Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Fr. Grace's Article

Fr. GraceLooks like we have a published writer here folks!

I was speaking with my dear mom this morning. She told me Fr. Grace's article (his conversion story) was published in the winter issue of Medjugorje Magazine. I believe the article is entitled I Heard Our Lady's Call.

Although, I have already had the privilege of reading Father's story ( he send it to me a few months ago), I look forward to reading it in print.

Congratulations Fr. Grace! Now, let's get to work on that book :-)

EWTN and Hawaii's Cable Company

Yesterday, our local paper reported that Oceanic Cable, a Time Warner company, would be carrying Logos, a new Gay and Lesbian channel. Since for the 14 years I have been living here, continuously asking them to carry EWTN, I was a little perturbed by this news. I sent Oceanic Cable an email and received the following response today: (The emphasis added is mine)
Aloha!

Thank you for your recent inquiry. We have attempted to carry the EWTN
channel and have honestly tried to negotiate a deal with them. But EWTN
is unwilling to pay for the necessary equipment to process their signal
and transmit it to us. Nor did they want to air on the airtime we have
available.

I too am stymied as to why a Catholic channel would be unwilling to make
this investment to reach their congregation, especially considering the
Catholic Church is the wealthiest and largest church in the world.

The new channels that we do add, including the gay and lesbian Logo
network and other protestant religious channels have all made the
necessary investment in equipment necessary to create and broadcast
their channels to us. As to why EWTN refuses to do the things every
other channel has to do is beyond me. Only EWTN can answer these
questions.

Thank You for being an Oceanic Time Warner Cable Customer!

If you have any further questions, please feel free to e-mail us again
or contact our Customer Care Department at 643-2100. When replying to
this e-mail, please include this message as well as all previous
correspondence regarding this issue.


Thank you,
Nick S.
Oceanic Time Warner Cable
643-2100

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------


Contact Us
***************************************

Comment: We are long time customers of both the cable and internet. For
many years we have been requesting the EWTN Channel Eternal Word
Television Network. For many years, Oceanic Cable has given us
different excuses why they cannot carry it. Today I find out that OC
will be carrying a new Gay and Lesbian Channel and frankly I am very
unhappy. The reason is not because I do not believe Gays shouldn't have
their own channel but because every other type of channel, including
Protestant channels, take preference over a leading and very popular
Catholic Channel.
Although, it would hurt my family somewhat, I am really considering
unsubscribing to both the cable and internet through OC.
I would appreciate a response.
Thank you,
Esther Gefroh
I did response briefly to their little comment about the Church being the wealthiest church...and that they probably wanted to relegate EWTN to some obscure time. More importantly, I emailed a copy to EWTN asking them to respond directly to Oceanic Cable.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Their Last Stop...But At Least They're Coming...The Police

Wow, I can't believe it!! The Police are going to Hawaii on February 16th!

Article from the Honolulu Advertiser

I saw them in concert in Atlantic City when I was 21. These guys were terrific! I know most all the girls had a thing for Sting. But for me it was the drummer Stewart Copeland.

Now there are two things keeping me from immediately buying tickets on Saturday:

1) Convincing my DH that they are worth the prices they are charging to see a bunch of middle-age rockers :-). Tickets will be $225, $95 and $75 x 3 and

2) The start of Lent next year.

Synchronicity II

Advent Preparation

Annunciation
Advent

The word Advent derives from the Latin word meaning coming. The Lord is coming. We may reflect that every year at this time we celebrate his coming , so that in a sense we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been robbed of much of the true meaning of this season.

During Advent we recall the history of God's people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This gives us a background for the present. Today we can reflect on the past track record of God and so begin to understand what it means to us now for the sake of what is to come, in our own future and that of our world.

© Liguori Publications Excerpt from Advent - A Quality Storecupboard The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Catholic Online
Well, my favorite liturgical season will soon be here. Yes, Advent! The other day on the phone my mom asked me if I had decorated our home for Christmas. She reminded me that it was my habit of decorating the day after Thanksgiving. I cringed when my mom reminded me of how ignorant I was about our Faith. For years, I completely overlooked the season of Advent.

For a few years now, my family here in Hawaii and I have been observing and trying to get the most out of Advent as a way of rectifying our past ignorance.

There are many things we plan on doing starting on Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent:

1. Advent Candles and Wreath - Usually these two are combined. The Advent candles have already been bought and they were blessed yesterday. I hope to be able to obtain an evergreen wreath before Sunday. If not, we will make do without. Living in Hawaii makes it difficult to have the fresh pine branches available for the picking.

2. Advent Calendar - Our large wooden Advent Calendar with the little drawers is ready to be placed somewhere in the living room area. Usually, I write out little sacrifices and mortifications for each day of Advent. This year that duty has been delegated to our dear son and the whole family will be opening the little drawers this year. In the past, it was just him. Of course, I have a feeling that the treats that fill each drawer will still be my responsibility.

3. Nightly Rosary will continue as well as reading from the Magnificat Advent Companion. This has been a tradition since our parish has been good enough to provide these little treasures of a booklet for us each year.

4. A Family Retreat with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen - After the above rosary and readings, we will be sitting down to watch one of the lectures by Archbishop Sheen. The following is from the back of the DVD:
A Family Retreat: One of his best retreats, preached before a live audience in a church toward the end of Archbishop Sheen's active life. The church was filled with people of all ages; young children, teenagers, and their parents. In this moving presentation, the Archbishop speaks about topics that apply to everyone: Mass, Confession, Youth & Sex, the Devil, Making the Right Choice, Suffering, True Love, and many more..." We saw this at Pauline Books and Media on Saturday and we all agreed it would add to our Advent exercises.
5. Empty Manger - Usually we remove the babe from our Nativity set. This year will remove the new babe we also purchases at the Daughters of St. Paul's Book store. It has the most angelic face I have seen on a baby Jesus in a long time!

6. St. Nicholas Day - My son and I will also be celebrating St. Nicholas' Day with friends from our old Catholic Homeschooling group.

7. Feast Days - Of course, there are special days like the one above but also the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe, etc.

As you can see, we will be very busy this Advent Season. I just hope I remember to prepare for Christmas!

The following is a video I prepared for Advent. I hope you like.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Solemnity of Christ the King

Christi Rex

Christ's reign will last until all his enemies are made subject to him - 1 Corinthians 15:25

The Lord says to my lord:
"Sit at my right hand,
till I make your enemies your footstool."
The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your foes!
Your people will offer themselves freely
on the day you lead your host upon the holy mountains.
From the womb of the morning
like dew your youth will come to you.
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,
"You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."
The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will drink from the brook by the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.
Psalm 110: 1-5, 7 (RSV)

Source: Christ the King Sunday Prayers and New Saint Joseph People's Prayer Book, Catholic Book Publishing.

St. Pius XI and Christ the King

Christ the King

Our pastor gave a very moving homily on today's feast day. One thing he talked about was Pope Pius XI and the Feast of Christ the King.
If We ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects society. We refer to the plague of anti-clericalism, its errors and impious activities. This evil spirit, as you are well aware, Venerable Brethren, has not come into being in one day; it has long lurked beneath the surface... We firmly hope, however, that the feast of the Kingship of Christ, which in future will be yearly observed, may hasten the return of society to our loving Savior.
QUAS PRIMAS (On the Feast of Christ the King)

For that Hard to Shop For Catholic on Your List

Pope's Cologne
H/T to Denise

PRIVATE FORMULA POPE PIUS IX

"...aristocratic, Old World cologne with suprising freshness..."

Saintly Quote - Blessed Miguel Pro

Christ the King
Shared by Sue of Half the Kingdom
Does our life become from day to day more painful, more oppressive, more replete with sufferings? Blessed be He a thousand times who desires it so. If life be harder, love makes it also stronger, and only this love, grounded on suffering, can carry the Cross of my Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Blessed Miguel Agustin Pro (1891-1927) - Martyred in Mexico

Llega su vida a ser de día a día más dolorosa, más opresiva, más repleta de sufrimientos? Bendito es él mil veces quien desea eso. Si la vida es más dura, el amor la hace más fuerte también, y sólo este amor, basado en sufrimientos, puede cargar la Cruz de mi Señor Jesucristo.

The Gift That Never Fades...A Spiritual Bouquet

bouquet
Shared by Sue of Half the Kingdom
Anne Marie was one of those people who truly lived the commitment and calling of being Christ's follower. She had raised her family and kept a home by dint of sacrifice. As she edged into her retirement years, they fully reflected a life of faith. Even with health challenges of her own, including cancer, she attended to the forgotten among us, with regular visits to those in need - the hungry, those in hospitals as well as nursing homes.

Her get-well cards for those she knew well and loved with a Christian heart were starling. They were homemade spiritual bouquets.

"I have remembered you:
in 9 Masses
in the reception of Eucharist 9 times
in 9 rosaries
in the Way of the Cross 9 times
in Eucharistic Adoration 9 times
and offered them for your intentions"

and so on. Each unique. And each, life-giving.

"I was a girl in Catholic school the last time I experienced anything like this" one elderly woman exclaimed. She had experienced wave after wave of disabling illnesses. And that little card and greeting said so much to her. She was not alone but part of a larger body - the Body of Christ. Held before the Lord in prayer (reminding her that she was, of course, held gently and lovingly by her heavenly Father at all times.)

A wonderful gift. Thoughtful and steeping in reality as much as any gift could be.

Advent is a wonderful time to revive your own experience of the spiritual bouquet. You learn the needs of others in a myriad of ways; arrange the "bouquet" in the way best suited to the gift recipient.

Fill it with spiritual gifts offered throughout the Advent season. Embellish it with real or silk flowers, perhaps presented in a small basket, gathered in the festive cellophane wrapping used for artsy gifts and baskets.

Give a Spiritual Bouquet to your parents, if you are privileged to have them with you still. Remember a sick or shut-in friend with a Bouquet. And give them liberally to the young. Their questions, their sense of wonder will grow as a learning experience in faith, as they unwrap your spiritual gift.

And invite the children in your family to create their own Spiritual Bouquets at Christmas - wonderful gifts for parents and grandparents. They will delight in your instruction, in sharing a project with you.

The Spiritual Bouquet will make this a memorable Advent and Christmas for you and your family.
Author Unknown

A few years ago, we were celebrating Fr. Schmidt's birthday. He was a Maryknoll priest who celebrated Mass for our group of Catholic Homeschoolers. One mom had the idea of presenting him with a bouquet of flowers on which we pinned the spiritual bouquet would be offer for him. It has now been over 5 years and I still remember to pray for Fr. Schmidt what I had offered as a Spiritual Bouquet. Since then I have given Spiritual Bouquets to our parents, Fr. Duffy and our Holy Father John Paul II. When he went home to God, Pope Benedict XVI inherited that daily Hail Mary meant for him.

Unity With the Clergy

Mother Angelica
"You need to be united to your parish priest, and I don't care who he is, what he is, what he does, or what he doesn't do. I've had people say, 'Oh, but if you lived under my pastor, you wouldn't say that.' Do you ever think what a sick heart he has? How lonely he is? What suffering he might have had in his life that made him what he is?

Then you gripe about the bishops. Do you ever realize the terrible responsibility of being a bishop? And no matter what you do, somebody is unhappy with you. You can't stand criticism on a little level; can you imagine what they endure? You need to develop a spirit of compassion so deep that it embraces the whole world. Laity and clergy must be united in spirit for the greater glory of God."
From Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality edited by Raymond Arroyo and published by Doubleday.