Anamchara

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT--CATHOLICS COME HOME

via www.youtube.com

The Diocese of Rockford, together with the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Joliet, are beginning an outreach campaign to invite fallen away and non-practicing Catholics back home to the Church.  It is a media effort running from December 16-January 24.  Three commercials will run on all TV stations in the area.  The first is "Epic" which is pictured above.  There will be follow-up programs in parishes after the media blitz.  All homilies in Advent and the Christmas Seasons will integrate the invitation with the Scripture readings.  Should be a fantastic opportunity.  Check out our diocesean website for even more info:  www.catholicscomehomerockford.org.

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT–11/29/09

READINGS: JEREMIAH 33:14-16; 1 THESSALONIANS 3:12-4:2; LUKE 21:25-28,34-36

  I.   The Media, The End Of The World, And People’s Fears

 A.  Have you ever watched the History Channel (also known as the “I Hate God” channel, or the “I’ve Forgotten All My Commonsense” channel)?  The folks there love to scare people to death.  They’ve dredged up the ancient Mayan Indians, married them off to Nostradamus, and told us the world is ending in 2012.  This is the same channel that tries to debunk everything about Jesus.  This is the same channel that tells you the Masons run the world.  This the channel an awfully lot of people watch and worry about.  It just goes to show that there are always people who want to scare us half to death when it comes to the end of the world.

 B.  Well, surprise!  The world is going to end, but we don’t know when or how.  People knew that back in Luke’s day too when he was writing the most lyrical and compassionate of all the Gospels.  He wrote down Jesus’s prophecy, that the world would indeed end, that we need to watch the signs of the times.  But Luke makes it clear that we watch not so that we worry, we watch so that we can be ready for the glorious coming of Christ the Son of Man.

 C.  The prophet Jeremiah says the same thing: when the Last Days come, God is going to save his chosen people and they will live in joy.  And St. Paul says that the Church should come together now in preparation for those Last Days and live in joy and love.

 D.  Upshot of all of this is: Don’t be afraid, Christ is coming, Draw together as the family of the Church and live in goodness and love and joy.  Nothing ultimately bad is going to happen to those who love Christ.  So there you ancient Mayan Indians–take that Nostradamus–and may your ratings decline on the pessimistic, skeptical History Channel.

THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION: FOR LIFE

 
 
  
  
  
Late last week, a group of Roman Catholic, Evangelical and other Christian leaders put together a ringing endorsement of the values of life, marriage, and conscience.  Check out the text here:  manhattan declaration.  You can sign the declaration here:  sign here.

What a great public witness from some of our Catholic leaders like Cardinal Rigali and Archbishop Timothy Dolan.  Perhaps a new day is dawning in Catholic witness to our faith. 

THE CELTIC VIRTUE OF DETACHMENT--video

   ACTA Publications, the publisher of my book,  The Shadow of the Cross, has a video of a Celtic prayer of Detachment that I updated for use in our culture.  Originally, it was a prayer by a monk about all he needed to be happy in this world.  Though this was posted over a year ago, I never knew about until today when I was surfing the web.  Check it out, I think you will like it.  It is in both audio and video versions.  http://actapublications.com/pow.php?id=39. 

CHRIST THE KING--HOMILY

 
FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING--11/22/09

READINGS: DEUTERONOMY 7:12-14; REVELATION 1:5-8; JOHN 18:33-37

 ARE YOU MY KING?

It was the month of bitter November,
When skies were gray and daylight was somber.
I fell asleep with the Bible upon my knee.
It was open to the place where Pilate, the Roman governor,
Condemned my Lord to Calvary.

And as I dreamed, I stood beside Pilate,
And both of us looked at that young Galilean--
 body whipped and clothing stripped.
Pilate the Roman smiled in contempt.
"Are you a king?" he asked of Jesus.
"Are you a threat to my Emperor?  By whom have you been sent?"

Jesus answered with a voice soft and low--
"A king?  Yes, but not as you think, not as you would know."
Then I spoke, full of bitterness and tears--
"Christ, I don't care about Pilate.  What he stood for and the Caesar
 he served are long dead and gone.
"I want to know--are you my King and if so how come you have not
 taken away my sorrows and banished my fears?  Why have you not kept me from sinning and hurting myself through foolish actions all these years?"

Jesus answered with a voice gentle and kind--
"I do not know my son--am I your King?--what kind of a king did you
 have in mind?
"I remember you wanting pleasures and wealth regardless of the cost
 to yourself or others.
"You sought them and wandered far, and I was not there.
"The lands of lust and wealth without responsibility exist outside my care--you traveled  there alone.  Am I your King, my son, when you have served another one?"

"No," I said. "You are not."  Then silence.  "But could you be, would you be my King?"
 I spoke again,
"Even if I was lost in this world of sin?"
And Jesus answered with a voice full of compassion and forgiveness--
"My kingdom is not of this world nor does it hold the world's false values.
"My kingdom is wherever I am.  If you let me be your King,
 gone will be your bitterness, loneliness and emptiness."

GOLLUM AS THE DEVIL: C.S. LEWIS' CLASSIC "THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS" COMES TO LIFE

via www.youtube.com

Got to love the voice! Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, is the voice of Screwtape.  If you are in a hurry, scan to the last thirty seconds to get a flavor of what he sounds like.  Pretty cool.  If you've never read the classic, give it a try.

HAD A HARD DAY? GET SOME PEACE WITH PUPPIES!

via www.youtube.com

Even a rough day can be forgotten with man's best friend. Enjoy one the coolest ways to ease the stress of the day!

THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS AND ALL SOULS--SO WE DON'T HAVE TO BE AFRAID

 
Picture:  The Pass at Mamean, Connemara:  The Stations of the Cross at St. Patrick's Holy Well (by ERB)

The great Celtic Spirituality writer, Fr. John J. O" Riordain, writes of All Saints/All Souls in his book Irish Catholic Spirituality, Celtic and Roman:

 

Irish hospitality extended no less to the dead than to the living.  It is still with us and has always been characteristic of our religioius expression.  There was a widespread belief, for instance, that the dead members of the family visited their old home at the beginning of November, the ancient pagan Irish feast of Samhain from which the Christian celebrations of All Saints and All Souls seem to have derived.  Leaving the door unlocked, having a good fire in the hearth, and the placing of a bowl of water on the table was a common mode of preparing the house for a visit from the dead at Samhain.  So too was the custom of lighting a candle for each deceased family member--a ritual performed during evening prayer in the home.  Kevin Danaher, the folklorist, once asked an old man if he was in dreaed of entering a haunted house.  'In dread of it?' replied the old man.  'What would I be in dread of, and the souls of my own dead as thick as bees around me?'  Having offered Mass at home on Samhain Night (our Halloween) I said to my aged father:  'They were all there tonight.'  'They were,' he replied with a perfect undersanding, as if I had been referring to a congregation of the living, but at that Mass the only visible persons present were himself and one of my sisters.  Whether people were 'alive' or 'dead'made little difference to him, for he was of a tradition that drew no hard and fast lines between life in gleann na ndeor, the vale of tears, or Tir na nog, the Land of the Young--i.e., heaven. (Dublin:  The Columba Press, 1998, p. 122).

OBAMA'S EMBARRASSING NOBEL PRIZE--NOT ENOUGH CLOTHES TO COVER THE EMPEROR

Just when it looked like politics could not be more ridiculous comes today's announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize for Barak Obama.  Nominations were due February 1, and as Creative Minority Report (to whom I give props for the great picture above) comments, he won after just two weeks in office when about all he had done was repeal the Mexico City Accords that prohibited federal funding of overseas abortions.  How embarrassing! 

Some blogs are criticizing the Vatican's response, but as I read it, it is rather tepid.  Obviously, they can't go negative, and their "appreciation" is about as tepid as it diplomatically can get. 

With the world growing darker, and evil mounting, Obama looks like  Neville Chamberlain surrounded by fawning syncophants who declare peace in our time all the while destructive forces mount their campaign against the good.  All right, I know I sound apocalyptic, but I can't help despair a little over the credulousness of humanity.  We already have one Savior and it is not Obama.  There can be only one God and it is not Barak.  And those who worship false gods are doomed to destruction.  Let's say a prayer for America today.  I can't judge the soul of the President; but true humility would have him postponing the acceptance of this award until he has  done something to earn it. 

GUARDIAN ANGELS WATCHING OVER ME

 Picture:  Guardian Angel Succoring  A Soul in Purgatory by Cecco de Carravagio.

The Feast of the Guardian Angels is October 2 and is sadly forgotten by many.  This oversight is one of the reasons why I love Catholic Celtic Spirituality--a type of spirituality that will simply not let a person forget these important guardians of the soul.  I found the above picture and I like it because it represents the angel's most important task, namely, the preservation of the soul.  I have no doubt that my angel has protected me from many a physical harm, but the guardian angel's main purpose is to walk with me through life and help me stay on the path of light. 

Here's a little prayer from the Celtic peoples of the Hebrides invoking the power of the guardian angel to protect them.  Again, look at the robustness of this prayer--may we all pray with such strength!

O angel guardian of my right hand,

Attend thou me this night,

Rescue thou me in the battling floods,

Array me in thy linen, for I am naked,

Succour me, for I am feeble and forlorn.

 

Steer thou my coracle in the crooked eddies,

Guide thou my step in gap and in pit,

Guard thou me in the treacherous turnings,

And save thou me from the scaith of the wicked,

Save thou me from scaith this night.

 

Drive thou from me the taint of pollution,

Encompass thou me till Doom from evil;

O kindly Angel of my right hand,

Deliver thou me from the wicked this night,

Deliver thou me this night!  

CELTIC MICHELMAS--CELEBRATING ST. MICHAEL AND THE ANGELS

The Celts love St. Michael, particularly those who are close to the shore of the sea and rocky crags over the ocean.  Skellig Michael is one of the world's holiest places in honor of the Archangel--see my previous posts on this day for cool pictures.  But what's exceptionally brilliant about the Celtic celebration of this angel's feast is that it broadens our image of Michael, reminding us that he is the saint of high places, of the seas, and of judgement for it is he who ferries souls to the judgement seat of God.  Here's a great prayer to the saint:

O Michael Militant,

Thou king of the angels,

Shield thy people

With the power of the thy sword,   

Shield thy people

With the power of thy sword.

Spread thy wing

Over sea and land,

East and west,

And shield us from the foe,

East and west,

And shield us from the foe.

Brighten thy feast

From heaven above;

Be with us in the pilgrimage

And in the twistings of the fight;

Be with us in the pilgrimage

And in the twistings of the fight.

Thou chief of chiefs,

Thou chief of the needy,

Be with us in the journey

And in the gleam of the river;

Be with us in the journey    

And in the gleam of the river.

Thou chief of chiefs,

Thou chief of angels

Spread thy wing

Over sea and land,

For thine is their fullness,

Thine is their fullness,

Thine own is their fullness,

Thine own is their fullness.  Amen

 

This ancient Celtic prayer said by the crofters in the Scottish Hebrides reflects the notion of the archangels' care over land and sea (C. S. Lewis showed this well in his Out of the Silent Planet Trilogy how angels take care of planets).  This prayer also reflects the Celtic notion of spiritual warfare--against whom?--why the Tuatha de Danaan of course--the fairies.  The Celts believed these strange beings inhabited the world with them and that they did not belong to Adam or Abraham but were allied with the Proud Father, namely Lucifer, who fell from heaven. 

Want to bake some St. Michael's Bread?  Click the page for more....