Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday Reflection: What It Means to Be Human

by Mark D. Roberts

Ezekiel 2:1-10

The voice said to me: Human one, stand on your feet, and I’ll speak to you.

In the Common English Bible, the Lord addresses Ezekiel as “Human one.” Most English translations prefer the traditional “Son of man” instead of “Human one.” This is a more literal rendering of the Hebrew ben-adam. But the CEB rightly represents the sense of the Hebrew phrase. “Son of man” in this context means “human being” or “human one.” The Lord is not giving Ezekiel some special title, but addressing him in his humanness.

8 Sunday A - Don't Worry about Tomorrow - Homilies

Fr. Bill Grimm's Video Message at the bottom
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Opening Story:

When I hear Jesus tell us to trust God, I think of the German philosopher and Carmelite contemplative, Edith Stein. Brought up in a pious Jewish household at the end of the nineteenth century, as a young woman she stopped believing in God. A brilliant mind, Edith excelled in philosophy. One evening she picked up a book by St. Therese of Lisieux. She spent the entire night reading it and in the morning she believed not only in God, but in Jesus and his Church. It was not a passing emotion. At great personal cost she became a Catholic.

When the Nazi persecution of Jews began, she could have gone to America, as did most of her family. Edith, however, felt called to become a Carmelite Sister - like St. Therese. She eventually wound up in a convent in Holland. When the Nazis took over that country in 1940, they registered all Jews, including those who had become Christians. In July of 1942, the Dutch bishops protested the persecution of Jews - and on July 20, they had a letter read from all Catholic pulpits.

It's official - stress DOES cause headaches

And the pain then causes us to become even more stressed

• There was a 'clear link' between the amount of stress people's lives and how often they experienced a headache, say German researchers
• Those most seriously affected had a 6% rise in ‘headache days’
• Around 30.4 million Britons - three out of four adults - claim to have suffered from headaches or migraines in the past six months

By Jenny Hope Medical Correspondent

Feel a headache coming on? You could be under stress, say researchers.
A new study proves what most headache had suspected - that having more stress in your life leads to more headaches.
There was a 'clear link' between the amount of stress people's lives and how often they experienced a headache.

Malappuram gynaecologist set to deliver a Guinness record

DC | Jose Kurian | 

Laila Begum

Kozhikode: Once while patrolling the streets during the wee hours, the Chemmad police saw a man ‘chasing’ a woman on the highway. After a stiff tussle, the team succeeded in holding back the man.
But to the embarrassment of the ‘heroes’, the woman started running back scolding the police. And she turned out to be Dr Laila Begum, a gynaecologist, who was rushing to the hospital followed by her aide to attend an emergency as her personal driver had failed to turn up.

Enemies - Stories

ENEMIES

Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes. 
Antisthenes.

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Rabbi David A. Nelson likes to tell the story of two brothers who went to their rabbi to settle a longstanding feud. The rabbi got the two to reconcile their differences and shake hands. As they were about to leave, he asked each one to make a wish for the other in honor of the Jewish New Year. The first brother turned to the other and said, "I wish you what you wish me." At that, the second brother threw up his hands and said, "See, Rabbi, he's starting up again!"
David A. Nelson.

7 Sunday A - Be Holy, Be Perfect - Homilies

Note: Fr Bill Grimm's Video Message at the Bottom

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 “He couldn't fight, either.”  
One day a truck driver stopped at a restaurant for dinner and ordered a steak. Before he could eat it, in walked a motorcycle gang, with dirty leather jackets and long, unkempt hair. They took the man's steak, cut it into six pieces, and ate it. The driver said nothing. He simply paid the bill and walked out. One of the gang members said, "That man couldn't talk. He didn't say a word." Another one said, "He couldn't fight, either; he didn't lift a hand." A waiter added, "I would say that he couldn't drive either. On his way out of the parking lot, he ran over six motorcycles crushing all of them." Something in us loves that story, because we like retaliation. But in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus prescribes forgiving love as the Christian trump card.

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 Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

Friends in Christ, we — as the community of the baptised — are called by God to provide the world with an example of a different way of living life. Around us we hear every day of people waging war or getting ready to wage war or waging war to make peace or waging war to prevent war. We often hear the same language in our businesses and in our workplaces. The motto seems to be: grab, grasp, exploit. But we are called to wage peace. We are called not just to be peaceful, but to actively work in a way that builds up peace, honesty, respect for other and the creation. To say we are Christians is to say that we have volunteered to wage peace in our homes, in our work, and in our world.

Why boys need strict Fathers...Humour

6 Sunday A - Spirit of the Law

Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

The word ‘religion’ conjures up for most people, and indeed us Christians also, two great images. The first is that system of moral ‘do-s and don’t-s’ — and that we have image is true whether one thinks such rules are a good thing. The second is that there are various religious that have to be followed: like the rule that we have to go on Sundays. But the message of Jesus, brought out in gospel, is that we must go beyond these appearances: our actions must be following but must be inspired love; our religious observances cannot be merely formal must open us to mystery of love that is greater that the univ yet which enters every detail of the creation.

Shape-bending designs of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava on display at the Vatican-Video

2-year-old still wearing diapers seen on video skateboarding like a pro

Kahlei Stone-Kelly skateboarding like a pro

What it means to be Poor - ppt

Einstein - Existence of God - Light

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists?

A student bravely replied yes, he did!"

"God created everything?" The professor asked.

"Yes, sir," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil."

The student became quiet before such an answer.

The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

5 Sunday A - You are the Light/Salt - Homilies

Fr. Bill Grimm's Video Message at the bottom
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LIGHT

Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. Back in the days before electricity, a tightfisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. "Why," he exclaimed, "when I went a-courtin' I never carried one of them things. I always went in the dark." "Yes," the hired man said wryly," and look what you got!" 

Source Unknown.

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Some people change their ways when they see the light, others only when they feel the heat.

Source Unknown.

SALT

Sodium is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always links itself to another element. Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous gas that gives bleach its offensive odor. When sodium and chlorine are combined, the result is sodium chloride--common table salt--the substance we use to preserve meat and bring out its flavor. Love and truth can be like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth is flighty, sometimes blind, willing to combine with various doctrines. On the other hand, truth by itself can be offensive, sometimes even poisonous. Spoken without love, it can turn people away from the gospel. When truth and love are combined in an individual or a church, however, then we have what Jesus called "the salt of the earth," and we're able to preserve and bring out the beauty of our faith.

David H. Johnson.

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7 Facts About Meditation That May Surprise You

by Light Watkins

1. Meditation is more than just closing your eyes.
Meditation can initiate an incredibly restful physical and mental state of consciousness called the “Relaxation Response.” But merely closing your eyes won’t guarantee it anymore than turning off the lights guarantees that you’ll fall asleep at night. Your breath, body position, and the time of day also play a part in yielding deeper experiences.