Just A Word Or Two...Or Three

I work hard at trying to make my blogs relevant and informative. Some days I do a better job than on others. Many days, I get the feeling no one is reading or paying attention, and then sometimes, I discover that they are paying attention. 

Especially when I get an email or a comment asking a question about a saint, a feast day, or someone points out that a post I made is on the wrong day.

When you see the posts on "Daily Mass Readings" for instance, you will no doubt notice that they are a day ahead of the actual date here in the U.S.A. The same holds true for Feast Days posts (these are sometimes on Favorite Prayers and Scripture, Our Lady, or Saints of the Faith), saint quotations and more. The reason being, I have a large number of readers who live on the side of the world that has them one day ahead of us here. Some have sent emails in the past indicating that "Daily Mass Readings" is the only site they can access from their country where they can get the readings. I don't know if this is due to a lack of knowledge of other sites being available, or if perhaps, their country has a block on those other better known sites. So, I try to keep the readings, feast days and more posted in advance so that it will be relevant to them.

I suppose my postings being in advance, is one reason I don't get too many "hits" on those posts when that Feast Day or saint memorial occurs, and that's OK, because I know that they are being utilized in places outside of the U.S.A. I would however, like to make one small request.

If there is something on these blogs that you like well enough to share with your readers and you repost the entire piece along with the related picture(s), would you be so kind as to mention that you found it on my blogs and give me a link back? That's all I ask.

Thanks!

Virginia Ironside on child suffering.

People need to be aware of the horrendous mindset of those misguided people who support abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and other forms of legalized murder.

Have we so easily forgotten what the world said after the Nazi horrors perpetrated upon the vast numbers of innocent human beings? Human beings who's only crime (in The Nazi mindset) was that they were born Jewish, Gypsy, mentally retarded, or physically disabled?

The world said "Never Again", yet many have forgotten that solemn oath or thrown it to the curb, and have pledged themselves to the continuance of Nazi-like atrocities against the unborn, the elderly and the physically or mentally handicapped.

What the world once condemned as horrendous crimes against humanity it now embraces, promotes, supports and encourages without a shred of humanity, decency, or concern for their fellow man.

If these things, euthanasia, abortion, assisted suicide, or any "mercy killings" were evil under the Nazi regime, they are still evil today, and anyone who condones and supports these atrocities are just as evil, sick, and twisted as Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime.

Look at this video below. Listen to this woman and listen how nonchalant, cold, and callous she is. God help us all!

Watch the video below, and then go read the following articles, and notice the ideas and events in Nazi Germany and see the similarities in thought:

• Nazi Euthanasia
• Action T4
• Euthanasia In Nazi Germany
• Euthanasia

Isaiah 5:20-24 : Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe to you that rue wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits. Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness. That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him. Therefore as the tongue of the fire devours the stubble, and the heat of the flame consumes it: so shall their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Luke 17:1-3: He said to his disciples, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

Romans 16:17-18: I urge you brothers to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles, in opposition to the teaching that you learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the innocent.

2 Timothy 4: 1-4: I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming, and his kingdom: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. But be vigilant, labor in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Be sober.

1 Peter 3:17: For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.

Roman Catholics Cannot Vote For Abortion-On-Demand Candidates / Video

Poor Performance By Catholics On U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey

The Pew Research Center has the results of a telephone survey, “U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey”. The results don't look too good to me regarding the average American's knowledge of not only their faith, but a lack of knowledge about other faiths as well.

The amazing result of this survey is, that Agnostics and Atheists scored a higher number of correct answers than did those who identified themselves as Protestant, Catholic, or “Nothing in particular”. Of the 32 questions asked on this survey, people who identified themselves as: Atheist/Agnostics averaged 20.9 correct answers; Jewish 20.5 correct answers; Mormon 20.3 correct answers; White Evangelical Protestant 17.6 correct answers; White Catholic 16.0 correct answers; White Mainline Protestant 15.8 correct answers; Nothing in particular 15.2 correct answers; Black Protestant 13.4 correct answers; and Hispanic Catholic 11.6 correct answers.

What disturbs me the most is the less than acceptable (IMHO) per cent-age of Catholics who answered correctly the question regarding the Catholic teaching about the bread and wine used for Communion. The question was answered correctly by 59% of White Catholics and 47% of Hispanic Catholics. This means that too many Catholics either do not understand or do not know the teaching about the Holy Eucharist. If this is not a blatant example of poor catechesis in the United States today, I don't know what else is!

I am a convert, as many of you who read this blog regularly already know. Awhile back, I wrote a post here regarding a “cradle Catholic” who had written on his blog how much he disliked converts to Catholicism. In that post I wrote where he said “we are overzealous, far too eager to discuss our faith, and even far too eager to share it. He more or less said that he did not need any convert to tell him how to be Catholic and that we need to realize that we don't know everything about Catholicism.”

True, I don't know everything about Catholicism, and I certainly have never claimed to. I am always trying to learn and to grow in my faith. There is a great danger however, when people have complacency in their faith, think they have learned all there is to learn, and actually dwell in blissful ignorance of what Catholicism is, and teaches.

Perhaps it is not such a bad thing when converts to Catholicism are “overzealous, far too eager to discuss our faith, and even far too eager to share it”.

Catholics who took the survey did a little bit better on questions about who Moses is and about the Ten Commandments, but did very poorly on the question of what Bible figure is most closely associated with remaining obedient to God despite suffering.

There is an online version of the survey that you can take, and then see how your answers compare to the survey participants. The online version has 15 questions instead of all 32 that are in the original survey.

I took the online version, and I won't say what my score was. I'll just say it was better than the majority who participated in the original survey, and I am not bragging, just stating the fact.

If you want, you may share your score here by using the comments from Disqus at the bottom of this post.

You can also see the report from Pew Research by clicking here.