March 4, 2024 Monday of Third week of Lent - Selected Reflections: See a need, fill a need, Myrtilla Miner

"If God allows to live, I will devote my entire life to teaching slaves" - Myrtilla Miner

The Catechism has shown us how the common good begins with the good of the individual. It further shows us that each individual can participate in the pursuit of the common good for all—and that this participation is not optional, but an obligation. Fr. Mike in his Catechism In a Year Podcast episode 253 explains the nature of this obligation in quite simple terms: “see a need, fill a need.”

Myrtilla Miner, born March 4, to a poor family near Brookfield, New York saw a need and filled it: Wanting to become a teacher, she took out a loan. She taught in New York and then went to Mississippi to pay off her school loan.  No need for debt relief, or debt cancelation.

In Mississippi Myrtilla saw slavery firsthand. She sought permission to hold classes for African-American girls in the community.  Her request was denied. Myrtilla found that freed slaves in the North, were not much better off than the slaves in Mississippi.

Because of her sympathy for the slaves, she was forced to leave Mississippi.In 1849, Miner returned to New York, where she taught in the town of Friendship, and developed a plan to train African American girls to become teachers for their people. She asked, “can slavery be removed when the free colored man remains degraded?”

With the financial aid from a Quaker philanthropist, donations of school supplies from friends and encouragement of Rev. Henry Beecher Towe, Myrtilla opened  a school for African-American girls . Initially Myrtilla held classes in her home, but soon started receiving threats, and with the help of benefactors helped her find a safer and permanent home.

From the beginning, Miner faced “rowdyism and incendiarism.” Much of this harassment targeted the teachers and students. Mobs attempted to burn down Miner’s school. The school met with formal opposition from the white community and city leaders such as former Mayor Walter Lenox. On May 6, 1857, Lenox bitterly denounced Ms. Miner and her school in the National Intelligencer.  Despite a constant barrage of bigotry, harassment, and threats of violence, Miner remained defiant and determined to teach African American girls. In the end, she prevailed. One of her students remarked that she was “one of the bravest women I have ever known.”

Due to illness, Miner stepped down from teaching in 1857. By then, the Board of Trustees included Samuel Janney, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s husband Calvin Stowe, and her brother Henry Ward Beecher.  Harriet Breecher wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin

Within five years six graduates of the Normal School for Colored Girls were teaching in schools.

Though her efforts to educate free African American girls were a moderate and indirect approach to ending slavery, the University of the District of Columbia traces the history of public higher education for African Americans in the city to Myrtilla Miner's School.

More Selected Lenten Reflections

March 2, 2024, Third Saturday of Lent - Selected Reflections: The Power of Prayer, Padre Pio 

February 29, 2024, Thursday, the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections: Leap for Joy!

The only Leap Year Pope is Pope Paul III, born on Italy on February 29, 1468

February 28, 2024, Wednesday the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections: Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican


When my neighbor fails to kill my family, then calls me to visit him in prison. What do I do?


February 26, 2024, Monday of the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections

"The only time our Lord asked the apostles for anything was the night He went into agony. Not for activity did he plead but for an hour of companionship." - Venerable Fulton J. Sheen


February 23 2024 Friday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections: Servant of God Julia Greely





February 22 2024 Thursday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections: Blessed Carlo Acutis Highway to Heaven

RELATED

#Antisemitic, #AntiChristian, #AntiUSA #NYT "reports" Prayer is over-rated "Prayer is the best weapon we possess, the key that opens the heart of God" - St. Padre Pio

March 2, 2024, Third Saturday of Lent - Selected Reflections: The Power of Prayer.

Pio of Pietrelcina, widely known as Padre Pio, was an Italian Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic. Padre Pio joined the Capuchins at fifteen and spent most of his religious life in the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo. While the Feast of Sr. Padre Pio falls on September 23, 2024, his devotion to prayer helps with a Lenten Reflection.

"Prayer is the best weapon we possess, the key that opens the heart of God" - St. Padre Pio

 Padre Pio was known for his deep love for the mass and his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He built a hospital to address physical and spiritual suffering.

Padre Pio had the miraculous gift of bilocation, being in two places at once. He received the stigmata after praying in church.


Saint Padre Pio had the gift of reading hearts in order to help penitent receive the fullness of God's mercy in the Sacrament of Penance, often hearing confessions 12 to 15 hours a day:  Customer care agents listening to mostly bad news eight hours per day easily become jaded and can become depressed if there's no relief valve. Call center burnout can lead to persistent feelings of negativity, anxiety and depression that culminate in low agent productivity and morale. Left unattended, it can snowball into physical conditions like headache, palpitation, panic attack and heart failure.

Saint John Paul II canonized Padre Pio on June 26, 2002.

St. Padre Pio joined the Capuchins at fifteen and spent most of his religious life in the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo. He was marked by stigmata in 1918,

He was the founder of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, a hospital built near the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo.

After his death, his devotion continued to spread among believers all over the world. He was beatified on 2 May 1999 and canonized on 16 June 2002 by Pope John Paul II. His relics are exposed in the sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, next to the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo.

More Selected Lenten Reflections

February 29, 2024, Thursday, the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections: Leap for Joy!

The only Leap Year Pope is Pope Paul III, born on Italy on February 29, 1468

February 28, 2024, Wednesday the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections: Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican


When my neighbor fails to kill my family, then calls me to visit him in prison. What do I do?


February 26, 2024, Monday of the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections

"The only time our Lord asked the apostles for anything was the night He went into agony. Not for activity did he plead but for an hour of companionship." - Venerable Fulton J. Sheen


February 23 2024 Friday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections: Servant of God Julia Greely





February 22 2024 Thursday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections: Blessed Carlo Acutis Highway to Heaven

RELATED

#Antisemitic, #AntiChristian, #AntiUSA #NYT "reports" Prayer is over-rated "Prayer is the best weapon we possess, the key that opens the heart of God" - St. Padre Pio

The pause heard around the World: Google's Pause on Gemini

On December 6, 2023, Google and Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai introduced Gemini as Google's "largest and most capable AI model"

In the introduction, Pichai writes "Every technology shift is an opportunity to advance sciIentific discovery, accelerate human progress, and improve lives. I believe the transition we are seeing right now with AI will be the most profound in our lifetimes, far bigger than the shift to mobile or to the web before it. AI has the potential to create opportunities — from the everyday to the extraordinary — for people everywhere. It will bring new waves of innovation and economic progress and drive knowledge, learning, creativity and productivity on a scale we haven’t seen before."






On the other hand Pope Francis in Laudate Deum writes:
"The ethical decadence of real power is disguised thanks to marketing and false information, useful tools in the hands of those with greater resources to employ them to shape public opinion. 29
Innovations start with the notion of a human being with no limits, whose abilities and possibilities can be infinitely expanded thanks to technology. In this way, the technocratic paradigm monstrously feeds upon itself."

Prichai supports Pope Francis' argument as he writes: "That’s what excites me: the chance to make AI helpful for everyone, everywhere in the world."

And the hyperbole continues "Nearly eight years into our journey as an AI-first company, the pace of progress is only accelerating: Millions of people are now using generative AI across our products to do things they couldn’t even a year ago, from finding answers to more complex questions to using new tools to collaborate and create. At the same time, developers are using our models and infrastructure to build new generative AI applications, and startups and enterprises around the world are growing with our AI tools."

Pfizer's Doctor Becci Corkill used a similar argument to sell the COVID Vaccine. Pfizer's Dr Becci Corkill refers to the Knowledge Doubling Curve as an enabler of innovation
and the reason consumers should not be afraid of the COVID Vaccine. The same people claim that after 120 billion births, gynecologists have learned nothing and pregnancy is so dangerous, abortion should be legalized to save the would-be mother.

Prichai continues "This is incredible momentum, and yet, we’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible. We’re approaching this work boldly and responsibly. That means being ambitious in our research and pursuing the capabilities that will bring enormous benefits to people and society, while building in safeguards and working collaboratively with governments and experts to address risks as AI becomes more capable. And we continue to invest in the very best tools, foundation models and infrastructure and bring them to our products and to others, guided by our AI Principles." Then all hell broke loose.


Prichai's pledge sounds very much like rocket science - like the Gemini Project: Project Gemini's objective was the development of space travel techniques to support the Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon. It was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Gemini was conceived in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual astronauts flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions during 1965.

Prichai then ups the ante: "Now, we’re taking the next step on our journey with Gemini, our most capable and general model yet, with state-of-the-art performance across many leading benchmarks. Our first version, Gemini 1.0, is optimized for different sizes: Ultra, Pro and Nano. These are the first models of the Gemini era and the first realization of the vision we had when we formed Google DeepMind earlier this year. This new era of models represents one of the biggest science and engineering efforts we’ve undertaken as a company. I’m genuinely excited for what’s ahead, and for the opportunities Gemini will unlock for people everywhere."

In no time, Google makes Pope Francis' Laudate Deum analysis sound prophetic: Forbes' Megan Poinski writes "It’s been a week of apologies for Google after taking its Gemini AI human image generation capabilities offline. A week ago, the company paused that ability after Gemini returned historically inaccurate racial depictions of people. An apology came almost immediately from Google senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan, in which the company acknowledged its mistakes and promised to work toward improvement. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also sent an internal note to employees on Tuesday, saying the issue was “completely unacceptable,” and saying teams are working around the clock to fix the issue."


Earlier, Elon Musk posted on X that Google executives acknowledged Gemini's shortcoming and would be fixing them;





None of that seemed to matter to the Woke crowd like Wired's David Gilbert's who blamed Google's pause not on its shortcomings but on the "far-right" "Google has hit pause on Gemini’s ability to generate images of people after a far-right backlash to its historical depictions," he wrote.

Blaming the far-right for Gemini's flaws is like blaming a gun for killing an innocent victim abd not the the criminal. Not unlike the argument used for gun control.


Introducing woke Gemini:







When users asked Gemini for images of historical Chinese kings, it displayed Asian men in royal regalia. But when users asked it to create an image of an English king, the top results included a woman and a black man.


Requests for pictures of a pope returned renderings of nuns holding the papal ferula.


A request for an image of a 1943 German soldier generated a black soldier sporting a Wehrmacht uniform.


When users asked for an image of a black or an Asian couple, you got it.

When asked for an image of a white couple, it unleashed a woke morality lecture: ‘To avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes and biases,’ Gemini is ‘unable to generate images of people based on specific ethnicities and skin tones.’

Fixing Google's is not a technical but a cultural one. For decades, it has thrived on its woke culture, where culture is the beliefs, values, traditions, and opinions of a group of people,  influenced by region, religion, information and groupthink

For example:
Google listed CA GOP Idiology as Nazism

Did you see how Google handled Dominion Software after allegations of election interference?


Google Censors Pro-Life, Pushes Abortion Agenda

Google is a participant in ventures it knows directly benefit Communist China

Google Supports China's Communist Party More Than US Military

Google Continues Censorship of Criticism of CCP

Google employees demand the company does not work with US Immigration

What can you expect from an artificial intelligence tool developed in this uber progressive, AntiChristian, AntiUSA culture?  Garbage In, Garbage Out. It's the system development's law.

To fix Google's Gemini requires a completely new culture, which means heads have to roll:  you cannot design an inexpensive widget in an expensive suite, for example.

RELATED

ChatGPT and Google Gemini Are Both Doomed

AI as the New Tower of Babel aka Gologle's Gemini


To Err Is Human, But To really foul up requires Artificial intelligence tools like Google's Gemini.

A design speaks volumes about the culture it was developed under.

Google's AntiChristian, AntiUSA
culture has been marinating for decades

Google abandoned "don't be evil" — and Gemini is the result


“It’s increasingly apparent that Gemini is among the more disastrous product rollouts in the history of Silicon Valley,” writes Nate Silver at Silver Bulletin. 

The AI’s results are “heavily inflected with politics” that render it “biased” and “inaccurate” — and Google’s explanations are “pretty close to gaslighting.” 

Google chief says the company got it wrong after Gemini's responses sparked a bitter backlash. Read the full memo.

There are growing calls for Google CEO Sundar Pichai to step down


Duh

A design speaks volumes about the culture it was developed under.

Google's AntiChristian, AntiUSA
culture has been in a downward spiral for decades.  To change the culture, heads need to roll

A First-of-Its-Kind Signal Was Detected in The Human Brain


Google's #Gemini was asked to decipher the message. The output?

‘To avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes and biases, about artificial stupidity,  Gemini is unable to decipher oeopke's messages which may reveal content of their character."

⁶

February 29, 2024, Thursday, the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections: Leap for Joy!

The only Leap Year Pope is Pope Paul III, born on Italy on February 29, 1468.








Pope Paul III set up a council to study problems in the church. The report, Consilium de emendenda ecclesia, formed the basis for the work of the upcoming Council of Trent. This report also came into the hands of the Protestant opposition, who used its criticisms to bolster their own attack on the Catholic Church

Pope Paul III convenved the Council of Trent in 1545

The Council of Trent was perhaps one of the most important events in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, which shaped its direction for at least the next 300 years.

As a patron of the arts, he oversaw completion of Michelangelo's fresco the Last Judgment, depicting the Second Coming of Christ and the final judgment by God.


Pope Paul III established in 1549, the religious order, the Society of Jesus, known as Jesuits, of which Pope Francis is a member of.He also approved the Spiritual Exercises developed by St. Ignatius Loyola, which includes meditations, prayers and Contemplative practices to deepen one's relationship with God.

Pope Paul III died in 1549 and is buried in a tomb designed by Michelangelo.





The Catholic Catechism
(2502) teaches art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God - the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.



More Selected Lenten Reflections




February 28, 2024, Wednesday the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections: Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican


When my neighbor fails to kill my family, then calls me to visit him in prison. What do I do?


February 26, 2024, Monday of the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections

"The only time our Lord asked the apostles for anything was the night He went into agony. Not for activity did he plead but for an hour of companionship." - Venerable Fulton J. Sheen


February 23 2024 Friday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections: Servant of God Julia Greely





February 22 2024 Thursday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections: Blessed Carlo Acutis Highway to Heaven

February 28, 2024, Wednesday the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections: Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican

When my neighbor fails to kill my family, then calls me to visit him in prison. What do I do?

Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty was born on this day in 1898 in Kiskeam, County Cork, Ireland.

 

Monsignor O’Flaherty was a charismatic Irish priest assigned to work for the Holy See while studying in Rome, used his connections to save lives of thousands, estimated at 65,000.

When the Gestapo learned what Monsignor O’Flaherty’s was doing, they painted a white line across St Peter's Square dividing the neutral Vatican from Nazi-controlled Rome. Guards stood watched, but never saw him, because he used disguises and became known as the "Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican" - as portrayed by Gregory Peck in the movie The Scarlet and the Black.

When the war was over, the Gestapo chief Herbert Kappler, who wanted to capture, torture and kill Monsignor O'Flaherty was sentenced to life in prison, Monsignor O’Flaherty visited the convicted war criminal. In prison, Kappler converted to Catholicism.


Monsignor O'Flaherty was an Irish Catholic priest, a senior official of the Roman Curia and a significant figure in the Catholic resistance to Nazism. During the Second World War, O'Flaherty was responsible for saving 6,500 Allied soldiersout and Jews. His ability to evade the traps set by the German Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst (SDq q) earned him the nickname The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican

When the Nazis began to crack down on prominent Jews and aristocratic anti-fascists. the Monsignor hid them in farms, monasteries, convents, his old college and his own residence. He visited American prisoners held in harsh conditions in Italian jails and began to offer shelter to Allied servicemen who turned up at the Vatican looking for sanctuary. His operation helped escaped prisoners-of-war and shot-down pilots. He recruited a group to assist him and set up a network of safe houses in Rome to hide them. Allied military who evaded capture or were able to escape, made their way to the Vatican seeking asylum and went to the Irish Embassy there – the only English-speaking embassy to remain open in Rome during the war. 

The great singer, Delia Murphy Kiernan was an Irish singer and collector of Irish ballads. She recorded several 78 rpm records in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. During World War II, she aided Vatican official, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty,  while her husband, Dr. Thomas J. Kiernan, was the Irish Ambassador in Rome from 

By the end if the war, Monsignor and his group had helped more than 6,500 Jews, American and British Soldiers escape the Nazis and he was referred to as “The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican.” He also became a master of disguises to avoid capture from the Germans when he had to go beyond the 'White Line’ on his rescue missions. The White Line was a line painted on the streets outside the Vatican on the instructions of Herbert Kappler, the head of the Gestapo, to mark the point where the Vatican’s authority ended, and Nazi rule began. Kappler had learned of O’Flaherty’s operation and reminded O’Flaherty that if he was caught beyond that line he would be executed! In March 1944, after the Italian Resistance killed 33 German soldiers in a bomb attack, Hitler demanded revenge. Kappler ordered 10 Italians killed for each German soldier killed. His men killed 335 people in the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome. It was the worst atrocity on Italian soil during the War. Kappler also tried several times to kidnap and kill O’Flaherty and placed a bounty of 30,000 Lire on his head. Meanwhile, O’Flaherty continued to outwit Kappler with fake credentials and documents, a secret communication network and by evading capture by the Gestapo.

At the War Crimes trial after the war, Kappler was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole for the Ardeatine Caves massacre. In a surprising move, Italy’s most hated prisoner wrote to his old rival inviting Msgr. O’Flaherty to visit him in prison; the Kerry cleric immediately went to meet with his former foe. Their meetings became regular affairs during which they discussed religion and literature. The Monsignor joked, “Here I am with this man who put 30,000 lire on my head and now we are sort of pals.” The feeling was mutual as Kappler described O’Flaherty as “a fatherly friend”. After his sentence, Kappler, who was Protestant, called on the Monsignor and the two men prayed together after which Msgr. O’Flaherty baptized Kappler. In what was probably Monsignor O’Flaherty’s greatest victory, Italy’s most notorious Nazi was welcomed into the Catholic Church by the very man he had tried so hard to kill.

More Selected Lenten Reflections 

February 26, 2024, Monday of the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections

"The only time our Lord asked the apostles for anything was the night He went into agony. Not for activity did he plead but for an hour of companionship." - Venerable Fulton J. Sheen


February 23 2024 Friday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections:  Servant of God Julia Greely

February 22 2024 Thursday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections:  Blessed Carlo Acutis Highway to Heaven

St Gregory of Narek, most beloved Armenian theologian and Doctor if the Church

February 27 marks the feast of  Saint Gregory of Narek and Doctor of the Church,  and  the most beloved and significant theological and literary figure of the Armenian religious tradition.

Gregory was an Armenian mystical and lyrical poet, monk, and theologian. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic Churches and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2015.


The son of a bishop, Gregory was educated, ordained, and later stationed at Narekavank on the southern shores of Lake Van, modern Turkey. Scholars consider Gregory the most beloved and significant theological and literary figure of the Armenian religious tradition.

He is best known for his Book of Lamentations, a significant piece of mystical literature which serves as a confessional prayer book in many Armenian religious households. His works have inspired many Armenian literary figures and influenced Armenian literature in general throughout the ages

Saint Gregory was born in a village on the shores of Lake Van  circa 945,  in the Armenian town of Andzevatsik, located in modern-day Turkey. 

After the death of his parents. Gregor and his older brother were raised by a scholarly uncle who had them educated at the Narek monastery in the village of Narek on the south shore of Lake Van, which is also located in modern-day Turkey, and remained a monk there until his death in 1003.  The monastery was a prominent center of learning located in what is now Turkey. Gregory too entered the monastery and was ordained in 977

There are over 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. However, only a few dozen of them have been named a doctor of the church, an honorific that recognizes the importance of their teaching, scholarship and writings.

A professor of theology, Saint Gregory wrote a mystical interpretation of the Song of Songs,

which is notable for its ample use of earlier Greek commentators on the biblical book, particularly Gregory of Nyssa. Though St. Gregory of Narek is the author of many works, his fame rests upon the Book of Lamentations

also known as the Book of Prayer. He described his poem as “an encyclopedia of prayer for all nations.” This classic of Armenian literature has been translated into 30 languages. The Russian text of the Book of Lamentations was set to music in 1985.

His poetry is deeply biblical and suffused with the images, themes, figures, and events of salvation history, while at the same time being intensely personal. In form, his theology is not an intellectual reflection upon God, but rather a dialogue with God in prayer, “speaking with God from the depths of the heart.” According to Gregory, the goal in life is to reach God, to achieve union with God, insofar as human nature allows, to erase the differences between God and humans. This union cannot take place at the level of the intellect, but only at the level of the heart and feelings through experience of God

St. Gregory of Narek lived and died as a member of Armenian Apostolic Church, making him the only Doctor who was not in communion with the Catholic Church during his lifetime.

To the present day, the Armenian Church preserves a very ancient tradition of Christianity. Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity officially,  years before Constantine converted to Christianity and initiated the Christianization of the Roman Empire.

In the aftermath of the Council of Constantinople in 553, however, the Armenian Church severed its ties with the Latin- and Greek-speaking churches over Christological differences, becoming most closely aligned with the Syriac and Coptic Orthodox Churches. As in many Christian traditions prior to modern times, in Armenian Christianity, monasticism was seen as a fundamental expression of the Christian life. Hundreds of vibrant monasteries were founded. Unlike western monasteries, which tended to be isolated from lay persons and political centers, Armenian monasteries were deeply integrated in the ordinary lives of lay Christians, and monks were seen by kings as trusted advisors and confidants. Monasteries were also centers of Christian learning and education. Kings often sent their sons to monasteries to be educated. The chief scholars were known as vardapets, Armenian for “church teachers.” One such vardapet was St. Gregory of Narek.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, pointed to four areas of special distinction in the doctrine of St. Gregory of Narek which contributed to his being named a Doctor of the Church: (1) his realistic appreciation for the gravity of sin, which limits human beings and makes them incapable of speaking with God without the mediation of the incarnate Word; (2) his profound dogmatic reflections on the mystery of the holy Trinity; (3) his defense of the sacraments as efficacious mediations of divine grace in the Church; and (4) his devotion to Mary, particularly in her role as mediator between God and humanity.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in St. Gregory among Roman Catholics. Pope St. John Paul II laid the groundwork for this. He mentioned St. Gregory, with approval, in several speeches, in the 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer), and in the 2001 Apostolic Letter to the Armenian church. The Armenian saint is also mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Art. 2678), where his hymns to Mary are praised. In 1996, John Paul II and Armenian Apostolic Catholicos Karekin I issued a common declaration of faith in Christ, in which they agreed that they believe the same things about Christ, even if they express these things in different language—language which in the past unfortunately led to divisions between Catholics and Armenians in the aftermath of the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. Thus, this statement effectively exonerates St. Gregory of any “Christological” errors: even if St. Gregory was not in communion with the Catholic Church, in doctrinal matters there was complete agreement

The monastery where St. Gregory of Narek lived had remained active until 1915 when it was abandoned. It was destroyed by the Turks in the 1950s, and a mosque was built on its site. By naming St. Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church, Pope Francis is not only recommending the writings and exemplary life of a great poet and theologian for our intellectual and spiritual enrichment, but also showing the solidarity of the Roman Catholic Church with the Armenian Church­—a very powerful statement in the face of those who continue to deny the Armenian Genocide

Armenians want Turkey to admit the Genocide, not only because it is the truth, but also because admission is necessary for justice. It would also be the first step for reparations. Armenians suffered tremendous losses of life, property, and cultural heritage. 

Saint Gregory pray for Christian unity as Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians"

"I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.

For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.

I mean that each of you is saying, “I belong to* Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”


Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I give thanks [to God] that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say you were baptized in my name.

(I baptized the household of Stephanas also; beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning." 1 Corinthians 1:11

Saint Gregory Narek Prayers

February 26, 2024, Monday of the Second Week in Lent - Selected Reflections

"The only time our Lord asked the apostles for anything was the night He went into agony. Not for activity did he plead but for an hour of companionship." - Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

On the night before he was betrayed,  Jesus went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. He took Peter, James, and John.

When he returned, Jesus found the disciples sleeping. He said to Peter, "so you could not keep watch with me for one hour?

It used to be  easy to muse at the choices the disciples made, either because of lack of faith or intelligence, such as when Jesus 

"began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do" - Mark 8:31

 No longer.

One hour of companionship with the Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity of Jesus Christ.

When I keep watch with Christ during Adoration for just one hour, I'm often reminded of how Peter, James, and John repeatedly fell asleep despite his apparent anguish and his requests that they pray with Him.

More Selected Lenten Reflections 

February 23 2024 Friday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections:  Servant of God Julia Greely

February 22 2024 Thursday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections:  Blessed Carlo Acutis Highway to Heaven

February 23, 2024, Friday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections

An Angel with a Little Red Wagon. An illiterate freed slave, who was blinded in one eye as a small child after being grazed by a slave master's whip upon her mother, is one of six American Black Catholics on the road to Sainthood. 

Servant of God Julia Greey was born in Missouri. After being emancipated in 1865, she earned a living working for white families in several states, spending most of her time in Denver, Colorado.

Although Julia herself was poor, and despite the immense suffering in her life, she had a great capacity to both love and forgive.

She entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denverin 1880 and received the Eucharist daily. When asked why she continued her fast even after communion, she is quoted as saying "Communion is my breakfast."

She had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus abd witnessed to the Lord's tender mercy by serving others.  She was known as the Angel of Charity and was often seen around town with a Little Red Wagon carrying food, clothing and firewood to those in need. When necessary, she begged for the items and delivered in secret or after dark so those she helped wouldn't be embarrassed.   - From The Little Black Book Six-minute meditations on the Passion according to Luke.

About The Little Black Book
Six-minute meditations on the Passion according to Luke.

This Lenten booklet is based on the writings of Bishop Ken Untener.
Little Books are produced in Saginaw, Michigan, by editor and writer Erin Looby Carlson
ⁿ

For more on Servant of God Julia Greeley:

February 22 2024 Thursday, First Week of Lent, Selected Lenten Reflections:  Blessed Carlo Acutis Highway to Heaven

Julia Greeley: The journey from slavery to Sainthood

Julia Greeley: The journey from slavery to Sainthood, one of six American Black Catholics on the road to Sainthood including Pierre Toussaint, Mother Mary Lange, Henriette DeLille, Augustus Tolton, and Sr. Thea Bowman.


Julia Greeley, was born into slavery, at Hannibal, Missouri, sometime between 1833 and 1848. While she was still a young child, a cruel slavemaster, in the course of beating her mother, caught Julia’s right eye with his whip and destroyed it. This disfigurement remained with Greeley the rest of her life. She became referred to as "one-eyed Julia."

She did not seek revenge. She did not invoke the known use of t the Code of Hammurabi: a "tooth for a tooth." Rather, as Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans "Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Rather, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” - Romans 12:19

 1865, Greeley was freed during the American Civil War, though not by the Emancipation Proclamation (as Missouri was a border state and had to enact its own emancipation laws after the fact). Greeley moved to Denver and in 1879 became a cook and nanny to Julia Pratte Dickerson of St. Louis, a widow who would later marry William Gilpin – who had been appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as the first territorial Governor of Colorado.

 Julia Greeley was baptized into the Catholic Church on June 26, 1880, at Sacred Heart Church in Denver, and became especially devoted to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Holy Eucharist, receiving Holy Communion daily. Despite secretly suffering from painful arthritis, she tirelessly walked the city streets distributing literature from the Sacred Heart League to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Julia was an outstanding supporter of all that the parish had to offer. The Jesuits who ran the parish considered her the most enthusiastic promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus they had ever seen. Every month she visited on foot every fire station in Denver and delivered literature of the Sacred Heart League to the firemen, Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Julia Greeley: one of six American Black Catholics on the road to Sainthood including Pierre Toussaint, Mother Mary Lange, Henriette DeLille, Augustus Tolton, and Sr. Thea Bowman

Despite working long hours taking care of children, cooking and cleaning, she would often be seen walking at night through the streets of Denver pulling a small wagon of food and supplies, which she would deliver to poor families. 

Greeley spent the majority of her time helping others and completing church duties. When the Gilpins died, Greeley began to do labor work for a number of wealthy white families. With this money she made, she decided to give it all away to people who needed it. She pulled a red wagon through the streets of Denver in the dark to bring food, coal, clothing, and groceries to needy families. She made her rounds after dark so as not to embarrass white families ashamed to accept charity from a poor, black woman.

Whatever she did not need for herself, Julia spent assisting poor families in her neighborhood. When her own resources were inadequate, she begged for food, fuel and clothing for the needy. One writer later called her a “one-person St. Vincent de Paul Society.” 

One of her major acts of kindness was when she donated her own burial plot for an African American man who died. He was going to be laid into a pauper's grave, but Greeley refused to let it happen. After this, many people began to call her the "colored angel of charity" because of her kindness. Because of all her dedication to families in poverty, she was officially named "Denver's Angel of Charity



A daily communicant, Julia had a rich devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin and continued her prayers while working and moving about. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was active in it till her death in 1918.

As she lived in a boarding house, Julia’s body was laid out in church, and immediately many hundreds of people began filing pass her coffin to pay their grateful respect. She was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery (sect. 8, Block 7), and to the present day many people have been asking that her cause be considered for canonization, a request which was finally granted in the Fall of 2016. Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila formally opened the sainthood cause of Julia Greeley, qduring a Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Denver in late December 2016.

As part of the Cause for Canonization, Julia’s mortal remain were transferred to Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on June 7, 2017

February 22, 2024, Thursday of the First Week in Lent Blessed Carlo Acutis Highway to Heaven: Selected Lenten Reflections From The Little Black Book:

Blessed Carlo Acutis, an Italian teen who wore a track suit and tennis shoes, who enjoyed playing soccer and loved going to Mass, is on the path to Sainthood.






Blessed Carlo Acutis inspired those around him, including his own mother. He had a deep faith, generous heart, and was known for going out of his way to help those in need. He came to the rescue of kids being picked on, bought sleeping bags for the homeless and used his computer knowledge to share his deep love for the Eucharist.

The gifted computer programmer created a website documenting Eucharistic miracles around the globe. He went to daily Mass and made a Holy Hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament as often as possible. He called the Eucharist his "Highway to Heaven." On his website he wrote: "The more often we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.

In 2006, the teen who impacted the faith of many through the witness of his life died at the age of 15, just weeks after being diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia. He offered his suffering for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church.


On this day on 2020, Pope Francis announced that a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Carlo Acutis had been approved. This cleared the way for his beatification on October 10, 2020- From The Little Black Book Six-minute meditations on the Passion according to Luke.


About The Little Black Book
Six-minute meditations on the Passion according to Luke.

This Lenten booklet is based on the writings of Bishop Ken Untener.
Little Books are produced in Saginaw, Michigan, by editor and writer Erin Looby Carlson

More on Blessed Carlo Acutis

Carlo's witness of faith led to a deep conversion in his mom, because, according to the priest promoting his cause for sainthood, he “managed to drag his relatives, his parents to Mass every day.
Carlo is set to be the first millennial saint and is already known as the "patron saint of the internet"


Reportedly Carlo's last words:
"To be always united with Jesus, this is my plan of life. living with Jesus, for Jesus, in Jesus. I am happy to die because I lived my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God”.

Children On Psychiatric Drugs Hoax

The #NewYorkTimes'
@MattRichtel and the Legacy media
just "found" a new study: "More Young People Are on Multiple Psychiatric Drugs, Study Finds" - which illustrates both Occam's Razor and the ancient proverb: follow the science, not the so-called scientists, Propagandists or corruptpoliticians.




As far back as 2018, even the NIH needed to be "elucidated" about ADHD drug overprescription:
"Indeed, evidence from several countries shows that there has been an increase, over the last decades, in the prescription rate of ADHD medications.[13–16] However, to what extent the increase in prescription rates can be considered an “overprescribing phenomenon” remains to be elucidated"

In 2014, a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (one of the largest long-term analysis of preschoolers with ADHD) concluded that there may be little benefit in drug therapy for young children with ADHD.


Yet, in 2010 Sir Ken Robinson was telling us about the mental health drug hoax:

 

We also know that since. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr was an obstacle to progressive policies, he had to be canceled.

 
MLK Jr. death cleared the way for the uber progressive Warren Court's Decision: the Court found that teaching children about wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord., charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity was too radical, all hell broke lose.


Using analysis tools like the Ishikawa Cause-Effect Diagram, the Pareto Rule, Security Professionals' Attack Tree and or Occam's Razor, they all suggest that after the uber progressive Warren SCOTUS (1963) decision, we have had
[ ] A mental health crisis
[ ] Infanticide turned into #BlackGenocide
[ ] African American nuclear family has joined the Sea Turtles in the extinct list - compare to 2% divorce rate for couples using NFP
[ ] [80% of AA kids are raised in fatherless homes
[ ] Replaced faith-based Gleaning with SNAP
[ ] [AIDS epidemic
[ ] Opiod crisis
[ ] We have a fatherlesssness crisis
[ ] A Girlhood Crisis
[ ] A Trans Crisis.
[ ] Obesity crisis