ICEMANforChrist

This blog is based on references in the Bible to fear. God wills that we “BE NOT AFRAID”. Many theologians state that the eighth deadly sin is fear. It is fear and its natural animal reaction to fight or flight that is the root cause of our failings to create a Kingdom of God on earth. By “the power of the Holy Spirit” we can be witnesses and “communicators” of a new and redeemed humanity “even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7 8). This blog is dedicated to Mary the Mother of God.

Saturday, March 22, 2025

Vinny’s Day Try “Challah”

· Saturday Litany of the Hours Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary

The Southern Arizona Transportation Museum

Silver Spike Railroad Jubilee

Spirit hour: The Hart cocktail in honor of St. Catherine
Bucket Item trip: Etu Moana, Cook Islands

· 30 Days with St. Joseph Day 3

MARCH 22 Saturday in the Second Week of Lent

AUGUST VON GALEN-World Water Day

Ester, Chapter 4D, Verse 5

She glowed with perfect beauty and her face was as joyous as it was lovely, though her heart was pounding with FEAR.

Ester after making a total and complete commitment to save the people and fasting for 3 days approached her husband the King. She was at peace. This verse reflects the joy of the woman in Mark’s chapter 5 whom Christ healed:

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.

²⁶She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. ²⁷She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. ²⁸ She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” ²⁹Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. ³⁰Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” ³¹But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” ³²And he looked around to see who had done it. ³³The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. ³⁴He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.

During the time of Christ an unclean person in general had to avoid that which was holy and take steps to return to a state of cleanliness. Uncleanliness placed a person in a "dangerous" condition under threat of divine retribution, even death, if the person approached the sanctuary. Uncleanness could lead to expulsion of the land's inhabitants and its peril lingered upon those who did not undergo purification. Bodily discharges (blood for women, semen for men) represented a temporary loss of strength and life and movement toward death. Because decaying corpses discharged, so natural bodily discharges were reminders of sin and death. Physical imperfections representing a movement from "life" toward "death" moved a person ritually away from God who was associated with life. Purification rituals symbolized movement from death toward life and accordingly involved blood, the color red, and spring (lit. "living") water, all symbols of life.[1] Christ also being clean took this woman’s uncleanliness and gave her his Holiness. Indeed, she was filled with wonder and awe.

For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Christ did the same for the two princes of His church and He will do the same for you. Be clean!

Saturday in the Second Week of Lent

Prayer.

GRANT, we beseech Thee, O Lord, a salutary effect to our fasts, that the chastisement of the flesh which we have taken upon us may promote the vigor of the soul. Amen

EPISTLE. Gen. xxvii. 6-40.

In those days Rebecca said to her son Jacob: I heard thy father talking with Esau thy brother, and saying to him: Bring me of thy hunting, and make me meats that I may eat, and bless thee in the sight of the Lord, before I die. Now, therefore, my son, follow my counsel: and go thy way to the flock, bring me two kids of the best, that I may make of them meat for thy father, such as he gladly eateth : which when thou hast brought in, and he hath eaten, he may bless thee before he die. And he answered her: Thou knowest that Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am smooth. If my father shall feel me, and perceive it, I fear lest he will think I would have mocked him, and I shall bring upon me a curse instead of a blessing. And his mother said to him: Upon me be this curse, my son: only hear thou my voice, and go, fetch me the things which I Lave said. He went, and brought, and gave them to his mother. She dressed meats, such as she knew his father liked. And she put on him very good garments of Esau, which she had at home with her: and the little skins of the kids she put about his hands, and covered the bare of his neck. And she gave him the savory meat, and delivered him bread that she had baked. Which when he had carried in, he said:

My father?

But he answered: I hear.

Who art thou, my son?

And Jacob said: I am Esau thy first-born: I have done as thou didst command me: arise, sit, and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said to his son:

How couldst thou find it so quickly, my son?

He answered: It was the will of God that what I sought came quickly in my way. And Isaac said: Come hither, that I may feel thee, my son, and may prove whether thou be my son Esau, or not. He came near to his father, and when he had felt him, Isaac said: The voice indeed is the voice of Jacob: but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he knew him not, because his hairy hands made him like to the elder. Then blessing him, he said:

Art thou my son Esau?

He answered: I am. Then he said: Bring me the meats of your hunting, my son, that my soul may bless thee. And when they were brought, and he had eaten, he offered him wine also, which after he had drunk, he said to him: Come near me, and give me a kiss, my son. He came near, and kissed him. And immediately as he smelled the fragrant smell of his garments, blessing him, he said: Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a plentiful field, which the Lord hath blessed. God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fat ness of the earth, abundance of corn and wine. And let peoples serve thee, and tribes worship thee be thou lord of thy brethren, and let thy mother’s children bow down before thee. Cursed be he that curseth thee: and let him that blesseth thee be filled with blessings. Isaac had scarcely ended his words, when Jacob being now gone out abroad, Esau came, and brought into his father meats made of what he had taken in hunting, saying: Arise, my father, and eat of thy son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said to him: Why!

who art thou?

He answered: I am thy first-born son Esau. Isaac was struck with fear, and astonished exceedingly: and wondering blessed. Beyond what can be believed, said:

Who is he then that even now brought me venison that he had taken, and I ate of all before thou earnest?

and I have blessed him, and he shall be Esau having heard his father’s words, roared out with a great cry: and being in a consternation, said: Bless me also, my father. And he said: Thy brother came deceitfully and got thy blessing. But he said again: Rightly is his name called Jacob; for he hath supplanted me lo this second time: my first birthright he took away before, and now this second time he hath stolen away my blessing. And again, he said to his father:

Hast thou not reserved me also a blessing?

Isaac answered: I have appointed him thy lord, and have made all his brethren his servants: I have established him with corn and wine, and after this,

what shall I do more for thee, my son?

And Esau said to him:

Hast thou only one blessing, father?

I beseech thee bless me also. And when he wept with a loud cry, Isaac being moved, said to him: In the fat of the earth, and in the dew of heaven from above, shall thy blessing be.

Luke xv. 11-32.

In that time Jesus spoke this parable to the scribes, and Pharisees: A certain man had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his substance. And not many days after, the younger son gathering all together, went abroad into a far country, and there wasted his substance, living riotously. And after he had spent all, there came a mighty famine in that country, and he began to be in want. And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his farm to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And returning to himself, he said:

How many hired servants in my father s house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger?

I will arise, and will go son: to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee: I am not now worthy to be called thy make me as one of thy hired servants. And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son. But the father said merry : to his servants : Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet : and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make because this my son was dead, and is come to life again : was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and when he came out and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing: and he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said to him: Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe. And he was angry, and would not go in. His father therefore coming out began to entreat him. And he answering, said to his father: Behold, for so many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment, and yet thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends: but as soon as this thy son is come, who hath devoured his substance with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. But he said to him: Son, thou art always with me, and all I have is thine. But it was fit that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead, and is come to life again: he was lost and is found.

Clemens August von Galen, Bishop of Münster

(16 March 1878 – 22 March 1946)[2]

In the summer of 1941, in answer to unwarranted attacks by the National Socialists, Bishop von Galen delivered three admonitory sermons between July and August. He spoke in his old parish Church of St Lambert and in Liebfrauen-Ueberlassen Church, since the diocesan cathedral had been bombed. In his famous speeches, Bishop von Galen spoke out against the State confiscation of Church property and the programmatic euthanasia carried out by the regime. The clarity and incisiveness of his words and the unshakable fidelity of Catholics in the Diocese of Münster embarrassed the Nazi regime, and on 10 October 1943 the bishop’s residence was bombed. Bishop von Galen was forced to take refuge in nearby Borromeo College. From 12 September 1944 on, he could no longer remain in the city of Münster, destroyed by the war; he left for the zone of Sendenhorst. In 1945, Vatican Radio announced that Pope Pius XII was to hold a Consistory and that the Bishop of Münster was also to be present.

T4: The Nazis' Euthanasia Solution[3]

He who is bodily and mentally not sound and deserving may not perpetuate this misfortune in the bodies of his children. — Hitler, Mein Kampf.

Beginning in 1939, the National Socialist regime begin systematically killing disabled children in "specially designated pediatric clinics" via starvation and overdose. By the end of World War II, an estimated 5,000 infants and children had been murdered by the Nazis. The program, code-named T4, was extended to adults beginning in 1940. Physicians working for the T4 program examined medical files (seldom the institutionalized patients themselves) and marked for death disabled and mentally ill adults, in most cases without the knowledge or consent of family members. Those selected for extermination were rounded up, processed, and directed into a facility for a "disinfecting shower." Instead, the victims were gassed to death via carbon monoxide. Their bodies were cremated, and the ashes sent to families with an official death certificate listing a fictitious cause of death.

By 1941 the program had become public knowledge, in part because of the opposition from German clergymen, including Bishop von Galen. Hitler officially halted the adult killings, but the child program continued. In 1942 adult killings resumed in secret and continued until the end of the war, with an ever-expanding range of victims, including the elderly, hospitalized war victims, and foreign laborers. In all, an estimated 200,000 people were executed as part of the Nazi "mercy killing" agenda.

Pray America may not continue in its own Euthanasia Solution, and we have a religious rise like the Lion of Munster!

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Day 279 2150-2155

PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST

SECTION TWO-THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

CHAPTER ONE-YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND

Article 2 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT

II. Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain

2150 The second commandment forbids false oaths. Taking an oath or swearing is to take God as witness to what one affirms. It is to invoke the divine truthfulness as a pledge of one's own truthfulness. An oath engages the Lord's name. "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name."

2151 Rejection of false oaths is a duty toward God. As Creator and Lord, God is the norm of all truth. Human speech is either in accord with or in opposition to God who is Truth itself. When it is truthful and legitimate, an oath highlights the relationship of human speech with God's truth. A false oath calls on God to be witness to a lie.

2152 A person commits perjury when he makes a promise under oath with no intention of keeping it, or when after promising on oath he does not keep it. Perjury is a grave lack of respect for the Lord of all speech. Pledging oneself by oath to commit an evil deed is contrary to the holiness of the divine name.

2153 In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained the second commandment: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' But I say to you, Do not swear at all.... Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one." Jesus teaches that every oath involves a reference to God and that God's presence and his truth must be honored in all speech. Discretion in calling upon God is allied with a respectful awareness of his presence, which all our assertions either witness to or mock.

2154 Following St. Paul, The tradition of the Church has understood Jesus' words as not excluding oaths made for grave and right reasons (for example, in court). "An oath, that is the invocation of the divine name as a witness to truth, cannot be taken unless in truth, in judgment, and in justice."

2155 The holiness of the divine name demands that we neither use it for trivial matters, nor take an oath which on the basis of the circumstances could be interpreted as approval of an authority unjustly requiring it. When an oath is required by illegitimate civil authorities, it may be refused. It must be refused when it is required for purposes contrary to the dignity of persons or to ecclesial communion.

World Water Day[4]

World Water Day serves to raise awareness about water issues such as sanitation problems and water shortages in many parts of the world. Today, 1 in 10 people lack access to safe and clean water, a problem which has a direct impact on the economy, health of the population and well-being of women and children worldwide. In 1992, World Water Day was proposed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The United Nations General Assembly responded to the proposition in 1993 by declaring March 22 as World Water Day. Each year, the UN-Water agency allocates a theme corresponding to a current or potential challenge for World Water Day.

World Water Day Facts & Quotes

· In developing nations, nearly 80% of illnesses can be linked to poor water and sanitation conditions.

· Russia's Lake Baikal and North America's Great Lakes hold about 40% of the world's fresh water supply, the large remainder of the freshwater supply is in the form of icecaps and glaciers.

· According to UNICEF, diarrhea is the second leading cause of death among children under the age of 5 in the world.

· You ain't gonna miss your water until your well runs dry. - Bob Marley

World Water Day Top Events and Things to Do

· Don't waste water!!! Make a conscious effort to use less water on World Water Day and on other days. Some ways to reduce water consumption include showers instead of baths, washing full loads of clothing only and turning off the tap while washing dishes and brushing teeth.

· Donate to a charity or organization that supports water issues in developing nations. WaterAid is an organization that works in poor countries to set up and maintain water sources, UNICEF and UNCHR also provide support and relief efforts to improve water sanitation and hygiene globally.

· Volunteer to help clean up trash and other debris along a beach or shore. This garbage and debris pollute the water that we need in our daily lives.

· Watch documentaries about water-related issues such as pollution, contamination and diseases. Our top picks are Troubled Water, The Fight for Water, Flow for the Love of Water, Tapped, Thirst and Dhaka's Cholera Wars.

· Take part in a local World Water Day celebration, such as a film screening or a water conservation event. One of the largest events, the White House Water Summit in Washington DC, will be live streamed.