NunEssential

Beary received his first piece of fan mail today. He was pretty excited over his new found fame....

I am a big fan of Archbishop Chaput. That guy is amazing and has a lot of guts to speak about things that many people do not want to speak about or admit. Check out this article from theblaze.com

Hallowed Ground! This WYD event took place in the legendary soccer arena of the Real Madrid team. I have never been on ground level of a European soccer stadium and wanted to pick a few blades of the famous grass but i didn't- security was prominent and watchful. It was fun though!

It was estimated that 2 million young people filled the streets of Madrid to take part in World Youth Day and see the Holy Father. It was awesome to see the young people, filled with joy, singing on the streets and in the subway. It brought much joy to everyone. This is a quick video of one of the smaller crowds in a popular plaza. 

A lazy Spanish breakfast....

I am VERY grateful to the kind folks who sent me to Madrid for World Youth Day last week. I am also grateful to Christopher West and Mike Mangione and the Union, who graciously allowed me to accompany them to Madrid and witness first-hand the AMAZING work they are doing with Theology of the Body and the beauty of art (the live sand painting was incredible- see picture at right) and music. It was awesome to see their presentation and watch the young people in awe of the truth and beauty from God that was presented. Here are some pics from the event called Fill These Hearts . Check out this link to see when they will be in your area, I highly recommend going!

It's been a very interesting and deeply beautiful summer! I have much to be grateful for and hope to share some things I learned and some experiences I had over the summer for those who would like to read about it :) Wishing all of you a happy and blessed return to school year and the regular routine of life, which- if you really think about it, isnt regular at all. New adventures happen every day, if we have the eyes to see. Fr. Pinto came to our parish yesterday and gave a talk about intercessory prayer. It rocked. One thing he talked about was that the key to intercessory prayer is having the heart of Jesus and Jesus is a Man who loves. His love transforms people. Then Father said, "Love reveals beauty. When we love someone, we find the beauty in them." This is why Jesus finds us beautiful, because He is Love. I thought about this profound reality all day long. It reminded me of the powerful truth in the children's story- Beauty and the Beast . Perhaps

I think this is what the home plate umpire was thinking on July 26th after 19 innings of baseball. The game went on for over 6 hours and at the end, well, perhaps the ump just wanted it over and made a game ending and much controversial call! eek! the video was removed! i will try to find another upload. *imagine very frustrated baseball players here.....*

Usually the rapper Lil' Wayne manufactures some sketchy stuff but I was intrigued over this new song he has just released called "How To Love". In this particular song, he is singing to a woman who is broken from the wounds of other men and he is telling her gently that she is beautiful and worth more than she gives herself credit.  In my mind, I see this girl as being lost and sad and not knowing really where to go. It seems so typical of many women today. Most women don't know that Jesus is the one who will heal us and never leave us. This kind of message seems rather rare in the hip-hop world. I am posting the super clean version with lyrics below. If you don't like hip-hop, you won't like this and i am not advocating Lil' Wayne by any means (nor any other versions of this song), just posting good stuff where it can surprisingly be found. You had a lot of crooks tryna steal your heart Never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out How to

I was pondering the readings from Mass today about the situation with Miriam becoming a leper (okay, so it struck a little close to home) It struck me how TYPICAL this kind of behavior is (not being turned into a leper, mind you, but the behavior that led up to that unfortunate consequence) So, here we have the brother and sister of Moses: Aaron and Miriam. Their brother was called personally by God for a great mission and he speaks to God face to face as one man does to another. However, they notice some things about Moses that appear to be imperfect. So they......COMPLAIN! and gossip too. Oh yeah, and they also judge Moses. They look at Moses' apparent flaw and grumble and say, "is it through Moses alone that God speaks? does He not speak through us also?" Allow me to translate that into 2011 speak, "who does this guy think he is? look at his personal life! We don't need him, God can use us far-more-perfect people" Ahem. So, well, then it di