Politics, People, and Prayers

“If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, and the people do not become religious, I do not know what is to become of us as a nation. and the thought is one to cause solemn reflection on the part of every patriot and Christian. If truth be not diffused, error will be; if the evangelical volume (scripture) does not reach every hamlet, the pages of corrupt and licentious literature will; if the power of the gospel is not felt through the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness, will reign without mitigation or end.
Daniel Webster 1782-1852

Black Cats . . .

Once upon a time, an older man in our neighborhood suddenly got deathly ill and his daughter placed him in a hospital . . . and he never returned. He left a legacy that his daughter did her best to take care of but the magnitude of his ‘bequest’ to her was impossible to totally resolve. The man had taken in and fed just about every stray cat that came his way. He must have had 30 cats of all sizes and colors in and around his property. We would often see him on the front lawn spending time with his cats. I met up with him at the grocery store one time and his cart was filled to the brim with tins of cat food.

When his daughter tried to clean his house, she also called the shelter to come take the cats. Well, trying to corner and catch half feral cats is no easy chore. We found this out a few weeks later, when four, little waifs showed up on our doorstep. Before our trial by cats was over, we topped off at having found homes for fifteen cats. We got down to the last three and someone in 29 Palms said he would take the two kittens and the one grown cat. We got one of the kittens and the grown cat delivered but one of the half-grown kittens just disappeared from the earth.

Two months later, Fresh (named for her attitude!) returned and demanded food. The people in 29 Palms were filled up with nine cats so we kept looking around for a home for Miss Fresh. Hard cat to place as she was part feral and liked it at our house, thank you very much! That was over six years ago and she is still
queen of our garage, comes in the house to visit but rules our garage and yard and leaves us the occasional dead mouse or half-eaten gopher to express her gratitude. Taking her to the vet for shots and checkups are memorable occasions in our lives.

Being rather small for a cat and completely black, she can be hard to find and she is good at slipping in and out of the house often startling us when we come into a room and she is just sitting there. I’m the only one who has ever been able to hold her but even then, you have to know to the second when to put her down. I’m in charge of giving her the canned stinky food which ranks me somewhat higher than the rest of the household.

The other evening, we were trying to get the young lady into the garage for the evening and my husband opened the front door and complained she was being stubborn and wouldn’t come in. He stalked over to the door out to the garage to see if she would come in through the big garage door. As he walked away, I saw Fresh sitting right next to where he had been standing! I hurriedly got her cat food ready and she followed me out into the garage. I told my husband to close the garage door now before the cat got out again. He testily stated that she wasn’t in the garage while all the time I’m looking down at said cat who was sitting between the two of us bobbing her head back and forth as we talked like watching a tennis match. I kept trying to say that she was in the garage but he had his opinion set in cement as he said he would have seen her come in the front door. I finally walked over to her food dish and she happily hunkered down to eat. My husband had some strong words and never quite believed me that she had slunk past him when he opened the front door. Fresh finished eating, came over and rubbed against my legs, seemed to grin at my husband and, went to bed.

Pope Alexander VI

Did some research and our current papal/cardinal scandals are truly bad but, in some respects, the grand prize for having been a really awful pope goes to Rodrigo Borgia. Just the Borgia name clues one into the thought that all might not have been well with this person in charge of anything.

Ridrigo Borgia had a ‘leg up’ on climbing the papal ladder as his uncle was Pope Calixtus III. Most likely, given his papal connection, getting through the various church ranks to his highest title in the church was made easier with the nepotism involved. As he made his way through the ranks, he managed to accumulate a great deal of wealth, too. No tithing for him! In 1492 whilst Columbus was sailing the ocean blue, he greased a few palms, called in some favors and purchased his place in the papacy. Bribery came in handy for getting the better of two other ‘claims’ to the throne.

The crowned Pope Alexander was pretty rotten to the core. He provided the world with seven illegitimate children by way of his mistresses. The church paid for their expenses and he endowed them with funding at the church’s expense. Living a rather plush life at the expense of the Church was, well expensive. When he needed to replenish the cash flow, he established new cardinals in return for money. Another ‘successful’ ploy was to arrest and jail rich people on imagined charges or murder them and abscond with their wealth.

It seems that Alexander VI was never considered godly (Go figure, right?) or in line with the Church and all things lawful. The only ‘virtues’ that can be said about him was his greedy ambition and lust for money and power. The orderly government of the City of Rome he bribed his way into, was left in complete shambles and disrepair.

“Now we are in the power of a wolf, the most rapacious perhaps that this world has ever seen. And if we do not flee, he will inevitably devour us all.” By Giovanni de Medici (Pope Leo X)

St. Michael the Archangel, Defend Us In Battle . . .

We have a crisis in the Church and several bishops have had the thought about restoring the praying of the St. Michael’s prayer after all Masses . . . to protect the faithful against evil.

Naturally, I love the idea but why was the practice ever stopped. I’ve heard/read about parishes over the years who tried to reinstate the St. Michael’s prayer and it just didn’t fly with the pastors. You have to wonder why. It takes all of two minutes to pray and is a bit of insurance to take with you after Mass having asked for St. Michael’s protection against Satan.

Just looking at the social evolution of the world since the 1960’s, probably around the time St. Michael was put on the shelf, we have had a multitude of new sins join the ranks of temptation, mass murder of the unborn, laxness in catechesis, immodesty, bad language and more. Would there have been less of this if St. Michael was still a major part of our day? Would we be losing our young people to liberal ideologies?

The Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel deals directly with the ongoing battle between good and evil. Pope Leo XIII wrote and presented in the 19th century. I would hope that many of us still privately know and offer this prayer. How wonderful, however, if EVERY one of the Catholic clergy reinstated the recitation of this prayer for St. Michael’s intercession. From my readings, the current world is in pretty bad shape but not even approaching the End Times yet meaning things are not as bad as they will be the closer we get to that era. Why not get more power into our ‘game’ and get St. Michael more firmly into our prayers and intercessions before it is too late.

Here’s the Prayer to St. Michael:

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly hosts,
by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

Exorcisms are on the rise and exorcists are not as plentiful as we may need. When you see there is a battleground assembling, shouldn’t we do something? Christians/Catholics are the most persecuted in the world which tells you which way the battle is going right now.

Original Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

“O Glorious Prince of the heavenly host, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle and in the terrible warfare that we are waging against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits. Come to the aid of man, whom Almighty God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of Satan.

“Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. That cruel, ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.

“These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where the See of Holy Peter and the Chair of Truth has been set up as the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.

“Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious power of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly find mercy in the sight of the Lord; and vanquishing the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.
V. Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.
R. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, the root of David.
V. Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.
R. As we have hoped in Thee.
V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto Thee.

Let us pray.
O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as supplicants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin Immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious St. Michael the Archangel, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all the other unclean spirits who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of souls. Amen.”

Roman Raccolta, July 23, 1898, supplement approved July 31, 1902,
London: Burnes, Oates & Washbourne Ltd., 1935, 12th edition.

Any Way the Wind Blows – Trump Controlling the Elements?

The world gets more amazing every day and all it takes is a predicted hurricane to bring out emotional but completely hilarious headlines. One of the problems with the hilarity is that people tend to believe such headlines especially if they are declared by a supposedly proper publication like The Washington Post.

Today’s headline from the Washington Post is declaring that Trump is ‘complicit’ for the dangerous storms brewing off shore right now. Wow, is this going to take the current heat over the Russian collusion allegations if the liberal lawyers have to put aside that paperwork to take on the Hurricane Collusion allegations.

Thinking about this (while trying not to laugh) brings up all sorts of questions that a normal person wouldn’t ask but will be tossed generously around by every liberal media ad nauseam.

First of all, what kind of witnesses would have to be called? Since the hurricane collusion in question is still off shore, would the exalted lawyers of the left have to subpoena random but guilty-looking rain clouds? I imagine said clouds have a history of causing rain leading to hurricanes so need to be reined in as soon as possible for questioning. Time is of the essence. Wind and outlandishly high ocean waves may be called in to witness. The illustrious lawyers defending against the magnificent powers of President Trump would have to discern what aspects of the FBI, DOJ, CIA might be implicated in encouraging or even providing the meeting place for this complicity . . . and would they need ships and raincoats?

In discerning this and other important aspects of this complicity, we have to remember with Hurricane Katrina President Bush managed to aim it at predominantly black communities in that storm. As was stated by the global warming and or cooling factions, every storm after Hurricane Katrina would be worse and we would have ten or more a year. So far, we have still had yearly hurricanes of various magnitudes but not ten or more a year.

All this aside, how will the left manage to control this? I mean, if I believed that George Bush and President Trump were capable of being ‘complicit’ with storms aka controlling the elements of the world, wouldn’t they be a little nicer? I mean, they are giving the president credit for powers far and above a human man. I would think they would work on this premise on the down low so as not to ignite the temper of such a being towards their destruction since they are obviously gifting him with power over the force of a hurricane. AND, since we all know that President Trump is definitely NOT part of the Second Coming, would they need to subpoena God . . . or perhaps the warmer side of the after life which they all seem to be more guided by.

Yam Bread – a Holiday Favorite

Leftover yams at the Thanksgiving table? No matter how I plan a meal in regards to the number of guests, I always end up with leftover yams! Well, that leftover has been my go to for making a few loaves of Yam Bread to bake and freeze for the upcoming holiday season – if a loaf of this bread would survive the final cooling the day it was made. Something about toasted yam bread with a slathering of butter . . .

Yam Bread

2/3 cup shortening
2 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups cooked yams
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cups coarsely chopped nuts
2/3 cup raisins (optional)

Whip up the yams until fairly smooth.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of two loaf pans, 9x5x3 inches.

Mix shortening and sugar in large bowl. Add eggs, yams, and water. Blend in flour, baking soda, salt, baking power, cinnamon, and clovers. Stir in nuts and raisins. Pour into pans. (If batter seems too dry, you can always add bits of juice or water but go slowly as you don’t want it runny.)

Bake about an hour or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove and cool completely before slicing.

Pumpkin Bread
Substitute yams for 2 cups of canned pumpkin.

Zucchini Bread
Substitute 3 cups shredded zucchini. Blend in 2 teaspoons vanilla with the clovers. Decrease baking time to under 60 minutes

Banana Bread
Substitute 3 very ripe, smashed (and it ain’t easy getting them drunk!) bananas

Cranberry Walnut Bread
One cup roughly chopped fresh or frozen cranberries and ½ cup toasted, chopped walnuts.

Blurring the Win to Contend with Defeat

I’m a little confused. There is a major tennis match and the challenger takes down the champion and Serena Williams claims sexism. Again, the lowly male has appeared with his toxic masculinity and deprived Serena Williams of her much-anticipated win. For all intents and purposes, she just didn’t play a great game.

Upon investigation, every mark down given by the referee was correct and even her coach acknowledged he had done some coaching from the sidelines. Instead of accepting her defeat gracefully, she said it was the ever encroaching prejudice against females by the male population which deprived her of her win. She said that males are treated differently on the tennis court.

Now THAT really make me shake my head as she wasn’t playing a male, the challenger was very much a female and she just played a better game than Serena Williams. Miz Williams, instead of accepting her earned defeat with grace and dignity had to find fault with everyone but herself for the loss. At her press conference, later, she said she just wanted to continue to defend women . . . while the real winner of the match, a woman, was reduced to tears and her fantastic win was put aside with the loser’s unfounded tirade to save face. I guess Serena Williams didn’t count the young woman she was competing with as a female as she sure wasn’t watching out for her rights as a female . . . and the winner.

As I read through all the reports regarding Serena Williams’ tantrum on the tennis court, I didn’t see as much praise for the real winner of that day – Naomi Osaka, a rising star who became the first tennis player born in Japan to win a Grand Slam championship.

September 11, 2012 . . .

Benghazi, Liba
Date: September 12, 2012

United States diplomatic post and CIA annex were attacked by a coordinated attack, rioting, armed assault, and arson, resulting in fourteen fatalities which included US Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

 

Budgets vs. Reality

Budgets vs. Reality
by Barbara M. Barthelette

I read cookbooks and find it hard to believe when I see recipes for ‘cooking gourmet on a budget’. What these people seem to have on hand in times of limited cash, sure doesn’t match up to what I find available in my cupboards between paydays.

One recipe states that a simple dish of angel hair pasta garnished with tiny shrimp, bits of leftover clams with a dash of olive oil and freshly ground pepper will elegantly nourish any family. I don’t know whether I should start feeling inferior now but I don’t have any shrimp on hand! And the days we have clam chowder, the whole can of clams goes into giving the boiled milk and potatoes at least a taste reminiscent of our hard-shelled friend. Being on a budget means being creative in times of need. However, the tuna, corn oil and elbow macaroni just didn’t seem destined to become anything that had the remotest possibility of being eaten by my children. Spaghetti with spiced up tomato soup stood a better chance of acceptance.

Or, as another would-be-helpful recipe stated, you can stretch your meat with the addition of mushrooms, tiny onions, baby carrots and tofu cubes. Forget the fungus! Even if they are on sale, how many children do you know that will eat anything that even touches a mushroom? One chopped onion equals a dozen tiny pearl onions and is much easier to hide in a gravy. The best I could do for baby carrots was to carve them down to the appropriate size. Since only threats can get carrots eaten around here anyway, it really doesn’t matter how big or small they are, right? And I won’t even eat tofu no matter how far it might stretch my budget.

When it comes to salad, the books always tell us to be fresh and creative. My favorite idea was empaling bits of vegetables and greenery on toothpicks and then piercing them artfully into the flesh of a grapefruit. We are promised that our family will rave about this and happily consume our healthy arrangement. Between paydays, my vegetable bin will yield, perhaps, a couple of tomatoes, a stalk of wilted celery, a carrot or two and a forgotten branch of broccoli. I suppose I could substitute an old Styrofoam ball from the craft cupboard for the grapefruit but the result would be rather pitiful. Limp celery chunks do not stand up well on a toothpick, pieces of tomatoes tend to drip and carrots are almost impossible to stick on a toothpick. Besides, if memory serves me, my children probably found some creative use for the toothpicks weeks ago, leaving me with just three.

Dessert was my absolute favorite. When you don’t have a lot of time, according to the easy-does-it gourmets, and want to make an impression, just bring on a variety of cheese, fruit and crackers. I imagine many of you sport cupboards very similar to mine. Can you picture a platter adorned with slices of processed cheese, a lone apple arranged so the bite doesn’t show snuggled up against a couple of teething biscuits?

I am afraid that there are budgets and then there are budgets! I, fortunately or unfortunately, fall into the budget of total reality! Whatever pasta shape is available in the pantry gets smothered in creative tomato soup. We stretch our meat budget by cutting smaller pieces. Carrot and celery sticks get revived in ice water. And the one who took the initial bite out of the apple gets to read Genesis after dinner.