My apologies

I cannot believe I have not posted a new entry in this blog since September '07. I'm sorry! It wouldn't surprise me if no one read this anymore.
Honestly, I cannot say there is much for me to write about. Life goes through cycles it seems, and it would appear I'm going through that part of the cycle where everything is stabilized and unaffected. Yes, I have had my mishaps for I cannot say my life is perfect. One learns to get by with the grace God gives us. I don't believe I would have survived these past few months if it were not for the wonderful family I have been privileged to be a part of.
Anyway, enough of this fiddle faddle about the ups and downs of my spastic, unstable juvenile life. I suppose I'll post something interesting after this entry, for this content is certainly not enticing at all.

God Bless,
~kathryn

St. Janarius

Hieromartyr Januarius the Bishop of Benevento, and his companions, at Pozzuoli

Hieromartyr Januarius Bishop of Beneventum, and the deacons Proculus, Sossius and Faustus, Desiderius the Reader, Eutychius and Acution suffered martyrdom for Christ about the year 305 during the persecution ordered by the emperor Diocletian (284-305).

They arrested St Januarius and led him to trial before Menignus, the governor of Campagna (central Italy). Because of his firm confession of Christianity, they threw the saint into a red-hot furnace. But like the Babylonian youths, he came out unharmed. Then at Menignus's command, they stretched him out on a bench and beat him with iron rods until his bones were exposed.

In the crowd were Deacon Faustus and the Reader Desiderius, who wept at the sight of their bishop's suffering. The pagans surmised that they were Christians, and threw them into prison with the hieromartyr Januarius, in the city of Puteolum. At this prison were two deacons who had been jailed for confessing Christ: Sts Sossius and Proculus, and also two laymen, Sts Eutychius and Acution.

On the following morning they led out all the martyrs into the circus to be torn to pieces by wild beasts, but the beasts would not touch them. Menignus claimed that all the miracles were due to sorcery on the part of the Christians, and immediately he became blinded and cried out for help. The gentle hieromartyr Januarius prayed for his healing, and Menignus recovered his sight. The torturer's blindness of soul, however, was not healed. He accused the Christians of sorcery, and ordered the martyrs beheaded before the walls of the city (+ 305).

Christians from surrounding cities took up the bodies of the holy martyrs for burial, and those of each city took one, in order to have an intercessor before God. The inhabitants of Neapolis (Naples) took the body of the hieromartyr Januarius. With the body, they also collected his dried blood.

Since the fifteenth century, the blood liquifies when the container is placed near another relic, believed to be the martyr's head. Many miracles proceeded from the relics of the hieromartyr Januarius. During an eruption of Vesuvius around 431, the inhabitants of the city prayed to St Januarius to help them. The lava stopped, and did not reach the city.

When are those silly pagans gonna understand that we Christians are furnace-proof?

I chopped my mane

I decided my long hair was becoming too much of a nuisance and though I've heard it said, 'Pain is Beauty,' I had to disagree because having a perpetual fir coat when a scarf will suffice is just not worth it. I donated 11 inches to Locks of Love and well, just thought I'd show you how much 11 inches is. Not too shabby, I hope a little bald kid out there is wicked happy. For those of you who wanted a lock of my hair, it's too late, I already mailed it to Florida. That was a joke...yeah.

On another note, my brothers are completely insane. Yesterday, I was standing at the sink washing dishes. As most of you know, our sink has a window looking out on the deck. So I was washing dishes and down comes a stuffed frog dangling from a string of yarn, evidently, it was hanging from the bathroom window. Then more stuffed animals came bouncing down tied to a string a yarn, and they were knocking the items on the window sill into my dishwater. So as I'm being distracted by the suspended toys, I was thinking: my life would be so incredibly dull if I didn't have those crazy boys in my life.

Intolerable Secularists

Interview With Author of "The New Fundamentalists"

ROME, AUG. 27, 2007 (Zenit) - Aggressive relativism is the newest form of fundamentalism, according to author Deacon Daniel Brandenburg, and Catholics are called to stand up and do something about it.

In this interview, Deacon Brandenburg, who will be ordained a priest of the Legionaries of Christ this December, comments on his book "The New Fundamentalists: Beyond Tolerance," recently published by Circle Press. Read More...

No wonder my method of knocking some sense into these people hasn't been working.

The Mother Must Die: Satan's Game Plan for Our Times

http://www.lumengentleman.com/content.asp?id=62

Satan hates all women. Now, it is certainly true that, as bearers of the imago Dei, he hates all of us enough to desire our eternal damnation - anything to smear and smudge that Divine fingerprint which we reflect. But it is also true that, if you are a woman, Satan has an extra special hatred for you. He looks upon you and he seethes with rage, renewing again his intention to see you first distorted, and then destroyed... Read more...

It's amazing how Satan can go right under our noses and profane something so beautiful without people noticing. He has totally brainwashed women to think that their ability to bring life into fruition is weak. I don't know about you but I'm inclined to believe it takes STRENGTH to carry a human for nine months in ones womb and then when the nine month term is over to squeeze a 7 lb person (I won't get graphic)out through a small opening. Women have been convinced that they cannot make anything of themselves if they become a "baby machine." Why? Because as far as they're concerned it doesn't put them in a seat of power.

Also, why has it become such an insult for a man to open a door for a lady? Explain this to me. The only argument I've heard from feminists is "I can open my own door, what do you think I'm completely helpless??? *hisssss* *bite*" He's not trying to degrade you and say that you're weak and can't open a door. It's a way of showing you that you hold a place of honor as a woman. Do we realize what a sacred place our womb is? Mary's blessed womb was the first tabernacle. It was the first vessel to carry the body of Christ. When a gentleman (few as they are) opens a door, he is honoring your womanhood, and your femininity.

What a beautiful role we have the honor of playing.

Spot of Blessing

http://www.spiritdaily.com/spotofblessing.htm

Are you in your place of comfort, of peace?

If so, you know how hard it is to stay there!

What it takes is balance.

Call it your "spot of blessing": When we get to where Christ wants us, to the spot He designed for us, we find comfort, peace -- and resistance from the enemy.

The devil wants anything for us but to see us remain blessed.

But there is that spot of blessing and you can find it.

Previously, we wrote of a "place" of blessing. That's an actual physical location that may afford us grace. A "spot" of blessing is not just an actual location but our entire circumstances. It's where our "heads" (our spirits) want to be. It is the spot to which we have aspired our entire lives (without realizing it).

And when we get there, there is a heavenly sense but also the knowing that Heaven does not exist on earth and that there are folks who seem to come after us -- who seem intent on nudging us from this "spot," on disrupting us -- when we get there.

That's the enemy at work, and he does this because he wants to keep us off balance. A balanced person is a person who prays, who has God on his mind, who can work hard, who can struggle, but who can also relax and laugh. The enemy hates laughter! A balanced person is living in a way that is "natural" to the spirit -- and this is what brings the harmony that translates into a sense of comfort.

To regulate our lives, to make time for the health of both body and mind, to set aside enough time for prayer, for exercise, for relaxation, and for personal relationships, is to head for the right "spot." We are in balance when we are in control of our schedules, instead of slaves to the passage of time (and the chatter around us). We reach our spot of comfort when we are healthy of body and when we have emotional equilibrium. We are in balance when our hearts are pure and meld with the Sacred Heart.

The simple formula is in Luke 2:12: "Glory to God in the highest Heaven, and peace to men who enjoy His favor."

Once attained, it must be protected.

For there are the cares of the world. There is the wrong energy of television, of hard music, and of radio, which disturb the spirit (and often nudge us from that precious peaceful spot). There are tensions that arise.

Folks sense that we are in a place that is blessed, and they think they have to knock us out to get to the same spot. They don't realize that it is not the spot of their anointing.

We all are anointed in a different way.

And we have to respect that. Each of us has worked and suffered in a different fashion and are designed for a unique place in the eyes of God.

We know when we are there when security resonates in the spirit.

You know how a teeter-totter is? It goes up and down and when there is a loss of control it fluctuates wildly -- painfully.

Ups and downs can be the result of a spiritual shortcoming and what we have to do is get the teeter-totter back in balance with the point or fulcrum (which is Jesus).

When you are depressed, God will lift you up if you believe He will lift you up; when someone tries to knock you down, or tensions come, don't react; let the wave go right past. You will be blessed for that. You are headed to a spot of anointing! Your peace will be prolonged.

Work hard. Rest enough. Go to no extreme. Eat in a way that agrees with your body. Harbor no passion (but for Him). Remember personal relationships, and make sure being thrifty is balanced with the generous. Be wise, and yet a dove. Be strong, and yet meek. Seek to complete your mission in life but don't run yourself into the ground doing it.

If it seems like time has sped up, ask the Lord to organize your day and slow it down!

To stay at our spot of blessing means paying strict attention to how we regulate our lives -- what we think, how we pray, how we speak, what we expose ourselves to. Evil in any way can throw us off balance -- and cause us to waver from that precious "spot."

So can jealousy: the attacks of others pierces the bubble of the cocoon God has around us unless we strengthen it (through balance).

Don't give voice to the enemy. When someone comes at you because you are where you want to be, because you are in a state of comfort, where you feel grace, harbor no anger and don't keep talking about it. Don't quote them. Never repeat the words of the enemy. When we hover over a matter, we energize the spirits -- good and not so good -- around us.

Instead, spend your efforts getting back to that place of balance and find life a struggle but a joyous one at the end of which -- if we pray enough -- the spot of our blessing will serve as our portal to the eternal and death will have no sting.