Shamrocks

From Catholic Cuisine we have...

A Shamrock Bouquet!

I Love Being Catholic

(picture of Roman Catholic priest blessing palms, Palm Sunday, Manila)

I really do. I also love being Catholic in Cayman.

We had a lovely procession from the school to the church this morning. First Father blessed the palms. Several parishioners from Cayman's Phillipino community had added palms they had already folded into decorative designs - enough for quite a few of us to be able to share! They were very beautiful, and I couldn't help reflecting on the wonderful Catholic unity exemplified by our parish of St. Ignatius.

When we arrived at the church, near the end of the procession , it was to discover that there was standing room only! We have 5 Sunday Masses and all are full. Today we were overflowing. I'll gladly take having to stand in a full church, over a seat in an empty church!

I am a Christian. I Love Christ. And I Love being a part of His Church.


Palm Weaving

(palms in Mexico)

"Bare Minimum Catholics"

NCRegister:

...This “Get Religion” writer calls a recent Gallup Poll further confirmation that there are four Catholic voter blocs. He identifies them this way:

—“Ex-Catholics. Solid for the Democrats.”

—“Cultural Catholics who may go to church a few times a year. This may be an undecided voter, but this vote leans to Democrats.”

—“Sunday-morning American Catholics. This voter is a regular in the pew and may even play some leadership role in the parish. This is the true Catholic swing vote.”

—“The ‘sweats the details’ Roman Catholic who goes to confession, is active in the full sacramental life of the parish and almost always backs the Vatican on doctrinal matters. This group is a small slice of the American Catholic pie.”

Let’s rename and redefine that last category. Instead of “sweats the details” Catholics, let’s call them:

Bare minimum Catholics. Catholics who at least follow the ‘indispensable minimum’: the precepts of the Church....

Catholic Carnival #218

Hosted by Living Catholicism, with a round-up of topics including Holy Week, Saints, Culture of Life and "Notre Dame and So Much More"!

Catholic Carnival #217

The Feast Of The Annunciation brings us a cornucopia of Catholic Culture at 'Homeschool Goodies'

Ugandan AIDS Activist Thanks Pope

Martin Ssempa has spent nearly two decades on the frontline of Uganda’s highly successful AIDS prevention program that focuses on encouraging sexual abstinence and fidelity in marriage

Catholic Exchange:

"Our successful policy," he said, "always put abstinence and being faithful ahead of any medical products such as condoms and testing."...Uganda’s population is mainly Christian, and the message, supported by government-sponsored promotion, that men and women should not engage in extra-marital sex dramatically reduced Uganda’s AIDS rate over the last couple decades. Ssempa and other local AIDS activists have frequently decried the interference of US and Europe-based international organizations who reject abstinence and fidelity principles in favor of condoms. This, they say only encourages promiscuity and the spread of the deadly disease. Since the intervention of the international AIDS groups, with their emphasis on condoms and downplaying of abstinence, Uganda’s AIDS rate has begun, according to local experts, to "tick back up."

Ssempa co-authored Uganda’s successful policy with Dr. Edward Green of Harvard University’s Center for Population and Development Studies. Dr. Green told the National Review Online this week that Pope Benedict’s assertion that condoms only make the AIDS crisis worse is backed by the research.

"There is," Green said, "a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded ‘Demographic Health Surveys,’ between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates."

Ssempa warned that there is no security in using condoms to protect against the AIDS virus. "Those who believe that they can put all their trust in getting a perfect condom in Africa are totally out of sync with the realities of Africa.

"In 2004 August more than 40 million condoms of the Engabu brand were found to be defective and were recalled to be destroyed. This was after a huge public outcry on the condom failures which may have exposed many people to HIV/AIDS in the false hope of security from these latex from China."

Ssempa said that there needs to be a complete rethinking of the reliance on condoms. Citing Dr. Green’s work at Harvard, he said, "We must ask the tough question, why does the nations in Africa with the highest condoms correspond with the highest HIV/AIDS? These include Botswana and South Africa who have the first and highest condoms per male, yet their numbers of HIV/AIDS are also the same.

"They are in the top three spots of the nations with the highest HIV/AIDS. On the other hand nations with lower condoms per male per year correspond with lower HIV/AIDS."

"The Amazing Power of Culture"

Maggie Gallagher at The Corner has been posting an excellent series on culture and marriage:

(Part 7)...Between roughly 1960 and 1980, marriage came under a rather fierce and multi-faced ideological attack.

Five great strands of contemporary liberalism — the sexual revolution, the gender-role revolution, the expansion of welfare for the poor, the movement for racial equality, and the environmental movement — came together to support de-norming of marriage, knocking it off its pedestal and de-legitimating, in various ways, its privileged cultural postion.

Why? The monologue ran something like this: Moral norms disapproving of illegitimacy must be overturned to make room for expanded financial supports for poor single mothers; concern for married childbearing was implicitly and sometimes explicitly racist; marriage trapped women into unfulfilling domestic roles and interfered with the sexual pleasure that should be available equally to men and women. The fear of the slut within must be conquered. Abortion must be elevated to a constitutional right or women cannot be just like men in bed or in the workplace. And the population explosion reinforced the sexual revolutionaries' idea that the generative capacity of women — our power to create new life — was a problem, not an asset....

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Catholic Carnival #216

A Catholic Mom Climbing The Pillars hosts with a collection of quatrains, essays on ecumenism and communion, philosophy, worship and family life. Great links to great sites!

Saint Patrick

St. Patrick is one of my favourite saints, by virtue of his evangelization of Ireland. I was born a Mullen, and have always been fond of my 'Irish' roots in Tyrone Co., Northern Ireland.

So, here is a little help to celebrate a great Saint Patrick's Day!


"The Deer's Cry" sung by Angelina, an arrangement of St. Patrick's Breastplate.

Lorica of Saint Patrick

A Biography

A Veggietale Short

Homeschool Activities

Chaplet of Saint Patrick

Hail Glorious St. Patrick

First Communion Dresses

Many parishes will soon be celebrating First Communions. If you cannot find a beautiful First Communion Dress in your neighborhood, check out the selection at The Catholic Company. While you're at it, consider joining their Affiliate or Parish Products programs. Keep in mind, that The Catholic Company has a project aiming to send the Catholic Catechism - 5000 of them! - to the poor and needy at MOP missions around the world.

Catholic Carnival #215

Posted at Deo Omnis Gloria. Lenten Reflections, lenten crafts,movie review, prayer and plants(!) round out this week's Carnival.

Catholic Carnival #214

Hosted this week by Broken Alabaster- guiding us through Christian themes of contrition, sacrifice, obedience, and joy with a medley of Lenten Hymns!

Catholic Carnival #213

"Speak Friend and Enter.." hosted by Sanctus Christopher has plenty to help with your Lenten meditations and devotions.

"Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to each other." (Saint Peter Chrysologus)

Catholic Carnival #212

Up at Living Catholicism.
Variety in Catholic culture, 'Diversity in God'.

Catholic Carnival #211

Found today at Luminous Miseries. All the regular stuff with a 'valentine's' introduction! (11.11.11 reminds me of MY spouse too....for the same reason!)

Praying for Owen's speedy recovery.

Catholic Carnival #210

Put together by Joe at HoKaiPaulos,this week's carnival is a collection with the theme of "Harden Not Your Hearts". Poetry, quick quotes, fave links, book lists, prayer, St. Paul,Mary, sacrifice and celibacy round out a virtual panacea of catholic culture. Indulge!
(pic by LOL Saints)

"The Alexandrian" Winter 2009

The 'Winter 2009' issue of The Alexandrian is out. Short fiction, poetry, essays and art following a theme of "Poverty Chastity, and Obedience", this Catholic culture journal from Canada shows us the depth of intelligence and creativity amongst our Catholic youth. Support their efforts by reading it and commenting.

"Capitalism and Christianity"

Ottawa Theology On Tap held a lecture featuring Richard Bastien:

"Capitalism and Christianity: Cooperation or Conflict?"


Is capitalism a 'Protestant' invention? Has the Catholic tradition played a role in the rise of capitalism? Why the tension between the Christian tradition and the capitalist 'spirit'? What does the Church have to say about economics? Why are so many Christians opposed to capitalism?



Richard Bastien studied public finance at the University of Montreal and at Harvard University and spent most of his career working as an economist in the Canadian Ministry of Finance, specializing in international finance. Throughout the 1990s, he was Canada’s representative in the Paris Club and in the G-8 Group of debt experts. Mr. Bastien is currently Director of the Canadian Catholic Civil Rights League for the Ottawa region and a founding member of ÉGARDS - the only culturally-conservative journal in Canada in either official language. He also writes for Challenge Magazine.

(via Facebook)

Providence

I had been planning to join EWTN in the singing of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy this afternoon , dedicated to my Uncle PJ who died yesterday. All the kids were gathered with their rosaries, only to find that a live show had pre-empted the regular schedule - the installation of our new Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron!

Providence had us in front of the television to participate in the Mass (from a long long distance) and to become familiar with our new Shepherd.(You might not guess that Detroit is our 'diocese', but strangely enough- it is!)

Providence has also provided us with an exceptionally worthy and holy Shepherd. I can not express my gratitude to the Lord for helping us in this particular way.

After the Mass we prayed our Chaplet of Divine Mercy for Uncle PJ and were refreshed in Spirit by the couple of hours immersed in Christian Hope and Charity.

Somedays I really really love being a Catholic mother .

Catholic Carnival #209

Found at "Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering", and wonderfully worked into a theme of "The Sound of Music".
Find articles on poetry,marriage,politics,freedom, prayer,temptation,sin,love and trust!

Whew!