Sunday, June 12, 2011

Face the Truth Tour - Chicago Area


Face the Truth Tour - Summer 2011

This is such an important issue. I urge everyone to attend any of the locations listed below. I will attend Naperville on July 9, and Daley Plaza on July 12. If you are unable to attend any of these events, I humbly ask you to pray for the participants and the unborn babies.

Tom, S.F.O.

From the Face the Truth web page sponsored by Pro-Life Action League.

Across the country, babies—and their parents—are being saved from abortion by Face the Truth—a bold and effective pro-life initiative that exposes the truth about abortion:

We Need Your Help To Save Babies

Throughout the year, pro-life activists all around the country are conducting Face the Truth tours. Holding pictures of beautiful unborn babies and huge graphic signs of aborted babies, we line the roads at major intersections, to show Americans the truth about abortion.

We need you to help show people that abortion is the deliberate taking of an unborn child's life. If you believe that abortion is murder, this is your chance to stand up and be counted. Join us this summer as we line the roads at major intersections to show our fellow Americans the ugly truth about abortion.

Go Forth and Teach

Jesus told His followers to "go forth and teach." Face the Truth responds to the Gospel call by teaching the truth about abortion. The truth is that abortion kills innocent human beings, made in the image and likeness of God. That is why we must take the pro-life message to the streets of our cities.


We are living in the midst of a national atrocity. Since the 1973 Supreme Court abortion decisions, over forty million children have been destroyed before they were born. Our signs depicting prenatal life and the aborted child reveal the hidden victims of this atrocity.

While the signs are displayed along the roadways, other volunteers distribute literature to passing motorists and pedestrians to help them understand the gravity of the Culture of Death.

See the article and a video at the Pro-Life Action League page at: http://www.prolifeaction.org/truth/

2001 Summer Truth Tour

FRIDAY, JULY 8
JOLIET AREA
9:00-10:30 Joliet
W. Jefferson Street and Larkin Avenue
11:30-1:00 Shorewood
Brook Forest Avenue and Black Road
3:00-4:30 Joliet
Route 59 and Caton Farm Road

SATURDAY, JULY 9
WESTERN SUBURBS
9:00-10:30 Aurora: Planned Parenthood
Eola Road and New York Street
11:30-1:00 Naperville
Washington Street and Ogden Avenue
3:00-4:30 Aurora: Fox Valley Mall
Route 59 and New York Street

SUNDAY, JULY 10
DAY OFF

MONDAY, JULY 11
DOWNTOWN CHICAGO
Note different start and end times this day.
9:30-11:00 Chicago: Kennedy Overpasses
Madison Street and Desplaines Street
11:30-1:00 Chicago: Daley Plaza
Washington Street and Clark Street
3:30-5:30 Chicago: Union and Ogilvie Stations
Madison Street and Wacker Drive

TUESDAY, JULY 12
DOWNTOWN CHICAGO
Note different start and end times this day.
9:30-11:00 Chicago: Buckingham Fountain
Lake Shore Drive and Jackson Boulevard
11:30-1:00 Chicago: Art Institute
Michigan Avenue and Monroe Street
3:30-5:30 Chicago: Union Station
Adams Street and Wacker Drive

WEDNESDAY, JULY 13
WESTERN SUBURBS
9:00-10:30 Elmhurst
Route 83 and St. Charles Road
11:30-1:00 Westmont
Cass Avenue and Ogden Avenue
3:00-4:30 Wheaton
Butterfield Road and Naperville Road

THURSDAY, JULY 14
NORTHWEST SUBURBS
9:00-10:30 Lake Zurich
Rand Road and Main Street
11:30-1:00 Palatine
Rand Road and Dundee Road
3:00-4:30 Arlington Heights
Rand Road and Arlington Heights Road

FRIDAY, JULY 15
SOUTH SIDE
9:00-10:30 Chicago: Washington Heights
99th Street and Halsted Street
11:30-1:00 Chicago: Avalon Park
79th Street and Stony Island Avenue
3:00-4:30 Chicago: Pilsen
Cermak Road and Ashland Avenue

SATURDAY, JULY 16
NEAR NORTH SUBURBS
9:00-10:30 Niles
Milwaukee Avenue and Golf Road
11:30-1:00 Evanston
Davis Street and Ridge Avenue
3:00-4:30 Lincolnwood
Touhy Avenue and McCormick Boulevard

Jerusalem = Heaven


Canterbury Tales has an interesting post entitled "14 Biblical Names for Jerusalem (and How to Read the Psalms like a Catholic)"

Excerpt:
Saint Paul identifies the communion of saints in Heaven as "Jerusalem" and as our mother: “But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother” (Galatians 4:26, D-R).

This is another reason why Catholics refer to the Church as the New Jerusalem and as Holy Mother Church. When Catholic priests, monks, and nuns chant the 150 Psalms of David, they often mentally apply the meaning of "Heaven" or "Church" to those passages that refer to "Jerusalem." Saint Paul's use of allegory in Galatians serves as an interpretive key to reading the Old Testament in a spiritual way.
Read the rest here.

Korea's Got Talent - Sung-bong Choi


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Great News - Divine Office for Android




Many of us are familiar with the Divine Office Online, http://divineoffice.org/

I while ago they came up with an iPhone/iPad application.

Well I'm happy to tell you there is now an app for Android phones.

You can download it to your phone from:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.surgeworks.divineoffice&fea...

It has a one time charge of $14.99. I'm about to download it for
myself. I will review and post as soon as I can.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Our Lady, Star of the Sea


Our Lady, Star of the Sea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Our Lady, Star of the Sea is an ancient title for the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. The words Star of the Sea are a translation of the Latin title Stella Maris, first reliably used with relation to the Virgin Mary in the ninth century. The title was used to emphasize Mary's role as a sign of hope and as a guiding star for Christians. Under this title, the Virgin Mary is believed to intercede as a guide and protector of those who travel or seek their livelihoods on the sea. This aspect of the Virgin has led to Our Lady, Star of the Sea, being named as patroness of the Catholic missions to seafarers, the Apostleship of the Sea, and to many coastal churches being named Stella Maris or Mary, Star of the Sea. This devotion towards Our Lady with this ancient title is very popular throughout the Catholic world.

The title most probably has its origin in the Biblical passage 1 Kings 18:41-45, which speaks of a cloud above the sea, no bigger than a man's hand, which is seen from Mount Carmel. The tiny cloud's scriptural significance is as the sign of hope that heralds the end of a long drought.

A similar message is reflected in another title of Mary, which appears in the official Litany of the Virgin, Morning Star. Both titles refer to Mary as a symbol of hope and as a foreshadowing of the imminent coming of Jesus. A combination of the two themes produces Star of the Sea.

Around the year 400 Saint Jerome interpreted the Hebrew name of Mary, Miriam, as "stilla maris," or a drop of the sea. It has been suggested as an alternative origin for the term that this may have been miscopied as stella maris. The first reliable use of the term stella maris that is still extant is in the writings of Paschasius Radbertus in the ninth century, who wrote of Mary, Star of the Sea, as a guide to be followed on the way to Christ "lest we capsize amid the storm-tossed waves of the sea." At this time too the plainsong hymn Ave Maris Stella (Hail, Star of the Sea), became increasingly popular.

In the twelfth-century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: "If the winds of temptation arise; If you are driven upon the rocks of tribulation look to the star, call on Mary; If you are tossed upon the waves of pride, of ambition, of envy, of rivalry, look to the star, call on Mary. Should anger, or avarice, or fleshly desire violently assail the frail vessel of your soul, look at the star, call upon Mary."

Pope Pius XII in his encyclical, Doctor Mellifluus, also quoted Bernard of Clairvaux in saying; Mary ... is interpreted to mean 'Star of the Sea.' This admirably befits the Virgin Mother.. (for) as the ray does not diminish the brightness of the star, so neither did the Child born of her tarnish the beauty of Mary's virginity.

Hail Star of the Sea
Hail, thou Star of ocean,
Portal of the sky!
Ever Virgin Mother
Of the Lord most high!

Oh! By Gabriel's Ave,
Uttered long ago,
Eva's name reversing,
Stablish peace below.

Break the captive's fetters;
Light on blindness pour;
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.

Show thyself a Mother;
Offer Him our sighs,
Who for us Incarnate
Did not thee despise.

Virgin of all virgins!
To thy shelter take us:
Gentlest of the gentle!
Chaste and gentle make us.

Still, as on we journey,
Help our weak endeavor;
Till with thee and Jesus
We rejoice forever.

Through the highest heaven,
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son, and Spirit,
One same glory be. Amen.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Saturday, April 2, 2011

We've Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers

Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal posted a good article which I recommend. It starts:

We've Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers

More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined

If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?

Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods. Consider California, which has the highest budget deficit in the history of the states. The not-so Golden State now has an incredible 2.4 million government employees—twice as many as people at work in manufacturing. New Jersey has just under two-and-a-half as many government employees as manufacturers. Florida's ratio is more than 3 to 1. So is New York's.

Even Michigan, at one time the auto capital of the world, and Pennsylvania, once the steel capital, have more government bureaucrats than people making things. The leaders in government hiring are Wyoming and New Mexico, which have hired more than six government workers for every manufacturing worker.

Now it is certainly true that many states have not typically been home to traditional manufacturing operations. Iowa and Nebraska are farm states, for example. But in those states, there are at least five times more government workers than farmers. West Virginia is the mining capital of the world, yet it has at least three times more government workers than miners. New York is the financial capital of the world—at least for now. That sector employs roughly 670,000 New Yorkers. That's less than half of the state's 1.48 million government employees.


Read the rest here.