Pilgrimage of Cardinal Sean in Istanbul

Must see and read Cardinal Sean's blog this week. Lots of pictures of ancient church turn museum in Istanbul and St Petersburg with corresponding commentary. Better than if I've gone on pilgrimage myself.

The Muslims have a devotion to the Blessed Mother. They have adopted a lot of things from the New Testament, and one of them is regard for Christ, even though they do not accept his divinity, and also a very tender devotion to Mary.

I pray for our Blessed Mother's intercession to enlighten radical, fanatical and terror prone Muslims on ways to assimilate themselves and tolerate other people with or without faith.

Cardinal Sean of Boston

Check his blog every Friday. This week is full of pictures of his group's pilgrimage, this time in Rome.

I am currently leading, together with Metropolitan Methodios of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston, a joint pilgrimage to Rome, Constantinople and Saint Petersburg. My blog gives me the opportunity to share the pilgrimage with Catholics from Boston and beyond who were unable to accompany us.

Thank you, Cardinal Sean for blogging...

Filipino Catholic Charismative movement

For years, it puzzle me why Catholic Charismatic movement is popular in the Philippines. I credit such movement for keeping Filipinos catholic inspite of other Christian denominations openly evangelizing all over the islands.

My sister has her own organize charismatic ministry and community.

They pray and evangelize like Protestants in America but more like the Pentecostal and Baptist denomination with all the seven sacraments of the Catholic church. A lot of singing, praising, witnessing as well as tithing.

Proverbs, 1:7

'The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction fools despise'.

Why Democrats do what they do...

From my favorite bloggers old post - Powerlineblog...
This is truly an intelligent assessment of why most Democrats do what they do. I say, most them have no 'fear of the Lord' (Proverbs, 1:7).

But why should this new form of cynicism appear just now, and why primarily among Democrats? I believe the answer to the first question lies in the modern (or actually the post-modern) intellectual climate. The essentially frivolous manner in which Clinton and Gore approach vital issues has clear parallels in current intellectual and academic thought. In the post-modern intellectual climate, “texts” (e.g., great literature, philosophy, and even laws and judicial opinions) are not valued in their own right, but rather exist to be appropriated by creative “scholars” for whatever purposes they see fit. Everything is up for grabs. The only limit on valid interpretation is the imagination, and political correctness quotient, of the
interpreter. In this world, it becomes possible for politicians to ask what “the meaning of ‘is’ is.” And once that point is reached, it becomes possible to suggest that whether one should vote to go to war does not necessarily depend on who has the better arguments.Why has this tendency surfaced largely among Democrats? One plausible answer is that Democrats are more closely linked than Republicans with academia, the true home of post-modernism. However, while Clinton and Gore undoubtedly have “breathed the air” of post-modernism, so too have many Republican politicians–it is all around us.
A better explanation is that necessity is the mother of invention. After 1964 and before 1992, the Democrats lost five of six presidential elections, including three landslides. Their positions had become so unpopular that the term “liberal” became an epithet of derision. The party’s options were to change its core beliefs or to disguise them. Opting largely for the latter alternative, it needed and found leaders who were particularly skillful in the art of deception.
But this deception could only be tried if the Democrats were confident of getting away with it. And only the Democrats could have that confidence. First, only
Democrats could be confident that the overwhelmingly liberal media would, by-and-large, give them a pass. More fundamentally, only Democrats could be confident that their core constituencies would do so too.
The Democratic Party contains at least two core constituencies – African-Americans and feminists – whose leaders view rules as instruments of their oppression and
barriers to their advancement. In fact, the centerpiece of much modern civil rights employment litigation is the attack on neutral rules that disproportionately exclude African Americans from a particular job. Examples include tests, educational requirements, and even the requirement that an employee not have been convicted of a crime. Similarly, what is the demand for affirmative action other than a demand that the normal rules for selecting employees based on merit be ignored to the extent that they interfere with desired outcomes? And the disregard of leading feminists for the basic rules of scholarship is apparent in the notoriously shoddy “feminist scholarship” that has been exposed by Christina Hoff Sommers and others.
The common thread here is something akin to cheating. No wonder these core groups, and the sophisticates who believe that rules exist only to be deconstructed, admired Clinton’s intellectual gyrations on key issues and now tolerate Gore’s less supple efforts.

Hebrew 12:5-13

You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges."
Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards. Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not (then) submit all the more to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.

Lora, in hope and prayer to ease your aching heart with all my love,

Praying for conversion of Christopher Hitchens

Lord God, only you understand man's neural circuit and cardiac flutter, today I pray at your feet for the soul of Christopher Hitchens. Open a screen to his thoughts of your presence and power. Amen.

Fr. Donald Calloway

frequent viewer of Marcus Grodi's Journey Home program, Monday, 8pm on EWTN. Last week's guest was Fr. Donald Calloway. What a miraculous conversion at such a young age! Twice on the show he mentioned Filipino women. A Filipino woman introduced his mother to Catholicism and five Filipino women taught him how to pray the Rosary.

When Calloway caught up with the Navy chaplain, the priest told him to go to church and sit in the back while he said Mass, and then they would talk to him. Donald did as he was told, waiting as a small group of Filipino women recited a repetitious prayer -- which of course was the Rosary. Then came the moment that changed his life. The priest came out with robes. Calloway thought it was some kind of performance. He had no idea what was going on. "I was amazed. All these ladies were kneeling and standing at the same time."
But it just clicked. All of a sudden, this young man -- this drug abuser, this runaway "knew" what was happening, that what was transpiring was a "real" re-presentation of what had happened 2,000 years ago, and that it was being poured out again. "Time ceased," he says. "I saw myself at Calvary with the faithful beholding the sacrifice of the lamb." Everything about it captivated him. He felt the Presence of Christ - knew He was there - as the priest held up the "white circle."
He was 20, going on 21, and "all I knew was that I was madly in love with God and Our Savior."

Pray for this diocesian seminarian!

an academic from Israel...through the Diocese of Paterson, NJ

"I want to be a priest to be closer to God, be a man of God, become more spiritual and preach the Gospel," said Barboutz, a second-year theology student at the Theological College at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., who this summer is serving St. Joseph Parish here. "I want to celebrate the Eucharist, the center of the faith."

just ordained!

from Cardinal Sean's blog...

Do I feel blessed? Totally! Do I, even more so, feel humbled? Absolutely! I am so thankful to the Lord for having called me to serve Him and His Church as a priest. I am honored to serve the people of God in the Boston Archdiocese. I promise to pray for the grace that is needed for all of us to grow together toward a deeper knowledge of God’s Love. I ask you to continue to pray for me, for my six brothers who were also ordained in May and for all the priests who serve the Archdiocese of Boston. May God bless us all.
Fr. Robert J. Blaney

Tridentine Mass

Pope Benedict XVl allows Latin mass celebrated if enough parishioners petitions. English translation of Pope's message here.

"I am speaking from experience, since I, too, lived through that period with all its hopes and confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the church."

hat tip - chiesa. website home here.

Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVl

full title:

Jesus of Nazareth

From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration

by Joseph Ratzinger

Pope Benedict XVl.

Translated from the German by Adrian J. Walker.

Published by Doubleday

Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner respond to Pope Benedict's mention of his book 'A Rabbi Talks with Jesus'. Online article here.

In his “Jesus of Nazareth” the Judeo-Christian disputation enters a new age. We are able to meet one another in a forthright exercise of reason and criticism. The challenges of Sinai bring us together for the renewal of a 2,000 year old tradition of religious debate in the service of God's truth. Someone once called me the most contentious person he had ever known. Now I have met my match. Pope Benedict XVI is another truth-seeker.

God's invisible hand in world development!

'How the West Really Lost God' - excellent essay by Mary Eberstadt

To argue by analogy, it appears that the natural family as a whole has been the human symphony through which God has historically been heard by many people - not the prophets, not the philosophers, but a great many of the rest.

Click here for whole article. Hat tip RealClearPolitics.com

Pentecost Sunday, 05/27/07

"There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes." 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

Divine Mercy Sunday

Sunday after Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday...

Jesus, I trust in you.

Today's Readings and Gospel here.

Divine Mercy novena here.

Chaplet of Divine Mercy here.

Pope Benedict on third stage of journey of love

Loving our neighbour as Christ loves us
Now we have arrived at third stage of our reflection. Christ cried out from the Cross: “I am thirsty” (Jn 19:28). This shows us his burning thirst to love and to be loved by each one of us. It is only by coming to perceive depth and intensity of such a mystery that we can realise the need and urgency to love him as He has loved us. This also entails the commitment to even give our lives, if necessary, for our brothers and sisters sustained by love for Him. God had already said in Old Testament: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18), but innovation introduced by Christ is the fact that to love as he loves us means loving everyone without distinction, even our enemies, “to the end” (cf Jn 13:1).

first stage here, second stage here, full message click here.
hat tip: Chiesa...click here.

Pope's message...2nd stage in the journey of love

“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34)

full message here. hat tip: Chiesa...here.

The Cross of Christ fully reveals the love of God
How is God-Love revealed to us? We have now reached second stage of our journey. Even though signs of divine love are already clearly present in creation, full revelation of intimate mystery of God came to us through Incarnation when God himself became man. In Christ, true God and true Man, we have come to know love in all its magnitude. In fact, as I wrote in Encyclical Deus caritas est, “real novelty of New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts - an unprecedented realism” (n. 12). Manifestation of divine love is total and perfect in the Cross where, we are told by St Paul, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rm 5:8). Therefore, each one of us can truly say: “Christ loved me and gave himself up for me” (cf Eph 5:2). Redeemed by his blood, no human life is useless or of little value, because each of us is loved personally by Him with passionate and faithful love, a love without limits. The Cross, for the world a folly, for many believers a scandal, is in fact “wisdom of God” for those who allow themselves to be touched right to innermost depths of their being, “for God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25). Crucifix, which after Resurrection would carry forever marks of his passion, exposes “distortions” and lies about God that underlie violence, vengeance and exclusion. Christ is Lamb of God who takes upon himself sins of the world and eradicates hatred from the heart of humankind. This is true “revolution” that He brings about: love.

Pope Benedict XVl message to the youth of the world

Pope's message to youth of the world 01/27/07
“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34)

Is it possible to love?
Everybody feels the longing to love and to be loved. Yet, how difficult it is to love, and how many mistakes and failures have to be reckoned with in love! There are those who even come to doubt that love is possible. But if emotional delusions or lack of affection can cause us to think that love is utopian, an impossible dream, should we then become resigned? No! Love is possible, and the purpose of my message is to help reawaken in each one of you - you who are the future and hope of humanity-, trust in a love that is true, faithful and strong; a love that generates peace and joy; a love that binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another. Let us now go on a journey together in three stages, as we embark on a “discovery” of love.

God, the source of love

The first stage concerns the source of true love. There is only one source, and that is God. St. John makes this clear when he declares that “God is love” (1 Jn 4: 8,16). He was not simply saying that God loves us, but that the very being of God is love. Here we find ourselves before the most dazzling revelation of the source of love, the mystery of the Trinity: in God, one and triune, there is an everlasting exchange of love between the persons of the Father and the Son, and this love is not an energy or a sentiment, but it is a person; it is the Holy Spirit.

second stage here.

full message click here.

hat tip: Chiesa...click here.

Holy Night of Easter

"Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem".
Luke 24:46,47

Be Not Afraid...

Suggestion for 2008 theme for March For Life... Be Not Afraid.

Prayer for the Helpless Unborn

Heavenly Father, in Your love for us, protect against the wickedness of the devil, those helpless little ones to whom You have given the gift of life.
Touch with pity the hearts of those women pregnant in our world today who are not thinking of motherhood.
Help them to see that the child they carry is made in Your image - as well as theirs - made for eternal life.
Dispel their fear and selfishness and give them true womanly hearts to love their babies and give them birth and all the needed care that a mother can give.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.

Joining the Pro- Life rally in Washington DC on Monday, January 22, 2007, the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. March for Life website here.

January is Pro-Life month

Daily Prayer to Spiritually Adopt an Unborn Child

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the unborn child that I have spiritually adopted who is in danger of abortion.

Archbishop Sheen composed the above prayer and encouraged people to recite it daily for nine months to save the life of an unborn child. He said that although the identity of your spiritual child may be unknown to you during your earthly life, there is every hope that you will be united with him or her forever in heaven.Let us remember to pray in a special way for all unborn children who are in danger of abortion.

To join the Archbishop Sheen Prayer League click here.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Thoughts in Wartime

"Why does God not stop this war?" God could stop this war, but the cost of doing so would be the destruction of human freedom."

from Fulton Sheen's Wartime Prayer Book. Click here for website dedicated for the canonization of Archbishop Sheen.

The Mother of Jesus said...

His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever He tells you." John, 2:5

Who u gonna call?

In times of trouble, who u gonna call? a baby cry for anyone, a child call for mama, and grown up call God, a Christian to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!
In times of trouble, who u gonna call? A baby nation cry for anyone, a child nation for Uncle Sam and grown up nation, alone, call God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!
That's who u gonna call!!!
In good times, who u gonna call?...

First Saturday Devotion to Our Blessed Mother

First Saturday Devotion to Our Lady
Five Consecutive First Saturday Devotion to our Blessed Mother
Do:

1. Communion
2. Rosary
3. Meditate for 15 minutes the mysteries of the rosary
4. Confession

For peaceful resolution in Baghdad, Iraq, reformation for peaceful Islam and recover 2 packages mailed to Children of Light Catholic Community, Sta. Cruz, Manila on Nov. 8, 2006 through US post office.

Update: Packages were recovered and delivered this week. Thank you, Blessed Mother !!!

All items will be donated to Children of Light Catholic Community.

'Facts of Faith'

90% of Americans believe in God

71% pray at least once a week

49% attend church regularly

34% of American Christians are Evangelical Protestants

22% are mainstream Protestants and

21% are Catholics

5 times as many Americans believe UFOs are spaceships from another planet as call themselves atheists

Sources: Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion report, September 2006. Guardian/ICM poll, December 200
hat tip - Fr. Jonathan's blog on FoxNews.com. Click here for article.