Real life conversations with a 3 1/2 year old. From the Halbrook household this evening:

"Not only poor people should experience this."

- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, unleashing a swarm of mosquitoes on his audience during a talk about malaria eradication at the TED conference today.

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.

Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost---how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wife's tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall all men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

"No, we don't leave Santa milk. We leave Santa coffee. Actually, mochas."
     - Thomas (3) to Aunt Jenn as they bake cookies upstairs just now

I knew I liked Bishop Robert J. Hermann when Suzanne and I were present for a Mass and Confirmation at which he presided at SLU a few years ago.  Yesterday, he made St. Louis proud with this bold statement of truth at the USCCB Fall General Assembly yesterday afternoon:

"We have lost 50 times as many children in the last 35 years as we have lost soldiers in all the wars since the Revolution... I think any bishop here would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow to bring about an end to abortion... If we are willing to die tomorrow, then we should be willing to, until the end of our lives, to take all kinds of criticism for opposing this horrible infanticide."
     - Bishop Robert J. Hermann of the Archdiocese of St. Louis

That's just the tip of the iceberg. The fruit of the Bishops' discussion was this statement this morning from Cardinal Francis George (of Chicago; the current president of the bishops' conference) on behalf of the bishops, on the hope of the Obama administration and possible obstacles to desired unity.

Thank God for our good and Holy bishops, unafraid of proclaiming the Truth.

"A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her."  -Maya Angelou

Beautiful quote. And I relate 100%, as that's exactly how God led me to Suzanne.

Happy All Saints Day!

A very appropriate little quote popped up a couple of days ago over at Catholic Dads:, from Dr. Peter Kreef's "How to Win the Culture War":

"...what's at stake in this war: not just whether America will become a banana republic, or whether we'll forget Shakespeare, or even whether some nuclear terrorist will incinerate half of humanity, but rather whether our children, and our children's children will see God forever. That's what's at stake in Hollywood v. America."

True, no? But true not just in Hollywood v. America. It's true of the evil one altogether, and his desire to see us fall into desires of the flesh rather than ways of the Spirit.

But that's our role as parents, too... God entrusts the souls of these little ones to our care for these years, to form and guide in the ways of His Spirit, while we're busy guarding our own as well.

I think this is one of the oldest funnies on the Internet, but I had forgotten about it until Cheri sent it my way this morning.  It certainly fits the theme here, so I'll share it...

A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door.

Therefore, he took out a business card and wrote 'Revelation 3:20' on the back of it and stuck it in the door.

When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, 'Genesis 3:10.'

Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' Genesis 3:10 reads, 'I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked.'

"As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene... No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase-mongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot."

- from "What Life Means to Einstein," The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Princeton University