'Georgian Orthodox Monks: Monastery of Archangels'

Beautiful & angelic.  Bringing peace to my mind, heart, and soul.  

"Oh Jesus Christ, Son of God, I invite You into my heart.  A poor sinner I am.  A rascal & a scoundrel at times.  Depressed, lonely & addicted, I come to you with full supplication asking only for Your embrace & Your warm touch.  I was a seeker but now I have found what I was looking for."  Amen. Amen.

Video: "Watchmen of the Night: The monks of Saint Mary Magdalene Monastery in Le Barroux"

Father Frank Pavone from Priests for Life

Today was an extra special day as we had a guest priest say mass at Christ the King
church in Ann Arbor.  Father Frank Pavone was in town to address a Pro-Life / Culture
of Life conference yesterday.   He is the president of "Priests for Life" a national Pro-Life
organization.  He is an amazing man & I feel blessed being in his presence.  Awesome day!

Father Frank Pavone To Say Mass Next Sunday @ CTK

I am excited about next weekend: Father Frank (Pavone), who runs "Priests for Life", a national Pro-Life organization, will be in town next weekend to host a seminar/workshop/conference at EMU & say mass.  This will be held in the student center on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.  I plan on attending even though finances are tight right now.  This is one of those times when I refuse to let my money-brokeness be a barrier to my spiritual formation.  Reducing abortion---eliminating it if I had the power to--is one of the most important issues in my life currently.  
Truth be told, it has been an important issue for a number of years now, but I chose to surround myself with closed-minded people who dampened my spiritual growth or were zealots for the pro-aborion movement, hiding behind an ostensible "women's health" agenda.  Never mind the FACT that half of all babies murdered worldwide are female--very young 'women' if you will--and snuffing out their lives "on demand" & "without apology" can hardly be classified as healthy for women!  As if I'm somehow opposed to free flu-shots or affordable mammograms for females.  To me, THAT'S a women's health issue.  The "War on Women" being perpetrated by the far left is disgusting, despicable, low-down, & dirty.  One would have to be blind & half retarded to ignore the plethora of data on not only the psychological & emotional turmoil inflicted on women in the form of Post Abortion Stress Disorder (PASD), but the physical harm as well.  But like I said, it's also medically harmful to the slaughtered babies.  Duh.  Treating women as political pawns and commodities to advance the radical "culture of death" is disturbing, to say the least.  Think of the "I vote with my vagina" slogans, signs, and internet memes of this last presidential election.  I'm fond of the conservative women's rebuttal to that campaign: "I vote with more than my vagina, I vote with my brain!"  How succinctly put.  And what about the majority of abortionists being male?  How about some discussion on how they are getting rich off of a painful, confusing, and depressing time for most of the women opting to pursue an abortion?  I am shocked & dismayed every time I hear someone accuse republicans of waging war on women & women's health!  Ugghhh.  I'm equally shocked at this perpetuation of the culture of death!  I'm won't even touch on China's 'one baby policy' or sex selective abortion, which is the NUMBER ONE reason for abortion, worldwide.  Nasty, nasty, nasty.
OK, I'ma step down off my soapbox now. 
Fr. Frank will be the guest priest saying mass at my church, Christ the King, next Sunday!  I'm excited to finally get to meet this dude!  Hopefully I'll be able to have him sign one of his books for me at the conference on Saturday.
Yep, I agree that being excited for a guest priest at church is something I never saw myself experiencing.  The irony...
I will make another post later about Priests for Life and what they do.
I pray my friends who read this (all seven of them) will not be too irate & we can respectfully agree to disagree.