I'm Tired

I'm tired.

Tired of all the hate. Tired of all the encouragement of division from the media, the President, and the race baiters.

I am tired of special treatment of some, and a lack of mercy for others.
I am tired of being labeled a racist and a hater for the sole reason of being a white, southern male, and Catholic Christian.

I am tired of spoiled  politicians and "celebrities" whose only concern is for themselves and their careers.

I am tired of those who belittle  us for our faith, our love for country, and our moral integrity.

I am tired of those who want to tell us about their worries and concerns, but demand we keep quiet about ours.

I am mostly tired of those who do not value life from the cradle to the grave, and are so willing and able to take it.

I am tired that we all ask why, yet we fail to turn to God for the answers and the direction we need.

Aren't you tired, too?

7th Shocking Video Catches Planned Parenthood Harvesting Brain of Aborted Baby Who Was Still Alive

The following excerpts are from LifeNews.com:

The organization that has released six videos exposing the scandal of Planned Parenthood selling aborted babies and their body parts has released a new undercover video today with another shocking discovery. This latest video catches the nation’s biggest abortion business harvesting the brain of an aborted baby who was still alive.

Read more and see the video by clicking below:

7th Shocking Video Catches Planned Parenthood Harvesting Brain of Aborted Baby Who Was Still Alive

Shock Video Catches Planned Parenthood's Top Doctor Selling Body Parts of Aborted Babies | LifeNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeNews.com:

A shocking new expose’ video has caught Planned Parenthood’s top doctor describing how the abortion business sells the body parts of aborted babies.

New undercover footage shows Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, describing how Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted unborn children and admitting she uses partial-birth abortions to supply intact body parts.

Read more and watch the video by clicking below:

Shock Video Catches Planned Parenthood's Top Doctor Selling Body Parts of Aborted Babies | LifeNews.com

When I Say No, I Mean 'No'

I recently made a post which you may read here, in which I explained why I would no longer be utilizing GoFundMe in an attempt to raise funds for my cataract surgery.

Now it seems that GoFundMe has deleted yet another campaign. This time for a Christian florist, Arlene’s Flowers, a Washington state flower shop that also faces a fine for refusing to provide flower arrangements for a gay couple’s wedding.

GoFundMe has also changed their terms of service (according to an article on TheWashington Post online) to now exclude “campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts”.

As GoFundMe has decided to exclude those Christians who have been persecuted by the elements that GoFundMe apparently fears, I have decided that I will not personally contribute to any fund raising efforts made by any group or individual that chooses to utilize GoFundMe.

If GoFundMe can exclude persecuted Christians, than this Christian will exclude GoFundMe as well.

Obama’s Lawyer: Religious Institutions May Lose Tax-Exempt Status If Court Rules for Gay Marriage | National Review Online

The following excerpts are from National Review:

Religious institutions could be at risk of losing their tax-exempt status due to their beliefs about marriage if the Supreme Court holds that gay couples have a constitutional right to wed, President Obama’s attorney acknowledged to the Supreme Court today.

“It’s certainly going to be an issue,” Solicitor General Donald Verrilli replied when Justice Samuel Alito asked if schools that support the traditional definition of marriage would have to be treated like schools that once opposed interracial marriage. “I don’t deny that.”

Read more by clicking below:

Obama’s Lawyer: Religious Institutions May Lose Tax-Exempt Status If Court Rules for Gay Marriage | National Review Online

Obama Claims Islamic State Murder of Christians Unrelated to Christianity | FrontPage Magazine

The following excerpts are from Frontoage Mag:

Obama’s condemnations of terror look a whole lot like alibis. Take his response to the brutal Islamic State beheadings of Coptic Christians in Libya, after his disastrous regime change war there.

The title of the ISIS video is “A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross.”

The Islamic State Jihadists call Christians “Crusaders” and threaten to conquer Rome. They swear in the name of Allah. And they make assorted threats aimed at Christians.

“Oh people, recently you’ve seen us on the hills of Al-Sham [Greater Syria] and on Dabeq’s Plain, chopping off the heads that had been carrying the cross delusion for a long time, filled with spite against Islam and Muslims, and today we… are sending another message: oh crusaders, safety for you will be only wishes.”

“Especially when you’re fighting us all together, therefore we will fight you all together until the war lays down its burdens and Jesus peace be upon him will descend, breaking the cross, killing the swine,” the speaker continues.

(When Muslims say that they believe in Jesus, this is what they mean.)

That’s all rather straightforward. The White House press release, far less personal than Obama’s own claim that the Chapel Hill shootings over a parking dispute were Islamophobic, however issued a formal condemnation followed by the usual alibi.

The condemnation not only fails to mention Islamic terrorism, but makes no mention of the fact that Christians were murdered for being Christians.

“ISIL’s barbarity knows no bounds. It is unconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity,” the White House press release says.

Read more by clicking below:

Obama Claims Islamic State Murder of Christians Unrelated to Christianity | FrontPage Magazine

Our Top Blog Posts of All Time

I thought that the readers of these blogs might be interested in the all-time top blog posts on all of my Faith of the Fathers Blogs. Below is a list of those posts. You may click each post’s title if you’d like to read them.

Favorite Prayers and Scripture

Prayer for a Mother who has died

May 13, 2006,

Views: 15441

Saint Quote of the Day

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

Aug 28, 2005,

Views: 2838

Daily Catholic Mass Readings

Sunday Catholic Mass Readings For August 18, 2013

Aug 17, 2013,

Views: 1625

Faith of the Fathers Report

Atheist Group Files Lawsuit Against Display of WTC Cross at 9/11 Memorial - FoxNews.com

Jul 27, 2011,

Views: 558

The Pope And Church News

News Vatican Information Service 07/06-08/2013

Jul 8, 2013,

Views: 642

Saints of the Faith

Sister Josefa Menendez-Victim Soul

Mar 15, 2006,

Views: 6284

Faith of the Fathers

The Digital Catholic Bible

Aug 15, 2010,

Views: 862

Church Under Attack

Syria: Aleppo priest advises Christians to leave : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Apr 24, 2013,

Views: 610

Our Lady

Mary's Way Of The Cross - Fifteenth Station: Jesus is Raised from the Dead

Apr 4, 2007,

Views: 975

The Early Church Fathers

Saint Jerome: Early Church Father and Doctor of the Church

Sep 29, 2010,

Views: 1876

Apologetics

Why Do We Suffer? The Theological Answer of St Paul ~ Canterbury Tales by Dr. Taylor Marshall

Apr 22, 2012,

Views: 4131

Approved Apparitions

Our Lady of Kibeho

Mar 24, 2006,

Views: 17778

Prayer Request To Find A New Job

It seems that I am in extreme need of your prayers once again.

Yesterday, I was fired from my job. I don't want to go into all the details as to why here.

Let me assure you all, that I did not do anything unethical or illegal.

I was essentially fired because I had complained in front of a couple of customers and another employee that my work hours had been cut. The owner had said he had to cut hours because business had slowed down. Then he hired three new employees after telling me that, and no one else had their hours cut. The three new employees made a total of 9 employees at a convenience store/gas station that has one cash register, 7 fuel pumps, and that is open from 5:30 AM until 10:00 PM weekdays, with shorter hours on the weekends

So I was told I was being “let go” for the talking and that I had not been “happy” there for awhile.

I suppose I should have just kept quiet and took it in stride, but alas....I am human. I tend to gripe when I feel I am not being treated fairly.

Whenever the owner went out of town, it was me who was told to do the bank deposits every day. It was me who was told to go to Sam's Club (over 20 miles away with no fuel compensation) to pick up ordered merchandise 2 or 3 times per week during the owner's week long vacations.

So much for loyalty. So much for staying even after someone ignited a pipe bomb underneath the propane tank in the early morning hours of a November Saturday.

So I guess it is good that I am gone after all. God never closes a door without leaving us an open window.

I had been there for just over 2 years, so now I need a new job. Prayers, once again are greatly needed and appreciated!

Thank you and God bless,

Steve Smith

No Room in America for Christian Refugees

The following excerpts are from AINA.org. All emphases are mine:

At the end of World War II, the Jewish survivors of Europe's Holocaust found that nearly every door was closed to them. "Tell Me Where Can I Go?" was a popular Yiddish song at the time. Decades later, the Christians of the Middle East face the same problem, and the Obama administration is keeping the door shut.

America is about to accept 9000 Syrian Muslims, refugees of the brutal war between the Assad regime and its Sunni opposition, which includes ISIS, Al Qaeda, and various other militias. That number is predicted to increase each year. There are no Christian refugees that will be admitted.

Why? Because the Department of State is adhering with all the rigidity of a Soviet era bureaucracy to the rule that only people at risk from massacres launched by the regime qualify for refugee status. The rapes of Christian women and the butchery of Christian children do not count. No matter how moved Americans were this Christmas season by the plight of their fellow Christ followers in Syria and Iraq, no matter how horrific the visuals of beheadings, enslavement, and mass murder, the Christians fleeing death do not engender the compassion of this president. The Christians are being raped, tortured, and murdered by militias, not by the Syrian government. This technicality condemns them to continue to be victims without hope. And this technicality is being adhered to with all the tenacity with which President Franklin D. Roosevelt's State Department manipulated quotas and created subterfuges to keep out the Jews fleeing the oppression of Nazi Germany. Obama no more wants the Middle East's Christian refugees than Roosevelt wanted Europe's Jewish refugees.

We have seen in the last several weeks that President Obama has no difficulty using his "phone and his pen," as he dramatically boasts, to circumvent the law. When it comes to immigration, he had no difficulty enacting an amnesty that a federal judge subsequently ruled unconstitutional. He has had no problem circumventing Congress to change the relationship with Cuba. This president has shown that he will push back on the constraints of law when he wants to get something done.

But there are not even such constraints when it comes to the Middle East's Christians fleeing the brutality of ISIS and Al Qaeda. The Department of State chooses to adhere to a definition of refugees as people persecuted by their own government. What difference does it make which army imperils the lives of innocent Christians? Christians are still be slaughtered for being Christian, and their government is incapable of protecting them. Does some group have to come along--as Jewish groups did during the Holocaust--and sardonically guarantee that these are real human beings?

The Christians would barely have to be vetted for ties to terror organizations, which by their very nature do not take Christians. Meanwhile, there is the uncomfortable issue that among the Sunni refugees there are some in league with the Sunni terror militias. And beyond that there is the equally uncomfortable question of the acculturation of segments of the Muslim community.

...it is time for all people of good will to say to the Obama administration that telling Christians awaiting death that there is no room for them in the inn is not only unacceptable, it is also, to use President Obama's own words, "not who we are." This season, Christians need to make their voice heard. They should not act as the Jews did, waiting for a president who had no intention of doing anything, to do something.

Read more by clicking below:

No Room in America for Christian Refugees

Cardinal George dropped from cancer drug trial, asks for prayers :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, at a press conference at the NAC on Feb. 27, 2013.
Credit: Paolo Tiranti/CNA

The following excerpts are from Catholic News Agency (CNA):

Chicago, Ill., Jan 6, 2015 / 11:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Francis George has asked for continued prayers after being dropped from a cancer drug’s clinical trial, which was determined to be ineffective for him.

“He is at peace, but he counts on everyone’s prayers that he might be of service to the Lord and His Church in the time left to him,” the Archdiocese of Chicago said Dec. 31.

“Cardinal George would like to thank all those who have been praying for him, and asks them to continue to do so. You and those you love are remembered in his prayers as well.”

The 77-year-old cardinal and archbishop emeritus of Chicago had been taking part in a clinical trial conducted by University of Chicago Medicine, while also being cared for by Loyola University Hospital.

The drug, from the pharmaceutical company Genentech, is designed with the intention of helping the human body’s immune system recognize and attack cancerous cells, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Tests indicated that the drug has not been effective for the cardinal.

The archdiocese said the physicians and others overseeing the treatment of the cardinal have assured him that the information gathered in the clinical trial will help benefit others.

Cardinal George will meet with his doctors to discuss how to address his cancer’s side effects. His cancer at present has not spread to any vital organs.

Read more by clicking below:

Cardinal George dropped from cancer drug trial, asks for prayers :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Archbishop Kurtz Homily (2014 Eucharistic Congress Charlotte, NC)

The Most Reverend Joseph E. Kurtz, Archbishop of Louisville, KY delivered the Holy Hour Homily at the Diocese of Charlotte Eucharistic Congress, September 20, 2014 in Charlotte, NC.

Bishop Jugis Homily - English (2014 Eucharistic Congress Charlotte, NC)

Holy Mass homily of The Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte, delivered at the 10th Eucharistic Congress, September 20, 2014 in Charlotte, NC 

Pumpkin Spice Returns

Father Michael Mary let me know in his email that they have already had some snow on the mountains in Wyoming. It's a reminder of the coming fall and winter for the rest of us.

So, the good monks at Mystic Monk Coffee now have their ever popular Pumpkin Spice flavored coffee available. It is available in ground regular, whole bean regular, and ground decaf.

This is what they say about their Pumpkin Spice Coffee:

Smooth and sweet! The creamy pumpkin flavor melds perfectly with cloves and aromatic spices, finishing with a warming aftertaste that will make even the coldest fall day cozy. It's especially delicious when topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Packed in a recloseable limited edition bag.

If Pumpkin Spice is not your thing, then look over the selection of other flavored coffees here.

You can also find all of their available coffees here. They have regular ground, monk shots, decaf, and some fair trade organics available. They also of course, still have a fine selection of teas here.

Your purchases of Mystic Monk Coffee helps support the monastery of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming, and helps me earn a couple of bucks, as well (when you use my links..thanks!).

Need Prayers?

Did you know that "Faith of the Fathers" blogs, has a Prayer Request blog? I do, and there are several prayer requests there now.

If you would like to include in your prayers, the various intentions of those folks who have requested prayers, please visit at http://faithofthefathersprayerreq.blogspot.com/

If you or someone you know is in need of prayer, please send an email to: faithofthefathers@gmail.com with "Prayer Request" as the subject of the email.

St. Francis Dedication

The following video is from Catholic News Herald, Diocese of Charlotte

St. Francis of Assisi Church was dedicated by Bishop Peter Jugis of the Diocese of Charlotte on Aug. 16, 2014, in Jefferson, North Carolina.

LGBT foundation aims to counter Vatican family synod :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

The following excerpts are from Catholic News Agency (CNA):

An LGBT activist foundation headed by a former Obama White House staffer gave a $200,000 grant to a dissenting Catholic coalition to target the upcoming Synod on the Family and World Youth Day.

The Michigan-based Arcus Foundation gave the 2014 grant to Dignity USA “to support pro-LGBT faith advocates to influence and counter the narrative of the Catholic Church and its ultra-conservative affiliates.”

“The effort will build advocacy and visibility in connection with two special events, the Synod of the Family and World Youth Day,” the foundation said on its website.

An extraordinary bishops' synod will meet in Rome this Oct. 5-19 to address pastoral challenges related to the family. The synod has been the subject of significant media coverage and speculation.

On June 26, synod organizers released the synod's preparatory document, a broad-ranging document which among other topics summarized Catholic teaching on homosexuality. It discussed the bishops' desire to consider the pastoral response to homosexuality, to Catholics in homosexual relationships, and to any children raised under those unions.

That same day, Dignity USA president Marianne Duddy-Burke attacked the document, claiming it showed “a rigid adherence to existing teaching.” The organization's statement charged that the document “shows no openness to change in hurtful teachings.”

Dignity USA has also been active in protests against Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco's participation in the March for Marriage, a movement intended to support marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

The Arcus Foundation's March 2014 grant announcement said the Dignity USA funding was for the Equally Blessed Coalition, which includes Dignity USA, Call To Action, Fortunate Families, and New Ways Ministry.

All of the groups have a history of promoting the rejection of Catholic teaching. In 2010 and 2011 New Ways Ministry, which has also received Arcus Foundation funding, drew a response from leading U.S. bishops who said the organization does not adhere to Catholic teaching.

Read more by clicking below:

LGBT foundation aims to counter Vatican family synod :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

To Help With My Cataract Surgery

As regular readers of “Faith of the Fathers” blogs know from a previous post over a year ago here, I have cataracts in both eyes.

I also have no insurance, and my employer does not offer insurance, as I work for a very small company.

My eye sight is getting worse. I can tell a big difference since I posted the previous post referenced above. I especially notice the difference when driving at night, and even more so if it happens to also be raining.

I looked into what my surgery costs would be with 2 different eye surgeons (opthamologists), and have found out that it will be just over $4,000.oo per eye, and that this is for just the basic interocular lens (IOL) that will be used in the surgery. A multifocal lens replacement would be much more expensive. So basic is the way for me to go.

Since I do not have insurance, and no savings at all, I have decided to try the crowd funding site, GoFundMe. If any readers would like to contribute, I would be more than appreciative. I would be greatly appreciative as a matter of fact.

My GoFundMe page can be reached by clicking here.

If you are unable to make a donation, I would also be appreciative of your sharing the page with others.

I will also take all the prayers I can get! Prayer is always welcome, and certainly needed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Thank you for your continued prayers and support as well!

May God Bless you all, and Our Lady keep you in her care!

Obama, Catholics, and Illegals

The cozying up between bishops and Obama has got to stop. After you watch the video,click the link below to see the study from the University of Texas El Paso mentioned by Michael Voris in the video. Note that the study is dated March 20, 2014. Well before the current "crisis".

UTEP Study: http://ncbsi.utep.edu/documents/UAC%20Project%20Site%
20Visits/UTEP%20NCBSI%20Final%20Report%20March%2020%202014.pdf

Archbishop Cordileone responds to critics on March for Marriage : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from CWN:

• Refusing to back down in the face of criticism, March for Marriage, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco has rejected calls for him to withdraw from the March of Marriage in Washington.
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi, in a letter urging Archbishop Cordileone not to participate in the June 19 event, had charged that the March would convey “disdain and hate” for homosexuals. But in his reply, contained in an open letter to activists who had lodged similar protests, the archbishop stressed that the demonstration would be a "pro-marriage march." The March, he said, "is not anti-anyone or anti-anything."
• Archbishop Cordileone told the protesters that their complaints about sponsoring organizations, notably the National Organization for Marriage, were "based on misinterpretation or simply factually incorrect."

Read more by clicking below:
Archbishop Cordileone responds to critics on March for Marriage : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Fathers Day 2014!

Father's Day is June 15, and once again, Mystic Monk Coffee is ready for the occasion!

Just for dad, is the Fantastic Fathers Gift Set. This gift set contains:

1 x 12oz bag of Espresso Blend

1 x 12oz bag of Dark Roast

1 x 12oz bag of Midnight Vigils Blend

1 x 12oz bag of Hermits' Bold Blend

All packed in a useful tool box.

Note: The coffee in this package is already ground.

Hurry and get dad his gift from Mystic Monk Coffee while they are still available!

Your purchase from Mystic Monk Coffee helps to support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming and this blogger!