Holy Innocents and Meaningful Suffering

Dec 28 - Homily: Holy Innocents and Meaningful... by AirMaria

Merry Christmas! - The Miracle of Christ's Birth

Wishing everyone a blessed and Merry Christmas! 

Happy Christmas From Youth Defence: The Gift of Life, Protect It

H/T LifeNews 

Christian Bale Tries to Say Thank You to Chinese Pro-life Dissident and Gets Roughed Up

Christian Bale was trying to see Chen Guangcheng, a lawyer and activist who has fought against China's one child policy - meaning forced sterilizations and abortions.  Since his release, after having served four years in a Chinese prison for something he claims he didn't do (which the Chinese government probably fabricated), he and his family have been under house arrest since September.  Bale said “What I really wanted to do was shake the man’s hand and say thank you, tell him what an inspiration he is."  Bale ended up getting roughed up by some Communist thugs.  The United States needs to grant asylum to Chen and his family.  Is there a way that Americans or America can stop China from oppressing its own people?  I definitely have a new kind of respect for Christian Bale.

Media Says Religious Beliefs Has No Place in Politics

Why should secularist, anti-religious beliefs be imposed on us? Religiously moral beliefs absolutely has a place in politics.  We need to continue to fight against those who try to force immorality and moral relativism on us and practice Christianophobia .

Mixing The Outdoors With Traditional Catholicism: Wyoming Catholic College

Bishop Foys Says No Holding Hands During Our Father

Bishop Roger J. Foys, Bishop of Covington, has issued a decree clarifying the proper gestures and postures during Mass.

From The Deacon's Bench:

Bishop Foys notes:

The rituals of the Roman Church, of which we are a part, call for specific words to be used as well as particular actions and gestures, both on the part of the priest and the faithful who join their hearts with his in their worship of God. We are encouraged as the Mystical Body of Christ to continual, ongoing conversion in the faith and to strengthen that which is good and holy in our individual lives as well as our common life as Catholics and to root out that which is evil.

Among the points his decree makes:

Special note should also be made concerning the gesture for the Our Father. Only the priest is given the instruction to “extend” his hands. Neither the deacon nor the lay faithful are instructed to do this. No gesture is prescribed for the lay faithful in the Roman Missal; nor the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, therefore the extending or holding of hands by the faithful should not be performed.

And he notes:

The text of the Roman Missal be used exactly as it is written. As stated in the citation from the Second Vatican Council none of us has the authority to change the text for any reason.

a. This includes altering or changing any of the language contained in the liturgical books of the Church, not only the Roman Missal, but the Lectionary and other ritual books – the responses and prayers of the priest, and also those of the people.

b. Please note that only those texts approved for use in the Dioceses of the United States may be used.

            c. Priests and deacons are restricted in their use of the Penitential Act          – Form C, to those invocations found in the Order of Mass of the Roman Missal and those inAppendix VI. 

The Immaculate Conception of Mary

In the next video Dr. Miravalle gives some historical background on what the Church Fathers stated about Mary and explains that they recognized the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

Peter Kreeft: How To Win The Culture War

This a marvelous speech, which I recommend to all the faithful.

Kreeft gives 7 basic reasons as to how we could be losing the culture war.

He gave this acronym to remember the reasons.

P - Politicization
H- Happy Talk
O- Organization
N- Neoworship
E- Egalitarianism
Y- Yuppidom
S- Spirituality



After that he goes over reasons on how to win the culture war.

Face of Pro-Life: Preemie Survivor April Burke Thriving Despite Weighing Less Than 2 Pounds At Her Birth

April Burke is a survivor of premature birth and discusses how she has survived and excelled even though being born at a stage of development when many are aborted under the excuse that she would be unviable. She was born 4-1/2 months early and weighed 1lb 13oz. and spent 3 months in the hospital. Of all the many problems the doctor said she would have, including severe mental retardation and not being able to walk, the only problem she actually had was that her retina where detached and is legally blind. She discusses with hostess Corinn Dahm: 
How she spends time learning computers and doing volunteer work. 
Her advocacy for blind people. 
How she was adopted and how adoption is a great option. 
How her birth mother could have aborted her but bravely resisted. 
All the things she likes to do like hiking, rolling coasters, she even drove a car and a snowmobile and even bunji jumped at Lake Compounce. 
Her education at a mainstream public school and at college. 


Face of Pro-Life #158: Pre-Mature and Excelling by AirMaria

Bethlehemian Rhapsody - This is Great!

Ad Limina: Pope Benedict discusses a Secularized Culture and Obstacles It Poses To Christian Faith With U.S. Bishops

This is part of Pope Benedict's first message to the American bishops during their "ad limina" meetings.  More and more in America today Christians are being targeted and discriminated against for our faith.  This is far from the America that our Founders envisioned.  We must keep up the good fight and speak the truth far and wide.  God Bless. 

Many of you have shared with me your concern about the grave challenges to a consistent Christian witness presented by an increasingly secularized society. I consider it significant, however, that there is also an increased sense of concern on the part of many men and women, whatever their religious or political views, for the future of our democratic societies. They see a troubling breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life, and a growing sense of dislocation and insecurity, especially among the young, in the face of wide-ranging societal changes.

Despite attempts to still the Church's voice in the public square, many people of good will continue to look to her for wisdom, insight and sound guidance in meeting this far-reaching crisis. The present moment can thus be seen, in positive terms, as a summons to exercise the prophetic dimension of your episcopal ministry by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth, and offering a word of hope, capable of opening hearts and minds to the truth that sets us free.

At the same time, the seriousness of the challenges which the Church in America, under your leadership, is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated. The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also affect the lives of believers, leading at times to that "quiet attrition" from the Church which you raised with me during my Pastoral Visit. Immersed in this culture, believers are daily beset by the objections, the troubling questions and the cynicism of a society which seems to have lost its roots, by a world in which the love of God has grown cold in so many hearts.

Evangelization thus appears not simply a task to be undertaken ad extra; we ourselves are the first to need re-evangelization. As with all spiritual crises, whether of individuals or communities, we know that the ultimate answer can only be born of a searching, critical and ongoing self-assessment and conversion in the light of Christ's truth. Only through such interior renewal will we be able to discern and meet the spiritual needs of our age with the ageless truth of the Gospel.