Motion is lotion for the joints

I just heard a marathon runner, age 69, who started running because his father died at 55, say that on the radio show, "Doctor, doctor" EWTN. We know that obesity is a big factor in Covid deaths. What about sports? Are marathon runners doing better than joggers? Hockey better than tennis? Swimmers better than bikers? I did find research comparing athletes with couch potatoes in the Covid survival race. I get about 30 minutes a day.

 
Also, I learned that knee injuries are the most common for runners, but runners that land on the mid-foot have half the injuries.

 
Kaiser Permanente (California) did a study including 48,000 of its clients, not by type of sport, but by level of activity. "Even after correcting for all of those characteristics (age, sex, race, smoker, etc) , people who were consistently inactive had a significantly higher risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, and death after getting COVID-19 than those who were active for at least 150 minutes per week. Additionally, those who were active for over 10 minutes per week had some protection against severe illness or death from COVID-19 — though not as much as those who got the full 150 minutes. The highest rates of COVID-19 were among those who were Latinx: 65% compared to 18% (whites), 7% (Blacks), and 6% (Asian or Pacific Islander). It’s worth noting that people who were white were somewhat more likely to meet physical activity guidelines — a discrepancy that should be acknowledged and addressed."

Does exercise help protect against severe COVID-19? - Harvard Health

So my friends (on Medicare), time to check to see if your insurance plan includes Silver Sneakers.

Abortion, slavery and the Church

 Except maybe videos of actual legal abortions, you'll probably never see one— the dismemberment, little arms and legs in a basin, scalps being sold to labs, scissors in the brain, etc. Big Tech has decided those are too gruesome and violent. Also, I’m not Catholic, but the Roman Catholic church is a huge target, and if Protestants and Bible churches were smarter, they’d realize they are all being attacked. Child sex abuse is a case in point. More teachers abuse children as do more doctors, than Catholic priests. This was actually studied and published in the 90s. And I don’t mean numbers, because obviously teachers and doctors far outnumber priests and have more access. It’s rate. You might find something in the last section of the paper, but a priest will be on the front page. My blog today concerns the relationship between slavery, abortion and powerful political leaders.

From 1435 to 1890, we have numerous bulls and encyclicals from several popes written to many bishops and the whole Christian faithful condemning both slavery and the slave trade. And guess what? Many powerful and greedy Christians, including some religious orders, ignored the clear message of the church. They followed the ways of the world. Just as Biden and Pelosi are ignoring the clear teaching of the Church on the crime of abortion.

Abortion is treating the unborn, the weakest and most helpless among us, as less than human. Biden is doing that. Slavery has existed from the beginning of time/civilization where the strong had complete control over the weak, to use and abuse their bodies as they wished. The women for sex and men for labor. Sometimes the slavers became the enslaved when someone stronger came along--particularly in Africa--which not only enslaved their neighbors, but then sold them to Europeans and Asians (still do). John Newton who wrote "Amazing Grace" had been a slaver who ended up a slave. With abortion, that doesn't happen --the little body that ends up in the trash doesn't come back to do harm to her oppressors. Justice (and mercy) will wait for Jesus' return.” The Popes and Slavery: Setting the Record Straight | EWTN

Christian doctors discuss Covid19

The "Doctor doctor" program on EWTN broadcast May 15 a discussion of May 11 (before the latest CDC announcement) with 2 doctors, one in Portland, OR and one in Fargo, North Dakota.

https://www.ewtn.com/radio/shows/doctor-doctor I don't have the exact broadcast number, but it's the latest if you look at the listing. Learned that 84% of those most vulnerable (over 65) have at least one of the shots, and 71% are fully vaccinated. They answer most of your questions, although for some there's no answer right now. This is a Christian, and medical perspective, not political. Interesting discussion also of "long Covid," and the value of vaccinating teens.

I went to the gym and then the local grocery store this morning, and neither is requiring masks. 

Stay strong, be informed

A few of my favorite sources to help you stay strong. However, you do need to catch CNN and the alphabet media occasionally so you understand their lies and arguments and know the insipid gruel and pablum half of America are living on. These hosts are not think-alike weaklings. All moderates. What are your favorites?

GoodFellows (Hoover),
Candace Owens,
Victor Davis Hanson,
Dave Rubin (Rubin Report),
Dennis Prager (Prager U),
Tucker Carlson (Fox),
Glenn Beck (BlazeTV),
Heritage Foundation,
Hillsdale College,
Jordan Peterson,
Hoover Institution,
Zuby (black English rock musician/body builder with a political show),
Bret Weinstein (liberal who refused to be bullied and was fired from academe),
Matt Walsh,
Dinesh D'Souza,
Young America's Foundation,
Michael Knowles,
Ben Shapiro,
EWTN News, (World Over with Raymond Arroyo)

The Small Christian Community (SCC) in India

This morning I watched a program on EWTN called, “Where God Weeps,” which focuses each week on a different part of the world where God is working to grow the church. Where God Weeps – A weekly catholic TV programm  I’m not sure when the program I watched today was recorded, but it was an interview of Sister Christin Joseph of India. 

She described traveling into the interior mountainous jungle to reach a group of Christians who had been attacked and dispossessed of their homes and churches in 2008, and also more recently. A Hindu politician had been assassinated, and the Christians were blamed, so their neighbors (all Hindus) had turned against them and stood by as the followers of that leader destroyed their homes. These people were already of the lowest caste, yet as Christians, there is no caste system for them.  Each one is equal.

She described terrible deprivation such as several thousand people using 10 toilets, and the horrible sanitation in the camp.  Also, her religious order/church had contributed a tent which was housing 23 families with hardly room to sit down. But she found her own faith strengthened by their faith and refusal to reject Christ as demanded by the Hindus.  They didn't ask her for anything like food or clothing, only that she go back and tell other Christians about the importance of taking care of their own neighborhood churches and to pray from them.  “Stand by us,” and “Pray for us,” is what she heard.

She then went on to describe for the host the SCC, Small Christian Community movement (now world wide having been started about 40 years ago).  These are house churches which care for the neighborhood and use a leadership style called “servant leaders.”  The foundational unit is called BEC, Basic Ecclesial Community, and that begins in the home.  I found a YouTube channel that Sr. Christin Joseph uses to do training sessions for the leaders of these small communities. It sounds very much like our UALC SALT groups, Sharing and Learning Together (or Serving and Living Together) Ours (10 people, 9 in the Columbus area and one in Florida) is currently meeting on Zoom, but from her videos listed here (both of which deal with being church in the time of Covid) her groups are meeting in person and using video material for instruction.

Here are two of her training videos.  The sound isn’t the best quality, and sometimes they are English with Hindi subtitles, and sometime Hindi with English subtitles. She finds YouTube film to use.

https://youtu.be/EdBTeVWKN_w  Life after the pandemic; the neighborhood church

https://youtu.be/lPbPCPVarjA  Church on the move.  What is a BEC? How do these communities work during the pandemic?

A few years ago, our SALT group used Rod Dreher’s "Benedict Option" on intentional communities for the post-modern church, and he has a new book "Live not by Lies" which addresses a culture that actually attacks the Christian.  Might be useful for understanding what the lowest caste in India is going through.

Slaves in Paradise

"Slaves in Paradise." That's what Fr. Christopher Hartley called the Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic who work the sugar cane fields. Slaves who live right next door to the U.S. He worked as a missionary in the beautiful D.R. about 10 years (1997-2006) and exposed the cruelty, and was eventually expelled. In the interview I heard on the radio, he named the wealthy family, and he called the workers "slaves," although in all the articles I checked they are called "immigrants," and usually the family is not named. He is English-Spanish and grew up in luxury and at one time worked with Mother Teresa. If BLM really cared about people of color, they'd be doing something about modern day slavery which is world wide. I heard the interview on "Kresta in the afternoon," EWTN and Ave Maria Radio, June 29. Documentary is "Price of sugar."

"The people in Father Hartley's parish were lured across the border from Haiti into the Dominican Republic by the promise of good jobs. All of them had their identification papers taken from them so that they are now undocumented workers in the sugar plantations — basically they are slaves. They spend twelve hours a day, seven days a week, in the fields cutting cane with machetes. In the shanty towns built by the plantation owners there is no electricity, clean water, education, healthcare, or adequate food.

These Haitian immigrants are poorer and blacker than the Dominicans and they are hated as outsiders. Father Hartley has made it his personal mission to fight for their human rights. He has single-handedly taken on the wealthy family that owns many of the plantations and controls the media."
 https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/17417/the-price-of-sugar

March for Life, January 18, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XACCdre_tk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkrJawCk7J0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAmHrvlGflw&fbclid=IwAR0JxghEc500yyU0XHp7bZbDmKz0atpiUUDfZjHN6sqRyU80ODsef1LeUjU

I watched the very inspiring March for Life on EWTN. If you ever want to see REAL diversity, inclusion, multiculturalism and LOVE, that's the place to be. Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, Muslims, atheists, black, white, brown, men, women, children, teens, elderly, toddlers, in utero babies, politicians, bakers and candle stick makers. All united on one issue--life is precious, don't kill the most vulnerable, alone and helpless just because they are appearing at an inconvenient time, or are disabled, or are female.

The reason Democrats demand open borders is because we can no longer populate our own country. Families are the safety net, and now that government wants that job too they have to make sure there are bodies to fill those jobs to pay for their plan. Promote divorce, promote living together outside marriage, make sure women can't be fulfilled without being a wage slave, make sure she's paying off college debt for 2 decades so there's no time for babies and children, tell people there's no difference between sexes, so why even have sex, make women think they are both helpless and yet powerful. Perfect recipe for disaster.

And today the counter march--the feminists, Marxists, pro-abortion, government paid labor, elderly boomers--all marching to kill off the family, lower the birth rate, and destroy the nation. It will be promoted by the MSM because who needs people, anyway, to buy the lies?

And this empire was started by a nun from Akron, Ohio in 1981

"Boldness should be the eleventh commandment."
- Mother Angelica

“EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 38th year, is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN’s 11 TV channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 300 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio and more than 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; the largest Catholic website in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, and several global news wire services; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book-publishing division.”  (http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/ewtn-wins-lawsuit-over-hhs-contraception-mandate)

The reason I describe EWTN and its importance in religious media is because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued an order Thursday vacating a 2014 district-court decision against the Eternal Word Television Network in its lawsuit against the so-called contraceptive mandate issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. The order follows a settlement between the network and the Department of Justice reached Oct. 5.
 
The specifics of the contraception mandate of the “Affordable Care Act” were not included in the original bill, but were announced in January 2012 by then-HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Obama promised EWTN and other religious groups there would be an exception made for them. He lied.  Imagine the money they’ve had to spend just so they didn’t have to provide birth control and abortions for staff.

Seven years!
EWTN Wins Lawsuit Over HHS Contraception Mandate
IRONDALE, Ala., Nov. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a  legal battle that has lasted nearly seven years, EWTN Global Catholic Network has prevailed in its lawsuit against the U.S. government over what has become known as the "HHS Contraception Mandate." In an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit published Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018, the court vacated a June 2014 decision against the Network by U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade. The ruling by the appellate court follows an Oct. 5, 2018 settlement agreement between EWTN and the Department of Justice. Under terms of that settlement, the Network will not be required to provide contraception, sterilization and abortifacients in its employee health plan, something EWTN found morally objectionable.

And finally some common sense from Washington.
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor released two updated rules concerning conscience protections for organizations and individuals in relation to the HHS contraception mandate. We once again are protected by the First Amendment from an over reaching federal government.  Until the next law suit.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/breaking-trump-administration-announces-broad-exemptions-for-hhs-mandate-84021

If you watch Fox News, what will you do now?

What do you plan to do for news that isn't Soros run or a DNCast to get "the rest of the story" now that the sons have taken Fox under (fired the guy who made it great). Do we really need another CNN? Or MSNBC? Those of us who watch Fox know the difference between news and opinion shows.  For opinions you can watch anything on broadcast or CNN or MSNBC that goes by the name of News. It all starts with the selection which reflects the owners, the advertisers and the producers. On Fox all the panel shows commenting on the days events had a good mix of conservative, liberals, contrarians and libertarians drawn from the various media. In the last 2 months the schedule has been rearranged so often, you'd get whiplash.  Tucker Carlson isn't a news show, but he's been in 3 time slots--first Greta's, then Megyn's then O'Reillly's, and if they muzzle him as they've done the others, he'll be no fun to watch.

There are the talk shows on radio (Hewitt, Prager, Medved), but they only reflect snippets of AP, the NYT or WaPo or what's been filtered by the producers and writers. Patrick Madrid talk radio (Immaculate Heart) has a 3 hour morning show (we only get 1 hour) discussing contemporary events, but I wouldn't call it news exactly.  EWTN has an excellent evening news, but it doesn't come on until 9 p.m. Sensible, reasonable. Thorough. And it doesn't slam Christians.

I suppose we could resubscribe to Glenn Beck which we did for about 3 years. We got tired of his survivalist and religious wanderings (a former Catholic now a Mormon, but with little resemblance to either), and at least in the early years of his show he'd have good news coverage. Not sure what he has going on now, but we got bored with the eclecticism and praying on air.

Media manipulation--Women's March, January 21

I don't know how many minutes the media gave to the women's march yesterday--but it was a lot. I only saw what was on Fox and they certainly provided a lot of coverage.  Like they'd never heard of such an event. And yet it has happened every year since 1974 to memorialize those babies who have died and the women who have suffered grief, suicide and higher rates of cancer in the name of "health care for women" or "women's rights." The 2011 and 2012 marches drew an estimated 400,000 each, whereas the 2013 march drew an estimated 650,000. It is also held in multiple cities, just like the copy cat event yesterday. 

I started watching this about 5 years ago on EWTN, the only channel that actually covers the speakers and prayer vigils. But I'd never heard of it before then. Huge turn out from young people of all Christian groups, not just Catholics. And they are polite, they don't shout vulgarities, burn trash and cars in the street and smash Starbucks windows.

The media manipulate you. Demand better. They are on the air to produce wealth for their owners and advertisers. If you don't know it is happening, then it isn't. Unfortunately, many churches are just as silent as the media.

Saul Alinsky, docu-drama

The EWTN Original Documentary “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” a chilling look at the impact of Community Activist Saul Alinsky, whose “Rules for Radicals” still wields a huge influence on American culture – and the world will be shown again at 10:30 p.m. ET, tonight Saturday, Oct. 1. At 9:30 there is an interview with the film's producers by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, who was himself a community organizer as a young man and he is interviewed in the film. See for yourself how the ideology of the followers of Alinsky (like Obama and Clinton) looks down on us little people. What we deal with today has its roots in classic Marxism. The interview with the producers at Arcadia Films is also on YouTube.

Most powerful Christian in U.S. dies on Easter at 92

You went a long way, Rita Rizzo of Akron, Ohio.  Mother Angelica created EWTN, the largest Roman Catholic television network in the U.S. with $200, a makeshift studio in a monastery’s garage in Irondale, Alabama, and one on-air personality, herself. The first time I heard her on the radio with her outspoken viewpoints on what was wrong and right in the world whether it was domestic abuse, poverty or the Vatican, I couldn't believe it. Funny, opinionated, deeply religious, and technologically savvy. Beginning in 1981 with nothing but a vision, her little EWTN is now a huge network with 24-hour-a-day programming to more than 264 million homes in 144 countries. The most powerful hierarchy and bishops in the land couldn't have done this. A child of divorce (at a time when it was a terrible sin) and poverty, she grew up in Canton, OH. She had a stroke 15 years ago, so I probably never heard her live. In my opinion, next to the Pope, she may have been the most powerful and influential Catholic in the world. And to die on Easter. Oh my.

In 1957 facing back surgery, she made a "deal" with God--"If you let me walk again, I'll build a monastery." She did walk again, with crutches and leg braces, and built the monastery, Our Lady of Angels, in Alabama. "When you make a deal with God," she said, "be very specific." (Story told by her biographer, Raymond Arroyo.) Her crippled legs were healed in 1998 and she removed the braces.
 
 She was 58 years old (and had already built a monastery) when she got her vision for spreading the gospel via radio and TV. I was planning my retirement at that age! She was way ahead of the Pope when he called for the New Evangelism. USCCB wasted millions trying to do what she did. Now critics of EWTN say it needs to change, it did its job, its audience is aging and so is the staff. Everyone chases the millennials. Your church and mine included. It's why the Pope has a Twitter account and your pastor wears jeans instead of a robe.She wasn't afraid to tell a bishop or cardinal to go stick his head in a toilet, or announce he wasn't preaching Catholic doctrine, and then under pressure would give an insincere apology. When liberal bishops talked to John Paul II about ordaining women she chastised them and said women were already the most powerful in the church and didn't need to be priests.

Originally, Mother Angelica said she wouldn't let the culture set her agenda--it would be scripture and the catechism. But by the early 90s, she was so sick of the liberal agenda, she jumped into the fight.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y35TxlQkICI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXh6VcYHMBI

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TedPrqFBgAE

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYxdvGmFWj4

What is a lay apostolate?

I've heard so many Catholics on the Journey Home refer to their apostolate, I thought I'd better look it up.  Well, for starters, it isn't what you do for your individual church or congregation, like parish council or teaching classes.  It's in the secular world, working for the Lord.

A key part of lay apostolate is that it happens in a secular environment, not in church. Vatican Council II's Constitution on the Church spoke of it as a “special vocation” — making faith “present and fruitful” in those places where that can only be done by the laity. What places might those be? The home, the neighborhood, and the workplace come to mind. If Christianity is to be lived out there, it's up to lay people to do it.

Lay apostolate comes in two broad varieties — individual and group. A group apostolate might involve something like running a pregnancy counseling program or operating a values-oriented private school. http://catholicexchange.com/whats-a-lay-apostolate

I encourage you to read the    

DECREE ON THE APOSTOLATE OF THE LAITY
APOSTOLICAM ACTUOSITATEM
SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS,
POPE PAUL VI
ON NOVEMBER 18, 1965 

It's really quite inspiring; succinct, yet readable in its thoroughness.
  http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651118_apostolicam-actuositatem_en.html

Our own times require of the laity no less zeal: in fact, modern conditions demand that their apostolate be broadened and intensified. With a constantly increasing population, continual progress in science and technology, and closer interpersonal relationships, the areas for the lay apostolate have been immensely widened particularly in fields that have been for the most part open to the laity alone. These factors have also occasioned new problems which demand their expert attention and study. This apostolate becomes more imperative in view of the fact that many areas of human life have become increasingly autonomous. This is as it should be, but it sometimes involves a degree of departure from the ethical and religious order and a serious danger to Christian life. Besides, in many places where priests are very few or, in some instances, deprived of due freedom for priestly work, the Church could scarcely exist and function without the activity of the laity. . . "

". . . The greatest commandment in the law is to love God with one's whole heart and one's neighbor as oneself (cf. Matt. 22:37-40). Christ made this commandment of love of neighbor His own and enriched it with a new meaning. For He wanted to equate Himself with His brethren as the object of this love when He said, "As long as you did it for one of these, the least of My brethren, you did it for Me" (Matt. 25:40). Assuming human nature, He bound the whole human race to Himself as a family through a certain supernatural solidarity and established charity as the mark of His disciples, saying, "By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). . ."

" . . . In the manner of the men and women who helped Paul in spreading the Gospel (cf. Acts 18:18, 26; Rom. 16:3) the laity with the right apostolic attitude supply what is lacking to their brethren and refresh the spirit of pastors and of the rest of the faithful (cf. 1 Cor. 16:17-18). Strengthened by active participation in the liturgical life of their community, they are eager to do their share of the apostolic works of that community. They bring to the Church people who perhaps are far removed from it, earnestly cooperate in presenting the word of God especially by means of catechetical instruction, and offer their special skills to make the care of souls and the administration of the temporalities of the Church more efficient and effective."