Sniff, cough, sputter

Well, for five days I have been sneezing, coughing, enduring an ear ache and sore throat, and having the first cold I have had in about ten years.

I am taking hot lemon stuff, called Lemsip.

I would much rather be having this.

2 ounces whiskey (we use Jack Daniels)
1 tablespoon honey
4 ounces water (hot from the tap)
1 teaspoon lemon juice (we use the stuff in the plastic lemon)
1 slice fresh lemon (if we don't have this we don't use it) (optional)
Directions:

1
Place the whisky in a large microwave safe mug.
2
Add the honey.
3
Pour the hot water into the mug over the spoon you used for the honey to get off the last little drops.
4
Add the lemon juice and stir well.
5
Place the mug in the microwave for 1 minute or until it is piping hot, but not boiling.
6
Add the lemon slice and serve.
Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/dr-pats-hot-toddy-cold-remedy-234344?oc=linkback

On yesterday's vote--a great morass of confusion and false definitions

Here is the link and a snippet from an excellent article on the mess yesterday's vote has created for lawmakers. We say, "Duh, of course."

http://cvcomment.org/2013/02/06/why-parliaments-vote-leaves-gay-marriage-stranded-up-the-aisle/

But what was clear was that most MPs have an extremely poor idea of what constitutes freedom of religion, which, in speech after speech, the Bill’s proponents equated with freedom of worship, as if the only issue was whether the Church of England would end up being forced into offering same-sex weddings. The question was posed, only to be answered by referring to the Church of England’s briefing to MPs, which accepted this was unlikely. Yet the same MPs ignored that the Church of England (as the Catholic bishops had done earlier) went on to spell out the ways in which a challenge to freedom of conscience and religion was likely — in the case of teachers, registrars, charities, and so on.

Read more.

1. Marriages for opposite-sex couples requiring a) vows and b) a supposition of sexual activity & fidelity: hence both non-consummation and adultery invalidate the union. This traditional kind of marriage is reserved, in the absence of a clear definition of same-sex consummation, to heterosexual couples.

2. Marriages for same-sex couples requiring vows but not requiring sexual activity or fidelity (no clauses on consummation or adultery). This de-gendered and de-sexualised union requires no sexual difference and therefore looks only superficially like the first. Because it is only open to same-sex couples, on the other hand, it looks a lot like the remaining two.

3. Marriages for same-sex couples requiring neither vows nor sexual activity/fidelity. In this case, the Bill, following the government’s response to the recent ‘consultation’, envisages that civil-partnered same-sex couples can upgrade their status by filling in a form and paying a fee. In this case, they become legally married, but in a way very different from the first two.

4. Civil Partnerships, distinct from category 3 marriages only in name. Previously a separate category, functionally equivalent but clearly distinct from marriage by virtue of being exclusively available to same-sex couples, civil partnership has now been reduced to a kind of second-class entry-level sub-marriage for those unwilling to ‘upgrade’.

On Bratwurst

Someone from America did ask me about bratwurst today and I waxed eloquent.

I am from the Midwest, where beer and brats are staples.

The beer has to be real ales, hopefully from Wisconsin. 

From La Stampa

Vatican backs British bishops in fight against same-sex marriage

Mgr. Paglia says the Catholic doctrine is very clear on this subject but there is also a cross-cultural legal tradition that comes into it

VATICAN INSIDER STAFFROME

“I fully support Britain’s bishops in their decision to oppose this legislative proposal, just as I supported French bishops who were also unanimous in their opposition to same-sex marriage, as were many others, including Jews, Muslims and humanists. Catholic doctrine is very clear on this subject.”

The President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Mgr. Vincenzo Paglia said this in a statement to Vatican Radio today. The statement was in response to London’s first “yes” to same-sex marriage after the British House of Commons approved PM David Cameron’s bill yesterday.

Mgr. Paglia also mentioned the existence of “a century-old cross-culture legal tradition that is very clear on this issue: marriage is contracted between a man and a woman to form a family partly because of the essential need to procreate. This is why I believe that deviating from this means going down paths without knowing where they lead to, or rather we know for certain they do not lead to stability, but to instability and to the breakdown of human society.”  MORE

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/matrimonio-gay-gay-marriage-matrimonio-gay-22017/

It is a mockery

Yesterday, Father at Mass said that the bill in Parliament would make all our children into commodities.

Two elderly ladies in front of me listened and one said, "I just do not understand this bill."

The other one said, clearly "It is a mockery (ie. God's plan)".

Good, clear thinking.......

Do not compromise..learn

People are still having trouble believing that we are in stages of persecution. We are in stage four and rapidly moving to stage five.

I cannot stress how important it is to face the situation and work on your private personal souls.

The perfection series which I started a year ago was an effort to share what I know about the stages and to help you to see how we must be in the illuminative stage at least to face persecution without crumpling.

Of course, God gives great graces to people in prison to endure suffering.

But, imagine, as I have written before, waking up and turning on your computer and finding no EWTN, no Father Z, no Catholic or Evangelical blogs..

Imagine being fined for not cooperating with the evils of obamacare, and perhaps being put in jail for civil disobedience.

Know that the target for most of the laws against life and religious freedoms are targeted at Catholic institutions.

The only permanent institution which directly challenges any government in the world is the Catholic Church.

In order to withstand the coming wash, living the life of virtue is difficult.

For eight years, since I lived in Illinois, I have been trying to help people see the dangers of big government.

Without rights and normal ways to get information, how will you make decisions which are good?

Simple, by being so close to God that you always see what is right. God gives discernment and strength to those who pray.

Sanctifying grace gives truth to the mind. Think like a Catholic.

Do not have false gods in your life, like money or status.

More on perfection later today....

Because the government will use drones against citizens

Charlottesville, Va., has become the first city in the United States to formally pass an anti-drone resolution.

The resolution, passed Monday, "calls on the United States Congress and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia to adopt legislation prohibiting information obtained from the domestic use of drones from being introduced into a Federal or State court," and "pledges to abstain from similar uses with city-owned, leased, or borrowed drones."

[PHOTOS: The Rise of the Drone]

The resolution passed by a 3-2 vote and was brought to the city council by activist David Swanson and the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group based in the city. The measure also endorses a proposed two-year moratorium on drones in Virginia.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/02/05/city-in-virginia-becomes-first-to-pass-anti-drone-legislation-

A bit late, but a good explanation

From the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton....

St. Mel

Another great saint for the day is St. Mel. His Cathedral in Longford was destroyed in 2009 by a fire. In that fire, his crosier, which is photographed here, was also destroyed.

An article on Wiki claims that St. Mel is the patron for single people. If any readers know more about this, please comment. Here is the article.

Saint Mel or Moel died in 488. He is said to have been a Briton who came to Ireland with Saint Patrick, his uncle, with whom he worked until he was ordained in Ardagh. He helped evangelize Ireland while supporting himself through manual labor. He is one of the earliest Irish saints and gave the religious veil to Saint Brigid. He is the patron saint of the Roman Catholic diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois...

Mel lived with his aunt, Lupait, on her farm during a portion of his ministry, and rumor spread that their relationship was of a scandalous nature. St. Patrick went to investigate. Mel and Lupait both produced miracles to testify to their innocence: Mel plowed up a live fish in the middle of his field, and Lupait carried hot coals without being burned.

St. Mel's feast day, February 6, has begun to be observed as a holiday for single people. "St. Mel's Day" is a chance for singles to celebrate the good things about being single. Traditions include sending yourself a St. Mel's Day card and hosting parties for singles.

St. Mun

St. Mun seems to have two feast days. Today is one of them. He is interesting in that he is honored as the nephew of St. Patrick and was the most austere of all the great monastic saints of Scotland and Eire.

Here is a brief history of St. Mun. He is also known at Fintan.

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/

    
A Contemporary of St Columba, though much younger, St Mun come over from Ireland intending to join the Monastery at Iona. But it is said that St Columba, before he died, predicted that the young man was to become a great Abbot in Ireland. He lived for a time on the Island on Loch Leven, which still bears his name. He founded a monastic community at Kilmun near Dunoon. He later returned to his native land and founded a monastery Teach-Mun (TAGMON), in Wexford, which became famous under his rule. He has the reputation of being the most austere of all the Celtic Saints. He died in the year 635. His name appears in the Scottish records as Mund, Mundas, or Munda. In Ireland he is known as St Fintan........Munnu. 

Chaput article in LifeSiteNews

LifeSiteNews, one of the best sources for many subjects, has this article which should help some who are still confused about the health mandate.

Click here.

In a letter (PDF) inserted in church bulletins last June, the bishops wrote, “Some unjust laws impose such injustices on individuals and organizations that disobeying the laws may be justified. When fundamental human goods, such as the right of conscience, are at stake, we may need to witness to the truth by resisting the law and incurring its penalties.”

Archbishop Chaput expanded on those sentiments Friday, writing, “One of the issues America’s bishops now face is how best to respond to an HHS mandate that [even after the ‘compromise’] remains unnecessary, coercive and gravely flawed.  In the weeks ahead the bishops of our country, myself included, will need both prudence and courage – the kind of courage that gives prudence spine and results in right action, whatever the cost.”

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865564132/Nine-states-launch-religious-freedom-caucuses.html?pg=all

Quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the archbishop wrote, “prudence should never be used as an alibi for ‘timidity or fear, duplicity or dissimulation.’  Real prudence has a spine called fortitude, the virtue we more commonly know as courage.”

The archbishop quoted scholar Yuval Levin, stating that the new HHS mandate proposal, “like the versions that have preceded it, betrays a complete lack of understanding of both religious liberty and religious conscience,” and that “the government has forced a needless and completely avoidable confrontation and has knowingly put many religious believers in an impossible situation.”

Another interesting article is on this link. Not the same subject...

Tree in Surrey

Once in a while, one finds family.

Like branches of a tree, from the same sturdy centre

Reaching up and out in new life,

So is this family to me.

My Catholic soul-mates.........

A small tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams

There is a great website on Ralph Vaughan Williams. I copy the timeline link below. He is one of my favourite composers and one understands his work more after walking in Surrey.

http://www.rvwsociety.com/timeline.html

And enjoy perhaps my most favourite RVW's composition.

The Lark Ascending.................very poignant to me and lovely.

Goodbye to the Surrey Hills

I am in flux during the next few days, leaving sunny Surrey, which is one of my most favourite places in all of England. I hope to keep up with the posts.

I am in love with the Surrey Hills. I wish the good Lord would let me stay here. This England is in my heart.

I may have to be content with one or two posts a day for a few days, as I travel.

The days are colder this week, which must be hard on all the birds.

Here are a few which are around the Surrey Hills.

More Tories Voted Against Than For

By now, the news is around the world that Parliament has approved a redefinition of marriage for Great Britain. More Tories voted against than for, which is a good thing, but not enough to stop this sad bill from going on to the House of Lords.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9851322/Cameron-accused-of-dividing-Conservatives-as-MPs-rebel-on-gay-marriage-vote.html

What a sad day for us here, as Britain moves farther away from Christianity and natural law as the basis of this once great civilization.

I cannot write any more on this tonight. From the above article:

Among the Tories voting against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill were several ministers, including two Cabinet members: Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, and David Jones, the Welsh secretary.

Other ministers included David Lidington, the Europe minister, Andrew Robathan and Mark Francois from the Ministry of Defence, and Jeremy Wright, a justice minister.

Seventeen posts today, plus this one makes 18

Because of the debate and other concerns.....get a cup of tea and read slowly.

The CCC on Chastity which includes married people

A married couple needs to be chaste and temperate. Here is a start of that conversation from the CCC.

II. THE VOCATION TO CHASTITY

2337 Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.

The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.

The integrity of the person

2338 The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.¹²⁵

2339 Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.¹²⁶ "Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end."¹²⁷

2340 Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer. "Indeed it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity."¹²⁸

2341 The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason.

2342 Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life.¹²⁹ The effort required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence.

2343 Chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. "Man . . . day by day builds himself up through his many free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth."¹³⁰

2344 Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is "an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society."¹³¹ Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life.

2345 Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort.¹³² The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ.¹³³

The integrality of the gift of self

2346 Charity is the form of all the virtues. Under its influence, chastity appears as a school of the gift of the person. Self-mastery is ordered to the gift of self. Chastity leads him who practices it to become a witness to his neighbor of God's fidelity and loving kindness.

2347 The virtue of chastity blossoms in friendship. It shows the disciple how to follow and imitate him who has chosen us as his friends,¹³⁴ who has given himself totally to us and allows us to participate in his divine estate. Chastity is a promise of immortality.

Chastity is expressed notably in friendship with one's neighbor. Whether it develops between persons of the same or opposite sex, friendship represents a great good for all. It leads to spiritual communion.

The various forms of chastity

2348 All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ,"¹³⁵ the model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.

2349 "People should cultivate [chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single."¹³⁶ Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in continence:

There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of widows, and the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the others. . . . This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the Church.¹³⁷

2350 Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow in chastity.

Offenses against chastity

2351 Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.

2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."¹³⁸ "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved."¹³⁹

To form an equitable judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.

2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.

2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.

2355 Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. The one who pays sins gravely against himself: he violates the chastity to which his Baptism pledged him and defiles his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit.¹⁴⁰ Prostitution is a social scourge. It usually involves women, but also men, children, and adolescents (The latter two cases involve the added sin of scandal.). While it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offense can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure.

2356 Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) or those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them.

Ongoing debate today

Stephen Timms at this time is talking about the bearing and rearing of children as being part of the definition of marriage.

Excellent, as he points out children will lose out. 

He is being interrupted. He is trying to clarify the traditional definition of marriage. This is good, but he does compromise on the second part. 

Cheryl Gillan is also showing that there is a difference between civil partnerships and the definition of marriage.

Leigh has been the clearest so far.

Gillan refers to the fact that this bill should not have been introduced at all. She is noting that the national church had not been consulted. 

What is the rush, one might ask?

Pray, listen, read, work, pray

Jim Shannon just did a good job. Follow the debate.

Edward Leigh was eloquent in today's debate

http://www.edwardleigh.org.uk/

He gave the Catholic view, quoting the CCC, and God bless him, his wife and children.