Anamchara

HAD A HARD DAY? GET SOME PEACE WITH PUPPIES!

via www.youtube.com

Even a rough day can be forgotten with man's best friend. Enjoy one the coolest ways to ease the stress of the day!

THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS AND ALL SOULS--SO WE DON'T HAVE TO BE AFRAID

 
Picture:  The Pass at Mamean, Connemara:  The Stations of the Cross at St. Patrick's Holy Well (by ERB)

The great Celtic Spirituality writer, Fr. John J. O" Riordain, writes of All Saints/All Souls in his book Irish Catholic Spirituality, Celtic and Roman:

 

Irish hospitality extended no less to the dead than to the living.  It is still with us and has always been characteristic of our religioius expression.  There was a widespread belief, for instance, that the dead members of the family visited their old home at the beginning of November, the ancient pagan Irish feast of Samhain from which the Christian celebrations of All Saints and All Souls seem to have derived.  Leaving the door unlocked, having a good fire in the hearth, and the placing of a bowl of water on the table was a common mode of preparing the house for a visit from the dead at Samhain.  So too was the custom of lighting a candle for each deceased family member--a ritual performed during evening prayer in the home.  Kevin Danaher, the folklorist, once asked an old man if he was in dreaed of entering a haunted house.  'In dread of it?' replied the old man.  'What would I be in dread of, and the souls of my own dead as thick as bees around me?'  Having offered Mass at home on Samhain Night (our Halloween) I said to my aged father:  'They were all there tonight.'  'They were,' he replied with a perfect undersanding, as if I had been referring to a congregation of the living, but at that Mass the only visible persons present were himself and one of my sisters.  Whether people were 'alive' or 'dead'made little difference to him, for he was of a tradition that drew no hard and fast lines between life in gleann na ndeor, the vale of tears, or Tir na nog, the Land of the Young--i.e., heaven. (Dublin:  The Columba Press, 1998, p. 122).

OBAMA'S EMBARRASSING NOBEL PRIZE--NOT ENOUGH CLOTHES TO COVER THE EMPEROR

Just when it looked like politics could not be more ridiculous comes today's announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize for Barak Obama.  Nominations were due February 1, and as Creative Minority Report (to whom I give props for the great picture above) comments, he won after just two weeks in office when about all he had done was repeal the Mexico City Accords that prohibited federal funding of overseas abortions.  How embarrassing! 

Some blogs are criticizing the Vatican's response, but as I read it, it is rather tepid.  Obviously, they can't go negative, and their "appreciation" is about as tepid as it diplomatically can get. 

With the world growing darker, and evil mounting, Obama looks like  Neville Chamberlain surrounded by fawning syncophants who declare peace in our time all the while destructive forces mount their campaign against the good.  All right, I know I sound apocalyptic, but I can't help despair a little over the credulousness of humanity.  We already have one Savior and it is not Obama.  There can be only one God and it is not Barak.  And those who worship false gods are doomed to destruction.  Let's say a prayer for America today.  I can't judge the soul of the President; but true humility would have him postponing the acceptance of this award until he has  done something to earn it.