Friday, August 31, 2012

Kindly warning to incoming UTEP Freshmen, Fall  of 2012:

As we copied from The UTEP Prospector a few years back:

Of 1,800 incoming university freshmen only 2% will graduate in four (4) years .... 

And that means only thirty - six (36) total! :(

The rest will incur an average personal load of debt of $11,500 apiece in student loans... 

And nothing to show for it ... :( 

Pretty mellow Labor Day weekend for Southwest Texas 78832...!! :)

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

"Fr. Moreno invites all the women of the parish to join Legion of  Mary Formation Meetings in either English or Spanish.

"Sunday, September 9, 2012.

"St. Mary Magdalene Church.

"301 South Ann Street.

"Brackettville, Texas 78832

"AGENDA:

"11:00 am - English Mass, Celebrant Father Antonio O. Moreno.

"12:30 pm -- Pot Luck Luncheon -- Parish Hall.

"1:30 pm -- English Legion of Mary Meeting -- Old Church.

"1:30 pm -- Spanish Legion of Mary Meeting -- Parish Hall..."

September 3. Feast Day of Pope Saint Gregory the Great.

Labor Day U.S.A.

Saint Mary Magdalene's High School CCD Student unafraid!

Of taking her turn at Mass Readings...

Brackettville, Texas 78832.

Sunday. August 26, 2012. 11:00 a.m. English Mass. Reader:  Ms. Selina Gerardo

Way to go, Selina! And as we've said before: "Why stop at English? 'Cause when it comes to Spanish, Sí, se puede ..." :)

Monday, August 27, 2012

Two Brand - new Altar Servers help out at 5:30 p.m. Saturday Mass.

Saint Mary Magdalene' Catholic Church.

Brackettville, Texas 78832.

Saturday. August 25, 2012. 5:30 p.m. Mass. TEAM: Mr. Moses Hernandez and  Ms. Danielle Gerardo + "Eddie" and "Angel"

Way to go guys, great job!

Plus, Father Moreno made sure we all knew it! :)  

 

Friday, August 24, 2012

"Are the Mormon Scriptures Credible?"

Catholic Answers Magazine, September - October 2012.

Snippet from the debate between Catholic Jimmy Akin vs. Mormon Professor Robert Millet.

"Jimmy Akin:

"The question is not what God can do but what he has chosen to do.

"Since he has chosen to tell us in Scripture and Tradition that the Faith has been once for all delivered to the saints, that means he has chosen not to reveal new points of faith.

"We must check our subjective impressions with objective facts whenever possible, for there  is a way which seems right o a man, but its end is th way to death (Proverbs 14:12).."


"Robert Millet:

"I too would be nervous about a purported revelation that contradicts the Bible, but on should not confuse contradiction with additional light and truth.

"I presume when you say that Mormons need to offer Catholics more than an invitation to prayerful openness, you mean that we need to provide rational and empirical  proof for the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

"I'm just grateful that honest truth seekers through the centuries were not required to rest their faith in the Virgin Birth, the feeding of the 5,000, the raising of Lazarus, or the Resurrection on archaeological, historical, or linguistic evidence of the same...

"People would have waited a long time before  they would have been prepared to believe ...."

Way to go, guys! :) 

"Discuss this article online at FORUMS.CATHOLIC.COM  ."

Thursday, August 23, 2012

ITV's "Letters  to the Editor"
editor@insidethevatican.com

August - September 2012

And Mr. Ed Smetana wants to know:


"I recently read this sentence in a book about early Church history..."

Our brother - man Ed's quote:

"St. Eusebius and St. Jerome spoke of a scholar  named Pantanaeus, who found in India, near Bombay, a copy of the Gospel of Matthew, in Hebrew, which had been brought by St. Bartholomew in 60AD (from C. Bernard Ruffin, The Lives of the Apostles After Calvary, p. 116)."

 Thus:

"Would this confirm that Matthew's was the first Gospel?"

"The editor replies

"You raise an interesting question not yet settled by scholars.


"Around 130 AD, Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, wrote about the various Gospels.

"He tells us the Apostle Matthew put together the discourses of Jesus in the Aramaic language.

"In other words, he says, Matthew collected Jesus' words and made a book of them.

"This book was written in Aramaic, that is, in the language spoken by Jesus himself..."

Yes! This is just a snippet of the original! :)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

A mover las caderas ....

35 aniversario luctuoso...

"Elvis el revolucionario ..."

El Rey del Rock and Roll combinó su sueños con la música y logró trascender más allá del tiempo...

El Zócalo de Ciudad Acuña.  Jueves 16 de agosto de 2012. Por Graciela Rodríguez.

"Vernon Elvis y Gladys Love Presley trabajaban  duro para que a él no le faltara nada.

"Su infancia transcurría cuando un día, mientras rezaba en el colegio, Elvis cautivó a su maestra con su particular voz, más tarde ella  lo animó a participar en un concurso de canto.

"Tenía 10 años e interpretaba Old Shep, un tema country de Red Foley, obtuvo el quinto lugar, pero nunca olvidaría este episodio..."

Y, por nuestro humilde parte:

"Maestros - maestras: cuidan bien a sus alumnos -- porque uno nunca sabe si por acaso se puede usted despertar a un tesoro de talento...."  :)

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Southwest Texas, U.S.A.

Altar Servers make the difference at weekend  Masses.

Saint Mary Magdalene's Catholic Church.

Brackettville, 78832.

Saturday. August 18, 2012. 5:30 pm Mass. TEAM Ms. Brittany Castilla.

Way to go, Brittany!   :)

PLUS!

Today is the second of six consecutive training days for new altar servers -- "from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m..."

'Way to go, Mrs. Janie DeHoyos and all! :)

Inside The Vatican  magazine's Mercedes Arzú Wilson:

"President Obama vs. the Catholic Church"

August - September issue, 2012.

"Astoundingly, in 2005, the World Health Organization classified oral contraceptives as a Group I carcinogen -- the most dangerous classification known -- in the exact same category as tobacco and steroids...

"But when have you ever heard this news in the mainstream media...?" 

Footnoted source: World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC Monographs, July 29, 2005

"Even the inventor of the birth control pill, Austrian Carl Djerassi, admitted in 2009 that birth control has been a demographic catastrophe which has brought devastating ecologically and led to a huge population imbalance...."

Footnoted source: Catholic News Service "Pill inventor slams ... pill" January 8, 2009.

Interesting! :)

Monday, August 20, 2012

"Father Moreno has a niece in Customer Service for Staples;  

"she has been a Blessing for our Parish.

"Not only with her service but with a huge $$$ discount $$$ we received..."

And so:

"Father has placed an order through Staples for 12 tables, 50 chairs and racks to stack them..."

Current bulletin entry, Saint Mary Magdalene's Catholic Parish Church.

Brackettville, Texas 78832.

Way to go, Father! :)

 

"Chicago, Kill Capital Of The World"

By Rey King Flores. The Wanderer Catholic newspaper. Thursday, August 16, 2012.

"Here are a few eye - popping numbers recently reported by NBC - Chicago:

"Per 100,000 people there are 0.4 murders in Singapore, 1.4 in London, 6.0 in New York, and 8.0 in Mexico City.

"But Chicago has 19.4 murders per 100,000 citizens.

"Wow...!"

Way to go, Señor! :)
     

"Happy Hour is Here Sundays at 11 a.m.!"

Marquee Magic from Pastor Ned Sitzes'

Frontier Baptist Church.

Brackettville, Texas 78832.

Way to go, Reverend! :)

August 24. Feast Day of Saint Bartholomew.

The current issue of ITV has an item that indicates that Saint Batholomew made it to Bombay India, in around 60 AD -- bringing with him a copy of Saint Matthew's Gospel...

Source: Inside The Vatican magazine, August - September 2012.

August 25. Feast Day of Saint Louis and Saint Joseph Calasanz.

August 27. Feast Day of Saint Monica.

August 28. Feast Day of Saint Augustine.

August 29. Feast Day of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Compared to Hell, Purgatory Rocks!

"When you die, you will find yourself on an escalator...

"It will be either the down escalator or the up escalator ....."

Snippets from Karl Keating's Commentary: One - Way Ticket. Page 2 of the current Catholic Answers Report..

"After death, you will not have a chance  to choose which escalator you prefer, that choice you already will have made in life, and it is a choice that becomes irrevocable at death.

"You will find yourself on the down escalator if you die graceless, in the  state of mortal sin.

"The down escalator has no intermediate landing. 

"Once on it, you are deposited quickly at the bottom and will be among those who, like you, have chosen creature over Creator.

"On the other hand, if you die repentant and in the state of sanctifying grace, you will find yourself on the up escalator..

"Unlike the down escalator, this on has an intermediate landing.

"Most people who take the up escalator exit on that landing temporarily.

"You probably will be among their number.

"The reason is found in Revelation 21: 27, which says that nothing unclean shall enter  heaven.

"Although bound for heaven because you have died in the state of grace, you likely will not be thoroughly spotless at death.

"Some uncleanliness will remain, some attachment to sin, no matter how minor.

"Thus you stop at the intermediate landing, a way station where you will remain as long as needed  to clean up those moral smudges.

"We call this  intermediate landing purgatory..

"No one stays on there forever..

'[Unlike the saints] our journey will have been a bit longer, but the destination will be the same..."

Knock 'em dead, Brother Karl! :)

Southwest Texas U.S.A.

Kinney County Sheriff's Report


"July 31.

"Reported loose cow on Highway 90 East. Cow acting strange...

"August 2.

"Miller Lite truck weaving from one lane to another near 3008 and 90 West.  Heading to Del Rio. DPS informed.

"August 3


"Report of 4 or 5 loose cows on Highway 131 south entrance FCS, on the west side of road..."

Tip of the 'ole cachucha to: The Kinney County Post.Thursday, August 9, 2012.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Great Altar Server Teams make a difference in Saint Mary Magdalene's Catholic Church in Brackettville, Texas 78832

Saturday. August 11, 2012. 5:30 p.m. Mass. TEAM: Mr. Moses Hernandez and Mr. Justin Hidalgo. Way to go, guys! :)

Wednesday. August 15, 2012. 5:30 p.m. Mass. TEAM: Mr. Justin Hidalgo and Mr. Moses Hernandez. Way to go, guys! :)

Plus: Baptisms are NOW performed right smack  in the middle of Mass -- between the Homily and the Offertory.

Thus, the whole congregation actively participates!

Last Saturday Kinney County Treasurer Ms. Diana Leticia Gutierrez successfully pioneered  a key role in what appeared as a sort of stand - in for the absent god parents.

Way to go, Diana, Father Moreno and everybody! :)    

Meanwhile, last night in his homily Father Antonio Moreno expounded on how "The WOMAN clothed with the sun ..." of Revelations literally pre - figures Our Lady of Guadalupe...

Way to go, Padre! :)

August 20. Feast Day of Saint Bernard.

Last night after Mass we reminded Father Moreno of Saint Bernard's famous Guadalupanan prophecy in the Spanish version of the CCC:

Tiene la tez morena pero es hermosa, o hijas de Jerúsalen....
 
August 21. Feast Day of Pope Saint Pius X.

August 22. Feast Day of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

August 23. Feast Day of Saint Rose of Lima.

Monday, August 13, 2012

August 14. Feast Day of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe.

August 15. Feast Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven: body and soul..

Mass in Brackettville, Texas at 5:30 p.m.

August 16. Feast Day of Saint Stephen of Hungary.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Archbishop - designate of San Francisco Bishop Salvatore Cordileone --

a prime mover of California's Proposition 8.  

"If we don't save marriage,  things will get very dark ...

"The idea that you can change the definition of marriage  is a lie...

"If our society accepts this lie, it will fail..."

Source: Front page news item in the current issue of EWTN's newspaper National Catholic Register...

Way to go, your Excellency!

What will be cool is if you can feel free to publicly mention Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans, from time to time!

Even such "conservative" Catholic publications as The New Oxford  Review, Catholic Answers, and The National Catholic Register have quietly dropped Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans in favor of either (1) "Romancing the Gay" or (2) "Praying away the Gay." :(

Thursday, August 09, 2012

RIP Father Richard "Rick" Mattey, St. Patrick Cathedral El Paso Texas.  1955 - 2012.

RIP One Medical Doctor, one Intern and one Driver. All three Mexican EMS team members were killed instantly in a collision with a tractor trailer rig on their way home to Piedras Negras from delivering  a patient to Monterrey.

Meanwhile!

In a far - off depopulated  corner of the sun - blasted and still - developing corner of the Third World.

Southwest Texas U.S.A

Saint Mary Magdalene's, Brackettville 78832.

"Women's Spirituality Workshop."

"Women! Let our Blessed Mother Mary, a woman of faith, lead you to Jesus.

"Join Fr. Moreno, the Guadalupe Ministry Group, and the Legion of Mary for an afternoon workshop to brainstorm on ideas for women's spiritual growth at St. Mary Magdalene.

"Date: 12 August 2012 Parish Hall -- Pot Luck.

"Time: 12:30 - 2:00 p.m.

"Presentation by: Fr. Moreno and the Legion of Mary ...

Way to go, great people! :)


Wednesday, August 08, 2012

"Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano goes Feminist... !!??"  :)

Snippet from Inside The Vatican magazine. June - July 2012.

"An interview with Professor Lucetta Scaraffia, of La Sapienza University of Rome. She was the editor of the insert on women.

"Q: Professor Scaraffia, you edited the insert on women that L'Obssrvatore Romano published. What exactly about is it about?"

"Professor Lucetta Scaraffia:  We chose the Feast of the Visitation as the date for the first issue of the insert because the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth has always represented the relationships among women  in Christian culture, signifying female solidarity...

"Difference has too often been synonymous with inequality, but we defend difference and will make it known, proposing a new feminism ..." 

Way to go profe ! :)

"No! You are NOT alone ..."

Pope's cheering message for divorced and remarried Catholic couples, whether in Brazil or in Saint Mary Magdalene's parish community in Brackettville, Texas 78832!

Snippets from Inside The Vatican magazine. June - July 2012. Sandro Magister's report "Benedict Finds the Good Wine in Milan."

"In reality, this problem of the divorced and remarried is one of the great sufferings of the Church  of today ....

 "It seems to me a great task for a parish, for a Catholic community, to make it really possible for them to feel that they are not outside even if they cannot receive absolution and the Eucharist: they must see that even in this way they live fully in the Church.

"Then it is also very important that they feel that the Eucharist is true and participated  in if they really enter into communion with the body of Christ.

"Even without the corporal reception of the sacrament, we can be spiritually united with Christ in his body.

"I think that their suffering, if it is really accepted internally, is a gift for the Church.

"They must know that precisely in this way they are serving the Church, they are in the heart of the Church ..."

Great teaching points, Holy Father! :)

PS Saint Mary Magdalene's in Brackettville: are we really listening??!!

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

August 9. Feast Day of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

August 10. Feast Day of Saint Lawrence.

August 11. Feast Day of Saint Clare.

August 13. Feast Day of Saint Pontian and Saint Hippolytus.

Friday, August 03, 2012

"Fuerte Golpe a la Sedena Mexicana

"Ordenan cárcel para seis altos militares.

"Van tras cuatro generales, un mayor y un teniente coronel..."

Fuente original: El Zócalo de Ciudad Acuña, Miércoles 1 de agosto de 2012.

"Un juez ordenó ayer las aprehensiones del general de División del Estado Mayor, Tomás Angeles Dauahare; del general de División, Ricardo Escorcia Vargas; y del general Roberto Dawe González, informó la Procuraduría General  de la República (PGR)..."

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Far, far away, in a still - developing part of a largely depopulated corner of the Third World 

Southwest Texas U.S.A.

Saint Mary Magdalene Catholic Church.

Brackettville, Texas 78832
 

Bulletin Item 

"Training for New Altar Servers will be August 20 - 25, 2012 from 6:30 am - 7:30  am.


"For information  please contact Mrs. Janie DeHoyos.


"Rectory Office Annex  @ 563 - 3088 ..."

Way to go, Janie! :)

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Last Saturday's 5:30 pm Mass well - served.

Saint Mary Magdalene's Catholic Church.

Brackettille, Texas 78832.

Saturday, July 28, 2012. 5:30 p.m Mass. TEAM Ms. Britney Castilla.

Way to go Britney! :)


Vacation Bible School's doing great!

Mr. Raúl Rivas started Monday's session off to a good start by chasing a big 'ole Beach Ball way down West El Paso St. toward the Riordan intersection!

Way to go, Raúl! :)

Marquee Magic from Pastor Ned Sitzes' Frontier Baptist Church.

Brackettville, Texas 78832.

"There's no right way to do the wrong thing!"

Way to go, Reverend!

August 1. Feast Day of Saint Alphonsus Liguori.

August 2. Feast Day of Saint Eusebius of Vercelli.

August 2. Feast Day of Saint Peter Julian Eymard.

August 3. First Friday. 5:30 p.m. Special Catholic Mass in Brackettville, Texas 78832.
Saint Mary Magdalene.

August 4. First Saturday.

August 4. Feast Day of Saint John Vianney.

August 6. Feast Day of the Transfiguration of Our Lord.
 
August 7. Feast Day of Pope Sixtus II and Companions.

August 7. Feast Day of Saint Cajetan.

 August 8. Feast Day of Saint Dominic.