I have been struggling with the thought
of how blogging can be only a reactionary response to the world and why I
normally rant first and then only sometimes remember to pray. But now I don’t
have to say it because Steven Riddle of Flos
Carmeli has said it in such a thought provoking way more articulately than I
ever could. Read it and then read it again, this is what the vocation of being
Catholic means.
When after switching to Haloscan as my comment system I prophetically warned other bloggers
that:
“I say this as a warning to other bloggers using Haloscan since now
that I have switched to it, it is doomed and probably won’t last throughout the
week.”
Well it has happened, Haloscan has sufferered a Denial of Service
attack for both their primary and secondary servers. So if there is any
commenting system out there that has grieved or otherwise annoyed you, let me
know and. I will change to it and it will be doomed, yes I say doomed (evil
laugh).
The interview of Phil Donahue by
Oprah partially listed on Amy
Welborn’s site is truly sickening! I use to wonder how in the world did Nazi
Germany happen. How could people stand by and let it escalate more and more. But
then as now the process is slow and the rhetoric used helps hide the true evil
of what is done.
In a bit of irony when I filled out the form to submit an email to
Oprah, the advertising displayed was an ad for babynamer which seems to be a part of
her Oxygen website. I bet out of the 23,000 names listed not one of the names
for a child is “Birth Matter”.
Leafy Lovely Makes Trek From
US to South Africa
Cape Town � Wearing nothing but strategically placed
lettuce leaves and holding a poster that reads, �Go Vegetarian�, People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals� (PETA) sexy Lettuce Lady will pass out free
samples of delicious vegetarian sausages and burgers (compliments of Fry�s
Special) to Cape Town�s hungry lunchtime crowd.
Thanks to Victor Lams for his animal rights comment
which reminded me to go back to the (unintentionally) funniest site on the web
peta.org.
Michael A.
Newdow, a lawyer and emergency room doctor, …
This
guy is very self-sufficient, no wonder he thinks he doesn’t need God. As a
lawyer and a doctor he can sue himself for malpractice and then represent
himself. At one point in time I was probably very much like him.
Once when I heard on the radio, back in the 70s, that less people were going to
church; I rejoiced and thought how wonderful it was that people were giving up
their superstitions and coming into the age of reason. I was a evangelical
atheist in that I wanted everyone to have belief in unbelief. Only problem was
that over time I found that everyone I respected was a theist and those that I
did not respect were either not theists or very lukewarm ones. It was very
disconcerting when I discovered that the values I came to embrace were also the
very same values of the so-called Christian right. I mean, how could these
ignorant rubes come to the same conclusion as me on morality and culture. I
didn’t know at the time that the very values and morality I held dear was built
on a Christian foundation and could never have been based on atheist-materialist
foundation that I professed belief in.
Come Nov. 2 the atheists are going to march on
Washington. For the first time in our history there will be a batch of people
coming here to say what it is they don’t want. What they don’t want is God. And
I suspect the feeling is mutual. They — the atheists — don’t want Him on our
coins, in our pledge, in our oaths and probably not in our churches. They
certainly don’t want Him in our schools or anywhere else where He might have a
positive effect on society. And so they’re going to take advantage of their
God-given right to protest by making an un-Godly fuss. Perhaps they�ll tell us
God is dead. But, on second thought, how can they do that without admitting that
there was a God once? And if there was a God, then there is a God because God
could not be God unless he were infinite. …I don’t suspect the atheist march
will draw a very big crowd. In fact, you might say it will be a miracle if a lot
of people show up except that miracles imply the existence of God so instead it
will just show that a lot of people have nothing better to do with their time
and money. …As for me, I hope they come. In fact, I can hardly wait for the
day, mainly because I want to see if God cares enough to rain on their
parade.” –Lyn Nofziger
“If there were no
God, there would be no atheists.” — G.K. Chesterton
“O my God fill my soul with holy joy, courage and
strength to serve you. Enkindle your love in me and then walk with me along the
next stretch of road before me. I do not see very far ahead but when I have
arrived where the horizon now closes down, a new prospect will open before me
and I shall meet it with peace.” Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the
Cross)
“Love of neighbor, detachment, and humility. Together
they form a foundation for prayer.” — St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila)
“In any case, a statistic has been planted, and makes its
appearances in tables, graphs, learned discourses, becoming part of the world’s
wisdom. In the beginning was the Lie, and the Lie was made news and dwelt among
us, graceless and false.” –Malcolm Muggeridge
The Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy declared
in its July newsletter: “The bishops of the United States have decided that the
normative posture for receiving Holy Communion should be standing. Kneeling is
not a licit posture for receiving Holy Communion in the dioceses of the United
States of America unless the bishop of a particular diocese has derogated from
this norm in an individual and extraordinary circumstance.”
Since I came into the Church in the Easter of 1999 I have always
received Communion kneeling, but if the Bishops say that the normative way is
now standing then I will stand. If the Bishops said that I must
stand on my head or receive Communion balancing on one leg I would gladly do it.
I guess that I will now have to do the much more difficult task of kneeling my
intellect to Christ when receiving Communion.
The Department of Health welcomed the proposals last night and
confirmed that the bank will include human cells from embryos as well as those
from adults. �We welcome the initiative. The cell bank will provide researchers
with accredited cell lines which have been ethically derived with proper consent
from donors,� a spokeswoman said.
…Woman who undergo IVF treatment
will be asked to donate excess embryos to the bank.
Even in the Pro-Life world in-vitro fertilization seems to be largely
forgotten. I think that this is an obscene procedure especially considering that
they implant multiple children in the hope that one will survive. To me this is
tantamount to throwing six to eight children in a cave with one piece of meat
and then keeping the one that manages to survive. I can understand the
frustration of parents wanting to have their own children, but at what cost? We
are talking about immortal souls which God has created and destined to live with
him forever, not just some clumps of cells for us to manipulate at will.
Sometimes when multiple children survive in the womb they kill some off and call
it “Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction”.
Even if they managed to be 100 percent effective and only implanted one child
it would still be an evil since it is an act apart from the unitive act of
marriage. I’ve decided to spiritually adopt a clinic which does IVF in my area
to pray for the doctors, staff, and the men and women desiring to become
parents. May God give them light.
This article
contains a story about the debate over if a tomb found contains the remains of
St. John the Baptist.
“The latest controversy
revolves around what is called “T (Tomb) 1000”, a seemingly ordinary clump of
dirt located just outside the perimeter of Qumran’s ancient
cemetery.“
And I thought T 1000 was the version of the terminator played by
Schwarzenegger.
“Based on things like burial
orientation or the condition of the subject’s teeth, I can usually eyeball a
skeleton and tell whether it’s a modern Bedouin or ancient Jew,“– Mr.
Zias
My question would be: did the skeleton have a skull and was it
attached? But seriously, why is it that people are always trying to make out
that St. John the Baptist was an Essene?
St. John Vianney the Cure’ d’Ars
was trying to stop the dances that the young people of the village were engaging
in and so he hung a sign around the statue of St. John the Baptist which read
“He lost his head over a dance”. Check out his sermon entitled “Be
Religious or be Damned (against dancing)“.