Worldwide Rosary Novena: Collegial Consecration Campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Marianna Bartold, Keeping It Catholic Network at keepitcatholic@usa.net

Catholics worldwide are again invited to join in the Collegial Consecration Campaign, initiated last May by Keeping It Catholic (KIC). Our goal is to console and encourage the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, by sending him the names of millions of Catholics who are daily praying the Rosary, making their foremost intention the collegial consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The first of our next two consecutive 54 Day Rosary Novenas begins this Friday, May 1st (First Friday of the month and the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker) and concludes on June 23 (Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist).

To foster the habit of the daily Rosary, a second Novena immediately commences on the very same date, June 23, and ends on August 15 (Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, a holy day of obligation).

1. If you wish to console and encourage the Holy Father by sending your "Promise of Rosary Prayers," please email keepitcatholic@usa.net with the following information:

---Your first and last name, city and state, and (if you wish) your vocation, position, or degree(s). (Please Note: All such information is held as strictly confidential, but KIC will add your full name, city and state to the “Promise,” which, like our previous Rosary Novena, will be sent to the Holy Father.)

2. Kindly ask others to join us by forwarding this message IN ITS ENTIRETY to every person and organization of good will, including adoration chapels, Catholic newspapers and journals, parish priests, family, friends, fellow parishioners, Catholic homeschool support groups, etc. (Also, please feel free to PRINT this one page message and hand it out to others.)

3. If you have a Catholic website or Blog and wish to help spread word of the Collegial Consecration Campaign, please link to Keeping It Catholic - The Blog! by using the following url: http://keepingitcatholic.blogspot.com/

"In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph...the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and an era of peace will be granted to the world." (Our Lady of Fatima)

[The Collegial Consecration Campaign is sponsored by the Keeping It Catholic Network, 604 S. Main St., Lapeer, MI 48464. Email: keepitcatholic@usa.net + Phone: 810-614-0304]

O Lord of Pots and Pans and Things

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."
~Flannery O'Connor, Catholic authoress

The thought so much on my mind these days, which may indeed seem odd to some, is "daily duty." Two simple words which have everything to do with our interior lives and the salvation of our souls, daily duty is a profound concept.

Daily duty is one of the secrets of the interior life. It means God is served in all things, even the most humble, the most tiresome, the most frustrating. Faithfulness to daily duty was the perpetual example of the Holy Family and the path taken by every saint. Daily duty is the core of the Little Flower's "Little Way," because it means doing well even the "littlest of things" for God's sake.

When we really think about it, we realize that daily duty entails constant practice of the virtues and fighting our inclinations to swither, to gripe and moan, to procrastinate, to look for a way out. Doing all things well for God is an expression of charity; doing them and thinking of them as nothing cultivates humility. As St. Francis Xavier said, "It is not the actual physical exertion that counts toward a man's progress, nor the nature of the task, but the spirit of faith with which it is undertaken."

Then there is the way St. Terese of Avila expressed that "spirit of faith" in "The Kitchen Prayer":

O Lord of pots and pans and things,
Since I have no time to be
a great saint by doing lovely things,
or watching late with Thee,
or dreaming in the dawnlight,
or storming Heaven's gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals,
and washing up the plates.

Warm all the kitchen with Thy Love,
and light it with Thy peace;
Forgive me all my worrying,
and make my grumbling cease.
Thou who didst love to give men food
in room, or by the sea,
Accept the service that I do-
I do it unto Thee.

Finally, St. Rose Phillippine Duschene expressed "daily duty" in this way: "We cultivate a very small field for Christ but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds back nothing for self."

College Scandals: And the Point Is?

"Send your children to a state university where they will learn to fight for their faith and not a Catholic university where it will be taken from them!"
---Archbishop Fulton Sheen

The topic: The recent uproar over the scandals caused by Notre Dame and Georgetown - two allegedly Catholic universities - means good people are standing up in defense of a few Church doctrines.

---In Notre Dame's case, the college openly defied the Church's doctrines on the sanctity of life by inviting to their commencement exercises the pro-abort president of the U.S. Not only that, ND wants to bestow an honorary degree on him.

---In Georgetown's case, the scandal is an even greater sin because it breaks the 1st and 2nd Commandments, a great offense against God and Our Lord's Most Holy Name. At the White House's request, the school covered the name and the symbols of Jesus. Why? It was all done in preparation for President Obama's arrival to make a speech. In a word, Georgetown bowed to the demands of a mere man who wanted to neither stand in the presence of the God Man's Name nor even one of His symbols.

(If, perchance, you don't know enough details about the outrages mentioned, please take a quick peek on this article about Notre Dame and this one on Georgetown.)

In the meantime, there's a big fuss, but it seems there is a big fuss because, collectively speaking, we still don't quite 'get it': The scandals created by these two colleges make sense - because for many long years neither entity has clung to the Church's doctrine on Christian education. That could only happen because the two schools do not cling to the Church's consistent teachings on the three necessary societies and their relations to each other. Incidentally, the teachings on these topics (Christian education; the three necessary societies) are reiterated in the 1929 encyclical, Divini Illius Magistri (On the Christian Education of Youth).

To repeat: These two great scandals, perpetrated by universities considered Catholic, are simply more proof that we still don't get it. (More on 'what' we don't get in a moment.)

Theme: What is the reason for the big fuss? Did anybody out there really believe either Notre Dame or Georgetown was still Catholic? Furthermore, does anyone really believe that signing a petition will change anything for the better? Certainly, it's a good idea - but it won't accomplish the desired end.

Very telling is the fact that the 'powers-that-be' behind Notre Dame and Georgetown even dared to come up with their nefarious ideas and, even with their "Catholic cover" totally blown, continue to ignore the outcry of bishops, cardinals and lay faithful. Now couple those scandals to the increasing bad news of world-wide confusion, chaos and revolt.

Conclusion on Secondary Catholic Education: Archbishop Fulton Sheen passed away about 35 years ago, but his keen observation on where not to send Catholic secondary-level students still stands today.

What We (in the "collective" sense) Still Don't Get: The Church is under siege, from without and within. These two recent "Catholic" college scandals in the United States are only additional symptoms of the disease. Catholic universities thumb their noses at cardinals and bishops, yes - but an even greater number of Catholics (lay and hierarchy) thumb their noses at the Extraordinary Magisterium and he who must guard it - the Pope.

The disease is mortal; its name is modernism, the synethesis of all heresies.

The Ultimate Conclusion and the Only Cure: To establish the right order of society, which must be under the Kingship of Christ our King, God has never asked us write or sign petitions, to dialog, to join in protest marches, etc. We who recognize "the signs of the times" bear a great responsibility to do what the Church has always taught:

---Pray and sacrifice, while encouraging others to do the same, so that God's Will is done on earth as it is in Heaven. Prayer and sacrifice is a Catholic's daily duty, which in turns means fidelity to God's Laws, the laws of His Church and to our state in life.

Those two means are our responsibilities to God and man. Above and beyond them, we must always ask God, through the intercession of the Virgin Mother, to grant us the only cure for the terrible disease afflicting these last days of the Modern Age.

When are we going to understand the time is long past-due for the collegial consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?