Christ is come!

Real visions of Mary?

I was recently sent this article by Dave on apparitions. Please take the time to read over it so that you don't end up starting a devotion, such as Our Lady of Garabandal (sp?), that is later rejected by the Church.

"They call themselves 'camwhores.'"

In case anyone needed another reminder about why we fight, the New York Times ran a story yesterday about the hugeness of the internet child pornography racket. It's disturbing, but important.

Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World

Authorities have started, in part from this article, cracking down on porn-rings. But it's still a jarring reminder that not every perversion is laid out in the sun. St Padre Pio said, "the rosary is a weapon in our hands." Thus, we fight.

Just a thought

I was just thinking about the idea that "abortion is safer than childbirth," and it hit me that people who argue that must agree that abortion kills women. I understand that they are not making the argument to prove that point, but if they are saying that childbirth kills women as they compare it to abortion, then abortion must also kill women. Just a thought.

Novena, Part II

"Well it looks like we've found the first grace of the novena. I got a homily out of it." - Rev. William Byrne, Catholic Chaplain at the University of Maryland

Great news! Fr. Byrne, a great friend and supporter of the Crusade (he offered a Mass for us on the feast of St. John of the Cross, in which his homily was very supportive of us), gave a homily on the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary at the vigil Mass of the 4th Sunday of Advent tonight. In his homily he spoke of the need to remember that God gives us all graces, and that we should first be dependent upon him, just as Christ was dependent upon Mary for sustenance in her womb. He spoke of the humanity of the child in the womb, with very clear pro-life undertones.

Please offer a prayer of thanksgiving for Fr. Byrne's support (he is leading the Novena after the Masses here at the UMD campus) and continue to pray that Catholics will return to the Lord this Advent.

PS. Please encourage your priest to offer a Mass for the success of the Crusade.

PPS. I'm sure the guys at Unborn Jesus would have loved to have heard Fr. Byrne's homily.

Novena ad Jesu in Utero Mariae

In honor of the upcoming Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Crusade for the Church will be praying the Novena ad Jesu in Utero Mariae, starting today, and ending on Christmas Eve to prepare us for the Solemnity of the Nativity. The intention for this Novena will be for fallen away Catholics to come back to the faith.

The Novena can be found at:
http://www.crusadeforthechurch.org/NovenaJesusMaryWomb.pdf

To pray the novena, start with the Sign of the Cross, then read the reading for which day it is, and then say the Litany, including the intention at the end (conversion of fallen away Catholics and any other intentions. If you have any questions, please let us know. Have a great end of Advent! And remember to prepare daily for the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

{If you don't have a PDF reader, you should be able to download one for free. Otherwise, e-mail me at patrick@crusadeforthechurch.org}

Defend the Blessed Virgin Mary

Comedy central has aired (or is going to air - it's hard to tell from the e-mail I got) a program on the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that is weeping blood in California slamming the possible miracle.

Please send a petition to Comedy Central's President.

Also, South Park has mocked the BVM in one it's recent episodes. Read this article for more info.

Support a bill in Maryland

This just in from the Archdiocese of Washington:

Push for bill S. 1317 in Maryland to promote umbilical cord blood stem cell research. This has no negative moral ramifications because "umbilical cord blood stem cells are obtained from the blood contained in the delivered placenta and umbilical cord, which are normally discarded after childbirth. Obtaining these stem cells present no inherent moral concerns."

Here is a link with more information and where you can e-mail your petition for Sens. Sarbanes and Mikulski to vote in favor of it. Keep in mind that Sen. Barbara Mikulski calls herself a Catholic but does not choose to follow many of the Church's teachings on morality. She also presents herself for Communion. Pray that she and Sarbanes open themselves up to the will of the Lord and make the correct decision in this matter.

Two things

From the last post, I noticed there was a link to watching a video of daily Mass.

Also, from Pio Francis's blog, here is a good post including us.

Catholic Megachurches

This article was posted on Jimmy Akin's blog: Catholics Forming Megachurches to Offset Priest Shortage

"We didn't want to put two parishes in the same town because we just didn't have the priests to do it," said Monsignor Larry Stuebben, vicar general of the archdiocese [of San Antonio].

One of our local priests, in a homily at a heterodox parish, highlighted two reasons for the lack of vocations: contraception and the lack of Eucharistic Adoration. His own parish, which is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its perpetual adoration chapel, accounts for 11 of the 12 current seminarians from this diocese. But I'm sure it's all just a coincidence.

Prayer Network

If you would like to be a part of our prayer network, please send an e-mail to patrick@crusadeforthechurch.org

We will be starting a Novena on Friday to prepare for Christmas. More information will be posted then.

This would also include our monthly Day of Prayer and Fasting for the Crusade (Dies Cruciatus), which is on the 5th of every month. This is for a greater devotion to the Eucharist, for an end to sacrilege, and for the conversion of sinners. Please send an e-mail to be added to the list if you wish to join this very important part of the Crusade For The Church.

Sanctus Ioannes Crucis

Happy memorial of Saint John of the Cross. From today's Office of Readings, St. John said:

"Though holy doctors have uncovered many mysteries and wonders, and devout souls have understood them in this earthly condition of ours, yet the greater part still remains to be unfolded by them, and even to be understood by them. We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides."

Enjoy some good suffering today and remember that the path to salvation lay in taking up your crosses and following Christ to Calvary.

Heresy Trial in the US?

I found this on Amy Welborn's blog today. It's quite interesting that there is a Catholic on trial for heresy in the US. Maybe this is a good sign of the times to come.

Such a wonderful feast

Happy feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!!!

In the words of the BVM at Guadalupe:

"Be not troubled nor afraid. Am I not here, I thy mother? Art thou not beneath my protection? Am I not thy shield? Listen, my son, least of my sons, many are my servants whom I can charge with my message; yet I wish it to be thou to make my petition, to help by thy mediation my will to be accomplished."

The fight must go on

This is why we must continue to crusade for the preborn:

New York City: The Abortion Capital of America

Good news from MD bishops

I got an e-mail with a statement from the MD bishops (Cardinals Keeler and McCarrick and Bishop Salterelli) on marriage as being between one man and one woman. The whole article is too long to post here, but if you get a chance, read through it. Here is a link where you can find it online.

Here is a short description of it:
"This Pastoral Letter from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Maryland says that a deliberate campaign by homosexual activists, left-leaning judges and the American Civil Liberties Union has been undertaken to corrode the family and its stabilizing influence in society. The bishops identify the underlying cause of the homosexual political revolution as the same one that created the acceptance of abortion and euthanasia. 'An exaggerated emphasis on individual preferences and conveniences…to the detriment of society, have elevated these personal preferences to the level of rights and entitlements.'”

With this in mind...

I recently got an e-mail that showed just why things might not look like their getting done in Boston. This shows a lot of pastoral care is necessary, and so it is with this in mind, that our mission becomes interesting:

"Welcome to Boston where during the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Nominee's daughter, Alexandria Kerry, attended a Planned Parenthood Party at Foley Hoags, a major Boston law firm....where the Gay Parade takes over downtown Boston every summer, with police protection, featuring floats with lewd and lascivious behavior taking place right on the streets around Boston Common and the Public Gardens, all staged with Mayor Menino's assent....where the State Supreme Court Justice Margaret Marshall gave the edict that same sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts thereby overstepping the rights of citizens of Massachusetts to have their voice heard....where, like every other city in the USA, contraception is sold over the counter in CVS's in every neighborhood, thereby allowing citizens to play with sex and kill their babies after fertilization....where, like every other city in the USA, surgical abortion kills scores of babies conceived in the wombs of their mothers every day, thereby subjecting every woman who conceives a child in her womb and every man who fathers a child destined to be killed in his mother's womb to a lifetime of remorse and worse in a world which still denies the truth - human life and nothing but human life is the product of fertilization of a woman's egg and a man's sperm.
Archbishop O'Malley faces raging lay people everytime a parish closes. He inherited a generation of priests, taught at St. John Seminary, where dissent against Humanae Vitae was the means by which the moral turpitude of said generation of priests was compromised. This has changed slowly, we are told in the past few years. Please pray for our Archbishop in Boston. Please pray for our political leaders. Pray for our priests and seminarians and laity. And we offer you our prayers in return. And may the love St Francis had for Christ in the Eucharist inflame the heart of our beloved Archbishop. "

So please pray for His Grace that he might unceasingly work to better his flock and correctly instruct his priests. Pray that he will open the doors to his diocese so that we too can assist in the effort to rid Boston of all these evils next summer.