Divine Office Antiphons - 26th Sunday Per Annum

Sorry the translations were rushed, but you should recognize them from this Sunday's Gospel.

Vespers I (Evening Prayer I)
Magnificat Antiphon Year B
Nemo est qui fáciat virtútem in nómine meo, et posit cito male loqui de me. Qui enim non est advérsum vos, pro vobis est.
(No one who does mighty works in My Name, and at the same time speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us, is for us.)

Lauds (Morning Prayer)
Canticle of Zacharia Year B
Quisquis potum déderit vobis cálicem aqæ in nómine meo, quia Christi estis, amen dico vobis: non perdet mercédem suam.
(Anyone who gives you a chalice of water to drink in My Name because you are of Christ, amen I say to you: he will not lose his reward.)

Vespers II (Evening Prayer II)
Magnificat Antiphon Year B
Bonum est tibi débilem introíre in vitam, quam duas manus habéntem ire in gehénnam, dicit Dóminus.
(It is better for you to enter into life maimed, than with two hands to have the flames in Gahenna, says the Lord.)

Comparison of Prayers - 26th Sunday Per Annum

Collect (Opening Prayer)

Official Latin from the 1969 & 2002 Roman Missals
Orémus. Deus, qui omnipoténtiam tuam parcéndo máxime et miserándo maniféstas, multíplica super nos grátiam tuam, ut, ad tua promíssa curréntes, cæléstium bonórum fácias esse consórtes.
Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia saécula sæculórum.

Official 1973 I.C.E.L. Translation(Used at Mass in English)
Let us pray. Father, you show your almighty power in your mercy and forgiveness. Continue to fill us with your gifts of love. Help us to hurry toward the eternal life you promise and come to share in the hoys of your kingdom.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

My Own Literal Translation
Let us pray. O God, You Who manifest Your omnipotence especially in Your forbearance and mercy, increase Your grace upon us, so that running towards Your promises, You may make us to be sharers of the Heavenly Goods.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Prayer Over the Gifts

Official Latin from the 1969 & 2002 Roman Missals
Concéde nobis, miséricors Deus, ut hæc nostra oblátio tibi sit accépta, et per eam nobis fons omnis benedictiónis aperiátur.
Per Christum Dóminum nostrum.

Official 1973 I.C.E.L. Translation(Used at Mass in English)
God of mercy, accept our offering and make it a source of blessing for us.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

My Own Literal Translation
Grant to us, O merciful God, that this our sacrificial offering may be acceptable to You, and through it may the Font of all blessings be opened to us.
Through Christ our Lord.

Post-Communion Prayer

Official Latin from the 1969 & 2002 Roman Missals
Orémus. Sit nobis, Dómine, reparátio mentis et córporis cæléste mystérium, ut simus eius in glória coherédes, cui, mortem ipsíus annuntiándo, compátimur.
Qui vivit et regnat in saécula sæculórum.

Official 1973 I.C.E.L. Translation(Used at Mass in English)
Let us pray. Lord, may this eucharist in which we proclaim the death of Christ bring us salvation and make us one with him in glory,
for he is Lord for ever and ever.

My Own Literal Translation
Let us pray. O Lord, may this Heavenly Mystery be for us a restoration of mind and body, so that, by announcing His death, we may be coheirs in the glory of Him, with Whom we suffer.
He Who lives and reigns forever and ever.

Joee Blogs On BBC Radio

You may remember my post asking you to encourage "Joee Blogs" to use the possible opportunity to be on BBC Radio regarding his blog post with photos from a Muslim protest outside of Westminster Cathedral. Well, our friend did actually make it onto BBC radio.

You can visit his post to get the link to his interview.

It appeared to go well. It didn't get that deep, since the show is more about the internet and blogosphere in general, but his message was "spot on."

So, go check it out. Overall, the rest of his blog is worth looking at too.
(when you go to the BBC Radio link on his blog, it will probably start out with an American Football report in American English, don't worry, just go foward a few minutes and you'll get to the show, I believe he is the second interview).

An Entire Country Within A City

An entire country within a city, and the same country within your browser.

Struggling to sqeeze in my daily post before the deadline.

Just thought I would mention how much I love Google Maps. Having lived in Rome, this is a lot of fun to see arial shots of major landmarks.

I believe that Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, less than 0.2 square miles, and obviously is completely surrounded by Rome.

If you want to journey around rome with Google Maps, you can get your starting point at Saint Peter's here.

Enjoy.

Website on Saint Peter's Basilica

I found a very good and useful website with information of Saint Peter's Basilica. I am not sure how often it is updated (the related blog hasn't been updated in over a year).
It is an independent site, not affiliated with the Vatican, however it has some very good information on the floorplan, and even the ancient ruins under and around Vatican City.

Ever wonder who that Saint is in third the alcove on the right side? Want to know whose relics are in that altar on the other side of the statue of Saint Peter? This site can help you find out. This is certainly worth a study if you are planning to visit Rome.

St. Peter's Basilica.org

MRI Safety

Totally off the usual topics I thought I would post about Magnetic Resonance Imaging safety, prompted by a web site I came across.

If anyone has ever had an MRI, you are always told to remove all metal objects before you go into the imaging room where the machine is. Now we have all played with magnets and picked up paperclips, but I don't think many people realize how strong magnets can be.

I remember in our physics lab at college we had two industrial horseshoe magnets that were each about half the size of a shoebox. You had to be very careful when putting them together that your fingers did not get in between them, because they were very strong and were very difficult to get apart.

An MRI machine has an even more powerful magnet. I learned this first hand when I had an MRI done last year. They had me remove all metal objects, and I did ... except that I forgot to remove my belt which had a metal buckle on it. The technician also failed to notice it. Anyway, they prep me then she pushes me into the machine, which was one of those tight ones that claustrophobic people have touble with (thankfully I am not very claustrophobic). As she was pushing me in, I thought the opening was too small and my belt buckle had hooked onto the outside of the opening, but then I realized the pulling was in the opposite direction. By the time I had been pushed all the way in, my belt buckle was now hovering about 2 inches above my waist (I could put my hand between the buckle and my stomach). Obviously the belt kept the buckle from flying up to the magnet, but it made me realize how powerful those magnets are. Which is why MRI technitians have to be very vigilant about metal in the room for safety purposes.

Which brings us to a site which has a few pictures of when people weren't that vigilant in the imaging rooms.

Danger! Flying Objects! (MRI Physics and Safety)

If that doesn't convince you, see how difficult it is for these techs to get a light weight office chair from out of the magnetic field.


or how slowly a chunk of metal falls in the field.

Participating At Mass

Michael at The New Liturgical Movement has pointed out that a regular reader of their blog, Todd, is looking at the question of "what is 'active participation' as used in the Vatican II document Sacrosanctum Concilium?" over at his own blog Catholic Sensibility.

I personally find Todd's perspectives a bit "progressive" at times, but he often does make some good points and is seeking answers. In this case he certainly makes a great point that we need to look at the actual document of Sacrosanctum Concilium in order to see what the Council Fathers intended.

I have always thought that Fr. Zuhlsdorf (link to the actual article listed below) has had the best analysis of the issue which I have seen, mainly because he does not look at Sacrosanctum Concilium as an isolated document. Rather, he has looked at it in the context of the liturgical movement in the Church which led up to the Second Vatican Council. The liturical aspect of Vatican II was not just some idea which the Council Fathers came up with out of the blue. There was an authentic liturgical movement going on in the Church, one which focused on greater use of chant (the monastery of Solesmes was probably the greatest contributer to bringing chant to the forefront). Another aspect of the liturgical renewal of the early 20th century was helping the laity to gain a better understanding of the liturgy.

Anyway, to sum up Father Z.'s conclusion, he basically says

"This is very important. Active participation is “perfect” in the form of reception of Holy Communion."

This makes much more sense in the context of the time leading up to the Second Vatican Council, especially in light of Pope Saint Pius X's allowance of daily Communion and lowering the age for first Communions.

There is also much to be said about Gregorian Chant in the Mass regarding the same liturgical movement.

Father Zuhlsdorf's entry on "active participation" is well worth the read: The True Meaning of "Active Participation"

Media Hurting Muslims

I found an interesting, quick little Q & A in the Dallas Morning News today.

from: Point of Contact

10:02 AM CDT on Sunday, September 24, 2006

Our Q&A with Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, formerly a radical Muslim, now a Washington, D.C.-based counterterrorism consultant

When you were a Muslim, you were converted from progressive Islam to Wahhabism, also called Salafism, by the logic of the Salafists' arguments. What does that tell us about the prospects for Islamic reform?

The logical force of the radicals' interpretation of the Islamic faith cannot be denied; anybody who brushes off Islamic radicals' interpretation of jihad as clearly and simply distorting Islam is either dissembling or speaking from sincere ignorance.

I don't think, though, that the radicals are inevitably right, and I thus haven't yet given up the hope that Islam can save itself. ... One of the Muslim moderates with whom I've been dialoguing for that project tells me that the Salafi interpretation seems insurmountable at first, but as a Muslim gains greater mastery of Arabic and is able to interpret Islamic history on his own, less radical alternative interpretations may seem more compelling.

At this point, it's too early for me to assess whether this statement is accurate. But the fact that I don't think the radicals are inevitably right makes the current controversy over Pope Benedict's remarks all the more distressing.

Why?

It seems that the media would rather condemn the pope and thus place criticism of Islam off-limits rather than focus on the pathologies in contemporary Islam. This Western response serves to undermine Muslim moderates and strengthen radicals. It undermines moderates because one of the strongest big-picture arguments the moderates have is that Muslims need to act like adults. Yet the signal we're sending is that we're willing to look the other way and create a ridiculous double standard: that we're unwilling to hold Muslims accountable for unacceptable behavior and unacceptable actions.

The extremists are helped not only by the missed opportunity to examine the crisis in contemporary Islam, but also because it increasingly appears to them that if they want to use threats of violence to stifle speech, they will be helped in their cause by hordes of guilt-ridden Westerners who will side with them.

We live in cowardly times, and it's sad to see that so many Westerners pick the wrong side in what is a stark choice between free speech and intimidation.

This does bring up a question I have had for awhile and it is regarding the different "sects" of Islam. How are they related to each other and what do they think of each other? Is there a huge, silent majority of moderate Muslims like the media tells us there is, or is anti-Semitism and anti-United States sentiment becoming more intrinsic to Islamic belief? I really don't know, so I ask. It's just that I always hear the media say that the extremists are a small fringe minority of Islam, but they are the only ones I hear. I have yet to hear anything from the "majority" of Islam. Of course, the media often only lets us hear what they want us to hear, so it is hard to tell what is the truth.

Happy Feast Day Saint Padre Pio

(You can hear and pray with Saint Padre Pio below.)

Happy Feast Day Saint Padre Pio!
Saint Padre Pio is a Saint who has become very dear to me. I did not know much about him, but began a devotion to him many years ago when a holy card with him and a prayer for his cause for canonization was given to me. I began praying that prayer and learning more about him.
Eventually he was beatified, and then canonized. By Divine Providence of being in Italy at the time, and the brotherly help and perseverance of Father Clement, O.S.B. (who was studying in Roma and waited in line to get tickets to the canonization), I was able to be present at the canonization. As you can see here:

It was an awesome experience. You could really sense the union of the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant rejoicing in the Canonization Mass. It also felt like I was seeing the fruits of my puny labors (united with so many others' prayers) in praying for his canonization. Deo grátias!

My love of Saint Padre Pio had grown as I learned of his intense love for our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

I chose these two photos of him because of how focused he is on Christ. I often don't even focus on all his mystical gifts of the stigmata, bilocation, reading souls, etc. I am always drawn to his spiritual union with Christ and Mary and, again, his intense love of the Real Presence. I have placed myself under his protection to help guide me in my life and to seek God's Will above all else. He is one of my "big three" patrons, along with Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Benedict.

I found a few really great links of audio of Saint Padre Pio on the web. We usually only get to see artists renditions of Saints, but to actually have real photos of Saint Padre Pio is a blessing, but to actually hear the Saint is very cool. So, have a listen. (He does have a bit of an accent with his mix of Italian and his local dialect).

Say the Angelus with Saint Padre Pio in Latin.

The Our Father in Latin with Padre Pio.
You should be able to finish it :)
... sed líbera nos a malo. Amen.

Office Antiphons - 25th Sunday Per Annum

Vespers I (Evening Prayer I)Magníficat Antiphon Year B
Si quis vult primus esse, erit ómnium novíssimus et ómnium miníster.
(If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and servant of all.)

Lauds (Morning Prayer)
Canticle of Zacharia Year B
Quicúmque me suscéperit, non me súscipit, sed eum qui me misit.
(Whoever receives Me, receives not me, but Him Who sent Me.)

Vespers II (Evening Prayer II)
Magnificat Antiphon Year B
Quisquis unum ex huiúsmodi púeris recéperit in nómine meo, me récipit.
(Whosoever shall receive one child such as this in My Name, receives Me)

Give Some Catholic Encouragement

"Joee Blogs" a Catholic in London had some incredible pictures he took last Sunday of some Muslims protesting at Westminster Cathedral.

He may have the opportunity to be on a BBC Radio program on the blogosphere and internet happenings to talk about his experience and his Catholic perspective on the Pope and Islam. Please encourage him by posting a comment on his blog at this entry.

Comparison of Prayers - 25th Sunday Per Annum

"Suffer the Children" by Vogelstein

Getting back into some normalcy, here are the prayers of this Sunday.

Comparison of Prayrs - 25th Sunday Per Annum
Collect (Opening Prayer)

Official Latin from the 1969 & 2002 Roman Missals
Orémus. Deus, qui sacræ legis ómnia constitúta in tua et próximi dilectióne posuísti, da nobis, ut, tua præcépta servántes, ad vitam mereámur perveníre perpétuam.
Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia saécula sæculórum.

Official 1973 I.C.E.L. Translation(Used at Mass in English)
Let us pray. Father, guide us, as you guide creation according to the law of love. May we love one another and come to perfection in the eternal life prepared for us.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

My Own Literal Translation
Let us pray. O God, You Who placed all the ordinances of the sacred law in the love of You and of neighbor, grant us, that, keeping Your precepts, we may merit to attain to perpetual life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Prayer Over the Gifts

Official Latin from the 1969 & 2002 Roman Missals
Múnera, quaésumus, Dómine, tuæ plebis propitiátus assúme, ut, quæ fídei pietáte profiténtur, sacraméntis cæléstibus apprehéndant.
Per Christum Dóminum nostrum.

Official 1973 I.C.E.L. Translation(Used at Mass in English)
Lord, may these gifts which we offer to show our belief and our love be pleasing to you. May they become for us the eucharist of Jesus Christ your Son,
who is Lord for ever and ever.

My Own Literal Translation
Graciously receive the gifts of Your people, we beseech You, O Lord, that the things which they publicly profess in piety of faith, they may take possession of by these heavenly Sacraments.
Through Christ our Lord.

Post-Communion Prayer

Official Latin from the 1969 & 2002 Roman Missals
Orémus. Quos tuis, Dómine, réficis sacraméntis, contínuis attólle benígnus auxíliis, ut redemptiónis efféctum et mystériis capiámus et móribus.
Per Christum Dóminum nostrum.

Official 1973 I.C.E.L. Translation(Used at Mass in English)
Let us pray. Lord, help us with your kindness. Make us strong through the eucharist. May we put into action the saving mystery we celebrate.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

My Own Literal Translation
Let us pray. O Lord, kindly raise up through Your continual help, those whom you have refreshed by these Sacraments, so that we may take hold of the effect of our redemption both in these Mysteries and in our conduct.
Through Christ our Lord.

I don't know why, but the I.C.E.L. translations for this week seem worse than usual. Maybe it's just me.

I know you are but what am I?

"I know you are but what am I?"

That old schoolyard line just about seems to sum up one of the latest articles over at Al-Jazeera Magazine's website.

We're not being intolerant, you are!

From the article:

So next time you Catholics drop money into that collection plate, you should wonder where your money is going. It seems it is filling the same coffers and feeding the same ideologies of an intransigent Bush administration. If this is the case, maybe people should be asking the Pope for tolerance, rather than the Muslim world.

and from the comments:

Muslims ask the West to show tolerance, while being unbelievably intolerant themselves of other religions. The only reason the Muslim world hates Israel so much is because Israelis are not Muslim. How about Muslims leading by example, and showing tolerance towards Israel, not to mention the US and the West in general. And it goes without saying that tolerance means NO TERRORISM.-Andrew From UK

Andrew from UK you are too prejudice, you speak thru your emotion, check your history book, who is the first terrorist in the world, bene is more like an emperor than a pope, have you heard john paul giving this kind of remark..if somebody said your mother is a , would you get angry? because you owe your mother a lot right thats why u wud be angry rite. that goes the same to the muslim, prophet Mohammed pbuh had sacrified his life to educate the humanbeing, it is inhumne to condamn a man who had brought knowledge to the world and to accused him of something that is against his affort. the bottom line is bene shoulg be a politician rather than a religious leader.-Stephan from Germany

(There aren't a lot of quotes from the Middle East, I'm guessing it's because those in the Middle East would be looking at the Arabic website of Al-Jazeera.)

Read the Al-Jazeera article here.

And in a note related to the latter commetn above, Carl Olson has an interesting post regarding the tunnel vision of the protesters. John Paul II really went much further in his criticism of Islam than Pope Benedict did.

Thanks

Thanks to the blog "Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex" for adding me to their blogroll. Dispite its bizarre name, it is an excellent site, especially on Catholic sexual morality. It is good at pointing out attacks on the culture of life in current events.

An Atheist Defends the Pope

I am very grateful to Fr. Stephanos for pointing this out to me, I wish I had read it earlier. It is a few days old, but definitely worth posting on the main page here. You can take the author's political views with a grain of salt, but his analysis is very reasoned.

I especially find interesting his "correcting" the Pope on the context of the "controversial" quote.

Emperor Manuel II Paleologus

Let's stop here, and note one error. The dialogues set down by Manuel did not occur during the siege of Constantinople, but much earlier, during the emperor's youth, when he was held as a hostage at the court of the Turkish sultan; his father, John V, was a Turkish vassal, who paid yearly tribute to the sultan. At the Turkish court, young Manuel passed the time by engaging in a series of dialogues with a scholarly Persian, and later recorded them from his notes. This historical context is important, in view of the controversy that has arisen – and arise it did, when the pope got around to his point

Hmmm, nobody in the media or Muslim world has bothered to let us know that little detail.

Like I said, this is definitely an article worth reading.

Read the whole article here.

Is This Using Reason?

Well, the hot topic remains to be the Pope and RADICAL Islam. I really wasn't sure what to post, but given that it is close to the end of the day, I'll go ahead and post something, although I was wondering about posting it. I can't even post a picture because I got a bit too freaked out when I did an image search on Google for "suicide bomber." (Let's just say that they are not just vaporized like you think).

It is along the lines of the previous post of watching what the Arab world says. I found an interesting section on Al-Jazeera Magazine's web site which is a question and answer column. From the few articles I read, it looks more like a way for those who oppose RADICAL Islam to write in with questions and for Al-Jazeera to give a very biased answer.

Someone wrote in with a question asking how the suicide bombers in Iraq and Palistine can be considered Muslims if they are committing suicide, since this is forbidden in the Qur'an. The answer was rather disturbing, and avoided some realities, like: rarely if ever have suicide bombers attacked only soldiers.

There’s no way to compare a Palestinian who blows up himself to kill a few Israeli soldiers, baring in mind that Palestinians do not have weapons or ammunition like those sent to the Israelis by the U.S. every year, to a person who carries out a bomb attack that results in the death of dozens and hundreds of civilians in Iraq.

What’s taking place in Palestine is anti-occupation resistance, but what’s happening in Iraq should be split into anti-occupation resistance, like carrying out attacks that kill occupation troops, who are actually a legitimate target, and rebel or insurgent attacks that claim civilian lives.

When a man blows up himself and looses his life in executing his/her operation, called by worldwide media as “suicide bombing”, to save other people’s lives, his nation, those civilians who’re killed every day at the hands of the occupation troops, like what we see in Israel, this does not count as suicide but as a sacrifice in holy war and, therefore, as martyrdom.

Let me quote the prominent Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssuf Al Qaradawi speaking on this issue during a visit to UK in 2004, were he was asked in an exclusive interview with Newsnight to comment on what most of the Western media refers to as suicide bombing in the Occupied Palestinian territories.

“It's not suicide, it is martyrdom in the name of God, Islamic theologians and jurisprudents have debated this issue. Referring to it as a form of Jihad, under the title of jeopardizing the life of the Mujahadeen. It is allowed to jeopardize your soul and cross the path of the enemy and be killed."

Frightening. These people are being taught how to die for Allah, but they are not being taught how to live for Allah.

Read the whole question with its answer here.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Needing some levity, I was reminded that today is
International Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Yes, this has been going on for several years now.

Of course, we all know that Ninjas are WAY COOLER than pirates!

LOL.

RADICAL Islam breeding ignorance?

Of course we often go to media which reflects our own views. In wanting to see the bigger picture, I have been cruising around some of the Middle Eastern media. I am utterly astounded and some of the things I see. Forget NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox. If you want to know about Radical Islam, go to the source.

I found the following article and especially it's comments to be just completely irrational. Radical Muslims might be pissed off over the Pope's comments, but given his theme of faith with reason, they are only serving to prove not only the Pope's point, but also the emperor's quote.

From Al-Jazeera Magazine:

Meaningless Apology:

Fury continues over radical remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI last Tuesday in a speech during a pilgrimage to his native Germany in which he linked the noble faith of Islam to violence and terrorism, quoting a 14th-century Christian emperor who said that Prophet Mohammed's command to spread Islam by the sword had produced "evil and inhumane" results ...

read the rest

The comments are the disturbing part (and they are from all over the world):

"I am not surprised by pop's comment. Zionist are trying very hard to push their agenda, the only obstacle today against Zionist is Islam. Otherwise how pop can ignore the history when Christian crusaders were heading to Jerusalem to slaughter innocent Muslims. Nice one pop for you selective case of amnesia!"

or

"HEY POP, WE DONT NEED YOUR CRUSADE WARS IN THE 21ST CENTERY, AS FAR AS I CARE, YOUR REPRESENT NOTHING TO ME, SO I SAY THAT TO YOU AND YOUR A LIKE, GO TO HELL AND SHUT UR MOUTH, IGNORANT POPPY, FACTS ARE IN THE BOOKS OF HISTORY AND FOR THE PRESENT ARE BLOODIED BY YOUR BARBARIC CRUSADES WARS, YR JOB AS POP POPPY, IS TO BRING HUMANITY TOGETHER, NOT TO BRING HELL ON EARTH, DOOMED SHALL BE YOU AND ALL OTHERS WHO ARE LIKE YOU HATRED, RACISTS, EVIL SOULS. GO TO HELL, HYPOCRATES LISTEN U ARE LUCKY MUSLIMS ARE PATIENTS. OS, SINNERS, OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND SPEW POISON, U WANT CRUSADE HOLY WAR, HOLY WAR U SHALL GET, DONT BLAME MUSLIMS AFTER THAT FOR TURNING THE SEA FROM BLUE TO RED, BLAME ONLY YOURSELF WESTERM RACIST IDEOLOGY FOR NOT STANDING UP AND PUTTING END TO THIS PLAY, BARBARIC WEST AGAINST INNOCENT MUSLIMS RELIGION, U DISGUST ME POP, AS BUSH DISGUST ME AS ALL THOSE BLOOD THIRSTY BEASTS SUCH BUSH AND PUPPIES AND U ARE ONE OF THEM POP.PLAYING GOD POP, WHILE U ARE BORN A SINNER, GO AWAY."

or

"One should not forget that Pope is nothing but the stooge of the big christian power.Overtly he talks and preach peace but racist introvertly against the muslims.All the Popes except for John Paul II could not acquire love from all the religions.The christian world was always against the rise of the muslim influence and power in todays world order and Vatican gave direct moral and Papal support.The Vatican talked about violation of HR in China/L.America/Africa(as like their masters USA/UK connivers but never uttered a single word or censured the most atrocious,brutal and marauder nation Israel.It appears that Vatican is happy at the destruction of Muslim heritage,death in millions and unimaginable sufferings of billion muslims throughout.The Vatican is enjoying the undeclared crusade perpretrated on the muslims by the Jews/Hindus and Christian world in the name"war against terror".The muslims are treated like criminals.Respected "Pope Benedict" poured fuel in the already burning fire."

Thankfully there are a few reasoned comments, but you can tell an ideology is at war with reason.
EDIT: - Interesting to note, if you try to comment there is a note which says: "Racism and reference to religion is banned." Nice to see AlJazeera follow their own policies. I rest my case.

Christianity and RADICAL Islam

Although the topic of Christianity and Islam has been a hot topic for the past five years, recently it has been further escalated by the media frenzy over Pope Benedict XVI's talk given Regensburg, on September 12th. I also was able to watch "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," an eye opening film which I am looking into. It's hard to watch a film about propaganda and not vaguely feel like you might be getting propaganda yourself. However, since so much of it is actual footage from Arab TV, like Al-Jazeera and Iranian TV, there is much of it that is "coming straight from the horse's mouth."

Also, today, I have just seen that "Citing the words of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslim religious leaders in the Gaza Strip on Sunday warned Pope Benedict XVI that he must "accept" Islam if he wanted to live in peace."

Whenever I read about radical Islam, I often get the feeling we are using the same words, but these words have vastly different meanings. For us in the West, "peace" means living together without major conflict and being able to respect one another's beliefs. Yet from much of what I have heard quoted from Muslim leaders, they seem to define "peace" as "not being killed." As in, "we are a peaceful religion as long as you submit to Islam." And by their thinking, not submitting to Islam makes YOU the instigator, not Islam.
"Freedom" is another word. Radical Islam will say they encourage freedom, and everyone will be free ... but only when everyone submits to Islam.

This is something that should concern, not only Christians and Jews, but seculars as well. In Radical Islamic thinking, there is no separation of Church and State. Our post-modern mentality seems to think that if you aren't religious you are therefore "neutral." This doesn't work when dealing with Islam. Even if you don't believe in anything, you still have no rights under Islam. Only those who are Islamic will have rights. In their eyes, you either submit to Allah, or you don't. If you don't, at best you have no rights, at worse you die.

I found a very good book is "Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics, 100 Questions and Answers."
This is written by a former Muslim who converted to Catholicsm and by an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. It has a forward by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. so you can tell it understands Islam, and is is orthodox regarding Catholicism. It is very easy to read and extremely interesting.

Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West
1 hour 20 minutes, does have a few graphic scenes.
I'll let you form your own opinions on it.

UPDATE: Google has apparently pulled the movie from their site therefore the link no longer works. The movie is still available at youtube.com but it is split up into 8 parts. You can do a search on youtube for it.

Well, enough for now, maybe more thoughts later.

Rained Out

Thankfully, the game was rained out.

"Safer" version of the game.

Confused?
History.
Generic background.
Accident.
My side of the story.
Maybe it wasn't an "accident."
Unforseen Consequences
Devotions Out Of Control