Sisters of the Queenship of Mary

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Queenship of Mary.
If you go to our Archbishop's blog he will tell you more about this beautiful Feast. http://archbishopterry.blogspot.com/2009/08/catholic-bible-dictionary-queenship-of.html

Also you will learn about the Sisters of The Queenship of Mary, an aspiring religious community of women under the guidance of Alice Fougere from Halifax, Nova Scotia. They are a small group of dedicated women who are living a common life in Ottawa, with the hope of eventually becoming a community of apostolic life. I praise and thank God for the good work of these beautiful sisters. Last week when I attended mass at Notre Dame Cathedral I had the privilege of talking with them. I had met two of the Sisters last year during the 40 Days for Life Campaign. On more than one occasion we prayed together at the Ottawa abortion site. May our good Lord bless them and I ask Mother Mary to continue to guide and protect them in their beautiful work in the Lord's vineyard.

Paula's Response to Somerville

It's a good thing we're so ugly! We are original antiquities and are so not perfect that perhaps we are more valuable than we think. I guess deep down, I'm glad I have ugly and painful legs!

I remember growing up in Hull envying the Lamarres (as an example) because they had wall-to-wall carpet and I was "like Oh my God, we only have ugly wood floors and they have a beautiful rug in their living room"......... What do most builders and restorers do with an old house today???.....they look for the original hardwood floor buried beneath ugly worn out synthetic wall-to-wall carpet from the 60's!!! "Who would dream of covering up hardwood" they would say.

No wonder we loved our parents soooooo much. They were old and wrinkly antiques. Daddy even walked like the leaning tower of Pisa.....he was SO "imperfect". Hmmmmmm.

Sorry daddy for ever thinking that your beautiful hardwood floors that you so painstakingly put down at 10 Isabelle while on your hands and knees, were anything less than perfect!

And I have "ugly" homemade knitted mittens that mom made me about a 100 years ago. I wondered why I loved them so much, the "pointed" tips that I always was so embarrassed about.......sorry mom.

I want a copy of this ummmmmbelievable book Patty.

Paula

My sister Pat's response to Somerville's Article

I read Margaret Sommerville's article "The flawed quest for perfection" in the Citizen today, the same day I spent my lunch hour outside at work reading "the Shack". This book is so freaking good (as I sat outside at lunch with the tears streaming down my imperfect face blowing my imperfect nose and my human crying condition and the balled up kleenexes). I am buying 5 more copies of it and will give/lend it out to you/my girls/whomever. It is fiction but it is so ummmmmbelievable. This book is so good because the whole point of it is to make us mere imperfect humans better understand the nature of suffering, sort of through God's point of view. I don't think we will ever completely understand the nature of suffering until we sit across the breakfast table with God, but this book makes it as close to a real imperfect human's ability to comprehend that I have read yet. And it does it in very simple language so any imperfect human being can understand it. You don't have to have a face lift, or a flat stomach, you can even be ugly. It doesn't matter. You will still understand it. And that is where Margaret is so right in her article, why can't we just leave the human condition alone? Why can't we just keep our wrinkles and our imperfections and ugly bodies, our inconvenient babies and our troublesome old people alone? This is where science has caused us difficulty in that it lets us think we can play God and not depend on God.
Pat

Great Article in today's Ottawa Citizen by Margaret Somerville

The Flawed Quest for Perfection by Margaret Somerville, Citizen Special, August 7, 2009
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/flawed+quest+perfection/1868848/story.html Technology can eliminate many human imperfections, but we risk losing that messy quality that is the essence of our humanness

Terri Schiavo's death not peaceful, says brother

Terri Schiavo's death not peaceful, says brother In his keynote to the 26th National Conference of Lutherans For Life (LFL), July 24-25 in St. Louis, Bobby Schindler said his sister, Terri Schindler Schiavo, did not die a peaceful death as her husband had said.Terri Schiavo's 2005 starvation was "the most heinous, barbaric thing I ever had to witness," Bobby Schindler told the 26th National Conference of Lutherans For Life. for more information see http://www.terrisfight.org/

Rain and crows

It wasn't the rain that woke me up but the crows talking to each other ouside our bedroom window. Did you know that crows swoop down to where you are if you happen to be in their territory? Actually I never had that experience but Mike told me that on at least two occasions this happened to him. I suppose the bird is watching from above and perceives that you are too close to his nest of little ones so his warning is a swoosh down to where you are and back up again lightly brushing your clothes as he leaves. Anyways there were two crow ouside our bedroom window talking for about 20 minutes. One was very close by but the other was probably perched on a tree somewhere on another street. One would squawk then the other would do the same. Sometimes one squawk, somethimes more. And they always responded to the other. And the funny thing is when the birds woke Mike up and we started to discuss this strange crow language ouside our bedroom window then strangely enough it seemed to stop. Actually our crow moved somewhere else because we could faintly hear this eerie crow conversation far off in the distance. Maybe they thought we were eavesdropping.

Anyways it was time to get up and retreive the newspaper from the back steps. Good thing we have a carport, the rain was coming down in buckets. I like the sound of the rain. There is something peaceful about rain falling. When Debbie, Chris and John were little I use to dress them up in their rain coats and go for walks in the rain. They loved the puddles. Mind you it has been a rather soggy summer and I suppose for avid outdoor enthusiasts the amount of rain we have had might put a damper on things. But look at the bright side. No need to water the lawn. The flowers look great! Weeds too!

Selected reflections on Caritas in Veritate

And from Stan Siok I received this

Selected reflections on Caritas in Veritate

On July 7th, Pope Benedict XVI released Caritas in Veritate, a sweeping encyclical that seeks to make the Catholic Church’s social stance abundantly clear on everything from sound economic practice to population control. Below are a few selected reflections of this enormously rich document:
· Catholic World Report asked a group of leading Catholic intellectuals to reflect on the encyclical, its place in the larger body of Catholic social teaching, and Pope Benedict's vision of a well-ordered and just society.
J. Brian Benestad, Francis J. Beckwith, Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., Richard Garnett, Thomas S. Hibbs, Paul Kengor, George Neumayr, Joseph Pearce, Tracey Rowland, Father James V. Schall, and Rev. Robert A. Sirico share their thoughts on Caritas in Veritate, below. Visit:
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121:cwr-round-table-caritas-in-veritate&catid=36:cwr2009&Itemid=53
· The Encyclical’s evident pro-life stand is clarified by Fr. Frank Pavone. Click on: http://catholicexchange.com/2009/07/14/120331/

· From a Canadian perspective, Michael O’Brien, our reputed writer and thinker offers his summary, and easily refutes D &P’s selective and myopic interpenetration of this comprehensive document. Visit: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09071412.html

Stan