After a beautiful walk in the glorious countryside yesterday evening, I took a few moments to surf for Election Day spiritual nourishment, and came across these salient Election Day Prayer Points, accompanied by Scripture verses. I tried to stick with Catholic prayers for the Election, but I like these Scriptural points of reflection better. They’re simpler and thought-provoking.
7 Vital Prayer Points:
1. That our nation would turn back to God.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chron. 7:14
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord…” Ps. 33:12
2. That we would be faithful in praying for leaders and those in authority,
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” 1 Tim. 2:1-2
“When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.” Prov. 29:2
3. That we would recognize God’s Sovereignty over all.
It is “God who changes the times and seasons; He sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.” Dan. 2:21
“But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” Ps. 33:11
4. That we would recognize the real battle is not fought against what is seen, but what is unseen.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Eph. 6:12
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” 2 Cor. 10:4
5. That we would not succumb to worry, fear, or defeat.
“They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.” Ps. 112:7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7
6. That we would pray for those in authority who are unjustly attacked and accused.
“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn…” Is. 54:17
“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.” Psalm 125:1-2
7. That our hope would remain in the Lord.
“Look at the nations and watch– and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Hab. 1:5
“Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.” Hab. 3:2
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone, my hope comes from Him.” Ps. 62:5
God Bless America
Has anyone ever sung the National Anthem as beautifully and effortlessly as Whitney Houston?
I’m working on resources here, that I’ll continue to develop, along with the idea of a modern pornocracy – a neologism derived from the Greek “porne (prostitute), and kratos (to rule)”.
Pornography has never been more mainstream than it is today – we’re the first generation dealing with it at the level we are. Many pretend it doesn’t exist, but it touches almost every life in some way, shape, or form.
Consider the secrets people are capable of keeping, and the following which happen all the time:
Is your spouse and/or are your kids look at porn in secret.
Are they running an affiliate porn site?
Is your wife sexting for money in her free time?
Are your kids filming and running a porn channel on any number of popular porn websites?
Has your sweet, innocent child been exposed to porn by the time he or she is 7? Do they know how to deal with that terrible reality?
Do your kids have virtual reality gear for masturbation and/or interaction with others?
Does a substance use habit accompany hidden pornography habits?
“How do you ethically steer the thoughts and actions of two billion people’s minds every day?”
Tristan Harris, researcher for Google who speaks about the power of multi-billion dollar industries to form society. Porn is a 100 billion dollar a year, worldwide, enterprise and is responsible for some industry standards in video, audio and streaming technology.
Also, many people are getting in on the act with pornography whereas they used to be mere viewers. Cellphones create great and easy videos. Porn sites have affiliate links for everything from dating, to sex toys, to video uploads, to cam chats, to your imagination is the limit. Sexting is now a part-time job for people the world over, as is camming. Camming is, of course, slang for webcamming (or using a webcam for the sexual gratification of others and,) and is now described as a fun and easy source of revenue. Getting paid for sex?
Why is the sexual exploitation of children increasing at such an alarming rate? What is driving the demand for sex with children, including babies and infants? One answer: the exponential rise in pornography, especially child pornography. No research can be conducted that would prove direct causality between child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children.
1842, “ancient obscene painting, especially in temples of Bacchus,” from French pornographie, from Greek pornographos “(one) depicting prostitutes,” from graphein “to write” (see -graphy) + pornē “prostitute,” originally “bought, purchased” (with an original notion, probably of “female slave sold for prostitution”), related to pernanai “to sell” (from PIE *perə-, variant of root *per- (5) “to traffic in, to sell”).
https://www.etymonline.com/word/pornography
Via the Conquer Series, “Dr. Mahri Irvine, Adjunct Professional Lecturer at American University, said, “I really wish that people who watch porn knew more about that. Because I think they believe that they’re engaging in this activity in a very passive way. And they’re like, ‘Oh, I’m doing it in the privacy of my own home and this is just a video that I’m watching’. And they’re not associating it with the fact that pornography is very often the filmed rape of sex trafficking victims.”
“Noel Bouché, Executive Director of pureHOPE, explained, “While pornographic content includes trafficked victims from around the world, porn consumers aren’t told anything about the performers, including which ones may have been trafficked from an early age. Regular users of internet pornography are likely consuming pornography that includes adult and child victims of sex trafficking.””
Porn Education
The following sites are a few of the many that are arising to help educate our seemingly sexually sophisticated, yet pornographically unsophisticated, generation.
The Enough Is Enough mission is to make the Internet Safer for Children and Families. Our initiatives include Internet Safety 101, Project Wilberforce, and others.
Fight the New Drug is a non-religious and non-legislative nonprofit that exists to provide individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects using only science, facts, and personal accounts.
A central mystery of the Christian faith is the Paschal Mystery – the death, resurrection and “going forth” of Jesus Christ. Christians are called to imitate this mystery in their lives; to die to self, to rise again, and to go forth and share the message of Jesus with others.
The Conquer Series is a 10-episode film series that’s taught millions of men how to quit porn. It’s the number one tool to break a porn addiction.
Louisiana and PornHub
The popular pornography website PornHub relies on Google Statistics to cull its data. Most visitors only spend about 10 minutes per visit to the massive depository of freely available pornographic material. But all the states whose residents stay the longest—more than 11 minutes per visit—are located in the politically conservative deep South:
Mississippi
Alabama
South Carolina
Louisiana
Arkansas
Take note of that stat, parents, ladies, and gents.
Pornography and the Occult
Lots of people are pointing out the fact that the pornography industry has at its roots an occult reality. Rod Dreher has an article that provides a great start to looking at the reality of that matter. And lest we forget, a priest in the Archdiocese of New Orleans was recently caught filming a sex act with an avowed satanist atop the Altar, (though the Eucharist had allegedly been removed.)
Masturbation
Masturbation often accompanies participation in the consumption of pornography. Any number of websites and links exist to articles on the effects of masturbation. A simple article I’ve linked before is the one about science saying it’s time to stop masturbating so much. Science is on the side of genuine, real, relationships.
It’s, of course, easy for anyone to say “Well just stop!” “Just don’t do it!” “Don’t do that!” – but why? Why wouldn’t anyone want to do something that can feel so good and is entirely simple and easy to undertake? Are you’re being too religious and shaming everyone? (Those are common questions asked when the subject is brought up.)
No one is shaming anyone when it comes to porn and masturbation. Pornography is a 100+ billion dollar a year industry that wants people to get hooked, and instead of relying on the science of things, which thankfully more and more are doing, men and women show up at the doorsteps of priests and ministers looking for answers when all too often priests and ministers themselves are getting sucked into the quagmire as well, with few answers to the questions.
The answers lie in the science of sex, the reward centers of the brain, the hormonal responses of relationships. The matters can be complex and the answers aren’t simple. You can’t expect a hormonal people bombarded by sexual imagery and opportunity, and immersed in an entirely new sexual reality, to simply respond as if they’re St. Paul writing to the Romans.
My great friend Gary Leblanc works with men overcoming pornography (and other areas of spiritual import as well, in case your husband, friend, or co-worker is working with him and you’re suddenly concerned he may be overcoming a porn habit you don’t know about.)
Fr. Sean Kilcawley runs the Office of Marriage and Family Life in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, and has any number of excellent videos on the subjects of pornography, masturbation, healing relationships, and approaches the matters from the scientific angle, the anthropological angle, and from the simple and holistic viewpoint of Faith, too.
Stay Healthy and Be Well
The world may be going crazy, but it doesn’t mean you have to be. Never let what everyone else is doing guide you into bad habits or poor choices.
Internet pornography is a new phenomenon, and no other generation has had to deal with it so far. We may as well continue to look at the science behind it and continue to make healthy choices. Be a pioneer, learn and grow, you can help many others, in wisdom, as the years go on.
Fidélium, Deus, ómnium Cónditor et Redémptor: animábus famulórum famularúmque tuárum remissiónem cunctórum tríbue peccatórum; ut indulgéntiam, quam semper optavérunt, piis supplicatiónibus consequántur.
O God, Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Your servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that they may obtain by our loving prayers the forgiveness which they have always desired.
The theological basis for the feast is the doctrine that the souls which, on departing from the body, are not perfectly cleansed from venial sins, or have not fully atoned for past transgressions, are debarred from the Beatific Vision, and that the faithful on earth can help them by prayers, almsdeeds and especially by the sacrifice of the Mass.
In the early days of Christianity the names of the departed brethren were entered in the diptychs. Later, in the sixth century, it was customary in Benedictine monasteries to hold a commemoration of the deceased members at Whitsuntide. In Spain there was such a day on Saturday before Sexagesima or before Pentecost, at the time of St. Isidore (d. 636). In Germany there existed (according to the testimony of Widukind, Abbot of Corvey, c. 980) a time-honoured ceremony of praying to the dead on 1 October.
This was accepted and sanctified by the Church. St. Odilo of Cluny (d. 1048) ordered the commemoration of all the faithful departed to be held annually in the monasteries of his congregation. Thence it spread among the other congregations of the Benedictines and among the Carthusians. …
A similar concession for the entire world was asked of Pope Leo XIII. He would not grant the favour but ordered a special Requiem on Sunday, 30 September, 1888. In the Greek Rite this commemoration is held on the eve of Sexagesima Sunday, or on the eve of Pentecost. The Armenians celebrate the passover of the dead on the day after Easter.
Not to sperg out here, but the Dies Irae is super popular in contemporary culture, and always has been. Check it out in the following movies. You have to listen diligently in some of these – but it’s there.
Pirates of the Carribean
It’s a Wonderful Life
Lord of the Rings
The Lion King
Star Wars (I’m actually not hearing it here.)
Many In Film Music in General
Last (here at least), and most spectacularly, the Excommunication Scene from Becket.
Starting at 2:35 in…
O God, Lord of mercies, grant to the souls of Your servants and handmaids a lasting place of refreshment, the blessedness of rest and the splendor of Your light.
In addition to a great Feastday, we turned the clocks back an hour last night. And, the power came back on – first time of course since Zeta earlier this week – to wide rejoicing across the countryside.
“Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui nos ómnium Sanctórum tuórum mérita sub una tribuísti celebritáte venerári: quǽsumus; ut desiderátam nobis tuæ propitiatiónis abundántiam, multiplicátis intercessóribus, largiáris.“
“Almighty, eternal God, Who granted us to honor the merits of all Your Saints in a single solemn festival, bestow on us, we beseech You, through their manifold intercession, that abundance of Your mercy for which we yearn.”
The Feast… It is instituted to honour all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the faithful’s celebration of saints’ feasts during the year. In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr’s death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. In the fourth century, neighbouring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer relics, to divide them, and to join in a common feast; as is shown by the invitation of St. Basil of Caesarea (397) to the bishops of the province of Pontus. Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration.
In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all.
The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407).
At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a “Commemoratio Confessorum” for the Friday after Easter.
In the West, Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary. Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November.
A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself. The octave was added by Sixtus IV (1471-84).
I’ve been writing about this book, and here is the author’s TED talk. (The book is so much better. Of course.) But the talk is well worth a quick listen, holding within it glimmers of the richness in the book itself.
This all leads, in some way, shape, or form, to Carmel, The Ascent of Mt. Carmel by John of the Cross – Spain’s greatest poet, one of the Church’s greatest spiritual writers, with a deep and rich call to the interior life that he did not take for granted. The necessity of time away, time with one’s thoughts, time spent in one’s heart, where alone we know the Lord, who reveals Himself in majesty.
A song of the soul’s happiness in having passed through the dark night of faith, in nakedness and purgation, to union with its Beloved.
1. One dark night, fired with love’s urgent longings — ah, the sheer grace! — I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled.
2. In darkness and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised, — ah, the sheer grace! — in darkness and concealment, my house being now all stilled.
3. On that glad night, in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look at anything, with no other light or guide than the one that burned in my heart.
4. This guided me more surely than the light of noon to where he was awaiting me — him I knew so well — there in a place where no one appeared.
5. O guiding night! O night more lovely than the dawn! O night that has united the Lover with his beloved, transforming the beloved in her Lover.
6. Upon my flowering breast which I kept wholly for him alone, there he lay sleeping, and I caressing him there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.
7. When the breeze blew from the turret, as I parted his hair, it wounded my neck with its gentle hand, suspending all my senses.
8. I abandoned and forgot myself, laying my face on my Beloved; all things ceased; I went out from myself, leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.
