Sundial Cloister

White

2006-05-16T08:25:00.000+01:00

This blog is about religion, not politics. Peace, Justice, all the components of your person find integral response in the path to God and in people who follow His Wisdom. Honest.

Italian news

2006-05-15T21:31:00.000+01:00

Un tributo all'eccellente Presidente Carlo Azeglio Ciampi ed un ripettoso benvenuto al nuovo Presidente Giorgio Napolitano (biografia probabilmente non aggiornata, ma ufficiale).

A tribute to the excellent President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and a respectful welcome to the new President Giorgio Napolitano.

Edinburgh

2006-05-15T21:30:00.000+01:00

It must be the air. People in Edinburgh are even nicer, this time of the year.

There is a season for everything.

2006-05-15T15:12:00.000+01:00

God only knows their time.

Groan

2006-05-14T13:18:00.000+01:00

After the shocking wave of sunny days that there have been recently, this Sunday the sky is overcast again.
Mother's day in Italy today, sometimes I miss her lasagne. The picture shows that after all, above the clouds, the sun firmly shines.

I remember that day.

2006-05-13T13:13:00.000+01:00

I was watching tv and everything stopped. After some months, speaking with a classmate who had moved from Rome, I learnt that that afternoon, the Police had searched every building in the center of the city looking for Hagca. It was quite a dramatic event.

2006-05-13T13:08:00.000+01:00

The picture reminds me of a prophet.

Ingredients...

2006-05-12T20:47:00.000+01:00

...for a happy and effective Christian life:

(a) Extreme competence in your field (Not easy, not easy).
(b) Humility (The Lord is eternally Other).
(c) Firmness in your fundamental values (Jesus)
(d) The love and support of those whom you love and support.

Theorem 1.1

At any moment in life there is at least one ingredient missing.

Proof: Well, try!

News from Rome.

2006-05-12T09:26:00.000+01:00

Amongst all other studies I will have to read the complete version of Humanae vitae.

Meditation

2006-05-11T19:01:00.000+01:00

Thinking about John3:1-21. I focused my attention to the water.
Certainly, it refers to baptism (so to the flood, to the Red Sea, and to John the Baptist). However thinking about Tobit, it recalled me tears.
Tears of joy, hope, but also of suffering without guilt and, yet, accepted.
That's how a grown up man can be born again.

2006-05-10T14:51:00.000+01:00

Believe it or not I had to wait more than 20 years to take this picture. I am happy I found such possibility here, in Scotland.

On delicate matters.

2006-05-09T22:00:00.000+01:00

Honesty prompts me to make this point clear with my readers.
I don't think homosexuals should have the same rights normal couples have (I am Catholic, remember?).
I could have never imagined the extent of sexual liberties I find here, really (Or maybe I never realised people around me were living their sexuality freely).
However, I have also to say that I think that criminalizing them is wrong: have you ever wondered how many married people are in fact homosexuals?
That's a problem too, and it should be seriously considered: marriage is a sacrament.

Qualities

2006-05-09T13:37:00.000+01:00

Thinking about last Sunday's good shepherd gospel. The idea that a shepherd lays down his life for a sheep is quite repulsive to me.
A human being is qualitatively different from a sheep. However, if I think that I am the sheep, the story changes connotation completely.

2006-05-08T12:21:00.000+01:00

How is it that there is a fantastic sunshine mainly in the days in which you have to sit at your desk doing your studies?

In days like this...

2006-05-07T17:48:00.000+01:00

Fog prevents you from making broad plans. So you listen something interesting on the radio and visit the pleasant Scottish countryside.

Concert

2006-05-06T23:27:00.000+01:00

Nice evening at the Usher Hall.
Vladimir Ashkenazy directed the Philharmonia Orchestra wonderfully. According to Classical Source the conductor "is, amazingly, one of our last performing links with Shostakovich".
And certainly Steven Osborne gave an excellent performance in Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No.2.
Bravi!

Thanksgiving exercise.

2006-05-06T14:02:00.000+01:00

Old picture. There have been a couple of glorious days recently. Thanks to the Lord.

Thanksgiving exercise.

2006-05-05T21:03:00.000+01:00

Thanks o Lord, you give hope to the hopeless. You open the way for people who cannot see any.
You love every woman and every man with a personal love. You want them grateful and fully open to a free response of love.
You are discreet, o Lord, and allow us to walk towards you with a pace unique and mysterious even to ourselves.

Routine

2006-05-05T11:03:00.000+01:00

Time to organise a timetable, stabilise my rhytms, do some revision, and firmly trust the Lord. After a difficulty, there is another one to confront. One step at a time.

The novel of my life.

2006-05-04T09:08:00.000+01:00

Yesterday God gave me the grace to be in the timeless garden. It was important to discover where my heart is.
And given that the loss of heart is my worst enemy at the moment, I decided to read Isaiah.

Further meditations.

2006-05-03T11:29:00.001+01:00

Managing stress is important. Living in a friendly environment, which is what I have been searching for long time, would be the ideal to face the challenges that life requires.
However, let it be as the Lord wants, not as my limited intellect can understand.
One step at a time, I don't know what God is realising for me, I trust Him, He is infinite Wisdom.
Sometimes the only thing you can bring to the altar is disgust, but disgust is dangerous. We, humans, were not made to live in disgust. We were made to live in joyful gratitude towards the Lord.

Further meditations.

2006-05-02T11:44:00.000+01:00

I am pondering the Spiritual invincibility of Jesus in the Gethsemane and how such a Spiritual giant fell on His face under the weight of our sins (mine included, certainly).

Tron (1982)

2006-05-01T22:52:00.000+01:00

Or when the creature wants to substitute the Creator. Note: it's the original version. Somebody is praying for me: thanks with all my heart.

Thanksgiving.

2006-05-01T19:01:00.000+01:00

That is what can heal your past and present wounds. And I have been seriously wounded in this Country by several people.

Altissimu, onnipotente bon Signore,
Tue so' le laude, la gloria e l'honore et onne benedictione.

... and serve him with great humilty.

Feedbacks

2006-05-01T15:50:00.000+01:00

Should be provided to a system in order to correct its errors. I wonder where hermits where getting theirs.