way but in an angry way–they have what we want so we feel angry inside.   There is a feeling of ill-will at the success or good fortune of another.  Envy tempts us to bitterness.   In the end, it is a sin with no earthly reward.

For instance, a person who steals has sinned, but his incentive to do so is the goods he has taken.  A person lies in an attempt to benefit in some way.  With envy, there is no reward.  Don’t misunderstand me and think that some sins are okay because a reward is involved.  My point is that there is even greater incentive to ward against such sin because all the way around, we come up empty.  With jealousy there is the perceived feeling that something is being taken from us.   With envy, we got nothin’ and knew it all along.

To me, envy is the granddaddy of them all to overcome.  Loving God, going to Mass, not taking His name in vain, not killing, stealing or lying or committing adultery….these involve choices. But envy has a mind of its own.

Envy pops up in a place where we hurt or feel insecure in some way.  We don’t want to feel bad about ourselves.  We want to succeed.  So watching another’s success in an area where we are falling short seems to cut us to some degree.  If our pain is deep the cut is equally as deep.

In reality, it’s probably not so much that we don’t want others to succeed.  We just don’t want them to succeed while we fail.  We don’t want their child to be the honor student with the scholarship while ours is arrested for breaking and entering.   If our child was doing well, then it would not hurt us to hear about the success of their child.  Instead, we might be kindred spirits and celebrate together.  But without our own reason to celebrate, it’s harder to be happy for others.

Prayer and Perspective

It’s not our fault if the pain comes and we are tempted to envy.  It is our fault if we wallow in it.  There is great incentive to overcome it because in doing so, we overcome the pain it causes us.  But how can we overcome something we did not cause and do not want?  It’s a matter of prayer and perspective.

It’s good to keep in mind that God has our lives in His hands.  Who are we to argue with our lot in life?  We must realize that doing so is a lack of faith and us telling God that we know better.  And we also can only know what is happening on the outside of most people’s lives and in the present.  How often do we look at a family that seems to have it all only to later learn of some tragedy that befalls them? Or they are dealing with something very painful that they keep hidden from the world.  Stop looking at the things we want in their lives because a life does not just come with good stuff, but crosses too.  Do we also wish for their crosses?   We should never want to trade lives with anyone for their crosses would not be suited for us anymore than the rest of their lives.

Sure, someone may have gotten the promotion we wanted, but stop and think a moment.  Could offering up this disappointment lead to the salvation of someone in your family or even your own?

God knows what we need and don’t need.  Adjust your perspective and pray through your weaknesses. Those pangs of jealousy and envy spring from your own pain, so offer up the whole thing and force yourself to pray for the very people causing your pain.  Of course it’s not an easy thing to do.  They already have what I want and I’m suppose to give them my prayers too?  Well, it’s a great idea.

You’ll ultimately relieve your own pain through the grace of God and in the end, your generous spirit will come back to you because God cannot be outdone in generosity.

Copyright © 2013, Patti Maguire Armstrong

Patti Maguire Armstrong

Patti Maguire Armstrong and her husband have ten children. She currently works as a communications specialist with Teresa Tomeo Communications and worked in the fields of social work and public administration before staying home. Patti is an award-winning writer, speaker and was managing editor and co-author of Ascension Press’s Amazing Grace Series. She has appeared on EWTN, and Catholic TV as well as radio stations across the country. Her latest books, Big Hearted: Inspiring Stories from Everyday Families (Scepter Publishers) and Dear God I Don’t Get It (for children from Liguori Publications), will be released in Spring 2013. To read more visit Patti’s blog and website. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook at her author page.

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The marathon that is sobriety [at makingthetrek]

I had the blessing of attending a gratitude dinner with my Hubs this weekend for AA.  It was an area-wide event and easily attended by 200+ people.  Tables of 8, dinner of Thanksgiving foods (appropriately themed) and a desert table groaning under the redonkulous amounts of sugar and butter.  It was a pleasure to put faces to names of the Hubs friends, just fantastic people.  A few observances of  mine throughout the evening:

Coffee.  Water.  Lots and lots of coffee and water.

Laughter.  Smiles.  Tons.  No grumpy, long faces.  Joy.

Introductions everywhere (thank God for nametags!)

Rekindled friendships.

There was a speaker who gave his story of 30+ years of sobriety.  A lovely, 70-something man with at times an emotionally shaky voice as he recalled his life, peppered with witty comments and hindsight observances.   There was no “massive event” in his life that is present in many alcoholic stories (and drug stories); mainly a life of alcohol-centered living, obnoxious behavior and a wife (and family) that had enough.  His message:  there doesn’t need to be a “massive event” to stop drinking, but if you have repeated comments, suggestions, pleas from family and friends to “do something about your drinking”, it’s a red flag.  Sadly, not everyone sees it until it is too late.

At the end of the evening there was a sobriety countdown.  Starting with the most years sober (52) and counting down to the shortest span of sobriety (2 days).  It was humbling, impressive and hopeful and I found myself tearing up and that marathon that those with the least sobriety had ahead of them and yet with the amazing support in that room……hopeful in that they had every tool available to them to take each day….one day at a time.

Sadly, we did not win the 50/50 drawing…shucks!!!  $350!!!  However, I sure came away richer than I arrived.

Hebrews 12:1  

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

This contribution is available at http://makingthetrek.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/the-marathon-that-is-sobriety/
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Humbly Dependent [at Dancing in the Rain]

Clothe yourselves with humility

in your dealings with one another, for:

but bestows favor on the humble.

So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,

that he may exalt you in due time.

Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.

Your opponent the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion

looking for someone to devour.

Resist him, steadfast in faith,

knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout the world

undergo the same sufferings.

who called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus

will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you

after you have suffered a little.

To him be dominion forever. Amen.

I write you this briefly through Silvanus,

whom I consider a faithful brother,

exhorting you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.

The chosen one at Babylon sends you greeting, as does Mark, my son.

Greet one another with a loving kiss.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

We fear being small and we fear being forgotten. In our supersize nation, bigger is better. We seek our peers’ stamp of approval as we post and like snippets of our days, our hearts, our very lives. In a time where the frequent call is look at me #insertcreativehashtag, today’s first reading affirms Christ’s call to humility, which has always been countercultural. 

Well, I don’t know about you but as an athlete I never trained to be last, nor as a professional do I seek to climb down the proverbial ladder. And yet there is a resting in which we are called to through this virtue of humility, which Christ both extols and embodies. In some ways, humility involves a letting go. We must let go of false notions of ourselves, over or under estimated senses of worth and self-importance. We must let go of our pride. Humility allows us to admit our dependence on God. It teaches us to trust that God is faithful, loving and good. For when we admit our own poverty of spirit, we abandon ourselves to divine Providence, we are freed from anxiety, and  we are prepared to receive the blessedness of the poor. 

May we courageously follow wherever He leads us, trusting that even when we feel hidden, forgotten, or small we are never far from the God who has loved us into existence. May we trust the return of the Prodigal Son for as we turn home there will always be a tender, loving, and merciful Father running to meet us. May we repent of anything that is holding us back from receiving God’s love and may we cast our anxieties and insecurities into the sea of His mercy. Our Lady of Mercy, intercede for us! Mother Mary guide us to love and live like you did. 

“In a world gone astray from God there is no peace, but it also lacks charity, which is true and perfect love...Nothing is more beautiful than love. Indeed, faith and hope will end when we die, whereas love, that is charity, will last for eternity; if anything, I think it will be ben more alive in the next life.” From the Letters of Pier Giorgio Frassati 

Blessed Pier Giorgi Frassati lead us to the heights! 

http://www.upworthy.com/2-people-described-the-same-person-to-a-forensic-artist-and-this-is-what-happene?g=3&c=ufb1

Let us LOVE the gift of His humility and simplicity 

This contribution is available at http://dancingintherain401.blogspot.com/2013/11/humbly-dependent.html
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The Stork's Retirement {OB/GYN Career Wrap Up} [at Glimpse of Peace]

That's my dad!

The Stork is grounded.No more midnight races to the hospital for my dad

, as his (OB/)GYN days have officially drawn to a close.  Locking up his practice, sending off the charts, and closing this chapter of his career wasn't an easy move, but a necessary one, and Dad entered into his retirement with a style all his own.  A bittersweet moment to be sure, and one that we sure didn't want to miss.

Dad's last dictation for the patient charts

Business as usual

for the first half of his last work day, Dad juggled hospital rounds, patient visits and office tasks.  Saving the best for last, he invited Aileen to be his final 'patient' since her mom, Kathy (+), had been Dad's very first patient in private practice.  Aileen gladly obliged, and brought two of her sons along for the (non-medical) visit. 

Lots of relics around Dad's office will soon have a new home.

Adorning the waiting area one last day

Dad's last patient, Aileen, arrives with boys in tow.

Aileen (and Ryan behind door) visit with the good doctor at his last office call.

Bridget, Sam, and Tim hang out together in the waiting area.

Back in his active OB days, Dad delivered Ryan, Aileen's son, as well as two of Aileen's sisters.

Proud retiring papa with his grandson, Joseph and daughter, Bridget

Time to lock up the office for good...

When the final hour drew to a close

, Dad locked the doors one last time and we all cheered him to a waiting limo for a short ride to his retirement party.  Joseph and Ryan jumped in the limo, too, and their youthful enthusiasm kept the mood light and festive despite the emotional weight of the passing of an era. 

Party shoes on, the old Stork heads off in style for his retirement celebration.

An official retiree, playing the part in full color!

Father and son (Michael) load up the tunes.

My little brothers and me (Michael, Peter John and Bridget) at Dad's retirement celebration.

A happy retiree with his musically gifted sing-along-son, Michael

Many faithful friends turned out

to wish Dad a happy retirement, and the genuine expressions of love and admiration for his healing ways were touching.  Wrapping up over 40 years in the practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology, chances are pretty high that even though Dad's retired, he won't stop hearing the frequent call outs: "

Hey, Dr. Pete! Remember me? You delivered me

!"

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Sometimes the Biggest Surprises Come in the Smallest Packages [at Raising Angels]

What follows is the post I've waited about 33 weeks to write. I sure hope this helps to explain my hiatus.  Many thanks to the faithful who have stuck with me through it all.

When Nelson and I were dating, one of the questions I remember discussing was how many children we wanted to have. I always thought four was a nice number because I think even numbers are good, you know, everyone has a buddy kind of thing, and also because I came from a family with four children and I liked it. Nelson answered the question more broadly.

"As many as it takes to have one of each," I remember him saying. That was a bit scary to me but I figured he'd change his mind at some manageable number. When we married, part of our vows included the willingness to accept children lovingly to which we each responded with a resounding, "Yes!"

Because we are both strong Catholics we follow the Church's teaching to the best of our ability. This means we use no means of artificial contraception. Instead we have used Natural Family Planning as a means of "planning" our little family.

Here I'd like to give you the best explanation of this I have ever heard. We all understand that the main purpose of food is nourishment. However, God loves us so much, that He made it very tasty and enjoyable. We all recognize perversions of this. Bulimia, for example, demonstrates someone trying to get the enjoyment out of food without also receiving the nourishment it is meant to provide. This is not healthy mentally or physically. In the same way, the fundamental purpose of sex is procreation. When you have sex and remove the willingness to be open to the life, this is also a perversion. It, in essence, takes God out of the equation. Of course, the Church doesn't expect us to get pregnant with every sexual act, or even to desire to do so. It does however state that the decision to avoid pregnancy must be seriously considered(financial, physical, mental and the like).

If you have questions about this feel free to ask me or look it up in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It gives a much better and more in depth explanation than I do here.

Nelson and I both agreed that we wanted children, but we also thought it would be wise to give ourselves a year to get to know each other better and try to get the hang of the whole marriage thing before we brought another person into it. I was a teacher making less money than I care to mention and two months after we married, Nelson lost his job so we also had some financial reasons to wait.

Thanks be to God, he found a job within a month and we were well on our way to paying off his school loans and getting things in order. The greatest thing about Natural Family Planning (from here on out NFP), is that every month it requires a conversation. Are we ready for a baby? Do we have a good reason to avoid pregnancy? It bonds us together and helps our unity tremendously.

And then one day, not long after we celebrated our first anniversary, we revisited the question. For the first time, we had no good reason to wait and suddenly we realized it was time to be open to children. We got pregnant with Mackenzie on our first try and though we were absolutely ecstatic, we also thought, wow, guess we need to be careful about how we plan this little family of ours.

We tried to plan the kids according to our idea of good spacing, but God had a different plan. We tried for a year and a half to get pregnant with Aiden. Along with not using artificial contraceptives, we also agree not to use artificial means of conceiving for the same reasons...mostly that God is in control of creation and it is not our place to take that role away from Him.  That year and a half was hard, but we also both agreed that children are a gift from the Lord and we had no right to demand more gifts than God had for us. Mackenzie was sweet, healthy and pretty much perfect so we settled into the fact that God may have a different plan for us than we did.

We had just begun to look into the options available to us to pursue having another child within the teachings of our faith, when low and behold, we discovered Aiden was on the way. We were overjoyed! The fact that he turned out to be a boy was even better. Now we had one of each and felt like the most blessed people on the planet.

Even though this fulfilled Nelson's original statement about family size, we both agreed that we could handle, and wanted more than two children. Aiden was a hard baby though, so we were in no hurry to have another one right away. We decided one month to take a chance.  It had taken us so long to conceive Aiden that we agreed it would be better to have children close together than to not have any more children at all. I mean, what were the odds right?

I found out I was pregnant with Dawson when Aiden was a mere six months old. I was very nervous about that pregnancy test. I really didn't want to cry and make this baby feel unloved. Much to my surprise, when that little plus sign appeared, I laughed at God's great sense of humor. Three kids in a span of four years was not at all what I had in mind.

I will not beat around the bush. The first two years of Dawson's life were the hardest of mine so far. Nelson was working 70 to 80 hours a week and I was on my own with those three babies for a lot of the time. I love them and wouldn't trade them or their arrivals for anything but it was exhausting in every way imaginable. I was in no hurry to have another one, and yet, I also knew I wasn't ready to call it quits.

Nelson, however, was totally satisfied. I was not always easy to live with during those days and he was in no hurry to suffer through that again. We had three beautiful, healthy children and he was ready to move on. I got on board with that train of thought until Dawson turned two and for the first time in that many years, I felt as though I caught my breath. I started to appeal for another baby soon after that.

I remember going to dinner with Nelson one New Year's Day and having a serious discussion about the matter. I spelled out all the reasons I thought we should have another baby. We were in a good financial place. We were building a big, beautiful home that needed to be filled. Our kids were all healthy and doing well. We were getting the hang of this whole parenting thing. And besides, four sounded like such a good number. In reality, all the reasons we had for not having another baby were purely selfish. Starting over, sleepless nights, changing diapers, etc. were not really serious reasons to avoid children.

I promised to give him six months to pray about it. In the meantime I agreed to stop pushing. In fact, I committed  to not say anything about it until that time was over. He agreed and we went about the business of raising the three kids we had and building this home.

We both lived up to our agreements and six months later, we got pregnant with Max. Of course there were moments during those long weeks of morning sickness when I wondered what in the world I was thinking begging my husband to help me put my body through this again, but mostly I was so very excited to be given yet another blessing from Heaven.

The pregnancy was hard though (feel free to look back through the blog from the summer of 07 through Max's birth in February of 08). It was so hard, in fact, that I said to Nelson, out loud on numerous occasions, "I don't ever want to do this again. If I ever ask you for another baby, please remind me of this." I was in pain and exhausted from the house project and I was a lot older than the first three times.

I was done for real this time. I had my four and I was good. I wasn't getting any younger and six was a good-sized Catholic family. That is until Max was two weeks (yes, two WEEKS) old and we were out for the first time. I was staring at his beautiful face, holding his tiny body in my arms and completely in love. "Isn't he just the sweetest thing?!" I gushed to Nelson. "Don't you want to have another one?"

"Are you completely out of your mind?!" he rightly asked. "Do you remember the last nine months? Do you remember what YOU asked me to remind you?"

Of course I didn't mean I wanted anther one right that minute. I was simply acknowledging the fact that children are a precious gift and that nine months of suffering is nothing compared to the joy they bring into our lives. I let it go.

Max was our easiest, most peaceful child. He was content, sleeping through the night before he was two months old and the joy of all of our lives. Because of that, in the years that followed, I managed to talk Nelson into trying for another one on several occasions, none of which resulted in a pregnancy.

We were peaceful. After all, we had the family we thought we wanted. We were blessed beyond measure. God must be trying to tell us to be happy with what He's given us.

Once I turned 40, we stopped trying. My mom had my baby brother when she was 40 and she almost died. Even though I know medicine has come a long way since then, I have always had this fear in the back of my mind that I simply cannot be pregnant after 40 because I would die. Crazy, I know, but enough to make me feel like I had a valid reason to stop trying. That, and Nelson was convinced we were done. I figured I pushed hard enough for Max.  If God wanted us to have another baby, one of two things were going to have to happen - either Nelson would change his mind, or we'd get pregnant without trying.

Two years ago, when we decided it was time to move on, we turned the nursery into a guest room and sold every single baby thing we had. And last year, on the first day of school, I shed a tear just thinking about sending my baby to school this year.

It was shortly there after that Nelson began to lay out his five year financial plan. With all the kids in school, it would be time for me to go back to work. With both of us working, we could get in a place financially that would allow Nelson to retire early and do some things we have been dreaming about. I was not thrilled with the idea of working full time with four kids who still need a lot but I was willing to get on board with his plan. After all, he had allowed me the luxury of staying at home to raise the kids all these years.

So that's where we were when we were sitting in the kitchen in March and Nelson asked the million dollar question. "Isn't it about that time?"

It gave me pause. I was so regular that we didn't have to chart. I could tell you my cycle within a day or two and we were good at NFP. Suddenly, I knew that indeed it should be about that time. And then, I couldn't remember the day of my last cycle...at all.

I wasn't worried. We had taken no chances. I was busy directing plays and doing the Glory Run and it was my memory that was faulty, not my cycle.  I told Nelson not to worry. It would be soon and very soon.

Except that it wasn't.  And before the next few days passed, I was worried. What was Nelson going to do? If I was indeed pregnant, his whole financial plan would be ruined. What's more, what was I going to do? Being a young mother was always a part of the plan. Being pregnant at 41 was definitely not part of the equation.

I was in one of these unjustified fearful moments when I got a text from the man I love reminding me why I married him and how blessed I am to have him. He wanted me to know that if I was indeed pregnant, we would be fine. We would love this baby like all of our children and that we'd come up with a different plan. I felt a gigantic weight was lifted from me. To know that we were in this together brought me such peace.

A day later, we were on the way home from somewhere and I finally thought I was ready to pick up the test. It was still early, but the suspense was killing me. I hoped to sneak in the drug store, not alerting anyone to my presence, buy the thing and get the heck out of dodge. Did you know that they keep pregnancy tests under lock and key now? Having someone paged to that section while you stand there does not lend itself to inconspicuousness...at all.  Thank God no one I knew was in the place.

I got it home and decided to wait until morning. I bought the one with the earliest test day but it said that a morning test would be more accurate. I went to bed hoping for the best, which I thought would be a negative test result.

It was a Sunday morning and Nelson woke me up and went upstairs to rouse the kids. The time had come. I took the test into the bathroom, read the directions as if I had never done this before, and proceeded. The test was positive before I finished. There I sat in total disbelief. There was no reason the result should be what it was. We had taken no chances. We had moved on. We had a plan.

I was standing in the bedroom when Nelson walked back in. I'm not proud to say that the moment I saw him, I lost it. It was not the reaction I ever wanted to have upon receiving the news that our family was growing, but I had no control over it. I didn't just cry, I sobbed. I sobbed and fell into the arms of the one person who knew that this was just an initial reaction and not my true heart. He held me and reassured me that it would be okay. He reminded me that this was good news. He said his plans could change. Then he asked me if a false positive was possible.

I think I laughed. I think it broke the tension. We all know that home pregnancy tests give false negatives - false positives, not so much. We hugged again and got ready for church. I spent that mass on the verge of tears, begging God to explain himself to me.

By the time we settled into our booth at Waffle House, with the kids in the one behind us, we were talking about how the rooms will be assigned, who the godparents might be and when this baby might arrive. In the matter of a couple of hours, we had begun to adjust our plans to be more in line with God's.

I didn't sleep at all that week. Regardless of the joy a child brings, it's kind of earth-shattering to have your whole world change in an instant. I'm a bit of a planner and when those are ripped out from under me, apparently it takes me awhile to adjust.

We decided not to share the news right away for several reasons. First and foremost, I didn't want to tell anyone until I had had some time to adjust my attitude. We are pro-life and love children and that's the message I wanted to convey, not that I am selfish, afraid, and dealing with the fact that I'm going to be 42 when I have this kid. Also, my brother and his wife had just had their first baby and we wanted to give them a little more time to be in the spotlight.  Piper's baptism was quickly approaching and we wanted to make sure that was the primary focus for everyone. Finally, we wanted a chance to make it to the doctor and make sure everything was alright.

The doctor didn't want to see me until I was 8 weeks along. By that time, the morning...rather, all day sickness had settled in and I had no doubt that I was definitely pregnant. The test at the office confirmed this and then we met this sweet little soul via a sonogram. There he or she was, heart already beating strong. We, of course, were already certain but it was nice to see the reason for all the physical suffering.

At the end of the appointment, we sat in the doctor's office and were given the news that this was considered a more risky pregnancy due to my, ahem, advanced age (of course, I was also advanced age when I had Max at 36). After 40 however, the risk of every genetic disorder under the sun increases exponentially. My husband, being a numbers kind of guy, asked the question, "How much more of a risk?" As my doctor informed us of the numbers, my eyes welled up with tears. I was scared, very, very scared.

We got onto the elevator with the sonogram pictures in hand and instead of getting that giggly, anticipatory feeling, I sank into a bit of despair.  What had we gotten ourselves into? How would I deal with a child with multiple disabilities? How would the kids handle it? What would people think? I couldn't let it go.

That was the hormonal, emotional side of me taking over. The rational, mature side of me was comforted by one thing - this was God's plan for us. That's the thing about following our church's teachings and remaining true to our vow to be willing to accept children lovingly from God, when you don't take things into your own hands, God can still have His way with you.

One thing I knew for sure was that this baby, in this time, is God's plan for us. More than any of the other kids, who were all planned for the most part, this baby was given to us by God. We did not plan for this. We did not go looking for it. Instead, because He loves us and knows what's best for us, He made a decision that trumped all our plans. What's more is the realization that this is not God's plan for us since March, but His plan for us from the beginning of time. He has always known our family size and it's spacing. He knew He was going to rock our world, but He also knew we'd be ready for it.

After we got to talking, both Nelson and I had had our hearts softened to another baby without even realizing it. For him it was the realization that four kids is not such a big family after all. He wasn't looking to change it, but God was and so He put that thought in his head. For me it was being at the hospital as my niece was born and a few weeks later visiting another friend and her first baby. I left being very thankful that that wasn't me heading into those sleepless nights. And yet, there was a memory of how very sweet that time is. There was also the realization that my baby is no longer a baby and that made me a teeny bit sad. I had no desire to be pregnant, but you can see how the Lord begins His work.

When we finally got around to telling the kids the news, we were totally blown away by their reactions. They literally jumped up from the dinner table and ran out into the backyard shouting at the top of their lungs, "My mama is going to have a baby!" They were and remain over the moon excited about our latest addition. Experiencing their unbridled excitement along with their sweet concern for me and their newest sibling, was absolutely the encouragement I needed. Watching their faces light up as they felt the first kicks and watched my belly contort is so very sweet. Not a day goes by that at least one of them stops to hug my belly or speak to the baby.

We know that there is no guarantee that this baby will be "normal". We also know that God knows what we can handle. Regardless of the outcome, the baby is still a baby, a gift, that we will accept and love just like we've done with the first four.

We are surrounded by people in our life who have been so very encouraging to us in this journey; people who have larger families than we do, who have had "unplanned" babies, who have been even older than us when they had them. We have people who tell us that late in life babies are the very best. They keep you young. They get to experience parents who are more peaceful and wise. They are nothing but a blessing.

I've wanted to say this since we made our news public. But then I was so very sick for so very long. Truthfully, I have not had one good day in 33 weeks. Not to say that good things haven't happened, just that I haven't felt good or slept well in all that time. I get winded walking up the stairs and doing the laundry. I have been nauseated the entire time. I have been unable to drink much at all. I have been so focused on making it through each day that I've almost forgotten that there is something very, very good waiting for me at the end of this tunnel. And so I chose not to write so as not to spend the entire time complaining...about everything.

I have told the Lord "never" about three things in my life. 1) I will NEVER marry a younger man. Nelson is a few years younger than me and also the best thing I have going for me. I wouldn't trade him or our marriage for anything. God knew better than me. 2) I will NEVER be pregnant after 40. I had no desire to die that young. Of course there are no guarantees, but my doctor has assured me that what happened to my mom is not going to happen to me and he has no intention of letting me die. Nor does he see any risk...at all of this happening. I think God is giggling at me as I write this. "Crazy girl," He's laughing. 3) I will NEVER  have a baby in December. My brother and my dad both have birthdays in December and then there's the whole over-the-top business of the Christmas season. My due date? December 8th. Of course, I have a tendency to deliver a week or two early so we may still avoid this one. All the same, I feel God is slapping His knee, rolling on the floor laughing at me. "Never, you say? Ha!"

Lesson learned God. Have your way with me.

So here I sit, computer on my quickly decreasing lap, arms spread a bit wider on the keyboard because of my round belly with 6 weeks and half a day (according to said due date) to go. We chose not to do any genetic screening. We did not find out the gender of this baby. This baby is who God intended for him or her to be (I'm totally putting my money down on another boy) and will come when God desires and will be exactly what our little family needs.

We can't wait!

This contribution is available at http://raisingangels.blogspot.com/2013/10/sometimes-biggest-surprises-come-in.html
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Support for the Infertile [at This Cross I Embrace]

A young couple, desperate to avoid a pregnancy, using a natural system of fertility awareness, discovers they are pregnant for the 2nd time in a year.  Anxiety ensues.

Other couples who have been in their shoes, those who can easily imagine being in their shoes, and even those who have no earthly idea what it must be like to be in their shoes, rush to their side with words of encouragement, support, and assurance that how they feel is normal, even healthy.  To be a good mom means wanting to provide everything you can for your children, and worrying that you won't be able to do that is totally normal.  Advice comes in the form of find out what went wrong so it doesn't happen again in the future, advice of how to prepare for the road ahead, advice on financial planning, advice on ignoring the comments that make her feel guilty or ashamed.  Prayers abound.  Peace begins to envelope the entire scenario.

A young couple, desperate to achieve a pregnancy, using a natural system of fertility awareness, discovers they are now clinically infertile.  Anxiety ensues.

Other couples who have never been in their shoes, those who try to imagine being in their shoes, and even those who have been in their shoes their entire adult life, rush to the scene with advice, advice, and more advice.  Advice comes in the form of make sure you do it this way, at this time, and oh, of course, just relax!  Advice continues and develops into a derogatory tone of assumptions that the woman is somehow to blame since clearly the *real* problem has yet to be discovered - which leads to a series of guesses as to what the *real* problem may be, ultimately leading back to advice about make sure you do it this way, at this time, and oh, of course, just relax!  Eventually come the stories.  The "I knew someone who did this," and "I knew someone who did that," punctuated only minimally by the stories of those who have actually been there themselves.  After the collective pats on the back for the advice-givers and story-tellers, a general sense of "It'll happen" and "It must be God's timing" begins to envelope the entire scenario.

I ask you:  Which couple do you think had more peace in their heart at the end of the day?

I also ask you, what if the tables were reversed?  Imagine, if you will, the following scenarios:

A young couple, desperate to avoid a pregnancy, using a natural system of fertility awareness, discovers they are pregnant for the 2nd time in a year.  Anxiety ensues.

Other couples, mostly those with no children and clinical infertility, offer advice on make sure you are doing it this way, at this time, and oh, of course, just relax!  The assumptions begin to build that the woman is somehow to blame since clearly the *real* problem is with her - and guesses about what that problem might be (are you drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, eating healthy??) only make her feel worse and worse about herself.  Advice continues on which are the BEST days to use to avoid pregnancy, and coming from infertile couples, who are of course the

professionals

in avoiding pregnancy, this advice is

solid

.  Eventually come the stories.  The "I knew someone who had sex only on Cycle Day 28 for 15 years, and they never got pregnant when avoiding!" and "I knew someone who gave up trying to avoid and then spontaneously became infertile!" punctuated only minimally by couples who have actually experienced pregnancy, or unplanned pregnancy, themselves.  At the end of the day, the take-home message becomes:  "It'll happen" (no more children when you don't want them) and "It must be God's timing that you keep getting pregnant even though you have serious reason to avoid."

Does that seem ludicrous to you?  I should certainly hope so.  It seems ludicrous to me, because that scenario would NEVER happen (and thank goodness)!  How is any of that helpful to the couple who is experiencing a temporary anxiety about their current state of life, seeking support from others who have been there?

Let's now present the 2nd couple in a new light:

A young couple, desperate to achieve a pregnancy, using a natural system of fertility awareness, discovers they are now clinically infertile.  Anxiety ensues.

Other couples who have been in their shoes, those who can imagine being in their shoes, and even those who have no earthly idea what it must be like to be in their shoes, rush to their side with words of encouragement, support, and assurance that how they feel is normal, even healthy.  To be a good Catholic couple means wanting to welcome children into your marriage, and worrying that you won't be able to have that is totally normal.  Advice comes in the form of find out what has been going wrong so the overall health and fertility can be improved in the future, advice of how to prepare for the road ahead, advice on financial planning, advice on ignoring the comments that make her feel guilty or ashamed.  Prayers abound.  Peace begins to envelope the entire scenario.

Does that seem plausible to you?  I should certainly hope so.  But strangely, the scenario above would also NEVER happen.  At least, not in mixed company (outside of Infertility Support circles and the like).

Why is it that we find it so incredibly difficult to offer the same support we would give to one person carrying their cross to another carrying a different cross?

I think I have one idea why this might be.  And I think it involves comfort levels.

Infertility is just plain

UNCOMFORTABLE

.  We can't explain it.  Even with medical explanations, there is no earthly or theological explanation that we can wrap our minds around.  And, that makes us uncomfortable.  It is particularly uncomfortable for those who have not experienced it, nor carried the cross themselves for a time.  And so for them, the quickest way out of the discomfort of seeing someone suffering a pain they do not know is to try to fix it from afar.  "Do this,"  "Try that," "Just relax!" then, become more of a plea than advice; a desperate plea to ease the suffering which will then ultimately ease the level of discomfort of those watching from afar.

When the suggestions don't work, the stories of hope help to ease their own discomfort.  

"If I tell her about this woman I know who tried for 43 years then gave up and it happened, she will feel better... and I will feel better for her."  

It is honorable to desire to ease someone's pain and support them in their struggle, which in turn makes you feel good to have been of help.  These are good motives.  But please.  PLEASE.  Listen to the advice of those who live that cross.  I am not the first woman with infertility to say this, nor will I be the last.  

That is not the type of support a couple with infertility needs.

The type of support they need is the exact same type of support others need, and so often do receive, in their more identifiable struggles.  The type of support they need is that 2nd scenario above.

Additionally, and from the Catholic-Christian perspective, please remember that it is through our Crosses in life that we will achieve the Resurrection.  When you approach anyone to offer support in the carrying of their cross, it should be in an effort to help them reach that final destination, and not to sway them from it.  Suffering, while uncomfortable to watch from the outside (and God knows, painful as hell from the inside) is a huge opportunity for spiritual growth.  EVEN IF the couple with infertility in the above examples became pregnant the next day, by relaxing, or having sex, or eating a monkey, or all of the above, it does not take away the years of spiritual growth they experienced through the cross of infertility up to that point.

The greatest gift God has given us is none other than LIFE.  When new life is not being created, it is an inexplicable torment to the couple who awaits it.  When new life is created, under even the most dire of circumstances, it is still a gift.  I believe all of us, from all of the different stages of life, know this fundamentally.  Let us remember to give the type of support which is the most beneficial to a couple's spiritual progress, no matter what their cross may be.

This contribution is available at http://www.thiscrossiembrace.blogspot.com/2013/10/support-for-infertile.html
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The Pope, Kirk and Atheists [at Catholic Expression]

Let me try to consolidate some research and information for people so that they don’t have to scour the internet forever to find all this information out.  For those that are looking, many now want to know if Kirk Cameron is, in fact, an anti-Catholic because he re-posted the information about Pope Frances statement on atheists which claimed that Pope Francis was saying ‘man can save himself’.

Catholics seem to be blissfully unaware that yes, in fact, Kirk Cameron and his mentor Ray Comfort are actively anti-Catholic.  The duo have made very clear statements in the past that they are anti-Catholic enough to hold the very clear viewpoint that Catholics are not even Christians.  Catholics are in a separate category to them.  Take a look at a previous blog entry I posted where I show their stance against Catholicism.

So what DID the Pope say about atheists getting into Heaven?  You can read the entire message unedited from the Pope here.  You can also read an excellent breakdown of what exactly the Pope was saying with a question and answer breakdown to help clarify what he said in accordance with Catholic teaching from Jimmy Akin here.

Included in that piece is the excerpt from what the Pope said about those who do not believe in God:

First of all, you ask if the God of the Christians forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith.

Given that—and this is fundamental—God’s mercy has no limits if he who asks for mercy does so in contrition and with a sincere heart, the issue for those who do not believe in God is in obeying their own conscience.

In fact, listening and obeying it, means deciding about what is perceived to be good or to be evil.

The goodness or the wickedness of our behavior depends on this decision.

You have to believe in God to ask mercy of Him and those that don’t believe follow their own conscience and decide for themselves about what is good or evil.

So how did Kirk Cameron get involved in all of this?  This goes back about three steps and demonstrates how misinformation spreads like wildfire online.  Kirk re-posted an excerpt of an article from an evangelical entitled “The Pope Declares Man Can Save Himself” in which the author, Jay Younts wrote his article based on an inaccurate and misleading piece done in the UK the Independent where they claim in their headline that the Pope said, “you don’t have to believe in God to go to Heaven.”  

The chain of events is follows, The Pope wrote a letter to La Repubblica.  The Independent misquoted the Pope and claimed he said something he never did.  Jay Younts read the Independent and wrote his own article claiming the Pope said man can save himself, which is even farther off the mark.  Kirk re-posted part of it on his own website calling it “a great article” with a link.  This is how it got twisted and went viral and this is why Kirk’s bias and willing ignorance of Catholicism has placed him against our Holy Father.

I’m not sure why atheists would care about getting to a Heaven they don’t believe in or why the secular world seems so comforted by the false notion that our Holy Father appears to be softening the Church’s position on their final state at death.  Perhaps because it is uncomfortable at the idea of condemnation and judgment for its actions.

The Church’s teachings are clearly explained by Thomas Rosica’s in his blog.¹  He states in part:

God truly and effectively wills all people to be saved. Catholics believe that it is only in Jesus Christ that this salvation is conferred, and through Christianity and the one Church that it must be mediated to all people.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, part of which he quotes in his blog, also states:

171. What is the meaning of the affirmation “Outside the Church there is no salvation”?

This means that all salvation comes from Christ, the Head, through the Church which is his body. Hence they cannot be saved who, knowing the Church as founded by Christ and necessary for salvation, would refuse to enter her or remain in her. At the same time, thanks to Christ and to his Church, those who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ and his Church but sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, try to do his will as it is known through the dictates of conscience can attain eternal salvation.

-

Do not let yourselves be troubled by secular media trying to tell you what your Pope said to the people of God.  Remember the world’s reaction to your faith ranges from indifferent to hostile, therefore you shouldn’t let yourselves be swayed by their rendition of your faith or their empty hopes in conformity.  I’m not saying you have to ignore all secular media forever no matter what and only get your information from one source or another that fits your viewpoint.  Otherwise, you’re living in a vacuum and creating a limited world for yourself based on limited understanding.  I’m encouraging you to study your faith and when something like this comes up, go to your Church documents and read what they say for yourself.  Particularly the CCC, then Second Vatican II documents.  Afterward, go to the source, the Pope’s transcript, or letter and read it for yourself.  Don’t take the word of an indifferent to hostile world telling you what your Pope said.  Read it for yourself and by understanding your faith in light of what he’s saying, you understand that what he’s saying is not contrary to the faith handed down from the Apostle’s themselves.

Remember what St. Paul said, “but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.  Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men?  If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ.  For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel.  For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:7-12

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1. He also includes excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church #135, 152, 162, 166, & 171.

This contribution is available at http://catholicischristian.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/the-pope-kirk-and-atheists/
Copyright is retained by the contributing author (follow above link for info on this piece).

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