I am More - Do you want to retrain your brain and get rid of the lies you believe about yourself -

 

Talking With Dead People? Homily Isaac Longworth - All Souls Day November 25, 2025

40 Days for Life Prayer Vigil drew to a close with the Closing Rally on Sunday, November 2 at 6:00 p.m. at the Vigil Site, 84 Bank St., Southwest corner of Queen and Bank.

https://www.40daysforlife.com/en/

The Ottawa 40 Days for Life Prayer Vigil drew to a close with the Closing Rally on Sunday, November 2 at 6:00 p.m. at the Vigil Site, 84 Bank St., Southwest corner of Queen and Bank. 

We begin with a song and a prayer, followed by a candlelight procession to St. Patrick’s Basilica Scavi for a brief program and light refreshments. 

 

Although the vigil has ended, our prayers continue—for an end to abortion, for mothers and fathers who have experienced abortion, for expectant mothers considering abortion, for abortion workers, and for all whose lives have been touched by abortion.

 

Litany of the Saints ( English)

Praying for Canada - November 1, 2025 - from Notre Dame Cathedral to Parliament Hill

Luzia kindly drove Jackie and me to Notre Dame Cathedral, where we met  Marlene, Pat, John, Ted, Joanne and a few others and from there, prayerfully processed to Parliament Hill

A few photos of the procession below

followed by a short reflection by John Pacheco

 

All Saints Day - All you Holy Angels and Saints, Pray for us

Saint Monica, Pray for Us -

All you Holy Angels and Saints

Pray for us

Trump says he will designate Nigeria 'country of particular concern'

 https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/267517/breaking-trump-says-he-will-designate-nigeria-country-of-particular-concern

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 31, 2025 / 17:30 pm

President Donald Trump said he is designating Nigeria a "country of particular concern."

In a social media post Oct. 31, Trump said, "Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a 'COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN'".

Under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998, the U.S president must designate countries that engage in or tolerate “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” as CPCs. Violations include torture, prolonged detention without charges, and forced disappearence, according to the State Department.

The last CPC designations were made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in December 2023, when 

Blinken revoked Nigeria’s CPC designation that was put in place by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2020.

Christian leaders delivered a letter to Trump on Oct. 15 that said 52,000 Christians have been killed and over 20,000 churches attacked and destroyed in Nigeria since 2009. In addition, it said, thousands of Christians have been murdered and raped in 2025, and “over 100 Christian pastors and Catholic priests have been taken hostage for ransom.”

Trump said in the social media post, "But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!”

The president said he will charge Rep. Riley Moore, R-WVa., along with Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., “to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me.”

The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries,” Trump stated, adding: “We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”



Members of Congress and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also had sought to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced legislation in September that would require the Trump administration to adopt the CPC designation in addition to imposing targeted sanctions against Nigerian government officials who facilitate or permit jihadist attacks against Christians and other religious minorities.

Republican Senators Ted Budd of North Carolina, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and James Lankford of Oklahoma endorsed redesignating Nigeria in a Sept. 12 letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Budd posted on X.

Similarly, the USCIRF also recommended the State Department designate Nigeria as a CPC in its latest update on religious freedom in the country in late July.

USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler welcomed the designation on social media: "We applaud @POTUS for making Nigeria a CPC.” Hartzler said, “The Trump admin can now use the various presidential actions outlined in IRFA to incentivize Nigeria to protect its citizens and hold perpetrators accountable."

ADF Senior Counsel Sean Nelson told CNA, "We at Alliance Defending Freedom International are deeply grateful for President Trump's recognition of the grave persecution of Christians ongoing in Nigeria and worldwide.”

Nelson added, “We hope that the Country of Particular Concern designation moves Nigerian officials to stop the denials and work strenuously to end the religious persecution happening in so much of the country.”

Trump’s announcement to move forward with the CPC designation comes amid the ongoing government shutdown that has left legislation on the matter in limbo.

 


Moore, who was a staff member and national security adviser for the House Foreign Affairs Committee before being elected to Congress, celebrated the designation on social media, writing: “Thank you @POTUS for your incredible leadership by designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. You have always been a champion for Christians around the world, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with you and Chairman Cole @houseappropsgop to defend our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being slaughtered by radical Islamists in Nigeria.”

This story was updated on Oct. 31, 2025, at 5:35 p.m. ET.

To You, O God we Lift up our souls

 

Divine Infant Parish - October 31, 2025 - 9:00 AM Mass

 

Entrance Procession

The Transcript needs to be edited. The sound system is not the best, and my recording device is quite lame but for the time being here is the transcript of Fr. Siok's homily. It is just so good!!! 

Thank you Fr. Siok

Transcript of the Homily

0:00

based letter from letter to the

0:02

Ephesians.

0:04

The largest

0:06

theme of the whole letter and that theme

0:10

is unity of the spirit. Unity of the

0:14

spirit

0:16

reminds us of course that we're all

0:18

baptized

0:19

into Jesus Christ in the father, son,

0:22

and holy spirit.

0:24

And so follow

0:27

the holy spirit. We all have people

0:30

spirit and grace. So it follows that

0:35

we should be one.

0:38

We all have to see

0:40

this. The great scandals of course is

0:44

the Christian church. We have so many

0:46

visions

0:48

of ourselves as Catholics.

0:51

We have both

0:54

faith,

0:55

one family. We should all have the same

0:57

creed. We all should believe in the same

1:00

thing, right? Have the same beliefs,

1:02

same convictions profess. We should have

1:06

the same mode of life

1:09

more

1:13

not all the time. We're trying to change

1:17

it because God doesn't change.

1:20

We also say we have a ten commandments

1:22

not 10 recommendations.

1:26

And finally, we should also

1:29

have access to embrace because the fact

1:33

that makes us human be fragile.

1:36

We go help to progress and grow

1:41

sanctification.

1:43

Those are the three major roles that we

1:45

have to worry about as we follow the cre

1:52

and have access and take advantage of

1:54

the source of grace that are offered to

1:56

us through Christ in his church.

2:00

So those are the things and for us to

2:03

have all these things we have access to

2:05

all these three dimensions in our life.

2:08

We need a structure and that's what the

2:12

literally ends with today's

2:16

he said we have apostles, prophets,

2:18

evangelists, pastors, teachers and all

2:20

that. What's he talking about

2:23

hierarchical church?

2:26

Our church exists

2:28

to serve us and not

2:32

rule us

2:36

to be holy stones as we last stones into

2:42

the church

2:44

filled with life and spirit.

2:47

We must be God, Christ.

2:53

And so to do that, we need access to

2:57

services.

3:01

And so the role, the hierarchy, if you

3:04

wish, is to provide us with three

3:07

things.

3:10

Part of a good governance

3:12

you have to have an organization

3:15

structure action and all that. We need

3:17

governance.

3:19

We need

3:21

teaching

3:22

remind what our responsibilities are the

3:26

word of God tells us need teaching

3:29

and we need again sanctification. We

3:32

have to be the church to provide us with

3:34

access to the sacraments.

3:37

Thus were they paris

3:46

and not

3:50

now sad thing perhaps for us Catholics

3:53

is this

3:56

we're supposed to be but all this fact

4:01

which soldiers in this world

4:06

remind us of the facts

4:09

and

4:11

who we identify with

4:14

all should be our fellow Catholics.

4:18

They're the first members of our family.

4:21

We should be closer to the Catholic we

4:25

pursued in northern Iraq.

4:29

regard to

4:31

our national

4:33

amount.

4:36

a persecuted person in Iraq

4:40

spiritually is closer to us than they

4:46

really how soon are we for example that

4:49

our fellow

4:53

or Nigeria really persecuted and

4:56

slaughtered these days

4:58

we care about them who's talking about

5:02

their reading

5:08

So that's something for us to have to

5:09

consider in our own lives is that we

5:11

should have a

5:13

Catholics in China

5:17

quite frankly feel we speak to them

5:20

speak

5:22

very

5:33

in in China and the government in China.

5:36

So the Catholic Church is now under the

5:38

jurisdiction of the Chinese government

5:41

there.

5:46

So the Catholics will be forced to go

5:48

underground

5:50

from the church.

5:57

How serotic

6:00

speaker in Hong Kong and

6:04

fight

6:09

you would you push the truth on he's a

6:13

prison

6:16

and to get to have

6:20

they have to turn to all people Donald

6:24

Trump he's the only one working

6:27

sat down

6:31

on our church pastor today

6:34

conscience in order to live up to the

6:36

first

6:38

God of the first St.

6:42

In today's gospel, we have the

6:46

interest we look at and we see Jesus

6:49

goes up the mountain.

6:51

Goes up the mountain. What does that

6:53

remind us of? Reminds us of Moses who

6:57

went up the mountain to receive the ten

6:58

commandments.

7:01

But then he was commanded not to receive

7:06

commandments

7:07

but to proclaim

7:10

the fulfillment of the ten commandments.

7:16

The gratitudes are

7:21

the style of gratitudes the format of

7:24

the gratitudes is well known in the

7:27

Jewish culture even back then culture as

7:31

well

7:32

and it's to show

7:35

approval of certain ways of life and

7:38

consolations to God.

7:46

And you have all those aspects in

7:48

today's attitudes.

7:51

The fifth commandments are like a frame

7:54

and a canvas to a picture. That's all

7:58

they are.

8:02

Canvas and a frame. The reactions are

8:07

painting that goes into that canvas.

8:13

They give us a good life

8:17

the values that are pursued and eternal

8:20

disposition that should be pursued by

8:22

mature

8:24

Christian person.

8:27

Well, the Lord is very

8:32

blessed our poor spirit.

8:35

Jesus is saying that Prince

8:38

should necessarily be monetary poverty,

8:42

material poverty. He's talking about

8:46

realism,

8:48

being realistic for ourselves.

8:51

Realize that we're very fragile

8:53

spiritually.

8:55

We're very fragile physically in our

8:58

bodies. Our world is very fragile. Our

9:01

whole civilization can fall apart very

9:03

quickly. Orig

9:08

for example the Wi-Fi

9:14

what happens

9:18

our civilizations

9:23

so

9:27

when you realize that we're fragile

9:29

human beings

9:32

I mean spiritual beings where we're

9:34

buried,

9:37

predisposed to sinfulness.

9:41

Then we're humble in spirit. We

9:43

recognize authority and our need to go.

9:49

Blessed are those who mourn, who mourn

9:53

evil in the world, warn our sins.

9:58

Notice he says when your poor spirit

10:01

says yours is the king is

10:05

the kingdom of heaven not will be is

10:11

which means that we're in this world

10:14

we're living the beginnings of life

10:22

we

10:24

have remember those

10:26

So we mourn for comfort.

10:29

We did consolation of God. We mourn our

10:32

sins and evil world

10:34

and we God's providential character.

10:38

Listen to thus meek.

10:42

What does meek mean?

10:44

Who's a meek person?

10:46

A meek person is one who doesn't

10:48

retaliate or provoke

10:52

or attack.

10:54

These

10:56

are

11:00

such people also then are have a lot of

11:02

uh credibility

11:04

and influence when they correct somebody

11:09

in a fraternal way.

11:12

So for example,

11:14

when Moses and Aaron were attacked by

11:18

when Moses was attacked by Aaron and his

11:20

sister

11:23

participation,

11:26

Moses

11:27

didn't confront him directly

11:30

god

11:32

situation that's called the scriptures

11:39

and said you will inherit the

11:41

Well, there's a sweet

11:45

land.

11:50

Blessed are those who hunger in search

11:52

of righteousness.

11:53

People who crave righteous mean being

11:56

justified means being right. Following

12:00

God's commandments, being reattached to

12:03

discuss the covenant of God.

12:06

hundred thirsty some screaming grow in

12:09

holiness to be more faithful to do more

12:14

of what is right on the earth and what

12:16

we seek

12:18

and he says they will be satisfied

12:22

fulfilled

12:23

they will have will become more holy

12:29

be merciful want mercy mercy forgive us

12:34

our trespasses for those who trespass

12:37

your father. You want mercy from God,

12:40

you got to give it to

12:42

others. And it's hard sometime

12:46

especially when somebody hurts us

12:49

and you don't recognize what they've

12:51

done when you apologize

12:56

in that situation. You have to have this

12:57

position to be forgiving.

13:01

But the solution has to be there. I

13:04

recall not to meet, not to go after.

13:10

And so what goes on with the

13:11

peacemakers?

13:13

Peopart means having a real focus

13:17

above all in all of our life with our

13:21

pursuits, our priorities, heavy focus

13:24

first on God and his will.

13:27

So even when we go to church, our hearts

13:29

are sure because God is so his is

13:35

more important than all of the things in

13:37

my life. This is joy.

13:40

That's the heart of

13:43

God without mercy and how we came

13:45

together.

13:47

And then says he goes on to be a

13:49

peacemaker.

13:50

is somebody who strives to create

13:53

harmony, harmony with God, for

13:56

yourselves and for others and harmony

13:59

with people.

14:01

And

14:03

we live in such a way as peacemakers

14:07

then

14:10

reconcile.

14:14

And the reward for all this is

14:17

thus are they who are persecuted for the

14:19

sake of righteousness. So when you do

14:21

all this you expect to be persecuted in

14:24

this world.

14:26

And then Jesus says something very very

14:28

uh astonishing. He says for his

14:31

listeners

14:32

he says follows that blessed are you

14:36

and persecute you and then I'll be evil

14:39

against you falsely because of me.

14:44

So he's saying it's time to be rescued

14:47

for being the right thing for being with

14:50

God. We need that sacrifice.

14:57

He says to be rejoice, be glad.

15:01

And of course we see in our society it's

15:04

nice to be Christian sometimes.

15:10

people that can't even party your life.

15:16

That's one example. Go to medical school

15:20

and say you're acting participating in

15:22

the parish life and you're very selfish.

15:25

Good luck.

15:28

I'm I'm to say that uh one of my

15:31

parishes previously

15:34

a very very bright

15:37

bright student. She was on

15:41

top of her class

15:43

and she got involved with

15:47

a team going on there very

15:53

disturbing the people high school

15:58

teachers handle that kids

16:02

but she applied to uh medical school and

16:07

said our qualifications

16:09

great martial arts.

16:12

She was my

16:14

sheer faithful steward

16:19

was another parish same situation

16:22

more

16:25

and I uh

16:27

don't tell you church

16:38

that's a form of persecution too our

16:41

society said

16:47

we thank God for among us

16:51

because they're doing wonderful work

16:53

through the world. I mentioned for

16:56

example not just in parish help but some

16:59

of the work all of us fundraising

17:02

fellowship

17:04

organizing breakfast things of that

17:06

nature

17:09

but they also do wonderful things on

17:12

social

17:16

for example on social issues

17:22

help finances

17:26

and they're

17:28

done.

17:30

one uh in the last situation. one uh of

17:34

the candy community are supposed to be

17:38

terrorists

17:44

people in their right

17:47

but we build homes

17:51

of fashion

17:53

builds

17:55

we probably

17:57

they were driven out of ISIS

18:01

in Ukraine

18:04

You're all

18:06

beautiful.

18:11

We thank God for different

18:16

fact. We're all one half family

18:21

wherever they can

18:23

deliver.

18:25

So we thank God for them. We thank our

18:27

father

18:29

at the end of the 19th century. He was

18:31

David Connecticut St. Mary's parish

18:36

died

18:39

too.

18:42

Who would have thought a simple thing

18:44

about families families growing

18:48

organization

18:50

God's grace for us moving forward