"Not by bread alone"

We "rejoice always" in the Lord, especially on Gaudete Sunday. A little Gingerbread helps with that. The cookies pictured are decorated by my niece Colleen. Have a blessed Gaudete Sunday everyone!

Benedict Gaudete Sunday: "Rejoice in the Lord!": Restoration of the Lord's Day covenant is the key to a joyful Faith

"The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song."

Isaiah's prophecy on this Gaudete, or Rejoice, Sunday comes with a promise: those who live as if in dry and arid places will see an end to their privation and will have the flowering of life for which they long. And they shall rejoice. Their exultation will be true rejoicing because it will never be taken away and therefore not tinged with any worldly care or limitation. When God gives He gives everything and His gifts are without beginning or end. If we want authentic happiness, a sure source of unending joy, then we must seek it in God as Isaiah invites us to do.

The pause that Advent and Christmas bring, and to which we look forward in joyful anticipation, lift our minds and hearts because they demand something from us: we put aside much of the business in life and focus on things that last: God's total self-giving through Jesus Christ come in the flesh and the faith in Him which we share within our families at home and in the Church. How can we live this Faith always? Must Christmas joy come only once a year?

For full text of Sunday homily visit Meeting Christ in the Liturgy through this link.

Benedict: Missa Cantata for the Immaculate Conception

On the occasion of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception the parish of Saint Francis de Sales celebrated a Missa Cantata, or sung Mass, with the assistance of, from left to right, Sid Marcus, John Kay, George Walter, Father Cusick, Second Lieutenant Andrew Cole, USMC, Kevin Thompson and Steve Karstetter, leader of the schola cantorum.

The sung Mass was followed by adoration for the National Night of Prayer for Life until 1 am on the feast of Saint Juan Diego.

How to cancel The Washington Post

The continued pretense of The Washington Post to self-identification as a newspaper is truly laughable after last Sunday's article purportedly about protecting children because, it appears, The Post wants us to believe their readers are stupid enough to buy into the myth that the only place a child could be at risk is in the Catholic Church. Why? Well, because that's where you find Catholic priests, that's why.

When the day comes that WaPo demonstrates a sincere desire to protect children everywhere they are at risk of abuse rather than using this sensational issue to target only one of the many places where children learn, worship and grow, that will be worthy of the name "news".

Monsignor Charles Pope offers a response to the WaPo article.

"The article, entitled 'After child abuse accusations, Catholic priests often simply vanish', seems to have as its purpose and focus the question of whether the Catholic Church is doing enough to 'track' and control the behavior of former priests once they have been 'defrocked' (i.e. laicized or removed from ministry). The question seems somewhat misplaced however since such functions of control, probation and registering sex offenders are the role of the State, not the Church. Never mind though, this article is going to be about the Church. Never mind that the Church has no legal standing or power to accomplish such tracking, control and legal disclosure. Yet it would seem according to the article that she is still negligent. Exactly how the Church is to accomplish this task of tracking and controlling is not made clear by the reporters or others interviewed."

You can read the rest of the article at the ADW blog by clicking this linked text.

For the benefit of those who are no longer willing to pay for the privilege of having their intelligence insulted on a regular basis, I again publish here instructions for canceling a subscription to WaPo.

From a previous post:

Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander gloats "Many Threaten, But Most Don't Cancel The Post". After the irresponsible and puerile Tom Toles comic strip entitled "Papal Bull" of March 28, 2010 (which can be found by copying and pasting the following URL: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tomtoles/2010/03/papal_bull.html) I AM canceling.

I was under the impression that the media-generated "storm" surrounding the Church and Pope Benedict was about a crisis involving the need to defend young people from the dangers of abuse. With the Toles strip it now appears to be more about an irresponsible and reckless encouragement of hatred and prejudice based upon religious affiliation, in this case Catholic.

I will be adding to the $53.8 million operating loss that is currently threatening to finally kill off this anti-Catholic relic that no longer serves the good of society but instead stoops to encourage prejudice and hatred.

I discovered a long time ago that I can print out the daily crossword from the internet. That was the only reason I continued to troop out to the mailbox every morning anyway.

Goodbye and good riddance.

-- ((((..))))

How to cancel a subscription to The Washington Post:

1. Call 202-334-6100.

2. Use prompt #4 for permanent cancellation or ask for an "agent".

3. Key in your phone number when prompted to do so.

4. Press #1 when prompted to verify your phone number.

Germantown, Maryland: Mass and procession in Witness to Life on 11 December

Witness to Life
Mass and Procession

8:00 am

Saturday December 11 th

Mother Seton Parish
19951 Father Hurley Blvd
Germantown MD

8:00 am Mass followed by prayerful procession to Germantown Reproductive Health Services

Earlier this week it was confirmed that LeRoy Carhart will begin performing abortions at Germantown Reproductive Health Services in Germantown MD on Monday, December 6th. Carhart is notorious for promoting and performing partial birth abortions and late term abortions.

Sponsored by the Archdiocese of Washington Department of Life Issues
mcarper@adw.org
301.853.4555

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception

Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.

-- Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 491

On holy days of obligation

The first precept ("You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor") requires the faithful to sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the principal liturgical feasts honoring the Mysteries of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints; in the first place, by participating in the Eucharistic celebration, in which the Christian community is gathered, and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such a sanctification of these days.

-- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2042, enumerates the precepts of the Church