The Election Isn’t Over and Neither Should be Our Prayers

How often do we storm heaven, get what we asked for and then our prayers quickly trail off?   After the election, I wrote Trump Needs Our Prayers Now More Than Ever.  I was never without serious reservations about a Trump presidency, but as the best pro-life alternative available, I was hopeful.  But election night did not seal the deal as we are seeing. 

10 Tips on How to Avoid Mouth Problems

Mouth problems can be avoided with proper care.  Practicing good dental hygiene involves being careful about what goes into your mouth.  Good spiritual hygiene includes being careful about what comes out of it. “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person,” (Matthew 15:11).

Here are some tips for keeping your mouth and soul in good condition.

One Waiting for Us in Heaven

By Nellie Edwards at PaintedFaith.com

  “Hey Mark, we’re going to have another baby,” I announced to my husband after taking a home pregnancy test. We looked at each other, wide-eyed. We had recently added an orphan boy from Kenya, so we were already a family of eleven. We shared a strong understanding that each little soul is a gift from God that will last an eternity. Still, I’d be forty-seven and Mark forty-eight when this baby was due.

Government Now Entering Our Churches

     

        The high sounding word “tolerance” has become a ruse for coercion of liberal agendas.  The “wall of separation,” so often distorted from Thomas Jefferson’s intent to point out the need to prevent government from meddling in religion, is crumbling. 
      Despite pediatricians identifying youth transgenderism as "child abuse"), the left is demanding that everyone, even churches comply with transgender acceptance. Last month, Massachusetts enacted a law forcing everyone, including churches, to use the gender identity of a person's choice. It is the most oppressive LGBT non-discrimination laws in the U.S. Churches are specifically mentioned as needing to comply. 

Hillary's Diabolical Compliment to the Catholic Church

No one hates the Catholic Church more than the devil.  But the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Our Church will not be put asunder.  Not even by Hillary.

Receive These 7 Graces Promised by Our Lady

Everyone suffers and everyone needs graces.  The devotion to our Lady of Sorrows unites our suffering with that of the Blessed Mother’s.  Imagine what it was like for her to watch her beloved son beaten and bloodied, carrying the cross he was then crucified on.  We can’t even imagine.

Men, Abortion, and the Sexual Revolution

Women are harmed in ways they didn’t expect after abortions.  Motherhood runs deep and abortion doesn't end it but only changes it. For those coming to grips with the truth, programs like Silent No More Awareness Campaign and Rachel's Vineyard administer to their hurting souls.

But what about men?  They had no real choice in the matter; only the possibility of making a suggestion if they were the type to stick around.  

Media Scarce for "Walks for Life" but Cover Pro-abortion "Black Monday"

The secular media’s enthusiasm for Poland’s pro-abortion protest on October 2,  after years of ignoring the much bigger March for Life in Washington, DC, is ironic.  Every year at the March for Life in D.C.  secular reporting is hard to find despite all the markings of a big news story—a big demonstration drawing hundreds of thousands from across the country to the nation’s capitol.  Last year, an epic blizzard arriving during the march made it an especially great story.  Yet, outside Catholic and conservative news sources, most (with a few exceptions) ignored it. 

Celebrate 40 Years of Hyde--Amendment Hillary Plans to Defeat

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton does not care about the polls.  No, seriously.  Sure, she wants to be ahead in them, but the polls that measure the popularity of abortion?  She doesn’t care.  She and her Planned Parenthood friends want to set the pace and drag everyone else along.

The Beatitudes Through the Life of Mother Teresa

The Sermon on the Mount recorded in the Gospel of Matthew is held up as one of the greatest moral discourses ever given. The Beatitudes were a part of that.  Simple and relevant to all, they are etched deeply into our minds.

Mother Teresa, now St. Teresa of Kolkata, lived them. Her words and life reflected the Beatitudes.  Here together, are the lessons Jesus taught us in the Beatitudes with words that Mother Teresa lived.

Note to Woman Planning Ordination as Catholic Priest: Talk to St. Teresa of Kolkata

Dear Mary Alice,

I saw the article about you titled “San Rafael woman to break canon law to be ordained Catholic priest.”   You may have been a great nurse for 35 years, and enjoyed watching the (heretical) movie Pink Smoke Over the Vatican, but those are not qualifications for the priesthood.  For starters, a Y chromosome is missing.  Yeah, I know…gender equality, womanpower…blah, blah, blah-- but let’s talk.  

Pro-abortion Activists are Crabby People

Get over your damned selves #$@&%*!  Even though the woman who said those words to our group is a public school teacher, she paid no heed to the children around her. Our presence angered her that much.  And that is the way it is when pro-lifers pray and sing anywhere near a pro-abortion gathering. 

In Bismarck, ND, there is no Planned Parenthood office and the only abortion clinic in the state—one too many—is in Fargo.  A lot of us want to keep it that way.  So when a Planned Parenthood riverboat cruise on the Missouri River was announced, pro-lifers organized a prayer rally nearby.

Global Warming Used to Stop Creating Children

The weather is being used to tell people not to have children.   The article: Should We Be Having Kids in the Age of Climate Change? tells of college professors instilling fear in students and telling them: Do not add any more carbon producers to our world!

Resolve Dropping Fertility in US: Have More Babies!

     God told us: “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. ” Genesis 1:28.  The latest birth rate numbers show we aren’t listening.

Pray to Our Lady of Beauraing to Convert Sinners

I am very excited to have just learned about the apparitions of Our Lady of Beauraing.  She promised to convert sinners.  I've got a big list for her!   I'm guessing I'm not the only one that did not know about her, so I wrote an article about her for the National Catholic Register.  I'll share a summary here to spread the good news, but to learn more, check out the article which includes a number of links for additional information.  

Our Lady of Beauraing, also known as the Virgin of the Golden Heart, appeared to 5 children in Beauraing, a town of about 2,000 in Belgium between November 29, 1932 and January 3, 1933.

"Billy: The Story of a Family Reunited" by Jay Copp

This is a favorite story from Amazing Grace for the Catholic Heart.

Billy Lutter tumbled to the wooden floor of his home. His parents picked him up and tried again to help him walk. It was no use. Doctors had been telling the Lutters to institutionalize five-year old Billy for some time. This was 1939 and institutionalization was commonly advised for children with physical and mental disabilities.

What About Pro-abortion Politicians Who Claim to be Catholic?

  Hillary Clinton followed President Obama’s lead when she picked a vice-president candidate who claims allegiance to the Catholic Church while pursing anti-Catholic ends.  Senator Tim Kaine describes himself as a devout Catholic.  Is that possible? No, not if being  Catholic means anything. 

"Born This Way" Reality Show Already Reducing Down Syndrome Abortions

If people with Down syndrome are especially loveable, then why do so many mothers chose abortion when they discover it in their unborn baby?  Fear.  That is the main reason.  Rather than trust God and open themselves up to a new world, they tragically miss out on the gift he had for them.

HELP! My Husband is Addicted to Porn! 10 Ways to Cope

While selling books after a women’s retreat 15 years ago, a woman with graying hair deliberately stayed at the very back of the line. Everyone was gone by the time she reached me. Holding out a book for me to sign, the woman smiled nervously. We made small talk, then, she cautiously looked around. 

“I want to ask you something,” she began, then paused, searching for words. “It’s too embarrassing to tell anyone I know, but I thought you might have a suggestion. My husband is retired and I just recently discovered that he… he…well, I caught him looking at porn. I found out he’s been doing it for awhile.”

Letter to Miami Herald on New Age Article

It's sad that a secular newspaper will publish a full length article on New Age recommendations for healing but you never see anything that promotes Catholic truths--the real truth.  I wrote a letter to the Miami Herald regarding their recent New Age article.  I'm going to do a full length article on his topic, but for now, I wonder if they will publish my letter?

Dear Editor:

Advice from Exorcists on How to Protect Yourself

The old adage: An ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure, is especially true in the spiritual realm.  The exorcism and deliverance ministry usually addresses problems arising from a lack of spiritual protection or someone purposely opening the door to evil.

Fr. Patrick (not his real name) a parish priest who has been a diocesan exorcist for 6 years, advises people to stay close to God and the Church.  He also warns against flirting with the occult.

Rhoda Wise: Intercessor Behind Mother Angelica's Healing

When Rhoda Wise died on July 7 in 1948, more than 14,000 people attended her funeral at St. Peter’s Church in Canton, Ohio. That’s equivalent to the population of an entire town!  I first heard about her only a few years ago when I read in Raymond Arroyo’s biography on Mother Angelica that Mother was one of many people healed after visiting Rhoda.

ACLU Honors Catholic Hospitals

 I’m very proud of the honor our Catholic hospitals received last month. Given that the culture of death is so aggressively pushing forward these days, I’m taking last month’s American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) angry report against Catholic hospitals: “Health Care Denied,” as an honor.

 The ACLU is enraged that Catholic Hospitals are so good at caring for the sick-- a corporal work of mercy.  That means we are doing something right. We are standing firm against the cultural tide of insanity and saying: We heal, not kill or harm!

Brock Turner's Parents Should Seek Mercy From the Eternal Judge

 Trying to save a son from the consequences of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster is not acceptable. Brock Turner’s parents pleaded to the judge for mercy after a jury convicted their son of 3 felony counts of sexual assault. Any loving parent wants mercy for their child just as we all want it from God.  But only after we are sorry for our sins are we forgiven and showered with mercy from the ultimate judge, God.   Brock and his parents are still making excuses.

How Significant Are We to God?

Atheists consider the number of people that have been born in the history of the world and then they consider God and surmise: No way!  They can’t wrap their minds around God creating so many people and loving each one.  I can’t wrap my mind around it either, until I consider what being God means.  It means no limits.  It means infinity.  The Creator who made the planets and holds them in orbit will never run out of abilities.

Our Lady of the Rosary Apparitions in Argentina Approved

On Sunday, May 22, 2016, the local bishop of San Nicolas, Argentina, Most. Reverend Hector Cardelli, announced that the apparitions of Our Lady of the Rosary are “supernatural in character” and “worthy of belief.”

A devout Catholic housewife with no formal education, claimed the Blessed Mother had visited her daily for 6 ½ years and that she also received 68 messages from Jesus Christ.  There were numerous documented miraculous healings and beginning in November 1984, she received the stigmata during Advent and Lent.

The Moment They Understood

“You really were the Savior?  And I had you killed!”  Imagine Pontius Pilate at the moment of his death. And all the soldiers that delighted in scourging and crucifying Jesus. The Jewish Sanhedrin who refused to consider that the Messiah was in their midst, must have been horrified when death revealed the truth.  Imagine the looks on their faces.

Jim Caviezel on Following Jesus

“Everyone wants resurrection but no one wants suffering.”  Those are the words of  actor Jim Caviezel, best known for portraying Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.  

Due Process for a Tree

The world is a safer place for one tall, skinny, pine tree, thanks to a contingent of tree lovers that laughed in the face of logic.  A spindly pine tree standing in isolation in a postage stamp backyard is now an official landmark in San Francisco.

We Need to Keep Talking About Bathrooms

Until we get this cleared up, we need to keep talking about bathrooms. There’s a lot we’ve had taken away from us in recent years.  I recently opined at the National Catholic Register that we often aren’t even allowed to breath an opinion these days.

I don’t mean to turn this issue religious because it’s plain old logical, but I want to point out that the whole transgender bathroom thing is absent from the Bible. I will venture to say it was never an issue at the time of Christ because it was never an issue. Period. Until now.

Exorcists Explain What is Behind Haunted Houses

     Fearful that her deceased ex-husband was haunting her, a woman went to see Fr. Vincent Lampert, the exorcist for the diocese of Indianapolis, Indiana. Ever since her ex-husband’s death, there were strange goings-on in his old favorite room. 

     The woman lived alone so when she found furniture moved around, there was no one to blame.  It was especially unnerving that an old wedding picture kept showing up on a table.  She would put it away only for it to later show up on the table again—sometimes face up, sometimes face down.

This article is posted on my blog at the National Catholic Register. To read more, go to: https://www.ncregister.com/blog/two-exorcists-weigh-in-on-ghosts-and-haunted-houses#ixzz46Iu0aOHo

Prayers for Life Are Making a Difference

      Are you tired of hearing about all the evil in the world?  What can most of us do beyond feel sad and say some prayers?  

We may feel tapped out at times, but our faith gives us the power and incentive to overcome spiritual paralysis. Consider, for instance, the effect prayer has had against the abortion industry. 

Psychics Point Away from Jesus

When Theresa Caput, star of the reality show Long Island Medium came to the Bismarck, North Dakota’s Events Center recently, there was a small group of people across the street praying against her work.  It’s unlikely that she knew we were there.  Neither did the many hundreds who walked past us on their way to the show pay us any heed.   

I expected that I would be the lone Catholic in the prayer group but saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with the word “Catholic” emblazoned on it. I later learned that she just came into the Church two years ago while seeking help to escape the occult. (Stay tuned for a future article.)

St. Stanislaus, Killed for Speaking the Truth

I write this on April 11, the Feast of St. Stanislaus.  His name always reminds me of a humorous incident.  I was working as a dental assistant while still in high for a father and son team. One afternoon, the elder dentist called me into the room with a young patient.  

 “Go ahead,” he said to the second grade little boy.  “Tell her your name and what school you go to.”

“My name is Thteven Thelke and I go to Thaint Thtanithlauth thcool,” the young lad dutifully replied.   

Dr. Lynch smiled and whispered to me, “Maybe his parents should send him to a different school.”

Church Doesn't Use "Signals" to Change Teachings

You knew it and I knew it.  Whatever the Pope would have said in his latest document on the family, Amoris Laetitia, the secular media was going to misinterpret it.  Not to lump all media together, and not to pick on the New York Times, but I’m going to use them as an example. My reason is that they are the New York Times.  It should mean something when reporters’ average pay is $100,000.  I know it barely pays for an annual parking permit in New York, but there used to be a minimum standard for reporters called “the facts.”

It's a Terrible Time to be Protestant

Thank you, God, for my Catholic faith!  Before I go further, let me say that I know some amazing, inspirational non-Catholic Christians.  However, as a head-over-heels-in-love kind of Catholic, I look around, sometimes in horror and sadness at some of the congregations outside of the Church.  They are missing out on so much at a time when we need it all.

Get the Hierarchy Right to Avoid Insanity

How many of the two-dozen animal rights activists who gathered in Downtown Ann Arbor to mourn deer lives are prolife?  I bet I could not count them on one finger.  I am all for photosynthesis, but it’s not a sin to kill a fatted calf.  Meat is not even my favorite food choice--smoothies, salads, and corn chips are--but I defend your right to eat a hamburger.

Fr. Jerzy an Intercessor for Religious Freedom

Father Jerzy Popieluszko died for human rights and religious freedom in Poland on October 9, 1984.  He did not need to do it.  There was a path to freedom in the United States offered to him, but he chose death rather than be silenced by a government that hated the truth.  Fr. Jerzy is a hero for such a time as this.

How to Love People You Can't Stand

 Who are the people with whom you don’t want to breathe the same air?  On my list are the ferocious abortion advocates that drip hatred at the prolife movement. They tempt me to wish for a loophole on the Christian obligation to love everyone. “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I love you” (John 15:12).  But how can we possess that kind of love?

Lent with Mary

Our goal during Lent is to become intimately united with Jesus. No earthly being was more closely united to him than his mother.  She has been involved in every aspect of Christianity since Jesus was conceived.

A Miraculous Healing

Fr. Basil Atwell

An incurable eye disease intruded on 16-year-old Johnny Atwell’s life almost overnight.  In October of 1974, the Glendive, Montana teen faced inevitable blindness. Johnny did not plead with God for a cure, however. Instead, he demanded one. God seemed not to be listening, but then something amazing happened.

Trump’s Campaign Manager’s Anti-Catholic Tweet Surfaces

The past can haunt.  In the case of Katrina Pierson, spokeswoman for Donald Trump, social media can bite back 5 years later. That is when she made her anti-Catholic tweet: “Just saw a commercial from Catholic Church stating that Catholic Church was started by Jesus. I bet they believe that too. #sad”

Epic Wait During Winter Storm

Fr. Thomas Grafsgaard of Dickinson (L) concelebrates Mass

On the Pennsylvania Turnpike, stranded behind miles of traffic, the students, teachers, and chaperone’s from the Bismarck diocese’s Catholic schools did what Catholics do when they get stranded in historical blizzards—pray. And in this case, while stuck in the eye of Winter Storm Jonas, they also sang Irish songs and attended Mass around a snow altar.

Treading into the Devils Domain

It’s not always for the faint of heart or spiritually unprotected, but there are opportunities to venture into the devil’s domain, praying (even if silently) and reaching out to the unsuspecting victims frequenting his lair.  Shouting out warnings or pushing Christianity on the uninterested has a high failure rate, but extending love and friendship has many successes.

Supreme Court to Decide on Hearing Heartbeat Bill

On the 43rd anniversary of Roe V. Wade,  January 22, 2016, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not they will review the case on North Dakota’s Heartbeat law.

Responding to a Concerned Protestant on Purgatory

 I recently had a comment under an old blog article on releasing souls from Purgatory. Here is an excerpt: 

“The word purgatory isn't even in Scripture. We need to abide by God's Word and not live by man-made ideas. We know there are two options after death…. I am not Catholic and although there are many things about the Catholic faith that I greatly admire, there are others that greatly concern me. This is one of them. We must never develop our own ideas as truth. I can't imagine where this Catholic teaching comes from. It concerns me greatly.”