Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

***

A Very Different Christmas

***

***

Bishop is Enjoying Christmas!

“Apostle of Purgatory”

“Ave Maria” in Honor of Bishop Morlino

***

AVE MARIA mp3,  played by Rolf Reitz:

Rolf, Syte, Tracey and Tom Reitz with Bishop Morlino

Happy Birthday, Bishop Morlino!

***

Remembering  Bishop Morlino:

Bishop Morlino Was Truly a Churchman of His Time 

Madison Catholic Herald on Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Bishop Celebrates 15 Years!

Rest in Peace, Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Brilliant Bishop

What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church? or The Flip Side of Mercy

The Hidden Cactus War

Today, there is a must-see article on The Hidden Cactus War at Ballotpedia, an invaluable non-partisan election resource.
Author of the piece I am promoting?
My son Tom.

Švenčiausios Mergelės Marijos Rožančius mp3

or

Lithuanian Rosary mp3

In honor of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, here are some free mp3 downloads of the Holy Rosary prayed in Lithuanian – useful for praying the rosary in your car, on your iPhone, or while you jog.

I recorded these prayers for my Mama, who is 92, and who recently suffered a stroke and a heart attack.  She also has severe vision impairment, so an audio Rosary is something she really wanted.  Please pray for my Mama, for my Dad (Tėtis in Lithuanian), who passed away last summer after Mama’s stroke, and for our whole family.     

DOWNLOAD MP3s:

There are 5 MP3s:

These recordings are copyrighted and are only for free distribution with acknowledgment.
English “How to Pray the Rosary” pdf is also available at https://sytereitz.com/2013/10/how-to-pray-the-rosary/ .

Check back for text of the above prayers, coming soon!

Related Posts:

Lithuanian Rosary Prayers…

How to Pray the Rosary

How to Pray the Rosary – Mobile PDF – Syte Reitz

Rosary for the Bishop

Praying the Rosary- As Pertinent Today As Ever

Experiences as mom led Madison woman to make Rosaries

Oremus Catholic Rock Music

.
Some friends have been asking for the music from our sons’ Catholic Rock Music group, Oremus, which was a wonderful product of their high school and college years.

Oremus composed some original music, performed at many Catholic events, recorded some praise and worship songs, put out two CDs available from CD Baby, maintained a popular website, and  have a You Tube that has had over 13,000 visitors.  Now their website has been retired.  Both are adults, married, with families of their own, and too busy to continue Oremus Catholic Rock.

Here is their music for our friends who have been asking- enjoy!:
Incidentally, Oremus is Latin for “Let us pray.”

(Photos below)

Above All:

.

Holy Mary:

.

Song of Benedict

(Original Composition, reduced length):

.

Come Back (Original Composition):

.

Let All Mortal Flesh:

.

Your Face (Original Composition):

.

Blessed Be Your Name:

.

The Hero (Original Composition,

reduced length):

.

Solid State Symphony Overture (Original Composition):

.

Solid State Symphony Movement 1 (Original Composition):

.

Solid State Symphony Movement 2 (Original Composition):

.

Solid State Symphony Movement 3 (Original Composition):

Oremus performing at a CareNet benefit sponsored by Madison Mallards and Relevant Radio Madison- Tom, Chris, the Mallards Duck and good friend Brian Kelly of Relevant Radio Madison- July 31, 2009

The Song of Benedict Album Cover

.

.

Merry Christmas!

This year our expanding family has been blessed in many ways.

Tom and Tracey were married in July, honeymooned in Rome and were even able to meet Pope Francis.

VT (Chris) and Rebecca’s daughter Elizabeth is now 13 months old, and just started walking last week!

Rolf “retired” from UW-Madison in August, but continues to keep busy half time with graduating his remaining 7 students and with his consulting and editorial work.

Rolf’s retirement is something that we are both looking forward to very much.

After graduating Rolf’s students and taking care of some of the chores at home that we have neglected for 25 years, we hope to have more time for other pursuits.  For now, we are really enjoying the ability to sleep in a bit some mornings and to take our time over our morning coffee.

Finally, roughhousing with our one-year-old puppy Pepper keeps us laughing and on our toes.

We wish everyone a very Happy, Merry, and Blessed Christmas!

Click below to hear Rolf playing Silent Night on the guitar:

And We Wish You A Merry Christmas and Winter Wonderland:

Dave & Jill & familiy

My friends Jill and Dave, and their beautiful family, have just been gouged by ObamaCare.
Jill just posted on Face book:

“You will be able to keep your current health insurance” Wasn’t that the promise that he made to us? Unfortunately, we can’t afford to keep it anymore. Rate increase thanks to Obama Care. Look below for our new rate contained in the letter we received in September to see why. The letter stated, “Getting enrolled in this new, ACA-compliant health plan will be an easy, no-hassle experience for you. We understand that the health insurance market is confusing. That’s why we’ll take care of getting you enrolled in your new health plan. You don’t need to take any action.”

They were wrong. We did need to take action; we had to pick jaws off the floor after restarting our hearts upon reading the new rates.
Today, November 5, we received a new update on our rates which goes into effect in January 2016. Take a look at our new rates below. Here’s a brief summary: our current rate is $941.74. In December, that goes up to $1692.30. January 1, 2016, it goes up to $2455.38!! Our current policy has a $6000 family deductible, and the new policies have a $7,200 annual family deductible; we’re not even on a HMO plan!

Thank you, President Obama, for the UnAffordable Care Act!
Please SHARE to get the word out!                  -Jill

Families like Jill and Dave’s are now finding out what Obama has done to our health care.
It’s inexcusable.

Hey, Syte, have you quit blogging about politics?

No, there’s a very political post in the pipeline- coming very soon.

But meanwhile,

Košeliena- a Lithuanian favorite

First, let’s pronounce it- Kaw’-sheh-leah-nuh (sort-of).

While up north , Rolf and I decided to make some Košeliena.
This resulted in a Facebook post of the simmering Košeliena:

and another Facebook post of Rolf playing his guitar on the porch with our puppy Pepper, while the Košeliena simmers:

Which inspired many “likes” on Facebook, and a request from my cousin Phil Skabeikis to post the recipe for his wife Marian.

So here we go- the recipe, followed by some photos.
Hope you enjoy.

For those who are not into cold aspic Lithuanian dishes, this same recipe produces a phenomenal pulled pork which can be served hot (in which case peeled quartered potatoes can be added for the last 2 hours of cooking).

Siesta while the koseliena simmers!

… 6 hours simmering… let’s go for a walk!

6 hours of of simmering all done!

The dissection starts…

This is what you throw away (or feed to your dog!) (or what REAL FARMERS eating REAL KOSELIENA used to eat way back when.)

Using the best tidbits…

Vegetables and broth.

Lots of meat in the bottom of the dish.

Straining the vegetables out (remember to pick out and discard little bones!).

Doesn’t hurt to eat some of the pork while it’s hot… this job takes all day after all, and it’s dinner time!

Finally finished with all the dissecting!

Spread some of the strained veggies on top…

We’re getting there… ladle on the broth (the broth can be thickened with unflavored Knox gelatin if it’s not thick enough to gel in the fridge – usually not needed).

All done!

Side view…

Pat down the top to submerge veggies…

Into the fridge overnight.

Serving up… first, scrape off the thin layer of fat on top…

Cut out a slice (or unmold the whole thing onto a serving dish).

Looking good…

Finally ready to eat! Too bad we didn’t have Lithuanian black bread to go with it this time. Home made potato salad almost as good!  Don’t forget LOTS of lemon and some salt.

YUM!!!

Click Here: Abortion Killed 19 Times as Many Blacks as Murder

Click Here: 11% of US Black Population Has Been Killed By Abortion since 1990

Click Here: 25% of US Black Population Has Been Killed by Abortion Since 1973

See Also: Promiscuity Education?
And: There’s An Elephant in the Room

Merry Christmas!

At our house, 2014’s been a crazy but wonderful year.

VT (Chris) and Rebecca were married in January, and had a baby (Elizabeth) in October – our first grandchild!

We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in August.

Tom and Tracey got engaged in November (to be married in July 2015),  and we, in anticipation of Rolf’s “retirement” next summer, just got an 8-week old Havanese puppy (Pepper) this week.

Everyone is healthy, happy and doing well.

We are grateful, and feel very, very blessed.

We wish everyone a very Happy, Merry, and Blessed Christmas!