My friends...May God Bless You and Your life.. ♥♥♥
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Virgin Mary, Baby Jesus “Seen” On Google Maps
Mar 20, 2011 at 7:50am ET by Matt McGee
And now, according to some construction workers in England, you can also find a vision of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.
That’s a close-up of what Google Maps shows at a construction site along the M6 motorway just east of Preston, England.
According to The Daily Mail, the satellite image is a couple years old and there are now trees covering that area. The construction site is for a nature reserve.
The Daily Mail quotes a couple religious officials in the area who say the image is “remarkable,” but they won’t be encouraging any pilgrimages to the area.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
David Guttenfelder/Associated Press
A rescue worker walked through the destroyed village of Saito in northeastern Japan on Monday. Rescue teams with sniffer dogs yelled as they dug. “Is there anyone here? Is there anyone alive?”
Need Overwhelms Japan After Quake and Tsunami
By MARTIN FACKLER and MARK McDONALD
On Monday, various reports from police officials and news agencies said that as many as 2,000 bodies had now washed ashore along the coastline, overwhelming the capacity of local officials. That, combined with the country’s unfolding nuclear disaster and a regionwide stock market plunge, has become what Prime Minister Naoto Kan described as Japan’s worst crisis since World War II.
About 350,000 people have reportedly been left homeless and are staying in shelters, awaiting news of friends and relatives among the many thousands who remain unaccounted for. The national police said early Tuesday that more than 15,000 were missing, though just 2,475 deaths had been confirmed since the quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey revised to a magnitude of 9.0, from 8.9, on Monday.
With police officials estimating that 10,000 people may have been swept away in one town alone, Minamisanriku, north of here, there was every expectation that the toll would rise.
The disruptions to Japan’s $5 trillion economy, the third-largest in the world, and collective anxiety over the stricken reactors caused a rout in the Japanese stock market that reverberated across the region on Tuesday.
A steep decline in the Japanese stock market, which lost 13 percent by midday Tuesday, sent other Asian markets tumbling. The Bank of Japan, which injected a record $183.8 billion into the economy on Monday to maintain liquidity, poured in tens of billions of dollars more on Tuesday, which failed to halt the slide.
Here in Natori, where some of the first pictures of the tsunami showed a towering initial wave lashing a line of trees, all that remains along the coast is a field of black mud. Brightly clad searchers bent to their work Monday — the police in navy blue, the handlers of sniffer dogs in orange, the military squads in camouflage.
They made their way around marooned boats and collapsed houses, finding toys, torn bedding, tangled fishing nets and pieces of cars, toilets or pottery, all the mundane pieces of daily life, now broken. Occasionally, too, they found a body, sometimes already covered by a tarp.
The region continues to face widespread power and water shortages. When relief supplies do come, residents clamor for help. At Natori City Hall, survivors quickly lined up at a truck handing out large containers of water. Lines of nearly a mile formed in front of stations providing gasoline.
At City Hall, officials in this town of 70,000 residents have posted a list of the 8,340 people who arrived safely at 41 makeshift shelters. Dozens of people crammed into the building’s small lobby to pore over the lists.
Those who could not find the name they sought wrote out messages on pieces of paper, and taped them to the entrance. Hundreds of pieces hung there.
Mikako Watanabe, 26, and Yumiko Watanabe, 24, were looking for their mother. They were at work when the tsunami struck, but their mother was napping at home in the Yuriage neighborhood, as she always did after her night shift as a nurse.
“I hope she woke up with the earthquake and got to safety in time,” the older sister said. “We have no way to contact her.”
On Monday, three days after the tsunami, they still had no word of her. Their message said, “Yurika Watanabe, we’re looking for you. Contact us if you see this.”
But communications are badly broken. With cellphone service largely knocked out, many residents are relying on the small number of surviving pay phones.
Some meetings are by chance. In the crowds, there were squeals of joy at reunions — and crying for relatives not found. One woman wailed over and over, “Her name is not on the list! Her name is not on the list!” She said she was looking for her sister-in-law, who lived in Yuriage. She said that if she is not at an evacuation center, she must be dead.
Rescue teams from 13 countries pressed on with the searches. One used a German shepherd and a small spaniel in Yuriage. The shepherd would climb around the wreckage of homes and twisted hulks of cars, sniffing. If he started barking, the team sent in the spaniel, small enough to prowl around the crevices of the wreckage.
Hiroaki Ohno/Shiyo, via Associated Press
Soldiers carried a tsunami victim who was found alive Monday, buried in rubble in Minamisanriku in northern Japan, an area of widespread damage. More Photos »
Off in the distance, a small cluster of buildings stood undamaged on the sad expanse of the mud flats. Outlined against the afternoon sky, they seemed like tombstones.
Such was the rubble that soldiers used olive-drab power shovels and construction equipment to cut roads through the mountains of debris.
In the air, helicopters shuttled back and forth constantly, part of a mobilization of some 100,000 troops, the largest since World War II. Several convoys could be seen on the road to Sendai, a larger city to the north.
Some firefighters in Natori had arrived from as far away as the southern city of Hiroshima, reflecting the fact that rescuers had descended from across Japan.
In addition, helicopters and ships from the United States Seventh Fleet, including the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, had joined the tsunami relief effort.
Farther south, in the city of Fukushima, gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants were closed, and convenience stores had no food or drinks to sell — only cigarettes. Red Cross water tankers dispensed drinking water to Fukushima residents who waited in long, orderly lines.
Because of the Fukushima nuclear plants being lost to the national power grid, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the plants, announced plans for rolling blackouts across the region to conserve electricity — the first controlled power cutbacks in Japan in 60 years.
Tokyo-area residents worriedly followed a series of confusing statements from the power company about the location and duration of the power reductions. Just after 5 p.m., the utility said it had started cutting power to parts of two prefectures — Ibaraki, north of Tokyo, and Shizuoka, south of the capital.
Tokyo was feeling the effects, too. Residents had struggled to get to work Monday as a number of important commuter rail lines ran on limited schedules. Six lines featuring Japan’s famous shinkansen, or bullet trains, were not running. Six major department stores also closed for the day because workers were unable to reach the city.
The rush hour Tuesday morning was nearly as chaotic as commuters were unsure whether trains and subways would be operating. The power company’s announcements continued to be misleading and unclear, and the company came under criticism from the central government.
The first set of blackouts Tuesday morning began in four prefectures outside Tokyo. The utility, which provides service to 45 million people in the region, said the cuts could continue for six weeks.
Public conservation of electricity was significant enough, the company said, that the more drastic blackout scenarios were being scaled back. Still, anticipating deep and lengthy power cuts, many people were stocking up on candles, water, instant noodles and batteries for radios.
Toyota also announced it was closing all its factories until at least Thursday, and in the stock market, shares in the car sector fell as much as 6 percent.
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded 96 aftershocks on Sunday, and many Japanese were alarmed at several earthquake warnings that appeared as televised bulletins on Monday. A warning at 4 p.m., an alert announced by gentle trilling bells told of expected “strong shaking” across the entire waist of Japan, essentially from Tokyo to Kyoto.
Source:
30 Things We Need — and 30 We Don't
Do you have the feeling, that in the tsunami of everyday life, we're getting too much of stuff we don't need, and not enough of what we do?Set of suggestions about how to redress the imbalance:
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The Sunday Homily – Are you ready for Lent?
Every car or truck carries in the glove compartment a maintenance schedule. Having your oil changed, your tires rotated and balanced, and the rest of the engine checked keeps your vehicle in excellent shape.
This Wednesday, we begin one of the most practical times of the Catholic liturgical year. Lent provides us an opportunity to open our personal maintenance schedule and take a close look at ourselves as we journey towards eternal life.
The spiritual life is not an easy endeavor because of our wounded human nature. True, Baptism washes away original sin, but we do not have complete control over ourselves. St. Paul brilliantly describes this continual battle. He portrays this conflict as an inward struggle (Romans 7: 14-25), a treasure in a vessel of clay (2 Corinthians 4: 7-18), and a thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12: 7-10).
Because of original sin, an inner force will always move us in the wrong direction. Continual effort is necessary to control the inner movement of our ego, and allow the presence of grace to take control of our thoughts, desires and actions. The battle of the spiritual life is like walking in a river against the current. If we do not continue to walk or grab on to a rock, the current will carry us in the opposite direction. Lent provides us with an excellent opportunity to strengthen ourselves so that we can keep walking against the current.
A successful Lent requires us to develop a serious plan of action. Our program should consist of both the general practices that the Catholic Church requires of everyone, and our own particular Lenten program.
As a general practice for all Catholics, the Church requires that we fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. We are also asked to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of Lent.
Aside from what the Church law of fast and abstinence requires of us, we should come up with a personal program for spiritual growth. This is our personal maintenance program. I have always recommended that we come up with something negative and something positive.
By something negative, I mean that each person should commit themselves to giving up something or a number of things. This sacrifice should be serious and demanding. The self-control that we exercise in giving up a legitimate pleasure strengthens our will and curbs the inclinations of our passions.
By something positive, I mean that each one should also do some kind of act that we would not normally do on a regular basis. Attending daily Mass, visiting the sick, volunteering time at the parish or praying a Sunday evening Rosary with the entire family are positive acts of virtue that have helped many people progress in their relationship with God.
Lenten practices of penance have great benefits for our spiritual lives. A serious Lent will be like a spring cleaning which will purify the clutter that has accumulated in our souls. A serious commitment to penance will also help us to conquer addictions, obsessions and compulsive behavior. A serious Lent will purify our soul and allow us to experience a deeper interior freedom.
As we approach the beginning of another Lent, we should carefully examine our lives. Usually we focus on carefully examining our sins, but do we ever consider the sins of omission? Do we honestly consider what we are not doing?
One way to break the cycle of apathy is to bring into your Lent an apostolic dimension. This can be done by making two firm commitments: pray the Rosary at your local abortion clinic and target one person that does not have a church home. Invite that person to your parish.
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Moreover, it would be very powerful if we would offer up our fast, abstinence, Lenten sacrifices and our weekly Stations of the Cross to the Lord as of way of ending abortion and bringing souls back to the Church.
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Moreover, it would be very powerful if we would offer up our fast, abstinence, Lenten sacrifices and our weekly Stations of the Cross to the Lord as of way of ending abortion and bringing souls back to the Church.
Do not wait until Ash Wednesday to come up with your Lenten program. Decide today what you are going to do. Parents should sit down with their children and make sure that they too have come up with a serious plan of action. Have a family meeting tonight and decide together to make this Lent the best Lent ever. Meet as a family every Sunday during Lent and review your program. Be accountable to each other. If you make this a great Lent you will notice the difference on Easter Sunday.
It is been a long time that I always busy with many things until I forget to share with you guys a wonderful stories....Since this Wednesday is the fasting and Ash Wednesday, Today is wonderful time for us to look back the past time..last year, last week, last day, yesterday, many of us realize that past ago was beautiful and wonderful life even we struggle to live, we were survived. So, this wonderful lent season, let us do something beautiful, charity work and continue life better....
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