Why July is devoted to the Precious Blood of Jesus

By tradition, the Catholic Church dedicates each month of the year to certain devotions. In July, it is devoted to the Precious Blood of Jesus.

In the past, the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Christ was celebrated on the first Sunday of July as confirmed by past Popes and recalled recently by Pope Benedict XVI in His speech after praying the Angelus on July 5, 2009.[1] He made special mention of Pope John XXIII's apostolic letter "Inde a Primis" (dated June 30, 1960) which explained the devotion's significance and approved its litanies.[2]   

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The Old fulfilled in the New Covenant

Sacrifice is the highest form of religious worship which man offers to God as an act of praise, thanksgiving, petition or atonement.[3] The most singular and pre-eminent sacrifice of the Old Law was the immolation of the Paschal Lamb which celebrated the sparing of Israel's firstborn from the fatal sword of the Angel of Death in Egypt at the time of Moses and Pharaoh.

The imagery of sacrificial blood from slain animals is made more vivid and meaningful if we recall Moses' words from the Book of Exodus, "And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words." (Exodus 24:8)

This old sacrifice took a new form in the New Testament when the Immaculate Lamb of God offered Himself on the altar of the Cross to redeem mankind from sin and the slavery of Satan. And during the Last Supper, Our Lord offered Himself in an unbloody yet real sacrifice when He uttered the following words, "For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins." (Matthew 26: 28) Truly, this "shedding of blood' or "pouring out of blood" took place and forms one of the glorious mysteries of our Faith.[4]

The Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

• Catholic doctrine teaches the faithful that the blood of Jesus Christ is part of His Sacred Humanity and hypostatically united to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.[5]

• And as such, it is worthy of adoration and veneration proper to latreutical worship (cultus latriae) which is rendered only to God. In other words, we adore the human nature of Christ because of its intimate and eternal union with the Person of the Divine Word.

• It is for this same reason that we honor the Most Sacred Heart or the Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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The Devotion to the Precious Blood

This devotion is one of the most ancient of pious Church practices. It is said that the Blessed Virgin venerated the Most Precious Blood of her infant Son on the day of His circumcision as she collected the first relics of His Precious Blood on a piece of cloth. On that momentous occasion she united her tears with that of the Word Incarnate on account of not so much of the sensible pain but of His supernatural sorrow for the hard-heartedness of mortals.[6]

It was the first of seven Blood-Sheddings of Our Divine Savior, The rest being:

2. The Agony in the Garden

3. The Scourging at the Pillar

4. The Crowning with Thorns

5. The Way of the Cross

6. The Crucifixion

7. The Piercing of His Heart

In his book, The Precious Blood, Father Frederick William Faber, D.D., calls St. Paul the Doctor of the Precious Blood owing to his evident fondness to preach on It in his epistles (Romans 3:25; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:12). He recounts that the lives of saints are replete with devotion to the Precious Blood making special mention of St. John Chrysostom, St. Austin, St. Gertrude and St. Catherine of Sienna whom he considered the Prophetess of the Precious Blood for putting emphasis on It as the solution to the ills of her times.

Father Faber also remarks that the Precious Blood makes us appreciate more Christ's redemption of mankind, His sacrifice and Passion. It also makes us comprehend the beautiful doctrine and the august realities of the Blessed Sacrament as we kneel in front of the tabernacle in humble adoration.

Over time the Church gave Her blessing to the devotion by approving societies like the Missionaries of the Precious Blood; enriching confraternities like that of St. Nicholas in Carcere, in Rome, and that of the London Oratory; attaching indulgences to prayers and scapulars in honor of the Precious Blood; and instituting commemorative feasts of the Precious Blood, Friday after the fourth Sunday in Lent and, since Pius IX, the first Sunday of July.[7]

Sadly, however, the feast was removed from the church calendar in 1969, the argument being that the cultus of the Precious Blood is included in the Mass and Divine Office of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Nevertheless, it is still laudable and salutary to continue to see the month of July as dedicated to the Most Precious Blood, just as Blessed Pope Pius IX intended it to be.[8]

NOTES

[1]Zenit News, ZE09070502 - 2009-07-05 http://www.zenit.org/article-26369?l=english last visited June 15, 2009. [back to text]

[2] Papal Encyclicals Online, "On Promoting Devotion to the Most precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ," http://www.papalencyclicals.net/John23/j23pb.htm last visited: June 15, 2010 [back to text]

.[3] Moorman, George J., The Latin Mass Explained, Rocfor, Illinois: TAN Books an Publishers, Inc., 2007, p. 6 [back to text]

[4] Moorman, George J.,Ibid, p. 22. [back to text]

[5] Ott, Ludwig, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, (St. Louis, Missouri: B. Herder Book Company, 1960), pp. 151-152 [back to text]

[6] The City of God by Mary of Agreda, Incarnation, Chapter XIV, Washington, New Jersey: Ave Maria Institute, 1971, Chapter XIV, pp. 446- 454 [back to text]

[7] New advent Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12372c.htm. Last visited June 16, 2010. [back to text]

[8] New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12373a.htm Last visited June16, 2010. [back to text]

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Obama Administration appeals Hobby Lobby/HHS mandate case to the Supreme Court

 

Kirsten Andersen

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 2013 (

LifeSiteNews.com

) – The Obama Administration isn’t giving up the fight to force the Christian-owned Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores to abide by the controversial HHS contraception mandate.

On Wednesday the administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling granting Hobby Lobby an exemption from the mandate, which requires employers to provide co-pay-free coverage for contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs for all females of childbearing age enrolled in their company’s health plan.

More than 60 company owners have sued the Obama Administration over the directive, arguing that forcing them to pay for procedures and drugs their faiths hold to be immoral violates their constitutionally-protected religious freedom.

In the Hobby Lobby case, the company’s owners sought an exemption from the mandate because it requires coverage for so-called ‘emergency contraception,’ which works at least some of the time by making the uterus inhospitable to an already-fertilized embryo, inducing early abortion – something that goes against the owners’ Christian faith.  Initially, a lower court rejected their case, but in July, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned their decision and Hobby Lobby was granted an injunction.

In its decision, the Tenth Circuit asserted that Hobby Lobby had “established a likelihood of success that their rights under this statute are substantially burdened by the contraceptive-coverage requirement, and have established an irreparable harm.”

But on Wednesday, just five days before the court-ordered deadline, the Obama Administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Tenth Circuit’s ruling, and accused Hobby Lobby’s owners of trying to use their religious freedom as a “sword” to cut their employees off from the “benefits and protections” offered by the contraceptive mandate.

The government’s attorneys argued that because Hobby Lobby is a for-profit corporation, it is not entitled to the same religious rights as an individual or a church.  It’s an argument that has met with success in two other similar cases this year in both the Third and Sixth Circuit Courts, decisions which the government cited heavily in its petition.

“The United States government is taking the remarkable position that private individuals lose their religious freedom when they make a living,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead lawyer for Hobby Lobby.   Added Duncan, “We’re confident that the Supreme Court will reject the government’s extreme position and hold that religious liberty is for everyone—including people who run a business.”

But the Obama Administration’s lawyers argued in their court filing that even if religious liberty was found to apply to for-profit corporations, in the case of the HHS mandate, the government’s “compelling interest” in making contraceptives freely available to every woman supersedes the company’s right not to pay for them.

“[The Religious Freedom Restoration Act] provides that the federal government ‘shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion’ unless application of that burden is ‘the least restrictive means of furthering [a] compelling governmental interest,” wrote the government lawyers.

“[T]he contraceptive-coverage requirement,” they asserted, “is the least restrictive means of advancing compelling governmental interests.”

According to the government’s attorneys, the HHS mandate serves a compelling governmental interest because when it comes to the government’s plan to improve Americans’ health, “increased access to FDA-approved contraceptive services in particular is a key component,” and when women have to pay out-of-pocket for contraceptives, it makes them less likely to use them.

Although the World Health Organization lists hormonal contraception as a Class 1 cancer-causing agent, the U.S. government asserts that contraceptives “improve health by decreas[ing] the likelihood or delay[ing] the onset of a targeted disease or condition,” in this case, pregnancy.  Wrote the government’s lawyers, “a lack of contraceptive use has proven in many cases to have negative health consequences for both women and children.”

The government appeared to issue a veiled threat to both the Court and future religious objectors should the decision not go its way, telling the Court that “It would be perverse to hold that providing a targeted religious exemption [such as the one currently offered to some churches and religious charities] eliminates the government’s compelling interest in the underlying regulation, thus effectively extending the same exemption … to anyone else who wants it.”

“Such a reading of [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act],” the government’s lawyers warned, “would discourage the government from accommodating religion, the exact opposite of what Congress intended in enacting RFRA.” (Emphasis theirs.)

The high court has six weeks to consider the government’s petition. If the justices agree to hear the Hobby Lobby case, it will be argued and decided before the end of the Court’s term in June 2014.

The Hobby Lobby case is one of two cases dealing with the HHS mandate that were submitted to the Court Wednesday.  The other is Conestoga vs. Sebelius, one of the two cases cited by the government in its filing in which the Third Circuit ruled against the Christian owners of a custom cabinet manufacturing company, forcing them to comply with the contraceptive mandate.  The company owners have requested that in light of the circuit courts’ differing opinions, the Supreme Court review their case, as well.

White House hosts first international White House LGBT Forum

By Dustin Siggins

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews.com) – Several top government officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, and hundreds of attendees participated in the first-ever White House Forum on Global LGBT Human Rights this week.

According to the White House, the event was devoted to “promoting and protecting the human rights and dignity of LGBT people wherever they are threatened around the globe.”

Speakers included keynote speaker National Security Advisor Susan Rice, as well as Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden decried "cultural differences" on same-sex relationships, saying "I don't care what your culture is. Inhumanity is inhumanity is inhumanity. Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice. It's simple." He also said the efforts of the administration are "about protecting people."

In her remarks, Rice said that "universal human rights are not bestowed by governments or powerful majorities, they are God’s gift and the birth right of all people. They belong to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women as surely as they belong to anyone in the human family."

The Obama administration has an extensive history of promoting the homosexual agenda both at home and abroad.

In December of 2011, President Obama pledged in an official memorandum to use the United States’ influence to promote the gay rights agenda internationally. He promised that U.S. officials around the world would be trained to specially assist gay persons, and would combat foreign communities’ “intolerance” by helping normalize gay orientation and sexual activity, among other changes.

“Under my Administration, agencies engaged abroad have already begun taking action to promote the fundamental human rights of LGBT persons everywhere,” stated Obama at that time.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as current Secretary Hillary Clinton, have also both repeatedly pledged support for gay rights as a central part of U.S. foreign policy.

At home, the administration has followed much the same trajectory.

In her remarks, Susan Rice boasted about the administration’s decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) against challenges at the Supreme Court, and to prosecute alleged hate crimes against homosexuals. In the case of DOMA, the United States House of Representatives was forced to step forward to defend the Clinton-era law, which was ultimately partially struck down by the court.

Rice also reminded listeners of how the White House also declined to defend Don't Ask, Don't Tell - which prevented openly homosexual individuals from serving in the U.S. military - in 2011, and in February said it would provide benefits to same-sex couples regardless of state laws related to marriage.

Earlier this month Obama also announced that he would sign an executive order adding homosexuality and transgender status as a protected class for the employees of federal contractors.

The Washington Blade reported earlier this week that a "public-private partnership" between the U.S. Agency for International Development and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce will provide "nearly $4 million" for "national LGBT chambers of commerce and other business groups." The partnership was launched in April of this year.

Please Help Stop the Black Mass -- “Like” This Good Group: Oklahoma Against the Black Mass

Very sadly, a group of Satanists are planning a Black Mass at the Civic Music Center in Oklahoma City, on Sunday 7-9 pm Sept. 21.

Our good Catholic friend James McKay has already started his Facebook page Oklahoma Against The Black Mass and it has 450 friends.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/685147064855217/

Please befriend him and spread the reaction against the Black Mass in Oklahoma.

And please call Mayor Mick Cornett’s office to let him know, politely yet firmly, how much you are offended with a Black Mass taking place on city premises.

Phone -- 405-297-2424

Governor Mary Fallin (405) 521-2342

Civic Center (405) 297-2584

Related articles:

 http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/what-we-do/news-and-updates/black-mass-stopped-how-god-won-at-harvard.html

Tens of thousands of Syrian Catholics flee Islamist advance

Catholic World News - June 27, 2014

More than 90% of the people of Qaraqosh, a largely Catholic city of over 40,000 in Syria, have fled as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant moved to capture the area. The jihadist group now controls approximately one-quarter of Syria and one-third of Iraq.

Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe, who is among the few who remain in the city, told the Fides news agency that he appealed “to the consciences of political leaders around the world, to international organizations and to all men of good will: it is necessary to intervene immediately to put a stop to the deterioration of the situation, working not only at a humanitarian level, but also politically and diplomatically.”

Read more:

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=21840

Come and Join The July 7 Public Rosary at Planned Parenthood in New Orleans

A cordial invitation to our friends to join us for the 2014 Call to Chivalry Summer Camp and TFP - Louisiana Public Rosary
in front of the projected Planned Parenthood abortion site in New Orleans.

on July 7 (Monday) at 3:30 PM
We will gather on the public median facing 4612 South Claiborne Avenue, New Orleans.

The young TFP Call to Chivalry Summer Camp participants will be in New Orleans for July 7th.

The boys and Dads who participate in the TFP Summer Camps hear much about the deeds and spirit of chivalry as lived in the past. Chivalry is an institution born of the Catholic faith. The idea that a man's strength and courage should be at the service of the weak, defenseless, vulnerable was foreign to pagan religions before Christianity. 

There is no one weaker, more vulnerable or defenseless than the unborn. This July 7th, the young men of the Call to Chivalry Summer Camp will practice a deed of Chivalry: a public expression of prayer and action in defense of the unborn.

You are welcome to join us. 
Hope to see you there.

Yours in Jesus and Mary,
Thomas Drake
tedrake@aol.com

Map of the location in New Orleans: http://mapq.st/10w3CuX

The boys of the Pennsylvania Call to Chivalry Camp also prayed in front of Planned Parenthood in Camden, New Jersey.  The sight of such cheerful clean-faced boys caused panic in the Planned Parenthood offices. They called 911.

Read what happened in this article written by one of those who was there: http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/what-we-do/call-to-chivalry-camps/video-boys-pray-to-stop-abortion-during-chivalry-camp.html

Good lesson for facing anxiety in life -- St. Joseph Marello

Let us learn to keep a perfectly even temper,
so important to our spiritual life, and
a harmonious state of mind so that
we may face all situations without anxiety.

St. Joseph Marello

Say NO To Florida Satanist Display

Please Sign Petition

Your support is urgently needed to stop a terrible blasphemy.  

Here’s what’s happening:

The Satanists, from the Satanic Temple in New York City, are attempting to erect a satanic Christmas display at the Florida Capitol. 

And that’s why I am sending you this Protest Petition, and urging you to click on the link below and stop this from happening.

Click here to send your Protest Petition!

Listen:  Yes, this is exactly the same group which we protested against when they attempted to have a Satanic Black Mass at Harvard.

And we shut them down!

Let’s shut them down again!  Let’s not allow them to desecrate the true meaning of Christmas with a Satanic display on state property in Florida.

According to the latest press reports they have applied to get their Christmas display approved for showing in the Florida Statehouse rotunda.  Read this:

“…a spokesman for the New York-based temple — which threatened a lawsuit after last year’s proposed display was deemed “grossly offensive” — says the group will again apply.

And listen again:  in 2013 they “sought to add a large diorama of an angel falling into a lake of fire, with the diorama proclaiming, ‘Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple.’”

Click here to send your Protest Petition right now!

But what about the officials in Florida?

Incredible as it may sound:

Press reports state:

“Rather than institute a new policy that would limit displays, as some expected, the state Department of Management Services is trying to make the application process easier for groups seeking to put up temporary displays in the Capitol complex.”

The state of Florida must be put on notice!  This cannot happen.

This blatant attempt to mock such a sacred holy day as Christmas will NOT, for the love of God, go unopposed.

That’s why I urge you to:

Click here to send your Protest Petition!

And after you sign your Protest Petition, copies will be rushed to:

• Honorable Rick Scott, Governor of Florida
• Florida Department of Management Services, Office of the Secretary

Here is your chance to peacefully protest a Christmas blasphemy that goes against everything that true Americans hold sacred.

Please use all peaceful and legal means to prevent the proposed application of The Satanic Temple for its “Christmas” display from taking place.

Beyond Shameful: Immoral Drag Shows Spread to 5 Catholic Universities

By John Ritchie

Photo:  "Coming Out Day" at Georgetown University

At least five Catholic universities have been hosting pro-homosexual drag shows on campus.  That number may sharply increase given the aggressive demands of the homosexual revolution.  In most cases, these annual events are designed to undermine Catholic moral teaching, normalize unnatural vice and erode the natural, God-made differences between man and woman.

John Carroll University, for example, even dips into student funds to pay for the annual drag show, without giving Catholic students the option to opt-out of financing an event that undermines their own Catholic beliefs.  According to Carroll News, students who follow Church teaching are essentially forced to fund the annual drag show against their will, which features professional "drag queens."

This year the mask really fell off at the University of San Diego.  During the drag show there a performer emerged on stage dressed like satan and lip-synced a song that explicitly calls good evil and evil good.

University administrators who have the authority to keep the wolves away are too often ready to let them in to the detriment of moral values and Catholic identity.  As Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said: "If you want your children to defend their Faith, send them to a public school; if you want them to lose their Faith, send them to a Catholic school."
These are the Catholic universities that give the homosexual movement a platform to promote drag shows:

Georgetown University
According to the Georgetown Voice, GU Pride hosted its ninth annual Georgetown Drag Ball on April 12.  The event, known as GenderFunk, is promoted as "a fun night of dancing and Drag performances: it provides a safe space on campus to be gender nonconforming and demonstrates that more Georgetown students are becoming increasingly comfortable with challenging their gender expression."
Source:  GU Pride hosts ninth annual Georgetown Drag Ball

Gonzaga University
The Cardinal Newman Society reports that a Gonzaga University student group called "HERO" sponsored a series of pro-homosexual events on campus, including "DRAG tabling" and a "bisexuality panel."  The objectionable activities held on April 6–11 were posted on Gonzaga's web site.
Source:  Gonzaga University Promoted 'Drag' Event in Email to Faculty and Staff

University of San Diego

Photo: Catholic Action for Faith
& Family. http://catholicaction.org/

The Catholic University of San Diego hosted another drag show on April 10.  Despite widespread opposition, university officials supported the event for a third consecutive year.  This time, the immoral show took a satanic turn when one "performer" dressed like a devil mocked good and extolled evil.
Source:  "Drag Show" at Catholic USD Takes Satanic Turn: 14,700 Protest the Scandal

Seattle University
Seattle University, run by the Jesuits, held its 8th annual drag show on March 14.  Once again, the event undermined Catholic moral teaching and was a cause of grave scandal.  The insistent plea of young faithful Catholics calling for its cancelation fell on deaf ears.
Source:  Sinful "Drag Show" at Jesuit Seattle University

John Carroll University
For approximately nine years, John Carroll University has been hosting a yearly drag show on campus.  According to Carroll News, the 2013 drag show was funded with Catholic student dollars.  Fr. Jayme Stayer, S.J. who attended the offensive event, said: “I thought the drag show was tame, sober and rather sweet.  What was considered outrageous in the 1970s and ’80s has become so domesticated that folks hardly raise an eyebrow nowadays."

Source:  JCU Dragged Into Controversy
Source:  2013 Drag Show Announcement 

Seven more Catholic universities, according to reports, have also hosted drag shows in the past.  They include:

• Boston College
• College of St. Benedict (CSB) and St. John’s University (SJU)
• College of Saint Rose
• LeMoyne College
• Loyola University Chicago
• St. John Fisher College
• Santa Clara University

Send us a tip: Report a problem on your campus here.

Presbyterian Church USA Defeats Motion to Care for Babies Born Alive After Abortion

by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com | 6/23/14 5:39 PM

The Presbyterian Church USA has voted to endorse Kermit Gosnell. Delegates meeting in Detroit at the 221st General Assembly of the 1.8 million–member Presbyterian Church (USA) voted down a measure that would have the church endorse care for babies born alive after abortions.

From World Magazine:

Also Thursday, 78 percent of the PCUSA General Assembly struck down a resolution condemning the killing of babies born alive during abortions, as occurred with notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

Read more:

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/06/23/presbyterian-church-usa-defeats-motion-to-care-for-babies-born-alive-after-abortion/

Video: Boys Pray to Stop Abortion During Chivalry Camp

By John Siebenmorgen

See the amazing video here

How often do you see a cheerful group of forty young men praying the rosary outside Planned Parenthood?

Panic at Planned Parenthood

See the amazing video here

The participants of the 2014 Call to Chivalry Camp put the spirit of Catholic knighthood into practice with a simple yet powerful demonstration on June 11 outside Planned Parenthood in Camden, New Jersey.  Several boys held a banner, stating: “With God’s grace, our generation will stop abortion.” The honks were continuous in response to a "Honk for Life" sign.

Catholic Cardinal tells homosexual ambassador to ‘take his pride elsewhere’

By Ben Johnson

Life Site News: SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – The most influential religious leader of the Dominican Republic has strongly rejected the U.S. ambassador's decision to promote Gay Pride Month on the island. Santo Domingo’s Catholic cardinal has said a new video celebrating the homosexual lifestyle, which features Ambassador James “Wally” Brewster and his “husband” Bob Satawake, convinced him that Brewster “should take his pride elsewhere.”

"Diplomacy is not for that sort of thing, an absolutely negative propaganda."

Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodríguez, who as Archbishop of Santo Domingo is known by Catholics as the “Primate of the Americas” because his see was the first erected in the New World, has said Brewster should focus on ways to facilitate peace, trade, and development instead. “Diplomacy is not for that sort of thing, an absolutely negative propaganda” against traditional morality, he told reporters Thursday after a Corpus Christi procession, according to Dominican Today.

“I am totally against that, everybody knows it,” the cardinal said. “My position is not new, not because this man with this kind of attitude has now arrived.”

The Washington Free Beacon has cited Brewster, one of eight openly homosexual ambassadors appointed by President Barack Obama, as one of the five worst examples of political favoritism among Obama's diplomatic appointees. He is a long-serving board member of the homosexual pressure group the Human Rights Campaign, is a national LGBT co-chair for the Democratic National Committee, and a major donor to Barack Obama.

Brewster and Satawake raised $1,121,027 for the Democratic National Committee in 2011-12. 

Vice President Joe Biden quoted Harvey Milk during the ceremonial swearing in of Brewster as ambassador last November 22. Brewster and Satawake were “married” just a few hours later at Washington's luxurious Hay-Adams Hotel.

But the tropical island gave this honeymooning couple an uncharacteristically chilly reception.

Even before his arrival, Dominican religious leaders led a day of protests dubbed “Black Monday” last July 15 against Brewster's appointment.

At the time, two-thirds of respondents to a poll conducted by Dominican Today said Brewster’s reception would not be positive. Another three percent said, “It will depend on his discretion.”

U.S. embassy spokesman Daniel Foote tried to tap down the criticism, saying, “Brewster arrives as an ambassador. He's not coming here as an activist for the gay community.” Brewster and Satawake soon posted a video discussing their relationship and promoting the normalization of homosexuality.

After Brewster’s appointment last year, Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Cedaño said, “In reality, it’s a lack of respect, of consideration, that they should send us a person of that type as ambassador” to the island nation, which borders Haiti. “I have the hope that he won’t arrive because I know that if he arrives he’s going to suffer and will have to leave.”

Satawake seemed to reference this statement in the new video, released this month. “People cautioned us prior to arriving that the Dominican Republic would not welcome us and might even make our lives uncomfortable. With the exception of a few people who promote prejudice and hate, our experience has been just the opposite,” he said.

Brewster then quoted the Pope. “When Pope Francis addressed the issue of gay people in July of 2013, his response was, 'Who am I to judge?'”

President Obama's decision to make LGBT political advocacy a cornerstone of his foreign policy has riled leaders across the world, from the Americas to Africa to the heart of Europe.

In 2012, U.S. Ambassador Norman Eisen took part in Prague Pride 2012, eliciting backlash from 120 pro-family leaders around the world.  The previous year, the U.S. ambassador to neighboring Slovakia signed an endorsement of that nation's gay pride parade in Bratislava.

Leaders in Nigeria's House of Representatives said they would sooner surrender U.S. aid than allow gay “marriage.”

The Deputy President of Kenya, William Ruto, rebuffed President Barack Obama's promotion of homosexuality in foreign relations during his $100 million African tour last July. “Those who believe in other things, that is their business,” Ruto said at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Maili Kumi. “We believe in God.”

An Obvious Conclusion About Marriage

It should be an obvious conclusion to reach: Marriage is good for society. History confirms this conclusion. Economists can document it.

Teachers can perceive it. Children experience it. And yet so many do not want to reach this easy and obvious conclusion.
However, it is an undisputed fact that has now been laid out in clear terms by Heritage Foundation researcher Robert Rector who wrote a study titled “Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty.”

The new study joins countless others that show how marriage benefits the material, emotional and spiritual good of children. A stable home provided by marriage reduces a child’s chances of living in poverty by 82 percent. When children live with unmarried or single parents, some 37 percent live in poverty. Less than seven percent of children in homes with both a mother and a father suffer the same fate. “Being married has roughly the same effect in reducing poverty that adding five to six years to a parent’s education has,” writes Rector.

When marriages fail, everyone pays. Welfare programs to single-parent homes cost taxpayers $330 billion annually, which works out to $30,000 for each American. Based on such facts, it would seem that another obvious conclusion would be that promoting the traditional family would be the most efficient way to solve so many of the nation’s social ills.

And yet the liberal establishment takes a contrary approach. Divorce, abortion and same-sex “marriage” figure high on their agendas. Social welfare programs pour torrents of dollars into “fighting” poverty instead of focusing on the actual cause of poverty. There is no amount of welfare that can replace the presence of a mother and a father in the home.

It is an obvious conclusion that is easy to reach but not always easy to practice. Marriage takes virtue. It presupposes responsibility and self-sacrifice. The facts are there for all who wish to see them. Marriage is good for society, couples and children. Those who oppose traditional marriage can reach this conclusion just as easily as anyone else, but it appears they find it much easier to simply avoid it.

The full Heritage Foundation report may be read here.

Read also: Children: The Ultimate Stimulus Package

Uganda dismisses US sanctions for anti-homosexual law

newvision.co.ug ^ | June 20, 2014

KAMPALA - Uganda's government Friday said US sanctions slapped on the country for tough anti-homosexual law would have little impact and rejected rights groups' reports that the legislation had led to a rise in assaults. "Ugandans know they are moving away from donor dependency," government spokesman Ofwono Opondo told AFP Friday. "We cannot compel the Americans to give us their money. Ugandans must be ready and we are rightly doing so, paying our bills. We need to be frugal." In the steps unveiled Thursday, specific Ugandan officials involved in "human rights abuses" -- including against the gay community -- will...Read more:

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/656779-uganda-dismisses-us-sanctions-for-anti-gay-law.html

Catholic Bishop: Marriage is 'First Domino of Civilizati​on' - When it Falls, 'Then Fall All Dominos'

Michael W. Chapman

(CNSNews.com) – In response to a federal judge’s ruling that Wisconsin’s ban on homosexual marriage was unconstitutional, Bishop Robert Morlino, head of the Catholic diocese of Madison, Wisc., said the judge had “shaken one of the most precious and essential building blocks of our civilization,” and that when this “first ‘domino’ of civilization’” – man-woman marriage – is toppled, then “all subsequent ‘dominos’” of civilization fall. The bishop also said that in felling this first domino, “everything that is good, true, and beautiful, which is rooted in the natural family, is seriously threatened.”

Back on June 6, U.S. District Judge..

Read more:

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/catholic-bishop-marriage-first-domino-civilization-when-it-falls-then ^ | 6/16/14 | Michael W. Chapman

A prayer for during and after Holy Communion by St. Thomas Aquinas

The “Anima Christi”

A prayer for during and
after Holy Communion

By St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church; d. 1274 A.D.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

To The TFP Choir
singing the
ANIMA CHRISTI
at a High Mass in 2008.

Anima Christi, sanctifica me.
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.

Corpus Christi, salva me.
Body of Christ, save me.

Sanguis Christi, inebria me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Aqua lateris Christi, lava me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passio Christi, conforta me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

O bone Jesu, exaudi me.
O good Jesus, hear me.

Intra tua vulnera absconde me.
Within Thy wounds hide me.

Ne permittas me separari a te.
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee.

Ab hoste malign defende me.
From the malignant enemy, defend me.

In hora mortis meae voca me,
In the hour of my death, call me.

Et jube me venire ad te,
And bid me come to Thee.

Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te
That with Thy saints I may praise Thee.

In saecula saeculorum.
Forever and ever.
Amen.

By St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church; +1274 A.D.

Article: Feast of Corpus Christ in Toledo, Spain

Mexico City passes law to give free morning-after pills to 12-year-olds

The law currently awaits the signature of left-wing Chief of Government Miguel Mancera. Protoplasma Kid / WikimediaCommons

By Sofia Vazquez-Mellado

LifeSiteNews, MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City’s Congress approved a law June 4 allowing people “from 12 to 29 years [of age]” to have free access to the abortifacient “morning after” pill and to receive orientation on building “the gender identity that they wish for” without their parents’ consent. The law currently awaits the signature of left-wing Chief of Government Miguel Mancera.

“The government will significantly push for the free availability of contraceptives for the youth in all of Mexico City’s health centers,” reads the legislation, which still has not been published, though LifeSiteNews obtained a copy. “This includes emergency contraception.”

“The government will support and orient, within its faculties and possibilities, for young people to have access to medical and legal services that allow them to build the gender identity that they wish for,” it continues.

Such “emergency contraception” can also cause abortions when taken in the first few days following sexual intercourse.

Leticia Gonzalez, president of the pro-family association Voz Publica A.C., told LifeSiteNews that several pro-life and pro-family organizations are asking Mancera, the chief of government, to veto the law.

According to Gonzalez, the law “will strip the parents of their rights and obligations as those responsible for educating and protecting their children.”

It will also “make children easy targets of prostitution as a consequence of becoming promiscuous with or without pay or as slaves,” she added.

Mexico already ranks first place in the world in child pornography broadcasting, according to statistics published last year by the Mexican Senate.

The law also mentions the need to build a “strategic plan” to “divulge information” to the youth regarding the “legal interruption of abortion,” which in Mexico City is legal up to 12 weeks.

Gonzalez told LifeSiteNews this law will “increase the clientele at the Marie Stopes clinics and make their business grow, as the public health center in Mexico City does not have the [needed] infrastructure” to distribute the morning after pill.

Marie Stopes is Britain’s leading abortionist organization, and has recently opened abortion clinics in Mexico City and in Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state.

An explanatory document attached to the law says the purpose of the legislation is to “take charge of the enormous population of teenagers that prematurely become parents.”

However, in an interview with the Mexican newspaper Zocalo, Dr. Jorge Sepulveda, a gynecologist and member of the Medical Association of Monclova, said the number of young women with unwanted pregnancies has increased with the use of emergency contraception.

“Many patients think it’s a contraceptive method,” he explained. “There are patients that take it two or three times a month and have severe issues.”

The “morning after” pill is already sold throughout Mexico without prescription with prices that range from the equivalent of 3.80 USD to 12 USD.

According to the healthcare information firm IMS Health, the emergency contraception pill was placed as the best-selling oral contraceptive in Mexico during the first half of 2012, with 6.8 million sales.

A Cake Too Far

It seems that tolerance preached by those preaching the homosexuals agenda is only for those who agree with them. This can be seen in the case of Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, who were “married” in Massachusetts, and decided to travel to Colorado shortly after the ruling allowing same-sex “marriage.”

They asked a Christian baker to bake a wedding cake for them. He took it to court and lost. Read how Jack Phillips, heroically suffered the consequences of standing by his conscience and not making a cake.

  • A Humble Baker’s Conscience Under Attack

Devotion to the Holy Rosary: Powerful “Weapon” of the Faith

As we know, one great merit of the devotion to the Rosary is that it was revealed by Our Lady to Saint Dominic as a means to revive the Faith in regions ravaged by the Albigensian heresy.

Indeed, the widespread practice of the Rosary revived the Faith. With this, the Rosary became, in times when there truly was faith in the world, one of the classic Catholic devotions. This led not only to the widespread making of statues of Our Lady of the Rosary around the world but the practice of praying the Rosary also became common among the faithful. Wearing the rosary hanging from the waist became an official component of the habits of many religious orders.

Among the thousand things that we could say about the Rosary, I want to emphasize precisely this primary link between the Rosary and the virtue of faith, and between the Rosary and the defeat of heretics. The Rosary has always been considered an extremely powerful weapon of the Faith. We know that the virtue of faith is the root of all virtues. Virtues are not true unless they spring from a living faith. Therefore, there is no point cultivating other virtues if one neglects faith.

Our Lady gives the Rosary to St. Dominic of Guzman.

A very special favor

Please Volunteer To Be A
Home Caller For Our Lady’s Rosary

    The Blessed Virgin Mary urgently seeks your help! We are expanding our efforts to recruit more rally captains for Our Lady. We are looking for volunteers who are willing to make calls to help recruit more rosary rally captains from the comfort of their own homes.

    Without additional volunteer help, we won’t be able to reach our goal of pulling together 10,000 12,000 Public Square Rosary Rallies for Our Lady and America this October 12, 2013 October 11, 2014.

    See, every day, we receive and make a ton of phone calls at our rosary rally coordination center in Kansas. As helpful and as important as that is, we need your help from home to reach our goal this year, our gift to Our Lady of 10,000 12,000 rallies all across America!

    Being a home-based volunteer is incredibly easy. 

    HERE'S THE BASICS:

    We start out by sending you 100 names to call.  You can call them all in one day, over several days, or over a week, whatever you choose to do. If you want to ask for additional names we are happy to send them. If 100 is all that you have time for, I know Our Lady will reward you for that.

    You will have a dedicated an experienced contact person specifically assigned to your needs here at Rosary Rally Central to assist you by answering any questions that you may have, as well as to make sure that you have everything that you need.

Check it out.

    We also supply you with a how-to manual, and a supply of names to call.  You choose the amount of time you want to spend volunteering. 

    If 1,000 volunteers call 100 names each we will be able to very quickly reach and even exceed our goal of 10,000 12,000 rally captains for Our Lady.

    You will find the experience most rewarding. You will be speaking to Catholics from all over.  You will enlist rally captains through your encouraging and inspiring words, and most importantly through the love that you have for Our Lady.  

    You will be helping the cause of Our Lady.  I am confident that She will in turn grant you an abundance of graces for any efforts that you are able to make as an essential part of this glorious crusade for Mary and America.

    IMPORTANT: If you do not have unlimited long-distance calling we will be happy to reimburse you for any calls that you make.

    I hope and pray you will say YES!

    To find out what is involved in being a home volunteer, please call please call Lori or Bernard at

(866)584-6012 or send them an email at: 

ANFRosaryRally@aol.com

     Or, we’re happy to call you and answer any questions or concerns.

    On the form, just fill in your name, phone number, and a best window of time for us to reach you on the phone.

Click here: Check out the form.

    Volunteering is an incredible experience for all who have the opportunity.  I will mention some of the greatest benefits that come with the experience of volunteering. 

    You will be promoting the public praying of Our Lady’s Holy Rosary across America, having an important role in our country’s conversion. 

    You will become keenly aware of the tremendous good that you will be achieving by the increased reparation offered to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary as a result of the greater number of public square rosaries that will take place because of your efforts.

    You will be volunteering with others like you from all over America.  Imagine that you are calling in unison from volunteers from all points, from Maine to California, from Washington to Florida, even Hawaii!

    I can guarantee you that this experience will also strengthen your faith tremendously as well as your love for Our Lady.

    Go to the form. Click here.

    Perhaps you have never done something like this before.  All it takes is a willingness to share your love for Our Lady on the telephone in order to recruit rosary rally captains.

    Your love for Our Lady has already greatly prepared you for this.  Our dedicated and kind staff will gently assist you and help you learn how to place these calls.

    If Again, if you would like to see about taking advantage of this tremendous opportunity, please either call our Kansas office right away at 866-584-6012 or email us at:  ANFRosaryRally@aol.com

    I hope you will take advantage of this golden opportunity to volunteer for Our Lady. Click here.

      If you would like to see about taking advantage of this tremendous opportunity, please call right away at 866-574-6012 or email us at ANFRosaryRally@aol.com. We will be happy to discuss this with you and answer any questions that you may have before making a commitment.

Latin American nations reject same-sex unions at international assembly

By Sofia Vazquez-Mellado

LifeSiteNews: ASUNCION, Paraguay -- In what local media are calling a “clear and numerous response,” many Latin American countries rejected recommendations to approve same-sex unions during the Organization of American States General Assembly held last week in Paraguay.

The debate began after Brazil presented a proposition calling all member states to “avoid interference in the private life” of “homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals.” Thirteen countries out of thirty-four, including the host country Paraguay, expressed reservations against the proposition, fearing that its approval would lead to the legalization of same-sex unions.

According to assembly documents, the US said it “decidedly supports” the resolution, and so did twenty other countries, which posed no objections to it.

Guatemala and Ecuador said they did not consider “the non-recognition of marriage between people of the same sex” as a “discriminatory practice,” while San Vicente and Granadinas, Jamaica, and Santa Lucia expressed concern that the term “gender expression” was “ambiguous” and “not fully defined nor accepted internationally.”

Trinidad and Tobago said it “couldn’t support this resolution” as in its legislation “acts of sodomy, be it between same-sex couples or heterosexuals, are illicit."

Sonia Vera, president of Life and Health Foundation in Bolivia, an organization affiliated to Human Life International, told LifeSiteNews that the number of countries that made reservations to this resolution was “historic.”

“The fact that they gave us a workshop to discuss only matters of life and family is also historic,” she said. “This is a big achievement, something that had never happened before.”

On June 2 and 3, just days before the summit started, the people of Asunción gathered to march in front of the event’s venue asking the Organization of American States (OAS) to “defend life and family.”

“The Paraguayan people oppose these documents, as they will damage not just the families in our country but also those throughout the continent,” said the march’s organizers in a press release.

A joint statement by the Paraguayan Episcopal Conference, the Paraguayan Association of Evangelical Pastors, and the Paraguayan Association of Evangelical Churches asked the OAS to “preserve Marriage composed by a man and a woman as the only one approved by God,” and family as the “fundamental nucleus of society.”

The groups also asked that “the right to life be respected from conception in the maternal womb until natural death.”

In addition, over 47,000 people signed a petition on CitizenGo asking the OAS to “defend the dignity of Latin America in presence of the imposition from feminist and homosexual pressure groups.”

Several local media outlets expressed concern that homosexual issues raised more attention than human rights violations happening in Cuba and Venezuela.

Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the American Principles Project's Latino Partnership, blasted the U.S. Ambassador to the OAS for focusing on the homosexual agenda.

"No one condones homophobic behavior, anywhere; but what this administration is pushing through the OAS is an aggressive agenda that undermines the cultural and religious values of the majority of people in Latin America," he said in a press release.

"I call on Congress to take action and suspend further funding of the OAS until this administration stops advancing its radical agenda through this organization and decides instead to defend freedom and democracy in the region as the United States always has."

The U.S. is the largest donor to the OAS. The country contributed at least $65.7 million in 2013, amounting to 41 percent of the OAS’ total 2013 budget.

“It would seem that all we talk about is this issue,” Vera told LifeSiteNews. “They say we will discuss poverty and how to eradicate it, the development of the peoples, but in the end we always discuss the same thing.”

The issue of abortion was raised by a report urging member states to fulfill the goals of the Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Women’s Rights and Gender Equity and Equality, which seeks to “develop protocols to… allow therapeutic abortion” throughout the region. The report also mentioned having “access to contraceptive methods” and addressing “the problem of teen pregnancies and LGTBI rights.”

During the General Assembly’s closing ceremony, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, a Chilean socialist, reminded the delegations that the resolutions were non-binding and that each country should legislate on life and family issues in accordance with its culture and values, as imposing an agenda would only “bring on more annoyance.”

Insulza said that “criminalization [of abortion] is punitive against women. Nobody aborts because they want to.”

“I am against abortion,” he said, “I don’t know anyone who is in favor, but that’s not the point, the point is it happens and we must deal with it. I ask for a more open mind regarding this issue.”

Slovakia enshrines true marriage in nation’s Constitution

by Hilary White

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Parliamentarians in Slovakia enshrined marriage as a “unique bond between a man and a woman” in the country’s Constitution May 4, with 102 National Council members backing the amendment, 18 opposing it, and three abstentions.

The amendment was brought to the National Council by the Christian Democrats, and supported by the government, despite the latter being led by the socialist SMER party. A government spokesman told a press conference that the proposal simply upholds the existing situation.

“The marriage amendment will not bring about any drastic changes, it only seals in the constitution what is already defined by law,” said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, according to AFP.

The amendment was accompanied by an explanatory document for legislators that said the addition to the law was necessary. According to a translation by homosexual activist group ILGA Europe, the document said, “It is impossible to establish the rights and duties associated with marriage in any other way.”

ILGA Europe, which is funded by the EU, complained that the agreement between SMER and the Christian Democrats amounted to political opportunism by Prime Minister Fico, who is looking towards an upcoming election. However, ILGA Europe noted that nearly 67 percent of the Slovak population is Catholic.

J.C. von Krempach, a lawyer who works with the European Centre for Law and Justice, wrote at the Turtle Bay and Beyond blog that Slovakia’s amendment is part of a growing movement in some European countries pushing back against the advance of an ideology opposed to ancient societal norms. He said this movement is intended to help establish a principle that has, until very recently, been so universally accepted that it never needed any explicit statement.

“Since the origins of human civilization until about ten years ago,” von Krempach wrote, “it was clear to everyone that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that same-sex ‘marriages’ therefore cannot exist. No one should therefore be surprised that in the constitutional laws of most countries there is no definition of marriage – it simply was not needed.”

“With the adoption, by a small but growing number of countries, of legislation that allows for same-sex ‘marriages’, the once universal moral and legal consensus on marriage has been destroyed,” he added.

Slovakia, von Krempach said, is one of the states, typically of Eastern Europe, that are pushing back by making those ancient unwritten assumptions explicit in their constitutions “in order to protect society against attempts of international institutions (such as the UN, the EU, or the European Human Rights Court) to impose on them a new concept of marriage and family from the outside.”

As of February, eight EU member states had adopted “same sex marriage” laws -Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, England, Spain, France, and Portugal. Slovakia makes the eighth to have enacted laws specifically to counter this trend. The others are Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Croatia.

When the amendment was announced, ILGA Europe issued a press release that also noted this counter-trend in some EU countries. “While Europe at large is moving towards increasing legal recognition and social acceptance of LGBTI families, Slovakia seems to be leaning towards the opposite trend of limitations, restrictions and discrimination,” said Gabi Calleja, co-chair of the organization’s executive board.

Paulo Côrte-Real, the executive board’s other co-chair, said, “Recent and similarly restrictive constitutional amendments in Latvia, Hungary and Croatia demonstrated they are sponsored by religious extremists and ultra-conservatives who do not hesitate to abuse such democratic tools as constitutional amendments or referenda to pursue their narrow homophobic agenda.”

But von Krempach countered that in all their statements, ILGA Europe and their parliamentary supporters have yet to offer a consistent legal justification either for the existence of “same-sex marriage” or for calling it a right.

ILGA Europe, he wrote, “offers no consistent theory on the essence and purpose of marriage – therefore it has no argument why sexual relationships between persons of the same sex should qualify as ‘marriage,’ given that they do not, through procreation and the raising of children, provide a contribution to the common good.”

He pointed to the press release opposing the Slovak constitutional amendment as a case in point, highlighting the language as a plain case of “hate speech” and ad hominem attack against political opponents.

Roger Kiska, the EU representative of the Alliance Defending Freedom, also raised this point in a letter to ILGA Europe. Kiska said the statement was nothing more than an expression of ILGA’s “contempt, intolerance and disrespectful discourse towards Christians and those organizations and politicians who genuinely work on behalf of the family.”

“Using press releases to vilify individuals and organisations for defending conjugal marriage as being homophobic, extremist or ultra-conservative closes the door on any meaningful debate regarding the proper meaning and place of marriage in society,” Kiska said.

The Feast of Corpus Christi in Toledo, Spain

by Felipe Barandiaran

As an ancient Spanish proverb has it, there are three Thursdays that shine more than the sun: Holy Thursday, Ascension Thursday and Corpus Christi.

The morning is bright.  I climb on foot –panting - the steep slopes of the city.   My car has been left by the river, for if driving around Toledo is usually a complex task, on Corpus Christi it is impossibility, since the city’s narrow streets are closed.  I am short of breath, because the city is located on top of a steep hill, defended by the Tagus River and medieval walls.

As I walk, I join many other Toledo residents and visitors who hasten, like me, to attend the grand procession.

Although the winds of vulgarity that sweep today's world have banished the good habit of dressing better on Sundays and holy days, in Toledo today, all wear their best.  Every lady is arrayed with some new garment, and I enjoy watching them, enchanted as they show one another their outfits for this special occasion.

As I approach Zocodover Square, the nerve center of the small town, high up, I hear a volley of mortars indicating that the Pontifical Mass is over and the procession is beginning to exit the Cathedral through the Llana door.

People are stationed throughout the entire route. Only those participating in the actual procession – half of Toledo – and some guests have been able to attend the Mass inside the cathedral.

Listen to the “Anima Christi” sung
Impatient but quiet, the “other half” of Toledo masses right up against the walls in order to clear the way for the procession.
The road is dotted with wet sand and aromatic plants (lavender, rosemary and thyme), and the balconies adorned with rich, embroidered veils and flags, colorful shawls, garlands, lanterns and cheerful flower baskets.

As a sign of respect and to protect the Blessed Sacrament, traditional white canvas awnings made by weavers guilds cover the streets, and extend from one house to another.

Now I can see Civil Guards on horseback leading the procession. Behind them march the City Hall drummers and the Civil Guard band.  Then, the "beadle" follows dressed in black, carrying a staff with the same height as the monstrance in order to make sure there is proper clearance.  He insures no mishap will hinder the splendor of the procession.  This grave gentleman is followed by a fifteenth century processional cross, a gift from King Alfonso V of Portugal, known as “the African.”

Displaying my ‘Press’ card, I walk quietly in the opposite direction of the procession. The whole itinerary is protected by cadets of the Infantry Academy, a legendary institution that defended the Alcazar fortress in the 1936 war against communism.

The procession forms two parallel lines, having in the center the priors, chaplains and dignitaries of each guild preceded by their corresponding standard and carrying a staff, medal or element that distinguishes them from the other members .

I pass by the Gardeners’ Guild. They are followed by boys and girls who have made their First Communion, groups of the Lay Apostolate and Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, and more than twenty brotherhoods with their respective banners, the Hospitality of Lourdes, and third order members of religious congregations.

Listen to the “Anima Christi” sung
With the rhythm of its instruments, the City Council music band draws tears of emotion.  I press forward, as I want to get to the door of the Cathedral. There is little room.  The wonderful symbiosis between the public and the procession, teeming with life brings a sublime order of calm and poise to the city.

I can now see the women religious of apostolic life, the Knights of the Order of Malta, the Chapter of the Mozarabic Knights, of the Holy Sepulcher, the Noblemen of Illescas, the Knights of Corpus Christi, and others who proudly display their distinctive crosses on their capes.

The seminarians, the regular and secular clergy, the Brotherhood of the Holy Charity, the famous Cross of Mendoza, pass by with the acolytes and the Chapter leader.

Luckily, I am already facing the Cathedral, next to the military company which forms the line of honor.  From the outer walls hang forty-eight huge seventeenth century Flemish tapestries with Eucharistic allegories, woven especially for this celebration.

The famous Toledo monstrance, commissioned by Cardinal Cisneros to Enrique de Arfe, a great sixteenth century silversmith, is about to cross the threshold of the Llana door. I feel people around me holding their breath. The thrilling silence that precedes the monstrance’s appearance gives way to an apotheosis of applause, drowned only by the roar of the twenty-one firing guns (due to the King) and the solemn ringing of bells. The military formation salutes the Blessed Sacrament as the band furiously plays the Royal March. Through the cloud of incense that envelops us, the Blessed Sacrament advances slowly.  God is with us!

The rich Gothic monstrance, made with over 400 pounds of silver and almost 40 pounds of gold, is mounted on a carriage with flowers and escorted by the cadets of the Infantry Academy.  Behind it follows the second part of the procession, which includes the highest dignitaries: the Archbishop Primate and his entourage, the regional and provincial authorities, the City Mayor with his staff and the university faculty.  Closing the procession parades the Honor Guard of the Infantry Academy, with its flag and music band.

The monstrance stops at a small podium set up at the crowded Zocodover Square and a blessed speaker delivers the great sermon of Eucharistic praise. When he finishes, the crowd accompanies the procession back to the cathedral, devoutly chanting the popular hymn of adoration:

Let us all sing to praise the Love of loves,
O come sing to the Lord,
God is here indeed! Come o ye adorers,
To worship Christ the Redeemer!
Glory be to Jesus Christ!
Bless the Lord, heaven and earth.
Honor and glory to Thee, o King of Glory,
Forever love of Thee, o God of love!

*         *         *

Indeed, the sun shines in Toledo.  But He Who makes the sun shine is elevated in the monstrance, and that’s why the Blessed Sacrament dazzles far more as He passes through the streets of Toledo!
Listen to the “Anima Christi” sung

CT Prayer Warriors Come Out for Rosary Rally

On Saturday June 14th, 2014, the day after the second apparition of June 13th at Fatima and the day before the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, several prayer warriors came out to pray in the public square in Bridgeport, CT.

 

Praying in the public square is an excellent way to network with other faithful Catholics in your area and create strong bonds.  Activity always seems to breed fervor in Catholics and provides one with a strong sense that they are not alone in this over secularized world we live in.

There is a strong clash of the two worlds whenever we have a public Rosary Rally.  There is the calm and serene atmosphere created when one prays, but the noise of cars, motorcycles and ambulances always makes it difficult to hear oneself pray and forces you to pray even harder to be heard and to keep your serenity.

Most often, we see immediate results of our prayers, in reverent gestures from passersby, or someone that stops to pray along with you.  On this particular day, as we had concluded our rally and were packing up to leave, a man came over to us with a beautiful basket of flowers, which he wanted to give us for Our Lady. 

 

He said he had just recently opened up a new business across the street from where we were holding our rally.  He said that he was Catholic and that he thought what we were doing was very wonderful. 

One of the rally participants had noticed him coming out of his store to read our banner and see what we were doing.
Later that afternoon, the couple who organized the rally, went to the mans store to present him with a picture or Our Lady of Fatima.

He was so happy to receive it and explained that he was a refugee from Vietnam, who came to America.  He had said his family had had a great devotion to Our Lady and that they believe She was instrumental in them being able to make it to America. 

He had asked to be notified of future rallies, which he will be.

Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us!

Christian forced to bake homosexual “wedding” cake – sign urgent petition against this persecution

SIGN PETITION

A recent Colorado Civil Rights Commission decision forces a Christian baker, Jack Phillips, and his staff to go to anti-discrimination training for the next two years.

His crime?

Declining to bake a cake for homosexuals who were “married” in Massachusetts. When the two, Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, didn't get their way, they sued the bakery owner.

Now he and his staff will be forced to do anti-discrimination training every three months for the next two years.

In other words, the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States means nothing. It has been trampled upon to please the promoters of a radical homosexual agenda.

Sign your petition here

Melinda Gates’ claim to not fund abortion is ‘outright deception’: pro-life group

by Dustin Siggins

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 13, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- The claim by Melinda Gates, a Catholic, that the multi-billion dollar Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does not fund abortion is "an outright deception," says Father Shenan J. Boquet, president of Human Life International.

Gates has made headlines in recent days after she wrote June 2 that the foundation "has decided not to fund abortion."

Though the remark has appeared in some news reports to indicate a shift in the foundation’s position, Gates has claimed to steer clear of the abortion debate since at least 2010.

“Melinda Gates’ claim that ‘the Gates Foundation has decided not to fund abortion’ should not be hailed as good news from pro-lifers, because it’s an outright deception,” said Boquet in a press release.

Boquet argues that their claim to not fund abortion is contradicted by the tens of millions of dollars in funding the organization hands out to pro-abortion groups, including various Planned Parenthood affiliates worldwide and Marie Stopes International. The foundation also has a close partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA), which assists with China's one-child policy.

"While Ms. Gates claims to only be focused on contraceptives, what is often not discussed in public about these drugs and devices—and certainly not disclosed to the women in the developing world who receive Ms. Gates’ contraceptives—is their potential to cause abortions at the earliest stage of pregnancy," Boquet observed. “Conception can still, and often does, occur even when these methods are being used, and that new life in the womb is then destroyed due to their effects on a woman’s body."

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did not return multiple requests for comment.

The issue of abortion funding is not new. The Foundation gave eight million dollars to Family Care International in 2000 for a five-year grant. Family Care described itself as "[addressing] a range of urgent health issues, including maternal health, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, family planning, unsafe abortion and violence against women."

What to do when forced to perform homosexual 'weddings'

by Matt Barber: Churches in Denmark are now compelled, by law, to host same-sex “weddings.”

America is next.

Tyranny’s appetite is insatiable. The secular-left’s hunger for power and control over its detractors can never be satisfied. To outwardly succumb and affirmatively capitulate to their pagan demands will never be enough.

Thought control is the goal.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/what-to-do-when-forced-to-perform-gay-weddings/#Lv098LOe4BYYsjRM.99

Man converts on deathbed after 60 years of low and sinful life

We read in the revelations of St. Bridget, that there was once a lord as noble by birth as he was low and sinful in his habits. He had given himself by an express compact, as a slave to the devil, and had served him for sixty years, leading such a life as may easily be imagined, and never approaching the sacraments.

Now, this prince was about to die and Jesus Christ, in His compassion, commanded St. Bridget to tell his confessor to visit him, and exhort him, to make his confession.

The confessor went, and the sick man told him that he had no need of a confessor, for that he had often made his confession. The confessor visited him a second time and that poor slave of hell persevered in his obstinate determination not to make his confession. Jesus again directed the saint to tell the confessor to go to him again. He obeyed, and this third time related to him the revelation made to the saint, and that he had returned so many times because the Lord, who desired to show him mercy, had directed him to do so.

On hearing this the dying man was moved, and began to weep. “But how,” he exclaimed, “can I be pardoned, when for sixty years I have served the devil, made myself his slave, and have laden my soul with innumerable sins?”

“Son,” answered the father, encouraging him, “do not doubt: if you repent of them, in the name of God I promise you pardon.” Then, beginning to gain confidence, he said to the confessor: “Father, I believed myself lost, and despaired of salvation; but now I feel a sorrow for my sins, which encourages me to trust; and as God has not yet abandoned me, I wish to make my confession.”

And in fact on that day he made his confession four times with great sorrow; the next day he received communion, and on the sixth he died contrite and entirely resigned.

After his death, Jesus Christ further revealed to St. Bridget, that this sinner was saved, and was in purgatory, and that he had been saved by the intercession of the Virgin, His mother; for the deceased, although he had led so sinful a life, yet had always preserved devotion to her dolors; whenever he remembered them he pitied her.

PRAYER
Oh my afflicted mother! queen of martyrs and of sorrows, thou hast shed so many tears for thy Son, who died for my salvation, and yet what will thy tears avail me, if I am lost?

By the merits, then, of thy dolors, obtain for me a true sorrow for my sins, and a true amendment of life, with a perpetual and tender compassion for the passion of Jesus and thy own sufferings. And if Jesus and thou, being so innocent, have suffered so much for me, obtain for me that I, who am deserving of hell, may also suffer something for love of you.

O Lady, I will say to thee with St. Bonaventure, if I have offended thee, wound my heart in punishment; if I have served thee, now I beg to be wounded as a reward. It is a shameful thing to see our Lord Jesus wounded, and thee wounded with him, and I uninjured.

Finally, oh my mother, by the grief thou didst experience on seeing thy Son before thy eyes bow his head and expire upon the cross, I entreat of thee to obtain for me a good death. Ah, do not cease, oh advocate of sinners, to assist my afflicted and struggling soul in that great passage that it has to make into eternity. And, because at that time it may easily be the case that I shall have lost the use of speech with which to invoke thy name, and that of Jesus, who are all my hope, therefore I now invoke thy Son and thee to succor me at that last moment, and I say: Jesus and Mary, to you I commend my soul. Amen.

This “Stories of Mary – Stories of the Rosary” is taken from the Glories of Mary, translated from the Italian of St. Alphonsus Liguori; New Revised Edition, P.J. Kennedy & Sons. Copyright 1888 by P.J. Kennedy