Third Sunday of Advent: December 11, 2016

Today, Sunday, December 11th, 2016 is

The Third Sunday of Advent in Christianity

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent in the Catholic and Christian Calendar. That means it is two weeks before Christmas Day. Today is called Gaudete Sunday ("Gaudete" means Rejoice in Latin). The official colour is rose and we always light that candle. As noted earlier, this is the earliest possible date for the third Sunday of Advent.

DIARY of a Catholic: I'm Not Really Feeling It...

Hey guys, just wanted to write a very personal entry today about how I'm feeling. As I've mentioned before, I sometimes feel angry. I think this stems from frustration which comes from various sources. I think I get frustrated from my workplace and just feeling like I can't make a good go at things. I would say that overall my enjoyment for my job is at about 20%. Sometimes it's okay, but sometimes it seems very boring and also annoying.

I work in customer service. I don't need to get into the exact details, but basically I deal with people in a serious area. They depend on the service we proide. I spend much of my time telling these people they do not qualify or they have not filled out the proper application or that the thing they need immediately will take a couple of weeks to receive by mail. I deal with a lot of upset and angry people.

On top of that, most of the calls I take are in French. Although I studied French in school from kindergarten to graduation, I had not spoken it for many years before I took this job. It was about 15 years since I had really spoken any French in school when I took this job. But I still indicated on the application that I was bilingual in French. I don't mind speaking to people in another language especially since I've been doing this job for almost 2 years now. But after a long day it becomes more and more difficult to speak in a foreign language in a continuous basis. On top of that, management is continually training me in new material. I do not have a deep interest in the material that they teach us and the subjects can be very tedious and boring. Then I am obliged to be an expert on these topics in French. In many cases I've never even heard most of the words that I am being asked to explain.

On top of my job I am also struggling very hard to have my own business which I find very difficult and I have not yet attained very much success in at all. In fact, very little.

Furthermore, I sometimes feel like there's no time in the day to work on the things I want to and then I'm always overwhelmed with so many things to do. I feel stressed out, overwhelmed and like I sometimes cannot cope. And that's the point of my diary entry today is to say that I'm feeling very frustrated and I would like for you to pray for me on this subject.

Sometimes I feel like things can be helpless because I feel like ultimately we do not have a lot of control over things that are happening to us. I sometimes wonder about the nature of God and how we do not have a lot of power and don't get a say on what happens to us or the world. I see a lot of people suffering in various ways and it's difficult to cope with it.

Anyway, I'm just being very real about some of the struggles that are happening and I wanted to throw it out there. Please feel free to write your own experiences in the comments section below and I look forward to hearing what people have to say. In the meantime, I'm going to say my daily Rosary now. So have a great day and God bless.

Jesus is NOT the Immaculate Conception!

Today is the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, but a common misconception is that this refers to the conception of Jesus Christ but it doesn't. It refers to the Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception in the womb of her mother St. Anne. Mary was preserved from the stain of original sin from the first moment of her conception so that she would be a fitting woman from which to be born the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

In some places, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation meaning you have to go to Mass as a Catholic just as if it were a Sunday. However, this is not the case in some places such as Canada.

To summarize: Happy Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception!

Happy feast day of St. Nicholas!!

Is Pope Francis Married?

Pope Francis is not and has never been married.

Pope Francis who was previously known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio before taking his papal name was never married. In fact, had he been, it is almost certain he would not have become pope. The Roman Catholic Church doesn't select priests from married men. There are exceptions from priests in Eastern rites or priests that are converts from other religions such as Anglicanism and Lutheranism.

It is said that Pope Francis had brief relationships with young ladies in his younger years. One came forth a couple of years ago named Amalia Damonte. From the looks of it, none of these relationships lasted very long and Pope Francis diligently prepared for the priesthood.

More info here.

Happy Second Sunday of Advent

Today, Sunday, December 4th, 2016 is

The Second Sunday of Advent in Christianity

Today is the Second Sunday of Advent in the Christian Calendar which is celebrated by Catholics and Protestants alike. This year is the earliest possible Advent season because Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year. If it falls on a Monday, it would be the latest possible Advent season.

The colour this week is again purple.

Article about Pope Francis I discovered is SHOCKING

I was looking up some information about Pope Francis and I came across this article that was written just after he became Pope. I wasn't even looking  for anything controversial just certain basic statistics about the current pontiff such as the day he became the Pope and things of that nature. That's when I came across this shocking article about the pope while he was still a cardinal known as Jorge Bergoglio. It basically talks about how the current pontiff doesn't really care much at all about Doctrine or rules or anything of that nature but instead speaks and very ambiguous terms so as to cause great confusion. This is how he was as Bishop, Archbishop, then Cardinal and how he continues to act even to this day. A real eye-opener I suggest you take a look at it:

View it here.

"I'm greatly concerned for a lot of the older people"

I came across a clip of Colonel Sanders believe it or not, and in the second half of the interview he talks about how he accepted Jesus as his Savior when he was 77 years old. He says he is somewhat concerned about older people, because he said they need to accept Jesus as their Savior as soon as possible. Right before this part, he mentions Catholics and has good things to say and he accepts that they are just as good Christians as anyone else. That's refreshing to hear. A lot of time there is a lot of division among denominations, so it's nice to hear conciliatory words, even if they were many decades ago. Of course, Catholics don't share the same interpretation, but you can gain some value from what he is saying here.

Interesting input from VERY IMPORTANT Vatican official

The head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, has issued his take on the "dubia" controversy and it's encouraging in my opinion.

He USED to like Pope Francis, then this happened...

There used to be a time when faithful Catholics could depend on their Pope. The main people they had to convince of the Catholic faith were non-Christians and they knew that whatever they said, if they were in good standing, would be backed up by the pontiff in Rome. But unlike ever before, many faithful Catholics have felt somewhat abandoned by the current pope.

As can be seen in this article, a Catholic writer has struggled to listen to what Pope Francis says and to abide by and do his best to follow it. But he's finding it more and more difficult every single day. Specifically he is talking about Pope Francis's recent statements about illicitly divorced and remarried Catholics. The question of whether or not they should receive communion has been made very ambiguous by the current pope. But the problem is that anytime anybody attempts to receive clarification about this very important issue, the pope responds by saying they're too caught up with the rules and that they are not being real Christians and so on. But all throughout the history of the Church great saints have asked specific questions and sought specific answers. Of course much of the time Catholic theologians have been ridiculed and mocked for entertaining very esoteric and unimportant topics and questions such as "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?". But the question of the moral status of people in irregular marriages is not something that is abstract or that does not concern or affect anybody.

Pope St. John Paul II addressed the question of Catholics who may have been immature in their faith who decided to divorce and remarry and whether or not they can receive communion. The former Pope acknowledged that these are difficult situations in many cases. For example, if a second marriage produces children and this family has been together for many years, the pope did not feel it would be a reasonable obligation to force this illicitly married couple to split up and go their separate ways. Rather, he said, that for the sake of the children the couple could remain together and live together so long as they were not in a conjugal relationship.

The difference here is that when the question of continuing a conjugal relationship comes up, the pope tries to sidestep answering it and has gone so far as to state that each case is individual and even sexually active couples could receive communion in certain circumstances. Naturally, people want to know what the certain circumstances are. And we know from experience that whenever a small exception is granted to a general rule in many places Catholic churches have been known to go way overboard in implementing the exception. For instance there is a dispensation that allows a person to choose to do a charitable act instead of abstaining from meat on Friday. But most Catholics do not even believe that abstinence from meat on Friday is in any way even suggested anymore let alone required unless they do something to substitute that action.

Another example is receiving communion on the tongue. 95% of Catholics receive communion in the hand and then they place it in their mouth. But even today receiving communion on the tongue is considered the norm and receiving in the hand is considered an exception yet as we can see clearly 95% of Catholics follow the exception rather than the rule. The same goes for altar girls. Alter girls were allowed as a very specific exception to the rule in one particular diocese I believe in the US. However despite the fact that they were a tiny exception in the overall grand scheme of things they have now become again the norm. Yet another example is extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Once again these are lay people who are given special permission in very finite and unusual circumstances to allow them to distribute communion instead of just the priest. However I would challenge anybody to find a single Church on any given Sunday where there are not a half-dozen or more lay people giving out communion.

My point with these multitude of examples is to show that anytime the Church grants even the tiniest of exceptions under the most specific of circumstances. in general. because of our fallen nature. people will abuse the exception to the point where it becomes the absolute norm. So it is with these teachings that are coming from Pope Francis. There are legitimate questions about what happens when a person and the couple is legitimately married contrary to the rules of the church that we believe come from Jesus Christ himself and whether they should be accepted to receive communion which presumes they are in the state of grace. This is a serious question and Pope Francis has not only not specified and clarified, he simply tells people to look elsewhere and to ask someone else and then he usually proceeds to, in some way, insult people who are even just searching for answers.

The funny part about it is that although Pope Francis is criticizing people's legalism - as he calls it - he does not hesitate to condemn in the strongest language certain pet peeves of his that he considers to be very grave. For instance he has called income inequality one of the greatest sins in the world. He has forcefully condemned people who talk about abortion and say that it is wrong. So it's not as if Pope Francis in general says don't be mean and don't say things that are harsh because he has no problem doing that himself.

I strongly recommend you read this article by a faithful Catholic who has tried and tried to the best of his possible ability to listen to Pope Francis and accept what he has to say but find it extraordinarily difficult.

Article here.

Feast Day of...

Prayer for Throat

St. Blaise is the Patron Saint of Throats. Pray to him if you have any ailment or issue of the throat. Also, if someone swallows a bone or similar object, say a prayer for St. Blaise's intercession.

Feast Day of...

Prayers against stroke or sudden death

St. Andrew Avellino is the patron saint of victims of stroke. He actually died while about to say Mass. He is invoked as a saint against sudden death. Pray to St. Andrew Avellino for anyone who has suffered a stroke or similar incident. Also pray to him to prevent these things.