Jun 13 2008

The Last Supper

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

UPDATE (16 June 2008.) Read this article. Some key points:

“It’s a building and we certainly believe that, but a lot of our faith is tied in with that building,” remarked Mary Caroscio, 60, another lifetime member who attended the June 13 event with several family members.

She has perspective. It is a building, but lives have been invested in it. That part makes it difficult to see churches shuttered.
—————–
Today is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. He has been the patron of a church in Elmira, NY. That church will celebrate Mass for the last time today, now (5:00 PM EDT) to honor him.

For more info, click here.

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Jun 13 2008

From the Friendly Skies

Published by broajk under Humor

Read this. Amtrak looks better and better! Now if we could only have more regional train service too!

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Jun 12 2008

Gone Home

Published by broajk under Acts of Mercy, Scouting

UPDATE IV Scott Simon’s tribute (Click on “Listen Now”)

Scout Prayer Card

Four scouts in Iowa at their training to be junior leaders

A major quote:

Ethan Hession, also 13, said he crawled under a table with his friend.

“I just remember looking over at my friend, and all of a sudden he just says to me, `Dear God, save us,’” he told “Today.” “Then I just closed my eyes and all of a sudden it’s (the tornado) gone.”

Ethan said the scouts’ first-aid training immediately compelled them to act.

“We knew that we need to place tourniquets on wounds that were bleeding too much. We knew we need to apply pressure and gauze. We had first-aid kits, we had everything,” he said.

Ethan said one staff member took off his shirt and put it on someone who was bleeding to apply pressure and gauze. Other scouts started digging people out of the rubble, he said.

Images

From the NWS

UPDATE From the NYT

Through it all, though, survivors and their families said, there were moments of surprising strength: scouts who held makeshift tourniquets (their scout shirts, mainly) on those who were bleeding while they waited for real rescue crews; a scout who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a gravely wounded boy, and another who did chest compressions on a second boy; scouts who began digging out rocks with their hands to uncover the buried.

“It’s the scouts that saved a lot of lives,” said Ed Osius, chief of the volunteer fire department in Blencoe, a town of about 200, not far from the Little Sioux Scout Ranch, with its rugged, heavily wooded terrain, trails and valleys spread over 1,800 acres. “The scouts did exactly what they were trained to do. This was the real thing.”

UPDATE II
News
from the Mid-America Council, which operates the camp

UPDATE III A note from the national offices

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Jun 12 2008

Math Ed. or Math phobia?

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

I saw the following video at Dom’s:

I have seen the methods described, and I do concur with the premise that the basic algorithms must be taught. However, if despite the “new-fangled” methods, the algorithms are left untaught, then we indeed have done a disservice to the students. Let them see the mathematics behind the arithmetic, see the confusion, and then show the time-tested methods.

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Jun 07 2008

Prophetic

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

Pope Paul VI

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Jun 06 2008

A Tale of Two Cities

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

Compare this anecdote with this news report.

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Jun 06 2008

Hallelujah!

by Liz Lemon Swindle

Reconciliation!

St. Louis Catholic
Catholic World News

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Jun 06 2008

‘The devil loves to take over those who hold political office’

Published by broajk under The Church and Politics

Need we say more? Fr. Amroth does.

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Jun 06 2008

“[I]t’s messed up.”

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

Well, we know euthanasia is just messed up. Apparently, so to is Oregon’s health care system.

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Jun 05 2008

Cool Blog

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

I know you like math out there, because if you don’t, then you need not hold your government accountable when you pay too much taxes! With that said, here is a cool blog!

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Jun 05 2008

Hurricane Mass

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

Bishop Wenski of Orlando celebrated a Mass beseeching God’s protection against hurricanes. His homily is here. He needs Scholastica and Medard, hurricane hunters extraordinaire on his team.

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Jun 02 2008

Retiring from “Call to Action”

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

I read that the founders of Call to Action are retiring from the organization. Both the independent Catholic biweekly and the secular paper focus on one of many aspects: CTA’s membership. From the independent Catholic biweekly:

If the organization’s purpose will persist, one wonders if the membership will, since Call to Action is experiencing a demographic reality familiar to many church organizations: It’s old and graying and the number of priests and nuns is dwindling.

But Call to Action has increased the younger segment of its membership with a Next Generation project. A third of the membership is between 18 and 44, according to a spokesperson.

Emphases for the future seem to play to the younger members, who are deeply engaged in social justice issues and not as interested as their elder counterparts, if surveys are correct, in institutional and hierarchical matters. The Daleys see a relatively new anti-racism initiative becoming more important “even if it is costly in terms of membership” because “the commitment is strong there on the part of the board and the team that’s been working on it for about four years.”

From the secular:

“It’s younger people who are going to have to put the flesh on a new way of being ‘church’ in today’s world,” Sheila Daley said in the group’s Roscoe Village offices. “And I don’t think it just means changing the institution. I think it’s how you live your life today.”

“What we’re seeing today with Catholics under 40 is, frankly, the reason they’re not joining groups like Call To Action is not because they agree with the bishops. It’s because they don’t care,” said Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center.

“Younger people are simply leaving the church, rather than stay and try to reform it.”

Carl Olsen counters Fr. Reese:

And why, Father Reese, do you think that is? Is it because they—having received a meaningful and meaty catechesis, spent regular time in Eucharistic adoration, attended reverent liturgies, and been immersed in the teachings and practices of the Church—have become bored, listless, and otherwise disgusted? Or could it be that they—having been shown and told in countless ways that Church teaching is either silly or meaningless, endured banal music and liturgies, and been spoon fed endless bowls of indifferentism and relativism—finally said, “Yeah, this really is silly and meaningless. I’m outta here!”? Could it be that they don’t care about the agenda of Call to Action because that agenda is largely stuck in the Sixties and is based on a seriously flawed assumption: that making the Church more like the world will attract more people to the Church.

This makes me to return to something from the independent Catholic biweekly:

However reform occurs, the organization will continue to be an incubator of sorts, a place where new ideas can be spoken and challenged. “Part of the whole conference phenomenon,” said Sheila, referring to the annual CTA gatherings, “has been to give the opportunity to people who have been silenced or marginalized to have a place to speak.”

It’s not that everyone agrees with every speaker or with, say, every new liturgical expression. The important thing for the Daleys is that a place exists where such thinking can go on. Sheila Daley said she believes that people who attend the conferences — and the membership profile would suggest a fairly high level of education — “really value that engagement and the freedom to explore the ideas. … It’s not like we’ve got all the truth. Everybody realizes we’re all still learning and we’re all still coming to an understanding of what we mean by spirituality, by God, and by this community we’ve been in relationship with and where we’re going with it.”

Personally, I want to know what Larry D. says about all this.

UPDATE Ask and you shall receive.

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Jun 01 2008

A reason I still respect the National Catholic Reporter

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

OK, I know that’s a long title, but I thought you should read this article (not for the faint of heart) at the National Catholic Reporter.

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Jun 01 2008

It’s Hurricane Hunting Season!

Yesterday, a day before the official start of hurricane season in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Arthur formed. In light of this, it’s now time to issue the following:

hurricanehuntress.jpg

Why is Scholastica issued this? Well, click here!

UPDATE Welcome, visitors from Curt Jester.

UPDATE II A second hunter’s license has been issued:
hurricanehunter.jpg
Medard. Why? See here and here. His feast is soon, in a week’s time.

UPDATE III (10 June 2008.) Welcome, visitors from Happy Catholic

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May 31 2008

Survey (not mine)

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

Visit here.

Click yes.

Hit submit.

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May 30 2008

Farewell St. Mary’s

Published by broajk under The Homefront, Education

In Dansville, NY, the local parish school is being closed after the parish being open since 1845. I suspect the school is nearly as long. Assuming it was opened in 1845 or 1846, that makes it an older institution that the Diocese of Buffalo (founded in 1847) and considerably older than the Diocese of Rochester, its diocese (founded in 1868).

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May 30 2008

Vocation Shortage….see what it leads to!

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May 25 2008

For TPGF

Published by broajk under Uncategorized

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May 24 2008

Our Lady, Help of Christians, Pray For Us

Published by broajk under Personal Prayer

Pray for China!
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Prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan:

Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother,venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title “Help of Christians”, the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection. We come before you today to implore your protection. Look upon the People of God and, with a mother’s care, guide them along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens.

When you obediently said “yes” in the house of Nazareth, you allowed God’s eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption. You willingly and generously cooperated in that work, allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul, until the supreme hour of the Cross, when you kept watch on Calvary, standing beside your Son, who died that we might live.

From that moment, you became, in a new way, the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith and choose to follow in his footsteps by taking up his Cross. Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter. Grant that your children may discern at all times, even those that are darkest, the signs of God’s loving presence.

Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China,who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love. May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world, and of the world to Jesus. In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high, offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love. Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love, ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built. Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen!

Another prayer:

Almighty and eternal God, Comforter of the afflicted, and Strength of the Suffering, grant that our brothers of China who share our faith, may obtain, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and our Holy Martyrs, peace in Thy service, strength in time of trial, and grace to glorify Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

More information regarding the Church in China.
Cardinal Kung Foundation
U.S. Catholic China Bureau

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May 24 2008

NE Realignment

Published by broajk under Scouting

I believe we have seen the official BSA Northeast Region realignments. You may find them here. Some observations:

1) Area 3 was not divided. Looking back, this is not a total surprise. Immediately after the 1994 Realignment, most of this territory came together for a co-conclave which I recall fondly. It showed these lodges could work together. This does the following: It reunites Tahgajute with the rest of the former NE 7A lodges while keeping it with its former NE 2B lodges. This lodge frequently changed sections because it is both small and on the border between two sections.

2) For many years, Western PA was one section. Before 1988, it was just lodges in PA. From 1988 through the 1994 Realignment and up to the 1997 Realignment, these all were in the same area which was undivided. With the 1997 Realignment, the northern three lodges (Langundawi, Gyantwachia, Ho-Nan-Ne-Ho-Ont) were taken out but the rest remained together. In this most recent realignment, this group has been divided.

3) For the first time, the five New York City lodges have been separated. 8O

4) For the first time since before 1988, Connecticut’s lodges are in the same area, let alone the same section.

NE Region's New Areas

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