This artist's concept illustrates Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars -- what's called a circumbinary planet. The planet, which can be seen in the foreground, was discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.This makes me so happy. Go to NASA to see the image full size and to read more about it.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
A great deal of what we know about the early English diet comes from a Latin vocabulary written by Ælfric, Archbishop of Canterbury from 995. It was written in the form of dialogues: with the baker, the ploughman, the fisherman, the shepherd. From it we know that in spring and summer women made cheese and butter from the milk of sheep or goats before smoking the cheese and salting the butter to preserve it.Father Gardner at the Catholic Herald writes a fascinating and well-rounded article that includes food history, meatless recipes and the reminder that "no flesh" does not automatically mean "substitute fish."
In gardens, people grew carrots (purple in those days), leeks, garlic and herbs like rue and fennel. Kale was a popular winter vegetable and for a time gave February its Old English name of sproutkele. Ælfric lists animals eaten for their meat (pig, goat, deer, swan, duck etc), but the fact that our modern words beef, veal and mutton are Norma, rather than Anglo-Saxon suggests these animals were mostly valued for their wool, hides, milk and working abilities rather than their flesh.
The Rule of St Benedict stipulated that only sick monks could consume the “flesh of quadrupeds” but this was quickly interpreted as excluding fish and fowl, hence the monastic tradition of maintaining dovecotes and fishponds (stews). Bede railed against the excesses of the monastic table, circumventing not only the letter but increasingly the spirit of the Rule, and St Anselm complained that the clergy dined on “chicken spiced with pepper and cumin”. But fasting and abstinence shaped not only the culinary rhythm of the week (no meat on Fridays or Wednesdays) but also of the year (Advent, Lent, Ember Days). Unless you were very young, very old or very sick, meat was absent from the table for a considerable portion of the year.
I cannot tell you how to meet Gene Wolfe. I can, however, suggest a few ways to read his work. These are useful tips, like suggesting you take a blanket, a flashlight, and some candy when planning to drive a long way in the cold, and should not be taken lightly. I hope they are of some use to you. There are nine of them. Nine is a good number.Now this is advice I can use. I picked up the link from Tamahome at Goodreads, where I love seeing what other people say about the books they are reading.
31 Prayers for Courage: Daily Scripture-Based Prayers to Access the Power of GodJoshua 1:9"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
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Dear Lord,
How forgetful I can be! You have told me before, writ in Your Word when You spoke to the Israelites, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Moses, to Joshua, Your servants: I should not be afraid because You go with me. No matter what opposition I face, You accompany me. Wherever I go, You are there; if I ascend to the heavens, or go down to the place of the dead; if I pursue the dawn in the east or the ends of the sea to the west; truly, even if I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, there You are to guide me and protect me, as you Promised Joshua and the Israelites as they entered the land which You had given over to them. Help me to remember these things, O LORD, and not to fear.
In Thy Son's Name I pray, AMEN
contains not only 31 prayers, keyed off of a piece of scripture, but also has them in different sections so that one may look for prayers based on what one needs courage for.
It was five years ago.Viper is the sequel to Bleeder, which featured Reed Stubblefield's story, but it functions well enough as a stand-alone thriller. Selena loves sexy shoes, working on cars, and Reed, although his Anglo heritage makes her worry about introducing him to the family. Abruptly, her past as a Special Agent in the DEA comes back to haunt her when she learns that La Serpiente is back. Her name's been found on a list where the only way off is when you are killed.
At that time, like every time, Selena saw right away why he called himself La Serpiente, The Snake.
For one thing, he wore rattlesnake-skin boots with the steel toes that Bragg and her Anglo colleagues at Drug Enforcement sneeringly called "Fence Climbers." When he crossed his sinewy legs and swung his foot, the tip glinted.
For another, his unmoving onyx eyes fixed on her cleavage -- not all that uncommon when she met men -- but that gaze was not measuring her size. It was calculating a striking distance. She averted her eyes to the side, a demure Mexican custom she hadn't lost through acculturation. Locking eyes is also how snakes paralyze their prey. She wouldn't give him the pleasure.
This blog is for people who do not have thousands of hours to read book reviews or blurbs or first sentences. I will cut through all the cryptic crap, and give you the meat of the story in one condensed image. Now you can read the greatest literary works of all time in mere seconds!Language warning for some titles ... so beware if that is a problem for you.
I see that you have launched AttachWatch.com in an effort to fight off lies, smears, and misrepresentations of your policies. Far be it from me to mock such a noble enterprise, as some are doing.There's more and it's all funny ... though still not as funny as that AttackWatch thing.
But we know who they are, don’t we?
And if we don’t, I do.
How much is it worth to you?
I will deliver the names, addresses, email accounts, and phone numbers of several hundred thousand men, women, and children who I know for a certain fact have cast aspersions in your general direction — which, if not a crime, should at least be a misdemeanor, given that you probably just had the carpets cleaned.
Oh, what a great book for us is the cross! It is a summarization of the apologetics of our faith, a practical knowledge for our moral life, and the most tender lesson of love that the Lord has shown.
St. Gaspar del Bufalo
I've had a genealogy blog for several years called What's Past is Prologue. Recently I saw a need in the blogosphere for information on genealogy as it pertains to Catholics in particular. I rounded up a group of some of the best genealogy bloggers out there - who also happen to (happily) be Catholic. Thus, a new blog was born. May I present The Catholic Gene!Drop by and say hello ... and check out all the info!
The Catholic Gene was founded by a diverse group of friends who share two common things: a love for both genealogical research and the Roman Catholic faith. Most of the authors were “born Catholic” and some came to the faith later in life. Some aren’t actually Catholic but appreciate the faith as much as the rest of us. We hope that this blog will provide readers with useful information about the Catholic faith and genealogy.
The Catholic Gene’s mission is to present various aspects of the faith of our fathers…and mothers. But we’re genealogists at heart, so we’ll present the faith as seen through the eyes of a family historian. Whether its details about ecclesiastical archives, profiles of religious, our ancestors’ churches, vintage photographs, personal reflections, or lives of the saints in genealogical records, The Catholic Gene will offer something for everyone interested in
researching their Roman Catholic family or learning more about all things related to the Church.
Lorena leaves me with a handout titled "The Rules of Passive Dominance," which begins: "Ignoring attention-seeking behaviors is the highest form of dominance."Martin Kihn was a high-functioning alcoholic, although very few knew it. Like many alcoholics he was expert at hiding the signs. One who loved him wasn't fooled though, and that was his dog, Hola. Untrained and unruly, she exhibited increasingly bad behavior up to the point of threatening his wife.
The highest form?
Attention seeking: Grabbing shoes and making you chase her. Soft sweet cries and I say, "What's wrong, Hola, you hungry doll?" Poke and pet, roll over and rub reflexively, even yelling "Drop!" when she's got our neighbor's kid's sandal in her mouth, shaking it like a squirrel that's dead enough already.
Negative or positive--it's all attention seeking.
What she lives for.
"Her job is to train you," Lorena had said. "She's better at her job than you are because she is more focused. It's all she thinks about."
Hola's toolbox consists of annoying me until I do what she wants.
Which I always do.
Why?
Because it's annoying, that's why.
And if I don't?
Drama queen.
She'll collapse on the floor like a character in Gossip Girl tossing her Fendi bag onto the davenport.
Now I'm seeing her behaviors through a new frame. Her whining isn't an existential scripture on the brevity of life. The way she pokes her head and makes me pet her isn't a rhapsody on the mutability of love.
No, the new hermeneutics is that she's a spoiled kid throwing tantrums just to get her way. The more I look at her I see she is in a state of perpetual tantrum. She makes spoiled kids look evolved.
How can I have been so wrong for so long?
Ignorance is an expensive occupation.
Petra Ford opens a door in my heart: she shows me that dog training is a form of art and an act of love. I've never seen two beings listen so carefully to each other or care so much. I think of Gloria. I think of Hola.I enjoyed this book for the dog training overviews, especially since that technique that worked best for Hola is the one we've had to use in our household of four dogs. I also liked the glimpses that Martin shared about his dawning realization that God ... or as he terms it "HP" for Higher Power ... is out there, reaching out to him all the time. These glimpses are few and subtle so readers who are turned off by such content don't need to worry that they will detract from the story.
Humility is not thinking less of myself. It is thinking of myself less.
That night I take an exhausted Hola on a slow walk through a darkening forest, over ruts in the track from horses and ATVs.
We look up at the clouds so close I can almost touch them, and I receive a wordless message from HP.
I need to stop wishing my dog is something else.
I need to stop wishing I was someone else.
This feels like just the first step of the first awakening.
But still, it's the first.
Never before in the history of the Church have laypeople been asked to do so much and the opportunities for spiritual fulfillment been so great. How are we doing and what effect is this having on our Church? Novak and Simon provide the answers in Living the Call.I have just begun looking through Living the Call
The first part of the book tells the personal stories of nine faithful laypeople now serving the Church in new and diverse ways. How did they find their calling? What do their roles demand of them? How do they serve their communities? To lay the groundwork for even more lay vocations, the second part of Living the Call offers practical advice and reflections. How can we enter the presence of God? What forms of prayer can best refresh our minds and deepen our souls? What readings can we turn to from Scripture and the Church Fathers to bring ourselves toward holiness?
but it looks solid. I really like the idea of giving practical examples of people involved in lay ministry and combining that with faith basics to bring us closer to God. After all, if we don't have friendship with Christ, then how are we going to recognize Him when we try to serve those around us? Great, great combination.By the rivers of Babylon,The Babylonian exile marked the Hebrew people forever. We see it in the psalms and the prophetic books. I'm not sure the U.S. has a long enough memory to be marked forever. But this close to the attacks on our innocents, we're marked, scarred, and still traumatized.
There we sat down and wept,
When we remembered Zion.
Psalm 137
O'Toole worked in the lumber yard for twenty years ...
... and all that time he'd been stealing the wood and selling it. At last his conscience began to bother him and he went to confession to repent.
"Father, it's 15 years since my last confession, and I've been stealing wood from the lumber yard all those years," he told the priest.
"I understand my son," says the priest.
"Can you make a Novena?"
O'Toole said, "Father, if you have the plans, I've got the lumber."
