Mercy

God, the Father of mercies,
through the death and the resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church
may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

These are the words spoken by the priest after the penitent makes an oral confession.  At least once a year, Catholics are called to “Easter duty” and make a confession before a priest.  For me, this is one of the most humbling and uplifting experiences of spiritual life.  To stand before the priest, himself a sinner, and speak one’s sins openly and completely is not an easy thing to do.  The Church knows this.  But this oral confession is required of us both to know certainly that we are forgiven and also I think as a deterrent to additional sin.  And I usually get a tear in my eye when the priest speaks these words of mercy to me.

I cannot help but to think that if more Catholics availed themselves to regular confession, the need for psychological counseling would decrease dramatically.  Christ, the physician, is the only one who truly heals us.

NBC Sting Operation

Here’s a curious little event not yet widely reported in the MSM.  Seems that NBC and Dateline are soliciting for Muslims to go undercover in the deep South to try to snag some “redneck” good ol’ boys taunting Muslims.  Here’s the link and here’s an excerpt of the email sent:

That said, I’m urgently looking for someone who can be filmed this April 1st weekend at a Nascar event (and other smaller events) in Virginia. NBC is willing to fly in someone and cover their weekend expenses. The filming would take place all day on Saturday and Sunday.

We already have a hijabi sister who will be filmed there but a Muslim is also needed to join her. I also need candidates for the other filming segments which will take place in the following weeks.

A few weeks later, NBC will fly all the filmed participants to New York City to interview them as a group about their experience and thoughts on discrimination they’ve faced in America, especially in light of the times we live in (war on terror, 9-11, etc.). The show, if approved by NBC (highly likely), is expected to air sometime this summer.

So let’s see.  Get a few Muslims (who of course must dress and act like Muslims even if they’ve been here decades), send them to NASCAR  and other such events, and snag a few bigots. 

Since when is NBC creating rather than reporting news.  With all the controversy surrounding the banned “cartoons,” one would think that NBC would prefer to encourage good relations with the practitioners of the “religion of peace.”  I’m sure that is their true intention and the story was designed to show just how tolerant these redneck truely can be. 

I don’t know about you, but I find this obscene.