Fish and Chips

Oh, boy! This is gorgeous! I will miss it!!!!!

Why Go To Daily Mass?

1. It's kind of like facebook with God, the angels, and the saints
2. Breaking in the day to pray tames the craziness better than your Blackberry
   
3. The local Caf still serves lunch at 12:37pm. No lines either
   
4. A miracle occurs every. single. time.
   
5. God wants to hear about your romantic woes more than your Twitter audience
   
6. Actually, God wants to teach you something about Romance. Think of it as going on a spiritual date
   
7. Under the (affectionately offered) "if you would just shut up, you could hear God's voice" advice: lots of precious, rare, ear-opening silence
   
8. It's not for the perfect--that's actually part of the point
   
9. Did the sun rise this morning? Did you have a good breakfast? Did you get to dress warmly and well? Did you think about giving thanks for all that?
   
10. Because Jesus is present to us in a particular way--the way he chose as the perfect way--in the sacrament of the altar. (Want to meet him?)
    
11. Life is mysterious. But being present at this Mystery will make the mystery of your life much more clear
    
12. Because this act “identifies us with his Heart, sustains our strength along the pilgrimage of this life, makes us long for eternal life, and unites us even now to the Church in heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints.” (CCC #1419)
    (...even at your imperfect parish)
    

From a wonderful blog called The Ironic Catholic

Happy Easter!

Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads toward a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey. The promise of Christ is not only a reality that we await, but a
real presence.
Benedict XVI

We speak about how things ought to be or what is going well and “we do not start from the affirmation that Christ has won the victory”. To say that Christ has won, that Christ has risen, signifies that the meaning of my life and of the world is present, already present, and time is the profound and mysterious working of its manifestation.
Luigi Giussani

Happy Easter

from Communion and Liberation

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Foreign Soul

It is very difficult to write in a language that is not yours. Everyday I try to write something in here, but it barely works. While writting in Portuguese is as easy as a breeze, if I try to translate those posts in here they can hardly work the same way. In Portuguese I have my soul, I know how people will perceive what I am saying or trying to say between the lines? How can I achieve this in a different language? I don't think it is possible.



In English I feel there is a part of me missing. It is hard not to feel comfortable making a joke or expressing inner feelings. I've been many times through situations where people took me as stupid only because I have an accent, and totally disqualify any opinion of mine because I am a foreigner. All my curiosity and intelect diminished because there are no intelectual pairs to share a thought with.



Being a foreigner meant that many times I had to deal with shallow people of disposable conversations. Everything would be ok around a pint of beer at the pub, but I mainly missed those afternoons sitting at the beach discussing the meaning of our lives. That fullfilment is missing and makes me feel opressed at times. What to do in a foreign land?

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More pictures to come?

Gerald really, really loves pictures. Taking pictures, looking at pictures, make comments on pictures. In only a few days in Rio he took almost 1000 pics. And in London the camera is as indispensable as the house keys, so... We are preparing a new venture together, a photoblog with the result of all this frenetic picture taking. It will be fun!

Happy European Advertisement

I love this advert. It is a new campaign on British TV. For me, it is innocent funny, but my hubby found it saucy. Really? Or is that somewhat showing cultural differences? I don't have any parameter as I never lived in the US. Roughly I know it is a puritan society. I saw him blushing with a bra advert. He turned to me and asked, "Has she just said 'bra for big boobed women' ?". In the UK people say that all the time, on TV and everywhere else. If it is rude or not I don't have any idea, English is not my first language, I miss certain subtleties.
Well, I think it will take some time until learn what is acceptable and what is not in social circles in the US. Until then I will play safe, staying quiet. If I say something very wrong, my apologies, but tell me first what the problem is , I can't guess.

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