Protecting the Sacred

Catholic activist battles online sale of relics

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand.Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:5-6

The Pope in the News

Meets with Anglican Primate

Condom Use in the News Again

The Ghosts of Past Pope's Haunts Papal Trip to Turkey which includes this:

"My readers were, for the most part, very supportive and pleased with what Benedict said in Regensburg," said Amy Welborn, who runs the popular US Catholic blog Open Book.

They also appreciated his call to Western Christians to reject a narrow, modern version of reason that he said shuts out faith and strips away the ethical foundations of society itself.

"They would like to see more Muslims have the same attitude toward their own faith, and particularly how that faith is lived out in the modern world," she said.

It should be noted that Ms. Welborn's husband lived in Turkey for one year of his life and frequently joined Muslims in a cup of chai (tea) and was edified by their fidelity to their beliefs. "In the Muslim's faithfulness, we can see how far we have become secularized in our beliefs," he said. (Not in the story but pertinent.)

Calendar Goes on Sale in Italy

The Brits: Pope Questions his Infallibility (about the Jesus book--and obviously reflecting total ignorance on what infallibility is)

Anti-pope protest planned for Istanbul this Sunday

Kissinger to Advise Pope?

From the National Catholic Register:

According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Pope Benedict XVI has invited the 83-year-old former adviser to Richard Nixon to be a political consultant, and Kissinger has accepted.

Quoting an “authoritative” diplomatic source at the Holy See, the paper reported Nov. 4 that the Nobel laureate was asked at a recent private audience with the Holy Father to form part of a papal “advisory board” on foreign and political affairs.

Something to Give Thanks for...

That I didn't go to Florida for Thanksgiving, looking for relief from the cold...

Snow! Flakes spotted in Central Florida

The "Rain" of Pope Benedict XVI

Today's audience held in the wind and rain at St. Peter's...

1. New book on Jesus.
2. Will be accompanied by 2,000 Journalists on trip to Turkey
3. Prays for rain to stop:
   

   “Let us hope that the Lord is propitious and makes this rain stop,” said the pope, whose words were followed shortly afterwards by a timid ray of sun. “I would like to thank the Lord for giving us a moment of light and a break from the rain,” he added jokingly at the end of the audience.

   
   
   

Grace Acts on People in Different Ways

Great wisdom from Isaac of Nineveh (modern Iraq), especially because we often judge spirituality from our own perspective, rather than from God's. God has created us all differently and God's grace acts in a similar manner:

Some, spurred on by great enthusiasm, redouble the number of their prayers. Others, on the contrary, are led by innner peace to reduce the number of their prayers until they are saying one.

From Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary : Ancient Wisdom for Today's World (Cistercian Studies, No 148)