KNOCKANURE
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April 8, 2024
The Annunciation story has inspired many artists across the ages to depict the scene of Mary's interaction with the angel Gabriel. In the most famous ones, there are always two figures: the young, startled, Mary and a smiling, beatific angel. The setting is usually bright and beautiful.
My favorite rendition is quite different, and, to me, much more telling. The 1898 depiction by Henry Ossawa Tanner shows Mary sitting on the edge of her bed in near darkness, pondering the brilliant light enveloping the far side of her room. No angel; only light.
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Father Joseph Thomas Commentaries
April 11, 2024
In the midst of a world that tragically suffers from war and civil discord, we naturally long for reference points that inspire us toward peace.
On April 11, 1963, as the Church began its Easter Triduum, Pope John XXIII offered the world one such beacon of hope: the encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth). The document was addressed not just to Catholics but, in a groundbreaking move, to all persons of goodwill.
Now, as then, the words of the Pope who convened Vatican II continue to convey a message that reaches across cultural and religious boundaries.
John XXIII had been accustomed to working across such differences through his extensive diplomatic experience in Bulgaria, Turkey and France. Months before Pacem in Terris, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Pope’s forceful appeal made a significant contribution to defusing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. But in his document dedicated to world peace, the Pontiff invited the world to look beyond immediate conflicts and reflect more deeply on the underlying causes of war.
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Saint Teresa of Los Andes’ Story
One needn’t live a long life to leave a deep imprint. Teresa of Los Andes is proof of that.
As a young girl growing up in the early 1900’s in Santiago, Chile, Juana Fernandez read an autobiography of a French-born saint—Thérèse, popularly known as the Little Flower. The experience deepened her desire to serve God and clarified the path she would follow. At age 19 Juana became a Carmelite nun, taking the name of Teresa.
The convent offered the simple lifestyle Teresa desired and the joy of living in a community of women completely devoted to God. She focused her days on prayer and sacrifice. “I am God’s,” she wrote in her diary. “He created me and is my beginning and my end.”
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CAT: Jessica Pierce, a bioethicist at the University of Colorado who studies human-animal relationships and companion pet science, says she’ll never have a cat again, solely due to the moral dilemma of the indoor-outdoor debate.
“When I did have a cat, I let her go outside and I didn’t feel good about it; she definitely killed stuff — a lot of stuff,” Pierce says. “I think letting her outside ultimately was what she wanted, but she didn’t live long. … [Cats] are not toys, they’re animals who have behavioral needs that are hard to meet inside.”
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By the world’s reckoning, Angela Salawa’s life was unremarkable, and perhaps even a failure. She never married, had no children, left no tangible legacy, and she died alone and impoverished. But to God, she was brilliant. Her life was a beacon, radiating his love to everyone around her.
From the first moment Angela opened her eyes in 1881, the eleventh child born of 12 to a poor Catholic family in rural Poland, to the moment she closed them 40 years later, alone in a small basement in Krakow, God never lost sight of his precious daughter. And his love was not unrequited. For her entire life, Angela’s gentle heart yearned to be ever closer to her beloved Jesus.
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Reflect
THIS…
Why did God create evil? The answer struck me to the core of my soul!
A professor at the university asked his students the following question:
- Everything that exists was created by God?
One student bravely answered:
- Yes, created by God.
- Did God create everything? - a professor asked.
“Yes, sir,” replied the student.
The professor asked :
- If God created everything, then God created evil, since it exists. And according to the principle that our deeds define ourselves, then God is evil.
The student became silent after hearing such an answer. The professor was very pleased with himself. He boasted to students for proving once again that faith in God is a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said:
- Can I ask you a question, professor?
"Of course," replied the professor.
A student got up and asked:
- Professor, is cold a thing?
- What kind of question? Of course it exists. Have you ever been cold?
Students laughed at the young man's question. The young man answered:
- Actually, sir, cold doesn't exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied on whether it has or transmits energy.
Absolute zero (-460 degrees Fahrenheit) is a complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at this temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe what we feel in the absence of heat.
A student continued:
- Professor, does darkness exist?
— Of course it exists.
- You're wrong again, sir. Darkness also does not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light but not the darkness. We can use Newton's prism to spread white light across multiple colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You can't measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you tell how dark a certain space is? You measure how much light is presented. Isn't it so? Darkness is a term man uses to describe what happens in the absence of light.
In the end, the young man asked the professor:
- Sir, does evil exist?
This time it was uncertain, the professor answered:
- Of course, as I said before. We see him every day. Cruelty, numerous crimes and violence throughout the world. These examples are nothing but a manifestation of evil.
To this, the student answered:
- Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist for itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is like darkness and cold—a man-made word to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exist as light and warmth. Evil is the result of the absence of Divine love in the human heart. It’s the kind of cold that comes when there is no heat, or the kind of darkness that comes when there’s no light.
Student's name was Albert Einstein..
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Garabandal ·
Rafael Medina · ·
Images of the eucharistic miracle that occurred during the Mass celebrated by the bishop ordained by God, Claudio Gatti, in Rome, Italy.
HISTORY:
On 11 June 2000, the feast of Pentecost, while I was celebrating Holy Mass in the church "Mother of the Eucharist" a great eucharistic miracle took place.
I had just finished reciting the formula for the consecration of the bread when blood began to flow from my host.
For me time has stopped. I was bent over the host which I held in my hands and stared at the divine blood which spread over most of its surface.
I remained motionless for a time that seemed interminable to those present, because they thought I was feeling bad, as an impressive pallor and a strong blush alternated on my face.
When I recovered a little, I slowly elevated the host.
A lot of emotion was created among those present, but everything took place in an atmosphere of profound recollection and lively participation.
As I lowered my blood-stained host, I saw in the paten two other large hosts which, as the Mother of the Eucharist will later say, had been rescued from desecration and taken to the thaumaturgical place, because "the bishop, the seer and the members of the community love the Eucharist very much and are ready to give their lives to defend it."
After having recited the formula for the consecration of the wine and made the elevation of the chalice, I took the paten which contained the consecrated host stained with blood and the other two hosts rescued from desecration and I passed along the pews of the church so that those present could see them up close, ascertain the truthfulness of the fact, perceive the perfume that emanated from the blood-stained host to bear witness in the future to the miracle occurred.
When I did "the breaking of the bread", the blood continued to drip before the eyes of those present. Even with regret I had to consume my blood-stained host, as prescribed by the norms 113-116 of the IV chapter of the instructions for the celebration of Holy Mass which are contained in the missal.
When receiving Holy Communion I tasted the sweet taste of Jesus' blood and I felt a strong heat and an intense perfume that invaded my interior.
With this last great eucharistic miracle God has put his seal on all the previous eucharistic miracles which have been rejected by the great men of the Church, who have demanded to know the name of the priest who had consecrated the hosts which Jesus, Our Lady, the saints and the angels have brought to the thaumaturgical place, including the numerous hosts which have shed blood.
Just as John saw the blood and the water coming out of Jesus' pierced side, so I, a bishop ordained by God, the visionary Marisa Rossi and many people saw the blood coming out of the host consecrated by me and we can repeat with the apostle: "He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth—that you also may believe." (Jn 19:35)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzg2LlN93W0
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The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology — established a quarter of a century before Israel became an independent nation — has been inexorably linked to the State’s security since its inception.
For 100 years, the Technion has been the technological backbone of Israel. Nearly all aspects of the nation’s industrial, agricultural, scientific, and defense capabilities have been driven by Technion students, graduates, or faculty members.
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Art of Manliness <newsletter@artofmanliness.com> Unsubscribe
Sunday Firesides: Iron Hearts in Wooden Ships
Brett & Kate McKay • March 17, 2024
During the Civil War, the Confederacy’s greatest hope for its defense of New Orleans, and the Union’s greatest fear in securing its capture, were the former’s fleet of ironclad ships.
As it turned out, the ironclads proved ineffectual, and the Confederacy’s overall defense, hampered by disorganization and what one historian called the “cowardice of untrained officers,” fell apart. The Union Navy handily muscled its way up the Mississippi to capture the South’s largest city.
Theodorus Bailey, the Union’s second-in-command on the operation, summed up the lopsided victory this way:
“It was a contest of iron hearts in wooden ships, against iron-clads with iron beaks—and the iron hearts won.”
A half-century later, during WWI, German officer Ernst Jünger reflected on Bailey’s words in criticizing orders to dig more, and more elaborate, trenches, to the exhaustion and demoralization of his men. “Trenches are not the first thing, but the courage and freshness of the men behind them. ‘Battles are won by iron hearts in wooden ships.’”
Certainly, superiority in technology — and resources — has been the difference-maker in many conflicts. But just as often, an under-resourced and technologically less advanced force, bands of “primitive” but ferociously devoted guerillas, have successfully held off far more formidable foes.
It’s easy to think that a lack of some technology or resource is the only thing holding us back from success in our non-martial endeavors — that some app or funding will be the thing that finally allows us to lose weight or launch a thriving business.
At best, such things can aid existing efforts. At worst, they can be a distraction from the more fundamental linchpins of success: will, leadership, persistence.
Victory in any battle depends less on the quality of the vessel in which you fight, and more on the quality of the man who stands at its wheel.
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By Peter Jesserer Smith
National Catholic Register, Mar 16, 2024 / 07:00 am
When St. Patrick arrived in Ireland in the fifth century, he came first as a slave. He later returned as a missionary to plant the seeds of the Catholic faith. In a similar fashion, when the first Irish came to the island of Montserrat, they were slaves who planted the Catholic faith in this “Emerald Isle of the Caribbean.”
Much like Ireland, Montserrat is a lush, green, and mountainous island, where St. Patrick is venerated and shamrock symbols can be found everywhere as a sign of the Montserratians’ blended Irish heritage and ancestry. The British Caribbean territory is the one place in the world where St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated as a public holiday for an entire week, not just on March 17.
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Weekly Newsletter
Saint Patrick's Day
17th March 2024
Dear Friends of Sacred Heart Church,
Today, we celebrate the Patron Saint of the Emerald Isle. Let us remember the rich Catholic heritage that has shaped our nation. As we honour Saint Patrick, let us strive to build a future deeply rooted in our Catholic faith, making Ireland the Isle of Saints and Scholars once more!
Throughout Limerick, parades will fill the streets with joy and celebration. Don’t forget to wear your shamrocks as a reminder of the Most Holy Trinity. Have you noticed the green socks worn by our canons today? This day is very special!
This festive day coincides with Passion Sunday, marking the beginning of Passiontide tomorrow. I encourage you to take time to read and meditate on the beautiful preface of the Holy Cross recited during this solemn period. You will find it attached to this newsletter.
We also honour several upcoming feasts that lie ahead. On Tuesday, we commemorate the humble and righteous Saint Joseph, the foster father of Jesus.
Wednesday marks the anniversary of the papal coronation.
Remember to say a prayer to Saint Wulfran, the Patron Saint of Canon Lebocq.
Thursday invites us to reflect on the life and teachings of Saint Benedict, the Patron Saint of our Institute. Finally, on Friday, we solemnly observe the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as Dolorata. It is a day to meditate on the immense suffering and sacrifice endured by Mary throughout her life. Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary is a way to empathise with her sorrows and draw closer to her maternal intercession and the redemptive suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I would highly recommend you to read attentively the ‘’Stabat Mater’’ Sequence that will be recited during the Mass.
Holy Week is fast approaching, and an important announcement: On Palm Sunday, Mass will begin at 10 am (not 10:30 am), due to the length of the ceremony. Please keep in mind that after Mass, our priests have to travel to Galway to celebrate there as well.
You can find flyers at the back of the church with the times for all Holy Week ceremonies. This year, we’ve slightly modified the schedule to accommodate more souls to attend. Confession times remain unchanged, but we kindly ask those who can come during the week to do so, especially considering the long distances some travel on Sundays.
Please ensure that all statues and religious images in your homes are now covered with violet fabric until Easter.
I had the opportunity to visit our community in Belfast this week and oversee the church restoration. Please keep this important project in your prayers. The former Presbyterian church, now dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is flourishing. Once the restoration is complete, I promise to organise a bus
trip there!
Wishing you all a blessed Saint Patrick’s Day and a blessed Passiontide,
Canon Lebocq
Prior of Sacred Heart Church
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One make-ahead meal I’ve been enjoying recently is a high-protein breakfast bake. I got the idea from a fella named Johnny Hadac on Instagram who serves up easy, affordable meal prep recipes for people looking to lose weight/eat better.
This breakfast bake takes about 15 minutes to prep. The thing that takes the most time is dicing up your veggies. Bake time is about 35 minutes.
When you’re done, you’ll have six tasty, high-protein, low-carb mini breakfast casseroles that will leave your belly feeling nice and full, but without a ton of calories.
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The press are interested in selling papers and the TV companies want to gain viewers. Threat of world-wide disaster makes a good story, and the statements and actions of politicians together with great increase in scientific publications gave global warming an apparent authority. The media began to proclaim the worst imagined horrors. For example, massive floods were predicted due to melting of polar ice. and one UK TV programme went so far as to assert that the polar bears would die out because their habitat would melt. The public rely on the media to provide them with their information, so they came to believe the global warming scare because they were only given one side of the story. Politicians respond to public concern, so the politicians actions began to gain popular support.
On face value global warming is an environmental issue. Many environmentalists joined the bandwagon. Governments were offering money and the public were concerned at global warming. Any environmental issue which could be linked to global warming was said to be involved in the matter. But the environmentalist interest was aroused by the impact of the issue. Contrary to common belief, environmentalists did not raise awareness of global warming, they responded to it. Simply, environmentalist organisations were part of the general public and decided to use the issue when it became useful to them.
http://john-daly.com/history.htm
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n May 20, 2021, a fire started on a cargo ship off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka. At home under COVID-19 lockdown, the country’s environmentalists and scientists watched media reports showing the ship spewing yellow and black fumes, and they worried that the X-Press Pearl would spill its oil into the sea.
But a few days after the ship caught fire, it became clear that the X-Press Pearl disaster was bigger than an oil spill. The ship was carrying more chemicals than its 348 metric tons (t) of bunker oil. Of the 1,486 containers on board, 81 held dangerous goods. The cargo included caustic soda, nitric acid, and fertilizer. The ship was also transporting polymers, including 1,680 t of plastic pellets, about 70 billion of them, each about 5 mm wide. These pellets, also called nurdles, are the raw materials that are melted and molded to make many plastic products.
On May 25 2021explosions were heard on the ship, and containers began falling into the ocean. Piles of plastic pellets meters deep engulfed the nearby Sarakkuwa beach. There was so much plastic that “you could not see the sand,” says Muditha Katuwawala, founder of the environmental organization the Pearl Protectors. “It was really scary.”
https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/marine-plastic-spill-xpress-pearl-nurdle/101/i3
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Prayer to St Brigid
Bridget, you were a woman of peace.
You brought harmony where there was conflict.
You brought light to the darkness.
You brought hope to the downcast.
May the mantle of your peace
cover those who are troubled and anxious.
And may peace be firmly rooted in
our hearts and in our world.
Inspire us to act justly and to
reverence all God has made.
Bridget, you were a voice for the
wounded and the weary.
Strengthen what is weak within us.
Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens.
May we grow each day into greater
wholeness in mind, body and spirit.
Amen.
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Secularist Blinders and the Middle East
COMMENTARY: MEMRI offers an invaluable service to public officials charged with interdicting terrorism before it happens, or responding to it quickly before even more lives are lost. ------------
Unfortunately, those who might benefit most from MEMRI’s translations of speeches, video rants and articles by the masters of terror often display little interest. Why? Because too many Western policymakers cannot imagine that calls to various forms of violent jihad, whether from Sunni or Shiite Islamic sources, make any real difference. Those declarations of war are religiously based — and we all know, don’t we, that religious conviction has no real influence on “world affairs”?
There are occasional exceptions to this dangerous blind spot among foreign policy professionals. A recent MEMRI translation of a speech in which the Oct. 7 massacres by Hamas were celebrated as “self-defense” and “liberation” by the leader of the Council on American Islamic Relations led to that organization being removed as a participant in the Biden Administration’s Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. But as a general rule, the U.S. foreign service, like its counterparts in the major powers of Europe, is so thoroughly soaked in the juices of rationalist secularism (one underpinning of foreign policy “realism”) that the professionals find it hard to take religiously-based political radicalism seriously.
Yet it’s precisely because it’s religiously grounded that such radicalism is exceptionally dangerous.
One might think that 9/11 would have caused some rethinking of this willful secularist blindness — and MEMRI’s work makes the raw materials for such a rethinking abundantly available. But old habits die hard, especially among the self-imagined best-and-brightest.
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Sexual Victimization by Women Is More Common Than Previously Known
A new study gives a portrait of female perpetrators
By Lara Stemple & Ilan H. Meyer --------------------------------------------------
Other gender stereotypes prevent effective responses, such as the trope that men are sexually insatiable. Aware of the popular misconception that, for men, all sex is welcome, male victims often feel too embarrassed to report sexual victimization. If they do report it, they are frequently met with a response that assumes no real harm was done.
Women abused by other women are also an overlooked group; these victims discover that most services are designed for women victimized by men. Behind bars, we found that sexual minorities were 2-3 times more likely to be sexually victimized by staff members than straight inmates. This is particularly alarming as our related research found that sexual minorities, especially lesbian and bisexual women, are much more likely to be incarcerated to begin with. Full report below.
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Lost Photographs of Black America
A trove of images from the 1960s and ’70s, discovered in a Swedish bank vault, offers new perspectives on the past—and the present.
By Vann R. Newkirk II
Photographs by Ernest Cole
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/03/ernest-cole-true-america-photographs/677169/
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This remains the greatest electoral challenge facing Biden: To beat Trump, he’ll need both young progressives and older liberals showing up to pull the lever.
Outside the rally, another large group of pro-Palestinian protesters had assembled, waving flags and chanting slogans as they lined the street Biden’s motorcade was to drive down. Outside, too, were four or five protesters of another nature: local Catholic pro-lifers holding signs depicting aborted fetuses.
“We usually go down and protest the abortion clinic down in Falls Church,” said Ken Groves. “So we just came out here to protest this because he’s our, you know, the big pro-abortion president. He’s probably the worst one we ever had.”
Were they surprised to find themselves in the company of a bigger, louder protest from the opposite side?
“They aren’t really the opposite side,” Groves said. “We’re pro-life. They’re against Biden. We’re against Biden too.”
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Who watches the watchmen? All of us, if we're smart. In the age of surveillance, that means monitoring how and where the snoops put us under scrutiny. Among the people and organizations doing such important work is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which recently updated one of its countersurveillance tools.
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today unveiled its new Street Level Surveillance hub, a standalone website featuring expanded and updated content on various technologies that law enforcement agencies commonly use to invade Americans' privacy," the group announced January 10. 2024
https://reason.com/2024/01/17/the-cops-are-watching-you/
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By Joe Bukuras
CNA Staff, Jan 25, 2024 / 17:30 pm
Almost all Catholic religious in the United States who took final vows in 2023 were raised by their biological parents during the “most formative part of their childhood,” according to a new survey by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
The survey report, published this month, polled 101 religious in the U.S. who professed perpetual vows in 2023. Forty-eight religious brothers and priests and 53 religious sisters were surveyed.
The report found that the vast majority of those surveyed had one thing in common: They came from stable, two-parent families.
Ninety-nine percent of respondents said they were raised by their biological parents during the “most formative part of their childhood,” the report said.
And 88% said they were raised by a married couple living together during those formative years, while 5% were raised by one parent who was divorced or separated.
Three percent of respondents surveyed were raised by an unmarried couple who lived together, a married couple who lived separately, or a widowed parent.
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Video London
https://www.youtube.com/live/65iwnI2hjAA?si=m0e6p-Tz57Gsj4Z5
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Deaths 2023
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MATT HADRO/CNA/EWTN NEWS Nation
May 28, 2020
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report on Tuesday says that more than 40% of deaths from the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States have occurred in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities.
“Much more attention must be paid to the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in nursing homes, especially through nursing home staff who work at multiple facilities,” wrote Avik Roy and Gregg Girvan for the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.
“Nursing homes must use best practices for testing and cleanliness,” they wrote.
New York, they said, may be an “outlier” among state reports because the volume of deaths outside of nursing homes may have driven the percentage share of nursing home deaths down. New York also reportedly changed how it was counting COVID nursing home deaths in early May; nursing home patients who died from the virus at a hospital were not counted as nursing home deaths.
https://www.ncregister.com/news/43-of-us-coronavirus-deaths-in-nursing-homes
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What the Polar Vortex Will Do to Earth this Decade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgtnyiBvkUY
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Even a Single ONION Can Start an IRREVERSIBLE Reaction in Your Body!
https://youtu.be/YhRETNM7RCQ?si=PODa59ZJ0ARqt97C
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Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Brian Mitchell, Northern Irelands' leading genealogist tells the story of the McCook family of Garvagh, County Derry who settled in Queensland, Australia, and New Zealand
The following family story which I first researched in 1988 and then told in the introduction to my Pocket Guide to Irish Genealogy (first published 1991, Clearfield Company, Baltimore, Maryland) “sums up for me what makes genealogy and the study of one’s family tree such an absorbing and fascinating pastime. The attraction for me lies in building up a picture – piece by piece – of your ancestry utilizing people’s memories and historical records. The detective work in building up a family tree is just as rewarding as the identification of a family line.”
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Jersey Cattle Australia 1910
https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/irelandxo.com/s3fs-public/inline-files/2Edenbann%20Jersey%20Herd%20Brisbane%20Robert%20McCook%201910%20%281%29.pdf
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Our new exhibition, ‘Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives’ draws on The National Archives’ vast collections of wartime era documents and photographs – featuring not only the iconic stories that you may have heard of, but many stories of survival that have rarely been told.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/great-escapes/fascinating-survival-stories/
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This previously unknown set of records from an 18th-century galleon shines a light on one of history's most significant trade routes. It was found among roughly 500,000 papers taken from ships in the Prize Papers collection, which are being digitised in collaboration with University of Oldenburg.
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Belfast Newsletter
Thursday May 24, 1906
Untitled Article
Keeping butter, made with any percentage of «filt, or with salt and 1 per cent- of preservative; tho perc*ntage of salt used stated, also whether presrvatifa had been used; 21_bs.
Belfast Newsletter
Thursday May 10, 1900
Untitled Article
wrappiugr _allowed—1, _Newtormsandes _Co-operatav_* Dairy _Society, Limited; 2, Drom_*h&ir Oo-operaiive Dairy _Stteietyi Limited, County Leitrha; 3, _Ballmtrillick Co-operative Dairy _Sootety_, Limited, Oounty Sligo. Mild-cured, ia &ay _mtirketa-We package, weighing _aot !ess than .141ln.; _slightly ealted 1 pw cent.) with _Hig-gin_'_s " Eureka," Dairy Salt—1, _Killesharidra _Co-opemfcive...
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In Microsoft’s latest environmental sustainability report, the U.S. tech company disclosed that its global water consumption rose by more than a third from 2021 to 2022, climbing to nearly 1.7 billion gallons.
It means that Microsoft’s annual water use would be enough to fill more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
For Google, meanwhile, total water consumption at its data centers and offices came in at 5.6 billion gallons in 2022, a 21% increase on the year before.
Both companies are working to reduce their water footprint and become “water positive” by the end of the decade, meaning that they aim to replenish more water than they use.
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates —The chief executive of UAE-based energy firm Crescent Petroleum on Tuesday claimed that blaming the oil and gas industry for the climate crisis “is like blaming farmers for obesity.”
His comments come at the mid-point of the U.N.’s biggest and most important annual climate conference, with many at the COP28 talks in Dubai calling for heads of state from nearly 200 countries to agree to a fossil fuel phase out.
The burning of coal, oil and gas is by far the largest contributor to climate change, accounting for more than three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Blaming the producers of oil and gas for climate change is like blaming farmers for obesity. It’s our societal consumption that is the issue,” Crescent Petroleum CEO Majid Jafar told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Tuesday.
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Courtney Mares/CNA Vatican
December 8, 2023
Pope Francis announced Friday that the Catholic Church will celebrate its first World Day of Children in May 2024.
Speaking in his Angelus address on Dec. 8 to mark the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Pope shared that the Church’s first children’s day will be celebrated in Rome on the weekend of May 25-26.
“And now I have the joy of announcing that on May 25 and 26 next year, we will celebrate the first World Day of Children in Rome,” Pope Francis said from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
“Like Jesus, we want to put children at the center and care for them,” he added..
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An RSR is a request sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to ask that the product, which in this case is a genetically modified plant in the form of a potato, not be regulated. Ohalo had two RSRs under consideration this year for its potato, one which focuses on higher concentrations of beta carotene – enhancing the overall health and nutrition value of the potato – and another which results in reduced glucose and fructose content in the potato, which, according to Ohalo, will reduce the adverse side effects that lead to significant spoilage during cold storage of potatoes.
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Sea & Believe is a little different than the typical IndieBio company in that they already have a successful product on the market. The Ireland-based company sells two alt-fish products, an Irish seaweed burger and seaweed goujons, and today they are available in 50 stores across Ireland.
But as the company showed last week at IndieBio’s Demo Day, they are close to launching what they see as their biggest breakthrough yet: a plant-based whole-cut filet of ‘cod’ that flakes like real fish.
https://thespoon.tech/sea-believe-is-making-plant-based-whole-cut-cod-that-flakes-like-real-fish/
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We typically associate hunger with the desire for food. But there are, in fact, half a dozen other appetites that exist within the human organism, each of which must be fed to maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health:
Sunlight. Place a houseplant in the shadows, and its leaves wilt and droop. While invisible to the eye, the same thing happens to human beings. Many ancient cultures worshiped the sun; we would do well to make daily ablutions in its light.
Movement. You don’t need an activity tracker to tell you when to get out of a chair. Sit for too long, and the body begins to ache, balking at the sedentary stillness and yearning to fulfill the measure of its creation — walking, running, climbing, moving.
Nature. Consume a steady diet of manufactured structures, climate-controlled air, and artificial surfaces, and you start craving a missing nutrient that can only be found down wooded paths and under canopies of stars.
Socialization. Some need a little; some need a lot. But no one can go too long without looking someone in the eye and feeling the hum of face-to-face connection.
Meaning. Go through the motions without a larger purpose behind them, and the gears of life begin to grind. Feeding on a why puts the juice in their joints.
Silence. Paradoxically, you possess an appetite for emptiness. When glutted on inputs, silence can feel like surprisingly substantial fare and truly hit the spot.
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Reflect
What you were NEVER told about Our Lady of Guadalupe!
https://youtu.be/tdRdme9DF9I?si=JMZZu_uhzs0elv0t
==============================
A deserted beach, an empty children’s playground and closed shopping centres – this is the reality of a luxury estate left to rot. Originally intended as ‘a dream paradise for all mankind’, Forest City in southern Malaysia sounded like the perfect $100 billion (£80 billion) development
=================================
Old people leaving Florida: In just half a decade, the median price of a single-family house in Florida rose $150,000, or 60%. According to Redfin, the average cost of a home in March 2018 was approximately $250,000. In March 2023, it was roughly $400,000.
But expensive housing isn’t the only thing repelling retirees from the state. Inflation and stock market dips have also negatively impacted their financial situation.
In response, seniors are seeking more affordable places to call home. For example, many are moving to Limestone County, Alabama, the fastest-growing county in the state. The area boasts lakefront property, warm weather and low property taxes, so it only makes sense that it’s considered a substitute for The Sunshine State.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/florida-s-retirees-are-fleeing-here-s-where-they-re-settling/ar-AA1aG9Q0?ocid=NL_ENUS_A1_00010101_1_1
==================================
Advertising works by getting under your radar, introducing new ideas without bothering your conscious mind. Extensive scientific research shows that, when exposed to advertising, people “buy into” the materialistic values and goals it encourages. Consequently, they report lower levels of personal wellbeing, experience conflict in relationships, engage in fewer positive social behaviours, and experience detrimental effects on study and work. Critically, the more that people prioritise materialistic values and goals, the less they embrace positive attitudes towards the environment – and the more likely they are to behave in damaging ways.
Even worse, findings from neuroscience reveal that advertising goes as far as lodging itself in the brain, rewiring it by forming physical structures and causing permanent change.
=======================
The sentence of Penal Transportation was carried out in Ireland from 1791 to 1853. This form of punishment involved the removal of convicted criminals from the land of their birth and relocating them elsewhere, most commonly to Australia. Many people in Australia who have a claim to Irish ancestry can trace their roots back to a person who was sent to a far away land as punishment for their crimes. These infractions vary in severity from armed robbery to the theft of barely enough bread to survive the day. Penal Transportation was put in place as a way of punishing minor crimes without having to resort to the barbarism of capital punishment, as the public feeling towards hanging became increasingly negative.
Yet a sentence of Penal Transportation did not necessarily mean that you would never see your family again. Female convicts were often permitted to bring their children with them. The wives and families of male convicts could also petition to follow them as free immigrants to Australia. Children themselves were also subject to the threat of Penal Transportation as the records show that the sentence was given to children as young as 12 years old. At a time when the country was struggling to feed its population, and the Union Workhouses were far beyond maximum capacity, it is hardly surprising that the magistrates took the opportunity to send as many hungry mouths away as possible.
======================================
Tucker Carlson 12/12/23 | Tucker Carlson Tonight December 12, 2023
https://youtu.be/WgaXNuYcG1E?si=6AhSap3gkEYAkhHr
=============================
RIGHT ON MAXINE!!!
This is the best analogy yet!
Leave it to Maxine to come up with a solution for the mess that America/Canada/Australia is now in economically.
I bought a bird feeder. I hung it
on my back porch and filled it
with seed. What a beauty of
a bird feeder it was, as I filled it
lovingly with seed.
Within a week we had hundreds of birds
taking advantage of the
continuous flow of free and
easily accessible food.
But then the birds started
building nests in the boards
of the patio, above the table,
and next to the barbecue.
Then came the poop. It was
everywhere: on the patio tile,
the chairs, the table ....
everywhere!
Then some of the birds
turned mean. They would
dive bomb me and try to
peck me even though I had
fed them out of my own
pocket.
And others birds were
boisterous and loud. They
sat on the feeder and
squawked and screamed at
all hours of the day and night
and demanded that I fill it
when it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn't even
sit on my own back porch
anymore.. So I took down the
bird feeder and in three days
the birds were gone. I cleaned
up their mess and took down
the many nests they had built
all over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like
it used to be ........ quiet, serene....
and no one demanding their
rights to a free meal.
Now let's see......
Our government gives out
free food, subsidized housing,
free medical care and free
education, and allows anyone
born here to be an automatic
citizen.
Then the illegal's came by the
tens of thousands. Suddenly
our taxes went up to pay for
free services; small apartments
are housing 5 families; you
have to wait 6 hours to be seen
by an emergency room doctor;
Your child's second grade class is
behind other schools because
over half the class doesn't speak
English.
Corn Flakes now come in a
bilingual box; I have to
'press one ' to hear my bank
talk to me in English, and
people waving flags other
than ”ours” are
squawking and screaming
in the streets, demanding
more rights and free liberties.
Just my opinion, but maybe
it's time for the government
to take down the bird feeder.
If you agree, pass it on; if not,
just continue cleaning up the poo
========================================
Virtual Tour of Jewish Afghanistan
Hosted By: My Jewish Learning
Join My Jewish Learning and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to dive into the history and culture of a 2,500+ year old Jewish community. Jews first arrived in Afghanistan while it was still under the control of the Achaemenid Empire and Zoroastrianism and Buddhism were the dominant surrounding religions. They lived through Mongol invasions, the rise and fall of various kingdoms, the advent and spread of Islam, trading with nomads and sedentary peoples among Afghanistan’s mountains. Throughout the centuries, they were scholars, polemics, traders, artists, singers – at times a protected minority, at others, openly persecuted. Discover Jewish life at the crossroads of the world with tour guide Sara Koplik, author of “A Political and Economic History of the Jews of Afghanistan” and community activist and jewelry designer Osnat Gad.
More at https://youtu.be/2TVIHCrZ1M0?si=jZO0MJn6uVm02ZRD
================================
A national plague of workplace injuries was once a media obsession. Now it’s all but forgotten.
By Benjamin Ryan----------------------------------------
Henriques would join the legions of Americans considered to have a repetitive strain injury (RSI), which from the late 1980s through the 1990s seized the popular imagination as the plague of the modern American workplace. Characterized at the time as a source of sudden, widespread suffering and disability, the RSI crisis reportedly began in slaughterhouses, auto plants, and other venues for repetitive manual labour, before spreading to work
====================================
Scientists have developed synthetic sponges capable of extracting microplastics and nanoplastics from contaminated water.
https://hakaimagazine.com/news/sponging-up-plastic-pollution/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-gb
===========================
Forest India; This forest type is within 30 to 50 kilometers of the Coromandel Coast and can withstand the long, humid, and hot (sometimes up to 40 ºC) summers and the deluge of up to two meters of rain during the monsoons.
These forests once covered 400 to 500 kilometers of the Coromandel Coast. But as ancient seafaring Tamil and Telugu kingdoms, European colonizers, and modern-day Indians built cities and ports along the coast, the forests vanished. Today, most of this belt has been replaced by development around the approximately 700-kilometer-long East Coast Road that runs from Tamil Nadu’s capital, Chennai, to Ramanathapuram and beyond. It’s also home to almost 34 million people.
==================================
“While you can’t completely stop some of the natural effects of aging or medical conditions (such as arthritis, which can affect the knee joint by wearing away the cartilage in the knee), weak knees are often the result of mechanical issues, such as improper form during exercise or injuries that have affected the way you move day-to-day,” says Thavun Srisaneha, I.S.S.A. C.P.T., N.A.S.M. B.C.E., a certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor at
=======================================
COMMUNITY ALERT NEWS: From a local correspondent: "THE LAST TWO YEARS HAVE SEEN AN UNPRECEDENTED RISE IN INCIDENTS OF COW TRAMPLING IN THE UK.THE HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE (HSE) HAVE RECORDED THAT IN THE YEAR 2020-21 ELEVEN PEOPLE WERE KILLED BY COWS, AND 31 SUSTAINED NON-FATAL INJURIES. BUT THE HSE’S STATISTICS ARE NOT TELLING THE FULL STORY. A CAMPAIGN GROUP CALLED ‘KILLER COWS’ HAS COLLATED A SUBSTANTIAL BODY OF DATA ON THE SUBJECT.ALSO IN THE NEWS: IN THE LAST SIX YEARS THE GROUP HAS COLLECTED 580 REPORTS OF COW ATTACKS, WITH 562 OF THEM OCCURRING ON PUBLIC FOOTPATHS
COWS GENERALLY EXHIBIT BENIGN BOVINE BEHAVIOUR, BUT THIS IS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE.
WHEN WALKERS ENCOUNTER CATTLE IN A FIELD THE LATTER’S BEHAVIOUR CAN BE VERY DIFFERENT. AT BEST THEY CAN BE CURIOUS AND MOVE TOWARDS WALKERS SIMPLY TO FIND OUT MORE (THEY WILL USUALLY HAVE THEIR NOSES STUCK OUT IN FRONT OF THEM IN THIS SCENARIO); AT WORST THEY CAN BE AGGRESSIVE AND POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS (WITH THEIR EARS UP AT ‘TEN TO TWO’ IN A CLASSIC THREAT POSTURE). A MATURE COW CAN WEIGH UP TO A TONNE, AND OVER A SHORT DISTANCE CAN RUN AT A STAGGERINGLY FAST SPEED OF 25MPH. YOU CANNOT OUTRUN A COW, AND THE NATIONAL FARMERS’ UNION AND THE RAMBLERS CHARITY GIVE THE FOLLOWING ADVICE: IF YOU ARE WALKING WITH A DOG AND A COW, OR COWS, HAS STARTED TO SHOW SIGNS OF AGGRESSION, LET THE DOG OFF ITS LEAD SO THAT IT CAN RUN AWAY AND DIVERT THE COW AWAY FROM YOU (IT IS LIKELY THAT THE COW IS OBJECTING TO THE DOG MORE THAN YOU, AND YOUR DOG WILL BE ABLE TO RUN FASTER THAN YOU CAN). THIS IS THE ONLY SITUATION IN WHICH THE COUNTRYSIDE CODE ADVISES THAT A DOG SHOULD BE LET OFF THEIR LEAD AROUND LIVESTOCK.
A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF TRAMPLING INCIDENTS DO NOT INVOLVE A DOG, AND FURTHER USEFUL ADVICE INCLUDES:
•TAKE THE BEST ROUTE AND AVOID A FOOTPATH WITH CATTLE ON, OR NEAR, IT IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. IF YOU HAVE TO ENTER THE FIELD, STICK TO THE FENCE LINE EVEN IF THE PATH TAKES YOU THROUGH THE MIDDLE.
•NEVER PET CALVES.
•ENSURE THAT THE CATTLE SEE YOU AND DON’T SURPRISE THEM.
•DON’T PANIC AND RUN IF YOU FEEL THREATENED – JUST WALK ON QUIETLY AND TRY TO KEEP YOUR BODY FACING THE CATTLE.
•CARRY A WHISTLE, WHICH WILL STARTLE THE HERD AND MAY BUY YOU EXTRA TIME TO FIND AN ESCAPE ROUTE (PLUS IT WILL ALERT FELLOW WALKERS TO YOUR PLIGHT).
CATTLE ATTACKS ARE RARE, AND THEY DEFINITELY SHOULDN’T DETER PEOPLE FROM ENJOYING THE COUNTRYSIDE, BUT THE PUBLIC NEED TO BE FULLY AWARE OF THE THREAT."
THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WALKING FOR LEISURE HAS INCREASED SINCE THE COVID LOCK-DOWNS, ACCORDING TO THE RAMBLERS CHARITY.
ADDED TO THIS, DOG OWNERSHIP HAS ALSO INCREASED WITH ‘PANDEMIC PUPPIES’ AND IS ESTIMATED TO HAVE GONE FROM NINE MILLION DOGS IN THE UK IN 2019 TO 12.5 MILLION IN 2021.
THE ISLE OF MAN HAS FOLLOWED THIS TREND OF INCREASED DOG OWNERSHIP, AND IS BLESSED WITH HUNDREDS OF MILES OF AMAZING FOOTPATHS
MANY ARE ON OPEN FARMLAND AND WHILST FARMERS DO THEIR BEST TO PUT UP WARNING SIGNS TO INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF LIVESTOCK, THIS IS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE. NOR WILL THE SIGNS EXPLICITLY SAY ‘WARNING OF DEATH FROM COWS’.
========================================
------------------------------------------
September 19, 2023
Vision, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is the ability to imagine how a country, society, industry, etc., could develop in the future and is able to plan in a suitable way. It is a view of the future.
A visionary is a person who possesses the ability to imagine how a country, society, industry, etc., will develop in the future, and can plan in a suitable way.
I have often noticed that the visionary is the one who suffers if the vision fails or is delayed, not the people associated with the vision.
The story of Joseph, the dreamer in the book of Genesis, has many parallels to the struggles of the Kenyan freedom fighters who fought for their land, people and freedom, in commitment to their integrity. In Joseph's story, his brothers were unable to understand the vision because the vision was intended for him alone. Joseph's journey reveals how he evolved from a favoured son to a just and resilient man. His commitment to integrity led him from a cistern to a position of authority. Adversity and suffering moulded Joseph's growth from a man previously tending his father's flock to a man with a just cause to defend.
--------------------------
Many women throughout salvation history have represented signs of holiness, love, and service to God.
But only four of them earned the title “Doctor of the Church.”
The Church gives this title to those who “have advanced the Church’s knowledge of our faith” “through their research, study, and writing.
There are only four female Doctors of the Church: Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and Saint Hildegard of Bingen.
----------------------------------------
Brett & Kate McKay • September 11, 2023
While there may be some heated rivalries in today’s NBA, the ferocity of competition doesn’t compare to the hard-hitting contests that took place during the 1987-1988 season, when four rising and falling dynasties — the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, and Bulls — battled it out for supremacy.
=========================
The Kahns settled in what became known as Little Jerusalem in Dublin. While never exclusively Jewish, this area of south inner-city Dublin had a higher proportion of Jews than any other part of the city, or the island for that matter. Ernest Kahn was raised in a five-roomed house on Lennox Street.
=======================
PRO-LIFE: See what happens when a pro-life producer and a pro-choice director collaborate to find the truth about the effects of abortion on women's health.
What happens when a pro-life executive producer and a pro-choice director collaborate on a journalistic film about abortion and women’s health? The answer is a unique and powerful documentary called HUSH. Putting aside their differences about the legality of abortion and agreeing to approach the subject with openness and sensitivity, the makers of the film set out to find the truth wherever the facts led them. Their conclusion: public health officials are covering up the truth about the link between abortion and breast cancer, putting millions of women at risk.
Watch full movie on RedeemTV: https://watch.redeemtv.com/hush
Director: Punam Kumar Gill
Starring: Dr. David Grimes, Dr. Joel Brind, Dr. Pierre Band
https://youtu.be/4pLgYd0CbjQ?si=U_9JFDXjFSpqgIeo
---------------------------
UK home secretary tells police that ‘silent prayer’ is not a crime
Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s comments follow several arrests of pro-life activists for praying outside of abortion clinics.
========================
These days, you walk smack dab into a deluge of advice every time you turn around. There is an abundance of sources that offer to tell you the best way to eat/exercise/dress/speak/date/think. Thousands of books, blog articles, and podcasts forward suggestions for better, happier living. Social media feeds are filled with influencers whose right-in-the-camera gaze and slowly unspooling captions arrest your scrolling, as you await what potentially life-changing tips they might dispense.
How do you sort through the flood of advice out there and decide which recommendations to try implementing in your life?
https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/how-to-choose-what-advice-to-take/?mc_cid=9cb58c5521
----------------------------------------------
For centuries, people have pinned science and faith against each other. But what if we used science to enrich our faith? Bradley Gregory proposes that the practice of wonder can lead us back to the historic position of the Church that sees them as complementary.
======================
The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
How time flies! It seems like only yesterday that the schools were closing for the summer holidays looking forward to a break and maybe enjoy a bit of sunshine. Well, as they say; good luck with that. It has been a miserable couple of months, weatherwise, with little or no sunshine and plenty of water falling from a dismal sky. It can be very depressing, if you let it get to you but at least we don’t have to deal with extreme flooding and forest fires like they have in other countries. Now the schools are open and that heralds the fall of the year. Christmas shops are opening already even before Halloween but, apart from that, there is little to look forward to except more bad weather with much lower temperatures. Time was when September was a month to look forward to. The hurling and football finals were on the first and third weekends and of course we had the Listowel races which was a major event for people from this neck of the woods. “Going to the races” was taken for granted even by people who had no interest at all in the sport but were happy to do a bit of window shopping or take the children to the Market Yard for the amusements and there was always a bit of craic to be had in the pubs. The Wrenboy Competition on the Friday night drew huge crowds to the square and there bwas great rivalry between the batches. September was also the time when the harvest bwas over and farmers took their holidays in Ballybunion. John B. Keane wrote a funny play about the custom called “The Buds of Ballybunion”. It was one of the earlier plays put on stage by Athea Drama Group under the direction of the late Oliver McGrath R.I.P . Now the all-Ireland Finals are over well before September and Listowel Races no longer have the same attraction. The farmers don’t go to Ballybunion like they used to either so September has little to offer us anymore. There is always the chance of an “Indian Summer” but it would be too little too late.
The leaving cert results are causing a bit of controversy due to the fact that the marks have bee inflated by about 8% to keep them in line with last year. I think it was the wrong thing to do because there is no end to it. Will next years results get an artificial boost in line with this year’s and every other year after that? There has to be a better way of dealing with it. The whole system should be overhauled. Why should one exam decide what college you go to or what career path you want to follow? To do medicine you need very high points which means you have to be really proficient in subjects like languages, geography, history, maths and others that have no bearing whatsoever on a person’s suitability to be a good doctor o vet. It is also unfair to students who might not be feeling 100% at the time of the exam or who fall foul of an examiner who is having an off day while correcting the papers. There has to be a better way of assessing students abilities on an ongoing basis and not put all the eggs in the leaving cert basket . Our young students deserve a chance to achieve their true potential in a fairer way.
There was an interesting article on the TV the other night concerning farming and how to reduce the application of artificial fertiliser to boost grass growth. As we know, artificial fertiliser is being used in modern times replacing the old farmyard manure and it gives very good grass yields. This is done on the advice of Teagasc who wanted farmers to get the best yields from the land. Unfortunately the harmful side effects are increasing our carbon footprint. Hard to blame farmers who were also encouraged to remove ditches and hedgerows and get rid of all plants other than grass in the pastures. Teagasc carried out an experiment on two pastures of the same size, one with the normal grass driven by fertiliser and the other with just a quarter of the amount but also with a variety of wild plants and herbs that grow naturally in the countryside. They put the same amount of cattle into each pasture and they found out at the end of the experiment that the cattle who ate the wild plants and herbs, as well as the grass, were much heavier than those who had grass alone. Obviously the milk from these cattle would also be far richer and more beneficial. In years gone by farmers always had a Kerry cow or two running with the herd. They always grazed along the headlands and ate plants off the ditches. Their milk was creamier and was given to babies just as goats milk is advised today. It is a win, win situation for farmers who will have far less expense and healthier animals giving more profit and also helping to fight climate change. This is the way it used to be done in days gone by so it’s a case of “back to the future”.
The Blessed Well, over at the old graveyard, is in great shape thanks to the great efforts of the Browne sisters, Kathleen Mullane and Patsie Hayes. They did a fantastic job of cleaning and painting the statues and surrounds in preparation for the dedication celebrations. They deserve great praise and gratitude for giving of their time and talents. Community spirit is alive and well in Athea.
https://www.athea.ie/category/news/
================================
Women's Land Army
On the Record at The National Archives
https://pod.link/1460242815/episode/06d3199c14f02357432eae79dbfe6363
===================
In 1895, the British Ladies Football Team was causing a stir, showing Victorian spectators that women might play the beautiful game, but also facing a concerted backlash from those who thought their activities were indecent and needed to be stopped.
https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/historys-lionesses/
==========================
Irish Ancestry
=====================
Video link
https://youtu.be/FoXY1kkETaA
Filename
Meet and Greets 2023.mp4
=====================
Video link
https://youtu.be/yHgesmPhapI
Filename
Ballybunion Walk August 2023.mp4
============================
Video link
https://youtu.be/5_CRMscfXHU
Filename
Dromavally Graveyard Killorglin.wmv
Around the year 1205, the Augustine Order from the Abbey of O’ Connell in Kildare had been granted 10 Carachutes of land (arces) at Killorglin, which became the Abbey of Kilcoleman. Killorglin – derived from the Gaelic Cill (a church), Lorcain (Lawrence), came under the Augustinians ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which would have given them rights to collect tithes and appoint clergy. It is worth noting, the Anglo Norman incursion in1170 had Papal approval – Adrain IV or VI (whose real name was Nicholas Breakspeake – the only English Pope) wanted to reform the Irish Church and introduce continental religious orders and practices into Ireland which until then had been a maverick within the Latin Church.
https://killorglinarchives.com/dromavallla-church/
==================================
Reporter Limerick Leader
10 Jul 2023
THINK AHEAD - WHAT IS IT?
Think Ahead Planning Packs, developed by Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF), are easy to read guides for patients, their families, and caregivers to start putting their affairs in order for their end of life. With Think Ahead, people can make their care wishes known, appoint somebody to act as their healthcare advocate, keep track of important documents, and more. In the 10 years since Think Ahead was initially launched, it has become a key advance care planning resource for people in Ireland. Planning ahead can reduce stress or anxiety people may feel when facing dying. Using Think Ahead can also reduce conflict between family members. Over 100,000 people have already received a version of Think Ahead through their GP, at events, or by ordering from IHF.
https://hospicefoundation.ie/i-need-help/i-want-to-think-ahead/
============================
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican, announced six months ago that he would not allow military promotions to be approved until the policy – which violates the Hyde amendment by allowing federal funds to be used on abortion – is rescinded.
He is making the effects of this principled stand felt, as some 250 military officers’ confirmations are being held in abeyance until this is settled.
================
As part of the settlement submitted this week for Judge Colleen M. McMahon's approval, the city will pay $9,950 each to around 1,380 protesters arrested by the NYPD at 18 protests that took place between May 28 and June 4, 2020. People arrested for certain offenses, like assaulting police, are not part of the settlement.
Additionally, the city will pay the plaintiffs' attorney fees, which could amount to millions of dollars more.
"This will be the largest amount paid to protesters in a class action in this nation's history," according to attorneys on the case.
=============================
In the Name of Humanity
By Max Wallace
During World War II, a Jewish woman, a former Swiss president, and an osteopath negotiated to end the Holocaust. But how did they do it? “A riveting tale of the previously unknown and fascinating story of the unsung angels who strove to foil the Final Solution” (Kirkus Reviews starred review).
======================
10 Steps to End Abortion
https://www.priestsforlife.org/10stepstoendabortion/index.aspx
==========
By Hannah Brockhaus
Vatican, 22 July, 2023 / 8:24 pm (ACI Africa).
As the stories of many ancient things go, the relic of St. Mary Magdalene’s left foot had been lost to memory for centuries before it was rediscovered in the year 2000.
For a little over a decade now, the bone fragments, which rest in a silver foot-shaped reliquary, have been displayed for veneration in the Basilica of St. John the Baptist of the Florentines, a church just across the river from the Vatican.
=============================
Plants & Animals
A Slimy Story: Snail Mucus
Land snails, mostly hermaphroditic, follow slime trails to find their mates. Others, including predatory Rosy Wolf Snails, follow the mucus to find their meals.
Euglandina rosea
Euglandina rosea
via Wikimedia Commons
By: Matthew Wills
June 5, 2023
3 minutes
Are we talking enough about snail slime?
Perhaps you’ve spotted the silvery trails in gardens, on sidewalks, or tree trunks. The dried mucus left by passing snails and slugs is especially visible when the sun is low. Gardeners despise such trails, interpreting them as signs of nocturnally voracious creatures in the herbaceous border. But lately people have been using snail slime for…skin care. “Mucus” and “slime” evidently having negative connotations, such products are marketed as “snail mucin” or “snail secretion filtrate.”
The mucus created by gastropods is marvelous, multipurpose stuff. A complex mixture of proteins, enzymes, peptides, and trace minerals, gelatinous snail mucus is produced both externally and internally. The external version is what makes the slime trails: it acts both as glue and lubricant. Mucus also protects the skin, keeping snails hydrated and acting as a barrier to infections and predators.
This slime is also information rich. Land snails, who are mostly hermaphroditic, find each other by following the chemical highway of mucus. Before copulation, snails and slugs sniff and taste each other’s mucus for hours. Some species of snails produce “love darts” that are coated with mucus before being fired into the bodies of their mates.The mucus contains hormones that switch off the mate’s sperm-destroying abilities—it’s complicated—thus allowing fertilization.
It follows that if snails of the same species can follow each other’s slime trails, then perhaps so can others. Many gastropods are vegetarians, but some eat other gastropods. The Rosy Wolf Snail (Euglandina rosea) is one of these predatory land snails. Snails are notoriously un-speedy, but you don’t want one of these on your trail: they can climb trees and hunt underwater. The species is native to the southeastern US, but they’ve been introduced elsewhere.
In the 1950s, Rosy Wolf Snails were released in Hawaiʻi to go after the introduced Giant African Snail (Lissachatina fulica). The GAS, as the USDA has been known to call it, was introduced to Hawaiʻi in the mid 1930s as a garden ornamental. (Hey, wouldn’t this garden look great with an exotic 8-inch snail puttering around in it?) Unfortunately, GAS like to eat everything—at least 500 species of plants—and can even cause structural damage to stucco and plaster. They also carry a parasitic nematode that can causes meningitis in humans. In addition to being invasive in Hawaiʻi, GAS are now a problem in Florida, the Caribbean, and South America.
Unfortunately, Rosy Wolf Snails didn’t favor Giant African Snails as food. But they liked eating a lot of the other snails found in Hawaiʻi. As a result of the introduction, the Rosy Wolf is now considered one of the most invasive snail species in the world, right up there with GAS. Rosy Wolfs have contributed to the “decline and extinction of many endemic snails on the islands of Hawaii, Tahiti, Moorea, and other Pacific islands,” writes biologist Elizabeth C. Davis-Berg.
Why are these snails so good at finding other snails? It’s the slime. But not just the slime: it’s knowing which direction to follow once it runs across a slime trail. In a very slimy experiment, Davis-Berg showed that Rosy Wolf Snails “are robust generalist predators, capable of successfully following native [in Florida] and non-native [in Kansas] snails, and should not be introduced as biologic control agents.”
But getting back to snail-sliming your skin… Traditional Chinese medicine has long incorporated snail slime in a variety of uses. The ancient Greeks used snail slime to reduce inflammation. More recently, snail slime was taken up for skin-care purposes in South Korea. From there, the snail mucin fad was picked up by “Skin Tok” and other social media. It’s collected at snail farms—the snails themselves destined for human consumption—and processed. Mucin is marketed for purposes of hydration, wound-repair, and wrinkle-vanquishing. It’s also said to be anti-microbial, antioxidant, and possibly even anti-tumor.
It certainly seems to be some these things for snails. But not even snails have figured out how be ageless.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of “mucus.”
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The predatory snail Euglandina rosea successfully follows mucous trails of both native and non-native prey snails
By: Elizabeth C. Davis-Berg
Invertebrate Biology, Vol. 131, No. 1 (2012), pp. 1–10
Wiley on behalf of American Microscopical Society
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Some species have adapted to get themselves close to freezing without dying.
Trending Posts
==========================
What Made the Walls of Jericho Fall?
In April 1831, soldiers were marching in step across the Broughton Suspension Bridge in England, and indeed it did fall down. Afterward, soldiers were famously ordered to “break stride” when marching on bridges. How is this explained? Well, it turns out that physical structures have a natural frequency of vibration. If outside forces happen to match this frequency, a phenomenon called mechanical resonance can occur and bring about physical destruction.
Probably the most famous collapse of a bridge was that of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (suspension design) on Nov. 7, 1940. Many have seen the remarkable video of the large bridge swaying wildly back and forth before its demise. It wasn’t due to marching soldiers in this instance, but it was likely caused by a broadly similar occurrence of destructive resonance. What is certain is that both documented historical events have a perfectly natural scientific or “engineering” explanation.
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Canada Listowel; May 3 2021
For the past week, the Canadian town of Listowel has been embroiled in a war of words via business signs that has captivated local residents and people around the world. It started as a battle between two businesses in the Ontario town - Speedy Glass and Dairy Queen (DQ) - and has since spread to the entire town and even further afield.
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How do you come to know yourself?
You can journal. Attend a retreat. Sit on a rock and think.
But perhaps the most underrated tool for gaining self-knowledge is participating in any long-term relationship — particularly one in which the escape hatch has been double bolted by the exchange of public vows.
With most relationships, we only show people certain parts of ourselves. We encounter coworkers, family members, and friends in a pattern of meet and retreat; we assemble for intervals short enough to keep our best face forward, before withdrawing again to our separate spheres.
In a marriage, spouses do not get together for discrete purposes of fun or functionality. They’re together in everything. All the mundanities of daily life. All the stresses of professional and personal setbacks. All the varieties of bodily functions. There are no true timeouts, no chances to literally or metaphorically step away to powder one’s nose.
Duty-bound to make it to the other side of every conflict, spouses are thrown back on each other again and again.
Through this process of full-contact confrontation, you not only get to know your partner, but discover a heck of a lot about yourself. Marriage holds up a mirror in which you can see how you act and who you are more clearly. The layers you’re able to artfully disguise from the world are exposed, leading to the repeated realization: “Oh, so I’m like that, am I?”
In showing us ourselves from every angle, marriage can pack the introspection-generating punch of a hundred self-help books.
In reflecting back all our dimensions, marriage can offer the opportunity to recognize and strengthen the parts of ourselves that are underdeveloped.
In giving us a good hard look at ourselves, marriage can represent, as Joseph Barth once put it, “our last, best chance to grow up.”
The post Sunday Firesides: The Maturing Mirror of Marriage appeared first on The Art of Manliness.
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial processes contribute largely to the greenhouse effect and climate change. One of these industries is the cement industry, which contributes around 8% of CO2 emissions caused by mankind. Two promising and interesting ways to reduce CO2 emission are the utilization of alternative cementitious materials and carbon capture and utilization through CO2 mineralization. In this study, peat-wood fly ashes from fluidized bed combustion were used as a construction material for mineral carbonation. A self-hardening characteristic of this type of fly ash was utilized, and simultaneous carbonation and hydration reactions were studied. The study showed that fly ashes from the fluidized bed combustion of peat and wood could be used to capture and mineralize CO2 during hydration reactions.
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Funerals West Cork 1634-1971. This is a significant update on earlier. Right up to the mid 1960s the Southern Star in particular often published a very comprehensive listing of those attending and the family relationships to the deceased. Presumably the lists were provided by the undertakers. For those prominent the obituaries often throw light on earlier times in terms of politics, religion, business, farming and cultural and sporting matters. Here disregard the pagination.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A8vkAzsRVEhpiP2EOryWiYcEryJw0ic4DmnKe6vZEqI/edit
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Can the Catholic Church and AI coexist?
In a recent episode of The Catholic Talk Show, Ryan Scheel and Ryan Dellacrosse discuss how the intersection of faith and artificial intelligence presents unique challenges and opportunities for the Catholic Church with Thaddeus Ruszkowski.
Ruszkowski delved into the Church’s responsibility to shape the ethical and moral implications of AI chatbots like ChatGPT.
Emphasizing the distinction between humans and AI, he said, “The beauty of this is we are, as creators, inspired to create things… ChatGPT never will be inspired. A differentiation there is that we look at ChatGPT as a tool– like a hammer.”
He explained the Church can use AI as a powerful tool for evangelization, pastoral care, education and administration without considering it a replacement for these things.
As AI advances rapidly, concerns also arise about possible negative consequences, such as misuse for nefarious purposes, obsolescence of human labor, and exacerbation of social inequality.
Ruszkowski explained the Church has a crucial role in addressing these ethical challenges and ensuring that AI serves the greater good rather than causing harm. This points to Pope Benedict XVI’s writings on technology and using newfound freedom responsibly.
“Technology is neutral… it’s the implementation and it’s how people sadly too often, in their corrupt hearts, use technology to see how they can either subjugate or exploit other people for their own benefit.”
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Alberta energy grid data shows that wind and solar power production fell sharply to a mere 29 megawatts in the early hours of Monday, or less than 1% of their total energy capacity.
As reported by the outlet Pipeline Online, the Alberta Electric System Operator’s minute-by-minute data on energy generation output shows how less than an hour past midnight wind power tanked to 29 MW while solar produced 0 MW.
https://tnc.news/2023/04/03/alberta-solar-wind-farms/
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Bottled water is one of the world’s most popular beverages, and its industry is making the most of it. Since the millennium, the world has advanced significantly towards the goal of safe water for all. In 2020, 74 per cent of humanity had access to safe water. This is 10 per cent more than two decades ago. But that still leaves two billion people without access to safe drinking water.
Meanwhile, bottled water corporations exploit surface water and aquifers — typically at very low cost — and sell it for 150 to 1,000 times more than the same unit of municipal tap water. The price is often justified by offering the product as an absolute safe alternative to tap water. But bottled water is not immune to all contamination, considering that it rarely faces the rigorous public health and environmental regulations that public utility tap water does.
In our recently published study, which studied 109 countries, it was concluded that the highly profitable and fast-growing bottled water industry is masking the failure of public systems to supply reliable drinking water for all.
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Canada; The victims were of Indian and Romanian descent were attempting to enter the United States from Canada, said Lee-Ann O’Brien, deputy chief of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service. The bodies included two children under the age of three, both Canadian citizens.
The missing man, Casey Oakes, was last seen boarding a small, light-blue boat at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, wearing a black vest, black face mask and black toque, according to a press release from Akwesasne police.
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HONORING ST. JOSEPH AT THE TABLE
This year on March 20, Catholics celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, protector of the family and patron of the universal Church and of workers. The importance of this day in Catholic tradition extends throughout the world, but one related custom in particular originated on the island of Sicily: St. Joseph’s Table.
The origins of St. Joseph’s Table can be traced to the Middle Ages. According to one tradition, during a famine brought on by a severe drought, starving villagers — many of them farmers — prayed to St. Joseph, asking for his intercession. St. Joseph helped them to survive by eating the fava bean. It was the only crop that would grow in such harsh conditions. So bountiful the crop became that the famine ended.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGslbJgcrzSzfFFQKGzMqmKHVbZ
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HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY
The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
Maybe it is my age but I can’t help thinking the world is going mad. Several events cause me to think this way, the latest being the “sanitisation” of children’s books to make them more PC. The books of Roald Dahl have already been doctored but I was glad to see that the original ones will also be available. This idea of shielding children from any hint of controversial content is foolish. The world is not a nice fluffy place where little furry animals frolic in the sunshine every day and where people are always nice to each other. The real world is a dangerous place and we would do well to prepare our children for it. We can shield them all we like but we cannot control what happens in the playground at school which is where they really learn about life. I have great sympathy for children today who grow up far too fast. In bygone days children enjoyed being children until they reached their teenage years but now there is pressure on them to be “grown up” well before they finish primary school. The lucky ones will get their education from the parents but others are not so lucky and will gain their knowledge from schoolmates or from the mobile phones they are now permanently attached to. I think the mobile phone is a great invention and ensures kids can keep in contact with parents at all times but there is no limit to the amount of harmful content they can access long before they are mature enough to digest it. Social media is a great hiding place for bullies who can do mental damage to vulnerable young people with anonymity. There should be hard and fast rules about the use of the internet and the amount of time spent on the small screen. Go into any waiting room at a bus or railway station or anywhere people congregate and guaranteed 90% of the people there are on their phones scrolling or texting. They are living life in a surreal world not realising that half of what they read is false. I ceased to open Facebook a long time ago because of the ridiculous things people post. I have no desire to know what somebody had for breakfast or look at numerous photos of them acting the egit. I know it has its uses but I don’t have the inclination or patience to wade through all the rubbish to get to the good bits. Unfortunately many people believe what they see, which is why there is a good living for “influencers”. These are people, well known, who promote certain products on line extolling their virtues despite the fact that they may not be using them themselves. There is also, of course, the conspiracy theorists who present a very persuasive case online. They will have their theories supported by testimony from so-called experts who will have impressive credentials. These should be taken with a pinch of salt because, especially in the US, degrees can be bought online if you have enough money. My point is that this is all too much for six, seven and eight year olds who may think they are very grown up but are not equipped to deal with adult life. Parents, teachers and government officials have a duty to ensure children are not subjected to harmful content on their phones and please let them enjoy their childhood. Soon enough they will have to deal with adult life which is not always a bed of roses.
I wrote lately about man’s inhumanity to man and we know only too well what happened in the past with the likes of Hitler, Cromwell and recently, Putin but we don’t have to leave our own shores for examples of war crimes and terrible atrocities. 100 years ago the civil war in Ireland was coming towards an end, if it ever really did end. What happened at places like Ballyseedy where members of the IRA who were already in custody, were tied to a mine and blown to pieces by the army of the Free State. There was pressure on the army to quell the opposition to the treaty and orders came from on high to use whatever force was necessary to achieve this objective. It became policy to use prisoners to clear land mines, mines that had been placed by the army themselves. What happened in Ballyseedy was not, unfortunately, an isolated incident in a shameful chapter in our history. The other side were not squeaky clean either but two wrongs don’t make a right and the fact that the state was involved at the highest level shows that we are all capable of terrible deeds. The people on both sides were neighbours, cousins, even members of the same family and they all believed they were fighting for the right cause. We can’t go back and change anything now but we can ensure that our country never again commits crimes against its own people. That civil war gave us two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that dominated the political scene for decades but the rise of Sinn Féin may very well put a stop to that. I remember general elections long ago that caused rows between neighbours. There were two families living by a cross just over the road from me. If Fianna Fáil won the election one of the families would light a bonfire at the cross and the other family would come out and throw water over it. The same happened in reverse in Fine Gael came out on top. The IRA were never completely defeated in the Civil War and remained in the background. They had quite a following during the troubles in the North and were forever robbing banks to create funds for the war. The Good Friday Agreement should have brought an end to their existence but there is still a hard rump that are ready to commit crimes against the British establishment. They do not, however have any great backing in the community and are rightly condemned by all sides. The day will come when Ireland, North and South will be one country but the time is not right yet. The people in the North have a better quality of life than we have down here, especially when you look at the cost of living and the availability of housing so until we get our house in order the status quo will be maintained.
15 March 2023
Thought for the week – : If you have not felt the joy of doing a kind act, you have neglected much and most of all YOURSELF.
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Peg Prendeville
It was only when my husband, Jim, got his stroke that I learned about Aphasia, which means he cannot talk or make conversation. So I feel I should share the following to let others, who were like me, aware of the condition. “Monday marked the beginning of Brain Awareness Week! Aphasia Ireland is dedicated to creating awareness and support for those living with aphasia and their families. Brain Awareness Week is an annual event that celebrates the progress in brain research and encourages people to learn more about the brain and how to keep it healthy. This year, we’re asking for your help to make Brain Awareness Week a success. We need your support to raise awareness and continue to provide care and support for those with aphasia. Your donations will help us continue our mission to empower people with aphasia to lead a normal, happy life. It will also help us provide ongoing support and resources to those around them. If you ever get a chance to support this please do so. There is a gofundme page set up for anyone who wishes to google it
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"My home is messy": four innocuous little words, but when spoken by the oracle of tidying up, Marie Kondo, they were enough to apparently break the internet. After almost a decade since Kondo first introduced the world to the concepts of "sparking joy" and folding your pants into little envelopes – also sparking her own Netflix show along the way – it seems having three kids has radically changed her lifestyle. As reported in the Washington Post, a super tidy house was no longer her top priority: "I have kind of given up on that in a good way for me. Now I realise what is important to me is enjoying spending time with my children at home."
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Schluter used this feature to his advantage, digging 13 ponds (now 20), each a bit larger than a basketball court, at the south campus of the University of British Columbia. He and his team used the ponds, acting as island analogs, to investigate how sticklebacks adapted to a freshwater environment and acquired different traits.
Gradually, differences emerged between the fish in the same lake — some lived at the bottom, while others preferred the open, free water. After generations of adaption to the different habitats over a matter of years, the differences were such that the two types no longer mated.
With colleagues, he’s also uncovered the genetic underpinnings of these changes in the stickleback fish.
Johannesson said that Schluter’s work could help scientists understand how the natural world might change in response to the climate crisis.
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What I Learned From Burying My Pet Ferret
Navigate Life
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Eric Clayton Archives Page
Eric Clayton
Read this reflective narrative about this author's pet ferret.
For Eric, his ferret Max was more than a pet, he was a cherished companion during Eric’s younger years. Letting go of Max when he passed away took time — over ten years. But when he finally buried Max’s ashes, he realized just how necessary that ritual was for him, and how essential rituals are to our lives.
Let me set the scene: It’s a fall day in Pennsylvania, cool enough for a light jacket but not so cold that the ground is hard — which is good, because we’re digging a very shallow grave. I stand over this small hole, my boots crunching in colored leaves, with my wife, my parents, and my young daughter. In my hands I hold a small wooden box.
In that box rest the ashes of a ferret.
My ferret.
My pet ferret who died more than a decade earlier.
And that peculiar scene, a bunch of folks looming over a hole in the backyard with the remnants of a small animal in-hand, is the culmination of our shared belief in the power of ritual — and my mother’s belief that I should have cleaned out my childhood room a long time ago.
But first, here are a few facts you might not know about ferrets:
Ferrets are not rodents. They’re in the Mustelidae family, which means they’d invite otters, badgers, and wolverines to family reunions rather than rats or mice.
Ferrets, when startled, can spray you much like a skunk might. If you’re in the market for a pet ferret, you’ll want to make sure that feature is removed — in addition to ensuring you live in a part of the country where ferrets are legal pets.
Ferrets don’t typically live a long life and are prone to all sorts of unpleasant diseases. My ferret, Max, at seven years old, was the longest living ferret our veterinarian had ever encountered. He beat back one bout of ferret cancer before eventually succumbing to a second.
But first you might be wondering: Which of these facts convinced me that a short-lived, skunk-adjacent, mini-wolverine was the pet of choice?
Before we even visited the pet store, my parents mandated a research project. (The first thing I learned was don’t buy your ferret at a pet store.) As a ten-year-old, I’d wanted a raccoon, but those are even less common pets than ferrets. My parents were pleased when I found an alternative.
“You’ll have to learn about it,” my parents had said. “It’ll be your pet to take care of.” We’d had a brief stint with a dog that had gone quite poorly.
So, I read and wrote and eventually did something akin to a child’s PowerPoint presentation, and after successfully convincing my parents, I acquired a ferret (from a breeder).
I was so proud of myself, so excited to finally have a pet that wasn’t a goldfish or a hermit crab, so determined to be the best ferret owner anyone ever met — or, in most cases, the only ferret owner anyone had ever met. But mostly, I was excited to have this little critter who was all mine, tucked away in my room, just as happy to skitter about on my floor in pursuit of a squeaky toy as he was to cuddle under my arm or in a miniature hammock. He was my friend.
This was a time of failed tween crushes and beguiling math projects and the transition from middle school to high school. It was a time of change and challenge and growing up and hitting walls and seeing friendships come and go.
And through it all: Max the ferret. He was a destination ferret; people came to my house just to see him. People asked me about him at school, at church, anywhere and everywhere. He was a companion but also a deep source of pride.
I had a ferret. I couldn’t play basketball or guitar, wasn’t invited to most of the parties and really hated math, but ask me about my ferret. There, I would shine. Max the ferret, I realized, was integral to my identity in those all-important tweenage years.
The last days of Max the ferret were difficult ones. He was prone to paralysis — something in his little body was shutting down and eventually convinced us it was time to let him go. But for a short time, I could coax some life back into him by injecting corn syrup into his mouth via syringe. And then, if only briefly, I’d have my buddy back: blinking black eyes, wet nose, cuddly fur. But only for so long.
I didn’t know what to do with all that ferret stuff when he died. We put his cage in storage, his toys in the garage. The little box of ashes I put in my closet — where he loved to burrow and get lost. It felt appropriate. I couldn’t quite part with him yet, not entirely.
For years, I’d have dreams that he was still alive and had escaped his cage, was roaming about my room. Or, dreams that he was still alive but I’d forgotten him; he was hungry and lonely and trapped by himself.
I wonder if somewhere in my mind — as I moved from home to college to Bolivia to Baltimore — a ferret-shaped memory was calling out: “You never fully let go!”
My mom found that box as she cleaned out my room all those years later and insisted we have a burial. I’m glad she did. Our funeral service wasn’t fancy or even very long. But it was a moment — brief, crisp, poignant — to remember that outsized influence this mini-wolverine had on my life, to be grateful for it and then to step beyond.
Isn’t that the purpose of ritual in any moment of any life? To pause, take stock, give thanks and keep going? To anchor us in a moment so that our footing is firmer for the next step?
A ritual is a threshold, a space between moments in which we take a deep breath and glimpse how both past and future can affect our present. It’s what we do at weddings and funerals; it’s what we do at Mass. It’s what we do at countless other rituals big and small throughout our lives–and it’s why we ritualize significant moments.
What from your past do you need to understand, to integrate into your present or to let go of as you step into the future? What ritual is necessary for you today, this month, this year?
Burying that ferret wasn’t just about putting ashes in the ground; it was about remembering who I’d been, who I am as a result. How formative the smallest, most peculiar things can be — if we pay attention, if we let them be.
And now, perhaps, it’s time to figure out what to do with the box of hedgehog ashes on my bookshelf.
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The scientists noted, however, that the newly discovered planet is not another Earth, which remains the only planet where life is known to exist.
TOI 700 e is rocky, 95% the size of Earth, and within the distance from its sun where liquid water could occur, according to a Jan. 10 NASA press release.
The planet is the latest discovery made by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a satellite designed to search for exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) that could support life.
According to Christopher Graney, a scientist at the Vatican Observatory, the TOI 700 system “is a very different place from our solar system.”
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Helmets; a zoomed-out perspective, helmets are simply not the road-safety panacea we want them to be. Several analyses suggest that U.S. riders are more likely to wear helmets compared with cyclists in other countries—all while suffering the highest fatality rate per distance traveled. Research shows that among a 14-country cohort, the Netherlands enjoyed the lowest bicyclist fatality rate per mile traveled. The Dutch also largely eschew the helmet: 73 percent of adults and 84 percent of children in the Netherlands report they never wear a helmet while bicycling. There’s a simple reason for that. Surveys show that Dutch residents feel safe biking, and attribute that sense of security to the country’s long-standing cycling culture and network of dedicated cycling lanes.
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Since the start of the winter season on Nov. 2, 2022, Mammoth Lakes, California, has received 375 inches of snow. In just the past week, since Jan. 9, the town has been inundated with 119 inches of snow. That’s nearly 10 feet of snow burying the resort town. President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for California due to the amount of rain and snow hitting the state all at once. -------------------------------
While this is record snow for this time of year, there is a fear from locals the snow will stop. At the moment, they have received a year’s average of snow. However, if the snow were to stop abruptly for the rest of the winter season, it would still not be enough to prevent a drought in the summer.
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Every day, we’re inundated with new trends and the next “it” clothing items to add to our shopping carts. So much so that it feels nearly impossible to keep up. That’s the prime issue with the fashion industry in today’s world: Its endless cycle of overproduction and overconsumption causes harm to both people and the planet.
“The rate and volume with which we wear and discard our clothing has resulted in an unsustainable system that relies on the exploitation of planetary and human resources,” says Alyssa Beltempo, a slow fashion expert and sustainable stylist. “Two-thirds of our clothes are made from synthetics derived from fossil fuels, and 20 percent of industrial water pollution is due to garment manufacture and dyeing. Millions of garment professionals work in unfair and unsafe conditions, simply so that we can wear a garment an average of five times before discarding it.”
https://www.wellandgood.com/eco-friendly-clothes-shopping/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
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The researchers found that the secret to alertness is a three-part prescription requiring substantial exercise the previous day, sleeping longer and later into the morning, and eating a breakfast high in complex carbohydrates, with limited sugar. The researchers also discovered that a healthy controlled blood glucose response after eating breakfast is key to waking up more effectively.
“All of these have a unique and independent effect,” said UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Raphael Vallat, first author of the study. “If you sleep longer or later, you’re going to see an increase in your alertness. If you do more physical activity on the day before, you’re going to see an increase. You can see improvements with each and every one of these factors.”
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Elimination of CO2 is a suicide pact – Professor William Happer on climate change misconceptions
BizNewsTv Nov 4, 2022
It’s safe to assume no one consciously sets out to challenge a narrative as deeply entrenched and emotionally charged as climate change. Dr William Happer, an American physicist and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Princeton University, certainly didn’t. It was only in 1991, upon Happer’s appointment by President George W Bush as director of Energy Research in the US Department of Energy, that his interaction with climate change authorities – and their refusal to engage in customary scientific debate on climate change – piqued his interest. Thereafter, Happer was dismissed for his contrarian views and ‘head butting’ with climate change luminary Al Gore, only to be brought back to Washington by former president Donald Trump in 2018. BizNews spoke to Happer (83) about his prodigious career and discovery that the burgeoning climate change hysteria had no scientific basis. Happer meticulously detailed why and how CO2, the “demon gas”, is not a pollutant but is essential to mankind’s prosperity.
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donors who sustain our ministry.
Please help us continue to share the the love of Jesus in dynamic and culturally relevant ways.
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REFLECT;
The Warm Glow of December Drinking: 10 Quotes From Michael Foley
Avatar photoEx Corde Editorial Staff
November 30, 2022
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As the holiday season began, Dr. Michael Foley, Professor of Patristics at Baylor University and author of Drinking with the Saints: The Sinner’s Guide to a Holy Happy Hour, told students at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, “How to Drink Like a Saint.” The Nov. 18 talk was sponsored by the Center for Beauty and Culture together with Guadalupe Hall. Dr. Foley spelled out a Catholic, biblical approach to alcohol, naming five ways to drink to the glory of God. Liturgically themed mocktails for all, and cocktails for those 21 and over were offered at the event.
1: Drunkenness vs. Drinking
“One of the things that some of our Protestant brethren don’t understand is that there is a crucial difference between drunkenness and drinking. The same St. Paul who condemns drunkenness is the same St. Paul who orders his disciple Timothy to drink wine when he has a stomach ailment.”
2: ‘Baptizing’ Beer
“Beer may have been invented by the ancient Babylonians, but it was perfected by the medieval monasteries that gave us modern brewing as we know it. To this day, the world’s finest beer is made within the cloister.”
3: Loosen the Tongue
“To me drinking is not about the pleasure of drinking per se but about friendship and camaraderie, and good friendships thrive on good conversation. Moderate drinking loosens the tongue just enough to speak a little more freely but without disconnecting it from one’s rational mind.”
4: Grateful Drinking
“As Chesterton puts it: ‘We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.’
5: Raise a Glass to Love
“At a good wedding, multiple generations gather to celebrate the triumphant and honorable nuptials of a faithful man and a faithful woman; they gather to celebrate the love of this new couple … and when they do so, they also remember the love in their own marriages, the love in their parents’ marriages, and on and on. They remember a great chain of love, and they raise their glasses to it.”
6: Merriment vs. ‘Fun’
“The phrase is ‘The more the merrier.’ Merriment presupposes community and a truly divine and memorable reason to celebrate: think of how absurd it would be to say “Merry Administrative Professionals’ Day.” But “Merry Christmas” still has theological meaning, and not just because Christ’s Mass is mentioned.”
7: Intergenerational Celebrations
“One of the reasons, in my opinion, that we don’t have as much merriment in our society today is that we don’t have as many intergenerational celebrations. … let’s be honest: a group of people that are all the same age is not a community but a clique.”
8: Mature Mentors
“I completely understand the reasons behind raising the drinking age to 21, but one of the effects of this law is to make it harder for older people to teach younger people the art of drinking. Without the mentorship of the mature, you get the youth learning to drink from other youth … the blind leading the blind.”
9: Men and Women
“My students, living in the wake of the Sexual Revolution, have inherited a scorched earth of very few shared parameters about how to interact with the opposite sex both romantically and virtuously. Rather than feel liberated, they tell me, they feel overcome with anxiety and uncertainty.”
10: Future of Drink
“With the current age upon us, it seems to me that the question is not whether Catholics should enjoy a drink festively; the question is whether we will be the only ones left capable of doing so.”
https://excorde.org/2022/the-warm-glow-of-december-drinking
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Jean Torkelson Blogs
November 30, 2022
By all odds, the life of Julia Greeley should have been lost to history. Born into slavery in the 1840s, she came into the world with no last name and few prospects, and by all accounts, was poor all her life. Yet today she qualifies as a true heroic figure — the kind of real-life hero that parents would be eager to introduce to their kids.
Now, the accomplished essayist and writer of children’s books, Maura Roan McKeegan, has done just that. Her latest picture book, Julia Greeley: Secret Angel to the Poor (Ignatius-Magnificat, 2022) recounts the true — and truly heroic — story of a woman who overcame cruel racial oppression, physical disabilities and lifelong poverty to become celebrated even in her lifetime as “Denver’s Angel of Charity.” As befits a hero, her life story has not only endured but has grown stronger with time: Today, a century after her death in 1918, she holds the title Servant of God, and her cause for beatification and canonization is moving forward in Rome.
Yet Julia’s life has been much of a secret to most Catholics, including McKeegan. In a recent interview, she recalled the moment a friend asked her to pray for a dying relative through the intercession of Julia Greeley.
“I thought to myself, ‘Who is Julia Greeley?’ I had never heard of her before.”
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Christ is Worthy of Worship
Only the Lamb of God can save all of mankind. In today's readings, St. John depicts how the death of Jesus opened the doors for our redemption, reminding us that Jesus is truly worthy of our worship.
The Bitter Truth
The truth can be hard to digest. But even when the truth is bitter, accepting it is better than living outside of it. Today, take some time to reflect on the parts of God's Word that are more difficult to hear.
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I WISH
I wish I were big enough to honestly admit all my shortcomings:
Brilliant enough to accept praise without it making me arrogant:
Tall enough to tower above deceit:
Strong enough to welcome human frailties:
Wise enough to recognise my mistakes:
Humble enough to appreciate greatness:
Staunch enough to stand by friends:
Human enough to be thoughtful of my neighbours
And righteous enough to be devoted to the love of God.
Memories are golden gifts. Store safely, handle carefully and they will never tarnish.
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LIFE CAN CHANGE/……
LIFE can change in a moment, so we must appreciate every single day, every
single hour, every single moment we are given. No matter how good or bad your
life seems, wake up everyday feel blessed and be grateful you still have one.
Accept the changes and challenges ahead throughout all areas of your life,
honour and embrace the essence of who you are. Always keep your head held high. Believe in yourself!. Your time here is too precious.
PERSEVERANCE IS A STRONG “WILL” – OBSTINACY IS EQUALLY A STRONG “WON’T”
LAST WORD: Do all the good you can in the world and make as little noise about it as possible!!!
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A NOTE FROM FR.JIM Lenihan ....
Matthew Kelly in his confirmation program ‘Decision Point’ says there are four
questions that we all need to answer if we really want to live life to the fullest if
we really want to live every day with passion and purpose. Those four questions
are: 1. Who are you? 2. What are you here for? 3. What matters most? and 4.
What matters least? He says when we can answer those questions it gives birth to
a great clarity. We will learn he says to say no. We say yes to many things that we
later regret. But it’s only in the classroom of silence that we can properly answer
these questions. C.S Lewis wrote in 1939 that Satan’s plan is simple and that is to create so much noise in the world that humanity can no longer hear the voice of God. Now that was 83 years ago imagine how noisy the world has got since.
Where is your classroom of silence? When do you listen to the voice of God to answer properly
those four important questions?
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The Fullness of Your Acts
In today's readings, the Lord asks you to be watchful of your works. Are they incomplete or full? Are they acts of love for God, or are they acts of love for self? Take some time to examine your actions today.
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Repentance and Zeal
At every age, the Church reminds and prepares believers for the final judgment. Today's readings focus on the problem of falling away from one's original zeal. As you look back on your Christian life, do you have the same fervor you have always had?
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Preparing Your Hearts
As we come to the end of this liturgical year, the Church begins to focus on the end of time. When this happens, the wicked will be punished, and the righteous will be vindicated and rewarded. How are you preparing for the great judgment?
Finding Courage in Prayer
If you persevere in prayer, you will not lose heart. When you forget to pray, your courage begins to wane. The Lord wants you to pray with fervor so that he can emblazon your heart with divine love.
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Book
God’s Provision for Your Every Need
By T.D. Jakes
From a New York Times bestselling author comes a guide to finding a path through the wilderness with God. Discover how the heavenly Father will give you everything you need, if only you look to Him for direction.
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Prayer
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The Kingdom in Your Heart
When is God's Kingdom coming? Jesus tells us that the Kingdom is in our midst—Christ himself is its advent. And because Christ lives within us, the Kingdom of God dwells in us as well.
Where God Abides
What does it mean to be God's temple? The Scriptures teach that the Church is more than just a building, but also the people of God. As the Spirit dwells in the Temple, it also abides in you by virtue of your baptism.
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Acts of Love
In the Letter to Titus, Paul summarizes the Gospel, clarifying what makes it good news. Jesus, by his death, has redeemed humanity. Because of this, we are called to imitate him, living a pure life zealous for good works.
The Gift of Mercy
The Gospel challenges believers to consider the seriousness of sin. Because of sin's seriousness, Christians are called to forgive radically. Contemplate your sins today and embrace the Lord's forgiveness by going to Confession.
The Sacrifice Love Demands
Many live as enemies of the Cross of Christ—avoiding suffering and the Lord himself. However, our citizenship is in Heaven, and God calls us to embrace our sufferings. Today, reflect on what it means to be a friend of the cross.
Alms and Charity
When you support the mission of the Church in almsgiving, you are supporting the Kingdom of God. Today's readings are an invitation to make financial sacrifices for the Church and other places that accomplish the Lord's work.
Praying for All Souls
In today's Gospel, Jesus gives us a glimpse of the beautiful image of heaven. As the Church prays for all the faithful departed this November, remember the hope of Heaven as you pray for your loved ones who have passed away.
The Essence of Love
The essence of love is rooted in the truth and the Commandments. Today, many deceive themselves about what true love is. When we do not love authentically, we turn toward self-love instead of loving the Lord.
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Prayer for our Deceased
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
and let the perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
Lord God,
whose days are without end
and whose mercies beyond counting,
keep us mindful
that life is short and the hour of death unknown.
Let your Spirit guide our days on earth
in the ways of holiness and justice,
that we may serve you
in union with the whole Church,
sure in faith, strong in hope, perfect in love.
And when our earthly journey is ended,
lead us rejoicing into your kingdom,
where you live for ever and ever.
Amen.
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ETERNAL REST
Eternal rest grant unto them whose earthly lives are past.
Perpetual light shine down on them, may they rest in peace at last.
Eternal life grant unto them, whose laughter now I’ve lost,
Whose presence and whose smiles I miss – but never mind the cost.
Eternal joy grant unto them, whose sufferings now are through,
Their pain and illness finally gone, their minds and hearts renew.
Eternal peace grant unto them, all friends and foes together,
Forgive them all their trespasses, may they rest in peace at last. Amen.
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ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION:
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Holy Sacrament. I love you above all things and I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace you as if you were already there and unite myself wholly to you. Never permit me to be separated from you. Amen.
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Have you ever wondered which hurts most – saying something and wishing you had not, or saying nothing and wishing you had?
Just remember when you think all is lost – the future remains.
LAST WORD: If a thing is worth doing, or seeing, or listening to, does it not deserve to be enjoyed this very day?
Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries and judging. Life is too short to be unhappy
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The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
All last week, the papers, radio and TV were full with discussions and comments on the homily given by Fr. Sheehy, a retired priest who was deputising for Fr. Declan O’Connor, in Listowel Parish Church the previous Saturday evening. He made the claim that the state was encouraging sin by legislating for gay and transgender rights and that anybody in a same sex relationship was living in sin. Some people got up and left the church and the Bishop of Kerry was quick to come out and apologise the following morning. Much as I don’t agree with him I have to admit that what he said was correct because it was based on the teachings of the Catholic Church . The mistake he made was to single out gay people because the Church’s teachings don’t just apply to them, they apply to heterosexual couples as well. Sex is the problem, not homosexuality. It is only permitted between married couples (male and female) and then only for procreation. I remember talking to a very devout old couple, many years ago, who told me that they believed that when the wife got pregnant it would be a sin for them to have sex afterwards. When they did have sex , as was bound to happen to a couple of healthy people sleeping in the one bed, they couldn’t wait to go to Confession on the next Saturday night to get absolution. Until that happened they lived in fear of dying and being cast into the fires of Hell forever. This is not in the dark ages but in my lifetime and things were brought to the fore with the arrival of contraception. The Church was very much against it in the beginning and I know several women who were refused absolution when they revealed in Confession that they were on the pill. The Pope made very strong statements in the beginning but soon the attitude softened and the priests turned a blind eye to that particular sin even though the teachings did not change. They began to realise that the world was changing and what was suitable over 2000 years ago was not now fit for purpose, As one man said to me in London at the time, “it’s all right for the Pope to be giving out but he does not have to live in a two room flat in Kilburn”. In Ireland too, things had changed. People could no longer afford to have 10 or 12 children like their parents before them. Long ago, the eldest left school at 14 and went away to earn a living, usually to England or America. They sent home money every week to help raise the others who joined them abroad as soon as they reached school-leaving age. In modern times children don’t leave at 14, they go on to second and third level education so big families are out of the question for ordinary couples. Imagine having three in university and four in secondary school at the same time, it would be impossible so therefore contraception is necessary to limit the number of children in a relationship. People no longer think of it as a sin but that does not mean that it has been sanctioned by the Church. People who are divorced are also discriminated against. They are not allowed to remarry in a Catholic ceremony and if they do get married in a civil ceremony they are thought to be living in sin and are banned from the sacraments. We also now accept that people may live together without getting married but that too is technically a sin. The problem is not with the teachings of Christ, it is the interpretation of those teachings by elderly celibate men who have their heads stuck in the sand. Some of these teachings are questionable anyway since they were written hundreds of years after the death of Jesus but “them is the rules”, as they say, and if you want to be part of a club you either obey the rules or resign. In recent years many Catholics have taken an a-la-carte approach to the rules, obeying what they like and ignoring the ones they don’t like. Priests are slow to find fault because people are voting with their feet and leaving the Church in droves. I am one of them but I believe in God and I find great comfort in the words of Jesus Christ because He nearly always talks about the importance of love and kindness and we could surely do with more of that in the world today. The old scriptures should not be taken literally. In one passage according to Matthew it says “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and. not that thy whole body should be cast into hell ”.
If we all followed that there would be an awful lot of blind people about. The Church has to have a serious look at its statutes and bring them up to date. There is no comparison between the first century and the world we live in today yet we have not made enough changes. To be fair some practises have been dropped like the necessity for a woman to go to the altar to be “cleansed” soon after childbirth. I remember watching my mother and I know she was embarrassed to be seen at the altar. Yes, changes can and should be made and the Pope could do it in the morning because he is Christ’s vicar on earth and when he speaks on articles of faith, we are told, he is infallible. If changes, like admitting women and married priests and taking the stigma away from sex , are not made then I am afraid I will live to see the demise of the Catholic faith in Ireland and that would be a great pity because we have some really caring, wonderful priests who are fighting against the odds and the good the Church does far outweighs it’s faults. I suppose Fr. Sheehy would say that I am encouraging the committing of sin with these few lines but I believe that what consenting adults, of any gender do, in their own privacy is not a matter for church or state.
https://www.athea.ie/category/news/
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It’s Election Night 2022 and as people went to the polls to cast their ballots, we met with St. John’s University students who are studying government. They share the concerns of young voters.
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we must consider these hard facts:
Each year we place an estimated 121 million tons of waste in landfills, even though some of this waste will take centuries to decompose.
Each year 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste are dumped into U.S. water.
Around 30 million acres of lawn are routinely treated with lawn care chemicals, despite the fact that some chemicals commonly used on lawns have been associated with birth defects, mutations, and even cancer in laboratory animals.
Studies have found that newborn babies carry around 200 chemicals in their bodies just after birth, some with the potential to be cancer causing.
Nearly one-third of the honeybee colonies in the U.S. have disappeared, negatively affecting the pollination of many fruit, nut, and vegetable plants.
https://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2014/april/9-ways-to-help-save-planet.html
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James Takes Time To Brighten Up Window Display At Boherbee Business
Posted by Dermot Crean
James O’Donoghue with the antique clocks gracing his pharmacy’s window in Boherbee. Photo by Dermot Crean
IF you’re passing Boherbee over the coming days, it’s worth taking the time to have a look at the window display in O’Donoghue’s Pharmacy.
James O’Donoghue decided to brighten up the shopfront by putting 10 antique clocks in there to encourage people to “take time to reflect on your health”.
The clever marketing ploy is attracting a lot of interest and rightly so as the clocks, one of which was made in Boston back as far as 1830, give a glimpse into the past.
James got a loan of the clocks from John O’Flaherty from Derrymore, who collects and repairs the timepieces.
James’ favourite is one he calls the ‘Narie Clock’. It was rescued by a person from Caherina back in the 1940s and kept their home for years. When the person who had it passed away, the house was being cleared and the broken clock was given to John O’Flaherty who restored it.
Some of the clocks in the O’Donoghue’s Pharmacy window. Photo by Dermot Crean
Other clocks bear the names of famous Tralee businesses Lee Strand, Latchfords and McCowens, while another came from New Haven in Connecticut.
James has form with unusual displays, as in the past he has put currachs and farm machinery in the window at different periods of the year.
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The Presbytery, Abbeydorney (066 7135146; 087 6807197)
abbeydorney@dioceseofkerry.ie
16th October 2022, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Dear Parishioner,
I am sure you have read an obituary (an announcement
of a death, accompanied by a short biography or account of the life of the
deceased person) in one of our local papers, if not in one of the national
daily or Sunday papers. Those featured in the national papers will,
normally, be people who have a certain claim to fame, or people who may
have got to the top in their profession, in business or in sport etc. As far as
I know, the local papers are happy to include the obituary of any deceased
person from within the county. This ‘Dear Parishioner’ includes an
obituary of a man (Samwel Ngetich) whom I knew in Kipchimchim Parish,
Kenya, when I ministered in that parish from the end of 1983 to the
summer of 1987. His home was only a few hundred yards from where I
lived and I knew him as the owner of a lorry, in which he transported
stones for building as well as sand, gravel and other materials. I remember
him as a man who seemed to be in a good mood always but I will never
forget the news he gave me about himself on one of the occasions we
chatted. He said “I feel very sad that I cannot sit down with my children
at night and help them with their homework, because I cannot read.”
I was in Kenya, for my recent trip there, when his burial took place but I did
not become aware of that until a few days later. I recalled that I had heard,
some years ago, that the lorry owner whom I knew in the 1980s, had
moved up in the world but I did not know, until I came across an obituary
for him in a well known weekly magazine in Kenya, called the Weekly
Review. Having visited Kipchimchim and other areas, where I ministered, I
came back to Nairobi, so as to get the plane home to Ireland. I came across
the most recent ‘Weekly Review’ in St. Patrick’s House in Nairobi and I
looked at article headings, without actually reading any of them but hoping
to do so later. When I came to the final page of the magazine, I was in
disbelief when I saw a photograph of Samwel and the full page devoted
to an account of his life. I found myself thinking of Kerry people, who
emigrated to England and the USA in years gone by, some with very limited
education, who went on to become very successful and wealthy but, who
never forgot their roots. (Fr.) Denis O’Mahony
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Fall Of A Self-Made Magnate.
(Vitalis Kimutai in Weekly Review, 18.9.2022.)
The death of Mzee (Mr.) Samwel Kipterer Ngetich closed the final chapter
of a man, who rose from humble beginnings to emerge as a business
magnate with vast interests in the real estate, transport, tea, sugar,
hospitality, mining, warehousing and retail sectors. It also opened the lid
on the life of a man who, despite dropping out of Class Three at Keongo
Primary School, where he was enrolled in 1956, rose to be a councillor, a
County Assembly member and Kericho Deputy Mayor. Born in
Chepsetyon Village in Kericho County in 1949, the politician-cum-
businessman died while undergoing treatment for a liver ailment, at MP
Shah hospital in Nairobi, weeks after returning from India, where he had
been taken for specialised treatment.
Mzee Ngetich was popularly known as Chepsetyon (named after his
village). His Kaunda suits and trademark flowered shirts, which he wore
untucked, complemented his burly figure, broad smile and grey afro
hairstyle. His was truly ‘a rags to riches’ story. After dropping out of
school, Ngetich did a series of odd jobs, including digging pit latrines,
weeding maize, picking tea, selling chickens and as a hotel waiter.
Eventually, he opened his own hotel, a bar and a shop, then went into the
matatu and transport business. His flagship companies included Mbogo
Valley, Sangalo Tet and Kuresoi tea factories, Kipchimat supermarkets,
SABS mining and construction company, ABSS Warehouses Ltd. and West
Valley Sugar Company – running under the umbrella of ‘Kipchimchim
Group of Companies.’
Notwithstanding his success, family and friends remember him as a
humble and generous man who went out of his way to help others,
including paying fees for more than 5,000 needy students. He did not
allow his lack of formal schooling to become a barrier to leadership. He
always paid attention to detail and was regarded as a ‘walking library’ on
matters relating to Kerichjo Town. As representative of Kapkugerwet
Ward, he keenly followed the proceedings of the County Assembly, always
insisting that the speaker, Kiptergech Mutai, spell out for him any matter
he didn’t understand. “He was a very knowledgeable old man, who took
very seriously the trust bestowed on him by the voters as their leader. He
truly wanted to change the lives of the people he represented” recalls
Mutai. Mr. Jackson Mutai, a former member of the County Assembly, who
served with the deceased in the assembly from 2013 to 2017 agrees.
“Mzee Ngetich was a very informed man on local and international
matters, more than those of us who were better educated. When we
visited Namibia and Israel to see their agricultural development, he amazed
us with the grasp of technology employed in the sector” Kikwai says.
Before they left for Namibia, Ngetich had warned his fellow county
assembly members that they would not get a market for their tea there
because of low demand, a warning that many ignored but which proved to
be accurate. Former Kericho Mayor, Joel Siele, admires Ngetich’s
resilience. “He never gave up. He was the perfect example of dusting
oneself down and rising after every fall. His children rallied behind him in
his business enterprises and took them to the next level. They manage his
various enterprises and are a solid example of how to run a family
business” says Siele.
Besides business, Ngetich also taught his children how to win in life. “He
exemplified the reality of daring to dream,” son Ben Soi says and adds “He
travelled the world from China, Dubai, India and Namibia to the United
Kingdom and Israel, and not even the language barrier could hold him
back.” Mzee Ngetich’s life, though ended, provides a classic example
of pulling down barriers and never allowing one’s background
to be an impediment to success.
Seeing Your Life Through The Lens of The Gospel
John Byrne OSA Intercom October 2022
1.The purpose of prayer is not to change God’s mind but to change our-
selves, and we can be slow to move.
When have you found that persistence in prayer strengthened your faith
in the presence of God with you in that struggle?
2.The context of the story may be a concern about the delay in the final
coming of the Lord. Have there been times when your persistence in pray-
er, or action, was rewarded after a period when you had doubts about the
outcome? What, for you, have been the fruits of persistent prayer?
3.Behind the story lies the final question of Jesus: Who does have faith?
Who have been models of faith and trust in God for you? How has that
trust been shown in their lives? How is it shown in yours?
October, Mission Month.
In last week’s ‘Dear Parishioner’, you got a chance to read a little about the
importance of having an interest in the theme of ‘Mission’ during the
month of October, in the lead-up to World Mission Day. That will be
marked next weekend. I included a part of the message of Pope Francis for
World Mission Day. Just a reminder of that “Every Christian is called to be
a missionary and a witness to Christ.” Pope Francis concluded his
message with the following words, “Dear brothers and sisters, I continue to
dream of a completely missionary Church, and a new era of missionary
activity among Christian communities. I repeat Moses’ great desire for the
people of God on their journey: ‘Would that all the Lord’s people were
prophets!’ (Num. 11:29) Indeed, would that all of us in the Church were
what we already are by virtue of our baptism: prophets, witnesses,
missionaries of the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the ends of the
earth! Mary, Queen of Apostles, pray for us.”
Why is the Mission Sunday Collection important? All offerings given in the
collection become part of the Pope’s Universal Solidarity Fund. This fund
supports missionary activity in over 1,100 young dioceses, mostly in Africa,
Asia and Latin America. As young diocese grow, so do their needs. On top
of this, they are found in remote areas, devasted by conflict or natural
disasters. The universal solidarity fund provides aid so that missionaries
can continue to go to these places to share the love of God.
What does the collection support? The needs of young dioceses vary,
anything from a motorbike, so that a priest can celebrate Mass in a remote
village, to a community hall so that local people can gather in safety, or
more urgently, vaccinations and medicines so that parish dispensaries can
protect vulnerable children. In essence:
1. It provides basic infrastructure by helping communities to build
schools, clinics, parish halls and churches.
2. It prepares the future leaders and carers of the Church by
supporting the training of Sisters, Priests, Brothers and Catechists.
3. It supports missionary programmes to care for children’s spiritual
and physical wellbeing by offering safe shelter, healthcare ,
education and hope for the future.
2021: Amount collected in Mission Sunday Collection in Ireland. Over €1.3 million.
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In 1956 C. S. Lewis published a novel entitled ‘Till we have Faces’. Based on Greek mythology, the novel is a retelling of the ancient story of Cupid and Psyche. Although the book never gained the popularity of, say for example, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, Lewis believed that ‘Till we have Faces’ was his “greatest and most accomplished work”. This view was seconded by his close friend and fellow writer, J.R.R. Tolkien. There is one thing about the book that I really like, and that’s simply the title: ‘Till we have Faces’.
http://alive.ie/columns/culture/time-without-a-face/
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COOLER: Issacharov found inspiration in the Palestinian “‘jarrah”’, a traditional drinking water container made of terra-cotta that is hung in a room to cool both the water and the living space itself. The clay in these containers, which can be traced all the way back to the neolithic and Bronze Age across all the Mediterranean, is full of small pores. The water filters out of those pores very slowly, evaporating using the heat in the water. That heat gets transferred to the air and that makes the water progressively cooler, similarly to how your body sweats.
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Biogas developers and technology providers, including farmers, foresters, and fuel suppliers are ready to deliver biogas, however government policy currently halts the establishment of needed facilities, the CEO said.
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/energy-users-seek-biogas-providers-to-reduce-carbon-emissions/
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The department has indicated that in order for Ireland to make “substantial” further progress on TB in the 2023-2025 period, additional steps to build on the current strategy will be needed and a number of options are now under consideration by the Bovine TB Stakeholders Forum.
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All of these metals must be sourced—and recycling alone cannot yet meet market needs. Though the U.S. has numerous copper mines (and obtains a sizable chunk of copper from scrap recycling), nearly all of the other metals in lithium-ion batteries come from mines in other countries. More than 80 percent of global lithium comes from Chile, Australia, and China, while more than 60 percent of cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This overseas reliance can come with costs. Much of the lithium mined today, for example, comes from the fragile Atacama Desert in Chile, where the metal is recovered by evaporating salty brine in massive ponds. It’s cost-effective, but researchers and local communities have raised concerns over toxic wastes and the depletion and contamination of water supplies; by one estimate, it takes 500,000 gallons of water—largely lost to evaporation—to concentrate a single metric ton of lithium. Sourcing battery metals also has been connected with human rights abuses in some locations, such as cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where companies have been accused of using child labor, paying workers poorly, and failing to provide basic safety equipment.
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Every year, homes get flooded from natural disasters like hurricanes. Afterwards, people suggest that others should not be living in flood-prone areas. Yet that's where homes continue getting built, only to be flooded again – as might be predicted.
One reason why: the federal government incentivizes people to build homes in flood plains by offering subsidized flood insurance.
The National Flood Insurance Program was created in 1968. Before the program, few private companies offered flood insurance – it was considered unprofitable. People chose to not buy flood insurance because it was expensive. But after every natural disaster, the federal government had to bail out homeowners in flood-prone areas. After Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the first storm to cause over $1 billion in damages, Congress passed the National Flood Insurance Act.
https://catalyst.independent.org/2022/07/08/subsidizing-homes-flood-zones/?utm_medium=email
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Limerick Leader Sept 2022; one motorist before the court last week had a reprieve. They were detected driving at 59kms per hour in a 50km zone. Judge Patricia Harney said she was “not happy” with a person being before her for driving nine kilometres over the legal limit.
“Really?” she asked. “Three points on your licence for that is harsh,” said Judge Harney, who struck the matter out.
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This school year will be one for growth. I can’t wait to see everything the Lord has in store for all of us. He walks right next to you as you start this chapter, so allow Him to lead you this year and always.
Follow ChurchPOP:
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Apply the Hillary Clinton Rule to Donald Trump
There cannot be one legal standard for Republicans and another for Democrats.
David French Aug 14 2022
Comment
On Friday a federal magistrate judge unsealed the warrant for Mar-a-Lago, former president Donald Trump’s Florida home, which was searched by FBI agents last week. According to the warrant, the FBI was looking for evidence of crimes related to obstruction of justice, removal of official records, and the mishandling of information relating to the national defense.
I must confess, the search warrant gave me déjà vu.
On July 5, 2016, FBI director James Comey issued one of the most consequential statements in federal law enforcement history. He explained precisely why the FBI did not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for mishandling “defense information,” some of which was classified at the highest levels of secrecy.
That statement not only influenced the outcome of a presidential election, its legal, political, and cultural consequences hover over American life. Nobody who’s evaluating Donald Trump’s conduct should forget Comey’s statement, and its standards should govern us today.
The reason why relates to a fundamental conception of justice itself—that similarly situated people should be treated similarly. For example, if two men commit an identical crime, and one receives twice the punishment of the other, that disparity rightly violates our sense of justice and fairness even if the disparate sentences are technically legal (such as within a statutory sentencing range).
Here we have two people at the apex of American politics: one a former secretary of state and then-presumptive Democratic nominee for president, the other a former president and now-frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Both of them possessed immense classification authority (by executive order, Clinton had power to classify and declassify State Department information up to the “top secret” level; as president, Trump possessed even greater authority). Both Clinton and Trump’s conduct implicated the same statute, 18 U.S.C Section 793.
That statute imposes substantial criminal penalties on anyone who “willfully” or through “gross negligence” removes national defense information from its proper place of custody. It also imposes criminal penalties on anyone who “willfully” retains national defense information in an improper location and “fails to deliver it” to an “officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.”
To understand the content and context of Comey’s statement, it’s necessary to walk back down memory lane and understand the essence of the Clinton email controversy. While the details are complicated, the basic story is simple. As Comey described it, Clinton set up and used “several different [private] servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain.”
In plain English, this means that Clinton decided not to use government systems for a substantial part of her official email communications. That decision, by itself, was troublesome but not necessarily disqualifying. Public officials have frequently used private email for official business—sometimes because of convenience and sometimes because of technical challenges using official systems.
The real problem, however—the problem that implicated 18 U.S.C. Section 793—was that a number of the emails contained highly-classified information. As Comey noted, seven email chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending emails about those matters and receiving emails from others about the same matters.”
Comey also said that “any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.”
(This is one reason why the “but her emails” mantra from online progressives is so grating. What she did was serious, and pretending it wasn’t insults our intelligence.)
So why didn’t the FBI recommend charges? Here’s the key paragraph:
In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.
I did not agree with this decision, and I said so in National Review and the New York Times. The problem is that Comey added elements to the statute. He essentially read “gross negligence” as a synonym for willfulness and added additional factors (such as obstruction of justice) to the prosecution decision.
If I had engaged in similar conduct when I was in the military, I would not have enjoyed the same level of deference. I would have been prosecuted, and I would have deserved prosecution.
But we can’t rewind the clock. We can only decide how to go forward. And so the DOJ should go forward with the same rule it applied to Hillary Clinton, including the same level of deference. Any other result wouldn’t simply be unjust—insofar as it would refuse to treat similarly-situated people similarly—it would be profoundly destabilizing. There cannot be one set of standards for Democrats and another for Republicans.
Would applying this same standard mean Trump, too, should not face prosecution? Well, not necessarily. We can’t yet conclude that Trump and Clinton’s misconduct is equivalent, and the reason why may relate not to the mishandling of defense information, but rather to obstruction of justice.
The available reporting indicates that Trump didn’t simply remove clearly marked classified material from the White House, he also retained much of that material in spite of repeated requests that it be returned, retained some of that material in defiance of a subpoena, and then ultimately treated the material as his personal property. Here’s Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush, and Charlie Savage, writing in the New York Times:
It is not clear why Mr. Trump apparently chose to hang onto materials that would ignite another legal firestorm around him. But last year, he told close associates that he regarded some presidential documents as his own personal property. When speaking about his friendly correspondence with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump said, “They’re mine,” according to a person familiar with the exchange.
Moreover, there’s additional reporting that Trump’s team may have misled the DOJ. Yesterday morning, Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush reported that a “lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump signed a written statement in June asserting that all material marked as classified and held in boxes in a storage area at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and club had been returned to the government.”
This misstatement could help explain why the Trump search warrant stated that it was seeking evidence of items “illegally possessed” in violation of both 18 U.S.C. Section 1519 and 18 U.S.C. Section 2071. Section 2071 prohibits removal, concealment, or destruction of federal records generally, while Section 1519 is an obstruction of justice statute. It imposes up to 20 years of imprisonment for any person who:
knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case.
In fact, the listing of Section 1519 on the warrant reminds me of the old adage: It’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up.
Trump lacks any real excuse for his behavior for retaining classified information, but Clinton had no excuse either. Remember, she used a private server to discuss matters that were classified at the highest levels, and she was seasoned enough to know exactly what she was doing.
Trump’s defense is as weak as Hillary’s. His team is reportedly claiming that he had a “standing order” to declassify all documents that he took to Mar-a-Lago, but as Philip Klein notes in National Review, this argument is “patently absurd”:
Consider all the times that Trump was at Mar-a-Lago during his presidency and worked out of there. Are we to believe that each and every document he brought with him there, no matter how sensitive, was immediately declassified and thus widely available for people to see?
Moreover, where is the documentary evidence for such an order? Declassification isn’t a mere mental process. So far there is more concrete evidence that Michael Scott declared bankruptcy than there is that Donald Trump declassified the top secret documents he held at Mar-a-Lago.
If Trump went beyond Clinton in his effort to conceal and cover up his misdeeds, including defying a subpoena and falsely asserting he’d turned over all the classified information in his possession, then he may face criminal consequences for obstruction even if his initial misconduct wasn’t materially different from Clinton’s.
The bottom line is deeply disheartening. Two of the most powerful and prominent politicians in the United States engaged in conduct that virtually any other American would be prosecuted for. They have placed the system under great strain, and the system is buckling.
It remains to be seen whether Donald Trump’s conduct was so much worse than Hillary Clinton’s that prosecution is both legal and just. Indeed the entire issue may be so fraught with peril that the DOJ may decide to merely seize the documents without any further legal proceedings.
But if Trump did break the law and is not prosecuted, we can look back at a pivotal moment in history and know why. On July 5, 2016, the FBI set an extraordinary standard for prosecuting powerful people for mishandling our nation’s most precious secrets, and we shouldn’t change that standard for Donald Trump.
One more thing …
Last summer I had the honor of speaking from the main stage at Chautauqua, New York. It’s a beautiful place, and it feels like a land that time forgot. I had a great time speaking and an even better time talking to Chautauquans at dinner and on their front porches.
It’s hard to imagine violence in such a lovely place, but that’s exactly where a knife-wielding assassin attacked Salman Rushdie on Thursday. Rushdie, you might remember, has faced threats on his life ever since he published The Satanic Verses in 1988. And now he’s in critical condition, clinging to life in a Pennsylvania hospital.
I try very hard to engage ideas—even extreme ideas—in good faith. I’ve always had a hard time engaging with the idea that “words are violence.” Words are not violence. Words never put a man on a ventilator.
And another thing …
In this week’s Good Faith podcast, Curtis and I talked about what it means to face uncertainty and turmoil with faith, not fear. It featured a conversation about stoicism, Rudyard Kipling’s legendary poem “If,” and Psalm 46. It’s a great discussion, and Curtis has some excellent thoughts.
One last thing …
Speaking of Psalm 46, I love the power of this hymn, based on the words of the psalm. It communicates that our confidence is rooted in God’s strength, not our own.
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Have you ever noticed that at your office or church, a small fraction of people do the lion’s share of the work?
This is just one manifestation of what’s called the “80/20 rule.”
Once you understand the 80/20 rule, you’ll start seeing it everywhere.
And be able to use it to significantly improve your life.
The Birth of the 80/20 Rule: The Pareto Principle
In the late 1890s, an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto observed a curious relationship between wealth and population in Italy. His calculations showed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by just 20% of the population. He did similar surveys in other countries and found the same ratio.
Pareto kept digging, and he kept finding this 80/20 relationship between landownership and total population. It didn’t matter if he looked at a country’s land ownership data in 1890 or 1790. No matter the time period, 80% of the land was owned by just 20% of the population.
Pareto didn’t pursue or publicize his discovery, so it died in obscurity. It wasn’t until after World War II that Pareto’s 80/20 observation started to get the attention it deserved, thanks to a Romanian-born U.S. engineer named Joseph Moses Juran. Juran had read about Pareto’s 80/20 discovery and thought it could be applied beyond land ownership, including in the manufacturing industry.
In 1951, Juran wrote a management manual called the Quality Control Handbook in which he referred to Pareto’s discovery as the “Pareto principle.” He observed that the Pareto principle operated in crime, accidents, and as he had suspected, manufacturing. In the book, Juran notes one example of how a paper mill discovered that a small number of defect types — about 12% — created 80% of the costs for the company. When the mill focused on reducing defects in that 12%, they drastically reduced their overall costs.
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Peat
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/05/31/north-carolina-peat-carbon-capture/
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As a new study “Fixing a snag in carbon emissions estimates from wildfires” concluded, the common assumption behind policy and earlier studies of carbon emissions from fires have always assumed that 30-80 percent of the trees combusted in a high severity blaze. However, the truth is that the complete combustion of mature trees is negligible. That is why we get snags after a fire.
The researchers found that that estimates of carbon emissions from regional wildfires were exaggerated by as much as 85% over the actual emissions. So, the assumption that preventing wildfires will substantially reduce carbon losses is also overstated.
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journal article
Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Canadian Peat Extraction and Restoration
James M. Waddington, Janina Plach, Jason P. Cagampan, Maria Lucchese and Maria Strack
Ambio
Vol. 38, No. 4 (Jun., 2009), pp. 194-200 (7 pages)
Published By: Springer
Ambio
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25515841
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25515841
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In 2019, peat extraction accounted for an estimated 2.4 million tonnes of CO 2 emissions in the UK, or 0.5% of the UK's total. For England, the figure is 0.2 million tonnes. All peat extraction in England will cease by 2042 at the latest, in advance of the UK's target to be net zero by 2050.
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Response of Southern Shrub Peatland Phenolics and Carbon
Dioxide Flux to Drought and Nitrogen Additions
Meaghan E. Burke
Dr. Curtis J. Richardson, Adviser
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Liberal media outlets are digging deep trying to stir pro-abortion sentiments. Newsweek published this editorial: ‘I Was Adopted Months After Roe v. Wade, I Wish Abortion Had Been an Option for My Birth Mom' The author said he quit drinking for the sake of his 3 children, so obviously he loves them. He claimed that growing up, he was often asked, “Aren’t you glad you weren’t aborted by your birth mother?”
Lastly, he surmised that his birth mother, who already had four children and had separated from his alcoholic father, probably had him only because abortion was not legal at the time. He ignores the possibility that despite a bad marriage and stressful life, his mother would not have taken the life of her unborn child.
I showed the article to a friend around his age who was also adopted. She said, “I think this is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever read. How do those kids feel? If their dad had never been born, they would’ve never been born! I have never been asked that question. I truly think this is a fabrication, put out by someone on the liberal left. Or this guy is just plain crazy!”
So, we go but forward as we fight for life amid craziness, clinging to all of heaven’s intercession and to the truth while praying for the unborn, the wounded and the confused.
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by Rose Namulisa Balaluka
As mining sites grew, people in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, began to realize that not only their rights were being exploited, but the whole ecosystem, with its rich forest and rivers, is under threat.
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Durrushistory - Jul 5 2022
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uyJj4JNTbHUjlJxalArfcSkmFDaPwsTSKpR0JQai0nM/edit#
Big Tom (Irish Speaker) Somerville, (1797-1882), Drishane, Castletownsend, Landlord, Magistrate, Kind Friend of O’Donovan Rossa.
Even going back years I was struck by Tom Somerville intervention caused by fatalities arising from the notorious collections of tithes by the Rev. Morritt. He seemed on his landlord's side as a lone voice of reason. His granddaughter Edith Somerville, I thought captured a lot in the Irish Rm ((Resident Magistrate) stories. I would think the Somerville family were largely assimilated into local culture, even if not always obvious.
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This means that the richest 63 million are producing fully double the dangerous greenhouse gases that half of all humanity, or nearly four billion people, emit. When scientists include the embodied emissions — or what it takes to make the products bought by the rich — in the calculation of their individual carbon footprints, the numbers become even more grotesque: That makes the average carbon footprint of the richest more than 75 times higher than that of the poorest. An estimate looking into 20 of the most prominent billionaires in the U.S. and Europe found that their carbon footprints in 2018 ranged from about 1,000 metric tons to nearly 32,000.
https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-talk-about-the-carbon-footprints-of-the-rich/
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We must remember that this is a judicial victory, not a cultural one. The culture remains deeply divided on the issue, which will be evidenced by the patchwork of state statutes pertaining to abortion across the country.”
The bishops said building a culture of life depends on creating “family-friendly policies that welcome children, support mothers, cherish families, and empower them to thrive.”
https://thetablet.org/new-york-state-bishops-pro-life-advocates-call-overturning-roe-v-wade-a-historic-day/?utm_campaign=Daily%20Headlines&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=217592894&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_rIlwZ3Ci3qqznY0895JkA7mCxgwhzZvuvYwTlVOSLhUVpRKy4VWR5Kj6skdo-CzRNkt_gkqG2cc_EcEWZopF2tutxRQ&utm_content=217592894&utm_source=hs_email
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Limerick Diocese Search
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Climate change: Electrical industry's 'dirty secret' boosts warming
By Matt McGrath- Environment correspondent
Published- 13 September 2019
It's the most powerful greenhouse gas known to humanity, and emissions have risen rapidly in recent years, the BBC has learned.
Sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6, is widely used in the electrical industry to prevent short circuits and accidents.
But leaks of the little-known gas in the UK and the rest of the EU in 2017 were the equivalent of putting an extra 1.3 million cars on the road.
Levels are rising as an unintended consequence of the green energy boom.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49567197
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CBS Evening News
CDC warns of COVID-19 "rebound" after taking Paxlovid, but says drug still beneficial
evening-news
By Jon LaPook
Updated on: May 31, 2022 / 7:45 AM / CBS News
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, Paxlovid is being prescribed to try to keep high-risk patients out of the hospital. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of potential "COVID-19 rebound" after a five-day course of the treatment.
"If you take Paxlovid, you might get symptoms again," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CBS News. "We haven't yet seen anybody who has returned with symptoms needing to go to the hospital. So, generally, a milder course."
After a patient recovers, rebound has been reported to occur two to eight days later. Still, the CDC says the benefits of taking Paxlovid far outweigh the risks. Among unvaccinated people at high risk for severe disease, it reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly 90%, according to the CDC.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paxlovid-covid-rebound-symptoms/
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Somalia
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"Widespread reliance on punitive approaches to enforcing public health" harms marginalized groups, says Amnesty International. A new report from the human rights group Amnesty International suggests quarantine rules and other COVID-19 restrictions were especially damaging for groups already more likely to face discrimination, police harassment, and unjust criminalization. Amnesty International calls on governments to reject using criminal sanctions to implement public health goals and "refrain from implementing repressive policies" in the name of protecting pubic health.
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Struggles of Faith
Essays by Fr. Michael Paul Gallagher (Columba Press 1991)
Coming back to Ireland, from the poor world, highlighted for me the sheer
materialism of our environment and the fact that, since the boom of the
sixties, affluence has created a completely different context of values and
lifestyles, different even from the fifties. Economics has quietly but
inevitably replaced religion as the dominant value in Irish society. This
social change has created a new context, not openly at war with Christianity,
but in fact, hostile to the survival of real faith. Our social context for the
future is one where, increasingly, greed and envy will be valued and
cultivated in glossy forms. In this world, the danger is that religion will be
reduced to a minor leisure-time activity, a convention retained but, only
on the margins of life, something devoid of challenge or depth....................
Of course, the key question for the future of faith is not minimum external
convention but some level of conviction and maturity. The older patterns of
quasi-universal religious practice, still found in rural areas, can involve a
certain degree of social conformism. When that conformism loses its power,
as it has done for younger and urbanised families, a quite different pastoral
approach is called for. Irish Catholics seem to be over-sacramentalised and
under-evangelised. Sacramental attendance is experienced by many as a
matter of obedience or duty, rather than as a spiritual nourishment or
meeting with the Lord.........................................................................................
Putting it very simply, there seem to be three main thrusts of renewal in the
worldwide Church today, and these three could have a special application in
the unique situation of Ireland: spiritual renewal, small support groups and
social commitment. As against these new potentials, one can discern three
new dangers, three forms of lapsing from religion: apathy, alienation and
anger. Apathy is a form of socio-cultural loss of faith. It is largely passive;
it stems from a new environment dominated by money-values and this, in
turn, results in a dull indifference to the spiritual dimension of life.
Alienation by comparison with apathy is more agitated or troubled in mind
and conscience. It is less a form of drifting than a definite disappointment
with institutional life within the Church. It often arises from precise sources
of dissatisfaction with conventional religion and with the priests and
religious who are viewed as embodiments of this convention. The third
umbrella term to describe loss of faith is ‘anger’. This is at the opposite end
of the spectrum from apathy in that it is much more active, conscious,
chosen and ideological in its stance. Apathy is a danger for large number of
people, whereas alienation affects, mainly, the more searching and the
more educated, an increasing proportion in Irish society.................................
If the Irish Church can read the strengths and dangers of the present faith
situation, and can give courageous priority to the new pastoral needs, then
a certain guarded optimism about the future is well justified. Innovation has
always been a hallmark of Irish missionaries abroad: it is a question of the
same missionary zeal and adventure being brought to bear on the local
situation. The causes of lessening of practice and belief lie in two directions
- both the inevitabilities of the age and in the human failures of ourselves
as witnesses of the Gospel. Just as EEC (In 1991 we were familiar with
European Economic Community, now known more simply as the EU –
European Union.) regulations slowly eroded our freedom on fisheries, so
also many large forces in our western world erode our freedom as fishers of
faith. However, within our own hands is the question of the trawlers and
nets we use within our waters. As fishers of faith, we may be less free than
we were but more free than we know. (M.P.G.)
What you have been reading are some random passages from Fr. Michael
Paul Gallagher’s book. You might have noted at the top of the other page
that the book of essays was published in 1991. Most of us will find it hard
to remember 1991, unless something memorable happened in our
individual or family life or, if we are the kind of people who can remember a
great variety of things from times past. (As I write this, I cannot recall
whether or not Kerry were in the All-Ireland. Some ‘Dear Parishioner’ reader
might want to say to me, ‘Surely you can remember who played in the final
that year and who got the Sam Maguire Cup!)
I will pick one sentence from the paragraph beginning ‘If the Irish Church
can read the strengths and dangers of the present faith situation and can
give courageous priority to the new pastoral needs, then a certain guarded
optimism about the future is well justified!’ Did that reading of the present
‘strengths and dangers’ happen? If it did happen, it didn’t happen in a very
significant way! If it had happened as expressed in Michael Paul Gallaghers
‘hoped-for-happening’, would the face of the Irish Church be different
today? I think that is a question that does not have a clear answer. (D.O’M)
Seeing Your Life Through The Lens Of The Gospel John Byrne
1.The disciples spend a fruitless night fishing and catching nothing. Things
change dramatically when Jesus appears and invites them to try again.
Remember those who came to you and encouraged you to try again when
you felt discouraged. Perhaps, on some of these occasions the results were
beyond your expectations.
2.Some people view the synodal process proposed by Pope Francis as a futile
exercise, and others see it as an opportunity of renewal and growth. What
have you seen or heard that encourages you to engage in the process?
3.The story can serve as a reminder that, sometimes, we are wasting our
time if we try to work on our own without the Lord’s help. When have you
found that your work or life was more fruitful when you acknowledged that
you needed God’s help and you spoke to God about your needs?
4.Peter is given the chance to be reconciled with the Master after his denial
during the Passion. Remember those who gave you an opportunity for
reconciliation after you hurt or let them down. What was it like to be given
this chance? To whom have you offered the possibility of reconciliation?
Points to Ponder (Pope Francis in Bulgaria, 5th May 2019)
It is the very moment of Peter’s failure that Jesus appears, starts over,
patiently comes to him and calls him ‘Simon’ (v15) – the name Peter received
when he was first called. The Lord does not wait for perfect situations of
frames of mind: he creates them. He does not expect to encounter people
without problems, disappointments, without sin or limitations. He himself
confronted sins and disappointment in order to encourage all men and
women to persevere. Brothers and sisters, the Lord never tires of calling
us. He is the power of love that overturns every expectation and is always
ready to start anew. In Jesus, God always offers us another chance. He
calls us day by day to deepen our love for him and to be revived by his eternal
newness. Every morning, he comes to find us where we are. He summons
us ‘to rise at his word, to look up and realise we were made for heaven, not
for earth, for the heights of life and not for the depths of death’, and to stop
seeking ‘the living among the dead’. When we welcome him, we rise higher
and are able to embrace a brighter future, not as a possibility but as a reality.
When Jesus’ call directs our lives, our hearts grow young. Intercon.
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Buying on impulse
In fact, studies suggest that as much as 50% of all groceries are sold because of impulsiveness – and over 87% of shoppers make impulse buys.
While it is complicated and affected by many factors, such as a need for arousal and lack of self-control, it is known that external shopping cues – “buy one get one free” offers, discounts and in-store promotional displays, for example – play a key role.
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Bad Habits
You’ve likely got some bad habits you’d like to get rid of.
Overeating.- Smoking. -Scrolling social media. - Getting angry.- Drinking too much.
Our typical approach to getting rid of bad habits is gritting our teeth and willing them out of existence.
But that approach usually doesn’t work. It’s hard to willpower a bad habit out of existence. In fact, this approach often backfires and only strengthens the desire to indulge in our less-than-ideal behavior.
There’s an easier way.
Instead of squashing your bad habit with willpower, gently and gradually snuff it out by disenchanting it.
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The Jump campaign asks people to sign up to take the following six “shifts” for one, three or six months:
Eat a largely plant-based diet, with healthy portions and no waste
Buy no more than three new items of clothing per year
Keep electrical products for at least seven years
Take no more than one short haul flight every three years and one long haul flight every eight years
Get rid of personal motor vehicles if you can – and if not keep hold of your existing vehicle for longer
Make at least one life shift to nudge the system, like moving to a green energy, insulating your home or changing pension supplier
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Patriarch Kirill’s letter comes as he faces mounting criticism for his apparent backing of Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, having made several statements in recent days outlining a clear pro-Russia position.
On March 6, when the Russian Orthodox Church observed “Forgiveness Sunday” before the beginning of their Lent, Patriarch Kirill backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and suggested that an unnamed western body of nations is organizing genocide campaigns against countries that refuse to hold gay pride parades.
On March 9, during the Lenten Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts, Patriarch Kirill delivered another sermon in which he referred to Russians and Ukrainians as “one people” and accused the West of supplying Ukraine with weapons in a bid to weaken Russia out of a growing fear of how powerful Russia had become.
WORDS – “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson.
REFLECTION (Rabindranath)
I lived on the shady side of the road and walked my neighbours’ gardens across the way
revelling in the sunshine.I felt I was poor and from door to door went in my hunger.
The more they gave me from their careless abundance the more I became aware of my beggar’s bowl. Till one morning I awoke from my sleep at the sudden opening of my door and you came and asked for alms. In despair I broke open the lid of my chest and was startled into finding my own wealth.
May you treat each other in the same friendly way Christ has treated you.
May you clothe yourselves in sincere compassion, kindness and patience. May the Lord watch over you, keep you in his care, and bless you with his peace.
“Be kind– everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” John Watson.
CAMPA MHUIRE: Free online Catholic Faith Camp for children aged 5-12. The four day Summer Camp running from July 27th – 30th, Tuesday to Friday will include Music and Action Songs,
Arts and Crafts, into the Deep Bible Stories, games, drama, live streamed daily Mass and more. No need to register, check out www.holyfamilymission.ie/camp-mhuire-mhathair
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68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
Second Order Risk The Essential Workshop Tool Kit
It’s my birthday. I’m 68. I feel like pulling up a rocking chair and dispensing advice to the young ‘uns. Here are 68 pithy bits of unsolicited advice which I offer as my birthday present to all of you.
(For my 69th birthday I made another batch.)
• Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe.
• Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.
• Always demand a deadline. A deadline weeds out the extraneous and the ordinary. It prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so you have to make it different. Different is better.
https://kk.org/thetechnium/68-bits-of-unsolicited-advice/
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Nenagh Guardian 1838-current, Saturday, 25 October, 1845; Page: 3
THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAUSE.
There is at present an extraordinary man in Cork—a self-liberated American slave—one who strong in his aspirations for liberty, braved the dangers of the blood-hound the slave holders rifle—and the perils of fatigue and famine ; and following the north star, reached a free State in safety. For some time after his escape, he supported himself in honest respectability by the labour of his hands ; but having been at length prevailed on to speak on the anti-slavery platform, he has since travelled through various parts of America, exposing the wrongs and sufferings of his enslaved brethren. Several advocates of the colonial race, both here and in America, having judged it might be useful for him to visit these countries he crossed the Atlantic last month, and has held a series of meetings in Dublin with excellent effect. From thence he proceeded to Wexford and Waterford both of which places he held meetings before visiting Cork. Frederick Douglas is truly a specimen of nature's nobility, tall and erect in figure, and commanding in appearance; he feels that he has regained his manhood, and is now no longer a chattel, but one of nature's great human family, as his father was a white man, (very probably his master). He has not the block colour, although he has the black hair of the negro, as a speaker, he is strong, forcible and convincing his audience that he is speaking the truth and the whole truth. He has also published a short account of his life it is a striking narrative, and we may probably allude to it on some future occasion. He has excited much interest, and is still audiences large audiences in Cork.
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Beyond tying your shoes, it’s altogether possible the only knots you know are the ones you make up on the spot. To the uninformed, complex knots seem like magic tricks. But you don’t need to improvise the next time you lash something down. Practice this handy arsenal of essential knots instead.
https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/manly-know-how/essential-knots/?mc_cid=8736a6c04a&mc_eid=8bc7642aac
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I have learned that the prison of others’ approval is actually one built by me, maintained by me, and guarded by me. This has led me to my own complementary verse to Lao Tzu’s original: “Disregard what others think and the prison door will swing open.” If you are stuck in the prison of shame and judgment, remember that you hold the key to your own freedom.
This is your last free article.
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How Not to Be Your Own Worst Enemy
Arthur Brooks and Dr. Shefali, a clinical psychologist and mindfulness expert, discuss the definition and dangers of self-objectification—and what it really means to be yourself.
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https://www.tidytowns.ie/SV-TidyTowns-Results-Booklet-2021.pdf
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History
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Refugees are Ending Up in a "desert of humanity": Pope Francis
Pope Francis visits Rome’s Astalli Center on Sept. 10, 2013. Vatican Media.
By CNA Staff
Vatican City, 16 November, 2021 / 8:00 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has said that refugees forced to flee their homes often end up in a “desert of humanity.”
The pope made the remark in a message celebrating the 40th anniversary of a Jesuit-run refugee center in Rome.
“The last 40 years of human history have also not been a linear progression: the number of people forced to flee their homelands continues to grow,” he wrote in the letter dated Nov. 7.
“Many of you have had to flee from living conditions comparable to those of slavery, where at base is a concept of the human person deprived of his or her dignity and treated as an object.”
https://www.aciafrica.org/news/4701/refugees-are-ending-up-in-a-desert-of-humanity-pope-francis?utm_campaign=ACI%20Africa&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=183810139&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Uq2HQSxiIk7vncEcgA7nSOqEajMi8yyiFGkBkT2oDQvjVY4fxi8yrg3kDCeM62wnR1RSSwdXahGJeFXc3kdL-snYwRQ&utm_content=183810139&utm_source=hs_email
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The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
I do a bit of walking during the week except on the days when I am playing golf. It was something I had to do when I discovered I had type 2 diabetes many years ago and I needed to get my weight down. It was a bit of a chore at first but gradually I began to enjoy it and now I look forward to it, rain, hail, or shine!. The old railway line in Abbeyfeale is an ideal place to walk but we don’t have that luxury in Athea. Here, we have to use the public roads which are not very wide and carry a good bit of traffic at times. I feel embarrassed when cars have to stop before they pass me because traffic is coming in the opposite direction and there isn’t sufficient room. I feel I am interrupting their journey and I wish I didn’t. To be fair, most drivers don’t mind but I do get the odd dirty look. The main walk around here is the “Slí na Sláinte” circuit which is out the Glin Road, up past the graveyard to Fairy Street and back down by the GAA pitch or visa versa. There is one part of that route that is particularly dangerous because it is on a narrow bend with little room at the side of the road. It is the stretch between Sinan’s Gate and Tim Scanlon’s before you come to the waste treatment plant. If you are walking in towards the village from the Glin side traffic can’t see you until the very last minute and have to swerve out onto the road to avoid you. If there is something coming in the opposite direction it is a recipe for an accident and I am surprised that something hasn’t happened up to now. I always have my heart in my mouth until I have passed that stretch and oncoming traffic can see me in time. I was looking at the area the other day and it struck me that it wouldn’t take much to make a footpath on the right hand side of the road as far as Scanlon’s gate. There is a very wide ditch that could be taken away and replaced with a fence that wouldn’t interfere with the farmer’s land. It would make that bit of the road really safe for pedestrians and would also enhance the look of the village from that point. Perhaps the Community Council and the Tidy Towns, together with Limerick County Council could investigate the possibility of a project that could save lives.
The AGM of Athea Drama Group takes place this week and it is great to see they have plans to stage a play in 2022. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann are also having their AGM in the near future with a view to getting the classes and music sessions up and running again. I’m sure other organisations are thinking along similar lines and it is wonderful to think that, after so long, we are getting back to our normal lives. We are not happy when isolated and I never realised how much I missed social interaction until, I met Johnny Mullane at the Top of the Town the other night and we were recalling old times and things that happened long ago. It was like a breath of fresh air. One of the things we talked about was the way people who retire too early seem to go downhill very fast. We are all living a bit longer these days due to medical care, nutrition and a life that isn’t as harsh as those who came before us had to endure. Retirement for farmers, long ago, was a huge problem. Farmers generally married later in life simply because they had to wait until they got the farm from their parents before they could bring in a wife. It still meant that farmers in their fifties and sixties were obliged to pass on the farm while they were still in good health and condition. Some kept working away but others just sat in the corner twiddling their thumbs leaving the work to the son and the “new” woman of the house. The new wife usually came with a dowry which entitled her to have things her own way. This sometimes did not go down well with the mother of the house who was used to doing things maybe in a different fashion. Sometimes they got on very well but there were houses where there was a lot of resentment. Where there was harmony in the house the set up could be very good. The old man kept himself busy around the yard feeding calves, pigs and bonhams while the old woman was a ready made babysitter and could help with most of the housework. I have seen myself where neighbours had a very happy household but I also have seen how people became bitter and twisted by a situation they could not cope with. Thank God those days are gone and we live in a different world that, with all its drawbacks, is more fair, especially to women. Anyway, as I said I enjoyed meeting Johnny who is a font of information on many subjects.
I was saddened to her of the passing of Kitt Liston of Knockfinisk, a lady who kept the parish warm with her knitwear. She had a good cottage industry going for years and she used to call to me for a bit of printing now and again. Sincere sympathy to all her relations, neighbours and friends and may
she rest in peace.
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The Presbytery, Abbeydorney. (066 7135146)
abbeydorney@dioceseofkerry.ie
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 5th September 2021
Dear Parishioner,
I hope you took a copy of the leaflet ‘Cultivating Hope – Caring
for God’s Creatures’ when you took this ‘Dear Parishioner’. This colourful leaflet
has been produced to mark ‘Season of Creation’ (1st September – 4th October).
Have you heard about the ‘Season of Creation’ in the past few years! Yes, it has
been mentioned but our parish did not get directly involved in it? Could we
have some involvement this year? Obviously, it is too late to organise any
activity at parish level but individuals and families might take up some of the
suggestions made in the leaflet. As well as that, there may be somebody
(maybe not a churchgoer but a person that you know is very interested in this
campaign) who might be happy to meet with like-minded people and discuss
what could be done in the time ahead (not necessarily before 4th October).
In the leaflet, references are made to ‘Laudato Si’ and quotations from it are
included in it. Maybe, you are saying to yourself ‘I don’t understand those words
Laudato Si.’ This was the title (Italian – meaning Praised be you ) given by Pope
Francis to an encyclical letter that was published in 2015 and generally referred
to in English as ‘Care for our Common Home’. That Common Home is the world
in which we live – the Universe or ‘This Earth’. The letter received a great
welcome and praise, not just from religious people but from those with an
interest in the environment and those concerned and worried about the harm
being done to the environment at this time. Maybe, you are inclined to say that
harm to the environment is happening in the bigger countries in the world and
that whatever is done (not done) in Ireland will not make any difference to
future generations. This might be the time that every human being needs to
be aware of the contribution of all people to care for ‘Our Common Home’.)
(Fr. Denis O’Mahony) (3 & 4 below are a continuation from back page.)
3. Words are not the only form of communication. Actions can speak louder
than words. Recall times when this was brought home to you.
4. Being able to say what is in you is the other side of communication. Perhaps
there have been occasions when you have struggled to find words to express
what is deepest in you - your faith, your values, your love. Then something
changed and you found the words. What was it like to be able to express your
deepest self? (Taken from Intercom, September 2021)
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Me and My God (Nóirin Lynch Reality September 2021)
“I Have Come To Believe In Four Paths That Bring Me Into The Divine –
Integrity, Kindness, Beauty And Stillness”
When I think about how my images of God have changed and grown, my mind
goes back to my time as a member of a school retreat team in the 1990s. Back
then, we would ask second-year students to draw a picture of their image(s) of
God. I have lovely memories of them sitting in circles, concentrating and
laughing as they painted responses, identifying in art what they could not say in
words. Around that same time, some of us were asked to assist a parish with
street meetings in advance of a local novena. People were invited to two
informal house meetings – for a discussion on the Church and on God. I
remember being confident that I, who got 14-year-olds to think about God,
would surely be able to facilitate the same discussion among willing adults.
The conversation on Church flowed and was intense, passionate and
challenging but the conversation about God reduced the adults to silence.
Frustrated, one lovely man hit his hand on a table and said loudly, "Look, it
doesn't matter what I believe as long as my children believe it." I think that was
the moment I realised I wanted to do parish work rather than youth work – to
minister across the generations. I wanted adults to have access to the same
freedom the teenagers had, the freedom to put into words that which was
hard to say.
So, to return to the question, what is my image of God now as an adult? In
short, one word: love. My one consistent understanding of the divine is love.
I think that's why we want that divine connection, even if we can't put words
on why it matters so much to us. As St Augustine said in his Confessions: "You
have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest
in you." An tAthair Micheál de Liostúin has a lovely piece about the Trinity. He
talks of how the Son – out of deep love for his Father – goes out to bring
everyone into the circle of love they knew in heaven. Jesus wants "to bring
Joseph and Mary, Peter and Paul, and everyone into the Muintearas." This
outward spiralling love has informed my understanding of God and how I live
my faith today.
Childhood Faith - As a young adult, I had to let go of the lovely safe childhood
faith my parents had given me in order to choose my own spiritual path. I was
lucky to discover the friendship of Muintearas Íosa, a Limerick youth
apostolate that kept the three fires of Fáilte, Foghlaim agus Guí alive (welcome,
learning and prayer). Here I found a happy community that showed me that
faith was not a separate matter from public life. It was a way of bringing
friendship and faith, with mutual accountability, together. The circle began to
widen from family and close friends to the wider community. Since the early
90s, I have always worked or studied in the Catholic Church in some way. I knew
that my call was to delight in the people of God so that they would know their
own baptismal calling as good and true, which is a fancy way of saying that I
wanted people to run their own parishes through parish pastoral councils,
ministry groups, prayer and other services. (People includes clergy, yes). I
dedicated over 20 years of my life to that dream, working in parishes and
dioceses as invited. At heart was my conviction that people who build their own
faith communities are free, loving and open. In every community I felt that spiral
of love widen to include all the baptised and friends of the baptised into the
divine Muintearas. Love that could, or would, not welcome the gifts of all
who wish to serve or be served became way too small for my God.
Change Of Role - As I approached my 50s, a change of role beckoned, and I
moved from pastoral development to running a spirituality centre. I felt I could
best support people now by offering space for reflection and nourishment
rather than training. I was lucky to get the opportunity to work with the Holy
Faith sisters in Glasnevin in Dublin. People asked if I found Dublin too urban,
but the location has tremendous natural beauty. I discovered that ‘Laudato Si'
began to speak to me in a deep and personal way. Walking under the
magnificent Irish oaks, I began to see the divine revealed in nature as well as
humanity, in ways that called to my heart. In this beautiful encyclical, Pope
Francis writes: "It cannot be emphasised enough how everything is
interconnected...Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from
ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included
in it and thus in constant interaction with it."
I remembered that many medieval monasteries were established in places of
beauty and quiet, where it was easier to notice the daily divine. One evening,
as dusk approached, I watched a dandelion close for the night and saw that, in
this folding and unfolding universe, we humans are born out of, not into, the
world and that the whole world is holy. I understood that the Muintearas
welcome of Jesus encircles the whole of creation. Every carbon atom and water
molecule is part of the cosmic Body of Christ. Every flower is evidence of God's
love and we humans are the ones who have the ability to experience this
beauty consciously. (Continued on back page)
I realised that my fears, anxiousness, and worries were separating me from the
world and God. Instead of just fixing the world for God, I began to believe that
I could let myself experience God in the unfolding universe, just as it is right
now. Like all beautiful insights, the bliss wasn't permanent, but this precious
insight has opened wide my understanding of and conversations about God. I
came to see that some of my plans for immediate change came from a place of
fear or ego, and that love purifies intention. Christ is a lamp for my feet, my
guide and companion, but I must walk that path with love. I realised that any
claims of love that do not include the gifted and the wounded are too small
for God. No amount of theological jargon or institutional permissions would
make that better. Justice is what love looks like in public, as the philosopher
Cornel West says, and God is love. I have come to believe in four paths that
bring me into the divine – integrity, kindness, beauty and stillness. If I can
hold onto these, I am connected to God as God is always connected to me.
Some days it's easy. Most days it is not. However, there isn't a day when I wish
I hadn't experienced the love of God, which leaves my heart restless and
listening for the daily divine.
It doesn't have to be the blue iris,
it could be weeds in a vacant lot,
or a few small stones; just pay attention,
then patch a few words together
and don't try to make them elaborate,
this isn't a contest but the doorway into thanks,
and a silence in which another voice may speak.
(Mary Oliver, 'Prayer')
Seeing your Life through the Lens of the Gospel John Byrne OSA
1. The healing of the deaf mute provides us with an opportunity to reflect on
the importance of communication in our lives. The healing touch of Jesus
brought the man from isolation into community. Who have been the people
who touched you when you felt isolated and alone (perhaps during the recent
lockdown) and helped you to come out of painful aloneness? For whom have
you done this?
2. Deafness is symbolic of being unable to hear what is being said to us. What
a difference when our ears are opened! Perhaps you can recall a time when
your ears were opened and you heard in a new way that you were loved - by
God or by another person.
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The highlight of the Season of Creation Events is the online webinar Caring for God’s Creatures.
https://www.dioceseofkerry.ie/2021/09/webinar -thursday-16th-sept.
The Diocesan Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee (JPIC) host a free webinar focusing on the importance of protecting precious habitats, featuring two Kerry projects The Curlew Conservation Programme and The Pearl Mussel Project. Speakers include Patricia Deane, MacGillycuddy Reeks European Innovation Partnership (EIP), Hubert Servignat, Curlew Conservation Programme and Dr Mary Catherine Gallagher, Pearl Mussel Project. The devastation of the Killarney National Park will also be a focus. Positive action is central to the event.
Together…let’s restore Our Common Home. “The climate crisis requires our decisive action, here and now and the Church is fully committed to playing her part.” Pope Francis.
The Guest Speakers
Hubert Servignat
Project Manager Curlew Conservation Programme
‘Hubert Servignat is a French native established in Ireland for 20 years; his background is in engineering and systems organisations. He has also been a National Tour Guide in Ireland for 12 years and a surveyor in various conservation programmes (Peregrine Falcon, Hen Harrier). He is Project Manager of the Curlew Conservation Programme, started in 2017 by the National Parks Wildlife Service to save the last remaining breeding Irish Curlew.’
Patricia Deane
Project Manager MacGillycuddy Reeks European Innovation Partnership (EIP)
Patricia Deane is employed by the local development company South Kerry Development Partnership. She works as a Project Manager for a European Innovation Partnership project in the MacGillycuddy Reeks, funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine as part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. The project involves working closely with farmers to help improve the sustainability and economic viability of farming, through the development of practical, achievable actions and innovative solutions to improve the condition of habitats of this Natura 2000 area.
Dr Mary Catherine Gallagher BSc, MSc, PhD
Project Ecologist Pearl Mussel Project
Mary Catherine graduated with an honours degree (BSc) in Zoology from UCC in 2011. Following that, she worked in the education centre in Fota Wildlife Park, where she was responsible for giving talks and tours to the public and school groups as well as assisting with field ecology courses for second level students.
Mary Catherine then undertook a masters degree (MSc) in marine biology in UCC. This involved a 6-month research project which was focused on the ecology of an invasive algae species. This research developed her interest in the area of invasive species ecology, which led to Mary Catherine carrying out a PhD on an invasive barnacle species from 2013-2016. Mary Catherine has also worked as a marine biology tutor for primary school children and as a marine ecology walks leader on blue flag beaches.
Since joining Wetland Surveys Ireland Mary Catherine has been gaining a range of experience in habitat surveys and mapping, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), report compilation and work on the Pearl Mussel Project.
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Author: Denis Walsh – 14/07/21
Between 1919 and 1921 Ireland’s past heroes fought fearlessly during The War of Independence and one hundred years later we are in the grip of another battle for our freedoms. This time ironically its the Irish Government who are threatening its citizen’s liberties. More ironic still is that many of our brave men and women paid the ultimate sacrifice for this country and wanted nothing in return but the hope of a lasting freedom, yet the ‘leaders’ we now have are some of the best paid in the world and seem all too enthusiastic to rip our rights from us. I would use the word ‘leaders’ with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. In my opinion they never were leaders nor have the best interest of the people they serve at heart.
http://theadvertiser.ie/the-illusion-of-freedom-in-an-unfree-world/
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Speech at the North Carolina Republican Convention in Greenville, N.C., Saturday, June 5, 2021
https://www.priestsforlife.org/elections/trumprallies/
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From Athea News July 7 2021
The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
If you are making assumptions be prepared to be wrong, otherwise they wouldn’t be assumptions; they would be certainties. A person who is not well dressed and doing what may be termed a menial job may be assumed to be unsuccessful and not too bright but that person may be highly intelligent and values a simple life over material things. On the flip side a person driving a flash car, living in a big house with all the trappings of wealth may seem successful but in fact may have a very complicated life and crave an existence that is not so demanding and time consuming. A person clothed in religious costume may be assumed to be saintly and holy but we know that some are far from what they are expected to be. I could go on and on but I remember one really good example from a film recorded many years ago. It was one of the famous “Pink Panther” movies starring the great Peter Sellers as the bumbling French detective, inspector Jacques Clouseau who spoke English with an appalling French accent. In one scene he was booking into a hotel, somewhere in France. Manning the desk was a very old man with white hair and glasses who was busy writing in a ledger. On the floor by the desk was a little dog who looked harmless enough. “Does your dog bite Monsieur” inquired Clouseau. Without looking up the receptionist replied; “no”. Clouseau bent down to pat the dog who snapped at him and bit his finger. Angrily he confronted the old man shouting in a loud voice “I thought you said your dog does not bite”. “No Monsieur, he does not” came the reply. “But he just bit me” at which point the receptionist looked over the counter and said “that Monsieur is not my dog”. I thought it was hilarious at the time and I still find it amusing today. Life though can be stranger than fiction. I like to walk most days and once or twice a week I come down Church Road and in the Glin road as part of my route. At the cross I am sometimes joined by a little brown dog who follows me to the village. I have never given him any encouragement, in fact I ignore him completely but he still follows me. When I say follows, he actually runs a bit in front of me but unfortunately he has the habit of crossing over the road and back again. On one occasion he did this in front of a car that had to brake suddenly to avoid hitting him. The driver, a lady, stopped the car, got out and proceeded to give out to me for not having my dog on a lead. She pointed out that it was not only irresponsible but illegal and that she had a good mind to call the Gardai there and then and report me. I explained to her that the dog was not in fact mine and eventually she calmed down and drove off though I don’t think she fully believed me. I can, however, see where she is coming from and I fear for the welfare of that little dog so I appeal to whoever owns that dog to make sure he is not free to roam the roads, putting his own life and the lives of others in danger. If anything does happen, the owners will be responsible.
Continuing my walking experiences, I took a stroll on the new greenway in Abbeyfeale on Monday. It is now reopened from Abbeyfeale to Rathkeale and they are working on the line to Listowel at the other side of the station. They have made a fantastic job of tarmacing and landscaping the whole line with proper safety gates for farm crossings. It is a pleasure to walk on a surface that is like the top of a snooker table and no doubt will be well used by those needing a bit of exercise. The only complaint I have is that it may be too good! Up to now it was just a gravel surface that was fine for walking and suitable for ordinary and mountain bikes. It was great to see families out cycling together at a leisurely pace. Now it is ideal for the faster more sporty types of bike that are capable of very high speeds. I was passed by a few on Monday. All I heard was a “wooosh” sound that was so close I would not have had time to get out of the way. I fear for the safety of young children who have a habit of wandering out onto the track and may not be aware of a bike approaching from behind at high speed. I don’t want to stop cyclists from using this great facility but I hope they will be advised to use their warning devices regularly to alert others that they are about to overtake them. We need to be careful on all roads. Anyway, the track is there to be enjoyed and I intend to take advantage of it.
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ATHEA NEWS
Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
There was a touch of “egg on your face” in political circles at home last week. A Fianna Fáil member accused Sinn Fein of using volunteers and students to go from door to door, pretending to be from a polling company that did not exist, asking householders to fill out sample ballot papers. Sinn Féin admitted that it had been the practice but that it had stopped some years ago. Of course the media got on to it straight away and made a big deal out of it but, low and behold, the other two big parties suddenly put their hands up and confessed that they too had used the same method of polling in the past. The media kept the story alive trying to make a difference between those who pretended to be from a polling company and those who did not. It was all a storm in a tea cup. The reality is that all political parties take polls before elections. The ones with money use professional companies that don’t come cheap so it is no wonder that volunteers or low cost students were used in days when the coffers weren’t so healthy. There was much made of the “deception” tactics of those with the fake companies but what difference did it make? The person at the door was asked to fill out a sample ballot paper. It was up to them if they wanted to or not. The data provided would have been useless to anyone except political parties and it didn’t make one bit of difference what company or any the pollsters represented. It is the summer time and we can look forward to more stories like this as we enter the silly season. There was no need for such actions long ago as everybody knew what political party everybody else belonged to. I once had the privilege of listening to two party activists discussing a particular area before a general election. The conversation went like this. “He’s alright, he’s one of ours”. “What about the Casey’s”?(fictional name). “they are the other crowd always but Mick is back from England and he is a bit of a rebel and might be worth talking to”. Tom Donoghue would be ours but, blast him, he mightn’t go to vote.” “Make sure a car is sent for him so”. There was no need for pollsters at that time but I suppose things were a little more black and white in those days with the civil war parties commanding 90% of the votes in most rural areas. There were no big posters on every available pole either and the main means of communication was the after Mass speech. This would take place outside the church gate as people emerged from Mass. It was a good means of addressing the voters as 99% of the population attended the Masses on Sundays. Candidates for election and political dignitaries would shout through megaphones extolling the virtues of the party and promising all sorts of goodies if they won the election. Roughly half the crowd would be from the opposing party so a lot of bantering and heckling went on. To be honest, it was great entertainment and a bit of fun for us youngsters. I remember one time watching a group get ready outside the church in Abbeyfeale. Everything was set to go and as the church doors opened, a visiting TD took the mike and began to orate. One of the local members pulled him by the coat and said “take your time, that is only the Communion crowd”, referring to practice of some of the men who stood at the back of the church to leave as soon as the priest started to give out Communion. On another occasion a speaker who had trouble pronouncing Ps was responding to a jibe from someone in the crowd that he had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and didn’t understand ordinary people’s problems. He said “I am not a rich man, as a matter of fact I am a peasant and all my people were peasants” (which sounded like “pheasants”). A wag in the audience shouted back at him; “come down out of that and don’t be making game of yourself”. Getting the people to come out and vote was another problem so cars were dispatched all over the area to bring voters to the poling stations. Some people, who wanted to remain unlabelled as it were, did not like to be seen in a particular party’s car but others took great pride in it. One man, who lived near me would go to the school, which was the polling station, in a Fianna Fáil car and then vote Fine Gael!. It took them years to find out they were being hoodwinked.
Today there will be a demonstration, outside where the Dáil is meeting in Dublin by people from Donegal and Mayo whose homes are falling apart due to the use of blocks affected by Pyrite and Mica. There is a scheme offering 90% of the cost of rebuilding but they want 100%. I have every sympathy with those who are affected by this problem but I have difficulty seeing how it is the government’s fault. If contaminated material was used, surely it is the companies who built the homes that are culpable. I have the same feeling about other redress schemes. How can the government of today, who weren’t in power at the time and had nothing to do with what happened decades ago, be held responsible and expected to pay out millions of Euros in compensation? People think government money is free but it is not. It is your money and mine that has been raised in taxes and there has been a huge drain on finances in recent times with the bank collapse and the pandemic payment which. Incidentally, we have to borrow to facilitate. There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to pay for every ill in the state. We are , as they say, where we are so maybe it would be the best thing if we paid for the Pyrite and Mica problem and compensate those victims of the mother and baby homes and industrial schools and then draw a line under the whole process. We simply cannot afford it and it would not be fair if future generations were saddled with the bill for some misdemeanours committed today that will later be uncovered.
Delighted to see that Diarmuid O’Riordan’s Pharmacy will be administrating the vaccination for Covid beginning next week. It is a great opportunity for those over 50 who still haven’t got the jab to do so and avoid having to travel to Limerick, or even further afield if there is racing on. The more people that are vaccinated, the nearer we are to a return to normal life.
From Athea News site
Fr Denis O Mahony poses questions on Horizons
Fr Denis O Mahony found himself thinking about the question of the future church, when he read the article by Fr. Gerard Moloney : “What future for the Irish Church?”, in Reality Magazine, this month. He discusses this with Mary Fagan on Horizons Sunday morning and invites a response. The full article can be read below and the four points for discussion and feedback are outlined here:
What do you feel about the following statements?
1.‘It’s all a far cry from 1979, when Pope John Paul at Shannon Airport, congratulated the Irish people on their extraordinary loyalty to the Church down the centuries……..Now less than two generations after Pope John Paul’s visit, all has changed, changed utterly.’ (Moloney)
2.‘What is most striking is the level of antipathy (hostility) towards the Church. Many people haven’t just casually given up on religion; they have consciously and deliberately walked away from it.’
3.Despite the wonderful work and quiet dedication of lay people, religious and priests up and down the country, it seems too late now for a great new dawn of the Church in Ireland.
4.All the rest of us can do, the best any of us can do, is to give quiet witness to our faith every day by the kind of people we are and the example we give.
If you have comments you can send them on by clicking here: Contact Us
What Future For The Irish Church? Gerard Moloney CsrR
Few Dublin archbishops have entered office in more testing times than those facing Archbishop Dermot Farrell. Not only is the priest shortage growing ever more acute, but the COVID-19 lockdowns have also exacerbated the diocese’s financial burdens. There is the challenge of motivating priests and people wearied by abuse scandals and by a society and culture that is increasingly anti-clerical. Few institutions have had as rapid and brutal a fall from grace as the Irish Catholic Church. Archbishop Farrell’s task is unenviable. It’s all a far cry from 1979, when Pope John Paul II at Shannon, congratulated the Irish people on their extraordinary loyalty to the church down the centuries. “Ireland, semper fidelis,” he said. Ireland, always faithful. The vast crowds that turned out during his visit and the extraordinary fervour on display during those three glorious autumnal days testified to the apparent truth of that observation.
To most observers, it did seem as if Ireland would remain semper fidelis. Irish Catholics had always clung tenaciously to the faith of their fathers. It appeared to be a defining characteristic of the indigenous Irish. They had clung to it during Penal times, when to be Catholic meant to lose everything. They had clung to it in famine times when proselytisers tried to woo them with soup and schoolbooks. They had clung to it in the decades after the Second World War when other Western countries slowly lost their religion and liberal values were beginning to take hold. Now, less than two generations after John Paul’s visit, all has changed, changed utterly. If the Irish were tenacious in clinging to the church in the past, more and more of them are now equally resolute in wanting nothing whatsoever to do with it. With extraordinary speed, we have gone from semper fidelis to non-semper fidelis. It has left many clerics and traditional Catholics punch-drunk and disoriented.
What has been most striking is the level of antipathy towards the Church. Many people haven’t just casually or carelessly given up on religion; they have consciously and deliberately walked away from it. The awful litany of Church-related scandals is a major reason for this strength of feeling, but the anger runs deeper than that. It’s a reaction to Church leaders’ arrogance in the past and the overweening control they exercised over so many facets of people’s public and private lives. Many people, including regular churchgoers, have been increasingly turned off by what they regard as the Church’s flawed stance on sexual morality and its refusal to give women an equal voice in its life and ministry.
Many who reject the church weren’t even born when John Paul visited Ireland but Irish people have a residual collective memory of the Church’s role in the Irish state’s early decades. They are now reacting viscerally against it (a memory coloured by media depictions of the Church and its role). Careerism, clericalism, vanity, pietism and pride have been the toxic mix that has so damaged the Church in Ireland, and elsewhere. The only way forward for the Church lies in humility and service – not in power or careerism or ornate vestments or the trappings of office or in waging culture wars against the modern world. In this, Pope Francis is showing the way.
It lies in mercy – not legalism or moral highhandedness or thinking the Church has all the answers. Pope Francis’ famous “Who am I to judge?” comment on homosexuality made headlines because it indicated a more compassionate approach to moral questions. Only when it is seen as slow to condemn and willing to stand in the other person’s shoes will the Church begin to regain some little moral authority. Above all, it lies in being genuinely inclusive – not a top-down, elite club for celibate male clerics that systematically discriminates against women, but a people’s Church with structures that enable the sensus fidei (the sense of the faithful) to be heard, irrespective of gender, role or rank. Those days when popes praised us for our fidelity are gone and they won’t return.
Despite the best efforts of good leaders like Archbishop Farrell, despite Pope Francis’ extraordinary impact worldwide and the hope he has instilled in many disillusioned Catholics, despite the wonderful work and quiet dedication of lay people, religious and priests in parishes up and down the country, it seems too late now for a great new dawn of the Church in Ireland. There has been no ‘Francis effect’ here and, after the extended lockdowns of the past year, and with so many religious services streaming online, who can tell how many regular churchgoers will return to the pews once church doors open again? The Church and religion won’t collapse completely, but they will become increasingly irrelevant to most people, who will use them only to mark rites of passage, if they use them at all. All the rest of us can do, the best any of us can do, is to give quiet witness to our faith every day by the kind of people we are and the example we give. (Reality Magazine April 2021)
https://www.dioceseofkerry.ie/2021/04/fr-denis-o-mahony-poses-questions-on-horizons/
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News-02/03/2021
by Domhnall DB under Athea News
Gratitudes
As we all try to navigate this challenging COVID journey and dig deep to maintain our momentum, we are constantly exposed to negative messaging which does little to help morale. An example of this for me is this past week when I tuned in to the Joe Duffy Phone-In – this focused on and highlighted the deplorable situation that many of our elderly and vulnerable citizens found themselves in. They eagerly awaited their vaccine appointment only to be advised the day before that it was cancelled. This situation was due to the fact that Vaccine supplies had not been delivered- despite the best efforts of the respective medical teams. I listened to family members who so eloquently articulated the despair being experienced by their loved ones. Their glimmer of hope and lifeline to a new chapter was now extinguished.
In stark contrast some hours later I was driving my elderly mother (almost 99 years old) Hannah Scanlon to our local medical centre for her vaccine. As I waited in the car I couldn’t but reflect on the fact that here we were in this small rural community in Athea where our parishioners were being treated locally and to schedule.
Athea community is so very fortunate to have such a progressive GP as Dr. Kieran Murphy and we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude for his outstanding service to all of us. As the saying goes “It take a village to raise a child” so it also takes a team to achieve what is being accomplished by The Westbury Medical Centre – The COVID Vaccination Programme is being run like a well oiled machine and implemented with military precision – thank you to Breda, Mary-Ann, Margaret and the extended team for all your sterling work.
So whilst we can be bombarded with negativity and this can be overwhelming- there is always a reason to be
grateful – sometimes it is staring us in the face.
Thank you to The Westbury Medical Centre Team for a very worthy entry in my Gratitude Journal.
Take care everyone, stay safe and look out for the “Gratitudes” .
John Scanlon
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The reason may be rooted in our deep evolutionary past. Scholars suggest humans may become depressed to help us focus attention on a problem that might cause someone to fall out of step with family, friends, clan or the larger society—an outcast status that, especially in Paleolithic times, would have meant an all-but-certain tragic fate. Depression, by this account, came about as a mood state to make us think long and hard about behaviors that may have caused us to become despondent because some issue in our lives is socially problematic.
A recent article in American Psychologist, the flagship publication of the American Psychological Association, weighs what the possible evolutionary origins of depression might mean for arguments about the merits of psychotherapy versus antidepressants
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Diocese of Kerry
January 8 2021
...why not ponder this Poem for the Fourth of January by Richard Hendrick ofm cap as you begin your day...it works for Jan 8th too
Four days ago
you resolved to begin again;
and you did.
But so far today has been
difficult.
Don’t worry.
Here is a secret that may help.
The trees do not know
that the new year has begun.
Neither does the mountain.
The stones keep their own deep time.
The first of January means little to the stars.
And even though the Moon and Sun offer us the service of marking the days,
the months, the years; they
are not foolish enough to count them.
So you see to begin or not
is your choice in every moment.
The river will continue its journey to the sea whether you plunge in or not.
For today perhaps it is simply
necessary for you to sit beside it a while
listening to its song of presence,
just knowing it is always ready for you
when you are ready to dive in again.
Let the cosmos teach you.
Before and after are always out of reach.
The calendar page is always falling away.
But every moment bears within it
the possibility of a new year, of a new life,
of a new you.
For every moment arises from Divine mind and heart, containing within
the breathing of the Dove,
the fiery heart,
the origin of all.
the very ordering of creation
the healing of all we find broken,
lost or yearning within.
So hear the call of the moment,
be open as the flower who,
not knowing nor asking
the time of her coming or going,
breathes deep and
simply blooms.
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Throughout the pandemic we have seen a deluge of outright lies, conspiracy theories and pseudoscience from various peddlers of self-interest.
But to a philosopher like me, more vexing than these calculated cases of disinformation has been the amount of sloppy reasoning in public discourse about Australia’s COVID epidemic.
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Deacon Omar Gutiérrez Sunday Guide
December 21, 2020
Sunday, Dec. 27, is the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Mass Readings: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14; Psalm 128:1-5; Colossians 3:12-21; Luke 2:22-40.
Last week, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we heard about the fidelity of God and his promise to David. This promise was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, which we celebrated just a few days ago. This Sunday, we celebrate fidelity as well, the fidelity of and within the family.
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R.I.P. – Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD
…His death reminds me that he taught us to sing the “In Paradisum” Gregorian chant, which he considered very beautiful. Have a listen in his memory!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7F-N-Yd8dE
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ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL
Christmas Day Mass - December 25th 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_u-X5GfiSM
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Part of the Viking exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland- Archaeology- Learn more about Viking Ireland in a series of videos here-
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Pocket worthy Stories to fuel your mind.
The Quote That Finally Changed My Mind on Minimalism
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I was working at a nonprofit that supports immigration attorneys. Even though every day I went to work to fight for more fair and just immigration policy, I felt that there was always more to do and more to give. For someone like Erin, it was even more of a daunting task — there was so much going on, she did not know where to start.
When it comes to an issue like immigration, there are a myriad of ways to contribute your gifts, your voice, and your time to the fight for sound policy and more humane treatment of those who come here looking for a better life.
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Thomas and I begin our conversation with his work around suicide, why men commit suicide at a rate 4X higher than women, and how loneliness is a primary factor in what drives men to take their own lives. From there we talk about the problem of male loneliness in general and how it can begin in a man’s thirties and get worse as he advances through middle age. We unpack the difference between subjective and objective loneliness and how you can feel alone in a crowd, as well as be something Thomas calls “alone but oblivious.” We discuss how everyone is “spoiled” by relationships in their youth, and why men struggle more than women to learn to take the initiative in this regard later in life.
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Weekly Bulletin
Third Sunday of Advent
13th December 2020
Dear Friends of Sacred Heart Church, Limerick
Today is the Third Sunday of Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday. ‘Gaudete’ means ‘Rejoice’. The Introit in today’s Mass begins: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always’ (Philippines: 4 - 6). Read the full text because the advice we are given as Catholics is to rejoice and pray, for the Lord is near. The Church uses today rose vestments, and because we are rejoicing the organ is played and there are flowers on the altar. Why? Because we are full of joy at the coming of the Lord, the Saviour of the world. Yes it is ‘Joyful Sunday’.
Have you already read the Apostolic Letter Patris Corde of the Holy Father Pope Francis on the 150th Anniversary of the proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church (8th December 2020). Pope Francis has proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from 8th December 2020 until 8th December 2021. The Apostolic Penitentiary has issued a Decree granting plenary indulgences for the year. This document is also a good preparation for Christmas.
A part of today’s joy is also to see Canon de Martin back to Limerick. He spent the last two months in Belfast to fill in for Canon Heppelle who had to renew his visa. We were very pleased to have had Canon Heppelle with us as he was en route to and from Belfast and whilst we are sorry that he has had to leave us. We look forward to having Canon de Martin back with us. Welcome home Canon!
Christmas is a special time and we want to honour God by making His house beautiful. Last Wednesday we worked hard in putting up the Christmas trees and creating the setting for the Crib. So a big ‘thank-you’ to all who volunteered their time and energies to make His house ready for His coming as a little baby, The Saviour of the world.
Also last Wednesday I celebrated a Requiem Mass (Month mine) for Rev. Father James SMA. ‘Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilis’. He was a tireless worker in the Lord’s vineyard and now he is reaping his eternal reward.
As you can see in the pictures below, the painting is making very good progress. The ceiling is beautiful and a promise of the beauty to come. I am sorry for the scaffolding that will still be in place for the Christmas season. It’s a pity but you know it is necessary at the moment. We look forward to the day when it won’t be there and we have a newly painted wall and ceiling to light up our senses!
Yesterday, 12th Dec was the 4th anniversary of the death of Paul Higgins. We keep praying for him and for his family. We all remember how involved he was with our community and how generous he was with his time in helping us make the church beautiful. What a lovely legacy he has left us.
Did you know that you will soon be able to include your loved ones in our Novena of Masses that will start on Christmas Day? The page will soon be be ready.
Current regulations have meant that everything is a bit slow this year but the Christmas schedule is in preparation and it will be published next week. Apologies if you were hoping to know the timetable of the various ceremonies and other plans by now.
Wishing you a blessed week,
Canon Lebocq
Prior of Sacred Heart Church
Live stream from the Sacred Heart Church, Limerick
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Previous studies have suggested that if a lot of these industrial processes were to suddenly shut down, it would lead to short-term warming because the atmosphere would lose the reflective effect of aerosols. But as the lockdown cleared skies, temperatures didn’t rocket.
In new research, we show that lockdown had a negligible effect on global temperatures. So what really happened?
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Tom Kirkbride
Lawyers should never ask a Georgia grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.
In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked, 'Mrs. Jones, do you know me?' She responded, 'Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you'll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.'
The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, 'Mrs. Jones, do you know the defence attorney?'
She again replied, 'Why yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him.'
The defence attorney nearly died.
The judge asked both counsellors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said,
'If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you both to the electric chair.
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“We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000,” the paper said.
https://www.ncregister.com/news/could-car-seat-laws-really-be-lowering-birthrates
The new coronavirus has swiftly become a daunting global challenge. But at World Vision — a ministry born of crisis and shaped by many humanitarian emergencies since — we remain hopeful. We’ve witnessed God’s guiding hand throughout our history.
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Are you struggling with anxiety during these difficult times? Max Lucado offers five steps to interrupt that downward spiral and offer your anxiety about the coronavirus up to God. Nothing is too big for Him!
https://www.worldvision.org/blog/anxiety-coronavirus-interrupt-downward-spiral?campaign=400046109&utm_source=AC&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=02Sep20OL&utm_content=cultivation&acuid=d8d865edc87ac7ef1f8bec2bfcded1fdee5b231d88596efd1cd254d942700d44
From: Sean Sheehy <frlistowel@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2020, 13:54
Subject: 26th Sunday
To:
Justice Makes Us Winners
St. Thomas Aquinas noted that if we didn’t know about divine justice we’d to invent it in order to be certain that everyone gets his or her due. Giving a person his or her due means treating everyone according to what’s right as revealed by Jesus’ Christ and taught by His Church. To be just in our dealing with one another is to be fair to each other, to be honest. Justice calls for more than forgiveness when we wrong God, our neighbour, or our self. It also calls for restitution. When we sin we act unjustly and damage our relationships, our character, and humanity as a whole. Justice demands that we make restitution for that damage. We must restore the good we have rejected. Mercy comes into the picture by giving the wrongdoer an opportunity to repent and make up for his or her sin. Many Christians forget or don’t realize that confessing their sins is all they need in order to be back in God’s graces and re-united with His Church. God’s forgiveness requires the penitent to “do penance and amend my life.” (Act of Contrition) That means working to restore the good we have damaged by our sin.
Jesus’ Church begins this week with God addressing those who accuse Him of injustice. “Is it my way that is unfair, or rather are your ways not unfair. When a virtuous man turns away from virtue … he must die (if he doesn’t repent). When a wicked man turns away from wickedness (he repents and seeks forgiveness), and he does what is right and just he shall not die.” God’s justice rewards or punishes us according to how we are living now, not according to what we did yesterday. Because God wants to save everyone He adds mercy to justice by giving us many opportunities to “do what is just, and to love goodness, and to walk humbly” with Him. (Micah 6:12) Justice makes us winners because “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” (Prov 21:3) Doing what is right according to God’s will makes us winners because it aligns us with Jesus. Injustice, sin, aligns us with Satan and makes us losers.
Jesus came to put order in disordered, unjust, relationships. He both warned and urged everyone to realize that, “This is the time of fulfilment. The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the Gospel.” (Ml 1:15) Warning someone to change his or her evil ways is always both an act of justice and mercy because it’s motivated by caring for the wellbeing of the individual. God cares for each of us more deeply than we can imagine. “Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? Says the Lord God. Do I not rather rejoice when he returns from his evil way that he may live?” (Ezek 18: 23) This is why Jesus authorized and empowered Peter and the other Apostles, as the first leaders of His Church, to forgive those who repent. The Holy Spirit reminds us that, “if we acknowledge or sins, He who is just can be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrong. If we say, ‘We have never sinned.’ We make Him a liar, and His word finds no place in us.” (1 Jn 1:9-10)
One of the biggest problems in our world today is the denial of sin, or blame someone else for it, which perpetuates injustice. It’s no wonder that today so many lack peace of mind, heart, and soul. Where there’s no justice, community withers and people become dysfunctional. Acknowledging our sins means that we recognize our need to act justly by living according to Jesus’ Gospel. The more we recognize our sinfulness the more we we’ll appreciate Jesus present in His Church offering us the grace of forgiveness, the means of making restitution, and mercifully empowering us to build just relationships. Then we’ll be able to pray with the Psalmist: “Good and just is the Lord; thus He shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble His way.” (Ps 25:4-9) Just living means we’ll, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory (self-absorption); rather humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but for those of others.” (Phil 2:3-4)
In the parable of the Two Sons Jesus revealed that God judges us by our actions rather than our words. It’s a person’s action that renders him or her just or unjust. (Mt 21:18-32) A father ask his two sons to work in his vineyard. The first said he would and the second refused. Later on the son who rebelled repented and did what was asked while the other, who said “Yes,” reneged. Jesus asked the religious leaders: “Which of the two did what the father wanted?” They answered, “The second.” (Mt 21:31) Jesus’ message was that the faithful son wasn’t the one who said “yes” but the one who acknowledged his disobedience and changed his heart. God, who is all-just, judges us not by appearance but by what we do. (1 Sam 16:7) “All the ways of man may be right in his own eyes, but it is the Lord who weighs the heart.” (Prov 21:2) God’s justice always wants to be merciful but we must admit our need for His mercy and act justly. There is joy in heaven when a sinner repents. (Lk 15:7)To be law-abiding doesn’t mean to be just. Justice comes from a heart enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Justice tempered by mercy always puts us in God’s company which always makes us winners. As sinners we need God’s mercy to be just, hence our need for the Sacrament of Reconciliation to keep us acting justly in all our relationships. (frsos)
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Reflection
Dear Lord,
I thank You for Your Love
for me and for seeing
beyond my faults and
weaknesses. Help me to
be slow to speak and
quick to listen. Help me to
show to others, the same
grace, compassion and
mercy You show to me.
Help me to love with Your
love and be a source of
encouragement to all
around me. I commit
this day to You and all that’s in it.
In Jesus’ name
I ask these things. Amen.
THE CRITICAL WEED
Reflect on this thought-provoking poem:
A little seed lay on the ground,
And soon began to sprout
Seeing all the flowers around
It wondered: ‘how shall I come out?’
The Lily’s face is fair and proud,
But just a trifle cold
The rose, I think, is rather loud,
And its fashion’s getting old
Of the violet some may think well,
But it’s not a flower I’d choose,
Nor even the Canterbury bell,
I’ve never cared for blues
And so it criticized each flower,
This haughty little seed,
Until it woke one summer noon, And found itself a weed!
Thank President Trump for visiting church, JPII center
Inbox
Father Frank's Alerts
Jun 8, 2020, 7:44 PM (3 days ago)
to me
President Trump
Thank President Trump for visiting church, JPII center
June 8, 2020
J G,
I hope you saw what President Trump did last week when he walked across the street from the White House and stood in front of St. John’s Church with a Bible in his hand. St. John’s is an historic church that, according to the Washington Post, is known as the church of the presidents,” since every chief executive since James Madison has attended at least one service there.
That Church had been set on fire by ungodly, violent people who hate America and what it stands for, and who hate us who are believers.
President Trump stood for us. He stood with us. He stood with the Word of God, on which our nation was founded, and said that we would overcome these enemies.
He and First Lady Melania Trump –a Catholic – also visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, on the day that the President signed an executive order prioritizing religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy.
The Knights of Columbus, who established the shrine in 2011, said that the visit to the shrine was appropriate, “given John Paul II was a tireless advocate of religious liberty throughout his pontificate.”
President Trump deserves our thanks for these historic actions, which symbolize in gesture what he is doing in fact: preserving our values against the Democrat Party and outside forces who hate these values and want to destroy them.
I’d like you to help me thank him for that.
Predictably, the Democrat Party and its left-wing wacko allies both in the government and even in Church are striking back. That’s par for the course. They have no arguments, so they just call names. Not knowing how to be leaders themselves, they have no appreciation of leadership when they see it.
Certainly you have heard that “protesters” were cleared from the park in front of St. John’s with tear gas to make way for the President.
Not true.
A violent mob, after receiving various warnings to disperse, was cleared away with smoke canisters precisely because they were violent.
Please take a moment to learn about the many actions President Trump has taken for religious liberty.
Please also read the speech the president gave last year at a United Nations meeting on religious freedom, in which he said, “The United States of America calls upon the nations of the world to end religious persecution.”
But despite everything he’s done, the media and even some in the church were outraged that the president and his Catholic wife went to the shrine.
What is going on?
Would they rather have the oppressive mandates that the Democrat Party wants to impose on believers?
Ironically, it was the Archdiocese of Washington that fought for its religious liberty against the Democrat President Obama’s HHS mandate right alongside with Priests for Life all the way up to the Supreme Court a few years ago, and the election of President Trump gave us victory in that matter.
How quickly we forget; how ungrateful we can sometimes be.
Millions of Americans of faith, including myself, were tremendously inspired by the president’s visit both to St. John’s Church and to the John Paul shrine. If you are one of these Americans, I’m asking you now to let the president know how you feel. And please let him know you are praying for him every day.
Please click here to sign a message thanking President Trump.
Please act today, and please pass along this email to as many others you know who may be interested.
Thank you for being part of the Priests for Life Family!
Sincerely,
Fr. Frank Pavone
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
Priests for Life
PO Box 236695
Cocoa, FL 32923
Phone: 321-500-1000
Toll Free: 888-735-3448
Email: mail@priestsforlife.org
For the last seven years the New York-based National Black Catholic Apostolate for Life, headed by Franciscan Father James Goode, has declared June to be “Abortion and All Acts of Violence Awareness Month in the African-American Community.”
“Abortion is the leading cause of death in the black community,” said Anderson. “People are not aware of that.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s abortion surveillance report, 35 percent of abortions in the United States are performed on African-American women, who make up 12 percent of the U.S. population. Since the legalization of abortion in 1973, more than 14 million black children have been aborted.
https://www.archbalt.org/pro-lifer-says-abortion-is-leading-cause-of-death-in-black-community/
The Governor, of course, does not consider the possibility that there is an intermediate view: that human decisions may have interacted with or have been aided by God’s grace. His protestations seem to show irritation with the notion that God could have anything at all to do with the results or with assisting our actions.
http://blog.adw.org/2020/05/what-role-has-prayer-played-in-driving-down-covid-19-deaths/
Adelaide archaeologist Ian Moffat is on the hunt for the final resting places of potentially hundreds of thousands of forgotten Australians, but he has no intention of disturbing the dead.
When most of us run into obstacles with how we think and approach the world — whether in terms of dealing with mental health issues like depression and anxiety or simply making progress with our relationships and work, we typically try to focus in on solving the perceived problem, or we run away from it. In either case, instead of feeling better, we feel more stuck.
Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the 54th World Communications Day“ That you may tell your children and grandchildren” (Ex 10:2)Life becomes history would like to devote this year’s Message to the theme of storytelling, because I believe that, so as not to lose our bearings, we need to make our own the truth contained in good stories. Stories that build up, not tear down; stories that help us rediscover our roots and the strength needed to move forward together. Amid the cacophony of voices and messages that surround us, we need a human story that can speak of ourselves and of the beauty all around us. A narrative that can regard our world and its happenings with a tender gaze. A narrative that can tell us that we are part of a living and interconnected tapestry. A narrative that can reveal the interweaving of the threads which connect us to one another
The challenges of Covid-19 for the AAVE Group in Brazil
by Margaret Hosty SSL
Covid-19 has given us many new challenges at the AAVE Group in Goiânia, Brazil. As you may recall we work with people living with HIV/AIDS. All of those who come to the AAVE Group are poor and for the most part unemployed.
Many people carry the daily concern that family members, including adult children, no longer practice their faith. In this episode we speak with someone who recently returned to the Catholic Church. We will talk about key things to keep in mind and effective things to do.
https://www.thecatholicviewforwomen.com/episodes/spring-2020-season12-ep12.aspx
Faith and Family for May 31: Receive the Holy Spirit
Minneapolis death
Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, according to an autopsy report. Medical examiners found the combined impact of being restrained by police, underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.
Floyd, a Houston native who had worked security for a nightclub, was arrested for allegedly using counterfeit money at a store to buy cigarettes on Monday evening. An employee who called police described the suspect as possibly drunk, according to an official transcript of the call.
One of God’s harder rules is that He doesn’t want us getting angry as much as we’d like to. Getting angry makes us happy. We wouldn’t get angry so often if it didn’t. Especially when we can get righteously angry and direct our wrath against the enemy. That’s really fun.
https://stream.org/getting-angry-makes-us-happy-god-says-no/
Virus Panic Means More Virus Deaths
It isn’t overconfidence that’s killing Americans, as The Atlantic charged in its story about a red state re-opening: “Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice.” No, the panic is what’s killing the thousands of elderly Americans trapped in nursing homes, without visitors, clergy, or even Last Rites at their lonely deaths. Because according to the Courier Times, what drove blue state governors to dump virus patients at nursing homes was fear.
https://stream.org/are-these-blue-state-governors-just-pro-virus/
It is important that children are able to continue with their usual activities as much as possible. Therefore, the Public Health Agency of Sweden
https://www.krisinformation.se/en/news/2020/may/holiday-camps-are-ok-this-summer
CORONAVIRUS
Man who graduated with a master's degree and who worked in Shenzhen Hospital (Guangdong Province, China) sent the following notes on Coronavirus for guidance: March 2020.
1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold
2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose.
3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees. It hates the Sun.
4. If someone sneezes with it, it takes about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne.
5. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours - so if you come into contact with any metal surface - wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap.
6. On fabric it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it.
7. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice.
8. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes, but - a lot can happen during that time - you can rub your eyes, pick your nose unwittingly and so on.
9. You should also gargle as a prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice.
10. Can't emphasise enough - drink plenty of water!
THE SYMPTOMS
1. It will first infect the throat, so you'll have a sore throat lasting 3/4 days
2. The virus then blends into a nasal fluid that enters the trachea and then the lungs, causing pneumonia. This takes about 5/6 days further.
3. With the pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty in breathing.
4. The nasal congestion is not like the normal kind. You feel like you're drowning. It's imperative you then seek immediate attention.
Roll Up, Roll Up
By Domhnall de Barra
The circus is back in town, yes, what we call the general election is upon us and in full swing at the moment. How do you know this is happening, well, you will notice that, as you drive the road, smiling faces beam down on you from large posters , pinned to every available pole, encouraging you to give your No. 1 to the owner of the smile. You will also notice large groups of people, mostly men, trudging from door to door, with a candidate in the lead supported by many of the local party faithful, canvassing for your vote. The papers are full of ads espousing the virtues of the various candidates and, if that isn’t enough, the airwaves and TV channels constantly remind us that we have a choice to make at the polling booths in the near future. Who would be an aspiring politician ? The hoops they have to jump through, especially leading up to an election time, are enough to put anyone off politics for life. Why is it all so necessary? Surely there is a better way of doing things. I don’t believe that anybody votes for somebody because they like their picture on a poster or that they have called to their door looking for a vote. The problem is; if one does it, they all must do it. This was first evident in the US, where advertising is big business, when companies were forced to advertise just to compete with the opposition. There is a huge expense attached to printing posters, buying ads in local and national radios and TVs, and even the physical cost of trying to get to every doorstep before polling day. The truth is, they have a minimal effect on how the average person with a modicum of intelligence casts their vote. The big parties can afford the cost but it makes it very difficult for independents and smaller parties. There is a lot of “spin” in politics of late. The backroom gurus devise strategies for the party hopefuls and put us, the voters, under the microscope to see how we might be influenced. They are very good at their job and, unfortunately, many of us will believe the spoof they produce. They break us down into categories and make sure the manifestos they produce will have something that benefits each category to maximise the vote. Yes, we are promised less tax, more wages, more houses, more nurses and doctors to alleviate the hospital gridlock, more Gardaí on the beat, extra childcare support, a return to the retiring age of 65, a rise in the old age pension etc. There is something for everyone in the audience. Every party does this and will explain, if asked, how it will be funded. My question is: if it is all so possible, why has it not been done already? The answer of course is: it is not possible to give everything to everybody on the revenue we collect at the moment. Everyone seems to have forgotten about the national debt. We are not cash rich, we owe an enormous amount in borrowings that are necessary to keep us going from year to year so we have to be realistic in our expectations. In reality there is very little difference in the approach of the vast majority of politicians at the moment. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, or as some wag insultingly put it: Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber! No matter how much they protest, despite the political history, their policies are identical. The largest party in opposition is Sinn Féin. They have made great strides since throwing off the shackles of the IRA but, despite their popularity, both of the major parties say they will not form a coalition with them after the election. This is hypocrisy because both parties gave full backing to Sinn Fein taking part in the power sharing executive at Stormont. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander and I believe they have a legitimate claim to be included in any discussions to form a future government. There is a lot wrong with their economic strategy but they do represent a departure from the type of American politics that we have copied in the past. Fine Gael, in particular, always placed their faith in private enterprise. This is based on the capitalist system where conditions are created so that business interests can flourish. The hope is that entrepreneurs will provide jobs for people and that a rising tide lifts all boats. A good idea it seems but the capitalist system survives on making as much profit as possible and part of this is lowering costs. Workers are at the lower end of the scale and don’t benefit from any success the company they work for may have. This is why major employers move their manufacturing plants to parts of the world where the conditions for workers are little more than slave labour. Sinn Fein could provide a balance to the governments approach and maybe get a fairer deal for the average Joe Soap who works hard for a living. A rising tide does lift all boats but to get that lift you need to be a boat owner for a start. There are a number of smaller parties, the strongest being the Greens, who will improve their lot this time around. The hard left wing parties also have appeal to those who have suffered through the policies of those in office and, of course there are always the Independents who were very prominent in the last government. It is all there to play for and it is up to you, the voter, to decide who shares the spoils. In the meantime, don’t believe one word out of their mouths at the moment. They will say and promise anything to get into power; they simply have to do it because, if they told the truth, nobody would vote for them. Still, at least we have the opportunity to decide who governs us. Many countries do not.
Message from the Ambulance Service
We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending to us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign. The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As mobile phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE' ( In Case Of Emergency).
The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents there were always mobile phones with patients but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as 'ICE'.
This Shining Woman
By Marjorie Bowen
Biographies and Memoirs
As a pioneer of women’s rights and the writer behind A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft fought an uphill battle against the prejudices of her time. This classic biography reveals the dramatic life story of the early feminist, author, and mother of Mary Shelley.
The First Americans
By John David Cross
History
Long before Columbus’s arrival, the people of North and Central America built complex societies with sophisticated art, architecture, and urban planning. This breathtaking work of history explores the stunning achievements of these great ancient civilizations.
£2.99 £6.66
I’ve sent you this email because it’s important that you, as a fellow pro-life warrior, join hands with the Priests for Life family to pray for President Trump. Scripture, in fact, commands us “that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered … for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity” (1 Tim. 2:1)
President Trump is a real champion of life and without question the most pro-life President since that terrible day when the Supreme Court condemned millions of defenceless babies to death with its diabolical Roe v Wade decision. From Father Frank's Alerts.
IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck
(written after she found out she was dying from cancer).
I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.
I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband..
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil,
or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wiling away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle..
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, 'Later... Now go get washed up for dinner.'
There would have been more 'I love you's, more 'I'm sorry's.'
But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute;
look at it and really see it; live it and never give it back..
STOP SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF!
Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what
Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us...
From those mass shooters who have attacked the innocent before, we know it’s a specific strain of anger — deep, repressed, biblically vengeful — felt most commonly by young men, almost always white, who report feeling alienated, dispossessed, misunderstood, victimized and all too often rejected by women.
https://thosecatholicmen.com/articles/the-boy-shooter-problem/
‘My Name Is Cocaine’:
‘My name is cocaine – call me coke for short.
I entered this country without a passport.
Ever since then I’ve made lots of scum rich.
Some have been murdered and found in a ditch.
I’m more valued than diamonds, more treasured than gold. Use me just once and you too will be sold.
I’ll make a schoolboy forget his books, I’ll make a beauty queen forget her looks,
I’ll take a renowned speaker and make him a bore, I’ll take your mother and make her a whore.
I’ll make your school teacher forget how to teach. I’ll make your preacher not want to preach.
I’ll take all your rent money and you’ll be evicted. I’ll murder your babies or they will be born addicted. I’ll make you rob and steal and kill when you’re under my power, you’ll have no will, remember my name is the ‘Big C’. If you try me one time you may never be free.
I’ve destroyed actors, politicians and many a hero. I’ve decreased bank accounts from millions to zero.
I’ll make shooting and stabbing a common affair. Once I take charge, you won’t have a prayer.
Now that you know me what will you do? You’ll have to decide it’s all up to you.
The day you agree to sit in my saddle, the decision is one that no one can straddle.
Listen to me, and please listen well, when you deal with cocaine you are headed for hell’ Author unknown.
WORDS: The words and actions of Pennsylvania Democrat representative Brian Sims, who publicly bullied peaceful prolife citizens in front of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, are outrageous. Here are my responses to five absurd things he said, and then five action items we can all take.
1. He said “Shame on you!” But it is not the actions of those fighting abortion that are shameful, but rather the actions of those who are killing these babies and, like Sims himself, encouraging those who do the killing. The “pseudo-Christian” behavior (his words) is on the part of “prochoice” Christians.
2. He said the protestors could pray at home. So can firefighters and police, emergency medical technicians and doctors and nurses. But to help the people who need them, they need to go to where those people are. That’s exactly what pro-life activists do as well. We go to the places where the babies in the womb are being killed, and where their parents need alternatives to abortion.
3. “How many children have you clothed today?” Democrat pro-abort Sims uses a tired old accusation here, which is absurd as if a man beating his wife were to say we cannot tell him to stop unless we marry her, or a man abusing his child were to say we can’t defend the child unless we feed and clothe that child. Anyone and everyone can stand up against violence, without fulfilling any other criteria.
4. Sims says these protestors do not know what is good for women’s bodies. How about trying this on for size: What’s good for women’s bodies is to protect them from dismemberment, which is what abortion does to the bodies of the girls and boys in the womb.
5. Sims thinks he’s being clever by offering to donate to Planned Parenthood for the protestors who are out there. But he and many others are going to donate to them anyway – especially given that they donate so generously to pro-abortion politicians like him.
He said, “John, you are about to start your dream job, and you are about to marry your dream girl. But there will come a day when you look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Is this all there is?’”
Bring Back Common Sense
By Domhnall de Barra
It is getting increasingly more difficult to accept with any credulity the opinions of “experts” who pronounce what we should and should not do, especially in the field of healthy living. What was bad for us yesterday is not so bad today as some other item becomes enemy number one. Programmes like Operation Transformation make us feel uncomfortable, and possibly guilty, if we are not super fit and exactly the right weight. We are bombarded by advice on what, and what not, to eat. Of course we have to be sensible and look after our bodies but there is no “one size fits all” solution. No two people are alike and may have different reactions to the same foods. The latest advice I heard was from a leading dietician on the radio today who was promoting the idea that skipping breakfast was a good way of loosing or controlling weight. Now, I was always led to believe that breakfast was the most important meal of the day and necessary to give us the stamina to face whatever tasks awaited us. It kind of makes sense when you think of it because we have been resting in our beds for many hours and our bodies need re-fuelling, just as our cars do. Of course skipping breakfast will help to lose weight but so will giving up eating altogether. The trouble is, the long term consequences of both options is not good. My worry is that vulnerable people, especially young girls who are under pressure to be perfect will take this “expert” advice and do themselves long-term harm. The best person to advise us on how to control weight and become more healthy is our local doctor who knows our medical history and will come up with a sensible plan of action. In the meantime we shouldn’t rush to take advantage of the latest fad and maybe end up far worse than we are.
More “expert” opinion is in favour of not labelling babies either male or female until they decide for themselves what gender they would like to be. Have we gone totally daft or is it just me? What are we supposed to call them and how long should we wait for them to make up their minds? I have great sympathy for some people who feel they are in the wrong bodies and would like a change of sex but it is not the norm and only accounts for a very small proportion of the population. The vast majority of children are happy being either boys or girls and should be treated as such. Traditionally boys were given different toys to play with than girls. Boys had toy cars and footballs etc while girls played with dolls and prams and the likes. We are now told that is also wrong and that toys should be gender neutral. It is catering for the future roles of men and women which are expected to be equal in every way. In the past the roles of men and women were well defined. The man went to work and brought home the money while the woman stayed at home and looked after the house and children. Most men would not be seen dead pushing a pram or a buggy and hadn’t a clue about baking or cooking. Times have changed and nowadays there is a great crossover in the roles. Families are smaller now than they used to be so there is less work to do around the house. Women are also a big part of the work force and their income may be necessary to pay off a mortgage on the family home. They are now doing jobs that traditionally were only done by men. I noticed lately that most of our post is delivered by women and very good they are at it too. A few years ago it was the “postman” with not a “postlady” in sight. Men have had to adapt and do their fair share of the housework and looking after the children. Nothing wrong with that but we can’t all be neutral. Men are men and women are women and long live the difference. We should allow our children to be just that – children. Let them play with whatever toys they like and be happy. Soon enough the world will become all too real to them, whether they are boys or girls.
I heard another daft idea the other day, again on the radio. It wasn’t an ad but another “expert” was giving advice on sleeping habits. She was advocating the use of radios built into a type of headband so that people could go to sleep listening to music without disturbing their partners. People are continually on their phones or tablets all day long sending and receiving messages and sharing every facet of their lives with the wide world. Surely it is possible to do without another gadget when going to bed. If we are to believe the “experts”, radios, phones and other electronic devices should not be used in the bedroom as they affect our ability to get a good night’s sleep. Maybe they have got this one right.
To finish on a brighter note, the play season is coming to an end at the moment and it was heartening to see the great attendances at all the plays in Abbeyfeale and Athea. Athea Drama Group have done 27 years of production and have given great entertainment to us over that period. This year’s offering “The Lonesome West” was slightly different to the comedies of previous years as it had some dark undertones and once again portrayed the fragility of life in rural Ireland. It was very well done and all concerned deserve great praise. A special word of appreciation to those in charge of the set and props. Athea is one of the few groups that pays especial attention to detail and not a prop is out of place or its time zone. Thank you for once again brightening up our early spring.
NAN HURLEY: Feb 2019, We all hoped that Nan would make it to the “100th” birthday, but unfortunately she passed to her eternal reward just a few days short of her “Big Occasion”, in the care of the staff at Beechwood Nursing Home in Newcastle West. Up to recently Nan was able to sing a song, recite a poem and was in full voice and a great lover of doing crosswords etc.
By Tom Aherne
Congratulations to James McCormack Ardagh, and the former Commodore of Foynes Yacht Club, who received the President’s Award in the RDS in Dublin on Friday, February 8 2019. It was presented by Jack Roy, President of Irish Sailing, for his outstanding contribution and leadership of Foynes Yacht Club over many years. This is a great honour to be recognised nationally for James who spearheaded the building of the Marina/Pontoon at a fifth of the projected cost.
The 77-year-old Jewish businessman was one of some 100 men charged in a human trafficking investigation in Martin County, Florida.
REFLECTION
There are fears that cripple us –
Of being let down, of losing the capacity to trust,
of how children will turn out, of death, illness and old age.
Of losing a job or never getting one, of failure in a college course,
of not being loved or liked.
Fear is like a red light stopping us moving forward,
and it’s crippling if it gets us stuck, like a light never changing to green.
Jesus’s answer is simply ….”be not afraid”, because he is always with us.
We have the security of a constant companion.
Lord, help us to trust in your loving presence today and every day. AMEN.
Lord, your love is everlasting,
Never running dry, never exhausted,
More so than any earthly spring.
You love us all utterly,
To the limits of our understanding,
And beyond, without ever faltering.
There is no-one in this world,
Nowhere on earth,
Who is not loved by you.
Lord, may I never spurn
The love you lavish upon me.
May I never give up
On receiving from the living waters
You provide for us.
For as the waters of the earth
Flow and nourish and give growth,
So the living water
Flowing from your heart of love
Gives us life, sustains us,
Until you can find You,
The source of all good,
In the waters that well up to eternal life.
Lord, give us this water always.
Amen
Sean Sheehy
Wed, Jan 2, 11:58 AM
to me
An Epiphany
Have you ever had an epiphany? An “epiphany” is a manifestation that provides a deeper understanding or insight into something. It’s often quite sudden. It’s an “aha” moment; a discovery of something that you’ve been pursuing for some time which now gives you a whole new philosophical, religious, or scientific awareness.
Jesus’ Church celebrates an epiphany on the 6th of January. She recalls God’s manifestation of Himself to the Magi in the Person of the Infant Jesus, God’s Word-made-flesh in the Virgin’s womb, born in a stable in Bethlehem. God made Himself visible in a way that enabled human beings to deepen their understanding of who He is and what He wanted for mankind. The first epiphany was to Mary when the Angel Gabriel visited her. The second was to Elizabeth when, inspired by the Holy Spirit, she exclaimed to Mary, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to visit me.” (Lk 1:43) Joseph had an epiphany when God spoke to him in dreams asking him to take care of Mary and the Child. The angels had an epiphany when they sang their Hosannas. The shepherds had their epiphany when they heard the angels and then went and found Jesus in the manger in the stable. The Gentile world had an epiphany in the persons of the three wise men, when the star led them to the manger where the Christ Child lay. Their discovery was the striking realization that God had come to earth in human form. He could be seen, touched, heard, loved, cry, need clothing and food, and depend on human beings even though He was their Creator.
God explained the difference He would make when He came upon the earth. “See, darkness covers the earth, and thick cloud covers the peoples; but upon you the Lord shines, and over you appears His glory.” (Is 60:1-6) The Holy Spirit revealed that, “He shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him. He shall have pity for the lonely and the poor; the life of the poor He shall save.” (Ps 72:12-13) But those who heard these words had no idea of how God was going to accomplish these promises, least of all the notion that He would come as a defenceless little baby born of a virgin in a stable. God’s ways aren’t our ways. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” (Is 55:8) We would want God to come with power, pomp, and ceremony. But that wasn’t the way He chose to make Himself present.
St. Augustine, inspired by the Holy Spirit, prayed, “You have made us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Meeting the human need for God is critical to our humanity. The words of the Psalmist capture the cry of the spiritual soul: “O God, You are my God whom I seek; for You my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.” (Ps 63:2) During His public ministry Jesus reminded His listeners, “No more than a branch can bear fruit of itself apart from the vine, can you bear fruit apart from me. I am the vine, you are the branches.” (Jn 15:4-5) The restlessness and the fruitlessness of people all over the world is due to the fact that they look to all kinds of fads to find rest and various schemes to be productive but end up neither rested nor effective. The fact is that our soul will find rest only in God and that He is the only source of our fruitfulness as human beings.
It was this restlessness that spurred the Magi to follow the star. They believed the star would lead them to its Creator. Good science always leads to God and to Jesus who is “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” ( 1 Cor:24) . Bad science tries to ignore God. The Magi’s words of enquiry in Jerusalem are the words that every human heart utters, consciously or unconsciously, “Where is the new-born King of the Jews?” (Mt 2:2) Everyone is searching for God. Sadly, many try to create their own gods that “have mouths that can’t speak, eyes but can’t see, and ears that can’t hear, nor is their breath in their mouths. Their makers shall be like them, everyone that trusts in them.” (Ps 135:15-18) So they’re doomed to restlessness and fruitlessness.
The Magi are called “wise” because they refused to be side-tracked in their search for Immanuel, God-with-us. They let the Holy Spirit guide their spirit to find Jesus. Their gifts of homage reflected their discovery of Jesus as God-made-man. Gold symbolized Jesus’ Kingship on earth and also His perfect virtue. Frankincense symbolized their recognition of Him as God and the importance of prayer. Myrrh symbolized His suffering and death in behalf of mankind’s salvation.
The same Holy Spirit wants to lead you and me to Jesus in whom we find rest and who enables us to be fruitful. Jesus’ Church is the visible star that the Spirit uses to unite us to Jesus where He manifests Himself and meets us in the key moments of our life. 2019 is a new year of opportunities for Jesus to manifest Himself to us, if we let Him. But as the Magi faithfully followed the star, we must faithfully follow the Church’s teachings. May 2019 be a graced time for you. (frsos)
Sean Sheehy
Wed, Jan 9, 3:37 PM (13 days ago)
to me
Is God Pleased with You?
Baptism launched Jesus’ public ministry. There God affirmed Him, “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” (Lk 3:22) To be pleased with someone is to be delighted with him or her and to take pleasure in his or her company. God is pleased with Jesus because He is His Word-made-flesh come to do His will on earth. God’s will for every person is that he or she be saved from a fallen nature that carries within it the sentence of eternal death. We can’t save our self from a future that promises only eternal misery. We might be miserable and unhappy in this world, but it’s temporary. To be miserable in the next world has no end. This is all the more reason why we should be doing our utmost to please God by doing what He tells us.
John’s baptism of Jesus was a baptism of repentance for sin. Jesus had no sin but took human sin on Himself to make atonement with God on our behalf. Jesus’ baptism was a baptism of immersion into the Holy Trinity. John told those who thought he was the expected messiah, “I am baptizing you with water but one mightier than I is to come … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Lk 3:16) John’s baptism called for repentance for sin. Jesus’ baptism called for personal transformation through becoming an adopted son or daughter of God. It wasn’t just a cleansing from Original sin. The Greek word “baptizo” means immersion in the sense of dye penetrating a piece of cloth. In Jesus’ baptism, “you put aside your old self with its past deeds and put on a new nature, one who grows in knowledge as he (she) is formed anew in the image of his (her) Creator.” (Col 3:9-10) John’s baptism called for a radical change in behaviour, but Jesus’ baptism calls for a radical change in one’s nature. The “baptism of fire” which is the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit’s actions in our soul, makes us a new creation, a born again anointed child of God by adoption.
God promised comfort to His people. The greatest comfort a child can experience is the visible nearness of the parent’s love. God promised to come to His people so they would feel His nearness. “Like a shepherd He feeds His flock; in His arms He gathers the lambs, carrying them in His bosom, and leading the ewes with care.” (Is 40:9-11) The Psalmist expressed the human need for God’s nearness as follows: “If You take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust. When You send forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.” (Ps 104:29-30) Jesus began to publicly fulfil these promises the day He accepted John’s Baptism of Repentance and introduced His new Baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. Through the Holy Spirit in Baptism we are re-newed – made new with a new family, a new identity, a new mission, a new purpose, a new knowledge, a new standard of love, a new morality, and a new destiny. This is why Jesus gave His Church the Sacrament of Baptism so that all men and women could experience the nearness of God and be renewed until the end of time.
Jesus began shepherding you and me the day we were baptized into His Church. That day God the Father adopted us as His children, his sons and daughters, and said to us individually as the water was poured over our head in the Name of the Holy Trinity, “You are my beloved son/daughter; with you I am well pleased.” He was delighted that you and I had become His adopted children. He sent us His Spirit to guide our spirit to Jesus who showed us the way, taught us the truth, and gave us His life through His Church. “Because of His mercy He saved us through the bath of rebirth (Baptism) and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)
God was pleased with you and me on the day of our Baptism. But is He pleased with us today? Are we making Him proud of us by the way we live? Someone said that “God loves us where we are, but He loves us too much to leave us there.” Where are you and I today in our relationship with Jesus? Are prayer and worship of Him our first priority. Some saint said that sin is worse than the worst kind of physical disease. A disease, at worst, can only kill the body, but sin kills the soul and separates us from God who is the source of our faith, hope, and love. Without these, all we have to look forward to is misery. A new year of 2019 is a new opportunity to be a cause of delight for God. When we please God by being true to our baptismal vows, letting the Holy Spirit with His fire transform us, we will delight not only God but also our self and those around us. It’s time to re-new our baptismal vows. (frsos)
Sean Sheehy
Wed, Jan 16, 1:59 PM (6 days ago)
to me
What God Wants, We Need
There’s a real difference between wants and needs. We often confuse the two and focus on our wants more than on our needs. Needs are what’s essential for the flourishing of our humanity, individually and communally. Wants, on the other hand, are things that are unnecessary for our wellbeing. God has no needs since He’s perfect. While He doesn’t need us, He wants things for us as expressions of His unconditional love. What God wants for us is exactly what we need, namely to love, be free, be just, and at peace within and among ourselves. What God wants for us He also provides the wherewithal to achieve it. Without God what we need the most - truth, love, freedom, justice, and peace - is impossible since, because of our fallen nature, we’re incapable of fully possessing them on our own.
God uses the image of a wedding to reveal the kind of relationship He wants to have with us. “As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall God rejoice in you.” (Is 62:5) There’s no greater image of love and intimacy than a wedding between a man and a woman. It’s an image of mutual self-giving; an act whereby the man and woman pledge to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of each other and their children. It’s an act of unconditional love. This is what God wants for us in a relationship with Him. He wants to pledge Himself unconditionally to us for our individual and communal good. He wants us to reciprocate by pledging our self to Him unconditionally, not for His good, but for ours. What God wants for us is what we need for our self. We need His unconditional love in order to love our self and others especially when we and others aren’t very loveable. We need to know God as the source of love who never stops loving. God’s love is the foundation for faith and hope that withstands all kinds of doubt and despair. God wants a future for us that assures us of victory over suffering and death and promises us perfect joy and happiness. What God wants for us we need in order to thrive in the face of all kinds of trials and tribulations.
God wants to be generous with us by giving us spiritual gifts not just to us but also, and more importantly, through us to others. “There are different gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done but always the same Lord. Working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them.” (1 Cor 12:4-6) As in a marriage where a man and a woman pledge their unconditional love for one another by committing themselves to the mutual sharing of their individual gifts, so God, in pledging His unconditional love for us, shares His gifts with us. In turn, He wants us to share these gifts, not with Him, but with one another. We need these gifts from God so we can have something special to give one another as expressions of our love. Because of our fallen nature our tendency is to keep things for our self rather than share them. In giving us gifts God inspires us to share them with one another so we can build and enrich our relationships.
Highlighting the image of a wedding as a metaphor for what God wants and we need, Jesus used it as the occasion for the beginning of His public ministry. At the request of His Mother, Jesus, by changing water into wine, gave the young couple what they needed for the enjoyment of their guests, in moderation of course. Jesus’ ministry and the foundation of His Church visibly demonstrates what God wants and what we need. Each of His Church’s’ Sacraments is a visible sign of what God wants and what we need. He wants to adopt us in Baptism; we need to be adopted in order to have eternal life. He wants us to receive His Spirit with His gifts; we need them to become fully mature human beings. He wants us to receive His Son in the Holy Eucharist; we need Him as food for our soul. He wants us to turn to Him in our suffering; we need Him to help us shoulder our burdens. He wants to forgive us our sins; we need forgiveness. He wants men and women to procreate; they need His grace to be faithful and raise children properly. He wants us to bind our self to Him in religion; and religious leaders need His Spirit to bind them to Him as His representatives forming Christian community.
What God wants and what we need motivates us to, “Announce His salvation, day after day. Tell His glory among the nations; among all the peoples His wondrous deeds … He governs the people with equity.” (Ps 96:1-10) The more we know what God wants for us the more we will come to see what we need. Jesus tells us in His Word spoken in and through His Church. Mary’s advice is crucial to meeting our needs: “Do whatever He tells you.” (Jn 2:5) He tells us that what God wants for us, we need for our own and our community’s good. (frsos)
The dance hall act of 1935 brought in rules for the running of dances under licence. Anyone could go to court to oppose the granting of the licence. This "anyone" was often the parish priest.
In a case at Listowel in September, 1936, frequent opposer Fr Browne suggested dances only be held from 6pm until 9pm.
“Dance Halls in England closed at 11pm, and apart from the question of morality, people could not work properly if they were dancing all night,” he reasoned, according to an Irish Times report.
The priest was wary, in particular, of outsiders – “devils”, as he saw them.
“Persons who came to these dances from outside towns in motor cars were scoundrels of the lowest type, and were devils incarnate,” he said.
There was absolutely no need for all-night dances in country places, and there was only one way to deal with them, as the soupers were dealt with in the olden times - by excommunication. Dance halls were the curse and ruin of the country, and when the people were being demoralised the end is near, and so is the anger of God.”
“Man is a sociable animal,” the judge replied, “and he must find some sort of reasonable satisfaction for his social appetite.” The judge granted the dances until 10pm, but bowed to the priest’s demand that nobody from outside a three mile radius be allowed attend.
At Listowel District Court in November 1936, Fr Browne makes yet another appearance, this time alleging that one dance hall proprietor had no care for the “lives and morals” of the attendees. “There were human vultures coming in motor cars to these halls from outside places,” he said, reiterating his hatred of outsiders.
“They sometimes visited more than one hall and after the dance spent their time with servant girls and farmers’ daughters.”
The priest said he “read a report from Liverpool society for prevention of international traffic in women and children, which stated that Irish girls went over to Liverpool, hoping to find work, some with only the clothes they wear. They might as well face the facts that through the dance hall and bar regulations these girls had been made familiar with vice.”
As long as dance halls were given late licences, he said, parents were helpless in preventing this “degradation”.
From Art of Manliness
When you’re a baby and a toddler, you’re helpless: you can’t articulate what you need and what’s bothering you. You can only cry or throw a tantrum or rely on your parents to accurately read and interpret your mood and body language.
You’ve probably never thought about it, but you first learned to get what you want by getting other people to give it to you. This was your foundation for navigating the world.
Unfortunately, many people don’t outgrow this phase of infantile dependence. They still primarily try to get what they want by manipulating others, by having a “tantrum,” by metaphorically quivering their lip or pooping in their pants and then waiting for someone to notice. They wait for a solution to their problems to arrive from the outside.
Maturing means growing in your capability to meet your own needs, as you become progressively more skilled, competent, and emotionally intelligent. And it means becoming less needy in general. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants and to serve them oneself?”
No one ever becomes completely independent of other people, and it would not be desirable to do so. But when you do need help, you ask for it directly. You don’t expect other people to read your mind, and then act put out when they fail to manifest these psychic powers. Many a relationship is sunk by such implicit assumptions: “You should know how I feel without my saying so.” “You should know what I need without my telling you.”
Growing up means growing out of an indirect, infantile, dependent way of meeting your needs, and into a direct, mature, independent approach to obtaining what you want.
The post Sunday Firesides: Dependence to Independence appeared first on The Art of Manliness.
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Those who live in joy are incredibly powerful in their ability to win the hearts of others. We all know deep down we are made for joy. We ache for joy like the empty stomach aches for food. In its absence, we don’t simply stop hungering for joy, we slip into a broken-hearted cynicism. Some part of us dies when our belief in the possibility of joy dies. So, when someone manifests this otherworldly joy in a weary, jaded world, they are an object of fascination, if not hope, to others.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/is-joy-possible-christmas-season/
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all people doubt you
If you can dream and not make dreams your master
If you can meet Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue and walk with kings but not loose the common touch
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, – – – yours is the earth
Yours is the earth and everything that is in it – – And – which is more – you’ll be a man my son. Kipling.
In a 1949 book on lighting, MGM cinematographer John Alton cautioned women against allowing their beauty to be ruined by “murderous illumination” and promised that proper lighting could “open doors of opportunity—whether it is for a desired job or a man.”
Cigarette Buts
Despite a global reduction in smoking, cigarette waste remains a huge problem. According to one article by researcher Richard Barnes, in 2010 people worldwide smoked five trillion cigarettes. While the majority of the cigarette is burned, the plastic filter, contaminated with tobacco, formalin, and other chemicals, is left behind. Butts present a particular disposal problem since, unlike a lot of trash, they are disposed wherever a smoker happens to be.
Don McGregor July 25 2018
She asked him, 'How much are you selling the eggs for?'
The old seller replied, '$.25 an egg, Madam.'
She said to him, 'I will take 6 eggs for $1.25 or I will leave.'
The old seller replied, 'Come take them at the price you want. Maybe, this is a good beginning because I have not been able to sell even a single egg today.'
She took the eggs and walked away feeling she has won. She got into her fancy car and went to a posh restaurant with her friend. There, she and her friend, ordered whatever they liked. They ate a little and left a lot of what they ordered. Then she went to pay the bill. The bill costed her $45.00 She gave $50.00 and asked the owner of the restaurant to keep the change.
This incident might have seemed quite normal to the owner but, very painful to the poor egg seller.
The point is,
Why do we always show we have the power when we buy from the needy ones? And why do we get generous to those who do not even need our generosity?
I once read somewhere:
'My father used to buy simple goods from poor people at high prices, even though he did not need them. Sometimes he even used to pay extra for them. I got concerned by this act and asked him why does he do so? Then my father replied, "It is a charity wrapped with dignity, my child”
If you feel that people need to see this, then do spread this message.
Sean Sheehy
Oct 17, 2018, 1:22 PM (12 days ago)
to me
The Measure of Greatness
What does it mean to be great? What do people mean when they say they’re “having a great time” or they’ve found “a great place” or they’re “feeling great” or they’ve had a “great win”? The term ‘great’ indicates someone or something that’s superior or outstanding either in character or quality. In the history of the Catholic Church three popes – St. Leo I (440-461, St. Gregory I (590-604), St. Nicholas I (858-867) - have been designated as “the Great” both by popular acclamation at the time of their death and by history itself. Today, Pope, St. John Paul II, is often referred to as “the Great”. However, the official Church herself has never titled any of them as “the Great”. Greatness isn’t something that people attribute to ourselves, rather it’s a quality that others see in them. To attribute greatness to oneself is conceit.
As human beings, while we should never view ourselves as great, we all aspire to greatness in one form or another. Why? We all want to be considered good at something, whether positive or negative. The Greek rhetorician, Athenaeus (d. 192 A.D.), wrote that “goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness.” The more good we do the greater we become. Mother Theresa is an example of this. This was the message Jesus conveyed to His Apostles when James and John tried to secure positions of authority in Jesus’ Kingdom. He addressed them and said, “Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest; whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all.” (Mk 10:43-44) Jesus set the example when He revealed, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve – to give His life in ransom for the many.” (Mk 10:45) From God’s perspective greatness is achieved not by having authority over others but by serving them. “You know how among the Gentiles those who seem to exercise authority lord it over them; their great ones make their importance felt. It cannot be like that with you.” (Mk 10:42-43) To be great is to use your gifts to dignify others. Since God alone is good, doing good is to do God’s will. His will is to act like Jesus by caring about the needs of others. Service for the love of God is the measure of greatness.
An American educational reformer, Horace Mann, urged his fellow human beings to “Seek not greatness, but seek truth and you will find both.” Truth is that which conforms to the facts; that which is real, good, beautiful, and universal, withstanding the test of time. From a Christian perspective truth isn’t an abstract concept but a person – the Person of Jesus Christ. He revealed Himself as “the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” (Jn 14:6) To seek the truth is to seek Jesus and to find Him is to find the truth about God, who we are and how we become great men and women.
How does Jesus help us achieve greatness? The French diplomat, Alexis de Tocqueville, noted that the greatness of American democracy “lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.” What Jesus does for our greatness is to help us repair our faults. God promised the Israelites regarding the Messiah that “If he gives His life as an offering for sin, He shall see His descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through Him … Through His suffering, my Servant shall justify many, and their guilt He shall bear.” (Is 53:10-11) Jesus fulfilled this promise by conquering sin, suffering, and death on Easter Sunday. He made it possible for us to repair our faults through the gift of forgiveness bestowed on the members of His Church in her Sacraments. Jesus has given us the ability to repair our faults especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We’re on the road to greatness when we recognize that in Jesus, “we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but with One who has been tested in every way, yet without sin … Let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” (Heb 4:14-16)
Christianity is the path to greatness highlighted in God’s Commandments and Jesus’ Beatitudes. It reminds us, in the words of Leo Tolstoy, that “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and truth.” This is why Jesus said we must become like little children if we want to enter the Kingdom of God where we fully realize the greatness God has bestowed on each of us. (Mt 18:3) Being childlike means recognizing our complete dependency on Jesus as the source and teacher of truth and simple acceptance of Him as our way to greatness. This becomes evident in the Church community that’s committed to carrying out the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. In the words of Coretta Scott King, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” It’s not the most powerful who are the greatest, but rather those who empower the dignity and sanctity of others. Jesus is the model of greatness. (frsos)
Sean Sheehy
Wed, Oct 24, 2:00 PM (5 days ago)
to me
The Only Deliverer
Every time God’s people ignored His Law they fell to their enemies. But He didn’t give up on them. Time and again God rescued them. “Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst … For I am a Father to Israel …” (Jer 31:7-9) The Psalmist reminded the Israelites: “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy…Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.” (Ps 126: 3-5) Like children thinking they can take care of themselves only to become frightened, lost or hurt, so we think we can act independently of God and be happy. Like a lost child crying for the parent, we cry out to God to deliver us from our self-created loveless and hopeless situations. Circumstances force us to admit we can’t raise our self up from what pulls us down. Only the One who is above, namely God, can lift us up from the dung hill into which we’ve sunk our self. “He raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill He lifts up the poor …” (Ps 113:7) But, for God to deliver us from our fallen nature that we visibly express in selfishness and pride, we must humbly admit our lowliness and poverty that makes us incapable of saving our soul. God is always receptive to a humble heart. The Holy Spirit teaches us that when we sacrifice pride for humility God always rescues us. “My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, You will not spurn.” (Ps 51:19)
The prayer Jesus taught His Apostles included a petition that God the Father would “subject us not to the trial but deliver us from the evil one.” (Mt 6:13) In asking God to “deliver us” we’re recognizing our inability to deliver our self from our trials and Satan’s temptations. From what do we need to be saved? We need to be saved from our ego’s blindness to our faults, weaknesses, deafness to the truth, and ignorance of our accountability to God. We’re often our own worst enemies. Our daily choices lead us either to life or death, Heaven or hell, God or Satan. Our choices reflect the influence of the Holy Spirit of love or the evil spirit of egotism and self-worship. Our biggest illusion is that we can save our self, be our own god or goddess trying to make our self happy. Thus we create our own truth, our own reality, which are neither true nor real. So we need the Creator of truth, being, reality.
Jesus is real because He’s the Creator of our being. Jesus is truth because He is the Truth – God’s Word-made-flesh. He alone teaches us to understand who we really are and what’s true about us as men and women – why we’re here; where’re we’re going; what’s our purpose; what’s our destiny and how to get there. When John’s followers asked if Jesus was the Messiah, He told them, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind recover their sight, cripples walk, lepers are cured. The deaf hear, dead men are raised to life, and the poor have the good news preached to them.” (Mt 11:4-5) Thus John would know that Jesus was indeed the promised Deliverer, Rescuer, Liberator from all those things that humans can’t overcome or do on their own. Jesus actions spoke for themselves.
The Gospels relate many stories of Jesus delivering people from all kinds of maladies, even raising people from the dead. This Sunday Jesus’ Church resounds the story of the restoration of Bartimaeus’ sight. It contains a major lesson for you and me. The first thing to notice is Bartimaeus’ humble attitude. Hearing that Jesus was passing by he prayed, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” (Mk 10:47) Jesus responded, “What do you want me to do for you?” He prayed, “Rabboni, I want to see.” (Mk 10:51) Seeing is a very important sense because it helps us know we are. If we can’t see we’re in the dark and liable to stumble and fall. Seeing is believing. But seeing involves more than what our physical eye can tell us; it also, and more importantly, involves what our spiritual eye can tell us. Bartimaeus couldn’t see Jesus physically but he saw Him spiritually. He let his spirit be touched by the Holy Spirit and so was able to recognize that Jesus could cure him. Jesus answered his prayer, “Be on your way! Your faith has healed you.” (Mk 10:52a) Mark tells us: “Immediately he received his sight and started to follow Him up the road.” (Mk 10:52b)
Many people saw Jesus with their physical eyes but their spiritual eye was blind to His divine presence. What we see with our physical eye is only part of what’s real. To complete our perception of reality we must also be willing to see with our spiritual eye. But to do that we need the Holy Spirit to enlighten our spirit and encourage it to look beyond what our physical eye can see. That’s what our Christian faith enables us to do. Faith sees what our physical can’t see. “Lord may Your Spirit touch my spirit so that I can see You as You cross my path today delivering me from what oppresses or depresses me. Amen.” (frsos)
Sisterhood of Saints: Margaret of Scotland
Circa 1045–November 16, 1093
They say it was love at first sight, the beautiful, educated, pious English princess and the rough and tumble warrior, widower, and Scots king twenty years her senior.
Margaret was devoted to the Lord; Malcolm III, not so much, though he considered himself a believer. Despite all their differences, Margaret and Malcolm proved to be exceptionally well yoked.
In addition to her royal household duties, which included raising their eight children and two sons from the king’s first marriage, Malcolm involved Margaret heavily in matters of state. It was through Margaret that Catholic traditions were integrated into court life, specifically through a synod that resulted in rules regarding the Lenten fast and Easter communion and challenged clerical abuse. She also lived her faith in seemingly small but very visible ways: she washed the feet of the poor and orphans. At meals to assist the needy, she made sure others were served before her. She set aside time for prayer and devotions, a practice Malcolm so admired (though he did not emulate it) that he had some of her books covered in gold and silver. It is said that while he never learned to read them, he was known to hold them and kiss the pages she had been reading.
The couple also founded a number of churches, including the Abbey of Dunfermline, where they are both buried. Margaret died just days after Malcolm and their oldest son were killed in battle. On her deathbed, she mourned them both; blessed their other children; and made a final prayer to the Lord.
It’s not always a bad thing when opposites attract. Margaret’s love for and influence on Malcolm helped Scotland mature into a well-run, compassionate land. May we seek to find the commonalities with those whose upbringings or worldview are different from our own. It may be an evangelization opportunity.
INSPIRATION
“O, my children, fear the Lord; for they who fear Him shall lack nothing, and if you love Him, He will give you, my darlings, prosperity in this life and everlasting happiness with all the saints.”
Saint Margaret of Scotland
CHALLENGE
Talk with your spouse or a close friend about your seeming differences and the similarities that lie underneath. Pray together about ways your strengths can be united to serve God.
Gary Bixler • 2 days ago Sept 2018
Actually, I believe that we could make a convincing argument on behalf of ethicide, which might be the killing of ethicists who advocate the killing of other human beings who do not measure up to their standards of "good enough" to live in this world. Do we not understand that all things imperfect in this world are given to us by God to test us, and to see what we will do with them? Those who've handled imperfect babies, who've raised imperfect children into imperfect adults realize that everyone is imperfect, and have learned to love the imperfect, including bioethicists, who are perhaps more imperfect than most. It is Hitler's medical henchmen all over again. Let's experiment on those unfortunates who weren't born into our idea of perfection? Let's just end their chance to become Helen Keller, or Stephen Hawking, because at what time does imperfection become a burden on society? The moment it occurs, whether at birth, or further along in the course of things. Absolutely ridiculous illogical arguments made by people who have seared consciences, and the moral standing of Satan himself. There will be a special place in hell for those who hurt and destroy God's children, which Jesus made clear in Scripture. So, ethicists, prepare your millstones now, and find the nearest lake. You're going to wish you had killed yourselves instead of these helpless, precious human beings when you stand before Him.
Dane carn • 4 days ago, 2018
I had a quick look through the guy's papers, and it seems that by not-convincing he either means that it hasn't been
definitively proven infanticide is wrong (or that there are errors in the pro-life arguments), assuming I understood him correctly. I can't say that I buy his ideas though, and he kind of seems to contradict himself given that the paper "Why pro‐life arguments still are not convincing: A reply to my
critics" dedicated to rebutting pro-life arguments against infanticide still has the line "I argued that whether a fetus has a right to life does not solve the debate of whether infanticide is morally permissible."
Moreover, only fair to note that one of his arguments in "Ectogenesis, abortion and a right to the death of the fetus" is the "right to property argument":
1. The fetus is property of the genetic parents.
2. People can destroy their property.
3. Therefore, genetic parents can destroy their fetus.
Now, I happen to think that he makes no case whatsoever for premise 1 other than the line "Common intuition seems to support both premises and therefore the Right to Property Argument." (and for what it's worth don't think he completely believe #2) And while he does attempt to avoid the fact that his premise leads to a justification of slavery by stating that "Obviously, children are not parents’ property. But that has nothing to do with mixing labour. Children are not property because children are persons: morally valuable individuals." (although he thinks personhood is to do with sentience).
I would note that such a view of his would seem to my mind to justify doing as one wishes to a child with severe mental deficiencies (including but not limited to treating them as a sex slave), even as he in one of his future papers does rightly say without controversy that sexual slavery is wrong. I dare say that if his premises lead to positions like that then he needs to rethink his views, and also that variations of the right to property argument are really not that different to those historically used to justify slavery in the past...
The President not only reinstated the “Mexico City Policy,” that halts the export of our nation’s toxic abortion ideology to other countries, but
He made it more comprehensive, so that instead of protecting $500 million from the abortion industry, it now protects $8.8 billion!
He has also
Enabled states to defund Planned Parenthood both of Title X funds and also of Medicaid funds
De-funded the pro-abortion UN Population Fund
Required health insurance companies to disclose whether their plans cover abortion
Protected employers from the HHS mandate that required them to cover abortion in the plans they offer their employees
Made very strong pro-life appointments in a multitude federal agencies
Created a new division within the government for the protection of conscience and religious freedom, so that, for instance, doctors and nurses forced to participate in abortion can have more protection
Placed explicit language in the official documents of the Department of Health and Human Services indicating that when we promote people’s “health,” that includes the whole span of life, from the moment of conception!
Announced new rules that create a physical and financial barrier between Title X funds and the abortion industry
And President Trump has publicly said that he remains steadfast in his resolve to cut off federal Medicaid funding of the nation’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood...And that process is well underway!!
He has also spoken plainly and clearly about abortion, about his promise to sign bills like the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,
And has spoken personally at pro-life events like the March for Life and the Susan B. Anthony List Gala!
And that is just some of what he has done!
He will be 72 on Thursday the 14th – and boy is he a young 72! I hope I have that much energy and vitality when I reach that age!
Monday, June 25, 2018 - 12:00 AM
Psychologist Enda Murphy has created a programme that will arm communities with the tools to deal with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Ciara McDonnell finds out more.
I am a real raggy doll, according to psychologist Enda Murphy. We all are.
From St Pio
1. “Do not undertake any course of action, not even the most lowly and insignificant, without first offering it to God.”
2. “Every Christian who is a true imitator and follower of the Nazarene can and must call himself a second Christ and show forth most clearly in his life the entire image of Christ. Oh, if only all Christians were to live up to their vocation, this very land of exile would be changed into paradise.”
3. “Our body is like a jackass that must be beaten, but just a little, otherwise it will throw ust to the ground, and refuse to carry us.”
4. “Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is a key that opens God’s heart. You must speak to Jesus, not only with your lips, but also with your heart; actually, on certain occasions, you should speak with only your heart.”
5. “Do not ever lose heart when the tempest rages; place all your trust in the Heart of the most gentle Jesus. Pray and I might add, devoutly pester the divine Heart.”
6. “As long as there remains a drop of blood in our body, there will be a struggle between right and wrong.”
7. “In all that you do, always be humble, guarding jealously the purity of your heart and the purity of your body; these are the two wings which will raise to God and make us almost divine.”
8. “Satan fears and trembles before humble souls.”
9. “It is difficult to become a saint. Difficult, but not impossible. The road to perfection is long, as long as one’s lifetime. Along the way, consolation becomes rest; but as soon as your strength is restored, you must diligently get up and resume the trip.”
10. “Be content to obey, which is never a small thing for the soul who has chosen God as his portion, and resign yourself to be for now a small hive bee to make honey.”
11. “At all times, try to conform to the will of God in everything that you do, and have no fear. This conformity is the surest way to Heaven.”
12. “Let us become saints so that having been together on earth, we may be together in Heaven.”
Healing the Family Relationship
It is never too late to start an honest conversation about the hurts and resentments that can be part of family life.
Does the idea of healing your family relationships sound realistic, possible or worthwhile? Most adult children have had the experience of being upset with a parent. People, who are able to talk honestly about what affected them deeply, benefit from healing childhood traumas. Often counselling is necessary to enable one to talk about childhood distress and to forgive parents. Forgiveness is fundamentally for one’s own sake. It’s a way to let go of the pain of the past and move on with life. However it is really important to stress that to forgive does not mean to condone the unacceptable situation that created unhappiness. Parenting is probably one of the most difficult and rewarding jobs in the world. There is not a parent in the world who, with the benefit of hindsight, cannot identify many decisions that seemed right at the time but proved to be unwise. When there is marital conflict in an unhappy marriage, the misery and unhappiness children have to deal with is a fact of life that is rarely given the attention it deserves. The relationship between parents determines the atmosphere in the home. All family relationships are difficult because there are no perfect parents and there are no perfect children. The romantic couple who gets married and lives happily ever after only exists in fairytales. In real life couples have their difficulties. There is no marriage without problems. The state of a parent’s marriage has an enormous impact on how secure children feel and whether or not marriage is something they might want in the future. Children cannot feel secure in a family where there is daily evidence that mum and dad don’t love each other anymore. A common fear is that if they stop loving each other they might also stop loving the child.
Unhappy parents, who are vocal about being dissatisfied with a spouse, may try to reassure children. A child can hear every word in the sentence, “Even though dad and I don’t love each other anymore we will always love you”, yet feel insecure and unloved. No matter how hard mum and dad try to protect children from adult issues, children sense what is going on. When the ingredients that are necessary for a happy couple relationship are missing, children of all ages are likely to feel unsupported, insecure, angry and resentful. This is particularly hard on younger children whose
sense of self-esteem is formed almost exclusively by the family in the first five or six years. Family therapist, Virginia Satir, says that, “Feelings of self-worth can only flourish in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open and rules are flexible”. She believes that children who grew up in families with “crooked” communication, inflexible rules, criticism of their differences and punishment for their mistakes learned to have a poor sense of self-worth. Children grow up very quickly and their needs change rapidly as they go through different stages of development. No two children are alike. What works really well with one child may not work at all with another. Some parents say that being a parent to younger children was easier than coping with the changes that occurred during early adolescence. Others suggest that the teenage years when their angelic child turned into a self-interested, rebellious student were more difficult. Other would say that dealing with immature, demanding adult children is the hardest time of all.
Some adults whose parents made the sacrifice to stay in an unsatisfying relationship, for the sake of the children, appreciate this. Others don’t. Resentment at having to live with acrimony and conflict makes some people so angry and unforgiving that they are unwilling to learn about the trauma that parents who felt trapped in an unhappy relationship suffered.
It takes maturity to become non-judgemental of the obese mother, who used comfort eating to deal with the distress of her deteriorating relationship with her husband; the withdrawn father, who immersed himself in sport to avoid spending time around his constantly complaining wife, the blaming parent who refused to accept responsibility for his/her part in creating a cold, tense, humourless atmosphere in the home. Parents who separated, divorced, or stayed in an unhappy relationship can do a great deal to heal family relationships with their adult children if they are willing to be non-defensive and open to answering questions. It makes it less difficult to forgive and let go of the past when the positive intentions behind the decisions that were made are understood.
The insights that occur when family relationships are healed can be the catalyst for taking the necessary steps to ensure that family history does not repeat itself.
(Carmel Wynne in Reality Magazine July/August 2017)
THOUGHT: Don’t let your life slip through your fingers
by living in the past.
By living your life one day at a time,
you live all the days of your life.
Don’t give up when you still have
something to give.
Nothing is really over until
the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid to admit
that you are less than perfect.
It is this fragile thread that binds
us to each other.
PRAYER
O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds,
and whose breath gives life to the world, hear me.
I come to you as one of your many children.
I am small and weak ; I need your strength and your wisdom.
Make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made,
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise, so that I may know the things you have taught your children,
the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
Make me strong, so that I may not be superior to other people,
but able to fight my greatest enemy which is myself.
Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes,
so that when life fades as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you without shame.
Prayer of a Native American
Queen of the May
Bring flowers of the rarest, bring blossoms the fairest,
From garden and woodland and hillside and dale:
Our full hearts are swelling, our glad voices telling
The praise of the loveliest flower on the vale.
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.
Their lady they name thee, their mistress proclaim thee.
Oh, grant that thy children on earth be as true,
As long as the bowers are radiant with flowers,
As long as the azure shall keep it’s bright hue
From Moyvane Newsletter 14 May 2017
YOUR ANTI STRESS KIT
I guess one of the many things we have in common is stress of one kind or another. While there seems to be a great emphasis today in getting help in coping with stress, we place before you today some little images which may focus a new way in dealing with the whole issue. So here is your anti-
stress kit, keep it close at hand.
RUBBER BANDS. To remind you to stretch your ideas and mind to new limits so that you will continue to grow and and reach your God given potential.
TISSUE, To remind you to see the tears and needs of others including those of yourself
and of others.
SMILEY FACE, To remind you that everyone needs a hug, a kiss or a word or two of encouragement
everyday.
LIFE BUOY, This is to remind you to think of others as your ‘lifesavers’ to foster a sense of care and help for each other especially through the stressful times that occur through life.
CENT/EURO, To remind you of the value of your thoughts –big ones and little ones. Share them
with others. It’s what you do with them that counts.
ERASER/RUBBER, To remind you that we all make mistakes and with a rubber they can be erased.
Even human mistakes can be corrected and leave no trace. Be mindful here of the Beautiful Sacrament of Reconciliation(Confession).
TOOTHPICK, To remind you to ‘pick out’ the small irritating items that get in the way of appreciating the good qualities in ourselves and others and to be tolerant and accepting of differences.
PAPERCLIP, It’s important to keep it all together. Find the balance in your physical, professional and spiritual life. Explore the resources and programmes available in the Parish and surrounding areas. Also become more aware of Church celebrations where Jesus our Healer blesses us and heals us.
Coping with stress involves many things but above all openness to the help of God and the help of others
From Sean Sheehy
Life’s Only Sure Foundation
A solid foundation is essential for success in life. A building is only as durable as what it’s built upon. Adequate preparation is essential for accomplishment. Thus the emphasis by athletes on training. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” The Tower of Pisa began leaning shortly after construction because it’s foundation was inadequate and the ground too marshy. What’s true for athleticism and buildings is also true for life. We’ll become lopsided, unfit, and eventually fall if our life doesn’t have an adequate foundation.
What are you building your life on or rely on for security and direction in your life decisions? People build their life on all sorts of things - pleasure, popularity, money, power, etc. – hoping for satisfaction. But will those foundations withstand life’s upheavals? To build a solid foundation for living we need principles. Principles are truths about living that have withstood the test of time and benefit everyone. They give us an understanding of the world and how to live in it with others constructively. They give us an insight into how and why things happen and guide us in new situations. They free us from fear of what others might think of us. They give us a reason for being unselfish, especially when there’s no personal payoff for us. Principles build character.
Sadly, the modern western culture seems to ignore principles as the foundation for living happily. It puts little emphasis on the importance of building good character. Its focus is on personality as the key to successful living. Feelings replace truths. Attitudes are deemed more important that beliefs. Show gets you more recognition than substance. Opinion is perceived as fact and reality is manipulated. The mantra is “Fake it ‘til you make it!” Is it any wonder that superficiality reigns while substance is perceived as being old-fashioned or conservative? Without a solid foundation life becomes a burden as is evidenced in the growing rate of suicide, abortion, euthanasia, violence, and addictions of all kinds.
Jesus came into a world infected by the lies of Satan who deceived mankind into thinking that life can be lived successfully by ignoring God and making ourselves into gods. He came to reawaken us to the fact that His teaching is life’s only sure foundation. He came to show us that it’s not personality but character that makes life durable and worthwhile. Truth is the key to success which alone guarantees us freedom to reach the fullness of our potential. He identified Himself as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (Jn 14:6) Jesus is the only solid foundation for living that leads to total peace and happiness. He is the only “Truth” that sets us free. He teaches us, “Anyone who hears my words but does not put them into practice is like the foolish man who built his house on sandy ground. The rains fell, the torrents came, the winds blew and lashed against his house. It collapsed under all this and was completely ruined.” (Mt 7:27) Jesus’ teaching, then, is the rock which is the only solid foundation that withstands “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. Any other foundation dooms us to collapse. This is why nourishing our soul is absolutely essential to healthy and vibrant living. We can’t nourish our soul without Jesus who has made Himself our “Bread of life.” (Jn 6:35) Where do we get that “Bread”? In the Holy Eucharist wherein Jesus gives us Himself in His Church’s celebration of the Holy Mass.
As life’s sure foundation Jesus gives us a beautiful future in which to hope. He assures us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God and faith in me … I am going to prepare a place for you … I am the way, the truth, and the life, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and will do greater things than me, because I am going to the Father.” (Jn 14:1-12) God teaches us, “See the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him, upon those who hope for His kindness, to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine.” (Ps 33:18-19) As Jesus’ followers, He has given us a unique identity and purpose, “You, however, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people He claims for His own to proclaim the glorious works of the One who called you from darkness into His marvellous light.” (1 Pt 2:9)
When we make Jesus’ teaching the foundation of our life we live according to His principles and not according to feelings, opinions, images, etc. We focus on building good character, not on tweaking personality. His principles are: 1. Worship the One God in His one Church; 2. Promote the dignity of human life; 3. Be humble; 4. Live a morally good life according to the 10 Commandments; 5. Be generous with time and money; 6. Be a person of integrity – practice what you preach; 7. Don’t be self-righteous; 8. Don’t hold grudges; 9. Be merciful and forgive; 10. Promote the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
If you live your life according to these principles and you will joyfully withstand all that’s alien to life. (frsos)
From Sean Sheehy
The Life-Giver
A man was asked, “What do you do for a living?” He answered, “I live for a living!” Back in the 1950s a film titled, “I Want to Live” portrayed a woman who’d made immoral choices and ended up being convicted of murder by association with a murderer. She didn’t commit the crime but was nonetheless convicted and executed. She protested her conviction all the way to her execution pleading, “I want to live!” Judging by the number of people who commit suicide it seems that not everyone wants to live. Still we possess an instinct that life is precious. So we naturally try to prevent people from harming themselves. Life is precious because it’s a gift from God. If someone gave you a gift and you threw it away it would indicate that you didn’t appreciate it or the donor. We don’t create our own life. It’s the sine qua non for everything we yearn for – love, peace, happiness, freedom, joy, etc. This is why we want to preserve and live life as fully as possible and forever. No reasonable person wants to die except in a desperate attempt to escape hopelessness. Even people who commit suicide don’t want to die; rather they want to escape a perceived bottomless pit in their life that, in their mind, has reduced life to nothing. The motivation isn’t to stop living but to stop hurting. So, in a distorted manner of thinking, by ending their life they’re trying to end what seems to be making their life hopeless. As the Life-Giver, only God can provide us with the wherewithal to live and make life worth living by giving us the help to rise from what pulls us down. Easter celebrates life that survives suffering and death and enjoy an eternal heavenly existence.
God didn’t create us to suffer and die. He created us to live for a living. But, through the abuse of free will, we separate our self from our Life-Giver and that puts us in the realm of suffering and death. Death is the result of separation from the Giver of life. It was to remedy this tragedy that God sent His Son, Jesus, the Word-made-flesh, to bring hope of life after death to the world. He revealed, “The thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it to the full.” (Jn 10:10) The “thief” is Satan who tricked Adam and Eve into thinking they could live without God only to have them experience death and suffering that has affected the whole human race. Sin causes suffering, whether personal, communal or institutional. But Jesus brought hope of healing and resurrection when He announced, “I have come not for the self-righteous, but to call sinners to repentance.” (Mt 9:13) Through God’s grace of repentance and the gift of forgiveness we’ve the power to overcome sin, overcome our suffering, and be resurrected from the dead.
After Jesus’ Ascension, St. Peter told his listeners when they asked what did they needed to do: “Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit … Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” (Acts2:38, 40) He comforted them by teaching them: “In His own body He brought your sins to the cross, so that all of us, dead to sin, could live in accord with God’s will. By His wounds you have been healed for you had gone astray like sheep but you have returned to the Shepherd and the guardian of your souls.” (1 Pt 2:24-25) The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Life who enlivens our spirit and purifies our soul. If we focus only on the body we reap corruption because the body corrupts in death. But when we attend to the needs of our soul we attend to life that’s eternal because Jesus guards it.
Jesus is our Shepherd who guards our soul by cleansing it from sin in Baptism and Confession, and nourishes it with His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. This is why the Psalmist reminds us, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want … He refreshes my soul.” (Ps 23:1-3) As the Shepherd and Guardian of souls, Jesus “calls His own sheep by name and leads them out … He walks ahead of them and the sheep follow Him, because they recognize His voice.” (Jn 10:3-4) He identifies Himself as the “gate to the sheepfold.” “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be safe.” (Jn 10:9) As the Gatekeeper Jesus both protects us from harm and leads us to what nourishes our life so we can have it abundantly. We hear His voice through His Church as she proclaims His Word, guided by the Holy Spirit, and made visible in her Sacraments. Jesus is the Life-Giver and He alone leads us to the fullness of a life that’s joyful, peaceful, restful, loving, and eternal. If you want to have life to the full follow the Life-Giver in His Church. He alone reveals, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (Jn 14:6) (frsos)
WOMEN: International Women’s Day (8th March) originated from the trade union movement in America in the early 20th century, particularly in the activism of the women who worked in the clothing industry “sweatshops” of the time. In 1907 the women held a “Hunger March” in New York in protest at the dangerous working conditions and very long working periods, and calling for a ten-hour working day and improved wages. The police attacked the march, and the following year on March 8th 1908 a commemorative march was held, which became a milestone in women’s history. This date is what we now celebrate as International Women’s day, and by 1911 it had become international. International Women’s Day (IWD) is a time for women around the world to commemorate their struggles and celebrate their achievements. The United Nations formally proclaimed March 8 International Women’s Day in 1975. Their courage inspired the song “Bread and Roses” which has become associated with International Women’s Day. Bread symbolizes economic justice and roses represent quality of life.
Bread and Roses
As we go marching marching in the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lots gray
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses
For the people hear us singing: bread & roses, bread & roses!
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men
For they are women’s children & we mother them again
(For men can ne’er be free til our slavery’s at an end)
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes
Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread but give us roses
As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying thru our singing their ancient call for bread
Small art & love & beauty their drudging spirits knew
Yes it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too
As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days
The rising of the women means the rising of the race
No more the drudge & idler, ten that toil where one reposes
But a sharing of life’s glories – bread & roses, bread & roses!
(James Oppenheim)
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Try not to waste your time and energy on things that are of little or no importance. Fret not about what others think or what you think they think! We waste so much time stressing and struggling with many of the cares of this world and we miss the beauty within and beyond. Do not let the world pass you by. After all, you have God by your side-now and always! Margaret Theresa Naughton
Relationships & Family, Social Skills
Last week, the APA released a study finding that Americans were experiencing the first statistically significant stress increase in the survey’s 10-year history
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-23/social-media-is-driving-americans-insane
“The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism,” declared Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky in 2012.
http://clingingtoonions.blogspot.ie/2017/02/the-martyrs-of-damascus.html
to me
How God Serves Us
Someone suggested that the two most important days in our life are the day we’re born and the day we discover our true purpose. Obviously the day we’re born is a special day not only for us but also for family, relatives, and, indeed, the whole world, since we bring new gifts and hope with us from God. The day we discover our purpose is equally important since it’s the day when we realize why we’re here and what we’re meant to accomplish with our life. Without knowing our ultimate purpose life becomes a hit and miss affair, with more misses than hits. God serves us by revealing our purpose, which motivates and guides us in the use of our resources and efforts. Knowing our purpose tells us what fulfils us and makes us happy. It’s our dot on the horizon that keeps us on track and gives meaning to our life. God’s purpose for us is to do His will. What’s God’s will for us?
God revealed to Abraham that we’re to bring His blessing to others. “All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” (Gen 12:3) He revealed through Isaiah, “You are my servant … through whom I show my glory …I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Is 49: 3)God wills that we give visibility to His presence in and among us, bring His light into people’s darkness, and demonstrate His saving presence to every man, woman, and child. This is the God-given purpose that brings fulfilment and happiness to all who embrace it. Thus the Psalmist proclaims, “To do Your will, O my God, is my delight, and Your law is written on my heart.” (Ps 40:9) God’s purpose serves us by giving us an identity, meaning, power, value, vision, and a mission to bring creation back to the Creator.
God doesn’t expect us to achieve His purpose for us on our own or figure out by ourselves. He never asks anything of us without giving us the wherewithal to accomplish it. He gave us a model that serves to show us how to achieve our purpose. That model is Jesus Christ, God-with-us in the flesh. Jesus not only demonstrated God’s service to everyone, and His purpose for everyone in His own life, but also equipped everyone to serve and be purposeful. He requested His Father to “protect them with Your Name which You have given me that they may be one even as we are one.” (Jn 17:11) The purpose for which God created us orients us not to this world but to the next world, for it’s there that purpose will be permanently fulfilled. Jesus prays for His followers, “They are not of this world, any more than I belong to this world. Consecrate them by means of truth – Your word is truth… I consecrate myself for their sakes now, that they may be consecrated in truth.” (Jn 17:16-19) Jesus serves us and helps us to serve and achieve our purpose by consecrating us in truth through uniting us with Himself in Baptism when we became a, “… holy people consecrated in Christ Jesus ….” (1 Cor 1:2) He reassures us in Confirmation by sending us the Holy Spirit with His gifts.
Our purpose on earth is to let God serve us by doing will. By letting God serve us He gives us the grace to serve Him and one another, which makes us a blessing to others. God serves us especially through His gift of Reconciliation, which Jesus made possible. John the Baptizer recognized Jesus as “the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn 1:29) Jesus’ Church immortalizes John’s words every time Christ’s Mass is celebrated. Just before Holy Communion, the priest breaks a small piece of the Sacred Host and places it in the Chalice with the accompanying triple petition, “Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us … grant us peace.” Then he holds us up the consecrated bread and wine, Jesus body and blood, proclaiming to the congregation, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” Jesus is the Lamb of God who sacrificed Himself to save us from our sins. God serves us through giving us the gift of His Son. Our greatest service to others is the gift of our presence to them. This is what God does through, with, and in Jesus who continues to make a gift of Himself to us through His Church in her Sacraments, and especially in the Holy Mass. Just as we can’t serve another if he or she refuses our service, so also God can’t serve us if we don’t let Him. This is why we continually need to invite the Holy Spirit, who came to us in Baptism and Confirmation, to guide our spirit in all our decisions through the use of His gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, prayerfulness, perseverance, and the fear of the Lord. God serves us with these gifts so that we can serve others in achieving our purpose and fulfilment. (frsos)
A Prayer on the Inauguration of a President
This prayer, from the U.S. edition of the Book of Blessings (no. 1965), is an adaptation of the prayer for the Church and for civil authorities which was composed by Archbishop John Carroll for use on the occasion of the inauguration of George Washington in 1789.
Almighty and eternal God, you have revealed your glory to all nations. God of power and might, wisdom and justice, through you authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment is decreed.
Assist with your spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to your people over whom he/she presides. May he encourage due respect for virtue and religion. May he execute the laws with justice and mercy? May he seek to restrain crime, vice, and immorality.
We likewise commend to your unbounded mercy all citizens of the United States, that we be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of your holy law. May we be preserved in union and that peace which the world cannot give; and, after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.
We pray to you, who are Lord and God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
This Sunday is 103rd World Day for Migrants and Refugees World Day for Refugees and Migrants 2017
Prayer for Refugees & Victims of War
Lord God, no one is a stranger to you and no one is ever far from your loving care. In your kindness, watch over refugees and victims of war, those separated from their loved ones, young people who are lost, and those who have left home or who have run away from home. Bring them back safely to the place where they long to be and help us always to show your kindness to strangers
and to all in need Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A prayer for those away from Home
Loving God, we pray for those whom we love,but who are absent from us. Keep them safe from all harm, evil and danger. Bless them with peace, laugher, wisdom, love and joy. Grant that we may be reunited in the fullness of love; in Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
From prayer of our hearts by Vienna Cobb Anderso
MINOR Migrants, vulnerable and voiceless
It is important that we come together to remember and pray for the tens of thousands of children who migrate alone, unaccompanied, to escape poverty and violence. Children are the most vulnerable and hardest hit among the world’s migrants and require special protection,
Pope Francis in his message called for greater protection and integration of immigrants and refugees who are minors, especially those who are unaccompanied. Minors are especially fragile, vulnerable and often invisible and voiceless unable to claim or unaware of their
rights and needs. Visit the website www.catholicbishops.ie/ immigrants to read full text
Prayer for Unaccompanied Migrant Children
For Children Immigrating Alone
Mary, you travelled alone
To reach the loving embrace of your beloved family member.
Elizabeth welcomed you with Open arms and an open heart.
Be with those children Who are travelling across borders .
To seek solace with family. Protect them from exploitation
And from traumatising experiences.
Teach us by The example of the Visitation.
Grant us open arms And open hearts To receive your children
Trying to find the way To a new, life giving home.
Mary, Mother of the human family
Help us end the misery of children separated from family
By man made borders But not by love.
May they arrive, as you did, To joy and to the benediction
Of a loving embrace. Amen
Sister of Mercy
HEALING THE WOUNDS OF THE HEART
All of us are wounded by sin.
The part of us which is most deeply damaged by sin is the heart.
The heart is so beautiful, so innocent,
but it can be betrayed, scorned, and broken.
Darkness of heart is the blackest night of all.
Emptiness of heart is the greatest poverty of all.
A heavy heart is the most wearisome burden of all.
A broken heart is the most painful wound of all.
Only love can heal the wounds of the heart.
Lord, send your Holy Spirit to us,
to heal the wounds of our hearts,
so that we may produce the fruits of love.
THOUGHT
Holy Communion
May is the usual month in Jesus’ Church when children make their first Holy Communion. It’s the first time they physically receive Jesus Christ into their body and soul. Catholics don’t receive Holy Communion, rather they receive Jesus Christ and experience a communion with Him in which He makes them holy. It’s an experience of belonging in which Jesus gives us the gift of Himself and calls us to make a gift of ourselves to one another. It’s holy because the Holy Spirit joins our spirit to purify it and unite us with Jesus in the most intimate of communions. In Holy Communion Jesus literally enters our life as spiritual food to nourish us as He leads us to Heaven in the body of Hs Church.
The Latin word ‘communio,’ literally means ‘with gift.’ From this we get the words ‘community’ and ‘communication.’ Communion is about sharing oneself with others as a gift. It’s a mutual participation in the life of another. It calls for communication and the building of community. We need community to satisfy our psychological need to belong. A sense of belonging is essential to our human wellbeing and functionality. Loneliness reflects a lack of belonging, feeling isolated, unwanted and unloved. Every human craves community because there’s no person who doesn’t want to be loved for himself or herself. This love is found only in community where people are in communion with one another as gifts to each other. Jesus founded His Church to be God’s community where people can receive Him and experience Him in Holy Communion. God told Moses, “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” (Lev 19:2) Peter reminds us of that command: “Remember, Scripture says, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:16)
We can’t make ourselves holy. God alone can do that since only He is holy. This means we must be in a communion with Him. As humans we rely on our senses to know what’s happening. We need to see, hear, smell, taste or touch something in order to experience it. The more senses we use, the more real is an event for us. We must sense community’s existence. It can’t be just an abstract idea for us. Communion with another has to be experienced if it’s to affect us. Making a gift of ourselves to another must be concrete in order to make a difference in our life and in that of others. So also in our relationship with God. When Jesus identified Himself as “the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), He wasn’t talking symbolically, but rather concretely about something that could be observed by our senses. His way could be seen; His truth could be heard; and His life could be received, tasted and touched. He made this possible through His Church in her Sacraments, especially in the Holy Mass.
Jesus made communion with Him a reality to be physically experienced on Holy Thursday when He instituted the Eucharist and ordained the Apostles and commanded them to “do this in remembrance of me …” (Lk 22:19-20). That evening Jesus took bread and said, “Take this and eat it, this is my body.” (Mt 26:26) Then He took a cup of wine and said, “All of you must drink it, for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mt 26:27-28) St. Paul reiterated what Jesus had said about the bread and wine: “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me … This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. Every time, then, you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes!” (1 Cor 11:23-26)Thus Jesus made it possible to physically experience Him in a Holy Communion within His Church.
The Catholic Church has always believed in Jesus’ Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. She sees it as “the source and summit of the Christian life" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1324). The Christian life is a spiritual life, therefore the Eucharist is essential to our spirituality. Spirituality is about being in communion with Christ. Sadly, from the first moment when Jesus announced, “My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him,” people began to reject His teaching, “… many of His disciples remarked, ‘This sort of talk is hard to endure! How can anyone take it seriously?’” (Jn 6:55-60) Many still reject this teaching today. But Jesus meant what He said to be taken literally. Jesus alone, in the words of St. Peter, has“… the words of eternal life.” (Jn 6:68) “Eternal life is this; to know you, the only true God, and Him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.” (Jn 17:3) To know God we must know Christ. To know Christ we must be in communion with Him. How? By receiving Him – body, blood, soul and divinity - in Holy Communion. (frsos)
Does Jesus Know You?
Many people say they know Jesus, but does Jesus know them? Friendship and acquaintanceship aren’t the same. We can’t know someone unless we let him or her into our life where the person can see who we really are and what we’re really about. Have you ever heard someone say, “I thought I knew him/her, but I guess I didn’t!” Relationships become superficial or fail because there’s no mutual knowledge. Mutual knowledge creates intimacy, enabling us to share our most precious dreams, deepest desires and highest hopes with confidence. Mutual knowledge is also required in our relationship with Jesus. It’s just as important to let Jesus know us as it is for us to know Him.
Many people think they know Jesus, but He doesn’t know them? Speaking about judgment day, Jesus said, “When that day comes, many will plead with me, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not exercised demons by its power? Did we not do many miracles in your name as well? Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Out of my sight you evildoers!’” (Mt 7:21-23) Why didn’t He know them? Because they didn’t spend time in His company revealing who they really were. It isn’t knowing Jesus that saves us but letting Him know us, so that He can call us by name, perfect our faith, and say, “Come. You have my Father’s blessing! Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.” (Mt 25:34)
How do we make sure that Jesus knows us? By being His companion. “If anyone would serve me, let him follow me; where I am, there will my servant be.” (Jn 12:26) Mutual knowledge is impossible without spending time together talking, listening, sharing, and working. Relationships die when people don’t spend time together observing and discussing what they have in common and where they differ; examining their mutual values and admitting their vices with a view to seeing how they can enrich and perfect each other. The same is true in our relationship with Jesus. He wants us to know Him, but more importantly He wants to know us. But Jesus is God, and therefore knows everything about us and so there’s no need to tell Him who we are! That’s not the way Jesus wants a relationship. He wants to know you and me as persons who freely share with Him who we are. Jesus wants His relationship with us to be mutual, based on the mutual knowledge. Relationship is never a one-way street.
Jesus gets to know you and me when we spend time with Him. Where can we do that? He’s always present in His Church. He assured Peter, on whom He founded His Church, “And know that I am with you always until the end of time.” (Mt 28:20) There Jesus knows us as, “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.” (Jn 10:27) He knows us as active members of His Church, His flock, as His adopted brothers and sisters. He knows us when we listen to His voice and humbly accept Him as our Shepherd, Lord and Saviour. He knows us in our prayer, sharing our needs, hopes, and dreams, sharing our fears, faith, and love as the “sheep of His flock” with Him as our Good Shepherd (Ps 23;100). He knows us in worship, especially the Holy Mass. He knows us in Confession when we bare our souls in a spirit of repentance seeking absolution and the grace to overcome sin. He knows us in each of His Church’s Sacraments gracing us with His presence to be His “instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47) bringing His light to dispel the world’s darkness. We spend time with Him doing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy ministering to the sick, thirsty, imprisoned, lonely, naked, homeless, the dying, counselling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, calling sinners to repent, comforting the afflicted, forgiving offences, bearing wrongs patiently, and praying for the living and the dead.
Jesus gets to know us as His witnesses in these acts of love and mercy. By showing ourselves to Him Jesus shines His light on us to give us a true picture of our self and the insight to become our best self. In letting Jesus know us He assures us that we will never be alone, unloved or abandoned during our life on earth. To those whom He knows Jesus promises: “I will give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me. The Father, who gave them to me, is greater than anyone, and no one can steal from the Father. The Father and I are one.” (Jn 10:28-30) “He will shepherd you and “wipe away every tear from your eyes.” (Rev 7:17)
When we let Jesus know us by making Him our constant Companion in life, we know our true self so we can be true to God, our neighbour, and ourselves. Don’t be afraid to let Jesus know you. (frsos)
The Key to Salvation
A friend of mine asked recently how God would judge people who either haven’t heard of Him or who’ve been led astray in this confusing and sinful world. During this Year of Mercy we might well ask how God provides everyone with the opportunity to know and do His will. As a loving Father, God gives each of His children the opportunity to benefit from His love. How does God do this? Speaking through Moses, He tells us, “If only you would heed the voice of the Lord and keep His commandments and statute … with all your heart and all your soul … This command is not too mysterious and remote for you … It is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.” (Deut 30:10-14) God writes His law on the heart of every human being from the moment of conception. Every human soul has a spiritual organ of religiosity that seeks union with its Creator. Every person has the ability to reason to the existence of God. Therefore no person can say he or she couldn’t hear or believe in God.
God formed a people to whom He personally revealed Himself and finally He came to earth Himself in Person through His Word, Jesus Christ. “Jesus is the image of the unseen God … for in Him were created all things in Heaven and on earth: everything visible and invisible … all things were created through Him and for Him … He holds all things in unity … the Church is His body, He is its Head … He was first to be born from the dead.” (Col 1:15-20) Jesus is God’s love for us made visible. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Trial, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?” (Rom 8:35) Nothing can separate us from God’s love except ourselves through sin. Jesus founded His Church on Peter to, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the Name ‘of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you. And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world.” (Mat 28:19-20) It’s the responsibility of every member of Jesus’ Church to introduce Him to every human being? Why? Because to have a personal relationship with God it’s essential to know Jesus. He is the “image of the unseen God.” If people don’t now Jesus today it’s either because they have rejected Him or Christians haven’t introduced Him to them.
Sometimes Christians think they’re good because they haven’t hurt anyone. But they forget that Christianity isn’t only about not hurting others but about doing good to them. St. Peter urges us, “Above all, let your charity be constant, for charity covers a multitude of sins. Be mutually hospitable without complaining … put your gifts at the service of one another, each in the measure he or she has received.” (1 Pt 4:8-10) Jesus warns us, “It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in Heaven.” (Mt 7:21) What’s God’s will? It’s to love Him with all we have and love our neighbour as our self. When we love our neighbour we’re loving God and our self. Jesus emphasized love of neighbour as the key to salvation in His parable of the Good Samaritan. There are three kinds of people in the world. Those who act like, 1. “What’s yours is mine!” 2. “What’s mine is mine!” and 3. “What’s mine is yours.” The robber falls into the first category, the priest and Levite the second, and the Samaritan the third.
Every person has a free will and can choose either of these spirits when approaching others. The person who believes that “what is mine is yours” is the one who does God’s will, regardless of his or her religion. This person is like Jesus who heals our wounds caused by our sins. To selflessly reach out to others always signifies the presence of the Holy Spirit. It’s God’s love made visible. It’s not those calling on the Lord who will be saved, but those who are charitable. Actions speak louder than words. God doesn’t want us just calling His Name; He want us to act in His Name. Faith without works is dead. Prayer without action is empty. A “religious” person without charity is less religious that a charitable person without religion. The value and purpose of religion is to bind us to God in a personal relationship so that, through prayer and worship, we might receive God’s grace and know His will, growing in our consciousness and creativity for doing good to others. Jesus tells us that we will be judged not on our Church attendance but on our consistent charitable attitude toward “the least of my brothers and sisters.” (Mt 25:40) We need to ask ourselves daily, “To whom can I do good today in my efforts to do God’s will and be saved from my sins?” (frsos)
THOUGHT: A tongue filled with laughter and praise is a reflection of a heart filled to overflowing with the joy of the Lord. What a joy it is just to be with someone whose heart is full. A soothing tongue, a tongue that can say "I accept you where you are," or "I appreciate your questions" without offence or bitterness, is a secure place someone can go for help without fear of judgment, condemnation or censure.Mike Hoskins
From Moyvane Newsletter March 2016
While everyone this weekend will be focused on the Prodigal Son, maybe those of you reading this may think and indeed pray for OUR PRODIGAL DAUGHTERS!
Great poets have sung of the beauties of home -
its comfort, its love and its joys.
How back to the place of its sheltering dome
I welcome the prodigal boy
They picture his father with pardoning smile and glittering robes to unfurl;
But none of the poets thought it worthwhile to sing of the prodigal girl
The prodigal son can resume his old place as leader of fashions mad whirl,
with never a hint of his former disgrace –
Not so for the prodigal girl!
The girl may come back to the home she has left
but nothing is ever the same.
The shadow still linger o’er dear ones bereft,
society scoffs at her name.
Perhaps that is why when the prodigal girl gets lost on life’s devious track:
She thinks of the lips that will scornfully curl,
and hasn’t the heart to come back
Yes, welcome the prodigal son to his place;
kill the calf, fill the free flowing bowl;
But shut not the door on his frail sister’s face,
remember she too has a soul.
(The author of this beautiful reflection is unknown.
I think it is a very strong reminder to all of us to be sensitive as to how we judge or condemn others).
A MOTHER’S LOVE
There are times when only a Mother’s love
Can understand our tears,
Can soothe our disappointments
And calm all our fears.
There are times when only a Mother’s love
Can share the joy we feel
When something we’ve dreamed about
Quite suddenly is real.
There are times when only a Mother’s faith
Can help us on life’s way
And inspire in us the confidence
We need from day to day.
For a Mother’s heart and a Mother’s faith
And a Mother’s steadfast love
Were fashioned by the Angels
And sent from God above. Mother Thank You!
Author Unknown
A Christmas and New Year's Message from President Michael D. Higgins
by Irish Abroad on 18 December 2015 06:12AM
December 2015
Christmas is a special time. For most of us, it is a time to be together with our loved ones, our families; a time to pause and reflect; a time to recognise and give thanks for the good people, and happy events in our lives.
If Christmas is a time to celebrate, it is also a time to share. We share each other’s company, each other’s achievements together with each other’s pains, hopes and dreams.
For we must not forget that Christmas is also a time of hope. At this time, in the deepest darkness of winter, we celebrate the triumph of light over dark, of dreams over the setbacks of the past. We renew our sense of possibilities not yet realised.
As we take stock over this holiday period, we are given an opportunity to reflect on our lives and the world we live in. As we do so, we are reminded of the hardship experienced by countless people in Ireland and the suffering of millions of our fellow travellers on this vulnerable planet we call Earth.
As we reflect on the story of Christmas and the birth of Jesus, on the plight of the homeless Joseph and Mary anticipating the birth of their child, and how they were aided by complete strangers, we can perhaps draw inspiration from what they experienced for our own lives and times. More than anything, the Christmas story gives us guidance on how to shape our own shared humanity with a regard for future generations. This year in particular, we welcome the acceptance of new obligations by nation states in relation to global poverty and climate change.
During 2015 we learnt that 1 in every 122 people on the planet is now a refugee, a “displaced person” or otherwise forced to leave their homes. Wars, conflict and persecution have forced more people to flee than at any other time since records began.
As people of a migrant nation we are perhaps uniquely placed to understand the great agony experienced by the 60 million displaced people.
In this context, it is heartening to see how countless people in Ireland have chosen to respond with warmth and real hospitality. Our NGOs, our medical services, and our uniformed services – both at home and overseas – are peopled by those who have chosen to take action, and to be the stranger that offers a helping hand, a shelter, a meal to those in need. How we treat the weakest among us is the finest test of us as a nation.
During the past year both Sabina and I have experienced and valued the warmth and friendship of people both at home and abroad – and it is something we deeply appreciate. In villages and towns around the country and on working visits abroad we have had the privilege of witnessing the contribution to community and the public world made by Irish people in so many different ways.
Together, we can strengthen that web of solidarity that binds us as a people and as a global community next year. As we prepare to commemorate the momentous events of a century ago that shaped the birth of our Republic, we are encouraged not only to recall those events, but also to re-imagine and take inspiration from the Republican ideals proclaimed almost a century ago.
It is my sincere hope that those ideals can inspire each and every one of us on our shared journey where each step made by each citizen, in every generation, matters; a journey that we all make together, never alone.
Mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, guím gach dea-ghuí oraibh go léir agus go raibh Nollaig agus Bliain Nua shona agus shíochánta agaibh.
As President of Ireland may I offer people everywhere the warmest wishes for a peaceful as well as a happy Christmas and New Year.
Teachtaireacht na Nollag agus na hAthbhliana
ón Uachtarán, Micheál D. Ó hUigínn
From Father Pat Moore
We have reached the point where we can look back on 2015. Not a great summer but a wonderful month of Oct. Kerry winning the Minor All Ireland & in the Senior All Ireland Anthony Maher
bringing glory on our parish with an all star as did our primary school football team, so many in Scór, Community Games &Basketball. Congrats all, their families, coaches and carers.
In 2015 there were 19 Baptisms in the Parish. May we continue to create a community in which it is safe to grow up & grow old. In 2015 there were 20 Funerals in our two churches. We remembered them during November especially, every time we visit the graveyards & we pray for those who mourn their dead &will find this Christmas so hard. Light a candle, visit the crib and keep fond memories alive. In 2015 there were 9 Marriages in our churches. God Bless our newlyweds & welcome to anyone who has come to live among us
in the greater Duagh/Lyre area. Emigration, unemployment and sickness stood out for others this year in our parish.
Last February I was diagnosed with cancer. After chemo & radium treatment concurrently I was operated on in mid June and I am making a recovery slowly since. I am very grateful to God and to family, friends and the parish community that supported and inspired me through it all. As I continue to get better I am so grateful and thanks to you for all your goodness.
To everyone I say getting cancer is not a death sentence because there are now great treatments for different cancers. Every
One should get their bloods checked regularly; always keep in touch with your doctor/nurse. Listen to your body and don’t push yourself
when you feel something slowing you down. Accept help when it’s offered and you need it; focus on the positive when you might feel otherwise. Offer and give support to each other when it’s needed. There is great nature in people and it’s healing.
Value time together, meals, games, fun, laughter, these are where healing memories are minted. So too when we are travelling
from & to school, Mass & training. Our sports and leisure complex goes from strength to strength. On the first anniversary of its opening there was a successful gathering of over 300 ‘lovely ladies’! The building is fully paid for & self financing the envy of many communities
The new bell tower in the Church grounds is a credit to the vision and dedication of the Tidy Towns committee. Both graveyards in the parish are very special places to visit and great thanks are due to the people who look after them and make them such special places to
visit.
In my absence from the parish so many people worked so hard for our parish. Fr Declan in Listowel stepped up to the mark Fr.
Paul, Fr. Jack and Fr. Tom went above & beyond the call of duty to support The Christian Life of the Community. They were not for
wanting. Nina Hayes does sterling work as our Parish Secretary as do our sacristans Phil Meehan & Mick Naughton. People turn up regularly to help and participate in: Eucharistic Adoration, serving teas, cleaning the church, collections, the choirs, church decoration
, garden, readers, traffic control, distribute communion, altar servers, parents, child protection, board of management in our schools, community organisation. This all makes our communities live. Continue to look after one another. We are as strong as our weakest link and I felt weak this last year and felt held by you all.
For this I am so grateful. In looking after one another and being kind, Jesus lives again in our homes and parish. May we do the small things well, around the kitchen table, the altar, wherever we get internal as well as external heat from. Come to the crib in our Churches and live the simple things well as we see the baby Jesus stretched out in the straw among the animals. Go gently and kindly into each day of the New Year. And the great work the artist DJ Downey did around our church and grotto- Thanks to him.
Striking a Balance
corporal punishment
A topic that is often discussed, particularly on radio and television, is the use of corporal punishment to chastise children. There are those who believe that giving a child a smack on the bottom is no harm to them and helps them realise that there are consequences to misbehaving and then there are others who are fervently opposed to any physical contact at all. Both sides can put up good arguments to back up their theories.
We must remember that it is only in very recent times that corporal punishment was prohibited in schools. In my days at school the rod was liberally used as a punishment for not knowing the correct answer to a question, misbehaving or indeed at the whim of the teacher. Most teachers were fair but there were some who went too far and over did the beatings. I remember one teacher in particular who, though a great teacher, had a bit of a drink problem. The day after one of his binges was dreaded. Filled with remorse and suffering from a hangover, he took out his feelings on us and used any excuse to use the cane. He would ask rapid-fire questions and if you weren’t quick enough with the answers you suffered. I remember one day answering all the questions he threw at me and I was so happy I allowed a little smile to cross my face. “What are you smirking at ?” he said and proceeded to give me a double dose for insolence. I hated every day I went to school unlike my grandchildren who love going. That is one change for the better. If you had the misfortune to mention at home that you got slapped at school, you got another beating at home because the teacher was right and you were wrong. Parents and teachers believed the saying “spare the rod and spoil the child” and it made our young days mostly forgettable. It made good liars of us though. You never admitted to wrongdoing and always made up a good excuse to avoid getting the rod or the strap. There is no doubt that it had a lasting effecting on some of us. I grew up believing I was totally worthless and I developed an inferiority complex that has plagued me for most of my life. Everything was so negative, even God was waiting for us to trip up so that we might be sent to burn in hell forever!. Nowadays there is more emphasis on love and understanding and less fear.
There is still the problem of discipline. At school errant children may be suspended for a period. This interferes with their education and is far more harmful than a couple of slaps on the hand. Some parents believe their children can do no wrong and let them do as they like. We all know what that leads to. We all have to learn that there are consequences to our actions and the best time to learn this is at a very young age. Parents face a huge challenge in dealing with young people who are getting most of their ideas from TV programmes and social media. It can be very provoking to be defied by one’s child but beating them is not the answer. The question is, what to do? I am no expert in this field so I am not going to give an opinion but I would question the total outlawing of a smack on the behind for a youngster who is throwing a tantrum. A balance has to be struck between giving in completely and physically hurting a child. I never want to go back to the awful days of my youth but I have to admit that on one or two occasions I gave a smack to my own children when they were young and never had to repeat it again. They have grown up ok and have a good sense of what is right or wrong. There is no perfect way.
Domhnall de Barra
THOUGHT:There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians ever imagine that they are guilty themselves....The essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil; Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind...As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. C S Lewis.
THOUGHT: Have you ever noticed that Jesus is never recorded as taking a holiday? He retired for the purposes of his mission, not from it. He was never destroyed by his work; he was always on top of it. He moved among people as the Master of every situation. He was busier than anyone; the multitudes were always at him, yet he had time, for everything and everyone. He was never hurried, or harassed, or too busy. He had complete supremacy over time; he never let it dictate to him. He talked of "my time;" "my hour." He knew exactly when the moment had come for doing something and when it had not... a life lived in God is a life that masters time. One can see the distractions for what they are and centre down on the things that really matter. But of course this doesn't mean that Christians do less than other people. (Look at Jesus again, and think of those people - many of the busiest you have known - who have something of this quality.)
“A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain”. Mildred W. Struven
Letter from heaven
To my dearest family and friends
There’s some things I’d like to say, but first of all, to let you know that I have arrived okay.
I’m writing this from heaven. Here I dwell with God above,
Where there’s no more tears of sadness,
There is just eternal love.
The day Thursday, I had to leave you when my life on earth was through
God picked me up and hugged me and said, “I welcome you”
“It’s good to have you back again,
You were missed while you were gone:
As for your dearest family, they’ll be here later on.”
Please do not be unhappy just because I’m out of sight;
Remember that I am with you every morning, noon and night.
God gave me a list of things that he wished for me to do;
And foremost on the list was to watch and care for you.
When you lie in bed at night,
With the days’ chores put to flight,
God and I are closest to you ……In the middle of the night.
When you are walking down the street and you’ve got me on your mind,
I am walking in your footsteps only half a step behind.
There are many rocky roads ahead of you and many hills to climb.
But together we can do it by just taking one day at a time.
And when it is time for you to go from that body to be free remember that you’re not going…
You are coming here to me.
THOUGHT: Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find in them a claim upon Him.
A. B. Simpson
Canadian poet Carol Penner, who is also a Mennonite pastor, reminds us that the events of Palm Sunday and Holy Week are not simply historical events; they are present realities. Her poem is entitled Coming to the City Nearest You.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you.
Jesus comes to the gate, to the synagogue,
to houses prepared for wedding parties,
to the pools where people wait to be healed,
to the temple where lambs are sold,
to gardens, beautiful in the moonlight.
He comes to the governor’s palace.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you,
to new subdivisions and trailer parks,
to penthouses and basement apartments,
to the factory, the hospital and the Cineplex,
to the big box outlet centre and to churches,
with the same old same old message,
unchanged from the beginning of time.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you
with his Good News and…
Hope erupts! Joy springs forth!
The very stones cry out,
“Hosanna in the highest,
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The crowds jostle and push,
they can’t get close enough!
People running alongside flinging down their coats before him!
Jesus, the parade marshal, waving, smiling.
The paparazzi elbow for room,
looking for that perfect picture for the headline,
“The Man Who Would Be King”.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you
and gets the red carpet treatment.
Children waving real palm branches from the florist,
silk palm branches from Wal-mart,
palms made from green construction paper.
Hosannas ringing in churches, chapels, cathedrals,
in monasteries, basilicas and tent-meetings.
King Jesus, honored in a thousand hymns
in Canada, Cameroon, Calcutta and Canberra.
We LOVE this great big powerful capital K King Jesus
coming in glory and splendor and majesty
and awe and power and might.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you.
Kingly, he takes a towel and washes feet.
With majesty, he serves bread and wine.
With honour, he prays all night.
With power, he puts on chains.
Jesus, King of all creation, appears in state
in the eyes of the prisoner, the AIDS orphan, the crack addict,
asking for one cup of cold water,
one coat shared with someone who has none,
one heart, yours,
and a second mile.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you. Can you see him?
Canadian poet Carol Penner.
POPE: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/true-christians-bear-humiliation-with-joy-and-patience-says-pope/
"The object of my school is to show how many extraordinary things even a lazy and ordinary man may see if he can spur himself to the single activity of seeing."
-- G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles
http://francesblogg.blogspot.ie/2009/03/catholic-scientists-index.html
The Hurler’s Prayer
(courtesy of Shannon parish)
Grant me, O Lord, a Hurler’s skill
With strength of arm and speed of limb,
A cunning eye for the flying ball,
And luck to catch it where ‘ere it fall,
May my stroke be steady, my aim be true,
My actions manly, my misses few,
And no matter what way the game may go,
May I rest in friendship with every foe,
When the final whistle for me is blown,
And I stand at last at God’s judgement throne,
May the Great Referee when He calls my name,
Say: “ You hurled like a man, and you
played the game!”
Ministry
Fr Ray Browne was ordained on Sunday 4 July 1982 in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Athlone.
He was School Chaplain at Summerhill College from October 1983 to June 1986. He was Parish Curate in Roscommon Town from September 1986 to July 1988.
He contributed greatly to Galway Marriage Regional Tribunal as Staff Member from July 1988 to July 1995 and Judicial Vicar from October 2002 to July 2008
He took up the position of Parish Curate in Saint Mary’s (Cathedral Parish), Sligo from 1995 to 2002, then Parish Priest of Kilgefin Parish, Co Roscommon from August 2008 - 2013.
Fr. Ray Browne is also the current Diocesan Designated Person for Safeguarding Children in the diocese of Elphin.
Episcopal Ordination of Raymond Brown
Speaking Notes of Father Séamus O’Connell
Whatever else one can say about Martha in this gospel story we have just heard, she is not indifferent. Like the Good Samaritan whom we met last Sunday she sees the need of the other. She sees the need of Jesus and his disciples and, in compassion, opens her home to them. But unlike the Samaritan, Martha has her limits. Her frustration and fatigue show
themselves before the day is out. Like us all, she has her expectations
: she expects her sister to support her in serving and she expects Jesus to acknowledge what’s going on. But support she does not get! The Lord does not indulge her justified complaint. He doesn’t engage with it at all. He puts something else before her: the action of her sister, who, “was sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to his word.” (Luke 10:39)
Martha and we are left open mouthed before Jesus. The tension is NOT resolved. And that tension reaches down into this Cathedral and into this Diocese today. Her fatigue is like the fatigue that characterizes being part of the Church in Ireland in these days and years. We are more like Martha than we think! We often feel that things have passed the Church by,
that the action is elsewhere, that people no longer remember or appreciate the huge work in education, the hospitals, the outreach, the service to emigrants, the heroic sacrifice of missionaries, in every corner of the globe, beautiful young women and men who literally gave everything for the sake of
Christ
and who in the latter part of the 19th century and especially all through the 20th
gave and gave and gave. That appears to have faded All that appears to be left is the memory and the hurt from the betrayals and failures. And failures there have been. And betrayals. We fool ourselves if we think that the leaching of life from the Church is to be ascribed solely to the horrific betrayals, and failures and the inaction which followed for so long. The real roots of the fatigue and of the lack of life in the Church in Ireland ... and indeed in
Europe lie elsewhere. They lie at the heart of what is happening between Martha and the Lord. Martha has her limits! Martha’s big and generous and strong heart has blinded her to another part of life Her generosity has blinded to the the other, to the guest. There is the person who is to be met. Martha is so busy giving that she cannot receive her guest. She is so preoccupied with looking after her guests, that she does not look at them.
She looks through them. But the Lord asks not just be served, but to be attended to Without attending to him, her serving makes little sense. Like
in a marriage, the shared project, the shared activity, makes little sense without the shared life. You know what I mean. In the early
Summer of 1989, the Diocese of Stuttgart got a new bishop, just like ourselves. In his first pastoral letter which he titled, “A Letter to
the Parishes of the Diocese,” that new bishop noted that without our own personal conversion, all the reforms even the most necessary and well intentioned will fail and, without our own personal renewal, will end in empty activism. Without listening to the Word, without discerning the will of God, without a spirit of adoration and without constant prayer, there will be neither renewal of the church nor new evangelisation in Europe. That was 24 years ago! What Bishop Walter Kasper had to say to the parishes of Stuttgart,
still holds for parishes across Ireland today! In a way, that is what Jesus puts before Martha! And the Church was and is a community of Marthas! WE are
a community of Marthas. But the Church in its fullness is a community of Marthas before the Lord. And here is the heart of the matter: before the
Lord. Jesus invites Martha to remain in his presence, to be present to him, as he is to her. What the Lord puts before Martha, is neither easy nor
rapid. In the real world, change is slow, very slow and miracles have to be discerned. This still remains new territory for us in Ireland; this way of being Church. There are some who would say that the Church in Europe is broken and needs to be fixed. It might be wiser to say that Church in Ireland as we know it is leaving one place and the Lord is bringing us to a new place; the second reading today: ‘When you were dead ... God made you alive along with [Christ]’ (Col 2:13) It is God who does this, w ho brings us from death to life, from a dying Church to a living Church. The journey from death to life is
not an easy journey for people in the real world. However, we are not alone:
the Holy Spirit is in our hearts (see Romans 5:5) and our
Father in heaven gives the Spirit of the live giving Lord to all who ask (Luke 11:13; next
Sunday’s gospel).
Our diocese is under the patronage of St Brendan, a person of fa
ith and courage who set out on uncharted waters. Today,in Brendan’s wake,
Raymond Brown is ordained as Bishop of Kerry. It is a very important day for us. It is a day of joy and a day of hope for all
of us who comprise the Body of Christ in this place.
Ray, you come to us as a person of significant pastoral experience and administrative skill, and more
as a person of integrity and openness, a person of faith, a
manof gentleness and respect, compassion and concern.
You are someone who will be able to build on the
significant legacies of our bishops since the Council
, and who will gather us and find a way with us, as we are brought
through these uncharted waters Today is a very important day for you too
. As we say in Kerry, “You’re stuck with us!” In a real sense, God entrusts
you to us; your life among us will be part of your way to eternal life (see Luke 10:25). These are big things, mysteries of faith. I pray that we may give you
the welcome you deserve, that we may engage with you and
be honest with you I have one thing to ask this day that God help us the realize that Providence is at work among us all. If the Lord is with the Church, then the way will be full of surprises, like the way of Jesus with the disciples.
A church which takes that way seriously is a church on the path to renewal. It is a Church which realizes that without Christ, there is no point in this endeavour. So let us not be afraid. Let us remember Bill Murphy’s Episcopal motto Nolite Timere Do not be afraid! Open, THROW OPEN the doors to Christ To his saving power.. Do not be afraid! Christ knows ‘what is in everyone’ [see John 2:25] ONLY HE knows it.The words of the 58 year old Karol Wojtya , in his inaugural homily as the newly elected
Bishop of Rome in October 1978. The call of a saint, a saint of our time, a man of our age. May God who has begun this good work among us, bring it to
completion.
THOUGHT: Anyone who tries self-sufficiency in the spiritual life soon falls prey to illusion. Anonymous.
“Make every product better than it’s ever been done before. Make the parts you cannot see as well as the parts you can see. Use only the best materials, even for the most everyday items. Give the same attention to the smallest detail as you do to the largest. Design every item you make to last forever.” – Shaker Philosophy of Furniture Making
“This Lawyer lived 130 miles from her elderly father. They had not seen each other in a few months. The father phones her and asks “When are you coming to see me”” the daughter proceeded to tell him about the demands on her time – her court schedule, meetings and so on – everything that prevented her from visiting her father . So the father says “I’ve been wondering about this for some time now – when I die did you intend to come to my funeral? the daughter was really upset and mad with this question and responds “Dad” I can’t believe you’d ask that, of course I’d come to your funeral . the Father replies ‘Good’ – let’s make a deal – forget the funeral I need you more now than I will then – Visit now love OK!”
THOUGHT: from Sr Thea Bowman, a Franciscan sister of Perpetual Adoration.
“Let us resolve to make this week holy by claiming Christ’s redemptive grace and by living holy lives. The Word became flesh and redeemed us by his holy life and holy death. This week especially, let us accept redemption by living grateful, faithful, prayerful, generous, just and holy lives.
Let us resolve to make this week holy by reading and meditating Holy Scripture. So often, we get caught up in the hurry of daily living. As individuals and as families, reserve prime time to be with Jesus, to hear the cries of the children waving palm branches, to see the Son of Man riding on an ass' colt, to feel the press of the crowd, to be caught up in the "Hosannas” and to realize how the cries of acclamation will yield to the garden of suffering, to be there and watch as Jesus is sentenced by Pilate to Calvary, to see him rejected, mocked, spat upon, beaten and forced to carry a heavy cross, to hear the echo of the hammer, to feel the agony of the torn flesh and strained muscles, to know Mary’s anguish as he hung three hours before he died.
We recoil before the atrocities of war, gang crime, domestic violence and catastrophic illness. Unless we personally and immediately are touched by suffering, it is easy to read Scripture and to walk away without contacting the redemptive suffering that makes us holy. The reality of the Word falls on deaf ears.
Let us take time this week to be present to someone who suffers. Sharing the pain of a fellow human will enliven Scripture and help us enter into the holy mystery of the redemptive suffering of Christ.
Let us resolve to make this week holy by participating in the Holy Week services of the church, not just by attending, but also by preparing, by studying the readings, entering into the spirit, offering our services as ministers of the Word or Eucharist, decorating the church or preparing the environment for worship.
Let us sing, "Lord, have mercy," and "Hosanna." Let us praise the Lord with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength, uniting with the suffering church throughout the world -- in Rome and Ireland, in Syria and Lebanon, in South Africa and Angola, India and China, Nicaragua and El Salvador, in Washington, D.C., and Jackson, Mississippi.
Let us break bread together; let us relive the holy and redemptive mystery. Let us do it in memory of him, acknowledging in faith his real presence upon our altars.
Let us resolve to make this week holy by sharing holy peace and joy within our families, sharing family prayer on a regular basis, making every meal a holy meal where loving conversations bond family members in unity, sharing family work without grumbling, making love not war, asking forgiveness for past hurts and forgiving one another from the heart, seeking to go all the way for love as Jesus went all the way for love.
Let us resolve to make this week holy by sharing holy peace and joy with the needy, the alienated, the lonely, the sick and afflicted, the untouchable.
Let us unite our sufferings, inconveniences and annoyances with the suffering of Jesus. Let us stretch ourselves, going beyond our comfort zones to unite ourselves with Christ's redemptive work.
We unite ourselves with Christ's redemptive work when we reconcile, when we make peace, when we share the good news that God is in our lives, when we reflect to our brothers and sisters God's healing, God's forgiveness, God's unconditional love.
Let us be practical, reaching out across the boundaries of race and class and status to help somebody, to encourage and affirm somebody, offering to the young an incentive to learn and grow, offering to the downtrodden resources to help themselves.
May our fasting be the kind that saves and shares with the poor, that actually contacts the needy, that gives heart to heart, that touches and nourishes and heals.
Bakh lo nogaya–Nothing will Touch You
Yehudit Ravitz
There are big bears in the forest
And palpable fear
There are dances opposed fire
And snakes and owls.
There are monsters in the river
Hungry and awake
But your room is warm and nice
And you are asleep.
The breath of the mouths of innocents
Are quiet and calm
Nothing scares you and
Nothing will harm you
There’s a war in the middle of Europe
These are black days.
Caravan flees without a home
Because of the bad people
There’s a crazy virus that harms
Indiscriminately
But this room is warm and nice
And you are sleeping.
The mouths of innocent
Are quiet and calm
Nothing scares you and
Nothing will harm you.
FAMILY HISTORY
"We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.
Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: "Tell our story". So, we do.
In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought, and some died, to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.
It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are.
So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before."
Author: Unknown
These lines written by a 13 year old who died of a brain tumour, which he had battled with for 4 years, he gave this poem to his mother before he died but it’s applicable to all who are sad this Christmas, having lost a family member.
‘Happy Christmas’
“The light of the Christmas star to you
The warmth of home and hearth to you
The cheer and goodwill of friends to you
The love of God’s son and God’s peace to you”
“I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below
With tiny lights like Heaven’s stars reflecting on the snow
The sight is so spectacular please wipe away the tear
For I’m spending Christmas with Jesus this year
I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear
But the sounds of music can’t compare with the Christmas choir up here
I have no words to tell you, the joy their voices bring
For it’s beyond description to hear the angels sing
I know how much you miss me, I see the pain inside your heart
But I’m not so far away, we really aren’t apart
So be happy for me dear ones, you know I hold you dear
And be glad I’m spending Christmas with Jesus this year
I send you each a special gift from my heavenly home above
I send you each a memory of my undying love
Please love and keep each other, as my Father said to do
For I can’t count the blessing of love He has for each of you
So have a Merry Christmas and wipe away that tear
Remember I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.
25th November, Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Christ came as a suffering servant to free us from the slavery of sin. His Grace flows through the sacraments. In this year of Faith is God calling you to be a priest? Contact Vocation Director: Fr. Liam Lovell, 064 6641352 liam.lovell@yahoo.ie
Be thankful for the smallest blessing, and you will deserve to receive greater. Value the least gifts no less than the greatest, and simple graces as especial favours. If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean, for nothing can be valueless that is given by the most high God.Thomas a Kempis
- Be encouraging. We have to remember that most people in our culture are not active Christians who know and follow Christ. This means we have a lot of work to do. Encouraging someone to explore the faith, seek the truth, pray, etc are great ways to introduce them to Christ and His Church.
2 - Dialogue. Don't Argue. Fulton Sheen had the motto - "Win an argument. Lose a soul." I agree. If someone loses, they won't listen to what you said. Try presenting the truth, not beating someone up with it. Our job isn't to convince, it is to be faithful in announcing what it true in an attractive way.
3 - Re-read before posting it. Try to see if what you are writing could be taken the wrong way, sound defensive, be argumentative, etc. No need to be immediate in responding if it means you could hurt someone. You will drive someone off more quickly than bring them to Christ with one comment.
4 - Step away if things get too heated. Don't feel like you can't take a break or end a conversation if things aren't headed in a positive direction. If you can come back at a later time, then do so.
5 - Don't write anything you wouldn't say to someone face-to-face. People love to re-invent themselves on the internet. No need to be the internet tough-guy and beat someone up virtually. No good will come of it.
6 - Ask good questions. A great way to understand where someone is coming from and how you might help them is to ask questions. Furthermore, your partner in the discussion will have to think about what they believe and why if you ask good questions. Getting them to reflect is a great goal any way.
7 - Know who you are talking to. If you don't know your audience, then you don't know how to properly respond to them. Rarely should you quote the Bible to an atheist. Nor should you quote Vatican II to a Muslim. A rational non-faith-based argument works for most though - unless someone has asked a "where is it in the Bible" kind of answer.
8 - Be prepared to hear some far-out ideas and strange philosophies. Don't dismiss someone just because they don't think like you do. Every belief under the sun gets equal time on the internet. Be prepared for the absurd and irrational ones.
9 - Know that sarcasm, humor, irony, satire, etc may be misinterpreted online. I do this too often still. Nobody can see your facial expressions or know the real intent behind your posts. If it could be misinterpreted, then re-write it or don't post it.
10 - Don't be afraid to speak the truth, but do so with the right intentions. In all things charity. Remember what your goal is - to help others come closer to Christ, His Church, and the truth. So, offer up what is true, but do so convincingly, lovingly, and humbly.
REFLECTION FOR THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
Any journey to Jesus, like the Magi’s begins mysteriously. As they are led by a star, we too are led in many ways to meet the Lord: through parents, teachers, friends, experiences (both sad and happy) of our lives. If a meeting with Jesus is at all memorable, it affects our lives, just as their meeting with him meant they went back by a different way. We could say that when we have met Jesus and heard his gospel, we will then go through life by a different path. It is a new birth. Everything is new: the stars in the sky are invitations to his depth and mystery and light, the beggar in the street evokes the good Samaritan in us. After we have met him, in prayer, in community, in service, we realise that he graces every human experience with the possibility of a meeting with God.
A meeting with the Lord is an exchange of gifts. What did he give to the magi? We don’t know for sure, but surely is was a sense of peace and joy that all peoples are called into his kingdom. This is the meaning of Matthew’s beautiful story. It is a message of newborn hope and joy for all the people who have ever heard this story. Their gifts seem huge. But in our case Jesus looks beyond the gift to the love of the giver.
The Christmas song, “Drummer Boy” illustrates this well. His gift to Jesus is his song, his music and his drum. “And then he smiled at me……….. me and my drum”. Our gift of ourselves, our talents, our love is what pleases the Lord. Any contribution we can make to the happiness of others and the peace and justice of our world is our gift to him.
Our Eucharist is “A holy exchange of gifts” (RM, Passim).
http://catholicexchange.com/christmas-in-an-anti-christian-age/2/
by Pat Buchanan on December 31, 2012 •
For two millennia, the birth of Christ has been seen as the greatest event in world history. The moment Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem, God became man, and eternal salvation became possible.
This date has been the separation point of mankind’s time on earth, with B.C. designating the era before Christ, and A.D., anno domino, in the Year of the Lord, the years after. And how stands Christianity today?
“Christianity is in danger off being wiped out in its biblical heartlands,” says the British think tank Civitas.
In Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia and Nigeria, Christians face persecution and pogroms. In Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, conversion is a capital offense. In a century, two-thirds of all the Christians have vanished from the Islamic world.
In China, Christianity is seen as a subversive ideology of the West to undermine the regime.
In Europe, a century ago, British and German soldiers came out of the trenches to meet in no-man’s land to sing Christmas carols and exchange gifts. It did not happen in 1915, or ever again.
In the century since, all the Western empires have vanished. All of their armies and navies have melted away. All have lost their Christian faith. All have seen their birthrates plummet. All their nations are aging, shrinking and dying, and all are witnessing invasions from formerly subject peoples and lands.
In America, too, the decline of Christianity proceeds.
While conservatives believe that culture determines politics, liberals understand politics can change culture.
Sen. Patrick Leahy The Vermont Democrat said on Twitter recently that he would not support giving government agencies more surveillance power -- including warrant less access to Americans' e-mail accounts
Over its 4.5 billion year history, Earth has been bombarded from space by giant asteroids and comets, nearby Gamma-Ray Bursts could have sterilised its surface, there is also a threat from nearby supernovae and even viruses from space. Even the Sun could one day kill all life in earth! Tony Ryan has made a detailed study of all these threats and will present his findings in a lecture at TCD SNIAM Building on November 24th. 2012
Originally published on WhatMakesThemClick.net.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/100-things-you-should-know-about-people-2010-11?op=1#ixzz25FJPv0yo
“The Majesty of Calmness”
From Self Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, 1905
By William George Jordan
Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life self-reliant and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power—ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis.The Sphinx is not a true type of calmness—petrifaction is not calmness; it is death, the silencing of all the energies; while no one lives his life more fully, more intensely and more consciously than the man who is calm.
The Fatalist is not calm. He is the coward slave of his environment, hopelessly surrendering to his present condition, recklessly indifferent to his future. He accepts his life as a rudderless ship, drifting on the ocean of time. He has no compass, no chart, no known port to which he is sailing. His self-confessed inferiority to all nature is shown in his existence of constant surrender. It is not—calmness.
The man who is calm has his course in life clearly marked on his chart. His hand is ever on the helm. Storm, fog, night, tempest, danger, hidden reefs— he is ever prepared and ready for them. He is made calm and serene by the realization that in these crises of his voyage he needs a clear mind and a cool head; that he has naught to do but to do each day the best he can by the light he has; that he will never flinch nor falter for a moment; that, though he may have to tack and leave his course for a time, he will never drift, he will get back into the true channel, he will keep ever headed toward his harbor. When he will reach it, how he will reach it matters not to him. He rests in calmness, knowing he has done his best. If his best seem to be overthrown or over-ruled, then he must still bow his head—in calmness. To no man is permitted to know the future of his life, the finality. God commits to man ever only new beginnings, new wisdom, and new days to use to the best of his knowledge.
Calmness comes ever from within. It is the peace and restfulness of the depths of our nature. The fury of storm and of wind agitate only the surface of the sea; they can penetrate only two or three hundred feet—below that is the calm, unruffled deep. To be ready for the great crises of life we must learn serenity in our daily living. Calmness is the crown of self-control.
When the worries and cares of the day fret you, and begin to wear upon you, and you chafe under the friction—be calm. Stop, rest for a moment, and let calmness and peace assert themselves. If you let these irritating outside influences get the better of you, you are confessing your inferiority to them, by permitting them to dominate you. Study the disturbing elements, each by itself, bring all the will-power of your nature to bear upon them, and you will find that they will, one by one, melt into nothingness, like vapors fading before the sun. The glow of calmness that will then pervade your mind, the tingling sensation of an inflow of new strength, may be to you the beginning of the revelation of the supreme calmness that is possible for you. Then, in some great hour of your life, when you stand face to face with some awful trial, when the structure of your ambition and life-work crumbles in a moment, you will be brave. You can then fold your arms calmly, look out undismayed and undaunted upon the ashes of your hope, upon the wreck of what you have faithfully built, and with brave heart and unfaltering voice you may say: “So let it be—I will build again.”
When the tongue of malice and slander, the persecution of inferiority, tempts you for just a moment to retaliate, when for an instant you forget yourself so far as to hunger for revenge—be calm. When the grey heron is pursued by its enemy, the eagle, it does not run to escape; it remains calm, takes a dignified stand, and waits quietly, facing the enemy unmoved. With the terrific force with which the eagle makes its attack, the boasted king of birds is often impaled and run through on the quiet, lance-like bill of the heron. The means that man takes to kill another’s character becomes suicide of his own
…
When man has developed the spirit of Calmness until it becomes so absolutely part of him that his very presence radiates it, he has made great progress in life. Calmness cannot be acquired of itself and by itself; it must come as the culmination of a series of virtues. What the world needs and what individuals need is a higher standard of living, a great realizing sense of the privilege and dignity of life, a higher and nobler conception of individuality.
With this great sense of calmness permeating an individual, man becomes able to retire more into himself, away from the noise, the confusion and strife of the world, which come to his ears only as faint, far-off rumblings, or as the tumult of the life of a city heard only as a buzzing hum by the man in a balloon.
The man who is calm does not selfishly isolate himself from the world, for he is intensely interested in all that concerns the welfare of humanity. His calmness is but a Holy of Holies into which he can retire from the world to get strength to live in the world. He realizes that the full glory of individuality, the crowning of his self-control is—the majesty of calmness
Escape of Petra Anderson
It seems as if the bullet travelled through Petra’s brain without hitting any significant brain areas. The doctor explains that Petra’s brain has had from birth a small “defect” in it. It is a tiny channel of fluid running through her skull, like a tiny vein through marble, or a small hole in an oak board, winding from front to rear. Only a CAT scan would catch it, and Petra would have never noticed it.
But in Petra’s case, the shotgun buck shot, maybe even the size used for deer hunting enters her brain from the exact point of this defect. Like a marble through a small tube, the defect channels the bullet from Petra’s nose through her brain. It turns slightly several times, and comes to rest at the rear of her brain. And in the process, the bullet misses all the vital areas of the brain. In many ways, it almost misses the brain itself. Like a giant BB though a straw created in Petra’s brain before she was born, it follows the route of the defect. It is channelled in the least harmful way.
More here
http://bstrait.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/a-miracle-inside-the-the-aurora-shooting-one-victims-story/
From Marian.
I can't recommend a trip to the Eucharistic Congress highly enough. We went up yesterday with the Castleisland Parish Group and only got a snapshot of all that is happening there. Loads of people tell me that they plan to go up for the final Mass in Croke Park on Sunday but then they will miss out on all that is going on since Sunday last in the RDS. We could have travelled with Jesus through Capernaun only that you'd need to queue for 15 mins to book and it was in such demand that the tours were booked out until 7pm last night and we were leaving after the Mass which finished at 5.30pm and was held in the Main Arena. We met the Army in their tents in the Simmonscourt Pavilion, got to hear stories from Chad and the Lebanon, handled the cross made from shrapnel, met Fr. Seamus Madigan's collegues, saw a display of crafts from the Traveller settlement beside the army. We attended a prayer service, talked to people from all over the world, listened to personal testomonials on life as a Catholic. It was just the best day and if you can go in the next few days then I can't encourage you enough.
CONGRESS Monday, Limerick Diocese.
Mondays focus was Baptism and Christian Unity. Some highlights:
It was great to hear Br Alois Loser (Taize, his talk is HERE) say "Forming one body in Christ, we belong to each other. “Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor 1:13), Paul asks, concerned at seeing the Christians of the same community separate from one another. And he called for them to be reconciled.".
You can watch an interview with him HERE
Dr Maria Voce of Focolare spoke of the Gospel as central to the Christian life. She said "Personally and together, we would like to repeat with Chiara: “If by some absurd hypothesis all the Gospels of the earth were destroyed, we would like to live in such a way that people could to some extent rewrite the Gospel by observing our behaviour.”"
Click HERE to read her words in full, and HERE to listen to an interview with her.
A very beautiful liturgy of Word and Water was celebrated with representatives from various Christian churches - Church of Ireland, Methodist, Russian Orthodox & Roman Catholic. The Taize prayer service in the Youth Space on Monday evening was stunningly beautiful in its simple, prayerful gentleness. It was truly moving to see people of all ages gather around the Cross to pray and sing and give thanks.
http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee122/Knockanure/CHURCHES/Eucharistic%20Congress%201932/?action=view¤t=_DSC6642.jpg
Severa more clips on youtube knockanurelocal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOyKSqdB1b4&list=UUvu6UB8pWOY7MMn5MxCtj-w&index=1&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKR7olqpL80&feature=colike
1932 Congress Dublin
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Kevin Cotter Article co-written by Mark Bartek
Here are six tips on how you can keep from ruining your summer.
1. Think about where you will find the sacraments during the summer.
Find the closest parishes and check times for Sunday Mass, weekday Masses, and Confession. Put these times into your weekly schedule. Summers are great times to pick up new habits!
2. Plan on a time to pray each day.
Whether you are having some amazing new experiences or are faced with a mundane summer lifestyle, prayer can help you reflect on what God is trying to teach you through it all. Be sure to spend time each day in the classroom of silence. For tips on how to start a habit of prayer, check out this guide.
3. Pick out any books for spiritual reading
I know wasting time on Facebook is important, but why not give yourself something that will truly fill you up. Here are three recommendations: Interior Freedom, The Virtues of Holiness, or The Way.
4. Seek out virtuous friends.
Scripture tells us, “A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure” (Sirach 6:14). It can be tough to leave the college and all of the friendships you have behind. It can be even harder to come home where old friendships can bring back old temptations. While it is important to reach out to your friendship back home, find virtuous friends who will help you strive for greatness in your spiritual life.
5. Find a group of 10-12 people to reach out to.
St. Francis of Assisi tells us that “it is in giving of ourselves that we receive.” Summer is a great time to learn how to lead a Bible study outside the college campus. Could you do a BBQ Bible study or help out with your parish’s youth group? Are there other service opportunities that you could take part in and invite others to?
6. Think about campus outreach for next fall.
If you begin thinking about campus outreach for the fall, you will be that much more prepared when the time comes. Can you pray for your campus? Can you call those who you are in discipleship with? Can you talk to your FOCUS missionaries on what you can do to help?
We know that being Catholic is not about being part of a club, but being adopted into the Family of God, the Church. And that is not something that we ever take a summer vacation from!
The habits you form and the work you do could affect you for a lifetime!
Question: What are some habits you want to develop this summer? What are some challenges you will face?
HOW You treat people
1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.
During my second month of college, our professor
Gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student
And had breezed through the questions until I read
The last one:
"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"
Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the
Cleaning woman several times. She was tall,
Dark-haired and in her 50's, but how would I know her name?
I handed in my paper, leaving the last question
Blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if
The last question would count toward our quiz grade.
"Absolutely, " said the professor.. "In your careers,
You will meet many people. All are significant.. They
Deserve your attention and care, even if all you do
Is smile and say "hello.."
I've never forgotten that lesson.. I also learned her
name
was Dorothy.
2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain
One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American
Woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway
Trying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car had
Broken down and she desperately needed a ride.
Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.
A young white man stopped to help her, generally
Unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960's. The man
Took her to safety, helped her get assistance and
Put her into a taxicab.
She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his
Address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a
Knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a
Giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A
Special note was attached.
It read:
"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway
The other night. The rain drenched not only my
Clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.
Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying
Husband's' bedside just before he passed away... God
Bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving
Others."
Sincerely,
Mrs. Nat King Cole.
3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those
Who serve.
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less,
A 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and
Sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in
Front of him.
"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.
"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and
Studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.
By now more people were waiting for a table and the
Waitress was growing impatient..
"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.
The little boy again counted his coins.
"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.
The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on
The table and walked away The boy finished the ice
Cream, paid the cashier and left.. When the waitress
Came back, she began to cry as she wiped down
the Table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,
Were two nickels and five pennies..
You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had
To have enough left to leave her a tip.
4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a
Roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if
Anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the
King's' wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by
And simply walked around it.. Many loudly blamed the
King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did
Anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of
Vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the
peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the
stone to the side of the road. After much pushing
and straining, he finally succeeded. After the
peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed
a purse lying in the road where the boulder had
been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note
from the King indicating that the gold was for the
person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The
peasant learned what many of us never understand!
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve
our condition.
5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a
hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who
was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only
chance of recovery appeared to be a blood
transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had
miraculously survived the same disease and had
developed the antibodies needed to combat the
illness. The doctor explained the situation to her
little brother, and asked the little boy if he would
be willing to give his blood to his sister.
I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a
deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will
Save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed
next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing
the color returning to her cheek. Then his face
grew pale and his smile faded.
He looked up at the doctor and asked with a
trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the
doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his
sister all of his blood in order to save her.
Most importantly.... ”Live with no regrets, Treat people the way you want to be treated, Work like you don’t need the money, Love like you’ve never been hurt, and Dance like you do when nobody’s watching.”
THOUGHT: Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
4. When you say, 'I love you ,' mean it.
5. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.
6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
7. Believe in love at first sight.
8. Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
9. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
10. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Washington, D.C. - Bridgestone Americas and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood have officially released results of a nationwide survey highlighting not only what teens and young adults are doing behind the wheel, but why they are doing it. The survey revealed that while America’s young drivers are aware of what distracted driving is, they still engage in those behaviors because they believe they are not truly at risk. Bridgestone surveyed more than 2,000 young drivers, ages 15-21, and also found: One-third of those surveyed admit to reading text messages while driving; two-thirds of respondents believe they are “very safe” drivers; but only half of them say their parents would agree with that assessment; a quarter of those surveyed do not believe that talking on the phone while driving is dangerous; overall, girls engage in distractions behind the wheel far more than boys, and teenagers and young adults say their parents engage in distracted driving more than themselves.