Forgiveness is Both Spiritually and Psychologically Healing

Forgiveness is very important for both your psychological and spiritual health.  In Matthew 18: 21-35, the parable of the unforgiving servant, shows us the importance and duty of forgiveness.  The servant begged for forgiveness from the master, and was forgiven.  But, when a man asked for forgiveness from the servant the servant refused to forgive him.  What the man expected he in fact refused to give the same due to another, his servant.  Is this how God wants us to act?  Forgiveness is the answer.

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.


³² “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ³⁴ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
   ³⁵ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”


The Mayo Clinic has an interesting take on forgiveness.  The Mayo Clinic tell us the benefits of forgiving the person who has wronged you. 


From the Mayo Clinic: 

Letting go of grudges and bitterness makes way for compassion, kindness and peace. Forgiveness can lead to:

• Healthier relationships
• Greater spiritual and psychological well-being
• Less stress and hostility
• Lower blood pressure
• Fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety and chronic pain
• Lower risk of alcohol and substance abuse

Why is it so easy to hold a grudge?

When you're hurt by someone you love and trust, you may become angry, sad or confused. If you dwell on hurtful events or situations, grudges filled with resentment, vengeance and hostility may take root. If you allow negative feelings to crowd out positive feelings, you may find yourself swallowed up by your own bitterness or sense of injustice.

What are the effects of holding a grudge?

If you're unforgiving, you may pay the price repeatedly by bringing anger and bitterness into every relationship and new experience. Your life may become so wrapped up in the wrong that you can't enjoy the present. You may become depressed or anxious. You may feel that your life lacks meaning or purpose, or that you're at odds with your spiritual beliefs. You may lose valuable and enriching connectedness with others.

How do I reach a state of forgiveness?

Forgiveness is a commitment to a process of change. A way to begin is by recognizing the value of forgiveness and its importance in your life at a given time. Then reflect on the facts of the situation, how you've reacted, and how this combination has affected your life, health and well-being. When you're ready, actively choose to forgive the person who's offended you. Move away from your role as victim and release the control and power the offending person and situation have had in your life. As you let go of grudges, you'll no longer define your life by how you've been hurt. You may even find compassion and understanding.

What happens if I can't forgive someone?

Forgiveness can be challenging. It may be particularly hard to forgive someone who doesn't admit wrong or doesn't speak of his or her sorrow. If you find yourself stuck, it may help to write in a journal, pray or use guided meditation. You may want to talk with a person you've found to be wise and compassionate, such as a spiritual leader, a mental health provider, or an unbiased family member or friend. You may also want to reflect on times you've hurt others and on those who've forgiven you. Keep in mind that forgiveness has the potential to increase your sense of integrity, peace and overall well-being.

What if the person I'm forgiving doesn't change?

Getting another person to change his or her actions, behavior or words isn't the point of forgiveness. Think of forgiveness more about how it can change your life — by bringing you more peace, happiness, and emotional and spiritual healing. Forgiveness takes away the power the other person continues to wield in your life.

What if I'm the one who needs forgiveness?

Consider admitting the wrong you've done to those you've harmed, speaking of your sincere sorrow or regret, and specifically asking for forgiveness — without making excuses. Remember, however, you can't force someone to forgive you. Others need to move to forgiveness in their own time. Simply acknowledge your faults and admit your mistakes. Then commit to treating others with compassion, empathy and respect.

I highly recommend that you visit In God's Company 2 to see a powerful example of forgiveness.

Iran is Preparing the Way for the 12th Imam; Expecting Him Very Soon

From TCL: Looks like the Iranian government thinks the 12th imam is going to climb out of the well very soon.



H/T The Conservative Lady 

From TCL:

Go to A Time To Betray, where you can view the entire 28 minute video.  As reported at A Time To Betray:

Currently this movie is being distributed throughout the Basij and Revolutionary Guards’ bases. The producers are in the middle of translating it into Arabic with the purpose of mass distribution throughout the Middle East. Their intention is to incite further uprisings with the hopes of motivating Arabs to overthrow U.S. backed governments with the final goal of the annihilation of Israel and Allah’s governance of the world!

Do the Vulnerable, the Sick, the Weak Have a "Duty To Die"?

This article is from MercatorNet:

Should "unproductive burdens" on society do the right thing by the rest of us and make an early exit?

There was a moment during Australia's last national debate on euthanasia that deserves to be revisited by a new generation of legislators, a moment that crystallised fears that the so-called right to die would come to be felt by the 
frailest among us more as a "duty to die".

It was 1995 and our then governor-general, Bill Hayden, was addressing the College of Physicians during debate on the Northern Territory's euthanasia laws. The scene was significant, since the dual concern with euthanasia is the corruption of the relationship between the state and its most vulnerable citizens, and between doctors and their most vulnerable patients. Our head of state urged doctors to support euthanasia not only as a right, but also as a positive duty towards society. He reflected on past cultures where the elderly would take their lives when their usefulness had passed, and declared of our own culture: "There is a point when the succeeding generations deserve to be disencumbered of some unproductive burdens." The next day a retired state governor, Mark Oliphant, publicly supported Hayden's astonishing message to "unproductive burdens" that they should do the right thing by society. This is the callousing of social attitudes, the insidious pressure on the frail and demoralised, that we could expect within a culture of mercy-killing.

A year earlier in Britain, a House of Lords select committee on medical ethics completed the most thorough enquiry into euthanasia ever undertaken, and concluded in stark contrast to Hayden: "The message which society sends to vulnerable and disadvantaged people should not, however obliquely, encourage them to seek death, but should assure them of our care and support in life." This committee began with a majority in favour of euthanasia, but ended by rejecting it as unsafe and corrupting public policy: "It would be next to impossible to ensure that every act of euthanasia was truly voluntary. We are concerned that vulnerable people - the elderly, lonely, sick or distressed - would feel pressure, whether real or imagined, to seek early death."

CONTINUED

St. John Climacus - The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Here is Elder Proclus on The Ladder of Divine Ascent. He discusses the human mind, how the brain works with regards to temptation and sin, reasoning, and one's conscience. He calls the conscience our "little prophet" which I think sounds awesome and cool.

What is Lent?

The season of Lent

View more presentations from Pablo Cuadra .

Boycott Pepsico, Kraft, Campbell Soup, Solae, Nestlé Products: Using Cell Lines from Aborted babies....

I just found out this information from The Badger Catholic.  A biotech company is using cell lines from aborted babies in food enhancement testing.  This is sick! This is immoral and unethical.  We need to send a loud and clear message to all these companies by boycotting their products and speaking out against this disgusting, inhumane objectification of human beings. 

From LifeSiteNews:

Pepsico, Kraft Foods, Solae and Nestlé are among the corporations partnered with a biotech company found using aborted fetal cell lines to test food flavor enhancers, according to a pro-life watchdog group.

The internationally recognized biotech company, Senomyx, boasts innovation and success in “flavour programs” designed to reduce MSG, sugar and salt in food and beverage products. Senomyx notes their collaborators provide them research and development funding plus royalties on sales of products using their flavor ingredients.

Pro-life watchdog group, Children of God for Life (CGL), has called upon the public to target the major corporations in a boycott, unless the company ceases to use aborted fetal cell lines in their product testing.

“Using isolated human taste receptors,” the Senomyx website claims, “we created proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the receptor.”

“What they do not tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 – human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors,” stated Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for CGL, the watch dog group that has been monitoring the use of aborted fetal material in medical products and cosmetics for years.

“They could have easily chosen COS (monkey) cells, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, insect cells or other morally obtained human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors,” Vinnedge added.

Responses from major corporations to CGL’s letter campaign succeeded in warning the pro-life watchdog that these companies would need significant public pressure to admit involvement in and convince them of the need to change Senomyx’s unethical testing methods.

After three letters, Nestlé finally admitted the truth about their relationship with Senomyx, noting the cell line was “well established in scientific research”.

Pepsico wrote: “We hope you are reassured to learn that our collaboration with Senomyx is strictly limited to creating lower-calorie, great-tasting beverages for consumers. This will help us achieve our commitment to reduce added sugar per serving by 25% in key brands in key markets over the next decade and ultimately help people live healthier lives.”

“If enough people voice their outrage and intent to boycott these consumer products, it can be highly effective in convincing Senomyx to change their methods”, Vinnedge noted. “Otherwise, we will be buying Coca-Cola, Lipton soups and Hershey products!”

To contact the companies:

Kent Snyder, CEO
Senomyx
4767 Nexus Centre Drive
San Diego, California 92121
email

Paul Bulcke, CEO
Nestlé USA
800 North Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203

email

Jamie Caulfield, Sr.VP
PepsiCo, Inc.
700 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577
email

Irene Rosenfeld, CEO
Kraft Foods/Cadbury Chocolate
Three Lakes Drive
Northfield, IL 60093
email

Mr. Torkel Rhenman Chief Executive Officer
Solae
4300 Duncan Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63110
email

An Appeal to Defund Planned Parenthood

H/T Creative Minority Report 

Saturday or Sunday Sabbath? Interested in a Debate?

Christopher, at Conservative Perspective has a post where he shows why he thinks that Saturday should be considered the Sabbath Day.   While he emphasized that he doesn’t want me to use the "man’s word", in his post he himself relies on man’s word (he calls it "actual and verifiable history").    I will point out to you both Biblical and historical evidence which proves that Sunday is indeed the true Sabbath Day.  In fairness I will only use a small sample of biblical and historical texts from long before the time of Constantine, on whom Christopher seems content to hang the "blame" for changing the Sabbath. 


CONTINUED 

What Type of Catholic Commenter Are You?

Max Lindenman has prepared a guide to the different types of Catholic commenters on blogs.  You might fit snugly into one category. Or at one time or another you, as a commenter, may have fit into a few or even all of these categories.  

1) The Chief Mourner: For this nostalgic soul, spiritual perfection was realized in some Church figure of his/her youth. When that exemplar passed from the earth, the whole Church went to the dogs. To hear the chief mourner tell it, there's no point in even discussing the Church's problems, if Archbishop Sheen (Cardinal Bernardin, Dorothy Day, Pope John Paul II, Pope John XXIII) isn't around to solve them.

2) The Closet Sedevacantist: This master of reductive reasoning finds one explanation and one explanation only for every woe that plagues the Church. He blames the Second Vatican Council for clerical sex abuse, declining vocations, and even the designated hitter rule. (Pius XII would have fought to preserve the purity of our national pastime.) Since he prides himself on his docility to the Magisterium, he will, occasionally, observe a distinction between the conciliar decrees themselves and their subsequent application; but this is tokenism. In truth, he can't shut his ears to the idea that Good Pope John had been inspired by the Freemasons, the Devil, or both.

3) Casper the Friendly Ghost: The closet sedevacantist's natural counterpart and constant incubus, this person pines aloud for the Spirit of Vatican II. This Spirit, as he defines it, represented a boundless openness to change—aggiornamento without borders. In his gloomier moods, he writes of the spirit as though it were Sade's Justine—abused, betrayed, and violated at very turn. In his more buoyant moments, he writes as though it were out of commission but only temporarily, like Tinkerbell. If we all clap our hands and believe, Vatican III could be just around the corner.

4) The Heretic Hunter: If there's one thing this guardian of orthodoxy simply can't abide, it's dissent. An uber-ultramontanist, he could care less whether a particular teaching has been defined infallibly; if a pope scribbled it on a cocktail napkin, it's a nugget of pure truth. Disdaining subtlety as a fig leaf for the uncommitted, he rakes foes with broadsides like "The Catholic cafeteria is closed. Didn't you get the memo? CLOSED! From here on out, we only serve box lunches!" If all the people he banished to the Episcopal Church actually went, he'd single-handedly negate the Oxford Movement.

5) Dopus Dei: This tireless watchdog knows the Church is writhing in the steely grip of a personal prelature with 90,000 members. He has the goods, you see, because he's bestowed more clicks on the Opus Dei Awareness Network website than any member of Opus Dei, past or present. He'll tell you Opus has controlled the Curia ever since it bailed out the Vatican Bank. It also controls the Supreme Court through Chief Justice Scalia, and American Mideast policy through Erik Prince. Though he might spare a discouraging word or two for other ecclesial movements, like Focolare or Neo-Catechumenal Way, he finds them too mundane to bother about. Nobody combines "sinister," "authoritarian," "elitist," and "weird" like Don Escriva in his tight cilice and Phil Silvers glasses.

6) Fetus Frenzy: This pious and tenderhearted Catholic is the best friend the unborn will ever have—just ask her. She has a singular genius for turning any conversation into a rant against abortion. In fact, she's practiced this trick to the point where she can find a logical segue from any topic. For example, the weather: "A shame you were caught in a hail storm on the golf links. Multiply that sense of disorientation by infinity and you'll know how it feels to be vacuumed out of your mother's womb."

7) Seamless Garment: Meet Fetus Frenzy's arch-nemesis. This natural-born contrarian is a firm believer in a consistent ethic of life. He is a firm disbeliever in episcopal integrity. Until the bishops pull up their socks and start protesting the death penalty, Guantanamo, Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, urban poverty, rural poverty, and school bullying, they can go poop in their zucchetos when it comes to abortion. Warning: when this person writes "pro-life" in scare quotes, you know a storm's a-comin'.

8) "I'll pray for you [and the horse you rode in on]": This bubbling well of caritas has taken a creative approach to anger management. When feeling aggrieved, vexed, nettled, or just plain hacked off, he informs the source of his irritation that he will pray for him. Presumably, he will ask God to make his opponent as judicious and diplomatic as he is himself. Nevertheless, his tone makes you wonder whether he might also be ordering up a lightning bolt or a plague.

9) "Learn humility!" Like the tetchy prayer warrior profiled above, this cyber-skirmisher loves a good euphemism. His favorite rhetorical stealth warhead is "Learn humility," or, on stilts, "I seriously suggest you consider learning some humility!" Coming from him, it cam mean anything from "Girlfriend, please!" to "Go fulfill your Oedipal fantasies."

An exhaustive list would have to include the Mass Nazi—that arbiter of good liturgical taste, who's unshakably convinced God is a High Tory. But enough. If you're like me, you identify with at least half of these characters. (And your friend down the pew identifies with the other half.) On a bad day, all of them are all of us.

That's why I'd love to bring Emily Matchar on safari with me. That poor hipster needs to learn that the life of faith doesn't cure human neurosis. It just offers it a room with a view.

Life Begins at Conception

Fr. Corapi Speaks on War Between Good and Evil

The embedding code is disabled so I am going to post the link for you to see his talk.  This is a great speech on old war, new war and the fight between good and evil. Link

Catholic Culture Clash Links 3-24-2011

Aggie Catholic gives us some good news. We don't have to abstain from eating meat tomorrow due to the Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord falling on a Friday.  This is great! Somehow I have managed to remember to avoid eating meat on Fridays during Lent so far this year.   I am usually so very awful at remembering to abstain from eating meat on Fridays.  Canon 1251 says:

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.


The Vatican has been silent on the military action in Libya.  I find this quite strange since usually either the Pope or authorities in the Church speak out when a military conflict arises. Sandro Magister from ExpressOnline is even questioning this. He has further thoughts on the matter here.  Do you think that the U.S., France, and Great Britain should have gone into Libya?  Do you think this military action is just or unjust?  


Then we have a radical priest who has crossed the line into absurdity on a number of occasions.  Father Pfleger is a disgrace to the priesthood.  Cardinal Francis George recently had a talk about with him about moving him from the parish, St Sabina, that he's been at for over 30 years to taking a leadership role at St. Leo High School.  This "priest" plays the race card and supports extremist political causes. ChicagoNow points out that: 


"Father Pfleger has indecently involved himself in numerous political causes. His favorite activism is to organize news camera grabbing pickets. He's picketed TV shows, business owners, and companies. He's called gun shop owners murderers and Threatened their lives, he's tried to get radio stations shut down, and he's erected billboards attacking musicians." 


Father Pfleger needs to be kept on a shorter leash on my opinion.  He has caused great scandal to the Church.  I just can't help but wonder why Cardinal Francis George hasn't done more to reprimand him or stop his radical political escapades.  Here are just a couple examples of how radical Fr. Phleger is: 








Do you honestly believe that Fr. Pfleger should be allowed to be in charge of school children?  

Miracles: Baby Joseph Gets Tracheotomy and is Baptized

This is truly an amazing story!  What an awesome God!  This is an example of God both hearing and answering our prayers.  It was a miracle that just hours before Baby Joseph was to be taken off of a ventilator he was rescued by a Priests for Life team headed by Fr. Frank Pavone.  A few days ago Baby Joseph was able to have a tracheotomy performed on him so that he will be able to spend his final days at home with his parents, without his life being cut short due to the reasonable procedure which was being withheld from him at a hospital in Canada.  Baby Joseph will be given the opportunity to live and spend time with his parents for about six months versus being able to live only a few days if the tracheotomy was not performed.

Baby Joseph has been Baptized! Fr. Pavone announced  “Baby Joseph was baptized just the other day, and Jerry Horn of our Priests for Life team is now his godfather.”  This is a miracle! This is indeed a momentous and glorious occasion. Baby Joseph's family are devout Muslims so in my opinion this is a miracle.  We can see the hand of God in the events that occurred with Baby Joseph and his family.  


Moe Maraachli, Joseph’s father, said in response to this week’s events: “It’s a miracle. My son now has freedom. I’m very happy. My wife and I will respect the second opinion from the hospital in St. Louis. We will accept it with all my heart because Joseph got his human right to get a chance to get a second opinion. When God wants to take his life He’ll take it and nobody can say ‘No’ to God.” 


Fr. Pavone stated “All we wanted to do was give the child reasonable care and provide the parents with a second opinion. Period. And thanks to you and the incredible support from pro-life activists all across the country, Baby Joseph got that chance!” 




These are post-surgery pictures:

Jerry Horn, Senior Vice President of Priests for Life (right) with Joseph's father, Moe.

Baby Joseph and his father, Moe

Here a couple of videos after Baby Joseph arrived at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis. He is adorable! 

The Movie Romero Continued

Ron DiCianni on His Painting The Resurrection

His artwork is heavenly!

The Devil Strikes: My Thoughts on the Accusations Against Fr. Corapi

Satan is using his wicked ways to attack the Church.  There are a number of priests who have been falsely accused of sexual abuse and other improprieties all due to the vindictiveness of people who have a grudge against the Church for some reason or another, in the name of evil.   While there has been legitimacy with some priestly abuse accusations with others Satan has used persons to attack Christ's Church because She represents Truth, Christ, and stands against the moral relativism of today.

Fr. Corapi has been battling against Satan and his evil ways for a long time now.  He has long been a target of Satan.  I haven't bought into these allegations for even one second.  Fr. Corapi has been a stalwart in speaking out against sin, immorality in our secular society, and in fighting against unbelievers' attacks on the Church.  This man is so, so popular for his charismatic speeches which don't pull punches. He says it like it is and doesn't sugarcoat reality and the threat that sin and Satan poses to the world.   Again, I will say that Fr. Corapi has long been a target of Satan.  And, yes, Satan used relatively small number of priests, the majority of which were homosexual and liberal, to work to obfuscate the Church's mission and Tradition to subvert that mission and to harm souls.  The Church's mission is to save souls, and to bring people to Christ.   These priests violated the precepts of the Magisterium.  Satan now uses people to attack the Church with malice in their hearts out of revenge in wanting to destroy the Church that stands for Truth and Christ.

I have firsthand knowledge of being falsely accused (not for any sort of abuse) and greatly empathize with what Fr. Corapi is experiencing at this time.  The experience of being falsely accused causes great anguish.   After dealing with much pain, having hate for those who accused me, who declared me to be guilty before I had a chance to defend myself,  and then going through a stage of purgatory in my life I have come to the realization that God has us experience suffering for a reason.  We as Christians are called to be like Jesus.  Would Jesus ever have his followers experience a bit of what he went through?  I believe that those who experinece suffering do not experience more than they can handle.  I also believe that my harrowing experience has made me come out all the stronger.  I believe that those who suffer persecution for their beliefs or simply standing for Truth or what is right will ultimately come out stronger for having to bear what they dealt with.

This zero tolerance policy is an unjust system in which good priests have become targets by those who hate religion and show bigotry against the Catholic Church, and their end goal is to destroy the Catholic Church.  Faithful priests like Fr. Corapi are presumed to be guilty without there necessarily being credible evidence to support the allegations while in the judicial system in the United States accused criminals are given the benefit of the doubt, being given the presumption of innocence before being found either guilty or not guilty by a judge or a jury.  This accusation is not about priest pedophilia, it is not about protecting kids, for it does not even involve kids.  This involves a former coworker whom I suspect  was used by those who would do anything to attack the Church.  Fr. Corapi was speaking truth and spreading God's Word by leaps and bounds and the enemy of Christ's Church had to make sure to stop Christ's message from being spread far and wide.

My thoughts and prayers are with Fr. Corapi.  I am planning on posting at least one speech/homily of his per week to fight against this evil attack and help spread Fr. Corapi's message, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here is Fr. Corapi's response: 

On Ash Wednesday I learned that a former employee sent a three-page letter to several bishops accusing me of everything from drug addiction to multiple sexual exploits with her and several other adult women. There seems to no longer be the need for a complaint to be deemed “credible” in order for Church authorities to pull the trigger on the Church’s procedure, which was in recent years crafted to respond to cases of the sexual abuse of minors. I am not accused of that, but it seems, once again, that they now don’t have to deem the complaint to be credible or not, and it is being applied broadly to respond to all complaints. I have been placed on "administrative leave" as the result of this.


I’ll certainly cooperate with the process, but personally believe that it is seriously flawed, and is tantamount to treating the priest as guilty “just in case”, then through the process determining if he is innocent. The resultant damage to the accused is immediate, irreparable, and serious, especially for someone like myself, since I am so well known. I am not alone in this assessment, as multiple canon lawyers and civil and criminal attorneys have stated publicly that the procedure does grave damage to the accused from the outset, regardless of rhetoric denying this, and has little regard for any form of meaningful due process.


All of the allegations in the complaint are false, and I ask you to pray for all concerned.


Here is a prayer for those who are falsely accused which I found on the blog, A Catholic Mom in Hawaii : 

They cried out, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Pilate said to them, "I find no guilt in him.
Take him yourselves and crucify him." (John 19)


Jesus Christ, Lamb of God,
falsely and maliciously accused by the mob,
have mercy on us.


Jesus Christ, Lamb of God,
handed over to death by cowardly authority,
have mercy on us.


Jesus Christ, Sun of Justice,
vindicated by your Resurrection,
grant us justice.


Father of Truth,
send the light of your Holy Spirit into the darkness
of every false accusation and unjust condemnation.


Give strength to the innocent to stand firmly in truth,
as you gave to Jesus, in the face of torture and death.


Give courage to church and civil authorities
to grant justice and due process to the innocent,
in the face of the mob.


Father of Mercy,
deliver your innocent ones from evil;
grant them speedy justice and vindication,
in the name of Jesus Christ, our Victim and Savior.


Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on all
innocent victims: the abused and the falsely accused.


(Follow with Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be)

President Obama to Visit Tomb of Archbishop Romero; Watch "Romero" the Movie

President Obama is scheduled to visit the tomb of the martyr, Archbishop Oscar Romero.  He was murdered while saying Mass in 1980.

From The Washington Post:

"Romero spoke out against repression by the U.S.-backed Salvadoran army during the Central American country’s 12-year civil war in which at least 75,000 people died. He was gunned down March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel. The government and leftist guerrillas reached a peace treaty in 1992."

It has been a while since I've seen the movie Romero, in which Raul Julia starred in it playing Archbishop Romero, but it is a very powerful film, very worthwhile watching.  I am posting the trailer and the first two parts of the movie Romero below.  Then throughout the upcoming week I will post the remainder of the movie.

Fr. Corapi's Inspirational Conversion Story

Please take the time to listen to Fr. Corapi's amazing and inspirational conversion story.  You will be moved by his extraordinary conversion story.  It's about an hour long so you might want to grab a beverage and a snack.

One Father's Courage to Trust in God

Imagine you are a father or a mother who has been out of work for over a year and a half, about to run out of unemployment benefits, and who has been offered employment with a decent salary...but (here's the kicker) this job goes against your moral beliefs.  Would you take the job because you need the money to provide your family with all the necessities of life or would you follow your moral ethics, in what you know is right in your heart and soul and tell the employer no, sorry I can't in good conscience accept this offer for employment?

 Tim's unemployment benefits were about to run out when he received a call -  a job offer from his local union - a wonderful opportunity to be a foreman for at least 11 months.  Then, unfortunately, Tim found out that the job was to build a Planned Parenthood Clinic.  He told the man that he couldn’t accept the job.  The union rep tried to smooth it over saying they don’t know if abortions were going to be performed there for sure.  Tim stuck to his guns and told the union rep no, that there is no way that he in good conscience could help construct a building that would be used to perform abortions, to murder unborn babies.

Tim has a wife and kids to provide for and yet he was courageous enough to stand on principle.  He said a resounding no to aiding in a project that would eventually facilitate butchers who murder unborn babies because women believe in the “choice” to kill their children out of pure selfishness.  My thoughts and prayers are with Tim and his family, that he may find ethical work that is in line with his beliefs.

Decision inspires homily 

I Am Free by Newsboys

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here is a reading of  The Confessio by St. Patrick:







 Here is a Traditional Irish Blessing:



Here is some Irish tap dancing: