Can This Be Done?

Jesus said to his disciples:

"You have heard that it was said,

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.

When someone strikes you on your right cheek,

turn the other one to him as well.

It is a time of trouble for the Church. The Church is surrounded on all sides by those that wish her harm. In the Middle East, the very cradle of the Christian Faith we have seen more blood spilled since the time of the first Christians. Terrorists have killed innocent men, women, and children because the will not betray the Son of God. In our own country, our government has in recent time trampled upon the religious rights of its citizens, attempting to force even religious orders to provide contraception and abortion as part of the benefits that they provide their employees. Temporarily, the pressure has been removed because of the change of regime that came about this last January. Certainly, the amount of discrimination that is occurring against Christians in this country cannot be compared with that which is happening in the East. 

People in the East are willing to die rather than to forsake their Christian beliefs.  It has always been so in the Christian Church. Today, you can go on YouTube and easily find things that are pro-church and anti-church. On other places on the web, you can view evil men killing believers just because they are believers. What is it about this Jesus that makes people loyal unto death?  This is not a new thing, From the first century, Christians went to their deaths out of their love for Jesus and one another. The love the Christians had for one another was what attracted people to their group.  It was a different way of living in a culture that was cruel and hateful.  

I believe that inside of us all there is a desire to love and be loved. Through the generations, this desire has remained and we spend our time looking for what in most civilizations is lacking.  For the most part, we spend our lives being hunters and gatherers.  We reach out for the tings that we believe will make us happy.  Included on this list of things are food and shelter. I do not think that it is natural for a human being to say, "I now have enough."  I remember reading a story in high school about a man who visits a land where the natives will give him all of the lands that he can walk over in a twenty-four hour period.  There is just one rule.  He had to make it back to the starting position or he would get nothing. The man begins his walk and he notices how beautiful the land was. He walked over a huge portion of flat land that would be perfect for farming. He walked around a beautiful lake that would supply all of the fish he needed. He walked this way and he walked that way.  Time was running short he looked at his watch, he had to get back to the starting line.  He began to run.  Those hills that just yesterday which allowed him such breath-taking views of what was his now caused his legs to tire.  Minutes to go he sped up and just yards from the goal, he fell down dead.  The natives laughed and buried him where he lay.  In the end, the man claimed eighteen square feet of land, six feet down and three feet across. 

For the Christians, there was the point when they said that they had enough.  That point came when the love of Christ and their brothers and sisters filled up their hearts.  They shared with one another and they smiled and life became joyful.  This joyfulness was both a blessing and a curse.  For the world does not like to see what they do not understand.  What cannot be understood must be destroyed so that the normal way of hate and greed can be restored.  Yet, many were attracted to the Christian way because they saw it as the ultimate good and could change what was a hard life into what would become a joyful life as burdens were shared and people were loved for who they were and not what they could do for you. 

In the Eastern lands, the Islamic terrorists cannot understand the joy of these Christian people and so the will endeavor to destroy what they cannot understand. The Christians are not willing to give up the perfect joy of Christ for the misery of indentured servitude.  And so, they willingly accept death instead of betraying the One Who loves them. They know that their joy will be complete when they are with Jesus and while they do not look for martyrdom, they embrace it when it comes.  They do not die in vain.  Their example, their love for one another, will plant seeds in the desert and the seeds will grow and many of those whose lives are filled with hate for all things Christian will find themselves irresistibly drawn to the joy of Christ.  This is what happened in the first century and it is going to happen now. 

In America, our dry martyrdom cannot be compared to those who have given their lives for their belief in Christ.  But, we too will attract more believers if we stick to what Jesus has told us.  We are to turn the other cheek, we are to help carry other's burdens, we are to show love to our enemies and keep a holy joy in our heart.  It will not be easy for we run counter-culture to a people who seem to be in love with things that go against the law of God.  They confuse convenience with happiness and pleasure with joy.  Our example to them is that they can have so much more following Jesus than they can on their own.  

Today, I pray for the martyrs in the mid-East.  I thank God for them and for the example that they set for me.  I also pray that God moves His hand end brings to a conclusion the bloodshed in this part of the world.  I pray for our nation, that we take to heart the laws that God has given us so that we may have a happy life here and eternal life with Him later.  May we once again sing "God Bless America" and know that He will. 

Pentecost and Chef Boy Ar Dee

The apostles were told by Jesus to go to Jerusalem and to wait.  They were more than happy to comply with this direction because it was not safe for them to be out and about on the street.  The Temple Gang, still feeling their oats from their victory in getting Jesus crucified, wanted a chance to scatter the disciples of the so-called Messiah to the four corners of the earth. So Peter and the rest of the gang happily went back to the Upper Room and the scriptures say that they spent the time praying.  They probably were praying to be spared from being discovered by the Jews.  They also prayed that the lock on the door held and that no one had seen them steal back to the Upper Room.   When they were not praying, they filled the time discussing recent events and the words of Jesus and there probably was some discussion as to the meaning of the parables Jesus taught them.  They waited and continued to wait, happy that they could not hear a hostile crowd gathering outside their door.  In short, they appeared to be a pathetic gang of losers that would be very happy to just fade out of the public's memory. Then suddenly, everything changed.  There was the sound of a mighty wind and the Holy Spirit descended upon them and now they could not open the door fast enough to get out of the Upper Room.  They almost tore the door off of its hinges in their effort to get outside.  When they were outside, the fruits of the Spirit became manifest.  They threw caution to the wind and were not able to stop telling the crowd about Jesus and the good news that sin and death had been defeated.  More than that, there were people from everywhere, from all of the civilized areas of the world.  Not since the attempt to build the great tower of Babel had there been so many people, speaking so many different languages in one place. Everyone that was there heard the Good News, the Gospel, being proclaimed to them, each of them in his or her own language. Those losers, those timid and frightened bunch of rag-tag followers of Jesus had now lost all of their fear and boldly taught in the Holy Name of Jesus. They would NOT be silent!  The Apostles claimed their first converts that day and the Catholic Church was truly born and was visibly under the protection of the Holy Spirit as Jesus, the Son of God, had promised. 

It's an amazing story, the Holy Spirit infusing His gifts into the eleven like that!  What is even more amazing is that we have all been drenched in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the very same gifts that were infused into the Apostles were infused into us when we received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  If that is the case then why didn't we react as the Apostles did on that Pentecost Sunday? The reason, I believe, is that such a display was not needed when the bishop laid his hands on us.  We received the very same gifts that the Apostles did and they are as much a part of us as the very blood that circulates oxygen throughout our body through our veins. 

When I received the sacrament of Confirmation, I have to tell you that the only thing I felt at that moment was hunger, not a hunger for the Word of God mind you, a hunger for the pizza I knew was going to be waiting for me at home once this ceremony was over. It was a Chef Boy Ar Dee pizza kit that I made by myself.  Please keep in mind that this was prior to the opening of Falco's Pizzeria, the Cathedral of Pizza in Brighton Park on the southwest side of Chicago where I grew up,  

and even today a stop on the All-Chicago Gluttony Club Tour, although your attire should now include a bulletproof vest and if possible you should hire armed security guards to accompany you. So I was ignorant as to what pizza was supposed to look and taste like but the homemade treat filled us up and living in ignorance kept us satisfied. It was truly a memorable night.  To be very honest on this Thursday night I felt no different than I did at the close of Wednesday night.  Does that mean that the Gifts of the Spirit have passed me over?  Did the bishop make a mistake when he laid his hands on me? Did he not slap me hard enough? (That used to be a feature of the ceremony - a slap to ready you to be a soldier of Christ - this is not done anymore.)  I did receive the Gifts, the bishop did not make a mistake. The simple fact is the reception of a sacrament does not depend on the emotions it may or may not stir up. When I go to communion, for example, sometimes I feel the True Presence and other times I do not.  I still know intellectually that Jesus is present and my prayers are no less fervent because I know what I know. That is the genius of the Sacraments, they work as designed no matter how the person receiving them feels.  

But, where is the evidence that I received the Gifts of the Holy Spirit?  I barely speak English well much less any other language so I don't have the gift of tongues.  I can go on and prove negatively that I do not have evidence that I received anything like the gifts that the Apostles received, except, that I did receive them. Our pastor, Father Joe, in his homily pointed out that we use these gifts all of the time.  He pointed out that perhaps one time when you were more patient with someone that you normally had no patience with, well, that was one of the gifts of the Spirit that you were calling upon. In daily life. these gifts express themselves in many different ways which we sometimes do not recognize.  The gifts are there to be called upon when needed.  I cannot imagine, for example, those poor Christians in Iraq that were offered a choice between giving up Christ in favor of Islam, and to a soul, they refused to betray Christ and they were shot by the radical thugs whose god is not the same God of decent Christians and Muslims.  The Spirit was present in these people and gave them Courage.  So it is with us.  The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are there in each of us who have been confirmed in Christ and they are at the ready when we need them. 

The fact that they are there and we don't recognize them makes me wonder what we Catholics COULD do if we used these gifts like the Apostles did on the birthday of the Church so long ago?  We could make this world different if we wanted to and if we depended upon the Holy Spirit to help us as Jesus intended. If we truly used the gifts of the Holy Spirit, what a wonderful world we COULD have.  God bless.   

Tears Are Flowing Like A River

http://www.poetrybyloree.com/393.html

I am not a bad writer.  True I am no Hemingway or even Poe and right now I am doing the kind of writing that I do not do very well.  Yesterday, at a concert in Manchester England an angry lone terrorist took it upon himself to end the lives of at least twenty-two people. We will probably find out that this murder was done in the name of God. I  cannot fathom why people find it necessary to kill in the name of God.  Is God so weak that He cannot fight for Himself?  I know my Church teaches that the Muslim worships the same God as I do, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob. I do not believe that these terrorists that find fulfillment in cutting off the lives of innocent men, women, and especially children know a thing about God. A person that professes to love God cannot be a lover of violence. So, I do not know who the radical Islamic terrorists pray to, I know it is not the God who went to the Cross for us. I know it is not the God who loves us with an unspeakable love that will draw us to Him in eternity if we want it and show that we want it by being faithful to the commands of His Son.  To hate is to defy God for God is love and hate is abhorrent to Him.   God does not even hate those that hate Him. He waits, He watches, He whispers, hoping that the example of Love that was shown to all by His Son will break through the cobwebs of hate that block salvation to those who insist on having their own way. If God could cry, his tears would flow like a river for He sees what we do to each other in His name and he realizes that we do not have the slightest idea of how much He loves and wants to draw us to Him.  Today we mourn for the twenty-plus people whose lives were ended and for those who were injured whose lives will never be the sam again. The grayness of cloudy morning where I am sitting writing this seems apt and proper.  Let us pray.

My God and Father, once again Cain has raised his hand against Able and the soil of your garden accepts the blood of your children. My Father, for those who have died in this latest atrocity, please be merciful in your judgment. To those who were injured in body, Lord, speed their healing and restore to them robust good health. And for those whose spirits have been injured, quash the thirst for revenge in their hearts, dear Lord, for the sword raised in anger will remain until it finds another sword with which to clash.   I pray that you move your hand and help end the violence. Let us regain the knowledge our ancestors had about how sacred life is. Let this rampage of the evil one end and rescue your children Lord for we know not what we do.   Amen.  

A New Day In America (?) Let's Wait and See

I was at the doctor's office when Donald John Trump placed his hand on the Bible and took the oath of office making him the forty-fifth president of the United States.  In my sixty plus years on this earth, I have seen presidents come and go.  The first president I remember caring anything about was John F. Kennedy.  Everyone was excited when he was elected president.  Of course, I lived on the Southwest side of Chicago so the fact that he was a Catholic AND a democrat made him the perfect man to be president of the United States.  In Chicago you were democrat and if you lived on the Southwest side of Chicago, you were most likely Catholic.  I remember the day he was killed.  The nuns ushered us into the church where we prayed for him, to no avail, as he died anyway.  Next came LBJ who I think was really glad to take over. LBJ did not work out so well and Nixon next infested the White House.  He did get us out of Viet Nam, the place that Kennedy and Johnson got us into but beyond that, he was a bully and as the tapes revealed he suffered from a potty mouth.  He resigned and Ford stumbled into office, did not do a whole lot and was followed by Jimmy Carter.  In my opinion, Jimmy Carter was the most honest president that served during my lifetime. He was a bit of a bungler and was in the White House during the Iran Hostage Crisis.  He lasted just four years when an actor turned politician Ronald Regan entered the White House.  Many have good thoughts about him but I am still waiting for some of the trickle-down to trickle-down to me. Then came Bush the Elder, followed by Bill Clinton a sex maniac who almost achieved fame at becoming the first president to be impeached. Billy did win reelection and turned his office over to George Bush the Younger who got us embroiled in the Middle East. George moved out of the White House and Barack Obama moved in and for the next eight years presided over a legislative branch that blocked him at every turn.  He did get his health care initiate passed and spent the rest of his time chipping away at religious freedom.  Mandating that religious groups would have to go against the conscience and supply contraception through their insurance plan.  While he was in office it almost became against the law to be a Christian or to support Christian values.  Those that did were accused of promoting hate speech. The democratic policy during the eight years of Obama deserted the working people of the land.  Instead, it pulled its support from those whose agenda contained traditional American values and gave their support whose beliefs included abortion on demand, gay rights, gay marriage, and mandated every sort of thing the Christian working man was against.  Obama was a good orator.  I admired his ability to turn a phrase.  Unfortunately, I believe that that is all he was good at, speaking. I do not think that he had a clue what the working class Americans were thinking.  It was his blindness to the needs of the common person that cast the democrats into the cold at the mid-term elections and finally gave the GOP power in both houses. That brings us up to today.

Today we have a president in office that is different than any other president that we have had in modern times.  He is a president who does not necessarily follow the beliefs of the GOP in full.  He is a man that is used to winning, a businessman who likes the thrill of the deal.  He is not so much of the diplomat but is rather more of a man filled with thunder and bombast.  I have not made up my mind about Donald John Trump yet.  In his first days, he and his vice president have done things to promote Life.  The president himself mentioned the Walk for Life and challenged the press to cover it and the vice president actually gave a speech at the event, the first time that has happened, ever.!  He also has recognized that the Syrian Christians are being slaughtered for their faith and has said that they will receive preference in immigration matters.   In this respect, DJT is a breath of fresh air for those of us concerned with the sanctity of life from conception to natural death and for those of us concerned about the Christians being martyred in the Middle East. For eight years under Obama, we had to watch while abortion was touted under the name "women's health care" and the family and the law of God was trampled upon under the guise of "equality.  Marriage in America will never be the same, it has been changed forever with the legalization of same-sex "marriages."  We saw under Obamacare the mandate that even the Little Sisters of the Poor would have to provide contraception to their employees in spite of their religious views opposing it.  DJT will disable this clause and help build up the right of a Christian to be a Christian.

Donald also has some things on his agenda that are downright silly.  The so-called wall between Mexico and the United States is dumb.  I believe that we should keep illegal aliens out of our nation. My grandparents, on both sides of my family, immigrated to the United States and were admitted legally.  They were honest, hard-working people who obeyed the law.  There was one minor incident when my grandmother was told to stop making bathtub gin, she was turned in by her best friend.  Other than that, they all learned the language and became naturalized American citizens.  For those who are here and are undocumented, DJT proposes to round up the ones who are criminals, are in gangs, who are violent, and to send these illegals back to where they came from.  I support this idea but I do not support deporting families that are here that are working to make something of themselves, who are obeying the law.  These are the types of people we need to have in America.

DJT also wants to make sure that the Muslim immigrants granted entrance to America are vetted to make sure that they pose no threat.  These immigrants are coming from lands that have been traditionally hostile to America.  I see nothing wrong with this. America gathers its strength and power from its diversity. Every one of us here (except Native Americans) are the result of people who left their homes and came to America to embrace life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We do not need people who are radically opposed to our ideals and who would resort to violence to attempt to bring their radical form of Islam to the forefront.

I am not going to tell you whom I voted for in the past election. It is my business and I will allow you to conjecture on your own.  For now, I have to say that I am going to take a wait and see approach to our new president.  I am going to pray for him and our country.  I am going to wish him good health and a clear mind.  To do otherwise would be like wishing the pilot of the airplane you are riding in to crash the plane.  There are interesting times ahead for Americans.  By the way that is an old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

The Truth about the Crusades

The followers of ISIS constantly bring up the crusades in their propaganda.  They call the alliance fighting them crusaders and the word itself is a loaded word which for the ignorant (such as those marching under the flag of ISIS) brings to mind evil hordes of Christian knights attacking and killing the peaceful Muslim people.  It brings to mind men filled with greed and taking the spoils of war from these same peaceful Muslims as they tried to mind their own business and make a living selling things to nomad traders.  Well, nothing could be farther from the truth. 

Beginning in the year 632 AD the following countries were all Christian lands; Egypt, France, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica but in less than one-hundred years they would become under Muslim rule. The Christian communities in Arabia were destroyed when Jews and Christians were expelled from the peninsula. Between 850 and 950 Benedictine monks were driven out of their monasteries, the Papal States were overrun and plundered by Muslim pirates that set up their bases on the coast of Italy and France. But what about the Crusades?  All we have heard about so far is Muslim conquests.  We will get there in a minute, but let's talk about the conditions that surviving Christians had to endure under the rule of the followers of Islam. By the eleventh century AD conditions for Christians living in lands controlled by Muslims were harsh. They had to pay a special fax and were considered a second class known as the dhimmi. Churches were destroyed and harsh conditions were imposed.  In 1067 a peaceful group of seven thousand German pilgrims lost two thirds of their members to assaults from the Muslims. 

The call for the first Crusade went out in 1095 AD. It was called to address the tyranny and the spoiling of places such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site of the crucifixion where Christian pilgrims were massacred.  Before the capture of Jerusalem, Muslim fighters taunted the crusaders by profaning religious objects and taunting them. The commanders of the crusaders lost control of their men and the melee that followed was brutal and bloody and while it happened it should be remembered that the Crusaders were deeply religious men and the blasphemous things done to the cross would strike deeply at what they were there fighting for.  They were there not only to retake the holy land but they were there fighting for Cross and all that the Cross meant to them. 

So, the Crusades were not a war of aggression. The war of aggression had been started 450 years BEFORE the first crusade was called for by the Muslim armies of conquest.  History clearly shows that the Christians had no hair trigger, did not rattle swords but waited four and a half centuries before attempting to right the wrongs of Islamic conquest. Once again the Muslim jihadists are on the move like a plague of locusts laying waste to all that they can get their hands on.  Their cruel and bloodthirsty ways are not unlike their forefathers in the early centuries. I am afraid that I have come to the belief that Islam caters panders to the evil impulses of the creature we call man. I am not saying that it is completely evil and depraved, only that it can be turned that way by the "correct" reading of their holy book which contains such charming instructions as to cut the head off of the infidels wherever you find them. Or to beat your wife if she disobeys you.  All very practical and made so you can live peacefully with other people. 

The scary part of Islam is that it is a religion without any leader. There is no one in charge to say this interpretation is correct and this interpretation is wrong.  So for my neighbor down the street, Islam is a religion of peace because he does not take the verses that preach violence to heart.  On the other hand the follower across the street, he believes in the sword and is biding his time waiting for his opportunity to strike. Until then, he smiles, nods, pays his taxes, votes and worships at the local mosque where he hangs with other radicals who also are biding their time. To be quite frank about it, I am afraid of most Muslims because you just do not know. 

Let is be said and let my voice be heard.  I am an American. I believe in the American way of life and part of that way of life is the freedom of religion for ALL of us.  It was not so long ago that Catholics were looked down upon as second class citizens and unworthy to be called Americans just because of their religion. Today there is still great amounts of anti-Catholic rhetoric out there and still much prejudice against us. Some say it is the last acceptable form of prejudice in America.  So, I know my Father in heaven loves all of His children, including the misguided followers of the prophet and I want them to be free in this great country of ours. 

So when you read Islamic propaganda that uses the word Crusade  or Crusader in ways that make it seem evil. remember, that the Crusades were just wars undertaken to return peace to the Holy Land, to protect Christians and other that lived there from Muslim injustice.  

Many thanks to Scott Eric Alt whose article formed the basis for the facts quoted here. 

ISIS Cannot Win

ISIS is losing ground and the so called caliphate is but a shadow of its former self. The vicious snake has begun to consume itself as we hear of executions of their own fighters, men who have had enough of the killing of innocent women and children and have tried to desert these butchers.. Now their rabid leader calls for lone wolf attacks against "the infidels." everywhere.   It turns out that the infidels include everyone who are not a part of ISIS including other Muslims especially the Sunni branch of Islam.  So in one of the latest attacks two fevered followers took five hostages and after shouting obscenities around the altar in the Catholic Church killed the eighty-five year old priest who was saying Mass.

The murder of the priest in a house of worship should come as no surprise. ISIS and it followers have no desire to co-exist with any other religion including Sunni members of Islam. To them all are infidels deserving of death. The fact is that there has been a wholesale slaughter of Christians in the lands that have been infested by ISIS. Thousands upon thousands of Christians, Catholics and Protestants alike have been put to death because they would not submit to the pagan religion espoused by ISIS.  Why our esteemed president, Barack Hussein Obama, seems afraid to call this wholesale murder of whole blocks of people for their religious beliefs what it is, genocide, is beyond me.  Who is he afraid of alienating? ISIS? ISIS would like nothing more than to have the president in their clutches. Is he afraid of alienating ordinary Muslims? Your ordinary Muslim hates what ISIS has done to their religion and wants nothing more than to live in peace.  How do we know this?  Because it was done for hundreds of years in places where Christians and Muslims lived together in peace. Declaring the murder of the innocent a genocide is not declaring war on Islam at all, it is declaring war on those who pervert Islam. 

There will be more bloodshed and there is no safe place. The lunatics that ISIS attracts live among us. They may be of foreign descent but they may have been born in America and will use the freedoms we have against us. But the title of this post is, "ISIS Cannot Win." and so far what I have written makes it sound as if they are.

ISIS cannot win because they do not bear any allegiance to God at all. They cannot win because they have turned their hearts away from the way of peace and hardened them into hearts of stone. The martyrs they are making are showing other Christians what it may take to prove themselves to Christ.  The Christian martyrs know that Jesus is the Son of God and rules at the right hand of the Father.  They surrender their very being to Jesus rather than to deny Him.  When a group of Christians were going to be executed by ISIS there was one Arab man who was not a believer among them. He watched as the Christians prayed and said the name of Jesus over and over again. His captors told the Arab man that if he converted to Islam right there and then he would be spared.  He looked at the condemned Christian men praying and told the devil's apostles that "Their God is My God."  He went to his death and  I am sure directly to heaven as he was a martyr for the faith because he professed his belief in Jesus at the cost of his very life. 

ISIS cannot hope to win because we know that Jesus Christ has already won the victory and that at the name of Jesus, every knee must bend and every tongue proclaim to the Glory of God the Father, that Jesus Christ is Lord.   

It's Time For A Crusade For The Muslims!

Let's face it. It is time that we marshal our forces, gird our loins (whatever that entails) don our armor and take on the issue of Islam!  Now wait a minute, did you read the title of this post - go on, look at it again...yes this is a Crusade FOR the Muslim people/ Our armor is the armor of Christ!  What on earth do you mean by this?  Well lets look at the situation from a Christian point of view. 

Those that follow the Islamic faith for the most part are people like you and I. They want peace, they want to live their life and raise their families. Unfortunately Islam is not ruled by a central organization. Therefore we have people like ISL that do their best to kill in the name of God.  We have to pray for both groups, the innocent every day Muslim and the mad dog, I will cut your head of infidel pick-up truck with a machine gun jockey.  Why do we have to pray for both groups?

Regardless of their innocence or guilt, followers of Islam do no believe in Jesus as the Son of God.  They do not have Jesus, they to not recognize Him and like it or not as non-believers they are condemned to an eternity without God.  How can I say such a thing? Well, it's not me, read Mark 16:16, "Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved but whoever does not believe will be condemned."  

We as Christians have to do something.  There are millions of people who are technically lost because they do not have Jesus.  We cannot go to the killing fields of Syria and Iraq.  We cannot just invade the local mosque and shout "Jesus is Lord" at the top of our lungs.  We cannot hit them with the Bible, they do not believe in what the "people of the book" as they call Christians and Jews say.   What can we do?  

The answer is simple and elegant and very Christian. We can pray. We can pray to our Lord Jesus Christ to rescue these poor lost souls lost in the moon madness of Islam. We can pray and pray without ceasing for their conversion. 

This is the crusade we need.  We do not need drones, soldiers or smart bombs to eradicate Muslims.  We must love them into the Christian family and the only way to do this is to pray for their conversion. 

The command of Jesus is "to love one another as I have loved you." He loved us to his death.   God is waiting to move His hand.  He wants his children, you and I, to show trust in Him and  through prayer and fasting, He will make all things new. 

What say ye?  Are ye brave enough to become a Crusader for the Conversion of Muslims?  

Martyrs

This week Islam in a show of just how it sows peace and love throughout the word created more Christian Martyrs in Yemen. At least four nuns who were working and taking care of the elderly were brutally shot and killed by these manly and brave jihadists. Why is it that these people always are going after those that cannot defend themselves? 

But let's move beyond the mayhem and talk a little bit about the martyrs themselves. I know that they have arrived in the bliss of heaven. These women had dedicated their very lives to working with poorest of the poor and caring for them in a land that is violently hostile to Christians.  They knew the chance that they were taking, but they stayed and did their work anyway. 

There have been so many martyrs of late giving us their example. The Coptic Christians come to mind. As they knelt waiting for their cowardly captives to execute them they were praying in the name of Jesus. One of those kneeling was not a Christian and he was asked if he would like to become a Muslim and he said simply that to his captives "Their God is my God." In joining his brothers in death, he secured for himself everlasting life. 

We in America have it good. Even though our society is becoming more and more anti-Christian we still have the right to worship as we want to. We do not have to live in fear that our churches will be set upon. Even Muslims in this country receive this protection. 

With all of the protection afforded us I have to ask myself if I, a Christian and a cradle Catholic would have the wherewithal to be a martyr for my faith.  I would like to think that I would but I just do not know. 

Let us pray this day for the defeat of ISIS and radical Islam. Let us pray for the day when we do not train for war anymore and be change our spears into pruning hooks.  Let us renew our prayers and ask God to protect our brother and sister Christians of all denominations in the Middle East from the evil of terror. 

Catholic vs Protestant ?

Before we start let me say that this entry is NOT going to be a tirade against Protestantism. I really consider, as my Church tells me to, my Protestant friends as brothers and sisters in the faith. But we have to admit that there are differences of course in what we believe and there is clearer marker of this fact if we look at the symbols that adorn our places of worship. The main symbol that separates us is the cross and the crucifix. For some reason we hold different beliefs on what is proper. Catholics show a representation of the Crucified Christ on their crosses in church while in most Protestant places of worship a simple cross, without the corpus, is used. I would imagine, and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, that the Protestants feel that the representation of the corpus is a graven image and violates the first commandment. Well, the Catholic view on this is that we need to be reminded that Jesus went to the Cross for us, He hung in the burning sun, scorned, ridiculed, in deadly pain, bleeding, being set upon by flies and other bugs. We do not pray to the figure on the Crucifix, for we realize that it is but wood, or stone and is inanimate and has no power. We use it as we would use a picture of a loved one, a reminder or a prayer aid. This is how Catholics view all statues and other representations of Jesus, the Trinity, and the Saints. They are mere reminders and help us elevate our thoughts and prayers to God. No sane Catholic would ever think of praying to a statue or for that matter a cross or crucifix.

Our respective views of the Lord's Supper divide us as well. For many Protestants it is a ritual that is a simple memorial service that recalls the Last Supper. Some denominations believe that Christ is present in the bread and grape juice as long as the congregation is present but once the service is over the remnants can be fed to the birds and the juice can be dumped down the drain. For the Catholic believer the Holy Eucharist, the bread and wine are, through God's mysterious action, are transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Examination under the most powerful microscopes would show no change to the bread or wine that we could see with out senses. But we Catholics take the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John very seriously indeed. The power to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood was given to the Apostles at the Last Supper. 

The center of Catholic worship is the Holy Eucharist, the person of Christ that has been consecrated by the priest at Mass. Christ is NOT killed again and again, but rather, His sacrifice is re-presented to the Father at each Mass celebrated. At Catholic Mass we are fed with the Word of God in readings from Holy Scripture. At each Mass we hear a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from the Psalms and a reading from the Gospel. It is at this point that mist Protestant services conclude. Teaching from the Word is shared, songs of praise are sung and a sermon is preached. At Catholic Mass after we are fed from the bounty of God's Word we then are fed by Christ with His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the bread and wine. So, we Catholics are fortunate to be nourished by both word and Christ Himself. We Catholics believe that the Eucharist is an awesome gift that is given to us by God and the way he chooses to be with us until He comes back for us at the end of time. 

For most Protestants there is a theory of Once saved, always saved. In other words, once you commit yourself to Christ, usually by saying "the sinners prayer" you are forever marked as being bound for heaven. My questions would be first, where is the sinners prayer in the Bible? Secondly, personal responsibility for how you live your life, what happens to it if once saved always saved is true? Luther said "sin boldly" while Scripture counsels us; "...because it is written be ye holy for I am holy...1 Peter 1:16 KJV. For us Catholics we realize that the gift of salvation is just that, a gift that cannot be purchased or earned. It is available to all as a birth right of all Christians but as we see in the story of the prodigal son it can be squandered and thrown away. God is always there ready to welcome us back but using our free will we have cooperate with His grace and return to His house. He is always watching and waiting for us to return. Christ gave us Catholics a way to heal the hurt of sin and that is called the sacrament of reconciliation or confession. Christ gave this power to the Apostles when He told them that those sins that they forgive are forgiven and those that they held bound were held bound.  It stands to reason that in order to decide if a sin is to be forgiven it has to be verbalized.  We do this in confession and receive the forgiveness of Christ and his Church for no sin only affects the sinner, it affects the Church, the kingdom. Imagine a placid pool of water and a person throws a rock into the middle the water is disturbed and the effects of the rock is felt from the epicenter to the shore of the pool. 

There are other differences between Catholics and Protestants but that would be the subject for a book and not for a blog post. The things that divide us are not trivial but I think that we are closer that even Jack Chic, the most anti-Catholic person ever to draw breath would suspect.  We have in common Jesus Christ who uses each of us, each denomination through the action of the Holy Spirit to get the work of the Kingdom done. He will return one day and it may amaze us who he gathers to his right side and who are sent shamefully to the left. 

There is a great danger in the world today. The soil of the earth is being enriched by the blood of Christian martyrs, both Protestant and Catholic by the misguided followers of Islam that swear allegiance to ISIS. Closer to home we are attacked on all sides by a society that has been sinking down into moral depravity since Row v Wade became the law of the land and human life became cheaper.  We Christians, Catholics, Baptists, Anglicans, all of the thirty thousand plus denominations have to pray for unity. If a return to one church is not possible yet, then we must unite ourselves beneath the banner of Christ and cry out with loud voices when injustice appears. In our country it is not fashionable to be a Christian of any sort anymore. It is more fashionable to be a homosexual activist, an advocate for the murder of babies in the womb, a disciple of Jack Kevorkian demanding that life of the old, the diseased, be snuffed out because their life is no longer worth living. The age old question of life echos into our frail ears; "When the Son of Man comes will He find any faith on the earth?"

May God bless and keep you this day. Watch for opportunities to be Christ to people and burn with the fire of His love in your heart and show it by your life.   

A Crusade To End ISIS

Some time ago, when Christians were united in one Church there arose a scourge in the land that called itself Islam.  Islam itself is said to be a religion of peace but through the generations the followers of this religion have spawned many men whose only desire was to plunder, rape, and savage people in the name of their god.  They robbed and killed Christians who were making pilgrimages to the Holy Land.  The Pope called for the faithful to rise up and mount a crusade to protect the pilgrims and to take the Holy Land back from the pagans. 

Today we face a similar gang of ruffians who in the name of God are killing Christians, both Catholic and Protestant.  The soil of the killing fields are being enriched daily by the blood of the martyrs. The cowards have now declared war on unarmed innocent civilians that have done no wrong to them.  Hundreds have been killed in the name of their moon god. 

Like our ancestors, it is time to call for a Crusade to wipe out the cowardly killers.  We must not however resort to violence ourselves. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit waits on his children to call on His Name.  Our crusade must be a prayer crusade and we all must be Knights of the Holy Cross of Prayer.  Our sword is sharp and our enemies are defenseless against the Son of God. 

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we can defeat the Isis and Al Qaeda menace if we use a weapon that is more powerful than the hydrogen bomb, more deadly to them than anthrax spores.  That weapon is the weapon of prayer.  Fall to your knees and pray that God moves his mighty hand against the devilish murderers. Pray that our Christian brothers and sisters are protected from these heathens,  Prayer, fasting, sacrifice, are what is needed.  If we storm heaven with our cries, can our Father ignore them?  God's uses the weak, us, to show His strength.  He waits for our request and He will act and the enemy will be confused and will be routed. 

Join the Great Prayer Crusade against the evil of ISIS! 

Wars and Rumors of Wars - A Call to A New Crusade

Once again Islam shows its true nature and over one-hundred innocent people are senselessly murdered in the name of the moon god. I know Pope Francis tells us that Muslims worship the same God as we do. Be advised that his pronouncement on this issue is not an infallible statement so it is okay for a good Catholic boy like me to dispute albeit softly and respectfully this statement. I have no doubt that the vast majority of the followers of the prophet are decent human beings that are horrified at the senseless bloodshed perpetrated in their name in Paris. My criticisms do not target the vast majority, although their silence makes them somewhat less innocent. The average man on the prayer rug should be joining with the rest of the world in acclaiming horror at the bloodletting terror that was unleashed in Paris, Beirut, and I understand that there was a suicide bombing in Turkey yesterday as well. Yet these is nothing but silence from the vast majority of Muslims.  

We in the United States have tasted the cup of jihad because blood has already been spilled in our own land on September Eleventh in New York and at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and at the hand of an unbalanced jihadist officer who shot fellow soldiers.   ISIS has changed the game by sending their foolish and ignorant suicide bombers to cities outside of the sphere of their influence.  I am afraid that here in the United States some misguided follower of the prophet will someday soon release more spores of hate and more Americans will become victims of the moon god. 

Are the jihadists actually the tools of God? Are their presence among us signs that the Apocalypse is upon us? In our readings this week at Mass we hear Jesus speak of the end times.  I think our pastor made a good point in his homily when he said that no matter what happens, no matter what disaster may strike in our lives, God is always with us, Jesus is there to comfort us and Jesus has already won the ultimate victory.  

We CAN defeat radical Islam without a doubt.  Force of arms has its role to play but I believe that we can do more good by mounting a crusade against Islam.  I am not speaking about taking up arms but relying on a powerful weapon that has defeated many of the opponents of God, that is prayer. God only needs to move his hand against ISIS and they will be routed!  I am inviting all Christians, Catholic and Protestant to pray to the Lord our God and begging Him to move His mighty hand and save us from the hands of the followers of the moon god.  

Catholics...Awake!  This is a call to arms.  Arm yourself with the Rosary and pray for peace.  We all know how powerful prayer is and how supremely powerful the Rosary is.  Let us pray.

Christians Are Under Attack ! A Prayer Crusade is THE answer !

Christians are under attack world wide.  In many places the followers of Islam burn churches and kill believers, both Catholic and Protestant.  It's time to do something about this unwholesome situation.  Should we arm ourselves and take to the streets?  No, that is not what Jesus would have done.  What we need to do is to embark on is a Prayer Crusade.  Our Father in heaven is waiting for us to join together and ask for help against the people who are injuring His people. 

What do we really know about Islam and their holy book, the Koran. Here are a few quick facts for you. Get to know the enemy so that they will not be able to trick you. 

Islam and Civil Rights:  Islam does not recognize freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press. 

The Koran: The Koran was supposedly handed down directly from Allah to Mohammed and is in perfect Arabic.  In actuality it contains sentences that are incomplete, sentences with poor grammar, and contradictions in what a follower should do.  The Koran contains text ripped from the Hebrew Bible because the Prophet hoped that by putting in something the the Jews were familiar with he could convert them.  This failed and the peaceful Prophet began attacking caravans and Jewish settlements.  Through this means the Prophet was able to obtain great influence and huge monetary resources.  

Islam and Women:  (From the Koran Sura 4-34) "Men are the managers of the affairs of women. Those you fear may be rebellious - admonish them; banish them to their couches and beat them."

The Prophet: The Prophet used the Koran for his own benefit on many occasions.  For example; the Koran says that a man may have up to four wives.  The Prophet had at least sixteen wives and had relations with up to six more concubines or slaves. Aesha was nine years old when the Prophet took her into his bed. In another instance he fancied the wife of another man and son of a gun, Allah spoke and told the man to give his wife to the Prophet.  

These are just a few facts about the Islamic faith that everyone should know.  We, Catholics and Protestants of all denominations MUST enter into a Crusade against the Muslims.  Do not be deceived by their words of honey.  They play only by their rules and peaceful co-existence with any other religion will not happen.  Look at what the Taliban did to those ancient statues in Afghanistan.  

Do not engage in any violence against these poor people.  Remember they have been brainwashed their whole lives to accept the mush-mosh that is the Koran is the word of God.  Our Crusade must be completely non violent.  We must pray to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and ask them for help against a vicious foe.  

So, fellow Christians, will you commit to praying each day for God to move His mighty arm and to rebuke the followers of Islam that employ violence against His children.   We have to show by our actions that we trust in God, that we trust in Jesus and we have to be ready to put our action where our beliefs lead us. 

Fellow Catholics, the Rosary helped bring down the Berlin wall and communism. Let us resort to our sharpest sword and dedicate one Rosary per day to the defeat of violent Islam. 

Other Christians, pray however you want, but do it daily and do it faithfully.  We need to unite to defeat this enemy.  We will either hang together now or hang separately later. 

God is watching and waiting for His children to ask for help.  His mighty hand will protect us.  We must remember too that Jesus has already won the victory for us.  It is the duty of every Christian to participate in the work of Christ, in the manner he has taught.  We must not trade violence for violence.  For if we do this we are not trusting in God, we are trusting in our weapons.  If we enter into prayer and ask our Father for what we need and we are all united in our words, what Father could refuse us? 

The Tears of God

   

     Today the Church is being assailed from many different directions.  In this case I am using the word Church in its broadest sense and including all who proclaim Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord both Catholic and Protestant.  As I see it besides the internal strife we create for ourselves the biggest danger we face is the onslaught of Islamic terror against Christians in general. I really do not know how we can protect ourselves against a people that uses terror and violence to spread their teachings. 

     The Church teaches that the followers of Islam worship the same God as Christians.  This may be true but they don't seem to see God as Father, but rather as a slave owner.  Is the spread of Islam a chastisement of God against us for our disobedience?  The Old Testament tells many stories of how when the Hebrew people disobeyed God that misfortune followed. 

     What can we do to protect our churches and ourselves and our families against Islamic terrorism?  I would really like some suggestions.