A spooky Obama post, just in time for Halloween

click on this link to go to Hillbuzz and click on the gif image link there

Click on their link and watch carefully... It's an animated gif...

(H/T Hillbuzz Blog)

Don't let the psy-ops throw you

so says the Anchoress. She has such reasoned posts on politics. I don't always agree with her but this post makes so much sense. She packed a lot into it but here's a sample...

But then again, folks, you know what I always say - everything happens for a reason. There is a reason that this untried, unprepared, not-especially-glib-after-all man has been thrust into such extraordinary prominence at this time. There is a reason why so much seems to be coming together to work in his favor. There is a reason why world markets are collapsing just before this very important election, and why they will continue to do at least until after the vote.

What that reason is? Who can say? All I know is, stop freaking out. At this point in the election 4 years ago John Kerry was wandering around hearing himself referred to as “Mr. President.” This point in 1980, Jimmy Carter was planning his second inaugural.

My advice: live in the Present Moment and ask God to reveal Himself and His plan for you in that moment. Not in the next moment, not in the past moment. Work on the present moment. If you can get a real grasp of that - and if you can remember that past and future are also constructs, because time itself is illusory - then you have no need to hyperventilate.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Go read Matthew, go read the Sermon on the Mount. It’s all about that.

Go read the rest!

McCain's latest ad on Obama's friend, Ayers (updated)

Right now it's just on Youtube (1:40 minutes) but it will be shortened to 40 seconds or so and aired as a TV ad soon...



Notes, i.e. more documentation, from a political blog, Dr Sanity...

Ayers is a 'respectable' university professor; a man who shows his patriotism for America in subtle ways; an educational reformer; along with his wife, a pillar of the [leftist] community; the man who launched Barack Obama's political career; the man who gave Obama millions of dollars to spend on community organizing. In short, we are to believe that Obama knew nothing of the past activities of this man , despite having worked for him, disbursed money for his radical educational agenda; and used him to obtain power and influence in the leftist world for his meteoric political rise... in Chicago...in Illinois..in the US...and probably eventually, the World.

If that is true (and I don't believe it for an instant) why is Obama so anxious that his connection with Ayers be silenced? Why is the MSM so desperate to prove that there is nothing to see here?
I'm sure that's what Ayers would like, because he has always acted behind the scenes to (violently, if necessary) promote his socialist revolutionary agenda. Obama as his most successful front man to date must be kept clean so that the unwashed masses can be properly manipulated and led to the socialist utopia.

Many of the items in the first paragraph are hyperlinks to sources.

The real reason the market is tanking?

From G. Thomas Fitzpatrick of Recta Ratio...

Maybe not all of this sell-off in the US and global markets is because of the latest banking crisis.

Maybe investors are freaked out at the increasingly likely prospect of an Obama Presidency. Maybe they are selling anything they can because they know the policies this fellow, with a Democrat Congress to help him enact legislation, will not be one bit good for investors.

Ora Pro Nobis

Fr John Rizzo, FSSP, will celebrate High Mass in Boston!

Fr John Rizzo, FSSP, visits the Boston area next week on his way to Rome for the Celebration of 20 years of Ecclesia Dei, and will celebrate HIGH Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston at 11:00 am.

This will also be a Holy Name Society Mass, with the recitation of the Holy Name Litany at the end.

Fr Rizzo is coming from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

(removed quasi-snarky comment)

What do baked potatoes and October 7th have in common?

The baked potatoes symbolize Victory Vessels in the Battle of Lepanto, of course!

The ladies at Catholic Cuisine are never at a loss as to how to tie food and liturgical feast days together.

October - Month of the Most Holy Rosary

Redneck Neck Woman from Postscripts from the Catholic Spitfire Grill has an amazing post about the rosary, quite the compendium of info. Check it out here.

I love Father Corapi!

A new vocation video with the voice of Father Corapi.



(H/T Roman Roman Vocations, Brad Watkins)

In Honor of the Feast of Guardian Angels

I'm republishing a post from last year on naming angels...

(from 9/7/2007)

The other day, Carrie Tomeko blogged about Opus Angelorum and the practice of naming angels. This gets very interesting because she found on Father Z's old forum site a thread which was discussing that very practice. Did you know that there was a document published by the CDF on this topic back in 1984? Father Z quickly translated a bit of it here.

Essentially, this document says that there is not to be diffused the idea that one can know the name of one's guardian angel that that one is not to invoke the (unknowable) names of angels in prayer.

I have not found online an English version of this yet and I do not have the time to translate it at the moment.

What the CDF is warning about is the great spiritual danger that can come to a person from trying to invoke angels by name. The naming of angels is something that should be avoided. Not all angels are the friends of God and man. They are mighty beings that transcend our human nature. Some of them are bent on our eternal damnation. They can apply an angelic intellect in tricking us into the loss of heaven. They do not sleep. These are demonic enemies of the soul. Demons do not relent, unless God and His angels, unless the Church God's priest intervene. The naming of fallen angels is part of the rite of exorcism. It is perilous indeed to anyone without the protection and power that comes from the sacrament of Holy Orders to name angels.

This is a foolish and sentimental practice for most people who are into this sort of thing. But it is not benign. While it is not dangerous in all situations, it is dangerous in some. We just cannot know whom or what we are invoking outside the names of the angels friendly to God whose names appear in Holy Writ: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael.

Fr. Z

Thank goodness for Father Z! I had heard on another forum that it was a good idea/practice to name one's guardian angel and did try it. I never really felt comfortable with it though...

The Wooden Bowl

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year old grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.
The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. "We must do something about Grandfather," said the son. "I've had enough of his spilled
milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.".

So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner.

There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner.

Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather's direction, sometime he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, "What are you making?" Just as sweetly, the boy responded, "oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up." The four-year-old smiled and went back to work. The words so struck the parents so that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done.

That evening the husband took Grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

May you reap what you sow...

Sacrifice Beads

In honor of St Therese's Feast Day (Oct 1st new calendar, Oct 3rd trad calendar), I thought I'd post this description of the sacrifice beads that were popularized by St Therese of Lisieux.

The most typical actual "chaplet" consists a string of 10 beads, with a Crucifix at one end, symbolizing our taking up our Crosses and going the Way of Christ. On the other end nowadays is usually a medal depicting St. Thérèse, which reminds us of her "Little Way" of spirituality that's embodied in the use of the beads, and of the fact that we are all called to be Saints. They are kept in one's pocket, secretly, and when one mentally offers up something to God in union with Christ's sufferings on the Cross, one slides one of the beads toward the Crucifix. The beads are constructed such that when they are moved, they remain where they are put.

Some Sacrifice Beads consist of 15 beads, with 3 beads of a different color evenly interspersed among them, each representing one of the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. Each time 5 regular beads are moved toward the Crucifix, one of the Trinity beads is automatically moved, too, symbolizing our participation, by grace, in life of the Most Holy Trinity, and reminding us that any good we do is because of God alone.

Some people use the beads simply, by just moving one toward the Crucifix for each Sacrifice, but a more challenging and fruitful way of using them is to move a bead back toward the medal for each sin one commits along the way. This is a good way of examining one's conscience all throughout the day.

Source