September 29 is the feast of St. Michael and all Holy Angels. Saint Michael is a very powerful advocate in the fight against evil. The prayer to St. Michael, illustrated in the video below, is very affective against spiritual attack.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Happy Michaelmas
September 29 is the feast of St. Michael and all Holy Angels. Saint Michael is a very powerful advocate in the fight against evil. The prayer to St. Michael, illustrated in the video below, is very affective against spiritual attack.
What does God have to do with it?
I can't help but think that the current economic crisis we are in is in some way related to our materialistic, relativistic, culture-of-death, live-for-the-moment, constant-search-for-pleasure lifestyles. We have been brainwashed in this country, to believe that we will get, and indeed, deserve, something for nothing.
Stuff.
It's what makes the world go 'round. It is not even on the radar screens of most Americans that someone wouldn't (or *gasp*--shouldn't because they can't afford to) buy something they might want.
Oh, sorry, need. We need all this stuff.
An increasing number of Americans are either actual or de facto atheists, living as if, (if not actually professing that) there is nothing beyond this short 70 or so years we each have on this earth. It is no wonder, then, that we are in our current economic fix.
We can't even imagine there would be any alternative than to keep printing money and bailing out financial institutions whose only fault is that they gave credit to people who couldn't pay back their loans.
Because we all have to have more stuff.
Most of us no longer question that the sole purpose of a business (or even a "job") is to "make money."
Profit.
That is all.
Why, what else would there be?!
The idea of providing a true service to society, much less having an actual vocation or calling to do something particular for a living, is beyond the scope of many in modern society. Such attitudes lead to unfair treatment of workers, cheating one's customers, and increasing blindness to ethical business practices. Good workers lose their jobs because they are too expensive to retain. Loyalty and job performance take second place to the bottom line.
I honestly don't think most people can wrap their minds around the idea that the true purpose of commerce might just be to serve the public--prospective customers, employees and society at large. Nor does the necessity of sacrifice cross the minds of most of us when it comes to doing our jobs. (Yes, even *that* job. Even the job that you feel is debasing, demeaning, or difficult, or, God forbid, boring.)
When there is nothing beyond our own eyes and brains, our world is limited to ourselves.
The current state of our economy and our country is the result.
Like the ruins of an old grave, the Judeo Christian worldview is collapsing. We just may be witnessing the advent of a new Dark Ages, where our old ways of looking at ourselves in relation to each other and to our Creator are all but forgotten.
Pope Benedict XVI has said that he sees Christianity as being smaller but more authentic in the future. I think we are on the cusp of that future today.
Stuff.
It's what makes the world go 'round. It is not even on the radar screens of most Americans that someone wouldn't (or *gasp*--shouldn't because they can't afford to) buy something they might want.
Oh, sorry, need. We need all this stuff.
An increasing number of Americans are either actual or de facto atheists, living as if, (if not actually professing that) there is nothing beyond this short 70 or so years we each have on this earth. It is no wonder, then, that we are in our current economic fix.
We can't even imagine there would be any alternative than to keep printing money and bailing out financial institutions whose only fault is that they gave credit to people who couldn't pay back their loans.
Because we all have to have more stuff.
Most of us no longer question that the sole purpose of a business (or even a "job") is to "make money."
Profit.
That is all.
Why, what else would there be?!
The idea of providing a true service to society, much less having an actual vocation or calling to do something particular for a living, is beyond the scope of many in modern society. Such attitudes lead to unfair treatment of workers, cheating one's customers, and increasing blindness to ethical business practices. Good workers lose their jobs because they are too expensive to retain. Loyalty and job performance take second place to the bottom line.
I honestly don't think most people can wrap their minds around the idea that the true purpose of commerce might just be to serve the public--prospective customers, employees and society at large. Nor does the necessity of sacrifice cross the minds of most of us when it comes to doing our jobs. (Yes, even *that* job. Even the job that you feel is debasing, demeaning, or difficult, or, God forbid, boring.)
When there is nothing beyond our own eyes and brains, our world is limited to ourselves.
The current state of our economy and our country is the result.
Like the ruins of an old grave, the Judeo Christian worldview is collapsing. We just may be witnessing the advent of a new Dark Ages, where our old ways of looking at ourselves in relation to each other and to our Creator are all but forgotten.
Pope Benedict XVI has said that he sees Christianity as being smaller but more authentic in the future. I think we are on the cusp of that future today.
What does God have to do with it?
I can't help but think that the current economic crisis we are in is in some way related to our materialistic, relativistic, culture-of-death, live-for-the-moment, constant-search-for-pleasure lifestyles. We have been brainwashed in this country, to believe that we will get, and indeed, deserve, something for nothing.
Stuff.
It's what makes the world go 'round. It is not even on the radar screens of most Americans that someone wouldn't (or *gasp*--shouldn't because they can't afford to) buy something they might want.
Oh, sorry, need. We need all this stuff.
An increasing number of Americans are either actual or de facto atheists, living as if, (if not actually professing that) there is nothing beyond this short 70 or so years we each have on this earth. It is no wonder, then, that we are in our current economic fix.
We can't even imagine there would be any alternative than to keep printing money and bailing out financial institutions whose only fault is that they gave credit to people who couldn't pay back their loans.
Because we all have to have more stuff.
Most of us no longer question that the sole purpose of a business (or even a "job") is to "make money."
Profit.
That is all.
Why, what else would there be?!
The idea of providing a true service to society, much less having an actual vocation or calling to do something particular for a living, is beyond the scope of many in modern society. Such attitudes lead to unfair treatment of workers, cheating one's customers, and increasing blindness to ethical business practices. Good workers lose their jobs because they are too expensive to retain. Loyalty and job performance take second place to the bottom line.
I honestly don't think most people can wrap their minds around the idea that the true purpose of commerce might just be to serve the public--prospective customers, employees and society at large. Nor does the necessity of sacrifice cross the minds of most of us when it comes to doing our jobs. (Yes, even *that* job. Even the job that you feel is debasing, demeaning, or difficult, or, God forbid, boring.)
When there is nothing beyond our own eyes and brains, our world is limited to ourselves.
The current state of our economy and our country is the result.
Like the ruins of an old grave, the Judeo Christian worldview is collapsing. We just may be witnessing the advent of a new Dark Ages, where our old ways of looking at ourselves in relation to each other and to our Creator are all but forgotten.
Pope Benedict XVI has said that he sees Christianity as being smaller but more authentic in the future. I think we are on the cusp of that future today.
Stuff.
It's what makes the world go 'round. It is not even on the radar screens of most Americans that someone wouldn't (or *gasp*--shouldn't because they can't afford to) buy something they might want.
Oh, sorry, need. We need all this stuff.
An increasing number of Americans are either actual or de facto atheists, living as if, (if not actually professing that) there is nothing beyond this short 70 or so years we each have on this earth. It is no wonder, then, that we are in our current economic fix.
We can't even imagine there would be any alternative than to keep printing money and bailing out financial institutions whose only fault is that they gave credit to people who couldn't pay back their loans.
Because we all have to have more stuff.
Most of us no longer question that the sole purpose of a business (or even a "job") is to "make money."
Profit.
That is all.
Why, what else would there be?!
The idea of providing a true service to society, much less having an actual vocation or calling to do something particular for a living, is beyond the scope of many in modern society. Such attitudes lead to unfair treatment of workers, cheating one's customers, and increasing blindness to ethical business practices. Good workers lose their jobs because they are too expensive to retain. Loyalty and job performance take second place to the bottom line.
I honestly don't think most people can wrap their minds around the idea that the true purpose of commerce might just be to serve the public--prospective customers, employees and society at large. Nor does the necessity of sacrifice cross the minds of most of us when it comes to doing our jobs. (Yes, even *that* job. Even the job that you feel is debasing, demeaning, or difficult, or, God forbid, boring.)
When there is nothing beyond our own eyes and brains, our world is limited to ourselves.
The current state of our economy and our country is the result.
Like the ruins of an old grave, the Judeo Christian worldview is collapsing. We just may be witnessing the advent of a new Dark Ages, where our old ways of looking at ourselves in relation to each other and to our Creator are all but forgotten.
Pope Benedict XVI has said that he sees Christianity as being smaller but more authentic in the future. I think we are on the cusp of that future today.
Novena Prayer to St. Michael and All Angels--Day Nine (Monday)
Novena Prayer to St. Michael and All Angels--Day NineMost holy angels, you whose zeal for the interests of God, wherever they need to be defended, carries you through the universe more rapidly than lightning, protect His cause in our souls and in virtue of the Divine Blood, obtain for us the signal grace of final perseverance.
St. Michael the Archangel, and all the Holy Angels, protect us in our combats, that we may not perish in the tremendous judgment of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
~Amen
Novena Prayer to St. Michael and All Angels--Day Nine (Monday)
Novena Prayer to St. Michael and All Angels--Day NineMost holy angels, you whose zeal for the interests of God, wherever they need to be defended, carries you through the universe more rapidly than lightning, protect His cause in our souls and in virtue of the Divine Blood, obtain for us the signal grace of final perseverance.
St. Michael the Archangel, and all the Holy Angels, protect us in our combats, that we may not perish in the tremendous judgment of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
~Amen
Novena Prayer to St. Michael and All Holy Angels--Day Eight
Novena Prayer to St. Michael and All Angels--Day EightMost noble Archangels, you who under the command of St. Michael, guard and protect the Holy Church, deign to deliver her from internal and external enemies. Watch over the Holy Father, as well as over all the children of the Immaculate Spouse of Christ and in virtue of the Divine Blood obtain for us the grace to live and die in the Faith, Hope and Charity of Holy Church so that we may be eternally united with its august head, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
St. Michael the Archangel, and all the Holy Angels, protect us in our combats, that we may not perish in the tremendous judgment of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
~Amen
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