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The beauty of women through Saint John Paul´s II eyes (Spanish) LA MUJER A TRAVÉS DE LOS OJOS DE SAN JUAN PABLO II EL GRANDE

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Ya próxima la proclamación de Juan Pablo II como santo de la Iglesia Católica, ha llevado a muchos a recordar lo que este Papa dejo a millones de personas a lo largo y ancho del planeta. Con una personalidad de comunicador nato y una energía que lo impulso a recorrer el mundo para llevar el mensaje de Cristo, tuvo la gracia de hacer sentir a cada individuo el Amor personal de Dios. Fiel a las enseñanzas de Jesús y de su Iglesia,   Juan Pablo II dedico muchos de sus escritos, sermones, esfuerzos y preocupaciones a temas clave del siglo XX. Contrario a lo que muchos pueden pensar sobre la postura misógina de la Iglesia Católica, uno de los temas recurrentes en su Pontificado fue la mujer. Y esto lo podemos ver concentrado en uno de sus documentos que sigue siendo actual: Mulliréis Dignitatem Esta Carta Apostólica principia recogiendo los esfuerzos de la Iglesia desde tiempos Conciliares, y aun anteriores, por abordar el tema de la dignidad de la mujer , siempre subrayando la import

Hoping for and Needing Mercy

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(From John Martin, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) I care about God's mercy because I'm a sinner, which doesn't mean what you may think. First, a quick review of what I don't believe is true. ( March 15, 2015 ) I'm not "some loathsome insect," and neither are you: " ...every unconverted Man properly belongs to Hell.... " " ...The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you.... " " ...you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God.... " (" Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God ," pp. 6, 9, 15, 18; Jonathan Edwards (July 8, 1741) (via Digital Commons@University of Nebraska-Lincoln)) Samuel Clemens apparently had a well-defined attitude regarding "converted" folks, and I can't say that I blame him.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Another Easter

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There have been only three to six major events so far, depending on how you count them: the creation of this universe; humanity's creation and fall; and our Lord's arrival, execution, and resurrection. There's another big one coming, eventually, and I'll get back to that. Cosmic Scale I'm a Catholic, so I take Sacred Scripture very seriously, 1 including this: " God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed - the sixth day. " ( Genesis 1:31 ) We've known that God's creation was big and old, and been impressed, for a long time: " 1 Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. " ( Deuteronomy 10:14 ) " The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky proclaims its builder's craft. " ( Psalms 19:2 ) " 3 Raise your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; Though the hea

We Killed Jesus

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Despite this post's title, I won't be indulging in a guilt trip , or bewailing the decline and fall of practically everybody. 1 An incident earlier this month could have been much worse: like the Judenschlacht of 1241 or Hep-Hep riots in 1819. What happened was bad enough, though.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Jesus, What Were You Thinking?

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It was just another day of the week, or was it? Jesus knew, as God, that before the week would end, He will have given His life, for many, to conquer death. What must Jesus have been thinking? He arrived in Jerusalem the day before; greeted with fanfare; literally, with palms waving in the springtime breeze. Jesus knew, only too well, how fickle man can be; how in the blink of an eye, they would turn on Him. He would be turned over to the authorities and would be put to death. Jesus only had a few more days to... Read more...  

The Messiah We Need

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Tiberius was Rome's absentee emperor around the time the Han Dynasty was getting back to business-as-usual, after Wang Mang 's brief takeover. I mentioned him before: Wang Mang, I mean. ( December 27, 2015 ) Meanwhile, Phaedrus was retelling Aesop's Fables in Latin, and Pontius Pīlātus was prefect of the Roman Province of Judea . That part of the world had been under Roman control since the Battle of Philippi , Armenia wasn't a Roman province yet, but it wasn't the force it had been during Tigranes ' reign, and that's another topic. Tigranes, Tiberius, and Wang Mang, were well-known folks in their day; 1 at least in their homelands. Two millennia later, not so much. Pontius Pīlātus is another matter. He's mentioned each year around this time, when something like 2,000,000,000 folks pay at least fleeting attention to a Nazarene's progress from top-of-the-polls celebrity to executed corpse. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Names and THE Name

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(From USCCB, used w/o permission.) Depending on whether or not folks are going through RCIA, we could be hearing either Exodus 3:1 - 8a , 13 - 15 ; 1 Corinthians 10:1 - 6 , 10 - 12 ; and Luke 13:1 - 9 — or Exodus 17:3 - 7 ; Romans 5:1 - 2 , 5 - 8 ; and John 4:5 - 42 during Mass today.... ...Today's RCIA goes back to 1972, "as part of the liturgical renewal mandated by Vatican II." 1 Before that we'd been using a Rite of Baptism introduced in 1614: which was just baptism. I suppose some folks are upset that we changed something that'd been around since the year Pocahontas married John Rolfe and the Siege of Osaka began. Tokugawa Ieyasu became the next shogun, and yes: there are worse things than American presidential elections. My opinion. By the way — if this post seems a bit more scattershot than usual, you're quite right.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Training, Lent, and Me

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(From Wereldburger758, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) Lent is a time for me to improve myself, right? That will be a by-product of what I do, but — no. Lent isn't about me. It's like the rest of the annual cycle of Advent, Lent Easter: we're reviewing and, in a sense, re-living what our Lord did, two millennia back now. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1095 ) Lent is when we join Jesus in the desert. Sort of. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Love!

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Last week I talked about why I don't try to be someone I'm not: more specifically, why I don't insist that God equip me with what's trending in charisms. Also spirit-filled administrators and loose cannons . ( January 24, 2016 ) That Sunday's second Scripture reading got me started: 1 Corinthians 12:12 - 30 . Today's second reading, 1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13 , picks up on the next verse: " Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.... " ( 1 Corinthians 12:31 ) I could stop there, and claim that everybody should start clamoring for "the greatest spiritual gifts." I've talked about cherry picking before. It's a bad idea.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

"My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?..."

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We in the flesh are hindered in such a way that with our senses we cannot perceive eternity.   The God who took flesh in the form of Jesus in order to be like us in all things chose to forgo some knowledge in agreement that such temporarily 'forgetting' was part of the perfection of the plan of God.  As God shielded Moses when God passed by, Moses was denied a knowledge of God because his flesh could not look upon the face of God and live.  So to Jesus while incarnate in the flesh would suffer a 'shielding', or a lack of knowledge of some things that He would have had access to prior to the incarnation and would again gain access at the exact moment of His last heart beat.  This 'forgetting' of certain things for a time was part of God's participation in our humanity and the perfection of His passion on the Cross.  The God who knows all could by His own will decide to forgo knowledge in order that an infinite benefit could be given to us by His Passion.

The Pope is Catholic

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(From CTV, used w/o permission.) (Holy Mass for the Opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. (December 8, 2015)) There are reasons for my writing about science or technology most Fridays, and not declaring that you must worship exactly as the Apostles did: in 1962 . Briefly: I'm interested in science and technology, I know a little of what's happened over the last two millennia, and I'm a Catholic. I'm not a traditional, vegetarian, gummy bear, or whatever, Catholic; just a Catholic. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Mathematics and Mysticism

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St. Francis Adoring the Crucifix The Catholic Church calls those that have extra-ordinary revelation, "mystics."  I do not like this term, The mystical is shunned and looked down on in our society because some people look on the mystic as someone unbalanced, or if their revelations are believed, then they are looked upon as a person who has attained a friendship with God to which no one else can attain. There is nothing farther from the truth... TO READ MORE CLICK HERE.

Jesus, the Magi, and Me

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(Our Lady of Angels, Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Saturday afternoon. (January 2, 2015)) Statues of Caspar , Melchior , and Balthazar started out across from the nativity scene in our parish church. They were lurking by the poinsettias during Friday's Mass — the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God — and no, Catholics do not worship Mary. We're not supposed to, anyway. 1 Getting back to the statues, they were in place at the nativity scene when I stopped by with a camera Saturday afternoon. Two look like they're kneeling to the Baby Jesus, the third is bowing slightly. But Friday they were in front of the altar, by the poinsettias you see in that top photo. Two of them seemed to be crouching behind poinsettia leaves; with the third several paces back, leaning out from behind a plant. It looked like they might be getting ready to yell "surprise!"... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Third Secret of Fatima

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About two months ago at Holy Mass at St. Bartholomew, during the offertory, God allowed me to see part of the  Third Secret of Fatima .  Lucia told it right.  I saw part of what she wrote about.  It was like being present as it was happening.  Going to Holy Mass I was not thinking of the Third Secret in any way so this vision came suddenly, unexpected, quite shockingly actually.... TO READ MORE CLICK HERE.

"Blessed are You Who Believe"

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"Blessed are you who believe that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." [ Luke 1:45 ] We all like to get our way. Okay, I won't speak for everyone. So let me rephrase that, 99.9% of us like to get our way as often as possible (myself included of course). Okay, I don't really know the exact number, but my guess is, it's pretty high. From a very early age we start striving to make sure that our wants are being met (even long after we start realizing that others have needs, wants and feelings too). And so, we grab toys away from other kids. We beg mom and dad to make our favorite food for dinner. We want to have absolute control of the TV. (Who can stand those shows adults watch anyway?) And we cry and throw tantrums when things don't go our way. (But I don't want to go to bed now!) More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Guest post)

St. Michael and the Scales

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There is no excel spreadsheet in heaven of all the prayers or good works that you must do to be granted access to heaven.   We can do no action that benefits God in any way, because He is God, He is eternal, already complete and if we could do an action that benefited Him, then in some way He would be found to be lacking in something.   This is why the gift of the sacrifice of God's son, Jesus is completely, free and unmerited, because if all the human beings that have ever lived prayed constantly from their conception to their death could still not open the gates of Heaven and save us from the eternal suffering of hell they way that the blood of Jesus did.   Yet, God gives us an 'action' plan of salvation.  We are not to just stay in our... TO READ MORE CLICK HERE!

Joy to the World!

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(From Silar, Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) (Nativity scene at the Christ the King Church in Sanok , Poland, 2010.) Shepherding is a comparatively new occupation, compared to hunting and knapping . The earliest evidence we've found so far puts the first shepherds north of Sargon 's Akkadian Empire , where the Hittite Kingdom was, a dozen or so centuries later. I've mentioned them before. ( August 21, 2015 ; October 16, 2015 ) That was about the time someone carved a bit of siltstone into the Narmer Palette , and folks started building Stonehenge ; and that's another topic. Around the time Emperor Ping died, leaving Wang Mang in charge — he was either a great reformer or conniving scoundrel, depending on who you read, and that's yet another topic — the Roman Emperor ordered an empire-wide census. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Advent and a Sense of Scale

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Today's first Bible reading doesn't include the last part of Micah 5:4.... ...I'm guessing that's because we see these verses mostly as they relate to our Lord's birth, about seven centuries later. Folks in Micah's day had more immediate concerns: " 3 he shall be peace. If Assyria invades our country and treads upon our land, We shall raise against it seven shepherds, eight men of royal rank; " 4 And they shall tend the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword; And we shall be delivered from Assyria, if it invades our land and treads upon our borders. " ( Micah 5:4 - 5 ) Micah lived around Isaiah 's time, a bit over 27 centuries back. Assyria's leaders were trying to unite the (western) world into a single empire, and succeeding: for the moment.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Truth and the Big Picture

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Pontius Pīlātus was the fifth prefect of the Roman Province of Judea . That sounds important, but Pilate was one of the Equites : Roman aristocrats, but ranking below Patricians . Think of him as 'middle management.' Judea was a strategically important border province, giving the empire access to Egypt's agricultural resources, and a measure of protection from the Parthian Empire . More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Using Your Angelic Legion Effectively

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Q.  "Are there Legions of Angels?"  Yes, there are Legions of Angels.  Jesus spoke of twelve Legions of Angels that were available to Him. And behold, one of those who accompanied Jesus put his hand to his sword, drew it, and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear.  Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father and he will not provide me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:52-53) But never forget, the Demon has also Legions also.   Remember when Jesus went to exorcise the man of the demon that dwelt among the tombs that could not be contained with a chain? TO READ MORE....CLICK HERE!!