Congratulations Fr. Aaron Nord

My buddy from college was ordained over the weekend. He is going to be an awesome Priest for the Catholic Church. I still remember how he would often lead the homily discussions at Wednesday night Masses in college.

Holy Spirit Come! And Set Our Lives on Fire!

Wow! Tonight we had the best choir practice since I've been going to Our Saviours. We were planning for Pentecost and our director asked us to just throw out new songs to try. We ended up making Pentecost a "Choir's Choice Mass" and the songs we chose are downright inspired compared to our normal fare. It's going to be an awesomely joyful Mass. I hope that this is the spirit moving in us and that we keep this boost into next fall. :-)

Lyrical Thought #19

Somewhere Out There

written by James Horner, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil

Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight
Someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight

Somewhere out there someone's saying a prayer
That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true

I knew him when...

Got some great news this morning off of the Cubs website. My old classmate and soccer teammate pitched 5 innings of perfect ball at AAA Iowa. You can read about it here.

Go Ryno!

Life Goes On...

I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine that was on her way to my college girlfriend's baby shower. It's got me thinking. In 5 days it will be 4 years since my graducation from college. At that point in my life I had a new job, a beautiful fiance and a world to conquer. Four years later I still have the job and it's been very good, but beyond that I feel like I've basically just been treading water for four years with the occasional near drowning.

I'm ready to move on to the next big thing in my life. In my mind that is finding a loving woman, getting married and having a family. Unfortunately I've not had any luck in finding a woman to love in a very long time. Eight years ago as a Senior in High School, that wouldn't have mattered to me. I was happy being alone. College, college friends and most importantly Katie changed all of that while I was at Truman. They combined to break down my masks and shells to prove to me that I needed people and people needed me. Unfortunately a necessary side effect has been that my heart is now much less guarded and in some ways requires more.

I'm no longer content being alone and just working all of the time. Somewhere out there I imagine that God has a woman waiting and probably thinking the same things. Like the Apostles in Jesus Christ Superstar, I just want to ask "What's the buzz, tell me what's a happening". Sometimes I feel like Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap in that I want to know what I'm here to do at this moment. Unlike Sam I don't have a hologram and a super computer to give me odds on what it is. Instead I just have to try to figure it out on my own.

So again I just wonder aloud. When will it be my turn?

Quote of the Day

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

The da Vinci Code

Ok so I finally got around to reading the book. My main motivation was to read the book prior to seeing the movie as is my normal practice. I thought that it was a well crafted piece of fiction in a similar vain to National Treasure. Just like National Treasure the book uses the mythical accounts of the Holy Grail. Do I buy the conspiracy theories? No not exactly, but I would not be surprised that there are things over the year that have been altered through the internal workings of the Church hierarchy. Anyone that knows me knows that I respect authority, but that I'm not afraid to ask why.

While I was reading, I put an away message on gaim saying that I was reading the book. When I got done reading it and came back to online status, my cousin accosted me with a statement about how her Parish Priest had put a letter in the bulletin telling her congregation to not read the book or watch the movie as it was detrimental to the Catholic Church. I've not figured out why the Catholic Church always gets so bent out of shape by fictional works. Do they not trust us as intelligent human beings to determine truth from fiction? Or is it that they would prefer we not be critical thinkers in general because that leads to questioning the Church's supposed infalliability on doctrinal matters?

If anything the book was more an indictment on mindless following of religion and in particular misguided religion. Opus Dei is a good example of a part of the Catholic Church that I don't trust and it has nothing to do with this book. The fact that their money seems to buy influence is scary. Will the Holy Spirit be able to counter the monitary pressures?

Lyrical Thought #18

Looking for Love

Carpenters


Always have said there is a thing called love

And in my life, I said the word a thousand times

Looking around I can see lovers, lost in a world that's all their own

Though people say love is everywhere,

I'm looking for love, but it's just not there



I live my live growing from day to day

Hoping I'll fined someone who cares

Though people say love is everywhere,

I'm looking for love, but it's just not there

I'm looking for love, but it's just not there

This guy needs a laptop!

My boss were sitting in the STL airport when we saw this. Thankfully Eric grabbed a photo on his camera phone. I really think this guy needs to talk to his boss about a laptop.

Florida Trip!!!

Ok so as some of you know, I received a call from my boss last Friday telling me that I needed to be at the St. Louis airport Monday morning for an 8am flight. Well this flight was to Tampa Bay. A vendor of ours paid all of our expenses to fly to St. Petersburg, FL for 2 nights to attend a training event they were hosting. We stayed at an awesome resort called Trade Winds in St. Pete. My room overlooked the Gulf of Mexico. Way cool!

Of course we had some fun as well as the training. Monday night I went bar hopping (never done that before) with a group of people including my boss and sales person. I think it was because it was free or something, but I finally gave beer a try (I never liked the smell). Corona was ok, Miller Lite, not so much. I'll probably still stick mainly to mixed drinks. Tuesday afternoon we went on a dolphin cruise that ended at an offshore island. We were able to swim around the boat and walk the beaches. There were some fortifications from the Spanish American war too.

Unfortunately today I'm half asleep at work, but it was fun.

Here's my proof (courtesy of my boss' camera phone) that I was there.

M*A*S*H Quote

* Hawkeye: "Maybe you and I are just too choosey. We're both waiting for a custom fit in an off-the-rack world."
* Margaret: "Sounds like a long wait."
* Hawkeye: "Well I have just the thing to pass the time. You ever play double solitaire Scrabble?"
* Margaret: "Double solitaire?"
* Hawkeye: "Yeah. You make whatever you can out of what you got and I make whatever I can out of what I got. And we don't score off each other. And if you need any extra letters like a 'y' for 'sympathy', you can borrow one of mine."
* Margaret: "How many points do I get if I find L-O-V-E?"
* Hawkeye: "You win the game."