Saturday, December 31, 2011
New Years' Eve
It's been a different Christmas season this year. Christmas has been quiet all my life. In Oman it's just the 4 of us, we aren't the type to have grand celebrations, and Christmas in Oman is (at least it used to be when we were growing up - things are getting more commercialized in Oman too) a private affair. It's not even a public holiday.
But this year Christmas day was even more silent. Just my sister and me in our big flat (the rest of the housemates had gone home). But it was good. My project for the last few days before Christmas - the nativity scene - really helped me on Christmas day and since to remember the Baby Jesus, to talk with him, to love him.
And now it's the last day of 2011. And I'm down with a pretty bad toothache. Thankfully the pain is easing now, but it was quite bad last night.
The last week flew past. Just like the year itself. And it's been an odd year. Not sure what 2012 holds. New experiences, new things to deal with and to learn, of that I'm certain.
I'm determined to keep a diary to organize my days and maybe even to note down some thoughts. I've even been uncharacteristically good (or at least better than usual) at examine myself a bit, trying to figure out where I need to improve. So here's to the new year, to the resolutions, to the work and the friends. I shall trust in God - he has been immensely patient with me over the last year, and I could see his saving help many times - when I didn't deserve it.
Goodbye 2011!
But this year Christmas day was even more silent. Just my sister and me in our big flat (the rest of the housemates had gone home). But it was good. My project for the last few days before Christmas - the nativity scene - really helped me on Christmas day and since to remember the Baby Jesus, to talk with him, to love him.
And now it's the last day of 2011. And I'm down with a pretty bad toothache. Thankfully the pain is easing now, but it was quite bad last night.
The last week flew past. Just like the year itself. And it's been an odd year. Not sure what 2012 holds. New experiences, new things to deal with and to learn, of that I'm certain.
I'm determined to keep a diary to organize my days and maybe even to note down some thoughts. I've even been uncharacteristically good (or at least better than usual) at examine myself a bit, trying to figure out where I need to improve. So here's to the new year, to the resolutions, to the work and the friends. I shall trust in God - he has been immensely patient with me over the last year, and I could see his saving help many times - when I didn't deserve it.
Goodbye 2011!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Radical Evil
Hitchens' definition of radical evil generated by totalitarianism: "You do more violence, more cruelty that you absolutely have to stay in power. You've already made your point, you've done everything you need to do to make people realise that you're in power. But you somehow can't stop. There has to be a special appetite, there must be prisons for rape, there must be special mass graves just for children, there must be the desire to see how far you can go and even if you know that this would in the end bring you retribution it's worth it in some sense for its own sake..."
What is your profession?
I'm preparing for my classes on ancient Greek political philosophy and was randomly looking at some clips from the movie 300.
The comments on this one are hilarious :D
The clips does sum up what made the Spartans such legendary warriors.
The comments on this one are hilarious :D
The clips does sum up what made the Spartans such legendary warriors.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Happy Christmas, Holy Father!
Teresa, 82 years old now, remembers how young Joseph Ratzinger would dash out of his family’s house and press his nose against the window of the shop across the road.
“He was looking at a teddy bear. He wanted it so much that he would stand there gazing at it,” Teresa said. “He was only two years old. I was a little older, but I wanted that teddy too. “Then I remember that one day Joseph was in floods of tears. The teddy bear had gone from the window. I cried too!
“But what we didn’t know was that his mother had bought him it for Christmas. I had to settle for a doll.”
Teresa was three years older than Joseph, who was born in the small Bavarian town of Marktl-am-Inn on April 16, 1927, an Easter Saturday. His father, Joseph senior, was the local policeman and his mother, Maria, a cook.
The little boy who got the teddy bear he so dearly wanted grew up to become archbishop of Munich and then held one of the most senior posts in the Vatican before, three days after his 78th birthday, he was elected pope following the death of John Paul II.
(Original Link (AFP) http://www.sawfnews.com/lifestyle/20688.aspx)
Via uCatholic .
Getty Images
Stay strong Holy Father! I'd love to attend a Midnight Mass celebrated by you.
“He was looking at a teddy bear. He wanted it so much that he would stand there gazing at it,” Teresa said. “He was only two years old. I was a little older, but I wanted that teddy too. “Then I remember that one day Joseph was in floods of tears. The teddy bear had gone from the window. I cried too!
“But what we didn’t know was that his mother had bought him it for Christmas. I had to settle for a doll.”
Teresa was three years older than Joseph, who was born in the small Bavarian town of Marktl-am-Inn on April 16, 1927, an Easter Saturday. His father, Joseph senior, was the local policeman and his mother, Maria, a cook.
The little boy who got the teddy bear he so dearly wanted grew up to become archbishop of Munich and then held one of the most senior posts in the Vatican before, three days after his 78th birthday, he was elected pope following the death of John Paul II.
(Original Link (AFP) http://www.sawfnews.com/lifestyle/20688.aspx)
Via uCatholic .
Getty Images
Stay strong Holy Father! I'd love to attend a Midnight Mass celebrated by you.
Et verbum caro factum est
The Eighth day before the first of January, eighth day of the lunar month
Innumerable ages having passed since the creation of the world, when in the beginning God created Heaven and earth and formed man in his own image;
many more centuries after the flood, when the Most High placed his rainbow in the heavens as a sign of the covenant and of peace;
from the migration of Abraham, our father in faith, from Ur of the Chaldeans, twenty-one centuries;
from the exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt, led by Moses, thirteen centuries;
from the anointing of David as King, about one thousand years;
in the sixty-fifth week according to Daniel’s prophecy;
in the year of the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
from the founding of the city of Rome,seven hundred and fifty-two years;
in the rule of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the forty-second year;
the whole world being at peace:
Jesus Christ, eternal God, the eternal Father’s Son,
being pleased by His coming to consecrate the world,
by the Holy Spirit conceived,
nine months having passed since His conception,
in Bethlehem of Judah was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.
Translation: Musica Sacra
John Singleton Copley, The Nativity
What a beautiful proclamation! What good news! God enters this world of man, at a very particular time in history. The Child in that simple manger was Lord and God.
Happy Christmas to you all!
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Biblical exegisis of a ten year old
He is cheapening Christianity.
The casting of lots doesn't mean that Jesus was wearing exorbitant clothes. Our Lord's robe was perhaps made by His Mother - well-made surely, but where's the evidence that it was expensive?
And that's one devious explanation of 'the Son of Man has no place to rest his head.'
This is what personal interpretation of Scripture leads to?
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Bog sie rodzi
Read Pope John Paul's talk based on this Christmas carol here:
"God is born, man's might is amazed: the Lord of heaven empties himself! The fire subsides, the splendour is veiled, the Infinite is encompassed..
With these words the poet presented the mystery of the Incarnation of God's Son, using contrasts to express what is essential to the mystery: in assuming human nature, the infinite God at the same time assumed the limitations of a creature. And he continues:
"The Infinite is encompassed. Scorned, yet clothed with glory, the mortal King of the ages!".
And lastly the Christmas carol uses St. John's words:
"And the Word was made flesh and came to dwell amongst us".
Thus the Christmas verses have translated into musical language what is found in the readings of the three Holy Masses of Christmas, at midnight, at dawn and during the day.
2. As I think of these expressions of popular piety, I remember all the other Christmas carols whose musical and theological wealth is enormous. I remember the Polish churches where the sound of the sublime melodies re echoes, full of joy and sometimes full of melancholy, touching in tone and content, telling of the profound truths connected with the event and mystery of the birth of God's Son. I remember Nowa Huta, where at midnight on Christmas Eve I used to celebrate the "Mass of the Shepherds", or at Bienczyce, or at Mistrzejowice, or at Wzgorza Krzeslawickie, when we had to struggle to have churches built. Then the Christmas carols were the particular sign of unity of the people who came as in Bethlehem, to Christ who "had found no room". Those same people wanted to invite Jesus into their hearts, into their communities and into their daily lives. These Christmas carols not only belong to our history; in a certain sense, they form our national and Christian history. They are many and of considerable spiritual-richness. From the oldest to those of today, from the liturgical to the popular. I remember, for example, the so-called Christmas carol of the mountain people which we so love to hear: O little one, little one.
We must not lose this treasure. That is why, as I break the Christmas wafer with you, I hope that all of you, dear compatriots, whether in our homeland or here in Rome or anywhere in the world, may sing these Christmas carols, meditating on what they say, on their content, and that in them you may discover the truth about the love of God who became man for us.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
In the mass media age, the one skill we need
As the virtual age warps along at the speed of Google, technology advances, and our collective databases store an increasingly staggering amount of information, there is one skill needed for effective evangelism and ministry—perhaps now more than ever.
Is it social media savvy? Knowledge of HTML? A mastery of SEO?
Nope.
It is knowing how to be with another human being. It is learning to be present.
Read the rest here.
Is it social media savvy? Knowledge of HTML? A mastery of SEO?
Nope.
It is knowing how to be with another human being. It is learning to be present.
Read the rest here.
Christmas Bells
I HEARD the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
From CMR:
What Henry Wadsworth Longfellow composed was a lament. A lament for all that was wrong with the world and Longfellow was well acquainted with that.
It was the Civil War and tragedy and loss were the order of the day. Longfellow would not be immune. Hostilities in the war had just broken out and Longfellow had just lost his wife. She did not die in the war but in an equally tragic and horrible way. Frances, a good mother, was sealing envelopes with locks of her children's hair as keepsakes. She was sealing the envelopes with wax from a hot candle. Nobody really knows how, but she accidentally set herself on fire. Henry put out the flames but it was too late. She lingered through the night, but perished the next day. Such a loss would be hard on anyone.
Not too long after this, his son, afraid of telling his father in person for fear he would stop him, informed his father by letter that he had joined the Union army. Longfellow was devastated. Within months Henry got word that his beloved son had been very badly wounded at the Battle of New Hope Church.
To Longfellow the world seemed almost bereft of hope. Almost. On Christmas day 1864, he sat down and composed "Christmas Bells." In it he showed that even in our darkest hour, the light of Christ continues to shine. There is always hope.
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
From CMR:
What Henry Wadsworth Longfellow composed was a lament. A lament for all that was wrong with the world and Longfellow was well acquainted with that.
It was the Civil War and tragedy and loss were the order of the day. Longfellow would not be immune. Hostilities in the war had just broken out and Longfellow had just lost his wife. She did not die in the war but in an equally tragic and horrible way. Frances, a good mother, was sealing envelopes with locks of her children's hair as keepsakes. She was sealing the envelopes with wax from a hot candle. Nobody really knows how, but she accidentally set herself on fire. Henry put out the flames but it was too late. She lingered through the night, but perished the next day. Such a loss would be hard on anyone.Not too long after this, his son, afraid of telling his father in person for fear he would stop him, informed his father by letter that he had joined the Union army. Longfellow was devastated. Within months Henry got word that his beloved son had been very badly wounded at the Battle of New Hope Church.
To Longfellow the world seemed almost bereft of hope. Almost. On Christmas day 1864, he sat down and composed "Christmas Bells." In it he showed that even in our darkest hour, the light of Christ continues to shine. There is always hope.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Christ is Born
It is "He", Christ who is born today
See Him crying in the manger
King of Heaven Son of God
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
There He lies there with the lam'kin
Only swaddle for his garment
With his Holy Mother Mary
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory, Almighty God!
And on Earth,
Peace to All Men
Hear the joyful angels singing
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
He is born, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord King of Kings
Prince of Peace for
All the Universe
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/christ-is-born-lyrics-perry-como.html ]
Words and music by Domenico Bartolucci and Ray Charles.
Domenico Bartolucci was director of the Sistine Chapel Choir and was recently created a cardinal by Pope Benedict. Here's the original Latin of this hymn:
Monday, December 12, 2011
What else do you need?
"Am I not here who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?"
- Our Lady of Guadalupe to St Juan Diego.
- Our Lady of Guadalupe to St Juan Diego.
Gläns över sjö och strand
A beautiful Swedish Christmas song.
This one, by ABBA's Anni-Frid Lyngstad, has English captions:
This one, by ABBA's Anni-Frid Lyngstad, has English captions:
John Patrick Foley (1935 - 2011)
Cardinal John Patrick Foley, Grand Master Emeritus of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and former President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, died this morning at the age of 76, says Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia, in a statement released Sunday.
Cardinal Foley was ordained a priest on May 19, 1962, an Archbishop on May 8, 1984 and elevated to the College of Cardinals on November 24, 2007. He died at Villa St. Joseph in Darby, Delaware County early this morning. Funeral arrangements are pending.
"I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Cardinal John Foley," said Chaput. "Cardinal Foley was a man of great apostolic energy. Anyone who met him was immediately aware of his intense love for the Church and his zeal for communicating the Gospel. By the sheer force of his personality, he drew people to the faith and to himself. I was pleased that he was able to come home during the final months of his life. No matter where he lived or how he served the Church over the years, he always considered Philadelphia his home."
...
For 25 years, beginning in 1984, then-Archbishop Foley provided commentary for American television viewers of the Christmas Midnight Mass from Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. His last appearance on NBC-TV's national broadcast of this Mass was in December 2009.
On June 17, 2007 Pope Benedict XVI named him Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which lends spiritual and financial support to the Catholic Church in the Holy Land and helps maintain Christian shrines in that region.
Pope Benedict XVI elevated then-Archbishop John P. Foley to the Cardinalate at a Consistory in Saint Peter's Basilica on November 24, 2007 and named him Cardinal-Deacon of the Church of San Sebastiano al Palatino in Rome. He was the seventh priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to be elevated to the College of Cardinals.
The entire article is here. I have listened to Cardinal Foley's commentary many times when I watched the Christmas and Easter Masses at Sts Peter and Paul on EWTN.
John Patrick Foley
1935 - 2011
Requistat en Pace,
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Rejoice!
| Latin | Translation |
|---|---|
| Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus Ex Maria virgine: Gaudete! | Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is born Of the Virgin Mary; Rejoice! |
| Tempus adest gratiae, Hoc quod optabamus Carmina laetitiae Devote redamus. | The time of grace has come For which we have prayed Let us devoutly sing Songs of joy. |
| Deus homo factus est Natura mirante, Mundus renovatus est A Christo regnante. | God is made man, While nature wonders The world is renewed By Christ the King. |
| Ezechielis porta Clausa pertransitur Unde Lux est orta Salus invenitur. | The closed gate of Ezekiel Has been passed through From where the light has risen [the East], Salvation is found. |
| Ergo nostra contio Psallat iam in lustro, Benedicat Domino Salus Regi nostro. | Therefore let our assembly sing praises now At this time of purification Let it bless the Lord: Greetings to our King. |
| (from the New Oxford Book of Carols, 1992) |
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Three beautiful wishes
Vatican City, Dec 9, 2011 / 07:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI revealed his three Christmas wishes for this year, just before remotely switching on the lights of the world’s largest Christmas tree.
“When we look at it our eyes are lifted up, raised toward the sky, toward the world of God,” said Pope Benedict from his papal apartment as he spoke via video link to the people of the Italian town of Gubbio in Umbria on the evening of Dec 7.
Their tree is over 2,000 feet tall and consists of hundreds of tiny light bulbs. The enormous display sits on the slopes of nearby Mount Ingino.
“My first wish,” he said, “is that our gaze, that of our minds and our hearts, rest not only on the horizon of this world, on its material things, but that it in some way, like this tree that tends upward, be directed toward God.”
He said that “God never forgets us, but he also asks that we don't forget him.”
The Pope’s second wish was that everyone remember that we “need a light to illumine the path of our lives and to give us hope, especially in this time in which we feel so greatly the weight of difficulties, of problems, of suffering, and it seems that we are enshrouded in a veil of darkness.”
The light that “truly illuminate our hearts” and give us “firm and sure hope” can only be found in “the Child whom we contemplate on Christmas, in a poor and humble manger, because He is the Lord who draws near to each of us and asks that we receive Him anew,” he said.
“My final wish,” concluded the Pope, “is that each of us contributes something of that light to the spheres in which we live: our families, our jobs, our neighborhoods, towns and cities.”
Pope Benedict also reflected on the season of Christmas and prayed that everybody will be a “light for those who are at our sides” so that we overcome our selfishness which so often “closes our hearts and leads us to think only of ourselves.”
He urged everyone to “pay greater attention to others, that we may love them more” during the Christmas season. “Any small gesture of goodness,” he said, “is like one of the lights of this great tree: together with other lights it illuminates the darkness of the night, even of the darkest night.”
The Pope then touched a computer tablet device and remotely illuminated Gubbio’s Christmas tree.
“When we look at it our eyes are lifted up, raised toward the sky, toward the world of God,” said Pope Benedict from his papal apartment as he spoke via video link to the people of the Italian town of Gubbio in Umbria on the evening of Dec 7.
Their tree is over 2,000 feet tall and consists of hundreds of tiny light bulbs. The enormous display sits on the slopes of nearby Mount Ingino.
“My first wish,” he said, “is that our gaze, that of our minds and our hearts, rest not only on the horizon of this world, on its material things, but that it in some way, like this tree that tends upward, be directed toward God.”
He said that “God never forgets us, but he also asks that we don't forget him.”
The Pope’s second wish was that everyone remember that we “need a light to illumine the path of our lives and to give us hope, especially in this time in which we feel so greatly the weight of difficulties, of problems, of suffering, and it seems that we are enshrouded in a veil of darkness.”
The light that “truly illuminate our hearts” and give us “firm and sure hope” can only be found in “the Child whom we contemplate on Christmas, in a poor and humble manger, because He is the Lord who draws near to each of us and asks that we receive Him anew,” he said.
“My final wish,” concluded the Pope, “is that each of us contributes something of that light to the spheres in which we live: our families, our jobs, our neighborhoods, towns and cities.”
Pope Benedict also reflected on the season of Christmas and prayed that everybody will be a “light for those who are at our sides” so that we overcome our selfishness which so often “closes our hearts and leads us to think only of ourselves.”
He urged everyone to “pay greater attention to others, that we may love them more” during the Christmas season. “Any small gesture of goodness,” he said, “is like one of the lights of this great tree: together with other lights it illuminates the darkness of the night, even of the darkest night.”
The Pope then touched a computer tablet device and remotely illuminated Gubbio’s Christmas tree.
Photo: Reuters
Friday, December 9, 2011
Delivered from all stain
“Yeah, right” is the way the more irenic of my Evangelical friends react to the Immaculate Conception, the feast day of which (a holy day of obligation) we celebrate on Wednesday. A few will go so far as to say something like “Whatever floats your boat,” while others react with something like horror or disgust. Very few, in my experience, have a very good idea of the dogma to which they're reacting.
“It says that Mary doesn't need to be saved,” Evangelical friends with doctorates in theology from elite universities have told me, which is, you know, and I do hate to say this, kind of dumb. I can easily understand their believing the dogma made up out of thin air, but even then they should realize that what is made up is a statement about the way Jesus saved his own mother.
So it may be useful here to explain the teaching in first week of “Mary 101” form.
At least everyone will know where they stand. I thought of this when reading some of the bitter and cutting responses to David Hart's lovely reflection on holiness, “The Abbot and Aunt Susie,” and feeling like saying, in the tones of a mother whose children are trapped inside on a rainy day, “Why can't you just play nice?”
The word “Immaculate” doesn’t simply mean “perfectly clean,” as we tend to think from its use in real estate ads, but “unstained.” The doctrine emphasizes Mary’s freedom from moral corruption—not, and this is the crucial point, what she is in herself but what she is by the grace of God. Issued by Pope Pius IX in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus on December 8, 1854, the definition declares that
She is, he wrote, “far above all the angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of his divinity.” Because God did this for her—because God did it—Mary, “ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity.”
Read the rest here.
“It says that Mary doesn't need to be saved,” Evangelical friends with doctorates in theology from elite universities have told me, which is, you know, and I do hate to say this, kind of dumb. I can easily understand their believing the dogma made up out of thin air, but even then they should realize that what is made up is a statement about the way Jesus saved his own mother.
So it may be useful here to explain the teaching in first week of “Mary 101” form.
At least everyone will know where they stand. I thought of this when reading some of the bitter and cutting responses to David Hart's lovely reflection on holiness, “The Abbot and Aunt Susie,” and feeling like saying, in the tones of a mother whose children are trapped inside on a rainy day, “Why can't you just play nice?”The word “Immaculate” doesn’t simply mean “perfectly clean,” as we tend to think from its use in real estate ads, but “unstained.” The doctrine emphasizes Mary’s freedom from moral corruption—not, and this is the crucial point, what she is in herself but what she is by the grace of God. Issued by Pope Pius IX in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus on December 8, 1854, the definition declares that
the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.
She is, he wrote, “far above all the angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of his divinity.” Because God did this for her—because God did it—Mary, “ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity.”
Read the rest here.
Dedication to the Immaculate Conception
Most Holy Trinity, you let Mary share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his death, and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Our Father in Heaven, who chose Mary as the fairest of your daughters; Holy Spirit, who chose Mary as your spouse; God the Son, who chose Mary as your worthy Mother. In union with Mary, we adore your majesty and acknowledge your supreme, eternal dominion and authority. In the presence of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and with heaven and earth as our witness, we prostrate ourselves at your feet, O Mary, Our Lady.
Most Holy Virgin Mary, we acknowledge you as our Mother, as the Immaculate Conception, living tabernacle of the Divinity, as Queen of angels and of men, as Mother of the Church, and as refuge of the afflicted. That is why, small and weak that we are, we wish to dedicate ourselves to you, and also our families, our works, our future, and all that pertains to us and is in us, and which God, in his immeasurable goodness, has entrusted to us for our good use. We want everything in us and around to belong to you and to share in your motherly blessings
(pause for a moment of silence)
Mary, be our Mother; sanctify us, purify us, correct us, guide us, pray for us, and protect us. Accept the prayers of our dedication to you. Holy Mary, our hope, seat of wisdom, Mother of fair love: through your powerful intercession make this prayer also pleasing to your Son Jesus Christ. Extinguish in us all self-love, which prevents your Divine Son, King and Sovereign Priest, from reigning in and around us. Help us, so that after holy life here on earth, we may have the happiness of praising the Blessed Trinity with you for ever and ever.
Amen
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Lindsey Stirling - Silent Night
She's a very lively performer. Very nice.
The Christmassy feeling has been ebbing a bit these few days, mostly due to boredom, frustration and disappointment that my work is progressing slowly. But Christmas isn't about feelings. And tomorrow's a beautiful beautiful feast day. :)
Must get back to my Advent preparation for Christmas. Must prepare something nice for Baby Jesus on Christmas day.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
What does English sound like?
I've often wondered what English sounded like to someone who did not understand it.
I can mimic Chinese, Arabic, etc - makes noises that sound a bit like those languages but which mean nothing. But I can't do that with English and Sinhalese.
Especially when it comes to English, I just cannot imagine what it sounds like to someone who does not know the language. Why? It's because I understand the language and the meaning overpowers the raw sound. But why that happens I don't know.
Anyway, I came across this video yesterday. Here's what English sounds like. It's almost understandable. You can almost understand the words too - maybe because you can guess the context. Interesting isn't it?
Read a bit more here.
I can mimic Chinese, Arabic, etc - makes noises that sound a bit like those languages but which mean nothing. But I can't do that with English and Sinhalese.
Especially when it comes to English, I just cannot imagine what it sounds like to someone who does not know the language. Why? It's because I understand the language and the meaning overpowers the raw sound. But why that happens I don't know.
Anyway, I came across this video yesterday. Here's what English sounds like. It's almost understandable. You can almost understand the words too - maybe because you can guess the context. Interesting isn't it?
Read a bit more here.
Friday, December 2, 2011
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