Very Black Smoke

Salt and Light have good coverage.

Catholic News Svc ‏@CatholicNewsSvc

Fr. Ciro says smoke pellets designed to billow out smoke for 7 minutes.

Record post day for me again! 20! Which I have had before.....see you tomorrow. Doctors of the Church will return soon.

http://saltandlighttv.org/live/

I wish...

I could write a post ahead of time for Burke as pope! Smoke Watch continues............

Just an update

The first smoke signal will come out soon.

Rome Note from Vatican Television

Thousands of colored umbrellas are gathering in the Piazza; people from all over the world holding these in the rain. My reflections on the scenes from Rome.

Live, Raining, Crowds Gathering Outside

http://www.radiovaticana.va/player/index_fb.asp?language=en&visualizzazione=VaticanTic&Tic=VA_WUDQN5L9

Interview with Cardinal Grech

http://www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_78290_l3.htm

http://live.lastampa.it/Event/THE_PAPAL_CONCLAVE

Nice one from Damian Thompson

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100206633/conclave-2013-a-battle-between-rome-and-reform/

Still praying and hoping...

for Cardinal Burke!  I have consistently predicted Scola, but I have prayed for Burke.

Here are the Cardinals going in at 4:20 Rome time

OK with Scola, Ouellet but....

1. 20 secsPaolo Rodari ‏@PaoloRodari

   Più che Scola-Scherer, oggi direi Scola contro tutti. I secondi (Dolan, Ouellet, Erdo) partono alla pari #

from the Chocolate Blog--if you have had cancer or are on levothyroxine-no soy!

Chocolate bars with no soy lecithin are not easy to find....but they are out there.http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/chocolate-bars-with-no-soy-lecithin-are.html

Updated January 24, 2013

Let’s face it: most chocolate bars contain soy lecithin, a by-product of soybean oil. It is the key ingredient in chocolate that keeps the cocoa butter and cocoa from separating. Although some food specialists believe that soy lecithin can be good for brain development and heart disease prevention (http://www.chow.com/food-news/54094/is-soy-lecithin-bad-for-you/), there are many people who cannot consume soy products because of an allergy to soy or a history of cancer. For those people, it is difficult to eat any chocolate because of a lack of readily available chocolate bars containing no soy lecithin. 

I bought a Ritter Sport 71% dark bar the other day and it reminded me that I have a list of all the chocolate bars that I have tried with no soy lecithin, so today I thought I would share that list.  Ideally, I would like to help people who cannot have soy products to find chocolate bars that they can eat.  After all, I’d like to think that my life is all about spreading happiness through chocolate.  And hopefully I can do that today.

I became interested in chocolate containing no soy lecithin when a salesman at a chocolate exhibition told me that his company was the only one to make soy-free chocolate bars. So I went on a mission to find other chocolate bar manufacturers that have also kept soy derivatives out of their chocolate.

Here is the list that I have put together of chocolate bars that are free of soy lecithin, listed by country/region:

American Soy Lecithin-Free Chocolate:

q Amano Madagascar 70% and other flavours of Amano Chocolate(www.amanochocolate.com). Although they have a warning on the package regarding the possibility of traces of soy lecithin, they tell me that they have never run lecithin on their equipment, but because they are restored antiques they can not be sure what was run on the equipment in the past. See this post and the comments below it for more information:http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/patric-american-handcrafted-chocolate.html?showComment=1325214828163#c4395610763615427899

q Patric American Handcrafted Chocolate - I have tasted their Signature Blend bar and their In-NIB-itable BAR. Very smooth chocolate with a lot of flavour. Both bars do not contain soy lecithin. See the following article for more details on Patric Chocolate:http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/patric-american-handcrafted-chocolate.html?showComment=1325214828163#c4395610763615427899

q Madre Chocolate This is fantastic and flavourful chocolate made in Hawaii and made from Hawaiian cacao beans. Their chocolate is soy-free and they make several amazing flavours, including their popular Passionfruit bar. I have tasted this chocolate and blogged about it a few times - here are my articles: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/going-to-hawaii-think-tropical.html andhttp://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/making-chocolate-from-bean-to-bar-at.html Their website is: www.madrechocolate.com.

q Pacari Ecuadorian Organic Chocolate "Los Rios" (Single Region Fine Chocolate) bar with 72% cacao (50 g/1.76 oz) Made with sunfflower lecithin and specifies "dairy and soy-free" on the package. Lot's of good flavour in this chocolate. http://www.pacarichocolate.com/

q Pacari Ecuadorian Organic Chocolate "Raw Chocolate" with 70% cacao (50 g/1.76 oz) - again specifies "dairy and soy-free" on the package and is made with sunflower lecithin. This raw chocolate is not really smooth, but I like it. It is also great because it has had minimal processing so the antioxidants, flavanols and bean flavour are maintained.http://www.pacarichocolate.com/

q  Potomac Chocolate (Woodbridge, VA) http://www.potomacchocolate.com/ their Upala 70% chocolate bars are made using cacao from the Upala district of Costa Rica and the only two ingredients are cacao beans and sugar. They also sell one chocolate bar made from cacao from Peru. I have tried this chocolate and loved it.  Read my review here:http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2011/11/po-to-macpo-to-macpoto-macpot-to.html

 

q  Rogue Chocolatier (Three Rivers, Massachusetts) http://www.roguechocolatier.com/ This is a small, craft, bean-to-bar chocolate maker who sources the finest beans from single-origin sources like Peru, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago and Honduras. They work directly with the farmers to ensure quality and fair trade. Unfortunately, I have not yet tasted their chocolate as they do not ship to Canada. But their accolades can speak for their chocolate: Rogue Chocolatier has won several awards, including the Good Food Awards for 2011, 2012 and 2013.

q  Enjoy Life brand of chocolate chips are made on dedicated equipment that is soy-free, as well as peanut-free, tree nut-free and free of several other known food allergens. Read on for more information about Enjoy Life's Mega Chunks and Mini Chips.

q Askinosie Chocolate (Springfield, MO) www.askinosie.com  Askinosie Chocolate does not add any soy lecithin in their chocolate making process. The only ingredients in their Single Origin Dark Chocolate bars are cocoa beans and organic sugar. They are also doing some really interesting things with chocolate education at chocolateuniversity.org.

q Dandelion Chocolate (Mission District, San Francisco) www.dandelionchocolate.com  This new San Francisco bean-to-bar chocolate maker only uses two ingredients: cocoa beans and sugar.

q Ritual Chocolate (Denver, Colorado) www.ritualchocolate.com a small-batch, craft chocolate making company They were recently honoured at the Good Food Awards Ceremony in San Francisco for their Costa Rica and Madagascar (70% cacao) chocolate bars. They also make a bar from beans of Trinidad and of Balao, Ecuador. All of their chocolate bars can be ordered online, including from Canada. Their chocolate also only has two ingredients: cacao and sugar.

Canadian Soy Lecithin-Free Chocolate:

 

q Camino (formerly called Cocoa Camino) chocolate by La Siembra Co-Operative (http://www.cocoacamino.com/) has no soy lecithin in its chocolate, which is also organic and fair trade. For instance, their 71% Bittersweet 100 gram bar has only cocoa mass, golden cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole cane sugar and ground vanilla beans in its ingredients list. 

q Just Us Coffee Roasters 70% Dark Chocolate Bar (100 grams). This bar had a very strong organic and fire roasted bean flavour – I ate the whole thing in one day so it must’ve been good! There is also no soy lecithin and it has just organic cocoa paste, organic muscobado whole cane sugar, organic cocoa butter and organic cocoa powder. I purchased this bar in Ottawa, Ontario at Mountain Equipment Co-Op, but you can purchase it directly at Just Us coffee houses in Halifax as well. Check their web site to learn where it is sold in your area: http://www.justuscoffee.com/.

q President’s Choice Fair Trade Dark Chocolate (Peru, 70% cocoa solids) has a great taste that tastes a bit like “Chipits” brand of chocolate chip, only darker. It seems sweeter than most 70% chocolate bars, but a nice sweetness (not sickeningly sweet like some North American-branded dark chocolate can be). The ingredients on the package are listed as: unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, low fat cocoa powder. See http://www.pc.ca/ for more information.

q Cuisine Camino fair trade "Baking Chocolate" is La Siembra Co-Operative's baking line of chocolate (http://www.cuisinecamino.com/). Their chocolate comes in 200 gram boxes, which is a larger, more helpful size for baking than a standard 100 gram chocolate bar (sometimes you just need more!). Their 56% cacao Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate bar, for instance, is made with three simple ingredients: organic cane sugar, cocoa mass, and cocoa butter and no lecithin or vanilla in sight. The chocolate is made in Peru and is both organic and fair trade. If you are doing a lot more baking or chocolate making than your average home baker, look to Camino's Professional and Industrial lines for more 10 kilo boxes of their organic and fair trade courverture in white, milk, semi-sweet and bitter-sweet chocolate. It is also soy-lecithin free.

q Hummingbird Chocolate Maker - This is a new bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Ottawa, Canada. They have a flavourful range of chocolates made from single origin beans (Hispaniola, Venezuela and Talamanca) which show immense differences in flavours - I highly recommend trying their entire range for a chocolate tasting party.www.hummingbirdchocolate.com.

q Camino Milk Chocolate Chips - there is a "May contain peanuts and soy" warning on the package, but there is no actual soy lecithin in the ingredients list. If you are just avoiding soy (not allergic), this may be a great brand for you to try as milk chocolate chips without soy is not easy to find. www.tasteofcamino.com

q    President’s Choice's 300 gram chocolate bars have canola lecithin instead of soy lecithin.Their 70% range chocolate uses artificial flavouring though, but otherwise is good for baking. Their hazelnut and milk chocolate bars do have natural vanilla flavouring. These are available in Ontario at Loblaws, Loblaws Superstore and Valu-Mart. Check http://www.pc.ca/to find out where they are sold near you.

q Terra Nostra™ Organic, Intense Dark™, 100 gram bar with 73% cacao is also organic and has only three ingredients: cocoa mass, organic sugar, cocoa butter.http://www.terranostrachocolate.com/ Although it’s been a while since I tried it, this bar had a wonderful smell and great taste.

Soy Lecithin-Free Chocolate from Outside North America:

q     The Ritter SPORT Amargo Extrafino 71% Cocoa, 100 gram bar has no soy lecithin (just cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural vanilla). This bar is smooth, chunky and great for those moments when you are craving very dark chocolate.  It does not have any strong flavours in it like the organic chocolate bars listed below, so would be suitable to those who are not used to tasting the specific nuances of single origin cocoa beans, and those who are not used to the strong flavour of organic chocolate. It has a happy feel to it – eat this on a day that needs brightening.

q     Ambriel (73% cocoa) chocolate bar with cocoa nibs has a very organic and earthy flavour and smell and, in fact, is certified organic and fair trade. Sproutmaster.com sells this product. The cocoa comes from Bolivia and the Dominican Republic.

q     Vivani (Edel Bitter EQUADOR) organic “superior” dark chocolate (70% cacao) with olive oil.  This is a nice smooth chocolate, likely due to the olive oil. Its ingredients are all organic and include: cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, olive oil (2%). Checkhttp://www.vivani.de/ for more information.

  

q    Green & Blacks Organic Dark 85%, 100 gram bar.  This bar is made with Trinitario cocoa beans and when I purchased it in 2008, it offered a quality promise on the package that it lived up to. Its ingredients are organic and include: chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, fat-reduced cocoa powder, raw cane sugar, vanilla extract.  Be wary though, if you do not want soy lecithin, just stick to the 85% bar, Green & Black’s 70% chocolate does have soy lecithin in it.

q    Michel Cluizel Plantation "Los Ancones", 67% Dark Chocolate, 100 g (3.5 oz) - of the highest quality and there is no lecithin used at all in this chocolate. Plus it's made with Bourbon vanilla pod and is made in France, one of the greatest countries for chocolate making! http://www.cluizel.com/ 

This is cool-on the papal addresses after election

http://www.ilsismografo.blogspot.it/2013/03/vaticano-sede-vacante-solo-tre-papi.html

Nice article on SPUC

I am encouraged to notice that, on the eve of the conclave, the Pontifical Council for the Family has published Cardinal Angelo Scola's recent, profoundly topical and relevant, opening address at the recent 7th World Meeting of Families in Milan.

Cardinal Scola, the archbishop of Milan, who served as Patriarch of Venice from 2002 - 2011, said that the church's "passionate" care for the family was a "decisive contribution" for each person and for "today's society and that of the future".

http://spuc-director.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/cardinal-scolas-championship-of-family.html

You can stop boycotting Tesco if you want

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2012/01/02/a-small-victory-for-christians-tesco-has-said-it-will-stop-sponsoring-london%E2%80%99s-gay-pride-march/

The 2013 Gay Pride Parade is not sponsored by Tesco.

I have switched to other shops permanently anyway.

Important note on this morning's sermon by the Dean of the College of Cardinals: I am not the only one unhappy with it.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/03/the-rites-for-the-conclave-begin-mass-for-electing-a-supreme-pontiff/#comment-396218

For the Cardinals, for You, for Me

St. Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle.

Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God,

cast into hell, Satan,

and all the evil spirits,

who roam the world

seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

O glorious Apostle St. Jude, true relative of Jesus and Mary, I salute you through the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Through this Heart, I praise and thank God for all the graces He has bestowed upon you. Humbly prostrate before you, I implore you through this Heart to look down upon me with compassion. Despise not my poor prayer and let not my trust be in vain. To you has been assigned the privilege of aiding mankind in the most desperate cases. Oh, come to my aid that I may praise the mercies of God. All my life I will be grateful to you and will be your faithful client until I can thank you in heaven. Amen.

Moving on in the series...

Monstrance displaying the Host on the altar flanked by St. Peter on the left and St. Paul on the right. The Four Latin Church Fathers are seated adjacent to the altar: Sts Gregory and Jerome on the left and Sts. Ambrose and Augustine on the right. The head of St. Peter appears to be based on the likeness of Pope Julius II With thanks to http://goo.gl/HHDA9

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/doc-held-off-until-monday-but-then.html

Now, I can add SS. Gregory and Leo to the list on the post above.

I hope you have time to read the ones on St. Jerome. I feel like he is speaking to us today.

Part 79 of DoC: St. Leo the Great and Perfection

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God...  Great is the happiness, beloved, of him for whom so great a reward is prepared. What, then, is it to have the heart pure, but to strive after those virtues which are mentioned above? And how great the blessedness of seeing God, what mind can conceive, what tongue declare? And yet this shall ensue when man's nature is transformed, so that no longer in a mirror, nor in a riddle, but face to face 1 Corinthians 13:12  it sees the very Godhead as He is 1 John 3:2, which no man could see ; and through the unspeakable joy of eternal contemplation obtains that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man.  Rightly is this blessedness promised to purity of heart. For the brightness of the true light will not be able to be seen by the unclean sight: and that which will be happiness to minds that are bright and clean, will be a punishment to those that are stained. Therefore, let the mists of earth's vanities be shunned, and your inward eyes purged from all the filth of wickedness, that the sight may be free to feed on this great manifestation of God. For to the attainment of this we understand what follows to lead.

What St. Leo is describing is the Illuminative State, wherein, those who have been through purification, willingly accepting the suffering necessary to become pure, finally have an illumined mind, conscience, heart, soul, will.

At this stage, one begins to see one's relationship with God as love and experience a power and clarity of mission as never before.

It would be wished that most men and women who are working in and for the Church would attain this level of grace before actually working. 

Goodbye to Leo, for now And, one to the next set in a few days. St. Leo is not one of the Latin Fathers, but as his papacy and that of St. Gregory's are probably the most important in the classical period, I have put them in the same grouping. 

Part 78: DoC: St. Leo I, the Great continued...

From several sources found here and there. The assumption here is that we all can be pure and holy: that is, perfect. The Great Doctor of Doctrine calls his flock, and us, in these Lenten sermons, to perfection.

Although, dearly-beloved, as the Easter festival approaches, the very recurrence of the season points out to us the Lenten fast, yet our words also must add their exhortations which, the Lord helping us, may be not useless to the active nor irksome to the devout. For since the idea of these days demands the increase of all our religious performances, there is no one, I am sure, that does not feel glad at being incited to good works. For though our nature which, so long as we are mortal, will be changeable, is advancing to the highest pursuits of virtue, yet always has the possibility of falling back, so has it always the possibility of advancing. And this is the true justness of the perfect that they should never assume themselves to be perfect, lest flagging in the purpose of their yet unfinished journey, they should fall into the danger of failure, through giving up the desire for progress.

One of the key points here is that we cannot ease up on our pursuit of holiness. This road is not one from which we can break for a side-road to a vacation. 

If we are not advancing, we shall be sliding back. This is a truism we have heard many times. How do we keep up the pursuit, among so many stresses and distractions? By prayer and by encouragement from those around us who want to also become perfect.


And, therefore, because none of us, dearly beloved, is so perfect and holy as not to be able to be more perfect and more holy, let us all together, without difference of rank, without distinction of desert, with pious eagerness pursue our race from what we have attained to what we yet aspire to, and make some needful additions to our regular devotions. For he that is not more attentive than usual to religion in these days, is shown at other times to be not attentive enough.

If you want to know why he is called "Great", look here.

.....

This section below is so important. By wicked imaginings, Leo does not merely mean temptations of the carnal sort, but the entertaining of false teachings, false seers, gnosticism and so on. I have written many times on this blog that one CANNOT begin the long and difficult journey towards perfection without first being orthodox.

Having a mind like the mind of Christ means having a mind in keeping with the teaching of Christ's Church. 

If one has any area of one's life which is not following the moral or doctrinal teachings of the Church, one cannot be perfected.

We know indeed, dearly-beloved, your devotion to be so warm that in the fasting, which is the forerunner of the Lord's Easter, many of you will have forestalled our exhortations. But because the right practice of abstinence is needful not only to the mortification of the flesh but also to the purification of the mind, we desire your observance to be so complete that, as you cut down the pleasures that belong to the lusts of the flesh, so you should banish the errors that proceed from the imaginations of the heart. For he whose heart is polluted with no misbelief prepares himself with true and reasonable purification for the PaschalFeast, in which all the mysteries of our religion meet together. For, as the Apostle says, that all that is not of faith is sin Romans 14:23, the fasting of those will be unprofitable and vain, whom the father of lying deceives with his delusions, and who are not fed by Christ's true flesh. As then we must with the whole heart obey the Divine commands and sound doctrine, so we must use all foresight in abstaining from wicked imaginations. For the mind then only keeps holy and spiritual fast when it rejects the food of error and the poison of falsehood, which our crafty and wily foe plies us with more treacherously now, when by the very return of the venerable Festival, the whole church generally is admonished to understand the mysteries of its salvation. 

To be confessor to Christ is to believe in the Creed. If we believe what we say on Sunday, we are confessing our faith and if we live according to those beliefs, we are orthodox.

For he is the true confessor and worshipper of Christ's resurrection, who is not confused about His passion, nor deceived about His bodily nativity. For some are so ashamed of the Gospel of the Cross of Christ, as to impudently nullify the punishment which He underwent for the world's redemption, and have denied the very nature of true flesh in the Lord, not understanding how the impassible and unchangeable Deity of God's Word could have so far condescended for man's salvation, as by His power not to lose His own properties, and in His mercy to take on Him ours. And so in Christ, there is a twofold form but one person, and the Son of God, who is at the same time Son of Man, is one Lord, accepting the condition of a slave by the design of loving-kindness, not by the law of necessity, because by His power He became humble, by His power passible, by His power mortal; that for the destruction of the tyranny of sin and death, the weak nature in Him might be capable of punishment, and the strong nature not lose anything of its glory.

Being holy means clinging to Christ, His Person, His Church.

Confusion cannot be in the mind, nor sin in the heart of the one who wants to be like Christ is all things.

To be continued...

Part 77: DoC: Leo the Great and Perfection

St. Leo I, the Great is sometimes called the Doctor of Doctrine..

He shares with us some ideas on perfection: I shall use several different sermons found here.

My comments are in blue. I have left on the links, as usual with this site. To be continued....

Our perfection is found in and with Christ, the Incarnate God. Just as Christ is True God and True Man, so we are made in the image and likeness of God, in our will, our mind, our soul.

The bodily Nativity therefore of the Son of God took nothing from and added nothing to His Majesty because His unchangeable substance could be neither diminished nor increased. For that the Word became flesh does not signify that the nature of God was changed into flesh, but that the Word took the flesh into the unity of His Person: and therein undoubtedly the whole man was received, with which within the Virgin's womb fecundated by the Holy Spirit, whose virginity was destined never to be lost , the Son of God was so inseparably united that He who was born without time of the Father's essence was Himself in time born of the Virgin's womb. For we could not otherwise be released from the chains of eternal death but by Him becoming humble in our nature, Who remained Almighty in His own. And so our Lord Jesus Christ, being at birth true man though He never ceased to be true God, made in Himself the beginning of a new creation, and in the form of His birth started the spiritual life of mankind afresh, that to abolish the taint of our birth according to the flesh there might be a possibility of regeneration without our sinful seed for those of whom it is said, Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God John 1:13 . 

To deny that one can become perfected is to deny the Incarnation. If Christ became Man in order to redeem our human nature, then, it is redeemed to the point of having the capacity for sinlessness.

All of us are "the new creation" in Christ, made to become like Him. to put on His Mind. To deny that we can become like Christ is to deny not only His Incarnation, but His salvific act of Dying for our sins and Rising, thus earning grace and everlasting life for each one of us.

What mind can grasp this mystery, what tongue can express this gracious act? Sinfulness returns to guiltlessness and the old nature becomes new; strangers receive adoption and outsiders enter upon an inheritance. The ungodly begin to be righteous, the miserly benevolent, the incontinent chaste, the earthly heavenly. And whence comes this change, save by the right hand of the Most High? For the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil 1 John 3:8, and has so united Himself with us and us with Him that the descent of God to man's estate became the exaltation of man to God's.