So today I went to a Christian medics meeting on the ethics of IVF.
IT
WAS
SHOCKING
my word! I had no idea how messed up their thinking is !
With these evangelical Christians everyone just makes up their own truth based on their own personal opinion and what they think is right! Everyone interprets the Bible in whatever way they want, and then hey presto, that's enough.
and they think it makes sense to do it like that!!!
They have no concept that it is possible to know the absolute truth!
The leader of the group kept saying stuff like "As you can see, there are lots of different opinions regarding when life starts. You just have to decide what is best for you, and then practice as a doctor based on that."
I was like...."WHAT?!!!!" (in my head!) (although I think I did pull a few distorted faces!)
and everyone there was supposed to be Christian!!
I thought that we would at least be able to agree on when life begins, if nothing else!!
(they are gonna hate me when the 'contraception' talk comes up in a few months!)
and then everyone was saying stuff like;
"There is no actual Bible quote about IVF, so we can't know what God wants..."
"There is no actual Bible quote that explicitly says when life begins, so we can't know for certain..."
?!!!!
Yeh, well, when you've ditched the authority of the Rock, Peter, whom Christ established to guide and lead all people throughout time what do you expect.
I was so torn between being uber frustrated and just wanting to screetch out "But of course life starts at conception!! IVF is horrendously sinful for a plethora of reasons and we know this because God's Church (the Catholic Church) was promised the Holy Spirit to correctly interpret Scripture and correctly apply it to all situations of faith and morals that may arise throughout history!"
but then I so pitied them! How horribly lost and confused they all are; making up their own truths and noone actually having a clue! They have no authority on anything!
Every moral opinion was as right as every other, even if they clashed! How can that make sense to them?! How can 'yes' and 'no' be simultaneously accepted as answers?!
Unless the Bible explicitly says one sentence about something like "THOU SHALT NOT LIE"- they seem unable to interpret the core teachings of Scripture to apply to new situations not explicitly mentioned in the Bible (e.g. IVF).
and you should've seen the looks I got when I started on the wrongness of mastrubation (which is how the sperm are obtained for IVF) They clearly thought I was insane! The speaker even called the idea that it was sinful 'an old Victorian idea'.
It is so ironic really because these evangelicals consider themselves as Bible based, and they don't understand the first thing about Scripture!
I started trying to explain the meaning of Natural Law, and one guy said very calmly "Antonia, we get out teaching from Scripture, not from looking at Nature!"
I think I have been way too spolit with holy intelligent Catholic friends. We go to discussion groups, people say what they think on a topic, which is usually based on a poor understanding of scripture, and a bit of opinion, like the evangelicals today,
BUT....the MAJOR DIFFERENCE IS...we then get CHURCH TEACHING on the subject.
which has AUTHORITY.
from GOD.
Flowing from eternal Bible truths, inpreted with the aide of the Holy Spirit through holy men and women over the last 2000 years.
With faith and morals the Catholic Church always has an answer; God's answer
("You are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church." Follow the Pope's teaching on faith & morlas and you can't go far wrong!).
It was so sad with these Evangelicals, because their answer is based on a confused mass of personal opinion and poorly understood Scripture. How horribly stressful it must be to always have to make up your own truth and to feel like you can never actually know what God's teaching is!
and what a bizzaire situation it must be in that both you and your evanagelical friend can have 2 totally opposite opinions on the same moral matter and yet accept both with ease:
"Oh, okay you think life starts at about 16 days. Okay fine. good for you. You can prescribe the morning after pill then. I think life starts at fertilisation, but I will probably prescribe it anyway because I don't want to hurt people's feelings."
Honestly! That was some of the gist of it!
I was, am still am, so shocked at their lack of moral guidance. If you think it's right, then it's right for you. If I think the same thing is wrong, then that's fine for me. and they are just comfortable with that idea!
What about GOD people?!! Is noone interested in seeing what HE actually thinks and then doing that?!!
"Oh, but God doesn't say explicitly when life begins in the Bible so we can never know"
WHY would God not guide us in everything?!!
Why would He not establish a Church that teaches His truths?!!
HE DID!
Facing situations like this just make me even more determined to do what I know is right. How few people do Jesus's will; let us make sure that we are one of them, and that we stick up for His truths fearlessly and strive to grow ever more in love with Him!
Friday, September 29, 2006
THE ARCHANGELS
Today is the feast of the 3 archangels Michael, Raphael & Gabriel.
I have a very special devotion to St. Raphael because it was through his intercessions that I met Chris ( I am *certain* of it!).
Guide us, oh blessed angels of God, along our walk to the blissful joy of an eternity in Heaven.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Why am I Catholic?
Because it is means doing what Jeusus wants!
1. Eucharist
2. The Church,
3. the Sacraments
4. Mary
5. Marriage (actual and spiritual)
6. Communion of Saints
AMEN!!
Thanks to The Hermeneutic of Continuity
TIME-OUT...please?!
So it's been one of those weeks where I spend about 45mins at home between 9am - 10pm and am constantly rushing from one thing to another. Although it's all exciting stuff; rosary prayer group, psychiatric assessment at police station , talk on theology of the body, restaurant dinner with friends, parent's house, teaching sessions, child psychiatry clinics (which are based on a site 40 MINUTES cycle ride from the city centre!! And although I am notorious for cycling at the speed of light, so it only takes me about 25mins, it is still a pretty tiring! Especially as I destroyed my bike by cycling along a really badly smashed up pavement and so the mudguard has half broken off and now bounces off my wheel, really slowing me down!), psychiatric teaching sessions, electro-convulsive therapy, (unfortunatly had to miss Mass yesterday evening! waa!),....so yeh, while it's all exciting and interesting stuff, man is it tiring!! Chris & I then try to slot in cooking & eating dinner in the 45minutes between coming home after 'work' and going out for whatever is on in the evening. I calculated that I've spent an hour each day this week JUST CYCLING from one place to another!! EACH DAY!
Plus Chris is doing a lot of rowing these days too; from 7am - 2pm 6 days a week (they are training for a big race) and so he is also mega exhausted in the evenings!
It is 8:20am now & I am about to cycle off for spiritual direction with my pseduo-spiritual directior (he's not my *official* spiritual director, but he he gives me spiritual direction anyway!) .
I am looking forward to it and am so grateful to him, but (if I may moan for a second!) it will be a 25min cycle ride (at Antonia-speed) to meet him,followed by a 35 minute cycle ride to the psychiatry unit where I am based for the day (then I have some 10minute cycling trips within the psychiatry base to get between teaching sessions).
I'll be home for about 1.5hrs this evening (thank goodness!) and then I have a dinner tonight with some of the new medical students (as part of a welcoming "parenting" scheme for the new guys who've arrived this year!). So another packed and frantic day! It's all good fun, and I guess I'd rather be doing it all than not, but I am ever so tired by 11pm!!
Tomorrow morning I am then going to get up at the crack of dawn cos I want to go to Mass for the Archangels (it's the feast of St. Micheal, Gabriel & Raphael) and then I have a full day of teaching (which, thank God, ends at 4pm!). and then in the evening I have a free dinner to go to!
On Staurday I have been invited to a retreat for married couples which I'd like to go to with Chris, but it is 2hours away by train and will take up the whole day...and I'm not sure I can cope with the stress! (plus I havent done a minute of studying all week, and I really should kinda do something!). Plus, Chris will have to leave his rowing training a few hours early if he's going to make this start of the retreat...
anyway! I am sure noone is interested in my ramblings of busy-ness!
God Bless!
Say a prayer for my bike!
-x-
Plus Chris is doing a lot of rowing these days too; from 7am - 2pm 6 days a week (they are training for a big race) and so he is also mega exhausted in the evenings!
It is 8:20am now & I am about to cycle off for spiritual direction with my pseduo-spiritual directior (he's not my *official* spiritual director, but he he gives me spiritual direction anyway!) .
I am looking forward to it and am so grateful to him, but (if I may moan for a second!) it will be a 25min cycle ride (at Antonia-speed) to meet him,followed by a 35 minute cycle ride to the psychiatry unit where I am based for the day (then I have some 10minute cycling trips within the psychiatry base to get between teaching sessions).
I'll be home for about 1.5hrs this evening (thank goodness!) and then I have a dinner tonight with some of the new medical students (as part of a welcoming "parenting" scheme for the new guys who've arrived this year!). So another packed and frantic day! It's all good fun, and I guess I'd rather be doing it all than not, but I am ever so tired by 11pm!!
Tomorrow morning I am then going to get up at the crack of dawn cos I want to go to Mass for the Archangels (it's the feast of St. Micheal, Gabriel & Raphael) and then I have a full day of teaching (which, thank God, ends at 4pm!). and then in the evening I have a free dinner to go to!
On Staurday I have been invited to a retreat for married couples which I'd like to go to with Chris, but it is 2hours away by train and will take up the whole day...and I'm not sure I can cope with the stress! (plus I havent done a minute of studying all week, and I really should kinda do something!). Plus, Chris will have to leave his rowing training a few hours early if he's going to make this start of the retreat...
anyway! I am sure noone is interested in my ramblings of busy-ness!
God Bless!
Say a prayer for my bike!
-x-
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
My artsy photos
So I love love loooove taking photos! Loooooove it!
I also love pretending I have photographic talent and that I can take artistic photos, and so here are 3 of my (800) Rome photos that made me consider dropping out of medicine and opening a photography gallery.
Chris, being the sweet-heart that he is, thinks my photos are awesome and even has the first one as the background on his lap-top!
(he did, however, strongly insist I carry on with medicine....)
----
THE COLOSSEUM IN SUNGLASSES
(this actually looks pretty amazing when made full screen)
I also love pretending I have photographic talent and that I can take artistic photos, and so here are 3 of my (800) Rome photos that made me consider dropping out of medicine and opening a photography gallery.
Chris, being the sweet-heart that he is, thinks my photos are awesome and even has the first one as the background on his lap-top!
(he did, however, strongly insist I carry on with medicine....)
----
THE COLOSSEUM IN SUNGLASSES
(this actually looks pretty amazing when made full screen)
---------
A VIEW OF THE VATICAN
(subtitled: The greatest place on earth)
TI AMO GRAFFITI
...perhaps he is right, maybe I should just stick with medicine for now!
-
Hmmm.......
....my blog appears to have messed itself up, with the sidebar shifting to well off the bottom of the screen....
*looks puzzled*
I'm sure I didn't do anything to my blog template...why has it gone like that?!
can anyone help?
-
*looks puzzled*
I'm sure I didn't do anything to my blog template...why has it gone like that?!
can anyone help?
-
The Pope & I
Seeing as blogger is successfully uploading my photos again, I thought I'd post these pictures of me holding the Pope's hand and speaking with him at his general audience that I went to while on honeymoon (August 2nd).
Chris's left hand can just be seen on my left shoulder!
I told Pope B how much we love him!!
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Archbishops and stuff...my day
Hi all,
thanks to those of you who left nice encouraging comments about my friend. Prayer is the best weapon, so I'm praying for her, and hoping for whatever God considers best to be done.
I had a nice day today; we had an Archbishop come to our Catholic church to celebrate Mass. I had a bit of an "....oooops!" moment during Mass though..!
I was altar serving and after Communion His Grace, the Archbishop, went to sit back down in his place, and so I went up to him with the water and finger bowl to wash his fingers (as he'd just administered the Body of Christ. )
Because he's an Archbishop we had a nice big claret jug with water in to pour over his fingers, as opposed to our usual smaller one. A bit like this one, but silver:
The "little parasite" she is talking about is her own CHILD...a human being!
my word! I can't imagine anyone having such hate in their heart. what a horrendous and evil thing to say.
Man, she needs prayers.
thanks to those of you who left nice encouraging comments about my friend. Prayer is the best weapon, so I'm praying for her, and hoping for whatever God considers best to be done.
I had a nice day today; we had an Archbishop come to our Catholic church to celebrate Mass. I had a bit of an "....oooops!" moment during Mass though..!
I was altar serving and after Communion His Grace, the Archbishop, went to sit back down in his place, and so I went up to him with the water and finger bowl to wash his fingers (as he'd just administered the Body of Christ. )
Because he's an Archbishop we had a nice big claret jug with water in to pour over his fingers, as opposed to our usual smaller one. A bit like this one, but silver:
Unfortunatly, I didn't fill it up with water so I didn't know how much was in there when I started to pour.
I tipped it over his fingers...and nothing came out...tipped some more...still nothing...more...no water....
so then I gave it a bit of a bigger tilt, and a gush of water poured out unexpectedly splashing a bit down his vestments!! He Archbishop went "...YUCK!.." and looked at me!
I looked back at him feebly, and said "I'm sorry!"
Luckily only a few droplets had splashed down his vestments, but I think it was just how unexpectedly it gushed out of the jug that shocked him a bit!
haha! I've made an Archbishop say 'Yuck' during Mass!!
In other news, Radical Catholic Mom links to a horrible post a woman wrote a few days after she was unable to get 'Emergency Contraception' (EC) ('The morning after pill').
It's a bit of a yuck post, so if you have delicate ears or are young, I wouldn't recommend reading it at all.
Basically, she's complaining becauce she was unable, for various reasons, to get the morning after pill for 2 days when she wanted it.
Towards the end of her post she makes the following comments about what she will do if she is actually pregnant:
Oh and if I end up having to get an abortion I’ll ask if I can keep the little parasite and I’ll be sending it to each of you who denied me EC.
The "little parasite" she is talking about is her own CHILD...a human being!
my word! I can't imagine anyone having such hate in their heart. what a horrendous and evil thing to say.
Man, she needs prayers.
"Godless Pro-Lifers"
Clearly, I'm not a "Godless Pro-Lifer" but I just came across this interesting website for people who consider themselves such.
Here is an interesting page from their website where a guy writes his (non-God-related) reasons for being Pro-life, and I thought it might be worth a read!
Here is an interesting page from their website where a guy writes his (non-God-related) reasons for being Pro-life, and I thought it might be worth a read!
Friday, September 22, 2006
no subject
I can't think of a subject line for this post, it is too horrific.
One of my good friends at medical school found out today that she has cancer.
BAD cancer.
She is only 22 years old.
For the immediate future she has to have an operation to have her entire large intestine out, and then a CT scan to see how much the tumour has spread round her body, but regardless the future looks BAD.
It is so horrible I'm not sure if I'm going to be sick or cry.
If the CT scan shows that the tumour hasn't spread anywhere, the median survival is 5-8years.
If the CT scan shows that the tumour has spread, median survival is 36 months.
Her dad also died of throat cancer 1.5years ago and that completely and utterly destroyed her family (her mum, and 3 sisters).
This is so horrific it's........I can't even begin to comprehend it.
She's only 22!
I don't know what else to say.
-
One of my good friends at medical school found out today that she has cancer.
BAD cancer.
She is only 22 years old.
For the immediate future she has to have an operation to have her entire large intestine out, and then a CT scan to see how much the tumour has spread round her body, but regardless the future looks BAD.
It is so horrible I'm not sure if I'm going to be sick or cry.
If the CT scan shows that the tumour hasn't spread anywhere, the median survival is 5-8years.
If the CT scan shows that the tumour has spread, median survival is 36 months.
Her dad also died of throat cancer 1.5years ago and that completely and utterly destroyed her family (her mum, and 3 sisters).
This is so horrific it's........I can't even begin to comprehend it.
She's only 22!
I don't know what else to say.
-
a message from Joee Blogs..
here is a message I got from Joee Blogs
while I'm on the topic of blogs...something I have been meaning to say for a while...I am massively aware that my blog list on the right needs huge updating! Some blogs on there I never go to anymore, and there are lots that I go to often but aren't on there! As soon as I can I will update it!
can i encourage you to link me please?
http://catholiclondoner.blogspot.com/2006/09/interview-of-bbc-radio-5-live.html
The more comments I get the better the chance of actually getting an
interviwe with him. He says he'll decide on monday wether he wants to do an interview or not! Cheers!
while I'm on the topic of blogs...something I have been meaning to say for a while...I am massively aware that my blog list on the right needs huge updating! Some blogs on there I never go to anymore, and there are lots that I go to often but aren't on there! As soon as I can I will update it!
You want to be holy...
Holiness is attained with the help of the Holy Spirit, who comes to
dwell in our souls, through grace given us by the sacraments and as a result of a constant ascetical struggle.– St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #429
So the secret to holiness is...frequent Mass, frequent Reconcilliation, prayer, ensuring we are constantly trying to correct our little daily faults, and make sure that everything we do is done with Him in mind, offering it up.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Happy Birthday To....Me!!
Today I am 23 years old!! I'm old for a young person, but young for an old person!
It is 8:15am but I have so far celebrated my birthday by...
a) not getting up 1.5hours early to go view some electroconvulsive therapy at the hospital
(being the total nerd that I am though I will make it up & be there at the crack of dawn on Monday!!).
b) having peanut M&Ms with my cereals.....Mmmmmmm......(I *did* say a few posts ago that they were my achilles heel!)
Then Mass tonight (Feast of St. Matthew) & I think we planned for Chris to cook me a scrumptious feast for dinner and then maybe we will watch a dvd afterwards!
Thank You God for the last 23 years!
-x-
It is 8:15am but I have so far celebrated my birthday by...
a) not getting up 1.5hours early to go view some electroconvulsive therapy at the hospital
(being the total nerd that I am though I will make it up & be there at the crack of dawn on Monday!!).
b) having peanut M&Ms with my cereals.....Mmmmmmm......(I *did* say a few posts ago that they were my achilles heel!)
Then Mass tonight (Feast of St. Matthew) & I think we planned for Chris to cook me a scrumptious feast for dinner and then maybe we will watch a dvd afterwards!
Thank You God for the last 23 years!
-x-
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Tell Our Lord that from now on, every time you celebrate Mass or attend it, and every time you administer or receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist, you will do so with a great faith, with a burning love, just as if it were to be the last time in your life.
And be sorry for the carelessness of your past life.
– St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #829
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Lilies of the fields
***cue lilly picture but blogger is yet again not uploading pictures**
There is a lady I know who has always been my semi-hero.
Okay, that's not true, my only heroines who I admire are Mary, St. Therese of Liseux, St. Gianna, St. Therea of Avila, St. Catherine of Sienna.....(I could go on!)
So she's not really a hero as such, but someone I always looked to for reassurance that marriage, medicine and family can mix.
She's about 8 years older than me, is Catholic and studied medicine at the same medical school than I'm at.
She got married aged 21 at the end of her 3rd year at medical school and then had 2 kids before even finishing her medical training. She then started working as a doctor part-time and had 2 more children, and now is training to be a general physician.
I never really knew her personally, and in fact never had a full conversation with her...I just knew of her, her broad life-story and had seen her & her family around.
But the example of her life was always helpful for me and gave me encouragment. Getting married during medical school is kindof a scary decision to make. I won't go over how many times I got "Married?! At YOUR age?! You're still at University! Are you sure?!"
Medical School is a lot of work; lots of hospital time, lots of revision..can I actually plan a wedding while at medical school? What happens if I get pregnant? Would I be able to cope? Is it possible?
So I found it very reassuring and helpful to know that someone out there in a similar situation to me has actually been there first and done it. "See? It is possible!"
So while she wasn't my hero or anything, I did find comfort in the witness of her life.
On my first day on my new psychiatry wards last week I was amazed to see her there!! She works part-time and is currently doing psychiatry work to gain some experiecne & training in delaing with people with psychiatric conditions.
So I have managed to speak with her during the last week quite a bit which has been very nice, because although I've know a lot of the overall details of her life, it;s been good to actually have an indepth conversation with her about it.
Yesterday I was asking her how easy she has found it to get hired as a doctor who won't prescribe contraception.....
answer.....very easy....because she does prescribe it.
That really upset me.
She is a Catholic doctor, very very pro-life, with 4 kids & wants more, she's done NFP training so she is qualified to teach it to others, told me she wouldn't touch contraception herself with a barge-pole.......
......but she does prescribe it to patients.
She knows all the arguments why not, and has thought about it lots, but her conclusion is that it is better to see these women and maybe talk with them about whether conrtaception is a good idea or not (which she argues no other doctor would do) and so perhaps plant the seeds of thought & change in their mind.
(although she admitted most women say no to her suggestion of NFP, so she then has to write them a prescription for the pill).
Of course it is good to be able to have these conversations with female patients, hopefully one day they will help someone to change....but then to actually go on and give out the pill is not something I would ever do, and also it doesn't make sense, because it undermines your stance.
How many seeds will you plant about the goodness of NFP and the harmfullness of contraception, if you then give the patients out the pill anyway?!!
Seems like you are choping away the branch you are sitting on!
I know 2 Catholic GPs who don't give out contraception, and the way they do it is that they just don't see these female patients at all; the patients know that Dr X wont prescribe the pill, so they go to another one. But my friend argues that she *wants* to see these woman, so that she might be able to have a conversation with them in the hope that they may one day change, rather than not having the opportunity to see them at all. Even if that conversation means she has to give out the pill. (Nb: she doesn't talk to all the women about NFP of they've come for the pill, just the ones that she thinks might accept it. Married, stable relationship, few kids already etc).
But I can't see how choosing to disobeying God and facilitating other people to sin can be a way to bring about good!
Look at some of the Saints! Some of them were hermits, or cloistered in a convent who never entered "the world"....yet they brought about greater world changes than most people put together!
Look at Saint Faustina!! Everyone knows the Divine Mercy picture!
and there are countless similar Saints! What about Mary and St. Joseph!! Humble, quite, consumed with love for God.
"Having the conversation" won't change hearts....only the Holy Spirit can do that!
Yes, I admit, having the conversation may help to plant seeds...but what good have you done if you have to cooperate with evil to bring about that change?!
Oh, and there is another reason in her case why she prescribes contraception.....her employers weren't overly favourable with the idea of her not prescirbing it.
So this kinda demoralised me.
Not only has a person I cared about convinced herself that a morally abhorrent choice is good, which really upset me,but also it re-echoes some of my worries....how easy will it be for me to get hired in the National Health Service in England, as a female Catholic no-abortion, no-contraception doctor who is married and probably will only be able to work part-time because of kids?!
However, a moment of reflection helps to quickly alleviate my worries in that latter area.
Any job is a means to an end, and not an end in itself. I'm not doing medicine for me, but for Christ; to help the sick and vulnerable, and to help support my family financially.
If I've been led to do medicine, then I am sure that, as long as I stay close to Christ, He will put me where He wants me to be, and I will do what He wants me to do!
I'll get employed somewhere, doing something!
Jesus can make anything happen in the most astonishing ways!
If I look back 3 years ago, I wouldn't have thought I'd be where I am now! So there is no point fretting about what is going to happen in the future. Just take each day, tackle each thing that comes with great patience, love and joy, stay close to Jesus, Mary & the Saints, grow in holiness, have hope and faith.....and then everything else will fall into place!
Oh, and please say a short prayer for my doctor friend!
There is a lady I know who has always been my semi-hero.
Okay, that's not true, my only heroines who I admire are Mary, St. Therese of Liseux, St. Gianna, St. Therea of Avila, St. Catherine of Sienna.....(I could go on!)
So she's not really a hero as such, but someone I always looked to for reassurance that marriage, medicine and family can mix.
She's about 8 years older than me, is Catholic and studied medicine at the same medical school than I'm at.
She got married aged 21 at the end of her 3rd year at medical school and then had 2 kids before even finishing her medical training. She then started working as a doctor part-time and had 2 more children, and now is training to be a general physician.
I never really knew her personally, and in fact never had a full conversation with her...I just knew of her, her broad life-story and had seen her & her family around.
But the example of her life was always helpful for me and gave me encouragment. Getting married during medical school is kindof a scary decision to make. I won't go over how many times I got "Married?! At YOUR age?! You're still at University! Are you sure?!"
Medical School is a lot of work; lots of hospital time, lots of revision..can I actually plan a wedding while at medical school? What happens if I get pregnant? Would I be able to cope? Is it possible?
So I found it very reassuring and helpful to know that someone out there in a similar situation to me has actually been there first and done it. "See? It is possible!"
So while she wasn't my hero or anything, I did find comfort in the witness of her life.
On my first day on my new psychiatry wards last week I was amazed to see her there!! She works part-time and is currently doing psychiatry work to gain some experiecne & training in delaing with people with psychiatric conditions.
So I have managed to speak with her during the last week quite a bit which has been very nice, because although I've know a lot of the overall details of her life, it;s been good to actually have an indepth conversation with her about it.
Yesterday I was asking her how easy she has found it to get hired as a doctor who won't prescribe contraception.....
answer.....very easy....because she does prescribe it.
That really upset me.
She is a Catholic doctor, very very pro-life, with 4 kids & wants more, she's done NFP training so she is qualified to teach it to others, told me she wouldn't touch contraception herself with a barge-pole.......
......but she does prescribe it to patients.
She knows all the arguments why not, and has thought about it lots, but her conclusion is that it is better to see these women and maybe talk with them about whether conrtaception is a good idea or not (which she argues no other doctor would do) and so perhaps plant the seeds of thought & change in their mind.
(although she admitted most women say no to her suggestion of NFP, so she then has to write them a prescription for the pill).
Of course it is good to be able to have these conversations with female patients, hopefully one day they will help someone to change....but then to actually go on and give out the pill is not something I would ever do, and also it doesn't make sense, because it undermines your stance.
How many seeds will you plant about the goodness of NFP and the harmfullness of contraception, if you then give the patients out the pill anyway?!!
Seems like you are choping away the branch you are sitting on!
I know 2 Catholic GPs who don't give out contraception, and the way they do it is that they just don't see these female patients at all; the patients know that Dr X wont prescribe the pill, so they go to another one. But my friend argues that she *wants* to see these woman, so that she might be able to have a conversation with them in the hope that they may one day change, rather than not having the opportunity to see them at all. Even if that conversation means she has to give out the pill. (Nb: she doesn't talk to all the women about NFP of they've come for the pill, just the ones that she thinks might accept it. Married, stable relationship, few kids already etc).
But I can't see how choosing to disobeying God and facilitating other people to sin can be a way to bring about good!
Look at some of the Saints! Some of them were hermits, or cloistered in a convent who never entered "the world"....yet they brought about greater world changes than most people put together!
Look at Saint Faustina!! Everyone knows the Divine Mercy picture!
and there are countless similar Saints! What about Mary and St. Joseph!! Humble, quite, consumed with love for God.
"Having the conversation" won't change hearts....only the Holy Spirit can do that!
Yes, I admit, having the conversation may help to plant seeds...but what good have you done if you have to cooperate with evil to bring about that change?!
Oh, and there is another reason in her case why she prescribes contraception.....her employers weren't overly favourable with the idea of her not prescirbing it.
So this kinda demoralised me.
Not only has a person I cared about convinced herself that a morally abhorrent choice is good, which really upset me,but also it re-echoes some of my worries....how easy will it be for me to get hired in the National Health Service in England, as a female Catholic no-abortion, no-contraception doctor who is married and probably will only be able to work part-time because of kids?!
However, a moment of reflection helps to quickly alleviate my worries in that latter area.
Any job is a means to an end, and not an end in itself. I'm not doing medicine for me, but for Christ; to help the sick and vulnerable, and to help support my family financially.
If I've been led to do medicine, then I am sure that, as long as I stay close to Christ, He will put me where He wants me to be, and I will do what He wants me to do!
I'll get employed somewhere, doing something!
Jesus can make anything happen in the most astonishing ways!
If I look back 3 years ago, I wouldn't have thought I'd be where I am now! So there is no point fretting about what is going to happen in the future. Just take each day, tackle each thing that comes with great patience, love and joy, stay close to Jesus, Mary & the Saints, grow in holiness, have hope and faith.....and then everything else will fall into place!
Oh, and please say a short prayer for my doctor friend!
Matthew 6:25-33
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Oh the Irony of Protestant Churches
In this post I am in no way dissing my lovely Protestant brothers & sisters whom I do love dearly, (my dad is Anglican!), but merely reflecting on the choices of the Anglican hierarchy regarding their large Cathedrals, which does genuinely upset me!
*****
My parents have a guest staying at their house, so on Sunday we took them out to see the "sights & sounds" of our home-town, and I yet again was faced with one of my MAJOR pet-peeves regarding Protestant Churches.
Now, I'm half-Italian so I've seen a lot of Churches in my time. I spent my honeymoon in Rome and must've gone into about 20 Churches.
You see a pretty Church hundreds of years old, beautiful stained glass windows, statues of Jesus, Mary and the Saints inside, mosaics on the wall, paintings...etc....and if you want to go in, you just walk in, freely.
Even in St. Peter's in the Vatican, the biggest Church by volume in the entire world...anyone can just walk in, have a look, pray.
Protestant Churches? I don't know about the rest of the world, but in England the situation is very different.
Let's take pretty much any big Anglican Cathedral in the country. You walk towards the entrance way......and then you see it...possibly the last thing you would expect to see blocking the entrance way to a Church.....a TICKET BOOTH.
Yes, you have to PAY to enter most old Protestant Churches in England.
I have never, in my life, seen anyone expect visitors to pay to enter a Catholic Church. It would never ever ever ever happen.
And it's not cheap either to get into these Protestant Cathedrals, St.Paul's in London is 9 POUNDS per person (that's like 20 US$)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mean....SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!! To enter a CHURCH?!!!!!!!!!!!
The Church we tried to get into with my parents was "only" 4.50pounds per person (like, 10$).
I was honestly in the mood to give the ticket people a piece of my mind about....
a) having to PAY to visit a CHURCH
b) ...on a SUNDAY!!
and, the irony of all ironies, the crowning fact which *really* bugs me..
c) most of the Protestant Churches were STOLEN FROM CATHOLICS DURING THE REFORMATION!!!
Yes, any gorgeous Catholic Churches were all taken during the Reformation, in the majority of cases the statues of Mary and any Saints were smashed up (you can even see the empty ledges inside and outside the Churches which used to have statues on).
*AND* any reliques of CATHOLIC SAINTS that weren't burnt or destroyed are now kept as Protestant property and you have to pay to see them in Protestant Churches!
I know my Parish Priest refuses to pay to enter any Protestant Church (& usually states why very clearly at the ticket desk). (He also once found them selling copies of the DaVinci Code in the guest shop of a Protestant Church (I forget the name of the Church...it also used to belong to the Catholics) (but I guess that is a rant for another time!))
But really, when you think about it, I guess it doesn't seem so odd to them to ask people to pay to enter.
The way Chris tried to rationalise it to me is that the Churches are, after all, are old stone buildings which need money for repairs. They have nothing alive or excessively precious inside (I interject...unlike Catholic Churches which have the living Christ in every tabernacle)...so really it's just an empty shell that needs money for the up-keep.
Protestant have no reason to enter a Church to pray outside of their services because there is nothing in there that they dont have in their living room (unlike Catholic Churches which have the living Christ in every tabernacle).
I just get upset at the fact that these Churches were built for the celebration of the Holy Mass, and were built for Jesus to dwell within, and instead Catholics were kicked out....and you have to pay to enter.
okay rant over!
(oh, and in the end we didn't pay to go in!)
*****
My parents have a guest staying at their house, so on Sunday we took them out to see the "sights & sounds" of our home-town, and I yet again was faced with one of my MAJOR pet-peeves regarding Protestant Churches.
Now, I'm half-Italian so I've seen a lot of Churches in my time. I spent my honeymoon in Rome and must've gone into about 20 Churches.
You see a pretty Church hundreds of years old, beautiful stained glass windows, statues of Jesus, Mary and the Saints inside, mosaics on the wall, paintings...etc....and if you want to go in, you just walk in, freely.
Even in St. Peter's in the Vatican, the biggest Church by volume in the entire world...anyone can just walk in, have a look, pray.
Protestant Churches? I don't know about the rest of the world, but in England the situation is very different.
Let's take pretty much any big Anglican Cathedral in the country. You walk towards the entrance way......and then you see it...possibly the last thing you would expect to see blocking the entrance way to a Church.....a TICKET BOOTH.
Yes, you have to PAY to enter most old Protestant Churches in England.
I have never, in my life, seen anyone expect visitors to pay to enter a Catholic Church. It would never ever ever ever happen.
And it's not cheap either to get into these Protestant Cathedrals, St.Paul's in London is 9 POUNDS per person (that's like 20 US$)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mean....SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!! To enter a CHURCH?!!!!!!!!!!!
The Church we tried to get into with my parents was "only" 4.50pounds per person (like, 10$).
I was honestly in the mood to give the ticket people a piece of my mind about....
a) having to PAY to visit a CHURCH
b) ...on a SUNDAY!!
and, the irony of all ironies, the crowning fact which *really* bugs me..
c) most of the Protestant Churches were STOLEN FROM CATHOLICS DURING THE REFORMATION!!!
Yes, any gorgeous Catholic Churches were all taken during the Reformation, in the majority of cases the statues of Mary and any Saints were smashed up (you can even see the empty ledges inside and outside the Churches which used to have statues on).
*AND* any reliques of CATHOLIC SAINTS that weren't burnt or destroyed are now kept as Protestant property and you have to pay to see them in Protestant Churches!
I know my Parish Priest refuses to pay to enter any Protestant Church (& usually states why very clearly at the ticket desk). (He also once found them selling copies of the DaVinci Code in the guest shop of a Protestant Church (I forget the name of the Church...it also used to belong to the Catholics) (but I guess that is a rant for another time!))
But really, when you think about it, I guess it doesn't seem so odd to them to ask people to pay to enter.
The way Chris tried to rationalise it to me is that the Churches are, after all, are old stone buildings which need money for repairs. They have nothing alive or excessively precious inside (I interject...unlike Catholic Churches which have the living Christ in every tabernacle)...so really it's just an empty shell that needs money for the up-keep.
Protestant have no reason to enter a Church to pray outside of their services because there is nothing in there that they dont have in their living room (unlike Catholic Churches which have the living Christ in every tabernacle).
I just get upset at the fact that these Churches were built for the celebration of the Holy Mass, and were built for Jesus to dwell within, and instead Catholics were kicked out....and you have to pay to enter.
okay rant over!
(oh, and in the end we didn't pay to go in!)
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Nightmare
Sometimes when I think of abortion, I get sick to my stomach & literally feel ill....what an evil evil repulsive act it is. How Satan must laugh.
Can you imagine the type of world we live in, where we provide facilities for mothers to rip to shreds their babies inside their womb? Where doctors get trained to kill, and people scream for their right to murder unborn babies. What a shockingly evil world, where murders of innocents is seen as being a tolerable and acceptable choice, even seen as being necessary at times.
How absolutly horrendous and vile.
Our poor poor sweet Lord, and His blessed beautiful Mother. How much they must weep and how much pain this must cause them.
600 babies each and every single DAY are aborted in England and Wales; and thousands a day in America.
How much innocent blood is spilt.
Can you imagine the type of world we live in, where we provide facilities for mothers to rip to shreds their babies inside their womb? Where doctors get trained to kill, and people scream for their right to murder unborn babies. What a shockingly evil world, where murders of innocents is seen as being a tolerable and acceptable choice, even seen as being necessary at times.
How absolutly horrendous and vile.
Our poor poor sweet Lord, and His blessed beautiful Mother. How much they must weep and how much pain this must cause them.
600 babies each and every single DAY are aborted in England and Wales; and thousands a day in America.
How much innocent blood is spilt.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Medicine careers
I have a new love in medicine!
Every time I study a new area of medicine I fall in love with parts of it and always ending up considering whether I could be a doctor in that area...
"Hmmm....this is really interesting! Maybe I could be a cardiologist/radiologist/neurologist/GP/rheumatologist/medicine for the elderly doctor/etc when I grow up!"
(the only exceptions have been surgery! I really wouldn't want to be a surgeon! Not because I would be grossed out with cutting people open, but because I wouldn't like the lifestyle, and I don't think I'd get to talk enough to patients (they are mostly under general anaesthetic!))
Actually, it's the fact that I love practically every area of medicine that really help me know that I *should* be doing medicine.
In those transient moments when I feel it's all too hard and there are too many horribly sinful things in medicine, and it's so much work do I really want to carry on...I'm always helped by the thought that
a- I LOVE working with people. I love speaking with them, I love finding out what's wrong, and I love doing that in a caring capacity as doctors do (e.g as opposed to a psychologist or something).
b- I do genuinely find medicine so increadibly interesting! All of it! The underlying pathology, how patients present with their symptoms, the investigations to find out what is wrong, the management and treatment of the patient. I love all of it! Every patient is exciting & new. You have to be on the ball, ask the right questions, do the right examinations, do the right investigations and choose the best treatments. It is a lot of work, I don't deny it. Medicine is hard not because the information is complicated, because really it's not. Once you know the underlying anatomy, biochemistry and physiology, understanding illness and treatments is pretty simple. But there is just SO.MUCH.TO.LEARN!!
But despite that, I love it!
and as of yesterday I have a new area of medicine to add to my loong list of potential future job options...
CHILD PSYCHIATRY!
It's all about children (& seriously, who doesn't like children?!) (well, aged up to 17...so children & adolescants really) and involves delving into their world (school, friends, parents, siblings, how they were raised, their family structure, their relationship with their parents and siblings, and the relationship between parents, and between parents & siblings, bullying, child abuse) in order to build up a picture of what it is like to be this child, in order to understand why they have the conditions they have (emotional disorder, conduct disorder, speech and language delay, eating disorders, sleeping problems, overactivity, psychosomatic, adjustment reaction, psychosis, overdose, self-harm, coping with chronic long-term health problems).
and then instead of treating them with just pills and medcinines, you can organise family therapies, social work, parental training, school intervention...which I find super interesting because you can really help with all areas of the individual's life, and not just their "disease". I guess all areas of medicine do this to some extent, but a lot less than child psychiatrists.
and you can actually make a huge difference to the future of the child, because they are still young and more psychologically, emotionally and socially maleable (this is somewhat harder to do on the whole with adults)
So yeh...child psychiatry! woohoo!
But I think I will just leave it in God's hands, and plod along till I am actually a doctor (june 2008) and then see what He has in store!
Every time I study a new area of medicine I fall in love with parts of it and always ending up considering whether I could be a doctor in that area...
"Hmmm....this is really interesting! Maybe I could be a cardiologist/radiologist/neurologist/GP/rheumatologist/medicine for the elderly doctor/etc when I grow up!"
(the only exceptions have been surgery! I really wouldn't want to be a surgeon! Not because I would be grossed out with cutting people open, but because I wouldn't like the lifestyle, and I don't think I'd get to talk enough to patients (they are mostly under general anaesthetic!))
Actually, it's the fact that I love practically every area of medicine that really help me know that I *should* be doing medicine.
In those transient moments when I feel it's all too hard and there are too many horribly sinful things in medicine, and it's so much work do I really want to carry on...I'm always helped by the thought that
a- I LOVE working with people. I love speaking with them, I love finding out what's wrong, and I love doing that in a caring capacity as doctors do (e.g as opposed to a psychologist or something).
b- I do genuinely find medicine so increadibly interesting! All of it! The underlying pathology, how patients present with their symptoms, the investigations to find out what is wrong, the management and treatment of the patient. I love all of it! Every patient is exciting & new. You have to be on the ball, ask the right questions, do the right examinations, do the right investigations and choose the best treatments. It is a lot of work, I don't deny it. Medicine is hard not because the information is complicated, because really it's not. Once you know the underlying anatomy, biochemistry and physiology, understanding illness and treatments is pretty simple. But there is just SO.MUCH.TO.LEARN!!
But despite that, I love it!
and as of yesterday I have a new area of medicine to add to my loong list of potential future job options...
CHILD PSYCHIATRY!
It's all about children (& seriously, who doesn't like children?!) (well, aged up to 17...so children & adolescants really) and involves delving into their world (school, friends, parents, siblings, how they were raised, their family structure, their relationship with their parents and siblings, and the relationship between parents, and between parents & siblings, bullying, child abuse) in order to build up a picture of what it is like to be this child, in order to understand why they have the conditions they have (emotional disorder, conduct disorder, speech and language delay, eating disorders, sleeping problems, overactivity, psychosomatic, adjustment reaction, psychosis, overdose, self-harm, coping with chronic long-term health problems).
and then instead of treating them with just pills and medcinines, you can organise family therapies, social work, parental training, school intervention...which I find super interesting because you can really help with all areas of the individual's life, and not just their "disease". I guess all areas of medicine do this to some extent, but a lot less than child psychiatrists.
and you can actually make a huge difference to the future of the child, because they are still young and more psychologically, emotionally and socially maleable (this is somewhat harder to do on the whole with adults)
So yeh...child psychiatry! woohoo!
But I think I will just leave it in God's hands, and plod along till I am actually a doctor (june 2008) and then see what He has in store!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Dear "Anonymous"
This is a letter to "Anonymous" who left a message on my blog so it might not make a lot of sense to anyone except her...
~~~
Hello!
Firstly, thank you so much for your kinda words. But honestly, it's nothing to do with me. I am a useless rusty tool that God uses despite my own enormous inadequacy.
Secondly, your message really broke my heart because I could honestly feel your heart-ache and the pain you are going through.
I can also see myself a few years ago.
My advice would be...don't settle for something out of fear of not being able to get anything better.
Don't accept this situation just because 'it's the way things are'.
Please.
You are unbelievably blessed to have the feelings that you are having about your relationship.
Insight like that is, truthfully, a GRACE FROM GOD.
My goodness you even abstain from Communion! (as you rightly should)
God Bless You!!
Many Catholics may not even know what Communion is, but how blessed you are for recognising Its worth, and your state of sin!!
I thank the Holy Spirit for how much He loves you, and the graces He has given you!
The vast majority of people stumble through life engaging in sinful behaviour and they either convince themselves it's not wrong, or quite frankly don't care that it's wrong.
You know it is wrong, and you care that it's wrong.
That doesn't come from you, but from God, who loves you so much and has an amazingly beautiful plan in mind for your life...but one that you can't do if you carry on like this.
That feeling inside is Him calling you by name and asking you to trust in Him.
It's probably absolutly terrifying and you may lose all the plans that you had for your future, but you will gain Him more fully, and He will give you back everything in a more pure and wonderful way than you can imagine.
I know everyone says this and perhaps often without thinking...but God loves you.
and you know what that means?
He wants you to be happy! TRUELY HAPPY!!
As Jesus says, 'what parent would give his child a snake if he asked him for an egg?' and so how much unbelieveably more does God love you?!!
He wants you to have that happiness and indescribable joy that comes from knowing and loving Him, by doing His will!
That joy that comes from being brave and entrusting your entire life to Him, even if it seems to have to foresake what you had planned for yourself.
You sounded so sad and unhappy in your little note.
Please don't accept the situation as it is just because it seems too difficult not to.
To me it seems like, deep down, you know what you have to do, but are being held back by fear...
I would advise you first and foremost to stop immediatly the behaviour in question. Not just for spiritual reasons (i.e. it is mortal sin) but also for psychological reasons (you are being very hurt by it).
Secondly I would advise you to reassess the relationship. Be brutally honest with yourself about your faults, his faults, his good qualities, your good qualities and the future of the relationship together.
Bear in mind whether the future of your relationship with your fiance will require you to sacrifice God and how spiritually healthy it is.
Can you blossom and grow into a beautiful person by being with this boy?
Does he help your over-come your faults and grow ever closer to each other and to God?
Would he be a good father and help his children get to Heaven?
If you feel in your heart that this relationship is not right ( my 2cents, that is what I kinda sensed from you)....then I would have to say to be brave and to trust God.
It is truthfully better to go through with all that comes from ending the relationship now, than to go through a life-time of this horrible horrible emotional pain, and hurting Jesus, living outside His will.
Also, on a practical note....you can't marry the boy as you are feeling now. For one, it certainly seems like you don't really want to...you are scared and worried and deep down I'm not sure it's really what you want.
You want real love. True love.
and that's not what you have.
My secret of true love?
Love God first, above and beyond every single thing else. Always try and do His will, and daily strive to be better for Him and to love Him more.
That is honestly the secret to true love.
Because the more and more you genuinely love God, the more and more you will be able to genuinely love other people, and the more you truely love others, the happier you will be with every realtionship....friends, coworkers, parents, siblings, fiance...etc
True happiness can only come from doing things the way God desires; please please don't accept anything less FOR ANY REASON!
Also, married life will be horrible if it is a daily fight.
It will be horrible if you are always feeling like you are journeying alone with no cooperation. If you are living with a person who doesn't understand you, who doesn't care about your eternal salvation and makes no efforts to help you get there.
It will be horrible if you feel you are having to offend God because the person you are married to doesn't believe in God and doesn't care.
It will be horrible if you are left alone to raise children in their faith, while their father is anti-religion and undermining & putting down all your efforts.
please please please...don't be afraid!
We honestly lose NOTHING by giving our lives to Christ, but instead gain EVERYTHING.
I speak not from pretty theories but from honest raw personal experience.
Honestly and truthfully, you will gain MORE than you can imagine by giving up every sin!
Perhaps you should go sit in front of a tabernacle alone and cry if you want to, and tell Jesus everything and ask for His help. He will answer.
Turn also to Mary, because she was so brave and trusted so perfectly in God.
Know that you are sincerely in my prayers and I will offer up my next time of adoration your your needs.
God Bless
with so much love
your sister in Christ,
-x-x-x-x-
~~~
Hello!
Firstly, thank you so much for your kinda words. But honestly, it's nothing to do with me. I am a useless rusty tool that God uses despite my own enormous inadequacy.
Secondly, your message really broke my heart because I could honestly feel your heart-ache and the pain you are going through.
I can also see myself a few years ago.
My advice would be...don't settle for something out of fear of not being able to get anything better.
Don't accept this situation just because 'it's the way things are'.
Please.
You are unbelievably blessed to have the feelings that you are having about your relationship.
Insight like that is, truthfully, a GRACE FROM GOD.
My goodness you even abstain from Communion! (as you rightly should)
God Bless You!!
Many Catholics may not even know what Communion is, but how blessed you are for recognising Its worth, and your state of sin!!
I thank the Holy Spirit for how much He loves you, and the graces He has given you!
The vast majority of people stumble through life engaging in sinful behaviour and they either convince themselves it's not wrong, or quite frankly don't care that it's wrong.
You know it is wrong, and you care that it's wrong.
That doesn't come from you, but from God, who loves you so much and has an amazingly beautiful plan in mind for your life...but one that you can't do if you carry on like this.
That feeling inside is Him calling you by name and asking you to trust in Him.
It's probably absolutly terrifying and you may lose all the plans that you had for your future, but you will gain Him more fully, and He will give you back everything in a more pure and wonderful way than you can imagine.
I know everyone says this and perhaps often without thinking...but God loves you.
and you know what that means?
He wants you to be happy! TRUELY HAPPY!!
As Jesus says, 'what parent would give his child a snake if he asked him for an egg?' and so how much unbelieveably more does God love you?!!
He wants you to have that happiness and indescribable joy that comes from knowing and loving Him, by doing His will!
That joy that comes from being brave and entrusting your entire life to Him, even if it seems to have to foresake what you had planned for yourself.
You sounded so sad and unhappy in your little note.
Please don't accept the situation as it is just because it seems too difficult not to.
To me it seems like, deep down, you know what you have to do, but are being held back by fear...
I would advise you first and foremost to stop immediatly the behaviour in question. Not just for spiritual reasons (i.e. it is mortal sin) but also for psychological reasons (you are being very hurt by it).
Secondly I would advise you to reassess the relationship. Be brutally honest with yourself about your faults, his faults, his good qualities, your good qualities and the future of the relationship together.
Bear in mind whether the future of your relationship with your fiance will require you to sacrifice God and how spiritually healthy it is.
Can you blossom and grow into a beautiful person by being with this boy?
Does he help your over-come your faults and grow ever closer to each other and to God?
Would he be a good father and help his children get to Heaven?
If you feel in your heart that this relationship is not right ( my 2cents, that is what I kinda sensed from you)....then I would have to say to be brave and to trust God.
It is truthfully better to go through with all that comes from ending the relationship now, than to go through a life-time of this horrible horrible emotional pain, and hurting Jesus, living outside His will.
Also, on a practical note....you can't marry the boy as you are feeling now. For one, it certainly seems like you don't really want to...you are scared and worried and deep down I'm not sure it's really what you want.
You want real love. True love.
and that's not what you have.
My secret of true love?
Love God first, above and beyond every single thing else. Always try and do His will, and daily strive to be better for Him and to love Him more.
That is honestly the secret to true love.
Because the more and more you genuinely love God, the more and more you will be able to genuinely love other people, and the more you truely love others, the happier you will be with every realtionship....friends, coworkers, parents, siblings, fiance...etc
True happiness can only come from doing things the way God desires; please please don't accept anything less FOR ANY REASON!
Also, married life will be horrible if it is a daily fight.
It will be horrible if you are always feeling like you are journeying alone with no cooperation. If you are living with a person who doesn't understand you, who doesn't care about your eternal salvation and makes no efforts to help you get there.
It will be horrible if you feel you are having to offend God because the person you are married to doesn't believe in God and doesn't care.
It will be horrible if you are left alone to raise children in their faith, while their father is anti-religion and undermining & putting down all your efforts.
please please please...don't be afraid!
We honestly lose NOTHING by giving our lives to Christ, but instead gain EVERYTHING.
I speak not from pretty theories but from honest raw personal experience.
Honestly and truthfully, you will gain MORE than you can imagine by giving up every sin!
Perhaps you should go sit in front of a tabernacle alone and cry if you want to, and tell Jesus everything and ask for His help. He will answer.
Turn also to Mary, because she was so brave and trusted so perfectly in God.
Know that you are sincerely in my prayers and I will offer up my next time of adoration your your needs.
God Bless
with so much love
your sister in Christ,
-x-x-x-x-
PalmOne & Psychiatry
Look what I got for free:
Okay, so it's not the top of the range...but it was freee!!
why do I get it?! For being a total nerd and being one of the first people to reply to the email (this was back in my major major procrastination days...which I am now trying to erradicate from my daily routine)(with moderate success...)
It is super cool cos I also get $120 worth of free medical software on it so I can search for information on drugs, illnesses, symptoms, blood tests, scans etc etc.
I actually get it cos I'm taking part in a study on whether it would be a good idea to invest in one of these things for all medical students; how much would we use them, how useful would they be...etc. So I do actually have to give it back in about 6 months or so and they then download my data to monitor how much I've used it...waaa!
in other news...my new ward is proving very very.....eventful!
Like I mentioned, I spent the last 3 weeks doing out-patients, which was with people with mental disorders but who are okay enough to live at home, have a job and just be monitored every couple of months by the doctor.
It was interesting but most of the people weren't ill right now...well, some had things like obsessive compulsive disoder, anxiety disorders, post traumatic stress disorder, mild/moderate depression, many personality disorders.....but the majority were people who'd *had* schizophrenia and were still being treated, or who'd *had* suicide attempts, or who'd *had* bipolar disorder etc.
And although many psychiatrists would argue that you can never really be *cured* of a psychiatric disorder, the patients weren't so disabled by their symptoms that they were unable to live a normal life.
[On an unrelated note, it totally amazed me how sinfully biased society is!
Psychiatrists are willing to label many social behaviours as abnormal, many thought processes & thought content as abnormal, and many of the choices patients make as being self-destructive and propagating their maladaptive life situations......with the HUGE HUGE exception of sexual behaviours. Seriously, if it comes to acts, thoughts or behaviours of a sexual nature then it seems EVERYTHING GOES. Nothing is wrong! None of the sexual choices were seen as being implicated in any way in the patient's problems. No sexual act, with anyone, at any time, in any way was seen as being problematic, distorted or deviant! When it comes to sex it just seems like there is a spectrum of "normality" and anything on that spectrum is absolutely fiiiiine.
Morally abhorrant sexual acts were occasionally taken fleetingly into account by the psychiatrist but then just forgotten and not considered as having any role to play in the precipitation or maintenance of the illness.
(clearly, I'm not suggesting that things like schizophrenia are maintained by sexual deviant behaviours, but there certainly were a large cohort of patients I saw whose lives, I am certain, would be completely different if they lived a bit of JP2's Theology of the Body!)
anyway. It was very very sad. I thought I'd left all the horrible sexual sinfulness when I finished with the contraception & abortion in Women's Health a few months ago. It's not just sad because this is how patient's LIVE, but also because the medical profession's attitude to it is that it is normal and, in some instances, should be encourgaed.
I went to a lecture on 'sexual pschiatry' a few weeks ago. Some of the stuff the doctor was recommending we should teach patient's to "help" them with their sexual problems was SO horribly deviant and just totally disgusting I honestly felt like walking out. I couldn't believe that this was MEDICAL advice from a doctor. It was repulsive.]
So anyway, what was I saying?
Oh yeh, I was doing out-patient psychiatry, but am now doing in-patient psychiatry on an acute ward, which means the patients are very psychiatrically ill and pose a threat to themselves or others.
Lots of suicide attempts (people drinking antifreeze, taking drug overdoses, running away to the nearby railway tracks), lots of really bad self-harm, lots of active schizophrenia, and manic symptoms.
On my first day they gave me an alrarm in case I get attacked!!
(I accidently dropped it this morning. SOO EMBARASSING cos it went off and was absolutely deafening! A number of nursing staff came running to the 'rescue' only to discover it was just a false alarm! I then couldn't find where I'd dropped the stupid thing either so it rang for ages! (probabaly only about 20 seconds in reality though!)
It made such a horrendously load noise!
anyway, I better go and write up one of the patients I interviewed today, because I have to present it to a doctor tomorrow.
God Bless,
-x-
Okay, so it's not the top of the range...but it was freee!!
why do I get it?! For being a total nerd and being one of the first people to reply to the email (this was back in my major major procrastination days...which I am now trying to erradicate from my daily routine)(with moderate success...)
It is super cool cos I also get $120 worth of free medical software on it so I can search for information on drugs, illnesses, symptoms, blood tests, scans etc etc.
I actually get it cos I'm taking part in a study on whether it would be a good idea to invest in one of these things for all medical students; how much would we use them, how useful would they be...etc. So I do actually have to give it back in about 6 months or so and they then download my data to monitor how much I've used it...waaa!
in other news...my new ward is proving very very.....eventful!
Like I mentioned, I spent the last 3 weeks doing out-patients, which was with people with mental disorders but who are okay enough to live at home, have a job and just be monitored every couple of months by the doctor.
It was interesting but most of the people weren't ill right now...well, some had things like obsessive compulsive disoder, anxiety disorders, post traumatic stress disorder, mild/moderate depression, many personality disorders.....but the majority were people who'd *had* schizophrenia and were still being treated, or who'd *had* suicide attempts, or who'd *had* bipolar disorder etc.
And although many psychiatrists would argue that you can never really be *cured* of a psychiatric disorder, the patients weren't so disabled by their symptoms that they were unable to live a normal life.
[On an unrelated note, it totally amazed me how sinfully biased society is!
Psychiatrists are willing to label many social behaviours as abnormal, many thought processes & thought content as abnormal, and many of the choices patients make as being self-destructive and propagating their maladaptive life situations......with the HUGE HUGE exception of sexual behaviours. Seriously, if it comes to acts, thoughts or behaviours of a sexual nature then it seems EVERYTHING GOES. Nothing is wrong! None of the sexual choices were seen as being implicated in any way in the patient's problems. No sexual act, with anyone, at any time, in any way was seen as being problematic, distorted or deviant! When it comes to sex it just seems like there is a spectrum of "normality" and anything on that spectrum is absolutely fiiiiine.
Morally abhorrant sexual acts were occasionally taken fleetingly into account by the psychiatrist but then just forgotten and not considered as having any role to play in the precipitation or maintenance of the illness.
(clearly, I'm not suggesting that things like schizophrenia are maintained by sexual deviant behaviours, but there certainly were a large cohort of patients I saw whose lives, I am certain, would be completely different if they lived a bit of JP2's Theology of the Body!)
anyway. It was very very sad. I thought I'd left all the horrible sexual sinfulness when I finished with the contraception & abortion in Women's Health a few months ago. It's not just sad because this is how patient's LIVE, but also because the medical profession's attitude to it is that it is normal and, in some instances, should be encourgaed.
I went to a lecture on 'sexual pschiatry' a few weeks ago. Some of the stuff the doctor was recommending we should teach patient's to "help" them with their sexual problems was SO horribly deviant and just totally disgusting I honestly felt like walking out. I couldn't believe that this was MEDICAL advice from a doctor. It was repulsive.]
So anyway, what was I saying?
Oh yeh, I was doing out-patient psychiatry, but am now doing in-patient psychiatry on an acute ward, which means the patients are very psychiatrically ill and pose a threat to themselves or others.
Lots of suicide attempts (people drinking antifreeze, taking drug overdoses, running away to the nearby railway tracks), lots of really bad self-harm, lots of active schizophrenia, and manic symptoms.
On my first day they gave me an alrarm in case I get attacked!!
(I accidently dropped it this morning. SOO EMBARASSING cos it went off and was absolutely deafening! A number of nursing staff came running to the 'rescue' only to discover it was just a false alarm! I then couldn't find where I'd dropped the stupid thing either so it rang for ages! (probabaly only about 20 seconds in reality though!)
It made such a horrendously load noise!
anyway, I better go and write up one of the patients I interviewed today, because I have to present it to a doctor tomorrow.
God Bless,
-x-
Pope Tells of Key to Awaken Vocations
Meeting at Shrine Turns Toward Prayer
ALTOETTING, Germany, SEPT. 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI stressed that if Catholics pray with profound faith the Church will receive the vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life that it needs.
The Pope expressed this conviction when celebrating Vespers this evening with religious and seminarians of Bavaria and members of the Society for Spiritual Vocations in the Basilica of St. Anne in the Marian shrine of Altoetting.
"God's harvest is indeed great, and it needs laborers," said the Holy Father. "In the so-called Third World -- in Latin America, in Africa and in Asia -- people are waiting for heralds to bring them the Gospel of peace, the good news of God who became man.
"But also in the so-called West, here among us in Germany, and in the vast lands of Russia it is true that a great harvest could be reaped. But there is a lack of people willing to become laborers for God's harvest."
Benedict XVI noted: "The Lord seeks laborers for his harvest. He himself said as much: 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.' That is why we are gathered here: to make this urgent request to the Lord of the harvest."
The meeting with the Pontiff thus became a prayer for vocations.
"We knock"
"Today it is as then," he said, "when the Lord was moved with pity for the crowds which seemed like sheep without a shepherd -- people who probably knew how to do many things, but found it hard to make sense of their lives.
"Lord, look upon our troubled times, which need preachers of the Gospel, witnesses to you, persons who can point the way toward 'life in abundance'! Look upon our world and feel pity once more! Look upon our world and send us laborers!
"With this petition we knock on God's door; but with the same petition the Lord is also knocking on the doors of our own heart. Lord do you want me? Is it not perhaps too big for me? Am I too small for this? 'Do not be afraid,' the angel said to Mary. 'Do not fear: I have called you by name,' God says through the Prophet Isaiah to us -- to each of us."
This morning, the Pope celebrated Mass in the square of the shrine, which every year receives more than 1 million pilgrims. Some 60,000 people attended today's Mass.
In his homily, dedicated to Mary, Benedict XVI explained that Christ and his Mother are united in their acceptance of the will of God which the Blessed Virgin makes evident during the annunciation.
At the end of the Mass, the Holy Father inaugurated the shrine's new Adoration Chapel, which he called the "treasury," as "the Church's true treasure" is "the permanent presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament."
ZE06091109
ALTOETTING, Germany, SEPT. 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI stressed that if Catholics pray with profound faith the Church will receive the vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life that it needs.
The Pope expressed this conviction when celebrating Vespers this evening with religious and seminarians of Bavaria and members of the Society for Spiritual Vocations in the Basilica of St. Anne in the Marian shrine of Altoetting.
"God's harvest is indeed great, and it needs laborers," said the Holy Father. "In the so-called Third World -- in Latin America, in Africa and in Asia -- people are waiting for heralds to bring them the Gospel of peace, the good news of God who became man.
"But also in the so-called West, here among us in Germany, and in the vast lands of Russia it is true that a great harvest could be reaped. But there is a lack of people willing to become laborers for God's harvest."
Benedict XVI noted: "The Lord seeks laborers for his harvest. He himself said as much: 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.' That is why we are gathered here: to make this urgent request to the Lord of the harvest."
The meeting with the Pontiff thus became a prayer for vocations.
"We knock"
"Today it is as then," he said, "when the Lord was moved with pity for the crowds which seemed like sheep without a shepherd -- people who probably knew how to do many things, but found it hard to make sense of their lives.
"Lord, look upon our troubled times, which need preachers of the Gospel, witnesses to you, persons who can point the way toward 'life in abundance'! Look upon our world and feel pity once more! Look upon our world and send us laborers!
"With this petition we knock on God's door; but with the same petition the Lord is also knocking on the doors of our own heart. Lord do you want me? Is it not perhaps too big for me? Am I too small for this? 'Do not be afraid,' the angel said to Mary. 'Do not fear: I have called you by name,' God says through the Prophet Isaiah to us -- to each of us."
This morning, the Pope celebrated Mass in the square of the shrine, which every year receives more than 1 million pilgrims. Some 60,000 people attended today's Mass.
In his homily, dedicated to Mary, Benedict XVI explained that Christ and his Mother are united in their acceptance of the will of God which the Blessed Virgin makes evident during the annunciation.
At the end of the Mass, the Holy Father inaugurated the shrine's new Adoration Chapel, which he called the "treasury," as "the Church's true treasure" is "the permanent presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament."
ZE06091109
Monday, September 11, 2006
Keep praying, stay close to Him!
My friend emailed me these words from 2 great Saints...I think they're really helpful:
We should not bear it with bad grace if the answer to our prayer
is long delayed. Rather let us because of this show great patience and
resignation. For He delays for this reason: that we may offer Him a fitting occasion of honoring us through His divine providence. Whether, therefore, we recieve what we ask for, or do not recieve it, let us still continue steadfast in prayer. For to fail in obtaining the desires of our heart, when God so wills it, is not worse than to recieve it ; for we know not as He does, what is profitable to us.
-- St. John Chrysostom
If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin
every day of our life with new eagerness. We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and have no other view or end in all our actions but the divine honor.
-- St. Charles Borromeo
Monday morning
Hello! Monday morning again! How exciting...another week ahead! Hope you've all
had a good weekend. Mine was pretty busy...revision, Mass (x2), adoration,
confession, rosary prayer group, another birthday dinner, showing all my wedding
photos to my family (they hadn't seen the ones from the photographer yet), out
to buy new bed sheets & pillows (Chris's neck is apparently being crippled by the scrawny pillows we currently have and he's in so much pain that he hasnt been able to do any rowing training for the last 2 days (a bit of a nightmare when you're aiming to train twice a DAY for some big rowing trials coming up in 2 weeks!))(the new pillows we bought are apparently also too scrawny!), entertaining Chris's friends who came over (luckily I didn't have to go down the toast & jam route as when Chris's parents were here!)
Oh, in other news...we have some interesting and mildly entertaining blue sparks that appear from under the washing machine when it is turned on. This is accompanied by a loud *bang* noise from inside the washing machine....
Needless to say that we swicthed it off immediatly and so havent been able to do any washing for the last 5 days as we wait for the washing machine repair man!
Anyway, I should go now. It is 8:30am and I am still in my pjs (luckily I dont have to be in till 9:30am, but as I dont quite know where I need to be ( I am based on a new psychiatry site as of today), I should probably go early to find my way around! I am starting psychiatry IN-patients today, which means all the people who have such seriously bad illness that they need to be kept in hospital (as opposed to OUT-patients which is what I've been doing for the last 3 weeks (i.e. patients with psychiatric issues but who can live in the community).
God Bless!
Dont forget to pray for Priests!!
aarrgghhhh!! My photo-uploading option is broken AGAIN on blogger!
had a good weekend. Mine was pretty busy...revision, Mass (x2), adoration,
confession, rosary prayer group, another birthday dinner, showing all my wedding
photos to my family (they hadn't seen the ones from the photographer yet), out
to buy new bed sheets & pillows (Chris's neck is apparently being crippled by the scrawny pillows we currently have and he's in so much pain that he hasnt been able to do any rowing training for the last 2 days (a bit of a nightmare when you're aiming to train twice a DAY for some big rowing trials coming up in 2 weeks!))(the new pillows we bought are apparently also too scrawny!), entertaining Chris's friends who came over (luckily I didn't have to go down the toast & jam route as when Chris's parents were here!)
Oh, in other news...we have some interesting and mildly entertaining blue sparks that appear from under the washing machine when it is turned on. This is accompanied by a loud *bang* noise from inside the washing machine....
Needless to say that we swicthed it off immediatly and so havent been able to do any washing for the last 5 days as we wait for the washing machine repair man!
Anyway, I should go now. It is 8:30am and I am still in my pjs (luckily I dont have to be in till 9:30am, but as I dont quite know where I need to be ( I am based on a new psychiatry site as of today), I should probably go early to find my way around! I am starting psychiatry IN-patients today, which means all the people who have such seriously bad illness that they need to be kept in hospital (as opposed to OUT-patients which is what I've been doing for the last 3 weeks (i.e. patients with psychiatric issues but who can live in the community).
God Bless!
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless.The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
-Bl. Mother Teresa The Struggle
We have to instil in our souls a true horror for sin. Lord -say it with a contrite heart - may I never offend you again!
But don't be frightened when you become aware of the burden of your poor body and of human passions: it would be silly and childishly naive to findout now that "this" exists. Your wretchedness is not an obstacle but a spurfor you to become more united to God and seek him constantly, because He purifies us. - St. Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, #134
Dont forget to pray for Priests!!
aarrgghhhh!! My photo-uploading option is broken AGAIN on blogger!
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Friday, September 08, 2006
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MARY!!
Happy Birthday to Our Sweet Beautiful Virgin Queen!
On an off-note...a year ago today in St. Anthonny's Basillica in Padua, Italy, Chris proposed to me infront of a staue of Our Lady!!
**The Beautiful Litany to Our Lady**
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Christ hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the word, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, pray for us.
Holy Mother of God, pray for us.
Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us.
Mother of Christ, pray for us.
Mother of the Church, pray for us.
Mother of Divine Grace, pray for us.
Mother most pure, pray for us.
Mother most chaste, pray for us.
Mother inviolate, pray for us.
Mother undefiled, pray for us.
Mother most amiable, pray for us.
Mother most admirable, pray for us.
Mother of good counsel, pray for us.
Mother of our Creator, pray for us.
Mother of our Savior, pray for us.
Virgin most prudent, pray for us.
Virgin most venerable, pray for us.
Virgin most renowned, pray for us.
Virgin most powerful, pray for us.
Virgin most merciful, pray for us.
Virgin most faithful, pray for us.
Mirror of justice, pray for us.
Seat of wisdom, pray for us.
Cause of our joy, pray for us.
Spiritual vessel, pray for us.
Singular vessel of devotion, pray for us.
Mystical rose, pray for us.
Tower of David, pray for us.
Tower of ivory, pray for us.
House of gold, pray for us.
Ark of the Covenant, pray for us.
Gate of heaven, pray for us.
Morning star, pray for us.
Health of the sick, pray for us.
Refuge of sinners, pray for us.
Comforter of the afflicted, pray for us.
Help of Christians, pray for us.
Queen of angels, pray for us.
Queen of patriarchs, pray for us.
Queen of prophets, pray for us.
Queen of apostles, pray for us.
Queen of martyrs, pray for us.
Queen of confessors, pray for us.
Queen of virgins, pray for us.
Queen of all Saints, pray for us.
Queen conceived without Original Sin, pray for us.
Queen assumed into Heaven, pray for us.
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.
Queen of Peace, pray for us.
Queen of the Church, pray for us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world; spare us O Lord!
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world; graciously hear us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world; have mercy on us.Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray:
O God, whose only begotten Son by His life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation, grant, we pray, that meditating upon these mysteries in the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise. Amen.
-
Thursday, September 07, 2006
I really want to write a post about psychiatry and some of my thoughts from the last 3 weeks spent in both child and adult psychiatry clinics. However, I seem to have a gajillions things to do I am also trying to procrastinate less.
(I went to a talk last weekend all about the importance of offering up every moment to God in order sanctify our day and turn our daily activities into prayer. The speaker said something which really struck me....she said that we have to try and do things with both human perfection and holy intent. It struck me beause very very very (very) often I don't do my academic work to the best of I can; when I work I usually have the internet on in the background and I'm contantly up and down from my chair checking my email, checking facebook (which I got back by the way!), etc, and so consequently my work ends up being half-done, with poor concentration, poor effort...and constantly very sloppily. (also...I dont learn anything!!!))
So what was I talking about?
Oh yeh, so I am trying not to procrastinate as much anymore and do my academic work and daily work with more precision, trying to ensure I am constantly aware that God is watching, and that I should do things properly, and to the best of the abilities He has given me.
Which is why I havent been able to write my post on psychiatry!
But I will! ( I will set aside some special 'blog time', which is distinct from my 'academic work' time!)
But for now I am off to mass, and then to a friend's birthday dinner!
God Bless!
ps- the picture is just a picture that I particularly like from the wedding. I put it up cos I thought this was just going to be a short post...instead of a confusing ramble!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Daily meditation
It's been about 4 months or so now that I've been signed up to Regnum Christi's daily meditation, and I must share with you all how truely wonderful they are.
Every day they email the Gospel reading with a really really good reflection on it, including a prayer to Jesus and some practical tips.
Seriously, I have found them very helpful. They email them round in the morning (you put in your country of residence) and I usually read them over breakfast. Then if I'm able to go to daily mass that day, because I've already read and meditated on the Gospel, I am more aware of the message and able to understand, and enter in a lot more.
So if you are interested in signing up: CLICK HERE and then type in your email address in the right hand box which says "Please subscribe me to the daily meditation"
Every day they email the Gospel reading with a really really good reflection on it, including a prayer to Jesus and some practical tips.
Seriously, I have found them very helpful. They email them round in the morning (you put in your country of residence) and I usually read them over breakfast. Then if I'm able to go to daily mass that day, because I've already read and meditated on the Gospel, I am more aware of the message and able to understand, and enter in a lot more.
So if you are interested in signing up: CLICK HERE and then type in your email address in the right hand box which says "Please subscribe me to the daily meditation"
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
I found this story really heart-warming, but maybe that's just cos I love love love Pope Benedict, and hearing of other people who love him makes me super happy!!
It is so cute about his cat & dog!
~~~~~~~
Pope's former neighbors opt to protect his privacy and reject lucrative offer from the media
MUNICH, September 4 (CNA) - Neighbors of a home where Pope Benedict XVI once lived in Germany have shown this week that their friendship with the Pontiff does not have a price tag. Rupert Hofbauer and his wife rejected an offer of $128,000 to allow photographers to take pictures of the Pope during the only private day of his visit to the country.
The Pope has reserved September 13 to visit the home he lived in while a professor in Pentling in Bavaria. He intends to spend the day with this brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, and hopes to do so away from the media.
According to German state television, Hofbauer rejected "an offer of $128,000 dollars which a group of cameramen made in order to be allowed to take pictures from his house," hoping to catch a shot of the Pope in the comfort of his former home.
Hofbauer is not only the Pope's neighbor; he also happens to be the caretaker of the home where then Cardinal Ratzinger once lived. He said he rejected the offer out respect for their relationship. "I cannot fall out of graces with the Holy Father," he explained.
In 1977, the renowned theology professor of Ratisbona, Father Josef Ratzinger, was named Archbishop of Munich and Freising. After receiving the news, he asked Hofbauer to take care of his home and his garden.
Since April 19, 2005, the day Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope, Hofbauer, who is a retired firefighter from the city of Ratisbona, have also provided information to those who come to visit the place where Pope Benedict XVI once lived.
"I hope they allow me to personally open the door," Hofbauer said, adding with a smile, "The Pope holds the keys to the kingdom on his coat-of-arms, but he doesn't have the keys to his own home."
Preparations
According to German television, Hofbauer and his wife are planting new flowers and plants in the Pope's garden in preparation for his visit. "The one in charge of the arrangements is my wife, as she is very familiar with what the Holy Father likes," he said.
A man from Pentling who used to be an altar boy for Cardinal Ratzinger recently painted the home and received a personal thank you from the Pontiff. Other preparations include a new gate, made by students from Weiden and Amberg, and the refinishing of the deck and the entrance.
Hofbauer has a special gift for the Pope, who has a weak spot for sweets. For several weeks he has collected over 35 pounds of honey from beehives in the garden.
Two other residents of the Pope's home are anxious for his arrival: a golden retriever named Ingo and a cat named Chico. "In fact, the Pope misses his two pets," Hofbauer said. "Every time someone from Bavaria visits him in Rome, he asks how is pets are doing."
It is so cute about his cat & dog!
~~~~~~~
Pope's former neighbors opt to protect his privacy and reject lucrative offer from the media
MUNICH, September 4 (CNA) - Neighbors of a home where Pope Benedict XVI once lived in Germany have shown this week that their friendship with the Pontiff does not have a price tag. Rupert Hofbauer and his wife rejected an offer of $128,000 to allow photographers to take pictures of the Pope during the only private day of his visit to the country.
The Pope has reserved September 13 to visit the home he lived in while a professor in Pentling in Bavaria. He intends to spend the day with this brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, and hopes to do so away from the media.
According to German state television, Hofbauer rejected "an offer of $128,000 dollars which a group of cameramen made in order to be allowed to take pictures from his house," hoping to catch a shot of the Pope in the comfort of his former home.
Hofbauer is not only the Pope's neighbor; he also happens to be the caretaker of the home where then Cardinal Ratzinger once lived. He said he rejected the offer out respect for their relationship. "I cannot fall out of graces with the Holy Father," he explained.
In 1977, the renowned theology professor of Ratisbona, Father Josef Ratzinger, was named Archbishop of Munich and Freising. After receiving the news, he asked Hofbauer to take care of his home and his garden.
Since April 19, 2005, the day Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope, Hofbauer, who is a retired firefighter from the city of Ratisbona, have also provided information to those who come to visit the place where Pope Benedict XVI once lived.
"I hope they allow me to personally open the door," Hofbauer said, adding with a smile, "The Pope holds the keys to the kingdom on his coat-of-arms, but he doesn't have the keys to his own home."
Preparations
According to German television, Hofbauer and his wife are planting new flowers and plants in the Pope's garden in preparation for his visit. "The one in charge of the arrangements is my wife, as she is very familiar with what the Holy Father likes," he said.
A man from Pentling who used to be an altar boy for Cardinal Ratzinger recently painted the home and received a personal thank you from the Pontiff. Other preparations include a new gate, made by students from Weiden and Amberg, and the refinishing of the deck and the entrance.
Hofbauer has a special gift for the Pope, who has a weak spot for sweets. For several weeks he has collected over 35 pounds of honey from beehives in the garden.
Two other residents of the Pope's home are anxious for his arrival: a golden retriever named Ingo and a cat named Chico. "In fact, the Pope misses his two pets," Hofbauer said. "Every time someone from Bavaria visits him in Rome, he asks how is pets are doing."
**ALL ABOUT MY WEDDING**
I decided to tidy up my blog, and collate together all the posts to do with my wedding, from before the proposal till after the day!
Wedding & Marriage Plans
Wedding & Marriage Plans
- Us together
- Contraception & the Bible
- Contraception II
- Chastity
- HE PROPOSED!!
- Venue Decisions
- Being a medical student & planning a wedding
- THE DRESS!
- 8 month countdown
- The invitations
- Marriage works in Christ
- Modern sex & marriage
- NFP = nature's way
- 'Love' vs. 'Affection'
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith
- Abstinence = better life
- 6 MONTH COUNTDOWN
- Potential Bridesmaid Dresses
- Bridesmaids2
- 100 days to go!
- New beginning
- Our 1st NFP Class
- Just to say
- Roses, rings & other wedding things
- We have a house!
- Marriage Prep I with Priest
- 40 days...
- New creation
- T-minus 30 days...and counting..
- Marriage Prep II with Priest..
- Marriage Prep II with Priest
- Weddingy stuff
- Consecration Prayer
- Wedding Roses
- Throwing Rice
- 1 Chorinthians
- Hen Party!
- St. Joseph Wedding Novena
- The Wedding Vows
- 6 day countdown
- Last post before the wedding!
- Married Lady Speaks
- Few Pictures
- Wedding story + Photos
- ME + POPE
PHOTOS OF THE BIG DAY + WITH POPE!
Monday, September 04, 2006
Marriage
Three quotes:
First, another beautiful quote from our beloved Pope B! You never really consider that the Pope thinks about things like crying babies in the night! How blessed we are to have such a wonderfully human, but oh-so-wise, Holy Father!
On married couples
finally, although not specifically pertaining to marriage, this quote from Pope St. Gregory high-lights the importance of loving in actions. Anyone can 'love' in words, but true love is a decision we make, not a feeling we have. And so genuine love can only be shown in our actions:
First, another beautiful quote from our beloved Pope B! You never really consider that the Pope thinks about things like crying babies in the night! How blessed we are to have such a wonderfully human, but oh-so-wise, Holy Father!
On married couples
We should learn to accept, whether we are priests or married persons, the need to endure the crisis of change, of the other, the crisis of when it seems one can no longer stay together or proceed as before.
Married couples should learn to learn together how to move ahead, if only for the love of their children, and in so doing, to get to know each other anew, love each other anew with a love that is much more profound and much more genuine.
Thus love truly matures, through a long course, beset with suffering.I think we priests can learn from married couples, from their
suffering and sacrifice. Often we think that only celibacy is sacrifice. But in getting to learn the sacrifices of married persons - think of raising children, the problems that arise from that, the fears, the suffering, the ailments, rebelliousness, or just think of the first years of having children, with sleepless nights attending to crying babies - there is much we can learn from their sacrifices, and our own sacrifices.
from the catechism, about why not to live together before marriage
Some today claim a "right to a trial marriage" where there is an
intention of getting married later. However firm the purpose of those who engage in premature sexual relations may be, "the fact is that such liaisons can scarcely ensure mutual sincerity and fidelity in a relationship between a man and a woman, nor, especially, can they protect it from inconstancy of desires or whim." Carnal union is morally legitimate only when a definitive community of life between a man and woman has been established. Human love does not tolerate "trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another. Catechism #2391
finally, although not specifically pertaining to marriage, this quote from Pope St. Gregory high-lights the importance of loving in actions. Anyone can 'love' in words, but true love is a decision we make, not a feeling we have. And so genuine love can only be shown in our actions:
The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works
great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.
– Pope St. Gregory the Great
Saturday, September 02, 2006
babies!
Many thanks to Lori, who put up a post on these adorable teeny tiny baby models!
AREN'T THEY JUST SOOOOOOO CUTE!!!
main site here
Waaaa!!
So I just deleted my entire facebook account!!
To those of you with facebook, you will be able to sympathise what a semi-tragedy this is (albeit in a not-*that*-important-in-the-grand-scheme-of-life kinda way ).
Facebook is a website where High-Schools, Colleges, Universities, Businesses etc join, and then you can join as a member of your University/high-school or whatever. It is massively popular in the USA and pretty popular here in the UK too.
Basically, it is a massive database of people and each person has their own profile. What you do is search for & add friends ( I have re-met up with so many people from my past! People I haven't been in touch with for like 15 years!) and you can also up-load endless photos and tag your friends in the photos so that it appears on their account. You can also customise your account, write messages to your friends and generally keep in touch with people.
I've had it for over a year now, and accumulated some 150+ friends from my University, from my high-school, from summer-camp in the USA, from my time in Saudi etc. I also had about 300 photos of me up there that I/friends have put up over the last 1.5 years. I had hundreds of messages and was a part of some 30 groups....
AND I'VE JUST LOST IT ALL THROUGH MY OWN SILLYNESS!!
The explanation is a little complicated, but if you are bored...read on...
Basically, what I did was try to change the surname of my current account to my *new* married surname.
But it takes a while for the name to change as it has to be approved or something.
So as soon as I submitted my new surname, and before I got any approval, I created myself ~another~ account, using the SAME email address and my old account, the SAME password, and my un-married name.
I thought this would be clever because then if people from my past search for me using my maiden name, they will still find me ( & then I can just direct them from that account, to my main account with my new name)
(I agree, somewhat confusing but it makes sense in my head!)
So let's all guess what happened?
Because the surname from my old account hadn't yet been officially approved, it still had my maiden name...that is, the same as the name on the new account.
Yes, that's right.
So I had just created a NEW BLANK account with the same user name, the same email address, the same password as an existing account...and so the new blank and empty account I created has TAKEN THE PLACE OF my flurishing original account.
I am silly.
So instead of having my account with all my friends, all my photos, all my messages and notes and customisations......I HAVE A TOTALLY BLANK AND BARE ACCOUNT.
Okay, so like I said, not the greatest tragedy ever to befall mankind. It'll only take some 50+ hours to re-add every single one of my friends and every photos, but it is rectifiable.
I'm only complaining because Chris is out at my parent's house watching some football game with my dad, and I am home-alone and feel like whinning to someone!
blaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
To those of you with facebook, you will be able to sympathise what a semi-tragedy this is (albeit in a not-*that*-important-in-the-grand-scheme-of-life kinda way ).
Facebook is a website where High-Schools, Colleges, Universities, Businesses etc join, and then you can join as a member of your University/high-school or whatever. It is massively popular in the USA and pretty popular here in the UK too.
Basically, it is a massive database of people and each person has their own profile. What you do is search for & add friends ( I have re-met up with so many people from my past! People I haven't been in touch with for like 15 years!) and you can also up-load endless photos and tag your friends in the photos so that it appears on their account. You can also customise your account, write messages to your friends and generally keep in touch with people.
I've had it for over a year now, and accumulated some 150+ friends from my University, from my high-school, from summer-camp in the USA, from my time in Saudi etc. I also had about 300 photos of me up there that I/friends have put up over the last 1.5 years. I had hundreds of messages and was a part of some 30 groups....
AND I'VE JUST LOST IT ALL THROUGH MY OWN SILLYNESS!!
The explanation is a little complicated, but if you are bored...read on...
Basically, what I did was try to change the surname of my current account to my *new* married surname.
But it takes a while for the name to change as it has to be approved or something.
So as soon as I submitted my new surname, and before I got any approval, I created myself ~another~ account, using the SAME email address and my old account, the SAME password, and my un-married name.
I thought this would be clever because then if people from my past search for me using my maiden name, they will still find me ( & then I can just direct them from that account, to my main account with my new name)
(I agree, somewhat confusing but it makes sense in my head!)
So let's all guess what happened?
Because the surname from my old account hadn't yet been officially approved, it still had my maiden name...that is, the same as the name on the new account.
Yes, that's right.
So I had just created a NEW BLANK account with the same user name, the same email address, the same password as an existing account...and so the new blank and empty account I created has TAKEN THE PLACE OF my flurishing original account.
I am silly.
So instead of having my account with all my friends, all my photos, all my messages and notes and customisations......I HAVE A TOTALLY BLANK AND BARE ACCOUNT.
Okay, so like I said, not the greatest tragedy ever to befall mankind. It'll only take some 50+ hours to re-add every single one of my friends and every photos, but it is rectifiable.
I'm only complaining because Chris is out at my parent's house watching some football game with my dad, and I am home-alone and feel like whinning to someone!
blaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
How much we take for granted!
I know I have posted this quote before, but I think it is really thought-provoking:
To compromise is a sure sign of not possessing the truth. When a man gives way in matters of ideals, of honour or of Faith, that man is a man without ideals, without honour and without Faith. –
- St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, #394
On a separate note, a dear friend of mine sent me a card today with this beautiful picture of Our Lady of China on the front:
I had never heard of her before, so I looked up the story (here is a bit below):
In April 1900, a force of ten thousand rioters attacked Tong Lu (a village in China). The soldiers, in senseless rage, started to shoot into the sky. Then suddenly they fled, frightened, and never came back again.
According to the legend, a woman in white appeared above the settlement, and the rioters' bullets were aimed at her. When the apparition did not fade, attackers had not even time to reorganize because a strange horseman put them to flight. Soon after they had disappeared beyond the horizon.
Father Wu, a Chinese priest, confessed to his flock that he invoked the help of Mary. A new church was built on the site and Father Wu placed a picture of Our Lady on the main altar. He asked the painter to dress Our Lady in the royal robes of the dowager Empress Tzi-Hsi. The image of the Blessed Virgin in the royal robes of the pagan Empress, with the Christ Child on her knees, is vivid expression of Chinese tradition. It is a shrine of the Mother and her Son. Though her robes be pagan, she belongs to every age, to all people and to every race. As was told and promised in the Old Testament: "I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge and of holy hope."
The Tong Lu church was completely destroyed recently by the Chinese Communists, but the picture of Our Lady of China remains intact because only a copy of the picture was used in the church. The original was hidden in the wall behind the copy, and this was recovered and found intact. It is now in possession of Chinese priests who carry out their activities in disguise.
~
Sometimes I think about what heroic courage and faith the Catholics in China have. It can be so easy for us to think of people risking their lives for the faith as something in the past. Something that doesnt really happen anymore. But oh how it does! The Catholics in China risk persecution, torture and death for Christ & His Church, and similarly in many other places round the world. How much they must love Him to do so! How many of us would do the same?
Sometimes I think about us in the Western world; we are free to go to Mass every day of the week, to recieve the Sacraments of Reconcilliation as frequently as we want, to read the Bible, to read holy and wholesome books...really, we have it all on a plate, without risk of (overt) persecution.....and yet how much we take it all for granted!
We may recieve communion without really being aware of *what* exactly we are recieving; without even appreciating what we are recieveing. We moan and whine when we have to go to Mass. We may neglect to go to frequent confession, turning a blind eye on our sins, and so becoming even blinder. We may pass by a Catholic Church and not even spare a loving thought for Jesus who is inside. We may put off praying our daily rosary or daily prayers, but instead waste our evenings watching trash tv and mindlessly surfing the net.
It is ironic really that we, who can freely access all the love and graces that God has to offer through His Church, are so neglectful and have such a lack of appreciation for them! Choosing instead activities that starve us and stiffle us.
But yet there are people in the world, at this very moment, who risk all they have, their very lives, to acess these exact same things that we so often choose to neglect!
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