The
question of bread for myself is a material
question, but the
question of bread for my neighbours, for
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Tuesday January
14 |
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God
bless the 30-40 kind readers who check this Bible Blog each day of the
week. |
Pope Francis | Breastfeeding in church ok |
Vatican II & Renewal (1) 16
Documents of Vatican II Excellent
articles on Mission
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Pope Francis appoints 19 new cardinals John Allen A
new Oblate cardinal -Abp Quevedo of the Philippines |
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Asylum seekers and the language of war | |||||
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Yesterday at a Red Cross Blood Bank on the Gold Coast, I was served a free drink by a retired man who has spent six years in volunteer service at the Blood Bank ....as a way of saying thank you to the country that became his home when he fled as a refugee, by boat, from Egypt during the 1967 war with Israel. Man is a chemical engineer, and a Coptic Christian. Says Morsi is a bad man who got power by doing bad things. Man is very fearful of persecution in Egypt. Says several members of his family have been killed in recent persecutions in Egypt | ||||||
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Photographs connect inmates in solitary confinement to outside world (United Nations: "more than 15 days in solitary confinement is torture". Shame, USA, shame) |
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42. All of this has great relevance for the preaching of the Gospel, if we are really concerned to make its beauty more clearly recognized and accepted by all. Of course, we will never be able to make the Church’s teachings easily understood or readily appreciated by everyone. Faith always remains something of a cross; it retains a certain obscurity which does not detract from the firmness of its assent. Some things are understood and appreciated only from the standpoint of this assent, which is a sister to love, beyond the range of clear reasons and arguments. We need to remember that all religious teaching ultimately has to be reflected in the teacher’s way of life, which awakens the assent of the heart by its nearness, love and witness. |
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At a 2013 Oblate meal in HK, I heard Archbishop (Cardinal) Quevedo tell this joke : It's the year 2056: brain transplants are available.....man goes shopping....sees 3 brains for sale. First brain is priced at $10,000 - brain of an engineer. Second brain is priced at $15,000 - brain of a doctor. Third brain is priced at $20,000 - brain of a bishop. Man asks shop keeper why bishop's brain tis he most expensive of the three. Shopkeeper: because like new, rarely used |
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This website's Tanzania
File South
America file |
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Francis wishes to release Vatican II's bold vision from captivity | ![]() |
Vatican II
Reflection 328
Religious congregations need to "rethink Mission" |
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My
weekly article for today's HK Ming Pao newspaper
(On
MP website) Today's topic: One big difference between HK and Australia |
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Sun:
Africa
Mon:
Europe & Russia Tues:
South Asia Wed:
East Asia On this 14th
of the month, Jesus
please bless the
prisoners of Jilin |
Monday January
13 |
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Today's
Bible Blog: a
four-course menu |
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Different understandings of ‘magisterium’ spark arguments in the Church |
This website's kind
bloggers Bakhita
John
W: |
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China surpasses US as world's largest trading nation | ||||
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Ariel Sharon: a warrior blamed for massacres and praised for peacemaking | |||||
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Universe | Photos of Mars - after a decade of exploration | |||||
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Interactive
Bible Quiz - Two Thessalonians |
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41. At
the same time, today’s vast and rapid cultural changes demand that we
constantly seek ways of expressing unchanging truths in a language which
brings out their abiding newness.
“The deposit of the faith is one thing... the way it is expressed is another”. There are times when the faithful, in listening to completely orthodox language, take away something alien to the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ, because that language is alien to their own way of speaking to and understanding one another. With the holy intent of communicating the truth about God and humanity, we sometimes give them a false god or a human ideal which is not really Christian. In this way, we hold fast to a formulation while failing to convey its substance. This is the greatest danger. Let us never forget that “the expression of truth can take different forms. The renewal of these forms of expression becomes necessary for the sake of transmitting to the people of today the Gospel message in its unchanging meaning”. |
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Last night I arrived at the Gold Coast....enjoying kind hospitality of my dear brother Peter, his daughter Louisa and her husband John and family. Before going to Pete's house I had a lovely swim in the surf at Main Beach ....very appropriate on the Feast of Jesus' Baptism to spend some time in/under water! | |||||
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Young
man's death highlights the tragic reality of online illegal drug stores
This website's Tanzania
File South
America file |
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Francis wishes to release Vatican II's bold vision from captivity | ![]() |
Vatican II
Reflection 327
We do not live on university degrees alone |
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![]() John W mini-Blog |
Photo of happy Saturday visit to home of Julia and Robert | |||||
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Sun:
Africa
Mon:
Europe & Russia Tues:
South Asia Wed:
East Asia On this 13th
of the month, Jesus
please bless the
prisoners of Jiangxi |
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Sunday January 12 Feast of the Baptism of Jesus Reflection
on today's Mass readings by Daniel Daring: |
![]() anniversary of Baptism! |
I have asked this question two or three times
already, here, in this square: who
among you knows the date of your Baptism, raise your hands. It is important to know the day on which I was immersed in that current of Jesus' salvation. And I will allow myself to give you some advice... but, more than advice, a task for today. Today, at home, go look, ask about the date of your Baptism and that way you can bear in mind that most beautiful day of Baptism. To know the date of our Baptism is to know a blessed day. The danger of not knowing it is losing awareness of what the Lord has done in us, the memory of the gift we have received. Thus, we end up considering it only as an event that took place in the past – and not by our own will but by that of our parents – and, thus, has no impact on the present. Indeed, we must reawaken the memory of our Baptism |
Pope
Francis:
Many
thanks for checking
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![]() John W mini-Blog The
Pope has said (above) we should remember our baptism day! Today's
Feast of the Baptism of Jesus encourages us to think about our own day of
baptism. I know some people in Hong Kong who were baptised as adults. They always remember their baptism day. Some of them try to get to Mass on that day Our baptism day was the day we were upgraded, from being just human children of God....to being divine children of God, brothers and sisters of The Son Bit like a dog or cat being upgraded to a son or daughter of the family! A VIP day! My baptism was November 3, 1946, baptised by Fr Richard Thompson DG! |
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Murder
of priests and missionaries increased globally in 2013 |
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The clergy trade re a growing migration of priests and religious in the Catholic church from the "global south" to the north, despite the fact that the overall Catholic population is shifting in precisely the opposite direction. Two-thirds of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics today live in the Southern hemisphere, but almost two-thirds of the church's 412,000 priests are in the West. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Within the Church countless issues are being studied and reflected upon with great freedom. Differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology and pastoral practice, if open to being reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can enable the Church to grow, since all of them help to express more clearly the immense riches of God’s word. For those who long for a monolithic body of doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance, this might appear as undesirable and leading to confusion. But in fact such variety serves to bring out and develop different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel |
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Click to enlarge ("Eskimo" should read "Inuit") | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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This website's Tanzania
File South
America file My post at Jamii Forums re 28 year old Tanzanian woman arrested in Macau has had 2,000 hits |
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Francis wishes to release Vatican II's bold vision from captivity | ![]() |
Vatican II
Reflection 326
Nuns' dangerous habits |
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Sun:
Africa
Mon:
Europe & Russia Tues:
South Asia Wed:
East Asia Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific Frid: South America Sat: Central & North America Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week: Jesus, today, Sunday, please bless the people of Africa On this 12th
of the month, Jesus
please bless the
prisoners of Jiangsu |
Saturday January
11 |
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A
good custom: check these readings in the morning, think about them
during the day, look at them again at night |
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More
details about Pope inviting priest to ride in popemobile. Pope's message to whole world can be summed up in his words to that priest: "C'mon. Hop in!" |
The
unjust treatment
Tribalism lives on, for better and for worse
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Get them while they’re young: why kids intuitively understand prayer | ||||||
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Pakistani boy who died trying to stop suicide bomber is hailed as hero | |||||||
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Central African Republic's churches overwhelmed as religious leaders make desperate plea for more peace-keepers | |||||||
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The bishops' refusal to confront the priest shortage is killing the Church | |||||||
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Syria: the papal challenge | ||||||
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39. Just as the organic unity existing among the virtues means that no one of them can be excluded from the Christian ideal, so no truth may be denied. The integrity of the Gospel message must not be deformed. What is more, each truth is better understood when related to the harmonious totality of the Christian message; in this context all of the truths are important and illumine one another. When preaching is faithful to the Gospel, the centrality of certain truths is evident and it becomes clear that Christian morality is not a form of stoicism, or self-denial, or merely a practical philosophy or a catalogue of sins and faults. Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others. Under no circumstance can this invitation be obscured! All of the virtues are at the service of this response of love. If this invitation does not radiate forcefully and attractively, the edifice of the Church’s moral teaching risks becoming a house of cards, and this is our greatest risk. It would mean that it is not the Gospel which is being preached, but certain doctrinal or moral points based on specific ideological options. The message will run the risk of losing its freshness and will cease to have “the fragrance of the Gospel” |
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Queen Elizabeth prepares to
welcome back the English cricket team after its disastrous tour of Australia |
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This website's Tanzania File (stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK) - letters from Tanzanian inmates in Hong Kong prisons South America file (stopping South Americans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK) - letters from South American inmates in Hong Kong prisons |
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Francis wishes to release Vatican II's bold vision from captivity | ![]() |
Vatican II
Reflection 325
We humans have to fight against the tendency to create an upper class in groups to which we belong |
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![]() John W mini-Blog |
Yesterday after a gap of 10 years, I made phone contact from Brisbane with a Sydney Vietnamese family I helped get to Australia from a Hong Kong refugee camp some 20 years ago ....and I asked them: can you now please help an Indian refugee get to Australia after 6 years languishing in ghastly conditions in HK | |||||||
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Sun:
Africa
Mon:
Europe & Russia Tues:
South Asia Wed:
East Asia Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific Frid: South America Sat: Central & North America Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week: Jesus, today, Saturday, please bless the people of Central & North America On this 11h
of the month, Jesus
please bless the
prisoners of Hunan |
Friday January
10 |
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Today's
Bible Blog: a
four-course menu |
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Pope Francis invites old friend from Argentina for ride in popemobile |
Liturgy - New Translation 1998
ICEL Sacramentary Ron
Schmit: ------------------------------------------ Spirituality Sacred
Space
Pray-as-you-go.org Whole
text of 1966 Jerusalem Bible
Previous Smiles file |
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Ambrose Mong OP |
Towards
an Orthodox Theology of Liberation: An Examination of the Works of
Nicolas Berdyaev
The
question of bread for myself is a material
question, but the
question of bread for my neighbours, for |
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Israeli
parliament shuts its doors on protesting African refugees |
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Legalising
opium can have a positive impact on Afghanistan |
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Ecumenism |
Orthodox Patriarch's offensive against "localsim" and "self-marginalisation" (+ ecumenical developments) |
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Obesity soars to 'alarming' levels in developing countries |
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Central African Republic president to step down - let's keep praying for peace in CAR
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38. It is
important to draw out the pastoral consequences of
the Council’s teaching, which reflects an ancient conviction of
the Church. First, it needs to be said that in preaching the Gospel a
fitting sense of proportion has to be maintained. This would be
seen in the frequency with which certain themes are brought up and in the
emphasis given to them in preaching.
For example, if in the course of the liturgical year a parish priest speaks about temperance ten times but only mentions charity or justice two or three times, an imbalance results, and precisely those virtues which ought to be most present in preaching and catechesis are overlooked. The same thing happens when we speak more about law than about grace, more about the Church than about Christ, more about the Pope than about God’s word |
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This website's Tanzania File (stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK) - letters from Tanzanian inmates in Hong Kong prisons South
America file |
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![]() There
was a female business executive who was late for a meeting. A
cop pulls her over and says “ma’am, can I please see your
license?” His
brow furrows and he straightens up. “Well, can I please see the
registration of your car?” “Ma’am,
DON’T MOVE, I’m calling for backup.” Five
minutes later, half the squad pulls up, the Chief of Police walks over
to the woman’s window. “Of
course, officer,” she smiles demurely and pulls out a license from her
purse. “Can
I see the registration to this car?” “Ma’am,
stand back!” The woman brandishes a finger at the first cop and says accusingly, “And I’ll bet that liar told you I was speeding too!!” |
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Francis wishes to release Vatican II's bold vision from captivity | ![]() |
Vatican II
Reflection 324 -
prophetic obedience
Jesus
was obedient to his Father, and to Joseph and Mary. |
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![]() John W mini-Blog |
Meetings are taking place this
week to work for peace in two African countries: the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Let's keep praying for both places in the coming days. Jesus, please give peace to the CAR and South Sudan |
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Sun: Africa
Mon:
Europe & Russia Tues:
South Asia Wed:
East Asia |
Thursday
January
9 |
|
Today's
Bible Blog: a
four-course menu |
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Pope
Francis the good shepherd
(Pope looking a bit sheepish) |
This
site's full statistics
To publish an article on this site please contact Fr John Wotherspoon omi: jdwomi@gmail.com
Why I collect rubbish for Pope "Same-sex
marriage": two elephants
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Francis:
"Let us prevent our hearts from becoming marketplaces"
If a thought, if
a desire takes you along the road of humility and abasement, of
service to others, it is from
Jesus. But if it brings you
to the road of sufficiency, of vanity, of pride, along the path of an
abstract thought, it is not
from Jesus.” |
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Peace
activist Fr John Dear dismissed from Jesuits
Leaving the Jesuits after 32 years (c.f. Bishop Bill Morris?) |
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Sent by a
kind reader: Extraordinary mountain climb in China to reach a teahouse |
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"Beautifully imperfect" |
Sent by a kind reader: An unusual funeral speech |
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Building Bolero -- The Queensland Symphony Orchestra at Brisbane's Southbank (thank you to a kind reader for sending this) | |||||
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Questions from a Ewe: Pope Francis, priests and monsters .. |
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37. Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that the Church’s moral teaching has its own “hierarchy”, in the virtues and in the acts which proceed from them. What counts above all else is “faith working through love” . Works of love directed to one’s neighbour are the most perfect external manifestation of the interior grace of the Spirit: “The foundation of the New Law is in the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is manifested in the faith which works through love”. Thomas thus explains that, as far as external works are concerned, mercy is the greatest of all the virtues: “In itself mercy is the greatest of the virtues, since all the others revolve around it and, more than this, it makes up for their deficiencies" |
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It was so cold in Kentucky on Monday that an escaped prisoner turned himself in. Robert Vick, 42, escaped from a minimum-security prison on Sunday, the Associated Press reported, but as temperatures dropped through the floor on Monday he walked into a motel and asked the clerk to call the police so he could escape the freezing air. (in this arcticle) |
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Another
Tanzanian "stomach" drug courier arrested - was booked to fly to Macau (...drug lords still trying to get drugs into China/HK....this website's campaign needs to continue!) This website's Tanzania
File South
America file |
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Francis wishes to release Vatican II's bold vision from captivity | ![]() |
Vatican II
Reflection 323
The article speaks about trusting in Providence, but these days most religious congregations trust mainly in Provident Funds |
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![]() John W mini-Blog |
Yesterday I attended a
funeral ....my second funeral in three days....two dear old friends.
One good thing about funerals: they bring people together
....friends/relatives who maybe haven't seen each other for years ------ And ...I am shocked to read about Fr John Dear (see above report). See especially his own article "Leaving Jesuits after 32 years" (above) ....very sad, very disturbing, very unjust |
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Sun:
Africa
Mon:
Europe & Russia
Tues:
South Asia Wed:
East Asia On this 9th
of the month, Jesus
please bless the
prisoners of Henan |
Wednesday
January
8 |
|
Today's
Bible Blog: a
four-course menu |
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Oxyana
- a powerful documentary about a drug town in
the US Documentary exposes the OxyContin epidemic (Good to know about OxyContin before it affects other countries) |
Vatican II - Renewal (2) Hans
Küng: Robert
Mickens: Robert
McNally: Priests
9 Masses a day
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New Year's resolutions: the Pope Francis list ("don't gossip"!) | |||||
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David
Suzuki His
website His
documentary In 2004, David Suzuki was selected as the greatest living Canadian in a CBC poll To my shame, I had never heard of him, until a kind friend told me about him recently. Most grateful to readers who help me learn about people like Suzuki ...please send info to jdwomi@gmail.com |
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Young
suicide bomber detained (adults involved in this should be detained) |
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Tanzania police dismiss reports of church attack in Arusha | |||||
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In this basic core, what shines forth is the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead. In this sense, the Second Vatican Council explained, “in Catholic doctrine there exists an order or a ‘hierarchy’ of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith”. This holds true as much for the dogmas of faith as for the whole corpus of the Church’s teaching, including her moral teaching. |
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Results back yesterday from pathology....annual check up ....everything ok DG! Doctor asked "How come your cholesterol figure is so good....way better than the average for men in Australia?" To which I truthfully and gratefully replied: "Chinese diet in Hong Kong"! |
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This website's Tanzania
File (stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK) - letters from Tanzanian inmates in Hong Kong prisons This
website's South
America file |
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Francis wishes to release Vatican II's bold vision from captivity | ![]() |
Vatican II
Reflection - 322
Recent sad events have shown how far all the theory and beautiful words about chastity/celibacy are from the the reality in modern life |
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![]() John W mini-Blog |
Over the past few days in Brisbane, I have
seen places where I used to live, go to school, play sport etc 50 or so
years ago. Yesterday I had a "fish and chip" meal at the
Lota waterfront, where Mum and Dad often took my brother Peter and me to
play on the swings nearly 60 years ago ...before fish and chips. Thank you Lord for so many happy memories! |
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Sun:
Africa
Mon:
Europe & Russia Tues:
South Asia Wed:
East Asia Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific Frid: South America Sat: Central & North America Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week: Jesus, today, Wednesday, please bless the people of East Asia On this 8th
of the month, Jesus
please bless the
prisoners of Heilongjiang |
This website was launched
in construction mode in Hong Kong on November 20, 2011
- the Feast of Christ the King.
The official launching
was
held on the Gold Coast, Australia,
on January 20, 2012
Map and Flag Counter began Feb 11, 2012. Previous visits 4,932.
Note: counter on this page + Map & Flag Counter record visits only to this
main/index page.
Visits to other pages are not recorded.
This site's December 2013
statistics
Thank you for checking this website each day. God bless all readers!
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