Non Tasarmi, Fratello!

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!” Hillaire Belloc

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Need a Blessing?

Going camping, or getting ready to feast on bacon and lard? And looking for the perfect blessing to say before you do?

Got you covered!

Patron Saint for 2011

Elizabeth Scalia, creator of the blog The Anchoress, chooses a Patron Saint each year. I think that it would be hard to choose one but this year it was made simple. Click here, push the button, and voila! Your Patron Saint for the year! Your goal is to find out as much as you can about the saint and to pray for his (or her) intersession.

My Patron Saint for the year 2011 is...

St. John of Capistrano!

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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Bishop Olmsted Responds

As mentioned earlier, Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix has taken away the "Catholic" in St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital in Phoenix for performing abortions and distributing birth control devices. Here, he responds to bloggers who are critical of him...

OK, I changed some names and words...

Can you guess which ones?

"Juan Gonzales, a doctor in the city of Juarez, Mexico, was arrested Friday after a complaint was lodged with police alleging his actions had insulted the Son of God, said regional police chief Pedro Martinez.

The case began Friday when Jesus Calderon, a pharmaceutical company representative, visited Gonzalez's clinic and handed out his business card. He said when the doctor threw the card away, Calderon went to police and filed a complaint that noted his name was the same as The Christ's.

Shah said police were investigating whether Gonzalez should be charged with blasphemy."

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Monday, December 27, 2010

Catholic Hospital...or not?

Here's the story:

Woman enters St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix. She's 11 weeks pregnant and suffering from pulmonary hypertension.

Hospital's Ethics Committee decides that aborting the baby will save the life of the woman (almost called her "mother").

Baby aborted.

Bishop Ohmert steps up to the plate, excommunicating Mercy Sister (snort!) Margaret Mary McBride (who sat on the Ethics Committee and agreed with the decision) and threatens to withdraw designation of St. Joseph's as "Catholic".

Here's a pretty fair news story about it.

This video, on the other hand, is GROSSLY unfair. If Call to Action is a Catholic organization I am an imam. Call to Action advocates for the ordination of women, the end to priestly celibacy, gay "rights"...in other words, they're Unitarians.

Feast of St. John the Apostle, December 27


St. John was the brother of St. James the Greater. John was the only apostle who did not abandon Christ at the Passion; Jesus made him guardian of Mary. John is also notable for being the only of the twelve to avoid martyrdom and lived to the ripe old age of 100. A basilica was built in Ephesus (now in Turkey) over the reported site of his burial by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. Side note - Justinian was the last Roman Emperor to speak Latin as his first language. The Basilica was turned into a mosque in the 14th century; the Mongols destroyed it not much later.

John wrote his Gospel, of course, but is also credited with three epistles; he also is believed to have written the Book of Revelations. In it, God's throne is flanked by "four living creatures" - an eagle, an ox, a lion, and an angel/human. Each of the four gospel writers is associated with one of these characters. John got the eagle, Matthew the angel, Mark the lion, and Luke the ox.

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Sunday, December 26, 2010

Feast of St. Steven, December 26

On this day in history, Good King Wenceslas looked out...

St. Steven was a deacon selected by the apostles. He is the protomartyr; that is, he was the first martyr for Christianity. He was stoned to death by a mob led by Saul of Tarsus - who got his comeuppance at a later date.

Not surprisingly, St. Steven is the Patron Saint of Casket makers.


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The School Sisters of Notre Dame


The School Sisters of Notre Dame are an offshoot of the Congregation of Notre Dame, founded in France by Saint Peter Fourier in 1597. One convent runs a boarding school in Baltimore. So what, you ask?

One of the sisters had a brother who died and bequeathed a Honus Wagner baseball card to the Order. The cards were produced by a tobacco company from 1909-1911. "The Flying Dutchman" EITHER didn't want his name to be affiliated with tobacco OR he wanted more money for the right to use his picture. Either way, only 50 - 200 of them were circulated.

The card is not in good condition - the brother owned the card since 1936 - but the good Sisters sold it to raise money. And received $220,000 for it.

Bonus - Honus Wagner had a brother who was supposedly even better than the Hall of Famer (Honus got elected to the HOF the same year as Babe Ruth, and with the same number of votes). Honus's brother's name was Albert, but everyone called him "Butts".

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Merry Christmas from the "Religion of Peace"!

In Nigeria

In the Philippines

In Iraq

In Afghanistan

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Saturday, December 25, 2010

What happened?

It seems all my old posts have disappeared, and October and November of this year are gone, too!

Update...the log is still there, but some recent posts are gone. Oh well...I will offer them up for the souls in purgatory.

A Christmas Gift to Myself

I'm getting back in the blogging game. Why is this a gift to me? Because when I blogged regularly, I learned something new about our Faith every day. ANd it was all good!

Speaking of good, check out this story...

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Dog Saint

There is NO WAY I can tell the story as well as Sister Mary Martha...

And no - there are no animals in heaven.

Feast of St. Matthew, September 21






St. Matthew is unique among the apostles in that he was not a fisherman. Or fisherperson. Or fisher, or what ever they call them these days. He was a tax collector for Herod Antipas. Not very well liked as a result of his profession (think of today's politicians), he still was there at the Ascension and the Resurrection. Think about that...

After he was called, he held a feast in Christ's honor. When Christ was asked why he would dine with a lowly tax collector, he said,“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew is the Patron Saint of tax collectors, bankers and accountants. And what I like most about him is that he gives me a chance to post another example of Caravaggio's work. In this painting, an angel surprises Matthew by asking him to pull his finger.

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Stephen Hawking Says...

A Reading From the Prophet...

Our Lutheran brothers have determined that if you....ummmm..."pass gas" while praying, you've broken your wudu.

I'm pretty sure they're Lutheran. I could be wrong.

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Catholic Term of the Day

Transubstantiation - the changing of the bread and wine during the consecration into the Body and Blood of Christ, while all that is accessible to the senses remains the same.

And while I believe it (and if you don't, are you sure you're a Catholic?), this still kinda gives me the willies.

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Friday, September 10, 2010

WAKA WAKA!

HEY! HEY!

St. Francis of Assisi...call your office.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Ring Them Bells! With a Bonus Term Of The Day!

Now THAT'S a BELL!

So St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is in trouble for ringing their bell at 7AM for the Angelus.Violates a noise ordinance, I guess. What I thought interesting was this:

"Aircraft, trains, and fireworks displays are exempt from the ordinance." I say the pastor ought to stock up on fireworks and fire those suckers up at 5AM.

Angelus - "The Angelus is a short practice of devotion in honour of the Incarnation repeated three times each day, morning, noon, and evening, at the sound of the bell. It consists essentially in the triple repetition of the Hail Mary..."

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Fathers For Good

Fathers For Good is a Knights of Columbus initiative, apparently designed to make me feel like a failure.

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Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Feast of St. Cloud, September 7




This guy had family issues.

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Monday, September 06, 2010

Catholic Term of the Day


Zucchetto: A small round skullcap worn by prelates in the Catholic Church; white for the Pope, red for cardinals, purple for bishops, and black for abbots.

If you wear one, it's called a "Beanie".

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C.I.N.O.

Catholic In Name Only. Public life is crawling with them. Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy (R.I.P.)...

Pray for them if you want, but don't fawn over them, like the Catholic News Service does in this story about the President of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka. For instance, He endorses Obamacare, which provides taxpayer funding of abortions.

Blessed are the peacemakers...

"In Illinois, Trumka told UMW members to “kick the s**t out of every last” worker who crossed his picket lines, according to the Nashville (Ill.) News. And as the National Right to Work Foundation (pdf), the leading anti-forced unionism organization in the country, pointed out, other UMW coalfield strikes resulted in what one judge determined were “violent activities … organized, orchestrated and encouraged by the leadership of this union.”"

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Sunday, September 05, 2010

Is Notre Dame a Catholic University?

After inviting the most pro-abortion President in American history to speak at their graduation, Notre Dame has now (apparently) fired their Associate Vice-President of Residence Life for attending a pro-life rally. I think this would be more upsetting to me if I didn't believe that a school actually NEEDS an Associate Vice President of University Housing...

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Thursday, September 02, 2010

We'll Always Have Paris

Badger Catholics





We'll see how long this court decision lasts.

St. Valentine's Day, September 2

No, not THAT St. Valentine. This one was the 4th Bishop of Strasbourg, circa 500 A.D.. That's about all we know about him.

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Wednesday, September 01, 2010

St. Augustine and the Devil

Michael Pacher was a Renaissance painter, and this one is oil on wood. I don't know what it means or why he painted it....but it's pretty cool!


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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Catholic Term of the Day

Today's word is AMBO. The place where the scripture is read (or proclaimed, if you prefer). Do not confuse the ambo with a pulpit!



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Feast Day of St. Raymond Nonnatus, August 31

According to Catholic.org, St. Raymond "was delivered by caesarean operation when his mother died in childbirth. Hence his name non natus (not born)."

What? Who named him? Was Nonnatus like a nickname? Did he introduce himself, "Hi. I'm Raymond. but my friends call me Not Born"? It's another Catholic mystery.

St. Raymond was a Mercedarian, and replaced St.Peter Nolasco (the founder of the Mercedarians) as "chief ransomer". While ransoming slaves in Algeria from those pesky Unitarians, Non Born became a captive himself. He eventually was released, and Pope Gregory IX appointed him a Cardinal - but St. Raymond died on the way to Rome in 1239.

Wait...is that right? Unitarians?

For obvious reasons, St. Raymond is a patron saint of pregnant women and midwives.

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Monday, August 30, 2010

Feast of St. Rose of Lima, August 30




Fun Fact!

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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Why I Love the New York Post

Their website uses the headline teaser of "COWA-NUN-GA" for this charming article about the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary..

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Why Catholics Don't Understand Economics

This article may explain why 53% of Catholics voted for Obama.

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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Feast of St. Augustine, August 28

The original saint bad boy - he's the patron saint of brewers! St. Augustine said that as he made the change from pagan to Catholic he used to pray, "Give me chastity and continence, but not yet." Eventually he came around to the Truth (thanks to his mom, St. Monica) and was baptized into the Church by St. Ambrose. Doctor of the Church.


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Get Your Priorities Straight!




53% of Catholics voted for Obama.

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Friday, August 27, 2010

Feast of St. Monica, August 27





Sometimes, being a patron saint of something doesn't tell you anything about the saint. Take Saint Magnus of Fussen...patron saint against caterpillars. But other times, her patronage can tell you a lot about the saint and the life she led.

St. Monica is one whose patronage tells us a lot. She is one of my favorite saints, and if you have a teenager in the house she's the go-to saint. St Monica is the patron saint of:

Those in difficult marriages

Victims of adultery or unfaithfulness

Victims of abuse

Those with difficult children

One of her children was St. Augustine. More on him tomorrow - his feast day!

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Thursday, August 26, 2010

What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Compare and Contrast



"OGUNQUIT, Maine -- Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura surprised participants in the third annual "Run for the Fallen" Sunday.

Dozens of runners took part in the event to remember the 65 servicemen and women from Maine who have died overseas since 2001.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Compare and Contrast




53% of Catholics voted for Obama.

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The Master of Soles



I present to you Adriano Stefanelli.

Feast Day of St. Bichier, August 26

Patron saint of cranky people.

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Feast Day of St. Louis, August 25




Cities do not have feast days. St. Louis IX became the king of France when he was 12 years old and remained king until his death 56 years later. St. Louis fought in the 7th and 8th Crusades against the Catholic-mudering Methodists. At least I think they were Methodists. I could be wrong. Anyway, he was captured in Egypt during the 7th Crusade and was ransomed for 400,000 livres tournois - at a time when France's annual revenue was only 250,000 livres tournois. They had to take out a loan from the Knights Templar.

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Catholics for Obama, Part XXII

The Obama administration (according to NPR) has said they will fight to overturn the injunction.


(Reuters) - A U.S. district court issued a preliminary injunction on Monday stopping federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, in a slap to the Obama administration's new guidelines on the sensitive issue.

The court ruled in favor of a suit filed in June by researchers who said human embryonic stem cell research involved the destruction of human embryos.

Judge Royce Lamberth granted the injunction after finding the lawsuit would likely succeed because the guidelines violated law banning the use of federal funds to destroy human embryos.

53% of Catholics voted for Obama.

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Feast of St. Bartholomew, August 24

One of the 12. Not much is known about him except he was flayed and beheaded by King Astyages in Armenia. He also has a nice looking island named after him.

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Mark Your Calendar!

We will begin using the Third Edition of the Roman Missal on the first Sunday of Advent in 2011. Strangely, a lot of the changes revert back to the the prayers I was taught 45+ years ago. I never changed, the Church did! For instance, in the Apostles' Creed Jesus will no longer "descend to the dead" but rather "Descend into Hell". Much clearer, don't you think? I like that the Niacene Creed has changed the plural "we" to the singular "I". I believe...

With any luck, hand holding during the Our Father will be banned along with any liturgical songs written after 1964.

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

You Don't Know Jack...about the Assumption

This is a week late, but I found it interesting. I didn't know the exact date when the Feast of the Assumption became doctrine, but I did now who the Pope was in 1950. Mainly because he was Pope when I was born. So far I have outlasted Pope Pius XII, Blessed John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I (Patron Saint of Temporary Help), and John Paul II.



Friday, August 20, 2010

I Need Another Dog Post

How about this. If you were from the Dalmatia region (mostly present day Bosnia) you would know that the most famous Dalmatian ever is St. Blaise. Yeah, the throat blessing guy!


Feast of St. Bernard, August 20

He's a Doctor of the Church, but he is not the patron saint of dog lovers (everybody knows that's St. Roc!). He is patron to the Cistercians...the White Monks.



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Dogs of Glory by Jim Steager

I really hope we get to sing this someday at St. Joe's! Maybe we could get Father Uriel to do face painting as we enter the Church, and give us all balloons! It would make Mass sooooo FUN!


Thursday, August 19, 2010

Free the Monks!

Diocese of Belleville News

I missed this article from last week. I can't imagine that anyone would be surprised that Bishop Braxton may have to order some parishes to close. I just wish he was out among the faithful explaining again and again WHY it is necessary. Perhaps it would jump start parishioners into praying for more vocations.

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Patron Saint of Air Conditioning


More from Sister Mary Martha...

"My central air conditioning is on the blink. Is there a patron saint of air conditioning? I could use some help."

"I'd go with St. Nicholas. He was originally from a hot climate, but moved to the North Pole to beat the heat."

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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Feast of St. Helena, August 18


My brush with greatness....

St. Helena was the mother of Constantine I. Constantine I was the first Christian Roman Emperor (there is some debate as to what kind of Christian he was, but he is revered as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox "Church"). He became Emperor after defeating Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312AD. In 315AD, an arch in Rome was dedicated to him and his great victory.

And I've SEEN the arch. Here it is from the Colosseum.

OK. That's a stretch...

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Sister Mary Martha Explains Papal Infallibility

"Papal Infallibility in a nutshell: You're playing Scrabble with the Pope and he throws down the word "blotsnefad". Does he win because he's infallible and can make anything true that he wants to be true? No. The Pope is only infallible when he speaks on matters of Dogma and only when he speaks on them "Ex Cathedra" which means, "from the Throne"."

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Shout Out to St. John Bosco!

From Reuters:

"The Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45, who lives and preaches in Redics, a small village on Hungary’s border with Slovenia, believes skateboarding can open the way to God for young people.

Lendvai says he follows the ways of Saint John Bosco, an Italian priest and educator in the 19th century who dedicated his life to improving the lot of poor youngsters and used games as part of their education."




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Laugh of the Day

Kathy Schaidle of the blog, "Five Feet of Fury", linked to this article with the headline "In other news, Lourdes marks 54,827th riot free day"

Sunday, February 28, 2010

A prayer

Ever get depressed...I mean REALLY depressed?

Me neither. But if you ever do, read this.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Uh-oh

Hitler is not happy with Pope Benedict XVI!

Monday, February 08, 2010

Another Thing I Never Knew

 


I had no idea that Holy Water has salt in it. Not just any kind of salt, but BLESSED salt. And according to this site, "modest amounts of salt may be sprinkled in one’s bedroom, or across thresholds to prevent burglary, in cars for safety, etc." I'm not sure exactly what kind of evil he thinks is is lurking in your bedroom but I guess better safe than sorry.
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Well, THIS is Embarrassing...

Catholic Saint or New Orleans Saint? I got 7 out of 12. But only really KNEW one (John Bosco).

Hey! Maybe I will eventually have all of them correct! I mean, we all have the potential for sainthood, right?

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Feast of Saint Kigwe, February 8

Here's what Catholic Online says about her:

"A Welsh saint, sometimes called Ciwg, Cuick, Kewe, or Kigwse. Nothing is known about her..."

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Saturday, February 06, 2010

Fire Harry Knox!



Although I kind of like that as a 4th degree Knight in the Knights of Columbus, I am, "a foot soldier in the discredited army of oppression."

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Feast Day of St. Mel

An Irish saint who not only KNEW St. Patrick, but was his nephew!

St. Mel lived with his Aunt Lupait, but when slanderous rumors began to fly St. Patrick showed up to investigate. To prove their innocence St. Mel pulled a live fish out of a field he was plowing and Lupait carried hot coals without being burned. St. Patrick was impressed - but he told St. Mel that in the future he should do his fishing in the sea and his plowing on land, and that he should move out of the house and lived far away from Aunt Lupait.

And so it was.

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Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Big...er, Father...Is Watching You!

 
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"WARSAW (Reuters) – A Polish priest has installed an electronic reader in his church for schoolchildren to leave their fingerprints in order to monitor their attendance at mass, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily said on Friday."

It's not what you think. Here's the rest of the story:

"The pupils will mark their fingerprints every time they go to church over three years and if they attend 200 masses they will be freed from the obligation of having to pass an exam prior to their confirmation, the paper said."

February 1, Feast of St. Brigid

 



The patroness of Ireland and I missed it! And, yes...she did know St. Patrick. As a matter of fact, she was baptized by him!

Ni bu Sanct Brigid suanach
Ni bu huarach im sheire Dé,
Sech ni chiuir ni cossens
Ind nóeb dibad bethath che.

(Saint Brigid was not given to sleep,
Nor was she intermittent about God's love;
Not merely that she did not buy, she did not seek for
The wealth of this world below, the holy one.)
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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Abortion in America

Do you want to know which states have the highest percentage of abortions to live births? It's easy! Just look for the states that voted for Obama! The biggest exception is Texas. I wonder why? No, seriously...

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Back to Blogging!

What better day to return to blogging than the Feast of St. Aidan? St. Aidan of Ferns...not to be confused with St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, whose Feast Day is August 31.

Both St. Aidans were Irish, and they both lived around the same time (early 600s). They both were bishops. And neither of them (unlike pretty much every other Irish saint) knew St. Patrick.

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