Former African slave, Josephine Bakhita, patroness of Sudan

For the Africans enslaved today, for the Christians persecuted in and around Africa and for Sudan, ask St. Josephine Bakhita to pray. They need help.
She didn't know her real name. When she was a child, Muslim slave traders captured her in the countryside as she was on an errand for her family. They sardonically nicknamed her "Bakhita", "Lucky One", and sold her to a man who tortured her until she forgot her name.
Eventually she was resold, this time to an Italian-African family, who taught her to read and gave her a Bible. Though she still longed for ehr freedom, she was glad they didn't treat ehr the way her first slaveholder had. In fact she was almost like part of the family to them. But she wasn't family. Family can come and go, and inherit. Servitude is not the same thing.
She traveled with them to Italy, where she asked to be allowed to stay a year in a convent, learning to teach children. They let her stay. A year later, they returned and said it was time to go back to Africa. She refused. She had not made a free contract to stay only a year, because being unfree she could make no free contracts. They said it was a deal and she should have to keep her word. They took it to court. The judge said Italy didn't recognize slavery, and therefore the agreement she had made was invalid as she had not been allowed to make a free decisison. It was an extorted promise. She would be allowed to stay wherever she wanted to. She took the name Josefina, or Josephine, and was known to her pupils as Mother Moretta -- Beloved Little Dark Mother -- a favorite teacher.
She is now known as patron saint of Sudan.

It starts somewhere

Christians in the United States have never been publicly persecuted for their faith -- yet. But when a President visits a Catholic university and tells them to cover up every hint that it is a Christian institution so he can speak, it sends chills up the spines of those who watch the patterns. When they do as he says, it ought to raise an outcry. When the major news media hardly notice San Franciscans stomping old women and attacking churches because an election didn't come out as some (not most) had hoped, it rings a solemn historic note that lingers. And then when the legislature nearly orders the (impossible) reorganization of the largest Christian institution in the world, we ought to be speaking out for our right to worship God in the USA, while speech is possible.
Pray.

Cheap hairbands made with used condoms -- Snopes confirms story

Check out the story on Snopes.com about cheap ponytail bands made from string and pieces of used condom. It makes another reason to know where your consumer products come from.

Stop the abortion mandate! Stop the war on the vulnerable.

The Health Care Reform deal now under the US Legislature's consideration would mandate that taxpayers fund abortion, and that the disabled elderly review their "options", including death, every five years. Meanwhile, an unprecedentedly high percentage of American adults, 51%, consider themselves pro-life, according to the latest Gallup Poll.
Go to stoptheabortionmandate.com to speak out against the doublespeak bill that would push even more death on the needy and vulnerable under the label of health care. We can get real health care for the needy. This legislation isn't it. Tell them to scrap any health insurance law that includes funding for "procedures" most Americans oppose.