Obama giving commencement address at ND?

American Papist is reporting that President Obama will be giving the commencment address at Notre Dame... yes, you heard me, NOTRE DAME. Yeah, that one, really huge CATHOLIC school.

This is a man that absolutely flies in the face of the Church and the values of the Church... and he is going to be speaking to an institution of the Church?

I'm not sure what to say. Again, for the second time this week... I'm speechless.

Lord have mercy.

Quote of the Moment...

Amy Welborn definitely gets my quote of the moment. I love the humor.

"Of course he's already made news because, we are once again shocked to learn,
the Pope has not booked a seat on the condom train."

OMG! OMG! Seriously... the Pope goes to Africa and the media harps on a comment about condoms... as if that is really some shock that the Pontiff is against birth control of any type.

I guess I'm not shocked. The media never fails. I always notice the interest in the Catholic Church as opposed to any other church. It doesn't matter how big or small a comment made by the Pope or any Representative for that matter of the Church, it will be critiqued. I suppose most Catholics are used to this, but my being new and all, I guess I just still find it a bit difficult to swallow. I suppose Nancy didn't set His Holiness straight after all. ;-)

ACORN helping with the census in 2010?

FOXNews.com has the fullstory here...

Honest to God... I have nothing to say. I am simply speechless by this news. Surely we're not this stupid.

Billy Graham's prayer for the nation...

I love this e-mail that my wife sent me. It's so very true and I will pray thing along with Rev. Graham.

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to
seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to
those
who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We
have lost
our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have
exploited the
poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and
called it
welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We
have shot
abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to
discipline
our children and called it building self esteem. We have
abused power and
called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's
possessions and called it
ambition. ;We have polluted the
earth with profanity and
pornography and called it freedom of
expression. We have ridiculed the
time-honored values of our
forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search
us, Oh God, and
know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set
us free.
Amen!'

Oops...

Asked whether he thought women had the right to choose abortion, Steele said: "Yeah. I mean, again, I think that's an individual choice."

Oops...

Michael Steele let this slip in an interview with the magazine, GQ. There is a lot of promise surrounding Steele as the newly elected party chairman, but since he was elected, there has been more than one slip up like this.

I hope he can learn to either keep his mouth shut or at least when he opens up, try to keep it in line with party thinking... republican party thinking, anyway.

UPDATE: Catholic News Agency has a full story here...

Jesus and the Atheist...

An incredible post that I found thanks to Julie D. over at Happy Catholic.

HOW A RENEGADE DEER, A FLAT TIRE, A DYING BEAGLE, A GLOWING DIME, A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER, AND A WHITE GARBAGE BAG BROUGHT THE ATHEIST AND JESUS TOGETHER.

Vacation over...

Yeah, it's over. I don't believe I even mentioned that I was going on vacation, but I noticed a pretty large amount of views over the past 5 days and I'm guessing some were wondering why there were no new posts... and the answer is vacation.

So, we'll post again now. :)

Code words for the Church...

This is an email that was sent to me by a friend. I found it funny and hope you will, too.

This information is for Catholics only.

It must NOT be divulged to NON-Catholics.

The less they know about our rituals and code words, the better off they are.

AMEN: The only part of a prayer that everyone knows.

BULLETIN: Your receipt for attending Mass.

CHOIR: A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the Parish to lip-sync.

HOLY WATER: A liquid whose chemical formula is H2OLY.

HYMN: A song of praise usually sung in a key three octaves higher than that of the congregation's range.

RECESSIONAL HYMN: The last song at Mass often sung a little more quietly, since most of the people have already left.

INCENSE: Holy Smoke!

JESUITS: An order of priests known for their ability to find colleges with good basketball teams.

JONAH: The original 'Jaws' story.

JUSTICE: When kids have kids of their own.

KYRIE ELEISON: The only Greek words that most Catholics can recognize besides gyros and baklava.(for you non-Catholics it means 'Lord have mercy')

MAGI: The most famous trio to attend a baby shower.

MANGER: Where Mary gave birth to Jesus because Joseph wasn't covered by an HMO. (The Bible's way of showing us that holiday travel has always been rough.)

PEW: A medieval torture device still found in Catholic churches.

PROCESSION: The ceremonial formation at the beginning of Mass consisting of altar servers, the celebrant, and late parishioners looking for seats (I believe this is talking about me. ;-).

RECESSIONAL: The ceremonial procession at the conclusion of Mass led by parishioners trying to beat the crowd to the parking lot.

RELICS: People who have been going to Mass for so long, they actually know when to sit, kneel, and stand.

TEN COMMANDMENTS: The most important Top Ten list not given by David Letterman.

USHERS: The only people in the parish who don't know the seating capacity of a pew.

Church is NOT Wal-Mart!

I stumbled across this post earlier today. It is a good reminder that sometimes the truth hurts... but it is still the truth.

Fr. Phillip over at Domine, da mihi hanc aquam gives us this great wisdom.

1). The Roman Catholic Church isn't WalMart or Burger King; it's the Body of Christ.

2). Catholic priests, nuns, sisters/brothers and laity aren't employees; we are members of the Body of Christ.

3). The doctrine and dogma of the Catholic Church are not consumer products that the Church's employees sell to those who want them; Catholic doctrine and dogma express the unchanging truth of the faith.

4). Life in a Catholic parish is not a trip to Disney Land or Target or McDonald's where your consumer needs and whims are catered to by the whimpering clergy and lay staff; parish life is the life of Christ for the local Catholic family.

keep reading here...

Thanks for the post, Father!

They're not the same prayers...

Where are the reasonable people at in this world? It never ceases to amaze me that people just simply refuse to understand or the acknowledge the truth. It's one thing to not understand, it's another thing to not want to understand.

My wife and I are enjoying our journey to the Catholic Church. We knew we'd meet resistance here and there. We knew we'd meet the anti-Catholic arguments. This isn't new news. We knew we'd see it and hear it. What we didn't know is how ridiculous some of these arguments would be. Just today I heard a few arguments that just blow my mind simply because they came from someone intelligent, yet it seemed as if there was no thought process occurring before these ideas came out.

You have to read a lot of books to even be Catholic.

You have to do a lot of stuff to stay Catholic.

And my personal favorite, you have to pray all day.

Yeah, I wish I was making this up. Sadly, I'm not. You have to pray all day? I'm not 100% sure, well, I am, but anyway, I know ALL bibles say pray without ceasing.

Everyone is supposed to pray all day. Why are Catholics different?

Simple, according to one person... they're not the same prayers.

Lord, please open their eyes. Keep the devil, the author of confusion, away from my family and out of our lives.

I figured we could at least get half way through the desert before these comments would be made. :-\