Friday, October 31, 2008

Therese of Lisieux praised this book

Therese of Lisieux

"Reading this book was one
of the greatest graces of my life!"

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

In the late 19th century, Father Charles Arminjon, a priest from the mountains of southeastern France, assembled his flock in the town cathedral to preach a series of conferences to help them turn their thoughts away from this life’s mean material affairs — and toward the next life’s glorious spiritual reward.

His wise and uncompromising words deepened in them the spirit of recollection that all Christians must have: the abiding conviction that heavenly aims, not temporal enthusiasms, must guide everything we think, say, and do.

When Father Arminjon’s conferences were later published in a book, many others were able to reap the same benefit — including 14-year-old Thérèse Martin, then on the cusp of entering the Carmelite convent in Lisieux.

Reading these pages, Thérèse says,
"plunged my soul into a
happiness not of this earth."

Filled with a sense of "what God reserves for those who love him, and seeing that the eternal rewards had no proportion to the light sacrifices of life," she copied out numerous passages and memorized them, "repeating unceasingly the words of love burning in my heart."

Now the book
Thérèse loved
is available for the
first time in English:

End of the Present World (book cover)

Let its pages fill you with the same burning words of love, with the same ardent desire to know God above all created things, that St. Thérèse gained from them.

Let them enrich your understanding of certain teachings of the Faith that can often seem so mysterious, even frightening: the signs that will precede the world’s end; the coming of the Antichrist and how to recognize him; the Judgment and where it may send us; and Biblical end-times prophecy (how to read it and not be deceived).

Jesus commands us to be ever-watchful for his return, and ever-mindful that we have no lasting city on earth. The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life is an invaluable aid to inculcating in your spirit that heavenly orientation, without which true human happiness cannot be found — in this world or the next.

End of the Present World (book cover)

The End of the Present World
and the Mysteries of the Future Life

by Fr. Charles Arminjon.
224 pgs ppbk $14.95

Order online now
or call toll-free: 1-800-888-9344
www.sophiainstitute.com

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Gospel Reading for today: October 30, 2008 with reflection

Luke 13: 31-35
31 Some Pharisees came to him and said, “Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.” 32 He replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose. 33 Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.’ 34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! 35 Behold, your house will be abandoned. But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

my reflections
think: The devil is tireless in his efforts to draw us under his banner of sin and deceit.


ARE YOU AFRAID OF DEATH?

The above question confronts us with our mortality. It asks us to reflect upon the truth that we will all die at some time or another; be it slow or be it fast, it is death that comes at last. From a purely human or mortal point of view, it would seem then that death has the final say. However, we as Christians know that this is not the case because Jesus has risen from the dead and has conquered the grave. In the light of this revelation Christians need no longer fear death. Death becomes in reality the final “checkpoint” that has to be passed before moving on to eternal life. That is, of course, if you have lived a life in accordance with Christian principles.

Jesus is not afraid of Herod and what he might do in response to His preaching the Gospel. Jesus knows that He is doing what His father wants Him to do, and thus He believes and trusts that whatever happens, the Father has all things in hand. Herein lies the difficulty for us because often, this “having things in hand” does not always correspond to what we think this should mean. Our conception of how the events in our lives should be played out is not necessarily the same as the mind of God. This is where faith and trust have to come into our relationship with God. We see in the life of Jesus in that He knows He is going to His mortal death on the cross and He personally does little or nothing to halt this process. However, it is equally clear in the Scriptures that He totally entrusts Himself into the hands of His Father believing that He will be vindicated in the end. It is this trust and belief of Jesus that we must emulate. It is for this grace we must beg the Lord every day.

Look at one aspect of the logic of it all. We all know we will die someday. It is better to die having prepared ourselves for that fact. If we prepare and there is no God, we have lost only a finite number of years. If we do not prepare and there is a God, we lose eternal life. Fr. Steve Tynan

Reflection Question:
What am I doing now in order to prepare myself for the time of my death? What will happen to me if I die tomorrow?

Holy Spirit, help me to see death as an integral part of life that is merely the checkin point for eternal life with You in heaven. Take away my fears and teach me to live life to the full now, having prepared myself for eternal life.

St. Arilda, virgin and martyr, pray for us.

Get Bo Sanchez to send the reading for the day to you personally, log-on to http://kerygmafamily.com.
Lots of surprises await.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

REMINDER TO CHRISTIANS

A Christian


Several years ago, a preacher from out-of-state accepted a call to a church in Houston , Texas.

Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change.

As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, 'Yo u'd better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it.' Then he thought, 'Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a 'gift from God' and keep quiet.'

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, 'Here, you gave me too much change.'

The driver, with a smile, replied, 'Aren't you the new preacher in town?'

'Yes' he replied.

'Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you at church on Sunday.'

When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, 'Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter.'

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians, and will put us to the test! Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself

'Christian.'

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

I'm glad a friend forwarded this to me as a reminder. So, I choose to forward it to you - my friend. God bless you; I hope you are having a wonderful day!

If you don't pass this on to anybody, nothing bad will happen; but, if you do, you will have ministered to someone.

The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not

PROTECT you...

Stay FAITHFUL and Be GRATEFUL
Kind Regards

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Original Twelve Disciples of Jesus

Luke 6: - 6
12 Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13 When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

To live and work under the call of Jesus is obviously an exciting way of life. You never really know what God will ask you to do next, or how He will use you for His purposes in proclaiming the Kingdom of God. As each of us seeks to follow God as best we can, let us draw inspiration from the scriptural examples of the men and women who have preceded us in our faith. We are never alone in our discipleship. We have many to lean on here on earth, and also to intercede for us in heaven.

From: Companion

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Lots of surprises await.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Gospel Reading for today: October 27, 2008

Luke 13: 10-17
10 Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. 11 And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” 13 He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.” 15 The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? 16 This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” 17 When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

I think the synagogue official must have sounded pretty ridiculous in the way he chastised Jesus for healing a woman who had an infirmity for the last 18 years on the Sabbath. It is plain to anyone with even a modicum of common sense that the Sabbath Law does not apply to such a situation. Let us not become beholden to the letter of the law when that is clearly not the issue at stake. Let us seek to live lives of love and mercy as we live according to the Law.

From: Companion

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Thursday, October 23, 2008

C.S. Lewis and Me

Let's begin with
a brief experiment.

Look at me.
Look right into my soul.
By looking, come to know me
as well as you can.

Publisher

What did you learn?
What have I suffered?
What do I cherish, long for,
mourn, and regret?

Looking doesn't answer
those questions for you,
so let's try something else.
Step with me back to the year 1963,
the year John Kennedy was killed.

I was just 16. Daddy drank past midnight most nights, and when momma joined him music blasted and the fights lasted 'til 3 or 4 a.m. Too often, my frail grandma, nearing eighty, entered the fray. She'd wail and sometimes faint. We kids would carry her to bed, wipe her face with cold cloths, and hope she wouldn't die.

Night after night the drinking continued: fear, fury, hate and humiliation consumed me. A newcomer in town, I had no friends; there were no grownups I could turn to.

I resolved to get a gun and put us out of our misery: first my parents, then my grandma, my brother, my sister, and then myself.

Gun

A week passed; more nights of drunkenness.
Though despair and death blocked out most
other thoughts, I still had to go to school.

Behind me in homeroom that April sat a glimmering girl, with apple-blossom hair, Jo Hodges. Her wholesome goodness and bright spirit were the antithesis of the monster I'd become.

That morning, however, as I suffered through homeroom, she leaned forward in her desk, placed her chin on my left shoulder, and whispered in my ear, "What was the math assignment?"

Jo Hodges touched me! She wasn't repulsed by my humiliating life, my murderous intentions. To this day, I'm grateful for the kindness she did me, though she did not realize it at the time.

"Page 167," I said, stumbling. "Just the even problems."

"Thanks," Jo said, lifting her head from my shoulder,
and settling back in her own desk.

*

A month later --- Memorial Day, 1963 --- while Jo Hodges was riding her bicycle, a truck came too fast around the corner, sent her over the embankment, and knocked her forehead into a large rock.

Jo died instantly.

*

Now were I a poet, or an Irishman, I might have sung
of the fever in my mind those dark days, of my encounter
with Jo, and of her loss. I might have said:

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:

Girl

It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

For many years after Jo Hodges died, I was the only person who knew about our brief encounter. Now I've told you this secret that's been locked in my soul for forty-five years, and about the gratitude I felt then and feel even unto this moment.

I don't say that the memory is profound, but it is mine. What is profound --- what is remarkable --- is the means whereby you've come to learn this secret --- the words which in a few minutes have brought about a singular transformation.

Whereas earlier you only knew me --- and only could know me --- as a wistful-looking fellow in a photo . . .

Publisher


. . . now you see a man who once toyed with murder,
a man touched by grace, a man tempered
by beauty and loss.

Language changed what you see
when you look at this picture;
and only language could have done it.

*

1963 --- a year of deaths.

Jo Hodges in May.

Then on November 22nd the crack of three rifle shots in Dallas
--- a fearful sound that drowned all news of a man who died 5,000 miles away at nearly the same instant: the great Christian thinker and author of the Narnia Chronicles, C.S. Lewis.

In his book An Experiment in Criticism are ten words that,
like the silver apples of the moon, I could pluck
again and again, till time and times are done. Lewis says that:
"language heals the wound
without destroying the privilege
of individuality."

What is the
privilege of individuality?

Woman

I am a being unto myself, spiritually my own kingdom.
I alone dwell in the realm of my thoughts and feelings;
you can't penetrate the inner sanctum of my mind, and,
if I refuse to tell you, you can't even know what goes on there. That's the privilege of individuality.

And the wound?

Dust bowl woman

In this kingdom of my own self, I live apart:
my suffering is not yours and yours is not mine.
Because of the kind of beings we are --- persons ---
a gulf divides us one from another:
that's the wound of individuality.


*

Language heals
this wound.

With words, I can reveal to you the life of my soul, and you can share with me the life of yours. Through my words, you've just come to know how twisted I once was, and how I was touched by a single gesture of a wholesome girl.

By means of language, you've learned how "language heals the wound without destroying the privilege of individuality."

By means of words, God, too, reveals Himself
to us, and His love for us:

"Fear not," says the Lord,
"for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name.
You are mine."

God's promise is no less consoling today
than when He spoke them through
Jeremiah 2,500 years ago.

*

In these instances, we experience the incredible power that publishing adds to the marvel of speech: where living voices can't go --- across continents and far into the future --- printed words do, as today have the words of Jeremiah, Yeats, and C.S. Lewis.

This is the blessed power given into our hands here at
Sophia Institute Press: by means of the holy books we publish, we're able to introduce to souls in other places and other times the wisdom that has sustained us Catholics in our Faith for over 2,000 years. We've done this almost 3 million times already;
God willing, we'll do it millions of times more.

*

You've already seen that in Yeats's poem,
I found a reflection of young Jo Hodges and her loss:

. . . a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

That poem also recalls God's words to Jeremiah
("I have called you by name") and reflects
the everlasting desire of each of us finally to be healed
of the wound of individuality, to enter into full communion
with truth and beauty, with God Himself.

In the 8th book of Proverbs, the Wisdom of God speaks,
the Wisdom of God known in the Eastern Catholic churches
by the name "Sophia":

From of old I was poured forth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no fountains or springs of water.
Before the mountains were settled into place,
be
fore the hills, I was brought forth.
When he established the heavens I was there,

when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;
when he set for the sea its limit,

then was I beside him as his craftsman,

and I was his delight day by day,

playing before him all the while,

and I found delight in the sons of men.

He who finds me finds life,
and wins favor from the LORD.

Decades ago, while despair veiled my soul and murder coursed through my veins, this is Who, without knowing it, I longed for; this is the wisdom, the Sophia, I sought when Jo Hodges died, and for decades thereafter.

This Sophia makes speech possible, healing the wound of individuality. This Wisdom guides our press and gives it its name:
Sophia Institute Press.

As Yeats pursued that glimmering girl with apple blossom in her hair, long have we here at Sophia Institute Press pursued the holy Wisdom that speaks to us in Proverbs.

Today, I recommit myself and Sophia Institute Press
to this quest for truth and beauty --- this quest for
Wisdom herself --- and I ask you, too,
to join me in this commitment. For . . .

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Signature

John Barger, Publisher
Sophia Institute Press

P.S Five months ago, we came within days of having to abandon this quest and close our doors. Your help bought us time enough to affiliate with Thomas More College and to get almost two dozen of our key books back into print.

Then, just as things were looking up, this terrible banking crisis struck, crimping sales and drying up the contributions that were helping us recover. Worse, the large loan the College arranged for us --- the one that will assure our recovery --- has been delayed.

So despite our best efforts, and those of the College, our overdue bills have now risen past $30,000, and I have no means to pay them. Calls to our best donors yield the same answer: "We can't help right now. We don't know what tomorrow will bring."

Nor do I.

Can you help us get through this dangerous time?
Could you use this Paypal button to donate $50 today,
or more if that's possible? If you can't donate $50,
what about $25? Or even $10?

Paypal button

Paypal takes just a minute,
but that minute of your time buys us months

in which to grow strong again so that in the coming years, together, you and I can continue to seek that holy Wisdom
we long to find, and say together:

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Thank you.
And please pray for
Jo Hodges . . . and for me.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Verse of the Day

VERSE:
     By patient endurance you will save your lives.
                                      ~~Luke 21:19
REFLECTION:
     Practice patience toward everyone, and especially toward yourself.
     Never be disturbed because of your imperfections, but always get up bravely after a fall.
                              ~~St. Francis de Sales 
PRAYER:
     God of Patience, let me endure my imperfections without rebelling.   Help me to be patient with myself as well as with others.
Shared by:
Oyee Alcantara
El Sobrante, CA

Friday, October 17, 2008

The Catholic Verses

Luther


In 1517, the rebel
monk Martin Luther nailed ninety-five
anti-Catholic theses
to a church door in
Germany, igniting a Protestant rebellion that to this day,
continues to confuse
Catholics and lures
many of them out
of the Church.


Now comes Dave Armstrong, countering
Protestant attacks on the Church with
ninety-five pro-Catholic passages from
an authority far greater than Luther:
the Bible itself.
Protestants (and even many Catholics) will be surprised
to see the beliefs of Catholics confirmed so forcefully
by these ninety-five Bible verses.
Not Armstrong!
As a Bible-believing Protestant, he studied Scripture
intently, seeking to come to know God and His will.
There Armstrong encountered so many Catholic verses
that he came to realize that, contrary to popular belief,
the Bible is a Catholic book, a book that:
      • was written by Catholics

      • was preserved by Catholics for
        1,400 years before Luther was born
        and even today,


      • confirms the claims of the Catholic Church.
"No wonder," says Armstrong, "early Protestant opinion was
virtually identical to today's Catholic beliefs."
To share his discoveries with others and help them
find the Church that Christ established for them,
Armstrong has now written a remarkable book,
The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages
that Confound Protestants
.
Catholic Verses cover
Here, with humility and care, Armstrong explains
ninety-five key Bible passages that confound all
who would use Scripture to attack
the Church and Her doctrines.
Nor are these ambiguous passages
plucked from the recesses of the Bible.
On the contrary, each is a major passage:
clear, powerful, and central to
Christ's life and message
in the Bible.
No wonder the Catholic verses in the Bible
have drawn so many serious believers
-- including Armstrong -- out of their Protestant
congregations and into the Catholic Church.
For in every case, a fair-minded reading
of these passages supports the Catholic position
on the key issues that divide
Protestants from Catholics.
For example, in The Catholic Verses
you'll find incontrovertible Biblical evidence
that Catholicism is right about:
        • The nature of baptism

        • The communion of saints

        • The Eucharist and the Church

        • The authority of the Pope

        • The Bible and tradition

        • The salvific role of faith good works,
          relics, purgatory, and Mary


        • The immorality of divorce
          and contraception


        • And much more.
The Catholic Verses --- essential reading
for all who seek to know and understand
God's word in the Bible and to discover
His will for us today.

Catholic Verses cover
The Catholic Verses
95 Bible
Passages
that Confound Protestants
by Dave
Armstrong
$19.95
256 pgs ppbk

Order Here
or call
1-800-888-9344
Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284
Manchester
NH 03108

Dave Armstrong was a Protestant campus missionary before he
converted to Catholicism in 1991. He is the author of numerous books and has written many articles on the Faith for Catholic periodicals.


More books by Dave Armstrong:
One-Minute Apologist (cover)
Fast answers to
anti-Catholic claims!
If you need solid Catholic answers to common Protestant challenges, but don't have lots of time, reach for The One-Minute Apologist.
Here Dave Armstrong has assembled over sixty of the claims and arguments that Protestants most frequently level against the Church.
He delivers the essential Catholic replies to each claim, packaged for you in a compact and uniquely usable format. And since he's a convert from Evangelicalism, Armstrong presents these anti-Catholic claims with an insider's accuracy -- using the special terms, the references, and the follow-up arguments that you're mostly likely to hear in real-world encounters today -- and responds to them in a way Protestants can understand and appreciate.
The One-Minute Apologist is concise, but never superficial. It cites or quotes more than a thousand Scripture verses, along with the words of scores of saints and scholars -- including many respected Protestant sources.
Packing centuries of learning and wisdom into just a few tightly structured pages, The One-Minute Apologist decisively refutes common Protestant claims such as:
  • "The Bible is the only infallible source of theological truth."
  • "Peter is not the 'rock' to which Jesus referred."
  • "The Catholic Mass is an abomination."
  • "True Christians cannot fall away from salvation."
  • "Mary had other children besides Jesus."
  • "Venerating the saints is a form of idolatry."
  • And over 50 other Protestant objections to Catholic doctrine and practice!
The One-Minute Apologist is the one source you'll find yourself turning to whenever you have the need to defend the Catholic Faith quickly, credibly, and well.
One-Minute Apologist (cover)
Book jacket
Scriptural proofs for
the truth of the Catholic Faith
This exciting book shows that, far from straying from the Bible, Catholicism is eminently and quite thoroughly biblical.
Indeed, Catholicism is the only Christian religion that is in full conformity with what the Bible clearly teaches.
To demonstrate this, Catholic author Dave Armstrong (a former Protestant campus missionary) focuses on those issues about which Catholics and Protestants disagree the most: the role of the Bible as a rule of faith, whether we are justified by faith alone, whether doctrine develops, what the Eucharist really is, veneration of Mary and prayer to the saints, the existence of purgatory, the role of penance in salvation, and the nature and infallibility of the papacy.
Citing Church councils, the Fathers, canon law, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Armstrong begins his examination of each of these disputed issues with an authoritative explanation of what the Catholic Church actually teaches.
Then, with skill and tenacity, he subjects each of the disputed Catholic teachings to microscopic scrutiny, measuring its conformity with the Bible.
Armstrong's Scripture-packed analysis relies on hundreds of Bible passages (including 229 of the 259 chapters in the New Testament!), shedding light on the meaning of those passages as well as on the truth of the doctrines in question.
The result? With a mastery of Scripture equal to that of the most committed Protestants, Armstrong demonstrates that the Catholic Church is the "Bible Church par excellence," and that many common Protestant doctrines are in fact themselves not biblical.
Here is a book that challenges Protestants to reconsider their anti-Catholic assumptions; and that will lead Catholics to turn with greater confidence to Scripture, where they will find a powerful biblical defense of their Catholic faith.
Biblical Defense (book cover)

Or call
1-800-888-9344
Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester
NH 03108

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Help save babies' lives!


Will you sign a Petition to your
U.S. Senators and Representative
to help save babies' lives?
And may I send you the two gifts
I'm holding in your name?

These gifts are sure to enrich your spiritual life!

Dear Friend and Pro-Life Catholic,
If you can do only one thing today to help save preborn babies from abortion, make sure you sign the Petition to Block Taxpayer Funding of U.N. Abortionists!
I'll personally see to it that your Petitions are delivered to your U.S. Senators and Representative in Washington, D.C.
Before I tell you the urgency of signing your Petition to Block Taxpayer Funding of U.N. Abortionists, please let me introduce myself . . .
My name is Steve Mosher and I'm President of the Population Research Institute (PRI).
Maybe you've read about PRI's one-of-a-kind baby-saving work in our weekly updates on Catholic Online. (You can find us on the homepage, just below the fold on the right-hand side).
Or maybe you've seen us in the National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, The Wanderer and other faithful Catholic publications. Or maybe you've seen the pro-life documentary programs we've produced for EWTN.
Plus, we're honored that Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss hails the Population Research Institute as ". . . one of the most important and effective pro-life, pro-family organization in the U.S. – and perhaps even in the world!"
But more about the unique baby-saving work of PRI in just a minute. Let me now tell you about the . . .
Urgency of signing your Petitions
Your Petition to Block Taxpayer Funding of U.N. Abortionists calls on your U.S. Senators and Representative to continue the total freeze on U.S. financial support of abortionists at the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).
UNFPA has a decades-long history of inflicting abortion, contraception and sterilization on innocent people around the world. These U.N. abortionists aggressively attack poor people in the largely Catholic nations of Latin America.
The U.N. Population Fund uses bribes – offers of "free" financial aid and "free" education – to get poor Hispanic women to "agree" to contraception, abortion and sterilization.
When bribes fail, U.N. abortionists then threaten impoverished women, forcing them to "agree" to these population control nightmares. UNFPA's cruel threats include withholding financial aid, education and even desperately-needed medical care from the poorest of the poor in Latin America.
But that's not all! On top of those horrors in Latin America, UNFPA also works hand-in-hand with the Red Chinese to brutally enforce China's wicked "one-child-per-family" policy. Forced sterilization and forced abortion are the UNFPA's weapons of choice in Red China.
As you know, it's illegal to use U.S. taxpayer funds to bankroll these population control horrors. And thanks to research provided to Congressional pro-lifers by PRI, Congress has frozen all U.S. support of U.N. abortionists for seven years running!
But now, with a good chance that pro-abortion Barack Obama might be elected president, pro-abortionists in Congress are eagerly mapping plans to restore U.S. funding of U.N. abortionists. Their goal is to give the U.N. Population Fund an astounding $60 million in U.S. funding every year!
Your Petition – signed now – can help de-rail those plans and save babies from UNFPA abortion attacks!
Revealed: How PRI beats the U.N. abortionists
As I mentioned, it's illegal to use U.S. funds for abortion. But for years, pro-lifers in Congress were powerless to enforce that law because they had no solid proof that the U.N. was up to its eyeballs in killing preborn babies.
So PRI sent specially-trained investigators to dozens of countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. We proved that the U.N. Population Fund was illegally bankrolling vast numbers of abortions with our tax dollars . . .
. . . we interviewed women victimized by U.N. abortionists. We recorded dates, times and places. We got the names of some of the "abortion providers." Then we brought some of the victims to Washington, D.C. where they personally told their stories of U.N. abortion abuse to horrified pro-life Members of Congress.
Armed with this PRI research, Congressional pro-lifers swiftly shut down U.S. funding of the U.N. Population Fund!
In fact, U.N. and other abortion groups have been frozen out of a whopping $790 million of taxpayer funding, thanks to the research PRI has given to pro-lifers in Congress!
But every year, pro-abortionists in Washington wage a fierce struggle to reopen the U.S. treasury to U.N. abortionists. And every year, we have to beat them again.
That's why your Petition to Block Taxpayer Funding of U. N. Abortionists is so crucial – especially now, with the prospect of pro-abortion Barack Obama occupying the White House!
PRI also inflicts MAJOR damage on Planned Parenthood
Handing blistering defeats to U.N. abortionists isn't all that PRI does to save as many babies as we do. Take a look at some of the other major defeats we've given the abortionists . . .
  • When pro-life Members of Congress needed proof that Planned Parenthood was illegally tapping the U.S. treasury to pay for wholesale abortion, Congressional pro-lifers turned to PRI for the facts they needed – and then Congress stripped Planned Parenthood of $195 million in U.S. funding!

    Congressman Chris Smith, the heroic legislator who led that enormously successful fight against Planned Parenthood, proclaimed that . . .

    "Pro-lifers in Congress could not have handed such a crushing defeat to Planned Parenthood without the research provided by Steve Mosher and the Population Research Institute!"

  • Just recently, when pro-abortionists fought furiously to scrap America's pro-life Mexico City Policy – a move that would have opened the floodgates to U.S.-funded abortion around the world – PRI helped Congressional pro-lifers bury that abortion drive.
But that's not all! There's still much more to PRI's baby-saving work . . .
  • We regularly produce powerful pro-life "mini documentaries" and post them on the Internet where they can be seen by millions of people around the world . . .

    . . . PRI's Internet videos are so amazingly strong – and so feared by pro-abortionists - that one of our most recent Latin American productions was actually yanked off the Internet by YouTube, the video website visited by millions of people every day! (Intense pressure by pro-lifers forced YouTube to reinstate that explosive PRI "mini-documentary.")

  • PRI is sounding the alarm and mobilizing pro-lifers against Planned Parenthood's new, all-out attack on America's tiniest minority – Alaska's Eskimos.

  • PRI is leading the educational fight against Planned Parenthood's massive abortion assaults on America's blacks and Hispanics.

  • PRI representatives are often heard on Catholic, Protestant and secular TV and radio programs. (Just recently, for example, I was interviewed on Dr. James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" program.)

  • PRI publishes authoritative bi-monthly print and weekly e-mail newsletters with news, facts and analysis you can't find anywhere else. (These "must read" newsletters are sent FREE to PRI supporters.)

  • And of course PRI representatives are "regulars" on Capitol Hill, where we frequently brief pro-life legislators on upcoming abortion battles.

And now we need your help – URGENTLY!
To expand and WIN this crucial battle against the U.N. abortionists, PRI urgently needs funds to pay for these six projects . . .
  • We must circulate many tens of thousands more of our Petition to Block Taxpayer Funding of U.N. Abortionists. It's essential that all 100 U.S. Senators and all 435 U.S. Representatives hear from their constituents and understand that we will NOT tolerate renewed U.S. funding of the U.N. Population Fund abortionists!

  • PRI must immediately produce a dozen or more "mini-documentaries" exposing the U.N. abortionists, and then we must post these explosive videos on the Internet for millions to see!

  • It's vital that we launch a nationwide speaking tour aimed at Church groups, lay organizations, clergy, educators and others who can influence public opinion and mobilize pro-lifers in this fight against the U.N. Population Fund!

Church Leaders
Enthusiastically Support PRI
". . . one of the most important and effective pro-life, pro-family organizations in the U.S. – and perhaps even in the world!" -- Archbishop Elden Curtiss
"Those of us who defend the sanctity of human life are truly blessed to have PRI leading the battle to defend the unborn and the family." -- Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo
"I ask you to join me in praying . . . for the continued success of PRI's absolutely crucial work in making the world a safer place for babies . . ." -- Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb
"Please support this group (PRI) with your prayers, each and every day, to save our future – the generation of children that abortion advocates wish to destroy." -- Bishop Fabien W. Bruskewitz
"Thank God for the Population Research Institute!" -- Father John Hardon
  • We must also send PRI representatives around the country to appear on radio and TV talk shows – Catholic, Protestant and secular!

  • When paid newspaper and magazine advertising is required, it's essential that we have the money needed to buy that advertising!

  • And of course, we must continue sending PRI investigators around the world to prove that the U.N. Population Fund is still killing a huge number of babies, and that any funds they receive from the U.S. government will be illegally used to kill even more babies!
All of these educational and mobilization programs will cost an estimated $50,000 – and we must have your help to raise it!
Please look over these suggested gift amounts and give the very largest you can possibly afford (your gift is tax-deductible) . . .
$30 $35 $40 $50 $75 $100
$250 $500 $1,000
In this battle to save babies' lives from the U.N. abortionists, no gift is too small and no gift can be too large.
And please keep this in mind when you decide on the amount of your tax-deductible gift:
Unlike the big abortion groups which receive vast financial support from huge corporations and wealthy foundations, PRI's baby-saving work depend entirely on dear friends like you who make sacrificial gifts to help save babies' lives!
Keeping the U.N. abortionists out of the U.S. treasury, and supporting all of PRI's other baby-saving programs, requires your generous help now! So will you RUSH one of the amounts I just suggested?
How to rush your much-needed gift now
The fastest way to put your baby-saving gift to work is to click here now to charge your tax-deductible gift to your credit card. It's totally safe. It's absolutely secure. And it's immediate.
Or, if you prefer, you can mail your tax-deductible gift to the address you'll find when you click here now.

And now let me tell you about the two spiritual thank-you gifts I have for you . . .
This thank-you gift will help you pray!
Like me and probably most other prayerful Catholics, do you sometimes worry about how you pray?
Do you wonder if you're praying the "right way" or the "wrong way" . . . whether your prayers are too short or too long . . . whether they're too "ritualistic" . . . or if there's a way to pray that would be more pleasing to God?
Worse, do you ever worry that some of your prayers might not be heard by God because you're not praying the way He wants you to?


Well, Time For God: A Guide to Prayer, by Fr. Jacques Philippe, answers all those important questions – and many others, too! (Fr. Philippe, the author of this essential prayer guide, is based in Rome and his specialty is preaching at retreats throughout the world. Father is the author of numerous other books as well.)
In his marvelous prayer guide, Fr. Philippe tells you . . .
  • The single criterion to use in judging the quality of your prayers

  • How to make absolutely, positively sure that your prayers never become so ritualistic that they deprive you of spiritual benefits

  • The 5 attitudes you must have in your approach to prayer

  • The 4 principles you must never forget when you pray

  • Plus so much more that will answer your questions, doubts and worries about how to pray!
Time For God: A Guide to Prayer is one of the most valuable spiritual guides I've ever come across. It's not "heavy" reading, but it's certainly valuable reading!
May I send you a copy of Time For God: A Guide to Prayer with my thanks for your baby-saving gift of $35 or more?

Or would you rather receive
this spiritual gift instead?
There are so many wonderful things to say about the second gift I have for you that I'm really not sure where to begin, but let me try . . .
Your second gift is the collector's edition of Words of Light: Inspiration From the Letters of Padre Pio.
Many books have been written about Padre Pio, but this book was written BY St. Pio, so it will give you a profoundly intimate look at this beloved saint's life, his often-frightening experiences, his private thoughts and his personal prayers, including . . .
  • The "dark night" of Padre Pio's soul – the tormenting doubts of faith that haunted him – as revealed in letters from St. Pio to his spiritual advisor

  • Satan's horrifying spiritual and physical attacks on Padre Pio – the agony Padre Pio suffered at the hands of the Evil One, in St. Pio's own words

  • Padre Pio's beautiful and personal prayer to Mary (Hint: It's a 22-word prayer you'll memorize and say every day of your life – I guarantee it!)

  • St. Pio's teaching and wise counsel on successfully meeting the everyday challenges of our faith

  • Plus so much more that's never before been revealed about Padre Pio – all in his own words!
But there's still more you should know about Words of Light: Inspiration From the Letters of Padre Pio . . .
  • This is the very first time that this collection of Padre Pio's letters has ever been published in English!

  • This rare collection of Padre Pio's private letters was personally compiled by Franciscan Capuchin Father Raneiro Cantalamessa, the Preacher to the Papal Household appointed by Pope John Paul II

  • Your copy of Words of Light: Inspiration From the Letters of Padre Pio is the hardbound edition – so it's very sturdy and can be shared with many friends and family members who are sure to spiritually benefit from Padre Pio's letters just as much as you will!
May I send you a copy with my very sincere thanks for your baby-saving gift of $50 or more?
Let me send you BOTH gifts!
Choosing between these two important spiritual gifts is a tough choice, so may I send you BOTH Time For God: A Guide to Prayer AND Words of Light: Inspiration From the Letters of Padre Pio?
Sending you both of these wonderful gifts is my way of saying, "Thank you for helping us save babies' lives!" with your much-needed gift of $75 or more.
If we don't fight this fight, then who will?
As I said, only PRI provides the kind of research that give Congressional pro-lifers the ammunition they need to keep the U.N. abortionists out of the U.S. treasury.
And if PRI doesn't have the funds to carry on this absolutely crucial baby-saving work, then U.N. abortionists could once again get a "green light" on looting the U.S. treasury.
So please – sign the Petition to Block Taxpayer Funding of U.N. Abortionists today, along with the most generous tax-deductible gift possible!

Yours in Christ, for the
protection of His little ones,
Steven W. Mosher
President
Population Research Institute


P.S.
When you sign your Petitions for delivery to your U.S. Senators and Representative, be sure to tell me which – or both – of these important spiritual gifts you’d like to receive as our way of saying thank you for your donation. Both gifts are pictured in this letter.
And please be as generous as you possibly can to support our one-of-a-kind baby-saving work. We literally depend on Catholic pro-life friends like you!

PRI is a 501(c)(3) educational organization, which works with a growing, global network of pro-life groups in over 30 countries, to stop the spread of abortion and to roll back population control programs, as well as to educate young people and married couples on the blessings of chastity and childbearing. PRI has successfully reduced or eliminated over $790 million of funding for radical population control groups and organizations that wrongly seek to eliminate poverty, illiteracy and pollution by eliminating children. All donations are both appreciated and tax-deductible.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Verse of the Day

The sins of my mouth and my frailties remember not;
in your kindness remember me . . . ~~Psalm 25.7
     While driving to the funeral of my son-in-law's father, our family began to discuss how the grandchildren might react to the loss.  I was stunned when one of our daughters began to recall how awful she had acted when her paternal grandfather died.  She was only seven years old at the time.  To be perfectly honest, neither my husband nor I even remembered the behavior she described.  I could tell she deeply regretted how she handled the situation and still felt guilty after all these years.
     The experience made me wonder how often we spend months, years and even decades ruminating over something that God has entirely forgotten.  I have heard people say that to forgive is not to forget, but my experience has been just the opposite.  When I forgive from my heart and not just my head, I no longer see the offense but the goodness at the core of the person.  Maybe that is what it means to see as God sees.
                                                                          Terri Mifek
Terri is a spiritual director and retreat team member.  She enjoys writing, hiking and spending time with her three grandchildren.
Shared by:
Oyee Alcantara
El Sobrante, CA

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Thought of the Day

'The will of God will never take you

where the Grace of

God will not protect you.'

Monday, October 6, 2008

Catholic Information Service

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