Stay In Touch -Have I not proven to you that I Am in the saving sinners business? -Jesus
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Marks in the Margin: The Courage of Tony Judt
Marks in the Margin: The Courage of Tony Judt
Excerpt:
He kept asking questions, wanted you to take issue with him, wanted you to help him think through his ideas, to talk and argue with him. How could I not admire him, regardless of whatever view he held, a view that was always provisional anyway?
Tony Judt died last August. Since 2008, he had suffered from Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS). He was quadriplegic and on a breathing machine. He couldn’t move, not even to scratch an inch. He couldn’t write and was only able to express his thoughts and feelings by means of a voice amplifier that sputtered out his gradually weakening voice. He wrote: “In effect, ALS constitutes progressive imprisonment without parole.”
And yet, in spite of everything, he continued to “write” essays and four books including his last, Thinking the Twentieth Century, completed with the help of Timothy Snyder who engaged him in a series of conversations. In “Tony Judt: A Final Victory” his wife, Jennifer Homans, describes how he continued to work up until his last day. She writes:
“…ideas were everything. Tony had always cared more about ideas than anything—more than friends; more in some in some ways than himself. He believed—really believed—that they were bigger than he was. He wouldn’t survive, but they would.”
She speaks often of his need to think socially, to make human rather than monetary gain the goals of social policy. “Tony had always been a forthright critic of social injustice; now he had zero tolerance…zero tolerance for political deceptions and intellectual dishonesty.”
With moving sadness she continues, “…he had lost his students, his classrooms, his desk; he couldn’t travel or take a walk. He had lost, in other words, the places that had helped him think through his ideas.”...
R.I.P.
Excerpt:
He kept asking questions, wanted you to take issue with him, wanted you to help him think through his ideas, to talk and argue with him. How could I not admire him, regardless of whatever view he held, a view that was always provisional anyway?
Tony Judt died last August. Since 2008, he had suffered from Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS). He was quadriplegic and on a breathing machine. He couldn’t move, not even to scratch an inch. He couldn’t write and was only able to express his thoughts and feelings by means of a voice amplifier that sputtered out his gradually weakening voice. He wrote: “In effect, ALS constitutes progressive imprisonment without parole.”
And yet, in spite of everything, he continued to “write” essays and four books including his last, Thinking the Twentieth Century, completed with the help of Timothy Snyder who engaged him in a series of conversations. In “Tony Judt: A Final Victory” his wife, Jennifer Homans, describes how he continued to work up until his last day. She writes:
“…ideas were everything. Tony had always cared more about ideas than anything—more than friends; more in some in some ways than himself. He believed—really believed—that they were bigger than he was. He wouldn’t survive, but they would.”
She speaks often of his need to think socially, to make human rather than monetary gain the goals of social policy. “Tony had always been a forthright critic of social injustice; now he had zero tolerance…zero tolerance for political deceptions and intellectual dishonesty.”
With moving sadness she continues, “…he had lost his students, his classrooms, his desk; he couldn’t travel or take a walk. He had lost, in other words, the places that had helped him think through his ideas.”...
R.I.P.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Anecdotal Evidence: `Cultivate and Celebrate Courage'
Anecdotal Evidence: `Cultivate and Celebrate Courage'
Excerpt:
On Dec. 3, 1974, Eric Hoffer wrote in a notebook:
Excerpt:
“A world that did not lift a finger when Hitler was wiping out six million Jewish men, women, and children is now saying that the Jewish state of Israel will not survive if it does not come to terms with the Arabs. My feeling is that no one in this universe has the right and the competence to tell Israel what it has to do in order to survive. On the contrary, it is Israel that can tell us what to do. It can tell us that we shall not survive if we do not cultivate and celebrate courage, if we coddle traitors and deserters, bargain with terrorists, court enemies, and scorn friends.”
[from Before the Sabbath, 1979]
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Diana Washington Valdez blog: The Ranger: Artist displays Juarez femicides project in Texas
Diana Washington Valdez blog: The Ranger: Artist displays Juarez femicides project in Texas
Excerpt: [For you, Matilda.]
In the book, Valdez quotes Marisela Ortiz, activist and founder of Mothers of Juarez, as saying, “They are poor, young, mainly migrants to the city looking to improve their lives in the factories. And when they are found, they have been tortured, mutilated, bruised, fractured or strangled and, in every case, violated — gang-raped.”
National Public Radio, echoing other news organizations, reported in 2003 that, “Mexican authorities, unable to catch the killers, are roundly accused of being inept, corrupt and even complicit in the killings.”
These accusations continue, along with the crimes...
...Landgrebe’s reaction was the creation of “Beaten with a Hammer.”
“It’s as if you’re holding, in a way, you’re holding the heart of that person in your hand,” she said. “I had to deal with it in a very bureaucratic manner.”
Landgrebe presented on her piece and its origin to 33 attendees in the visual arts center March 8.
She said she used eight medical models of a human heart and sculptor mold, a plaster-like substance, to make the hearts over three years.
She said the mold allowed for each heart to have irregularities, representing the diversity of the “femicide” victims.
She said the handwritten portion of the project was the hardest part, and she found she could only write about 30 to 40 names in a given work session.
“It made me feel furious and helpless all at once over and over again,” she said.
Education sophomore Felisha Eiluk said she thought the irregularities and handwriting on the hearts added meaning to the piece.
”I think it takes a lot for someone to go in … and touch so many people,” she said.
Landgrebe said she hung the hearts from the ceiling with red fishing wire to complement the red ink on the hearts....
============
When I see a 'heart' I see the sculpted heart, fired, broken and shattered with a hammer, stitched back together with black clay, and then again fired in the kiln. Now it is displayed in the 'unit' shiny from its final gloss paint. Each time I see it I still wonder how the stitches 'feel' as the heart beats.
Excerpt: [For you, Matilda.]
In the book, Valdez quotes Marisela Ortiz, activist and founder of Mothers of Juarez, as saying, “They are poor, young, mainly migrants to the city looking to improve their lives in the factories. And when they are found, they have been tortured, mutilated, bruised, fractured or strangled and, in every case, violated — gang-raped.”
National Public Radio, echoing other news organizations, reported in 2003 that, “Mexican authorities, unable to catch the killers, are roundly accused of being inept, corrupt and even complicit in the killings.”
These accusations continue, along with the crimes...
...Landgrebe’s reaction was the creation of “Beaten with a Hammer.”
“It’s as if you’re holding, in a way, you’re holding the heart of that person in your hand,” she said. “I had to deal with it in a very bureaucratic manner.”
Landgrebe presented on her piece and its origin to 33 attendees in the visual arts center March 8.
She said she used eight medical models of a human heart and sculptor mold, a plaster-like substance, to make the hearts over three years.
She said the mold allowed for each heart to have irregularities, representing the diversity of the “femicide” victims.
She said the handwritten portion of the project was the hardest part, and she found she could only write about 30 to 40 names in a given work session.
“It made me feel furious and helpless all at once over and over again,” she said.
Education sophomore Felisha Eiluk said she thought the irregularities and handwriting on the hearts added meaning to the piece.
”I think it takes a lot for someone to go in … and touch so many people,” she said.
Landgrebe said she hung the hearts from the ceiling with red fishing wire to complement the red ink on the hearts....
============
When I see a 'heart' I see the sculpted heart, fired, broken and shattered with a hammer, stitched back together with black clay, and then again fired in the kiln. Now it is displayed in the 'unit' shiny from its final gloss paint. Each time I see it I still wonder how the stitches 'feel' as the heart beats.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
“The Priest Is Us”: The Power and The Glory, Graham Greene’s Adventure of Religion and Faith | biblioklept
“The Priest Is Us”: The Power and The Glory, Graham Greene’s Adventure of Religion and Faith | biblioklept
Excerpt:
But, as he eludes the authorities and traverses the country, he becomes, in Greene’s capable hands, a symbol of redemption and an affirmation of a full but unrealized life. Words that lacked meaning help to ameliorate the strongest pain he has ever felt. He is jailed, extorted, and rejected by the people who love him the most, but in humiliation finds real faith. Performing the sacred rites of his profession, he confronts the banality of evil and comes to finally realize the true power of the promise he brought to those who came to him:
Excerpt:
Graham Greene, in his short and powerful novel The Power and the Glory, considers the life and death of Jesus as he narrates the life of a man brought low by pride and circumstances. The last priest someplace in southwestern Mexico flees from the authorities. His hunters seek to free the peasant farmers who populate the land from exploitation and superstition with their own imperfect liberation theologies: the abolition of superstition and private property; the self-sufficiency that follows honest labor. The men in red shirts ride horses and believe in the impending, always near, revolution. On the back of a mule, the father sneaks from town to town, trying to fulfill his duty, but without understanding the significance of the words that tumble clumsily from his mouth in Latin. He performs sacred rites in exchange for sanctuary until even a hiding spot is denied to him. The police have started to execute men and boys in villages who they believe have colluded to shelter this wayward man of God.
As the priest travels, he finds himself stripped not only of the vestments of his profession: his chalice, his incense, his robes, and his bible, but his own air of invincibility, privilege and comfort. Exposed, fearful, living in a state of mortal sin and unable to confess, this fallen man of God, like Christ himself, is destroyed. The priest is, by his own admission, a bad one. He drinks heavily and thinks too much of his own comfort. Led to his profession not so much by attention to the divine will but by a desire for status and privilege, during his exile he recalls fondly dinners lavish dinners with wealthy members of his assembly and the gifts they gave him. While he may have seen that the most of his flock made a meager living on small farms after taxes and fees paid to local bosses, he never stopped to consider the meaning of his own observations, busying himself instead with ambitions for his own greater glory. He is, for the first half of the book, greedy, proud, and self-concerned.But, as he eludes the authorities and traverses the country, he becomes, in Greene’s capable hands, a symbol of redemption and an affirmation of a full but unrealized life. Words that lacked meaning help to ameliorate the strongest pain he has ever felt. He is jailed, extorted, and rejected by the people who love him the most, but in humiliation finds real faith. Performing the sacred rites of his profession, he confronts the banality of evil and comes to finally realize the true power of the promise he brought to those who came to him:
He had an immense self-importance; he was unable to picture a world in which he was only a typical part — a world of treachery, violence, and lust in which his shame was altogether insignificant. How often the priest had heard the same confession — Man was so limited he hadn’t even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had did; the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death. It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization — it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Blazing Cat Fur: Under our skin...
Blazing Cat Fur: Under our skin...
Excerpt:
"This film is about chronic late stage Lyme Disease and the difficulties that suffers of this potentially deadly disease and the medical practitioners who fight to save their lives face"...
Excerpt:
"This film is about chronic late stage Lyme Disease and the difficulties that suffers of this potentially deadly disease and the medical practitioners who fight to save their lives face"...
Friday, March 16, 2012
Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate: Happy Feast Day of St. Patrick - 17 March
Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate: Happy Feast Day of St. Patrick - 17 March
Excerpt:
Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!
(Happy St. Patrick's Day!)
As a Roman Catholic of Irish descent, I am, quite predictably, a big fan of St. Patrick.
Excerpt:
Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!(Happy St. Patrick's Day!)
As a Roman Catholic of Irish descent, I am, quite predictably, a big fan of St. Patrick.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
First Known When Lost: "We Should Be Careful Of Each Other, We Should Be Kind While There Is Still Time"
First Known When Lost: "We Should Be Careful Of Each Other, We Should Be Kind While There Is Still Time"
Excerpt:
The Mower
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time. ~Philip Larkin, Collected Poems (Faber and Faber 1988).
Excerpt:
The Mower
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time. ~Philip Larkin, Collected Poems (Faber and Faber 1988).
A Partial History of Lost Causes (Book Acquired, 3.06.2012) | biblioklept
A Partial History of Lost Causes (Book Acquired, 3.06.2012) | biblioklept
Excerpt:
...
In Jennifer duBois’s mesmerizing and exquisitely rendered debut novel, a long-lost letter links two disparate characters, each searching for meaning against seemingly insurmountable odds.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, world chess champion Aleksandr Bezetov begins a quixotic quest. With his renowned Cold War–era tournaments behind him, Aleksandr has turned to politics, launching a dissident presidential campaign against Vladimir Putin. He knows he will not win—and that he is risking his life in the process—but a deeper conviction propels him forward. And in the same way that he cannot abandon his aims, he cannot erase the memory of a mysterious woman he loved in his youth.....
Her father had asked the Soviet chess prodigy a profound question—How does one proceed against a lost cause?—but never received an adequate reply. Leaving everything behind, Irina travels to Russia to find Bezetov and get an answer for her father, and for herself.
Spanning two continents and the dramatic sweep of history, A Partial History of Lost Causes reveals the stubbornness and splendor of the human will even in the most trying times. With uncommon perception and wit, Jennifer duBois explores the power of memory, the depths of human courage, and the endurance of love.
Excerpt:
...
In Jennifer duBois’s mesmerizing and exquisitely rendered debut novel, a long-lost letter links two disparate characters, each searching for meaning against seemingly insurmountable odds.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, world chess champion Aleksandr Bezetov begins a quixotic quest. With his renowned Cold War–era tournaments behind him, Aleksandr has turned to politics, launching a dissident presidential campaign against Vladimir Putin. He knows he will not win—and that he is risking his life in the process—but a deeper conviction propels him forward. And in the same way that he cannot abandon his aims, he cannot erase the memory of a mysterious woman he loved in his youth.....
Her father had asked the Soviet chess prodigy a profound question—How does one proceed against a lost cause?—but never received an adequate reply. Leaving everything behind, Irina travels to Russia to find Bezetov and get an answer for her father, and for herself.
Spanning two continents and the dramatic sweep of history, A Partial History of Lost Causes reveals the stubbornness and splendor of the human will even in the most trying times. With uncommon perception and wit, Jennifer duBois explores the power of memory, the depths of human courage, and the endurance of love.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
We Are One: Responding
We Are One: Responding
Excerpt:
haven't reached my expiration date. I am still here. I am rewriting the end of my story. 15 years ago after extensive physical testing for epilepsy my doctor told me that I would never have a full time job or do many of the things I have done. I proved him wrong. I can beat the odds on this too. More than one 'expert' has declared that the fate of a severely abused person is glum...I will beat these odds too.
I am the master of my fate but I did not control what others chose to do to me. I can only control how I respond. I like Einsteins observation that if a fish's ability was measured by how well it could climb a tree it would always be considered stupid. Who am I allowing to decide for me what my story is? That is something I need to consider on a longer term basis.
The last one I struggle with. God allows each one of us to face challenges,some of monstrous proportions. Joseph was sold to slave traders by his brothers. He was falsely accused and imprisoned. He was forgotten by the man he helped. And it is recorded that Joseph was favored by God. Yep, I struggle with my script. On the other hand I have been blessed with wonderful experiences...
Excerpt:
haven't reached my expiration date. I am still here. I am rewriting the end of my story. 15 years ago after extensive physical testing for epilepsy my doctor told me that I would never have a full time job or do many of the things I have done. I proved him wrong. I can beat the odds on this too. More than one 'expert' has declared that the fate of a severely abused person is glum...I will beat these odds too.
I am the master of my fate but I did not control what others chose to do to me. I can only control how I respond. I like Einsteins observation that if a fish's ability was measured by how well it could climb a tree it would always be considered stupid. Who am I allowing to decide for me what my story is? That is something I need to consider on a longer term basis.
The last one I struggle with. God allows each one of us to face challenges,some of monstrous proportions. Joseph was sold to slave traders by his brothers. He was falsely accused and imprisoned. He was forgotten by the man he helped. And it is recorded that Joseph was favored by God. Yep, I struggle with my script. On the other hand I have been blessed with wonderful experiences...
Right Truth: Not Diagnosing and Treating PTSD and TBI
Right Truth: Not Diagnosing and Treating PTSD and TBI
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where the accused soldier was treated for TBI before being deployed to Afghanistan, has recently been implicated in an investigation over misdiagnosed PTSD cases. Again, officials haven’t stated whether soldier in particular had been diagnosed with PTSD at any point during enlistment. But as reported in the Washington Post today, Army investigators are currently poring over thousands of cases to see whether soldiers with PTSD at Lewis-McChord were diagnosed with a lesser ailment...
Today's ignorant 'hook-up' world continues to betray even those who fight and struggle for it. Why is drug use so prevalent? People don't take care of heart wounds and soul wounds. And the hearts and minds of all are so bombarded with violence, filth and deceit it is no wonder such things happen. All in the name of the cowardly avoidance of caring commitment to those in need. Of course, he will be further 'screwed' to the wall. What he did is terribly wrong but a lot of people pulled that trigger.
The answer? True loving intimacy. Notice I said, 'loving.' Intimacy does not equal screwing someone. OMG! You might have to "get involved", spend your own time, be committed.
But the medical [used to be for "healing"] profession's attempt to cure everything by popping a pill or just fixing the 'physical' is just another shameful betrayal in the service of the wounded and sick.
Excerpt:
Katie Drummond at Wired Danger Room reports that 'new details about the still-unnamed staff sergeant’s background suggest that brain damage, wrought by a traumatic brain injury during an earlier deployment, might have been a contributing factor'. (image NRI) Also:Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where the accused soldier was treated for TBI before being deployed to Afghanistan, has recently been implicated in an investigation over misdiagnosed PTSD cases. Again, officials haven’t stated whether soldier in particular had been diagnosed with PTSD at any point during enlistment. But as reported in the Washington Post today, Army investigators are currently poring over thousands of cases to see whether soldiers with PTSD at Lewis-McChord were diagnosed with a lesser ailment...
My comment: Let's talk about truth and justice.
Luis Buñuel, the Spanish surrealist filmmaker, renounced the emptiness of the left which he found to be too empty and simplistic with aims as repressive as those of the right. He especially decried the diminishment of being in the concept of what it meant to be a man. To Marx everything was distilled to physical which is why everyone loves socialism---free sex---except it is never free. The depths of being---soul, mind and heart--- were to be stripped away, re-written. And the heart, soul and unconscious don't exist to most secularists.Today's ignorant 'hook-up' world continues to betray even those who fight and struggle for it. Why is drug use so prevalent? People don't take care of heart wounds and soul wounds. And the hearts and minds of all are so bombarded with violence, filth and deceit it is no wonder such things happen. All in the name of the cowardly avoidance of caring commitment to those in need. Of course, he will be further 'screwed' to the wall. What he did is terribly wrong but a lot of people pulled that trigger.
The answer? True loving intimacy. Notice I said, 'loving.' Intimacy does not equal screwing someone. OMG! You might have to "get involved", spend your own time, be committed.
But the medical [used to be for "healing"] profession's attempt to cure everything by popping a pill or just fixing the 'physical' is just another shameful betrayal in the service of the wounded and sick.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Through the Human Heart
“The line separating good and evil passes not through
states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right
through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts.
Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by
evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all
hearts, there remains a small corner of evil. It is impossible to expel evil
from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each
person.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Books, Inq. — The Epilogue: Can anyone say "acweorna"?
Books, Inq. — The Epilogue: Can anyone say "acweorna"?
... Why Can't Germans Say 'Squirrel'? | Pronunciation of the Word Squirrel | LifesLittleMysteries.com. (Hat tip, Joseph Chovanes.)
Acweorna, by the way, is the Old English word for squirrel. Given how poorly so many Americans pronounce so many foreign words, I don't think we're in any position to gloat.
... Why Can't Germans Say 'Squirrel'? | Pronunciation of the Word Squirrel | LifesLittleMysteries.com. (Hat tip, Joseph Chovanes.)
Acweorna, by the way, is the Old English word for squirrel. Given how poorly so many Americans pronounce so many foreign words, I don't think we're in any position to gloat.
Mississippi Revival
I dedicate the Mississippi Revival to you, Nana. I know God is pleased with you, dear one. Even after forty years your anchor holds me but boy those shoutings were memorable, weren't they? I love you. Pray for us.
Tell the people I love them.
I have been following the social media’s gossipmongering about all
things Roman Catholic which is unavoidable. Whenever there is
obvious factious polarity I look for the ‘underlying’ cause beyond the
scapegoating for that seems to be the mocking way the enemy slips past.
The foundational struggle is quite simple. Satan and his cohorts hate
everything that God has made.
The enemy of our souls hates Creation. ‘God looked upon it and
pronounced it ‘good’. Then God rested.
[Darwin vs. God]
The enemy of our souls really got upset at God’s love of Adam. And then Eve! God created them ‘male and female’. God created man in His image. Adam and Eve could have had ‘paradise’ forever but it was ‘that one thing denied!’. [Lot of vs. could be listed….Eve will crush the head of Satan.]
Not only was the enemy upset about being ousted as favorite and not able to be the top dog but even after he was able to make Adam and Eve ‘fail’ big-time, God continued to favor them and allow them to be vessels of more men and women! […vs. sacramentality of marriage] [Abraham’s offspring fight….]
There we come to the core of the rage against God. The sacramental nature of Creation ‘from the Beginning.’
One can continue reciting ‘individual’ instances and crying foul such as getting upset about politicians or any political/social activist receiving the Eucharist unworthily. But the real issue is the Eucharist itself. The real issue is the Body of Christ. The ‘points’ where God has chosen to be present with man.
‘The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.’ When even the leaders sacramentally chosen by God refuse to honor and defend the sacramental-grace nature of the Body of Christ such individual call-outs seem to others as petty nitpicking. When even clergy at every level ‘unworthily’ and ‘publicly’ daily receive the Eucharist and are not called out there is a veritable heartrending cry of betrayal. When the rich and powerful continue to be allowed to receive the Body of Christ and influence Church policy and life and canon laws the hypocrisy ‘cuts deep.’
It is time for the scapegoating to end and no matter what anyone thinks about me or all of this nauseating scandal Christ will clean His House. I, for one, am trembling and grateful He is Mercy as well as Justice and Truth. "If I err may it be on the side of Mercy.' My prayer is that Christ allow me to follow Him even as He goes 'outside the camp' in search of His lost sheep who tear at His Heart---for whom He longs...
It is hard for those outside the Church to respect Catholics when they themselves do not honor it. How can there be so many pointing fingers and judging about unworthy reception of the Eucharist when there are very long lines on Saturday and Sunday to receive the Body of Christ BUT sometimes no one in line for the Sacrament of Confession? And how can anyone get upset if even the priest sometimes doesn't come to hear the Confession? Or when the priestly advice to a young man/woman who confesses he/she is engaging in sexual intercourse is 'just don't get pregnant'?
The cause of the scandal is with the leaders who have been charged with 'semper fidelis' but who have chosen other gods.
It is hard for those outside the Church to respect Christ’s Body when men, women, children, unborn babies, families, the poor, the sick, the persecuted, those horrible abused, the mentally ill, the mentally challenged, the elderly, the dying ‘within Christ’s Body’ are left spiritually unprotected and ravaged from ‘within’ and ‘without’. It is no wonder people are leaving when the foundations of Christian community have been handed over to the state and social welfare and the ‘works of mercy’ have been relegated to ‘grantees’ of state and federal funds which rarely go very far ‘down the ladder.’ That is why Jesus Christ pronounced socialism/communism/Marxism as the sin of Judas.
The standing orders of Christ remain: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ ‘Wash one another’s feet.’ ‘Serve one another.’ ‘No greater love has any man than this than to lay down his life for his friends.’
“Tell the people I love them, tell the people I care…when they feel far away from Me tell the people I AM there.”
The enemy of our souls really got upset at God’s love of Adam. And then Eve! God created them ‘male and female’. God created man in His image. Adam and Eve could have had ‘paradise’ forever but it was ‘that one thing denied!’. [Lot of vs. could be listed….Eve will crush the head of Satan.]
Not only was the enemy upset about being ousted as favorite and not able to be the top dog but even after he was able to make Adam and Eve ‘fail’ big-time, God continued to favor them and allow them to be vessels of more men and women! […vs. sacramentality of marriage] [Abraham’s offspring fight….]
There we come to the core of the rage against God. The sacramental nature of Creation ‘from the Beginning.’
One can continue reciting ‘individual’ instances and crying foul such as getting upset about politicians or any political/social activist receiving the Eucharist unworthily. But the real issue is the Eucharist itself. The real issue is the Body of Christ. The ‘points’ where God has chosen to be present with man.
‘The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.’ When even the leaders sacramentally chosen by God refuse to honor and defend the sacramental-grace nature of the Body of Christ such individual call-outs seem to others as petty nitpicking. When even clergy at every level ‘unworthily’ and ‘publicly’ daily receive the Eucharist and are not called out there is a veritable heartrending cry of betrayal. When the rich and powerful continue to be allowed to receive the Body of Christ and influence Church policy and life and canon laws the hypocrisy ‘cuts deep.’
It is time for the scapegoating to end and no matter what anyone thinks about me or all of this nauseating scandal Christ will clean His House. I, for one, am trembling and grateful He is Mercy as well as Justice and Truth. "If I err may it be on the side of Mercy.' My prayer is that Christ allow me to follow Him even as He goes 'outside the camp' in search of His lost sheep who tear at His Heart---for whom He longs...
It is hard for those outside the Church to respect Catholics when they themselves do not honor it. How can there be so many pointing fingers and judging about unworthy reception of the Eucharist when there are very long lines on Saturday and Sunday to receive the Body of Christ BUT sometimes no one in line for the Sacrament of Confession? And how can anyone get upset if even the priest sometimes doesn't come to hear the Confession? Or when the priestly advice to a young man/woman who confesses he/she is engaging in sexual intercourse is 'just don't get pregnant'?
The cause of the scandal is with the leaders who have been charged with 'semper fidelis' but who have chosen other gods.
It is hard for those outside the Church to respect Christ’s Body when men, women, children, unborn babies, families, the poor, the sick, the persecuted, those horrible abused, the mentally ill, the mentally challenged, the elderly, the dying ‘within Christ’s Body’ are left spiritually unprotected and ravaged from ‘within’ and ‘without’. It is no wonder people are leaving when the foundations of Christian community have been handed over to the state and social welfare and the ‘works of mercy’ have been relegated to ‘grantees’ of state and federal funds which rarely go very far ‘down the ladder.’ That is why Jesus Christ pronounced socialism/communism/Marxism as the sin of Judas.
The standing orders of Christ remain: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ ‘Wash one another’s feet.’ ‘Serve one another.’ ‘No greater love has any man than this than to lay down his life for his friends.’
“Tell the people I love them, tell the people I care…when they feel far away from Me tell the people I AM there.”
The Book Haven | Cynthia Haven's blog for the written word
The Book Haven | Cynthia Haven's blog for the written word
Excerpt:
Academy award-winning Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda, of Ashes and Diamonds, Danton, Korczak, and Katyń fame....
Excerpt:
Academy award-winning Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda, of Ashes and Diamonds, Danton, Korczak, and Katyń fame....
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Saturday night with the Carmelites « A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics
Saturday night with the Carmelites « A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics
Excerpt: [I love you, dear ones.]
After we had settled in the side room the nuns have for visitors on special occasions, we were summoned into the parlor.
Excerpt: [I love you, dear ones.]
After we had settled in the side room the nuns have for visitors on special occasions, we were summoned into the parlor.
It was AWESOME! All the nuns were there! Mother Juanita Marie introduced all the nuns – I tried to get all their names but forgot some of them. Then we spent an hour and a half or more talking with the nuns! You know me, I have an immense respect for cloistered nuns, especially Carmelites. It was such a treat, such an honor to spend that time talking with them. They are so holy!
And those poor women had been up ALL NIGHT Friday night praying, yet they stayed up late to talk with us.
Poor Sister Veronica of the Holy Face, whose clothing ceremony we attended several weeks ago, looked so tired! That was so kind of them to let us into their parlor and spend so much time with us. But I was so engrossed in the conversation I forgot to take pictures.
But that’s not all. All my children were there, and the nuns gave each of them a statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague. Mother Juanita Marie and Mother Mary Regina came out into the turn room (no grille!) and gave each of the girls their statue. And we got to talk some more with them there. All of the kids gave Mother Juanita Marie a big hug. She looks so good! She was so gravely ill some months ago, but now she seems completely healed! Not only that, she looks decades younger than her age woudl indicate! There is some incredible Grace working in that cloister. And they are growing!
About that Grace, and growing...Sunday, March 4, 2012
Dachau survivor and liberator meet 6 decades later - Yahoo! News
Dachau survivor and liberator meet 6 decades later - Yahoo! News
Excerpt:
"And we sat and had lunch together and discussed what happened 66 years ago."
Excerpt:
"And we sat and had lunch together and discussed what happened 66 years ago."
Gross, then all of 85 pounds after nearly a year of sickness, abuse and constant hunger, had no doubt April 29, 1945, was his last day on earth. Greenbaum, a soldier with Gen. George Patton's Third Army 283rd Field Artillery Battalion, arrived that day at Dachau expecting to seize ammunition, clothing and food that was kept for the Nazis notorious SS forces.
They were both wrong, it turned out.
The men, who talk about their experiences at local synagogues and schools, now are working together to find other Dachau survivors and liberators in the area to share their stories. They acknowledge that recounting the horrors of the Holocaust isn't easy but believe it's their duty.
"As we got near Dachau, about a mile outside the camp, there was an odor we couldn't identify," Greenbaum said. "When we arrived, I saw the boxcars. They were full of bodies."
History would come to call it the Dachau death train: some 40 cattle cars holding more than 2,000 men and women evacuated from another camp — and left to die on the train — in the final weeks of World War II.
"We had at that time never heard the expression 'concentration camp,' we never heard of a death camp," Greenbaum said. "None of us had any idea."
Gross, a Romanian Jew, was 15 when he and his family were taken from their home, deported to a ghetto in Hungary and eventually packed on a standing-room-only boxcar to Auschwitz in 1942. At the urging of a man next to him as they waited in line to be processed, he lied and told the SS officer he was 17.
Any younger and he'd be deemed incapable of hard labor and, he was told, immediately killed.
"The same guy who told me to lie said to me, 'Do you see that smoke in the sky where the sun cannot get through? This is going to be your parents in about two hours," he recalled. "My parents and younger brother and younger sister ... that's the last time I saw them." Of his two older brothers also sent to labor camps, one — his favorite — also died.
In a state of starvation, and after months of daily beatings and backbreaking work, then-16-year-old Gross was shoved onto another boxcar, this time headed to Dachau, near Munich. It was supposed to arrive a day before the liberation, on April 28, but American bombings delayed the train.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Abbey-Roads: Something more...
Abbey-Roads: Something more...
Excerpt:
"Experience has shown me too late that we cannot judge people by their vices, but on the contrary by what they hold intact and pure, by the childlike qualities that remain in them, however deeply one must search for them." - Georger Bernanos, quoted by Fr. Bernard Bro, O.P.
Excerpt:
"Experience has shown me too late that we cannot judge people by their vices, but on the contrary by what they hold intact and pure, by the childlike qualities that remain in them, however deeply one must search for them." - Georger Bernanos, quoted by Fr. Bernard Bro, O.P.
Friday, March 2, 2012
You've GOTTA read this!: Southern Biscuits - Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart
You've GOTTA read this!: Southern Biscuits - Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
Everyone loves biscuits after all.
Initially, one might wonder how in the world someone could write a cookbook about just biscuits. You only have to open the cover of this gorgeous little treasure to have that question answered. Recipes for easy biscuits, traditional biscuits, biscuits containing ingredients of coca-cola, pimento, sweet potatoes and ginger, biscuits used for desserts. They even branch out with biscuit spin-offs, like coffee cake, pancakes and dumplings. And no biscuit is complete without butter...herb butter, orange-honey butter, fig jam!...
============
[I had to smile. This brought back tender memories of wonder at my pioneer {literally} great-grandmother creating her morning Southern [absolutely] biscuits for the family breakfast of country sausage and 'biks and gravy' and the best coffee ever. I still stand transfixed as she grabbed a handful of flour, then a pinch of that---never a measuring cup or spoon---and then the initial slam against the board as she began to roll out the dough. Nana, I love you.]
Anecdotal Evidence: `A Fate That We Share'
Anecdotal Evidence: `A Fate That We Share'
Excerpt:
“The butterfly applauds the consenting flower.”
...Over lunch a friend and I talked about the unending sense of wonder and weirdness we, as non-natives, experience anew every day in Texas. She wanted to show me a hawthorn in front of the student center already, in February, in flower...
Excerpt:
“The butterfly applauds the consenting flower.”
...Over lunch a friend and I talked about the unending sense of wonder and weirdness we, as non-natives, experience anew every day in Texas. She wanted to show me a hawthorn in front of the student center already, in February, in flower...
Thursday, March 1, 2012
We Are One: Emotions
We Are One: Emotions
Excerpt:
Take it from a pro that learned to totally shut off emotion...it sucks. Reconnecting slow and painful, bewildering, and fabulous. Some days, I feel like I am packing a lifetime of feeling in just a matter of a few years...
Excerpt:
Take it from a pro that learned to totally shut off emotion...it sucks. Reconnecting slow and painful, bewildering, and fabulous. Some days, I feel like I am packing a lifetime of feeling in just a matter of a few years...
The American Conservative » “The Gray”: A Man’s Movie
The American Conservative » “The Gray”: A Man’s Movie
Excerpt:
“The Gray” is about oil workers surviving a crashed plane in Alaska. They crash in a wolf pack’s territory. The survivors try to make their way out. As someone who hikes and climbs in Alaska and loves it, I found the movie gripping and philosophical — it reminded me also of another wonderful movie, “The Way Back,” about concentration camp prisoners walking their way out of Siberia. In that film the starving men chase the wolves off their prey...
Excerpt:
“The Gray” is about oil workers surviving a crashed plane in Alaska. They crash in a wolf pack’s territory. The survivors try to make their way out. As someone who hikes and climbs in Alaska and loves it, I found the movie gripping and philosophical — it reminded me also of another wonderful movie, “The Way Back,” about concentration camp prisoners walking their way out of Siberia. In that film the starving men chase the wolves off their prey...
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