Words all Christians would be wise to ponder...

From the homily that Pope Francis delivered this morning in his first Mass as the newly-elected Bishop of Rome:

"We must always walk in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, always trying to live in an irreprehensible way. We can walk all we want, we can build many things, but if we don't proclaim Jesus Christ, something is wrong... When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord."

Francis also spoke about returning to the Gospels. That without building upon spiritual values and instead trusting in worldly values, all is like a sandcastle before "everything comes crashing down".

I am not Catholic, but in less than a day on the job Pope Francis is saying a lot that this fellow believer can't help but say "Amen" to.

It's also being widely reported how earlier this morning Francis rode the minibus with many of his previously fellow cardinals, bypassing the usual Vatican sedan.  How at breakfast he sat among them as their equal and joked "May God have mercy for what you have done!"  And there is how Francis stopped by the hotel where he was staying prior to Conclave, went to his room to get his bags, then stopped by the front desk to pay his bill!  I can only imagine the look on that desk clerk's face...

To my Catholic brethren: as one outside of the Roman Catholic Church, I have to believe that y'all are in for some very interesting, very exciting and very terrific times with Pope Francis.  He's already demonstrating something that has been woefully missing and direly needed among the princes and politicians of this world:

Humbleness.

Read More

GAME OF THRONES as a mid-Nineties TV series

What if Game of Thrones came out a decade and a half earlier, in 1995?  Back when the style of fantasy television was dictated by shows like Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.  What would it have been like?

Very likely, something like this...


So if Sam Raimi had made Game of Thrones back in the day, who would Kevin Sorbo have played? My guess is Eddard Stark.  Maybe a shaven-headed Bruce Campbell as Varys, or at least Petyr Baelish.

And Lucy Lawless?  No doubt about it: Cersei.

Kudos to YouTube user "hunterlsanders" for such a great piece of work!

Read More

POPE SMOKE WATCH 2013 #3: It's WHITE!

Either those cardinals are taking one heckuva break for Camels, or they have just elected the next pope!

Watching it right now.  Awesome scene at Saint Peter's Square.  Now we just gotta learn who it is that's been voted on.

Whoever it is, may God's wisdom and grace be upon him.  I'm not Catholic, but I appreciate my Catholic brethren's enthusiasm and I absolutely have to wish them and their new leader well :-)

"Habemus Papam!"

UPDATE 2:26 p.m. EST: Here's a pic of that white smoke going up!

UPDATE 2:44 p.m. EST: Lots of humor about this on Twitter right now.  Thankfully none or very little of it seems to be vulgar :-)

UPDATE 3:15 p.m. EST: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina is the new pope! A Jesuit from Argentina.  I think that makes him the first "New World" pope.

UPDATE 3:20 p.m. EST:  So his papal name will be "Pope Francis".  Is that the first, second etc.?

UPDATE 3:36 p.m. EST:  This will indeed be Pope Francis, first of his name.  By all accounts an incredibly humble, compassionate and quiet man.

And here he is from a few moments ago, his first appearance as pope and giving the traditional "Urbi et Orbi" blessing to the crowd...

Update 4:15 p.m. EST:  Lots of people are noting that Pope Francis' first words were to ask the people for their blessing, rather than bestow his blessing upon them.  It was a gesture of remarkable humility.

I'm also hearing that before this Conclave, Cardinal Bergoglio refused to reside in the mansion reserved for the overseer of the Church in Argentina.  Instead he chose to live in a quite modest apartment in Buenos Aires.  He rode the public bus every day.  Bergoglio even cooked dinner for himself.

A pope who does his own cooking?  Now that is pretty cool :-)

Well, this is the second Conclave that this blog has tried to cover "as it happens", and Lord willing it will be quite a long time before I have to do it again.  Congratulations to Pope Francis.  Though I be not a Catholic, my prayers absolutely go out to him as he begins the task entrusted him.

Read More

POPE SMOKE WATCH 2013 #2: More black out of the Vatican chimney

The two sessions of morning ballots have been cast by the cardinals sequestered (that seems to be the popular buzzword of late) inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. What sayeth them?

Nope. No pope...

Two more ballots this afternoon. They should begin being cast around noon EST.

UPDATE 9:27 a.m. EST:  Hey, they've got BEER in there!!  The monks of Norcia at the Monastery of San Benedetto serve the Lord while also making Birra Nursia: their own brand of brew.

Here are Brother John and Brother Francis dropping off several cases of Birra Nursia beer at Domus Sancta Martha (where the cardinals are staying) on Monday, the day before the Conclave began.

All those cardinals, deliberating about the next pope while downing some suds.  Hey, it could happen.  Lord only (literally) knows what is going on inside the Sistine Chapel during Conclave.  Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with that particular imagery.  But then, I'm not much of a beer drinker anyway.  Never have been able to develop a taste for any of that stuff.

But if the cardinals approve of it during their discussions, hey... why not? :-)

And if you want some Birra Nursia for yourself, here's the official website where you can order it.  If it's good enough for the princes of the Church, it's good enough for you!

Read More

This week's Tammy Tuesday gets a bath!

The very first thing I did when I brought Tammy home last May was to give her a bath, 'cuz the poor girl had sooooo many fleas!  Then I had to give her another one the next day.  It was just a rotten flea season all around 'cuz of the warm weather the preceding winter.

Anyhoo, ever since she's had something of an aversion to water.  She doesn't even enjoy going out in the rain to "do her doggie business".  But she's starting to take a liking to the warm water from the shower whenever she needs to get clean 'n shiny.

Here's Tammy about to get some puppy pamperin':

Read More

POPE SMOKE WATCH 2013 #1: First black smoke over the Vatican

Looking at CNN right now: black smoke is pouring out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel... and how!  There's not gonna be any confusion this time around.

So we know that the cardinals within have had their first ballot and no one has been elected pope.  Which was what most people were expecting anyway.

Two more votes tomorrow.

UPDATE 2:59 p.m. EST:  Scott Bradford notes that there will be four ballots tomorrow - 2 each in the morning and afternoon - and not two as previously reported.

As an aside, I'm seeing some good-humored jesting about this.  One friend said that based on the black smoke "Willie Nelson has just been elected pope", while someone on Twitter is reporting that the Black Smoke Monster (from Lost) is the new pope.

Come to think of it, that's the blackest black smoke I've ever seen.  We need John Locke on the scene, STAT! :-)

UPDATE 3:41 p.m. EST:  Here's a photo of the black smoke that poured out of the Sistine Chapel chimney a short while ago...

Read More

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin has passed away

The Knight Shift today is remembering and honoring the life of an army officer from Nazi Germany.  And for good reason...

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin was born in July of 1922.  More than two decades later at the age of 22, he was an infantry officer of the German army.  Ironic, since both Ewald-Heinrich and his father hated everything there was about Nazi ideology (the elder von Kleist-Schmenzin had even tried to arouse support from western countries for a coup against Hitler).

In January of 1944, Ewald-Heinrich was approached by Claus von Stauffenberg for a bold plan: to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a suicide bombing.  Von Kleist-Schmenzin volunteered to take the place of a wounded officer.  However the attempt had to be cancelled because Hitler kept postponing the event which would have him placed near the bomb.

Then came the following summer, and von Kleist-Schmenzin became involved with the now-famous July 20th Plot: the plan to kill Hitler - again by suicide bombing - while "Der Fuhrer" was at his Wolf's Lair retreat in the mountains of Poland.  This time it was von Stauffenberg who placed the explosive.  It went off: destroying the conference room but leaving Hitler himself virtually unscathed (the dictator later took it as a sign of divine intervention).  In the days that followed von Stauffenberg and most of his fellow conspirators were arrested and executed (some being hung with piano wire, with von Stauffenberg dying by firing squad).  Von Kleist-Schmenzin's father was one of those killed but almost miraculously, Ewald-Heinrich survived.  He wound up arrested and questioned, sent to a prison camp, then released and put back into army service.  All the while Ewald-Heinrich was helping the German resistance movement and doing a darned good job covering his tracks (obviously).

This past week, on March 8th 2013, Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin - Nazi army officer and the last surviving conspirator of the plot to kill Hitler - passed away.  He was 90 years old.

Ewald-Heinrich, this blogger salutes you and your courage.  May you have a joyful reunion with both your beloved father and your Father in Heaven.

Read More