Smiling monk

Go here for a great story.

Go here for an inspiring story

“Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself.” This is just one of many of Pope Benedict’s decisive statements on the unique good of marriage and the family, recently gathered into a new volume of USCCB Publishing’s “Pope Benedict XVI

Movie

I saw the movie, "Hurtlocker" a few days ago. It is about American soldiers in Iraq who diffuse bombs. I enjoyed the movie. There is foul language and violence, but it really shows what the men go through over there. It is very intense.

A good article

Go here for a really good article.

PJ O' Rourke

From his book "Driving Like Crazy"
What was the difference between the South and the rest of America? There wasn't any. The South was the rest of America . . . what we've had all along in this bizarre, slightly troubling, basically wonderful country - fun, danger, real friendliness, energy, enthusiasm, and brave, crazy, tough people . . . Put us all together and we're the biggest, baddest sons of bitches anywhere . . . Nobody's eating roughage, running marathons, and taking yoga classes down there. People still drink, smoke, still have guns, and still believe in a personal God who listens to them. They're not worried about the future. This country didn't come from people who worried about the future. It came from people who whipped the future's ass.

"God did not ask us to follow Him because He needed our help, but because He knew that loving Him would make us whole."-- St. Irenaeus

The humanity of Christ is the way by which we come to the divinity
St. Thomas Aquinas

From St. Josemaria Escriva

The Way #174 "Don't say, "That person bothers me." Say, "That person sanctifies me."

a good quote

"I always wanted to live and believe the Sermon on the Mount, but usually got told that it did not mean all that I thought it meant, and that I needed to be practical. I would read the Scriptures longingly, trying to imagine how wonderful it would be not to worry about anything, safe and secure in the presence of Jesus all the time. Miracles would be normal. Love would be natural. We could always give and never lose. We could be lied to, cheated and stolen from, and yet always come out ahead. We would never have to take advantage of anyone, or have any motive but to bless other people. Rather than always making contingency plans in case Jesus didn't do anything, we could count on Him continually. We, our lives, and all that we preach and provide would not be for sale, but would be given freely. . . .There would always be enough!"

Rolland Baker, Always Enough

New website

I just found this website. It looks like it has a lot of good food for thought.

http://essays.quotidiana.org/

Sunday's second reading

Brothers and sisters:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.
All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling
must be removed from you, along with all malice.
And be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Great events

The Holy Family Conference - This Friday Saturday and Sunday

St. John Vianney

Go here for a good article about the patron saint of parish priests.
Please pray for me.

Sunday's second reading

Most priests will be talking about the Gospel and the Bread of Life discourse. So I thought I would give little space to the second reading. Ephesians is very beautiful and you should all read it.

Here is Sunday's excerpt.
Eph 4:17, 20-24

Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds;
that is not how you learned Christ,
assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him,
as truth is in Jesus,
that you should put away the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.

You will notice that the lectionary omits versus 18 & 19.
Here they are:
darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance, because of their hardness of heart, they have become callous and have handed themselves over to licentiousness for the practice of every kind of impurity to excess.

You may want to read it through in your own bible. I find it interesting that the editors of the lectionary chose to omit the passage that speaks of licentiousness and impurity. These are messages that we need to hear.