July 2008 Archives

My little Versa, named "Vessie" that replaced "Susie", hit the 10,000-mile mark today. The milestone came a bit earlier than it would, but a trip to El Paso or back last weekend help push it closer.

A car, while being just a pile of nuts, bolts, belts and fluids, does take on a personality unlike most objects in our life. I spent more time in my office, using my computer, in my apartment, or standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what to eat for lunch than I do in my car typically. I ride public transit for work more often than not; so I only use the car for errands, appointments and long-distance traveling. That being said, it has a personality more defined than the rest.

My car is a "she". No particular reason for it; I just think of the car in the feminine. I give her a name, Vessie. Does coaxing her to do something help her, in fact, do something. Of course not, but I feel like we're a team trying to achieve a goal.

Perhaps it is the remains of a coachdriver and his horse. The activity and the goal were the same: to travel from point A to point B. Talking to a horse, however, has a much greater probabilty of doing something to enhance performance.

In either case, here's to the first 10% of my car's life (hopefully, at least).

Capital Metro, the public transit authority for the Austin-area, has a blog entry about training the Austin Police Department's DWI unit to drive a new Breath-Alcohol Testing bus donated to the City by CapMetro.

The simulator is pretty sweet; would love to have a chance to see how hard it would be to drive a bus. I'm hoping there's an open house of the bus as well. I suppose they would drive it to a DWI enforcement zone (i.e. South 1st or South Congress around the time bars close) and test folks inside.

The video from Fox News 7 is below.

I pushed through a massive redesign of the website today. As many of the longtime readers know, I started blogging in 2002 with "Random Musings" and switched to "Praying Young" about a year ago.

In the end, I didn't like that transition, so I merged all of the entries from both blogs and transferred them to the root of brandonkraft.com. Every personal blog entry I've posted are all on this site.

RSS feeds have been setup to redirect to the new feed, but a individual feed reader's mileage may vary.

I wanted to pass along a little nugget from this morning's Vatican news briefing. Pope Benedict XVI will be extending a plenary indulgence for all who are attending WYD in Sydney and a partial indulgence for all who pray for the spiritual goals and happy outcome of WYD.

To receive the partial indulgence, all you need to do is pray for the success of WYD and the three "normal" things needed for an indulgence -- confession, communion and praying for the Pope's intentions.

As the Catechism reminds us, an indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. In other words, even though our sin is forgiven, there remain temporal punishment (i.e. purgatory). An indulgence pardons us from the remaining temporal punishment. An indulgence can be "partial"--removing some of the time--or "plenary"--removing all of our temporal punishment.

This is one of those aspects of our faith that not everyone will get excited about and admittedly, it isn't the easiest concept to grasp, but one of the various options the Church gives to us to help us to become closer to God.

You can read more about the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican office whose only job is to handle matters of indulgences and issues of the "internal forum" (i.e. stuff to be talked about under the seal of confession) at their website.

Below is the news brief from the Vatican Information Service:

PLENARY INDULGENCE FOR 23RD WORLD YOUTH DAY

 

VATICAN CITY, 5 JUL 2008 (VIS) - According to a decree made public today and signed by Cardinal James Francis Stafford and Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, O.F.M. Conv., respectively penitentiary major and regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Benedict XVI will grant the faithful Plenary Indulgence to faithful who "gather at Sydney, Australia, in the spirit of pilgrimage" to participate in celebrations for 23rd World Youth Day, and Partial Indulgence to "all those who, wherever they are, will pray for the spiritual goals of this meeting and for its happy outcome".

 

  The English-language decree reads: "The youth meeting held in the year 2005 in Cologne, offered the Apostolic Penitentiary an opportune occasion, with the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, to open wide to youth the spiritual treasures of the Church, with the aim of gathering singular fruits of sanctification.

 

  "Hence, this year, from 15 to 20 July, in Sydney, 'in the great southern land of the Holy Spirit' (according to the expression of John Paul II), will celebrate the 23rd World Youth Day, with the theme: 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses'.

 

  "Indeed", the decree adds, "young people gathered around the Vicar of Christ will participate in the sacred functions and above all have recourse to the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. In the Sacraments received with a sincere and humble heart, they will earnestly desire to strengthen themselves in the Spirit, and, confirmed by the Chrism of salvation, will openly witness the faith before others even to the ends of the earth. May God grant that the very presence of the Supreme Pontiff among the young people gathered in Sydney express and render it such".

 

  The indulgences may be gained in the following ways:

 

  "The Plenary Indulgence is granted to the faithful who will devotedly participate at some sacred function or pious exercise taking place during the 23rd World Youth Day, including its solemn conclusion, so that, having received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and being truly repentant, they receive Holy Communion and devoutly pray according to the intentions of His Holiness.

 

  "The Partial Indulgence is granted to the faithful, wherever they are during the above-mentioned meeting, if, at least with a contrite spirit, they will raise their prayer to God the Holy Spirit, so that young people are drawn to charity and given the strength to proclaim the Gospel with their life.

 

  "So that all the faithful may more easily obtain these heavenly gifts, priests who have received legitimate approval to hear sacramental confessions, should welcome them with a ready and generous spirit and suggest public prayers to the faithful, for the success of the same World Youth Day".

PENT/DECREE INDULGENCES/WYD                                    VIS 080707 (460)