Feast day of our Guardian Angels

Perhaps no aspect of Catholic piety is as comforting to parents as the belief that an angel protects their little ones from dangers real and imagined. Yet guardian angels are not just for children. Their role is to represent individuals before God, to watch over them always, to aid their prayer and to present their souls to God at death.
The concept of an angel assigned to guide and nurture each human being is a development of Catholic doctrine and piety based on Scripture but not directly drawn from it. Jesus' words in Matthew 18:10 best support the belief: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father."

Devotion to the angels began to develop with the birth of the monastic tradition. St. Benedict (July 11) gave it impetus and Bernard of Clairvaux (August 20), the great 12th-century reformer, was such an eloquent spokesman for the guardian angels that angelic devotion assumed its current form in his day.

A feast in honor of the guardian angels was first observed in the 16th century. In 1615, Pope Paul V added it to the Roman calendar.

St. Therese, "the little flower"Feast day

Therese Martin was the last of nine children born to Louis and Zelie Martin on January 2, 1873, in Alencon, France. However, only five of these children lived to reach adulthood. Precocious and sensitive, Therese needed much attention. Her mother died when she was 4 years old. As a result, her father and sisters babied young Therese. She had a spirit that wanted everything.

At the age of 14, on Christmas Eve in 1886, Therese had a conversion that transformed her life. From then on, her powerful energy and sensitive spirit were turned toward love, instead of keeping herself happy. At 15, she entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux to give her whole life to God. She took the religious name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Living a hidden, simple life of prayer, she was gifted with great intimacy with God. Through sickness and dark nights of doubt and fear, she remained faithful to God, rooted in His merciful love. After a long struggle with tuberculosis, she died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Her last words were the story of her life: "My God, I love You!"
The world came to know Therese through her autobiography, "Story of a Soul". She described her life as a "little way of spiritual childhood." She lived each day with an unshakable confidence in God's love. "What matters in life," she wrote, "is not great deeds, but great love." Therese lived and taught a spirituality of attending to everyone and everything well and with love. She believed that just as a child becomes enamored with what is before her, we should also have a childlike focus and totally attentive love. Therese's spirituality is of doing the ordinary, with extraordinary love.

Therese saw the seasons as reflecting the seasons of God's love affair with us. She loved flowers and saw herself as the "little flower of Jesus," who gave glory to God by just being her beautiful little self among all the other flowers in God's garden. Because of this beautiful analogy, the title "little flower" remained with St. Therese.

Her inspiration and powerful presence from heaven touched many people very quickly. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 17, 1925. Had she lived, she would have been only 52 years old when she was declared a Saint.

"My mission - to make God loved - will begin after my death," she said. "I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses." Roses have been described and experienced as Saint Therese's signature. Countless millions have been touched by her intercession and imitate her "little way." She has been acclaimed "the greatest saint of modern times." In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared St. Therese a Doctor of the Church - the only Doctor of his pontificate - in tribute to the powerful way her spirituality has influenced people all over the world.

The message of St. Therese is beautiful, inspiring, and simple. Please visit the areas in this section of the Web site to learn more about this wonderful Saint.

HARVEST MOON: This weekend's full Moon is the Harvest Moon, the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox. Before electric lights, farmers working after sunset relied on the light of the Harvest Moon to help them gather ripening autumn crops. Now it's just a pretty sight. Look east for the Harvest moonrise on Saturday night.

C. S. Lewis

“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word “darkness” on the walls of his cell.” (C. S. Lewis)

Love is a whisper, Lust is a roar,
Love is content, Lust wants more,
Love is offered, Lust just takes,
Love mends the hearts that Lust breaks

Pamela Geller won a court order allowing her to run subway ads that read "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”

September 15th is the Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady which has its roots in Sacred Scripture and in Christian piety.Below are the seven sorrows of Mary:

1. The prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35)
   
2. The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15)
   
3. Loss of the Child Jesus for three days (Luke 2:41-50)
   
4. Mary meets Jesus on his way to Calvary (Luke 23:27-31; John 19:17)
   
5. Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (John 19:25-30)
   
6. The body of Jesus being taken from the Cross (Psalm 130; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:31-37)
   
7. The burial of Jesus (Isaiah 53:8; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42; Mark 15:40-47)

 

“Sometimes the most ordinary things can be made extraordinary simply by doing them with the right people.”

"You know, I would say 'incomplete.'"
-- President Obama when asked by reporter Diane Derby of KKTV in Colorado Springs what grade he would give himself for facilitating an economic recovery.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/04/new-poll-reveals-magnitude-obama-challenge/?intcmp=obnetwork#ixzz25moMxlwT

Marco Rubio: America’s Favorite New Catholic

The Speech Obama Failed to Deliver

By Ben Stein on 8.27.12 @ 6:11AM

A return to L.A. coincides with a growing sense of doom.

Friday
I keep thinking about our man, Barack Obama, and especially about his promises in 2008. There have been many Presidents. But has any President ever had a wider gulf between what he promised he would do and what he actually did or did not do?
What if, at his momentous moment at Grant Park in Chicago on the night of his win, he had said this speech:
"Now, friends, thank you for electing me. To tell you the truth, I am a good speaker as long as I have a prompter in front of me. But I have absolutely no clue at all as to how to get us out of this recession. None at all. I will, however, spend the money of the people who pay taxes to give out a lot of money to people who are either union members or do not pay taxes. I will spend a trillion dollars in a year and I have no idea of what, if any good it will do.
"I'll also get my captive Congress, led by the most pitifully weak Speaker ever, and a man who gives the word 'party hack' a bad name, to pass a health care bill that will dramatically raise taxes, cut Medicare payments, cram patients into doctors' offices, create complete chaos -- and I will do it in the dead of night without even showing the Republicans what's in the bill. I won't show anyone else either! That's the gag! We'll be passing a bill that will cost trillions and NO ONE will know what's in it! NOT EVEN ME!!!! "They didn't call me 'Good time Barry' at Punahou for nothing!
"Plus, you know how we have only one reliable ally in the whole world, and that's Israel, probably the most militarily significant power after us, Russia, and China? Yes, the Israel that's the only democracy in the Middle East, where Arabs have more rights than they do in any Arab country? We're going to take that country's premier and HUMILIATE the SOB right outside my office, make him cool his heels like a job seeker at a union hall and then I'll tell him what a loser he is!
"That's how I'll show my Jewish friends what I think about Israel.
"Then, Britain? That 'special relationship' country? I'll humiliate them, too. I think I'll just hug the Queen like she's my Mom. Then when they give me a magnificent gift, I'll give them a CD of my speeches -- in a plastic box.
"And the deficit? I'll double it in three and a half years. With nothing to show for it.
"Plus, if we find Osama bin Laden, I think I'll have the SEALs take all of the risks and then I'll go on TV and pretend I did it all myself.
"Plus, did you see about those thugs who threatened anyone who didn't vote for me at some polling place somewhere? I am not going to prosecute them at all. Not one bit. Not even for a second! What are friends for?
"Well, anyway, it's late, so let's PARTAY HEARTAY!"
He didn't give that speech. Too bad.

Christians victims of rising 'hostility' from gov't and secular groups, report says

Published August 24, 2012

| FoxNews.com

 

A new report by the Family Research Council and the Liberty Institute claims that there's been a rising pattern of hostility toward Christians in America over the past decade.

The 140-page "Survey of Religious Hostility in America," prepared by the Liberty Institute and the Family Research Council, highlighted more than 600 examples illustrating what it characterized as religious animosity shown by judges, government bureaucrats, schools and secular groups. From ObamaCare mandates that force religious entities to pay for contraception, to children being punished for uttering prayers in school, the report's findings shocked even those who commissioned it.

[pullquote]

“It’s a conflict of world views," Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, told FoxNews.com. "These groups want people to check their faith at the door of the public square.”

Among the examples listed in the survey:

• Matthew Reynolds, valedictorian for HLV Junior-Senior High School in Victor, Iowa, was told he had to give a 'secular' speech after he wished to attribute his success to his faith in Jesus Christ during his graduation speech.
• A cross was removed from a veterans' memorial in San Diego, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held that the memorial was unconstitutional.
• .Dr. Frank Turek, a Cisco employee, was fired for expressing his views on traditional marriage in his book, even though he never voiced his religious opinions at work.
• Samantha Schulz, 8, was barred from singing "Kum Ba Yah" at a Boys and Girls Club in Port Charlotte, Fla., because the song included the words "Oh, Lord."
• Catherina Lorena Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse at Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital, was forced to participate in a late-term abortion against her religious convictions, and was threatened with job termination and loss of license.

The goal of the report is to raise awareness of these incidents to promote the appointment of judges "who are sensitive to the Constitution," said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Plano, Texas-based Liberty Institute. The report was presented in Tampa just ahead of next week's Republican National Convention.

According to Shackelford, the hostility can lead to violence, as in the case of the Aug.15 shooting at the Family Research Council headquarters, in which a gunman allegedly said he disagreed with the group's beliefs before shooting an employee in the arm. He also cited the Aug. 5 shooting deaths of six people at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee.

"It's way beyond anything we had imagined," Shackelford told FoxNews.com."It's so much more prolific than it's ever been before."

One critic said the report is guilty of blurring the line between attacking religion and upholding the Constitution. A.J. Johnson, development director of American Atheists, Inc., said no one condones hate crimes such as the FRC shooting. But many other examples cited are simply cases in which advocates called for the separation of church and state," Johnson said.

"The Family Research Council distorts court cases upholding the First Amendment as examples of "religious hostility," she said. "In reality, they are imposing their beliefs onto others and claiming to be victims of religious persecution when they do not get unique Christian privilege."

But Perkins said the secular nation that groups like Johnson's seek was never envisioned by the Founding Fathers, and will not come to be.

THE DEATH OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
If you went to a country and you found that fifty percent of the citizens of that country committed suicide, you would say that that is a very sick country and does not have a very good hope for survival. That is Western Civilization, because the fundamental building block of all societies is families. Families are the fundamental citizens of every society. And divorce is the suicide of a family. When the body and the soul separate, the body dies. When the mother and the father separate, the family dies. So a fifty percent divorce rate, which is what we have in North America, means a fifty percent suicide rate. That's a very, very serious symptom.

“wherever religious freedom is lacking, people lack the most meaningful freedom of all, since it is through faith that men and women expresses their deepest decision about the ultimate meaning of their lives”.

Judas made a huge blunder the day in which he sold Christ for 30 denarii, but he made an even bigger one when he thought that his sin was too great to be forgiven. No sin is too big: any wretchedness, however great, can always be enclosed in infinite mercy.”

The first written catechism of the Catholic Church, known as the Didache, and dated somewhere in the first century A.D., begins with a sentence of great clarity. It should be memorized: “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways.”

In leading up to the First Crusade, there were more than 400 years of unrelenting brutal Moslem attacks on Christian lands.

More than 100 new works attributed to Caravaggio found in Italian castle | CatholicHerald.co.uk

More than 100 new works attributed to Caravaggio found in Italian castle | CatholicHerald.co.uk

There are more Muslims coming to Jesus Christ now than at any other time in the religion's 1400 year old history...

June 6th

Optional Memorial of St. Norbert, bishop

his conversion story reminds me a lot of St.Paul's.He was thrown from a horse during a lightening storm and thought he heard someone telling him to change his worldly ways.
Read all about it here...

On Saturday,we lost our precious Cams...gone too soon.We are devastated.

THE DARLING OF HEAVEN CRUCIFIED...

WORTHY IS THE LAMB

Fasting for Lent
The poet T. A. Daly has these lines for grown-ups:

The fare in Lent should be austere No cakes and ale, no kraut and beer; No fatted goose with heavy wines, That Croesus fancies when he dines— They’re all taboo this time o’ year.

Divine Mercy Novena 2012

Starting on Good Friday, I am joining more than 10,000 Catholics to pray a Divine Mercy Novena!

I’m actually trying to help this online prayer community (PrayMoreNovenas.com) to get 20,000 people praying this novena for God’s Mercy. We all need Mercy, right?

You can sign up for handy email reminders to get the the novena prayers here: http://www.praymorenovenas.com/divine-mercy-novena

After you sign up, maybe you can help spread the word as well. God’s Mercy is abundant and overflowing, let’s share it!

http://mychal-massie.com/premium/why-i-do-not-like-the-obamas/" >Why I Do Not Like The Obamas

Obama's 99 Percent Contraceptive Use Claim ‘False'

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A statistic being frequently touted by President Barack Obama that 99 percent of women have used birth control is false, according to CNSNews.com.

The assertion, used to support the mandate that all healthcare plans provide free contraception, “appears to stem from a careless or misleading restatement of a sentence” in a 2011 report that recommended the contraception requirement, says CNSNews

UK Govt: Hey Marriage Might Be Good for Kids

UK Govt: Hey Marriage Might Be Good for Kids

TODAY IS THE FEAST OF St. Gregory the Great, Pope

“Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God.”
― Thomas Jefferson

Prayer for Healing the Family TreeRev. John H. Hampsch, CMF

Heavenly Father, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help; I have physical health needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, and interpersonal needs. Many of my problems have been caused by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness, for which I humbly beg your forgiveness, Lord. But I also ask you to forgive the sins of my ancestors whose failures have left their effects on me in the form of unwanted tendencies, behavior patterns and defects in body, mind and spirit. Heal me, Lord, of all these disorders. With your help I sincerely forgive everyone, especially living or dead members of my family tree, who have directly offended me or my loved ones in any way, or those whose sins have resulted in our present sufferings and disorders. In the name of your divine Son, Jesus, and in the power of his Holy Spirit, I ask you, Father, to deliver me and my entire family tree from the influence of the evil one. Free all living and dead members of my family tree, including those in adoptive relationships, and those in extended family relationships, from every contaminating form of bondage. By your loving concern for us, heavenly Father, and by the shed blood of your precious Son, Jesus, I beg you to extend your blessing to me and to all my living and deceased relatives. Heal every negative effect transmitted through all past generations, and prevent such negative effects in future generations of my family tree. I symbolically place the cross of Jesus over the head of each person in my family tree, and between each generation; I ask you to let the cleansing blood of Jesus purify the bloodlines in my family lineage. Set your protective angels to encamp around us, and permit Archangel Raphael, the patron of healing, to administer your divine healing power to all of us, even in areas of genetic disability. Give special power to our family members' guardian angels to heal, protect, guide and encourage each of us in all our needs. Let your healing power be released at this very moment, and let it continue as long as your sovereignty permits. In our family tree, Lord, replace all bondage with a holy bonding in family love. And let there be an ever-deeper bonding with you, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, to your Son, Jesus. Let the family of the Holy Trinity pervade our family with its tender, warm, loving presence, so that our family may recognize and manifest that love in all our relationships. All of our unknown needs we include with this petition that we pray in Jesus' precious Name. Amen. +++++++++++++++ St. Joseph, Patron of family life, pray for us.

memo to obama

Three Misconceptions about the Catholic Church

Read John Allen's excellent article here. He corrects three widespread misconceptions about the Catholic Church in the mainstream media and general population (and also among many Catholics) 1. The Church is all about the clergy. Nope. The clergy make up only .04% of the Catholic population. 2. The Church is in decline. Nope. The global church is growing phenomonally. What is in decline is old fashioned American cultural Catholicism. 3. The Catholic Church is the oppressor. Nope. The rate of Catholic martyrdoms is sky rocketing. In over 100 countries around the world Catholics are being persecuted, deprived of property, imprisoned, tortured and killed.

FREE OFFER FROM PUBLISHER ENCOURAGES PARISHES TO PRAY FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

TAN Books Makes St. Michael Prayer Cards FREE to Parishes while Supplies Last Charlotte, NC (February 27, 2012) - TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press, announced today plans to make St. Michael the Archangel prayer cards FREE to parishes willing to include the prayer in Sunday Masses for the intention of religious freedom. The offer is a response to the call of Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Ill to petition St. Michael the Archangel "for the freedom of the Catholic Church in America." Bishop Jenky's request comes on the heels of a new federal ruling that will force many Catholic organizations to provide insurance coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives and "morning-after" pills. Chairman and CEO of Saint Benedict Press, Robert Gallagher, fully supports the call from Bishop Jenky and plans to encourage the effort by offering St. Michael prayer cards for free to parishes nationwide. "The Obama mandate creates a crisis of conscience for thousands of our nation's employers, especially Catholics and other men and women of faith," said Gallagher. "It is a radical infringement upon the free exercise of religion, a persecution of religious belief in the marketplace, and an attempt by a thoroughly secular Administration to remove the expression of one's religious tenets from the public square." "The power of prayer cannot be overestimated as a means to combat this blatant attack on Catholic moral convictions," said Gallagher. "Calling on the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel to be our defender in this critical battle is something that everyone can do. At Saint Benedict Press we want to make it easy for parishes to implement this initiative by offering resources that will help them do so." For further information and to request free copies of the St. Michael the Archangel prayer cards call (704) 831-3468 or email katiem@saintbenedictpress.com. Contact: Katie Moore - Publicist Saint Benedict Press, LLC/TAN Books NC, 28273 US 704.831.3468 katiem@saintbenedictpress.com

So I watched the newly-appointed Cardinal Timothy Dolan on EWTN this past Saturday...1st in the AM for mid-morning prayers and then in the evening for the Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York.What a joy he is.If we all as Christians exuded such joy...there would be no non-Christians...coz everyone would be chomping at the bit to get what we have.

Mr. President, you owe me and millions of American Catholics an apology.
You apologized to Islamic extremists and other Muslims abroad and in the United States for something done against the Islamic faith by mistake.
What you are doing to the consciences of Catholics and indeed all American, contrary to the 1st Amendment, you persist in doing on purpose.
As President you have offended me. You have offended millions of Catholic and all American citizens who enjoy religious liberty under the 1st Amendment and who, as human beings, do not deserve to be so demeaned.
You think American military personal should be held accountable for their mistake. Why should you, Mr. President, not now be accountable for what you are doing deliberately?
You owe us an apology for demeaning our Catholic Faith.

One Pissed off Canadian Housewife
This is very good PLEASE read....

Thought yo...u might like to read this letter
to the editor. Ever notice how some people
just seem to know how to write a letter?


This one surely does!


This was written by a Canadian woman, but oh how
it also applies to the U.S.A., U.K. and Australia .


THIS ONE PACKS A FIRM PUNCH

Written by a housewife in New Brunswick , to
her local newspaper. This is one ticked off lady...


"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was
it or was it not, started by Islamic people who
brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001
and have continually threatened to do so since?


Were people from all over the world, not brutally murdered
that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from
the capitol of the USA and in a field in Pennsylvania ?


Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?

Do you think I care about four U. S. Marines urinating on some dead Taliban insurgents?

And I'm supposed to care that a few Taliban were
claiming to be tortured by a justice system of a
nation they are fighting against in a brutal Insurgency.

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle
East, start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere belief
of which, is a crime punishable by beheading in Afghanistan .


I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are
sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head, while Berg
screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.


I'll care when the cowardly so-called insurgents
in Afghanistan , come out and fight like men,
instead of disrespecting their own religion by
hiding in Mosques and behind women and children.


I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow
themselves up in search of Nirvana, care about the
innocent children within range of their suicide Bombs.


I'll care when the Canadian media stops pretending that
their freedom of Speech on stories, is more important than
the lives of the soldiers on the ground or their families waiting
at home, to hear about them when something happens.


In the meantime, when I hear a story about a
CANADIAN soldier roughing up an Insurgent
terrorist to obtain information, know this:

I don't care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the
head when he is told not to move because he
might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank:


I don't care. Shoot him again.


When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed 'special' food, that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being 'mishandled,' you can absolutely believe, in your heart of hearts:

I don't care.


And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes
it's spelled 'Koran' and other times 'Quran.'
Well, Jimmy Crack Corn you guessed it.


I don't care!!


If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to
all your E-mail Friends. Sooner or later, it'll get to
the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!


If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete
button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't
complain when more atrocities committed by radical
Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add:


Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering, if
during their life on earth, they made a difference in
the world. But, the Soldiers don't have that problem.

I have another quote that I would like to
share AND...I hope you forward All this.


One last thought for the day:


Only five defining forces have ever offered to die for you:


1. Jesus Christ


2. The British Soldier.


3. The Canadian Soldier.


4. The US Soldier, and


5. The Australian Soldier

"Jesus Loves Me" was the last song Whitney Houston sang in public before her death February 11 in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 48.

Can. 915: It’s time to use it.

St. Bernard wrote centuries ago, “He who is his own master is a scholar under a fool.”

EWTN Files Suit to Block Contraception Mandate

Letter from a 12-week old unborn baby
In late January, a friend and supporter of HLI America was asked by pro-life leaders in New York State to write a letter that would accompany a replica of a 10-12 week old baby in the womb. With the goal of encouraging state legislators to recognize the humanity of such tiny human beings, this replica and letter was to be sent to all the members of the New York State Assembly and Senate.

In New York, abortion of an unborn child after the 24th week of pregnancy is defined as homicide, but prior to that the killing of such a child is legal. This beautiful letter is another creative and truthful attempt to encourage our nation’s leaders to recognize that abortion is not a human right, but rather, ends an innocent human life.

That letter, written from the perspective of the 12-week old baby in the womb, is shared with you below:

Dear Member of the NY State Senate or Assembly:


I am not a blob of tissue to be disposed of. When I became a zygote at fertilization, I was already composed of 39,000 genes made up of 3.2 billion base pair sequences. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s scientifically true! These detailed directions for my development have been compared to the amount of information found in two hundred New York City phone books.


After this beginning, I worked actively to prevent any other sperm from fertilizing the same egg, and on my own impetus took a journey down the fallopian tube to implant upon my mother’s uterus.


At 5 weeks, my cerebral cortex was developing, and well before I reached 12 weeks my brain was functioning. I was already responding to stimuli.


So how can you allow me to be tortured? Shouldn’t you be working to protect me from suffering? Why allow me to be torn limb from limb?


At 12 weeks, I am not merely a design for a house yet to be built, I am already “a tiny house that constructs itself larger and more complex through its active self-development towards maturity” (Patrick Lee). If I live and grow to maturity, this growth will not involve a change in my identity or substance, only the development of what’s already there.

I am not a “potential” child, but a real child. Take a good look at the image of me that you received. My mother cannot “choose” to have a child – she already has one! Her only “choice” is whether or not to let me live.


Size has nothing to do with human rights. The sun may be vast in size, but it can’t think or love. It is only matter. It will never be part of an American family and community, nor will it ever serve my country. It will never ponder the mystery of life and the beauty of the night-skies, nor will it ever be able to conceive of the universe or meditate on Scripture.


Small as I am at 12 weeks, I can say that I am more precious than that huge and majestic sun, because I am made in the image of God, the One who created the sun, the night skies and the universe. All those things will pass away, but I am made for eternity.

"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." Eccl. 10:2

Catholics are a sleeping giant -- more than sixty-million strong in the U.S., and way over a billion worldwide (probably 1.2 billion, which is 1,200 million).

Wake up sleeping giant...wake up...church militant...

Feast day of St. Dorothy...

Unemployment Tricks: Jobs Claim Made by 'Shrinking' Workforce


 Last week, the White House claimed that unemployment dropped for the fifth consecutive month to 8.3 percent — the lowest it has been in nearly three years — after adding 243,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.


But financial experts are saying the figures may have been manipulated — and that the significant drop in employment was because of the fact that the federal agency charged with computing key economic data has significantly decreased the number of Americans in the workforce.

“If you hold the workforce participation rate constant over the past year, unemployment would be about 8.9 percent instead of 8.3 percent,” GOP economist Matt McDonald of Hamilton Place Strategies said Monday on CNBC’s Squawk Box. "So it is a weird number that is out there, and I think people have to be looking at that carefully.”

The same Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report that showed unemployment dropping to 8.3 percent showed total workforce participation — the number of people either working or looking for work — declining by 1.2 million people in one month.



The unemployment rate is determined by dividing the number of unemployed job-seekers by the total labor force. By reducing the number of workers in the overall workforce, the Obama administration can show actual unemployment dropping, when, in fact, improvement has been marginal at best.

Many economists feel the official statistics seriously underestimate how bad the unemployment situation really is. They maintain that the key measure is the number of people who would like to have a job, but can’t find one.

When people retire from the workforce because of the aging of the nation’s population or give up looking for work because of prolonged unemployment, the BLS declares the unemployed person a “discouraged worker.”

At that point, the BLS lists them as “marginally attached to the workforce,” and they no longer are considered to be part of the nation’s working population.

Dropping them off the employment calculations keeps the unemployment rate substantially lower than it would be otherwise and has been key to the improvements in the unemployment numbers during the past year.

Tyler Durden of Zerohedge.com writes: “It appears that the people not in the labor force exploded by an unprecedented record 1.2 million.”

In fact, Zerohedge notes that BLS is breaking records in claims about the shrinking workforce. The most recent unemployment number was based on the assertion that the entire U.S. workforce has shrunk to a 30-year low.

An analysis by Joseph Curl of the Washington Times shows the labor force as a percentage of the available population hit 66 percent in October 1988, and remained there throughout the presidency of George H.W. Bush. It then reached 67 percent or better for 40 straight months during President Bill Clinton’s presidency, and was above 66 percent for virtually all of President George W. Bush’s presidency.

But by the end of President Obama’s first year in office, it had dipped to 64.6 percent, before dipping to just 63.7 percent last month — its lowest point in almost three decades.

One analyst who is stridently critical of the BLS numbers is TrimTabs.com CEO Charles Biderman. His firm uses what he considers a more modern and timely measurement, actual tax receipts to the IRS, to calculate employment.

By his firm’s calculations, the economy added only 44,000 jobs in January, not even enough to keep the unemployment rate from growing.


The BLS numbers "are just guesses,” Biderman tells Newsmax. “I don’t know whether they’re politically motivated or not."

The White House is doing "cartwheels" over the positive jobs numbers being promulgated from the BLS, the Christian Science Monitor says.

"These numbers will go up and down in the coming months, and there's still far too many Americans who need a job or need a job that pays better than the one they have now,” President Obama said. “But the economy is growing stronger.”

BLS spokesman Gary Steinberg tells Newsmax that the bureau publishes its methodologies for calculating the unemployment rate online. While its tweaks its various formulas to keep them up to date, he states there has been no major change in how the rate is calculated in over a decade.

“The definitions have not changed . . . if someone is not actively looking for work for the four weeks preceding the reference week, they’re not in the labor force,” he says. “That was true years ago, and it’s true today.”

Psalm 140:8 "LORD, do not let evil people have their way. Do not let their evil schemes succeed, or they will become proud."

remind you of anyone...???

So the MARCH FOR LIFE WALK in Washington attracted 500,000 people...but the secular media...you guessed it...Cnn et al...stated a few thousand attended.Hello,dudlers...can you guys add???!!!Thanks to Fox news for getting it right.

Oh and it's the Feast of St. Blaise today...don't foget to get that old throat blessed...wouldn't want any fish bones plugging up the GI tract.

I guess groundhog day is all in good fun,but why do we pay more attention to the supposed prognistications of an underground rodent than we pay to the feast days being celebrated today...the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus and the Purification of Mary.
We truly live in a secular , godless world.Have mercy on us all Oh Lord.

St. Paul Center For Biblical Theology

St. Paul Center For Biblical Theology

the real campaign...by scott hahn

For All Good Things - St. Thomas Aquinas


Loving God, who sees in us nothing that you have not given yourself,

make my body healthy and agile,

my mind sharp and clear,

my heart joyful and contented,

my soul faithful and loving.



And surround me with the company of men and angels

who share my devotion to you.

Above all let me live in your presence, for with you all fear is banished, and there is only harmony and peace.



Let every day combine the beauty of spring,

the brightness of summer,

the abundance of autumn,

and the repose of winter.

And at the end of my life on earth,

grant that I may come to see and know you in the fullness of your glory.

Amen.

Religion Clause: Pennsylvania House Declares 2012 As Year of the Bible

Religion Clause: Pennsylvania House Declares 2012 As Year of the Bible

Contraception mandate prompts Peoria bishop to instate St. Michael Prayer :: EWTN News#ixzz1kfm4BTPk

Contraception mandate prompts Peoria bishop to instate St. Michael Prayer :: EWTN News#ixzz1kfm4BTPk

Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com offers an interesting commentary ...

 He asks what has brought about the collapse of more than two hundred years of a Christian moral consensus and gives five reasons:


Conservative Americans have for decades been more concerned with politics and economics rather than with defending fundamental moral values.

From the 1960s onwards the entertainment media, rather than family, school, parish or church, became the arbiter and shaper of public views and attitudes.

The courts and the legal system have gradually reflected the views of the new liberal and secular electorate.

Conservatives tend to comply with the law rather than rebel against it; they obey rather than protest.

Finally, Voris notes, Christians of all denominations have gradually abandoned traditional moral teaching. Contraception has become completely acceptable in the Protestant churches and in the Catholic Church her wise warning about the separation of sex from procreation has been largely ignored by the Catholic faithful. In America we now see the result; what Christians chose to regard simply and casually as a matter of individual choice is now, in the workplace and in the relationship between employer and employee, being forced on them by law.

All this reminds one of an obvious truth: if we are not permanently vigilant in defence of our fundamental beliefs, they will be swept away from under our feet.

NEWS FROM SPIRIT DAILY

NEWS FROM SPIRIT DAILY...Panicked Catholics flee violence in northern Nigeria

How to Pray Like Jesus


During a recent talk, Fr. Thomas Richter explained that praying like Jesus requires one thing: to desire for God to have his way in your life.

As the vocation director for the Bismarck diocese, it would seem that Fr. Tom knows about answered prayers. Bismarck has the second highest per capita vocations in the country, up from twenty-fourth in 2003 and twelfth in 2004. But Fr. Tom would say it’s not a matter of God answering his prayers as it is for him to be answering God's will in his life. They key to prayer, according to him, is to get out of the way.

Fr. Tom identified the important elements for Christian prayer. “First, you can only pray to the degree you have faith,” he said. “In order to grow in prayer, you have to grow in faith. No matter how many prayer techniques you use, if it’s not in faith, you’re not praying.”

“Second, the heart and soul of faith is this: God is your father and everything that you could possibly desire, he already wishes to give you. God is your father and he can only desire what is best for you. Prayer becomes a grace activity where I allow God to act, where I allow God to do the good for me that he wishes to do. “



Fr. Tom stated that since God wants what is good for us, prayer is about allowing God to remove the obstacles so that he can do all the good he wants in our lives. Too often, people fall into the trap of praying to get God to consent to what they want. “That is not Christian prayer,” he said.

Give God his Way

“God has all kinds of good things he wants to do and Christian prayer is God getting us to consent to him. Do you see the difference?” He asked.

Fr. Tom pointed out that coming up with a plan and then asking God to help us with it, is a very limited way to pray. “No one in the history of mankind ever asked God to become a man and come and save us,” he pointed out. “We never would have thought of it. That was all God’s activity.”


According to Fr. Tom, the key is how you look at what God is doing in your life. “What God desires every minute of every day is to make you like Christ,” he said. Quoting St. John of the Cross, he added, “God acts for one purpose—to make our souls great.”

For parents, Fr. Tom advised for us to desire for God to get his way with our family. He instructed us to pray, “ God, I give you permission to do whatever you want with me, even if it makes me suffer. May your kingdom come, may your will be done.” Fr. Tom explained that such a prayer describes the Blessed Mother’s prayer: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to your word.’”


Fr. Tom stressed that the husband needs to fall in love with the desire to be like Christ. “The wife cannot be under his mission until that happens. Otherwise, she’s submitting to someone other than Christ,” he said. “And then, she’s not in a Christian marriage.”

He said that praying like Jesus will ignite enthusiasm because your thoughts will be, “I cannot wait to see what the Father is going to give to me today!”

For some people, such a prayer can be scary or not seem like enough, so Fr. Tom suggested asking God to remove obstacles that prevent you from desiring God’s will. In addition to total surrender, he brought up that there is the question of intercessory prayer and asking God for your intentions. He explained that people came to Jesus for healing and God wants us to ask him for help. The key, according to Fr. Tom, is that in all your petitions, your greatest desire should be for God’s will—for you to desire to be like Christ.

The Treasured Place

Often, your own self will can interfere with your desire to do God’s will. Fr. Tom explained that the place in which God can work most powerfully is “the treasured place”—the place where you need God the most. It could be an insecurity, or a need, or some other area where you recognize your need for God. At such moments, he said, “God pulls you to places where there is an unfilled desire and you have to rely on him acting in your life.”

In the end, he said that since God does only what is good for us, we can trust that God will bring good out of all things for those who want him to get his way.

• Full Wolf Moon – January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.

Full moon rising...Jan 9,2012:

The White House Bed



One night, Obama is tossing restlessly in his White House bed. He awakens to see George Washington standing by him. Barak asks him, "George, what ' s the best thing I can do to help the country?"


"Set an honest and honorable example, just as I did," Washington advises, then fades away.


The next night, Obama is astir again, and sees the ghost of Thomas Jefferson moving through ...the darkened bedroom.Obama calls out, "Tom, please! What is the best thing I could do to help the country?"


"Respect the Constitution, like I did," Jefferson advises, and dims from sight.


Barak still isn ' t sleeping well the third night when he sees yet another figure moving in the shadows. It is Abraham Lincoln ' s ghost. "Abe, what is the best thing I can do right now, to help the country?" Obama pleads.


Abe replies, "Go see a play."

The White House Bed



One night, Obama is tossing restlessly in his White House bed. He awakens to see George Washington standing by him. Barak asks him, "George, what ' s the best thing I can do to help the country?"






"Set an honest and honorable example, just as I did," Washington advises, then fades away.


The next night, Obama is astir again, and sees the ghost of Thomas Jefferson moving through ...the darkened bedroom.Obama calls out, "Tom, please! What is the best thing I could do to help the country?"


"Respect the Constitution, like I did," Jefferson advises, and dims from sight.


Barak still isn ' t sleeping well the third night when he sees yet another figure moving in the shadows. It is Abraham Lincoln ' s ghost. "Abe, what is the best thing I can do right now, to help the country?" Obama pleads.


Abe replies, "Go see a play."

Could Cardinal Dolan Become Pope? « CBS New York

Could Cardinal Dolan Become Pope? « CBS New York

Happy Hanukkah (or Chanukah)


Hanukkah, is the eight day long Festival of Lights, and is one of the most joyous times of the Jewish year. The reason for the celebration is twofold (both dating back to 165 BC):


■The miraculous military victory of the small, ill-equipped Jewish army (Maccabees) over the ruling Greek Syrians, who had banned the Jewish religion and desecrated the Temple;

■The miracle of the small cruse of consecrated oil, which burned for eight days in the Temple’s menorah instead of just one.

The celebration is not only the Festival of Lights to commemorate the oil lasting for eight days instead of just one, but also the Feast of Dedication inasmuch as the Temple was rededicated after its destruction. (John 10:22) Chanukah means dedication. It commemorates the day the Holy Temple (this was the second temple) was re-dedicated after the defeat of Antiochus. The war was fought because King Antiochus marched into Judea with his soldiers and wanted all the Jews either to be killed, or to become Hellenists (a religion that includes mostly Greek customs, along with some Jewish customs).

Antiochus made terrible laws against the Jews which prevented them from following most of their customs. A statue of Antiochus was erected in the Jewish temple and the Jews were ordered to bow down before it. The Ten Commandments forbid Jews to worship statues or idols so they refused. Antiochus, the Syrian King and his army destroyed the Jewish Temple almost completely, and put pigs (which Jews are not allowed to eat) and idols all around it and stole holy vessels. A small group of Jews called Maccabees rebelled and after a three year war they recaptured Jerusalem from the Syrians. The Temple was all but destroyed.

The Jews had to clean and repair the Temple, and when they were finished they rededicated it to God. They did this by lighting the lamp (Menorah) – which was a symbol of God’s presence. Only one small jar of oil was found, enough to last only one day, but miraculously the lamp stayed alight for eight days. Hanukkah is not one of the larger Jewish Holy Days, but it is a joyous celebration nonetheless and falls close to the Christmas season nearly every year.

O ANTIPHONS BEGIN TODAY

The O Antiphons are Magnificat antiphons used at Vespers of the last seven days of Advent in various liturgical Christian traditions.

Each antiphon is a name of Christ, one of his attributes mentioned in Scripture. They are:
December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)

December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)

December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)

December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)

December 21: O Oriens (O Dayspring)

December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)

December 23: O Emmanuel (O God is with Us)

In the Roman Catholic tradition, the O Antiphons are sung or recited at Vespers from December 17 to December 23 inclusive (but see note below on alternative English usage).

In the Church of England they have traditionally been used as antiphons to the Magnificat at Evening Prayer during this period, and although not printed in the Book of Common Prayer, have long been part of secondary Anglican liturgical sources, such as the English Hymnal. More recently they have found a place in primary liturgical documents throughout the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England's Common Worship liturgy.

Use of the O Antiphons also occurs in many Lutheran churches. In the Book of Common Worship published by the Presbyterian Church (USA), the antiphons can be read as a praise litany at Morning or Evening Prayer.

The hymn O come, O come, Emmanuel (in Latin, Veni Emmanuel) is a lyrical paraphrase of these antiphons.


The first letters of the titles taken backwards form a Latin acrostic of "Ero Cras" which translates to "Tomorrow, I will come", mirroring the theme of the antiphons.

Over the past month we have seen crazy examples of people showing up in Congressmen’s offices, in malls, and parks who decide to “Occupy” the space in the name of economic equality (or any other number of reasons).




But St. Raymond, a Catholic church in Downey California, decided to ‘Co-Opt’ the Occupy theme and hold an “Occupy Christmas” Flash Mob at Stonewood, a local shopping mall.



This event may not be earth shattering news, but a religious flash mob held in a mall in uber progressive California is definitely something you don’t see everyday.

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Msg to atheists: Don't cross this Tennessee town

Several years ago, the residents of Whiteville raised money to erect a large cross atop the town's water tower. An atheist group has sued a small town in Tennessee over a cross on a city water tower.Freedom From Religion Foundation objected, and finally Mayor James Bellar had one arm of the cross removed.

"As a result of what they had done to Whiteville, the people in Whiteville just more or less took it upon themselves to start a campaign to put crosses up all over this part of Tennessee that they could," the mayor explains. "And it's just been like a crusade down here with people making crosses and sticking 'em in their yard, putting 'em on sides of buildings, and everything else."

In front of city hall, citizens placed two other crosses on the right of way and the mayor put up a cross outside his business. That action made the atheist group angry, so they filed suit on behalf of a lone atheist.

"[In] the letters that I received originally, this person was identified as a 'Whiteville resident and taxpayer,'" says Bellar. "In the lawsuit, that person has now morphed into a 'John Doe who occasionally comes to Whiteville to transact business.'"

In short, it is one atheist trying to shut down the speech of the town's majority who happen to be Christian. Mayor Bellar says the town will not stand for it and will defend itself against the lawsuit.

Complacency is the Enemy of Faith

December 13th is St. Lucy Day, or Lucia, in Sweden. Lucia morning is celebrated in practically every Swedish home, and every community, office, school or club chooses a Lucia, who - dressed in a white gown and with a crown of candles in her hair - brings a tray of coffee, traditionally shaped saffron rolls, and ginger biscuits. Lucia sometimes serves glögg, a mulled wine. She is generally accompanied by a train of white-clad attendants, the girls wearing glitter in their hair and the boys wearing tall paper cones with stars on them. All sing the traditional Lucia carols.

ZENIT - Eucharistic Adoration Takes Off in Lebanon

ZENIT - Eucharistic Adoration Takes Off in Lebanon

Pope confirms Cuba, Mexico visits on Guadalupe feast :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Pope confirms Cuba, Mexico visits on Guadalupe feast :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Pope says focus on Jesus, not pre-Christmas distractions :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Pope says focus on Jesus, not pre-Christmas distractions :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

70% Prefer 'Merry Christmas' Over 'Happy Holidays' on Store Signs
Holiday shoppers, as they have for several years, would prefer to be greeted with signs reading “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays” this season.


The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 70% prefer that stores use signs that say “Merry Christmas.”

'Live Nativity Scene' to Be Displayed at Supreme Court, Capitol Building


The Christian Defense Coalition and Faith and Action are publicly sharing the message of Christmas this season by sponsoring a live nativity scene in front of the United States Supreme Court.


Part of “The Nativity Project,” a nationwide campaign that seeks to bring the focus of Christmas back to Jesus Christ, the display not only hopes to proclaim the powerful message of the Gospel but also celebrate religious freedom, countering the hostility toward public expressions of faith.


“Sadly, we are seeing an erosion and hostility toward public expressions of faith in the public square. This is especially true during the Christmas season,” said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, in a statement.


“'The Nativity Project' is a reminder that our Constitution provides freedom 'of' religion not freedom 'from' religion. By encouraging people of good will to publicly display Nativity Scenes all across America, we are not only supporting religious liberty and First Amendment freedoms but we are loudly proclaiming the powerful message of Christmas.”


Mahoney additionally told The Christian Post that his group hopes to proclaim a message of hope and peace as well. “Peace on earth. Good will toward man.” That was the message that needed to be heard now, more than ever he believed.


“The Nativity Project” was first organized by a number of Christians in Boise, Idaho, who were troubled by the fact that manger scenes were no longer displayed in front of the City Hall and State Capitol.


“Sadly this has been occurring with frequency around the country,” Mahoney lamented. “Cities and states faced with potential legal action and negative court decisions regarding the public display of nativity Scenes have decided to refrain from setting them.”


Praying and searching for creative ways to publicly display nativity scenes, faith organizations discovered a unique and exciting approach to address the problem.


Not using any public funds, which courts have cited as a violation of the Establishment Clause when setting up nativity displays, The Christian Defense Coalition and Faith and Action applied for a permit to set up nativity scenes in front of public areas like the Supreme Court and Capitol Building.


Individual citizens and groups were allowed to apply for permits to set up nativity scenes in places like City Halls, State Capitol Buildings, courts, town squares and other public areas.


“No public funds are being used and the courts have allowed these displays to move forward,” the ordained minister from Virginia explained.


Volunteers from both faith organizations will be acting the parts in the live nativity skit, which will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 10:30 a.m. in Washington, D.C. and at the Fox News studios in New York City on Thursday.


“The traditional crèche, portraying Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child, along with angels, shepherds, Wise Men and animals, remind us of what Christmas is all about,” the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of Faith and Action, added in the statement.

News Now Clips Mighty merry for the holidays

News Now Clips Mighty merry for the holidays

Some words of advice for poor Rick Perry...that guy just can't catch a break...just when he seemed to be improving in the debates too...

Every man is a damned fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. -Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915)from Wordsmith.org

Full moon tonight

November 10th

Full Beaver Moon

3:16 pm

Full Beaver Moon – November This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

WOW...AS SOON AS I HEARD OF THIS MIRACLE LANDING...OCCURING AS IT DID IN POLAND AND ON ALL SAINTS' DAY...I THOUGHT THAT JP HAD A HAND IN IT.

Poland, that miracle landing attributed to the Blessed John Paul II


An Aircraft during landing

On All Saints Day an aircraft with 230 passengers manages to land without a cart. On board there was a priest who was carrying with him the remains of John Paul II. The media and the web talk of a “miracle”
Monday, November 1, All Saints Day, an aircraft of the LOT Polish airlines, a Boeing 767 from Newark in the U.S., managed to land at Okęcie airport in Warsaw without a cart. More than 230 passengers and eleven members of the crew came out unscathed from this highly risky operation, which took place in Poland for the first time. Merit was immediately attributed to Commander Tadeusz Wrona, a pilot with fifteen thousand flight hours, many of which at the helm of similar aircraft. Not even twenty-four hours after this happy event, however, talk of a miracle was going around. Father Piotr Chyła, a Redemptorist who was returning home from America was on board that plane. The priest was carrying with him the remains of John Paul II, but he never wanted to specify exactly what remains they were. Despite his repeated statements he did not want to attribute the salvation to the blessed Pope, the media and internet now do not talk about anything else.
On the occasion of the liturgical memorial of the Blessed John Paul II, celebrated for the first time last October 22, the agency KAI of the Polish episcopate calculated that there are seventy among churches and chapels that possess his relics. Apart from the mortal remains, buried in the basilica of St. Peter, undivided as was thought at first (the bishop Tadeusz Pieronek recklessly announced in April 2008 the arrival of the Polish Pope's heart, to be placed in the cathedral of the castle Wawel in Krakow), this is blood and hair, which being part of his body, are considered first class, while objects once used by the Blessed, such as robes, miter and pastoral belong to the second. As emphasized by the KAI, the relics of blood and hair of the blessed are dispensed by his two former Secretaries: Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, and Monsignor Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, Latin archbishop of Lviv in Ukraine.

According to a release from the Vatican press office issued on April 26 this year, just days before the beatification of the Polish pope, “during the last days of the illness of the Holy Father, the medical staff performed blood tests, to be made available at the Blood Transfusion Centre of the Bambino Gesu Hospital in view of a possible transfusion ... However, the transfusion did not take place and the blood collected was stored in four small containers. Two of these were available to the private secretary of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Dziwisz; the other two remained at the Bambino Gesu Hospital”. In Poland the date this blood was collected is given as - April 2, 2005, but word has it that there was another collection done at the Gemelli hospital “before the tracheotomy”, that is, in February of that year (but some say that it was collected after the intervention).

Now this makes me shiver...what do you think he was seeing...could it have been our Lord and Saviour?

Steve Jobs' Final Words Revealed by Biological Sister...Published October 30, 2011


Mona Simpson, an author and biological sister of Steve Jobs, said her brother’s final words were “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow,” in an Oct. 16 eulogy she delivered that was published Sunday in The New York Times.

Simpson remembered the man she first learned about when she was 25, living in New York and working at a small literary magazine. A lawyer had informed her that she had a rich and famous long-lost brother.


The two met, and a relationship emerged.
Simpson, now a novelist and professor at the University of California, remembered her brother being simple but true, a hard worker who didn't flinch at the idea a failing and never bought into gimmicks.

“If he loved a shirt, he’d order 10 or 100 of them,” she said at the Oct.16 service at Stanford University. “In the Palo Alto house, there are probably enough black cotton turtlenecks for everyone in this church.”

She also recalled his philosophy on life: “Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”

Jobs, in Simpson’s view, was a romantic, who would often worry about his coworker’s love lives and was a consummate matchmaker. “He believed that love happened all the time, everywhere,” she said.

Jobs eventually grew ill.

The Apple Inc. co-founder died of respiratory arrest resulting from pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs at age 56 surrounded by family members. Apple did not disclose his cause of death, but Jobs had been in poor health for a number of years.

“Eventually, even ordinary pleasures, like a good peach, no longer appealed to him,” she recalled.

Simpson remembered his final moment, with Jobs glancing toward his family.

“Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them,” she recalled. “Steve’s final words were, Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”

STORIES YOU WON'T HEAR ABOUT IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA...

200,000 hit U.S. streets -- for Virgin Mary


Queen of the Public Square

As many as 200,000 Americans took to the streets on October 15 and “occupied” thousands of public squares nationwide to voice their concerns about the nation’s future. Such an outpouring of public sentiment should have been enough to attract the attention of any decent media.


However, that was not the case. These Americans were not the angry squatters at Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in New York City. Rather, they were Americans proudly praying in over 7,500 public squares all across America asking God’s assistance in resolving the nation’s grave moral problems.

The Public Square Rosary Rally campaign is coordinated by the America Needs Fatima [1] campaign of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). It has been held every October for the last five years as an appeal for divine assistance facing our anti-Christian culture.

Peaceful and Legal Rally

As a participant in the rosary rally on Fifth Avenue in New York City, I could not help being struck by the contrast between two opposing camps — the Public Square Rosary Rallies and the Occupy Wall Street Movement. I was hardly shocked by the corresponding media coverage.

Our rally peacefully and legally “occupied” the sidewalk in front of Rockefeller Center across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. There is probably no more conspicuous place in all America as tens of thousands daily walk down those busy sidewalks.

Our demonstration of faith was extremely edifying as those present were comforted by the fact that they were joined by so many other rallies all over the country. Actually, there were probably well over a hundred rallies within the New York metropolitan area. There were forty in the Bronx alone. One participant at our symbolic rally on Fifth Avenue told me that all her friends had gone to local rallies. The idea of local organization was so strong that one local rally captain insisted on holding a separate rally within earshot of our own.

Joy and Faith

Participants were from all walks of life: strong in their faith and determined to give public witness that human solutions are not enough. I was impressed by how they almost shouted out their Hail Marys over the din of the busy street and knelt on the sidewalk without human respect. A few passersby would pray a Hail Mary or two while others even joined the crowd for the entire event. The bagpipes echoed up and down the concrete canyon to the strains of “Hail Holy Queen Enthroned Above.” The effect was electrifying as one felt as if Our Lady were actually queen of the public square for at least a short time.

What impressed me most was the calm and joy of the participants who sensed the importance of what they were doing. They were publicly appealing to a higher authority asking our Blessed Mother to come to our aid. As a result, a palpable blessing came over the rally.

At times the wind would blow intensely making it difficult to hold the American flag and the four TFP standards. At other times, the wind calmed down and the sun would illuminate the crowd almost as if Our Lady was smiling upon our efforts.

Everything about the rally reflected beauty, calm and order. Everyone left with the impression that our prayers were heard. We felt new resolve to continue fighting in the public square against an anti-Christian culture.

Anti-Rosary Rally

On the other side of the city, Occupy Wall Street protesters raged. It could not be more contrary to our own rally. In fact, after the public square rosary, I went to Zuccotti Park to see what Occupy Wall Street was all about. I found an anti-rosary rally.

The climate was one of deliberate chaos and agitation. Tribal drums beat out their message as the protesters sat and stood around the perimeter of the small park with primitive cardboard signs championing every leftist, ecological or sexual cause imaginable and unimaginable. A Woodstock atmosphere pervaded amid the tarps and sleeping bags that littered the once clean sidewalks and well-kept lawns of the privately owned park.


What impressed me was not so much the uncleanliness of the place (although it was aggressive); it was not even the wildly contradictory messages that the different protesters presented. Rather it was the agitated spirit of revolt that permeated the whole area. This spirit would manifest itself in displays of resentment, bitterness or even a veiled politeness on the part of those there. It would erupt into outright hatred as in the case I saw of a street preacher upon whom the protesters heaped abuse and insults. Earlier it had erupted in violent clashes with the police.

I could not help but think how different these people — united in revolt — were from those who had just been united in prayer.



Throughout it all, the media that could not see 7,500 “invisible” public square rosary rallies flocked to Zuccotti Park, seemingly eager to turn this motley assembly into revolutionaries of a pseudo-class struggle using a script straight out of Marx’s Communist Manifesto.

Prayers Not in Vain

It was a relief to leave the park and head back home. I was comforted by thinking of all the rosary rallies that had taken place. Our peaceful and legal “occupation” of 7,500 public squares dwarfed the efforts of these wannabe revolutionaries who have unsuccessfully tried to build enthusiasm by holding gatherings in places outside New York City.

Judging from media reports, I calculated that the nearly 200,000 Americans who turned to God in the public square probably outnumbered these poor partisans of the left by over three to one. The media did not take note of our efforts, but millions of American passersby did. Above all, God took note.

I was also comforted by the conviction that these prayers were not in vain. Our Lady at Fatima predicted her triumph over communism in all of its many forms. If we continue to pray, fight for our culture and oppose socialism , she will not fail to come to our aid.