Through Foggy London Town

Children at Mass

2011-12-06T01:44:00.001Z

At a time when my husband and I were invited to be Godparents, I started to think a lot about children's religious education as a whole. It is a lot of responsibility and not an easy topic, I must agree. At times like that I wish I were living closer to my group of Communion and Liberation to have some like-minded people to discuss with. Then I found an interesting post about Children at mass and I am up for that discussion.

I don't have any kids yet so I am commenting as an "outsider", ok? And I am fully aware that when mine will be born I will find them brilliant and amazing as any other parent does. I only hope not to be so blind as to excuse them of every bad behavior and blaming the world for not seeing them as special beings the same way I do.

I bet noisy kids (at church, regardless of religion) can be frustrating to their parents but it is a lot more irritating to the rest of the assembly, as the parents are not the only ones affected by all the distraction. And I bet it can be extremely difficult for children up to 8 years old to feel minimally engaged at mass anyway - it is difficult for many adults too, some are always chatting during mass and have their cell phones ringing during blessings . And before you start to throw stones at me for calling your kids irritating (and let's face it, for the rest of the world, that is exactly what they are), I don't think parents are to blame alone or, even less, their kids. I think every parish is responsible to find ways to keep children engaged at mass and to learn about it. There will always be kids of all ages at every mass, anywhere around the globe, so I am not talking about exceptions here: this is a certainty.

I attended Catholic schools from the age of 4 until 17, and masses at school were at least once a week, during normal hours. Kindergarten masses were every Monday at the beginning of the day, and I always looked forward to those as we had to each take a flower to offer to Our Lady at the altar. We felt very special in participating this way and it was a solemn start that set us up in the mood for the ceremony. Those masses were short and the priest addressed to us, children, speaking in a language accessible to us. Scored! Silence and everybody paying attention to the altar at ages 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 while not even one parent on site. Only children and their teachers.

My parish was always a very engaging one, so every Sunday at 5pm there were Children's Masses, prepared with children in mind. We would be encouraged to sit all together at the front rows, away from our parents, and face to face with the altar. It can be intimidating to look at the priest if you are behaving badly. The Homily was done in a way to grab children's attention, there were stories with a moral end relating to the readings of the day. Absolute silence, while illustrations were projected at the wall helping the comprehension. Children were called to the altar to give hands to the Priest to say the Our Father together. We all enjoyed that huge circle at the altar. The next day, at school, children would be talking about the story told on Sunday, and on Friday they would all look forward to go to mass again on Sunday to hear a new story and to meet their school friends and proudly show their families to them. Children learned how to appreciate mass, behave accordingly and understand what is that all about. Explaining to a child what mass is about in the same way you would explain to an adult not only won't make any sense in her mind, as it will sound just as a boring obligation - and this is certainly not what we intend to.

A lot later in life I ended up working with an Indian nun. Christianism is many times prosecuted in India, and Catholicism is even a much smaller group, so people have to really bond together to keep their faith strong and community is everything in such cases. Sr. Arun then told me that at every mass, in any parish, they have a nun responsible for the children. They are not locked away at an aquarium in the back of the church, but they all go and sit together at the front rows, with the nun, who then will guide them through mass. Kind of the same way it was in my parish during my childhood. And I do think this is an amazing solution.

In the end, complaining about the noise and disturbance won't help us in any way. Offering solutions, discussing about them and implementing, will. So what can we do in our own parishes today?

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London Riots - Crying for London

2011-08-09T22:41:00.000+01:00

We are now crying for beautiful London. The best city in the world is being destroyed by a bunch of idiots. I sincerely hope the Met will be able to control London riots sooner rather than later. I could not find any article in any newspaper with any justification or explanation about what is going on now. Maybe because there isn't any really.

Those yobs have everything paid by the tax payer: the best schools, housing, food, taxes, clothes in many cases, weekly earnings higher than national minimum wages. They don't work by choice, they don't want to. Living on benefits is a lot more comfortable than work to earn a living. They don't have a cause to fight for. They are attacking innocents just for fun. Destroying business, stealing all they can, terrorizing the population just for the sake of it. They are the same kids that destroy all common areas in council estates, that leave feces on public lifts and burglar flats while its dwellers are at work.

British government is like a protective mother that gives so much to her kids that ended up spoiling them. They are not "rioting" because they have too little, but because there is too much offered to them, leaving them inept and unable to cope with real working life.

Clapham Junction Station: my daily route to work

Look at how the yobs are all smiling and having fun!

Terrorizing innocents on the street

Do the police care so much about their "human rights" to fight?

Rioters are stripping down passers to steal their belongings and clothes

This is what their fight is about: get new clothes and trainers without having to pay for it

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If you live in the UK and find it all a total disgrace, consider signing the petition to suspend benefit payments to all arrested due to the riots. Click on the link bellow to access the petition:

Convicted London rioters should loose all benefits

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Real Hope and Change for the New Year

2011-07-18T06:00:00.000+01:00

Real Hope and Change for the New Year (the T-shirt)

This is the t-shirt Sister Lisa Marie Doty received from her sister, for Christmas last year. Maybe we all need one of those. He surely gets my vote! Anytime, anywhere.

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St Jude Novena

2011-05-07T03:45:00.000+01:00

Visit the National Shrine of St. Jude website.

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My Review

2011-04-25T12:23:00.001+01:00

Originally submitted at Oneida

Stylish and Practical

By Vicky Londres from Albuquerque, NM on 4/25/2011

Pros: Attractive Design, Easy To Clean, Durable, Dishwasher Safe, Unique

Cons: Too Heavy, Stains

Best Uses: Daily Use, Informal Meals

Describe Yourself: Stylish

It took me a long time to find bowls that I consider beautiful and practical - I wanted something white with clean lines, no embossed details - so I was very happy with my purchase. It is used daily for cereal, soup, fruit, desserts. I was expecting a lighter bowl but my husband prefers heavy items in the kitchen so, it's OK.

My husband complains it is not "round" at the bottom and according to him it makes a little difficult to scoop beans and cereal until the end. It doesn't bother me at all, it just shows me that it may not suit everybody's taste.

(legalese)

May Jesus be the Guest of Honor in your Christmas

2010-12-24T06:59:00.000Z

Communion and Liberation

For us God is not some abstract hypothesis; He is not some stranger who left the scene after the “Big Bang.” God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. In the face of Jesus Christ we see the face of God. In His words we hear God Himself speaking to us.
Benedict XVI

John and Andrew had faith, because they had certainty in a perceptible Presence. When they were there ... seated at His house, toward evening, looking at Him speak, there was a certainty in a perceptible Presence of something exceptional, of the divine in a perceptible Presence. ...
Instead of Him with His hair in the wind, instead of watching Him speak with His mouth opening and shutting, He arrives through our presence, which is like ... fragile skin, the fragile masks of something powerful, which is He who lies within.
Luigi Giussani

William Congdon, Nativity, 1960.
©The William G. Congdon Foundation, Milan www.congdonfoundation.com

A blessed Christmas to all!

Os 16 Piores Produtos de Farmácia

2010-08-12T10:17:00.000+01:00

The 16 Worst Drugstore Makeup Products

Esse é o link, e observe que a farmácia em questao é a americana. A lista nao é minha, é do site totalbeauty.com, e serve como indicativo para quem vai viajar ou fazer encomendas para alguém que está com o passaporte nas maos. Lembrem-se sempre: nao é porque é importado que é melhor. Aqui fora se produz muita porcaria também.

Make Up on Youtube

2010-08-11T08:59:00.001+01:00

I'm hooked! This guy is brilliant! Why I haven't met him in London while I was still there?

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Moving on Past Laziness

2010-07-22T00:22:00.000+01:00

Sometimes it is just boring to write a post in English. People don't get jokes, have no sense of humour, don't accept different views or are just plain politically correct bores.

Eventually I'll be back to write something. Right now, to write in Portuguese is a lot more rewarding.

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How Creative!

2010-05-01T05:46:00.000+01:00

This is simply brilliant! Or, as you say in the US, awesome! Those guys took all (very) easy (& boring) listening songs and built this very funny and intelligent piece:

Not Always What it Seems

2010-04-28T02:57:00.001+01:00

Congratulations!

On your beautiful pot of tulips.

Or, have you thought the first pic was a birthday cake?

I did. :)

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Last Night I had a Dream

2010-03-01T23:08:00.000Z

I was wearing the most beautiful dress. How can a dress look so much like me?

Afff... Vitória! Go back to sleep. Keep dreaming, keep dreaming... You are in NM, not London...

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If You Like Coffee, You Must Read This

2010-02-19T09:13:00.007Z

I'm Brazilian, I have drank coffee since I was born, I love coffee. Brazilian style, filtered and strong. I dont like bitter or weak coffee. In Brazil it is easy to find it the way I like, of course, but this is not down to how it is made, it is mainly the quality of the beans used.

Living abroad I had a hard time to find coffee the way I like, but in Italy I found a dream, Illy coffee. It is always a great taste, it doesn't matter how it is prepared. In Europe it was very easy to find Illy anywhere, but now in the US I needed to acquire new habits as I could not find my preferences on market shelves. Well, I've searched the internet to try to order my fave things online and I've found my favourite coffee being sold as if it were made of gold, an extorsive price. Coffee is not like a spice jar that takes a lifetime to finish, I need a lot of coffee powder everyday to make my favourite beverage the way I like.

Espresso is not my thing, and it sounds very silly to me that I need to be attached to a certain shape of pod for a machine, when it is sure that the maker will be always altering the shape of it, making your current $500 espresso maker obsolete in 2 years just because a "new shape of pod" were developed to "extract more flavour and aroma from the beans", bla bla bla and then the pod for your machine sudenly disapears from the market. This is marketing pitch, not "technology development" or good quality coffee. I don't want to compete with anyone's coffeemaker, I want a good drink in my cup, period. A good coffee will taste good whatever your prefered brewing method.

Then I received an offer for a subscription of Gevalia Coffee and a free coffeemaker as a gift for trying it. I thought there was some catch in there afterall, I've never heard of Gervalia Coffee before. Well, they were offering me a money back guarantee if I didn't like their beans. Usually I don't take up this kind of offer, but I was searching for a new coffeemaker anyway and if it were for me to receive one for free plus a suply of coffee, why not? I decided to try. (This is all sounding like a bad infomercial, I know, but it is true). I'm so pleased I did it. The coffeemaker is perfect, the coffee is divine, even the first one, when I used more water than I should have, Gervalia Coffee tasted fantastic. I can drink an entire carrafe by myself, it is so good . And their subscription programe is fantastic, I can set it up for anytime I want, instead of receiving more than I can drink and having to find where to store it, or giving it away so it doesn't become old in my cupboard.

My hubby doesn't drink anything with cafeine. I don't even know if he ever tried a cup of coffee. Well, he doesn't know what he is missing. I've even found some lists of food that boost brain functions and coffee is always there... Coffee is good for your health and I don't even need a doctor to tell me that. The person that invented that coffee is bad for your health, and started with that decaf bla bla bla certainly was a great business man, launching a substandard product twice more expensive than the real thing, trying to make you replace your daily beverage and driving all baristas nuts around the world . If decaf anything were "healthy", nature would produce it, but if it is obtained only from chemical processes in a factory, I'm suspicious. I want my coffee BLACK, FULL and REAL!

If you want to try for yourself, just click on the link bellow and you won't regret. Why not coming over again and tell me what you think?

Join us for our special Friends of Gevalia offer and enjoy a premium coffee kit including a stainless steel coffeemaker, scoop and a pound of Gevalia coffee-Just $12.95 (a $100 value!) Gevalia’s guarantee-you’ll love your coffee or it’s free!

View >>

There is Nowhere like Home

2010-02-05T23:48:00.005Z

One year and three countries later, we are now finally at HOME. There is nothing like our own place. It is ok that I come from a big city, then I lived in an even bigger city for almost 10 years and now I find myself stranded in the middle of the desert. Now I will have to learn how to drive, something that I never needed to do in my life. Food is a problem easily solved with a good supermarket (thanks, Trader Joe's!), internet buys and lots of cooking websites from all over the world - now I have my own kitchen again!!!

My Desperate Housewives Gloveables Gloves

Everything is rated according to the point of view of the viewer. In Brazil, even on a big city, I was used to big spaces, big houses, lots of storage for things you will never touch again (i.e. clutter). In London, the biggest place was a joke compared to what I was used to back home. So I went on to live in very small cramped spaces, learned to throw away all that was not necessary anymore, lived on the bare minimum. It is true that I first arrived there with a backpack, and for my last move I had 15 boxes packed to be shipped to "the new world", but this is another story. Our house in Albuquerque, NM, used to be hubby's bachelor pad and it was rented out while we were in London, UK. He always complained that it is too small. Well, now I kind of have Londoner's standards, it is a palace compared to many places where I had to live during those expat years. It is not small, it is cozy :) I couldn't love it more.

My cute little helpers (and highly effective)

It has been a great pleasure to find the right places for each of our belongings, to clean every spot in the house with all love, imagining where we will fit our furniture. We are fortunate to be able to move little by little, as everything is stored in the in-laws basement. And that is how we decided to do things, one load at a time. Everything gets cleaned and organized, then another load, etc. We haven't brought any furniture yet, only cleaning stuff, some kitchen and bathroom basics and little food. Yet, I don't even feel like I'm camping anymore, I couldn't care less about sleeping on the floor, it feels so much better than the most luxurious hotel in the world.

Best bed in the world!!!!

Now I can't wait to use my crockpot, my coffee maker, my oven, bake an orange cake, prepare my kibes and coxinhas, eat rice everyday, have lots of garlic and onions on my food, buy real bread at the French Bakery, yumy!!!

THANK YOU, GOD!

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Sean is Now Home - Dateline shows it all

2010-01-14T03:59:00.000Z

If you missed Dateline that showed how this case ended, please check this link on Youtube. The quality is not great, it is divided into 12 parts and it was done by someone who is not familiar with video recording/ editing, but only a simple person commited with the truth and justice.

This is certainly a beautiful testimony of Love.

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Happy New Year

2010-01-02T21:11:00.002Z

May 2010 be a lot better than last year. I personally need it. Desperatly.

It will certainly be better for Sean Goldman. He was finally reunited to his father last Christmas Eve. It won't be easy, David will have lots of issues to address after all those years of Parental Alienation suffered by Sean. God will guide them through this difficult time, as He did during those past years. I won't post any pictures or links to their new situation as I believe there is enough avaiable in the news. They need privacy and time together, although it will take a while until the media leaves them alone.

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Asterix at 50: The Comic Hero Conquers the World

2009-11-02T05:30:00.002Z

Reading Asterix in the original French is an irreplaceable experience, for the wit and for the historical knowledge involved in all stories. For those who can't read French, any language will do, it is better than not knowing those Gauls.

Asterix at 50: The Comic Hero Conquers the World

Et vive la France!

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Music is Better than Words Alone

2009-10-20T20:12:00.002+01:00

Rainy Days and Mondays sometimes speaks better than anything I can say.

Talkin' to myself and feelin' old
Sometimes I'd like to quit
Nothing ever seems to fit
Hangin' around
Nothing to do but frown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.

What I've got they used to call the blues
Nothin' is really wrong
Feelin' like I don't belong
Walkin' around
Some kind of lonely clown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.

Funny but it seems I always wind up here
with you
Nice to know somebody loves me

Funny but it seems that it's the only thing to do
Run and find the one who loves me.

What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it's all about
Hangin' around
Nothing to do but frown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.

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Driving in the Virtual World

2009-09-27T07:31:00.000+01:00

Do you know what it takes to be a good driver? And a bad driver? Well, think again. I reviewed all my concepts at New Mexico State Fair.

And if, in the future, you see me on the streets driving my Honda, be afraid, very afraid...

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May God Bless Her Always

2009-09-17T08:34:00.004+01:00

I adore her. Wish her all blessings. Go, Susan Boyle!

Brazil Produces the Best Adverts in the World

2009-09-16T22:44:00.001+01:00

This one could well be used in the deserts of the US. All can do it and save millions of gallons of water a year without flushing the toillet unnecessarily.

Translation:

Pee in the shower.
We want all to do it.
Men
Women
Children
Brazilians
Or Not
Aristocracy
Plebeian
Musicians
Sportsmen
Halfmen halfmonster
Things from another world (* ghosts)
Brazilian Legends
Greek Legends
Good People
Not so good people
Art Geniuses
Science Geniuses
Trapezists
Lovers
ETs
Movie Monsters
So, if you pee, you are invited
A flush spends 12 litres of clean water
In a year it is 4.380 litres
Pee in the shower
Help the Atlantic Forest (* native forest in the southeast and south of Brazil)

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Under God's Protection

2009-09-16T22:14:00.001+01:00

I can't wait to have my house back, and have a Statue of the Holy Family outside, guarding our house.

My husband better be careful, or the house can easily look like a chapel in few months.

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The Bag

2009-09-15T01:54:00.004+01:00

A bag can be used for many things, by every type of person. Sometimes its function is just to contain things inside and be thrown from here to there. Some people use their bags with care. Some people don't care. Specially at the airport, your bag can be a Louis Vuiton or come from Argos, once it is checked-in, it all rolls without care, they will be all kicked and all will be made to danify them to the max. It doesn't matter what is inside or who owns it. If it is not yours, it is more likely that it will be treated as a bag of shit.

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Bring Sean Home - an update

2009-09-09T22:56:00.002+01:00

Unfortunatelly this story hasn't had an end yet. We all still hopefull that justice will be made. Read on the link bellow a brief interview with David, this morning. And I sincerelly hope to post next the long awaited news that Sean is finally with his father, David Goldman, on his way home, in New Jersey. May God bless you, guys.

Bring Sean Home—The Forgotten Story

Posted using ShareThis

The One and Thruly Great Country of This World

2009-09-07T05:43:00.001+01:00

De Independencia falsa e forjada, e nem assim conseguiram destruir nosso país. Enquanto vivemos, esperamos que essa grandeza seja alcancada na sua plenitude.

Ninguém chega aos pés do meu Brasil Amado!

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