FRAMINGHAM -- A Bay State group advocating gay and lesbian rights plans to protest inside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston tomorrow morning when the pastor reads a church statement opposing same-sex marriage.

The group, QueerToday.com, and coordinator Wes Ritchie, who organized a Gay-Straight Alliance at Framingham High School, hope to have supporters scattered throughout the congregation who will stand up when the pastor reads the statement, which the four bishops in Massachusetts have distributed to Catholic churches throughout the commonwealth.

Ritchie, 18, said, "We're going to have people scattered throughout the congregation and we're planning a walkout when this is read aloud.

"It's meant to be noticeable, but not disruptive," he said. The walkout will be followed by a demonstration outside the cathedral, criticizing the church's stance against gay marriage.
[Full Story]

Have you ever noticed that when someone doesn't agree with an official church teaching, dogma, or doctrine it is always called a stance.

Chris of Veritas is back after a short absence and is blogging up a storm.

The latest head-line. A giant mutant head of President George W. Bush has escaped a top secret government lab and was found attacking protesters outside the G-8 summit at a French alpine resort. This lab had been using funds diverted from Project Head Start to develop a backup head for the President in the case of an emergency. Efforts to capture the runaway head have made no headway. When police were informed that the head was heading their way they rushed to head it off. The rampaging head going through the crowd has caused some head on collisions and a few head aches to the protesters. Snipers have been unable to target the suspect because local rules don't allow head shots. Attempts to lure the head with a giant bag of pretzel's has been unsuccessful. The head is still at large and was last heard yelling at a protester "Don't misunderestimate me I will you destroyerize you!".

I can watch a movie or a cartoon and enter into the whatever the concept or imaginative world that it portrays no matter how unrealistic, but some things just annoy me.

1. Veggietales. No this is not going to be any silly song debate. The concept of all of these talking and singing garden produce doesn't bother me and I can enter the spirit of it easily but my anal retentive botanical perspective screams out that two of the main characters, Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato are FRUITS!!!! Also their lack of limbs and the ability to manipulate objects around them without touching anything comes to mind.

2. Powerpuff Girls. Again no problem with flying girls and superhero powers that came out of sugar, spice, and ever nice and the accidental addition of chemical X. But the lack of digits on their club like appendages also annoys me. This doesn't seem to present a problem for bashing city smashing monsters but penmanship and toilet paper must really present a challenge for them.

3. Matrix: Reloaded. The concept of this future world and that you can jump buildings, dodge bullets, et cetera are all components of our being able to enter into a creative storyline. But a five minute sex scene? I just find that stretches incredulity.

The Rosetta Project has illustrated childrens books online in multiple languages. Books can be read on the site or downloaded to view later on your computer.

The NARAL pro-choice mobilization is mounting a campaign using email cards with graphics on them. They call their e-cards thought provoking. Is a picture of Bush as Uncle Sam saying I Want You, to look the other way..." thought provoking? The only thought that it provoked from me was ... Lame!
[Link via Relapsed Catholic]

They have one of a woman as Uncle Sam(antha) which says "I Want You for Pro-Choice America". The women in it looks like she would beat the crap our of you if you don't agree.

Victor Lams had done some some imaginative anti-abortion posters before using one of the same graphics that NARAL had chose, unfortunately his graphic link is broken in his archive.

Oh their site it says:

Many Americans don't know what they can do to change the anti-choice direction President Bush and Congress are taking us in.

This can be added as one of those paradoxes that cause Star Trek robots to go into philosophical paradox loops and self destruct.

The President is anti-choice

But he choose to be anti-choice

error error error

Maybe it is a good thing that they still have to hide behind the linguistic smokescreen of the word choice and not focus on what that choice involves.

Aircraft Carrier for Sale*

* Aircraft not included.

In other naval news Bear attacks Seawolf

A polar bear gnawed on the rudder of a U.S. submarine and then attacked it after the sub surfaced in the ice pack during maneuvers between the North Pole and Alaska this spring, the U.S. Navy reported last week.

Happy one year anniversary of blogging to Karen Marie Knapp of From the Anchor Hold.

Also to Jane of Catholic, Musician, Student, in that order welcome to my blogroll. With that honor and $5.00 you can now get a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

LONDON (Reuters) - Hobbits, dwarves and elves are heading for the London stage in the world's first major musical of the "Lord of the Rings," its backers said on Wednesday.

West End producer Kevin Wallace said the reworking of British author JRR Tolkien's fantasy epic will cost $13 million.

"It will stimulate audiences' imaginations in a way they've never felt before," he told Reuters.

A cast of 50, lavish sets and a full orchestra will help recreate Middle Earth, the mystical setting for the swords and sorcery trilogy.

The show will be co-produced by Saul Zaentz, the veteran Hollywood producer behind "The English Patient" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

It is due to open in London in Spring 2005 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication of the complete trilogy and may be put on around the world.
[Full Story]

I can just imagine the opening number of the Hobbits in the Shire singing Randy Newman's Short People and Gollum singing It's not easy being green. Also the Ents could do a musical interlude of Rush's The Trees, a cautionary tale of tree greed and aggression. Maybe they could even get Adam Ent to do that part.

With the success of the LOTR movies there will probably be other commercial rip-offs, like:

Wireless phone companies will have "Lord of the Ringtones"

Business publishing world with "Seven Hobbits of Highly Effective People".

Betty Crocker's: Six meals a day on a budget.

WARNING amateur exegesis ahead!!!

But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. John 16:5-7

This is from a passage in the same chapter as todays Gospel reading of John 16:16-20. I ponder this passage in relation to the famous Filioque dispute and find it interesting that Jesus says that he must go away (to the Father) before the Holy Spirit will be sent to the Church. I don't think it is too large a step to infer that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son. I don't think this is any kind of biblical slam-dunk for this position, but I do find it interesting.

Reading through Catholic history I was surprised to find that reconciliation with the Orthodox churches actually occurred twice before in history, the last time being at the The Council of Florence. Unfortunately because of the encroaching Muslim takeovers in the Byzantine empire and the lack of response by the rest of Christendom to help them fight back the religion of peace conquests, reunification ultimately broke down. The invading Moslem's did not want the Easter Orthodox churches to be reunited with Rome, but they would allow them to stay as they were before the reunification occurred.

That the Catholic and Orthodox church be reunited is probably one of the Holy Fathers greatest desires. That the "Church must breathe with her two lungs!" -- Ut Unim Sint. It is probably more cultural than theological differences that maintain the split. The last reunification was much closer to the wounds of the Sack of Constantinople and the other tragedies that occurred than now, yet they were able to hammer out the theological differences and see that that both their interpretations and ours are consistent with each other.

Where I go to daily Mass we have a lector with a good voice and who does the readings very well. She is also a rather short woman. The only problem is that she is exactly a head taller than the lectern she reads from. So unfortunately my mind observes the seemingly disembodied head reciting the readings vice listening to the readings. Watching Futurama has not helped me with noticing this sight gag at all.

And this photo brought it to mind

In the case of Lot's wife, did God use an a-salt weapon? Was this spice used because God lives outside of thyme? Maybe we will know at the second cumin as speculated by that wise sage St. Basil the Great. All of these puns probably won't curry any favor, but I mint what I said.

I have been using an application called ieSpell that I would recommend to those using Windows and Internet Explorer. It is an Internet Explorer plug-in that spells checks text input boxes by adding an option to the right click menu. It works very well for spell checking blog posts and comment boxes. It will work with any blogging software that uses text boxes on a web page, such as Blogger (all versions), Movable Type. P-Machine, etc. Here is their site and it is not spyware.

And while I am recommending software, here is another one that I use and would recommend. MyIE2 which is a browser that uses the core of Internet Explorer but has some added features like a tabbed window interface (like Mozilla and Opera), mouse gestures (like Opera), and many other features. Since it uses the core of IE the majority of websites which our optimized for IE will work flawlessly with this browser. Their site is here.

Both of these applications are free, if you knew me you would know that I am so cheap that by comparison I make Clark Howard and Jack Benny look like tax-and-spend Democrats.

Mark Winsor of Vociferous Yawpings has a good post on Leaving the Church.

Some people on other blogs have recently suggested that heterodox Catholics in America should break away from the Roman church and form their own. Some have even suggested that the orthodox in America should break away from Rome to protest the way the bishops have run - or wrecked - our church. Can we hit the breaks here a second, and look at what’s involved in both ideas?

I would find myself guilty as charged in desiring those of heterodox opinions to stop trying to corrupt things within and go somewhere else more in agreement of their opinions. After all who wants others mucking up the Church of us "true Catholics" and not making the Church the desired pleasant country club atmosphere where we can sit on comfy couches reading The Wanderer and looking down at those "poor" radical traditionalists and progressives.

This is a serious lapse of charity. How can we love (willing the good) of others and possibly be desirous of them being separated from the sacraments? The Church is a hospital for sinners not God's version of the Elk club for his true followers. Even when the Church takes the drastic step of excommunicating someone, it is to let them know the seriousness of their error so that they can repent and come back within the Church. Excommunication is not to punish those dastardly heretics and to prevent them from fouling up our perfect organization, but an act of fraternal love to bring about conversion.

Being a convert I like reading and hearing conversion stories and have seen many revert stories where people were going along for years holding opinions contrary to the faith and then experiencing a reconversion to Christ. Would we have tossed them out of the sheep's hold also? As always we must walk the tightrope of the dynamic tensions of Martha and Mary, prayer and action. One of the annoying things about being a Christian is that so often we must start from within ourselves in conversion before we can even think about correcting others, after all picking up a stone is so much easier than picking up our rosaries.

I will join in with Mark on June 8 to begin a novena to St. Jude for heterodox priests and bishops to abandon their heterodoxy and embrace the truth.

US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) is silhouetted against an early morning sky after a run at his 650-hectare (1,600 acre) ranch in Crawford, Texas.(AFP-White House/File/Eric Draper)

(Rooters Washington D.C.) Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) has issued a statement about the Presidents latest grandstanding. "It is unbelievable the latest flamboyant showmanship that Mr. Bush has exhibited. Does he think that the sun only sets for him? How much taxpayers money was spent delaying the sun for this photo op. How many people shivered waiting for the sun to rise in their geographical location. The sun belongs to all nations of the world and was worshiped by many old world religions before he came along to usurp its cultural meanings. Inca blood was spilled for the sun and he comes along posing and primping trying to upstage our source of clean non-polluting heat. This is not some made-for-TV backdrop for a campaign commercial. As I watched the President walk across the background of the sun I could not help but think of Joshua and his stopping of the sun to wage war on an indigenous people, probably for oil."

Sal Ravilla of Catholic Light posted this site to determine your Hobbit name. So please address me as Dimple Gamwich of the Bree Gamwiches.

Joshua Claybourn posted this story about Clinton possibly blogging and asked for submission of possible blog titles. Here are the ones I came up with without requiring higher than a PG-13 rating, something always difficult when talking about ex-President Clinton.

• purjurypundit
• the meaning of is
• wag the blog
• little blue dresses
• Pardons-R-Us
• mummy dearest*

* reference to "You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That's a good-looking mummy" —Bill Clinton, looking at "Juanita," a newly discovered Incan mummy on display at the National Geographic museum.

Update: Kathryn LIvely of Come on, get lively suggested her own title in the comment box, which is too funny to be left in the comment basement.

• I feel your blog

Anyone witnessing the transformation that has occurred at 325 Grand Ave. in Wausau is bound to feel a sense of awe at the architectural and decorative achievement. As a four-year renovation project nears its end, little remains of the old St. Mary Catholic Church, yet the renovated church is steeped heavily in the Gothic style of the original 1893 church, which was damaged in a 1953 fire.

The attention to detail on the interior of the church is particularly stunning.

"Many people have started to cry when they enter the church for the first time because they found it so beautiful," said Monsignor Michael Schmitz of the Institute of Christ the King, the religious order that began celebrating Latin Masses there on Easter 1999.

...Inside, new altars were fashioned after the chapel in the Blutenburg castle in Munich, which dates back to 1497. A statue of the Virgin Mary, donated by an Austrian family, is now the focal point of the high altar. The statue was made in 1470 near Salzburg.

Other interior additions include intricate plaster arches across the ceiling, a marble tile floor, oak pews, ornate hanging lights, hand-carved statues and hand-painted ceiling decorations.

The Institute's Brother Alexander Willweber oversaw the artistic design while Structural Systems of Wausau carried out the plans.
[Full Story]

Bishop Burke gave St. Mary's the dignity of a public Oratory and its care is totally confided to the Institute of Christ the King, whose Prior General also appoints its rector Here is their site. Looks promising. They currently don't have any pictures of the new restoration but from the description it sound beautiful.

The Institute of Christ the King is a relatively new and was canonically erected on Sep 1, 1990.

Prelate defends Resurrection

I guess now if a Christian believes in the resurrection it's a headline.

Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 1 Cor 15:12-17

Happy St. Philip Neri feast day to Quenta Nârwenion who is unable to post today with the public library being closed. Will her next post start with "only 364 days to go until St. Philip's Day?"

As always William Luse's posts are excellent and the post Letter to a Priest had some ideas that I also reflect on.

I do not like the feeling of having to enter a Catholic church with my error radar raised high, probing the air for evidence of an enemy incursion.

That line quite resonated with me since in addition to the error radar I also have installed Sacramental Sonar, Dogma Detectors, and the latest rubric-buster (banned in some states). I listened daily to Catholic Answers radio show for at least a year prior to coming into the Catholic Church so I had no exaggerated ideas of a perfect church where the Liturgy is always reverent. Overall I am quite happy with the Diocese in which I live. A year ago we received a new Bishop who replaced the previous Bishop who had served the diocese well for 19 years. There have been no major priestly scandals here and no cover-ups. The only cases I am aware of that could have caused scandal were handled quickly and correctly by the previous and current Bishop - who did not play musical chairs with those priests. The multiple Catholic Churches I have attended there have been liturgical abuses, but for the most part they are of the minor variety and the homilies even when not enlightening are not heretical. Since I have read books on the liturgy and the documents themselves even these minor abuses would upset me. I suppress the desire to run up and hand cuff the priest when they occur or to call in an air strike. I can identify with the Apostles James and John, the sons of thunder, who wanted to call down destruction on a town that ignored Jesus.

Recently I heard Jimmy Akin on Catholic Answers answer a caller about what to do when you know that the liturgy is not properly celebrated. He described his own in-depth research in the liturgy and then his heightened awareness of liturgical abuses and talked about how these interfered with him in praying the Mass. He said that he came to the conclusion that God does not want the Mass which is a source of grace to be something that is scandalous to him and to be unable to pray. So for the most part he ignores the minor abuses and only speaks up if he prudently thinks that the abuse is bad enough and that he can do something about it.

So I am trying to put this all in perspective while trying to pray the Mass. Liturgical music is a whole other matter and I don't know if I can ever ignore drippy it's all about me music. Luckily where I mainly attend Mass this is not too much of a problem. The only pet peeve that I have is the responsorial psalms, when it is our part to respond the cantor raises her arms to indicate this. I always feel like I am supposed to levitate at that time, maybe that's just me. Mainly I should just be appreciative that I live in a diocese where I can only find small things to gripe about.

(AP Photo/Mike Wintroath)

May God grant them eternal rest with him.

Confessions...of an accidental choir director has a very funny post on Pre-Mass announcements.

...The Good Samaritan, in which Jesus tells the story of a man attacked by robbers who is ignored by a priest and a Levite before being helped by a Samaritan, is translated into the sort of language found in any Outback pub or city building site.

"A bunch of bushrangers attacked him, stole his dough, and left him as good as dead. A big wig from the Temple happened to pass by, took one look at the bloke, crossed the road, and hurried off. Another official who was on the road that day did the same.

"Then a really ordinary bloke (a grubby old street sweeper you wouldn't look twice at) passed by and felt really sorry for him. So he used his first-aid kit to patch him up, and then put him on his old nag, took him to the nearest pub and took care of him."

The Aussie Bible has been given the Anglican Church's official blessing and includes a foreword by the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, as well as the Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson.
[Full Story]

I received this comment from Archbishop Michael Desmond Hynes OMA PhD (not in union with Rome) on a story I posted from the Washington Post on Sinead O'Connor.

I am amused at you mis information you have on Bishop Michael Cox's validity. You appear to know nothing about the mandate given to Mons Thuc in 1938 by Pope Pius 1X. or maybe you don't want to know as there is a lot of money to be earned creating stories that will attract peoples attention thus increasing sales of your reporting etc.

Whether Pope Pius the XI in his Motu Proprio gave the ability to Bishop Thuc to consecrate bishops without Rome's approval I can not tell. But why would a Thucite Archbishop like Hynes who does not follow the Holy Father care what a previous pope had done if pope's have no authority. Pope Pius certainly didn't give this permission for all time and for all those consecrated by Bishop Thuc to consecrate bishops themselves. The comment on my motives was also pretty funny since he doesn't seem to be aware that the majority of bloggers don't get a penny for their effort or in my case I lay out money each month to host my blog.

Judge not and you shall not be Judged. Maybe there is a lot of truth in it. As well you seem to have a very superficial knowledge of Law or history.

Archbishop Hynes must have amazing powers if he was able to discern my lack of education by reading a story I posted from the Washington Post. While I readily admit to not being a history scholar I do know that the ability to ordain bishops does not extend to women. Since Archbishop Hynes also remarries people as long as they are "legally" divorced I wonder who has the superficial knowledge of law or history. Judge not and you shall not judge seems pretty strange to say a line after accusing me of not wanting to know the truth and doing this for money.

As well Sinead O'Connor has done numerous good deeds for people and she does not want me or any body to talk about. God will judge us all on the last day and let us pray that he shall have mercy on the Commercial Catholic Church which is by far the largest of the Universal catholic Church which has emerged form Apostolic Succession.

Commercial Catholic Church, I hadn't heard that one before. I guess he is only in schism from the church's CEO.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I will treasure that profound statement coming from a Thucite Archbishop and I must leave now to buy the necessary smoking equipment to be able to achieve it. As a side note Bishop Thuc founded Dalat University in Vietnam, thankfully not called Thuc U.

Update: I changed the reference in my post to Pope Pius XI vice IX. Thanks to Bill Cork for noticing the mistake.

Here is a good article on Bishop Morlino, newly appointed as the Bishop of the Diocese of Madison. It includes this funny tidbit.

A large man, Morlino recalled the day he first donned the magenta robes of a bishop, then processed in and out of the Helena cathedral to the glee and excitement of a young boy in a back pew. He said he later asked the boy's mother what filled the youth with laughter, and she replied with some hesitation.

"She said, 'He thinks you're Barney,' and I thought to myself, 'He who exalts himself will be humbled,' " Morlino said.

Victor Lams presents Blog! the musical. Just when you think he couldn't outdo his previous comedic video-musical endeavors he hits a new high mark. I think the world is just a little bit safer that Victor can release those ideas in his head safely through a blog.

Welcome to Daniel Baker of Gaudete Semper (Rejoice Always). I've been tempted to give my blog a Latin title that would look cool and appeal to my Catholic geek jester sensibilities.

cella frigorifera

exemplar luce expressum

machina linteorum lavatoria

which mean , refrigerator, photo copier, washing machine

A rosary given to Tom Thompson’s daughter sparked an idea that will see the largest prayer beads in the world created in Moncton’s prayer garden.

The floral rosary will be made of 59 potted red and white rose bushes symbolizing the blood of Christ and the purity of the Virgin Mary.

The Magnetic Hill Prayer Garden is located about 500 metres from the Magic Mountain exit, with gates open on Gorge Road and North Mountain Road. The five-acre plot of land is adjacent to the site where Pope John Paul held mass in 1984 and offers people of all faiths a serene location for prayer.
[Full Story]

This weekend 75 women will return to the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, some for the first time since they removed their long, black habits and left the convent years ago in a cloak of secrecy.

...In 1976, it was an attempt to heal the bitterness over changes, secret departures and broken friendships. This time the purpose is to celebrate the time the women had together and what they have done since their paths diverged.

...."It's the life and the peace that you find here, the people you connect with," she said of what drew her. "There is a spirit here."

But in a strict and silent pre-Vatican II convent, her bubbly personality spilled past the limits. Some rules made no sense. Why were sisters in a community forbidden to communicate with one another? Why were sisters with no aptitude for teaching automatically sent into the classroom?

Had she remained a few years longer until the reforms following Vatican II changed "Mother Superior" into "the moderator," she thinks she might have stayed.

"But I was full of life and had a real hard time not being able to talk to people," she said.

She had joined almost by accident in 1961. She didn't know the sisters and had felt no pull to religious life. But a friend had gone to Baden and invited her on a retreat.

"I really liked the spirit, the goodness here and decided that was what I wanted to do," she said.

For 28 years she taught school, adult religious education and worked as a parish minister in the Bronx, N.Y. Yet she suspected she was in the wrong place. She didn't believe some of the things she was expected to teach.
[Full Story]

One thing that struck about this article is that is was all about relationships and spirit of the community, not a word about trying to fulfill a vocation with Christ. It sounded more like an Elk's club then a convent. Convent life was in need of reform but changing Mother superior to moderator is just silly, who will have obedience to a moderator. The women that "suspected she was in the wrong place" at least left the convent instead of trying to teach those items she believe in. Too many continued to be heterodox and to teach their views.

FROM AZ RIGHT TO LIFE EMAILING

Today's edition of the Arizona Republic ran a story about the Arizona State Budget in crisis over the issue of abstinence education.

In the article, Senator Linda Binder (R-3) has refused to cast the key vote because it contains a $2 million provision for sexual abstinence education. Binder decided to take a three-week second honeymoon to Australia and thus avoid and delay the vote. In an interview with the Republic, Binder is quoted in saying, "That (abstinence funding) tapped me over the edge," in avoiding to vote on the state budget. She went on to say, "We should worry more about teaching reality rather than morality." Binder's move throws a wrench into the Arizona State budget process over this two million dollars in education that has proved to work.

Pretty ironic abstaining from voting on abstinence. That line about "teaching reality rather than morality" I totally disagree with. Morality is based on truth which is the highest reality. You cannot fully teach reality without morality, when you do try you end up teaching an illusion that further destroys lives. What this view says is that people cannot be chaste which is just another modernist lie. I watched the great Alice Von Hildebrand on EWTN Live last night and she describes a scene where someone suddenly drops dead and ends up being taken to the coroners office for an autopsy. She said that the doctor will not pronounce death due to virginity.

The Dutch town of Edam is planning to make a church entirely from its famous cheese.

The model chapel will be a tenth of the size of the town's 15th century church.

Residents came up with the idea to help raise funds for renovations for the church, including a new bell.

Edam's 7,500 inhabitants have been asked to purchase bricks for about £7 each.

Organiser Bart van Dillen said: "We hope to enter the Guinness Book of World Records."

The cheese church will be built with more than 10,000 Edam bricks and will be nine metres long and four metres wide.

It will go on display inside the real church from July 1 and will also be shown at the traditional Edam cheese market later this year.
[Full Story]

This is outrageous, don't they know that you should only use Swiss cheese since it is the only holey cheese. Will they have a statue of St. Maximilian Kolbe Colby? Of course GIA and OCP can provide the cheesy music to go along with it. If the head priest blesses it with holy water will the cheese become pastorized? I wonder if they will also build a small home for their pastor, I would recommend cottage cheese. I will quit while I am ahead because I am starting to imagine Bishops with Green Bay Packer's cheese-head mitres.

A Texas monk is being hailed as a hero Wednesday after saving a female police officer's life during a struggle for control of her gun, according to a Local 6 News report.

Officials said that the police officer in Linden, Tx., was attempting to arrest a suspect at a grocery store when the man grabbed her gun.

Police said Patrick Coughlan, who is a monk, noticed the scuffle between the suspect and officer and raced to the woman's rescue. He grabbed the weapon and ordered the man to the ground at gunpoint.

Coughlan said that he didn't even see the gun until he grabbed the suspect.

"I realize now that if I would have hesitated even five seconds he would have had control of the gun and shot me and then her," Couglin said.

"He meant to shoot her, there's no doubt in my mind," Linden Police Chief Alton McWaters said. "If it wasn't for them, I don't know what would have happened. I don't think it would have turned out very well." Another woman later jumped in and pinned the suspect on the ground until more officers could arrive.

Couglin said that he's not looking for praise just doing what the boss (God) told him to do.
[Full Story]

And this is from another report of this news story:

Patrick Coughlan -- who describes himself as a musician, songwriter and monk ...

At first I thought the reporting on the Jayson Blair scandal was much ado about nothing. Reporting that the NYT fabricates stories is like reporting that politicians lie, like tell me something that I don't know. Maybe the real story is that the rest of the Media noticed an aspect of it. There has been so much attention given to it that I thought it deserves it's own theme song that you can sing along while reading the endless stories.

The old gray Lady,
She ain't what she used to be
Ain't what she used to be,
Ain't what she used to be
The old gray Lady,
She ain't what she used to be
Many long years ago.

Many long years ago,
Many long years ago,
The old gray Lady,
She ain't what she used to be
Many long years ago.

The old gray Lady,
She stopped reporting reality,
stopped reporting reality,
stopped reporting reality
The old gray Lady,
She stopped reporting reality
Many long years ago.

Many long years ago,
Many long years ago,
The old gray Lady,
She stopped reporting reality
Many long years ago.

The 470-year-old Church of England has broken with tradition to publicly advertise for a bishop in the classified sections of two church papers.

The Church, founded in 1534 by Henry the Eighth, is seeking nominations for the post of Bishop of Hereford, in western England, at a salary of 33,000 pounds ($AU83,322), the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

Until now the nomination of bishops, among the most senior church appointments, has been done by a committee in private, with two names eventually being sent to the Prime Minister for final selection.

The job comes with a rent-free home near the city's 11th century cathedral, with potential perks including a chauffeur, gardener, office staff and an eventual seat in the House of Lords, the paper added.
[Full Story]

COH (Church of England) desires S/MAB (Single/Married Anglican Bishop). Belief in Christ requested but not required, we are an equal opportunity employer.

From an article in the Then Union Leader [Registration Required]

ABORTION ADVOCATES are trying to claim that Republicans in Congress are exploiting the Laci and Conner Peterson murders for political purposes. They are, as usual, dead wrong. Kate Michelman, president of NARAL Pro Choice America, told The Fresno (Calif.) Bee two weeks ago, “The only thing new about this bill is the length to which anti-choice lawmakers and advocates are willing to go to exploit a family’s pain in order to move their own political agenda.”

We’d like to see Michelman say that to Laci Peterson’s family, which strongly supports the bill and has voluntarily lent Laci and Conner’s names to it. On May 5 family members wrote to the House and Senate sponsors of the bill requesting that it be renamed “Laci and Conner’s Law.”

“Knowing that perpetrators who murder pregnant women will pay the price not only for the loss of the mother, but the baby as well, will help bring justice for these victims and hopefully act as a deterrent to those considering such heinous acts,” wrote the family.

Michelman is using Laci Peterson’s name to build opposition to a bill Peterson’s family actively supports. So who is exploiting whom?

I wonder if St. John of the Cross as a child would taunt other children by saying "Na na na nada."

Do you believe that your view of existence is the true reality. Do you believe in a secular world view where everything happens by chance? That you are a cosmic accident and that the highest reality is the force of random nature? Then break out of that false reality by accepting the grace of conversion from Jesus through Mary the Mediatrix of grace. Your saviour is not some pasty face looking Neo but Jesus unto who you should kneel. Trinity is not a woman in tight black clothes but an awesome mystery revealed to us. To see reality you do not have to take a red pill but to read the Gospel.

Mary is invoked in the Church under the title Mediatrix of all grace. All the graces which flow from the redemption of Jesus Christ are granted to the human family through the motherly intercession of Mary. Mary mediated Jesus Christ, the Author of all graces, to the world when she agreed to be the human mother of God made man (cf. Lk 1:38). And from the cross at Calvary (Jn 19:26) and as the final gift to humanity, Jesus gives Mary as a spiritual mother to us all: "Son, behold your mother" (cf. Jn 19:26). For this reason, Vatican II refers to Mary as a "mother to us in the order of grace " (Lumen Gentium, n. 62) and several twentieth century popes have officially taught the doctrine of Mary as Mediatrix of all graces, quoting the words of St Bernard: "It is the will of God that we obtain all favours through Mary." The Mediatrix performs this task in intimate union with the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, with whom she began the drama of our Lord's Redemption at the Annunciation (cf. Lk. 1:35).

A lawsuit has forced a Planned Parenthood branch to sever its special arrangement with a public library.

The Waco, Texas, library system included a facility run by Planned Parenthood of Central Texas that blocked access by people who have protested against the abortion provider.

Citing violations of free speech and equal access rights, three Waco women filed a suit last month in federal court after they were barred from Planned Parenthood's Audre Rapoport Library, which had become part of the city's public library system.

..Pam Smallwood, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, said the group regretted "the necessity to end our successful collaboration" with Waco.

"Although we support an individual's right to exercise their First Amendment freedom of speech, we must reserve the right to exclude individuals from our library in order that our security not be undermined," she said, according to a statement.

"Given the level of violence perpetrated on women's health-care providers in the United States, Planned Parenthood of Central Texas simply cannot risk placing our patients and staff in jeopardy," said Smallwood.
[Full Story]

Their spokesman must be a broken record since she used the word patients for patrons of a library. So use to denouncing pro-lifers at abortion clinics that there statements just become boiler-plated. The reality is that more people at abortion clinics do acts of violence against the protesters than happens vice-versa. Of course we have our idiots like James Kopp who do more to hurt the pro-life movement than anything else.

John Betts is back to blogging at Just Your Average Catholic Guy and Boycott CAI.

Recently there has been a couple more bloggers in St. Blogs who have stopped blogging. Reading blogs seems to be such a more personal form of internet communication that you feel like you have lost a good friend when they stop blogging. You seem to get so much more of the sense of a person through weblogs then through your average editorial or columnist. Also thought there are more and more people blogging and this cycle of people starting and stopping will probably always continue. Maintaining a blog seems easier from the outside then actually doing it. I remember hearing talk show hosts mentioning people saying that they have such an easy job since they only have to work three hours of day. This also seems true of most bloggers, especially pundits that there is more work involved then what you read.

Father Jan Larson of the Archdiocese of Seattle writes in an article called "Is Vatican II over?".

In addressing liturgical issues, some people mistakenly assume that Vatican II means the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. The constitution was, indeed, the document that formally began so much liturgical reform and renewal. The document never pretends to list all the changes that the bishops of the world had in mind at the council, but it does present the fundamental principles of good liturgy, mandates that the rites of the church be thoroughly studied from every perspective, and outlines the norms and procedures for the renewal of the liturgy. In other words, the constitution is not as much a list of permissible changes as it is a blueprint for future reform.

But the constitution was just the beginning of Vatican II. Hundreds of other reform documents would follow, and are still being published today. Thus the formal meetings of Vatican II may be officially concluded, but the reform and renewal begun by those meeting still goes on. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, like the Constitution of the United States, is a living document, so in this sense Vatican II is by no means over. We continue today to make changes and adaptations to the liturgy in the spirit of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. The constitution insists that full, conscious and active participation by all is the aim to be considered before all else in the reform and promotion of the liturgy. Some changes in the liturgy, e.g., the inclusion of the laity, and in particular women, in liturgical ministries, may not have been mentioned in the constitution, but years later would be understood as absolutely essential if we are to take "full participation" seriously.

I really wish that the words "active participation" had never been used since it can be interpreted in so many ways. Especially since what was meant was full prayerful participation. With the word active people keep thinking only about the physical meaning of active and try to make it look like every person at the Mass must be in the sanctuary imitating the priest's outward movements at every point or they are not actively participating. Next they will be proposing Mass aerobics to make sure everybody is good and active and that their heart rate is at its targeted potential to achieve that full sin-burning ability. Maybe it really doesn't matter what words the council said since some will take anything and misconstrue it their own perceptions.

And that line about living documents which is a code word meaning a document that magically transforms itself in to the beliefs of the modern reader. If I was walking around and saw a living document, I would grab a stapler, three hole punch, or anything else handy and immediately kill it. Or maybe I would give it a baptism in white-out so that it wouldn't go around being such a nuisance. That living constitution that was walking around that liberals keep appealing to is worse and more difficult to kill then one hundred Freddy Krugers. Modern day liberals are alchemists that have there own Philosophers Stone and any document that does not say what they want it to say they transmute it into a living document that surprise-surprise agrees with their viewpoint.

The constitution is now 40 years old, and many other documents have since supplied for the inadequacies of that original document. All of these reform documents, as well as the various customs and cultures of peoples, continue to give shape to the reforms envisioned by the Vatican II bishops. Language is one example of this gradual evolution of liturgical forms. The constitution appeared to only reluctantly allow for Latin to be replaced by the language of the people. The reality was that the liturgy celebrated in the language of the people was so instantly and universally popular that Latin would quickly loose its venerable status, in spite of vain attempts to preserve it as a prominent part of the liturgy. Thus Pope Paul VI observed in 1965, just two years after the promulgation of the constitution, that "The church has sacrificed its native tongue, Latin....The church has made the sacrifice of an age-old tradition and above all of unity in language among diverse peoples to bow to a higher universality, an outreach to all peoples." The principal of full and conscious participation would dominate in the end.

Actually I am still waiting for the Mass to be translated into the vernacular. My Latin vocabulary is very small, but a Mass in Latin is more comprehendable to me than the majority of ICEL's translations into what is supposed to be English.

The other day David Ancel blogged the following:

Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

Well, the diocese decided to use the ICEL translation as a responsorial psalm, which goes like this:

Lord, send out your Spirit, and make the face of the earth come alive

Between living documents and the face of the earth coming alive I am going out to buy a suit and equipment similar to those used in The Ghostbusters and blast any of these things that come within shooting distance.

I was out getting my oil changed today and as I was waiting they would call other people in the waiting room and then show them something wrong with their car that invariably needed to be fixed now. I then wondered what would happen if the medical industry took on the oil change business ethic.

Mr. Jones goes to see his doctor for his annual physical. After being poked and prodded and X-rayed.

Doctor: Mr. Jones can you come here for a moment, I have something to show you. You see this build up and wear and tear around your heart. I think it is time to replace it.

Jones: I don't know, couldn't I just do it myself?

Doctor: Well you could but our service comes with a warranty.

Jones: Oh well, go ahead and replace it.

Doctor: Fine, now we come to your liver. Are you a hard drinker by any chance because there is accumulation of fatty deposits in the liver cells. If you would have signed up with our 50,000 mile checkup program we might have kept it from going this far. I would have that replaced with a manufacturer suggested liver to prevent cirrhosis.

Jones: Oh well, I might get it all done at once.

Doctor: Good, good. Now I don't want to worry you. But how long have you been going along with this body without doing maintenance on your circulatory and arterial system? Looking at the amount of clogage in your arteries I would think that you have probably been experiencing rough idling and conking out when trying to accelerate.

Jones: Well I have been feeling a little sluggish and there has been a noise that is hard to described.

Doctor: Just what I thought. I tell you what I will do, I will give you a break on the price of all of this if you get it all done today with our Mr. Goodscalpel guaranteed service and we will have you out in 20 minutes.

... 20 minutes later.

Jones: What's that red sticker you have placed on my head?

Doctor: Just to remind you to come in next year or 50,000 heartbeats; whichever comes first. And if you come in within the specified time you get 5,000 dollars off your next surgery.

The retired dentist will move to Corpus Christi, Texas — straight into the heat of August — to begin study for the priesthood. He'll be ordained at age 72 and is already the grandfather of four human children.

On his Web site, www.adoptmypets.com, Berry explains:

"My wife Leah and I retired and moved here in 1997, along with our cats and dog. We came for the climate, the skiing and the beauty. Little did we know what the Lord had in store for us. Within two years, Leah was diagnosed with an Alzheimer's type of dementia. In the fall of 2001 she began to decline rapidly, having a stroke in early December 2001 that ultimately led to her death in March 2002.

"In the year after her death, it became clear that the Lord had something more for me to do. After lengthy discernment and spiritual direction, I applied for entrance into the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. They have no age limit and have accepted me as a candidate. . . . I am unable, of course, to take my animals with me. . . . If I fail to find homes for them, I will have to leave them at a shelter where they will almost certainly be euthanized.
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Jayson Blair does a review of Matrix: Reloaded at The Lemon. Too funny, along with everything else in this issue.

FRAMINGHAM -- One week after the practice began at the Elks Lodge, the Sunday Mass celebrated by married priests will have a new home.

Louise Haggett, president of CITI Ministries which sponsors the Mass, said the service will be held at the Framingham Civic League on Rte. 126 this week.

Haggett said the Framingham Elks said lodge manager Walter Connery said the service had to be moved because the building is not handicap-accessible. Connery could not be reached for comment.

Haggett said she suspects "political pressures" were put on the Elks Lodge.

CITI, which stands for Celibacy Is The Issue, was founded in 1992 in Framingham in response to a shortage of priests. Its mission is to work toward the full use of married Roman Catholic priests in filling spiritual needs.

"The Elks is a non-sectarian organization. To my knowledge, they have never refused anyone unless unless it was a real radical group," said Haggett.

Bingo!

"We were told that we could no longer have Mass there because the building doesn't have handicap access. However, we are the only public group the Elks has canceled," said Haggett.

"We are not radical. We are not a protest group. We have no picket signs. The only thing we are interested in is having the Mass said in a free, non-judgmental atmosphere," she said.

According to Haggett, married priests are being summoned by lay people and the Catholic Church's canonical law, which states when (married) priests are asked for the sacraments, priests cannot refuse.

Talk about spinning cannon law. He kind of left out the part about having the faculties to administer the sacraments from the local ordinary or the exception being for persons receiving the sacrament in danger of death. I can't think of any circumstance where a Mass could be administered licitly when the priest does not have the faculties to do so.

Can. 843 §1 Sacred ministers may not deny the sacraments to those who opportunely ask for them, are properly disposed and are not prohibited by law from receiving them.

§2 According to their respective offices in the Church, both pastors of souls and all other members of Christ’s faithful have a duty to ensure that those who ask for the sacraments are prepared for their reception. This should be done through proper evangelisation and catechetical instruction, in accordance with the norms laid down by the competent authority.

Can. 976 Any priest, even though he lacks the faculty to hear confessions, can validly and lawfully absolve any penitents who are in danger of death, from any censures and sins, even if an approved priest is present.

"Celibacy is a man-made law. Before 1139, popes, bishops and priests were married," she said.

This is pretty generalized. Pope Adrian II who was pope from 867 to 872 was the last married pope. The majority of popes up to this time were not married at the time they became pope. Celibacy was already wide spread way before this time. Look at the desert fathers, the apostolic church fathers, the monasteries, especially the saints from this time period. The church made celibacy mandatory because of what it had learned during this time.

Roman Catholics still want to attend Mass but have become disillusioned for several reasons including its political agenda and the sexual abuse scandal, she said.

Priestly celibacy is not an article of faith but a prudent discipline. It does not matter what historically has been done in the past but what has been specified by competent authority.

"We are all devout Catholics and still want to receive the sacraments, but we don't believe in all the rules and regulations of the church. We believe if Jesus were here today, he wouldn't believe in them either.

You can not be both devout and disobedient. The only bar to the sacraments for these people is repentance. I know it is easier said then done, but if you truly want to receive the sacraments licitly then you have to rectify the situation that currently prevents it, not pretend that they don't exist.
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Update: Dale Price gave a more detailed and witty fisk of this group on an article from before they were kicked out of the Elk's Lodge. Scroll down to The First Commandment for Churches Trying to be 'Hep' and 'Groove Down' with 'the Young People': "Thou Shalt Not Meet At An Elks Club."

Researchers have found a possible link between the Lindisfarne gospels and another celebrated early British text, proving they may have been written at the same time in the same region.

The gospels are now thought to have been written at the same time as Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English people, according to the British Library.

The complex and lavishly decorated gospels are widely recognised as the pinnacle of Anglo Saxon cultural achievement.

They were thought to have been written by Eadfrith, the bishop of Lindisfarne, in 698 AD, as a tribute to St Cuthbert.

But the date has now been revised to around the year 720 AD.

Here is some other information on the Lindisfarne gospels:

In the 10th. century the Latin text of the gospels was translated into a form of old English in a literal manner, word by word, and with the translation inserted as a gloss between the lines of the original. It thus represents the earliest known translation of the Gospels into any form of the English language. The translator was Aldred, Provost of Chester le Street.

Interesting, 500 years before the Kings James version we have an old English translation. This page has some links to graphics displaying some of the pages from this beautiful gospel.

An article by Fr. John A. Kiley on modernism and VOTF

...Somewhere along the line I have acquired a reputation for doctrinal orthodoxy. And I know my weekly Visitor columns do little to dispel that notion. It was no doubt my rightist leanings that prompted the South County branch of the reform-minded "Voice of the Faithful" to invite me to participate on a panel discussing what parish priests expect from their lay parishioners. I respectfully declined the offer for the reason noted above. "If Father Kiley's involved it must be OK." My presence on this panel would give the impression that "Voice of the Faithful" is a diversified Catholic group with broad-based support. On the contrary, it is my opinion that "Voice of the Faithful," both locally and nationally, is simply "Call To Action" revisited.

The past 40 years have witnessed liberal Catholic change-agents unite under various flags. Sometimes they rally flagrantly as with "Call to Action" and sometimes quietly as with "FutureChurch." The accidents may change but the substance remains. They all subscribe to the National Catholic Reporter. Their heroes are James Carroll, Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, Gary Wills, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and Father Richard McBrien. They have all inhaled deeply of the Spirit of Vatican II. They speak loudly about lay participation, whisper quietly about women priests and maintain a respectful silence about abortion. Their great joy is community building. Their great dread is clericalism. Their great error is their loss of faith in the supernatural character of the church.

This is from Jonah Goldberg's latest g-file:

In a less politically correct age, we would refer to the Most Reverend Prophet Alpha Omega Bondu as a witch doctor. Maybe even an "ooga-booga guy." But when Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., gave the Most Rev. twelve grand to evict seven evil spirits from a Haitian psychiatric patient (that's $1,714 per spirit — a great value), the New York Times refused to traffic in any stereotypes. In fact, it bent over the other way, even refusing to call the service an exorcism. Instead, the Times reported that the $12,000 in taxpayer dollars had been spent on "religious counseling."

(A few quick asides on the Rev. story, just for color: The patient had hacked his wife to death and set her on fire in front of her children. Even though the Most Rev. only managed to exorcize four out of the seven spirits — a mere $6,800's worth — he was paid the full amount. The $12,000 payment was approved by the business manager of the hospital, who was also member of Bondu's church. The Times ignored the story entirely for three months, and then only mentioned the exorcism in passing, as part of a general story about the hospital's problems.)

When Jesus asked the demoniac his name he replied "My name is Legion; for we are many." Since a legion is between 3,000 to 6,000 soldiers then at $1,714 per spirit Jesus could have charged between $5,142,000 and $10,284,000.

Lowering FCAT passing scores will allow 1,000 to graduate

(Tallahassee-AP) -- The lowering of the passing score for seniors who took the F-CAT will allow about one-thousand who originally flunked to go ahead and graduate.

The F-CAT is given in 10th grade but a student who fails can take the test again five more times.

Nearly 14-thousand seniors have not passed the F-CAT, a requirement for grduation.
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I can just picture school superintendents as they keep lowering the bar - shouting "how low can we go" as limbo music is played in the background. There is no standard we can't lower - after all we have to be concerned with the stigmatizing of failing the F-CAT. The reporter who wrote this story might have been pubwick skool grad since he used the word "grduation."

I remember my six months stint as a Navy Recruiter until the Navy realized that a introverted geek was not the best personality for a recruiter (I will have to reduce the number of times I mentioned I was in the military or people will think I am John Kerry). We would give out a pre-ASVAB test in the office to get an idea on how people would do on the real Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). This pre-test was very basic in covering vocabulary and basic word-math problems. It was surprising to me to see high school seniors doing miserably on these simple tests. It was very hard keeping a straight face while explaining to them their results. Most people were under the impression that if you wanted to join the military you could just walk in and that was that. Over time I found that when I asked these people if they did any recreational reading, the answer was invariably no. I would recommend that they start reading in any genre that they might be interested in and then come back in six months or so. If this was a rarity it would be one thing, yet I constantly saw people who were 17 and functionally illiterate.

This experience opened my eyes to public education and it just annoys me to no ends to see an already low educational standards to be lowered even further.

Here is a recruiter joke for you -
Question - How can you tell when a recruiter is lying
Answer - When their lips move

Sir Paul McCartney's planned concert in Moscow's Red Square has been called "blasphemous" by a number of Russian politicians.

Communist and nationalist deputies said the 24 May concert was an insult to the memory of communist leaders, such as Lenin and Stalin, who are buried there.

"We find it absolutely senseless and blasphemous to hold rock concerts in a special graveyard where Stalin, Lenin, Brezhnev, Gagarin, and other prominent personalities are buried," an open letter to Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov said.
[Full Story]

This is ridiculous on too many levels. That you could call Blasphemous-grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred; toward members of a regime that was responsible for the most murders in history. Toward the inventors of the gulags. Toward those who built statues of kids who turned in their parents for not following the communist party line. That rock music as performed by Sir Paul McCartney's would be the crime and not the brutal thugs who lie buried there. I'll take Lennon over Lenin any day.

WHILE IT is understandable that President George W. Bush and his secretary of defense are receiving plaudits for the relatively swift military victory in Iraq, the fact of the matter is that most of the credit for the successful military operation should go to the Clinton administration.

As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld noted, the battle plan that led to the American success was that of General Tommy Franks, an Army officer appointed to head the Central Command by the Clinton administration. More important, the military forces that executed that plan so boldly and bravely were for the most part recruited, trained, and equipped by the Clinton administration.

The first Bush defense budget went into effect on Oct. 1, 2002, and none of the funds in that budget have yet had an impact on the quality of the men and women in the armed services, their readiness for combat, or the weapons they used to obliterate the Iraqi forces.

Given the way that Bush and his surrogates disparaged Clinton's approach to the military in his 2000 campaign, this is ironic. The president and his advisers claimed that Clinton had diminished the armed forces' fighting edge by turning them into social workers and sending them too often on ''useless'' nation-building exercises. These same people also claimed that Clinton had so underfunded the military that it was in a condition similar to that which existed on the eve of Pearl Harbor.
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Speaking as someone who served under Clinton for six years in the Navy until I retired, I would say that the military succeeded in spite of the Clinton years. We had planes that were not mission capable because we didn't have money for parts or pilots couldn't get their flight hours in because of lack of funding for AVGAS while top ranking civilians in the Pentagon went out spending thousands of dollars on meals. Because the number of ships had been so drastically reduced we were going on more deployments and spending less and less time with our families.

During the declining years of Bush-41 years they were looking for the peace dividend as the result of the victory in the cold war, so the trend started there but it greatly increased during the Clinton years. I don't remember one military program or weapons system that Clinton spearheaded to put through, I don't remember one speech encouraging the congress to fully support the military in funding. Many of the people put in charge in the civilian side of the military had no direct military experience and their policies showed it.

I also experienced the social engineering that went on and the silliness of paperwork that we had to fill out. I actually had to sign a page 13 in my service record specifying that I would obey the two man rule when going out on liberty. I was on the first carrier outfitted to go to sea with a mixed crew. We were not allowed to mention problems. We were not to talk to reporters about this implementation. There were so many women being taken off the ship and flown back because they were pregnant that our ship became a joke in the Norfolk papers. I remember seeing one editorial cartoon where there was a stork flying over the flight deck and the radioman says "Captain, the stork is asking permission to land." They even started to strip the urinals out of heads on carriers in the name of gender equality. There were also two physical standards, one for men and one for women when in came to physical readiness testing, yet in a emergency you would require every crewman to be able to lug out a P-250 dewatering pump or to carry a shipmate up a vertical ladder if they were injured. But politically these topics were untouchable and there was no one we could complain to, the party line was be quiet and bear it.

And why is it that the people who claim the military as Clinton's don't also claim the FBI and CIA that blew so many chances in possibly preventing 9-11, but I guess I just answered my own question. I also think that President Bush should have fired both of these directors, especially George Tenant. In many ways the caliber of the people in the military does not rely on what political party is currently in charge. I served under Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton and even with the vast differences in Presidents, it did not affect the positive can-do attitude of the people in the military. But the people in those leadership positions does greatly affect the support given them.

The WALT DISNEY CO. is set to spend millions financing a new explosive Bush-bashing documentary from Michael Moore [BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE] -- a documentary which claims bin Laden was greatly enriched by the Bush family!

DISNEY, via subsidiary MIRAMAX, has agreed to cover the production costs, said to be in the millions, of Moore's planned FAHRENHEIT 911.
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The Curt Jester has learned that in return for financing his next film that Mr. Moore has agreed to play Dumbo in the upcoming Dumbo III and to also call any further films he makes Donald Duckumentaries. Miramax films stated "When you think of a big fat dumbo who comes to mind first but Michael Moore, so this is a win win situation for us."

If you believe that the Catholic Church is totally wrong about:

• Women's ordination
• Abortion and contraception
• Divorce and remarriage
• Homosexuality
• Teachings will change in relations to these when the old fuddy-duddy Pope dies
  

Then shouldn't you also believe

• That the Holy Sprit does not guide the Catholic Church.

If the Church can be so wrong about the most basic teaching in morality that touch upon family life and sexuality then why should it be trusted on anything. To believe in same-sex marriage is to deny the procreative part of the Church's teaching on marriage. To believe that the active homosexual lifestyle is OK is to deny both the sins of fornication and adultery. To believe in divorce and remarriage is to warp Jesus' own words into something malleable and convenient to the individual.

Now you often hear argued that in these cases where the Pope has written about them that he wasn't declaring them Ex Cathedra, while that may be true in some cases it is only because the Pope saw them as already having been infallibly taught by scripture and/or apostolic tradition. Not everything we believe has been stated in infallible declaration, the church has not made an infallible declaration on murder since it has already been constantly taught through both scripture and apostolic tradition.

As I have posted before I don't like hyphenated words attached to Catholic like, Conservative, Orthodox or Progressive, I identify myself only as a Catholic. Since one of the meanings of Catholic is universal, to then place a modifier in front of it makes it not universal, but reduced to a viewpoint of a group.

The very Council that self-identified progressives allude to (but not normally by chapter/paragraph) said:

Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium)

LG 25:"Religious submission of mind and of will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff even when he is not defining, in such a way, namely, that the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to according to his manifested mind and will, which is clear either from the nature of the documents, or from the repeated presentation of the same doctrine, or from the manner of speaking."

To go on arguing about these issues is to show that you believe that you don't have to follow documents issued by a council and approved by the Pope. If you believe that you can pick and choose what parts of a council you agree with then you are saying that Bishops in union with the Pope can and are teaching profound moral errors.

Why do progressives want to stay in a church that is so fundamentally flawed? A church that goes on teaching things against their enlightened intellect. There are plenty of Protestant Churches out there that believe what the progressives believe, why not go there - or start your own church that matches your own beliefs. Just because the Catholic Church is 2,000 years old? - by their opinion it has been teaching error all that time. Maybe these progressive are Tribal Catholics as Mark Shea has used the term. Or maybe they have seen all of the shrinking, disappearing, and ever fragmenting groups that broke off in times past and want to enlighten the church from within instead.

When Dietrich von Hildebrand was preparing to enter the Church, the priest that was teaching him told him about the churches position on contraception. At that point he basically said that he couldn't understand this doctrine and thought it was silly. The priest then told him that he wouldn't be allowed to enter the church unless he assented to this teaching. He immediately assented to this teaching not because he understood it, but because he believed the Church was guided by the Holy Spirit and taught the truth in its doctrines. Later he became a great teacher and advocate on the Church's belief of the sin of contraception.

As I was working my way though Church doctrines as I was preparing to enter the Church I started with the idea of "Why doesn't the church agree with me on this question" and ended up thinking "Where am I mistaken in not agreeing with Church on this question." Funny thing was that my infallible self was so often wrong on these questions and with further understanding of the Church's teachings, that she was correct. If I had continued to think that the Church was wrong on moral issues I would not have joined it, what good is it to stand on a rock that provides a questionable foundation?

Saint Peter when faced with a doctrine taught by Jesus that he didn't understand did not say that Jesus was mistaken, or was caught up in cultural influences of that time period, but said.

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life;" --John 6:68

Get mapquest info for going from the Shire to Mordor.

This juicy story just gets better by the moment. Even before it can get off the ground, Michael Moore's next scathing documentary, "Fahrenheit 911," is already causing folks indigestion. Even tough guy Mel Gibson is queasy and uneasy about it. Mel's Icon Productions, which was eager to take on the project before Moore's famous "shame on you, Mr. Bush" Oscar speech, now has cold feet -- and according to Variety, has dropped the financing deal altogether. What timing ...
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Lately there been a couple of articles on the lengths that text book publishers have been going to sanitize history and to put in politically correct pictures and to eliminate anything that could cause offense. I now realize that this is not anything new at all The effort has become more comical, but our text books have long been perverting history or presenting it from a specific view point.

Since my initial conversion I have been reading a lot deeper into history. I am not any kind of scholar, yet what I have found out has made me feel like Neo from the movie Matrix. What I had been taught in pubwick skool about human history and the progress of it to modern times was a totally simulated reality devoid of any connection to the real world and the development of historical events. The total lack of information on the Church would be somewhat akin to someone writing a history book on the last century and not mentioning the United States at all.

The only mention of the Catholic Church in history was always negative. That the church worked to stomp out scientific progress -Galileo. Never a mention of the fact of the many scientists that were in fact lay or ordained Catholics. I learned about genetics and Gregory Mendel, but no mention of the fact that he was a monk and did his experiments in the pea garden at his monastery. No mention that both the University and the Hospital were Catholic developments. No mention of the monasteries that through their painstaking duplication of ancient writings that we even now have them to this day.

Initially when public education came about in the United States it had a very Protestant view point so it is no surprise that the the Inquisition and the crusades were put in the most negative light. But even these events had already been taken out of text book when I went to school back in the 70s. All that I knew about these events were mainly from Monty Python movies and Mel Brooks "The History of the World Part 1."

Church history is much like Old Testament Church history - we sin, we fall away, we repent, we sin, we fall away, we repent, we sin, we fall away, we repent - well you get the idea. This cycle has been repeated countless times and will continue to the end of the world. Christ has guided his Church through history, so even with the mistakes and the stunning lack of prudence that has occurred at times from members of his Church - Western Civilization is very much a byproduct of the Church.

I was surprised to find out how much the Church was involved in the various kingdoms by mediating disputes and speaking out against injustices. The prayers and example of the various saints that has indeed changed history. The efforts of the Church and it's members through what became the Magna Carta and developed into representative government as we know it now.

Hardly any of the Church's influence whether good or bad has made it into modern text books. History has been presented only as some key individuals influencing events either through political means or through science. The philosophical beliefs and reasons of these people have been omitted and everything has been replaced by a meaningless concept of an unmeasurable progress.

I have no idea how we could change this trend. Our pluralistic government schools will go on working either to present their secular view of history or will change things to avoid law suits or the ultimate human crime of someone possibly being offended. A good start would be that we as parents teach the truth and hopefully also that our Catholic Schools and Universities would also do likewise- wrinkles and all.

"Ever since the Reformation, the attack on the Faith has been principally conducted on the field of history...The time has come for us to take the counter-offensive; for, with the expansion of historical knowledge, history is now with us. Truth confirms truth." -- Hilaire Belloc

"An institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight." -- Hilaire Belloc

I found this on an obscure site called the Drudge Report.

DUBLIN, Ireland - Sinead O'Connor says she plans to teach religion after quitting the music business this July.

"I am retiring because I want to train to become a religion teacher of primary school children," the 36-year-old Irish singer said in a letter published Thursday in Dublin's Evening Herald newspaper.

"This will take some years as I also want to raise my own children, so it may be over 10 years 'til I qualify but I intend to make a start."

O'Connor, who has two children, said she also plans to work as a "visiting" church singer, "where I can hide and not be looked at. And maybe sing with a choir. Hire myself out for services. NOT WEDDINGS! Don't believe in them!"
[Full Story]

I wonder just exactly what religion she wants to teach. Here is something from an article published in 1999.

(CWN) Irish pop star Sinead O'Connor - who once famously tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II at a concert in New York-- has been "ordained" to the priesthood by a renegade Catholic bishop.

O'Connor-- who has two children by two different fathers-- was given the name "Mother Bernadette Mary" during last Thursday's ordination ceremony at the Marian shrine of Lourdes in France.

The ceremony was carried out by Irish Bishop Michael Cox, a former policeman who was ordained a bishop of the schismatic sect based in Palmar de Troya in Spain. Bishop Cox recently formed the "Latin Tridentine Church" with dissident priest Father Pat Buckley. Buckley, who was suspended from the priesthood by the former head of the Irish Catholic Church, Cardinal Cahal Daly, was last year illicitly ordained as a bishop by Bishop Cox.

But the two bishops fell out over a gift of IR�150,000 by Sinead O'Connor to Bishop Cox. The pop star said she gave Bishop Cox the money to set up a "healing center" for travellers (gypsies) in the Irish midlands. She also offered to pay for a hernia operation for the bishop.

Bishop Buckley said the donation was "disturbing" and he would be very worried "if the money was attached in even the slightest way to the performance of a sacrament." He said he had no difficulty with the ordination of a woman, but he was concerned that O'Connor had been ordained after only six weeks of theological study.

I remember seeing this before and thought at the time it was pretty strange for a Latin Mass traditionalist to be "ordaining" women. But it is even stranger that his qualms were about her limited theological training and the simony involved.

And here is another story on her temporary abstinence.

"I failed miserably," Sinead O'Connor confessed to Irish television on November 4, reports Agence France Presse. "I meant well by doing the celibacy thing but it doesn't work for me because I need love and affection ..."

The Irish songster vowed a commitment to chastity last April when she became a priestess of the Latin Tridentine Church, a maverick Catholic splinter creed. Irish rebel bishop Michael Cox performed the ordination, rechristening the singer with the nunnish-name of "Mother Bernadette Mary."

On Futurama last night Farnsworth is speaking to a group of protesters.

"Get off of my property"

one of the protesters replies "You can't own property."

Farnsworth replies "Yes I can, because I am not a penniless hippy."

Thanks to Ellyn vonHuben of Oblique House for indirectly showing me where to get Futurama graphics.

DUBLIN, Ga. (AP) - A school bus driver who reported an apparent burglary at his home, also told police someone took his marijuana.

John Randolph, 29, made the call Monday, according to a Dublin police department report. When officers arrived, Randolph said a thief took four "dime bags" of marijuana, along with a .22-caliber pistol, a gold necklace and $30 in change.

Officer Michael Milton reported that he asked Randolph about the marijuana again to make sure he heard him correctly.
[Full Story]

Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. has an excellent article on the Mass and how he celebrates it.

I knew most of the information in this article and it confirms my belief that the reform of the liturgy does not require any outside changes in liturgical law but by truly following the intent and actual documents of Vatican II the Mass can become more apparently transcendent and more worshipful of God.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Angering both sides of the abortion debate, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a fetus is a body part, akin to teeth, skin and hair that are eventually shed.

The ruling unanimously upheld the conviction of a man who tried to induce a miscarriage by slipping his girlfriend labor-inducing drugs. Edwin Sandoval argued he could not be charged with attempting to commit aggravated assault because the fetus was the target, not the mother.

Though the court held that the 5-week-old fetus was part of the woman's body, Chief Justice William J. Sullivan issued a separate concurring opinion saying a fetus might have ``its own independent existence.''

``In other words, the fetus may both be a part of its mother as well as its own individual being,'' Sullivan wrote.

Anti-abortion groups applauded the court's protection of the fetus, but criticized the identification of a fetus as a body part.
[Full Story]

Dale Price of Dyspeptic Mutterings wrote:

Evidently, Pepto Bismol comes in Industrial Strength. That's the only explanation for Jeff Miller's astonishing intestinal fortitude as he worked his way through the photographs and program for this year's Religious Education Conference sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

in relation to this post below.

Well normally I don't give away trade secrets for how to blog on liturgical issues, but I will make an exception this time.

Homilies giving you gas pains? Liturgical dancing making you dizzy. Inclusive language making you queasy? Can't stomach the heresies? Feed up with the innovations? Music making you nauseated? Then this product with you in mind has been created. Now in regular and maximum strength for those in-your-face progressive parishes.

Just take an hour before Mass and this product is guaranteed to keep you on your feet (especially since they removed the kneelers).

Also try our latest product, Alka-Psalter for those gut-wrenching ICEL translations.

*Product should be taken with plenty of dogma.

Leaders of the Christian right are thinking of bolting the Republican Party in 2004. Such a move would deal a severe blow to President Bush’s re-election effort.

Though Christian voters played a pivotal role in electing Bush in his razor-thin victory over Al Gore, NewsMax has learned that major figures in the evangelical movement, including James Dobson, are talking about withholding support from the Republican Party.

Conservative religious activists cite the latest insult: the Republican Party’s failure to rally behind Sen. Rick Santorum, whose comments about the upcoming Supreme Court case on consensual homosexual acts triggered a national firestorm.
[Full Story]

This is just plain stupid. The Republicans in office might be spineless political hacks, buy hey! there our spineless political hacks. As the Democrats continue to be the abortion party and the majority of Libertarians also firmly behind abortion we have no where else to truly turn to. OK so the Republicans have been slow on pro-life and moral issues, but the alternative is political parties that will firmly advance the culture of death.

ALAMEDA -- Just a stone's throw from Encinal High School on this island town's western end sits the once-bustling but now-shuttered Alameda Naval Air Station. The proximity is not merely physical: The school's athletic teams are the Jets, its newspaper is the Jet Blast, and its mascot is a smiling cartoon plane.

But the harmony between school and armed services is under strain now as a small group of Encinal's teachers and parents attempts to bar the return of a retired Marine Corps jet to a display on the school's front yard.

...David Olstad, a volunteer who assists on technical support issues at the school, said, "I'd just as soon see a .357 Magnum blown up and put on a pedestal. I mean, there's no difference to me. It's glorifying violence."

Janet Gibson, a school board member and Alameda resident since 1973, said she's long considered the jet an inappropriate emblem for Encinal. "I would think there is a better symbol for the school, something that might reflect education and intelligence," she said.
[Full Story]

If this school is like most government schools then maybe an appropriate symbol to put up is a large brain full of mush or maybe a globe of the world with the countries misnamed.

For the second time this week tragedy has struck an historic outcropping. Earlier this week New Hampshire awoke to find its stern granite symbol of independence and stubbornness, the Old Man of the Mountain, had collapsed into indistinguishable rubble. Last night during an awards ceremony for worst dressed celebrities Joan Rivers face collapsed while hosting the awards. Her plastic surgeons had used cables and epoxy to try for years to keep the famous profile from falling from erosion and the natural freeze-and-thaw cycle. They had warned that a collapse was inevitable, but few thought they would live to see it. Dr. Werner, plastic surgeon to the stars, publicist said "He had warned Mrs. Collins about the extreme tension on her face from repeated face lifts. She had signed a disclaimer after the Doctor was unable to measure her facial torque after her last surgery with the industrial eequipment he had in his office." Bystanders were counting there blessings that no one was hurt. High velocity facial particles were found as far as a hundred feet from the lectern.

I have the distinct pleasure to announce that our Governor, the Honorable George E. Pataki, has accepted my offer to join our fraternity and become a Master Mason.

On the cover of the next issue of the EMPIRE STATE MASON will feature him accepting my invitation at our meeting on June 6, 2002. Pictured also will be Brother Kurt Ott, Convention Chairman and Brother William Hetzler, both members of Schiller Lodge in the 9th Manhattan District. Brother William Hetzler is also the Assistant to the Governor for German Affairs and it was through his effort that the meeting was arranged and the Governor agreed to be a member of our beloved fraternity.
[Full Story]

From an article by Catholic Answers.

The Church has imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons. The penalty of excommunication for joining the Masonic Lodge was explicit in the 1917 code of canon law (canon 2335), and it is implicit in the 1983 code (canon 1374).

Because the revised code of canon law is not explicit on this point, some drew the mistaken conclusion that the Church's prohibition of Freemasonry had been dropped. As a result of this confusion, shortly before the 1983 code was promulgated, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement indicating that the penalty was still in force. This statement was dated November 26, 1983 and may be found in Origins 13/27 (Nov. 15, 1983), 450.

Read the full story at The Lemon.

Are you cohabitating and living with that special someone for the current time being and want to bring your relationship to another level without actually committing to another level? Want to show your significant other that she is still kinda significant" Then this is the product for you.

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We use a new patented will impregnated volatile chemical formula to make sure the ring only lasts as long as you want it to. Built of the same materials used make political promises! As soon as you become unhappy or want to move on the ring immediately dissolves.

The only commitment you need is to dial 1-800-FREE-MILK and order the ring of her temporary dreams.*

*Credit Cards only, No checks - someone who would buy our products can't be trusted.

Looking at the website for the The Religious Education Congress sponsored by The Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese Office of Religious Education I guess I am not really surprised by the pictures displayed.

Healing Mass for a head of lettuce?

Another possible caption might be "We have no salad but Caesar"

Or the old standby "Lettuce Pray."

I think the "angel" is about to pole vault using the processional cross.

If you don't stay awake we will flagellate you with this ribbons.

Do the Hustle!

The latest in Liturgical Sumo Wresting, first one who falls off the dias loses.

Here were some of the workshops.

Tony Alonso Living Catechesis Musically: Yesterday and Forever!

The GIA website says about him: GIA is proud to present the voice of a new generation in church music. He has a CD called Fresh as the Morning, and since the song is so insipid I am sure it will be inflicted on us soon. The song title sounds more like an ad for a new scent for Tide. The CD cover looks like it is from the Star trek episode with humanoids from planet Chiron (Half Black/White face) have now interbreed with Medusa.

Of course no conference would be complete without the masters of progressive liturgical music: David Haas and Marty Haugen.

Here are some other workshop titles:

Gospel Drama and the Dance of Discipleship

Re-imagine Liturgical Prayer

On Carrying a Scandal Biblically

Young Progressive Catholics Claiming Their Church

I must be really out of touch with the whose who of Catholic Speakers since out of a list of around 100, I only recognized the songwriters and one Call To Action speaker.

The blogmeister at Vociferous Yawpings politely calls me to task for my military emblems on the left side.

"By the way, you could use a Coast Guard emblem. The GC riverine is patrolling the Iraqi/Iranian boarder along the Shatt al Arab waterway and guarding the offshore oil transfer stations. I’d even be happy if we were listed after the Marines…"

I guess my unintentional U.S. Navy Sailor bias got in the way of remembering the Coast Guard. So from a real sailor (oops there I go again) Squid to a Coastie, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa and the graphic has been revised.

A doctor who performs abortions at the Hope Clinic in Granite City could have his medical license suspended or revoked for allegedly performing an abortion on a woman who wasn't pregnant.

The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation has filed a complaint against Dr. Yogendra Shah, and a hearing on the complaint will be held in June before an administrative law judge.

The judge will make a recommendation to the agency's Medical Disciplinary Board, which is comprised of seven doctors and two lay members. That board will make a recommendation to the director of the Department of Professional Regulation. The director could suspend or revoke Shah's license or impose some other type of discipline such as a reprimand.

The complaint accuses Shah of performing an abortion on a woman on March 26, 1998, when she was not pregnant. The doctor failed to perform a test to determine whether the woman was pregnant, according to the complaint.
[Full Story]

James Taranto of Best of the Web Today wrote in response to this article:

"...We had no idea it was illegal to perform an abortion on a woman who isn't pregnant, and frankly, this law is insane. If a woman isn't pregnant, even pro-lifers have no reason to object to her having an abortion."

I wouldn't agree with his assessment of pro-lifers not objecting to a women going through the procedure when they aren't pregnant. A doctor attempting to perform the abortion could still end up killing the woman through infection, hemorrhage, or uterine perforation. On a purely secular level I wonder if he paid for an operation only to find out later that it wasn't necessary would he not want any redress with the law? The will to do something morally wrong is the same as carrying it out. If I looked at a women lustfully then I have already committed adultery in my heart. If I went up to someone intending to kill them with a gun, but unknown to me there were no bullets - that mistake would not remove my culpability.

The Pope might soon allow the world's Catholic priests the right to celebrate the old rite Latin Mass on Sundays and holy days without the permission of their bishops, according to sources close to the Vatican.

John Paul II is understood to be ready to grant a "universal indult" by the end of the year to permit all priests to choose freely between the celebration of Mass in the so-called Tridentine rite used up to 1962 - before the disciplinary reforms of the Second Vatican Council - and the novus ordo Mass used after 1970.

It will mean that a priest who wants to celebrate old rite Masses will no longer need to apply for an indult to Ecclesia Dei, a pontifical commission set up to study the implications of the Lefebvrist schism, after first gaining permission from his bishop.

The indult may be announced as part of the publication of forthcoming juridical notes on Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the new encyclical on the Eucharist, published on Holy Thursday, in which the Pope affirmed the Church's traditional teaching of the sacrificial nature of the Mass.

It might also be announced at the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome on May 24, when Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the Prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy and the president of Ecclesia Dei, becomes the first cardinal prefect to celebrate an old rite Mass in a main Roman basilica for 30 years. Organised by the Latin Mass movement, Una Voce, the event is one of many indications that Rome is dropping restrictions on the celebration of the old rite.
[Full Article]

I am rather skeptical of this report being true. I personally like the old rite Latin Mass and have attended the indult Mass at my parish. I can see all kinds of potential problems with the approach of being able to offer either Mass. I can see priests being attacked by some people just because they don't do the Latin Mass or vice versa. Of course the Church as always had multiple rites celebrating the Mass and different religious orders having their own variation so maybe there might not be any major problems with this if the report is true.

First there is The Southfarthing Soapbox which is a group hobbit blog. Not only do they have the good taste to link to me but also to my favorite comic Get Fuzzy introduced earlier this year to me by my brother.

jessnjim, Jim (brother of Bill Cork) and Jessica Cork's blog.

Vociferous Yawpings, this blog is so anonymous that not even a pseudonym or email address is given. There is a link to my blog but under the name "Veritas". My apologies to Chris Burgwald for anyone trying to click his blog name and winding up at mine.

Yesterday at Envoy Encore I read about Jack Van Impe being called the "walking bible" since he has memorized the New Testament. I also can perform an amazing feat of memory. I have memorized everything that St. Joseph said in the bible word for word. Not only that but I can repeat his words in any biblical translation. I can recite his words with perfect inflection in Aramaic, Greek, Latin, French and even Navajo. Hard to believe but it is all true and now I am working toward memorizing all of Psalm 117 and then on to the whole Book of Jude. Ambitious isn't it?

St. Joseph please pray for those who are currently seeking employment and that they find work that suits them and provides for their family.

Here is a prayer to St. Joseph by Pope Pius X:

O Glorius St. Joseph, model of all who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work in the spirit of penance in expiation of my many sins; to work conscientiously by placing love of duty above my inclinations; to gratefully and joyously deem it an honor to employ and to develop by labor the gifts I have received from God, to work methodically, peacefully, and in moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from it through weariness or difficulty to work; above all, with purity of intention and unselfishness, having unceasingly before my eyes death and the account I have to render time lost, talents unused, good not done, and vain complacency in success, so baneful to the work of God. All for Jesus, all for Mary, all to imitate thee, O Patriarch St. Joseph! This shall be my motto for life and eternity. Amen.