Vacation...

Beth and I are out of town on vacation for the next two weeks. In fact I am posting this from up in the beautiful state of Connecticut.

We have gone to a Christian Family Resort for five out of the last six years for our main vacation. Beth's step-mother's family has been going for the past 50 years or so. It is a nice time to spend with family and the speakers are generally good. We will be heading over there next week. I will try and post something as the vacation progresses if something interesting happens. If not, see you in a couple of weeks.
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Commenting Problems

A couple of days ago I noticed that I was not receiving any new comments. (Not that I receive a lot normally...) It did not dawn on me that when I had changed the way the comments appear that I did not add a link to post a comment. So for any who tried to comment but could not, I apologize - get back to it. If no one was trying to comment...please go about your business of not commenting.

If you do change your commenting mind, it seems to work properly now.
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"Common Ground: What Protestants and Catholics Can Learn From Each Other"

Check out TBN on July 14 at 5 PM Eastern (The link has the time listed for the Pacific time zone). They will be broadcasting a conversation between a non-denominational pastor and a Catholic priest. Here is a short clip (Quicktime) of the priest speaking about the sacraments. If this is any example of the rest of the conversation it will be excellent.

Here is some background on how it all came about.

If you miss the broadcast, order a copy of the DVD from Nineveh's Crossing.
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Motu Proprio

Pope Benedict XVI's long awaited apostolic letter concerning the Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal is here.

Here is the text of the Motu Proprio.

Here is the text of the accompanying letter.

Jimmy Akin's comments here.

I have never (unless as an infant and without my knowledge) attended a Mass celebrated under the previous Roman Missal. I do not have any problems with it and I do not understand the arguments put forth against it (namely concern that it will cause division.) However, there is one argument that is for it that does not make sense to me.

Some proponents of having Mass in the older form state that it will cause more reverence in the celebration of the current form of the Mass. It seems to me that any priest who has the knowledge and desire to celebrate the Mass in the older form will probably be interested in reverence already. If that is true then they would be celebrating the current form reverently also. Reverence is a matter of conversion as is anything that has to do with following Christ. Conversion only comes about through God's grace. Whether the older form of the Mass is a way God is instilling reverence back into his people or not we will have to wait and see.
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Exploding soda can of death

Well, maybe not of death...

You may not be aware, but there is a spot in the rear of your (or at least our) refrigerator where the cold air flows down and which is much colder than the overall temperature. We discovered this a couple of years ago when we started buying cases of bottled water and stacked them from the rear of the refrigerator to the front. When we would reach the rear row, the middle bottle would be frozen solid from this local jet stream. Normally this would not be a big deal. The bottle would be moved to the door and over a few days would thaw to liquid really cold instead of solid really cold.

Recently, we bought more soda than we normally do and Beth placed some in that sweet spot. A few days later I was working on the laptop (as I am prone to do) and I hear a loud noise followed by the noise that humanity associates with the ice maker dropping ice. I opened the freezer and did not notice a large amount of overflowing ice or anything else out of the ordinary. So I went about my business. Later on that day I opened the refrigerator and found a not-so-nice surprise.

For those of you who are interested, this is what a soda can looks like after it has exploded.


For those who are wondering what happened to the the top...


Here is an interior shot of the aftermath. This is the shelf below the explosion.


By the way, as Beth can testify, exploding frozen soda gets into pretty much every nook and cranny.
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Prayer Request Update

My father's surgery went well. He received two stents in one of his coronary arteries and we brought him home today. Please pray that his recovery continues to go well.
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Prayer Request

To anyone so inclined:

Please pray for my father as he is having a cardiac catheterization sometime today (7/3). He also could be having angioplasty and/or a stent procedure done depending on what shows up during the catheterization process.

Anytime spent with our Lord on his behalf is much appreciated.
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