Bł. Małgorzata, która ukochałaś Boga miłością czystą i gorącą, a bliźnim posługiwałaś w potrzebie i cierpieniach, wyjednaj nam doskonałą miłość Boga i bliźniego i wieczną szczęśliwość w niebie. Amen.
U.S. Senator Patty Murray of Washington state can feel free to cheer for her team, and cow-tow politically even if she hates sports. She was noted in the press as ‘talking up a Seahawk-blue streak’ recently.
Unfortunately, she is politically stupid, besides being a liberal and elitist boob.
When you insult the food Mama and Busha made with loving hands in the homes of us Poles, Russians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russian, Slovaks, and Czechs, you insult many of your constituents, a large number of Americans, and the happy memories of many families. You insult a food that evokes those memories. You also insult the working class folks you love to tax to death with your agenda.
It has been said that the senses of taste and smell are the most powerful because they connect us in a unique and intimate way to the precious moments in our lives. I still long for those warm moments of helping my Busha (grandma) make pierogi.
In an article at seatlepi.com discussing the typical Super Bowl bet the following appeared:
[Senators] Murray and Cantwell have bet Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum that the Hawks will win. If they’re right, the payoff will be a pile of Clara’s Pittsburgh Pierogies and hot wings. Pierogies are basically an Eastern Europe type of filled ravioli popular in a gritty Rust Belt city that will remain anonymous.
…
Murray’s office was less than impressed. “It’s so lame,” spokeswoman Alex Glass said, possibly with pierogi in cheek. “They know they’re going to lose so they know better than (to) offer anything good.”
So therefore, I call on all pierogi loving Americans to eat a big bunch of the best food on earth – pierogi – on Super Bowl Sunday (after Holy Mass of course).
I also call on the Canadian Village of Glendon, Alberta, home of the ‘World’s Largest Pyrogy’ to invade the State of Washington. The liberal elites will quickly capitulate, after which you can force them to eat pierogi, and then return to your peaceful existence.
Also, you may want to check out the blogs4God post on this. The pierogis pictured there look great – can I come over?
Fr. Jim Tucker at Dappled Things is a Mercedes SLK. I on the other hand rate as a:
Lamborghini Murcielago!
You’re not subtle, but you don’t want to be. Fast, loud, and dramatic, you want people to notice you, and then get out of the way. In a world full of sheep, you’re a raging bull.
Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.
Wszechmogący wieczny Boże, który łaską swoją tak wzmacniałeś św. Jana Złotoustego, ze z poddaniem się Twojej woli św. znosił rozliczne cierpienia i krzywdy ze strony swych prześladowców, użycz i nam tej mocy, abyśmy utrapienia tego żywota cierpliwie znosili. Amen.
O św. Polikarpie, który całe życie swoje urządziłeś według przepisów Chrystusa Pana, i czułeś się najszczęśliwszym, gdyś je pilnie wypełniał, uproś nam u Boga te łaskę, abyśmy także według przepisów kościoła Chrystusowego życie nasze urządzili i dostąpili szczęścia wiekuistego. Amen.
I’ve been included in the blogroll over at Dappled Things and Bernhard Brandt’s A (little) Light from the East.
I’ve also been included in a blogs4God recap of Christian bloggers who have commented on the Book of Daniel noted at NBC dumps the Book of Daniel ‘de-spite’ Christian bloggers
In honor of my inclusion in Mr. Brandt’s blogroll I include below his poem Versus Populum (I am a firm believer in proper liturgical posture, i.e., posture that reflects our adoration of God).
Versus Populum
They have lied in the chapel and schoolhall.
They have practiced a terrible fraud.
For the priests have not turned to the people:
They instead turned their backs on their God.We were told that the past was mistaken;
That to hold with Tradition was odd;
That the East was the source of all shadow,
And the West held the Son and our God.But the Dayspring on High was not mocked by this;
He allowed them to flirt with this baud,
And revealed that the things done in secret
Were true sins against Man and his God.And so those in the Nave and the Choirloft
Still await the day when we may laud
The return of the prodigal Fathers,
Who will turn with us back to our God.–Bernard Brandt
Now that I am listed on these blogs, I will work even harder at writing something truly good. Then perhaps I will be considered for the coveted Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
Let it be so! and they all answered, Amen!
An excellent article from Spike.
Check out: The curious rise of anti-religious hysteria It is the Anglo-American cultural elites’ insecurity about their own values that encourages their frenzied attacks on religion.
This article by Frank Furedi, self described as “a secular humanist who is instinctively uncomfortable with zealot-like moralism” really makes some salient points about cultural elitism and its venomous anti-Christian mantra.
Mr. Furedi is the author of Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right.
Since I’ve been in the mood for good Catholic/Christian films I recently purchased Come to the Stable and The Miracle of the Bells. Both arrived today so I’ll be sitting down to watch them tonight.
Miracle of the Bells is among my all time favorites.
A beautiful young Polish woman from a poor coal mining town in Pennsylvania makes it to Hollywood. She is screen tested and chosen as the lead in Joan of Arc. Her Catholic faith and purity shine through. At the conclusion of the production she dies of black lung disease.
Her manager, who loves her, played by Fred MacMurray, brings her body back to Pennsylvania. Her last wish was that the church bells be rung for her at her funeral. Concurrently he finds out that the film she made is going to be canned. Frank Sinatra plays the young parish priest —“ a fine looking Polish boy if I don’t say so myself!
The movie is sad and glorious. It shows the power of miracles of the heart and the power of dedicated love. On a secondary level it is an ode to all those who are poor, work hard, have deep faith, and are far more complex than the elites would have us believe.
As the IMDB says:
This film was also made in the days of John L. Lewis as head of the United Mine Workers. One of the big issues for that union was the pollution that caused the premature deaths of a lot of their members and families. In that sense Miracle of the Bells was a very socially relevant movie for its time and even today.
I think we can all agree with that. If you’ve never seen it check it out. If you have watch it again.
My brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
You are a member of the Church for a reason. The reason is your belief in Jesus Christ.
Have you ever given serious thought to what you believe?
By belonging to the Polish National Catholic Church you believe some very important things.
The first reading today may leave you confused about what you believe. Is Jesus just a powerful prophet? Frankly no, He is more than that. He is God Himself.
So let’s take a moment to focus, to clarify, and to review what your being here says you believe. By belonging to the Church you believe:
- There is one God
- There are three persons in one God.
- All three are equal and eternal.
- Jesus is the second person in the Holy Trinity, the Son of the Father.
- Jesus was born into the world at a moment in time, of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus is truly God and truly man.
- Jesus died a horrible death on the cross and was buried.
- Jesus died for your sins —“ to redeem you.
- Jesus rose from the dead.
- Jesus ascended into heaven.
- Jesus will be your judge upon your death and on the last day.
You believe that the Church is the ordered body of Christ and the commissioned teacher of all that is true.
You believe in the seven sacraments, the communion of saints, and that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
You believe that the Holy Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity and that when you receive the Eucharist you are eating Jesus’ body and blood, not bread and wine.
You believe that Christ commissioned His church to forgive sins.
You believe that God created us, that we were born innocent and good, that evil is real, and that evil tempts us.
While believing in the reality of evil, you do not believe in the personification or anthropomorphization of evil into the devil, Satan, or any other being.
You believe that God offers a continuous opportunity to repent from evil, both in this life and the next, and that the door to heaven is only shut when we shut it.
You believe that you must make an active choice for God in order to best prepare yourself for eternity.
You adhere to the Confession of Faith of the Polish National Catholic Church and all it contains.
You believe that the pope is a bishop like all other bishops and is, by faithful tradition, the first among equals. He is not infallible and cannot proclaim doctrine except as a result of a truly ecumenical synod.
You do not subscribe to the notion of the Immaculate Conception nor to the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven.
This list does not cover it all, but is does raise a serious question. Can you validly say you believe all these things? Can you believe them even if your senses and logic tell you differently? Can you believe them just because the Church says so?
When we stand for the Creed we do not say —We believe— as some other Catholic or Protestant churches do. We each say —I believe.— This is a very strong statement. This is a proclamation of something extraordinary.
My friends,
Belief in the truth is difficult in the face of the world. Setting aside your personal ideas and agendas, and agreeing with the Church is difficult as well. While these difficulties are real, and while we do not sit down and actively review and enumerate our beliefs each day, we need to take time to assess them.
God has given us the grace to be included in His Church, an inclusion that carries not only a myriad of blessings, but also a great responsibility.
I can only speak for myself. I believe each and every one of these things. I believe them even when my senses tell me different. I believe them because the Church says so. To put it even more simply I fall back on the words of the children’s song: I believe because the Bible tells me so.
Do not be fooled. Many cults and ‘world religions’ claim to believe in Jesus Christ, or they acknowledge Him in some way. The problem is that they do not believe in the Jesus Christ presented in the Bible and proclaimed by the Holy Catholic Church —“ Jesus who is God.
In the Bible Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to His Church and left the Church as His instrument. Together, the Bible and the Church are here for our salvation, to lead us home to God. Jesus set it up this way on purpose, and being God, He knows what He is doing.
My faithful people,
When we reflect on today’s Gospel we need to remind ourselves that we cannot stand here and be astonished like the people in Capernaum.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
…and again,
All were amazed and asked one another,
—What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.—
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
We need to stand strong in our faith, reassured by our belief, and the promise of Jesus Christ. We cannot simply be here because we think Jesus is a cool, famous guy; a kind of millennial Hollywood star. We cannot be like others who turn Jesus from God into a mannequin of their own making. They create a false Jesus who is just a thing that supports, justifies and fulfills their own desires.
If you are coming here to be social, to have a good time, to eat some cool blessed wafers and drink wine, to kneel, bow, and be blessed by the power of a cool guy, to listen to some interesting philosophical fables, you are deluding yourself.
If you are going to other churches thinking they are just as good and just as equal, you are mistaken.
We, need to heed Paul’s words:
I am telling you this for your own benefit,
not to impose a restraint upon you,
but for the sake of propriety
and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
Therefore I tell you —“ adhere to the Lord without distraction, stand and profess, with the Church, your belief in Him.
O Boże, który naukami św. Pawła apostola świat cały w prawdziwej religji oświeciłeś i utwierdziłeś, użycz i nam, którzy dziś jego nawrócenie obchodzimy, abyśmy naśladując jego cnoty, do Ojczyzny wiecznej dojść mogli. Amen.
Wszechmogący Boże, racz wejrzyć na nasza słabość i niedoskonałość, i wspomóż nas łaską swoją, abyśmy mogli siebie zbawić, i drugim według możności do zbawienia swej duszy dopomódz. Amen.