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In this post I am trying to continue our celebration of the lost “Octave” of Pentecost. Today I want to consider three gifts of the Holy Spirit.As you may recall, there are seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude and Fear of the Lord. Most Catholics cannot define them well in any sort of articulate way. This is due to poor catechesis but also to the fact that modern English has tended to use several of these terms interchangeably, almost as synonyms, though they are distinct theologically.There are also secular usages of these terms that...

CAMP ZAMA, Japan – The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers. Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion...

This is something we should think about daily and nightly!! LOVE TO ALL in the HOLY PRECIOUS NAME OF JESUS CHRIST!

This is something we should think about daily and nightly!! LOVE TO ALL in the HOLY PRECIOUS NAME OF JESUS CHRIST!

Solomon requested wisdom and understanding. His humble, selfless request set him apart from leaders in his day and ours. Imagine, the Lord God offered Solomon anything he wanted. The thing that seemed to weigh heaviest on Solomon's mind was his lack of wisdom and understanding to rule God's people correctly.

The transcript of my speech today at the national meeting of ACT for America. The late Southern Sudanese leader John Garang, in 1999, posed the following dual-part existential question for our era: Is the call for jihad against a particular people a religious right of those calling for it, or is it a human rights violation against the people upon whom jihad is declared and waged? As I hope to make plain, the answer to both parts of John Garang’s query is “Yes!” Hamas cleric Muhsen Abu ‘Ita was interviewed July 13, 2008, on Al-Aqsa TV. After reminding listeners that...

~ EXCERPT ~ **snip** The sane among us recognize that in a free society, income is neither taken nor distributed; for the most part, it is earned. Income is earned by pleasing one's fellow man. The greater one's ability to please his fellow man, the greater is his claim on what his fellow man produces. Those claims are represented by the number of dollars received from his fellow man. Say I mow your lawn. For doing so, you pay me $20. I go to my grocer and demand, "Give me 2 pounds of steak and a six-pack of beer that...

The following is an edited transcript of the audio. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is God's purpose in preventing the believer from understanding certain truths in his word, like when the disciples were prevented from understanding that Jesus would die and rise again? First let me say that I do agree with that. Probably some are listening who would say, "Whoa. I don't think that was God's problem. I think that was their problem!" This question assumes that God did some preventing. But that's true. It says their minds were blinded. They were kept from seeing for a season (Luke 18:33-34; 24:16). Answering...

Since the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill, the Democrat leadership has embarked on a strategy of demonizing its opponents as angry, potentially violent racists. Charles M. Blow developed a new line of attack in his New York Times column last weekend, with an argument based on a recent Pew Research Council poll: Republicans don't understand ObamaCare, so they have no right to criticize it. Coverage of the Pew poll took a good chunk of the Times Op-Ed page, with bar charts demonstrating "A lack of understanding" of Obamacare, based their poll question, "How well do you feel you...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – President Barack Obama strode head-on Sunday into the stormy abortion debate and told graduates at America's leading Roman Catholic university that both sides must stop demonizing one another. Obama acknowledged that "no matter how much we want to fudge it ... the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable." But he still implored the University of Notre Dame's graduating class and all in the U.S. to stop "reducing those with differing views to caricature. Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words. It's a way of life that always has been...

Chris Matthews: "Do you think that The New York Post is calling the president of the United States a chimp?"

Why is it that the origins of many serious diseases remain a mystery? In considering that question, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come up with a unified molecular view of the indivisible unit of life, the cell, which may provide an answer. Reviewing findings from multiple disciplines, Jamey Marth, Ph.D., UC San Diego Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, realized that only 68 molecular building blocks are used to construct these four fundamental components of cells: the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), proteins, glycans...

It may be the height of the holiday season, but about a million people are about to get life-altering news. On Thursday, 300,000 school and college students will receive their A level results. A week later, another 700,000 will find out how they did in their GCSEs. Movies such as Spiderman 2 and Speed generate excitement among audiences with their cool special effects. But they also defy the laws of physics, contributing to students’ ignorance about science. Two University of Central Florida professors show just how poorly Hollywood writers and directors understand science in an article published in the German...

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2007 – The National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has worked to gain and maintain the support of America’s employers for the nation’s National Guardsmen and reservists since 1972. Then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney receives the 2006 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award from Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David S.C. Chu (right) and ESGR National Chairman David Janes (left) during the annual award ceremony Sept. 21 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Spc. Christian Fernandez, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. ESGR is a member of America Supports You,...

NEW YORK - Q: What are carbon offsets? How do I choose among the organizations and companies that sell them? And is buying carbon offsets the best way for me to help the environment? A: Carbon offsets are a way for anyone who drives a car, turns on a light or takes a plane to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions by investing in a green project aimed at reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere. Some of the investments offered by offset organizations: A wind farm in Nebraska, a sewage facility in Thailand and a biomass plant in Minnesota powered by...

<p>NICKEL MINES, Pa., Oct. 8 -- The one-room Amish schoolhouse where five young girls were shot to death and five more were wounded last week will be torn or burned down and rebuilt elsewhere, according to a member of the close-knit community.</p>

Today and tomorrow I'll be out of commission observing the Jewish New Year. I thought before checking out I would repost this item that we originally ran on September 30, 2003. It reported (courtesy of our friend Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg) an otherwise uncovered event and provided a glimpse of an important side of President Bush. Making adjustments for the changes in circumstances between then and now, I think it remains timely. During the 10-day period between the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement -- the "days of awe" that are the holiest on the Jewish calendar -- the...

Unable to compete in the world of free debate with transparent facts, liberals behaved like children this week - proving that in the end national security and even national identity are always subservient to their own ego, reputation, and appearance. It was pathetic, cowardly, and sickening. It is also far too typical. Liberals, who in large part are people devoid of true substance and belief, who also have great contempt for God, morality and truth, are often unable to deal with facts that reflect poorly upon them. And using pathetic, self-serving, cry-baby tactics is how they are commemorating this week...

PROPOSALS INVITED TOWARD A MORE CIVIL DISCOURSE RE RELIGIOUS FIGURES AT ODDS WITH VARIOUS SENSIBILITIES The current thread regarding Pat Robertson is but the latest in a long tradition of certain flavors of evangelical Christian and particularly Pentecostal/Charismatic religious figures being thoroughly shredded by what--90% or more of the posts--usually in the harshest, most hostile, even demonizing wording possible. It seems that when folks are perceived to be in such Pentecostal/charismatic categories, all bets are off, no holds barred--the most viscious attacks are the minimal Standard Operating Procedure. Instead of exhorting one another in Christian Love, the worst attitudes normally...

VIRGINIA BEACH-Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson is warning that, according to God, storms and possibly a tidal wave will pound America's coastline this year.