Our Lady of Fatima Novena

I have heard so many people tell me about the power of the 54 day Fatima novena, that I had to recommend it. Especially with the movie "the 13th day" coming out. The movie is about the story of Fatima. I have heard people find their spouse, have a child, find a job, receive an interior grace from God. All we have to do is ask. Our Lady's power before God is really easy to explain. Jesus was the perfect man, so he lived the 10 commandments perfectly, the 4th commandment is "Honor thy Father and thy Mother,". We can bring anything to Mary and she will bring it to Jesus, were His love for her, almost ties His hands, and He will give her anything she asks.

Next Monday is November 2nd. If you start the 54 day Novena next week, it will end on Christmas day. The novena is very simply, say 1 Rosary every day with your intention, here is a good link on printing how to say the Rosary http://www.ewtn.com/DEVOTIONALS/prayers/rosary/how_to.htm

The first 27 days are said in a spirit of reparation, the 2nd 27 days are said in a spirit of Thanksgiving. A friend told me, that when he made this 54 day novena, he realized immediately that he didn't care if he got the intention or not, because through the practise of reciting the Rosary, he was growing so much closer to God. The rosary is powerful on many levels, in fact, one of the most consoling promises of Fatima, is that Our Lady told the children, that no problem can not be overcome with the Rosary. The drug rehab that I mention a lot www.hopereborn.org is great proof of this. For major drugs like herion, the recovery rate after addiction is barely 2%, within this community its 90%. They pray the Rosary 3 times a day in this community. Last week the community was given full pontifical status by the Church, and one of the men, who was a former herion addict made the point, that as a Cardinal in the Church was saying mass for the community, he looked around and he saw over 400 ex drug addicts kneeling down receiving a blessing, and he couldn't help but remember Jesus words. "Tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners will fly into the Kingdom of Heaven," All we have to do is ask!

The Jewelers Shop

I have been reading a play that John Paul II wrote when he was in his 40's as a bishop in Poland. It's fabulous, because he takes all of his experience working with married couples, and he is able to work in pratical gems that help all marriages. There's 3 couples, a newly engaged couple, a happily married couple, and a couple that is about to break up. There is truly something for everyone. One line jumped off the page for me,

"He left me with a hidden wound, thinking, no doubt, she will get over it. Besides, he was confident of his rights, whereas I wanted him to win them continually, I did not want to feel like an object that could not be lost once it has been aquired."

Last week I quoted the story from the bible where the rich man has a huge harvest, and then stores everything for himself. There is so much joy on almost all wedding days, but we can't store it up and leave it on our wedding day. We have to work for the love of our beloved. This should inspire the natural strengths in a man, we all have a competitive streak, and we should try and win our wives everyday.

The Way In, and the Way Out of Socialism

I have a friend who is a missionary priest in South America, he said something to me about 5 years ago, that really stuck with me. It was in a country that was about to elect a radical socialist, broderline communist President of their country. The country was making great strides to advance freedom in the area, but it was looking like at the time that they were going to move to greater government control. This priest knew it was coming, so I asked him how he felt so sure. He said because he watched how the rich lived, it was incredibly insightful, because it was his belief that where the country was going was basically the decision of the rich. He said, you can not live in a bubble as if the poor do not exist and then expect to keep all your freedoms, eventually the poor will vote you out, because more people are poor than rich.

Its my strong opinion that the greed of the rich in our society has basically set into motion the strong movement towards socialism. When Jesus tells the story of the rich man that stores up his treasure for himself. He starts the parable like this, "Once there was a rich man that had a bountiful harvest." He doesn't say, "Once there was a bad rich man who had a bountiful harvest that was evil." No, in fact, the tone from the story is that the rich man's talent and his bountiful harvest was a gift from God, a blessing. The rich man was simply a steward, it was his choice. He chose to hoard it for himself, imagine if he chose to use this for the good of those around him. Its obvious what would have happened, the blessing would not have stopped, and the poor would feel no desire to rise up and defeat this good man.

As a culture, for a long time, our society lived like the rich man from the Gospel, and the fruit of this is a move toward socialism, which only infects society, because Government's make very cold mothers, try doing a business dealing with the government, and you will understand coldness. The question is do we want every form of society infected with this spirit. Or do we want to be the ones that spread the warmth of goodness, through our own choices, not through mandates.

Here's the good news, there's a way back. But its harder now, we actually had a lot of resources in which to give back then, it would have been easier to show that humans, not only have the ability to give, but have the desire, because its in his own best interest. Now the way back will be hard, but the fruit will even be better, we have to simplify our own lives, and look to give to the poor from our resources, to give from our wants. Even in our own small lives, our gifts will make a difference. Governments make cold mothers and fathers, but people make warm one's. That's our task to move towards more freedom.

John Wooden- Had to Share

On the 21st of the month, the best man I know will do what he always does on the 21st of the month. He'll sit down and pen a love letter to his best girl. He'll say how much he misses her and loves her and can't wait to see her again. Then he'll fold it once, slide it in a little envelope and walk into his bedroom. He'll go to the stack of love letters sitting there on her pillow, untie the yellow ribbon, place the new one on top and tie the ribbon again. The stack will be 180 letters high then, because the 21st will be 15 years to the day since Nellie, his beloved wife of 53 years, died. In her memory, he sleeps only on his half of the bed, only on his pillow, only on top of the sheets, never between, with just the old bedspread they shared to keep him warm. There's never been a finer man in American sports than John Wooden, or a finer coach. He won 10 NCAA basketball championships at UCLA, the last in 1975. Nobody has ever come within six of him. He won 88 straight games between January 30, 1971, and January 17, 1974. Nobody has come within 42 since. So, sometimes, when the Basketball Madness gets to be too much -- too many players trying to make Sports Center, too few players trying to make assists, too few coaches willing to be mentors, too many freshmen with out-of-wedlock kids, too few freshmen who will stay in school long enough to become men -- I like to go see Coach Wooden. I visit him in his little condo in Encino, 20 minutes northwest of Los Angeles , and hear him say things like "Gracious sakes alive!" and tell stories about teaching "Lewis " the hook shot. Lewis Alcindor, that is...who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There has never been another coach like Wooden, quiet as an April snow and square as a game of checkers; loyal to one woman, one school, one way; walking around campus in his sensible shoes and Jimmy Stewart morals. He'd spend a half hour the first day of practice teaching his men how to put on a sock. "Wrinkles can lead to blisters," he'd warn. These huge players would sneak looks at one another and roll their eyes. Eventuallee, they'd do it right. "Good," he'd say. "And now for the other foot." Of the 180 players who played for him, Wooden knows the whereabouts of 172. Of course, it's not hard when most of them call, checking on his health, secretly hoping to hear some of his simple life lessons so that they can write them on the lunch bags of their kids, who will roll their eyes. "Discipline yourself, and others won't need to," Coach would say. "Never lie, never cheat, never steal," and "Earn the right to be proud and confident." If you played for him, you played by his rules: Never score without acknowledging a teammate. One word of profanity, and you're done for the day. Treat your opponent with respect. He believed in hopelessly out-of-date stuff that never did anything but win championships. No dribbling behind the back or through the legs. "There's no need," he'd say. No UCLA basketball number was retired under his watch. "What about the fellows who wore that number before? Didn't they contribute to the team?" he'd say.
No long hair, no facial hair. "They take too long to dry, and you could catch cold leaving the gym," he'd say. That one drove his players bonkers. One day, All-America center Bill Walton showed up with a full beard. "It's my right," he insisted . Wooden asked if he believed that strongly. Walton said he did. "That's good, Bill," Coach said. "I admire people who have strong beliefs and stick by them, I really do. We're going to miss you." Walton shaved it right then and there. Now Walton calls once a week to tell Coach he loves him. It's always too soon when you have to leave the condo and go back out into the real world, where the rules are so much grayer and the teams so much worse. As Wooden shows you to the door, you take one last look around. The framed report cards of his great-grandkids, the boxes of jelly beans peeking out from under the favorite chair, the dozens of pictures of Nellie. He's past 90 now. You think a little more hunched over than last time. Steps a little smaller. You hope it's not the last time you see him. He smiles. "I'm not afraid to die," he says. "Death is my only chance to be with her again." Problem is, we still need him here!

The Beauty of the Seasons

At the website FirstThings.com, they made a point about the covenant that God makes with Noah, everyone already knows about God's promise never to send another flood to destroy the earth, but something that most people miss is the second part of that promise found at Genesis 8:22 “As long as the earth endures,seedtime and harvest,cold and heat,summer and winter,day and night will never cease.”
In other words, as long as life endures we will live in a world governed by regularity and sameness.

That's why I love this quote, which I posted a couple weeks ago,

"A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough. . . It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again,” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

The Fall is a great time to delight in all the monotony of God's creation, the smells, the sights, the glory of creation.