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On the Third Day

01/13/2012

in Weblog

Sweet Petunia

Photo for the day, for my Project 365, wherein I post a photo a day for a year.

It’s a petunia out in the garden, taken as I was moving plants around for the cold weather blowing in.

Similar to the photo posted yesterday, it was taken the day before I actually posted it on my photo-a-day-photo-shoot-extravanganza.

But I’m guessing that’s OK, and that the project 365 police aren’t going to come after me for being a day behind on this. Because … I’m not really a day behind. I’m early, and have been planning ahead.

Tomorrow on the other hand, will find that I’ve taken zero pictures today, and will have it’s own photo of the day at which point we’ll be all caught up, and everybody can breath a sigh of relief and stop stressing out over this entire issue. (Not that anyone was of course.)

“Around here we’re always on the go. We don’t need caffeine bringing us down!” Name that commercial?

Splash, out.

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Masculine Saints

01/12/2012

in Weblog

Saint Sebastian This morning I took to looking around the internet for images of masculine saints.

It kind of goes with the territory in Priesthood (I’d imagine,) as many images of male saints can kind of stylized, or even efete.

That led to some interesting blogs.

Prophetic Vision of Saint John of Kronstadt

Di Meliora, which has some beautiful pictures up.

And it led to a slew of women’s rights blogs, condemning the role of religion in putting women down, denying women their rights, and generally being ignorant. A prominent theme there is the speech given by Jimmy Carter on Religion as an Agent of Women’s Oppression. ::rolling eyes::

But I did find a few, before prayer beckoned me away.

For instance this picture of St. John of Kronstadt. A masculine image from another time, perhaps a more simple time, if the turn of the 18th-19th century could be called that.

john of kronstadt

For the record, I don’t consider that the Catholic Faith oppresses women. I often hear from women that they want to be Priests, but I have the feeling that if they were Priests, they’d quickly realize the Grass is Greener syndrome is, as usual, not all it’s cracked up to be.

Anyway, all of this also showed up the below photo of Mads Mikkelson, from the film Valhalla Rising. As far as I know he’s not a saint, and he’s not portraying one on film. But he is a current image of masculinity.

Mads Mikkelson
And all of this was spurred in the first place because I’m hitting the gym and the diet again, and wanted fit and holy role models for inspiration. (It’s not spurred in the least by the fact that I’m a complete internet nerd. Not in the least!)

Masculine imagery, like feminine imagery, changes through time in societies. Perhaps you need to hit the gym or do some diet correction today too?

Splash, out.

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My good friend Gary Sinise (right! He has no clue who I am, we’ve never met and more than likely never will, God bless him,) tweeted this link, to this video.

It’s awesome.

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engravingGreat site here with scans from old books.

The page shown here is filled with art, and the site itself has a number of other treasures, worth a leafing through.

It’s great if you happen to need a bit of art to add to a post, or if you’re designing a site and need some high quality free graphics. (Who wouldn’t want that?)

Be sure to check it out and bookmark it; it’s called From Old Books.

Eagle and nest

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On a separate note…

Years ago I learned CSS by reading through a book written by Molly Holzschlag. I learned everything I needed to know, and immediately decided to learn php.

I never did, but recently the bug resurfaced, and I cam across the video series Diving into PHP.

What, this should take a few days? We’ll see how this goes….

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Merry Christmas! O Magnum Mysterium

by Fr. KA December 25, 2011 Weblog

Latin text O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum, ut animalia viderent Dominum natum, jacentem in praesepio! Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt portare Dominum Christum. Alleluia. English translation O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger! Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ [...]

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The Feast of St. Ambrose of Milan

Thumbnail image for The Feast of St. Ambrose of Milan by Fr. KA December 7, 2011 Weblog

St. Ambrose, a Father of the Church, is certainly an interesting character to study. Take for instance this bio-blurb from the Catholic Encyclopedia over at New Advent. Through the door of his chamber, wide open the livelong day, and crossed unannounced by all, of whatever estate, who had any sort of business with him, we [...]

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The Iron Lady

by Fr. KA November 15, 2011 Weblog

Well the long awaited film on Margaret Thatcher’s life is coming due January 6. Baroness Thatcher’s friends are distancing themselves, saying it is a ‘left wing fantasy’. Concessions exist though, that it may help to demonstrate that she was the ‘Nostradamus of her day’, regarding the economic future of Europe. Meryl Streep’s performance is garnering [...]

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The Zoo

by Fr. KA November 13, 2011 photography

It never occurred to me until the other day, after I had taken this picture, that orangutans earned their name by the color of their fur. So, I looked it up over at dictionary dot comand found out that ‘orangutan’ is actually from pidgen or ‘bazaar Malay’ and means ‘forest man’. So there. And with [...]

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On Martin of Tours, and on Wikipedia Being Wrong about Katrina

by Fr. KA November 11, 2011 Weblog

Wikipedia has a lovely article on Martin of Tours. It’s very well documented. This was especially informative: While Martin was still a soldier in the Roman army and deployed in Gaul (modern day France), he experienced the vision that became the most-repeated story about his life. One day as he was approaching the gates of [...]

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A Bit of History

by Fr. KA November 11, 2011 Weblog

OK. I have this bad habit of leaving groups of tabs open in my web browser so that I can come back to them and either read them or make note of them for future reference. Then, I never read them and end up just closing the browser and forgetting about them all completely. Or [...]

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Tocqueville’s Impressions of New Orleans

by Fr. KA November 10, 2011 Weblog

From the Tocqueville Site comes this report, or translation, or Tocqueville’s impression of the city, from January 1 -3, 1832: Impressions of New Orleans Arrival at New Orleans. Forest of ships. Mississippi 300 feet deep. External appearance of the town. Beautiful houses. Huts. Muddy, unpaved streets. Spanish architecture: flat roofs; English; bricks, little doors; French: [...]

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The Gift of Music

by Fr. KA November 10, 2011 Weblog

One of my friends is constantly berating me for not knowing the words to popular R&B and rock tunes. What can I say? Here are some of the ways I spend my listening time… Awesome video of Horowitz playing Rachmaninoff. And a fun (and awesome) video of Martha Argerich playing Prokofiev. She’s so beautiful to [...]

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Buying American For Christmas

by Fr. KA November 8, 2011 Weblog

This is an e-mail going around, with a great idea. Why buy cheaply produced overseas stuff, when we can give American goods and services instead? Great point. Christmas 2011 — Birth of a New Tradition As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of [...]

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Ansel Adams – Updated

by Fr. KA October 29, 2011 Weblog

I’ve been investigating a few links on Ansel Adams today. Did you know he was an accomplished musician, and a trained concert pianist in real life? I guess ‘accomplished photographer’ was just his day job. His son had this wonderful excerpt to say: “The great American artist’s darkroom techniques—through dodging and burning—allowed him to see [...]

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40 Days for Life

by Fr. KA October 27, 2011 Weblog

Today our Parish helped pray through the hours of the 40 Days for Life, along with St. Charles Borromeo Parish and Our Lady of Divine Providence Parish. Talk about an amazing day. These kids were sitting here singing contemporary hymns after praying their Rosary. I also met the directors of the Louisiana Right to Life [...]

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About St. Jude

by Fr. KA October 26, 2011 Weblog

Not a lot is known about St. Jude’s life. But, because of the great popularity after his death, history has passed down to us the basics of his life and death. The International Shrine of St. Jude, which is for some reason located here in New Orleans, has a brief biography of the illustrious saint. [...]

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Stabat Mater

by Fr. KA October 25, 2011 Weblog

The Pergolesi Stabat Mater, movement #1. Lisa Graas had a posting of the Scarlatti Stabat Mater, and that reminded me of the Pergolesi piece, which I find so extraordinary and beautiful. Here are two other versions… And… I can never decide which one I like the best. Perfect for the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, [...]

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Novena to St. Jude

by Fr. KA October 24, 2011 Weblog

Our Parish hosts an annual Novena to St. Jude, which is wrapping up tomorrow. (The Feast of St Jude is on October 28th.) It’s been a wonderful prayer experience. Here’s a beautiful prayer to St. Jude, who is a great intercessor. Most holy Apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honors [...]

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The Economic Document

by Fr. KA October 24, 2011 Weblog

The world is all abuzz with the new Vatican Document on the Economy presented this morning. A major problem is that it’s impossible to imagine a world with the United Nations functioning as the key financial player, while at the same time having a just world. Michael Gorbachev is saying basically the same thing as [...]

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Swanning About

by Fr. KA October 21, 2011 Weblog

Our nearby park has lots of black swans. So I looked them up today and realized they are from Australia, and then started wondering why we would have them here. And then, I looked them up here and found thousands of gorgeous black swan pictures at our local bird sanctuary. I guess I had missed [...]

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St. Augustine said to Proba…

by Fr. KA October 20, 2011 Weblog

This from the Office of Readings this morning, and it was the reading which most spoke to me as I woke and prayed into the day. Until, of course, I realized I had done the wrong set of readings because I was remembering the Memorial of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists. [...]

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A View From the Natchez

by Fr. KA October 18, 2011 Weblog

The Natchez is a riverboat docked perpetually in New Orleans, which goes out daily (and nightly) on jazz cruises. This evening the Catholic Foundation hosted an appreciation dinner for Priests aboard the Natchez. It was a great time. Many great photos, but for now the above sums up the river view of the city from [...]

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A Brief Update

by Fr. KA October 17, 2011 Weblog

The lake upon which the cabin sat, wherein I made a day of retreat last week, beckons me to consider a retreat in its proper fullness. Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and [...]

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Linking Christianophobia

by Fr. KA October 16, 2011 Weblog

Posting up a few links this morning on Christianophobia, which I have the feeling will be called by other names soon. Intolerance Against Christians is a European site, which chronicles (well, obviously) Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe. “Beauty must be understood in its original meaning: as the glow of the true and the [...]

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The New Ethos

by Fr. KA October 13, 2011 Weblog

I came across Fr. Don Woznicki’s website New Ethos this morning, via a Twitter recommendation. Very interesting. Especially given the fact that I love movies, film, cinema, the arts, music, et cetera. He’s picking up on John Paul II’s call for a new ethos in entertainment, one which acknowledges and uplifts our spirits in accord [...]

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Desert Day

by Fr. KA October 12, 2011 Weblog

So I drove to Natchez up Highway 61 after Masses the other day, and made a small day of retreat in a cabin on a lake. I love driving up Highway 61 because you see interesting sites like this, which always get’s one wondering what it was all about in it’s heyday. The cabin had [...]

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The White Rose of Mary Magdalen

by Fr. KA October 8, 2011 Weblog

What a great idea for a post when I don’t have anything else to post about. Or, for when I have a lot to post about but no time to write about it. Here is one of my sombreuil roses, which is doing pretty well out back. In fact they’re all doing well, except for [...]

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Cortege

by Fr. KA October 5, 2011 Weblog

My webhost’s database server appears to be down, and keeps crashing. Either that or my site has been hacked and corrupted almost beyond workability. I prefer to think that it’s the former. That being said, here is a part of the post I was working on. Various pictures of the rest of the cortege, i.e. [...]

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Death Comes to the Archbishop

by Fr. KA October 3, 2011 photography

Fresh on the heels of our astoundingly successful Parish fair, come the wake services for Archbishop Philip M. Hannan, may God rest his soul.   His body arrived at the seminary this evening at 5:00p.m.  The location of the seminary is easy for many to get to, and the Chapel and grounds are conducive to [...]

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