Red, White, and Blue in the Face!

Today, in a ceremony filled with tribute to him and his life, Senator Edward Kennedy was buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Irony

Last night, apparently of a broken heart, Terry Schiavo’s father, Robert Schindler died. Mr. Schindler was never quite the same after the trying effort to save his daughter Terri only to be forced to watch Terri be dehydrated to death on the orders of a judge of the United States judiciary. Senator Kennedy was one of the voices who argued against the Congress saving Terri Schiavo’s life.

Circumstance

Today, in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, is the day we remember the death of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was killed because he criticized the King, Herod Antipas, for having taken his half-brothers wife Heriodias (Herod’s niece) away from her husband and back to Galilee – an adulterous relationship that John the Baptist was compelled to call out and subsequently paid for with his life.

May God have mercy on their souls and may their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.

As Americans we are used to debate, we are dedicated to the princple of freedom of speech, a tenent instilled in our very American culture and born int the roots of revolution against tyranny. As a Roman Catholic these cultural roots are often in direct conflict with my religious faith. The Declaration of Independence begins with the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .” As a Roman Catholic I hold to the belief that not only are some truths self-evident but that truth itself is not subject to my emotions, my feelings, my changeable points of view, nor to the laws of men but, seen through the eyes of faith, are certain and objective.

To say that I am a “Roman Catholic” is to say that I hold and believe all that the Roman Catholic Church teaches. Does that make me brain-dead? Does that make me a lemming? Believe me, there were times, years ago, when I thought that ws the case. My life, my experiences have taught me that my Church is right. To say that I am a “Roman Catholic” is to say that I hold and believe ALL that the Church teaches no if, ands, or buts.

My Roman Catholic faith colors every aspect of my life – how can it not be that way? If I believe in God and what we believe God has revealed to us how is it possible for me to set any of that aside in order to do what *I* want to do? That, is the very definition of sin isn’t it?

God speed to you sir; may God have as much mercy on you as I pray He will have for me!

I have a great deal of respect for Senator Kennedy – he worked hard for what he believed was best for America and never backed down from his positions. While I disagree with much of what he wanted I have to say he was a great American and he epitomizes what America is all about – agree, disagree but do it with respect!

The Kennedy family have endured many trials and losses. My condolences to the entire family, especially to Senator Kennedy’s immediate family and dear friends.

Divorce. Single mother fending for herself and two children. Teenage son; irresponsible father. Father, having never helped until this point now sees teenage son as a way to vent his anger against his former spouse and is causing great distress and, imho, putting teenage son into terribly dangerous territory.

Please pray for them all – the father that his heart might be healed of those things that have driven him to this; the mother that her love for her children will be sustained and that she will be comforted in this time with some small sign of God’s assurance for her children; for the son who has no idea of course that he has inherited genes and teenage angst which are not proving helpful at this point – keep him safe from all evil and harm; for the daughter – her troubles must be many but watching her mother in such distress must be a very heavy burden for her, may God lift her and sustain her too with His love.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Holy Family, you know the trials that a family undergoes — hear the cries of this woman and her pleas for her children. Help her, help them. Amen.

The fraud came this week from the White House where Press Secretary Gibbs didn’t know how emails were sent from the White House to people who didn’t solicit them touting the Healthcare reform being pushed, apparently with Chicago-style vigor, by the White House. As it happens, the White House used our tax dollars to hire GovDelivery to send mass emails. Interestingly, I’m not seeing this story (reported by Foxnews.com) on any other news outlet as of my post time.

The waste, well you tell me – do you appreciate your hard-earned dollars being used to send you spam? Spam from Sam? Are you kiddin’ me?

The abuse – watch this video. ‘Nuff said.

It has come to my attention recently that we’re a bit hard up for cash in this country. Your collegues in the Democratic Party want to milk more from all of us hard-working Americans to pay the bills you’re stacking up in Washington.

I have an idea that might just kill two bills with one stroke of pen – you want to close the Detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Scotland badly needs a “face” lift after releasing Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi (the Lockerbie Bomber) and we need some dough.

How about we trade the Gitmo detainees to Scotland for a nominal fee of, oh, say about $300 trillion dollars. They’d look the tough Scots again, we’d be able to pay our debts and, oh, yeah … Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi gets to stay home. Well, I guess we can’t have everything.

P.S. Personally, I don’t think Scotland could regain the loss of respect no matter how much they paid for it.

Sincerly,
Red,White, and Blue in the Face!

Remembering the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

There are many memorials both online and “brick and mortar” but Dale Roe’s is unique – his memorial is actually no single site but a collection of volunteers who sign up to memorialize one of the victims of the 9/11 tragedy perpetrated by cowardly murderers.

If you are interested in participating and helping to preserve the memory of those who died in the 9/11 attacks visit Dale’s website Project 2,996.

Read the information posted on the homepage and then, when you click on the “Click here to join” button in the sidebar you’ll be taken to a page with more info and where, if you’d like to join in the remembrance, you may leave a comment telling Dale you’d like to volunteer and, if you want to write a tribute, don’t forget to give him the URL of your website. If you don’t have a website he can fix you up anyway! Check it out. Join in. Never forget.

Click on the image in this post and read about the coat of arms designed for the 9/11 remembrance.

In history, and in scripture, mothers have played a significant role in the development and salvation of humankind. Without mothers of course we’d have no families, no young men and women to love and serve God, no Church, no hope. I believe the hope of world rests on mothers because it is they who have the closest bond to their children, they to whom children turn to talk and to ask advice. Yes, some go to their fathers, but most, I believe, go first to their mother. In the interest of brevity I’ll just say that throughout the history of humankind, mothers, particularly mothers of the powerful, of the kings and queens, were behind the scenes playing the role mothers usually play. Some were not good or godly, but most mothers sacrifice their lives for their children in many ways.

In the role of the salvation of mankind, God blessed us by assuming our nature, flesh and blood, and dwelling among us. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, God also blessed us with a mother – the mother of all the world – the Mother of God, Mary.

Just today I had someone ask “where in scripture does it say to pray to Mary”? Well, it doesn’t say anywhere in scripture to pray to Mary. Scripture doesn’t say anything about the Holy Trinity but we believe in One God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; scripture doesn’t say anything about dividing God’s Church into thousands of pieces but on their own men have decided they know better than the Church; scripture doesn’t say anything about many things but if you pray, and study scripture it says lots more than what is written on the pages.

Here is the response one woman gave:

The very beginning of The Good News – the Angel Gabriel “Hail, full of grace…”. Then moving along we have Elizabeth “….at the SOUND OF YOUR VOICE the child in my womb leapt for joy…” and along we go to the wedding feast at Cana “…..do as He tells you” and the amazing fact that He said He was not yet ready to start His public work!!! He did it for her. Moving swiftly along from there we come to the end or is it the beginning! To the Beloved desciple “…behold your Mother”. From the beginning the Church has always looked to Mary as Mother. Please, please familiarize yourself with the Church Fathers. And remember it is the Church that gives us the Scriptures and whatever the Chuch teaches it is Christ Himself Who is teaching us. He founded ONE Church; not 3,000. Hope I’v helped a bit, you don’t have to accept Mary as your Mother, you don’t have to take her to your home as the beloved desciple did, but how can you refuse Jesus gift of His mother to you? – Blessings – Rene

here is the response I followed hers with:

[name withheld], the peace of Our Lord to you and those you love; Mrs. O’Riodan, thank you – beautifully put. I would only add that Scripture, as it does in so many other instances, teaches us through the example of others. There are many mothers in the Old Testament who portend the role that Mary will play in the salvation of humankind and that women play in the role of the Church. Jesus is our King and Ruler – as with other kings and rulers, their mothers played significant roles. The Mother of Our Lord and Savior has done no less. Mary is not the end but the means to that end — she helps us to come closer to Jesus because who besides God the Father could know Him as His Mother knows Him? That, in a nutshell, also tells us why motherhood and marriage are so critical! +JMJ+ John

Mary, Our Mother, Patroness of the Americas, Patroness of the Unborn bring all of us to the foot of your son’s throne that we may be healed of our wounds, forgiven our transgressions and do His will in this world.

if he could see us now, here, in the United States of America – calling each other Nazi’s, painting caricatures of our President’s as Hilter look-alikes, not to mention the anonymous, nighttime visits or telephone calls. On top of all that we’ve even seen instances of physical violence.

So who is Maximilian Kolbe and why would he care? Some of you will know this name but many more others will not. The full name is Maximilian Mary Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who lived and worked in pre-WWII Poland (now the Ukraine) and who was arrested, incarcerated in Auschwitz and ultimately murdered by the Nazis but only after being subjected to beatings and humiliation at their hands. Father Kolbe may well have survived the death camp but his death was a choice he made in order to save a fellow prisoner. A short form of his story is here but a Google search will reveal many, more verbose versions with extensive information about his missionary work in Japan. The prisoner whose life Father Kolbe substituted his own for survived Auschwitz and ultimately the war.

Father Kolbe knows about Nazis, knows about cruel tyranny, knows about the depths of man’s depravity – he experienced all of that. I’m certain Father Kolbe, if God allows it, would look upon our country with sadness – we have so much, we even share so much with others, why then are we at each others throats now? Seargeant Francis Gajowniczek survived World War II and spent the rest of his life touring the world speaking about the man who saved his life. He was present at St. Maximilian’s canonization. He died in 1995.

Saint Kolbe, on this feast day in remembrance of you, I ask that you remember us and beseech your intervention that we may, as a country and a people, come together in harmony. I pray that you will ask of God his Grace filled Providence, of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, His unfathomable, Merciful Love, and of the Holy Spirit, that our hearts and lives will be turned back to God.

Maybe some of the “spin” about end of life counseling and care came from the proposed changes to Medicare introduced by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va) back in June.

Meanwhile, the Virginian-Pilot reports that “despite criticism he’s trying to curtail care for the sick and elderly, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., plans to introduce legislation in Congress today to better educate the public on end-of-life care.”

“Warner’s Senior Navigation and Planning Act of 2009 would provide for better education on living wills, counseling for dying patients and respite care for their families through that benefit.” It would also expand Medicare’s hospice benefits for patients with a life expectancy of six months or less to those expected to die within 18 months….The bill also would require doctors, beginning in 2014, to offer certain Medicare patients, such as those with end-stage cancer, renal disease and congestive heart failure, information about advance directives and other planning tools. Doctors who failed to provide the information would not receive Medicare reimbursements. The proposal provides financial incentives for hospitals and skilled nursing centers to have accredited palliative care programs, which focus on relief of pain and maintaining quality of life. Warner said he wanted to submit the legislation at this time because Congress is considering health-care reform. He’d like to see some of the ideas incorporated into that legislation”

Courtesy Kaiser Health News