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October 2, 2015   Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels Reading 1 Bar 1:15-22 During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed:“Justice is with the Lord, our God;and we today are flushed with shame,we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem,that we, with our kings and rulersand priests and prophets, and with our ancestors,have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed him.We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God,nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us.From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egyptuntil the present day,we have been disobedient...

I just received this and considering the escalation of muslim aggression, I have every reason to believe we, in safe America, MUST be prayer warriors

You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness” (v. 18). - Psalm 88 Bestselling Christian books sometimes claim to hold the key to our “best life now.” Popular Christian music often has no place for grief. Both paint a picture of a Christian faith that is out of touch with the reality of life in this fallen world. For those whose spiritual diet consists solely of such things, Christianity may be a way to find success in this age or to achieve your full potential through positive thinking. But if this is...

October 1, 2015 Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 Neh 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12 The whole people gathered as one in the open space before the Water Gate,and they called upon Ezra the scribeto bring forth the book of the law of Moseswhich the LORD prescribed for Israel.On the first day of the seventh month, therefore,Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,which consisted of men, women,and those children old enough to understand.Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate,he read out of...

Moscow, September 30, Interfax - Russia should start combating ISIS militants without waiting for their infiltration into Russia, Kremlin administration chief Sergey Ivanov said. "The number of citizens of Russia and nationals of CIS member states who to our great regret join the ISIS terrorist organization is growing hourly rather than daily. The issue is about thousands of such Russians, not tens or hundreds," Ivanov told journalists after the Federation Council considered president's request to use Russian armed forces abroad. "Some of them have already returned to Russia, and it is easy to suggest - no need to be a...

September 30, 2015   Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 Neh 2:1-8 In the month Nisan of the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,when the wine was in my charge,I took some and offered it to the king.As I had never before been sad in his presence,the king asked me, “Why do you look sad?If you are not sick, you must be sad at heart.”Though I was seized with great fear, I answered the king:“May the king live forever!How could I not look sadwhen the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins,and...

“There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.” - Proverbs 6:16–17 In a day when many people think that God is little more than a really powerful grandfatherly figure who would never express His disapproval of anything, it is all too easy for those of us in the church to adopt a view of our Creator that leaves almost no room for divine hatred. Yet if we want to honor the Lord, we will certainly want to pay attention whenever Scripture speaks...

“But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). God wants every Christian to understand spiritual gifts and use his or hers wisely. A spiritual gift is a channel through which the Holy Spirit ministers to the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:11). The day we were born again into God’s family, His Spirit distributed to us a spiritual gift. Therefore, having a spiritual gift does not mean a believer is “spiritual.” What we really must ask is, “Is the channel clear?” Hypothetically, someone could have all the recorded spiritual gifts...

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints" (Eph. 6:18). God wants you to look beyond your own problems and pray for the needs of others. The great preacher D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, "Before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in Barcelona, Madrid and other places, there were psychological clinics with large numbers of neurotics undergoing drug treatments and others attending regularly for psychoanalysis and such like. They had their personal problems, their worries, their anxieties, their...

September 29, 2015 Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels Reading 1 Dn 7:9-10, 13-14 As I watched: Thrones were set upand the Ancient One took his throne.His clothing was bright as snow,and the hair on his head as white as wool;His throne was flames of fire,with wheels of burning fire.A surging stream of fireflowed out from where he sat;Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,and myriads upon myriads attended him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a son of man coming,on the clouds of...

It’s an embarrassing incident in scripture: Jesus and his disciples retreat into pagan, Gentile territory. They go there for a rest but Jesus’ reputation precedes him and a Syrophonecian woman pesters him to cast out the demon who is possessing her daughter. At first he will have none of it, saying his mission was to the lost sheep of Israel and then declaring, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” But the woman persists and Jesus declares that, because of her faith, her daughter...

SAN DIEGO -- A five-year old girl is at the center of a fight that pits freedom of religion against nondiscrimination rights. It's a fight that some say could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future. "I love my two moms." Those were the words of a little girl, who sat in front of a coffee table drawing pictures of her family instead of sitting in a kindergarten classroom at Mt. Erie Christian Academy with her peers. (snip) Team 10 reached out to the ACLU, the LGBT Center and San Diego Pride. None of the groups...

Pope Francis said on Monday government officials have a "human right" to refuse to discharge a duty, such as issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, if they feel it violates their conscience............ Although the Argentine-born pontiff delved into some of the United States' thorniest political debates during his visit, he never specifically referred to a controversy over same-sex marriages, which the Church firmly opposes. On the flight back to Rome, he was asked if he supported individuals, including government officials, who refuse to abide by some laws, such as issuing marriage licenses to gays. "Conscientious objection must enter into every juridical...

Over the past several days, GOP hopefuls looked to curry favor with hardcore culture warriors. Here's what happened.Last week was one for the political books. The Pope brought his message about the need to help the poor and deal with climate change to America, apparently leading Catholic Supreme Court Justices Scalia, Alito and Thomas to boycott his historic speech to a joint session of Congress. At the same time, the evangelical activist community held its annual Values Voter Summit featuring many of the GOP presidential candidates who once would have been excited to celebrate the pope’s visit but were instead...

“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). God has given every believer certain gifts and functions to contribute to the health of the church and enable it to communicate the gospel to the world. God fervently desires to reach the whole world with the gospel’s truth (Acts 1:8). Therefore, the Holy Spirit has specially energized members of Christ’s Body, the church, to fulfill God’s great...

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints" (Eph. 6:18). Your desire to know God should motivate you toward fervent prayer. Man's highest purpose is to know God. Jesus prayed to the Father, saying, "This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Of us He said, "I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me" (John 10:14). John...

September 28, 2015   Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Zec 8:1-8 This word of the LORD of hosts came: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am intensely jealous for Zion,stirred to jealous wrath for her.Thus says the LORD:I will return to Zion,and I will dwell within Jerusalem;Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city,and the mountain of the LORD of hosts,the holy mountain. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women,each with staff in hand because of old age,shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem.The city shall be filled with...

More than three decades on from the events that shot him to fame, Lech Walesa, the co-founder of Solidarity, is enjoying himself as Poland’s ‘enfant terrible.’GDANSK – It was difficult to know whether Lech Walesa was cynical, joking or dead serious. Maybe all of the above. His direct approach to, and simplistic views of, a complicated international reality can embarrass the listener. Nevertheless, it is clear that the former president of the Polish Republic – a Nobel Prize laureate, who co-founded Solidarity, contributed to the collapse of the Soviet bloc and became an icon of liberty and freedom – can...

September 27, 2015   Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Nm 11:25-29 The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied. Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad,were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp.They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent;yet the spirit came to rest on them also,and they prophesied in the camp.So, when a...

<p>Pope Francis made a thinly-veiled swipe at Donald Trump as the Pontiff defended Latino immigrants who came to America at ‘great personal cost’ during a moving speech to 40,000 followers in Philadelphia.</p> <p>Francis called on migrants from Mexico and the rest of the world to “not feel discouraged by all the challenges and hardships” they face, saying they should never feel ashamed of their own traditions.</p>