Lenten Reading Plan – Apr 2

crucificionicon12Day32Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan 4/2/09

St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXI

Day 32Lite Version

St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: 90-94

Compilation of Lenten readings

Printer-Friendly Version of Outline: Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan PDF

Magical Aura? – G 20 Dream


The G 20 Summit gathers the nations (a group of 20: Argentina, Australia,Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia,Saudi Arabia,South Africa, Korea, Turkey,the United States, and European Union. The world will make a fuss and then the world will little note, nor long remember what they do there.  Or, is that just wishful thinking?

Our President will grace them with his presence, but will they recognize the Messiah?  The magical aura of campaign America is gone.  Billions of dollars are gone! The post of ”whipping boy” is still open.” That may be all Obama needs to get his foot in the door.  Obama can cry: “Mea culpa! Mea culpa! I will take the blame—My Country did it! But that was then, and this is now— I have a vision!”

Back in America, we are getting the picture.  We grasp the dream, the vision, the mania. My guess is more than half the country rejects it.  Some are too proud to admit their mistake, especially those of the mainstream media who paved his way. This is not a man who represents the people, all the people.  He represent himself and an agenda.  He is selling his vague vision wrapped in high sounding words, and smiles, and flash.

Poor America! Without a free, inquisitive, thinking press, the vision grows, under-investigated, and unchecked, and America’s dream will be signed away on foreign shores.

Hope Enough for One Day

Hard to know God’s will,

to do no less,

to do no more.

Hard to stay with the ordinary things of holiness,

to pray for the good,

to succor the poor,

to love our enemies.

Hard, though, is not without hope.

Reaching down, He picks us up.

Wiping our tears, He cheers us.

Seeing our holy desire, He supplies all.

Desire of the Heart

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

Catholic In Name Only

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…

Lenten Reading Plan – Apr 1

crucificionicon12Day31Church 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

Compilation of Lenten readings

Printer-Friendly Version of Outline: Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan PDF