TODAY’S LESSON IN SAINTHOOD….

I’ll have to admit,  I’m a bad Catholic.   I never heard of Saint Narcissus and  I couldn’t help but add a little something to the end of this post.   I hope  he  has a sense of humor,  that big stick he’s carrying looks like it could do some serious damage.

OCTOBER 29–TODAY’S FEAST DAY:
ST. NARCISSUS, Bishop.

Saint Narcissus from his youth applied himself with great care to the study of both religious and human disciplines. He entered into the ecclesiastical state, and in him all the sacerdotal virtues were seen in their perfection; he was called the holy priest. He was surrounded by universal esteem, but was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem only in about the year 180, when he was already an octogenarian. He governed his church with a vigor which was like that of a young man, and his austere and penitent life was totally dedicated to the welfare of the church.

In the year 195, with Theophilus of Cesarea he presided at a council concerning the celebration date of Easter; it was decided then that this great feast would always be celebrated on a Sunday, and not on the day of the ancient Passover.

God attested his merits by many miracles, which were long held in memory by the Christians of Jerusalem. One Holy Saturday the faithful were distressed, because no oil could be found for the church lamps to be used in the Paschal vigil. Saint Narcissus bade them draw water from a neighboring well and after he blessed it, told them to put it in the lamps. It was changed into oil, and long afterwards some of this oil was still preserved at Jerusalem in memory of the miracle.

The virtue of the Saint did not fail to make enemies for him, and three wretched men charged him with an atrocious crime. They confirmed their testimony by horrible imprecations. The first one prayed that he might perish by fire, the second that he might be wasted by leprosy, the third that he might be struck blind, if the accusations they made against their bishop were false. The holy bishop had long desired a life of solitude, and at this time he decided it was best to withdraw to the desert and leave the Church in peace. But God intervened on behalf of His servant, when all three of the bishop’s accusers suffered the penalties they had invoked. Narcissus could then no longer resist the petitions of his people; he returned to Jerusalem and resumed his office. He died in extreme old age, bishop to the last.

REFLECTION: God never fails those who trust in Him; He guides them through darkness and through trials, in silence but securely, to their end.

Which is why we should trust God and the Saints and  not politicians!  Especially……

THE FUTURE SAINT NARCISSIST-BARACK OBAMA, Con man.

Barack Hussein Obama, from his youth, was not a child who applied himself with great care or study. Although his scholastic ability was often touted as being of high degree, the records of his education have been sealed from the public. He had remained in a secular state and it was not until he was an adult that he was baptized into the Trinity United Church of Christ. He dumped that church as soon as it was made known, despite his  earlier denials,  Barack  sat in the pews as his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, spewed   ‘inflammatory rhetoric’.   Regardless of this revelation, his followers could only see sacerdotal virtues  in Barack and saw nothing less than perfection; he was called the ‘The One’.

He was surrounded by universal esteem, thanks to his control of the media which caused leg tingles and shouts of “YES HE CAN!”. He was elected President of the World United States in the year 2008. He governed his country with the same aloofness he showed as student. His lavish lifestyle in the White House was totally dedicated to the welfare of bankers such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Chase Bank. He didn’t need to do the work as long as he had Czars to do it for him. Life was good as long as the taxpayers and lobbyists were footing the bill.

One holy Saturday night, Barack Obama took his wife on a date to New York City. Although many in the U.S could not afford gas for their cars because of the high price of oil, Obama was able to squeeze enough tax money out of them to fly three aircraft, including two smaller aircraft for White House staff and media, at a price of $24,000 each for this date.  He burned through that oil as if it were water!  It was a miracle!

Followers of Barack Hussein Obama attested his merits by many other miracles. When our country was deep in debt and it looked as if it would collapse, he miraculously produced  billions of dollars out of thin air  to bailout the banks and auto industry.  This  resulted in a tripling of the already bloated debt.    And yet, the media announced with great glee that the recession was over!    Many were without jobs and lost their homes,  but that is evidence of the true miracle…for even though the banks took the money and gave it to their CEO’s as bonuses,  Obama’s “likability” remained high.

President Barack Hussein Obama had many more miracles up the sleeves of his Scabal suit. He was determined to give his countrymen a new health care policy, even if it didn’t benefit those in need of help.  He busied himself making back room deals with the large pharmaceutical companies assuring them that the American people will never be able to purchase their medications in other countries where it is offered at a cheaper rate. After much haggling with the members of the Congress and Senate, the health care bill came to his desk…full of loop holes, taxes for the middle class, government funded abortions, and record profits for the health care and pharmaceutical industries. He blessed it, signed it, and it became law.

After the people realized that their health care bills would continue to rise at record heights and they were worse off than before, they became angry. Many had prayed that he might perish by fire, some said that he should be wasted by leprosy, others said that he should have his golf clubs taken away from him and his blackberry confiscated! They were called racists, and banished from the public eye by the progressive media.

His true followers never left him during his time of need. They continued to support him, regardless of the broken promises. There was plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth during that time, but President Obama had the miraculous ability to turn those frowns upside down with his golden oratorical skills and a hefty dose of hopium.

After his Presidency, he lived the remainder of his life admiring his reflection in the mirror and surrounding himself with the riches he obtained while bilking the country. Empathy for those who were hurt by his policies never surfaced. He continued to write more books about himself, each one larger than the last.

Mmmmm….mmmmm…..mmmmm….Barack Hussein Obama…..future Saint Narcissist.

 

AWB (ATHEISTS WITHOUT BRAINS)

You know, I’ve got nothing against the average person who doesn’t believe in God. Some of my best friends are atheists and I love them to pieces. However, some atheists are just plain stupid. It seems that Penn State came up with a T-shirt design intended to foster some school spirit. The “Penn State White Out” t-shirt has a vertical blue line down the center and the words “Penn State White Out” that crosses the line toward the top. The blue line down the center was supposed to resemble the blue stripe that is on the football team’s helmets. The back of the shirt says “Don’t be intimidated…It’s just me and 110,000 of my friends.”

There have been 30.000 shirts sold…but 6 whiny atheists complained. They claim it “looks like a cross”. Waaa! Waaaa! Boo Hoo! One of those big babies, Michal Berns, who is a junior majoring in media law and policy, said she refused to buy the $15 shirt because of its religious connotations.

“At first glance, you don’t necessarily think that’s what it looks like, but when you look at it more, it does look like a cross,” Berns told Foxnews.com. “That’s the reason I didn’t purchase it.”

Yeah…if you turn your head a certain way and look really really hard you might see something that resembles a religious symbol…that is, if you’re a freakin’ half-wit with your head up your arse, that is.

I guess the next step for the atheists of the fundamentalist variety will be insisting that all these be taken down….

Or maybe this game should be forbidden….

….because if they turn their heads a certain way, their eyes will burst into flames.

OH NO!!! NOT THAT AMBULANCE, SEND ME ONE WITHOUT A CROSS ON IT!!!

How’s this for a suggestion to those 6 babies who complained…don’t buy it, and do everyone else at Penn State a favor and transfer to another school…preferably one that house other idiots just like yourselves.

They can even design their own shirts.

GETTING A GRIP ON EVIL

It’s not hard to find evil in this world, it surrounds us like a thick dirty smog. You only have to skim through the newspaper and you will find story after story about young kids murdering other kids. Teenagers. young children, innocent fathers, and pregnant mothers are being caught in the crossfire of gang fights, kidnappings of young school children who are either tortured and killed, or used or sold as sex slaves. Let’s not forget about the incidents of parents abusing and killing their own babies or young children. Pure evil.

The question is, why is this form of evil escalating at such a high level? Is it simply a “sign of the times” or is there a deeper, more sinister reason? Not wanting to sound like “The Church Lady”, but….Could it be Satan?

The Catholic Church takes demonic possession very seriously. In December of 2007, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI began organizing exorcist squads to tackle the rise of Satanism and demonic possession.

Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.

They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of “Godlessness.”

Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.

The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican “exorcist-in-chief,” to the online Catholic news service Petrus.

For those who are unfamiliar with Father Gabriele Amorth, he’s the go-to guy if you want to know anything about his job. Here’s a video of an interview with him. It’s amazing to me how calm and cool he is, considering all that he’s been witness to.

In the book, An Exorcist Tells His Story, Father Amorth listed the six extraordinary forms of demonic activity:

1. External physical pain caused by Satan. We know of this from many lives of the saints. We know that Saint Paul of the Cross, the Curé of Ars, Padre Pio, and many others were beaten, flogged, and pummeled by demons. This external form of persecution does riot affect the soul; therefore with this type there has never been the need for an exorcism, only for prayers. Here I will dwell only on the other types of actions that directly affect exorcists.

2. Demonic possession. This occurs when Satan takes full possession of the body (not the soul); he speaks and acts without the knowledge or consent of the victim, who therefore is morally blameless. It is the gravest and most spectacular form of demonic afflictions, and it attracts the attention of producers of movies such as The Exorcist. According to the Ritual for exorcisms, some of the signs of possession include: speaking in tongues, extraordinary strength, and revealing the unknown. The man of Gerasa is a clear Gospel example of possession. To fix a set “model” for demonic possession would be a serious mistake; the affliction runs the gamut of symptoms and severity. For instance, I have exercised two totally possessed persons who remained perfectly still and silent during the exorcism. I could cite many other examples and as many different symptoms.

3. Diabolical oppression. Symptoms vary from a very serious to a mild illness. There is no possession, loss of consciousness, or involuntary action and word. The Bible gives us many examples of oppression; one of them is job, He was not possessed, but he lost his children, his goods, and his health. The bent woman and the deaf and dumb man who were cured by Jesus were not subject to total possession, but there was a demonic presence that caused physical discomfort. Saint Paul was most certainly not possessed by a demon, but he had a demonic oppression that caused an evil affliction: “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me” (2 Cor 12:7). There is no doubting the evil origin of the affliction.

While possessions are still relatively rare today, we exorcists run into a great number of people who have been struck by the devil in their health, jobs, or relationships. We must make it clear that to diagnose and heal an oppression-related illness is not any easier than to diagnose and cure a person afflicted by full possession. The degree of gravity may be different, but the difficulty of the diagnosis and the amount of time involved in healing are the same.

4. Diabolic obsession. Symptoms include sudden attacks, at times ongoing, of obsessive thoughts, sometimes even rationally absurd, but of such nature that the victim is unable to free himself Therefore the obsessed person lives in a perpetual state of prostration, desperation, and attempts at suicide. Almost always obsession influences dreams. Some people will say that this is evidence of mental illness, requiring the services of a psychiatrist or a psychologist. The same could be said of all other forms of demonic phenomena. Some symptoms, however, are so inconsistent with known illnesses that they point with certainty to their evil origins. Only an expert and well-trained eye can identify the crucial differences.

5. Diabolic infestation. Infestations affect houses, things, or animals. This book will only mention the topic. I merely want to state that I will never use this term when I refer to persons. I will always talk about possession, oppression, and obsession.

6. Diabolical subjugation, or dependence. People fall into this form of evil when they voluntarily submit to Satan. The two most common forms of dependence are the blood pact with the devil and the consecration to Satan.

Below is another interesting video about an exorcism performed by Jesuit Priests. Fascinating stuff!

Following are three other videos that I found from a past television series, Mysteries of the Church-Exorcism. Unfortunately, the beginning of the first video is full of the “drama” that you see on these shows….weird background music, the host of the show walking into a Catholic church…looking at the stained glass windows as if something was going to pop out and grab her. That kinda stuff. But once you get past that part and into the interviews with the priest, Rev. Jose Antonio Fortea and Dr. Richard Gallagher (Academic Psychiatrist) who gave some amazing testimonies of actual exorcisms, it makes the video worthwhile, in my opinion.

Here is the series in three parts. I hope you have the time to watch them because it shows that the Catholic Church does not take this lightly and are very careful not to step in without a lot of investigation which includes having the person possessed seen by medical doctors and psychiatrists/psychologists.

Obviously the Pope is taking this seriously enough that he is having more priests trained to perform the rite of exorcism. Speaking to a retired Pastor from my Parish, he made it clear that demonic possession not only exists, but he actually had the opportunity to talk to an exorcist and hear the tapes of an exorcism. He said it was enough to scare the daylights out of him and the sounds that came from the person being exorcised was in no way human. That was enough for me to spend a lot more time praying to St. Michael. And after watching those videos I put up today, it’s time to brush off the old scapular that I have tucked away in my jewelery box.

So…what are your thoughts on this and have any of you had experience with people you know who dabbled in the world of the occult?

YUP—IT’S MONDAY ALRIGHT

“I always give 100% on my blog:

13% Monday

22% Tuesday

26% Wednesday

35% Thursday

4% Friday”

I’ll be workin’ on that 13% right after I’ve had my coffee…my third cup of coffee. Hang in there…

–Nunly