A Personal Journal

Birthplace: Bratislava Hungary
Date of Birth and Death: 1207 - 1231
Feast Day: November 17th

Notable: Patroness of the Homeless, Nursing Services, Charities and others

Life: St. Elizabeth was a Hungarian princess who was betrothed at an early age to a German prince and was married at 14 years old. Although she was surrounded by luxury, she a deep concern for those less fortunate than herself and provided food for hundreds of people at the castle gate every morning and visited the sick twice a day.

Her compassion was renown; once, she allowed a dying leper to rest on the bed she shared with her husband. When her husband heard about this, he tore off the bedcovers but instead of a leper, he saw the vision of the crucified Christ on the bed.

When famine and epidemic swept her land, she organised the relief for those in need through opening up the granaries and selling her jewels to build hospitals. This concern of her for those in need and her apparent boundless charity annoyed her family to no end and she received unending criticism after her husband died on the Crusades.

As a widow, she joined the third order of St. Francis in 1228 and continued her work for the poor for the rest of her life, brief as it was. Upon her death at the age of 24, she directed that all of her worldly good be given to the poor.

Prayer:

Almighty God, by those whose grace your servant Elizabeth of Hungary
recognized and honored Jesus in the poor of this world. Grant that we,
following her example, may with love and gladness serve those in any
need or trouble, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen

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Note

Taken at a car show in Spencer North Carolina dedicated to nothing but Model A’s and T’s in celebration of 100 years of Ford Cars.

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There has been plenty of commentary this week on the rather lackluster performance of many of the ACC teams last week highlighted by the loss by Clemson to Alabama. So much so, Wake Forest is in the unenviable position of carrying the pride of ACC into its game against the SEC’s Mississippi (Ole Miss).

Ole Miss had a strong outing last week against Memphis as good as the one Wake Forest had against Baylor. Under new coach Houston Nutt, they are replicating the old Arkansas offense style. But will it be enough against Wake?

Wake does have the advantage of a now veteran Riley Skinner helming the Deacon offense. Spreading out the plays last week helped diffuse the loss of Kenny Moore this year and makes it hard of opponent defenses to focus on just one or two players. Now, the Deacons can put up Josh Adams, Bandon Pendergrass, Chip Brinkman, DJ Boldin and the defense will have to cover them all.

Today is also the first home game for the team and the team will show off its new Deacon Tower to a nationwide audience. Needless to say the game is a sellout. If that keeps happening, the team may just have to expand the 32,000 seats in the stadium to a bit more.

Looks like a winner for Wake today but a bit closer than last week.

Game time: 3:30
Television: ABC

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Much to take away from Sarah Palin’s speech the other night but one thing I like to touch upon which has been the subject of much commentary is the comment about community organisers which was also mentioned by Rudy Guilani in his speech preceding hers.

From the take from the speech and the commentary that followed, it appeared that the whole concept of community organization is some radical liberal program which should be stamped out at the first chance the Republicans get in returning to the White House. But as we all know, community organizers are part of the non-governmental organizations that step into communities when no one else will.

We know of Barack Obama’s background as a community organizer and it is featured in his advertising and his speeches. We also know that some of the resistance to him in polling comes from various blue collar groups. Perhaps, this criticism provides an opening for the Obama camp in terms of new advertising in a way as an outreach to those groups. To show other community organizers making a difference in towns across America; ordinary people making an extra-ordinary difference in the lives in others.

For example, feature a true community organizer like this:

Jane: My name is Jane Wilcox of Anywhere USA and I am a community organizer and a single mother of two.

[feature scenes of Jane working in her role]
VO: My life is dedicated to my community in making a difference doing [counseling, teaching, support]. When I hear Republicans like Rudy Guiliani and Sarah Palin knocking community organizations down, I wonder if they know what it is like in the Real America where people are struggling to find jobs and keep their homes. It is a tough job but Barack Obama knows what it is like working to improve the lives of his fellow Americans and that is why I am supporting him.

There is much to work with from those critical and truthfully vicious speeches from Republicans as a counter attack but I think a approach like this will help reinforce the difference between Democrats, who build people up, and Republicans who only seek to tear people down.

Nice light rain falling now outside as we receive some of outer rain bands thrown off by tropical storm Hanna. Hanna is starting to pound the coast near Wilmington where we were last year for a long weekend break as past of its long travel along the Atlantic coast for the weekend.

The storm’s course is somewhat erratic right now. It is moving back and forth in a east to west direction. At one point we were on tap to get 2-4 inches of rain, then just a sprinkle of rain and now something like an inch of rain through tomorrow afternoon.

This will make for a bummer of a weekend in terms of outdoor activities but since I had nothing planned, it sort of works out.

On the other hand, while Hanna’s effect will be relatively mild here in North Carolina, the storm has proven itself a killer with hundreds dead from floodin the Caribbean mostly in Haiti. This may be a foreshadowing of what Hurricane Ike, a monster of a storm when it closes into the Caribbean later on next week.

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Birthplace: North Africa
Date of Birth and Death: 322-387
Feast Day: May 4th

Notable: Patroness of Wives and Mothers

Life: Monica was born in 322 into a Christian family in Tagaste in North Africa. She was selected as a bride to a pagan man and for many years had to endure personal indignities from him and his mother. She ignored all of that and instead, concentrated on practicing good works by giving to the poor and helping the sick.

She had three children the eldest of whom caused her much concern despite being a talented scholar. She prayed constantly that her husband and son join her in worship. eventually, her faith and kindness ere partially rewarded as her husband and mother in law converted to Christianity. Still, her son lead a disreputable life. She sought the help of her local bishop who encouraged her. Eventually, Monica turned to Bishop Ambrose of Italy who brought her son to God by appealing to his intelligence instead his emotions. The son became so strongly drawn to the faith that he himself was canonized as St. Augustine.

St. Monica did everything in her power to ensure that her son, St. Augustine, grew up to be a good decent man. While despairing at times, she realised that she could not do everything on her own and was not afraid to ask others for help.

Prayer:

O Lord who taught Monica to persevere for the good of her family, help me
to be a better parent to my children.
Help e to have patience with them when they misbehave and give me
the strength to guide them gently to the right path. Permit me always to
forgive their misdeeds and keep me from speaking harshly or punishing unwisely.
Please help me to be a beacon of goodness for them as they grow to adulthood
and to be a good example to them in all that I say and do.

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