God is Joy!

I'm reading an interesting book called The Joyful Christ by Cal Samra. It was published in 1985 and is a little dated, but still thought-provoking. It stresses the healing nature of humor. This morning I read a story that bears retelling about a priest in Central America who, during a homily at a mission Mass asked a little girl, "Who is God." Here's how Samra describes what followed:

Everyone was sure she would reply, "God is Love," because that was the theme of the mass. Instead, she surprised the congregation by saying, "God is joy." 

"A profound insight," Father Alas said. "We must penetrate its meaning." 

The seven-year-old girl continued, "Jesus was close to his disciples because they were his friends. When friends come together, especially to serve others, there is always great joy. So, God is joy. It is the same today." 

"But what about Jesus on the cross?" Father Alas asked her. 

"Oh yes, he had perfect joy then, because at that moment he was giving everything he was and had to those he loved. He had to be very happy at that moment."
"From the mouths of babes comes true wisdom."

I think if she had been talking to Jesus, he would have looked at her with love and said, "You are not far from the kingdom." May we all have the wisdom of that little child!

Illegal Invasion Bringing Deadly Diseases

Border agents are coming down with serious illnesses.

TB, Swine Flue Assaulting Border Agents

And just think, the feds are putting these illegals with serious diseases on buses and planes and shipping them to all parts of the country. Just wait until TB, swine flu, adult chicken pox, dengue, Ebola, polio, leprosy, plus other unknown but lethal diseases start popping up in our major cities. Think how fast they can spread in the schools, playgrounds, theaters, malls, and other public places in your community.

Where is the CDC in all this? Think about how they quarantine one or two cases of a serious disease. But now, not only is nothing being done to identify and quarantine folks with potentially lethal illnesses like ebola, but they are spreading the potential contact by moving people around on public transportation. Think of the border detention centers where illegals are warehoused in close quarters -- a perfect petrie dish for explosive spread of contagious diseases.

Study history. After World War I, 675,000 Americans died from the Spanish Influenza as doughboys brought the virus home. Twenty to forty million died globally, most between the ages of 20 and 40. More people died in one year than in the infamous Bubonic Plague (the Black Death) of the Middle Ages. Read about it here; it was the most devastating pandemic in world history. It killed the two little shepherd children of Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta.

The sick border agents are the canaries in the mine. Better pay attention before the explosion!

Read more:

Swine Flu Found in Illegal Immigrant Children

Illegals Infecting U.S. with Drug Resistant TB

Texas Immigration Center Magnet for Disease

Public Health Costs of Illegal Immigration

Hobby Lobby Vindicated in 5-4 SCOTUS Decision

Hobby Lobby stunner: Supreme Court issues long-awaited ruling in birth-control dispute

Semantic Gymnastics and Verbal Engineering

I've been having a friendly disagreement with Catholic in Brooklyn over the situation in New York

with Holy Innocents and St. Francis of Assisi and the pre-pride Mass. She calls me angry and judgmental and, frankly, I think she's a little clueless.

Anyway, the conversation got me thinking about another New Yorker, Msgr. William Smith, a holy moral theologian who often spoke at pro-life and home schooling conferences. (He died in 2009, a great loss to the Church Militant here on earth..) I was blessed to hear him speak on several occasions. One of his maxims was "verbal engineering always precedes social engineering." He described how effectively Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups took the spotlight off abortion by renaming it "choice." It created the ludicrous situation of many, even Catholics, claiming to be both pro-life and pro-choice. Feminists and pro-abortionists advanced abortion acceptance with this brilliant strategy! You can hear it in almost any Catholic Church and, in fact, I have a number of practicing Catholic relatives who claim they are "not pro-abortion, but pro-choice" ignoring the obvious moral contradiction of saying they support both the right to life of an unborn baby and the right of the mother to kill her child if that's what she chooses.

How is this related to the issue at hand? The homosexual community engages in the same kind of verbal engineering with the term "pride" to advance acceptance of homosexuality. It takes the focus off what homosexuals do (sodomy, fisting, fellatio, S&M, etc.) and focuses on self-affirmation and celebration of "sexual diversity" including all its permutations - LGBTQXYZ. The fact is "gay pride" (like "choice") is a political term emphasizing acceptance and celebration of homosexual activity. You certainly don't see Courage and Encourage featured at "gay pride" events because those groups promote chastity. "Gay pride" is the opposite. (Although what, pray tell, is there to be proud of in having a disordered inclination toward sinful behavior?)

When the Franciscans at St. Francis of Assisi embrace the word "pride" they join the same verbal game as the pro-aborts with the word "choice." That their order also promotes the misreading of Pope Francis' out-of-context "Who am I to judge?" statement indicates (to me at least) a disingenuous promotion of the gay lifestyle. And certainly selling all kinds of merchandise featuring the rainbow flag and the "Who Am I to Judge" statement, as St. Anthony Shrine in Boston does, promotes the gay lobby, something Pope Francis specifically condemned.

Consider a religious order offering a "pre-choice Mass" before a feminist march featuring Planned

http://www.cafepress.com/shrinepride

Parenthood and NARAL. Would that be acceptable? Not to me! Unless it were booked as a Mass of reparation for the sin of abortion.  which was certainly not the case with the "pre-pride Mass." The fact that the Franciscans used an ad featuring a variation of the rainbow flag, a symbol of homosexual activism, is also problematic.

Words and symbols have meaning that are not only explicit, but reach one at a subliminal level. More and more young people are embracing the gay agenda philosophically. I believe we can thank the Franciscans for contributing to the confusion, deliberately perhaps? Verbal engineering does, indeed, lead to social engineering and we are rapidly moving toward sexual social chaos.

Check Out Terry Nelson's Post Today on "Gay Sin"

Terry is always thought-provoking and this post will undoubtedly make you think about sin in general in another way. Sin is never isolated. If you give in to one sin, it will lead to others. Thanks for the insights, Terry!

Putting Jesus Front and Center Where He Belongs!

Thank you, Bishop Paprocki!

Bishop Paprocki: I Direct the Eucharist be Placed in the Center of the Sanctuary

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

What a good day to place your head on the chest of Jesus like John the Beloved did at the Last Supper.

Just rest there and listen to the beating of Christ's Heart. How much He loves you.

Think of how He suffered to atone for your sins. At every heartbeat, the thorns pierced Him -- and all for love of you.

Remember the words of Francisco, "Love is not loved." Don't let that be the case with you today. Embrace the feet of Jesus like Mary Magdalene and beg for His outpouring of grace on your life.

"O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine."

Thought for the Day from John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams, our sixth president and son of the second, was an amazing individual. As a young teenager (14) he participated as secretary to a delegation to Russia to seek recognition of the newly-formed United States. He was fluent in several languages and was a Greek scholar. His grasp of foreign affairs was extensive (unlike our current clueless administration). He left behind a 50-volume diary that provides one of the most comprehensive pictures of the period, one that historians often cite. He passionately defended American interests and was certainly no empire builder. He noted positively that the U.S. "has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings." Certainly, he did not see our country as policeman to the world. Instead, he noted:

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.....She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

Ah...for the wisdom of a John Quincy Adams today. We would not be bogged down int he Middle East swamp and we would have far fewer of our men and women serving all over the globe in harms way. I wonder how different our country would be if her people would study the past, particularly the wisdom of so many of our founders. Reading a biography of John Quincy Adams would be a good place to start.

Thumbs Up for Christendom College; Thumbs Down for Archishop Thomas Wenski

Christendom College alumnus N.J. Guld, class of 1987, was just ordained for the Diocese of Trenton. He's the 70th Christendom graduate ordained to the priesthood. Two more were ordained earlier this month to bring the grand total to 72. Thank you, Christendom, for fostering vocations. As of June 2nd, Christendom could count 149 religious vocations from its 37 year history of solid Catholic educational formation: 70 priests, 49 sisters, five deacons, three brothers, and 22 seminarians. What a record and proof of the value of fidelity.

Then there is Archbishop Wenski who described those of us who support border enforcement of showing the "bitterly zealous legalism of Inspector Javert" in Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables.Wow! Talk about rash judgment and calumny. Here's more from the Archbishop:

Today, modern day Javerts, on radio and TV talk shows, fan flames of resentment against supposed lawbreakers, equating them with terrorists intent on hurting us.

"Supposed lawbreakers?" Let's see. If someone breaks into AB Wenski's house (I'm sure he locks the doors.) are they only a supposed lawbreaker? After all, they may need the archbishop's possessions more than he does. So why is it okay for him to keep them out with his Javert-like legalism, but our country can't enforce its laws against illegal entry without being portrayed as evil and legalistic? Ask the people on the border who are most impacted by the invasion what they think -- or ask the families of those killed by the drug cartels. Oh...and those whose schools are inundated and whose local hospitals closed due to bankruptcy. The archbishop talks out of both sides of his mouth saying illegal immigration should not be tolerated and then, effectively, promotes amnesty for illegals already here. Of course, AB Wenski will never have to worry about the economic or moral impacts of illegal immigration. He lives among the top one percent on the largesse of Catholics in the pew.

What I find particularly interesting about bishops attacking those who want border security is they always reserve their vitriol for American citizens who want to halt the invasion. When do we ever see a word of criticism directed to Mexico's corrupt government and failure to protect their own people? Why should Mexicans have to flee their own country and families for a better life? Let's hear a little exhortation for the rights of people to live in freedom and security in their own homeland!

Roanoke Times Sends Reminder to Tyrant McAuliffe

We were in Roanoke yesterday and this morning I read this sensible editorial from the Roanoke Times:

Our view: McAuliffe and Medicaid: Beware the precedent

Monarchs who think they rule by divine right don't worry about about constitutions, but even King John of England had to sign the Magna Carta when his feudal barons got sick of his tyranny and demanded he recognize their rights. Peasants with pitchforks can accomplish the same as barons with swords. So sharpen up your pitchforks, Virginia, and hold the tyrant in the governor's mansion (our own Lord Dunmore clone) accountable!