nihilistic means...

ni·hil·ism (n-lzm, n-) n. nihil·ist n., nihil·istic adj., nihil·isti·cal·ly adv.
1. Philosophy
a. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.
b. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.
2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.
3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.
4. also Nihilism A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination.
5. Psychiatry A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.
[Latin nihil, nothing; see ne in Indo-European roots + -ism.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

ht: thefreedictionary.com

not a season to be merry...

Not merry but thankful to the Lord for all the blessings, mercies and graces bestowed on all of us.

Can not wait for 2009 to be over and done with!
A year when two of my younger siblings died, seven months apart!

Advice from a funeral home for Christmas blues...

ht: headlinebistro.com, cns blog

What will Socialist democrats say to...

Sarah Palin's post on Facebook today...

If you want real job growth, cut taxes – including capital gains taxes and small business payroll taxes – and slay the death tax once and for all. If you want to stimulate the economy and help poor and middle class families, cut payroll taxes so that more Americans can keep and invest more of what they earn...
If you want lasting economic expansion and prosperity, get the federal government’s budget under control. Instead of more pork-laden stimulus plans, let the free market correct itself...

Ugly indeed!

This unemployment number is PI like...

The unemployment rate in the U.S. soared to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October and employers cut more jobs than forecast, underscoring why Federal Reserve policy makers say interest rates will remain near zero...
“The rise in the unemployment rate is very ugly,” Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York. “This is a big backward step to get this high of an unemployment number this early in the recovery.”

Nurses, RN's in particular, in the past, are immune to unemployment. Not this time. My RN sister-n-law lost her job early this year and has not found a comparable one. Now, she's comfortable on unemployment pay and stop aggressively looking for a job. Ugly insidious head of welfare on the soul and body...
Lord God, have mercy on us.

You can be Catholic and Tango...

Tango and the Theology of the Body by Katrina Zeno

As a single Catholic woman, this isn't always easy. Argentine tango can be danced close -- very close. Its intimacy and passion can sweep me into the romantic ozone layer, obscuring any sense of reality. It lures me into wanting more -- more intimacy, more connectedness, more transcendence.
So why do I tango? Because Argentine tango conceals many profound spiritual lessons. Our relationship with God is meant to be one of intimacy and passion. So it is with tango. In the spiritual life, God leads and we follow. So it is in tango. In the Eucharist, God gives Himself away to us. The same should be true in tango. Argentine tango takes the abstract concepts of our faith and makes them concrete. Let me explain.

apo #2 named after favorite daughter heard the name on Dancing With the Stars - Katrina.

Sarah Palin supports Chris Christie...

Sarah Palin today on Facebook...

Let's consider the governor's race in New Jersey. The state has the highest tax burden in the country and the incumbent Democrat governor has only added to the economic burden. He eliminated property tax rebates for middle class homeowners while the sales tax increased. Altogether, taxes on the people in the region have increased by billions of dollars. It’s no surprise that New Jersey has the highest unemployment rate in the region! Thankfully, there is an alternative. Residents there will be better off under an administration that understands the benefits that result when workers are allowed to keep more of what they earn. Watch New Jersey's economy come alive under new leadership that will put government back on the side of the people! Chris Christie promises this new leadership.
Fortunately, New Jersey's Democrat governor is being held accountable with the RGA spending $7 million in the New York and Philadelphia media markets telling the truth about a liberal administrative record while highlighting New Jersey's tax-hiking ways and reminding voters there is an alternative! The NY and Philly markets are the most expensive in the nation though, so the RGA is requesting help to stay on the air. Visit http://www.rga.org/initiatives/comeback-fund/.

will the power of Sarah Palin influence democrat controlled New Jersey? Chris Christie listening and watching?

metanoia...

meta·noia (Merriam-Webster dictionary)
Pronunciation: \ˌme-tə-ˈnȯi-ə\
Function: noun. Etymology: Greek, from metanoiein to change one's mind, repent, from meta- + noein to think, from nous mind
Date: 1577: a transformative change of heart; especially : a spiritual conversion.
My deep spiritual conversion was at this site in 1995...
Cradle Catholic like 80% of Filipinos, I took my Catholic faith for granted. Received the sacraments - baptism, confirmation, confession now called reconciliation, Holy Communion and matrimony. I bought and gave out the New American Bible as gifts when it was available but never read it. I was satisfied at the scripture readings at Sunday masses. Until apo #1 at age 7 asked me how many Psalms are in the bible. Well she told me 'its 150, Lola, don't you have a bible?' I didn't knew how many Psalms there are in the Old Testament. I skimmed through my pristine clean, uncreased, white fake leather covered 'New American Bible' to check out if her answer was right.
September-October, 1995...
My friend, dangs, ask me to go with her to Rome motherhouse of her biological sister-nun, Sr. Feliciana, to represent her neice entering her perpetual vow at the convent. I've been to France in 1990 when my favorite daughter was an exchange student in a school south of France, way up in the Alps - Annecy. I worked regular 40 hr week at that time and did not have enough vacation times. I went from Paris to Annecy and back. That's another story in itself.,.
Back to dangs. I planned our trip to as many places in Europe as she want to go. I only want to go to Lourdes, France. Sr. Feliciana's order - Daughters of Mary de Leuca - has a thriving house in Lourdes...

Fr. Gheddo wrote...

Fr. Piero Gheddo, director of Mondo e Missione and of Italia Missionaria, and is the founder of AsiaNew.

The radical causes of poverty are not colonization, or the multi-nationals or the egoism of rich countries...

The root of the problem is that first one must produce if one is to consume: One consumes if one produces, and in poor countries not enough is produced to maintain the rate of growth of the population...

ht: headlinebistro.com, zenit.org

Archbishop Chaput on...

Down Syndrome babies...

The real choice in accepting or rejecting a child with special needs is never between some imaginary perfection or imperfection. None of us is perfect. No child is perfect. The real choice in accepting or rejecting a child with special needs is between love and unlove; between courage and cowardice; between trust and fear. That's the choice we face when it happens in our personal experience. And that's the choice we face as a society in deciding which human lives we will treat as valuable, and which we will not.
Catholic public officials who take God seriously cannot support laws that attack human dignity without lying to themselves, misleading others and abusing the faith of their fellow Catholics. God will demand an accounting. Catholic doctors who take God seriously cannot do procedures, prescribe drugs or support health policies that attack the sanctity of unborn children or the elderly; or that undermine the dignity of human sexuality and the family. God will demand an accounting. And Catholic citizens who take God seriously cannot claim to love their Church, and then ignore her counsel on vital public issues that shape our nation's life. God will demand an accounting. As individuals, we can claim to be or believe whatever we want. We can posture, and rationalize our choices, and make alibis with each other all day long -- but no excuse for our lack of honesty and zeal will work with the God who made us. God knows our hearts better than we do. If we don't conform our hearts and actions to the faith we claim to believe, we're only fooling ourselves.

VDH confessed...

from pajamasmedia.com...

I have some confessions to make, not because any of you readers are particularly interested in my views; but rather because I think some of you are in the same boat: Have you stopped reading, listening, watching, and paying attention to most of what now passes for establishment public or popular culture? I am not particularly proud of this quietism (many Athenians did it in the early 4th century BC and Romans by the late 3rd AD), but not really ashamed of it either.

me too, Victor Davis Hanson...since 1995-96...
2 movies I saw since... Passion of Christ (with eyes closed half of the time) and Bella (recommended by Knights of Columbus).
Only tv show I watch...Journey Home on EWTN, Monday 8-9pm. No more Tiger Woods on tv since his tirade at Pebble Beach...
Have not read a fiction book, a self help book, a psychology or psychiatry since...
Since 1995-96 read...New American Bible (NAB), first the liturgy of the week, then sequentially from Genesis to Revelation, back to liturgy of the day reading the references on the footnotes of NAB.
American Bishop, a biography of Bishop Fulton Sheen.
Treasure of Clay, Bishop Fulton Sheen autobiography.
The Story Mountain, autobiography of Thomas Merton.
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, originally published in 1776.
Confessions, autobiography of St. Augustine of Hippo.
City of God by St. Augustine of Hippo.
Summa Vol 1- 5 by St. Thomas Aquinas.
Most of St. Therese of Lisieux published books.
All of Pope John Paul ll books.
All of Pope Benedict XVl books.
Free to Choose, Capitalism & Freedom by Milton Friedman.
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.
Biographies of Washington, Franklin, Adams, Lincoln, LBJ, Kennedy,
latest book read...Liberty & Tyranny by Mark Levin.
Read a libertarian fiction this year...Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand which strengthened my resolve not to read any or another fiction book again even if it is recommended and read by many others. Not my kind of literature.
Waiting for Sarah Palin's 'Going Rogue'...

Rest in Peace, my dear sister...

God you have called your daughter, Lourdes, from this life. Father of all mercy, fulfill her faith and hope in you, and lead her safely home to heaven, to be happy with you for ever. Amen.

Sarah Palin's book

'Going Rogue' now $9. at Amazon.com. Pre-ordered a copy at it's original discounted Amazon.com price.

My Review of Hoop Cherry/Beige Glider and Ottoman

Originally submitted at Every Rocking Chair

Prepare to experience ultimate comfort in this Hoop Glider. Perfect for feeding baby or just relaxing while in the nursery, the Hoop Glider is sure to become a favorite in any space. The perfect accompaniment to the Hoop glider, this matching ottoman is perfect for resting feet while sitting in you...

Hoop Cherry/Beige Glider and Ottoman

Price right for this rocking speed.

By ate mely from highland park, nj on 10/12/2009

 

4out of 5

Pros: Sturdy, Easy to Assemble, Smooth Rocking, Fits Anywhere, Roomy

Best Uses: Infants, Newborn

Describe Yourself: Grandparent

Price right.

(legalese)

Subsidiarity means...

What the Church teaches about (big) government by Valerie Schmalz
Our Sunday Visitor...

"Subsidiarity is that principle by which we respect the inherent dignity and freedom of the individual by never doing for others what they can do for themselves and thus enabling individuals to have the most possible discretion in the affairs of their lives," wrote Archbishop Naumann and Bishop Finn in their pastoral letter.

ht: headlinebistro.com

Sarah Palin to US Catholic Bishops...

Palin’s New Tack and the Catholic Bishops’ Old Game
By Frank Walker
Pewsitter.com

How Catholic Church Leaders Can Learn From Palin's "Common Sense."
The honesty and simple wisdom of Sarah Palin is rejuvenating. Many who lead the Catholic Church will hopefully take notice. Today there are bishops worldwide who will go to almost any lengths in the name of social justice. Often when they do, they reveal their allegiances and their worldliness. This week the social justice arm of the USCCB, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, is under intense light again for its openly political, anti-Catholic, and corrupt beneficiaries. In Vienna Cardinal Schoenborn recently tried to squelch a pro-life rally and then forbad clergy to participate. Notre Dame, the pre-eminent American Catholic University, continues to prosecute eighty-eight pro-life demonstrators, including Norma McCorvey, following the Obama honors last spring. In August Boston's O'Malley scandalized the world with a funeral for anti-life pariah Ted Kennedy, and this past week Scotland's Cardinal O'Brien railed in the press about global catastrophes, millions of refugees, and the poor before a climate meeting at the UN.
America's most powerful Catholic hierarchy are so eager to socialize our medicine, that they act as though it were possible to protect the lives of the sick, elderly, and unborn by simply not mentioning them in a massive healthcare takeover bill.

'new energy in the struggle to advance the culture of life in our nation'...

Reflections on the Struggle to Advance the Culture of Life
by Archbishop Raymond Burke
InsideCatholic.com

When a person has publicly espoused and cooperated in gravely sinful acts, leading many into confusion and error about fundamental questions of respect for human life and the integrity of marriage and the family, his repentance of such actions must also be public. The person in question bears a heavy responsibility for the grave scandal which he has caused. The responsibility is especially heavy for political leaders. The repair of such scandal begins with the public acknowledgment of his own error and the public declaration of his adherence to the moral law. The soul which recognizes the gravity of what he has done will, in fact, understand immediately the need to make public reparation.

A pilgrim is one who embarks on a journey to find the sacred.

Spirit of pope's visit to Iowa lives on 30 years later
by Mike Kilen
Desmoine Register...

Pope John Paul II arrived in a helicopter called Angel One and the largest crowd in Iowa history — 340,000 pilgrims — waited for his sacred message.

Pope Benedict XVI Plans European Visits

(24 Sept 09 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI will travel to the Marian shrine at Fatima, in Portugal, in May of next year.
from Radio Vatican...
ht: headlinebistro.com

Liturgists call for more meaningful feasts, symbols

By UCA News, Faith & Parish
Makati City, Philippines
Southeast Asian liturgists say new church feasts need to be added to liturgical calendars while religious symbols that that have no meaning in their area need to be replaced.

Jesuit finds new vocation but doesn't abandon old one

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Jesuit Brother Rick Curry has a new vocation. He's now Jesuit Father Rick Curry.