In This Life-Delta Goodrem

This young girl was diagnosed with cancer. I think the whole country was praying that she would beat this insidious illness. In pics of her with short hair was when she was undergoing chemotherapy.

If you are able. Donate to cancer research in memory of Melissa Hackney.

God's abundant love to you all.

Marie xoxoxo

Prayer for Melissa-RIP

Lord at times we do not understand Your Will but we do trust Your Love for us, even when we fail You.

We know your love for Melissa was so great that You as a Loving Father have brought her into Your Majestic Presence.

Though her loving presence will be missed by her family and friends, yet Melissa is now with You and by the side of our Blessed Mother and the Saints in Heaven.

We pray now Lord great Comforter and Consoler of the sorrowful that You in Your great Mercy will comfort and aid her grieving family and friends.

Thankyou Lord for the wonderful gift of Melissa, a unique, extraodinary and loving human being.

Joy she gave and Joy she has received.

Amen.

Thankyou Kathy and Kimberly for keeping us informed about this dear child of God. God bless you both.

Laughter Is The Best Medicine LOL

(click pic to enlarge)

The Pope We Come To Hear

It is intriguing that, when young people talk of World Youth Day, they commonly say that they are going to hear Pope Benedict. At previous World Youth Days they spoke of going to see John Paul II.

Does this mean that in being heard rather than seen Benedict is shaping up as a Protestant Pope? That would really stretch credulity. The change is of everyday significance. It reflects the differing personal style of the two Popes that the young people have caught.

The previous Pope had an instinctive feel for an audience and an occasion. He was a media performer, a Pope for television. Even though what he said was often deep, his speaking was theatre and what he said was declaratory. So people went to see him speak.

Benedict is a scholar and a naturally reserved man. Public performance comes less easily to him. He has a care for words and argument, and many Western readers find him easier to understand than his predecessor. For all his taste for colourful and ancient clothing, he is perhaps a Pope for radio.

In his intellectual style, too, Pope Benedict belongs to the university, to a world where different positions can be heard, argued and evaluated. Even his sermons are conversational in the sense that his imagery allows each reader to appropriate what is said in a personal way. He is a man whom we might go to hear speak.

Underlying the personal differences, however, is a different Papal style. Pope John Paul inherited a Polish history whose decisive encounters with the West were with the medieval church. The Pope was at the centre both of political and of church unity. After the Reformation the central focus on the Pope became stronger even as his political role diminished. The Pope was the universal face of the Church. Pope John Paul II enacted this role especially in his journeys. Wherever he went he often described himself to the people as 'your Pope'.

Pope Benedict comes from Bavaria, whose Christian beginnings in the fourth century are still a living memory. His history and his studies make him at home in an earlier church where the Bishop of Rome had a central place in guaranteeing the unity of the Church, but was placed within a network of significant Churches each of which claimed foundation by the Apostles and each of which had its own tradition. A central task of the Pope was to encourage and to strengthen the local Churches.

These subtle differences of personal and papal style may help explain why the present Pope, despite the fears stirred by his media image as 'God's enforcer' when Prefect of the Congregation for the Defence of the Faith, has seemed a more eirenical figure within the Church than was his predecessor. Certainly many tensions and conflicts about what it means for the Church to be faithful to the Gospel remain. But the conversation about them is not as fraught.

World Youth Day is a celebration for young Catholics. But it is also a theatrical event whose climax is the Papal Mass. There the Pope is on show to gather the whole event together. Whether pilgrims came to see or hear the Pope, they will take home the memory of being there, of seeing and hearing.

But the depth of their experience will depend on the quality of conversation that the event generates, the sense that as well as hearing they have been heard. Both active and passive voices are important in Popes.

Written by Fr Andrew Hamilton

Myfanwy

Kind o’er the kinderbank leans my Myfanwy,

White o’er the playpen the sheen of her dress,

Fresh from the bathroom and soft in the nursery

Soap scented fingers I long to caress.

Were you a prefect and head of your dormit'ry?

Were you a hockey girl, tennis or gym?

Who was your favourite? Who had a crush on you?

Which were the baths where they taught you to swim?

Smooth down the Avenue glitters the bicycle,

Black-stockinged legs under navy blue serge,

Home and Colonial, Star, International,

Balancing bicycle leant on the verge.

Trace me your wheel-tracks, you fortunate bicycle,

Out of the shopping and into the dark,

Back down the avenue, back to the pottingshed,

Back to the house on the fringe of the park.

Golden the light on the locks of Myfanwy,

Golden the light on the book on her knee,

Finger marked pages of Rackham's Hans Anderson,

Time for the children to come down to tea.

Oh! Fullers angel-cake, Robertson’s marmalade,

Liberty lampshade, come shine on us all,

My! what a spread for the friends of Myfanwy,

Some in the alcove and some in the hall.

Then what sardines in half-lighted passages!

Locking of fingers in long hide-and-seek.

You will protect me, my silken Myfanwy,

Ring leader, tom-boy, and chum to the weak.

John Betejeman

Make A Difference In Tough Times-Esther's Blog

I read this article over at Esthers blog and found it very aspirational. It is when we forget our own private concerns and worries and step outside of our own safe confines that we become true to ourselves and true to God.

We need to be constantly reminded to give from our hearts and not from our largesse. Rather than spend our time whining about life, instead rejoice that we have an opportunity to show God's unfailing Love to those who need to see it and feel it.

It is a paradox that in giving we receive much more in a spiritual sense, and surely that is where our hearts should be and not always on the size of our wallets.

Please do read this excellent article at Esther's blog and ask yourself where can I make a difference in someone else's life?

A Strong Woman

A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape

...but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape.

A strong woman isn't afraid of anything

...but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear.

A strong woman won't let anyone get the best of her

...but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone.

A strong woman walks sure footsteps

...but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls.

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face

...but a woman of strength wears grace.

A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey,

...but a woman of strength has faith and wisdom to know that it is in the journey that she will become strong.

Anon

When the News Is Not the News! LOL

Someone has insulted Barack Obama(or is thinking of insulting Barack Obama. Yes guys the Mic is on!)

An ex-footballer's wife or ex-golfer's wife or ex-whatever receives one hundred million dollar's in a divorce payment (it's called retribution!)

A celebrity is divorcing another celebrity because both were having affairs with other celebrities. Or a celebrity is having an affair with the nanny who is about to become a 'celebrity.'

When a celebrity has given birth to a child and names it summer lollipop(or whatever other ridiculous name they can think of!)

A celebrity is caught on film behaving badly and is headed for Rehab.

A celebrity who has just finished their rehab programme and decides one more drink wont hurt. Consequence? See the above!

News anchors who spend 10 precious minutes discussing their favourite brand of coffee (who gives a monkey's?!)

The business report, the Dow Jones has done something really drastic and the Nasdaq has followed suit along with Hang Seng, not to mention the Nikkei(OK! I wont mention it. Who the heck understands it anyway?!)

A footballer is fined for hitting another footballer(Personally I'd fine them all for spitting on the field. It's GROSS. Stop it now!)

A politician waffling on about climate change. The greenhouse effect and the ozone layer and el Nino-something(what's going to change? Absolutely nothing!)

The rest of the news? Sorry I went to sleep long ago zzzzzzz LOL!

Written By Marie

Good Viewing-North & South/ The Forsyte Saga

North & South tells the story of John Thornton who is master of Marlborough mills and Margaret Hale who is the daughter of a Minister. What should have been an uncomplicated romance between the two main characters becomes complicated when Margaret witnesses an incident with Mr. Thornton and one of his workers. It begins a journey of misunderstanding as prejudices rule and sides are taken.

What makes this story different is the relationship between John Thornton and his mother, the sensitivity, affection and respect shared between both mother and son is touching to watch.

We see in North and South two sides of the coin between the masters and the workers and how compromise can bring about change.

It is a story of the North with its brutal and gritty realism verses life in the more quiet and easy going South, a clash of cultures ensues.

This is a great love story of a strong willed woman used to speaking her opinion openly played with great confidence by Daniela-Denby-Ashe and a man who finds himself falling inlove with a woman who does not return his affections played with understated brilliance by Richard Armitage.

The story is helped by excellent performances from Sinead Cusack who plays Mrs. Thornton, Brendan Coyle who portrays firebrand union man Nicholas Higgins and Tim Pigott Smith who plays Margarets father.

Good viewing for all.

*******************

The Forsyte Saga

This is the modern interpretation of an old classic which played decades ago on the BBC.

In this version Soames Forsyte is played brilliantly by Damian Lewis who portrays the character of Soames so well that one feels both pity and repulsion almost at the same time.

It is the story of unrequited love and how it can destroy both the object of love and the unloved with equal force.

In the background are two sides of the Soames family. One side which is more bohemian, while the other clan is repressingly and hypocritically polite and civil leaving their cruelties unspoken, but nevertheless felt.

There are no heroes in this partcilar drama as both sides are deeply flawed characters. The cold, beautiful yet passionate Irene Forsyte who marries for money and finds herself imprisoned by her husbands obsessive love. The character is played very well by Gina McKee.

But all eyes are fixed on Damian Lewis who actually says very little but can portray so much by a flicker of an eye lid and a small sneer. Soames Forsyte is a man who follows the norms of society, who refuses to break the rules and has little compassion for those who do and yet is undone by his obsessive love for a woman who loves him not. This leaves him to behave in a brutal fashion which haunts his conscience and colours all his relationships.

The tragedy of this will follow the Forsytes into the next generation.

Excellent viewing.

Yesterday is History

Yesterday is History,

'Tis so far away

Yesterday is Poetry

'Tis Philosophy

Yesterday is mystery

Where it is Today

While we shrewdly speculate

Flutter both away

Emily Dickinson