Pacem in Terris

Just today, I have read about a further abomination - transfering the virtual world of Internet viruses to harm the real world. However, I cannot get how the people who have produced such a thing, cannot get the depravity of their doings. Even though the Internet is not the best possible solution for today's life.

Obviously with the amount of depravities that are only a click away online, even by typing the most innocent words, we can see that the global network is not the thing that we should get attracted to each and every day when we get up. Instead we might consider either limiting the time we use online and using that time to consider how we can make our lives and this world better.

If there are some of you, who make a living out of the Internet, I pray that you make that living doing a descent job. And I pray especially for those highly moral people who might be found in the line of workers of Internet filters which should not be applied only to children, but we as adults must also be aware of whether we too should not be exposed to everything that is being published online, each and every day of the week.

Perhaps starting a daily routine with prayer or with reading from the Holy Bible or even by reading an encyclical.

To those who have started a new war, I would like to remind you of a beautiful encyclical written by Blessed Pope John XXIII, known as the Pope of Peace:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem_en.html

Pax Vobiscum!

Archaeologist Sees Proof for Bible in Ancient Wall

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 22, 8:07 pm ET

JERUSALEM – An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era.

If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication thatJerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C.

That's a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

While some Holy Land archaeologists support that version of history — including the archaeologist behind the dig, Eilat Mazar — others posit that David's monarchy was largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.

Speaking to reporters at the site Monday, Mazar, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, called her find "the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel."

"It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction," she said.

Based on what she believes to be the age of the fortifications and their location, she suggested it was built by Solomon, David's son, and mentioned in the Book of Kings.

The fortifications, including a monumental gatehouse and a 77-yard (70-meter) long section of an ancient wall, are located just outside the present-day walls of Jerusalem's Old City, next to the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. According to the Old Testament, it was Solomon who built the first Jewish Temple on the site.

That temple was destroyed by Babylonians, rebuilt, renovated by King Herod 2,000 years ago and then destroyed again by Roman legions in 70 A.D. The compound now houses two important Islamic buildings, the golden-capped Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Archaeologists have excavated the fortifications in the past, first in the 1860s and most recently in the 1980s. But Mazar claimed her dig was the first complete excavation and the first to turn up strong evidence for the wall's age: a large number of pottery shards, which archaeologists often use to figure out the age of findings.

Aren Maeir, an archaeology professor at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said he has yet to see evidence that the fortifications are as old as Mazar claims. There are remains from the 10th century in Jerusalem, he said, but proof of a strong, centralized kingdom at that time remains "tenuous."

While some see the biblical account of the kingdom of David and Solomon as accurate and others reject it entirely, Maeir said the truth was likely somewhere in the middle.

"There's a kernel of historicity in the story of the kingdom of David," he said.

Looking back...

Due to my great obligations, I have left this blog unattended for quite a while. Unfortunately I cannot promise that I am definitely back to blogging, but I can say that I can at least try.

So, about a year and a half has passed since my conversion, and I'd like to offer a couple of notes to all you who are seeking to find or have already found Christ in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, but you are still in doubt.

As you can see from my conversion story, it took a lot of courage to take the plunge, but I can assure you all, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that the path that I chosen was and still is NOT an easy one.
I guess that the first big problem I had to face was the whole "changing" and "conversion" in the habitual sense. So, it's not only that you've become Catholic and that's that - it's what you plan to do with that fact. In other words, I had to adjust myself to being or to having become Catholic.
There were three blessings in this respect: First, God taught me to schedule everything around Sunday, so I made regular Mass going a must in my life. Another thing was going to frequent confession, according to the late (and God willing, soon to be blessed) Pope John Paul II. And the third was the great support I got from my friends, near and far. If it weren't for my personal upgrading, I would never have reached the point I wanted to reach.

So, even though the road on the way to happiness is tough - I have never had any doubts that it is worth it!

Therefore, I'll leave this come-back post with this picture, hope you're enjoying your way!

Praying the Rosary on the way to school

One of my favourite pass-times since I've converted was praying the rosary. It was a bit difficult to learn at first but I got the hang of it after a month of constantly and daily praying it with the help of a CD by the Mary Foundation and a book from my parish priest.

What's in a Rosary??
Well PRETTY MUCH! First and foremost you get to pray the most beautiful prayer that the very Jesus Christ, Our Lord gave to us 5 +1 times. Then you get to pray one of my favourite prayers to Our Lady. And finally you get to experience the life of Jesus just as it happened from his conception to his ressurection! But not only experience it but also pray it and at best think about it. Because as you go from one decade into another the best thing to do is to think about what you are praying.

The biggest problem for me was finding suitable time to pray the rosary just after I learnt it and started praying it regularly. There is a very nice practise in my church in which you get to pray the rosary as a community before every Mass. But if I wasn't going to Mass then it did present a problem for me to get the right time and pray the rosary as I wanted to. And then I figuired it out! EUREKA!! :)
I started using the time I used to spend without doing anything. I considered that the rosary wasn't something that you say - but that you experience and I usually experience things with either my eyes or my mind. I do love looking at the rosary while I'm praying it so I combined the two and experienced the Rosary one beautiful afternoon while walking to school. It was impossible at that time - me praying and walking?
There were people around who did absolutely nothing - they either had a blank stare while they were walking or running, others were listening to the radio or to their mp3s and I was actually doing something more with my time I wasted in vain. I then spread out my practice to praying the rosary while on the bus, especially for the longer rides I have to take. Because I spend a lot of time with my rosary on those occasions.

This is an experience I've been practising ever since - I STRONGLY RECOMMEND IT!
It doesn't take up your time - quite the contrary it gives meaning to it!

My return to blogging

Sorry for the delayed return folks!
I would love to share my after-becoming-Catholic news back on this blog, so I hope you will be interested in reading them....

See you soon!
Pax Vobiscum!

Please pray for these good souls

I ask that the kind readers of my blog pray for:
Sr Julia,
Bradley
Bill
and Dawn
May God give them strength and shower them with His love and mercy in their hour of need.
Amen!

Reconciliation

The Sacrament of Reconciliation has always been one of the sacraments of our Lord that helps us connect to Him. Why can we get so close to God when we only kneel before the priest in the confessional?

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

We start our connection by establishing the first formula with which we establish our foundation upon which we will build our whole dialogue, instead of saying Hello, we have based our beliefs and we begin our confession by setting the base greeting with which we call upon the Merfcy of the Holy Trinity. Therefore, the priest from the other side suddenly becomes somebody we have grown to know each day. He acts in persona Christi, in the person of Christ (instead of Christ), creating the bond between Him and us. So this connection is not established by a crystal bowl or the calling of spirits, but by sound faith and a sound relationship with God.

We are faced with the recollection of memory of our passed sins before we enter the confessional, and as we kneel and cross ourselves, we in fact face our inner self, sinful as it is, and bow before God's eternal blessing, wisdom and mercy by letting his light guide us through the confession, by confessing everything we confess that we are sinful, but that we want to become better. Confession is not a place where the weak come to be weaker. In fact, the ones weak from their sins usually come there to become stronger. Because it takes great courage and strength to face our sins, our wrongdoings and our going astray.

After we confess our sins or ask for guidance, we hear something which is greater than anything we've heard before. After the penance due for the sins we've committed we hear something which we haven't expected. I went wrong, I confessed and the Lord is Merciful enough to forgive all of our sins! What Power and at the same time what Mercy we are faced with. The sins we commit as we go through the Stations of the Cross, are in fact a modern representative of the people participating in Jesus' passion on his way to Calvary. If we try and re-live those moments of the life of our Lord, we can see our sins from another perspective.

The powerful psychological image of the Confessional, is something we find in other practices as well. If you go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, you do pretty much the same. But the psychologist or psychiatrist can never do one very important thing - forgive our sins. This glorious duty is only entrusted with our priests.

If you can find Michel Dangoisse's, Laissez-Vous Reconcilier avec Dieu, (Reconciliate Yourselves with God, also translated as Accounts 0r Testimonies about Reconciliating with God) or a similar book that explains why you need to go to confession, might help those of you who are still in doubt of whether or not you need to confess.

It's better than going to your local square and shouting from the top of your lungs "I HAVE SINNED", because I doubt that even God would like to hear you:) when you can ALWAYS go to Church and open up! And don't worry, your sins will never be heard by anyone else as the priest is obliged to keep them to himself even if he is under threat for his life, and the only cost you have to pay is to be penitent.

From my personal experience, I believe that confession has made me stronger and has given me a guidance in life, but most importantly it brought peace and happiness to my soul. The Holy Trivium is a wonderful time to go to Confession. Why not use it? You always know that there will always be a door open for you there.