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  Look for wisdom while it can still be found. Call for it while it is near. Do you want to know how near it is? The word is near you, in your heart and on your lips, provided that you seek it honestly. Insofar as you find wisdom in your heart, prudence will flow from your lips, but be careful that it flows from and not away from them, or that you do not vomit it up. If you have found wisdom, you have found honey. But do not eat so much that you become too full and bring it...

From a letter of Conrad of Marburg, Saint Elizabeth's spiritual director From this time onward Elizabeth’s goodness greatly increased. She was a lifelong friend of the poor and gave herself entirely to relieving the hungry. She ordered that one of her castles should be converted into a hospital in which she gathered many of the weak and feeble. She generously gave alms to all who were in need, not only in that place but in all the territories of her husband’s empire. She spent all her own revenue from her husband’s four principalities, and finally she sold her luxurious’ possessions...

The treatise of St John Eudes on the kingdom of Jesus We must strive to follow and fulfil in ourselves the various stages of Christ’s plan as well as his mysteries, and frequently beg him to bring them to completion in us and in the whole Church. For the mysteries of Jesus are not yet completely perfected and fulfilled. They are complete, indeed, in the person of Jesus, but not in us, who are his members, nor in the Church, which is his mystical body. The Son of God wills to give us a share in his mysteries and somehow...

The treatise of St Fulgentius of Ruspe on the forgiveness of sins In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye as the final trumpet sounds, for the trumpet shall indeed sound, the dead shall rise incorruptible and we shall be changed. In saying “we,” Paul is indicating that the gift of that future change will also be given to those who during their time on earth are united to him and his companions by upright lives within the communion of the Church. He hints at the nature of the change when he says: This corruptible body must put on...

A commentary of St Augustine on Psalm 95 Then all the trees of the forest will exult before the face of the Lord, for he has come, he has come to judge the earth. He has come the first time, and he will come again. At his first coming, his own voice declared in the gospel: Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds. What does he mean by hereafter? Does he not mean that the Lord will come at a future time when all the nations of the earth will be striking their breasts in...

Today's Office of Readings A sermon of St Leo the Great Although the universal Church of God is constituted of distinct orders of members, still, in spite of the many parts of its holy body, the Church subsists as an integral whole, just as the Apostle says: We are all one in Christ. No difference in office is so great that anyone can be separated, through lowliness, from the head. In the unity of faith and baptism, therefore, our community is undivided. There is a common dignity, as the apostle Peter says in these words: And you are built up...

A letter of Sulpicius Severus Martin knew long in advance the time of his death and he told his brethren that it was near. Meanwhile, he found himself obliged to make a visitation of the parish of Candes. The clergy of that church were quarrelling, and he wished to reconcile them. Although he knew that his days on earth were few, he did not refuse to undertake the journey for such a purpose, for he believed that he would bring his virtuous life to a good end if by his efforts peace was restored in the church. Continue reading on...

Pope Pius XI's encyclical "Ecclesiam Dei" In designing his Church God worked with such skill that in the fullness of time it would resemble a single great family embracing all men. It can be identified, as we know, by certain distinctive characteristics, notably its universality and unity. Continue reading on Examiner.com The Divine Office: He gave his life for the unity of the Church - Norfolk Catholic | Examiner.com

Don't Forget Your Godly Ancestry! James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Last week, a rare archaeological discovery was made in Northern Israel. Archaeologists discovered a ½ meter statue of Hercules which they say was dated to the second century. In Greek mythology, Hercules was the son of the Greek god Zeus, and the mortal mother Alcmene – the wisest and most beautiful of all mortal women. Hercules was said to surpass all mortal men in strength,...

Bogor's mayor has a new reason not to allow the Yasmin church to open: the name of the street on which it is built bears an Islamic name.

President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.

Israeli civilians are unprepared for nonconventional attacks, warned prominent members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday afternoon, blasting the defense establishment for ignoring calls to fix the situation. According to Steinitz, between four million and five million gas mask sets are currently sitting in warehouses awaiting distribution. The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has already threatened sanctions against the defense establishment if it does not hand out the equipment.

Iran said on Friday it did not expect an attack from Israel or the United States triggered by the long-running dispute over its nuclear programme. "The possibility of such an attack (from Israel or the U.S.) is almost zero," Mottaki said, via a translator, in an interview with Turkish broadcaster NTV during a visit to Turkey. However, when asked whether it meant Iran was ready to freeze any expansion of its nuclear programme in return for the U.N. Security Council halting further sanctions measures against it, the source said "not at all".

"Iran now has a clear choice to make: suspend its nuclear program and accept our offer of negotiations or face growing isolation and the collective response not of one nation but of many nations," Brown was expected to say. "Just as we have led the work on three mandatory sanctions resolutions of the United Nations, the U.K. will continue to lead - with the U.S. and our European Union as partners - in our determination to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapons program," the excerpts said. After talks in Geneva ended in a stalemate on Saturday, the six major powers gave...

In today’s edition of Time, there was an interesting analysis of the potential problems of an Israeli strike on Iran.

Suddenly within the past month, it feels like we’re returning to the Cold War. It’s obvious that the Russians are quite annoyed by the attempts of the U.S. deploying a missile shield in Eastern Europe — the former backyard of the Russians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pastor John Hagee and radio personality Glenn Beck all spoke to Israel’s Christian supporters during the sixth annual “Christians United for Israel” summit at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C..

“Lord - Protect my family and me, Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”

Islamists burned down a church on Zanzibar Island Saturday just three days after another church facility there was reduced to ashes.

Two house churches in Riau were burned down Tuesday, the latest of a series of attacks on minority religious groups in Indonesia.

Iranian authorities seized thousands of Bibles in north-west Iran and destroyed a church in the Islamic country's south-east as part of a wider crackdown on Christianity, Iranian Christians said in messages monitored by Worthy News.

If you are left in an island with a piece of bread and two people all starving to death, your friend before you and your enemy behind you, who would you feed? Would you pick and choose your friend who has been so good to you or would you pick your enemy who has consistently attempted but failed in killing you? Well, anyone who would choose friend over enemy is both emotionally and spiritually immature as I'll attempt to demonstrate. I know many would chant, "Feed your friends - starve your enemies!" That is not just NONSENSE but diabolical at...

The story of a Eucharistic Miracle that happened in Kumasi a city in Ghana in the 1990s. A Protestant man took the picture of the Monstrance during the Corpus Christi procession and after the image was processed, an image of Jesus Christ was the result. Find the article over here Eucharistic Miracle: Face of Jesus captured by a Skeptic

A collection of some 'miraculous' photographs of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Well, as Saint Augustine of Hippo says, "Unless you believe, you will not understand." These are pictures taken by various people including apparitions witnessed by millions in Egypt including the former president of Egypt, Abdul Nasser. See post at Miraculous Photos of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Apparitions in Zeitoun Egypt                                                                                                .Our Ladyof Lighttrue photo  Apparitions of Our Lady of Light, Zeitoun, Egypt Our Lady appeared in Zeitoun hovering above Saint Mark's Coptic Church, a shrine dedicated to the Holy family, which according to tradition rested in that place during their stay in Egypt.The apparitions, ( hundreds in number ) took place at night, and Our Lady was always surrounded by light.The Coptic Church celebrates 32 feast days in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The last day falls on 2 April, and commemorates Our Lady under her title, Our Lady of Light.At 8:30 p.m. on...

Anders Behring Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto shows that the Norwegian terrorist’s depiction as a “right-wing, Christian fundamentalist” by many in the mass media may be as inaccurate as that of their so-called “Christian” bomber, Oklahoma City terrorist Tim McVeigh. Breivik was charged with two violent attacks in and around Oslo: a bombing in the capital that killed seven, and a shooting spree at a youth political retreat that killed more than 80, but though he was called a Christian for these most unChristian acts, Breivik’s own words reveal he isn’t very religious and actually prefers science over scripture.

Although security forces found and disabled two cars packed with explosives in northern Iraq Tuesday, a third exploded outside a Christian church, wounding 23 people.

I got to thinking while driving last night about atheists, atheism and why they tend to get so animated about nothing. After all, God doesn't exist, right?

Divorce is a cancer on the soul of families that metastises in the hearts of children. It robs joy, consumes laughter and suffocates dreams. I know. I’ve seen it in the face of my little girl.

I wonder how many of our friends who’ve come to that dark crossroads in their lives and decided upon the path to death would not have chosen it had we been more purposeful or available to them. I’ve learned of or known several people over the past couple years who have made the decision to prematurely end their lives, based apparently upon utter hopelessness. I learned of one this morning — a teenage girl who last week reached the end of hope and saw nothing good on the other side.

Last night I had the opportunity for the first time to see the Passion Play. Aside from the positive message presented in the play, what struck me most about the performance was the number of local actors involved and the ramifications that such a number of Christians equipped to share Christ’s message could have on the local region.

Imagine you are an American military veteran who has been injured in combat overseas. You have seen some of your friends cut down in the bloom of their youth, giving “the last full measure of devotion” for their cohort and their country. Throughout your network of friends and family, you know of countless others who have sacrificed, whether of themselves or through a loved one, to serve their country and the values upon which it was founded. Now you lie in a bed at a Veteran’s Affairs hospital in downtown Los Angeles, trying to work through your loss of...

For those not fully confident that salvation is free and we must live "sin free", please define "sin" for me in such a way as we may then make a full list of sins of commission and omission and live my life accordingly. You will bog down in a sea of ambiguity. For example ,"Thou shalt not kill" .Does this apply in self defense? War? Accident?Thou shalt not bear false witness? How many lies do you tell each day? "I'm fine, thank you " when your not. "I'll get right on it!" (when you won't). How about stealing? Oh,well ,you...

"The drama that takes place under the cross of Christ is a universal drama", he said. "It involves all mankind before God, Who reveals himself for what He is: Love."

...he sins of Christians throughout the centuries have fractured the body of Christ. "The great danger is that we get use to this situation of division, taking it simply as a fact."

he full gravity of the current economic crisis, discussed these past few days at the "G20 Summit", should be understood. This crisis has numerous causes and is a strong reminder of the need for a profound revision of the model of global economic development (cf. Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, n. 21). It is an acute symptom which has been added to a long list of many far more serious and well-known problems, such as the lasting imbalance between wealth and poverty, the scandal of world hunger, the ecological emergency and the now widespread problem of unemployment.

When the issue of Abortion arises, there are essentially two camps – Pro-Choice and Pro-Life. Contemporary politics, or at least common uses of the labels, would lead you to believe the following about the two groups. The first believes in a woman’s right to have dominion over her own body and hence, believes she has the “choice” to determine if she will carry a pregnancy to term. The latter believes that life begins at conception, and that any subsequent taking of that life is the moral and/or legal equivalent to murder. The second camp is the home of the group...

VATICAN CITY, 8 DEC 2009 - "The mother of God teaches us to open ourselves to the action of God, to see others as he sees them -- starting from the heart. And to look upon them with mercy, with love (and) with infinite tenderness, especially those who are most alone, despised and exploited," the pope said... read more...

I hate to come across as a "square" but it is nearly impossible to go anywhere in the United States of America today and not sense the oppressive sexual culture in which we live. It is a subliminal, hypnotic barrage of immoral images, lewd language and erotic enticements that consciously and subconsciously affects our entire nation. It has gone so far that we have become a base and morally callous people. Where can anyone go today without being continuously bombarded by the “24/ 7” decadent drumbeat of this licentious orchestra? We have indeed become a “Red Light District” nation! This...

This wonderful prayer from the Early Church Father and Pope Clement is an expression of the depth of knowledge he had of his God and Redeemer and the care he had for his flock....read more...

"Consider yourself kicked in the ass," said Pastor Bruce Edwards in the sanctuary of Allison Park Church - right after I went to him for prayer. I needed it, the kick more so than the prayer. I expected him to burst forth with a full-fiery Pentecostal blizzard of petition. But Bruce had other ideas. Bruce wanted to do even more than pray. Fortunately, I trust Bruce. In fact, I trust him so much that I revealed my bipolar diagnosis to him at a time when I was still likely to explode at any moment. I was out of work and...

... Is there a God who can bring the rain, heal or cure people, or make those little white lotto balls fall into just the right place for you? If you don't believe in God, or any gods, then the answer would be a resounding "No!" because God doesn't exist so expecting a non-existant entity to do anything for you is simply a waste of time. If you do believe in God, or multiple gods, then the answer would be a definite "Yes!" because either you have heard stories or had a personal experience which caused you to believe. ......

The American Mainstream media and Washington D.C. are dominated today by a Leftist, Secular and Godless mindset. That isn't any secret. Not even the unregenerate (unbelievers) will disagree with that. As Lucifer (Satan) controls more and more of the Media today - with these Godless surrogates and talking heads - his agenda is moving along quite rapidly and increasing exponentially. Never in the history of this nation has the Main Stream Liberal Media pushed and supported a President’s leftist agenda as this one we have today. Today Lucifer’s American Leftist Media is ram-rodding, bulldozing, redefining and cultivating the U.S. ground...

Today's Gospel and the quote from St. Bede are very relevant to us in today's Church. In our falling economy we are seeing more people impacted and more of the faithful becoming worn out by "rowing against the wind"... read more...

" At twelve I loved David, for me it was like a pop star, the words of the psalms were poetry and he was a star. It must be said that, before becoming a prophet and king of Israel, David had to suffer a lot was went into exile and then fell into a cave where he made terms with himself and with God And that is where the soap opera gets interesting: David composed his first blues ". read more...

Even before Nancy Pelosi, Iron Maiden of the House Of Representatives, dominated the most manly of men in her San Francisco congressional district, where there is a high likelihood that the men are actually women, she began life as a parochial-school-trained girly-girl, having just loose familial connections to the Mafia Don, Lucky Luciano. I am only guessing, that when growing up, Nancy P. modeled herself after two famous personalities of her time - as can be noticed by her current quirky behavior: Liberace, the gay piano player, and Evita Peron the infamous dominatrix of Argentina. Her girlish ,Liberace-like giggles in...

Today's Gospel : John 1:1-18 In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him...read more...

God’s Son did not disdain to become a baby. Although with the passing of the years he moved from infancy to maturity, and although with the triumph of his passion and resurrection all the actions of humility which he undertook for us were finished, still today’s festival renews for us the holy childhood of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary. In adoring the birth of our Saviour, we find we are celebrating the commencement of our own life, for the birth of Christ is the source of life for Christian folk, and the birthday of the Head is the birthday...

Simeon's prayer is a hallmark of the Catholic Church's night prayers (compline). In it is the assurance that we have seen our salvation and if we were to pass in the night it would be well. read more...

VATICAN CITY – A woman jumped the barriers in St. Peter's Basilica and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI as he walked down the main aisle to begin Christmas Eve Mass on Thursday. The 82-year-old pope quickly got up and was unhurt, said a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini. Footage aired on Italy's RAI state TV showed a woman dressed in a red, hooded sweat shirt vaulting over the wooden barriers and rushing toward the pope before being swarmed by bodyguards. Read more.