Late Term Abortions

Here are some takes on the new NY Late Term Abortion legislation by YouTubers whom I watch. Yes, it’s a religious issue, but these people show that it’s also a ethical, emotional and social issue.

Prager U

I’m dubious about the flavor enhancer part.

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Silent Night Around the World

German

I ran across the Christmas carol Silent Night in German and wondered what other languages it’s been recorded in. Here’s what I found. I think there are plenty more. Enjoy.

Japanese & English

French

Russian

Chinese (Mandarin)

Swedish

Italian

Korean

Arabic

Hindi

Tagalog

Gaelic

St. Hedwig Parish

My parents’ visit to St. John Cantius in the fall inspired me to seek out the most splendid churches in Chicago. I found a useful article  to help me form a list. My first church was St. John Cantius where I attended my first Latin mass.

Figuring the Christmas decorations would still be up, today I went to St. Hedwig in the Bucktown neighborhood.

The church stuns with its beauty as you first enter. Lots of gold and gorgeous polished wood. Ceilings were painted with biblical stories just as they are in Europe.

St. Hedwig’s Nativity scene 

The three Wise Men are due to appear on Epiphany, January 6th.

You can read the St. Hedwig parish history here.

Sunday masses are at:

8:00 am in English
9:30 am in Polish
11:00 am in English
1:00pm in Spanish

An Advent Prayer of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

For advent. I’m going to memorize this.

Renovate

Let Your goodness, Lord, appear to us, that we,
made in your image, conform ourselves to it.
In our own strength
we cannot imitate Your majesty, power, and wonder,
nor is it fitting for us to try.
But Your mercy reaches from the heavens
through the clouds to the earth below.
You have come to us as a small child,
but you have brought us the greatest of all gifts,
the gift of eternal love.
Caress us with Your tiny hands,
embrace us with Your tiny arms
and pierce our hearts with Your soft, sweet cries.

By St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian monk and church reformer.

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Monsieur Vincent

Vincent tries to get someone to adopt this orphan

When Monsieur Vincent opens, we see Vincent Depaul entering a deserted town. Whenever he knocks on a door, someone throws rocks at him from the second floor. Finally, Vincent who’s the new priest in town gets let inside. He discovers that the aristocrats inside are hiding hoping to avoid the plague. They’re in the midst of a wild party just in case they don’t escape the plague.

As the new priest, and one that lives the gospel, Vincent tries to convince the nobles to take in a girl whose mother has just died. They’re all to scared. He winds up taking her in a very modest room he’s rented.

Vincent’s wisdom is revered by the rich. He’s soon the mentor and spiritual guide for a wealthy couple, but he wants to help the poor. When he tells his patrons that he plans to leave they keep him near by supporting his charity efforts more. This works for a while, but eventually Vincent goes to Paris where he begins a charity for the poorest of the poor.

Throughout his work with the poor, Vincent recruited wealthy women to help him and found great frustration when they didn’t agree with his ideas of expanding and expanding their charity programs. Eventually, realizing that people who understand the poor may be better to work with, he taps a poor girl to become one of his first nuns. Actually, she came to him and the light bulb went off.

I went to a high school named after Louise de Marillac, a wealthy woman, who became key to Vincent’s outreach to the poor. In the film, she’s just in a couple scenes. You can see that she’s a peer of the wealthy women, so Vincent wants her to lead them, though it’s tough to convince these opinionated women to trust Vincent. (St. Louise de Marillac wound up leading the Daughters of Charity, an order of nuns that serves the poor.)

This bio pic was interesting and well done. I was surprised that so much of the time Vincent Depaul dealt with administrative issues and trying to persuade the aristocracy to help him more. I thought he was more “hands on.” In any event, the film moved along well and introduces people to this 17th century saint.

In French with subtitles.

Deo Gratias

Deo Gratias is Latin for “Thanks be to God.” Remembering to give thanks for all of our blessings, big and small, helps us to find God in our everyday moments and gives us an attitude of gratitude! Colleen at Thoughts on Grace has organized this meme and you can contribute by clicking here. This week I’m thankful for:

• For a winter that’s been milder than usual even though today’s its quite cold.
• For Lent and Ash Wednesday. It is and should be a hard time, but Christians are in this together, side by side working on their relationship with God and reviewing how they live their lives. I like seeing people around town with the black smudges on their heads.
• For my library. This winter I’ve used it so much. Not just for books and DVDs, but I tried out the Great Books Club and may have made a new friend there. I also have been going to a great yoga class there and today saw an afternoon movie for free.
• For the assisted living place my aunt is now in. She’s gotten used to this arrangement and it’s clean and cheerful. She doesn’t do them, but there are activities available. (The only thing I’d grumble about is the horrid food. You don’t need to cook broccoli for half an hour.)
• For the chance last week to visit my cousin who’s 83 in Florida. Her husband of 60-some years died in 2015 and while Ann is so cheerful and outgoing, it’s been a tough year for her. I missed our visits but got to go there for a few days.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.

– Henri J.M. Nouwen

Deo Gratias

Deo Gratias is Latin for “Thanks be to God.” Remembering to give thanks for all of our blessings, big and small, helps us to find God in our everyday moments and gives us an attitude of gratitude! Colleen at Thoughts on Grace has organized this meme and you can contribute by clicking here. This week I’m thankful for:

1. For a chance to spend time with my youngest sister who’s visiting for work.
2. For my writing to be selected for an opportunity to make an oral proposal to a producer. It’s always a long shot to get a job writing for TV so I welcome prayers.
3. For a chance to have lunch with all four of my former colleagues last week. We worked together n the ’90s and have still kept in touch.
4. For another chance to see my friend Luzanne, whom I haven’t seen in 15 years. I’m delighted to say we still had plenty to talk about.
5. For young priests like Fr. Joshua Johnson (see post below) whose faith and spirit I hope will show young people how relevant and true the Christian faith is. It seems that while his communication style is contemporary, his theology is tested by time.

Rapper Priest

Fr. Joshua Johnson shares his rap and story in the video above. He’s the youngest priest in Baton Rouge. Priests like Johnson should, I hope bring more young people to the faith by showing them that religion isn’t outdated, it’s everlasting and always relevant.