Stop Censorship, Stop SOPA Now

If this blog were self-hosted and not the free one that it is, I would have more control over it and I would join the black out today in solidarity with all of my fellow writers in their stand against SOPA. Stop SOPA. That’s all I have to say. Just Stop. Stop. SOPA. Now.

Praying for Peace, Facing Hatred and Death: A New Old Year for Christians Around the World

The New Year comes in the way the old year went out: Bombings and burnings of churches around the world, the persecution and massacre of innocent people. The mainstream media is strangely silent when it comes to reporting violence against Christians, especially when that violence is perpetrated by the Chinese, who own them and everything else in this country, or Muslims, for whom our left-leaning media have such adulation and sympathy. So in case you haven’t heard, while we here in the states are witnessing legal battles and name-calling, others around the world are witnessing to the faith with their blood poured out on the streets. Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. (Videos of testimony below.)

Video #1: Testimony by Ms. Cynthia Farahat: Egyptian Muslims Beat and Massacre Christian Copts

Where We Belong, my new favorite song

I was watching Life on the Rock on EWTN tonight (Dec 29 2011) and it was a clip show. Pretty good as such things go, but right at the very end they played some clips from the 2011 World Youth Day. The first song that played in the background — well, it finally ended. Then another song came on. And that one I liked. I mean, really liked. Grabbed my trusty phone and did a quick search and found it. Now I’m listening to Where We Belong as I type this post, track #8 on the CD entitled Free by Josh Blakesley. Lyrics below. I really like this song. And the band. And this guy’s voice. Yay! Good Catholic music! :)

Where We Belong, Lyrics

A city on a hill
where our strength is filled,
a beacon in the night
shines a holy light.
Let the darkness fall;
there’s a new day for us all.

Refrain
This is where we belong,
the place that we call home.
We gather as one body in one Lord.
This is where we belong
the place that we call home
we come to live and love where we belong.

A chosen place revealed,
people being healed,
new life will begin,
the dead will rise again.
Open up the doors
and let the healing waters pour. (Refrain)

Bridge
This is where we give our hearts,
this is where we share our faith,
this is where we make a diff’rence,
right here in this place! (Refrain)

Merry Christmas! Have yourself some free Bible study software!

In the Resources section’s Bible study links I listed some free software for folks running Windows. I really enjoyed using e-Sword and I’ve been searching a year for something like it for the Mac. Last night I discovered that you can install e-Sword on a Mac…if you install something else first. That something else costs money.

But then I found MacSword, which has been re-named to Eloquent Bible Study (personally, I like the name MacSword better). It’s free, installs easily and there are lots of free modules (Bibles, commentaries, etc) you can download into it (which is easy, easier, in fact, than adding modules to e-Sword used to be when I was using it on my Windows machines before I switched; don’t know if it’s changed). You can also get PocketSword for your iOS device. Adding modules couldn’t be easier. Get it at iTunes.

Have a very Merry ChristMass! Peace be with you!

Words on the Word from Word on Fire: Fr Robert Barron comments on Christmas

In the beginning was the Word. And below is a video from Fr. Robert Barron’s Word on Fire ministry wherein he speaks about Christmas and the Prologue of the Gospel of John. I love Fr. Barron. He’s prolific and eloquent and my laptop, external drives and iPods are filled with hundreds of his podcasts and videos. (A note about the icon below the video and a larger view.)

May your Christmas be a blessed, holy and joyful one. Peace be with you and with your loved ones throughout the year. Merry Christmas!

About the Church in the East: Light of the East on Catholic Radio International. About the Nativity Icon, Show #378: The Nativity. Download. RSS. I recorded the show yesterday on EWTN about the Christmas customs of the Church in the East and watched it this morning. They talked about the icon in this post or one similar to it. Fascinating stuff. Or it may have been Fr. Jacob Restrick, OP, and his series, Icons: Windows Onto Heaven. I recorded them both and watched them back to back. Of course, I can’t find any links to Fr. Restrick’s show. Argh.

Jesus said Only God is Good, oh, and Government?

When the Rich Young Man (referred to in Luke as “a certain ruler”) met Jesus, he called Him, “Good master” (or “Good teacher” in some accounts), to which Jesus replied, “Why dost thou call me good? None is good but God alone.” The irony was lost on the young seeker. But I just stumbled upon a website called “Government is Good” and the irony was not lost on me. The site’s author is filled with evangelistic zeal, singing the praises of government as he declares that:

“Most government programs are working well and are actually improving the lives of all Americans in innumerable ways.”

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Discerning Spirits, Setting Captives Free

Recently I turned on the TV and happened to catch the last few minutes of a retreat being given by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV. I had stumbled upon episode three of a ten-part series called Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teaching of St. Ignatius of Loyola. I have two of Fr. Gallagher’s books (The Discernment of Spirits and Meditation and Contemplation), which I’ve only begun reading, and some free mp3′s of some conversations he had with Kris McGregor of the blog, Discerning Hearts, which I’ve been listening to in the car. The DVD set and CD’s look really good, too, but I have more than enough to absorb for now. (Description of the Discernment series continues below.)

Goodbye Liberty, So Long Habeas Corpus, Catch Ya Later Constitution, Howdy Indefinite Detention.

Goodbye, Liberty. So Long, Habeas Corpus. Catch Ya Later, Constitution, Howdy, Indefinite Detention. And hello, good old Brave New America, home of those who have forgotten what it means — and what it takes — to be truly free. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, S. 1867, passed the Senate on December 1. This is the bill that includes language calling the U.S. a military battlefield and pretty much suspends habeas corpus for, well, all of us. Hear about it on the news? No? Imagine that. (Really, when was the last time you heard any truly important news on the news?) See how your senators voted.

S.1867
Latest Title: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012
Sponsor: Sen Levin, Carl [MI] (introduced 11/15/2011)      Cosponsors (None)
Related Bills: H.R.1540
Latest Major Action: 12/1/2011 Passed/agreed to in Senate. Status: Passed Senate with amendments by Yea-Nay. 93 – 7. Record Vote Number: 218.
Latest Action: 12/1/2011 See also H.R. 1540.
[Quoted from http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:s.01867: with the addition of the link to H.R. 1540 which was not provided in the quoted material.]

Read more and take action!

• Read the story and see how your senator(s) voted at Conservative Action Alerts.
• Read the bill.
• Read the bill summary and status.
• Please contact your senator and tell him/her exactly how you feel about this. I am going to tell mine that he just lost my vote. And that I’m going to tell everybody I can about this. I already am. And have been all day. I just hope it’s not too late to do anything. I only found out yesterday that this was happening.

Did it! Whew! 50,152 Words and I Finished NaNoWriMo

Whew! Did it! Finished NaNoWriMo with 50,152 words, got the winner’s goodies, and now I can get back to thinking about what I want to write instead of constantly worrying about word counts and quotas and deadlines, oh my! What did I write? I can’t tell you yet, I’m still developing the idea and I’ve got a long way to go.

Gestures and Postures of the Congregation at Mass

Well, this is helpful. Wish I’d known it was out there before now. I’m sure that in another place and time these things were noted in the rubrics. But somewhere along the way we tossed such helpful things and since then nobody ever knows what they’re supposed to do or when or how. Adoremus has a PDF file (from February 2010) called Gestures and Postures of the Congregation at Mass which is explains what we are to do, how and when. If I find an updated version, I’ll pass it along. See below for more from the Adoremus website:

**In response to reader requests,
“Gestures and Postures of the Congregation at Mass”, which originally appeared in the February 2010 Adoremus Bulletin, is now available in PDF format, or go to google document, especially formatted for printing on standard 8.5 x 11 paper (2 sides).

Permission is granted to reproduce this file for personal or parish use. For all other uses, please contact us.

**See also Church Documents page for official instructions and statements of the Holy See on these same topics.