????????

Does anyone else think that it is strange, or, to use a big word, oxymoronic, upon hearing the words Feinstein and intelligence in the same sentence?


This country just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser all the time!

12 Days of Christmas--The real reason

With so many stupid versions of the song 'The Twelve of Christmas' out there, the true meaning of the song is as follows:

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

The Twelve Days of Christmas are December 26 to Epiphany, January 6. The song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is an English carol written during the time of persecution in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, against Roman Catholics. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was a coded message that helped young Catholic children learn the tenets of the Faith and be able to recite them without fear of going to jail. Each “day” has a hidden meaning concerning teachings of the Catholic Faith.

The “true love” refers to God. The “me” who receives the gifts, refers to every baptized person. The Pear Tree is the cross and the Partridge is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ is symbolically portrayed as a mother partridge that fakes injury to trick predators from her helpless chicks. It reminds us of Christ’s sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Matthew 23:37

THE PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE REFERS TO JESUS ON THE CROSS

2. Turtle Doves: The Old and New Testaments
3. French Hens: The Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Also, the Theological Virtues of
Faith, Hope, and Charity
4. Calling Birds: The four Gospels and/or the four Gospel writers-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
5. Gold Rings: The first 5 Books of the Old Testament; also the five wounds of Jesus Christ
6. Geese A-laying: The Six days of Creation
7. Swans A-swimming: The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the seven Sacraments
8. Maids A-milking: The Eight Beatitudes
9. Ladies dancing: The nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10. Lords A-leaping: The Ten Commandments
11. Pipers piping: The Eleven Faithful Apostles after Judas’s betrayal
12. Drummers drumming: The Twelve Points of Doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed


Merry CHRIST MASS to all

ONE OF THOSE DAYS

Ever had one of those days when not much seems to go right?

Hopefully, the rest of the day is better!




****Update. It did! My bowling team won the first half of the season!

Immaculate Conception

December 8, the day we honor the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mother of all believing Christians. No matter what those in charge say, we will continue to honor our Blessed Mother, even if we have to go to Church twice in one week. They have abandoned the Faith that comes to us through Jesus Christ, and pronounced by His Apostles. This is the Faith we are to honor and cherish.

Like I said, they have left the ship struggling through the waves without someone competent enough to right it. Our Blessed Mother should be the navigator of the ship, to guide the pilot (the Pope). Just sayin'

There they go!


In the book of Wisdom, we read: 'For she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of His goodness.' Wis. vii, 26

Mary herself said that her soul magnifies the Lord, which, to me, means that if we look to her, we will see things more clearly. It is NOT that her being proclaims the Lord, as it is said in the newer version of scripture. Those translations are WRONG! Protestants say that we should go directly to Jesus with our petitions. However, they seem to miss the fact, that if it hadn't been for Mary and her fiat, Christ would not have come in person, unless God had chosen someone else to do it. Granted, God can do whatever He wants, but He chose to come through Mary. Jesus even gave her to us as our Mother when He was on the Cross, when he told John, who was standing in the place of all true Christians, 'behold your mother.' All scripture in the newer bibles has been changed whenever it is about Mary. She is the 'Woman' in Genesis, and is the woman in the Apocalypse, Chapter 12. Scripture started with her, and ended with her. And, remember, even she said at Cana: "Do whatever He tells you to do."
Also, I'd like to add something. Many people ask you to pray for them, and you do. Why NOT ask the Holy Mother of Christ to pray for you. Her 'batting average' in Scripture is 100%. She asked Jesus to do something at Cana, and He complied. NOT a bad average, if you ask me.

I will now take some words from a book I have entitled 'Half-hours with the Servants of God', printed in 1891.

'That God should have willed that Mary's body should not be endowed with a more excellent purity than that of her soul, is not what could reasonably be expected of His wisdom, since the soul is the noblest part of man.

If the body, according to the expression of the Apostle, is a beautiful vase, the soul is the most precious of liquors which ought to fill it; and consequently the Virginal body of Mary, whose purity surpassed that of angels and near unto God, as St. Bernard says, had to contain a soul still more pure, inasmuch as the purity of the body,
without the purity of the soul, can have no value or consideration with God.' Le Pere Houdry, S.J.

There is something in Mary which moves and affects me much more than this privilege of having been exempt from original sin--something which adds additional lustre to this first prerogative. Mary received this grace from the very first moment of her conception; it was a wondrous gift; but what appears to me to be still more wonderful is that she kept this grace until the last moment of her life, as pure, as entire, as when she first received it--no sin, no imperfection, no weakness, no surprise, have ever done her harm.

It is a wonder to see water springing from the bosom of the earth as clear, as fresh, as if it fell from heaven; but it is a thing unheard of that this same water from the well, after having bedewed the fields and dirty places, should flow at last into the sea without a taint of smell, as unpolluted as when it issues from the spring.

This is, however, what our Blessed Lady has done. She lived in this valley of tears for more than seventy years--this, too, in the midst of the same sins and occasions of sins which corrupt daily even innocent souls--without ever losing the purity of her heart. Her humility and patience were put to proofs without a parallel, and she gained fresh lustre from every trial. The Holy Ghost gave her the preference among the many virgins without losing her honor; she had her joys, but she had her dolours too, and though these she never lost for a single moment the peace and tranquility of her soul.

Let us contrast ourselves with this holy and Immaculate Mother. She received grace with life, and, what is more glorious still, she kept it intact until she died.

And we, alas! have been conceived and brought into the world in sin; and we have received the grace of the Sacrament of Baptism which made us friends of God.

But, what is more lamentable, we lose the benefit of this grace almost as soon as we have received it, and then pass the remainder of our days in the dread uncertainty of forgiveness. For it must be confessed, to our shame, that we, for the most part, remain in a state of grace so long as we are unacquainted with sin.

It seems to me that there may be a contradiction between innocence and reason, and that they may clash together unless they are kept asunder. Le Pere de la Colombiere, S.J.

I would like to include part of the sermon for this day, given by Archbishop LeFebvre in 1972:

'The influence of the Blessed Virgin Mary has not ceased. Even now in heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary continues to be the Mother of the Mystical Body of Our Lord, the Mother of the Church, the Mother of our souls. She shows it, she proves it, she proves it in every one of us, but she also proves it in her apparitions. Is it not admirable to think that after the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a revealed truth, that the Blessed Virgin Mary was Immaculate from her Conception — already four years later on March 21, 1858, the Blessed Virgin herself said to little Bernadette, the little shepherdess, "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Remember that Bernadette was incapable of understanding, she could not understand what these words meant, and she left the grotto on her way to her pastor’s house repeating these words which she did not understand, to make sure she would not forget them. The history of the life of Bernadette tells us that it was at that moment that the parish priest of Lourdes, Fr. Pomian, was truly convinced by the apparitions at Lourdes. He realized that the poor little shepherdess was incapable of inventing this herself, and that the dogma had been proclaimed four years before by the Sovereign Pontiff. Thus it was confirmed by the Blessed Virgin herself that she was the Immaculate Conception.'

As men are conceived in sin, and we do not read of any one who was sanctified in his mother's womb excepting Jeremias and St. John the Baptist; although there is no doubt that the Blessed Virgin, enclosed in her mother's womb, should have been purified by a much more sublime degree of sanctification, seeing that she was to be the sanctuary where God the Son was to be made Flesh. St. Bernard

Let us, therefore, strive to hold onto the Eternal Truths of Christ's Church, no matter who tries to tell us different. Me.

And think of this little nugget. This day, as well as all of her Feast days, she will deliver souls from purgatory herself. Maybe she'll deliver someone you know. Ask for it. Who knows?

2nd Sunday of Advent

Today is the 2nd Sunday of Advent. In Isias we hear "And there shall come forth a branch out of the rod of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and of godliness: and he shall be filled with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord..."

EPISTLE (Rom. 15:4‑13). Brethren, what things soever were written, were written for our learning, that through patience and the comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind one towards another, according to Jesus Christ: that with one mind, and with one mouth, you may glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive one another, as Christ also hath received you unto the honor of God. For I say that Christ Jesus was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. But that the Gentiles are to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and will sing to thy name. And again he saith: Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again: Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and magnify him, all ye people. And again, Isaias saith: There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.

Our beloved Abott Gueranger says:

'How much is contained in these magnificent words of the prophet (Isias)! The branch; the flower that is to come from it; the Spirit which rests on this flower; the seven gifts of this Spirit; peace and confidence established on the earth; and, throughout the world, one brotherhood in the kingdom of the Messias! St. Jerome, whose words are read by the Church in the lessons...says that the branch which cometh forth from the root of Jesse, is the blessed Virgin Mary, who had contact with no shrub or plant; and that the flower is the Lord Jesus, who says in the Canticle of canticles: 'I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valley.'

St. Bernard, commenting upon this responsory in his second Advent homily, says: "The Virgin's Son is the flower, a flower white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands; a flower on whom the angels love to look; a flower whose fragrance restores the dead; a flower, as himself assures us, of the field, not of a garden: for the flowers of the field bloom without man's care, no man has sown their seed, no man has cultivated them. Just so the Virgin's womb, a meadow verdant in an endless spring, has brought forth a flower, whose beauty will never droop, whose freshness will never fade. O Virgin, branch sublime, to what a height art thou grown! the Lord of majesty. It was sure to be so, for thou castest deep down the roots of humility. O plant of heaven indeed! alone worthy to bear the fruit of salvation."


GOSPEL (Mt. 11:2‑10). At that time, when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples to say to him: "Art thou he that art to come, or do we look for another?" And Jesus making answer, said to them: "Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them: and blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me." And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, "What went you out into the desert to see? a reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? a man clothed in soft garments? Behold, they that are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? a prophet? yea I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my Angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee."


All that I can add to that is: "Come, Lord Jesus!"

St. Ambrose

Today is also the of one of the all-stars of the Church, St. Ambrose. He is listed along with those others: Gregory, Augustine, and Jerome. These are the great masters and interpreters of the Faith that we are supposed to be following. They didn't wash down the Faith like we see these days.

SAINT AMBROSE
Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
(340-397)

When in the year 369 Saint Ambrose, the young son of a Roman Senator, was sent by Probus, the Prefect of Italy, to the large province of Liguria and Emilia in Italy, the officer said to him, "Go and act not as a judge, but as a bishop." Ambrose, though not Christian, had already resisted by his pureness the corrupting influence of the Roman youth of his day. In Liguria he showed himself to be clement as directed, and his great erudition also became well known to the inhabitants of the region. In the year 374 he was already governor of the province, at the moment when at Milan, in this same region, a bishop was needed for that great see. Since the heretics in Milan were many and fierce, he went to preserve order during the election of the new prelate. Though he was still only a catechumen, it was the Will of God that the provincial governor be chosen by acclamation. Despite his protestations and his subsequent flight from Milan when they were not accepted, he was found, baptized and consecrated for the archiepiscopal see.

He applied himself to the study of sacred Scriptures, so that he might prepare himself to become the defender of the Church, which was attacked, in the fundamental dogma of the Incarnation, by the false science of the Arians. Unwearied then in every pastoral duty, full of sympathy and charity, gentle and condescending in matters of indifference, he was inflexible in questions of principle. He manifested his fearless zeal when it was necessary to brave the anger of the Empress Justina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians. He distributed all that he had of gold and silver to the poor, and confided all financial administration of his archdiocese to his brother, Saint Satyrus, who came to reside with him in Milan. To master theology, he studied the Sacred Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, and conferred with learned Christians concerning the rules of ecclesiastical discipline. He was very active, and took such great care of the catechumens' instruction that no one could surpass him in that duty.

His zeal in rebuking and bringing to penance the great Emperor Theodosius, who in a moment of irritation had cruelly punished a sedition by the inhabitants of Thessalonica, is a well known fact of history. The Saint met him at the door of the cathedral to prevent his entering, and said to him that if he had imitated David in his crime, he must now imitate him in his penance. Later the chastened and humble Emperor said that in his life he had known but one true bishop - Ambrose.

Saint Ambrose was the friend and consoler of Saint Monica in all her sorrows, and in 387 had the joy of admitting to the Church Saint Augustine, her son. He died in 397, full of years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of God as one of her greatest Doctors.

Reflection: Whence came to Saint Ambrose his grandeur of mind, his clearness of insight, his intrepidity in maintaining the faith and discipline of the Church? Whence, if not from his contempt of the world and his fear of God alone?

Let us glorify the Holy Spirit, Who has vouchsafed to produce this sublime model in the Church, and let us beg of St. Ambrose to obtain for us, by his prayers, a share in that lively Faith and ardent love which he himself had, and which he evinces in the delicious and eloquent writings he has left us on the mystery of the Incarnation.

O Almighty and Eternal God, who hast given the blessed Ambrose, the Confessor of thy holy Name, to be a Doctor of heavenly truth, not to this Church (of Milan) alone, but to all the Churches throughout the world: grant, that the doctrine he taught by the inspiration of the Holy ghost, may be ever firmly fixed in our hearts, and that he whom we tenderly love as the patron thou hast given to us, may be to us a defender, powerful to obtain us thy mercy. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Ambrose, pray for us.

REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR!

Today is the 73rd anniversary of the senseless slaughter of lives at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Our 'beloved' FDR knew the times, the dates, and everything else about the attack, yet refused to inform the military at Pearl Harbor so they could defend themselves. Just like all good Democrats/Socialists, he allowed all of the deaths to occur because he wanted war! The bastard! Of course, he was a 33rd degree Mason, and apparently intent on destroying everything we have, killing innocent lives, and starting to lead us to a one-world government. I wonder how it went for him when he finally croaked? I would bet, 'Not too good.' Let's pray for all of those who were slaughtered at Pearl, and, if they haven't reached happiness yet, maybe we can help push them over into the Eternal Light.