YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

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Registered or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Many requests are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand.  We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below. You have to be registered here to be able to post.

Finally, I still have a pressing personal petition.

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The Pope on “adolescent progressivism”

In his daily, off-the-cuff, non-magisterial fervorino, Pope Francis quoted Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World.

Let’s enter in medias res:

“If someone found the Book of the Covenant and if anyone obeyed the Law, the sentence of the king condemned him to death: and this is what we have read in newspapers in recent months” noted the Pope, observing that “these people have negotiated fidelity to the Lord.”

“These people, moved by the spirit of the world, have negotiated their own identity, have negotiated the belonging to a people, a people that God loves so much, that God wants as His people.”

Calling attention to the 20th century novel “Lord of the World” which focuses on this spirit of worldliness which leads to apostasy, Pope Francis cautioned against the attitude of wanting “be like everyone else,” which he referred to as an “adolescent progressivism.”

“What do you think?” he pressed, “that today human sacrifices are not made? Many, many people make human sacrifices and there are laws that protect them.”

[…]

Consider those who want to the Church to be governed by popular opinion.  Consider those who think the Church’s teachings should change just because lots of people disagree, that the Church should conform to the world.  Can you think of anyone who thinks along those lines?

Read the rest there and then come back and comment.

What is the Pope talking about?  About whom is the Pope digressing?

He eviscerated “progressives“.

Not much on this yet from the Fishwrap.  I’m just saying.  I guess they have lots of other groooovy things to write about.

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged , ,
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150 years ago: The Gettysburg Address – Fr Z opines

Four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg, on the afternoon of Thursday 19 November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a “few appropriate remarks” at the dedication of the cemetery for fallen soldiers.

After a 13,607 word speech by Edward Everett, the President’s address consisted of 10 sentences in 272 words.

Today is the 150th anniversary of the greatest pieces of public oratory in history.

However…

Today of all days Pres. Obama, to mark this occasion, recorded the famous, pivotal speech and left out Lincoln’s reference to God.  HERE

As I watch what is happening domestically and abroad, I think we may be seeing in this presidency…

…the worst thing to happen to these USA since the American Civil War.

Posted in Liberals | Tagged , ,
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What is your good news?

Has something great happened in your lives lately?

Let us know what it is. We could all use some positive, good news.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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Pope Francis on “progressives”

This morning Pope Francis didn’t exactly sound like a reader of the National Schismatic Reporter (aka Fishwrap).

Or… on second thought… mayhaps he did read it!

God save us from the “hegemonic uniformity ” of the “one line of thought”, “fruit of the spirit of the world that negotiates everything”, even the faith. This was Pope Francis’ prayer during mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on a passage from the Book of Maccabees, in which the leaders of the people do not want Israel to be isolated from other nations , and so abandon their traditions to negotiate with the king.

They go to “negotiate ” and are excited about it. It is as if they said “we are progressives; let’s follow progress like everyone else does”. As reported by Vatican Radio, the Pope noted that this is the “spirit of adolescent progressivism” according to which “any move forward and any choice is better than remaining within the routine of fidelity”. These people, therefore , negotiate “loyalty to God who is always faithful” with the king. “This is called apostasy”, “adultery.” They are, in fact, negotiating their values??, “ negotiating the very essence of being faithful to the Lord .”

“And this is a contradiction: we do not negotiate values??, but faithfulness. And this is the fruit of the devil, the prince of this world , who leads us forward with the spirit of worldliness. And then there are the direct consequences. They accepted the habits of the pagan, then a further step: the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and everyone would abandon their customs. A globalizing conformity of all nations is not beautiful, rather, each with own customs but united, but it is the hegemonic uniformity of globalization, the single line of thought . And this single line of thought is the result of worldliness . “

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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On the road

Today began with a long drive and big breakfast. I rather like road trips.

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UPDATE

I am in my native place and have met a friend who is on the Minneapolis PD. We have begun to kill some paper.

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NB: muzzle flash!

I tried my XD-S. I wasn’t happy with the results today. Everything else I shot well. The XD-S though…. I am going to have to send a lot more rounds down range before I decide about this one. My friend shot it better than I did but he found it odd. The trigger doesn’t feel good at all after the factory recall.

Later I’ll meet up with my literary group. Today we will read some Richard Wilbur.

UPDATE

We read a fine selection of Wilbur’s poetry.  Talented guy, charming content.  I was struck by A Plain Song For Comadre and also … several others, frankly, for sparking in me what Walt Whitman might have called “spots of time”.

For supper the group went to a nice sort of fusion resto.

I started with a salad that had crunchy things and little green plants that tasted good.  There was also some goat cheese.  And for the curious the wine – which one of the reading group members brought – was a Barbera.  The thing on the little plate is bread, brownish in color, all in all.

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My next course involved fettuccine made in the house… that’s a kind of pasta for those of you in Columbia Heights.  The stuff on them was a ragu of venison (which they lamely called “bolognese”) and kale, with little cubes of thingy, and creme fraiche.  It was well with the Nottola Vin Nobile di Montepulciano.  Quite well.  Well tasting indeed!

Both sadly and happily I had to share the wine with 4 other people.  Alas some of the members couldn’t join for supper.  Which reminds me of the poem about the Wedding Toast poem.

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The reading group was enjoyable and instructive.  This was refreshment for the mind and spirit.

Shooting range… Poetry with friends of decades… Vino Nobile…  a roof, hot water and a cot….

The last three being more than what many have tonight.

Ant. Salva nos, * Dómine, vigilántes, custódi nos dormiéntes; ut vigilémus cum Christo, et requiescámus in pace.

Posted in On the road, SESSIUNCULA, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged
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Life takes a bad turn

I sometimes put on my Cassandra cap and want people that things can happen in the wink of an eye. “Be prepared!”, I cry.

Washington, IL.

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Tornados happen.

Whole neighborhoods are gone.

So… again… prayers for all the people affected by the horrible storms and remember groups like Team Rubicon.

BTW… a friend contributed to Team Rubicon and got a phone call back with thanks for the contribution.

 

Posted in Global Killer Asteroid Questions, Semper Paratus | Tagged
8 Comments

Can anyone afford the “Affordable” Care Act? Not if you have religious principles.

There is an alarming piece at CharismaNews which confirms what we have known all along.

Remember… it’s not really “Obamacare”… though his name, and party, are inseparable from this millstone. It’s really the AFFORDABLE Care Act.

How is that “AFFORDABLE” part working for you so far?

Obama Administration Puts a Price Tag on Your Religious Freedom

Can you put a price on religious liberty?  [Aren’t dhimmis suppose to pay a fine?]

Apparently the Obama administration has.

If you value your faith; if you are one of the millions of Americans who believe that abortion pills cause the destruction of innocent, God-given human life; if you are an employer who believes that being forced to pay for others’ abortion pills is morally reprehensible, the Obama administration wants you to pay a dramatically steep price for your religious liberty.

The penalty for failure to abide by the Obamacare HHS abortion-pill mandate is an astounding $36,500 a year.

Refusal to violate your faith will cost you.

The HHS mandate requires that all employer health insurance plans cover abortion pills—that the employer must, under penalty of law, pay for the abortion pills of its employees.

According to federal law, the penalty for failure to provide this coverage is “$100 for each day in the noncompliance period with respect to each individual to whom such failure relate.

That’s $100 a day, per employee, per year.

Needless to say, this is a penalty that adds up quickly.

For example, a business with 100 employees would face a fine of $3.65 million dollars a year for refusing to violate one’s faith.

To put this in perspective, consider this. A violation of Obamacare’s employer mandate, which requires all employers of more that 50 employees to provide health insurance for those employees, is limited under federal law to $2,000 per employee and excludes the first 30 employees from the calculation.

So in the same example as above, if the employer chose not to provide any insurance for his or her 100 employees, the fine would be $140,000 a year.

So the same company would be fined $3.65 million for providing insurance but refusing to violate its faith by paying for abortion pills, but would only be fined $140,000 for providing no insurance at all. In fact, because the administration has now delayed the employer mandate until 2015 while seeking to enforce the HHS mandate now, an employer could refuse to provide any insurance to any employee and not face even a dime in penalties. Yet failure to provide abortion-pill coverage will cost an employer dearly.

It shows you exactly where the Obama administration’s priorities are. By its own regulations, it is clear that ensuring abortion pills for all is far more valuable to the administration than religious liberty or even universal health care coverage.

It is also important to take this out of the abstract. One of our clients, the Kortes, a family that runs a very small business but that is strongly committed to running their business in compliance with their faith, face over $700,000 in fines a year, something that would absolutely cripple any business.

Thankfully, this past Friday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a preliminary injunction preventing the HHS mandate from forcing our clients to pay these fines or violate their faith as their case continues. This has been the same result thus far in all seven of our lawsuits against the mandate.

But unfortunately, this is not the case for everyone. Businesses all across America are facing these Orwellian penalties for standing for their faith.

[…]

Read the rest there.

Can anyone afford the “Affordable” Care Act?

Posted in Religious Liberty, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , , , , ,
24 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Was there a good point in the sermon you heard at your Sunday obligation Mass?

Let us know.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
24 Comments

“We praise You, Lord!”

Yes. He has a point.

The great 20th century liturgist Klaus Gamber said that the single most damaging thing done after and in the name of the Council, was the “turning around” of altars.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged ,
63 Comments