Happy 4th

I know this picture doesn't reflect the prayer posted, but I couldn't resist, it's just soo CUTE!!

I found this prayer at Opinionated Catholic.

Prayer for the GovernmentPrepared by Archbishop John Carroll November 10, 1791

We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name.

We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Pope n., the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, n., all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.

We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.

We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state , for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.

Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.

No Apologies - Spanish Inquisition

Patriotic Beads

Check out Catholic Icing for some great patriotic beading ideas. I love this blog, you can find an arts & crafts project for just about any time of year.

Con Game

This article was written in April, but I still think it's worth posting. It was written by Steve Kellmeyer.

It's time to de-mythologize the Catholic abuse scandal.

The linked column below highlights the following facts (and others besides):

skellmeyer.blogspot.com/2010/04/is-times-changing.html

As the recent Newsweek story pointed out, the Catholic Church does not molest at a rate different from other segments of the population. They don't pay higher insurance premiums, the stats don't support it.

Indeed, according to the statistics produced by the New York Times and Newsweek, celibate Catholic priests actually offend at a rate 5 TIMES LOWER than any other known group.

For every one case of Catholic priest abuse, there are five cases of Protestant or rabbinic abusing children.

For every one case of Catholic priest abuse, there are 2000 cases of public school teachers abusing children.

In Islam, child abuse is actually a moral good. Marrying a a child under ten to a man of 40 or 50 who has other wives is common, accepted, and often perfectly legal.

Thus, for every one case of Catholic priest abuse, there are literally tens of thousands of cases of Muslim abuse.

Furthermore, if you chart the incidence of abuse against the year it happened (as the linked article above does), you'll see that abuse cases began to drop dramatically the same year Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed head of the CDF, and exactly two years after John Paul II became Pope.
By the time the news media began to report on it, the rate had already been crushed into the dust by those two men.

Now, who is to blame for the continuing sexual abuse that takes place in public schools, at rates far higher than in Catholic parishes? Who is to blame for the cover-up and the non-reporting on that much more common and serious abuse?

Over the last fifty years, Catholic priests have produced an average of 220 cases of abuse each year.

Over the last ten years, public schools have produced an average of 450,000 abuse cases each year.

There should be thousands of news stories and media reports on public school and Muslim abuse for every one story of Catholic abuse. Instead, there is virtually nothing on public school sexual abuse and absolutely
nothing on Muslim rates of abuse.

So, while Catholic abuse happens, given the distorted coverage, it is clear a political game is being played here.

Have you been conned by the media and other liberal liars?
So have a lot of other people.

The question is - do you like being conned?

Liturgical Allegory

A cute and quite brillant post by Saint Louis Catholic. You should CLICK HERE and go read it, that is if you like (or LOVE like me) Pride & Predjudice, otherwise you may not find it so amusing.

Quick Question

from This Rock

Q: "If a person asks in prayer for assistance but no answer comes, should the person just give up on the prayers? "

A: We all like our prayers answered yesterday. But the Lord knows the best time. He’s the only one who really knows what time it is. To keep praying is to keep trusting him. To keep trusting him is to keep loving him. St. Monica spent 30 years praying for her son’s conversion. When he finally converted, he became a great saint. But all the while she had been praying, she herself became a saint. Don’t give up on God.

Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens (atheist) and Peter Hitchens (Christian)

The heart of the man who lives for God knows peace, joy, and happiness. The heart of the man who lives for the world knows fear, sorrow, and misery.

Why Modesty??

Summer Fashions

From Sunday's bulletin:

Dear Parents and Parishioners,

The fashions for this summer are of grave danger to Christian modesty. Mini-skirts and dresses, short-shorts, and very low-cut blouses are the fashions for this summer. Please remember that we are Christians, followers of Christ, children of God, and temples of the Holy Spirit. We are set apart by God's saving grace. Let us always follow our Blessed Mother's example and ask for her help. If we blend in with the pagan world, what type of witness would we be to our Baptismal promises? Our Lady says, "...and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength." (Mark 12:30) Dressing with these styles for the summer are an offense to God and an ocassion of sin to others. Let us give Glory to God in dressing modestly for Church, work, school and play.

May God bless you!

Amazing Grace & Protestantism (WOW!!)

The Loser Letters

I didn't think I'd make it through the first chapter of The Loser Letters because I thought I wouldn't be able to get around the writing style...but I was wrong. It's actually pretty good & I wish I could say why, but I can't seem to formulate what I want to say, so I'm going to post part of a review that was made on Amazon.com to help give you more insight as to what the book is about. I definitely think you should read it.

"The Loser Letters, Eberstadt's first published work of fiction, draws on a long satirical tradition from Juvenal to The Screwtape Letters. Eberstadt's protagonist, a young woman named A. F. Christian (as in, "A Former Christian"), details the journey of her enlightened abandonment of her "cradle Dullness" (namely, her Christian faith) and her adaptation to atheism. Christian writes excited, star-struck letters to the self-described so-called "Brights" of the New Atheism, in which she gushes about the Brights' superiority while candidly evaluating the weaknesses that limit the New Atheism's ability to win new converts. With this device, Eberstadt delivers a gripping story line with a chilling twist at the end and, in the process, administers a smackdown of the New Atheism."

Blank

Everyday I think to myself "you really should make a post today", but then I can't think of anything to post about. I do go through this once in a while, but never for this long (I don't think). My most recent postings have been very spaced out.

I haven't been doing much reading lately, maybe that's part of it. I tend to post more when I do a lot of reading. Maybe today I'll finish a book I started a while back, and let you know how it is.

I know, kind of a random post, but since I had nothing to post about, I thought I'd post about nothing. LOL!! Did that make sense?

Intolerance

"America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance.
It is not.
It is suffering from tolerance of right and wrong,
truth and error,
virtue and evil,
Christ and chaos.
Our country is not nearly so much overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded…

In the face of this broadmindedness,
what America needs is intolerance."

~ Archbishop Servant of God Fulton Sheen

Eating Healthy

After a full week of eating out and eating really good food that's really bad for you, it's time to get healthy.

So my goal this month is light healthy dinners served around 5:00. Who knows, it might even inspire me to do more posting on my food blog.

Last night we had a spinach salad with pico de gallo & leftover tri tip, along with a healthy pasta salad. Tonight we had marinated chicken & quinoa. We never had quinoa before & really liked it.

I think we're off to a good start.

Been Too Long

Paul and I have been on vacation this week so that's why I have not been posting. We didn't leave town, but we've been spending lots of time just the 2 of us & checking places out in our area that we've never seen.

Things we've done:

Strawberry Festival.

Bike ride to the pier to have lunch, then watched a movie at home.

Japanese Garden at CSULB. (pictures to below)

Toured Rancho Los Alamitos.

Had lunch at "At Last Cafe" which was featured on a recent episode of Diner's, Drive-ins, and Dives. It was AWESOME!!

Spent the day in Old Town Temecula, where we did lots of window shopping, ate BBQ, went olive oil tasting (instead of wine), etc. On our way home we stopped at Tom's Farms to buy some produce, and Paul was super excited to find a jar of really BIG dill pickles--it was cute!!

A lot of eating out.

Relax, watch golf, read, play Gin Rummy.

We didn't take a lot of pictures this week, but we have some of the gardens we visited. I hope you enjoy them.

I love this picture!!

A New Favorite

I discovered today that my favorite apple is the Golden Delicious. I had always thought it was the Gala apple, but the GD is way better.

I know, not the most thought provoking post, but it's what's on my mind.

What's your favorite apple?

Happy Feast Day

"Sisters, be careful where you look, where you go, and with whom you convene. There is always danger in what we see becoming the occasion of offense against God and our vow." ~St. Rita

When I chose St. Rita as my Confirmation saint, I had no real information to go on. Paul and I were in the car, on our way to Sacramento where I would be Baptized, Confirmed, and receive my first Holy Communion. Selecting a saint was something we only thought of hours before leaving, so Paul printed out a list of saints with brief descriptions next to the name, it was actually one word next to each name, telling what they were the patron saints of.

St. Rita was listed as the patron saint of loneliness, and though it may sound sad, that's exactly what drew me to her. So without knowing anything else I decided on St. Rita of Cascia. I'm almost glad I was under pressure otherwise I might have had more trouble choosing a saint.

Once I started reading about her life I realized how perfect it was, not because we are so much alike, but because she is exactly who I should try to emulate. All of St. Rita's strengths are my weaknesses, and because of that I believe we are a perfect match.

I have since realized that she is more commonly known as the saint of the impossible, and after reading her life story I know this to be true. I've read 3 books on St. Rita and I really feel that this one is THE BEST, you should read it. I'm not sure if EWTN will be showing the movie called Saint Rita with Vittoria Belvedere, but if you have not seen it and plan to, DON'T!! Or if you do, watch it with the understanding 98% (my opinion) is not accurate. This movie is very far removed from the true life of this amazing saint, the directors definitely took a great deal of poetic licence.

Happy feast day St. Rita!!

Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

Convert Stories

Reading Rome Sweet Home has inspired me to read more convert stories, and rather than buy new books I asked Paul what he had & he gave me Surprised By Truth. Even though I did not experience most of their struggles with Catholic teachings, since I had no strong previous religious background, I love hearing their stories.

So far I have only read 3 of the 11 convert stories in this book, and so far I think it's great. All 3 started out as Protestant ministers (or studied to be), and the further they dived into studying came to the realization that the "Catholic faith is the faith of the Bible."

I feel that reading these types of convert stories are very helpful to all Catholics as way of studying apologetics too. I do not spend as much time studying apologetics as I should, and I've found their stories are pretty helpful in this area.

The FIRST First Lady

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not our circumstances."

~Martha Washington

When Men Were Men

" You can`t whine and bellyache because somebody else got a good break and you didn't."

" I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever they please."

" When the road looks rough ahead, remember the Man Upstairs and the word Hope. Hang onto both and tough it out."

"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."

"To me, The Wild Bunch (1969) was distasteful. It would have been a good picture without the gore. Pictures go too far when they use that kind of realism, when they have shots of blood spurting out and teeth flying, and when they throw liver out to make it look like people`s insides. "The Wild Bunch" was one of the first to go that far in realism, and the curious went to see it. That may make the bankers and stock promoters think that it is a necessary ingredient for successful motion pictures. They seem to forget the one basic principle of our business - illusion. We`re in the business of magic. I don`t think it hurts a child to see anything that has the illusion of violence in it. All our fairy tales have some kind of violence - the good knight riding to kill the dragon, etc. Why do we have to show the knight spreading the serpent`s guts all over the candy mountain?"

Great T-Shirt

Comedy Central Still Mocking Jesus

COMEDY CENTRAL UNVEILS MOCK JESUS SHOW

May 6, 2010

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Comedy Central's decision to offer a new animated show, "JC," in its upcoming lineup:

All we know about "JC" is that it will be a half-hour show about Christ seeking to live a normal life in New York outside the reach of his "powerful but apathetic father." But we know much more about who is doing this.

These are the same executives who delight in bashing Christians while continuing to censor any depiction of Muhammad on "South Park." They also deceive. Kent Alterman, a network official, says this about the show: "In general, comedy in its purest form always makes some people uncomfortable." Not true. Besides the fact that there is no end to the number of comedians who have made a huge name for themselves without ever offending anyone, what is even more relevant is the fact that Comedy Central has absolutely no interest in making Muslims feel uncomfortable.

But maybe they're wrong. Muslims regard Jesus to be a prophet and hold Him in high regard. They may not be too pleased to learn that one of their revered figures is going to be ridiculed on Comedy Central. To that end, we will not only contact the Catholic community, we will contact Muslim organizations as well. Those who would like to dialogue with Comedy Central's CEO, Doug Herzog, can reach him at 2049 Century Park East, Ste. 4000, Los Angeles, CA, 90067.

If you show up at Herzog's office, and he says he is feeling uneasy, let him know that having a fun time in its purest form always makes some people feel uncomfortable. He is sure to understand.

Contact: doug.herzog@comedycentral.com

National Food Drive

Food Drive Website

The food drive is on Saturday May 8th. Just put canned items in a bag & leave them at the mailbox, your mail carrier will pick up the bags for you. Please take advantage of this very simple opportunity to make a donation.

Seriously??

This is absolutely ridiculous.

Card Making

I loved the picture & prayer so much from yesterdays post that I decided to make my own Holy Cards out of it.

First I created the prayer with a color background with my photo shop program, then I printed the picture & prayer in wallet size photos. Once I cut them out I just glued them together.

I have Holy Cards everywhere, I love to use them as book marks too

My Queen, My Mother

My Queen, my Mother, I give myself entirely to you. And to show myself devoted to you, I consecrate to to you my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my entire being without reserve. Since I am yours, my good Mother, preserve me, defend me, as your property and possession. Amen.

Saints Gallery

Our Lady of Mount Carmalpencil drawing Mariola K. Paini

Quoting Paul

The other night Paul said something that I just knew was a quotable quote, in fact as soon as the words came out of his mouth I stopped him from speaking further so I could right down exactly what he said. I thought it was perfect, especially since it came from a discussion about St. Zita.

"We do God's work when we do our own well, and with the right intentions." ~Paul

Beautiful