Artist Jon McNaughton has done it again. With his newest release, “One Nation Under Socialism,” McNaughton has taken his personal one-artist’s crusade to expose the real Obama agenda to a new level….
Archive for truth
One Nation Under Socialism – the Obama Way
Posted in Art with tags America, Art, artist, betrayal, grassfire nation, painting, People, Political, truth, USA on March 22, 2012 by Joann
Thinking with Fr. John A. Hardon, S,J., S. T. D. – Real Presence
Posted in Catholic, Church with tags Catholic, Christian, Faith, God, Last Supper, Mary, meditation, mystery, New Covenant, tabernacle, the Faith, truth on September 18, 2011 by Joann
Image via Wikipedia
Mary was the first tabernacle.
At the Last Supper Jesus, the Christ, ordained and empowered His Apostles to do what, until then, only He could do, make Himself present, in His humanity, to the world.
What the senses can not perceive, the believing heart receives as total gift, total God, in His Holy and eternal Humanity, not just Spirit, but human flesh and blood, along with the power to make Him present in the world and to the world through out Time.
Mary received, and by her body, in her body, made Him present as gift from God the Father. In her Immaculate body, at Her faith response,”Fiat secundum tuum.” God became Man, and Mary was His Tabernacle, the Ark of the New Covenant, in fulfillment of the Old Covenant.
Reality challenges the mind and senses to believe God.
“And the virgin shall be with Child.”
“This is My Body…This is My Blood.”
God enters Time and remains in Time, coming unto his own and so remaining “Emmanuel”, “God with us” for all Time until earth and the heavens be no more, made new, as promised, a New Heaven and a New Earth. And God remaining Man throughout eternity with the Virgin at His side with the children He gave her from His Cross.
Truth in All Seasons- How Refreshing!
Posted in My Journal with tags Sarah Palin, speech, truth, Video on April 17, 2011 by JoannSarah is so refreshing. It’s great to hear a consistent message from someone who is believable. No tele-promter to help her keep her story straight. Change the audience and her message stays on track. It’s easy when your are telling the truth regardless of your audience.
Truth About Planned Parenthood
Posted in My Journal with tags Catholic Vote, planned parenthood, truth, Video on April 1, 2011 by JoannWho Do You Worship?
Posted in Art, The Cross, Video with tags Art, Catholic, Caviezel, Jesus, Passion of the Christ, Spiritual, The Cross, Thoughts from the Quiet, Tim Hughes, truth, Video, worship on November 22, 2009 by JoannCan’t say it any better than Mel Gibson, Tim Hughes and Jim Caviezel:
Obama’s Transparent Administration
Posted in American, Culture, Government, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags administration, American, Culture, goverment, Government, hypocritical, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud, lies, Obama, policy, Politics, president, transparency, truth on October 15, 2009 by JoannNot!
Speaking of broken promises: “Blah, blah,blah,Ginger. Blah,blah blah.”
Is America getting the message? Is America in the dark?
Loosing the World of Face to Face?
Posted in Christian with tags Christian, From My Solitude, God in the Ordinary, meaning, meaning of life, Os Guinness, philosophy, seeking, Thoughts from the Quiet, truth on October 13, 2009 by JoannHow much of your world is face to face? Twitter, Facebook,virtual networking, email; all “thin community”. “Thick community” is eye to eye, face to face and human.
Os Guinness says that four things are important to humans: meaning, belonging, identity (Who am I?) and purpose (What am I here for?) Reminding me of Socrates’ “The unreflected life is not worth living.” Guinness writes:
“We are, quite literally, spread thin across space and time, potentially everywhere and nowhere at once. We thus tend to have, in the words of Gilbert Meilaender, ‘not an individual identity, but fragments of experience; not the narrative of a life that is in some sense a whole, but a decentered flow of experience.’ “
As I peek in on Facebook, I leave feeling as though I don’t know anyone anymore, just shouts and waves as comments and faces rush by. (Twitter’s even worse!) Am I alone in feeling this?
Guinness has an engaging discussion: “Survival of the fastest: Living sanely when life is fired point blank.” on the Veritas Forum .
Evangelize Without Yielding to Secularization
Posted in Christ, Christian, Church, Culture, Faith, Holy Spirit, Just Thinking Out Loud, Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican with tags Benedict XVI, Catholic, Christ, Christian, christianity, Church, Culture, evangelize, Faith, God, Holy See, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Just Thinking Out Loud, Pope, Pope Benedict, Pope Benedict XVI, truth, Vatican on September 19, 2009 by JoannDoes Obama Trample Truth?
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Opinions, United States with tags American, Charles Krauthammer, Krauthammer, lie, Obama, Opinions, Politics, truth, United States on September 18, 2009 by JoannI think Obama plays Truth like a shell game. Charles Krauthammer asks , “Does He lie?”
Krauthammer thinks Obama’s too slick for a simple, out and out, lie:
Obama doesn’t lie. He merely elides, gliding from one dubious assertion to another. This has been the story throughout his whole health care crusade. Its original premise was that our current financial crisis was rooted in neglect of three things — energy, education and health care. That transparent attempt to exploit Emanuel’s Law — a crisis is a terrible thing to waste — failed for health care because no one is stupid enough to believe that the 2008 financial collapse was caused by a lack of universal health care.
So on to the next gambit: selling health care reform as a cure for the deficit. When that was exploded by the Congressional Budget Office’s demonstration of staggering Obamacare deficits, Obama tried a new tack: selling his plan as revenue-neutral insurance reform — until the revenue neutrality is exposed as phony future cuts and chimerical waste and fraud.
Obama doesn’t lie. He implies, he misdirects, he misleads — so fluidly and incessantly that he risks transmuting eloquence into mere slickness.
Slickness wasn’t fatal to “Slick Willie” Clinton because he possessed a winning, near irresistible charm. Obama’s persona is more cool, distant, imperial. The charming scoundrel can get away with endless deception; the righteous redeemer cannot.
Read it all here.
Demand Answers! “Facts are Stubborn”
Posted in American, News, Obama, Pelosi, Political, President Obama with tags American, Catholic, meetings, News, Obama, Pelosi, Political, Politics, President Obama, Religion, town hall, truth on August 13, 2009 by JoannRead all about the healthcare that includes killing the unborn infant in the womb!…here.
From Emily Buchanan, executive director, Susan B. Anthony List:
Demand Answers at Town Hall Meetings!
With Congress in recess, many Representatives are holding Town Hall meetings so that constituents can voice their opinions.
As you’ve probably heard in the news, thousands of American voters are coming together at these Town Hall meetings to demand answers from their Representatives concerning the health care bill.
It is time for Susan B. Anthony List Pro-Life Activists to get involved and demand answers on why Congress wants to use our tax dollars to provide abortion coverage in every health care plan, public or private.
Already, Representatives are feeling the heat on abortion.
Just yesterday, when asked about abortion coverage in the health care bill,
Rep. John Dingell, the chief sponsor of the bill, responded: “There will be no payment of taxpayer funds for abortion.”
Simply put, this is a bold-faced lie.
Just this week, the Associated Press (AP) wrote a story
headlined, “Gov’t insurance would allow coverage for abortion.”
The truth is on our side, and we must make sure we share the truth with every member of Congress face-to-face to Stop the Abortion Mandate!
Here are 5 easy ways that you can make a difference in your community:
1. Find local Town Hall meetings sponsored by your Representatives. Click Here for a list of Town Hall meetings across the country.
2. Bring a homemade sign that says, “Abortion is NOT Health Care” with www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com
below it.
3. Simply ask your Representative: “Why is the current health care bill forcing me to pay for abortion coverage?” Click here for more sample questions and tips!
4. If your Representative denies the charge, hold up the Associated Press story and read the headline. Ask them why they are lying about abortion coverage in the bill. Click Here to print out the Associated Press story.
5. Please bring a video camera and have someone record your question and record the response. Contact us at information@sba-list.org so we can help you send us the video. At the Town Hall, seek out members of the press and do interviews with them.
Emily Buchanan
Executive Director, Susan B. Anthony List
703-875-3370
www.sba-list.org
From Americans United for Life Action’s Charmaine Yoest:
Just yesterday, in a USA Today op-ed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) argued that the people attending town hall meetings and questioning the wisdom of the House health care reform bill have been “un-American.” “Opponents are afraid not just of differing views,” they write, “but of the facts themselves.”
But as John Adams famously argued in 1770, “Facts are stubborn things.”
The truth is that there is nothing more American than the First Amendment right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The facts of the plan under consideration demand that pro-life Americans speak up now or risk being forced to pay for a plan that mandates taxpayer funds for abortion, strips health care providers of conscience rights, and threatens the ill and elderly with denial of care.
Here’s a better idea than questioning one another’s patriotism: show them you’re not afraid of the facts. Go to your U.S. senator or representative’s town hall meeting and ask informed questions. AUL’s legal team has written a talking-points flyer for pro-lifers to distribute at these meetings. It gives detailed information on the parts of the bills under consideration that relate to abortion, end-of-life care, and conscience rights. The flyer also includes our three essential principles that must be in any health care reform plan that protects life. Click here to download the flyer.
All the information on the flyer is also available on AUL’s RealHealthCareRespectsLife.com, along with additional in-depth analysis from our legal experts on the health care reform plans currently in the House and Senate. If you haven’t done so already, make sure to sign the site’s petition to add your voice to the thousands urging the President to keep abortion out of health care. Thank you for joining me in protecting and defending life!
Caught on Tape: Obama Calls Abortion the Center of His Health Care Agenda
If you’ve seen our FightFOCA.com, you know that, as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised abortion advocates at a Planned Parenthood conference that the “first thing” he’d do as President was to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Thankfully, you and the 700,000 others who signed our “Fight FOCA” petition helped convince him that was a bad idea. But did you know that, at that same conference, Obama said that mandated abortion coverage would be at the “center and heart” of his health care agenda? He did, and we’ve got the tape.
Restlessness of Soul
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Faith with tags Catholic, Christ, Christian, Faith, God, grace, heart, intentions, Religion, restless, soul, Spiritual, Thomas a' Kempis, truth on June 27, 2009 by JoannImitation of Christ
Chapter33
Restlessness of Soul — Directing Our Final Intention Toward God
The Voice of Christ: MY CHILD, do not trust in your present feeling, for it will soon give way to another. As long as you live you will be subject to changeableness in spite of yourself. You will become merry at one time and sad at another, now peaceful but again disturbed, at one moment devout and the next indevout, sometimes diligent while at other times lazy, now grave and again flippant. But the man who is wise and whose spirit is well instructed stands superior to these changes. He pays no attention to what he feels in himself or from what quarter the wind of fickleness blows, so long as the whole intention of his mind is conducive to his proper and desired end. For thus he can stand undivided, unchanged, and unshaken, with the singleness of his intention directed unwaveringly toward Me, even in the midst of so many changing events. And the purer this singleness of intention is, with so much the more constancy does he pass through many storms. But in many ways the eye of pure intention grows dim, because it is attracted to any delightful thing that it meets. Indeed, it is rare to find one who is entirely free from all taint of self- seeking. The Jews of old, for example, came to Bethany to Martha and Mary, not for Jesus’ sake alone, but in order to see Lazarus. The eye of your intention, therefore, must be cleansed so that it is single and right. It must be directed toward Me, despite all the objects which may interfere.
Into the Hands of Foreigners
Posted in American, Anti-abortion, Catholic, Christ, Defending Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, My Journal, Religion, Scripture, Spiritual with tags abortion, abortion mills, American, Anti-abortion, Catholic, choice, Christ, Defending Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, meditation, My Journal, Reflections, Religion, Scripture, Spiritual, truth on May 23, 2009 by JoannSave us, Lord, collect us together from among the nations. Alleluia.
Psalm 105 (106)
They mingled themselves with the peoples,and learned to do as they did.They served the same idolsuntil it became their undoing.They sacrificed their own sonsand their daughters to demons.They poured out innocent blood.The blood of their own sons and daughterswas sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.Their blood polluted the land,and their actions defiled them.They devoted themselves to whoring.The Lord blazed out in anger against his own people,He detested his own chosen race.He gave them into the hands of foreigners.They were conquered by those who hated them.
These words from today’s Office of Readings, I find frightening in light of our society. We are blessed by the knowledge that God, who is near to us, has blessed us, giving us His Son and sending us His Holy Spirit. Sinners get to live as saints should they so desire. What does our society reveal about our desires.
What does our society testify about us as a people? Gifts, even gifts of God, can be squandered by prodigal sons and daughters. His greatest gift, life, we subject to pluralistic debate and countermand by man-made law. ‘Choice’ is elevated above conscience and morality and enshrined as a god to be fed by money-making mills. Is this license the best we can do with the gift of life in a land of freedom and liberty?
Facts about fetal pain.
More facts about fetal pain.
Facts about maternal pain.
Link – Around – Pelosi
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Conservative, Culture, Government, Opinions, Politics, Reflecting on the news, United States with tags American, Charles Krauthammer, CIA, Conservative, Culture, Government, Krauthammer, Must Read, News, Opinions, Pelosi, Politics, Reflecting on the news, security, torture, truth, United States, USA, Video, water-boarding on May 15, 2009 by JoannAshes, ashes…the truth will out Pelosi!
The Torture Debate-Continued – Charles Krauthammer
“So what happened? The reason Pelosi raised no objection to waterboarding at the time, the reason the American people (who by 2004 knew what was going on) strongly reelected the man who ordered these interrogations, is not because she and the rest of the American people suffered a years-long moral psychosis from which they have just now awoken. It is because at that time they were aware of the existing conditions — our blindness to al-Qaeda’s plans, the urgency of the threat, the magnitude of the suffering that might be caused by a second 9/11, the likelihood that the interrogation would extract intelligence that President Obama’s own director of national intelligence now tells us was indeed “high-value information” — and concluded that on balance it was a reasonable response to a terrible threat.
And they were right.”
The Wall St Journal Time-line-intelligence trail:
What Pelosi said she knew
- August 2002: Justice Department authorizes waterboarding and other ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques (EITs). The CIA uses the technique.
- September 2002: Nancy Pelosi, ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, is briefed on the techniques.
- February 2003: A Pelosi aide attends a briefing with the new ranking member on the committee, Jane Harman. Pelosi later says that she learns after this meeting that the techniques have already been used, and that she ‘concurred’ with Harman’s letter to the CIA protesting the decision to use them.
- December 2007: A news report quotes two officials who say Pelosi was briefed on waterboarding and raised no objections. Pelosi issues a statement confirming she was briefed on one occasion in the fall of 2002 ‘on interrogation techniques the administration was considering using in the future.’
- April 23, 2009: After the Obama administration releases four memos approving the use of waterboarding, Pelosi says that in September 2002, ‘We were not …told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used.’
- May 5, 2009: Intelligence officials send lawmakers a list of 40 congressional briefings on EITs, saying lawmakers ‘will have to determine whether this information is an accurate summary of what actually happened.’ The list says Pelosi was told that some EITs had been employed, but doesn’t specify waterboarding.
- May 8, 2009: Pelosi repeats that she was briefed on techniques that would be used in the future
- May 14, 2009: Pelosi says she wasn’t told in September 2002 that waterboarding was being used, and says ‘the CIA was misleading Congress.’
In case you missed it and hadn’t already guessed: “Pelosi: Utterly Contemptible” – here’s Charles Krauthammer, impeccable on the subject, if reason still matters?
Nancy Pelosi Explains What She Knew About Waterboarding
In her own words, you decide!
HotAir on Ed’s Post and More : Pelosi goes nuclear on CIA over torture as Cheney’s memo request is denied:
Meanwhile, as this soap opera’s playing out, Dick Cheney’s request to declassify the two CIA memos which he claims prove that torture works has been denied. Surprise. Exit quotation: “President Obama has the legal authority to declassify the documents ‘with the wave of his hand,’ according to one expert.”
Update: I want to highlight this bit from Ed’s post because it really is the million-dollar question:
And if the CIA really had lied to her in the briefings, why didn’t Pelosi start out with that explanation? In fact, why didn’t she mention that in 2005 when both the EITs and the briefings were made public? Coming four years later, this explanation lacks any kind of credibility.
The killer quote from today’s presser is “they mislead us all the time,” a reference to the CIA’s bad intel on Iraq’s WMD. If there really is a pattern of deception going on, why would she wait until there’s a Democrat in the White House to complain when she could have pinned the whole thing on Bush by screaming about it earlier?
New Majority: Former CIA Sources Respond to Pelosi: Congress Knew Everything
Blazing Anger – Triumphant Day
Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Catholic, Charming and Simple, Christ, Christian, Church, Communion of Saints, Day of Wrath, Eternity, God, God's anger, Jesus, Just Thinking Out Loud, justice, NOW, Religion, Rider on the White Horse, Spiritual, transformation, triumphant, truth on May 11, 2009 by JoannThe crew of Divine Office.org in a “chatter & cheese” segment (spontaneous sharing after prayer), brought up a certain delight in God’s burning anger that we have been hearing about in the readings from the Book of Revelation for the last week or so. The delight springs from a desire for justice that has been long awaited by the saints, martyrs, and, now by us in this Age. Finall, the raging anger and wrath of God lays low all His enemies who throughout time have set themselves against Him, and caused suffering for His People.
One prevalent thought that emerged in the discussion voiced the notion that this Day of Wrath was in fact the Day of the Cross-the Crucifixion and Death of our Lord Jesus- the Day an unsuspecting Satan was conquered for all time and Eternity by the bloody sacrifice on Calvary.
- “Then I saw the heavens opened, and there was a white horse; its rider was (called) “Faithful and True.” He judges and wages war in righteousness. His eyes were (like) a fiery flame, and on his head were many diadems. He had a name inscribed that no one knows except himself. He wore a cloak that had been dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God.” Rev. 19:11-13
The discussion voiced another light, “The One on the Horse is Jesus.” Chris, said, “Maybe that battle was fought and won.” This Mystery, still unfolding in the world and in the Church in Time is one of triumph and exaltation of the King of Kings who is at hand and enthroned in Heaven and in His Church.
Another thought reflected the idea of transformation, transformation through the sacraments, through Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Matrimony, Holy Orders. “Burning anger is transformative, purifying.” We are transformed, become new creatures and are yet being fit for the Kingdom, here and yet to come, already but not yet, ”Yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
I image the Mystery of it in this way: it is as a block buster movie being made; when complete, the movie is presented as a whole, but in the process of becoming, it is made up of bits and pieces filmed at different times and different places, yet all part of the complete work and necessary to it. We are being spliced into the triumphant victory of the Day of the Lord, so to speak, as each of us contributes her/his part.
Maranatha!
St. Athanasius – Bishop of Alexandria – Church Father
Posted in Bishops, Catholic, Catholicism, Christ, Church, Church Fathers, Religion with tags Bishops, Catholic, Catholicism, Christ, Christian, Church, Church Fathers, Religion, Spiritual, truth on May 2, 2009 by JoannSt. Athanasius is a favorite “all time tough guy” of Fr. Jeff Wharton. Fr. Jeff comments that Athanasius lived in a time of errant teaching among priest and bishops and didn’t flinch in defending the Son as “homo-ousios” (meaning “of the same substance, or nature, or essence”) with the Father. The term, itself, is one that grew out of the Council of Nicea to clarify the Church’s understanding of the Nature of Son as one with the Father. St Athanasius was to spend his life defending the full deity of Christ against emperors, magistrates, bishops, and theologians; James Kiefer explains that for this, he was regarded as a trouble-maker and banished from Alexandria a total of five times by various emperors. Hence the expression “Athanasius contra mundum,” or, “Athanasius against the world.”
James E. Kiefer writes of St. Athanasius:
Outside the pages of the New Testament itself, Athanasius is probably the man to whom we chiefly owe the preservation of the Christian faith. He was born around AD 298, and lived in Alexandria, Egypt, the chief center of learning of the Roman Empire.
In 313 the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which changed Christianity from a persecuted to an officially favored religion. About six years later, a presbyter (elder, priest) Arius of Alexandria began to teach concerning the Word of God (John 1:1) that “God begat him, and before he was begotten, he did not exist.” Athanasius was at that time a newly ordained deacon, secretary to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, and a member of his household. His reply to Arius was that the begetting, or uttering, of the Word by the Father is an eternal relation between Them, and not a temporal event. Arius was condemned by the bishops of Egypt (with the exceptions of Secundus of Ptolemais and Theonas of Marmorica), and went to Nicomedia, from which he wrote letters to bishops throughout the world, stating his position.
The Emperor Constantine undertook to resolve the dispute by calling a council of bishops from all over the Christian world. This council met in Nicea, just across the straits from what is now Istanbul, in the year 325, and consisted of 317 bishops. Athanasius accompanied his bishop to the council, and became recognized as a chief spokesman for the view that the Son was fully God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father.
Those were tumultuous times, the bishops gathered by Constantine were men who lived through the persecutions of the time and bore the scars of living martyrdom in testimony to their faith. Can you imagine their meeting one another in one great hall after their years of torture, lonely exile and torment suffered for the defense of the Faith?
Athanasius is the perfect model for our day. As best I can remember, Fr. Wharton said, “So much is not right in this world. Let it lead us to a zeal for the work and Word of God.” We, too, can bring Truth to the fore with love, leaving off anger that distresses our balance and prayer, that the Holy Spirit may use us mightily, doing great things even in little ways.
Pro-Choice Isn’t Pretty
Posted in American, Christian, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Gospel, Government, In a nutshell, My Journal, News, Opinions, People, Politics, Pro-life, Religion, United States with tags abortion, America, American, capitol, Catholic, Christian, congress, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Gospel, Government, In a nutshell, life, Murder, My Journal, News, Opinions, People, Politics, Pro-life, Reflections, Religion, Spiritual, truth, United States, USA, voice, wake-up. on April 21, 2009 by JoannIt was a good day for Life at the Capitol today. It wasn’t that Congress did anything to protect the human life growing in a mother’s womb. Congress it seems is insensitive to Truth these days. However, ordinary Americans continue to demonstrate for Life. Young and old found their voice and pleaded with those who listened to hear the cries of the unborn. Children distributed life calling-cards proclaiming the truth of abortion and pro-choice. Someone dies and it isn’t pretty. The consequence of pro-choice is blood and tears. A banner photograph of the aborted infant offended some who is seems aren’t offended by the act of abortion. Strange sensitivities that allow the actual infant to die but want to spare their consciences, I must think.
The Outrageous Grace of Mercy Sunday
Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, In a nutshell, Religion with tags Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Divine Mercy, feastday, In a nutshell, Religion, Spiritual, Sunday, truth on April 19, 2009 by Joann
Jesus I Trust In You
Jesus revealed to St. Faustina that the Feast of Mercy would be a very special day when “all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened”. (Diary 699)
Jesus promised that “The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain the complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.”(Diary 699) He went on to say “I want to grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My Mercy.” (Diary 1109)
Jesus said to St. Faustina “I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy. That vessel is this image with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You”. (Diary 327) “The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the cross. …Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.” (Diary 299)
Speaking of “Divine Mercy Sunday”, Jesus said “…tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon the souls who approach the Fount of My Mercy. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet…. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy”. (Diary 699)
Gone Fishin’
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Gospel, My Journal, Religion, Scripture, Spiritual with tags Catholic, Christian, disciples, fishing, Gospel, My Journal, Peter, Reflections, Religion, Scripture, Spiritual, truth on April 17, 2009 by JoannToday’s Gospel: John 21: 1-14
Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.
He revealed himself in this way.
Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,
Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We also will come with you.”
So they went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.
When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;
but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”
They answered him, “No.”
So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.
The other disciples came in the boat,
for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards,
dragging the net with the fish.
When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.
Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.”
And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they realized it was the Lord.
Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them,
and in like manner the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples
after being raised from the dead.
Gone fishin’! Peter needed a break. Getting back to the familiar seemed the thing to do. The other disciples followed the leader. It wasn’t really what they wanted. They wanted the Lord as evidenced by Peter being so besides himself at the realization that the man on shore was Jesus that He dressed for the occasion, putting clothes on to jump into the water.
I love this Gospel. Once more we see the humanity of Peter and the boys. This was the third time Jesus had to call on them to assure, reassure and otherwise comfort them. I can relate!
Tea Party Catch Up
Posted in American, Conservative, Constitution, Culture, Just Thinking Out Loud, Media, Obama, People, Political, Politics, Pork, President Obama, United States with tags American, Chuck Schumer, Conservative, Constitution, Culture, Just Thinking Out Loud, Mainstream Media, Media, Michell Malkin, Obama, People, plan, policy, Political, Politics, Pork, president, President Obama, Stimulus Bill, truth, United States, world news on April 15, 2009 by JoannMichelle Malkin is making it easy to catch up on tea party history and doings for MSM who may have missed its grassroots beginnings.
Feb. 15: Keli Carender, who blogs as “Liberty Belle” spread the word about a grass-roots protest she was organizing in Seattle to raise her voice against the passage of the trillion-dollar stimulus/porkulus/Generational Theft Act of 2009. It’s the first time she had ever jumped into political organizing of any kind. She is not affiliated with any “corporate lobbyist” or think tank or national taxpayers’ organization. She’s a young conservative mom who blogs. Amazingly, she turned around the event in a few days all on her own by reaching out on the Internet, to her local talk station, and to anyone who would listen.
Feb. 16: An energetic crowd of about 100 people came downtown to lambaste the Chicken Little process and the lard-up of the stimulus bill:
Word of the Seattle protest spread across the blogosphere. Readers suggested there should be a Denver protest on Feb. 17 to greet President Obama for the porkulus signing. Separately, the local chapter of Americans for Prosperity was already working to put something together on the fly. I met the head of the state AFP for the first time on the steps of the Capitol. No conspiracy here, tinfoil hatters. It was a union of like minds in an impromptu show of outrage against the legislation-without-deliberation process in Washington. Also there: Jon Caldara of the libertarian Independence Institute on one end of the spectrum and Tom Tancredo on the strict immigration enforcement end (hundreds of the protesters were mad about the absence of E-Verify standards for the stimulus funding):
More big-money conspiracy! I promised to bring a roasted pig. Paid for out of pocket. No corporate lobbyist pitched in. Tasted great and worth every penny:
Speaking of pigs, you can’t leave out the tax-and-spend revolt campaign against Chuck Schumer in response to his arrogant statement that only the “chattering classes” cared about the “teeny, tiny” pork amendments in the Generational Theft Act. Local radio host Leland Conway in Kentucky called on listeners to send Schumer pork rinds. A mountain of 1,500 bags poured into the station on Feb. 16 and was shipped to Schumer:
The history unfolds here
and we can’t forget Santelli’s rant which tapped the American pulse:
Holy Thursday – Pope Benedict XVI
Posted in Catholic, Catholicism, Christian, Church, Culture, Faith, Just Thinking Out Loud, Religion, Scripture, Spiritual with tags Archeology, Cantalamessa, Catholic, Catholicism, Christian, Church, CNS, Culture, exegesis, Faith, Holy Thursday, Judas, Just Thinking Out Loud, national geographic, Pope Benedict, Reflections, Religion, Scripture, Spiritual, St.Paul, truth, You Would Think on April 9, 2009 by JoannIn this day of “turning the Bible on its head“ by such influential entities as National Geographic Society and Newsweek, it is good to remember what actual scholars who care about Truth have taught us. Pope Benedict XVI reacting to a misleading 3rd century coptic text on display by the National Geographic Society in 2006, as covered by Cindy Wooden of Catholic New Service, corrected:
Judas was a greedy liar who put his desire for money ahead of his relationship with Jesus and his love for God, Pope Benedict XVI said…
But during his April 13 (2006) homily at the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Pope Benedict said Judas is the clearest example Christians have of someone who refuses God’s saving love.
For Judas, the pope said, “only power and success are real; love does not count.”
“And he is greedy: Money is more important than communion with Jesus, more important than God and his love. He also becomes a liar, a double-crosser who breaks with the truth,” Pope Benedict said.
Purposefully ignoring the truth, he said, Judas “hardens, becoming incapable of conversion … and throws away his destroyed life.”
The next day, the pope’s preacher also weighed in against the recent wave of “pseudohistorical literature” gaining popularity as well as the soon-to-be-released film, “The Da Vinci Code.”
In his April 14 [2006] homily during the Good Friday liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa said that millions of people today were being “crassly manipulated by the media,” which is more interested in touting the newest fad or insight rather than the truth and, as a consequence, turning a pretty penny for it.
“There is much talk about Judas’ betrayal without realizing that it is being repeated” today, he said during his homily given before the pope and hundreds of people in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“Christ is being sold again,” he said, but this time “to publishers and booksellers” for billions of dollars.
People seem to be always itching for something new, and there are those who take advantage of that by carrying out or promoting “the clever rewriting of ancient legends,” he said.
The fantasies and speculation will only “flare up with the imminent release of a certain film,” the Capuchin friar said, in reference to the movie “The Da Vinci Code,” based on the novel by Dan Brown.
The preacher of the papal household said he felt it was his duty to address the current swirl of controversy surrounding the many interpretations of the life and death of Jesus because “we cannot allow the silence of believers to be mistaken for embarrassment” nor allow the media to manipulate the truth about Christ’s life, his death on the cross and his resurrection.”
Zenit.org reports Fr. Cantalamessa’s closing remark:
The “fantasies” mentioned have an explanation, concluded the Pontifical Household preacher: “We are in the age of the media and the media are more interested in novelty than in truth.”
Words of St. Paul:
“The time is sure to come when people will not accept sound teaching, but their ears will be itching for anything new and they will collect themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes; and then they will shut their ears to the truth and will turn to myths.”
