Americans Gone Wild

The Illinois Lottery is huge and over 600 million people have bought tickets.

For those who are interested, there IS a patron saint of lotteries, lottery tickets and lottery winners.

St. Pantaleon. According to Wiki, from where I got the icon picture and this information through the mediation of an American seminarian....Pantaleon was converted finally after messing about in medicine.

St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote regarding this incident:

He studied medicine with such success, that the Emperor Maximian appointed him his physician. One day as our saint was discoursing with a holy priest named Hermolaus, the latter, after praising the study of medicine, concluded thus: "But, my friend, of what use are all thy acquirements in this art, since thou art ignorant of the science of salvation?

OK, it you buy a ticket, pray to this saint and win something, you can help out me, STM. I only want a few things-but, despite the fact there is a patron saint, I do not advise gambling...God bless all.

Many of these people are Christians who are dying-Persecution Watch

One resident told RT the Islamist rebels massacred residents when they entered Adra Wednesday.

"The situation was terrible -- with killing, atrocities, and fear as the background. Unidentified armed men came into town, but it was obvious that they were Jabhat al-Nusra militants," Muhammad Al-Said told the Russian news channel. "The worst crime they committed was that they toasted people in ovens used to bake bread when those people came to buy it. They kidnapped and beat up many."

The United Nations has estimated more than 100,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands of people have been injured since the Syrian civil war began as peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011.

More than 2.3 million people have fled Syria, and another 4.25 million Syrians have been displaced within their country since the civil war began, an Amnesty International report released Friday indicated

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/12/17/Opposition-says-Syrian-forces-dropped-barrel-bombs-on-Aleppo--kill-83

Praise God, some good news

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/12/17/judge-obamacares-hhs-mandate-forces-catholic-groups-to-violate-their-religion/

If you are still confused on the Common Core....

On the NAPCIS site, there is this and more....http://napcis.org/commoncore/

NAPCIS STATEMENT ON THE COMMON CORE

NAPCIS exists to support schools that have chosen to operate as private entities: with autonomous educational philosophies, standards, pedagogical approaches, and curriculums.  These schools exist as institutions faithful to the Catholic Church and faithful to passing on the Catholic faith to the children entrusted to them.

NAPCIS recommends that Catholic faith-based schools not use the Common Core State Standards as the foundation for their educational efforts. As faith-based schools we have a different mission than public schools. Because a school’s mission drives its standards and these standards drive curriculum, we should not simply use the Common Core Standards as our base and then make some adaptations. The Common Core State Standards are explicitly and only “college and career” focused. In stark contrast, our schools are focused on comprehensive human formation and assisting our students to encounter Christ and to pursue truth, beauty and goodness in all subject areas. In the context of this larger mission our students are also better prepared for college and life beyond. NAPCIS believes that our schools must set their own standards animated by their own unique mission. Complementing this mission, our standards will determine the appropriate instructional strategies, curriculum, and assessment for our students, as well as how our schools are evaluated.

With this said, we acknowledge that there is a substantial amount of acceptable secular material in the Common Core State Standards that Catholic faith-based schools can reference as part of their much broader educational efforts. Careful use of these acceptable parts of the Standards for reference, rather than whole scale replacement of our own standards, is a prudent response to the reality of the Common Core State Standards. However, we recommend caution in interfacing with parts of the Common Core State Standards, as the animating philosophies and pedagogies behind them have not yet been fully vetted by research and may not be appropriate for all subjects and all grades. At this early, untested and controversial point in American public schools’ first attempts at nationalized standards, we believe Catholic faith-based schools should use their own standards to ensure proven academic excellence and fidelity to mission.

Views of Malta

As you all know, I love being in Malta. However, I am not a photographer. Here is a nice set of many photos for those who are interested. Thanks to Mr. Scicluna for posting these.

VisitMalta ‏@VisitMalta6m

Azure Window (0248) by Paul Scicluna - one of the top contributors to our Flickr group Memories of Malta - http://flic.kr/p/i4htZp 

Clarification Needed

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/12/16/Pope-Francis-Same-Sex-Marriage-Opponent-Named-Person-of-the-Year-By-Gay-Rights-Mag

From the CCC:

Chastity and homosexuality
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,¹⁴¹ tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."¹⁴² They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

And read my posts on the definitions of infallibility.....

Reminder on Contemplative Prayer-A Warning

As I have noted in the long perfection series and on the Doctors of the Church series, there are many levels of prayer in the teaching of the Catholic Church.

When I was in England, I discovered that some nuns were using the word "contemplation" incorrectly.

I have so many posts on prayer and the necessary understandings of the level, that I encourage readers to follow the labels at the side, or tags.

I shall put some links at the bottom, but this post is a warning.

Please take these notes seriously, as so many people fall into false teaching about contemplation and end up out of the Church.

Read, again, this Vatican document on the evils of New Age practices.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html

Warning Points again:

1) One must stay within the orthodoxy of the Church in order to attain holiness. If one is not orthodox, and especially, if one is hetrodox, one has opened one's self up for deception in prayer. The Church and Her Teaching protect us.

2) False, man-made religions cannot teach us anything good about contemplation, but the saints do-see all my posts on John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena, for example.

3) One must be purified in the senses and in the spirit before reaching the state of contemplation. Contemplation, again, is not mediation on the Scriptures or the Life of Christ. See other posts for definitions.

But, if one is not purfied and thinking that "emptiness" is the goal of contemplation, that person may very well be opening the soul and mind to demonic activity. Purification first, contemplation after, in the Illuminative State.

4) Christ is the center and reason for prayer, not us, not our well-being, nor even a sense of peace. Christ is the center of all our activities, including prayer.

I shall write more about this later in the week. Here are a few older links. The first one deals with an aspect of sin and responsibility. I suggest following the Dark Night posts as well.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/answering-e-mail-query-on-sin-and.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/09/moving-through-six-levels-of-prayer.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/09/clarifications-on-prayer-part-one-first.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/repeat-post-on-prayer.html

Worth reading today

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/17/21938739-after-latest-shooting-murder-manual-author-calls-for-book-to-be-taken-immediately-out-of-print?lite

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/poll-americans-belief-god-miracles-and-heaven-strong-declining

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/17/edward-snowden-brazil-spying-asylum

and denial
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/snowden-not-currently-applying-for-asylum-in-brazil-greenwal

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/world/2013/12/1386296-an-open-letter-to-the-people-of-brazil.shtml

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/nsa-phone-surveillance-likely-unconstitutional-judge

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/nsa-surveillance-60-minutes-cbs-facts

Personal and Historical: Never To Be Forgotten

Wannsee Conference location-thanks to wiki

Because of Michael Voris's excellent video on the 16th, because my background is Czech and my great-granfather, a Knight of St. Gregory and a signer of the Czech Constitution, friend of Benes and Masaryk, and master of many other things, died heartbroken at the invasion of his country, because my ancestry is Jewish and because Kenneth Branagh is such a good actor, I just watched Conspiracy, which is available at the bottom of this post.

I grew up knowing about Lidice and Kristallnacht. These were my people-many of my ancestors disappeared in the war.  People planned these horrific events, and the Holocaust.

Lidice

If you have not read my little novelette of the past weekend, do so.

I highly suggest you look at Michael's video from the 16th and then take time to watch the movie.

This will all happen again, but with Catholics.

Do not kid yourself....

Here are some related posts of mine.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2012/02/kristallnacht-and-lukewarm-war.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/02/on-persecutionand-lost-posts.html

That one has more links on it as well.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/02/trying-to-be-patientthe-missing.html

Are there people in hell?

From wiki:

Historians regard Heydrich as the most fearsome member of the Nazi elite.^[78][79][80] Hitler called him "the man with the iron heart".^[5] He was one of the main architects of theHolocaust during the early war years, answering only to, and taking orders from, Hitler, Göring, and Himmler in all matters pertaining to the deportation, imprisonment, and extermination of Jews.

Heydrich was one of the organisers of Kristallnacht, a pogrom against Jews throughout Germany on the night of 9–10 November 1938. Heydrich sent a telegram that night to various SD and Gestapo offices, helping to coordinate the program with the SS, SD, Gestapo, uniformed police (Orpo), SA, Nazi party officials, and even the fire departments. It talks about permitting arson and destroying Jewish businesses and synagogues, and orders the confiscation of all "archival material" out of Jewish community centres and synagogues. The telegram ordered that "as many Jews – particularly affluent Jews – are to be arrested in all districts as can be accommodated in existing detention facilities ... Immediately after the arrests have been carried out, the appropriate concentration camps should be contacted to place the Jews into camps as quickly as possible."^[81][82] Twenty-thousand Jews were sent to concentration camps in the days immediately following; ^[83]historians consider Kristallnacht the beginning of the Holocaust.^[84]

When Hitler asked for a pretext for the invasion of Poland in 1939, Himmler, Heydrich, and Heinrich Müller masterminded a false flag plan code-named Operation Himmler. It involved a fake attack on the German radio station at Gleiwitz on 31 August 1939. Heydrich masterminded the plan and toured the site, which was about four miles from the Polish border. Wearing Polish uniforms, 150 German troops carried out several attacks along the border. Hitler used the ruse as an excuse to launch his invasion.^[85][86]

On Himmler's instructions, Heydrich formed the Einsatzgruppen (task forces) to travel in the wake of the German armies at the start of World War II.^[87] On 21 September 1939, Heydrich sent out a teleprinter message on the "Jewish question in the occupied territory" to the chiefs of all Einsatzgruppen with instructions to round up Jewish people for placement into ghettos, called for the formation of Judenräte (Jewish councils), ordered a census, contained Aryanization plans for Jewish-owned businesses and farms, among other measures.^[b] The Einsatzgruppen followed the army into Poland to implement the plans. Later, in the Soviet Union, they were charged with rounding up and killing Jews via firing squad and gas vans. By the end of the war, the Einsatzgruppen had murdered over one million people, including over 700,000 in Russia alone.^[88]

Invitation to the Conference,-thanks to wiki

On 10 October 1941, Heydrich was the senior officer at a meeting in Prague that discussed deporting 50,000 Jews from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to ghettos in Minsk and Riga. The officers also discussed taking 5,000 Jews from Prague "in the next few weeks" and handing them over to the Einsatzgruppen commanders Arthur Nebe and Otto Rasch. Establishing ghettos in the Protectorate was also planned, resulting in the construction of Theresienstadt,^[91] where 33,000 people would eventually die. Tens of thousands more passed through the camp on their way to their deaths in the East.^[92] In 1941 Himmler named Heydrich as "responsible for implementing" the forced movement of 60,000 Jews from Germany and Czechoslovakia to the Lodz (Litzmannstadt) Ghetto in Poland.^[93]On 29 November 1939, Heydrich issued a cable about the "Evacuation of New Eastern Provinces", detailing the deportation of people by railway to concentration camps, and giving guidance surrounding the December 1939 census, which would be the basis on which those deportations were performed.^[89] In May 1941 Heydrich drew up regulations with Quartermaster general Eduard Wagner for the upcominginvasion of the Soviet Union, which ensured that the Einsatzgruppen and army would cooperate in murdering Soviet Jews.^[90]

On 20 January 1942, Heydrich chaired the Wannsee Conference, at which he presented his plan to deport and transport 11 million Jews from every country in Europe, to be worked to death or killed outright in extermination camps:^[94][95]

Lidice Memorial-thanks to wiki

Under suitable direction, the Jews should be brought to the East in the course of the Final Solution, for use as labour. In large labour gangs, with the sexes separated, the Jews capable of work will be transported to those areas and set to road-building, in the course of which, without doubt, a large part of them ("ein Großteil") will fall away through natural losses. The surviving remnant, surely those with the greatest powers of resistance, will be given special treatment, since, if freed, they would constitute the germinal cell for the re-creation of Jewry.

— from Heydrich's speech at the Wannsee Conference, January 1942^[96]

Mother and Children Going to the Gas Chamber-thanks to wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPIctGbAZEQ

If you missed it...

...my Christmas card to all my readers....goo.gl/spD0al

Official Grumpy Cat Photo-

Do You Believe This?

 “If you are what you should be, you would set the whole world on fire.”

from St. Catherine of Siena

Do You Know About the Chaplet of St.Therese?

This Chaplet commemorates each of the 24 years of St. Therese's life on Earth.

Opening Prayer: 

St Therese, the Little Flower, please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden and send it to me with a message of love.  Ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore and tell Him I will love Him each day more and more.

On the first bead, say:
Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus, Patroness of Missions, pray for us.
On each of the other 24 beads, say one Glory Be:

Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

A Prayer to Saint Therese:
O little St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, who during your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in your hands. Make my troubles your own - speak a word for me to our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were - to that Queen of heaven "who smiled on you at the dawn of life." Beg her as the Queen of the heart of Jesus to obtain for me by her powerful intercession, the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment, and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life. Defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity.
Amen

Thanks to....

http://patroncatholicsaints.blogspot.com/2010/02/saint-therese-of-lisieux-chaplet.html

Hello, Wake Up, America

Sibelius said this, folks....

"As you know, we're facing the end of the Western Civilization by having a market-based strategy. We are bringing Western Civilization to its knees by selling private insurance plans on a website where people can pick and choose."
Dr. Ben Carson made clear Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. The former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon called the Affordable Care Act the "worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery."

He wasn't exaggerating.

ObamaCare puts the U.S. government in charge of fully one-sixth of America's economy, unconstitutionally seeks to force Americans to buy a service, often against their will, and places each individual's health at the eventual mercy of government bureaucracy.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/101413-675081-obamacare-bringing-western-civilization-to-its-knees.htm#ixzz2neq0kkK8
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

Put This on Your Christmas List

http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Flesh-Raymond-Cardinal-Burke/dp/0981631428

Hint, would someone like to get it for me, please?

Hmmmm pray and fast, please

http://davidgibson.religionnews.com/2013/12/16/rome-american-rises-another-american-fades/

A Return to The Perfection Series

This week, unless I move, I shall start the perfection series up again.

A Happy Christmas present for you and for me.

Watch The Wonderful Cardinal Burke

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-cardinal-burke-interviewed-on-pope-francis-says-we-can-never-talk-e

On compromising and purification.....

“A bridegroom of blood by circumcision."

One of the most mysterious passages in the Old Testament is Exodus 4:24–26. Moses, on his way to Egypt to free the Hebrews, has been told by God in the verses before these, that the son of Pharaoh would be killed.

The firstborn of Egypt would be killed in order to free the Chosen People of God. Now, according to Jewish commentaries, Moses had made a compact with the pagan priest, Jethro, his father-in-law, to raise one of the boys as a pagan and one as an Israelite. But, God was not happy with this compromise.

In the night, the passage states that God came to destroy the first born of Moses. Zipporah, ever a strong and good woman, quickly circumcised the son who had not been, Gershom. Zipporah, in righteous anger, take the foreskin of the boy and lays it on his feet, to show the Angel of Destruction, that the boy is now circumscribed. But, in her anger, she says to Moses, that he is "a bridegroom of blood by circumcision."

Moses had compromised and the fact that God was willing to kill Moses' firstborn is a lesson in being orthodox. Zipporah calls Moses a bridegroom as he willingly married the daughter of a pagan priest, but did not keep his promise, his covenant to God to pass on the circumcision, the sign of the covenant.

Moses was being warned that he should have taken God seriously about fulfilling the law of the covenant. Moses was going into Egypt to do God's work. Moses had to be purified before doing the great thing of causing and leading the Exodus.

Many Jewish commentators disagree on the interpretation, but this one makes the most sense to me. I have added the bit about purification, but blood was a sign of life and the sacrifice to God; blood was life-giving.

The Jewish comments go back centuries.

I have studying Zipporah since last summer, as she "speaks" to me somehow. I wrote a poem about her a while ago. I share it again below. But, the point of this post is that we can not have any sin or tendencies to sin in order to do God's work. We must not compromise. We must allow God to purify us.

This is why we seek purification-to gain heaven and to do the work of God.

The results of compromise ruins families. In fact, the grandson of Moses, Jonathan, the son of Gershom, became the head priest of idolatry in the land of Canaan. And, notice that it was to Joshua and Caleb that the line of leaders was given, not to the sons of Moses.

Being someone's son or daughter does not guarantee holiness. But, being obedient, not falling into idolatry, not compromising does....See Judges 17.13 for the sad defection of Jonathan. Parents, do not compromise. The salvation of your children is at stake.

Exodus 18 and 19

Zipporah, wandering bird
waiting in the tents of Yitro

Faithful to the wandering Jew
now crossing the Sea of Red.

She and her two sons, the
second, one of promise

Like Isaac, Jacob, second
but chosen-Eliezer-while

Zipporah weeps for Gershom,
passes the springs, not sharing

In the four cups of seder.
How long will this bird wander?

Moses no longer mere shepherd
but king, steps forward, taking

Yitro into his tent, the
mirror-image of times past.

The wandering bird is left
outside, the Kushite beauty

Separated, not loved, like
Sarah, Rebecca, or Rachel

Sisters in the Lord, sans gold
since the new Revelation.

Moses becomes God's eunuch.
The bird fades into the desert.

Why Jesus Came As A Baby

There is a fear in this land and in Europe. It is the fear of Love. This may sound strange, as most people think they are seeking Love. They desire sex, attention, status, money, things all in the name of desiring Love.

But, Love is none of those things. Love is an encounter, a meeting, an event. Love is both Life and the openness to Life.

The fear I see in those who run away from this encounter may be divided into four parts.

The first is the fear of being known. To be known for who one is in the truest aspect of one's being, to be really known is the key to Love. Love seeks to be known and to know.

But, many people do not want to be known. They think that if someone really knew them, they would not be loved. The opposite is true. If these people could be open to Love, they would learn to love themselves as well.

Some hurt, some curse, some huge need for healing keeps these people from wanting to be known.

The second aspect of this fear of Love is the fear of disappointment. Perhaps, a person has loved and been loved by another person. But, then, something went wrong. Perhaps, a person betrayed, or manipulated the person who now is afraid of Love, and runs away.

The third part of the fear of Love is the suspicion one may have that one cannot love back, that one is incapable of loving enough. Again, one may think that one could never return love and this causes pain, the pain of pride.

A possible fourth aspect of the fear of Love is the knowledge that to love is to sacrifice something of one's self, to endure pain, to reach out even when one is at the edge of energy and feeling.

I challenge those who are afraid of Love to look at the One Person Who can change all these parts of fear into courage and even lead one into an adventure of real life. Who can be afraid of a Baby?

Jesus Christ is Love. And, when we are open to Him, He leads us to Love, His Love, to share with others.

Let me answer all the aspects of fear.

One, to be known and to desire to know another is of the essence of Love. But, God loves us "just as we are". He has no false ideas of our sins, our failing, our huge mistakes.

Pride along stands between us and being known by God and by others. To become humble is to be open to being known.

Two, there will be disappointments in relationships with people, but not with a relationship with Christ. He never stops loving us, never, never, never. Again, this fear is based on a pride which denies the Love of God.

Three, I answer that of course, one cannot love back as much as one should. Who do we think we are? Only God loves perfectly, but He can help us towards a perfect love. He can change us to that we can love with His Love, not our own.

Lastly, Love is worth the sacrifice. The joy of Love outweighs the pain.

I hope some can lay aside the fear of Love this Advent and be open.

To me, this is one reason why Christ came as a Baby. How can one reject the innocent Love of the Christ Child, so vulnerable, so poor, so weak? God calls us to become like a little child-trusting, open, unafraid.

Choose Love. Choose Life, this Advent.