Let me first begin by saying I absolutely loved the movie.
There were many powerful scenes in the movie and many powerful statements based on scripture, the word of God. But the biggest takeaway for me apart from love is the only way, is how we all need to belong to a community of Christ.
Even St Paul’s faith and conviction which was always centred on Christ; drew His strength from communion with Christ which extends to His one Body to be found in the community of disciples. The community drew strength and courage from one another’s faith in Jesus. They prayed together, encouraged and took care of one another. Because of this when some were facing death, they walked unafraid to meet their fate for they were strengthened in their belief and hope in the truth of our Lord’s resurrection.
Let us then finish the race together as one community in the Risen Lord as we look forward to eternal life with Him. Amen alleluia!
What are the most precious things we have tucked away in our locked drawers, safes, cupboards, secret compartments? Have we spent time and care, cleaning and placing them lovingly in dry boxes etc. preserving them. Do we expect that they will lasts forever? Do we think we can take them with us when we die? Do we think that whoever takes over will care for them the way we have?
Do we spend the same time and energy nurturing the Word of God in our lives? Let us cherish the heavenly gifts we have been given, using them to build the Kingdom of our heavenly Father. Let see with our hearts through the eyes of our Lord. Amen
FIRST READING
2 Kings 11:1–4, 9–18, 20
GOSPEL
Matthew 6:19–23
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”
I knew all the answers
The way my life should go
And when I used to say my prayers
I would tell God so
It seemed He wasn’t listening
I thought He didn’t care
But lookin’ back
It’s plain to see
He was always there
I prayed for strength
And I got pain that made me strong
I prayed for courage
And got fear to overcome
When I prayed for faith
My empty heart brought me to my knees
I don’t always get what I want
I get what I need
I’m not sayin’ that it’s easy
Or that it doesn’t hurt
When nothing seems to go my way
Nothing seems to work
These days I’m getting better
At goin’ with the flow
Accepting that sometimes the answer
To a prayer is no
‘Cause I prayed for strength
And I got pain that made me strong
I prayed for courage
And got fear to overcome
When I prayed for faith
My empty heart brought me to my knees
I don’t always get what I want
I get what I need
Every time I’ve had a door slammed in my face
In time a better one was opened in its place
I prayed for strength
And I got pain that made me strong
I prayed for courage
And got fear to overcome
When I prayed for faith
My empty heart brought me to my knees
I don’t always get what I want
I get what I need
Oh I don’t always get what I want
I get what I need
I can hardly wait to get my hands on this CD! Who doesn’t love Collin Raye?
At age 23, Collin Raye converted to Catholicism, searching and believing that “there had to be more” than what he experienced in other churches. Collin became an American country music superstar, selling more than 7 million records, while charting 15 #1 hits in the 1990’s. His new release, His Love Remains, captures for the first time the source of his rock solid personal inner strength which carried him “through it all” during many trials of personal suffering, including the loss of his precious granddaughter Haley, who died from a rare neurological disease.
Collin hits the mark with many classic hymns including Ave Maria, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent, I am the Bread of Life, How Great Thou Art, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, Amazing Grace, Here I Am, Lord, and O Lord I am Not Worthy (duet with Marie Bellet). Two new Raye songs sure to inspire, Undefeated, and I Get What I Need also grace this inspiring production. 15 hymns total.
Track Listing:
1. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
2. Give Me Jesus
3. How Great Thou Art
4. Ave Maria
5. How Beautiful duet with Andrea Thomas 6. Undefeated
7. Here I am, Lord
8. I Get What I Need
9. O Lord, I am Not Worthy duet with Marie Bellet 10. Were You There?
11. I Am the Bread of Life
12. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent
13. Love Remains
14. Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee
15. Amazing Grace
Bro Lalith shares about his experince in Singapore during a prayer meeting at St Peters Colombo. I recommend if you have the time to watch the whole thing otherwise 1st mention 41:00 Thereafter from 57:00-1:05:00
This is a beautiful breathtaking video done by Jesus of the Latter Day Saints aka Mormons. However Catholics should beware that their Theology is warped and incomplete in so many ways.
This little boy Davis Burton does a fantastic job, hopefully one day on his journey he will discover the fullness of faith which he will only find in the Catholic Church.
The TRUTH and LIFE DRAMATIZED AUDIO BIBLE NEW TESTAMENT elegantly blends voices, sound effects and an original music score to create an aural environment that will totally immerse you in the Scriptures. The literal English RSV-CE New Testament is ‘performed’ for you in radio drama style by more than 70 actors including international stars: Neal McDonough as ‘Jesus,’ Julia Ormond as ‘Mary, Mother of God,’ Blair Underwood as ‘Mark,’ Stacy Keach as ‘John,’ Michael York as ‘Luke,’ Brian Cox as ‘The Voice of God,’ Sean Astin as ‘Matthew,’ Kristen Bell as ‘Mary Magdalene, ‘ Malcolm McDowell as ‘Caiaphas,’ and John Rhys-Davies as the Narrator.
Product Details
Audio CD
Publisher: Zondervan (November 14, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591713250
ISBN-13: 978-1591713258
**CatholicJules Personal Thoughts**
This huge undertaking seems to have paid off for all those involved in this project. In fact the reviews for this product speaks volumes! I can hardly wait to get my own personal copy! In fact I’ve just placed an order….
Can you imagine an audio Bible that has a full cast of very talented actors, a powerful music score, realistic sound effects? From what I’ve heard and read it is 23 hours long on 18 CD’s which comes in 3 cross-shaped CD holders.
Can you see from the label who did the foreword on this? Wow!
The preparation and delivery of the speech was fabulously done by this 12 year old on such an highly important message. Well researched even though a 12 year old is hardly qualified to talk about the emotional effects of it ( True emotional effects without a doubt) . However I do hope that all the young too can learn from it.
Below is the transcript of the speech by 12year old “Lia” of Toronto, who prepared and delivered this speech for her grade 7 class.
Transcript of speech
What if I told you that, right now, someone was choosing if you were gonna live or die? What if I told you that this choice wasn’t based on what you could or couldn’t do, what you’d done in the past or what you would do in the future? And what if I told you…you could do nothing about it?
Fellow students and teachers, thousands of children are right now in that very situation. Someone is choosing, without even knowing them, whether they are gonna live or die. That someone is their mother. And that choice is abortion.
Every day a hundred and fifteen thousand children are dying through abortion. A hundred and fifteen thousand. That means that five thousand children would die every hour. All those lives…gone. All that potential…gone. And all that hope in the future…gone.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking, “Oh, it’s not really killing. After all, a fetus isn’t a child…right? Why do we think that just because a fetus can’t talk or do what we do it isn’t a human being yet? The word “fetus” comes from the Latin word meaning “young one” or “young child”. Some babies are born after only five months. Is this baby not human? We would never say that, yet abortions are performed on five month old fetuses all the time. Or do we only call them humans if they’re wanted? No, fetuses are definitely humans, knit together in their mothers by their wonderful Creator, who knows them all by name.
Some people might say that, since abortion’s legal now, it doesn’t matter. It’s not our business. But, if an action is unjust, it needs to be illegal, and it has to be our business. And this particular law has a huge impact on our society. In 1997 over one million abortions took place just in the U.S. And just last year over forty-two million abortions happened worldwide. I’d say that’s a huge impact.
I know some people say that the mother has a right to abort. After all, her life is dramatically impacted by having a baby. But I’m asking you to think about the child’s rights that were never given to it. No matter what rights the mother has, it doesn’t mean we can deny the rights of the fetus. Talking about the mother’s choice…the mother may have had a choice not to have unprotected sex in the first place. We must remember that with our rights and our choices come responsibilities and we can’t take someone else’s rights away to avoid our responsibilities.
At this point, I imagine the age old question arises. What if the mother didn’t choose to have sex? What if she was raped? But let’s us look at the facts for the U.S., as an example. Only one percent of all American abortions are hard case categories. This includes rape, incest, and the life of the mother being in danger. One percent. That hardly justifies the disturbing volume of abortions that happen these days.
And who’s to say abortion’s the easy way out? I don’t think people understand the effects of abortion on a woman. I don’t have time to list all the negative after effects, but here are a few examples of the physical effects. Seventeen percent of women who’ve had abortions face complications in their subsequent pregnancies. Some may not even be able give birth at all. They are also at a greater risk of developing breast cancer if they have an abortion.
But perhaps the worst effects are the emotional ones. Women who’ve had an abortion tend to have more mood disorders substantial enough to provoke them to harm themselves. In addition, women who’ve had an abortion are five times more likely to have problems with drug and alcohol abuse. Abortion leaves a woman feeling lost and uncertain about their future. Almost one-third of all women who had an abortion are dissatisfied with their decision. It certainly is not the cure-all people think it is.
I read a story on the Focus on the Family website. It was about a girl who had an abortion. She writes:
“I had abortion at the age of seventeen. And it was the worst thing I ever did. I would never recommend it to anyone because it comes back to haunt you. When I tried having children, I lost three. Something happened in my cervix during the abortion.” – Sharon Osborne.
Hers is just one of the many heart-wrenching stories that nobody tells these days. And those same ones are the ones that we need to hear about.
Thank you for taking time to think about the issue of abortion, to think about the unborn, and to think about the effects of abortion on a mother. If you walk away with anything after this speech, walk away with the words of Horton. You know him…the elephant that risked his life to save that little speck? Remember him and his famous quote:
“Even though you can’t see them or hear them at all, a person’s a person…no matter how small.”
