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Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Sarasota Goes Polish

Sarasota, Florida will be honoring the grandeur of Polish history, arts, cinema, and opera starting February 2nd and running through March 10th in the Sarasota Goes Polish Festival.

The festival was organized in part by Mariusz Brymora, culture and public affairs counselor for the Polish Embassy. It will introduce locals to Polish theater, art and cinema.

A series of concerts, exhibits and lectures will be held through the Sarasota Opera, the Sarasota Film Society, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Selby Public Library and the Sarasota Polish-American Club.

The festival’s capstone event and the inspiration for the festival is the Sarasota Opera’s production of Stanislaw Moniuszko’s “Halka,” the national Polish opera.

This American production of Moniuszko’s “Halka” is the first such production in more than 50 years by a professional American opera company (the Chicago Civic Opera was the last to perform it, in the late 1940s).

Calendar of Saints, PNCC

February 3

The Blessed Virgin, Christ Child, and St. Blaise

St. Blaise of Sebastea, Bishop and Martyr, (316)
St. Laurence of Canterbury, Bishop, (619)
St. Anskar of Hamburg, Bishop, (865)

The Blessing of Throats

Let Us Pray

Almighty and most merciful God, Who hast created all things by the power of Thy Word, and Who, for the salvation of man, hast willed that that same Word, by Whom all things were made should become incarnate; Thou, Who art great and doest wondrous things, awesome and worthy of praise: for the confession of whose faith the glorious Martyr and Bishop Blasius, spurning divers torments, was counted worthy to receive the martyr’s palm: to whom among other gifts Thou didst grant the virtue of healing infirmities of the throat through Thine almighty power; we humbly beseech Thy Majesty that, regarding not our sins, Thou wouldst deign to bless + through his prayers and merits, this creature of wax, sanctifying it and hallowing it through Thy grace: that all who with a lively faith receive its impress upon their throats, may be freed from all aliments of the same, and being restored to health, may show forth in Thy holy Church their thankfulness for Thy benefits, by praising Thy glorious Name, which is worthy of eternal benediction. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Through the intercession of blessed Blasius, may God free thee from all affections of the throat, and from all other aliments. In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Amen

Everything Else, ,

Faithful people

Fr. Jim Tucker points to a YouTube of Laetabundus in Sequence for Candlemas. Laetabundus is a Presentation Sequence normally attributed to St. Bernard. I found the English translation from The Dominican Missal in Latin and English, Revised Edition, Blackfriars Publications, Oxford, 1948.

Faithful people,
Sweeten all your song with gladness.
Alleluia.

Matchless maiden
Bringeth forth the Prince of princes:
O! the marvel.

Virgin compasseth a man,
Yea, the angel of the plan:
Star the Dayspring.

Day that sunset shall not close,
Star that light on all bestows,
Ever cloudless.

As the star, light crystalline,
Mary hath a Son divine
In her likeness.

Star that shining grows not dim,
Nor his Mother, bearing him,
Less a maiden.

The great tree of Lebanon
Hyssop’s lowliness puts on
In our valley;

And the Word of God Most High
Self-imprisoned doth lie
In our body.

So Isaias sang of old,
So the Synagogue doth hold,
But the sunrise finds her cold
Hard and blinded.

Of her own she will not mark,
Let her to the gentiles hark;
For the Sybil’s verses dark
Tell of these things.

Make haste, O luckless one,
Give ear to the saints bygone:
Why perish utterly,
O race undone?

He whom thy seers foretell
Born is in Israel:
Mary’s little Son, O mark him well.
Alleluia.

Everything Else

Vista

I’ve been upgrading to Windows Vista and Office 2007 over the past 24 hours. The upgrade itself went fairly well.

I checked compatibility beforehand, removed programs that were in conflict, plus some others likely to cause problems, and ran the Windows upgrade first. The following problems were encountered:

  • I have a dual monitor setup. The upgrade messed up the monitor order.
  • Internet Explorer does not work – at all. It won’t even start. Luckily I use Firefox. If I didn’t have Firefox my ability to do anything on the Internet would be at a standstill.

The upgrade took quite a while to accomplish. The Vista interface is pleasant albeit a little slow.

I pretty much agree with Julio Ojeda-Zapata’s article Vista’s pretty, but it’s a shameless Mac OS X imitator from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. I look forward to updating our Macs to Leopard.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Political,

Deacon dustup

The commentary across blogs over the recent conflict in the R.C. Diocese of Buffalo goes on.

Michael Liccione of Sacramentum Vitae has a pretty balanced take on this issue in Buffaloed. He comments on the root causes of the frustration felt by that deacon in Buffalo and lays the charge squarely at the feet of negligent pastors and weak bishops.

Babsnc of Daily Kos goes the way of the rest of the ultra-liberal elite. If you’re in a church or a member of a church please shut-up (ok, no please was said or intended, just shut-up). Only Babsnc and friends have rights, people of faith have none, Churches have none. See House Rep. Criticized by Deacon /During memorial mass/ for Yes Vote on Stem Cell Research. It appears, unbeknown to me, that the Founding Fathers intended that free speech rights only apply to some. We’re all equal on the farm, some are just more equal than others.

The writer concludes by making a plea for decency – if only that plea were made on behalf of innocent children.

The Society and politics Blog sticks a pin in Babsnc argument in Deacon calls out CINO*. The other pertinent quote taken from a commentator at The Cafeteria is Closed is:

WE NEED MORE PRIESTS LIKE THIS DEACON!

Of course, those neo-con Catholics who frequent sites like Cafeteria should understand that that would mean giving up the celibate priesthood… ooops.

*CINO = Catholic in name only

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Political

Blair and Catholics

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will not grant an exemption from compliance with ‘gay’ rights laws for faith based organizations who provide about 30% of the adoption services in Britain, often dealing with the most difficult to place children. From Ekklesia UK: Blair confirms that Catholic adoption agencies will not be able to discriminate.

The UK government has announced there will be no exemption from anti-discrimination laws for Catholic adoption agencies, but that they will get 21 months to prepare for change, which will make it illegal to discriminate against lesbian and gay people.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, himself a practicing Anglican married to a Catholic, called the outcome “a sensible compromise”. The Catholic Church in England and Wales said it was “deeply disappointed” that no exemption had been offered.

The 2006 Equality Act will face a vote in Parliament in February before coming into effect on 6 April 2007.

A spokesperson for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement told Ekklesia this evening that the decision looked like a —reasonable outcome overall—. Secular groups and the Liberal Democrats have said that the change period is too long.

It remains to be seen whether Catholic adoption agencies will eventually hand their service over to others in the voluntary sector. A similar thing has happened in the USA, after pressure from the Vatican.

Mr Blair commented: “There is no place in our society for discrimination. That’s why I support the right of gay couples to apply to adopt like any other couple. [This is why] there can be no exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies offering public funded services from regulations that prevent discrimination.”

No place for discrimination, except against people of faith, and faith based organizations, who abide by their Church’s teachings. See particularly Now, all our English liberties are becoming orphans by William Rees-Mogg in The Times:

The issue of the Roman Catholic adoption agencies, and their refusal to arrange adoptions for same-sex partnerships, I find altogether fascinating. It involves fundamental questions of liberty, of freedom of religion, of European law and of political philosophy. In our collapsing political society it may prove to be only one week’s wonder, but it is important to think it through.

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