In Both Death and Life: Good Thoughts

Good Thoughts

>> Saturday, February 18, 2012

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.

- Pope Benedict XVI

-Taken from Desert Nun News (a blog) -

Yet another Religious Order that has a dog (Percy). Again, this influences me in no way.

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Webster Bull's Advice on Blogging

“Never let evil talk pass your lips; say only the good things men need to hear, things that will really help them. Do nothing that will sadden the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed against the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, all passion and anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind. In place of these, be kind to one another, compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ.” (Ephesians 4:29–32)

Find Webster and Co. at YIM. Well, Webster is on leave.

Favorite Things -

Archive - Favorite Things

In sum, the atheist theory to explain theism is to call it an inheritable vulnerability to a mental disease. The disease includes topic-specific gullibility, or to con game run by crooked priests and televangelists to bilk the unwary of money, or as a psychological ploy to control the young or weak-minded. If an atheist were to meet any theists who are skeptical and logical as a Medieval Schoolman like Saint Thomas Aquinas, as disinterested in money and worldly power as a hermit like Saint Francis, and as loving and giving and therefore as invulnerable to worldly control as a martyr like Saint Justin or as a Crusader like Saint George, such experience would tend to undermine the theory. The only way for Christians to convince skeptics, in other words, given the crookedness of the human character, is to act like saints.

John C. Wright

A comment on Wikileaks founder saying he will release thousands of documents of a major US bank:

We already know the banks are grossly incompetent, can't manage risk and would be dead without taxpayer support," said Barry Ritholtz, a Wall Street money manager who rails on the bankers at his Big Picture blog. "What are we going to find in these leaks -- that free checking isn't really free?

Wall Street is said to have shrugged their shoulders at the news.

The problem is when our bodily gestures become mindless and empty. A mindless sign of the cross or genuflection when we walk into Church does not help our faith or build up the body of Christ or give glory to God. But this also happens with our words as well. The problem is not with the gestures or the words, but with the lack of heart, the lack of attention to the Lord. The only safeguard is a deeper devotion to Jesus Christ, a devotion that grows as our loving knowledge of Him increases.

Anthony Lilles

Another fresh start. Like Confession before the Mass. A sacrament. Advent is gradually becoming my favorite time of the year. The first three mysteries of the Rosary have always been my favorite too. Different. A time of hope. A quiet, patient time that grows warmer and wamer every day as we draw closer to the most unique moment in history. When creation held its collective breath until in that golden silence the cry of a newborn babe broke the air and the world exhaled and the angels burst forth in song. Advent. Both the calm before the storm and the thaw before the spring.

Sanctus Christopher, on the beginning of Advent

No doubt, Portland will learn nothing from this episode and if anything to try to be more inclusive will either cancel the event in the future or call it “A Random Lighting of a Tree for no particular reason and not associated with any religious event Ceremony.”

The Curt Jester, on the foiled plan to bomb the tree lighting event.

Let a man be faithful: let him be powerful in the utterance of knowledge; let him be wise in judging of words; let him be pure in all his deeds; yet the more he seems to be superior to others [in these respects], the more humble-minded ought he to be, and to seek the common good of all, and not merely his own advantage.

First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

If my mouth didn’t drop when I heard that, I don’t know why. Who does a thing like that these days? Who goes out of his way to make a phone call and say “I’m sorry” to the owner of a business when he and his family can’t afford to support it any longer? Come to think of it, who still thinks of shopping or eating out as “supporting a business” and its workers? Who considers merchants personal friends? Who sees life in the community as so intertwined and organically connected that one thinks he needs to apologize when he can’t do his part because of difficult circumstances? I thought it was an extraordinary act of grace.

Chaplain Mike, IM

I wish I could play little league now. I'd be way better than before. Mitch H.

Saints are the lights of the world, but the light which shines in them is borrowed.

Luminousmiseries

A book may fail you because it is an inadequate book. It may fail you because, having thought it good once, you were at one time an inadequate reader of it. Or perhaps it will not so much fail as fall short simply because you are a different reader now, and it, therefore, is a different book, just as the river you stepped into as a child is, in a manner of speaking, a different river from the one you step into as an adult. It is not quite so deep as it once was, nor its current so swift.

Jason Peters

This teaches you that it is the will of God, even if you were living among devils, you should so live as not to turn back in thought to consider what they are doing, but forget them utterly. You are to keep your soul wholly to God, and not to suffer the thought of this or that to disturb you.

St. John of the Cross

But the possibility of conversion entails that we learn to read the events of life in the light of faith, animated by the holy fear of God. In the presence of suffering and grief, true wisdom is to let oneself be called from the precariousness of existence and to read human history with God’s eyes, who, always and only wanting the good of his children, by an inscrutable plan of his love, sometimes allows them to be tried through suffering to lead them to a greater good.

On the suffering the Lord allows, the Holy Father, March 7, 2010.

God "Is Good and Cannot Will Evil"

All Over the Net

Archive - All Over the Net

This fellow is the most wanted Nazi, because most of the rest are not ambulatory (or they are dead). I don't know about this. If Idi Amin were 102, would you try him? Maybe so. "A 97-year-old ex-Hungarian army officer, once the world's most wanted Nazi, protested his innocence on the opening day of his trial Thursday, dismissing the charges as lies and the proceedings as a circus." - source AFP (a French news service).

Something beautiful from the Islamic world: “I swear…by the virtue of the Virgin Mary…that the spilling of any blood is sinful before God” Vivificat!

Now, I think Bishop Broadbent sounds like an interesting fellow, even though he - perhaps - is not a tactful man by nature. Bishop Broadbent in purdah ...

Going to take a break, and see if we're at war with N. Korea yet. Dear Lord in heaven.

77 Fruits of the Holy Mass, Father M. von Cochem, by way of Unstoppable Spirit.

This is reminiscent of the white album: THX1138 Since I save these links, I'm hoping that someone within the next 30 years of so will tell me what, if anything, this is about. I actually like the movie, and have seen it several times.

The New York Times and Pope Benedict XVI: how it looks to an American in the Vatican by Cardinal William J. Levada

A bit of a horror story: Old Anglicans kick out New Anglicans, and then sell building to another religion entirely. Aye yie yie. Fr. Longnecker

Pray for us

I firmly hope that through your kind intercession He will restore my lost serenity and peace of mind.

May He speak to my heart and reassure me: "My peace I give you. Let not your heart be troubled nor let it be afraid."

Pray for me, dear St. Dymphna, that my nervous and emotional turmoil may cease, and that I may again know serenity and personal peace.

Together with you, I sing praises to Christ, who has the power of life and death, saying, ‘You are the true Light, proceeding from the true Light; the true God, begotten of the true God’.

Amen.

Credits

Much credit is due to Rev. Hearne of Telling Stories that Matter for many of my sidebar entries, past and present, of great people of faith. His continuing efforts and intriguing summaries are a constant inspiration to me.

Related Links Widget is Outbrain. I have LinkWithin on my other blogs, but it does not do well on this one. I don't know why. Also, within a day or two of my request, they tweaked my script to my specifications. And it's free. They may be based in Israel, which is mighty fine, too. Of course, I would say the same if it were based in Outer Mongolia. That's me.

If I need to credit you with something, please email me, or comment. Thanks.

More random thoughts

Now, this is insulting, but I'm insulting myself along with it. I don't know if that makes it okay or not. Addicts (the ones I know) are forever shaped by their addiction. If you have been an addict (are an addict) and don't believe this, that's fine with me. I have no stake in your belief one way or another on this subject.

One of a zillion stories:

Fr. John Corapi (now Mr. Corapi) left the priesthood. I just found that out - very bizarre. I am so behind the times. He was addicted to cocaine before entering the priesthood - I know all about that sort of stuff. I am almost never surprised when my addicted (non-using) friends do strange things, and so for strangers also. Anyway, it was a more colorful fall than most, and I wish for him (as I wish for everyone) a climb back to the most normal life he can manage. Sometimes, this is stupendously difficult, and takes many years. I try to be patient and tolerant with those whose brains (like my own) are twisted into not-very-desirable patterns by substances or behaviors - being furious with them is not usually useful. Though if it's someone close to you, you probably want to wring their neck.

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>> Saturday, February 18, 2012

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