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Excellent 4th of July speech by Tom Price,MD (R) Georgia's 6th District, to the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Atlanta. Tom Price/July 4th Speech >>>>> click on the "here!" URL Warning to Dems and other terrorists, it may not be to your taste.

Who was Isaiah? Msgr. Charles Pope • July 11, 2016 • Prophet Isaiah by Antonio BalestraWe are reading excerpts from the Prophet Isaiah this week in the Daily Liturgy, particularly from passages in which God’s judgment on unbelief and sin is proclaimed. I will write a bit more on this tomorrow, but perhaps for today there is some benefit in looking at Isaiah by way of overview. Let’s consider key elements of his life, struggle, and message. If you already have a firm grasp on Isaiah’s life and teachings and would like to read a shorter meditation, you can...

First, some historyThe Vatican Library was established in 1475 and is one of the oldest libraries in the world, and also one of the biggest and most safely guarded. Currently, Vatican Library holds about 75000 codices, 85000 incunabula and about 1.1 million books. Apart from all these, there are around 400000 coins and medals, millions of  photographs, prints, drawings. The library stores a large collection starting from the pre-Christian era to the present day collection. Vatican Library  is a huge collection, consisting of many languages from the west to the east, and has added Mathematics, Science, Social Science and other important subjects. What it...

The Chilcot Report has brought to light the absurdity of the conflict to bring down Saddam Hussein which has transformed the Country into a cesspool of terrorists. The Pope, already old and ill, tried everything to stop it. But in vainIn January 2003, during a working meal with some Vaticanists at the Nunciature in Italy, the then Secretary of State Angelo Sodano decided to reply to some questions on the already imminent Anglo-Saxon war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. “We say to our American friends: is it in your interest to anger a billion Muslims and risk having the hostility of...

The Ark Encounter, a full-scale, 510-foot long model of Noah's Ark, has opened to the public in Grant County, Kentucky.  It is the largest timber frame structure in the United States and the largest free-standing timber frame structure in the world. I find this fascinating in light of biblical prophecy, specifically 2 Peter 3:3-10: Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But...

Some Thoughts on Recent Tragedies and Racial Tensions Msgr. Charles Pope • July 10, 2016 • For some twenty-four of my twenty-seven years as a priest I have lived in and ministered to largely African-American parishes and communities. It has been a great blessing to me spiritually, liturgically, and personally.As you may imagine, I get a lot of questions from people when racially charged events appear in the news. I’m asked what my parishioners think as well as what I think.This past week began with the death of two African-American men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, in interactions with...

Love Lightens Every Load – A Homily for the 15th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • July 9, 2016 • One could easily reduce today’s Gospel to trite moralisms: Help people in trouble; Be kind to strangers; etc. While these are certainly good thoughts, I would argue that it is about far deeper things than human kindness or ethics. This is a Gospel about the transformative power of God’s love and our need to receive it. It is not a Gospel that can be understood as a demand of the flesh.Let’s look at the Gospel in three...

Restorers, after clearing away centuries of dirt, discovered the Church of the Nativity had a seventh mosaicAn Italian team has completed restoration of Crusader-era mosaics in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The mosaics will only be unveiled publicly after work on lighting, electricity and a fire alarm system. The work involved removing the layers of centuries-worth of soot and dirt – a result of the smoke of candles lit by pilgrims coming to venerate the site traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus – from about 1.55 million tiny mosaic pieces that were reviewed and restored. “I...

When Israel Was a Child I Loved Him - A Meditation on the Heavenly Father’s Love Msgr. Charles Pope • July 7, 2016 • We recently pondered the story of Hosea’s marriage and through it had a glimpse into the heart of God. In today’s reading from Hosea, we get another look into the heart of the Father, not from the perspective of God as husband, but as Father to Israel. In this passage we get another moving portrait of a God who loves tenderly and immensely but who is also grieved at His son’s rebelliousness and all the...

Were the Pagan Gods Actually Demons? The Scriptural View and Why It Matters Msgr. Charles Pope • July 6, 2016 • There is a tendency for us to simplistically dismiss the gods of the ancient world as mere figments of human imagination, but the biblical approach is a bit more complex than that.To be clear, at no time in the Scriptures were these gods ever acknowledged to be gods in any true sense of the word. There is only one God and He is the LORD.Consider the following text by St. Paul:For although there may be so-called gods in...

The Story of Hosea and What It Teaches About God and Holy Matrimony Msgr. Charles Pope • July 5, 2016 • We are currently reading from the Book of the Prophet Hosea at daily Mass. The story of the Prophet Hosea’s troubled marriage is a powerful testimony to two things: our own tendency to be unfaithful to God, but also of God’s passionate love for us. We do well to recall the story, especially given the “great debate” among some in the Church today over the question of divorce and remarriage. And while there are many painful stories of...

Let Us Fall by the Hand of God Rather than by Man - A Meditation on the Paradoxical Mercy of God’s Punishments Msgr. Charles Pope • July 4, 2016 • One of the paradoxes of God’s mercy is that through it He punishes wrongdoing. At first glance, mercy and punishment seem contradictory.But the apparent contradiction is rooted in the premise that punishment is the same as vengeance. This premise holds that the one who punishes is merely exacting revenge for some offense, or that the punishment is merely a way for the more powerful to vent their anger on...

In my essay “10 Things You Should Know About the American Founding” I focused on some little-known facts about the American Founding in general. The final three of those “10 things” mentioned Catholics and Catholicism, including how “every colony had some form of anti-Catholic law, except for Pennsylvania. The farther north one journeyed, the stronger the anti-Catholicism became.” This is not to suggest that Catholicism is incompatible with the Founding, but simply to note that Catholics were usually, at best, the odd men out and were to many colonists the dire symbol of all that was wrong with the world....

In Philadelphia, in what now is called Independence Hall, is preserved a Chippendale style chair crafted in 1779 by the cabinetmaker John Folwell, with a sun on the horizon carved at the top. For nearly three months in 1787, George Washington used this chair during the sessions of the Federal Convention. According to James Madison, whose feet would have dangled from it since, at 5’4” he was ten inches shorter than Washington, Benjamin Franklin mused: “I have often in the course of the session looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was...

Beware of Fake Mercy - Behold True Mercy in the Call of St. Matthew Msgr. Charles Pope • July 3, 2016 • This year in particular (the year of mercy), we are summoned to reflect on the concept of mercy. Many think of mercy as an overlooking of sin rather than as a remedy for it. To some, the fact of God’s mercy is a sign that He doesn’t care about sin and is content to leave us in it. Those who speak to the reality of mercy are often called harsh, mean-spirited, etc. Many set mercy and sin...

 A recent post at the site Roman Catholic Man has focused a great deal of attention on the manner in which the faithful receive Communion. As any discussion regarding the Eucharist is a discussion about Our Lord Himself, the importance of this topic cannot be overstated.  Bishop Athanasius Schneider recently noted that we are experiencing the fourth great crisis in the history of the Church, and our casual and “banal” treatment of the Eucharist is the greatest sign of this crisis.  Now is indeed the time to revisit the topic.  Putting aside opinions and personal preferences, let us objectively discuss...

Practical Principles for Proclaiming the Kingdom Msgr. Charles Pope • July 2, 2016 • In the Gospel today, Jesus gives a number of practical principles for those who would proclaim the Kingdom. Let’s look at each of them in turn. I. Serious – The text says, At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”The Lord...

Much has changed in America in this last year... even since the last few months and weeks even! The hope and joy that once filled American has turned to great despair and dread concern for many of its inhabitants. My dear friends, as I look at America at present I truly believe that this will be our last true 4th of July we will celebrate and remember as a nation as regarding our founding. Whoever is to be elected in this coming presidential election nothing good will come of it at all. We as a nation are on the Titanic...

Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy? Q. I wanted to know if there is a connection between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Divine Mercy. The painting of the Divine Mercy reminds me a lot of the Sacred Heart, or am I off-base? Also, what is a good source to understand the Divine Mercy better? Diane, via e-mail A. The devotions are distinct historically but are obviously related since they point to the one and same Lord Jesus, our merciful and great High Priest. But they also have in common the desire to emphasize that, although Christ will...

Our Father among the Saints John (Maximovitch), Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco (1896-1966), was a diocesan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) who served widely from China to France to the United States.Saint John departed this life on June 19 (O.S.) / July 2 (N.S.), 1966, and was officially glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad on July 2, 1994. His glorification was later recognized for universal veneration by the Patriarchate of Moscow on July 2, 2008.LifeThe future Saint John was born on June 4, 1896, in the village of Adamovka in Kharkiv province to...