Little Rascals in Color....

They still make me laugh... I'm in an oldies kick. 

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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

A few notes on the "3C's" - cleaning, combox, camera,

I've got some catching up to do on things. Since so many people ask me how I find time to do all that I do, I thought I'd let you know that some things have fallen behind.  I've got a backlog of housework, audio work, photos to edit, housework, banking, and did I mention housework?

In addition to prayer obligations as a secular Carmelite, working 40 hours, singing in the parish choir, photography, blogging, and a few other projects, I am attempting, on my own, to [gasp].... learn Italian.  I've wanted to learn the language since I was a teen, along with many others.  There are so many things in other languages other than English.  I just am getting tired of using a google translator to read Church news, much of which is in..... Italian.  So, I am squeezing out time here and there from other things.

Posting will continue, but comments will be closed temporarily

I have a short list of things I want to post, but I am going to turn the commenting feature off for a while so I don't have to bother with moderating. 

In general, people will sometimes drop comments into a post that is.... like... 3 years old.  I just reject them because the discussion is long over with.  I'm hoping Blogger will come out with the ability to set an expiration date for comments like I see on some Word Press blogs, and others. It's a feature that would come in handy and cut down on maitenance.

In case you are wondering why I moderate comments, it is not because I am screening out opinions which differ from my own. Like most bloggers I know who moderate, it's because the anti-spam, word verification feature only eliminates "robots". It does not stop people from dropping in little comments like, "great post" (all the while their signature or some other link leads to a porno site, or advertising site). These are not just annoying, but can carry viruses. Or, they drop in comments related to the content, but with obscenities.

Camera Situation

I've been experiencing some problems with my camera and will probably be sending it out for some maintenance and inspection.  This means I will be without it for a time.  The bad news is that I won't be able to take pictures. The good news is, my backlog won't grow.  I think now is the time to do it since we are between major holidays.

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

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Joe Carter: "Unplugging the Info-Tech God"

After somewhat of an unintended hiatus from blogging, tweeting, and barely showing signs of life on facebook, I had to chuckle at this piece written by Joe Carter over at First Things. I can truly relate to this.  I just hadn't been home much the last two weeks, and when I was, it was to get some important things done and off to bed. 

People often ask me how I have time for my online activities. I looked around my house recently and thought to myself that it appears as if I hadn't picked up the place in two weeks. Then I realized, it has been two weeks since I picked up the place. With the holiday weekend, I'll be spending some time.... mostly at home if I can help it... working.

I give you just the beginning of Joes piece. Even if you don't write blogposts, I'm sure many of you will relate to what he writes, as well.

I never find the time to be alone with God during the week, so I’ve dedicated this Sunday afternoon to prayer. But before I do I should check my e-mail so I won’t be distracted. It won’t take long before. . . Thirty-two new messages, including one from the boss? I better reply right now. They might be important.


Some invitations from Facebook. Those are easy to clear out so let me accept them and I’m . . . hmm, I didn’t realize I had more notifications. Looks like Stacy finally launched a blog; I’ll just click through really quickly to check it out. Some great stuff. I really should add her blog to my RSS reader before I forget. What, “More than 100+ items”? Didn’t I just check this yesterday? I should really whittle these down a bit before it gets worse.


Wow, here I was about to focus on prayer and Bible study and my favorite theology-blogger has an excellent post on spiritual disciples. I have to share that with my own blog readers. That’s a topic that’s really on my heart today, and it won’t take long.


Hmm, looks like some comments are hung up in our spam filter again. Better fix that, or people will be discouraged from commenting. Oh man, does this guy misrepresent what I wrote. I can’t let that go unchallenged. Readers might be led astray. It won’t take long.


OK, now I need to buckle down and pray. Let me check the time on my iPhone—no way, it’s been four hours?—and who are these voicemails from?


I better check them in case my boss is calling to see why I didn’t answer that email, which would be really rude of him since this is Sunday, and I told everyone that I now devote Sunday to church and prayer and Bible Study and—no, not him, it’s my buddy asking if I got his e-mail. All right, that’s it. I really need to spend some quality time with the Lord.


But before I get started I should check my e-mail. It’s been four hours . . .

Continue reading Joe Carter at First Things - On the Square

As an aside, I actually have some unfinished posts in draft.  However, I cannot let the house go for another week, so ... it's time to pick it up and do some cleaning this weekend.  Besides, readership always drops significantly on holiday weekends.  I may drop a post if I need a break from working.  But, hey! That five minutes could stretch to.... 4 hours.


Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

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North Platte Nebraska - little lessons of love

Veil-tip to Patrick Madrid on this one:



Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Current Catholic Events and the Twitter Feed

From the Te Deum photo archives - Summer of 2007

You may have noticed that my blogging has dropped off significantly.  Not only has my spiritual reading suffered, but my home seems like an endless clutter pit and I know these things have been compounded by time spent on the internet. 

I just cannot keep up with the fast pace of Catholic news on this blog.  And, I would really like to focus more on wholesome writing projects to be published here.  These things take more time than the high-paced "get out the news" kind of stuff takes.

Twitter has been a real blessing.  This allows me to let people know what current Catholic events I'm reading and browsing.  I'll try to update this daily, but there are never any guarantees.  Just click the Twitter icon in the upper right hand sidebar to see links to interesting stories and posts out there.

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Splashdown in the Hudson.....it appears all got off safely!

Photo Source: AP

This is unreal. Deo gratias that it appears everyone is ok...

It is thought [that is, speculation] that a flock of geese got in the way of the big bird above on take off and both engines were affected. Three minutes into the flight passengers were told to brace themselves for a hard landing.

Mayor Bloomberg says that it appears that all got off safely. Once she splashed down, the pilot and crew helped people to get of the plane and into position where boats could pick them up. The pilot then walked the aisle again after the jet was empty and believed everyone got off safely.

More here:

• Photostory on Yahoo!


• Jet Ditches in Hudson; All Are Said Safe (NY Times)
  

Thanks be to God. What an amazing gift that people were spared. Great job by the pilot and crew.
Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Brrrrrrrrrrr.........It's zero degrees out there!

As many people wonder whether their car will start, whether school is closed to protect the children from standing at bus stops in life-and-limb threatening cold, my thoughts turn to the homeless. I heard yesterday that in our area here in metro Detroit, the numbers are up by 3-4x than usual, due to the jobless rate.

What really befuddled me is that there are warming centers opening for the homeless, but they operate only during the day, sending these men, women, and children back out into the cold as the temperature drops even lower. By day it has been in the low teens and at night, in the single digits - even in the negative.

It's times like these that as I tuck myself away into a warm bed, in a warm house, that I thank the good Lord. It's only by His grace that I have these most basic needs.

Pray for the homeless, donate, and volunteer.

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!