And What of Lazarus?

"And What of Lazarus?" is actually the title of an old Star Trek episode that was on television a few days ago, but it seemed fitting this weekend as well. At mass on Sunday they had the RCIA group there so they read from the alternate readings, the Gospel of which was the story of Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life. As I listened and read from the Gospel, the title of the Star Trek episode popped into my mind. In John 11:3-4 Jesus hears of Lazarus' declining health...

So the sisters sent word to him, saying, "Master, the one you love is ill."

When Jesus heard this he said, "This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

And for the first time I thought of Lazarus. What about his declining health, his pain, his suffering, his angst, his weakness. Even though he was to be raised from the dead "for the glory of God" he still had to endure the illness and death.

And it occurred to me that we too may be asked to suffer, to face challenges, to face turmoil for the glory of God. If such a fate was acceptable to Lazarus, someone whom Jesus knew and loved to the point of weeping at his death, then should we not be surprised if we are expected to face our own challenges for our faith?

Over and over again in the bible people are healed due to their faith, but it never means they did not have to suffer prior to that miraculous moment.

Just a thought...

Prayers for the Freshours

Last night Arnold Freshour died suddenly from a massive heart attack. He was 72 years old and in tremendous physical shape, which makes the events even harder to phathom. He was my wife's, sister's father-in-law and grandfather to three of my nieces. He was a faithful, gentle and warm man who held himself to the highest of standards.

My wife and her parents are driving up to Atlanta today. Please keep the entire Freshour and Koehler families in your prayers during this very, very tough time.

UPDATE: It appears it was not a heart attack, but more than likely an aneurysm. They won't be performing an autopsy, so they won't know for sure, but Arnold's cardiologist told them he had no heart issues.

The viewing will be tonight from 6 - 8 p.m. and the funeral tomorrow.

Again, keep them in their prayers. This has been especially hard on the grand kids.

Happy God Children Day

A few years ago I started my own tradition of celebrating my God Children by saying a Novena for them starting on the Feast of St. Joseph, which falls on March 19th. Sometimes I'll send gifts as well, sometimes just the novena.

This year, due to a lot of events going on in our lives, it's just a novena. So, Matthew, Jonathan, Chaz, Aislinn, Laura and Sarah, I celebrate your life as part of the body of Christ by saying a novena for you starting today. I hope the Holy Spirit inspires you to follow God's path and that you make Him proud in all you do.

Casino Royale (2006)

Daniel Craig takes over the James Bond reigns in the latest Bond flick, Casino Royale. Craig is brilliant as 007... rugged, handsome, muscular, tough and ruthless. Gone are the light quips from Roger Moore and the ultra suave of Pierce Brosnan. Craig hearkens back to the original Sean Connery version of Bond, but the new Bond is even better, stronger and more menacing.

The story involves the introduction of James Bond to his 007 role, starting out in Uganda and including an amazing opening chase scene involving "free running" where people can jump from sides of buildings to other floors or structures, through holes slightly larger than the human body, etc., all done without nets, wires or special effects. It's amazing stuff.

Bond follows terrorist money from Uganda to the Bahamas to Montenegro where he battles wits and cards against a terrorist banker named Le Chiffre, played with an appropriate amount of sadistic smugness by Mads Mikkelsen. The Bond girls include Eva Green, as Bond associate Vesper Lynd, Ivana Milicevic as Le Chiffre's main squeeze and Caterina Murino as a Solange. Missing in this film are some of the standard expected moments, such as "shaken, not stirred" and the typical Bond girl with a name referencing female genitalia. The perks, however, far outweigh these changes.

Craig actually feels dangerous and is probably the best Bond in the series. When he plans to kill someone it is driven by an inner rage that is unleashed for King and Country. The film is over two hours long, but moves at a quick pace. The action scenes are excellent, the acting on target and the story weaves and intricate and satisfying story. With Casino Royale it's a good bet that Bond is back in the best way possible.

Rays Alternate Slogans

My poor hapless Tampa Bay Devil Rays (soon to be just 'Rays') are just so very, very bad.

• You know it's bad when you're one of the cheapest teams in the league last year and your payroll actually decreases this year.
• You know it's bad when management says they're shooting for 2008... and it's 2007.
• You know it's bad when your team is 1-12... in Spring Training!

So, in accordance with the team's expectations, I'm offering, free of charge, slogans which better signify their low expectations.

Here's the current team slogan:

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Here are a couple of suggestions:

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Here's my personal favorite:

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I've gone to at least one DRays game a year since their inception and it hasn't been easy. I've watched better games at the little league field. Oh well, there's always 2008.

T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers and Coffee Mugs

Whenever my family and I discuss areas of concern regarding our faith, often times, if possible, I will turn that thought or idea into a visual image that I put on a t-shirt via Cafe Press and then order a few for us to wear from my Sonlight Pics Cafe Press store.


Here are some of the ones I've created (click for larger images).

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I decided years ago that there are very few t-shirts that I'll wear that will be free advertisement for other people. Granted, I have a couple of sports shirts/jerseys from local teams, but I don't advertise for Nike or anyone else any more on my t-shirts. They're either blank or show something I want to express or make people aware of, such as the ideas above or the projects I've worked on below...



If we're going to advertise for something, it mine as well be something we believe in... don't ya think?

Cafe Press is free to use, so if you want to create shirts for you and/or your family and friends, simple go to CafePress.com, setup a store and upload whatever images you create.

Little League in High Def

I've been learning my HVX200 HD camera by shooting the Little League games of my son's team. Below is a still of my son pitching from a high def screen capture.

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You can also watch the slo-mo high definition video by clicking HERE (broadband connection required, the file is big).

Life seems to look nicer in slow motion, doesn't it?

Hollywoodland (2006)

What would you do if you were a reluctant television icon who could not get work and was a kept man by the wife of a movie executive? Well, with no options and little hope, one option may be to kill yourself. At least, that's the official version of the death of George Reeves, the star of the TV show Superman. A contract actor who peaked at the wrong time during the end of the heralded studio system, Reeves was trapped in the role of Superman. Television was becoming very popular to the average American in the 1950s, but for "real" studio actors, television was equivalent to being banished.


According to the film Hollywoodland, starring Ben Affleck, Diane Lane and Adrien Brody, George Reeves was an actor with a lot of potential and took the job as Superman because he needed the money and didn't think it would be successful. Once he became an idol to thousands of children, he became both successful and eternally trapped. He tried to spread his creative wings by appearing in films like From Here to Eternity, but the audiences wouldn't accept him as anything other than Superman.

The film Hollywoodland actually revolves around a private eye named Louis Simo, played by Adrien Brody. Simo is actually a combination of a group of real life people consolidated into a private investigator hired by Reeves' mother to determine whether George, played convincingly by Affleck, had actually committed suicide. There are various discrepancies within the crime scene and the power of the studios to cover up damaging events was still very strong, so questions still abound today as to the true cause of Reeves' death.

Hollywoodland as a film does a great job of introducing us into the changing times in glamorous Hollywood in the 1950s, giving insight into the restrictions placed on actors and the struggles to get accepted above your perceived artistic value. The film, however, unfolds rather slowly and the end leaves you with just as many questions as we had at the beginning of the story.

The film's deliberate pace is offset by the wonderful performances by Brody, Lane and Affleck. One especially intense scene has Affleck, dressed as Superman and performing in front of a group of children, having to disarm a child who innocently wants to shoot Reeves so the bullets would bounce off his chest.

Uneven in execution, but with excellent performances, Hollywoodland is a mixed bag, but ultimately enjoyable.

Quote...

You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

--Wayne Gretzky

Bible 1 vs. Bible 2

As any of you who visit here know, I've been reading a daily missal from pre-Vatican II and I find it much more to my liking and more in line, I believe, with the true catechism of the Catholic Church.

Here's an example from Ezekiel 18:21...

Vatican I Missal:

But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which has has committed, and keep all My commandments, and do judgment and justice: living he shall live and shall not die.

Vatican II Bible from the New American Catholic Bible (http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/ezekiel/ezekiel18.htm):

But if the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

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The Vatican I Missal uses words like penance and commandments, which are tied to the sacrament of confession and the ten commandments. The Vatican II Bible doesn't mention penance, merely the act of turning away from sin... I can do that without confession. And statutes is not the same as commandments.

Why the change? I don't know.

And to be honest, I don't really know which is the more accurate translation. But, I do know the Vatican I Missal reading is more in line with my faith than the second one.

Quote...

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and hitting our mark."

--Michelangelo

Pearl Harbor Pics 4 of 4

Last of the pics...

Pearl Harbor Pics 3 of 4

More pics...

Pearl Harbor Pics 2 of 4

Here are more pics... click for larger image:

Pearl Harbor Pics 1 of 4

I received an email that had the following pictures taken on Dec 7, 1941. The pictures were apparently taken and stored for decades in a foot locker. They were taken by a sailor who was on the USS QUAPAW ATF-11O.

Pretty amazing pics... as always, click on pic for larger image:

A lone plane flies overhead.

The destruction is immense.

Sailors work to move a plane.

Smoke covers the remains of ships and lives.

Lenten Thoughts

As stated previously here, I've been reading a Vatican I daily missal (St. Joseph's to be exact) as part of my Lenten prayer process. Wednesday, there was a reading from Matthew 12 that included 43-45...

"When an unclean spirit goes out of a person it roams through arid regions searching for rest but finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my home from which I came.' But upon returning, it finds it empty, swept clean, and put in order. Then it goes and brings back with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and dwell there; and the last condition of that person is worse than the first. Thus it will be with this evil generation."

And for some reason, upon reading this, I thought of our country. As we sweep God out of our daily lives, that void will have to be replaced by something.

Another thought... Thursday's reading was from Matthew 15 tells of the story of the Canaanite woman asking for Jesus' help...

Then Jesus went from that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."

He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

But the woman came and did him homage, saying, "Lord, help me." He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."

Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

It made me realize that we often ask for Jesus' assistance, expecting him to respond like Santa Claus and just give us what we want, with no strings attached. But, as shown here, Jesus will test us.

When the woman asks for his help he tests her resilience by pushing back, by calling her unworthy of his mercy, but she persists because of her faith and that persistence of belief is what shows him she is sincere.

In that respect, all of us should expect to be treated like that Canaanite woman.

Anyway, just some thoughts...

Veronica Mars - Season 2 (2005)

This season Veronica Mars, our modern day Nancy Drew, enters her last year at Neptune High trying to help solve the troubling mystery behind a school bus accident that causes the death of numerous students on the way back from a field trip. Mars is haunted by the accident as she was one of the people on the field trip, but joined a couple of friends in a limo to their return trip to the school and was spared dying in the accident. Her guilt is accentuated when someone who possibly participated in the cause of the crash is found washed up on the shore with Veronica Mars' name written on his hand.

Structurally, Season Two follows a similar path as Season One... the major mystery is solved over the course of the entire season, full of red herrings, false leads and hidden clues. Each episode also has its own mystery to solve, some of which are tied into the bus crash, some are just high school kids asking for Veronica's help. On the personal relationship side, the story goes a little Dynasty as we deal with rich kids behaving badly and tumultuous events unfolding in a way which seems acceptable, but when synopsized ends up sounding like a soap opera gone awry.

All that aside, however, Season Two is even more enjoyable than Season One. Kristen Bell as Mars is magnificant... charming, beautiful and fills each moment with so many layers that she's a joy to watch. And the work of Jason Dohring, as the troubled Logan Echolls, is really phenomenal. His performance is so three dimensional, his moments and gestures so effortless, that you may find yourself wondering just what is scripted and what is improvised.

This season's mystery was much more complex and the season finale was full of great surprises and suspense... my daughter had a solid idea on the person behind the crash, but I was completely convinced she was wrong. In the end, I was wrong and she was right. How many times does the father of a teen publicly announce that!

Veronica Mars continues to be top notch television for televisions target demographic (18-34)... and it's pretty darn good for those of us outside of the demographic as well.

The Departed (2006)

Just because a director travels over familiar ground does not necessarily make the journey less interesting. In fact, in very capable hands, such directors can take similar turf and make it unique in its own right. Hitchcock kept making "the innocent man on the run" movies over and over again and they were continually entertaining. Martin Scorcese has made the "gangster/crime family" films repeatedly, each with a relatively unique voice and, through his talented eye, each one effective.

The Departed, which just won for Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards, is based on a very successful and, some will argue, more effective Japanese film called Internal Affairs. The Departed is an intricate and intriguing plot about two moles, one Boston Irish gangster mole in the police force and one police mole in the Boston Irish crime family, each crossing paths, each trying to find out the others identity.

The Departed is filled with a cavalcade of A name stars... DiCaprio, Damon, Nicholson, Wahlberg, Sheen and Baldwin. They all work effortlessly together and the film is a great ride full of plot twists, surprises, suspense and violence.

I don't know if The Departed is actually the "best" picture of 2006, but it sure is a good one. And for Scorcese it's another link in his long chain of potent gangster dramas.

Matt Maher Rocks

To continue with our Lenten discussions, let me just say this...

Matt Maher rocks, plain and simple.

This musician is an amazing talent that delivers catchy, uplifting, spiritual and unabashedly Catholic music. My brother, Charles, introduced me to his music about a year ago. I have never before heard a musician able to capture the Catholic faith in adult contemporary style music before. His songs are rooted in scripture and tradition and are often meditative in their delivery.

If every Mass were a Lifeteen Mass, this guy would write the hymnal.

I'm certain if his music were secular he would be atop the music charts... he and his band are that talented. Seek this musician out and enjoy his music. I listen to his stuff daily and it fills me with a wonderful sense of joy and peace. Check him out, if you can. You won't be disappointed.

You can read more about him and their tour dates http://www.mattmahermusic.com and http://www.mattmahermusic.com/blog.

Vatican I Missal - Examples

My sister Mary asked for some examples of the language and reverence of which I was speaking of in my previous post about my Vatican I Missal.

Here are a few examples...

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Let not the partaking of Your Body, O Lord Jesus Christ, which I, though unworthy, presume to receive, turn to my judgement and condemnation; but through Your goodness, may it become a safeguard and an effective remedy, both of soul and body. Who live and reign with God, the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Or

Accept, O Lord, the sacrifice by the immolation of which You have deigned to be appeased, and grant, we beseech You, that we may be cleansed through its virtue, and my offer You the acceptable affection of our love. Through our Lord.

Or

O Lord, we beseech You, grant that the sacrifice of our Lenten observance which we offer may both render our souls pleasing to You and give us the power of more ready continence. Through our Lord.

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These examples show, first, vocabulary and sentence structure that is of higher education, using words most people wouldn't even know today because they are not expected to, and second, they are full of both humility and sincere appreciation for the separation between man and God... in my opinion.

Plus, the missal is full of great pictures which bring the Word of God to life and give us, as a community, a common visual reference to what we are hearing. I wish they would add pictures back into our missal today. I think it would add greatly to the Mass experience.