Comment on another person's comment on another person's post...

Hehe, so I couldn't think of a blander way of putting that into a title, so I am quite satisfied with this title. :-)

I was reading a blog on another person's site earlier and I read a comment that I ultimately decided to respond to, the topic of the other person's blog or the substance of the comment some one wrote on it, is really of no import to my purpose in publishing my response here.

I've decide to publish my response here on my blog as I found my response a nice concise representation of what I believe about Truth.

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it encourages all of you to try to understand what you believe.

I appeal to you're sense of truth. And I encourage you to seek it and to speak what you believe is true, but I also encourage you to test it... from my experience Truth is freeing and converts people, changing their lives from one of doldrums and strife to one of essential peace and joy.

I'm former atheist and a philosopher/former physics student (5 yrs in college) so I know how to make arguments that other people can't refute and if they do I know how to make them look like idiots. And with my background I also know that almost ANY position is defensible if you have certain views about the universe.

So I do not wish to argue with you but to ask you to do something so much easier and equally so much harder. Look at what your beliefs about truth are, analyse them and assess if your beliefs about truth match what you see in the truth that you know. I.e., if you believe "truth" is enslaving, then does what you know to be truth enslave or set free, if you believe truth (after the initial internal conflict) ultimately brings peace, does what you know to be truth bring peace or does it bring frustration, anger and hatred about others who oppose you? If you believe truth enlightens you and that others need enlightenment, then when you spread what you believe is truth to others, do they become enlightened or do they dismiss you as an oppressor and not an enlightener? If you believe truth brings joy, then do others find joy in the truth you know or do they find malice and oppression?

For me I believe truth is freeing, joyous, peaceful and enlightening though I also believe when confronted with the truth, it clashes each time with our own egos and we reject it. But it infects us, until at some point it becomes so powerful that we can no longer decide to reject it and remain at peace with ourselves. It is at that point that we have to choose to be honest and humble and accept the truth or be prideful and arrogant and reject it.

And for me, it is hard to decide when I do one or the other. Yet in time I can look at my life and decide am I at peace and do I bless everyone I meet or do I curse every person I meet? Do I find joy with being in silence for an hour? Or can I not stand to be silent for a minute? And find every moment not distracted torturous?

I encourage you to continue seeking truth, speaking truth, and assessing what you think is truth.

I will do the same, though I must say I have met Him, and He is Glorious!

Blessings and Praise,
Sirhair

Women Priests

A couple of Anglican women "priests" have converted to catholicism...

(http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bestoftheweb/~3/217101104/women-priests-catholics.htm)

My favourite quote...

Christina Rees of Women and the Church says: "Every woman who is ordained as a priest in the Church of England knows in one sense there is still a question mark hanging over her orders in a way which does not hang over the order of her male colleagues."

Catholics, incidentally, would disagree with this last claim. There is no question mark hanging over the orders of any Anglican priest – at least, not according to Pope Leo XIII.

That last line means, Catholics don't believe ANY Anglican (or protestant) has "(Holy) Orders" only Catholics, Orthodox, and a few other churches which are so small and unheard of in the US to really bear mention.

Here's praying and to hoping that those schismatic and excommunicated women who think they've gotten Catholic Holy Orders will repent and convert...

Best christmas wrapping ever...

Ingredients:
1 Free Friendly's sundae (in bag)
1 Serrated Knife
1 Stuffed animal
1 Present (not pictured)
Step 1: Place items on table.

Step 2: take 1 serrated knife and 1 poor hapless creature... cut seam on bottom.

Step 3: Appear maniacal

Step 4: Show enjoyment while working

Step 5: put knife down and enjoy Friendly's sundae, while holding torture victim inverted.


Step 6: resume operation

Step 7: let girlfriend help

Step 8: Let girlfriend appear maniacal...

Step 9: Relish gutting the poor hapless being.

Step 10: Show pride in workmanship.

Step 11: insert present (e.g., vermont maple cheddar cheese and a venison jerky stick) into gutted creature.

Step 12: Invert creature again, and begin restuffing guts.


Step 13: commence surgical stitching.


Step 14: Tie knot in starting end of stitching
Step 15: Spend 15 hours staring. Just staring.

Step 16: Spend 16 hours staring closer. Closer, I say!

Step 17: Tie end knot in stitching.

Step 18: Let girlfriend stuff candy in poor hapless creature's present bag.

Step 19: Return test subject to original crate.

Step 20: Make test subject look pitiful.


Now... opening best Christmas wrapping ever...

Step 1: Present 1 cuddly stuffed animal to 1 Adult male hunter/bricklayer/Biker.
Step 2: Have adult male read attached letter explaining your desire to have sent him on a hunting expedition in southern South America for penguin.
Step 3: Include in letter your unfortunate moral dilemma of sending him on a trip to South America and thus causing an increase in green house gases due to his travel, or bring a penguin to him.
Step 4: Let adult male biker/hunter know that you just couldn't in any good conscience hurt the planet and thus you can't send him to South America.
Step 5: Present a penguin for him to gut.
Step 6: Watch as adult male hunter/biker guts a poor hapless creature and hear him say "it feels like guttin' a deer"

Step 7: watch as he rips the Penguin's bottom off.

Step 8: Watch him remove presents from carcass.

Step 9: Watch adult male hunter toss carcass to nearby woodland animal to devour.

Snowboarding

========
Yesterday, I went snowboarding for the first time... with my friend Danny.

We left early (around 8am) and headed to the mountain...
I rented gear (figuring that it was best to do that for the first time up, though I do have a board that I bought from a thrift store...).

Riding the conveyor belt up the beginner's practice slope.

The beginner's slope...
One day I'll ride that up...

We're done.

It was fun... I think I'll buy a helmet and boots now... (I have a board/bindings, and though they are not "perfect" for me, they should be good to practice with).

Skiing

Two days ago, I went skiing for the first time ever... Cross-country... it was fun but also quite funny... I fell over repeatedly when I began but towards the end of my first excursion, I was able to ski relatively well, and stay standing... which I thought were quite large accomplishments for a first timer who went by himself.
Me after my first skiing trip.

my skis... you can still see the snow.

I was really happy I had ski pants. Nice and waterproof and warm... (they give you the freedom to fall in snow and not worry about getting soaked).

Thanksgiving

So thanksgiving morning I wake up and decide to check the time... finding my alarm off, I check my cell; 6:20am... funny my alarm should have gone off by now... turns out there's no electricity anywhere...


Just darkness..

So we made breakfast (meaning cold cereal and hot coffee from stove top). Meanwhile, Mark is filleting the Salmon and cutting up the turkey, in case it needs to be cooked on the stovetop as this power outage was unexpected... after offering my help, Mark sends me home after breakfast, as others are coming in... I head home to sleep before I have to be back to help out with Thanksgiving dinner... as I get home the power goes on... I can imagine that Mark is thankful as well as everyone else.

When I wake up I go and help setup for dinner...

Later on, we have a wine/cheese/pate course served in the gallery (130) prior to dinner (200).

(Angelo, Gowri and Legend)




Devon, our kitchen help extraordinaire.




Marc (little Marc) and me

Cold Leftovers for 6pm dinner...

JP2 Music

JP2's life is going to be featured in a new "Trip hop trance" music video...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2858937.ece (apparently produced by St. Paul Multimedia from the Vatican and created by a British Agnostic.)

Anglican hope

An Anglican Bishop (http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2007/11/episcopal-bishop-joins-catholic-church.html) has joined the Catholic Church... (the first that I've heard of recently, though most likely not the only one who has) Also, the Pope is calling a meeting to discuss the rising influx of Anglicans joining the Catholic Church... All because we've kept to the Truth for so long and so unwaveringly so.
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2926365.ece) Apparently, a traditionalist group of Anglicans has as a whole approached the Pope... reminding me when the Queen (of england) approached JP2 about the Anglican's troubles over a decade ago.

I pray that the Anglicans become the first in a series of Christians who seek and succeed in full reunification.

Winterizing and Baptism

Yesterday I did two interesting things...

One, I went and did my laundry and talked to a guy at the thrift shop about faith (the shop is run by an international rehab ministry). We talked about original sin and baptism, talked about obedience to the elders and just general faith. It was the most uplifting time I've had here yet... and made me miss having the community I had in Louisiana... where things like that were daily.
while look up baptism today in Canon Law I came across something saddening (because of what state a person would be in to receive baptism) and yet really loving and hopeful (because of the power of the sacrament and what it would prepare the person for... the loving arms of Christ).

Can. 871 If aborted fetuses are alive, they are to be baptized insofar as possible.

It's interesting to me that the people "ARE TO BE" and not "should be".

The other interesting thing was winterizing my house... As you can see it was successful...


yet apparently I was distracted... I'll be staring at that screw driver for 6 months now... but it'll be funny.

God bless!

Blizzard

So several days ago... (Friday) I had to wake up early to cover someone's shift... and to my chagrin, I discovered it was snowing... though at that early hour of 6 and a half, the ground was not covered, so I expected it to end... but no. It kept snowing for most of the first half of the day, depositing about an inch of snow which is still here, in the first official snowfall.

And yes, one inch does not constitute a blizzard, but...
As you can tell by my face, the wind and snow was brisk...
That's the red mill... the first floor is the gallery, kitchen and dining hall.


The diagonal white lines are snow...