A New Family favorite

Boys Town and Men of Boys Town are two new Hickman family favorites. These are the trailers for the two movies. These are great family movies, and with the family or not they are listed with the "must watch"

                                                                         Boys Town.

                                                                  Men of Boys Town

The Assumption

   Happy Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary!!

" ' Today the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven; rejoice, for she reigns with Christ forever.' The Church will close her chants on this glorious day with this sweet antiphon, which resumes the object of the feast and the spirit in which it should be celebrated.

     Mary's Death, however, leaves no impression but peace;that death had no other cause than love. Being a mere creature, she could not deliver herself from that claim of the old enemy; but leaving her tomb filled with flowers, she mounts up to heaven," flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved." Amid the acclamations of the daughter of Sion, who will henceforth never cease to call her blessed, she ascends surrounded by choirs of heavenly spirits joyfully praising the Son of God. Never more will shadows veil, as they did on earth, the glory of the most beautiful daughter of Eve, Beyond the immovable Thrones the dazzling Cherubim, beyond the flaming Seraphim, onward she passes, delighting the heavenly city with her sweet perfumes. She stays not till she reaches the very confines of the Divinity; close to the throne of honor where her Son, the King of ages, reigns in justice and power; there she is proclaimed Queen, there she will reign for ever more in mercy and goodness."

                                                                                      Abbot Gueranger O.S.B. in 'The Liturgical Year'

A few Birthdays today!

        We would like to wish our Uncle Jeff and one of our Priests, Father Nicholas Gardner a very happy birthday. This, a BIG feast of our most Holy Mother is the best day to have a birthday. May she shower them with many graces and bless them abundantly!

Uncle Jeff

Father Gardner.
" It is not just a "lucky day". it is a sign of MY predestination!"

                            

Upon hearing of the tragic death of an old friend and her young son

A tribute

This is a little tribute to two of the BEST people in the world, of whose names I will not mention!

Happy Feast of Saint Dominic!

            Happy Feast of Saint Dominic O.P.!

 St. Dominic (1170-1221). Son of Felix Guzman and Bl. Joan of Aza, he was born at Calaruega, Spain, studied at the Univ. at Palencia, was probably ordained there while pursuing his studies and was appointed canon at Osma in 1199. There he became prior superior of the chapter, which was noted for its strict adherence to the rule of St. Benedict. In 1203 he accompanied Bishop Diego de Avezedo of Osma to Languedoc where Dominic preached against the Albigensians (heresy) and helped reform the Cistercians. Dominic founded an institute for women at Prouille in Albigensian territory in 1206 and attached several preaching friars to it. When papal legate Peter of Castelnan was murdered by the Albigensians in 1208, Pope Innocent the Third launched a crusade against them headed by Count Simon IV of Montfort which was to continue for the next seven years. Dominic followed the army and preached to the heretics but with no great success. In 1214 Simon gave him a castle at Casseneuil and Dominic with six followers founded an order devoted to the conversion of the Albigensians; the order was canonically approved by the bishop of Toulouse the following year. He failed to gain approval for his order of preachers at the fourth General Council of the Lateran in 1215 but received Pope Honorius III's approval in the following year, and the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) was founded.

Dominic spent the last years of this life organizing the order, traveling all over Italy, Spain and France preaching and attracting new members and establishing new houses. The new order was phenomenally successful in conversion work as it applied Dominic's concept of harmonizing the intellectual life with popular needs. He convoked the first general council of the order at Bologna in 1220 and died there the following year on August 6, after being forced by illness to return from a preaching tour in Hungary. He was canonized in 1234 and is the patron saint of astronomers. His feast day is Aug. 8.

A History of St. Dominic and the Rosary

St. Dominic certainly led an eventful life. He unsuccessfully tried to convert non-believers to Catholicism, experienced apparitions of Blessed Mother Mary, was directly linked to the Middle Ages Inquisition by the Catholic Church, the Saint Dominic rosary provided the structure of the modern day Holy Rosary, and he founded the Order of Dominicans.
Dominic was born of Spanish parents in Spain and spent his early years there. In neighboring southern France in those same years was a religious sect called Cathars. This sect had some elements of the Catholic faith, but held a fundamental belief which Catholicism considered heresy. Cathars believed there was an evil god that created the material world and a good god that created the spiritual world. .
Cathars' main heresy was their belief in dualism: the evil God created the materialistic world and the good God created the spiritual world. The Pope dispatched missionaries to southern France, including St. Dominic, to convert the Cathars, accept Catholic teaching and cease belief in two separate gods.
Saint Dominic was especially devoted to what is now considered the predecessor of the modern rosary. This was simply a tallying mechanism to count the number of prayers recited which in early times was called paternoster, which translates roughly from Latin as father (pater) and ours (noster). Often the person reciting a penance would recite 150 Our Fathers and use the paternoster to keep an accurate count. In the year 1214 St. Dominic was in anguish because his attempt to convert the Cathars was basically a failure because he converted so very few. St. Dominic attributed this to the deepness and gravity of sinfulness of the people. He went alone in to the forest and wept and prayed continuously for three days to appease the anger of Almighty God. After three days of this, he passed in to a coma.
Dominic experienced an apparition of Blessed Mother Mary while in the coma, which forever links Saint Dominic and the rosary. Mary appeared and asked St. Dominic : "Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?" Dominic's response was Blessed Mary knew better than he because she is a part of our salvation.
Mary continued : "I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter" (which is the rosary).

Shortly after this apparition he preached the Holy Rosary to the unconverted Carthars. To modify the paternoster (150 Our Fathers) and in compliance with the instruction in the apparition, the design of the Saint Dominic rosary came in to being. He set apart 15 mysteries of the rosary, grouped them in to 3 sets of 5 decades each.
The groupings were designated as Joyous Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries and Glorious Mysteries. This design helped the Carthars to better understand and to imitate the virtuous life of Jesus Christ and Blessed Mary.

    SAINT DOMINIC!                                   PRAY FOR US!!!

Slow Motion Wrestling Match

     This is from the Sequel to the movie Boys Town, Men of Boys town! These movie's are a must watch with the family. In this scene, Whitey Marsh has been assigned to get Ted, a crippled boy to smile. Ted, who just got retrieved by Father Flanagan from jail for murder, was recently in a Reform School in which he was unjustly treated to the point that the guard broke Ted's back and paralyzed his legs. Ted then shot the guard and killed him. Now Ted is in Boys Town and nothing can make him smile, no, not even this hilarious act given by Whitey and Frank ( the two "fighters") and Mo Kahn  (the referee)!
    By the Way, these are true stories. Father Flanagan founded a town for homeless boys, governed by boys, they had their own post office, police force, they had their own baseball team they played 18  games and won 16, also they played 9 football games and won them all. The boys all have to learn a trade, carpentering, farming, printing press and more. They also have their own court run by boys. Father Flanagan lets the boys do everything and he only shows up to defend a culprit!