Gratias Agamus Domino Deo Nostro
— Posted by John (November 22, 2006 at 6:01 pm)
On this Thanksgiving eve, I’ve included below some words from my two favorite writers: God and G. K. Chesterton.
First, a few choice quotations from Chesterton on gratitude:
“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?”
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”
And:
Psalm 65
To you we owe our hymn of praise, O God on Zion; To you our vows must be fulfilled, you who hear our prayers.
To you all flesh must come with its burden of wicked deeds. We are overcome by our sins; only you can pardon them.
Happy the chosen ones you bring to dwell in your courts. May we be filled with the good things of your house, the blessings of your holy temple!
You answer us with awesome deeds of justice, O God our savior, The hope of all the ends of the earth and of far distant islands.
You are robed in power, you set up the mountains by your might.
You still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.
Distant peoples stand in awe of your marvels; east and west you make resound with joy.
You visit the earth and water it, make it abundantly fertile.
God’s stream is filled with water; with it you supply the world with grain. Thus do you prepare the earth: you drench plowed furrows, and level their ridges.
With showers you keep the ground soft, blessing its young sprouts.
You adorn the year with your bounty; your paths drip with fruitful rain.
The untilled meadows also drip; the hills are robed with joy.
The pastures are clothed with flocks, the valleys blanketed with grain; they cheer and sing for joy.
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mary kay says:
As long as we are giving thanks: I sent this to our priests and a copy to the New World:
At mass this Sunday, during the consecration, I had an
interesting thought. An epiphany, if you will.
I am the mother of six children. That makes eight
people in my family. My oldest is 25 and my youngest
is six.
Every day for 26 years, I have had to supply food for
this family. Breakfast after breakfast. Well thought
out lunches with just the right balance of
ever-changing “health foods”, diligently placed in
white lunch bags. Crunchy and strawberry for Kevin,
smooth and strawberry for Mary Pat, smooth and grape
for Johnny. Every night I have to make a dinner that
will result in the least amount of “what’s this
supposed to be?” and “I hate green food”. There truly
are only so many ways to cook hamburger.
While we are not rich, we are also not poor. I have
managed a meal in a restraunt on occasion. And these,
I have thouroughly enjoyed. “Would you like more
coffee?”, “How would you like that steak done?” and
“How about some dessert?”. All words that symbolized
someone else doing the work, someone else serving ME.
What joy, what bliss, what ecstasy!!!
So now, here I was at Sunday mass, and as the priest
was holding up our Lord, it dawned on me. Every
Sunday, without fail, someone is going to prepare a
meal. For me. Imagine. I don’t have to set the
table. I don’t have to prepare the fare. I don’t
have to clean up and wash the dishes. Every single
Sunday, the finest meal, set on the most beautiful
table, with candlelight, music, family and good
friends, will be prepared for and served to me.
And all I have to do is show up. What joy, what
bliss, what ecstasy!!!
So to all you wonderful priests, whom we so easily
criticize and so often find fault with, I want to take
this opportunity to say thank you. From the bottom of
my heart, and the center of this very hungry soul,
Thank you. Hats off to the Chef, so to speak.
And THANK YOU John, the Psalm was beautiful. Think I’ll print it and say it Tomorrow at Mom’s.
TO EVERYONE: ROSIE, PANSY, SUNNY, JOHN, ERIC, ANNIE, JOE, MIKE, YOUNG CHRISTIAN WOMAN, LAUREN AND ALL…
HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY THANKSGIVING. AND THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT CONVERSATIONS…AMEN.
MK
Comment posted November 22nd, 2006 at 6:11 pm
mary kay says:
Home >> World
UPDATED: 11:24, November 22, 2006
Bill to legalize abortion rejected by Chilean legislature
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Chile’s National Congress, the lower house of the legislature, rejected on Tuesday a bill to partially legalize abortion presented by ruling party deputies.
Congress leader Antonio Leal described the bill as unconstitutional, which aimed to make abortion legal during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy with the mother’s consent, when the pregnancy put the mother’s life at risk or in cases of rape.
Leal’s opinion was backed by the majority in Congress, who voted 61-21 not to discuss the bill.
Leal said that any discussion on the topic could only be done after a constitutional amendment, “because our constitution guarantees the right to life.”
The bill’s sponsors, Marco Enriquez-Ominami and Rene Alico, are both members of the center-left ruling coalition, although the government opposed the proposal.
Christian Democrat deputies strongly rejected the bill, vowing that they would leave the ruling coalition if it was passed.
Chile bans abortion in all circumstances and those who perform or receive abortions face three to five years in prison. But authorities estimate there are still around 130,000 abortions every year, and around 32,000 women end up in hospital with complications.
Abortions to save the mother’s life were legal in Chile until the late 1980s, but were banned in the last days of the country’s dictatorship. Chile’s dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, left office in March 1990.
Source: Xinhua
Comment posted November 23rd, 2006 at 6:39 am
Mike says:
Mary Kay,
Those were excellent video’s you had posted on the Blessed Mother and the Eucharist! Thanks for posting those.
Mike
Comment posted November 23rd, 2006 at 8:00 am
mary kay says:
Mike,
You are very welcome, and Happy Thanksgiving!
MK
Comment posted November 23rd, 2006 at 8:54 am
Pansy Moss says:
Happy Thanksgiving!
Comment posted November 23rd, 2006 at 9:22 am
Dannie Mae says:
Abortion Is Murder! CD Now Available @ http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/latrail
Comment posted November 23rd, 2006 at 2:29 pm
mary kay says:
Repeat Abortions in the US on the Rise; Now Half of All Abortions
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 22, 2006
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — Repeat abortions used to account for about 40 percent of all abortions in the United States, but a new study from the Alan Guttmacher Institute shows that figure is on the rise. Now, about half of every abortion done annually is an abortion done on a woman who has had at least one previous abortion.
The study from AGI, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, examined the abortions done on women in 2002.
AGI said the typical profile of a woman having a repeat abortion is someone over the age of 30 who already has children and was using contraception at the time of the pregnancy.
Women seeking repeat abortions were also mostly lower-income women and 60 percent already had at least one child.
The research group relied on different surveys from both government and private groups to compile its research report and it indicated that one government survey of abortions from 2001-2002 showed 48 percent of women having repeat abortions.
Rachel Jones, a senior research associate on the study, told Reuters that the AGI survey “suggests that we need to do a better job helping all women better prevent unwanted pregnancies, so they can avoid having to decide whether to seek abortions or raise children they are not prepared for.”
The survey also showed that one in three women had given birth to a baby in an unplanned pregnancy and 10 percent of all women had more than one unintended birth.
Sharon Camp, the president and CEO of AGI, told Reuters, that the solution to the repeat abortion problem was more abortions.
Camp urged promoting abortion businesses so abortion practitioners could tell women about contraception use after they have an abortion — even thought most women having repeat abortions were using contraception at the time.
She also claimed the Bush administration’s “wall of separation” between family planning clinics and abortion centers led to more abortions.
Comment posted November 23rd, 2006 at 8:41 pm
CC says:
Mary Kay,
I was browsing pro-life blogs and came across this one. I just wanted to personally thank you from the bottom of my heart for conducting your visits to the clinic in a completely peaceful and loving manner. We need more people like you in the pro-life movement and the world.
CC
Comment posted November 24th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
mary kay says:
Dear CC,
If it is you that wrote that article on kindness at the clinics, you are doing a great work. I read your (if it is you) profile and it seems like you are in some pretty good company. Read back a few blogs and you will realize that almost everyone on here is a convert or a revert that first went through some pretty “St. Augustine/St. Paul” moments. We have been promiscuous, drug-users, wild, rebellious, you name it, someone on this blog did it. Including myself. For whatever reason God is using his worst offenders to change the world one heart at a time…it is truly a wonderful thing to watch, and be part of. So, welcome.
Thank you for the compliment. You are so right. Putting these women on the defensive helps no one. They are scared, lonley, unloved, worried, and feel helpless.
They are also consumed by guilt. I cannot tell you how potent guilt is at robbing us of our hope. Notice that the girl in the blog stopped doing drugs AFTER she knew the baby hadn’t been harmed by the meth. It was only after the huge burden of guilt was removed that she could see clearly and change her life. My heart breaks for these young men and women. For the pain that brought them to the clinic. The pain they will feel in the clinic. And the pain they will feel after the clinic. Nothing will give them back their lives until they find a way to unburden the guilt. We sometimes give roses to the girls even AFTER they come out of the clinic because we want them to know that it’s not over yet. There is still a way back. It really isn’t about the babies at that point. They are in Jesus and Mary’s arms laughing in the sunshine…the only pain they feel is the knowledge that they are separated from their parents. If we can give the mothers hope and bring them back home, then they can still have a relationship with their babies just like moms who miscarry do. And that is all that these babies want. It’s a tough sell tho. Satan is crafty. The dirty bugger.
You keep praying for us. I’ll add you to my “chapel” list. God Bless and thank again,
MK
Comment posted November 24th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Joe says:
Mary Kay should get a login that would aller her to post articles on this blog. What would that take? John? Annie? Eric?
Her contributions more than merit it. If a nomination is in order, I would like to be the first to nominate Mary Kay as a contributer.
Joe
Comment posted November 25th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
mary kay says:
Good heavens Joe,
I do believe I’m blushing!
Thanks,
MK
Comment posted November 25th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
mary kay says:
HAPPY HOLIDAYS? I DON’T THINK SO…
Ron Karenga created Kwanzaa in California in 1966, during his leadership of the black nationalist United Slaves Organization (also known as the “US Organization”), in order to give African Americans an alternative holiday to Christmas. He later stated, “…it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society.” [1]
Ron Karenga, founder of KwanzaaConcerning those who thought he was adapting kwanzaa from a traditional African practice, Karenga noted “People think it’s African, but it’s not. I came up with Kwanzaa because black people wouldn’t celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that’s when a lot of Bloods were partying.”[2]
In 1971 Karenga, Louis Smith, and Luz Maria Tamayo were convicted of felony assault and false imprisonment for assaulting and torturing two women from the United Slaves, Deborah Jones & Gail Davis. [4] A May 14, 1971 article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women: “Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Ms. Davis’s mouth and placed against Ms. Davis’s face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said.” They also were hit on the heads with toasters.[citation needed]
At Karenga’s trial, the question arose as to Karenga’s sanity. It is theorized that Karenga may have had a mental breakdown due to the stress of dealing with the violence and murders surrounding his United Slaves (US) organization and the Black Panther Party (BPP). His behavior became bizarre. And, at his trial, a psychiatrist’s report stated the following: “This man now represents a picture that can be considered both paranoid and schizophrenic with hallucinations and illusions, inappropriate affect, disorganization, and impaired contact with the environment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Excerpts from Hanukkah: The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration, by Dr. Ron Wolfson
Early childhood educators tell us that one of the most crucial stages in socialization occurs when a child is between 18 and 30 months old and attends another child’s birthday party. When the birthday cake is brought in, most of the little guests try to blow out the candles right along with the birthday child. As the child opens presents, little hands start to grab for the toys. Why do you think “party favors” were invented? To help children begin to distinguish between what’s mine and what’s his/hers. Toddlers must learn the difference between celebrating one’s own birthday and celebrating someone else’s.
Thus many Jewish educators will advise parents to give their children who want to celebrate Christmas a very important message: Christmas is someone else’s party, not ours. Just as we can appreciate someone else’s birthday celebration and be happy for them, we can wonder at how beautiful Christmas is, but it is not our party.
And then many parents make a perfectly understandable, but incomplete, leap. “Christmas is for Christians. They have Christmas. We are Jewish. We have Hanukkah.” In an attempt to substitute something for Christmas, the parent offers Hanukkah. In fact, Hanukkah is even better than Christmas. “Christmas is only one day. Hanukkah is for eight!” So now, incredible as it seems, the parental anxiety leads to the teaching that our party lasts longer, offers more presents, and is just as beautiful.
Of course, the problem is that it just isn’t true. Hanukkah cannot hold a candle to Christmas. As we have learned, it is a minor event in the Jewish holiday cycle and has never, until recently, been viewed as a central celebration for the Jewish people. Therefore, the customs and ceremonies surrounding Hanukkah pale by comparison to those of Christmas–which is one of the two major holidays of Christianity.
By Tricia Bishop
Sun reporter
Christmas is back at Wal-Mart - not that it really ever left.
After testing out a generic, yet all-inclusive, “happy holidays” theme last year, the nation’s largest retailer announced this month that Christmas will dominate its seasonal marketing in the U.S.
“We’ve learned our lesson,” said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Marisa Bluestone. “This year, we’re not afraid to say, ‘Merry Christmas.’”
Neither are Walgreens, Target, Macy’s, Kmart and Kohl’s, among others. In interviews this week, spokesmen from those major retailers said that their stores acknowledge the Christmas holiday, hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s backlash led by conservative Christian groups.
I think it is finally time for the world to realize that it is CHRISTMAS shoppers that are pouring billions of dollars into the Walmarts and Best Buys of this world. Not Kwanzaa celebrators (followers of man who tortures women and picked Christmas to draw in gang members.) or Jews, who resent Chanukah being turned into a “little Christmas”. No, it is the followers of Christ…you know, that dirty little word - Christian? I think a simple Merry Christmas is the least that retailers can do to acknowledge that it is us that boosts their sales every December.
I think we should all give to the heifer foundation - people really get a kick out receiving a goat for Christmas - or the Womens centers or any one of a hundred worthy causes. We need to take Christmas back. Can you imagine if the only sales these stores made were to people celebrating Chanukah and Kwanzaa?
Methinks they’d all convert just to get our business back.
Anyway, just a little lesson on our “competitors”…
MK
Comment posted November 25th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Mike says:
Sacred Heart/Lombard’s New Parishoner Steve Smith Will Be on EWTN’s “The Journey Home” Monday Night (Nov 27)!
http://www.ewtn.com/journeyhome/index.asp
Mike
Comment posted November 26th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Joe says:
“Ron Karenga created Kwanzaa in California in 1966″
I accidentally ended up at a “Kwanzaa Mass” at St. Michaels in Wheaton. Not only was it ridiculous and insulting to anyone with a clue about ceremony (Or a Mass for that mattter), but we were held hostage for three hours.
A few months later the Church burned to the ground. I wonder if the Kwannza Mass defiled it so completely it had to be rebuilt from scratch.
Joe
Joe
Comment posted November 26th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
lauren says:
As for the “merry christmas” or “happy holidays” “debacle” I think that is the greatest hypocrisy for Christians to get pissed about. Jesus would not be fighting over such a cause. It’s a time to mend fences and love one another, not bicker about what underpaid storeclerks say to you as you bask in the materialism that is now Christmas. Anytime I hear O’liely or any of them cry about it, nothing sounds less Christian to me.
Comment posted November 26th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
mary kay says:
Lauren,
And you would know…
You’re not getting any Christmas presents then? Good for you! I think it’s wonderful that you are practicing what you preach. Wouldn’t want any hypocrisy now would we? Like: “. It’s a time to mend fences and love one another, ”
For someone who can’t stand Mr. O’reilly, you sure do listen to him an awful lot…
I notice you had nothing to say about Mr. Karenga. Too tricky for ya?
MK
Comment posted November 26th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
mary kay says:
Joe,
That’s a great story. (Not for the church of course). Sometimes it just feels good to witness justice being done.
mk
Comment posted November 26th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Pansy Moss says:
I don’t anyone who celebrates Kwanzaa. I mean obviously not Catholic people, but I mean my ethnocentric, politically correct black friends. We all bought our kids little “celebrate Kwanzaa” books when they were small, and put up a Kinara, but that was the extent of it. The holiday is so long, busy and convuluted. It takes 7 days and each day is an annoying theme where you eat “traditional African treats Grandma makes “(being African-American, no one has this imaginary grandmother), or you make placemats another day, and eat corn another day.
You are supposed to dress up in kinte, but in African cultures that wear kinte, it is a very special cloth reserved for special people and occasions, not just to say “hey, I’m black”. But of course if you are in Africa, people will kind of recognise you’re African. (It’s like how a common Irish girl’s name in the US is Colleen, but you never see that name in Ireland because it means “Irish girl”.)
There is very little about this holiday that is emotional and real, just all politically correct and phoney. I now it sounds terrible to say such a thing, but it is why to this day, I can’t think of anyone who really wants to be bothered besides the storybook, the postage stamps, and buying a kinara. Christmas motivates people to bake, celebrate, get together, decorate the house…Kwanzaa just inspires people to say “maybe next year we will do it…”
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 2:35 am
mary kay says:
Pansy,
I think that part of the reason it seems so hollow is that it wasn’t God inspired. It was some lunatic that just sort of “decided” it should exist. I love the idea of people celebrating their ethnicity, but there should be a reason. Martin Luther King day is a perfect example. The man was a hero to black (and white) Americans and he is someone to get excited about. Even black history month makes sense. Looking back and looking forward. But Karenga was a marxist, rapist. Not exactly someone to emulate.
The Irish have Saint Patrick. The polish have Faustina and Kolbe.
Americans have the fourth of July. All of these celebrate someone or something that inspires us to reach higher.
Just the fact that the man purposely placed it in the calendar year to compete with Christmas tells you that it was not created with good intentions.
“I came up with Kwanzaa because black people wouldn’t celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that’s when a lot of Bloods were partying.”[2]
Since when are black people not Americans. And why would you make a holiday to appease gang members. The whole thing is outrageously manipulative. I think (and I emphasize, THINK, because not being black, I don’t “KNOW”) that I would be insulted by this. How about you?
MK
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 6:42 am
Pansy Moss says:
I think that part of the reason it seems so hollow is that it wasn’t God inspired. It was some lunatic that just sort of “decided” it should exist.
I agree. My point was that even after this nut created this holiday to supposedly fill a gap that was not being met, no one truly had a need for that gap to be filled.
Since when are black people not Americans. And why would you make a holiday to appease gang members. The whole thing is outrageously manipulative. I think (and I emphasize, THINK, because not being black, I don’t “KNOW”) that I would be insulted by this. How about you?
This is OT, but I am personally insulted by the whole notion that we still have to have racial labels in this country. They serve no purpose but to separate people. I am not saying destroy all cultural identity, but in this country that is pretty much limited to food and language. We are all first and foremost culturally American. But racial categories are stupid. We should just be American and leave it at that.
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Mike says:
Has anyone read Jill Stanek’s recent column on “Abortion and the end of the world”.
http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2006/11/new_stanek_wnd_3.html#comments
Jill Stanek lists her theories for the impact of abortion on world history in her article “Abortion and the end of the world”. Here are the theories she lists…
1. One is that China’s forced one-child per family policy is enabling it to build perhaps the largest, fiercest army ever known.
Now 27 years old, the policy has resulted in the intended or unintended consequence of a growing gender disparity. The ratio is now 117:100 Chinese boys to girls generally, as high as 130:100 in spots, due to prenatal or postnatal killing of girls. Young men with no hope of marriage or offspring are perfectly suited to work off anger and sexual frustration in the military. And what do they care if they die?
2. Christians and Muslims are the only sociologic groups having children at a rate higher than replacement. This triggers another theory: that abortion is helping clear the field of uncommitteds – or may force them to commit – for a future classic showdown between good and evil, Christianity versus Islam.
3. Another of my theories is the escalation of abortion during the second half of the 20th century signaled Satan’s acknowledgement that the end is near.
When the first redeemer, Moses, entered the world, there was a coinciding mass extermination of babies (Exodus 1). When the second Redeemer, Jesus, entered the world, there was a coinciding mass extermination of babies (Matthew 2). How much more should we anticipate Satan trying to fend off – or at least wreak the worst havoc possible – Jesus’ triumphant return?
4. My fourth theory is that God is allowing abortion out of His sense of mercy, to draw those who have been implicated and broken by it – mothers, fathers, accomplices – to Him.
What do you think?
Mike
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 9:13 am
Joe says:
Lauren wrote, “…bask in the materialism that is now Christmas.”
Years ago before this “war” began Christians that I knew complained incessantly about how Christmas is getting commercialized. Now when the biggest benefactors of Christmas decide to remove the title Christmas from their materialism, we get bent all out of shape. They can’t win, if they benefit from Christmas financially, they get burnt, if they attempt to remove the term “Christ” from their financial activities (That we supposedly don’t like) they still get burnt.
Joe
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Joe says:
Mike,
I thought her article was fun and especially identify with “Pro-lifers lament the loss of all the Beethovens, Platos and anonymous, pigtailed, freckled girls.” However, as far as the end of the world goes, I more like to lean towards more positive notes, some of those being:
Saint Louis de Montfort says the kingdom of Mary must be established firmly on earth before the kingdom of Christ will come.
The Fatima promise that Our Lady’s Immaculate heart will triumph and there will be a long period of peace and unprecedented growth for the Church.
Joe
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 11:37 am
lauren says:
every year when I give out presents I donate 10 dollars to a charity of the recipients choice.. I’m doing it again this year. It’s not a lot but I can’t afford much.
I’m getting presents–blankets actually… I dont give a damn what the people at walmart say to me, mostly because I’d never patronize a walmart. If you care about social justice, you wouldn’t shop there. You can’t avoid all moral problems when participating in the market, but a huge one is to avoid walmart like the plague.
I dont know if I ever shared thsi with you guys, but in terms of Christmas and Thanksgiving and all these holidays, when i start my family I won’t be taking them to sit idly in church. Every sunday I plan on taking my family for at least an hour to do something to give back to the earth or our fellow people. I can’t stand people who sit in church and preach and preach and preach and do nothing. My approach to connecting my children to a higher spiritual power plans to have more of an existential approach. I’d like to teach my children to do good deeds not only because it helps others or the environment, but because it feels damn good to do it. If I had a nickel for every minute I drooled through Catholic mass as a child, I’d be rich.
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 11:37 am
lauren says:
btw, I wasn’t insinuating that you all don’t do anything besides go to church.. I’m just saying the vast majority don;t… Do you agree?
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 11:43 am
Mike says:
If I had a nickel for every minute I drooled through Catholic mass as a child, I’d be rich.
Lauren,
Read posts 1 & 2 from this thread. It’s an exerpt from Matthew Kelly’s book “Rediscovering Catholicism”.
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?p=741952#post741952
Mike
Comment posted November 27th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Mike says:
I accidentally ended up at a “Kwanzaa Mass” at St. Michaels in Wheaton. Not only was it ridiculous and insulting to anyone with a clue about ceremony (Or a Mass for that mattter), but we were held hostage for three hours. A few months later the Church burned to the ground. I wonder if the Kwannza Mass defiled it so completely it had to be rebuilt from scratch.
Joe,
Can you elaborate on this? Was there anything written on the internet about a Kwannza Mass being said at St. Michaels Church/Wheaton a few months before it burned down to the ground? This is very interesting.
Mike
Comment posted November 28th, 2006 at 8:30 am
mary kay says:
“On March 18, 2002, St. Michael Catholic Church in Downtown Wheaton was destroyed by arson by Wheaton resident and Parishoner Adam Palinski.[7] He was later convicted and sentenced to 39 years in prison.[8] Palinski still maintains his innocence and is currently appealing the sentence. The church has since been rebuilt, which reopened on March 18, 2006 at a cost of $13 million.”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Comment posted November 28th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Rosie says:
39 years in jail? That’s a bit harsh… My mother in-law went in there and she says the new church looks beautiful. I probably still wouldn’t attend mass there though. Now I hear some parishoners are having issues with a priest at St. Peter and Paul church in Naperville.
Comment posted November 28th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Mike says:
What about these Kwaanza Masses? I never heard of this before. It seems it would be somewhat diobolical to me.
Mike
Comment posted November 28th, 2006 at 11:45 am
Joe says:
“Was there anything written on the internet about a Kwannza Mass being said at St. Michaels Church/Wheaton a few months before it burned down to the ground?”
No it is not on the Internet that I know of. And yes it appeared diabolical, except Bishop Perry (Diocese of Joliet Auxiliary Bishop of Joliet) saved the Consecration.
Here are the details as best as I can remember them:
- The place was PACKED!!!! There were so many people it was like Christmas.
- The “mass” started out with a fat white guy in a shiners cap and robe leading a procession of similarly dressed men women and children around the Church.
- At the end of each reading and every other chance they got this same fat white guy in a shriners cap guy would parade around the church leading the same procession.
- There were LOUD!!!!! drums being beaten the WHOLE time (except during the consecration).
- It was so brutal and the only thing worse than the fake African ceremony was that it all lasted 3 hours. I was being held hostage.
- When communion was over, I creeped close to the door to get out as soon as the priest said “The mass has ended, go in peace.” But I was fooled, because in a Kwanza mass the mass is not over shortly after communion, you have to stay and listen to super loud drums for twenty more minutes.
To me it all seemed diabolical except the consecration and communion. They were like any other Novus Ordo mass.
A while later (I am not sure exactly the timing) maybe a few months, but definitely less than a few years, the church got burned down by an arsonist.
The only reason I thought there may be a connection was because I was at a Mass at Ascension parish in Oak Park and one of the lights blew up with sparks and everything. This happened only ofter the priest was arrogantly inferring the Lords name in vain during the homily. It had struck me that God may really not like it when people who should know better play around during Mass.
Comment posted November 28th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Lauren says:
Seems like a good way to deal with things when you don’t like a particular mass…. Burn the thing down! Good call!! lol
Comment posted December 1st, 2006 at 11:37 am
Rosie says:
Who knows why he did it, or if he did it, he is still maintaining his innocence.
Comment posted December 1st, 2006 at 11:49 am