Walking!!!!

The full video can be seen at:

Do I see God around me?

Yesterday? Today? Tomorrow?

Can I become aware of God's presence here, now?

Can I recognize God in the ordinary place, in this ordinary looking people around me?

Lord help me notice the scared space within my life.

Lord help me become aware of the house of prayer within me.

Lord let me be aware of YOU in others.

We hope you had a wonderful 2006

  

Where are you?

Conservative - is that me?

I recently listened to a podcast in which Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Dish - defined a conservative.  My understanding of what he said is that a conservative:

• Desires a government that is limited - but is necessary.
• Wants to keep the separation of powers - we keep the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government separate.  That doesn't mean to sign a bill into law and immediately follow-up the signing with a signing statement.  In which the signing statement effectively states this law can be ignored.  If the president doesn't like the bill, veto it.  Since when did the executive branch become part of the legislative branch of government?
• Desires a balanced budget where appropriate - need I say more.
• Wants a prudent foreign policy - one in which we don't preemptively attack sovereign governments because we had a vision they are bad.
• Desires a strong defense - key word is defense not offense.
• Policies should be governed by a pragmatic political and civil discourse.

Do our current political leaders have the same definition?

Unjustifiable

You cannot punish a crime with another crime.

The death sentence is a crime.  Although the state who does the sentencing, but the state is not the owner of the life of its' citizens. 

Life is a gift from the moment of conception to the natural end of life. 

The death sentence is not the natural end.  Because John Paul II in Encyclical Evangelium vitae said, today society has all the means to render a criminal innocuous without applying the death sentence.

Cardinal Renato Martino - President, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace