Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday oh Mary most holy! Mother of us all ... Queen of heaven and earth. Our human capacity it too limited to fully appreciate your love and constant intercession for all your children; ...those who recognize you, those who love you, those who ignore you, those that despise you. Mary FULL OF GRACE, how else could you have ever withstood your own passion in following the Passion of your beloved Son? A mothers love like no other to her Son .. to her God and Creator! And what great bond of love at the Wedding at Cana did our dear Lord manifest His Greatness when after you said they have no wine, He answered "Woman, what is that to Me? My hour is not yet come." Yet, for love of you and that He heard you tell the waiters to do what ever HE tells you ... His Love for You fulfilled your request, turning water into wine as His first public miracle. 

How pitiful those that don't call on you to intercede for them to your Beloved Son and our Beloved Lord and Savior. The human bond between mother and son is very strong  ... a mother's love is precious, special and gives ALL. How much more so for you and Jesus? We cannot comprehend the great love and bond that goes beyond human understanding, but in Faith, we come to you most Pure and Immaculate Mother, to take our pleas and trials to our Merciful Lord. Please tuck them softly close to His most Sacred Heart; there He will consider with mercy and love what His dear Mother asks of Him. 

You have come to us so many times throughout the centuries .. always with the same message ... PRAY, PRAY, PRAY and do penance! We know that the rosary has stopped wars, I pray that more pick up their rosaries in today's world which need to pray the Scriptures now, more than ever. Help us oh Mother most holy to deepen our devotion to you who only seeks to lead us to Jesus always! Help us to beg for the grace to fully embrace the Divine Will of our glorious Triune God and stand strong in the TRUTH that IS Jesus regardless of public opinion.

Who could be better than you dear Mother asking Jesus on our behalf to help us, make us stronger in Faith, accept our trials in union with His Passion and above all, to help increase our human capacity to know Him better, love Him more and trust and serve Him always!
So Happy Birthday Immaculate Mother, ever pure ..... and I thank you for your great love for humanity, especially for those that ignore your constant merciful love that intercedes for all of us night and day before the Lord our God! 

All that I am .. all that I have;  to Jesus through Mary, now and throughout eternity! 

 Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows
Oh my afflicted Mother! Queen of martyrs and of sorrows, thou didst so bitterly weep over thy Son, who died for my salvation; but what will thy tears avail me if I am lost? By the merit, then, of thy sorrows, obtain me true contrition for my sins, and a real amendment of life, together with constant and tender compassion for the sufferings of Jesus and thy dolours. And if Jesus and thou, being so innocent, have suffered so much for love of me, obtain that at least I, who am deserving of hell, may suffer something for your love. "Oh Lady," will I say with St. Bonaventure, "if I have offended thee, in justice wound my heart; if I have served thee, I now ask wounds for my reward. It is shameful to me to see my Lord Jesus wounded, and thee wounded with Him, and myself without a wound." In fine, Oh my Mother, by the grief thou didst experience in seeing thy Son bow down His head and expire on the cross in the midst of so many torments, I beseech thee to obtain me a good death. Ah, cease not, Oh advocate of sinners, to assist my afflicted soul in the midst of the combats in which it will have to engage on its great passage from time to eternity. And as it is probable that I may then have lost my speech, and strength to invoke thy name and that of Jesus, who are all my hope, I do so now; I invoke thy Son and thee to succor me in that last moment; and I say, Jesus and Mary, to you I commend my soul. Amen.

There Is No Such Thing as Football Fans Who Hate Football

Fr. John Hollowell: Agreeing with the Holy Father

“The Holy Father, during a recent Angelus address, said that if a Catholic doesn’t have the Faith anymore, it would be more honest to leave.  (Courageous Priest posted it Here.)
This confirms for me something I taught my students the past few years at Ritter – the idea that I have more respect for people who have thought through the issues and leave the Church than I do for the people who disagree with the Church on every conceivable issue of importance, but don’t do the intellectually honest thing and leave.

I’ve said many times I’d much rather talk to an atheist than a cafeteria Catholic because while an atheist has taken false premises to their true conclusion, a cafeteria Catholic has taken true premises through to false conclusions while also lacking the courage to ACT on those false conclusions.  Is there anything more illogical than that “catholics” who hate the Church?  There is no such thing as Twinkie fans who hate Twinkies, no such thing as Buddhists who hate Buddhism, and no such thing as football fans who hate football.

I’m glad to see the Pope confirm something I’ve felt for a long time – if people don’t like the Church, they should do the intellectually honest thing and leave.”

Media Strikes Back After Dirty Harry Dares To Mock Obama

Newsflash: Obama can't take a joke.
But we already knew that.

For four long years we've waited, hoped and prayed that some young comic would break free of the politically correct demands of The State and mock Obama the way all presidents and all people in power should be mocked. But for four long years (with a few exceptions) all we've seen instead are cowardly toadies of The State: Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Chris Rock, the cast of "Saturday Night Live"…

Since Obama won the presidency, comedy has pretty much gone straight to hell as our Entertainment Overlords morphed into pathetic lapdogs to The State; begging for scraps of attention and affection from Obama, and in the process becoming stale, lazy, dull, predictable, painfully unfunny, and like a needy poodle -- more than a little annoying.

Who would've ever thought that one of the men who would display enough backbone and "edge" to finally take it to Obama with wicked mockery on about 30 million live television screens would be 82 year-old Clint Eastwood?

Once we learned Eastwood was the night's mystery guest, no one knew what to expect. And anyone who took a guess most certainly didn’t guess that the Oscar-winning American icon would use his opportunity to relentlessly and hilariously mock Barack Obama in front of the entire free world.

You can watch the highlights here:

It was glorious! And everyone I've talked to who was in the hall absolutely loved it.

Eastwood hit Obama in every sweet spot we've been waiting for him to get hit on: The incompetence; the lies; the empty, pretentious rhetoric; the inexperience; and that roaring blowhard of a moron Obama chose to be a heartbeat away.  

Oh, and the empty chair. Other than an empty suit, there is no sharper metaphor.

Eastwood also made one of the very best points of the night: WE own this country, and when someone doesn't do the job "we have to let them go."

The media, naturally, is furious. They don’t like to see Their Precious One mocked and they also understand the power of mockery -- which is why they keep Stewart and Colbert on such a tight leash. This is why the media has already written 25 stories (5 from Politico) mocking Eastwood.

Had Eastwood said the things the media likes to hear with the same nervousness and hesitation, they would've called him wizened and seasoned. But because he mocked Their Precious One, suddenly he's some kind of embarrassment.

And now Politico, Ben Smith and CNN are all talking about how they intend to use Eastwood as way to overwhelm Mitt Romney's speech in the coming days.

Like they wouldn't have found another reason.

All I can say in response is: Go to hell you Obama-shilling crybabies. Eastwood showed more grit and honestly in those few minutes than you water carriers have during your entire propaganda-for-the-collective careers.

What Eastwood did tonight was funnier, fresher, edgier,  and braver than anything those comedy cowards Chris Rock, Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert have done in 15 years.

82 years-old, and Dirty Harry is still pissing all the right people off.

My hero.

Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC

Should You Also Go Away?

From Pope Benedict’s Wednesday Audience:

Dear brothers and sisters!

In the past few Sundays we have meditated on the “Bread of Life” discourse that Jesus pronounced in the synagogue of Capernaum after feeding thousands of people with five loaves and two fishes. Today, the Gospel presents the disciples’ reaction to that speech, a reaction that Christ Himself knowingly provoked. First of all, John the Evangelist – who was present along with the other Apostles – reports that “from that time many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him” (Jn 6:66). Why? Because they did not believe the words of Jesus when He said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever” (cf. Jn 6:51-54). This revelation, as I have said, remained incomprehensible to them, because they understood it in a material sense, while in these words was foretold the Paschal Mystery of Jesus, in which He would give Himself for the salvation of the world: the new presence in the Holy Eucharist.

Seeing that many of His disciples were leaving, Jesus addressed the Apostles, saying: “Will you also go away?” (Jn 6:67). As in other cases, it is Peter who replied on behalf of the Twelve: “Lord, to whom shall we go? – and we too can reflect: to whom shall we go? – You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and know that You are the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:68-69). On this passage we have a beautiful commentary of St. Augustine, who says in one of his homilies on John 6: “Do you see how Peter, by the grace of God, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has understood? Why did he understand? Because he believed. You have the words of eternal life. You give us eternal life by offering your risen body and your blood, your very self. And we have believed and understood. He does not say we have understood and then we believed, but we believed and then we understood. We have believed in order to be able to understand; if, in fact, we wanted to understand before believing, we would not be able either to understand or to believe. What have we believed and what have we understood? That You are the Christ, the Son of God, that is, that You are that very eternal life, and that You give in Your flesh and blood only that which You are” (Commentary on the Gospel of John, 27, 9). So Saint Augustine said in a homily to his faithful people.

Finally, Jesus knew that even among the twelve apostles there was one that did not believe: Judas. Judas could have left, as many of the disciples did; indeed, he would have left if he were honest. Instead he remained with Jesus. He did not remain because of faith, or because of love, but with the secret intention of taking vengeance on the Master. Why? Because Judas felt betrayed by Jesus, and decided that he in turn would betray Him. Judas was a Zealot, and wanted a triumphant Messiah, who would lead a revolt against the Romans. Jesus had disappointed those expectations. The problem is that Judas did not go away, and his most serious fault was falsehood, which is the mark of the devil. This is why Jesus said to the Twelve: “One of you is a devil” (John 6.70). We pray to the Virgin Mary, help us to believe in Jesus, as St. Peter did, and to always be sincere with Him and with all people.

Medjugorje Ruling will continue into 2013

Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo

Contrary to a previous statement, the Vatican Commission on Medjugorje will not finish its work this year, but rather in 2013, a Bosnian news portal quotes an allegedly well-informed source. More conversations are required. Commission members stayed in Medjugorje last Spring

 

Medjugorje will remain under investigation by the Vatican into 2013. The Commission formed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and since then headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini will not finish its work this year as previously stated, the Bosnian news portal Oslobodjenje learns.

“The International Commission for the study of the phenomenon of Medjugorje will certainly not finish their work this year, claims a well-informed souce close to the work of the Commission” the online media reports.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini heads
the Medjugorje Commission

The canceling of expectations that the Vatican Commission should finish before the end of 2012 comes in response to a statement from Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo. On February 14 the Cardinal, a member of the Commission himself, told a press conference in Rome that the Commission had to finish this year. However:

“There is still a lot of conversations with people who could contribute quality contents to the Commission’s work” Oslobodjenje quotes the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Based on what has already been learned about the work of the Commission, our source believes that  work could be completed in 2013″ the news portal adds.

All Commission meetings have taken place in Rome

Oslobodjenje further writes that, over the past two years, the Vatican Commission has met “a dozen times, each time in Rome.”

“However, the Commission also works in the field, and therefore some members of the Commission stayed in Medjugorje last Spring” the Bosnian news portal learns.

The Commission will submit its work to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. From here, it will be turned over to the Pope who has the final saying.

Bishop Jenky Urges Faithful To Turn To Mary!

Invoke Our Most Holy Mother In These Dark And Dangerous Times!

 

My Dear Brothers and Sisters:

I hope that over my 10 years as your bishop, my love for Our Lady, as has yours, has been abundantly clear: I have convoked a number of Rosary Congresses, declared a Year of the Rosary, dedicated a Festival Letter to our Lady as well as countless homilies and talks, I asked that her image as our Mother of Perpetual Help be enshrined in our parishes and schools, even as I re-consecrated our entire diocese to her patronage when I solemnly enthroned her icon in our Cathedral.

I again turn to her and I ask you to do the same.

It has never been easy to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. In fact, our Savior warns that the world will hate us if we love Him. The attacks of this world, the flesh and devil seem particularly ferocious in this current moment. Several months ago, I asked that we not lose sight of the spiritual nature of this battle when I directed that the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel should be invoked at every Sunday Mass for the protection of the Catholic Church in America. I now ask us to re-double our spiritual efforts through devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

The traditional 30-day consecration could very appropriately begin in our schools and families in early September in order to culminate on the Feast of the Holy Rosary on Oct. 5.

The Immaculate Mother of God is the Patroness of the United States and our own Local Church. The Pope has personally consecrated the world to her protection, and that invocation has been renewed by the bishops of our country, as I have done as well for our diocese following the example of Archbishop Schlarman. I encourage each of our parishes, schools, and families to consider a similar devotion to Our Lady. We turn to her to protect our country, to guide our leaders, and to turn our hearts to her Son.There are many ways to grow in devotion to our Lady. The scriptural meditation of the Rosary is perhaps the finest. Likewise, there are many methods of Marian Consecration. Through a generous donor, I am happy to make available copies of “33 Days to Morning Glory” by Father Michael Gaitly, MIC, to our parishes, schools, CCD and adult education programs. These books are free but supplies are limited and are available “first come.” I have asked the sisters in the diocesan museum and the Sheen Foundation to coordinate distribution. You may pick up the books anytime during office hours after Aug. 16.

by: The Catholic Post

my note: Please visit http://www.myconsecration.org for FREE materials to make the St. Louis deMontfort Consecration that is renewed each year. These folks work tirelessly spreading devotion to our blessed compassionate Mother ... She IS our recourse and hope ... pleading with her beloved Son always for her children on earth. That all be saved and none be lost. Jesus honored His mother, do we dare do less?
 

Baltimore Archbishop: Catholic Voters Can’t Vote for a Candidate Who Stands for an Intrinsic Evil

From the Knights of Columbus annual convention in Anaheim, California, Baltimore archbishop William E. Lori says that “this is a big moment for Catholic voters to step back from their party affiliation.”

For Catholic voters in November, Lori advises, “The question to ask is this: Are any of the candidates of either party, or independents, standing for something that is intrinsically evil, evil no matter what the circumstances? If that’s the case, a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person.”

At the convention this week, the message wasn’t just coming from Lori, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ new committee on religious liberty, but also from a letter conveying greetings from Pope Benedict XVI, commending the Knights and their work, specifically in defense of religious liberty. The Knights have been known to get papal encouragement, but this implicit comment on a contentious political issue is not part of the routine, reflecting what the letter calls the “unprecedented gravity” of the current situation.

“At a time when concerted efforts are being made to redefine and restrict the exercise of the right to religious freedom, the Knights of Columbus have worked tirelessly to help the Catholic community recognize and respond to the unprecedented gravity of these new threats to the Church’s liberty and public moral witness,” Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone wrote in the letter to the Knights, the largest lay Catholic organization in the United States, no doubt referring to the fight over the HHS contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing-drug mandate that has Catholic diocese, universities, and even businessmen suing the federal government to protect their religious-liberty rights. Cardinal Bertone continued: “By defending the right of all religious believers, as individual citizens and in their institutions, to work responsibly in shaping a democratic society inspired by their deepest beliefs, values and aspirations, your Order has proudly lived up to the high religious and patriotic principles which inspired its founding.”

“The challenges of the present moment are in fact yet another reminder of the decisive importance of the Catholic laity for the advancement of the Church’s mission in today’s rapidly changing social context,” the letter continues.

Citing papal comments to the bishops from the United States in Rome in January, the letter went on: “As he stated to the Bishops of the United States earlier this year, the demands of the new evangelization and the defense of the Church’s freedom in our day call for ‘an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-a-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society’ (Ad Limina Address, 19 January 2012).”

“Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion,” the pope also said in that January address. “Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.”

“Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs?” the pope, perhaps prophetically, asked during his 2008 visit to Washington, D.C.

That this papal message would be sent this month to a lay organization, in particular, is “very significant,” Archbishop Lori emphasizes. “If we are going to transform the culture from within, which we are called to do, and defend our basic freedoms,” it will be primarily the role of the laity, Lori tells me.

“The bishops are teachers,” he said, but political leadership “really needs to come from the laity as citizens and mothers and fathers and voters.”

When it comes to election advice for Catholics: “The reality is we are defending something that transcends party. The defense of religious liberty,” he said, “should not be a Democratic or Republican issue.” For a Catholic voter, this should be “fundamental, as people of faith.”

And not just for Catholics: “Many in the media have portrayed the HHS-mandate fight as a fight about contraception—as well as sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs … but this really is a fight about religious liberty,” Archbishop Lori says. “And you can see that as Evangelicals, Mormons, and Orthodox Jews have joined us in defense. They realize if the government can do this to the Catholic Church, they could be forced to violate their consciences too. The Evangelicals include those at Wheaton College, which recently joined a lawsuit that the Catholic University of America had filed in opposition to the mandate, over [its] abortion-inducing drug aspect.”

In an interview last month, Philip Ryken, the president of Wheaton College, told me that “even if the HHS mandate had no effect on Evangelical institutions, it would still be important to me to be supportive of Roman Catholic institutions if there were invitations and opportunities to be supportive.” He echoed the immediate reaction of New York’s archbishop and president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, to the so-called accommodation that the president misleadingly touted this Wednesday afternoon in Denver, after being introduced by feminist superstar Sandra Fluke.

“The most disturbing thing to me,” explains Ryken, who was a Presbyterian pastor in Philadelphia before becoming president of Wheaton, “was the government’s provision of a ‘safe harbor’ that would defer for one year the implementation of the mandate—and presenting that as somehow being a reasonable accommodation of religious liberty. I found that offensive—the hope that we would change our religious convictions over the course of the intervening year, or that religious convictions had somehow been honored if you violated them later rather than sooner.” “It was clear to me,” Ryken adds, “that there was no understanding of the true nature of religious liberty in the administration.”

“Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights,” now Cardinal Dolan said.

Cardinal Dolan joined the papal greeting in Anaheim, encouraging the continued witness of laity in the defense of religious liberty. Alongside him was the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton, who said: “Our call at this moment is to affirm the right of religion to be active in the public square … to defend the freedom of people of faith and of religious institutions to act in accordance with their beliefs and nature; to maintain healthy church state relations; to understand conscience correctly and to form it according to objective truth; and to protect the right to conscientious objection. Believers are summoned now to stand up for their faith, even if they must suffer for doing so.”

Asked about the controversy brewing over an invitation extended by Cardinal Dolan to President Obama to speak, alongside Governor Mitt Romney, at the annual Alfred E. Smith Foundation dinner, a fundraiser for charities in New York, Archbishop Lori urged Catholics and other concerned citizens to “keep our eyes on the ball.” The invitation, and his presence, “do not constitute an endorsement,” Archbishop Lori tells me. But he was ready to make an endorsement himself: “I don’t think there is a clearer voice in the United States about the sanctity of life and religious liberty than Cardinal Dolan … [he's] a very clear, clarion voice…. Don’t get distracted.”

by Kathryn Jean Lopez

St. Lawrence MARTYR AND DEACON

Since the fourth century St. Lawrence has been one of the most honoured martyrs of the Roman Church. Constantine the Great was the first to erect a little oratory over his burial-place, which was enlarged and beautified by Pope Pelagius II (579-90). Pope Sixtus III (432-40) built a large basilica with three naves, the apse leaning against the older church, on the summit of the hill where he was buried. In the thirteenth century Honorius III made the two buildings into one, and so the basilica of San Lorenzo remains to this day. Pope St. Damasus (366-84) wrote a panegyric in verse, which was engraved in marble and placed over his tomb. Two contemporaries of the last-named pope, St. Ambrose of Milan and the poet Prudentius, give particular details about St. Lawrence's death. Ambrose relates (De officiis min. xxviii) that when St. Lawrence was asked for the treasures of the Church he brought forward the poor, among whom he had divided the treasure, in place of alms; also that when Pope Sixtus II was led away to his death he comforted Lawrence, who wished to share his martyrdom, by saying that he would follow him in three days. The saintly Bishop of Milan also states that St. Lawrence was burned to death on a grid-iron (De offic., xli). In like manner, but with more poetical detail, Prudentius describes the martyrdom of the Roman deacon in his hymn on St. Lawrence ("Peristephanon", Hymnus II).

The meeting between St. Lawrence and Pope Sixtus II, when the latter was being led to execution, related by St. Ambrose, is not compatible with the contemporaneous reports about the persecution of Velarian. The manner of his execution—burning on a red-hot gridiron—also gives rise to grave doubts. The narrations of Ambrose and Prudentius are founded rather on oral tradition than on written accounts. It is quite possible that between the year 258 and the end of the fourth century popular legends may have grown up about this highly venerated Roman deacon, and some of these legends have been preserved by these two authors. We have, in any case, no means of verifying from earlier sources the details derived from St. Ambrose and Prudentius, or of ascertaining to what extent such details are supported by earlier historical tradition. Fuller accounts of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence were composed, probably, early in the sixth century, and in these narratives a number of the martyrs of the Via Tiburtina and of the two Catacombs of St. Cyriaca in agro Verano and St. Hippolytius were connected in a romantic and wholly legendary fashion. The details given in these Acts concerning the martyrdom of St. Lawrence and his activity before his death cannot claim any credibility. However, in spite of this criticism of the later accounts of the martyrdom, there can be no question that St. Lawrence was a real historical personage, nor any doubt as to the martyrdom of that venerated Roman deacon, the place of its occurrence, and the date of his burial. Pope Damasus built a basilica in Rome which he dedicated to St. Lawrence; this is the church now known as that of San Lorenzo in Damaso. The church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, also dedicated to this saint, still exists. The feast day of St. Lawrence is kept on 10 August. He is pictured in art with the gridiron on which he is supposed to have been roasted to death.

Feast Day: August 10 

Born: 225, Osca, Hispania (now modern-day Spain) 

Died: August 10, 258, Rome 

Major Shrine: Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura in Rome 

Patron of: Rome, comedians, librarians, students, tanners, chefs

Prayers again please

I have taken the site down for a bit cuz I'm likely on the way to the hospital later on (It's Saturday morning now, 8/4/12). I don't have anything pending and I don't want anyone to order anything if I'm not going to be able to complete it in a timely fashion. I believe my thyroid has caused a heart arrhythmia, which I'm hoping can be treated with medication, though I may be in the hospital for a couple days, not sure. So ... site will be back up when I'm back home. Your kind prayers appreciated ... The Perfect & Holy Divine Will be done in all things! I trust and rely on Jesus :)
Blessings!
~Mary