A Book of Everything

Pied Beauty

2012-01-29T20:51:00.003-05:00

** An absolutely wonderful and powerful recitation by Carolyn Rose Garcia

Pied Beauty

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

Turn the Tide 2012

2012-01-24T06:57:00.005-05:00

On the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, our President issued this statement:

"As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman's health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters."

"I remain committed to protecting a woman's right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right."

We know that "abortion" is just another word for killing. The taking of a human life in the womb. So, there is no "protection" in the act of abortion. And the killing of a human being is never private. What is the right to choose? Why doesn't the president tell us what the choice is...to kill, or not to kill.

The Catholic Church will not tell us WHO to vote for. The Church says that a good candidate respects the dignity of the human person. And we should all know who that candidate is before we vote. If we do not vote for the candidate who vows to protect human life, from conception to natural death, we may very well fall out of the state of grace. Let us pray that we all make the right decision in the voting booth.

A Pro-Life Homily by Deacon Greg Kandra

2012-01-23T07:01:00.007-05:00

Always

Choose

Life

Homily for January 22, 2012:

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Deacon Greg Kandra, The Deacon's Bench

I have office hours the first Saturday of every month, to meet with families and schedule baptisms. It’s fairly routine, mostly collecting paperwork and filling out forms. But a few years ago, there was one meeting that I will never forget. It was anything but routine.

A young mother arrived at the office, filled out the forms and, after she’d finished, I looked it over and noticed that she’d left a couple spaces blank.

“You forgot something, “ I said. “You didn’t fill in the father’s name and religion.”

There was a long pause. She said quietly: “I don’t know who the father is.”

And then she explained:

“I was raped.”

I didn’t quite know what to say. I stammered an apology, and we talked for a few minutes. And at the end, as she got up to leave, I shook her hand and thanked her. I told that that I thought what she was doing was very courageous.

“Well,” she said, “It’s life. You do what you have to do.”

I saw her a few weeks later, at the baptism. Seeing her — holding that baby in her arms, sharing that moment with family and friends — one thing was clear: that child will never lack for love. Whatever may have brought that young life into being, that child was welcomed. That child is loved.

This weekend, in particular, that mother and her child are both on my mind and in my prayers. They remind me of something we need to remember:

We are people of life.

We value it. We believe in resurrection. In healing. In hope.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus once said.

We are people who follow the way, and seek the truth.

We are people of life.

And this Sunday, we pause to declare that to the world. We put on purple vestments and offer special prayers to note a sad milestone: it was 39 years ago today that the Supreme Court legalized abortion. We may not be wearing the sackcloth of the people of Nineveh, from the first reading. But this is a sign of sorrow, and mourning. It’s the same color we wear during Lent, a time of prayer and repentance.

You’ll hear a lot of people – including a lot of prominent Catholics – tell you that they are “personally opposed” to abortion, but they think it should still be legal. It might be useful to look at what that kind of thinking has given us, and what it means.

It means that today, 22% of pregnancies – one in five – end in abortion.

It means that 47% of the women who have had abortions – nearly half – have had more than one. Three quarters say they had abortions because a child would interfere with their job or education.

It means that, on average, there are 3,500 abortions every day in this country.

That sounds abstract. So let me make it real. That’s approximately the same number of people who attended Mass here Christmas Day.

Looked at another way: statistically, by the time you leave Mass this morning, another 145 innocent lives will be lost.

Years ago, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin spoke of the “seamless garment” of life issues, and how they are all connected. Some people dismiss that today and insist that all life issues are not created equal. That’s true, to a point.

But a culture that devalues life, that doesn’t respect life, won’t just draw the line at abortion. It goes further than that.

That culture creates an environment that cheers capital punishment. It’s a culture that legalizes assisted suicide. It supports torture and the degradation of human dignity. It enables bullying. It objectifies and devalues the human person in pornography.

And, as we learned just this past Friday: that culture considers religious freedom, and the human conscience — a personal sense of right and wrong, of good and evil — irrelevant. The government ruled that every major employer, including religious institutions, now have to offer free contraceptive coverage as part of their health plans – no exceptions. That includes the “morning after” abortion pill and sterilization.

A culture that doesn’t respect life will do all this and wrap it in the warm and unthreatening blanket, the seamless garment, of “choice” and “freedom.”

This is our world today.

But it doesn’t have to be our world tomorrow.

Last week, one of the presidential candidates said in a debate – and I paraphrase – that laws can’t change a country’s values. It’s the other way around.

Values, he said, have to change our laws.

He’s right.

Marching, protesting, campaigning, lobbying…all this can have an effect. But it can only do so much.

The real work, the important work, the hardest work happens in our neighborhoods, in our churches, in our homes, in our families.

It’s conversations around the dinner table and lessons in the living room. It’s teaching our children that we are people of life. It’s raising them to love those who are weak, to protect those who are vulnerable, to respect those who are different.

But are we even paying attention?

In the gospel we just heard, Jesus called his first apostles while they were mending their nets. They dropped what they were doing, and followed him.

Too often, I think, we ourselves are too busy mending our own nets. We are consumed by the mundane realities of daily life, and are too distracted to hear what is really important. We miss Christ’s call to conversion, to repentance – the call, as we heard, to “believe in the Gospel.”

Especially now, it is nothing less than a call to be people of life.

To be people who cherish life in all its complexity and confusion…and in all its sanctity.

To be people who not only shake our heads in sorrow over the state of our world, but who bow our heads in prayer and lift up our heads in hope.

We are people of life. We are Catholic Christians. In the second century, Christians did what the pagans wouldn’t: in the midst of a plague, they cared for those no one else would care for. The great theologian Tertullian wrote that it moved the pagans to say: “See how these Christians love one another.” This is our legacy and our mandate: to protect and defend and, yes, love the most vulnerable – the old, the sick, the abused, the abandoned, the forgotten, the unborn.

That is our way. We are people of life.

In doing that, in living out our call – and answering it, like the disciples on the seashore – we will one day help bring about the change we so ardently pray for every year on this terrible anniversary.

What that young mother told me a few years ago was more than pragmatic. It was, in a way, prophetic. “It’s life,” she said. “You do what you have to do.”

This is what we have to do. And if we do, we will change the values of our culture.

That will change the laws.

And one day, all that we hope and pray for this Sunday will be realized.

We won’t be marching in Washington. We won’t be preaching on this from the pulpit. We won’t be wearing purple.

And January 22^nd will be just another day on the calendar.

Click HERE for March for Life 2012

Rockford Abortion Clinic Closes !

2012-01-20T07:11:00.003-05:00

Yesterdays media headline (ABC) was quite disturbing. "Unsafe Abortions on the Rise: New Global Analysis." Is there such a thing as a "safe abortion? How safe is the murder of a child? Our country and our world are giving in to this twisted propaganda that world population is a threat to humanity. Let us pray for the strength and resolve to stop this insanity.

There was certainly good news today, the notorious Rockford Abortion Mill has closed.

Here is the story out of Catholic News Service..

ROCKFORD, Ill. -- A Rockford abortion clinic that opened in 1973 has closed its doors for good.

The Northern Illinois Women's Center, which was closed by the state Sept. 30 because of conditions that the state said violated public health and safety standards, announced Jan. 13 that it would not reopen.

"Please say a prayer of thanksgiving for all those souls saved by this latest news," said a note on the website of the Diocese of Rockford, which had no direct role in the clinic closure.

The Illinois Department of Public Health had said the clinic could reopen Jan. 4 if its leaders paid a $9,750 fine and agreed to the immediate revocation of its license if further violations were found. Instead the clinic chose the state's second option -- payment of a $1,000 fine, relinquishing of its operating license and closure.

Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, called the decision "a great victory for public health and women's safety" and said the Rockford clinic had been "one of the most infamous in the country."

"The entire state should thank the pro-life community for calling attention to the deplorable conditions at this abortion facility and demanding that authorities step in and enforce the law," he added.

But Scheidler said many other abortion facilities in the state have not been inspected for years.

"It's not enough for officials to step up and enforce the weak laws we already have," he said. "It's time for the General Assembly to close the loopholes that keep public health officials from ensuring other abortuaries aren't similarly violating the law."

During its nearly 40-year history, the Northern Illinois Women's Center had been the site of protests by Operation Rescue, the Northern Illinois Coalition for Reproductive Choice and other groups and individuals.

In 2000, Father John Earl, then pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Rochelle, pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal damage to property after he drove his Saturn automobile into a closed garage door at the clinic, and then used an ax to open other doors and move about inside the building.

The Diocese of Rockford said at the time that "it has never been nor is it the policy or practice of the Roman Catholic Church to condone, approve or promote violence in any form to achieve a desired end."

Catholicism - Something to Think About

2012-01-18T07:00:00.001-05:00

Martin Luther King Day

2012-01-16T08:39:00.002-05:00

The following is my post from 2011....

Martin Luther King Day

"One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." MLK

Dr. King's words are striking, and so applicable to today's most vile attack on the dignity of the human person. What would Dr. King think of living in a country that has legalized the killing of the most innocent human beings, the unborn.

I pray that by reading and studying the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., more good people will enter the pro-life movement, and help end the sin of abortion in our time.

Today I read the "Letter From Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963", by Dr. Martin Luther King. I believe that this letter offers the very essence of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., his beliefs, his character, his courage, his love of humanity, his love for America, and his love of Jesus. Where are his disciples today? Certainly not Jesse Jackson, certainly not Al Sharpton. No, today his devoted disciple is his niece, Dr. Alveda King. Dr. Alveda King is carrying on the legacy of her famous uncle - Dr. King is a PRO-LIFE activist. Protecting the rights of the most vulnerable human beings in society, the unborn. I believe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be doing the same work if he were with us today.

Here is an excerpt from "Letter From Birmingham Jail."

"You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may won ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there fire two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the Brat to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all".

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distort the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and awful. Paul Tillich said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression 'of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong."

PRO-LIFE MASS AT SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL - NEWARK NJ

2012-01-09T06:58:00.003-05:00

PRO-LIFE MASS

Sunday, January 15, 2012

12:00 noon

Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart
89 Ridge Street
Newark, NJ

The Most Reverend Thomas A. Donato presiding

Homilist will be Fr Dennis Wilde, OP,
Assoc. Dir., Priests for Life

Followed by Procession to:

St. Lucy’s Church
Newark, NJ
(a short walk from the Cathedral)

&

Eucharistic Holy Hour for Life

Holy Hour will include:

Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet & Benediction.

Young Adults

of the Archdiocese from Spirit & Truth & BLD Communities

will lead procession music & prayers at the Holy Hour

Parking is available at both locations.

Let us come together in prayer, sorrow & hope

as we approach the 39th anniversary of the infamous Roe vs. Wade

Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the U.S

"Oh Lord in your mercy,

grant us repentance, and forgiveness of our land and healing of our families,

that we may live the Gospel of Life and promote a culture of life in the world."

Sponsored by the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Newark.

For more info: 732 388-8211

The Quickening of St. John the Baptist

2012-01-05T06:54:00.003-05:00

The Quickening of St. John the Baptist

Why do you fly from the drowned shores of Galilee,
From the sands and the lavender water?
Why do you leave the ordinary world, Virgin of Nazareth,
The yellow fishing boats, the farms,
The winesmelling yards and low cellars
Or the oilpress, and the women by the well?
Why do you fly those markets,
Those suburban gardens,
The trumpets of the jealous lilies,
Leaving them all, lovely among the lemon trees?

You have trusted no town
With the news behind your eyes.
You have drowned Gabriel's word in thoughts like seas
And turned toward the stone mountain
To the treeless places.
Virgin of God, why are your clothes like sails?

The day Our Lady, full of Christ,
Entered the dooryard of her relative
Did not her steps, light steps, lay on the paving leaves
like gold?
Did not her eyes as grey as doves
Alight like the peace of a new world upon that house, upon
miraculous Elizabeth?

Her salutation
Sings in the stone valley like a Charterhouse bell:
And the unborn saint John
Wakes in his mother's body,
Bounds with the echoes of discovery.

Sing in your cell, small anchorite!
How did you see her in the eyeless dark?
What secret syllable
Woke your young faith to the mad truth
That an unborn baby could be washed in the Spirit of God?
Oh burning joy!

What seas of life were planted by that voice!
With what new sense
Did your wise heart receive her Sacrament,
And know her cloistered Christ?

You need no eloquence, wild bairn,
Exulting in your hermitage.
Your ecstasy is your apostolate,
For whom to kick is contemplata tradere.
Your joy is the vocation of Mother Church's hidden children -
Those who by vow lie buried in the cloister or the hermitage;
The speechless Trappist, or the grey, granite Carthusian,
The quiet Carmelite, the barefoot Clare, Planted in the night of
contemplation, Sealed in the dark and waiting to be born.

Night is our diocese and silence is our ministry
Poverty our charity and helplessness our tongue-tied
sermon.
Beyond the scope of sight or sound we dwell upon the air
Seeking the world's gain in an unthinkable experience.
We are exiles in the far end of solitude, living as listeners
With hearts attending to the skies we cannot understand:
Waiting upon the first far drums of Christ the Conqueror,
Planted like sentinels upon the world's frontier.

But in the days, rare days, when our Theotokos
Flying the prosperous world
Appears upon our mountain with her clothes like sails,
Then, like the wise, wild baby,
The unborn John who could not see a thing
We wake and know the Virgin Presence
Receive her Christ into our night
With stabs of an intelligence as white as lightning.

Cooled in the flame of God's dark fire
Washed in His gladness like a vesture of new flame
We burn like eagles in His invincible awareness
And bound and bounce with happiness,
Leap in the womb, our cloud, our faith, our element,
Our contemplation, our anticipated heaven
Till Mother Church sings like an Evangelist.

Thomas Merton 1949

Image > Snowroad - T Merton

Happy New Year !

2012-01-01T07:31:00.004-05:00

2012 is here! I pray that all of you are having a very Blessed and Safe New Year.

Deacon Keith Fournier posted an article today on Catholic Online that I want to share with you. It's theme? Let us begin the New Year, through Jesus.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. 'For a son of God each day should be an opportunity for renewal, knowing for sure that with the help of grace he will reach the end of the road, which is Love. That is why if you begin and begin again, you are doing well. If you have a will to win, if you struggle, then with God's help you will conquer. There will be no difficulty you cannot overcome.' (St. Jose Maria Escriva, The Forge, 344)

The one who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." (Jesus to St John, recorded in the Bible, in the Book of Revelation 21:5).

These words from the Book of Revelation or the "Apocalypse" hold out the promise of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all men and women in every Nation under the sun. They were spoken to the beloved disciple John on the Island of Patmos when he received a vision of the new heaven and new earth where the completion of the Redemption of Jesus Christ will be fully manifested.The quote from a contemporary saint, St Escriva, help us to understand their daily promise and application.

The promise "I make all things new" addresses the heart cry of the entire human race. It answers our deepest longing. As the photos pour in from all over the world showing New Years celebrations, what is absolutely clear is that we all hope that we can begin again! At this time of the year, when we end one year and begin a new one, we seem compelled to make resolutions to change our lives. How deeply we want to begin again, to be made new. The Christian claim is that there is Good News! We can!

Those words, "Behold I make all things new" took on new meaning for me several years ago when I watched a powerful scene in the Mel Gibson masterpiece, "The Passion of the Christ." In it Mary, the Mother of the Lord, runs to her wounded Son. He has fallen for the third time from the weight of the Cross. There is a flash back to an earlier day when that same son, as a child, is seen playing in the dusty streets of Nazareth and is about to fall.

With the tender love of a mother, Mary reaches out to her Son. Then the viewer sees her hand touch the wounded face of the Adult Son and Savior who looks at her, and through words addressed to her - He speaks to every human person - from the beginning of time until the end - saying: "Behold, I make all things new." That is the hunger in the heart of every human person expressed on New Year's Eve and continued on New Year's day.

As we repent for the failures of the past year, reflect on the gifts it brought and resolve to "be better" in the coming year, we are confronted with the reality of our human condition and our fratcured freedom. We know that our resolutions to change often end in failure. We are prone to making wrong choices in daily life. We sin. Classical theology speaks of this inclination as "concupiscence".

The Apostle Paul wrote about this experience to the early Christians in Rome in the seventh chapter of his letter: "For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Now if (I) do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me... Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Our freedom is a reflection of the Image of God within us. It was fractured by the effects of the first sin. Our ability to exercise it properly by choosing the good has been undermined. In the words of Blessed John Paul II ("The Splendor of Truth") "freedom itself needs to be set free." Through the Incarnation, Saving Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus we are capacitated to live our lives differently. When we do, Jesus can make all things new!

As we cross from 2011 to 2012 let us make our first resolution to behold His face, wounded by love, as his mother did. Let us choose to walk through 2012 allowing the Savior to take up residence in our hearts and in our homes.

Read the rest HERE

New Years Is Almost Here

2011-12-31T15:04:00.003-05:00

This is a picture our family dog Shelby...sitting near the fire, waiting. Shelby waits, not knowing what she is waiting for. Every day is the same. This should not be for you and me. Every day should have meaning and reason.

Soon is will be a new year. 2012. Can you believe it? I remember Orwell's book 1984. 1984 was well into the future..now it is so far behind us. Time is passing by.

So what should my New Years resolution be?

To love God and my neighbor. Only with more heart, doing all in Jesus' Name. That is my every day resolution, and my New Year resolution.

A Future and a Hope

2011-12-30T18:43:00.005-05:00

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (NLT)

Image ©bjm 2011

Merry Christmas !

2011-12-25T07:13:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas !

Pope Benedict's URBI ET ORBI message HERE

Painting by Norman Rockwell

St. Dominic of Silos

2011-12-20T08:22:00.004-05:00

ST DOMINIC OF SILOS

Feast: December 20

St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, was named after this Benedictine abbot, who lived a century before him. According to Dominican tradition, St. Dominic of Silos appeared to Blessed Joan of Aza (the mother of the later St. Dominic), who made a pilgrimage to his shrine before the birth of her son, and named him after the abbot of Silos.

Dominic of Silos was born in Navarre, Spain, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, and was a shepherd boy, looking after his father's flocks. He acquired a love of solitude and as a young man became a monk at the monastery of San Millan de la Cogolla. He eventually became prior of the monastery and came into conflict with the king of Navarre over possessions of the monastery claimed by the king. The king drove Dominic out of the monastery, and Dominic went with other monks to Castille, where the king of Castille appointed Dominic abbot of the monastery of St. Sebastian at Silos.

The monastery was in terrible shape, spiritually and materially, and Dominic set about to restore the monastery and to reform the lives of the monks. He preserved the Mozarbic Rite (one of the variants of the Latin Rite) at his monastery, and his monastery became one of the centers of the Mozarbic liturgy. His monastery also preserved the Visigothic script of ancient Spain and was a center of learning and liturgy in that part of Spain.

Dominic of Silos died on December 20,1073, about a century before the birth of his namesake, St. Dominic of Calaruega. Before the Spanish Revolution of 1931, it was customary for the abbot of Silos to bring the staff of Dominic of Silos to the Spanish royal palace whenever the queen was in labor and to leave it at her bedside until the birth of her child had taken place.

In recent times, great interest in Dominic of Silos has arisen since the literary treasures of the library of Silos have become known. The abbey had a profound influence on spirituality and learning in Spain. Today the monastery is an abbey of the Benedictine Congregation of Solesmes housing a library of ancient and rare manuscripts.

Thought for the Day: St. Dominic of Silos came to know God in the solitude of a shepherd boy. It was this love of solitude that drew him into monastic life where he could be alone with his God. Most of us are so busy we scarcely have time for Sunday Mass. We should cultivate a little solitude, too.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on abortion

2011-12-07T06:53:00.002-05:00

Bill Donohue of the "Catholic League" comments...

On Tuesday evening, a New York City superintendent was gathering the garbage when he felt something strange. It was a baby. “When I found the baby,” he said, “I didn’t know if it was real at first. It was so bad.” Not surprisingly, it made him sick. “After what happened, I just stayed in my apartment for a while because I didn’t feel well.”

Two days later, a 20-year-old woman was arrested and charged with self-abortion in the first degree, a misdemeanor.

Andrea Miller of NARAL Pro-Choice was outraged. “They have taken what should be a medical and public health matter and turned it into a criminal case,” she said. Sonia Ossoria of the National Organization for Women agrees, saying, “it’s absolutely outlandish to charge her with self-abortion.”

So a woman kills her own baby, and the sole source of anger coming from the pro-abortion community is that she is being prosecuted. Not a word of sorrow about the dead baby.

In a perverse way, they may have a point: why is it criminally wrong to perform the exact same procedure that a well-paid doctor can do legally? If she is a monster, what does that make him? Moreover, had this same superintendent found a baby in the dumpster who had been dropped there by a Planned Parenthood worker, there would have been no prosecution.

Those running for president should be asked about this issue. Their answers would no doubt prove to be revealing.

The Joy of a Child....

2011-12-02T12:33:00.003-05:00

Merton on Advent

2011-11-28T08:01:00.004-05:00

The certainty of Christian hope lies beyond passion and beyond knowledge. Therefore we must sometimes expect our hope to come in conflict with darkness, desperation and ignorance. Therefore, too, we must remember that Christian optimism is not a perpetual sense of euphoria, an indefectible comfort in whose presence neither anguish nor tragedy can possibly exist. We must not strive to maintain a climate of optimism by the mere suppression of tragic realities. Christian optimism lies in a hope of victory that transcends all tragedy: a victory in which we pass beyond tragedy to glory with Christ crucified and risen. Thomas Merton

* Above image "The Light Beyond" ©bjm
taken at Brookdale Park - Bloomfield, NJ

The First Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T14:16:00.005-05:00

I found this image and this reflection on Jon Katz's "Bedlam Farm Journal." I find it insightful and full of truth. If you get a chance, check out the site...it's quite interesting!

Simon Says: Don't Give Up On Life by Jon Katz

Yesterday was, in many ways, my first Thanksgiving. Not really, not technically, but in many ways. Thanksgiving was always a difficult holiday for me, family issues, a sense of estrangement, troubles as a kid. Lots of guilt, pressure, conflict. I never cooked a turkey before yesterday, never did Thanksgiving with anyone, never made stuffing. I was always outside of the process, outside of the kitchen, like many men. We struggle with the processes of family and emotion, and recuse ourselves walking dogs, hunting, watching football, reading our books off in our chairs.

Thanksgiving can be distancing for us, even lonely amidst our families, our friends. We are sometimes there, sometimes not. Yesterday it was different. I cooked the turkey with Maria. Made the stuffing with her. Stayed in the kitchen. Was at the center of Thanksgiving, not the edges. And today, waking up on a day I call Bright Friday, heading off to Battenkill Books to sell copies of “Going Home” and other books with Connie Brooks with Maria (she sold out of her potholders this morning), I realized that yesterday was my First Thanksgiving. I was at the center of the process with a full and open heart, not at the edges, where so many find themselves. And it was beautiful all day, in every way. And I told myself that one ought never to give up on life, at any point, at any age, because you can always find life if your mind is open and your heart is full and you understand that love is the point, love is the process, love is the reason.

Above image "Simon Says Don't Give Up On Life" by John Katz

Christ the King

2011-11-20T07:53:00.002-05:00

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. It is also the last Sunday of the Church year, and next week we begin the season of Advent. Let us remind ourselves that all of our celebrations are summed up in one statement: “Jesus is our King.” Jesus is the one we serve. If we do not know how to serve our King, not to worry, for today Jesus reveals to us what is necessary to secure the Kingdom of heaven.

In 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted “Christ the King” as a feast day. It was a bold move on his part. He was certainly guided by the Spirit. During this time, the world was experiencing a growing secularism and a misguided sense of nationalism. It was the year that Adolph Hitler published his biography of hatred, “Mien Kampf.” Benito Mussolini became dictator of Italy. People were moving away from a healthy reliance on God and trusting only in themselves, living only in the “here and now.” Much like today. Pope Pius said that “the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives” – “nations will be reminded, by the annual celebration of this feast, Christ the King, that not only private individuals, but also rulers and princes are bound to give PUBLIC honor and Obedience to Christ.” Now that was a strong statement. Pius was not afraid to preach the truth - the truth that is as relevant today as it was then.

If we believe that Jesus Christ is our King - What are the implications of that reality? What is our relationship to the King? Aristotle tells us, “The king ought to be to his people as a shepherd to his sheep or a father to his children.” So we are the Kings children whom he loves. Our reading today from Ezekiel says that we are a scattered people, like a flock of sheep that is lost, strayed and injured. Our benevolent King looks for us when we are lost. He carries us home and heals our infirmities. Our King is loving and kind. As a child who embraces a parent after being given a gift, how shall we respond to our King’s royal acts of love?

As Hamlet once said, “That is the question.”

The key is in the scriptures. And it isn’t hidden; it is laid out for all to see. Jesus wants it to be clear, because he loves us, he thirsts for us, and he wants to enter our hearts.
Jesus’ message today may be the most important in all of scripture.
“What you have done to the least of my brothers, you have done to me.”
We are called to recognize the presence of Jesus in others. Our recognition is manifested by our acts of love. We must recognize Jesus in our families, in the poor, in the poorest of the poor, the children dying in Somalia, the confused and rejected young mother, the unborn, the terminally ill, the immigrant, those who love us and those who despise us – and most importantly, recognizing Jesus in the Eucharist. This is the key to heaven.
Now Jesus knows that we humans find it hard to understand. In his great wisdom, he raises up saints in every age to be leaven in the world. By emulating those who have embraced the gospel message, we too can become saints.

Perhaps the foremost authority on today’s gospel is Blessed Mother Teresa who said that at the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we received or how much money we have made – we will be judged by “I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in.”

St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a recently canonized saint, a woman of OUR time, was a physician, a working mom, and a loving wife. St. Gianna made a heroic choice when she refused an abortion when she was pregnant with her fourth child. She knew she had a cancerous tumor, and that continuing with her pregnancy would likely result in her death. Gianna was quite clear about her wishes, expressing to her family, "This time it will be a difficult delivery, and they may have to save one or the other -- I want them to save my baby.” Gianna recognized the presence of Christ her unborn child. Her child is now a Pediatrician.

There are also living saints right here in our own parish who we can emulate. They embrace the words of Jesus by their involvement in ministries that directly affect the lives of others – for example, the Shawl ministry, an inspiring movement of people who gather to pray and knit for those in need. And just last week, women who are members of the Cornerstone alumni, cooked for and fed more than 150 hungry souls in Mother Teresa’s soup kitchen in Newark. Those who work as ushers, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, those who distribute the bulletins and set up for Holy Mass - they all recognize the presence of Christ in the community, and serve each other with great acts of love.

This is all the Lord asks – that we “Love one Another.”

Pope Benedict XVI says that “Christ’s Kingship is not based on “human power” but on loving and serving others.”

On this solemnity of Christ the King, let us ask ourselves – do we see the presence of Christ in others? Do we manifest this reality by actions of Love? If our answer is no, let us begin today. For when our King comes to separate the sheep from the goats, we want to be in that line, waiting to hear the King’s words… ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Albert the Great

2011-11-15T06:57:00.004-05:00

Albert Magnus, also known as Albert the Great and "the teacher of everything there is to know" can be characterized as a "renaissance man" even before there was such a word. He was a grand thinker, prolific writer and distinguished philosopher during the period of the Middle Ages. One of his pupils was another brilliant mind, St. Thomas Aquinas. The topics that were influenced by Magnus are incredibly diverse and include psychology, logic, metaphysics, meteorology, mineralogy and zoology.

The works of Albert Magnus are a hand cramping 31 volumes. His life's work was to translate Latin and Arabian manuscripts and notes of the great philosopher Aristotle. Most of Aristotle's teachings have been preserved to this day because of the judicious efforts of Magnus. His writings are revered because of their exact scientific knowledge.

While studying at the University of Padua, Magnus reportedly had an encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary who persuaded him to join the Holy Orders (individuals ordained for a special role or ministry). In 1254 he was named provincial of the Dominican order and 1260 the Bishop of Regensberg. In 1622 Magnus was beatified and in 1931 was canonized by Pope Pius XI and joined the illustrious rank of saint.

Albert Magnus's experiments are surprisingly accurate considering the era in which he lived. He knew a little about everything but was an expert in the works of Aristotle. His discoveries included the elements arsenic and silver nitrate (a precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography). Magnus was fan of alchemy and astrology, and there are many books to his credit on the subject. The philosopher's stone (a legendary substance that was capable of turning base metals, especially lead, into gold). It can also be thought of as a fountain of youth, as it has rejuvenating properties and can lead to eternal life.

There are several institutions of education that bear the name of Albert Magnus. One in particular is the Albert Magnus College established in 1925, and located in New Haven, CT. Also, a high school in New York, the main science building at Providence College and the Albert Magnus International Institute (a business and economic development research center) are but a few that bear the name of the prominent saint.

It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for "God is Charity" (1John 4:8) -- St. Albert the Great

See Albert the Great.com HERE

"You do not know either the day or the hour."

2011-11-08T06:47:00.006-05:00

Asteroid 2005 YU55. The asteroid will fly past Earth within the moon's orbit today. NASA's been tracking it since November 4, using the 230-foot-wide Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California. This image was taken yesterday at 11:45 a.m. PST, when the asteroid was approximately 860,000 miles from Earth. The Deep Space Antenna will track it for four hours today, and radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will also begin today.

Everyone is excited about this asteroid. Will they be able to see it with the naked eye? will they need a telescope? Wow - it's the size of an aircraft carrier!

We all should realize that this asteroid will pass very close to Mother Earth, it will be closer to earth than the moon. If the scientists were off a bit with their math, there would be dire consequences.

Out of Digital Journal > Astronomers say if the Earth were to sustain direct impact with an asteroid the size of 2005 YU55 expected to zip past the Earth tomorrow, we would experience a massive explosion equivalent to that set off by more than 50 megaton nuclear weapon. Such explosion would cause widespread destruction covering several thousands of kilometers. The impact will excavate a crater 4 miles wide and cause an earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale.

I think we should reflect on Sunday's Gospel, Matt 25:1-13. Jesus is very clear when He says;

" So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.’

St. Martin de Porres

2011-11-03T06:56:00.004-04:00

My friend, Dr. Frank, a friend of the Missionaries of Charity, went home to God a few years ago. Dr. Frank had a deep devotion to St. Martin de Porres. With Church permission, he was able to visit and enter the saint's home in Peru. For years, the small mission Church of St. Augustine in Newark, New Jersey displayed a beautiful statue of St. Martin. As time went by, the statue was relegated to the back of the church, practically hidden from view. The Missionaries of Charity, who have a mission beside the church, asked for permission to take the statue out of the church and display it in their soup kitchen - and there is stands today. Dr. Frank would be very happy. God bless you Dr. Frank...

St. Martin de Porres was born at Lima, Peru, in 1579. His father was a Spanish gentleman and his mother a coloured freed-woman from Panama. At fifteen, he became a lay brother at the Dominican Friary at Lima and spent his whole life there-as a barber, farm laborer, almoner, and infirmarian among other things.

Martin had a great desire to go off to some foreign mission and thus earn the palm of martyrdom. However, since this was not possible, he made a martyr out of his body, devoting himself to ceaseless and severe penances. In turn, God endowed him with many graces and wondrous gifts, such as, aerial flights and bilocation.

St. Martin's love was all-embracing, shown equally to humans and to animals, including vermin, and he maintained a cats and dogs hospital at his sister's house. He also possessed spiritual wisdom, demonstrated in his solving his sister's marriage problems, raising a dowry for his niece inside of three day's time, and resolving theological problems for the learned of his Order and for bishops. A close friend of St. Rose of Lima, this saintly man died on November 3, 1639 and was canonized on May 6, 1962. His feast day is November 3.

To you Saint Martin de Porres we prayerfully lift up our hearts filled with serene confidence and devotion. Mindful of your unbounded and helpful charity to all levels of society and also of your meekness and humility of heart, we offer our petitions to you. Pour out upon our families the precious gifts of your solicitous and generous intercession; show to the people of every race and every color the paths of unity and of justice; implore from our Father in heaven the coming of his kingdom, so that through mutual benevolence in God men may increase the fruits of grace and merit the rewards of eternal life. Amen.

* Read more about St. Martin HERE

All Saint's Day Homily

2011-11-01T12:47:00.005-04:00

Deacon Greg Kandra, creator of the Deacon's Bench blog, wrote this wonderful homily for All Saints Day. Enjoy!

If you find yourself in Los Angeles, in between going on tours to see the homes of the stars or dining at Spago, take a side trip to 555 Temple Street. There, in a corner of the city that’s a little off the beaten track, you’ll find a home for some other stars – the kind you might not have expected to see.

It’s the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels – a big, boxy, modernist building dedicated in 2002 that doesn’t look anything like any church you would find in New York City. Critics have complained that it resembles an airline terminal more than a temple of God. The church was actually designed specifically to withstand earthquakes. As a result, it doesn’t have the big stained glass windows with images of saints that you find in most churches.

Instead, if you are looking for the saints, you will find them depicted very differently. They are on massive tapestries lining the walls of the nave. And they are stunning. These tapestries are said to be the largest collection of its kind in the United States. Created by artist John Nava, they portray in a dramatic and contemporary way dozens of saints, all standing and facing toward the altar, hands folded in prayer. There are 25 massive tapestries depicting 135 saints and blesseds. The image they create is striking. They are in line, as if they are going to receive the Eucharist. It is, in ever sense, the communion of saints.

Above each saint is written his or her name – so you can spot St. Peter, or St. Dominic, or Mary Magdalene. But they don’t look the way you might have seen them in Renaissance paintings. Creating these images, John Nava used for his models ordinary people from around Los Angeles. He even hired a Hollywood casting agent to find people with a particular look, so they actually resemble people you would pass on the street, or people you might know.

But looking at the tapestries, you start to notice something odd. Amid all the famous saints, there are 12 figures who don’t have names above them – including children of all ages. It’s not a mistake.

These people were not popes, or martyrs, or evangelists. There are no churches named for them or universities dedicated to them. They are the saints among us whose identity is known only to God.

We realize, looking at them: they could be any of us.

And we realize, too: we could be them.

I’ve been to see those tapestries in person several times, and I never fail to come away deeply moved and inspired.

It’s been said that church windows are “sermons in glass.” The tapestries at that cathedral in Los Angeles are sermons in cloth. The lesson they teach is so simple, but so eloquent. And it is this: any one can become a saint. The communion of saints is so vast, so all-encompassing, so real. It is available to all of us.

The tapestries tell the story. And what a beautiful story it is. It includes a Native American woman cradling a baby…an African American teenager in blue jeans…small children fervently praying. The communion of saints contains anonymous men and women and children who sanctify everyday life – miracle workers like a banker in Brooklyn or a secretary on Staten Island or a homemaker and mother in Queens.

It might even, by the grace of God, include any of us.

The gospel today shows us the way to holiness — the way, as the song says, to “be in that number.”

It means to be poor in spirit. To be meek. To be merciful and pure of heart. To be a peacemaker. To suffer for the sake of Christ.

None of these is easy. But then, if being blessed were easy, everyone would be a saint.

But don’t we want to try?

This day, we look to these great models of holiness for inspiration and guidance. We ask for them to intercede on our behalf, and to walk with us. The road is hard. We may stumble, and we may fall. But we get up and we go on.

Because we know they did.

And we know we can.

John Nava has said of his tapestries that he hopes 100 years from now, people will look at them and say, “These people were seen as whole, strong humans, full of hope.”

Let us pray that their strength, their hope, and above all their holiness, might also be ours – so that one day we might be blessed to find ourselves among that great cloud of witnesses, that great communion of saints.

Trick or Treat

2011-10-28T13:58:00.004-04:00

Here I am in New Jersey – Monday is Halloween. And tomorrow the weather folks are calling for snow. It’s getting awful strange.

I remember as a child my excited anticipation of Halloween. Living in a city, I knew that Halloween would bring lots of candy! In the suburbs, there is only so much candy to be had. But in the city, we had apartment houses! Just one apartment house would be a Mother Lode. Dressed up as clowns, ghouls – even Dick Tracy –my friends and I would hit one apartment house after another. When our bags were full, we would go home, dump all the booty on the bed, then off to the next house. I guess you could say that we were greedy. But that is just the way it was back then. Our families did not have much, so when opportunity knocked, we answered!

Today, as a Catholic deacon, I realize that some emphasis should have been placed on Saints, not candy and ghouls. Yet, I believe the mystery of Halloween experienced in my youth prepared my mind and heart to experience the more important mysteries – the Mysteries that truly count.

Enjoy your Trick or Treat day.

God bless !

* above watercolor "Mischief Night", by Andrew Wyeth

A Monk's Perspective

2011-10-24T13:04:00.002-04:00

A Monk's Perspective by Brother Paul Rowe

A monk of Our Lady of Guadalupe - Trappist Abbey

Here I will say something about my own understanding and experience of prayer, while laying no claim to “expertise.” I will focus on personal prayer, leaving aside the consideration of liturgical prayer which, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist, is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium 11; Sacosantum Concilium 10), and which in some sense makes possible all Christian prayer.

In my own walk with God, the metaphor of “gazing” seems especially fitting. At a certain point in my life, I became increasingly aware that I was always in God’s sight, and I believed that he held me in a loving gaze. Yet it struck me that I returned his gaze all too rarely, distracted as I was by so many concerns, by objects and interests clamoring for my attention. And I came to the conclusion that I would find no rest, no peace of soul, unless I acknowledged God’s love by trying to respond to his love more fully, to meet his gaze more habitually. This in turn meant, among other things, living a life of prayer. But since I could not find a means of praying attentively and constantly (cf. 1 Thess. 5:17) in a context of noise, busy-ness and chatter, I found myself drawn instead to the life lived here at Guadalupe.

So here, in this place of prayer, how do I try to meet God’s constant gaze? Oftentimes, in order to focus my wandering mind on the God revealed to us in the Old and New Testaments, I spend time ruminating on some passage from Scripture, especially from the gospel, where we see God in the face of Jesus Christ. Sitting in church and taking some time to reflect on a particular psalm, or on a scene from Jesus’ life, can help me to enter into the quiet of God’s presence and to abide there. This mediation on the inspired Word of God presupposes a prayerful encounter with that Word, both as proclaimed in the liturgy (the Mass and the Divine Office) and in the slow, reverent reading of the Bible known as lectio divina. This process begins with reading, continues with meditation on what is read, which then gives rise to prayer, and may—it is to be hoped—finally bear fruit in the grace of contemplation. The medieval Carthusian monk, Guigo II, offered the following explanation of this quintessentially monastic approach to prayer:

Reading is the careful study of the Scriptures, concentrating all one’s powers on it. Meditation is the busy application of the mind to seek with the help of one’s own reason for knowledge of hidden truth. Prayer is the heart’s devoted turning to God to drive away evil and obtain what is good. Contemplation is when the mind is in some sort lifted up to God and held above itself, so that it tastes the joys of everlasting sweetness.
(The Ladder of Monks, II)

It may happen, however, that during some hours of prayer, and perhaps even during whole periods of one’s life, that discursive and imaginative meditation proves unhelpful or even impossible. At such times, I simply try to “practice the presence of God” (as recommended by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection in a book thus entitled), wanting him and awaiting him, fending off distractions by repeating a word from Scripture or, more often, the name of Jesus. With solid biblical warrant (cf. John 14:14; 16:23-24; Acts 4:12), Eastern Christianity has given pride of place to the Jesus Prayer, wherein the Name is continually remembered and repeated as a lifelong mantra. Though I am not so faithful as that, I try to bring the Name to mind as often as I can.
Also, in keeping with the teaching of the 14th century author of The Cloud of Unknowing, I practice what is now called “centering prayer” in our beautiful and serene meditation hall. This prayer consists in sitting still in God’s presence and summing up all the intentions of one’s prayer in a single predetermined word (“God,” “Jesus,” “Love,” “Help!” etc.), spoken softly within the heart. This is a prayer of letting go of one’s own controlling grip in order to open up to God’s transformative activity in the soul.
In order to cultivate my relationship and devotion to Mary, Mother of God and our Lady, I say the rosary daily. The rosary, along with other forms of Marian piety, is a commonplace in Cistercian monasteries such as ours, though never forced upon anyone. Marian devotion springs up spontaneously within this Order that has enjoyed Mary’s patronage from its inception, all our houses being dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.
Finally, lest I give a false impression, I should mention that the monk does not restrict his prayer to specially allocated time-slots. Throughout the day, the monk makes use of the pervasive quiet to recollect himself and call on the name of the Lord, to offer brief interior prayers of petition and intercession, or to invoke the help of Mary or of the other saints. Indeed, the monk seeks to arrive at the point of praying without cease, that his entire life may be spent in the awareness of God’s presence, an offering of the heart poured out continually for the glory of God and the salvation of the world.
The monk who has become a living prayer is the fullest embodiment of the contemplative life, having been so transformed and divinized by the grace of God that, in the words of the 12th century Cistercian Father, William of St. Thierry: “In a manner which exceeds description and thought, the man of God is found worthy to become not God but what God is, that is to say man becomes through grace what God is by nature” (The Golden Epistle, XVI). Such a monk enjoys that vision of God in everything and every circumstance of life that belongs to the pure of heart (Matt. 5:8). And those who meet him find in him the very likeness of Christ, in all the gentleness of his bearing and the warmth of his love.

+ Br Paul

October

2011-10-20T07:07:00.002-04:00

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

By Robert Frost

The Mighty Macs

2011-10-20T06:53:00.001-04:00

Do you remember when all of your teachers were nuns? this movie is a good reminder...

Wild Swans

2011-10-07T15:06:00.005-04:00

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.
And what did I see I had not seen before?
Only a question less or a question more;
Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying.
Tiresome heart, forever living and dying,
House without air, I leave you and lock your door.
Wild swans, come over the town, come over
The town again, trailing your legs and crying!

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Photo from Mepkin Abbey

BC AD

2011-10-05T06:51:00.006-04:00

A few evenings ago there was a special presentation on PBS about the Jewish people. While watching a few minutes of the program, I heard the commentator use the words "before the Common Era." This showcases the problem we are having here in the USA and in Europe - the exclusion of Christianity in our culture. Let's do what we can to preach Jesus to who we know, and to who we do not know - that Jesus is the Lord of History.

This article is out of CNA;

Vatican daily criticizes BBC for 'erasing Christ from history'

The Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano has criticized a decision by the BBC television network to drop its usage of the designations “A.D.” and “B.C.”

The network plans to adopt the terms “C.E.” (Common Era) and “BCE” (Before the Common Era) when referring to historical dates, to avoid “offending” non-believers.

L’Osservatore Romano called the decision “senseless historical hypocrisy.” Numerous BBC hosts, as well as politicians such as the mayor of London, Boris Johnshon, have also denounced the plan as absurd.

In an Oct. 5 article that will be published by the Vatican newspaper, reporter Luceta Scaraffia pointed out that numerous non-Christian spokespersons have stated that they “did not feel offended in any way by the traditional dating system.”

“It is clear that respect for other religions is a mere pretext, because what they want is to wipe out any trace of Christianity from western culture.”

Scaraffia noted that this is not the first time an attempt has been made to change the historical designations. The anti-Christian French Revolution of 1789 and the 1917 Leninist revolution in Russia both included efforts to reformulate the traditional calendar to start over again in their respective years.

She called those efforts “horrible precedents” and said the current proposed change is a hypocritical move on the part of those who “seem to not know why the years are counted starting from a certain date.”

“To deny the historically revolutionary role of the coming of Christ on earth, accepted even by those who do not recognize him as the Son of God, is a complete folly. And from a historical point of view, both Jews and Muslims know it.”

She pointed out that with the coming of Christ, mankind learned that all human beings have the same dignity, and this truth forms the basis “for all human rights, by which nations and leaders are judged.

“Until that time no one had held this principle, and Christian tradition is based upon it.”

The world changed after Christ, Scaraffia continued, and knowing the God who transcends nature, “made it possible for the peoples of Europe to discover the world and for scientists to begin the experimental study of nature, which led to the birth of modern science.”

“Why deny, then, civilization’s cultural debt to Christianity? There is nothing more anti-historical and senseless, as Jews and Muslims have clearly understood. It’s a matter of reason, not of faith.”

Saint Francis of Assisi

2011-10-04T06:58:00.003-04:00

Saint Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone; 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226) was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.

Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. On a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis begged with the beggars at St. Peter's. The experience moved him to live in poverty. Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon amassed a following. His order was endorsed by Pope Innocent III in 1210. He then founded the Order of Poor Clares, which was an enclosed order for women, as well as the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance. In 1219, he went to Egypt where crusaders were besieging Damietta, hoping to find martyrdom at the hands of the Muslims. By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the order. Once his organization was endorsed by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. In 1223, Francis arranged for the first Christmas manger scene. In 1224, he received the stigmata, making him the first person to bear the wounds of Christ's Passion. He died in 1226 while singing Psalm 141.

On July 16, 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX. He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and one of the two patrons of Italy (with Catherine of Siena), his feast day is on 4 October.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Nun on the Run !

2011-09-30T11:23:00.004-04:00

I found this fun story over at the "Deacons Bench" - out of the Chicago-Sun Times... Nun-to-be to run Chicago Marathon - Her nun’s habit is too long to run with, so Stephanie Baliga won’t wear it when she runs in next month’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon.....

But you still might be able to pick out Baliga from among the thousands of runners by the rosary beads that she’s thinking she’ll bring along on the 26.2-mile run Oct. 9. Oh, and there’s also the special running skirt, designed for modesty.

Baliga, 23, is a former University of Illinois track star who’s in the process of becoming a nun for the Franciscans of the Eucharist, a new Catholic community based in West Humboldt Park at Our Lady of the Angels Church.

Now known as Sr. Stephanie, she considered joining a different group of nuns, but it didn’t allow running.

Baliga, who grew up in Rockford, found her calling with a running-friendly order that works to feed about 700 families a month and provides an after-school program for about 900 kids. She runs 40 miles a week, usually early in the morning near the lake or in Humboldt Park.

“I’m able to have a blank mind while running — it’s one of the only times I can do that,” she says. “I feel closer to God when I run, there’s a rhythm and a peace.”

Baliga says she realized what she wanted to do with her life in college, when she hurt an ankle and couldn’t run.

“I realized running was too big a part of my life and began to ask what God was asking me to do with my life — and, eventually, felt called to become a sister,” says Baliga, who will formally become a nun on Tuesday.

“I’ve found the correct balance of God and running,” she says. “I’m not using running for any selfish means any more. I use it to glorify God and help promote what we’re doing at our mission...If the Lord wanted me to give up running, I would do it, but he ended up giving it back. And that makes me happy.”

Baliga is running the Chicago marathon to raise money to renovate Our Lady of the Angels church.

“We need more space to do our ministries for the neighborhood,” she says. “The original estimate was about $2 million. We’re almost there. We’re only $40,000 short.”

Missionaries of Charity in Ethiopia

2011-09-29T15:13:00.005-04:00

Michael Hill wrote a nice article concerning all the good work the Missionaries of Charity are doing in Ethiopia. The article is out of CRS -

Ethiopia:

Missionaries of Charity Foster Dignity Amid Destitution

By all rights, the Missionaries of Charity Home for the Destitute and Dying in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia should be a depressing place. After all, the 1,000 people in here are almost all sick. And they are poor. Their sleeping quarters are crowded, beds nearly wall-to-wall. Some have physical ailments that might make you want to avert your gaze. Others are mentally challenged and behave erratically.

It is certainly not a place that makes you happy. These people have been dealt a tough hand by life. Few have smiles on their faces. On this cool afternoon, they are mostly sitting outside. Not listless, exactly, but hardly active. Some are in wheelchairs. Others remain in their beds in the wards.

The home is really two compounds, one for children, the other for teens to the aged. The occupants go from newborn infants to those near the end of long lives. Some are simply too poor to afford any sort of lodging during medical treatment in Ethiopia’s capital city. But many were abandoned by their families, too poor to care for, say, a handicapped child with mental issues; or for an elderly relative near death; or for an unwanted newborn.

There is an entire facility in the children’s compound for young mothers and their babies. Some of the mothers were rape victims. All had nowhere else to go in a society where an extended family essentially defines who you are, your status in the world. The three-month stay in this ward could make the difference between a young mother abandoning her baby or learning how to care and nurture her child.

This is not a luxurious place. All eating and much of the cooking is done outside on long benches. Not only are there no private rooms, your private space hardly extends beyond the edge of your bed. Outside the gates, people line up looking to get in, some for a visit to the health clinic for outpatients, but many seeking accommodation.

So why wasn’t it depressing? Hard to say. Certainly the facility was well-cared for. The paint seemed fresh, the floors swept, the beds made. And the patients, though often in terrible medical shape, also seemed well cared for, their needs attended to as best as possible.

But there was something else, something elusive. It probably has to do with the attitude of the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa, whose familiar face beams down from many of the home’s walls. She came to Ethiopia in 1974 and met with the then-Emperor Haile Selassie. With his permission, she sent two nuns from her home base in India to begin work in Ethiopia. There are now 120 Missionaries of Charity in the country, running 18 homes like this one all over the country.

About 40 of the sisters work at this house in Addis Ababa, along with 60 staff. Much of the support for their work, including the food they serve, comes through Catholic Relief Services. Though the sisters were not that visible during my visit—first they were in their daily mass then involved in tasks in their part of the compound—their spirit was evident.

And the foundation of that spirit is to treat all with dignity, even the poor and the sick who have been cast off from society. That was what pervaded the place, a feeling of the dignity of each of these patients, from the tiniest baby crying his eyes out to the oldest woman nearing her last breath. (One way of insuring dignity is to forbid photographs, by the way).

The presence of dignity affirmed the beauty in each of these people, giving the place a calmness that belied the turmoil of so many of these lives. It was a privilege to be amongst them.

The Missionaries of Charity feed more than 40,000 people in their homes across Ethiopia thanks to food donated by the U.S. and CRS private donations. Above Photo by Mikaele Sansone/CRS

The Way

2011-09-28T06:45:00.002-04:00

This is a "must see" movie..

Responsibility

2011-09-27T06:58:00.003-04:00

In the last analysis,
the individual person is responsible
for living his own life
and for finding himself.
If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else,
he fails to find out the meaning
of his own existence.
- Thomas Merton

POPE BENEDICT XVI MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE EVANGELICAL (LUTHERAN) CHURCHES OF GERMANY

2011-09-23T12:50:00.002-04:00

ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE EVANGELICAL (LUTHERAN) CHURCHES OF GERMANY
AUGUSTINIAN CONVENT
ERFURT
23 SEPTEMBER 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I begin to speak, I would like first of all to thank you for this opportunity to come together with you. I am particularly grateful to Pastor Schneider for greeting me and welcoming me into your midst with his kind words. At the same time I want to express my thanks for the particularly gracious gesture that our meeting can be held in this historic location.

As the Bishop of Rome, it is deeply moving for me to be meeting representatives of Council of the EKD here in the ancient Augustinian convent in Erfurt. This is where Luther studied theology. This is where he was ordained a priest in 1507. Against his father’s wishes, he did not continue the study of Law, but instead he studied theology and set off on the path towards priesthood in the Order of Saint Augustine. On this path, he was not simply concerned with this or that. What constantly exercised him was the question of God, the deep passion and driving force of his whole life’s journey. “How do I receive the grace of God?”: this question struck him in the heart and lay at the foundation of all his theological searching and inner struggle. For him theology was no mere academic pursuit, but the struggle for oneself, which in turn was a struggle for and with God.

“How do I receive the grace of God?” The fact that this question was the driving force of his whole life never ceases to make an impression on me. For who is actually concerned about this today – even among Christians? What does the question of God mean in our lives? In our preaching? Most people today, even Christians, set out from the presupposition that God is not fundamentally interested in our sins and virtues. He knows that we are all mere flesh. Insofar as people today believe in an afterlife and a divine judgement at all, nearly everyone presumes for all practical purposes that God is bound to be magnanimous and that ultimately he mercifully overlooks our small failings. But are they really so small, our failings? Is not the world laid waste through the corruption of the great, but also of the small, who think only of their own advantage? Is it not laid waste through the power of drugs, which thrives on the one hand on greed and avarice, and on the other hand on the craving for pleasure of those who become addicted? Is the world not threatened by the growing readiness to use violence, frequently masking itself with claims to religious motivation? Could hunger and poverty so devastate parts of the world if love for God and godly love of neighbour – of his creatures, of men and women – were more alive in us? I could go on. No, evil is no small matter. Were we truly to place God at the centre of our lives, it could not be so powerful. The question: what is God’s position towards me, where do I stand before God? – this burning question of Martin Luther must once more, doubtless in a new form, become our question too. In my view, this is the first summons we should attend to in our encounter with Martin Luther.

Another important point: God, the one God, creator of heaven and earth, is no mere philosophical hypothesis regarding the origins of the universe. This God has a face, and he has spoken to us. He became one of us in the man Jesus Christ – who is both true God and true man. Luther’s thinking, his whole spirituality, was thoroughly Christocentric: “What promotes Christ’s cause” was for Luther the decisive hermeneutical criterion for the exegesis of sacred Scripture. This presupposes, however, that Christ is at the heart of our spirituality and that love for him, living in communion with him, is what guides our life.

Now perhaps you will say: all well and good, but what has this to do with our ecumenical situation? Could this just be an attempt to talk our way past the urgent problems that are still waiting for practical progress, for concrete results? I would respond by saying that the first and most important thing for ecumenism is that we keep in view just how much we have in common, not losing sight of it amid the pressure towards secularization – everything that makes us Christian in the first place and continues to be our gift and our task. It was the error of the Reformation period that for the most part we could only see what divided us and we failed to grasp existentially what we have in common in terms of the great deposit of sacred Scripture and the early Christian creeds. The great ecumenical step forward of recent decades is that we have become aware of all this common ground and that we acknowledge it as we pray and sing together, as we make our joint commitment to the Christian ethos in our dealings with the world, as we bear common witness to the God of Jesus Christ in this world as our undying foundation.

The risk of losing this, sadly, is not unreal. I would like to make two points here. The geography of Christianity has changed dramatically in recent times, and is in the process of changing further. Faced with a new form of Christianity, which is spreading with overpowering missionary dynamism, sometimes in frightening ways, the mainstream Christian denominations often seem at a loss. This is a form of Christianity with little institutional depth, little rationality and even less dogmatic content, and with little stability. This worldwide phenomenon poses a question to us all: what is this new form of Christianity saying to us, for better and for worse? In any event, it raises afresh the question about what has enduring validity and what can or must be changed – the question of our fundamental faith choice.

The second challenge to worldwide Christianity of which I wish to speak is more profound and in our country more controversial: the secularized context of the world in which we Christians today have to live and bear witness to our faith. God is increasingly being driven out of our society, and the history of revelation that Scripture recounts to us seems locked into an ever more remote past. Are we to yield to the pressure of secularization, and become modern by watering down the faith? Naturally faith today has to be thought out afresh, and above all lived afresh, so that it is suited to the present day. Yet it is not by watering the faith down, but by living it today in its fullness that we achieve this. This is a key ecumenical task. Moreover, we should help one another to develop a deeper and more lively faith. It is not strategy that saves us and saves Christianity, but faith – thought out and lived afresh; through such faith, Christ enters this world of ours, and with him, the living God. As the martyrs of the Nazi era brought us together and prompted the first great ecumenical opening, so today, faith that is lived from deep within amid a secularized world is the most powerful ecumenical force that brings us together, guiding us towards unity in the one Lord.

Pope Benedict XVI will meet with the Lutherans

2011-09-23T06:56:00.004-04:00

As a descendant of German Lutherans who arrived into Hoboken, New Jersey in the 19th Century, the idea of Catholics and Lutherans coming together is intriguing to me. Of course we have come together already on the Joint Declaration. Hopefully there will be more movement torwards that time in the future, when we will all be "one."

Here is a good article out of the Spectator by Freddy Gray...

A Catholic-Lutheran rapprochement?

Ecumenism doesn’t excite the media, as a rule. The quest for Christian unity usually involves beardy men drinking tea together, making safe and unfunny jokes about themselves, and agreeing to disagree. It doesn¹t make headlines.

Tomorrow, however, Pope Benedict XVI will mark an amazing shift in the relationship between Protestantism and Catholicism, as he visits Erfurt, the spiritual home of Martin Luther.

The Pope digs Luther, you see. He even digs Lutheranism. As John Allen Jr put it in his biography of Benedict, ‘The Lutherans are to Benedict what the Orthodox are to John Paul: the separated brethren he knows best, and for whom he has the greatest natural affinity.’

Benedict is German and his cultural sensibilities are therefore rather compatible with Germanic Lutheranism: he likes J S Bach and rigorous theology. In fact, as one of the world’s leading Augustinian scholars, Benedict has a natural rapport with Luther’s Augustinianism. In 1998, as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he played a key role in formulating with the Lutheran World Federation the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification), arguably the most groundbreaking ecumenical document of the last twenty years.

It would be overkill to talk about a new era of Catholic-Protestant unity. Benedict told reporters last weekend not to expect a ‘sensation’ in Erfurt. He has said in the past that Lutheranism’s lack of central authority represents an obstacle to meaningful dialogue (‘As soon as there is a Lutheran Church, we can discuss it,’ he once remarked). Plenty of Lutherans, for that matter, can't bear the thought of rapprochement with Rome.

Yet a Roman Pontiff leading an ecumenical service at the monastery of the man who sparked the Reformation, an event that would have been unimaginable 50 years ago – that’s a significant story.

* Bottom right image > Erfurt's Augustine monastery, where Luther lived as a monk before his protest against the Roman Catholic Church in 1517.

Sisters of Life

2011-09-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

Amish Life

2011-09-19T12:47:00.003-04:00

This image speaks volumes...God's Love in action...

More photos of Amish Life HERE

DEACON'S BENEDICTION

2011-09-16T10:25:00.002-04:00

Today I was on as deacon at Benediction. The new sense of practicality did not extend to the ceremonies. I was in a fog, but very happy. All I could think about was picking up the Host. I was afraid the whole Church might come down on my head, because of what I used to be -- as if that were not forgotten! But God weighs scarcely anything at all. Though containing more than the universe, He was so light that I nearly fell off the altar. He communicated all that lightness to my own spirit and when I came down I was so happy I had a hard time to keep myself from laughing out loud.

Thomas Merton

Nikie the Service Dog at Ground Zero

2011-09-12T15:00:00.005-04:00

I am a lover of dogs, especially Golden Retrievers. We have a lovely Golden Retriever at home named Shelby - she is sweet, loyal and just about the most perfect friend. Frank Shane, a professional dog therapist and CEO of the K-9 Disaster Relief Foundation, also has a perfect friend, his Golden Nikie. Frank Shane wrote a nice article about Nikie, and their experience at Ground Zero.

Soon after the attacks, Nikie and I were walking around the Family Assistance Center when a woman made a beeline for us. Trained in crisis intervention, I had decided to bring Nikie to the Center at Pier 94, set up by the city to help families of the missing or dead, because I thought he might cheer up some of the kids whose parents were navigating this unbelievable tragedy.

The woman tackled Nikie and threw her arms around him.

"Hello," I said.

The woman didn't respond, and she didn't let go.

"What's your name?" I tried again.

Nothing. Despite Nikie's and my many experiences working with people in hospitals and trauma centers, we had never elicited this kind of emotion before.

A mental health worker came over and began to talk to the woman about the dog. When she finally did speak, the woman said she had a dog named Ginger. "My husband loved to throw a yellow ball to Ginger," she said.

Slowly, the mental health worker discovered that the woman needed financial assistance because her husband, who was missing, was the breadwinner of the family.

In that moment, I recognized the power of an animal in making a human connection. I had learned about the incredible ability of dogs—and in particular Nikie—to communicate while working with him in a New Jersey brain trauma center years before 9/11.

Nikie, a majestic golden retriever, was smart and intuitive. But I didn't know just how smart until I saw him in action at the trauma center. Nikie knew how to carefully step around the cords next to a patient's bed. If a patient was alert, he approached for a scratch or some kind of contact. Often the connectivity between him and patients broke through obstacles that doctors and nurses couldn't overcome.

Read the rest of the story HERE

Frank Shane, a professional dog therapist and CEO of the K-9 Disaster Relief Foundation, had to improvise when he brought his golden retriever, Nikie, down to Ground Zero. There was no protocol for anything—from the kind of footwear Nikie should wear to how Frank should deal with the unfathomable grief of 9/11. Yet from the moment Frank and his dog stepped onto the site, they both knew they had a job to do. As it turned out, a pair of soft ears and a wagging tail offered one of the best ways to connect to the people on the ground.

Father Mychal Judge Walk of Remembrance

2011-09-12T06:55:00.001-04:00

Message from Pope Benedict XVI to Archbishop Timothy Dolan

2011-09-11T07:26:00.006-04:00

Pope Benedict XVI at Ground Zero

To my Venerable Brother
The Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan
President
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

On this day my thoughts turn to the somber events. of September 11, 2001, when so many innocent lives were lost in the brutal assault on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the further attacks in Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. I join you in commending the thousands of victims to the infinite mercy of Almighty God and in asking our heavenly Father to continue to console those who mourn the loss of loved ones.

The tragedy of that day is compounded by the perpetrators' claim to be acting in God's name. Once again, it must be unequivocally stated that no circumstances can ever justify acts of terrorism. Every human life is precious in God's sight and no effort should be spared in the attempt to promote throughout the world a genuine respect for the inalienable rights and dignity of individuals and peoples everywhere.

The American people are to be commended for the courage and generosity that they showed in the rescue operations and for their resilience in moving forward with hope and confidence. It is my fervent prayer that a firm commitment to justice and a global culture of solidarity will help rid the world of the grievances that so often give rise to acts of violence and will create the conditions for greater peace and prosperity, offering a brighter and more secure future.

With these sentiments, I extend my most affectionate greetings to you, your brother Bishops and all those entrusted to your pastoral care, and I gladly impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of peace and serenity in the Lord,

From the Vatican, September 11,2011

Benedict XVI

Archbishop Timothy Dolan: A Time for Remembrance, Resolve and Renewal

2011-09-09T06:58:00.001-04:00

As we commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, it is a time for remembrance, resolve and renewal.

We reverently recall those who were most directly affected by this tragedy—those who died, were injured or lost loved ones.In a special way we recall the selfless first responders—firefighters, police, chaplains, emergency workers, and other brave persons—who risked, and many times lost, their lives in their courageous efforts to save others.

We also remember how our nation responded to the terrifying events of that day—we turned to prayer, and then turned to one another to offer help and support.Hands were folded in prayer and opened in service to those who had lost so much.

We resolve today and always to reject hatred and resist terrorism.The greatest resource we have in these struggles is faith.Ten years ago our Conference of Bishops issued a Pastoral Message, Living with Faith and Hope after September 11, which drew on the rich resources of our Catholic faith to minister to our nation and world.The truth of that Pastoral Message still resonates today.

A decade later we remain resolved to reject extreme ideologies that perversely misuse religion to justify indefensible attacks on innocent civilians, to embrace persons of all religions, including our Muslim neighbors, and to welcome refugees seeking safety.We steadfastly refrain from blaming the many for the actions of a few and insist that security needs can be reconciled with our immigrant heritage without compromising either one.Gratefully mindful of the continuing sacrifices of the men and women in our armed forces, and their families, we also resolve to bring a responsible end to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This tenth anniversary of 9/11 can be a time of renewal.Ten years ago we came together across religious, political, social and ethnic lines to stand as one people to heal wounds and defend against terrorism.As we face today's challenges of people out of work, families struggling, and the continuing dangers of wars and terrorism, let us summon the 9/11 spirit of unity to confront our challenges.Let us pray that the lasting legacy of 9/11 is not fear, but rather hope for a world renewed.

In remembering the fateful events of September 11, 2001, may we resolve to put aside our differences and join together in the task of renewing our nation and world.Let us make our own the prayer of Pope Benedict XVI when he visited Ground Zero in New York in 2008:

O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain….

God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.
Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all.

PDF version for printing HERE

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) says the world is currently in the midst of a horrifying abortion surge.

2011-09-08T12:55:00.006-04:00

Important article out of EWTN News...

The future of faith-based health care in the developing world is being threatened by the global pro-abortion lobby, led by the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, a U.S. Catholic politician has warned.

“Make no mistake about it; they are going for the jugular. No country, save the Vatican, is immune,” said Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) to a global conference of Catholic health care professionals in Rome Sept. 2.

The New Jersey congressman said that pro-abortion forces are willing to kill off faith-based health care in the developing world – despite the fact that such bodies provide up to 70 percent of all health provision in places such as Africa.

“The threat to mothers and children is real and growing. Faith-based health care is at risk of global defunding and disenfranchisement,” said Congressman Smith.

He claimed the world is currently “in the midst of a horrifying abortion surge” fueled, to a large extent, by the Obama administration.

“The Obama Administration poured over $61.5 million dollars - subsidizing a reported 83 NGO’s - to secure a new constitution in Kenya,” said Congressman Smith giving a recent example, “that includes a fundamental right to a ‘health’ abortion performed by anyone described in the constitution as a trained health professional.” Prior to the approval of the new constitution, abortion was illegal in Kenya.

Congressman Smith recalled speaking recently to a “Speaker of a Parliament in a large African country” who told him that such tactics “take advantage of our poverty.”

He also highlighted how the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, initiated by George W. Bush in 2003, now issues grant proposals that “require condom procurement, promotion and/or utilization activities as a core element of an HIV prevention program with no reference to the conscience clause in the document.”

Meanwhile, the U.N’s new “Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health” demands that abortion be included in any health care provision which, said the congressman, “apparently leaves little or no room for inclusion of Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) and secular NGOs of conscience.”

Read more HERE

Labor Day

2011-09-05T10:24:00.004-04:00

THROUGH WORK man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family. And work means any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself. Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth. From the beginning therefore he is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature. Blessed John Paul II

Excerpt from Laborem exercens

Break, Break, Break

2011-09-01T10:20:00.002-04:00

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill:
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

By Alfred Lord Tennyson

* Painting - The Ocean by Michael Bozell

GET CLEAN

2011-08-30T16:01:00.000-04:00

Good video, which needs no explanation...

Photo from Merton's Zen camera

2011-08-29T15:41:00.002-04:00

Trappist Monk Thomas Merton, in his twenty-seventh year at Gethsemani Monastery, wrote to his friend novelist John Howard Griffin, in 1968, shortly after he received the gift of a camera: “It is fabulous. What a joy of a thing to work with.The camera is the most eager and helpful of all beings, all full of happy suggestions. Reminding me of things I have overlooked and cooperating in the creation of new worlds. So Simply. This is a Zen camera.”

Hurricane Irene strikes Brookside Park in NJ

2011-08-29T08:40:00.002-04:00

A local of Bloomfield, New Jersey (my home town) shot this video of raging waters in Brooksdide Park. The water in this park is barely a stream.

Yesterday, it became the Colorado River !

Hurricane Irene, on the way to Jersey

2011-08-26T16:10:00.003-04:00

Well here she is, Hurricane Irene, on the way to my home State of New Jersey. As I am one to worry, I am becoming more worried. First of all, I have a brick fireplace that rises on its own about 8 feet above my roof. In almost twenty five years, the wind has never blown it down. Big trouble if it does come down - it will take a whole wall with it. And my basement is prone to flooding. I have a sump pump that works very well - but - if the power goes out, I am a dead duck! Well, maybe not a dead duck, but maybe a floating duck. My wife tells me to stop worrying, and do more praying. I am a deacon - she really shouldn't have to tell me to pray...but my wife, and I hate to say it, is usually 99.9% correct. So, I will take her advice, and pray - and ask the Good Lord to not only spare our home and protect OUR family, but to protect all God's children who are in the way of this terrible storm.

I am charging my camera batteries, waiting to get my first shot of a hurricane - up close....

God bless !

The Cowl by Brother Paul Quenon

2011-08-25T06:56:00.002-04:00

The Cowl

–solemn as chant,
one sweep of fabric
from head to foot.
Cowls hanging
on a row of pegs—
tall disembodied spirits
holding shadows
deep in the folds
waiting for light,
for light to shift
waiting for a bell
for the reach of my hand
to spread out the slow
wings, release the
shadows and envelope my
prayer-hungry body
with light.

* Image > Detail of Cowls on Pegs by Brother Paul Quenon

Biden and China - The One Child Policy

2011-08-24T06:51:00.002-04:00

The one child per couple policy is cruel, inhumane and the most egregious systematic attack on women ever,” said Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.)- yet our Vice-President fully understands it, and would not second-guess the Chinese.

Today, out of CNA - By Benjamin Mann;

Washington D.C. - A leading human rights advocate in the U.S. House of Representatives says Vice President Joe Biden betrayed Chinese women and children by saying he “fully understood” the country's one-child policy and was not “second guessing” it.

“The one child per couple policy is cruel, inhumane and the most egregious systematic attack on women ever,” said Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said on August 23. “For the Vice President to publicly state that he fully understands the one child policy is unconscionable.”

“He and all of us should be defending the women of China from this state-sponsored cruelty of forced abortion and forced sterilization, not supporting and enabling it.”

Vice President Biden made the remarks during his state visit to China, at an August 21 appearance at Chengdu's Sichuan University. He was discussing the United States' dilemma of paying for entitlement programs when the number of retirees exceeds the number of workers, a problem he said China shared.

“But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China,” Biden said.

“Your policy has been one which I fully understand – I’m not second-guessing – of one child per family. The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”

The Vice President's remarks in Chengdu drew widespread criticism, particularly from pro-life activists and his political opponents.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on August 22 that he was “deeply troubled by the comments ... regarding China’s reprehensible one-child policy, which has resulted in forced sterilizations and coerced abortions and should not be condoned by any American official.”

Read the rest HERE

Earthquake Hits New Jersey and New York

2011-08-23T15:03:00.007-04:00

Office workers gathered in downtown Washington, Tuesday, after an earthquake shook the nation's capital.

The ground was shaking today in New Jersey. A 5.9 Magnitude Earthquake centered in Virginia/North Carolina shook much of the northeast - from the Carolinas to New Jersey, to New York. Read more HERE.

O God, who hast established the earth upon firm foundations, graciously receive the prayers of Thy people: and, having utterly removed the dangers of the shaken earth, turn the terrors of Thy divine wrath into the means of the salvation of mankind; that they who are of the earth, and unto earth shall return, may rejoice to find themselves citizens of heaven by means of a holy life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hope in Madrid

2011-08-22T06:56:00.004-04:00

Jennifer Hartline posted a wonderful article on her blog "My Chocolate Heart" about the excitement and exuberance of all the young pilgrims who attended World Youth Day in Madrid. This reminds me of my own pilgrimage to Rome in 2003, attending the beatification of Mother Teresa. In St. Peter's Square, the young people were standing on their seats, waving - singing - screaming - all for their love of the Pope. When you see this excitement in our young people for the Church, it really strengthens our Christian Hope!

Papa, the Young Catholics, and Amanda Marcotte: Hope in Madrid

I watched part of the World Youth Day welcoming ceremony in Madrid, Spain, and talk about great television! From every ethnicity and country stood throngs of youth jam-packed into the square, waving their countries’ flags and they were all absolutely beaming. They were exuberant with joy and excitement at welcoming the Holy Father and being welcomed by him.

I readily admit I was overcome with emotion at the sight. So many young people in every manner of dress, yet they all seemed to be clothed with the same electrifying spirit. I watched some of them present a thoughtful gift to Pope Benedict on behalf of their nation, and each of them got his childlike warm smile and blessing. The rice from a young Korean woman; a flower garland from the young lady from Japan (she looked like a walking flower herself -- so lovely!); the sombrero from the young man from Honduras; each one given with sincerity and gratitude, and equally received.

It was a striking thing to watch. Young Catholics in full-spectrum color, bubbling over with enthusiasm. This, after all, is supposedly the Church that has abandoned young people and oppressed women. I defy anyone to watch what's going on in Madrid and tell me the Church is not alive with young blood! What I saw tonight gives me great hope for my Church, and I shamefully admit I am often susceptible to discouragement. We, the Church, will indeed climb the steep hill before us because the souls doing the climbing are young and strong.

I saw young people screaming, crying and jumping for joy like lovesick fans at a rock concert, but their affection is for their Papa! This young flock knows him and they respect him. They know him because he speaks the truth without condescension or apology. They know him because he offers them hope that will never be shaken.

They recognize in Papa's voice the One who truly loves them and gave Himself for them. They hunger for that love and so they long to hear the words of the Holy Father, for he communicates the joy, the love, and the promise of Divine Mercy. He dares them to build their lives on the firm foundation of the Person of Christ rather than the flimsy, shifting sands of their era.

Those who wag their finger and look disdainfully at the Catholic Church and pile up their scathing criticism about this World Youth Day are yelling with their eyes shut. They have no idea what they're describing because they've never seen it. They’re filled with hatred, anger, resentment, disappointment, and other, less understandable motivation. Like scrawny, feral cats backed into a corner and sprayed with a hose, they're just hissing and clawing, all fangs and screeches.

One such cat is Amanda Marcotte. Slate had the bad sense (or was it endorsement?) to publish her latest round of anti-Catholic vomit this week. There was nothing at all new in her ravings, just the same ol', same ol': The Church is misogynist and hates women; the Church hates sex and thinks sex is dirty; the Church hates women who've had an abortion; the Church is full to the rafters will creepy pedophiles who practically eat little children for lunch; the Church has no remorse whatsoever for the crimes of her priests and couldn't care less who got hurt; and on and on it goes.

Well, Amanda, there's only one thing to say. Sit down, honey. You must be exhausted! I mean, the energy it takes to perpetuate this much venomous anger toward the Church must be enormous! It's clearly consuming you, so why don't you just let it go?

Seriously, Amanda, come on home. Are you Catholic? It's not your fault if you were never properly taught your Church's teachings. Sadly, most of us weren't. However, you're an adult now, so it is your fault if you don't now seek out the truth and learn to separate fact from twisted fiction.

The good news is there's a plethora of great books, CD's and other material that can bring you up to speed real quick if you just make an effort. You’ll find a much different Church than the one you're railing against so viciously. You’ll find a very different God than the one you slander so callously. But you have to seek. That's the rule: seek and ye shall find.

If you're not interested in seeking, well, I'm sorry to hear that. But in that case, please close your mouth and keep your vile and ignorant screeds to yourself. You don't know what you're talking about, and you don't have the right to spread lies and hatred.

Did you see those people in Madrid, Amanda? Did you see the life and freedom on the faces of that crowd? Do those really look like mindless sheep to you? Do those vibrant young women really look oppressed or restricted to you?

They are filled with something I believe you desperately want and need: real joy. The pure joy that comes from knowing you are loved. Endlessly, completely loved. And you are, Amanda. I'm truly sorry you don't know that. There's no way you could know that and still behave the way you do.

They're also brimming with the excitement of being part of the Body of Christ on earth. By God's grace, they are hearing the call to transform their generation by the witness of their lives. They're getting ready to fling their nets wide and haul in the catch of the century. And through their faithfulness, our dying culture will be reborn. By God's grace...

As I said, I’m prone to discouragement about all of this. I, too, see the statistics revealing the chasm between what Catholics are taught and what they're actually doing. I know there is much, much work to be done in catechizing generations of Catholics who don't know two bits about their faith. I'm frustrated on a daily basis by so-called Catholics who give the Church "the finger" and live like any other pagan.

I’m disgusted by the betrayal of public officials who are supposed to be Catholic, yet devote their lives to tearing down every moral truth when they should know better. But you know what, Amanda? Those folks are not the Church. They’re just hecklers and criminals in sheep's clothing.

The Church -- the real Church -- is seen in the faith and hope now gathered in Madrid. God is still in His heaven, and our High Priest still offers Himself for us every second of every day. Our Blessed Mother still intercedes for us. She's still teaching us the only way to freedom is through humble obedience to the lovable will of her Son.

Read the rest HERE

Pilgrims at World Youth Day in Madrid

2011-08-18T15:32:00.006-04:00

I grabbed this picture from Deacon Kandra's Blog - it was too good to pass up!

Pilgrims at World Youth Day in Madrid get a peek at the pope

A Cistercian Prayer

2011-08-18T13:45:00.003-04:00

Whatever the object of my prayer,

I never pray or worship you in vain; the very act of praying brings me rich reward.

Teach me then, Holy Spirit, to pray without ceasing, that you may grant me to rejoice unceasingly in you.

World Youth Day Begins !

2011-08-18T06:59:00.002-04:00

Opening homily by Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela;

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord

1. Welcome to Madrid for the XXVI World Youth Day announced by our Holy Father Benedict XVI in Sydney three years ago and today begins with the solemn Eucharistic celebration at the central Plaza de Cibeles Madrid!

Welcome Reverend Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops! I greet all of you with fraternal affection in the Lord! We are joined by many priests, consecrated persons and a huge crowd of young people, hope and future of our Churches, our peoples and nations of the whole Church!

2. Allow me to speak them directly as Pastor of the Diocesan Church of Madrid and President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and tell you with all my heart:

Dear young people of the world: Welcome to Spain! Many of you have experienced and appreciated the warm welcome and fraternal love of your fellow young people of Spain, their families, their communities and their pastors since the Days in the Dioceses. You could verify that this attitude of open arms and warm sympathy has very much to do with the fact that this is an old country formed by a community of nations: Spain!, whom main hallmark of his historical culture and his life style is the profession of Christian faith by their children in the communion of the Catholic Church. The historic character of Spain is formed with distinctive features about the Christian vision of man and life from the very dawn of his history, which began with the first journey of the apostolic preaching in Spanish almost two thousand years ago. One of the most brilliant writers and performers of contemporary Spain could say: “Spain has been moved through out history by its Christian identity”.

3. Welcome to Spain and welcome to Madrid, the Capital! The Metropolitan Cathedral of Madrid with its members dioceses, Alcala de Henares and Getafe, open not only the physical doors of their parishes, schools, a wide variety of cultural buildings and sports facilities along with the generosity provided by public and private institutions for this unique event, but also they open those areas with the most humane and Christian warmth which their families and communities. In other words: They open the doors of their hearts!

May you feel as if you are in your own house, in your own home! The Church and the people of Madrid wanted – and want- this to be for all of you, during these always difficult times of arrival, in your accommodations and throughout all of World Youth Day, which culminates on Sunday, a favourable place to live in friendship and Christian fellowship in the framework of the Universal Church, at once human and divine, which is home and family for the children of God scattered throughout the earth. And just as Spain is not intelligible without being aware of its two thousand year old Catholic tradition, Madrid, the royal residence and capital since the second half of the 16th century, in the middle of modern world, is not either. The Christian roots of this city are ancient and as we begin the second millennium of Christianity, still very much alive and strong, influencing social life, both cultural and human, but above all, its soul, the soul of their sons and daughters! Madrid is a welcoming city and friendly to all who visit it, wherever they may come!

4. World Youth Day, already with its long history of more than a quarter century, is inseparable from that Blessed man, whose memory we celebrate the Eucharist this evening in the Plaza de la Cibeles, very close, in fact, to the place where he presided over three major celebrations in the years 1982, 1993 and 2003. I’m talking about the unforgettable, venerable and beloved John Paul II. The Pope of the youth! With John Paul II begins a new historical period, unprecedented, with respect to the Successor of Peter’s relationship with the youth, and, consequently, a relationship that until then did not exist between the Church and her young: direct, immediate, heart to heart, imbued with a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, enthusiastic, hopeful, joyful, contagious. Since that first convocation of World Youth Day 1985 in Rome all the way to World Youth Day Madrid, a beautiful story of faith, hope and love has been unfolding for three generations of young Catholics and non-Catholics who have seen how their lives are transformed in Christ and how countless vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life, Christian marriage and apostolate have emerged from them. The personal holiness of John Paul II shines with a unique appeal when it comes to the evangelization of our contemporary youth. On May 1st in St. Peter’s Square at his beatification ceremony, our Holy Father Benedict XVI did not hesitate to highlight John Paul II’s special love for the youth.

5. The secret of that brilliant personality, shaped by perfect charity, is easily revealed under the light of God’s Word which has been proclaimed. The key to explaining his life, consecrated to the Lord, the Church and man, is nothing other than his burning love for Jesus Christ, from whom, like St. Paul, he never wanted to stray. In his life, John Paul II also suffered sorrow, anguish, and persecution, lacking the most basic of necessities during the years of World War II, watching the implacable and cruel occupation of his homeland and the inhuman deprivation of his people … He suffered the pain of those that are persecuted for the cause of Christ, both before and after his election to the Holy See of Peter, literally, to the point of shedding his own blood. Indomitable witness of the truth and of Christian hope, he believed in the truth of the phrase, “If God is with us, who can be against us?”, and did not fear any of the internal or external enemies of the Church. He was a brave soldier of Christ! Nothing could separate him from his love.

How exciting it is to imagine and relive the moments of his intimate dialogue with the Lord when he asked him if “he love Him more than these!” How many times did he answer during the most critical, decisive and painful circumstances of his years as Pastor of the Universal Church: “Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you!” The Pope knew very well that to graze the sheep meant to “surrender” himself for others and go he did not want to go.

This passionate love of Jesus Christ is precisely what fascinates and catches young people. They were able to understand that in this way they were truly loved and liked by the Pope: without flattery, dissimulations, interest, cheating or superficiality, but with complete authenticity from someone who desired their good, the good of their lives: their happiness, their eternal salvation. And he looked for it by giving his own life without saving himself. They understood intuitively more with their heart than their brain. It does not come as a surprise, that they saw in the Pope the messenger of Jesus Christ’s grace and peace, announced by the prophet Isaiah, when he said, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says unto Zion, Thy God reigns!” (Is 52:7). Whoever experienced the World Youth Day of Buenos Aires, Santiago de Compostela, Czestochowa, Denver, Manila, Paris, Rome, Toronto, you can confirm that the way in which the Pope was welcomed, with that mixture of joy and respectful tenderness, young people showed that they recognized him as the one who came to meet them in the name of the Lord.

7. Since the fourth World Youth Day in Santiago de Compostela in 1989, no matter where the celebration has taken place, they have been designed and lived as the end of a joyful pilgrimage, conforming with this appealing Christian tradition. When inviting us to participate in this 26th World Youth Day in Madrid, the Pope is calling us to place ourselves on the path towards a new encounter with the Lord, friend, brother, Jesus Christ! He is the only one who can understand you and lead you to the truth; give everlasting life, happiness and true love! Yes, the youth of World Youth Day since Santiago de Compostela until now and forever are pilgrims of the Church. They walk in communion with her on an exceptional spiritual journey of decisive consequences for the future of their lives. They verify that the path indicated by the Successor of Peter indeed leads to Christ and no human power can prevent it; the path for their search, but above all, the way to meet Him. He is taking the initiative. John Paul II reminded us at the Vigil on the “Monte del Gozo” in Santiago de Compostela on the 19th of August, 1989 that “the spiritual tradition of Christianity not only underlines the importance of our search for God but also it highlights something even more important: it is God who seeks us. He comes to meet us.” Christ is, dear young people, the one that is looking for you and is coming to meet you at World Youth Day Madrid 2011! The key to the success of any World Youth Day is to let yourself be found by Him and, of course, it is the key to this one, as well. It will be your success!

8. Benedict, our Holy Father has presided over WYD in Cologne in August 2005 and Sydney in July 2008 in creative continuity with John Paul II. Both were unforgettable! The day after tomorrow, August 18, the Holy Father will arrive in Madrid, to preside over what we are beginning today with Thanksgiving and the Eucharistic Prayer this evening in the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid. His appeal addressed to you, young people of the Third Millennium, resonates with new and charming accents but the same paternal request and the same love that moved Blessed John Paul II when he instituted World Day of Youth. You, the young people that are here, and many others who have wished to participate in our WYD in Madrid but were unable or unwilling to be here, you are the generation of Benedict XVI. It is not the same as that of John Paul II. Your “place in life” has its peculiarities. Your problems and life circumstances have changed. Globalization, new technologies in communication, the economic crisis, etc., has been a determining factor in your life sometimes for better and often times for worst. The youth of today, with weakened existential roots due to a rampant spiritual and moral relativism, “imprisoned by the dominant power” (Benedict XVI. Message for WYD 2011, 1), and can find no solid foundation on which to build your life in today’s culture and society, even sometimes, in the family, you are tempted to your absolute limit to lose your way in life: How could your faith not be sometimes shaken? Youth of the 21st century need, even more than previous generations, to find the Lord through the only path that has proven spiritually effective: that of a humble and simple pilgrim seeking God’s face. The youth of today need to see Jesus Christ when He comes to meet them in the Word, the sacraments, “as well, and most importantly, in the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance, the poor and the sick, in those brothers experiencing difficulty and in need of help “(Benedict XVI. Message, 4). They need to see and enter into an intimate dialogue with Him, who loves them without asking anything in return except that you answer with your own love. The intention of the Pope who loves you so much, is to guide you in this very way: that you may experience in the Communion of the Catholic Church the truth and the urgency of making the theme of World Youth Day 2011 your life: “rooted and built up in Christ, firm in the faith “(cf. Col 2.7).

9. John Paul II conceived World Youth Day as a valuable instrument of the new evangelization. Our Holy Father Benedict XVI as well.

Dear young people: you need to live this Eucharistic Celebration of the World Youth Day, saying thanks to the Lord, for being called from this moment to become his disciples and witnesses! Do not doubt it! Jesus Christ shows you the way and the aim of real happiness. Not only to you; but also to your fellows and friends who moved away from religious practice and, even, from their faith or who do not have any knowledge about it. Jesus is searching for you to put down roots in the heart of young people of the Third Millennium. Live the celebration as the great Prayer of the Church, which offers the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ Crucified and Resurrected to the Father as your own, for the salvation of all people; and in the Eucharistic Communion of his Body and Blood do not reject that he will make you as part of himself. Keep in mind during these days that the Lord, through the Pope, is going to ask you:

Do you accept the wonderful and beautiful challenge of “the new evangelization” of your young peers? Answer him yes, remembering that vibrant and brave call of John Paul II in the Homily on Monte del Gozo on the 20th of August, 1989:

“Do not be afraid to be saints”! “Let Christ reign in your hearts”! Answer him yes with a complete hope and a generous opening to the big life’s goals, as it is typical to young people. Answer the renewed call of Benedict XVI with a clear and coherent engagement of life! You can evangelize with words and works, today more then ever. John Paul II said to young Spanish people on the Vigil of Mary at “Cuatro Vientos”, the 3rd of May, 2003, that the new evangelization is everyone’s task in the Church: “Lay people have a leading role in it, especially married couples and Christian families, nevertheless, the evangelization today requires priests and consecrated people with urgency. Therefore, if these days you hear God’s calling that is saying to you: “Follow me!” (Mk 2, 14; Lk 5.22), do not silence it. Be generous, respond as Mary did, offering your joyful yes of your person and your life”.

10.We entrust ourselves to the maternal protection of Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord and the Mother of the Church at the beginning of the World Youth Day 2011. People in Madrid call on her as their Patron with the name of “Saint Mary, Royal of the Almudena”. Mary has always watched over the strength of faith, the certainty of hope and burning charity of all her sons and daughters of Madrid. I pray that, especially, these days she will watch over all of you, young people of this World Youth Day 2011, pilgrims to Madrid, the town that is devoted to Mary, in particular, to celebrate the meeting with the Holy Father. I pray that she will take care of you as only she can do, as well as our Holy Father Benedict XVI, the Bishops and priests, all your Pastors and those accompanying you. I pray that she takes care and protects your families. Remembering the prayer of John Paul II, said at the end of the unforgettable Rosary Vigil, already mentioned — the perfect end — I invite you to implore to Mary tonight with his own words:

“Hail Mary, full of Grace.
Tonight I beg for the young people
Who came to Madrid from all other the World,
Full of dreams and hopes.
They are the guards of tomorrow,
The people of the Beatitudes:
They are the living hope of the Church and of the Pope.
Holy Mary, the Mother of the young people,
Please intercede so that they are witnesses of Risen Christ,
Humble and brave disciples of the Third Millennium,
Generous heralds of the Gospel.
Holy Mary, Immaculate Virgin,
Pray with us,
Pray for us.”
Amen.

Saint Patrons of the WYD2011 — Saint Isidro Labrador and Saint Mary de la Cabeza, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint John of Avila, Saint Francisco Javier, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Rosa of Lima, Saint Rafael Arnáiz — pray for us!

Blessed John Paul II pray for us, pray for all young people of the WYD2011 so that they open their hearts wide to the saving grace of Christ, the only Redeemer of human kind, these extraordinary days of the Holy Spirit during which we want to “count the wonders of the Lord to the nations”!
Amen.

Faith over Relativism

2011-08-16T06:46:00.004-04:00

Anna Williams, an editorial page intern at USA TODAY, wrote a wonderful article about the triumph of faith over relativism. Regarding "relativism", Pope Benedict says "relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires." Hopefully, the youth attending WYD in Madrid will see the danger of "relativism" and toss it to the wind.

Crowds of young people throng the streets, singing, dancing and waving flags from around the world.

When a diminutive figure emerges in a white car, they erupt, jockeying for the best view of this international superstar. A rock idol? A marquee athlete? A political prodigy?

Nope: an old man — more scholar than celebrity — smiling shyly to acknowledge the adulation.

Pope Benedict XVI will arrive this week in Madrid for a weeklong celebration marked by up to a million teenage and twentysomething Catholics as World Youth Day. The international event gives young Catholics a chance to learn about and practice their faith together: Think Mass, lectures, prayer and more Mass.

But this is not your average religious conference. The music is loud; the hours, late; the attendees, young, diverse, exuberant.

The whole spectacle might understandably confuse those outside of the church: Why would these young people belong to, much less celebrate, such a backward, oppressive institution as the Roman Catholic Church? And why do they seem to find Pope Benedict, 84, not just endearing but also inspiring? The answers to these questions lie in the discontent and desires of a peculiar subset of the millennial generation.

Tradition returns

At first glance, studies such as Pew's 2010 report "Religion Among the Millennials" seem to indicate that young Catholics (age 18-29) exemplify their generation's tendency toward religious indifference. To wit, they are less likely to attend Mass weekly, less likely to pray daily, and less likely to consider religion "very important" than Catholics 30 and older. Yet the millennial Catholics who do practice and value their faith are doing something odd: They are spearheading a resurgence of traditional Catholic liturgy and disciplines that their parents and grandparents had largely abandoned.

A recent study of Catholic religious orders confirmed this trend. Sister Mary Bendyna, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and director of the Georgetown University-affiliated center that conducted the study, summarized the findings for The New York Times. Compared with older generations, she said, millennials who consider becoming priests or nuns are "more attracted to a traditional style of religious life, where there is community living, common prayer, having Mass together, praying the Liturgy of the Hours (the church's daily cycle of Scripture readings and prayers) together." "They are much more likely to say fidelity to the church is important to them," she added. "And they really are looking for communities where members wear habits," the age-old garb of monks and nuns.

You can read the rest of the story HERE

The Perseid Meteor Shower - As seen from Space !

2011-08-15T11:48:00.005-04:00

Here is a great photo taken by Nasa astronaut Ron Garan of a Perseid meteor through a window in the International Space Station. Very cool! You can read more about it HERE.

Of Gods and Men

2011-08-15T06:57:00.003-04:00

As a yearly retreatant at a Trappist Monastery, I have much interest in the Trappist way of serving God. After watching this movie I have a greater respect and knowledge of the Cistercians and the manifestation of their Christian Hope.

Samuel Adams, Quote for Today

2011-08-12T07:25:00.000-04:00

"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; second, to liberty; third, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of ... the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature. All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another.... Now what liberty can there be where property is taken away without consent?" (Nov 20, 1772)

He is Greater than All His Works

2011-08-11T14:30:00.003-04:00

"How greatly to be desired are all his works, and how sparkling they are to see!... He has made nothing incomplete.... Who can have enough of beholding his glory? Though we speak much we cannot reach the end, and the sum of our words is: "He is the all'. Where shall we find strength to praise him? He is greater than all his works..." Blessed John Paul II

Our Blessed John Paul II says "Who can have enough of beholding his glory"? When I see this photo taken by the Mars Rover Opportunity, I marvel at God's creation - how awesome is our God !

On Aug. 9, the golf cart-sized rover relayed its arrival at a location named Spirit Point on the crater's rim. Opportunity drove approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) since climbing out of the Victoria crater.

Read more HERE

Lucy Hussey-Bergonzi - Saved by Baptism

2011-08-11T07:00:00.007-04:00

“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." Matt 28:18-19

I saw this article on Beliefnetnews, posted by Rob Kerby. A telling story of the power of Baptism.

Expected to die, Harry Potter actress reports “miraculous” recovery after Baptism

“A teenage girl who doctors believed was going to die has been hailed a real-life miracle – after she came back to life when a priest put holy water on her head,” reports the British tabloid the Daily Mail.

Two years go, 13-year-old actress Lucy Hussey-Bergonzi was rushed to the hospital suffering from a brain hemorrhage a few days after filming a bit part in the film “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” She had been kept alive by life support machines for five days, then her parents were told she wouldn’t make it.

“Her collapse was triggered by a rare condition Lucy had carried since birth called Arteriovenous malformation,” reports the tabloid, ”a cluster of abnormal blood vessels that remain undetected until they burst.”

The Daily Mail reports:
Lucy was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital on February 15, 2009, where she got through two operations while she was in a coma. At her bedside Lucy’s mother Denise, 41, was told by doctors it was time to say goodbye to her daughter.

As the family gathered to say prayers for Catholic Lucy, the priest prepared the holy water ready to douse Lucy’s lifeless forehead. As the water splashed on Lucy’s skin the stunned family saw her arm shoot up in air. Within 24 hours of her baptism Lucy was off the machines and showing signs of recovery as baffled doctors looked on struggling for an explanation.

Mrs Hussey-Bergonzi said: ‘Nothing could have prepared me for the day she was taken into hospital. We were so scared I just wanted to pick her up and run away with her, I really thought I was having a nightmare and any minute I was going to wake up and Lucy would be fine.

“When we got to the hospital a nurse came over and told me I had to leave her room. When I said ‘I’m not leaving’ they told me that Lucy was in a coma and they were putting her on a life support machine. I had no idea it was that serious. My world just came crashing down around me.’

“It was the day after her second operation when I turned to my husband Robert and said ‘we have to get her baptised,’” said Denise. “At that point I really thought she was going to die and I wanted to give her the best chance in the next life.

“So five days after Lucy was first taken into hospital we were by her bedside saying prayers watching her about to be baptized. Then the moment the priest put holy water on Lucy’s head, her arm suddenly moved up. At first I thought she might be having a fit but within 24 hours she was taken off all the life support machines and tubes.

“When I asked the doctors why she had come back to us they said they can’t explain how it happened and to this day they don’t know how or why she recovered.”

Today, aged 16, Lucy is slowly rebuilding her life, the Daily Mail reports.

”I don’t know what to make of the way I came out of the coma,” she told the newspaper. “I’d never heard of anything like this before. The doctors were saying it was a miracle, people who have brain hemorrhages usually don’t survive them.

‘I think it was a miracle, I can’t think of any other explanation.’

Read the rest of the story HERE

Saint Lawrence the Deacon

2011-08-10T09:13:00.005-04:00

The Deacons of today must try to emulate Lawrence and his companion deacons, as today's world is very similar to the Rome of Lawrence's time.

Here is a very good bio of St. Lawrence from Deacon Keith Fournier.

Lawrence the Deacon

The year was 258. It was a difficult beginning for what would become the First Christian Millennium. Hostility against these early followers of Jesus Christ was growing. The barbarism and severity of pagan Rome had begun to reach a fever pitch. It would soon lead to a blood lust. The newborn Christian Church, faithful to the One who had given Himself for the life of the world, continued the work of His redemption.

Roman authorities charged Christians of that era with "odium humani generis" [hatred of the human race]. The Romans claimed to be citizens of a great empire, yet they practiced primitive forms of abortion as well as "exposure", the killing of unwanted newborns. They also tried to institutionalize approval of homosexual relationships on a par with authentic marriage. Emperor Nero in the first-century A.D. was not only overt in his homosexual relationships but sought to make them normative in the empire, to give an equal status between homosexual relationships and marriage. First and Second century Rome was a challenging mission field for these early Christians. Rome proclaimed itself the shining example to the world of its age while it violated the natural law and embraced debauchery.

The day that Deacon Lawrence experienced his birth from death to life was an ominous and frightful day in ancient Rome. Four days earlier, the great Bishop of Rome, Sixtus, was arrested by soldiers of the emperor Valerian, along with his beloved deacons, and beheaded. Valerian had issued an edict to the Roman Senate that all the Christian clergy—bishops, priests and deacons—were to be arrested and executed. There were so many holy people among the martyrs of early Rome. That makes it even more remarkable that the life and death of this one humble deacon—Lawrence—is attributed with "all of Rome becoming Christian."

Sentenced to death in the Emperor Valerian’s sweeping condemnation of all Christian clergy, Lawrence offended the Emperor—and thereby endeared himself to all Christians since—by assembling before Valerian the "gold and silver" of the Church. According to the tradition, Deacon Lawrence, knowing that the fervor of Valerians' hatred was extending to all Christians who owned property, began to give it all away. He distributed the money and treasures of the Church to the city's poor—believing the clear admonition of the Savior that they were blessed and especially loved by Him.

Read more HERE

St. Lawrence, pray for us, that the flames of divine love may burn away all traces of vice within us, and that we may be practical and zealous in the service of the poor. Amen.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

2011-08-09T06:51:00.000-04:00

Sister Mary Ann Walsh "Government must not stick its proverbial camel's nose under the church tent."

2011-08-08T10:35:00.003-04:00

I found this article over at the Deacon's Bench blog. I think it is very important for us to read - the thought of our government undermining our religious freedom is frightening. The article is written by Sr. Mary Ann Walsh.

When it comes to church-state relations, both church and government historically have watched to keep the government out of church business. The U.S. Constitution acknowledged the significance of the role of the First Estate, when it declared that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

It is a clear message that government must not stick its proverbial camel's nose under the church tent. Now, however, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has gone beyond nuzzling its nose where it does not belong. It has plunked itself right in the middle of the sanctuary. It is trying to define what a religion does and does not do.

This misguided move comes with a proposed HHS regulation to guide implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The regulation for the new health care reform bill demands that all health plans pay for contraceptives, sterilizations and education to use both.

In a tacit acknowledgement that this violates the Constitution's cherished respect for religious liberty, HHS provides an exemption for religious employers -- but with a catch. The church agency can only claim exemption if it primarily serves people of its own faith. It also must meet other requirements, such as employing mostly people of its own faith.

This means HHS is setting itself up to determine what constitutes church ministry and who Jesus meant when he referred to serving "the least of my brethren."

read the rest of the story HERE

Saint Dominic

2011-08-08T06:46:00.003-04:00

16th century portrait of St.Dominic by Giovanni Bellini.

Saint Dominic, also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán (1170–August 6, 1221) was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers (OP) Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers

"A man who governs his passions is master of the world. We must either command them, or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil."

God of Truth, you gave your church a new light in the life and preaching of our Father Dominic. Give us the help we need to support our preaching by holy and simple lives. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

Fr. Michael Doyle doing God's work in Camden, New Jersey

2011-08-04T09:02:00.006-04:00

Interesting story, written by Bob Braun, out of the Star-Ledger/NJ.com, about Fr. Michael Doyle, a Catholic priest in Camden New Jersey.

CAMDEN — The priest looks up at a stained-glass window of the old Sacred Heart church and points at two small holes. Bullet holes, a kind of grotesque memorial to the brief life of Anjanea Williams, 20, shot to death while doing nothing more momentous than buying a sandwich at nearby Frank’s Deli, one of the few local eateries to survive the collapse of the South Camden neighborhood.

"Like the others, she will be remembered," says Rev. Michael Doyle, the church’s pastor. Williams will be remembered at the church’s annual "Mass for the Murdered," celebrated in November for those in Camden who died violently in the previous year.

Violent crime is Sacred Heart’s invisible and deadly parishioner, a stalker that last year took 54 lives — compared to 19 murders in Glasgow, Scotland, considered the murder capital of Europe, with a population seven times the size of Camden’s, 585,000 to 79,000.

* Read the rest of the story HERE

* photo by Saed Hindash

St. John Vianney

2011-08-04T07:03:00.002-04:00

Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be insupportable. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive our joy and our happiness. The good God, wishing to give Himself to us in the Sacrament of His Love, gave us a vast and great desire, which He alone can satisfy. In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament, we are like a person dying of thirst by the side of a river — he would only need to bend his head; like a person still remaining poor, close to a great treasure — he need only stretch out his hand. He who communicates loses himself in God like a drop of water in the ocean. They can no more be separated,”

Obama administration mandates health insurance to cover contraceptives and sterilization for women

2011-08-03T06:42:00.004-04:00

Every day there seems to be a new attack on religious freedom. Bill Donohue, of the Catholic League, posted an article concerning the Obama administration's mandate that all health insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization for women.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue addresses the dilemma that the Obama administration has created for religious employers:

Yesterday, the Obama administration mandated that all health insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization for women, though it made an exception for religious employers. But did it? Not really. To wit: a religious employer is defined, in part, as one that primarily employs, and serves, persons who share its religious tenets.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo said this means that "our institutions would be free to act in accord with Catholic teaching on life and procreation only if they were to stop hiring and serving non-Catholics." He's right: Catholic schools, hospitals and social service agencies have a long and distinguished record of serving everyone, regardless of religious affiliation; most even employ non-Catholics. However, there are matters, like foster care programs, where same-religion requisites make sense.

The situation is even more pernicious than it looks. Consider that three years ago, then presidential candidate Barack Obama said he opposes allowing faith-based programs to hire only their own people. Since becoming president, he has authorized his administration to consider this issue on a case-by-case basis, and just recently many of his allies lobbied him to gut the religious liberty provision in hiring altogether.

In other words, the Obama administration is playing Catch-22 with religious employers. If they are too religious, Catholic social service agencies risk losing federal funds, but if Catholic hospitals are not sufficiently religious, they cannot be exempt from carrying health insurance policies that transgress their religious tenets.

The Obama administration knows exactly what it is doing, and what it is doing is burning religious institutions at both ends. This is a pretty sick game. But it is one where there is plenty of time left on the clock.

Dawn Eden and Archbishop Sambi

2011-08-01T06:48:00.003-04:00

I found this story at CNA. Dawn Eden, a convert from Judaism, recalls a meeting with the Archbishop.

Author and Catholic convert from Judaism Dawn Eden remembers Archbishop Pietro Sambi as a pastoral leader with a “fatherly” heart, who shared a special connection with her over his deep affection for the Jewish faith.

Archbishop Sambi, the Pope’s diplomatic representative to the U.S., died on Wednesday, July 27 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore after lung surgery complications.

Eden, known for her 2006 bestseller “The Thrill of the Chaste,” remembers a unique and surprising series of events with the late archbishop that are forever branded in her memory.

In a July 29 interview with CNA, she recalled meeting Archbishop Sambi for the first time in 2007 at a dinner in Washington, D.C.

Eden remembered a friend introducing her to the archbishop as a Jewish convert, since the nuncio had “a special affection for the Jewish people,” having served as the papal representative to the Holy Land.

“Before I could get any words out, Archbishop Sambi looked me in the eyes with a big smile and took both my hands in his and held them tight,” Eden said.

“You must come and have tea with me at the nunciature,” Archbishop Sambi told her, “and I will show you pictures of my late friend Cardinal Lustiger and I will tell you a story about him.”

Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, a renowned French archbishop who converted to Catholicism from the Jewish faith and died in 2007 just weeks earlier, was “a great friend” of Archbishop Sambi, Eden said.

“I was quite stunned,” she added, “to be immediately welcomed” by the archbishop in such an intimate, friendly way.

As soon as she got home, Eden contacted the nunciature and “heard back immediately” from the archbishop's secretary. Within days, Eden was welcomed by Archbishop Sambi into his parlor at the nunciature for tea and cookies.

Once seated, Archbishop Sambi earnestly showed her different photos of the late cardinal's life, including the French prelate's visit to the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, where his mother died.

“It was very important to him that I get a feel for who Cardinal Lustiger was” and the way that his Jewish faith “was integral to his Catholic faith,” Eden said.

It was then that Archbishop Sambi told Eden why he felt so compelled after meeting her to invite her to tea.

Read the rest of the story HERE

Quote of the Day

2011-07-29T07:06:00.002-04:00

We are daily called by Christ to the service of love and the good fight against evil. It is a pity to think "Onward Christian Soldier Marching As to War" as the ideal Christ had in mind. The war we wage is not with material weapons and against visible enemies. It is all the same, real war. Count it defeat when you use angry words, ugly temper, anything violent in reference to your neighbor. You are losing the inner battle. Contempt for others, arrogance, fault-finding and judgment reveal the loser. Fr. Matthew Kelty, O.C.S.O

Archbishop Pietro Sambi, "Super-Nuncio" Sambi Dies at 73

2011-07-28T06:43:00.002-04:00

Pietro Sambi (27 June 1938 – 27 July 2011) Italian Roman Catholic titular archbishop who served in the Vatican's Secretariat of State, titular archbishop of Bellicastrum and the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

Saints of God, come to his aid
Hasten to meet him, angels of the Lord
Receive his soul, and present him to God the Most High....

Dan Peek, Rest in Peace

2011-07-27T06:52:00.004-04:00

I am so sorry to hear about the death of Dan Peek. I remember years ago, walking to my local record store, and buying the first America album - an awesome record that I still listen to today. And every time I hear "Ventura Highway" played on the radio, I recall the first time my friends and I drove from New Jersey to California in 1974. Dan Peek left the band in 1977, when the Lord called him to serve him in the Christian Music world. Here is one of my favorite America songs, "Lonely People." Beautiful Lyrics

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky

The Botafumeiro" flying high in Saint James' Cathedral

2011-07-25T19:54:00.002-04:00

Our parish needs a new thurible. I will suggest to my pastor that we purchase one just like this!

Saint John Chrysostom, Homily

2011-07-24T07:13:00.002-04:00

From a homily on the 2nd letter to the Corinthians by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop

Again Paul turns to speak of love, softening the harshness of his rebuke. For after convicting and reproaching them for not loving him as he had loved them, breaking away from his love and attaching themselves to troublemakers, he again takes the edge off the reproach by saying: Open your hearts to us, that is, love us. He asks for a favour which will be no burden to them but will be more profitable to the giver than to the receiver. And he did not use the word “love” but said, more appealingly: Open your hearts to us.
Who, he said, has cast us out of your minds, thrust us from your hearts? How is it that you feel constraint with us? For, since he has said earlier: You are restricted in your own affection, he now declares himself more openly and says: Open your heart to us, thus once more drawing them to him. For nothing so much wins love as the knowledge that one’s lover desires most of all to be himself loved.
For I said before, he tells them, that you are in our hearts to die together or live together. This is love at its height, that even though in disfavour, he wishes both to die and to live with them. For you are in our hearts, not just somehow or other, but in the way I have said. It is possible to love and yet to draw back when danger threatens; but my love is not like that.
I am filled with consolation. What consolation? That which comes from you because you, being changed for the better, have consoled me by what you have done. It is natural for a lover both to complain that he is not loved in return and to fear that he may cause distress by complaining too much. Therefore, he says: I am filled with consolation, I rejoice exceedingly.
It is as if he said, I was much grieved on your account, but you have made it up for me in full measure and given me comfort; for you have not only removed the cause for any grief but filled me with a richer joy.
Then he shows the greatness of that joy by saying not only I rejoice exceedingly but also the words which follow: in all my tribulations. So great, he says, was the delight that you gave me that it was not even dimmed by so much tribulation, but overcame by its strength and keenness all those sorrows which had invaded my heart, and took away from me all awareness of them.

Atlantis returning to Earth

2011-07-22T10:35:00.003-04:00

I wanted to share this cool picture with you - the space shuttle Atlantis returning to Earth. The pic was taken by the crew on the International Space Station.

You can read more HERE.

On Eucharistic Adoration

2011-07-21T06:47:00.004-04:00

A good number of years ago, when I was a member of my parish pastoral council, a question came up about the possibility of Eucharistic Adoration - maybe a chapel could be built to support a 24 hour adoration, or at least a few times a month the church would be open to allow people in to adore Jesus in the monstrance. Our parish priest said that if people were not coming to Mass on Sundays, they would not come to Eucharistic Adoration. So - the idea slipped away. This reasoning is not correct. The more we adore Jesus in the Eucharist, the more we will conform our will to His will. Blessed Mother Teresa said "Spend as much time as possible in front of the Blessed Sacrament and He will fill you with His strength and His power. Tell Him, 'Come to our hearts Lord and stay with us'. Then you will become the instruments of His love, peace and joy."

Here is a good reflection on Eucharistic Adoration, from Archbishop Timothy Dolan's blog "The Gospel in the Digital Age."

“What makes this place tick?” I quizzed the exuberant pastor as he showed me around the parish, renowned for its high rate of Sunday Mass attendance; first-rate school; excellent religious education for kids, teenagers, young adults, and adults; remarkably effective stewardship; and successful initiatives of social justice, pro-life efforts, evangelization, and neighborhood presence.

I wanted the “recipe” so I could bottle it and send it around!

“Follow me, I’ll show you,” Father replied.

Through the school, filled with kids; on to the religious ed office, where catechists were planning the evening session; into the kitchen where people were cooking casseroles for the inner city soup kitchen; then to the senior citizen center where the lunch crowd was breaking-up; through the offices where volunteers were counting the Sunday collection . . . we didn’t stop . . . the pastor kept going . . . until we reached the chapel of the former convent, where, oh, perhaps six to eight people, of diverse ages, were in quiet adoration before Jesus, really and truly present in the Holy Eucharist, there in the monstrance on the altar.

“We’ve had perpetual Eucharistic adoration now for four years,” the pastor whispered. “We started slowly, about seven years ago, first with a day-a-week, then seven days, twelve-hour-a-day, until we had a well-oiled system in place. For the last four years, it’s been 24/7, with at least two people assigned every hour, all volunteers, and with many, many more during the waking hours. Our prayer hotline is legendary. I’m convinced this Eucharistic adoration is the key to the vitality, growth, and effectiveness of our parish.”

That recollection came to me as I read the story recently in a national newspaper of the “International House of Prayer’s 24 Hour Worship” in Kansas City. The article explained how a neighborhood had been revived, a congregation renewed, and lives changed by non-stop prayer sponsored by a small Christian evangelical church.

“Pray always!” the Good Book tells us, and Jesus exhorted us to make sure that our prayer was patient, persistent, and persevering.

Eucharistic adoration accomplishes this. It tells the world that “we can’t give what we don’t have,” and that, if we do not constantly turn to God in prayer for His grace and mercy, we’re finished. The best thing people of faith can do is pray . . . I can’t think of a better place to do that than before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

George Weigel recently wrote of “Miracles in Soho.” This dirty, crime-ridden, pagan, Sodom and Gamorrah-like west end of London now boasts a thriving parish, St. Patrick’s, a center of help, peace, outreach, welcome, service . . . and constant prayer before Jesus in the Eucharist. It’s a paradigm for the New Evangelization, George wrote after a recent visit, filled with young people excited about their faith, all centered around our Eucharistic Lord.

I am very grateful to the dozens and dozens of parishes throughout the archdiocese that encourage and offer Eucharistic adoration, some occasional, some on given days of the week, some perpetual. May the numbers increase!

The Church is renowned for all that we do — Catholic charities, health care, schools, youth work, love, service, and evangelization — and rightly so.

But what we do must flow from who we are — people of faith, prayer, adoration, our hearts on fire with our Lord, our best friend, the way, the truth, and the life.

If what we do does not spring from who we are, we are listless and ineffective.

When the first disciples asked Jesus about following Him, He did not say, “Come do a bunch of stuff with me.” Nope – He invited them to “Come, stay with me!” Eucharistic adoration is a great way to answer that invitation.

Archbishop Charles Chaput, A Man of Great Humility

2011-07-20T07:05:00.001-04:00

Archbishop Chaput coming to Philadelphia

2011-07-19T06:51:00.004-04:00

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Archbishop Charles J.Chaput to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. I can only believe that this is very good news for the Church in Philly.

Here is the story out of CNA, written by Marianne Medlin;

Pope Benedict appointed Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver on July 19 to lead the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, who reached the age of retirement in April 2010, will serve as apostolic administrator until Archbishop Chaput's installation on Sept. 8. Cardinal Rigali has headed the Philadelphia archdiocese since 2003.

The Pope's appointment comes as the archdiocese struggles to deal effectively with clerical sex abuse allegations.

In March, Cardinal Rigali placed 21 priests on administrative leave following a grand jury report claiming to have credible accusations of misconduct against them. According to the report, some of the priests were still in active ministry at the time.

Since Archbishop Chaput's began leading the Denver archdiocese in 1997, it has launched numerous endeavors, such as the founding of the local St. John Vianney Seminary, which boasts one of the highest seminary enrollment rates in the country.

Archbishop Chaput has also been influential in the success of several Colorado-based organizations, including the nationwide missionary group Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), the international women's group Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women (ENDOW), and the Augustine Institute, a lay Catholic graduate school.

From 2003 to 2006, the archbishop served on the U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom.

He has also served on numerous U.S. bishops' committees involving marriage and family, pro-life activities, and migration.

Archbishop Chaput was born in 1944, in Concordia, Kansas. He attended school and seminary locally and later joined the St. Augustine Province of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in 1965.

After studying at St. Fidelis College Seminary in Herman, Pennsylvania and later at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C., he was ordained to the priesthood in 1970.

In 1977, Archbishop Chaput became pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Thornton, Colorado, and vicar provincial for the Capuchin Province of Mid-America.

He was then ordained Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota in 1988. In 1997, Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Denver.

As member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe, Archbishop Chaput is the second Native American to be ordained bishop in the United States, and the first Native American archbishop.

He will be installed on Sept. 8 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

The Weeds and the Wheat

2011-07-17T09:24:00.004-04:00

The Weeds and the Wheat Matthew 13:24-30

I have met many interesting people working in Mother Teresa’s soup kitchen... They are from different parts of the world, all races, and all creeds. Some are good people; I would call them my friends. Some may be bad. But this is not for me to determine, as I am not to judge. Judging is God’s business.

All these people who come to eat have one thing in common. They are down on their luck. Many are caught in a cycle of poverty that is almost impossible to escape. Some problems are of their own making – for others, problems stem from family tragedies, psychological problems, and addictions. Some problems stem from a society that has lost its heart.

Soup kitchens were formed during the great depression of 1929, a period of devastating national poverty. One of the largest and busiest kitchens at that time was in Detroit, where Father Solanaus Casey and other Franciscan Friars served up to 2000 people in a single day. Today the poverty is not so much physical hunger but a spiritual hunger.

Blessed Teresa said “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

Most soup kitchens have a similar setting – usually a long table with trays of food, with servers on one side – and the food line on the other side. Though it is not meant to be an “us and them” approach, this is certainly the feeling one gets. But Missionary of Charity volunteers know that they are on the serving side of the table, only by the grace of God – tomorrow all that can change; we may be on the other side, the food line. Life, in all its forms, is fragile. We do not know what the next day will bring.

The poor, those who are living on the streets, have many needs – as I said, physical and spiritual. Rarely do they come out and ask you for something directly. The question is more often hidden in the context of a story – about a lost job, a debilitating illness. This is how one find’s a way into a person's heart. Jesus did the same thing – being not only all God, but all Man, He knew that the story is the best way to reach the human heart – and even more, to open up one’s mind to the truth.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples using an “us and them” story. He says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. After sowing the good seed during the day, an enemy comes at night and sows weeds. Now, the proper translation for this weed is “darnel.” It is a weed that, when growing, looks very much like wheat – it is difficult to tell them apart. Now you and me, when we notice weeds in our garden, we rush to pull them out, as they may are not only unsightly, but they also sap the nourishment from the good plants. Not the sower of this field - he dismisses the advice of his workers and decides to let the wheat and weeds grow together – it is safer for the crop. Weeds and wheat will be separated later at the harvest.

Jesus is using this story to reveal a TRUTH. That TRUTH is a gift for you and me. Who is this sower Jesus is speaking about? He is God - the good seeds? Those who follow the Lord, those who are “In Christ.” – and who are the weeds? Those who follow the evil one. What is this field? This is the world, God’s field. And the harvest? The Second coming of Christ – when the Lord will separate the wheat from the weeds, the good and the bad.

Jesus says this story is like the Kingdom of Heaven. When we think of the Kingdom of Heaven, we think of that place where Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, and where we all will reside enjoying eternal life. This is all true – for being in the Kingdom of Heaven is being in the presence of God. But Who is God? God is LOVE.

The Kingdom of Heaven is made manifest on Earth when we show concern for our neighbor in our actions. Mother Teresa calls this love of neighbor, “LOVE IN ACTION.” When we do acts of love, it is as though a window has opened up and the Kingdom of Heaven has rushed into our world. Mother Teresa said "Faith in action is love, and love in action is service. By transforming that faith into living acts of love, we put ourselves in contact with God Himself, with Jesus our Lord."

The sower is patient. We are to be patient with each other. The sower lets the wheat and weeds grow together. Does not the light of God shine on the good and the bad? We need time to change our hearts and minds – first to remove the weeds from our own lives. Then, after conforming our own will to Christ’s will, we can help our neighbor do the same. If we are tempted to judge others negatively, we should think of the love that God has for them – and maybe see the crucified Christ in them.
We should not let our negative opinions of others allow us to treat others badly – not to pull up the weeds before the harvest.

Allow God to be the judge, He is much more merciful and patient than we are. We need to love Christ in his Church. Pope Benedict says “Our Catholic culture is the kingdom of heaven on earth. It is the ‘civilization of life & love’, where the dignity of all men is recognized from womb to tomb.”

Whether we are working in soup kitchens, our work place, or at home with our families, we are to treat each other with the same respect that God has for each of us, the good and the bad.

Lord, teach us to be patient - with life, with people, and with ourselves. We sometimes try to hurry things along too much, and we push for answers before the time is right. Teach us to trust Your sense of timing rather than our own, and to surrender our will to Your greater and wiser plan. Help us let life unfold slowly, like the small rosebud whose petals unravel bit by bit, and remind us that in hurrying the bloom along, we destroy the bud and much of the beauty therein.

Instead, let us wait for all to unfold in its own time. Each moment and state of growth contains loveliness. Teach us to slow down enough to appreciate life and all it holds. Amen.

Falling in Love with God

2011-07-10T22:39:00.004-04:00

While surfing the net for some homily inspiration, I came across this poem. It really spoke the truth to me - before I can do His good work, I must fall in love with Him.

Falling In Love With God

Nothing is more practical than finding God,
that is, than falling in love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you
out of bed in the morning,
what you will do with your evenings,
how you will spend your weekends
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you
with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

Pedro Arrupe, SJ

The Last Flight

2011-07-08T14:56:00.003-04:00

The space shuttle Atlantis is on its last flight. It is also the final space flight for the shuttle. God bless all the astronauts who served on the shuttles - especially those who gave their very lives for their country!

Read the story HERE

12 Catholic Words

2011-07-08T08:38:00.005-04:00

I found this article in the National Catholic Register, written by Matthew Archbold. Do you know the meaning of these 12 words?

I was born a Catholic but that doesn’t mean I knew anything about the faith until I decided to investigate it for myself in college. In my research, I came across a number of things that weren’t true that I thought were, many things that were true that I hadn’t thought were true, and words that I misunderstood completely.

So to help others here’s a list of Catholic words that probably don’t mean what some may think they mean.

Acolytes - Sounds like something you drink to flush out your system. Hyper-Ade! Now with extra acolytes. In reality it’s one who assists in the celebration.

Aspergillum - Let’s be frank. It sounds like a fungus that wraps itself up in your intestine and makes you stay in the bathroom for three days. But it’s actually just a vessel or device used for sprinkling holy water during special blessings.

Beatification - is not a makeover. It’s actually for those who don’t need one.

Canon Law - Sounds like the title of a Steven Seagal movie. “Cannon Law -This Time It’s Personal.” But unfortunately, it’s not a thing that goes boom and knocks holes through the stomachs of henchmen. It’s the collection of laws (canons) governing administration of the Roman Catholic Church. Booooring!!!

Catechetics - It turns out that it’s not an dancercise regimen like Zumba like I thought. It’s from the Greek meaning “to sound forth,” and it is the procedure for teaching religion. You could imagine how embarrased I was showing up in my leopard print leotards and my Ricky Martin CD. (They’re pretty unforgiving. The leotards, not the catuchumens.)

Ciborium - Come on. That just sounds cool, like a race of Star Trek villains with giant heads and few morals. “The Ciborium have raised their shields, Captain. Fire!” But it’s actually a vessel used to hold the consecrated bread for the distribution of the Body of Christ during communion which is probably a lot more awesome than Star Trek villains.

Concupiscence -Actually that’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

Conference of Major Superiors of Men -How awesome does that sound? It’s like totally better than Fight Club. Charlie Sheen and I were ready to join, but it turns out it’s just an organization of major superiors representing communities of men religious in the United States. Charlie was ticked. Took a while to talk him down.

Dalmatic -Sounds like there should be spots on it but there’s not. At least not often. It’s the vestment the deacon wears over the alb on solemn occasions

Titular Sees - YOU GIGGLED!! You know you did. Seriously. Grow up. It’s just dioceses where the Church once flourished but which later died out. Bishops without a territorial or residential diocese of their own are given titular sees.

Ultreya - I’m not saying what it sounds like it could be, but I’m pretty sure that it is a sin to cut it, if you know what I mean. It’s actually Spanish word for “Keep on going!” or “Onward!” It is a weekly or monthly gathering of all Cursillo Group Reunions in an area to share prayers and songs and snacks. Ya know, kinda’ like kindergarten in Catholic school.

Zucchetto - I’ll take extra parmesan on my zuccheto please with some lean mutton on the side. It’s a small skullcap worn by clerics.

So I hope this clears things up for you and helps you avoid some embarrasing mistakes. And just so you know, I looked pretty darn awesome in the leotards but unfortunately all the pictures were destroyed in an accidental fire in my backyard.

Very Cool Video from St. Theresa's Catholic School

2011-07-07T21:20:00.002-04:00

A short film made for St. Theresa's Catholic School in Sugarland, Texas. Very cool!

Dust Storm in Phoenix

2011-07-06T07:13:00.002-04:00

A massive dust storm engulfed the Phoenix area yesterday..There are so many forces we can not control...so let us keep our hope in God who will always protect us..in ways we can and can not understand...

God, our Father,
Eternal and Omnipotent,
Creator and Lord of the Universe,
you have set the earth on its foundation
and all elements of nature obey your command. You give food to all flesh,
cover the heavens with clouds,
and provide rain to the earth ─

We humbly beseech you
Lord, Most High,
to keep us safe from all dangers
and to calm all the storms of life that threaten us:
especially the attack of whirlwinds and tornadoes,
the calamity and destruction of hurricanes,
the din and damage of hail storms,
the striking of thunderbolts and lightning,
and the devastation of floods and tidal waves.

May we be secure in your loving protection,
seek your Will in all our experiences,
and serve you always with grateful hearts.
We ask this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

On Relativism

2011-07-05T06:49:00.002-04:00

"Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.

"We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth. We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love."
- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger > Pope Benedict XVI

Cistercian Nun Sister Teresa - 84 years of Cloistered Life !

2011-07-01T10:05:00.007-04:00

Sister Teresa, a Cloistered Nun in Spain, now holds the World Record for cloistered life, 84 Years! Sister entered the convent the day Pope Benedict XVI was born. You have to wonder how many lives have been changed by the prayers of this holy woman.

GUADALAJARA, Spain, - She entered the Cistercian Buenafuente del Sistal Convent the day that Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) was born, and today Sister Teresa is 103 years old and the world's record holder for having lived the longest as a cloistered nun.

After 84 years as a cloistered nun, Sister Teresa says that the greatest gift she has received has been prayer: "Without it, one cannot sustain oneself. I never cease repeating: 'Thank you, forgive. Thank you, forgive.'"

The nun is one of 10 cloistered nuns profiled in the Spanish-language book "¿Qué hace una chica como tú en un sitio como éste?" (What's a Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?). In the book, author Jesús Garcia brings to light the secluded world of cloistered nuns by getting to know what life is like behind the grail, and what inspired them to join.

Sister Teresa's story began as young girl living in Alava, Spain. She was known then as Valeria, and she was happy with her life on the family farm. "We were in the field from morning 'til night, working, but we were happy," she said.

The eldest of seven children, her father saw how hard Valeria and her younger sister worked and he wanted a different life for them. "Thinking nuns didn’t work, [my father] would say to my sister and me: 'Wouldn’t you like to be nuns?'" she recalls.

"I didn’t like nuns," she continued, "given how comfortable I was at home, [but] to please my father, [I] prayed to the patroness of Vitoria and asked her to give me a vocation. And did she give me one!"

You can read the rest of the story out of ZENIT HERE !

* above image: Cistercian Buenafuente del Sistal Convent

Happy Anniversary Pope Benedict !

2011-06-29T07:11:00.002-04:00

"We should not be superstitious," he wrote, "but at the moment when the elderly archbishop laid his hands on me, a little bird -- perhaps a lark -- flew up from the high altar in the cathedral and trilled a little joyful song. And I could not but see in this a reassurance from on high, as if I heard the words, 'This is good; you are on the right way.'"

From Zenit...

Joseph Ratzinger's Happiest Day

June 29 Marks 60th Anniversary of His Ordination at Age 24

This Wednesday (today) , Benedict XVI will be celebrating the "high point of his life" as he marks the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination.

Joseph Ratzinger was ordained at age 24, together with his brother Georg, and more than 40 candidates, at the cathedral of Freising, near Munich, by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber.

"Adsum," (here I am), were the words the young Ratzingers pronounced in Latin before God and the people.

As the universal Church relives that day on Wednesday, the Pope has not wished it to be a moment of personal exaltation. Rather, it has been designated a day to promote thanksgiving to God for the gift of the priesthood and to ask him to call forth new vocations.

In his Memoirs of 1927-1977, Ratzinger recalls that "radiant summer day."

"We should not be superstitious," he wrote, "but at the moment when the elderly archbishop laid his hands on me, a little bird -- perhaps a lark -- flew up from the high altar in the cathedral and trilled a little joyful song. And I could not but see in this a reassurance from on high, as if I heard the words, 'This is good; you are on the right way.'"

The following four weeks of discovery were like "an unending feast," the memoirs recount.

"Everywhere we were received even by total strangers with a warmth and affection I had not thought possible until that day," he remembered. "In this way I learned firsthand how earnestly people wait for a priest, how much they long for the blessing that flows from the power of the sacrament. The point was not my own or my brothers' person. What could we two young men represent all by ourselves to the many people we were now meeting?

"In us they saw persons who had been touched by Christ's mission and had been empowered to bring his nearness to men."

60 hours

The whole Church is celebrating the day as a time of prayer for priests.

The Congregation for the Clergy has invited the faithful to mark the anniversary with 60 hours of Eucharistic adoration.

A note signed by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza and Archbishop Celso Morga Iruzubieta, prefect and secretary of the congregation, notes that the anniversary is a "particularly propitious" occasion to draw near to Benedict XVI, and to express to him gratitude, affection, and communion in the service of God and his Church and, above all, in that "shining of the Truth on the world," which he calls us to.

The congregation proposed that the prayer vigil can culminate on July 1, feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Day of Prayer for Priests.

"Thus," the dicastery proposes, "homage could be rendered to the Pontiff with an extraordinary wreath of prayer and of supernatural unity, capable of showing the real center of our lives, from which every missionary and pastoral effort derives, and the authentic face of the Church and of her priests."

Christ Alone Holds Our World Together

2011-06-28T07:07:00.004-04:00

"I did not even know who Christ was, that He was God. I had not the faintest idea that there existed such a thing as the Blessed Sacrament. I thought churches were simply places where people got together and sang a few hymns. And yet now I tell you, you who are now what I once was, unbelievers, it is that Sacrament, and that alone, the Christ living in our midst, and sacrificed by us, and for us and with us, in the clean and perpetual Sacrifice, it is He alone Who holds our world together, and keeps us all from being poured headlong and immediately into the pit of our eternal destruction. And I tell you there is a power that goes forth from that Sacrament, a power of light and truth, even into the hearts of those who have heard nothing of Him and seem to be incapable of belief. "

— Thomas Merton from The Seven Storey Mountain

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse on Marriage

2011-06-27T06:57:00.002-04:00

Marriage is under attack in our country, and all over the world. We should make ourselves familiar with the threats against Marriage. Dr. Jennifer Morse is very good at opening our eyes on this important matter. This video is long but I believe it is well worth watching in its entirety. We need to be educated!

Corpus Christi 2011

2011-06-26T06:41:00.002-04:00

Let us return to Jesus’ act in the Last Supper. What happened at that moment? When He said: This is my body which is given to you, this is my blood shed for you and for the multitude, what happened? Jesus in that gesture anticipates the event of Calvary. He accepts his passion out of love, with its trial and its violence, even to death on the cross; by accepting it in this way he transforms it into an act of giving. This is the transformation that the world needs most, because he redeems it from within, he opens it up to the Kingdom of Heaven. But God always wants to accomplish this renewal of the world through the same path followed by Christ, indeed, the path that is Himself. There is nothing magic in Christianity. There are no shortcuts, but everything passes through the patient and humble logic of the grain of wheat that is broken to give life, the logic of faith that moves mountains with the gentle power of God. This is why God wants to continue to renew humanity, history and the cosmos through this chain of transformations, of which the Eucharist is the sacrament. Through the consecrated bread and wine, in which his Body and Blood is truly present, Christ transforms us, assimilating us in him: he involves us in his redeeming work, enabling us, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to live according to his same logic of gift, like grains of wheat united with Him and in Him. Thus unity and peace, which are the goal for which we strive, are sown and mature in the furrows of history, according to God's plan.
Without illusions, without ideological utopias, we walk the streets of the world, bringing within us the Body of the Lord, like the Virgin Mary in the mystery of the Visitation. With the humble awareness that we are simple grains of wheat, we cherish the firm conviction that the love of God, incarnate in Christ, is stronger than evil, violence and death. We know that God is preparing for all people new heavens and new earth where peace and justice prevail - and by faith we glimpse the new world, that is our true home. Also this evening as the sun sets on our beloved city of Rome, we set out again on this path: with us is Jesus in the Eucharist, the Risen One, who said: "I am with you always, until the end of world "(Mt 28:20). Thank you, Lord Jesus! Thank you for your loyalty, which sustains our hope. Stay with us, because the evening comes. "Jesus, good shepherd and true bread, have mercy on us; feed us and guard us. Grant that we find happiness in the land of the living". Amen.

Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI homily for Corpus Christi - read more HERE

The Marriage License

2011-06-24T08:06:00.007-04:00

I enjoyed the last few days with my wife discovering Stockbridge, Massachusetts - an absolutely lovely town, full of history. We spent part of one day at the Norman Rockwell Museum. Rockwell was an amazingly talented artist, who understood the human person well. The painting above, The Marriage License, really captured my eye. It was painted in 1955, my birth year. A young man and woman plan to be married, so they go see the (state) clerk to acquire a marriage license. How excited they must be.

This is the way God planned it - a man and a woman - preparing for marriage. Pope Benedict XVI says "The marriage bond, in which man and woman together constitute a life-long association, ordered by its very nature for the good of the spouses and the generation and education of children," is the basis of the family, the heritage and shared wealth of humanity." Marriage, between a man and a woman, and their children - family - it is what keeps our country strong. Let us pray that it stays that way.

God Bless the Big Man

2011-06-19T10:57:00.003-04:00

I heard the news today that Clarence Clemons has died. A great loss, not only for his family, for Bruce, the E-Street Band, but for all of us. I remember when I was young, it was all Beatles and Grateful Dead. Then something special came along - an album called "Born to Run." On the cover, a man named Bruce and a man named Clarence. All changed for me after that. Jungleland - a song of New Jersey. My home State - and I still love New Jersey! God bless you Clarence, I never heard a sax played like you play it - right into my heart!!

Young women answer the call.

2011-06-17T07:09:00.003-04:00

Young women are answering the call to religious life, a sure sign of their "Christian Hope." God bless them!

Pieta at Holy Rosary Church

2011-06-16T07:08:00.002-04:00

I spent some time yesterday at Holy Rosary Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, taking pictures of statues restored by artist Nancy Forte. The above image is the restored Pieta - absolutely beautiful. The "white" is extraordinary.

Holy Rosary Church is the first Italian Parish in the State of New Jersey, established 125 years ago. You can read more about the parish HERE.

I will be posting more pictures of the restored statues in days to come!

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan defends "True Marriage."

2011-06-15T07:02:00.003-04:00

"The True Meaning of Marriage"

The stampede is on. Our elected senators who have stood courageous in their refusal to capitulate on the state’s presumption to redefine marriage are reporting unrelenting pressure to cave-in.

The media, mainly sympathetic to this rush to tamper with a definition as old as human reason and ordered good, reports annoyance on the part of some senators that those in defense of traditional marriage just don’t see the light, as we persist in opposing this enlightened, progressive, cause.

But, really, shouldn’t we be more upset – and worried – about this perilous presumption of the state to re-invent the very definition of an undeniable truth – one man, one woman, united in lifelong love and fidelity, hoping for children – that has served as the very cornerstone of civilization and culture from the start?

Last time I consulted an atlas, it is clear we are living in New York, in the United States of America – not in China or North Korea. In those countries, government presumes daily to “redefine” rights, relationships, values, and natural law. There, communiqués from the government can dictate the size of families, who lives and who dies, and what the very definition of “family” and “marriage” means.

But, please, not here! Our country’s founding principles speak of rights given by God, not invented by government, and certain noble values – life, home, family, marriage, children, faith – that are protected, not re-defined, by a state presuming omnipotence.

Please, not here! We cherish true freedom, not as the license to do whatever we want, but the liberty to do what we ought; we acknowledge that not every desire, urge, want, or chic cause is automatically a “right.” And, what about other rights, like that of a child to be raised in a family with a mom and a dad?

Our beliefs should not be viewed as discrimination against homosexual people. The Church affirms the basic human rights of gay men and women, and the state has rightly changed many laws to offer these men and women hospital visitation rights, bereavement leave, death benefits, insurance benefits, and the like. This is not about denying rights. It is about upholding a truth about the human condition. Marriage is not simply a mechanism for delivering benefits: It is the union of a man and a woman in a loving, permanent, life-giving union to pro-create children. Please don’t vote to change that. If you do, you are claiming the power to change what is not into what is, simply because you say so. This is false, it is wrong, and it defies logic and common sense.

Yes, I admit, I come at this as a believer, who, along with other citizens of a diversity of creeds believe that God, not Albany, has settled the definition of marriage a long time ago. We believers worry not only about what this new intrusion will do to our common good, but also that we will be coerced to violate our deepest beliefs to accommodate the newest state decree. (If you think this paranoia, just ask believers in Canada and England what’s going on there to justify our apprehensions.)

But I also come at this as an American citizen, who reads our formative principles as limiting government, not unleashing it to tamper with life’s most basic values.

The Archbishop's Blog is HERE

Michelle Bachmann - Pro-Life President

2011-06-14T06:53:00.003-04:00

I watched Rep. Michelle Bachmann last night on the CNN debates. I believe she will make a fine president. Check out this video....

LifeSite News article HERE

Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same

2011-06-10T07:10:00.002-04:00

Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same

He would declare and could himself believe
That the birds there in all the garden round
From having heard the daylong voice of Eve
Had added to their voice an oversound,
Her tone of meaning but without the words.
Admittedly an eloquence so soft
Could only have had an influence on birds
When call or laughter carried it aloft.
Be that as may be, she was in their song.
Moreover her voice upon their voices crossed
Had now persisted in the woods so long
That probably it never would be lost.
Never again would birds' song be the same.
And to do that to birds was why she came.

Robert Frost

* image> Robin at the Loyola House, Morristown, NJ

J.S. Bach

2011-06-09T07:07:00.002-04:00

I found this video on the "Whispers in the Loggia" blog. The music, by J.S. Bach, is so beautiful, I decided to post it here. Enjoy!

The Love of God is in Everything

2011-06-07T06:45:00.002-04:00

"To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him.

Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference." — Thomas Merton

* Above image by Simon Clayton, China