Pray for Diane Derzis who Thinks She's God's Abortionist

Owner of last abortion clinic in Mississippi: ‘I feel like God wants me to do this job’
Talk about using God's name in vain! What will happen to Diane Derzis if she dies unrepentant for this blasphemy against the God of LIFE? Let's join the Rev. Flip Benham (who played a major role in the conversion of Norman Jane McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade) in praying this woman into God's arms with a little fasting added (Some demons are only driven out through fasting).

I'm praying the rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for Diane Derzis today and urge readers to make their own prayer pledge for the conversion of an abortionist. Imagine a world where no person trained to heal was willing to kill a patient instead. Diane Derzis is NOT out of reach of God's grace. Our Lady, refuge of sinners, intercede for Diane that she comes to her senses.

(Hat tip to Roger. Thanks for the link.)

Thinking about Joy

Reading Evangelii Gaudium has me thinking about joy. And thinking about joy always sets me thinking about the theme of joy in classical music. Mozart, particularly, puts a smile on my face with his compositions of joy. Exultate Jubilate is one of my favorites.

Russian coloratura soparano Julia Lezhneva gives us an idea of what the angels in heaven must sound like as they sing praise to our wonderful God!

Exultate! Rejoice! Jubilate! Be glad!

Victims of "Gay" Hate

Christian couple faces uncertain future for living their faith!

Too bad they just didn't post a sign saying they would donate the proceeds from renting to fornicators and sodomites to a group defending traditional marriage. The U.K. is even worse than the U.S. when it comes to politically correct hatred of Christians who dare to try to live their values.

Evangelii Gaudium, the Introduction: Quotes and Thoughts

Evangelii Gaudium I: A Joy Ever New, A Joy which is Shared

Well, I'm moving slowly into Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation on Evangelization and find the introduction comfortingly familiar. The pope's words reinforce what I have often said when I was sidewalk counseling outside abortion mills. There is nothing too big for Jesus. He is always there with outstretched arms, but He never forces our free will. If we walk away from Him He will not drag us kicking and screaming back. He simply waits, like the father of the prodigal son, for us to "come to our senses."

"[W]henever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms....Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love." 3

Why I Need This Holiday

By Alice Doyle

Last week I was sitting in my stylist’s chair, struggling to make small talk while she worked her magic on my hair. Thanksgiving was an obvious choice of topic, and I asked her what she would be doing. She told me she usually cooks for her extended family, but this year she had decided they would eat out so that she could start shopping when the stores opened at 5 PM. She elaborated, telling me that Black Friday is a tradition for her and her girlfriends who literally “shop ‘till they drop” from Thursday afternoon until Friday evening. 26 glorious hours of filling bags, trekking to the car and going back for more, more, more. More what? “You should see my girls’ lists! What don’t they want?”

The check-out clerk at Walmart told me she was working 2pm-11pm Thanksgiving Day. They don’t close lest the people arrive in droves and inadvertently trample someone on the way to the greatest buy. I asked her when she would celebrate Thanksgiving. She shrugged and said she wouldn’t but that her mother and brother would be celebrating. At the grocery store, I overheard a manager tell a customer, “We’re only open until 5pm on Thanksgiving. I’ll be out of here by 5:30 and maybe get a few leftovers.”

My fellow Americans—WHAT IS GOING ON? 

I have two concerns about all of this.

First, it is extremely un-American. Thanksgiving is our holiday, rooted in our nation’s infancy. It is an important part of our history. We should embrace it. One day of the year, set aside to give thanks and celebrate our tremendous blessings as a nation is, in the balance, the very least we can do. And yet, we aren’t doing it. Instead, we are rushing through and past the gratitude to the “more, more, more” that marks the celebration of Christmas.

Which is my second point. If you were the devil trying to distract the world from focusing on the poor, newborn babe in the manger, how would you do it? Rampant materialism might be a good place to start. The central message of Christmas is that God gave the world His best gift. His son, Jesus, is literally all we need. We do not need “door busters” regardless of the price. And yet, how many people will rush away from the good things in life today like good friends, family and the comforts of home in search of deals that will someday be so much junk in a landfill?

I saw an interesting sign recently: “If you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday, what would you have?” My honest answer? Not much. Which is why I need this holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving: It All Started with the Grateful Catholic Explorers

The Catholic Origins of Thanksgiving

What better way to begin the day than go to Mass and thank the giver of the gift. Eucharist means "thanksgiving." And today, the best way to say thank you is to join at Mass to offer to God His own Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love is everlasting!

     Happy Thanksgiving!

Pope Francis: The Joy of the Gospel #1

I've just started reading Pope Francis' apostolic exhortaton Evangelii Gaudium and I had to laugh and shake my head when I read this line:

The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience.

Uh...sounds like a warning for Black Friday. Talk about "consumerism!" I wonder how many folks tomorrow will stuff themselves into a coma, take a nap, and then get up a few hours later to go out and shop on "Black Friday" eve. So many stores are advertising their Thanksgiving hours. It is absolutely pathetic.

Well, I will be where I am every Thanksgiving and Black Friday -- at home enjoying family and playing games with grandkids thanking God for all the blessings in my life which are too numerous to count! Shopping is NOT on my agenda! How about you?

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Conservatism and the Catholic Bishops

Establishment Republicans are good at jumping on the bandwagon blowing all the politically correct whistles. The issue that will ultimately kill conservatism and the Republican Party in this country, one that will destroy the reason people have so long tried to enter America (legally or illegally) is immigration. We need reform yes, but we also need a sensible policy that preserves the Constitutional principles on which the country was founded and allows assimilation of the multi-millions already here.

Phyllis Schlafly explains why our current immigration policies signal the death knell for the Republican party unless they put the skids on immigration. Ironically, our bishops are big boosters for killing conservatism while they pay lip service to certain fundamental moral principles like the right to life. Their policies will hasten America's death and our conversion to socialism. Once we're there (all the way there; we're well on the way) big government will be entrenched and you can forget about any defense for the unborn, the elderly, the middle class, etc. We will all be virtual wage slaves, cogs in big government's machine. Every liberal nightmare policy you can imagine from legalizing polygamy, drugs, active euthanasia, and pederasty (yes, eliminating the age of consent is on the horizon) to criminalizing Christian speech as a hate crime and confiscating guns will pass. You think the government is a monster now, just wait! Oh, and note to the bishops, do you really think the Church will be overlooked? Remember other Catholic countries like Spain and Mexico where the Church experienced bloody martyrdom under socialism!

Thanks, country club Republicans. Thanks, U.S. bishops. Once liberals destroy America we'll never have to worry about immigration again. No one will want to come here! We'll have no jobs, long lines for basic commodities (Remember the Soviet Union?), and anyone who dares to speak out will be an enemy of the state. Can't happen here? Open your eyes; it already is happening.

Hang on to your rosaries and fight -- for yourself and for your children. And please...don't give your liberal diocese any money. If you have a Catholic conference that is supporting liberal legislation or any legislation that is a matter of prudential judgment vs. fundamental Catholic morality, cut them off. What the heck are the Virginia bishops doing taking a position opposing uranium mining? For crying out loud! Pray for your bishop always and everywhere, but if he's involved in nonsense, don't give him a penny! Sadly, most of them are. You have an obligation to support the Church. You can do that in many ways other than filling the coffers in liberal dioceses.

Does the Republican Party Have a Future?

Conning America: The Obama Games...

...come right out of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. As a senior administration rep boasted during the government shutdown, “We are winning. … It doesn’t really matter to us [how long the government shutdown lasts] because what matters is the end result.” Exactly! Power to the community organizer! Make it as painful as possible for the American people and pretend it's someone else's fault. Obama and his minions play the American people like a puppet master plays with his stringed puppets. They can only do it because of the complicity of the despicable mainstream media. Read more here....

On my Christmas Wish List..Flannery O'Connor's Prayer Journal

Flannery O'Connor's A Prayer Journal

From the New York Times book review:

While O’Connor was a student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop she was also a daily communicant at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at the edge of campus. Her journal reflects a conflict, in her mind at least, between a skeptical intellectual environment and the faith she sometimes anxiously sustains. She says: “I dread, Oh Lord, losing my faith. My mind is not strong. It is a prey to all sorts of intellectual quackery. I do not want it to be fear which keeps me in the church.” She knows all the arguments against religion. They seem to have changed little over the last 70 years, so there is no need to rehearse them here. Considering the threat she feels them to be, it is striking that atheism, in an apparently Southern, vernacular incarnation with nothing intellectual about it, is at the center of “Wise Blood,” the novel she had already begun to write and submit to be read in workshop. This is a tale in which pathos tips into pathology and violence, answered by a penance of self-mutilation and suffering. Yet the prose is absolutely brilliant, sentence by sentence, simile by simile, and so relentlessly inventive it feels comic. The young writer prays, “Please let Christian principles permeate my writing and please let there be enough of my writing (published) for Christian principles to permeate.”