May God bless all who read my ramblings,
Adopt A Catholic Blog
...[M]any of them come from a crypto-Christian background. Their forefathers may have converted to Islam under Ottoman rule, but behind closed doors they kept their old Catholic practices. Jahja Drancolli, a historian, adds that “religion has always been secondary” to being Albanian. Converts, he says, “want to return to the old religion they believe they had” and to show that they are “part of the Euro-American trend.” For every convert, anecdotal evidence suggests more go to church or are interested in Christianity.
The Catholic church is not the only one active in Kosovo. Since 1985, says Artur Krasniqi, a Protestant pastor, as many as 15,000 Kosovar Albanians have converted to Protestantism: 2,000 regularly attend church...
What about Orthodoxy? Close by Pastor Artur’s office is the empty hulk of the unfinished, abandoned Serbian Orthodox cathedral in Pristina. Kosovo’s Serbs, who are Orthodox, make up the largest Christian group in Kosovo. They no longer live in the capital but in the north or in scattered enclaves and villages. Since the 1999 war, dozens of their churches have been destroyed. Worse, the Serbian Orthodox church in Kosovo is riven by a political split that has seen monks brawling and fighting. In Belgrade the 94-year-old Serbian Orthodox patriarch, Pavle, has long been gravely ill and a vicious war of succession is being waged. For now, other forms of Christianity seem more peaceable.
"How shall I make you understand the love that my Father lavished on his little Queen! Those were specially happy days for me when I went fishing with my dear "King," as I used to call him."
From Story of a Soul by St Therese de Lisieux
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and says to them, "Peace be to you." And when He had so said, He showed to them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, "Peace be to you: as my Father has sent Me, even so send I you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and says to them, Receive you the Holy Ghost: "Whose soever sins you remit, they are remitted to them; and whose soever sins you retain, they are retained." But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be to you. Then says He to Thomas, "Reach hither your finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and My God."John 20:19-28
He who had been before unbelieving, after touching the body showed himself the best divine; for he asserted the twofold nature and one Person of Christ; by saying, My Lord, the human nature by saying, My God, the divine, and by joining them both, confessed that one and the same Person was Lord and God.
OK, why do the Simpsons live in a town called Springfield? Isn’t that a little generic?
Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon. The only reason is that when I was a kid, the TV show “Father Knows Best” took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown. When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name. I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, “This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield.” And they do.
You’ve never said it was named after Springfield, Oregon, before, have you?
I don’t want to ruin it for people, you know? Whenever people say it’s Springfield, Ohio, or Springfield, Massachusetts, or Springfield, wherever, I always go, “Yup, that’s right.”
The rector and members of St.Michael the Archangel Anglican parish in Philadelphia were received into the full communion of the Catholic Church on April 2, becoming the first Anglican community in Pennsylvania to enter a new U.S. ordinariate for Anglican groups and clergy seeking to become Catholic. David Ousley, the rector, is preparing to be ordained a Catholic priest later this year.Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, the head of the ordinariate nationally, will celebrate Mass and preach for the new Catholic community on Holy Thursday, April 5, 6 p.m. at Holy Cross Church, 140 E. Mount Airy Avenue in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia.The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham:
This year, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is expecting around 200 lay people and 20 clergy to come into full communion from the Anglican world one year after 60 Anglican clergy and about 1,000 lay people first joined the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham during Holy Week in 2011.Ut unum sint!
But what if you considered your critic to be your best friend? The one thing we are blind to is our faults. We think we’re delightful. Would that we had the gift to see ourselves as others see us!I certainly never thought of it that way.
Your critic may just be giving you the gift of seeing yourself as others see you. You can then (if you’re big enough) accept how you come across to others–even if it hurts. In this way you can “love your enemy.”
And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, “Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.” And this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”Matthew 21:9