Random Thought:
If you choose to perceive yourself as you think others perceive you... you will never have a true perception of yourself...
see next thread for the continued conversation with myself...
NOTE: A February Boston gathering is discussed
here.
George:
Either weekend is good for me let me know asap so I can take time off from work as I work all weekends also! or call me @ 781 925 5971 or e-mail me @
[email protected].
n
Thanks so much!
Timber:
Thanks for your post:
Sometimes in all of my looking up for the thread, I too find that things are very black and white and often I sometimes do not want to post them for I do not want to hurt anyone in the readership! But that truly is the way our Catholic Church is very dogmatic and very black and white about things. I remember when I was young it was harder than it is now though!
n
George:
You make me laugh all of the time. I look forward to meeting you. Bonsmythhawk said you are fun to be with!
n
Hi Hephzibah:
I am glad for your post as well! Nice to have you with us! Hope to hear from you often!
Nancyann
Hello All:
The Vet called me today and gave the results of all the cytology and blood tests taken! She said he has about a week and a half left of quality of life. I am taking lits of nice pictures and shall frame them later . My brother and his girlfriend for a gift bought me a frame that takes a paw print and one can put it on one side and put his picture on the other frame. So I am almost ready now! I think he is also!
So thanks for your prayers. I will tell you when the day comes!
God Bless,
Nancyann
nancyann, this would be a good time to start thinking about a new pup - not that you should rush out and get one this afternoon, but you should be making plans to start looking to see which shelter or rescue facility is the current home of your next housemate and best freind.
Timber:
I trust you very much! I shall start doing that instead of crying so much! My next new baby will be a rescue from a pound that needs a home and is about 5 pounds not 80 pounds as my current baby is! Thanks for your help! ANy 5 pounder will do for me Timber! I will take anyone! Do you think I should get one right away or wait?
n
Personally, I'da already adopted another pup, but in your current situation, I think mebbe I'd hold off, and devote my attention to making the remaining time real special for the current one - and I wouldn't put too much trust in the vet's timeline; I'd use my own judgement. When the pup's pain becomes evident, and its dignity is gone, that's the time, IMO. Its gonna be hard, and nothing ever will fill the hole the pup's passing will leave, but a new pup will help you build the ladder you need to climb outta that hole. Get to it as soon as you can once the terrible moment has arrived. Force yourself to make the effort - trust me, you'll be very glad you did. And so will the next pup.
Thanks Timber, you are such a good friend! The day after he goes I will active put my mind to looking for the new pup!
n
Hi Everyone, Father Matthew , our superior from the Society of St Paul is in the air from Michigan now coming to visit us for the weekend! We start meeting with him tonight individuall and tomorrow night out to eat then Sunday AM mass and breakfast meeting then our "Good bye's." He is 52 years oold and has been the provincial superior of the Society of St. Paul for 8 year and just got back fron his 6 month sabbatical after he got out of his office! It shall be so nice to see him!
Fill you in Monday!
n
from americancatholic.org
Love, Prayer and Healing
Brother Jesus,
Holy Spirit,
God, Creator,
I have been journeying with you for a while now, seeking to draw closer to you.
I feel your presence and your guiding hand upon me.
Be with me still as I continue to open myself to this process of love and prayer and healing.
from Healing Troubled Hearts: Daily Spiritual Exercises
From United Conference of Catholic Bishops and americancatholic.org
on movie reviews for the weekend:
"Big Momma's House
Big Momma House 2
Stale sequel to the 2000 comedy in which FBI agent Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence), while posing as a plus-size nanny to investigate a software designer tagged with compromising national security, winds up bringing the suspected man's family closer together. Directed by John Whitesell, this only fitfully funny and unnecessarily crude second helping rehashes much of the original's forced slapstick humor, with the perfunctory plot an afterthought to Lawrence' sassy shtick. Comic violence, some gun waving and an implied shooting, some crude and sexual humor and innuendo, a brief drug reference, age-inappropriate suggestive dance moves involving young children, scattered crass expressions. A-III -- adults. (PG-13) 2006
_____________________________________________________________
"Annapolis"
Diverting but derivative drama about a scrappy shipyard worker (an appealing James Franco), who, after being accepted to the U.S. Naval Academy, must prove his mettle while training for the school's boxing tournament against his no-nonsense drill instructor (Tyrese Gibson). Though director Justin Lin's adrenalized climax achieves its desired rousing effect, this retread of "An Officer and a Gentleman" is hollow and formulaic. Brutal boxing sequences, an attempted suicide, some sexually crude language and humor, as well as profanity. A-III -- adults. (PG-13) 2006
____________________________________________________________
Glory Road
Crowd pleaser based on the true story of an unproven, small-town basketball coach (Josh Lucas), who -- hired to turn around a Texas college's losing program -- bucks the color barrier by recruiting African-American athletes (including Derek Luke), molding his interracial underdogs into a unified team and leading them to an improbable and racially heated shot at the 1966 national title, where he starts five black players -- a first in college hoops -- against a top-seeded, all-white Kentucky squad. Directed by James Gartner, the feel-good, if formulaic, film rips a familiar page from the playbook of past inspirational sports movies, but has heart and a winning message about teamwork and racial equality that transcends sports. An instance of violence, some racial slurs and minimal crude language. A-II -- adults and adolescents. (PG) 2006
_____________________________________________________________
Syriana
Intermittently engaging but mostly confusing political thriller which explores corruption in the international oil industry through a mosaic of interlocking stories involving: a veteran CIA operative (George Clooney); a reform-minded Arab sheik (Alexander Siddig); an energy analyst (Matt Damon) grieving the death of his son, and a Washington lawyer (Jeffrey Wright), hired to facilitate a shady merger between two Texas oil giants. Directed with unvarnished realism by Stephen Gaghan, the well-acted film touches on important moral questions about the global pursuit of wealth, but strains for narrative coherence under the weight of its convoluted multiple plots. Strong violence, including a graphic scene of torture, and some rough language and profanity. A-III -- adults. (R) 2005
_____________________________________________________________
WALK THE LINE (not rated, PG- 13) is an extraordinary biopic about legendary country and rockabilly singer Johnny Cash (1932- 2003). The film opens with young John (Ridge Canipe) on his family's small Alabama cotton farm during the Great Depression. John's mother, Carrie (Shelby Lynne), teaches him hymns. His father, Ray (Robert Patrick), drinks and is hard on the boy and his older brother, who dies in a tragic accident. John, who dearly loved and admired his brother, is continually haunted by his memory.
Joaquin Phoenix portrays John as an adult, who learns to play the guitar when he joins the Air Force. In 1954, he marries Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), moves to Memphis and struggles financially.
His big break comes when he lands an audition with Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts), who ran Sun Studios, which launched the career of Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton). J.R. Cash goes from a mediocre gospel singer to Johnny Cash, an artist whose songs save people. He starts to wear black because he and his band members all have black shirts.
Johnny begins a destructive lifestyle of alcohol and drugs, which lands him in jail. He tours with Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Payne), Roy Orbison (Johnathan Rice) and the recently divorced June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), among others. Johnny is powerfully attracted to June, who hesitates because she knows how fragile marriage can be for recording artists.
The film weaves the continual ascent of Johnny's musical career with his personal descent into a failed marriage and an alcoholic and drug-addicted hell to an ongoing redemption and resurrection with June, whom he marries in 1968.
As their relationship deepens, June gets Johnny to actually step inside a church again. Eventually, he comes to a fragile peace with his father, too.
Joaquin Phoenix's performance is mesmerizing and magnetic as the legendary Man in Black whose voice was "fast like a train and sharp like a razor." Phoenix and Witherspoon sing all the songs ("I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," etc.) and their onstage chemistry is palpable.
Joaquin Phoenix learned the guitar and Reese Witherspoon the Autoharp for the film. It's hard to imagine what these two gifted young actors will do for an encore.
It's not the story that's so compelling. It's the telling and the redemption that are so forceful. Directed by James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted), Walk the Line is destined to garner more than one Academy Award nomination. If you were inspired by Coal Miner's Daughter (Loretta Lynn story), Sweet Dreams (Patsy Cline) and last year's Ray (Ray Charles), know that Walk the Line may be the best film about an American musical icon yet. Drug and alcohol use; a brief sexual encounter. (O)
Today is the feast day for all Dominicans out there! St Thomas Aquinas! I know that somewhere in the works of St Thomas Aquinas he says that there are flowers and vegetation in heaven and animals too (something like that)! Does anyone know where? I would love to find it again? He was such a brilliant man of God!
n
January 28, 2006
St. Thomas Aquinas
(1225-1274)
By universal consent Thomas Aquinas is the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and of divine revelation. He is one of the great teachers of the medieval Catholic Church, honored with the titles Doctor of the Church and Angelic Doctor.
At five he was given to the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino in his parents' hopes that he would choose that way of life and later become abbot. In 1239 he was sent to Naples to complete his studies. It was here that he was first attracted to Aristotle's philosophy.
By 1243, Thomas abandoned his family's plans for him and joined the Dominicans, much to his mother's dismay. On her order, Thomas was captured by his brother and kept at home for over a year.
Once free, he went to Paris and then to Cologne, where he finished his studies with Albert the Great. He held two professorships at Paris, lived at the court of Pope Urban IV, directed the Dominican schools at Rome and Viterbo, combated adversaries of the mendicants, as well as the Averroists, and argued with some Franciscans about Aristotelianism.
His greatest contribution to the Catholic Church is his writings. The unity, harmony and continuity of faith and reason, of revealed and natural human knowledge, pervades his writings. One might expect Thomas, as a man of the gospel, to be an ardent defender of revealed truth. But he was broad enough, deep enough, to see the whole natural order as coming from God the Creator, and to see reason as a divine gift to be highly cherished.
The Summa Theologiae, his last and, unfortunately, uncompleted work, deals with the whole of Catholic theology. He stopped work on it after celebrating Mass on December 6, 1273. When asked why he stopped writing, he replied, "I cannot go on.... All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me." He died March 7, 1274.
Comment:
We can look to Thomas Aquinas as a towering example of Catholicism in the sense of broadness, universality and inclusiveness. We should be determined anew to exercise the divine gift of reason in us, our power to know, learn and understand. At the same time we should thank God for the gift of his revelation, especially in Jesus Christ.
Bishop Sample ordained in Marquette; at 45 he is youngest U.S. bishop
MARQUETTE, Mich. (Catholic News) -- With St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette filled to capacity for his episcopal ordination, Bishop Alexander K. Sample became the 12th bishop of the Diocese of Marquette Jan. 25. At age 45, he is the youngest Catholic bishop in the United States. Addressing the people for the first time as their bishop, Bishop Sample recalled wearing a cassock as he prepared for his first Mass as associate pastor at the cathedral. "At the end of Mass, one of the ladies of the parish came up to me and said, 'So you're our new associate. I saw you before Mass and I thought you were one of the altar boys,'" the new bishop said. "From that point on, I became known as the altar-boy priest. Being now the youngest bishop at the moment in the United States, I do not want to be known as the altar-boy bishop!" he added. On a more serious note, Bishop Sample said, "I hope to be truly a shepherd to minister in the person and in the image of Christ the Good Shepherd, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life. I give to you that pledge today to do that to the best of my ability."
Church officials say Catholic groups should coordinate AIDS efforts
GENEVA (CNS) -- Catholics assisting people living with HIV/AIDS need to coordinate their efforts in order to improve their service and fight prejudice and suspicion about the church's response to the disease, said participants at a January meeting. Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organization of Catholic charities, convened the Jan. 23-26 meeting in Geneva to promote cooperation and to bring Catholic AIDS programs into contact with scientific and funding experts from the U.N. AIDS program, the World Health Organization and other international agencies. Father Robert J. Vitillo, special adviser on HIV and AIDS for Caritas, said the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is structured to channel funding through national governments, which are supposed to work with faith-based organizations in education, prevention, treatment and the care of orphans. "But only 2 percent of Global Fund funds have gone to faith-based organizations," he told Catholic News Service Jan. 27. The figure is particularly low when "40-50 percent of all health care in the developing world is provided by faith-based organizations."
