Michael R. Fleet

Combine in a 30mL bottle:

• 40 drops Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil (bark oil is toxic)
• 60 drops Clove Bud Essential Oil (read the precautions!)
• 60 drops “Lemon Eucalyptus” (Eucalyptus Citriodora) Essential Oil or Eucalyptus Radiata Essential Oil (avoid eucalyptus globulus)
• 80 drops Lemon Essential Oil
• 40 drops Rosemary Essential Oil
• 20 drops Sage Essential Oil
• 40 drops Ravensara Essential Oil
• (optional) 40-60 drops of any aromatic essential oil of your choosing. We have found Lavender Essential Oil to be effective at balancing the clove + citrus scent of the other oils.

…then fill the bottle with a light carrier oil of your choosing.

For you Uke players out there:
Verses: C, G, F, C, G (repeat)
Chorus: F, C, G, C, F, C, F, G, C

— transcribed by Noah Swearingen

Click to enlarge. Also available as a PDF.

via: BibleGateway Blog

The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb are a contemplative community that enables girls with Down’s syndrome to respond to a religious vocation.

We follow every day the “little way” taught by Saint Therese; knowing that “great actions are forbidden to us,” we learn from her to receive everything from God, to “love for the brothers who fight,” to “scatter flowers for Jesus,” and to pray for the intentions entrusted to us.

I know now, Lord, why You utter no answer. You are Yourself the answer. Before Your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?

– C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

via: TEDxAustin

Our right to life comes from God. That right does not depend on the whims of politicians or powerful people. That right does not depend on economic or political forces. Our rights come from God. And no man, no institution, and no set of circumstances can justify denying those rights.

— A Catholic’s Perspective on Immigration and U.S.-Mexico Relations. Gómez, José H., Archbishop of Los Angeles. Spero News. 25 Mar. 2011.

At one time, Ronan was so oppressed with hunger and fatigue, that he was obliged to seek a means of living from a good peasant, who hospitably entertained him. So touched was his host with the purity of Ronan’s motives, that he asked permission some times to visit the saint.

However, Keban, the wife of this peasant, was a passionate and an envious woman, who gave way to her irritability of temper when she found her husband staying too long at the hermitage. Keban complained that he had neglected her and had become idle; while her complaints were especially directed against Ronan, who bore these reproaches in silence and with admirable patience. This only increased her fury, and she furthermore circulated calumnies against him, among her neighbors who were over-credulous. She pretended that Ronan was a magician who was desirous of initiating her husband to the mysteries of some diabolic arts. Although her false statements were credited by some ignorant persons; yet those who were more reasonable continued to honor Ronan, and this served to counteract her malicious designs. But she conceived a still more wicked project to effect her revenge.

[The Crusades] were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense.

— Madden, Thomas F. Crisis. 4 Apr. 2002.

The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, the Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades

Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.

— Chesterton, G.K. Illustrated London News. 23 Oct 1909.

As a volunteer, Payne has a small bedroom in the staff quarters, which accommodates up to 10 people. He said some people “choose to use the shelter as a flophouse for a hangover” and addiction and mental health problems plague many guests. But if you’re motivated, “this is an awesome place for people wanting to help themselves.”

— Caldarola, Effie. CatholicAnchor.org. 26 Feb. 2011.

via: TEDxSydney

A movement that bets the farm on lionizing the use of lies for a good end is a movement that will soon experience another public relations catastrophe and have nobody but itself to blame since we were warned by the Church that lying is intrinsically immoral.

— Shea, Mark. National Catholic Register. 18 Feb. 2011.

The full evil of Stalin still hasn’t sunk in. … Our culture has not assimilated the magnitude of his crimes. Which is perhaps why the cannibalism jolted me out of any illusion that meaningful distinctions could be made between Stalin and Hitler. … According to Snyder’s carefully documented account, it was not uncommon during the Stalin-imposed famine in Soviet Ukraine for parents to cook and eat their children.

— Rosenbaum, Ron. Slate.com. 7 Feb. 2011

In loving memory of our own little Mary Bernadette:

— Saint Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes. Martin, James, S.J. Loyola Productions. 9 Feb. 2009.

“Egypt is free!” and “God is Great,” they chanted in the honeymoon of the moment.

— Egypt’s Mubarak Resigns After 30-Year Rule. Wire Staff. CNN. 11 Feb. 2011.

Citizens, in these difficult circumstances that our country is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to relinquish the office of the presidency and has instructed the Supreme Council of the armed forces to take over the affairs of the country.

— Hosni Mubarak Resignation (Text of Statement). Fattah, Zainab. Bloomberg. 11 Feb. 2011.

In some circles, babies born to families after the loss of a child are referred to as “Rainbow Babies.” The idea is that the baby is like a rainbow after a storm. “Rainbow Babies” is the understanding that the beauty of a rainbow does not negate the ravages of the storm. When a rainbow appears, it doesn’t mean the storm never happened or that the family is not still dealing with its aftermath. What it means is that something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color, energy and hope.

— Author Unknown. via: Nicholas’ Touch.

“Work is Prayer” is not only not a quote from St. Benedict; it is also a misleading and harmful maxim for the Christian life.

• Work Is Prayer: Not! - Part I. Kardong, Terrence, OSB. Assumption Abbey Newsletter. Richardton, ND. Oct. 1995.
• Work Is Prayer: Not! - Part II. Kardong, Terrence, OSB. Assumption Abbey Newsletter. Richardton, ND. Jan. 1996.

— Nevine Zaki. Daily Mail. 3 Feb. 2011.

Simon Dale’s hobbit-home was built with reused materials and fallen timbers, for approximately $4,500. The reciprocal roof is brilliant, strong enough to support a “living roof” and reportedly easy to build. Simon built the home himself, with a little help from friends and family, spending 1000-1500 man-hours.

Now is the time to try to find the courage to acknowledge to each other that throughout our histories, and even today, we are better at talking about love, justice, forgiveness, peace and equality, than we are at putting them into practice

— Fr. Daniel Madigan, SJ. 23 Jan. 2011.

Brooke Baldwin interviewed the prosecutor on the case, Seth Williams. … He spoke of the “house of horrors” … that they found “severed feet” and “body parts” everywhere, including in the same refrigerator where staff kept their lunch. … He bemoaned the fact that these abortion “clinics” are not regulated, noting that barber shops receive more governmental scrutiny.

We learn how to live again and get up and dress ourselves again and be good parents to the kids who are still living. But in the end, a part of us died with our kids. That heartache will be a train we ride to the day we die.

Go forth therefore as great Catholic lawyers … teachers … politicians … business leaders, not incidentally, but essentially Catholic.

— @FrRobertBarron. 10 June 2010.

What absolute arrogance! … That the stronger should dominate the weaker, should determine who lives or dies. … Don’t you realize that you cannot make your own heart beat?

— Gianna Jessen. Queen’s Hall, Parliament House, Victoria. Australia. 8 Sep. 2008.

— Michael R. Fleet. Mission Nombre de Dios & Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. Saint Augustine, FL. Jun. 2010.

— Michael R. Fleet. Mission Nombre de Dios & Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. Saint Augustine, FL. Jun. 2010.

— Michael R. Fleet. Mission Nombre de Dios & Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. Saint Augustine, FL. Jun. 2010.

— Michael R. Fleet. Mission Nombre de Dios & Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. Saint Augustine, FL. Jun. 2010.

— Michael R. Fleet. Mission Nombre de Dios & Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. Saint Augustine, FL. Jun. 2010.

— Brighid Fleet. May 2010.

Out of the mouths of infants and nurslings you have brought forth praise. (Matthew 21:16)

“Politics and Catholics with Archbishop Charles Chaput.” Uncommon Knowledge. The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University. Stanford, CA. 3 Mar. 2010.

— aghostiguess

— zbyszekF60. Christ Bearing His Cross by Pius Weloński. Holy Cross Church, Warsaw, Poland.

Them as can do has to do for them as can’t. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.

— Granny Aching. The Wee Free Men. Terry Pratchett.

St. Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland whose legacy we celebrate today, used the three-leaved shamrock to illustrate the idea of the Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people of the 4th century. The Trinity is a profound revelation that cannot be fully understood on this side of heaven, yet we can know something of this mystery. Father Barron, following in the footsteps of St. Patrick, offers his reflection on this essential belief of the Catholic Faith.

— @FrRobertBarron. “St. Patrick and the Trinity.” 17 March 2010.

Happy Feast of St. Patrick!

Our Tradition talks about God not as “a Being”, but as “Being Itself”

— Fr. Robert Barron. “Faith Seeks Understanding, Part 1: What Is God?.” 11 Mar. 2010.

Video Mashup: Battlestar Galactica + Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” = AWESOME! ;)

During Starkbierzeit, Muncheners sip earthenware steins of the dark, formidable suds to ward off winter’s lingering chill — strong beer was originally concocted by 17th-century monks who drank it in place of solid food during Lent. The locals still call it their "health tonic," and, keeping with tradition, celebrate and imbibe it during these late-winter weeks.

— Monks, Munich and Strong Beer. Snyder, William R. The Wall Street Journal. 25 Feb. 2010.

— Br. Lawrence Lew, OP

In our island of Hibernia Christ was made known to man by the very great miracles which He performed through the happy virgin of celestial life, famous for her merits through the whole world.

— St. Ultan, hymn honoring St. Brigid.

O holy Brigid, you became sublime through your humility, and flew on the wings of your longing for God. When you arrived in the eternal City and appeared before your Divine Spouse, wearing the crown of virginity, you kept your promise to remember those who have recourse to you. You shower grace upon the world, and multiply miracles. Intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls.

— Troparion (Tone 1) to St. Brigid of Kildare

Read all about her miraculous life: Fish Eaters, Catholic Encyclopedia, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese

Great introduction to the Catholic perspective on the relationship between religion and science.

— Jesse Allen. NASA. 20 Dec. 2009.

— Guy Shield. Illustrated Marriage Proposal. 28 Nov. 2009.

— Artist Unknown

Half a million Vietnamese Catholics joined in huge protests last month demanding justice for victims who were beaten brutally by police in a central coastal province of Vinh.

— VietCatholicNews

— Br. Robert Lentz, OFM

— Gherarducci. 1365.

… a collection of works inspired by the beloved classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

— Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images

— Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

— Marisa Abaza

All-nerd birthday dinner @ fogo e brasa. good times. :)

— Author Unknown

A Lego recreation of Jeff Widener’s 1989 photograph of “The unknown rebel”

— Mike Stimpson

— Ryan Welsh

China’s friendly neighborhood thought police, vigilantly monitoring tomorrow’s martyrs. via globalvoicesonline.org.

— Chris James