Boże, któryś wyznawcę Twego błg. Szymona z Lipnicy szczególniejszym darem wymowy obdarzył, dozwól łaskawie, abyśmy według nauki jego postępując, gardzili marnościami tego świata, miłowali Boga, względem bliźnich postępowali sprawiedliwie, a modlitwą pracą i umartwieniem zwyciężyli nieprzyjaciela naszego zbawienia. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
Both the Young Fogey and Fr. Jim Tucker at Dappled Things have linked to reporting from If Americans Knew.
The site reports statistics on Israeli deaths and destruction in Israel as opposed to Palestinian deaths and destruction in the Palestinian territories.
Whenever I run across sites that comment on the Middle East I look to see who is behind them. Where do the numbers come from? How true/accurate are the numbers? Is there a political agenda? This is not an area of the world known for being the bastion of truthfulness.
I looked at If Americans Knew. At first the disparities shocked me. I was in my accountant mode, analyzing numbers, comparing columns, checking out the graphs. I was fascinated. Then the Holy Spirit gave me a kick and I said, ‘These are people.’ I was comparing who is more evil based on tallies of death and destruction. I saw the numbers, not the people.
I decided to look deeper. If Americans Knew seemed a little one-sided.
A quick Google search revealed a lot of opinions on the woman behind If Americans Knew, Alison Weir (NOT the British novelist). Most of the opinions were from campuses where she appeared and spoke. She was labeled everything from a raging anti-Semite to the bearer of all truth. No help there.
I looked at the wiki on If Americans Knew but it didn’t really analyze the credibility of the site.
I checked out The Middle East Now, The Middle East from a Secular View. Their site analysis, linked from Wikipedia, seemed pretty well balanced (albeit not perfectly so), pointing out both the truths in If Americans Knew and the wholesale and subtle distortions in their reporting.
There are subtle truths in every story. We have to move beyond the distance of a story to the truth of the matter. Evil people are deciding to kill other people on both sides. Both are being indiscriminant. They hope we won’t notice, they hope we won’t say no, never again.
Boże, który dusze świętego Kamila ozdobiłeś szczególnem miłosierdziem, aby był pomocą duszom walczącym w ostatnich choroby zapasach, wzbudź w nas przez jego zasługi ducha miłości, abyśmy w godzinę śmierci zwalczyć mogli nieprzyjaciela duszy naszej, i uzyskać koronę niebieską. Amen.
Boże, któryś szczególniejszą opieką najświętszej Panny Rodzicielki Twojej Marji, bractwo szkaplerza św. otoczyć raczył, spraw łaskawie, abyśmy bezpieczni obroną Jej, czcząc dziś uroczystem nabożeństwem Jej pamiątkę, do wiecznych radości dojść zasłużyli sobie. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
| You Are a Little Scary |
 You’ve got a nice edge to you. Use it. |
Samer al-Batal has been writing from Beirut at A Conservative Blog for Peace. In More from Beirut he writes:
This has long grown out of all proportion and especially now to beyond the point where the most duplicitous liar can attempt to summon a rationale to explain how military operations are solely aimed at eradicating Hizbullah. This entire country is under threat. They’ve destroyed the lighthouse in Beirut and struck its port, along with the ports of other areas, including the city of Tripoli! This is no area that hosts either Shi’ites or elements of Hizbullah. They’ve reached all the way to the north! They’ve hit both wheat and water reserves, attacked the Lebanese army, and have committed atrocious murders in particular the devastating attack on a truck of refugees fleeing from one of the southern villages.
Offer your prayers tonight and your Holy Mass tomorrow for peace in Lebanon and for the repose of all the innocent who have been murdered.
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
So they went off and preached repentance.
In one of the tracks from Juana Molina’s album Son, titled Las Culpas, she sings —I want to see everybody’s faults on the table but my own—.
That resonates with you doesn’t it. It certainly hit home with me. We love it, rubbernecking at the accidents in someone’s life, gawking at the carnage in a relationship, dwelling on the faults of others as a sort of buffer against dealing with our own issues.
It all comes down to how you view Jesus doesn’t it. Do you view Jesus as what He said He is, the way —“ the way to eternal life, a path to be followed throughout life? Do you view Him as the truth and the life —“ a life that is unlike our everyday existence? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. This is something we have to adopt. It is a choice we all must make.
As you sit in those pews, as I stand here, have we made a conscious choice to throw off the worldly life and adopt Jesus’ life as our own?
Tough choice isn’t it? It is a choice between comfort and hardship, a choice between what I want and what I have been asked to do. It is giving up your self will for complete freedom. The freedom found not in today’s world or tomorrow’s world, but in the Kingdom of God. It is the choice the apostles made when they took up their walking sticks and sandals and went out without purse or food.
Repentance is the key. Repentance is the road. We have to get on that road and work hard everyday to achieve the Kingdom.
It starts with prayer when you wake, and a firm resolve to change your life, to be renewed each day, and to look on the new day as God’s gift for your conversion and repentance. You have received what you need to begin as Paul tells us:
In Him you also, who have heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in Him,
were sealed with the promised holy Spirit,
which is the first installment of our inheritance
toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.
As you pass that morning routine and go out into the world you must take on the mantle of Amos who told Amaziah:
“The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,
Go, prophesy to my people Israel.—
You are sent out as a disciple and prophet. You are to live your life in a state of conversion, repentance, and a resolve to follow the way, truth, and life. You are sent out like Amos and the apostles, to teach the Lord’s way. You are sent out to do this by your words, example, and by the change people will see in your heart.
In writing about spiritual rebirth Bishop Hodur said:
The reborn man also knows different joys and different sorrows.
The worldly man considers himself successful when he is able, in some degree, to satisfy his sensual drives and desires; when his ambitions are realized; when he acquires wealth; when he defeats his adversaries; when he enjoys good health; when his fellow men hold him in respect, even though this may have been gained by falsehood and hypocrisy. He grieves if he is deprived of one or more of these essentials of his existence.
How differently the truly religious, reborn man finds his happiness!
The basis of his happiness does not lie in the conditions and elements of his worldly life. It comes, rather, from within himself, from his soul, and especially. from his relationship with God, the first and final source of true and untroubled contentment.
At the end of your day consider those things. How did you treat the day, the people around you, and the world? Do a daily examination of conscience and resolve to begin the next day back on the road to God.
Prayer, resolve, action, and reflection.
It comes down to how you view Jesus: Jesus as the whip and battering ram, the foil with which you will enumerate the faults of others, or Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life by whom you will be changed, destroying your sins so that you may attain everlasting life.
Live by Jesus and you will be free. Live in Jesus and you will live forever.
[dels]homilies, sermons[/dels]
I’ve made a few changes to my primary blogroll. I’ve broken the sites down into three sections. They are:
- Blogroll – Daily: These are my daily reads. I find something in common with these writers and admire them. I just love reading what they write.
- Blogroll – Deacons: This is one I’m looking to expand. We deacons are a unique breed with special gifts of the Spirit. I’ll try to highlight deacons and deacons’ wives who write about spirituality and the everyday life of a deacon.
- Blogroll – Occasional: These are my sometime reads. I visit them less frequently and usually when I’m looking for something in particular. I visit some less regularly because they are not updated as often.
The Catholic World News reports on the Maronite Patriarch’s request for prayers for Lebanon.
Patriarch Nassrallah Pierre Sfeir, the head of the Maronite Catholic Church, asked for prayers for the people of Lebanon during a July 13 press conference in Massachusetts.
The Maronite patriarch, Lebanon’s most prominent Church leader, spoke to reporters as he concluded a trip to the US, during which he sought to increase awareness of his country’s problems. Thanking American leaders for their support, he said that “the Lebanese are determined to live far from terrorism, tyranny, corruption, and despair.”
Saying that he is “very concerned and anxious” for Lebanon in the light of this week’s new violence, Cardinal Sfeir condemned “all aggression, wherever it comes from.”
He continued: “”We condemn Israel’s recent retaliations against Lebanon’s people and infrastructure. We also hope that Hezbollah will finally lay down its arms and join the other citizens of Lebanon in reaching political solutions to all of the Lebanese problems.”
By the way, do not try to connect to the Maronite Patriarchate’s website, like all Lebanese websites it is down.
Wszechmogący Boże, który w dniu dzisiejszym św. Henryka trwalszą, bo wiekuistą ozdobiłeś koroną chwały w niebie, prosimy Cię pokornie, abyś nam dozwolił naśladować go w cnotach, grzechów unikać i przygotować się należycie na niepewną godzinę śmierci. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.