Today I treated an individual that at first, one might think to be an aggressive, uncooperative fellow, based on stereotypical beliefs. Well, this guy was anything but stereotypical… he turned out to have a really empathetic side, and I could tell he was being sincere. Let this be a lesson to you all: don’t fall prey to stereotypes.
Archive for April, 2008
MC Episode #8
Friday, 18 April, 2008
In today’s episode: number 7 plastic water bottles, why live in fear?; how to use energy gels for running to avoid “hitting the wall”; Pope Benedict’s visit with sex abuse victims.
- CNN article on Pope’s visit with abuse victims
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Live coverage of the US Papal visit!
Wednesday, 16 April, 2008
Pope speaks about religious sister who was killed by Satanists
Sunday, 13 April, 2008From the Catholic News Agency
.- Today at the end of the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict spoke to a group of nuns and lay people, who were present to honor the memory of Sr. Maria Laura Mainetti, a religious sister who was killed by Satanists.
That Italian sister, said the Holy Father, “with a total giving of self, sacrificed her life while praying for those who were attacking her”.
The murder of Sr. Maria Laura happened during the night of June 6-7, 2000 in the small town of Chiavenna, Italy. The sister was stabbed to death by three girls, two of whom were 17, while the third was 16.
Sister Maria Laura was well known in the small town she lived in for her social and charitable commitment to young dispossessed and poor people. Consequently, the three girls were able to draw her into an ambush by saying that a pregnant girl was in serious need of her help.
After luring Sr. Maria Laura to their ambush, the girls stabbed the sister to death as a sacrifice to Satan. As Sr. Maria Laura died, she found the strength to pray for her killers and forgive them.
Police investigators discovered the satanic plot and arrested the three girls 22 days after the sister’s murder.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints recently recognized the death of the religious as martyrdom, thus opening the way to her beatification.
Pope on YouTube
Wednesday, 9 April, 2008Pope Benedict’s message to the USA before his visit to America
give me a firm handshake!
Monday, 7 April, 2008
It still amazes me that are people who give such weak handshakes. I met a number of people today and as I was introduced to them, I got to shake a number of their hands. Some handshakes were firm, while others were limp. Seriously, if you want to set a good first impression, give me a firm handshake!
the will to act
Sunday, 6 April, 2008One of the most memorable scenes from the 2005 movie Batman Begins showed a young Bruce Wayne training with his mentor. They had a conversation that went like this:
Mentor: Your parents death was not your fault, it was your father’s. Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.
Bruce: The man had a gun.
Mentor: Would that stop you?
Bruce: I’ve had training…
Mentor: Training is nothing, the will is everything… the will to act.
There are moments in life we all regret, where we know that if only we had had the will act, that then our lives may have turned out differently. One of my friends studying to become a priest told me last night that most everything that happens in life is God’s intent, but yet we still have free will. This somewhat puzzled me since how is it that God can intend for events to happen, yet we can still have influence on our own futures? I think one way of looking at it is like this: God is like a helicopter pilot that can see above a highway that winds through mountains. He can see where the cars are going, but the drivers in those cars can’t see what’s beyond the mountains obscuring the winding path.
From This Rock Magazine:
Q: If God knows today what I will do tomorrow, what happens to my free will?
A: Nothing at all. God’s foreknowledge of something isn’t the same as pre-ordaining it. In fact, it isn’t really foreknowledge. What we call God’s foreknowledge is merely knowledge of what is future for us. From the divine point of view, it’s knowledge of the present. Remember, unlike us, God is outside of time. His existence isn’t divvied up into compartments known as past, present, and future. He simply is. As a result, God sees what is past, present, and future for us as one grand Now and understands how it all fits together.
Think of it this way. You’re traveling through the mountains along winding roads. You don’t know what’s ahead. A helicopter flies overhead. From his vantage point, the pilot sees miles beyond you. He knows where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you’re going.
God is like the helicopter pilot. He sees the whole road of life, while we see only immediately ahead of us. His knowledge of where we’re ultimately headed in no way diminishes our freedom.
Here’s that scene from Batman Begins that I’m talking about.
road rage!
Friday, 4 April, 2008So today, an SUV that was in the lane on my right made an illegal left turn in front of me as I was turning left, which nearly caused a collision. So I leaned on the car horn and let out a good loud five second screech from my car horn. The SUV driver, who had just made an illegal left turn, then gave me the finger! It was really tempting to go after that guy, but at the same time, it would have been a stupid thing to do. I used to tell my junior high Sunday school students that sometimes it takes the bigger man to walk away. As true as that is, it’s not always an easy thing to do. When someone wrongs you, how are we to respond? Using Christ as an example, he was beaten, tortured, nailed to a cross bloodied, beaten, insulted… and yet he did not retaliate.
This begs the question: are Christians obliged to just be “doormats” and allow themselves to be walked on by their enemies? Well, two wrongs don’t make a right. Yes, there are times when evil needs to be defeated by assertiveness of the moral good, such as when Nazi Germany was murdering countless innocent Jews – war on the persecutors is easily justified. However, in manners of everyday trivial occurrences like road rage, why waste your time?
While we’re on the subject of road rage, check this out.
The story goes that this guy tossed food out his car window and the bike messenger, pissed at the littering, chucked it back in. The driver decided it was his right to get out and beat the crap out of the messenger… a woman…
MC Episode #7
Thursday, 3 April, 2008
more on why confession is a good thing
Thursday, 3 April, 2008The following is an excerpt from Fr. John Speekman’s blog:
If we knew the doctor could not help us, or was going to scream abuse at us for getting sick, or was going to say, ‘Get out of my office, your disease disgusts me!’ would we bother going to see him? Would we bother telling him where it hurts? Of course not. It would be a waste of time. But when we trust the doctor we tell him everything:
Now I will interrupt myself and ask you at this point: Can Jesus cure spider bites? Yes? Of course he can. So why does he send us to a doctor? Why all this messing around? Why can’t we just kneel down beside our bed, say a prayer of petition, and have Jesus cure our spider bite? Why does he send us to the doctor?
Why did Moses have to lead the people out of Egypt? Couldn’t God have done that himself?
Why did Moses have to stretch out his hand and hold the staff over the waters of the Red Sea before God parted the waters?
Why did he have to strike the rock with his staff before God let the water come out of the rock?
When Jesus cured the ten lepers why did he command them: Go and show yourselves to the priest?
The answer to all these questions is the same as the answer to the question – Why do we have to confess our sins to a priest?
We let the priest baptise us, confirm us, bring the Body and Blood of Jesus onto the altar at Mass and give it to us in Holy Communion, marry us, and anoint us, but many of us won’t let him forgive our sins. We invent weak excuses to justify our behaviour. How sad!
We all know that before we can be cured we have to identify the disease – and so it is for our soul.
Maybe for some this is the scariest part. Looking at what they have done – admitting that this is their sin.
Yes, it’s hard to admit our sins; let’s not pretend about this, we need a special grace, a special simple humility and trust.
