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Showing posts with the label love

Shopping Center Attack: Why I Care

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Saturday night's attack in a St. Cloud shopping center was uncomfortably close to home. Crossroads Mall is about an hour down the road from where I live, and a place I've enjoyed visiting.... ...I'm still upset about the attack: and sorry that the attacker is dead. That, I'd better explain.... ...Some of the bad news is good news, sort of, from the 'you're known by the enemies you make' viewpoint... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Love, Mercy, and 9/11

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Airliners were flown into New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon 15 years ago today, killing nearly 3,000 folks whose chief offense had been living in an American city and going to work Tuesday morning. The 19 immediately responsible died with their victims. They were waging Osama bin Laden's religious war against the United States. Osama bin Laden is dead now, and so are a great many others: perpetrators and victims; Christians, Muslims, and folks who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. On top of that, about 1,800,000 folks were stopped last year, while trying to get into Europe. Some may have had ulterior motives; but most were trying to stay alive, fleeing because their former homes had become a war zone. It's the biggest problem of that sort Europe's had since the 1940s. Quite a few folks are upset: partly because most of the refugees hadn't had opportunities to fill out all their paperwork before entering Europe. More at A

My Heart Beats for Christ! For Whom Does Your Heart Beat?

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I was recently at the doctor’s office for my annual visit. While sitting in the examining room, with nothing to do but wait, I read the ad on the door. It showed a picture of an older woman, holding a placard that said, “My heart beats for______.” She filled in the blank with “my grandkids.” She had a huge smile on her face. The ad promoted preventative health exams. As I sat there looking at the ad, I asked myself, for whom does my heart beat? I hope my husband isn’t too disappointed, but my first instinct was to answer, “My Heart beats for Christ!” Sitting there in awe for a minute, I realized my response, as well as my accompanying relationship with Christ. I love my husband very much. We’ve been together almost 40 years (married more than 37 years). Yet my response was Christ. I live for Christ; to do His will. My Heart Beats for Christ I cannot say that Christ would have always been my first response. In my early thirties... Read more...

All Lives Matter

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(From BBC News, used w/o permission.) ...I was quite upset about the incident when I heard about it on radio news the next day. Philando Castile had apparently done exactly what he should have done: followed instructions of the police officer.... ...Later Thursday, I heard and read that someone had started shooting police officers at a demonstration in Dallas, Texas. So far, six people are dead as a result of that incident: five police officers, and the person who apparently killed them. Seven officers and two civilians are still alive, but injured. I was quite upset about that, too.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Death in Orlando: Love and Solidarity

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The 49 folks killed at an Orlando entertainment venue late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, and the person who killed them, are still dead. Others are hospitalized, and may or may not survive. A whole lot of folks are mourning the loss of family and friends. Repeating what I wrote Sunday afternoon, I should love God, love my neighbors, see everybody as my neighbor, and treat others as I want to be treated.... ...Here's what a Bishop, an Archbishop, and someone at the Vatican, had to say.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Mass Murder in Orlando

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A young man killed more than four dozen folks at an entertainment venue last night/early this morning. He took some of the survivors hostage, and is now dead, too. I've run into several assumptions about what happened: and a few facts.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Anything for Love: The Self-Sacrificial Kind of Love

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Some twenty years ago, when Nick and I lived in New Jersey, my banking career was drying up. All of the banks were merging together and therefore, banking jobs in New Jersey were scarce. Nick and I were both born and raised in New Jersey. Everyone we knew and loved lived there. As Divine Providence would have it, while I was unemployed, we were invited out to Salt Lake City, Utah so that I could be Godmother to my friend’s little girl. In July 1996, we traveled to Utah for the Baptism. While visiting, I looked around... Read more... 

Remembering My Mother

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My Mother: Virginia Duffy Today would have been my mother’s 95 th birthday has she still been alive. Virginia Christesen Duffy was smart as a whip, yet only received a high school education. She’s the only person I know that would dare to complete the New York Times Sunday Puzzle in ink ! I fondly remember the time my parents took me to Europe for a vacation. I was 19 years old. I took French for three years in high school, and I was ready and anxious to use it! We were in a French café, one day, looking at... Read more...

Love Endures All Things

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“ Love endures all things ” (1 Corinthians 13:7). I have to admit that this well known passage on Love from 1 Corinthians is one of my favorites. At our wedding ceremony, my husband and I included this passage at our Wedding Mass some 36+ years ago. Little did I know then what this passage would mean over time. When you are young, you think you know everything as you enter the early years of adulthood. Yet, some 36+ years later, this passage continues to teach me what Love is all about. I am married to a wonderful man. We have endured times of financial stress together,... Read more...

Taking the Bible Seriously

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I take the Bible, Sacred Scripture, very seriously. As a Catholic I have to, and I'll get back to that. I also pay attention to what some of the best minds of the last few thousand years thought about this sort of thing: " 12 I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, " those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, " those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away. " ( 1 Corinthians 7:29 - 31 ) - - - which is why I still think my youthful decision to stay out of the rat race was right. ( December 13, 2015 ; May 3, 2015 ) I don't, however, take what folks like Harold Camping say seriously. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Training, Lent, and Me

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(From Wereldburger758, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) Lent is a time for me to improve myself, right? That will be a by-product of what I do, but — no. Lent isn't about me. It's like the rest of the annual cycle of Advent, Lent Easter: we're reviewing and, in a sense, re-living what our Lord did, two millennia back now. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1095 ) Lent is when we join Jesus in the desert. Sort of. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Love!

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Last week I talked about why I don't try to be someone I'm not: more specifically, why I don't insist that God equip me with what's trending in charisms. Also spirit-filled administrators and loose cannons . ( January 24, 2016 ) That Sunday's second Scripture reading got me started: 1 Corinthians 12:12 - 30 . Today's second reading, 1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13 , picks up on the next verse: " Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.... " ( 1 Corinthians 12:31 ) I could stop there, and claim that everybody should start clamoring for "the greatest spiritual gifts." I've talked about cherry picking before. It's a bad idea.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Evil is Not Good

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On Wednesday, December 2, 2015, at about 6:59 p.m. UTC, 10:59 a.m. PST, two people killed 14 others at a holiday office party in San Bernardino, California. The killers were located and stopped a few hours later, and died during an armed confrontation with law enforcement. I put names of the dead, and a few links, at the end of this post. 1 I'm still experiencing anger, disgust, and several other emotions in connection with this latest mass murder. It's an unpleasant sensation, but I'd probably be more concerned if I didn't notice any emotional response. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Faith + Humour = 36 Years of Marriage

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My husband, Michael, and I have been married for 36 years, and we are happy and still in love. Surprisingly, we have become one in reality, deeply in tune with each other’s spirits even though we are still opposites in personality. Our tangible joy is inexplicable through secular eyes, because from all outward appearances our life together has been a tough journey including poverty, nine kids, overwhelming chores on a small family farm and long-term, clinical depression. Accessing Power in the Sacrament of Marriage The grace available in the Sacrament of Marriage is not some esoteric theology;  it is real and it is powerful. The power available in the sacrament is what kept my husband and I together through the rough years. We both understood, beyond a doubt, that God brought us together. We never questioned this basic call from God, our vocation together, even during the dark years. I have always managed to keep our difficulties in perspective through humour.  One of my jo

Paris, Evil, and Love

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(From Anne Sophie Chaisemartin/AP, via New York Daily News, used w/o permission.) (" Victims of a shooting attack lay on the pavement outside La Belle Equipe restaurant in Paris Friday, Nov. 13, 2015. Well over 100 people were killed in Paris on Friday night in a series of shooting, explosions. " (New York Daily News)) I've read that Friday's attacks in Paris are the fault of right-wing hate-mongers, that America's president is to blame — — — and the American election is still nearly a year off. I am not looking forward to the usual self-serving balderdash.... ...I am pretty sure that Muslims who blame France, America, and Western civilization for their problems are sincere, too. But the grand imam of Al-Azhar called Friday's attack "odious," Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb said it was "heinous," and Saudi King Salman called it "repugnant." 1 ... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Starbucks and a Religion of Hope

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(From Starbucks, via AP/KOMONews.com, used w/o permission.) America's presidential campaigns may explain some of this week's sturm und drang : 1 " Outcry, pushback escalate over Starbucks holiday cup flap " Mae Anderson, AP Business Writer, via KOMONews.com (November 10, 2015) " Is Starbucks Waging 'War on Christmas'? Red Cup Stirs Controversy " Sarah Whitten, CNBC (November 10, 2015) " Starbucks red cup controversy: The view from Chicago " Greg Trotter, Chicago Tribune (November 10, 2015) I put a mercifully-brief excerpt from each of those items at the end of this post. 2 Hats off to the Chicago Tribune's Greg Trotter, for his "extremely unscientific survey" regarding the latest looming crisis. Tongue in cheek is, I think, a reasonable attitude toward the Starbuck's holiday coffee cups "controversy." Interestingly, I haven't heard a peep about the Starbucks Veteran's Day cup, which rese

Life, Death, and Love

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You might recognize this as lyrics from Carly Simon 's Have You Seen Me Lately album: the fourth track. " ...And life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon, and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.... " (Quite a few folks) I ran into it as part of a prayer by Fr. Bede Jarrett , who had said he was repeating something William Penn wrote. Rossiter W. Raymond wrote the lines into his " Death is Only an Horizon " poem. I'll get back to a longer excerpt from Fr. Jarrett's prayer: after talking about death, life, love, and all that. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

New Evanglization: Fire and Light

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" The New Evangelization calls each of us to deepen our faith, believe in the Gospel message and go forth to proclaim the Gospel. The focus of the New Evangelization calls all Catholics to be evangelized and then go forth to evangelize.... " (" New Evangelization ," USCCB 1 ) In a way, the "new" evangelization isn't new. Matthew 28:19 means the same thing now that it did two millennia ago. But it isn't the first, or the 11th, century any more. We're in the 21st, and the world is changing. This isn't a new situation: " ...the world is on fire. Men try to condemn Christ once again, as it were, for they bring a thousand false witnesses against him. They would raze his Church to the ground.... No, my sisters, this is no time to treat with God for things of little importance.... " (Camino de perfección, 1, 5; St. Teresa of Avila; quoted by Benedict XVI on July 16, 2012) 1 ) St. Teresa of Avila wrote Camino de perfección

Death and Decisions in Oregon

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Nine people died last Thursday, at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. A little while later, their killer also died: Lucero Alcaraz, 19 Treven Taylor Anspach, 20 Rebecka Ann Carnes, 18 Quinn Glen Cooper, 18 Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59 Lucas Eibel, 18 Jason Dale Johnson, 33 Lawrence Levine, 67 (teacher) Sarena Dawn Moore, 44 the killer, 26 ( CNN ) Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said that he was not going to use the killer's name, since one of the killer's goals was almost certainly to gain notoriety. ( BBC News ) I think that is probably a good idea. What I have to say doesn't require the killer's name. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Pluck Out Your Eye or Choose to Love

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If your hand leads you to sin, cut it off. If your eye leads you to sin, pluck it out. John 17 These are the words spoken in Sunday's Gospel. Sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? We often think of the words spoken in this Gospel as hypothetical examples of the extreme. Jesus  didn't really mean cut off your hand for taking something that doesn't belong to you; He didn't really mean pluck your eye out for looking greedily or lustfully at another. That sounds more like Sharia law. Surely He couldn't have meant that! Jesus certainly did not want to impose Sharia law upon Christians. He wasn't like that. Sharia law is designed to punish. Sharia law is meant to cause pain. Sharia law is imposed on one person by another. Sharia law is man's weak attempt to impose justice on an unjust world. Sharia law is intended to provide revenge for those who feel, correctly or incorrectly, wronged. Jesus was not about providing justice in an unjust worl