First Day in Lourdes...
After two hours the aeroplane landed, we came off the aeroplane. We then went on a coach to the hotel and ate dinner. I ate at the priests’ table and the priests called me Bishop Joshua. [On account of the fact that he was down as +Joshua after his parents on the guest list.] We went in the lift up to our room, it was on floor 7.
We went down and walked up to St. Gabriel’s chapel, I served with Thomas in Mass. The priest held the Body and Blood of Christ up. [He's properly catechised and ready for first communion, I think.]...
We went to Mass, I served with Thomas. After Mass, Thomas dropped his cassock and cotta down into a pit by mistake. We had to get a security man to get it out. Then we wrote our petitions and put them into the petition box in the Grotto. We said a goodbye prayer to Our Lady and it was time to get back on the coach to the airport.
A Franciscan and Jesuit were debating which order was the greatest. So, they decided to ask for a sign from God. This is what they received falling down from heaven:
My sons,Please stop bickering about such trivial matters,GOD, O.P.
What is similar about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders?
Well, they were both founded by Spaniards,
St. Dominic for the Dominicans, and St. Ignatius of Loyola for the Jesuits.
They were also both founded to combat heresy:
the Dominicans to fight the Albigensians, and the Jesuits to fight the Protestants.
What is different about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders?
Well, have you met any Albigensians lately?
IMMIGRATION
34. How would you like to see WA's population change?
35. Do you support the establishment of a detention facility at Northam for asylum seekers?
36. On race and multi-culturalism, do you think West Australians are generally:
37. Do you support or oppose the wearing of burqas (hijabs) that cover the face in public?
June 06, 2011
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Representative on Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Discrimination estimates that 105,000 Christians are martyred annually--one every five minutes.
“If these numbers are not cried out to the world, if this slaughter is not stopped, if it is not acknowledged that the persecution of Christians is the first worldwide emergency in the matter of violence and religious discrimination, the dialogue between religions will only produce beautiful conferences but no concrete results,” said Massimo Introvigne.
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| Power to the Women! |
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| *The real lyrics to that BoyGeorge Song |
"The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they're not always accurate."
There is a case to be made for spending some time with ugliness. Specifically, ugliness at Mass.
You really don’t have to seek it out. Unless you’re cloistered, sooner or later you will find yourself in a parish that just doesn’t get it — doesn’t get beauty, doesn’t want it, chases it out with a stick every Sunday.
...
The whole production, from the opening joke — I mean, the Introductory Rites — to the last hurrah — I mean, Final Blessing — will seem designed to irritate, to offend, and to cause you grief and pain. And you know what? This is your big opportunity. You can either clench your teeth, wrap your scapulars around your ears to block out the tambourines, and hightail it out of there as soon as you can . . .
Or you can think to yourself, “Christ is here. And if he can stand it, then so can I.”
Religious diversity does provide a problem for certain religions, like Christianity. Christianity teaches that Fod is all-loving and all-powerful, and yet he chose to reveal his saving truth by way of a human sacrifice in a remote corner of the Roman empire 2000 years ago, and will forever torture everyone who hasn't heard of this or can't believe it.Now to me, this seems like a grossly unfair claim. I cannot think of a single mainstream Christian denomination holds that God will "forever torture everyone who hasn't heard of this or can't believe it." Indeed, the true Christian denomination - namely Catholicism - does not hold that at all.
"Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery."63 Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.
“The one has great need and capacity to receive, the other great abundance and inclination to bestow. Nothing is more suited to indigence than affluence; and the kinder affluence is, the stronger its inclination to give. The more needy indigence is, the more eager it is to be satiated. The meeting then, of affluence and indigence is sweet and happy; and we could scarcely say which should enjoy the more contentment, abundance to be communicated, or deficiency to be filled, had not our Lord told us that it is a more blessed thing to give than to receive.”
