Importance of history

I've always been interested in history because it is very interesting to know from whence you came, to see how people lived, how the times changed, why they changed, etc. I only recently realized the extent to which it affects me: who I am, where I came from, what my goals and aspirations are, what my education and culture consist of, and what my faith is. It is a reality that I didn't know was there. Prof. Gaston gave an example today in class of how he used to bring a random tool in to class, an unusual one, and pass it around. The students would puzzle over it, and pass it back, not having figured out what it was. Gaston would then tell them "this is an X and it is used to K" and suddenly, they would realize what it was for and they would be amazed; you know, respond with "Oh! Cool!" The reality was sitting there infront of them, staring them in the face, but they never knew it. One cannot understand what a tool is for without knowing what it was used to do in the past. You cannot understand what is infront of you without knowing your past. Always living and seeing what is around you, how to do things, why to do certain actions and why not to do others. Knowing one's history causes the person to look at the present world with new eyes, or, rather, not with new eyes, but actually knowing how to look with their eyes, to focus on things so that one can see the depth in them.

Knowledge

"Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when and if it is organized into definite plans of action and directed to a defininte end." Napoleon Hill

"To take a risk is to loose one's footing for a moment, and then to recover. To never loose one's footing is to never live." Keirkegaard

Valentine's Ice storm

Here is a frozen cup-cake bush outside the chapel =)
Horrid little prickle bush looks much better in the ice than in real life.

Franciscan U had their first Snow day in four years on Valentines Day. The whole university shut down completely. After 7 inches of snow, we sustained 1/2 inch of ice, and it really was very pretty to see.

Silent Scream

Do not forget the holy souls in Purgatory! They truly are holy, much holier than we, for they have succeeded in avoiding eternal damnation, they can no longer commit sin, and their only desire is to be with God, a desire which consumes them. However, they are in bondage, trapped by their former sins, and there is nothing that they can do to free themselves. They are powerless to end their suffering. However, they would not, if given the chance, go into heaven with God carying with them the stain of their former sins. No, the holy souls long to be with God, yet they love Him so dearly and see how much sorrow they have caused him, that they will to rid themselves of their impurity first. But they can do nothing to further their sanctity. God, in His mercy, has so ordained it that we, the Church Militant, can make attonment for their sins, can get them into heaven. You and I are their key to heaven! As Pope John Paul II said, "Our dead are among the invisible, not among the absent." They are here with us, now, crying, pleading with us, "Have mercy! Have pity! Pray for me!" They are your ancestors, your parents, cousins, religous, clergy. Their silence is their loudest call, pleading with us, for our sacrifices, our prayers, our good deeds. And when you have prayed for the holy souls, they will never forget it. When they join Our Lord in heaven, they will not cease in pursueing your cause before almighty God. You will have gained an everlasting freindship.

"Their silence is their loudest call, because it is the echo of God's silence...They are silent because they live, just as we chatter so loudly to try to make ourselves forget that we are dying. their silence is really their call, the assurance of their immortal love for us. O silent God...God of those who are silently summoning us to enter into Your life, never let us forget our dead or our living. May our love and faithfulness to them be a pledge of our beleif in You, the God of eternal life.
Let us not be deaf to the call of their silence, which is the surest and sincerest word of their love. May this word of theirs continue to accompany us, even after they have taken leave of us to enter unto You, for thus their love comes all the closer to us.

Whey we pray, 'Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them,' let our words be only the cho of the prayer of love that they themselves are speaking in the silence of eternity. " Karl Rahner, Encounters with Silence.

May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Winterness

Since I only recently got my camera, I've been taking lots of pictures of the beautiful scenery, which is entirely unknown to most Southerners. There was a fairly severe cold snap in the past week in the midwest, so here are some pictures of Ohio and WV. Hope you like this photo album! Pictures were taken over a period of several days, mostly from inside my dorm because it was around zero degrees. ;-) I tried to put them into some semblance of order, but that endeavor failed pretty much completely.

The Weakest Members

"No society whether family, village or state, is really strong if it will not carry its weak and even its weakest members. They belong to it no less than the strong, and the quiet work of their maintenance and care which might seem useless on a superficial level, is perhaps more effective than labor, culture, or productivity in knitting it closely and securely together. On the other hand, a community which regards and treates its weak memeber as a hindrance or even proceeds to their extermination is on the verge of collapse."

A Primer for Health Care Ethics: O'Rourke, p.64.

Most people I've met love the season of spring best. I, myself, am odd in this respect because my favorite season is Autumn, and my second favorite is Winter. I've always had a fascination for the cold, whiteness a northern winter could bring, probably because I've lived in the South all my life and never really experienced a hard winter. Spring is lovely, with all the new growth coming in, or the old growth rejuvenated, and summer is nice with it's warm evenings. Fall is absolutely marvelous, and the splendor of nature during that season of change near the end of the year always makes my heart soar with happiness. Why? How can I say what it is that makes me so happy then? It is simply beautiful. Winter, too, makes me happy. though it is bitterly cold right now, there is still a delight, a joy, that the world is so white, glistening, despite the harsh wind. I stand there, shivering like mad, loving the snow and the white world around.

Why is it? Maybe it has to do with my personality type or something, for I love sad songs (She moved Thro' the Fair, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya, for instance). Unlike most people I've met, I look foreward to Advent and Lent. I am attracted to sorrow, to longing, to hoping. Advent is my all time favorite Church season. Why? Perhaps God will tell me someday. Perhaps it is the assurance of a new beginning. Perhaps, a promise of good to come, a reassurance to make it easier for me to trust. Perhaps because I recognize that suffering gives me a chance to attone for past faults. I don't know. Somehow, sadness/suffering give me a taste of heaven in that they further my desire for heaven. That sounds masicistic, but I don't mean it so in the least.