"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.

One of the big problems that I struggle with a lot is anger. I'm just going to put it right out there and just tell people and not shy away from it because anger is something that I deal with frequently. And I think that there are really many different forms of anger and anger which comes from different sources. Some forms of anger are very negative in that you're angry at other people you're angry at people you are interacting with and you have a sort of hatred and meanness towards those people. I find this happens with me a lot if I'm driving and somebody gets in my way or goes too slow or something of that nature and I will become very angry and upset at that person it causes me a lot of anger even long after that person is gone and is no longer causing any problems and so on. But the anger sort of lingers and sometimes can build up.

 On the other hand sometimes anger can come from Fear or worry. This is a little bit strange when you think about it but it's just as real. So for instance sometimes I might have a nightmare 4 things might be coming up that upset me or worry me and then I will become angry angry at the world angry at all kinds of different things and this is a different form of anger. So I'm not angry at a particular person as such but I'm angry at the situation.

 I feel like another form of anger come from just things that happen in life. One example for me would be that sometimes I get up in the morning and I'm very very tired and I just think about the fact that I have to go to a job that I really don't want to go to and I just feel like I have no time to do anything and I don't have time to get ready in the morning and I feel rushed and I feel panicked and I feel angry that I have to even do this and I feel tired and perhaps sore and various things like that and so I get very upset and angry and sometimes I find myself when I'm driving to work I will be very angry very very angry at various things and so on.

 Now that I have sort of given an outline of events and times that caused me to become angry I think it's important to realize that ultimately anger is more harmful and hurtful to yourself than to anybody else. The sages and wise sayings in our tradition have to find anger as an inordinate desire for vengeance. And while I think this is true how anger can sometimes extend to inanimate objects ideas Concepts as well as towards people. But ultimately it creates a lack of control over our lives we feel powerless helpless and we feel frustration and we're not effective. And many people believe that the way to get over anger is to express it is to let it out. But this is absolutely not true in fact the more you let out your anger the more likely you will resort to anger the next time something comes up because you're not training yourself to avoid becoming angry and you are not creating yourself on techniques to mitigate and lessen the anger and produce calm.  You are much better off establishing ways of calming yourself and training your body to react calmly to various stimuli in your life because that way you train yourself just like an athlete trains him or herself to become adaptable to various circumstances.

 So I feel like my goal right now his to practice calmness and tranquility so that rather than escalating the beginnings of anger and the beginnings of frustration instead turn them the other way I go down the other path so that ultimately that's better for me because I feel better and happier and more at peace and more, because that's one of the things that I pray for and try to achieve. Again if you want to add your own comments or if you have any of your own experiences with anger please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Happy First Sunday of Advent!!

Today, Sunday, November 27th, 2016 is

The First Sunday of Advent in Christianity

This is very unique in that it is the earliest possible day for Advent in any given year in the Catholic Church and for Christianity in general. That's because it's on a Sunday and because of that the fourth Sunday of Advent is a Sunday and the following week is Christmas day. Normally if it was another day of the week, the Christmas Day would be just the following Sunday. Since the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day cannot be on the same day, it is therefore the longest possible time in between.

The latest day possible for the first Sunday of Advent is December 3rd. Incidentally that's when it is next year! So this year it is the earliest possible Advent and next year it's the latest possible advent.

The rest of the Sundays of Advent are as follows:
1st Sunday of Advent 2016: November 27, 2016
2nd Sunday of Advent 2016: December 4, 2016
3rd Sunday of Advent 2016: December 11, 2016
4th Sunday of Advent 2016: December 18, 2016
Christmas Day: December 25, 2016

Prayers for Skin Disease

St. Anthony of the Desert was really the first monk in Christianity. Pray for his intercession if you or someone you know is suffering from a skin disease, whether it's skin cancer, rashes, or any other disease of the skin.

What I Think About Castro's DEATH

So this morning I woke up and I found out that Fidel Castro had died. He was 90 old. Now of course when anybody dies as a specific event it's something that is sad in many ways for their friends and family and so on. But I think it's also important not to whitewash somebody's real Legacy just because they have passed away and in fact this is a good time to bring up some of the negative effects that this person has had during their lifetime. Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90 but throughout many decades of his rule in Cuba he had people tortured and killed in the thousands and he did not accept anybody who would disagree with him.

So although we can say it's always sad that somebody dies, we need to keep in perspective all of the evil atrocities that were committed by this ruthless dictator in the name of an ideology that we have seen fail over and over again. The Catholic Church always uphold people's right to self-determination to freedom to privacy to all of these lofty values. But Fidel Castro felt that none of these were important because what mattered the most was his full and utter control over the populace at all times.

In the United States, especially in places like Miami, there are huge Cuban communities and these communities represent thousands of people that fled the dictator Fidel Castro. There's not a single person that attempted to flee the United States and risk their lives to go live in Cuba. No matter how much Michael Moore tries to say that Cuba is such an amazing place, in reality almost everybody who lives there is in absolute and complete squalor. The only places where there is any form of prosperity or peace or joy whatsoever are in the tiny areas of Freedom that are allowed by this oppressive government. Certain restaurants and taxi cabs are private in Cuba and they can accept real money and they can accept tips and so on and these are some of the few places in the entire country where people can actually afford to make a living.

Some people even go so far as to make it sound like Fidel Castro was a friend of religious people because he was so generous that he even let religious people into the Communist Party well Whoopty Doo. He was no friend of religion, he was no friend of the values of religion. He was an enemy of our religion, of his baptismal religion. So although it could have been worse in terms of religious freedom there it certainly wasn't very good in any way shape or form and Fidel Castro considered himself an atheist. My only hope in Fidel's case is that before he passed away that he made right with God and that he sought forgiveness for his sins and that he ends up on the right side of Eternity.

Diary of a Catholic: Praying the Rosary

So I will now continue my story about being Catholic and I think instead of making this sort of a specific diary as such I will touch on various things various subjects and sort of continue on with those. One of the things that I started about a year-and-a-half ago I think around July 2015 was to say the Rosary every single day no matter what. And a lot of people will question something like this because they will say well what if life gets busy what if things happen what if things come up. But I can guarantee you that you will always have 20 to 30 minutes per day to say the rosary if ever you need to. And in fact I have never had a day where I was not able to say the rosary I think very close to the beginning I missed one maybe two days or I didn't say it.

 But I think saying the rosary every single day is very important for many reasons. First of all it's important because it's a way of connecting with God and remembering the things that you are trying to accomplish in life period during every Rosary I like to offer my intentions and there's certain ones that I say every day such as certain prayers for people that I want to remain healthy who have had medical situations and so on but also certain personal struggles things about my future about my future spouse and so on. So there's all kinds of attention that you can bring up in things that you can remember and bring to God especially your fears concerns and anxieties and so on. The other reason that you have to say the Rosary every single day is because if you don't if you miss a day or two here and there eventually you miss 3 days then 4 days and so on until eventually you're missing weeks and then you'll go maybe a month without saying the rosary and then you'll remember and maybe you won't go back. In fact similar logic to this is the reason that it's a great idea to go to mass every single Sunday as opposed to once in awhile because once in a while eventually becomes once every couple of months which eventually becomes once per year.

 So I say the Rosary every single day and each day has its own set of mysteries. Let me just briefly explain so we'll start the week with Sunday. Sundays and Wednesdays are the Glorious Mysteries. These are the Mysteries where we contemplate Jesus rising from the dead and Mary being assumed into Heaven by God Body and Soul into heaven we remember the Holy Spirit which descended upon the apostles and gave them the courage to spread the gospel. And so this is really the meaning behind The Glorious Mysteries. Then we have fun Monday and Saturday the Joyful Mysteries. So these are not the same as glorious mysteries but they are joyful and so the mystery Zone the Annunciation where Mary is told by the angel that she will bear the son of God then we have the visitation where Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth who will give birth to John the Baptist. Then we have the birth of Jesus Christ. Then we have Mary bringing Jesus to the temple where there is the presentation of Jesus. And then finally we have Jesus being found in the temple later in his life when he's around 12 years old. Then on Tuesdays and Fridays we recite the horrible Mysteries which means these are the Mysteries where Jesus suffered and died on the cross and these are really in line and congruent to The Passion of Christ. So these we contemplate Jesus's suffering his Agony in the garden his scourging at the pillar his crown of thorns carrying the cross and finally being crucified and died on the cross. So these Mysteries are said on Tuesdays and Fridays and finally we have the Luminous Mysteries which are said on Thursdays. These Mysteries were pioneered by Pope John Paul II probably about 30 years ago and these celebrated various times during the life of Jesus Christ. So for example some of the Luminous Mysteries include Jesus being baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, the wedding Feast of Cana, the proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, and the institution of the Eucharist. These of course are extraordinarily important events in the history of Christianity in it and in Christ's life so they're very important to pray about.

 So overall sometimes I have certain struggles when trying to pray the rosary everyday. We can be distracted by various things we can find it difficult to meditate upon the rosary we find our mind wandering. But this isn't something that we need to panic about or worry about or be very afraid about because at least you're trying and personally I find that even though in my life I sometimes struggle with issues of anger and frustration I find that while I'm actually saying the rosary on cob and that piece even if my mind sometimes wonders I don't get angry and frustrated like I do in everyday life sometimes. So I think it can be extremely beneficial in many ways not to mention the fact that we connect with and become closer with God.

 So I would encourage anybody to pick up the habit of saying the rosary as much as possible . At first it may seem difficult to do but if you stick with it eventually it becomes a habit and it's certainly a good habit to acquire. A good way to think about it is that the length of time it takes to say the rosary is almost exactly as long as a half hour television show is without commercials so really it takes about 20 to 23 minutes and if you have any questions or concerns then please by all means put them in the comments section below and I will get back to you about it. Thank you and God bless and have a good day.

Pope Benedict's New Book: Last Testament

Pope Benedict has published another book - one which is deeply personal.