John, my ex-husband died alone in his home, just found by his brother yesterday. Probably was a stroke or something related to his recent problems -- recurring seizures, confusion and memory gaps, weight loss, etc., apparently long-term effects of chemo, radiation, and surgery for brain tumor he had many years ago [please let's hope it was not dehydration or other heat-related causes]. The kids (ours) and I saw him for a couple days with his dad earlier this month -- he looked terrible then and had a seizure and near accident driving the day after we left -- so in some ways this was no surprise but, as is often the case, nevertheless was totally unexpected by all.
Please include our children (teens aged 14 and 17) in your prayers. They're both pretty much a wreck right now. I would be, too, had I the time (need to finish some work and then collect us to travel half-way across the country to go to the funeral). I know this is, in many ways, a blessing given how John's mental faculties were rapidly deteriorating this past year or so and how tough it's been on his dad and brother (and our kids who have been both distressed and embarrassed around him when they've visited). But... this is the toughest thing they've ever had to encounter and... I don't know what to do for them other than to be near and give them hugs and space as needed. They've been crying a lot -- a good sign, I think. Wish I could, too. Seems like I've been saying goodbye to the man off and on for nearly 30 years now (rounds of rehab for his alcoholism, later the cancer scare). Hard to believe there is no more to say or do now. Strange seeing his family have the same problems I had with him in recent years but.... they never understood him, either. He was a rebel and a gentle, kind-hearted man. For the last several years he's tried to send whatever money he could (difficult because he's been unemployed for a long time) to environmental groups and charities -- driving his dad, who has tried to keep him afloat financially, nuts. The kids, especially his son, have seen him as a lost soul and kind of a loser. But... he was once funny, smart, and defiant of all conventional expectations from his straight-laced corporate world family. The chemicals just ate away at his brain and...... Well, I believe at least that his soul is now free and finally rejoicing.
Thanks for listening.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: atticus,
Posts: 948 | Location: upstate NY | Registered: 14 January 2004
There's a kid's song that might help, just a little. It starts like this, and this is the only part I remember: "It's alright to cry, because crying takes the sad out of you."
Peace to you and your children.
Kate
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
Please pray for Pope Benedict XVI's safety who is targeted by Islamists for beheading because he courageously spoke against their implementation of real torture of denying human basic rights, rampage to kill all infidels, and threat to all of civilization.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
Today is All Saints Day - a rememberance of all those who have gone on before us.
My heartfelt prayer is for all participants in this forum past, present, and to come, that all memories of injuries and sorrows that create current sufferings be now replaced with joy and peacefulness.
I pray that one day we will all be feasting and rejoicing at the banquet table of the Lord.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
Please pray for real american's safety who are targeted by radical conservative extremists because they courageously spoke against their implementation of real torture of denying human basic rights, rampage to silence all protesters, and threat to all of civilization.
------------------------------------------ debating conservatives is easy. so easy, even a caveman can do it!
"if this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck lot easier, just so long as im the dictator" -GWB Dec 18,2002
Posts: 1614 | Location: ft myers florida area | Registered: 23 September 2006
Heavenly Father, I offer a prayer of gratitude today for this discussion forum and all participants. You have endowed each one with a significance for loving and sharing. I offer a a special prayer of thanks for Thom, his family, and all who make this forum possible. I pray this day for your efficacious grace to cause us to discover deeper meaningful discussions towards recognizing that we are truly one family. And they all said, "A M E N!"
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
"When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"
With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation under God."
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation under God."
the term one nation under god was added to the pledge of allegence in the 40s by conservatives. america is NOT a nation under "god", nor shall is it supposed to be. america doesnt hold a monopoloy on one religion, despite what radicals like you believe GG. you are a world threat and perhaps people should be praying for an end of religious persecution brought on by fundamentalist catholics and christians like yourself
------------------------------------------ debating conservatives is easy. so easy, even a caveman can do it!
"if this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck lot easier, just so long as im the dictator" -GWB Dec 18,2002
Posts: 1614 | Location: ft myers florida area | Registered: 23 September 2006
During the month of December, Benedict XVI will pray "that Christ, meek and humble of heart, may inspire those responsible for nations to use power wisely and responsibly."
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
here are the words of a CATHOLIC PATRON SAINT, saint Thomas Aquinas:
"Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death. "
"On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy which looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at once, but “after the first and second admonition,” as the Apostle directs: after that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death...Arius was but one spark in Alexandria, but as that spark was not at once put out, the whole earth was laid waste by its flame"
AMEN!! now isnt that a nice catholic prayer to get you in the spirit of the holidays?
------------------------------------------ debating conservatives is easy. so easy, even a caveman can do it!
"if this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck lot easier, just so long as im the dictator" -GWB Dec 18,2002
Posts: 1614 | Location: ft myers florida area | Registered: 23 September 2006
Please pray for my failure to ask a mother to reconsider her decision to have a tubiligation. Pray that she might reconsider and get to know the harmful effects that operation will do to her body and the harmful example to her family.
Please pray also for the doctor willing to be a participant in the culture of death. The most endangered species on the earth are humans and the medical profession violates their professionalism by political correctness - by not informing women (and men) of the dangers of thwarting one's fertility.
God help us to expose who's behind the hatred of human life.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
Let their be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Let their be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be. With God as our father brothers all are we. Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me let this be the moment now. With every step I take let this be my solemn vow. To take each moment and live each moment with peace eternally. Let ther be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
Pray that Johnny Sutton, U.S. defense attorney for Mexican drug smuggler will get to witness the anquish and torment of families such as a close friend of mine whose 18-year old daughter died Wednesday of illicit drug overdose.
Pray that Johnny Sutton feels shame for his calloused indifference to right and wrong and that he will be brought to his senses and be the man he was meant to be - a hero, a defender of truth.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
Originally posted by ftmyersfisherman: lets see how catholics have prayed in the past:
here are the words of a CATHOLIC PATRON SAINT, saint Thomas Aquinas:
"Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death. "
"On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy which looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at once, but “after the first and second admonition,” as the Apostle directs: after that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death...Arius was but one spark in Alexandria, but as that spark was not at once put out, the whole earth was laid waste by its flame"
AMEN!! now isnt that a nice catholic prayer to get you in the spirit of the holidays?
Again, the context of the times. The monarchies, particularly Spain, gave no respite in trying to rid Spain of people they considered heretics...(especially enemies of the state) particularly Jews whose property the Monarch could then confiscate. The church intervened, and used this ruse to try to save them. "Just say you are catholic so we can use the authority of the church to save you." Some did. Some didn't. It was cloaked in the language of the church. Suggest further reading on this saint so you can understand his thinking outside of the inquisition which was begun by the state, not the church.
Many used their right of appeal to the church when arrested by agents of the king and saved their lives. Too many didn't.
Retired monk
Posts: 3412 | Location: denver co | Registered: 17 April 2007
but why would the catholic church cannonize someone who speaks in the manner of death, punishment, and condemnation? (even if it was in the context of the times)
------------------------------------------ debating conservatives is easy. so easy, even a caveman can do it!
"if this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck lot easier, just so long as im the dictator" -GWB Dec 18,2002
Posts: 1614 | Location: ft myers florida area | Registered: 23 September 2006
Originally posted by ftmyersfisherman: but why would the catholic church cannonize someone who speaks in the manner of death, punishment, and condemnation? (even if it was in the context of the times)
Well kind of like this. Human civilization is never static.
At one time, there was no such thing as human rights. Kings had rights. Nobility had some rights. People had no rights. Stating people had rights would lose you your head. Even most of the population would agree, they had no rights. The majority of the population held that point of view. The conservative point of view at the time.
One "Right" you could indicate in the later stages of the time was that perhaps the king didn't have the right to be first to sleep with your bride. Not as treasonous, and the majority of the population could support that. They had a personal investment in the idea.
St. Augustine did what was allowed without losing his head and having the churches burnt down. Without having many in the population react with even more repression. He was a "liberal" spokesman of his time.
Just as one day, our most valiant champions of human rights will be seen as placing barbaric limitations on them. History, with all of its back-stepping, has moved forward to an increasing recognition of expanding human thought... what is considers just or injust.
The U.S. still doesn't recognize as "human rights" what some other nations do. You can compare this kind of like many Americans still supporting the rights of a King over their own.
If The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is ever adopted by the majority here, our current liberals will be looked upon nearly in the same manner we look upon neo-cons today.
St. Augustine,,,same thing.
Retired Monk
Posts: 3412 | Location: denver co | Registered: 17 April 2007
Originally posted by GG: Pray that Johnny Sutton, U.S. defense attorney for Mexican drug smuggler will get to witness the anquish and torment of families such as a close friend of mine whose 18-year old daughter died Wednesday of illicit drug overdose.
Pray that Johnny Sutton feels shame for his calloused indifference to right and wrong and that he will be brought to his senses and be the man he was meant to be - a hero, a defender of truth.
You sounds just like the Imams who beseech God to slay Bush and Blair after the invasion of Iraq.
Posts: 863 | Location: West Palm Beach, FL | Registered: 21 June 2007
Originally posted by GG: Please pray for my failure to ask a mother to reconsider her decision to have a tubiligation. Pray that she might reconsider and get to know the harmful effects that operation will do to her body and the harmful example to her family.
What makes you think it is YOUR duty in the first place to pray for or prevent another human being from doing what she perceives is in her, and her family's best interest? Why would you interfere with freedom of choice? And since it is NOT in the least harmful to her body, what is it to you?
quote:
Please pray also for the doctor willing to be a participant in the culture of death. The most endangered species on the earth are humans and the medical profession violates their professionalism by political correctness - by not informing women (and men) of the dangers of thwarting one's fertility.
A tubiligation is a culture of death??? Really?? Do you follow classes in FEAR, FEAR, FEAR. Your live must be an absolutel nightmare.
Let me explain something very simple to you my dear. You are extremely judgemental, you find fault in others, as in seeing the splinter in someone elses eye without seeing the beam in your own. You engage in exclusion rather than inclusion. Its YOU vs THEM. That's dualism and that does not come from God. In fact it's a seperation from God. It's an UNwillingness on your part to accept the OTHER as a creation of God by not allowing THEM to follow their own path. It's YOUR way or the HIGHWAY!
There was a disciple who worked tirelessly to make converts for the Lord and finally when he succeeded he said proudly while on his way home "Lord I made a convert for you today", whereupon a voice from the Heavens said "To whose greater glory, yours or mine?"
quote:
God help us to expose who's behind the hatred of human life.
I don't think God has any intention of helping us expose anyone, since it is a rather self-serving request certainly not based on love. For openers, if you want peace, starting with yourself would be a good beginning.
Posts: 863 | Location: West Palm Beach, FL | Registered: 21 June 2007
Pray that Johnny Sutton, U.S. defense attorney for Mexican drug smuggler will get to witness the anquish and torment of families such as a close friend of mine whose 18-year old daughter died Wednesday of illicit drug overdose.
Pray that Johnny Sutton feels shame for his calloused indifference to right and wrong and that he will be brought to his senses and be the man he was meant to be - a hero, a defender of truth.
Pray for anguish, torment and shame? Golly.
If ya don't mind, I'd rather pray that your friend may find some peace amidst her grief.
------------------------------------ We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Posts: 1855 | Location: here and now | Registered: 22 September 2005
What makes you think it is YOUR duty in the first place to pray for or prevent another human being from doing what she perceives is in her, and her family's best interest? Why would you interfere with freedom of choice? And since it is NOT in the least harmful to her body, what is it to you?
Have you read through the threads "Contraception" and "Respectfully-Warnings graphic pictures & procedures" in 'WE THE PEOPLE'?
Complete what "Choice" is - it is choice to kill. I know that's harsh reality. How can one soften denying the rights of others to live? It's impossible, don't you think?
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
What makes you think it is YOUR duty in the first place to pray for or prevent another human being from doing what she perceives is in her, and her family's best interest? Why would you interfere with freedom of choice? And since it is NOT in the least harmful to her body, what is it to you?
Have you read through the threads "Contraception" and "Respectfully-Warnings graphic pictures & procedures" in 'WE THE PEOPLE'?
Complete what "Choice" is - it is choice to kill. I know that's harsh reality. How can one soften denying the rights of others to live? It's impossible, don't you think?
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