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With the new "health" care bill passing, I found a quote that fits the situation pretty well. Here it is, "The lie is sacred and deception will be our principal weapon." See bottom for the quotemaker.

Remember, in the book of Isaias (5:20), he says, "Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness."

We've been lied to in a huge way, and now we all will have to pay the price.

By the way, the author of the quote is Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Go figure.

Hesitation

We've heard it said, "He who hesitates is lost", but I have a quote that goes even farther.

"On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of victory, lay down to rest, and in resting died."
Adlai E. Stevenson

This could apply to any of us who give up, when in fact we might have won.

Health Care

This Sunday's reading from Hebrews (9, 11-15), reminds us of the true universal care which we need in our lives.
"Brethren: When Christ appeared as High Priest of the good things to come, He entered once for all through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by virtue of blood of goats and calves, but by virtue of His own Blood, into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. for if the blood of goats and bull and the sprinkled ashes of a heifer sanctify the unclean unto the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the Blood of Christ, Who through the Holy Spirit offered Himself unblemished unto god, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
We need the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Eucharist to heal us more than ever.

In closing, here are my thoughts on the health care bill. They are summed up by Maxine, who is probably from the Showbox greeting cards. This is how I feel, too!

"Let me get this straight....we're trying to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn't read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke. What the h..l could possibly go wrong?"

Irish eyes

Today, Irish eyes must have been smiling on us, because it was beautiful outside. I raked some yards, and I will pay for this tomorrow I'm sure. Haven't used those muscles for quite a while. And, as a bonus, we didn't get gassed by whoever.
I mean, have you ever noticed trails of planes in the sky that don't dissipate, usually in straight lines, sometimes in a grid, and how you have sinus problems in a couple of days. If you think I'm kidding, just google "chem trails", and see what comes up. You'd be surprised!
I am going to ask St. Patrick's help to deliver the snakes out who are running the country and Church. Maybe he can help us.
Prayer does work, and God is still on the throne!

Dreary

Another dreary day in this 'World Class city" of Lansing. Hopefully, things will be brighter in the near future. I still would some more snow so that I can use my tuned-up snow removal equipment. March is such a dismal month. But it is brighter for longer periods of time.

Easter is coming soon, and we can look forward to another year, God willing, to forge ahead trying to live like we are supposed to.

"Pick and choose catholics"

People like Nancy Pelosi drive me nuts. Those who call themselves "Catholic". They are Catholic in name only. They think they can pick and choose whatever beliefs they feel important in their miserable lives. She thinks she is a good Catholic, but in reality, she and those like her are lukewarm at best, to be spit out by God at their inquest. I'm trying not to judge others, but it is so hard sometimes. I do prayer for their conversion before their death. We're not to wish for someone to "go to hell", because it is a real place, and God wants everybody to be saved. Just think how many others call themselves Catholic, with not regard to what being a Catholic entails. Either accept the whole ball of wax, or go somewhere else. Don't poison the next generation with your pantload of ideas.

Those like her mention that God gave them the freedom of will. This is true. This also means that we have the option to do evil. We're supposed to fight that option. We're supposed to learn about God and His Church, and pass this on to the next generation.

This freedom of choice (which all of us have, not just women), means whether to do what God expects of us or not. We should strive to do the right things in this life, because we will be asked and judged about them in the next.

I leave you with a prayer for others from the Liturgy of St. Cyril

O Lord God, merciful and holy and all-powerful, Who art the source of all peace and tranquility, of charity and gentleness, an ever-pure and good Father and Lord to all lovers of peace, grant that we, full of hope and humility, standing firm in faith, may, not only in love of Thee, but in love of our neighbor, welcome all and each with that loyalty which is the fulfilling of Thy law. Grant that, in our spirit of tranquility and peace, we may be true children of Thine. So shall we become worthy of the blessings which Thy Holy and Only-begotten Son has promised.

Do You Think?

"You are deceived if you think that a Christian can live without persecution. he suffers the greatest who lives under none. Nothing is more to be feared than too long a peace. A storm put a man upon his guard, and obliges him to exert his utmost efforts to escape shipwreck." St. Jerome

Do any of us actually think we suffer too much. Nothing we can endure is even remotely close to what Christ chose to do for us. And, there is always someone who is worse off than us. We need to focus more on what Christ did, and less on ourselves. You'd be amazed how you feel afterwards.

I will end with a prayer for others from the Coptic Liturgy. (for after Communion)

Be mindful. O Lord, of all those who have asked us to remember them in the prayers and petitions we now make in Thy sight, O Lord our God, especially at this time of the Holy Sacrifice. Be mindful of those whose memory is always with us, and those who are especially in our thoughts at this moment and in our present prayer. Bring them the grace of a strong and lasting defense against all that may harm them.

Holy Martyrs

Today is the day of the Forty Holy Martyrs.
Under the Emperor Licinius, in 320, forty soldiers of the garrison of Sebaste, Armenia, were exposed on a frozen pond for refusing to sacrifice to idols. All persevered but one, whose courage failed him, and who perished in a bath of tepid water prepared for him. Their guard, inspired by their fortitude, took his place among the remaining thirty-nine soldiers and expired with them, thus meriting the crown of martyrdom.

I have a friend who just recently found out that he has a cancerous tumor on his thigh. I have known him for 40+ years, outside of my wife, he is my best friend. He is not Catholic, but I felt the need to tell him how we accept suffering. I asked him if he remembers how much Christ suffered for us. He did. I then told him that whatever we suffer is not remotely close to how much He suffered for us. I said that we make an offering to God of our sufferings, stating that we are doing this maybe for someone else who might be worse off than we are, to as to help them in their time of sorrow. Hopefully, he can use this to cope.

In the book, "The Window in the Wall" by Ronald A. Knox, he writes in this one place:
"...Oh, if we could only realize that the Holy Eucharist is panis fortium, the Bread of the strong! That it is meant to energize us and vitalize us, not merely to discipline and to soothe us! Let us pray Our Blessed Lady and all the saints of the Blessed Sacrament to win for us, in these times that are so difficult, so dark for the future of religion, more generosity in our dealings with God, more boldness and imaginativeness in the grace we ask from Him...May the grace of this holy Feast be new life, new energy, new adventurousness to us all.

Also I got my snow removing equipment back, and, as usual, there's no snow. Maybe we'll get hit a few more times before spring! :)


The "little woman" had surgery yesterday on her very close veins, and seems to be doing well so far. I spell-checked this, and it's OK.
Thank you for your prayers.

Lukewarm ain't so hot

Tomorrow's Gospel reading has Jesus casting out demons. He ends up stating that if we are not with Him, we are against Him. Which side do you want to be on? No matter how unpopular, we need to be on the side of Him Who conquers all things. It is usually a choice that will be followed by ridicule, even by our own family and "close" friends. Get ready. It will happen, if it hasn't yet.
Also in the Gospel, a woman tells Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck." Jesus then says, "Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it." By this He was absolutely not slamming His mother. She was already so blessed, even beyond all the saints combined. She heard the word of God better than we could possibly understand, and kept it totally throughout her life better than anyone in history.
We need to keep the fire of the love of God as close to our hearts as we can.
Remember, lukewarm "ain't so hot".

Be Strong

"Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it, and right is right even if no one is doing it," St. Augustine

When I was at the plant, there were many chances to prove my faith. In one area, there were at least 8 guys who would attack me and the Catholic Faith every day. Most "catholics" would not know how to respond, other to say, "That's what the Church says", and that settles it. I tried not to be that way. I am the type of person that wants to know the hows and whys of what the Church has said. Maybe I'm just stubborn that way. (Hush to all of you who know me) Once I learned the Truths, it was actually easier to deal with these folks. They didn't know how to respond when you got outside of their basic knowledge, which wasn't much. They know no history, just thinking that church went underground for 1500 years, and then emerged when the "reformers" arose. I prefer to call them "deformers".
There was one day I remember when I gave these "8" a challenge. I proposed to them that if they could prove to me that the Church said or did anything that the Apostles didn't say or do, I have an obligation to change faiths, which I do. Man, it was like a feeding frenzy, much like when throwing chum to attract sharks. When I returned to my station, a fellow Catholic(at least in name) said, "What the hell did you do to those guys?" I just told him that I gave them a challenge. These guys discussed within themselves for about 20 minutes and then broke up. I guess they couldn't come up with a viable answer. This made my studying much more satisfying than anything I can think of. This is what we are all supposed to be doing. Am I right?
When they would present these tracts by Chick Publications, which are so horrible against the Faith, that if you don't know the Faith, you could lose what little you have left. Anyway, there were many quotes in these tracts, supposedly from Catholic books, stating this or that. What they didn't know is that I have these same books at home. I would take them in and show them the chapter and page. Most of the time, what was in my books was condemning whatever statements or phrases they were saying the Catholic Church was saying. It almost left them speechless, but they would come up with something else to attack. One guy told me that he had never heard Catholic teaching said this way. I responded that most Catholics don't know their faith like they should. Studying the Faith really make you stronger.
I am not a theologian by any means, but knowing apologetics is what I am strong in. I am NOT going to back down, and they better have some facts when coming up to me criticizing my faith. I might not blow them out of the water, but I will make them think.

Following is a prayer for protection from a Spanish Collect in the 7th century:

O Lord, who hast made Thy dwelling among us in Thy sacred Sacraments, as it were upon the holy mountains, we beseech Thee to build up the Faith in us, to confirm us in hope, to perfect us in loyalty, that Thy indwelling may enlighten all our being, Thy strength render us unshakable, Thy protection keep us unharmed.

Constitution

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John Adams

Makes you wonder why all the "change" is not going well with B.O., doesn't it? People are fed up with the pantload that those in Washington are trying to feed us. Remember, if we don't stand up for something, we'll fall for anything.

In my personal saga, I still haven't gotten my snow blowers back. Of course, it's going to be in the upper 30's this week, maybe topping 40(!). That's when I'll probably get everything back. When I don't need them. On the other hand, if March comes in like a lamb, Maaaaaybe I will get some snow removals toward the end of the month. I hope, I hope, I hope. :)