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For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.(Romans 8:18)And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.(John 11:43)Being a Christian in this fallen world is a lot like the experience of Lazarus, in John chapter 11. He had died and was already buried, when Jesus commanded that his tomb be opened, so that He could call Lazarus back from the grave! “Lazarus, come forth!”Suddenly the onlookers are amazed, for there in the mouth of the tomb stood...

DETROIT -- Matthew Stafford led a victory-lap parade around the perimeter of Ford Field, high-fiving fans that have been waiting since 1999 for the Detroit Lions to make the playoffs. With the crowd chanting "Play-offs! Play-offs!" as the final few minutes ticked away, Detroit clinched a postseason spot thanks to Stafford's three touchdown passes in a 38-10 win over the San Diego Chargers on Saturday. Stafford appeared to be touched by the face-to-face interaction with fans hanging over the railing to reach his raised right hand. "You could just get a sense of how much it meant to them," Stafford...

Some virtues are by accidents of history associated with utopianism, hostility to private property, anti-clericalism, and other core beliefs of the Left. I can scandalize a yoga instructor anywhere in the world by declaring myself an avid admirer of Margaret Thatcher, though I challenge you to read the yoga sutras and conclude from them that devotees must favor an overregulated financial sector. Concern for the welfare and dignity of animals is such an issue, associated with nihilist leftists such as Peter Singer and local totalitarians who seek to regulate pets out of existence. But one need not believe that animals...

In his devotion to the pursuit of happiness, modern man has forgotten how to suffer. During hard times, it is only natural that we should spend a good deal of time blaming the villains. For the Left, the authors of the present discontents are (a) President Bush, and (b) the free market. Those on the Right finger (a) politicians who favor tax-and-spend policies that will ensure continued stagnation, and (b) bankers who benefit from self-serving regulation that not only insulates them from the consequences of their greed and stupidity but actually rewards them for it with taxpayer-subsidized bailouts. Reasonable though...

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While whining about his incessant criticism from conservatives and Tea Partiers at a fundraiser in Manhattan on Friday night, Obama played the MLK card. Indeed, he compared his suffering to Martin Luther King Jr.'s suffering. From Politcker: Standing in Weinstein’s basement, Obama said his troubles are like the ones facing Cuomo. “When I ran in 2008, I think that a lot of folks believed we elect Obama and suddenly we’re going to fix politics in Washington,” Obama said. “And Andrew is familiar with this, because everybody figures, well, we’re going to fix politics in Albany.” “And then it turns out...

Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts   Jesus's words are in italics.  St. Faustina's words are in regular print.   "Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me." (1693)     "Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy." (300)     

The love, therefore, wherewith God loveth, is incomprehensible and immutable. For it was not from the time that we were reconciled unto Him by the blood of His Son that He began to love us; but He did so before the foundation of the world, that we also might be His sons along with His Only-begotten, before as yet we had any existence of our own. Let not the fact, then, of our having been reconciled unto God through the death of His Son be so listened to or so understood, as if the Son reconciled us to Him in...

Featured Term (selected at random):LONGANIMITY Extraordinary patience under provocation or trial. Also called long suffering. It is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It includes forbearance, which adds to long suffering the implication of restraint in expressing one's feelings or in demanding punishment or one's due. Longanimity suggests toleration, moved by love and the desire for peace, of something painful that deserves to be rejected or opposed. (Etym. Latin longus, long + animus, soul, spirit, mind: longanimitas, long suffering, patience, forbearance.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used...

The “Weakness” of God is Stronger than Satan’s PowerBy: Msgr. Charles Pope There is a line in the Letter to the Hebrews which reads:You made [Jesus] for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, subjecting all things under his feet.” In “subjecting” all things (to him), he left nothing not “subject to him.” Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,” but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor” because he suffered death,  (Heb 2:7-9)Now this text is clear about two things. First, All things are subject to...

GAZA CITY — Colognes by Hugo Boss, Dunhill and Givenchy line the shelves of the cosmetics shop. One of the two women’s clothing stores features a window mannequin in a hot pink T-shirt and low-slung jeans. In the supermarket freezer is Nestlé ice cream and on its shelves are salty and cheesy chips and doodles that well-off societies consume by the bagful. Gaza, famous for its misery, has a shopping mall. It opened a month ago to considerable fanfare, with Palestinian television cameras trailing Hamas government officials meandering proudly around the bright new stores filled with imported goods. For Hamas,...

I just started reading Brian J. Gail’s novel Fatherless about men in the “post-Pill generation.� I’m only a chapter in, but I was just struck by a paragraph at the very end of Ch. 1 that reminded me of something I’ve been wanting to re-post since I talked about it when I was on Life on the Rock last month. In the book the character Fr. John Sweeney is visiting a deathly ill parishioner and giving her the “Anointing of the Sick�: As John Sweeney prayed, he anointed, and as he anointed, he invoked his deceased father’s intercession on behalf...

Iran’s oil exports plummeted 24 percent over the 12-month period ending last February and energy revenues dropped by $19 billion, according to reports published by the semi-official Fars News Agency. Oil production also has dropped, primarily due to the international sanctions that make it harder for other countries to invest in the Islamic Republic’s gas and oil industry. The Financial Times reported in May that oil production dropped by 300,000 barrels a day.

The NHS is suffering potentially devastating cuts to jobs and patient services as the Government’s austerity drive hits the health service, doctors’ leaders have warned. Thousands of doctors and nurses face being made redundant or not replaced if they leave, while many hospitals have cut treatments, the British Medical Association has found. Despite ministers’ assurances that the health service would not face the same cuts as other departments, many hospitals are feeling the strain, according to the BMA.

Monday night I watched with hands over half open eyes the torturous scene the character Jack Bauer inflicted on the villain of the episode. The bad guy was a Russian terrorist involved with the murder of Jack’s love interest and colleague, Renee Walker. If I had been watching the episode in a movie theater, I’m pretty sure it would have been Rated “R”. It was a gruesome and difficult scene. During the climax of the scene, Jack needs a SD card that the terrorist swallowed. In what appeared to be a psychotic rage, the episode ends with a very dead...

A Summary: Redemptive suffering is the belief that human suffering, when accepted and offered up in union with the Passion of Jesus, can remit the just punishment for one's sins or for the sins of another. Like an indulgence, redemptive suffering does not gain the individual forgiveness for their sin; forgiveness results from God’s grace, freely given through Christ, which cannot be earned. After one's sins are forgiven, the individual's suffering can reduce the penalty due for sin. We believe God loves mankind so much that He made Himself human in Jesus in order to redeem mankind. "For God so...

From the realm of politics I sometimes hear the phrase, "Speak truth to power." It sounds like a battle cry of the oppressed or somebody standing up to authorities and holding them accountable. In the scriptures for the daily Catholic Mass on January 12, we see two people "speaking truth to God." That sounds rough - even as I write it - and not a whole lot like the kind of prayer God might want.

Back when I had easy access to bookstores that sold books in a language I could actually understand (English), I would often buy books on Medieval history. One of my favorites was Barbara Tuchman's history of 14th century Europe, A Distant Mirror. Times were dark back then. This was the start of the Hundred Years War, a bloody conflict that actually lasted 116 years. The war was ruinous to the economy of Europe, as people were taxed to the point of death to pay for it. Meanwhile, every able-bodied man was marched off to fight, usually never to return. Without...

Why does God allow there to be evil in the world? Are we not all created in the image of God? Many ask, and few seem to have good answers, for the question of, "Why God didn’t just create us so that we would never have to experience pain, suffering, and sadness?" After all, He has the power to make the world free of evil, yet He chose instead to make us creatures with free will. Thus, free will was the door left open for the possibility of evil to exist. If we have the right to chose between...

I seem to be spending more time under the broom tree as I get older. I have finally come to see that place as a holy place, a place of invitation, in an unfolding loving plan of God in my own life. It is under those “broom trees”, when I feel the least able to continue the struggle and surrender myself to the One who always sends His messengers, that I find the sustenance I need for the journey of life and learn the ways of living faith. Many people have heard of the dramatic encounter between the great Old...

Tears streamed down the little boy's face. He had just emerged from a memorial service for the crew of the space shuttle Challenger a few days after it had exploded in the sky over Florida, January 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts. "I just don't understand," he told the TV reporter, "why God wanted to take them now." The young boy expresses our tendency to picture God as wanting human beings to suffer and die. But do we really buy this idea? Deep down we believe that God is all good and not to be blamed for space tragedies,...

I served as Deacon at the solemn “Celebration of the Lords Passion”. This frail couple approached. The wife could barely walk without her husband’s loving firm support. As they drew closer, I could see that the husband’s face was filled with deep wrinkles, the kind of love lines etched in the face from suffering borne with grace. His head was covered with unkempt white hair and framed with a coarse white beard. His eyes were filled with pure love for his beloved wife whom he assisted so tenderly as she came forward to venerate the Holy Cross.Her eyes were distant...

I served as Deacon at the solemn “Celebration of the Lords Passion”. I had just carried the Cross into the waiting assembly chanting three times: “This is the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the world,” at which the assembly responded, “Come Let us worship.” This frail couple approached. The wife could barely walk without her husband’s loving firm support. As they drew closer, I could see that the husband’s face was filled with deep wrinkles, the kind of love lines etched in the face from suffering borne with grace. His head was covered with unkempt...

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday the economy is suffering through a "severe contraction" and pledged to use all available tools to lift the country out of the recession that already has cost millions of Americans their jobs. In testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke said the economy is likely to keep shrinking in the first six months of this year. Housing, credit and financial crises — the worst since the 1930s — plunged the economy into its worst slide in a quarter-century at the end of last year. Bernanke hoped that the current recession...

The Book of Job is one of the treasures of the Bible. It reveals a truth about authentic spirituality to every age. The background of the Book is a dispute between Satan, whom the New Testament rightly refers to as the “accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10), and God. Satan contends that Job served God for what He got from Him not for who God is. How rampant is this kind of self interested service of God in some of the Christian circles in our own time? How many self styled teachers seek to reduce Christian living to formulas? At...

Excerpts from THE FRUITS OF HIS LOVE Mother M. Angelica The Value Of SufferingSuffering in any form was, from the beginning of time, a mystery, and a blot on the human race. It was feared, dreaded, and shunned—a sign of contradiction and a curse. Jesus came as man and, because He accepted the consequences of our fall and suffered as we all suffer, He elevated suffering, transformed it, gave it power, and considers the pain of each member of the human race His pain. So much so that when I alleviate the pain of my brother, or am compassionate...

Barack Obama, who has spent much of the time since his election closeted with his advisers in Chicago, sent a strong signal today that he intends to make a decisive break with George Bush on environmental policy once he moves into the White House The move was part of a carefully coded series of messages from Obama meant to reassure America and the world about the shape of his administration, which does not assume power until January 20. Also today, Obama appointed Madeleine Albright, who served as Bill Clinton's secretary of state, and Jim Leach, a former Republican member of...

Human suffering became a reality for millions of Americans as the depression continued. Many died of disease resulting from malnutrition. Thousands lost their home because they could not pay the mortgage. In 1932,at least 25,000 families,and more than 200,000 young people wandered through the country seeking food,clothing,shelter,and a job. Many of the young people traveled in freight trains,and lived near train yards called hobo jungles. The homeless,jobless travelers obtained food from welfare agencies,or religious missions in town along the way. Most of their meals consisted of soup,beans,or stew and had very little nourishment. The travelers begged for food,or stole it...

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia is in the grip of a "man drought" where women increasingly outnumber men and a good bachelor is hard to find, according to new research from a leading demographer. From its founding as a British penal colony more than 200 years ago, Australia has traditionally suffered from a gender imbalance where men were more likely to be more numerous than the fairer sex Down Under. But what was once an oversupply of testosterone began to move in the other direction in the 1990s, and single women in their thirties are beginning to wonder where all the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Demand for big-ticket manufactured goods plunged in August by the largest amount in seven months, with widespread weakness signaling a slowdown in the nation's industrial sector. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that orders for durable goods, everything from commercial jetliners to home appliances, fell by 4.9 percent in August, the biggest decline since a 6.1 percent fall in January. It was far larger than the 3.5 percent drop that economists had been expecting and resulted from across-the-board decreases in a number of categories. The concern is that the steep downturn in housing and turbulence in financial markets...

The Dark Night of Mother Teresa by Carol Zaleski On October 19, 2003, Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) will be beatified in Rome. During the three-and-a-half-year investigation into her cause, no less thorough for having been hastened by the waiver of the customary five-year waiting period, every nook and cranny of her life was studied for evidence that she is the great saint, the Christian Mahatma, that the world already believes her to be. The date chosen for her beatification, Mission Sunday, is the Sunday closest to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the pontificate of John Paul II and to the...

Sunday, April 15 “Prepare for Suffering” 1 Peter 3:13-4:6 By Ivan Parke In the study course Empowered Parenting, Robert J. Morgan titled chapter 12 “Painful Parenting: When Children Break Your Heart.” Similar wording would depict accurately this life, “When — NOT If — You Suffer.” Jesus repeatedly warned His followers to expect persecution: “You will be hated by all on account of My name” (Mt. 10:22a). He also encouraged them, “Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for...

Anything that gets as much space as the doctrine of human suffering gets in the Scriptures should certainly receive careful, reverent attention from the sons of the new creation. We cannot afford to neglect it, for whether we understand it or not we are going to experience some suffering. From the first cold shock that brings a howl of protest from the newborn infant, down to the last anguished gasp of the aged man, pain and suffering dog our footsteps as we journey here below. It will pay us to learn what God says about it so that we may...

Interview With Psychologist Ann Howe ATLANTA, Georgia, APRIL 6, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Many risk factors for depression can also be valuable assets for personal and communal spiritual growth, says a Catholic psychologist. Dr. Ann Howe, a psychologist for 25 years, is the director of the Archdiocese of Atlanta counseling center Village of St. Joseph Counseling Services. She shared her experiences with ZENIT on the significance of suffering and depression in a person's psychological and spiritual flourishing. Q: What is the general attitude of psychology toward the problem of suffering? Howe: First of all, psychology would traditionally have avoided a word such...

O Lord, why does life have to be so hard? I cry out but I hear no answer. I pray to you and ask you to help me be a better person. I work towards that goal thinking that I'm in partnership but persist in making mistakes. I do 10 things and 9 of them will turn out perfectly but it's the 10th thing -- the one that I mess up -- that gets all the attention. Why am I not appreciated for the things that I do right? Why does the one thing that I mess up have to be the most...

<p>In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.</p> <p>O most merciful Jesus, with a contrite heart and penitent spirit, I bow down in profound humility before Thy divine majesty. I adore Thee as my supreme Lord and Master; I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee above all things. I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, my Supreme and Only Good. I resolve to amend my life, and although I am unworthy to obtain mercy, yet the sight of Thy holy cross, on which Thou didst die, inspires me with hope and consolation. I will, therefore, meditate on Thy sufferings, and visit the stations of Thy Passion in company with Thy sorrowful Mother and my guardian angel, with the intention of promoting Thy honor and saving my soul.</p>

Stacy at Christian Persecution Blog has an excellent article today called If your outlook is bad, then look up. It especially speaks to me because my life has been full of turmoil and upheaval lately. My wife and I sat down last week, counted things up, and found that between the two of us, we had had 5 surgeries, 4 emergency room visits, and a number of most unpleasant and painful office procedures within the past 2 years. She has also lost 2 immediate family members in the past 2-1/2 years and I have had 2 job changes. Life seems...

About a year ago, my husband and I traveled across the chilly cornfields of Indiana to have our younger son baptized...Babies, love, and family. Comfort, joy, and peace... But perhaps not so fast... What [we]forget, neglect or conveniently ignore is what we can not-too-dramatically call the Dark Side of Christmas. The really traditional Christian remembrance of the Nativity is not about sweetness. It is about awe, fear, and trembling, and it is shot through with hints of suffering to come. Mary, with a scandalous pregnancy. Joseph, courageous enough to take her on despite it. A birth among farm animals. The...

  BOILS AT CHRISTMAS by Ray C. Stedman The old Christmas carol tells us to "Deck the halls with boughs of holly ... 'tis the season to be jolly," but I have noted, as I am sure you have, a very strange and somber mood this Christmas. The energy crunch has kept all the decorations from the streets, and not many houses are showing bright lights either. It is a rather dull and gloomy Christmas in comparison with those of the past. Most of us feel the somberness of this occasion, especially as we read in the newspapers the chilling...

The earthquake victims in the mountain villages, especially the believers in Jesus Christ are suffering a lot, even starvation. Everything is too much expensive after the devastation. The village people get nothing and they are surviving. The relief items are coming to the main cities and everything is finished from there itself. Most of the relief organisations also centralising in the main cities only. You might have heard that the relief works in the villages started after a week of devastation only by the defence services. The villagers do not get needed food, medications, woollen clothes, treatments and shelter. But...

ARAB RACISM & ISLAMIC JIHAD!!! Are Militant Muslims DECAPITATING Tourists in S. Philippines? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam attack Arab Kuwaiti 'brothers' tortured them horrifically? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam BUTCHER/GASSED/TORTURED HIS OWN PEOPLE? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Do Arab Muslim Militant Hamas/Islamic-Jihad/other 'Palestinian' Militants (& often Fatah - connected to the official 'Palestinian' authority) TARGET BABIES, (not as the West targets terrorists) Yes or no? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Arab Islamists attack French subways? (1985) IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM +...

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." (John 9:1-3 Listen) The problem of pain and suffering has vexed humanity since the beginning. If there is a God, and if he is a good and loving God, then why does he allow his creation to suffer? If God is all-powerful, then why didn't he stop...

I won’t go into the details, but I’ve just been subjected to an unimaginable tragedy. All at once every ounce of pain, disappointment, and sadness I’ve ever experienced was made trivial by the news of this one event. Even now, I find it hard to believe that this nightmare is taking place in reality. Part of me is still thinking I’ll soon sit up in bed with my heart hammering and brood over how realistic the whole thing had seemed. I find myself asking the usual questions that arise under these circumstances: “Why God?” “Why have you allowed this?” “What...

Blood and water poured forth from His Most Sacred Heart revealing why the Yoke is so Sweet: because of the ultimate Sacrifice offered for us, if we are to share in the infinite reward, we must be willing to share in the sacrifice and carry whatever crosses God has in store for us. We've seen the Love He has for us, now it is time for us to return that love. The yoke is only heavy when we forget the price of sacrifice and our role in salvation of souls. Matthew 11:29-30: "Take up My yoke upon you, and learn...

What: THE 28th ANNUAL O.HENRY PUN-OFF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS When: MAY 14, 2005 - Noon - 5pm (SATURDAY!) Where: Brush Square Park, downtown Austin, TX (5th at Neches) Who: Friends of the O.Henry Museum / Austin Parks & Recreation Dept. Why: Jest for a wordy cause! Website: www.PunPunPun.com This should give everyone concerned (and you should be) at least 56 days notice to either prepare or brace themselves for the event. As details develop, and they certainly will, everything will be posted on the ISTPF website. Founded by the late John Crosbie in 1979, the International Save The Pun Foundation has...

GENEVA (AP) - Almost twice as many Iraqi children are suffering from malnutrition since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a U.N. monitor said Monday. Four percent of Iraqis under age 5 went hungry in the months after Saddam's ouster in April 2003, and the rate nearly doubled to 7.7 percent last year, said Jean Ziegler, the U.N. Human Rights Commission's special expert on the right to food. The situation is "a result of the war led by coalition forces," he said. Overall, more than a quarter of Iraqi children don't get enough to eat, Ziegler told the 53-nation commission,...

During Holy Week, Terri Schindler-Schaivo has suffered in many strikingly similar ways to Our Lord Jesus Christ: Judas comes to Jesus and kisses him. Then, Jesus speaks these piercing words: "Judas, dost thou betray the son of man with a kiss?" (Luke 22:48). Michael Schaivo, who has betrayed his wife and their marriage, feigns love for Terri, his wife, while demanding her death. Terri speaks in her heart to Michael, "My husband, dost thou betray your wife with a kiss?" Soldiers mistreat Jesus and allow no one to give him water to quench his thirst. In Terri's room, the police...

The Problem of Personal Suffering (2) Doug Focht, Jr.We last considered that there are two aspects to personal suffering: Those things which happen to us which are the result of our own mistakes and sins; and those things that come upon us over which we have no control. Many argue that all suffering is the result of sin. If by that, one is referring to the perfect order portrayed in Genesis in the garden of Eden, and to the corruption of that order by the sin of Adam and Eve, then I would agree. But such is a simplistic approach...

The Problem of Personal Suffering (1) Doug Focht, Jr.In our last article, when we considered universal suffering, we cited Romans 8:18–21 to show that the Bible gives a logical reason for sufferings and hardships:“The creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:20–21, NASB)Later, in verse 23, the apostle continues…“And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the...

The Problem of Universal Suffering Doug Focht, Jr.“If there is a god, why…?” is a common query by people of all time and ages. Typically, these apparently unanswerable questions are raised not only by skeptics but also by believers who have run “head-to-head” with life's injustices. A newborn infant dies a horrible death; a young man is cut down in his prime by accident or disease; villages and lives are destroyed by fire, flood, earthquakes and the ravages of nature. Why? In this and future articles, we will explore the Bible's answer to those questions. It is the only book...