Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
" While still in the seminary, Fulton Sheen heard about the bold faith of a young Chinese girl who during a time of persecution of the Church in China gave her life for the Eucharist. This young girl made reparation in honor of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in a small church in China where the Eucharist had been desecrated by anti-Catholic soldiers. The little girl came back several nights in a row to sneak into the Church. There she spent about an hour in prayer and reparation for the Eucharist that had been desecrated. Each night she licked up a consecrated Host (remember in those days the laity did not receive the Blessed Sacrament with their hands). One night one of the soldiers saw her entering the church, and as she was receiving the last consecrated Host, the guard shot and killed her. Before his ordination Fulton Sheen said that, if this young girl could give her life in reparation for the Eucharist, he could spend at least one hour of each day in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. We know he kept to this. For example, once while visiting missionaries in a remote village in Africa, he arrived late at night and his first request was to be brought to their chapel so he could spend his hour."
- http://catholicexchange.com/2008/02/02/94685/
I EVEN CONTEMPLATE THIS SOME IN LIFE, ONE CAN DO IT AT AN ADORATION CHAPEL OR REALLY ANYWHERE. A few different versions of this story are on the internet but of course, it's the same story. I think about this girl when I go to Adoration, maybe we should pray there every single day.
- http://catholicexchange.com/2008/02/02/94685/
I EVEN CONTEMPLATE THIS SOME IN LIFE, ONE CAN DO IT AT AN ADORATION CHAPEL OR REALLY ANYWHERE. A few different versions of this story are on the internet but of course, it's the same story. I think about this girl when I go to Adoration, maybe we should pray there every single day.
The Rosary CD with DANA and Fr. Kevin Scanlon C.M.
"I listen to this CD so much I have to order a new one. I play it almost daily while doing my work and it has a very calming effect on me. Of course, I don't pray for any specific thing, only for God's will and hopefully no more trails (trials I think the reviewer means). This CD is very contemplative, and dare I say, sweet, in a way. I love the songs in between and praying with it has helped me immensely. Maybe it could help you too."- By eyelovemovies! "okannie61" (Amazon review)
One could not say it better. I do admit their are some other very fine Rosaries on CD to get but these voices are indeed very calming to listen to.
Well done to the Hmong
We in the US seem to hear a lot about a woman's right to choose. Have you compared the USA's abortion record to other countries? It is illegal in many like Brazil, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Argentina. It is very severely restricted in countries like Poland. Even Holland requires a 5 day wait. Germany requires the woman to get additional medical advice to apparently inform oneself about this act. Italy is doing well in that nearly 70 percent of doctors able to do abortions will not.
The Hmong refugees in the USA, Australia and France and those living in Southeast Asia largely refuse to get abortions.
http://www.biomedexperts.com/Abstract.bme/12746014/Abortion--it_is_for_some_women_only_Hmong_women_s_perceptions_of_abortion Though the perspective seems a bit suspect and is written by a Laotian I'd believe, not a Hmong, the underlying result seems properly stated that Hmong women do not engage in aborting their own.
Please note the Hmong child's cap above .... Well done to the Hmong.
Here again is a good quote:
"Calling in the Soul" (Hu Plig) is the chant the Hmong use to guide the soul of a newborn baby into its body on the third day after birth. Based on extensive original research conducted in the late 1980s in a village in northern Thailand, this ethnographic study examines Hmong cosmological beliefs about the cycle of life as expressed in practices surrounding birth, marriage, and death, and the gender relationships evident in these practices. The social framework of the Hmong (or Miao, as they are called in China, and Meo, in Thailand), who have lived on the fringes of powerful Southeast Asian states for centuries, is distinctly patrilineal, granting little direct power to women. Yet within the limits of this structure, Hmong women wield considerable influence in the spiritually critical realms of birth and death.Patricia Symonds situates her study within the landscape of northern Thai mountain life and anthropological perspectives on the Hmong, and then focuses on "Flower Village," telling detailed stories of births, marriages, and deaths. Recurring motifs emerge: the complementarity of women's and men's roles in daily life and in the otherworld, and their reversal at critical moments; the importance of the brother-sister relationship; the social and spiritual significance of the ceremonial clothing women create, especially their embroidered "flower cloth" and the ambiguously nuanced sev, or "modesty aprons," they wear; the endlessly cyclical nature of life, from birth to death to birth again; the importance of sound and silence at times of transition; the complex connections between the land of the living and the land of the dead.Hmong women's primary source of power in the patriline is their fecundity, through which they influence key spiritual aspects of the life cycle. This value and power is evident in the division of bride-price into two parts: "milk and care money," which compensates a woman's parents for her upbringing; and payment for the "birth shirt," or placenta, of the child the young wife will produce. Through provision of birth shirts for fetuses and of elaborately embroidered cloth shirts for the dead, women literally clothe the soul through cycles of rebirth.An epilogue and appendixes provide a discussion of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the Hmong of Thailand, cultural factors in HIV transmission, and strategies for containment; complete Hmong texts and English translations of "Calling in the Soul," and "Showing the Way," the chant which guides the soul of the deceased through the land of darkness and back to reincarnation in a new body in the land of light; Flower Village demographic information; and an account of a shamanic healing and outline of Hmong health care issues in the United States.Calling in the Soul will be of interest to sociocultural anthropologists, medical anthropologists, Southeast Asianists, and gender specialists.Patricia V. Symonds is adjunct associate professor of anthropology at Brown University. She is the coauthor (with Brooke G. Schoepf) of HIV/AIDS: The Global Pandemic and Struggles for Control." -
The Hmong refugees in the USA, Australia and France and those living in Southeast Asia largely refuse to get abortions.
http://www.biomedexperts.com/Abstract.bme/12746014/Abortion--it_is_for_some_women_only_Hmong_women_s_perceptions_of_abortion Though the perspective seems a bit suspect and is written by a Laotian I'd believe, not a Hmong, the underlying result seems properly stated that Hmong women do not engage in aborting their own.
Please note the Hmong child's cap above .... Well done to the Hmong.
Here again is a good quote:
"Calling in the Soul" (Hu Plig) is the chant the Hmong use to guide the soul of a newborn baby into its body on the third day after birth. Based on extensive original research conducted in the late 1980s in a village in northern Thailand, this ethnographic study examines Hmong cosmological beliefs about the cycle of life as expressed in practices surrounding birth, marriage, and death, and the gender relationships evident in these practices. The social framework of the Hmong (or Miao, as they are called in China, and Meo, in Thailand), who have lived on the fringes of powerful Southeast Asian states for centuries, is distinctly patrilineal, granting little direct power to women. Yet within the limits of this structure, Hmong women wield considerable influence in the spiritually critical realms of birth and death.Patricia Symonds situates her study within the landscape of northern Thai mountain life and anthropological perspectives on the Hmong, and then focuses on "Flower Village," telling detailed stories of births, marriages, and deaths. Recurring motifs emerge: the complementarity of women's and men's roles in daily life and in the otherworld, and their reversal at critical moments; the importance of the brother-sister relationship; the social and spiritual significance of the ceremonial clothing women create, especially their embroidered "flower cloth" and the ambiguously nuanced sev, or "modesty aprons," they wear; the endlessly cyclical nature of life, from birth to death to birth again; the importance of sound and silence at times of transition; the complex connections between the land of the living and the land of the dead.Hmong women's primary source of power in the patriline is their fecundity, through which they influence key spiritual aspects of the life cycle. This value and power is evident in the division of bride-price into two parts: "milk and care money," which compensates a woman's parents for her upbringing; and payment for the "birth shirt," or placenta, of the child the young wife will produce. Through provision of birth shirts for fetuses and of elaborately embroidered cloth shirts for the dead, women literally clothe the soul through cycles of rebirth.An epilogue and appendixes provide a discussion of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the Hmong of Thailand, cultural factors in HIV transmission, and strategies for containment; complete Hmong texts and English translations of "Calling in the Soul," and "Showing the Way," the chant which guides the soul of the deceased through the land of darkness and back to reincarnation in a new body in the land of light; Flower Village demographic information; and an account of a shamanic healing and outline of Hmong health care issues in the United States.Calling in the Soul will be of interest to sociocultural anthropologists, medical anthropologists, Southeast Asianists, and gender specialists.Patricia V. Symonds is adjunct associate professor of anthropology at Brown University. She is the coauthor (with Brooke G. Schoepf) of HIV/AIDS: The Global Pandemic and Struggles for Control." -
Calling in the Soul: Gender and the Cycle of Life in a Hmong Village
By Patricia V. Symonds
Please see these additional links concerning the evil of abortion: http://www.blackgenocide.org/ and http://www.dr-tiller.com/
Monday, December 15, 2008
Hmong culture
Thankfully, it seems the Hmong do not engage generally in the damaging destructive practice of abortion. A real evil of the US.
This is a change of pace for this blog but important to remember.
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