This weekend we helped the Diocese of Colorado Springs sponsor a showing of Luke Films’ Gospel of John performed by Leonardo Defilippis. It was a wonderful one-man performance of the Gospel. It wasn’t word-for-word like the film a couple of years back but it did distill the gospel into a two and a half hour performance that gave you a complete look at the entire thing.

Even if you haven’t heard of Luke Films before, you probably have heard of some of their work including Therese and Maximilian Kolbe.

If you are looking for a charity, Luke Films could sure use your assistance in producing more high-quality Catholic films.

Today is the anniversary of the convocation of Vatican Council II.

On October 11, 1962 the first session of the Second Vatican Council convened. In the decades since, Vatican II has been both praised and criticized; the decrees which came from the council have produced both positive results and have at other times produced distress and dissent. Many have been distorted and misinterpreted - even misused. But what did Vatican II really say? What was really intended? Now, more than four decades later, many Catholics remain confused and divided.

To read the rest of our informative article on this anniversary, please click here.

Breaking news . . . from Aquinas and More!

An important part of our mission here at Aquinas and More is providing faith-building Catholic information and resources, in addition to selling quality Catholic products. Over the years we have launched several Catholic information-based websites such as www.catholicliturgy.com , www.catecheticalreview.com and www.catholicsummerreading.com to mention a few of our efforts.

Over the course of the summer, we began to significantly increase the number of Catholic articles that we feature on our main retail website which you all know - www.aquinasandmore.com.

In case you haven’t had a chance to browse through our articles section, with Catholic articles now numbering in the hundreds, here is a list of some brand new ones we added in the last week or two:

The Franciscan Tau Cross

What is a Scapular?

October and the Rosary

Byzantine Crosses

On Lectio Divina

Why Going To Mass Is Not Optional

About Guardian Angels

The Beginning Apologetics Series

Francis and Clare - The New Feature Film

Respect Life Sunday

About The Battle of Lepanto

Andrei Rublev’s Holy Trinity Icon

Selecting Your Annual St. Joseph Guide for Prayer

“Mother Teresa’s Secret Fire” - The New Book

Holy Cards - An Enduring Tradition

What Are The Different Types of Rosaries?

The Story Behind Our Bible Covers

About Mystic Monk Coffee

About Bethlehem, the City of David

As you can see, we’ve been very busy. For all of us at Aquinas and More, it’s never been about merely selling Catholic goods. Plenty of Catholic retailers out there do just that, and nothing more. For us, it is important to do whatever we can to help spread knowledge of the Faith, of the Gospel of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to heed the late Pope John Paul II’s “Call to a New Evangelization” and, of course, helping “to rebuild Catholic culture” everywhere.

Good Faith. Guaranteed. Aquinas and More Catholic Goods.

After writing a post about how horrible were the five minutes of the debate that I watched, I noticed that the blog had found a related post I wrote a while back. It just reminded me again why McCain isn’t to be trusted on much of anything.

“Our first choice, Rudy Giuliani, did not win.  He ran a campaign with a risky strategy and it didn’t work. But our number two choice did win…John McCain. McCain came in second in a survey of our membership.

While he is personally “pro life” he has time and again reached out and worked with people across the spectrum.  We know we can work with him to create common ground that will allow moderates and conservatives to come together to rebuild the GOP.

RFC joins with Rudy Giuliani in asking our supporters to consider McCain as they go to vote over the next few weeks.

John is a true American hero with strong and consistent values.  He will provide the leadership that will rebuild America’s confidence in itself and among our allies worldwide. ”

- Republicans for “Choice “

This is what the Republicans for Choice website currently has to say about the election. (Formatting is theirs)

Was there any good news at the Platform Hearings in Minnesota for Moderate/Conservative Pro-Choice Republicans?

Yah Sure You Betcha! But you didn’t read about it or see it on TV.

But the platform is still anti-choice and very anti-woman in many parts. So, how can we say there is any positive to be found?

First, the McCain campaign did not have control over what ultimately would be finalized in the Platform.  If they had their way they would have cut it down to just a few pages and stripped out most of the stuff with which we disagree.  That was their original intent but there were not the votes on the Platform committee to get that done.

Many of the Delegates on that Committee were not McCain Delegates — they were Huckabee and Romney et al Delegates.

Second, the McCain Platform staff writers, at our prodding, put in language into the Abortion Plank itself that talked about the need to work with those in the Party who disagree on this issue to find common ground.

This is the first time ever that any Presidential contender tried to tinker with that plank to add in language that recognized us.

This was not our first choice of what to put in — but it was RFC’s suggestion.  The more extreme elements of our Party who were on the Platform Committee in abundance stripped that language out.

We may have been defeated in the subcommittee but Platform Chairs Congressman Kevin McCarthy (CA) and Senator Richard Burr (NC) came through for us in the full Convention.

They added and reworked language that we, at RFC, had submitted, into the Preamble! Not the appendix as had been done before — sticking some pathetic and weak attempt to appease us into the back end which no one sees.

No instead they took our suggested language and made it stronger and put it right up front.  It is the first thing you see when you open the Platform document!!

This language welcomes us all as conservatives, moderates, libertarians,independents and even liberals who disagree with certain planks to join in and debate and discuss.  And it makes the point that disagreements make us stronger and that no one is forced to conform to this Platform!

Yes!!  Good thing about that non-conform language since several of the Planks (on health, immigration and abortion) do not conform to McCain’s own position!!

It also states that we are a party of mavericks that together can come up with the best ideas and solutions to the Nation’s problems.

Now let’s see what we can do to help shape a McCain administration to make good on those words!!

I know there are a lot of serious issues in the Church and the world going on lately, but I’d like to get your opinion on a largely ignored or forgotten tradition of the Church (especially in America) - which I’m hoping might be growing once again.

On Sunday, I wore a chapel veil (commonly known as a mantilla) at Mass for the first time in my life. I’m sure some people are used to seeing women wearing veils at Mass, but I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen it at the church I’ve gone to for the past 20 years, although I saw at least two women there this summer wearing veils. In general, I’ve noticed it more and more lately, but maybe that’s just because I’m becoming more aware of it. Either way, I knew it would make me stick out, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for a few years now, and on Sunday I just felt like it was time.

I had heard stories from my dad of girls in his Catholic elementary school who would be forced to wear a used paper towel from the art class if they forgot their veils for school Masses, but that is something practically foreign to today’s largely irreverent society. Stories of forced veiling aside, I’ve been thinking about wearing a veil for the past few years. I went to a Catholic university which, despite its outward perception, has its fair share of traditional Catholics who still practice a number of these older customs. This includes women who wear chapel veils at Mass and adoration. I don’t think I had ever considered it or realized women still did it until I went to college and saw that the tradition was still alive. For awhile, I just thought it was nice for them, but I didn’t see the need for me. Eventually, that started changing. I bought a veil in August, planning to wear it to a Tridentine Mass I attended. For whatever reason, I didn’t end up wearing it then, and ever since it’s been sitting in my room waiting for me to get up the courage to wear it.

I was surprised I managed to wear it on Sunday. I felt very conspicuous the whole time, and worried I was sticking out like a sore thumb. I’m sure I got a few curious looks throughout Mass, but somehow, I was less distracted wearing the veil than I probably would have been without it. I had worried I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on Mass as much as I should be, and that my thoughts would all be about what other people were thinking, worrying that I would be seen as overly pious. It was amazing what happened, though. I did feel a little odd at times, but for the most part I was more focused on the Mass than I have been in a very long time. It was really wonderful, and I felt incredibly joyful and uplifted after Mass. Consider me converted.

The more I read about it, the more overwhelming it is that I can participate in this act of reverence and humility – it’s such a beautiful thing, and gives such respect to women (despite what the culture today might believe), and the more I understand it all the less worthy I feel. It’s sad that so many seem to think that wearing a veil somehow signifies women as “lesser” or subservient. Wearing veils really highlights what it means to be a woman in the Church, to try and imitate Mary’s humble example. Although I know it’ll still take courage for a little while to wear my chapel veil, I feel blessed that I am able to be a part of this sign of reverence to God. (To learn more about why wearing the chapel veil is such a beautiful thing, visit The Catholic Knight blog’s series of posts on chapel veils.)

Do any of you ladies wear chapel veils or mantillas? Any words of wisdom for a newcomer to the tradition? And for everyone, what are your thoughts on veiling? I hope that if more people talk about it as more than an outdated practice with no place in today’s culture, more women will be encouraged to learn why this tradition was practiced for most of the history of the Church, and maybe one of these days women wearing veils will be the norm again (or maybe that’s a bit too optimistic…).

After the third time McCain mentioned how he works across the aisle with Feingold (to restrict First Ammendment rights) and Kennedy (to massively increase funding of our failing public education system) I turned off the debate.

The only way he could try harder to lose would be to come right out and tell conservatives to stay home on election day.

I said it last year so I’m not going to repeat myself. Just read last year’s Pink Ribbon campaign post.

Ask yourself, “Why is an organization that is supposed to be putting its money into curing cancer giving money to abortionists?”

We try to usually stick with Catholic matters on this blog but the whole  financial crisis / bailout fiasco these past couple of weeks has just gotten me so angry I am going to vent here.

Let’s do a little review of how we got here.

I’m sure that this is a little biased but it is about the best overview of the situation.

Okay, so it’s three parts bad government law, mixed with two parts bad government regulation, and a healthy dollop of bad government pressure to get people mortgages who have no business owning a house baked  with a heaping tablespoon of lender greed and cooked for a couple of decades.

Attempts have been made in the past to fix the problem but all were voted down, primarily by Democrats.

So, we woke up a couple of weeks ago with Treasury Secretary Paulson running around in circles screaming that the world was facing financial Armageddon if he didn’t get $700 million dollars to fix the problem. Where did that number come from? Out of thin air.

“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

So we have a fake number used to create a sense of urgency coupled with a “It must be passed this week!!!!!!” cry of alarm and what did Congress do? They went home for the weekend. If this was such an emergency, why weren’t they on the floor 24/7 until it passed?

So, Congress comes back on Monday and produces a bill that includes the following nation-saving-critical tidbits:

• Constitutionally questionable authority by the Treasury department to interfere with the loan amounts, interest rates and “other similar modifications” to individual mortgages - the market will no longer determine the value of a house and what loans are worth, the government will
• Preserve minority contracting quotas
• Buying junk assets from foreign banks
• Increasing eligibility for consumers to get mortgages - in spite of this being the problem that got us into the mess in the first place
• Giving the Treasury Department the power to do “credit enhancement” to prevent foreclosures - does this mean that I can actually improve my credit score by not paying my mortgage? Score!
• Tax breaks for solar energy
• More here.

I am basically coming to the same conclusion as The Anchoress -

It seems to me that there is an illusion being worked in the middle of all this frenzy; if during this crisis, the Democrats can still worry about laying themselves out for ACORN, and Harry Reid can take the time to try to sneak a ban on oil shale mining into new legislation, then that tells me something. It tells me there is time and room, here, and that more is driving this than we can see. It makes me wonder if we should not hit the brakes before we go over a cliff, because we couldn’t clearly see the bend in the road.

The Democrats wrung their hands about how they needed bipartisan support to save the world and at the same time Nancy Pelosi told her people that they don’t have to vote for it. So, the bill failed, Republicans are blamed, McCain looked like the fool he is for riding into town, supposedly saving the bill and claiming such right before it failed. This shows that:

1. McCain is more concerned about politics than the Constitution.
2. The House Democrats didn’t really want to pass the bill.
3. The House Republicans and McCain had a golden opportunity to show real leadership by presenting their own Constitutional solution to the crisis. They proved that leadership is not to be found among them.

Meanwhile, Obama basically kicked up his heals and told everyone to get along and for it he is hailed as the more trustworthy candidate on the economy.

So, the Senate gets the bill tinkers with it a little but leaves the basic problems with the House version intact and it passes with McCain again proving he isn’t a leader by failing to offer a sensible alternative.

Yesterday the House took up the bill again and passed it, leaving the primary problems intact.

As much as I would like to believe that the Democrat leadership is crazed, I actually think that this whole thing was staged. If it wasn’t, why did they take two weeks to pass the bill? Why did Nancy Pelosi fail to put pressure on her party to pass it without Republican help? Why didn’t Obama get involved?

Unfortunately, this only worked because of two factors that were pretty much a given: The Republicans don’t have strong leadership and their “Maverick” is more concerned about being “bi-partisan” (read, friends with Democrats) than doing what’s right.

This reminds me of a scene from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

The reason he’s pullin’ our pants down.
Gonna paddle a little behind.
Ain’t gonna paddle it - gonna kick it, real hard.
No, I believe he’s gonna paddle it.
I don’t believe that’s a proper characterization.
Well, that’s how I’d characterize it.
I believe it’s more of a kickin’ sitcheyation.

I believe that the Democrats used the financial problems to their advantage to get this massive piece of socialist trash passed knowing that they could count on the Republicans to roll over instead of fighting. Why were they sure of this? Because  McCain, Mr. Maverick, has a history of working to pass unconstitutional bills like McCain Feingold and McCain Kennedy. The Republicans are so worried about losing the presidency that they went along with McCain to avoid making his already horrible performance as a candidate even worse.

Oh, and on top of all this fun news, today there are multiple articles from across the spectrum saying that this is just the beginning and that it might not even work.

Welcome to socialism. Be sure to thank your Republican representatives who voted for this for moving us one giant step closer to Europe without even putting up a fight. The Democrats couldn’t have gotten their wish granted any more easily than it was.

If the Republicans lose big this November it will be because of one thing - a lack of leadership from the presidential candidate on down. But don’t worry, Hugh Hewitt is sure that THIS time his “party before principle” approach to politics will get the Republicans back in the game. Just like it has for the last five years. Just ask Rick Santorum.

I think a discussion of the Catholic principles of Subsidiarity would be in order now.

“It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop.” - words of Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical - The Gospel of Life

Tomorrow, October 5, is Respect Life Sunday.

Since 1972, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court made the shocking Roe V. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S., the first Sunday of October has been designated by the Church as Respect Life Sunday, also called Sanctity of Life Sunday. For more than 35 years now, the Catholic Church and others have dedicated the month of October, starting with the first Sunday, to extra time and resources in advancing the culture of life. This can be done through prayer, activism, and education against the falsehoods promoted by the pro-abortion advocates.

In the 30+ years since that immoral (and many believe, unconstitutional) decision, the right of life to the unborn has faced particularly vicious attacks. The push for abortion “rights” has gone further and further, and we now live in a time when fighting back against the abortion agenda and the “culture of death” is especially crucial. It has always been vital, but especially in an election year it is important to remember and publicize the truth of the evils of abortion.

To read the rest of our article on Respect Life Sunday, please click here.

Prayer to God the Father of All Life

Eternal God, You have revealed Yourself as the Father of all Life. We praise You for the Fatherly care which You extend to all creation, and especially to us, made in Your image and likeness.

Father, extend Your hand of protection to those threatened by abortion, and save them from its destructive power. Give Your strength to all fathers, that they may never give in to the fears that may tempt them to facilitate abortions.

Bless our families and bless our land, that we may have the joy of welcoming and nurturing the life of which You are the source and the Eternal Father. Amen.

Today, October 2, is the Feast of the Guardian Angels

“How great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it.” - St. Jerome, 4^th century

Today is the Feast of Guardian Angels, but how much do we really know about guardian angels? In recent years, two things have happened. Outside of the Church, theology about the role of angels has been twisted and altered to fit in with New Age ideas or else toned down so that angels are thought of as nothing more than kind, smiling “guys in sparkling pajamas,” as a child in the 90’s remake of the film Angels in the Outfield describes. As a result, Catholics have either adopted some these views, or on the other side, have taken a hands-off approach, backing off from the subject out of caution.   However, belief in angels has been a part of our faith since the very beginning, even well before the time of Christ. The angels played roles throughout the Old Testament and the New. To briefly summarize the Catholic doctrine that angels were created, as was man, and that angels are pure spirit, the Catholic Encyclopedia states:

“The angels are represented throughout the Bible as a body of spiritual beings intermediate between God and men: “You have made him (man) a little less than the angels” (Psalm 8:6). They, equally with man, are created beings; “praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts . . . for He spoke and they were made. He commanded and they were created” (Psalm 148:2-5; Colossians 1:16-17). That the angels were created was laid down in the Fourth Lateran Council. The decree “Firmiter” against the Albigenses declared both the fact that they were created and that men were created after them . . . We mention it here because the words: “He that liveth for ever created all things together” (Ecclesiasticus 18:1) have been held to prove a simultaneous creation of all things; but it is generally conceded that “together” (simul) may here mean “equally”, in the sense that all things were “alike” created. They are spirits; the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister to them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14).”

To read the rest of this article on Guardian Angels, please click here.