Tag Archives: god

by | December 6, 2024 · 9:15 am

Bits & Bytes

DAILY PRAYER: Dear Lord, Bless us today with all the graces we need to make room for you in our busy holiday plans. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

ART THERAPY: Four randomized, controlled studies have shown that drawing, including coloring in a coloring book, lowers heart rate and decreases anxiety, making it an active form of meditation. One of my art teachers recommends the following to enhance the effect:

  1. Set the Stage: Create a relaxing environment by listening to music you love, lighting a candle, and keeping your favorite beverage close by. Take a moment to notice the sounds, tastes, smells, and physical sensations you experience as you settle in.
  2. Practice Deep Breathing: Before you begin, take 3-5 deep breaths to center yourself. This simple practice can help clear your mind and prepare you for focused creativity.
  3. Minimize Distractions: Silence your phone, close the door, turn off the TV, and let your family or coworkers know you’ll be unavailable for the next 15 minutes. This dedicated time for mindful art will allow you to fully engage in the creative process and also to give you a reset before you move on to the next part of your day. 

COMMUNITY: CLICK https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OOI5Ymx3TiE to see a really special person go above and beyond. We are blessed to have someone like this is our area as well. The night before last, I heard a dog barking and squealing behind our house. There’s nothing but a field, trees, a steep downgrade into a swamp behind our house and it was cold. I got really concerned that someone’s dog had run off and gotten trapped or tangled in the dense brush, so I called the SPCA animal welfare officer. He said nobody had reported a missing dog and explained that the noises I described are typical for coyotes. We have coyotes in our area? Yup. I did not know this! Good thing we never let our little 10 pound Daisey out on her own! Anyway, despite the fact that he was about 99% sure it was not a dog, this fine man came out anyway, spent a good bit of time tramping around in the back with a flash light, whistling and calling, before phoning me back and telling me he was confident there was no dog freezing to death. I thanked him profusely for his kindness and commitment to his job and he just said, “Hey, better safe than sorry.”

DEBUNKING: [6:30] – This is the best compilation of “Trump is not a racist” I’ve ever seen.

LIFE: One day, while Dr. Catherine Wheeler was performing an abortion, she says, “God stopped me in the middle of the abortion. At the time, I didn’t understand it. I started the abortion and almost immediately felt this complete presence of evil. It was a darkness—physically dark to me and evil dark. I realized nobody else was aware. I remember sitting there thinking, ‘This has to do with the abortion.’ suddenly had the complete awareness of what I had blocked off—this was a baby. I was about to kill a human being.”

Despite this profound realization, Dr. Wheeler had to finish the procedure to protect the woman’s health. But in her heart, she made a vow. “I didn’t tell anybody about it. I thought, ‘Nobody is going to understand this, but I know it’s evil, and I won’t do it again.’”

This moment became a turning point in Dr. Wheeler’s life and career, marking the start of her journey away from abortion to becoming a mouthpiece for the sanctity of life.

NOTRE DAME: ::sigh:: We have lots of modern churches. Why couldn’t they HONOR the historical reality of this magnificent building by recreating period vestments and furnishings?!

GRAMMY NOTES: Our church participates in the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. Dearest picks the kids and I do the shopping. It was so fun this year to pick out pink and purple sneakers and art supplies for two little girls. The tag shopping always brings back good memories of the Christmas after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. At the time, Dearest was a young architect who had recently started his own practice. Within two weeks of the invasion, the bottom fell out of the building industry as investors canceled projects, including the one that would have fed and clothed us for at least six months.

We have never forgotten the joy of the Angel tree gifts and food baskets. One of the ladies from our church stood near Santa and wrote down what our 3 elementary aged girls asked for, then bought those things for them! The Kitchen Cupboard helped fill out the food stamps and WIC freebies, plus I could get free bread at the Salvation Army once a week when the delivery guy would drop off all the past date breads he picked up at the grocery stores. I still get weepy thinking about all the blessings we experienced that year. I also learned that food stamps won’t pay for TP, laundry detergent, or feminine hygiene protection. I have made a point of donating that stuff to the Kitchen Cupboard ever since.

SHORTS:

CLICK https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8EK7l3pkIYs to see another traffic court heart warmer.

CLICK https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OcBeYWXwG-8 to see a brief interview with Judge Caprio.

Comments Off on Bits & Bytes

Filed under Loose Pollen

Tagged as , , , ,

by | November 25, 2024 · 2:18 pm

The Vatican’s Anime Mascot

The pope has approved this anime-style mascot for the 2025 Year of Jubilee, hoping it will appeal to young people. The official word is that she is a little pilgrim named Luce. Pronounced loo chay, it means light in Italian and light from the east in Latin.

Luce is a pilgrim. From her muddy boots to her walking staff to her raincoat, she is dressed for life’s journey to Christ. The raincoat is yellow, the color of the Vatican’s flag.

Luce’s hair and eyes are blue, the color traditionally assigned to hope and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The gleam shining in her eyes is in the shape of the scallop shell, a symbol that has long been associated with Catholic pilgrimage, in particular the famous Camino Way in Spain.

Luce wears a World Mission rosary, which was created by Fulton Sheen. Wearing a rosary as a necklace is common in some places and frowned on in others, but it seems to be a practical choice for a pilgrim on the road.

The Jubilee 2025 logo is embroidered on the raincoat’s front in green, the liturgical color for the Ordinary seasons of the year, the time when we focus on growing in Christ. The Jubilee 2025 site says of the logo, “The anchor is well known as a symbol of hope. In maritime jargon the ‘anchor of hope’ refers to the reserve anchor used by vessels involved in emergency manoeuvres to stabilise the ship during storms. It is worth noting that the image illustrates the pilgrim’s journey not as an individual undertaking, but rather as something communal, marked by an increasing dynamism leading one ever closer to the cross. The cross in the logo is by no means static, but it is also dynamic. It bends down towards humanity, not leaving human beings alone, but stretching out to them to offer the certainty of its presence and the security of hope. At the bottom of the logo is the motto of the 2025 Jubilee Year.“

N.b., The colors on the official logo are not a nod to the “pride” flag, but rather denote the regions of the world as used on the World Mission rosary.

Aleteia reports, “Within days of her reveal, Luce became a prime source of inspiration for Catholic and anime artists alike, who created many beautiful tributes to Luce on art sites and social media.”

Personally, I like this variation better than the official one. Until I did the research for this article, I did not know about the pilgrim’s scallop shell, so found the shape of the sparkle in the official version’s eyes off putting. This one has Bethlehem stars!

The other reason I haven’t warmed up to the official Luce is that her forked “pilgrim staff” is much more commonly known as a stang, a forked staff used in various forms of occult rituals as a tool of power and respect. Various sites say it represents the World Tree, connecting the heavens and the earth and standing tall as a reminder of the witch’s place between worlds. It may be placed in the center of an altar or carried as a symbol of authority. It may be used to call on deities during rituals. One witch said she uses it to ground herself when she travels the celestial planes.

However, I did find one article that delved into a different source for the forked staff. It was published in 2018 after Pope Francis carried a stang staff with a nail through the forked branches. An article at Patheos says, “It was a gift to Pope Francis by a group of young people, who asked him to use it during the synod.”

Catholic bishops and popes each have a special staff known as a crosier, or shepherd’s crook. They carry during rituals to symbolize their roles as shepherds of God’s flock. Bishops’ crosiers can vary tremendously, but they generally have a crook at the top.

By contrast, the papal staff (known as a ferula, which is Latin for rod) has cross or crucifix on top. There is no set standard; the photo shows Pope Francis with two different ones.

I wasn’t the only one bothered by the pope’s synodal ferula’s resemblance to a witch‘s stang. However, a deacon did some research and found that, though rare, there are examples of forked crosses in our church’s history. The author says, “The three arms of the cross are meant to remind us of the Holy Trinity and the attributes of God: omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.”

Another author writes, “This cross also resembles the Greek letter Upsilon which capitalized looks just like the English letter ‘Y’. The Greek Upsilon is often called Pythagoras’ letter as it is said he used it as a symbol to demonstrate human life where the two horns of the letter represent the two paths of vice and virtue. We all travel down a road in life, but it is not always the easy road and we come to a split into the road where we must choose where we will take our life. Will it be down the road of virtue or the one to ruin?” This explanation goes a long way toward making me more comfortable with Luce’s staff.

Some critics have also objected to the name Luce, suggesting it is short for Lucifer. Like luce, the Italian word for light, Lucifer, the name of the first and greatest angel God created, comes from the Latin for light. But Jesus called Himself “the light of the world.” Lucifer’s light only exists to the extent that God created it; plus, he only uses it for himself. Jesus’ light is not only self-existent, but also used to guide pilgrim’s to God. I guess I can get on board the Luce lovers’ pilgrim trail.

Sources:

3 Comments

Filed under Loose Pollen

Tagged as , , , ,