October 2007 Archives

This is a beautiful choral version of the Angelus by Biebl. The words, in Latin (the language of the piece) and the English translation:

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mari
et concepit de Spiritu sancto.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum;
benedicta tu in muleribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus.

Maria dixit: Ecce ancilla Domini;
fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.

Et verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis.

Sancta Maria, mater Dei ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis,
nunc et in hora mortis nostr, Amen.

The angel of the Lord made his annunciation to Mary
and she conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Mary said: Behold the handmaiden of the Lord.
Let it be unto me according to Thy word.

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners.
Holy Mary, pray for us,
now and at the hour of our death, Amen.

Very obviously, updates to the website are in progress. I felt that the old design was becoming too unmanageable. Little things will be added to the new site in the next few days to bring it up to standard.

As many of you, I own a 2000 Hyundai Elantra that has been lovingly named "Susie Brahmaputra", or Susie for short. It is the first car I owned, being purchased for me by my mom using life insurance money left from my dad. The car itself is a little tank. I've been mudding with it up on dirt roads in Oklahoma. It has driven me virtually everywhere. I left the lot with it at 128 miles and at last note, it has 87,383 miles on it.

A week ago today, I drove from Austin to Wichita Falls to be with my family for my mom's operation. Since I left in the morning, i wanted to avoid as much traffic as possible and decided to avoid IH-35. The "back way" to Wichita Falls is US 183 north out of Austin to US 281 north in Lampasas. US 281 will take you all the way to Wichita Falls.

On US 281 between Jacksboro and Windthorst, out of the corner of my eye, I see a full-grown buck (male deer) clear out of the high grass next to the roadway. I slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid a hit, but to no avail.

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I was not injured, so no worries there. Susie, however, did not fair so well. Not realizing the full extent of the damage, I called State Farm and was referred to a body shop in Wichita Falls (after limping home).

State Farm called the next morning and told me that the initial estimate would total the car. They would send out their own person to look at the damage to confirm or refute the total value loss. Long story short, I am now looking for a new car.

We signed over the car to State Farm yesterday morning and received our settlement. They'll take Susie to be chopped up and the rest of her will be used for parts.

May Susie rest in pieces.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI announced today that, along with 23 other bishops, Archbishop Daniel DiNardo will be elevated to the rank of Cardinal at a ceremony on November 24th, the eve of Christ the King.

His Soon-to-be-Eminence will be the first Texan cardinal and the first one for the Southern U.S.

On January 1, I was in Houston visiting the Casa Juan Diego Catholic Worker house when we went to Mass for the normally-obligatory solemnity at Houston's Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral celebrated by Archbishop DiNardo. Following the Mass, I was in a minivan with two Catholic Workers and the two founders of Casa Juan Diego. Mark, one of the founders, waved to the Archbishop as he was getting into his car a few spaces away from us. Archbishop DiNardo came over to our car, crawled into the back seat and shook everyone's hand in the car.

After a short conversation, he left on his way...left on his way to be one of the newest members of one of the most exclusive clubs on earth.

Cardinal-Designate DiNardo will be at the University Catholic Center on November 1, 2008 as part of the UCC's 100th Anniversary of Catholic Campus Ministry at UT celebration. More details later, but short of the Pope calling him to Rome (which could happen), he'll celebrate with us.

Congrats to Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston!

Everything went well. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

The operation actually begins at 7:30 am.

One of my projects this semester is the first-in-a-very-long-time UCC Raffle. The raffle, ongoing now with tickets available online, via phone (512-476-7351 x10 during business hours) or in person, will wrap up on December 6, 2007 with the drawing of the winner at the UCC Christmas Party.

We know the UCC used to have car raffles in the past—in fact, the priest-in-charge and a Catholic Students Association officer were arrested because a very-seldom-enforced technicality after an individual who wasn't friendly to the Catholic faith called the local district attorney's office. Fast forward 60 years, we think this is the first time since then for a raffle of this size.

The winner will have their choice of either a brand new 2008 Volkswagen New Beetle or a $15,000 scholarship that can be used for any post-high school educational program—including student loans or college savings. If you aren't looking to use the scholarship, you can designate any family member or friend to receive the scholarship.

Really, that's pretty awesome.

I'll tell more later of the benefits to students who wish to help sell tickets, but talk about a low-cost way to possibly win big.

I have maintained a blogging silence over the past few weeks. On the morning of my last post, my mom went in for a medical test and two days later, she learned that she has breast cancer.

As far as I know, we have had no history of cancer in our family and with much talk in cancer circles dealing with the possible genetic connection to cancer, I really did not expect the results that she had. Over the past few weeks, my family has been running around figuring out everything such as end-of-life matters that we never concerned ourselves with (a will, living will, etc) and with figuring out scheduling between the siblings to help Mom out in the weeks after surgery.

Starting on Tuesday, I'll be on family leave from work. In reality, I just won't be showing up in the office but plan to still get some work done from Wichita Falls.

I ask that you keep my mother in your prayers, especially as she undergoes an operation on Wednesday morning related to this.

Completely unrelated to this, I think I figured out a bug in my content management system that gave me trouble posting in the past few weeks. I should start posting again on a regular cycle.