Feminism explained

The Procedure

The 12 Days of Winter - The Heidi Harris Show

The Holy Father's Prayer for Life

Lord Jesus, You who faithfully visit and fulfil with your Presence the Church and the history of men; You who in the miraculous Sacrament of your Body and Blood render us participants in divine Life and allow us a foretaste of the joy of eternal Life; We adore and bless you.

Prostrate before You, source and lover of Life, truly present and alive among us, we beg you:
Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life, make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb the miraculous work of the Creator, open our hearts to generously welcoming every child that comes into life.

Bless all families, sanctify the union of spouses, render fruitful their love.
Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies with the light of your Spirit, so that peoples and nations may recognise and respect the sacred nature of life, of every human life.
Guide the work of scientists and doctors, so that all progress contributes to the integral well-being of the person, and no one endures suppression or injustice.

Gift creative charity to administrators and economists, so they may realise and promote sufficient conditions so that young families can serenely embrace the birth of new children
Console the married couples who suffer because they are unable to have children and in Your goodness provide for them.

Teach us all to care for orphaned or abandoned children, so they may experience the warmth of your Charity, the consolation of your divine Heart.

Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer, in whose womb you took on our human nature, we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Saviour, the strength to love and serve life, in anticipation of living forever in You, in communion with the Blessed Trinity.

Amen.

Pope leads vigil for life

On Saturday evening, St Peter’s Basilica was the focal point for a global event, a vigil of prayer for nascent life. The first of its kind and expressly wanted by Pope Benedict XVI, the event involved the universal Church, with Catholics coming together in prayer in their homes, parishes, religious communities and cathedrals across the world.

In his homily, Pope Benedict said: “there are cultural tendencies that seek to anesthetize consciences with misleading motivations. With regard to the embryo in the womb, science itself highlights its autonomy capable of interaction with the mother, the coordination of biological processes, the continuity of development, the growing complexity of the organism. This is not an accumulation of biological material, but a new living being, dynamic and wonderfully ordered, a new unique human being”.

He also warned against the “darkening of consciences” towards the innate value of life, affirming that the unborn child “has the right not to be treated as an object of possession or something to manipulate at will, not to be reduced to a mere instrument for the benefit of others and their interests. The human person is a good in and of himself and his integral development should always be sought”.

We publish a draft Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s homily for First Vespers of the first Sunday of Advent:

Dear brothers and sisters,

With this evening's celebration, the Lord gives us the grace and joy of opening the new liturgical year beginning with its first stage: Advent, the period that commemorates the coming of God among us. Every beginning brings a special grace, because it is blessed by the Lord. In this Advent period we will once again experience the closeness of the One who created the world, who guides history and cared for us to the point of becoming a man. This great and fascinating mystery of God with us, moreover of God who becomes one of us, is what we celebrate in the coming weeks journeying towards holy Christmas. During the season of Advent we feel the Church that takes us by the hand and - in the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary - expresses her motherhood allowing us to experience the joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, who embraces us all in his love that saves and consoles.

While our hearts reach out towards the annual celebration of the birth of Christ, the Church's liturgy directs our gaze to the final goal: our encounter with the Lord in the splendour of glory. This is why we, in every Eucharist, "announce his death, proclaim his resurrection until he comes again" we hold vigil in prayer. The liturgy does not cease to encourage and support us, putting on our lips, in the days of Advent, the cry with which the whole Bible concludes, the last page of the Revelation of Saint John: "Come, Lord Jesus "(22:20).
Dear brothers and sisters, our coming together this evening to begin the Advent journey is enriched by another important reason: with the entire Church, we want to solemnly celebrate a prayer vigil for unborn life. I wish to express my thanks to all who have taken up this invitation and those who are specifically dedicated to welcoming and safeguarding human life in different situations of fragility, especially in its early days and in its early stages. The beginning of the liturgical year helps us to relive the expectation of God made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, God who makes himself small, He becomes a child, it speaks to us of the coming of a God who is near, who wanted to experience the life of man, from the very beginning, to save it completely, fully. And so the mystery of the Incarnation of the Lord and the beginning of human life are intimately connected and in harmony with each other within the one saving plan of God, the Lord of life of each and every one of us. The Incarnation reveals to us, with intense light and in an amazing way, that every human life has an incomparable, a most elevated dignity.

Man has an unmistakable originality compared to all other living beings that inhabit the earth. He presents himself as a unique and singular entity, endowed with intelligence and free will, as well as being composed of a material reality. He lives simultaneously and inseparably in the spiritual dimension and the corporal dimension. This is also suggested in the text of the First letter to the Thessalonians which was just proclaimed: "May the God of peace himself - St. Paul writes - make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ "(5:23). Therefore, we are spirit, soul and body. We are part of this world, tied to the possibilities and limits of our material condition, at the same time we are open to an infinite horizon, able to converse with God and to welcome Him in us. We operate in earthly realities and through them we can perceive the presence of God and seek Him, truth, goodness and absolute beauty. We savour fragments of life and happiness and we long for total fulfilment.

God loves us so deeply, totally, without distinction, He calls us to friendship with him, He makes us part of a reality beyond all imagination, thought and word; His own divine life. With emotion and gratitude we acknowledge the value of the incomparable dignity of every human person and the great responsibility we have toward all. " Christ, the final Adam, - says the Second Vatican Council - by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.... by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. "(Gaudium et Spes, 22).

Believing in Jesus Christ also means having a new outlook on man, a look of trust and hope. Moreover, experience itself and reason show that the human being is a subject capable of discernment, self-conscious and free, unique and irreplaceable, the summit of all earthly things, that must be recognized in his innate value and always accepted with respect and love. He has the right not to be treated as an object of possession or something to manipulate at will, not to be reduced to a mere instrument for the benefit of others and their interests. The human person is a good in and of himself and his integral development should always be sought. Love for all, if it is sincere, naturally tends to become a preferential attention to the weakest and poorest. In this vein we find the Church's concern for the unborn, the most fragile, the most threatened by the selfishness of adults and the darkening of consciences. The Church continually reiterates what was declared by the Second Vatican Council against abortion and all violations of unborn life: "from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care " (ibid., n. 51).

There are cultural tendencies that seek to anesthetize consciences with misleading motivations. With regard to the embryo in the womb, science itself highlights its autonomy capable of interaction with the mother, the coordination of biological processes, the continuity of development, the growing complexity of the organism. This is not an accumulation of biological material, but a new living being, dynamic and wonderfully ordered, a new unique human being. So was Jesus in Mary's womb, so it was for all of us in our mother’s womb. With the ancient Christian writer Tertullian we can say: " he who will be a man is already one" (Apologeticum IX, 8), there is no reason not to consider him a person from conception.
Unfortunately, even after birth, the lives of children continue to be exposed to abandonment, hunger, poverty, disease, abuse, violence or exploitation. The many violations of their rights that are committed in the world sorely hurt the conscience of every man of good will. Before the sad landscape of the injustices committed against human life, before and after birth, I make mine Pope John Paul II’s passionate appeal to the responsibility of each and every individual: " respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!"(Encyclical Evangelium vitae, 5). I urge the protagonists of politics, economic and social communications to do everything in their power to promote a culture which respects human life, to provide favorable conditions and support networks for the reception and development of life.

To the Virgin Mary, who welcomed the Son of God made man with faith, with her maternal womb, with loving care, with nurturing support and vibrant with love, we entrust our commitment and prayer in favour of unborn life . We do in the liturgy - which is the place where we live the truth and where truth lives with us - worshiping the divine Eucharist, we contemplate Christ's body, that body who took flesh from Mary by the Holy Spirit, and from her was born in Bethlehem for our salvation. Ave, verum Corpus, natum de Maria Virgine!

H/T Vatican Radio

Pope to lead worldwide pro-life vigil

Pope Benedict XVI will be celebrating a special Vespers service Saturday evening in St. Peter’s Basilica marking the beginning of Advent, in which he has called for special prayers for the protection of all human life, especially the unborn.
The Holy Father has asked that parishes, religious communities, associations and movements join him for evening prayer, in churches throughout the world.
“It’s the first time in history the Holy Father has done this,” says Joseph Meaney, the director of international coordination for Human Life International.
“It’s a wonderful time to do it,” he told Vatican Radio. It’s “the beginning of Advent, when we are thinking about the unborn Christ Child, waiting for the birth of the Christ Child – to think of all these unborn children that are also at risk around the world, because unfortunately something like a third of all pregnancies end in abortion today.” Listen to Joseph Meaney's full interview with Charles Collins:

Healthcare Waivers

H/T Michele Malkin

Pope Benedict on the Bible

Pope Benedict has written an apostolic exhortation on the Bible, Verbum Domini. An overview of the document can be found here.

The text of the document in plain text or MS Word can be found here.

H/T Opinionated Catholic

New Catholics Come Home Video

H/T: Ordinated Catholic

"Hallelujah!" at Macy's

H/T: The Deacon's Bench

Lost Moral Vocabulary - Archbishop Chaput

Repentance and renewal in the mission of catechesis

Archbishop Chaput delivered the following remarks during a tri-diocesan catechetical congress in Victoria, British Columbia on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 15 and 16, 2010.

Some of you may know the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. If you don’t, I need to spoil the ending to make my point. But I promise the story will still be worth reading.

“The Lottery” is set on a summer day in a small town in 1940s America. The people are assembling for a very old annual ritual. The ritual has something to do with imploring a good corn harvest -- but there’s no mention of any God, and no clergy anywhere in the picture.

Each person in the village lines up to draw a slip of paper from an old wooden box. Tessie Hutchinson, a young wife and mother, draws a slip with a black mark.

From that moment, the story moves quickly to its conclusion. The lottery official gives the word, and the villagers move in on Tessie. And they stone her to death.

“The Lottery” is one of the most widely read stories ever published in my country. And for good reason. It’s well told. The ending leaves you breathless. Teachers like it because it provokes sharp classroom discussions.

Or at least it used to.

A few years ago, a college writing professor, Kay Haugaard, wrote an essay about her experiences teaching “The Lottery” over a period of about two decades.

She said that in the early 1970s, students who read the story voiced shock and indignation. The tale led to vivid conversations on big topics -- the meaning of sacrifice and tradition; the dangers of group-think and blind allegiance to leaders; the demands of conscience and the consequences of cowardice.

Sometime in the mid-1990s, however, reactions began to change.

Haugaard described one classroom discussion that -- to me -- was more disturbing than the story itself. The students had nothing to say except that the story bored them. So Haugaard asked them what they thought about the villagers ritually sacrificing one of their own for the sake of the harvest.

One student, speaking in quite rational tones, argued that many cultures have traditions of human sacrifice. Another said that the stoning might have been part of “a religion of long standing,” and therefore acceptable and understandable.

An older student who worked as a nurse, also weighed in. She said that her hospital had made her take training in multicultural sensitivity. The lesson she learned was this: “If it’s a part of a person’s culture, we are taught not to judge.”

I thought of Haugaard’s experience with “The Lottery” as I got ready for this brief talk. Here’s where my thinking led me:

Our culture is doing catechesis every day. It works like water dripping on a stone, eroding people’s moral and religious sensibilities, and leaving a hole where their convictions used to be.

Haugaard’s experience teaches us that it took less than a generation for this catechesis to produce a group of young adults who were unable to take a moral stand against the ritual murder of a young woman. Not because they were cowards. But because they lost their moral vocabulary.

Haugaard’s students seemingly grew up in a culture shaped by practical atheism and moral relativism. In other words, they grew up in an environment that teaches, in many different ways, that God is irrelevant, and that good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood can’t exist in any absolute sense.

This is the culture we live in, and the catechesis is on-going. But I don’t think this new kind of barbarism – because that’s what it is; a form of barbarism -- is an inevitable process.

It’s not easy to de-moralize and strip a society of its religious sense. Accomplishing the task requires two key factors: First, it takes the aggressive, organized efforts of individuals and groups committed to undermining faith and historic Christian values. Second, it takes the indifference of persons like you and me, Christian believers.

I want to focus on the second factor, because it involves us.

Christians in my country and yours -- and throughout the West, generally -- have done a terrible job of transmitting our faith to our own children and to the culture at large.

Evidence can be found anecdotally in stories like Kay Haugaard’s. We can also see it in polls showing that religious identity and affiliation are softening. More people are claiming that they’re “spiritual,” but they have no religion.

See the entire article here.

The Awe Factor Of God - Francis Chan

We The People

Christians’ Lack of Faith Prevents Cultural Renewal

Archbishop Chaput delivered an address to the annual convention of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars on 9/26/2010. If starts:

LIFE IN THE LATE REPUBLIC:

THE CATHOLIC ROLE IN AMERICA AFTER VIRTUE

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

Archbishop of Denver

Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, 9.26.10

Exactly 70 years ago, in 1940, Father John Courtney Murray gave a series of three

college talks. For his theme, he chose the “concept of a Christian culture.” After his

death, his Jesuit brothers fused the talks into a single essay called “The Construction of a

Christian Culture.”1 It’s a modest word change. But that title – the construction of a

Christian culture – is a good place to begin our thoughts this morning.

Most people know Murray for his work on Vatican II’s Decree on Religious Liberty. In

his 1960 book We Hold These Truths – which has never gone out of print – Murray

argued the classic Catholic case for America. Like any important thinker, his work has

friends and critics. The critics respect Murray’s character and intellect. But they also

tend to see him as a victim of his own optimism and a voice of American boosterism. I

understand why. Over the years, too many people have used Murray to justify too many

strange versions of personal conscience and the roles of Church and state.

But for me, Murray’s real genius is tucked inside his words from 1940. They’re worth

hearing again. Murray said that “a profound religious truth is at the basis of democratic

theory and practice, namely the intrinsic dignity of human nature; the spiritual freedom of

the human soul; its equality as a soul with others of its kind; and its superiority to all that

does not share its spirituality.”

He said that “the task of constructing a culture is essentially spiritual, for culture has its

home in the soul.” As a result, “all man’s cultural effort is at bottom an effort at

submission to the truth and the beauty and the good that is outside him, existing in an

ordered harmony, whose pattern he must produce within his soul by conformity with it.”

These are beautiful thoughts. They’re also true. The trouble is, they bear little likeness

to our real culture in 2010. Murray spoke at a moment when the word “gay” had more

connection to joy than to sexual identity; and when the word “truth” could be used

without ambivalence or irony. Times have changed.

Read the rest here.

Pew Poll On Religion Shows Americans Are Idiots

I don't usually pull a full quote, but there is no way to otherwise pull this from Opinionated Catholic. Take the quiz, I did.

Lot of talk on how atheists know religion better than Christians in the Pew study. I don't think that is the real story. I would expert atheists that are quite vocal to know more. Example Anti Catholics know more about the Church than Catholics do etc etc.

The problem is that a lot of American are of course Christians in name only. However the real problem is that Americans on the whole would failed this religious test so badly.

Take the quiz!!

It seems by just reading the newspaper or paying attention in life most people should have scored a 14 out 15 on this.

We have huge problems in the educational system. Both secular and religious it appears.

Kids singing Gregorian Chant - Kyrie from the Missa De Angelis

H/T: The Anchoress

Take The St Thomas Aquinas Pledge!

Take The St Thomas Aquinas Pledge!

Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles has recently encouraged all US Catholics to take "The St. Francis Pledge" which basically asks us to learn about and be pro-active to combat the effects of global climate change on the less fortunate and unprotected peoples of the world. This is laudable that we as Christians do what we can to preserve and protect God's creation. BUT, in light of a recent survey showing that only 55% of American Catholics understand that the Church teaches that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Jesus and not a symbol, I think that the American Catholics would be better served by taking a pledge with a different priority. A pledge that we as Catholics learn what the Church teaches regarding the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. I call this the St. Thomas Aquinas Pledge after the saint who helped the Church to better understand the Eucharist and its importance in the lives of the faithful. Please feel free to copy, paste and post this.

I as a Catholic who has agreed to accept and obey all the teachings of the Catholic Church will commit to learning all God wishes to teach me regarding the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist. As an integral aspect of this pledge, I will seek to grow in my understanding of what the Eucharist is and what place it has in my spiritual life.

I hereby pledge to make Christ in the Eucharist the source and summit of my faith and to meditate on the mystery of his Body and Blood offered to me in the appearances of bread and wine.

I hereby pledge to study the history of the early Christians and the writings of the Church Fathers to gain an appreciation for the role of the Eucharist in the life and growth of Christendom.

I hereby pledge to study the lives of the saints who have made the Eucharist the center of their lives and to ask their intercession that I too will grow in Eucharistic amazement and wonder.

I hereby pledge to never receive Christ's body and blood unless I am in a state of grace meaning; I harbor no mortal sin as I approach the altar to receive Him. As a part of this pledge, I resolve to confess my sins to a priest at least once a month in order to be fully receptive to all the grace Jesus has for me.

I hereby pledge to make extra visits to my parish when possible to worship Him in adoration/exposition and/or to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament reposed in the Tabernacle.

I hereby pledge to share my understanding and love of the Eucharist with other Catholics and non-Catholics who may be interested in hearing why we wish to live Eucharistically centered lives.

I hereby pledge to live a life pleasing to God in profound gratitude for this most ineffable gift He has left His Church.

H/T Crossed the Tiber

Taking Back The House by Toots Sweet

A Lame Duck Congress meets Dale Peterson

Here's Why Unborn Human Beings Are as Valuable as Adult Human Beings

Archbishop Chaput - Religion, Journalism, and the New American Orthodoxy

The Witherspoon Institute has the text of Archbishop Chaput's recent address before the Religion Newswriters Association. It begins:

It’s good to be with you today. Of course, most speakers say that, but I actually mean it—for two reasons. First, I’ve been a heavy reader all my life. A lot of my reading has been, and still is, newspapers and news magazines, although now I mainly read them on my Kindle. And second, I love my country. I think there’s something wrong with a man unless, somewhere in his heart, he really loves his homeland—its people, its beauties, and its best ideals and institutions.

A free press is part of the American identity, and also one of its best institutions. I respect that. I value what journalists do for the same reason I value the importance of religious faith in American life—both in the private home and in the public square. A responsible press and a faith shaped by the God of charity and justice share two things in common: a concern for human dignity, and an interest in truth. We might define that word “truth” differently, and the differences might be serious. But an honest search for it creates a kind of maturity. And that maturity allows us to make a decent future through our choices here and now.

Freedom means that our choices matter. It also means that our mistakes have consequences. That’s why lots of people really prefer unfreedom. What many people really want is a rescue from the burden of personal responsibility. They want deliverance from the drudgery of thinking critically about themselves, their mortality, their world, and the purpose of their lives. We all struggle with these temptations. Americans as a people are no exception. So I can imagine an America without a free press. And I can imagine an America with much less religious freedom. But in either case, it would be a worse America and a disappointment to the generations that built it.

See the full article here.

Steve Breen's Cartoon

Why am I Catholic?

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version - Official

Zachary's Thoughts on Abortion!

H/T: Thoughts of a Regular Guy

Fulton Sheen

"If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates. My reason for doing this would be, that if Christ is in any one of the churches of the world today, He must still be hated as He was when He was on earth in the flesh. If you would find Christ today, then find the Church that does not get along with the world. Look for the Church that is hated by the world, as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the Church which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth. Look for the Church which is accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible, as Pilate rejected Christ because he called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church which amid the confusion of conflicting opinions, its members love as they love Christ, and respect its voice as the very voice of its Founder, and the suspicion will grow, that if the Church is unpopular with the spirit of the world, then it is unworldly, and if it is unworldly, it is other-worldly. Since it is other-worldly, it is infinitely loved and infinitely hated as was Christ Himself.…”

H/T: Fr Dwight Longenecker

I Believe - A 9/11 Tribute

H/T The Intellectual Redneck

Libera - Tallis's Canon 2009 (Edward Day）

H/T The Anchoress

The Forgotten Man

H/T Michele Malkin

Never Gonna Stand For This by Teachenor Clark

H/T Intellectual Redneck

Restoring Honor Rally- Glenn Beck Speech Highlights

Rise Up - Jeremy Hoop

I am America

Political Cartoon

"Those Voices Don't Speak for the Rest of Us"

5 Conversations/Goals for Catholic Activism

Thomas Peters of CatholicVoteAction.org posted 5 Conversations/Goals for Catholic Activism. I found it interesting and thought I would share it.

They are:

1. the responsibility to vote Catholic, and the responsibility of Catholic politicians to act Catholic in office.

2. the fact that being truly Catholic means holding and believing everything the Church teaches with authority.

3. the fact that the Church is an uncompromising defender of life, and that Catholics provide concrete support to women who are tempted to seek an abortion.

4. the fact that the Church is not anti-gay, that it loves persons with homosexual inclinations so much that it will not stand by as they ruin their lives and endanger their soul.

5. the importance of the family, that the family is the fundamental building block of society and that government must protect and provide for the traditional family.

5-year-old Savannah's Calm Call with 911

H/T JillStanek.com

Caitlin Jane- Unborn

H/T View from the Choir

11 Reasons (Not) to Vote for Democrats in November

H/T The Intellectual Redneck

OMG! What a shame. This is Our Education System

Commerating D-Day - Ronald Reagan

H/T Michelle Malkin

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
By Francis Scott Key 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

H/T USA Flag Site

Tea Party Member Stuns Crowd!

H/T Michelle Malkin

Governor Christie: Not About Teachers

H/T The Intellectual Redneck

Memorial Day - "Arlington"

H/T Michelle Malkin

History Holds the Key to Our Future

I just ran across this site hearing of it from a guest, Janine Turner, on a morning radio show. Though starting a bit late and hoping to catch up, I urge everyone to check out here. Over 90 days they will present the Constitution and Federalist Papers. Below is her introduction. You may want to read the earlier posts first.

90 in 90 = 180: History Holds the Key to Our Future

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

JANINE TURNER:

90 in 90 = 180:

History Holds the Key to Our Future

By Janine Turner

I was driving my mother’s car the other day and I commented on how small her rearview mirrors were. My rear view mirrors are rather big because, as a Texan, I drive a large SUV I use to work my ranch. As I was looking out of her rearview mirrors, I pondered, as a Constitutionalist, my new self-definition, about whether Americans have something in common with rear view mirrors. Is the traditional American view – the basis of our country, our thesis, our founding principles, our United States Constitution – diminishing in our rearview mirrors? Are we, as a country, driving away from these founding principles?

In order to be a more perfect union in today’s environment we need to be more aware. Without awareness there can be no subsequent resulting action as citizens. Trying to evaluate legislation and governmental action without knowledge of the Constitution is rather similar to being in the passenger seat as the driver drives ahead in the dark – without headlights. An enlightened people were the hope and the engine of our new Republic in the 18^th century. It is no different today.

Or maybe it is better represented as driving forward toward the results of a horrendous earthquake – an earthquake that has left a deep, uneven division. Thrust upon the divide are the clumps of dry parched land left to bake and parch in the sun – the American Republic, the America loved and cherished by many patriots of yesterday and today.

As we look into the future with an angst and a thirst for righteousness we realize we must look back in our rearview mirrors. The proper nourishment is available to cultivate the soil, to fertilize the great land of America and her people. In the rear view lays the vitamins and minerals. They are in the United States Constitution and its companion piece, The Federalist, or the Federalist Papers.

In these documents are all the answers – but solving the riddle requires reading it! We must join together in a unifying mission to become aware of what is in these great documents and to understand them. We should no longer let Washington, D.C., our representatives, the bureaucracy, or administrative officials do our thinking for us. Ignorance enables them to get away with all of the things we do not understand.

If we are to protest or approve, we must do so with a foundation of knowledge. We must educate ourselves and we must educate our children. It is like preparing for the great debate. We are either, as a nation, moving away from our Constitution, watching it minimalize in the rear view mirror, or we are turning around and driving toward it.

If we do not take action and Constitute America then we will watch as it is slowly, inch by inch, as has been done since the 20^th century, diminish in view. Like a thief in the night our Constitutional ideals are being usurped from us, politically and culturally.

But if we do a 180 and turn around, shining the headlights of our car on the Constitution, then we may set off a momentum that will shift our country back to its founding principles. A government envisioned by our forefathers – a small government with checks and balances and accountability to its people.

“If we see it, we will come.” As a nation we must turn around and turn on the headlights.

The darkness will call out to us, “But wait, the Constitution isn’t relevant today!” Is the Constitution relevant today? Well, how about Federalist paper #62 dealing with the rules of the Senate, written by James Madison,

It will be of little avail to the people, that

the laws are made by men of their own choice,

if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before

they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes, that no man who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known or less fixed.

How about words in Federalist Paper #1 written by Alexander Hamilton,

An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency

of government, will be stigmatized as the offspring

of a temper fond of power, and hostile to the

principles of liberty.

Timely are the warnings in Federalist Paper #10 by Alexander Hamilton,

Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or

of sinister designs, may by intrigue, by corruption,

or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and

then betray the interests of the people.

Relevant today? Yes!

Like a candle lighted in the window, our founding fathers words in the Constitution and the Federalist Papers are illuminating the way. They call out from their arduously designed documents and copious papers to guide us toward the safe keeping of our republic. They echo forth the call of wisdom, the ways to confining tyranny and the despotism that precedes the loss of liberty.

We the People in order to PRESERVE our union must unite in not only standing up but standing firm in our principles and our resolve to be educated patriots. Let us not let the genius of our forefathers who mutually pledged to each other, “our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor” or our Revolutionary soldiers who crossed the Delaware walking barefoot on the ice, leaving a bloodstained path, turn over in their graves.

Let us do 90 readings in 90 days – as 90 plus 90 equals 180! Let us turn around, do a 180, and seek the history that holds the key to our future. Let us read the United States Constitution and the Federalist Papers in 90 days, 5 days for the Constitution and 85 days for the 85 Federalist Papers. Read it with your children at the dinner table or before bed. It will only be about three pages a night. Let us have a national discussion one day at a time, one paper at a time, for 90 days atwww.constitutingamerica.org Let’s start on April 20^th. Let’s do 90 in 90 and do a 180 – back to the history that yields our future.

Janine Turner

April 5, 2010

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

H/T The Intellectual Redneck

Song for America

H/T JillStanek.com

Paul Ryan on the Regime in Washington

H/T The Intellectual Redneck

Great Pro-Life Video

H/T CatholicVoteAction.org

He is Risen

H/T JillStanek.com

The Stations of the Cross

Stabat Mater: Meditations for the Stations of the Cross

90 Seconds to Gov't Run Healthcare

H/T The Anchoress

The Captivity Of ‘Catholic’ Witness

See Archbishops Chaput's article entitled The Captivity Of ‘Catholic’ Witness at First Things here.

St. Joseph

A Special Prayer to St. Joseph

Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interest and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers. Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him close in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls - Pray for me.

This prayer was found in the fiftieth year of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In 1505 it was sent from the Pope to Emperor Charles when he was going into battle. Whoever shall read this prayer or hear it or keep it about themselves, shall never die a sudden death, or be drowned, nor shall poison take effect on them; neither shall they fall into the hands of the enemy, or shall be burned in any fire or shall be overpowered in battle.

Say for nine mornings for anything you may desire. It has never been know to fail, so be sure you really want what you ask.

Prayer to St. Joseph for the Unemployed

O Saint Joseph, we pray to you for those who are out of work, for those who want to earn their living or support their families.

You who are the patron of workers; grant that unemployment may vanish from our ranks; that all those who are ready to work may put their strength and abilities in serving their fellowmen and earn a just salary.

You are the patron of families; do not let those who have children to support and raise lack the necessary means. Have pity on our brothers and sisters held down in unemployment and poverty because of sickness or social disorders. Help our political leaders and captains of industry find new and just solutions. May each and every one have the joy of contributing, according to his abilities, to the common prosperity by an honorable livelihood. Grant that we may all share together in the abundant goods God has given us and that we may help underprivileged countries. Amen.

Cardinal George - Health Care Bill

See:

Cardinal George corrects the Catholic Health Association, says bill ‘must be revised’ before it gets passed

at CatholicVoteAction.org here.

Stand With Stupak

StandWithStupak.com

Catholics, Health Care, and the Senate’s Bad Bill

Please go to First Things and read an article by Archbishop Charles Chaput on the health care bill. You can find it here.

Grand Canyon Flyover

Losing our Religion

H/T The Catholic Knight

Archbishop Chaput: "The Vocation of Christians in American Public Life

Fr. Corapi and Corruption in the Church

This is great. Hitler Rail Against Pope Benedict

St. Caesarius of Arles - Sermon 18

St. Caesarius of Arles

468/470–27 August 542

Sermon 18

A SERMON OF THE BISHOP ST. AUGUSTINE ON GOOD WORKS, WICKED DESPAIR, AND THE CROW’S VOICE

( 1 ) While we admonish you rather frequently concerning good works, we know that some of us are disinclined to justice and almsgiving, but are disposed to dissipation or avarice. We almost suspect that such people do not have any fear of a future judgment. Truly, brethren, when we see careless, tepid Christians neither avoiding sin nor providing eternal rewards for themselves by good works, what remains but to suppose that they do not believe rewards will be repaid to the good and punishments meted out to the wicked by the just judgment of God? Indeed, brethren, we realize that a man in truth fears His judgment, if we see him engaged in good works. However, if men do not try to perform good works and if they pretend not to have time for reading or prayer, what advantage is it to them that they claim faith in words, when they are proved to destroy the truth by their deeds? The Apostle James says: ‘What will it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but does not have works? Can the faith save him? And if a brother or a sister be naked and in want of daily food, and one of you say to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for the body, what will it profit? So faith too, unless it has works, is dead in itself.’¹ Now, the Lord speaks to such men, rebuking all their infidelity: O incredulous men, if you do not believe what I have promised, consider what I have done. Heaven and earth did not exist; I spoke, and they were made. You, to whom I have given promises, did not exist, and you were created. Did I make you when you did not exist, only to deceive you now that you live? Therefore, listen to what I say, and believe you will receive what I have promised.

(2) It is a weak, sickly, perfidious, cowardly, disconnected, paralyzing, mean, disagreeable thought that closes the gates of the mind when daily sins are thought to be passing. One passes away today, another will pass tomorrow, and again another the next day. You keep on adding to tomorrow and another tomorrow but neglect to be converted, and do you not fear that sudden death may overtake you? Are not men suddenly carried off in death? Why do you see to it that you put off doing penance and neglect to seek divine mercy? In truth, you say: Conversion is a good thing. If it is good, let it be done at once. If it is a good thing to accept quickly, is it bad to accept now? Tell me, why do you admit it is a good thing but do not hasten to receive it? Perhaps you will tell me: God has made me secure. How did He do that? Because it is written: ‘On what day so ever the sinner and the unjust is converted, all his iniquities I shall forget.’² Behold when God made me secure. Yesterday I had ten sins, today fifteen, perhaps twenty tomorrow. Since what the Lord said is true, whenever I am converted He will forget all my past sins and all my iniquities. Why do you frighten me? God has promised me pardon, and will you make me despair? I cannot deny that God promised this; why, then, will you not be converted today? Because, if I am converted later, He has promised to forgive me more then just as He would less today. O your security! Certainly you made me secure. I see that by God’s word pardon is indeed promised to you; but who promised you tomorrow? Therefore, let each one be converted to God as He says: ‘Be ye converted, seek God; and when you have found him, let the wicked forsake his way.’³ Be converted, you who hope presumptuously.

(3) There are two vices of the human race, whereby some men perish through hope and others through despair. Now, it is no wonder that a man perishes through despair, but it is more marvelous that he does so by hope. For this reason let us see and briefly consider who is lost by hope, who through despair, and what remedy God offers to them both. A man perishes from despair when he says: I know my evil deeds, I realize my crimes; how can it be that God will forgive me for what I have done? He perishes by despair when he says: What is the good of what you say? I will do now whatever I can: I will lose whatever I fail to do. God will condemn me for one sin just as well as for many; so, if I will not have that life, I do not want to lose this one. So, why should I not follow my wishes? Why not fulfill my passions? This man is lost through despair. Another man fears the abyss of despair and begins to perish through hope. How? In the way I mentioned a little while ago. Whenever I am converted, he says, God promises to forgive me everything; I hope in His mercy, because He will pardon me all. He postpones it from day to day, and suddenly the final day of his death comes; the deferring is gone, and damnation remains.

(4) The Scriptures speak⁴ to both classes. You would perish through despair? Listen to the Lord say: ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, as much as that he be converted and live.’ You wished to die? Return and live. If God wanted you to perish, He would take you away when you were sinning. Since you have sinned so much and still live, you are invited to repentance. These words God speaks to you if you despair: ‘I desire not the death of the wicked.’ Even if you want your death, I do not. You did not make yourself, but by despair you have perished, God, however, created you when you did not exist, afterwards sought you when you were lost, found you through the Blood of His Son, and redeemed you. He Himself exclaims to you: Return from the abyss of despair. Return, because ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, as much as that he be converted and live.’ You have begun to return from the abyss of despair, but now stand as though in the middle path; I do not want you to go in the opposite direction. Do not lose confidence through despair over your sins, but do not trust in a longer life. Therefore, be converted. Tomorrow I shall be converted, he says. Why not today? What is the matter with tomorrow? Rather, what is wrong with today? I know that my life will be a long one. I am sure God did not promise that to you. Did an astrologer perhaps promise you a long life, looking for someone to perish with him?

(5) Finally, then, I say: I grant your life will be long. If it is long, let it be a good one; if it be short, let it also be good. Now, who would tolerate a long bad lunch? You do not want one, nor do you want to have a long bad dinner; do you want to have a long bad life? However, men have so little regard for their life that they refuse to have anything bad but it. Our life is our business; our reputation belongs to others. If you buy a country estate, you look for a good one. You want to marry, so you choose a good wife. When you wish sons to be born to you, you desire good ones. Lastly, to speak of the commonest things, if you buy shoes, you do not want bad ones. Yet you love a bad life? Why does your life, which is the only thing you want to be bad, offend you, with the result that among everything good you alone are bad?

(6) However, tell me, brother, do you know how long you are going to live? Or, when you read that you will receive pardon if you amend your life, do you also read anywhere there that a long life is promised to you? Did you, perchance, make an agreement with death? I grant that you will live a hundred years, and even add ten times a hundred. What will it profit? Adam himself, if he were still living today, would have lived few years, because they all had to come to an end. Therefore, be corrected, be ready, and you will not fear the last day as a thief who will enter your house when you are asleep. Therefore, listen, you who wanted to perish through despair. Listen to Scripture whenever you want to do so again. For it says: ‘l desire not the death of the wicked, as much as that he be converted and live.’ If you have been converted from despair, listen in such a way that you may return from perverse hope and be established in good hope. Hear what the Lord says⁵ to you if you hope wrongly and procrastinate from day to day: ‘Delay not to be converted to God, and defer it not from day to day.’ These are God’s words, not mine. You have not heard them from me, but along with you I hear: ‘Delay not to be converted to God.’ You, however, reply: Tomorrow, tomorrow. O crow-like word! Just as the raven sent out from the ark did not return, and has now grown old and says: Cras, cras. It is a crow-like voice: a white head, but a black heart. Cras, cras, is the voice of the crow. The raven did not return to the ark; the dove did. Therefore, let the noise of the crow perish, let the sigh of the dove be present. The one who advises you exclaims: ‘Delay not to be converted to God, and defer it not from day to day. For his wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy thee.’

(7) Now, if we reflect upon these truths with great fear and solicitude, dearly beloved, and with God’s help turn our souls to the healing of repentance and the remedies of almsgiving, we will happily come before the tribunal of Christ to be crowned, not condemned: with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and might for ever and ever. Amen.

1 James 2.14-17.

2 Cf. Ezech. 18.21,22.

3 Isa. 55.6,7.

4 Ezech. 18.32.

5 Eccli. 5.8,9.