Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican

When I was 15yrs old my mom bought a movie called the Scarlet and the Black. Over the years I fell in love with this movie and was so addicted to it, that I would watch it at least once a 5 times a month or more. The Scarlet and the Black is a TV movie based on the book by J.P. Gallagher called 'The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican'. The book and movie tell the life of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, an irish priest who is credited with saving over 6,500 POWs, Jews, and other people during WWII and the Nazi occupation of Rome. Through a network that he created with his contacts in Rome, this good Irish Priest stowed away Jews in the German College next to Nazi headquarters, The Vatican, Monasteries, Convents, Churches, and even civilian homes that were willing to hide the Jews and POWs and running the risk of being caught and killed for doing so. I am writing my Final Paper in my Holocaust on this very man and his inspiring story, I highly recommend everyone to check out his story, buy the book, and watch the movie!

Pax Tecum!

Senator who Died - Election Story.

And lo and behold, a senator died and went up to the Pearly Gates. You see, God always gives us choices all through life. He permits many things to happen. At any rate, he was at the Pearly Gates and St. Peter said "Well, you know God gives you choice and you can choose between Heaven and Hell. "Well, you mean I can investigate these?" So St. Peter said, well why don't you go down to Hell and see what it looks like and then come up to Heaven and see what choice you want to finally make." So the senator gets on the elevator and goes down, down, down, and down. Wow! He sees all the political parties and everything else, and his old cronies he worked with in the senate and everything else. They’re drinking cocktails and some of them are having fun. There is a swimming pool and they have all sorts of hors d’oeuvres. It's a blast. He starts laugh and joke and talk about the old times with his old buddies. "Man this is Hell? It's a wonderful place. I think I want to stay." St. Peter said "No, you have to go back up and make a choice." St. Peter takes him back up and they look into Heaven. Everybody is at peace. There's no wild parties. There's none of the other stuff. Everybody looks very happy. And he says "Frankly, Peter, I would rather go with buddies, they were having a great time and the devil seemed like a nice guy. I want to go to Hell." He said "Ok, I'll take you back down." And he gets down there and he gets off the elevator and, the stench would curl your nostrils. It's a waste land. It looks terrible and there is trash falling from the sky and his friends are dressed in rags. The Devil is hideous looking and is madly whipping all those who are lax in picking up the trash falling from the sky. The Devil walked up to the Senator and said welcome to hell. The Senator looked at the devil and said "Yesterday it was so wonderful, we had parties and everything was great, what happened?". The devil looked at him with a big smile and said "Yesterday we were campaigning, today you VOTED"!

The Moral of the story... beware who you vote for, it may looking like apple pie, but once you make your choice you may see the trash you just voted for.

Healing Time

It's now been almost a month since my grandfather passed away. It has been really difficult for me over the past month. He left a gaping hole in my heart and will be sorely missed. =( It is funny what an impact one person can have on the life of another. We each need to take more time out of our busy lives to spend it with those that we love, you never know when that time or opportunity is going to pass. I started to have a major conversion experience 2 weeks before my grandfather passed, I didn't know then why I was having it, but I know now. God was building me up, strengthing me for the coming tole that he was about to extract, the sheer shock and loss that I was to feel and experience. However he has been there every step of the way, and the graces that I have received from this has been immense!

God is truely a loving God.

Pax Tecum,

Michael

Another Death in the family

On tuesday the 23rd, I was awakened to the phone ringing. I had this feeling that something was wrong and ran to pick it up. My mom was on the phone and in tears, she told me through sobs that my grandfather Ivan had passed away an hour before at 9am.

Two years ago my grandmother Anita, Ivan's (Pop's) wife passed away with cancer. We knew that she was sick and were able to prepare ourselves for the death that we knew was coming. However when I got news that Pop's had died, it was so unexpected. I feel devestated, and the hole in my heart is aching for him. What is interesting is that he died within 3 weeks to the year when his wife died. Will this hole ever feel? When will I find peace? I weep in sorrow for the loss that I feel, I await the day when I can meet my grandparents again.

Naples hails miracle as saint's blood liquefies!

In Naples Italy twice a year the blood of a St. Gennaro who was martyred in the year 305 A.D. liquifies on September 19th his feast day and on the first Saturday in May. It is said that after he was beheaded a Christian lady went over and sponged up some of his blood, put it into a glass vial and since the first time it was recorded in the year 1389 A.D., the blood has continued to liquify on these two dates. In the history of this miracle the blood has only not liquified 5 times, each time that it didn't a major disaster hit the area. In November 1980 the blood didn't liquify and a major earthquake hit southern Italy and killed over 3,000 ppl. So the people in this town celebrate greatly each time that it does liquify. This is a miracle that can be seen twice a year.. and there are people in this world that say that miracles do not happen. What a shame they are not able to see this one. When I was over in Italy 2 years ago, I went and saw this vial of blood in the Church, it was not liquified, in fact it looked as crusty and hard as dried blood normally looks, it is a pure miracle that this turns to liquid every year.

Awakening in the Spirit

I have had many troubles lately. Both spiritual and in the physical world. I lost my job 6 months ago and have been out of work forking out 400 bucks a month for expensive health insurance, with little to no money left to cover all my costs and I have asked myself. Why? Why me Lord? Why did this happen now? And I have come to the conclusion that it has been a time of trial for me, a time of shedding of my old skin, and through this tribulation I feel that God has been preparing me for something great and a place to serve him in the near future. I submit on average 3-5 resumes a week and get no response. I call people and get voicemails. So what is the deal Lord? And I hear the word, patience.

I have been spiritually dead for the past 2 years. I fell into some bad things a couple of years ago - no not drugs, or alcohol, just some bad habits and bad temptations. As I fell into this dismal hole I soon stopped praying, I stopped everything that had to do with God outside of weekly mass and thought that i was living my life free of all obligations. It is no wonder that things have finally crashed for me, and thank God that they did. I realize now the things that caused me to fall, and the things that I forsaked in order to fall. The real struggle now for me will be to give up those things that I am so used to doing and moving on to Christ. Jesus said "Come follow me".. and this month I am going to do just that. I am going to quit all vices, start praying, and living my life according to the scriptures and Holy Mother Church.. I will give it all to Christ and from there only he knows.

Please pray for me as I begin this journey, I know it will be no easy task in full battle with the enemy and what he will have in store for me in his mission to create another hole for me to fall into.

Apostolic Christians - Roots and Theology

Punk,

I set this up to invite you to a discussion on faith and morals. You seem to be a great guy that has alot of knowledge on your faith and readily available to share and evangelize. I would like to discuss this further with you, if you are open to the dialogue. My email is saint.michael.the.archangel@gmail.com send me any questions you have for me, or any topic that you would like to discuss and I will create a topic about it. I love to blog, and am intrigued by your faith and would like to know more about it first hand from you.

Pax et Lux (Peace and Light),

Smeagol (Michael)

Up for Hire!

God works in mysterious ways, everyone knows that and almost everyone recognizes it when something happens that they cannot explain whether it be for the good or the bad. I started working at an online university over 2.5yrs ago and had been internally promoted 3 times finally to a position that I thought would land me a good place to grow, but in reality it was the worse place I have ever worked in all my life.

I am not accustomed to working with open homosexuals that flaunt their sexuality in such a perverse way, but here is where I met me doom. I tolerated it, b.c I knew that if I said anything about it I was a goner. Well I ended up being a goner anyways, so I should have said or done something about it.

The positive thing is that I got a free Bachelors degree out of it and brought many good experiences with me from that place. I am not actively searching for a strong Catholic organization that adheres to the teachings of the Catholic Church and doesn't tolerate behavioral and psychotic issues. God has a plan for me and I think this is his way of freeing me of the Hell I was working in. Now I just need to listen to him and hopefully I can see where he is pointing me towards.

Pax Christi,

Michael

Evangelicals go lent?

Interesting article on MSNBC today that evangelicals are starting to take lent on, giving up chocolate, and things of sacrifice that were seen as too "catholic" in the past are now starting to get popular. Well its about time.. they must see that sacrificing for God draws people in, that by cleansing the spirit, we cleanse our souls.

I remember a few years back when I was an altar boy I heard that the protestant churches were adding statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe to attract the mexicans.. and what happened? They ended up coming into full communion with the church.. God has a sense of humor as should we all! =D

When Lutheran Attack

I sometimes get way ahead of myself and my mouth frequently gets me into trouble. That being said I was recently reinvited back to a Lutheran blog to speak on a few topics. I got banned within 2 days of being back (big surprise since I am a hardcore Catholic), and I was reminded of that movie "the Village". The village was about a group of people that willingly took themselves away from the world and put up a big wall to block everything they didn't understand out. In doing so they isolated themselves to a few books and the same repeated thinking generation after generation.

To me the Lutheran church and ideology is just like that. They got a few books, concord, confessions, and their misinterpreted bible and threw up this big wall around their teachings and minds to block out anything that might cause them to challenge their belief system. Don't get me wrong, the people on this forum as extremely intelligent, most of them are pastors and they are highly educated.. and yet they fail to see the simplicity of Christs message about unity, love, and communion in his one body.

I left their forum for a while to allow them to recoup after my massacre, I do not think they enjoyed one second of me being there. I leave as a humbled and contrite Christian who is seeking a better way of approaching such hard headed individuals. Maybe God will bless me with the gift of a better tongue to answer them with wisely, a mind that will not deceive me, and a heart to learn to love my fellow Christians who are off the trodden path.

Pax et Christi,

Michael

Christian Folder on WAHM

I am being bombarded by a few cowards who dare to call themselves Christian and yet curse, badmouth, backstab, and act like 5 year olds. I call upon all those that have harrassed me, to post here your reasons on why Abortion and Contraception is ok, why you think I am wrong and you are right.. better yet, why you take one Priests opinion over that of the church?