Sunday, February 5, 2017

National Day of Prayer for the African American and African Family
http://www.icemanforchrist.org/p/character-is-destiny.html
Sojourner Truth-Nelson Mandela-Oseola McCarty-Wilma Rudolph-Martin Luther King, Jr.

An evil report he shall not fear; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.


Leviticus, Chapter 19, verse 14
You shall not insult the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.

Be like your Heavenly Father; God is not a bully. Christ was often confronted by the bullies of his time. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Mt. 22:34-40)

The modern world attempts to bully the faithful in abandoning their relationship with the Lord. Saint Pope Pius X was a pope, who resisted the bullying of the modern world by establishing an oath against modernism[1]. The crux of this oath has five main points: 

1.      I profess that God is the origin and end of all things.
2.      I accept and acknowledge the external proofs of revelation, that is, divine acts and especially miracles and prophecies as the surest signs of the divine origin of the Christian religion.
3.      I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real and historical Christ.
4.      I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport.
5.      I hold with certainty and sincerely confess that faith is not a blind sentiment of religion welling up from the depths of the subconscious under the impulse of the heart and the motion of a will trained to morality; but faith is a genuine assent of the intellect to truth.


Salt of the Earth[2]

Christ himself calls his true followers the "salt of the earth." and the "light of the world." These are titles of honor, surely, and of the greatest distinction. Christ is putting his true follower on almost a level with himself. He was the light of the world; he was the salt of the earth. He it was who gave men the knowledge of the true nature of God, as shown by the Incarnation. He it was who gave this life its flavor, who gave this life its meaning, its preservation. By his death and resurrection he took away the sting of death, and removed its eternal corruption, by the guarantee and promise of a resurrection to an eternal life. This every Christian knows, and this knowledge every Christian helps to bring to those who are ignorant of it, if he lives his life daily and sincerely. The Christian, who does this, is really another Christ; he is continuing his work of salvation during his years on earth. He is the salt, of the earth and the light of the world. How many of us, can truly say that these honorable titles, which Christ gives to his followers, are given to us? In true humility, we can all say that we are far from worthy of any such honorable titles. Yet in all sincerity too, many if not the majority among us, are doing their little bit of Christ's work, in cultivating their own small comer of his vineyard. Those parents, who teach the Christian way of life to their children by word, and especially by example, are spreading the Christian faith. The workmen, whether in office or factory, which shows that they are Christians by their honesty, charity for their fellowmen, their respect for God, and the things of God, in their speech, are spreading their Christian faith. All those who show moderation in their personal expenditures, and donate some of their savings to help their brothers, their fellow men who are in need, these are true disciples of Christ and are cooperating with him in bringing God's children back to their Father who is in heaven. Unlike the salt that has lost its flavor, and the light that is kept under the bushel, the Christian who has thus behaved can change his attitude, provided he is aided by God's grace which is never refused. He can become once more what he ought to be--a life-preserver for his neighbor. Life on earth is short. The demands of our Christian life may not always be easy, but we know that if we live up to them, we are other Christs. We are continuing his great work by our own good example to our neighbor, and we are giving glory to God, and are earning for ourselves the eternal light of heaven. Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

Super Bowl[3]

The Super Bowl is the season final championship game of National Football League (NFL) in the United States of America.  The matchup for this game is the winning teams of the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC).  Super Bowl 1 was held in February of 1967. The 2016 game was Super Bowl 50. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched television events in the United States. Nielsen Media Research, in had over 114.4 million viewers in 2015.  It is held on the first Sunday in February.

Super Bowl Facts

·         The 2017 Super Bowl is at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on February 5th.  It is the 3rd time that Houston will be the host of the Super Bowl.
·         In 2015, the price of a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl, was over $4.5 million dollars.
·         Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day of the year - after Thanksgiving.  According the National Chicken Council, in 2015 a total of 1.25 million chicken wings were eaten during the game.
·         The winner receives the Vince Lombardi Trophy.   Vince Lombardi was the coach for the Green Bay Packers who won the first two Super Bowls back-to-back.
·         The record for the most points scored by a single team during a Super Bowl, is held by San Francisco.  San Francisco scored a total of 55 points against Denver in Super Bowl XXIV.

Super Bowl Top Events and Things to Do

·         Attend the Super Bowl.  You can purchase second-hand tickets through various online marketplaces. According to Seat Geek, the average price for a ticket in 2015 was $2,670.
·         Have a Super Bowl party with friends and family.
·         Organize or purchase boxes in a football pool.  A football pool is a table that contains all of the score combinations based on the last digit of each team’s score.  The score numbers are drawn at random after all boxes are assigned.  Because of this, the odds of winning are the same regardless of each participant’s knowledge of the game.
·         Watch the Super Bowl commercials.  Commercials for the big game are the most expensive on TV and for many, more entertaining than the game.
·         Make guacamole.  This is the quintessential (and healthy!) super bowl dip.

Daily Devotions/Prayers







[1] http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=5732
[2]http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2017-02-05
[3]http://www.wincalendar.com/Super-Bowl

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