Monthly Archives: February 2009

Racing Ahead

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Lent isn’t here yet, but our priest understands the need to prepare.  He’s also an Eagle Scout, and a National Guardsman.   Today was all about the little niches, the “altarcitos” (New Mexico, here) around us in our pagan society.  Every aspect of it vies for our attention.  Our society rejects the Cross: euthanasia, abortion, birth control; all part of rampant hedonism.  Eternal youth, that’s the ticket!  (Good luck with that one!)

There’s a scene in The Passion of Christ in which Jesus is rebuked for embracing His Cross.  That is the reasonable attitude without Christ who reveals  the Mystery.  No one will escape the Cross.  Many will waste the Cross in their lives.  Without daily union with Christ, our crosses bring us down.  There’s the rub.  That’s the waste!

Preparing for Lent is preparing for the realities of Life.  Eagle Scout-mentality is a plus: the epitome of  “Be Prepared.”  I’ll bet our priest has his hair shirt at the ready and I’m looking for mine.

Searching with Mary

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Paraphrased from The Holy Rosary Narrated, distributed by Keepthefaith.org and narrated by Fr. Hugh Thwaites:

A reflection on the Fifth Joyful Mystery – The Finding of Jesus in the Temple

“The whole human race are either Mary’s children or potentially her children because when we’re baptized,  we are baptized into Jesus and become her children.  For the rest,  her motherly heart searches,  and cannot rest until she sees her children safe in Heaven.”

If you look closely at an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, you will notice the small sandal hanging from the foot of the Infant Jesus, who is safe in His Mother’s arms.  This represents those who Mary also holds if only by a thread.

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Divine Office, Divine!

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For all  you, who pray the Divine Office  daily or are struggling in an attempt, you’ve got to check out DivineOffice.org.   They do an incredible job of presenting the Divine Office (Invitatory, Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer)  with beautiful music and a community of voices. I love the sense of community!

Your “Cloud of Witnesses” will have help cheering you on from this side of Heaven.  It’s a great way to begin the day and so blessed a way to end it.  Commuters, you’ll actually find this time beating back the devil.

Did I tell you it is FREE!

The really good news is you can download the podcasts and take them with you (FREE!!!!!!!!)

No Mention-Pelosi

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Gateway Pundit calls it a rebuke , while Speaker Pelosi avoids the obvious in her release:

“It is with great joy that my husband, Paul, and I met with his Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI today,” Pelosi said in a statement released hours after the meeting. “In our conversation, I had the opportunity to praise the Church’s leadership in fighting poverty, hunger and global warming, as well as the Holy Father’s dedication to religious freedom and his upcoming trip and message to Israel. I was proud to show his Holiness a photograph of my family’s papal visit in the 1950s, as well as a recent picture of our children and grandchildren.”

Victor L. Simpson,  AP writer, reports:

The Vatican’s attempts to keep the Pelosi visit low-profile displayed its obvious unease with the new U.S. administration. Benedict and Bush had found common ground in opposing abortion, an issue that drew them together despite their differences over the war in Iraq.

Wednesday’s meeting, in a small room off a Vatican auditorium after the pope’s weekly public audience, was closed to reporters and photographers.

The Vatican also said — contrary to its usual policy when the pope meets world leaders — that it was not issuing either a photo or video of the encounter, claiming the meeting was private.

The Anchoress writes:  Pope Punks Pelosi Pix

A Fly on the Vatican Wall

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Oh, to have been the proverbial fly on the wall when Pope Benedict XVI met privately with Madam Speaker Pelosi.  Actually,  if I were the fly, I’d have perched myself on Nancy’s nose as she posed Speakerential.  The Pope is cool, kind, and slendorously Poperific so he’ll continue fighting for her soul while she’s stuck in radical wrong-headed feminism.

From Whispers in the Loggia, the Vatican statement:

Following the General Audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage.

His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.

Remembering Michael

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Amy Welborn shares not only her grief but her gratitude for all that is Michael.  Amy writes:

“How can I, even as I acknowledge the crushing, puzzling, confusing loss and my shattered heart  – for even Jesus wept –  how can I say that I love him and that I believe all this stuff we both said we believed is actually true – and not allow some gratitude, albeit limited and struggling gratitude – to creep into my soul, for that thing, which is not a small thing, but a great thing?”

It will be a good day to die when someone who knows me intimately can write:

He prayed the Office almost every day of the last 25 years or so. Prayed the rosary every day for longer. Went to Mass almost every day.

He prayed, and knew intimately all those words I have been praying – or trying to pray – so intensely over the past week.

Thirsting for God. Rescuing from the snares of the enemy. Letting Christ live in me, being consumed, taken over by Christ, the Risen One,  alive in Him. Praying for that. Every day. Asking God for mercy, for forgiveness, for peace. For the total embrace of Love.