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  1. Today
  2. Luigi

    Feed Your Ears

    Well, thanks, you guys! Everyone is welcome to post their own contributions, whenever the spirit moves you! Today's selection is by Brother Joe May (died of a heart attack at age 60 in 1972). He was a protege of Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith; I've posted a couple of her songs previously. His first and biggest hit was Dr. Thomas A. Dorsey's "Search Me, Lord" which articulates very congenially with Lent.
  3. Yesterday
  4. There was a thread for each year - what were they called? - Entrances, Vows & Ordinations? Something like that? We're still early in 2024 - you could start such a thread yourself. That way, you can call it whatever you like!
  5. I think it may be a matter of this phorum not being as active as it used to be. I know communities in the US, like the Sisters of Life, keep growing every year. I did notice that the Dominican Sisters of the Eucharist don't seem to be getting the 20-25 new postulants a year they had there for a while, but hey 4-5 new postulants every year is still great "in this economy!"
  6. Hna.Caridad

    Feed Your Ears

    Indeed! This thread is the reason Phatmass needs to continue for all eternity. Sorry dUSt--no "retirement" for you! Long live good music and good music recommendations!
  7. Didacus

    Rosary - Let's Pray It.

    G4.3 Je vous salut Marie, pleine de grâce, le Seigneur est avec vous, vous êtes bénie entres toutes les femmes et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pécheurs, maintenant et a l'heure de notre mort. Amen
  8. dUSt

    Feed Your Ears

    I love this thread!
  9. Luigi

    Feed Your Ears

    Another from Bob Dylan. Not from his 'religious period,' but prior to that. It seems to fit with today's Gospel (not the verses but the chorus) about Jesus getting ready for the Passion. I've heard a lot of covers of this song, but I consider the original to still be the best - the backup singers sound like a choir. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
  10. Last week
  11. Is abortion necessary to achieve female equality? The Supreme Court embraced this notion in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld Roe v. Wade based in part on the claim that Americans had developed a “reliance interest” in the continued legality of abortion: For two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail. The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.1 But this text betrays one of the fundamental problems with leaning on abortion as necessary for female equality. Abortion enables society to avoid structuring “the economic and social life of the Nation” in a way that takes seriously the reality of female biology. There is a fundamental asymmetry in how men and women experience reproduction. In the simplest terms: women get pregnant and men do not. Readily available abortion offers only the illusion of equality, extending to women the chance to “participate equally” in society and the economy without requiring society to take female embodiment seriously. Abortion offers women the chance to participate on par with men, but only on men’s terms and by becoming more like them. Abortion allows the employers to take the male body as the norm and view female fertility as a problem to be solved, rather than an important reality around which to structure social relations. This mindset encourages mothers to view their children as antagonists and allows men to view women as always sexually available without any requirement of marital commitment or promise of stability. In recent decades, women have indeed made important strides toward greater equality. More women engage in professional work and elite women have greater employment flexibility; meanwhile, greater numbers of fathers engage in caring for their children. But none of these developments are due to the widespread availability of abortion. There is little reason to believe that abortion has been a major reason that women have been able to achieve greater educational and career success. An analysis of labor, education, and poverty statistics reveals that even as abortion rates have steadily decreased since peaking shortly after Roe, women’s college-graduation rates and workforce participation have continued to increase.2 Between 1980 and 2017, the U.S. abortion rate decreased by more than 50 percent, but over that same period, women have made major advancements, even relative to men, according to several economic, professional, and academic metrics.3 For example, even as the abortion rate has dropped, women’s per capita earnings have increased, and the income gap between men and women has narrowed.4 Today, women earn a higher percentage of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees than men.5 In fact, women have maintained a bigger share of these degrees for more than a decade and outnumber men in graduate programs 141 to 100.6 In short, women have achieved significant gains in social equality and opportunity, even as abortion has declined. Future progress in equality for women should take seriously the realities of female embodiment and the asymmetrical burdens that pregnant women bear. Using abortion to make women more like men does not advance the cause of women’s equality. https://eppc.org/publication/abortion-and-womens-equality/
  12. Luigi

    Feed Your Ears

    Paul Simon claims that he's not religious, but he's written a lot of songs that mention God, heaven, the sacred, etc. This is "Love Is Eternal Sacred Light." He summarizes The Big Bang to the present in four minutes. He sings in his 'God Voice' in the bridge. Interesting instruments and percussion. I like an awful lot of Paul Simon's music. I post the lyrics, too - most people can hear and understand most of them most of the time, but one wants to be complete sometimes. [Chorus] Love is eternal sacred light Free from the shackles of time Evil is darkness, sight without sight A demon that feeds on the mind 1. How did it all begin? Started with a bang Couple of light years later, stars and planets sang Fire warmed the cold, waves of colors flew Moonlight into gold, earth to green and blue [Chorus] 2. Earth becomes a farm, farmer takes a wife Wife becomes a river and the giver of life Man becomes machine, oil runs down his face Machine becomes a man with a bomb in the marketplace Bomb in the marketplace, bomb in the marketplace [Chorus] [Bridge] Big Bang, that's a joke that I made up once when I had eons to kill You know, most folks, they don't get when I'm joking Well, maybe someday they will Love me, love me, that's the main request I receive Well you know I love all my children And it tears me up when I leave [Outro] But sometimes you gotta fly down that highway Free as a bird, knock on wood, thank the Lord I am driving along in my automobile It's a brand new pre-owned '96 Ford Check out the radio, pop music station That don't sound like my music to me Talk show host, what's that boy's name? Politics is ugly At the end of the dial there's the gospel show Maybe now I can exit and rest There's a blizzard rolling down off the banks of Lake Michigan Gonna cover the roads of the icy Midwest
  13. little2add

    Fun Facts

    St. Patrick was not born in Ireland, but rather he was born in Roman Britain in 387 AD. St. Patrick was captured by Irish pirates around the age of 16 and enslaved by Irish pagans to Ireland. He lived there for six years as an animal herder before escaping and returning to his family.
  14. Didacus

    Rosary - Let's Pray It.

    G4.2 Je vous salut Marie, pleine de grace, le Seigneur est avec vous, vous êtes benie entres toutes les femmes et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pécheurs, maintenant et a l'heure de notre mort. Amen
  15. Luigi

    Feed Your Ears

    "Farther Along" was first published in 1911. Who composed it has never been nailed down definitively. Here, The Trio - Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt - sing it very much in the style of Harris' former lover Gram Parsons of Flying Burrito Brothers fame. The Trio's harmonies are terrific! Minimal instrumentation in the first half, but then that good ol' Gospel Piano kicks in.
  16. Our readings today are filled with anticipation. The days are coming, Jeremiah prophesies in today’s First Reading. The hour has come, Jesus says in the Gospel. The new covenant that God promised to Jeremiah is made in the “hour” of Jesus—in His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension to the Father’s right hand. Firstly we gain a glimpse of Jesus reacting with two of his disciples. Philip and Andrew came to tell him that some Greeks had arrived asking to see him. Jesus took the opportunity to teach – to lay out what his followers needed to understand. His reply to Phillip and Andrew indicated his readiness for what would be his final days. He said that it was time for him to reveal what all humankind would see about him and his role in the divine drama. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” This must have excited his disciples and the Greeks. Having recently experienced Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, perhaps they thought he would work even greater wonders and bring an end to their difficulties in life. Or, maybe, they thought he meant it was time for him to prevail over all the world’s kingdoms. Any such euphoria, however, would have been short-lived. It was a different kind of conquest that Jesus had in mind – the conquest of the cross. Jesus immediately began to lay out the hard truth of what lay ahead. In a similar way, as we worship one week away from Palm Sunday, our gospel reading lets us see what lies ahead for us in making the Holy Week journey. Jesus used a parable, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” A seed, by itself, is only a small piece of matter. But if it is buried and dies beyond its present condition, it can release all that is contained within – the very nature and substance of a whole stalk of ripened wheat. His own death and resurrection would be the vehicle through which not only his disciples but all humankind, could truly see what Jesus was all about. It was by dying that the power of God contained in Jesus would be fully released. By “glorified,” Jesus meant crucified. Jesus was saying that only by his death could true life come. Just as a grain of wheat, remaining unfruitful in the protective security of a barn, can only release its power by being buried and dying to what it has been. Making sure there would be no mistake Jesus added this to the parable: “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” So, what was true for Jesus, he said, was also true for his followers. Those who would truly see him would know that only by their deaths to the values of the world could they gain true life. He said, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.” Often in the course of human experiences – those of past centuries as well as current times – this truth has proved itself out . This is summed up in a well-known phrase by Tertullian, a Christian writer in the first century: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Often, people become of real use to God by burying their own goals and desires. Think about the saints. They are the ones who put aside personal safety and security for the sake of others. They abandon gain and the advancement of personal need to meet the needs of others. They give themselves away to God and to others. In today’s gospel, Jesus lets us see an initial view of him as the prototype – the perfect example – of the kind of risk-filled living that love of God requires. Only by spending our lives, he says, can we keep our true lives. Jesus calls us to see him – to see his vision – a new view of life, a life of meaning and of glory. In the encounter in today’s gospel, Jesus taught that only dying to self can bring forth the kind of redeemed life God has in store for us; only by spending life can we retain it. Only in this context can we do what the Greeks hoped to do – see Jesus for what he is for the world. Only in this way can we see him for what he really is – the living image of God. As we move toward Holy Week, we come as the Greeks before the Lord – asking to see Jesus – to discover what he is all about. As we witness the ultimate example that he provides, we can follow him into a life of true meaning and become transformed by what we see.
  17. graciandelamadrededios

    Return to the Sources…Again

    As an appropriate follow-up to the preceding article, Mother Therese would like to share a happy experience her Community in Rochester had during the Visitation with their Bishop last October Perfectae Caritatis n.2 The up-to-date renewal of the religious life comprises both a constant return to the sources of the whole of the Christian life and to the primitive inspiration of the institutes, and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time. This renewal, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and with the guidance of the Church, must be promoted in accordance with the following principles: a) Since the final norm of the religious life is the following of Christ as it is put before us in the Gospel, this must be taken by all institutes as the supreme rule. b) It is for the good of the Church that institutes have their own proper characters and functions. Therefore, the spirit and aims of each foundershould be faithfully accepted and retained, asindeed should each institutes’ sound traditions, for all of these constitute the patrimony of an institute. The Canonical Visitation that we have once every triennium with our Bishop is always a time of special grace—at least this has been our experience. For us to open up to our higher Superior a wide window into our life, to share with him what is in our hearts, our hopes and desires, our difficulties and questions, the manner in which we strive to live our Teresian Carmelite life day in and day out, always gives us a Community boost and much encouragement. It also provides for our Bishop a deeper insight into our vocation to Carmel, so that he can more adequately fulfill his vigilance over us as the Church requires. For our current Diocesan Shepherd, Bishop Salvatore Matano, one of the highlights of the Visitation process is his entrance into the enclosure for its inspection. He is delighted to see all the details of the Monastery and the places where we live out our daily life—not just the cloister doors and the Turns! Bishop Matano is a great lover of all things monastic and domestic: from the kitchen to the vestries, from the attic to the boiler room, from the Turn to the sacristy, from the Choir to the Refectory, from the dormitory halls to the cells! If we let him, he would even climb up into our bell tower! He loves and appreciates everything in the Monastery; he is so attentive in noting our explanations concerning the significance of the various places and aspects of our life and their relation to the Rule of Carmel and our Holy Mother St. Teresa. For the Visitation this past October, we asked him to do something special when he came into the enclosure. But before sharing this… Some of the workrooms in our Monastery are rather large, and over the years the Sisters who use these workrooms have asked permission to divide the room into a work-space and a prayer-space (a little hermitage). Carmelite nuns are quite adept at finding whatever is handy to put up a room divider, and in no time a tiny Teresian hermitage appears. That’s not surprising really, seeing that we’re descendants of “our holy fathers of the past, those hermits whose lives we aim to imitate” as our Holy Mother says. (cf. Way of Perf. 11 n. 4) As we well know, our Holy Mother herself provided hermitages for her daughters, and she and her daughters used them for prayer. It is recorded that she had as many as ten hermitages in St. Joseph’s— some in the garden and others within the house. This was one of the ways in which our Holy Mother “returned to the sources”, that is, to the life and Primitive Rule of the early Hermit-Fathers on Mount Carmel. From its origins our Order was never purely eremitical; there was always a good balance of communitarian and eremitical elements as is shown in the Primitive Rule that was adapted to life in Europe by Pope Innocent IV. Our Holy Mother embraced that balance when forming the life of the Discalced. Since “unceasing prayer is the most important aspect of the Rule” (Way of Perf. 4 n. 2), she was particularly inspired by the central precept of the Rule: “Each of you is to stay in his own cell or nearby, pondering the law of the Lord, day and night and keeping watch at his prayers unless attending to some other duty.” (Rule n. 8) So, for the renewed way of life she established in Carmel, she placed much importance on solitude, for “to get used to solitude is a great help for prayer” (Way of Perf. 4 n. 9), and thus she legislated the use of the cell and hermitage in her Primitive Constitutions. She writes: All of that time not taken up with community life and duties should be spent by each Sister in the cell or hermitage designated by the Prioress; in sum, in a place where she can be recollected and, in those days that are not feast days, occupied in doing some work. By withdrawing into solitude in this way, we fulfill what the Rule commands: that each one should be alone. (n.8) …there should be a field where hermitages can be constructed so that the Sisters may be able to withdraw for prayer as our holy Fathers did. (n.32) These same norms were incorporated into the later Alcala Constitutions. It is noteworthy that in these points our Holy Mother refers to the “sources”: what the Rule commands and as our holy Fathers did. Numerous other passages from her writings could also be cited, but these are sufficient to show her desire to draw from the early sources of Carmel and her insistence on solitude as “the state proper to our Order.” (cf. Letters 75, n.2) Would it be stating the obvious, or perhaps the not so obvious, to say that the purpose of the cell and hermitage is for prayer in solitude, and prayer in solitude facilitates finding God in the interior dwelling of our soul? It’s the repeated claim of our Holy Mother that if we desire to find God, “Within oneself, very clearly, is the best place to look.” (Life 40 n.6) But that’s the “stuff” of a whole other article! For now…back to our Visitator, Bishop Matano! When our Bishop entered the enclosure, we asked him if he would bless four little hermitages. We explained to him a bit about the eremitical dimension of our life and our Holy Mother’s desire to return to the Primitive Rule and our early Fathers on Mount Carmel, adapting this manner of life to a Monastery of nuns, and about the use of the hermitage in St. Teresa’s schema of things. The Bishop was delighted! In the days preceding the Visitation we looked all over for a suitable “Blessing of a Hermitage”, but could find nothing, neither in the old 1964 Rituum nor in the current “Book of Blessings”. What a “fiddle-and-abother”! In the end, we just made one up ourselves, drawing inspiration for the blessing from the sources: the example of Christ in the Gospel, the Hermit-Fathers on Mount Carmel, and our Holy Mother St. Teresa. Below we share the blessing that our Bishop used. He was obviously moved to devotion as he prayerfully went from place to place, blessing each hermitage, as were the Sisters who accompanied him. This beautiful experience during our Canonical Visitation gave to us a deeper appreciation of the origins of Carmel and of the spirit and aims of our Mother Foundress St. Teresa! For us, the use of these little hermitages represents a true return to the sources. A Blessing of a Hermitage Father, Most Holy, Your Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, has given us an example of solitary prayer by often withdrawing into the desert, and has taught us to go to our inner room, close the door and pray to You in secret. Drawn by the word and example of Your Son, You have raised up in the Church the Hermit-Fathers on Mount Carmel who sought You in the solitude of the desert, and You inspired St. Teresa of Jesus to renew the life of prayer and solitude in Carmel. Pour forth Most-Merciful Father, we humbly pray, Your abundant blessing + upon this hermitage in honor of N. that those who enter this sacred dwelling may be granted courage in spiritual warfare, offer You a heart purified of sin by virtue, and come to taste the sweetness of Your Divine Presence within them. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
  18. Didacus

    Rosary - Let's Pray It.

    The Fourth Glorious Mystery The Assumption of our Mother Le Quantrième Mystère Glorieux L'Assomption de notre Mère Notre Père, qui est au cieux, Que Ton nom soit sanctifier, Que Ton règne vienne, Que Ta volonté soit faite, sur la terre comme au ciel. Donnes-nous aujourd'hui, notre pain de ce jours. Pardonnes-nous nos offenses, comme nous pardonnons aussi a ceux qui nous ont offensé. Ne nous soumet pas a la tentation, mais délivres-nous du mal. Amen G4.1 Je vous salut Marie, pleine de grâce, le Seigneur est avec vous, vous êtes bénie entres toutes les femmes et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pécheurs, maintenant et a l'heure de notre mort. Amen
  19. Luigi

    Feed Your Ears

    Marty Stuart has been around Nashville for a long, long time - as a singer, songwriter, studio musician, producer, and husband of Connie Smith. Here, he and his group sing "The Unseen Hand," a song that comes out of the Primitive Baptist Church. A. J. Sims wrote it in 1927. Sims was a preacher and hymn writer, but his full-time job was in a cotton mill. Stuart's arrangement is somewhat unusual - only one guitar, very spare, and three voices in harmony. I especially like the green guitar, the glittering magenta ties, and the band's name "The Fabulous Superlatives."
  20. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity offer you this special mostly silent retreat on March 15-17, 2024 at our Motherhouse, 2409 S. Alverno Road, Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Led by Sister Jacqueline Spaniola, the Discernment of Spirits Retreat offers insight to discern how the Holy Spirit speaks to you and informs and inspires intentional life decisions. Sister Jacqueline is currently the Pastoral Associate Minister at St Albert the Great University Parish at Michigan Technological University in Houghton MI. As Sr Jackie explained “The Retreats are based on Discernment of Spirits – St. Ignatius’ twenty-two rules for discerning a calling and understanding God’s will in one’s life. Young women said ‘if it’s a quiet retreat I will go’ and I think young people in their twenties and early thirties are seeing that they need that quiet that the society is not giving them. They just want some quiet time to really reflect on what God is asking them to do.” https://fscc-calledtobe.org/vocation-discernment-events/
  21. Didacus

    Rosary - Let's Pray It.

    Gloire au Père et au Fils et au Saint Esprit, comme il était au commencement, maintenant et toujours pour les siècles des siècles. Amen Oh mon Jésus, pardonnes-nous nos offenses, préserves-nous des feux de l'enfer, conduisez au ciel toutes les âmes, spécialement celles qui ont le plus besoin de Ta misécorde. Amen Notre Père, qui est au cieux, Que Ton nom soit sanctifier, Que Ton règne vienne, Que Ta volonté soit faite, sur la terre comme au ciel. Donnes-nous aujourd'hui, notre pain de ce jours, Pardonnes-nous nos offenses, comme nous pardonnons aussi a ceux qui nous ont offensé. Ne nous soumet pas a la tentation, mais délivres-nous du mal. Amen
  22. Luigi

    Feed Your Ears

    Mahalia Jackson was one of the great Gospel singers of the 20th century. She had a big voice, she meant every word she sang (as opposed to some people who approach Gospel music as a business), and she worked very closely with Dr. Thomas A. Dorsey, who is known as the Father of Gospel Music. I hadn't planned on posting this song today, but I stumbled upon it while I was scouting up another song. I know the song, and I like it, so I gave it a listen. And some of the themes in it overlap with today's reading from Isaiah, so I decided to post it. The link didn't embed, so you have to click on the hyperlink. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_xXdU4L2Qw
  23. Luigi

    Feed Your Ears

    I really like Sister Shirely Caesar. She puts her whole self into every song she sings. So here's "I Found Jesus and I'm Glad." It's from 1967, but since it's in Gospel style, it doesn't sound dated. It relates somewhat to today's first reading of the river that is first ankle deep, then knee deep, then waist deep. But it's also about her conversion experience and baptism. And I love the high notes by the chorus singer at the end!
  24. little2add

    Abortion Survivors Network

    Science is clear: Each new human life begins at fertilization https://www.liveaction.org/news/life-begins-at-conception-science-teaches/?fbclid=IwAR1dG3_IojoR-bmXHs8q_t35UU53ON6OE0DHbEd--_muJLhLapT3OArRByk It is impossible for a fetus to not be a person. The intrinsic humanity of unborn children qualifies them as persons.
  25. Earlier
  26. Luigi

    Feed Your Ears

    Here's another pop song that unashamedly features prayer - "This Is Dedicated to the One I Love." Written by Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass in 1957 and recorded by The 5 Royales (Pauling was their bassist); they re-released it in 1961 - it reached #81 on the pop charts; the Shirelles also recorded it and released it in 1961 - it went to #3; then the Mamas and Papas released their cover in 1967 and it went to #2. So it's been around for a long time and been up and down the charts. I post the Mamas & Papas version because I like their harmony and the piano - it sounds like a slightly out of tune piano in a high school gym. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUr5_QVPCAI
  27. Sad, but not surprising. Sideways blessing sodomic unions has its negativities. Coptic Orthodox Church Confirms Ecumenical Dialogue Suspended Due to Rome’s ‘Change of Position’ on Homosexuality https://www.ncregister.com/blog/coptic-orthodox-suspend-theological-dialogue-change-of-position
  28. and a prayerful detour into the Chapel while we wait: https://fscc-calledtobe.org/2024/03/11/franciscan-sisters-recipe-easy-and-delicious-rhubarb-crisp/ Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Easy and Delicious Recipe Series. Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp made by Sr. Elena Gonzales in Green Bay Wisconsin.
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