Yes, it’s time to be a prayer warrior, so get out your rosaries and pray for this election!  Start your rosary novena for the election today!

This, from Catholic Exchange:

At first glance, there does not seem to be any commonality between the 1571 Battle of Lepanto and the presidential election of 2008. But there is an unmistakable link rooted in our history, our culture and in our shared Western Civilization. Though we are separated by generations from our ancestors who fought in the Mediterranean, the ideals and core beliefs that inspired Don Juan of Austria should impel Catholics today to martial and spiritual battle.

Two vastly differing ideas and world views are represented by the two leading candidates. Senator John McCain represents the noble idea of American exceptionalism: the belief that America is the inheritor of the best pearls of Western Civilization. America stands today as the most virile representative of that tradition, Europe having long since been rendered weak and bewildered after devastating wars and poisonous ideologies led her astray. America, while tolerant of and welcoming to all law-abiding peoples of any creed or none at all, is nevertheless a Christian nation. Even a superficial familiarity with the writings and intentions of our founding fathers reveal this fact. Furthermore, most of the founders were well-versed and steeped in the wisdom of the classics — what is sometime called the “Canon of Western Civilization.” John McCain will defend this tradition against the onslaught of relativism brought on by Senator Barack Obama.

In Obama, we see a man who, for decades, marinated his mind in the angry screeds and tracks of numerous radicals hostile to Western Civilization. Obama is a paragon of the multi-culturalist apostle wrapped in deceptive “rhetorical flourishes.” As Michael Knox Beran recently observed in National Review: “In Berlin, [Obama] spoke of tearing down the walls that separate Western nations from the rest of the world…This wall-wrecking sentiment is in some ways admirable, but those with a heritage as unique as ours can consent to such a demolition only if we are certain that the culture that has made us what we are will afterwards be safe.” With his relentless dabbling in moral relativism (the answer to when life begins as being “above my pay grade,” etc.) and multi-culturalism, Obama offers us few assurances that he cares a wit about the fate of Western Civilization, a civilization that has some very clear, unequivocal things to say about Truth and real culture.

No, this is not a military battle we face in the days leading up to November 4. But that hard-fought sea battle of 1571 and the political battle of ideas we face today are, mutatis mutandis, one and the same because our way of life, our Western heritage of Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London and yes, Philadelphia, are at stake, just as it was when Don Juan took up his charge centuries ago aboard a ship under the banner of the Holy League. 

You gotta check out the table of contents of this Compendium.  Whoa.  Looks rich indeed, and speaks the Truth about our economic times.

This from 354.:

With a view to the common good, it is necessary to pursue always and with untiring determination the goal of a proper equilibrium between private freedom and public action, understood both as direct intervention in economic matters and as activity supportive of economic development. In any case, public intervention must be carried out with equity, rationality and effectiveness, and without replacing the action of individuals, which would be contrary to their right to the free exercise of economic initiative. In such cases, the State becomes detrimental to society: a direct intervention that is too extensive ends up depriving citizens of responsibility and creates excessive growth in public agencies guided more by bureaucratic logic than by the goal of satisfying the needs of the person.[738]

So much to chew on here.  No time to ruminate, must sleep tonight. 

I heard about this from Fr. Roderick’s Daily Breakfast #550.  Give it a listen!

I am a recovering feminist, I admit.  This beautiful mind tells us why.  Someone like Sarah Pallin is a living testimony to true femininity in all it’s beauty and complexity!!

OK, I’ve just heard a lecture here and a few things here about author Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse.  I can’t wait to read her book, It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.

From an article,

If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to raise a village?

It takes a family to raise a village. Without the family, the village itself can not function. If the family breaks down, or fails to form in the first place, the “village” can not possibly provide adequate help to repair the damage. The family does something the “village” can not do for itself, namely bring the next generation into being, and socialize them into the kind of people who can participate in a free society. Without the family doing its job, the state will necessarily grow larger, more expensive and more intrusive.

See why I can’t wait?  Who else needs to read this book?

We’re home!  Our good friends, Rich and Jen are here a couple of days while Rich is on leave.  We’re havin’ fun, I’ll be back in a few to tell more about our trip.

little Nathan plays at Newport Beach, OC CA.

The last post you saw didn’t quite work out in the order I was trying to write it.  Oh well.   The pictures and comments don’t quite line up.  Maybe someday I’ll get the hang of it.  Anyway, the gang still sleeps here in the tent trailer; we depart for LA today and Disneyland and the Feast of the Assumption tomorrow.

What a wonderful time we’re having in God’s beautiful and grand creation!  On Sunday we left Spokane and spent the night on the Oregon/California border at Goose Lake.  Before we got there, we got some bad news concerning our good friend and neighbor Nancy, who has been in the hospital for a week battling cancer and some internal bleeding.  Our other neighbor called to tell us that Nancy had slipped into a coma and things weren’t looking good, so our family said a rosary for her in the car and continue to pray for her (would you pray for Nancy and John, too?) 

Monday we made it down to Lake Tahoe where we’re camping at the South Tahoe campground right across the street from the lake.  Pat and the kids (except Nathan) are at the beach right now while I am doing laundry not far away. 

Photo courtesy of Naomi who ran up part way with the camera as they were coming down triumphantly. 

Today we headed around the lake to Tahoe Villiage and Emerald Bay—wow!  What a God of Wonders we have!!

When we left this place and wondering at all the beauty, we got a call from our neighbor John who had a story to tell about his wife, Nancy.  John said that Nancy was now sitting up in bed and drinking some water!!!  What a God of wonders indeed!!! 

Here’s the gang looking down from Heavenly Ski area at South Lake Tahoe. 

At the top of the ski area, we hiked around a little (notice the girls in their flip flops).  Pat wanted to climb to the top, so he did; but he didn’t get very far when Micaela and Brianna went running up after him to climb to the top, right up a ski run!! 

Two weeks ago Pat and I celebrated our 16th anniversary.  I just noticed an allusion to our vows in my post, Happy Anniversary, Baby from that day.  In honor of the sacramentality of our marriage, we often repeat our vows to eachother.  I found myself repeating my vows to someone else to whom I pledge my life.  Am I being unfaithful?  No!  By all means am I being faithful. 

During a profound adoration experience at a youth conference with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, I repeated my vows to him.  Is this too personal to share?  This is what I said: “I, Alisa Angela, take you, my Lord Jesus Christ, to be my Lord and Savior.   I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.” 

What could be more personal relationship than that of a spouse?  I shared this profession of fidelity to Jesus with Pat who thought it was pretty cool.  Although I said these vows to Jesus, it was he [Jesus] who professed his love for me first when he became my Good Shepherd laying his life down for little lost me.  Now that’s true love!  …and so is the sacrificial love of my sweet husband.  I have much to learn from the men in my life about true, sacrificial love, but I’m trying to do more and more unselfish acts every day to become more like the one who loves me.

Each month, Pope Benedict XVI offers special prayer intentions.  

His General prayer intention for August 2008 is: “That the human family may know how to respect God’s design for the world and thus become ever more aware of the great gift of God which Creation represents for us.”

His mission intention is: “That the answer of the entire people of God to the common vocation to sanctity and mission may be promoted and fostered, with careful discernment of the charisms and a constant commitment to spiritual and cultural formation.”

July 25 is the feast of St. James (and the anniversary of our wedding in 1992).  I wish I were in Seattle again to go on pilgrimage to that Archdiocese’s wonderful St. James Cathedral. 

But, that’s OK, the cathedral website is so awesome, one can be there virtually, too!  What a wonderful thing that catechesis come via the art and archetecture of a place!  You must do the virtual tour of the building before you go because there are so many details you might otherwise miss. Also, see the kid’s page  for lots of cool stuff about St. James and also about the Anno Paolino!

Here’s a bit about St. James in the Gospels from the Cathedral site:

    In the Gospels the name of Saint James is always linked to that of his younger, more famous, brother John. They were fishing together when Jesus called them, and they remained inseparable throughout his ministry. Jesus “walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21-22). These were clearly extraordinary young men. They follow without the slightest hesitation, without asking questions and without looking back. They are men of action more than of words, and responding with a truly heroic, an eager and hasty readiness to Jesus’ sudden call.

May we, like St. James the Greater, be eager to humbly say “yes” to the call of Jesus to follow him wherever he leads us.   St. James, pray for us.

I wrote in a previous post about our goodbye party for Fr. Jose and the testimonies that were told at the event.  I just listened to an iterview with Sherry Weddell from the Siena Institute about the subject available here.  She talks about the Pew study, personal relationship with Christ and intentional discipleship. 

I have been reflecting on how God has changed my life and I will post a brief, 3 minute testimony on one of the ways He has transformed me, my own Magnificat. More things to do. 

ps. we’re goin’ campin’ today.  Winthrop, Concrete, Marysville, Maple Valley, home