| "When you are excited to impatience, think for a moment how much more reason God has to be angry with you, than you can have for anger against any human being; and yet how constant is His patience and forbearance." |
| St Elizabeth Ann Seton |
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
From any evil, God can bring good. The evil of Mr. Tiller’s murder and the evils of Mr. Tiller’s thousands of abortions combined could not thwart God’s plans.
Somehow God always manages to get what He wants. When will we ever learn?
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65 years ago today the battle that would be the end of an evil, Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, began on the beaches and cliffs of Normandy. So many died that day and in the following days – they died that many, many more might live and live in peace. While there has always been conflict and violence we have not seen war like the world saw then and I pray we never will. May God give all the veterans of war peace of mind and heart and may God give us peace in our time. | |||||||
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So read the statement issued today on behalf of Dr. George Tiller’s family. My heart, my sympathy, my prayers of consolation go out to Dr. Tiller’s entire family. Setting aside the unspeakable tragedies Dr. Tiller himself is the author of I must say that there is nothing, NOTHING about this murder that is good or right. Dr. Tiller, just like the innocent babies he killed, did not deserve this violent death. I mourn the loss of Dr. Tiller just as I mourn the loss of the hundreds of children Dr. Tiller killed or caused to be killed.
I’m certain that Dr. Tiller’s murderer will be found to have been somehow, someway, “linked to the anti-abortion movement” – there is no doubt in my mind that this will happen. Having said that I will say firmly and frankly that the murderer is also insane and is *not* by any measure a Christian. The true Christian knows, and the Catholic Church plainly teaches, that “the ends do not justify the means”.
Dr. Tiller’s murder will do nothing whatsoever to change the number of innocent lives lost to abortion — it will do much to cause the vitriol of pro-abortionists to increase. Ironically, the very people who assure us that it is okay to murder an innocent child, will shout loudly and longly that it is the pro-life movement who is to blame for inciting Dr. Tiller’s murder. May God have mercy on Dr. Tiller and on his murderer. I pray for consolation for Dr. Tiller’s family and for the family of the person who killed him. On this Pentecost I pray:
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the
hearts of Your faithful and
enkindle in them the fire of
Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit and
there shall be another creation.
R. And You shall renew the
face of the earth.
Let us pray. O God, You have
instructed the hearts of the
faithful by the light of the
Holy Spirit, grant us in the
same Spirit to be truly wise,
and rejoice in His consolation.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Several weeks ago we noticed a robin flying onto our balcony. When we checked we saw the robin was building a nest. On May 7th we found 2 eggs in the nest.
On May 12th we checked again and found 4 eggs.
One hungry fledgling on May 23rd
They’re bigger – you can see all four fledgling heads & beaks in this photo
Not long ago a friend and I were discussing the value of social network applications like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc. I adamantly insisted they were wastes of time; he suggested that while perhaps we didn’t see any value in them many others (usually “younger” others) were tweeting and posting their hearts out – that these are the ways they communicate with their friends. I’ve tried them, I see very limited communications value here in nurturing a friendship, but that’s not what this post is about. Let me just say that Twitter proved an invaluable resource this weekend. On a hunch, I resurrected my hibernated Twitter account late last week and then began to check for other Catholics who were on Twitter. Quickly I found several I recognized and a few I immediately elected to “follow”. (If Twitter, tweeting, and following are unfamiliar to you – visit Twitter or Google Twitter).
On Sunday, before I left for Mass I logged on and discovered quite a bit of Twitter activity going on and very quickly garnered a few more Tweeters to follow. My interest was in what was happening at Notre Dame and among the tweeters I was following were several who were in attendance at the campus or with pro-life groups on or around the campus including Jill Stanek (a pro-life activist and blogger) and John Norton (an editor for Our Sunday Visitor). They, among others, were providing personal communications about things that were happening within their view and several other Twitter users were also providing info and links. In the end, I discovered that Twitter, as silly and frivilous as it had first seemed was actually an excellent communications tool. With it I had a multidimensional view of the happenings at ND within the commencement area, and outside among the “ND Response groups and the pro-life protest groups. Along with the information from the people I was following I also saw what were called “Retweets” – others who might have been following someone I was not following would pass those tweets on to their own group. By the time it was done I had garnered quite a list of tweeters and bloggers. I’ve definitely changed my outlook and have resolved to continue monitoring Twitter and Facebook after all.
For your information here are the Twitter users I connected with as a result of this weekend’s Notre Dame gaggle, all of whom provided some measure of reporting and personal experiences or passed them on from others. The links are to their Twitter page – there will be a link to their blog (if one exists and they’ve provided it)
It would be interesting to know how many pro-Obama demonstrators were arrested for “trespassing” in South Bend over the weekend. One blogger (I’ve lost the link to the blog) recounted how she and a friend got stuck waiting for Obama’s motorcade (departing) to pass. They parked, got out of their car with their pro-life signs and were promptly told to stay 50 feet back from the sidewalk. When the friend asked why the others (the pro-Obama folks carrying pro-Obama signs) were *NOT* required to move back she was arrested for being “belligerant”. If I can find the blog I’ll update this post with the link. Sorry.
So much bad publicity has been aired about Notre Dame that I thought this post would help prove that not *all* the students and faculty there are falling away – matter of fact this photo essay is rather encouraging.
We need more of these! Absolutely guaranteed to boost the Morale of the Faithful!
(H/T The Curt Jester)
I've had it up to my eyeballs with the torture debate. Can it actually be that the Obama administration would seriously consider prosecuting Bush administration officials over this? I am astounded at the mere thought of it. The magnitude of the implications are mind boggling. The loss of confidence that would permeate the lower echelons of our intelligence community, both civilian and military, defy anything we might have seen previously. The loss of leadership because the leaders themselves are in jeopardy of being constantly second-guessed by politicians and others who would harbor a grudge (real or perceived) could cripple the entire community. The result would be to turn the higher levels of our nation's intelligence gathering arm into an ineffective and inefficient bunch of waffling beaurocrats. Those who depend on their leadership would be left twisting in the wind. The net effect would be an almost total loss of an effective intel operation which in turn would leave our country virtually defenseless and I mean that quite literally. And for what? Revenge? I can think of no other motivation than obsession with revenge against all things Bush/Cheney, Republican, Conservative, traditional, and religious – not necessarily in that order.
If the current administration believes it can do the job of safeguarding our country against determined terrorists by reasoning with them – so be it. Have at it. I myself have no confidence in that method. Neither do I believe we should wage unrestrained terror of our own under the guise of “interrogation”. But to punish those who attempted to do what they believed best with the tools they had at hand would be tantamount to declaring all current and future government personnel liable for anything they said, did not say, wrote or did not write, did or did not do depending on the perception of someone in a future administration. Now, some have opined that they would simply be meting out “justice” to those who deserve it but I say they are playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship with our democracy.
Continue reading "Waterboarding and caterpillars" »
except where President Obama is concerned. Having been on vacation for a week I find that I was completely out of touch with the “Catholic” news on the net. I am thoroughly, and sadly disappointed to discover that Georgetown University, evidently a CINO school, actually obscured the monogram of Jesus’ name (IHS) on their dais so that it would not be visible when President Obama spoke there last week.
The IHS monogram is visible in this photo
The IHS monogram is not visible here (this is a frame from C-SPAN video)
(H/T The Dawn Patrol)
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, ?10? that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ?11? and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:9
(extract)…
I wanted to let you know some of the lessons we learned so you guys can better prepare yourselves for something similar.The only guys actually captured by the pirates were on the bridge: Capt, 3/M, and 2 AB’s. I don’t really know why they stayed on the bridge until the pirates got up there. Then they had keys to everything and were able to unlock everyone’s rooms.
The pirates got up to the bridge very quickly once they were onboard. We had a locked cage door over the ladder well from main deck, but it only took a second for them to shoot it off. They then got to the bridge up the outside ladders. By that time we had taken control of the engine and steering down below.
Read the very interesting remainder of this at the US Naval Institute Blog.
Perhaps even more interesting is a post on the CBS News Blog revealing Al Qaeda involvement in piracy.
We weren’t certain until yesterday that the foxes had made a den in a pile of brush not far from our home. But yesterday we sighted them all out playing in the sun – it was late in the day but the mother fox and all five of the kittens could be seen. In this photo you see the mother and the kittens are visible to her left.
A neighbor of mine is a 90 year old WWII veteran. He is a member (mind you, not “was a member”) of the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red 1) and extremely proud of his service with that unit. He loves to talk about his unit and the part it played in the invasions of Africa, Italy, and Europe. His memory is sharp – he can recall the names of men he served with; remembers incredible details of places and events – and loves to talk about those events to anyone who will listen. He loves to talk about them not because he’s looking for adulation for himself, it is obvious to the listener that is not what he wants. As you listen you will notice that in the telling you will hear him use the word “we” and not the word “me” or “I”. He rarely actually talks about himself (although he does have a few very interesting personal tales to tell). It is clear that for him, as for so many World War II veterans, the telling is a remembering for him and a reminding for us. That war decimated our planet and revealed the darkness that can live in men’s hearts, in their souls.
