What Happened?

Well, well, well. I guess it is official. After a year of daily updates, emails, contacting representatives and senators, writing letters to the newspaper, fasting, praying, praying,and praying some more, it happened. The unthinkable. Government take over of health care, with the help of groups that insist on calling themselves Catholic when they are not.
How? Why? I allowed myself to take this a step farther in my own imaginings. What will the repercussions be from this? Why was the king so preoccupied with this issue?
It is easy to see that this was a bail out for Planned Parenthood, but what will that mean for the rest of us?
Will abortion clinics be federally protected now that they will be federally funded? Our government has made a decision to go into the abortion business after all. The new health care bill says that you can keep your children on your policy until they are 26. If everyone will be covered, why do they need to be on your policy?
And the abortion expansion, merciful Jesus. Why do we need to rev up the abortion machine? 50,000,000 dead children aren't enough?
The United States can no longer call itself a world leader. With the passage of this bill, we have lost any shred of credibility that we may have been clinging to.
Dear, sweet, Lord Jesus, what are we doing wrong? Has the time come for us to call down the cleansing chastisement upon ourselves? Is that it? Must we totally accept whatever suffering we must endure to end child killing in our land, and actually beg for it from You? Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.
Help us to endure O Lord. Give us the grace to keep our faith.

Eve of Destruction

Well it won't be long now. The moment that has been the object of frustration for those waiting and praying for the health care bill to fail. Sunday will be the day we find out if we continue as a nation, or flush ourselves down the sewer. Personally, I think we are headed for the sewer. I don't want to be right, I hope and pray that I'm wrong, but I seriously think we are in trouble.
If we are forced to finance the abortions of our fellow citizens, then I truly believe God will take away the money of his friends to keep them from paying for child killing. Would it not be an act of mercy for Him to prevent us from participating in so grave a sin? And if He does not take our money from us, we must make the initiative ourselves to de-fund child killing.
Tough times ahead my friends. I'm sure glad Nancy Pelosi is praying to St. Joseph for us, we're going to need all the help we can get.
Jesus I trust in You.

How Sweet It Is

I know this may seem juvenile for Lent, but here goes. Even though I try to grow spiritually during Lent by acts of prayer, fasting, and alms giving, I always end up being more conscious of what goes into my mouth. Trying to give up the sweet things in life end up giving me an appreciation for those things that seem undesirable outside of Lent. Today I gained an appreciation for raisins. This is so weird, but when you give up sweets, things like raisins start looking really, really good. I was eating some golden raisins and thinking how they were grapes that got all shriveled up and now they are almost as good as candy.
Then I started to think how noble a fruit the grape is to be the base and means of consumption for the Precious Blood of Christ, and the Wedding Feast at Cana, how Jesus used the grape to perform His first miracle, and then I almost started feeling guilty about eating those delicious raisins.
If it wasn't Lent I probably wouldn't have given those raisins a second glance. Anybody can eat a piece of candy(a man made confection) and satisfy a craving. But to feast on raisins, well now that is a blessing of untold wealth.
I dare say I will never take the raisin for granted from this day forward. Next to the grape, it has become my second favorite snack. I may never eat another piece of chocolate again. (What am I saying?)Just kidding. Keep moving toward the prize, the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, God bless.

Half Way Home

Well here we are, half way through Lent, so how are you doing? Lent for me is a time of self knowledge. I begin with vigor, roaring like a lion, determined to follow Christ into the desert and carry Him if need be, but i usually end up losing Him somehow, taking a wrong turn at the Tumbleweed Cafe' and spend the rest of Lent assuming that He has abandoned me. Nothing of course could be further from the truth. He withdraws to the deep recesses of my heart to allow me a taste of the bitterness He experiences there. The bitterness of always wanting things my way. The bitterness of false self-denial. The bitterness of forced charity, and the list can go on and on. Dear Jesus, please do not console me, no matter how deserving I think I am. Help me to grow in genuine love of neighbor, help me to bring peace to a world of terror. Give me the graces I need to grow in virtue. Help me to be humble, because I have no idea what humility is, but I know that it is what you desire for me. Help me Lord,for I am so lost without You. Amen

Prayer For The Conversion of the World

O Almighty and Eternal God, who saves all and wills not that any should perish,
Look we beseech Thee upon the souls of those who are led astray by the deceits
of the devil.
That rejecting all errors the hearts of those who err might be converted, and thus
Return to the unity of Thy truth, through the same Christ our Lord, Amen.
Taken from the liturgy of Holy Thursday.

Advent Reflection

At our parish today we were offered these little blue books to help us on our Advent journey. The concept of this book is to offer God 6 minutes each day during Advent to pray, pray the Holy Scriptures, be still, and listen.
Well today was the first day of Advent, and as I settled down this evening to give God my 6 little minutes, I lit the Advent Wreathe, said a weak prayer, and began to observe the flame of the candle. I noticed how the flame was part of the candle by means of the wick. If the wick was not there to support the flame, there would be no flame. What are you saying to me God? Is my heart the candle without a wick?
If you say yes, I can hardly dispute it. I feel my flame has gone out. I smile on the outside, but my zeal is undetectable on the inside. That is my Advent Quest. I need to find a wick to ignite the flame. I trust that God will lead me in my search for fire.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Amen.

Spiritual Bouquet For Priests

In this Year for Priests as declared by Pope Benedict XVI, a spiritual bouquet for priests has been organized. If you would like to offer your prayers,sacrifices or difficulties for the sanctification of priests, please add them here in the com box and they will be posted with the ongoing "flowers".

Hail Holy Queen...

Mother of Mercy, our life our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us,
And after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary,
Pray for us O holy Mother of God,
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Amen.

Who is she that cometh forth like the dawn,
terrible as an army set in battle array?