"According to the Catholic liturgical calendar," she explained, "all the days of the year that are not Lent, Easter, Advent, or Christmas are called Ordinary Time. So here we are: Easter is over and Christmas is still a long way off. I guess you could say that this is the time in which we're meant to feel that we have all the time in the world."Are we all snuggling up to our Ordinary Time? That makes it really more special than ordinary, doesn't it?
... Ordinary Time is all those days you do not remember when you look back on your life. Unless, of course, the Virgin Mary came to visit in the middle of it and everything was changed: before and after; then and now; past, present, and future.
Our Lady of the Lost and Foundby Diane Schoemperlen
I guess the question is, how do we prepare for a Time of Preparation?
Why prepare? Why not just jump in, quiet down and let God show us where He wants us to go during this Lent? What if you come up with some Really Great Spiritual Practice on, say, the Second Sunday of Lent? Do you say it's too late to employ it now, because Lent is underway? Or do you embrace the fact that the Holy Spirit just turned on a lightbulb in your soul?
woolgathering\WOOL-gath-uh-ring\ (noun): indulgence in idle daydreaming
In Wales, woolgathering, or gwlana, was a social custom adopted to provide for poorer wives of laborers who did not have access to wool of their own to spin. It involved walking along hedgerows and stone walls and picking off wool that was left behind as the sheep had passed by. Later, after the custom was in little use, woolgathering was considered an unprofitable enterprise. Its practitioners were perceived to wander aimlessly and gained little for their efforts. Hence the association of woolgathering with your mind wandering aimlessly.Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Iraqi, U.S. troops aid flood victims in Iraq
February 6, 2006
TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 6, 2006) – Iraqi and U.S. Soldiers rescued dozens of people southeast of Mosul Saturday after powerful storms swept through northern Iraq, causing flooding along a Tigris River tributary.
Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division used small boats and braved strong currents to rescue nearly 100 people stranded on small islands in the rain-swollen Great Zab River.
Two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from the 542nd Medical Company (Air Ambulance) responded to the Ninevah governor’s request for assistance and transported two men stranded on an island that the boats couldn’t reach because of the current. The MEDEVAC crews also dropped off food and drinking water.
Two OH-58 Kiowa helicopters searched the river’s course for additional victims, but none were found, officials said.
(Editor’s note: Information provided by the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Public Affairs at FOB Speicher.)
The names of five people are hidden in the sentence below. Can you find them? (The letters are in consecutive order.)Answer in invisi-script:
Really, a wanted man fleeing from the police who saw a police car looking for him would run and hide.
Al, Ted, Lee, Carl, Nan (Lya is also acceptable.)
Darwinian evolution is plainly unavailing in this exercise or that era, since Darwinian evolution begins with self-replication, and self-replication is precisely what needs to be explained. But if Darwinian evolution is unavailing, so, too, is chemistry. The fronds comprise "a random ensemble of polynucleotide sequences" (emphasis added); but no principle of organic chemistry suggests that aimless encounters among nucleic acids must lead to a chain capable of self-replication.Just a snippet (that's how long this very long article is) from a Commentary magazine article that I found quite interesting, especially in terms of how difficult, nay impossible, it has been for scientists to pin down the origins of life.
If chemistry is unavailing and Darwin indisposed, what is left as a mechanism? The evolutionary biologist's finest friend: sheer dumb luck.
Was nature lucky? It depends on the payoff and the odds. The payoff is clear: an ancestral form of RNA capable of replication. Without that payoff, there is no life, and obviously, at some point, the payoff paid off. The question is the odds.
For the moment, no one knows how precisely to compute those odds, if only because within the laboratory, no one has conducted an experiment leading to a self-replicating ribozyme. But the minimum length or "sequence" that is needed for a contemporary ribozyme to undertake what the distinguished geochemist Gustaf Arrhenius calls "demonstrated ligase activity" is known. It is roughly 100 nucleotides.
Whereupon, just as one might expect, things blow up very quickly. As Arrhenius notes, there are 4100 or roughly 1060 nucleotide sequences that are 100 nucleotides in length. This is an unfathomably large number. It exceeds the number of atoms contained in the universe, as well as the age of the universe in seconds. If the odds in favor of self-replication are 1 in 1060, no betting man would take them, no matter how attractive the payoff, and neither presumably would nature.
"Solace from the tyranny of nucleotide combinatorials," Arrhenius remarks in discussing this very point, "is sought in the feeling that strict sequence specificity may not be required through all the domains of a functional oligmer, thus making a large number of library items eligible for participation in the construction of the ultimate functional entity." Allow me to translate: why assume that self-replicating sequences are apt to be rare just because they are long? They might have been quite common.
They might well have been. And yet all experience is against it. Why should self-replicating RNA molecules have been common 3.6 billion years ago when they are impossible to discern under laboratory conditions today? No one, for that matter, has ever seen a ribozyme capable of any form of catalytic action that is not very specific in its sequence and thus unlike even closely related sequences. No one has ever seen a ribozyme able to undertake chemical action without a suite of enzymes in attendance. No one has ever seen anything like it.
The odds, then, are daunting; and when considered realistically, they are even worse than this already alarming account might suggest. The discovery of a single molecule with the power to initiate replication would hardly be sufficient to establish replication. What template would it replicate against? We need, in other words, at least two, causing the odds of their joint discovery to increase from 1 to 1060 to 1 in 10120. Those two sequences would have been needed in roughly the same place. And at the same time. And organized in such a way as to favor base pairing. And somehow held in place. And buffered against competing reactions. And productive enough so that their duplicates would not at once vanish in the soundless sea.
In contemplating the discovery by chance of two RNA sequences a mere 40 nucleotides in length, Joyce and Orgel concluded that the requisite "library" would require 1048 possible sequences. Given the weight of RNA, they observed gloomily, the relevant sample space would exceed the mass of the earth. And this is the same Leslie Orgel, it will be remembered, who observed that "it was almost certain that there once was an RNA world."
To the accumulating agenda of assumptions, then, let us add two more: that without enzymes, nucleotides were somehow formed into chains, and that by means we cannot duplicate in the laboratory, a pre-biotic molecule discovered how to reproduce itself.
Manolo says, undoubtedly, the world it would be the much more super fantastic place if the Manolo actually did have the police powers.On another blog someone mentioned that if there are no rules on the dress code, then no one should have taken it upon themselves to make up their own ... because you can't fairly accuse someone for breaking a rule that doesn't exist.
The first law to be strenuously enforced? One must dress appropriately for the occasion.
Under no conceivable circumstance should one wear the slogan-bearing t-shirt to the Statement of the Union Speech. And, if you are silly enough to do this, you deserve to be led out in shame to the Capitol Rotunda where the gay-but-fashion-challenged Fab Five they will publicly make you over into the ridiculous metrosexual. This they should do even if you are the woman.
Trust the Manolo, wearing the political t-shirt to the formal ceremonial event, it does nothing for your cause. Indeed, the trivality of such attire, it perhaps even undermines the seriousness of your position.
P.S. By the way, the Manolo he has already addressed the issue of what is the appropriate feetwear to wear to the ceremonial events.
Do you know any sensible solid good Catholic parishes in the North Dallas area?There is, of course, my own church, St. Thomas Aquinas. I know that St. Anne's in Coppel is also good. Any others to recommend?
Start with the number of Apostles in the Bible, subtract the cube of 2, add the number of Greek Fates, then add the number of the winds, in popular parlance.Answer below in clever, invisi-script (highlight with cursor to read).
What number do you get?
11 (12 - 8 = 4 + 3 = 7 + 4)
Here we find two questions: Can’t the Church leave this service to so many other philanthropic organizations?Really good ... and much easier to read than I found that encyclical, by the way. Go read it.
This is the answer: No, the Church cannot do that. She has to practice love for the neighbor also as a community, otherwise she will announce the God of love in an incomplete and insufficient way...
Reading IOf course, there was the obvious conversation about extreme depression that anyone would be likely to suffer when losing one's home, business, children, health ... and after having your friends come and beat on you for a while.
Jb 7:1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
GospelA couple of things here. First, is the way this story fits the "miracle story" format (which I had never thought about ever). When Jesus heals someone it is instantaneous and absolute. Simon's MIL doesn't just start feeling a bit better. She hops up and starts working away serving everyone.
Mk 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come."
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
CHANGES IN PROCEDURES FOR ADMITTANCE TO SCHOOL DANCESIt comes down to the parents y'all ... THE PARENTS! (i can't possibly scream that loud enough!)
The administration and staff of Bishop Lynch are very concerned that some students arrive at school dances under the influence of alcohol, posing a serious safety risk to themselves and to others. In an effort to ensure the safety and well-being of students, the following procedures will be instituted beginning with the upcoming Sadie Hawkins Dance, and will remain in effect for subsequent school sponsored dances:
- Students must arrive to school dances by 9:00 PM in order to be admitted to the dance. Please note that this is a change from the previous time of 10:00. Students arriving after 9:00 pm will not be admitted to the dance.
- Before admission to the dance, all students will be required to breathe into a portable breathalyzer. We do not wish to single out any particular student or group of students, and the only way to be fair to everyone is to test all students. The type of breathalyzer we are using will not require the students to place their mouths on the device; rather they will be breathing in close proximity to the device. Five breathalyzers will be in use at check in, and the time needed to test each student is approximately five seconds.
- If a student tests positive indicating the consumption of alcohol, (1) the parent or guardian will be notified to come to the school and transport the student home; and (2) the student will be subject to consequences pursuant to the Bishop Lynch High School Student Handbook.
We have shared this information with students at school and we encourage you to discuss it with your student at home. We appreciate your support of our efforts to ensure the safety of all students and a positive environment for all at school dances.
Charlie went out to buy some tools. He spent half of the original amount plus $10 for a drill, half of what was left plus $4 for a sander, then half of what was left plus $2, leaving him with $6.I knew they were going to ask that question. I'll be lying down with a cool cloth on my head if anyone needs me...
How much did he start with?
$100 ($50 + $10= $60, leaving $40; $20 = $4 = $24, leaving $16; $8 + $2 = $10, leaving $6)
Mary is a woman of hope: only because she believes in God's promises and awaits the salvation of Israel, can the angel visit her and call her to the decisive service of these promises. Mary is a woman of faith: "Blessed are you who believed", Elizabeth says to her (cf. Lk 1:45). The Magnificat--a portrait, so to speak, of her soul--is entirely woven from threads of Holy Scripture, threads drawn from the Word of God. Here we see how completely at home Mary is with the Word of God, with ease she moves in and out of it. She speaks and thinks with the Word of God; the Word of God becomes her word, and her word issues from the Word of God. Here we see how her thoughts are attuned to the thoughts of God, how her will is one with the will of God. Since Mary is completely imbued with the Word of God, she is able to become the Mother of the Word Incarnate.
| You Are a Warrior Soul |
 You're a strong person and sometimes seen as intimidating. You don't give up. You're committed and brave. Truly adventuresome, you are not afraid of going to battle. Extremely protective of loved ones, you root for the underdog. You are picky about details and rigorous in your methods. You also value honesty and fairness a great deal. You can be outspoken, intimidating, headstrong, and demanding. You're a hardliner who demands the best from themselves and others. Souls you are most compatible with: Old Soul and Peacemaker Soul |
Dewey Finn: God of Rock, thank you for this chance to kick ass. We are your humble servants. Please give us the power to blow people's minds with our high voltage rock. In your name we pray, amen.Two stages with face melting rock and gut busting drum solos, a lounge with acoustic music ... something for everyone in the youth group when we went to The Door. Fashion tip ... if you want to blend, wear black.
First, he will not, as some feared, lead the Catholic church to collapse in on itself and become preoccupied with its own internal business. One can hardly imagine a theme of more universal human concern than love.
Second, while he possesses vast erudition (in the first 20 pages of Deus Caritas Est, he manages to cite Nietzsche, Descartes, and Plato), Benedict expresses himself as a pastor. He treats a core theme of Christian faith, and for the most part uses terms that don't require a license in systematic theology to grasp. While history will remember John Paul II as a great evangelist, Benedict XVI may go down as the most classic example of a "teaching pope" in modern times.
Third, for all the talk about Benedict as an Augustinian pessimist, he actually believes there are still people in the world who can be influenced by unadorned argument, shorn of theatricality or grand symbolism. In its own way, it's a remarkably optimistic stance.
Fourth, Benedict grasps the old bit of wisdom about governing the Catholic church expressed by John XXIII, who once said, "I have to be pope both of those with their foot on the gas, and those with their foot on the brake." Deus Caritas Est reflects an obvious concern for balance. He warns Catholic charitable groups they must not forget about Christ, yet understands there are times when this faith must go unspoken, so charity workers don't give the appearance of "proselytism"; he stresses the "vertical dimension" of prayer and worship, yet also writes that "a Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented."
Finally, the encyclical shows that Benedict's determination not to impose his personality upon the papacy will sometimes mean we don't get what some consider the "real" Ratzinger. One senior Vatican official, for example, told me that he felt Deus Caritas Est could have been a courageous encyclical on sexual morality, but the pope's collegial willingness to pick up the threads of a pre-existing document on charity prevented that. The reaction is analogous to frustrations that the pope is not moving fast enough to "shake up" the Curia, to reverse "business-as-usual" in the appointment of bishops, or to bring dissenting forces into line. For good or ill, his approach seems to be patient, gradual, and articulated in a "still, small voice" rather than bellowed from the rooftops.
For example, prior to the release of Deus Caritas Est, Benedict submitted his text to examination by Vatican doctrinal consultors, an act of humility that even Archbishop William Levada, the pope's successor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, admitted Jan. 25 that he found "a little bit surprising."
In an age when public figures normally distinguish themselves by shouting and showboating, it is a fascinating management style to watch.
... the most one can say is that from the very beginning, there have been two impulses in the church that often rest in uneasy tension. The first is the evangelical desire to give without asking anything in return, since that's the nature of grace; the second is the institutional reality that churches too have to pay the light bill. This appears to be one of those cases where the right balance is tough to strike.Obviously, these are excerpts. The Word From Rome is always a good read and especially so this week. Check it out.
A sick man turned to his doctor, as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said, "Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side."
Very quietly, the doctor said, "I don't know."
"You don't know? You, a Christian man, do not know what is on the other side?"
The doctor was holding the handle of the door; on the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.
Turning to the patient, the doctor said, "Did you notice my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened, he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing... I know my Master is there and that is enough."
Although it was also Rosten’s habit to ignore reviews, he was so touched by [Evelyn] Waugh’s interest in a work so foreign to everything that Waugh himself had written, that he wrote to thank him and invite Waugh and his wife to have tea with the Rostens in the flat they had taken temporarily in London. “I got back a postcard,” Rosten recently told this reporter. “The postcard read: ’From E.W. to L.R.: Alas, impossible. E.W.”’ I thought for a long time how one should answer so economical a communication. What I finally sent back to the man I consider one of the greatest writers of our time read like this: ’From L. R. to E. W. Quite. L. R.”’
Finally, finding myself in an unfamiliar church during Confession hour I said, “this is it…” I poured it all out to a wonderful friar who listened intently and understood. He spoke consolingly for a few minutes, no big harangue (I know there are bad confessors out there, and shame on them, but I have always been blessed with good priests) and then he said, “Let this be an end…” It was precisely what I needed to hear.She's always good but this is brilliant. Go and read it all.
We are body, mind and spirit. Confession - like other Catholic and Orthodox practices - serves not just the soul but the mind, and yes, even the body. Sometimes you need to physically hear it all - the sin, the consolation, the prayer, the absolution. I wonder, sometimes, if the “victim mentality” we have seen grow over the last few decades, and the dependence upon therapists haven’t grown so large, so quickly, simply because so few take understand or take advantage of the release and freedom that comes from the Sacrament of Confession, and the grace the sacrament provides in helping to avoid those sins in the future.
It is a pleasure for me to salute [this] benefactor of our inhuman race:I concur.
J. Irwin Miller, chairman of the board of Cummins Engine Company, whom I watched in a television "talk" show as he patiently tried to explain his views to three condescending panelists, indubitable highbrows, who insisted on demolishing points Mr. Miller had not made, and persisted in ridiculing policies Mr. Miller had never propounded.
When he saw that he could not persuade the deep thinkers to desist from their eloquent irrelevances, the deadpan businessman finally cleared his throat and sighed, with exemplary kindness: "In my house, we all try to follow a rule I have once suggested to my children. The rule goes like this: "You can disagree with a man's position as much as you want -- after you have been able to state it, to his satisfaction."
I consider this dictum, which belongs in all anthologies of great quotations, the best statement ever made about the basic rule men of reason ought to follow during an argument...People I have loved, known, or admired by Leo Rosten
Some random facts about Jack Bauer:UPDATE
- If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.
- If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.
- Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.
- Jack Bauer's favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but just because it sounds like violent.
- Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.
- Jack Bauer got Hellen Keller to talk.
- Jack Bauer killed 93 people in just 4 days time. Wait, that is a real fact.
- Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.
- 1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.
- Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.
- Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.
- Let's get one thing straight, the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.
- When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jack Bauer jumps out.
- If Jack says "I just want to talk to him/her" and that him/her is you -- well amigo, you're f****d.
- Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.
- When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer f*****g hates lemonade.
- In grade school, a little boy punched Kimberly Bauer, and Kimberly ran home to tell her dad. That little boy's name? Stephen Hawking.
- Jack Bauer does not sleep. The only rest he needs is what he gets when he's knocked out or temporarily killed.
- No man has ever used the phrase, "Jack Bauer is a p***y" in a sentence and lived to tel-
- In kindergarten, Jack Bauer killed a terrorist for Show and Tell.
- Jack Bauer literally died for his country, and lived to tell about it.
- As a child, Jack Bauer's first words were "There's no time!"
- Jack Bauer's family threw him a surprise birthday party when he was a child. Once.
- If you are still conscious, it is because Jack Bauer doesn"t want to carry you.
- If you get 7 stars on your wanted level on Grand Theft Auto, Jack Bauer comes after you. You don't want to get 7 stars.
- Guns don't kill people, Jack Bauer kills people.
- Everytime Jack Bauer yells "NOW!" at the end of a sentence, a terrorist dies.
- Jesus died and rose from the dead in 3 days. It took Jack Bauer less than an hour. And he's done it twice.
- If you send someone to kill Jack Bauer, the only thing you accomplish is supplying him a fresh set of weapons to kill you with.
- Jack Bauer could get off the Lost island in 24 hours.
- If Jack Bauer was gay, his name would be Chuck Norris.
- After arguing over what was the better show, 24 or Walker Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris went to attack Jack Bauer with his trademark roundhouse kick. Jack Bauer caught it.
Friday's fourth episode of The Book of Daniel went virtually unsponsored, forcing NBC to fill commercial breaks with a veritable festival of in-house promotions for attractions ranging from the Olympics to daytime soaps.Capitalism has spoken. And, I'm really ok with that.
"The Mattress King has stepped up and he's going to sponsor the entire hour," Mr. Reilly cracked. "And God bless him."
The Book of Daniel, about a dysfunctional family headed by a Vicodin-addicted Episcopal priest, has drawn heavy fire from the American Family Association, which urged advertiser, station and viewer boycotts. After his press conference, Mr. Reilly said he didn't know if Book of Daniel would be back this Friday. Lack of advertiser support and diminishing audiences might well be a fatal combination, he said.
One does not think of science as being subject to fashion. But it is, and nothing could be less fashionable than hormesis. This phenomenon was identified over a hundred years ago, and then was slowly forgotten. It has been so widely observed that it deserves to be called a law of nature. But it rubs environmentalists the wrong way, and few people have heard of it. In outline, hormesis is simple: things that are toxic in large doses are beneficial in small doses. And that seems to be true across the board -- from alcohol to dioxin to mercury to nuclear radiation...More later about hormesis and radiation. I will simply observe here that if the EPA applied their no tolerance rule to vitamins we would have to make do without vitamins A & E because in large doses they're quite toxic (no doubt there are others toxic in large doses but these are just the ones that occur to me at the moment).
Hormesis contradicts a reigning assumption of public health and public policy. It is both dogma and law that something toxic in large doses will continue to be toxic in smaller and smaller doses. The relationship between dose and response is said to be linear. The EPA has further decreed that if the substance is a carcinogen, there is no "threshold." No dose, however low, is considered to be safe.
Buttercup: You mock my pain.In the process of a continuing theological email conversation with one of my favorite regular debaters, he rather surprised me with this...
Westley: Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Once last thing however - I see being a part of the church makes life better AND harder. Being a Christian is hard, I wouldn't consider it a burden, but it is hard. It's meant to be. Being a Christian (regardless of your stripe) means to live against the grain of this fallen world. To live against one's urges and to turn from temptation is far harder than giving into our sinful natures. A life of premarital sex, getting drunk and thieving is far easier - but we know it leads to death. If you don't see this as hard, you truly are blessed. As far as I'm concerned, things are tough all over but through the grace of Christ alone can we make it.Now I am definitely a newbie here, having been Catholic only since 2000 and a Christian only since about ... maybe 1998 (?). We all know that sh*t happens, whether you're Christian or not. The good, the bad, and the ugly, it's all part of just being alive.
For most of my life I have been a "glass is half empty" girl. Always quick to see the negatives of any situation ... oh, and even more attractive, quick to dwell on those negatives.My revelation of how much I had changed is found here.
We have our own version of Love Beads – the Rosary.Lee at From the Back Pew has found the cosmic connections between Pope Benedict XVI and The Beatles. Far out. Be sure to read it all.
We have Little Flower Power.
We believe in love and unity among all people.
We believe in worshiping together.
We believe in communal living.
A man dies and goes to heaven.
Of course, St. Peter meets him at the Pearly Gates.
St. Peter says, "Here's how it works.
You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you've done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in."
"Okay," the man says,
"I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart."
"That's wonderful," says St.Peter, "that's worth three points!"
"Three points?" he says. "Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service."
"Terrific!" says St.Peter. "That's certainly worth a point"
"One point!?!!"
"I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans."
"Fantastic, that's good for two more points," he says.
"Two points"!? Exasperated, the man cries.....
"At this rate the only way I'll get into heaven is by the grace of God."
"Bingo, 100 points! Come on in!"
It was only a matter of time before one of our kids demanded access to what may be the most rebellious, dangerous and terrifying activities known to parents in Israel.There are also little things that give me an insight into my own life and, indeed, my faith. Such as when the children talk to the father and call him "Abba." Right from the original "Our Father" ... and every time the children call their father by that word it reminds me of the trust and true relationship we are meant to have with God.
In this case, the culprit in question was twelve-year-old Merav, and her act of teenage defiance? She wanted to ride the bus.
Back before World War II, the conservative Saturday Evening Post ran an article written by the wife of a billiards professional. She told how part of her job as her husband's assistant was seeing that all was in order for his exhibitions. Among her duties, she had to make sure that the billiard balls were exactly at room temperature.
The Post's makeup editor decided that a subhead was needed here, so he wrote: SHE KEEPS HIS BALLS WARM. Nearly a million copies had gone out before someone woke up.More Anguished English by Richard Lederer
Faith is something we have to practice. It should shape all our decisions, big or small, at the same time it will usually show in the way we undertake our ordinary daily duties. It is not enough for us to give assent to the great truths of the Creed, to have good formation. We need besides, this to live our faith, to put it into practice. It should give birth to a life of faith, which should be both the fruit and the manifestation of what we believe. God asks us to serve him with the whole of our life, with deeds, with all the strength of our body and soul...This is from yesterday's devotional reading (ahem ... I'm running late on several things right now), but without daily practice of our faith then what is to distinguish us from anyone else? Nothing. Because if Christ doesn't change our lives and help us to see differently then our faith is nothing but hollow, hypocritical words. And, let me tell you, I fail often but I shudder to think of how little peace I would have if I didn't also succeed at least part of the time in turning to God and living my faith through all the parts of my day.
The practice of the virtue of faith in our daily lives adds up to what is commonly known as supernatural outlook. This consists in a way of seeing things, even the most ordinary, apparently quite commonplace things, in relation to God's plan for each person as regards his own salvation and the salvation of many others. It leads us to accustom ourselves to undertake our daily activities as though we were constantly glancing at God to see whether what we are doing is really his Will, whether ours is the way He wants us to do things. It leads us to get used to discovering God in people, to recognize him behind what the world calls chance or coincidence, in fact, to see his mark everywhere (F. Suarez, On being a Priest)...
The Christian's life of faith leads him, therefore, to be a man who has human virtues, because he practices his faith in his ordinary activities. He will not only feel moved to make an act of faith as he sees the walls of a church in the distance, but he will turn to God to ask him for light and help when confronted with a problem at work or at home. He will know how to attune his thinking when he has to accept a setback, when faced with pain or sickness, when offering up some joy, when he continues, for love, the work that he was about abandon through tiredness...
Did he plan to "found" a church? Or is the church a thoroughly human movement that can only be associated with Jesus post facto? ...The Internet Monk begins by wondering how he became identified as being with the emergent church (which I still do not understand) and, in the process, proceeds to give us cogent reasoning that Jesus founded the church and intended us to be a part of it.
Explanations of the origins of the church that assume Jesus himself had no intentions of founding a church are simply implausible.
I start out here to make a very basic point: Jesus followers who wish to eliminate, reinterpret or reduce the church face the problem that nothing in the New Testament is on their side. Seeing Jesus as the guru of individual Christians, or the church as some kind of accidental fan club that institutionalized a spontaneous spiritual experience, simply cannot be done without doing radical surgery on Jesus himself. A church-less Christianity requires such an edited, reworked Jesus, that the New Testament could no longer be read with any kind of integrity. This needs to be faced squarely and honestly.
I conclude that Jesus, from the outset, intended to found a continuing movement, and that movement is the church as we see and experience it, imperfectly and often far removed from Jesus, in history.
I have for some time thought about the priesthood, and I can now say that yes, I will be a priest. That is where I want my life.It's a good thing that Darren's mother is a careful reader. I totally missed this declaration of vocation at A Catholic Life. Congratulations Moneybags ... this has me grinning!
Go into any inner-city neighborhood, and folds will tell you that government alone can't teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.Economist Roland G. Fryer has a fascinating editorial about the peer pressure faced by black and Hispanic students to perform poorly to fit in.
Sen. Barack Obama, Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention, 2004
Angry about the way an ex-girlfriend used his car and parked it without locking the doors, Gerome Alexander left a brief message on her telephone answering machine: "I'm going to catch you, and you're going to get yours."I don't know a single person who would make a telephone call like that. Considering this guy was released early and this is how he acts? Back in the slammer. No question.
That one call could send Mr. Alexander to prison for the rest of his life.
The 35-year-old Garland man is one of 59 convicted sex offenders in Texas who were released from prison and placed under civil commitment after being deemed sexually violent predators.
Differences among Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants over issues such as homosexual activity, abortion, euthanasia and other moral questions "are not on the top of the hierarchy of truths" -- like the belief in Jesus as savior is -- "but they are very emotional and, therefore, very divisive," [Cardinal Walter Kasper] said.Thank you, Cardinal, for pointing out what the rest of us always knew was gonna be a problem. Even when I wasn't Christian at all I wondered about that call to ecumenism. We can all get together on some things but the whole reason there are different denominations is that we can't agree on the big basic issues at one level or another. Otherwise why be Catholic? If what the Faith stands for is just the same as everyone else, well, then what difference does it make? And it does make a difference.
Just five or six years ago, he said, Catholic bishops and leaders of some other churches seemed ready to explore concrete steps their communities could take toward organizational unity.
Since then, however, it has become clear that "both the ecumenical mood and the ecumenical situation worldwide have changed so radically as to virtually run counter to the ecumenical movement toward unity," he said.
The top ten ways why being a parent is like being a knitter.
- You have to work on something for a really long time before you know if it's going to be okay.
- They both involve an act of creation involving common materials, easily found around the house.
- Both knitting and parenting are more pleasant if you have the occasional glass of wine, but go right down the drain if you start up with a lot of tequila or shooters.
- With either one, you can start with all the right materials, use all the best reference books available, really apply yourself, and still get completely unexpected results.
- No matter whether you decided to become a parent or a knitter, you are still going to end up with something you have to hand wash.
- Parents and knitters both have to learn new things all the time, mostly so that they can give someone else something.
- Both activities are about tension. In knitting, the knitter has control of the amount of tension on the object in progress. In parenting, the opposite is true.
- No matter how much time you spend at knitting or parenting, you are still going to wish you could spend all your time at it. Which is odd, since both activities are occasionally frustrating that you want to gnaw your own arm off.
- Knitting and parenting are both about endurance. Most of the time it's just mundane repetitive labor, until one day, you realize you're actually making something sort of neat.
- One day, you will wake up and realize that you are spending hours and hours working at something that is costing you a fortune, won't ever pay the bills, creates laundry and clutters up your house, and won't ever really be finished ... and the only thing you will think about it is that you can't wait to get home and do more.
Yarn Harlot : The Secret Life of a Knitter
by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
