Images and significance of various types of trees, as mentioned in the Bible

The sycamore, the “ficus sycomorus,” belongs to the same family of the fig tree. Its name comes from the Greek “sicon,” fig and “moros,” blackberry bush. That is, the sycamore has leaves similar to the blackberry bush and fruit similar to the fig. In Jesus’ time there were a great number of sycamores in the Holy Land. Its wood was commonly used because it is harder than that of the fig tree. Today, it is a rare tree in the Holy Land. We can find sycamores in Jericho and in Gaza. One of them in Jericho is 15 meters high. Let us remember that the fig tree is never higher than 5 meters.

During the time of King Solomon, “the king made silver common as pebbles, and cedars plentiful as the sycamores of the lowlands” (I Kgs. 10:27).

The fruit of the sycamore was considered as humble food. It is confirmed by the prophet Amos, shepherd of Tekoa: I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets. I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was Yahweh who took me from herding the flock, and Yahweh who said, “Go, prophesy to My people Israel’ (Amos 7:14-15).

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“Rough Justice”: Alleged abuse victim arrested in priest’s beating.

“Many times I thought of driving down to LA and confronting Father Jerry. I wanted to exorcise all of the rage and anger and bitterness he put into me,” Lynch told the newspaper. “You can’t put into words what this guy did to me. He stole my innocence and destroyed my life.”

The Associated Press does not identify victims of sex crimes as a matter of policy, but Lynch previously came forward to tell his story.

There have been several other instances of violence, sometimes fatal, against priests accused of abuse since the Roman Catholic clergy abuse scandal unfolded in 2002.

Link

Please check the home page for All Saints/All Souls Day Resources which may not be included in the regular daily summary.

Click to visit the home page

Deer hunters take note: St. Hubert is on your side!

Buy the above sign at Right On The Walls – Masculine Decor

In the late 600s A.D., a “party boy” named Hubert had given himself to the vanities of life, and was obsessed with hunting. Once, he chose to pursue his sport on Good Friday, “a real no-no in that time,” and received an unexpected wake-up call from above.

During his hunt that morning, a vision of the crucifix appeared to Hubert between the antlers of a great stag. Through the creature, God spoke to him and said, “Hubert, if you don’t get your act together, you’re going to hell.”Hubert got his act together and is now St. Hubert, patron saint of hunters.

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Catholic bishops place conditions on CCHD anti-poverty grants … but things are not that simple.

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have spelled out requirements that groups receiving church anti-poverty grants must conform to its teachings in areas such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

The new guidelines come months after a Louisville anti-poverty group and at least five others nationwide lost funding amid disputes over whether they or their coalition partners have opposed church teachings.

Link

Editor’s note:

If the reforms at the USCCB and the CCHD are truly authentic, we’ll know in a year or two (or four). But for now, the wolves are still guarding the hen house.

Talk is cheap, and the USCCB and CCHD have always talked up a storm.

I suggest you respectfully “sit-out” this year’s Thanksgiving week CCHD collection … and donate instead to a proven worthy cause that has not been the source of such extensive, long-term, and largely secret, scandal.

Otherwise, your hard-earned money might still end up promoting abortion, homosexual marriage, and only God knows what else!

Pro-Israel writers almost get it right … but leave mistaken impression about Judaism that isn’t quite Kosher.

…the relationship between the Jewish people and God is one that commonly elicits strong (and divergent) reactions. But what does the Church have to say about this relationship? In particular, are the Jewish people still “chosen,” maintaining a special relationship with God? And, if so, does this therefore mean that they are already in a salvific covenant with him such that they have no need of Christ and his Church?

Read the article

Editor’s note:

First of all, today’s Jews (and Judaism) have no central governing authority, and no comprehensive, systematic, universal  theology, doctrine, or creed. Most cannot even agree on which portions of sacred scripture they choose to affirm … or deny.

This means that, Chosen People or not … many, many Jews are on the wrong side of things when it comes to routine matters of natural law and the Christian faith in general, and that means they are almost totally at odds with the authentic teachings and principles of Catholicism.

It also means that Jews no longer fit the conventional (and erroneous) stereotype that many Christians have in mind … and they haven’t, for almost 2000 years.

In short, Catholics must be very careful when it comes to routinely supporting those who they perceive to be “the Jews” … and/or Israel … since proper identification of the “Chosen People” is (and always has been) very problematic.

Revelation 2:9  I know thy tribulation and thy poverty: but thou art rich. And thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

The key point is that today’s authentic People of God … those “marked for salvation” and presently living under a truly salvific covenant, thanks to Jesus Christ … are Christians. Not the “Chosen People” of Israel.

The most sensitive and practical thing a Christian can do for any non-Christian is to try to clearly make that point, in a respectful, loving, and non-discriminating way.

Unfortunately, many liberal, “Jews don’t need to be evangelized” post-Vatican II Catholic church hierarchs have failed to properly preach and teach this essential truth, to the continuing detriment of Jew and Gentile, alike.

Click here for a more detailed and scholarly response (PDF file)

Know-nothing article touts faulty USCCB voting guidance. Attempts to confuse and water down the truth.

Here’s a few clues:

Burke is right on Catholic policy and he also rightly understands that the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is wrong. Plus … the USCCB has absolutely no canonical authority of its own, in this matter. Only individual bishops have the authority to govern their own diocese.

McCarrick and Wuerl might be right on USCCB policy, but they (and the majority of the USCCB) are are wrong when it comes to articulating authentic Catholic principles, on these matters.

The National Catholic Reporter (NCR) is a liberal Catholic publication that cannot be trusted (as opposed to the National Catholic Register, which usually can.)

Now … read the article.

Seen on the web: “If there is no God, then everything is permissible.”

Liberalism is the religion of those who relegate God to mythical status, while those who (no matter their political party affiliation or faith tradition) worship at the altar of liberalism reject God’s eternal truths in favor of the ungodly folly of “everything being permissible”.

Father Z: Lay people fulfill their Sunday Mass obligation if they go to an SSPX chapel for Mass.

Lay people fulfill their Sunday Mass obligation if they go to an SSPX chapel for Mass.  They can even give some money when they go for the upkeep of the chapel.  While I don’t recommend receiving Communion at their Masses, there are conditions under which it would be okay to do so.

Link

Bishop: Having a vasectomy or tubal ligation is immoral

Speaking to the Associated Press, Bishop Juan Vicente Cordoba of the bishops’ conference rejected a new law that allows Colombians to undergo vasectomies and tubal ligations free of charge in public and private hospitals.

The bishop explained that such practices constitute “mutilations of the body, and the body must be respected.” He said that undergoing the procedures to avoid pregnancy or to have a more “uninhibited and guilt-free sex life” is immoral.

Link

Peter Kreeft: What Is God’s Answer to Human Suffering?

The answer is not just a word but the Word; not an idea but a person. Clues are abstract, persons are concrete. Clues are signs; they signify something beyond themselves, something real. Our solution cannot be a mere idea, however true, profound, or useful, because that would be only another sign, another finger, another clue—like fingers pointing to other fingers, like having faith in faith, or hope in hope, or being in love with love. A hall of mirrors.

Besides being here, he is now. Besides being concretely real in our world, he, our answer, is also in our story, our history. Our story is also his-story. The answer is not a timeless truth but a once-for-all catastrophic event, as real as the stories in today’s newspapers.

It is, of course, the most familiar, the most often-told story in the world. Yet it is also the strangest, and it has never lost its strangeness, its awe, and will not even in eternity, where angels tremble to gaze at things we yawn at. And however strange, it is the only key that fits the lock of our tortured lives and needs. We needed a surgeon, and he came and reached into our wounds with bloody hands. He didn’t give us a placebo or a pill or good advice. He gave us himself.

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Billionaire Melinda Gates evidently has a lot in common with Nancy Pelosi

“OK … which one of you had these unauthorized children?”

After Gates said she’d attended a Catholic high school in Dallas, Solomon queried Gates: “Do you think the pope is hurting efforts on behalf of women’s health by preaching against the use of birth control?”

Gates responded: “I think we need to have birth-control tools all over the world. And he has a different position on that. But for me, I don’t choose to be part of the Catholic Church based on a particular set of rules he’s got or not. I base it on the faith that I have over time having been part of that church.”

Solomon went on to ask: “As a champion of women’s health, you presumably favor abortion rights?”

(Editor’s note: Now for the “double-talk”.)

Gates demurred: “The foundation doesn’t take a position on abortion. We do take a position on reproductive-health tools. Women around the world should have a tool that helps them plan their pregnancies.”

(Editor’s note: The interviewer should have asked if abortion was one of those “tools”.)

Link

Michigan Woman Faces Civil Rights Complaint for Seeking a Christian Roommate

A civil rights complaint has been filed against a woman in Grand Rapids, Mich., who posted an advertisement at her church last July seeking a Christian roommate.

The ad “expresses an illegal preference for a Christian roommate, thus excluding people of other faiths,” according to the complaint filed by the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan.

“It’s a violation to make, print or publish a discriminatory statement,” Executive Director Nancy Haynes told Fox News. “There are no exemptions to that.”

Link

Two terms you won’t find mentioned in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Church Militant

The Church Triumphant

From the Catechism of Trent (Circa 1902-1907):

The Church consists principally of two parts, the one called the Church triumphant; the other, the Church
militant.

The Church triumphant is that most glorious and happy assemblage of blessed spirits, and of those who have triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the iniquity of Satan, and are now exempt and safe from the troubles of this life and enjoy everlasting bliss.

The Church militant is the society of all the faithful still dwelling on earth. It is called militant, because it wages eternal war with those implacable enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil.

We are not, however, to infer that there are two Churches. The Church triumphant and the Church militant are
two constituent parts of one Church; one part going before, and now in the possession of its heavenly country;
the other, following every day, until at length, united with our Saviour, it shall repose in endless felicity.

Why were these terms “cast off”? Was it an oversight? An intentional deletion? Politics? Something else?

How are Catholics expected to act, when they cannot even define themselves (or the church) according to traditional and (at least, previously) well recognized and universally accepted criterion?

I suggest you ask your local bishop to explain it for you.

In the mean time, it’s important to realize that while the Catechism of the Catholic Church is an excellent, well written document, it has already been subject to substantial revisions … so it’s not inherently without error.

Now that the most glaring errors in content have been corrected, it’s high time someone started correcting the ERRORS of OMISSION … which still remain … and are far more numerous.

*** More on this in future posts ***

Litany of the Most Precious Blood: A Prayer for Healing.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.  Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven,

Have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world,

Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God,

Have mercy on us.

Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, of the new and Eternal Testament,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in the Agony,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Price of our salvation,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, river of mercy,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Victor over demons,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Courage of martyrs,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Strength of confessors,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, bringing forth virgins,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Help of those in peril,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Relief of the burdened,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Solace in sorrow,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Hope of the penitent,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Peace and Tenderness of hearts,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, Pledge of Eternal Life,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, freeing souls from Purgatory,

heal us.

Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honor,

heal us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,

Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,

Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,

Have mercy on us.

 

V. Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, in Thy blood,

R. And made of us a kingdom for our God.

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us about angels

(QUESTIONS 50 TO 64)

50. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE ANGELS

1. Creatures exist in a series of grades. They participate and represent the goodness of God in various ways. In the world about us, there are three kinds of substances: mineral, vegetal, animal. These are all bodily substances. We find also in this world the human substance which is mineral, vegetal, and animal, and yet is something more; it is not all bodily; man has a spiritual soul. To round out the order of things, there must be some purely spiritual or nonbodily substances. Thus createdsubstances are: the completely bodily substance, the substance that is a compound of body and spirit, and the completely spiritual substance. Completely spiritual substances are called angels.

2. A bodily substance is composed of two substantial elements, primal matter and substantial form. In angels there is no compounding of matter and form. Matter does not exist in angels; they are pure substantial forms. That is to say, they are pure spirits; they are spirits with no admixture of matter in them.

3. Holy Scripture (Dan. 7:10) indicates the existence of a vast multitude of angels: “Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him.” Indeed, since the intention back of creation is the perfection of the universe as sharing and representing the divine goodness, it appears that the more perfect creatures should abound in largest multitude. It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that angels exist in a multitude far exceeding the number of material things.

4. In bodily substances we distinguish their species or essential kind, and their status as individuals of that kind. For example, we distinguish in a man, (a) what makes him a human being, and (b) what makes him this one human being. Now, that which constitutes a thing in its species or essential kind is called the principle of specification. And that which constitutes a thing as this one item or instance of its kind is called the principle of individuation. In all creatures, the principle of specification is the substantial form which makes the creature an existing thing of its essential kind. And the principle of individuation is matter or bodiliness inasmuch as it is marked by quantity. Since angels have in them no matter or bodiliness at all, for they are pure spirits, they are not individuated. This means that each angel is the only one of its kind. It means that each angel is a species or essential kind of substantial being. Hence each angel is essentially different from every other angel.

5. The angels are incorruptible substances. This means that they cannot die, decay, break up, or be substantially changed. For the root of corruptibility in a substance is matter, and in the angels there is no matter.

51. ANGELS AND BODIES

1. Angels have no bodies. An intellectual nature (that is, a substantial essence equipped for understanding and willing) does not require a body. In man, because the body is substantially united with the spiritual soul, intellectual activities (understanding and willing) presuppose the body and its senses. But an intellect in itself, or as such, requires nothing bodily for its activity. The angels are pure spirits without a body, and their intellectual operations of understanding and willing depend in no way at all upon material substance.

2. That the angels sometimes assume bodies is known from Holy Scripture. Angels appeared in bodily form to Abraham and his household; the angel Raphael came in the guise of a young man to be the companion of the younger Tobias.

3. In bodies thus assumed, angels do not actually exercise the functions of true bodily life. When an angel in human form walks and talks, he exercises angelic power and uses the bodily organs as instruments. But he does not make the body live, or make it his own body.

53. ANGELS AND LOCAL MOVEMENT

1. Since an angel can be in a place (by definitive presence), it can be first in this place and afterwards in that place. That is to say, an angel can move locally. But this local movement of an angel is not like the local movement of a body. An angel is in a place by exercising its powers there; it can cease to apply its powers there and begin to apply them elsewhere; and this, equivalently at least, is a kind of local movement.

2. By this sort of local movement an angel may, at will, be present successively in several places and thus may be said to pass through the space between the first and the last place of the series. Or an angel may cease to apply its powers in the first place and begin to apply them in the last, not passing through the space between.

3. Since there is succession, that is, before-and-after, in the application of an angel’s powers, now here and now there, it must be said that an angel’s local movement occurs in time, and is not instantaneous. This time, however, is not measurable in our minutes or seconds; these units of time are applicable only to bodily movement.

Read questions 54 to 64

Rabbi: The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews.

Rabbi compares non-Jews to donkeys.

“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.
That is why gentiles were created,” he added.

Read it in the Jerusalem Post

NARAL Pro-Choice (Pro-Abortion, Pro-Death) America releases comprehensive voter’s guide.

Pro-lifers can use this guide to know who to vote AGAINST.

Bishop’s Speech Critical of Islam, Heavily Censored by Vatican.

Sandro Magister has drawn attention to the L’Osservatore Romano’s publication on Friday of an eviscerated Italian version of the summary of the speech of Bishop Raboula Antoine Beylouni during the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops. (Rorate reproduced that speech two days ago.) According to Magister this speech’s published form was heavily censored on the order of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Read it

Military Archbishop: there is no blanket ‘right’ in the Constitution to serve in the Armed Forces.

“As the shepherd for Catholics in the military,” he said, “I am continually faced by the fact that priests can be excluded from military service because of health or weight problems or because of their age. Are those distinctions discriminatory?”

Archbishop Broglio also detailed his concern that Christian chaplains, and those of several other religions, might lose the right to proclaim teachings that oppose homosexual behavior. The danger to religious liberty, he said, “is latent in the agenda being advanced by many” under the guise of mere tolerance. In reality, he said, “there is an agenda to force everyone to accept as normal and positive behavior that is contrary to the moral norms of many religions, including the Catholic Church.”

“While the Armed Forces will never oblige a priest or minister to act in an official capacity contrary to his or her religious beliefs,” he noted, “there is the danger that teaching objective moral precepts or seeking to form youngsters in the faith could be misconstrued as intolerance. Then, indeed, freedom of religion would be compromised.”

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