Spirit of my silence I can hear You
Deus caritas est. God is love. Deus é amor. Dios es amor. Dieu est amour. Dio è amore. A Catholic blog in English, Sometimes also in Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian.
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Christian pop music - Sufjan Stevens, Death With Dignity, Carrie & Lowell, 2015
Spirit of my silence I can hear You
Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Se alguém quer vir a Mim, negue-se a si mesmo, tome a sua cruz, e siga-Me
A vocação exige renúncia, sacrifício. Se nos dermos, Ele dá-se-nos. Temos de confiar plenamente no Mestre, temos de nos abandonar nas suas mãos sem mesquinhez; de lhe manifestar, com as nossas obras, que a barca é dele, que queremos que disponha à vontade de tudo o que nos pertence. (Amigos de Deus, 22).
São Josemaría Escrivá
Quem ama a Deus, dá-se a si mesmo
Quem ama a Deus, não entrega só o que tem, o que é, ao serviço de Deus:
dá-se a si mesmo. Não vê – em perspectiva rasteira – o seu eu na saúde,
no nome, na carreira. (Amigos de Deus, 46).
São Josemaría Escrivá
(http://opusdei.pt/pt-pt/)
São Josemaría Escrivá
(http://opusdei.pt/pt-pt/)
Monday, 28 September 2015
Christian pop music - Pope Francis, Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!, Music Album With His Words And Prayers, Wake Up!, 2015

Have you heard ‘Pope Francis: "Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!"’ by Believe Digital IT on #SoundCloud? #np https://t.co/F1ZcpbrYnf
— faroleiro (@faroleiro1) 28 Septembre 2015
Sunday, 27 September 2015
I am the happiest man on the face of the earth
The Firemen's Friar
He was the first and most famous victim of the World Trade Center attack, but the death of Father Mychal Judge, the beloved New York Fire Department chaplain, was not as extraordinary as his colorful and iconoclastic life.
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(Photo: AP)
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One month after Mychal
Judge's body was pulled from the shattered lobby of 1 World Trade
Center, and three weeks after his televised funeral, some of the friar's
friends decided to hold a smaller memorial evening of Celtic music and
storytelling. Priests, nuns, lawyers, cops, firefighters, homeless
people, rock-and-rollers, recovering alcoholics, local politicians, and
middle-aged couples from the suburbs all streamed into the Good Shepherd
Chapel on Ninth Avenue. Pete Hamill read one of his columns from the Daily News,
the Irish band Morning Star played jigs and reels, and Malachy McCourt
-- actor, author, and irrepressible raconteur -- stationed himself by
the altar, briskly moving things along as emcee. The crowd was so
motley, so colorful, it looked like the setup to a joke. (A priest, a lawyer, and an Irishman walk into a bar...)
Most of the mourners had no idea that Judge whirled through
the city in so many different orbits, even though he had an
extraordinarily high profile as one of five chaplains of the New York
City Fire Department. Most also had no idea why they were commemorating a
Catholic priest in an Episcopal church, until one of the event's
organizers explained that this was where Judge used to go for AA
meetings -- the other cornerstone of his spiritual life, besides the
church -- and therefore had a very special significance to him.
"Only Father Mychal could get a room like this together,"
said Joe Hartnett, an electrician and father of five from New Jersey,
when he took his turn at the altar to speak. Judge had been a pastor at
Hartnett's parish in East Rutherford when he was a teenager. "I mean, I
see firemen, policemen, recovering alcoholics, and people who are -- uh,
here's a word I don't use very often -- gay."
And yet this was precisely who Mychal Judge was: a devout,
gay, recovering-alcoholic Catholic priest, a fabled New York figure who
had a knack for telling great stories and would burst into old Irish
standards at the drop of a hat. (His rendition of "Frankie and Johnny"
was a legendary crowd-pleaser; by verse three, he'd have his
handkerchief out, pretending to weep.) Judge had a Clintonian talent for
making people feel as though they were the only ones in the room and a
bartender's gift for bringing strangers together. Like this crowd.
"I didn't know anything about his other side," Hartnett said
later, after the service. "I just knew what a great guy he was and how
he always gave people the time of day. He was everybody's priest."
Perhaps the first wisp of real
poetry to emerge from the devastation of the World Trade Center was the
tale of Mychal Judge's death. Within hours of the collapse, a story
began circulating that he'd been hit by falling debris when he took his
helmet off to give last rites to a firefighter, a man who himself had
been crushed by someone who'd jumped from Tower One.
Seven weeks later, it seems that the story is at least partly
myth, though perhaps a myth necessary to the demands of the day. For
one thing, Judge's body was found in the lobby of Tower One, not on the
sidewalk outside. For another, one of the firefighters who carried Judge
out of the building, Christian Waugh, says he saw the chaplain standing
upright by the emergency command post just seconds before they and
scores of others got caught in a monsoon of rubble. "I'm assuming he
gave last rites to the guy in Company 216 and then ran into the lobby," says Waugh. "Because I was with him in that lobby. He was standing right there, a few feet away from me."
But it's understandable how the myth bloomed. Those who knew
Judge -- and he knew hundreds, if not thousands, of people -- wanted him
to die gorgeously and aptly, in a way that expressed the depth of his
faith. It was how they imagined him. Such a death suited a legend.
As it happens, the unembellished story of Mychal Judge's
death is just as moving -- and an even more telling tribute to the
chaplain, as well as to the men he served.
"There's a very old postcard of
a giant Jesus looking in the window of the Empire State Building in
those long, long robes," says McCourt, in a brogue as thick as potatoes.
"And that was Mike Judge in New York. He was everywhere. Over the city.
And ooohhh, how good it was to know he was there."
Judge was gregarious, mischievous, a luminous presence; he
thrived on movement and kept a preposterous schedule, as if he'd found a
wormhole beneath the friary on West 31st Street that allowed him to be
in six places at once. On any given evening, he might be baptizing a
fireman's child, ministering to an aids patient, or listening to Black
47, a Celtic rock band that had a regular gig at Connolly's on West 47th
Street. Judge got 30 to 40 messages a day on his answering machine.
Every six months, he'd wear another machine out.
"He was the busiest person alive," says Joe Falco, a
firefighter with Engine 1-Ladder 24, the company across the street from
Judge's home. "He'd come back at all hours of the morning, blowing his
siren so we could park his car. No one knew how he did it. No one
understood how he maintained his energy."
The firemen loved him. He had an encyclopedic memory for
their family members' names, birthdays, and passions; he frequently gave
them whimsical presents. Once, after visiting President Clinton in
Washington, he handed out cocktail napkins emblazoned with the
presidential seal. He'd managed to stuff dozens of them into his habit
before leaving the White House.
"I would break his chops constantly," says Falco. "I wouldn't
treat him like a priest. I'd treat him like any other guy. It wasn't a
priest-parishioner relationship. It was . . . you know, man to man. He'd
help guys out with their marital problems. With every problem, big or
small. You could go to him."
Obviously, Mychal Judge was not what one might call a
conventional priest. But he was, arguably, a typical New York Franciscan
-- earthy, streetwise, thoroughly engaged with the characters and chaos
of the city. If times required it, Judge would hold Mass in the most
unlikely places, including firehouses and Pennsylvania Station. This
drove certain literalists in the clergy crazy, but no matter -- Judge
pressed on. (To one of his antagonists, a certain monsignor in the
chancellery who frequently phoned to admonish him, Judge once said: "If
I've ever done anything to embarrass or hurt the church I love so much,
you can burn me at the stake in front of St. Patrick's.")
The other pillar of Judge's spiritual philosophy was
Alcoholics Anonymous. Once, at the White House, he told Bill Clinton
that he believed the founders of AA had done more for humanity than
Mother Teresa. "He was a great comfort to those with troubles with the
drink," says McCourt, who usually saw Judge twice a month at AA. "He'd
always say, 'You're not a bad person -- you have a disease that makes
you think you're a bad person, and it's going to fuck you up.' "
McCourt pauses a moment. "He had no compunction about language. Not with
me, anyway."
Back in the early eighties, Judge was one of the first
members of the clergy to minister to young gay men with aids, doing
their funeral Masses and consoling their partners and family members. He
opened the doors of St. Francis of Assisi Church when Dignity, a gay
Catholic organization, needed a home for its aids ministry, and he later
ran an aids program at St. Francis. Last year, he marched in the first
gay-inclusive St. Patrick's Day parade, which his friend Brendan Fay, a
gay activist, organized in Queens.
Cardinal O'Connor wasn't exactly a fan. "I heard that if Mike
got any money from the right wing," says McCourt, "he'd give it to the
gay organizations. I don't know if that's true, but that's his humor,
for sure."
Perhaps the most unusual thing about Judge was how
simultaneously New York and un-New York he seemed. Judge's roots in this
city ran deep -- he was born here and raised here -- and he knew
everyone, from the homeless to the mayor. But he lived on an entirely
different plane of priorities from that inhabited by most New Yorkers.
He was nonacquisitive, unselfish, and uncomplaining. "Once in a while,"
his friend Michael Duffy, a friar from Philadelphia, said in his homily
for Judge, "he would say to me, 'Michael Duffy' -- he always called me
by my full name -- 'Michael Duffy, you know what I need?' And I would
get excited because it was hard to buy him a present or anything. I
said, 'No, what?'
"'You know what I really need?'
"'No, what, Mike?'
"'Absolutely nothing. I don't need a thing in the world. I am the happiest man on the face of the earth.'"
Saturday, 26 September 2015
Christian pop music - Sufjan Stevens, John My Beloved, Carrie & Lowell, 2015
Jesus I need you, be near me, come shield me
Friday, 25 September 2015
Thursday, 24 September 2015
Contemplative souls in the midst of the world
I will never tire of repeating that we have to be contemplative souls
in the midst of the world, who try to convert their work into prayer.
(Saint Josemaría)
Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Monday, 21 September 2015
Christian pop music - Sufjan Stevens, John Wayne Gacy Jr., Illinois, 2005
Sunday, 20 September 2015
Benedict option principles
#1: In a world given over to acquisition and status, strive for downward mobility.
#2: In a culture obsessed with image and aggrandizement, have a healthy disregard for self.
#3: In a society fixated on security and the elimination of enemies no matter the cost, remain steadfast in a fundamental peace orientation.
Encapsulate the principles – downward mobility, disregard for self, and peace – with the added dimension of endurance, persistence.
#2: In a culture obsessed with image and aggrandizement, have a healthy disregard for self.
#3: In a society fixated on security and the elimination of enemies no matter the cost, remain steadfast in a fundamental peace orientation.
Encapsulate the principles – downward mobility, disregard for self, and peace – with the added dimension of endurance, persistence.
Christian pop music - Sufjan Stevens, No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross, Carrie & Lowell, 2015
Drag me to hell in the valley of The Dalles Like my mother Give wings to a stone It’s only the shadow of a cross
Friday, 18 September 2015
Thursday, 17 September 2015
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
14/9/2015 Pope Francis (@Pontifex): God loves the lowly
God loves the lowly. When we live humbly, he takes our small efforts and creates great things.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) 14 Septembre 2015
Monday, 14 September 2015
Sunday, 13 September 2015
Santa Teresa Margarida de Redi, Processo Ordinário. 57 - Súplica ao Espírito Santo
«Supliquemos ao Espírito Santo
que não deixe nunca ociosa
no nosso pobre coração,
a bela chama da caridade.»
Espírito Santo de Amor,
desce sobre mim
e acende no meu coração a chama da caridade,
do amor para com o meu próximo.
Que no fim do caminho
Jesus me possa dizer:
“Vem a Mim,
porque tive fome e deste-me de comer,
tive sede e deste-me de beber,
estava nu e vestiste-me,
estava doente e na prisão e foste ver-Me.”
Senhor,
abre os meus olhos,
que eu aprenda a encontrar-Te
nos meus irmãos.
Assim seja!
(http://orar.carmelitas.pt/)
que não deixe nunca ociosa
no nosso pobre coração,
a bela chama da caridade.»
Espírito Santo de Amor,
desce sobre mim
e acende no meu coração a chama da caridade,
do amor para com o meu próximo.
Que no fim do caminho
Jesus me possa dizer:
“Vem a Mim,
porque tive fome e deste-me de comer,
tive sede e deste-me de beber,
estava nu e vestiste-me,
estava doente e na prisão e foste ver-Me.”
Senhor,
abre os meus olhos,
que eu aprenda a encontrar-Te
nos meus irmãos.
Assim seja!
(http://orar.carmelitas.pt/)
Saturday, 12 September 2015
12/9/2015 Pope Francis (@Pontifex): the sign of the cross - the great mystery of the Trinity
Every time that we make the sign of the cross, we draw closer to the great mystery of the Trinity.
Pope Francis (@Pontifex)
Pope Francis (
Beata Maria Josefina de Jesus Crucificado, Diário III pág. 59
«Vivo a cada instante
dando graças e glorificando ao Senhor
nos meus sofrimentos,
procurando mantê-los escondidos de todos,
para poder servir e,
até mesmo ajudar minimamente a todos,
pela glória d’Aquele que é Tudo.»
(http://orar.carmelitas.pt/)
dando graças e glorificando ao Senhor
nos meus sofrimentos,
procurando mantê-los escondidos de todos,
para poder servir e,
até mesmo ajudar minimamente a todos,
pela glória d’Aquele que é Tudo.»
(http://orar.carmelitas.pt/)
Friday, 11 September 2015
Não é lícito ao homem desprezar a vida corporal (Catecismo da Igreja Católica, §364) - Saúde, as amêndoas
A
amêndoa é uma fonte rica em vitaminas B, sobretudo riboflavina e niacina, vitamina E, colina, magnésio, manganésio, fósforo, potássio e zinco.
São também ricas em fibras e em óleos monoinsaturados e poliinsaturados,
óleos que reduzem o mau colesterol e que elevam o bom colesterol.
As amêndoas também contêm fitoesteróis, tais
como beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, sitostanol e
campestanol , que têm sido associados com propriedades de redução de colesterol e de certos cancros.
Thursday, 10 September 2015
Thursday, 3 September 2015
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