1 Corinthians 10: 13

1 Corinthians 10: 13

“No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it.”

Psalm 37: 23-28

Psalm 37: 23-28

"The Lord guides the steps of a man and makes safe the path of the one he loves. / Though he stumble he shall never fall for hte Lord holds him by the hand. / I was young and now i am old, but i have never seen the just man forsaken nor his cheldredn begging for bread. / All the day he is generous and lends and his children become a blessing. / Then turn away from evil and do good and you shall have a home for ever; / for the Lord loves justice and will never forsake his friends."

Psalm 118: 13 - 18

Psalm 118: 13 - 18

I was hard-pressed and was falling / but the Lord came to help me. / The Lord is my strength and my song; / he is my savior. / There are shouts of joy and victory / in the tents of the just. / The Lord's right hand has triumphed; / his right hand raised me. / The Lord's right hand has triumphed; / I shall not die, I shall live / and recount his deeds. / I was punished, I was punished by the Lord, / but not doomed to die.

James 1: 1-4

James 1: 1-4

"...Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Romans 7:14 - 25

Romans 7:14 - 25

“For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I know not. For what I would do, that do I not; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law, that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would do, I do not; but the evil which I would not do, that I do.

Now if I do that which I would not do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Jeremiah 15:16

Jeremiah 15:16

Thy words were found, and I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O LORD, God of hosts.

Bl. Antonietta Meo

Bl. Antonietta Meo

"Pain is like fabric, the stronger it is, the more it's worth."



"When you feel pain, you have to keep quiet and offer it to Jesus for a sinner. Jesus suffered so much for us, but He hadn't committed any sin: He was God. How could we complain, we who are sinners and always offend him?"

St. Leopoldo Mandic

St. Leopoldo Mandic

"I rely on the powerful intercession of Our Lady, on her mother’s heart, for everything. We have in heaven the heart of a mother, The Virgin, our Mother, who at the foot of the Cross suffered as much as possible for a human creature, understands our troubles and consoles us.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch

St. Ignatius of Antioch

"I want only God's bread, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, and for drink I crave his blood, which is imperishable love."

St. Bernadette

St. Bernadette

"May I accept privations, suffering, and humiliations genersouly as Jesus, Mary and Joseph did in order to glorify God."

St. Josemaria Escriva - "The Way"

"Whenever you see a poor, wooden cross, alone, uncared for, worthless...and without a corpus, don't forget that that cross is your cross--the everyday hidden cross, unattractive and unconsoling--the cross that is waiting for the corpus it lacks: and that corpus must be you." - St. Josemaria Escriva

Monday, November 26, 2007

What's It Gonna Cost?












By DAN NEPHIN, Associated Press Writer (Yahoo News)
Mon Nov 26, 4:07 AM ET

PITTSBURGH - While the origins of the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" may be a mystery, one thing is certain: It's getting more costly to buy your true love all the items mentioned.

It would cost $78,100 to buy the 364 items, from a single partridge in a pear tree to the 12 drummers drumming, repeatedly on each day as the song suggests, according to the annual PNC Christmas Price Index compiled by PNC Wealth Management. The cost is up 4 percent from $75,122 last year.

Buying each item in the song just once would cost $19,507, up 3.1 percent from last year's $18,921. And shopping online would be costlier, with the total for the 364 items costing $128,886, up 2.5 percent from last year's $125,767. You would spend $31,249 online for each item just once this year.

Though a humorous look, PNC said the index mirrors actual economic trends. PNC has been calculating the cost of Christmas since 1984.

Helping push the cost up this year is the minimum wage hike, which bumped the cost of eight maids a-milking from about $41 to nearly $47.

"They have not had an increase since 1997," said Jim Dunigan, managing executive of investment for PNC Wealth Management. "The good news is, if you're a maids a-milking, they will also see an increase in 2008 and 2009."

Higher food costs pushed the six geese a-laying from $300 to $360. And reflecting higher gold prices, those five gold rings will cost $395, up 21.5 percent from last year's $325.

"The cost of the gold rings in this year's Christmas Price Index reflects the general trend of increasing commodity prices in the Consumer Price Index, including gold," Dunigan said. "In addition, increased fears about inflation and the value of the dollar may have led investors to turn to gold as a safer place to invest their money."

Not everything is more costly. The price of a partridge ($15), two turtle doves ($40) and three French hens ($40) remained the same, as did seven swans a-swimming, at $4,200, and nine ladies dancing, at $4,759.

PNC checks jewelry stores, dance companies, pet stores and other sources to compile the list, Dunigan said.

If one had $78,000 to splurge for Christmas, there's "probably a Mercedes or a Hummer in there someplace," Dunigan said. "The key there is you'd lose the romantic value."

"I'm sure there's something on the list for everybody," he said. "If it was my wife, she'd probably go for five gold rings."

As for the origins of the carol, which has been around for hundreds of years, some contend the song was a coded way to teach aspects of Catholicism. According to such claims, the six geese a-laying represent the six days of creation and the 10 lords a-leaping represent the 10 Commandments.

Snopes.com, an Internet urban legend-debunking Web site, says there's no substantive evidence that the carol was used to preserve tenets of Catholicism.

On the Net:

PNC Christmas Price Index

PNC Financial Services Group

Snopes' Twelve Days page
at

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