GjAnd so it begins… not as early as last time. Leaving for the airport.
The conference this year has turned out to be great, even though Dr. Bergsma wasn’t able to be with us. His little boy is in ICU and the prospects, as we were told, were not good.
In your goodness, would you stop here and pray to S. Peregrine for a miraculous healing of his brain tumor, and that it be sudden, complete and lasting?
St. Peregrine, who struggled with deadly cancer, we beg you to intercede for Francis Bergsma in his time of need. Please quickly obtain from Our Lord his miraculous healing so that God may be glorified and praised and that more might believe in Him as the one Savior of mankind. St. Peregrine come to his aid. 1 Our Father. 1 Hail Mary. 1 Glory be.
Here is the conference room. There were some 221 priests present for many countries and several rites. Lots of familiar faces, but newcomers too.
All the talks were streamed out.
Here’s the tech table.
I met up with guys from Madison last night, a great pleasure. How I miss them. Then I wound up getting sucked into a chess game – they were playing WITHOUT me! My opponent told be a beautiful personal of conversion and striving with grace. It made my evening.
A friend came to the conference center yesterday, a light scheduled day for me, and we played chess. He is very good. Here is a position to examine:
It was, I think, white’s move.
To my eye, I think my opponent was winning. However, I came back with a couple of strong moves, traded off some of his firepower, and eventually won in a hard fought endgame. Then he beat me (King’s Gambit… gotta work on that.)
On this topic, I had an email from a reader:
Please make chess puzzles “short.” E.g.: “white to move and mate in two (or three MAX!).” Reason: The people you want to attract to your website are people with better things to do than spend half a day solving chess puzzles.
Ummmm…. no. Request denied. Fabricando fabri fimus! Keep working on the puzzles and it won’t take you half the day.
West Virginia is lovely. How nice it has been to see familiar trees and un-strange grass and long-missed birds. Not to mention hills.
Here’s a question for you. What’s going on with this prayer (top) to St. Joseph? Anyone? Find the subject.
I think this is an example of the accusative used more or less like the vocative. Sometimes in exclamations you can use the accusative for “style points”, such as in the cry, “O me miserimum!” I don’t have a Latin grammar with me as I tap this out.
Let’s talk about how wrong this in and in which ways.
At the conference venue, Stations of the Cross AND giant chess set. Does it get better than this?
Speakers imitating Scott Hahn…
The fellow on the top, Shane Owens, has a new book which I can recommend. It is not “scholarly”, though it took a scholar to write it. This would make a nice gift, too.
Return to the Heart: The Biblical Spirituality of St. Augustine’s Confessions by Shane Owens
US HERE
On the way to the airport, I am always amused by this place. If you know, you know.
UPDATE
Here we go.
UPDATE
I’m waiting for my next flight. I had a ghastly burger from Wendy’s. I opened the wrapper and most everything was outside the bun, which, after reassembly, turned out to be dry and non-cohesive. It was an altogether unsatisfying lunch.
This was offset by watching an employee in the common seating area whose primary role would be cleaning, also helping with luggage, rearranging tables for family use, clearing their wrappers and bags so they didn’t have to have them in the way, etc. Several people tipped her and so did I, even though I had not required assistance. It’s good to see someone like that.
Meanwhile, I’m next to this. I was thinking I might take it for a spin.
