Well, Election Day has arrived. By tomorrow morning we shall know who is to govern America for the next four years. For many Catholics and Protestants alike, this is a dreaded day. Too often we are seeing our freedom of religion violated by government laws. In the Declaration of Independance it states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." It appears that that paragraph has been pushed aside. We see priests being quieted by authorities for upholding Church teaching, people arrested for defending the unborn, and children prohibited from speaking of God in the schools.  What has happened that our society has taken such a drastic turn? The answer is simple - we tried to do it without God, the Maker of the universe. If we try to run a country without our Creator, Hell ensues. Many people believe that freedom means to be able to do whatever we want without consequences. In that frame of mind, anything can be justified. Killing the unborn is just another 'freedom'. If we want a country that reveres God, we need a president who respects life. I can honestly tell you that Obama does not respect life. Now, I'm not here to trash Obama. I'm here to tell you the truth. The Romney-Ryan team may indeed give hope to America. They can't save it (only God can), but we can hope that a greater respect for life will come about if Romney is elected. May God bless you. 


Romney/Obama picture copied from discoverygirls.com   

 

Everyone, please pray for Prince Edward Island, Canada, this week. It is the only province in all of Canada that does not offer abortion, and the Reproductive Rights group of PEI  has brought this to national attention. They will be hosting a rally to make sure that they are heard (honestly, we've heard enough of them. Abortion is NOT necessary health care, nor is it a 'woman's right'. Give me a break.).  Prince Edward Island  has been pushed into the limelight.  So I ask that all of you pray for a greater respect for life, from conception until natural death. The pro-lifers will be bombarding the government with letters to show that we can be just as persistent about our views as the pro-chice side is. I'll post again when I hear more about this. Pax Christi+ 

  When I first read about the Cappadocians I immediately thought of cappuccinos. Which doesn't actually make sense because coffee wasn't even invented when they were alive. Maybe it was.. I should Google that. Google can sometimes be helpful!Anyway, I'm going WAY off topic. The Three Cappadocians were St. Basil of Caesaria, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus; they lived in the late 300s. They came from a place called Cappadocia, hence the name Cappadocian (So forget about cappuccinos. Please).
  Around this time, a heresy had come about that was commenly called 'Arianism'. Started by a Libyan priest named Arius, it taught that God the Son is not eternal, nor consubstantial with the Father. Arius was skilled in speach, so, sadly, many people began to believe this lie. Until this time, the Church had not officially defined the teaching of the
Trinity. This is where the Cappadocians came into the picture. God had raised these men up to defend His Church. 
 St. Basil of Caesaria was an energetic and sensible man, who was a priest and later an archbishop. His main doctrinal writings are a treatise Arianism and another on the Holy Spirit. He also wrote about the six days of creation.  
  St. Gregory of Nazianzus' character is quite different from St. Basil's. Gregory was a sensitive soul, who seemed to be better suited for monastic life; but God had another plan. He assisted the elderly bishop of Nazianzus with his diocese. After going for a time into solitude, at the requests of the Constantinople Catholics he became their bishop.
  St. Gregory of Nyssa, though uneducated, became a great teacher and philosopher. He played a major role in the Church's Council of Constantinople, and wrote much aginst Arians. He also wrote a catechism to explain many of the doctrines of the Faith.
Together, these men were able to clear up much confusion regarding the Church. Even today (especially today?), we need people to rise up and defend our Faith. Those people are us. Now that doesn't mean that we have to get up on the roof and start singing of the greatness of God, but we are called to teach by example. Funny how when our friends ask about the cross we wear around our neck - that beautiful symbol of the Ultimate Sacrifice that we should be proud to wear - we sometimes nonchalantly refer to it as "just a piece of jewelry". It says 365 times in the Bible to "Be not afraid". When God says something, He means it. When He says it 365 times, HE REALLY, REALLY MEANS IT. But He will gladly help us; we can't do it alone. Pray to Him for strength. On that note, pray for each other as well. We are a universal Church. God bless!

My site has received a makeover - just in time for Autumn! I'm going to try to add a couple more features to my blog. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know through the comments -  I love to hear from you all!

Hi again! I just realized how long it's been since I last posted. I got an email yesterday from the Weebly team expressing their supposed concern over my absense. It seems that they think I fell off the face of the earth. Well, I didn't! Many apologies about the lack of activity on my site. I promise I'll try to post something at least once a week. If I don't, you are free to complain to your hearts content through comments! :) God Bless!

"The Faith Explained", by Leo J. Trese, is a great book that talks about a wide range of Church teachings in a relatively easy-to-understand format. I thought I'd put in an excerpt from the book on the sacrament of Confirmation, because I'm making my Confirmation this year. (YAY!) Here's the quote: "Without Baptism, we can not go to Heaven. Without Confirmation, we can get to Heaven, but the going will be much rougher. In fact, without Confirmation it would be easy to lose our way entirely, easy to lose our faith. That is why it is an obligation for every baptized person to be also confirmed if he has the opportunity of receiving the sacrament of Comfirmation. We know that Jesus did not institute any of the sacraments "just for the fun of it". Jesus instituted each individual sacrament because he foresaw, in his infinite wisdom, that we would have need of certain special graces under certain particular circumstances."
Pretty awesome, eh? If only we could fully understood how many spiritual gifts we receive by allowing the Holy Spirit to come into us in that way, we would be BEGGING the bishop to confirm us early!! My parish priest compares the gifts of the Holy Spirit to a video game. He explains that as the characters advance in the game, they unlock super powers and special features. At confirmation, we're infused with many fruits and graces - a kind of spiritual power-up! Even after Confirmation, we should continue to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us, daily.
Prayer to The Holy Spirit:
Come Holy Spirit! Enlighten my understanding in order that I may know your commands; strengthen my heart against the snares of the enemy; enkindle my will. I have heard your voice, and I do not want to harden my heart and resist, saying " Later... tommorrow." Nunc coepi! Right now! Lest there be no tomorrow for me. Oh Spirit of truth and wisdom, Spirit of understanding and counsel, Spirit of joy and if peace! I want what you want, because you want it, as you want it, when you want it.
Amen.

OK so I was trying to add another page to this blog yesterday, and instead of adding a page I ended up DELETING the blog I had. :( I rewrote as much as I could, but all the comments are gone. Sorry about that, guys. Feel free to comment again! :)

I was able to retrieve this post from my documents! Yay! I thought I had lost it. The layout is a bit messed up because I used another program to type it up, but the wording is the same!

Here are a couple common
questions about prayer:

Q: So... how do I start?
A: Let's say there's a new girl in your class who you want to get to know. You go over and introduce yourself and maybe talk for a bit about school, friends, interests, etc. Basically, you want to learn
about each other. The same goes for God. To begin a good friendship with
Him, all you need to say is a simple "Hi". You can also talk to Him about your day, tell Him any problems you're having, and thank Him for the many
gifts that He gives you every day. God will definitely appreciate your efforts to get to know Him!
Q: How do I know if God is speaking to me, or if it's all just in my head?
A: People don't recognize voices they aren't familiar with. What that means is that in order to know if God is telling
you something, we have to get used to conversing with Him. It will be much
easier to listen to Him speaking if we're in a place of silence - a place where we aren't disturbed by voices, music, or a noisy - but adorable - dog. It won't take
much, just a bit of time and effort on your part - God will take care of the rest!

Q: How do I find time to pray?
A: We're all busy. With school, sports, volunteer work, jobs, and more, it may seem insane to try and add anything else to the schedule. But as crazy as it
sounds, there is a way. In the morning, as soon as you wake up and all is
quiet for at least a minute, you can
pray. Everything you do in that 24 hours
we call a day is offered to God as a
prayer. By offering your day to God,
you're telling Him that no matter what
happens, it is now His problem. And
He's HAPPY to take it all on himself. That's how much he loves us. :)