I'll answer a question with a question, two questions in fact. Was it wrong for Catholics to disobey the pope when he said everyone should get the COVID jab? Were Catholics who refused to obey the pope challenging the authority of Holy Mother Church?
Simple answer to both questions: NO! NO! HELL NO!
My daily spiritual reading for several months has included a few pages from the wonderful book, The Life and Glories of St. Joseph. I never realized how much the Church knows about this silent saint of the Scriptures. The Fathers of the Church and the Mystics all cast light on St. Joseph giving us a stunning portrait of his life and virtues. As patron of the universal Church and the "pillar of families," St. Joseph offers us his powerful intercession. All we have to do is ask for it.
Here's a brief thought about this great and powerful saint from the book which I heartily recommend if you want to know more about him.:
I can't tell you how many people lambasted me for not drinking the COVID Kool-Aid. "You don't care if people die!" I heard numerous times when I said I wouldn't get the jabbed and wouldn't wear a mask. Just about everything mandated was worse than useless, and made the situation worse. Masking and social distancing, staying inside, closing schools, gyms, the beaches and other outdoor sites was stupid!
Are you a gardener? Do you love to plant flowers and vegetables? Do you ever dig in the dirt thinking about all the gardens in the Bible? God obviously loves gardens. He created the Garden of Eden and formed the man from its rich, fertile soil. (Kind of makes you think of the expression "older than dirt" doesn't it?) Jesus spent many hours in the Garden of Gethsemane praying. I wonder what that garden was like? When he was there in the Spring and Summer what scents filled the air? What bird calls provided background music for his meditation? What plants grew after being watered by His blood?
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| Jonathan Emord: the right choice for Virginia |
We have two terrible senators in Virginia, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. They are both extremist liberals who think killing babies and cheerleading for LGBT and transgender insanity are virtues. Tim Kaine is up for re-election this November. The GOP primary is June 18th and we have a chance to make a real difference by making Jonathan Emord the GOP candidate. LET'S DO IT!
There's a hoax going around the internet that the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain uses lab meat for their chicken. Not true! It made me curious about the policies of the chain. Is someone targeting them because of their views?
First let's look at the hoax which is pretty disgusting. If you've seen it you'll recognize it:
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| Who is she who comes forth as the morning rising...terrible as an army set in battle array? |
When you think of conquerors who comes to mind? Alexander the Great? George Washington? Julius Caesar? Constantine? Napoleon? Genghis Kahn? Charlemagne? The Conquistadores? Attila the Hun?
We think of some of these warriors with respect and others with horror. What does it mean to be a conqueror and what is the greatest victory over defeat?
The answer came to me this morning in The Imitation of Mary:
Of what value are all the heroes the word admires, as compared with the great men religion produces through the practice of virtue?
It is a more spendid thing to conquer one's own passions than to conquer nations.
It is much less difficult to conquer others than to conquer oneself.
The true Christian is not the kind of hero who owes his heroism to circumstances; he is not the accidental hero of a passing hour but a hero throughout a lifetime.
His glory is that he overcomes the obstacles in his path; his goal is to possess God and find rest in Him. Can there be a greater honor than to serve God and belong to Him? "To serve God is to rule."
Who is the greatest human conqueror in history? Our Lady. Let us walk in her footsteps which lead straight to Jesus!
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recoourse to thee.
When the world is in a mess, and what a mess we're suffering today, it's tempting to be discouraged and walk around like the character in the old L'il Abner comic strip with the black cloud over his head. He jinxed everybody around him. Well, give him a pitchfork, horns, and a tail and you have our nemesis who does, indeed, want to turn our gold into straw and our wine into water. Satan is the great inverter. Like Rumpelstiltskin he wants everybody including, not just our firstborn, but us and our children too for an eternity in his doomed kingdom. The joy of laughter and our words of thanksgiving to God make him howl in rage. He wants us to be dismal every minute of every day walking under a black thunder cloud.
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| honeybees behind the insulation |
We've been dealing with a honeybee hive that set up home in the ceiling of our garage. We thought they left when we turned on the air conditioner, but they were coming and going again a day later. The air conditioner servicemen came to look at the unit, but wouldn't go near it with the bees flying around. (Can't say I blamed them.) One thought they were yellow jackets. Those yellow demons are among the nastiest hornets ,so his trepidation was reasonable, even though he was wrong and busy honeybees tend to ignore people.
In the meantime, our daughter was scheduled to have her baby induced and the other four children (and four dogs) arrived to take up residence. And so began the swimming, biking, gaming days with lots of mealtime conversation and rosary decades for mom and baby. [See how long it takes you to figure out Max's riddle. "What is stronger than God, more evil than the demons, the poor have it, the rich need it, and you will die if you eat it?" I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure it out.]
I suspect that bishops eagerly add to the list of "credibly accused" to show how vigilant they are to protect the flock. Perhaps they feel it exonerates them for moving priests around to abuse again, lying to victims and their parents, and covering up criminal abuse. In too many cases any priest accused is presumed guilty unless proved innocent. That's a little difficult for accusations that are decades old and have no evidence except the word of someone who stands to gain big bucks for the accusation.
Yesterday's Mass homily focused on sins of the tongue. St. James in his epistle has plenty to say about that, comparing the tongue to the rudder of a mighty ship. The rudder may be small, but bears a large impact on the ship's movement and position. So does the tongue which may very well be responsible for more sins than any other organ in the body.
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| BEFORE Ariel Bibas - viscious enemy of HAMAS Before Oct 7, 2023 Loved beyond measure by his parents |
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| AFTER Ariel Bibas May 16, 2004 What HAMAS' hate has done to him |
