United Nations and how they don't help . . .

I just read that the United Nations seems to view contraception a 'universal human right' and that it should be funded by taxpayers money. To me, a human right is not a tangible that can be bought and paid for and given to everyone at the expense of everyone. Contraception is a choice and if one chooses this avenue to avoid the responsibility of children, then it is something they should be liable for and the costs should come from their own resources. Many, many people do not believe in the early stages of abortion that occur to women on the pill. They aren't preventing other women from using their own form of conscience and using the pill or some other form of contraception but ask that it won't be charged to their income via taxes.  Contraception is against the precepts of the Catholic Church and practicing Catholics will not use artificial means with which to  either prevent conception or terminate it at any stage.

Now, the United Nations wants to burden everyone with the cost of killing the unborn regardless of morality and beliefs. You have to wonder why one mind set of the population is allowed to dictate the conscience of another? Catholics who practice their Faith will tell you why they don't want to make use of the modern methods of disposing of babies but no one is preventing anyone from making their own decision . . . unless, of course, you are against contraception but forced to help pay for it. Universal humans rights certainly have a very limited perspective.

It is hard to be totally surprised about this latest potential infringement into our personal lives. The Catholic Church already has at least 30 lawsuits pending against the White House over the insurance mandates that go against our freedom of religion. If our children attend public schools, many of them have been exposed to teachings that don't follow our moral code. The problems against people of Faith keep growing . . .

During the recent election, not much was said from the pulpit about voting Catholic . . . so 50% of the Catholics in America, obviously with similar dioceses, voted for the incumbent. Our bishop was strongly behind over turning the death penalty even though it is line with the Church when necessary. The abortion issue was a preliminary sideline. With the United Nation's latest idea, it will be interesting to see how the various bishops handle the situation . . . if at all. Makes you wonder, at times, if they are more afraid of the liberals than they are of God. Let us pray . . .

Thanksgiving Wish!

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!
We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
-Adrianus Valerius
-Theodore Baker (translator)


Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-great-thanksgiving-prayers/#ixzz2CySxv53Z

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving Day! I hope all that celebrate this holiday have a wonderful day with family and friends. We have six guests coming for dinner. Although we couldn't make it to Mass, this morning, my son is over there serving Mass for Father. I guess that sometimes you have to do your praying from the kitchen in the spirit or hospitality! That, and the fact the Mass is an hour later and we have to have things cooked and ready by noon!

The table is set, pots are awaiting further instructions on the stove and the turkey is in the roaster on the counter. Side dishes are warming in the oven and it only remains for me to cook potatoes and mash them. I think I'm up to the task!

Thanksgiving Preparations . . . and, so it begins . . .

 Thanksgiving dinner isn't difficult but it takes planning and prep work. My cooking tasks began yesterday. I baked bread for the stuffing, got the cranberries reduced to the appropriate sauce, turkey bones simmered down to broth and corn bread mixed, baked, and cubed for sausage stuffing. I don't put the stuffing inside the turkey as is popular with many people. My own mother preferred it that way but I like to bake it in pans and make two types.

Today, the pies will be created along with mixing together the stuffing ingredients, and, time permitting, baking a cheese cake. I enjoy cooking but with the family growing up and taking off on their own (my oldest son and daughter won't be here for the holiday!), I don't get to exercise my 'talents' as much as I'd like. I have six guests joining us for dinner tomorrow so I'm in my cooking/baking mode and in my element!

How is Jesus viewing our acts as citizens?

Below find Fr. Jeffrey's homily that was given last weekend (November 10/11) at SEAS. The homily is inspirational! A parish priest in Louisiana isn't afraid to tell the truth!

Here it is:

I want to begin today by thanking those of you who went out on Tuesday and voted for the sacredness of human life. Just as the widow’s deed in our 1^st reading will never be forgotten as long as the Scriptures are read, be assured that no righteous deed that we ever undertake will be forgotten by Almighty God.

This past Wednesday, the day after the election, I received a message on my phone at the parish office, from a gentleman who didn’t identify himself by name but who said he was a parishioner. And in this message, this gentleman ranted for several minutes about Tuesday’s election results. And here were the first words out of his mouth, “You lost Father; you lost!” Well, the first thing I want to say about Tuesday night’s election results is that I didn’t lose. On Tuesday night our entire country lost!

Now, having said that, I know that there are several of you who have just decided to tune me out, or you’re now burning up with anger at me because of what I just said and you can’t wait to give me a piece of your mind. But let me say two things in this regard. Number one, I am a priest of Jesus Christ, not because of any merit of my own, not because I’m any better than anyone else. God probably chose me because I am nothing and He wants to make something out of me. But I have been anointed and consecrated by God to preach His truth. And so, you can tune me out, but be warned, you do so at your eternal peril.

Second, if you’re angry because you read into my words that this homily is going to be about one elected official that you probably voted for, you’re wrong. What I have to say today goes far beyond just one elected official. What I have to say is about the over all trend that was put on display in Tuesday’s election results.

Did you know, for instance, that on Tuesday several states voted by popular majority to legalize the recreational use of marijuana? Did you know that a plan to legalize physician assisted suicide was barely rejected in Massachusetts? Did you now that for the first time in our country’s history several states, by popular vote, chose to legalize gay marriage? Did you know that two of these states are run by “Catholic” governors who actively encouraged their constituents to vote in favor of same sex unions? Did you know that in Florida, a ban on tax payers funding of abortion was rejected by the people? Add to all of this the fact that some who were elected in Tuesday’s elections are pathological liars, people who have been exposed in their lies numerous times. Apparently, a majority of Americans now condone lying, or perhaps worse, for them the lie has become the truth, evil has become good. Now can you begin to see the trend?

In the days after the elections all the talking heads in the media have been trying to explain how this all happened. But not one person in the mainstream media has gotten it right. You see, these election results are not about one party’s marketing advantage over another. Ultimately, they’re not about the appeal of one person over another, nor are they about one party being more up-to-date while the other is behind times. What we saw on Tuesday night IS about the moral decline of our nation.

Tuesday’s voting results are a mere confirmation of a choice that a majority in this country made, some as far back as 50 years ago, to reject God and to embrace evil in one form or another! And who’s to blame for this choice? Well, ultimately, each individual is responsible for his or her choices. Those who chose to vote with evil are to blame for their own choices, and they’ll have to answer to God for the way they voted. But the reality is I don’t think any of us can take ourselves completely off the hook on this one. Why? Because one of the worst contributing factors to the moral decline of our country has been the lukewarmness that has plagued the Catholic Church for years all the way from the Bishops down to the people in the pews. Pope St. Pius X once said that “All evil in the world is due to lukewarm Catholics.” Think about that for a second, “All evil in the world is due to lukewarm Catholics.”

Well, I have to be honest with you. I’ve seen this lukewarmness in every church parish at which I’ve served. But you know where else I see this lukewarmness? I see it when I look in the mirror; I see it in myself. And if we’re honest with ourselves I think all of us would see one or more area of lukewarmness in our own spiritual lives.

My brothers and sisters, each one of us has a moral obligation to do all that we can to try to reverse the moral decline of our nation. And the first place that we have to begin is within ourselves. We have to begin by responding to that vocation which is common to all of us, what the Church calls the universal call to holiness, the call from Jesus to each one of us to become a saint!

In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul says, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” How many of us, each day, tremble as we strive for holiness?! How many of us live with a lively fear of hell, a place that is real and a place where souls go for all eternity?! Or have we instead accepted mediocrity in our spiritual lives? “Oh, I’m too busy to pray Lord; I just don’t have the time… I’m too tired to pray; I’ll get to it tomorrow... Oh, I don’t like that teaching of the Church, I am not going to do that, who do they think they are coming up with this stuff... Well, I think I’ve done enough for God; what more do I have to do for Him…”

In one of His parables Jesus poses an important question that we would all do well to ask ourselves. “Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?” Well, what cost is Jesus talking about? He’s not giving construction advice to builders and contractors. The context of that Gospel is the cost of discipleship, what it costs to be a saint, ultimately what it costs us get to Heaven. But all too often we act as if that cost is cheap! “Well, I go to Mass on most Sundays. I’m a good person; I haven’t murdered anybody. Of course I’m going to Heaven!”

Jesus dealt with this kind of cheap discipleship in the Gospels when He said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” On the day of judgment many will say to Jesus, “Well, didn’t we go to Mass fairly often on Sundays and didn’t we put some money in the collection basket? Didn’t we accept at least some of the Church’s teachings? Besides, as I said before, I’m a good person; I didn’t murder anybody.” Then Jesus will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me you evildoers!”

My brothers and sisters, in ordinary times lukewarmness in our approach to salvation is deadly. But we are not entering into ordinary times. We are not moving forward into ordinary times. There is a great battle brewing; in fact this battle is already upon us, a battle in our country between good and evil and I can feel this battle in the very marrow in my bones. If we are not striving for holiness with every fiber of our being we will not have what it takes to pay the cost of discipleship, we will not have what it takes to get to Heaven! As Jesus says near the end of Matthew’s Gospel, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now and never will be. And if those days had not been shortened, no one would be saved…no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.”

It’s clear from the trends that we see in Tuesday’s election results that people of faith in this country are going to be attacked relentlessly over and over again by one wave of evil after another. And so we must be sure that we have included these attacks in our calculations. A lukewarm faith will never survive the attacks of an army of evil that is Legion. We must become saints! And do not wait for tomorrow to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for tomorrow may be too late. Today let us resolve to root out all sin from our lives! Today let us resolve to remove all evil from our hearts! Today let us double our efforts at prayers! Today let us pray that Mary, the Mother of God, our Mother, will once again crush the head of Satan, and intercede for us the grace of perseverance!

Today, let us resolve to take up our cross and be a disciple of Jesus Christ! Christ, who in the words of the Servant of God Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, “will restore within us moral indignation, Who will make us hate evil with a passionate intensity, and love goodness to a point where we can drink death like water!”

The final message that I received from that gentleman’s call on Wednesday was that I need to stop preaching the way I do. I need to stop telling people how they ought to live their lives, what teachings of the Church they need to follow. “If he wants to support gay marriage I just need to shut up and give him a choice.” Well, sir in answer to your request I give you a choice: You can either come here to this Catholic Church and listen to the Word of God and to the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church or you can leave and go somewhere else!

Five Major Conflicts Facing Catholics

5 Major Conflicts Facing Catholics

 

 

Msgr. Charles Pope

Msgr. Charles Pope, Archdiocese of Washington: My remarks will be brief, since this is not a political blog, and I am not a political prognosticator. The American people and process have spoken. But a few remarks based on the election results, things I think of as undeniable facts for the Church, though you are free to offer any rebuttals.
1. The strained relationship between the Catholic Church in the Democratic party will continue and the strain will likely grow. The reasons for this are that the Democratic Party is increasingly aligning itself with positions that are in direct conflict with Catholic teaching. More of this in the following points.
2. Largely unrestricted abortion will continue unabated, as will funding for organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the chief provider of abortion in this country. Possible Supreme Court nominations will also feature pro-choice jurists. Likewise many Circuit and other Federal District Court judges will continue to be appointed who favor largely unrestricted abortion.
3. The homosexual agenda will continue to grow and receive increasing legal recognition and protection. This includes not only gay “marriage” but also, other issues in the Gay agenda such as adoption, and the general insistence that the Gay lifestyle be promoted in schools and other public settings. This will require Church opposition and generally embroil us in many public disputes. This may have continued even with a Romney win, but there will be fewer political hurdles for such agendas and the pace will be quicker.
4. The HHS mandate moves forward, untouched. Our religious liberty is in greater jeopardy. We’ll have to meet the administration in court. And while the legal basis for our grievance seems strong, recent experience in the courts has demonstrated that nothing is certain. Civil disobedience may be in our future.
5. Extreme debt seems likely to pile up. Well this may not be a specific issue the Catholic Church has spoken to, it remains a fact that we spend money we do not have, and this has moral implications. Little change in a very divided Congress, means there will be likely little progress in arresting a runaway debt. This will become an increasing moral problem that the Church will likely have to address at some level. This too draws us into the morass of debates about spending priorities etc. and may divide us as a Church between fiscal conservatives and those who emphasize the Social Doctrine.
Thus, the next years ahead, will likely draw the Church into increasing conflict with the political scene in general, and the Democratic Party specifically.
And while it is not the instinct to the Church to be drawn into one side of the political debate, moral issues are increasingly demanding from us an unambiguous stance, one which draws us into increasing conflict with the Democratic Party on issues which we consider non-negotiable. At the same time, issues that we may share with the Democratic Party, are less doctrinal or certain for us. We face difficult days ahead, and difficult decisions about strategy and how to engage a party in power that is increasingly at odds with our most central tenants.
The Central question for us is, How will the Church be able to articulate her positions, increasingly at odds with the platform of the Democratic party and be able to resist the (unfair) charge that we are merely the Republican Party at prayer. There are difficult days ahead for the Church.
Let us pray for great courage and prudence.

Baby or not. And, you have a question?