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When you dip your hand in water, and trace the ancient sign, give pause and consider the history . . .

Sign of the Cross - Sign of Our Faith?

Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio

To some, being Italian-American means overindulging in pasta and joking about tough guys. But being Italian means being heir to a rich tradition stretching back before the Caesars. Included are philosophers like Seneca, poets like Dante, artists such as Michelangelo, and saints like Francis of Assisi.

To some, being Catholic means giving up chocolate for Lent. But those who explore their Catholic heritage discover thousands of years of meaning, insight, and life-giving resources: inspiring stories about people from Abraham to Mother Teresa, practical instruction by some of the most brilliant thinkers of all time, tried and true spiritual practices that make people grow in character and happiness.

In John 10:10, Jesus said “I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” That recalls Isaiah who, speaking of God’s people, says: “Lo, I will spread prosperity over her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent.” (Is 66:10-14). The Catholic Church is all about preserving and enjoying the WHOLE, rich heritage of Christ. In fact, the word “Catholic” comes from the Greek word for “whole.” The problem is that some preserve outward practices of this heritage, like giving up something for Lent, but have lost the connection with the meaning and power of the practice.

Take for example the sign of the Cross. For some it is just a mechanical part of “logging on” and “logging off” of our time “connected” to God via prayer. For others, it seems no more than a good-luck charm to make superstitiously before stepping up to bat.

To see what it really means, we need to look where it comes from. In baptism, a cross is traced on the foreheads of the baptized. The same happens in confirmation, when it is done with sacred oil called “chrism.” As the cross is traced, the name of the triune God is pronounced, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

How far back in time does this practice go? Paul says “I bear the brand marks of Jesus in my body.” (Gal 6:14-18). Notice that in the book of Revelation, those doomed to death have the mark of the beast on their foreheads while the 144,000 in white robes have been sealed with the name of God and the Lamb (Rev 7:3-4, Rev 11:1). Sounds a lot like the sign of the cross, doesn’t it?

In the early Church, the sign of the cross was seen as the brand mark on the body of a Christian that indicated that he or she was now the property of a new master and under the protection of that master. The blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the Israelites protected them from the Angel of Death who “passed over” their homes. The sign of the cross on the Christian says “hands off!” to the power of Darkness. Note that Jesus says to his disciples “I have given you power to tread on snakes and scorpions and all the forces of the enemy, and nothing shall ever injure you” (Lk 10:19). The sign of the cross is the sign of this power.

But this sign means even more than belonging to the triune God. It indicates how and why we’ve come to belong to God and to be entitled to his protection. It means that for my standing with God, I do not trust in the good deeds that I’ve done or the “good person” that I am. Rather, I stake my claim to heaven on what Jesus did for me on Calvary. It means that I am saved by a pure gift of His love, by grace. “May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Gal 6:14).

Each time I make this sign, it is a renewal of my “decision for Christ,” my intimate relationship of love with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which comes as a pure gift of God’s grace through faith, baptism and confirmation. In this simple little sign is contained the very essence of the gospel.

The good news is that everything in the Catholic heritage is like this – full of rich meaning that we’ve forgotten. But we can recover the meaning and reactivate the power. Let’s get busy exploring and unpacking the amazing Catholic tradition!

Click here to download and print Sign of the Cross - Sign of our Faith?

For more Catholic resources to feed your faith,

visit the Crossroads Initiative Homepage.

Who started your church?

Click and learn.

Let's ask a father . . .

Q: St. Ambrose, how do we know which is the True Church?

A: Where Peter is, there is the Church.


WOW. that's pretty straight forward. Hmm I wonder if....let's just ask him about "is"....

Q. But Father, what does the word "is" really mean? You see, when is is spoken by Jesus in John Chapter 6 didn't he speak symbolically? I mean "is" couldn't have meant "this is MY body" literally, could it?

A. Oy Vey!!! Jesus was very literal and emphatic about "This IS MY BODY" ...that's why so many left him, for they KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt what he was saying. It's too bad so many of you have such a hard time with Jesus' statement and command now. Oh and don't give Bill Clinton such a hard time about parsing the word "is" for sadly, much of Christendom is doing the same.

Tony Blair's already met with Pope as we know, but . . .

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Tony Blair to meet with Pope Jun. 2, 2006 (CWNews.com) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet with Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) in a private audience on Saturday, June 3. Although Vatican officials indicate that the British leader's visit will be considered "strictly private," Blair will speak with Cardinal Angelo Sodano (bio - news), the Vatican Secretary of State, after his Saturday-morning session with the Pope. Tony Blair's last visit to the Vatican-- apart from his attendance at the funeral of Pope John Paul II (bio - news)-- came in February 2003, during a time when Vatican officials were working furiously to stave off the prospect of war in Iraq. Blair, the leading ally of US President George W. Bush in the confrontation with Iraq, met privately with Pope John Paul for a lengthy discussion. This April 28, Cherie Blair, who is the prime minister's wife, met with Pope Benedict. Cherie Blair, a human-rights lawyer, was in Rome for a meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences. Cherie Blair is a Catholic. While her husband is not, Tony Blair regularly attends Mass with his wife and children, and there have been persistent rumors that he plans to enter the Catholic Church after resigning from public life. Prime Minister Blair may issue an invitation for the Pope to travel to Great Britain. A papal visit had been suggested for September 2007, on the 25th anniversary of a trip there by Pope John Paul II. But in March, the bishops of England and Wales received a message from the Vatican that a papal visit in 2007 "will not be possible in 2007," because of the many dates already fixed on the Pope's calendar.

We pray for Tony . . .

Tony Blair and the RAF chaplain: a secretive journey to CatholicismJohn Hooper in Rome and Michael White
Friday June 22, 2007

Guardian

Tony Blair will tomorrow travel to the Vatican to meet the Pope in preparation for his conversion to Roman Catholicism as sources in London and Rome said the outgoing prime minister had taken the decision to seek admission to the church.

All that remained uncertain was the timing of the announcement. It was not intended that it should take place in Rome, and might be made either before or after Mr Blair left office next week.

According to informed sources, Mr Blair has been readied for this milestone in his spiritual life by a Royal Air Force chaplain, Father John Walsh, who for the past four years has been quietly slipping into Chequers, the prime minister's country residence, to say mass for the Blair family on Saturday evenings.

Mr Blair has been attending Catholic services for many years, and regularly worshipped at the 5.30pm Saturday evening service at Westminster cathedral until security considerations persuaded him to seek a private arrangement.

He turned to Father Michael Seed, a familiar and gregarious figure in Westminster who prepared the Conservative MPs, John Gummer and Ann Widdecombe, for conversion. Father Seed became a regular visitor to Number 10, but sources say Mr Blair cast around about four years ago for a less well-known, and more discreet, spiritual counsellor.

Father Walsh, who at that time was serving as chaplain at RAF Brize Norton in Wiltshire, seems to have been an ideal choice. The office of the Roman Catholic Bishopric of the Forces said he belonged to the diocese of Liverpool, but was unable even to give his age.

According to one Catholic source, Father Walsh was once a monk. He is currently serving at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, home of the air force's officer training school. He was said to have taken up his new posting last Monday.

The chaplain did not answer messages left yesterday by the Guardian at his office.

A senior Labour party source said: "[Mr Blair] does and always has gone regularly to Catholic church with Cherie and the children. But for security reasons, detectives felt he should not go regularly to the same one or two places. On a fairly regular basis, this guy [Father Walsh] has come in rather than him going to church."

Mr Blair's attendances at Catholic services over the years has not been without controversy. In 1996 he was upbraided by the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume, for taking communion at his wife's church in Islington.

The couple have also worshipped at a Roman Catholic church in Great Missenden, near Chequers.

Britain has never had a Catholic prime minister, and Mr Blair's lengthy road to conversion is almost certainly as a result of his desire to leave office before taking the final steps. Religion is a sensitive issue in British politics, particularly in connection with issues such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality and faith schools.

Cherie Blair and the couple's four children are Roman Catholic. Her husband is thought to have attended a mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II in the papal private apartments in the Vatican in 2003 following an official audience.

There have been persistent rumours that he received communion from the Polish pontiff on that occasion.

Mr Blair's visit to Rome was confirmed by Vatican sources more than a week ago. A spokesman for the Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales yesterday said that the environment and Middle East would be among the topics discussed by Mr Blair and the Pope. But their meeting has not been announced by No 10 and last night Mr Blair's spokespeople were still insisting that reports of it were "pure speculation".

The only thing that could derail the visit is if the EU summit were to run into Saturday morning. Diplomatic sources in London said this would be unlikely.

In another clear sign that the Roman Catholic church in Rome is preparing to welcome the outgoing prime minister into the fold, it is planned that he should go directly from his audience with Pope Benedict XVI to a lunch hosted by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, at the Venerable English College in Rome. He will be the first serving prime minister to set foot in the college, which centuries ago trained Roman Catholic priests for a clandestine return to protestant England and, often, an agonising martyr's death at the hands of their Anglican persecutors.

Mrs Blair will also be at the lunch, the archbishop's spokesman said. It was not known whether Mrs Blair would accompany her husband to see the pope.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

??? Libation Theology ???

There was a song popular when I was in my early teens by Scott McKenzie --
If You're Going To San Francisco (be sure to wear some flowers in your hair) yeah...back in the late Height days... Anyway, I've rewritten the lyrics to fit this new 20 something generation of Catholics for the New Evangelization and the Theology on Tap speaker series that are in almost every major city across the nation...(hence the song came to mind.) Theology on Tap, Lincoln, NE meets at the old landmark Valentinos on 35th & Holdrege.

You can find one in your city or town or start one yourself. How fun would that be? I can't help but think how cool it would have been to have this when I was in my 20's and searching outside the Catholic Church for answers, thinking the CC was "too stodgy, archaic, and traditional" when all along THAT was what my soul longed for and thirsted for, : ) but I was too "smart" and thought I knew better where to find answers and Jesus, so I left the CC in search of "perfect church USA" The eternal longing inside me created by God to find Him in His Church i all but squelched by reading various assorted anti-Catholic tracts. God certainly used it all and it's all part of my long and winding road on my journey Home. However, with this outreach by young Catholics for young Catholics, I can only say, "Cheers and God bless!" This idea really rocks and blends the best of two worlds. Drink wisely, of course, enjoying an articulate and informative speaker/guest and then conversation and discussion over a pint or some wine sounds absolutely sublime. I'm thinking of starting Libation Theology for us in middle-aged 'inkling types'
and a bit above in years. Any takers? Maybe Goldbergs, a neighborhood watering hole Rich and I like. How about Thursday nights bi-weekly in the Winter months? Let me know and we'll get it going!

If You're Going to Valentinos

If you're going to Valentinos
You're gonna find some gentle people there
For those who come to Valentinos
You will find your questions answered there
All across the nation, there's a new sensation,
religious discussion
For a new generation, talking faith with libation,
religious discussion, religious discussion
for those who come to Valentinos,
you're gonna find some gentle people there
if you come to Valentinos
honest questions we'll try to answer there

For more on Theology on Tap, click here.
and for Theology on Tap on the Road?
For great ToT audio it's HERE! PHAT MASS...Hard core Catholic

Do you see what I see? The head left a HEAD. "Shroud of Guinness?"

The British are coming! ......to Rome : )

Five thousand British convert to Catholicism each year, says British priest

London, Jun 28, 2007 / 12:14 pm (CNA).- In an interview with the Spanish daily “La Razon,” Father Gerard Sheehan, pastor of the Church of St. Thomas Moore, said that in his Diocese of Westminster-London, each year some 800 new Catholics are baptized or received into full communion with the Church.”

“If we apply those numbers to all of England, we can say without fear of being wrong that the Catholic Church in England receives an average of five thousand new adult members each year,” he said.

Father Sheehan said conversions reached their peak during the 90’s, when the progressive wing of the Anglican Church in the United States ordained women bishops, something unacceptable to the “conservative” wing of the Church of England. “That was a key moment,” he said, adding that “today, the number of converts is less than it was ten years ago, but when the (Anglican) Church of England accepts the ordination of women bishops, conversions will increase again.”

Father Sheehan said it was difficult to obtain concrete numbers as the Church “has always wanted to avoid giving signs of triumphalism, she does not want to publicly brag about these issues, because she does not want to offend anybody; in reality for sometime unity between the two churches has been sought, and any show in this sense could damage the road to this encounter.”

The case of Tony Blair, who visited Pope Benedict XVI recently at the Vatican amid rumors of his imminent conversion to Catholicism, is a one such case. The Vatican made no comment about the matter, and Blair told the Times that, “Things are not as resolved as they would seem.” However, everything indicates that Blair’s conversion is just a matter of time and that, out of sensitivity, the announcement of his conversion will not come until he has left office, La Razon said, adding that Blair is only the public figure of the return to the Catholic faith of thousands of British who have already begun their process of conversion, with reserve and without intermediaries.

John Michael Talbot . . . from lapsed Methodist...to Catholic convert

Jul 1, 2007

Contemporary Musicians | Talbot, John Michael

Composer, performer

"My music changed radically when I became Catholic. . .," John Michael Talbot, a Third Order Franciscan friar who has sold more than two million records, told L. Katherine Cook in the Christian Century. "That experience .. . put me in touch with a broader spectrum of artistic experience." When the singer, who in his teens had played guitar and banjo with the country-rock band Mason Proffit, donned St. Francis's traditional brown robe, he wanted to make one more record. Assuming the album would be his last, Talbot released The Lord's Supper in 1979. The irony is that this recording was only the beginning for the rich tenor's contemplative, inspirational music. "I had a definite call on my life," the monk Talbot related to Carol Azizian in a People profile. "They say you are born a Franciscan and later you find out where you belong."

Talbot's spiritual journey began in the sixties when Mason Proffit was an opening act for singer Janis Joplin. "I saw her drinking Southern Comfort like soda pop," he disclosed to Azizian. The drug and party scene dismayed Talbot, whose searing social consciousness eventually would lead him, after his conversion, to found a hermitage in the Arkansas Ozarks. In the twenty-year pilgrimage since he played a fundraiser concert for Jerry Rubin, one of the notorious "Chicago Seven," Talbot divulged to Evelyn Bence in Publisher's Weekly that he felt "God wanted him to use the gift of music as a tool of reconciliation." Reviewing Talbot's albums in Christianity Today, Michael G. Smith wrote, "I no longer give away books. Instead, I pass on the records of John Michael Talbot. His music conveys the vision of the kingdom of God better than some of the best prose of the theologians."

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on May 8, 1954, to musically talented parents, Talbot grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Dick Talbot, had performed the violin in the Oklahoma City Orchestra. His mother, Jimmie Margaret, played the piano and raised her three children on stories about her father, the Reverend James Cochran, an itinerant singing Methodist minister. John, along with his older brother Terry, and sister Tanni, played several instruments, including banjo, guitar, cello, and tambourine. "There was, shall we say," related Talbot in his biography Troubadour for the Lord, "a not quite active, but not really passive drive toward music—it was just part of our family life—it was simply there."

A musical prodigy, Talbot began playing in regional bands with Terry when he was ten years old. Two years later, he was a seasoned vocalist and rhythm guitarist. In 1968 Terry and John, veterans of a series of well-received regional bands, decided their latest group was ready for national exposure. Changing the band's name to Mason Proffit, they dressed like American woodsmen in buckskin and leather and let their hair grow. Their "message" music, laden with social commentary, fit the nature of the Vietnam era. Audience response to their albums, including Two Hangmen and Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream, induced Warner Bros, to sign them to a contract. The members of a very good band, Terry and John Talbot, Tim Ayres, Art Nash, and Ron Scheutter, were on their way to becoming a great band when drugs and artistic differences split the group.

When the band broke up, Talbot, who had married at age seventeen in 1971, had a wife and daughter to support. Tutored through his high school years while on concert tours with the band, he had never received a high school diploma. Life was rough when his savings ran out, but Talbot's embrace of extreme fundamental religion was more a factor in the breakup of his marriage in 1977. When the former Methodist sought spiritual guidance at Alverna, a Catholic retreat center in Indiana, he discovered peace in the 800-year-old teachings of St. Francis of Assisi.

Although Talbot had ventured into Christian music with his brother Terry prior to his conversion to Catholicism as a Third Order Franciscan lay brother, he assumed his vow of chastity and poverty would end his musical career. Over the years, his release The Last Supper has sold 300,000 albums and garnered critical praise from theological circles. "His rendition of the Apostle's Creed is one of the strongest affirmations of faith set to music—some would say it rivals even the conviction and power of the "Credo" in Beethoven's MissaSolemnis," Smith's review stated. In 1980 his brother Terry joined him with the London Chamber Orchestra to make The Painter. Troubadour of the Great King (1982), Light Eternal (1982), Empty Canvas, and Few Be the Lovers (1987), among other recordings, captured Talbot's Franciscan contemplative tone and medieval leaning. The Christian Century, noting that his music does not fit the rock-oriented, contemporary Christian music scene, stated: "In every case, though, the music constitutes worship."

Earnings, including over $2 million from his previous albums, go into the various charities and the maintenance of The Little Portion, a Franciscan hermitage Talbot founded at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 1982. Built near the site of the 1973 Ozark Mountain Folk Fair, where Mason Proffit had performed a hit act for over 10,000 people, the religious community of more than a dozen men and women consecrate their efforts toward renewal and reform through a prayerful life. Talbot performs concert tours one week out of the month and spends the rest of his time at the retreat working for "the gentle revolution," an awakening transformation of spiritual identity. Talbot told Cook that "his role as a musician" was "to bring people into an authentic relationship with Christ." "I don't do the challenging myself," he confessed in the Christian Century. "I just present Jesus to them as real, and Jesus challenges the socks off them. The music just prepares the way for that to happen."

For the Record. . .

Born May 8, 1954, in Oklahoma City, OK; son of Dick and Jimmie Margaret Talbot; married Nancy, 1971 (divorced, 1978); children: Amy Noel. Religion: Catholic.

Singer, guitarist, banjo player, and lay brother in the Order of Secular Franciscans. At ten, began playing in regional bands with older brother, Terry; by 12, had become a seasoned rhythm guitarist and vocalist; member of country-rock band Mason Proffit, 1969-1973; performed Christian music, 1976; released first album as a monk, The Lord's Supper, 1979; has performed with the London Chamber Orchestra; founded The Little Portion Hermitage, Eureka Springs, AR.

Selected discography

Reborn,Sparrow, 1972.

John Michael Talbot, Sparrow, 1976.

Firewind, Sparrow, 1976.

The New Earth, Sparrow, 1976.

The Lord's Supper, Sparrow, 1979.

Come to the Quiet, Sparrow, 1980.

The Painter, Sparrow, 1980.

Beginnings, Sparrow, 1980.

For the Bride, Sparrow, 1981.

Troubadour of the Great King, Sparrow, 1982.

Light Eternal, Sparrow, 1982.

Songs for Worship, Vol. 1, Sparrow, 1983.

No Longer Strangers, Sparrow, 1983.

The Quiet.

Be Exalted.

Empty Canvas.

Few Be the Lovers, 1987.

Heart of the Shepherd, 1987.

With Mason Proffit

Two Hangmen.

Moving toward Happiness.

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream.

Rockfish Crossing.

Bareback Rider.

Come and Gone.

Sources

Books

O'Neill, Dan, Troubadour for the Lord, Crossroad, 1983.

Periodicals

Christian Century, March 18, 1987.

Christianity Today, February 1, 1985.

People, June 8, 1987.

Publishers Weekly, September 30, 1983.

—Marjorie Burgess

©2000-2007 Enotes.com LLC
All Rights Reserved

Mr. Gary Cooper....Catholic Convert. . .

After Cooper was already a major film star he became a convert to Catholicism. His daughter recalls that their family attended Catholic mass regularly prior to the time her father converted. From: Maria Cooper Janis, Gary Cooper Off Camera: A Daughter Remembers, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.: New York, NY (1999), page 64:

We were often spoken of as "The Coopers" by our friends in Hollywood. Ours was a unique family togetherness that was obvious and operative. So many of the daily-life things we did were just like any other family's activities. But for us there was a plethora of extraordinary situations as well. Meeting with the pope, being introduced to the royal family in England, a wild late-night ride in Paris with the shah of Iran--it was as glamorous as it sounds even today, but always tempered by the down-to-earth values of my parents.

We had a number of family traditions, one of them being a Sunday swim in the ocean after Mass. My mother and I would wear our bathing suits under our clothes, then after church we'd zip up the street to our house in Brentwood, get Poppa, who had been studying or working in his gun room or catching forty more winks, pile the dogs in the car, and take off for Santa Monica.

Caption for a photo showing Gary Cooper with Pope Pius XII (source: Janis, 79; photo credit: G. Felici):

The excitement of the approaching audience with the pope touched all of us. Those were the days when the dress code for meeting the pope was black, long sleeves, and veil. This was way before Vatican II, and now it seems strange to me that for a supposedly joyous occasion one had to dress as if at a funeral. Anyway, it added to the drama, and we lined up in an ornate gilded room in the Vatican with about twenty other VIP guests. My father was years away from becoming a Catholic, but the pomp and ritual were awesome, and everyone was highly nervous. We had bought rosaries and medals to be blessed by His Holiness, and Poppa had a fair share in his hands and over his wrists. The great doors swung open and a Swiss Guard thumped ceremoniously on the floor with an intricately carved gilt staff to announce the pope's arrival. Then His Eminence flowed in through the door--slim, white-robed, pale--and started down the line of guests. Just as he was nearly in front of my father, we all genuflecteed, but with his stiff back, Poppa lost his balance a bit and in that moment dropped all his beads, medals, and cards. They went rolling and scattering all over the floor, under the pontiff's robes, the carbet, and into other people's shoes. And there was the American actor Gary Cooper groping around in monumental embarrassment, trying to scoop up the momentos with Pius XII looking down and patiently smiling.

Janis, page 160:

In the mid to late fifties, my father's conversion to Catholicism started silently. He never discussed much about it but simply started joining us for Mass more often. The ostensible reason was to hear the good sermons given by a dynamic young priest, Father Harold Ford, dubbed by my father as "Father Tough Stuff." Father Ford didn't give hellfire and brimstone, but he was a very human and with-it man. My mother invited him over for a drink one afternoon, thinking there might be some deep and profound conversations about matters of the spirit. Think again! He and my father disappeared into the gun room and as far as I can tell all they talked about was hunting, fishing, and scuba diving. Father Ford became a scuba buddy and joined us diving in the large marineland of the Pacific tank where we all cavorted with its inhabitants.

(the bold italics are mine- susie)

My father's search for his own spiritual kingdom apparently was coming together, and after many months of learning the basics with Father Ford, and "living with the questions," he did, as Rilke so beautifully put it, "live the questions now. Then perhaps someday far in the future you will gradually, without even knowing it, live your way into the answer." Into the answer he took himself. Shirley Burden, an old and dear friend, himself a convert, was godfather at Poppa's baptism.

And, in a strange irony, Thomas Merton, the inspired, spiritual Trappis monk from the Abbey of Gethsemane, whom he had never met, played an important part in my father's last weeks. Reading Merton's book No Man Is an Island, gave Poppa great solace and comfort, and I received a treasured note from Father Louis (Merton) several months later:

October 11, 1961
Dear Maria,
I was touched by your kind letter, and glad that it gives me an opportunity to greet you and your mother personally, and advise you of my friendship and good wishes. With everyone else, I loved Gary Cooper and his great movies, which I often remember with satisfaction--well, relatively often. For it is a long time since I have been to a movie. I even had a temptation and hope that if Seven Story Mountain became a film, he would play a part in it. This was a clear case of vanity on my part!! Anyway, with all my blesings and good wishes,
Father Louis Merton
PS. I am sending a book you might like.

My father was still well at the time of his becoming a Catholic. His reasons for converting are his to know. He did say to [his friend Ernest] Hemingway toward the end, "You know, that decision I made was the right one." I know he and Papa spoke about "the Catholic thing." Whatever Ernest's ambivalence was, the two guys obviously hashed out a lot in that area. How tragic that Hemingway's illness had robbed him of the comfort and sense of the supporting arms of God.

(how tragic, indeed...kind of like Peter...and Judas - susie)

Janis, page 45:

My father's [Gary Cooper's] close friends among the Native American people are now all dead. He never told us of his own sweat lodge ceremony and his "blood-brothering." Typical of him to keep such deep and personal events to himself. But his passion for the Indian was deep. His sense of anger at the injustice done to them, deeper still. And he imbued me with a great love and respect for their culture and religion.

Janis, page 121:

I think he [Gary Cooper] always harbored a secret desire to have an extremely hot car, take it to Bonneville Salt Flats near Salt Lake City, and let 'er rip.

Janis, page 167:

My father was initially buried at Holy Cross Cemetary in Santa Monica... Some years later, after my mother and I had moved east to New York and Long Island, we also moved my father's coffin to Southampton... Gary Cooper took a lot of people with him on his life's journey from the hills of Montana to a quiet plot marked with a huge boulder from a Montauk Point rock quarry. The church had some "rules" about why they would not like that stone in the cemetary, but my mother flashed her green eyes at the presiding pastor and snorted, "Do you mean to tell me that if Jesus Christ said, 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church . . .,' you will now refuse to let me have a rock for a marker for my husband's grave. . . ."

Well, a massive salmon-and-beige-colored stone, probably 316 million years old, from the Bistrian quarry, anchors the burial site in Southampton. It's a perfect symbol for what my father loved and stood for.

Meet Fr. Jim Spahn. . .

I don't know how I find these places. It's the thrill of the hunt. Link to link to link it goes, where it stops, nobody knows. Hi Father....I decided to use that line here, too. : )

So here's Father Jim's website Enjoy.

Nice photo, Father...hope you don't mind me spreading your joyous mug around the blogosphere.

Fr. Jim on Mt. Sinai at sunse

In regarding mortal/venial sins . . .

Tiber Jumper's written two excellent posts on this topic, that seems to ruffle the feathers of many in the "Evangelical/Protestant Coops) Here are my extended thoughts for the 2 cents they're worth. Thanks Teej! And to borrow from you again, here's a great link to 'sort it all out' if in doubt about sin.


Yes, how blind we were as Evangelicals, - - fat, spoiled-brat American Evangelicals. It's so odd that we saw those scriptures "coming down hard' to mean he [St Paul] was referring to "sinners" and "pagans" and yet all the "nice" scriptures were what he was speaking to the 'church' and us 'bible-believing belivers.'

What's that other scripture to all those pagan folk that got bantered about? "You attempt to remove the speck from your brother's eye, and fail to see the humongous bean, plank, 2x4 in your own!" That's certainly directed toward those "other people" and "sort of" to us at times, but not really, since we can pretty much do as we darn well please, because, well, I live by every bumper-sticker that God ever wrote! i.e. "God said it. I believe it. That settles it!" Oooh how profound! I know some VERY messed up evangelicals that had that one on their car... and they're now another "divorce statistic" because of adultery...that 'teeny tiny' little sin that one of them committed and broke up their family by doing, instead of turning and repenting when the conviction of the Holy Spirit was on her and on her like a ton of bricks! She rationalized her behavior, "God understands"....it was nauseating! I can only imagine the 'hell' that they face daily now. We are no longer hanging out as friends. Not because I'm better than her, but because I saw, by the grace of God, the grave error of my own path and thought life and it made me weep for dragging the name of the Lord through the slime of "my own vomit" I'd returned to so many times. Thank God I couldn't see to rationalize my sin. I'm only completely overwhelmed by gratitude!

Back to the bumper sticker - That's what settles it? The fact that "I believe it settles it?" Is that what makes it so? NOPE! Nada! God said it is what makes it so! Therefore, I'd better sure as hell be looking first and foremost at myself, and what I truly believe better be IN LINE with TRUTH and I surely had better not be pointing a finger at those pagans/Christians who don't believe as I believe. That's the trouble with so much of fat, lazy American Christianity in all faith persuasions. It's this mentality/spirituality: "At least we aren't as bad as so & so." Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy! Lord have mercy! That's as Pharisaical as it gets! God never was too tickled by the Pharisees. He loved them, but he had the harshest of words for them..and how we need that harsh word when we become like them! We all have that tendency, bible-believers and Catholics and pagans alike have our egos and pride to kill and lay on the altar.

But, "God is love" and he'd never make me face really hard, gut-wrenching consequences for my teeny tiny sin of that fornication thang. (I mean, we can't afford two apartments, God, because we're saving for our wedding day and a down payment on a house! Sheesh!")

"God is love and I'm okay with that" says the 'new Christian paradigm.' And the refrain echoes "He won't judge me, I'm sin-free." So we're all immaculately conceived now? God won't judge me??? But wait, doesn't God say, "Judgment begins IN THE HOUSE OF GOD!" Oh, yeah, he means "THEIR house of God, not MINE!"

There's that song, In the Garden, ( - Words and Music by Charles Austin Miles, 1913) and old-time hymn. I've changed the refrain to fit the new brand of American Christianity. It goes like this:

"Oh He walks like me and he talks like me and he thinks just like me, too.
I've made God in my own image, and.....believe me so can you!' Everybody sing....

It's not really funny. It's sad and it's chilling. My dear Father Kevin used to answer this typical question of greeting like this: "How are you today, Father?" And in his wise way he'd reply, "By the grace of God."

Let us all remember to keep these brothers and sisters in our prayers AND each other, and pray that they'll be illumined, and we'll all be illumined by the grace of God to turn and repent when we sin. I pray that many will come HOME to ROME as God surely wills. Not that Catholics are perfect, but we do have the beautiful sacrament of Confession! If they don't cross the Tiber, at least pray that their hearts will be broken over sin, and they'll live by that other famous bumper-sticker...Turn or Burn! That's not just for pagans folks, and non-believers and atheists and those "poor Catholics"... thats for ALL OF US!