First Sunday of Lent

Mt 4:1-11

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert

to be tempted by the devil.

He fasted for forty days and forty nights,

and afterwards he was hungry.

The tempter approached and said to him,

"If you are the Son of God,

command that these stones become loaves of bread."

He said in reply,

"It is written:

One does not live on bread alone,

but on every word that comes forth

from the mouth of God."

Then the devil took him to the holy city,

and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,

and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

For it is written:

He will command his angels concerning you

and with their hands they will support you,

lest you dash your foot against a stone."

Jesus answered him,

"Again it is written,

You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,

and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,

and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you,

if you will prostrate yourself and worship me."

At this, Jesus said to him,

"Get away, Satan!

It is written:

The Lord, your God, shall you worship

and him alone shall you serve."

Then the devil left him and, behold,

angels came and ministered to him.

Have Faith

 

Top news concerns in no particular order:

• Earthquake in Turkey - 46,957 dead
• The war in Ukraine - one year later
• North Korea testing missiles
• United States plans to expand the training of Taiwanese forces
• East Palestine, Ohio (US) Train Derailment disaster

These are just a few troubling news stories we should all be looking at.

I realize there will always be bad news every day, but it's usually just a couple of reports. Today is more than usual, and most of these have been ongoing.  

Throughout history, events like these have occurred and have always come to an end, but not without a cost.  We are at the point where the need for prayer is of the utmost importance.

Prayer is the most powerful act we can do, and when the world prays, change happens. Some might believe it has no effect, and those have little or no faith at all. Well, you cannot pray if you don't have faith and hope; they go together. 

So, if you are concerned about some world news, maybe it's time to start your conversation with God and have a little faith. 

 Matthew 17:20 

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” 

Photo - pixabay - geralt

St. John Vianney Quote

 

No Football

The top news story today is about the Super Bowl.  This is to be expected because of all the hype that traditionally surrounds this major sporting event. Everyone cheers for their team, or they have wagered a bet, and some for the halftime show and commercials.

I, for one, did not watch it.  I am a former fan of the sport, a season-ticket holder, and a fantasy football fan player. Several years ago, I was saddened when all of the wokeness infiltrated the league. I was a fan because of the sport itself but mostly because it was a uniting event with no politics, no agenda, no X-rated halftime show, and an overall patriotic demonstration of two of the best teams in the world of an American sport. America seemed to be united, and political differences were put aside, and for the day, it was about the game of football.

The NFL, the Grammy award show, and other Hollywood liberals are doing their part with those who want to change how America has traditionally viewed the values for which this country was founded.  The Judeo-Christian values have become a thorn in the side of those who want to make America progressive to the point where anything goes; no matter the agenda, there would be no limit to what is said, no limit to what is shown. The one way to fight back is to voice your opinion openly and not give into the woke society pressure just because it's the popular thing to do.

Photo: - pixabay - alessandra1barbieri

Film Friday - Comedy/Romance

Valentine's Day is in a few days. I thought posting my top 8 comedy - romance movies would be appropriate. In romance, you must have a sense of humor. And as always, they are classic films.

Top 8 Romance-Comedy Films:

#8 Holiday Affair (1949)

#7 Living on Love (1937)

#6 The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

#5 The More the Merrier (1943)

#4 The Philadelphia Story (1940)

#3 Marty (1955)

#2 One Way Passage (1932)

#1 You Can't Take It with You (1938)

Earthquake Prayers Needed

The latest report of fatalities from the earthquake is over 11,000.

Syria and Turkey were hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Aid coming into the country has been difficult because of the political borders. It seems the world reacts and wants to help, but politics is getting in the way. Disasters like this always unite the world because of the humanitarian effort to save lives, and time is of the essence. Every minute that goes by, someone is dying under the debris. 

The amount of technology, structural engineers, and First Responders worldwide could quickly speed up the whole process. 

Please pray for the folks in this region. 

A balloon?

It has taken decades for our country to become a superpower, and a balloon has compromised our defense. 

How and why did this happen?

Those in charge of our air defense have clearly failed to protect our nation's airspace. If this situation had been a battleship off the coast, I would hope we would have deterred the advancement of a foreign country into our waters. But I'm not sure this would happen now. 

There should be more updates this week on this failure, but I cannot foresee any reason why this happened.

Photo: pixabay - susannp4

Winter is Lasting How Long?

Photo: pixabay - offroy66

February 2nd 

The Official Groundhog Day

An American tradition for 137 years.

I personally have never been to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. But from what I have seen, it is a big deal and months of planning.

 Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, predicts 6 more weeks of winter (msn.com)

I don't believe in such folklore. But it seems like a fun event to experience.  I wonder if other countries do similar events? Winter is one of those seasons where especially in the South, we are ready for it to end and the Spring season to begin. 

Prayer to St. Francis of Assisi

 

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to be console; 

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

Questionable Authority

Before making a post for the day, I'll scan various news headlines for a story I'll have an opinion about. During the search, I have to filter the extreme opinion news articles. I look through all the news media hype, trying to grab my attention. Because we all know how easy it is to be influenced by what we see on any day of the week on the news.

Today there are a few articles about police authority and their actions. I'm not here to question or to give specific opinions about any incident involving the use of police authority, but if video evidence captures a particular event and is complete from beginning to end, I believe it is right to question the actions of those involved from both sides, and that is just at a surface level, it will take attorneys, juries and many court trails to come to a final conclusion. But in the meantime, this will spark a spontaneous reaction from the general public, causing protests and rioting, which causes more police involvement in dealing with potentially hostile environments. Creating a cycle of violence. 

My point is there will always be questionable incidents with those who are law enforcement, and it is right to do so. Justice must be served, and this applies to those in law enforcement and those arrested. And because of a few officers' actions, we should not apply those actions to the whole law enforcement occupation. 

The bottom line, we must trust in our judicial system to do what is right.

 

    

Photo - pixabay - sergeitokmakov

 

Found Documents

What is up with this?

Finding secret documents.

I understand the importance and concern of secret documents being in an unsecured location. 

Did this all of a sudden become the hobby of collecting for elected officials?

This has probably been going on since the founding of the United States. If former politicians took a souvenir series of documents, I would bet they are going through their occupied places and destroying papers as I write this post. And if that is the case, and the DOJ discovers they had documents and destroyed them, this would be a whole new controversy. 

What about those responsible for securing and controlling the secret documents? Where is the chain of custody?

This will grow bigger and involve more people over the next few months. 

Photo: pixabay - TheDigitalArtist

My Top Movie Couples

Film Friday - my top-rated movie couples in no particular order.

Vivien Leigh & Clark Gable

Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray

Katharine Hepburn & Humphrey Bogart

Elizabeth Taylor & Paul Newman

Myrna Loy & William Powell

Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy

Donna Reed & Jimmy Stewart

Jane Russell & Robert Mitchum

Ingrid Bergman & Cary Grant

Jean Arthur & Gary Cooper

Job Security

In recent news, Microsoft (10,000) and Amazon (18,000) laid off thousands of employees.

There was a time going back to the1950's 1960's you landed a job at a well-established company; you were set until you were ready to retire. But in today's economic-driven environment, it is more prevalent that the bigger the company, the more chance you have of being laid off. And the much smaller business is the one to retire from.  Having a job has always been a necessary part of making a living to pay the bills, but if you're in the job market looking for the perfect job. I'll have to say they do not exist. There will always be a boardroom of decision makers to decide about layoffs or the large, more profitable companies with specialized teams to seek and find another company to buy out. The big fish eats the smaller fish reality, it's a brutal business. 

My generation has experienced excellent companies that care for 20-year employees; I believe future generations will only experience working for a place for about 5 years. 

Job security has been redefined as working at most 10 years in one place. Sad as it may seem, it's the truth.

Photo - pixabay - geralt

God's Freedom

God gives every single one of our freedoms. This freedom is the ultimate freedom, but it comes with consequences. 

The freedom of free will.

Our will is what drives us in our ability to choose to act on what is good or bad. God could easily have made us always be inclined to do good and never evil. But he gave us the freedom of choice of good or evil. Just as He did with Adam and Eve. The choice of good strengthens our faith when confronting the evil we experience daily. But the choice of sin has the consequences of the judgment of God. It also has been given to us internally, deep into our souls; this freedom is within each of us, and no country or government and take that away from you. 

Exercise your God-given right of free will. But be sure it is with deep thought because the wrong choice has consequences. 

Photo - pixabay - geralt

Mr. Smith the Politician

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 film directed by Frank Capra. The main characters, Jimmy Stewart (Mr. Smith), Jean Arthur (Saunders), and Claude Rains (Sen. Joseph Paine), are the main characters.

It's one of my favorite movies. The story goes as Mr. Smith is elected as Senator and goes to Washington with a great sense of doing some good for a country he loves. He discovers early the deep corruption of the senior politicians who try to oust Mr. Smith because he is not going according to the rules of corruption within the political world. But he resists and continues to fight for the truth and the duties of his position. And with persistence, he prevails and becomes a model Senator.

Politics, especially at the higher levels in Washington DC, have a certain amount of corruption, and I'm sure there are a few "Mr. Smiths" in the office today, or at least I would like to believe. Politicians should represent the people who elect them, but that does not necessarily reflect everyone because some didn't vote for the elected. But the majority rules, and if you live in a district where your representatives do not reflect your values, you should move to another city or state. In America, we can elect those who best represent our values.   

What Happened?

The FAA Flight System is down; what is up with that?

How could a powerful computer system go entirely down?

And according to the reports, it is the first time this has happened. 

And with that said, they have had plenty of time to install redundancy systems, so if one fails, the other should kick in without delay.

This goes much deeper than what we are hearing. The disruption of flights today will take days to recover from and to return to normal operation. There should have been lessons learned Airlines from the breakdown of Southwest Airlines during Christmas. But again, how does this happen, and why wasn't it fixed?

Clearly a lot of unknowns. In the next few weeks, more reports will come about what really happened.

Photo: pixabay - JESHOOTS-com

The Smoke Screen

Living the faith of Christ can be difficult. We go about daily life with all the interjections of evil surrounding us. But sometimes, the bombardments from the evil one are difficult to see.

It's almost like a smoke screen, the enemy is firing rounds at us, and we do not know where it is coming from. We do not understand why we are reacting to the influence the enemy has on us. 

The difficulty is understanding good and evil. This may seem like a simple solution. We all know what good is but is the good disguised as evil in reality. After all, he is known as the Bible tells us satan is the master of lies. Evil is a master in deceiving us to believe into believing that something evil would be perceived as good. 

The resolve is just as difficult to see, but as the devil is attacking us non-stop, we should be in non-stop prayer and examining our conscience to see through the smoke screen. 

Photo: pixabay - intographics

Stories and History

 

Listening to the wisdom of older generations is a treasure we should not take for granted.

We have all experienced a relative who talks about the old days, the days when they were younger, the days of glory, some might say.  And sometimes, these stories are repeated. But in a way, it's a good thing. 

Throughout history, families have passed down their stories from generation to generation. 

• The stories of how their family came to America. 
• The stories of the 'old country.' 
• The stories of their time in the war
• The stories of being poor and struggling to provide for their families 

This sharing of stories even goes back to biblical times. The passing of the Word of God through oral tradition has given us today the foundation of Christianity, specifically the Bible. Also, the writing from the Saints has been passed down in the same way.

Take time to listen to those who have a story to tell, no matter how small or great, because this is who we are and what we do as the people of God to care and take the time out of our busy days to listen to an old-timer share their part of history. 

Photo - pixabay - beauty_of_nature

Who will be the next Speaker of the House?

The House is now under the political control of the Republicans. But it is undecided who will be the next speaker. So, at this point, I'm going to be critical of the conservatives. They have had plenty of time to debate this among themselves. I know politicians have always been about power and control, which goes for any political party. 

But, come on! You would think after all the years of the Pelosi dynasty. The republicans could easily have someone in mind to clearly take control as Speaker of the House. I can see from most news reports that the agenda of what needs to be done is somewhat agreed on by most congressional republicans.

What is the big delay? The longer this goes on, the more division within the Republican Party will add to the democrats being critical of conservatives.

Photo: pixabay - TheDigitalArtist

2023

What will the new year bring?

So many forecasters predicting what 2023 will bring to us.

But as I've said, they can say all they want, but no one knows. But some predictions are standard every year the financial markets, the weather, the Sun comes up and sets every evening, and the list goes on and on.

What will the first significant event be in 2023?