The Family Angelus

by

angelus

 

At the Crucifixion of Our Lord, Jesus looked at his beloved disciple and His mother standing near, and “He said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” John 19:26-27. Thus, as He suffered on the Cross, Our Lord gave us His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be Our Mother.

Devotion to Mary through the Family Rosary is necessary for the protection of the faith in the Catholic Family. Still, should we not call out to Our Mother and stay near her through the prayer of the Angelus throughout the day? The Angelus, the traditional prayer recited by the Church at 6am, noon, and 6pm, includes a meditation on the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Incarnation of Our Lord and three Ave’s or Hail Mary’s. The Angelus is a firm means of growing closer to Jesus and Mary, nurturing the faith and living in greater charity. As we seek to grow closer to God, praying the Angelus is like holding the hand of Our Mother for a moment in the day. While the Family Rosary is the most powerful weapon and prayer, the Family Angelus is a beautiful devotion by which the family may ‘check-in’ with Our Mother throughout the day.

As a meditation on the Annunciation, the Angelus begins with the verse, “Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae et concepit de Spiritu Sancto,” which translates, “The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived of the Holy Spirit.” Following each meditation, through the words of the Archangel Gabriel, we praise the Immaculate Virgin Mary, with the Ave Maria or Hail Mary. “Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum,” “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord with thee!”

The words of Our Lady follow the first Ave Maria as she said, “Ecce Ancilla Domini; fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum,’ “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word” Luke 1:38. Indeed, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s ‘Fiat’ is all that is necessary for Christ to come to our hearts. As children of God we are called to imitate Our Lady’s ‘Fiat’, ‘Let it be done,’ at each circumstance of the day that Our Lord may be in us and we may grow into his love, into Him.

The third verse recalls the Gospel of John: “Et Verbum Caro Factus Est, et habitavit in nobis,” “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Our Lord reminds us that He is in us. He has made Himself in us, His habitat.

The Angelus concludes with the invocation and prayer, “Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.”

Thus through meditating on the Annunciation and Incarnation of Our Lord in the Angelus, we beseech our Lord that through the intercession of the Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary and the Cross, Our Beloved Lord may blend our hearts, free us from anxiety, and direct us in his will. Through the Family Angelus may our families become worthy of the promises of Christ.

 

The Angelus

V. The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary,
R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord,

R. Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary . . .

V. And the Word was made Flesh,

R. And dwelt amongst us.

Hail Mary . . .

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

 

The Angelus in Latin

V. Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae

R. Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto.

Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum: benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

V. Ecce ancilla Domini,

R. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.

Ave Maria

V. Et Verbum caro factum est,

R. Et habitavit in nobis.

Ave Maria

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genetrix,

R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus.

Gratiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut qui, Angelo nuntiante, Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et crucem ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

 

 

Someone Said ‘Dignity’ and He Really Meant Dignity!

by

henry sarkis

I have a great great fear that, come the day of judgment, Our Lady will not be smiling upon our cowardice. She is the Queen of soldiers (not warriors.)  Her son is Christ.

The meanness and depravity of men in the face of terrific injustice against God and our brothers will mark us among the generations who face God.  A very small and subhuman crop of men, the type without mothers or fathers, raised by the machine, with no sense of who we are; this is our time.

Then today, from the Land of ISIS there’s a story of an actual Christian!  It’s a man too, not some amorphous corpus.

Tired of persecution and threats from the militant Islamic group known as ISIS, some members of Iraq’s Christian minority have decided to take up arms and fight to defend their homes and families.

“We keep talking about Jesus and peace, and now we’ve reached the point where it’s not enough,” said Henry Sarkis, who heads up the Assyrian Patriotic Party.

Could he possibly have summed up the Church Militant any better?  Talk is nothing.

Assyrians are an ancient people who have lived in Iraq for millennia. They are traditionally Christian. The Assyrian Patriotic Party is only one of many Assyrian political organizations, but the group’s leadership has decided to join forces with the Kurdish Peshmerga, the defense forces for the country’s Kurdish minority.

“The age of waiting for the Peshmerga to take back territory while we sit is over. We took the decision that, with our limited abilities, we will try to participate,” Sarkis told National Geographic.

“We’re being killed in our homes, so why not defend ourselves? Then even if we die, we die with dignity,” he said. “We didn’t want to reach this point — we just want to live in our areas.” [This is the essence of the Christian soldier.  “We just want to live and love God.”  This is what our leaders who hate us and teach us call the evil Crusades.]

Christians make up less than 1 percent of Iraq’s population, according CIA statistics cited by The Christian Post. Their numbers have reportedly dwindled from about 1.5 million in 2003 to less than 500,000 today. [The U.S. Occupation has decimated the Christian population. Why?]

Some fear that the decision to fight will make Christians more of a target for sectarian violence.

Duraid Tobiya, an Assyrian from the city of Mosul which was overrun by ISIS fighters in June, said only about 40 of the city’s estimated 10,000 Christians remain. When ISIS takes over an area they insist that everyone living there convert to Islam or pay a tax for not converting or face execution. The Christians who remain in the city were deemed either too old or too poor to pay the ISIS tax. The rest of the Christians have fled the city, Tobiya explained.

Still, Tobiya believes the area’s Christians have only two options. He says Christians can either emigrate en masse or seek protection from international organizations.

He prefers the latter option because he fears neither the Peshmerga nor the Iraqi forces will be able to defend the Christian population should ISIS decide to target them specifically once they begin to fight with the Peshmerga.

 

That is the discouraging ‘voice of reason.’  He is probably right, but also wrong.  When is it right not to fight?

 

 

 

Tired of persecution and threats from the militant Islamic group known as ISIS, some members of Iraq’s Christian minority have decided to take up arms and fight to defend their homes and families.

“We keep talking about Jesus and peace, and now we’ve reached the point where it’s not enough,” said Henry Sarkis, who heads up the Assyrian Patriotic Party.

Assyrians are an ancient people who have lived in Iraq for millennia. They are traditionally Christian. The Assyrian Patriotic Party is only one of many Assyrian political organizations, but the group’s leadership has decided to join forces with the Kurdish Peshmerga, the defense forces for the country’s Kurdish minority.

“The age of waiting for the Peshmerga to take back territory while we sit is over. We took the decision that, with our limited abilities, we will try to participate,” Sarkis told National Geographic.

“We’re being killed in our homes, so why not defend ourselves? Then even if we die, we die with dignity,” he said. “We didn’t want to reach this point — we just want to live in our areas.”

The Assyrian Christians are being persecuted by ISIS fighters. The acronym stands for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The group seeks to establish to a caliphate or Muslim state that enforces strict Sunni Muslim law. The group has persecuted and attacked Assyrians as well as another ancient minority known as the Yazidis.

Christians make up less than 1 percent of Iraq’s population, according CIA statistics cited by The Christian Post. Their numbers have reportedly dwindled from about 1.5 million in 2003 to less than 500,000 today.

Some fear that the decision to fight will make Christians more of a target for sectarian violence.

Duraid Tobiya, an Assyrian from the city of Mosul which was overrun by ISIS fighters in June, said only about 40 of the city’s estimated 10,000 Christians remain. When ISIS takes over an area they insist that everyone living there convert to Islam or pay a tax for not converting or face execution. The Christians who remain in the city were deemed either too old or too poor to pay the ISIS tax. The rest of the Christians have fled the city, Tobiya explained.

“I’m from Mosul — this is the first time I’ve been displaced,” he said. “I lived through everything else that happened in Mosul, but it’s all very different from what’s happening now.”

Still, Tobiya believes the area’s Christians have only two options. He says Christians can either emigrate en masse or seek protection from international organizations.

He prefers the latter option because he fears neither the Peshmerga nor the Iraqi forces will be able to defend the Christian population should ISIS decide to target them specifically once they begin to fight with the Peshmerga.

“We are against emigration, because we are not only the sons of this country but its original inhabitants,” he said. “We must protect ourselves — and also have international protection.”

– See more at: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/tired-isis-persecution-some-iraqi-christians-take-arms-fight#sthash.l1kqr3Lj.dpuf

Tired of persecution and threats from the militant Islamic group known as ISIS, some members of Iraq’s Christian minority have decided to take up arms and fight to defend their homes and families.

“We keep talking about Jesus and peace, and now we’ve reached the point where it’s not enough,” said Henry Sarkis, who heads up the Assyrian Patriotic Party.

Assyrians are an ancient people who have lived in Iraq for millennia. They are traditionally Christian. The Assyrian Patriotic Party is only one of many Assyrian political organizations, but the group’s leadership has decided to join forces with the Kurdish Peshmerga, the defense forces for the country’s Kurdish minority.

“The age of waiting for the Peshmerga to take back territory while we sit is over. We took the decision that, with our limited abilities, we will try to participate,” Sarkis told National Geographic.

“We’re being killed in our homes, so why not defend ourselves? Then even if we die, we die with dignity,” he said. “We didn’t want to reach this point — we just want to live in our areas.”

The Assyrian Christians are being persecuted by ISIS fighters. The acronym stands for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The group seeks to establish to a caliphate or Muslim state that enforces strict Sunni Muslim law. The group has persecuted and attacked Assyrians as well as another ancient minority known as the Yazidis.

Christians make up less than 1 percent of Iraq’s population, according CIA statistics cited by The Christian Post. Their numbers have reportedly dwindled from about 1.5 million in 2003 to less than 500,000 today.

Some fear that the decision to fight will make Christians more of a target for sectarian violence.

Duraid Tobiya, an Assyrian from the city of Mosul which was overrun by ISIS fighters in June, said only about 40 of the city’s estimated 10,000 Christians remain. When ISIS takes over an area they insist that everyone living there convert to Islam or pay a tax for not converting or face execution. The Christians who remain in the city were deemed either too old or too poor to pay the ISIS tax. The rest of the Christians have fled the city, Tobiya explained.

“I’m from Mosul — this is the first time I’ve been displaced,” he said. “I lived through everything else that happened in Mosul, but it’s all very different from what’s happening now.”

Still, Tobiya believes the area’s Christians have only two options. He says Christians can either emigrate en masse or seek protection from international organizations.

He prefers the latter option because he fears neither the Peshmerga nor the Iraqi forces will be able to defend the Christian population should ISIS decide to target them specifically once they begin to fight with the Peshmerga.

“We are against emigration, because we are not only the sons of this country but its original inhabitants,” he said. “We must protect ourselves — and also have international protection.”

– See more at: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/tired-isis-persecution-some-iraqi-christians-take-arms-fight#sthash.l1kqr3Lj.dpu

Random Thoughts – Catholic Edition

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Does the Pope make any distinction in his mind between something he thinks and something that is more or less a Papal pronouncement? Is it just war teaching that use of force can never be unilateral, or that it must always be kicked to the corrupt U.N.?

Will the shameless pope-worship out of the Catholic Press, the bishops, and token religious never stop?  How could meeting the Pope, make your life, or move you, give you strength, and give you energy “like a motor?” What is he, God?  I get worn out just looking at his picture.

Is ISIS Islam just a weird sex fiend cult?  How do you capture and circumcise grown men and pretend it’s virtuous?

Is it completely evil now to think of living and dying outside the Faith as renouncing Heaven? How can one pretend this isn’t Catholic teaching, unless of course you’re just trying to make doomed Protestants out of all of us? Misery loves company they say. The structure of the Faith collapses when you fail to proclaim union with the Church free of heresy or mortal sin.

Isn’t is nice that China likes the Pope and let’s him fly over it’s airspace?  I sense dialogue coming.

Doesn’t anyone care that Liberation Theologists are Communists, that the Pope shares their vision, and that he’s making saints that aren’t so saintly?