Novena for Religious Freedom! I found my way to this delightful blog of novena prayers and decided to join in on this one. Starting on Ash Wednesday, I am joining nearly 10,000 Catholics to pray a Novena for Religious Freedom! With so many faithful Catholics around the world praying this novena, I thought you’d like to join too! This is a special novena because of all that has been going on in the US. But, it is also special because it is focused specifically on praying to Saints who were persecuted or martyred. You can sign up for handy email … Continue reading
Category Archives: 1st Amendment
BURNING INCENSE BEFORE IDOLS Our fight against the HHS mandate is only the tip of the iceberg. Caesar is determined to force all to bow before his idol. Caesar is determined to claim the authority to define religious belief for all citizens of the United States, first amendment be damned. Clearly, the days of Rome have returned complete with all the evils of abortion and infanticide in addition to the worship of the ruler as a god. CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION AND THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS We have a Church that preserves by the power of the Holy Spirit the full … Continue reading
We face a major crisis with our own government ignoring the First Amendment of the Constitution and legislating to religious groups how they must abide by a practice that violates a major tenet of their religion. Here we have an article that I will be blogging around. it is a good article as far as it goes. It lacks some finesse in the history department and lacks some definitions. However, as a starting point for our discussion it is useful. God desires that we live according to His will because we have chosen to do so freely. Free will naturally … Continue reading
There are a lot of people writing about the problems with the HHS mandate. The Bishops conference posted a list of things everyone should know about this mandate. Fr. Z blogged a bit on this HHS mandate and on the new Washington State unnatural marriage bill. Fr. Barron videos on the Anti-Catholic and Un-American HHS mandate. Why I am Catholic has a piece on The HHS Mandate and the Lord of the Rings that is truly marvelous. This battle is bigger than the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution merely enumerates a FEW … Continue reading
I’m spending some time reading Psalms and Wisdom this evening as a balm for the stress I feel over the anti-Christian move of our federal government to violate our God given rights. Praying the words of scripture is a good daily practice but tonight, I think it is also for the preservation of hope. I need the reminder that, although our extremely powerful government has declared war on our God-given freedom to LIVE our religion without interference and thus violated our constitution which was written to limit the government and prevent just this sort of evil, God is in charge. … Continue reading
The Bishops have spoken out against the birth control and abortion mandate and urged people to take the action of signing a petition. This is a toothless effort. The time for signing petitions is long past. Petitions let people feel good about having done something when in reality they did nothing. What is needed is action with TEETH. Our representatives have voted for bad policies over and over, eroding our God-given freedoms with impunity. Catholics need to respond to these thefts with our VOTES. The incumbents are responsible for this mess– vote them out. Elected officials are failing to serve … Continue reading
Candlemas and the Feast of the Presentation UPDATE: I found this marvelous homily on the Presentation: HERE. I have to highly recommend this priest’s blog: Domine, da mihi hanc aquam. On this day, we consider the Holy Family arriving at the Temple to present their first born child and give the proper sacrifice. We think about the Holy Virgin completing her 40 days with the sacred bath that the Jewish Law required so that she could return to Temple worship. We read the words of Simeon and Anna as they are influenced to speak to Mary and Joseph about the … Continue reading
The following video hit home with me. The American Bishops have been defining “social justice” not according to the documents of the Church but instead according to the Democratic party for many years now. Because of this error, the care of the poor has been shifted from the Church to the government. True charity given freely has been replaced by forced taxation. Subsidiarity has been replaced with big government. The Christian serving Christ in the poor has been replaced by a hireling who follows rules and has little time or incentive to care about the individual. Human dignity suffers, opportunity … Continue reading
Over at Fr. Z’s blog he has a number of posts on the current political climate (like this one), but I wanted to quote from this one: Archbishop Carroll’s “Prayer for Government” Let us pray: PRAYER FOR GOVERNMENT We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name. We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, … Continue reading