Friday, February 12, 2021

 Carnival Friday (Sixth Day-Holy Face)

marriage week-LINCOLN Darwin Chinese new year (OX)

Exodus, Chapter 9, Verse 27-30

27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! The LORD is the just one, and I and my people are the ones at fault. 28 Pray to the LORD! Enough of the thunder and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer.” 29 Moses replied to him, “As soon as I leave the city, I will extend my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail so that you may know that the earth belongs to the LORD. 30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet FEAR the LORD God.”

 

This was the seven plague of God on the Egyptians and of course Pharaoh had closed his ears and heart to God. Thunder was to the Egyptians the voice of God, but they did not listen nor did the hail melt the ice of their hearts to the true God. Because God loves us, He sometimes permits plagues in our lives that will bring about an exodus from our sin and a melting of our heart. When we are poor in spirit it is then that we can draw near to the Lord.

 

A young man approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. (Mt. 19:16-22)

 

Today might be a good day to make a poor man feast.

 

Poor Man’s Feast[1]


Recipe originally uploaded to YouTube by 91-year-old cook and great grandmother, Clara, who recounts her childhood during the Great Depression as she prepares meals from the era.

DIRECTIONS

Prepare the vegetables: Dice the onion. Peel the potatoes and dice into cubes no larger than 1/2 inch.

Heat the oil in a 12" non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes, stirring once.

Add the onion and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the sliced wieners and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

INGREDIENTS

·        3 tablespoons vegetable oil

·        1 medium onion, diced

·        2 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced small

·        5 hot dogs, sliced into rounds (about 10 oz)

·        8 ounces tomato sauce

·        1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)

·        2 teaspoons sugar

Carnival Friday-Rio de Janeiro[2] 

At the height of Rio’s summer, beginning at least a week before the official event, which runs from the Friday before Ash Wednesday until Shrove (Fat) Tuesday. Rio’s more than 70 samba “schools” (neighborhood social groups, not educational institutions) spend the entire year preparing for this moment, and many open to visitors beginning in September for those who come outside of Carnival season. For those who come for the Carnival itself, though, the centerpiece is the samba parades, made up of lavishly costumed troupes and over-the-top floats from Grupo Especial (the 12 top-tier schools)— each accompanied by a pounding, 150-member-strong drum corps— who perform and compete on the Sunday and Monday before Ash Wednesday. 

The parades are televised from 9 P.M. to dawn, at the filled-to-capacity, 75,000-seat Sambódromo (a stadium built specifically for this purpose). Here, the flamboyantly— often scantily— dressed teams fill the air with music, passion, and unbridled frenzy as they compete for the year’s coveted championship. 

Indoor samba balls (often attended by guests in full costume) are held in nightclubs, bars, and some hotels around town. But the most authentic experience of all is to join the open-air concerts and tag-along bands that snake through the beachside neighborhoods of Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon and the hilltop Bohemian district of Santa Teresa, forming a kind of citywide street party. A glitzy and outrageous bacchanal of flesh and fantasy, Rio’s Carnival is not for the prudish or crowd-fearing. 


For those who want to escape the chaos of Carnival, there’s the grand Belmond Copacabana Palace, which hosts the most exclusive black-tie ball in Rio. Built in 1923, “The Palace” overlooks the famous beach from which it takes its name, and its elegant pool makes a beautiful setting for a dip or an afternoon caipirinha (cocktail), while its top-rated restaurants serve excellent meals. This was the backdrop for Flying Down to Rio, the 1933 film that first paired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; the movie made the Palace a Hollywood favorite. The myth of yesteryear lives on in the ornate Golden Room; its famous glass dance floor, lit from below, is where the famous Magic Ball takes place during Carnival. 

The Devil and Temptations[3]

There are many and varied ways in which sin and evil are presented to us in an attractive way.

Spiritualists or Spiritualistic Churches

·         Spiritualism involves a communication with the dead or with the spirit world by some psychic or occult means.

·         Great care is to be used because many people are fooled. There can be the use of the Bible, holy water, statues of saints and Catholic hymns. Spiritualists often believe in the Fatherhood of God, doing good to others, personal responsibility for what one does, reward for good deeds and punishment for evil deeds. Many are Christian or even Catholic and profess faith in Jesus.

·         There is always a dangerous attempt to communicate with the dead or with spirits in some way. It can be through a seance, or perhaps the person just seems to go into a trance.

·         Spiritualists are involved in healing, witchcraft, fortune telling or even blessing homes to protect them. Sometimes they believe in reincarnation as well.

Reincarnation (Theosophy)

·         This is the belief that the soul, after death, passes into the body of another human being, an animal, a plant or even an object. Many oriental religions or cults believe this. In Hinduism the god Vishnu is believed to have several reincarnations as a fish, a dwarf, as the person of Rama, and as Krishna in the different ages of the world. This is contrary to the Bible and to all Christian belief in the afterlife. "It is appointed that men die once, and after death be judged" (Heb. 10:27). Those involved with spiritualists must renounce Satan, renounce spiritualism, ask God's pardon, and confess their sin to a priest.

________________________________________

NOVENA TO THE HOLY FACE

Daily Preparatory Prayer

 O Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, through the intercession of Holy Mary, whose soul was pierced through by a sword of sorrow at the sight of the passion of her Divine Son, we ask your help in making a perfect Novena of reparation with Jesus, united with all His sorrows, love and total abandonment.

We now implore all the Angels and Saints to intercede for us as we pray this Holy Novena to the Most Holy Face of Jesus and for the glory of the most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sixth Day

Psalm 51, 12-13.

A pure heart create for us O God, put a steadfast spirit within us. Do not cast us away from your presence nor deprive us of your Holy Spirit.

May our hearts be cleansed, O Lord, by the inpouring of the Holy Spirit, and may He render them fruitful by watering them with His heavenly dew, Mary, the most chaste spouse of the Holy Spirit, intercede for us, Saint Joseph pray for us.

Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition, Pardon and Mercy.

Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel

O Victorious Prince, most humble guardian of the Church of God and of faithful souls, who with such charity and zeal took part in so many conflicts and gained such great victories over the enemy, for the conservation and protection of the honor and glory we all owe to God, as well as for the promotion of our salvation, come, we pray Thee, to our assistance, for we are continually besieged with such great perils by our enemies, the flesh, the world and the devil; and as Thou was a leader for the people of God through the desert, so also be our faithful leader, and companion through the desert of this world, until Thou conduct us safely into the happy land of the living, in that blessed fatherland from which we are all exiles. Amen. (St. Aloysius)

Pray one (1) Our Father, (3) Hail Mary’s, (1) Glory Be.

O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine. (Three times)

________________________________________

National Marriage Week-Marriage Retreat[4]

Here is a virtual Marriage Retreat. Join us by taking a few moments each day, together with your spouse, to reflect and pray. This retreat will help you further reflect on what makes marriage unique as established by God, between a man and woman, as the basis for family and society. For more instruction or inspiration, visit foryourmarriage.org or marriageuniqueforareason.org.

 

·         Plan to do the retreats weekly; perhaps on the day of the week you were married.

·         Enjoy a good home cooked meal together after your retreat; use a recipe for the saint of the day. Available at Catholicculture.org. Say Grace together and ask to the saint of the day’s intervention.

 

Abraham Lincoln[5] 



Lincoln's Birthday (1809) celebrates the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, one of the most popular presidents in United States history. It is a state holiday in some states on or around February 12. It's also known as Abraham Lincoln's Birthday, Abraham Lincoln Day or Lincoln Day. 

“Character is Destiny” [6] is a book written by John McCain in it he highlights the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, of the United States as an example of a man who demonstrates for us the characteristic of RESILIENCE. Resilience is the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens. 

Abraham Lincoln had known loss and grief all his life yet rather that than succumb to defeat; he somehow, always found a way to rise back up. He was inarguably a man of action. Although he was known to have chronic depression he never yielded and, in some way, resurrected from his melancholic states thinking, “To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better.” Lincoln rose to the highest office in the land after surviving a hard and poor childhood in the Indiana wilderness, a harsh father, little education, and deep loneliness. He survived the death of his brother, a sister, his mother, his first sweetheart, and his own children and his marriage to Mary Todd was troubled. As president he was considered dismal by most. How did Lincoln persist? He willed it. He was neither swift nor brilliant at work, but he was exhaustive; he continued. His resilience sprang from his deep conviction that America was, “the last, best hope of earth.” In the end he paid for his devotion with his life; so that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth. 

Darwin Day[7]

Darwin Day commemorates the achievements and the life of the scientist Charles Darwin. Names like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, and Charles Darwin are among the most historic names in science. Darwin’s most famous achievement is the development of the Theory of Natural Selection. The celebration occurs every year on Darwin’s birthday, February 12th.

Evolution and the Catholic Church[8] 

Early contributions to biology were made by Catholic scientists such as Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and the Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel. Since the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, the attitude of the Catholic Church on the theory of evolution has slowly been refined.

 

For nearly a century, the papacy offered no authoritative pronouncement on Darwin's theories. In the 1950 encyclical Humani generis, Pope Pius XII confirmed that there is no intrinsic conflict between Christianity and the theory of evolution, provided that Christians believe that God created all things and that the individual soul is a direct creation by God and not the product of purely material forces.

 

Today, the Church supports theistic evolution(ism), also known as evolutionary creation, although Catholics are free not to believe in any part of evolutionary theory.

 

The Catholic Church holds no official position on the theory of creation or evolution, leaving the specifics of either theistic evolution or literal creationism to the individual within certain parameters established by the Church. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, any believer may accept either literal or special creation within the period of an actual six-day, twenty-four-hour period, or they may accept the belief that the earth evolved over time under the guidance of God. Catholicism holds that God initiated and continued the process of his evolutionary creation and that all humans, whether specially created or evolved, have and have always had specially created souls for each individual.

 

Catholic schools in the United States and other countries teach evolution as part of their science curriculum. They teach the fact that evolution occurs and the modern evolutionary synthesis, which is the scientific theory that explains how evolution proceeds.

 

Character is Destiny[9]

 

John McCain pointed out in his book entitled, “Character is Destiny” that an understanding heart must be generous (Oseola McCarty), forgiving (Nelson Mandela), tolerant (Four Chaplains), full of mercy (Mother Antonia), faithful (Christian Guard at Hua Lo prison) and compassionate (Maximilian Kolbe). John now suggests for us that adding to our understanding heart we must strive to have a creative mind. A creative mind must be built on a thirst or curiosity in the mysteries of creation. John points out as an example of curiosity the renowned Charles Darwin.

  

McCain says of Darwin:

 

His curiosity and courage helped him to discover the history of nature, and start an argument that has continued for 150 years. A curious thing about the father of the theory of evolution is that he himself was an avowed agnostic, keeping to his scientific methods.

 

The evolution of all life on earth, including man, was and still is, in some quarters, considered an affront to the belief that the progress of the human race over time bears the unmistakable sign of the divine spark in our nature. But why can we not be content in our faith with the understanding that God’s divine intelligence, which exists beyond time and space, and has left us to choose by the exercise of our free will whether to accept His grace or reject it, could have left nature to work its physical changes upon us? We have a second nature, a moral nature, that is not determined by ecological change but by the workings of our conscience. Is not our conscience and its effect upon our will enough confirmation for the believer that God, the Creator, has endowed us with the divine spark of His love to improve, if we so choose, our second nature in service to Him? It is enough, I believe, for anyone who can see in our struggle to be good a divine purpose, as we may still glimpse in the wonders of nature the divine intelligence that created it and set it all in motion.

 

To believe and follow God is our choice. Not all will follow. Our principal belief is in our salvation not in this life but the next. Man, and nature, even at their cruelest, cannot deny us that, nor the gloriousness of His creation, a gloriousness that human qualities like curiosity have led us to appreciate with humility and awe. Time and the laws of nature do not expose the absence of God, Whose proofs are a matter for the heart to contemplate, a matter of faith.

 

Chinese New Year[10]


Chinese New Year or Spring Festival celebrates a year of hard work and gives people the opportunity to wish for a lucky new year. It is China's most important festival and involves family reunions, elaborate decorations and giving red envelopes. Chinese New Year is based on the Chinese Lunar Calendar and usually falls between January 21 and February 20. The Calendar functions on a 12-year animal cycle that many associate with the celebration.

Chinese New Year Facts & Quotes

·         2021 is the Year of the Ox. 2020 is the Year of the Rat. The Chinese New Year is celebrated as the Spring Festival in China. It is the nation's most important festival.

·         Every child receives a monetary gift for New Year. The gift is wrapped in a red envelope.

·         I wish you happiness that comes from within, the best of luck to keep you pushing and peace in all days of the New Year. - Gong Xi Fa Cai, Popular New Year song

Chinese New Year Top Events and Things to Do

·         Sing a popular Chinese New Year song called Gonf Xi Fa Cai.

·         Clean your house. It is customary for Chinese to clean their homes in preparation for the New Year and the fresh start.

·         Prepare your red envelopes for the kids. This is considered lucky money for children.

·         Attend a Chinese New Year Festival in a town near you. Most large cities in the US have a Chinatown district that will host events and pageants.

·         Get together with friends and create a long dragon on sticks. One person gets to create the head, and the remainder creates the long flowy tail. Remember to use bright colors.

Eve of the feast of St. Catherine de Ricci[11]

St. Catherine experienced the stigmata every Thursday and Friday and thus accompanied Jesus in His Passion. Despite Catherine's extraordinary interior life, she continued to serve the monastery in many capacities including prioress for 36 years. The Canticle of the Passion was revealed to Catherine immediately after her first great ecstasy of the Passion. Our Lady desired Catherine to spread it as a form of prayer and contemplation pleasing to Our Lord.

The Canticle is chanted in some Dominican monasteries on the Fridays of Lent.

Lament of Christ

X  My friends and My neighbors have drawn near and stood against Me.

X  I was delivered up and came not forth; My eyes languished through poverty.

X  And my sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down and upon the ground.

X  For many dogs have encompassed Me the council of the malignant hath besieged Me.

X  I have given My body to the strikers and My cheeks to them that plucked them.

X  I have not turned away My face from them that rebuked Me and spit upon Me.

X  For I am ready for scourges, and My sorrow is continually before Me.

X  The soldiers, plaiting a crown of thorns, placed it upon My head.

X  They have dug My hands and feet; they have numbered all My bones.

X  And they gave Me gall for My food; and in My thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

X  All they that saw Me laughed Me to scorn; they have spoken with lips and wagged their heads.

X  They have looked and stared upon Me; they parted My garments among them and upon My vesture they cast lots.

X  Into Thy hands I commend My spirit; Thou has redeemed me, O God of truth.

X  Be mindful, O Lord, of Thy servants, when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom.

X  And Jesus having cried out with a loud voice gave up the ghost.

The mercies of the Lord I will sing for all eternity. Surely, He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He was bruised for our sins. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; everyone hath turned aside into his own way. For the Lord hath placed upon him the iniquities of us all. Arise, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arise and cast us not off to the end. Behold, God is my Savior, I will deal confidently, and will not fear. We beseech Thee, O Lord, help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood.

V. Have mercy on us, O benign Jesus. R. Who in Thy clemency didst suffer for us.

Look down, we beseech Thee, O Lord, on this Thy family for which Our Lord Jesus Christ did not hesitate to be delivered into the hands of the wicked and suffer the torments of the Cross.

Daily Devotions

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Iceman’s 40 devotion

·         Universal Man Plan

·         Operation Purity

·         Rosary




[1]http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=1656

[2]Schultz, Patricia. 1,000 Places to See Before You Die

[6] McCain, John and Salter, Mark. (2005) Character is destiny. Random House, New York

[7] https://www.wincalendar.com/Darwin-Day

[8]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_Catholic_Church

[9] http://www.icemanforchrist.org/p/character-is-destiny.html

[11]http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1296



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