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Friday, August 27, 2010
The Love of Wisdom (philo-sophy)
Wisdom is one of the seven gifts of the God’s Holy Spirit poured upon the man and woman of Faith. Wisdom is the gift which brings order to all things including the other six (6) gifts (Fear of the Lord, Piety, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, & Fortitude).
Wisdom is the gift which enables man and woman of faith to grasp the purpose of things as intended by their Creator.
O God of my fathers and Lord of mercy, who made all things by your word, and by your wisdom formed man to have dominion over all creatures that you have made and to rule the world in holiness and righteousness and to pronounce judgment in the uprightness of soul, grant to me the Wisdom that sits by your throne and do not reject me from among your servants… Book of Wisdom 9:1-6, 9-11.
A person with the Gift of Wisdom recognizes the order and purpose of earthly and heavenly things and judges what is good and what is evil accordingly:
• And God said: “Let us make man in our own image and likeness.” – Genesis 1:24.
• “God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth.” – Genesis 1:28
• “A man shall leave father and mother and cling to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” –Genesis 2:24.
• “Let your love be sincere, hate what is evil and cling to what is good.” – Romans 12:9.
• “Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ Crucified: a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” – 1 Corinthians 1:22.
Without this Gift of Wisdom, man and woman are prone to live in foolishness: both in theory and in practice:
• Foolishness in knowledge, understanding, and the practice of counsel.
• Foolishness in fear of the lord and the practice of piety.
• And foolishness in the practice of fortitude.
For the fool perseveres in acts of chaos, invents gods, and practices superstition and witchcraft, and judges things based upon mal-adjusted emotions leading to the malpractice of judgment: teaching GOOD to be EVIL and EVIL to be GOOD.
For into a malicious soul, wisdom shall not enter; nor dwell in the body that is subjected by sin. For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and be remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not live in the soul of man when unrighteousness enters in (Wisdom 1: 4).
The Gift of Wisdom comes to those moved by the Holy Spirit to Faith in God. [Reference Topic on Faith]
The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and there is good understanding to all that practice it. Piety towards God is the beginning of discernment; but the ungodly will not tolerate wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1: 7).
The Gift of Wisdom is manifested within the Deposit of Faith (Oral and Written) which is preserved and guarded by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ and His Cross is the Wisdom of God, foolishness to the Greek and a Scandal to the Jew.
God chose us in Jesus Christ before the world began to be holy and blameless in his sight. He predestined us to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ; such was his will and pleasure, that all might praise the glorious favor he has bestowed upon us in his beloved son. In him and through his blood, we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven so immeasurable generous is God’s favor to us. God has given us the wisdom to understand fully the mystery, the plan he was to decree in Christ. A plan to be carried out in Christ, in the fullness of time, to bring all things into one in him, in the heavens and on earth (Ephesians 1:3-10).
So the purpose and ordering of human life is to live in a holy communion with God as adopted sons and daughters – and that is what we are in Christ Jesus. To order one’s life as an adopted son and a daughter of God is to Live and Love Wisdom.
Virtue, Justice, and Wisdom
On the natural level, Virtue is the art and practice of governing one’s actions, and the ordering of one’s passions. On a supernatural level, Virtue is the art and practice of goodness. God’s Grace and Gifts build upon nature not destroying it. As such, through God’s Grace and Gifts, virtue becomes the art of governing and ordering one’s passions for good and not vice or evil. A person of faith is tutored in the practice of virtue while reading Sacred Scripture and the Lives of the Saints. The heroes of virtue are the Saints- who received the Crown of glory at journey’s end.
There are moral virtues and theological virtues. Four pivotal virtues for moral behavior and the governance of societies are prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude.
The three theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity.
The Gift of Wisdom is foundational for the development and practice of virtue. Actions based upon wisdom promote virtuous habits. Discernment and counsel which flow from wisdom promote the common good.
All of man’s actions are moral and directed towards either virtue or vice. Conscience - the director of man’s actions - is the exercise of judgment based upon knowledge. But what knowledge: God’s Revelation, the World, the Flesh, or the pomp’s of the Devil?
It is sophomoric to say, “My actions are based upon my conscience” as if conscience was the canon for validating one’s actions. Conscience - if free and truly exercised - is objectively the cause of one’s action and as such the condition for being properly judged. If conscience is not free, then the cause of one’s actions is subjective.
Jesus said: “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but since you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:41).
Without the Gift of Wisdom, vice builds upon the foundation of foolishness. Actions based upon foolishness promote habits which are destructive. Discernment and counsel which flow from vice, decrease the common good and society moves toward moral anarchy.
If there was a phrase which most aptly described the “progressive movement” in the Church and in Secular Society it would be “vice progressing towards moral anarchy.” Moral anarchy flows from rebellion, which is described in Divine Revelation as Witchcraft (Sorcery). It is the opposite of Order, the opposite of Wisdom, the opposite of Divine Revelation and Satanic in origin. The fruit of the progressive movement in the Church is evidenced by the very many and costly scandals.
The Gift of Wisdom is critical for those who teach, judge, and govern in the home and in secular and religious society. Without wisdom the foundations of the soul, family life, communities, and societies will crumble and be destroyed.
In the Lord I have taken refuge. How can you say to my soul: Fly like a bird to the mountain. See the wicked bracing their bow; they are fixing their arrows on the string to shoot upright men in the dark. FOUNDATIONS ONCE DETROYED, WHAT CAN THE JUST DO (Psalm 10)?
The key stratagem to the progressive movement is teach and to legislate that there is no purpose for things, no virtue, all ideas are equally valid, nothing can be distinguished, and the bulwark of their abuse is “Civil Rights.” Observe those who speak of justice and civil rights, while at the same time despise moral truth, natural law, and Divine Revelation. Strange to hear from people who lie and break the laws of entry into this Country, the cry for Civil Rights.
How does Justice support Virtue?
“God said let there be light and saw that is was good.”
Example 1: On a natural level, the function and therefore the virtue of the eye is to see. The doctor who supports the virtue of the eye practices justice. The doctor who diminishes the virtue of the eye practices in-justice. Read Plato’s Republic!
Example 2: On a supernatural level, the virtue of the eye is to see the beauty and providence of God in all His works and to be a window of goodness and truth to the soul. In order to Glorify God with one’s eyes, the sense(s) need to sanctify. The person who teaches the soul to sanctify their senses by fasting, prayer, and the reading of good literature practices justice.
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent and praise worthy – think about such things (Philippians 4:8).
The person who diminishes beauty with profanity, stirring up the concupiscence of the eye with lust, greed, avarice, murder, sloth, anger, and deception practices in-justice. The person who strives against sanctity and sanctification practices in-justice.
NOTE: Religious teaching which diminishes the role of sanctification as something peripheral to salvation and justification promotes in-justice.
Virtue, Goodness, and Human Life
My friend once asked me, what is the nature of good? The rich man called Jesus good and Jesus replied: “Why do you call me good, only God is good. “
God is the origin and nature of good. If one’s actions have their origins in God then they are good. Since God is immutable, then good is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). As such, what was good in the beginning (Genesis) remains good and what was identified as not good is today (SHOCKING) not good.
Creation, order, generation of life, marriage between man and woman, fruitfulness in marriage, friendship with God and obedience to God’s word were identified as good in the beginning.
In a phenomenological sense, when Adam and Eve put their hands to the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” what they set into motion was the disastrous notion that THEY (WE) COULD DISCERN AND KNOW GOOD AND EVIL APART FROM GOD’s WORD. Is that not the perverted standard for today, the litmus test for progressive and unwise judgment?
God is love (agape) and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. This love is good for its origins are in God: Love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7).
But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5: 22).
In opposition, we find disordered love to be impatient, unkind, envies, boasts, is proud, is rude, is self-seeking, and is easily angered, it keeps record of wrong, delights in evil and rejoices with the lie. Evil always destroys, always promotes infidelity, and always leads to despair, and always takes the easy road towards death.
The acts of sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live this will not inherit the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5: 19).
I responded to my friend: “God is good, Human Life is good, and everything which seeks to promote and preserve human life from natural conception to natural death is good. Everything which deviates from this simple path leads to eventual evil and is not good. Tiny and continual steps away from the proven and revealed path of goodness, eventually leads to being lost.”
So simple and yet apart from God’s Gift of Wisdom and His Word impossible to grasp and live.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
RE: HOPE
I just read Larry's post on hope. Yes, we must always remember that hope is a virtue, one of the three theological virtues, and the most misunderstood and under appreciated. Hope has always been difficult for me. Only in the last few years, as I approach old age, have I begun to understand how important it is. How I wish they still taught about virtue and vice in school. Faith, hope, and charity, the theological virtues. Prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, the cardinal virtues. How can you cultivate something if you do not even know its name, what it is, how to define it?
Alas, virtues are mostly derided in our culture. Try talking to the average American about chastity and see how they react. They will think you are a religious nut case, if they have ever even heard the word.
Still, since hope is a virtue, we must seek it wherever we can, and nourish it, cherish it. Thank you for your post.
And I completely understand what you mean when you say that "violence is the modern cultural method for preventing and spacing the birth of children."
But I would not always have understood that statement so well, not even after my conversion to the Catholic faith.
When I think how deeply I was immersed in the ocean of lies that is the culture of death, it gives me, paradoxically, hope. Hope because I now begin to understand, comprehend. Only now, as I approach 60 years of age. Yes, when I converted at age 23 in 1974, God gave me the grace of contrition for my sins and a fervent desire to believe all that the Catholic Church holds and teaches. When he sent me my husband I wanted to live the sacrament and promised to accept children from God. We practiced natural family planning and had three wonderful children. I thought abortion was a great evil and sometimes sent money to pro-life groups like Human Life International. But I never went beyond that.
The culture of death is our ocean, the ocean of lies that we swim in, and fish are not aware of water. Most people in our secular culture are like the blind fish in the deepest part of the ocean; the weight of the waters of death keeps them in the dark. If they tried to swim toward the light they would literally explode. Only an infusion of grace can transform them, give them eyes to see and ears to hear and bring them up toward light and life. If I may continue this analogy, I think that God has completely transformed the living saints, the apostles of life like Fr. Frank Pavone and Mother Angelica. They are no longer fish, struggling to understand the water they swim in. I think of them as dolphins. They are still swimming in the ocean of lies, but they understand that trying to breathe in that water means literal death. They can swim to the surface, grab a lungful of life-giving air, and swim back down to communicate with the denizens of the deep. They are trying to help us grow lungs to breathe in the Gospel of Life.
Thanks to these modern apostles and their use of the media I am slowly beginning to understand the immensity of the evil of the culture of death. But because I am beginning to understand, and many other people are beginning to understand, I have hope. If someone like me can change, even a little, I must have hope. God can accomplish all things. Christ has overcome the world. What does that mean, exactly? I don't know, but I believe it. That must mean I have faith. Now if God would only instill in me the virtue of charity, I would have the big three!
Phoebe Wise
Sunday, August 15, 2010
PERFECTION AND IMMORTALITY: Mary's Fidelity to God
Aug. 15, 2010 --When God created man he was perfect and when something is perfect it does not corrupt. Therefore, man was immortal in body and soul. When Eve came along she was perfect as well, that is, before sin came into the picture and everything changed. Perfection is a perfect blending of our will with God’s We abuse our free will when we pull away from God’s will to do our own will; thus our free will is corrupted and this deterioration seeps into our life and our body is no longer immortal.
When Christ took on a human body, though He is perfect, He allowed His Body to die so it could live in a most mysterious manner in the Holy Eucharist.
Next to Christ, Mary was the most perfect in body and soul. She lived on earth, not in an earthly paradise, but in a spiritual paradise. Even before the Annunciation her soul welcomed the life of God within it and her soul never lost that Life—God’s will was Mary’s will. Because of this, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven by his infallible pronouncement in these words: “After frequently praying to God and invoking the light of the Spirit of truth, to the glory of Almighty God Who enriched the Virgin Mary with special favor, to the honor of her Son, the immortal King of ages and victor over death and sin, to the increase of the glory of His august Mother, to the joy and exultation of the whole Church, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and by Our own authority, We declare and define as a revealed dogma that the immaculate Mary ever Virgin, Mother of God, when she had finished the course of her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven.”
By Mary’s fidelity to God she remained perfect and therefore, God granted her, according to His creation of the perfect man, immortality of both body and soul.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
The Loss of Hope in an Obama Era
Hope is the Theological Virtue of Expectation; an expectation rooted in a Promise. For the Christian, Hope is rooted in the Promises of Christ, such as the promises found within the Sermon on the Mount. Hope as a virtue is like a muscle, and the exercise for this muscle is fidelity to one's calling in life. Hope brings about the freedom from self. The opposite of Hope is despair which is rooted in self and self desecration and self destruction.
Despair (spiritual not chemical) is the opposite of Hope, and is the fruit of presumption and lack of fidelity. Lucifer exists in absolute despair...something to be grasped. A person of Hope gives of themselves. A person in despair demands things for themselves, like entitlement on steroids or like pundits who demand and call people bigots for seeing the wisdom and natural and created reality of male-female marriage for which there is the potential of real giving.
Soren Kierkegaard (Danish Philosopher) wrote a gifted essay titled: "Sickness unto Death." In this essay he describes hope and despair in relation with promise and fidelity. Pagan society (before Christianity) lived in a form of despair as evidenced by the practice of suicide so often clothed under a cultural virtue of dignity, and abhorrence for suffering.
But pagan society was searching for a promise.
With the Gospel and the promise of Redemption and Resurrection, the culture changed and Hope entered the vocabulary as a Theological Virtue. 400 years after the confusion stemming from the "Reformation" things have reversed. Society is in a worse state; now advocating for a culture of bareness, a promise of wealth without children, and commitments which cannot produce children naturally, and of course the promise of a safer planet which will be populated by people living in despair and demanding entitlement provided by the STATE which will be a tyrant run by leaders in greater despair.
Despair inflames fear which so often leads to violence. Violence let it be known is the modern cultural method for preventing and spacing the birth of children.
Sounds like HELL.
Monday, August 9, 2010
From Ground Zero to the Supreme Court Bench
America got hit with three (3) punches this week from New York, San Francisco, and Washington DC. NYC leadership demonstrated no sense of remorse over 9/11 by supporting the building of a Mosque to near Ground Zero – which was made possible by multiplicity of persons who attended Mosques; A Fellow Practicing Judge in San Francisco rules that 7 million people who supported Proposition 8 in CA did so solely upon “Moral and Religious Sentiments” and therefore their actions were Unconstitutional even if the process was Constitutional; and the U.S. Senate gave a pass to an unqualified professor, who will now sit on the Supreme Court for Life and shows every sentiment to Rule with the Judge in SF Against Prop 8.
NY Mayor Bloomberg - who know for certain that a Tea Party Member upset with Obama Care was responsible for leaving a car loaded with explosives in a car in Times Square - is in desperate need of jobs and money and for sure the money will come pouring in from Saudi Arabia.
Oh yes Saudi Arabia that bastion of religious freedom unless of course if you are a jew, christian, bahia, sufi,and shiite muslim.
This Mosque has nothing to do with Mayor Bloomberg’s sense of religious freedom, the 1st Amendment and the sentiments of religious. No! the ever shameless Mayor Bloomberg attempted to legislate (maybe successfully)in NY the law that persons of moral pro-life faith who want to practice OBGYN in NY must first be educated in the finer practice of fetal removal from a woman’s womb. How the fetal (“Latin for little person”) got into the woman's womb no one knows. Yes, so much for religious and moral sentiments.
On the other side of the Country, the CA Court legislated the same sort of Bloomberg-ian sentiments (did I say legislate) when the court ruled that a doctor and pharmacist could not refuse to provide contraception to a minor nor refuse to perform in-vitro on non-married couples based upon their moral and religious sentiments. The one thing the CA Court did do right was identify “Catholic Charities” as a Secular Institution. To bad the CA Court has not ruled that the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) is a Secular Institution. Can someone please tear up those worthless “Faithful Citizenship” pamphlets!
Image someone deciding something based upon moral and religious grounds? Not surprised by this decay of logic since U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun while deciding “Roe vs. Wade”, pontificated that since previous cultures - which were not impeded by moral and religious convictions - allowed abortion, there was room under the penumbra of the 14 Amendment to strike down State Laws which addressed moral issues based upon moral and religious sentiments. And besides, as he muses in his memoirs: “It was regrettable that my daughter while in College did not have the freedom to abort my grandchild [sic].”
Elana Kagan, who never sat on a Bench – except a park bench while eating Chinese Food on Christmas Eve will work hand and hand with U.S. Federal District Judge Vaughn R. Walker on the demise of Prop 8 and the 20+ states who have amended their State Constitutions and DOMA. Why? They are based upon "moral and religious sentiments."
I have been asked to FAST and make reparation for the things in my life which contributed to this demise of common sense and sensibilities.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Hope and Change or Expedited Terror?
When viewing the 1973 thriller Soylent Green (in which the sick and elderly are killed and turned into food), I asked myself, "What steps would a country have to take in order for a country to slip into mandatory euthanasia for the sick and elderly?"
Answer: Redefinition of the human person (defined as less than a whale), utilitarian definition of quality-of-life versus a God-centered definition, the legalization of abortion and infanticide, increased government control of medicine, legalization of assisted suicide, redefinition of the family, advocacy of population control, indoctrination that human's are the cause of climate change, governments increasing national and global debt, media demonization of people who resist these trends, and a lack of vigilance on the part of the free and the religious. There are others but for certain we have been seeing these incremental "hope and changes" locally and globally for sometime.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
EYE HAS NOT SEEN, EAR HAS NOT HEARD . . .
The Work of Divine Mercy
by Susan FoxMarch 3, 2010 --- Today I emptied the dishwasher and loaded it.
What one has failed to do -- I discovered -- is very important when facing a deadline like death.
It was a very sudden and unexpected deadline as I’ve struggled with illness for 15 years, but I thought it was my mundane stomach that troubled me, and I never realized that it was really a silent killer -- my heart.
Thankfully, I poured out my fears to the Lord and He reassured me. Though my sins were indeed scarlet, He Himself would make up
what I lacked. I could trust Him. So I went into surgery in that frame of mind after receiving the Catholic sacraments of Eucharist, Confession and Sacrament of the Sick.
But don’t imagine that grace of trust came out of the blue without years of preparation.
Eight years ago, I joined a group called the Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy. We study the Diary of St. Faustina, the Catholic Catechism and the Scripture. St. Faustina was the first saint canonized in this millennium, and Our Lord called her the Secretary of His Mercy. Our Lord said that His Mercy was His greatest attribute. He said the greater the sinner the more he had the right to God’s Mercy. Now I can attest to that. But until two weeks ago it was just intellectual knowledge.
The Church is a bride conceived on the cross from the blood and water that poured from the side of Christ. “But one of the soldiers pierced
His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” (John 19.34) And such a bride has to resemble her husband in suffering. That’s why children are baptized to be priest, prophet and king. Priest means victim. Christ is the Suffering Servant and so is His Bride, the Church. The triumph of each Christian life is the cross.
And so it was with Divine Mercy. Eight years ago I was not attracted to it. But I joined the Eucharistic Apostles anyway because when I looked at my daily experiences and asked God, “What are you teaching me?” the word mercy came up repeatedly.
In fact, it seemed like His plan of Mercy would play a big role in my life – whether I liked it or not.
So for eight years I went to a weekly meeting to discuss God’s mercy. I read St. Faustina’s Diary multiple times, all the Scripture passages about God’s Mercy and the Pope’s encyclical on Divine Mercy. Like Jacob wrestling with God all night, I struggled with His Mercy up until two weeks ago.
Suddenly, facing death I understood His Mercy. Yes, I wasn’t ready. In fact, NOTHING I could ever do could prepare me for death or suffering. But He would take care of everything.
I stood at the foot of the cross as the soldier pieced his side and blood and water came out. And I caught the grace of that blessed moment. “Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The Lamb for the Sacrifice
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A Global Warning Meeting in the Garden
by Lawrence Fox
I recently discussed with my diverse array of garden plants: Tomatoes, Basil, Lettuce, and Bok Choy (which do understand a little English) that I had to limit sharing my carbon dioxide (C02) with them since the Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday December 5th, 2009 designated Carbon Dioxide as a dangerous pollutant.
I knew I had their collective attention, when the Bok Choy (which do understand a little English) bellowed a very long sigh of OXYGEN (O2). I am assuming they were sharing with me a very important teaching moment: NO CO2, NO PLANTS, AND THEN NO OXYGEN.
As I left the garden, the tomatoes were giggling and sharing with their peers: “Humans categorize us as FRUITS and treat us like VEGETABLES and they LEGISLATE like FOOLS.”
Saturday, December 5, 2009
“To see at last, to see at last, oh Lord I can see at last!”
by Lawrence Fox
I am not sure why I was heading down the road with my Uncle Jack to the Optometrist but I think it had something to do my second grade teacher Sr. Nicholas telling my mother her 2nd grade son was squinting and making faces when looking at the front black board while sitting 10 rows back behind Algae Lynch and Bobby DiMartino and 8 other more interesting characters.
I can remember a number of similar excursions with my Uncle Jack - who was the legendary singer in the family, something of an untamed Caruso – and while sitting in the passenger seat he would sing and whistle the classic, “Ghost Riders in the Night”. And on that day, the ambience was no different as we drove into the West Baltimore Sunset in his 4-Door Black Rambler.
I had never been to an Optometrist’s Office and I never took an Eye (I) exam. The only I (eye) exam I got at home was when my mother asked “Who made this mess” and I would reply “Not I (EYE).”
I was told to sit in a high back chair which faced a white chart with a jigsaw of consonants and vowels A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y. Well I learned something in the 2nd Grade.
The Optometrist instructed me to identify each letter by going from left and right and then row by row. First with the left eye and the right eye covered and then vice versa. “A Piece of cake, these eye exams are not so bad,” I thought.
I then wondered to myself, “Maybe people who did not learn these scrambled letters in the 2nd grade were the ones who ended up wearing glasses.” Then the Optometrist asked me to READ what was on the exam chart with both eyes.
Now at this point in the story you may ask, “What could possibly go wrong? “
Well a lot.
You see I remember when I was young taking a flight of stairs down into the basement of the grammar school and sitting in Sr. Ascension's music class - a very diminutive nun and the school’s music teacher. She would start her class the same way by having the students warm up their throat muscles by singing a series of words up and down the scales and NOT the standard “Do, Re, Mi Fa, So La Te,” but instead “new, New, NeW, & NEW”
I can not tell you how many times I sat in that class and wondered why she would ask us students to annunciate - in rising scale no less - that her classroom was NEW. It was NOT new it was OLD, and the walls were painted robin’s egg blue, and there were big fat insulated steam pipes, waxed smelling tile floors, and in the front of the room another one of those black boards - which made a 2nd grade boy squint while he sat in his chair behind Algae Lynch and Bobby DiMartino and 8 other more interesting characters.
Well now you can imagine the rest of the story.
When then Optometrist asked me to READ the chart with both eyes open, I thought the real exam was starting and all those letters made up words and sentences, and well, I could not READ them.
“I can not read them, I said.”
I am not sure what if any logic reasoning went on inside the head of the Optometrist after my response; for he was soon dropping fluids in my eyes to make my pupils dilate, and was fitting me for glasses. I was then given shades and then told to go home and to NOT look into the sun for I could go blind.
Oh boy was I confused. I was now one of those people who needed to wear glasses until he learned to READ those scramble letters. This was going to be rough since my dad and uncle – both geniuses – were not able to figure them out since they still wore glasses.
Well I had glasses and some dark shades and my eyes hurt and my head hurt, and I was driving back to East Baltimore with Uncle Jack in his 4-Door Black Rambler away from the “OK DONT GO BLIND CORRAL.”
Uncle Jack –who paid $20 for the glasses was not singing “Ghost Riders”, but instead something like “Get out the way oh Dan Tucker, your too late to eat your supper.”
Well a week later while still blurry eyed, I lost the glasses in some bushes. My mother and uncle were not pleased with my carelessness but for myself all I could say was:
“I can read at last, read at last, oh Lord I can read at last!”
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Praying Near the Holocaust with Moses
Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, came to power in
And so the new king of
Thus it came about that Moses – like many unborn children today -- was marked for death at his conception. But his mother hid him for three months and then placed him in a basket on the river bank. Pharaoh’s daughter found him, and was moved with pity. She saved the life of the man who would someday save his people from slavery in
So I stood Friday praying at an abortion death camp in
How ironic that the Hebrew people, who were supposed to see their race exterminated, should instead see their descendants become more numerous than the stars in heaven. In fact, without a physical country for almost 2000 years and despite a new holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1900s, the Jews have retained their cultural and religious identity to this day. Can you name any other ancient civilization that has done the same?
Then in the early 1900s, there appeared another great murderer. She had the same agenda as the Egyptian King. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and a proponent of forced eugenics, segregation, abortion and birth control, had the goal to eliminate the poor, the feeble and the mentally disabled members of our population – as if they were responsible for their own suffering. This took the form of encouraging abortion and birth control centers among the poor Irish Catholic and the black populations as well as sterilization of the mentally ill and retarded.
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population…"
Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood
And so I stood Friday at an office of Planned Parenthood in
Ironically, the once-enslaved black population remains as 12.9 percent of the American population in 2000, compared to 10 percent in 1920 when Margaret Sanger began to spread her disastrous ideals. But white populations in
“Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all living things that move on the earth.” (Gen 1:28) I admire the Muslims for this one thing: they are obeying God. They are raising large families. And the populations that are disobeying God in this commandment are disappearing. Germans, French, Spanish, Italians, English and Norwegians are going the way of the dinosaur. As one friend of mine, said, “Kiss your white hiney goodbye.” But it’s worse than that. Kiss goodbye to the whole of Judeo-Christian civilization in its birthplace. Islam and its populations are slowly and inexorably overtaking
"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race."
Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood
And so, with such a “progressive” goal, Margaret Sanger ate of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and gave birth to an abomination – a disastrous population implosion wherever her ideas take root. It is said that Hitler and Stalin killed millions, but Margaret Sanger has killed billions and the toll is still rising. Who would believe that the world would be destroyed not by global warming or an asteroid hitting the earth, but instead by the “choice” of its own miserable population, the choice to kill, the choice to die. Why doesn’t the Sci Fi Channel create this disaster movie for Saturday night television audiences?
Recently, we had little ants all over our vegetable garden in the back yard. So the guy who takes care of my bugs came by and gave me a birth control spray. I only had to spray a few ants from the colony, and within a day or two the whole population ceased to exist because they couldn’t reproduce. This is what is taking place in decades instead of days on the world scene with the widespread use of birth control. And the people disappearing aren’t just poor, ill-educated and black. They are white, well-to-do and very well educated.
And so I stood Friday at an abortion mill in
“The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn 1:14) God took on the humanity of man and was born into the world He Himself created. Yet His own people did not accept Him. Learning from the Magi where and when the Messiah had been born, King Herod “ordered the massacre of all the boys in
50.9 million children have been killed by abortion since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973
But behold, God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to
And so I stood Friday at an abortion mill started by Margaret Sanger, and prayed to
And so on Good Friday, Jesus Christ mounted the cross and allied Himself with all innocent victims of abortion, infanticide and euthanasia.
Yet Jesus Christ did not mount the tree of life just to save the innocent. He came for the guilty as well. He loved them while they were still in their sins. He came like Moses to lead His people out of the slavery of sin. He came to cancel the debt of murderers like Margaret Sanger -- should they repent.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk. 23:43)
That was the voice of Our Lord and Savior interceding as He died for the abortionist and all who participate in the sin of abortion be they grandparents, father, mother or legislator.
And so on Friday, I walked and prayed on a sidewalk near an abortion mill in
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
A Somewhat True STory
by Lawrence Fox
Okay so I have been a little slothful lately dealing with my garden in the back yard. I excused the bare limbs and stripped leaves to the hot weather and soil neglect.
But all wishful thinking comes to an end; which brings me to the following life and death event of EXODUS proportions.
You see, one night I heard from the back yard a whispering sound – nothing mind you like the perturbations of air that Moses and Joshua heard while up on Mount Zion and upon closer scrutiny (coming down the mountain that is) found their tribal family dancing gleefully around a golden calf.
No it was a sneaky tinny song something like:
“Vegetables in the moonlight, they don’t run and so we bite….”
As I moved closer to the back door and then outdoors the words of the song became more distinct:
“Vegetables in the moonlight, they don’t run and so we bite...”
“Vegetables in the moonlight, they don’t run and so we bite..”
“Vegetables in the moonlight, they don’t run and so we bite…”
With a crescendo from 100+ SNAILS!!
“Vegetables in the ..Belch.. moonlight, they don’t .. Belch…run and so we ...Belch… bite.”
Hey these critters are singing gleefully about the denuding of my vegetable garden!
Eggplant and basil have become the golden calf for a WIGGLY TRIBE which just had their EXODUS from the Gold Canyon common area into my back yard.
Okay maybe my tribe was related to them a millions years ago but who needs new in-laws and out-laws eating for FREEE!.
Well if anyone remembers the story from Exodus, Moses ground up the golden calf and mixed it with water and made his tribe drink the contents – giving them pretty upset stomachs.
I was not so merciful and instead pulled out thee (3) full containers of MORTON SALT and sang gleefully:
“Dancing in the Moonlight, were there’s salt, snails don’t bite…”
After a couple of minutes of salting the little vermin; I heard a sound from inside the house.
It was my wife singing a different tune: “LARRY WHERE IS ALL THE SALT.”
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Lunchtime Perils of Lawrence Fox
Another Not so Embellished Lunch Story
"Names have been changed to protect the sensitive."
From time to time Mr. Ed and I have been alternately picking up the tab for lunch.
These lunch time socials have been an opportunity to first briefly exchange the formalities of life: "How is you family?", "How are you feeling?", "What did you do this weekend?" and so forth and secondly to discuss work.
In all honesty no one really shares everything about what they do during the week, let alone the weekend, but the general intent is prudently understood and responded to.
After the very brief formalities (a digression), we then regress into the issue of work; or should I say what does not work at work when there is work for which your are responsible for the work even though you did not scope the work.
Another digression is my lack of local restaurant selections - it is always the Claim Jumper since with their menus you can go pretend you at a different restaurant without having to travel to them.
But not today by golly!! We are going to do something different.
Mr. Ed says "How about Thai Food?"
I say okay but where?
We then drive off - Mr. Ed knows the way.
We head down Broadway and turn into a parking lot and park right in front of the TAILGATE BAR AND GRILL.
"Mr. Ed," I retort, "this it not THAI but TAIL -- GATE. Maybe they serve good Bumpers and Headlights?"
Mr. Ed recognizes that of yes wrong parking lot.
We head further down Broadway and pull into another Parking Lot.
There she is, the THAI LEMON TREE Restaurant.
We go in and sit down.
Mr. ED says; "The Service is VERY SLOW here."
"That is okay", I said. "it gives me more time to complain about something."
Old age and I am really trying to overcome this habit.
We get the menus from a very petite person.
Mr. Ed asks "What would you order here?"
"I have never been here (HERE) but at other Thai places I order the MASAMON (curry chicken, coconut milk, potatoes, peanuts, basil, hot peppers, onions all stewed together)."
"did I mention you can get rice." a little joke!!
Mr. Ed asks; "What should I order."
I suggest the Phad Thai. "It seems to be a staple Thai fixin'," - staple like fried chicken and french fries in the Baltimore, so I tell Mr. Ed.
We get our order, we eat and then I ask Mr. Ed what does he think about the Phad Thai?
"TOO SWEET, ALL THAI FOOD TOO SWEET AND OR TOO HOT."
"Oh I am sorry to hear that, I thought you wanted to go to a Thai Restaurant and now you say you do not like the food?"
"NO, MY WIFE TOOK ME TO THIS THAI RESTAURANT."
Moral of the story
So you see ladies, men do not even communicate well with each other.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Catholics were arrested for praying the Rosary . . . on a Catholic Campus
By Susan Fox
“I couldn't believe what was happening. Catholics were being arrested for praying the Rosary and holding Silent No More signs on a Catholic campus. It was surreal. Had my adrenaline not been pumping I would have burst into tears at the sight of it. It was then that Jane and I decided we could not leave the campus. We could not possibly leave knowing this was happening. It was necessary to stay and witness to the absurdity of it all.” (Laura Rohling, Catholic wife, mother and pro-life protester at Notre Dame University on May 17, who was among those faithful arrested that fateful day.)
My little son looked admiringly at
“Yes,
“I want to go there too.”
Without thinking, I said, “Oh dear God, no
He was really too young at the time to remember the incident, I could have just said something like “Oh?”
But I was tempted by the truth. Now I have read a similar testament from Laura Rohling. She is a Catholic wife and mother, who grew up with and loved the “Catholic”
It was also the day that Laura was arrested at
My husband says I should explain to you that the horror of allowing Barack Obama to speak at Notre Dame was not because we wish to demonize the man. In fact, I pray for him and sincerely hope for his conversion. But 80
Why should we pay for
Barach Obama also has supported embryonic stem cell research. He also wants to change President Bush’s conscience clauses, which protect American doctors and pharmacists from having to take action to end a human life. It is getting to the point that in order to practice medicine or be a pharmacist, one will have to flush his conscience down the toilet.
This means as a Catholic, I will be unable to get medical care except from people who are willing to commit murder thanks to Barack Obama. And I’m sure some day I will be one of the people they mercifully try to terminate as I am chronically ill.
Shades of Soylent Green! This is the 1973 science fiction movie about a time in the future when food is scarce and people are encouraged to commit suicide. Then they are turned into Soylent Green – the processed food that everybody eats. The secret is announced at the end of the film by one hysterical character: “Soylent Green is people! We've got to stop them somehow!”
Too late! Already two states –
So inviting Barack Obama to speak at
I went to
I remember my history professor, Dr. Olsen, teaching me about the similarity between the fall of
But
When people were arrested for peacefully saying the Rosary at Notre Dame, their rights were clearly abrogated.
So I learned that in the 1970s at
Attention Catholic parents and alumni, it’s time to rethink where we are sending our kids for college and where we are putting our charitable donations. There may be a secular glamor associated with degrees from