Heading into the fourth weekend

The B1G still has 5 teams in the top 25: OSU 6, U-M 11, Wisconsin 13, PSU 14, Iowa 18. Noticeably absent are MSU and Maryland (neither ever should have been there, easy for me to say now, huh?).

Huge match-up at Camp Randall with Michigan at noon eastern - could get my weekend started off with a huge bang!! Notre Dame - Georgia tomorrow night could be a good one.

Go Green!

lookin at my gucci it's about that time

CCC Compendium

424. What other kinds of grace are there?

Besides habitual grace, there are actual graces (gifts for specific circumstances), sacramental graces (gifts proper to each sacrament), special graces or charisms (gifts that are intended for the common good of the Church) among which are the graces of state that accompany the exercise of ecclesial ministries and the responsibilities of life.

425. What is the relationship between grace and human freedom?
Grace precedes, prepares and elicits our free response. It responds to the deep yearning of human freedom, calls for its cooperation and leads freedom toward its perfection.


426. What is merit?
In general merit refers to the right to recompense for a good deed. With regard to God, we of ourselves are not able to merit anything, having received everything freely from him. However, God gives us the possibility of acquiring merit through union with the love of Christ, who is the source of our merits before God. The merits for good works, therefore must be attributed first place to the grace of God and then to the free will of man.

Help for misguided protestors - Justification

No, Colonel Sanders, you're wrong. From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

422. What is justification?

Justification is the most excellent work of God's love. It is the merciful and freely-given act of God which takes away our sins and makes us just and holy in our whole being. It is brought about by means of the grace of the Holy Spirit which has been merited for us by the passion of Christ and is given to us in Baptism. Justification is the beginning of the free response of man, that is, faith in Christ and of cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

423. What is the grace that justifies?
That grace is the gratuitous gift that God gives us to make us participants in his trinitarian life and able to act by his love. It is called habitual, sanctifying or deifying grace because it sanctifies and divinizes us. It is supernatural because it depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative and surpasses the abilities of the intellect and the powers of human beings. It therefore escapes our experience.

Silver Lake, Golden Township, Mears, Michigan

Our first weekend trip together since 2010 did not disappoint. We booked our lake-view Beachhouse Inn room at the Silver Sands Resort (Dave and Val are your hosts: http://www.silversandsresort.net/) in June and have been looking forward to the trip quite eagerly.

We left early Friday morning in the rain and darkness with a couple of bags and a cooler in the back of the Jeep. It was dark all the way to the other side of the State, and the rain was heavy in some spots and lighter in others. Grand Rapids was particularly abysmal: pouring rain and I could not see the painted lines; the rush hour commuters did not care that we were from out of town and enjoying a day off work (while trying our damndest to get out of their construction-zone laden city). It cleared up a bit during the stretch to Muskegon, and we could see that somewhere in our great State the sun was coming up. Our first stop (not counting the McDonalds off of 31 where we got coffee) was the Muskegon State Park. We had been there before, but wanted to stop for some scenic Big Lake views (it was still pretty dark, but we got to take a couple of photos of the Lake we hadn't seen in 9 years and two months.)

Our first view of Lake Michigan on Friday at Muskegon State Park

We had time to kill before we could get into our room so we took a leisurely drive northwards - we wanted to see as much of the Big Lake as we could during our drive. We stayed near the coast on Scenic Drive, through Duck Lake and her State Park, then upwards to White Lake. This we followed inland and the houses were so beautiful and well kept-up everywhere there!  ( no photos - why?!? ... note to self).
We stopped for gas in Montague ($2.26 a gallon) and a bag of freshly popped popcorn (the marketing strategy of using smell to entice is affirmed here again) and were off northward. We hopped on 31 and exited at Hart eager to see Silver Lake and the dunes.

During most of my adult driving years, I have found it prudent to keep in the vehicle (or at least in a box in the closet by the front door, ready to be grabbed and taken to the vehicle) relevant maps: always a Michigan map showing US- State- and County- highways, city maps for local detail (Detroit, Lansing, Tri-Cities, Manistee, Ludington, Big Rapids, Mackinaw, etc), and county maps showing lake access, and where pavement starts/stops. Since the reign of the Computer with Phone Apps began though, paper folded maps with lots of tape on the worn spots and black penned lines showing well-traveled routes are become out-dated and not really necessary. Until you get to an area in northern Lower Michigan with no cel towers that your phone recognizes (which, for us, was everywhere past Grand Rapids).
So, while nearing our destination from the east and simultaneously looking out for a local establishment to provide us some breakfast, we might normally have said, 'breakfast nearby' to the phone, which would show local spots as well as give phone numbers and links to their web(s). But not here. No service was all we got, and that meant no texts, no calls, and no directions to Auntie Janes Good Eats.

So, we pressed on to Silver Lake, got into town and stopped at the first (and only, we found out) breakfast joint in town: the Sand Castle Restaurant. The parking lot was full ('that means the food is good!") and there was one booth available on the floor. After a few minutes, an elderly gentleman slowly (remember Tim Conway's old man character on The Carol Burnett Show?)  brought us menus, laminated and with about half the entries colored over with black marker. (It turns out the Oceana County Dune Riders Association had chosen this spot and time for their annual breakfast, and the place was packed).
We decided on our choices, and, after the same three waitresses rushed by us each about 12 times seemingly not even remotely interested in taking our order, we ambled across the street to The Sands Restaurant, which had very few cars in its lot.  As we got closer, we saw why: the sign in the window said 'Closed', or some such nonsense.

We had seen places open in Hart/Mears to the East, so we headed that way. Across 31 and just outside of Hart, we found That Place, who's parking lot was also full, and for which we had high hopes. Again (and this is about 10:00 am on a Friday morning), there was only one table available. The nice waitress dropped off menus and said she'd be right back. The restaurant was emptying at this time, and Butch the cook hadn't time to come out and bus the tables. Three quarters of the floor was void of people, but every table was still dirty. As more people paid and left, Butch was able to bus the dirty tables (but for some reason he must have been prohibited from killing the flies) and get the place looking respectable again. Our meat-lovers omelette with Texas toast came out hot and cheesy and we were satisfied and ready for our day.

Betty Boop and Moni, at That Place in Hart

My first selfie of the trip

Our hosts advised at that point that our room was not quite ready (check back at 12:30 or so), so we headed west again to see the Big Lake. Through Silver Lake, and then a little jaunt brought us to the Little Sable Point Light, where we could hear the waves pounding the sand.

The nice couple from eastern Illinoiz took this photo; he, a Vietnam Veteran who has gone through agent orange treatment, and she, whose  family had been coming to Silver Lake to vacation for over 50 years.          

The waves were huge, and there were several Amish families coming back from the beach. We decided to go see the Big Lake at the Township Park about a quarter mile back towards town. We had been there before, but hadn't spent much time on the beach because we had Sierra the Old Malamute with us.

Golden Township Park parking lot, next to the old house we are so enamoured with

We have photos of this old house near the Big Lake from 2010

We headed back to town to see if our room was ready and behold! she was. We brought in our bags and made ourselves quite at home.

The view from our deck looking west towards Silver Lake, the Dunes, and the Big lake

Neat room; small, but with a fridge and a very comfortable bed

We were initially quite happy with the room, and especially the breeze out on the deck, which we enjoyed all weekend.


We walked over to where the festival was right off main street - it was fenced in with the food vendors already set up and the smoke in the air was like nothing I have experienced! There were pizza trucks, bigass roasted corncobs, elephant ear trucks, popcorn and pretzel trucks, and of course mostly barbecue options. In the center of the park was the huge flag pole and pavilion with t-shirts, southward still was the band shell and beer tent. It was early afternoon and there still weren't many people there yet. We walked around and smelled the smells and took in the scenery for about and hour and then headed back to our room. I took a dip in the beautiful sparkling pool and, again, it did not disappoint.
It started getting cloudy again and the view from our room was quite beautiful, so we sat on the deck and discussed dinner options.

We decided on pizza from the Silver Pointe gas station/party store/general store/bakery and it did not disappoint. We had been up since two in the morning so we kind of crashed right about the time it got dark, but we were blessed with a beautiful sunset over the dunes.

Friday evening from our room, as the sun was going dipping toward Silver Lake, the dunes, and the Big Lake

We awoke well rested on Saturday morning and took an early walk through town. They already had main street blocked off for traffic and the craft and apple vendors were setting up their tents on the lake side - 80 spaces for about a half mile of road. We ambled down down the road and back before dawn and decided to try a place in Mears we had seen the day before for breakfast.

Nice place was The Golden Eatery, with good hot coffee and cute sayings all over the walls.

After breakfast in Mears, the view east toward sun-up

We followed the big setting moon back to town, and took another walk among the crafter's tents, then back along the Silver Lake shore. Beautiful homes there, well kept up.

We paused for another set for a spell on our deck, and took some moon photos.

Moonset Saturday morning over Silver Lake

We wanted to be near the pavilion by 10:00 as there was going to be a playing of the National Anthem at that time. Wonderful. Walked around and enjoyed the smells of the vendor trucks and then took another walk down through the craft and apple tents. At some point, the Classic Auto and ORV Show vehicles began coming west along the road.

Overall the festival was fun and we should have stayed there and enjoyed the day. NOOOOO, we chose to get back to the room to watch our football Spartans, which almost ruined the day.

We opted for pizza again from the gas station for dinner and after that called it a night.

We checked out early on Sunday and took a quick ride up to Pentwater to say hi. We visited Charles Mears State Park for a final look at the Big Lake and, yet again, it did not disappoint. We walked out on the pier and took photos and then said hello to Cenzo's, which was our main supplier when we camped here in 2010.

From the pier at Charles Mears State Park

Sunday morning dawn in Pentwater

Looking south on the coast toward Silver Lake

Pentwater Cenzo's!!

The drive home was pretty uneventful, except for a quick stop at a farmers stand we had passed a couple times in Hart, and an ill-advised stop at Burger King outside of Muskegon.

God blessed us with so much fun and good fellowship on this weekend! We met folks from Dearborn, Pinckney, Terra Haute, Harrison Township, and Frankfort, IL (not Chicago!).

After Two Weeks of Games

After Week 2, the B1G still has seven teams in the AP top 25: OSU #6, U-M #10, Penn State #13, Wisconsin #14, MSU #18, Iowa #19, and Maryland #21

Clemson
Alabama
Georgia
LSU
Oklahoma
6
Notre Dame
Auburn
Florida
10
Utah
Texas
13
14
Oregon
Texas A&M
UCF
18
19
Washington State
21
Boise State (and their blue field)
Washington
USC
Virginia

Why is it so hard for protestors to hear truth?

I have copied below a couple paragraphs from John Martignoni's response to a question about Luther and the heretical 'faith alone' doctrine embraced by so many protestors. Mr. Martignoni is a Catholic apologist who represents the Church well, and offers free downloads of his talks on faith and morals at biblechristiansociety.com. 
More of his conversation can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y6ynnslv.

Peace!

You ask, "What does a Catholic find objectionable about that?" in regards to Martin Luther's saying, "We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone."  I'll tell you exactly what a Catholic finds objectionable about it: First, nowhere do I see such a thing said anywhere in the Bible.  Second, what that statement is, is a rationalization for a dogma that is contrary to the Bible.  It's the result of a realization on Luther's part that the Bible nowhere says such a thing, but that the Bible does say things like, "Faith, by itself [i.e., faith alone], if it has no works, is dead."  And, "You see that a man is justified by works, and NOT BY faith alone."  And, "If I have all faith, but have not love, I am nothing."  And, that in order to have eternal life we must, "Keep the commandments."  And that Baptism, "Now saves you."  And passage after passage after passage that thoroughly negate the dogma of salvation by faith alone.  So, in order to make his dogma of salvation by "faith alone" sound more acceptable, more palatable, more in line with what the Bible actually says, Luther had to invent that little saying of his. 

     Love is NECESSARY for salvation.  And not just as a byproduct of a "genuine faith" one may or may not have, rather as an integral part of the process of being saved.  Where does the Bible say, "If you have a genuine faith, you will automatically love and do good works?"  Where?!  All those people who shout, "Lord, Lord," in Matthew 7, you don't think they had a "genuine" faith?  They prophesied in Jesus' name; they cast out demons in Jesus' name; they did might works in Jesus' name."  You don't think they believed that Jesus was the Son of God and had died on the Cross for their sins?  Of course they did.  They believed.  They had faith.  As it says in James, "Even the demons believe."  So, the demons believe...they have faith in Christ...do they automatically do good works?  Hell no! 

     And nowhere does the Bible say, "Faith, if it has no works, isn't really faith."  Or, "If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I don't really have faith."  Look at the analogy in James 2:26: "As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead."  In this analogy, faith is the body, works are the spirit.  For physical life, you need both body and spirit.  The spirit is not just some byproduct of the body - it is integral to life.  So, for spiritual life - if the analogy is to hold - you need both faith and works.  The works - love - are not just some byproduct of faith - they are integral to life, spiritual life.  A body without a spirit, is a real body.  It's just a dead body.  No one says, "Oh, if your body doesn't have a spirit, then it's not a real body."  Just so, faith without works, is still faith.  It's just a dead faith.  You can't say faith without works isn't really faith.  It is, it's just dead faith. 

     In the Bible, faith alone...faith by itself...faith without works...faith without love...is dead!  Dead faith.  Which means, there is no such thing as salvation by faith alone - Sola Fide - there is only damnation by faith alone.  "Faith working through love is of avail," (Gal 5:6).  Love is NECESSARY for salvation.  You cannot be saved if you do not love.  It is not just a sign that your faith is a "saving faith," it is an integral part of the process of salvation.  The works that flow from love are an integral part of the process of salvation.  "To those who by patience in well-doing [good works] seek for glory and honor and immortality, [God] will give ETERNAL LIFE."  Which means, salvation...by faith alone...is not possible. 

No breeze in the 2nd floor office I work in, and for the past two days or so, the air conditioning is not working. 9:30 in the morning and it's about 72 with a beautiful breeze outside; in here it's 84 and muggy. I know it could be worse (like if  there was a dumbass fly flying around) so I'm not complaining, just documenting.

Heavenly Father,

Give us the grace to see ourselves as You see us,

help us see others through Your eyes,

and open our hearts to see Your divine touch

in every circumstance.

We love You, too.

 

Alexa Response of the Day

When prompted with 'how are you?', her matter of fact reply made me laugh:

'Like a kraken out of its cage, I'm feeling wild and free.'

Two Weeks Before Games

According to the preseason AP poll that came out earlier this week, seven of the 25 schools are from the B1G: Ohio State (5) , Michigan (7), Penn State (15), MSU (18), Nebraska (24), Iowa (20) and Wisconsin (19).

Five are from the SEC: Alabama (2), Georgia (3), LSU (6), Auburn (16), Florida (8).

Five are from the PAC-12: Stanford (25), Utah (14) , Washington (13), Oregon (11), Washington State (23).

Four are from the BIG 12: Oklahoma (4), Iowa State (21), Texas (10), Texas A&M (12).

Two are from the ACC: Clemson (1) and Syracuse (22).

One is FBS Independent: Notre Dame (9).


One is from the American Conference: UCF (17).

Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Full OST (Complete Soundtrack)

Vivaldi - Concerto for Two Violins in A Minor

Shepherd me oh God

https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/worth-the-risk-start-retreat

Recipe #12: Good Ground Round Burgers

Last night we made special burgers using ground round from Marv's Meats (http://marvsmeats.com/index.html) along with corn on the cob and pickles from our garden.

I began by forming the meat into a trough on a cookie sheet.

I whisked together garlic, dried garden herbs, and Worcestershire sauce, along with finely diced red onions.

I fried some Marv's bacon (oh this was so good - and on special this week!)

I asked Boomer how impressed he was so far.

I fried up some mushrooms and green pepper in butter and garlic for topping the burgers.

I dumped the onion mixture in the meat boat,

 

Then I made the pattys.

The corn we did on the stove top

I checked in with Gates and Ian hunting the National Treasure

I sliced our Marv's bakery buns and grilled them.

For serving, I put the mushrooms/peppers on the burgers after they were flipped, then the bacon, then the cheese (cheese always covers a multitude of toppings), then the fresh pickles. We ate them too fast to take a picture.

A real treat, to be sure. 

Les Miserables - 10th Anniversary Dream Cast in Concert

PBS has been showing the 25th Anniversary Concert lately - I prefer the 10th Anniversary version about 1000 times better.


But of course he now denies it, you'd expect that of a con.
But he couldn't run forever; no, not even Jean Valjean.

The Sound of Music - Do-Re-Mi (Reprise)

dumbass protesting questions

Here's what really gets me going...

You ask why Catholics do such and such or believe such and such, and then bring up one or two verses from Sacred Scripture (most of the time taken out of context) to support your protesting doctrine. 

Such and such has been done and believed by the Church since the time of Christ ffs! It was done and believed by the followers of Christ, and by the disciples of the followers of Christ, and by their children and by their congregations, and by those who ate the Lord's Supper with the followers of Christ, and by those who willingly GAVE UP THEIR LIVES for the faith, by those who were tortured and made to suffer UN-imaginable sorrows for the faith!!!

And you want to come with one or two Bible verses, trying to contradict a belief or custom of the Church that Christ founded?!??! Give me a !@#$% break.

You want your own rules, you don't want authority over you. That's why there are THOUSANDS of protesting denominations. Silly ass person.

You tell me why you are protesting.

WHAT AUTHORITY DO YOU HAVE TO PROTEST AND REVOLT?!?

The answer is 'none'. None but your own. Run your own ship, go right ahead.

"Resentment is like drinking poison, and waiting for the other person to die".

~Saint Augustine

“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage: anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”

             —St. Augustine 

Friday

Praising God, because He is worthy!

We were blessed with another beautiful summer morning here in southeast Lower Michigan, comfortable temperatures with gorgeous sunshine, and a slight breeze, aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

It will soon be autumn, and football season, and baseball playoffs, with cooler temps, and longer shadows, and fewer bugs, and less conditioned air, and the beginning of 'the holidays'.

Our trip to Silver Lake next month is still a - go, and we are both eagerly anticipating the vacation.

...was now a 7-11

Paul Revere - Beastie Boys. not really - but enjoy

Iron Man