Archbishop Hannan’s Original ‘Prayer for the (New Orleans) Saints’
Published February 6, 2010 | 
Credit: Archdiocese of New Orleans – Prayer for the Saints – by WWLTV.com
Posted on January 26, 2010
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Archbishop Philip Hannan penned the original “Prayer for the Saints” in 1968. You can see a copy of it by clicking here.
Americans, Left and Right, Have Obama’s Number! The President Must Lead America Conservatively
Published February 6, 2010 | 
President Barack Obama stood before Congress and the American people just a little over a week ago to deliver his State of the Union Address — but his words still resound as nothing more than the tirade of a spoiled, frustrated, scolding and angry man.While some might claim that the president’s long speech was effective and promising, many have a different view, citing his failure to connect with the majority of the American people, who no longer trust the man. Too many eyes have been opened.
Obama can say he’s not a political ideologue all he wants, but Americans know he’s a hard-core “progressive.” He stands for changing his country. That is not his job.
Just before the November 3, 2008, election, candidate Obama openly remarked: “We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” That declaration of dependence heralded the “change” Obama intends to achieve — and which Americans must resist with all their might and means.
Contrived crisis
The January 2010 issue of Whistleblower Magazine — which is themed “The Crisis Creators” — opens with an anecdote by WorldNetDaily publisher Joseph Farah:
“Back in January 1973, National Lampoon sported a brilliant cover — probably the satirical magazine’s most famous.
“A cute black-and-white dog was the visual element, staring ominously at a revolver pointing at his head. The headline read: ‘If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill this Dog.’
“People bought the magazine in droves, not because they believed the editors of National Lampoon were really going to kill the dog, but because it was so funny.
“It strikes me that Barack Obama and the Democrat-dominated Congress are governing along the same lines. The only difference? They’re not joking.
“Instead of putting guns to the heads of dogs, they are manufacturing crises they claim will result in the imminent destruction of the world as we know it and demanding we buy their solution or else.” (emphasis added)
In other words, Obama’s strategy for transforming America is to force change by contriving the need for it.
How?
In its promotion of the “Crisis Creators” at Whistleblower, WorldNetDaily lays out Obama’s secret tactic for “fundamentally transforming America”:
“The Obama administration’s primary modus operandi of governance is the transformation of America through wreaking havoc. . . . The administration is busily engaged in undermining and destroying the nation’s key institutions.”
Excerpts from WorldNetDaily’s promotion of “The Crisis Creators: Exposing Barack Obama’s secret strategy for transforming America”:
“The American electorate has watched in amazement for a year as the Obama administration has created unprecedented havoc and outrage throughout the nation.
“And yet, the actual result of 2009′s non-stop crises has been not just the dramatic transfer of wealth and power away from citizens and small businesses and into the hands of government, but also the beginnings of a profound transformation of America’s economic and governmental system. . . .
“Following the classic radical-left strategy of the manufactured crisis, the Obama administration and Congress are creating crises in every area of life and policy.
“They’re wreaking havoc throughout America’s capitalist, free-enterprise system by taking over major industries like banking, auto and healthcare. And by multiplying the national debt so astronomically that the only mathematically possible way to pay it off is with the printing press, which translates directly into the ‘grand theft’ of Americans’ hard-earned wealth through major inflation.
“But it’s not just the economy. They’re wreaking havoc also on America’s national security; prosecuting U.S. soldiers for being too rough on terrorists, but rewarding confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed with a civilian trial in New York City and affording him all the powerful legal rights of an American citizen. And by badmouthing and apologizing for America overseas and bowing before Muslim kings, while scandalously snubbing leaders of America’s few remaining allies like the U.K. and Israel.
“They’re creating crises in the nation’s energy policy by stubbornly adhering to the controversial and now utterly discredited ‘global warming’ theory and pursuing economically catastrophic legislation like ‘cap and trade.’ They’re creating havoc in education by putting radical homosexual activist Kevin Jennings, notorious for sexually corrupting children, in charge of the safety of the nation’s public schools.” Full Article
What a waste of engineered “crises”
It is apparent that Obama is the wrong guy to lead our nation, along with his far-left Congress ready and willing to botch up what is left of America’s flailing economy and dangerously compromised homeland security.
In spite of his oratorical abilities, Obama has been a failure when promoting his sweeping new government healthcare program. He was unsuccessful in trying to convince the American public to abandon the very best medical care this world has to offer.
We were promised that everything put forth by this administration was going to be transparent, bipartisan, and strictly above board. None of the president’s promises has become a reality.
Americans, left and right, have Obama’s number. The man speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He intends to push through his radicalized political agenda, come hell or high water: “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” He has already wasted a great deal of his political capital on his ill-advised schemes.
The people are weary of Obama, and for good reason. On a daily basis, he refuses to hear the citizens of this country and what they expect from him. The president and the legislature work for us — yet they arrogantly will not acknowledge the great majority of citizens who reject his ideas. The people do not want impossible, nonsensical, far-left ideological policies. They want every one of them halted and tossed out. Our country is going in the “wrong direction.”
We do not want cap and trade or socialized healthcare. Enough with destroying our private sector at the hands of unchecked, overreaching government bureaucracy. In fact, Americans want tax cuts across the board to help grow our devastated economy. The president must begin to think and act like a conservative if our nation is to be spared the calamity it is obviously headed for under his leadership.
It is time the president owned up to the fact that Americans have grown wary of his Marxist-style meddling with the U.S. economy and his domestic and foreign policies that he continually blames on others.
Public opinion polls show that Congress is even less popular than the man sitting in the Oval Office. This poses a major problem for the president’s party, which holds big majorities in both houses, since the backlash is aimed directly at them. Republicans control nothing in the legislative branch.
Obama has unleashed his frustrations on everyone, including the Supreme Court and the general populous. If he continues to ignore the widespread anger directed at the federal government, the conservative movement will finally seize the hour. There will be more victories like what we just witnessed in Massachusetts. That turnabout will be good for America.
Wright is wrong
In times of perplexity and trouble, a true patriot puts his country first, not any political party or narrow partisan interest. However, don’t hold your breath. Let us not forget that Obama sat in Rev. Jeremiah’s Marxist church for twenty years. What we saw when Obama addressed the nation was indicative of where his ideologies came from. The apple does not fall far from the tree, as they say. Wright and Obama share in the same political and religious dogma, which are both rooted in Marxism.
Here is a video that shows Rev. Wright’s appearance at a September 17, 2000, anniversary celebration of the Monthly Review. Wright said that the “corporate media” provide a “binary lens” of the world, pitting communists against Christians — a perspective he rejects in favor of the multi-layered “no-nonsense Marxism” of Monthly Review, which enables professing Christians to espouse communist ideals. View YouTube: “No-nonsense Marxism” — An Independent Socialist Magazine, Monthly Review
The resulting combination of big-government policies and self-righteous, reckless leadership will be the demise of progressive Democrats. They will be challenged at every turn by fiscal and social conservatives running for office.
Related Readings:
The State of the Union address: do we really need it?
C-Span: Pres. Obama State of the Union Address
http://www.renewamerica.com/analysis/jon/100204
Thank You, Glenn Beck, for Exposing Communism’s Evils
Published February 6, 2010 | 
BBoth of my grandfathers were exterminated by Stalinist terror. Both of my parents, Yuri and Marina Glazov, were dissidents in the former Soviet Union. They risked their lives for freedom; they stood up against Soviet totalitarianism. They barely escaped the gulag, a fortune many of our friends and relatives did not share. I come from a system where a myriad of the closest people to my family simply disappeared, where relatives and family friends died under interrogation and torture for their beliefs — or for simply nothing at all.
I would like to take this moment to express my deepest and heartfelt gratitude to Glenn Beck:
Mr. Beck, thank you for having the courage and integrity to tell the truth about communism, despite the price you have had to pay for doing so. It is because of people like you that the truth is being engraved into the historical record, which no one can erase. It is because of people like you that the human lives that were extinguished by the communist killing machine will mean something, will live on in humanity’s memory, and will touch human souls in their own mystical way.
Because of people like you, the millions of victims of communism will not be pushed into the invisible sphere of historical amnesia — where the liberal left has perpetually tried to confine them. Mr. Beck, by producing documentaries like your recent The Revolutionary Holocaust, you are bringing personal affirmation to myriads of families like my own — and to all victims and survivors of communism — by validating our experiences and by telling the whole world that, despite the left’s attempt to impose gulag denial on our culture, we did live what we lived, we did endure what we endured, and we did see what we saw. And you are crystallizing the pernicious socialist idea that comes in the form of humanitarianism, but culminates in mass terror.
Glenn Beck, you are leading the crucial fight of the 21st century. In battling on the front lines for moral clarity on the issue of communism, you are setting a firm terrain on which free men and women will be able to fight the new jihadi totalitarians who seek to destroy our freedom and lives.
Glenn Beck, you are a hero to me.
Thank you.
Mr. Glazov’s Story
The tortures included laying a man naked on a freezing cement floor, forcing his legs apart, and then an interrogator stepping on his testicles, applying increasing pressure until the confession surfaced. Imagine the consequences of no surfacing confession. Indeed, many people refused to confess to a crime they did not commit. Continue reading
Vatican Official Says Religious Orders Are In Modern ‘Crisis’
Published February 6, 2010 | By John Thavis, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A top Vatican official said religious orders today are in a “crisis” caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.
Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said the problems go deeper than the drastic drop in the numbers of religious men and women.
“The crisis experienced by certain religious communities, especially in Western Europe and North America, reflects the more profound crisis of European and American society. All this has dried up the sources that for centuries have nourished consecrated and missionary life in the church,” Cardinal Rode said in a talk delivered Feb. 3 in Naples, Italy.
“The secularized culture has penetrated into the minds and hearts of some consecrated persons and some communities, where it is seen as an opening to modernity and a way of approaching the contemporary world,” he said.
Cardinal Rode said the decline in the numbers of men and women religious became precipitous after the Second Vatican Council, which he described as a period “rich in experimentation but poor in robust and convincing mission.”
Faced with an aging membership and fewer vocations, many religious orders have turned to “foreign vocations” in places like Africa, India and the Philippines, the cardinal said. He said the orders need to remember that quality of vocations is more important than quantity.
“It is easy, in situations of crisis, to turn to deceptive and damaging shortcuts, or attempt to lower the criteria and parameters for admission to consecrated life and the course of initial and permanent formation,” he said. Continue reading
LifeSiteNews.com Headlines: Feb. 6, 2010
Published February 6, 2010 | OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FORCES MILITARY HOSPITALS TO STOCK MORNING AFTER PILL
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – Late Thursday, the Obama administration issued a new order for the U.S. military requiring all military hospitals and health centers to stock the morning after pill. The Department of Defense will soon begin having military medical facilities stock the Plan B drug, which can sometimes cause an abortion.
SECOND FOCUS ON THE FAMILY AD ON TEBOW, ABORTION TO AIR BEFORE SUPER BOWL
Miami, FL (LifeNews.com) — If you think you have read all there is on the Focus on the Family commercial featuring Tim Tebow and his mother’s decision not to have an abortion — wait, there’s more. Officials at the pro-life group announced today that they are unveiling a second ad that will air before the Super Bowl begins.
OBAMA CONCEDES PRO-ABORTION HEALTH CARE BILL MAY BE DEAD UNTIL 2010 ELECTIONS
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — President Barack Obama conceded Thursday night in a speech at a Democratic fundraiser that the pro-abortion health care bill may be dead. With the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the Senate no longer has the votes to pass the House bill and the House doesn’t have the votes for the Senate bill.
POLL SHOWS AMERICANS FAVOR PROLIFE TIM TEBOW SUPER BOWL AD BY 2-1 MARGIN
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – When CBS airs a Super Bowl commercial produced by Focus on the Family that honors Tim Tebow and his family for their pro-life convictions, the ad will have the support of a majority of Americans. BY a 2-1 margin, a new Marist College poll finds strong support for the commercial.
CONGRESS PUT ADVANCING ABORTION AHEAD OF PROMOTING GOOD HEALTH CARE REFORM
by Richard Doerflinger
Due in part to a Senate seat switching parties in a recent special election, health care reform legislation may be stalled in Congress for now. Many had hoped that long-overdue reform, extending affordable health coverage to tens of millions of people who lack it now, was on the horizon. And some, disappointed at the current impasse, are looking for scapegoats.
President George W. Bush Receives Cardinal O’Connor Award from Legatus
Published February 6, 2010 | DANA POINT, California – At a gathering Thursday night, former President George W. Bush was awarded the 2010 Cardinal John J. O’Connor Pro-Life Award, given annually by the international Catholic business executives’ organization, Legatus, for distinguished achievement in service to the pro-life effort.
Less than a dozen protestors attempted to make a presence outside the 2010 Legatus Annual Summit at the St. Regis Monarch Beach hotel but left before the President arrived.
Participants report that Bush seemed very much at home with the crowd of some 450 Catholic business men and women whose organization boasts approximately 4,000 members worldwide.
In an hour-long talk which he delivered without referring to notes, Bush wowed the audience and received six standing ovations. With many humerous anecdotes and sometimes serious insights into international politics, the former President held the crowd seemingly with ease.
Bush described his memorable trip to the Vatican with his wife and father, former President George H. Bush, for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. He described how as the Pope’s casket was being taken up some stairs the pall bearers seemed to tilt the open casket so that the body of the Pope could be seen, at which point, said Bush, the sun burst through some clouds to shine directly on the body of the John Paul II. Continue reading
Gaming for Satan: New Video Games Mock the Church and Glorify Satan
Published February 6, 2010 |
A long-time video gamer and devout Catholic is sounding the alarm about a new breed of satanically-themed video games that target God and the Catholic Church, invite players to make pacts with the devil, and elevate Satan to hero status.
“This has been going on for the last 10 years, but especially in the most recent games,” said Lance Christian, 32, of Alton, Illinois. “It wasn’t until last month when I said, ‘enough is enough!’ I’m a gamer, but I’m deep into my faith and I think God is showing me this so I can make other people aware of it.”
He has seen games gradually become more occult-based, promoting Satan and even the persecution of Christians. For instance, in one game, players kill the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael before going on to destroy God. Another game requires players to sell their soul to the devil and rewards them for “killing unbaptized infants.” One game has Muslims killing Christians in a holy war.
All these games seem to have one central theme – God is the enemy and the devil is the hero. One game guide blatantly states: “The Judeo-Christian God is portrayed as the prominent villain in the series . . .”
“This is just the tip of the iceberg in what I have discovered,” Mr. Christian said. “I feel that the devil has a new tool to work with in this age of technology, and the majority of adults in a position of responsibility are left in the dark.”
He provided us with the following list of the most egregious games:
1) Tecmo’s Deception: Invitation To Darkness (Playstation) – Players “make an unholy pact and sell their soul to Satan in exchange for power” with the object of the game being to ensure the resurrection of Satan and obtain his power. (This game is rated “T” for teen.) Continue reading
Second Focus on the Family Ad on Tebow, Abortion to Air Before Super Bowl
Published February 6, 2010 | By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor, February 5, 2010
Miami, FL (LifeNews.com) – If you think you have read all there is on the Focus on the Family commercial featuring Tim Tebow and his mother’s decision not to have an abortion — wait, there’s more. Officials at the pro-life group announced today that they are unveiling a second ad that will air before the Super Bowl begins.
The second commercial plans to go further than the first and will reveal more details about Pam Tebow’s decision not to have an abortion than CBS would allow in the first ad already planned for during the Super Bowl.
This Super Bowl surprise has Focus unveiling a second ad that will also feature him Tebow and his mother and it was filmed in Orlando at the same time last month as the ad that has garnered so much attention.
Focus on the Family won’t reveal the details of this surprise second ad, but CEO Jim Daly confirmed to USA Today that this ad goes further and it appears to be the original ad CBS rejected before it worked with the station on a revised commercial fitting its standards.
In this second ad, Pam Tebow reportedly says “Both of our lives were at risk” when talking about her difficult pregnancy with Tim after suffering from dysentery and entering into a coma.
“They felt that was too much,” Daly told USA Today. “So we dropped the line. We didn’t fight them.” The word “abortion” is never used.
Daly says this new ad is “an open discussion on the sanctity of human life — not just the issue of abortion — and he indicated it was made for less than $100,000 with “a bit of humor in it — in fitting with the Super Bowl theme.”
This second ad will reportedly air four times during the pre-game festivities and analysis before the Super Bowl begins. Continue reading
CCHD Scandal Picks Up Steam as Bishops React
Published February 6, 2010 | By Patrick B. Craine and John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews.com, February 5, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Various offices of the U.S. Bishops Conference (USCCB) have reacted to the two new reports issued by the Reform CCHD Now coalition (RCN) this week, but the reactions, claims RCN, have not addressed the core message of their reports.
While RCN has offered evidence that 31 CCHD grantees are partnered with a pro-abortion and homosexualist group, the Center for Community (CCC), and that two USCCB officials have served on the same group’s board, the reactions have focused primarily on defending the pro-life beliefs of one of those officials – John Carr, who, as executive director of the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development, oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD).
The report on Carr’s involvement in CCC was received by some as questioning Carr’s personal pro-life convictions. However, RCN says that the reports in question – one from American Life League (ALL) and another from the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM) – specified that they were not questioning Carr or any USCCB staffer’s personal stance on pro-life.
Immediately after the issuing of the reports Monday, a line supporting CCC was quietly removed from the CCHD website. Not so quiet however was the backlash against the perceived attack on Carr.
Tom Grenchik, the USCCB’s national director for pro-life activities, in a message which was sent on Tuesday to all the diocesan pro-life offices said, “I am happy to report to you that John Carr is staunchly pro-life, a partner in USCCB pro-life efforts and he worked diligently to keep abortion out of the many recent health care reform efforts.”
Priests for Life President Fr. Frank Pavone also stepped up in defense of Carr, stating on his blog: “I have had many opportunities to talk to and listen to John over the years, in public and in private, to read his articles, and to discuss our common goal of seeing social justice and peace applied to our neighbors in the womb.”
While RCN coalition members said they were pleased to hear these affirmations of Carr’s pro-life stance, they also said they were concerned with what they called ”false” accusations from other officials which, they said, led even bishops to misconstrue their actions and intentions.
National CCHD director Ralph McCloud, Carr’s subordinate, also responded to the reports about his organization in an e-mail yesterday morning to the nation’s diocesan CCHD directors. McCloud referred to what he called “very disturbing allegations that have been posted by many ‘news’ sources lately regarding John Carr and his relationship to the Center for Community Change.”
“The attacks allege that John promotes abortion and homosexual agendas,” said McLoud.
LifeSiteNews (LSN) attempted to contact Ralph McCloud, but did not hear back by press time.
Michael Hichborn of RCN member ALL told LSN today that, “We never once alleged that John Carr promotes abortion and homosexual agendas, and all of our public commentary verifies this.” Hitchborn added, “In fact, in the initial report that I wrote, I specifically stated that we are not questioning the pro-life convictions of John Carr or anyone he works with.” Continue reading
GOSPEL & MEDITATION
Published February 6, 2010 | Mark 6:30-34
The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe that you are present here. You know me through and through, and despite my weaknesses, sins and imperfections you love me. Lord, thank you for your love. Today I give you my mind, my heart and my will. Mold me and use me as you wish.
Petition: Mary, obtain for me the grace to understand and live the Christian meaning of rest.
1. “Come Away by Yourselves” Jesus knows that his disciples need to rest after returning from a long stint of missionary work. There is a need to replenish energies – physical, mental and spiritual. It is within God’s will to put moments of physical rest into our daily programs. Jesus tells the apostles to get away together and with him. Physical rest, of course, is not laziness or dissipation. It is not a place to lose the spiritual tautness of our soul towards God and his things, or the readiness to do God’s will at all times.
2. Our Lives are for Others Jesus teaches us that being ready to do God’s will in everything means also being always ready to serve others. How beautiful it is when families can relax together with each member not just selfishly thinking about myself, how much fun I can have, or making sure everyone obeys my whims! In a culture where “vacation” is synonymous with “loafing,” Jesus reminds us that for a Christian, relaxing and having fun are not incompatible with thinking about and serving others. Jesus’ compassionate heart was always active, and even with rest on his mind, he was moved to give himself to the people who needed to hear the Word of God. Is my heart like Christ’s? Am I aware of the physical and spiritual needs of my family and friends even on my “day off”?
3. For God’s Greater Glory There is a deeper meaning to “rest”: turning all our activity to glorify God and expressing our loving dependence on him. He commanded us to set apart one day of the week to “rest” in him, to direct our hearts and minds to him, to offer him the fruits of our week’s work, and to receive his grace to begin another week. Sunday must be the highlight of a Christian’s week, not just because he finds respite from his work, but because he offers all his work — and himself — to God the Father during the communal celebration of Mass, the heart of Sunday. This God-centered focus is extended throughout the whole Sunday rest, where “daily concerns and tasks can find their proper perspective: the material things about which we worry give way to spiritual values; in a moment of encounter and less pressured exchange, we see the true face of the people with whom we live. Even the beauties of nature – too often marred by the desire to exploit, which turns against man himself – can be rediscovered and enjoyed to the full” (John Paul II, Dies Domini, 67).
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, help me to find my true rest in you. You are the source of all that is good. Help me to order all my work and material things towards spiritual values. Help me make Mass the heart of my Sunday. As well, help me use Sunday to see the true face of my family, friends, colleagues and clients: they are souls which you call me to love, serve, and bring closer to you.
Resolution: I will find some concrete way to prepare myself and my family for the celebration of Sunday Mass: reflecting on the Mass readings, organizing ourselves to arrive early to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, doing some service of charity like visiting the sick or elderly, etc.
http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302
ST. PAUL MIKI AND COMPANIONS
Published February 6, 2010 | 
Born in a wealthy family in 1562 at Tounucumada, Japan, the son of a military leader, Paul Miki felt a call to religious life from his youth. He became Jesuit in 1580 after being educated at the Jesuit college at Anziquiama. He became a successful evangelist, and when the political climate became hostile to Christianity, he decided to continue his ministry and was soon arrested. On his way to martydom, he and other imprisoned Christians were marched 600 miles so they could be abused by, and be a lesson to, their countrymen; but all of them they sang the Te Deum on the way His last sermon was delivered from the cross: “The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason that I die. I believe that I am telling the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ’s example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain”.
He died by being stabbed with a lance while crucified at Nagasaki, Japan. Paul Miki and his companions were canonized in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.
By Their Fruits . . .
. . . You Shall Know Them
A commentary from http://www.RealCatholicTV.com
Just what is the result of the scandal surrounding the USCCB?
http://pewsitter.com/view_n…