All Else Confusion

This year I got one of the best birthday presents - a beautiful arrangement of flowers delivered to my office. I love being sent flowers! It gives you a great feeling that someone thinks of you enough to send them. And while they last it's so exciting to come home to beautiful flowers - they just add so much to a room. I always find it sad to throw them away though, even when they really don't look too good anymore. So, I had a poignant moment tonight when I finally threw away my birthday flowers. That beautiful gift is all gone.

Labels: personal

Please pray for the repose of the soul of my roommate's grandmother who died of cancer yesterday morning at the age of 93. Her funeral will be Thursday.

May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.

Labels: prayer request

Bishop McManus announced yesterday that 4 parishes will be closing in the city of Worcester and that their congregations will be joining other nearby parishes. This is just the first step in a reconfiguration which will next move to the surrounding towns in the diocese with a re-evaluation of the parishes in the city itself to occur in 5 years. Bishop McManus cited low Mass attendance (only 32% of the cities Catholics contribute to the weekly offerings) and lack of religious education and sacramental life for the main reasons for the closings. While many of us in the diocese have recognized for some time that this day would come, it is still a sad time now that it is finally here. Please pray for those whose parishes are affected and for continued wisdom and prudence by those making decisions on reconfiguration.

Labels: Worcester Diocese

The Oblates of the Blessed Virgin Mary are doing good things in Boston.

Labels: Catholic life

I was sitting at my desk this afternoon around 1:30 when all of a sudden there was a loud bang that shook the building. My first thought was that the roof had fallen in, or one of the maintenance workers had dropped something big up on the roof. A check of the facilities showed that thankfully everything was alright. Then we started to hear reports that Fort Belvoir was blasting nearby, only the blasting wasn't supposed to start until 4:15 today. Further, a call to the police revealed that they were swamped with calls wanting to know what happened from as far away as Vienna and Falls Church (10 miles away) and they didn't know what had happened either. Turns out it was a 1.8 magnitude earthquake!

Labels: Various, Virginia observations

Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life has posted two You Tube videos in which he demonstrates the two most common types of abortion - dismemberment and suction. I received a request from Priests for Life to post information about these videos:

I blog to you on behalf of Fr. Frank Pavone and Priests for Life. Fr. Pavone recently posted two videos on You Tube in which he describes and demonstrates the two most common abortion techniques, using the actual instruments of abortion and the words found in medical textbooks and court testimony.

You can view these videos:
Dismemberment abortion and Suction abortion.

These videos are part of a new project called, "Is This What You Mean?" It aims to educate the public about the nature of abortion and to challenge public officials and candidates who support the legality of abortion to admit what it is.

As Fr. Pavone has quoted in endless homilies and talks about public servants who are pro-choice, there is a difference between serving the public and killing the public. Abortion has lost its meaning and is just a word to some politicians. In fact, as long as it has been since Jan.22 1973, the public is still not aware of what an abortion is and what it looks like.

Labels: pro-life