NunEssential

here is some recent news on the new Chinese cardinal , the Bishop of Hong Kong.

Here are the Holy Father's words about the theme for the upcoming World Youth Day ! cool!

Wow, talk about some persecution, you should read these links: 1:New Cardinals 2:Chinese Church rejoices 3:They are warned 4:New Hopes 5:And new persecution Wow. talk about a committed faith. Pray for them.

Congratulations to Seattle's own Apolo Anton Ohno who won 2 more medals on his last day of skating in the 2006 Winter Olympics!!!! awesome!

It has recently been sneaking upon me that Lent begins in a week. Hmm.....how did this happen? Weren't we just celebrating Christmas? Anyway, I was talking with the kids here in one of our religion classes about the different Eucharistic prayers and how they have many different prefaces to them that can be used for basically any day of the Liturgical Year. It struck me that one of them for Lent used these words, "Lord, you have given us this joyful season." Now, most people wouldn't put the words "joyful" and "Lent" in the same sentence. Isn't Lent supposed to be about pain and suffering? aren't we supposed to be miserable for 40 days or something like that? I guess that is popular sentiment, that we are supposed to go without and suffer for the 40 days preceeding Easter, but somehow, when I look at the life of Jesus, it doesn't add up. He suffered immensely, was misunderstood, ridiculed, ignored; all the while taking our sin upon him, ...

I thought this was interesting !

Ok, so I am sure you have watched some the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Some people say it is boring and find the evening coverage canned and too condensed. Other people are following it avidly and wish there were more hours to watch. I have seen some of it but let me tell you about the turning point for me when it comes to being a fan. Did you see the pairs figure skating final? There was a young Chinese couple that skated last that evening, hoping to skate well enough to win gold. They were going to be the first pair to ever perform some sort of quadruple rotation in the air (okay, so I don't know the correct terminology, but he was going to throw her into the air and she was going to spin around 4 times and land). So, 38 seconds in the program they prepare, and he tosses her (well, I have never seen anyone being tossed like that, the guy literally threw everything he had into this toss) and she spins 4 times.....and comes down.......missing the landing and crashing down with o...

Happy St. Valentine's Day to everyone ! Hope this day is a celebration of true love and that it reminds you of the love that Jesus has for you. So, do something kind for someone today...maybe even for someone you aren't too fond of..... God bless you! :)

So we went to this archdiocesan dinner this evening for all of the sisters in our archdiocese. Every year the Archbishop puts on this dinner in appreciation for the sisters and their contribution to the diocese and world at large. It was a very interesting evening. We arrived a bit late (my fault) and were greeted by several sisters as we walked in, looking for a place to sit among the 150 sisters that were present. We made our way to the far side and took our seats with 4 other sisters from different communites. Now, the age range at our table was from 25 to about, oh.....75 or so. 2 sisters at the table were novices and 2 were retired. As I sat there listening and answering questions, it occurred to me how beautiful dedicated love is. Whenever I walked through the room during the evening, I saw sea of different women. Some wore habits, some wore long skirts, some had bright jackets on. Some of them were animatedly talking with the others at their table, some were silent while tranqui...

Feb. 2nd was the 10th Day of Consecrated Life, taken from the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. The Mass prayed that day by the Holy Father in Rome is totally amazing. We went several times while I was in Rome and it was so inspiring to see thousands of religious from all over the world, holding candles, that signify Christ's light to the world that they have dedicated themselves to sharing. Very cool. You can read about it here Also Pope Benedict's Prayer Intentions for February Have a blessed weekend! Say an extra prayer for religious all over the world, we need all the help we can get!

Want to read the Pope's Encyclical but don't know where to buy it? Read it here! (thanks to Michael C. for finding it online for me)

I have heard this reading many times, where Jesus advises us not to hate those who hate us but to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Not easy. I remember one time someone was talking with our founder and this person said, "well, we can love people but we don't have to like them." To which our founder, Fr. Jim, replied, "Have you ever heard of someone that Jesus didn't like?" Good point. In this month, "dedicated to love", lol, it occured to me how often we throw around the word "love" but don't really mean it. I sometimes say it myself, "oh I love coffee" or "I love that song" etc. But, to continue my thoughts from yesterday, our love is tested and revealed when we sacrifice. I remember seeing this movie (more like a mini-series) about this young man and woman. The young man wanted to be a priest while the young woman secretly hoped he would marry her instead. However, as the story went on and th...