You Are So Blessed

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world.

If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If your parents are still married and alive, you are very rare, especially in the United States.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can -- but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed -- because you can offer God's healing touch.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.

You are so blessed in ways you may never even know.


Source book: Becoming a Community of Salt and Light.
 

The Catholic Church and Married Priests

Australian newspaper, The Age, reported:

JAWS drop when Robyn Edebohls tells people what her husband does. "He's a Catholic priest," she says, and they say: "Sure, what does he really do?"
...
Father Edebohls was formerly the Anglican dean of Ballarat and archdeacon of Italy and Malta before switching to the Church of Rome a few years ago. He spent the past 18 months as assistant priest at St John's, Heidelberg. "It's been a life-long journey," he said yesterday.
...
But Father Edebohls said most could see the difference between a priest who had vowed to be celibate, then had to leave, and the issue of other married priests coming into communion with Rome. By order of the Vatican, he is a "priest in charge" rather than a parish priest, but he said this made no difference to his daily parish ministry.

Nor is his ministry that different from an Anglican one, although, being a hospital chaplain as well, he is busier now.

Read more...

I honestly have no problem with married priests. We have a married priest at the church I attended in Dallas. He is a former Episcopal priest, who became Catholic years ago. We love him A LOT. He's also a hospital chaplain and his stories are very inspiring.

But, those are not the only two married priests in the Catholic church. Here's more from ScienceDaily:

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Jeffrey Hopper is preparing for ordination under a 25-year-old program begun by Pope John Paul II.

Episcopal congregations are also allowed to join the Catholic church while retaining their traditional liturgy and married clergy.
...
About 70 former Episcopal priests are now serving as Catholic priests in the United States.

Once he is a priest, Hopper can administer sacraments and perform other functions. But, as a married man, he is barred from serving as a church's senior pastor.

Read more...

This is fair enough. If a priest DOES NOT want to go up in the food chain, then he should be allowed to marry. It's just an opinion.
 

Mysterious Death

There was this case in the hospital's Intensive Care ward where patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning at 11 a.m., regardless of their medical condition.

This puzzled the doctors and some even thought that it had something to do with the supernatural. Why the death? So the doctors decide to go down to the ward to investigate the cause of the incidents. So on the next Sunday morning few minutes before 11 a.m., all doctors and nurses nervously wait outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about.

Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer books and other holy objects to ward off the evil. Just when the clock struck 11, the part-time Sunday sweeper, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so that he could use the vacuum cleaner.


Source: Comedy Central
 

The Matrix and Vocations Recruitment

Does this poster remind of Keanu Reeves from The Matrix?Well yes it does.

Catholic Online reported:

The poster, which is modeled after an advertisement for the movie "The Matrix," is the brainchild of Father Meyer. It features a priest in full cassock -- and the requisite Roman collar -- holding a cross in one hand and a rosary in the other. And he is wearing sunglasses.

That simple juxtaposition provides the mood Father Meyer said he was aiming for when creating the poster -- he wanted to say something about today's seminarian.

"Today's seminarian," he said, "is engaged with the world but is also committed to orthodoxy, like (Pope) John Paul II."

Read more...

The Washington Times reported on Aug. 11th:

An edgy poster showing a somber Catholic priest in full black cassock and sunglasses posed like "The Matrix" star Keanu Reeves is proving so popular that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has snapped up 5,000 of them.
...
"If we can get high-school youth to hang a picture of a priest in their room, that's huge in helping young men to answer the call to the priesthood," the cleric said. "Anyone who is a 'Matrix' guru looks at the picture and automatically gets it."

Crucifix in hand, Father Meyer posed for the poster, rated R for "restricted to those radically in love with Jesus Christ." Running time is "all eternity," and its title reads, "The Catholic priesthood: The answer is out there ... and it's calling you."

Read more...

This may actually work. I need to get this poster for my nephew.
 

The Murder of Brother Roger

I should have reported this earlier. But, I got busy with other things. The Associated Press reported:

PARIS -- A Romanian woman suspected of killing the 90-year-old founder of an ecumenical Christian community was placed under formal investigation, a step short of being charged, prosecutor Jean-Louis Coste said Thursday.
...
Witnesses allege that the woman slipped into a choir of singing monks during an evening prayer service at the church and fatally slit Brother Roger's throat.
...
The woman had bought the knife the previous day, he said. But she "has not for now admitted to dealing the fatal blow," Coste added.

"She has maintained her initial explanation: 'I simply wanted to attract his attention and if there was such a serious blow, it's not me,'" the prosecutor quoted the suspect as saying.

A preliminary psychiatric exam concluded she suffered paranoiac delusions, Coste said.

Read more...

Attract his attention by slitting his throat? How cruel is that?

Brother Roger is the founder of Taize' Ecumenical Community. Here's a little bit about the community:

Taizé, in the south of Burgundy, France, is the home of an international, ecumenical community, founded there in 1940 by Brother Roger. The brothers are committed for their whole life to material and spiritual sharing, to celibacy, and to a great simplicity of life. Today, the community is made up of over a hundred brothers, Catholics and from various Protestant backgrounds, from more than twenty-five nations.

Read more...

This wasn't a good week for the Catholic church.


UPDATE 08/22/2005
Well, I guess the woman was really crazy. The Belfast Telegraph reported:

A Romanian woman accused of murdering the founder of a celebrated Christian community suffered from paranoid delusions and had been turned away by several convents.

Romanian officials and acquaintances of Luminita Solcan, 36, said she was a highly intelligent woman who had plunged into paranoia and religious mania after the death of her father seven years ago.
...
In recent years, according to Romanian officials, Ms Solcan has made several attempts to join a convent, first in Romania, then in other countries. "We knew that she was under psychiatric surveillance and we could not accept her," said Fr Cornel Cadar, spokesman for the diocese of Iasi, Ms Solcan's home town. After being turned away by convents in France, Egypt and Switzerland, she approached members of the Taizé community.

Read more...

Why do they let psycho people roam the streets?
 

A Catholic Priest Killed In Columbia

On Tuesday, I posted about the murder of two Catholic priests in Columbia. Yesterday, another Catholic priest was killed in Columbia. That brings the number of murdered Catholic priests in Columbia to three in one week.

The Associated Press reported:

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Gunmen dragged a Catholic priest out of a classroom in rural Colombia Thursday and shot him to death, bringing to three the number of clergy killed in the South American nation this week, officials said.

The Rev. Jesus Adrian Sanchez, 32, was teaching a high school religion class in Chaparral county, about 130 miles southwest of Bogota, when he was seized by gunmen, said parish priest Lizardo Monroy.

Monroy said he knew of no threats against Sanchez, whom he described as a good-humored priest who often rode his motorcycle to villages to celebrate Mass.

Tolima state police chief Col. Luis Ramirez said it was too early to say who may have killed Sanchez.

Read more...

Rest in peace Fr. Sanchez.
 

Prayer of St. Bonaventure To Mother Mary

When we follow her we do not lose the way;
when we pray to her we do not despair;
when we think of her we do not go astray.

When she holds us we do not fall;
when she guides us we do not grow weary.

O Mary,
your maternal heart embraces sinners
despised by the whole world
and does not abandon them
till they are reconciled
to their Judge.

Source: 101 Inspirational Stories of The Rosary


To be honest with you, this is the first time I've heard of St. Bonaventure. So, I googled his name and found the following information on Catholic Online:

St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Feast day-July 15)

St. Bonaventure, known as "the seraphic doctor," was born at Bagnorea in Tuscany, in 1221. He received the name of Bonaventure in consequence of an exclamation of St. Francis of Assisi, when, in response to the pleading of the child's mother, the saint prayed for John's recovery from a dangerous illness, and, foreseeing the future greatness of the little John, cried out "O Buona ventura"-O good fortune!

Read more...

Catholic Encyclopedia has different information:

Nothing is known of Bonaventure's parents save their names: Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritella. How his baptismal name of John came to be changed to that of Bonaventure is not clear. An attempt has been made to trace the latter name to the exclamation of St. Francis, O buona ventura, when Bonaventure was brought as an infant to him to be cured of a dangerous illness. This derivation is highly improbable; it seems based on a late fifteenth-century legend. Bonaventure himself tells us (Legenda S. Francisci Prolog.) that while yet a child he was preserved from death through the intercession of St. Francis, but there is no evidence that this cure took place during the lifetime of St. Francis or that the name Bonaventure originated in any prophetical words of St. Francis. It was certainly borne by others before the Seraphic Doctor.

Read more...

I like his prayer very much.
 

The Da Vinci Code

The debate over "The Da Vinci Code"book has reached the United Kingdom. The Associated Press reported:

The novel's premise that Jesus Christ fathered a child with Mary Magdalene has drawn strong protests from the Catholic Church, and the movie version has fanned whispers of discontent in the cathedral city of Lincoln in central England, where Tom Hanks and the crew were filming Tuesday.

"To a believer, any believer, what is happening is blasphemous," said Sister Mary Michael, who held a solo prayer vigil outside the medieval cathedral.

The head of Lincoln's Anglican cathedral, the Very Rev. Alec Knight, conceded that the novel was "far-fetched and heretical," but he defended the decision to allow filming. The cathedral accepted a reported $180,000 to double as Westminster Abbey in the Ron Howard-directed film.

"It has clearly touched the public imagination, and the church needs to open up a debate about it rather than throw one's hands up and walk away from it," Knight said.

Read more...

I don't know what to say about the $180,000 the cathedral received from the movie producers. But, I do agree with his statement that the church should be open for debate.

I read the book. I didn't take it seriously. Here's why:

1. I got angry reading the writer's claims.


2. When I reached the part about Jesus' public display of affection with Mary Magdalene, I started to laugh. I told my husband:
   

   
   If this is true, I want to go back 2000 years in time and live in THAT Middle East. The 20th century Middle East where I grew up was very different.
   

   
   That's when I stopped taking the book seriously. I actually thought the book was hilarious.


3. When I reached the last 100 pages, I got really bored with the book. By that time, I already figured who was behind the killings and the book started to feel like a slow thriller movie.

If you haven't read the book yet or already heard the conspiracy theories regarding Mary Magdalene, then you probably want to wait for the movie. Tom Hanks may turn the book to a very entertaining movie.


UPDATE Mar. 24, 2006
The Catholic church started a Web site called "Jesus Decoded." as an answer to the Dan Brown's fiction book.
 

Two Catholic Priests Killed In Columbia

The Associated Press reported:

BOGOTA, Colombia – Suspected rebels killed two Catholic priests Monday, ambushing their car with gunfire and explosives as they drove down a country road in northeast Colombia, police said.

Two laborers in the vehicle were also killed in the attack near Teorama, 260 miles northeast of Bogota, Norte de Santander state police chief Gen. Hipolito Herrera told RCN television.
...
The Catholic Church has played an active role in mediation efforts during Colombia's war, which pits the FARC and another leftist rebel group against right-wing paramilitary factions and government forces.

But the clergy's peace efforts have come at a heavy price. An archbishop, a bishop, more than 50 priests and three nuns have been killed by suspected rebels or paramilitary fighters over the past 20 years, according government figures.

Read more...

Columbia is a scary place to live in.


UPDATE 08/19/2005
A third Catholic priest was killed in Columbia on Thursday. Click here for details.


UPDATE 08/22/2005
This is very interesting:

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- The smaller of Colombia's two leftist rebel groups acknowledged Saturday that its fighters killed two Catholic priests earlier this week but said it was a mistake and vowed to punish the perpetrators.

"We are aware of the irreparable damage that this act has caused," the National Liberation Army, known by its Spanish acronym ELN, said in a statement sent to several local media. "We regret it deeply and ask for forgiveness."
...
But church leader Monsignor Hector Fabio Henao said the rebel apology was insufficient.

"I think the ELN should pay for their mistake not just by asking for forgiveness, but by opening a peace dialogue," Henao, who often mediated in peace efforts during Colombia's 41-year-old civil war, told The Associated Press

Read more...

Well, at least theyacknowledgedd their mistake. Yep, it's time to open a peacedialoguee. But, I don't see that happening very soon.
 

Best Beer In The World

I prefer to drink red wine over beer. But, this story is very cute:

The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labour - and brewing.

An online survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world's best.

But the abbey only has a limited brewing capacity, and was unable to cope with the beer's sudden popularity.

"Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine.
...
"We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks," the father abbot said on the abbey's website.

Read more...

Click here for more information on how to order this award winning beer from the abbey.
 

Biblical Pool of Siloam Uncovered In Jerusalem

The Los Angeles Times reported:

Workers repairing a sewage pipe in the Old City of Jerusalem have discovered the biblical Pool of Siloam, a freshwater reservoir that was a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city and the reputed site where Jesus cured a man blind from birth, according to the Gospel of John.

The pool was fed by the now famous Hezekiah's Tunnel and is "a much grander affair" than archaeologists previously believed, with three tiers of stone stairs allowing easy access to the water, said Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, which reported the find Monday.

"Scholars have said that there wasn't a Pool of Siloam and that John was using a religious conceit" to illustrate a point, said New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary. "Now we have found the Pool of Siloam...exactly where John said it was."

A gospel that was thought to be "pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history," he said.

Religious law required ancient Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at least once a year, said archeologist Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, who excavated the pool. "Jesus was just another pilgrim coming to Jerusalem," he said. "It would be natural to find him there."

Read more...

It will be very interesting to know what the other archaeologistss and scholars think of this new discovery.

If you need a login and password to access the article, then visit www.bugmenot.com

Nuns' Ministry To Circus Workers

I had no idea there were Catholic nuns' who minister to the circus workers and travel with the circus. The Houston chronicle reported:

"I felt something super special, something very special for me when I received the host," said Dominguez, a performer for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Her tears were for her mother and her family who could not share her spiritual moment deep inside Reliant Stadium.

"Always I saw the pictures of my mom making First Communion, and I wanted to do it, too," Dominguez said.

But like circus performers around the world, Dominguez lives on the road and works long hours on weekends, leaving little time for church services or religious instruction.

That's why Sisters Dorothy Fabritze and Bernard Overkamp live on the road and work diligently to bring the touch of God to the "Greatest Show on Earth."

But the two Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus do more than spread the word of God. They're also part of the circus: Sister Fabritze opens and closes the curtains during the two-hour shows; Sister Overkamp tends to the performers' wardrobes.

When they're not on circus duty, they spend hours teaching religious-instruction classes for Catholics and non-Catholics, as well as counseling and listening to the problems and joys of the circus workers.

"Our theory is that we need to be the living, breathing presence of Jesus Christ among these people all the time," said Sister Fabritze, 57. That means the sister act trucks across the nation hauling a trailer they call home. They converted one bedroom into a small chapel, and they sleep on bunk beds in the other.

Read more...

The report states:

1. The ministry to circuses in the U.S. Catholic Church began in 1929.


2. Five nuns travel full-time with circuses.


3. About 100 priests throughout the country minister to circuses and carnivals when they arrive in their cities.


4. An estimated 50 to 60 circuses and 300 to 400 carnivals traveling across the United States employ about 300,000 people, of which about 40 percent are Catholic.

This is very cool.
 

I'm Going To Ordain You

I read a very cool story today. It's the story of the man who taught Pope John Paul II English many years ago. The man became a priest twenty years ago. When he was young, he had other plans. Obviously, God prepared other plans for him. Here's the story:

...Fletcher, who studied clinical psychology in college, never intended to go into the ministry, but a man he affectionately called "Wujek," or uncle in Polish, predicted he would take that path more than a decade before he was ordained.

That man was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II. Fletcher met him while studying psychology in Poland in 1974. The country had a communist government at the time and Fletcher and other Christian students at Jagiellonian University, where he was on scholarship, dared to challenge the repressive regime.

"I was tear-gassed three times and the glands of my eyes were bursting with water," Fletcher said of the turbulent time there. "I was unable to close my eyes because they were so puffed up."
Wojtyla, who was the Archbishop of Krakow at the time, led Fletcher and some other students in prayer to encourage them.

In 1975, Fletcher became closer to Wojtyla when a nun who had been helping the then-archbishop improve his English asked Fletcher to take over the lessons. He tutored him one-on-one in Wojtyla's apartment for three years.

Read more...

The story gets better from there.

I learned over the years that Pope John Paul II had a great sense of humor. I miss him a lot.
 

Murder of a Catholic Priest In Lagos, Nigeria

Allafrica.com reported:

St. Dominic Catholic Church, in reaction to murder of one of its priests, Reverend Father Godwin Okwesili, said yesterday that the incident was not an assassination.

Okwesili was shot in the church premises on Tuesday at about 4.45pm by three men, who came pretending to give a parcel from the United States to a priest in the church.

In a statement endorsed by Father Gilbert Thesing, O.P. Prior, and Father MaryVin Ubili, there was nothing to suggest that the gunmen came on a mission to murder Okwesili or any other person at the church but rather to rob.

"He was shot dead in front of his room door. The robbers traded blames on the shooter, why did you shoot him? Why did you shoot him? The shooting ended their mission as they all left immediately."

Read more...

Rest in peace Fr. Godwin Okwesili.
 

20 Things God Won't Ask You On Judgment Day

1. God won't ask you what kind of car you drove; but will ask how many people you drove who didn't have transportation.


2. God won’t ask you about the square footage of your house, but will ask how many people you welcomed into your home.


3. God won't ask how much overtime you worked; but will ask if you worked overtime for those you love and more importantly those you do not.


4. God won't ask about the fancy clothes you had in your closet; but will ask how many others you helped clothe.


5. God won't ask about your social status; but will ask what kind of class you displayed.


6. God won't ask how many material possessions you had; but will ask if they dictated your life.


7. God won’t ask how much money you made, but will ask how much you selfishly kept for yourself.


8. God won't ask what your high salary was; but will ask if you compromised your character to obtain that salary.


9. God won't ask how many promotions you received; but will ask how you promoted others.


10. God won't ask what your job title was; but will ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.


11. God won't ask what you did to help yourself; but will ask what you did to help others.


12. God won't ask how many friends you had; but will ask how many people to whom you were a friend.


13. God won't ask what you did to protect your rights; but will ask what you did to protect the rights of others.


14. God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived; but will ask you how you treated your neighbors.


15. God won’t ask about what you did just on Sunday, but will ask what you did Monday through Saturday.


16. God won't ask how many of your deeds matched your words; but will ask how many times they didn't.


17. God won’t ask how many books you read, but will ask how many people understood the Bible better by reading you.


18. God won’t ask what college you attended, but will ask how you used your education to serve.


19. God won’t ask where you shopped, but will ask who you shopped for.


20. God won’t ask what you drove, but will ask where your driving took you.

Source: CHALDEAN.org