Archive for November, 2005
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005
The Alliance Defense Fund
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You’ve heard of the ACLU, whom I call the Anti-Christian Lawyer’s Union.
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Well, we Christians have a few lawyers, too, and ours fight for the Truth, who is Jesus Christ. One of these good groups is the Alliance Defense Fund. They defend religious liberty against groups like the ACLU and against the secular fundamentalists [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005
Days of Grace
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“Those days, of God’s grace, coming rushing back to me…”
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God is just really good.
He’s made us all, very good. All in His image, all for love, and His main interest is our salvation.
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The past few days have been tremendously graced. He is so good to me always, so far beyond what I deserve, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Monday, November 28th, 2005
Anima Christi
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I forgot my Magnificat in the pew at church one Sunday early this month, and so I have been without it for the past few weeks.
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So I started taking in the blue Pieta prayer book to Mass and figured I’d learn one of those “old school” prayers that are so neat. I had heard [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Chaplet of Divine Mercy
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Many of you are familiar with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a very simple and beautiful prayer that mirrors the Rosary in some ways.
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It is good to pray in a group and only takes about 10 minutes. Another great way to pray the chaplet is to sing it with the EWTN CD. The [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Catholic Life, La Musica by Devman
Saturday, November 26th, 2005
Patience
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A few days ago, I had my mother and approximately 10 other people ranging in age from 9 to 70 tell me I needed to be more patient. (I found out that it’s really hard to argue rationally with 10 people at once, which is why at one point in the discussion, I began [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Friday, November 25th, 2005
Annunication Maternity Home
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Last night for Thanksgiving I went over to the Kress’ home and spent time with their extended family and friends. Talk turned to a part of town that two of our friends lived in that was going downhill with increased crime and evil things.
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I was familiar with the area from the years I volunteered [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Thursday, November 24th, 2005
3 Years of Adoration
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Three years ago, God inspired some holy people at St. Louis parish to expand adoration from one day per month to 5 days per week. They kindly invited me to be on the adoration team with them, and so I have helped with the adoration scheduling ever since!
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Thanks be to God, I also signed [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Adoration by Devman
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005
Greatest Influences Meme
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David Ward over at Duc in Altum has kindly tagged me with a meme on the Greatest Influences in My Life (excluding God and family members).
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I’m going to narrow down this meme a little and give the three teachers that influenced me the most:
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1. Mrs. Avery Goodgame: My third grade teacher who invested [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005
Alone on Thanksgiving
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No, not me. God has graced me with family and many friends, and I have received multiple invitations to come over for Thanksgiving. Not me–God must know I am too weak to bear such heavy crosses and has blessed me beyond what I deserve with loved ones.
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But today on my way to the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005
Only in the Catholic Church
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Who can guess what this (poorly taken) picture is of?
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Believe it or not, this is an alcoholic beverage with Tequila and Triple Sec in it, given to me by a dear old man at Mass this morning!
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Most of the people who go to daily Mass each morning are regulars, and we see each other everyday, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Sunday, November 20th, 2005
The Kresses and Robert Together Again
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After the dinner party last night, I went over to hang out with Robert and the Kresses, who have not gotten to see him in many months. It was a joyful and rambunctious reunion–as it always is when Robert’s in town.
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We met up at Chili’s and had some dinner:
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(Big) Jeff and Jane:
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No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Sunday, November 20th, 2005
Murder Mystery Dinner Party
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Last night, Brad and Misty Cey invited me and some friends over for a murder mystery dinner party. If you haven’t been to one (which I hadn’t), a “murder” is committed, and each person plays a particular character while trying to figure out who the murderer is.
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The theme was a 60s/70s-era high school class [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Saturday, November 19th, 2005
Donations Appreciated
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No, not for me, but for the illustrious Danielle Bean so she can continue her daily blog entries.
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I know from my brief blogging experience that writing posts takes up a good bit of time, both to think of them and then to pen them. This is true for me and the G’s blog here, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Thursday, November 17th, 2005
Father Thai: Cookin’ with Gas
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Well, we actually used charcoal for grilling the steaks:
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The G and I got home early to clean house a bit and make dinner for Father Thai. The thought struck me a few days ago that inviting Fr. Thai into our home is like inviting Jesus into it, so we want to prepare it for [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Thursday, November 17th, 2005
Father Thai for Dinner
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Gerardo and I had a great evening with Father Thai, and I took pictures! I am going to post them and some cool things we talked about later this evening.
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
Spammers Win the Round
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Unfortunately, spammers have been using their ‘bots to post spam comments on my posts, to the order of 20 - 100 per day. It has gotten to be a pain to constantly delete them, so I have changed the comment policy to only allow registered people to comment.
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Since the only people currently registered are [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Technical by Devman
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
Being a Priest Is Tough
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Check out Dominic Bettnelli’s post and the post by a priest he references about the challenges of his vocation.
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I have started praying more for the priests at my parish. Sometimes they say and do things that make me scratch my head, but I have come to understand that these men of God do not [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
The G Stars at the Company Meeting
We had our company meeting today at the Bass concert hall on the UT campus, and the G was in one of the presentations!
About 1,500 employees go to the meeting, and we fill the hall up pretty good. Our CEO and vice presidents give the main speeches, but there were also some smaller presentations [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Work inspired by Devman
Monday, November 14th, 2005
Father Thai: Comin’ to Dinner!
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Look who’s coming to dinner! Father Thai from St. Elizabeth:
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Father Thai is the giver of sincere and challenging homilies about tough stuff that matters. Also, he always includes St. Joseph in his Eucharistic Prayers after our Blessed Mother (…to share eternal life with Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, St. Joseph…).
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Last Sunday I [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Saints and Angels by Devman
Monday, November 14th, 2005
By the Tree: “Seasons”
My good friend Matt gave me a cd by a small Christian group called “By the Tree” when we were in college.
The band has since grown in popularity and now has songs that you hear on big contemporary Christian radio stations. The only album I have of theirs is called “Shoot Me Down”, and [...]
No Comments » - Posted in La Musica by Devman
Sunday, November 13th, 2005
El Roble
Gerardo’s brother bought a bunch of live oak trees, and he gave two to Gerardo last time we visited them. Today we planted one of them in the front yard:
Then we used some sacramentals from the Holy Land that Robert gave us on the tree: Soil from Jerusalem and incense mixed with the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Sunday, November 13th, 2005
Prayer for Purity to our Blessed Mother
I have many wonderful prayer cards, and at any given time I usually have about three in my pocket.
One is a very neat prayer for purity to our Blessed Mother that I want to share. I have modified it slightly to the form I use when praying it because I find it a little [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Saints and Angels by Devman
Saturday, November 12th, 2005
Not Always Happy, But Always Happy to Give to the Poor
Julie D. over at Happy Catholic has a post I found interesting on giving to the people who beg on the streets.
I have posted on this topic a few times.
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Saturday, November 12th, 2005
I’m Beginning to Lose Him
Gerardo was talking with his novia (girlfriend) on the phone, and we had this exchange:
Me: Dude, let’s watch “Bloodsport” tonight!
G frowns at me and keeps talking with his novia.
Such behavior is a sure sign that the G’s priorities have shifted greatly (and I concede, appropriately).
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Saturday, November 12th, 2005
Daily Mass Graces
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Friday morning, I went to daily Mass at my parish, and the sacristan announced that there would be a special blessing for a couple’s wedding anniversary which they were celebrating that day.
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Toward the end of Mass, an older couple who I have seen at Mass for years but never talked with stood up and came [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Friday, November 11th, 2005
Self-Conquest
Today’s “My Daily Bread” reading was about self-conquest, and as usual, it hit home. Here is an exerpt:
Christ:
“My child, you will never face a greater battle than the battle against your unreasoning feelings and desires….They are your most stubborn and most dangerous enemies….Self will start with a mild desire and gradually develop a strong [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Adoration by Devman
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
Linux: All Your Libraries Are Belong to St. Joseph
Another technical linux post–I give it a 9 out of 10 on the geek scale (narrowly missing a full 10 out of 10 because I am not including the assembly language debugging I did on it).
This post is for all poor Linux programmers like me who are wondering why, when they call dlclose to free [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Technical by Devman
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
Big Jeff of the Preemptive Rosary and of the Holy Face
This post is completely silly, so lend it no credence.
My friend Jeff Kress, whom I call Big Jeff because he has a son also named Jeff, goes to daily Mass with me, and we have been staying afterwards to pray the Rosary with some good friends.
Well, recently, Jeff has had pressing work concerns and so [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War, Saints and Angels by Devman
Wednesday, November 9th, 2005
Some Prayer Requests
For my dad, whose birthday is today.
For my friend Cynthia and her daughter, who have suffered terrible evil and are trying to battle it.
For me and all men, for purity.
Tonight me and Adam Gretencord and my friend James met with the Confirmation youth at St. Louis parish to talk about chastity. James and Adam’s [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Tuesday, November 8th, 2005
Beautiful Adoration Girl: May God Bless You
It’s a joy to see you at Mass everyday, and I pray our Blessed Mother will lovingly lead you and your family in Jesus’ perfect love.