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| St. John the Baptist watches over our Baptistry |
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| ...and dwelt amongst us. |
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| Our sanctuary. We love St. Philomena! |
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| The side chapel will soon house Our Lady of Mt. Carmel |
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| the West wall. |
Holy Fathers Francis and Dominic
Sunday, June 16, 2013
A Tour of St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Chapel. Jacksonville, Florida.
The New Church Hall is here!
The little chapel I attend has a new church hall. Here are some concepts of how it might look.
Concept 1. The stairs on the side of the porch.
Concept 2. The stairs in front, and a little area off to the side, perhaps for a statue.
Any feed back is welcomed!
Concept 1. The stairs on the side of the porch.
Concept 2. The stairs in front, and a little area off to the side, perhaps for a statue.
Any feed back is welcomed!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Wanted: a man with a backbone
This is how I see this election...
The Democratic Candidate.
"2 + 2 = 6 now. Like it or lump it"
The Republican Candidate.
"2 + 2 = 5 now. But if you believe 2+2=4 That okay, too"
The voters say, "I know the Republican party isn't the answer, but 5 is close to 4! And I can still believe 2 and 2 is four. And, the ticket has a Catholic on it!
But the voter still votes for 5.
Why can't Catholics all take up the call and put real Catholics in office. Catholics who will be"the king's servant, but God's first." We need someone who does not want to fit in, but stand out and stand up. Maybe shed some blood.
St. Thomas Moore, pay for us.
The Democratic Candidate.
"2 + 2 = 6 now. Like it or lump it"
The Republican Candidate.
"2 + 2 = 5 now. But if you believe 2+2=4 That okay, too"
The voters say, "I know the Republican party isn't the answer, but 5 is close to 4! And I can still believe 2 and 2 is four. And, the ticket has a Catholic on it!
But the voter still votes for 5.
Why can't Catholics all take up the call and put real Catholics in office. Catholics who will be"the king's servant, but God's first." We need someone who does not want to fit in, but stand out and stand up. Maybe shed some blood.
St. Thomas Moore, pay for us.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
As I enter Lent
Our Lord gives us lent trough the Church. They know that the most important day of the year is coming up soon, and want us to be as prepared for it as possible. That is why I love the season before Lent. All of the sudden Septuagesima Sunday was upon us. That is the start of the countdown to Easter. (Oh, cool, about 70 days till Easter.) Then Sexagesima Sunday after that. (Wow, it hasn't been 10 days already has it?) Then last Sunday was Quinquagesima (oh, man, does that mean only 50 days left, this math isn't adding up.) Well, no it doesn't, but guess what? Tomorrow is already Ash Wednesday, and and next Sunday there will be only 40 days to get ready for the Day that Christ is Resurrected from the dead. That is why it was so important to prepare for a season of preparation! If you go into Easter with no Lent, your Easter will be fruitless. And if you go into Lent cold turkey, the shock of Lent might overwhelm you. The tougher the Lent the sweeter the Easter. Its true, same with Christmas! If you have an easy Lent, Easter will be mediocre. (see graph.)
Lord, let me have the guts to embrace the upcoming season. Amen.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
MLKJ Day.
Source:www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/reverend-martin-luther-king-jr-4728.htm
In 1966, Planned Parenthood Federation of America inaugurated the PPFA Margaret Sanger Award to honor the woman who founded America's family planning movement. My words will be in red.
There is scarcely anything more tragic in human life than a child who is not wanted. So what would you have Margaret Sanger do to your concieved child not yet born?
That which should be a blessing becomes a curse for parent and child. Life is a curse, now? Children with diseases are blessings, children born healthy are blessings. A baptized soul is a blessing to this world.
There is nothing inherent in the Negro mentality which creates this condition. Their poverty causes it. When Negroes have been able to ascend economically, statistics reveal they plan their families with even greater care than whites. Negroes of higher economic and educational status actually have fewer children than white families in the same circumstances. He is saying "Poverty= litters of kids."
"wealth and education = 'smart numbers'."
For these reasons we are natural allies of those who seek to inject any form of planning in our society that enriches life and guarantees the right to exist in freedom and dignity.
He is accepting an award from a group that aborts children right and left. They don't give a hoot whether a conceived child has a right to exist.
In 1966, Planned Parenthood Federation of America inaugurated the PPFA Margaret Sanger Award to honor the woman who founded America's family planning movement. My words will be in red.
Dr. King's award was presented on May 5, 1966. The citation read
"This award is presented to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., for his courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong dedication to the advancement of social justice and human dignity.
OK. I get the "social justice" part. But their definition of "human dignity" is horribly mistaken.
to win freedom for the Negro people parallel closely Mrs. Sanger's fight over the last half-century for the emancipation of women from the burdens of perpetual child-bearing and the emancipation of children from a future of poverty and hopelessness.
http://blackgenocide.org/sanger.html
Neither Mrs. Sanger nor Dr. King has hesitated to challenge unjust laws, cruel social customs and blind prejudice that hold people in ignorance and degradation.
Abortion is an unjust "law" period.
Dr. King has lent his eloquent voice to the cause of world-wide voluntary family planning.
Artificial Birth Control/ Abortions/ Things that Humanae Vitae was written AGAINST.
For Martin Luther King's unique qualities of understanding, compassion and bravery, and for his wise and unwavering leadership in securing for all people their basic human right to knowledge, dignity and opportunity what about life? that are the fount and principle of Margaret Sanger's life, this award is presented."
Oh, and Margaret Sanger was anti-Catholic, too!
______________
Dr. King say's
"Family planning, to relate population to world resources, is possible, practical and necessary. Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered abortions and with resources we possess. Knives and skull-crushers.
There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger's early efforts.
She published such articles as "Some Moral Aspects of Eugenics" (June 1920), "The Eugenic Conscience" (February 1921), "The purpose of Eugenics" (December 1924), "Birth Control and Positive Eugenics" (July 1925), "Birth Control: The True Eugenics" (August 1928),
Like we, she was a direct actionist — a nonviolent resister. Abortion is violence!
...she went into the slums and set up a birth control clinic, and for this deed she went to jail because she was violating an unjust law. That you cannot kill innocent babies?
Margaret Sanger had to commit what was then called a crime in order to enrich humanity by decreasing the negro population, Mr. King?
The size of family that may have been appropriate and tolerable on a manually cultivated farm was carried over to the jammed streets of the ghetto. Your address determines how many kids God sees fit for you to have.
Negro folkways in family size persisted. Letting God determine how many kids you have.
For the Negro, therefore, intelligent guides of family planning are a profoundly important ingredient in his quest for security and a decent life. Who's to say what a decent life is.
Like all poor, Negro and white, they have many unwanted children. Oh, when children are burdens... that is the definition of a "decent life."
There is scarcely anything more tragic in human life than a child who is not wanted. So what would you have Margaret Sanger do to your concieved child not yet born?
That which should be a blessing becomes a curse for parent and child. Life is a curse, now? Children with diseases are blessings, children born healthy are blessings. A baptized soul is a blessing to this world.
There is nothing inherent in the Negro mentality which creates this condition. Their poverty causes it. When Negroes have been able to ascend economically, statistics reveal they plan their families with even greater care than whites. Negroes of higher economic and educational status actually have fewer children than white families in the same circumstances. He is saying "Poverty= litters of kids."
"wealth and education = 'smart numbers'."
For these reasons we are natural allies of those who seek to inject any form of planning in our society that enriches life and guarantees the right to exist in freedom and dignity.
He is accepting an award from a group that aborts children right and left. They don't give a hoot whether a conceived child has a right to exist.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Swear Words
Today I will type up the Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide on S. Matthew 5:33-37
33. Again you have heard that it was said to them of old, Thou shalt not forswear thyself: but thou shalt perform thy oaths to the Lord.
34. But I say to you not to swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God:
35. Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool: nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king:
36. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37. But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil.
But I say to you not to swear at all. "From this passage the Pelagians taught that no oath was lawful for Christians, as we see from the Council of Constance, and the Anabaptists of the present day hold the same opinion, who will not swear in a trial at the bidding of a judge. But this is an error of faith, which the ...example of God Himself , of S. Paul, and the saints condemn as is plain from Psalms 109:4, Rom 1:9, etc. ...An oath is an honor to God as the prime Verity, because he who swears appeals to God, who is infallible Truth, as his Witness. Therefore an oath is an act of religion, and the highest worship, provided that it be done in truth.
You will ask, Why then does Christ say, swear not at all? S. Bernard says that this is not a precept, but only of counsel...So as not to fall into perjury through the habit of swearing, as often happens.
...[Another reason is] Because the trustworthiness and honesty of men, especially of believers and Christians, ought to be such, that things not sworn to can be believed.
...S. Augustine says "False swearing is destructive, true swearing is perilous, swearing not at all is safe." ... Just as it is a moral evil, per se, to kill any one, there are circumstances in which it is permissible, dutiful, and even laudable So it is with an oath.
Neither by heaven for it is the throne of God,: Nor by the earth for it is his footstool: Nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Christ here teaches that he who swears by heaven or earth, swears by God their creator... [by Jerusalem] The meaning is; Do not swear by the saints, the holy city of Jerusalem, nor by other sacred things, nor by your own possessions, or by any other creature, for they all belong to God, who is present in them all and who alone has complete power over them. In like manner, he who swears by creatures swears by God...
Wrongly, do the modern heretics, specifically Augustine Marloratus, say "Just as of old anyone who swore by another idol, detracted to the extent from God's rights, because they put something else in the place of Him who knows hearts and judges souls, so today, those who swear by angels and by dead saints, vainly attach to them the Divinity of which they have deprived from God." But this is an error and a heresy... Paul (1 Cor. 15:31) swears by the glory of the Corinthians, as is plain from the Greek text. The honor of the saints is the honor of God. For God made them saints; therefore one who swears by the saints swears by their God and Sanctifier.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. This means: Do not think that you are allowed to swear by your head because it is yours, and subject to you and your full control to use as you wish, for any purpose, even to bring down curses upon it by an oath if you perjure yourself; because in fact, your head is not your own, but God's. So you cannot make even one hair of your head white or black; that is for God alone to do. Therefore anyone who swears by their head, swears by God who made it; moreover-horrible thought-such a man is asking God to accept his very herd and life as a pledge, so that if he commits perjury, God will punish him by demanding his head and his life.
But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: (simple affirmation or negation) and that which is over and above these (Greek "excessive": the Syrian version "what is added beyond these") is of evil. The Hebrew translated is "truly; truly, no, no."...
Hence S. Bernard praises Theobald for his simple truthfulness. "for him, as it is said, speaking simply is as good as swearing, and a trifling lie is accounted grave perjury..."
Is of evil- The Greek has "is from the evil one." Evil here may be taken in the masculine or the neuter gender. If masculine, of evil means "from the devil," who, as a ringleader of all iniquity, incites thee to swear falsely, which is the sin of perjury. If of evil is neuter, it means "cometh of vice." The custom of wearing arises from your own vice of levity or irreverence. Franz Lucas admits this: of evil, he says, means from a habit of swearing needlessly and lightly, or falsely and deceitfully. Again, of evil means from a habit of swearing that originates in human mistrust. Since it seemed that men would not believe one another unless they swore.
33. Again you have heard that it was said to them of old, Thou shalt not forswear thyself: but thou shalt perform thy oaths to the Lord.
34. But I say to you not to swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God:
35. Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool: nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king:
36. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37. But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil.
But I say to you not to swear at all. "From this passage the Pelagians taught that no oath was lawful for Christians, as we see from the Council of Constance, and the Anabaptists of the present day hold the same opinion, who will not swear in a trial at the bidding of a judge. But this is an error of faith, which the ...example of God Himself , of S. Paul, and the saints condemn as is plain from Psalms 109:4, Rom 1:9, etc. ...An oath is an honor to God as the prime Verity, because he who swears appeals to God, who is infallible Truth, as his Witness. Therefore an oath is an act of religion, and the highest worship, provided that it be done in truth.
You will ask, Why then does Christ say, swear not at all? S. Bernard says that this is not a precept, but only of counsel...So as not to fall into perjury through the habit of swearing, as often happens.
...[Another reason is] Because the trustworthiness and honesty of men, especially of believers and Christians, ought to be such, that things not sworn to can be believed.
...S. Augustine says "False swearing is destructive, true swearing is perilous, swearing not at all is safe." ... Just as it is a moral evil, per se, to kill any one, there are circumstances in which it is permissible, dutiful, and even laudable So it is with an oath.
Neither by heaven for it is the throne of God,: Nor by the earth for it is his footstool: Nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Christ here teaches that he who swears by heaven or earth, swears by God their creator... [by Jerusalem] The meaning is; Do not swear by the saints, the holy city of Jerusalem, nor by other sacred things, nor by your own possessions, or by any other creature, for they all belong to God, who is present in them all and who alone has complete power over them. In like manner, he who swears by creatures swears by God...
Wrongly, do the modern heretics, specifically Augustine Marloratus, say "Just as of old anyone who swore by another idol, detracted to the extent from God's rights, because they put something else in the place of Him who knows hearts and judges souls, so today, those who swear by angels and by dead saints, vainly attach to them the Divinity of which they have deprived from God." But this is an error and a heresy... Paul (1 Cor. 15:31) swears by the glory of the Corinthians, as is plain from the Greek text. The honor of the saints is the honor of God. For God made them saints; therefore one who swears by the saints swears by their God and Sanctifier.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. This means: Do not think that you are allowed to swear by your head because it is yours, and subject to you and your full control to use as you wish, for any purpose, even to bring down curses upon it by an oath if you perjure yourself; because in fact, your head is not your own, but God's. So you cannot make even one hair of your head white or black; that is for God alone to do. Therefore anyone who swears by their head, swears by God who made it; moreover-horrible thought-such a man is asking God to accept his very herd and life as a pledge, so that if he commits perjury, God will punish him by demanding his head and his life.
But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: (simple affirmation or negation) and that which is over and above these (Greek "excessive": the Syrian version "what is added beyond these") is of evil. The Hebrew translated is "truly; truly, no, no."...
Hence S. Bernard praises Theobald for his simple truthfulness. "for him, as it is said, speaking simply is as good as swearing, and a trifling lie is accounted grave perjury..."
Is of evil- The Greek has "is from the evil one." Evil here may be taken in the masculine or the neuter gender. If masculine, of evil means "from the devil," who, as a ringleader of all iniquity, incites thee to swear falsely, which is the sin of perjury. If of evil is neuter, it means "cometh of vice." The custom of wearing arises from your own vice of levity or irreverence. Franz Lucas admits this: of evil, he says, means from a habit of swearing needlessly and lightly, or falsely and deceitfully. Again, of evil means from a habit of swearing that originates in human mistrust. Since it seemed that men would not believe one another unless they swore.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Why Devotion to the Heart of Our Mother in Her Sorrows?
"My daughter, tears shed for My Passion are dear to Me; but as I loved My Mother Mary with an immense love the Meditation on the torments which she endured at My death is even more agreeable to Me." -Jesus to Blessed Veronica of Binasco.
"I look around at all who are on earth, to see if by chance there are any who pity me, and meditate upon my sorrows; and I find there are very few..." Mary to St. Bridget
St. Albert the Great, O.P. (who's feast is was two days ago) said "that as we are under great obligations to Jesus for His Passion endured for our love, so also are we under great obligations to Mary for the martyrdom which she voluntarily suffered for our salvation in the death of her Son. Voluntarily since, as St. Agnes revealed to St. Bridget, 'our compassionate and benign Mother was satisfied rather to endure any torment than that our souls should not be redeemed."
We begin to understand why Mary, Mother of God, is Mary, Mother of all! Only to mothers does this innate, unconditional love come as natural. I would say for men and fathers, it is second nature. But to women! First!
"The grief of Mary was so great that, were it divided amongst all men, it would suffice to cause their immediate death."1
After meditating on this one line, we can begin to appreciate why she is so important. Why she has earned the title Co-Redemptix.
"While other martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives, the Blessed Virgin suffered by sacrificing her Son's life - a life that She loved far more than Her own; so that she not only suffered in her soul all that her Son endured in His body, but moreover the sight of her Son's torments brought more grief to her heart than if she had endured them all in her own person."2
OK, that was a little weird. What does that say on the surface? Shouldn't a mother rather give herself up than her Child? After meditating and contemplating on how could someone be selfless by giving up someone she loved, we find why she is so worthy of our compassion and our gratitude. Why? because her martyrdom started when Christ was born to die! Her soul was martyred for 33 consecutive years. Her soul, which is not the body. The martyred saints gave their body up for a brief period. We all know pains in the soul hurt much worse.
The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady
The First Sword- St. Simeon's Prophecy- "Behold, this Child is a sign of contradiction. And Thine own soul shall be pierced by a sword."
The Second Sword- The Flight of Jesus into Egypt- Three hundred miles on donkey with a delicate newborn child to feed and protect. What shelter could she offer her Child when they entered Egypt as strangers?
The Third Sword- The Loss of Jesus in the Temple- O! The desolation our Mother Mary must have felt as she lost the Divine Presence for three days. Job was tormented by losing all God had given him, but he did not lose God Himself.
The Forth Sword- The Meeting on the Way to Calvary- She hardly could recognized the bloody face of the man who met her in the streets. And when Jesus wiped away the clotted blood from His eyes, Their looks became as so many arrows to pierce the hearts which loved each other so tenderly.
The Fifth Sword- The Crucifixion and Death of Christ- When so many would faint at the deplorable sight of their naked son executed as a criminal, Our Lady stood.
The Sixth Sword- After being lanced in the side, Jesus is placed in the arms of Our Lady- Our Lord's body received the lance but he was dead. Our Lady's heart felt the pain that was doubled as she first touched her dead Son.
The Seventh Sword- The Burial of Jesus- Who had to tell Mary it was time to seal the tomb? After Our Mother told her son the last good bye she left her heart in the tomb to be sealed as well. Mary was so sad that while she returned home all who encountered her was moved to tears.
1- St. Bernadine of Sienna
2- St. Antoninus, O.P.
Today is the Order of the Servants of Mary's All Souls day.
May those souls, and all souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in Peace.
Our Lady of Sorrows, Pray for us.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Pray for us.
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