Inspiring New Advent Meditations That Will Help You "Prepare The Way of the Lord"

This is really impressive, friends. Please check this out.
We can expand and nourish our minds through the power of words inspired by the Word, such as the meditations contained in Belmont Abbey College theology professor Dr. Ron Thomas’ new booklet and companion CD, Prepare the Way: Daily Meditations for Advent. It’s being offered, along with the companion CD of the meditations read by Dr. Thomas.
Please click here to sample the powerful words and beautiful images that await you when you receive your booklet.
Last year, Dr. Ron Thomas wrote a booklet and recorded a companion CD entitled Meditations on the Stations of the Cross, which was ordered by thousands of people all across America to enrich their Lent. In fact, EWTN found Dr. Thomas’ recorded Meditations on the Stations of the Cross to be so powerful and inspiring, they played his meditations on their worldwide radio network every day during Holy Week of 2010.
Imagine beginning each day during Advent by taking some quiet time and meditating on words that will bring you “the peace that surpasses all understanding,” and help you prepare your heart and mind like never before for the coming of Christ. That’s how powerful this new Advent meditation booklet is. (And with your new companion CD, you could also do this in your car, helping you maintain peace and calm, even in the midst of rush-hour traffic.)
To sample the audio of one of the daily meditations, CLICK HERE. (File will open in QuickTime.)
To get all the info on this excellent new book of Advent meditations, please click here or click the image above. You’re all in my prayers in a very special way for a peaceful and blessed Advent.

"How I Solved the Catholic Problem" — Confessions of a Protestant missionary to Guatemala

A look at the unraveling of the "seamless garment" faction of U.S. bishops

The Catholic World Report has a good piece on what writer George Neumayr calls “Cardinal O’Conner’s Revenge.” It thoughtfully explores the underlying reasons why the liberal candidate for president of the USCCB, Bishop Gerald Kikanis, lost yesterday’s election to New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan. It’s a brief but good read. Here’s the best line: “The irony of Bishop Kicanas’ defeat is that the fingerprints of dissenters are on the weapon that felled him . . .” 

I Would Like to Show You More Than This

A few thoughts are in order here:


1) The 80s gave us some truly excellent music and some truly lame music videos.
2) Bryan Ferry is a talented singer-songwriter.
3) The other members of Roxy Music, who are also talented, were (literally) overshadowed in this video.
4) That single note you hear when you see the saxophone player blow when he leans back for his “solo” is actually played on the synthesizer, not the saxophone.
5) Roxy Music’s “Avalon” is also a very cool song.
6) Men do not look good when wearing eye-liner and sporting pointy sideburns.
7) Feel free to add any additional thoughts you think are apropos of this.

Battle Toad

“A new toad species with striking red eyes, discovered in the cloud forests of Chocó, Colombia.” Photo credit: Robin Moore/iLCP

Quantitative Easing: So simple even kids can understand it

Courtesy of The Anchoress (And please excuse the couple of bad words spoken herein.)

What's wrong with this picture? A Catholic nun is frisked by a TSA worker

This is the main photo-story at the Drudge Report right now, accompanied by the headline: THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON.


I don’t know about that, but I do know that there’s something very disconcerting, indeed quite outrageous, to see a Catholic nun in her religious habit being ignominiously groped by an airport TSA worker. Note that the picture shows what appears to be a hijab (head scarf) being worn by the TSA worker. Think about the irony of that juxtaposition. How many Catholic nuns do you know of who have committed acts of terrorism against an airliner and its passengers & crew? Hmm . . . I can’t think of any. Can you? Of course, it’s quite possible that it is not a hijab that the worker is wearing. But the picture gives that impression. In itself, it’s an insignificant detail, but given the circumstances we’re living in these days, it’s certainly… remarkable, to say the least.

An Apologetics Primer on Explaining the Communion of Saints to Protestants

Peter Kreeft and Robert Spencer Debate the merits and demerits of Islam

Several weeks ago, I heard that this debate was coming up, but I was unable to attend. Two people I know personally and respect, Dr. Peter Kreeft and Robert Spencer, debated the question of Islam. For those of you who know Dr. Kreeft’s work, you know he is eminently reasonable, always irenic, and a deep thinker. In fact, as I have gone on record saying many times over the years, I regard Peter Kreeft as our generation’s C.S. Lewis.

Here's the most encouraging headline I've since since yesterday's election

Abortion Groups NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Emily’s List Dejected After Election
Oh, yeah, baby! I loved seeing that. And I loved seeing this quote from the same LifeNews.com article:
“’Yesterday was a difficult day’ for the pro-abortion movement, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards admitted in the opening of an email to supporters of the abortion business today.”
Awww.

"Put no trust in princes, in mere mortals powerless to save" (Psalm 146:3)

I find this picture from today’s Drudge Report very poignant and thought-provoking.


Here we are, on the eve of the U.S. mid-term elections, and most people seem to sense the palpable unease that is in the air. A great tumult may be not be far off. Tumult and turmoil go hand in hand. And many pessimistic prognosticators have been prognosticating for the past year that something big and bad will happen in the U.S. that will shake things badly. An economic implosion, perhaps, or another successful terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or some kind of event that will provoke wide-spread civil unrest. God forbid! 


I hope they’re all wrong. I hope that tomorrow’s election will help to stabilize things somewhat and maybe even move us back toward some kind of sanity in our fiscal and social policies. Heaven knows that the damage wrought in the last two years of the current regime’s disgusting bacchanalia of spending and social engineering will be hard to correct. Some say impossible. But I am hopeful. Like many of you, I am worried and prayerfully cautious about how things will turn out. I don’t put my trust in the princes and princesses of either political party, but I remain hopeful. 


Look at that poor man in the picture. He is not hopeful. He personifies the despair that so many are experiencing these days. See how he kneels (kneels!) in the gutter, hands folded and face set like flint in grim mask of supplication as the presidential limousine whisks by him. I don’t know what was in his heart at that moment, and I don’t know what his political views are or what he hopes will happen in tomorrow’s election. But I am quite moved by this picture. This man represents something very sad to me about the way America has been changing in recent decades, certainly since I was born in 1960. His face reflects an abject servility that is very disconcerting when I think of how cringing and servile so many Americans have become in their attitude toward The Government. How bad can it get, and how long can it go on?


What makes me so sad — and angry, too — is that this disconsolate man should feel so hopeless that he is reduced to kneeling in the gutter in hopes that the occupant of that armored limousine will take notice of his plea for help. I see a look that says, “Please look at me! Live up to your promises. Don’t betray me. Don’t leave me here in the gutter after you promised to help me me up.”


The Government (certainly not this one) can’t save him. It can’t save us. It can’t even save itself from itself. It devours. It’s a necessary evil that seems bent on becoming ever more unnecessary.


Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about this poignant image is that it might just as well portend the calm before a storm — one man’s last, ditch effort to get help. And when the limousine passes him by once again, and things just continue getting bleaker, what then? 

Mormons set to build new temple in Rome, Italy

The Mormon Church has been on an ambitious temple-building spree for the past 30 years. With 134 currently operating temples and nine under construction, the group recently announced 14 new temples, including one in the Eternal City. This, of course, is something they consider to be a milestone in their expansion, in part because Italy has been a country where Mormon missionaries have not had great success in finding converts.


The two major reasons for their overall lack of proselytism progress there is, in my view, 1) because Italy is more than just ostensibly a Catholic nation and, 2) because Mormonism is so very, very “American” that Italians, as with other Europeans who tend to look down on America and Americans, are even less interested in buying what the Mormon missionaries are selling than they might otherwise be.

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