NEW LOGO!

I was playing with my blog header today and came up with the most awesome logo ever!
I am so excited.

Geeks, artists and theology buffs everywhere...look and drool.

Dante on Art

Art, as far as it is able, follows nature, as a pupil imitates his master;
thus your art must be, as it were, God's grandchild.

Beauty awakens the soul to act.

Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from The Eternal.

Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories,
and still your eyes are on the ground.

Nature is the art of God.

- Quotes by Dante Alighieri

Beatification of Servant of God John Paul II

Painting by Anna Truckey


The great John Paul II will be beatified!
May 1st, Divine Mercy Sunday.

John Paul II’s pontificate was an eloquent and clear sign, not only for Catholics, but also for world public opinion, for people of all colour and creed. The world’s reaction to his lifestyle, to the development of his apostolic mission, to the way he bore his suffering, to the decision to continue his Petrine mission to the end as willed by divine Providence, and finally, the reaction to his death, the popularity of the acclamation “Saint right now!” which someone made on the day of his funerals, all this has its solid foundation in the experience of having met with the person who was the Pope. The faithful have felt, have experienced that he is “God’s man”, who really sees the concrete steps and the mechanisms of contemporary world “in God”, in God’s perspective, with the eyes of a mystic who looks up to God only. He was clearly a man of prayer: so much so that it is from the dynamism of his personal union with God, from the permanent listening to what God wants to say in a concrete situation, that the whole of “Pope John Paul II’s activity” flowed.

Info blatantly stolen from HERE.

Curiosity

By Alastair Reid

Curiosity

may have killed the cat; more likely
the cat was just unlucky, or else curious
to see what death was like, having no cause
to go on licking paws, or fathering
litter on litter of kittens, predictably.

Nevertheless, to be curious
is dangerous enough. To distrust
what is always said, what seems
to ask odd questions, interfere in dreams,
leave home, smell rats, have hunches
do not endear cats to those doggy circles
where well-smelt baskets, suitable wives, good lunches
are the order of things, and where prevails
much wagging of incurious heads and tails.

Face it. Curiosity
will not cause us to die--
only lack of it will.
Never to want to see
the other side of the hill
or that improbable country
where living is an idyll
(although a probable hell)
would kill us all.

Only the curious have, if they live, a tale
worth telling at all.

Dogs say cats love too much, are irresponsible,
are changeable, marry too many wives,
desert their children, chill all dinner tables
with tales of their nine lives.

Well, they are lucky. Let them be
nine-lived and contradictory,
curious enough to change, prepared to pay
the cat price, which is to die
and die again and again,
each time with no less pain.
A cat minority of one
is all that can be counted on
to tell the truth. And what cats have to tell
on each return from hell
is this: that dying is what the living do,
that dying is what the loving do,
and that dead dogs are those who do not know
that dying is what, to live, each has to do.

Reality Check

Sometimes all it takes is a friend to point out the obvious.

"Remember one thing, and correct if I am wrong, although difficult issues are going on in your life... I know that your inner world (heart & mind) are at peace because they conform to the Scriptures...and these are all external attacks...which means that Satan is definitely trying to attack you and is not happy with the way you are conducting your life...so don't worry too much... God's protection is over you."

Thanks Benwen.

Wisdom from the Mountains

I talk to my spiritual adviser, Deacon Patrick Jones, via Skype on Wednesdays. I live in the suburbs of Detroit and he lives in the mountains of Colorado. He always has amazing things to say. Anyway, I want to share some of his gems.

This week I was flustered since I am moving again and feel like I am starting over AGAIN since, due to unfortunate circumstances, I will be staying with my parents until I can figure something else out. The parental units have been very understanding and supportive, but it is never easy to go back.

Deacon Jones, with the Holy Spirit at his side, had the following observations for me.

Life has a way of repeating the lessons God wants us to learn, but in a spiral way, so we are never quite in the same place. It's not a circle where we suddenly realize we got nowhere. *Grin*

Do we ever start over again? We are never the same as we were the last time we "started over".

There is a lot to be delighted with! Seek the gift rather than dwelling on the pain.

Then he said he was going to leave it at that and go stick his head in a pot of chicken soup. His words, not mine. LOL. The poor guy has a cold.

Shortest session EVER, but with lots for me to contemplate. :)

Perpetual Novena

Okay, I once wrote something I called a Perpetual Novena. Though that name is not quite accurate since a novena lasts 9 days, or weeks... well nine of whatever anyway. (I've got a headache and I'm not gonna look it up just so I can be a know it all...ok, yes I will.) Nine DAYS.

Aaaaaaanyway, I wrote a prayer for a perpetual novena. At that time I had one of those watches that beeped every hour. Thus, when it beeped I'd pull out the following prayer and pray it.

Lord Jesus,
may Your Truth and will be made known in all aspects of our lives.
Remain near us and speak softly to our souls.
Give our guardian angels the power
to help us resist and unmask the lies of the Evil One.
Give us strength to strive after holiness
and to live in Your love during every moment of this day.
Amen

I lift __________up to you today.