Lighten up!

Posted by Terry Nelson on Feb 20th, 2008

 

Life doesn’t have to be ugly…

I love that saying, “lighten up!”  I left it on another site as part of my comment and I think someone was offended by it.  Gosh!  I just think we all need to lighten up - it’s lent after all, and we should be having fun fasting, flaggelating, wearing sackcloth and ashes, going barefoot in the snow, keeping vigils all night long, hoarse from unceasing prayer.

That said… 

On a more serious note, I have this story from Spirit Daily, it’s about the birds.  The Crows… the invasion of the crows!  (Dum-ta-da!)  Apparently they are going around in flocks now.  I can attest to it - in the park across the street from my house is a crab tree, full of dried fruit.  Like clockwork, every few days about 25 to 50 crows come and feed on the tree.  Everything is frozen in Minnesota and it seemed a logical place to come for food, so I never gave it a second thought, until Tippi called and told me to check Spirit Daily  right away. (Dum-dun-daaaaaaaaaaaaa!)

Frightened, I checked Spirit Daily  and sure enough, something is  going on with the crows - the headlines jumped right off the screen, “Crow invasion in city neighborhoods baffles experts”.    Freaky-deaky!  One baffled expert fielding all the calls from concerned citizens reported:

“We’ve received a large volume of calls by people reporting really large groups of crows in their neighborhood, and they’re asking why. Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer,” Estell said. - The Crows

Obviously Estell, the receptionist for The National Aviary in Pittsburgh, though shaken, was able to pull herself together enough and told reporters,  “Sometimes the callers are alarmed, but mostly they are just curious.”   That is what I call putting on a brave front in an effort to forestall city-wide panic.  That woman deserves a medal.

Many dead.

It appears the preferred “haunt” for the crows has been local cemeteries.  A spokesman stated the cemetery is normally the roost for Canadian geese, but now the crows have taken over.  He told reporters:

“The flocks arrive every day about 3 or 4 o’clock and make a terrible racket. It’s a nuisance, and I haven’t had any customer complaints, but I prefer they go somewhere else,” said Allegheny Cemetery President Thomas Roberts.” - The Crows

No one mentioned to Mr. Roberts that most of his customers in the cemetery were dead.  Investigators have yet to determine if that is why no complaints have been made, or something more sinister is going on.

“Tooweet!  Tooweet! 

[Photo:  Estell evacuating school children from the girl's restroom at The National Aviary in the Peckerwood Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh.] 

(Extra bonus trivia:  Did you know that Tippi Hedren’s character in The Birds  was named Melanie Daniels?  Tippi’s daughter is Melanie Griffith - do you think she named her after her character?)

Blessed Jacinta and Francisco Marto

Posted by Terry Nelson on Feb 20th, 2008

What they saw. 

Today, February 20, is the feast of the blessed cousins of Sr. Lucia of Fatima, whose cause for beatification is now pending.  All three seers continued to have mystical experiences after the formal apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima.  Although Francisco seems to have attained a high degree of prayer, his experience was more in keeping with that pure spirit of faith John of the Cross writes about.  Jacinta experienced several visions and locutions before her death.  We do not know for certain, but it is believed Sr. Lucia also continued to have visions and locutions throughout her life.  I found the following passage on the nature of visions from Tanquerey:

“Visions are supernatural perceptions of some object naturally invisible to man.  They are revelations only when they disclose hidden truths…

Sensible or corporeal visions, also called apparitions, are those in which the senses perceive some real object that is naturally invisible to man.  It is not necessary that the object be a real human body; it suffices that it be a sensible or luminous form.  (As Our Lady’s at Fatima.)

When the Blessed Virgin appeared at Lourdes, her body remained in heaven, and at the spot of the apparitions there was but a sensible form which represented her.  This explains how she could appear now under one aspect, now under another.” - The Spiritual Life, Chp. III, 1491  

Untitled Document

Calendar

February 2008
M T W T F S S
« Jan   Mar »
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
2526272829  

Pages

Categories

Blogroll