Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2011

"You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him." (cf. Col 2: 12) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Lenten period, which leads us to the celebration of Holy Easter, is for the Church a most valuable and important liturgical time, in view of which I am pleased to offer a specific word in order that it may be lived with due diligence. As she awaits the definitive encounter with her Spouse in the eternal Easter, the Church community, assiduous in prayer and charitable works, intensifies her journey in purifying the spirit, so as to draw more abundantly from the Mystery of Redemption the new life in Christ the Lord (cf. Preface I of Lent).

1. This very life was already bestowed upon us on the day of our Baptism, when we "become sharers in Christ’s death and Resurrection", and there began for us "the joyful and exulting adventure of his disciples" (Homily on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 10 January, 2010). In his Letters, St. Paul repeatedly insists on the singular communion with the Son of God that this washing brings about. The fact that, in most cases, Baptism is received in infancy highlights how it is a gift of God: no one earns eternal life through their own efforts. The mercy of God, which cancels sin and, at the same time, allows us to experience in our lives "the mind of Christ Jesus" (Phil 2: 5), is given to men and women freely.The Apostle to the Gentiles, in the Letter to the Philippians, expresses the meaning of the transformation that takes place through participation in the death and resurrection of Christ, pointing to its goal: that "I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of his sufferings by being molded to the pattern of his death, striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead" (Phil 3: 10-11). Hence, Baptism is not a rite from the past, but the encounter with Christ, which informs the entire existence of the baptized, imparting divine life and calling for sincere conversion; initiated and supported by Grace, it permits the baptized to reach the adult stature of Christ.

A particular connection binds Baptism to Lent as the favorable time to experience this saving Grace. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council exhorted all of the Church’s Pastors to make greater use "of the baptismal features proper to the Lenten liturgy" (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum concilium, n. 109). In fact, the Church has always associated the Easter Vigil with the celebration of Baptism: this Sacrament realizes the great mystery in which man dies to sin, is made a sharer in the new life of the Risen Christ and receives the same Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Rm 8: 11). This free gift must always be rekindled in each one of us, and Lent offers us a path like that of the catechumenate, which, for the Christians of the early Church, just as for catechumens today, is an irreplaceable school of faith and Christian life. Truly, they live their Baptism as an act that shapes their entire existence.

Michigan GOP Majority Eyes ‘Right to Work’ Legislation

The battle for America is playing out dramatically in the nation's heartland.  This struggle between two classes of Americans -- hard working taxpayers described by Obama as "clinging to their guns and Bibles," and the Obamunists -- socialist, governmental elites who fancy themselves the ruling class, and believe they know what's best for the rest of us.  Using the Cloward-Piven Strategy and their handbook for revolution, Rules for Radicals, they are intent on bankrupting and destroying the old Republic so that they might impose a new Marxist order.

Wisconsin makes clear that Americans should get their children out of schools that exist for the benefit of leftist governmental unions.  They provide indoctrination; they most assuredly do not provide education.  Their own test scores testify in every state that they utterly fail to provide the education most parents want for their children.

We believe the outcome of the battle in Wisconsin and other states is crucial to the survival and success of liberty in America.  In this regard, we are not surprised that one of the greatest freedom fighters we have known, and a Sunlit Uplands Contributing Editor, Gary Glenn, is playing a leadership role on what may be a battlefield even more challenging than Wisconsin.

The Michigan Messenger reports:

"Gary Glenn, who runs the American Family Association of Michigan, scored his first legislative scores in Idaho pushing for Right to Work legislation there. Idaho approved Right to Work 25 years ago, and Glenn recently returned to celebrate that win. He says Right to Work is really about civil rights.

'State Right to Work laws are civil rights measures that protect employees against job discrimination on the basis of union affiliation by prohibiting collective bargaining agreements which require employees to join or pay dues to a labor union as a condition of continued employment, i.e., ‘pay up or you’re fired.’ The result is that each individual is free to choose for himself whether to join or financially support a union at his place of work, without fearing discrimination, retribution, or termination for whichever choice he makes,' Glenn said. 'Obviously, employees in Right to Work states are just as free to exercise their federally-guaranteed right to join or support a union if they wish as they are anywhere else.'

Many Michigan groups, like CALL and a coalition of Tea Party groups who are hosting a day long conference in Lansing later this year, are turning to Glenn for advice, guidance and support in driving Right to Work legislation to the forefront of Michigan’s agenda."

Buckingham Palace Announces US State Visit to Great Britain

The press secretary to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II has announced a State Visit to the United Kingdom that the Obama's will undertake May 24-26, 2011.

The community agitators currently occupying the White House could learn much from Queen Elizabeth about service, duty, and embodying a nation's noblest and highest ideals. Unfortunately, we have little hope that they will. Given the President's consistently boorish behavior toward Great Britain and its leaders, we wonder if he will be returning his desk given to the White House by Queen Victoria, or the Capitol building's Minton floor tiles also given by Great Britain.  Or will he present Her Majesty with another ipod loaded with The One's most memorable speeches?

We dread this ghetto trash representing the United States in any forum, much less to America's closest and most faithful ally. Our British readers should know that this couple in no way represents America, as the world will unmistakably see in November 2012.

The President of the United States, President Barack Obama, has accepted an invitation from The Queen to pay a State Visit to the United Kingdom from Tuesday 24th May to Thursday 26th May 2011.

The President will be accompanied by Mrs Obama and will stay at Buckingham Palace.

Background

Previous visits by American Presidents include:

President Eisenhower paid a visit to The Queen at Balmoral Castle in 1959:

President and Mrs Kennedy dined with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace in June 1961;

President Nixon had lunch with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace in February 1969 and again visited in 1970;

President Carter was received by The Queen in London in 1977;

President and Mrs Reagan made an official visit to the UK in June 1982, staying at Windsor Castle;

President and Mrs Bush had lunch with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh in June 1989;

President and Mrs Clinton visited The Queen in December 2000;

President George W Bush and Mrs Bush had lunch with The Queen on 19th July 2001 at Buckingham Palace;

President George W Bush and Mrs Bush made a State Visit to the UK in November 2003;

President George W Bush and Mrs Bush visited The Queen at Windsor Castle on 15th June, 2008;

President and Mrs Obama met The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace during the G20 meeting in London in April 2009.

Massive Earthquake Kills More Than 65 in Christchurch, New Zealand, Cathedral in Ruins

The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch, NZ has been destroyed .

It is reported that more than 65 people have been killed as a result of the massive earthquake that has struck Christchurch, New Zealand.  In addition, that city's historic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, considered the finest architecture in Australasia, has half collapsed along with its spire.

The following was recorded in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on the Solemnity of Christ the King in 1999. This was the entrance hymn and you can hear the thurible clinking. The Cathedral was noted for its liturgical music program.

On this Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, we are united in prayer with our brothers and sisters in New Zealand.  May Christ our King wipe away every tear and give you comfort and hope.

Barack Hussein Alinsky

By Patrick J. Buchanan

As a large and furious demonstration was under way outside and inside the Capitol in Madison last week, Barack Obama invited in a TV camera crew from Milwaukee and proceeded to fan the flames.

Dropping the mask of The Great Compromiser, Obama reverted to his role as South Chicago community organizer, charging Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin legislature with an “assault on unions.”

As the late Saul Alinsky admonished in his “Rules for Radicals,” “the community organizer … must first rub raw the resentments of the people; fan the latent hostilities to the point of overt expression.”

After Obama goaded the demonstrators, the protests swelled. All 14 Democratic state senators fled to Illinois to paralyze the upper chamber by denying it a quorum. Teachers went on strike, left kids in the classroom and came to Madison. Schools shut down.

Bernard Nathanson, Abortionist Who Became Pro-Life Activist, Dead at 84

From Catholic World News

Bernard Nathanson, who was one of the leading figures in the abortion industry before he converted to the pro-life cause and the Catholic faith, died on February 21 in New York at the age of 84.

Nathanson estimated that he performed 5,000 abortions personally, and as director of busy abortion clinics he supervised more than 70,000 abortions. He was co-founder of the group now known as NARAL, and helped craft the arguments in favor of abortion on demand. But Nathanson experienced a profound change of heart, and eventually embraced the pro-life cause.

In 1985 the former abortionist produced The Silent Scream, a highly influential film that showed ultrasound images of the unborn child in the womb. Later, in his book Aborting America, he revealed how he and other abortion advocates had distorted facts— notably by concocting false statistics on the number of deaths from illegal abortion—in order to gain public acceptance of the practice. In later years he expressed profound remorse for his participation both in the destruction of unborn children and in the propaganda campaign to promote the abortion industry. “I am one of those who helped usher in this barbaric age,” he confessed.

In a later book, his 1996 autobiography The Hand of God, Nathanson recounted the next step in his dramatic conversion: his entrance into the Catholic Church. He was baptized that year by Cardinal John O’Connor of New York. His godmother was Joan Andrews Bell, who had once spent more than a year in prison—much of it in solitary confinement—for her involvement in non-violent efforts to blockade abortion clinics.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

Bernard Nathanson Dead at 84 (National Catholic Register)

Exhausted Food Nanny Flees to Vail, Gorges on Short Ribs

Rush Limbaugh skewers Moochelle, now enjoying another taxpayer-paid vacation.

Can you spot the Nutritionist-at-Large?

Left to right – Princess Letizia of Spain, French first lady Carla Bruni, and taking a break from her vegetable patch, Michelle Obama.