tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-329637342024-03-13T18:51:50.953-07:00Deus Caritas EstGod. Is. Love.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-55957634271552911292011-07-17T13:41:00.000-07:002012-11-09T13:47:02.156-08:00Let Nothing Upset You<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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For everyone who complains, rants, yells, screams, cries, worries, wishes, wants, agonizes, anlayzes, deliberates, frets or frowns, I offer Teresa of Avila's wisdom:<br />
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"Let nothing upset you,</div>
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let nothing startle you.</div>
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All things pass;</div>
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God does not change.</div>
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Patience wins</div>
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all it seeks.</div>
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Whoever has God</div>
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lacks nothing:</div>
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God alone is enough"</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSPvl_Mdy8MwdjY5VC6HWX4cDClC1OFa67HP-ZSkhhszke6bLlfYdI7-aJMGL90PVuTXRNhgzG58LDNnBrY7vs8RVC18VX5_niQiEG2gBSbc00s7ZOjVxOPjbR90w0MaSuPyyh/s1600/jp2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSPvl_Mdy8MwdjY5VC6HWX4cDClC1OFa67HP-ZSkhhszke6bLlfYdI7-aJMGL90PVuTXRNhgzG58LDNnBrY7vs8RVC18VX5_niQiEG2gBSbc00s7ZOjVxOPjbR90w0MaSuPyyh/s1600/jp2.jpg" /></a>Pope John Paul the Great: "The Church imposes nothing; the Church only proposes something, but what we propose, we believe to be the Truth, and the Truth will impose itself on the human heart."<br />
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The same can be said of gravity, relativity, quantum theory...yet Truth, THE Truth stands infinitely beyond this in it's imposition and in it's ability to free us to love...</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-64578396054273366402010-10-23T09:20:00.000-07:002012-11-09T13:50:47.638-08:00Searching In All the Wrong Places<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Tj8wHqb55bTAXHgcqfJASutz2RpGogOy6A5yL2Frq2nUkf6yMK0JxnRWqe5-oyEiQJTPpQtQXuAkwBhr_0Mgf4cgoSWVShsRKL29pZjR-Rs8DS9J9BKohyDPNNaYwB-UP5Ib/s1600/money-roll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Tj8wHqb55bTAXHgcqfJASutz2RpGogOy6A5yL2Frq2nUkf6yMK0JxnRWqe5-oyEiQJTPpQtQXuAkwBhr_0Mgf4cgoSWVShsRKL29pZjR-Rs8DS9J9BKohyDPNNaYwB-UP5Ib/s1600/money-roll.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a>"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.<br />
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Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace"</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-50795283698003432892010-09-16T20:44:00.000-07:002012-11-09T13:52:53.535-08:00The Case of the Woman with the Twisted FaceI remember meeting an apoplectic woman driving a rather large tank of a car. We faced off in a dirt lot that served as overflow parking for the parish festival. <br />
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I didn't know what to make of the situation. I manuevered my subcompact as far to the right of the aisle as it could be as the lady's Hidenberg barreled toward me. It had materialized from the midst of a dust cloud. She was driving down the middle of the aisle. She was coming fast.<br />
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When she spotted ME, obstructing HER way, her face seemed to melt away and reassemble. She had become ferral. Her face twisted and she jerked violently in her seat like she was being defibrillated and having a seizure at the same time. I had no doubt that if she had a machete, she would've halved me like a watermelon. I was somewhat shocked she didn't try roll over my compact like it was a Hotwheel. <br />
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At the last second, lurching to the left and nearly sideswiping three parked cars, she stirred up a dust storm and screeched out of the lot into the street. I heard her peel away. Various expletives got tossed out of her open window as she left.<br />
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Nearly speechless, I found a parking space, the only one I could find in that lot. Perhaps she had spotted it too only to realize that it was too small for her too big car.<br />
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That all happened maybe 5 years ago. But it's what I remembered when I read St. Francis de Sales words:<br />
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"Some say it is unreasonable to be courteous and gentle with a reckless person who insults you for no reason at all. I have made a pact with my tongue; not to speak when my heart is disturbed."</blockquote>
I didn't say anything to her. I didn't chase her down. I didn't try to throw a rock at her as she left. But I also don't ever remember making a pact with my tongue. Maybe my man Francis had my back that day.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-61020484227440719692010-08-25T22:09:00.000-07:002012-11-09T13:57:45.887-08:00"I Don't Care What You Think About Me"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If people really didn't care about what the world thinks of them and only what God does, we'd be living in Eden (before the fall).<br />
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Others choose not to make any reference to God but still offer an unsolicited "I don't care what people think about me" completely out of nowhere (my first reaction is "then why did you have to share that with me?")<br />
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It's kind of like walking up to someone and saying "I'm not fixated on cigars. If you don't believe me I'll show you my map of all the cigar shops in town that I don't go to."<br />
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You've probably come across one of the younger "I don't cares" or been one of them at some point. They sport blue hair, a mullet or a pair of pants several sizes too big or too small. They make a point of trying to convince you that they dress that way for reasons ABC...In the end they want you to think that they don't care what you think. <br />
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I'm going to go rest my brain and I frankly don't care what you think about that. Really.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-52745239963106710782010-08-20T16:23:00.000-07:002012-11-09T14:00:01.150-08:00Weakness Is Not An Obstacle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.acf-fr.org/i/08-01-17_money8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNZ8pigYlwKszPHSe21F_NEFvo1Rw82jOxrjaFnfA0CryZoAVvylXEpqEhciqmvcVwtaSQA-7qq9ZvWfrYd6HLEjFn_HMCaeT3VyRM6RukthS4vEB15SpFi65y2XulrVs14QgY/s1600/escriva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNZ8pigYlwKszPHSe21F_NEFvo1Rw82jOxrjaFnfA0CryZoAVvylXEpqEhciqmvcVwtaSQA-7qq9ZvWfrYd6HLEjFn_HMCaeT3VyRM6RukthS4vEB15SpFi65y2XulrVs14QgY/s1600/escriva.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a>"How is that heart of yours getting along? Don't worry: the saints – who were perfectly ordinary, normal beings like you and me – also felt those 'natural' inclinations. And if they had not felt them, their 'supernatural' reaction of keeping their heart – soul and body – for God, instead of giving it to creatures, would have had little merit.</div>
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That's why, once the way is seen, I think that the heart's weaknesses need be no obstacle for a determined soul, for a soul in love. </div>
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– St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, #164</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-81332083117075213272010-08-14T10:20:00.000-07:002010-08-14T10:28:01.108-07:00Suffering of Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwcalTj9BVT0SWl5tT4ugLssN-eWWUxA6An1_eMq3yIiiu5DNs5lU3wl6ba2k64FsevGzwhH0dsHS0h5VzF9gHZyr9KFQRiXaQ_dlRTxcpuSQIB_zzhB4pNggKUq_g4RFfP-iC/s1600/kolbe%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwcalTj9BVT0SWl5tT4ugLssN-eWWUxA6An1_eMq3yIiiu5DNs5lU3wl6ba2k64FsevGzwhH0dsHS0h5VzF9gHZyr9KFQRiXaQ_dlRTxcpuSQIB_zzhB4pNggKUq_g4RFfP-iC/s200/kolbe%5B1%5D.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>The following is an exercpt from: <strong><em>Suffering of Love: Christ’s Descent into the Hell of Human Hopelessness</em></strong> (Ignatius Press, 2006), by Regis Martin, a theologian and faculty member of the Franciscan University of Steubenville (hat tip to Insight Scoop).<br />
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Professor Martin describes the sacrifice of Maximilian Kolbe at Auschwitz.<br />
<blockquote>But what exactly did he do, this ministering angel of a man who restores, magically as it were, the faith of children? This Roman Catholic priest who, loving God more than himself, is thus able—and free!—to love everyone in God? In one word, Kolbe substitutes himself for another. At the eleventh hour, he takes the place of a grieving husband and father whom the SS have randomly chosen, along with nine or so others, to die in a bunker deprived of food and water. Protracted starvation: a horrible way to die.</blockquote><blockquote>"What does this Polish pig want?" demanded the SS officer, wearing the dreaded death's head insignia of the Gestapo, when the slight figure of Father Kolbe came forward dressed in his prison garb—the very insignia of man's humiliation, beneath which, in Kolbe's case, shines the unseen holiness of Almighty God. "I am a Catholic priest", he replied. "I want to die for that man. I am old; he has a wife and children." Incredulous, the officer nevertheless permits the substitution, providing thereby the sacramental working out of what Charles Williams, citing Saint Paul, was so wont to call the Great Web of Exchange. Kolbe and the others are then led away to die. </blockquote><blockquote>A fortnight's agony later, all but four have died and of these only Kolbe remains conscious. Gestapo patience at last having worn thin, an injection of phenol is administered and now Kolbe too is dead. It is August 14, 1941, the vigil of the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother, the Woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the stars, who long before had promised young Maximilian the twin crowns of purity and martyrdom for God. This same Woman, who had herself been schooled in suffering and sorrow, indeed whose mute and anguished consent to her Son's immolation on Calvary became the deepest kenosis of faith in all history, to recall the moving text of Pope John Paul II's encyclical.</blockquote><blockquote>Nearly forty years later Poland's Pope would visit that bunker and before a vast crowd declare how "victory through faith and love was won by Maximilian Kolbe in this place, which was built for the negation of faith, and to trample radically not only on love but on all signs of human dignity, of humanity: a place built on hatred and contempt for man in the name of a crazed ideology." And quoting 1 John 5:4, he concluded: "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that with faith overcometh the world." So the Pope reminded the world when, in 1979, he went to Auschwitz to speak of Father Kolbe's victory, of its profound source in the love and the faith of God, and of its continuing relevance to the world.</blockquote><br />
<blockquote>But it must be understood in all its fullness as a victory for all, for both Jew and Christian alike; otherwise the whole expiatory point of Kolbe's substitution is lost. The victory of the one cannot be denied the other, for the act of exchange is for the other. United thus in the same school of suffering, wedded as one by the one Christ, Jew and Christian stand together as joint beneficiaries of the priestly heroism of Kolbe precisely because, behind it, there stands the universal, infinitely efficacious priestly sacrifice of the Son of God, broken on his Cross to become the bread for the world. Spiritually, then, as Pius XI would tirelessly point out to a world about to witness wholesale liquidations of God’s people, spiritually we are all Semites. </blockquote>Behind Fr. Kolbe, every martyr, every sinner, every saint, stands the lamb once slain, eternal high priest of the new and everlasting covenant. To him be glory foreover.<br />
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More info on Kolbe <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-maximilian-kolbe/">http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-maximilian-kolbe/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-57153645580135354252010-08-04T21:57:00.000-07:002012-11-09T14:04:17.095-08:00Open Rebuke and Hidden LoveProverbs 27:5-6<br />
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"Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy."</blockquote>
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I don’t think my parents ever cited Proverbs 27 but I KNOW they said something similar. As a parent now, I realize what they meant. You can’t shower kisses to cover up wrongful deeds. You can’t “hide your love” to avoid conflict either. Sometimes, love just requires a direct approach. Maybe that’s why kids, parents, siblings, friends and spouses get angry with each other so often, but grow stronger with the conflict (if it's rightly ordered).<br />
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I once found that to be rather odd. I now know it to be true, necessary, and logical. People who really care about you risk offense to care. The two other kinds of people are different: enemies offend you out of hate or praise and adulate you toward a malicious end. “Fun-time” friends would rather worry about having fun than about improving your situation. They don’t want to risk suffering faithful wounds by admonishing you for your own good.<br />
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It might be a good idea to go out and find yourself a good friend, willing to rebuke you with a love that doesn’t seek to hide in empty, tokens of sentimentality. Obviously, there’s a time for vinegar and a time for honey too. If you’re lucky you’ll find someone capable of dispensing both.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-61755165091099983042010-07-26T20:10:00.000-07:002012-11-09T14:09:59.136-08:00TV Parenting?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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All the world's a stage and one TV in its time plays many parts. It's a distraction, a white noise generator, a frame on the wall above an empty mantle, a last-ditch, on-call, handle-it-all babysitting machine and surrogate parent.<br />
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When they're polite, people ask me what's so hard about parenting these days. When they're not paying attention, they just roll their eyes. And when they're disinterested, they pretend parents and kids don't exist. It's like those proverbial pink elephants standing in the middle of the room. "Oh, hasn't it been positively balmy this week? You have what? A kid? What's that? Isn't that another word for a baby lamb?"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCvQ5R_SEClKYEdbtuThJ33Wal5BHZqaXfG4OTfvgSR2UFKwDuzPiwzfiKEtmrTAVY3uXwHC9duN2pRG-i4i_e7MLFDNvKs90yoeLtlzehi7JGIIDNF0FBoLklMsiY7kvvDVe/s1600/thCAM0LVU7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCvQ5R_SEClKYEdbtuThJ33Wal5BHZqaXfG4OTfvgSR2UFKwDuzPiwzfiKEtmrTAVY3uXwHC9duN2pRG-i4i_e7MLFDNvKs90yoeLtlzehi7JGIIDNF0FBoLklMsiY7kvvDVe/s1600/thCAM0LVU7.jpg" /></a>I suppose having kids and making sure they live doesn't necessarily separate us from animals. Any idiot can have a kid. Anyone can put said kid in front of a TV, a computer, a Playstation. Anyone can give that kid candy when she cries, give in when she whines, buy when she asks, and settle for "I want" instead of "May I please?"<br />
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Being a parent is hard enough. The user manual got torn up, chewed and spit out as soon as Johnny grew teeth. So after that, it was all ad lib. It's just that the ad libs end up being shortcuts. <br />
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All I can say is it's hard. It's hard for all of us. Shortcuts aren't the answer. God never took one. He took the road straight through Calvary and never looked back. He said "this is how you do it. THIS is how you lay down your life."<br />
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I'm not saying I've succeeded. I've taken shortcuts before. I resolve not to and when I'm true to my calling as a Christian parent, my life gets 100% more complicated and difficult. But that comes with the calling, it's not an option like a pick and choose package on a mini van.<br />
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I can only try to say no when TV offers its services as an extended care babysitter. . I can only hope that I remember the difference between "want" and "need." I can only pray that I do what I can and God will take care of the rest.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-63976995431907458812010-07-22T19:57:00.000-07:002012-11-09T14:14:11.103-08:00Priest Prophet and KingSometimes, my mind likes to wander away without telling me where it's going. Thankfully, it's only gone for a few seconds (my wife begs to differ). Sometimes I end up in rainbow-land, or in fields full of clover nipping rabbits, or upon the plains once inhabited by Troglodytes and their kin.<br />
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Today, it was a more meaningful place: 1st century Palestine where I sat on a hillside listening to a homeless man. Strange that this man and the things he said would one day change the world.<br />
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In some circles, he was known as Jesus. Others knew him as the carpenter's son and those closest to him would one day realize that he was the high <strong>priest</strong> of a "new and everlasting covenant."<br />
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They saw him entering into the Holy of Holies. He isn't self-righteous about it. He doesn't snap his toes and say "Shazaam!" (being Jesus, I don't think he would've needed to snap his fingers). He merely entered, paying with blood.<br />
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<a href="http://www.acf-fr.org/i/08-01-17_money8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Doing this seals the deal. Jesus, the <strong>prophet</strong> bridges past, present, and future. He fulfills the Mosaic law and brings old and new together forever. Sounds like a great role to play until you factor in the scorn, the rejection, and the crucifixion.<br />
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But Christ is a hero isn't he? He's an eternal <strong>king</strong> so he would rise in vindication, no longer villified but glorified, right?. This is exactly what happened. But before it happened, our homeless man, the king to whom all heads must bow and every knee must bend wore a crown of thorns. Why not just skip right to the glorious parts? Why enter the house of pain?<br />
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This is just a guess, but I think all that suffering stuff he goes through teaches us something of eternal relavance: that love is not about power. It's not swooping in on a chariot, trailing fire, and blowing trumpets so everyone knows you're there to save the day.<br />
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Jesus had a more perfect way <em>made so</em> through weakness. And he didn't come to tell us that. That's the pitfall professors warn us about in Englsih 101. <em>Don't tell, show</em>. Don't write about how so and so was sad. Describe so and so's actions in such away that the reader can <em>infer that he's sad</em>.<br />
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That's <strong>exactly</strong> what Jesus did.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-37529941858537762102010-07-21T21:08:00.000-07:002010-07-21T21:25:34.868-07:00CPR for the DCEBThe <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">DCEB</span> or "<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Deus</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Caritas</span> Est" blog requires continuous CPR for a month. I will not give up. I WILL pull out the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">difibrillators</span> if I need to.<br /><br />I apologize to all my visitors--regulars and wanderers alike.<br /><br />My mind continued to stumble, serendipitously into thoughts that <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">might've</span> been worth sharing. Time, unfortunately refused to cooperate. Kids unfortunately don't like to cooperate. Wives, unfortunately...well, I'll just leave it at that while I still have 10 functioning fingers. (whispering conspiratorially: She's looking at me right now...).<br /><br />Alright. So here's the deal or the ideal, depending on whether life decides to cooperate. I'll post again tomorrow...something with a little meat.<br /><br />There's just too much fluff and stuff out there in media-land right now. Just think of God as the antidote and this blog, God-willing, will be one of his dispensaries again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-76546934652261135722009-06-16T16:59:00.000-07:002009-06-16T17:44:40.109-07:00Newborns and BurritosSwaddled newborns always remind me of egg rolls or burritos, depending on the baby's size and the quality of the wrapping job. I look at my daughter sleep, armless and legless, with no motion except the quiverings and furrowings of her brow, and I think naturally of what "defenseless" really means.<br /><br />In the world of cinema, when villains die, cowering and fearful, it's strange how we catch a glimpse of this same infant-like state that's common to the human experience. To some, it's a pitful and just end for a despicable person. To me, it's an emblematic moment that reveals the helplessness of all human life.<br /><br />It's hard to compare a villain to an infant, but aren't the same critical components present? The soul, the image of God, original sin and original goodness? How then can anyone argue that there's any discontinuity anywhere within the lifespan that would allow us to differentiate between someone with a right to life and someone without that right?<br /><br />Most of us, no matter how ugly, or evil, at one point had a mother or father look at us in the defenselessness of sleep. It was a look of love; a look that acknowledged and affirmed, a look that was sometimes tinged by the pain that one day we would suffer. As years passed, that mother or father may have forgotten those early intimate moments.<br /><br />But even after thousands of lifetimes, the Heavenly Father still looks at us the same way. No matter who we are. For our part, we seem to have a knack for breaking that Father's heart. He will, for his part, keep swaddling us and watching us with love.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-5705645965573328892009-06-13T10:57:00.001-07:002009-06-13T10:59:25.343-07:00Pope Benedict on The Heavenly Homeland"On this day let us revive in ourselves an attraction toward Heaven that calls us to carry on in our earthly pilgrimage. Let us lift in our hearts the desire to always unite ourselves to the family of the saints, of which we already have the grace to be a part.As a celebrated 'spiritual' song says: 'When the saints go marching in, oh how I'd want, Lord, to be in their number!' May this beautiful aspiration burn in all Christians and help them to surpass every difficulty, every fear, every tribulation! Let us place, dear friends, our hand in the maternal one of Mary, Queen of All Saints, and let ourselves be led by her toward our heavenly homeland, in the company of the blessed spirits 'of every nation, people and language.'"<br /><br />Pope Benedict XVI<br /><br />(hat tip to <a href="http://www.whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/">www.whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com</a>)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-41558242250375767902009-06-04T21:23:00.001-07:002009-06-13T11:13:15.693-07:00George Tiller and The Politics of DeathWe've straddled the politics of abortion for over 30 years now. Life, death, mother,child...less often, but no less heatedly, the debate turns to the doctor. Someone apparently ended the debate, at least in his own mind. To him it was an easy answer: Kill Dr. George Tiller while he's at church attending Sunday services and everything will be better.<br /><br />Is everything really better? Tiller's family lost. A man is dead. And someone made himself a murderer. Then the media used their superlative powers of analysis to group isolated killers together with groups such as Priests For Life and the United States Council of Catholic Bishops. The critics say the blame rests partly on pro life groups. Without them, the reasoning goes, people won't consider abortion murder and George Tiller would still be alive.<br /><br />Amazing logic, isn't it? It's like saying that we shouldn't decry murder because people will go out and start killing gang bangers and serial killers. Or maybe we shouldn't say that cigarettes kill because if we do someone might go and wack the bigwigs of the tobacco industry.<br /><br />Reality is a little more complicated than media politics. In the real world, murder is wrong. We need to decry it in whatever form, whether it involves the unborn OR the abortionist. If crazed people go out and do something crazy that's very unfortunate. However, that cannot keep the pro-life movement from speaking the truth: abortion is wrong because it's murder and killing George Tiller is wrong because it's murder. That's as simple as it gets.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-10859163983580040392009-05-12T22:27:00.001-07:002009-05-12T22:27:37.482-07:00Obama at Notre Dame? Good Lord...<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/1KUBdrrbF6o' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/1KUBdrrbF6o'/></object></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-13062513826158760762009-04-02T20:09:00.000-07:002009-04-03T18:35:58.777-07:00Pope Slams Science--The Story Behind the StoryNew "news" is often old hat. How many times, for instance, did Pope Benedict fall off the wall and crash into bits on the cobblestone of media ignorance? The last debacle came with an explosive outcry. All of them are based on the false assumptions that 1) Pope Benedict hates the very idea of sex 2) He is, at best, an idiot and at worse the proponent of a eugenics campaign aimed at killing Africans by depriving them of condoms 3) only condoms can prevent AIDS in Africa and 4) defending a human centered approach (rather than a condom based one) is the only rational, relevant and effective way to reverse the HIV epidemic in Africa. <br /><br />Oddly, those in the know agree with the out-of-date, head-in-the-sand, ignoramus who lives in Rome. Edward C. Green of the Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project has argued and continues to argue that AIDS prevention based on condom dissemination not only doesn't work, it works the other way. Studies show, that, in contrast, efforts that promote abstinence and/or monogamy work best. These are exactly the medieval methods the pope and his ignorant henchman have been advocating all along. Lucky or a principled strategy based on a solid understanding of the human person and what it's capable of?<br /><br />Meanwhile the condom camp struggles because it devalues the people it supposedly serves. The "saftey net" condoms are supposed to provide leads, ironically, to increased risk taking. This, then leads to increased HIV, AIDS and STD infection rates. Seems the media mouth opened too soon? <br /><br />As I alluded to earlier, the question of why the Church has spearheaded such a successful campaign against AIDS (in Uganda, for instance) is based on it's total understanding of what a person is, can be and should be. As Laura Schlessinger wrote recently, this has to do with the potential that the pope still sees in humanity, even as his media pundits sling mud at the notion that people can control themselves:<br /><br />"When the Pope suggests that human beings are best off saving their sexual passion for the stability of a covenant of marriage, he is making a statement that the act of sexuality is elevated by the context, and ultimately protects both man and woman from a myriad of hurtful consequences from venereal diseases to unwanted pregnancies (complete with abortions, abandonment, single-parenthood, and homelessness to name a few).<br /><br />The naysayers all have one thing in common: they refuse to want, believe or accept that human beings can commit to a higher spiritual state of thought and behavior. The Pope believes in us more than that.<br /><br />I am not Catholic, so this is no knee-jerk defense of my spiritual leader. The truth is that he is simply correct and too many people don't want to hear it, because they want to live lives unfettered by rules. It is sad that they don't realize that this makes them a slave to animal impulse versus a master of human potential."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-31113383710443520742009-03-07T10:08:00.001-08:002009-03-07T10:08:13.041-08:00Everyone Against Abortion, Please Raise Your Hand<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/MHGWq3pq5B8' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/MHGWq3pq5B8'/></object></p><p>The video speaks for itself...</p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-39134626890457568962009-02-15T20:20:00.000-08:002009-02-17T17:15:34.307-08:00Mashed Potatoes And ChristianityCircumstances led me to a parish I'd never been to before. It was the first time. If God helps me, there won't be another unless there's a nuclear winter or something of similarly cosmic proportions and I can't get to another Catholic Church within a 500 mile radius. The message of the day seemed to be seared into my synapses long after the mass was done. Seems you can't be Catholic or Christian unless you breathe, bleed, and sweat inclusivity.<br /><br />I certainly had a response to that. Nay, Christ had an even better one. I was suprised today to find that Michael Novak had my thoughts all summed up. No doubt, he's been a victim of several nuclear winters.<br /><br />"One of the greatest of recent seductions by that wily devil Screwtape -- perfectly fitted to the times -- is to puff a tiny sugar crystal of Christianity into sweetish airy cotton candy. "IN-clusiveness!" he will insist. "Christianity is about nothing if not IN-clusiveness."<br /> <br />That is how Screwtape sweet-talks you into affirming that some abomination (divorce, abortion, euthanasia, adultery, gay marriage) is, actually, included within the broad reach of Christian love. It would be positively un-Christian to think ill of that "abomination." You should be ashamed you ever thought it was wrong. Are you a bigot or something?<br /><br />"Strange!" I would have thought, "Christianity is about EX-clusion." On the last day the Judge shall divide the world into sheep and goats, you over on the left, you over on the right. A few of you will be chosen to enter with me into Paradise. The rest will descend, as you have chosen, into everlasting punishment. I have come not to bring peace, but the sword. He who is not with me is against me. God sent His light into the darkness, and the darkness received it not. The gate is narrow, and the way is strait. Only a tiny remnant will be saved. There was much weeping, and tears, and gnashing of teeth.<br /><br />You can look it up."<br /><br />Certainly Christ doesn't deny ANYONE the chance to save themselves. That's what gives the Church it's Catholicity. Except...there's a devilish detail you can't forget: Christ calls us to include people, not their sins. <br /><br />People fond of the inclusivity doctrine like to point out that Jesus associated with prostitutes and sinners. You have to ask though, does he do this because he wanted to start running with the dogs? Or did he associate with the pariahs of his time so he could teach them to stop running around on all fours, see the truth he was bringing and allow it to elevate them to a new level of dignity?<br /><br />To the woman caught in adultery, Christ doesn't say, "I know you're a sinner, even someone involved in an "alternative" way of life. But I'll include you anyway and make accomodations within the truth to suit your sin." This would be a very strange reading of what Jesus really says. "Go and SIN NO MORE." Seeing the heart, Christ offers mercy but with a qualification. I call it the holiness clause. It a condition on forgiveness that's rooted in the truth about how God saves us. The love is still unconditional, but Christ can't lie to himself or to us and say that we're family when we're not. If sin remains, it will divide.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-3259503821231981652009-02-07T11:12:00.001-08:002009-02-07T16:57:28.031-08:00The Change We NeedIf you believe the "Change" campaign, it would seem that Obama's rise to power marks a new messianic age. The old things have passed away. The new (and therefore necessarily better) has arrived. And that means that as the banks go belly up, Obama will come walking on the water to talk the storms of recession into leaving us all alone. If you don't believe this, ye of little, faith, then you don't understand the power of Change. <br /><br />For now, you don't have to know what we're changing into or what we're changing or who's doing the changing. That will all reveal itself as it happens. What you need to do is this--be audacious enough to pick up a copy of "The Audacity of Hope." Read it and think about it. Remember, it's not so important what you're hoping for.<br /><br />And if ever you get hung up on the millions of babies that are dying, don't worry about it. It's a woman's choice. Just like it's a serial killer's choice and a bank robber's choice and a terrorist's choice. You can believe whatever you want to, but it's up to them what they want to do with their God given freedoms. So stop judging them. <br /><br />When it comes to abortion, think of it as a substitution play. Babies die and you get to hold on to your job. No worries. You never even have to look at the faces of those babies getting shoveled into biohazard bags...unless you take your eyes off of Jesus, I mean, Obama for a second and did a search for "priests for life aborted baby pictures." But be careful cause the audacity of your hope might get temporarily shattered. Just shake it off, take a dose of doublethink and get back with Barack.<br /><br />Barack and Biden, the Change We Need.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-46031757102897694962009-01-20T18:44:00.000-08:002009-03-07T10:12:22.180-08:00Fight FOCA<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcv_J1DgqTkn2mW3oiuhBooaipOwfFBNFvtwoCkiiQgS3-HMl-aGZV5tp0pGnn8iMLQMF0qPKMBBgpEBOzLKetrJMl6Le0oQs_zu3nHqhxRdsxRFaHagZa8JU91aWkODDOYkA/s1600-h/untitled.bmp"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcv_J1DgqTkn2mW3oiuhBooaipOwfFBNFvtwoCkiiQgS3-HMl-aGZV5tp0pGnn8iMLQMF0qPKMBBgpEBOzLKetrJMl6Le0oQs_zu3nHqhxRdsxRFaHagZa8JU91aWkODDOYkA/s200/untitled.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293574647023155378" /></a><br />Whoever you are, it's time to stand up for life. Fight the holocaust of our times by joining your prayers and voices in the campaign against <a href="http://www.fightfoca.com/">FOCA. Remember, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-3901218505080937282009-01-17T09:10:00.000-08:002009-02-07T13:50:43.635-08:00Will The Real Mr. President Please Stand Up?People will say many things about George W. Bush. As he exits the presidential stage, many may pelt him with the metaphorical equivalent of a rotten tomato or even a size 10 shoe. You can be assured that I won’t be among the rotten fruit wielding masses since I've always been impressed by Bush's stance on unborn life. Even during his presidential death throes Bush stood up for life, declaring January 18th "National Sanctity of Human Life Day"? I can't take exception to that. Here’s the official text:<br /><br /><em>All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us. <br /><br />The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My Administration has been committed to building a culture of life by vigorously promoting adoption and parental notification laws, opposing Federal funding for abortions overseas, encouraging teen abstinence, and funding crisis pregnancy programs. In 2002, I was honored to sign into law the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which extends legal protection to children who survive an abortion attempt. I signed legislation in 2003 to ban the cruel practice of partial birth abortion, and that law represents our commitment to building a culture of life in America. Also, I was proud to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which allows authorities to charge a person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb with a separate offense in addition to any charges relating to the mother. <br /><br />America is a caring Nation, and our values should guide us as we harness the gifts of science. In our zeal for new treatments and cures, we must never abandon our fundamental morals. We can achieve the great breakthroughs we all seek with reverence for the gift of life. <br /><br />The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women. On this day and throughout the year, we aspire to build a society in which every child is welcome in life and protected in law. We also encourage more of our fellow Americans to join our just and noble cause. History tells us that with a cause rooted in our deepest principles and appealing to the best instincts of our citizens, we will prevail. <br />NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 18, 2009, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies and to underscore our commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being. <br /><br />IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third. “<br /><br />GEORGE W. BUSH </em><br /><br />You heard what George Bush had to say about life. Now how about Barak Obama?<br /><br />Question: Do you believe life begins at conception?<br />Obama: "You know, I-I-I, uh, th-this is something that I have not, um, I think come to a firm resolution on..."<br />He continues to stammer on into contradiction and incoherence. <br /><br />On another occasion, Obama has this to say:<br />"At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?" It was a question of how Mr. Obama's faith would inform his conscience and his policy. The Illinois senator's answer - "Answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade"<br /><br />Above his pay grade? He's adamantly pro-abortion but it's above his pay grade to know when a baby has human rights? Amazing. How can you be an unyielding supporter of something yet not know FOR SURE whether you're violating human rights? That's like emptying a couple rounds into a house but not knowing if there's people inside.<br /><br />Finally, here's my favorite:<br />"...look, I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old," "I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby," Yes, instead he wants to teach them about the values and morals of killing their babies. <br /><br />I don't think that in light of their records and rhetoric it's hard to figure out which of the two guys below is really holding a baby and who's putting on a show for the camera. Remember that the guy on the left doesn't even know if he's holding a human life. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkR5AfEIh7NikH7S9MGCdzEdVmO9LYa16rwZgMrhyExk1WRZYPgusHxOP8yq-SeTQZHZWajbru6UW5R6_iY3GSOwQe6csUsM92ZadiRPIqMrkq0wMZpejONMXO7njRdpaJoy0W/s1600-h/bush+baby.bmp"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 192px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkR5AfEIh7NikH7S9MGCdzEdVmO9LYa16rwZgMrhyExk1WRZYPgusHxOP8yq-SeTQZHZWajbru6UW5R6_iY3GSOwQe6csUsM92ZadiRPIqMrkq0wMZpejONMXO7njRdpaJoy0W/s200/bush+baby.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292312795414510642" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGEKAQ2AnQB-QEPIWTuVsgFEMsKKS2DrV5wNh7G26ju1bVL4QxBZGqNSuhI8Kz9h6LlMkZ2-6QOMeLZ9RQTCxhiwLZc2HX3Vdlay8GBe_ix8gYyuKWtiPGM9MPdj-4ZjqCk_0/s1600-h/baby.bmp"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGEKAQ2AnQB-QEPIWTuVsgFEMsKKS2DrV5wNh7G26ju1bVL4QxBZGqNSuhI8Kz9h6LlMkZ2-6QOMeLZ9RQTCxhiwLZc2HX3Vdlay8GBe_ix8gYyuKWtiPGM9MPdj-4ZjqCk_0/s200/baby.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292312679248354754" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-25260892827156777782009-01-07T14:27:00.001-08:002009-01-07T15:34:01.611-08:00Spiritual ABCsOver the years, I've been pretty suprised by the number of disgruntled "Catholics" who don't go to mass. They carry with them old wounds, infected over the years by misunderstandings so distorted I can't understand how someone would come to believe them. <br /><br />Maybe the problem is that some Catholics and former Catholics have, at best, a 3rd grade understanding of their faith. They may be 40,50, or even 70 years old but they can't do the spiritual equivalent of their ABCs. They can certainly throw tantrums though.<br /><br />Some of the reasons people give for leaving the Church turn out to be pretty flimsy: Sr. slapped me too many times or Father so and so turned out to be a drunk. These are reasons to leave the one TRUE Church? How many of us no longer add and subtract because of a bad experience with a math teacher? How many people deny the laws of physics because the physics teacher made fun of his students? <br /><br />Physics isn't wrong because a physics teacher did something wrong. The same is true about the Catholic faith. IF you've learned what the Catholic Church teaches (most people haven't) and disagree, then at least you've made an informed decision. There's nothing wrong with that. If, like most people, you don't even know the basics, but presume to, or don't presume to and act against it anyway, well...I beg you to reconsider.<br /><br />A Catholic who blows off the Church without knowing the basics is like a guy entering a spelling bee without knowing his letters. Put more dramatically, what if the same guy had to choose between two doors--one with a bear behind it, one with no bear? The doors are clearly marked as such. Only problem is our guy doesn't know how to read because as a child his reading teacher slapped him and from then on he no longer believed in the value of reading. <br /><br />When someone has to make a decision to follow or not follow God, the situation is a little more dire. We're no longer talking about reading, we're talking about Truth. And the door doesn't read "bear" it says "hell." I'd say that's enough reason to take up reading again. The <a href="http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/ccc.html">Catechism of the Catholic Church </a>is a good place to begin.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-74854062757739270792009-01-07T09:16:00.000-08:002009-01-07T14:26:49.159-08:00A Vampire at the Vatican?A woman dressed in red made a leaping aerial attack on the pope during Midnight Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. According to authorities, she intended to bite the pope in the neck, when several men tackled her to the ground. The pope and the procession continued as if nothing had happened. <br /><br />If you look at the close-up, slow-mo, you can actually see the red blur of a woman in mid-air. The man in black (Undercover Swiss guard?) literally catches her as she hurls herself like a canonball toward the Holy Father. <br /><br />The police confirmed that the woman had been receiving psychiatric care. Purportedly, her attack had been motivated by the pope's recent statements regarding marriage and homosexuals.<br /><br />After watching the video, I'm a bit surprised at the yoda-like calm with which Benedict handled the attack. While Bush managed the flying shoe incident quite well, I think a flying woman would have been more difficult to dodge. <br /><br />I wonder what WOULD have happened had the woman actually reached the pope. Rumor has it he carries a pair of blessed white nunchuks under his sleeves. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xZ-XDODcq_g&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xZ-XDODcq_g&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-70909392353191089762008-12-25T10:51:00.000-08:002008-12-25T10:54:18.096-08:00Merry Christmas!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7n3Seh5y1npuKZ63KMgL7Fr6pW6UGgW9all_3idQ_U6OtFonTznqF3VpGfhhP1PkGj5yXR3d897rmaody0v7tM39FxSPfN5X05MMucf0O_QODGKQ7Q2MXqmRvDz8JgnO_tA1c/s1600-h/90_04_50---Nativity-Scene_web%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7n3Seh5y1npuKZ63KMgL7Fr6pW6UGgW9all_3idQ_U6OtFonTznqF3VpGfhhP1PkGj5yXR3d897rmaody0v7tM39FxSPfN5X05MMucf0O_QODGKQ7Q2MXqmRvDz8JgnO_tA1c/s320/90_04_50---Nativity-Scene_web%5B1%5D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283802994645189890" /></a><br />Merry Christmas! Enjoy your HOLIday. Receive into your heart this day the greatest gift the world has every known: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32963734.post-4597992365452893142008-12-15T18:15:00.000-08:002008-12-15T19:03:08.204-08:00Wacky Verse Slinging from "News"weekI don't think I need to comment any further on Newsweek's "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage." <a href="http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/persecution/pch0202.htm">Mollie Hemmingway does a good enough job demolishing it.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0