July 2012
49 posts
“In sum, the Olympic Games appeal both to our desire for fellowship and our...”
– David Brooks in The Olympic Contradiction, for the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/opinion/brooks-the-olympic-contradiction.html?_r=3
To all those in the 2012 Olympics:
restlesshippo:
catholicmemes:
I
“This is an extraordinary thought: that our vocation, our calling was there...”
– Bishop Mark Davies (Shrewsbury)
“After Matt arrived on campus, the health attendants hired to assist him proved...”
– Matt Swinton’s Declaration of Independence
The Notre Dame family is a real thing, and it is why I love this place so, so much.
Therefore, I will trust Him.
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in...
“Faith demands social responsibility for whatever we believe in.”
– - Archbishop Samuel Aquila (via bishopfeed)
The gap between what I believe and what I do is almost always really, deeply shocking.
Do not think me gentle because I speak in praise of gentleness, or elegant because I honor the grace that keeps this world. I am a man crude as any, gross of speech, intolerant, stubborn, angry, full of fits and furies. That I may have spoken well at times, is not natural. A wonder is what it is.
-“A Warning to My Readers”, by Wendell Barry
The Olympic Games? Make it So! →
As if the Olympics needed more awesome!!!!!
Middle School Moment →
theurbanassembly:
According to this study, the process of becoming a school dropout begins in middle school. Children at this stage either form the good habits necessary to become graduates, or they form the harmful habits that will prevent them from academic completion.
For lower income students, this is often the time in their lives where new, more adult challenges come into play. They may be...
Business leaders rally around Common Core →
In fact, it was reported, “during the last recession there were 3 million jobs that went unfilled because there were not enough prepared workers to do the work.”
Former US Olympian Now a Sister Serving UK →
Nuns AND Olympians? It’s like this bit was MADE for me.
Knowledge does count. Schools do count.
“You might call the last fifty years of public education the “When Dewey met Darwin” era. The terrible consequences of family breakdown (predicted by Daniel Moynihan many years ago) are certainly upon us, but if this recent spate of teeth-gnashing over the growing social mobility gap is any indication of where the country is, I’d say the country still doesn’t get it. Knowledge does count....
"To see ourselves as we are is the precondition...
“You see, Aleksandr, in each heart three trees grow. Life cuts them down, trims them, crafts them into crosses. Then they are lifted high on a hill—a hill like a skull. One is the cross of Jesus, the second the cross of the repentant thief, and the third is the cross of the unrepentant thief.” “In each heart?” “Yes. We like to think that in times of trial, we will...
What if the penalty for people like the Aurora... →
Social mobility starts and ends in schools →
I don’t know how much I believe or don’t believe this, but it’s worth thinking about.
“When most people hear the term “knowledge management,” they...”
– …and that is a problem.
“If we must err, let’s err on the side of joy.”
– I wanna be Simcha when I grow up. Probably not with the nine kids, but with the awesomeness.
“The usual suspects are naysaying this, saying that there’s no proof that any of...”
– Mark Shea, on one neuroscientist’s scans reveling responsive brain activity in a persistently vegetative state. Read a bit more.
“If I want to be a writer — a truly good writer — I probably cannot be a reader,...”
– Tony Jones (via stephanieberbec)
This makes me very sad … ‘cos I really like to read … & ‘cos I really wanna be a truly good writer.
Win/lose.
(via moochiethinks)
Disagree. Faulkner’s advice to writers: “Read, read, read. Read everything.”
“Movies that pander to men seem to enjoy a lot more freedom to be about other...”
– Simcha is so good at saying things I’ve been thinking forever way better than I could ever say them.
For the record, with very few exceptions, I HATE chick flicks. I watch them to commune with other girls, but I would nearly never elect to watch one on my own.
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I...”
– Rabindranath Tagore, via Well Said: Service and joy
“About thirty years ago one of my cousins, a novice within a religious order,...”
– The Anchoress, on when and whether to take offense. 