News Flashes

(a tough stance for tolerance)

Prime Minister David Cameron addressing the Munich Security  Conference said, “We will not defeat terrorism simply by the action we take outside our borders….We will no longer truckle to politically correct notions  of passive tolerance.”

Germany’s  Chancellor, Angela Merkel stated that her countrymen’s attempts to live side by  side have failed, utterly failed.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, “The truth is that in all our  democracies we’ve been too concerned about the identity of the new arrivals and  not enough about identity of the country receiving them.”

In Englandand Ireland, effective 9/16, Catholic will go back to the obligation to abstain from meat on  Friday. (Comment: Hurrah! This is a  positive step in demonstrating our Catholicism. And what do you think about  this? aljagoe@comcast.net.)

After being accused of sabotaging efforts by  Catholic Bishops to report clerical sex abuse cases to the police, the Vatican made  the rare move to recalling its ambassador to Ireland. (Comment: Ouch!)

(A positive  step toward tolerance) Ronald Levy, a Stanford professor was the first Jew to  receive King Faisal International Prize in Medicine (known at the “Arab Nobel
Prize”).

 

Today’s  Martyrs

Fr. Hguyen Van Ly, who is recognized as one of Viet Nam’s most prominent advocates  for religious freedom and related human rights, has been re-arrested after being temporarily released from his 8-year prison sentence because of having suffered several strokes and a brain tumor. On July 25, the bastard Viet Nam authorities took him from a home for retired priest and returned him to jail.  The U. S.  Commission on International Religious Freedom has condemned the Vietnamese  government for this act.

 

My favorite priest, layperson, breathing  saint or organization

Allen Hunt is  my kind of a man. For his background, he is a fellow Southerner — from Georgia, he has  also made several major changes in his life, and he, too, is a Catholic  convert.

After achieving a successful career in the business world,  he got his Master of Divinity degree at Emory School of Theology and a PH.D. in  New Testament and Ancient Christian Origins at Yale University.  For several years he was a popular minister in Methodist churches in the Atlanta region, including  a leading mega-church with a 7,000 membership.

As a new ministry venture, he initiated The Allen Hunt Show, which began as a  local talk radio show and soon became a nationally syndicated weekend show. He  then had to step aside from ministry to devote full time to his radio  show.  Then in 2008, he converted to the Catholic Church. The following year, Allen was named to the prestigious Talkers Magazine’s 100 heavy hitters in  talk radio.

The success of the Allen  Hunt Show is achieved by Allen’s talent in addressing issues of morality  and faith in a comfortable way.  His charisma vibrates through the air waves. In addition to the masses of devoted listeners whom he reaches each weekend, Allen is a fireball in his many charitable endeavors, such as his annual Allen Hunt Show Luncheon to benefit the Murphy-Harpst Children’s Home in Cedartown,  Ga.

I would enjoy hosting a lunch for Allen and my London friend, Canon Stuart Wilson. With these two  spiritual giants, I would sit back, keep my mouth shut and listen with delight.

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

aljagoe@comcast.net 

 

Interesting Sayings

Let our heart be holy and unpolluted, as far as is  possible and may be. For so shall we follow Christ, according as he gives us  the grace, and he will dwell joyfully in us.

Saint  Cyril of Alexandria  (died in 444)

We must be cheerful, ready to receive things much  greater than ourselves. Let us be like children clapping their hands and giving  vent to their joy in shouts and laughter. We have but one thing to do – a very  easy thing at first sight – just to admire the handiwork of God, to live it for  its beauty and riches, to clap our hands in our surprise at its glories and its  mysteries. Dom Anscar Vonier, O.S.B.,
abbot of Buckfast Abber in Devon, England (died  1906)

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a  member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. Mark  Twain

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others,  whenever they go. Oscar Wilde

Interesting Signs:

(In a  restaurant)  Unattended kids will be given a  shot of espresso and a free puppy

(On  a roadside) Drive Slow — See Our Village

Drive Fast – See Our Judge

(Historic Area- Fire Hazard  notice) Don’t even fart in the forest

Communiqués 

I think it was sacrilegious for you to picture Christ  holding a glass with an alcoholic drink! 
Mildred Rutledge, Jackson,MS

(Reply: Sorry, Mildred, but at the Wedding Feast at Cana,  I don’t think Christ ordered a diet Coke.)

As Joyful Catholics, in our day-to-day existence, we  must demonstrate visceral Catholicism.
Ellie Jacobs, Houston,  TX

 Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the first archbishop in Santa Fe, NM, wrote, “Let  there be a bonding with Jesus Christ. We deserve to be united with him by an
eternal love and joy.” Charles  Wiggins, Seattle,WA

 I am convinced one of the reasons many are  leaving the Church is    because Vatican II removed some of the pitons necessary in  practicing our Faith. Matilda  Miller, Cambridge, MA

It’s time to end the horseshit mentality war between  Jews, Christians and Muslims. Nostradamus, org.

Thank you for acknowledging the effective work  Missions-Connect is doing in helping the poor in Cambodia.   Khmer You, RT 

Chuckle  Time

Two nuns were embarrassed  when they went to the corner grocery store to get a 6-pack of beer for their  piazza party that evening. One explained to the grocer, “We use beer to wash  our hair. We call it the Catholic shampoo.”

He smiled and added a bag of pretzels, saying, “The curlers  are on the house.”

We do indeed need to show joy as Catholics

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

Michael J. Sheehan Archbishop of Santa Fe

 

The Thoughts of a Caterpillar,

…while during the lava period inside its cocoon, are in three stages. The first is pre-cocoon:  “During my crawling days, I worked like a Trojan 24 hours a day, moving and eating to be in good shape for my transition day. Then, with guidance from Something Outside, from my own insides I spun enough fabric to attach to a branch and completely encircle myself into an airtight cocoon.”

          Next comes mid-term: “After this task was finished, I completely relaxed and let happen whatever was to be. I sensed a phenomena taking place within me. So be it.”

            Third is the Wow! stage. “Look at me now that I have broken out of the cocoon! Instead of a row of tractor-like legs, I have four graceful spindly ones. My body is trim with long antennas at my forehead. And attached to my back are now unfolding two large wings with a beautiful pattern of many colors. Soon, I will flap them and be airborne.

          “When I was crawling, I used to look up and see butterflies flying and I said, ‘They’ll never get me up in one of those things’ and now I am one!”

          In many ways, we Joyful Catholic can relate. Regarding the pre-cocoon time, Saint Albert the Great wrote over eight hundred years ago: So long as man lingers, trifling with the objects of the imagination and senses, he has not yet passed beyond the limits and instinct of his animal nature, which he possesses in common with the animals. They know and feel through images and their senses, nor can it be otherwise, for they have no higher powers. Not so it is with man, who by his intelligence, affections and will, is created in the image and likeness of God. Hence it is by these powers that he ought, without intermediary, purely and directly to commune with God, be united to him and cling to him 

          The mid-term period is like the passive moments following receiving Communion, and after prayer and mediation when we relax and let the Holy Trinity take over. With faith, we don’t question our inner transition taking place, and we agree with Saint Cyril of Alexandria who said in 430, “Those who have maintained an honorable and elect life, full of all excellence, and have been accounted worth of attaining to a glorious and marvelous resurrection, will be necessarily raised for above the life which men led in this world.” 

          Our Wow! stage is when we Joyful Catholics are alert and let the miracles, large and small, take place. Under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, we accomplish and achieve what we could not have done on our own.  We flourish in a new life, filled with spiritual frisson. Now, let’s soar!

(How does this grab you? aljagoe@comcast.net) 

 

Recommended Readings

- “Mary’s Theocentrism” by Fr. Joseph F. Previtali, in the October issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review.

-  “A Showdown For the Ages” in the November issue of New Oxford Review, this is a warning from Tom Brejcha,  “The longer Notre Dame presses (the prosecution of the 88 protesters of President Obama having been honored), the more estranged the university will become from the prolife movement.”

-   the article by Kevin O’Rourke, O.P., “From Intuition to   Moral Principle,” in the November 15 America.

-         “Are There No Principles Left?” in the November Catholic League Catalyst, by its president William A. Donohue.

Quiz

The first to send the right answers to aljagoe@comcast.net will receive a gift copy of Light Reading for Good and Wayward Catholics.

1.     What was the maiden name of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton?

2.     Which of these four was not a missionary companion of Paul?

Silas, Barnabas, John, Mark, Matthew?

3.  Next to Warsaw, what city has the largest Polish population?