tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44087294370924999392024-03-14T03:58:54.442+11:00Darkness draws closer...THE TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS AND LIFE OF THE RAVENravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.comBlogger186125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-87016414531491356052013-02-07T16:15:00.002+11:002018-06-21T04:14:57.051+10:00Gloria in Excelsis DeoWell it has now been three months since I decided to not CLOSE my blog <i>"Darkness draws closer..." </i>and start on a new, revamped, renamed <i>"<a href="http://gloriaxdeo.blogspot.com/">Gloria in Excelsis Deo</a>"</i> which is Latin, the English translation being <i>"<a href="http://gloriaxdeo.blogspot.com/">Glory to God in the highest</a>".</i><br />
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I may still utilise this blog which is one reason I didn't delete it. The other few reasons is because it is my digital footprint, I can see where I was at different times of years - and different years - by looking at the blog of the past.<br />
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The main reason behind my change in blogs is because I wanted one that was more exclusively Catholic, while another one that is still Catholic, but more a <i>"bad-boy" </i>style; drug-addictions, fast-living - nomadic, somewhat gypsy living at times - and I understand that some posts I may still wish to write may offend some of my more conservative viewers, which many are who view the new blog.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPuNrXmDGxOXHqhYW94YcN6XTikoagggj4wbrHEUR4SS1oDrjhOyqnlZyFKjZq7ScsqkjGuythXohBRBZ7CLDvS0ECJPhCYYO7HDoE4sCkibyTXfowgZ3SmRZLHLITLEuWecG9UDB-wbI/s1600/gothgirl42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPuNrXmDGxOXHqhYW94YcN6XTikoagggj4wbrHEUR4SS1oDrjhOyqnlZyFKjZq7ScsqkjGuythXohBRBZ7CLDvS0ECJPhCYYO7HDoE4sCkibyTXfowgZ3SmRZLHLITLEuWecG9UDB-wbI/s320/gothgirl42.jpg" width="213" /></a><br />
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Give me time and I shall start blogging here again, perhaps a graphical change of style, perhaps not, only time will tell!<br />
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I look forward to comments and constructive-criticism from my readers as I continue to post my more dark and maccabre side of lifestyle here on <i>"Darkness draws closer..."</i><br />
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Peace and GBU!<br />
Davie aka: Raven.ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-82320089248052160072012-12-18T13:17:00.001+11:002012-12-18T13:17:18.858+11:00DARKNESS ENDS.I've been posting (on and off) to this blog for a few years now... time for an update - including a name change - so instead of getting rid of this blog all together, I'm going to simply cease posting on this blog and create a new one... keep your eyes out for a following post to tell you the URL for my new blog once it is created.<br />
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Thanks for reading and your support over the years and I hope you will follow me to my fresh, new blog!<br />
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Cheers,<br />
Davie.ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-51147447730829478542011-05-28T21:06:00.001+10:002011-05-29T13:12:26.465+10:00Sunday Snippets: A Catholic Carnival #18<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2011/05/sunday-snippets-catholic-carnival_28.html">Sunday Snippets</a> for the weeks of Sunday May 22 to Saturday May 28.</span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My newest addition are my favourite news-stories I've Tweeted. Check out "<a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/tweeted-1.html">Tweeted</a>".</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A short prayer I wrote "<a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/get-thee-behind-me-satan.html">Get thee behind me Satan</a>".</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week in Albury saw some clashes go down at the abortion clinic between pro-life and pro-choice groups. <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/protest-protesters.html">Here is the real news</a>, not the fabricated version the local media have aired/published and <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/to-abort-or-not-to-abort-that-is.html">here is my rant on the issue.</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/canberra-declaration-protecting-our.html">The Canberra Declaration</a>" is about protecting the Judeo-Christian values Australia was built on.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/prayer-for-addicts.html">A prayer for drug addicts</a> I found in a church booklet.</span></li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until next week, GBU!</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Davie.</span></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-39425599220603601142011-05-28T20:57:00.000+10:002011-05-28T20:57:39.404+10:00To abort or not to abort, that is the question.Given the recent news in the local media regarding the peaceful-protests at the Albury "Fertility Control Clinic", which the media have painted in a total wrong light, I thought I might write my own piece on the topic.<br />
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I have not always been a "pro-lifer". In fact, when I was in my late-teens, thinking that I was educated enough to form my own opinion on abortion, I was pro-choice. A womans body is her business, and if she doesn't want something growing inside of her, she has every right to have it removed, right? Wrong!<br />
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Almost anyone you ask will have a stance on abortion - either for or against - but it is not often you will find someone who doesn't care either way. The problem with this however is that unless people undertake their own research, abortion remains a pretty vague topic.<br />
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No one tells you how an abortion is carried out. More or less, a picture is painted of a Doctor simply "removing" something, not killing a human life. How can killing ever be just?<br />
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There is a scary culture rife among those in Gen-Y particularly who see abortion merely as another means of contraception as though you can rely on abortions if you forget, or simply can't be bothered, to use a condom or take the pill. Young women don't grasp the serious nature of abortion and the impacts it has on their emotional and physical health. Some think that it is such a simple process, comparable to putting on a condom, that you can book in for an abortion every couple of months to have the unwanted foetus removed.<br />
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Those are of course all terms used by pro-choice campaigners to not show off the dark side of abortion. For starters, the "unwanted foetus" is actually a human being in its earliest, and most vulnerable, part of life, and it is never simply "removed" - it is killed. Murdered.<br />
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If you were to find out that your parents wanted to abort you, how much more would you value your life? How much more would you be against abortion, for if you were aborted, you wouldn't be reading this, you wouldn't have the life you live - you would not exist. This goes against nature, for human life begins at the time of conception.<br />
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Is a cake still a cake when it isn't yet cooked? Well, not exactly a cake, but the early stages of one - it has the key ingredients which when put together harmoniously, a cake is "born" from the oven. Cakes don't just "appear", they need to be made, and that never happens by some bizarre mistake, for if you put in too much or not enough flour, it won't work.<br />
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A human is not just a mistake, but a work of art - God's art - the basic ingredients being two human beings - one male, one female - and a handful of different human fluids, combined together the right way. If you leave the egg out of the cake, it won't work, so too if there is no egg in the female human, the future human life won't work.<br />
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But if you're not religious, or don't believe in God at all, then who cares what the views of a bunch of believers is! But you must care, because though you may not be of the same view that human life begins at conception, it is still a fact. Just like you may reject the notion of gravity, doesn't mean the laws do not apply to you because you don't believe in it. The entire world would collapse!<br />
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Society, too, will collapse if everyone were to stop believing in God and doing what they see to be best. "I can't support another child" is one of many reasons people use to justify having an abortion. Well, I don't like the look of your face, does that mean I can kill you? No, that is quite absurd!<br />
"That man killed an innocent person, so let's kill him!" but have you never heard the saying "two wrongs don't make a right"? Who are we to decide who is to live, who is to die? That goes from the youngest people - those growing inside their mothers - through to the oldest living person, and every variation in between - murderers and good decent people. Every life is unique, every human is unique, and only God has the right to choose how and when we die.<br />
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As time wears on, people will be educated even less about abortion, that eventually the world will get itself into a terrible state where parents can kill their unborn child just because they are the wrong gender or have the wrong shade of hair. It could get scarier yet, governments could choose who will live and who will not even get that chance, and those who do get to live will be genetically engineered.ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-50236097552939887192011-05-28T10:19:00.000+10:002011-05-28T10:19:42.152+10:00Prayer for Addicts<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Yesterday whilst I was in town I called into St. Pat's to have some quiet prayer time. I picked up a booklet <i>"Someone I Know Has a Drug Problem"</i> by William E. Rabior, ACSW. This is the prayer towards the end of the booklet which I found nice.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">St. Maximillian Kolbe, Saint of Auschwitz and patron of drug addicts, pray for us!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mary our Mother, Blessed Virgin, pray for us!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">* * *</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">LORD JESUS,</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You heal hurting hearts and make lives new again.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I do not know what circumstances are causing <b><i>N.</i></b> to use drugs.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I only know that I feel more and more concern for him/her.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I pray for a new direction for <b><i>N.</i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With the help of Your Grace may s/he choose healing and hope and find freedom from drugs.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I put <i><b>N.</b></i> in Your Hands this day, Lord Jesus.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">May s/he reach out to You and receive from You all that is needed to become whole again.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">AMEN.</span></span></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-54967697969876124902011-05-27T21:32:00.002+10:002011-05-27T21:32:56.729+10:00The Canberra Declaration: Protecting our Judeo-Christian heritage and rights!<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>The Canberra Declaration</strong></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Preamble to the Australian Constitution contains the words, "Humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God”. As Australian citizens we continue to declare that we too put our trust in Almighty God.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">For centuries, to speak of Western civilisation was to speak of Christian civilisation. The two were in many ways synonymous. The values that we have cherished and sought to strengthen are in large measure founded on the Judeo-Christian belief system. The many freedoms, advantages, opportunities, values and liberties which characterise the West owe much to the growth of Christianity with its inherent belief in the dignity of the human person as created in the image of God and the code of behaviour that flows from this belief.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Canberra Declaration follows on from the <a href="http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/home.aspx" style="color: #009aca; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;">2009 Manhattan Declaration</a> and the <a href="http://www.westminster2010.org.uk/" style="color: #009aca; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;">2010 Westminster Declaration</a>. It declares that when Christian values are respected and allowed freedom of expression, not just confined to so-called sacred spaces but in the public arena as well, society is richer and healthier.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We wish to emphasise three areas that demand particular attention in our contemporary Australian society, namely religious freedom, marriage and the family, and the sanctity of human life. Were we to undermine any one of these values, the social fabric of our nation would be seriously weakened, to our personal and collective detriment.</span></div><h1 style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.6em; text-align: center;"><strong>Religious Freedom</strong></h1><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Religious freedom includes freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. The importance of these freedoms is shown in countries where they are threatened or absent. Police states and totalitarian nations inevitably begin with the curtailment of basic liberties, including religious freedom and the right to speak one’s mind and conscience. This includes the right to change one’s religious beliefs.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We affirm the basic necessity of freedom of conscience, having the liberty to speak publicly about one’s faith and beliefs, and having the right to practise the religion of one’s choice. If these freedoms are removed – even in the name of supposed benefits – the prized values of democracy and liberty are seriously undermined.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In Australia today these freedoms are being restricted by laws which, although appearing positive on first reading, have the potential to lead to unintended and unacceptable consequences. These laws include anti-discrimination legislation, hate crime laws and legislation on religious and sexual vilification – each of which may be interpreted in a way that effectively works as a barrier to religious freedom and freedom of speech.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Thus the signers of this declaration affirm the fundamental right of Australians to religious freedom and freedom of speech, and we oppose legislation which denies such freedoms. We likewise oppose laws subjugating our nation to foreign powers and instrumentalities which restrict these freedoms.</span></div><h1 style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.6em; text-align: center;"><strong>Marriage and Family</strong></h1><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Another vital package of values and social benefits is the long-standing institution of the natural family resulting from marriage between a man and a woman – as affirmed by the definition of marriage in the Marriage Act: “…the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life”.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">No other social institution has done so much good for people and for nations, yet marriage is being undermined, to the detriment of children, individuals, and society itself.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Lifelong marriage between a man and a woman guarantees children their biological birthright to a mother and a father and has a proven track record of providing them with protection, education, welfare, support and nurture. No other arrangement has improved upon the benefits of marriage.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In the face of competing alternatives and moves to redefine marriage, we affirm the importance and social utility of marriage between a man and a woman and the families formed thereby.</span></div><h1 style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.6em; text-align: center;"><strong>Human Life</strong></h1><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The third important set of values revolves around the sanctity of human life which is being undermined in much of the Western world, through abortion, euthanasia, and some of the new reproductive technologies.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We believe that all human life, being made in the image of God, has intrinsic and equal value from conception to life’s natural end.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The very heart of a humane and civilised society is based on the way it treats its most vulnerable and innocent members including the unborn and the disabled. We therefore insist on the right of all persons, including those who are vulnerable or dependent, to protection from conception to natural death. We will support, protect, and be advocates for such people, since to do anything less is to weaken our humanity and despise our personhood.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We will not comply with any directive that compels us to participate in or facilitate abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide, euthanasia, or any other act that involves the intentional taking of innocent human life.</span></div><h2 style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.6em; text-align: center;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></h2><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Religious freedom, marriage and family, and the sacredness of human life have provided the foundations enabling Western democratic societies to flourish. We erode these foundations at our peril.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The faith which is at the heart of many of the values and strengths underpinning the Australian nation now compels us to speak up in their defence.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">For the future of this nation, and for our children’s future, we call upon all like-minded citizens to support and sign this declaration.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.35em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Released Friday 23<sup style="bottom: 0.3em; font-size: 0.8em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">rd</sup> July 2010</span></strong></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: blue;">Now that you've read the Canberra Declaration,</span></span></span></em></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: blue;">would you like to <a href="https://ausheart.wufoo.com/forms/sign-the-declaration-and-or-join-the-community/" style="color: #009aca; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">sign it</a>?</span></span></span></em></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-48377967731939839482011-05-27T01:57:00.000+10:002011-05-27T01:57:27.923+10:00Tweeted #1Since expanding my social-media outlets into the Twittersphere, I have decided to make a new weekly addition to my blog for those of you who aren't Twit's like myself LOL.<div><br />
</div><div>Following in the same style as my "Sunday Snippets" I now present you my news-tweets!</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>Julia Youn and Our Lady of Naju, South Korea. </b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.romereports.com/palio/Vatican-agrees-with-excommunication-warning-to-South-Korean-visionary-Julia-Youn-and-her-followers-english-4217.html">Not exactly "news" anymore, </a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.romereports.com/palio/Vatican-agrees-with-excommunication-warning-to-South-Korean-visionary-Julia-Youn-and-her-followers-english-4217.html">here is a story I picked up on today of a false prophet.</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://apparitionsites.com/apparition-sites/our-lady-naju-julia-kim.htm">More information</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://apparitionsites.com/apparition-sites/our-lady-naju-julia-kim.htm"> on Julia and Our Lady of Naju.</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.catholicplanet.com/apparitions/pdf/2008-Julia-Kim-decree.pdf">Finally the </a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.catholicplanet.com/apparitions/pdf/2008-Julia-Kim-decree.pdf">Decree of the Archbishop of Kwangju.</a></span></div><div><br />
</div><div><div><b>Pro-choice and Pro-life clash in Albury. </b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/local/news/general/antiabortion-camera-ditched/2168446.aspx">Today two opposing groups clashed at the Albury "Fertility Control Clinic"</a>.</span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="font-size: medium;"><b>Gay Mormons. </b></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=14318">Article exploring the complex issues many Mormon's - and those of other faiths - face when confronted with their sexuality</a>.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="font-size: medium;"><b>Jesus and Mary Magdalene reincarnated, apparently. </b></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/jesus-and-mary-cult-followers-buy-up-land-around-kingaroy/story-e6freoof-1226055912664">Followers buy-up in Kingaroy, Queensland</a>.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="font-size: medium;"><b>Instruction of Summorum Pontificum.</b></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/new-vatican-instruction-released-on-tridentine-rite">New Vatican document released on the Tridentine Rite Mass</a>.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.summorumpontificum.net/2007/07/summorum-pontificum-english.html">English translation of "Summorum Pontificum" document</a>.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="font-size: medium;"><b>Bhutto on Bin Laden.</b></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U9QbTbgohU&feature=share">Benazir Bhutto talks on Osama Bin Laden's death... yes, she did die before him, apparently.</a></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGAOH_E3aQQ&feature=share">The BBC censor Bhutto.</a></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-66336027196718268242011-05-26T23:54:00.001+10:002011-05-27T00:04:54.699+10:00"Protest the Protesters"The Border media-authorities have once again done as they do best, not to report the news, but to sensationalise it.<br />
<br />
For years now there has existed a local group, "Helpers of God's Precious Infants" who make a weekly event of attending the Albury abortion clinic - or "Fertility Control Clinic" as they like to be called - on Thursdays following mass. For the most part, these people belong to the ageing population, not many young people in sight, until today.<br />
<br />
In two separate reports from <a href="http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/local/news/general/antiabortion-camera-ditched/2168446.aspx">The Border Mail</a> and <a href="http://www.wintv.com.au/albury_wodonga/news/item/41725">WIN News</a>, the Helpers have used "intimidation techniques... filming from a car people entering the clinic" amongst other absolute halve-truths.<br />
<br />
I have attended this very peaceful protest on a number of occasions over the last three-years, not once have I encountered any bullying from those amongst us pro-lifers. Some will stand there with diagrams of stages of life, others with leaflets with information, while the vast majority will stand there together praying the Rosary.<br />
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When a potential client comes by, they are offered a leaflet - not made to have it - nor does anyone hurl abuse or say anything other than the recitation of the Rosary.<br />
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Recently, a group of teens started a Facebook page to "Protest the Protesters", who made an appearance at the weekly vigil. Sadly, teens do not have the education or the life-experience to make an informed stance on abortion, particularly if their of the "pro-choice" encampment.<br />
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It has now come to the medias attention that a camera inside a parked vehicle has been used to film people entering the clinic, claiming a mass violation of privacy. This is true, there has been a camera set-up, but to the best of my knowledge, this was to combat the clinic who started the dirty game of giving false accusation to the peaceful-protestors outside, obviously detrimental to their "business" which is a very serious one indeed... a business of killing.<br />
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After the peaceful protest, one of the Doctors, assuming that one who is against life can be called a Doctor, went out to thank the protestors. This same Doctor owns another "kill clinic" in Melbourne in which a security guard assaulted a pro-life protestor. Perhaps this Doctor is paying a bunch of ill-informed teens with a somewhat skewed-life-view, as teens often have, to combat the peaceful-protests that have existed for quite some time now. Surely if you are in the business of killing, then you wouldn't be against being in the business of thuggery... I don't know of many other clinics with security-guards, other than similar "clinics".<br />
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The least the media can do is report the entire story, not the sections they see fit. "Newstainment" is a more fitting term for the media - not just locally, internationally as well.ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-38904422571373333382011-05-22T11:50:00.000+10:002011-05-22T11:50:09.754+10:00GET THEE BEHIND ME SATAN!It's happening again...<br />
I'm under spiritual attack...<br />
Impure thoughts...<br />
Evil actions...<br />
Morally wrong deeds...<br />
Please save me, O Lord.<br />
Protect me from the Evil One.<br />
Get thee behind me, Satan!<br />
No more drugs or binge drinking.<br />
Just holiness.<br />
And happiness.<br />
Jesus, I trust in You.<br />
I love You.<br />
I adore Your Divine Mercy.<br />
AMEN.ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-5952645458647760832011-05-22T06:51:00.003+10:002011-05-22T11:53:47.230+10:00Sunday Snippets: A Catholic Carnival #17<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2011/05/sunday-snippets-catholic-carnival_21.html">Sunday Snippets</a> for the weeks of Sunday May 8 to Saturday May 21.</span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://ravenswiss.com/RavenSwiss/SPIRITUALITY/SPIRITUALITY.html">Head over to my website</a> - I have a few extra additions to my spirituality page.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week I wrote about the <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/william-morris-former-bishop-of.html">former Bishop of Toowoomba Diocese</a> looking at it from two different perspectives.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A random rant about spending some more time focusing on my <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/focusing-on-my-spiritual-health.html">spiritual health</a>.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past I've kept a pretty dark outlook on life. <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/evil-evil-evil.html">I discuss some of that here</a>.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am currently under spiritual attack - <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/get-thee-behind-me-satan.html">this is my prayer of spontaneity</a>.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/art-coptic-icon.html">Finally I am working on a new image</a> - a Coptic Icon style picture of Jesus. Only rough sketches so far but I hope to eventually paint it on canvas or perhaps even wood.</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm now on Twitter @ <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/ravenswiss">ravenswiss</a> so go look me up there! Until next week, GBU!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Davie.</span><br />
<div id="myEventWatcherDiv" style="display: none;"></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-58097053941043809652011-05-19T02:16:00.001+10:002011-05-22T09:58:41.915+10:00ART: Coptic IconYesterday I did a rough sketch in my Spiritual Journal of Jesus... in a Coptic Icon style of drawing. I like Coptic symbology and artwork. Very different to traditional Latin Catholic artwork, even different again to other Orthodox Churches.<br />
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My plan is to work more and more on this image (not the initial sketch - that is done) then work my way up to colour before finally putting it on canvas or wood with paint, pastels and texta mostly.<br />
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I can't wait, it will sure make a great new centrepiece for my prayer table!!!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ravenswiss.com/RavenSwiss/Art/Pages/Latest_files/Media/jesusicon/jesusicon.jpg?disposition=download" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ravenswiss.com/RavenSwiss/Art/Pages/Latest_files/Media/jesusicon/jesusicon.jpg?disposition=download" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcoxns7K8LldRpsuOLnm3T1Pe5Q4pmsgah8JhsBK-GQsFcoVV3pirmY-dbn6Nqc_8xZnDJbrBysnMWYtP_I0MLvu1XPFmCOziH9Vqshtfd2FuIzVef5AtcaeZv2wNJPv-Q1YPpxsys3SY/s1600/copticjesus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcoxns7K8LldRpsuOLnm3T1Pe5Q4pmsgah8JhsBK-GQsFcoVV3pirmY-dbn6Nqc_8xZnDJbrBysnMWYtP_I0MLvu1XPFmCOziH9Vqshtfd2FuIzVef5AtcaeZv2wNJPv-Q1YPpxsys3SY/s1600/copticjesus.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-45639998081582031792011-05-17T18:17:00.000+10:002011-05-17T18:17:59.712+10:00Cigarettes prices to be HALVED???<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitWg5PXhuPlVUeG9rnhTbrFl1pDA3nBfi0O8k91FYP_nrSAB-Bj-4NtJeOi6GoJs6W9D-3bTBIFpFur0b9-wmJqzRuxcQjkKgZaY2aXZVEqAhYJexLySxm4HHBM2v_tMyYgd5gy4VSIno/s1600/637668-11-04-07-nicola-roxon-cigarette-packets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitWg5PXhuPlVUeG9rnhTbrFl1pDA3nBfi0O8k91FYP_nrSAB-Bj-4NtJeOi6GoJs6W9D-3bTBIFpFur0b9-wmJqzRuxcQjkKgZaY2aXZVEqAhYJexLySxm4HHBM2v_tMyYgd5gy4VSIno/s320/637668-11-04-07-nicola-roxon-cigarette-packets.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon.</span></span></b></div><br />
Last month, the Government said they are pushing to make cheap, generic cigarette packets the standard - no colours, just olive-green, bigger health warning (the graphic one) and a standard font reading the brand and the variant.<br />
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The tobacco industry is in a spin, and naturally they should. The Government hope that this will stop people smoking, particularly younger people, when there are no corporate branding. The tobacco industry, however, have said that there is no proof that plain packing does anything.<br />
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They are now come out today saying they will halve cigarette prices if the Government go ahead with their plain packaging plans, because otherwise, they will lose their market to the black-market tobacco trade.<br />
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GOOD!!!<br />
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I would prefer the packets stay the way they are, but if they do get the new packets passed, at least cigarettes will be cheaper. Besides, I use a cigarette holder most the time!ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-8701132853686463952011-05-11T18:40:00.000+10:002011-05-11T18:40:52.539+10:00Evil, evil, evil...Lurking in the depths of my computer, and in the depths of my old notebooks and display folders, I have poetry, essays, stories and random writing of evil, twisted nature. These are what I wrote when I was a teenager, when I was very annoyed at the world and everyone in it, when I felt like God was nothing more than the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus, a myth invented by parents to make kids behave that little bit more.<br />
<br />
Thank God I grew out of that stage and then became more an agnostic than an atheist. I didn't believe, but I was open to it. Then of course I had the car-accident, experienced quite a few spiritual experiences which I could not pass off as mere coincidences, dreams or anything of the sort. Besides, if the spiritual experience is contrary to God's Love, Mercy and Justice, it is not from God. If it is nothing but His Message, and you feel at peace, then it most likely is from God.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6l82skXMr3F3N3uVYRgjui1TBKRfJDoi-NVIcFIlBuA2auTXq4V7NJDv-0ngws2qZj2jhCnrYEsbKg9GruDnRuYTncEBibcjczw_iJ0EeAVSALL2BMHlzUQhUGPh59pw3lvQMpxCsQY0/s1600/Sigil-of-Baphomet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6l82skXMr3F3N3uVYRgjui1TBKRfJDoi-NVIcFIlBuA2auTXq4V7NJDv-0ngws2qZj2jhCnrYEsbKg9GruDnRuYTncEBibcjczw_iJ0EeAVSALL2BMHlzUQhUGPh59pw3lvQMpxCsQY0/s1600/Sigil-of-Baphomet.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Some of these poems/stories etc; are quite evil and even anti-Christ. One I can remember was something like "You can't judge me, only God can. But God doesn't exist, therefore no one can." I think the reason I come under spiritual attack so often is because of these evil, heretical writings. I don't need them. I don't like them. Even if I was into that still, they aren't very good pieces of writing - I was pretty young, before I was sixteen!<br />
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Time to burn them, throw them out, delete them from my computer and my backups. Nothing I want anymore, they make me sick when I see them, hence why they are packed away in old notebooks inside boxes full of things I keep, but don't neccesarily need out (I live in a very small place!).<br />
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Well, I know what to do later on tonight, if not tonight, it will have to be Friday as I have to go to court to give evidence in a matter. I'm nervous, but I will be fine! I'm not in trouble or anything, just witness :-)ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-38961754321449674692011-05-11T18:03:00.001+10:002011-05-11T19:36:07.269+10:00Focusing on my Spiritual Health!I don't work or study at the present moment. I spend my days going to various appointments. What's that saying? Something about "idle hands is the devils playground" or something along those lines? Well I beg to differ, so long as your head is in the right place, the right materials, the right resources!<br />
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I bought St. Faustina's Diary "Divine Mercy in My Soul" a few weeks ago and I'm loving it so far. I am a sinner, like everyone on this earth, but I sin probably more than I would like to. Divine Mercy is a good message for me in that regards.<br />
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About this time last year, I stopped my <a href="http://www.chnetwork.org/readguide04.pdf">Bible reading plan</a>, which was a reading from the O.T, a reading from the Book of Psalms and a reading from the N.T each day, for one year, then you've read the whole Bible. It's a Catholic plan so it includes the Deuterocanonical books. <a href="http://www.chnetwork.org/readguide04.pdf">You can use the same plan to read the Catechism of The Catholic Church in one year also!</a><br />
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The reason I stopped doing it was I had a lot of major stress last year. I went to the psych-wing of the hospital for about three weeks too. Very messy. Anyways, I have now picked up where I left off, and I am in front for where we are in the year - it's divided into months.<br />
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Did I also mention I live directly opposite a Catholic Church? Well I do! Very lovely Parish Priest there too!!!<br />
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So I have been trying to get to Mass more often than just Sundays - a few times during the week also. Just like one needs to focus on their physical, mental and emotional health, one much also leave a good deal of time on the spiritual health. After all, we do owe our lives to Jesus! We were created to do God's Will, not our own! The least I can do is sacrifice half and hour every few weekdays in Mass, and some more time reading my Bible, not to mention reading the Divine Mercy Journal! I'm reading that instead of reading a novel, so I should get through it pretty fast. Whether I absorb the entire message the first time I don't know, but I can always go back and read certain bits based on the footnotes, index, chronological index etc;.<br />
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Well I'm out! News time!<br />
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God bless you all!ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-39001454291518426262011-05-11T17:37:00.000+10:002011-05-11T17:37:58.693+10:00William Morris, former Bishop of Toowoomba QLDThe Bishop of the Toowoomba Diocese was stepped down, or resigned, depending on who you ask - The Vatican or the Bishop, William Morris.<br />
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Here are a couple of news articles, from two different perspectives. One from a Catholic news-source, the other from "The Age", a Melbourne newspaper that, in my view, are a great source of news except for Catholic affairs... they seem somewhat anti-Catholic, anti-Papist...<br />
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Some things seem strange, like how the former-Bishop chose to wear a neck-tie instead of the Roman-collar. Sounds fine to me, he doesn't want to be "above" everyone else! However, the neck-tie was emblazoned with his episcopal coat of arms - that draws even more attention to being "above" others than the Roman-collar in my view. I don't see the Roman-collar as being "above" anyways, I see it as a thing that deserves respect, that shows who they are, that they are approachable by anyone in the community, a sign of love and humility, poverty and charity!<br />
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Here's the news from the Catholic news-site "<a href="http://www.catholicculture.org/">Catholic Culture</a>"<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/lRdfvj">http://bit.ly/lRdfvj</a><br />
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This is the one from the Melbourne newspaper "<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/">The Age</a>"<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/kkrWr9">http://bit.ly/kkrWr9</a>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-49187448632132571522011-05-08T05:34:00.001+10:002011-05-08T08:20:02.148+10:00Sunday Snippets: A Catholic Carnival #16<div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2011/05/sunday-snippets-catholic-carnival.html">Sunday Snippets</a> for the weeks of Sunday May 1 to Saturday May 7.</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I haven't blogged too much of late, mostly because I am not using my regular laptop this week, and I have been having issues with Telstra and my phone line, thus, my new ADSL conntection too! Having said that, I should be much more active in the cyber-world given my now-active ADSL connection as opposed to the USB WiFi stick I have been using for the past two-years!</span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I couldn't sleep one night so decided to blog about <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/east-and-west.html">Eastern Catholicism, Western (Roman) Catholicism, and a perhaps a reunification?</a> I mean, the Anglicans now have an Ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church, so what of the Eastern (non Catholic) Churches?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">You may remember a few months ago I did a sketch of the Cathedral in Christchurch that was heavily damaged during the NZ quakes in Feb. <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/cathedral-of-blessed-sacrament-update.html">This is an update on the rebuilding on the Cathedral.</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Finally, keeping in the spirit of Divine Mercy (last Sunday, 1st May) <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/divine-mercy-in-my-soul.html">a short blog about my recent addition to my library!</a></span></li>
</ul><div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Enjoy the Easter Season in this lead up to Pentecost 2011!</span></div></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-70425894217081859252011-05-08T05:26:00.001+10:002011-05-08T05:26:53.832+10:00Divine Mercy in My Soul<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0a_qzi1MZtKHwkIpA1O7Qb0NEFULknCGTcV66ALX7Vy9ul9kxD989O75lhXtDMJf1NHHACx4nL3Q5wKzmEno5xHNOtqMXFPKMHBp-p65kSqgaamBzEJIojmdV04MjpW9qhYLVdXNGKQ/s1600/bk2677_FULL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0a_qzi1MZtKHwkIpA1O7Qb0NEFULknCGTcV66ALX7Vy9ul9kxD989O75lhXtDMJf1NHHACx4nL3Q5wKzmEno5xHNOtqMXFPKMHBp-p65kSqgaamBzEJIojmdV04MjpW9qhYLVdXNGKQ/s1600/bk2677_FULL.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Well, I finally have it in my hands! My very own soft-leather burgundy edition of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska's Diary, :"Divine Mercy in My Soul". There were two copies to choose from - the one I got, complete with gold-edge paper and gold imbossed image on the covers - or the much cheaper paperback copy. I decided I need to buy myself nice things, or at least start to again, and if it is spiritual, why not?<br />
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Not to my surprise, the Diary comes complete with a <i>Nihil Obstat</i> and <i>Imprimatur </i>- common known Catholic terms that say the booklet/Bible/book etc; is "doctrinally free of error". The Diary surely will be a good addition, not to my bookshelf, but on my night-table (aka: laptop desk!) with my Sunday Missal, Daily Missal and NJB Bible.<br />
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I can't wait to start reading it, perhaps today, if not, then tomorrow!ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-18573095522924425482011-05-08T04:52:00.000+10:002011-05-08T04:52:03.957+10:00Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament UpdateBack in February when an earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament was heavily damaged. <a href="http://www.3news.co.nz/Cathedral-to-lose-dome-after-quake/tabid/423/articleID/209939/Default.aspx">See the 3News NZ news update</a> on the rebuilding to take place of its main towers and large dome above the Altar.<br />
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<a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/02/sketch-of-cathedral-of-blessed.html">See my sketch of this beautiful building.</a> I drew it how the building looked before the earthquake to show its full glory! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlqQF8NFnzMDEt7m7OPylp7Bue8HCyJP8n54JhLeMlEZWRRWgeaLMMRbpUn92K0TGg4NBKCa5QPLPKiC_n4PWYufgec1Sv_x8CidYZ93k1HRknBxOe2AqknryPcopv5YlfIyncGKh-8ak/s1600/Cathedral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlqQF8NFnzMDEt7m7OPylp7Bue8HCyJP8n54JhLeMlEZWRRWgeaLMMRbpUn92K0TGg4NBKCa5QPLPKiC_n4PWYufgec1Sv_x8CidYZ93k1HRknBxOe2AqknryPcopv5YlfIyncGKh-8ak/s1600/Cathedral.jpg" /></a></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-14030124118597113822011-05-04T06:31:00.000+10:002011-05-04T06:31:12.506+10:00East and WestSome food for thought this morning since I've been up since 3am... it's now 6:30am... won't be getting anymore sleep, especially since Telstra are coming today to fix my phone line!!!<br />
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Over recent years, there has been renewed efforts at cross-denominational understanding, even acceptance such as the new Personal Ordinariates for former Anglican's who have joined the Catholic Church. What hope, if any, does this offer for a reunion between Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic (Western) religions?<br />
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Originally, there were five Patriarchs - Jerusalem, headed by James, Antioch and Rome by Peter, Alexandria by Mark and Constantinople by Andrew. For a long time, Rome was the "first among equals" until the Great Schism. Eastern Churches didn't bow down to Rome when Rome wanted all the power, thus the split. It got quite messy with Excommunications against one another until finally, history got most of us lost to this historical form of Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest single religion in the world, followed by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.<br />
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With each of the Pentarchy's created by original Apostles of Christ, where does that leave us all in a world full of various teachings and denominations, many of which have been around a mere 600-years?<br />
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In the modern world, let us ponder a few things...<br />
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<i>"So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build My Community." - Matt 16:18 NJB.</i><br />
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Though there were five main cities, there was only ever one chosen by Christ Himself, being St. Peter. Still, if St. Peter also headed the Church of Antioch, don't they have a claim to Patriarchal Superiority, like Rome? Not really, considering Peter made Rome his main port, he was crucified there, his bones are said to be buried there also.<br />
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The Eastern Orthodox Churches will never enter into one common Church until many things are understood from both perspectives. How long did it take for the Anglican Communion to have internal schisms between Liberal Anglican's and Traditional Anglican's? How much longer the schism has occurred?<br />
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Though there are no theological barriers to the reunification of the East and West, there are barriers such as the idea which many Roman Catholic's believe, that the Pope is infallible. This creates a divide as it is basically saying that Rome - The Pope - is number one, with the other Patriarchs as number two's.<br />
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Even though the Roman Church is built on the legacy of St. Peter, none of the Pope's since him have been him, just successors, so what's stopping the bringing together of the five-patriarchs in one common group, all equals?<br />
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It is an interesting concept...<br />
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However, even greater barriers are to be fought - accepting wrongdoing on each parties side, accepting that one if not superior over the other, accepting difference in worship because of cultural and historical reasons, acceptance of a different Canon of Scripture, acceptance of different languages etc; etc;.<br />
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Still, if Anglican's may join the Roman Church, still keeping part of their identity, I'm sure the greatest barrier between East/West relations is more of a historical one than anything else... as discussed, there are no great "theological" barriers keeping the two apart!<br />
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Instead of having one religion with the Pope seen by the world as the most authoritive figure in Christianity, would be not be better with a religion headed by five Patriarchs, the Roman one being superior in only one way - the Christian Palace of Vatican City?ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-37540003844471821792011-05-01T09:48:00.001+10:002011-05-08T05:27:41.363+10:00Sunday Snippets: A Catholic Carnival #16<div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2011/04/id-like-to-welcome-everyone-to-sunday.html">Sunday Snippets</a> for the weeks of Sunday April 24 to Saturday April 30.</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Since the year 2000, the Sunday after Easter Sunday has been designated as Divine Mercy Sunday. Most of my posts for this week are all about that, or linked to it in some way.</span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">A little bit of info on <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/04/his-divine-mercy.html">Divine Mercy</a> and the <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/04/image-of-divine-mercy.html">Divine Mercy image</a>.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">There are a couple of items I want to purchase from the local Catholic shop, both of which are Divine Mercy in origin. <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/04/divine-mercy-presents.html">See them here!</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">The powerful prayer to <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/04/prayer-to-st-michael-archangel.html">St. Michael the Archangel.</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">An article on <a href="http://ravenswiss.blogspot.com/2011/05/shadow-of-peter-touch-of-thomas-and.html">Divine Mercy Sunday</a> from Zenit.</span></li>
</ul><div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">I hope you all have a Happy and Holy Easter season this 2011!</span></div></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-32082883453330401282011-05-01T00:12:00.002+10:002011-05-01T00:12:19.105+10:00Shadow of Peter, Touch of Thomas and Divine Mercy<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">TORONTO, APRIL 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (5:12-16) offers us a vivid insight into the early Christian community in Jerusalem. Luke has already mentioned the rapid growth of the early church (2:41, 47, 4:4; 6:1, 9:31). In today’s reading from Acts he wants to add the fact that large numbers of women as well as men were being baptized and becoming disciples (5:14). Signs and wonders are the visible result of some of the gifts of the Spirit such as "the working of miracles" and "deeds of power" (I Corinthians 12:9, 28).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">A powerful image of Peter is presented to us (vs. 15-16): “They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><strong>The shadow of Peter </strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">I have always been moved by the image of the shadow of Peter passing over the sick and afflicted. People who passed within Peter’s shadow were healed, not by Peter’s shadow, but by God’s power working through Peter. These miracles of healing attracted people to the early Church and confirmed the truth of the teachings of the Apostles and the fact that the power of God was with them. We also learn that the religious leaders who were jealous of Jesus’ power and authority saw the Apostles as a continued threat and demanded respect for themselves. The apostles weren’t demanding respect for themselves. Their goal was to bring respect and reverence to God. The Apostles had acquired the respect of the people, not because they demanded it, but because they deserved it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><strong>Pope Benedict among us</strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">As I reflect on today’s first reading, I cannot help but call to mind the powerful images of Pope Benedict XVI as he moved among hundreds of thousands of people during his Apostolic Visit to the United States of America two years ago this month. The authentic shepherd, who models his or her life on Jesus, must love the people entrusted to him and imitate Jesus. Pope Benedict has done that very well.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Over the past weeks, the world has witnessed the scourge and pain of sexual abuse of minors and the vulnerable erupt in many European countries. The abuse is evil, devastating, and sinful. A small portion of priests and religious, who promised to protect, defend and love children, have brought disgrace upon the Church and upon society. Some people have tried to blame Pope Benedict for inaction, covert behavior, and blatant dishonesty in dealing with the sexual abuse of minors. Such blame is unjust, unacceptable, and extremely harmful to the Church, to victims, and to society in general.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">I recall Pope Benedict’s visit to the USA two years ago with deep emotion and profound gratitude. During that visit, the shadow of Peter came upon America, as it has done wherever this Pope has visited over the past five years. And that shadow, which is God’s healing touch, covers us all with mercy, healing and peace. When Pope Benedict walked among us, he did more than connect with us. He bonded. He moved multitudes. He showed remarkable courage, wisdom and compassion.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">The media did not miss the deep significance of the Holy Father’s private and moving meeting with victims of clerical sex abuse at the Vatican Embassy in Washington. The Pope was unafraid then and remains unafraid now to enter into the pain, confusion, sadness and evil of the abuse crisis. He let people know that he listened and understood and that the Pope will continue to act so that such a disaster would never repeat itself.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><strong><br />
Ubi Petrus ibi ecclesia </strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">An ancient Latin expression, first used by St. Ambrose in the fourth century, came to my mind in April 2008, during several moments of the historic papal visit to the USA: Ubi Petrus ibi ecclesia, which translated means: Wherever Peter is, there is the Church. Peter was in America two years ago, and his gentle smile and obvious serenity ignited a nation, a Church and a continent with hope in the midst of cynicism, despair and many who would like to hasten death for a Church that is alive and young. Only time, reflection and prayer will reveal if the healing of two years ago will bear fruit for the Church in America.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">One thing is certain: In Pope Benedict XVI, the shadow of Peter fell on millions of people in America in 2008 and continues to fall on millions around the world to this day, especially upon those who are wounded and hurting from the evil actions of sexual abuse of children. Let us never forget that in Pope Benedict, Peter is still among us.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><strong>The touch of Thomas </strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">John's Resurrection story (Chapters 20-21) is a series of encounters between Jesus and his followers that reveal diverse faith reactions. Whether these encounters are with Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciple, Mary Magdalene, the disciples or Thomas, the whole scenario reminds us that in the range of belief there are different degrees of readiness and different factors that cause people to come to faith and help them in turn to become witnesses and teachers.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">John’s story of Jesus and Thomas (John 20:19-31) records the first post-resurrection appearance of Jesus and provides us with an archetypal experience of doubt, struggle and faith. Herein lies every Christian's experience: to believe without having seen. In this Gospel passage, we have a story within a story: the resolution of Thomas' doubts during Jesus' appearance to encourage the fearful disciples. Thomas only believes when he hears the Lord's call to belief.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Thomas is not the eternal skeptic, nor the bullish, stubborn personality that Christian tradition has often painted. The Greek lexicon translates the word "skepsis" as "doubt, misgiving, hesitation, and disbelief." Thomas, the doubter, was permitted to do something that we would all like to do. He was allowed to touch and "experience" something that by human means was not possible. For us it is more difficult. We need to begin with faith and then blindly touch our way to the heart of our lives.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Though we know so little about Thomas, his family background and his destiny, we are given an important hint into his identity in the etymology of his name in Greek: Thomas (Didymous in Greek) means "twin". Who was Thomas' other half, his twin? Maybe we can see his twin by looking into the mirror. Thomas' other half is anyone who has struggled with the pain of unbelief, doubt and despair, and has allowed the presence of the Risen Jesus to make a difference. When this happens, the ice of skepticism thaws. Thomas and his twins throughout the world risk everything in Jesus and for Jesus and become sources of blessing for others, in spite of their doubts and despair and because of their doubts and despair.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><strong>Divine Mercy Sunday </strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Divine Mercy Sunday is not a new feast established to celebrate St. Faustina Kowalska’s (1905-1938) revelations. In fact it is not about St. Faustina at all! Rather the feast recovers an ancient liturgical tradition, reflected in a teaching attributed to St. Augustine about the Easter Octave, which he called "the days of mercy and pardon," and the Octave Day itself "the compendium of the days of mercy."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">There is no need to force a link between Divine Mercy and the Gospel story of Thomas and the Risen Jesus. The celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday does not compete with, nor endanger the integrity of the Easter Season, nor does it take away from Thomas' awesome encounter with the Risen Lord in today's Gospel. Divine Mercy Sunday is the Octave Day of Easter, celebrating the merciful love of God shining through the whole Easter Triduum and the whole Easter mystery.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">At St. Faustina's canonization on April 30, 2000, Pope John Paul II said in his homily before more than 200,000 people in St. Peter’s Square: "Jesus shows his hands and his side [to the Apostles]. He points, that is, to the wounds of the Passion, especially the wound in his heart, the source from which flows the great wave of mercy poured out on humanity."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Several years ago, when I was having difficulty in seeing the internal links between the Second Sunday of Easter, my patron saint, Thomas the Apostle, and Sr. Faustina's revelations, I came across this quote by St. Bernard (Canticle 61, 4-5: PL 183, 1072): "What I cannot obtain by myself, I appropriate (usurp!) with trust from the pierced side of the Lord, because he is full of mercy. Thomas' encounter with the Risen Lord gave me a whole new perspective on the meaning of mercy. Then I understood what this day is all about. Now more than ever in the Church and in the world, we need mercy.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><strong>Mercy within mercy within mercy </strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">Canada’s most recent shepherd, Bishop Donald Bolen of Saskatoon, was ordained to the episcopacy on March 25, 2010. Bishop Bolen, a priest of the Archdiocese of Regina in Western Canada, and former official of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity at the Vatican, chose as his episcopal motto “Mercy within mercy within mercy.” The quotation is from Thomas Merton’s 1953 book “The Sign of Jonas,” wherein Merton has God saying: “I have always overshadowed Jonas with my mercy. Have you not had sight of me, Jonas, my child? Mercy within mercy within mercy.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">At his ordination ceremony on the Feast of the Annunciation this year, Bishop Bolen said: “The Word which Mary welcomes with her ‘fiat,’ the Word which becomes incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, the Word who gives himself to us completely, even unto death, but which death cannot contain: what that Word speaks is mercy within mercy within mercy. If ever there was an episcopal motto that sums up a bishop’s life, it is this motto for a remarkable young bishop and leader of the Church in Canada who models mercy in high density!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;">As we continue to bask in the afterglow of the resurrection of the Lord, let us not cease praying that Peter’s shadow of healing and peace cover the Church, and let us beg the Lord that our lives be steeped in mercy within mercy within mercy.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 8px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 8px; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px;"> </span>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-46083402504421848992011-04-30T22:59:00.000+10:002011-04-30T22:59:42.984+10:00Divine Mercy presents!As well as the Divine Mercy journal, I plan to buy these other two pieces of Divine Mercy once I get some money together! I'm going to wear the watch, and hang the blanket on a wall :-)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxFgMUChqRkO12H_FHc9Y5T3SSFLK1BVvipLPzjOJ6SWW3lZwdwU4c8zNxxOO5mBUQuDbek4soejrLv5o_Ls9zgCKgIGGqebSurCZzGu5G8LLOK5dYxVrw4Nt_mL2tp3HYGf20VFJ8jQ/s1600/dm_blanket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxFgMUChqRkO12H_FHc9Y5T3SSFLK1BVvipLPzjOJ6SWW3lZwdwU4c8zNxxOO5mBUQuDbek4soejrLv5o_Ls9zgCKgIGGqebSurCZzGu5G8LLOK5dYxVrw4Nt_mL2tp3HYGf20VFJ8jQ/s320/dm_blanket.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMufK4xX3c1dDAMw3LLWlbMmDeq1hEjIngGMlSNL-ASbNIu6JxVd3-xCb_liquNqJb0pfFcStEcbrwR-Eo-NZgtfPV5fS7yieBCRIeVmVmMAIQaRlIaOaY2-vGhKMn8K5LEIQWAPCFcTw/s1600/dm_watch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMufK4xX3c1dDAMw3LLWlbMmDeq1hEjIngGMlSNL-ASbNIu6JxVd3-xCb_liquNqJb0pfFcStEcbrwR-Eo-NZgtfPV5fS7yieBCRIeVmVmMAIQaRlIaOaY2-vGhKMn8K5LEIQWAPCFcTw/s320/dm_watch.jpg" width="299" /></a></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-47311778644617767702011-04-30T22:48:00.000+10:002011-04-30T22:48:00.189+10:00Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel<div style="font: 19.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><b>Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgb5QxQ-fzCo9X83C_MPv-9-AlCBC-z8Sp_XChyphenhyphens7Mc5rnWSDkxngobrMAom-7dnunATy-bciLIYsNiVYmdv2WsxnR5epdf-x6nnjO7eDADoB54WKpMiq-5QFaWh3g9J6zBF4701UIkI/s1600/St+Michael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgb5QxQ-fzCo9X83C_MPv-9-AlCBC-z8Sp_XChyphenhyphens7Mc5rnWSDkxngobrMAom-7dnunATy-bciLIYsNiVYmdv2WsxnR5epdf-x6nnjO7eDADoB54WKpMiq-5QFaWh3g9J6zBF4701UIkI/s320/St+Michael.jpg" width="233" /></a></div><div style="font: 19.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">Saint Michael, Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And you, Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and the other evil spirits who prowl the world for the ruin of souls. Amen. </div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-28298657973667875882011-04-30T22:39:00.001+10:002011-04-30T22:40:51.941+10:00The Image of Divine MercyWith a week since Easter Sunday, it is less than two weeks to Divine Mercy Sunday, a Feast of The Church on Jesus' Divine Mercy - veneration of the Image of Divine Mercy and recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. It is something I personally like because I sometimes know that I am not living life the right way, so I find comfort in Jesus' Divine Mercy and His promises. I plan to buy the Diary of Divine Mercy in about a week - a few days before Divine Mercy Sunday - which will give me a few days at least to read up a little more than I already know.<br />
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It is also a perfect example of the All Loving God we have, and especially of the Risen Christ, quite appropriate being after Easter Sunday but before Pentecost. The late Pope John-Paul II had particular devotion to the Divine Mercy, the Divine Mercy Apostle being Polish as well. He canonised her and instituted Divine Mercy Sunday. He also passed on to Heaven the day before Divine Mercy Sunday! He will be beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on Divine Mercy Sunday, making him a Blessed.<br />
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Read more about the Divine Mercy below!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Source: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="mailto:divinemercy-sydney@hotmail.com">Divine Mercy Sydney</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Divine Mercy Sunday - 1st May, 2011.</b></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6DyYzLfpWZXqUm0JBlqLf4AVr98uf623Q07P1heWyHbyASOw_z4K4kBhz-d-MHsgOXC9FwgDUIEqSzDmmLRyR7Jfz4UjbjDu5VbWhr4ZRLgkD_PzIfRD2qJa6WpgvS75G0O7-PG55y0Y/s1600/150196_102031513202320_100001864145021_13326_4191637_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6DyYzLfpWZXqUm0JBlqLf4AVr98uf623Q07P1heWyHbyASOw_z4K4kBhz-d-MHsgOXC9FwgDUIEqSzDmmLRyR7Jfz4UjbjDu5VbWhr4ZRLgkD_PzIfRD2qJa6WpgvS75G0O7-PG55y0Y/s320/150196_102031513202320_100001864145021_13326_4191637_n.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">The earliest element of the Devotion to the Divine Mercy revealed to St. Faustina was the Image. On February 22nd, 1931 Jesus appeared to her with rays radiating from His heart and said,</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus I trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and throughout the world. (Diary 47)</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I myself will defend it as My own glory.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy. That vessel is this image with the signature: "Jesus, I trust in You." (Diary 327)</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">The two rays denote Blood and Water. the pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized heart was opened by a lance on the Cross. These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him. (Diary 299)</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Not in the beauty of the colour, nor of the brush, lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace. (Diary 313)</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works. (Diary 742)</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">In these texts the Church's doctrine on images, justification and grace are explained. First, by itself an image is merely a painting, no matter how beautiful and expressive. Yet, it can point us the mysteries of the faith and dispose us to grasp and receive what it represents, in this case the Divine Mercy. It is thus a vessel, not the source, a reminder, not the reality.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">The reality is the merciful fountain of grace flowing from the pierced Heart of Christ on the Cross, and flowing out visibly to represent the visible, that is the sacramental, signs of grace, Baptism and Eucharist, standing for all the sacraments of the Church. Thus, St. John in his first letter insists on the presence of the invisible with the visible, the Spirit with the water and the Blood.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">The image also reminds us that salvation is not just by faith, but by works of charity also. It takes faith to see and believe in what the Image signifies, Divine Mercy poured out from Christ upon the Cross, but it takes mercy, love going beyond the strict requirements of justice, in order to draw down mercy on oneself. "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" (Mt 6:12) and "the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you" (Mt 7:2) The Image of the pierced side of Christ pouring out blood and water reminds us that the Cross, love in action, is the price of mercy. "As I have loved you so also should you love one another." (Jn 13:34)</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div class="photo photo_none" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="photo_img" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img class="img_loading img" src="http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/197182_131520790253392_100001864145021_209453_1186121_n.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; left: -100000px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; position: absolute; top: -100000px;" /></div><div class="caption" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: left;">1931: Our Lord appeared to St Faustina and asked her to paint His image.</div></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div class="photo photo_none" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="photo_img" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img class="img_loading img" src="http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/205513_139905046081633_100001864145021_259373_6786186_n.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; left: -100000px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; position: absolute; top: -100000px;" /></div><div class="caption" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: left;">Our Lord Jesus said that His gaze is that the same gaze when He was on the cross.</div></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div class="photo photo_none" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="photo_img" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img class="img_loading img" src="http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/208465_139905996081538_100001864145021_259376_4732973_n.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; left: -100000px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; position: absolute; top: -100000px;" /></div><div class="caption" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: left;">Our Lord Jesus described the Two Rays of Blood and Water from His pierced Heart.</div></div>ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408729437092499939.post-6649513310632139902011-04-30T22:38:00.000+10:002011-04-30T22:38:31.691+10:00His Divine MercyI am spiritually sick, wounded, and in need of aid, which I think I have found in the Divine Mercy. Most people who pass through here are Catholic, but there are others who pass by that aren't, so perhaps I will firstly add that Divine Mercy isn't veneration of "yet another bloody saint!" but of a very well known and someone ought to be praised - worshipped in fact - and that is The Risen Christ, with His Promises of Mercy.<br />
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I was going to buy the Divine Mercy Journal during the week, read up on it a little before Sunday, but too late now, which I am a little disappointed at. There's still next week, and the part of the year we are in, the creep up to Pentecost, Divine Mercy is even more appropriate!<br />
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On Good Friday, Jesus goes through all the pain and suffering for US! Easter Sunday He has risen, but Divine Mercy Sunday, He is wanting His children to come to known Him closer yet, by giving them mercy from their sins!<br />
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"Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy." (Diary 965).<br />
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I must made inventory of my sins so I can take them to God - be it in prayer or if I see the need to confess them to a priest. Make more of a commitment to my prayer and spiritual life. Change things in my everyday life.<br />
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If God is Love, and Jesus is Love, then Divine Mercy is Love! Happy Easter Season!ravenswisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11822953219395404640noreply@blogger.com0