Saint Joseph Parish: $1,082.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $114.50 from the second collection (plate); $314.00 from the dues envelopes; $180.00 from the loose. Thank you.

Saint Vincent DePaul Parish: $954.00 from the envelopes; $315.00 from the Building & Maintenance envelopes; $49.00 from the loose. Thank you.

Sometimes people don't go to Confession because they can't think of any sins that they have committed. This is, of course, an exercise in diabolical irony. Why? Let me put it this way: They can't think of any sins they have committed BECAUSE they don't go to Confession. Do you understand this?
No, I mean, do you really understand this? Why don't you go back and read this again?
No, I'm serious! Go back and read it again! Here's an analogy to help understand it:
Have you ever been in a house where everything is filthy and dusty or, at least, leaves a lot to be desired as far as cleanliness is concerned? Have you ever wondered why the people who live in the house don't do something about it, why they don't clean up t he mess? The answer, of course, is that they are unaware of the fact that the house is dirty. They are unaware of the dirt precisely because they don't bother to do any cleaning.
On the other hand, have you ever been in a house that is clean and virtually spotless? Why is it so clean? It is so clean because the people who live in the house clean the house regularly, as a result of which they are very much aware of dirt.

THE FOLLOWING QUESTION APPEARED IN LAST WEEKEND'S BULLETIN

There is a stained glass window in the Confession room of St. Vincent dePaul Church. It shows a balance scale with the tablets of the Ten Commandments on one side and, on the other side, some nails and thorns. The nails and thorns, though seemingly lighter in weight than the stone tablets are in the DOWN position, while the Ten Commandments are in the UP position. Does anyone have a clue as to what this means?

Two persons called to offer answers. We thank them both. One of them had the correct answer. The correct answer is this: The nails and thorns are symbolic of the self-sacrificing suffering and death of Jesus Christ, which was (is) the supreme (and only) act of infinite love and obedience ever rendered to God the Father by any Human Being. As such, it more than compensates for ("outweighs") all of the acts of anti-love and all of the disobedience committed against God the Father, from the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden to the final sin that will be committed before the end of time.

NEWS FROM THE HOLY ROSARY SOCIETY of St. Vincent dePaul Parish
In case you don't know what the Holy Rosary Society is, please know that it corresponds to what some parishes might call "the Women's Guild" or some such title. It is a valuable and integral part of our parish!
#1 - Plans are afoot for the Annual Chinese Auction. The date will be 22 February 2009. More about this as plans develop.
#2 - A town-wide Yard Sale is scheduled for 27 September. Shop 'til you drop!
#3 - The next HRS meeting will be held on Thursday, 2 October. The chairwoman will be Ann McAndrew and the committee will be Ann Uzupis and Teresa Gudonis.
#4 - New members are always welcome. To be a member, you should be (a) a female; (b) a member of StVdP Parish; (c) 16 or older.

(Most of the members are not teenagers, but that doesn't mean that teenagers are not welcome. They are most welcome!)

SENATOR UNAWARE FROM DELAWARE
The following is a fascinating excerpt from "Meet the Press" of Sunday, 7 September 2008.

TOM BROKAW: You're a lifetime communicant in the Catholic Church. You've talked often about your faith and the strength of your feelings about your faith.

SEN. JOE BIDEN: Actually, I haven't talked often about my faith. I seldom talk about my faith. Other people talk about my faith.

BROKAW: I'll give you an opportunity to talk about it now.

BIDEN: Yeah.

BROKAW: Two weeks ago I interviewed Senator Nancy Pelosi--she's the speaker of the House, obviously--when she was in Denver. When Barack Obama appeared before Rick Warren, he was asked a simple question: When does life begin? And he said at that time that it was above his pay grade. That was the essence of his question. When I asked the speaker what advice she would give him about when life began, she said the church has struggled with this issue for a long time, especially in the last 50 years or so. Her archbishop and others across the country had a very strong refutation to her views on all this; I guess the strongest probably came from Edward Cardinal Egan, who's the Archbishop of New York. He said, "Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being `chooses' to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name." Those are very strong words. If Senator Obama comes to you and says, "When does life begin? Help me out here, Joe," as a Roman Catholic, what would you say to him?
BIDEN: I'd say, "Look, I know when it begins for me." It's a personal and private issue. For me, as a Roman Catholic, I'm prepared to accept the teachings of my church. But let me tell you. There are an awful lot of people of great confessional faiths--Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others--who have a different view. They believe in God as strongly as I do. They're intensely as religious as I am religious. They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life--I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society. And I know you get the push back, "Well, what about fascism?" Everybody, you know, you going to say fascism's all right? Fascism isn't a matter of faith. No decent religious person thinks fascism is a good idea.

BROKAW: But if you, you believe that life begins at conception, and you've also voted for abortion rights...

BIDEN: No, what I voted against was curtailing the right, criminalizing abortion. I voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it's a moment of conception. There is a debate in our church, as Cardinal Egan would acknowledge, that's existed. Back in "Summa Theologica," when Thomas Aquinas wrote "Summa Theologica," he said there was no--it didn't occur until quickening, 40 days after conception. How am I going out and tell you, if you or anyone else that you must insist upon my view that is based on a matter of faith? And that's the reason I haven't. But then again, I also don't support a lot of other things. I don't support public, public funding. I don't, because that flips the burden. That's then telling me I have to accept a different view. This is a matter between a person's God, however they believe in God, their doctor and themselves in what is always a--and what we're going to be spending our time doing is making sure that we reduce considerably the amount of abortions that take place by providing the care, the assistance and the encouragement for people to be able to carry to term and to raise their children.

Comment
Sen. Biden (D-DE) fails to distinguish between FAITH and REASON. Belief in (for example) the Holy Eucharist depends on FAITH. But belief in the true humanity of the unborn child from the moment of conception depends on REASON. To deny the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is evidence that one lacks Catholic Faith. To deny the True Humanity of the newly conceived human being is evidence that one lacks Reason or Sanity or Integrity. No one who lacks any of these should be eligible to preside over the United States Senate, much less be a heartbeat away from the Office that is Oval.

This photograph was taken at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on 3 July 2008.
In the foreground, from left to right: (Image of) Our Lady of Guadalupe; Msgr. Diego Monroy Ponce; Sen. John McCain; Cindy McCain; Sen. Joe Lieberman. The men in the background are not identified.
Senator McCain visited the Basilica together with Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, who is a convert to the Catholic Church. While at the Basilica, Sen. McCain placed a bouquet of white roses on an altar in honor of the Blessed Mother and accepted a blessing from Msgr. Monroy Ponce. It is interesting to note that our Blessed Mother, specifically under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, is the patroness of the PRO-LIFE movement.

THE NEW REVISED USER-FRIENDLY CATHOLIC RELIGION
Here's the story. While I was in the process of moving my stuff from Pottsville to Girardville, I got lots of help from several kind persons, including two teenagers from Schuylkill Haven: Matthew (age 18) and Ian (age 15). One evening, as I was driving the two of them from Girardville back home to Haven, I invited them to stop at Friendly's (in the Fairlane Mall) for some supper. While sitting in the booth, the three of us came up with an idea for a new religion. It would be based on the Catholic religion, but it would be more user-friendly than the old Catholic religion. It would utilize the phrase "if you feel like it", which you hardly ever hear in most Catholic parishes. I told Matthew and Ian that I would work on "fleshing out" the Faith and Morals of this new religion. In honor of the place where the idea was born, I decided to call our new faith THE FRIENDLY CATHOLIC RELIGION. I figured it would be only right and proper that I would be the first Pope of this new improved religion, but I told Matt and Ian that I would see to it that they would get good jobs at my Friendly Vatican. Over the past few weeks, ideas for this new religion still bounce around in my brain. So, I would like to run the following up the flagpole (as the saying goes) and see if anyone salutes. In the left column, you will see the OLD FASHIONED UNFRIENDLY TEN COMMANDMENTS. In the right column is my proposed NEW REVISED FRIENDLY TEN COMMANDMENTS. So, what do you think? Any takers in Girardville?

THE OLD UNREVISED, UNIMPROVED, UNFRIENDLY TEN COMMANDMENTS 01. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me. 02. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain. 03. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day. 04. Honor thy father and thy mother. 05. Thou shalt not kill. 06. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 07. Thou shalt not steal. 08. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 09. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.

THE NEW, REVISED, IMPROVED, USER- FRIENDLY TEN COMMANDMENTS 01. I am hoping that you will accept me as "the Lord your God". If you don't mind my being so "pushy", I would like to suggest that you really shouldn't have any strange gods before me. 02. I would really like you not to take the Name of the Lord your God in vain because, you know, it makes me feel bad when you do that, okay? 03. Whenever it doesn't cause you, like, really far out maximum inconvenience, please try to remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day. 04. Honor your father and your mother. Hey, kids! I really mean it! I mean unless they just insist on standing in the way of your being really happy. 05. You shall not kill unless you really have to, but then try to have a professional do it for you. 06. You shall not commit adultery, at least not unless you have a VERY good reason and you are sure that you can work it out so that, at least in the long run, everyone will be okay with it. 07. You shall not steal, unless you just can't figure out any other way to get what you need. 08. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, unless you decide it's the only way you can get yourself out of a really sticky situation. 09. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife unless she covets you back. 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods unless the System gave your neighbor an unfair advantage over you and made it possible for him to acquire a lot of nice things it didn't let you acquire.