“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.”

–Benjamin Franklin (attributed), letter to Benjamin Vaughn, March 14, 1783

Patriot Post

Father Edward McIlmail, LC

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Introductory Prayer: Jesus, I believe in you. I believe that you came into this world to suffer and die to give me a chance at eternal salvation. I want to draw close to you in this prayer. May this time I spend with you be an expression of my love.

Petition: Help me, Lord, to enter into a deeper, personal relationship with you.

1. Identity Crisis Jesus isn´t interested in what “others” think of him. He wants to know what I think of him. The test of any relationship is how committed people are to each other. At some point a young woman will wonder, how serious is her beau? After a few weeks of class, a professor wants to know, who are the serious students here? On the eve of battle a soldier might wonder, can I count on my buddies when the bullets start flying? Likewise, Our Lord wonders about us. What does Christ mean to me? Is he just a picture on a holy card? A dimly perceived do-gooder from the past? Or does he have a real place in my life? He is, after all, the Second Person of the Trinity who came into the world in order to save us. How does that truth affect my faith?

2. Heavenly Revelation Peter professes that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. And Jesus in turn tells him that this knowledge doesn´t come from the world. It comes from God the Father. Recognition of Jesus as the Christ involves an act of faith. Throughout history skeptics have tried to figure out Jesus, using just their reason and tools of research. But since when do we try to understand the totality of a person with reason? Learning about another person can often require personal contact, above all, listening to him or her. Do I try to listen to Jesus in prayer, in Scripture? Or do I simply try to “figure him out”?

3. Binding and Loosing Keys were a symbol of authority. Our Lord had all authority on earth (see Matthew 28:18 and Mark 2:10). Authority implies the ability to delegate it; hence, Jesus gave Peter, as the first pope, the power to bind and loose, that is, to make disciplinary rules within the Church. A child who disobeys a licit command from its mother is committing a sin. Why? Not because Mom is God, but because Mom has authority from God. Authority, in this case papal authority, is not an imposition but rather a service. The Pope´s unique authority gives us a sure guide on moral questions. The Pope doesn´t have the power to make morality but rather to define authoritatively on issues at hand. How well do I know papal teaching? Do I make an effort to learn why he teaches as he teaches? When a difficulty arises, do I consult Church teaching? “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me” (Luke 10:16).

Conversation with Christ: Lord, help me to love my faith as an expression of my personal relationship with you. Keep me from ever growing cold in my faith. Grant me a renewed appreciation for the gift of papal authority.

Resolution: I will read a few paragraphs of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, for example, a few about the papacy (880-887, 895, 1559).

http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JUNE 29, 2009

“Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.”
– Saint Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 295

As early as the year 258, there is evidence of an already lengthy tradition of celebrating the solemnities of both Saint Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, on the same day.

They are together the founders of the See of Rome, through their preaching and ministry, and ultimately their martyrdoms there, Peter in 64 A.D. and Paul in 67 A.D.

Peter, who was named Simon, was a fisherman, in the line of his father, and was introduced to the Lord Jesus by his brother Andrew, also a fisherman.  It was from Him that he received the name Cephas (Petrus in Latin), which means ‘Rock,’ in view of the mission he was to fulfill as the head of the Apostles and the first pope.

Peter was the first to recognize that Jesus was “the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” the first to pledge his fidelity until death, the first to jump to Jesus’ side in Gethsemane and defend Him. Yet he was also very often the first to make mistakes, to reveal his human weaknesses and lack of faith, and his betrayal of the Lord at the hour of His passion and crucifixion is the most public.

After the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, Peter’s role as the head of the Apostles is confirmed is made clear in the accounts of the Acts of the Apostles. He is the leader of the Church and the one entrusted with confirming that the followers of Christ keep the true faith.

St. Peter’s last years were in Rome where he led the Church and where he was finally crucified (upside-down because he claimed that he was not worthy to die as his Lord) as Christ had told him he would be, and buried on the Vatican hill.

St. Peter’s basilica is built over the tomb of the Prince of Apostles.

St. Paul was the great preacher of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again. His letters were the first writings of the New Testament, and it is through them that we know most of the facts of His life and of the faith of the early Church.

Before receiving the name Paul he was Saul, a pharisee and persecutor of Christians in Jerusalem, present at the martyrdom of St. Stephen.

Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christian community there when he was surrounded by a great light from heaven and  fell off of his horse.  He then heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?…Saul answered: Who art thou, Lord? Christ said: Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecute. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad (to contend with one so much mightier than thyself).”

Saul continued to Damascus, received baptism and went to see Peter and the other Apostles in Jerusalem. He was the Lord’s chosen instrument to take the faith to the Gentiles.

Paul spent the rest of his life tirelessly preaching the Gospel all over the Mediterranean world.  He was imprisoned and taken to Rome where he was beheaded in the year 67.

He is buried in the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, in Rome.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=501

….My friends, despite what CNN and the rest are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one of the developing nations that you learn about on the National Geographic Channel….

By L.E. Ikenga, American Thinker, June 25, 2009

Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama’s skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa.Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal cultural past, he embraced an imported Western ideology, Marxism. I call such frustrated and angry modern Africans who embrace various foreign “isms”, instead of looking homeward for repair of societies that are broken, African Colonials. They are Africans who serve foreign ideas.

The tropes of America’s racial history as a way of understanding all things black are useless in understanding the man who got his dreams from his father, a Kenyan exemplar of the African Colonial.

Before I continue, I need to say this: I am a first generation born West African-American woman whose parents emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970’s from the country now called Nigeria. I travel to Nigeria frequently. I see myself as both a proud American and as a proud Igbo (the tribe that we come from — also sometimes spelled Ibo). Politically, I have always been conservative (though it took this past election for me to commit to this once and for all!); my conservative values come from my Igbo heritage and my place of birth. Of course, none of this qualifies me to say what I am about to — but at the same time it does.

My friends, despite what CNN and the rest are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one of the developing nations that you learn about on the National Geographic Channel. Many conservative (East, West, South, North) African-Americans like myself — those of us who know our history — have seen this movie before. Here are two main reasons why many Americans allowed Obama to slip through the cracks despite all of his glaring inconsistencies:

First, Obama has been living on American soil for most of his adult life. Therefore, he has been able to masquerade as one who understands and believes in American democratic ideals. But he does not. Barack Obama is intrinsically undemocratic and as his presidency plays out, this will become more obvious.

Second, and most importantly, too many Americans know very little about Africa. The one-size-fits-all understanding that many Americans (both black and white) continue to have of Africa might end up bringing dire consequences for this country.

Contrary to the way it continues to be portrayed in mainstream Western culture, Africa is not a continent that can be solely defined by AIDS, ethnic rivalries, poverty and safaris. Africa, like any other continent, has an immense history defined by much diversity and complexity. Africa’s long-standing relationship with Europe speaks especially to some of these complexities — particularly the relationship that has existed between the two continents over the past two centuries. Europe’s complete colonization of Africa during the nineteenth century, also known as the Scramble for Africa, produced many unfortunate consequences, the African colonial being one of them.

The African colonial (AC) is a person who by means of their birth or lineage has a direct connection with Africa. However, unlike Africans like me, their worldviews have been largely shaped not by the indigenous beliefs of a specific African tribe but by the ideals of the European imperialism that overwhelmed and dominated Africa during the colonial period. AC’s have no real regard for their specific African traditions or histories.  AC’s use aspects of their African culture as one would use pieces of costume jewelry: things of little or no value that can be thoughtlessly discarded when they become a negative distraction, or used on a whim to decorate oneself in order to seem exotic. (Hint: Obama’s Muslim heritage).

On the other hand, AC’s strive to be the best at the culture that they inherited from Europe. Throughout the West, they are tops in their professions as lawyers, doctors, engineers, Ivy League professors and business moguls; this is all well and good. It’s when they decide to engage us as politicians that things become messy and convoluted.

The African colonial politician (ACP) feigns repulsion towards the hegemonic paradigms of Western civilization. But at the same time, he is completely enamored of the trappings of its aristocracy or elite culture. The ACP blames and caricatures whitey to no end for all that has gone wrong in the world. He convinces the masses that various forms of African socialism are the best way for redressing the problems that European colonialism motivated in Africa. However, as opposed to really being a hard-core African Leftist

who actually believes in something, the African colonial politician  uses socialist themes as a way to disguise his true ambitions: a complete power grab whereby the “will of the people” becomes completely irrelevant.

Barack Obama is all of the above. The only difference is that he is here playing (colonial) African politics as usual.  

In his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father — an eloquent piece of political propaganda — Obama styles himself as a misunderstood intellectual who is deeply affected by the sufferings of black people, especially in America and Africa. In the book, Obama clearly sees himself as an African, not as a black American. And to prove this, he goes on a quest to understand his Kenyan roots. He is extremely thoughtful of his deceased father’s legacy; this provides the main clue for understanding Barack Obama.

Barack Obama Sr. was an African colonial

to the core; in his case, the apple did not fall far from the tree. All of the telltale signs of Obama’s African colonialist attitudes are on full display in the book — from his feigned antipathy towards Europeans to his view of African tribal associations as distracting elements that get in the way of “progress”.  (On p. 308 of Dreams From My Father, Obama says that African tribes should be viewed as an “ancient loyalties”.)

Like imperialists of Old World Europe, the African colonial politician  sees their constituents not as free thinking individuals who best know how to go about achieving and creating their own means for success. Instead, the ACP sees his constituents as a flock of ignorant sheep that need to be led — oftentimes to their own slaughter.

Like the European imperialist who spawned him, the ACP is a destroyer of all forms of democracy.

Here are a few examples of what the British did in order to create (in 1914) what is now called Nigeria and what Obama is doing to you: 

1.     Convince the people that “clinging” to any aspect of their cultural (tribal) identity or history is bad and regresses the process of “unity”. British Imperialists deeply feared people who were loyal to anything other than the state. “Tribalism” made the imperialists have to work harder to get people to just fall in line. Imperialists pitted tribes against each other in order to create chaos that they then blamed on ethnic rivalry. Today many “educated” Nigerians, having believed that their traditions were irrelevant, remain completely ignorant of their ancestry and the history of their own tribes.

2.     Confiscate the wealth and resources of the area that you govern by any means necessary in order to redistribute wealth. The British used this tactic to present themselves as empathetic and benevolent leaders who wanted everyone to have a “fair shake”. Imperialists are not interested in equality for all. They are interested in controlling all.

3.     Convince the masses that your upper-crust university education naturally puts you on an intellectual plane from which to understand everything even when you understand nothing. Imperialists were able to convince the people that their elite university educations allowed them to understand what Africa needed. Many of today’s Nigerians-having followed that lead-hold all sorts of degrees and certificates-but what good are they if you can’t find a job?

4.     Lie to the people and tell them that progress is being made even though things are clearly becoming worse.  One thing that the British forgot to mention to their Nigerian constituents was that one day, the resources that were being used to engineer “progress” (which the British had confiscated from the Africans to begin with!) would eventually run out. After WWII, Western Europe could no longer afford to hold on to their African colonies. So all of the counterfeit countries that the Europeans created were then left high-and-dry to fend for themselves. This was the main reason behind the African independence movements of the1950 and 60’s. What will a post-Obama America look like?

5.     Use every available media outlet to perpetuate the belief that you and your followers are the enlightened ones-and that those who refuse to support you are just barbaric, uncivilized, ignorant curmudgeons.  This speaks for itself.

America, don’t be fooled. The Igbos were once made up of a confederacy of clans that ascribed to various forms of democratic government. They took their eyes off the ball and before they knew it, the British were upon them. Also, understand this: the African colonial who is given too much political power can only become one thing: a despot.

L.E. Ikenga can be reached at leikenga@gmail.com.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/obama_the_african_colonial.html

Michelle and Barack Obama INSULT America Over and Over and Over again. In there own words. Guess this is what hope looks like

In this audio Obama coldly claims two doctors helping a baby born alive after a botched abortion would be a burden for the aborting mother when he is arguing against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act at the Illinois state legislature April 2002

In Honor of Our Lady of Life
 
Madonna and child by Murillo, 1650-1655.
O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of all the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of Life.

Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy.

Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim
the Gospel of Life with honesty and love to the people of our times.
Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives,
and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
a civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.

Pope John Paul II, closing prayer Evangelium Vitae, Solemnity of the Annunciation 1995.

http://www.movementforabetteramerica.org/marriagefamily.html

Researcher: Abortions Cost Economy $35 Trillion Since 1970 in Lost Productivity

….”Aggressive population control has exacted a huge price in future economic growth that can never be recovered,”….

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor, October 13, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A researcher who has spent over a decade examining the economic impact of abortion finds that the approximately 50.5 million abortions in the U.S. since 1970 have cost the American economy $35 trillion. That comes in the form of lost productivity by having fewer workers contributing to society.

Those contributions also come in the form of taxpayers contributing to state, federal and local governments that would have had more funds to pay teachers, offer health care benefits or put more police on the streets.

The cost to the economy also includes the lost support for the social security system, which experts say still presents a host of challenges for the future and questions about whether younger Americans will receive anything from it.

Dennis Howard, the president of the pro-life group Movement for a Better America, has researched the economic impact of abortion since 1995.

“We found that the 50.5 million surgical abortions since 1970 have cost the U.S. an astonishing $35 trillion dollars,” in lost Gross Domestic Product, he told LifeNews.com on Monday. “However, if you include all the babies lost to IUDs, RU-486, sterilization, and abortifacients, the number climbs to $70 trillion.”

“Aggressive population control has exacted a huge price in future economic growth that can never be recovered,” he told LifeNews.com.

Howard indicates the estimates are based on GDP per capita per year times the cumulative number of abortions since 1970.

He said that is a more conservative approach than that used by government agencies, such as the EPA — which employs an “estimated statistical life” as a benchmark for its cost/benefit analyses for new regulations.

A typical ESL averages about $7.8 million per human life and Howard says using that as a standard shows the cost for all abortions to date would be more than 11 times his estimate, or an excess of $390 trillion.

The question of the economic impact of abortion has come up before.

Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute said last year that “When you look at the projections that show our population aging rapidly over the next few decades, when you see our economy and government programs such as Social Security risking bankruptcy, you can see that the United States’ annual 0.9% population growth rate is not enough.”  http://www.lifenews.com/nat2662.html

Howard has been warning since 1997 that the US faced a major financial crisis based on ongoing demographic trends.

In 1997, he wrote: “I see little hope that we can avoid an eventual crash on Wall Street that will make the 1930′s looking like cashing in your cards after a bad game of Monopoly.”

He cites the Soviet Union as an example of a nation that allowed unlimited abortions to wreck its economy.

“The main reason for their collapse was internal – 300 abortions for every 100 live birth,” he said. “Right now, there are not enough younger women to reverse their population decline. They are expected to lose another 40 million people between now and 2050.”

Related web sites:
Movement for a Better America - http://www.movementforabetteramerica.org

As we prepare to enter a new era in politics and perhaps society in general, keep something in mind: WE WIN! No matter what political party is in power at a given point in time, in the end those that remain faithful to Jesus Christ win the war.

If you don’t already pray the Rosary every day, please start at once. The prayer of the holy Rosary is the prayer of the holy Gospel, and that means it is the prayer of the Good News Who is Jesus Christ, the LIFE of the world. Many saints will be forged in the crucible of the coming years. Make sure you are among them.

God bless you,

Fr. John Corapi

http://www.fathercorapi.com/Jan-15-2009Email.html

By Fr. James Farfaglia, June 28, 2009

 Christianity is not about a what; rather it is about a whom. Christianity essentially is about a relationship with the living person, Jesus Christ. This Sunday’s gospel narrative tells us that faith and courage are indispensable ingredients if we wish to truly encounter the Lord.

Both Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage who figure in today’s reading possess these essential qualities. For this reason they are truly able to encounter the Lord.

In the first place, this Sunday’s gospel passage illustrates the depth of Jairus’ faith and courage with these beautiful words: “One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, ‘My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live’” (Mark 5: 22-23).

Secondly, the woman with the hemorrhage was able to encounter the Lord by touching his cloak. The crowds were also touching and bumping into the Lord, but only this woman was really able to touch the Lord. Her faith and her courage allowed her to truly encounter Jesus. “Jesus aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who has touched my clothes?’ But his disciples said to Jesus, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” (Mark 5: 30-31).

Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage truly encountered the Lord. Because of their faith and their courage, they were able to enter into a personal relationship with him. The gift of life was the principal fruit of this personal encounter. Jairus’ daughter was raised from the dead, and the woman was healed of her affliction.

Let us recall the words from this Sunday’s Old Testament reading: “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, for justice is undying” (Wisdom 1: 13-15).

This Sunday’s liturgy reminds us of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John: “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10: 10).

Jesus wants us to have life. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to have the best possible life here on earth. He wants to fill us with his divine life, sanctifying grace, so that we may enter into his joy. He wants us to experience his peace. He wants us to be with him in eternal life in heaven. He only wants the best for us. This is why he wants us to open our hearts to him and let him enter in.

Have no fear of allowing Jesus to enter into your life. Do not fear the most exciting, most joyful, and the most powerful relationship known to the human person.

“So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life” (Pope John Paul the Great, homily, October 22, 1978).

We are made by God to live for ever. We have been given the gift of an immortal soul. “For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him” (Wisdom 2: 23).

Jesus does not want us to live a life of sadness. He does not want us to wallow in doubt, frustration, and uncertainty. He wants us to live. He takes the hand of Jairus’ daughter and says “Talitha koum, which means little girl, I say to you, arise!” (Mark 5: 41). The Lord takes each of us by the hand and tells us to arise. Arise from your darkness. Arise from your doubt. Arise from your despair. Arise from your pain. Arise from your sin. Arise and live!

Medical science attests to the immortality of the soul. There are numerous testimonies about near death experiences that illustrate that the human person is partly comprised of a soul. Here is one dramatic account told by Margaret C. Rigsby.

“On June 21, 1974 I delivered a baby boy that weighed 9 lbs. and 15 oz. and was 23 inches long. I had the child by natural delivery with no problems. I was in an army hospital in Nurnburg, Germany in a ward of many women for recovery. My husband had just gone to call the family five hours after the delivery to let them know of the birth and that all was well when suddenly I realized that with every beat of my heart my life’s blood was leaving my body. I tried to reach my buzzer but could not. I frantically asked the other women if they could reach theirs. They could not. By this time I was about to lose conciseness.

I knew that I would die if I passed out because no one was checking on me. I knew that it would not take many minutes for all of my blood to pump out of me. In a last effort the primal need of survival taking over, I screamed for help. I remember sinking into total oblivion.

The next thing I remember is this strange sensation of not being connected to my body anymore. I realized that my spirit or I was looking down upon my body apparently from the ceiling. It was my body, but it was not me because I was watching. I was not alarmed. I saw a nurse run in, pull up the sheet and run out bringing back a host of people donned in hospital garb. They were beating on my stomach, injecting me, and doing all kinds of medical things to save me. Still, I was not frightened. It was strange because I knew I was not there anymore, not in that empty shell.

My next memory is of being in a darkened tunnel. It was very quiet, peaceful and there was a glorious light at the end. I wish I could express in words this total peace and harmony I felt. No fear, no worries, no concerns for the baby I had wanted so desperately and tried so hard to conceive for so long. I had no thoughts or uneasiness for anyone, just a sense of peace. Blissful, heavenly peace. I was drunk with it. Nothing I had ever felt before or after that experience has ever even come close to the happiness, the awesome feeling that something so wonderful was about to happen that I wanted more than anything to experience it in its entirety.

Surprisingly and very suddenly a voice said to me, “You have to go back.” I don’t recall seeing anyone. I don’t know from where the voice came. I just knew I did not want to go back. Then the voice said, “You have to go back to take care of your baby.” I have tried so many times to recreate this all, to try to detect whose voice spoke to me, all in vain. I think it was neither male nor female, therefore according to the Bible and my beliefs, I believe it must have been an Angel. The Bible says there are neither male nor female in Heaven.

Opening my eyes from the hospital bed I found myself looking up at all of the people working on me. I have no idea how much time had lapsed. A nurse held my hand and I questioned her, “Am I going to die?” She just laughed and said I was going to be fine. I was confused, weak and suddenly wanted to see my baby. It was 23 hours from his birth before I got to see him due to my condition. I was distrustful of the staff thinking that something was wrong with him. After all I was alive because I was sent back to take care of my baby” (http://home.mchsi.com/~museheart/nde.html).

My dear friends, the same Jesus that raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead; the same Jesus that healed the woman with a hemorrhage is truly, really with us. In every tabernacle, in every Catholic Church, this same Jesus is truly and really present.

When we genuflect before the tabernacle, we fall to the ground in adoration just as Jairus did more than two thousand years ago. When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we encounter the Lord even in a more profound way than did the sick woman or Jairus’ daughter. The woman touched the Lord’s cloak, and the Lord held the little girl’s hand. But, when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion Jesus comes into our body and soul. He takes possession of our entire being. What intimacy! What love! This is why we must receive Holy Communion in the state of grace. Mortal sin ruptures our union with Jesus. When we are in mortal sin, in effect we join the crowd in Jairus’s house in ridiculing Jesus.

We have been given the gift of immortal life. The easiest and most efficacious way to gain eternal life in Heaven, and to participate in Heaven here on earth is to live our lives centered on the Eucharist and to always make good use of the Sacrament of Confession. Never live in mortal sin because mortal sin is death.
“There is no surer pledge or dearer sign of this great hope in the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells, than the Eucharist. Every time this mystery is celebrated, the work of our redemption is carried on and we break the one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live for ever in Jesus Christ” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1405).

Daily Mass, frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and frequent Confession; here we find the most practical and efficacious means to encounter the Lord, live a life filled with joy and peace, and persevere in this life in order to live eternally with the Lord Jesus in heaven.

“You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have stripped off my sackcloth and wrapped me in gladness; and now my heart, silent no longer, will play you music; Yahweh, my God, I will praise you for ever” (Psalm 30: 11-12).

http://donotbediscouraged.blogspot.com/2009/06/sunday-homily-encounter.html

“That is the heartbeat of America. That’s energy.
We are killing it over a fantasy ideology. It is really criminal.”

Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ´Who touched me?´” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official´s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child´s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, Talitha koum, which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, you taught: “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Matthew 7:7). You invite me to place my petition here before you. I believe Lord, that you will hear my prayer if I earnestly ask you with a sincere heart. I hope in your goodness and mercy, and I offer you my love even if it is paltry in comparison to yours, for you are the wellspring of love and goodness itself.

Petition: Lord, help me to reach out to you with faith.

1. “If I But Touch His Clothes” Lord, at times you can seem so distant, so far from us. I believe that you are God, all-powerful and almighty. Yet, Lord, I believe that you want me to come to you. As great and as mighty as you are, you invite me to come to you as a little child. How seldom do I seek to reach out to you like the woman suffering a hemorrhage! What great faith she has. All she wants to do is have contact with you. She doesn’t seek much, just a brief moment. At times my life goes by so fast that I do not seek even that. I worry about my own things, and I get so caught up in my own problems that I do not think about bringing them to you as she does. It seems so right and so easy, yet how frequently do I hold the attitude she does?

2. “Who Touched Me?” Lord, it must please you to recognize someone has reached out to you. Many times you marveled at our faith, even if it be just for a moment. You were amazed at the faith of the centurion when he said: “Only speak the word, and let my servant be healed” (Luke 7:7). You promised the “Good Thief” that he would be with you in Paradise. This woman believed that you could do something to make a difference in her life, and she sought you out. How often do we touch you? How often do we bring you to look for us, to seek us out because we seek you out?

3. “Your Faith Has Saved You” Faith in you, Lord, is what inspired the woman to touch your cloak. She believed that you would make her well. Reaching out to you was her prayer. She knows who she is: a creature whom the Father has made, a poor soul in need of help. She had tried to do it alone, seeking cures in medicine. They only worsened her condition. Now she asks for your help. Not only do you help her, Lord, but you save her. You are waiting to do the same for me if I simply come to you and make my petition. Lord, I believe that by making my petition known to you, I am being the person you made me to be. I am one who is totally dependent on you. I need you for everything. By myself I can do nothing, but with you I can do all things (Cf. Galatians 2: 20).

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I recognize that you want me to touch you like the woman with a hemorrhage did. I believe, Lord, that you are waiting for me to come to you as she did. All I have to do is reach out and touch you. You will be there to answer my prayer.

Resolution: I shall make two acts of faith during the day so as to reach out to my Lord, who is waiting for me to come to him.

http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302

We have come to the end of the Year of St. Paul, in which the whole Church, celebrating the 2000th anniversary of the great apostle’s birth, has focused on learning to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1 Cor 11:1). As the year draws to a close, we would do well to emulate the goals and desires he had at the end of his time on earth, which provide a fitting summary of his entire apostolic life.
“I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come,” he wrote to his spiritual son St. Timothy. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:6-7).

St. Paul was a fighter with incredible grit, a spiritual Rocky Balboa come alive. Not even being scourged five times with 39 lashes, three times beaten with rods, seven times imprisoned, three times shipwrecked on the high seas, stoned and left for dead, hunted down by assassins in Damascus and Jerusalem, afflicted by painful malaria, and beaten in so many other ways, could keep him down. Like Christ on the Way of the Cross, he just kept getting up and moving forward.

He wasn’t fighting for fighting’s sake, a pugilist looking for an opponent. Rather, he had spent his life fighting the “good fight,” fighting not so much against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness” (Eph 6:12). The fight, in short, was worth it. Like Christ, he triumphed in apparent defeat.

Two-thousand years after his birth, this convicted criminal is one of the greatest and most famous heroes in the history of the world. His example reminds us, who live in an age marked by so much moral timidity, of the fact that Christ calls us vigorously to persevere in the fight Christ inaugurated and Paul valiantly continued.

The apostle says, secondly, that he has finished the race. His life was not a gingerly stroll through a tranquil garden, but a marathon run over an obstacle course at almost breakneck speed. He would say to the Thessalonians in another context, “the time is short,” but that phrase aptly describes the urgency with which St. Paul indefatigably kept going. The only thing that could slow him down were the chains of prison cells, but even then he would continue to scurry with his pen. “The love of Christ urges us on,” he would confess. He knew, as Christ taught, that the fruit is already ripe on the vine and he had no time to waste. He journeyed rapidly up and down the scorching sands of Palestine, through the malaria-infested swamps of southern Turkey, and over the steep precipices leading to Galatia, south and north through Greece, and, when he couldn’t run on water, sailing to so many other places.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that the most effective lie in the devil’s arsenal is that there’s always time — time to convert, time to reconcile with a family member, time to get to the important things later. St. Paul realized, rather, that there would soon be a time when there would be no time left — and he used all the time he had to do the most important things of all. His example is a forceful reminder to us to remember that when Christ said, “Come, follow me!,” he was not inviting us for a lazy promenade, or even a leisurely jog, but an enduring sprint. There’s no time to waste and the stakes are high; otherwise, as St. Paul recognized, people may not hear the Gospel and come to salvation. The same love that urged him on urges us on.

St. Paul finishes his short valedictory with a humble, joyful and triumphal admission of his greatest honor: “I have kept the faith.” The words themselves, not to mention their context, imply that his keeping the faith was not a foregone conclusion. He was tempted repeatedly and often succumbed, confessing to the Romans that the good he wanted to do he often failed to do and the evil he wished to avoid often he did (Rom 7:19). But he kept getting up, battling and striving to be faithful. At the end of his life, he was able to say with holy pride that he had not lost the greatest treasure of his life. He kept the faith not by sealing it in a Tupperware container or locking it up in a safe, but by living it and spreading it undiluted. He lived, he said to the Galatians, by faith in the Son of God who loved him and handed himself over for him (Gal 2:19-20). Because of that trust in Jesus, he believed in what Christ taught as the key to unlock the mystery of every human life and open the doors to heaven. That’s why he so lavishly sought to share that treasure with others. His example teaches us that as we, too, look ahead to the time when our dissolution will be at hand, we should seek to have our greatest hope be in being able to hear Christ say that we, too, in spite of our sufferings and failings, have kept the faith, that we’ve lived it faithfully without diluting it, that we’ve bequeathed it as our most precious inheritance to those who will come after us, not just those we know and love, but those who we will only know after we and they cross the eternal threshold.

It’s routinely said that so much of our character is defined by our goals. If we have low goals, we will have little impact even if we achieve them. If our goals are high and good, then we will be able to make a major difference if with God’s help we reach them. As we come to the end of the year-long world-wide celebration of the 2,000th birthday of a beheaded man from Tarsus, we should never forget that his goals — fighting the good fight, finishing the race and keeping the faith — motivated him to do with the help of the Lord what few have ever dreamed of. As we move on from the graces of the Pauline Year, a great resolution each of us can make is to imitate him in setting and seeking the same goals. 

http://www.catholicpreaching.com/index.php?content=articles&articles=20090626anchor

 

These were the chains that held St. Peter and St. Paul while they were in prison in Rome. They are held in the cathedral called St. Peter in Chains

Cap-And-Tax Passes House Despite Last Ditch 300 Page Switch (Updated)

  Marc Sheppard, American Thinker, June 26, 2009

SOURCE:  http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/06/capandtax_passes_house_despite.html

The largest and most wasteful tax-hike in the history of this republic just passed the House by a vote of 219 to 212.  And while 44 wise Democrats crossed party lines to vote against it, 8 Republicans actually forgave an unforgivable 3AM airdrop and voted for this abomination anyway, giving the numbskulls one more yea than they needed  We’ll know their names, and perhaps their inducements, soon. (Update: Names and Phone

The last minute chicanery was revealed to the public this morning on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, when Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) announced that the Democrats had dropped a 300 page amendment into the cap-and-tax bill at 3AM this morning.   The congressman had no idea what was contained within the eleventh hour changes, and assumed the bill would go to the floor with his fellow legislators equally ignorant.  And the villains who crafted the last-ditch switch likely hit the sheets this morning anticipating a likewise uninformed vote. 

But Minority Leader

It appears the Blue Dogs came through.  The Yellow Skunks did not.

** Updated 6/26/09 10:20 PM EDT

Had just two of these RINO reptiles voted the will of their constituents, Washington

would be whistling a different tune tonight.  If any of them happen to slink about your district, don’t wait for Election Day to express your outrage:

Bono Mack, Mary (CA-45)    202-225-5330
Castle, Mike (DE)                   202-225-4165
Kirk, Mark (IL-10)                  202-225-4835
Lance, Leonard (NJ-7)            202-225-5361
LoBiondo, Frank (NJ-2)         202-225-6572
McHugh, John (NY-23)          202-225-4611
Reichert, Dave (WA-8)           202-225-7761
Smith, Chris (NJ-4)                 202-225-3765

Father Shawn Aaron, LC

Matthew 8:5-17

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The Centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ´Go,´ and he goes; and to another, ´Come here,´ and he comes; and to my slave, ´Do this,´ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” And Jesus said to the Centurion, “You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very hour his servant was healed. Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.

Introductory Prayer: Lord I believe in you. I believe that you walk with me and accompany me with your power. I come before your holy throne, the throne of your heart. I know you want to bless me today with your friendship and to answer my prayers. Thank you for your faithful, generous love.

Petition: Lord, increase my faith.

1. Lord, I Am Not Worthy to Have You Enter under My Roof Not only does the Centurion have great faith; he has great humility. His humility is not feigned, for the circumstances are too grave for him to pretend to be humble, especially as Jesus has already agreed to come heal his servant. Nor is his humility the result of a low self-esteem, for there is tremendous confidence in his dealing with Jesus. His is the humility born of a faith that understands who Jesus is. It is the humility that the Church invites us to share every time we approach Our Lord during Communion at Mass: “Lord, you are far too great to come to me, but thank you for coming for I will die without you.”  

2. When Jesus Heard This, He Was Amazed Now this is amazing. Consider what it would take to amaze Jesus. Yet here we have the answer: Faith — faith in his person, his power, his plan for our lives. One day Jesus will rebuke Peter as Our Lord grasps his hand to save him from sinking: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). The import of the question might be better seen if stated differently: “What is there in me that would make you mistrust me?” The answer is: Nothing. Any deficiency is in us, and this must be sincerely resolved in prayer, especially by contemplating the major truths of the faith: Jesus’ incarnation, passion, death and resurrection; the sacraments, especially baptism, confession and the Eucharist. If Jesus is amazed by our faith, we can rightly deduce that he is hurt by our lack of faith and trust in him.

3. As You Have Believed, Let It Be Done for You Christ’s comment is somewhat similar to what we pray in the “Our Father”: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Here we are saying, “Let my forgiveness of others be the standard by which I am forgiven.” By addressing the Centurion with these words, Jesus reveals that our degree of faith is the standard by which we possess what we ask for from God. In the First Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass we pray: “You know how firmly we believe in you and dedicate ourselves to you.” This is both consoling and alarming. It is consoling in that Christ knows the exact degree of our faith — he knows the sincerity of our heart. We do not have to explain ourselves to him. It is alarming in that we also know that our faith is not always as strong as it should be. Therefore, we want to repeat what a man once said to Jesus: “I do believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

Conversation with Christ: Dear Lord, you are worthy of all my faith. Like the Centurion and the great saints, help me to focus my gaze on you in faith, confident that what you ask of me is always for my best. Mother Most Pure, make my heart only for Jesus.

Resolution: Today I will take a few minutes to read and reflect upon Hebrews, Chapter 11.

http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=516

….My friends, despite what CNN and the rest are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one of the developing nations that you learn about on the National Geographic Channel….

By L.E. Ikenga, American Thinker, June 25, 2009

Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama’s skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa.Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal cultural past, he embraced an imported Western ideology, Marxism. I call such frustrated and angry modern Africans who embrace various foreign “isms”, instead of looking homeward for repair of societies that are broken, African Colonials. They are Africans who serve foreign ideas.

The tropes of America’s racial history as a way of understanding all things black are useless in understanding the man who got his dreams from his father, a Kenyan exemplar of the African Colonial.

Before I continue, I need to say this: I am a first generation born West African-American woman whose parents emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970′s from the country now called Nigeria. I travel to Nigeria frequently. I see myself as both a proud American and as a proud Igbo (the tribe that we come from — also sometimes spelled Ibo). Politically, I have always been conservative (though it took this past election for me to commit to this once and for all!); my conservative values come from my Igbo heritage and my place of birth. Of course, none of this qualifies me to say what I am about to — but at the same time it does.

My friends, despite what CNN and the rest are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one of the developing nations that you learn about on the National Geographic Channel. Many conservative (East, West, South, North) African-Americans like myself — those of us who know our history — have seen this movie before. Here are two main reasons why many Americans allowed Obama to slip through the cracks despite all of his glaring inconsistencies:

First, Obama has been living on American soil for most of his adult life. Therefore, he has been able to masquerade as one who understands and believes in American democratic ideals. But he does not. Barack Obama is intrinsically undemocratic and as his presidency plays out, this will become more obvious.

Second, and most importantly, too many Americans know very little about Africa. The one-size-fits-all understanding that many Americans (both black and white) continue to have of Africa might end up bringing dire consequences for this country.

Contrary to the way it continues to be portrayed in mainstream Western culture, Africa is not a continent that can be solely defined by AIDS, ethnic rivalries, poverty and safaris. Africa, like any other continent, has an immense history defined by much diversity and complexity. Africa’s long-standing relationship with Europe speaks especially to some of these complexities — particularly the relationship that has existed between the two continents over the past two centuries. Europe’s complete colonization of Africa during the nineteenth century, also known as the Scramble for Africa, produced many unfortunate consequences, the African colonial being one of them.

The African colonial (AC) is a person who by means of their birth or lineage has a direct connection with Africa. However, unlike Africans like me, their worldviews have been largely shaped not by the indigenous beliefs of a specific African tribe but by the ideals of the European imperialism that overwhelmed and dominated Africa during the colonial period. AC’s have no real regard for their specific African traditions or histories.  AC’s use aspects of their African culture as one would use pieces of costume jewelry: things of little or no value that can be thoughtlessly discarded when they become a negative distraction, or used on a whim to decorate oneself in order to seem exotic. (Hint: Obama’s Muslim heritage).

On the other hand, AC’s strive to be the best at the culture that they inherited from Europe. Throughout the West, they are tops in their professions as lawyers, doctors, engineers, Ivy League professors and business moguls; this is all well and good. It’s when they decide to engage us as politicians that things become messy and convoluted.

The African colonial politician (ACP) feigns repulsion towards the hegemonic paradigms of Western civilization. But at the same time, he is completely enamored of the trappings of its aristocracy or elite culture. The ACP blames and caricatures whitey to no end for all that has gone wrong in the world. He convinces the masses that various forms of African socialism are the best way for redressing the problems that European colonialism motivated in Africa. However, as opposed to really being a hard-core African Leftist

who actually believes in something, the African colonial politician  uses socialist themes as a way to disguise his true ambitions: a complete power grab whereby the “will of the people” becomes completely irrelevant.

Barack Obama is all of the above. The only difference is that he is here playing (colonial) African politics as usual.  

In his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father — an eloquent piece of political propaganda — Obama styles himself as a misunderstood intellectual who is deeply affected by the sufferings of black people, especially in America and Africa. In the book, Obama clearly sees himself as an African, not as a black American. And to prove this, he goes on a quest to understand his Kenyan roots. He is extremely thoughtful of his deceased father’s legacy; this provides the main clue for understanding Barack Obama.

Barack Obama Sr. was an African colonial

to the core; in his case, the apple did not fall far from the tree. All of the telltale signs of Obama’s African colonialist attitudes are on full display in the book — from his feigned antipathy towards Europeans to his view of African tribal associations as distracting elements that get in the way of “progress”.  (On p. 308 of Dreams From My Father, Obama says that African tribes should be viewed as an “ancient loyalties”.)

Like imperialists of Old World Europe, the African colonial politician  sees their constituents not as free thinking individuals who best know how to go about achieving and creating their own means for success. Instead, the ACP sees his constituents as a flock of ignorant sheep that need to be led — oftentimes to their own slaughter.

Like the European imperialist who spawned him, the ACP is a destroyer of all forms of democracy.

Here are a few examples of what the British did in order to create (in 1914) what is now called Nigeria and what Obama is doing to you: 

1. Convince the people that “clinging” to any aspect of their cultural (tribal) identity or history is bad and regresses the process of “unity”. British Imperialists deeply feared people who were loyal to anything other than the state. “Tribalism” made the imperialists have to work harder to get people to just fall in line. Imperialists pitted tribes against each other in order to create chaos that they then blamed on ethnic rivalry. Today many “educated” Nigerians, having believed that their traditions were irrelevant, remain completely ignorant of their ancestry and the history of their own tribes.
2. Confiscate the wealth and resources of the area that you govern by any means necessary in order to redistribute wealth. The British used this tactic to present themselves as empathetic and benevolent leaders who wanted everyone to have a “fair shake”. Imperialists are not interested in equality for all. They are interested in controlling all.
3. Convince the masses that your upper-crust university education naturally puts you on an intellectual plane from which to understand everything even when you understand nothing. Imperialists were able to convince the people that their elite university educations allowed them to understand what Africa needed. Many of today’s Nigerians-having followed that lead-hold all sorts of degrees and certificates-but what good are they if you can’t find a job?
4. Lie to the people and tell them that progress is being made even though things are clearly becoming worse.  One thing that the British forgot to mention to their Nigerian constituents was that one day, the resources that were being used to engineer “progress” (which the British had confiscated from the Africans to begin with!) would eventually run out. After WWII, Western Europe could no longer afford to hold on to their African colonies. So all of the counterfeit countries that the Europeans created were then left high-and-dry to fend for themselves. This was the main reason behind the African independence movements of the1950 and 60′s. What will a post-Obama America look like?
5. Use every available media outlet to perpetuate the belief that you and your followers are the enlightened ones-and that those who refuse to support you are just barbaric, uncivilized, ignorant curmudgeons.  This speaks for itself.

America, don’t be fooled. The Igbos were once made up of a confederacy of clans that ascribed to various forms of democratic government. They took their eyes off the ball and before they knew it, the British were upon them. Also, understand this: the African colonial who is given too much political power can only become one thing: a despot.

---

L.E. Ikenga can be reached at leikenga@gmail.com.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/obama_the_african_colonial.html