Two Truths Tuesday

Wow, deja vu!  I thought I just did this.  At least its Wednesday and not Thursday.

1.  We had a teenager game night this weekend.  We played lots of card games including Hearts, my personal favorite.  Mr. B. was incredibly odd as he decided to shun the company and retreat to the protection of the pocket between my bed and the floor, much following in the footsteps of Miss Pickles, the Energizer Kitty.   

2.  Big Bro brought the special extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring to Casa Imaculata (my house) last night.  The beginning is very cool as Bilbo explains the life and culture of a hobbit.  I have to admit, after not seeing the movie for a long time, I could not tell which scenes were added and which I just forgot about.  I am reaffirmed in my former belief that the scene where the Nazguls stab Frodo and Strider comes with the torch is the best part of the movie. 

3.  My uncle is the head of the x-ray department at one of the major local hospitals.  He said that he x-rayed a man who survived being shot between the eyes!  Apparently, his brother went literally crazy, pinned him with his car, and shot him between the eyes.  The bullet miraculously lodged itself in a cavity of bone and cartilage right in that area of the human skull.  The man suffered a concussion and obvious mental trauma, but was able to return to a normal life.  I guess God had further need of him on Earth!

Two Truths, um... Thursday: Answers

I realized after posting this TTT that I really made it obvious that #1 was not the lie. 

1.  I'll see if I can capture him in a picture.  He loves the flags on the castle best of all.

2.  was true, in fact. Um...  I can't comment much more on that one.  It is a very funny movie. 

3.  Ok, so I'll just break my rule and post the story before it is mailed in the newsletter:

The glory of Rome that had once stood against countless adversaries was no more. Justice was nonexistent. The heart of the beloved city was destroyed - destroyed by its own protector. Cosmos’ family moved into the home of Calixtus, which was then almost fully repaired. Cosmos tried his best to rebuild the culture of the old Rome he loved, though he was never the same after the fateful incident.

The streets crawled with soldiers and hundreds of Christians were captured daily. Those who were Roman citizens were executed as criminals. But, the slaves, any foreigners, and members of the lower class were kept for the coliseums. The people lived in constant fear since Romans’ thirst for blood often led to the deaths of non-Christians as well.

Calixtus kept his doors locked at all times and was the only one, save Cosmos and some servants, who ever stirred outdoors. Diana occupied herself with helping the servants, especially Justin, whose company she invited. There was much work still to be done to repair the remaining damage to the house. At this time, she asked many questions about Jesus and His miracles. It was a blessed time for them until, one day, there came the inevitable.

Justin and Diana were on their hands and knees scrubbing the floor with rags to remove a thick layer of soot. Diana said, “Surely Jesus did not found His Church only to let it die out. Maybe…” she looked hopefully at the boy beside her, “Maybe you are meant to hide and live to spread the Faith.” But, he did not answer or look at her. He only dropped his shoulders as if a weight had been placed on his back and continued to scrub. Refusing to give up her case, she continued, “We could escape the city and go to Greece where we can hide and wait out the persecution. Surely, to remain is to threaten our loved ones’ lives, since they are harboring enemies of the Emperor.” Again, he did not respond, but only scrubbed the harder. Finally, she burst out, “Oh, Justin! Must we die to prove our faith?”

At that, he rose and put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. “No. We do not have to die for Christ to prove we are His followers. In that fact, I want you to remain steadfast. But, There is no need to hide from the executioners. If God Wills me to die for Him and the souls of those who would harm Him, then I will happily die.” There was a pause before he moved so that they faced each other. “Diana, there will come a time when I will no longer be here.” She started in surprise and mumbled contradictions. He continued, “I want you to promise me that when I am gone, you will continue to live the Christian Faith, regardless of any threat that might come your way. Do you promise?”

She stared at him, “I don’t understand you…”

“There is something I have been keeping from you that I think you should now know.” He sat beside her.

“Do you remember a slave who came to warn my master of the fire?”

“Yes,” she said. “The poor man.”

“He was my equal in this house. Do you also remember the Christian who we witnessed stoned to death?” Instead of replying, Diana slightly gasped as if she anticipated his next words. He said, “They were one and the same.”

“But, that means…” she whispered.

“That means that they will come for me. The soldiers know where the Christian slaves are; they know Calixtus owns two Christian slaves. One is dead, the other is in this house. If I do not stay and be given up to the soldiers, my master will be tried for intentionally harboring Christians against the law of Rome. Now, you see that I must stay.”

They heard loud noises of footfalls and some shrieks from outside. Justin rose and looked out. He anxiously turned back to Diana, who was also on her feet. “I haven’t much time,” he said. “When I am gone, you should try to get out of the city. Use the excuse of health and do not let any of your family know; it would risk their lives as well as yours.”

Just then, loud thumps pounded on the front door downstairs. He dusted his off hands and reached for the door to the hall. He turned back and said, “Goodbye, fair Diana. We will meet in a better place.”
In a flash, he was gone from her. She stood stunned for a few seconds, hardly believing the truth of what was happening. Then, she ran through the doorway, down the hall, and stumbled down the steps to be faced with several Roman soldiers. Calixtus and Cosmos were present as well as their wives and some frightened servants. The centurion said to Calixtus, “Surrender your Christian slaves at once in the name of Rome.”
Justin stepped forth and said, “I am the one you are looking for. Take me to my death, for I long to be with my Lord in Heaven.” Two soldiers bound his hands and they disappeared out the door. The centurion remained, however. He looked Calixtus in the eye and then traveled to each person in the room. Diana fearfully embraced a column for strength and hid her face behind it. The officer continued, “Can each of you tell me in the name of truth and justice that there is no other Christian among you?”

“There is no other,” said Calixtus. The centurion looked skeptically at each person again. Finally, satisfied, he turned to go. “Wait!” said a voice. The word made him stop. He looked around the room.  “Who spoke thus?” he said.

Diana stepped forward in everyone’s sight. “I did.” Everyone in the room stared at her in shock. “There is another,” she said, “whom you must take as well.”

“Rome smiles upon such women of honesty,” said the centurion. “Name the Christian.”

With a slight tremble she said, “It is I.”

The whole room gasped! Diana’s mother approached the officer and pleaded, “Sir, my daughter has suffered many frights of late. She is confused. Pray! Do not heed her.” But, he shook her off and faced Diana.
He said, “Rome has no need for the life of a lady. Your bravery I admire, but I do not wish your death. Renounce your words and I will not prosecute you.”

Cosmos said to his daughter, “Diana I pray you, what is wrong with your mind? How could you utter such falsehood?” And to the centurion he added, “I will speak for her, sir; she is delirious.”

“I am not,” she said, this time in a strong, steady voice. “I am of sound mind and determined purpose. I did not speak before because I was afraid. But, I am not afraid now. When you challenged me, I met it and I fully mean to meet my death.”

Still shocked at her valiance, the centurion said, “You are a citizen of Rome. You will be tried before a court. If I cannot convince you, perhaps they can.”

“I assure you,” she said, “I will not be persuaded. I wish to die with the slave you have arrested. We are all equals in the Eternal Kingdom and I wish to be with him to the end.”

“Very well,” said the centurion. “Come.”

And, so Diana and Justin were led to the coliseum where they were held with hundreds of others. Never again was Diana afraid; never was she afraid of death. She believed that, in a few hours, she would meet the God whom she loved. In parting from the Christians, the centurion took Diana’s hand in his and said, “Never have I known a nobler heart. When you enter into the Kingdom, pray for me, a sinner.”

When the time came, the Christians were herded like animals up a small staircase into the great arena. They sang hymns to the Lord, lifting the entire structure with songs of Christ’s Love. Justin took Diana’s hand in his. He turned her so that they faced each other.

“Do not be afraid,” he said.

“I am not,” she replied. “The lions are but the angels who are to carry us to He that we love.”

The End

[Tell me what you think, please!!]

my favorite:

O---K!  lahoma, where the wind comes sweeping 'cross the plains!

Though I really, really like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers too.  I would say the Oklahomas have it, but Mama said SBFSB too.  So, it's a tie. 

Just for my own curiosity, whose is whose this time?

Two Truths Thursday

Ahem...  Well, I'll not remind myself that I'm two days late.  At least Thursday begins with a "T".

1.  I bought new legos a couple of days ago from the "Kingdom" series.  It was deleted from Wal-Mart's stock, so i got it way discounted.  Yay!  But since then, a strange anomaly has been seen daily in the little kingdom village.  Could it be...?  No - not catzilla!!! 

2.  I actually saw Tangled.  I have to say, since I had such low expectations, I was genuinely entertained by the movie.  After seeing five minutes of the Princess and the Frog I decided to never watch a new Disney movie again.  I was afraid monsters would come out of my closet and demons were hiding under my bed.  Creepy, creepy movie...  But, anyway, I did like Tangled.  I don't get the USCCB's big gripe about the movie.  I guess its the "rebellious teenager" and "overprotective mother" and "slimy is ok thief" underlines...  Ok, maybe I do get their gripe.  I still thought the horse was hilarious!

3.  I am working on the end of Diana and the Martyrs of Rome.  I am going to have them live, actually.  They meet St. Peter and he tells them that they have to live so that they can teach others about the Faith.  Someone has to live to have children and spread the Word or else Christianity would die with the martyrs.  They end up escaping into the catacombs and are smuggled to Greece.  How's that sound?

I've Got the Whole World!

So is this how God sees us?  I don't think so...

OK, I was just ready for a change.  And, is the world awesome or not?!  Consider that word "awesome".  Break it down some.  Awe: "a feeling of amazement and respect mixed with fear that is often coupled with a feeling of personal insignificance or powerlessness" Well, I don't know about the dread part, but Earth is awesome when you really think about it.  (Wow, I think God's the smartest person around.  :P)  Did you ever really think about Creation? 

At the Fr. D. retreat, there were talks on the Theology of the Body.  I'm not a big fan of it.  However, the retreat master talked about Theology of the Body being an examination of who we are - of what it means to be human.  In talking about the Creation story, I was amazed all over again.  God truly made us in His Divine Image and created the world perfectly!

Now, in today's language, we could call anything and everything "perfect", but it can never be perfect unless it is made by God, the only Perfect One.  Therefore, Earth was created perfect - it is not sinful.  The Evil One and his followers have corrupted parts and aspects of the world, but not its creation: its essence as a created thing. 

I think that we should embrace the world.  (I'm not talking about becoming tree-huggers :D)  Treat it as we were meant to, with love and respect and reflection towards Heaven, the glorified Earth.  Those of us working in the world should view every person as a vital organ of the Body of Christ.  And, this is our home!  God made the Earth to feed us and clothe us and provide for our every need.  The world is not something bad to be feared, but something to be loved because it is a gift from God. 

One complaint I've heard personally about the religious life is that you are completely abandoning the world.  In living a life consecrated to God, you do not abandon the world, but travel to its heart.  Religious spend each day on Earth as images of what we were created for at the Garden of Eden - to love God above all and each other more than ourselves.  Just as the mother superior says in the Sound of Music, the convent is not someplace to hide from the world, but a place to witness our higher calling and serve those in the world.  And so...

 Introduing...
            The Earth.

Answer


Congrats, "Haus Frau," you got the right answer!  (And congrats on Munchin's birth!)

1.  Rugby was very much Church of England; if anything, the town was anti-Catholic and early socialist.  It still is a neat place.

2.  This is true.  They are going to somehow make the steel into a memorial in honor of TVA.  The man who negotiated for the piece was a former NYFD member (he was not present at 911).  He had several friends die in the attack, both in the fire department and military in the Pentegon.

3.  Obviously, this was all true.  Fr. D. and the nuns were so much fun!

Casa Maria

Here are the Pictures from our Trip:

Some of the Sisters



My penpal Sr. JM with her blood mother




Laughing Fr. D.




The Breezeway




The Path




One of the Swans




St. Joseph's Statue




The Cloister Side of the Retreat House 



Sisters with Nana




The Young Adults with the Sisters (I don't know how I ended up on that side :P)

 

Austen Lovers

Only two people voted?!  And, it happens to be that I know whose is whose... 

You can't vote for yourself, girls!  Remember, your purpose in life is to live for God and others - not yourself.  :P

Now, just in case you're wondering, my favorites are Ann and Fanny.  Ann because I would most get along with her in conversation; and Fanny because - yes - she's exactly how I would be...  :}  But! - Of course, I'm most like Eleanor according to the survey...  Don't know how that happened. 

Two Truths Tuesday



So, I missed an entire week of posts.  Sorry.  And, I did not have time to write last week's TTT.  But, this one is going to be good!  I hope...

1.  I went to North Tennessee to see Rugby, an old town founded by Thomas Hughes, a staunch Catholic.  It was so neat to walk in the footsteps of those amazing people who lived there.  The Catholic church there is small, but quite beautiful.  It was founded right after the Civil War.

2.  Papa was present when a chunk of steel from the World Trade Center was brought to Kingston, TN.  (This year is the 10th Anniversary of 911.)  The people organizing it asked him to come because of his military rank.  So, he got to lead the honor guard.  It was pretty cool!  (I wasn't there, though. :P)

3.  We went to Casa Maria for a retreat led by, none other than, an old friend of ours!  Fr. D. had excellent homilies and I liked them better than the talks led by another man, Mr. D.  We had so much fun; I stayed up with a group of young adults playing cards with Fr. D. until about 11 pm.  We also brought Nana with us so she could see the place.  My family and Fr. D. at one point burst into song after discussing O brother, Where Art Thou?.    Some of them Northerners looked at us some'n strange. 

Pictures to come...

Grades + GPA

You explain to me how this is possible:

Grade 11
Course	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final	Credit
Algebra II	94	93	92	92	93	1
American History	100	100	100	100	100	1
American Literature	93	100	96	98	97	1
Economics	95	95			95	0.5
English 11	96	97	93	96	96	1
Keyboarding	100	95			98	0.5
Religion 11	100	100	100	100	100	1

Grade Point Average (GPA):    4

Shouldn't the GPA be a 3.7 or something?!

Oh Yeah!

Is this an artistic achievement, or what?! 

Is it a picture, or a painting, or a drawing, or what?

Visit http://stceceliaspressonline.blogspot.com/p/products.html

Two Truths Tuesday: Answers!

Oh, oh-oh-oh...oh no.  You're both wrong!

1.  Captain America is a great movie!  It is rather violent in places, intense (though not gory) in others, and has a very sad ending.  (As in "but he can't die!!!!" ending.)  Don't worry - he doesn't actually die.  That's why it is sad.  Ok, I'm sure this now makes no sense!  It would make sense if you saw the movie.  But, I wouldn't if you don't like intense, frightening, violent, wartime, or sad movies.

2.  I can't stand Martin Sheen's General Lee!  (Sorry, T.)  I mean, at least Robert Duval is directly descended from Lee, right?  But that doesn't account for me not liking the movie best over all movies.  Well, Jeff Daniels grew two tall, broad, and fat to play Chamberlain.  ;)  And, being a Southerner, myself, I do not like Gods and Generals' portrayal of the South.  It's too...um...extreme (is that the right word?) I mean, the representation of Southern life was really romanticized with accents and fictional stories.  Plus, I don't like Jackson's morals, much preferring the actor as Picket!  "Gentlemen you maybe can think that you are descended from an ape.  There are some of you that would say I am descended from an ape.  But who among you would assert that our commanding general, Robert E. Lee, is descended from an ape?" 

3.  North and South is one of my favorites, too.  I do think Mr. Thornton was right on most things.  for instance, the mill worker who lit his pipe, the difference between a "man" and a "gentleman" (you'll have to refer to the book mostly for that one) [oh, and this is a personal opinion that he was right], charitable gifts as prolonging the strike, having no interest in his employee's personal pastimes, and making large meals for the workers in bulk was his idea to begin with.  Margaret is right on quite a lot too, though.  Such as treating the workers as men and not animals.  Oh- I have to go.

 I hope to continue this conversation further at another time...

Real Quick

I'll post later; just wanted to say...

I'm Done!!!  Done with history, fianlly!!  Now I just have to wait on grades.

ugh - grades - ugh.

Two Truths Tuesday



Movies!

1.  I saw Captain America with Papa and Big Bro.  Excellent!!  Definitely made for teenagers and adults, though.  The movie is great because it captures the spirit of Americans and shows the makeup of a true hero: a completely unselfish kid from Brooklyn.  Steve Rogers is an all-around, good-hearted American soldier who uses his abilities to save lives and stop bullies. 

2.  Gods and Generals is my favorite movie, especially in its portrayal of Colonel Chamberlain.  I love its outlook on Southern life and traditions.  I do prefer Martin Sheen for Lee rather than Robert Duvall, though. 

3.  Just watched North and South (story by Elizabeth Gaskel) again.  Great movie!  After knowing the story, I see that, morally, Mr. Thornton was right on most of the issues Margaret disliked him for.  (Such as punishing the man who lit his pipe in the factory.)  I love the book, too.

"New Post"

Um, yeah, well...  I've not posted in a while.  Uh...  I even missed a TTT.  Oh well...  Here's to make up for it.  This is a poem I wrote for my own contest!  See all the results at my newsletter blog.


Eternally, Guides the Dove

As skies grew dim,

colors grim,

Storms form above.

Faith! A dove,

Doth fly quite high,

Danger nigh,

To represent,

Divine consent.

Knights ride under,

Heaven’s thunder,

To meet the fight,

Of earthly might.

Confused, astray,

In fighters’ fray,

Knights’ cries sound,

‘Cross hills round.

The standard be,

Heavenly,

Knight seeks a guide,

By celestial side.

Above he sees,

Dove wings,

And acts the fight,

Of Christian plight.

So now to be,

Remember, we,

No storm or clatter,

Cannot faith shatter.