Tuesday, November 7, 2023
ELECTION
DAY-BITTER
CHOCOLATE WITH ALMONDS DAY
1 Maccabees, Chapter 13, Verse
17-18
17 Simon knew that they were speaking
deceitfully to him. Nevertheless, for FEAR
of provoking much hostility among the people, he sent for the money and the
boys, 18 lest the people say, “Jonathan
perished because I would not send Trypho the money and the boys.”
Simon
Maccabee now with the assumed death of his brother Jonathan becomes the next
leader of the Jews but unlike his brother Jonathan does not become the high
priest. Yet because it is not certain that his brother is dead, he is prepared
to pay the ransom that Trypho demands which is money and two
of Jonathan’s sons as hostages which guarantee that when Jonathan is set free,
he will not revolt against Trypho. Trypho invades the land of Judah
bringing Jonathan along as prisoner. If Simon refuses the exchange the people
will hold him responsible for Jonathan’s death. If he accepts, he is making a
deal with a deceitful, treacherous, and ambitious animal called Trypho. Simon
has no choice and pays. Trypho of course reneges, marches, and ravages as he
goes. Simon delays his march on Jerusalem. Thus, Trypho prevented from taking
the city of God, like Napoleon at the attempted taking of Moscow must retreat
back to Syria when a seasonal snowstorm comes and before he goes kills Jonathan
and probably his sons as well. This is tribalism at its worst.[1]
Tribalism and
Fear - Unworthy of Christianity[2]
Marilynne Robinson, noted author, express’s some of her
fears to what is happening today in many of the churches and inside many of us,
namely, new forms of tribalism and fear are reducing our wondrous God to a
‘tribal deity’ and our own ‘local Baal’.
The God of all nations, all families, and all peoples, she
asserts, is too frequently being invoked by us as a God, more exclusively, of
my own nation, my own family, my own church, and my own people. She cites various
examples of this, including her own sadness at how sincere Christians cannot
accept each other’s authenticity: “I must
assume that those who disagree with my understanding of Christianity are
Christians all the same, that we are members of one household. I confess that
from time to time I find this difficult. This difficulty is owed in part to the
fact that I have reason to believe they would not extend this courtesy to
me.”
This, she rightly asserts, is unworthy of God, of
Christianity, and of what’s best in us. We know better, though we usually don’t
act on that and are thus indicted by what Freud called “the narcissism of minor
differences.” And this takes its root in fear, fear of many
things. Not least among those fears is our fear of the secularized world and
how we feel this has put us on a slippery slope in terms of our Christian
heritage and our moral values. To quote Robinson here: “These people see the
onrush of secularism intent on driving religion to the margins, maybe over the
edge, and for the sake of Christianity they want to enlist society itself in
its defense. They want politicians to make statements of faith, and when
merchants hang their seasonal signs and banners, they want them to say
something more specific than ‘Happy Holidays’.
Robinson, however, is distrustful of enlisting political
power to defend Christianity. Why because “this country [the United States] in
its early period was largely populated by religious people escaping religious
persecution at the hands of state Churches, whether French Huguenots, Scots
Presbyterians, English Congregationalists, or English Catholics”. She
adds: “Since my own religious heroes tended to die gruesomely under these
regimes. I have no nostalgia for the world before secularism, nor would many of
these ‘Christian nation’ exponents, if they looked a little into the history of
their own traditions.”
Inside our fear of secularism, she suggests, lies a great
irony: We are afraid of secularism because we have, in fact, internalized the
great prejudice against Christianity, namely, the belief that faith and
Christianity cannot withstand the scrutiny of an intellectually sophisticated
culture. And that fear lies at the root of an anti-intellectualism that is very
prominent inside many religious and Church circles today. How much of our
fear today about Christianity being on a slippery slope can be traced back to
this prejudice.
Why are we so afraid of our world and of secularized
intellectuals This fear, she asserts, spawns an antagonism that is unworthy
of Christianity. Fear and antagonism are very fashionable within religious
circles today, almost to be worn as a badge of faith and loyalty. And is this a
sign of health?
No. Neither fear nor antagonism, she submits, are “becoming
in Christians or in the least degree likely to inspire thinking or action of
the kind that deserves to be called Christian”. Moreover, “if belief in
Christ is necessary to attaining of everlasting life, then it behooves anyone
who calls himself or herself a Christian, any institution that calls itself a
Church, to bring credit to the Faith, at very least not to embarrass or
disgrace it. Making God a tribal deity, our local Baal, is embarrassing and
disgraceful.”
Fear and antagonism do nothing, she adds, to draw respect
to Christianity and our churches and to the extent that we let them be
associated with Christianity, we risk defacing Christianity in the world’s
eyes. But saying that in today’s climate is to be judged as unpatriotic.
We are not supposed to care what the world thinks. But it is the world we are
trying to convert. And so, we need to be careful not to present Christianity as
undignified, xenophobic, and unworthy of our wondrous, all-embracing God.
Why all this fear, if we believe that Christianity is the
deepest of all truth and believe that Christ will be with us to the end of time
Her last sentences capsulize a challenge we urgently need today.
“Christianity is too great a narrative to be reduced to
serving any parochial interest or to be underwritten by any lesser tale.
Reverence should forbid its being subordinated to tribalism, resentment, or
fear.”
Election Day[3]
Election
Day refers to the day on which general elections in the United States are held.
Presidential elections are held every 4 years and the elected president
will then be sworn in and take office the following January 20th, a day known
as Inauguration
Day. Election Day is always held on the first Tuesday in November in
the US.
Election Day Facts
& Quotes
·
Elections
held for federal offices only occur on even-numbered years.
·
There
is no law in the Constitution or Federal
mandate which requires electorates to vote in accordance with the popular vote
of their state.
·
There
are 538 Electoral College members. In order to win the vote for President of
the United States, a candidate must
obtain at least 270 of these votes.
·
Nobody
will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American
people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt
·
Let
each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not
making a present or a compliment to please an individual--or at least that he
ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in
human society for which he is accountable to God and his country. - Samuel
Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York:
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), Vol. IV, p. 256.
Election Day Top
Events and Things to Do
·
Register
to vote prior to Election Day.
·
Attend
a local polling place and cast your vote.
·
If
voting by absentee ballot or mail-in ballot, make sure it arrives on or before
Election Day.
·
Be
informed about the candidates and new amendments on the ballot before going to
the polling place.
·
Attend
an Election Day party.
2240 Submission
to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally
obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's
country:
Pay to all of them their dues, taxes to
whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is
due, honor to whom honor is due.
[Christians] reside in their own nations,
but as resident aliens. They participate in all things as citizens and endure
all things as foreigners. . . . They obey the established laws and
their way of life surpasses the laws. . . . So noble is the position
to which God has assigned them that they are not allowed to desert it.
The Apostle exhorts us to offer prayers and thanksgiving
for kings and all who exercise authority, "that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way."
Remember the souls
in purgatory, especially politicians.
Which
place do you think houses the most politicians, heaven, hell, or purgatory? Is
it a moot point to pray for them after their demise?
Prayer:[4]
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Holy Souls, Pray for us.
For the souls of our families We pray Thee, O God.
For the souls of our friends, We pray Thee, O God.
For the souls of our enemies, We pray Thee, O God.
For the souls of all pagans, We pray Thee, O God.
For the souls of all priests, We pray Thee, O God.
For the souls of all religious, We pray Thee, O God.
For the souls of the just, We pray Thee, O God.
For the souls of all sinners, We pray Thee, O God.
For the Holy Souls in Purgatory, We pray Thee, O God.
For those who have none to pray for them, We pray Thee, O God.
O almighty and eternal God, we beg Thee to have mercy on the Holy Souls in
Purgatory, especially those for whom we are bound to pray; and we ask Thee also
to listen to the prayers of the Blessed Souls in our behalf. Amen.
Bitter Chocolate with Almonds Day[5]
This intriguingly specific Day celebrates a particular combination of flavors – dark, bitter chocolate and toasted almonds. This is one of the oldest recipes involving chocolate known in the English-speaking world, featuring as the only chocolate dish in an 18th-century cookbook. This festivity exists mainly as an idea circulated on the internet. It is sponsored by the National Confections Association, and celebrated and encouraged by organizations such as food.com, a site which aims to encourage cooking and the appreciation of food by holding various different food days. Both the tannins in dark chocolate and the various fatty acids in almonds have many health benefits, various studies have shown. Bitter Chocolate with Almonds Day encourages a delicious and nourishing dessert, which contributes to health and long life. Celebrate by dipping blanched almonds in the best dark chocolate you can find and serving to your friends with a glass of red wine!
Catechism of the Catholic
Church
PART TWO: THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN
MYSTERY
SECTION TWO-THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS
OF THE CHURCH
CHAPTER THREE-THE SACRAMENTS AT THE SERVICE OF
COMMUNION
1533 Baptism, Confirmation, and
Eucharist are sacraments of Christian initiation. They ground the common
vocation of all Christ's disciples, a vocation to holiness and to the mission
of evangelizing the world. They confer the graces needed for the life according
to the Spirit during this life as pilgrims on the march towards the homeland.
1534 Two other sacraments, Holy
Orders and Matrimony, are directed towards the salvation of others; if they
contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that
they do so. They confer a particular mission in the Church and serve to build
up the People of God.
1535 Through these sacraments those
already consecrated by Baptism and Confirmation for the common priesthood
of all the faithful can receive particular consecrations. Those who receive the
sacrament of Holy Orders are consecrated in Christ's name "to feed the
Church by the word and grace of God." On their part, "Christian
spouses are fortified and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and dignity
of their state by a special sacrament."
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Holy
Bishops and Cardinals
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face-Tuesday
Devotion
·
Pray Day 7 of
the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
·
Tuesday:
Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[5]https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/bittersweet-chocolate-with-almonds-day/
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