Yet More Catholic Metal

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My 5 Favorite Postson on 50 Days After from Last Year

5. Arc vs Ark
4. Who Owns Who?
3. Catholic Pics from Facebook
2. Bishop Fulton Sheen Preaches
1. Poems in Honor of the Nativity of the Theotokos
Happy New Year to everyone! May this year bring many blessings to you and yours!

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Wisdom from Father Jose 6

He who is acclaimed by the crowds on Sunday, is crucified on Friday. -- Father Jose Ramirez

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Feast of St Stephen the Protomartyr

Today is the Feast of St Stephen so here is Good King Wenceslas:


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Merry Christmas!

h/t to Orthocath
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Seven Quick Takes Christmas 2012

1. Christmas is finally upon us! I always love celebrating the Nativity of Our Lord.
2. The icing on the cake is that this is a four day weekend for me and I get to spend most of it with my daughter. Next weekend is also a four day weekend. I'm going to miss this job!
3.  I can't wait to show my daughter the playset out in my yard that I got her for Christmas/birthday. She's going to be so happy!
4. I just found out today that there are plans to make a Doctor Who movie! I know. I am a huge nerd.
5.  I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. --Genesis 3:15
6. Every Christmas I think about the first Christmas tree I got for my new wife. I was stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska at the time and it had been -50ish F for about two weeks. She just had to have a real Christmas tree. Lowes and Home Depot were sold out. The only other place in town wanted $60 for their cheapest tree. My platoon sergeant at the time offered to drive me out into the woods on post and help me get one since he had a pickup and I had a hatchback. So right after work (we were on a half day schedule) we drove out into the back woods and started looking around at various trees alongside the road. Finally, we saw a great tree. We got out and slogged through the knee deep snow (It actually snow a lot less there than people think. However, once it snows that snow doesn't melt for a long time so it accumulates) up to the tree. I took the saw and started cutting but apparently not fast enough. "Sir, its too cold for you to take your time cutting it. Give me the saw." So then he finished cutting it down and we threw it in the back of his pickup and dropped it off in my garage. Then we went back to the office so I could get my car and drive it home. By the time I got home she was already there and was very thankful for the tree. I am thankful this Christmas for the wonderful memories that remain.
7.  

image source

 

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Life of Repentance

 

I was reading through my RSS feeds and came across this post.  It was about the quote from St Isaac of Syria on the scroll above, "This life has been given to you for repentance, don not waste it on vain pursuits."

I could go on and on about this, but I'll let it speak for itself.

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New Ordinary for American Ordinariate

VirtueOnline is reporting that Jeffrey Steenson, the former Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande is to become the first ordinary (its not a diocese so there will not be a bishop) for the American Ordinariate about to begin on January 1st.
A bio from VirtueOnline's report:

Steenson's Anglo-Catholic pedigree comes from being an Episcopal priest for 24 years including stints as the curate and rector at two Pennsylvania parishes -- All Saints' Church in Wynnewood, and Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, before going on to St. Andrew's in Fort Worth, Texas. From there he was elected, in 2004, to be bishop coadjutor for the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande under Bishop Terence Kelshaw. The former Rio Grande bishop has the distinction of being the 1000th Episcopal Church bishop consecrated with his "lappets" stretching all the way back to the first Bishop of Connecticut, Samuel Seabury who was consecrated in 1784. Steenson's consecrators included then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, his predecessor Bishop Terence Kelshaw, Anglo-Catholic Bishop Clarence Pope, indigenous Bishop Mark McDonald, and ecumenical Bishop Anthony Burton from the Anglican Church of Canada. Steenson became the eighth diocesan bishop in 2005. He was an Episcopal bishop for two short years before swimming the Tiber.

The Anglo-Catholic Bishop of the Rio Grande shed the purple in December 2007 and was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. This was done in Rome, Italy, at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major during a private ceremony officiated by Bernard Cardinal Law, the former Catholic Cardinal of Boston and then archpriest at a Roman basilica.

The former Episcopal bishop embraced the Pastoral Provision that allows for former Anglican clergy to become Roman Catholics and eventually recoup their priesthood. The Pastoral Provision is the precursor to the unfolding Anglican Ordinariate and will operate along side of it for those converting priests who do not wish to become a part of the Ordinariate yet want to become Roman Catholic.

One year after becoming a Roman Catholic, Cardinal Law ordained Steenson as a Catholic deacon. Fourteen months late, he was priested by Archbishop Michael Sheehan in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, located within the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which overlaps the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande.

Since becoming Catholic, Steenson has kept a high profile in his new Catholic circle. He has been active at various levels and has been seen at several Anglican Use events including attending Anglican Use Conferences where he has been the keynote speaker or the preacher at the solemn high Mass. In addition, he has been actively working hand-in-glove with American Catholic bishops as they hammered out the details of how the Anglicanorum Coetibus would be implemented in the United States.

In November, Steenson was introduced to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops by Donald Cardinal Wuerl. The Cardinal was then tasked with the implementation of the Anglicanorum Coetibus in the United States. Steenson was on hand when the Cardinal announced the January 1 date for the formal erection of the American Ordinariate.

The soon-to-be-named Ordinariate leader was educated at Harvard Divinity School and holds a doctoral degree from Oxford.

Steenson is now in Houston, Texas, where has been on the faculty of St. Thomas University and St. Mary's Seminary. He has also been instrumental in helping to set up the theological training that his brother bishops and priests will undergo in order to become fully formed Catholic clerics. He has worked at helping to develop the specific elements needed in the formation and retraining program. The former Episcopal bishop has worked closely with both Cardinal Wuerl and Daniel Cardinal DiNardo to get the unique seminary preparation program setup and running in time for the establishment of the Ordinariate on New Year's Day.

Once the Ordinariate is established, Steenson will be in charge of a non-geographic-type diocese, which encompasses the entire United States from Alaska to Florida and New York to Hawaii.

God grant him many years!

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Saint Quiz XIII

This Saint Quiz isn't meant to be difficult. I really just wanted to do another one. Since I haven't done one in almost a year, so I'll quickly explain that the object is to see who can name the depicted saints in the comment box.

Image source

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Wisdom from Father Jose 5

Doing many things at once, we find ourselves doing nothing at all. -- Father Jose Ramirez

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Sunday Snippets Mid-December

This week I had a few more posts than normal and I also posted at Catholic Dads.
Monday I posted the latest installment of Wisdom from Father Jose.  Thursday I posted a Nirvana video and another video about modern saints. Friday I joined in with 7 Quick Takes.

Head over to This That and the Other Thing for the rest of the Sunday Snippets.




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7 Quick Takes 16DEC

1. So I just finished (and started) my Christmas gift shopping yesterday afternoon. Now I just need to mail most of them and hope they get to my family in time.
2. I don't usually get political on my blog, but has anyone else heard about the provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act which allow the military to arrest American citizens as terrorists even within the US? Maybe we should arrest certain members of Congress for such a blatant attempt to undermine the Constitution.
3. On a more pleasant note, I bought my daughter a playset for Christmas and I can't wait to see her face when its set up.
4. I went to a white elephant gift exchange with the local young adult ministry. My gift was a pack of mousetraps. I ended up with two irons.
5. 5th installment of Wisdom from Father Jose coming up on Monday. I have a weekly post scheduled to post every Monday through the end of April.
6. Its great that everyone makes such a big deal about Christmas, but why doesn't anyone seem to care about Easter?
7. We Three Kings

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Youtube Video of Modern Saints

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Frances Farmer will have her Revenge

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Wisdom from Father Jose 4

"Truth cannot compromise."  

"We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. Lets all get along. Do not treat others with disrespect for everything we do, comes back to us."

-- Father Josecito Ramirez (Diocese of Boise)

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Sunday Snippets 10DEC

I seem to remember posting a lot this week, but looking back I hadn't hardly posted at all.
I had another entry in the Wisdom from Father Jose series.
I posted 7 Quick Takes this Friday.
 Check out This That and the Other Thing where Sunday Snippets is hosted every week.

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Someone visited my blog from the Vatican

I checked my Sitemeter page and looked at some of the stats and such of who is visiting my humble blog and saw this entry:

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7 Quick Takes 09DEC

1.  I learned how to get a burn permit for now on when I have fires to burn away the massive brush pile in the back of my yard that came with the house.
2. At Chick Fil-A there are posted rules. #1 is "Children must always have adult supervision (Sometimes vice versa)". Is it bad if you know it applies to you?
3. "Came a tribe from the north brave and bold, bearing banners of silver and gold..." 
4. h/t to Byzantine, Texas
 
5. Has anyone else pressed their face onto the glass and scanned it so they can randomly send it to someone at work? See #2 above.
6. My daughter bit the head off of her chocolate Santa Claus and went on and on laughing and saying how funny it was. I'm not sure whether I'm amused or disturbed.
7. The 8th is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Even though its only about two weeks from Christmas, its amazing to me how many people still think it is about Mary's pregnancy with Christ Jesus. 

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Wisdom from Father Jose 3

I bought a book about sayings, so that I may sound smarter... :) --Father Jose Ramirez

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Sunday Snippets

I posted a little more this week than I normally do. I started a new series of blog posts called Wisdom from Father Jose. I posted a YouTube video of Veni Veni Emmanuel in Latin. That is my all time favorite Christmas song. The next favorite would have to be God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. And lastly I posted some ramblings about the wonder of the Incarnation as we get closer to the Nativity of Our Lord. In the iconostasis I put along with this post you can see in the center that in the center are icons all about the Incarnation. On the doors are two panels for the Anunciation. To the left of the doors is Mary holding baby Jesus. Christ the Teacher icon is to the right of the doors and the Last Supper is just above the doors. The doors are open through most of the Divine Liturgy to symbolize the union of Heaven and Earth as symbolized by the space around the altar and the pews.

Of course be sure to visit RAnn's Sunday Snippets post to find links to all the others.

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The Wonder of Christmas

Has anyone else stopped and thought about how truly wonderful the Nativity of Our Lord really is?
Besides a virgin giving birth, Man and God are united in the Incarnation. His taking on flesh and becoming God AND man unites Heaven and Earth. Mary is like Jacob's ladder connecting the two. In the Mass/Divine Liturgy we worship in the same way as the angels as is described in Isaiah, Matthew, Luke, and Revelation. There also Heaven and Earth are united in that place.
Think about it.The Incarnation continues even today in the Eucharist. God makes Himself physically present and available to us, albeit in the guise of bread and wine.

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veni veni Emmanuel

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Wisdom from Father Jose 2

I heard it said "Marriage is finding the ideal person, whom you can ignore the rest of your life." Hope this is not true. -- Father Jose Ramirez

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Wisdom from Father Jose

"Homily summary: In the vineyard of the Lord (the Catholic Church) you can be a sour grape (disgruntled, angry and resentful) or a sweet-tasting grape (open, loving, and accepting). "

-- Father Jose Ramirez

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Sunday Snippets Week After Thanksgiving

I didn't post much this week. I posted a short rambling on the Pearl of Great Price Parable and I wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you RAnn for hosting again this week.

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Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for many things this year:  my daughter, her understanding mother, Miss S.F., the fact that I can celebrate Thanksgiving with my daughter (i.e. I'm not in Iraq or some other place), and also for those men and women who defend our country and ensure our peaceful way of life through force of arms.
By the way, Eucharist comes from a Greek word meaning "Thanksgiving".

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Who Owns Who?

The other day I was reflecting on the Pearl of Great Price Parable:
Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls.  Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it. --Matthew 13:45. 46 (Douay Rheims Translation)
While on the one hand, the merchant bought the pearl and "owns" it, but the pearl's attraction and allure were so strong as to cause the merchant to sell all his possessions and to return for it; forsaking all other wealth and possessions for the pearl alone.
So I ask who owns who?

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Arc vs Ark

The Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant into battle. Mary is the Ark of the New Coveant. The Arc of the Covenant is the rainbow given as a sign after the Great Flood that God would never flood the entire Earth again.

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Wedding Reception

I don't normally post personal stuff, but I want to rant about this somewhere:
Shortly after sitting down, a married couple sat next to my daughter and I. The wife was a very nice lady and I enjoyed the little bit I talked with her. The husband however had a series of things he said that really irritated me.
First, his wife went to the bar to get a drink and after a short chat about potatoes, which turned to talk about cooking potatoes, he informed me that all women are *@tches. He said that he has learned to accept that his wife is one too. I'm glad that his marriage has such mutual respect. I couldn't help but think at this point that if I still had a date, I could have talked to her instead.  I had my daughter there, but she had run off to play with the other little girls.
Later, he bemoaned the fact that most of Congress and most presidents don't have any background with the military but yet they make so many decisions for the military.
I replied that of course that's the way it is, because civilian control of the military is such a crucial element in our country. After all, its what has separated us for over 200 years from the two bit, third world countries that seem to go through unending strings of kleptocratic dictators, juntas, and generalissimos. There has actually been at least one occasion I can think of when the military was about to rise against the government and President Washington talked them out of it.
He became rather indignant and rambled on something. I was really doing my best to ignore him at this point. However, I did find myself talking him about all the equipment that would be left in Iraq and given over to the Iraqi security forces. He felt that we should take it back to the US and use it "along the border", presumably the Mexican border.
I just ignored him this time. That statement made absolutely no sense in so many ways:

1. Since we destroyed the Ba'ath Party regime and established the current government, we have an obligation to them to provide the means to defend their government and provide security to their people.
2. It much more practical to leave much of the equipment where it is because it saves time and money to hand it over instead of sending to Kuwait or Turkey to figure out where to ship it (spending more money we don't have) after that.
3. Do we really want to militarize the Mexican border? Realistically, the reason that our government doesn't do more about illegal immigration is because Mexican labor has become such an integral piece of our economy, from agriculture and construction to restaurant and maids for politicians decrying illegal immigration. Ask Alabama farmers who's picking their crops now!
4. Not only that, because of Posse Comitatus we'd have to had the equipment over to civilian law enforcement or the National Guard. Between the fact that so much of the National Guard is deployed and the expense of mobilizing the remainder its an unlikely option.

Somewhere around here my daughter was getting tired and cranky so I used it as an excuse to politely leave and hopefully never listen to him again.

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Saints and Scripture Jesus' Divinity

"Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus is accursed'”; and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit." --1 Corinthians 12:3

I've met many people who refuse to believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ (Mormons, Muslims, Atheists). I've also met people who profess the Christian faith, but refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is the Second Person in the Holy Trinity.
St Athanasius struggled against the Arian Heresy, which denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ. He was exiled a few times and his life was threatened, but yet he persisted in the orthodox faith. Today he is a saint and a hero of the faith. Some quotes from St Athanasius on Jesus' Divinity:
“Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.”
“He became what we are so that he might make us what he is.”(When you receive the Eucharist, you become one with the Lord Jesus)
“God became man so that man might become a god."
“He, the Life of all, our Lord and Saviour, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest He should seem to be afraid of some other kind. No. He accepted and bore upon the cross a death inflicted by others, and those other His special enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and by no means to be faced; and He did this in order that, by destroying even this death, He might Himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be recognised as finally annulled. A marvellous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonour and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death's defeat.”


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11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

Today is Veteran's Day and the memorial of Saint Martin of Tours. It is appropriate that Veteran's Day is on the memorial of a Saint who was a Soldier. He is also the patron saint of chaplains. He is recorded to have cut his cloak in two and share half of it with a beggar freezing in the streets. Later in a dream, the beggar was revealed to be Christ Jesus.
The cloak (capella) was preserved as a relic and brought with the kings of France on military campaigns. Priests went with the cloak on campaigns and came to be called after the cloak and gave us the concept for and the word chaplain.



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Father Kapaun Documentary on EWTN

A documentary about Father Emil Kapaun (candidate for both Sainthood and the Medal of Honor) will air on EWTN this Friday (Veterans Day) at 4:30 PM. I am definitely going to watch this!


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Sunday Snippets 05NOV

Posting was about average this week. I had a wire diagram of the Eastern Churches, a video of Bishop Fulton Sheen, and a gruesome reminder of continuing persecution.
Have a blessed day and please visit this week's Sunday Snippets at This That and the Other Thing.




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If you're curious about the Eastern Catholic Churches

H/T to Fear Not Little Flock

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Bishop Sheen preaches

Bishop Fulton Sheen preaches on the evils of Communism:
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