Nashville Dominican Sisters Say NO to B.O. Anti-Catholic Mandate

A recently released statement from the Nashville Dominican Sisters:

Statement from Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation February 6, 2012

Health Insurance Mandate: Religious Freedom and Conscience Rights in United States 

Seriously Threatened

The United States, from its very beginnings, has been an example of true human freedom and religious liberty for all. During its history, in fact, our nation has sheltered countless people who came here from countries where their basic freedoms were either in danger or being denied altogether. Sadly, Americans now face a similar threat. At this moment, which is strange and new to us, our own religious freedom and rights of conscience are in jeopardy. Sharing the very serious concerns expressed by Pope Benedict XVI and by our U.S. bishops in recent weeks, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia will set aside nine days of prayer and fasting during the month of February, asking Our Lady to intercede for our country.

Background

The Holy Father noted in a recent address to U.S. Bishops visiting Rome that Catholics in the United States face "grave threats to the Church's public witness" and "attempts to limit the most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion." He was responding to the American bishops' concerns about "concerted efforts...to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices" and the "tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship." Pope Benedict stressed that it is imperative that "the entire Catholic community in the United States" recognize and counter these threats.

While faced with multiple threats to religious liberty, the most immediate concern is a January 20, 2012 ruling by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), made in conjunction with the recently approved healthcare law. In identifying the "preventive services" that must be covered in most health insurance plans, this HHS mandate specifies "all FDA approved forms of contraception," including sterilization and some abortifacients. Although the ruling does allow an exemption for certain religious organizations, the exemption is so narrow that most religious institutions - including most Catholic schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and charitable agencies - do not meet the criteria.

As a result of this ruling, religious employers will be required to pay for forms of health insurance coverage that violate both their religious beliefs and their rights of conscience. This would be the case with employers at both Catholic and many other religiously-affiliated institutions.

This decision was immediately denounced by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as numerous individual bishops and other religious leaders, both Christian and non-Christian. According to the terms of the mandate, most new and renewed health plans will be required to include the aforementioned services beginning August 1, 2012. Nonprofit employers who, because of their religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage, may have an additional year, until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new law; but they must certify that they qualify for delayed implementation. In the meantime, they must provide their employees with specific information about sites where "contraceptive services" can be obtained. Thus religious employers are obliged by law to cooperate in actions which they hold in conscience to be intrinsically evil.

Cardinal-Designate Timothy M. Dolan, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has termed the HHS decision "literally unconscionable." The Washington Post, in a January 22 editorial, noted that the final HHS ruling "fails to address the fundamental problem of requiring religiously affiliated entities to spend their own money in a way that contradicts the tenets of their faith."

Numerous bishops and other religious leaders have continued to issue public protests against the HHS decision. The bishops have vowed to continue fighting the mandate, urging their people to do the same.

The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation strongly share the concern of our bishops and other religious leaders who have expressed opposition to this decision of the HHS. We are providing in this newsletter links to statements and articles giving more complete information about the implications of this ruling, one which poses an unprecedented threat to freedom of religion and conscience in our country.

United in Prayer

We beg God for the preservation of our great and beautiful country, and of the freedom we have all enjoyed and been privileged to share with others. The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia invite you to join with us in a novena of prayer and fasting, asking Mary, Patroness of the United States of America, to implore God's loving mercy on us at this critical time. The novena will begin February 11 and end February 19, 2012. The sisters will be praying the following prayer each of the nine days.

Act of Consecration of the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Most Holy Trinity: Our Father in heaven, who chose Mary as the fairest of your daughters; Holy Spirit, who chose Mary as your spouse; God the Son, who chose Mary as your Mother; in union with Mary, we adore your majesty and acknowledge your supreme, eternal dominion and authority.

Most Holy Trinity, we put the United States of America into the hands of Mary Immaculate in order that she may present the country to you. Through her we wish to thank you for the great resources of this land and for the freedom, which has been its heritage. Through the intercession of Mary, have mercy on the Catholic Church in America. Grant us peace. Have mercy on our president and on all the officers of our government. Grant us a fruitful economy born of justice and charity. Have mercy on capital and industry and labor. Protect the family life of the nation. Guard the precious gift of many religious vocations. Through the intercession of our Mother, have mercy on the sick, the poor, the tempted, sinners - on all who are in need.

Mary, Immaculate Virgin, our Mother, Patroness of our land, we praise you and honor you and give our country and ourselves to your sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pierced by the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon, save us from degeneration, disaster and war. Protect us from all harm. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, you who bore the sufferings of your Son in the depths of your heart, be our advocate. Pray for us, that acting always according to your will and the will of your divine Son, we may live and die pleasing to God. Amen.

(Imprimatur, Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle, Archbishop of Washington, 1959, for public consecration of the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; renewed by U.S. Bishops, November 11, 2006)

NB.  We eagerly await statements from other congregations of Dominican sisters and from the friars of the U.S. Dominican provinces.

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No, the Church has NOT vowed war on B.O.

This morning's headline on Drudge reads:

CHURCH VOWS WAR ON OBAMA 

'FIGHT IN STREETS'

Two points here: 1) No. . .and. . .hmmmmmm. . .2) No.

No.  The Church has not "vowed war on Obama."  A large majority of U.S. bishops have vowed to fight an Obama administration policy decision.  The headline above gives the distinct impression that this is some sort of personal, partisan battle. . .like rooting for one team over another at the Super Bowl. B.O. has attacked religious liberty by attacking Catholic conscience.  But the fight here is not against him as a partisan player.  

(Don't get me wrong:  I will be delighted to see him lose in November, but that's not because I am a die-hard Republican and I just want "my side" to win.  I'm looking forward to the campaign about as much as I am looking forward to my first colonoscopy.  If B.O. loses and his GOP replacement pursues anti-Catholic/anti-religious policies/anti-life similar to B.O.'s, I'll be just as happy to see him lose in 2016).

And. . .please note that the "fight in the streets" quote is not from a bishop or any official Church office.  It's from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League.

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Touching the Ineffable

5th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Just about every spiritual director I've ever had has asked me to describe my image of God. Do I see God as a distant father? A nurturing mother? An impersonal cosmic force? A cruel judge? Being a Christian, I always said, “I see Jesus.” The point of the exercise was to get an idea of my relationship with God. One's relationship with a petty and vengeful tyrant is very different than one's relationship with a benevolent cosmic force. Most of the directors we had available to us in seminary we of the Feel Good Religious Social Worker variety, so they were usually delighted when we described our image of God in gender-neutral, morally ambiguous terms. The more abstract our image of the divine, the happier they were. My answer—“I see Jesus”—usually got a blank stare or a longish pause. Yes, I see God as both human and divine, a divine person—the Son—given flesh and bone. But I see God Himself as ultimately unknowable in merely human terms, what St Gregory of Nyssa calls “Impenetrable Darkness.” This is not the darkness of an evil god but rather the darkness of human ignorance when confronted by the ineffable nature of the Divine. God is both unknowable in Himself and intimately known in Christ Jesus.

Our readings today bear this out. In 1 Kings we read that the glory of the Lord manifests as a cloud in the temple of Solomon, preventing the priests from ministering at the altars. Solomon proclaims, "The Lord intends to dwell in the dark cloud. . .” and he believes that his temple provides a place for that cloud to abide forever. In Mark's gospel, we read a radically differently description of God in the person of Jesus, “Whatever villages. . .he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.” From a dark cloud billowing in Solomon's temple to walking the hillsides Palestine, our God is at once presented in the glory of His untouchable divinity, and in the humility of his all-too-touchable humanity. The genius of our faith is that our God transcends His creation as its Father; and He abides with His creation as the Holy Spirit. He is with us and beyond us, always right here among us and always exceeding, surpassing everything He has created. 

Before and after the new Missal translation was approved for use in the U.S., several bishops, liturgists, and theologians objected to the reintroduction of the word “ineffable” into the prayer life of the Church. They argued that the word was arcane or too philosophical or too confusing for the poor average Catholic pew-sitter to understand. Try to describe the joy you felt at the birth of your child. Try to describe the pain you felt at the death of a loved one. When you find yourself at a loss for words, you have found an ineffable experience. The glory of God that clouds Solomon's temple is ineffable. The joy of those healed by touching the tassels of Jesus' cloak is ineffable. What's not ineffable, what's not beyond our words to describe is the mission and ministry of the man, Jesus Christ. He walked the hills of ancient Judea preaching, teaching, healing, casting out unclean spirits, and sometimes fleeing the needy crowds of those who hope to touch him! And that they could touch him—the Word made flesh—is the genius of our faith. They could lay hands on the Lord and receive his blessing. We can do that and more. We can receive him, body and blood. And we can go out to follow him by bringing others to him. Bring the sick to him. All they need do is touch Christ to know him and his healing.

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+1 Fat Monday Report

Up by 1 this week to 328. . .not as bad as I was thinking it was gonna be.

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Deacons' weekend. . .

No Sunday homily from me this week. . .our deacons are preaching.

See ya Monday!

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Pope Nope I

Maybe a little over the top. . .

. . .but not inaccurate.

Credit:  HotAir
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Anti-Catholic Bigtory: A Rant

Excellent article on the contemporary resurgence of American anti-Catholicism:

". . .the new anti-Catholicism does not adopt the posture of a humble and teachable critic seeking to engage the Church on matters over which reasonable citizens from differing theological and secular moral traditions disagree. Rather, it seeks to employ the coercive power of the state to force the Church’s institutions to violate the Church’s own moral theology, and thus compromise, and make less accessible, the Church’s mission of charity and hope."

Anti-Catholic bigotry is un-American.  Hell itself will not prevail against the Church, so I'm little worried that the mewlings and machinations of pampered academics and other assorted leftist bigots will hurt the Church in the long run.

However, anti-Catholic bigotry can cause permanent damage to our liberty as American citizens, permanent damage to our republican form of self-government and the divinely gifted rights of individuals to worship and believe as they choose. 

Recent attacks on the Church by the B.O. administration are not accidental nor are they coincidental.  B.O. and his allies are going right to the core of our religious freedom by taking on the only institution left in this country that stalwartly stands against their statist agenda of radical secularism.  

Having chipped away at the foundations of liberty through dependency on the largesse of the welfare state and created a generation or two of state wards, secularists (with B.O.'s generous help) are now reaching into the conscience of individuals and coercing compliance to rules and regulations that are diametrically opposed to the basic truths of the Christian faith. 

It is one thing for secularists to expect Catholics to respect the rule of law and tolerate the easy availability of contraception, abortion, and sterilization.  It is quite another to order us to pay for the privilege of helping others to commit mortal sin. 

B.O.'s spurious claim that his Big Government grasp at power is somehow akin to "what Jesus would do" is truly beyond ridicule.  Does he think that Jesus would also expect us to surgically and chemically render women infertile? Or use scissors and vacuum pumps to remove unborn children from their mother's womb?  Where in scripture does Jesus order his followers to surrender their charitable responsibilities to Caesar's bureaucrats and tax collectors? 

Jesus expects his followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and heal the sick (Matt 25).  And that is exactly what billions of Catholic dollars and thousands of Catholics do in this country every year through Catholic Charities, Catholic hospitals and hospices, and hundreds of other service organizations operated by the Church.  Why is this a problem for statists?  Competition.  The Church provides free health care to millions but it also operates without the preferred ideological/sexual agenda of the secular Left.  With the Church out of the way, those millions join millions more as dependent wards of the state, their liberty as citizens defined and regulated by their Enlightened Betters.  

Keep in mind that B.O. and his allies cut funding to the bishops' efforts to stop human trafficking.  Why?  The bishops were having UnGood Thoughts. . .about issues that have nothing to do with their work against slavery.  

Keep in mind that this administration sued a Lutheran Church for firing one its ministers, claiming that the 1st Amendment does not exempt religious institutions from equal opportunity employment laws.  In other words, the gov't should be able to tell churches who can and can't be ministers.

Keep in mind that this administration is charging pro-life activists all over the country with civil rights violations for exercising their 1st Amendment rights to speak freely about the evils of abortion.  

Keep in mind that this administration consistently refuses to use the phrase "freedom of religion" in its domestic and foreign policy statements, preferring instead "freedom of worship."  This is an aggressive attempt to shrink the religious liberty of believers down to the sanctuary. 

Keep in mind, political power is given not taken. 

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Deserts & Gardens

4th Week OT (S)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Buzzing with life—plants, flowers, fruit, animals, insects—the garden is an ancient archetype of what the human soul looks and feels like when all is well between God and man. A lush and verdant garden calls to mind God's creative design, His will that creation “be fruitful and multiply,” and His loving provision for the needs of all the creatures He brought to life. We immediately call to mind the Garden of Eden, the Bible's idyllic setting for man's first encounter with the Creator. No disease, no corruption, no death. If asked to name an place that radically contrasts the image of a garden, we might be tempted to say the desert. Dry, barren, lonely. Though an understandable answer, it's not the biblical answer. In scripture, typically, both the fertile garden and the wild desert are places where we can go to meet God. In the garden, we work with and enjoy the divine abundance. In the desert, we empty ourselves to make room for that abundance. If the garden is the biblical image of the human person flourishing, growing, and producing abundant fruit with the blessings of God, what does the biblical desert say about our relationship with the divine? Jesus says to his disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” 

If you've ever planted and tended a garden, you know that even the smallest plot takes a lot of work. Planting, weeding, pruning, watering, harvesting. We had three large gardens when I was a kid, so I've spent many an hour bent over rows of butter beans, cucumbers, melons, and tomatoes, hoeing, pulling weeds, mulching, and picking. The work didn't kill us; we just sometimes wished that it would. God blessed us with more than we could can, freeze, and eat but those blessings—in all their excess—came about b/c we worked with the gifts God gave us. To put this into spiritual terms: God gifted us with His goodness; we received that goodness and worked with it to produce abundant fruit. If we had been less willing to acknowledge God's grace, we might've concluded that we had done all the work and that our gardens thrived on our labor alone. The desert is the biblical image that interrupts our descent into pride and reminds us that where there is abundant fruit, famine is only a lazy season away. So that we might not come to believe that we alone work for our spiritual good, we go into the desert and live with God alone, emptying ourselves of excess, indulgence, and readily satiated want. The desert is not a desolate place or a place of scarcity. Its dryness comes from our surrender, our abandonment to God of all our needs, wants, and demands. It's a place where nothing comes between you and your God.

The human soul is fed and nurtured in the garden, and it is freed from debilitating attachments in the desert. Moving back and forth between the two describes the normal course of our spiritual lives. There are times of hard work in prayer and works of mercy, work that produces abundant fruit. And there are times to flee into the wilderness, to scrape away the ties that bind, to purge all the excesses of pride. But whether we are in the verdant garden or the arid desert, we are constantly called to remember that our God is always with us. He was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He was with Moses and his people in the Sinai desert. He was with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he was with John the Baptist in the deserts of Judea. His abundance is a blessing and so is His scarcity. Both teach us gratitude and gratitude teaches us humility. Perhaps the hardest lesson we can learn.

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Coffee Cup Browsing

It's a B.O. Economy!  NYC is on a hiring spree. . .to staff its welfare agencies.

Geez.  Now Starbucks needs boycottin' by Catholics.  Who's next?

No, the Komen Foundation did not back down on defunding the culture of death. . .not this time around, at least.  Though it remains to be seen whether or not your donations to KF will be funneled to PP in the future.

Eyeroll Alert!  Jesus made me support the socialist takeover of the American healthcare system. . .hmmmm. . .is Jesus also making him support the wholesale murder of our children in the womb and forcing the Church to pay for the privilege of helping with the slaughter?

BTW, has your bishop spoken out about B.O.'s decision to force Catholics to violate their conscience?

Occupy Drinking Water!  OWS thugs use a town's water supply as their toilet. 

Neve a Roma!

Been there, doing that.

"Somebody is gonna pay for this."

Denial.  River.  Egypt.  You know the drill.
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Catholic Military Chaplains Silenced

So, how far is too far?

This far?  Catholic military chaplains have been ordered not to read aloud to our troops their archbishop's letter on B.O.'s recent attack on religious liberty.  

I realize that in many ways the military is "different" when it comes to some basic rights and liberties, but I am also confident that our troops are capable of disagreeing with their Commander in Chief politically and still following his military orders. In fact, I would expect them to follow these orders as they have vowed to do.  

But by ordering Catholic chaplains to be silent on an issue that directly impacts the relationship btw a Catholic soldier's conscience and his/her pastor. . .that's too far.  If a Catholic military chaplain can be ordered not to read aloud a letter from his bishop, can he be legitimately ordered to read a letter aloud from the CIC attacking the Church? 

This President seems hell-bent on pushing the Church out of the public square.  Fortunately, we have the means of pushing him out of the White House.

Can November come fast enough?

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Being freely reconciled to the Father

NB.  I want to acknowledge the didactic tone of this homily.  I've found that this feast sometimes prompts preachers to talk too much about Baby Jesus in a sweet, cutey fashion; so I wanted to point out the deeper theological meaning of the feast.

Presentation of the Lord
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Jesus' presentation in the temple is yet another marker of his true nature and purpose; that is, along with his birth to the Virgin Mary; his epiphany as the Messiah before the Magi; his circumcision as a descendent of Abraham; and his presentation in the temple as the firstborn son, Jesus is revealed to be both human and divine, sent by God so “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, the Devil. . .and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.” The feasts of the Lord celebrated after Christmas are celebrated in order to reinforce for us the ancient truth that Jesus is one person with two natures—human and divine. His dual nature is not accidental or whimsical but purposeful and necessary in God's plan for our salvation. The writer of Hebrews notes that the Messiah is sent in order to help “the descendants of Abraham; therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the people.” So that he might offer us salvation through the forgiveness of our sins, he became one of us and died as one of us. When we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the temple, we celebrate both his humanity and his divinity. And we anticipate our own perfection as those baptized into his life and death.

The Catechism teaches us that “the Word became flesh for us in order to [1] save us by reconciling us with God. . .[2] so that thus we might know God's love. . .[3] to be our model of holiness. . .[4] to make us 'partakers of the divine nature'”(457-60). Let's break this down even further. Since we are alienated from God by our sin and God wills that we be reconciled with Him, our sins must be expunged, washed away. With the birth, death, and resurrection of the Christ, our sins are forgiven. For God's forgiveness to take hold in our lives, we must receive His forgiveness as a gift—an unmerited grace, freely given. When we receive His forgiveness as a gift, we come to know the Father's love; that is, His love is made manifest, given another body and soul—our own. With a body and soul brimming with the Father's love, we begin a life of holiness, a life set apart from the world while living in the world. A life of holiness looks, sounds, and feels like the life that Jesus himself led: a life of mercy, sacrifice, love, perseverance, and courage. Living such a life—steeping ourselves in God's enduring love—trains us to participate more fully in His divine nature, making us both human and divine, and perfectly so in His presence. 

It is vital that we understand that God wills two things for us: (1) that we return to Him reconciled and (2) that we do so freely. To accomplish this, He offers us an abundance of His goodness, truth, and beauty, everything we need to come to Him clean and pure of heart. But he only offers what we need. As co-redeemers in His plan for our salvation, we must freely receive all that He offers. The Son became flesh so that we might see—in a man like one of us—how to receive God's gifts. Jesus was baptized, anointed, and he broke bread with his disciples. When we worthily celebrate—that is, freely, freed of sin—these sacraments, we receive God's gifts and participate in the divine life. Then, taking our experience of the divine life out into the world, we become apostles, preachers and teachers of the Gospel. And more than apostles, we become Christ-like; we become Christs.

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The Fathers, Pope Benedict XVI

My thanks to Michele G. for visiting the Wish List and sending me a book by Pope Benedict XVI!

This will be part of my Lenten reading. . .along with two others from St Pius X Press that I am going to review soon.

God bless, Fr. Philip

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On not being stupid

4th Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

The crowds who witness Jesus' miracles recognize that he is preaching and teaching with a new authority. More than just another rabbi, just another prophet. He is something more than a local holy man or a snake oil salesman. Having been repeatedly surprised by the wisdom of his teaching, the crowds are frightened when he removes Legion of a man possessed and casts the unclean spirits into a herd of swine. Whoever this Jesus guy is, he's doing something entirely new, something entirely different. That is, until he makes a visit to his hometown. After he teaches in the synagogue, the local folks ask, “Where's he getting all this wisdom? He's done some mighty things! But isn't he just Mary's kid? Don't his brothers and sister live right here in town?” And b/c he is just a hometown boy to them, “they take offense at him” and show him no respect. What's interesting here is that they are at first astonished by his teaching, but then they talk themselves into being offended. What happens to them between leaving the synagogue and deciding that Jesus is just another Local Nobody? We don't have to stretch our imaginations too far to figure out that the sin of pride asserts itself and convinces them that no matter how astonishing his teaching might be, Jesus is just a local boy trying to show them up; thus, pride nurtures stupidity.

Because the people of Jesus' town will not receive him as a prophet, they cannot receive the gifts of wisdom and healing that he offers. Mark reports, “. . .he was not able to perform any mighty deed there. . .” Mark also notes that Jesus “was amazed at their lack of faith.” Why should he be amazed? Despite eye-witness testimony; despite their own astonishment at his teaching; despite the fact that they have the people Jesus healed living among them; despite every bit of evidence available to them, they refuse to give Jesus the honor due his words and deeds. They simply could not get past the fact that this amazing preacher, this wise teacher, this miracle worker was a hometown boy. In their pride-fogged minds, Jesus came home for no other reason than to show them up as rubes, and they are offended. But are they harmed? By neglect, yes. I mean, they were harmed b/c by taking offense they were unwilling to receive all that Jesus had to offer them. Their pride stood like a wall between disease and healing, between sin and salvation. That day, pride did its job well and the prideful suffered for it. 

The people of Jesus' hometown exhibit one of the deadliest symptoms of being infected with pride: thinking so highly of themselves that they refuse freely offered help. And not just any help but Divine Help! We might also say that pride serves as a cover for their own self-loathing. Isn't needing help a sign of weakness? Isn't asking for charity of any kind an admission of defeat? Jesus' offer of divine help sparks resentment: does he think we are children needing a father or mother to guide us? He's one of us! How dare he come in here and try to play the prophet of God! Pride is considered the worst of the cardinal sins precisely b/c it gives rise to all the other sins. Turning our faces from God and the Church and demanding to be left alone to live by our own wits is the height of stupidity. No one truly lives alone. No live lives at all without God. Faith, trust, like any good habit must be exercised or it becomes flabby. A spiritually flabby heart quickly becomes delusional, believing that it beats by human will alone. A truly faithful heart knows that it beats best when it follows the willful rhythm of the Lord's love and mercy. Do not let the Lord be amazed at your stupidity.

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Boycott Fat Monday!

Got on the scale this morning. . .didn't like that number, so I'm boycotting the Monday Fat Report until the number gets where I want it!

(Needless to say, the number was higher than 327 lbs. . .gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. . .)

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Why so fearful?

4th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

While preaching, teaching, and casting out unclean spirits, Jesus has met with a number of predictable responses: astonishment from the crowds; jealousy from the Pharisees; confusion from his disciples. The crowds are astonished by his authority to command spirits. The Pharisees are jealous of his influence over the people. And the poor disciples are confused by his parables and his reluctance to act like a proper prophet. Of all the responses he's garnered—amazement, envy, puzzlement—one stands out as unusual: fear. Looking back over our gospel readings last week, we read that the unclean spirits fear Jesus b/c he has authority over them as the Son of God. They beg him not interfere in their business of tormenting souls. The Lord casts them out despite their pleas. So, why do I say that fear is an unusual response to Jesus' preaching? Well, we can expect unclean spirits to be afraid of the Christ. But in this morning's reading we hear that a man possessed by an unclean spirit is freed from possession. The local folks approach Jesus and see that the man is calm and “in his right mind.” Are they astonished? Jealous? Confused? No, “. . .they were seized with fear. . .Then they began to beg him to leave their district.” Seized with fear? Why? Why are they afraid of Jesus? Why would anyone be afraid of a man who can free them from the chains of an unclean spirit?

Let's put the question in more modern terms and see what we can come up with. Why would someone in love with their sin fear another who has been freed from that sin? I've spent many an hour sitting in various kinds of 12-Step groups with clients who report that their efforts at recovery often evoke fear among their friends who are still indulging their addictions. I know a couple of men and women who struggle with same-sex attractions who have found themselves friendless b/c they have chosen to live chastely. In my own experience, there is no quicker way to get offered lots of fried food and sugary pastries than to announce that I am on a diet! You've heard it said that misery loves company. We can amend that saying to read, “Misery loves company and so does sin.” When confronted by the power and authority of the Christ to cast out unclean spirits, the people around Jesus become afraid b/c he is a source of radical change, a whirlwind of upheaval and potential destruction. If he can command demons, what can he do to my comfortable life, my cozy life of sin? 

Now, of course, a big part of the peoples' fear is that Jesus is displaying what they think of as the power of a wizard—he casts demons into swine. But we can't discount the ability of their human minds to make a connection between the insanity of the possessed man and their own disobedience. Those possessed are possessed b/c of their sin. Jesus can handle Legion. He can certainly turn to me and radically alter my snug relationship with my favorite sin. That's scary. Especially if I'm not particularly inclined to think of my favorite sin as a sin. This raises another question: if being freed from my favorite sin is so terrifying, what does that say about the influence that sin has on how I see myself? In other words, am I more than just the sum total of my sins? If I am, then what's left over? Who am I w/o my sins? Seriously facing that question is terrifying for some of us. The Good News here is that w/o our sins we are all that much closer to being who and what we were created to be: Christs for one another. Fear may be a natural response to this truth, but fear is never the best response to being offered eternal life.

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Guess which graph I am most embarrassed by. . .

Hint:  it's not the one about Moe, Larry, and Curly or the one that looks like a doughnut.

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Time for Catholic Girls to Quit the Girl Scouts (UPDATED)

To all Catholic Moms and Dads: Time to pull your daughters out of the Girl Scouts! Here's a vid of GSA CEO admitting that her organization uses Planned Parenthood as an "educational resource."

TXMom4Life notes in the combox:   "To learn more: watch EWTN's Women of Grace, Monday-Friday the week of February 20th (2012). They will be airing a 5-part series called 'Girl Scouts: Mission Aborted.'

Also see www.100questionsforthegirlscouts.org and www.speaknowgirlscouts.com."

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A challenge to Catholic bloggers. . .

Conscience Protection: Bishops Vow to Fight Coercive HHS Mandate. . .(USCCB)

Click here to find you what you can do to oppose this unprecedented attack on our religious liberties as both Catholics and Americans.

Also, I want to challenge ALL Catholic bloggers to link to the bishops' site and urge their readers to respond. 

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Bishop raises an alarm. . .too late?

Bishop Jenky of Peoria, IL tells it like it is!  WOW.  I've never read a more direct description of our current political position in this country:

[. . .] As your Bishop, I now believe it is critically necessary to raise an alarm among the faithful regarding growing threats to our religious freedom due to the increasing steps toward radical secularization taking place in Illinois. Beside the abrupt exclusion of Catholic Charities from childcare and adoption services and increasing attempts to intimidate Catholic healthcare, I am also concerned about possible future moves that could be made against the independence of our Catholic schools and other public ministries of our Diocese. Eventually it may come to pass that our fidelity to the Gospel of Christ and to Catholic tradition may place us in direct conflict with recent legal definitions of the State of Illinois. There are certainly some in our state whose commitment to aesthetic secularism is so intense that they may well try to restrict the Church’s role only to the sacristy and sanctuary.

I am especially scandalized by some “Catholic” politicians who willingly collaborate with efforts to restrict the civil liberty of the faith tradition from which they were originally sprung. Many of those in office who were taught to read and write in Catholic schools, now seem entirely indifferent to the consciences of those Catholics who live their faith. On Ash Wednesday, they like to be conspicuous with crosses on their foreheads, but the true Cross of Christ seems far from their hearts and minds. They enjoy parties on March the 17th and wearing green sweaters but in effect are ashamed of Saint Patrick’s unwavering zeal for the Catholic Christianity. They like photo opportunities with the hierarchy, but break their word to them without a moment’s hesitation. They may still use the rituals of Catholicism to mark their happy and sad occasions, but apparently would sell their soul for a vote or a dollar. What does it benefit a person to gain the whole world but lose their soul (Mark 8:36), but eternal loss for the sake of public office in Illinois is an extraordinarily foolish deal with the devil. Such people certainly need our prayers, but they should no longer be able to take our friendship or our support for granted [. . .]

I respectfully submit to Bishop Jenky that the lack of action on the part of his episcopal brethren in disciplining "Catholic" politicians has given these wayward souls the distinct impression that they can slap on green hats and parade their ashes and backslap Cardinals at fundraising dinners and still vote for abortion, gay "marriage," and ObamaCare w/o consequences.  

It is well beyond time for our bishops and pastors to stop inviting these political leeches to public celebrations of Catholic cultural events.  Whether or not individuals should be denied communion is a much more delicate and complicated matter.  However, declining invitations to fundraising events, parades, etc. is not.  The Bernadin Experiment in secular engagement has been a failure, a horrible failure, and our shepherds need to repudiate it before we all find ourselves under judgment.

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Just Say NO to B.O.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans asked his pastors to read a letter at this weekend's Masses.  When I read the letter to myself, I thought it was rather tame.  However, when I read it aloud, I was struck by the force of his words and motivated to act.

Rarely have I asked HancAquam readers to anything specific. . .OK. . ."buy me books" counts, I guess!  :-)

Let me ask you to do something now:  contact your Congressmen and Senators and let them know that you strongly object to the Obama administration's intrusion into our lives as faithful Catholics.

Even those of you who think the Church's teaching on contraception and abortion is wrongheaded or too extreme, or even if you don't really understand the Church's teachings, you can appreciate the gross malfeasance of requiring Catholic institutions to pay for contraceptives and abortions.  The Amish are exempted from buying health insurance and sending their children to public schools.  The Quakers are exempted from serving in the military.  Why are Catholics being required to violate their conscience in the funding of abortion?

Spirit of Vatican Two Catholics and JPII-BXVI Catholics can agree that the well-formed conscience of a religious believer is not subject to regulation by secular political forces.  

B.O. is setting himself against both the leadership of the Church and against the free conscience of individual Catholics when he orders that we work in order to supply money to those who want to violate the natural law by killing their children.  This is a rank, cynical political move to shore up his base before an election by demonizing the only institution left in this country that believes in objective truth and knowable moral norms.  

Not only is he ordering us to give our money to abortionists, he's implicating us in mortal sin.

Let your representatives know that they have your support in opposing B.O.'s attempt to get you to pay for his supporters' abortions.

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Anxiety = Distraction

4th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Paul writes to the Corinthians: “I should like you to be free of anxieties. . .[so that you might adhere] to the Lord without distraction.” How does he suggest that we avoid anxiety and thus adhere to the Lord without distractions? Don't get married! “An unmarried man [or woman] is anxious about the things of the Lord. . .a married man [or woman] is divided,” he says, between pleasing the Lord and pleasing a spouse. Looking out over the congregation, I daresay, by Paul's standard, we have a lot of anxious folks here this morning! But this nothing to be worried about. Paul adds, “I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you. . .” In other words, though he believes it is better to remain unmarried and thus undivided in the service of the Lord, he is not imposing celibacy as a restraint. Keep in mind that Paul's advice to the Corinthians is coming from personal experience—he had been a married man.*  He knows all about the anxieties and distractions of having a wife. And that's his point, that's what he is teaching—not celibacy or virginity (worthy, even preferable choices) but the importance of serving the Lord without the anxiety of distractions. The unclean spirits possessing the man shout at Jesus, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Jesus casts out the man's uncleanliness by saying, “Quiet! Come out of him!” And the man is distracted no more.

How do we become possessed by the unclean spirit of anxiety? It might go something like this: an ordinary seed of responsibility sprouts as a worry and that sprout of worry, with careful nursing, blossoms into a poisonous vexation. That poisonous vexation, if not quickly and mercilessly pruned, is left to ripen and become an anxious fruit, which then drops, bursting with rot to plant its distracting seeds in your spirit. Then the cycle of responsibility, worry, vexation, and anxiety to distraction not only repeats but it repeats in every part of your life. What might start as an ordinary responsibility to pay a bill can sprout, blossom, ripen, and rot into a distracting anxiety about money. “I have a bill to pay” becomes “If I can't pay this bill, I am a worthless husband, a useless wife.” If and when this happens, then you know that the unclean spirit of anxiety has possessed you. To that unclean, disquieting spirit, our Lord, say, “Quiet! Come out!” 

You might have noticed that I left something out of my description of how we might become possessed by the unclean spirits of anxiety. I said that an ordinary responsibility can sprout in our souls as a worry. What can cause this? What is it that transforms a mundane responsibility like paying a bill into a worry about where the money will come from? To answer this question, we need to think about what anxiety is in Christian terms. And how anxiety is a distraction in our service to the Lord. There is no official Church definition of anxiety, but there is a revealing mention of it in the Catechism, a mention that gives us a powerful clue in figuring out exactly how anxiety hurts us spiritually. In its discussion of the Tenth Commandment, the one against coveting a neighbor's goods, the Catechism says this, “Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow. Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God”(2547). If abandonment to the providence of God frees us from anxiety, then it is reasonable to assume that refusing to abandon ourselves to the loving-care of the Father enslaves us to worry. Anxiety then is the unclean spirit that possesses us when we fail to trust that God will provide for our needs. The job of this unclean spirit is to distract us from serving the Lord by focusing our time, energy, and talent on trying to solve the very problems we have created for ourselves by not heeding the Lord's will in the first place. I hope the irony of this doesn't escape you. . .

OK. We've all heard some version of “abandonment to God's providence” all our lives. It's right up there with “Offer it up” and “think of it as a few more days off purgatory.” What does the phrase mean though? When we think of abandoning something we think of leaving it behind, surrendering it, giving it away. We think of abandoned cars, houses, even abandoned children or spouses—those thrown out. When we abandon something we sever all ties to it, cut our affections, distance ourselves. But none of those really fit the idea of abandonment TO God's providence. We're not giving up on providence or cutting ties with God's loving-care. What we are doing to falling into the hands of God w/o looking first to see if He's really gonna catch us. Think of bungee jumping off a bridge w/o the bungee cord. You abandon your perch in order to abandon yourself to the rush of the wind and the pull of gravity. We always fall down. Spiritually speaking, when the need arises, we always fall into God's loving hands. Like needful objects hurtling toward the earth, at our most desperate, we tumble toward the Father. There is no question about this. It is His will. The question is whether or not we will acknowledge this as His will, give Him thanks for His care, and then continue on in the full knowledge that we have already been caught and cared for. The unclean spirit of anxiety is exorcised the moment we say to the first inkling of worry, “Quiet! Come out of me!” And when family and friends see that you are calm, collected, and cared for, they will be astonished. 

Let's set the record straight on one important point: God's loving-care for you in your time of need will not likely appear in your checking account or as a magically transformed spouse or as suddenly obedient kids. His love for us can manifest as material goods. More often than not, His love for us sits as a reminder beyond this life that our lives here are impermanent, always in transition toward to a higher end with a greater purpose. God is not a heavenly banker, or a miracle-working therapist, or revolutionary psychotropic medication. He loves us b/c it is His nature to love, and the love He gives us is given so that we can transform our relationship to Him, to others, to ourselves, and to the things of this world. This means that all those relationships that invite the unclean spirits of anxiety into your life must be re-ordered behind your first love: God. Love your spouse b/c you love God first. Love your children b/c you love God first. Love your house, your car, your career, your hobbies b/c God comes first, before everything and everyone you love. That way, when your spouse passes, your kids move away, your car breaks down, and you lose your job, you still dwell faithfully in the only permanent source of love, Love Himself, God. 

The Psalmist writes, “Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. For he is our God. . .” Your life will be ruled by that which you love most. To place God at the center of your life, to make Him your heart—remove whatever else, whoever else occupies that place of honor and abandon yourself and all those you love to the only living source of Love: Christ Jesus and him alone.

*I changed this portion of the sentence b/c I'd confused Paul with Peter.  Paul was probably a widower.

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Will your penance bear fruit?

St. Angela Merici
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

In the newly translated Confiteor we confess, “I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do. . .” In that way that only Catholics can truly appreciate, we cover all the bases! Thought, words, deeds, and deeds we didn't do. This penitential prayer isn't just some casual way to start the Mass, nor is it an easy-cheesy wink at our sins. In that one sentence we rehearse not only the typical progression of sin but we also practice a way out of whatever sin we may have committed. Sin usually starts with a thought, then progresses to a word—to ourselves or someone else; then we move to the deed itself. How do we “reverse” this progression once it's finished? We start with a deed—going to confession. Then we move to the words—we confess, pray the act of contrition, and receive our penance. Then we move—literally, physically—out of the confessional and complete our penance, the final deed. Rightly conceived and executed, that penance can be the very seed of next witness; that is, our penance—whether public or private—can be both a seed planted for our own growth in holiness and the beginning of a holy life for someone else. Let me give you a very stark example. . .

In 1981, my high school Spanish class went to Mexico City to visit the newly built Shrine of Our Lady of Guadeloupe and the National Cathedral. I knew exactly nothing about Catholicism. Our tour bus pulled up into the plaza in front of the shrine and the cathedral and we all piled out to gape at all the weird stuff around us. Just as I stepped out, I heard this low moaning, a sort of chant coming from the right. The locals gathered for prayer parted and from among them came about 200 abuelas, grandmothers, crawling on their knees toward the shrine. They were all holding these strings of beads and muttering out loud. Never in my 17 years had I ever seen anything so bizarre! We all stopped and stared at them. They were dressed in loose-fitting black shawls with their heads covered and. . .the worst part. . .their knees and legs were covered in blood. They had been crawling over asphalt and gravel for miles. I asked my teacher, a Catholic woman, “What are they doing?” She said, “They are doing penance for their sons who are in jail.” Thirty years later, that image—those grandmothers on their bloodied knees doing penance for the sins of their sons and grandsons—remains a vivid image for me of what we are capable of when believe in the power of repentance. Though none of the abuelas know this, their witness that day put me in the Dominican habit. They planted the seed of my priestly vocation.

The new translation of the Confiteor is not all that different from the old one. The bishops restored the triple mea culpa, and thus reasserted the role of our free will in committing sin. This isn't a move toward darkening the joy of our celebration; this isn't a way for the clergy to “beat up” on the laity for your lack of holiness. Quite the opposite! That you are reciting the Confiteor at Mass in the first place is evidence enough that you are fully aware of your sin. The Confiteor is your chance to tell the truth about your spiritual state and to receive the mercy that God freely offers. How can you receive if you do not ask? When you leave here this evening, what penance will you perform? How will you show the Lord that you are repentant? Whatever you choose to think, to say, or do, let it be a witness that plants a seed, a seed that produces a marvelous harvest for the glory of the Lord!

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Liberty for the Amish & Quakers but not Catholics. . .

In the editorial below, Archbishop Dolan makes an excellent point.  The gov't respects the religious consciences of a number of Christian groups in the US by exempting them from otherwise obligatory laws.  Why is it so difficult for B.O. to respect our 2,000 year old tradition of calling abortion murder and refusing to pay for it?

 

ObamaCare and Religious Freedom
How about some respect for Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease?
By [Archbishop] TIMOTHY M. DOLAN

Religious freedom is the lifeblood of the American people, the cornerstone of American government. When the Founding Fathers determined that the innate rights of men and women should be enshrined in our Constitution, they so esteemed religious liberty that they made it the first freedom in the Bill of Rights.

In particular, the Founding Fathers fiercely defended the right of conscience. George Washington himself declared: "The conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness; and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may always be extensively accommodated to them." James Madison, a key defender of religious freedom and author of the First Amendment, said: "Conscience is the most sacred of all property."

Scarcely two weeks ago, in its Hosanna-Tabor decision upholding the right of churches to make ministerial hiring decisions, the Supreme Court unanimously and enthusiastically reaffirmed these longstanding and foundational principles of religious freedom. The court made clear that they include the right of religious institutions to control their internal affairs.

Yet the Obama administration has veered in the opposite direction. It has refused to exempt religious institutions that serve the common good—including Catholic schools, charities and hospitals—from its sweeping new health-care mandate that requires employers to purchase contraception, including abortion-producing drugs, and sterilization coverage for their employees.

Last August, when the administration first proposed this nationwide mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage, it also proposed a "religious employer" exemption. But this was so narrow that it would apply only to religious organizations engaged primarily in serving people of the same religion. As Catholic Charities USA's president, the Rev. Larry Snyder, notes, even Jesus and His disciples would not qualify for the exemption in that case, because they were committed to serve those of other faiths.

Since then, hundreds of religious institutions, and hundreds of thousands of individual citizens, have raised their voices in principled opposition to this requirement that religious institutions and individuals violate their own basic moral teaching in their health plans. Certainly many of these good people and groups were Catholic, but many were Americans of other faiths, or no faith at all, who recognize that their beliefs could be next on the block. They also recognize that the cleverest way for the government to erode the broader principle of religious freedom is to target unpopular beliefs first.

Now we have learned that those loud and strong appeals were ignored. On Friday, the administration reaffirmed the mandate, and offered only a one-year delay in enforcement in some cases—as if we might suddenly be more willing to violate our consciences 12 months from now. As a result, all but a few employers will be forced to purchase coverage for contraception, abortion drugs and sterilization services even when they seriously object to them. All who share the cost of health plans that include such services will be forced to pay for them as well. Surely it violates freedom of religion to force religious ministries and citizens to buy health coverage to which they object as a matter of conscience and religious principle.

The rule forces insurance companies to provide these services without a co-pay, suggesting they are "free"—but it is naïve to believe that. There is no free lunch, and you can be sure there's no free abortion, sterilization or contraception. There will be a source of funding: you.

Coercing religious ministries and citizens to pay directly for actions that violate their teaching is an unprecedented incursion into freedom of conscience. Organizations fear that this unjust rule will force them to take one horn or the other of an unacceptable dilemma: Stop serving people of all faiths in their ministries—so that they will fall under the narrow exemption—or stop providing health-care coverage to their own employees.

The Catholic Church defends religious liberty, including freedom of conscience, for everyone. The Amish do not carry health insurance. The government respects their principles. Christian Scientists want to heal by prayer alone, and the new health-care reform law respects that. Quakers and others object to killing even in wartime, and the government respects that principle for conscientious objectors. By its decision, the Obama administration has failed to show the same respect for the consciences of Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease.

This latest erosion of our first freedom should make all Americans pause. When the government tampers with a freedom so fundamental to the life of our nation, one shudders to think what lies ahead.

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Prayer to St Michael the Archangel. . .yup, it's time!

Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, IL has asked parishes in his dioceses to reintroduce the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel as a way of combating B.O.'s intrusion into our Christian consciences with his pro-abort/contraception mentality. 

Hoorah for the Good Bishop!

Here at St. Dominic's we recite the prayer after each Mass. . .

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.

Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host--
by the Divine Power of God--cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Another version:

O glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, defend us in battle, and in the struggle which is ours against the principalities and Powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against spirits of evil in high places. Come to the aid of men, whom God created immortal, made in his own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.  Amen.

And there's an even longer version:

O glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, defend us in battle, and in the struggle which is ours against the principalities and Powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against spirits of evil in high places. Come to the aid of men, whom God created immortal, made in his own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.

Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. But that cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan, who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with all his angels.

Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of man has taken courage, Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of his Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.

These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions.

In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.

Arise then, O invincible prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and bring them the victory.

The Church venerates thee as protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of this world and of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.

Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.  Amen.

Warning:  the Devil prefers that Christians keep quiet and he more or less leaves us alone when we aren't causing him any trouble.  Reciting this prayer just might rile him up a bit.  You've been warned!

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Coffee Cup Browsing

If the "values" expressed in this vid win out, our country cannot/will not survive.  Caution:  strong language.

B.O. leaves "clean energy" summit in a 22 car motorcade.  I'll start to worry about "climate change" when the Alarmists start acting like they really believe their own propaganda.

Sonograms and background checks:  "I’ll start taking their bleating about constitutional rights seriously when it becomes one tenth as hard to get an abortion as it is to bear arms."

200 Lefties camp out in a park and scream, "Eat the Rich" and we hear weeks of fawning media coverage.  300,000+ Pro-Lifers march through D.C. and all we hear is the Media Crickets chirping.

"The other nine nations on the World Watch List’s top 10 are all majority Muslim states. All told, the consensus estimate for the number of Christians killed for their faith each year around the world is 150,000."

Pastor issues letter, "Good Manners in God's House."  Betcha he caught some flack for this one!

Our Petulant President:  "very thin-skinned."  Yeah, that happens when you're used to everyone thinking you're the Savior of Mankind.

Bishop blasts Catholic-bashing from the White House.

Suicide:  the man accused of murdering Fr. Ed Everitt, OP is found dead in his cell.  R.I.P.
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Update on Mom. . .

Scuba Mom is home from the hospital.  She's feeling fine.

Thanks for all the prayers and notes of concern. 

God bless, Fr. Philip, OP

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What shall I do, Lord?

The Conversion of St. Paul
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Once, when I was 12 y.o., the carpenter helping us build our house in Mississippi whapped me in the back of the head with a 2x4. I've been hit in the face with a strand of barbed-wire. Had a tree fall on me while cutting fire wood. Almost drowned in a lake. My little brother bounced a brick off my head after I had hit him with two bricks. When I was 17, I rear-ended a truck on Hwy 78 going 60mph. Totaled both trucks. While working in a psych hospital, I've tackled and helped to restrain a police officer, an amateur wrestler, a woman who thought she was the Devil, and dozens of out of control adolescents. Been bitten, kicked, punched, spit on, bled on—well, name a execrable body fluid, and I've had it flung at me. Probably the most dramatic thing ever to happen to me was almost dying from a staph infection in my lower spine. Took seven weeks of IV anti-biotics and four months of bed rest to clear it up. Despite all this, never once did I see lightening or hear the voice of Jesus. Never once in all those moments of crisis did the thought occur to me: Go preach the Good News! Mostly I just laid around and watched Jerry Springer or re-runs of Hogan's Heroes. To get Saul's attention, Jesus has to smack him a around a little. Make him dependent on the charity of others in order to set him on the righteous path. Saul becomes Paul when he asks the Lord, “What shall I do, Sir?” 

What difference does Saul's question make in his transformation into Paul? Remember who Saul was: "I am a Jew. . .educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God. . .I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison. . .” Saul was not an indifferent observer of the early Church. He was an active persecutor, a man on a mission to see the first followers of Christ executed for their heresy. He was on his way to Damascus to bring [them] back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment. . .” when he was enlightened to the errors of his ways. Saul's question to Jesus—“What shall I do, Sir?”—is more than just a polite question; it's a declaration of surrender, an admission to the Lord that he—Saul—is now subject to the Word of God revealed in the Christ. Saul the Zealous Persecutor of the Way becomes Paul the Zealous Apostle of Way when he bows his stiff neck to Jesus and asks him for a task, a job to do in his name.

Wouldn't Saul's question to Jesus make an excellent prayer to start your day? Before your feet touch the floor in the morning, ask Christ, “What shall I do for you today, Sir?” Make no mistake: it's a very dangerous question to ask, a very risky request to make. You might not like the answer; you might end up wishing you had never asked. But if you will go from being who you are in Christ to being everything you can be for Christ, you will take the risk and find joy in the answer. Because we have Saul's story of how he became Paul, we don't have to wait to be struck by lightening or blinded or sent off to live with strangers in order to ask, “What can I do for you, Lord?” We know how his story goes and how it ends. Paul evangelizes the whole Mediterranean region and ends his life a prison in Rome, probably executed by beheading—a mercy accorded Roman citizens. We don't die as martyrs to be good Christians. But we do have to find within ourselves and within our Body the Church Paul's zeal, his strength of resolve, and his fidelity to at once seek out the Lord's will for us and then do that will once it is made known. What can I do for you, Lord? “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

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Things Presbyterian Seminarians Say. . .

Hilarious!  Not sure how many Catholics will get this. . .but it is hilarious:



H/T:  the Great Bearded Sage-Yeti of the Northwest (Mark Shea)

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Fool us once, shame on us. . .

Mirror of Justice hits the target perfectly:  

The Obama administration's abortifacient and contraception mandate is appalling, but I cannot claim to be surprised by it. In fact, I would have been surprised---indeed stunned---had the administration done anything significant to honor or protect the rights of Catholics and others on whose consciences the mandate will impose.

In every area touching the sanctity of human life and issues of sexual morality, the Obama administration is aggressively prosecuting the agenda its critics predicted and its most ardent left-wing supporters hoped for (There was never any reason to believe that he would do otherwise. In fact, his paper thin record as a Senator made it abundantly clear that a pro-abortion agenda was the only agenda that he held sacred). Those who are driving the train, including key administration officials who self-identify as members of the Catholic Church, have no regard for the ethical beliefs of Catholics and others when they are in conflict with left-liberal orthodoxy. Their task, as they perceive it, is to fortify and expand the "right to abortion" and "sexual freedom" wherever they can. They pursue this agenda with a religious zeal because, in fact, the ideology in which abortion is a "right" and "sexual freedom" is a core value is their religion (This is a point that cannot be made often enough:  secular ideology operates very much like a program of religious proselytizing). These beliefs are integral to their worldview. If, like Kathleen Sebelius, they happen to be Catholics, you can be assured that it won't be Catholic teaching, or the Judaeo-Christian ethic, that shapes their policies on issues of life and death and marriage and sexual morality; it will be liberal ideology---pure and simple---that does the shaping.

Interestingly, Obama and his people have been willing to break the hearts of those on the left when it comes Guantanamo, rendition, basic procedural rights of detainees and those accused of supporting terrorism, targeted assassinations, drone attacks, and so forth. But they keep faith strictly with them when it comes to anything pertaining to abortion, contraception, and other central components of the ideology of lifestyle liberalism---the conscience rights of Catholics and others be damned. (For me, this is the most damning consequence of the 2008 election.  So many otherwise faithful Catholics brushed aside B.O.'s radical pro-abort agenda on the shaky premise that his efforts to undo GWB's war on terror squared the proportionalist circle, allowing them to "balance" the scales of justice against the unborn in favor of a leftist pipe dream, i.e. playing nice with terrorists would make them go away.)

Pro-life citizens, including many Catholics, who in 2008 allowed themselves to be persuaded that Obama wouldn't, as his critics warned, push abortion hard and run roughshod over the religious liberty and rights of conscience of Catholics and other pro-life citizens and their institutions, have now gotten a rude awakening (Have they?  I wonder. . .). His administration revealed its contempt for religious freedom and the rights of people and communities of faith when it embraced an extreme and utterly untenable position on the ministerial exemption in the Hosanna-Tabor case (This case was set to neuter the First Amendment by inviting gov't bureaucrats into the hiring practices of churches). In case anyone thought that was some sort of isolated mistake, the President's abortifacient and contraception mandate leaves the matter in no doubt.

In 2012, it is no longer possible to sustain illusions about what Obama and his people mean to do to us. They are already doing it. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."  (There is no way a faithful Catholic can claim--again--in 2012 this president should be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his radical pro-abortion/anti-Catholic agenda.  It was nearly impossible to do so in 2008, but many managed it by twisting themselves into moral knots.  Surely, the three years of an aggressive, secularist campaign of intimidation at the hands of B.O. and his minions has proven that.)

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The folly of Roman preaching. . .

An anonymous commenter sent me a link to H. L. Menken's essay, "Holy Writ" (1923). Menken is one of my favorite writers, but I've never run across this particular piece of prophecy:

An excerpt:

Preaching is not an essential part of the Latin ceremonial. It was very little employed in the early church, and I am convinced that good effects would flow from abandoning it today, or, at all events, reducing it to a few sentences, more or less formal. In the United States the Latin brethren have been seduced by the example of the Protestants, who commonly transform an act of worship into a puerile intellectual exercise; instead of approaching God in fear and wonder these Protestants settle back in their pews, cross their legs, and listen to an ignoramus try to prove that he is a better theologian than the Pope. This folly the Romans now slide into. Their clergy begin to grow argumentative, doctrinaire, ridiculous. It is a pity. A bishop in his robes, playing his part in the solemn ceremonial of the mass, is a dignified spectacle, even though he may sweat freely; the same bishop, bawling against Darwin half an hour later, is seen to be simply an elderly Irishman with a bald head, the son of a respectable saloon-keeper in South Bend, Ind. Let the reverend fathers go back to Bach. If they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it. 

Now, I disagree with HLM strongly.  Why?  Because to agree with him would put me out of business!

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Scuba Mom Update

Just talked to Scuba Mom. . .she had an allergic reaction to the IV anti-biotics they were giving her and had to be moved to the ICU to recover.

She's feeling fine this morning and will be moving back to the regular unit soon.

Thanks for the prayers!  Keep them going, please. . .

Fr. Philip, OP

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