Wondering What to Make for Dinner?

Spaghetti dogs, anyone?  I thought this was too cool - a great dish for the grandkids. Let's see, how can we spiritualize this? Seven spaghetti noodles poked into the frank to represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. As they poke the noodles through they can recite: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Hold on to Your Wallet: CCHD Collection This Weekend

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) collection is being taken up this weekend in many dioceses including Arlington. The campaign continues to be serious problematic giving millions to Alinsky community organizing groups that fund projects diametrically opposed to Catholic teaching. Check out these sources below and give to an organization that is trustworthy and doesn't support moral evils. Please pass this on. Friends don't let friends give to CCHD.

Reform CCHD NOW!

"Throughout this investigation, RCN has witnessed a rising trend in granting money to organizations that support abortion, birth control, homosexuality, and/or Marxism either directly or through coalitions. Despite repeated claims by CCHD representatives that CCHD does not fund such groups, the report this year indicates that 37% of the organizations receiving CCHD funds are in violation of CCHD guidelines. In this year's report, RCN found that $2.8 million of the total $7.6 million (38%) in CCHD grants went to organizations undermining the Church's efforts to protect human life and dignity."

American Life League acknowledges that some progress has been made in the 2013 grant season, but still urge Catholics to avoid the collection. You can read their press release by going to All.org and click on the newsroom link where you will find the November 21st press release.

Al Qaeda in Kentucky? Yikes!

  More World News from ABC


U.S. May Have Let Dozens of Terrorists into the Country

More on St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy Devotion

Well, I generated a lot of discussion on my Facebook page with the post about the Divine Mercy and Sr. Faustina. (Much more than here.) One friend sent me a link from Catholic Culture about the dangers of the Tradition in Action website. I trust Catholic Culture's reviews. I also did more research and came across a good rebuttal of the points made by Fr. Perez which were attributed to an unnamed priest, Fr. S. (Yes, I should have done more research first, mea culpa.)

The rebuttal by Dr. Robert Stackpole is respectful and convincing. I hope visitors here will take the time to read it, but I'll summarize a few points:

• Translations of Sr. Faustina's work was originally smuggled out from behind the iron curtain.
• The Italian translation of the work was faulty and the original documents couldn't be reviewed as long as the Communists ruled Poland. This lack of the original documents and mistranslations led to the condemnation and ban prior to Poland opening up.
• Once the original documents were available and analyzed, the ban was lifted by the same Congregation that imposed the ban.
• Criticism of the Divine Mercy image for not showing the Sacred Heart of Jesus ignores all the sacred images that do not show Christ's heart including the crucifix, images of the Resurrection, icons of Christ, etc.
• Devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Divine Mercy devotion are complementary.

The website where I found Dr. Stackpole's article is a wealth of information on the Divine Mercy devotion and I plan to spend some time there. (Catholic Culture gives them a good rating.) 

I could just take the original post down, but I think in our confusing times people need to know the reasons something is wrong. If you can address the errors in an argument, you have a much better chance of protecting others who might be influenced by it. 

Reasons to Question the Divine Mercy Devotion

After reading the article below, I looked up some of the references in Sr. Faustina's Diary. The problems this priest points out in the text are clear. Oh dear..... Some of the quotes are troubling indeed. And what are we to make of the fact that two popes, Pius XII and John XXIII condemned the devotion?

Church Reasons to Condemn the Divine Mercy Devotion

Update here.

What If Middle Earth Were Real?

I've just finished a fascinating novel called Toward the Gleam which gives me confidence that Catholic fiction is alive and well. Author T.M. Doran creates a "what if" world based on the proposition that Middle Earth actually existed as a real, ancient civilization. The protagonist, John Hill, is an Oxford professor and veteran of W.W. I, who discovers by accident (during a terrifying night in a dark cave where he's taken shelter from a storm) an artifact from said civilization. It is a gleaming metal box of unknown material containing an ancient manuscript describing a time filled with strange creatures and dangerous adventures. It becomes Hill's lifetime passion to translate the unknown language and discover whether the work is fact or fiction. But there is someone else interested in the book as a key to unleashing power over men and he will go to any lengths to discover Hill's secret and plummet the depths of his research.

Those with a passion for Tolkien will enjoy this creative story where famous people from the past mingle in cameo scenes with Doran's fictional characters to help unlock the mysteries of the ancient world. On a few occasions I felt another real person was introduced just for the author's amusement. A brief discussion of "Dorothy's" fantastic murder scheme takes place among John, Jack, and Owen in the (Inklings') pub, the Bird and Baby which is a clear allusion to mystery writer Dorothy Sayers. I won't identify the others. As I read, half the fun was seeing these celebrities, identified only by first names, pop up with words of wisdom (and clues) for our hero.

If you want a thoroughly entertaining romp through a real/imaginary world of mystery and menace, pick up Toward the Gleam.It's great fun. And if you figure out the riddle of the locked room it contains, you're smarter than I am.  Here's the book trailer. Enjoy!

Aida's Grand March by Flash Mob!

I love the opera flash mobs. And here's one playing one of my favorite pieces of music!

Viral Video of Twins Being Bathed

Too lovely not to share. But consider that just a few days or weeks before this video was taken, these little ones could have been legally killed in utero in most countries of the world.

I wonder how many of the million oohing and ahhing over the pictures, will still defend the right to kill babies as long as they aren't yet born.

Profits Soar For Incompetent Obamacare Website Developer

Obamacare Website Developer Sees Profits Soar

Not really a surprise. After all, the company that secured the no-competition contract has a senior official who's a friend of Michelle's. And hasn't this been the M.O. for the Obamas. Their friends, like business mogul and crook Tony Rezko, grease the Obamas' palms and they return the favor.

The Apocalyptic Vision of John Paul II

For the past few weeks I've been pondering a quote in the Magnificat missalette from the feast of Blessed John Paul II on October 22nd..

“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think the wide circle of the American Society, or the wide circle of the christian Community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. This confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is therefore, in God’s Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously.... 

"We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ … With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary."   Blessed John Paul II

The first part of this statement was reported in the Wall Street Journal of November 9, 1976 from an address to the U.S. bishops before Cardinal Karol Wojtyla became pope. The second part is from an interview with Catholics of Fulda in 1980 when he had been pope for several years. I can't help feeling as I read this piece that John Paul actually heard these warnings from the Blessed Mother herself. Did she appear and tell  him the tribulation could no longer be averted? His words sound like statements Mary's made in apparitions around the world. And the pope certainly had an intimate relationship with Our Lady. Reading this makes me want to be more faithful and more devout in praying the rosary. Our world is in such desperate need of Mary's intercession.