Papal March Madness

In the U.S. A. there  is single-elimination college basketball tournament performed each spring.  The colleges are matched in their appropriate division, and the winner advances to the next level.  It seems that everyone in the country participates in betting on the winner.  Papers are distributed with the teams' schedule and look similar to the one above.  Places of work, schools, restaurants--it seems that everyone participates.  It is no wonder that papal conjecture has caught March Madness.  Remember that betting on the pope is a sin.  So don't take this seriously.  

h/t NPR MORNING EDITION    http://www.facebook.com/nprmorningedition

Breakfast to Support Fr. Tom's Kids

This video is about Our Lady of Grace School in Kenya, where Fr. Tom's Kids are educated.  Father Tom’s Kids is a registered non-profit charity run by the Dominican Friars of Eastern Africa. We link sponsors and donors from all over the world with impoverished children in and around Kisumu, Kenya, in order to support them and provide them with an education.

The students come to us from many different backgrounds. Some are orphans, some come from polygamous families, some have parents who struggle to feed them. They are referred to us by family, by other religious orders in the area (such as the Franciscan Sisters of St. Anne), by former Father Tom’s Kids, or simply by Divine Providence. None of them can afford to go to school without our aid.

St. Mary's Church in New Haven, CT. is having a pancake breakfast to benefit Fr. Tom's Kids.  It will be held after the 8 and 10 o'clock Mass on Sunday, March 3, 2013.  The Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic will be serving a full breakfast with eggs, sausage, pancakes, and fruit in the church hall.  Tickets are $ 10 and $ 20 for a family.  Donations are always welcome.  Come join and have an enjoyable breakfast and help the orphans that Fr. Tom and his successor have always loved and cherished.  This video is about Our Lady of Grace School in Kenya, where Fr. Tom's Kids are educated.

Adopt a Cardinal

The Cardinals need our prayer support as they discern and vote for our new Pope.  Let's each pick one to pray for.  Here's the web site:  http://adoptacardinal.org/  Click on this link.  Follow the directions, and you'll be assigned a cardinal.  I have Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, OFM, the Cardinal Archbishop of Durban, South Africa.

Br. Tonto Questions Cappa's Lenten Sacrifice

This is a Brother Tonto and Cappa Cartoon.  It looks like Cappa has given up "mice" for Lent.  There is a story about St. Martin de Porres regarding this same problem.  When the priory was overrun with mice, the prior turned to Martin for help.  The prior knew that Martin loved all animals, including rodents, and when the prior told Martin to find a way to rid the priory of the vermin, or he, the prior was going to kill them all.  

It is said that Martin called all the mice together, and explained the problem.  Martin told the mice to stay out of the priory, and especially to stay out of sight of the prior.  In return, Martin would feed them daily--in the barn.  It worked like a miracle.

Lenten Conferences

  Here are some Lenten Talks.  If you can attend any of these, you'll be blessed.

Saturday, March 2^nd:

·         Middletown, NY (Archdiocese of NY)

St. Joseph Church  2-5pm

Contact:  treat307@aol.com

Sunday, March 3^rd:

·         Manhattan, NY (Archdiocese of NY)

Church of the Holy Innocents

               Contact:   mirouzem@hotmail.com

·         Casco, ME (Diocese of Portland, ME)

Resurrection Convent

               Contact:  sisterrosalie@fairpoint.net

·         Syracuse, NY (Diocese of Syracuse)

St. Patrick Church  2-3:30pm

Contact:  mseagrif@twcny.rr.com

Tuesday, March 5^th:

·         Christ the Redeemer Church (Diocese of Rochester) 7-9pm

               Contact:  rkilpatrick@stny.rr.com

The Demise of the Rosary Angel

The time has come.  All good things must come to an end.  There's a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3).  The Rosary Angel is gone.

The secret can come out now.  I am/was the Rosary Angel.  You see quite a while ago, on the table near the church exit were two boxes.  One was labeled "Broken Rosaries."  The other was labeled "Fixed Rosaries."  The first box had instructions directing people to put their name on their rosaries, so when they were fixed, they'd get them back.

For a little while, this worked well.  Then after time, I noticed that the box for "Broken Rosaries" wasn't being picked up.  So I took them and fixed them.  I never told anyone.  You're the first to know.

In fact, the person whose idea started the projec,t owned a bead store.  I don't know why she stopped fixing the rosaries, but she did.  I just continued and she got the credit.  I had heard people talking about whom the Rosary Angel was, and I'd get a kick out of their assumption, when the Rosary Angel was standing in their midst.

Over time, one of the boxes disappeared.  The "Broken Rosaries'" box must have been thrown away.  I suspect the Legion of Mary.  Their stuff had taken over the surface of the table.  I bet they just decided that the Rosary Angel didn't need two boxes.

So be it.  Then along comes the day when the inside of the church was painted.  It looks beautiful by the way.  The table where the rosary box sat, was moved out of the way. And now that the table is back, the box is gone.  It's nowhere in sight.

I have several suspects, but I can't accuse anyone without revealing my secret identity.  So I'm just interpreting this destructive act, as God's Will.  It's time for the Rosary Angel to retire.

Oneness

E. E. Cummings liked to experiment.  In this poem about loneliness, you can see that small loneliness of being "1" alone.  The poem is arranged to highlight this "oneness."  And this is a poem.  Not all poems rhyme, or have meter.  There's no figure of speech and cannot even be read aloud because of its fragmented words.  But it does have imagery.  The arrangement itself is a symbol of "oneness."

1 (a

1 (a

le
af
fa

ll

s)
one
1

iness


Clever, isn't it?  It makes you think to decipher the letters: a leaf falls.  It conveys the loneliness of being "one."  It also mimics the fall of a leaf, slowly descending down, down, and down.