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Originally posted by Pawianbonobo:
There is another photo story of the unique Polish Catholic festival. It is the Peregrination of the copy of the Miraculous Picture of Our Lady of Jasna Góra. The copy travels through Poland and visits parishes, each one every 30-40 years. That is why it is an important festival for local parishioners, especially in the countryside.The tradition of the peregrination is still young, it started in 1957 when Poland was ruled by communists. They didn`t like the idea and often "arrested" the copy but in vain because priests kept on travelling with the empty frames, making even a greater impression on believers. Eventually communists gave up and let the picture peregrinate freely. Those were incredible times....
See the photos from the visit of the copy to a small town in Poland
http://polandsite.proboards104.com/index.cgi?board=customs&action=display&thread=219They are beautiful!
Thank you.
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Originally posted by Short Ninja:
Dont want to go into details about the interview except that there was only hostility with no open dialogue but the' hear me out or else ultimatum' Now I know that there is only one God of all living creatures but at that time my thoughts were different and so when I said second chance it meant my own true GOD ...which is primitive & wrong.Anyway all I wanted to say in the first place is that most people knew Gregory Yong as the Arch Bishop and I am sure he was excellent in his job but we met in different circumstances and said things that didnt make any sense.
This is not the platform for this. I hope you can forget and move on.
May he and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
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Rick Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE "PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE")
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife no w having cancer and him having "wealth" from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,
"Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and f God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: E ither you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something godand something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be w o rked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.BR
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made m e instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor , care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourh, added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to a sk ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
NOW . PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS
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Just something to share with you.The Rosary (Please read on.. please do)
Jim Castle was tired when he boarded his plane in Cincinnati , Ohio , that night in 1981. The 45-year-old management consultant had put on a week long series of business meetings and seminars, and now he sank gratefully into his seat ready for the flight home to Kansas City , Kansas .
As more passengers entered, the place hummed with conversation, mixed with the sound of bags being stowed. Then, suddenly, people fell silent. The quiet moved slowly up the aisle like an invisible wake behind a bo. Jim craned his head to see what was happening, and his mouth dropped open.
Walking up the aisle were two nuns clad in simple white habits bordered in blue. He recognized the familiar face of one at once, the wrinkled skin, and the eyes warmly intent. This was a face he'd seen in newscasts and on the cover of TIME. The two nuns halted, and Jim realized that his seat companion was going to be Mother Teresa!
As the last few passengers settled in, Mother Teresa and her companion pulled out rosaries. Each decade of the beads was a different color, Jim noticed. The decades represented various areas of the world, Mother Teresa told him later, and added, "I pray for the poor and dying on each continent."
The airplane taxied to the runway and the two women began to pray, their voices a low murmur. Though Jim considered himself not a very religious Catholic who went to church mostly out of habit, inexplicably he found himself joining in.
By the time they murmured the final prayer, the plane had reached cruising altitude. Mother Teresa turned toward him. For the first time in his life, Jim understood what people meant when they spoke of a person possessing an "aura". As she gazed at him, a sense of peace filled him; he could no more see it than he could see the wind but he felt it, just as surely as he felt a warm summer breeze.
"Young man," she inquired, "do you say the rosary often?" "No, not really," he admitted.
She took his hand, while her eyes probed his. Then she smiled. "Well, you will now." And she dropped her rosary into his palm.
An hour later Jim entered the Kansas City airport where he was met by his wife, Ruth. "What in the world?" Ruth asked when she noticed the rosary in his hand. They kissed and Jim escibed his encounter.
Driving home, he said. "I feel as if I met a true sister of God."
Nine months later Jim and Ruth visited Connie, a friend of theirs for several years. Connie confessed that she'd been told she had ovarian cancer.
"The doctor says it's a tough case," said Connie, "but I'm going to fight it. I won't give up." Jim clasped her hand. Then, after reaching into his pocket, he gently twined Mother Teresa's rosary around her fingers. He told her the story and said, "Keep it with you Connie. It may help."
Although Connie wasn't Catholic, her hand closed willingly around the small plastic beads. "Thank you," she whispered. "I hope I can return it."
More than a year passed before Jim saw Connie again. This time her face was glowing, she hurried toward him and handed him the rosary.
"I carried it with me all year," she said. "I've had surgery and hav bee on chemotherapy, too. Last month, the doctors did second-look surgery, and the tumor's gone. Completely!" Her eyes met Jim's. "I knew it was time to give the rosary back."
In the fall of 1987, Ruth's sister, Liz, fell into a deep depression after her divorce. She asked Jim if she could borrow the rosary, and when he sent it, she hung it over her bedpost in a small velvet bag. At night I held on to it, just physically held on. I was so lonely and afraid," she says, "yet when I gripped that rosary, I felt as if I held a loving hand."
Gradually, Liz pulled her life together, and she mailed the rosary back. "Someone else may need it," she said.
Then one night in 1988, a stranger telephoned Ruth. She'd heard about the rosary from a neighbor and aske if se could borrow it to take to the hospital where her mother lay in a coma. The family hoped the rosary might help their mother die peacefully. A few days later, the woman returned the beads. "The nurses told me a coma patient can still hear," she said, "so I explained to my mother that I had Mother Teresa's rosary and that when I gave it to her she could let go; it would be all rosary in her hand. Right away, we saw her face relax. The lines smoothed out until she looked so peaceful, so young." The woman's voice caught. "A few minutes later she was gone."
Fervently, she gripped Ruth's hands. "Thank you."
Is there special power in those humble beads? Or is the power of the human spirit simply renewed in each person who borrows the rosary? Jim only knows that requests continue to come, often unexpectedly. He always responds though, whenever he lends the rosary, "When you're throughneedin it, send it back. Someone else may need it."
Jim's own life has changed, too, since his unexpected meeting on the airplane. When he realized Mother Teresa carries everything she owns in a small bag, he made an effort to simplify his own life.
"I try to remember what really counts - not money or titles or possessions, but the way we love others," he says.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY, MAY MOTHER MARY ASK HER SON JESUS TO SHOWER YOU WITH GRACES.
Please feel free to pass this mail on, especially to all those in despair so that they might know that they are not alone in their hour of need.
The reason I sent you this mail is because I know the power of the prayers of these simple beads and I wanted to share it with you.
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Originally posted by Miracles&Prophecies:
Hmm I don't know dumbdumb but if you're a single attractive Protestant female between the age of 16-30 why don't we find that out together......LOL.
OOps sorry I thought it was funny. Anyone?
Dumbdumb is a Protestant. :)To answer the Dumb2's question, the couple have to agree to raise the child in a Catholic faith. Otherwise, the marriage will be void in the eyes of the Catholic Church.
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Due to my busy schedules and intention to keep this forum going, I have appointed two new Moderators to help keep this forum alive and in order.
Kuali Baba and ObiterDicta, sorry I didn't ask before I added you. I hardly log in and hence no chance to ask and wait for answers. But if you are not comfortable with this new appointed role, please let me know. Thank you :)
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Take a look at this http://www.sgforums.com/forums/1683/topics/154829
It says about Martin Luther's devotion to Mother Mary and how the Marian teachings evolved and eventually removed in the Protestant Church over the centuries.
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It was indeed true that Luther did not intend for the Church to be split. Being a religious Catholic, it was also never his wish to alter the Church teachings. He honoured Mother Mary and saints like any good Catholic will do. Even at his death bed, he gave thanks to Mother Mary for the many blessings that he had received.
But why were the teaching in his new founded Church so different from the Original Church?
The reason is very simple. Once you're broken from the Original Church, your root is broken and foundation is lost. That explains why many protestant churches further broke into other branches and some have even formed cult groups namely Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. They no longer agree on the teachings. Any difference in opinion will bring to the birth of a new church.
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People spotting Andy Lau shopping in Paris with a girl during CNY. After that, some saw him standing close to the girl and whispering to the girl.
Till now, nobody has any clue of Andy Lau's life love. Some even say he is gay. For all we know, he might have already been married with kids and grand kids.
Edited by JWorld 21 Feb `08, 1:13PM
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