Merry Christmas

Adoration by Lorenzo di Credi

"'To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.' (Jn 1:12) This is the message of Bethlehem today and for ever. This is the extraordinary gift which the Prince of Peace brought into the world two thousand years ago." (John Paul II)

Acceso Secreto: El Vaticano

La Prima Cosa Bella

La Prima Cosa Bella

by Mogol e Nicola Di Bari

La prima cosa bella
Ho preso la chitarra
e suono per te
il tempo di imparare
non l'ho e non so suonare
ma suono per te.

La senti questa voce
chi canta e` il mio cuore
amore amore amore
e` quello che so dire
ma tu mi capirai

I prati sono in fiore
profumi anche tu
ho voglia di morire
non posso piu` cantare
non chiedo di piu`

La prima cosa bella
che ho avuto dalla vita
e` il tuo sorriso giovane, sei tu.

Tra gli alberi una stella
la notte si e` schiarita
il cuore innamorato sempre piu`
sempre piu`

La senti questa voce
chi canta e` il mio cuore
amore amore amore
e` quello che so dire
ma tu mi capirai
I prati sono in fiore...

La prima cosa bella
che ho avuto dalla vita
e` il tuo sorriso giovane sei tu

Tra gli alberi una stella
la notte si e` schiarita
il cuore innamorato sempre piu`

La senti questa voce
chi canta e` il mio cuore
amore amore amore
e` quello che so dire
ma tu mi capirai
ma tu mi capirai

What Doctors Don't Know about Drugs They Prescribe

Ben Goldacre at TED

Orson Welles

Orson Welles

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.

Se você quer um final feliz, isso depende, é claro, de onde você termina sua história.

Lose Weight for a Better Memory

Wondering how to prevent dementia? 

A new study reveals that obesity can put people older than 60 at greater risk for dementia. The good news is we have some tips that can spare your aging brain from weight-gain brain-drain:

* Take a walk for at least 45 minutes a day, six days a week. Also do strength-building exercises two to three days a week. It's especially good for you if you're advanced in your years and out of shape. Yes, AARP member, you can do it!

* Add friends, family, and lovers to your social mix - face to face, not using FaceTime on your cell phone. Loneliness is associated with everything from higher blood pressure and less happiness to weight gain.

* Substitute heart-stopping saturated fats (think burgers) with healthy fats, such as salmon or monounsaturated olive oil. Losing weight is about healthy eating, not starving.

*Combine these steps with Dr. Mike's secret for weight control: walnuts and almonds. Starting a meal with six walnut halves or 12 almonds can help you shrink belly fat by 50%. The walnuts are good for your brain and heart, too, so go nuts (and have a fun-filled - and longer - life)!

(adapted from Real Age)

Richness through Knowledge

Richness made of skills begins with books 

"Sure, it’s great to have oil, gas and diamonds; they can buy jobs. But they’ll weaken your society in the long run unless they’re used to build schools and a culture of lifelong learning." 

(Pass the Books. Hold the Oil, by Thomas L. Friedman)

"When you don’t have resources, you become resourceful" 

(K. R. Sridhar, the founder of the Silicon Valley fuel-cell company Bloom Energy)

Sea Fever

photo polka on the island

by John Masefield (1878-1967)

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

(All Poetry)

John Masefield

Signs of Times

Vaticano: Cenizas de difuntos no deben esparcirse tras cremacion

VATICANO, 30 Mar. 2012 / (ACI/EWTN Noticias) - La Librería Editora Vaticana presentó recientemente la segunda edición del Rito de exequias, en la que se subraya que los católicos no deben esparcir las cenizas de un difunto luego de ser cremado, ya que esa práctica, muy de moda actualmente,es contraria a la fe cristiana. Las cenizas deben ser enterradas.

En este documento en italiano, que fue presentado en la sede de Radio Vaticana, se ha revisado todos los textos bíblicos y de oración, y se ha incluido un apéndice dedicado enteramente a las exequias en el caso de la cremación.

Mons. Angelo Lameri, de la Oficina Litúrgica Nacional de la Conferencia Episcopal Italiana (CEI), explicó que se ha colocado la cremación en un apéndice aparte para subrayar el hecho de que la Iglesia, "aunque no se opone a la cremación de los cuerpos cuando no se hace ‘in odium fidei’ (por odio a la fe), sigue considerando que la sepultura del cuerpo de los difuntos es la forma más adecuada para expresar la fe en la resurrección de la carne, así como para favorecer el recuerdo y la oración de sufragio por parte de familiares y amigos".

El texto también señala que excepcionalmente, los ritos previstos en la capilla del cementerio o ante la tumba se pueden celebrar en el lugar mismo de la cremación. Se recomienda además el acompañamiento del féretro a dicho lugar. De especial importancia es la afirmación de que "la cremación se considera concluida cuando se deposita la urna en el cementerio".

Todo esto porque aunque algunas legislaciones permiten esparcir las cenizas en la naturaleza o conservarlas en lugares diversos del cementerio, "estas prácticas producen no pocas perplejidades sobre su plena coherencia con la fe cristiana, sobre todo cuando remiten a concepciones panteístas o naturalistas".

Otra de las novedades del rito de las exequias se refiere al momento de la visita de la familia, que no se contemplaba en la edición anterior. Mons. Lameri afirma al respecto que "para un sacerdote, es un momento para compartir el dolor, escuchar a los familiares afectados por el luto, y conocer algunos aspectos de la vida de la persona difunta con el fin de ofrecer un recuerdo correcto y personalizado durante la celebración de las exequias".

Otra novedad es la secuencia ritual, revisada y enriquecida, en el momento de cerrar el ataúd. Se proponen textos adecuados a diversas situaciones: para una persona anciana, para una persona joven, para quien ha muerto inesperadamente. Una nueva adaptación permite ahora pronunciar palabras de cristiano recuerdo del difunto en el momento de la despedida. Asimismo, se ha añadido una amplia propuesta de formularios para la oración de los fieles.

El nuevo Rito de las exequias quiere ser también un instrumento para profundizar en la búsqueda del sentido de la muerte.

El Obispo Alceste Catella, Presidente de la Comisión Episcopal para la liturgia de la CEI, señaló para concluir que "este libro atestigua la fe de los creyentes y el valor del respeto y de la 'pietas' hacia los difuntos, el respeto por el cuerpo humano incluso cuando ya no tiene vida". "Testimonia la fuerte exigencia de cultivar la memoria, de tener un lugar cierto en el que deponer el cadáver o las cenizas, en la certeza profunda de que Esto es auténtica fe y humanismo auténtico", concluyó. (Aciprensa)

Cora Coralina - To Live Well

A reporter asked the brazilian poet Cora Coralina what is to live well. She replied:

I'm not afraid of the years and I don't think about aging. And I'll tell you, don't think about it. You should never say you're aging, you're getting old. I don't say it. I don't say that I'm old, and I don't say that I'm listening poorly. Of course that when I need help, I ask for it.

I always try to read and keep updated with the facts and this helps me to overcome the difficulties of life. The best script is to read and practice what you're reading. The best thing is to always be productive and never sleep during the day. Also not saying to yourself that you're becoming forgotten, because that way you become even more. I never say that I'm ill, I always say: I'm fine. I never say that I'm tired.

Don't use negative words. The more you say you're getting tired and forgotten, the more forgotten you become. You start to convince yourself and the others. So be quiet! I know that I still have many years. I know that I'm from the last century, and that I bring with me all ages, but I don't know if I'm old. Do you think I am?

I can say that I'm the land and don't wanna be anything else. Daughter of this blessed land of Goiás. I call upon the old aged as myself, or older than me, to exercise their rights. I know that someone will have to bury me, but I won't bury myself.

I'm conscient of my authenticity and I search to overcome my personality every single day, setting apart inside of me everything that is old and dead, because struggle is the vibrating word that raises the weak ones and determines the ones who are strong.

The important thing is to spread, make millions of smiles of solidarity and friendship. I search to spread optimism and grow seeds of peace and justice. Saying what's in my mind, with hope.

I think about what I do, with faith. I do what I should, with love. I struggle to be each day better than the day before, because kindness can also be learned.


Even when everything seems to fall apart, it's up to me to decide between laughing or crying, going or staying, giving up or struggling; because I've discovered, in the uncertain path of life, that the most important thing it's deciding. (Cora Coralina - translated from portuguese by Alice. To read in portuguese, click here)

Wise Quotation - Charles Dickens

W. C. Fields as Mr. Micawber 

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." (Mr. Micawber, in David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Wilkins Micawber is a fictional character from Charles Dickens's 1850 novel, David Copperfield. He was modelled on Dickens's father, John Dickens, who like Micawber was incarcerated in debtors' prison (the King's Bench Prison) after failing to meet his creditors' demands. (Wikipedia)

Budrus

Iltezam, Ayed Morrar's daughter

The people of Budrus are trying to live a normal existence in an occupied region of Palestine, near the Israeli border.  Many of the families have lived there for generations and believe they have the right to continue to do so in peace and with freedom.

It is a village of farmers, whose livelihood depends on olive trees; trees that are being “confiscated”, uprooted, and destroyed by the Israeli government, who are building a separation barrier to keep Palestinians out of Israel. The men and women of Budrus have cared for these trees for generations and would rather die than see them destroyed. The scene is set for a tense conflict, as Israelis and Palestinians clash to protect their way of life.

Budrus is a documentary that follows the story of Ayed Morrar, the unlikely founder of a resistance movement attempting to halt the construction of the Israeli wall on Palestinian farmland. It is a charming portrayal of family life, community spirit, and justice in the face of segregation and violence. It is a document to the power of civil disobedience and an essay on the practical application of the “Gandhi Method” of passive resistance. (The Film Pilgrim) 

The documentary is directed and edited by brazilian Julia Bacha. It tells an important true story about humanity.