Pres. Obama says he “couldn’t be prouder” of NARAL and Roe v Wade

Here’s a note of special interest to Catholic quislings who supported President Obama in both elections.

From LifeSite:

Obama tells NARAL activists to ‘celebrate’ Roe, says ‘I couldn’t be prouder’ of them

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 7, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Barack Obama addressed abortion activists at NARAL Pro-Choice America’s annual dinner on Tuesday, saying in his videotaped remarks that he was joining them to “celebrate the historic Roe v. Wade decision handed down 40 years ago.”

“To everyone at NARAL Pro-Choice America, thank you for your tireless advocacy,” Obama said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the work each of you is doing.”

Supporters of the powerful abortion lobby paid between $3,000 and $25,000 per table to attend the event.

In his video address, Obama praised the group’s outgoing president, Nancy Keenan, calling her a “friend and counselor to me and my administration.”

He welcomed her successor, Ilyse Hogue, who in a video released this week by NARAL called legalized abortion “foundational to every other thing we want to achieve for ourselves, our families, and our country.”

Hogue attacked the conservative TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party movement in that same video, saying “The rise of the TEA Party has surfaced a real desire on the part of a few to ramp up restrictions on women’s freedom and to do what I call ‘stuff the genie back in the bottle.’”

As one of her first actions as NARAL president, Hogue last week praised the Obama administration’s controversial HHS mandate, saying it “affirms yet again the Obama administration’s commitment to fulfilling the full promise of its historic contraception policy.”

Hogue said her group will continue to publicly support the HHS mandate.

Last year, NARAL spent approximately $250,000 on radio ads backing the policy, which forces private employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs to all female employees, regardless of religious objections.

“Our ultimate goal is to improve the lives of all women by providing them the freedom to choose when and whether to have children,” Hogue said. “We will watch closely as the policy is implemented by health plans in the coming months to ensure this regulation will do just that.”

The keynote speaker at the NARAL event was former Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter, whom Obama complimented in his video message, calling her “an exceptional pick for pretty much any job, if I do say so myself.”

Cutter attacked Obama’s 2012 campaign opponent Mitt Romney in her remarks, along with his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan.

According to Cutter, during the 2012 elections, Obama campaign staffers would joke about Romney that “when he watched Mad Men, he thought he was watching the 11 o’clock news.”

She criticized Congressman Ryan for co-sponsoring a bill before the current Congress designed to defund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. “Now, if their own failed vice-presidential nominee is still trying to roll back the clock, you tell me, did they really learn the lesson of the 2012 election?” asked Cutter.

Below is the full text of Obama’s video message, as printed by the The Washington Post:

Good evening, everybody.

Tonight, we celebrate the historic Roe v. Wade decision handed down 40 years ago. But we also gather to recommit ourselves to the decision’s guiding principle: that women should be able to make their own choices about their bodies and their health care. We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her right to reproductive freedom, because we know that we are better off as a nation when women are treated fairly and equally in every aspect in life, whether it’s the salary you earn or the health decisions you make. This is a country where the success of all of us depends on the empowerment of each of us, [Unless you haven’t been born.] where all Americans should have the freedom and opportunity to reach their potential. And I know that’s what you’re fighting for every day.

So, to everyone at NARAL Pro-Choice America, thank you for your tireless advocacy for the health and well-being of women and families. I’d especially like to thank your outgoing president, Nancy Keenan, who’s been a friend and counselor to me and my administration. And I welcome Ilyse Hogue, who we know will continue Nancy’s legacy of outstanding leadership of this organization. Finally, congratulations on your keynote speaker, Stephanie Cutter, an exceptional pick for pretty much any job, if I do say so myself.

I couldn’t be prouder of the work each of you is doing to make this world a fairer and more just place for all Americans. And I look forward to continuing that work with you in the years ahead.

I threw up in my mouth.

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Emanations from Penumbras, Liberals, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , ,
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Phoenix Legatus Summit Day 2

The first talk today is by George Weigel.

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Weigel is explaining that the three footings of Western Civilization, termed “Jerusalem (Biblical truths and revelation), Athens (rationality – we can know truths) and Rome (the rule of law is better than force)” are under assault.

If you teach that there are Biblical, revealed, truths, you are either irrational or a bigot.
If you say that there is “truth”, you are shouted down with the claim that there are no truths and your truth doesn’t have to me my truth.
If you determine to act on the basis of truth that can be known, the state will impose by force a relativisitic notion of some passing “truth”.

One result is that no one is safe. Society is being coarsened and cold.

We have great challenges – to defend life, to defend religious liberty, defense of marriage.

Defense of marriage is not simply a question of the laws of states, reflecting reality or not, this is a cultural struggle. The culture of marriage is breaking down.

One of the factors in how people voted for President is whether they were married or not. “Unmarried women will marry the state.” The fact that there are so many, and that men and women have such a difficulty finding each other, shows that there is a serious problem in the culture of marriage. We have to defend not just reality, but must set limits on the state. The state can recognize marriage, but it cannot define marriage. Once the state can define marriage, it can define every other kind of relationship to produce a “soft totalitarianism”.

Another great challenge we have is the building of a responsibility society on the basis of subsidiarity. In Centesimus annus John Paul II described social organizations as “schools of freedom”. How do we produce, develop, grow civilized members of society? To build a “responsibility society” not defined by dependence on the state, we must foster civilized socialized members.

We are living at the threshold of a new era for the Church.

John Paul II talked about “new evangelization”. Benedict XVI has picked up on that. Weigel calls this “evangelical Catholicism”, which he claims is actually an old way of being Catholic. It goes back to the “great commission”, the fundamental vocation. When we “put out into the deep”, we are going into the roiling waters of the culture that is being undermined on the level of “Jerusalem, Athens and Rome”.

This means we have to take our baptism seriously. Start celebrating your baptismal anniversary day. In a sense, we can do what evangelicals do when they introduce themselves and add “I was born again on 8 Feb 2013).

We were baptized into a missionary vocation. Leaving a megachurch parking lot, he saw a sign – again, leaving the parking lot – “You are entering mission territory.” We should do this. At the renewal of baptismal promises, we might reflect on how many people we have helped to come to know Christ.

Evangelical Catholicism will be attractive by example, by modeling a decent way of life. We are in a cold culture. We have to build communities of warmth and life.

I have to add that, while, I think Weigel has a good point, I do not believe that we can get anywhere with his project without a revitalization of our liturgical worship.

UPDATE

Archbishop Lori is speaking.

He has started with the evolution of the Church in these USA as a force even during a period of anti-Catholicism. Card. Gibbons and his confreres saw the hand of God in the foundation of these USA. He didn’t say that the system was the best, but that the founders built “better than they knew”.

Catholics were then assimilated into culture and the Church grew. But this is a different time from that of Gibbons and McQuaid. Fewer people practice their faith. Catholics are falling away. 27% attend church and marriages are declining.

There are challenges to religious freedom. Were people being catechized, religious freedom would not be so easy to attack. Churches are being forced to conform or to be reigned in.

The HHS rules limit full religious freedom.

The Church in American is in a challenging situation now, larger than any one issue or sum of issues.

UPDATE

Matthew Kelly is speaking about game changers, not becoming hypnotized by complexity.

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UPDATE

Evening Mass with Archbp Lori.

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Speaking about John the Baptist, who died in defense of marriage, we, too, must be ready to bear witness in defense of truth, but with joy and serenity.

Offertory Sicut cervus by Palestrina. Well sung in poor acoustics!

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Archbp Lori did the preparatory prayers in Latin. Excellent.

UPDATE

Tonight I had a nice chat with Jeb Bush. He showed us photos of his grandchild!

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Georgia Helena Walker Bush! 18 months.

Now we have a Mardi Gras supper with Chef John Folse.

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Posted in On the road, The future and our choices, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged , , ,
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QUAERITUR: Orders of women religious who accept later vocations

From a reader:

Father, do your wonderful readers have suggestions about women’s religious orders that cater to late vocations (late 30’s)? Someone in our family is discerning.

I don’t, but I hope some of the readers here will.

The question of later religious vocations is a bit thorny.  As we age we get set in our ways and less able to adapt to a “rule” of a community.  I am not saying that it is impossible, but it is harder.  There are communities who don’t want to take on people who might be hard to form.

I have often hoped that some holy man or woman would rise up to found new groups precisely for men and women who are a little older.

Similarly, we could use to great effect a consecration of widows, along the lines of the ancient order of virgins which was revived after the council.  And there is the case of the single person who remains single but wants to dedicate his or her life to the service of the Lord, but not as a religious or cleric.

Times are changing.

Another idea could be to assemble a group of like-minded people and then invade one of the long-established but dying groups. Keep your heads down for a few years, get fully professed, and then take whole thing over as the aging-hippies die off or become the minority.  Imagine this applied to some of the galls lolling around under the LCWR’s vile umbrella.  Some of these once beautiful institutes and orders have a lot of property and a great heritage, both squandered and suffocated by earth-mother-goddess worshiping, labyrinth-walking, hierarchy-bashing harridans who have proudly moved “beyond Jesus”.

Invade, I say!  Into the breach!

Readers?

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Magisterium of Nuns, Our Catholic Identity, Women Religious | Tagged , ,
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Phoenix Legatus Conference Day 1

I am in Phoenix for the annual summit of Legatus. It really fires up tonight, but registration has begun. There is “hospitality” during the day. I may take my laptop down to the common area and work from there while people watching. Already quite a few familiar faces have come into view.

As an aside, may I say how great it was to sit outside and have breakfast this morning? It was 34°F and sleeting back at the SPTDV (I checked) and in a short-sleeved shirt I enjoyed my huevos and OJ. What all those people on the patio were doing with those sweaters and jackets….

The display tables – in the set up process still – are already representative of mainstream conservative Catholicism in these USA. For example:

  • Christendom College
  • St Thomas Aquinas College
  • Lexington College
  • Relevant Radio
  • BirthChoice
  • Wyoming Catholic College
  • Thomas More Law Center
  • Napa Institute
  • Thomas More Society
  • St Gregory Retreat Center
  • Pontifical North American College
  • Ave Maria Radio

No sign of the National Schismatic Reporter. Hmmm…. oh… right… that’s not a Catholic publication.

UPDATE:

Al Kresta is here, broadcasting live.

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UPDATE:

A detail of the display for a Fr Z favorite, Wyoming Catholic College:

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Before Mass with the bishops

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UPDATE

I am at supper at table “1”, which surprised me. Tom Monaghan, Bp. Olmsted, Archbp Lori. wonderful!

UPDATE

Archbp Lori received an award for defending religious liberty.

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Now Kenneth Cuccinelli is speaking. He is AG of Virginia about threats to religious liberty. He actually called on the bishops to lobby for smaller government. Larger government, less freedom.

THIS guy has got game.

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Posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged ,
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USCCB to Pres. Obama: your supposed “accommodation” falls short

Today the U.S. Bishops issued a statement about the supposed “accommodation” proffered by the Obama Administration in regard to the anti-1st Amendment HHS Mandate.

HHS Proposal Falls Short In Meeting Church Concerns; Bishops Look Forward To Addressing Issues With Administration

February 7, 2013
Bishops look forward to finding acceptable solutions to shortcomings
Concerned that first-rate charities still given second-class status
Seek clarification on confusing finance plan

WASHINGTON—The Feb. 1 Notice of Proposed Rule making from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) [Obamatax] shows some movement by the Administration but falls short of addressing U.S. bishops’ concerns.

“Throughout the past year, we have been assured by the Administration that we will not have to refer, pay for, or negotiate for the mandated coverage. We remain eager for the Administration to fulfill that pledge [Don’t hold your breath.] and to find acceptable solutions—we will affirm any genuine progress that is made, and we will redouble our efforts to overcome obstacles or setbacks,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in a February 7 statement. “Thus, we welcome and will take seriously the Administration’s invitation to submit our concerns through formal comments, and we will do so in the hope that an acceptable solution can be found that respects the consciences of all. At the same time, we will continue to stand united with brother bishops, religious institutions, and individual citizens who seek redress in the courts for as long as this is necessary.”

He listed three key areas of concern: [1] the narrow understanding of a religious ministry; [2] compelling church ministries to fund and facilitate services such as contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization that violate Catholic teaching; [3] and disregard of the conscience rights of for-profit business owners. These are the same concerns articulated by the USCCB Administrative Committee in its March 2012 statement, United for Religious Freedom.

Cardinal Dolan said the new proposal seemed to address one part of the church’s concern over the definition of a church ministry but stressed that “the Administration’s proposal maintains its inaccurate distinction among religious ministries.  [Just as the President and the administration purposely is twisting the meaning of “freedom of religion” into “freedom of worship”.]

Lest we forget...

“It appears to offer second-class status to our first-class institutions in Catholic health care, Catholic education and Catholic charities. HHS offers what it calls an ‘accommodation[He’s sooooo gracious, the President!] rather than accepting the fact that these ministries are integral to our church and worthy of the same exemption as our Catholic churches.”

Cardinal Dolan highlighted problems with the proposed “accommodation.”

“It appears that the government would require all employees in our ‘accommodated’ ministries to have the illicit coverage—they may not opt out, nor even opt out for their children—under a separate policy,” he said.

He also noted that “because of gaps in the proposed regulations, it is still unclear how directly these separate policies would be funded by objecting ministries, and what precise role those ministries would have in arranging for these separate policies. Thus, there remains the possibility that ministries may yet be forced to fund and facilitate such morally illicit activities.”

Cardinal Dolan also said the proposal refuses to acknowledge conscience rights of business owners who operate their businesses according to their faith and moral values.

“In obedience to our Judeo-Christian heritage, we have consistently taught our people to live their lives during the week to reflect the same beliefs that they proclaim on the Sabbath,” [Yes.  This rejoins what the President is trying to tear assunder.  The President would stress “freedom of worship” only, which means, effectively, that we Catholics can shut the hell up in the public square.  “Freedom of worship” is private not public.  Freedom of religion is both.] Cardinal Dolan said. “We cannot now abandon them to be forced to violate their morally well-informed consciences.”

The statement is attached.

Click HERE for the whole thing.

Remember my post on “The Most Tragikal Hystory of Obama I”? HERE.

I may need to write another scene.

Obama Unleashed

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , , , , , , ,
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Without ladies, you will never have gentlemen

Over at the National Catholic Register there is a piece by Pat Archbold which I liked.

I have written about this topic before, but not for a while now.

My theory is that each year a new wave of young barbarians will be unleashed on the world unless they are civilized first. I mean, young men. Women civilize men. If women start acting like men, the men don’t get formed in the proper way. The end result is going to be bad for everyone and women are going to be hurt more than men in the disaster that results.

That said, let’s see this piece with some emphases and comments.

Bring Back The Fairer Sex

Question: [QUAERITUR!] Is it sexist to ask young women to be ladylike?

It would seem so. Earlier in the week it was reported that a Catholic High School asked its young women to sign a pledge not to curse.

The media descended with its charges of sexism and the school quickly relented and opened the pledge up to boys.  [Instead of caving in they should have had a “knight in shining armor pledge” for the boys.]

While I am not in favor of either gender cursing, I have no problem with asking young women to be superior to their male counterparts. Even in a coed school (which may or may not be such a great idea) [Over rated.] we need to teach our boys to be men and our girls to be ladies. And guess what, ladies don’t curse (much).  [Nor do they dress like hookers.]

I think it is perfectly sensible and reasonable to single out girls for a call to better behavior. Boys will be called to behave like men in their own way, but boys are different than girls. I think that our world and our culture already suffers from the lack of the former benign influence of ladies.  Today, we have all too many girls who grow up merely into curvier versions of the vulgar male counterparts.  [And they pay a far more horrible price.]

Bottom line, you cannot make ladies of young women by asking them to be equal parts sugar, spice, slugs, and snails.

The world does not need more women who act like men.  [Do I hear an “Amen!”? ] We need something better than that, we need ladies. We don’t merely need the other sex, we need the fairer sex back. [Notice how he, correctly, writes of “sex” and not of “gender”?   When you see “gender”, alarm bells must sound.]

Ladies soften the temperaments of men, every generation before the last few knew this. It is these young women, called to the higher purposes of being ladies, in their turn call men to the higher purpose of being gentlemen. [Yes.]

I suppose that without ladies, you will never have gentlemen.

So ask more of them, ask them to be different from the boys, ask them to be better than the boys. The world needs ladies, we need our fairer sex back.

One of the trends in the entertainment industry – which probably dovetails with big-business abortion – is that female characters are turning into more efficient and extravagant killers than many of the male characters.

On a related note, if we don’t as a society, a nation, start having more babies, we are soon going to be in deeper trouble than we are in now.

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged , , ,
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A great spiritual war is rising.

Have you ever heard of “Santa Muerte”?

This is a perversion of things Christian which is on the rise in certain sub-cultures, especially criminal.

There is an article at the site of the FBI “Santa Muerte: Inspired and Ritualistic Killings (Part 1 of 3)
By Robert J. Bunker, Ph.D.

If you look at this material, keep in mind that much of it is quite dark. There is great evil here and the influence of the demonic.

One of the things I learned during the exorcism conference I attended is that incidents of demonic oppression and possession have been on the rise over the last few years.

Let us keep our eyes open.  Let us tune up our antennas and radar and be on the alert.

We have to learn to engage with our Holy Angel Guardians more, I think. Ask them for help with all manner of things in our lives.

Use sacramentals and GO TO CONFESSION.

A great spiritual war is rising.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, GO TO CONFESSION, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices, Year of Faith | Tagged , , , , ,
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Hopeful vibrant continuity v. the grim liberal watchmen

Over at Views From The Choir Loft there is a good post about music, and Latin, and our heritage in the Latin Church.  The writer is Dr. Peter Kwasniewski who teaches at Wyoming Catholic College.

Vatican II says that “care should be taken that people can sing in Latin these parts of the Mass.” Why? Because they are our heritage. They come to us from centuries of faith and prayer and art. Our heritage defines who we are. And frankly, it’s not too much to ask people to know the songs, poems, and prayers of their ancestors. How hard is it to learn that “Kyrie eleison” = “Lord, have mercy”? One figures that out in about three seconds. Or the Gloria—this is a hymn that has not changed at all in 1,500 years. We say it week in, week out. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to learn what the Latin words of the Gloria correspond to in English (e.g., “miserere nobis” = “have mercy on us”). So, the idea that we must never use a sacred language for worship because it would prevent “active participation” is simply ludicrous—a thinly-veiled excuse for not making an effort to embrace our heritage, as the Council itself and the Popes before and after it have continually asked us to do.  [How condescending liberals are.  They think everyone is stupid.  On the other hand, those who embrace tradition affirm that people can do anything!]

My experience, in many different settings, has been exactly the opposite. When they are finally exposed to it (as the Council demanded), young people are proud to be the possessors of such a rich tradition: it makes them think about their faith even more, react to it as something obviously different than what the world has to offer, and embrace it more fully. In general, when we give Catholics more to take pride in and take possession of, we are surprised to find that they rise to the challenge and glory in the result. Making things “accessible” by simplification and modernization has been tried and found wanting, again and again. One wonders, with not a little vexation at human myopia, how many more decades will have to pass in which trite tunes and superficial verbiage will be shoved down the throats of Catholics around the world, while the crisis of the mainstream Church continues, escalates, radicalizes, and implodes. I see in my mind’s eye the pathetic spectacle of a Mass, ca. 2035, in which an ancient priest preaches to an empty church while, just off to his left, three or four elderly women croak out Haugen-Haas tunes to the accompaniment of a broken-down piano. [The Biological Solution.  Meanwhile, over at the Church of St. Fidelia in Tall Tree Circle, where the older form of Mass has been celebrated for a couple decades, there are lots of young people and vocations.]

I am even aware of dioceses where the new translation of the Roman Missal has occasioned the choice and imposition of musical settings of the Mass that are even worse, in their discontinuity from tradition and their egregious lack of good taste, than the tripe that was being served up before. One asks oneself: Is this what the new translation has gotten us? One wonders if the operative motto might be: “Boldly Leading the Way into the 1970s.” Quite as if Sacrosanctum Concilium 116, Blessed John Paul II’s Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope Benedict XVI’s Sacramentum Caritatis, and a host of other documents had never even been written and promulgated! The strategy of the dying liberals is to ignore, ignore, ignore the Magisterium in the hopes that it will just go away.

“This, too, shall pass.” Meanwhile, the chapels of traditional Catholicism will continue to expand and multiply, bursting their seams with countless children in homeschooling networks, altar boys in cassock and surplice, choirs and scholas, sodalities, and so many of the trimmings and trappings of a genuine Catholic culture (or, I should say, counterculture). The grim watchmen of the liberal Church try very hard not to notice this demographic shift and, when they notice it, bitterly dismiss it as reactionary nostalgia and postmodern escapism. We can be patient and put up with the whining and hand-wrining of our foes, for they will live only a few short years on this earth, but the Tradition of the Church, already 2,000 years old, will effortlessly outlast them—indeed, will never die, and will live on in the hearts of all who love the beautiful and the eternal. Daily winning to herself converts and champions, the traditional Church in her perpetual youth is the real answer to the crisis of our wayward age.

 

Posted in Brick by Brick, Liberals, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged , , , ,
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My view for a while

Off to Phoenix.

I could use some prayers for this cold!

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Posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to |
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Mystic Monk Coffee K-Cups are “Monk Shots”

I have noticed that quite a few of you are buying Mystic Monk Coffee K-Cups!

They call them “Monk Shots”.

What are Monk Shots?  Let the Wyoming Carmelites explain:

After years of research and development, we are proud to release our Monk-Shots single serve coffee cups!

We wanted to create a single serve coffee pod with delicious authentically monk roasted coffee in it. We did not like the taste of many coffee pods, which end up tasting like plastic and manufactured. At long last we have a coffee pod that tastes better than a drip brewed cup of Mystic Monk Coffee!

They work with Keurig, Breville, Mr. Coffee and Cuisinart, single-serve machines.  Maybe others, I don’t know.  Chime in.

CLICK TO BUY MONK SHOTS

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged , ,
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