Smoky Mountains Sunrise

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Islamic Preacher Musa Cerantonio Among Five Arrested Over Alleged Plan to Join Islamic State

Musa Cerantonio was allegedly trying to take a boat to Indonesia from Queensland.
Notorious Islamic preacher Musa Cerantonio is among five men arrested in far north Queensland over an alleged plan to take a boat to Indonesia and join the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

Shayden Thorne, the brother of another hardline Islamist, Junaid Thorne, was also arrested.

Also in custody is Kadir Kaya, who last year told a Melbourne radio station he wanted to leave Australia because he felt Muslims were not welcome, but could not because the authorities had confiscated his passport.

Police arrested the men on Tuesday as they were towing a boat towards Cape York, in far north Queensland.

They are being held on suspicion of foreign incursion offences.

Police would not disclose how long ago the men travelled from Melbourne to northern Australia but believe they were intending to travel through Indonesia and the Philippines to Syria.

Read more at ABC News >> 

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Confederate Memorial Day in South Carolina

"God Save the South" is considered to be the unofficial national anthem of the Confederate States of America. It was written by George Henry Miles (as Ernest Halphin). The commonly heard version was composed by Charles W. A. Ellerbrock, while C. T. De Cœniél composed a different tune for the song. It was written in 1861.


And the much loved unofficial national anthem, Dixie.  "Dixie", also known as "I Wish I Was in Dixie", "Dixie's Land", and other titles, is a popular American song. It is one of the most distinctively American musical products of the 19th century, and probably the best-known song to have come out of blackface minstrelsy. Although not a folk song at its creation, "Dixie" has since entered the American folk vernacular. The song likely cemented the word "Dixie" in the American vocabulary as a synonym for the Southern United States.


Confederate Memorial Day video featuring "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran






Monday, May 9, 2016

The Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey, the Soap Sisters

As many of our regular visitors will know, we have included on our site a link to the Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey, who support themselves by making a variety of high quality soap products.  In this regard, we were delighted to discover the following video and to learn more about these extraordinary women, the growth of their community and their plans to enlarge their monastery to better accomodate the many young women interested in the cloistered life, and the public who are drawn to their holy place.

We hope you will be moved to consider helping these wonderful sisters through a contribution, or by purchasing their splendid soaps.



Father Rutler: Evidence of Things Unseen


The liturgical calendar is filled with events in the earthly life of Christ. The one time in the year when nothing seems to happen, when chronology is a vacuum, is that space between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. But the Creed does not admit of such an interpretation. When the Lord seemed to have become still, he was “harrowing Hell.”

The point is this: his disappearances are as significant as his appearances. If you assemble the post-Resurrection appearances, including those after the Ascension, namely to Stephen being martyred, to Paul on the Damascus road, and to John on Patmos, there are fifteen particular appearances. But that also means there were that many disappearances. Each time he vanished, he was doing something unseen. We may not know until we enter eternity what all that involved, but at least it explains why he said before the Ascension that he had to leave us in order to be with us, and why he said that he was going to prepare a place for us.

In the detective story “Silver Blaze,” Sherlock Holmes told the Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Gregory, that the “curious incident of the dog in the night-time” was precisely that the dog did nothing. The silence was as revealing as any sound. This is to be remembered when God seems absent from current events, or distant from us in our daily perplexities. He who never lied said that he would be with us until the end of time.

Rather than despair when God seems absent, the solution is to try to figure out why he is hidden. “Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face always” (Psalm 105:4). To want him to be near is already to be near him. “Take comfort; you would not be looking for me if you had not already found me” (Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 553: Le mystère de Jésus).

The saints have understood Solomon’s transporting love poem, the “Song of Songs,” to be more than an allegory of the love of a man for his beloved: it is a parable of Christ’s love for his bride the Church. Saint Bernard understood it also as Christ’s love for each soul. As Christ came into the world to seek us, so “there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice” (Song of Songs 2:9). But there are times when he acts furtively, vanishing from view, intangible, enticing the soul to long for him: “I looked for him but did not find him” (Song of Songs 3:2).

What seems an absence is a dynamic presence, apprehended by faith as “evidence of things unseen” (Hebrews 11:1), influencing events and lives with a power not of this world. “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).  

 
Biography of Father George William Rutler

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Declares Worldwide ‘Holy War’ on Terrorism

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, foreground, addresses the 2nd Moscow Cadet Parade dedicated to the 71st anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War and the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow. © Iliya Pitalev / Sputnik
From RT News

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has called the fight against terrorism a “holy war” and urged international unity and an abandoning of double standards to defeat this global evil.

Today, when our warriors take part in combat operations in the Middle East, we know that this is not an aggression, occupation or an attempt to impose some ideology on other people, this has nothing to do with supporting certain governments,” Patriarch Kirill said as he held the Friday mass at the major Moscow memorial to those who fought in World War II. “This is the fight against the fearsome foe that is currently not only spreading evil through the Middle East but also threatening the whole of mankind.”

He added: “Today, we call this evil terrorism.”