mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

I did it again this year...I forgot my sister Anglea Green's birthday. I do not know how old she is (okay I do know but I won't say) I do know that she is older than me, but not by much. Her birthday was on the 22nd and I forgot! So again, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Friday Funny Fotos

Check out these funny photos from National Geographic...enjoy.

This will never happen

Unless it is something really really funny!!!

(h/t to Msgr. Corbett for the image)


UPDATE: OK, this will never ever happen, but it is still funny!

Weekly LOLz

Special Awards

Last night at our evening reception they handed out three special recognitions and the Global Fellow of the year. The three recognitions went to the three deacons who have helped the Global Fellow program find new preaching dates. Of course our own Deacon Bill, who has been working quite hard for CRS, and was duly recognized with two others for their similar work. The Global Fellow of the year went to Fr. Tom Fenlon. Good job and congratulations to all! The photos are below.

CRS Day 2, part II

This afternoon we are continuing with Peacebuilding. We have already heard from Mr. John Katunga, CRS' Regional Technical Advisor for Peacebuilding and Justice in the east Africa region, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is traveling around the US giving speeches and we were lucky today to hear part of his full presentation, it was wonderful. After Mr. Katunga we heard from Mr. Hedley Abernethy and the work of CRS in the area of Peacebuilding. Again this afternoon we had plenty to mentally digest, almost too much. Below I have some photos of the presenters, a shocking map of the conflicts happening right now on the continent of Africa and then a definition of Peacebuilding.

Mr. John Katunga

Mr. Hedley Abernethy and Mr. John Katunga

"Peacebuilding refers to the long-term project of building peaceful, stable communities and societies. This requires building on a firm foundation of justice and reconciliation. How we build on that foundation is very important. The process needs to strengthen and restore relationships and transform unjust institutions and systems. The focus on relationships and the process of how we achieve justice and build peace is unique to peacebuilding." John Paul Lederach

Berlin Day Three part II

After the morning at the fun run, we headed off to see the new Berlin Jewish Museum. It is massive and well worth the trip. The exhibits were fascinating, and a bit overwhelming. They make the exhibit a do-it-yourself and you can go here and there and everywhere throughout the museum. The exhibits demand action on your part and make the museum quite interactive. Since Saturday was supposed to be a day of rest before the Marathon and since the museum was quite a drain mentally and physically (huge floor plan) so after the museum it was off to eat more pasta and then to bed for some rest before the big race.

Berlin Day Three

Well Saturday morning promised to be some fun...and it did not disappoint. In the morning I headed off for the Berlin Marathon 5k fun run. It was a fun run from the Charlottenburg Palace to the Berlin Olympic Stadium. 1000's of people showed up, many dressed in fun costumes. We go to finish on the track at the stadium, it was awesome. After the run they had a breakfast set up for us, lots of goodies and plenty of carbs. After all the festivites at the Stadium it was back to get cleaned up for a journey to the Jewish Muesum (more on this later). Here are the photos from the fun run, enjoy!

CRS Day 2

Fr. Bill speaking from his "podium"

We are well into the swing of things at CRS for our second day. This morning we are hearing a talk on Reconciliation and Peacebuilding by Fr. William (Bill) Headley. It is interesting that KenM made a comment on my post about Sachsenhausen and remembered his trip to Dachau when he commented..."your pictures brought back memories of that place! Certainly is a period in history that we wish we could erase!" I think that kind of thought resonates with us all. Too bad that reconciliation and forgiveness is not just about moving on or forgetting about the past, but how to deal with the sin/hurt and what that means in the light of the forgiving love of God. Today as we are learning all sorts of facets about Reconciliation and Forgiveness, Ken's thoughts were quite thought provoking in one of my breakout small groups. We are dealing with this topic all day...very emotional and lots of cerebral work. I will leave you with just one line from John Paul Lederach.

"...imagine yourself in a web of relationships that includes your enemies."

CRS Meetings

The meetings are in full swing now. Here are a few photos of the participants. Enjoy!

Fr. Andy Booms (who went to Madagascar with me) in the foreground and others during the meeting.

Intense focus of the priests and deacons.

Can you see Deacon Bill?

Mikaele Sansone our fearless leader.

Berlin Day Two part II

After going to see Sachsenhausen, we had to go get my race stuff from the Marathon Expo. These expos are usually a busy time, this one was pure chaos! It took a while to find out where to go get my number and credentials but I finally found it and we headed for the door ASAP. After the expo, I was tired so we went to get some food and then back to the hotel for an early night. Here are the photos from the expo. More later...

Berlin Day Two

Well we woke up early-ish so we could get going with the touring. We decided to head to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, to get a sense of what happened there. We wanted to go with the free company again, but they did not pick up from where they said they would, so we went on our own. We met some nice young girls from Australia and combined our efforts to get there. We showed up just in time to meet up with the free company group so we joined their tour. It was amazing. It was very moving. I could not believe the horrors that took place there. Our guide was from North Carolina and she did a great job. I could try to put things into words for you, but it would only fail. Here are the photos I took, they should give you some idea of what we saw.

Marathon Day

Well here is some video from the Marathon. The videos are great, although in some you have to really look for me. The beeping you hear in the video is the timing chip registering as the runners cross the mats. Enjoy

I am in a white shirt, Waffle House hat, blue shorts and white gloves in this video. You will see me at about 20 seconds into the video on the left side of the video. This was taken at 10K into the race.

Still in same clothes here. I am still on the right hand side of the video, it is really hard to see me. I cross over the mat at about 20 seconds as well. This is half way through the marathon. Can you see me?

Other travel photos

So I thought I would get some time during my recovery from surgery to post my photos from the last few days of vacation...guess not. So here goes.

Berlin Day 1 Thursday September 25th:

Well we got to Berlin, early in the morning. You might remember our flight from Madrid was quite early. We got in and checked into the hotel and then off to tour with the free tour people. We had a great tour, but 3.5 hours really took it out of us. We went back to the hotel for a rest then off to dinner (pasta for carbs!!) and then back to bed early.

Two things: I titled this album with Munich even though it is Berlin. Also I will post more tomorrow. Peace

Fr. Michael Messner

I am in Baltimore for meetings with CRS. Since I knew I was on my way up here, I took some time to go see Fr. Michael Messner (a classmate from St. Vincent) then to see Mark Starr & his seminary. So Sunday I flew to BWI then drove to Abbottstown, Pennsylvania to see Fr. Messner. He is Pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. Here are some photos from my short stay.

The Church

The Parish office and the Rectory.

Two handsome priests.

The Pastor and his house. Like Jefferson at Monticello...hehehehe!

After I left Fr. Messner, I went to Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Mark showed me around the seminary, we went to prayer with the seminarians and then to dinner with the men from Atlanta. After dinner time to relax (and study for the students) then night prayer and some time with the seminarians, then they went to study and sleep, I sat and had a beer and watched some TV. This morning I got up and drove to Baltimore in advance of my meetings in the morning. Deacon Bill will be here later today, I will take a photo later and upload it. Peace.

ICSC in Chicago

Last week in Chicago were were obviously not the only ones from Atlanta, for the ICSC...as you well know. Not only did we do dinner with the Archdiocese we also went to lunch with the folks from Holy Trinity. Here are some photos.

On way to lunch, such a great town!

The two parish contingencies, what a happy group.

On the way back to the conference, spectacular!

What the...

A fight breaks out at a baseball game in South Korea...not like here in the USA!



It turns out it was a charity game between actors, who then fought like they were kids, as this fighting style is actually is a kids game from South Korea.

Glad they put me to sleep

This guy was having brain surgery for a hand tremor. They keep some people awake for the surgery, I guess to test how things are going. Anyway here he is during the midst of the surgery playing his banjo. I am glad they put me to sleep or about this point in the surgery I would be freaking out...

Does this guy look familiar?

At "The Mount" for a visit tonight before heading to CRS tomorrow.