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Friday 20 February 2015

Evil, pure evil..

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/nigerian-bishop-us-wont-help-us-fight-boko-haram-because-of-their-populatio

Where did they get the money for the trip?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11424884/Three-missing-British-schoolgirls-travel-to-Syria.html

My son has to ask for travel money to get from Guildford to London!

SPUC News

FRIDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 2015

Surgery no cure for “gender confusion”

 
I am grateful, once again, to the excellent Family Education Trust's January bulletin, which reports on a Wall Street Journal article about another deeply negative dimension of sex  education and its potential disastrous impact on our children's lives.

A top psychiatrist, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has written of the dangers arising from an “everything is normal” sex education. He writes of school “diversity counsellors” who promote transgender surgery as a means of banishing psycho-social problems, and who (“rather like cult leaders”) encourage youngsters to distance themselves from families advising against such drastic actions. Paul McHugh’s article was entitled TransgenderSurgery Isn’t the Solution.

If you are concerned about what is happening in schools in the name of sex education, please contact SPUC at politics@spuc.org.uk to find out how you can challenge parliamentary candidates in the forthcoming general election on this issue and on other vital pro-life issues.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk 

Great News

http://voiceofthefamily.info/wordpress/?p=740

Bishop Mark Davies--the laity must speak up for true marriage.

And, as I reported a few days ago on this blog, Cardinal Burke to visit England.

Filial Appeal is on this blog last week or so.


February Sky News

Five planets are visible now. 

Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are visible now in the night sky. Mars and Venus will have a conjunction on February 21, 2015. Check out the websites on the sky for details. 


http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury


and Orion is still visible..http://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/winter-circle-highlights-brightest-winter-stars

Well, so much for standing up for the Judeo-Christian foundation of our country

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obama-islam-has-been-woven-fabric-our-country-its-founding

This man is an embarrassment abroad and so is Biden. They have no concept of Europe or the Faith which created Europe.  O's words are an insult not only to the dead in France and elsewhere, but to the daily harassed Jewish community.

http://www.france24.com/en/20150219-obama-war-islam-ugly-lie-extremism-summit-white-house/

http://www.france24.com/en/20150219-video-chadian-army-clashes-with-boko-haram-nigeria/

http://www.france24.com/en/20150218-cemeteries-vandalised-french-towns-tracy-beat/

and a good development, imo

http://www.france24.com/en/20150215-poland-kicks-off-unprecedented-military-spending-spree/

"Asked to Serve"?

Obama. "We need a civilian army the same size as our standing army".  Do you remember this quotation? I do....Read carefully, very carefully. Those with large outstanding college debts will be the first to be "asked to serve."

Get ready...Obama, July 2, 2008 in Colorado Springs, CO: ... president I will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals, like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their effort connected to a common purpose.
People of all ages, stations and skills will be asked to serve. Because when it comes to the challenges we face, the American people are not the problem – they are the answer. So we are going to send more college graduates to teach and mentor our young people. We’ll call on Americans to join an energy corps, to conduct renewable energy and environmental clean-up projects in their neighborhoods all across the country.
We will enlist our veterans to find jobs and support for other vets, and to be there for our military families. And we’re going to grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set.
We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. We need to use technology to connect people to service. We’ll expand USA Freedom Corps to create online networks where American can browse opportunities to volunteer. You’ll be able to search by category, time commitment and skill sets. You’ll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities.
This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda and make their own change from the bottom up.

Connected to one part of my vision in 2008

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-crisis-house-of-lords-criticises-eu-and-britain-for-sleepwalking-into-crisis-as-moscow-and-nato-remain-on-diplomatic-collision-course-10058141.html

Modesty and Manners

When one uses the word "modesty", one immediately thinks of dress. But, modesty is more than dress and dress is only one manifestation of modesty or the lack of it.

In the Roman world, and to Augustine, modestia would be discretion. The root for the word modesty is modus, or measure. Temperance would be the main virtue for the secondary virtue of modestia.

A person living a temperate life, exhibiting the discipline of temperance, (and here I refer to previous posts on the cardinal virtues), would be a humble person, living outside of excesses of food, drink or the gaining of status or money.

Likewise, in dress, modestia would be a temperance, a discipline of discretion, knowing what is appropriate for any occasion. How one speaks, carries themselves, dresses and acts in general would be guided by temperance, a virtue we are given in the sacrament of baptism, and strengthened in confirmation.

What I have noticed since returning to the States, in a few months away, is that more and more adults lack discretion, or appropriateness, and are not teaching their children appropriate, measured behavior. Children moving up and down the aisles at church is not measured behavior, nor it loud talking and running around in shops.

This lack of manners is entirely the parents', or in some cases, the grandparents' problem, Less than two weeks ago, a friend of mine in New Jersey took me out to dinner. The young people talked so loud that we could hardly hear each other. And mothers were loudly correcting children in public, to no avail.

The dinner setting became more unpleasant when very loud teens entered the restaurant. And the public use of the cell phone, with again, loud private conversations could have been embarrassing for some people to overhear.

Modesty comes from humility and the recognition that one is not the only person in the universe. Modesty flows from consideration for others. Manners were developed in the Western world from the Golden Rule of Christ, to love others as one's self. That rule is no longer followed.

The lack of discretion also affects those who have no boundaries in their lives and tell people they hardly know all types of details of their lives. This lack of boundaries, is, again, directly related to bad parenting. Emotional and psychological boundaries are learned in the home, early on.
Boundaries protect us from being manipulated, used, and help us create our own personalities. Families which do not allow the creation of the unique individual frequently are dysfunctional, perhaps involved in emotional incest or other abuses.

Montessori teaches the respect for the very young child. In families where this respect is missing, boundaries cannot be built or maintained. Montessori had the great insight that the main role of the young child was the creation of the adult he was going to be. Sadly, serious sins of the parents stop the normal maturation of children, making them stuck in an earlier age as an adult.

Manners are connected to this maturation and when I see a lack of manners in a family, the lack of discretion, I know there most likely are boundary problems as well. Sometimes men do not grow up because of incestual mothers, who, after an unhappy marriage, transfer their "love" and needs to the sons. The same can be found in incestual fathers, who no longer love their older wife and want merely to "love" a younger version. This type of emotional incest is just as bad as physical incest.

Some Peter Pans were raised in such a way as to not find out who they are, and they are stuck in never-neverland. To find out who one is requires respect, detachment of the parent, time and space alone, and profound humility on the part of the parent.

Modesty and manners are learned at home, and the Catholic home must maintain such a measure of respect among the family members. Modesty and manners may be connected to the growth of the individual, and the lack of such indicates that inside could be an emotional pygmy, someone stymied by unreal expectations and false love.

A few months ago, a woman came to me unable to separate from her adulterous husband. She lacked a sense of her own integrity. Outside of that relationship, she did not know who she was. Her entire identity was based on another person's approval or disapproval. She is stuck. She is a Peter Pam.

Manners and modesty are missing in her family, as one can tell by the way the women dress in that family. Sadly, only real honesty and repentance, as well as healing, can free her and others like her from the lack of adult perception of who she really is.

In the talk about pornography lately, it is clear that the search for porn may be connected to the lack of emotional boundaries. A man or women chose fantasy instead of reality in their lives as they lack a concept of who they are.

God has an answer to all problems, and such a small thing as manners, the showing of respect and boundaries in a family, can lead to whole and holy children. Those who chose not to follow the way of God ignore the minor virtues, which are connected to the major ones.

One more point. Some adult parents want to be "rescued" from unhappiness by their children. They want to live successful lives through their children, as they feel like failures in some way. Only a person can rescue themselves from these dark and dismal feelings of inadequacy. One cannot get into a rescue mode of always being available for trivial matters. Manipulation is a sign of the lack of boundaries.

Modesty and manners are not merely dress or the tone of voice, but a sign of the individualization of the child, the one who knows who he is and loves himself, as we all are called to do.

One cannot love one's neighbor unless one loves one's self accepting one as one is in truth and humility.



Do you all have bug out bags?

Get one for each person in your family, and enough food for a disaster.

Some people have been snowed in and needed help getting food.

Thoughts on St. Joseph

http://www.opusdei.org/en-us/dailytext/saint-joseph-a-teacher-of-the-interior-life/

God decided how St. Joseph's life was to be lived. He obeyed God in all things. Perhaps, when he became engaged to the beautiful Mary, Joseph thought he would have a "normal" life of a workman, with a loving wife bearing him many children, as was the custom of the Jewish family. Perhaps, he had dreamt of grandchildren, and even the establishment of the House of David, as something more than a distance, happy memory. Little did he dream that the Messiah would be placed under his special care and that the Mother of God would be his charge. I am sure Joseph, a truly righteous man, had given his life to God years before he met Mary. God chose him from all time to be the protector of the Holy Family. Let us to to him with all of our temporal and spiritual needs. He was in union with God, illuminated by grace, and a great lover of the Trinity, learning from Mary, to whom was given the first understanding personally in her own body and soul the great mystery of Three Persons in One God.