Free Republic

Don’t Name Your Guardian Angel Msgr. Charles Pope • October 2, 2018 • Guardian Angel Protecting Child, Domenico Fetti (1615-18)The Feast of the Guardian Angels, celebrated on Tuesday, seems an appropriate time to point out that the common practice of naming one’s guardian angel should be avoided.A document authored by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2001 states, “The practice of assigning names to the holy angels should be discouraged, except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael, whose names are contained in Holy Scripture” (Directory on Popular Piety in the Liturgy:...

Learning to Name Sins Is to Have More Power Over Them Msgr. Charles Pope • September 23, 2018 • Over the years we have steadily been losing the vocabulary of sin. Saying “I have sinned” is often replaced by “I made a mistake,” or “I made a poor decision,” or “I’m sorry if my behavior was hurtful in some way.”Not only are we slow to say we have sinned, we are also ignorant of the subtleties of sin, in part because our vocabulary about sin is so limited. In this state we lose a certain advantage over sin because...

White Greater Double “And the Virgin’s name was Mary. Let us speak a little about this name, which signifies Star of the sea, and which so well befits the Virgin Mother. Rightly is she likened to a star: for as a star emits its ray without being spoilt, so the Virgin brought forth her Son without receiving any injury; the ray takes nought from the brightness of the star, nor the Son from his Mother’s integrity. This is the noble star risen out of Jacob, whose ray illumines the whole world, whose splendor shines in the heavens, penetrates the...

At the name of Jesus Bowing at the mention of Jesus’ name is an old practice that has since fallen into wide disuse Msgr. Charles Pope June 10, 2018 Question: I was taught to nod my head when the name of Jesus was spoken. I see some priests and congregants do it, but not most. What is the current practice? — Diane Garrett, via email Answer: Liturgically it is not required. This is a pious custom that, while less common today, is still observed by many. This is not only in the liturgy, but at any time the name of...

Naomi Tomky was still laid out on the operating table after an emergency C-section when the earliest pangs of regret kicked in. “The baby was being lifted over my head,” the 34-year-old freelance writer remembers, “and the anesthesiologist was like, ‘what’s her name?’ I started explaining and was like, oh God, what have I done?” Tomky’s now 8-month-old daughter is Tove (pronounced TOH-vah), a Swedish moniker that’s typically said like TOO-vah, but in this case, the expectant parents from Seattle changed the pronunciation for a twist. “My husband has Swedish heritage and then Tova, or Tovah, is a common Hebrew...

White Double of the First Class (When the first Sunday occurring in the year falls on January 1 or 6, or 7, the feast of the holy Name is kept on January 2.) THE SECOND SUNDAY after Epiphany, which recalls the Marriage feast of Cana, was at first chosen as the day on which to honor the most holy Name of Jesus. It is on the Wedding Day that the Bridegroom gives his Name to the Bride, and it is the sign that, from that day forward, she belongs to him alone. The Church, therefore, wishing to honor a...

White Greater Double “And the Virgin’s name was Mary. Let us speak a little about this name, which signifies Star of the sea, and which so well befits the Virgin Mother. Rightly is she likened to a star: for as a star emits its ray without being spoilt, so the Virgin brought forth her Son without receiving any injury; the ray takes nought from the brightness of the star, nor the Son from his Mother’s integrity. This is the noble star risen out of Jacob, whose ray illumines the whole world, whose splendor shines in the heavens, penetrates the...

A first grader at a California charter school was sent to the principal’s office this week after she accidentally “misgendered” a classmate in what’s being called a “pronoun mishap.” The incident occurred at Rocklin Academy, a school roiled by controversy after a kindergarten teacher led an in-class discussion on transgenderism that included a “gender reveal” for a little boy who was transitioning to a little girl.  For kindergartners.    Parents were furious because they were not informed in advance and were not given the chance to opt their five-year-olds from the classroom transgender activity. However, school leaders informed moms and...

Time to expelled anything Lee from America.

“Flog your enemies with the Name of Jesus, for there is no weapon more powerful in heaven or on earth.” – St. John Climacus“Blessed be the Name of Jesus.” – The Divine Praises Among the spiritual weapons in our arsenal, there are none as powerful as the Holy Name of Jesus. The saints have healed the sick, conquered temptation, demolished heresies, driven away demons, and converted sinners by invoking this powerful name. It is the name that signifies our hope and our salvation. In fact, Jesus is the most powerful name in heaven and earth, and Scripture tells us that “at...

In truly progressive fashion, Chicago renamed one of its streets after a terrorist. Earlier this month Alderman Robert Maldonado submitted a proposal to name three blocks of a city street after Oscar Lopez Rivera, the founder of the Puerto Rican terror group FALN, which was responsible for 120 bombings and armed robberies in the U.S. during the ‘70s and ‘80s that killed nine and injured hundreds of others. On Wednesday, aldermen approved the measure honoring Lopez Rivera, the terrorist whose 70-year sentence was recently commuted by Barack Obama. Aldermen also voted to approve an honorary street re-naming for Puerto...

“On the Eighth Day of Christmas: The Circumcision and Name of Jesus” (Luke 2:21) On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . . the circumcision and name of Jesus? Huh? What? Yeah, well, that’s what happened on this day. On the eighth day of Christmas, God’s true love gave to me--and to you, to us--the circumcision and name of Jesus. That’s what our text says, the Holy Gospel for this day, Luke 2:21, which reads again as follows, “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the...

Vermont ditches Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples' Day http://www.mynbc5.com/article/vermont-ditches-columbus-day-for-indigenous-peoples-day/5068016 Vermont ditches Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples' Day Governor signs proclamation changing traditional holiday Updated: 7:40 PM EDT Oct 7, 2016 Brad Evans Digital Media Manager HARTFORD, Vt. — Vermont has officially changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day. Gov. Peter Shumlin signed an executive proclamation Thursday, making the change. Under the decree, Shumlin said a growing number of cities in towns in the United States have recognized the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples' Day. The day is "an opportunity to celebrate indigenous heritage and resiliency," the proclamation stated....

The word trump is defined as a playing card of a particular suit that outranks cards of another suit. And in its use as a verb, it means to outdo or surpass. There is no question that every one of this year’s Republican candidates for president has been trumped. When Trump resorts to name-calling, holds raucous rallies that draw audiences in the thousands, and employs media savvy that makes him the subject of every conversation, he is playing the trump card. It’s a feat that none of the other candidates have been able to match, and not for lack of...

And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the...

Chinese authorities have issued a ban on 22 Muslim names in Hoten prefecture in northwestern China’s troubled Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in an apparent bid to discourage extremism among the region's Uyghur residents, threatening to forbid children with such names from attending school unless their parents change them, according to local police and residents. A Uyghur woman named Turakhan who lives in a suburban village of Niya (in Chinese, Minfeng) county in Hoten (Hetian) prefecture told RFA’s Uyghur Service on Wednesday that the village chief and police had informed all residents about “the list of forbidden Muslim names.” “My daughter’s...

Turns out he really does have a funny name. My wife and I can't say it in front of her without her bursting into uncontrollable laughter. The little PC cop in my brain wonders if disclosing this is some kind of racist "dog whistle" the left likes to crow about. Of course it isn't. My daughter doesn't really get the concept of race, much less actually express it. Yet, liberals will find racism in a turkey sandwich if you give them enough time to find the right "trigger" for it. The truth is I don't even think my daughter realizes it's the...

Now, a batch of Kenyan newborn babies will be called 'Air Force One Obama' in honour of US President Barack Obama's visit to the country -- with some mothers evidently hoping their offspring will be future high-flyers. Already there are numerous young Barack Obamas living in Kogelo, the president's ancestral village, but soon after Obama touched down on Friday night two mothers in the western city of Kisumu took the unusual decision to name their sons after the president's jet, Air Force One. "I have decided to call my baby Air Force One Barack Obama so that we can all...

Last year’s most popular baby names were Benjamin and Emma, but this year the top boy and girl names could actually be the same. 2015 is looking like the year of the gender-neutral baby names, according to a midyear report by BabyCenter.com. Currently, names like Amari, Karter, Phoenix, Quinn and Reese have been making the largest leaps in popularity. “As usual, baby names are reflecting a larger cultural shift,” says BabyCenter’s Global Editor in Chief Linda Murray. “Millennials are an open-minded and accepting group, and they don’t want their children to feel pressured to conform to stereotypes that might be...

"In Touch Weekly has learned that the 65-year-old, who recently came out as transgender, has picked his new female name!....." You can read it for yourselves, but we can do better for his female name. Let the suggestions begin!