Friday, November 23, 2012

Lone Survivor

So I was informed that the awesome book Lone Survivor is now being turned into a movie! Check out the info here.

Might I point out in the book there are some awesome references to Catholicism and the Rosary in particular. ;)

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

How Time Flies!

So I haven't posted in what, three days? Wow! I think I have a good enough excuse, but since everyone says that I won't bother you with details.

Oh!

Word of the day!

farctate:

The state of being stuffed with food (overeating)


I challenge every reader to use this word at least once this day! Good luck, in our culture it should be quite easy. :)

Sunday, November 18, 2012

New Word of the Day

I've been trying to improve my vocabulary and as such have decided to use learn a new word and use it that day. Why don't you join me? The new word for today is:

ABLIGURITION

Relevant for today's society, meaning: "excessive spending on food or drink". I will find some way to use it today.....

Ups and Downs

Blogging has its ups and downs. The biggest struggle for me is finding something to write about. I have written for several other ones and for me that is the hardest part.

Inspiration for a post usually comes when I am farthest from paper, pen, or keyboard. While trying to retain the thoughts I had I succeed in losing them. Then when I sit down to the computer to write them I draw a blank.

I always rectify this issue by writing about it! And in case you couldn't tell already, I always turn to poetry for inspiration in moments like these too.

Wow, I'm writing about not knowing what to write about and look how far I've gotten already!

I think Tennyson describes my feeling best:

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

He was speaking of speaking, I am writing of writing. I think that makes sense. :) But like he said, I can't explain what I mean so whether or not it makes sense, I can't explain that either!

I often get grand posts all drafted in my mind. But when I get them on the computer, they look like junk! I believe that's what St. John of the Cross meant when he said something to the effect of: "When a soul looks all around and sees nothing worth living for, and still goes on, that is one who loves God" (sorry, can't find the exact quote now) 

Writing is like that. When one looks all around and can't find anything worth it, yet persists, that is what makes them worthy to be a writer. Have you ever wondered how the greatest writers of all time came to be?It is because they persisted through their down times. 

This is a strange ramble but it is the only way I can express myself succinctly. I shall leave it at this. 

God Bless! 


Saturday, November 17, 2012

Home Safe

We made it home from Ordinations to the Diaconate in Denton just fine. It was great to see the brothers and I finally got to meet Fr. Michael Mary! Please keep them in your continued prayers.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow my family will be going to Lincoln, NE, to the ordinations to the Diaconate of Brs. Magdala and Yousef of the Transalpine Redemptorists. 

We have a friend who is a member there at Papa Stronsay; we have also met these Brothers on multiple occasions. It will be good to see them again.

Prayers for them please, as well as for a safe trip home for them (and us!).

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Gone Fish-......Hunting

Hey y'all! I'll be up at 4:30 AM tomorrow to get get me some deer jerky! If I get anything I'll put up some pictures. In the meantime, say a prayer to St. Hubert and Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos that I see one. Shoot it. Kill it. Find it. Gut it. Freeze it. Eat it. And don't get food poisoning.


I've learned the hard way that when you say "Dear Lord, let me shoot a deer", He'll pull out His sense of humor and let you shoot as many deer as you want. You still have to kill them- and then find them ;)

God is specific. Be specific in your prayers and He will listen. He might say no but He still wants us to be specific.

Before I get off on another unrelated (even if it is a wholesome and holy) topic I'll bid you good night and get some sleep. God Bless. :)

Better for man to avenge a friend....

Beowulf spoke, the son of Ecgthoew:
"Sorrowful not, brave one! Better for man
To avenge a friend than to much mourn.
All men must die; Let him who may
Win glory ere death. That guerdon is best
For a noble man when his name survives him
Then let us rise up, O ward of the realm,
And haste us forth to behold the track
Of Grendel's dame.

(Bewoulf)

These lines struck me as being very appropriate concerning the events of last week. Instead of moping, let's admit we've failed our job, and once more throw ourselves into the fray.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Somme


The Battle of the Somme ended 96 years ago today. This bloodbath was a great inspiration for Tolkien, the creator of Middle-Earth. In honor of him, here is his work Mar Vanwa Tyalieva (The Cottage of Lost Play)

We knew that land once, You and I,


and once we wandered there
in the long days now long gone by,
a dark child and a fair.
Was it on the paths of firelight thought
in winter cold and white,
or in the blue-spun twilit hours
of little early tucked-up beds
in drowsy summer night,
that you and I in Sleep went down
to meet each other there,
your dark hair on your white nightgown
and mine was tangled fair?



We wandered shyly hand in hand,
small footprints in the golden sand,
and gathered pearls and shells in pails,
while all about the nightingales
were singing in the trees.
We dug for silver with our spades,
and caught the sparkle of the seas,
then ran ashore to greenlit glades,
and found the warm and winding lane
that now we cannot find again,
between tall whispering trees.



There was neither night nor day,
an ever-eve of gloaming light,
when first there glimmered into sight
the Little House of Play.
New-built it was, yet very old,
white, and thatched with straws of gold,
and pierced with peeping lattices
that looked toward the sea;
and our own children's garden-plots
were there: our own forget-me-nots,
red daisies, cress and mustard,
and radishes for tea.
There all the borders, trimmed with box,
were filled with favourite flowers, with phlox,
with lupins, pinks, and hollyhocks,
beneath a red may-tree;
and all the gardens full of folk
that their own little language spoke,
but not to You and Me.



For some had silver watering-cans
and watered all their gowns,
or sprayed each other; some laid plans
to build their houses, little towns
and dwellings in the trees.
And some were clambering on the roof;
some crooning lonely and aloof;
some dancing round the fairy-rings
all garlanded in daisy-strings,
while some upon their knees
before a little white-robed king
crowned with marigold would sing
their rhymes of long ago.
But side by side a little pair
with heads together, mingled hair,
went walking to and fro
still hand in hand; and what they said,
ere Waking far apart them led,
that only we now know.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Papa John's Appreciation Day

Why is it the best restaurants have appreciations days? Chick-Fil-A's food is awesome. PJ's pizza is awesome. They deserve appreciation days! Set aside any cultural meanings.

That being said, Fox reports about the boy from CA who is getting this grassroots movement going. Let's all join in. We have to remember two things.

We will buy pizza:

1. Because John Schnatter built Papa John's (not Obama) and he makes good pizza. Let's celebrate his accomplishment as an American success story.

2. Because John Schnatter should be able to explain that certain legislation will hurt his business, his employees, and consequently, the entire economy. That's free speech. He's not hurting anyone.



This is NOT about racism, about telling the left and Obama they are wrong, etc.

This is to show that free speech is alive and well.

I rememeber an episode of Andy Griffith where Aunt Bee asks Andy why he doesn't like her white beans.

He responds: "I only ate four bowls full."

Actions speak louder than words. Eating a pizza this Friday, November 16, will do more for free speech than any blog or bully pulpit and news service combined. We can show those who stand against our Constitution we have the backbone to carry through with our rights.

To read more about how Obamacare will impact the organization, this explains Schnatter's views pretty well.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day to all military personnel and vets out there! Remembering my experience from yesterday I find it very fitting to post this:


St. Crispen's Day Speech
William Shakespeare, 1599
                              Enter the KINGWESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
        But one ten thousand of those men in England
        That do no work to-day!
     
    KING. What's he that wishes so?
        My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
        If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
        To do our country loss; and if to live,
        The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
        God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
        By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
        Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
        It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
        Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
        But if it be a sin to covet honour,
        I am the most offending soul alive.
        No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
        God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
        As one man more methinks would share from me
        For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
        Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
        That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
        Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
        And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
        We would not die in that man's company
        That fears his fellowship to die with us.
        This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
        He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
        Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
        And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
        He that shall live this day, and see old age,
        Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
        And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
        Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
        And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
        Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
        But he'll remember, with advantages,
        What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
        Familiar in his mouth as household words-
        Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
        Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
        Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
        This story shall the good man teach his son;
        And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
        From this day to the ending of the world,
        But we in it shall be remembered-
        We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
        For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
        Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
        This day shall gentle his condition;
        And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
        Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
        And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
        That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.


    This reminds me of all vets, of those who were forced to leave their beloved ones behind, both at home and on the battlefield. You truly are heroes. You are a happy group who fights together; if Catholics had the same spirit!

    We are all grateful to you men and women. God Bless you. Words cannot express the feelings and thoughts I have. All I can say is: thank you. 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Today

So I did ok. A few tiny slipups here and there but overall pretty good.

But I saw something absolutely IMPRESSIVE here today. I saw a seven year old act out the entire St. Crispin's Day soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry V. Amazing.

I also saw Scott Joplin's The Entertainer played in it's entirety on a harmonica. Amazing as well.

There was a whole lot more of course, but those were some of the coolest ones.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Saturday's Slipups!

Here's four tips which I've learned the hard way on this Saturday.

1. Check the air!

When loading up cattle and driving them to auction make sure the tire on the trailer has air before you put the cattle in it. :)

I came home from work to hear that my Dad had to change the tire and put a new tire on it. Thankfully it happened on our driveway!

2. Leave on Time.

Even if it is a Saturday, you still need to leave on time. There won't be traffic.....but it still takes time to get there! Silly me was....reading blogs, can you imagine that?....when I realized I would be five minutes late.

It turns out some generous acceleration always works. My point remains however.

3. Don't break the OJ.

Not that I broke the orange juice, but our truck driver did when unloading it. He ripped out the bottom of it and juice was all over our backroom.

Needless to say our Asst. Store Director was not happy. We in the dairy were thankfully not to blame though! (Still learned a lesson though!)

4. Practice....but well in advance.

Tomorrow we are having a "parlor entertainment" at our home. I am going to be playing guitar and singing a Johnny Cash song. The problem is I haven't practiced in about two months. :( The good news is I am sounding pretty good right now.

To my credit I had something else planned with two friends - a skit - but one of them will be visiting Clear Creek Monastery and didn't know till last night. Oh well. Good for him! I'll make it.

So that's what I've learned today! Has anybody learned anything useful/new today?



Friday, November 9, 2012

It's Great to Be Catholic...


Cause we have the best jokes!

That St. Ignatius one is pure awesomeness though. :)

A New Threat

There is a new threat to the sacred institution which is the foundation of education. Parenting.

The UN is vigorously trying to pass their rabid anti-parent and anti-religion treaties and laws. If these come to pass in the United States the rights of tens of thousands of homeschoolers will be dictated away by foreigners who don't care about us.


They will also take away the rights of parents to make decisions for their disabled children. This is even scarier; remember what happened to Terri Schiavo?

Let's all fight to stop this. You can call your Senators and reps if you want. It all helps. But the best thing to do is to change the culture.

One person at a time, change their perception of things. Show that parenting is a positive thing and that disabled kids are a blessing. Show them that homeschooling is not only possible and necessary, but it works better than public school.

One person at a time. Drop a comment. Give some support. But most of all, lead by example.


Thursday, November 8, 2012

One more....

Just have to share this one. :)


True, true....


Irrelevant?

I've talked to a few people who think the time of Daylight Savings is over.



I drive to work at 6:30 AM and the sun is almost up now. And it sets at 5:30 PM now. With all our electricity, power, culture, and technology, do we really need to throw everything off'?

Let's Be Happy!

We should all be crying now. By human standards, at least. But we have more than that. Read this article at The Remnant. It will say everything that needs to be said and leave you with hope. Let's go convert the world! That's the only way to win.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

You Wanna Have Some Fun? UPDATED

I'll give you some! No more doom and gloom. Obama's president now, (again) [still], so that means we'll go get us a new shotgun! Times are good!

Remington 870 Tactical, 12ga., seven shot, synthetic stock, blued barrel, 18". Short and sweet.

The bad news?

The phone I took some nice pictures on has locked up so it may be a while before I get some up. Stay tuned for some eye candy!

Fixed!






What color should I dye the water in the jugs I will blow up? Blue and red sound good to me!


Back to Work

No point in going on long tirades about breaking down demographics and such. No percentages and exit polls. A lot of other people have already discussed that. A good post I'll send you to for that is Tom Peter's. It's all good to know, but I'm concerned with one thing right now:

The next steps.

Here it is.

1. Spiritual Jobs to be done
a) Pray
b) Fast
c) Sacrifice

2. Public Participation/ Contributions
a) Time - volunteering, talking to neighbors, etc.
b) Money

I knew we weren't going to defeat the scourge of liberalism. I had no disappointment.

I actually am happy about one thing; since Obama was elected, I am going with a friend buy a gun tonight. That's always fun. :)

All kidding aside, we can't always win.

We're Catholics. We're used to being the underdogs. It isn't as bad as it could be. After all, there was:

~Rome
~The Barbarians
~The Muslims
~The Elizabethan Persecution
~ 17th and 18th century Japan
~Revolutionary France
~etc, etc,

A country can only go so long without martyrs.

Martyrs don't have to die. They just have to witness.

Let's witness.

Let's be joyful in our suffering Savior.

Let's trust in our Mother.

Let's not just practice, but love and live our Faith.


More to come.....



Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Sackcloth and Ashes....


"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

~Winston Churchill 

Alas, this is only too true. Sean Hannity made a very enlightening comment yesterday; this country will elect the leaders it deserves.

God help the rest!

(that means start praying)

Monday, November 5, 2012

And If He Doesn't?

Romney, that is.

Win, that is.

What next? That is the real question.

I'll tell you what is next. A long list of saints. It will only get worse from here on out. America has been safe and free for too long. A country can only go so long without martyring some of its own....

I am ready.



I know you are ready.

Let's make our blood mean something.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Witchcraft

Halloween's come and gone, but I want to share a great post on Witchcraft by Fr. Longenecker.


Alright, I couldn't resist that. Being a native Kansan. You know.

But seriously, they're out there. Make sure you've got your St. Benedict's Medal on.

Food For Thought

Another of my school projects:
If you haven't read it before I highly recommend it.

Robinson spends 20 some odd years on an abandoned island, thanking God for allowing him to live! I won't spoil it here; but it's basic theme is to be grateful for what you have now by contrasting yourself with those have less than you, rather than by wanting more and comparing yourself to those who seem to be better off.

Written by a Puritan. Us Catholics can do better. Go save some souls!


Paradise Lost

I am currently working on a project for school with the epic "Paradise Lost". It is very chilling, and might I dare to say creepy. (Emphasis mine)

"To do aught good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our ole delight,
As being contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labor must pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil" 
(lines 159-65)


Also:

"Consult how we may henceforth most offend 
Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,
How overcome this dire calamity,
What re-inforcement we may gain from hope;
If not, what resolution from despair. 
(lines 187-91)



Some reflections: this is scary! The devil knows he can't win; he knows God has won; he knows he has now chance to get back into heaven. He turns to hate, the greatest weapon evil has.

Hate is the opposite, or the absence if you will, of love; God is love, hate is the absence of God. It is completely opposed to God. 

Satan knows this. 

He decides that he will be powered by his own despair at his loss, and use his hatred. Against whom? Well, God if course, but he can't win against Him. But how can he try to even use this hatred?

By bringing it to us! Hatred = Absence of God. He is out to get us. 

How can we fight him? For the ten second answer:


HER!

"Who is she, that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the Sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?"

Such are the words of Satan. She is our greatest hope for salvation.








Friday, November 2, 2012

What Can I do?

There's only so much a high-schooler can do for this poor, broken world. On a natural level, of course.

But then there's the Communion of Saints.


It is so consoling to know that someone has your back. To know that no matter what you do, someone's got you covered. 

If every Catholic had this mindset, what good could be accomplished! The network of grace would be filled up, so far as it is possible! 

So don't worry about the upcoming election. Whoever gets in the White House, it will be because God allows it. 

I didn't say He wants it, but He allows it. It'll all be for the best.