Veil reveals ‘Face of Jesus’

           A veil in Manoppello, Italy, illustrates Christ's resurrection in a way that will change the world, a historian says.

Italy
March 29, 2011

           
              A veil in Manoppello, Italy, kept secret for centuries and only recently reemerging, illustrates Christ’s resurrection in a way that will change the world, says historian and author, Paul Badde.
Badde, author of “The Face of God: The Rediscovery of the True Face of Jesus” (Ignatius Press), told ZENIT that the veil features “uncountable” images of the Risen Christ.
             The journalist and historian, and editor for the German newspaper “Die Welt,” noted that the veil also illustrates much of what Pope Benedict wrote in his newest book, “Jesus of Nazareth Part II”.
             In fact, the Pope visited the shrine at Manoppello as one of the first trips of his pontificate, reflecting his decades-long interest in the meditation on the face of God, the author noted.
            ZENIT: Some have referred to the Veil of Manoppello as belonging to Veronica, and having the image of Jesus’ face from before the Crucifixion. Your investigation, however, led you to a different conclusion. Could you clarify what this veil is?
Badde: This veil has had many names in the last 2000 years — maintaining only its unique character in the same time.
                It is, in fact, “the napkin” or “handkerchief” (in Greek: soudarion), to which St. John the Evangelist is referring in his report of the discovery of the empty tomb by St. Peter and himself, that they saw “apart” from the cloths (including the shroud of Joseph from Arimathea) in which Jesus had been buried.
This napkin, St. John says, had originally been laying upon the Face of Jesus.
             This veil had to be kept completely secret right away – together with the Shroud of Turin – in the first community of the Apostles in Jerusalem due to the ritual impurity in Judaism of everything stemming from a grave. And it remained secret for many centuries.

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Think Of it 2

The Pope goes to New York. He is picked up at the airport by a limousine. He looks at the beautiful car and says to the driver, "You know, I hardly ever get to drive. Would you please let me?"

The driver is understandably hesistant and says, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm supposed to do that."

But the Pope persists, "Please?" The driver finally lets up. "Oh, all right, I can't really say no to the Pope."

So the Pope takes the wheel, and boy, is he a speed demon! He hits the gas and goes around 100 mph in a 45 zone. A policeman notices and pulls him over.

The cop walks up and asks the Pope to roll down the window. Startled and surprised, the young officer asks the Pope to wait a minute. He goes back to his patrol car and radios the chief.

Cop: Chief, I have a problem.

Chief: What sort of problem?

Cop: Well, you see, I pulled over this guy for driving way over the speed limit but it's someone really important.

Chief: Important like the mayor?

Cop: No, no, much more important than that.

Chief: Important like the governor?

Cop: Wayyyyyy more important than that.

Chief: Like the president?

Cop: More.

Chief: Who's more important than the president?

Cop: I don't know, but he's got the Pope driving for him!

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Think Of it 1

Scene: New York City, man is going to jump off the building. Up rushes good Irish cop. Cop yells up to the man "Don't jump! Think of your father"

Man replies "Haven't got a father; I'm going to jump."

The copy goes through a list of relatives, mother, brothers, sister, etc. Each time man says "haven't got one; going to jump."

Desperate the cop yells up "Don't jump! Think of the Blessed Virgin"

Man replies "Who is that?"

Cop yells "Jump, Protestant! You're blocking traffic!"

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Think Of it.

                



A Jewish couple has a son who is a holy terror. When he gets to be of age, he's kicked out of every school they put him in. Finally desperate, the father goes to the Rabbi for advice and the Rabbi says put him in the Catholic school. Shocked, the father asks if the Rabbi sure. "Yes" is the reply, so the father takes him to the nuns and leaves.

 





this is a sort of funny religious jokes...pls enjoy and feed back
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                 An hour goes by, then two hours, lunch time and finally at three the son comes in says "Good afternoon Papa, good afternoon Mama," goes to the table and starts on his homework. The father is amazed and finally ask why he stayed in school all day and why he is behaving so well. His son looks up and says "Papa when you left, the Mother Superior told me that they did not allow rowdy boys, then she took me to my room. Papa they mean business! They've got a Jew nailed on a Cross in every room!"

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How Do We Live Lent?

            Most of what is done and learned in Lent is true for the rest of the year, too, but with a different feel. Most people couldn't even dream of keeping their intense focus all year on what Jesus did and what we're to do with that. Forty days is long enough not to be short-term, but too short to be thought of as a substitute for year-round Christian living. A short burst, such as the forty days of Lent, can go a long way. But only for those who make some hard decisions.

Giving Something Up For Lent

In Lent, it's traditional to give up (or 'fast from') something(s) that we do a lot of and that we find pleasure in. This giving up or fasting is done:

• as a discipline for learning self-control, to free our minds from the chase after material things, to tell ourselves 'no' and make it stick;
• to identify with Christ's sufferings, and remember what the true pleasures are for followers of Christ;
• as an act of sorrow over our wrongdoings and our state of sin.

It may at times be about forensic guilt (as in TV's CSI or Law and Order, the 'I did it' kind of guilt), but it's not about the psychological kind of guilt (where God is pictured like a nagging mother, saying just the right word to make you feel sorry for yourself). In fact, it prepares you for Easter, in which a risen Christ leaves you no cause (or even room) for such guilt or shame.
Sometimes we don't notice how certain things we do have gained power over us and dictate our actions. In Lent fasts, we discover these things and give them up so that God can be in charge. Franciscans use the term 'detachment': the less that 'stuff' preoccupies your life, the more room there is for God, as well as for yourself and for other people.
Christian parents sometimes use the season to teach their children more about taking responsibility in God's presence for their actions.

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သင္ ဘာလုပ္မလဲ

                     မေန႕က ျဖစ္ပ်က္ခဲ့ တဲ့ အရာေတြ ဒီလိုေန႕ေတြေနာက္ထပ္မျဖစ္ဖို႕ ဘာေတြလုပ္ရမလဲ လုပ္သင့္သလဲ။ အေမးေပါင္းမ်ားစြာရင္ထဲမွာ ျပည့္လာတယ္။ သဘာဝ ေဘးရန္ေတြက ဘာလိုလို႕အျပစ္မဲ႔တဲ့ လူေတြကို ဒုကၡ ေပးရတာလဲ။ ကြၽန္ေတာ္ စဥ္းစားတာ လုံးခ်ာလည္လိုက္သြားတာပဲ။ တစ္ခ်ိဳ႕လူေတြက ဒါေတြဒီလို ျဖစ္လာတာ ဘုရားသခင္ဒဏ္ခပ္တာတဲ့။တစ္ခ်ိဳ႕လူေတြက ဘာမွမ ေျပာပဲ ခပ္မဆိတ္ပဲေန လိုက္ၾကတယ္။
                        လူေတြ အိုးအိမ္ေတြ ပ်က္စီး။ စုေဆာင္းထားတဲ့ အရာေလးေတြ အႏွစ္ႏွစ္က ခ်ိဳးခ်န္ေခြၽတာ ထားခဲ့တဲ့ မရွိမဲ့ ရွိမဲ့ ေတြမိနစ္ပိုင္းအတြင္းမွာ ျဖဳတ္ခနဲ ေပ်ာက္သြားတာပါလား။
အားလုံးကိုျခဳံၾကည့္ လိုက္ရင္ ဒီကမာၻ ၾကီးဟာလဲမတည္ျမဲဘူးဆိုတာ အသိသာၾကီးပါလား။လူေတြတီထြင္သမွ် အရာအားလုံး အခိုင္ခန္႕ဆုံးလို႕ထင္ရတဲ့ အရာေတြ မိနစ္ပိုင္း အတြင္းမွာ ျပာက်သြားေလရဲ့။ စိတ္မေကာင္းစရာပါ။ ညဏ္ရွိပါေပ့၊ ေတာ္လွခ်ည့္ ဆိုတဲ့လူေတြဘာမွမသိႏိုင္ေတာ့ပါလား၊ ၾကိဳတင္ကာကြယ္ႏိုင္စြမ္းမရွိေတာ့ပါလား။
                       ေဗဒင္ နကၡတ္ ပညာရွင္ေတြ ဘာသုန္းက်ေသးသလဲ။ နာဆာ ဆိုတဲ့ အာကာသ စခန္းၾကီးကေကာ ဘာလုပ္ႏိုင္ေသးသလဲ။ ႐ုရွားက ေကာ ဘာစြမ္းေသးလဲ။ တ႐ုပ္က ေကာ လက္ပိုက္ၾကည့္ေနသလား။ လူအခ်င္းခ်င္း ျဖက္ဆီးဖို႕ လက္နက္ေတြ တရစပ္ထုပ္လုပ္ ေနတာ ကမာ႓ ၾကီးကိုကယ္တင္ဖို႕လား။ ေဝးပါေသးတယ္။သူတစ္လူငါတစ္မင္း ကမာၻ ၾကီးကို အစိုးရဖို႕သာ အေလာတစ္ၾကီးက်ိဳးပမ္းေနက်တာ အရမ္းေအာက္တမ္းက် လူမဆန္ပါဘူး။
                       အေမရိကန္ကလဲ ကမာၻ ၾကီးကိုအုပ္စိုးရမယ္ဆိုရင္ က်န္တဲ့လူေတြကို အကုန္ သတ္ရမယ္ဆိုရင္လဲဝန္မေလးတတ္တာ သူ႕ရဲ့ဝင္ေရာက္စြက္ဖက္ေရး ေပၚလစီကို ၾကည့္ရင္သိသာပါတယ္။ က်မ္းစာျမတ္ရဲ့ ေနာက္ဆုံးက်မ္းျဖစ္တဲ့ အနာဂတ္ က်မ္းမွာေဟာထားတာ ျပည့္ဖို႕ အခ်ိန္နီးလာျပီလားလို႕ စိတ္ထဲမွာ သံသယျဖစ္မိတယ္ဗ်ာ။  နဂါးၾကီး နဲ႕ စိန္႕မိုက္ကယ္တို႕ရဲ့ စစ္ပြဲဟာနီးကပ္လာျပီလား။ နဂါးၾကီးရဲ့ေခါင္းကို ကညာစင္ေမရီက နင္းေခ်ေတာ့မွာလား။ ကပ္ဆိုးေတြ စိုက္၊ ငလ်င္ ေတြတရစပ္ လႈပ္ လိႈင္းေတြၾကီး ကမာၻ ၾကီးငိုေႂကြးရမဲ့အခ်ိန္ ဘုရားမဲ့သူတို႕ရဲ့ပူေဆြးရမဲ့ အခ်ိန္၊ ခရစ္ေတာ္ကို ယုံၾကည္သူတို႕ စမ္းသပ္ခံရမဲ့ အခ်ိန္ ေရာက္ေတာ့မွာလား?
                    ဘယ္သူေတြမွာ တာဝန္ရွိသလဲ? ကြၽႏ္ုပ္တို႕ဘာျပင္ဆင္ ထားဖို႕လိုေနျပီလဲ? အေျဖကေတာ့ရွင္းရွင္းေလးပါ။ ယုံၾကည္ျခင္းခိုင္ျမဲပါေစ၊ တရားေတာ္ကို မလြတ္တမ္း ေစာင့္ထိန္းပါ
ဆုေတာင္းေမတၲာ ပို႕သပါ။ ေမွ်ာ္လင္႔ျခင္းရွိပါေစ။ ပေရာဖက္အတုအေရာင္ ေတြကိုေရွာင္ပါ။ ခရင္ေတာ္ရဲ့ စကားေတာ္ကို အျမဲသတိရပါ။ "ကပ္ကမာၻကုန္ သည့္တိုင္ေအာင္သင္တို႕ႏွင့္အတူ ငါအျမဲရွိေနမည္"။ ကိုေတာ္၏ အလိုေတာ္သည္ျပည္စုံပါေစေသာ္။"

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III. We pray for whom and what?

Our prayer includes that present and past phenomena and still we pray for the future. In every desire there is a prayer of longing. It should be directed to the Almighty, the source of All Good. And we pray for physical needs and spiritual needs. Most of us, usually pray for the fulfillment of physical or material needs. In which the material needs should be under moderation, without contentment it would bring risks for the soul. There described “the extreme attachment to anything is idolatry” said a theologian. That does not mean that “inconsistency” but self-control.

Many prayed to gods so as to acquire more wealth, power etc. but once I heard that “if you stop giving them what they demand they will take everything back and leave you empty handed”. It’s true so far I experienced.

Another matter for who should we pray is that as Jesus taught, and what John the beloved said “God is love”. Love covers everything. We pray for material providence, for our loved ones or neighbors around us, for our enemies so that God may lessen their hatred and finally we pray for the souls in purgatory as we are committed. It’s like a investment, when we pray more the more grace come to us. It never ends coming towards us. We lose nothing by praying always, our spirit is raised high when we pray to God for people around us with the trust of a child toward father or mother. And prayer should also be with good intention (for salvation), with humility, with forgiveness, with consistency and attentiveness.

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II. What do we hope?

Hope and faith are the wheels for the life vehicle to move on. Without them there would be no meaning for one to live in the world. Or even he tries to find meaning in allowing himself indulging the instincts, it’s sure that he will get bored of his monotonous way of life.

As they are fuel for the life to go on, we Catholics hope in the Trinitarian God and pray for the desires to be fulfilled by God with filial trust. We pray that we may keep God’s commandments that have been given to us, that we may avoid sin in this earthly life, that we may advance in perfection and lastly that we may persevere unto the end of this earthly journey. This is the most used formula of serial prayers form lower to higher level of perfection. Which mean the salvation comes only from Jesus who was sent by the power of Holy Spirit from the father. This formula is found in Jesus teaching to the apostles (Matt 6:9) that they should pray in Jesus name to the father.

             Augustine teaches that the necessity of prayer for perseverance has always been the faith of the church. “As the church has been born and grown and has grown in this prayer, so it has been born and grows and has grown in faith, by which it is believed that God’s grace is not given according to the merits of the receivers but because of the infinite love of God.

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“Violations of fundamental human rights”

Vatican envoy to UN decries attacks on Catholic beliefs regarding human sexuality

By Benjamin Mann

Geneva, Switzerland (CNA/EWTN News) -- A Vatican representative to the United Nations spoke out Tuesday against “attacks” on freedom of conscience and religion directed against Catholics and others who hold traditional beliefs about sexual morality and human nature.

Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, spoke out in a March 22 meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling attention to what he described as a “disturbing trend” in debates over social life and human rights.

“People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behavior between people of the same sex,” Archbishop Tomasi told the council. “When they express their moral beliefs or beliefs about human nature, which may also be expressions of religious convictions, or state opinions about scientific claims, they are stigmatized, and worse – they are vilified, and prosecuted.”

The archbishop stated that these attempts to silence Catholics, and other critics of homosexual practice, were a human rights violation according to the council's own standards.

“These attacks contradict the fundamental principles announced in three of the Council’s resolutions of this session,” he pointed out.

“The truth is, these attacks are violations of fundamental human rights, and cannot be justified under any circumstances.”

The archbishop's remarks came as the council revisited the subject of “sexual orientation” as a human right, a subject that has caused tension between the Vatican and the U.N. in the past.

Church officials do not support the criminalization of homosexual activity. However, they fear that the concept of a universal right to “sexual orientation,” under certain interpretations, could lead to international action against Christians and others who regard homosexual acts as immoral.

“There has been some unnecessary confusion about the meaning of the term 'sexual orientation,' as found in resolutions and other texts adopted within the U.N. human rights system,” Archbishop Tomasi noted in his March 22 remarks.

But he pointed out that the term “sexual orientation” refers properly to “feelings and thoughts, not to behavior” – a distinction he said was especially important to make, in order to avoid the complete deregulation of all sexual behavior.

“For the purposes of human rights law, there is a critical difference between feelings and thoughts, on the one hand, and behavior, on the other,” Archbishop Tomasi explained.

“A state should never punish a person, or deprive a person of the enjoyment of any human right, based just on the person’s feelings and thoughts, including sexual thoughts and feelings,” he said. “But states can, and must, regulate behaviors, including various sexual behaviors. Throughout the world, there is a consensus between societies that certain kinds of sexual behaviors must be forbidden by law. Pedophilia and incest are two examples.”

While countries should not attempt to regulate thoughts or feelings, he said, they must avoid regarding sexual behavior as something completely private, and not subject to any restriction.

“Human sexuality, like any voluntary activity, possesses a moral dimension,” said the archbishop.

The Vatican representative explained that those who deny the voluntary and moral character of sexual acts – by treating them, instead, as inevitable expressions of an “orientation” – are actually undermining their own claims about human freedom and dignity.

Archbishop Tomasi also reiterated the Vatican's position on human sexuality – which the Catholic Church regards not only as an article of faith, but also as a universal matter of natural law.

“Human sexuality is a gift that is genuinely expressed in the complete and lifelong mutual devotion of a man and a woman in marriage,” he stated.

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Why do we pray?

We pray, everyone here on earth prays now and always. Why? Many think unceasingly. They find it difficult to explain though they feel satisfied to pray to something greater than us. It’s a thirst of human race, the thirst of rationality. An Indian yogi said “Man Knows God and pray to him” after the discovery of him for God.

The hope that urges us to pray, faith that pushes us to pray and fear that of unknown forces us to implore that we may be guided by the divine. Man’s soul understands his powerlessness of his reality and motivates the mind to approach the invocation of divine since man is an image of the combination of Body and Soul. Both elements of body and soul pray though the physical image may not know when the spirit is longing for the providence and imploring the divine grace.

Man prays in three ways such as vocal or sound prayer, meditation and contemplation. Those who know God pray. Likewise those who denied God also pray. How, yes their soul pray but the physical image refuses to accept the existence of his soul when he denies the metaphysical existence of beings and at last the first mover of the universe whom we call God. Man admits his uncertainties, inconsistencies, incapable of controlling his physic and soul and therefore he prays.
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This small reflection is based on the book " Augustine On Prayer" by Thomas Hand. which i presented this in the class.
Suggestions and positive criticism are welcome.

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GREATER THAN THE TSUNAMI CATASTROPHE

A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said: "Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even one year old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together."

So the doctor said: "Okay, what do you want me to do?"
She said: "I need you to terminate my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this."
The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: "I have a good solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you."
She smiled, happy that the doctor was going to help her. "What's your plan?"
He replied: "Let's kill the one in your arms. It's quicker and easier."

The lady was horrified. "What in the world are you saying!!"

The doctor continued, "You won't have to take care two babies at the same time. You can have a good rest before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it does not matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you get rid of the one in your arms."

"How terrible! You want to kill a living child!!"
"I agree," the doctor replied, "but you seemed to be okay with it, so I gave you the best 'choice'. There is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb."


Here then is the bottom-line choice:

Love says I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person. Abortion says I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself.

If you choose the first, please forward this message. God save the children!

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“May your kingdom come”

Despite sin and the willful frustration of God’s grace, his kingdom or reign is slowly but inexorably filling all of creation. As Isaiah predicted: “…the word that goes for the from my mouth will not return to me empty , without carrying our my will and succeeding in what is was sent to do”( Is 55:1).

Jesus Christ has already overcome sin and evil in the world(Jn 16:33); the true history of the world is the sort of God’s grace ratifying Christ's victory and gradually transforming and gracing all of creation until the Parousia when Christ will be all in all. As Paul wrote to the Romans:

“We are well aware that the whole world of creation, until this time, has been groaning in labor pains. And not only that: we too, who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we are groaning inside ourselves, waiting with eagerness for our bodies to be set free.”

Sometimes when we reflect on the shape of the world is in, it takes a sustained act of faith to believe that things in fact getting better and the grace and kingdom of God are spreading. But our faith is well-founded; we’re assured that “however much sin increased, grace was always greater” (Rom 5:20). The grace of Jesus is all powerful and will transform us and all creation but we have a role in that process.

To be continued.

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Refusing State Sex Education Lands Parents in Jail

Global Groups Defend German Families

             MADRID, Spain, MARCH 18, 2011 (Zenit.org).- A growing number of organizations are defending the rights of German families to remove their children from state-sponsored sex education, as more parents have been imprisoned for refusing to send their children to the classes.
           The case of one woman, Irene Wiens, who refused to send her children to the classes in 2006 is now before the European Court of Human Rights. 
Her husband already served a six-week jail term, and Irene Wiens is now in jail.
          The couple refused to send their children to the classes, saying that they present a permissive view of human sexuality in conflict with their religious convictions.
            According to the U.S.-based Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the case, four other parents have also been imprisoned.
In Spain, Professionals for Ethics is promoting a declaration in favor of Wiens, which has been endorsed by 43 associations from Spain, Ireland, Italy, the United States, Kenya and other countries.
Just this week at the United Nations in New York, the Holy See's permanent observer reminded that parents have a right to educate their children according to their beliefs, "including education about authentic human love, marriage, and the family."
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Dear Brothers and sisters,


           Please Kindly reflect on this small article which is published in the news from Rome. i would like to say something about it. Is it fair to do so by force, are they doing for the development or the destruction? As far as i observe, the United Nations is also doing on the favor of evil. Who has the right to imprison as they claim always human right now and then. Who is the responsible for the children? the UN or the parents? The world is in darkness, the place where evil seems to prevail. I remember the prayer to St Micheal the Archangel. sometimes the voice of the people cannot be true if they yield to the way of evil.
        As described, the US-AID is really evil, i strongly condemn them. Here in this Philippines also these people work on politic and deceive people. As of now they are planning against the catholic church because the church teaches the right path, to be moral. they do not want, this US-AID is also governed by the US politicians, so as to expend their New World project, which started by the Kissinger. 
        We Catholics should be praying for our future, there is Tsunami, the eruption of volcanoes, the third message of the Fatima is revealed for us to prepare for the last days of our world. I am not afraid because i know Jesus, and i pray to him, i know he loves me and all of his created beings and the Universe.

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“Holy is your name”

For the Hebrews of Jesus’ times, a person’s name contained in some way the sense of who the person was. It summed up and, in a sense, ‘was’ the person. To know a person’s name gave you power over him or her and so, after Jacob had wrestled” with God all night, he asked God for his name but was not given it (Gn 32:26-31).
As creatures, we can neither understand nor ever ‘know’ the infinite God, nor could we ever have the least power over the Lord. However, Jesus has revealed that the name of God is holy.’ God’s holiness is the fullness of infinite being without the least bit of the negativity that is sin.
We who know the brokenness, division and isolation of sin cannot really ‘know’ experientially the infinite goodness, love and holiness extent that we as human beings can understand, God has revealed who he is by sending his Son, his ‘Word’ to us and becoming one of us in Jesus Christ.
“The word became flesh; he lives among us and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the father as only son of the father, full of grace and truth.” --Jn 1:14


As Jesus told Philip when he asked to see the Father, “Anyone who has seen me, has seen the father” (Jn 14:9). The first letter of John sums up very beautifully for us who God is. It is as if the author were trying to describe in one word the infinite, all powerful, almighty God; and so he wrote: “God is love…” (1 Jn 4:16).

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“Our Father”

“Our father in heaven, holy is your name; may your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not bring us to the test, but deliver us from evil.”

“Our father in heaven”

When Jesus prayed to his father in the garden of Gethsemane, he called him ‘abba’ (Mk 14:36), and St. Paul reveals that we are to call our father ‘abba’ as well (Gal 4:6, Rom 8:15).

‘Abba’ is an Aramaic word (the language spoken by Jesus and his contemporaries) which translates into something like ‘Papa’ in English or ‘Tatay’ in Pilipino. It is a word a very small child would use in speaking to a father whom the child loves and trusts totally; it implies a Deep and loving intimacy between the two.

That is how we are to relate to God our father as children aware of the infinite love of our father for each of us. Like Jesus, we are in no way to be childish but we should develop the wonderful virtues of a child: a deep trust and love of God , a sense of joy and continuing wonder at all the beauty in life and a humility based on the truth of our relationship as creature to our infinite Creator.

As Jesus’ prayer also notes, our father is in heaven.’ This is not another ‘place.’ People sometimes have the perhaps unconscious tendency to think heaven as “up there” and hell as “down there.” On the contrary, ‘heaven’ is a different way of being, outside of time and space; it is the realm of the spiritual in which God is beyond our senses but present to us. It is the goal and fulfillment of our lives.

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Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

On Sunday April 24th 1994, Pope John Paul II recommended this prayer be used by all Catholics as a prayer for the Church when he said:

'"May prayer strengthen us for the spiritual battle we are told about in the Letter to the Ephesians: 'Draw strength from the Lord and from His mighty power' (Ephesians 6:10). The Book of Revelation refers to this same battle, recalling before our eyes the image of St. Michael the Archangel (Revelation 12:7). Pope Leo XIII certainly had a very vivid recollection of this scene when, at the end of the last century, he introduced a special prayer to St. Michael throughout the Church. Although this prayer is no longer recited at the end of Mass, I ask everyone not to forget it and to recite it to obtain help in the battle against forces of darkness and against the spirit of this world."'

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host - by the Divine Power of God - cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits, who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

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Almsgiving Brings Us Closer to God, Says Pope

 

Notes Joy of Sharing Goods With Others

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 11, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is encouraging charitable giving, noting that this brings us closer to God and facilitates our own conversion.
The Pope stated this today in an audience with members of the Belgian charitable association Pro Petri Sede.
He acknowledged in particular a donation brought by the association that will allow the Pontiff "to help populations harshly tried in recent times, especially those of Haiti."
"Contributing to the struggle against poverty, sharing with almsgiving, we come close to others," the Holy Father stated.
He pointed out that "a gift is nothing without the love that animates it and the fraternal bonds it weaves."
"Acting thus with charity," Benedict XVI said, "we express the truth of our being as there is more joy in giving than in receiving, and we manifest the unity of the double commandment to love."
Fullness of life
"In fact, sharing with our neighbor," he added, "we experience through the joy received, that fullness of life comes from love of God."
"Thus alms bring us closer to God and invite us to conversion," the Pope said.
He affirmed that "the service of charity belongs to the very nature of the Church."
"It is a lively expression of God's solicitude for all men," the Pontiff observed.
He noted that "by contributing indispensable material aid, the Church can also offer care of the heart and the love of which persons being tested are in so much need."
The Holy Father thanked the charitable group for their support "in the struggle against what debases and degrades the dignity of every person created in the image of God."

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Benedict XVI Encourages Study of Latin

 

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 13, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is encouraging the study of Latin, noting that the ancient language has much to offer in the study of ancient and modern history.

The Pope said this today, in Latin, after praying the midday Angelus together with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.

His words were directed to the students and teachers of the Christelijk Lyceum of Veenendaal, Netherlands. The Pontiff stated that he was pleased that the students had come "to Rome to be strengthened in your endeavor to learn the Latin language."

"In fact," he added, "this language has much to contribute, both in the deeper study of antiquity and in the study of more recent history."

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Spiritual Terrorists

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What's a Catholic to do?

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Angry Atheists

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Chairman

A four-year-old had been elected chairman of a neighborhood group of older boys. The father of a member asked his son why they had elected such a little fellow.

“Well, you see, Dad,” the boy explained, “he couldn’t be secretary ‘cause he can’t read. We couldn’t elect him treasurer ‘cause he can’t count. He’s too little to throw anyone out, so we couldn’t make him sergeant-at-arms and we knew he’d feel bad unless we elected him to something, so we made him the chairman.”

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By this small story I recall my memories when I was in Mailone; I was elected as a chairperson of the library in our parish. They made me chairman after being elected once as a treasurer. Unknowingly, I was really proud of myself. But when I reflected on this story I felt ashamed. I was nothing; I couldn’t make any improvements in the library as well as when I was a treasurer. Being a treasure I never counted income or used money. I participated meetings where the important matters are discussed. I never made any important decision for the library. They simply put me aside and made decisions but I was happy to be there with friends.

Perhaps they knew me well what I was… “Who says nothing is impossible, I’ve been doing nothing for years.” Yes, I have done nothing for the Creator of this Universe.

“Lord, help us to perform Your Will.”

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Pope: Don't Build on the Sand of Ideology, Power, Money

Says Christ Is the Foundation of Rock for One's Life

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 6, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Jesus Christ is the foundation of rock upon which to build one’s life, yet too many prefer to build their lives on the "sand of ideologies, power, success and money," says Benedict XVI. The Pope said this today in his weekly Angelus address, which he delivered today before praying the midday Angelus together with those gathered in St. Peter's Square. He reflected on the Gospel of Sunday’s liturgy, in which Christ presented the parable of the two houses: "one built on rock and the other on sand."

"Jesus is the living Word of God," the Pope stated. "When he taught, the people recognized in his words divine authority itself, the felt the nearness of the Lord, his merciful love, and gave praise to God.

"In every age and in every place, those who have the grace to know Jesus -- especially through the reading of the holy Gospel -- are fascinated, recognizing in his preaching, in his gestures, in his Person, the One who reveals God's true face to us, and at the same time, he reveals us to ourselves; he makes us feel the joy of being the children of the Father in heaven, indicating to us the solid basis on which to build our life."
"But often," the Holy Father lamented, "man does not base his actions, his existence, on this identity, and prefers the sand of ideologies, power, success and money, thinking that in these he will find stability and the answer to the irrepressible question about happiness and fullness that he carries in his own soul."

Benedict XVI affirmed that "Christ is the rock of our life," and that only he "can really answer the restlessness of our heart."

"He is the eternal and definitive Word," he added, "who keeps us from fearing any adversity, difficulty, hardship."

"Dear brothers," the Pope concluded, "I exhort you to find space every day for the Word of God, to nourish yourselves from it, to meditate on it continually. It is a precious help for distancing yourself from a superficial activism too, which might satisfy our pride for a moment, but that, in the end, leaves one empty and unsatisfied."

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On ZENIT's Web page:

Full text: www.zenit.org/article-31933?l=english

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Love Unreturned

 There is a German poem about a China man who had a beautiful garden. He fell in love with the big water lilies on his fish pond, with one in particular, whom he named Catherine…

 But Catherine had eyes only for the gold fish named Wu… she loved to have him swim by and touch her leaves. But otherwise, the gold fish never returned Catherine’s love... because he was thrilled at the sight of a little chicken named Shooshoo.

But then, the little red chicken loved only one thing: the gardener named Ming.

And so it went: the gardener Ming loved the water lily Catherine; Catherine loved the gold fish Wu;

Wu liked the red chicken Shooshoo; and Shooshoo loved the gardener Ming… a complete circle of love except that no one loved in return.

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Blind conceit

A lion approached a rhinoceros and asked, “Who is the king of the jungle?”
“You are, O lion,” came the answer.
The lion went up to the hippopotamus and asked, “Who is the king of the jungle?” the hippo said, “You are, O lion.”
Where upon the lion went up to the elephant and asked the same question. The elephant seized the lion with his trunk, whiled him around, tossed him in the air, caught him on the way down, and slammed him into a tree.
Half-dazed, severely beaten, the lion shook himself and managed to mutter, “Just because you don’t know the right answer, you don’t have to get angry.”


No one can say that we are sure that we’ve not experienced like the lion. Many times in life we perceive the truth but we fail to accept as our personnel weakness, pride, foolishness. It’s just like we are deceiving ourselves. We are liars for ourselves.

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Drink

Drink

When Noah planted the vine, Satan notices it and with his usual curiosity approached him. “What are you planting “asked the prince of demons.
“A vine” answered Noah.
“What good will it be?” asked the tempter.
“The fruit of it,” said Noah, “it agreeable to the eye and delicious to the taste; and one gets from it a liquor that makes happy the heart of man.”
“In that case,” murmured Satan, “I will help you.”
So the devil procured a lamb, killed it, and poured its blood in the hole where the vine was planted. He did the same with a lion, a monkey and a pig. Thus did the vine receive the nourishment.
Since that time, whenever a man drinks a little wine, he becomes as sweet and pleasant as a lamb. If he increases the dose, he becomes as strong and rough as a lion. If he continues, he becomes as foolish as a monkey. And if, unfortunately, he does not stop, he ends up resembling a pig.

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Short story but it has meaning for us, especially for the young seminarians, as far as I observed. Many of us are too much attached to the alcoholic drinks. Mostly that leads to the disgraceful life of some seminarians. Some went out of seminary because the attachment to it; they couldn’t persevere in this challenging life. Christ said that we should be free because he’s freed us from the slavery of sins. Therefore I humbly ask of you your prayers for the seminarians, who will become the ministers of Christ. By your prayers they will be transformed and live a holy life, serving Jesus without reservation for himself.

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Praying with whole body

                 While liturgy is a community honoring of God, he can also be honored all day long. A person who is in constant contact with God can make prayer out of anything. A cigarette enjoyed can be a prayer.
           Lovers speak and communicate to one another without words. True love is wordless; it speaks through our action. Have there ever been two people in love who did not sight? Yes, every movement of the body can honor God.
Recall how refreshing the sensation of cool water flowing over a hot skin is in the summer time. In its way, the skin is thanking God for the wonderful sensation. To rejoice over being healthy is surely a way of parsing God, for he is interested in having us healthy and using our bodies for their purposes…
            St. Angela of Foligo narrates that once in a vision the lord told her, “I take pleasure in all you do, whether you are eating or drinking or sleeping. I rejoice when all your bodily organs are functioning well.”
In his book “the little flowers,” St. Francis tells us that Brother Mario’s wonderment of God consisted of his constantly saying just “uuuuu”. And Brother Bernard’s devotion to God consisted in running up and down the mountains and hills.
               Behind all these experiences stands the fact that God surrounds us like light and air, like water around the fish. Our problem is that we have lost our instinct for his presence; we never think about it. We have lost our instinct for God’s nearness; we have lost the antenna and have not tuned in on the right channel.
            Though God is actually near, he can be far off. And so contact with him is similar to two lovers want to hug one another, but can’t get close enough one another because of a window pane between them.
           The fault with us is that we are used to getting all our sensations form outside us… and God is within. If we turn inside ourselves, we will find him there. There we can hear him talking to us, especially when we are silent and quiet.

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Lent….

 As the time of Lenten season is approaching, I would like to share this short story. In this we can learn many things by putting it in our hearts what is the moral. We claim we are Catholics but sometimes our actions, behaviors becomes as pagan or atheists. We should let our hearts touch by the power of Holy Spirit.

            Let’s challenge ourselves in this season by living according to the teaching of the church and the commandments of our lord. Let’s fast for the Fridays and other important days in these forty days of lent.

Faith in example

A young man worked in a leather factory. His fellows were not Catholics, and when on Friday he brought his eggs, fish and cheese sandwiches to lunch, they called him a fish-eater and put their meat sandwiches before his eyes. Of course, it was all good-natured joking, but there was one man whose bitter remarks were serious.

            Years later, the leather worker met that old acquaintance leaving a Catholic Church and dressed as a Catholic Priest. The two recognized each other and began to talk over old times. Finally, the priest said, “it was your example that aroused my interest in Catholicism. I thought if a man can take the taunts of crowd and still remain proud of his faith, there must be something wonderful that faith. That led me to inquire about the church. Today, I celebrate my first mass.

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Conversion is waiting for every one of us. Let’s take this opportunity to have transformation of our lives by this Holy Lenten Season.

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