I just read on Yahoo as well as on another blog that Nominee John Roberts has been renominated to succeed Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist as Chief Justice. Now we still need someone to fill the place of Sandra Day O'Connor. I can only imagine the intense questions to follow in the judicial nomination process.
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Monday, September 5, 2005
Sunday, September 4, 2005
I encourage everyone to pledge to say a rosary or prayers at the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima site. The Day for these prayers will be Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005, but anyone can participate just by praying in their own home.
From the site:
"Join us as we put into practice Our Lady of Fatima's message. Encourage your family, loved ones, friends and groups to say the Rosary with us on Sunday October 2, 2005 in the fight to preserve the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Register your pledge now.Image Source: Blue Army
"In registering your pledge, you will be remembered in Holy Mass at the Blue Army National Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Washington, NJ and in Fatima, Portugal. Your name will be placed in Fatima at the site where the Apparitions took place. (Emphasis mine)
"Please encourage your Catholic and Non-Catholic friends, family and loved ones, to register their pledge. With your help, heaven will smile as it receives 100,000,000 prayers for the sanctity of life."
St. Blog's Parish Hall, which hosts a message board and a great, huge list of Catholic blogs is closing down. The message board will close down within two weeks and if the list of Catholic Blogs does not find a new server it will also close down in around three months.
This site always helped me into finding other great blogs and I'm saddened to hear it is closing down.
Update: It will remain!
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This site always helped me into finding other great blogs and I'm saddened to hear it is closing down.
Update: It will remain!
I'm amazed. So far the Truth Laid Bear has collected $716,054 in relief for Katrina victims. This blog has had two contributions as of Sunday at 10:26 Eastern Time. Thanks go especially to Mike who contributed through this blog. All of your generosity is so much appreciated. These people lost everything, and it's great to see people uniting to make a difference.If you have not already donated please do so by clicking on the picture and logging your contribution.
Here's some contributions so far:
Walmart: $1 million each to the Salvation Army and Red Cross
BASF: $1 million
Hy-Vee: $100,000
Tyson Foods: Up to $1 million in food and finicial aid
Major League Baseball: $2 million, will donate $1 for every item purchased at MLB.com
Atlanta Braves: Will donate $1 for every ticket sold in the month of Sept. Braves Foundation will donate a minimum of $100,000
US Tenis Assoication: $500,000 from US Open proceeds through Red Cross
Atlanta Falcons: Raised $60,000 through silent auction
Various NBA teams pledging to the relief aid
NBA: $2 million
SEC: $1 million
Venezula: $1 million
Sri Lanka: $25,000 via Red Cross
Qatar: $100 million
Over 50 countries in varying amounts
The Knights of Columbus (a male Catholic organization) has donated $40,000 to immediate relief aid and our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has offered his prayers and condolences.
This is a very short list. A list has been made and is being updated with new developments on the International Response to Hurricane Katrina over at Wikipedia. See that list for much more!
Saturday, September 3, 2005
Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist died tonight at his home in Arlington, VA of thyroid cancer, which he has been fighting for nearly one year. He was 80 years old. This opens a space on the 
United States Supreme Court Court. And since Sandra Day O'Connor already has announced her retirement, there will be two available positions on the nation's highest court.
Please say a prayer for William Rehnquist's soul and pray for the long process of selecting another Court Justice. He was not Catholic but Lutheran.
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United States Supreme Court Court. And since Sandra Day O'Connor already has announced her retirement, there will be two available positions on the nation's highest court.Please say
a prayer for William Rehnquist's soul and pray for the long process of selecting another Court Justice. He was not Catholic but Lutheran.
This weekend I will be blogging for Hurricane Katrina aid relief. The most recent news I found is that President Bush has ordered 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf and that is great news. As of now the Coast Guard has rescued 9,500 people, but the world is still stunned with the chaos out of the Hurricane's aftermath.
Let us unite as "One Nation, Under God" and work to helping these people. If you have not donated to Catholic Charities yet please do so. Anything, even a $1, will make a difference.
I will post more on Katrina Relief as time goes on.
Update: Nearly half of the priests in the Archdiocese of New Orleans are missing. Pray for them!
Read more >>
Let us unite as "One Nation, Under God" and work to helping these people. If you have not donated to Catholic Charities yet please do so. Anything, even a $1, will make a difference.
I will post more on Katrina Relief as time goes on.
Update: Nearly half of the priests in the Archdiocese of New Orleans are missing. Pray for them!
Friday, September 2, 2005
It's just so horrible down there from what I see on television. I certainly am praying for those people.
President Bush today viewed the area and said the response was "not acceptable". Congress also passed a $10.5 million relief package, which the President immediately signed. It is certain to be one of many such packages to come.
Please keep these people in your prayers. To donate see Catholic Charities. These people also desperately need our prayers. Please say a decade of the Rosary (An "Our Father" and ten "Hail Marys" now for them).
Image Source: In the Public Domain (Wikipedia)
April 2006 Update: As of April 2006, the Bush Administration has sought $105 billion for repairs and reconstruction in the hurricane-damaged region (1)
I can't get over the horrible conditions in the hurricane-stricken areas of the US. These people are dying from thirst and hunger. There is just too much gone. As I was watching the news I heard stories of people dying and being left behind and it is just horrible down there with all the devestation.If you can please donate to someone, please do so. Money is the best gift for these people because it can buy almost anything - except their lives and family. Please also say a special Rosary for these people. The Rosary has done great things in the past and we need miracles now as well. Venezuela has responded by sending $1 million dollars in aid. It is one of many countries sending aid. A list has been made and is being updated with new developments on the International Response to Hurricane Katrina.
This weekend is set aside for Katrina blogging. A Blogging for Katrina Victims has been set up by the Truth Laid Bear, which has a list of hundreds of participating blogs. I will be participating in the Blogging for Katrina. I also like the great coverage on Christ-Haunted.
To donate please click on the picture in the top left if you can. May God bless us all.
New Orleans and much of the lower United States is flooded beyond use. It will certainly take years to repair all of the damage. So many people have lost everything...
Read about Hurricane Katrina on Wikipedia.
Image Source: In the Public Domain (Wikipedia)
Thursday, September 1, 2005
St. Maximilian Kolbe died as a martyr for the faith in a concentration camp where he offered to take the place of a father there for the man to be set free. He did so and instead of being led to the gas chambers, he was starved to death for over 3 weeks. He died by receiving a lethal injection. St. Kolbe showed unwavering love and exists as one of the greatest examples of commitment to Christ's words: "As I have loved you so should you love one another"
St. Maximilian Kolbe was born Raymond Kolbe on January 8, 1894, in Poland as the second of three children to two poor but pious Catholics. In 1910, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Order and was ordained in 1918. During that time, his father, Julius, fought for Poland's independence from Russia and was hanged by the Russians in 1914. His mother, Marianne Dabrowska, later became a Benedictine nun while his brother Alphonse became a priest too. After St. Kolbe's ordination, he returned to his birthplace in Poland and began promoting his Militia of the Immaculata movement of Marian consecration; it was founded on October 16, 1917, by St. Kolbe and six friends. He previously took the name Maximilian on September 5, 1917, at his first profession of vows.
St. Maximilian Koble was considered a wild child until he completely changed his life in 1906 after he received a vision from Mary. St. Kolbe said, "I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both."
St. Kolbe was a disciple of the media. He used the media to spread the Gospel. He started a shortwave radio station and published a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000. In 1930, he established a City of the Immaculata in Nagasaki, Japan. Above all, he was a brilliant theologian that helped develop the Church's understanding of Mary as "Mediatrix" of all the graces of the Trinity, and as an "Advocate" for God's people. He was also fiercely against the errors of Freemasonry.
In World War II, the Nazis not only imprisoned Jews but many Catholics - especially priests. ON February 7, 1941, he was imprisoned and transferred to Auschwitz death camp on May 28, 1941. He was branded as prisoner 16670. Because of his calmness and kindness, he was beaten repeatedly and given the worst jobs. But, nevertheless, he continued to hear confessions and secretly administer Holy Communion. In July 1941, there was an escape and the camp guards ordered ten men to die in retribution. Francis Gajowniczek, a father and a married man, was one of them chosen to die. St. Kolbe offered his life for Francis Gajowniczek to be let free so he could return to his family. The arrangement was made but instead of taking St. Kolbe to the gas chambers, he was forced to starve to death for 3 weeks. On August 14, 1941, his captors finally ended his life with a fatal injection. He was burned in the ovens there.
Pope John Paul II canonized St. Maximilian Koble in 1982 and placed a candle in his cell in Auschwitz in 1979. Pope John Paul ll called him a "martyr of charity". Pope Benedict XVI visited that cell to pray briefly when he visited Poland in 2006. St. Kolbe's beatification miracle was the July 1948 cure of intestinal tuberculosis in Angela Testoni, and in August 1950, the cure of calcification of the arteries/sclerosis of Francis Ranier was attributed to the intercession of St. Kolbe.
A Writing of St. Maximilian Kolbe:
I rejoice greatly, dear brother, at the outstanding zeal that drives you to promote the glory of God. It is sad to see how in our times the disease called “indifferentism” is spreading in all its forms, not just among those in the world but also among the members of religious orders. But indeed, since God is worthy of infinite glory, it is our first and most pressing duty to give him such glory as we, in our weakness, can manage – even that we would never, poor exiled creatures that we are, be able to render him such glory as he truly deserves.
Because God’s glory shines through most brightly in the salvation of the souls that Christ redeemed with his own blood, let it be the chief concern of the apostolic life to bring salvation and an increase in holiness to as many souls as possible. Let me briefly outline the best way to achieve this end – both for the glory of God and for the sanctification of the greatest number. God, who is infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom, knows perfectly what is to be done to give him glory, and in the clearest way possible makes his will known to us through his vice-gerents on Earth.
It is obedience and obedience alone that shows us God’s will with certainty. Of course our superiors may err, but it cannot happen that we, holding fast to our obedience, should be led into error by this. There is only one exception: if the superior commands something that would obviously involve breaking God’s law, however slightly. In that case the superior could not be acting as a faithful interpreter of God’s will.
God himself is the one infinite, wise, holy, and merciful Lord, our Creator and our Father, the beginning and the end, wisdom, power, and love – God is all these. Anything that is apart from God has value only in so far as it is brought back to him, the Founder of all things, the Redeemer of mankind, the final end of all creation. Thus he himself makes his holy will known to us through his vice-gerents on Earth and draws us to himself, and through us – for so he has willed – draws other souls too, and unites them to himself with an ever more perfect love.
See then, brother, the tremendous honour of the position that God in his kindness has placed us in. Through obedience we transcend our own limitations and align ourselves with God’s will, which, with infinite wisdom and prudence, guides us to do what is best. Moreover, as we become filled with the divine will, which no created thing can resist, so we become stronger than all others.
This is the path of wisdom and prudence, this is the one way by which we can come to give God the highest glory. After all, if there had been another, better way, Christ would certainly have shown it to us, by word and by example. But in fact sacred Scripture wraps up his entire long life in Nazareth with the words and he was obedient to them and it shows the rest of his life to have been passed in similar obedience – almost as an instruction to us – by showing how he came down to Earth to do the Father’s will.
Brethren, let us love him above all, our most loving heavenly Father, and let our obedience be a sign of this perfect love, especially when we have to sacrifice our own wills in the process. And as for a book from which to learn how to grow in the love of God, there is no better book than Jesus Christ crucified.
All this we will achieve more easily through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin, to whom the most kind God has given the task of dispensing his mercies. There is no doubt that the will of Mary should be the will of God for us. When we dedicate ourselves to him, we become tools in her hands just as she became a tool in his. Let us let her direct us and lead us by the hand. Let us be calm and serene under her guidance: she will foresee all things for us, provide all things, swiftly fulfil our needs both bodily and spiritual, and keep away from us all difficulty and suffering.
For more of his writings, see Let Yourself Be Led by the Immaculate
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