The Pope and the doves...

Even some of us who are not Catholic, look upon the Pope as a spiritual leader. Because he is so precious to the church, he is closely guarded and the world rarely gets to see or hear spontaneity. But obviously, even the doves love him. Listen for his exclamation of "Mama Mia!"


The words he speaks afterward basically say that they want to stay in Papa's house (in case you didn't know, the Pope is known as Papa)...

Although I would never presume to have an audience with the Pope, I too world love to visit his house...to view the Dome of St. Peter's,

the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel,

to view "The Pieta"...

he has a very lovely house indeed!

Unconditional love...

This is in no way an endorsement of a candidate...we don't do that here. It is the story of a family who loves and nurtures a child who has no way of reciprocating that love...

She is a font of love,” he said. “And she made me understand that that’s how the Father looks at me. I’m disabled and unable to ‘do’ anything for him — except love him. And he loves me unconditionally.”

Read the Santorum's story here...

Beauty

I used to think the world was trying to teach girls and women that you had to do this or that or use this beauty product or that, wear these clothes or that, attend this school, be a cheerleader, dancer, be the most popular, and the list goes on an on. I now realize that the world is actually saying, "You'll never be good enough!"

That is so not true...



We must all work to teach our children and young girls that all are beautiful in God's eyes...and ours!

Thankful

Little Old Ladies....

I know people like this...

Grief

Although grief is something we wish we could avoid, it happens to us all. And while there is not an "How to face Grief" manual that tells us what to do or how to handle it, there are those among us who have walked the path and who are willing to reach out. This is actually 3 articles but they're not tool long and worth the time...

 The experience starts here...

Having recently gone through the devastating experience of having our beautiful 32-year-old daughter die, completely unexpectedly, of a pulmonary embolism, I was determined from Day One (January 11, when she was found dead in her home in Durham, N.C.) to be open to whatever positive thing there might be to glean from this.  I cling by my fingernails to the promise of Romans 8:28 that “God works all things together for good for those who love him….”
Thoughts on grieving...
When a person suffers the devastating loss of a loved one, you should — however well-intentioned you might be — keep your mouth shut.  Or at the very least, you should think long and hard before you say anything.  Here are some of the things I recently heard that did not help, and frankly were not true.
1)  “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.”
2)  “You’ll get over it soon.”
3)  “Sorry about your lost loved one.”
4)  “Well, at least you still have your son.”
5)  “God will make up for this with a twofold blessing.”

The hope of the grieving:
What does it mean to grieve, then, as one who has hope?  It means we grieve with one eye forever fixed on the eschatological horizon.  It means we grieve knowing that resurrection will reverse Death.  It means we grieve knowing that Death will not have the last word about us.  Life will.  Elsewhere, Paul reminds us of the old saying “Who hopes for what they already have?”  Just so.  The hope to which he refers is not something we possess now in a fully realized form.  While I may have comfort now, and solace now, and peace now,  none of this is my hope.

3 Generations...

that, as of 2012, span 222 years.

 

President John Tyler was born in 1790, became President in 1841, married his second wife Julia Garndiner (30 years his junior) in 1844. They had 7 children together (added to the 8 he had with his previous wife!) Their son Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Sr. was born in 1853 (when his father was 63).

 

He married his second wife, Sue Ruffin, in 1923. His son

 

Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr was born in 1924, when his father was 71. He still lives in Virginia today at the age of 88. His brother,

Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928, when his father was 75. He still lives in Virginia today at the age of 84.

These 3 generations have born witness to:

The year the President was born (1790), George Washington gave his first State of the Union address and the French Revolution began. In the year his son, LG Tyler, Sr was born (1853), the Crimean War began and Levi Strauss was founded. In the year LG Tyler, Jr. was born (1924), Lenin died and Stalin took over dictatorship of Russia and MGM studios was founded in Los Angeles. When HR Tyler was born (1928), Mickey and Minnie Mouse debuted on film. Along with automobiles, airplanes, televisions, computers and the thousands of other inventions that make our lives what they are...