Pope's Wednesday Audience

AsiaNews.it -Benedict XVI: Eucharist, vocation, mission are the tracks of the WYD:

"Jesus is our companion on the journey in the Eucharist and the Eucharist - as I
said in the homily at the closing celebration, adapting a well-known image from
physics - carries "nuclear fission" to the most hidden depths of the heart of
the being. Only this intimate explosion of good which triumphs over evil can
give life to those other transformations necessary to change the world. We pray
now so that the youth may go from Cologne with the light of Christ, who is truth
and love and that they may spread this everywhere."

Brother Roger's Catholic Funeral

Taize:

"Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical council for the unity of
Christians, pronounces the opening allocution then celebrates the Eucharist with the brothers of Taize who are priests"

Feast Day of St. Rose of Lima

From Catholic Culture:

Rose of Lima, a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic, was the "first blossom of sanctity that South America gave to the world." Hers was a life heroic in virtue and penance. The evils perpetrated by the conquerors of the land in their lust for gold, she expiated. For many her life was a silent sermon of penance. Pope Clement X stated in the bull of canonization: "Since the discovery of Peru no missionary has arisen who effected a similar popular zeal for the practice of penance."

Already as a five-year-old child (born 1586), Rose vowed her innocence to God. While still a young girl, she practiced mortifications and fasts that exceeded ordinary discretion; during all of Lent she ate no bread, but subsisted on five citron seeds a day. In addition, she suffered repeated attacks from the devil, painful bodily ailments, and from her family, scoldings and calumnies. All this she accepted serenely, remarking that she was treated better than she deserved. For fifteen years she patiently endured the severest spiritual abandonment and aridity. In reward came heavenly joys, the comforting companionship of her holy guardian angel and of the Blessed Virgin. August 24, 1617, proved to be the day "on which the paradise of her heavenly Bridegroom unlocked itself to her."

Excerpted from The Church's year of grace, Pius Parsch.

Robertson Calls for Leader's Assasination

By the U.S.



While this is something that you might imagine the CIA doing behind closed doors, it is not something you expect from a follower of Jesus Christ--hardly an endorsement of the Sermon on the Mount.



Yet I know that we all have a hard time reconciling our faith with our politics. Some exclude "life" issues from their vote, others exclude "war" issues from theirs.



The Gospel of Jesus calls us to be different from the world and most of us while at first glimpsing the truth and power of Jesus' call in the end sort of forget that and end up being no different than the agnostic living next door to us.



We get Christian leaders who mimic us. It is easy to jump on Pat Robertson, but "let he who is without sin cast the first stone," meaning in this case "have you and I embraced the radical nature of the Gospel yet?"



Story on the UK Guardian

Queenship of Mary

This was to fulfill what the prophets had prophesied:

At your right hand stands the queen, clothed in gold of Ophir.

Pray the rosary today!

Al Gore TV

I was a big fan of International News, it gave a world perspective of what others considered the news of the day. But now that is gone, bought out by Al Gore and what we have instead is a waste of time...Betting a Network on Youths Who Think - New York Times:

It was impossible not to snicker a little at the notion of Al Gore creating a hip, youth-oriented cable network, and sure enough, Current TV is at first glance a punch line: MTV without the music.

But after only three weeks, Current is not a joke. It actually lives up to its billing as a slick, commercial cable network that gives its audience a voice in the programming.

Q & A on Stem Cell Research

From the Pensylvania Catholic Bishops