Missing Vocations? Help find them.

The Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations helps men and women follow God's call to service in the Church through a life of consecration.

How? By offering grants that eliminate the delay many young people face as they struggle to pay off their student debts. These grants cover a candidate's student loan payments while he or she is in formation for either religious life or the priesthood.

From the Mater Ecclesiae website, some good news:

We are helping 50 men and women follow their vocations (and have helped another 21 to try their vocations), and each year we must raise the money necessary to make their student loan payments. These men and women are learning to become priests, monks and brothers, and nuns and sisters and pray each day for you, for the Church and for the world.

And some bad news:

The truly awful news is that we have had to turn away 58 young people who wanted to offer their lives to Christ, but could not because of their student debt! Will the Church lose these vocations?

She won't if you help. First, pray.

This video dramatizes the plight these good folks—and potential servants of The Church—are facing. Watch it, and pray. Visit the Mater Ecclesiae website to find out more about their work. And, if you can help in a monetary way (or know someone who can), all the better!

Thank you. You will not go unrewarded.

ACORN, "provided to," and the justice department

The NYT tells us:

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has concluded that the Obama administration can lawfully pay the community group ACORN for services provided under contracts signed before Congress banned the government from providing money to the group.

The weird thing is that President Obama signed a law including this:

"No taxpayer money—including money authorized by previous legislation—could be provided to Acorn or its affiliates."

Seems the phrase "provided to" is...ambiguous.

David Barron, the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel said he had based his conclusion on the statute’s phrase “provided to.” This phrase, he said, has no clearly defined meaning in the realm of government spending — unlike words like “obligate” and “expend.”

Evidently, Mr. Barron consulted his dictionary and thesaurus to come to his decision. Somebody outta show him how to use these tools. To say nothing of explaining what a preposition is.

(By the way, regarding "is"...Is there a definitive definition of what the word "is" is?)

"Sarah's Choice" -- a movie I'm looking forward to

Synopsis - Sarah's Choice

A blessed Christ the King to you!

Have some fun with Nestle's Crunch! :-)

Okay, let's have some fun.

Call the Nestle's Crunch Hotline at 1-800-295-0051. When you are asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, just wait quietly for about 10 seconds and you will smile. Promise! (If you comment on this status after listening, don't give away the surprise...) Keep going and press 4...it gets even better.

(H/T to Marika)

AP goes rogue with the facts * Bettnet.com

AP goes rogue with the facts * Bettnet.com

Dom has an interesting blog on the supposed "fact checks" on Sarah Palin's new book.

Listecki for Milwaukee!

Archbishop Jerome Listecki has been chosen by the Holy Father to succeed Archbishop Timothy Dolan as chief pastor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Here's a bit o' what I know about His Excellency, and it looks good!

Prayers for my Milwaukee brethren and their new pastor. Our Lady, Mother of the Church, pray for us, and for your Son's priests!

Blood Money

To learn more about this film, go here.

You keep telling yourself that Fort Hood wasn't a terrorist attack.

Incredibly enough, the headline o' this NYT story has nothing to do with the terrorist's -- excuse me, alleged -- what? -- is it okay to say "murderer?" -- but the, um, person's attorney's opinion regarding his health.

Fort Hood: the 103,335,629th reason I love George W. Bush...

And this would be the 103,335,630th

And the stupid liturgical award o' the week...

...goes to the celebrant who, although steadfastly refusing to participate in the purification rite during the Offertory (again I ask...what in Heaven's name is the symbolism we uninformed laity are supposed to get from this omission?) elaborately cleansed his hands, wrists and, indeed, forearms with a portable hand sanitizer before distributing the Blessed Sacrament.

No urban myth...I was there.

Health care, China, and connecting the dots

From today's New York Times:

Now, Chinese and foreign health officials say that some of those contested measures — more easily adopted by an authoritarian state — may have helped slow the spread of the disease in the world’s most populous country. China has not had to cope with a crush of cases, and it began administering a vaccine for swine flu in early September, the first country to do so.

Yay, China!

I guess my question is pretty simple: why couldn't those measures to help slow or eliminate the spread of swine flu been left to free enterprise — not The Government?

My opinion is not changing. Expect more —and more blatant — accolades to "solutions" offered by "authoritarian" states. Expect more — and more blatant — suggestions that Big Government will solve all our problems.

Expect the worse, in so far as this country is concerned.

(On the other hand, my hoped-for citizenship — and I pray this is the same for you — is not of this world at all. Given that, expect the best.)

Tuesday rant: health care, terrorism, and Obama

Howdy,

Forgive me, but I'm feeling a tad ticked off. Why? Because I'm growing weary of living in Alice's Wonderland.

Here's the facts:

Last Thursday, 14 people were massacred at Fort Hood, which is an American defense post in Texas. (We keep hearing "13" but that's BS. One murdered woman was carrying an unborn baby. So we're talking 14.)

42 people were wounded.

The "alleged" perpetrator is a fellow named Nidal Malik Hasan.

This was a terrorist attack on American soil -- on an American Army base! -- and I don't give a bleep whether the terrorist's name is Hasan or Maloney. We're talking no brainers, here, friends.

And it happened on Obama's watch.

Remember the swine flu? It hasn't gone away. You enter "swine flu" into Google and guess where you're taken? Directly to the government-run CDC. This stands for "Center for Disease Control" but so far the government hasn't done much in controlling the disease.

My niece is a physician. She got the disease a couple of weeks ago.

I work part time with hospital patients undergoing bone marrow transplants.

Neither one of us have been vaccinated. Have you? I thought not.

And yet this country is actually considering the notion of putting health care in charge of the federal government!!! Are you kidding me???

Folks, it's time to wake up. Under the Obama watch, this country has been attacked on her own soil by a terrorist. Under the Obama watch, this country has been deprived of a vaccine to prevent what we've been told is a deadly disease.

Under the Obama watch, we've seen more "czars" -- people with enormous power who need not undergo any congressional approval or even investigation -- than pre-revolutionary Russia had ever seen.

Do we pray for the terrorist? Of course we do. Do we pray for Obama? Of course we do.

Do we just sit back and let this bleep happen?

You decide. I've already decided.

While President Obama is fit -- and evidently more than eager -- to be an emperor, emperor status is not afforded under the United States Constitution.

He should be impeached and removed from office.

I'm Kelly Thatcher and I so approve of this message.

Keeping the lines of Communication open

All Souls' Day is not the only day to pray for the Church Suffering, but it's a good start if you've been remiss in doing so. Do it every day.

Yesterday, All Saints' Day, wasn't the only day to ask the Church Triumphant for prayers, but it's a good start if you've been remiss in doing so. Ask for their intercessions every day.

The Communion of Saints: still another gift from God Who is Love!

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Purgatory because it pleases God. And they pray for us because it pleases God and gives them joy to do so. And because they love us. We must love them in return because it pleases God and so therefore should give us joy to do so.

The saints in Heaven pray for us because it pleases God and because they love us.

All of this love emanates from the One Who is Love!

May His Kingdom come!

Planned Parenthood Director Leaves, Has Change of Heart

Planned Parenthood Director Leaves, Has Change of Heart