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While I was praying my rosary last night I thought "how appropriate to be meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries on this day". Let's pray the next four years are not a bad for the Church, the Constitution and the people as is potentially possible. Not only will the evil of the last four years continue, even intensify, but the likelihood of Obama naming three Supreme Court justices promises the evil may linger for a decade or more; potentially five Liberal, one wild card (Roberts) and three Conservative justices could doom the First and Second Amendments as we know them.

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BobA

Yep.

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Bob C

Bob,

I too was praying the Rosary last night, and have everyday since Bush/Gore. After what this nation has seen of Obama for 4 years, where the economy is headed, the social upheavals he is going to spearhead now that he is a lame duck, and the stark differences between the candidates, I am in despair over how the nation could still opt for him.

And I am beginning to consider the question of what good it does to pray for anything anymore. It's inconceivable it is "God's will" this man should continue to be President. If it is "God's will," then I obviously have zero, ZERO understanding of what is evil and what is good, or how God's plan is unfolding. And my prayers, which I thought were good ones, basically, "Save us from ourselves," have been answered with "NO." What good does it do now to pray that my family be protected from evil when a man who promotes such evil has been returned to power?

I'm sure I'll come back around, but right now I'm going to shut down for awhile. It is impossible for me to see God at all in these doings and it seems God has left us to the wolves.

"My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

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Dean
Most people's sense of history goes back to breakfast time - Benjamin Netanyahu

I hope God intends to strengthen us by this trial and purify the Church in America. Don't give up on Him.

I'd sure like to hear the priests say during the Sunday homily: "I expect all of you who voted for Obama in the confessional before you present yourselves for communion", nah, never happen.

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BobA

Mine won't say anything. Just continue "being kind" and "God loves you" and "we're all going to heaven." A sleepy slumbery babble as we head toward Babylon.

It is very hard right now to come starkly face-to-face with the idea that all true Christians are going to suffer, and suffer terribly for their faith.

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Dean
Most people's sense of history goes back to breakfast time - Benjamin Netanyahu

I doubt that we will hear anything in the Homily this coming Sunday, they will preach God's word like they always do. We will probably hear in the Prayers of the Faithful prayers for the future of our country. As this coming Sunday is Veterans day that will probably be mentioned in the remarks at the end of mass.

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Bob C

Dean,

I’ve been thinking about this all day. I have been praying the past few months that the Obama administration would be voted out, and although this is not my country’s election, I was disappointed. I sought to understand why and maybe I fell into that trap where I prayed that God answers my prayer according to the outcome I desired. God, I have to believe, has answered my prayer, yours and countless others, in this election, in ways He wants to.

Perhaps it is to bring a change in the hearts of those, especially Catholics, who cheered for the false freedom Obama has been promising. The last four years were not enough for them to see the fallacy of his ways and his administration’s policies. Maybe another four years of hard lessons is needed. Perhaps by mid-term some of these lessons will sting hearts and by 2016 a defining moment and a turning point in the history of the United States.

If moulding Israel in the Old Testament in preparing them for the coming of the Saviour is any lesson for us, God never recoils in using His enemies or allowing bad to come to pass to teach His wayward children and bring them back to the fold.

These are going to be challenging times for people of good will, especially for the Catholic Church in the US and its mission and ministries. But as Barb said in another thread, God will not be mocked and in the word’s of Our Blessed Mother’s Magnificat, I believe this:

And his mercy is from generation to generation, on those who fear him.
He has shown might with his arm,
He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly.

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Ian DC
Blessed Ever Virgin Mary -- Sanctuary and resting-place of the Blessed Trinity where God dwells in greater and more divine splendour than anywhere else in the universe

In another thread it was suggested that this is God's will because it is a punishment for our sins.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

Yes, I know. And yet it is those who understand what sin is and who resist the culture who bear the brunt of the punishment, who endure mourning for the decline of the nation. Everyone else continues in their hedonism and pursuit of economic self-interest. How is that God's will?

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Dean
Most people's sense of history goes back to breakfast time - Benjamin Netanyahu

How many who understand what sin is and who resist the culture have promoted Humanae Vitae? The current trend seems eerily similar to the Israelites just before the exile. We must atone for the sins of our community and offer it up in prayer that all will repent and do penance.

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- Joe Kelley

Death is only a shadow across the path to Heaven.

Dean,

It's not God's will that happened last night, it's our (as in the nation) will.

The following is my opinion, take it for what it's worth. Read 1 Samuel chapter 8. The people went to Samuel and demanded a king to rule them. Samuel was distraught, he tried to warn them, but they persisted. They didn't want God as their king, so God gave them what they asked for.

That is what we saw yesterday. Yes, many of us prayed, many are angry, scared and questioning why God would allow this. In the end God allowed the people to have what the majority wanted. History might say that we (the country) got what we deserve. We as a nation, rejected God, just as ancient Israel did. And just like ancient Israel, God has not, and will not, abandon us, even though we - as a nation - have abandoned Him.



Yes, it is difficult to accept that. And yes, the future looks bleak. Go ahead and scream and yell at God if you have to. He can take it. When you are ready take out the 22nd psalm and read it - not just the first line that you cited but all of it.

We are being asked to keep a light burning in the darkness. It won't be easy. But it must be done.


Effie

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“The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected.” –G.K Chesterton

"It's like in the old stories, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come and it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something....Folk in those stories had plenty of chances of turning back, only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something." "What are we holding onto?" That there's some good left in this world Mr. Frodo and IT'S WORTH FIGHTING FOR! - Sam/Frod - Lord of the Rings

For Dean

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Kim Cates

Luke 11:11-12

I have often wondered what God would do if we insist on a serpent or scorpion. Will He continue giving us fish or eggs?

Some one once described the Last Judgement as: "Those on the right say to God - 'Thy Will be done,' - and God says to those on the left - 'Your will be done.'"

I think God just said we can have it our way.

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- Joe Kelley

Death is only a shadow across the path to Heaven.

All of us have felt frustration, disappointment and despair. However, in those times I often pray; Father, did I do enough? If not, my prayers will only be a wish list and I will be disappointed each time one of them does not work in my favor.

Hence, by merely spending five minutes in a voting booth have we truly placed our best effort in implementing the will of God? I think of Noah, God told him to built a boat and with no questions asked - he started working. Certainly, he looked foolish building something for what? Rain?

Most of us are weak to stand up to challenges...that is one reason we should pray. We do not want to be seen as "difficult" or in regards to the subject of morals; we do not want to be seen as a "nut". Or worse, we are a nut and no one wants to listen to us.

We need good leaders everywhere within our community, do we hear the call or do we just ignore it and complain about how the "sky is falling"? Therefore, I always pray to do my best to carry the will of God. But, I am certain I fall short...

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Leo