The Holy Innocents - Then and NOW

 Herod sought to safeguard his position and lifestyle by the murder of all male children up to two years old. I can't even wrap my mind around the terror that had to ring out that fateful night with infants and children being ripped from their parents arms and slaughtered violently right in front of them and likely their older siblings! How all of heaven and the angels must have anguished over it. 

Today however, we have many Herods, male and female Herods,  that seek to maintain their sinful lifestyles uncluttered as they continue on their journey to find "happiness" through sin and debauchery. Think that's strong? Isn't that just what they're doing? Jumping in and out of different beds hoping that one  will be  "just right" and make them happy forever? Is this not what modern times calls "dating"?  

The sexual union was created for procreation. When it's used as RECREATION not REcreation, but RECreation; not only is something lost in the *translation*, but the dignity of the person -IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE- is lost FOREVER. So, if the error of their ways catches them and a woman should find herself WITH CHILD ... not "PREGNANT" but WITH CHILD; it's legal to just KILL THE BABY before it's born. And they can do this right up to the time it's ready TO BE BORN. The heart is beating, the little limbs are moving, it's taking nourishment and stretching. Then one day, IN WHAT SHOULD BE THE SAFEST PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE, a mother's womb, suction tears it apart literally limb from limb or a drill cracks its skull as brains are sucked out. DO THEY THINK THERE IS ANY LESS PAIN FOR THESE LITTLE ONES THAN THE NIGHT OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS with swords piercing them? And we call this *MEDICAL PROCEDURE*, abortion; as if pregnancy is a DISEASE that needs to be cured. 

They wonder where the cure for cancer is ... they wonder why we don't have people that will keep our nation strong and our economy stable ... WELL WE LIKELY ABORTED THEM ALL! These are those that will never know a mother's love and tender embrace. Those that CHOSE this path for their CHILDREN will never see the love in their eyes lifted up to them or hear their giggles or see their accomplishments because at the time it didn't fit in with their lives and was INCONVENENT. 

WHAT A HORROR!!!!

May Almighty God have mercy on all who have taken a hand in this horrific atrocity from encouraging words to assisting and performing this murderous act. May all these who had a hand in it be given the GIFT of PERFECT CONTRITION so that they're made aware of just how horrific this vile intrinsic evil is and how conditioned we've become to accept it. It IS the reason why so much has gone wrong in the world from the family unit to the economic breakdown. Pray daily for the dignity of the human person to once again be VALUED as it should, as it was meant to ... in ALL STAGES from CONCEPTION TO NATURAL DEATH. 

Matthew 2: 16-18

16	Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.
17	Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18	"A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more."

Saint Charbel

Saint Charbel (or Sharbel) was a Maronite monk from Lebanon. He was born May 8, 1859, and died December 24, 1898. He was beatified December 5, 1965 and canonized October 9, 1977. 
In the first centuries of Christianity, the Middle East was populated by monks and religious. The Maronite order in particular is know nor its love of the monastic life. Out of this tradition God raised up the humble monk Charbel as a light to the whole Church. Charbel is known for his fidelity to his vows, his love for the Eucharist, and his devotion to Our Blessed Mother.
 
Saint Charbel suffered a stroke while saying Mass the day before Christmas. He was reciting the prayer from the Maronite Mass, "Father of Truth". He continued to recite this prayer and to repeat over and over Jesus and Mary until he died several hours later.

Chaplet of St. Charbel
INSTRUCTIONS

After the death of Charbel, a light began to shine from his tomb attracting the local villagers. Miracles of healing began to take place. Four months after his death his body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt and floating in water. His body remained incorrupt, perspiring blood and liquid until the day of his beatification. Miracles are occurring through the intercession of Saint Charbel to this day.

This program is from ChurchMilitant.TV

A Blessed Christmas to One and ALL!

We all need to take a moment and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas ... particularly in view of recent national events.

This Christmas we remember those who courageously called for forgiveness in times of suffering. Americans shine above all when we forgive those who hurt families and our country. Unfortunately America's violence is never ending because we rely too much on politicians and judges who continue to make unjust laws against God. Let us pray and never fail in our efforts to restore God and Prayer in this Nation. God and USA are inseparable. No human law can change that. Let us all remember the Holy Family and Infant Jesus that He came to this world and died for us. Let us pray without ceasing to TRULY once again become ONE NATION UNDER GOD! God Bless America.

 
 Solemnity of Christmas

On December 25, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christmas, a holy day of obligation. Of all the Christian feasts, Christmas is perhaps the most beloved and the most popular. On Christmas we celebrate the temporal birth of the Lord Jesus Christ two thousand years ago. We celebrate His eternal birth from the Father in the splendors of the Godhead. But we celebrate also a third birth of Our Lord, the birth for which Advent has been particularly preparing us, the birth which occurs every Christmas - it is the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church, His birth in those who are the members of the Body of Christ, so His birth in the souls of each of us here, and in the souls of all throughout the world, who receive Him on this day having confessed their sins and opened their hearts in faith and love.

On Christmas, let us adore Jesus in the Eucharist. Let us adore Him through frequent visits to Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament in our tabernacles. Let us adore Him at that real mystical Bethlehem which is His Eucharistic Presence. So as with the ears of our spirit we hear the angels' voices on Christmas, let our voices, in the joy of our hearts, blend with theirs:

Click here for the Holy Father's Christmas Message

Glory to God in the highest

and peace to his people on earth!

This program is from ChurchMilitant.TV

Moral Relativism Is Leading Mankind To The Abyss!

Pope Benedict has weighed in on the issue of “gay marriage.” Our Holy Father continues to be extremely concerned about the current state of the world, especially as it pertains many governments and peoples out right rejection of the moral and natural law. Once again, our Holy Father has stated that the “very future of mankind is at stake.” The following are highlights of one of the pope’s end of the year speeches delivered today in Italian.

  The Telegraph:
Pope Benedict XVI: "In the fight for the family, the very notion of being – of what being human really means is being called into question," the Pope said in Italian during an end-of-year speech.

“The question of the family … is the question of what it means to be a man, and what it is necessary to do to be true men,” he said.

The Pope spoke of the “falseness” of gender theories and cited at length France’s chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, who has spoken out against gay marriage.

“Bernheim has shown in a very detailed and profoundly moving study that the attack we are currently experiencing on the true structure of the family, made up of father, mother, and child, goes much deeper,” he said.

He cited feminist gender theorist Simone de Beauvoir’s view to the effect that one is not born a woman, but one becomes so that sex was no longer an element of nature but a social role people chose for themselves.

“The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious,” he said.

The defense of the family, the Pope said, “is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears.”

On Monday, the Vatican’s newspaper described laws on gay marriage as an attempt at a communist-like “utopia”, a day after tens of thousands of demonstrators turned out in France to support legalizing both marriages and adoption for gay couples.
France’s parliament is to debate the government-backed “marriage for all” bill early next year.
With President Francois Hollande’s Socialists enjoying a strong majority, the bill is expected to pass despite vehement opposition from the right and religious groups.

Only if there is such a consensus on the essentials can constitutions and law function. This fundamental consensus derived from the Christian heritage is at risk. In reality, this makes reason blind to what is essential. To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake.

Moral consensus is collapsing. Consequently the forces mobilized for the defense of such structures seem doomed to failure. However, the grave challenges confronting the world at the start of this new Millennium lead us to think that only an intervention from on high, capable of guiding the hearts of those living in situations of conflict and those governing the destinies of nations, can give reason to hope for a brighter future.

“Better Gun Laws. Better Mental Healthcare…Give Me A Break!”

 By Fr. John Hollowell

Some have asked for my thoughts on the tragedies of today, and so I share them for what they are worth.

It seems like a line was crossed today that, in our country at least, has never been crossed to date. Columbine was horrendous and was a paradigm shift for the nation, but given our collective experiences as teenagers growing up, and given the fact that most everyone still carries scars from teenage hazing and bullying in some form or another, I think most people at least could fathom the source of the hatred, the evil, and the revenge that we saw in Columbine. From Stephen King’s “Carrie” to Ralphie in “A Christmas Story”, we’ve grown up knowing that bullying does real harm and pushes people to the breaking point.

But a classroom of little children…it doesn’t register on any level, nor should it.

So now the carousel of blame starts spinning – people pointing at things external to fix…”better gun laws”, “better mental health care”, “better health insurance”…give me a break! I could care less, one way or the other, on gun control, but anyone who thinks that these types of measures would have prevented today is really hoping to avoid the issue that really matters.

The dignity of the person.

In our culture, the dignity of the human person has been spat upon, mocked, and destroyed. There is no “dignity of the human person” to speak of anymore. Anytime someone stands up to speak about “the dignity of the human person” they are shouted down in the public square and mocked for using words from an archaic culture that we have, so we’re told, moved beyond and surpassed.

A human person today only has dignity if others will it to be so – a child grasping for breath on the abortionist’s table is granted dignity solely based on the wishes of the mother. The abortionist, and our President, like the emperors in the Colosseum of Rome, wait for the thumb up or down of the mother to decide whether the child lives or dies.
Embryos sit in freezers across the country, parents have their reproductive systems mangled in order to have pleasure without the burden of children, wars are now fought, like video games, through the lenses of drones, we tell third world countries that “children are the problem” and so if you want any of our food to eat, you are going to have to stop having children…

Today, in Connecticut, a big fat mirror was held up to our nation, and a monster from the depths of Hell illustrated and showed us exactly what we don’t want to see in ourselves…we hate children, we hate life, and human dignity is on life support in this country.

The Joker in “The Dark Knight” utters a seriously frightening, and seriously prophetic line about us:

“Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan”. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!”

We’re accustomed to the plan of 4,000 abortions a day, it has become part of our character as a nation, and it has faded away into being simply “a part of the plan.”

The dignity of the children lost today did not come simply from the fact that their parents happened to want them!! Their dignity came from the fact that God wanted them, and willed them into existence…that is the sole source of human dignity, and we are meant to marvel at the dignity of such miraculous creation, the miraculous nature of it all only amplified by the fact that all of us have been blessed with a role to play in nurturing and bringing into existence the miracles that are human persons!

We have been anti-life and anti-child and anti-human dignity for a long time in this country, and it is time to stand up and say ENOUGH!!!

We must rise up and demand a return to respect for the dignity of the human person!!!! We must rise up and say that a child is not a choice, a child does not derive his/her dignity from the choice of another human person, a child does not derive his/her dignity based on whether they are born into poverty or not…we must rise up and say every human person has an unassailable dignity, and that dignity is given to each human person by God, with a capital G,…and if we refuse to do that, if we refuse to acknowledge how utterly evil and depraved this nation is becoming, and if we fail to acknowledge how putrid “the plan” has become that we call every day life in America, and we keep blaming guns and health care insurance, then we should never expect a return to sanity.

Please hit your knees for the families and the loved ones left behind in Connecticut and say a lot of prayers for our country. Today, a new line was crossed; what remains to be seen is whether we will wake up because of it, or if we will continue to bury our heads in the sand and act like we don’t know what is going on.

All Holy Innocents, pray for us!

Please pray for Fr. John and all whose Faith is rooted  firmly in the TRUTH that *is* JESUS regardless of public or popular opinion!!!!!

BEWARE!: The Nativity Story Movie - Blasphemous and Sacrilegious

 Dr. Taylor Marshall, thankfully, sets us straight, telling us to BEWARE of this "Christmas" Movie called "The Nativity Story" .... 
 
Every Christmas I try to show that the Fathers and Doctors of the Church unanimously teach that Mary was without pain on that first Christmas (see post: "Mary's Painless Delivery of Christ"). The reason for this is plain - Mary was without original sin and thus she did not experience the curse of Eve in painful childbirth. Mary is the New Eve and stands higher than Eve. It also inconceivable that the Christ would cause physical harm to his mother. Moreover, the Church Fathers cite Isaiah 66:7 as referring to Mary's painless delivery of Christ:

"Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child" (Isa 66:7)

This year, I want to focus on something different. I recently listened to this sermon in which the priest demonstrated that the Nativity Story movie is both blasphemous and sacrilegious. The priest notes the following:

The Nativity Story film depicts Mary as experiencing pain in child birth and therefore depicts her as subject to original sin. In other words, the Mary of the Nativity Story is not the immaculately conceived Mary of Scripture, Tradition, and the Catholic Church. This is serious business when we recall what Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed:

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

Hence, if anyone shall dare -- which God forbid! -- to think otherwise than as has been defined by us, let him know and understand that he is condemned by his own judgment; that he has suffered shipwreck in the faith; that he has separated from the unity of the Church; and that, furthermore, by his own action he incurs the penalties established by law if he should are to express in words or writing or by any other outward means the errors he think in his heart (Ineffabilis Deus).

But that's not the worst part. The Nativity Story depicts the Blessed Virgin consenting to have her palm read by a medium or witch. This is a capital crime in the Old Testament law of Moses and anyone who engaged in divination (e.g. palm reading) received the death penalty by God's command. A good rule of thumb is that if a sin received the death penalty in the Old Testament then the same sin constitutes a mortal sin in the New Testament (when full consent and knowledge is present). The death penalty of the Old Law reveals the spiritual death that the soul receives through mortal sin - mortal sin meaning "deadly sin."

So would Mary have committed a mortal sin and allowed a medium to divine her palm? Absolutely not! If she had, she would have consented to Satan and she would no longer have held enmity with the infernal serpent as Scripture inerrantly teaches:

I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel (Gen 3:15).

So The Nativity Story explicitly depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary as 1) subject to original sin; and 2) committing a mortal sin of divination. This is the height of blasphemy and Satan grins as thousands of well-meaning Christians watch this film in preparation for the holidays.

I wouldn't watch a movie in which my mother was slandered and depicted committing mortal sins. Why should we watch a film that depicts the Immaculate Mother of Christ in submission to Satan

Just say no to The Nativity Story.

In order to add a positive twist, please suggest some solid and helpful "Christmas movie" suggestions in the comments below.

ad Jesum per Mariam,
Taylor Marshall

PS: I just added a new post in defense of the painless and intact nativity of Christ:

"Mary's Painless Delivery of Christ" from Scripture, Church Fathers, Popes, and Doctors of the Church

The Priest: Another Social Worker, Counselor, Feminized Neuter, Ineffectual Twit?

In the words of Fr. Dwight Longenecker:

When I was first ordained as an Anglican priest I dropped by to see Fr Richard–a retired priest of the old school. He would regularly celebrate the early morning Eucharist. When I asked him how many were at Mass he smiled and said, “Millions! But I could only see four.”
As I celebrated Mass today–only seeing twelve–I thought how secretly God works in the world. In the midst of the hurly burly, hurrying world God’s priests quietly go to church to say Mass. Here an ancient priest who can barely walk hobbles into a drafty church and celebrates the Mass faithfully with love and simplicity. There a young African priest strides to celebrate Mass in a church that is little more than a thatched hut. Here an Archbishop celebrates Mass in his cathedral or there an imprisoned priest huddles secretly over a little table to recite the words over a scrap of bread and a thimbleful of smuggled wine.

And the hurried, harried world goes on, and God works behind the news.This is always his way–to work secretly in the world. A young girl in a backwater village receives the message of an angel and says “yes” and the course of history is changed forever. An uneducated shepherd girl receives the apparition of that same woman who reveals herself to be “the Immaculate Conception” and the course of history is changed. A Mexican peasant receives an apparition of that same woman who, in time, becomes the Empress of America and the patron of a great superpower. So God works secretly–always behind the scenes.

And it is the same with the Mass. In millions of churches all over the world, with a simple unity of expression and an amazing unity of voice the priests of Christ faithfully celebrate these holy mysteries, and as they do they bring the Lord of the Universe into the present moment. They make him real in their own community, their own church, their own hands and in their own tabernacle. In millions of locations around the word Christ is made present by priests who are gifted and priests who are not so gifted, by priests who are saints and priests who are still a work in progress, by priests who stumble and fall and priests who always get up.

If the Mass were to suddenly stop . . .

if all the priests on the world went on strike or if some malignant power were to stop all Masses from being said, I firmly believe that in a very short time the worst kind of violence would break out. War would erupt, killings would burst forth, hatred and violence would flare up in every corner of the world. The demonic rage lurking just beneath the surface would be unrestrained. The enemies of the Light would burst from their secret lairs and wreak havoc on the world. Chaos, anarchy and the dark forces of hell itself would be unleashed.

Why is there a shortage of priests?

Because this understanding of the priesthood has been forgotten. The Catholic priest has become just another social worker–a counselor — a feminized neuter in society — an ineffectual twit – a Mr. Bean who seems worthless and whose real role and identity cannot be understood by the worldlings.

Even this seeming foolishness of the priesthood in society’s eyes is part of God’s secret plan, for in today’s Mass reading for St John of the Cross we hear St Paul proclaim like some saintly Don Quixote on a hopeless quest, “We preach Christ crucified! Foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews…for the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men!”

If you believe this to be true as I do–if you believe that it is only the Mass and Christ present there which keeps our fragile world from falling into chaos and darkness, then support your priests. 
Give them a break. Love them and pray for them. Share these truths with your sons and grandsons and pray for them to be priests.
By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

*** Blessed be our glorious Triune God .. in His goodness and mercy, He has given us our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to redeem us through one of our own ... our Blessed Immaculate Mother, Mary .... the very first TABERNACLE! ***

  Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the solemn dogma defined by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854. As Our Lady Immaculately Conceived is the patroness of the United States of America, this is a holy day of obligation in the United States.

Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1854: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." — Catechism of the Catholic Church

---

Daily Readings for: December 08, 2012

Collect: O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Immaculate Conception of Mary
"Hail Mary, full of grace". For thousands of centuries, millions of times per day the Virgin Mary is greeted by the faithful with the greeting of the Archangel, that we hear resonating anew in today’s Gospel. The sons of the Church learn from the words of the Archangel Gabriel that the fullness of the mystery of God’s grace was realized in Holy Mary. St Paul the Apostle teaches us that the Father made all fullness dwell in His Incarnate Son (c.f. Col 1:12-20), which overflows from Christ’s head and spills out on His Mystical Body that is the Church. Before descending in Body, Christ’s fullness was spread in a unique and unrepeatable way on Mary, predestined from eternity to be the Mother of God.
Significantly in the first reading, the liturgy recalls the figure of Eve, the mother of all the living. The Fathers of the Church saw in Mary, the new Eve that unties the knot bound by the first woman. The knot of disobedience tied by Eve, was untied by the obedience of Mary. As Eve was created in purity and integrity, also the new Eve was miraculously preserved from the contamination of original sin because she had to give humanity the Word, who was incarnated for our ransom.
Saint Irenaeus compares the virginity of the pure earth from which Adam was drawn to the virginity of the immaculate humanity of Mary from which the Second Adam was drawn. ‘And as the protoplast himself, Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (for God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground (Genesis 2:5)) so did He who is the Word, recapitulating Adam in Himself, rightly receive a birth, enabling Him to gather up Adam [into Himself], from Mary, who was as yet a virgin’ (Adversus hereses III, 21:10).
Blessed Pope Pius IX on the 8th of December 1854 proclaimed the Dogma of the faith revealed by God that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin" (Denz.-Schonm, 2083). If the official proclamation of the dogma is relatively recent, the profession of faith by Christians and the liturgy is very ancient in this regard. Furthermore, four years later the same Virgin Mary, appearing in Lourdes to St Bernadette, confirmed the truth of the doctrine by presenting herself with the title ‘I am the Immaculate Conception’.
Mary’s predestination to this singular grace—consistent with the suspension of the universal decree by which every man, from the moment of his conception is contaminated with original sin—leads us to ponder in the deepest depths the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity’s salvific plan. God, One and Triune, had foreseen from the very beginning the future incarnation of the Word culminating in the redemption of human nature that had fallen into sin. He therefore predestined pure Mary, so that He could draw from her uncontaminated humanity, which the Son could adopt in order to re-establish in Himself the original purity of creation and reorientate it to eternal glory.
For this reason, in the second reading of today’s liturgy, St Paul reminds us that God wants to see us holy and immaculate before Him. The purity of our origins seemed to be irredeemably lost. However, in Immaculate Mary, God found the perfect solution to reverse the disaster made from the misuse of our liberty, and returned humanity to the original purity that seemed hopelessly lost.
Mary’s Immaculate Conception is a direct consequence of her Divine Maternity. St Anslem of Aosta wrote: ‘Assuredly, it was fitting that the Virgin be beautified with a purity than which a greater cannot be conceived, except for God's. For, toward her, God the Father was so disposed to give His only Son who was naturally one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Virgin.’ (De conceptu virginali et originali peccato, XVIII)
This link between the privilege of Divine Maternity and Mary’s Immaculate Conception results also in her superiority with respect to us. She is a perfect image of the Church in heaven, the new triumphant Jerusalem, that won’t have any marks nor will there be pain and death. This is why today’s preface recites: '…she was to be a worthy mother of your Son, your sign of favor to the church at its beginning, and the promise of its perfection as the bride of Christ, radiant in beauty’. Also in heaven Mary is not and will never be only a disciple, but her Son’s most exalted. She is and will always be the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, the Queen of the Angels and Saints. Therefore, the preface of the Mass adds: ‘…You chose her from all creatures to be our advocate with you and our pattern of holiness.’
Mary was Immaculate because she had to be the Mother of God. She, herself has received the original grace of purity and the final state of the blessed life that we also, by collaborating with Divine Grace, hope one day to receive.
Immaculate Mary is full of grace. She is not only Christ’s disciple, who with the help of grace has overcome the chains of sin, but she is totius Trinitatis nobile triclinium, the noble resting place of the Holy Trinity (St Thomas Aquinas, Exposito Salutationis Angelicae, I). The Immaculate, full of grace, will always be Mother and Queen for that elect part of the Church that we hope one day to join, that will one day joyfully sing before the Almighty.

Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Plenary Indulgence if recited publicly today on the feast of our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe ... a partial Indulgence if recited piously:

Most Sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before Thine altar. We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united to Thee, behold each one of us freely consecrates ourselves today to Thy Most Sacred Heart.

Many indeed have never known Thee; Many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart. Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful children, who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children, who have abandoned Thee; Grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.

Be Thou King of those who are deceived by the erroneous opinions of whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one shepherd.

Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound  from pole to pole with one cry; praise to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation; To It be glory and honor forever.  Amen. 

This Sunday, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe. It is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. On this day, we contemplate the kingship of Jesus our Redeemer. Blessed John Paul II said that “if it is assessed according to the criteria of this world, Jesus’ kingship can appear ‘paradoxical’. Indeed, the power he exercises does not fit into earthly logic. On the contrary, his is the power of love and service that requires the gratuitous gift of self and the consistent witness to the truth (cf. John 18, 37).” In this Sunday’s Gospel, we will hear Saint John’s account of Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus before the sentence of crucifixion. Pontius Pilate asks Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answers: “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” He then goes on to answer Pilate’s subsequent question “Then you are a king?” by stating “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 

This dialogue between Pilate and Jesus reminds us that Our Lord’s kingship is real, yet it is unlike political kingship. He did not come to rule over peoples and territories. For Him, to reign was to serve! His throne was the cross where He revealed His power, the power of love. 

With this power, Christ the King set people free from the slavery of sin and reconciled them to God the Father. 
Throughout His earthly life, Jesus witnessed to the truth that God is love. On Calvary, He witnessed this truth to the full with the sacrifice of His own life. He conquered Satan, the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31). Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has spoken of the power of Christ the King in this way: “It is not the power of the kings or the great people of this world; it is the divine power to give eternal life, to liberate from evil, to defeat the dominion of death. It is the power of Love that can draw good from evil, that can melt a hardened heart, bring peace amid the harshest conflict and kindle hope in the thickest darkness.” Jesus told Pilate that He came into the world to bear witness to the truth. During this Year of Faith, we are called to embrace this truth more deeply. When we embrace this truth, the truth of the Gospel, the truth of Jesus, the truth of Love, we are not guaranteed success in this world. Remember, Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world. But we are assured of the peace and joy that only Christ can give us. 

This is a lesson we learn from the lives of the saints and martyrs of the Church. In this Year of Faith, the Church invites us to be renewed in our faith in Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, and to be authentically converted to Him. He alone gives us true life. He alone is our salvation. We need to be ardent witnesses of the faith to those who do not believe or whose faith has grown lukewarm. We are witnesses when we follow and imitate the King who reigned through self-giving love and service. Following Christ in our increasingly secularized world can entail great sacrifices, but our faith in Him strengthens us and frees us from all our fears and insecurities so that we can live in freedom and happiness. We gather in our churches this Sunday, as we do every Sunday, to worship Christ our King. We celebrate the memorial of His death and resurrection. The King of the Universe comes to us under the humble forms of bread and wine to nourish us with His true Body and Blood. 

Our Eucharistic King strengthens us to overcome evil with good, and hatred and violence with forgiveness and love. It is our choice whether or not we wish to accept and serve a king whose kingship is not based on human power, but on loving and serving others. When Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King in 1925, he wanted to remind Christians that their allegiance was to their spiritual ruler in heaven as opposed to earthly supremacy claimed by dictators at that time. In our day, we need this reminder that our first allegiance must be to Christ the King, especially as we face the temptations of our growing culture of secularism and relativism. Our promotion and defense of religious liberty is also vitally important so that we are indeed free to serve our King through the Church’s many ministries of service in society. From the Cross, our King pours out his gifts upon humanity of all times and places. We praise and thank Him for freeing us from the slavery of sin and the dominion of death. May we serve, honor, and obey Him in our daily lives! May Christ’s peace reign in your hearts! 

taken from: Today's Catholic News

On the Coming of the Son of Man

"He is the Central Event That, in the Midst of the Troubles of the World, Remains the Firm and Stable Point"

Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Sunday before and after praying the midday Angelus in St. Peter's Square.

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Dear brothers and sisters!

On this last Sunday of the liturgical year, Jesus’ discourse about the end times (in technical terms, his “eschatological” discourse) is proclaimed at Mass (cf. Mark 13:24-32). This discourse is also found, with some variations, in Matthew and Luke, and it is probably the most difficult text in the Gospels.

This difficulty derives both from the content and the language: Jesus speaks of a future that is beyond our categories, and because of this Jesus uses images and words taken from the Old Testament, but, importantly, he inserts a new center, namely, himself, the mystery of his person and his death and resurrection. Today’s passage too opens with some cosmic images of an apocalyptic nature: “The sun will be darkened, the moon will no longer give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers in the skies will be shaken” (Mark 13:24-25); but this element is relativized by what follows: “Then the Son of Man will come upon the clouds in the sky with great power and glory” (13:26). The “Son of Man” is Jesus himself, who links the present with the future; the ancient words of the prophets have finally found a center in the person of the Messiah of Nazareth: he is the central event that, in the midst of the troubles of the world, remains the firm and stable point.

Another passage from today’s Gospel confirms. Jesus says: “The sky and the earth will pass away but my words will not pass away” (13:31). In fact, we know that in the Bible the word of God is at the origin of creation: all creatures, starting with the cosmic elements – sun, moon, sky – obey God’s Word, they exist insofar as they are “called” by it. This creative power of the divine Word (“Parola”) is concentrated in Jesus Christ, the Word (“Verbo”) made flesh, and also passes through his human words, which are the true “sky” that orients the thought and path of man on earth. For this reason Jesus does not describe the end of the world and when he uses apocalyptic images he does not conduct himself like a “visionary.” On the contrary, he wants to take away the curiosity of his disciples in every age about dates and predictions and wishes instead to give them a key to a deep, essential reading, and above all to indicate the right path to take, today and tomorrow, to enter into eternal life. Everything passes – the Lord tells us – but God’s Word does not change, and before this Word each of us is responsible for his conduct. It is on this basis that we will be judged.

Dear friends, even in our times there is no lack of natural calamities, nor, unfortunately, of war and violence. Today too we need a stable basis for our life and our hope, much more because of the relativism in which we are immersed. May the Virgin help us to accept this center in the Person of Christ and in his Word.

[Following the recitation of the Angelus the Holy Father greeted those gathered in St. Peter’s Square in various languages. In Italian he said:]

Dear brothers and sisters!

Yesterday in Pergamino, Argentina María Crescencia Pérez of the Congregation the Figlie di Maria Santissima dell’Orto (Daughters of Mary Most Holy of the Garden) was declared blessed. She lived in the first half of last century and is a model of evangelical sweetness animated by faith. Let us praise the Lord for her witness!

[In English he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present for today’s Angelus. This Sunday, as the liturgical year draws to a close, Jesus tells us that although heaven and earth will pass away, his words will remain. Let us pledge ourselves to build our lives more and more on the solid foundation of his holy word, the true source of life and joy.

[Concluding in Italian he said:]

I wish everyone a good Sunday. Thank you. Have a good Sunday. Have a good week. Goodbye.

[Translation by Joseph Trabbic]

Festive Christmas Rosary

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Says The New York Times: 666 Is Coming

Mark Of The Beast

Revelation 13:16-18

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

The Mark of the beast is real and it is coming.It will be forced upon us all sometime in the very near future.Already in some Public Schools They are Installing Biometric Hand Scanning for the Lunch Systems. A NY Times reporter was coerced into having her hand scanned and her picture taken at the doctors office only to find out it was not mandatory YET.You can bet it will be pretty soon though.That is the elite’s goal is to have everyone chipped as was told to Film Director Aaron Russo By Rockefeller.

“PLEASE put your hand on the scanner,” a receptionist at a doctor’s office at New York University Langone Medical Center said to me recently, pointing to a small plastic device on the counter between us. “I need to take a palm scan for your file.” I balked.
As a reporter who has been covering the growing business of data collection, I know the potential drawbacks — like customer profiling — of giving out my personal details. But the idea of submitting to an infrared scan at a medical center that would take a copy of the unique vein patterns in my palm seemed fraught.

The receptionist said it was for my own good. The medical center, she said, had recently instituted a biometric patient identification system to protect against identity theft.

I reluctantly stuck my hand on the machine. If I demurred, I thought, perhaps I’d be denied medical care.

Next, the receptionist said she needed to take my photo. After the palm scan, that seemed like data-collection overkill. Then an office manager appeared and explained that the scans and pictures were optional. Alas, my palm was already in the system.

No longer the province of security services and science-fiction films, biometric technology is on the march. Facebook uses facial-recognition software so its members can automatically put name tags on friends when they upload their photos. Apple uses voice recognition to power Siri. Some theme parks take digital fingerprints to help recognize season pass holders. Now some hospitals and school districts are using palm vein pattern recognition to identify and efficiently manage their patients or students — in effect, turning your palm into an E-ZPass.

But consumer advocates say that enterprises are increasingly employing biometric data to improve convenience — and that members of the public are paying for that convenience with their privacy.

Fingerprints, facial dimensions and vein patterns are unique, consumer advocates say, and should be treated as carefully as genetic samples. So collecting such information for expediency, they say, could increase the risks of serious identity theft. Yet companies and institutions that compile such data often fail to adequately explain the risks to consumers, they say.

“Let’s say someone makes a fake ID and goes in and has their photo and their palm print taken as you. What are you going to do when you go in?” said Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, an advocacy group in San Diego. “Hospitals that are doing this are leaping over profound security issues that they are actually introducing into their systems.”

THE N.Y.U. medical center started researching biometric systems a few years ago in an effort to address several problems, said Kathryn McClellan, its vice president who is in charge of implementing its new electronic health records system. More than a million people in the New York area have the same or similar names, she said, creating a risk that medical personnel might pull up the wrong health record for a patient. Another issue, she said, was that some patients had multiple records from being treated at different affiliates; N.Y.U. wanted an efficient way to consolidate them.

Last year, the medical center adopted photography and palm-scan technology so that each patient would have two unique identifying features. Now, Ms. McClellan said, each arriving patient has his or her palm scanned, allowing the system to automatically pull up the correct file.

“It’s a patient safety initiative,” Ms. McClellan said. “We felt like the value to the patient was huge.”

N.Y.U.’s system, called PatientSecure and marketed by HT Systems of Tampa, has already scanned more than 250,000 patients. In the United States, over five million patients have had the scans, said Charles Yanak, a spokesman for Fujitsu Frontech North America, a division of Fujitsu, the Japanese company that developed the vein palm identification technology.

Yet, unless patients at N.Y.U. seem uncomfortable with the process, Ms. McClellan said, medical registration staff members don’t inform them that they can opt out of photos and scans.

“We don’t have formal consent,” Ms. McClellan said in a phone interview last Tuesday.

That raises red flags for privacy advocates. “If they are not informing patients it is optional,” said Joel Reidenberg, a professor at Fordham University Law School with an expertise in data privacy, “then effectively it is coerced consent.”

He noted that N.Y.U. medical center has had recent incidents in which computers or USB drives containing unencrypted patient data have been lost or stolen, suggesting that the center’s collection of biometric data might increase patients’ risk of identity theft.

Ms. McClellan responded that there was little chance of identity theft because the palm scan system turned the vein measurements into encrypted strings of binary numbers and stored them on an N.Y.U. server that is separate from the one with patients’ health records. Even if there were a breach, she added, the data would be useless to hackers because a unique key is needed to decode the number strings. As for patients’ photos, she said, they are attached to their medical records.

Still, Arthur Caplan, the director of the division of medical ethics at the N.Y.U. center, recommended that hospitals do a better job of explaining biometric ID systems to patients. He himself recently had an appointment at the N.Y.U. center, he recounted, and didn’t learn that the palm scan was optional until he hesitated and asked questions.

“It gave me pause,” Dr. Caplan said. “It would be useful to put up a sign saying ‘We are going to take biometric information which will help us track you through the system. If you don’t want to do this, please see’ ” an office manager.

Other institutions that use PatientSecure, however, have instituted opt-in programs for patients.

At the Duke University Health System, patients receive brochures explaining their options, said Eliana Owens, the health system’s director of patient revenue. The center also trains staff members at registration desks to read patients a script about the opt-in process for the palm scans, she said. (Duke does not take patients’ photos.)

“They say: ‘The enrollment is optional. If you choose not to participate, we will continue to ask you for your photo ID on subsequent visits,’ ” Ms. Owens said.

Consent or not, some leading identity experts see little value in palm scans for patients right now. If medical centers are going to use patients’ biometric data for their own institutional convenience, they argue, the centers should also enhance patient privacy — by, say, permitting lower-echelon medical personnel to look at a person’s medical record only if that patient is present and approves access by having a palm scanned.

Otherwise, “you are enabling another level of danger,” said Joseph Atick, a pioneer in biometric identity systems who consults for governments, “instead of using the technology to enable another level of privacy.”

At my request, N.Y.U. medical center has deleted my palm print.
The New York Times: 666 Is Coming

Pope Benedict Calls for Worldwide Prayer Against Abortion

Pope Benedict XVI has issued what Catholic pro-life advocates are calling an unprecedented request for prayers worldwide from all pro-life people against abortion.

The head of the Catholic Church will begin Advent by celebrating a solemn “Vigil for all nascent human life” at St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, November 25th, the eve of the First Sunday of Advent, and is requesting "all diocesan bishops (and their equivalent) of every particular church preside in analogous celebrations involving the faithful in their respective parishes, religious communities, associations and movements," a communiqué  from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reported. Benedict XVI is calling on all Catholics to join in a Vigil for All Nascent Human Life, to be celebrated in local parishes and dioceses November 27th.


The call is not limited to Catholics as the Pope is asking that “all Diocesan Bishops (and their equivalent) of every particular church preside in analogous celebrations involving the faithful in their respective parishes, religious communities, associations and movements.”

Mary McClusky, the Special Projects Coordinator at the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the call is especially important at a time when attacks on the dignity and worth of human life seem to be at an all-time high.

“At this moment in history, when societies are now endorsing the killing of humans as a perceived solution to social, economic, and environmental problems, the Holy Father is reminding us of the necessity and power of prayer to protect human life,” she said. “Despite the challenge of these events being held on Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, Catholics should not miss this opportunity to pray for unborn life.”

She said the Pope’s call “may help increase awareness among family and friends about abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and other threats to children in their earliest days and weeks of life” while women who have had abortions “may be inspired to learn more, or to begin a much-needed conversation about healing from a past abortion.”

Human Life International is calling on pro-life people to join in the historic event.

“We hope that Catholics understand the historical significance of Pope Benedict’s invitation,” said Joseph Meaney, HLI’s director of international coordination.

He told LifeNews.com today: “The Holy Father for the first time in history has asked the Universal Catholic Church to gather together in a common liturgical event and pray for our preborn brothers and sisters who are being slaughtered around the world by abortion and other attacks of the culture of death.”

Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula, interim president of HLI, says Christians of all stripes can find unity in the call to prayer against abortion.

“We recognize with the Holy Father that as the assaults on human life that are accelerating around the world have evil as their root cause, the most powerful response we in the Church can make is to pray in unity for an end to the assault,” he says. “Prayer grounds us in the only Power that can ultimately defeat the one behind the culture of death, so we are grateful to be united with the Holy Father in this historic event.”

Barreiro will be present at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome with Pope Benedict to pray for the protection of human life on November 27th.

McClusky says she hopes the call will motivate pro-life people to do more and to not grow frustrated with the slow pace of change

“Many threats to human life are embedded deeply within our modern culture, and attending a vigil could remind others that God is the source of all blessings and will provide comfort and guidance in challenging times,” she said. “It is easy to become frustrated and weary in our efforts to advance protection for the unborn, support for expectant mothers, and healing for post-abortive women and men.”

“The Holy Father’s Vigil and his invitation to join with him in prayer is an important and inspiring example to all about the importance of uniting in faith to ask God’s protection and help for human life,” she said.