This week: 7 year old Rhema Marvanne sings Amazing Grace. Father Barron comments on leaving the Church. Dominicans have their playful side. UN climate delegates jump on almost any far left proposal. Just for public schools – The 12 Days of Winter. The nativity explained for the under-25 crowd. A thoughtful quote of the week.

— 1 —

Rhema Marvanne‘s mom died of ovarian cancer when she was only 6. Now as a grown-up 7 year old, she has become a popular Christian singer. Here she sings Amazing Grace:

— 2 —

The Catholic church is full of sinners! The institutional Church makes mistakes! Most importantly (and the real point for many), teaches morality where some prefer “tolerance.” There are many churches and faiths to choose from, should they leave? Father Barron explains:

— 3 —

Religious orders are serious 24×7. They have no fun. Or do they?

Thanks to Mark Shea on this one.

— 4 —

In my last Quick Takes, I wrote about the hard-working UN delegates at the “Climate Change Conference” in Cancun. Some college students dropped by to get signatures on some petitions:

1. a petition calling for the destabilization of the US economy
2. a petition to ban water as harmful to the environment

The delegates (much smarter than us) were happy to sign their names to these efforts. Is there really any point to the UN (other than bashing and otherwise harming the US)?

— 5 —

Since public schools in many areas can no longer reflect anything Christian (every other religion, especially Islam, but not Christian), new “holiday” music is needed. Here is The 12 Days of Winter:

Thanks to Matthew Archbold at Creative Minority Report.

— 6 —

Say you are under 25 and looking for a good way to explain The Nativity of Our Lord. This might do the trick:

I chuckled at the the Google directions part where the “Avoid Romans” box was checked. Thanks to Marcel at Aggie Catholics for finding this.

— 7 —

This week’s quote:

Life is a wonderful gift, but we surely do make a mess of it. We let our fears shut us down and freeze us in place. We let our desires for what we don’t need or shouldn’t have take us down roads we shouldn’t travel. We harm our bodies, damage our spirits, and shorten our lives with too much or too little of too many things.

We use, control, envy, ridicule, and betray our friends. We wound hearts and trample spirits ” and never notice it. We lie to ourselves, lose our way, leave half our gifts unclaimed, and spend our days on dead-end streets. And we do it all, again and again, in the sure and certain belief that happiness will be ours forthwith.

We need help! Without it we’ll destroy this wonderful gift of life! That’s why God sent Jesus: to walk with us and work with us as a mentor and friend, to show us what a fully human life looks like, and to give us the desire and the power to make such a life for ourselves.

But if that is to happen, if Jesus is to be a true mentor for us, we have to get to know Him, not just on the outside, but on the inside. We need to discover how He sees the world and all of us. We need to figure out why He was such a happy man, even on the bad days. And we need to find out what He was thinking when He chose not to run away when He knew that holding to course would lead to the Cross.

Getting to know Jesus, up close and personal, is the most urgent project of our entire lives. It will make the difference between destroying ourselves and finding happiness that will last forever. There’s not a moment to lose: Get to know Him now. Let Him be your mentor. He’ll save your life! That’s what He came to do.

Monsignor Dennis Clark

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Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

This week: Advent is a time to slow down, think, reflect. Stretching beyond your limits, even if you are only 16. The UN throws a big party to announce rationing. Leaked cables disclose US dirty tricks to support climategate. An Austrian MP and devout Catholic, responds to the Turkish ambassador on Islam. A quote of the week and more.

— 1 —

Advent. Slow down. (Thanks to Deacon Greg)

(This video is no longer available.)

— 2 —

You are a 16 year old star runner from a small private high school and have made it to the state championship. You recently learned that your coach, who gave you so much, has been stricken with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Heartbroken, you dedicate the race to him and are doing well, in 3rd place at the 2.5-mile mark only 6/10 of a mile from the finish. Everything is going great, you have a shot, your coach will be proud.

Suddenly your legs begin weakening, then pain slows you. You fall behind but force yourself to push on. Only yards from the finish line you collapse reaching for the line as you fall, the race is over for you as an officials rush help. This is Holland Reynolds:

The news report is online here. Thanks to Matthew Archbold at Creative Minority Report for finding this story.

— 3 —

The communists err, the green party, actually the global warming crowd, make that the climate change forecasters…   let’s just say, the people smarter than us, got together for a big, expensive, environmentally damaging party conference the end of November. They powerfully made the point that we must begin rationing:

¡Aye Carumba! Thanks to Mark Shea for finding this.

— 4 —

Continuing on the topic of the climate, the current US administration can not trust that other sovereign nations are as enlightened as they. To make them “do the right thing,” we resort to blackmail, giving and/or removing financial aid, spying and various other dirty tricks. The recent WikiLeaks cables give details on this part of the ever-unfolding climategate. It’s a great time to be an elite in America.

— 5 —

A good catch from Father Z. Austrian MP Ewald Stadler, a devout Catholic, has had it with two-faced Islamists and isn’t going to take it anymore.

— 6 —

The quote of the week:

You should pray for half an hour a day, unless you are very busy. If you are busy, you should pray for an hour.

St. Francis de Sales

— 7 —

Elizabeth Esther kindly hosts a feature she calls The Saturday Evening Blog Post. Published monthly every first Saturday, it features the best post in the preceding month on each of a few dozen Christian blogs. The “best” entries are chosen by the authors themselves (so they should know!).

It is a great way to discover new blogs. Be sure to check-it out. My entry for last month was the Excellent shepherds.

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Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Without further ado:

— 1 —

One thing that makes Catholicism seem “weird” to many is our veneration (not worship!) of Mary. When Bible verses are taken in context, when they are read with an understanding of Sacred Scripture in its entirety, and when consideration is given to the original intended audience…   Mary’s soul truly glorifies Our Lord. (I recommend watching this video “full screen” – click the icon with 4 arrows on the lower right.)

I first saw this on Jen’s blog in October. There are a lot of good follow-up comments on it there.

— 2 —

Marcel (Aggie Catholics) highlighted this from our Holy Father’s recent speech to young people in America:

What purpose has a “freedom” which, in disregarding truth, pursues what is false or wrong? How many young people have been offered a hand which in the name of freedom or experience has led them to addiction, to moral or intellectual confusion, to hurt, to a loss of self-respect, even to despair and so tragically and sadly to the taking of their own life? Dear friends, truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust. In seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ. That is why authentic freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in; nothing less than letting go of self and allowing oneself to be drawn into Christ’s very being for others.

— 3 —

T-Mobile has been doing a series of “flash mob” style ads in the UK. I am not sure what to make of them, but they sure are interesting. For example:

— 4 —

Parents, are you raising a large family? If so, you should be ashamed of yourselves for the strain your kids place upon society and the environment. You are guilty of littering, says Rutgers University Professor Helen Fisher, of the Center for Human Evolution Studies.

People, not children of God but litter. This is the thinking of the enlightened left. Pat Archbold covers this story over at the National Catholic Register, including a video from CNN (a/k/a Communist News Network).

— 5 —

Simply too cute (and a counterpoint to #4) not to include:

— 6 —

Kristy at dreams waking up uncovered this gem:

Your bid — for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity – will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high.

C. S. Lewis

— 7 —

Quote of the week:

Anyone who is so “progressive” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.

2 John 1:9

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Without further ado:

— 1 —

Same sex marriage: why not? Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse gives a calm, reasoned defense of traditional marriage:

Be sure to also view parts two, three and four.

— 2 —

When was the Church that Jesus founded first called the Catholic Church? Apologist Jimmy Akin explains:

— 3 —

Charles Rice (Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame Law School) recently addressed the national meeting of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. In it, he sadly notes how history repeats itself:

For a comparable example of the rapid concentration of executive power by a legally installed regime, we have to look to Germany in 1933. Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor on January 30. He consolidated his power over the next few weeks. The decisive event was the Reichstag’s approval of the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933, by which it ceded full and irrevocable powers to Hitler. That was the point of no return. The Enabling Act received the needed two-thirds vote only because it was supported by the Catholic party, the Centre Party.

The entire article is excellent: The Catholic Church in the Obama Era.

— 4 —

A simple, honest presentation of the facts on abortion support built-in to ObamaCare and why his related “executive order” is impotent:

— 5 —

The “holy city of Rome” or “the holy Vatican City” are respectful references that you never hear in the mainstream press. Ever. Yet…   they step all over themselves every time they refer to a Muslim holy place. Why is that? To the MSM, Islam and all it holds holy is worthy of deep respect while that of Christianity is properly desecrated in the name of “art.” Father Z noticed the disparity of holy places.

— 6 —

Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D) leads the House of Representatives in the pledge of Allegiance. Notice anything missing?

— 7 —

Elizabeth Esther kindly hosts a feature she calls The Saturday Evening Blog Post. Published monthly every first Saturday, it features the best post in the preceding month on each of a few dozen Christian blogs. The “best” entries are chosen by the authors themselves (so they should know!).

It is a great way to discover new blogs. Be sure to check-it out. My entry for last month was the Planned Parenthood.

This is a special edition of 7 Quick Takes Friday. This is NOT a political blog. There is, however, an important US mid-term election next Tuesday with repercussions important to faithful Catholics.

This format was launched by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary. Some Fridays I participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. In this special case, the items are all related.

— 1 —

Catholics have a moral obligation to vote and to do so with a well formed conscience:

Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country…

CCC 240

…The Council exhorted Christians to fulfill their duties faithfully in the spirit of the Gospel. It is a mistake to think that, because we have here no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come, we are entitled to shirk our earthly responsibilities; this is to forget that by our faith we are bound all the more to fulfill these responsibilities…

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation…

USCCB

The EWTN Guide to Catholic Teaching and Voting is very good. The Most Rev. Raymond (Cardinal-designate) Burke (Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis) also published guidance on the obligation to vote properly. Finally, CatholicVote.org is quite informative. Update: see also Marcel’s An Open Letter To Politicians.

My list (consistent with the above) of areas in the US election next week that should be of particular concern to faithful Catholic voters include:

1. Life issues, especially abortion – pro-abortion candidates support an intrinsic evil through their votes. There is no valid justification for any faithful Catholic to vote for a pro-abortion candidate over a pro-life one.
2. Homosexual “marriage” – is an attack on the family, harmful to society and harmful to Catholics who are necessarily part of that society. It is seriously misguided to believe that the normalization of the grave sins embodied in homosexual acts do not affect you and your family. There is no God given right to such sinful unions. Opposing sinful behavior is never discrimination.
3. Slipping into socialism – an attack on true Catholic social justice beliefs. Saints and popes have warned us of the evil inherent in this political philosophy.

Your vote is powerful and desperately needed. There is no charge. You can make a difference, but not if you sit on the sidelines. Please vote!

— 2 —

The Catholic “five non-negotiables” briefly explained by Tim Staples:

— 3 —

Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama speak on socialism and nationalized healthcare:

— 4 —

Not Democrat. Not Republican. American, the last best hope:

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As Catholics, we hate it when non-Catholics tell us (incorrectly) what we believe. We also hate it when we see our faith distorted then attacked by the “press.” No matter what your political views, we at least share a lot with the “tea party” in suffering those same problems. Bill Whittle explains what the tea party actually believes and – very importantly – why. You might be surprised:

Bill continues with a very good defense of the Catholic doctrine of subsidiarity (herein discussed as “elitism” for a wider audience):

Bill concludes his excellent primer by explaining the very, very basics of microeconomics:

— 6 —

The secular mainstream media (MSM), never friends of Catholics BTW, is in a panic. It would appear that despite their best efforts, many American voters are discovering the truth anyway and thinking for themselves. Andrew Klavan explains their frustration:

— 7 —

Next Tuesday we have a choice. Elections have consequences and when the polls close, we must live with ours.

…this choice:

…or this choice:

Choose wisely. Vote Catholic.

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