Prayer Request - For the People on the Mainland

like our friend Moneybags who are really suffering due to the harsh weather. May God protect them.

Love this Blog - Ironic Catholic

Thanks to Ma Beck I visited this new blog...well new to me and I just found it to be very entertaining. I immediately subscribed to it. Go check out the post that lead me to it:

Worship Faux Pas and How to Avoid Them

Portrait of the Son as a Young Pro-lifer

I found this photo today. You can see it's at least 9 years old by the looks of Joey. He has accompanied my husband and me on virtually all of the Hawaii March for Life events since he was 5 years old. Children are never to young to stand up for life.

Statues - Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart

The photos do not do these statues justice.

These two statues used to be above the Altar's sides in our Church before the Church was renovated. I sure miss the statues.

Feast Day - St. Paul Miki and Companions

Holy card courtesy of Nagasaki Martyrs

The following is also from there:

Twenty-six missionaries and Japanese converts crucified together on 5 February 1597. They include:

Antony Deynan

Bonaventure of Miyako (Meaco) OFM Tertiary a Japanese native who became a Franciscan tertiary and catechist. (He may only have been beatified and isn't included in the group of 26 who were canonized).

Caius Francis OFM Tertiary, Japanese soldier who had only recently been baptized and received as a Franciscan tertiary. He insisted on being arrested with the friars.

Cosmas Takeya (Tachegia, Zaquira) OFM Tertiary, lay Franciscan from Owari, Japan, who served the Franciscan missionaries as interpreter and preached in Osaka.

Diego (James) Kisai (Kizayemon) SJ, a Japanese layman who was the temporal coadjutor of the Jesuits and a catechist in Osaka. Like John Gotto, he was admitted to the Society of Jesus while he was imprisoned, just before his death at age 64.

Francis Blanco

Francis Falename

Francis of Nagasaki

Francis of Saint Michael

Gabriel de Duisco

Gundisalvus Garcia

James Kisai

John Kisaka (Kimoia) OFM tertiary, Japanese silk-weaver, born at Miyako. He was baptized and received into the third order shortly before his crucifixion.

Joachim Sakakibara (Saccachibara) OFM Tertiary, Japanese lay cook (another source says the physician) for the Franciscans at Osaka, who also served as a catechist.

John Soan de Goto Jesuit, 19-year-old native Japanese who was admitted to the Jesuits in prison shortly before his martyrdom. Prior to that he was a temporal-coadjutor of the Society of Jesus and catechist at Osaka.

Leo Karasumaru (Carasuma) Korean; pagan priest prior to his conversion to Christianity. He was baptized by the Jesuits in Japan in 1589. He became the first Korean Franciscan tertiary and was the chief catechist for the friars. With him was crucified his brother Paul Ibaraki and their 12-year-old nephew Louis Ibaraki.

Louis Ibaraki (Ibarki) 12-year-old nephew of Paul Ibaraki and Leo Karasumaru, who served as acolyte for the Franciscans.

Martin Loynaz (de Aguirre) of the Ascension OFM, a native of Vergara near Pamplona, Spain. He studied in Alcala and became a Franciscan in 1586. He first worked as a missionary in Mexico, then Manila in the Philippines, and finally in Japan.

Matthias of Miyako OFM Tertiary, Japanese native, became a Franciscan tertiary.

Michael Cozaki Japanese catechist and hospital nurse to the Franciscan missionaries. He was martyred with his own son, Thomas.

Paul Miki

Paul Ibaraki (Yuanki, Yuaniqui) Franciscan teriary, brother of Leo Karasumaru and a lay tertiary, interpreter, and catechist.

Paul Suzuki OFM Tertiary, born 1563, a native of Owari, Japan, was baptized by the Jesuits in 1584, became a Franciscan tertiary, and was an outstanding catechist until he, too, was crucified near Nagasaki.

Peter Baptist

Peter Sukejiroo, Peter Sukejiro, Peter Xukexico OFM tertiary, Japanese Franciscan tertiary who served as a catechist, house servant, and sacristan to the Franciscan missionaries. He was sent by a Jesuit priest to help the prisoners, and was then arrested.

Philip de las Casas OFM

Philip of Jesus

Thomas Kozaki, Thomas Cozaki, Thomas Kasaki

15-year-old Japanese native, who served as acolyte and was martyred with his father, Michael.
Thomas Xico (Dauki) OFM Tertiary, a Japanese Franciscan tertiary, catechist, and interpreter to the missionaries.

Ventura
a Japanese layman from Miyako who was baptized by the Jesuits, gave up his Catholicism on the death of his father, and brought back to the Church by the Franciscans.
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For children: The Daughters of St. Paul have a lovely little page where they can learn more about these Catholic hereos:

Saint in the Spotlight

Washington Same-Sex Marriage Proponents: Require Heterosexual Couples to Have Kids or Face Annulment

Washington Same-Sex Marriage Proponents: Require Heterosexual Couples to Have Kids or Face Annulment

Monday, February 05, 2007

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Proponents of same-sex marriage have introduced a ballot measure that would require heterosexual couples to have a child within three years or have their marriages annulled.
The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance acknowledged on its Web site that the initiative was "absurd" but hoped the idea prompts "discussion about the many misguided assumptions" underlying a state Supreme Court ruling that upheld a ban on same-sex marriage.

The measure would require couples to prove they can have children to get a marriage license. Couples who do not have children within three years could have their marriages annulled.

Click title above for rest of article.

Everything is Paid For

Thank you Sue.

The following is a reflection from My Daily Eucharist

One time, during the celebration of Holy Mass in the Church of St. Paul at the Three Fountains in Rome, St. Bernard saw an unending stairway which went up to Heaven. Very many angels went up and down on it, carrying from Purgatory to Paradise the souls freed by the Sacrifice of Jesus, renewed by priests on the altars all over the world.

Thus, at the death of one of our relatives, let us take much more care about having celebrated, and assisting at, Holy Masses for him, rather than about the flowers, the dark clothes and the funeral procession...

There are recounted many apparitions of souls being purified in Purgatory who came to ask Padre Pio to offer Holy Mass for their intentions so that they would be able to leave Purgatory. One day he celebrated Holy Mass for the father of one of his fellow Franciscan brothers. At the end of the Holy Sacrifice, Padre Pio said to his brother, "This morning the soul of your father has entered into Heaven." The brother was very happy to hear that, yet he said to Padre Pio, "But, Father, my good father died thirty-two years ago." "My son," Padre Pio replied, "before God everything is paid for." And it is Holy Mass which obtains for us a price of infinite value: The Body and the Blood of Jesus, the "Immaculate Lamb." (Apoc. 5:12).

Jesus Our Eucharistic Love
Fr. Stefano Manelli, O.F.M. Conv., S.T.D.

Priesthood: A Most Precious Gift

Picture courtesy of RCF

The priest...is something transcendent:
Through baptism he brings souls to birth,
through the sacrament of penance he purifies them,
through communion he gives them our Lord's body as He himself did at the Last supper, and
at the deaths he helps them to appear before the Beloved by giving them...
Their final forgiveness and their supreme strength...
Every single day of his life, he does what Jesus did during His three years of ministry --
he teaches men to know love and serve their good Master.

What a vocation!

--Charles de Foucauld

from a letter to a young friend preparing for ordination, 1897

For Christ's Priests
Servants of the Paraclete
13270 Maple Drive
St. Louis, MO 63127

Saintly Quote

There is no love without hope,
no hope without love,
and neither hope nor love without faith.

--St. Augustine

Spotlight - The Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers

As you may know, I am currently declutter and organizing every drawer, closet, bookshelf in our home. I found a little book/booklet entitled Improve: Now is the Acceptable Time! distributed by the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers.

I was happy to find that they also have a website. I wrote the priest in charge of this organization for permission to post excerpts from the book. Although, I still have not had a response. I am going to start sharing some of the writings with you because it will be very helpful spiritually. Hopefully, Father grant the permission soon.

IMPROVE:

"If we could manage to eradicate one of our faults every year, how soon it would make perfect people of us." That's a power thought from the Imitation of Christ.

1. Let's abstain from sarcasm.

2. Let's abstain from impatience.

3. Let's abstain from envy.

4. Let's abstain from complaining.

5. Let's abstain from boasting.

6. Let's abstain from using foul language.

7. Let's abstain from laziness, both physical and spiritual.

8. Let's abstain from uncharitable remarks.

9. Let's abstain from speeding.

10. Let's abstain from drinking before driving.

"TO BE SORRY MEANS TO BE WILLING TO QUIT SINNING!"

11. Let's abstain from sinful dating patterns.

12. Let's abstain from criticizing.

13. Let's abstain from watching too much TV.

14. Let's abstain from over-eating and over-drinking.

15. Let's abstain from sinful birth control.

16. Let's abstain from being grouchy.

17. Let's abstain from drugs.

18. Let's abstain from self-abuse.

19. Let's abstain from excusing our faults.

20. Let's abstain from being temperamental.

21. Let's abstain from adultery.

22. Let's abstain from being selfish.

23. Let's abstain from smoking to excess.

24. Let's abstain from being hard to get a long with.

Page 1 of the booklet.