Winterr's words

Happy Birthday to Sprite

I was watching a news program last night, when a certain segment caught my interest.
It was about political correctness. I may be behind on some of the times lately because I had no idea that the popular nursery rhyme "Baa baa black sheep" has now been changed to "Baa baa rainbow sheep" because it can cause offense. Maybe i'm the only one who thinks that is really not so funny.
They also brought up that "Sea World" on the Gold Coast has decided the name fairy penguins could cause offence to the gay community so now it is now calling them little penguins. So I myself got to thinking, what if the title "little" penguins might cause offense to short people? Then tiny penguins might cause offense to midgets, I think you get my drift.
Now I want to get onto the feminsts.....have you heard of the rhyme "humpty dumpty"? well in case you havent, there is a verse "all the kings horses and all the kings men" well the feminists have complained that it shouldnt be the kings "men" who put humpty together again. Sorry???
There has been complaints in schools where teachers say "good boy" or "good girl" it now should be "good child"
Watch out Enid Blyton books, because "golliwog" might be taken out for it's racist view!

I believe that political correctness has been hijacked.

Jonathan's patron Saint is St.Justin Martyr.
So.....

Who is St.Justin Martyr?

I don't have much to write really, I have been busy and have alot coming up in the next few weeks, so my concentration has been almost always on those things.
I have been reading a little online, and have a nice little story to link to that I enjoyed, so I will leave you with a link to
Former Anglican bishop of London explains why he became Catholic
Have a great week and thank you for your Easter wishes!

"He is risen! He is not here!"

Job 19:25-2725: For I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another;
though my reins be consumed within me.

I hope you all have a great and safe Easter!

Most of you know that i'm back in Australia and missing Jonathan :-( But we will have a wedding date when we get our final papers from Immigration. Right now we are at the near ends of getting the final stuff together.
I haven't blogged because I have had a cold and just been generally "out of it" with jet lag and comming home to a very busy week. I also have been too tired to think clear enough to write anything that would make sense.
It seems that when I got home, everything had been waiting for me and piled up. It was storming yesterday, I loved that!

I had an awesome month away from home, we did so much of the fun stuff! We had so much fun with David and Jennifer on St.Patricks day. The two Shrines we visited were nothing less than beautiful.
We also watched the Passion of the Christ before I left, which I thought was the perfect time to do so, since we did that in Holy week, not to mention the 80's based DVD's we spent our evenings watching. It's so funny to think back to the 80's, with the big hair and weird clothes, I am glad that my mother never kept too many photos of me back then. Especially the late 80's when my best friend and I used to dress like gypsies :/
I bought the Diary of St.Faustina, when we went to Burton Ohio, thanks to Jessica who plugged it so much that I thought "this is a must have" I have read some of it and it's been great so far.

I want to wish everyone a blessed Triduum. Being good friday in some parts of the world and saturday here it can get confusing what specific day to wish you blessings on :) Thank you all for your Triduum wishes.
Last night I went to the Good Friday mass, it was wonderful. I particularly like the veneration of the cross. This part of the year is the most different of all times in the Church year. Imagining a world without Jesus is so hard. Having the altar stripped bare, the cross covered with purple cloth among other things, is a reminder that there was that time when Jesus was "gone".
I would also like to welcome all those being recieved in the Church on the Easter Vigil, especially Jason (and wife Brandi) and Danny who are those I know about, i'm sure there are many more of you out there!

So whether you celebrate Easter or do not, I wish EVERYONE a great rest of the week. I know that I am planning to eat many, many chocolate eggs.

This thursday Jonathan and I went to one of the best places I have visted. Jonathan has already posted on it so I will link to it
Here

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is such a beautiful thing, the things contained in those pages are more exciting that unlocking fantasy secrets from fantasy Da Vinci codes, this is real and something to be explored by anyone who wants to unlock the "secrets" behind what the Catholic Church truly teaches.

One of my favorite gifts is my Catechism, here is an excerpt that I like and read this morning:

II. WAYS OF COMING TO KNOW GOD

31 Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of "converging and convincing arguments", which allow us to attain certainty about the truth. These "ways" of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world, and the human person.
32 The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe.
As St. Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.7
And St. Augustine issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky. . . question all these realities. All respond: "See, we are beautiful." Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?8
33 The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material",9 can have its origin only in God.
34 The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first principle nor their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end. Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality "that everyone calls God".10
35 Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason.



I copied the text from the Vatican website.

I gave him tomatoes, he walked by them, I gave him red peppers, he didn't even sniff them, I gave him strawberries, he left them, today I gave him an apple, a whole red shiny apple, he left it. He just wont love me :-(
Oh well, at least he finally posed and looked at the camera for me.

This weekend Jonathan and I met up with David and Jennifer and headed up to visit the
Basillica & National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation
This is a place we all love to visit and has been very special to us. We went this sunday which was the anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. I was able to join the Confraternity, which was great since I have been waiting to do that for so long, and what a great day to join.
I also got to have some prayer and was blessed with a relic of the true cross, it was awesome and I cannot explain it.
I took some photos as usual. Jonathan will be posting some too in the near future which are alot better than mine, he seems to have more of a natural thing with taking photos.
We finnished our evening off by eating out and driving home again. I was certainly tired from the drive and slept like a log.
Here are some photos from the park near the shrine:




And here is the inside: