Saturday, August 7, 2021

CANDLELIGHTS ON THE RIVER FOR PEACE AND DISARMAMENT

Friends,

We invite you to be part of a prayer vigil on anniversary of Nagasaki bombing with resuming our candlelights on the water, this coming Monday evening. Spread the word to those who may be able to come.

In Christ's peace,

Mike & Ande McCarthy 810 9822870, 887 7000

CANDLELIGHTS ON THE RIVER

FOR PEACE AND DISARMAMENT

Monday Aug. 9th, 2021

A prayer vigil in commemoration of all those who have died in war

To commit ourselves to put an end to war

On the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

So that future generations may live in peace

Come pray for conversion from the arms race, on the banks of the St. Clair River, at the new River Walk in Port Huron {midway down the walk at the reef barriers}

{enter from the end of Griswold St. south of the YMCA, park and cross the field over to a small beach at water’s edge}

At 9:15 PM, Monday Aug. 9^th, 2021 -- For info--Mike McCarthy 982 2870

Have we yet listened to, or even heard, the voice of the U. S. Catholic Bishops, spoken in their “The Challenge of Peace” pastoral letter of 1983?

“After the passage of nearly four decades and a concomitant growth in our understanding of the ever growing horror of nuclear war, we must shape the climate of opinion which will make it possible for our country to express profound sorrow over the atomic bombing in 1945. Without that sorrow, there is no possibility of finding a way to repudiate future use of nuclear weapons…”

We found none invading Iraq, but we have more than 10,000 nuclear weapons here in our homeland, and plan on making new generations of them ourselves. We are by far the biggest arms supplier in the world. It’s time to follow the Gospel’s advice: “Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.” Mt 7:5

Unjust wars rage in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Israel, Sudan, Ukraine, Libya, Syria, drug wars in Mexico, Central and Latin America … This tragic violence should touch our consciences--our choices of vocations, jobs, our uses of time and money. Do these support war or peace? Do these follow the way of Caesar, or the way of Jesus?

Come, pray, help prepare the way of the Peaceable Kingdom.

“Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.” -- Martin Luther King

“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, family man who wouldn’t fight in Hitler’s Wars—executed 8-9-43

Pray for us, and help us renounce nuclear war forever

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

JESUS PRESENT TO US IN THE EUCHARIST - AN INVITATION

I go to daily mass frequently, because I believe we receive there the real presence of an all-merciful God. God becomes part of us in a special intimate and incarnate way, through His Word and the Eucharist. We all need to be unconditionally loved, and that is what is offered to us, and then expected of us in return, for us to share with each other and the wider community. What a blessing!

his past week something I wrote on this was published in Our Sunday Visitor, one of the three national Catholic weekly newspapers I know of. On the conservative/liberal continuum, it would be at center, with the National Catholic Reporter to the left, and the National Catholic Register to the right. The sacrifice of the Mass and the reception of Holy Communion are at the center of our faith. In a time of pandemic and political strife, they should be deep sources of our New Evangelization, spreading the Gospel outward to all in need.

Is Jesus Really There? Yes!!!

From the July 25-31, 2021 Our Sunday Visitor

Reference - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/05/transubstantiation-eucharist-u-s-catholics/

Illumination by Kathy Brahney

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

To our editors ---Missing central fact to Fedex killings--the weapon of choice.

8 KILLED AT INDIANA FEDEX PLANT
So drones the headline on this 4-17-21 USA Today/Port Huron Times Herald article.  Such headlines are becoming a murder mantra in the USA.  

What is glaringly absent in this AP article is the identity of the specific weapon in this mass killing.  The 19 year old shooter had been reported to police by his mom as a threatened “suicide by cop,” a year earlier.  He did his killing of 8 people super fast—“the slayings took place in a matter of minutes.”  We are told first, police “seized a gun,” later in the story called a “rifle.”  Please come clean America, and identify the weapon!  Any chance it was a military style large magazined assault rifle?  Give the agent of destruction a name, whatever the caliber.  Until we all are able to face our fascination with violently lethal weaponry, and its power grab, we’ll continue to commit societal suicide.

We must not make guns a false idol.  Jesus teaches us a totally different way to combat violent powers.  To be wise as serpents yet gentle as doves—the strength of unconditional love.  A small part of this love is to ban assault weapons in the community at large, and limit the use of guns in our wounded country.

nd from Juhttps://amp.indystar.com/amp/7294595002?fbclid=IwAR2Bp-kwwdFVWc6UPltpceV_KNkIEKmS6Yfd2X9s9aCx9qxs79-1Cfe-epI

The truth from Justin Cannon different newspaper -

https://amp.indystar.com/amp/7294595002?fbclid=IwAR2Bp-kwwdFVWc6UPltpceV_KNkIEKmS6Yfd2X9s9aCx9qxs79-1Cfe-e

Monday, March 15, 2021

CAN TRUTH SAVE OUR STILL FRAGILE DEMOCRACY?

This article was something I wrote soon after the attack on our nation's capitol January 6th. The issues remain the same. A well-informed public is the absolute requirement for real democracy to survive. We need to know the truth, each voter individually and equally responsible, and that sets us free to choose a practical politics providing fundamental liberty and justice for all--inclusive, not exclusive. And then we must recognize and cultivate our interconnectedness with the rest of the world's peoples.

From Boston University article--Jan. 7, 2021

“Police Outnumber Protestors” was our local 1-18-21 Times Herald front page headline, with large frontpage photo of Army Humvees out in force at our Michigan state Capitol in Lansing. Over a week before this, “Trump Backers Storm Capitol” was the small format header with business card sized photo squeezed in at the top of the 1-7-21 Times Herald. Small potatoes the day after a physical attack on our nation’s democracy and the violent invasion of our U.S. Capitol building. There was no frontpage story on this historic Capitol crisis. Instead, articles on marijuana facilities, postponing of downtown’s Chilly Fest, and Family Video’s closing.

The halls of Congress were under siege January 6th, and then occupied for 5 hours by right wing rioters, spouting talk of revolution and threatening our elected representatives, in the name of our ex-president. People died and more were injured in this desecration of the place where the work of a civil democracy should be conducted.

The serious nature of this violent act, encouraged by an ego driven President Trump, rejecting the results of an election which has been validated by all state and federal authorities *, must be recognized and resoundingly repudiated. It deserves much more attention by local press, and the politicians of every party. That 139 Representatives, and 8 Senators, all Republicans, still voted against accepting the decision of some of the states’ electors for soon to be President Joe Biden, after such a debacle, is a great shame. There are solid articles and editorials appearing in the conservative Wall Street Journal that outline our problem—we are a very divided nation in which too many pay very little attention to verifiable facts in our political discussions. [see below for references]. The Wall Street Journal, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among others, have called for President Trump to resign. Many of the banks who’ve done business with him are now putting a stop to his credit.

What we saw on January 6, 2021 was an organized riot meant to be chaotic and intimidating. Certainly only a segment of the 30,000 that came to protest were invaders, but all led credence to a lie—that the 2020 election was stolen. We must all do better. Watch, listen to and read respectable, verifiable sources of news, agencies which have editors and producers who routinely check the facts, value and investigate their stories and commentaries. Choose more than one or two news outlets, and certainly ones with some contrasting general political perspectives. If we are to preserve our democracy we must become better informed.

[For good worldwide vision, I look to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal each with divergent editorial bent, but each diligent in pursuit of facts. The Times Herald gives me local news and perspective, with a USA Today focus on national and world news. The Drudge Report is a composite of news sources, tending conservative. I watch and listen to NPR, Public Televisions PBS News Hour, and surf the other major TV networks news including Fox. CBS’s 60 Minutes has merit. Facebook and other such story spreaders are rarely to be trusted, unless they provide links to credible sources with fact checking content editors. Electronic algorithms are no substitute for editors, providing only a bare minimum of oversight.]

Amid storming and looting the Capitol Building on January 6, pro-Trump rioters also attacked the press pool outside the building and destroyed their news gear. Photo by Michael Nigro--Getty Images

http://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/what-does-the-attack-on-democracy-mean-for-journalists/

In our Catholic Church Jan 6^th is recognized as the Feast of the Epiphany, when the Magi, kings of the world, came to pay homage to the Savior born in a stable—a humble place for the beginning of God’s birth into humanity. This Jesus came to save us from our sins, teaching us that the truth, mercy, forgiveness, and loving our enemies is the way to eternal life. The word epiphany means a revelation.

http://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/is-the-attack-on-the-us-capitol-populism/

This past Jan 6^th should also be a revealed warning. If we continue to follow the leads of pride, greed, self-righteous hatred, and uninformed arrogance, we will ignore and miss the message of the newborn in the manger—that our true security and happiness comes from reconciling our differences, loving each other as God loves us unconditionally, despite the real difficulties of race, political party, or social class. Blessed are the Peacemakers. God does not discriminate, demands true justice, and is the healer of all pain.

It’s time to put away our swords of division, conquer the pandemic, and share the good things we’ve been given with our neighbors, and the rest of the world. Kings must bow before Truth, born in a stable.