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, June 14, 2025

Vinny’s Corner

· Do not pour out your feelings. A talkative soul will more easily be attacked by the devil. Pour out your feelings to the Lord only. Remember, the good and evil spirits hear what you say aloud. Feelings are fleeting. Truth is the compass. Interior recollection is a spiritual armor.

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

· Bucket Item trip: Chapelle Sainte-Marie, Bruge, Belgium

· Donald Trump’s Birthday-79

o How many Catholics voted for Biden?

§ None of them

· Foodie: I will have the strawberry shortcake

· Spirit hour: buy a solder a drink

o Army Birthday-250

§ Bourbon Day

· Gin Day

o Rose Wine Day

· Asked Copilot:

o How to be a holy catholic politician and leader

o Being a holy Catholic politician and leader requires a deep commitment to faith, integrity, and service. Here are some key principles to guide you:

§ 1. Live by Catholic Moral Teachings

· Uphold the dignity of every human person, from conception to natural death.

· Promote justice, charity, and the common good.

· Defend religious freedom and moral values in governance.

o 2. Practice Virtuous Leadership

§ Lead with humility, honesty, and integrity.

§ Serve the people selflessly, prioritizing their well-being over personal gain.

§ Be a model of ethical behavior in both public and private life.

o 3. Engage in Faithful Decision-Making

§ Align policies with Catholic social teachings, including care for the poor, protection of families, and stewardship of creation.

§ Seek wisdom through prayer, scripture, and guidance from Church leaders.

§ Stand firm in your convictions, even when facing political pressure.

o 4. Be a Witness to Christ in Politics

§ Evangelize through your actions, showing Christ’s love in governance.

§ Support laws that reflect Catholic values, such as those promoting justice, peace, and human dignity.

§ Maintain a strong personal prayer life and participate in the sacraments regularly.

o 5. Work for Unity and the Common Good

§ Foster dialogue and cooperation among different political and religious groups.

§ Promote policies that benefit all people, especially the marginalized.

§ Be a peacemaker, seeking reconciliation and understanding in political discourse.

§ For inspiration, you can look at Catholic politicians who have upheld their faith in public service. The National Catholic Register discusses the challenges and responsibilities of Catholic politicians, while TIME highlights notable Catholic lawmakers in the U.S.

JUNE 14 Ember Saturday

FLAG DAY

2 Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 1

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, making holiness perfect in the FEAR of God.

All are called to the vocation of love. We express this vocation of love via marriage. All are called to marriage to the Holy Spirit as was our Lady who out of her perfect love gave forth the Son of God, Christ our Lord. Yet, this love; this marriage of the spirit of God with ours can be expressed in normally three vocations: that of a Holy single life who serves via their chosen career; then there is the call to religious life where a soul makes promises to a religious order and finally there is the love of male and female in sacred union to bring life and love into the world. We are all called to be Holy. We are all called to be greater than ourselves. We are all called to service that is perfected through the fear of God and expressed in our humility, generosity, chastity, patience, temperance, understanding and love.

Instruction on Calumny[1]

Please stop this sin politicians and media

Is calumny a grievous sin?

When the occasion is important, and the slander is deliberately uttered, with evil intention, when one’s neighbor is thereby grievously injured, and his good name damaged, everyone may see how grievous and detestable, in such a case, this sin is.

Is it sinful to disclose the faults of our neighbor?

To make public the faults and sins of our neighbor uselessly, merely for the entertainment of idle persons, is always sinful. But if, after trying in vain to correct his faults and sins by brotherly admonition, we make them known to his parents or superiors, for his punishment and amendment, so far from being a sin, it is rather a good work and a duty of Christian charity.

Is it a sin also to listen willingly to calumny?

Yes; for thereby we furnish the calumniator an occasion for sin and give him encouragement. For which reason St. Bernard says: “Whether to calumniate be a greater sin than to listen to the calumniator I will not lightly decide.”

What ought to restrain us from calumny?

The thought, 1, of the enormity of this sin; 2, of the number of sins occasioned thereby of which the calumniator, as the occasion of them, becomes partaker; 3, of the difficulty of correcting the harm done, since we cannot know the full extent of the injury, nor stop the tongues of people. Finally, we must think on the eternal punishment which follows this sin. The holy Fathers say that of young persons who are condemned the greater part is for impurity, but of the old, for calumny.

Saturday after Pentecost-Ember Day[2]

EPISTLE, Romans v. 1-5.

BRETHREN: Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom also we have access through faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God. And not only so; but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial; and trial hope, and hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost Who is given to us.

GOSPEL. Luke iv. 38-44.

At that time: Jesus rising up out of the synagogue, went into Simon’s house. And Simon s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought Him for her. And standing over her, He commanded the fever, and it left her. And immediately rising, she ministered to them. And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers’ diseases, brought them to Him. But He laying His hands on every one of them, healed them. And devils went out from many, crying out and saying: Thou art the Son of God. And rebuking them, He suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was Christ. And when it was day, going out He went into a desert place, and the multitudes sought Him, and came unto Him: and they detained Him that He should not depart from them. To whom He said: To other cities also I must preach the kingdom of God: for therefor am I sent. And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

Today is the end of Paschaltide (after the office of None).

Ember Saturday Meditation on the Entombment[3]

And when evening was now come (because it was the Parasceve, that is, the day before the Sabbath), Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. But Pilate wondered that He should be already dead. And sending for the centurion, he asked him if He were already dead. And when he had understood it by the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And Joseph buying fine linen and taking Him down, wrapped Him up in the fine linen, and laid Him in a sepulcher which was hewed out of a rock. And he rolled a stone to the door of the sepulcher.

Liturgy of the Cloth: How the Early Church Incorporated the Shroud and Sudarium in the Mass[4]

New research suggests that the burial cloths of Jesus have been central to the Roman liturgy for more than a millennium, and possibly from the earliest days of the Church.

A German theologian and friend of Benedict XVI, drawing on the writings of a ninth-century bishop, appears to have made a historic and fascinating discovery, revealing how the Shroud of Turin and the sudarium (the Veil of Veronica) were central to the Roman liturgy from as far back as the Carolingian times, most probably before. The two relics and their inclusion in those early liturgies also point to the Real Presence. The discovery has only now come to light, after debate over the burial cloths has intensified over the past 10 years and interest has developed regarding their authenticity. The Register spoke recently with German journalist Paul Badde, who has been following the discovery closely and is an authority on the Holy Face of Manoppello, which many believe to be the true sudarium.

The discovery was made by Klaus Berger of Heidelberg, a German theologian, an old friend of Joseph Ratzinger and New Testament scholar, who is carrying out detailed research on the Apocalypse of St. John. During his studies, he came across one of the great commentators on the Apocalypse, Amalarius (775-850), a liturgical expert from the Carolingian times. Amalarius, who used to be bishop of Metz in France and archbishop of Trier in Germany, was a great liturgist of the Carolingian age, whom Pope Sergius II made a cardinal. Even in those times, he said the cloth of the altar resembled the shroud and the sudarium, found and discovered first by the apostles Peter and John in the empty holy sepulcher the first Easter morning. But we have an enormous gap in documented records from the first Easter morning in Jerusalem and the moment when they first appeared in public. We know that the sudarium appeared in 1208 in Rome in public, when Pope Innocent III put it on public view, and the shroud appeared in 1355 for the first time in the West in Lirey in the Champagne area of France. But we can be sure that the two cloths have always been part of the “memory of the liturgy,” even though their presence arrived later. Amalarius may have witnessed seeing them there [in Constantinople], and it’s important to note that their presence in the liturgy didn’t begin in Carolingian times, but [they] were probably used from the very beginning. …

Where were the cloths kept before that time?

They were stored for many years in the East, but they were always hidden. Showing them to the public wasn’t a big deal in the Orthodox world. In the West, we make historical records, but in the East, they don’t have it that [record keeping as] much. But even in the Dark Ages, in the first millennium, there used to be a tradition in the Roman liturgy that the cloth on the altar had to be linen, and the altar had to be rock to be understood as a sepulcher.

What is the significance of altar linen — does it date back to these two priceless relics?

Yes, from this we can understand why the altar linen, analogous to the shroud, until 1969, had to be “pure linen” and why the so-called corporal must always be folded in a particular way by way of analogy with the sudarium. John says that, after Christ’s resurrection, it was found by Peter and John in the empty tomb: “not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up or folded (enteeligmenon in Greek) in a separate place.” That corporal is the starched cloth, which, in the old rite, after the priest had come at the altar in contact with the bread and wine, could only be touched by him reverently with his thumb and forefinger.

How is the altar significant in this?

Since the altar linens of the liturgy are called sindon and sudarium and theologically are in connection with the Real Presence of Jesus in his body and blood, Berger contends that their purpose is to point to the mystery of the Eucharist on the altar stone. There, the inanimate matter of the bread and wine — as the tomb of Christ in the rock in Jerusalem, which had never been used — is always transformed into the “Bread of Life” and living blood of Christ. After the [Second Vatican] Council, we had the discussion: Is the altar about Communion? Is it a table? Or is it a sacrifice? Until that time, it was clearly a sacrifice. The altar was understood as a sepulcher, where lifeless elements were turned into something living — flesh and blood. That was also the tradition in the eighth century. But whether the actual relics were seen at the altar or not, the shroud and the sudarium have been mentioned by St. John and the liturgical tradition, not only in public, but also been remembered as far back as the eighth and ninth centuries as something very special, very important in the story of the Resurrection. And this we have also to keep in mind. Very much can be said about the liturgy, and one thing is for sure: The liturgy can also be understood as the “inner hard drive” of the sacred memory of the Church. So, it’s quite clear that everything Amalarius reports about it in his time has not and cannot be invented and introduced in the liturgy in the Carolingian age. It must be much older and points right back to the beginning of the Church, just like the holy Eucharist itself.

Could you explain more about how this points to the Real Presence?

The depiction of the face of Jesus on these cloths could be understood similarly to the so-called Mass of Pope Gregory (540-604). Gregory, I saw, appearing to him, a bloodied Lord, directly in connection with the transformation of the Eucharistic species. The shroud and the sudarium of Jesus would, therefore, be understood as the direct expression and the personified Real Presence of Jesus on the altar and would be directly related to the Eucharist as the center of the holy Mass. In this way, they agree as biblically confirmed evidence of the resurrection of Christ with the mystery of the Eucharistic transformation (transubstantiation). You could, therefore, say: Instead of the vision of Gregory, in Amalarius, there is the real, symbolic content of the altar cloths. In both cases, it is an expression of the Real Presence of Christ. What is true for Pope Gregory is the content of the vision, namely, the real, bodily presence of Christ (particularly of the suffering Christ). According to Amalarius, it would be expressed sensibly (sinnenfällig) in the liturgical altar linens. On the burial cloths, showing the stigmata on the shroud and on the sudarium the face of Jesus, there appeared a lasting imprint of what happened for an instant in Gregory’s vision.

What does this mean for Holy Face of Manoppello?

To me and to many, there’s no doubt that Manoppello is the historic sudarium, also called the Veil of Veronica. It was kept in Rome and often venerated until 1527. It is, in fact, the very veil that had been laid on the face of the dead Lord when he was laid to rest in the sepulcher. So, it contains the first breath of the resurrected Christ. No wonder that nobody can explain how the image — without any colors! — got into the sacred veil. Now, the Easterly sudarium of Christ is coming back into history, at the beginning of an enormous “iconic turn” caused by the digital revolution — not to the eyes of a chosen few anymore, but to the eyes of all men. And it doesn’t come back to tell the Gospel anew with more words, but to reveal the Resurrection of the Lord from the dead with one true and unique image.

MEDITATIONS ON THE LITURGY FROM THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM FOR EACH OF THE EMBER DAYS AFTER PENTECOST.

Written by Monsignor Martin B. Hellriegel, originally published in the journal Orate Fratres Vol. XVIII, May 14, 1944, No. 7, pp. 299-305, later reprinted in Vine and Branches, Pio Decimo Press, 1948.

These meditations are attached to the 1962 Extraordinary Form liturgy. The current lectionary has different readings and prayers not specific to the Ember Days.

Prayer:

EMBER SATURDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Station "With St. Peter

The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, alleluia (introit)

"At the end of holy Mass Paschaltide comes to a close," so reads a little rubric after today's post communion. Needless to say, this little note reminds us not only of the fact that this blessed season is over but also of the duty of gratitude for the inexpressibly precious gifts we have received during this most sacred period of the Church's year.

The merciful Father so loved us as to give us His only-begotten Son. The obedient Son died and rose that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. And the charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by His Spirit dwelling in us, alleluia! "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within me bless His holy name!" (em>introit). We are the Father's adopted children; we are the Son's redeemed members; we are the living temples of the Holy Spirit, bound to Christ our Head, and bound to one another by the charity of God, which is the Paraclete Himself. Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro!

The prophecy of Joel (first lesson), quoted by our station saint, Peter, on the day of Pentecost, is fulfilled: God's Spirit is poured out upon us. Aided by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit we call upon the name of the Lord and we shall be saved. "Alleluia, it is the Spirit that quickened, but the flesh profiteth nothing.

The seven weeks, that is to say, the fifty days, have expired. The victorious Lord led us into the land flowing with the milk and honey of His eucharistic sweetness. Let us never forget the loving kindness of our Lord! Gladly shall we offer Him the first fruits of our love and gratitude and shall leave them int he sight of the Lord, adoring the Lord our God (second and third lessons).

And now that the Lord has set up His tabernacle in the midst of us, we shall faithfully walk in His precepts and keep His commandments, so that He may remain our God and we His people (fourth lesson). May the divine fire which our Lord Jesus Christ sent into our hearts never be extinguished but burn mightily by the power of His Holy Spirit (collect).

Like the three Babylonian youths we were wondrously saved from the fire of the eternal furnace (fifth lesson); we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access through faith into this grace wherein we (now) stand, possessing the hope that we are God's glorious sons...because the charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us (epistles).

We celebrate this closing day "in the house of Peter: (station: St. Peter). Jesus will enter this house this morning and will lay His healing hands upon us. May He in His infinite love remove the last traces of our weakness and give us full health. At the same time we will ask Him in all humility: Stay with us, Lord, do not depart form us (gospel), and grant that "Thy holy mysteries which we have celebrated (in this paschal season) may inspire us with divine fervor, that we may delight not only in their celebration but also in their fruits" (postcommunion).

And so we conclude this blessed paschal season, grateful to the most Holy Trinity for all that we have received but determined also to preserve in our souls the divine life of our victoriously reigning Lord to whom be thanksgiving and glory for everlasting ages. Amen. Alleluia.

Which are the fruits of the Holy Ghost? They are the twelve following:

1. Charity.

2. Joy.

3. Peace.

4. Patience.

5. Benignity.

6. Goodness.

7. Longsuffering.

8. Mildness.

9. Faith.

10. Modesty.

11. Continency.

12. Chastity.

These fruits should be visible in the Christian, for thereby men shall know that the Holy Ghost dwells in him, as the tree is known by its fruit.

Notice I have placed the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in stairstep fashion so we may reflect on them seeing that by concentrating on each step of our growth in the spirit we may progress closer and closer to our heavenly Father. Today we will be focusing on the sixth step which is longsuffering.

Epistle of Barnabas

CHAP. III. — THE FASTS OF THE JEWS ARE NOT TRUE FASTS, NOR ACCEPTABLE TO GOD.

He says then to them again concerning these things,

"Why do ye fast to Me as on this day, saith the Lord, that your voice should be heard with a cry?

I have not chosen this fast, saith the Lord, that a man should humble his soul. Nor, though ye bend your neck like a ring, and put upon you sackcloth and ashes, will ye call it an acceptable fast." To us He saith, "Behold, this is the fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord, not that a man should humble his soul, but that he should loose every band of iniquity, untie the fastenings of harsh agreements, restore to liberty them that are bruised, tear in pieces every unjust engagement, feed the hungry with thy bread, clothe the naked when thou seest him, bring the homeless into thy house, not despise the humble if thou behold him, and not [turn away] from the members of thine own family. Then shall thy dawn break forth, and thy healing shall quickly spring up, and righteousness shall go forth before thee, and the glory of God shall encompass thee; and then thou shalt call, and God shall hear thee; whilst thou art yet speaking, He shall say, Behold, I am with thee; if thou take away from thee the chain [binding others], and the stretching forth of the hands [to sweat falsely], and words of murmuring, and give cheerfully thy bread to the hungry, and show compassion to the soul that has been humbled." To this end, therefore, brethren, He is long-suffering, foreseeing how the people whom He has prepared shall with guilelessness believe in His Beloved. For He revealed all these things to us beforehand, that we should not rush forward as rash acceptors of their laws.

Apostolic Exhortation

Veneremur Cernui – Down in Adoration Falling

of The Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix,
to Priests, Deacons, Religious and the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

My beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Conclusion

104. If God were to offer to do an amazing work to foster faith in the Church and in the world today, what would we ask? We may like to ask for signs and wonders, lightnings and fire, like the pillars of cloud and fire as in the Exodus with Moses. Or we may ask for Eucharistic miracles like bleeding or levitating hosts to deepen our faith in the Eucharist. Perhaps we would simply ask for cultural circumstances to be more favorable to religion.

105. None of this would do any good with respect to faith. Saint John Henry Newman in a sermon entitled “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief” recalls the Lord’s words that the Israelites “refused to believe in me, despite all the signs I have performed among them” (Numbers 14:11); and that chief priests and pharisees called a council to put Christ to death because he “is performing many signs” (Jn 11:47). Newman’s sobering conclusion is that “nothing is gained by miracles, nothing comes of miracles, as regards our religious views, principles, and habits”. He knows that too often we find our ourselves having gone “year after year with the vain dream of turning to God some future day”.

What should we ask from God, then, to strengthen faith?

106. The answer is not in looking for outward miracles or improved circumstances. No, look elsewhere. Newman points to the way forward by saying, “instead of looking for outward events to change our course of life, be sure of this, that if our course of life is to be changed, if must be from within. God’s grace moves us from within, so does our own will”. His point is that if we do not love God, it is because we have not wanted to love Him, tried to love Him, or prayed to love Him.

To be continued…

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Day 362 2828-2837

PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER

SECTION TWO-THE LORD'S PRAYER

Article 3-THE SEVEN PETITIONS

IV. "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread"

2828 "Give us": the trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." He gives to all the living "their food in due season." Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.

2829 "Give us" also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this "us" also recognizes him as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all, in solidarity with their needs and sufferings.

2830 "Our bread": the Father who gives us life cannot not but give us the nourishment life requires - all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father's providence. He is not inviting us to idleness, but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God:

To those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing, if he himself is not found wanting before God.

2831 But the presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up another profound meaning of this petition. the drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the human family. This petition of the Lord's Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables of the poor man Lazarus and of the Last Judgment.

2832 As leaven in the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth "rise" by the Spirit of Christ. This must be shown by the establishment of justice in personal and social, economic and international relations, without ever forgetting that there are no just structures without people who want to be just.

2833 "Our" bread is the "one" loaf for the "many." In the Beatitudes "poverty" is the virtue of sharing: it calls us to communicate and share both material and spiritual goods, not by coercion but out of love, so that the abundance of some may remedy the needs of others.

2834 "Pray and work." "Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you." Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it with thanksgiving, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals.

2835 This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God," that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort "to proclaim the good news to the poor." There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD." For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.

2836 "This day" is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord, which we would never have presumed to invent. Since it refers above all to his Word and to the Body of his Son, this "today" is not only that of our mortal time, but also the "today" of God.

If you receive the bread each day, each day is today for you. If Christ is yours today, he rises for you every day. How can this be? "You are my Son, today I have begotten you." Therefore, "today" is when Christ rises.

2837 "Daily" (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of "this day," to confirm us in trust "without reservation." Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence. Taken literally (epi-ousios: "super-essential"), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the "medicine of immortality," without which we have no life within us. Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: "this day" is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason, it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day.

The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive.... This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.

The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.

Flag Day[5]

National Flag Day is when Americans celebrate the meaning of their nation's flag, honor the traditions associated with its care, and educate those around them to its significance. The Flag of the United States is to be honored and carries with it both history and tradition. On June 14, 1777, the Flag Resolution was signed,

making the current stars and stripes the National Flag of the United States of America. On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson called for the nation-wide observance of Flag Day. In 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed congress' decree, making June 14th of each year National Flag Day.

Flag Day Facts & Quotes

· Worn out flags may be given to the American Legion or Boy/Girl Scouts of America where they will burn the flags in a formal ceremony on June 14th.

· The Flag should never touch the ground when being taken down. It should be folded neatly and stored ceremoniously.

· You should fly the American Flag only between sunrise and sunset. If left hanging around the clock, it must be illuminated during the dark hours.

· The First Flag Act was signed by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777... Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.

Flag Day Top Events and Things to Do

· Fly the American Flag.

· Recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

· Visit a National Monument or National celebration.

· Attend a Flag retirement ceremony.

Whose Flag are you under?

We are created in the image and likeness of God, and we have a choice: To do good or to do evil. Daily we must decide if we are for ourselves and pursue the things of the world or are we going to follow Christ by picking up our cross daily and freely live under the flag of Christ.

Father John Parks [6] states that the flag we choose to live under determines everything. He asks,

“Whose flag are you under? Do we consciously choose to serve, or do we just let it happen?

We have a choice here and indecision is a decision itself. Whose flag will you follow Christ’s or Satan’s. True freedom comes not from doing what you want but doing the things you were created to do. Father John recommends we follow the flag of Christ (poverty, chastity, obedience) and not that of Satan (greed, lust, pride) by having a battle plan.