Rosary Coast to Coast - October 7
In addition to 2023 being the 8th annual 54 Day Rosary Novena for Our Nation, it is also the 8th year for the National Rosary Rally and the 6th year for Rosary Coast to Coast when we are called to look forward to taking our communal prayer into the public realm!
Many sense something is coming, and so it seems providential that this year the October 7th Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary falls on a Saturday which is also the First Saturday of the month! With the opportunity to gather in prayer on the actual feast day as well as to help fulfill Our Lady of Fatima’s request to offer our prayer in reparation on first Saturdays, the National Rosary Rally will be held on Saturday October 7th at our nation’s capitol.
Rosary Coast to Coast rallies are encouraged to also take place on Saturday October 7th. We know that some rallies are planned for Sunday. Rallies held on Sunday October 8th should be considered in union with Rosary Coast to Coast as well. Resources are available to support both dates.
Organize and register Rosary Coast to Coast rallies at https://rosarycoasttocoast.
Once again the rallies are encouraged to be in public places: along coasts and borders, at state capitols, in parks, on beaches, along busy streets as well as outside Churches and Shrines.
National Rosary Rally - October 7
Rosary Coast to Coast is anchored by the National Rosary Rally at the US Capitol in Washington DC!
The National Rosary Rally will start with the National Eucharistic Procession from St. Peter's on Capitol Hill.
This year for the first time the Men's March (https://themensmarch.com/) will join the National Eucharistic Procession at the Supreme Court to the rally site at Union Square on Capitol Hill and will participate in the National Rosary Rally!
The National Rosary Rally will again lead Rosary Coast to Coast rallies across the nation in praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary simultaneously at 4 pm Eastern, 3 pm Central, 2 pm Mountain, 1pm Pacific, noon Alaska, 10 am Hawaii!
Please consider joining us at our nation's capitol on Saturday October 7th! Details can be found at https://rosarycoasttocoast.
There is much to pray for and to witness in public, prayerful, peaceful profession of our Catholic Faith!
Our prayer intention this year is: MAY OUR CHURCH AND OUR COUNTRY FIND HOPE AS WE UNITE AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS.
Called to Holiness & Spiritual Battle - Unite at the Foot of the Cross
We, the Church Militant on earth, are engaged in a spiritual battle of historic proportions! We continue to live in peace-less times in conflict with God’s laws and His natural law: denial of the humanity and human rights of the unborn; rebellion against God’s creation of man and woman; attacks on marriage and family; intolerance towards and persecution of biblically-based religious belief and practice. We have long since passed the moral degradation of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In essence, we are living in a culture of death and of lies. To what are we as Christians called in response? The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “All are called to Holiness…The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.”
Rosary Coast to Coast and National Rosary Rally are not political rallies. We are praying for our nation to return to God and to Holiness through the peaceful, powerful, public profession of our Catholic Faith!
Are you in?!
“I wholeheartedly endorse the Novena for Our Nation and the Rosary Rally… I urge as many as are able to participate in these great spiritual works for the sake of our entire nation.” - Cardinal Raymond Burke
“May there arise a new movement of people who courageously will pray the Rosary in public places. May “Rosary Coast to Coast” bring to all citizens of the United States, to the people people with governmental responsibilities, to all faithful Catholics, to priests and bishops a spiritual grace-filled rain of roses.” - Bishop Athanasius Schneider
“I am 100% supportive of the Rosary Coast to Coast movement! Our world is in major trouble and we need to turn to the prayer that Our Lady has most insistently asked us to pray in all of her recent approved apparitions: The Holy Rosary.” - Fr. Donald Calloway
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14
Monday Night at the Movies
Joe Johnston, October Sky, 1999
Introduction to Chronicles 1
Déjà vu[1], that strange feeling we sometimes
get that we've read something before. What we're reading now has already been
read. In 1 Chronicles, the author decides to retell the entire
history of Israel from the first week of creation all
the way to the people's return from exile in Babylon in 538 BCE. After all, those
really long genealogies from Numbers were
so fun, who wouldn't want to hear them again? But seriously, why would anyone
want to retell stories from the Bible? Those tales about the prophet Samuel and King David were pretty darn awesome the
first time around. If the originals are not broken, don't fix it, right? Not
quite. See, the author of Chronicles lived about 500 years after the death of
King David. A whole lot of distressing stuff has happened since then. Israel
had a string of terrible kings, it fractured into two separate countries, and
it was nearly annihilated by the big boys from Assyria and Babylon. It was a rough
half-millennium.
1
Chronicles is written as the people return to Jerusalem after spending nearly
70 years in exile in Babylon. They're struggling to put their lives back
together. Whether they're reestablishing the city, rebuilding the Temple, or
renewing their relationship with God, these guys have got a lot on their
plates. So, what better time than now to retell a classic and inspiring story
about Jerusalem's Golden Age? Think about it. Some of our favorite books and
movies are just rehashes of older tales. Easy A is The Scarlet Letter. Ten Things I Hate
About You is The Taming of the Shrew. My Fair Lady is Pygmalion. Heck, even Twilight is loosely (very loosely)
based on Pride and Prejudice. By telling a story again in a new
and different way, you're saying that it's valuable, important, and still has
something to teach. Trust us, being timelessly wise is no easy feat. So take a
trip down memory lane as we examine the phenomena of déjà vu, that strange feeling we sometimes
get that we've read something before. What we're reading now has already been
read.
Why Should I Care?
We
all need a hero. It's totally true. People do need
heroes. We need them to give us hope, show us the way, and to fight for
everything that's good in this crazy world. And no one needed a hero more than
the Chronicler and his friends in Jerusalem. They had really been through some
stuff. Death. Destruction. War. Exile. But now they've come back to the city
they once lost and they're looking to rebuild. Late at night they toss and they
turn and they dream of what they need. They need a hero. That's why the
Chronicler decides to write about King David. In his eyes, this ancient king is
the ultimate hero. Not only is he unbelievably handsome, he's also incredibly
loyal, faithful, humble, and strong. The guy is a kick-butt warrior. A just and
fair king. A devoted servant of God. He's the total package. Seriously, the
Chronicler loves David so much we're guessing he drew little hearts around his
name every time he wrote it. Of course, this isn't the first time King David's
heroic story has been told. But their portrayal of him is a little more, um,
complicated. Do you remember the time David's own son tried to usurp his
throne? Or that other time when he slept with a married woman, got her
pregnant, and then had her husband killed so he could marry her? Well, none of
that is in 1 Chronicles. It's not that the author is trying to hide all this
stuff from us (he knows his readers already have all the dirt on David and
Bathsheba). But he also knows his people need a story that will uplift them and
give them hope for the hard work that's ahead. No one wants to read about an
angry, brooding Superman who's struggling to find his
place in this world. They need a handsome, confident Christopher
Reeve-style Superman who
fights for truth, justice, and the Yahweh way.
We
all long for strong leaders who'll protect us from our enemies, unify the
country and really care about us. Every four years, a few people try to
convince us that they're exactly what we're looking for and that God's on their
side. We can read about King David and think, "if only…" OTOH, we realize
that, as much as we'd like to worship our leaders, there's no perfect leader,
that running a country is way more complicated than invading foreign countries,
citing Scripture, and handing out free food. We can relate to the author of
Chronicles because we're willing to overlook a lot of moral failings and
personal shenanigans in a charismatic political leader who makes us feel good
about our country. Could the David of 1 Chronicles get elected today? We
report. You decide.
AUGUST 14 Monday
ST.
MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE
1 Chronicles, Chapter 13, Verse 12
David
was AFRAID of God that day, and he
said, “How can I bring in the ark of God to me?”
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his
kindness, to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine.
David was afraid because he had just witnessed Uzzah being
struck dead because he touched the Ark, the supreme object of Israelite
liturgical worship as prohibited in the Torah. (2 Sam. 6:7)
Stand in
Awe[2]
It is obviously no surprise that liberal Catholics have
traditionally placed a low value on the quality of liturgical celebrations; I
say not on liturgy itself, because progressive Catholics think liturgy is
extremely important - that is, so long as it is an anthropocentric, horizontal
affair. It is not liturgy per se they disparage, but liturgy done well - that
is, liturgy that is transcendent and centered on the dignified worship of God.
"Why be so finicky about the liturgy?" they say. "There are more
important issues to get upset about! Issues like poverty, war, abortion and
social justice! Why get all worked up about liturgical reform? It is just a
matter of aesthetics anyhow!" Unfortunately, it is also common for more
conservative Catholics to hold a dismissive attitude towards the liturgy as
well, adopting a minimalist approach that the externals of liturgical action
are "mere" externals, that they can be discarded or changed without
consequence, that all that matters is having a valid Eucharist, etc. Similarly,
the charismatic movement tends to foster an attitude of undue familiarity and
casualness in the presence of the Lord. All of these are deficient approaches
to the Sacred Liturgy which do not fully respect the importance of this holy
action. Care of the poor is certainly important. Economic and social justice
are important. But while the aforementioned topics are certainly worthy of
attention, liturgy takes a special place because in the Divine Liturgy we
worship God Himself. Remember when Judas was indignant with Mary of Bethany for
anointing the feet of Jesus? "Why was this ointment not sold for three
hundred denarii and given to the poor?" Jesus said, "Let her
alone...the poor you have with you always, but you do not always have me"
(John 12:5,7). When we adore and worship Jesus, we are performing a supremely
important action; in fact, it is the action we were created to do. How
important is liturgy in the larger scheme of things? One way of telling how
important something is to God is seeing how many people He has struck dead over
it. We don't mean to be facetious; consider the following facts: God
did not strike Adam dead when he committed the first sin, nor did He smite Cain
for murder. He did not smite Noah for drunkenness, nor did He kill Joseph's
brothers for selling him into slavery. Aaron was not even smitten for making
the golden calf and David was not struck down for his adulterous and murderous
affair with Bathsheba. Even wicked Manasseh of Judah was not killed by God when
he sacrificed babies to Moloch in the Valley of Hinnom. Yet, Scripture is
replete with examples of persons who were struck dead in wrath for violating
the dignity surrounding the Hebrew liturgy and the ceremonial worship of God.
The Bible furnishes us with the following examples of
people who were smitten by God in divine anger:
·
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, are consumed
by divine flame for offering unholy fire before the Lord, fire "such as
the Lord had not commanded them" (Lev. 10:1-3).
·
A man is put to death under God's Law for not
honoring the day of rest by picking up sticks (Num. 15:32-36). The day of rest
was supposed to be the day on which God was worshipped.
·
Korah, Dathan Abiram and their party are
consumed by fire and swallowed up into the earth because they sought to usurp
the priestly role of Aaron. Their heresy was that they asserted that "all
the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them"
(Num. 16:1-40).
·
Hophni and Phineas, the two wicked sons of Eli
the High Priest are marked out for death by God because they partook of
consecrated meat from the offerings made to the Lord at the Tent of Meeting (1
Sam. 2:12-4:11).
·
King Saul offers a sacrifice because the priest
Samuel is late in arriving for the ceremony. As a result, God rejects him from
being King, he becomes tormented by evil spirits and is slain on Mount Gilboa
(1 Sam. 13:8-14).
·
Seventy men of Beth-Shemesh were struck dead by
God for looking into the Ark (1 Sam. 6:12). As lay people and non-Levites, the
touching of the sacred object of the Hebrew liturgy and sign of God's presence
was a profanation.
·
King Uzziah of Judah is smitten with leprosy
"to the day of his death" for trying to offer incense in the Holy
Temple in violation of the law permitting only priests and levites from doing
so (2 Chr. 26:16-21).
·
King Belshazzar of Babylon arouses the wrath of
God by using Israelite liturgical vessels for profane uses (Dan. 5). He is
slain and his kingdom is lost.
·
St. Paul warns the Corinthians that improper
reception of the Holy Eucharist is a profanation of Christ's Body and can lead
to death (I Cor. 11:27-33).
Judging by all of these examples, it would seem that God's
wrath was more provoked by Korah and Dathan usurping the priestly role of Moses
than by Manasseh slaughtering infants. We know from Scripture that Manasseh was
taken into captivity, had time to repent, and indeed did repent of his
wickedness. But we know that Uzzah, Dathan, Korah, Nadab and all the rest on
this list were slain immediately without time for afterthought or repentance.
All of the people on this list died because they violated Old Testament
prescriptions regarding the proper worship of God in one way or another. In all
of our good deeds, we serve God in our brothers and sisters, but in the
liturgy, we come into contact with God Himself, which gives opportunity for
greater blessing, but also increases the condemnation of those who participate
in it unworthily or profane it.
Therefore, let anybody
who is tempted to think that the proper worship of God is not important
(supremely important!), that it does not matter whether we use Gregorian Chant
or guitars and bongos in Mass, that accurate liturgical translations are
not vital, that God is not outraged by Clown Masses, Guitar Masses and all the
rest of the abominations we hear about, that there is no difference between the
Traditional Latin Mass and the nonsense at your typical liberal parish, let
them remember St. Paul's admonition in the epistle to the Hebrews: "A
man who has violated the Law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of
two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved
by the man who has spurned the Son of God and profaned the blood of the
covenant by which he was sanctified and outraged the Spirit of Grace. For we
know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." And again, "The
Lord will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God" (Heb. 10:28-31).
St. Maximillian Kolbe[3]
Born Raymond Kolbe in Poland, Jan. 8, 1894, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Order where he was ordained a priest in 1918. Father Maximilian returned to Poland in 1919 and began spreading his Militia of the Immaculata movement of Marian consecration (whose members are also called MIs), which he founded on October 16, 1917. In 1927, he established an evangelization center near Warsaw called Niepokalanow, the "City of the Immaculata." By 1939, the city had expanded from eighteen friars to an incredible 650, making it the largest Catholic religious house in the world. To better "win the world for the Immaculata," the friars utilized the most modern printing and administrative techniques. This enabled them to publish countless catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million. Maximilian started a shortwave radio station and planned to build a motion picture studio--he was a true "apostle of the mass media." He established a City of the Immaculata in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1930, and envisioned missionary centers worldwide. Maximilian was a ground-breaking theologian. His insights into the Immaculate Conception anticipated the Marian theology of the Second Vatican Council and further developed the Church's understanding of Mary as "Mediatrix" of all the graces of the Trinity, and as "Advocate" for God's people. In 1941, the Nazis imprisoned Father Maximilian in the Auschwitz death camp. There he offered his life for another prisoner and was condemned to slow death in a starvation bunker. On August 14, 1941, his impatient captors ended his life with a fatal injection. Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a "martyr of charity" in 1982. St. Maximilian Kolbe is considered a patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted. Militia of the Immaculata
Things to
Do:
·
From
the Catholic Culture library, read The Holy
Spirit and Mary,
an explanation of St. Maximillian's Marian theology and Maximillian
Kolbe, Apostle of Mary
by Fr. John Hardon.
·
Offer
a Mass.
·
Say
a rosary for those who suffer in the world today from man's inhumanity.
·
Pray
for an end to abortion, our nation's own holocaust.
·
Read
about Auschwitz and ponder the modern gas chambers
(abortion, euthanasia, public school, CNN, Uncle JOE/Fancy Nancy) in every
state of our Union and resolve to do all that you can to end the killing.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION TWO-I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER THREE-I BELIEVE IN THE
HOLY SPIRIT
Article
11-"I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY"
II. Dying in Christ Jesus
1005 To rise with Christ, we
must die with Christ: we must "be away from the body and at home with the
Lord." In that "departure" which is death the soul is
separated from the body. It will be reunited with the body on the day of
resurrection of the dead.
Death
1006 "It is in regard to
death that man's condition is most shrouded in doubt." In a sense
bodily death is natural, but for faith it is in fact "the wages of
sin." For those who die in Christ's grace it is a participation in
the death of the Lord, so that they can also share his Resurrection.
1007 Death is the end of earthly
life. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow
old and, as with all living beings on earth, death seems like the normal end of
life. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives: remembering our
mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring
our lives to fulfillment:
Remember
also your Creator in the days of your youth, . . . before the dust returns to
the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
1008 Death is a consequence of
sin. the Church's Magisterium, as authentic interpreter of the affirmations of
Scripture and Tradition, teaches that death entered the world on account of
man's sin. Even though man's nature is mortal God had destined him not to
die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered
the world as a consequence of sin. "Bodily death, from which man
would have been immune had he not sinned" is thus "the last
enemy" of man left to be conquered.
1009 Death is transformed by
Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of
the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it
in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will. The
obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.
The meaning of Christian death
1010 Because of Christ,
Christian death has a positive meaning: "For to me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain." "The saying is sure: if we have died with him,
we will also live with him. What is essentially new about Christian death
is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already "died with
Christ" sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in
Christ's grace, physical death completes this "dying with Christ" and
so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act:
It is better
for me to die in (eis) Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth.
Him it is I seek - who died for us. Him it is I desire - who rose for us. I am
on the point of giving birth .... Let me receive pure light; when I shall have
arrived there, then shall I be a man.
1011 In death, God calls man to
himself. Therefore the Christian can experience a desire for death like St.
Paul's: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ. " He can
transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father,
after the example of Christ:
My earthly
desire has been crucified; . . . there is living water in me, water that
murmurs and says within me: Come to the Father.
I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.
I am not dying; I am entering life.
1012 The Christian vision of
death receives privileged expression in the liturgy of the Church:
Lord, for
your faithful people life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly
dwelling lies in death we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.
1013 Death is the end of man's
earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as
to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his
ultimate destiny. When "the single course of our earthly life" is
completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives: "It is
appointed for men to die once." There is no "reincarnation"
after death.
1014 The Church encourages us
to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the litany of the saints,
for instance, she has us pray: "From a sudden and unforeseen death,
deliver us, O Lord"; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us
"at the hour of our death" in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves
to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.
Every action
of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the
day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet
conscience .... Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from
death? If you aren't fit to face death today, it's very unlikely you will be
tomorrow ....
Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily Death,
from whom no
living man can escape.
Woe on those
who will die in mortal sin!
Blessed are
they who will be found in your most holy will,
for the
second death will not harm them.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Catholic
Politian’s and Leaders
· Let Freedom Ring Day 38 Freedom from Worldliness
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: August
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[3]http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2017-08-14
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