Saturday, January 24

Trader Joe's


Do you love Trader Joe's and want to see one in the Tulsa area? If you do click the link below to add your request. You will need to give your name, email, and city. There is a space for comments also. I have no idea how much chance there is of one opening, but I thought I would give it a try.

Trader Joe's Request Location Page

Tuesday, January 20

Freedom for Life


"Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." - Schindler's List

The beautiful theme for Mr.Obama's Presidential Inauguration is taken from Abraham Lincoln, "A New Birth of Freedom". Lincoln had some very compelling things to say about Freedom.
"Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
He also said: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
The freedom to live is the most fundamental freedom, without which we could have no other freedoms. And thus a new birth of freedom in our country needs to be broad enough to include and protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us; most notably the disabled, the elderly, and the unborn.


Please join us in celebrating this year's beautiful inaugural theme in this more complete way:On Inauguration Day, January 20th, please use these images to encourage others to remember the important connections between life and freedom. Images can be used to replace profile pictures [ on Facebook, on Flickr, on Twitter, etc.] or to highlight the theme on your blog via sidebar picture or background image. Please pass it along by linking back to this page.


"Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so that their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them." - Susan B. Anthony

Tuesday, January 13

March For Life 2009


I am getting ready for my trip out to DC for the March for Life on the 22nd. I am so grateful to be able to participate in this noble demonstration against the outrage of the last 35 years that has seen the deaths of so many - including peers of mine who I will never have the chance to know. This will be history in the making since the march is only 2 days after the inaguration of Obama - the most openly pro-death president we will have ever had! We need a strong showing this year more than ever! Please pray for our country - May many hearts change as a result of this march for life!

Saturday, January 10

David's Colorado Trip

Colorado Trip 09 223
Originally uploaded by mystical_rose84

My brother (far left) and some friends took a trip out to Denver to pick up a large cookstove for the cabin that my brother is helping to build for the family of these friends. They took a little time to do some sightseeing and are pictured here on the way up Pike's Peak. My brother is back home safe now - and I am sure glad to have him home again.

Wednesday, January 7

Please pray for Philip

Please pray for this awesome individual who is fighting brain cancer. His name is Philip Gerard Johnson and here are his words from his blog: http://philipgerardjohnson.blogspot.com/


On October 15, 2008, after two years as an officer in the Navy, my life changed when I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Putting my concerns in the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary and my trust in Our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that I may be faithful to the Holy Catholic Faith and serve the Church for the rest of my life.


He is a friend of a friend and after reading about his condition, his compete desire only for the will of God, and his eagerness to serve the church I can only hope and pray that God will allow him to stay with us for a bit longer. As Philip has requested please pray especially through the intercession of Fr. Thomas Frederick Price. See more info on Fr. Thomas Price

*I am adding Philip's blog to the side bar.

Tuesday, January 6

An Amazing Catholic Artist

ANTHONY VISCO - Atelier for the Sacred Arts in Philadelphia.

Here is an awesome Catholic Artist who's works I admire very much. Not only is the art that he produces wonderful and beautiful, but his writings on the subject are so insightful and inspiring. I hope to someday be half as good as Anthony, and to help in a similar way restore the beautiful artistic traditions of the Catholic faith in the churches of our country.

ANTHONY VISCO is the founder and director of The Atelier for the Sacred Arts in Philadelphia where he does commission works and offers professional services as devotional art consultant. Upon graduation from the University of the Arts, formerly, Philadelphia College of Art, he was the recipient of the Fullbright–Hayes Grant to travel and study in Italy, where he attended studios at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence. In 1975, he was awarded the Elizabeth T. Greensheilds Grant for figurative sculpture and has received the coveted Arthur Ross Award twice for sculpture in an architectural setting.
Known for his work in relief sculpture, his panels depicting the Stations of the Cross can be seen at St. Joseph’s National Shrine in Old Philadelphia as well as hisi large relief sculpture entitled, “Religious Freedom”, done for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the same church. At the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Mr. Visco has sculpted three bronze panels depicting “Baptism, Eucharist and The Word” designed for the raredose in the Catherine Pew Memorial Chapel there. In 1997 he completed two bronze reliefs of the Eleven Blessed of Novgrodech and Mother Foundress for Holy Family College Chapel.
In 1999 he began his work for Saint Rita National Shrine in Philadelphia where his reliefs, sculpture and mural paintings combine to make a most unique devotional environment. His commissions include “St. Thomas of Villanova, Father of the Poor”, a life sized group of bronze figures for Villanova Province and a bronze statue of St. Norbert for the Norbertine Community at Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, PA.
Since 2004 he has performed as fine arts coordinator for the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, WI. His current commissions there include bronze Stations of the Cross, a series of porcelain murals for the Rosary Walk, the Four Pendentives murals depicting The Doctors of the Church, the Baldicchino Angels, and the Narthex ceiling mural of “The Visions of Guadalupe.”
His lectures include:
Saint Francis of Assisi and the Renaissance ImaginationThe Art of DevotionNuditas: The Theology of the Body in Sacred Art

I love this particular writing from his website:

"To make sacred art is to wed one’s faith with one’s esthetics in hopes to bring even closer, “the created” to our Creator, to shorten the real or imagined gap between “the called” with the Caller. When the artist answers, when this invitation is met successfully, a covenant is formed; the work is sanctified. This covenant is then extended from God to artist and from artist to fellow believers and finally back to God again. It is this covenant that we wish to explore here. As faith and aesthetic works combine, the work in turn is employed to reflect those beliefs. As culture becomes infused with and by our trust and hope in God, sacred art becomes an indeterminate good, a means by which we may come together and witness the meeting of heaven and earth. Thus, sacred art can not ever be the same give and take between artist and society as secular art."
- From "The Anatomy of Sacred Art" by Anthony Visco

Please visit: http://www.anthonyvisco.org/index.html to see many of his amazing pieces. Also I added a link in the side-bar under 'Art'

Monday, January 5

Midnight Mass at Holy Cross

Friends and family came together to decorate our parish* for the midnight mass. We lit everything with only candle-light and back lighting from the stained-glass windows - we has about a 1000 candles. We spent a few days making cedar garlands and wreaths from trees from our property. We had candles everywhere - hanging, suspended from the ceiling, in window sills, and everywhere we could put them. We also put 3 live cedar trees up front. I found yards of gorgeous fabric at a bargain $30 (fabric cascades down both sides from the cross). Parishioners donated 30 poinsettia plants which added so much color. It is amazing how much lighting can change the whole feel of a place and the feel of the atmosphere at midnight was one of wonder, awe, and reverence.


**
* Many families who live near the monastery are parishoners at Holy Cross Parish.
**Added photo at reader's request ;-)