Book Review: Life of Pi

I am not even going to review this book because I don't want to give anything away. It is an awesome book. Read it! And then maybe we can talk about it on the internet.
Also make sure you don't read the last section of the book right before bed. You will be up all night thinking about it.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Awesome book! Read it! Now!

Be Christ

 

Speak with Love

Act in Love

Think as Love

Be Love

Speak With Christ 

Act in Christ 

Think as Christ

Be Christ

Be Love 

Be One

Be All

Be Love

Be Christ

Book Reviews!

I was searching for my next book to read and started to read book reviews.  Not a very good idea because it just made things worse. I kind of want someone to be like here I know you Giovanni and you would like this book! And then I can be like wow that book was awesome! So I am going to do book reviews on my top 5 favorite books. I will try to keep the spoilers to a minimum. So get on the bus! 

5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: This book is short awesome and is packed with symbolism.  It is about a young boy who leaves life to become a shepherd and soon finds himself traveling to Egypt in search of treasure.

4. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: This book has the world’s smartest children training in space to fight aliens. Need I say more? I can’t tell you who many times I put this book down and was like wow this kid is only 6 or whatever age they were.

3. Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card: Okay I know same author, same saga, but give me a chance. This book takes place during the same time period as Ender’s Game but is the story seen in the eyes of a character named Bean. I mean you know the book is good when I rank it above the original and you basically know how the book is going to end.  

2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: This could be number one but it has been a long time and my memory might be making it better than it was. Any way it is the story from before the Civil War about slavery and made with cry with lines like: “On the lower part of a small, mean boat, on the Red River, Tom sat, - chains on his wrists, chains on his feet, and a weight heavier than chains lay on his heart.”

1. The Great Divorce by C.K. Louis: Get on the bus and take a trip to the afterlife. This story about death gives great insight on how one can live a better life.

Book suggestions and reviews are welcome in the comments. Maybe I will even write more reviews. Let me know what you think about these books after you have read them.   

DO NOT FORGET

We forget so much every day. Maybe a better way of explaining this would be to say certain things come to mind easier than others. There are just certain things we always forget about. Maybe it is because there aren't many reminders, or maybe it is just a really odd fact about an uncommon topic, or just maybe the thing is so common we take it for granted. The fact is we often forget really simple and fundamental things.

One thing I like about being Catholic is that the church reminds us thru her feasts what is really important. For starters I totally forgot about the poor souls of purgatory. I know it is really the worst but who can blame me? There are not that many reminders and I think people don't really like thinking about those in purgatory or anyone in suffering. But they need our prayers. I am so thankful that All Souls day reminded me about these souls and their great need for our prayers. It is not something we should do just one day out of the year but often! I would encourage you to even stop reading now and say a prayer to them. If you want to be really awesome start a novena. (All time favorite novena)

Back to the subject at hand, we can look at the Church’s calendar and feasts to see what she deems as important. 4 weeks to prepare for Christmas, a few weeks to celebrate it, 40 days to prepare for Easter and 50 days to celebrate Easter.   Clearly the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus are the most important parts of our faith and are not to be forgotten. In fact we are forced to remember these events at every mass. Every mass is perfectly connected with these events so much that they are even made new at every mass. The mass is the center of our faith and should never be treated lightly.

So what else is important? Well for starters Mary has a ton of feast days.  This list of 19 marks the ones celebrated by the whole church.  And then you have the First Saturday devotions and the months of May and October dedicated to her.  Mary is clearly an important part of our faith.   She should be our template to achieve holiness.  When you look at the great saints, especially those of the last few hundred years, it is hard to find one that does not have a Devotion to Mary.

Our Lady and the Eucharist are two things we should never forget. NEVER…

1 Less drink

One less drink

So you can have one more

A step back

To put you ahead

Bear a little more

To soften your load

I will save my strength

So when you run dry

You will have one more shot

Take the hit

Fight the fight

I will hold you

I save myself for you

Because you gave it all for me

How to Have Fun While Having Fun

I like to write. Mainly because it has no end. Take books, sometimes I read just to finish the book and don't really enjoy what I am doing.  The same could be said for tv or video games. I need to learn that I don't have to finish everything I start.* I never made a commitment to a book. I stated it because I enjoyed it. But when the enjoyment stops and it becomes more of a chore maybe I should stop. Relaxing should be relaxing. Do what you love with who you love. Relationships are awesome because they last a long time and only end when one dies. But our relationship with Christ will have no end and go on forever. Endings pretty much suck anyway. So do beginnings now that I think about it. I am just going to keep on writing and I will most likely have poor beginnings and some sort of ending.

Anyway if you are not having fun when you should be maybe you are doing the wrong thing. Also some things stink at the beginning and get better after some time or practice or after you learn all the rules or have a better understanding. I don't really know.

But I write for me because it is fun. Maybe I will write about something else if you give me a suggestion but only if I find it fun.

Sorry for the ramblings.



*Work and family and other responsibilities don't have to be fun and should still be completed to the best of one's ability with love.

Light of the Moon

When did the darkness and horrors of the night become better than the harshness of the morning light? We once rejoiced at first light. Now we only dance at night. The trumpet sounding the glory of the day is now the alarm we curse and ignore. The monsters of the night have evolved into comforts and the labors of the day have transformed into beasts. We are friends with the unknown and fear the demands of responsibility.

We are held captive until set free.

Our last hope is the soft light of the moon.  Can only you show us the joy of the sun? 

Until the Sun

Candle lit with the smallest flame

tiniest ember that sets my heart ablaze

let me kindle this fire.

not to destroy,

set astray,

wither and die.

allow the light to guide

the warmth to comfort

the burn to cleanse

Your glory to shine

I fill my lamp with oil

I will dance

Until the sun  

Little Like Me

Me- I love you, Gigi

Zeke – No, I love Gigi

Me – I love Gigi too!

Zeke – No, Gigi is little like me! I love Gigi!

This goes back and forth for a few minutes with the battle over who can love Gigi getting more and more intense. But I learned something very deep and meaningful from my exchange with my three year old today.

It is easier to love someone like us. Now I could go on to talk about race issues or kinship but I won't. What I will talk about is how someone so big can love someone so little. Sometimes it is hard to believe someone so much bigger than us can love us. It is crazy for us to believe that God loves us. He is the creator of the universe, when would he have time for little old me. He has better things to be dealing with than my day to day trivial issues. I mean it is kind of like asking the President to help me out with a parking ticket. But God wants to be Lord of our whole life, even the little meaningless things. He loves us more than we can comprehend. But still we hesitate. I believe Jesus helps us to make this bridge of love between small us and big God. Jesus became little like us. He became one of us, so he could tell us, or better yet, show us how much he really does love us.  He became little to show us how big he really is.

This is the reason why the Church encourages us to ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede for us. Why we go to the great saints or maybe the not so great ones. They are more like us. They suffered like us. They sinned and learn to overcome temptations and sins like we hope to do. They show us that someone little can make a big difference.   

not sic

I am not the best writer but I like to write. I may take time to proof read my wrote I may not. I might add extra comma's or leave them out completely. But this is me. I might reread a post two years from now or next week and edit an error I see  or by the grace of God these post will be perfect. If I am going to write and post regularly I need it to be easy and the hardest thing for me to is edit my work. If it is not easy it is not worth doing. Maybe someday I will have my very one or even someone to write and post for me. What I do want to provide is good, meaningful content. At least from my point of view. I want to share my thoughts and prayers. Not for your benefit but for my own. I welcome comments but I can't promise to read them or answer questions, although I might. I am not sure what this is but I hope it will be me and the part of me that looks the most like Christ.

Thank for your time,

I hope it was not a waste,

God Bless,

Giovanni