Merry Christmas! A Pagan Holiday?

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Monday, August 12, 2019

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Judith, Chapter 10, Verse 16 When you stand before him, have no fear in your heart; give him the report you have given us, and he will treat you well.” Judith prepares for war with prayer and by the enhancement of her beauty. She is so strikingly beautiful that in this verse one of the guards of the Assyrian camp advises her to be confident in the presence of Holofernes. Beauty and the Beast [1] After bathing (during a drought) she uses all the human arts available to her to make herself beautiful and captivating: perfumed ointment, hair, clothing and jewelry. She understands the goodness of her body. She knows physical beauty is good and comes from God. She also knows that the power of her beauty comes from within her, from her holiness, from her faithfulness to God. Since both her exterior and interior beauty come from God, her beauty must be devoted to the service of God. God intends to use her beauty as a weapon to liberate the people. She will wield the weapon t
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Saturday, April 3, 2021

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  Holy Saturday FIRST SATURDAY   Isaiah, Chapter 54, verse 4 Do not FEAR , you shall not be put to shame; do not be discouraged, you shall not be disgraced. For the shame of your youth you shall forget, the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember.   Isaiah here is speaking of the Eternal Covenant of Peace from God. Our shame was that we as a people by our transgressions killed Christ, who was the messiah and our spiritual spouse, thus becoming widows, as a people. Isaiah tells us in advance that God in his love will no longer remember our reproaches. He will make us free; He will give us peace. The next verse of Isaiah makes this clear, “For your husband is your Maker; the LORD of hosts is his name, Your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, called God of all the earth.”   Does our nation not realize that if we are the spouse of the God of all the earth, that we are committing murder of God’s own spiritual children through the legalization of abortion?   Our Holy Father s
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Wednesday, March 6, 2019

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Ash Wednesday Deuteronomy, Chapter 18, Verse 21-22 21 Should you say to yourselves, “How can we recognize that a word is one the LORD has not spoken?”, 22 if a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the word does not come true, it is a word the LORD did not speak. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not fear him. Even saints at times may have spoken presumptuously. Let us meditate on the words of Padre Pio,  “Love and fear must go united together, fear without love becomes cowardice. Love without fear becomes presumption. When there is love without fear, love runs without prudence and without restraint, without taking care where it is going.”   This is the great beauty of the Holy Spirit for it tells us when even a very holy person speaks not every word they speak comes from God. We error sometimes in this way, making men into gods; but a heart that is filled with the spirit of God is filled with quiet joy and even if the person were to be impriso
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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

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  Let Freedom Ring: Freedom from Acedia My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, At a word from You the devil and his minions flee in terror. You are the source of all truth. You are the source of all strength. By the power of your Cross and Resurrection, we beseech You, O Lord To extend Your saving arm and to send Your holy angels To defend us as we do battle with Satan and his demonic forces. Exorcise, we pray, that which oppresses Your Bride, The Church, So that within ourselves, our families, our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation We may turn fully back to You in all fidelity and trust. Lord, we know if You will it, it will be done. Give us the perseverance for this mission, we pray. Amen Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception...pray for us St. Joseph...pray for us St. Michael the Archangel...pray for us (the patron of your parish )... pray for us (your confirmation saint)...pray for us   "Freedom from Acedia" by Fr. Rick Heilman Recently, I wrote a reflection on pride. I said
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Sunday, March 28, 2021

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  Let Freedom Ring: Freedom from Sloth My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, At a word from You the devil and his minions flee in terror. You are the source of all truth. You are the source of all strength. By the power of your Cross and Resurrection, we beseech You, O Lord To extend Your saving arm and to send Your holy angels To defend us as we do battle with Satan and his demonic forces. Exorcise, we pray, that which oppresses Your Bride, The Church, So that within ourselves, our families, our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation We may turn fully back to You in all fidelity and trust. Lord, we know if You will it, it will be done. Give us the perseverance for this mission, we pray. Amen Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception...pray for us St. Joseph...pray for us St. Michael the Archangel...pray for us (the patron of your parish )... pray for us (your confirmation saint)...pray for us   "Freedom from Sloth" by Fr. Bill Peckman Here we are at the end of 40 days of prayer, fast
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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

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Wednesday after laetare Sunday: end of mid-lent [1] Jeremiah, Chapter 26, verse 19 Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah condemn him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, so that the LORD had a change of heart regarding the evil he had spoken against them? We, however, are about to do great evil against ourselves.” Have you ever been around people who cannot handle the truth! Speaking the truth got Jeremiah in dire straits. Unmoving, the temple officials and elders trashed Jeremiah nonetheless they were too afraid to kill him. Dire Straits [2] ·          At the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, God tells Jeremiah to stand in the court of the temple and speak to all the people and cities of Judah. They're getting another chance to repent. Maybe they'll actually listen this time. ·          If the people don't finally come to their senses, God's going to do the same thing to Jerusalem that he did to Shiloh up
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Thursday, March 25, 2021

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  "FIAT NOVENA" - NOVENA OF DAYS FROM CHRIST'S CONCEPTION TO DEATH This year, there "happens" to be a novena of days from Christ's conception (Annunciation) to His death on the cross (Good Friday). Mary's "Yes" is called the Fiat: in Latin, "Let it be done." Mary's "Yes" opened the way to God among us. Joseph was also asked to give his "Yes" to the calling of being the foster father of Our Lord. And, of course, Jesus offers His "Yes" as He would suffer and die on the cross for our sins. I want to give my "Yes" too!! To consecrate yourself is to answer God's call to spiritual consecration. This means making a conscious, willing decision to dedicate your soul, mind, heart, and body to God. In essence, by this consecration, we are saying, "I'M ALL IN!!" I have discerned that I will be making an Act of Consecration to all Three Hearts - Jesus, Mary & Joseph - on each of the
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Saturday, August 1, 2015

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Leviticus, Chapter 25, Verse 17 Do not deal unfairly with one another, then; but stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am your God. Our loving God wants us free and He demands that we out of love treat each other with love and fairness. In the Jewish calendar God specified that we are to rest one out of seven days but it goes further with a rest after seven weeks ending in a year of Jubilee after the 49 th year called a Shemitah. The Shemitah Year is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel and still observed in contemporary Judaism. When Moses received the Levitical law, God gave the commandment to rest on the seventh day… the Sabbath. Moses also applied the cycles of "seven" to weeks and years . A cycle of seven weeks points to the 50th day, called Pentecost. And a cycle of seven sets of seven years points to the 50th year, the year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee is based on letting the land rest
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Friday, April 2, 2021

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  Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion FIRST FRIDAY   John, Chapter 19, verse 38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for FEAR of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So, he came and took his body.   Where is Jesus’ body? If Christ did not resurrect where are the remains of his body? We have the nails, we have the shroud, we have the wood of the cross, and the crown of thorns, but we do not have His body.   Why, because he has resurrected and in due time so will we. Faith is the answer to fear. Deep down we are all afraid: of suffering, or of dying, or of God’s judgment, or of the unknown, or of weakness, or of our live’ slipping out of control, or of not being understood and loved. We sin because we fear. We bully because we are cowards. [1]   “Faith casts our fear, as light casts out darkness. God has shone his light into our world, and it is stronger than darkness. (John 1:50)   Timeline of Holy Week
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Friday, March 26, 2021

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  "FIAT NOVENA" - NOVENA OF DAYS FROM CHRIST'S CONCEPTION TO DEATH This year, there "happens" to be a novena of days from Christ's conception (Annunciation) to His death on the cross (Good Friday). Mary's "Yes" is called the Fiat: in Latin, "Let it be done." Mary's "Yes" opened the way to God among us. Joseph was also asked to give his "Yes" to the calling of being the foster father of Our Lord. And, of course, Jesus offers His "Yes" as He would suffer and die on the cross for our sins. I want to give my "Yes" too!! To consecrate yourself is to answer God's call to spiritual consecration. This means making a conscious, willing decision to dedicate your soul, mind, heart, and body to God. In essence, by this consecration, we are saying, "I'M ALL IN!!" I have discerned that I will be making an Act of Consecration to all Three Hearts - Jesus, Mary & Joseph - on each of the
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