Local Catholic university Our Lady of the Lake has recently announced that it is offering free tuition for active duty members of the U.S. military and their spouses. The news release is located here.
OLLU was founded by the Sisters of Divine Providence in 1895.
The Paulist Fathers have come out with a new mini-series called Tyler’s Ride. I just finished watching the first five episodes, and now I’m hooked on the plot! (Blessed Alberione would be so proud!)
Looks like the Paulists are up to something cool. They’ve created a TV-like show centered around a 23-year old who needs to find himself, with a new 4-minute-long webisode released each Tuesday. On the website is a companion “blog” belonging to the main character (Tyler). I see the Pauline family’s incorporation of dialogue between faith and media subtly but really present here.
Special bonus: Popular Christian musician Jeremy Camp plays the so-called “Yoda” character on the show!
I saw this statement as a comment on the TED Youtube video featuring Mr. Dawkins; it encourages me in my faith.
I find Dawkins to be an interesting person. Instead of taking the, in my view, more effective route of respectful, intelligent dialogue with non-athiests, Dawkins takes the hype route. Every one of his public appearances that I’ve seen has consisted essentially of the same things:
It seems that Mr. Dawkins is not attempting to convert anyone. Instead, he must mean to bolster anyone who doubts the existence of God, affirm anyone who hates religion, and call for an end to being “so damned ‘respectful’” towards others’ religious beliefs. Still, the guy has a fairly healthy sense of humor.
In my research for a final Electronic Journalism course project, I have come to see only a sliver of the pain felt by our brothers and sisters in Iraq, one of the Christian communities who have remained over the past 2000 years. My heart hurts for them.
This is Abbun D’Bashmayo, The Lord’s Prayer, in Aramaic. Aramaic is not a dead language; Christians in the Middle East continue to speak it as a first language and/or in the liturgy.
Educate yourself about the plight of the Iraqi Church.
I’m still getting emails about the university’s Much Ado About Nothing production being held in the Chapel, and I’m getting sick of being reminded.
Our good and orthodox Catholic rock band has decided not to practice in the chapel anymore.
I’ve had a conversation with my boyfriend about this whole ordeal, and he agreed: “It’s not a chapel anymore. It’s a room.” Certainly, it could be treated much more like the consecrated place that it is, and less like another room to hold events.
PHOTOS:
Notice in the photo of the sanctuary lamp how close the door is to the Adoration Space/Tabernacle. This apparently makes it easier to walk past the Lord than to acknowledge His presence when entering/exiting Guadalupe Chapel.
Congratulate me! I have understood the philosophical conundrum of Jacques Derrida’s Semiology and Grammatology after only two readings! Deconstruction is fun but too relativistic for my conservative Catholic taste. 
Protestant Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church here in San Antonio has been painted in the media as a “Catholic hater” and a bigot. Pastor Hagee replies in this video. I think his heart is in the right place.
Now, in the Washington Post, he positively responds to Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the United States. His editorial includes the following: “For decades I have taught that we Christians need to recognize that our roots are Jewish. As Christians we can only understand ourselves if we understand the Judaism from which we sprang.”
Someone get Rosalind Moss on the good pastor!!
My advisor, Brother Dennis Bautista, S.M., Ph.D. in the communications department, has helped me to begin negotiating with University Ministry about sponsoring my trip to the Catholic New Media Celebration. It would be a great opportunity for me to network with other people in the field that I am most interested in, and beneficial to my community at the university, as well. Here’s to hoping! It would be my first plane trip since before I could walk!
I had worn high heels all day for my babe. He had his senior engineering design project presentation and was playing in his last Fiesta Jazz Festival as a student member of the St. Mary’s University Jazz Orchestra. He had been looking forward to today for so many years. I wanted to show him how important the day was for me, too.
Sitting on his futon, I unbuckled and removed my shoes. They had left painful red lines on my toes, blisters were forming, tiny bits of gravel had made their mark on the bottoms of my dirt-powdered feet. I examined them carefully on the ground as he walked in.
“Look at my feet, babe,” I said softly.
He sat in his chair and lifted them up to rest on his lap. His face became concerned, and his hands began to wipe the dirt and gravel from my feet. Then, he picked up each foot and kissed it. I smiled, though still feeling the effect of my shoes.
As he got up from the chair, he gently took my feet from his lap and placed them on the seat of the chair.
“Stay there,” he crooned.
He walked to the sink and did something. I was busying myself replacing a gift he had given me back in its package.
He returned to the chair with a wet washcloth, and after taking my feet back up to his lap, he began to wash them. The unexpected feeling of the cloth tickled me, and I squealed. But from his concerned face came a gentle, “Shhhh…”
The warmth poured over the hurt on my toes and the bridge of each foot as he slowly bathed both with care. I saw the concentration in his eyes and loved them. And the love poured down to his cheeks and mouth, his neck, torso, arms, hands, fingers, lap, legs, and feet. On my lips formed a smile as I watched him work.
Then, he took the wet cloth and worked it between my toes like dental floss. It tickled me furiously, and I giggled uncontrollably. The concentration on his expression broke into amusement. “Come on, baby, calm down a little bit.”
I grasped my hands into fists and tightly shut my eyes as I tried to contain the laughter, from toe space to toe space. The ggigles escaped in bursts. He smiled each time.
Now, he took a dry bath towel and covered both feet, rubbing his hand over the towel to dry and massage them.
As he removed the towel and bent his face down to tenderly kiss the top of each toe, I saw Jesus made present in him. The love between us welled up in me as a powerful, majestic wave.
He finished by kissing each foot, and looked at me. I put my relieved feet to the ground and reached for him.
He took me in his lap and cradled me.
After kissing him tenderly, I looked at his face, radiant with quiet joy. I knew mine looked the same–that my eyes reflected my love.
“I am the luckiest girl in the world,” I whispered. And we held our faces close, cheek to cheek, eyes closed, hearts overflowing.
Appetizer:
Main Course: Christopher West
Cardinal Arinze (starts at 2:21)
Dessert:
