The Catholic Monitor

> An unsettling image says Chesterton, is the whole > purpose of the imagination: “The function of > imagination is not to make strange things settled, > so much as to make settled things strange; not so > much to make wonders facts as to make facts > wonders.” > > The wonder begins with existence itself. Existence, > he says, “has a value wholly inexpressible”. But > the artist tries to express it. That is the duty of > the artist: to express the inexpressible. > > Chesterton tries to get us to feel what he calls > “the intoxication of existence” and the invaluable, > incomparable gift of life. In a prophetic poem he > wrote over a hundred years ago, a poem entitled “By > the Babe Unborn”, he portrays a baby, lying in the > dark womb, trying to imagine a world of blue skies > and green grassy hills, which to him in the darkness > is just a dream. But if he could actually attain > it, and see such a world and live in i...

32. How intimate is the connection between Heaven and Earth? The joy of Heaven does, because Christ is our joy, who tells us "I am with you always, even to the end of the world" (Matt. 28:20, Phillips). We do not now fully appreciate that joy, but it is here, because the very life of Heaven, the very life that flows from the Vine into the branches, is here. If it is not here in us now, it will not be there in us then. If Heaven is not in us now, we will not be in Heaven forever. For Heaven is where God is. God determines where Heaven is; Heaven does not determine where God is. God contains Heaven; Heaven does not contain God. If God is in our souls now by faith, then the very life of Heaven is here in us now, in seed form. That is what Jesus came to preach about and to give, the focus of all his sermons: "the kingdom of Heaven." It is the "pearl of great price," the thing for which the whole world is far too small a price to pay. And it is free. 33. How do...

Please pray for Michael O'Brien. He is going through some difficult times. He is not just a great writer, but a good, maybe a saintly, man. Fred Greatest Writer since Tolkien Michael O'Brien is the greatest writer since Tolkien. His stories take you on a journey like a dream where you forget that you're in a dream. Only you feel the joy or sadness that is like real life reunion or heart break. The wisdom is experienced in his tales. This is subcreation that equals Homer or Tolkien. Fred New novel by Michael D. O'Brien The Island of the World The Island of the World is the story of a child born in 1933 into the turbulent world of the Balkans and tracing his life into the third millennium. The central character is Josip Lasta, the son of an impoverished school teacher in a remote village high in the mountains of the Bosnian interior. As the novel begins, World War II is underway and the entire region of Yugoslavia is torn by conflicting factions: German and Italian occupy...

Is Jesus the only way? (Or can good pagans, Hindus, et cetera get to Heaven too?) The first part of the question is clear, and the answer is clear: Unless Jesus is the victim of grandiose self-delusion or deliberate, blasphemous lying, he is the only way, for he says exactly that (John 14:6). But the second part of the question is not clear. People who have never heard of Christ, and thus have neither consciously accepted him nor consciously rejected him, must also get to Heaven through Christ, for there is no other way. That much is clear from Christ's own words. But it is not clear what is going on in the unconscious depths of the souls of such people. Only God knows. Perhaps they know and love him in the obscure form of a deep, unconscious desire and love. The game of heavenly population statistics is one that Christ discouraged his disciples from playing. When they asked him, "Are many saved?" he answered neither yes nor no but said, "Strive to enter in" (Lu...

Catholics and Protestants Urged to Come Together to Back Huckabee FRONT ROYAL, Va., Jan. 7 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Governor Mike Huckabee is the only candidate for President we can support with confidence," said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI). "I urge my Protestant brothers and sisters to join me in doing all they can to advance Mike Huckabee's campaign." "We need to back a candidate who has a consistent record of supporting traditional values," said Thomas C. Strobhar, chairman of LDI. "Mike Huckabee is that kind of candidate. I urge my Catholic brothers and sisters to join me in doing all they can to advance Mike Huckabee's campaign." Scott commented on several other candidates: "John McCain supports stem cell experimentation. When I served as executive director of Arizona Right to Life, I saw nothing that would make me believe he is even remotely concerned about life issues." "Mi...

Steve Mosher, head of the Population Research Institute (PRI), said that the media are "misrepresenting" and "exaggerating" the "pedophilia crisis" in the Catholic Church. According to him and other speakers at a recent PRI pro-life conference in Santa Clara, Calif., a major problem in the American Catholic Church, and specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, is homosexuality. Mosher contended that the present Church crisis is not about pedophilia, but about homosexuality. "Only a tiny fraction of the priesthood has ever been guilty of this kind of indiscretion [pedophilia]. The vast majority is engaging in homosexual acts with young men after the age of puberty. True pedophilia is very rare," Mosher said. "This is not pedophilia if it is past puberty. These are priests who are acting out on homosexual impulses and preying on adolescent young men. So you have to understand that is why the Vatican is saying homosexuals shouldn't be ord...

Why won't we be bored in Heaven? I suspect this question subconsciously bothers most of us more than we like to admit. I can remember having something of a crisis of faith as a child: I thought I didn't want to go to Heaven since the popular pictures of it seemed pretty boring to me. Freud, who occasionally comes up with nuggets of wisdom sandwiched between mountains of nonsense, says that everyone needs two things to make life worth living: love and work. The two are really one, for love is a work and work is a love. Love is a work, for it is something you do, not something you just feel or fall into. And work must be a love, for if not, it is threatening and boring. What love-work will we do in Heaven, then? We will complete the very love-works we are meant to do on Earth. There are only six things that never get boring on Earth, six things that never come to an end: knowing and loving yourself, your neighbor, and God. Since persons are subjects and not objects, they are not ...

Feast of Mary, Mother of God, Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor St. William the Confessor Catholic Church, Greenville, Texas, January 1, 2008 http://www.semperficatholic.com/ When eight days were completed for His circumcision He was named Jesus, the Name given Him by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen Yesterday I was listening to 910 AM Radio; you can listen to it during the day; after the sun goes down, forget it unless you have a computer. The man was telling a story that happened to a friend of his, who bought a house and moved into a new neighborhood. As a new neighbor, he was taking things off the truck and he had a statue of St. Francis that he took to the back yard and placed in the garden. As he continued to unload the truck his neighbor came over and welcomed him. The neighbor identified himself as his next-door neighbor and a “bible Christian.” This neighbor asked the man moving in if he would do him a ...

John Haskins of the Parents Rights Coalition, in an e-mail release: A growing list of conservative leaders are circulating a strong public warning about “the conservative establishment’s aggressive cover-up of the pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-gay adoption policies” of Mitt Romney while governor of Massachusetts. The letter accuses Romney’s stable of prominent “conservative” leaders, lawyers and pundits of gross malpractice, ruthless ambition and dishonesty toward voters. It calls on principled conservatives to firmly condemn the rent-a-conservative feeding frenzy on Mitt Romney’s money and the cover-up of his actions as governor — most of which he did while pretending he was forced to either by judges or non-existent laws. Their letter details numerous stunning aspects of Romney’s record that are known to few Americans. These include: - boosting funding for pro-homosexuality indoctrination of schoolchildren, and refusing to order his education officials to enforce parents’ legal...

I got the email below from the gay mafia attacking a post I did called Pro-Gay Romney 2007/2008 (see below). The anonymous gay mafioso said Evangelical Christian "hypocrites replaced the hypocrite [Catholic] priests into kiddiesex." Please read an article below I wrote called "The Gay Mafia's Sex Abuse Lobby." Find out exactly how the members of "the gay rights movement" are the real hypocrites behind the sex abuse lobby's kiddiesex. Fred Anonymous said... I think many fair minded Christians in America who have simply had it with these constant attacks on gay and lesbians by the folks who call themselves Christians. These new hypocrites replaced the hypocrite priests into kiddiesex. Former Republican here, lifetime Christian of a mainline church which does good things for our community and neighbors, lifetime advocate for the separation of church and state, and a guy who works and enjoys my gay/lesbian friends. America is tired of this hate campaig...

US Bishops asked to Fire Chief Film Critic over Glowing Reviews for "Brokeback" and "Compass" "Bishops horrified at what has been done in their name" By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Bishops of the United States are being asked to fire the chief movie reviewer for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Harry Forbes, the Director of the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting, has reignited scandal by praising the film "The Golden Compass" which is based on an anti-Catholic novel. Forbes caused similar controversy two years ago when he issued a glowing review in the name of the USCCB for the homosexual propaganda film "Brokeback Mountain". Pete Vere, who has a written book on the author of The Golden Compass, spoke with LifeSiteNews.com about the USCCB review. "Several bishops have spoken to me about this review and they are horrified at what has been done in their na...

Pro-lifer Seriously Injured in Violent Attack; Operation Rescue Says Officer Should Be Disciplined HARRISBURG, Penn., Dec. 31 /Christian Newswire/ -- Ed Snell, 69, received serious injuries that doctors feared could have cost him his life during an attack on December 22, 2007, outside the Hillcrest Abortion Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The responding female officer not only let the attacker go, but threatened to arrest witnesses that identified the perpetrator and demanded his arrest. Mr. Snell was standing on a sturdy platform he had attached to the top of his vehicle in order to offer help to women over a fence that had been erected to prevent pro-lifers from speaking to them. Witness John McTernan said that a man who was escorting a woman into the abortion clinic, "leaped on the vehicle with Ed and catapulted him off of the vehicle and onto the ground." Mr. Snell struck the pavement with his head. He was transported by ambulance to the hospital where he was treated ...

He said his Mormon mom taught him killing unborn babies was the right position when she ran for US Senate in 1970. Nice guy. Blaming his mom for his pro-abort position. Fred Abortion Issues Romney supports abortion in general, and believes in sustaining Roe v. Wade. "Romney ran against Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 1994. During a debate, Romney declared: 'I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I have since the time that my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a US Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years we should sustain and support it.' " (NOTE: Romney has supported abortion since before the 1972 Roe v. Wade ruling!) - Boston Globe, 3/2/2006 Video of Romney vs Kennedy 1994 debate. "When [during their debate] Kennedy called him 'multiple choice,' Romney demanded an extra rebuttal. He revealed that a close relative died of an illegal abortion years ago and said, 'Since that ti...

thomasfroeser@sbcglobal.net writes: TomRoeser.com :: Why the Church Must Declare DePaul University No Longer Catholic. Posted: 28 Dec 2007 08:37 AM CST First in a series of three articles published in The Wanderer, the oldest national Catholic weekly in the United States. They will be republished here after they are available in Wanderer hard copy. TR. From the December 20, 2007 issue. By Thomas F. Roeser CHICAGO-DePaul University should be stripped of its designation as a "Catholic" university. And not just for the reason that makes it no different from all other. Sure, as with many other venerable Catholic schools, it waters down the teachings of the Church into a one-of-many options-an amalgam of views-without singling out any one objective truth. That goes for most of the colleges called "Catholic." But with DePaul there are decidedly other factors, as this long study engaged by me-a former DePaul graduate student and an adjunct professor there and at a host o...

Excellent Comment. Thanks aeternus. aeternus said... Wow! What a story. Thank you. I especially was struck by the quote about Secularists. It is like the Pope has said - it we have no hope in God we have nothing! “Secularists, it seems to me, are also less keen on fighting. Since they do not believe in an afterlife, this life is the only thing they have to lose. Hence they will rather accept submission than fight. Like the German feminist Broder referred to, they prefer to be raped than to resist.”

Huckabee gains Among Iowa Republicans, the poll found that Huckabee dominates Romney and the rest of the field not only among born-again Christians and regular churchgoers but also among women and the disaffected. He was supported by 46% of women surveyed, and 44% of voters who say the country is headed in the wrong direction. Huckabee argues that the Republican Party needs to acknowledge the pocketbook anxieties of middle-class voters. The GOP contest in Iowa is essentially a two-man race: Huckabee's 37% and Romney's 23% outdistance McCain and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, both with 11%; and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and Rep. Duncan Hunter of Alpine, Calif., who all register in single digits. The Republican pecking order is completely different in New Hampshire, where evangelical conservatives hold less sway. There, Huckabee barely registers, backed by only 9%, while Romney leads with 34%. But McCain has made notable gains in r...