“The number of marytrs’ names is increasing. The church presents martyrs everyday because our church is a church of martyrs. The Synaxaruim (Book of Martyrs) still has empty pages, but it will be written with blood, the blood of the martyrs of the Coptic church.”
Bishop Makar
Coptic Orthodox Bishop
USS Arizona
Proud to be an American, may we never forget their sacrifice and always keep them in our prayers.
Caleb
Today is the feast day of Padre Pio and I wanted to share this little story about his dad, Grazio Mario Forgione.
The Noble Dreams of Fathers
For more about Padre Pio click here:
Abbreviated form adopted from DivineOffice.org:
“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory,”
Col 3:1-4
Today we celebrate Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of the Lord. Let us give thanks for Jesus of Nazareth, our Savior, has Risen!
HYMN
The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God.
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.
Our hearts be pure from evil, that we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal of resurrection light;
And listening to his accents, may hear so calm and plain
His own “All hail!” and, hearing, may raise the victor strain.
Now let the heavens be joyful! Let earth the song begin!
Thy round world keep thy triumph, and all that is therein!
Let all things seen and unseen their notes of gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end.
Words: John of Damascus (ca. 675-749), ca. 750; Translation: John Mason Neale (1818-1866), 1853
Concluding Prayer
O God,
who on this day,
through your Only Begotten Son,
have conquered death
and unlocked for us the path to eternity,
grant, we pray,
that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection may,
through the renewal brought by your Spirit,
rise up in the light of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
— Amen.
DISMISSAL
May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.
— Amen.
Happy Easter everyone!
O, beauty ever so youthful
of a self-giving heart
Warm and honest…
reminding the world that true
love gives itself completely
for the sake of the other.
Caleb
GTG
Years after the end of WWII Josef Muller, ringleader of the German resistance against the Nazi regime and Hitler, pondered about the immense power that hatred can command under the banner of collectivism. That is the idea that the good of the group trumps the rights of the individuals or rather the need of one trumps the rights of the other. In his view the antidote for such reckless abdication of human dignity was a renewal of the concept of personhood, which is so often destroyed in totalitarian regimes. That is the very basic Christian principle (grounded not only on divine revelation but also on natural law) that every individual has an intrinsic dignity and that is endowed with rights.
Personhood…today we look back at the atrocities committed in Nazi Germany at Auschwitz and with sadden heart we mourn at the lost of millions but also at such moments when we reflect on our pass is when we are compelled to look at the present. What holocaust are we refusing to see?
Our consciences asked us to look at the modern holocaust of abortion. Whose rationalization is also based on the denial of personhood. May we look at our own history and acknowledge that right in front of our eyes we are repeating it, that for the sake of the “good” of one, we denied life to the innocent.
“Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account”.
Oscar Wilde
The Book of Unusual Quotations by Rudolf Franz Flesch, 1957
1. Don’t make New Year’s resolution.
2. Finish what I start
