May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace,
The gladness of Christmas give you hope,
The warmth of Christmas grant you love.
~Author Unknown
24 December 2010
02 December 2010
bigger... and better...
"Yes, dear brothers and sisters, God's promises are always greater than our hopes," Benedict XVI
23 November 2010
22 November 2010
i guess i'm learning a lot about myself today
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Jung
20 November 2010
and loved by the unmoved mover as well
We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. -William Somerset Maugham
13 November 2010
you have put salt in our mouths
All that we call human history - money, poverty, ambition, war,
prostitution, classes, empires, slavery - [is] the long terrible story
of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
- CS Lewis
prostitution, classes, empires, slavery - [is] the long terrible story
of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
- CS Lewis
08 November 2010
02 November 2010
Ten things you wish you could say to ten different people right now
1. I have always and will always have this inexplicable soft spot in my heart for you. Even when you insult me and mock me and are rude to me. I think it’s because I know you’re just pushing me to see if I’ll leave. But I won’t. I’m here, for good, and even though everyone else has given up on you and written you off, I haven’t. So you can keep kicking me to the ground, but I’m going to keep waiting for you to pick me back up. Because you always do.
2. You loved me more than I loved you. I’m sorry for that. But I think this will be good for you, and for me, too. You can’t make one person the center of your world.
3. I’m glad our friendship has morphed into what it is. I’m so much more comfortable talking about things with you now. Even though you’re far away, you’re still my best friend.
4. I will always be in love with you, and you will always be in love with me, but it will never work out. I’m glad we figured the last part out early on, it makes everything easier.
5. I am so unbelievably proud of you. Just thinking about the amazing young man you’ve grown into makes me tear up. And the fact that you attribute who you are now in part to me makes me feel so unworthy to be your older sister. You are a better person than I will ever be, and even though you’re younger than me, I will always look up to you. I love you so much, and I miss you more than I ever thought I could now that I’m up here. I hope you make all the right choices that I never did, and I also hope you fuck up a lot of them. I will never try to teach you a lesson before you’ve had the chance to learn it yourself, I promise. But I’m always here for you, buddy. Always, always, always.
6. Thank you for letting me talk to you about everything and anything at any time. You are always understanding and never judgmental and I appreciate that so much. If you ever need me, I’m here.
7. I look up to you so much. You are directly responsible for any sense of responsibility, leadership, and integrity that I have now. You always pushed me to be my very best, and I cannot thank you enough for that. You were the best coach I have ever had, and I am so grateful that you are still a part of my life. I hope everything works out for you, you deserve the very best.
8. I’m sorry that I ever thought poorly of you. You have a good heart, and you are the best friend a girl could ask for. You’re always there for me, and being able to rely on that is really nice. I can’t wait to see you in a few weeks!
9. You don’t know how much shit you’ve put me through. You destroyed my self-esteem and made me question everything and hide everything and hate myself. I never knew how to please you and you tortured me for that. But I forgive you. I’m glad we’re past that shitty part of our relationship and I’m glad I can be myself around you and I’m glad I love you.
10. I don’t regret it at all.
(via)
2. You loved me more than I loved you. I’m sorry for that. But I think this will be good for you, and for me, too. You can’t make one person the center of your world.
3. I’m glad our friendship has morphed into what it is. I’m so much more comfortable talking about things with you now. Even though you’re far away, you’re still my best friend.
4. I will always be in love with you, and you will always be in love with me, but it will never work out. I’m glad we figured the last part out early on, it makes everything easier.
5. I am so unbelievably proud of you. Just thinking about the amazing young man you’ve grown into makes me tear up. And the fact that you attribute who you are now in part to me makes me feel so unworthy to be your older sister. You are a better person than I will ever be, and even though you’re younger than me, I will always look up to you. I love you so much, and I miss you more than I ever thought I could now that I’m up here. I hope you make all the right choices that I never did, and I also hope you fuck up a lot of them. I will never try to teach you a lesson before you’ve had the chance to learn it yourself, I promise. But I’m always here for you, buddy. Always, always, always.
6. Thank you for letting me talk to you about everything and anything at any time. You are always understanding and never judgmental and I appreciate that so much. If you ever need me, I’m here.
7. I look up to you so much. You are directly responsible for any sense of responsibility, leadership, and integrity that I have now. You always pushed me to be my very best, and I cannot thank you enough for that. You were the best coach I have ever had, and I am so grateful that you are still a part of my life. I hope everything works out for you, you deserve the very best.
8. I’m sorry that I ever thought poorly of you. You have a good heart, and you are the best friend a girl could ask for. You’re always there for me, and being able to rely on that is really nice. I can’t wait to see you in a few weeks!
9. You don’t know how much shit you’ve put me through. You destroyed my self-esteem and made me question everything and hide everything and hate myself. I never knew how to please you and you tortured me for that. But I forgive you. I’m glad we’re past that shitty part of our relationship and I’m glad I can be myself around you and I’m glad I love you.
10. I don’t regret it at all.
(via)
01 November 2010
Keeping things in perspective
World Press Photo of the Year: 1980 Mike Wells, United Kingdom. Karamoja district, Uganda, April 1980. Starving boy and a missionary.
About the image: Wells felt indignant that the same publication that sat on his picture for five months without publishing it, while people were dying, entered it into a competition. He was embarrassed to win as he never entered the competition himself, and was against winning prizes with pictures of people starving to death.
Job Opening
“Since I have the chance now, there is something I very much want to say to you. I hope that among those of you listening to me today there are some of the future saints of the twenty-first century.
What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy. He loves you much more than you could ever begin to imagine, and he wants the very best for you. And by far the best thing for you is to grow in holiness.
Perhaps some of you have never thought about this before. Perhaps some of you think being a saint is not for you. Let me explain what I mean. When we are young, we can usually think of people that we look up to, people we admire, people we want to be like. It could be someone we meet in our daily lives that we hold in great esteem. Or it could be someone famous. We live in a celebrity culture, and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment. My question for you is this: what are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would you really like to be?
When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy. Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.
Not only does God love us with a depth and an intensity that we can scarcely begin to comprehend, but he invites us to respond to that love. You all know what it is like when you meet someone interesting and attractive, and you want to be that person’s friend. You always hope they will find you interesting and attractive, and want to be your friend.
God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. As you come to know him better, you find you want to reflect something of his infinite goodness in your own life. You are attracted to the practice of virtue. You begin to see greed and selfishness and all the other sins for what they really are, destructive and dangerous tendencies that cause deep suffering and do great damage, and you want to avoid falling into that trap yourselves. You begin to feel compassion for people in difficulties and you are eager to do something to help them. You want to come to the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want to comfort the sorrowful, you want to be kind and generous. And once these things begin to matter to you, you are well on the way to becoming saints.”
--Pope Benedict XVI
Greeting to Catholic Pupils of the United Kingdom
St Mary's College, Twickenham
17 September 2010
What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy. He loves you much more than you could ever begin to imagine, and he wants the very best for you. And by far the best thing for you is to grow in holiness.
Perhaps some of you have never thought about this before. Perhaps some of you think being a saint is not for you. Let me explain what I mean. When we are young, we can usually think of people that we look up to, people we admire, people we want to be like. It could be someone we meet in our daily lives that we hold in great esteem. Or it could be someone famous. We live in a celebrity culture, and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment. My question for you is this: what are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would you really like to be?
When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy. Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.
Not only does God love us with a depth and an intensity that we can scarcely begin to comprehend, but he invites us to respond to that love. You all know what it is like when you meet someone interesting and attractive, and you want to be that person’s friend. You always hope they will find you interesting and attractive, and want to be your friend.
God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. As you come to know him better, you find you want to reflect something of his infinite goodness in your own life. You are attracted to the practice of virtue. You begin to see greed and selfishness and all the other sins for what they really are, destructive and dangerous tendencies that cause deep suffering and do great damage, and you want to avoid falling into that trap yourselves. You begin to feel compassion for people in difficulties and you are eager to do something to help them. You want to come to the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want to comfort the sorrowful, you want to be kind and generous. And once these things begin to matter to you, you are well on the way to becoming saints.”
--Pope Benedict XVI
Greeting to Catholic Pupils of the United Kingdom
St Mary's College, Twickenham
17 September 2010
17 October 2010
11 October 2010
10 October 2010
Thank you.
Holiness is the ability to view this moment as a gift of God.
Sainthood is the ability to string those moments together.
Sainthood is the ability to string those moments together.
only if you want to find peace
I must learn to love the fool in me; the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries.
—
Theodore Isaac Rubin
—
Theodore Isaac Rubin
05 October 2010
great and small
If you read a recent front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined
that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around as she was thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same. May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.
And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude. I pass this on to you in the same spirit.
22 September 2010
altared
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. -Nelson Mandela
18 September 2010
peacefully asleep in the knowledge of a job well done
"Have courage for the great sorrows of life, and patience for the small ones. And when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."
~Victor Hugo
~Victor Hugo
Leave the judging to God...
"Show yourself more human than critical and your pleasure will increase" - Domenico Scarlatti
11 September 2010
One day in the kingdom...
“A Day at the Magic Kingdom Park” is a never-before-seen look at the park in miniature scale. The video is created from a series of photos snapped inside the Magic Kingdom Park. And the trick is tilt-shift photography
01 September 2010
26 August 2010
17 August 2010
15 August 2010
let god do god's work
"Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly."
--
Ignatius Loyola, SJ
--
Ignatius Loyola, SJ
12 August 2010
28 July 2010
the proof is in the pudding
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
--
James 1:22
--
James 1:22
25 July 2010
23 July 2010
the cross says we need not be slaves to death
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
It is the freedom to refrain, withdraw and abstain which makes a
totalitarian regime impossible.
-
Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
It is the freedom to refrain, withdraw and abstain which makes a
totalitarian regime impossible.
-
Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
20 July 2010
what are you seeking?
Friends, again I ask you, what about today? What are you seeking? What is God whispering to you? The hope which never disappoints is Jesus Christ. The saints show us the selfless love of his way. As disciples of Christ, their extraordinary journeys unfolded within the community of hope, which is the Church. It is from within the Church that you too will find the courage and support to walk the way of the Lord. Nourished by personal prayer, prompted in silence, shaped by the Church’s liturgy you will discover the particular vocation God has for you. Embrace it with joy. You are Christ’s disciples today. Shine his light upon this great city and beyond. Show the world the reason for the hope that resonates within you. Tell others about the truth that sets you free.
--
Pope Benedict XVI
Greeting to Young People
St Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie
19 April 2008
--
Pope Benedict XVI
Greeting to Young People
St Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie
19 April 2008
12 July 2010
08 July 2010
Come, be holy!
If we spoke to each other with the mind and heart of Christ - with love that flows out of our essence as His disciples - with words that come from our faith and not our insecurities - words that flow from our union with the Father through the Son, our words would be healing, forgiving, hopeful, and faithful...
If we did this, people would know, and find our words an invitation to holiness.
They could not help but to see the Christ who calls them.
If we did this, people would know, and find our words an invitation to holiness.
They could not help but to see the Christ who calls them.
05 July 2010
03 July 2010
GK Chesterton
"When people cease to believe in God, they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything"
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