“We do indeed need to show joy as Catholics.   My motto
Be happily and uncomplicatedly Catholic.”

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News

• The European Court of Human Rights ruled that crucifixes can be displayed in Italy’s public schools.
• The Center  for  Applied Research in the Apostolate released a report showing that “the number of Catholic parishes in America has declined by 1,359 since the year 2000 to 17,784 in 2010, representing a7.1% decrease.”

My favorite priest, layperson, breathing  saint or organization

Originally from Ohiowhere she attended The University of Dayton, Paula Benson, active mother of three children, has touched the lives of hundreds of new Catholics in her 13 years of teaching RCIA at Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a radiant Joyful Catholic!

Last year, when the pastor told her to find a way for parishioners to meet-and-greet after Mass, she set up a coffee and donuts stand in the porch area at the front of the Church. Beginning after the 7:30 AM Mass, she has it in full operation. As a radiant hostess, she sees to it that no one is a stranger. Every parish should be blessed with a Paula Benson!

(Now, tell me about your favorite Catholic priest, layperson or organization that is making a difference aljagoe@comcast.net)

 

Interesting Sayings

What priests deserve is not only thanks but listening ears. Perhaps if everyone quit telling them what they should be, they might tell us what they need in order to be successful and healthy.  Bryan Cones, managing editor of U.S. Catholic

Never stop going into unknown territory of growth  Joyce Rupp

I intend to live forever, or die trying.  Groucho Marx

What is the thing that matters beyond all else, the thing that should give us utmost joy? It is this: that our names are written in heaven, that we belong to heaven, that we are the children of the Father who is in heaven.

Dom Anscar Vonie, O.S. B., abbot of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England
(died 1906)

Communiqués

 The reason for leaving the Catholic Church is not lack of faith but  the lack of friends. We have to make friends – we have to take the first  step. Sometimes ultimately, our own fault is the reason. Behave as a true Christian in all situations and then you will get happiness.

K. C. Thomas

 

 I enjoyed the epigrammatic style in your “Invite Jesus to the pub”.  Edgar Whitworth, Akron, OH 

What right do you have to discuss why people are leaving the Church? Rebecca Eddy, Boston, MA

(Reply: Good question, but somebody should do it. What are your thoughts about this?)

 Your blog’s desire to assist the Church is palpable.    Julius Torres, Little   Rock,AR

 

Chuckle Time

A Catholic friend once came to my Christian Scientist mother for advice. The woman explained that her husband had been abusing her and openly had a girl friend. 

My mother said, “I don’t want to advise you, but you should discuss this with your priest.”

“I did,” she replied, “and he told me to do nothing—just sit steady in the boat and act as if nothing wrong was going on.”    My mother said, “I don’t want to advise you what to do, but
don’t you know another priest?”

 

News flashes

  Paddy Power, the popular Irish bookmaker gives 2 to 1 odds that the next Pope will be Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria.

-         Music Monk Coffee advertises its produce as being “Faithfully Catholic.” (comment: strong? keeps you awake? healthy?)

-         Keith Nelson, also known as Kinko the Clown, said, “Before you call anyone in Washington a clown, consider how hard a clown works, and that clowns make people happy, and at the very least, do no harm.”

-         The University of Kentucky removed The Holocaust from the school curriculum “because it offended the Muslim population.”

 Today’s Martyrs

-         In Alexandria, Egypt, al-Qaida militants exploded a powerful bomb in a Coptic Church during a New Year Mass, killing 21 and wounding 80 parishioners. One of the survivors said, “All I could see were body parts scattered all over—legs and bits of flesh.” Angry Christians chanted, “With our blood and soul, we redeem the cross.”

-         On Christmas Day, Muslim extremists exploded a bomb at the Evangelical Chapel in Manila, Philippines, wounding a 9-year-old girl and 11 parishioners.

 My favorite priest, layperson, breathing saint or organization

Joyful Catholics deserves a Joyful Pastor.  And at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Bethesda, MD, that is what we have with Msgr. Edward Filardi.  In addition to his executive ability in managing a large religious institution, with ease he demonstrates his love and concern for all parishioners. He radiates the joyfulness of Catholicism.

Now, tell me about your favorite priest, layperson or organization that is making a difference

aljagoe@comcast.net

 Interesting sayings

Intelligence is the ability to take in information from the world and to find patterns in that information that allows you to organize your perception and understand the eternal world.

Brian Greene, author of “The Hidden  Reality”

 

Sarah Palen is an effective cheer leader, but don’t throw her the ball.

Regimra

 

 

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Ben Stein

Communiqués

To give controversy (which sells books) to her sorry Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Elrenreich calls Jesus “a wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist.” If she had said this about Mohammad, she would have put her life in danger and the publishing house would be fire-bombed. What wimps we Christians are!

Patrick Donovan

Your “The hell with trivia” is right on the target.  We Catholics get too fixated by the shadows to see the light.

Regina Lichbach

 Chuckle time

The Santa Claus in a department store was surprised to see a young woman in line.

   “And, my dear,” he said, “what do you want for Christmas?”
   “It’s something for my mother,” she said quickly.

   “That’s very thoughtful. And what is it you want for her?”

    She replied, “A son-in-law.”

Special Intentions List

As you pray with a broad brush, please include these loved ones, who have been submitted by our readers. You, too, are invited to send me names of your special persons who are in need of prayer.  My address is aljagoe@comcast.net. They will be on the list for 60 days. At the end of that time, if prayers are still needed, you merely have to renew the name.

Juanita Caldwell, Isola Todd, David Abbey, Linwood “Skip” Williams, Roseanne Somlock, Nicholas Gallagher, Tom Lewis, Donald Whitcomb, Violeta Zepeda, John Aylor, Rev. Joseph Marini, Enrique Portillo, Sharon McPike, Tom Ryan,Joseph Normile, Jim Quimby, Russell Edwards, Gertrude Goldstein, Rev. Stephen Huffstetter, Hugh Cannon, Eric Moore, Joan Barrett, 8-year-old Michael Fotta and his parents, Lolita Alvarez, Camilus Musselman, Ed Block, Isobel Milligan, Peter Bartkiewiez and his family, Joe Toles, Bob Earll, Camilus Musselman,   Ed Cole, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Jay Parker, William Stephenson, Roger Stoven, Bob Abbott, Denny Kline, Lois Pinkin, Larry Mannino, Cheryl DeSantis, Lenore Sommers 

The cholera victims in Haiti, those in refugee camps throughout the world.