Recently I witnessed and celebrated the lives of two of my young nephews who passed over after courageously fighting the cancer that took over their bodies. My sister suffered greatly having two of her boys dying within 4 months of one another. The Casa Maria community witnessed and celebrated the Feb. 10th passing over of Ralph Bronner, who helped us financially many times over the years. He helped us to keep our doors open to the homeless, hungry, lonely and oppressed. He often came to Casa Maria with his guitar and sang songs with us and our guests. He comes from the Dr. Bronner family who produce the famous Dr. Bronner Soaps who work to improve the environment and help many who are working on worthwhile projects.
For me, death is not a loss for the one who dies. It is, however, a loss for the living who will miss seeing the bodily presence of their loved ones. I believe that life is eternal. The body may cease to be alive, but the person continues to live. We all will live forever, for a short time in a human body. St. Paul asked the question, “Death, where is thy sting?” because he believed that the death of the body is the beginning of a new life of eternal happiness. Without death there would be no new life. One of the problems in our society is that many do not believe in an afterlife. Because of this, they try with all their might to preserve their earthly lives. They are obsessed with the notion that if they do not arm themselves they may lose their only life. If they believed that there is an afterlife, they would not be so anxious and self-protective. Part of the reason why there are so many wars is that people are inordinately fearful of losing their bodily lives. They believe there is no other life after our life on earth.
This obsession with the preservation of one’s life ironically usually leads to one’s demise. Millions of people have died in wars that were fought by people who believed there is no after life. I believe that death is not an evil. What is evil is maiming or killing another in an attempt to prolong one’s own earthly life. I believe it is better to live a short life trying to make the lives of others more livable than to live a long life by destroying the lives of others. During this Lenten season we are reminded again that Christ never harmed another to prolong His life on earth. For Him the length of one’s life on earth is not important. What is important is to prepare oneself for the eternal life that follows this earthly life. For me, Resurrection into eternal life is more important than the length of one’s earthly life.
---Don Timmerman
“When the game is finished, the king and pawn go back into the same box.” ----Italian Proverb
“A man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present or the future. He lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” -----Dalai Lama “The best exercise of the heart is reaching down and lifting people up.” ----John Holmes
“To sit with the broken speaks louder than to sit with the great.”
JOKES
A doctor wanted to test the mental capacity of 3 alzheimers patients. He asked the first patient, “What’s 3 times 3?: The patient said, “365.” The doctor shrugged and then asked the second patient, “What’s 3 times 3?” He said, “Tuesday.” The doctor shrugged again and then asked the third patient, “What is 3 times 3?” The patient answered, “Nine.” The doctor was astounded and asked him how he came up with the right answer, nine. The patient replied, “Well I just subtracted 365 from Tuesday, and I came up with nine.”
Snow-day (noun): A day when God says, “Teachers, I still love you.”’ A day when parents realize how underpaid teachers really are.
Remember the good old days then a juvenile delinquent was a boy who played the saxophone too loud?
Gossip: Words that go in one ear and in another. Icicle: A stiff upper drip!
What did Cinderella wear to the undersea ball? Glass flippers. What does a clock do when it is hungry? It goes back four seconds. Where do tourists usually stay in Saudi Arabia? At the Sands!
Tom, an elderly man in Florida, had a farm with a large pond in the back. He had lime trees there as well. One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, to look over his land and pick the fruit. He took a five-gallon bucket to bring back the fruit. As he neared the pond, He noticed some young women laughing and having a good time skinny-dipping in his pond. When the women saw the farmer they all went to the deep end of the pond and yelled, ”We are not coming out until you leave!” Farmer Tom frowned and said, “Oh, I didn’t come down here to watch you swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.” Holding up the bucket, he said, “I just came down to feed the alligators!”
INTERESTING FACTS
HOUSE NEEDS: DIAPERS, BATH TOWELS, WASH CLOTHS, LARGE CARPETS, VOLUNTEERS AND PRAYERS. We thank all those who share their time and talents with us!!
EVENTS
+++HOUSE PRAYER SERVICES ARE HELD AT CASA MARIA ON WEDNESDAYS AT 7 P.M. PLEASE COME AND JOIN US IN PRAYER!+++
THURS. MARCH 12 ----STAND FOR NONVIOLENCE VIGIL AT GUN SHOP, 43RD & LINCOLN, MILW. FROM NOON TO 1 P.M. We lose 8 children every day to gun violence, and those who promote gun use and the proliferation of such are never held to account. Stand with us to oppose the use of violence to oppose violence.
THURS., MARCH 26 -----BE FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPEL AT MARQUETTE U., 12TH & WISCONSIN AVE., MILW. Christ’s message to love one’s enemies is not taught by Marquette U. which hosts the killing of one’s enemies in its ROTC program, leading others to believe one can be a Christian and still kill one’s enemies. We vigil from Noon to 1 p.m.
For other peace events, please contact Peace Action Wisconsin, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and the Coalition for Justice. Thanks.
NOTES FROM 21ST STREET: I love the lengthening daylight. Also, I noticed the birds chirping early in the morning, even through the closed windows. The season is starting its slow trek from winter into spring. Lent happens at just the right time of the year. It is a time for reflections on where we are now and for where we are planning to trek, as we head on our spiritual path. I sometimes
find it difficult to be still and listen to the voice within. Yet just like the lengthening daylight and the chirping birds the calm voice at our center will emerge and guide us to the Easter message of love of all humankind and for all creation. May it be so. Peace, Roberta
For me, death is not a loss for the one who dies. It is, however, a loss for the living who will miss seeing the bodily presence of their loved ones. I believe that life is eternal. The body may cease to be alive, but the person continues to live. We all will live forever, for a short time in a human body. St. Paul asked the question, “Death, where is thy sting?” because he believed that the death of the body is the beginning of a new life of eternal happiness. Without death there would be no new life. One of the problems in our society is that many do not believe in an afterlife. Because of this, they try with all their might to preserve their earthly lives. They are obsessed with the notion that if they do not arm themselves they may lose their only life. If they believed that there is an afterlife, they would not be so anxious and self-protective. Part of the reason why there are so many wars is that people are inordinately fearful of losing their bodily lives. They believe there is no other life after our life on earth.
This obsession with the preservation of one’s life ironically usually leads to one’s demise. Millions of people have died in wars that were fought by people who believed there is no after life. I believe that death is not an evil. What is evil is maiming or killing another in an attempt to prolong one’s own earthly life. I believe it is better to live a short life trying to make the lives of others more livable than to live a long life by destroying the lives of others. During this Lenten season we are reminded again that Christ never harmed another to prolong His life on earth. For Him the length of one’s life on earth is not important. What is important is to prepare oneself for the eternal life that follows this earthly life. For me, Resurrection into eternal life is more important than the length of one’s earthly life.
---Don Timmerman
“When the game is finished, the king and pawn go back into the same box.” ----Italian Proverb
“A man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present or the future. He lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” -----Dalai Lama “The best exercise of the heart is reaching down and lifting people up.” ----John Holmes
“To sit with the broken speaks louder than to sit with the great.”
JOKES
A doctor wanted to test the mental capacity of 3 alzheimers patients. He asked the first patient, “What’s 3 times 3?: The patient said, “365.” The doctor shrugged and then asked the second patient, “What’s 3 times 3?” He said, “Tuesday.” The doctor shrugged again and then asked the third patient, “What is 3 times 3?” The patient answered, “Nine.” The doctor was astounded and asked him how he came up with the right answer, nine. The patient replied, “Well I just subtracted 365 from Tuesday, and I came up with nine.”
Snow-day (noun): A day when God says, “Teachers, I still love you.”’ A day when parents realize how underpaid teachers really are.
Remember the good old days then a juvenile delinquent was a boy who played the saxophone too loud?
Gossip: Words that go in one ear and in another. Icicle: A stiff upper drip!
What did Cinderella wear to the undersea ball? Glass flippers. What does a clock do when it is hungry? It goes back four seconds. Where do tourists usually stay in Saudi Arabia? At the Sands!
Tom, an elderly man in Florida, had a farm with a large pond in the back. He had lime trees there as well. One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, to look over his land and pick the fruit. He took a five-gallon bucket to bring back the fruit. As he neared the pond, He noticed some young women laughing and having a good time skinny-dipping in his pond. When the women saw the farmer they all went to the deep end of the pond and yelled, ”We are not coming out until you leave!” Farmer Tom frowned and said, “Oh, I didn’t come down here to watch you swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.” Holding up the bucket, he said, “I just came down to feed the alligators!”
INTERESTING FACTS
- Recently, a train carrying 3 million gallons of crude oil from fracing derailed and exploded in West Virginia causing harm to people and property. The International Energy Agency said that U.S. pipelines spilled 3 times as much crude oil as trains over the last 8-year period. The water is affected by this crude oil. Recently, oil pipes spilled 800,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River and another pipeline spilled 65,000 gallons into the Yellowstone River. -----C2NN Daily News, 2/19/15
- The flaring of 140 billion cubic meters a year from oil drilling releases large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is bad for the climate and health health. Flared gas is often contaminated with toxic compounds and cancer causing carcinogens, such as benzene. Eliminating flaring at hundreds of oil production sites around the world would be the equivalent, in terms of emissions saving, of taking 70 million cars off the road. There are 2.5 million miles of pipelines in the U.S. Since 1956 alone, oil spills have caused more than 55 deaths, 2,500 injuries and more than $7.7 billion in damages. -----EcoWatch, 2/16/15
- Historian Leon Litwack wrote that between 1882 and 1968 an estimated 4,742 blacks met their deaths at the hands of lynch mobs. That number contrasts with the 1,401 prisoners who have been executed legally in the U.S. since 1976 -----Without Sanctuary by Leon Litwack
- Some 90% of Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2014 primary-campaign contributions came from the U.S. Those contributions came from just 30 U.S. families.
- The first female U.S. senator took office in 1922. But not until 2008 did the first female senator use the Senate swimming pool.
- Since 2000, 86% less Mexicans were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexican border, but the number of non-Mexicans apprehended has increased 783%.
- It is estimated that 8,000,000,000,000 gallons of water is used annually to produce Coca-Cola products. This amount of water could supply drinking water each year to 1/4th of the world’s population.
- Since 2000, 10 passenger planes have gone missing without a trace.
- It is estimated that $300,000,000 U.S. tax money is spent annually on paying fraudulent salaries to Iraqi “ghost soldiers.” ----Harper’s Index, February, 2015
- If just the top 1% of earners were compelled to pay the typical middle-class tax rate, the change would raise more than $68 billion in new annual revenues. ----Keystone Research Center
- Hypothetically, if the growth of inequality were to proceed at last year’s rate, the richest one present would control all the wealth on the planet within 23 years. ----WSWS.org, 10/17/14 As of Feb. 11, the financially richest 1% stopped paying into Social Security for the rest of 2015 -----Move On.org
- U.S. researchers said that 58 California cities had a total of 500 anti-homeless laws on the books, an average of 9 laws per city. ----Policy Advocacy Clinic at U. of California and AlterNet, 2/19/15
- In Milwaukee, it is against the law to sleep on benches in city parks. The real scandal in media news is not Brian Williams, it is the lies the media tells that lead to perpetual wars. ----Democracy Now
- America’s debt was not caused by Grandma cashing her social security check or a hungry children eating food provided by food stamps. It was caused by criminally reckless Wall Street greed, Bush’s pre-emptive wars put on a credit card and Bush’s medicare part D, an unfunded giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry. ------Demo News.org
- This year is the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam war when our government, under false pretexts, invaded Vietnam which led to the deaths of 58,000 Americans and 4 million Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians. ----Christian Appey in Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides
- The U.S. and England between 1990 and 2012 killed 3.3 million Iraqis, including 750,000 children through sanctions and invasions. ------InterPress Service, 10/14/14
- So far the U.S. military action against ISIS since June 2014 has cost taxpayers $312,500 per hour. In just 8 months, the U.S. spent more than $1.8 billion on military force in the Middle East. Over the past 14 years, the U.S. spent more than $1.6 trillion on war in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus countless more in human lives.----National Priorities Project
- On Feb. 11, the 1% richest Americans stopped paying into Social Security for the rest of the year. ----MoveOn.org
- In December of last year, a law passed unnoticed by regular media which allowed mining conglomerates to mine Apache sacred land in Arizona. Sen. John McCain said the military needs copper to maintain its technological advantage over other militaries in the world. Over the years the U.S. government has enabled mining on Apache tribal land. ---Al Jazeera, 2/22/15
- Palestinian residents of the South Hebron hills have suffered much from the presence of Israeli settlers since the 1970s. By occupying Palestinian agricultural lands and destroying hundreds of Palestinian olive trees, crops and property the settlers seek to deprive the Palestinians of their main livelihood. According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice and several U.N. resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian territories are illegal. Some are even considered illegal under Israeli law. -----Cassandra Dixon of Mary Catholic Worker House, Wisconsin Dells WI who is currently working with the Palestinians
- Theodore Roosevelt, a republican, was the first president to propose a national health care insurance. President Obama has increased government spending less than any president in the last generation. Ronald Reagan increased federal taxes 11 times while in office. The Environmental Protection Agency was started by Richard Nixon in his term as president.---AlterNet, 1/29/15
HOUSE NEEDS: DIAPERS, BATH TOWELS, WASH CLOTHS, LARGE CARPETS, VOLUNTEERS AND PRAYERS. We thank all those who share their time and talents with us!!
EVENTS
+++HOUSE PRAYER SERVICES ARE HELD AT CASA MARIA ON WEDNESDAYS AT 7 P.M. PLEASE COME AND JOIN US IN PRAYER!+++
THURS. MARCH 12 ----STAND FOR NONVIOLENCE VIGIL AT GUN SHOP, 43RD & LINCOLN, MILW. FROM NOON TO 1 P.M. We lose 8 children every day to gun violence, and those who promote gun use and the proliferation of such are never held to account. Stand with us to oppose the use of violence to oppose violence.
THURS., MARCH 26 -----BE FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPEL AT MARQUETTE U., 12TH & WISCONSIN AVE., MILW. Christ’s message to love one’s enemies is not taught by Marquette U. which hosts the killing of one’s enemies in its ROTC program, leading others to believe one can be a Christian and still kill one’s enemies. We vigil from Noon to 1 p.m.
For other peace events, please contact Peace Action Wisconsin, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and the Coalition for Justice. Thanks.
NOTES FROM 21ST STREET: I love the lengthening daylight. Also, I noticed the birds chirping early in the morning, even through the closed windows. The season is starting its slow trek from winter into spring. Lent happens at just the right time of the year. It is a time for reflections on where we are now and for where we are planning to trek, as we head on our spiritual path. I sometimes
find it difficult to be still and listen to the voice within. Yet just like the lengthening daylight and the chirping birds the calm voice at our center will emerge and guide us to the Easter message of love of all humankind and for all creation. May it be so. Peace, Roberta