More Religious Urban-Myths: Making stuff up about Medjugorje...

Fatima Visionary Saw and Confirmed the Apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje

Really?  That supposedly is what Sr. Lucia's nephew said she said, and he told Sr. Emmanuel who included it in her book, and then, and then JPII knew about it and now Christine Watkins is writing about it!  She says she said he said:

According to Sister Lucia’s own nephew, Father Salinho — a Salesian priest who lives in Portugal — Sister Lucia continued receiving visions of the Virgin Mary long after 1917, and some of these apparitions of the Virgin spoke to Sister Lucia of the Madonna’s continued work in Medjugorje. This report of Father Salinho’s was documented by the French author Sister Emmanuel Maillard in her book Medjugorje, Triumph of the Heart! (Queenship, 2004), a revised edition of Sister Emmanuel’s earlier popular work, Medjugorje: the 90s. Pope John Paul II met with Sister Emmanuel, was given a copy of her earlier book, and therefore this knowledge – between Fatima’s main visionary and the apparitions in Medjugorje – may not have been foreign to the Vatican.
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The coherence is evident. Now there is even a report from a Catholic priest and a family member of Fatima’s main visionary, that Sister Lucia herself experienced apparitions of Our Lady speaking about her work in Medjugorje; and, therefore, Sister Lucia reportedly confirmed the apparitions of Medjugorje through her own private revelations of the Virgin. - Source

I object - pure speculation and hearsay.

If I remember correctly, Sr. Lucia was asked about Medjugorje - she said she had no revelations concerning the matter.  If indeed she had experienced - co-apparitions, as it were, we all would have known about it before now, I'm sure.  And no ma'am - I cannot prove my claim any better than you do.

Lesson Here:  Don't put words on Our Lady's mouth.

Photo:  Supposed solar miracle at Medjugorje.  Whatever these 'signs' are - the Miracle at Fatima was unique and so far unequalled.  

Andy Rooney 1919-2011

I really loved this guy.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.  Amen.

Jesse Ventura - he's just so darn funny!

He says he's leaving "Fascist America"!

So now this country is fascist?  I always thought Jesse was a fascist (along with Ross Perot) - so what up with him no liking it?  On the other hand - I was under the impression that Tea Partiers and Independents like Jesse believe Obama-nation has become Socialist Amerika? 

The former Navy SEAL said he had lost his patriotism.

"I will never stand for a national anthem again. I will turn my back and I will raise a fist," he said. - Source

One of the really big problems with American politics is that anyone can run for office - even those who talk politics without understanding a word they are saying.  Let's start naming names....

Jesse Ventura
Sarah Palin
Howard Cain
Morgan Freeman
Sean Penn
Lady Chatterly
Shelly Bachmann and his wife Michelle
Nancy Pelosi
Alec Baldwin
Charlene Pittman
Tonya Harding
Joy Behar
John Corapi
Hilda Phistter
Rick Perry
Barrack Obama
Joe Biden
Julie Andrews
Barbara Streisand
Kim Kardashian
All Poodles

Don't get me started on allowing everyone to vote.
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Disclaimer:  No one was demeaned by this post - everyone is a winner - I'm singing, "This is my country..." right now as I write.  No derogatory language or names were used - such as scum bag, pond scum, idiot, retard, ass-face, punch-drunk loser, and so on.  No insulting terms were used against Jesse and his ilk - except for 'ilk' of course. 
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We love you family! - Bob and Penny Lord.

The devil in the black box prophecy.

Religious urban legends and Catholic parents over the line...

I just got an email warning people not to watch Glee. Sheesh!  I thought everyone knew that anyway.

Included in the email was the alleged quote/vision attributed to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton that went something like this:

“Every American would have a black box in their home through which the devil would enter.” *

Crossed eye roll...

I had to chuckle, because when I first returned to the Church - before Mother Seton was even canonized - the same vision/prophecy was attributed to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.  Maybe they both had Dish? 

Somewhat related - Here is another interesting factoid:  Before the printing press became really, really popular, St. Rotundenburger had a vision of the devil printing Bibles on a copy machine.  Something like that...

Throw out your kids - keep the TV's!  Just kidding!
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Warning to parents:  Seriously, never ever watch Glee, no matter what the show is about.  Kids in band and choir and theater are queer - err, different - anyway.  They either need to be bullied to shape up or forced into sports.

Have a great weekend!

*Another version of the prophecy: "And there was a box in every home and the people were sitting around the box. In the box was a flame and the devil was speaking to the people from the box and no one was doing anything about it."  I believe this version is attributed to Ronnie Lueken, the occult visionary of Bayside, NY.

Many Trads just blame the Jews. 


What?

Trying to imagine purgatory.

The soul doesn't die.
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I've been trying to imagine purgatory these past few days.  Last night while trying to sleep, without intending to do so, I visualized a huge tunnel, the entrance of which appeared in a landscape, murky and dimly lit, revealing bare, broken trees and fallen monuments as in a cemetery that had been vandalized.  Light seemed to break through what seemed to be a dense fog, only to illuminate figures wandering about, as if floating in mid air,  only to dissipate into nothingness as clouds so often do in the winter sky.  The light that shone was cold and steely, causing the shadows to be more more grey to blue than black.  Some figures became more illumined and therefore distinguishable as they neared the great light at the end of the tunnel, where they were soon absorbed by that light.  Faces suddenly appeared very close to my own, apparently - albeit inaudibly - discussing the tunnel and those souls who left the darkness.
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It occurred to me, as if the concept was a new realization, that when we die, nothing earthly remains with us, rendering us unidentifiable to one another in the same way we experienced on earth.  I'm speaking here principally of our outward status and position, high or low.  For instance, amongst those I imagined, one could have been a king, a celebrity, or a prominent man on earth, yet he was indistinguishable from the poor man, the failure man, the ne'er do well, who may have been standing right next to him.  In other words, human respect and esteem, along with the concerns these generate, did not exist there.  It was no longer possible for the soul to to envy or feel jealousy, just as it was no longer possible for the soul to feel superior to any other. 
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I know we are taught similar things - but I think it is good to meditate them - frequently.
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Art: Hieronymous Bosch

The long loneliness...

I recently told someone I envy that title from Dorothy Day because it could well describe my life as well.

He and I.  I have nothing else.

Last night at adoration it was all about that.  I, alone, with the Alone.  I had to acknowledge I am an unprofitable servant - I have never even done my duty.  How completely alone that feels...

Jesus, I trust in you.

Feel Good Story....

These people steal our parking spots!

Larry had one (a 'feel good' post) and no one commented.

I thought the post was rather discriminatory myself.

What?

Howard Cain...

There are so many topics I could post about today...
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I love screwing names up - calling Herman Cain, Howard Cain for instance.  He's not going to make it BTW... I have a feeling he's a prevaricator regarding the sexual harassment suits.  Any and every person who has ever been in any level of management remembers all the details of sexual harassment accusations that cross their desks.  It is something one doesn't ever forget - be ye the accuser or the accused. 
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Thrown under the bus.
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I don't like politics.  Wasn't it just last year or so when people were campaigning for Bachmann and or Palin and if you didn't like those ladies you were a bad man?  So these two women, at some point in their careers decided to run for office.  They traveled the nation to gain converts and raise money - a lot of money - to fuel their campaigns.  And now the men in their party have pushed them aside and are fighting their way to the top over their dead campaigns.  What a waste of time, money, and attention.  I'm against it.
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Other stuff:
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Did the devil make people gay?  Nope.  Adam and Eve did.  All disorders came from mums and dadums.  I'm against it.
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Occupy Oakland, Occupy Seattle, Occupy Whatever - I'm against it.

St. Martin de Porres

His dad was a Spaniard of some rank, and his mom, a Negress and former slave.  Martin was illegitimate and his father soon abandoned the boy along with his mom and his sister. 
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When Martin was canonized I recall them making a big deal of the fact that he was of mixed race.  I remember thinking that his race made no difference to me - I simply admired him as a humble lay-brother saint I hoped to imitate one day. 
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Read more on St. Martin here.

What I did last evening.

After adoration I stopped at the store.  Parked next to me was a van with a poodle sitting in it.  A standard poodle.  I talked to him but he was watching someone getting into a car on the opposite side.  I wasn't at all offended that he ignored me.

I couldn't agree more...

This Occupy madness has gone too far now...  The atheists amongst them tried to take over the Cathedral in Vancouver recently.  Their anti-Christian/anti-Catholic agenda is beginning to show now.
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O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and for those who do not, especially the enemies of the Church.
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H/T to Ray for the link to this photo source.

Quick stuff here...

Please pray for Dorothy Anderson - she's the adoration lady at my parish - she fell and fractured her hip - I know that sounds like nothing but she is 90 and is still recovering from the hip she broke last year. 
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Please pray for Nan's mum - she had a stroke a couple of weeks ago and needs prayers.
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Thanks.

All Souls

If I make it to purgatory I think I will yell "Jackpot!"  And start singing "Amazing Grace!" right away.  If we make it there, at least we will know without a doubt that we are saved.  Seriously - it will be the happiest day of my life at that point.
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Another advantage is that we will get to see Our Lady once in awhile as she frees souls from purgatory on First Saturdays.  "Like - I think it's really, really mystical down there, ya know?  Yeah."  (Imagine Cyndi Lauper saying that while twirling her gum.)

This strikes me as unusual and a tad inappropriate...

Fr. Amorth on Medjugorje:  "After more than thirty years! More than thirty years! Now if it is the pagans who don’t listen to Our Lady’s words, then that I can understand. But be you a Christian, it is not forgivable. Be you a Christian!” - Read the full story here.
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I remain open to Medjugorje - awaiting what the Church says, in the meantime, I try to live a faithful Catholic life. I've chosen not to say anything good or bad about Medjugorje any longer, so as not to offend God in either instance.  Nevertheless,  I find it confusing when priests such as Fr. Amorth make statements like this.  After all, Fr. Amorth is just a priest - he is some bishop's exorcist - but he's not pope nor head of the CDF. 

All Saints

I'm going to Mass in the evening.
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Happy feast day.

The end...

I ran out of candy - and I bought $50 worth.

Many people took photots - I had left over fireworks to shoot off too. I know - I'm nuts.

It was so fun and I'm tired. I called all the little girls Emily - just like in Devil Wears Prada!

Wait until dark....

Nuns.

Full view of nuns and police tape.

White Wedding apparition

Exorcism is not a parlor game.

I didn't realize that this year is the 40 year anniversary of The Exorcist.  That film really scared me.  I saw it on Holy Thursday while in the novitiate of the Southwest Carmelite Fathers.  I know! 
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I do not like reading about, or watching films on possession - although I have done so, most of my reading has been limited to Fr. Amorth's books, although for the theology of the matter, I've depended upon Garrigou-Lagrange.  I think many contemporary writers and speakers on the subject just may have been a tad imprudent - take the late and kind of strange Malachi Martin, or the banished Fr. Euteneuer for instance.  Exploitative, sensationalized literature attracts and excites the morbid curiosity of the curious.  There is an article today concerning Martin wherein the author claims that an exorcism doesn't always require a Catholic priest.
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Last week, while one of those mindless Disney sit-coms on Wednesday night was airing, there was a scene in one show wherein teens were going to perform an exorcism to get rid of the spirit of a supposedly dead girl who once lived in the house the would-be possessed lived in.  A very little bit of knowledge - even about sacred ritual - could-maybe-probably-perhaps become a portal for the evil one.  Gosh - if Michael O'Brien thinks it is bad to list one's astrological sign in one's online profile - playing exorcist has to be bad.
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After viewing the scene, it occurred to me that younger people most likely would indeed try to exorcise someone or some place.  I'm sure the actual ritual or types of rituals are obtainable online or at Barnes and Noble, or a good library.  In addition there are readily available exorcism prayers to St. Michael which the Church actually cautions should not be used by lay people.  Yet there it is - on prime time television, whetting the appetite of kids to get into the business of exorcism.  And it is not just kids who fool around with this stuff - adults do too.  I've heard stories of adult men making the rounds of so-called liberal priest's residences, performing little exorcism rituals - at one time even attempting on their own to exorcise the Cathedral.  Such presumption can be dangerous.
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Anyway - I think many of us are far too obsessed with the subject, reminding me of Teresa of Avila's complaint, "I'm sick and tired of those people who go about saying: 'The devil, the devil, the devil,' when instead they should be saying 'God, God, God'. I fear these kinds of persons more than the devil himself."  Me too.
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That said, Fr. Longenecker has a more informed post on the subject of exorcism and our popular obsession with it, which may help clarify some of the mystery surrounding the issue.  Father links to the older post here.

All Hallows Eve...

It here!
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Oh the excitement of All Hallows Eve!  The family get togethers!  The decorations and lights!  I don't know what is more fun kids, the preparations and all the pre-parties or the day itself?
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Happy holidays family! We love you!
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More seriously, Mrs. Rudd has a recipe for "Soul Cakes" - a real holiday tradition.

Halloween Update: The Nelson's are putting out!

Change of heart.
This afternoon I ran out to Target to get candy and picked up some yellow police tape at a home store outlet.  Yep - I'm going to terrify kids tomorrow night.  If they make it through the booby traps and crime scene tape - they'll get their candy.  I'm thinking of making a sign for their parents ala Herman Cain - "IF you don't have candy, it's yo own fault Whitey!"  I'll take photos.

Scared to death!
My goodness - I went to the Target in the most affluent area of the Twin Cities and the place was filled with foreigners.  I'm not kidding.  I told two fighting Somali boys that this isn't like their country so be nice to one another - "No killing!"  Most of the people were from India however, and I told the Pakistani check out person that I didn't know if they were upper caste or lower caste, so I wasn't sure if they really belonged in Edina or not.  She said, "Oh those heathen Hindus - such scum.  It's always Halloween for them."
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I'm almost afraid to leave my house these days.  Although I console myself with the proverb, "Charity begins at home."

What?

Halloweenie is tomorrow!  At 7PM I'm going to shave my cat because she has so many mats.