God honors a person’s search for Truth. He looks deep into the heart and knows the will. The unpardonable sin is final rejection of God. God honors our will. He is also merciful and hears the prayers of others on our behalf. (from a homily by Fr. S.M)
“If, today, you hear His voice, harden not your heart.” Hebrews 4:7
Pat Buchanan asks Is Notre Dame Still Catholic?
Says Ralph McInerny, a philosophy professor since 1955: “By inviting Barack Obama to be the 2009 commencement speaker, Notre Dame has forfeited its right to call itself a Catholic University. … (T)his is a deliberate thumbing of the collective nose at the Roman Catholic Church to which Notre Dame purports to be faithful.
“Faithful? Tell it to Julian the Apostate.”
McInerny calls Father Jenkins’ invitation to Obama worse than the “usual effort of the university to get into warm contact with the power figures of the day. It is an unequivocal abandonment of any pretense at being a Catholic university.”
An honorary degree, writes Catholic author George Weigel, is a statement that here is a man we should admire and emulate. But how can a Catholic university say that about a man who means to appoint Supreme Court justices who will keep constitutional and legal the systematic slaughter of the unborn that has taken 50 million lives in 35 years? Continued…
Day31Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan 4/1/09
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XX
Day 31 Lite Version
St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 82-89
Printer-Friendly Version of Outline: Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan PDF
ADC to Honor Helen Thomas at Convention and Inaugurate Journalism Scholarship
Ed Morrisey recommends Brothers at War
Jake Rademacher who made the documentary said of it:
“The honest storytelling of “Brothers At War” has received praise from war fighters, veterans, military families, Hollywood celebrities, and now Medal of Honor recipients. Join them by supporting this film which gives a true depiction of our nation’s warriors and their families.”
Michael Yon says, “Gary Sinise has gotten personally involved in promoting this movie.”
“The film follows Jake’s exploits as he risks everything—including his life—to tell his brothers’ story. Often humorous, but sometimes downright lethal, BROTHERS AT WAR is a remarkable journey where Jake embeds with four combat units in Iraq. Unprecedented access to U.S. and Iraqi combat units take him behind the camouflage curtain with secret reconnaissance troops on the Syrian border, into sniper “Hide Sites” in the Sunni Triangle, through raging machine gun battles with the Iraqi Army.”
Reports Gateway Pundit breaking news of NY Times killing a story that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign before the election:
“The radical ACORN organization worked closely with the Obama campaign during the election this past year although the community organizing group was not open about this. The photo below was scrubbed from the ACORN website before the election”:
Purifying the Church is a work of the Spirit in all ages. The Church is the home of sinners working on being saints. Like the disciples that needed Jesus to wash their feet although they had already been cleansed by Christ, Christians in contact with the world do find that the dust and dirt does stick.
Here I want to repeat a message and spread an appeal made by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. He says, some of the very liberal Catholic are calling for all kinds of changes that will leave the Catholic Church no longer the Catholic Church. Fr. Groeschel says, that the Church has be humiliated. It has been demoralized. We are asking what will happen. He says, “Pray! Pray! Pray!………Pray for the Church, pray for the victims and pray for our enemies?”
In an urgent appeal Fr. Groeschel joins EWTN in asking, “What can we do as Catholics and Christians to bring something good out to these most vicious attacks on the Church in the media and society?……Otherwise, we will have what Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen calls ‘wasted suffering’.”
Fr. Groeschel calls for reform; vigilance and reform to carry us forward from this point of humiliation, betrayal and defamation. Here are some areas which need reformation:
1. Liturgy and prayer
It should be reverent devout and worthy. Worship of God is a serious business. Prepare for it! Dress for it!
2. Eucharistic celebration and Reconciliation
Mass should be presented in a manner that supports prayer with appropriate music for all ages that lifts the heart and spirit. It should be prayerful.
3. Catholic education
Many Catholic schools of higher education should not be called Catholic. Many are simply trying to make money – greed!
4. Catholic Social Service and Hospitals
Many Catholic Hospital and Social Services are lacking in areas of Catholic sexual morality and catholic medical ethics. How do you make changes? Write letters!… Begin your letter to schools and hospitals the need change in these areas like this: “Before we do anything else, we thought it was only fair to contact you.”
5. Religious life
According to Fr. Benedict, Catholics can be very stupid. They don’t know how to deal with a theory. They let themselves be influenced by every passing fad. This is what has destroyed people; taking too much from psychology and not enough from the Gospel and from the Tradition of the Found. Give them a theory and they think they have to believe it. Something comes along, call it psychology, call it the ennegram and Catholics have to pick it up and play with it. For His part, Father Groeschel knows what he believes. He believes in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t need to believe in psychology or the creations of pop-culture. Psychology or things masquerading as modern thought have have far too much influence on Catholic thinking. Many Catholic communities are completely lacking in prayer life, in witness to the Gospel. They are openly open disloyalty to Catholic teaching and especially to the Holy Father.
Speak up! Cause trouble! Do not accept the false and mediocre. Resurrect the wonderful spirit of your community’s founder or foundress. Read the Gospel. Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Watch out for the influence of psychology. Some things are effective as tools but not as Creed.
6. Issues of Life
Finally, Fr. Groseschel says, “Speak out for Life.” We are not a loud voice. There are millions of Catholics and so far our voice is still a whisper. Get with it. Discover your Catholic heart and passion!
Don’t be surprised that the Church is being crucified. The Church is the Body of Christ. It is going to the Cross. As you call it on it’s sinfulness, don’t exempt yourself. Don’t be afraid of a Crucified Christ. Turn to Christ! Where Satan reigns; the Crucified Conquers! Christ conqueror! Christ captain! Christ command! The Church will come forth purified and one with its Lord.
InstaPundit on behalf of Simon Jester:
Here is where we could use your help. Submit your t-shirt ideas. Send us articles about dumb government. Even send us pictures of you and your neighbors at a tea party, esp. if you are sporting a Simon Jester! We will publish your pictures down there in the gallery, investigate your articles and give our take on them, and some new designs are already in the works. We aim to be a source of information and a rallying point for citizens who love the liberty inherent in all men and codified in our founding documents.
Daniel Hannan, he’s just too funny and sensible to be in government!
Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit finds more Daniel Hannan MEP (Member European Parliament) and escoriator on Scarsborough’ morning joe:
“The truth Prime Minister is that you have run out of our Money….You’re pathologically incapable of taking responsibility for these things… You are the Devalued Prime Minister of a Devalued Government.
Liberal spending mania selling their children future for their projects and agenda.
Twelve days after the Pope on the way to Africa answered a reporters question saying the Aides“is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can aggravate the problem.”
The media continues to defame the Pope but because of the controversy people are doing their homework and reading reports of disease control agencies and checking the stats.
The Pope is right. Media morality won’t work in the battle against Aids Their wishful thinking and magic condoms offer risky hope in an area where HIV and AIDS holds nations hostage.
Ugandan health officials wade into the fray with there knowledge based facts and observations (not biased based opinions.)
Raymond Arroy quotes author Matthew Hanley on the NCNC blot this week who wrote:
“An exhaustive review of the impact of condom promotion on actual HIV transmission in the developing world concluded that condoms have not been responsible for turning around any of the severe African epidemics. This rigorous study was originally commissioned by UNAIDS, and conducted by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. Instead of welcoming the findings, and adapting HIV prevention strategies accordingly, UNAIDS first tried to alter the findings, and ultimately refused to publish them. The findings were so threatening to UNAIDS that the researchers were finally forced to publish them on their own in another, peer-reviewed journal.”
Day30Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan 3/31/09
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XIX
Day 30 Lite Version
St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony:74-81
Printer-Friendly Version of Outline: Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan PDF
President Obama seems a man flying in the face of the Holy Spirit and not prone to be moved the Spirit, especially in areas of life, morality and the Natural Law…unless by “natural law” we mean survival of the most well-positioned, power-hungry and powerful.
Modern Medieval writes: “It appears that Joachim of Fiore is still around and voting for Obama.” “From the annals of strange stuff, I ran across this Italian article that has the mayor San Giovanni of Fiore inviting Barack Obama to his town in order to become an honorary citizen. Apparently, according to this article, Obama has invoked the 12th-century mystic and theologian Joachim of Fiore on no fewer than 3 occasions.”
In a Lenten sermon by P. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCAP – delivered in the presence of Benedict XVI 3-29-2009 Joachim of Fiore comes up again with regard to Obama and what this Presisent could possibly be doing in Joachim’s corner:
The fact that the recently elected president of the United States referenced Joachim of Fiore three times during his electoral campaign has renewed interest in medieval monk’s teachings. Few of the people who talk about him, especially on the internet, know or care to know just what exactly this author said. Every idea of church or world renewal is offhandedly attributed to him, even the idea of a new Pentecost for the Church, which was invoked by John XXIII.
One thing is certain: whether or not it should be attributed to Joachim of Fiore, the idea of a third era of the Spirit that would follow on the era of the Old Testament Father and the New Testament Christ is false and heretical because it affects the very heart of the Trinitarian dogma. St. Gregory Nazianzen’s statement is entirely different. He makes a distinction between three phases in the revelation of the Trinity: in the Old Testament the Father fully revealed himself and the Son is promised and announced; in the New Testament the Son fully revealed himself and the Holy Spirit is promised and announced; in the time of the Church, the Holy Spirit is finally fully known and we rejoice in his presence.
The Church speaks with the voice of the Holy Spirit teaching and guiding through its Magisterium. In speaking of the Holy Spirit Cantalamessa says:
St. Ignatius suggested practical means to apply these criteria. One is this: when we are faced with two possible choices, it is useful to first consider one of them, as if we must follow it, and to stay in that state for a day or more; then we should evaluate how our heart reacts to that choice: is there peace, harmony with the rest of our own decisions; is there something inside of you that encourages you in that direction, or on the contrary has it left a haze of restlessness… Then repeat the process with the second hypothesis. All this should be done in an atmosphere of prayer, abandonment to God’s will, and openness to the Holy Spirit.
And in closing he says:
When everything is reduced to just the personal, private listening to the Spirit, the path is opened to a unstoppable process of division and subdivision, because everyone believe they are right. And the very division and multiplication of denominations and sects, often contrasting each other in their essential points, demonstrates that the same Spirit of truth in speaking cannot be in all, because otherwise he would be contradicting himself.
It is well known that this is the danger to which the protestant world is most exposed, having built the “interior testimony” of the Holy Spirit as the only criteria of truth, against every exterior, ecclesial testimony, other than that of the written Word.[10] Some extreme fringes will even go as far as to separate the interior guidance of the Spirit even from word of the Scriptures. We then have the various movements of “enthusiasts” or “enlightened” who have punctuated the history of the Church, whether catholic, orthodox or protestant. The most frequent result of this tendency, which concentrates all attention on the internal testimony of the Spirit, is that the Spirit slowly looses the capital letter and comes to coincide with the simple human spirit. That is what happened with rationalism.
In a recent post, I wrote about the vengeance of Jesus. He took Satan and Sin to task on the Cross with the shedding of His Blood, not the blood of others. The God-Man suffered the punishment due our sins. All sin leads to lies, betrayal, murder, and war. Sin percolates and then escalates. It is as though the force of our sins hides beneath the surface of our daily existence and when its ready to show its ugly face, it appears as a slum, a dysfunctional society, a dysfunctional family or a war. Sin with its pride, lust, sloth, greed,envy and the like, ultimately brings havoc in its wake. However, it can be stopped. We know and have the remedy. Like the discovery of a vaccine or cure, it only has to be made known and available, applied and administered. There’s the rub. We are an important part of the remedy. The Good News of Jesus is here and at hand! Where are the penitents?
Monsignor recently gave a sermon in which he spoke of a conversation between a repentant prostitute and St. Francis De Sales. The Saint heard the confession of the woman. It was heartfelt and thorough, leaving out nothing of her past life. Afterwards she asked the Saint, “Now that you have heard my confession, what do you call me? Without hesitation, St. Francis de Sales said, “I call you a saint.” He went on to say that no matter how others saw her or what they called her, God saw her as she now was; as if her past sins never happened. The woman told the story again and again throughout her life. The Saint’s response of the mercy, love and pardon of God came back to her again and again, and strengthened her whenever she was tempted to return to her past way of life.
I tell that story because Rwanda is a nation soaked in the blood of its own people. Finding a way into a future full of hope rests on the Good News of Jesus Christ. Mother Mary as Our Lady of Kibeho predicted the catastrophes that would befall their nation. She also showed them the way back to unity and wholeness. In her numerous apparitions, she showed them that the Mother of God lived with them, cared for them and prayed for them. Her healing presence among them was constant and intimate. Her message is always the same, “Jesus.”
Jesus have mercy on me a sinner.
EWTN’s Sunday Night:Live with Fr. Groeschel featured – Our Lady Appears in Rwanda. Guest: Immaculee Illibagiza
Recently, I wrote about Immaculee , her book, Left to Tell and about the Apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho that preceded and predicted the Rwandan genocide nine years before it occurred. The images of the apparition were graphic and terrorizing as was the genocide.
In Left to Tell, Immaculee Ilibagiza tells her story of her experience of the Rwandan genocide. In 1981, many years prior to the Rwandan events( to which the world turned a blind eye,) Our Lady made them known through a series of apparitions (approved by the Church) to seven children, Alphonse, Anathalie, Marie Claire, Agnes, Stephanie and Vestine and Emanuel, a young pagan, known as ‘Sagastasha’ at the time of the revelations.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho has been given Church approval. Sean Bloomfield writes:
Although Rwanda was graced by a divine visitation during the eighties, the nineties brought quite the opposite: a gruesome genocide in which a million men, women and children were brutally killed, often by friends and neighbors, in only 100 days. The message of Kibeho, however, is intrinsically tied to this tragic event.
It was not until after the war that the Catholic Church made a definitive ruling about the apparitions. Only three of the seven alleged visionaries gained Church approval:
Alphonsine Murmureka Nathalie Mukamazimpaka Marie Claire MukangangoThese seers were the first three young people to report experiencing apparitions of the Virgin Mary, who called herself Nyina wa Jambo, which translates to Mother of the Word.
My Imitation of Christ
by Thomas a’ Kempis
Book 4 chapter 9:
With a sincere heart I offer myself this day to You, O Lord, to Your eternal service, to Your homage, and as a sacrifice of everlasting praise. Receive me with this holy offering of Your precious Body which also I make to You this day, in the presence of angels invisibly attending, for my salvation and that of all Your people.
O Lord, upon Your altar of expiation, I offer You all the sins and offenses I have committed in Your presence and in the presence of Your holy angels, from the day when I first could sin until this hour, that You may burn and consume them all in the fire of Your love, that You may wipe away their every stain, cleanse my conscience of every fault, and restore to me Your grace which I lost in sin by granting full pardon for all and receiving me mercifully with the kiss of peace.
What can I do for all my sins but humbly confess and lament them, and implore Your mercy without ceasing? In Your mercy, I implore You, hear me when I stand before You, my God. All my sins are most displeasing to me. I wish never to commit them again. I am sorry for them and will be sorry as long as I live. I am ready to do penance and make satisfaction to the utmost of my power.
Forgive me, O God, forgive me my sins for Your Holy Name. Save my soul which You have redeemed by Your most precious Blood. See, I place myself at Your mercy. I commit myself to Your hands. Deal with me according to Your goodness, not according to my malicious and evil ways.
I offer to You also all the good I have, small and imperfect though it be, that You may make it more pure and more holy, that You may be pleased with it, render it acceptable to Yourself, and perfect it more and more, and finally that You may lead me, an indolent and worthless creature, to a good and happy end.
I offer You also all the holy desires of Your devoted servants, the needs of my parents, friends, brothers, sisters, and all who are dear to me; of all who for Your sake have been kind to me or to others; of all who have wished and asked my prayers and Masses for them and theirs, whether they yet live in the flesh or are now departed from this world, that they may all experience the help of Your grace, the strength of Your consolation, protection from dangers, deliverance from punishment to come, and that, free from all evils, they may gladly give abundant thanks to You.
I offer You also these prayers and the Sacrifice of Propitiation for those especially who have in any way injured, saddened, or slandered me, inflicted loss or pain upon me, and also for all those whom I have at any time saddened, disturbed, offended, and abused by word or deed, willfully or in ignorance. May it please You to forgive us all alike our sins and offenses against one another.
Take away from our hearts, O Lord, all suspicion, anger, wrath, contention, and whatever may injure charity and lessen brotherly love. Have mercy, O Lord, have mercy on those who ask Your mercy, give grace to those who need it, and make us such that we may be worthy to enjoy Your favor and gain eternal life.
I’m not holding my breath but for crying out loud, when does sanity return?
It figures. Obama’s first judicial nominee is a raving lunatic. Judge David Hamilton ruled that prayers in Jesus Name at the Indiana House of Representatives was unconstitutional, but prayers to Allah were not.
via Traditional Values Coalition
“We walk by faith and not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
No one knows that better than Myah who’s been walking the walk with grace and joy. Now she walks it with Faith, her beautiful babe in arms. Myah writes:
I was told that my baby was only alive because she was attached to me, but that she couldn’t survive on her own. The doctor said that I could continue the pregnancy safely, but that my baby would die shortly after being born. Or I could choose to terminate the pregnancy then, which would mean being induced at 20 weeks and letting my baby die without ever seeing or holding her (I don’t even want to know what they do with babies in this case). Well, to some people this would be a difficult decision, but it wasn’t for me. I knew there was nothing to gain by terminating the pregnancy and I already loved my daughter more than anyone else in the world. Even if she was unconscious like the doctors said and lived for only a few seconds or minutes –even if she was stillborn –it was worth it to me. And so we began our journey…
Pursuing Holiness writes:
Faith has confounded the medical community, helped her mother and other family members rely wholly on God, and she is the recipient of a very great love. And if those things are the extent of her success and achievement in her life, it will have been a life well-lived.
Best to read the whole story. The photos tell a beautiful tale of 32 days of love with more to follow. Keep Faith and Myah at the top of your prayer list.
The District of Columbia signed on to be an official flagship city for Earth Hour 2009, a global climate change event. While Earth Hour, brought spotty darkness across the globe, Gore apparently frolicked in the light, according the Post Politics:
“The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion.
I [kid] you not, my friends, the savior of the environment couldn’t be bothered to turn off the gaudy lights that show off his goofy trees.”
Lioness feed
