Sorry, I have been AWOL, Parte Dos

Hello my dear friends...welcome to part two in the series, "I have been AWOL". Last time I was absent for a while....it was due to moving to Houston and starting a new job that literally had me working horrific hours and prevented me from attending Mass. I went from attending daily Mass (with an occasional absence) while living in Louisiana, to making it to only one Sunday Mass the entire 8-9 months I was living in Houston. My job totally consumed me...I was working about 100 hours a week (I wish I was lying to you)...and all day on Saturday and Sunday...which prevented me from making my Sunday obligation...this was a real problem for me. In addition, it prevented from doing the things I enjoy, such as participating in the Knights of Columbus...as a 4th Degree Knight...I had grown rather fond of The KC's and I always looked forward to working on another charitable project. My life in the Church was not the only thing effected...I also had no time to spend with my loving Bloodhound, Dakota...which is like my son, since I don't have any kids yet...and I also wasn't able to go golfing, camping, or just sit quitely under an Oak tree and stare into nature and think just how wonderful God is...I must conclude this now because my dear bloodhound Dakota is very ill and I have to take him to the Vet. Please pray. God Bless, Michael

I have been AWOL

I apologize to all of my friends for my extended absence. I assure you that I have not been on vacation. I am in the process of moving to Houston, TX. I am starting a new job on the 27th, and I am very happy to be relocating to what used to be my home town. I have found a wonderful Catholic Church in the heart of downtown Houston called, Annunciation Catholic Church. It is a very traditional Catholic parish...it doesn't even appear as if time and the winds of change have effected it, whatsoever. I am very excited about becoming a parishioner there. I will start bloggin again once my life regains a since of normalcy. God Bless you all...I love you all, Michael

When is the Vatican going to face the Crisis in the Church?

Is this picture not appropriate? Vocations to the priesthood and religious life have plummeted...Mass attendence is down...Baptisms are down...Divorce is up...and properly Catechized Catholics are becoming extinct...Most Catholics do not even believe in the Real Presence...Yet there are some Cardinals...such as Mahony who would like to say these things are fruits of Vatican II...and each crisis is actually a blessing from God to show us how much he loves us. If these things are fruit...then it should be recognized this fruit is horribly rotten. The "Spirit of Vatican II" is crippling The Church...when are these liberal, heterodox Bishops going to figure this out?

Abortion...yes, the numbers really are that high

(2nd Trimester Abortion)

I was speaking with an employee of mine the other day...she was obviously one of these "cut and run" democrats who said we should just pull out immediately. For justification, she cited the fact that over 3,000 American G.I.'s have been killed since the war started over 3 years ago. Don't get me wrong...every American life lost during any war is tragic and saddening...and I have known my fair share of loss...considering the first combat casualty of the Iraq war was a close friend and classmate of mine, 1LT Shane Childers...a very motivated, honorable, and capable Marine. All together, I have lost 12 of my Citadel brothers in combat...so the numbers are very real to me...however, lets put those numbers in perspective. The first day of the Battle of the Somme in WWI...20,000 British troops died and most of which were within the first hour of battle. On D-Day alone, during WWII, approximately 2,500 allied soldiers were killed...and over 400,000 Americans would be killed during the course of the 6 year war. Those numbers are frightening...and when you look at the number of casualties American troops are experiencing today...they are very small in comparison to the wars of yesteryear. Now let us take a look at these 3,000 combat deaths in comparison to abortion. Approximately 3,700 abortions occur daily in the United States alone...this means we are murdering our unborn children at an exponentially faster rate than we are losing soldiers during a multi-year armed conflict. If the number of American soldier deaths were equal to the daily deaths of our unborn children due to infanticide, we would have lost approximately 4,051,500 soldiers by this point in time. I find this figure to be staggering...it absolutely makes me sick. We have no value for human life in this country. People are fast to defend a woman's right to murder her unborn child...but they will fast and hold vigils for a convicted murderer, rapist, and child molester on death row...we have things ass backwards in this country. If those figures I typed made you sick to your stomach...how about these. There are approximately 126,000 abortions performed worldwide on a DAILY basis...this equates to approximately 46 million per year...We don't have to worry about overpopulating the world at this rate...we just need to worry about survival of the human race...we are murdering ourselves faster than we can procreate...and the figure that shocks me the most is that the number of abortions performed each year are so high, it equates to a lifetime average of about 1 abortion PER WOMAN. That means there are countless women having 5, 10, maybe even 15 of these procedures done during their lifetime. Something must be done about this horrendous and meaningless loss of life. If you want more detailed statistics, please follow this link: http://www.cbrinfo.org/Resources/fastfacts.html

Pius XII was an enemy of Hitler...not a friend

I tell you...something that really gets under my skin is when I hear illiterate jackasses talk about how Pius XII and the Catholic Church supported Hitler and the Nazis during the imprisonment and subsequent "Final Solution" of the Jews. This article clearly states what most Catholics have always known about Pius XII. See article below:

Pius XII and WWII
KGB intent on linking Pius XII with Nazis, says former spy

Washington DC, Jan 26, 2007 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- A former high-ranking officer with the KGB claims that the Kremlin and the Russian intelligence agency in the 1960s were set on executing a smear campaign against the Catholic Church, and the main target was Pope Pius XII.In a recent issue of the National Review Online, Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who eventually defected from the former Soviet bloc, recounts how the KGB and the Kremlin designed the deliberate campaign to portray the Pius XII “as a coldhearted Nazi sympathizer.” “In February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev approved a super-secret plan for destroying the Vatican’s moral authority in Western Europe,” writes Pacepa. “Eugenio Pacelli, by then Pope Pius XII, was selected as the KGB’s main target, its incarnation of evil, because he had departed this world in 1958. ‘Dead men cannot defend themselves’ was the KGB’s latest slogan.”The code name for this operation against Pope Pius XII was “Seat-12.”

Entire Article can be found here: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=8490

Pater, Fiat Voluntas Tua

The Prophesy of Isaias, Chapter 53
A prophecy of the passion of Christ.

1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? 2 And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: 3 Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him. 9 And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. 10 And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.
11 Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.

As a meditation...just think about God's love. What have we done to deserve it? What do we do daily to showhow much we appreciate his love and his sacrifice...a sacrifice that is so great our finite minds can not comprehend it. Just think...that in the fullness of time, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...however we knew him not...we despised him and counted him among the stricken...yet, He humbled himself to death on a cross...for no transgressions of his own...but for our own iniquities. The spotless lamb..the living and perfect sacrifice by whose blood our sins are washed away. Through Him, many will be saved. Therefore it was through man that sin first entered the world and with it death and condemnation...however by His death, acquittal and everlasting life came upon all of us.

God Bless you All

Throwing Touchdown Passes at Mass!!!

Ok...this is just a little rant of mine...but does anyone else have a parishioner...or several parishioners for that fact, who like to signal a touchdown every time the priest gets to the end of the "Our Father"? I know I see it more and more today than I did when I first converted to Catholicism...it is almost like you are not cool unless you do...heck, I even have people looking around and giving me dirty looks because I am not holding my hands up like my armpits are on fire...for those of you who don't know what I am talking about...it looks a little like this:

"For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever...."

Is this just the most asinine thing you have ever seen??? What is even more asinine is that it is not condemned by priest and other parishioners...they seem to accept and even promote these types of abuses. Lord help us all.