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Prayer is needed for Sheri a 45 year old from Virginia who is facing cancer surgery. Lord be with her.

The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]. James 5:16 [amp]

December 16, 2009                               Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Is 45:6b-8, 18, 21b-25 I am the LORD, there is no other;I form the light, and create the darkness,I make well-being and create woe;I, the LORD, do all these things.Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;let justice also spring up!I, the LORD, have created this. For thus says the LORD,The creator of the heavens,who is God,The designer and maker of the earthwho established it,Not creating it...

The Rev. Oral Roberts, the internationally known television evangelist and faith healer who founded Oral Roberts University, died Monday in Newport Beach, Calif. He was ­91. According to a release, his son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were at his side. Funeral services are pending. The often-controversial charismatic minister built Oral Roberts University, the now-closed City of Faith Medical and Research Center and the University Village Retirement Center in Tulsa.

My niece Hilary, age 35, is undergoing surgery this coming Thursday to remove a tumor from below her clavicle (collar bone). The good part is that the tumor is benign -- thank God -- but it will be tricky for the surgeon because of the potential for damage to surrounding nerve tissue. Please pray for Our Lord to guide the hands of Hilary's doctors. My brother Ed also needs our prayers. He uderwent surgery about 6 weeks ago for a torn rotator cuff and some other damage resulting from an auto accident. He appears to have nerve damage that has...

Old Soviet Joke: A new Politburo member is going through his new office drawers and finds two envelopes addressed to him. One envelope says, "Open me when you have your first major crisis." Some weeks later, tractor production drops sharply, the New Politburo member is blamed, and he's in deep trouble. He remembers the envelope, opens it, and reads, "Blame the current crisis on me, your predecessor." He does so, and his job is spared. However, there remains the second envelope, which reads, "Open me when you have your second major crisis."   Sometime later, a tractor factory in...

Today's divine mercies are keeping the globe spinning upon its axis. God loves this globe. "For God so loved the world. . ."

Please remember my Aunt Mary in your prayers. She is 82 and has been wheelchair bound and in increasingly frail health for several years with respiratory problems. Two days ago she fell and broke her sternum and took a turn for the worse, and is in the hospital, refusing to take any food because she doesn't want to go on this way anymore. Three of her four children have been able to visit her to say goodbye, but the fourth, who lives in Atlanta, had her flight grounded yesterday and is going to drive all the way to the Chicago...

December 15, 2009                                   Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Zep 3:1-2, 9-13 Thus says the LORD:Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted,to the tyrannical city!She hears no voice,accepts no correction;In the LORD she has not trusted,to her God she has not drawn near. For then I will change and purifythe lips of the peoples,That they all may call upon the name of the LORD,to serve him with one accord;From beyond the rivers of Ethiopiaand as far as the recesses of the North,they shall bring me offerings.On that dayYou need not be...

Habakkuk 3:2 - O LORD, I have heard thy speech, [and] was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

December 14, 2009                                     Memorial of Saint John of the Cross,                                      priest and doctor of the Church       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Nm 24:2-7, 15-17a When Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel encamped, tribe by tribe,the spirit of God came upon him,and he gave voice to his oracle: The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor,the utterance of a man whose eye is true,The utterance of one who hears what God says,and knows what the Most High knows,Of one who sees what the Almighty sees,enraptured, and with eyes unveiled:How...

"So many people are satisfied with knowing Christ as their Savior on a theological level and to be honest accepting that as your final Spiritual destination may in fact indicate you may well need to examine yourself..." * Pursuing the Christ * When a sinner by faith embraces the Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ he begins a brand new journey that has no parallel this side of heaven’s glory. The born again experience happens in a time and place setting, but the pursuit of knowing, pleasing, and glorifying Jesus is life long journey. What are the necessary commitments that...

Jeremiah 17:7,8 Blessed is the Man that Trusteth in the LORD, And whose Hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a Tree that is Planted by the Water, Which Spreadeth Out her Roots by the River, And shall not Feel when the Heat Cometh, But her Leaf shall be Green, And shall not Care for the Year of Drought, Neither shall Cease from Yielding Fruit.

There are hundreds who see through this ritual.

In just a matter of days we will celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord. The Church as mother and teacher calls us on this third Sunday of Advent to pause from our Advent preparation. She proclaims in today’s liturgy, using the imperative case - “Rejoice!” In Latin,“Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete : modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestrae innotescant apud Deum.” In English,“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near....

On December 14, the church  will commemorate the life of St. John of the Cross, the doctor of the Church who first wrote about the “long dark night of the soul.”John of the Cross was born in the 16th century into a family which had fallen out of wealth. His father, a silk trader, had been disowned by his own family for marrying a woman of a lower social class. The family survived as silk weavers, but John's father died while John was very young. The boy began to work in a hospital while attending school part time. It is...

December 13, 2009                                         Third Sunday of Advent   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Zep 3:14-18a Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!Sing joyfully, O Israel!Be glad and exult with all your heart,O daughter Jerusalem!The LORD has removed the judgment against youhe has turned away your enemies;the King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,you have no further misfortune to fear.On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!The LORD, your God, is in your midst,a mighty savior;he will rejoice over you with gladness,and renew...

It is your responsibility to reason your head into the mind of Christ. You are to pray through to the divine graces. You are to learn the peace of total surrender to the divine plan.

Talk to GodPope John Paul II thought prayer was so important, he dedicated a year to the Rosary. Pope Benedict XVI directed these beautiful words to Americans during his recent visit: “Time spent in prayer is never wasted, however urgent the duties that press upon us from every side. ... Contemplation of the mysteries of the Rosary releases all their saving power, and it conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ.” This Advent, the Register challenges each reader to pray the Rosary every day. Then, when Advent ends, why stop? 1 If you had the chance to talk...

This is indeed a difficult blog to write. Not only because my favorite book on the subject went missing, but I believe, if I write this story just right, millions of souls will convert to Christ ... "That's fantasy!" you may say, and yet that is EXACTLY what happened when Our Lady of Guadalupe first appeared. It happened in Mexico in December of 1531. Many Catholics have heard the story of how Mary suddenly appeared to the poor peasant Juan Diego on his way to daily Mass. Juan had already converted to Catholicism, and yet Her appearance, Her promise of...

December 12, 2009                                     Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Zec 2:14-17 or Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,and they shall be his people,and he will dwell among you,and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land,and he will again choose Jerusalem.Silence, all mankind,...

Dr. Paul Kengor: Dinesh, your last book was What’s So Great About Christianity, which did quite well, and which we profiled in a series of Q&As last year ( Part I , Part II , Part III ). It led to, among other things, an ongoing fascinating series of public debates you’ve had with Christopher Hitchens. It appears that your latest book, "Life After Death: The Evidence," came from those experiences. Tell us what prompted this book-which, for the record, I recommend as a Christmas gift for both believers and (especially) non-believers.Dinesh D’Souza: Intellectually, yes, I was provoked by the...

As the years have gone by and I have grown in my journey with coming to God, I have encountered many days that started off surprisingly depressing. I have fibromyalgia and part of that is coping with anxiety. Anxiety is an ugly monster if you let it get a hold on you.

December 11, 2009                                     Friday of the Second Week of Advent   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Is 48:17-19 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,the Holy One of Israel:I, the LORD, your God,teach you what is for your good,and lead you on the way you should go.If you would hearken to my commandments,your prosperity would be like a river,and your vindication like the waves of the sea;Your descendants would be like the sand,and those born of your stock like its grains,Their name never cut offor blotted out from my presence. Responsorial PsalmPs 1:1-2,...

"The One greater than Moses has come with a LAW greater than than the Law of Moses. He's not going to lower the bar, he's going to RAISE it. He's going to raise it..." "...But this King is going to come to you, with words quite different than you ever imagined, words that at first will seem almost easier than the Law of Moses. And then as you grow, you'll begin to understand, these are the most difficult sayings I have ever heard. They cost more from me than the Law of Moses ever could." Law of Moses says "Tithe"...

Melrose - Wendy Golini has a reputation as boisterous conversationalist, a reputation well known to the customers at her Cedar Perk restaurant on West Emerson Street in Melrose, but when she recently saw an image of Mother Teresa on her cutting board at the restaurant, Golini said she only shared it with a few friends. “I don’t want to be the crazy lady who saw something,” she told the Free Press, laughing. The morning the image appeared, Golini said she’d been praying, particularly imploring Mother Teresa for help with tribulations relating to Golini and her friends and family. Mother Teresa,...

Hanukkah is sited in the Gospel of John 10:22 as the "feast of the dedication."

December 10, 2009                                Thursday of the Second Week of Advent       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Is 41:13-20 I am the LORD, your God,who grasp your right hand;It is I who say to you, “Fear not,I will help you.”Fear not, O worm Jacob,O maggot Israel;I will help you, says the LORD;your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.I will make of you a threshing sledge,sharp, new, and double-edged,To thresh the mountains and crush them,to make the hills like chaff.When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them offand the storm shall scatter them.But you shall rejoice in the LORD,and...

Bunches left this prayer request in the Spurgeon chapel today: "Wednesday, December 09, 2009 4:06:25 PM · 2 of 3 bunches to alpha-8-25-02 I respectfully request prayers from my Freeper friends. I have breast cancer and am undergoing a mastectomy tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. (Arizona time). I believe it is Stage II but it is also in the aggressive category. I read FreeRepublic daily and think the world of all the folks I have met here. If you could think of me tomorrow morning and say a prayer, I would be most grateful. Bunches." Please hold our dear bunches up...

"This shows how to witness honestly and why the "sneak the Gospel in" type of "evangelism" actually hinders ministry and is not doing unto others as you would have them do unto you." ~ Lane Chaplin

We just left Aunt Gert’s home. It’s been a bright spot in a rather lackluster winter month.

All nations surrounded me, But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. They surrounded me, Yes, they surrounded me; But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. They surrounded me like bees; They were quenched like a fire of thorns; For in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation. (Ps. 118: 10-14)

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec 9, 2009 / 12:08 am (CNA).- In what the local vicar general called acts of “barbarism,” a priest and a nun have been killed in two separate attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fr. Father Daniel Cizimya Nakamaga, 51, was shot in the head early Sunday when gunmen broke into the presbytery of Kabare, several miles outside the eastern city of Bukavu.Two days later attackers struck a Trappist monastery just north of Bukavu, killing Sr. Denise Kahambu.A third person died when police trying to catch the killers fired upon a car containing...

Fr. Mark Gruber / Archabbot Douglas Nowicki Latrobe, Pa., Dec 9, 2009 / 06:48 am (CNA).- Catholic priest Fr. Mark Gruber, a professor at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania has been removed from ministry and barred from campus after accusations were made that he downloaded pornography to his computer. Some of his colleagues and friends are defending him, claiming his computer was tampered with.Fr. Gruber, 53, is a Benedictine monk who teaches anthropology and is an authority on the Coptic Christians of Egypt. He is reportedly a popular retreat leader in the U.S. and Canada and is known...

December 9, 2009                                    Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Is 40:25-31 To whom can you liken me as an equal?says the Holy One.Lift up your eyes on highand see who has created these things:He leads out their army and numbers them,calling them all by name.By his great might and the strength of his powernot one of them is missing!Why, O Jacob, do you say,and declare, O Israel,“My way is hidden from the LORD,and my right is disregarded by my God”? Do you not knowor have you...

Inspirational animation!

Father Jaques Marquette, of the province of champagne, died at the age of 38 years, of which 21 were passed in the Society — namely, 12 in france and 9 in Canada. He was sent to the missions of the upper algonquins, who are called outaouacs; and labored therein with the zeal that might be expected from a man who had proposed to himself st. francis Xavier as the model of his life and death. He resembled that great Saint, not only in the variety of barbarian languages which he mastered, but also by the range of his zeal, which...

"Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor." - Psalm 68:10 DEAR LORD, WE THANK YOU FOR THIS DAY, THIS HOUR AND THIS SECOND. LORD, WE THANK YOU FOR THIS TIME YOUR SAINTS CAN GATHER BEFORE YOUR THRONE OF GRACE WITH PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION. LORD, WE PRAY FOR ALL OF YOUR SAINTS NO MATTER WHERE THEY MAY BE OR WHATEVER THEIR NEED. LORD, WE PRAY ESPECIALLY FOR OUR TROOPS AND PATRIOTS WHO FAITHFULLY PLACE THERE PRAYERS FOR OUR HEROES AT THE FOOT OF THE THRONE,AND TO ALL MEMBERS OF GOVERNMENT WHO HOLD YOUR TRUTHS CLOSE TO THEIR...

December 8, 2009                                 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception                                 of the Blessed Virgin Mary   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Gn 3:9-15, 20 After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,the LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”He answered, “I heard you in the garden;but I was afraid, because I was naked,so I hid myself.”Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?You have eaten, then,from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”The man replied,...

When people see us, they need to see the Christ Spirit in us. This cannot be if we separate ourselves from God as miserable sinners. That is self righteous hypocrisy. People saying they do what they want because they are miserable sinners. That is saying sin is God's fault. Jesus called us to be one in Christ. John 17:20-23. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in...

Please do not attempt to wake me up from what seemed like a dream from the very first day. Do not try and wrestle away my simplistic and unsophisticated faith which suggests that Jesus is the way to a place called heaven. I have heard all the new voices and all the new and fresh theologies that call us like sirens to rise above the ancient ideas, and I am a spectator to the ever changing and ever increasing nebulous and intangible faith that is being taught in today’s newer spiritual classroom. When I became a Christian I experienced one...

Psalm 33:22 Let Thy Mercy, O LORD, be upon us, According as we Hope in Thee.

Jn.3:3 - ...Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. A definite and non-compromising statement straight from the lips of the Incarnate Word of God Himself. Jesus did not say you must be white, or you must be black, or you must be red, or you must be yellow. He did not say you must be intelligent, or you must be uneducated, or you must be heavy, or you must be skinny. The Lord did not say you must be Baptist, or you must be Catholic, or you must be Hindu, or you must be...

December 7, 2009                                 Monday of the Second Week of Advent   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Is 35:1-10 The desert and the parched land will exult;the steppe will rejoice and bloom.They will bloom with abundant flowers,and rejoice with joyful song.The glory of Lebanon will be given to them,the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;They will see the glory of the LORD,the splendor of our God.Strengthen the hands that are feeble,make firm the knees that are weak,Say to those whose hearts are frightened:Be strong, fear not!Here is your God,he comes with vindication;With divine recompensehe comes...

No one desires a cross. No one. We all want affirmation and recognition. We pursue security and life. We all need affection and friendship. But no one wants a cross. Of course we love the cross upon which our wonderful Savior died for us. We all love and appreciate that cross. But no one wants a cross for themselves. No one. But the cross is what we are called to. A sinner realizes he is lost. The Spirit illuminates to him just Who Jesus is, and that sinner believes that Jesus is the Savior and the only way to eternal...

How many of us --- indeed, all of us --- have at one time or another said, "Ah ... would that I had never done that! Could I only go back in time!Confucius, in one of his well known Analects, summarized it best: "What is said cannot be unsaid." How true. What is more, in so many, many ways, what is done cannot be undone ...We are prisoners of our past --- and Time, the stern warden, it appears, has thrown away the key. We are prisoners to what we have said and to what we have done. In...

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Deuteronomy 33:26,27 There is None like unto the God of Jeshurun, Who Rideth upon the Heaven in thy Help, And in His Excellency on the Sky. The Eternal God is thy Refuge, and Underneath are the Everlasting Arms: And He shall Thrust Out the Enemy from before thee; and shall Say, Destroy them.