A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, October 24, 2012

“Never will anyone who says his Rosary every day be led astray. This is a statement that I would gladly sign with my blood.”
Saint Louis de Montfort

Time-lapse: Space shuttle Endeavour's trek across L.A. [Official]

OK, I don't normally like this kind of thing, but this is cool!  Watch it.  A HT to Frank Waters at Why I Am Catholic.

The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, October 21, 2012, St Cyril of Alexandria

"Christ said indicating (the bread and wine): 'This is My Body,' and "This is My Blood," in order that you might not judge what you see to be a mere figure. The offerings, by the hidden power of God Almighty, are changed into Christ's Body and Blood, and by receiving these we come to share in the life-giving and sanctifying efficacy of Christ." 

Friday Florilegia, Friday, October 19, 2012

 

This reading is from next Sunday's Gospel

 

Gospel, Mark 10:46-52

 

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more,
"Son of David, have pity on me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"
The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you."
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.

Quick Takes on Friday

 

As always, credit for kicking me off on 7 Quick Takes goes to Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary.

 

1. Blogsy is working out pretty well, not great, but pretty well. You get a much better WYSIWYG interface with this app that with Blog Press. One thing I like better about Blog Press is that you can more easily save a post as a draft, either on line or on the iPad, but the formatting and lay out of the post is much easier. I'm continuing the experiment and will provide updates.

2. Another presidential debate with more predictable results, both sides claiming victory. It seems the actual substance of what is said matters less and less. It only seems to matter who "won," and what "won" means. I can't think this is really good for the republic.

3. The Broncos have a "bye" this week, so life is on hold until October 28, when they will defeat the N.O. Saints. I used to kind of like the Saints, but the sad business in the off-season changed my view of them.

4. The Austrian parachutist was successful in his jump from 128,500 feet or whatever the exact figure is. It seems he landed pretty close to where he took off from and I keep wondering, how did he do that? I'm mean, how do you free-fall from 24 miles up and have the ability to aim for a landing spot? I also kept wondering, what if he lost control of the ballon and got so high, there wasn't enough gravity to cause him to fall? Thankfully, that didn't happen.

Of course, the wife thinks it was a silly enterprise, since nothing productive came out of it. Being a male member of the species, I fall on the side of appreciating the thing just for the adventure of it.

LATER: I just read that data gathered during Mr. Baumgartner's jump is going to prove immensely useful in designing space vehicle escape systems on future launch systems. His space suit was made for standing and free-falling, rather than primarily sitting, as in conventional space suits used by NASA. Apparently, they learned useful data about positioning arms and legs on future space suits as well. So, I can now tell the better half that it wasn't just a useless adventure after all.

5. Father, at Mass earlier this week, gave a "homework" assignment, choose between a delicious hamburger, double cheese, bacon, the works, and a bowl of rotten dog food. Actually, the assignment was, now that the weather is turning chilly, to sit down with a cup of coffee or tea or hot chocolate and think about choosing the true good, the double cheese cheeseburger, rather than the bowl of rotten dog food. The idea is that, in the end, the choices we make add up and it's important to learn good from bad. Father is a young man from Mexico, with a rather heavy hispanic accent, and he was able to deliver this homily with a very nice touch of humor.

6. We've had a difficult time in the office this week; defense budget cuts are beginning to have an effect. I got to thinking about how various companies handle the termination of employees. I've known some who will arbitrarily fire people who get out of line and pass the treatment off with a comment that "business is business." I don't think that's true, actions in business are human actions and not separable from our lives outside the workplace. Jesus did tell us that those who are faithful in little things can be trusted with the big things. An unjust act is an unjust act, it happens, but, it carries the same consequences as the same action outside of the office.

7. I'm looking forward to a quiet(er) weekend. The final stage of the remodeling project on the lower level of the house will be complete and we'll be able to start restoring order down there and get things back to normal. I'm hoping we won't do very much, even with those tasks; I need a break. The final stage of the rest of the project begins in about two weeks.

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7 Quick Takes

This at the impetus from Jennifer Fulwilers blog.

1

 

I found this picture quite by accident on Friday on the internet. It was taken at Lai Khe, in Viet Nam. I'm in the picture -- there's a soldier on the far right side of the picture with a camera in his hand, I'm sitting on some ammo cases right behind the camera. I remember this concert quite clearly since it was the first, and only, USO show I saw during my entire Air Force enlistment. These were probably the first American girls I had seen in 6 or 7 months and I was quite impressed, I'll have to say.

Looking back on it, I feel only gratitude for the effort this little troupe made to come to Lai Khe to put on this one hour show. There was no little risk for them to do this, at least twice in the next three or four months shrapnel from rocket attacks landed in this same area. One of them came just short of killing me. It's hard to think that the entertainers here, well, all the people in this shot, are in their mid-60s or close to 70 and I doubt any of them would ever read this, but if they do, I hope they accept my sincere thanks for coming to Viet Nam to entertain the troops on that afternoon on an old French rubber plantation in Viet Nam. Well Done.

2

The Veep debates occurred this week, and the thing that struck me watching it is that I'm just sick of politics; the campaigns go on much too long and inform much to little. In this regard, we're victims of a media that has lost the desire or willingness to inform replacing it with the desire to inflame.

3

The current project is to get wood floors installed throughout the house, to replace worn carpets stained by the tenancy of 4 cats. It's a real trial but should be a great improvement once completed.

4

I wonder what I will do to come up with 4 more of these quick takes?

5

In the Sunday reading this week we hear the story of the rich young man. It occurred to me that Jesus was not just literally telling the young man to sell everything, selling material things wasn't really the important thing; Jesus was telling him to get his priorities straight, to be clear in his own mind who and what his God was. Was it the true and ever-living God, or was it his own self-sufficiency? Something we all need to be reminded of, perhaps more often that not.

6

Only one more to go!

7

One thing I've learned doing these "quick takes" is that this isn't a bad idea for a weekly series of blog posts. It may be a keeper -- thanks Jennifer for getting me started on this.

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A Hiatus

One of the authors in the brand new e-book, One Body, Many Blogs, is Frank Waters who has the blog, Why I am Catholic. I started reading his blog and quickly learned of his excellent practice of taking time of from his blog, "to go reading and praying." I am going to follow his excellent example and be away until the 19th of October.

There are two things driving this, one is just having a lot going on in life which brings on the need for a bit of time to read and pray. A second thing is the death of a high school classmate of mine. We joined the Air Force at about the same time and lost touch and didn't meet again until 7 years ago when we met up again at a class reunion. Dave was a good man, served his country proudly, raised a loving family, and lived a worthy life. I don't know what else, or what better, can be said of any of us. I ask for your prayers for him.

I have to admit though, that these two events remind me that it is most important to maintain perspective and have the proper priorities in life and I need to rediscover both at the moment.

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