Thursday, July 11, 2024

Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best Things to Do

 Writer E.B. White Born, 1899

Saints, Feast, Family

- Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring  -

July 11

​Saint of the day:

Saint Olga of Kiev

​ Isapóstolos: “Equal to the Apostles.”

Thursday Feast

Thursday is the day of the week that our Lord gave himself up for consumption. Thursday commemorates the last supper. Some theologians believe after Sunday Thursday is the holiest day of the week. We should then try to make this day special by making a visit to the blessed sacrament chapel, Mass or even stopping by the grave of a loved one. Why not plan to count the blessing of the week and thank our Lord. Plan a special meal. Be at Peace.

·         According to Mary Agreda[1] in her visions it was on a Thursday at six o'clock in the evening and at the approach of night that the Angel Gabriel approached and announced her as Mother of God and she gave her fiat.

Wolfgang Puck Thursday Feast

• Cocktails
• Corn and Bacon Soup with Jalapeño Crema
• Hot Dog Melts
• Pork Schnitzel with Warm Potato Salad
• Espresso-Chocolate Semifreddo

Places to Visit in July[2]

Monterey, California

I was super keen to see Monterey and the historic Cannery Row Historic District, and when I visited, I knew it had to be included on this list!

Summer doesn’t get too hot here, but the weather is pleasant, and I loved its unique boutique hotels, cute independent shops, and relaxed seafood restaurants where I could gaze at the waves and ocean views while dining.

I recommend walking through Monterey State Historic Park to see some of the area’s oldest and most significant buildings, including the cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo (the oldest in California).

Plenty of outdoor pursuits are available, with excellent surfing and wildlife spotting along the Monterey Bay Coastal Recreational Trail and The Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary.

    Visitor’s Center Address: 419 Webster St Suite 100, Monterey, CA 93940

    Average temperature – 68 degrees

My favorite highlights…

    Wandering around the setting for John Steinbeck’s novel, Cannery Row Downtown, which was filled with cool shops and restaurants.

    Taking in the coastline views at Point Sur Lightstation, a historic landmark overlooking the ocean.

    Check out the Monterey Museum of Art, which is home to over 14,000 pieces.

Rachel’s Corner

My people will live in a peaceful country, in secure dwellings and quiet resting places. Isaiah 32:18

·       Let Freedom Ring Day 5 "Freedom from Cowardice" by Fr. Rick Heilman

·         Tired of thinking of the New World Order: Just make yourself a Mojito!

·         Take a spiritual retreat

It Can Be Hard to Find an Accommodating Space

Intentionally immerse yourself in a serene space

Let’s face it, it can be hard to find an ideal retreat location to retreat. Even vacations can become more work than they are worth. The space we surround ourselves in has a huge impact on our ability to find rest and renewal and to create and inspire.

Villa Maria del Mar is a house of hospitality for individuals and groups seeking a beautiful and serene space for prayer, planning, and healing.

Villa Maria Del Mar Features

Overnight Group Retreats

Individual Retreat and Renewal

Meeting Spaces for Day Groups

On-Site Livestreaming

Complete Food Service

Dietary Accommodations

Thursday Memorial of Saint Benedict, abbot

POPULATION DAY

 

Proverbs, Chapter 2, Verse 1-12

¹ My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands ² Turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding; ³ Yes, if you call for intelligence, and to understanding raise your voice; ⁴ If you seek her like silver, and like hidden treasures search her out, ⁵ Then will you understand the FEAR of the LORD; the knowledge of God you will find; ⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; ⁷ He has success in store for the upright, is the shield of those who walk honestly, ⁸ Guarding the paths of justice, protecting the way of his faithful ones, ⁹ Then you will understand what is right and just, what is fair, every good path; ¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart, knowledge will be at home in your soul, ¹¹ Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you; ¹² Saving you from the way of the wicked, from those whose speech is perverse.

 

Wherever your treasure is that is where your heart is and our hearts are made for the Lord.  Fear of the Lord means that we have a father/son relationship of care, respect and love.  Our God does not want to be objectified as some obtainable good.  Nor does our God want to be appeased with our prayers and obedience. God is not a insurance agent that guarantees us against losses if we pay our premiums in prayers.  If God is our treasure, he is our star, our life, our everything. 

 

I am reminded of the love of Don Quixote in the play “Man from La Mancha”.  If God is our treasure, he should be our Impossible Dream because we are His.

 

Feast of Saint Benedict[1]

Saint Benedict was born in Nursia in central Italy around the year 480. He was born to a noble family, and after being homeschooled, he was sent to Rome to complete his education. The teenaged Benedict was already turning toward the Lord, and when he went to Rome, he was disappointed and dismayed by the lazy, extravagant ways of the other young students. Benedict was born into a time of immense social upheaval. The once grand Roman Empire was on its last legs. The ancient city of Rome was crumbling due to decadence from within and attacks from without. Seventy years before Benedict’s birth the city fell to the invasions of the barbarians. The civil authority was in tatters, the city had been stripped of its grandeur, and the Church herself was beset with corruption and theological arguments. Benedict left the chaos of the city and sought a quiet place to study in the mountains north of Rome. Near the town of Subiaco, he found a community of holy men, and settled near them to pursue a life of prayer. Eventually Benedict was asked to be the leader of the community. When that went wrong, he left to start his own monastic community. One community soon grew to twelve, and to establish these new communities on a sound foundation Benedict, wrote his simple Rule. We mustn’t think of Benedict’s communities as the great monasteries that existed in the Middle Ages. In the sixth century, Benedict’s small communities consisted of perhaps twenty people. They scratched their living from the land just like the other peasants with whom they lived. The only difference is that Benedict’s monks observed celibacy, lived together and followed a disciplined life of prayer, work and study. This simple, serious life was to prove a powerful antidote to the decadent chaos of the crumbling Roman Empire. Saint Benedict died on March 21, 547. After receiving Communion, he died with his arms outstretched, surrounded by his brothers. He left behind a legacy that would change the world. The monasteries became centers of learning, agriculture, art, and every useful craft. In this way, without directly intending it, the monasteries deeply affected the social, economic, and political life of the emergent Christian Europe. The monastic schools formed the pattern for the later urban cathedral schools, which in turn led to the founding of universities. In this way, monasticism preserved and handed on the wisdom of both Athens and Jerusalem, the foundations of Western civilization. It is for this reason that Saint Benedict is named the patron of Europe. Benedict is a great figure in the history of Western Europe, but his life and writings also give us a sure guide for a practical spiritual life today. His practical Rule for monks in the sixth century provides principles for Christian living that are as relevant and applicable today as they have been for the last 1,500 years.

Things to do:

o   Get a St. Benedicts Medal

o   Practice the Liturgy of the Hours

Ora and Labora (Work and Prayer)[2]

THE BENEDICTINE MONASTIC OFFICE

The Divine Office is at the center of Benedictine life. Through it the monk lifts heart and mind to Almighty God, and uniting himself to his confreres, the Church and the entire world in offering God praise and thanks, in confessing his sins, and in calling on God for the needs of all people. The office punctuates the day of the monk; like a leaven awakening his soul to make the entire day, indeed the whole of life, a gift of the self to God. Praying the hours puts the monk into the real world, sanctifying his whole life and assisting him toward his goal of unceasing prayer – Ut In Omnibus Glorificetur Deus.

The Benedictine Office is a rich collection of prayer that is based on the Rule of St. Benedict. Historically it is distinct from the Roman Office – also recently called the Liturgy of the Hours – which, after the Second Vatican Council, was reshaped to simplify and make more practical the prayer of the hours for the secular clergy, as well as the religious who use it, and the laity who make it a part of their life of prayer.

In 1966 the Breviarium Monasticum was the universal order of Divine Office for Benedictines. In that year the monks were given a period of time for liturgical experimentation, allowing each congregation of monasteries to adapt the tradition for its particular use, under certain guidelines. To this day the Breviarium Monasticum remains “official” and the time of experimentation is still in effect. In that circumstance, communities are using various forms of the Divine Office, and a few communities have even elected to take the new Roman Office (Liturgy of the Hours) as a convenient guideline because of its universal use among the secular clergy.

The following is a brief, general description of the centuries old Benedictine tradition of prayer in word and action. Reference is made occasionally to the Roman Office as another point of reference. The structure of the Office described below and outlined is according to the use at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama.

Traditional Monastic Hours (which became the standard for the Roman Office)	New Roman Office (Liturgy of the Hours) (American English version uses terms in parentheses)
Matins (Vigils)	Matins (Office of Readings) – any time of day
Lauds	Lauds (Morning Prayer)
Prime	Prime omitted in New Roman Office
Terce	Terce (Mid-Morning Prayer)
Sext	Sext (Mid-Day Prayer)
None	None (Mid-Afternoon Prayer)
Vespers	Vespers (Evening Prayer)
Compline	Compline (Night Prayer)

 

World Population Day[3]

 

World Population Day seeks to draw attention to issues related to a growing global population.  The world's population as of April 2016, is over 7.4 billion.  The world's population is rapidly surging with birth rates on the rise and life expectancy increases.  Over the last century, between 1916 and 2012, global life expectancy more than doubled from 34 to 70 years while world population has quintupled from 1.5 billion to 7.3 billion between 1900 and 2016.    
In 1989, the United Nations designated July 11th as World Population Day in an effort to garner attention for population issues and crises such as displaced people, rights and needs of women and girls and population safety on a global level. With an ever-growing world population, World Population Day serves to highlight the challenges and opportunities of this growth and its impact on planet sustainability, heavy urbanization, availability of health care and youth empowerment.

 

Agenda 2030's Goal #12 Will Exterminate Six Billion People[4]

Move over, Mao, Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot, there is a new extermination king in town. It is called Agenda 2030. Agenda 2030 conference in Paris is being guided by 17 goals which contain targets that will alter humanity and change the planet forever. Of particular concern is goal #12, as it is the conduit from which the globalist depopulation agenda will be ushered in.

• Agenda 2030 Goal #12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns Following the planned economic collapse, Agenda 2030 will enforce the most brutal austerity programs ever conceived of, or ever enforced.  Just as it was in the Hunger Games movie, all food, water and medicine will be rationed. Inhabitants will be forced to take the Mark of the Beast, the dreaded but largely unknown RFID chip. We are already witnessing the birth of a cashless society. Soon, cash will be banned. Automation will bring promises of unlimited food production. The public will be sold on the widespread use of robots to achieve this goal. It will be a ruse. The goal is to replace human workers with robots. The globalists will hoard the food in order to help wipe out the ‘useless eaters’ through starvation. Then the population will be forced into a devastating World War III. Subsequently, Ted Turner and the other globalists will be able to achieve their goals of reducing the world's population to a low of 500,000,000.

Catholic Population Principles[5]

In order to provide a moral perspective, we affirm the following principles derived from the social teaching of the Church.

1. Within the limits of their own competence, government officials have rights and duties with regard to the population problems of their own nations—for instance, in the matter of social legislation as it affects families, of migration to cities, of information relative to the conditions and needs of the nation. The government’s positive role is to help bring about those conditions in which married couples, without undue material, physical or psychological pressure, may exercise responsible freedom in determining family size.

2. Decisions about family size and the frequency of births belong to the parents and cannot be left to public authorities. Such decisions depend on a rightly formed conscience which respects the divine law and takes into consideration the circumstances of the places and the time. In forming their consciences, parents should take into account their responsibilities toward God, themselves, the children they have already brought into the world and the community to which they belong, "following the dictates of their conscience instructed about the divine law authentically interpreted and strengthened by confidence in God."

3. Public authorities can provide information and recommend policies regarding population, provided these are in conformity with moral law and respect the rightful freedom of married couples.

4. Men and women should be informed of scientific advances of methods of family planning whose safety has been well proven and which are in accord with the moral law.

5. Abortion, directly willed and procured, even if for therapeutic reasons, is to be absolutely excluded as a licit means of regulating births.

 

Catechism of the Catholic Church

PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

SECTION TWO-I. THE CREEDS

          Day 27

193 None of the creeds from the different stages in the Church's life can be considered superseded or irrelevant. They help us today to attain and deepen the faith of all times by means of the different summaries made of it.
Among all the creeds, two occupy a special place in the Church's life:

194 The Apostles' Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles' faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome. Its great authority arises from this fact: it is "the Creed of the Roman Church, the See of Peter the first of the apostles, to which he brought the common faith".

195 The Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils (in 325 and 381). It remains common to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day.

196 Our presentation of the faith will follow the Apostles' Creed, which constitutes, as it were, "the oldest Roman catechism". The presentation will be completed however by constant references to the Nicene Creed, which is often more explicit and more detailed.

197 As on the day of our Baptism, when our whole life was entrusted to the "standard of teaching", let us embrace the Creed of our life-giving faith. To say the Credo with faith is to enter into communion with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and also with the whole Church which transmits the faith to us and in whose midst we believe:

This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart's meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is, unquestionably, the treasure of our soul.

Daily Devotions

·         Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: End Sex Trafficking, Slavery

·         Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Day 5

·         Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Practice fidelity to baptismal vows

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Universal Man Plan

·         Rosary

  

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[1]http://www.kofc.org/en/resources/cis/cis327.pdf

[2] https://stbernardabbey.com/the-divine-office/

[3] http://www.wincalendar.com/World-Population-Day

[4]https://thecommonsenseshow.com/conspiracy/agenda-2030s-goal-12-will-exterminate-six-billion-people

[5]http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/contraception/statement-on-population.cfm

[6] Venerable Mary of Agreda. The Mystical City of God: Complete Edition Containing all Four Volumes with Illustrations (p. 770). Veritatis Splendor Publications. Kindle Edition

[7]https://globalgrasshopper.com/destinations/north-america/20-of-the-best-places-to-visit-in-july-in-the-usa/

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[1] Venerable Mary of Agreda. The Mystical City of God: Complete Edition Containing all Four Volumes with Illustrations (p. 770). Veritatis Splendor Publications. Kindle Edition

[2]https://globalgrasshopper.com/destinations/north-america/20-of-the-best-places-to-visit-in-july-in-the-usa/

As the nation’s largest southern border crossings finally receive mainstream media coverage years into an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis, untold numbers of “fighting age males” dressed in military uniforms are entering the United States through remote areas with no Border Patrol presence.