Brutally Honest

“I don’t believe in miracles, but in your case, I may have to rethink that.”

Via Fr. Longenecker, a story of faith and the miraculous:

Mr. Clyde King, the steady sacristan at my parish here in northern California approached me one day after Mass last year, asking if perhaps I could fill in for him for about ten days. He might be going out of town, though this was not yet assured; he wanted to line someone up, with plenty of notice, just in case. 

He was planning, or rather hoping, to go to Lourdes; he has been battling melanoma since 2009. He had had one surgery to remove a tumor from his left temple, and another one in late 2010 to remove three more tumors just beneath his jaw line.  Aside from that procedure, which excised a portion of his neck along with the cancer, no one would have any reason to suspect he’d had a brush with a life-threatening illness. He looked sturdy and walked strong. His vigor was such that I was surprised to learn he was over sixty-five. And for the moment, all the melanoma had been removed. 

Still, he put in an application to join an annual pilgrimage sponsored by the Knights of Malta, who take malades – pilgrims who are sick enough to qualify but well enough to travel. Not every applicant, of course, can be accommodated, and he was put on the waiting list. He responded with equanimity, saying simply that Mary will decide who ends up going.

Soon afterwards, the radiologist called and somberly informed him that a routine follow up PET scan revealed the presence of yet another and severe (stage 4 melanoma) tumor – this time in his chest, on the right side of his windpipe. Both surgery and treatment would be required.  

With no knowledge of that dispiriting medical development, the pilgrimage organizers then notified him – approximately a week before the pilgrimage to Lourdes was set to begin – that a space had opened up. It was time to pack.

So off he went – hopefully, yet calmly disposed to accept the eventual outcome. He participated in all the usual activities in Lourdes, including Masses and immersion in the baths. He was fully committed to the spirit of the pilgrimage, but to be frank, wasn’t quite comfortable with the protocol of having to remain in a cart while going from point A to point B, since he was quite capable of walking on his own.  

He submitted to all that the itinerary entailed, however, and used later moments of free time to walk the stations of the cross on the hill above town, or return to the Grotto in the quiet of the evening.  

While he was in Lourdes, his doctor – quite concerned about the results of yet another test taken just before he left – contacted his wife in order to set up a new appointment as soon as possible. He was set to return on a Wednesday. So without her husband’s knowledge, she scheduled an appointment for Thursday. More tests were taken that day.

The results came back the following Monday – and the doctor was utterly nonplussed to discover that all signs of the melanoma had disappeared. His regular oncologist would later tell him:  “I don’t believe in miracles, but in your case, I may have to rethink that.”

There's more and it's awe inspiring and hope-filled.

Our Lady of Lourdes, turn to your Son Jesus on behalf of my wife and ask Him, as I do, to heal her and to embrace her fully with His loving presence, granting her hope, assurance, comfort and peace.

"We must not be afraid to entrust him with the burden we are carrying"

Pope Benedict speaks to those facing tough times:

The cry of Christ on the cross should remind everyone that God always hears their prayers, even when he seems distant, Pope Benedict XVI said Feb. 8.

“Let us bring to God our daily crosses, in the certainty that he is present and listens to us,” he said at the Wednesday general audience, held with several thousand people in Paul VI Hall.

Pope Benedict made his remarks as part of his ongoing series of weekly reflections on prayer. Today he focused on the prayerful cry of Jesus Christ during his final agony on the cross on Good Friday – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

“This cry comes after a three-hour period when there was darkness over the whole land,” noted the Pope, dwelling upon the accounts given in the Gospels of Sts. Mark and Matthew.

“Darkness is an ambivalent symbol in the Bible – while it is frequently a sign of the power of evil, it can also serve to express a mysterious divine presence,” he said.

“Just as Moses was covered in the dark cloud when God appeared to him on the mountain, so Jesus on Calvary is wrapped in darkness.”

So “what is the meaning of Jesus’ prayer?” asked the Pope.

He replied, “the words Jesus addresses to the Father are the beginning of Psalm 22, in which the psalmist expresses the tension between, on the one hand, being left alone and, on the other, the certain knowledge of God’s presence amongst his people.”

The psalmist, he explained, “speaks of a ‘cry’ to express all the suffering of his prayer before the apparently absent God. At moments of anguish prayer becomes a cry.”

Pope Benedict said that the same thing should also happen “in our own relationship with the Lord.” When people are faced with “difficult and painful situations, when it seems that God does not hear, we must not be afraid to entrust him with the burden we are carrying in our hearts, we must not be afraid to cry out to him in our suffering.”

The Pope pointed to Christ on the cross, who “at the moment of ultimate rejection by man, at the moment of abandonment,” is still “aware that God the Father is present even at the instant in which he is experiencing the human drama of death.”

But even if people are convinced of God’s presence, a question still remains in many hearts, the Pope said. “How is it possible that such a powerful God does not intervene to save his Son from this terrible trial?”

He replied that it is important to understand that “the prayer of Jesus is not the cry of a person who meets death with desperation, nor that of a person who knows he has been abandoned.”

Instead, by appropriating Psalm 22 to himself – the psalm of the suffering people of Israel – Jesus “takes upon himself not only the suffering of his people, but also that of all men and women oppressed by evil.”

He subsequently takes that “to the heart of God in the certainty that his cry will be heard in the resurrection,” so that “his is a suffering in communion with us and for us, it derives from love and carries within itself redemption and the victory of love.”

Therefore, just as “the people at the foot of Jesus’ cross were unable to understand” his cry, so “we likewise find ourselves, ever and anew, facing the ‘today’ of suffering, the silence of God,” the Pope said. But we also “find ourselves facing the ‘today’ of the resurrection, of the response of God who took our sufferings upon himself, to carry them with us and give us the certain hope that they will be overcome.”

Pope Benedict explained that the “prayer of the dying Jesus teaches us to pray with confidence for all our brothers and sisters who are suffering, that they too may know the love of God who never abandons them.”

Father, let your love reign, especially in the hearts of those facing darkness.

Made in America

By Locutisprime

Made in America? So what does it cost? Apparently less than 1% and in some instances the products are actually cheaper. And if builders in America were to increase made in America materials by just 5%, that alone would add 240,000 new jobs.

I say do the math. 100% American? Would create close to five million new jobs. What would that do to our unemployment rate? I wonder what our President would say to such a proposal.....

Hope

Gerard Vanderleun has found a video you are not going to want to miss.  Watch it, stay with it through the end, pass it on.  As Gerard says, "You won't regret watching this. Promise":

School Portrait (2011) from Michael Berliner on Vimeo.

Now can we stick a fork in him?

I like Herman Cain.  I really do.  I continue to believe he would've made a better President than the current occupant of the White House but he does have serious issues and the latest and greatest simply cements it:

Herman Cain acknowledged Thursday that he repeatedly gave Ginger White money to help her with "month-to-month bills and expenses" without telling his wife of more than 40 years.

In fact, the embattled presidential candidate said, his wife, Gloria, "did not know that we were friends until she (White) came out with this story" alleging that the two had a 13-year extramarital affair.

...

Cain said he did give Ginger White money, but, on the advice of counsel, he said, he refused to say how much.

And, he acknowledged, "My wife did not know about it, and that was the revelation. My wife found out about it when she went public with it." 

Not only didn't his wife not know about the financial assistance, he said, but she also "did not know we were friends until she (White) came out with this story.

"My wife now knows," Cain said. "My wife and I have talked about it and I have explained it to her. My wife understands that I'm a soft-hearted giving person."

He said his wife "is comfortable with the explanation that I told her."

Cain said that in retrospect he should have told his wife about his friendship with White sooner, "but retrospect doesn't necessarily change what's going on now."

He said White never threatened him with going public with the allegation of an affair if Cain did not give her money, "nor was there any indication that there might be blackmail or anything like that.

"I thought I was helping a friend, end of story," he said.

Cain said he does not know why White has gone public with the allegation, "but I have very strong speculation that someone offered her a lot of money.

"I was helping her with month-to-month bills and expenses, and somebody _ this is speculation only _ offered her a lot of money.

"And one of my objectives is to clear my name and my reputation," Cain said.

Good luck with that Herman.  My hope is that in fact you have been faithful to your wife.

Right now, hope is all I've got.

Which industries are bucking the jobless trend?

Just those that are being targeted by the Obama administration:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that the U.S. jobless rate remains a dreadful 9%. But look more closely at the data and you can see which industries are bucking the jobless trend. One is oil and gas production, which now employs some 440,000 workers, an 80% increase, or 200,000 more jobs, since 2003. Oil and gas jobs account for more than one in five of all net new private jobs in that period.

The ironies here are richer than the shale deposits in North Dakota's Bakken formation. While Washington has tried to force-feed renewable energy with tens of billions in special subsidies, oil and gas production has boomed thanks to private investment. And while renewable technology breakthroughs never seem to arrive, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have revolutionized oil and gas extraction—with no Energy Department loan guarantees needed.

The oil and gas rush has led to a jobs boom. North Dakota has the nation's lowest jobless rate, at 3.5%, and the state now has some 200 rigs pumping 440,000 barrels of oil a day, four times the amount in 2006. The state reports more than 16,000 current job openings, and places like Williston have become meccas for workers seeking jobs that often pay more than $100,000 a year.

Or take production in Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale formation, which the state Department of Labor and Industry says created 18,000 new jobs in the first half of 2011. Some 214,000 jobs are now tied to a natural gas industry that barely existed in the Keystone State a decade ago. Energy firms are also rushing to develop the Utica shale in eastern Ohio, and they are expanding operations in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, among other places.

That despite administration policies clearly aimed at putting a damper on fossil fuel development and sustainment.

Imagine what the growth might be absent the bulls eye.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

If Christmas is about what we want... Advent is about what we need

Have you been asked what you want for Christmas?  Have you made your lists? 

This is how Father Mike Joly began his homily today, the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent.  He spoke to wants versus needs, of the dangers and consequences of becoming spiritually fat and out of shape after prolonged periods of seeking what we want, about how history has shown that cultures focused on wants over needs every 300 to 400 years succumb to those desires and hit bottom and how he believes we're in such a cycle even now.

It was sobering in some sense though in reality, when we look around us, not much more than a stating of the obvious.  It does seem as if the world is folding in on itself, the consequence of feeding on wants for too long and ignoring that which we need even longer.

The obvious answer then is to shake ourselves of what we want and to pursue with vigor that which in fact we need.

Father Mike then turned to the Lord's Prayer, more specifically the last half of it, as a guide for us each to focus this Advent season on what it is we need.

Give us this day our daily bread

Father Mike reminded us that as Catholics, we are privileged to feast on the Eucharist weekly, to partake of the Bread of Life, to consume Christ, His real presence each week, to fulfill our need of and for Him.  He then challenged us to make it something other than a once a week event this Advent by taking advantage of Daily Mass or of attending his Wednesday night mass consisting of praise and worship and adoration.  He also reminded us that we could be with our Lord at a time of our own choosing by coming to the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle.  That this is what we need.

And forgive us our trespasses

Father spoke of the forgiveness offered via the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  He mentioned the Catholic obligation of confessing minimally once a year but challenged us once again by reminding us that if we believe we are unburdened of the weight of sin via confession, then would we not benefit more by unburdening ourselves of that which weighs us down more regularly.  That this is what we need.

As we forgive those who trespass us

Father Mike then really began to preach.  Were there those in our lives who've wronged us?  Were there those in our lives who've hurt us?  Were there those in our lives we need to forgive? Then why not do so this Advent as Christ has forgiven us?  That this is what we need.

And lead us not into temptation

Here Father challenged us to face that which tempts us, to name it, to seek God's help in overcoming it this Advent.  That this is what we need.

But deliver us from evil

Do these things this Advent, seek reconcilation with God, forgive those who've wronged us, name and face that which tempts us, set aside our wants and pursue what we need with vigor and... we'll be delivered.  That this is what we need.

Advent is here.

What is it you want for Christmas?  

What is it you need?

Reluctant hero

By allyHM

Hampton Stevens at the Washington Times has published an article with which the subject, Tim Tebow, would likely humbly take issue. I agree with Stevens: Tim Tebow is quite possibly the embodiment of what we, as an American society, need right now:

A beleaguered, balkanized and self-doubting America needs a different kind of signature athlete, a different kind of hero. And we might have found him.

Last week, he did the same thing to the New York Jets and in front of the New York media that he did the week before to the Kansas City Chiefs, and for years while winning a national championship and Heisman Trophy at Florida.

Last week, America got Tebowed.

Tim Tebow is unpredictable and improbable — symbolizing the triumph of will over skill. The values he embodies are an almost perfect counter to the nation’s sour and defeatist mood. He is relentlessly polite and optimistic, ferociously hardworking, and committed beyond all else to the idea of team over self.

There's more here. 

I pray that young people continue to look up to Tebow who always points such fans to Christ. Take a few minutes and maybe you will, as I did, see a small glimmer of hope for our nation's future.

"In God We Trust"

By Chuck aka XtnYoda

Here is some interesting news out of the House of Representatives that hasn't received much play, a voted on House Resolution to affirm our national motto, "In God We Trust."

I guess it is a little heart warming that the House would elect to make such a resolution ... but it is a little disheartening to realize that they felt the need to do so. Not that they didn't need to do so, it is just a rather sad commentary about the reality of the place that our nation has come to.

Following is an excerpt from the article. Go read the whole article to see what was the tipping point that ended up convincing members of our House of Representatives to decide that this resolution needed to be presented.

House Votes to Reaffirm 'In God We Trust' as National Motto

The House on Tuesday passed a measure reaffirming “In God We Trust” as the national motto of the U.S., in an effort to encourage its display in public buildings and send a message to those who seek to remove God from the public domain.

The resolution required a two-thirds vote to pass, and did so easily, 396 to 9.

.......

“We need to make clear to the people in this country that our motto is ‘In God We Trust,’ and encourage them to proudly display that motto,” Forbes said.

.......

Rep. Dan Lungren (R.-Calif.) said the reaffirmation is also important because the word “God” has been challenged in the courts when used on public buildings, such as the new U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, and in the Pledge of Allegiance when it's recited in public schools.

“This is an important message that we need to affirm. It is under attack, and we are not wasting time. How could we waste time making sure ‘In God We Trust’ is enshrined in our national motto?” Lungren said.

.....

Rep. Jeff Miller (R.-Fla.) said the U.S. has relied on its faith in God since the country's inception.

“Yes, there are attacks on God, every day,” Miller said. “As President Reagan​ said, 'If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.’”

Even though this has not made it into any MSM news reports ... it might just be a resolution that is referred to in days ahead.

"I support their freedom of speech but the whole thing is hypocritical"

The Occupy Wall Street loons are costing people their jobs:

Heartbroken Shamil Cepeda was one of 21 employees of a once-thriving cafe and catering business who just got fired because the weeks-long Occupy Wall Street protest chased away too many customers.

“I support their freedom of speech but the whole thing is hypocritical if it makes people lose their jobs,” a tearful Cepeda, 23, told The Post yesterday.

“Isn’t that the whole point of the protest?” fumed Cepeda, 23, who had worked at the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall St. since it opened in June.

She said she supported the protesters at first -- but now, she’s furious at them.

“I felt really, really angry,” Cepeda said of learning she was a casualty of the supposedly pro-worker movement. “I really enjoyed the job. I liked the people and my co-workers. Everybody was so enthusiastic to make the company go.”

Cepeda also had some common-sense advice for the mash-up of protesters and squatters who have occupied Zuccotti Park since Sept. 17.

“If they would just go get a real job, helping real people, that would help a lot more than just taking up space and shouting at people and putting others they claim to care for out of work,” she declared.

Finally... a 'good person' who initially supported the OWS loons heard from.

About time.