Cheryl Laszar @CLaszar

THE NIGHT BEFORE HE WAS EXECUTED, THIS SAINT WROTE A LETTER. His name was Miguel Pro. He was only 36 years old. A Jesuit priest in Mexico during the Cristero persecution, when the government made it illegal to be Catholic, illegal to celebrate Mass, and illegal to wear a priest’s collar in public. So Father Pro went underground. He disguised himself as a mechanic, a beggar, and even a businessman. He smuggled the Eucharist to the dying in secret. He baptized babies in hidden rooms. He heard confessions inside moving cars. Every day, he risked his life to bring Christ to souls. When the government finally captured him, they wanted to make him an example. They invited photographers, believing the image of a dead priest would humiliate the Church. But Father Miguel Pro walked calmly before the firing squad. He refused the blindfold. Then he stretched out his arms in the shape of a Cross and cried out: “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” Long live Christ the King. Moments later, they shot him. But the photograph they took to destroy the faith became one of the most powerful images of Catholic martyrdom in history. They tried to silence Christianity. Instead, they gave the world a witness of fearless faith. Father Miguel Pro was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1988. If you are going through something painful today, remember this: A 36 year old priest smiled in front of a firing squad because he knew Christ was worth everything. His faith was not just words. It was total surrender. 🕊️ Repost this for someone who needs courage today.

There’s a generation a lot of people forget exists. We were born at the tail end of the Boomers, but we are not culturally the same as people born in the 40s and early 50s. We are Generation Jones. And honestly, it explains a lot. We grew up in a world that still felt fundamentally analog, but we were young enough to be dragged headfirst into the digital revolution. We are the bridge generation between rotary phones and smartphones, between slide rules and AI, between Walter Cronkite and algorithm driven media. We remember when there were only a few television channels and the entire country watched the same thing at the same time. We also adapted to the internet, email, forums, social media, streaming and now artificial intelligence. We lived before and after the technological singularity hit everyday life. That is not a small thing. People born in the 40s came of age in a post World War II America that was still industrial, deeply hierarchical and institutionally stable. Their formative years were shaped by the Cold War, Vietnam, the civil rights era and a society where information moved slowly. Generation Jones came later. We inherited the aftermath of all of that. We were the kids who watched Watergate destroy blind trust in government. We watched manufacturing begin to collapse. We saw divorce rates explode. We were the first truly latchkey generation in massive numbers. We learned independence early because many of us had to. We grew up with one foot in old America and one foot in whatever this new thing was becoming. We played outside until the streetlights came on but we also learned DOS commands. We learned cursive and keyboarding. We had card catalogs and Google searches. We went from vinyl records to cassette tapes to CDs to MP3s to streaming in one lifetime. We remember maps. We remember memorizing phone numbers. We remember life before GPS and before every human interaction became filtered through a screen. And because of that, I think Generation Jones developed a very unique perspective. We are adaptable because we had no choice but to adapt. We learned technology as adults instead of being born into it. We remember a slower world but were forced to survive in a rapidly accelerating one. That creates a very different mindset than either older Boomers or younger Gen X and Millennials. A lot of us also reject the caricature people now associate with “Boomers.” We were not buying houses for the cost of a sandwich in 1965. The interest rate on my first house was over 14% and that was after buying down a point. Many of us got hit by recessions, outsourcing, pension collapses and economic instability just like younger generations did. We watched promises evaporate in real time. We understand older generations because we were raised by them. We understand younger generations because we had to evolve alongside them. That’s why the Jones generation often feels culturally homeless. We are rarely discussed, rarely defined and usually lumped into categories that don’t actually fit us. But we exist. We are the human transition point between the industrial age and the digital age. And frankly, there will probably never be another generation quite like us again.

They installed machines in Türkiye to feed stray cats, and now some seagulls have learned how to meow hoping they’ll get food too 😭🐈

Blue state Colorado is rolling out AVIS (automated vehicle identification system) that tracks how fast you get from point A to point B, and if the algorythm determines you were speeding you automatically receive a 75 dollar speeding ticket. This is nuts....

Listen carefully, Catholics and most especially, Protestans. I think God is too calculated - way too precise, way too sovereign - for the Blessed Virgin Mary to just be some random occurrence. Protestants say the Blessed Virgin Mary could’ve been 'anybody'. That God just randomly picked some ordinary woman who “found favor” with Him. That is egregiously wrong. Mary didn’t just stumble into a divine lottery. She didn’t “just happen” to catch God’s eye like some cosmic game of chance. Our God is omnipotent and omniscient, He doesn’t wake up one morning and go, “Okay, time for the Incarnation… uhmm... let’s cast lots and pick somebody real quick.” NO! This was planned from the very foundation of the world. For instance, if we take a look at the Book of Job. When Job dared to question how God runs the universe, the Almighty didn’t gently pat him on the back. God answered OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND and thundered: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me!” Then came the divine bomb; “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements, surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone - when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” ( Job 38:4-7 ) God wasn’t just flexing. He was reminding Job, and us, that EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of creation was measured, marked, and masterminded by Him. The dimensions. The foundations. The cornerstones. The very song of the stars on day one. Nothing was left to chance. Not one atom. So if the same God calculated the exact width of the oceans, the exact orbit of the planets, and the exact moment the morning stars burst into song, do you really think He left the greatest moment in human history (the Word becoming flesh) to a last-minute random selection? From the instant man fell in Eden, the plan was already rolling. Genesis 3:15 (the protoevangelium) God Himself declared war on the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head….” That wasn’t a vague idea. That was the first announcement of MARY’S SON. Then the prophets narrowed it down with laser precision; the line of Abraham, the tribe of Judah, the house of David, the virgin of Isaiah 7:14, the exact town of Micah 5:2, the “fullness of time” in Galatians 4:4 when Roman roads, Greek language, and Jewish longing all converged like a divine symphony. --Every piece was pre-calculated.-- Mary was prepared. Her heart, her lineage, her faith, her “yes” at the Annunciation - all of it was woven into the eternal blueprint long before Gabriel ever appeared. It is worthy to mention that the same God who laid the earth’s foundations had already chosen the perfect vessel to carry the uncontainable One. This is not “God picked a nice Jewish girl.” This is the Master Architect executing a plan written before time began. Protestant friends, we love you, but flattening Mary into “just some random favored woman” robs God of His glory. It turns sovereign providence into divine improvisation. Our God is not improvising. He is the God of Job’s whirlwind, the God who measures galaxies and counts the hairs on your head. And when the fullness of time came, He didn’t scramble for a mother. He had already chosen HER. The Blessed Virgin Mary. She was planned, prepared, perfectly calculated. Glory to the God in the highest, who leaves nothing to chance.

In 1634, the Virgin Mary gave a nun in Ecuador a prophecy about our exact time in history. It's coming true right now. And almost no Catholic alive has ever been told about it. 🧵

You are only a man @realDonaldTrump , and someday you will stand before our Lord Jesus Christ. You claim our Holy Father @Pontifex is weak, but it takes more strength to do what one should rather than simply what one wants. You intervened in Venezuela under the pretext of stopping drugs and criminals from entering our country, and under Nicolás Maduro you described the regime in terms of narco-terrorism. My qualm is the name games you play. Do you think you can simply legitimize actions by denoting terminology to suit your interest? This you did. In the same way, you and Benjamin Netanyahu undermine the true meaning of justice through continued acts of unconscionable war crimes, all in the name of “self-defense.” But with the Lord, there will be no altering of words and their meaning; all that will be left is the truth of what really happened. You call the Holy Father weak because he calls for peace? What is weak is bombing children in Gaza in the name of national interest. What is weak is saying this is God’s country, yet by your actions you act as an enemy of the cross. It is a shame that, in many respects, the COVID situation could have been handled better by the Church, but do you not consider the blunder of Operation Warp Speed? To this day, questions and debates about the long-term effects of the vaccines remain, and this was under your authority, so pluck the splinter out of your own eye. Inspired by Christian charity, I implore you, repent. We are Christ first, not MAGA first. Our first allegiance is to God and His Kingdom. Are you God first or MAGA first? If God first, why do some of your actions betray that truth? If you come after the Church and the Holy Father @Pontifex_de, don’t think I’ll be silent. I only fear God.

Go ahead. Read it. It's not about bunnies and eggs, is it?

Thanks to the Church's obedience to Jesus' words "do this in memory of Me" at least 350,000 Catholic Masses are celebrated daily worldwide, 2000 years later. Approximately four to five Masses begin every second. Every day. #MaundyThursday

There is a lot of bad news in the world. Hopefully this will cheer you up. A little longer watch but a very special day for the street dogs today. A little emotional myself I have to say

猫は液体？笑

I am not merely a Catholic by affiliation, I nearly walked the path to the priesthood. Scripture, to me, has never been casual reading; it has been studied with the care of a sculptor refining form; patiently, attentively, reverently. And so I say this with both conviction and humility: Prayer is not performance. It is not spectacle. It is a sacred act, an intimate communion between the human spirit and the divine. A means not only to speak, but to interface with the heavens, the hosts of heaven themselves. When we pray, we approach with humility. With thanksgiving. With love. Just as one brings offerings into the house of the Lord, not in arrogance, but in surrender. Which is why moments of public prayer demand even greater care. When figures such as Paula White stand before the world in prayer, the expectation is clear: to seek wisdom, not validation. To ask that leaders like Donald Trump be guided toward justice, compassion, peace, and discernment. To intercede for the poor, the vulnerable, and the preservation of life. That is what true supplication looks like. But to elevate any political figure especially during the sacred solemnity of Holy Week to a comparison with the sinless Son of God is not devotion. It is error. And more than that, it borders on blasphemy. Likewise, when Franklin Graham invokes the Book of Esther as justification for the destruction of a modern nation such as Iran, it reflects not divine insight, but a troubling misapplication of scripture. Context matters. Theology demands responsibility. Sacred texts are not instruments for political ends. Faith was never meant to be weaponized. It was meant to guide, to correct, to humble. And if we are to invoke God in matters of leadership and war, then let it be done with trembling reverence, not confident distortion. Because the danger is not in believing too deeply but in believing wrongly. I am ashamed, this is our Holy Week for Gods sake. God have mercy.

Bishop Joseph Strickland on Israel closing the holiest church in Christendom and the “holocaust of our time” in Gaza. 0:00 Israel's Forced Closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher 7:30 Why Are Christians Being Targeted? 15:25 What Is a Justified War? 26:26 So-Called Christian Leaders Using the Bible to Promote War 41:49 Why Bishop Strickland Defended Carrie Prejean Boller 50:28 The Response to Bishop Strickland's Statement 56:04 How God Uses Evil for Good 1:05:31 How to See Truth 1:11:41 Will Christian Persecution Intensify?

This abandoned dog was rescued in the worst condition, but his transformation proves one thing: love really is the answer

just WOW

Such cute nutrition facts.

4 Months ago Stormzy couldn't walk with a brain injury. He'd been told he had to be put to sleep. Today I got to go and visit him in his new home. The world needs more Stormzy right now!!! Can't stop smiling after today