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Sayings.
Marriage resembles a pair of shears joined so that they cant be separated often moving in opposite directions yet punishing anyone who comes between them.
Financial headaches are bad severe pain extends as far down as the pants pockets.
Loud mouths don�t have to worry about food shortages. They usually eat their words.
Life is a constant struggle to keep money coming in and teeth and hair coming out.
By the time most learn to behave they are too old to do anything else.
Some have many temptations because they know where to find them.
The reason the ram ran over the cliff he didn�t see the ewe turn.
It is better to have loved a short guy than never to love a tall.
A person who is busy as a bee. May wake up to find his honey missing.
Some cocktails make you see double and feel single.
A partner sticks with all the trouble they wouldn�t have if they hadn�t joined.
Today is the day you worried about yesterday.
Taken from Tom and Peg Stack
Olympics
1900 High Jump Pat Leahy SILVER 1.78m
1900 Long Jump Pat Leahy BRONZE 6.95m
1900 Hammer John Flanagan GOLD 51.01m
1904 3,000m S/C John Daly SILVER 7.40.61
1904 Hammer John Flanagan GOLD 51.23m
1904 Decathlon Tom Kiely GOLD 6,036 pt
1908 High Jump Con Leahy SILVER 1.88m
1908 Triple Jump Tim Ahearne GOLD 14.92m
1908 Shot Putt Denis Horgan SILVER 13.62m
1908 Hammer John Flanagan GOLD 51.92m
Manly Advice from Robert E. Lee (Plus a Book Giveaway)
Posted: 27 Oct 2008 10:06 PM CDT
Editor�s Note: This is a guest post from Richard G. Williams, Jr. Richard is a regular contributor to the Washington Times� Military History Column and the author of The Maxims of Robert E. Lee for Young Gentlemen. Visit his blog: Old Virginia Blog
Becoming a successful man in America today, as always, includes giving due consideration to your father�s admonitions and wisdom.
For the most part, your father is wiser than you are�and he always will be. Wisdom comes chiefly through getting older. Since your father will always be older than you, he will always be wiser. Men should also read the words and deeds of great men of the past�especially fathers. One such example is that great Virginian, Robert E. Lee.
Most remembered for his military leadership of the Confederacy, Lee should also be known for his wisdom as an educator, husband, and father of four girls and three boys. Lee was a man�s man and his example of self-control, self-denial, patience, humility, and principled approach to life is worthy of emulation. As Lee�s military career kept him away from his family for extended periods, he maintained a steady and intimate correspondence with them. His letters often contained words of wisdom for both his wife and children. Lee imparted his accumulated wisdom to not only his own family, but also to the young men of Washington College (renamed Washington and Lee after Lee�s death) while he served as the school�s president. Lee took the opportunity of offering advice seriously. After accepting the presidency of Washington College, he wrote: �I have a self-imposed task. I have led the young men of the South in battle. I must teach their sons to discharge their duty in life.�
Though Lee�s reputation is seen by some as tainted by slavery, Lee was, like many 19th century Americans, cognizant of its evil. Writing in December of 1856, Lee noted: �There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil.� And Lee would have agreed with his father in law, George Washington Parke Custis, that slavery was �a curse upon [our] section by the folly of [our] ancestors.�
Despite this blemish, Lee�s letters and correspondences reveal the character of the man as pointed out by author Bishop Robert R. Brown: �There is no recorded instance when his conversation in the field or barracks could not have been equally acceptable in a lady�s drawing room. An examination of the two-thousand letters which still exist fails to uncover the slightest suggestion of vulgarity.� Fortunately, many of these letters are in the process of being made available online in a searchable database.
For the sake of brevity, I�ve culled what I believe to be the �Top 10? of Lee�s admonitions appropriate for men in 2008. These are among the best pieces of manly advice I have given my own two sons:
On debt and frugal living: �It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means, than to make our means to conform to our wishes.� ~ Lee writing to one of his sons, 22 August 1860.
On marriage: �Never marry unless you can do so into a family that will enable your children to feel proud of both sides of the house.� ~ General Lee writing to J.B. Hood. Don�t wife hunt in bars or tattoo parlors.
On minding your own business: �Meddle or interfere with nothing with which you have no concern.� ~ Lee to his sons, 30 November 1845.
On humility: �It�s all my fault.� ~ Lee at Gettysburg. Be willing to admit your mistakes and take blame.
On honesty: �Private and public life are subject to the same rules; and truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better than policy, or tact, or expediency, or any other word that was ever devised to conceal or mystify a deviation from a straight line.� ~ One of Lee�s personal maxims. A young man should say what he means and mean what he says. Avoid the demeaning examples of politicians, government bureaucrats, and lawyers.
On manliness: �A man may manifest and communicate his joy, but he should conceal and smother his grief as much as possible.� ~ Lee to Mrs. Ann Fitzhugh.
On work: �There is scarcely anything that is right that we cannot hope to accomplish by labor and perseverance. But the first must be earnest and the second unremitting.� ~ Lee to Martha Williams.
On reading material: �Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances.� ~ Lee�s oft� repeated advice to his children.
On education: �The education of a man or woman is never completed until they die.� ~ Lee writing to son Custis, 5 December 1860.
On what�s important: �Be true kind, and generous, and pray earnestly to God to enable you to keep His commandments and walk in the same all the days of your life.� ~ Lee to his sons, 31 March 1846.
St. Martin De Porres
"Compassion, my dear Brothers, is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create."
- St. Martin De Porres, spoken to his Dominican brothers when admonished for bringing an elderly, dirty beggar off the streets and allowing him to take the saint's own bed while he cared for the sick man.
A Brief Biography of St. Martin
November 3rd, the Church honors and remembers Saint Martin De Porres, the first black saint of the Americas, who would be come well known for his humility and help of the poor and in hopeless causes. He is often depicted with a broom, and even affectionately referred to as the 'Saint of the Broom,' because he considered all work to be sacred, no matter how menial.
The saintly man was born to modest beginnings, the illegitimate son of a Spanish Nobleman and a freed former slave in Lima, Peru in 1569; he had one sister, born in 1581. All his life Martin was profoundly humble, and had a great sense of the magnanimity of God. Even as a child, Martin would spend hours each night in prayer. He was joyous when at age 10, he was placed with a surgeon to learn the medical arts; this path in life would allow him to exercise charity to his neighbor and care for the sick while earning his living.
Soon after this time, Martin became a servant in the Holy Rosary Dominican priory in Lima; in time he was placed in the infirmary to work, having become known for both his medicinal knowledge and the tender way he cared for the sick. At age 24 he would take vows as a Dominican brother. He would remain working in the infirmary, caring for the ill until his death at age 60.
Many miracles were attributed to Martin; among them were bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures and an ability to communicate with animals. Martin had always wanted to be a missionary but never did leave his native city. His good works in Lima were a blessing to the area, however. He worked tirelessly for the poor, founding an orphanage and a children's hospital. It is said that on average Martin was able to feed about 160 poor people with alms each day. The vigorous prayer life he had begun in childhood only increased as he grew older, and he would practice mortification of the flesh, both for his own failings and for the conversion of pagans and sinners.
The man was so beloved that after he died in 1639 he was venerated almost immediately. He was declared Blessed in 1873 and canonized in 1962. Due to his humble, persistent attitude toward the sanctity of work and his giving, charitable nature, St. Martin is the patron saint of the poor and of social justice; he is also a patron of people of mixed race and racial harmony.
To learn more about St. Martin De Porres, take a look at the inspirational DVD Fray Martin De Porres or, to teach children about this 'apostle of charity,' get the Glory Stories audio CD volume 7, which covers the lives of St. Martin De Porres and St. Clare.
Blessed Pope John XXIII's Homily at the Canonization of St. Martin De Porres:
The example of Martin's life is ample evidence that we can strive for holiness and salvation as Christ Jesus has shown us: first, by loving God "with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and second, by loving your neighbor as yourself."
When Martin had come to realize that Christ Jesus "suffered for us and that he carried our sins on his body to the cross,� he would meditate with remarkable ardor and affection about Christ on the cross. He had an exceptional love for the great sacrament of the Eucharist and often spent long hours in prayer before the blessed sacrament. His desire was to receive the sacrament in Communion as often as he could.
Saint Martin, always obedient and inspired by his divine teacher, dealt with his brothers with that profound love which comes from pure faith and humility of spirit. He loved men because he honestly looked on them as God's children and as his own brothers and sisters. Such was his humility that he loved them even more than himself, and considered them to be better and more righteous than he was.
He excused the faults of others. He forgave the bitterest injuries, convinced that he deserved much severer punishments on account of his own sins. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly he comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing and medicine for the poor; he helped, as best he could, farm laborers and Negroes, as well as mulattoes, who were looked upon at that time as akin to slaves: thus he deserved to be called by the name the people gave him: 'Martin of Charity.'
It is remarkable how even today his influence can still move us toward the things of heaven. Sad to say, not all of us understand these spiritual values as well as we should, nor do we give them a proper place in our lives. Many of us, in fact, strongly attracted by sin, may look upon these values as of little moment, even something of a nuisance, or we ignore them altogether. It is deeply rewarding for men striving for salvation to follow in Christ's footsteps and to obey God's commandments. If only everyone could learn this lesson from the example that Martin gave us.
A Prayer to St. Martin De Porres
To you Saint Martin de Porres we prayerfully lift up our hearts filled with serene confidence and devotion. Mindful of your unbounded and helpful charity to all levels of society and also of your meekness and humility of heart, we offer our petitions to you. Pour out upon our families the precious gifts of your solicitous and generous intercession; show to the people of every race and every color the paths of unity and of justice; implore from our Father in heaven the coming of his kingdom, so that through mutual benevolence in God men may increase the fruits of grace and merit the rewards of eternal life. Amen.
This article adapted information from the Patron Saints Index and Wikipedia.
Prayer before Exams
Dear God I place my trust in you as I prepare for my exams.
May my mind be clam, my body rested and my spirit inspired.
Give me peace and assurance that I will do the best I can. Keep me serene.
May I be honest so to give a true account of what I have learned.
In the end, may any disappointment be borne with grace and dignity and any joy accompanied with humility.
May I know that I am a child of God and always live according to this truth.
May Mary, the mother of Jesus and my mother, protect and guide me in all my life choices.
Prayer for Students
God our Father, we bring to you all students who are preparing for exams and those for whom we have promised to pray.
Keep them calm and focussed during this special year.
May they know your loving and gentle presence.
Be their guide in their life decisions.
Bless all young people and keep them safe at all times.
We make this prayer through Christ our Lord Amen.