Prosopagnosia

 The ability to recognize and read faces is prosopagnosia.  This must be some type of autism, asperges, etc.  It certainly would affect social communication.  People that are good as reading faces win at polka.  Police should be able to do it. It's one of God's gifts.

What was the mark God gave Cain?  People just looked at his face and knew he had God's protection.  Everyone could read it.

At the end of the Bible, the angel cries out, "Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads." (Rev. 7: 3)

The best facial expression is the gaze of love.  Everyone looks at newborns with that look.  Lovers hold that gaze. 

But life can change that look.  Let us pray for God to give people the protection He gave Cain.

Complex Question Fallacy

 How do you answer a question someone asks you, when the question isn't true?  The question takes for granted an answer that you haven't responded to and is really asking you a follow up question.

The famous complex question fallacy is "Have you stopped beating your wife, yet?"  It is taken for granted that it is a known fact that you beat your wife.

Lawyer's trick.  It's an unjustified presumption. It's a trick question. 

Don't answer these types of questions.  They are trying to incriminate you.  

Converts

 People argue that Christmas' date, December 25, is a pagan holiday for Solstice.  What if it is?  I don't see the objection.  If you are pagan, can't you convert to Christianity?  You get baptized and then you are no longer a pagan.  Why isn't that true for pagan holidays and customs?  Why can't they become Christian holidays and customs?  

Nowhere Physically Is Everywhere Spiritually

 When our minds focus on anything, we are there in that place spiritually, as certainly as our bodies are located in a definite place.  Are you following me?

Our senses will be frustrated for lack of something to dwell on and we will feel like we should be doing something. Forget about it.  Continue doing this nothing.  Focus on God.  That is NOT nothing.  

Persevere in this nothingness.  Consciously long to possess God through love.  Get lost in this nowhere place.  This nothingness is blessed.  Keep at it.  Eventually, you will grasp it.  

I can't explain it.  It has to be experienced.

Funny Memories

 Found these on Facebook: 

Your funniest moment as an alter server server was........

Msgr: "Let us prayyyy!"

Server:

Msgr: "*Ahem* Let us prayyyy!"

Server:

Msgr: ".....Let us get the boooook"

Server turned beet red and came running with tears of embarrassment streaming down his face. Msgr comforted him and all was well.

The bell clapper came off in my sweaty hand right before Sanctus. No way that wire was going back in, so I improvised. I held the clapper in my left hand and shook the bell so the ball hit the sides. It sounded different, but Father was happy when I 'splained and told me to get the pliers.

Lit the advent wreath on fire, trying to reach the candle. Technically it was a ribbon attached to the wreath that ignited.

My brother and I were serving at midnight Christmas Mass, my brother fell asleep on the altar.

Father's sleeve knocked a Host off the ciborium and he didn't notice it.  We servers looked at each other.  Then one of us picked it up and just placed it on the altar.  Father saw it, and just picked it up and put it in with the others in the ciborium.   Then one of the boys said, "Thirty second rule."  We lost it.

Believe None of What You See

 The reason I read "How the Light Gets In", is because I read Louise Penny's book before this one.  I had to know what happened to Chief Inspector Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir.  Book # 8 left me hanging.  I just had to follow up and read # 9.

     Louise Penny did not disappoint.  Gamache's back was against the wall.  His department was gutted.  His friend, Jean-Guy was alienated from him.  Gamache finally just resigned--literally.  It maybe, forever, but I have to read the other mysteries to find out.

     In this one, Gamache has to go into hiding.  Of course, Three Pines is the place.  Gamache's supervisors, and even the premier of Canada, are all in cahoots against Gamache.  They were making a lot of money by not doing the construction work they should have done.  Structures were going to collapse.

      Fortunately, Gamache's plans pan out and the good guys win, again.  I love happy endings.

Prayer Request

 My "cloistered brothers" are walking around dazed.    "None was there when I had my fatal hour": on the death of Jorge L. Zerquera - Reinventing PeaceReinventing Peace (tufts.edu)