Patriotism. It's a lifestyle.

"It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." -Samuel Adams

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~Elmer Davis

America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact - the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality. ~Adlai Stevenson

America is a passionate idea or it is nothing. America is a human brotherhood or it is chaos. ~Max Lerner, Actions and Passions, 1949

If you are ashamed to stand by your colors, you had better seek another flag. ~Author Unknown

My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! ~Thomas Jefferson

To me, being an American means feeling safe. ~Currielene Armstrong

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS… ~Thomas Paine

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror . . . This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world. ~President George W. Bush

How can episodes of such savage cruelty happen? The heart of man is an abyss out of which sometimes emerge plots of unspeakable ferocity capable of overturning in an instant the tranquil and productive life of a people. ~Pope John Paul II(regarding 9/11/01)

A politician will do anything to keep his job -- even become a patriot.
William Randolph Hearst

Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.
Calvin Coolidge

Equal rights for all, special privileges for none ~Thomas Jefferson

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it. ~ Mark Twain

May he be a saint soon

Why do people put so much time and effort into attacking the Catholic Church and not any of the Protestant Churches? Because Satan doesn't waste his time on false churches.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Communism destroys human freedom. Man is free, thanks to two guarantees: one economic, the other spiritual. The economic guarantee of freedom is private property, for it enables man to call something his own which is outside himself. The spiritual guarantee of freedom is his soul, which makes him independent of an earthly tyrant or a political dictator.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Do not say it was absurd that Satan should appear to Our Lord, for Satan must always come close to the godly and the strong--the others succumb from a distance. --Fulton John Sheen

The pacifist thinks that the alternative to war is peace; it is not. Sometimes the alternative is oppression. Sometimes certain God-given rights and liberties can be preserved only by resistance to that which would destroy them. And to defend certain basic God-given rights and liberties is not immoral but righteous. --Fulton John Sheen

A popular God-is-dead book in the United States argues that homosexuality will become normal in a humanistic society where there is no restriction of morals which come from religion. St. Paul declared homosexuality and atheism were related to one another as effect to cause. --Fulton John Sheen

Sacrifice and sorrow

But not in vain have these words of Job sunk into my heart: "Though He should kill me yet will I trust in Him." (Job 13:15) I acknowledge it was long before I reached this degree of abandonment; Our Lord has taken me and placed me there!
St. Therese of Lisieux

God gives me courage in proportion to my sufferings. I feel at this moment I couldn't suffer any more, but I'm not afraid, since if they increase, He will increase my courage at the same time.
St. Therese of Lisieux

Time is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in glory and takes joy in our eternal beatitude. How this thought helps my soul! I understand then why He lets us suffer.....
St. Therese of Lisieux

"When we know that the way of love–this exodus, this going out of oneself–is the true way by which man becomes human, then we also understand that suffering is the process through which we mature. Anyone who has inwardly accepted suffering becomes more mature and more understanding of others, becomes more human. Anyone who has consistently avoided suffering does not understand other people; he becomes hard and selfish."
~ Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald (Ignatius Press, 2002)

Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal.
St. Teresa of Avila

I am afraid that if we begin to put our trust in human help, some of our Divine help will fail us.
St. Teresa of Avila

To suppose that God would admit to His close friendship pleasure-loving people who want to be free from all trials is ridiculous.
St. Teresa of Avila

By the anxieties and worries of this life Satan tries to dull man's heart and make a dwelling for himself there.
St. Francis of Assisi

Do not allow yourselves to be overly saddened by the unfortunate accidents of this world. You are not aware of the benefits they bring and by what secret judgment of God they are arranged for the eternal joy of the Elect.
St. John of the Cross

The one thing that would make suffering intolerable would be the thought that it was systematically inflicted upon sinners. On the other hand, the doctrine which makes it most endurable is exactly the opposite doctrine, that suffering may be a strange honour and not a vulgar punishment; that the King may be conferring a decoration when he pins the man on the cross, as much as when he pins the cross on the man.
G. K. Chesterton

That Mother...

A Prayer of Hope
Sometimes I feel like all is lost. We've all felt that. We've felt like "it's finished", "we're bankrupt". Some of you are spiritually bankrupt. What do you do at those moments? I look up and say, "I put all my trust in You." That's a prayer of hope. Try it sometime.

Get Out of the Way
I've learned that when you deal with God, get out of the way! I think that's the best advice I could offer you. Because He has plans that we wouldn't think of in a million years. You need to just let God do whatever He wants to do; and watch what happens.

Stress and Tension
If you're experiencing stress or tension give it to Jesus. Tell Him, "I feel like crawling the wall, but I love You and I want to give this to You." Do you think our Lord wasn't tense living with those twelve screwball apostles?

- from Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality

Latin 101

When I was a student, oh so many years ago, the only thing amusing about my foriegn language classes was learning odd things to say that no one outside the classroom would get without explanation. I found a few I remember learning(and some new ones). As old as I am, it is still a funny thing.

Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione - I'm not interested in your dopey religious cult

Non sum pisces - I am not a fish

Corripe Cervisiam - Seize the beer!

Cogito ergo doleo - I think therefore I am depressed

Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua - The only good language is a dead language

Sit vis vobiscum - May the Force be with you.

Stultus est sicut stultus facit - Stupid is as stupid does

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure - I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear

I suppose I need to stop messing around and get to work. Long day of playing catch up ahead...

Quotes for today

"Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are -- in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. ... You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society -- completely forgotten, completely left alone." ~ Blessed Mother Teresa

"Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. ~ St. Francis of Assisi

"Pray, trust and don't worry." ~ Saint Padre Pio

"Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever;
and take care of your soul
as if you were going to die tomorrow." ~ St. Augustine

"The good morals and salvation of the people depend on good pastors. If there is a good priest in charge of the parish, you will soon see devotion flourishing, people frequenting the Sacraments, and honoring the practice of mental prayer. Hence the proverb: 'Like pastor, like parish': Qualis pastor, talis parochia.
According to this word of Ecclesiasticus (x:2) Those who dwell in the state, take after their ruler.' Qualis est rector civitatis tales et in habitantes in ea." ~ St. Alphonsus

"Remember when you leave this earth,
you can take with you nothing that you have received
~ only what you have given: A heart enriched by honest service,
love, sacrifice and courage." ~ St. Francis of Assisi

Shall I bring a mother to the point of birth,
and yet not let her child be born?
Says the Lord; Or shall I who allow her to conceive,
yet close her womb? says your God. Isaiah 66:9

"Love is the distinctive mark of those
who belong to God,as the mark of those who reject him
is hatred." ~ The Cure' of Ars, St. Jean Vianney

“Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.” - Saint John of the Cross

Quotes

"Most people go not by argument, but by sympathies."
John Henry Neumann

"If at times you are in such confusion of mind that you seem totally incapable of calming yourself, have immediate recourse to prayer. And persevere in it in imitation of Christ, Our Lord, Who prayed three times in the garden to show mankind that only in conversation with God can afflicted souls find haven and refuge."
~ Dom Lorenzo Scupoli,
priest and author of the book, 'The Spiritual Combat'

"Even if you're on the right track,
you'll get run over if you just sit there."
~ Will Rogers

"If God causes you to suffer much,
it is a sign that He certainly intends
to make you a saint."
~ Saint Ignatius

"Do not worry over things that generate
preoccupation and anxiety.
One thing only is necessary:
To lift up your spirit and love to God."
~St. Padre Pio

"Everyone is ready to run after the latest novelty
... But as for Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament,
he is deserted and forsaken...
~ The Cure' of Ars, St. Jean Vianney

A mother experiences more than one death, even though she herself will only die once. She fears for her husband; she fears for her children; again she fears for the women and children who belong to her children. … For each of these—whether for loss of possessions, bodily illness, or undesired misfortune—she mourns and grieves no less than those who suffer.
—St. John Chrysostom

The Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep her on her course.
—St. Boniface

Trust in the LORD and do good,
that you may dwell in the land and enjoy security.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart's requests.
Commit to the LORD your way;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make justice dawn for you like the light;
bright as the noonday shall be your vindication.
Leave it to the LORD,
and wait for him;
Be not vexed at the successful path
of the man who does malicious deeds.
Give up your anger, and forsake wrath;
be not vexed, it will only harm you.
For evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the LORD
shall possess the land.
Psalm 37:3-9

G. K. Chesterton and his words

“It isn't that they can't see the solution. It's that they can't see the problem.”
G. K. Chesterton

“Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.”
G. K. Chesterton

“Marriage is an adventure, like going to war.”
G. K. Chesterton

I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
G. K. Chesterton

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
G. K. Chesterton

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
G. K. Chesterton

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.
G. K. Chesterton

I love the way he looked at the world. He understood the realm of the spiritual and logical at the same time.

Quotes on sacred music

These are quotes I found that deserve mentioning:

"Yet certain Catholics today express the desire of changing the external form of the Liturgy by adapting it to the style of life of our desacralized age. Such a desire indicates a blindness to the nature of the Liturgy, as well as a lack of reverence and gratitude for the sublime gifts of two thousand years of Christian life. It betrays a ludicrous self-assurance and conceit to believe that these traditional forms can be scrapped for something better. And this conceit is especially incongruous in those who accuse the Church of "triumphalism." On the one hand, they consider a lack of humility the Church's claim that She alone possesses the full divine revelation (instead of perceiving that this claim is rooted in the very nature of the Church and flows out of Her divine mission). On the other hand, they exhibit a ridiculous pride in assuming that our modern epoch is superior to former ones." Pg 238-239 from Trojan Horse in the City of God, Dietrich von Hildebrand

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. ~Ludwig van Beethoven

From Richard Morris, a good interview and short bio found here: An Interview with Richard Morris

Catholic liturgical music, it would seem, is everywhere but in the Catholic Church itself.
Richard Morris

Ironically, we live in times that are awash in authentic sacred music.
Richard Morris

Many pastors just fear aspiring to something other than the most bland mediocrity; they don't want to be called snobs and they have no sense that the liturgy of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass requires special music.
Richard Morris

Only the Catholic Church seems blind to its power. This is one of the greatest travesties of the post-Conciliar period. We've abandoned the sacred treasury and replaced it with drivel.
Richard Morris

The point is not to return to the way the Mass was sung forty years ago but to do it reverently and correctly now.
Richard Morris

There are so many more good ones from Richard Morris I found. But I must get back to work and get on with my day. Just some good thoughts and perspectives to chew on...

Faith and love

The goal of all our undertakings should be not so much a task perfectly completed as the accomplishment of the will of God.
St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

For one pain endured with joy, we shall love the good God more forever. - St. Therese of Lisieux

When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future. - St. Therese of Lisieux

Courage is not freedom from fear. It’s being afraid and going on anyway -- Anonymous

If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it’s not the gospel you believe, but yourself -- Augustine of Hippo

Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate: Model your life on the mystery of the Lord's cross --- From the rite of Ordination of a Priest

Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing make you afraid;
All things pass;
But God is unchanging,
Patience is enough for everything.
You who have God lack nothing.
God alone is sufficient -- Teresa of Avila

On Truth and Hope

"The declared enemies of God and His Church, heretics and schismatics, must be criticized as much as possible, as long as truth is not denied. It is a work of charity to shout: 'Here is the wolf!' when it enters the flock or anywhere else.
--St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

"It is impossible to approve in Catholic publications a style inspired by unsound novelty which seems to deride the piety of the faithful and dwells on the introduction of a new order of Christian life, on new directions of the Church, on new aspirations of the modern soul, on a new social vocation of the clergy, on a new Christian civilization, and many other things of the same kind."
--Pope Leo XIII

Pray, hope, and don't worry.
- St. Pio of Pietrelcina

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your Will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing...
- Thomas Merton

Fight to the death for Truth, and the Lord God will do battle for you.
- Sirach 4:33

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply.
- St. Francis de Sales

It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.
- St. Peter

The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host.
- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all.
And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.
- G.K. Chesterton

We shall steer safely through every storm so long as our heart is right,
our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God.
- St. Francis de Sales

St. Maximilian Kolbe

"No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the hecatombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?" St. Maximilian Kolbe

On the Eucharist...

"I throw myself at the foot of the Tabernacle like a dog at the foot of his Master."
- St. John Vianney

"When we speak to Jesus with simplicity and with all our heart, He does like a mother who holds her child's head with her hands and covers it with kisses and caresses."
- St. John Vianney, on adoring Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament

"He remains among us until the end of the world. He dwells on so many altars, though so often offended and profaned."
- St. Maximilian Kolbe

"If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion."
- St. Maximilian Kolbe

"The guest of our soul knows our misery; He comes to find an empty tent within us - that is all He asks."
- St. Therese of Lisieux

"Neither theological knowledge nor social action alone is enough to keep us in love with Christ unless both are proceeded by a personal encounter with Him. Theological insights are gained not only from between two covers of a book, but from two bent knees before an altar. The Holy Hour becomes like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the world,"
- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Wise words...

Motherhood is sometimes presented as something backward or as a limitation of a woman's freedom, thus distorting its true nature and dignity. Children are presented not as what they are; a great gift of God; but rather as something to be defended against. John Paul II - Cuba, January 1998

Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christian, 1890

As two pieces of wax fused together make one, so he who receives Holy Communion is so united with Christ that Christ is in him and he is in Christ., Saint Cyril of Alexandria

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
Saint Theresa of Jesus

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.
Saint Francis de Sales

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Two Precepts of Charity

Some more quotes. True gems.

"You can't give what you don't have."
"You have to be filled with it in order to share it."

"A good teacher is someone who is humble enough
to be set on fire with the love of God."

"A good preacher is someone who is set on fire
and the people come to watch him burn!"

"If you don't believe it...the people will know it."

~ Fr. John Corapi

"If God causes you to suffer much,
it is a sign that He certainly intends
to make you a saint."

~ Saint Ignatius

"Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever;
and take care of your soul
as if you were going to die tomorrow."

~ St. Augustine

Some great quotes to make you ponder

Ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, "God is hard to find."
- Bishop Fulton Sheen

"Not my will, but Yours be done"....
By obeying we raise ourselves beyond our littleness and we can act in conformity
with an infinite wisdom... Through obedience we become infinitely powerful.
- St. Maximilian Kolbe

You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.
You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.
You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you.
I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.
- St. Augustine

Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person.
- Saint Therese of Lisieux

Sometimes you just close your eyes and jump... you don't think too long or maybe you just won't. Sometimes you just follow your heart, don't analyze too long, or maybe it might just be gone.
- Carrie Newcomer

All we need do is to voice these two petitions: Dear Lord, illumine my intellect to see the Truth, and give me the strength to follow it.
- Bishop Fulton Sheen