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Scientists are pretty sure that Saccorhytus coronarius is an ancestor of lancets, sea squirts, fish, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, and mammals: including us. Much more recently, about 3,660,000 years back, five Australopithecus afarensis strolled across volcanic ash. One of them was "astonishingly larger" than any other A. afarensis we know of. Exactly what that means isn't, I think, clear. Not yet. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Statues 1 of Caspar , Melchior , and Balthazar started near the clock in our living room. I took those pictures of them on Wednesday. Their trip to the nativity scene ended today, Epiphany Sunday. We read about "magi from the east" in today's Gospel: Matthew 2:1 through 12 : " 1 When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, 2 behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, "saying, 'Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star 3 at its rising and have come to do him homage.'" ( Matthew 2:1 - 2 ) "Magi" is how μάγοι, mágoi, looks in my native language. That's the Greek version of an Old Persian word that would sound something like "magus" if I tried pronouncing it. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

8 Notes to a Nobody , by Cynthia T. Toney, is a heartwarming, yet truthful, depiction of what it is like to be a teenage girl, coming of age. In Cynthia Toney’s tale, Wendy Robichaud, an eighth grader, comes face-to-face with some of the struggles that teens unfortunately face: eating disorders and teen suicide; feelings of inferiority and loneliness. Read more...

(from The Breadbox Letters)

I generally identify with the tax collector in today's Gospel reading: Luke 18:9 - 14 . That's okay, since emulating "those who were convinced of their own righteousness," despising everyone else, is a bad idea. The problem wasn't what the Pharisee was doing. Fasting, within reason, is a good idea. It can be part of penance. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1434 , 1438 , 2043 ) Along with tithing , it's part of being a Catholic. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2016: Habakkuk 1:2 – 3 , 2:2 – 4 2 Timothy 1:6 - 8 , 13 - 14 Luke 17:5 - 10 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2016 By Deacon Lawrence N. Kaas October 2, 2016 I'm sure we are all saddened to hear that by this time Father Tom is back home. ... He will be missed! There is one word that is repeated in all of the readings for this day. That word is Faith.... ...Now we can't just let this word Faith hang out there alone without some support.... ...If now we should take our Catechism and referred to paragraphs 142 through 165 we get a far more complete explanation of Obedience and Faith.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

("Not All Times" – posters, art prints, greeting cards, and postcards available on DeviantArt.com .) "l'art pour l'art," " Art for art's sake ," popped up in the early 19th century. The idea is that "the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function." George Sand , Friedrich Nietzsche , and Chinua Achebe , said it was an empty phrase, self-contradictory, and Eurocentric, respectively. ( Wikipedia ) I wouldn't go that far, but I think it's a silly idea: at least when applied to anything other than doodling to pass the time. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Week 4 (Part B) - Honesty and Counsel This week forced me to take a very long hard look at my mindset towards what I admit and will share about my personal finances and what is really happening.  Although my name Allison means "truthful one" and I do feel sometimes I am honest to fault; this week's teachings and ponderings on the topic of honesty made clear, there was some areas I saw okay to paint  gray .  There really is no legal or honest gray areas with regards to money, especially if those finances are shared.   This week also challenged my filing system (or lack there of) and how pride had (and probably still does) hinder my seeking and accepting counsel.  Let's evaluate these struggles & triumphs more closely ...     FILING, HONESTY AND COUNSEL  All Rights Reserved, Allison Gingras 2016

Pontius Pīlātus was the fifth prefect of the Roman Province of Judea . That sounds important, but Pilate was one of the Equites : Roman aristocrats, but ranking below Patricians . Think of him as 'middle management.' Judea was a strategically important border province, giving the empire access to Egypt's agricultural resources, and a measure of protection from the Parthian Empire . More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove Have you ever heard that phrase before? It was new to me until the day I had to deliver some bad news on an audit. The auditee said that I had an “iron fist in a velvet glove,” meaning that I delivered a hard punch, with not much comfort, since velvet wouldn’t soften the blow of an iron fist very well. In my innocence, and to some degree of arrogance, at first I took it as a compliment! Then I got to thinking about what he said. How we deliver truth is just as… Read more...

Honey versus Vinegar What’s your choice? “You get more with honey than you do with vinegar” – a classic American idiom that speaks volumes. I think all of us would choose the sweet taste of honey over the bitter taste of vinegar. I think all of us would choose to be spoken to in truth with respect and dignity, versus in a cold, unfeeling manner. I have learned a great deal about the importance of practicing tact. I have found ways of speaking truth, with tact. For example, have you noticed how all of my posts have a positive spin… Read more...

Tact has always eluded me, until I began researching and practicing the virtues. I saved this virtue for discussion until now, because I had much work to do in this area, myself, before I could write about it. Bluntness, or lack of tact, can diminish the quality of relationships. It is confession time for me. I have a classic example of how the lack of tact can destroy relationships. Here goes: While I was still working as a technology audit manager, I was attending one of those “off-site” kumbaya type meetings, where I thought complete truth would be openly accepted... Read more...

Honesty truly is the best course of action. The thing that I like most about honesty is that I never have to worry about what story I may have told in the past, because truth is Truth, and the truth doesn’t change. Therefore, if I live in truth, I speak consistently, and by doing so, I build good character. Through honesty, we build integrity in the eyes of others and with God. Let’s face it, the only thing we get to take with us when standing in judgment before God, at the end of this life, are our sins and our integrity. I don’t know about you, but... Read more...

Do You Lie? The Unforeseen Consequences of Lying How easy it is to lie, sometimes for convenience; sometimes to hide bad behavior or embarrassment. When we lie, we begin traveling down a slippery slope. The more we lie, the further we move away from God. Lying easily becomes a nasty habit, a vice, a habitual sin. Lies lead to destruction of relationships with others, but most importantly, it deteriorates the relationship we each have with God. Rather than facing the truth, we see ourselves as we want to, and not as we truly are, in all reality. We even tend… Read more...

Truth be told Is there really any other way to live? I mean, really, live? When we fail to tell the truth, we deaden ourselves. We move away from the Light of Christ and we move towards the Prince of Darkness. We move from the true good to the absence of God in our lives. So, I ask you again, is there really any other way that you would want to live, other than with the fullness of Truth? Truth Defined Truth is defined as living an upright life, both in action and speech, tactfully and with kindness. God is... Read more...

This universe has been around for about 13,798,000,000 years, give or take 37,000,000. That's the current best estimate, from 2013 . It's big, too. The photo shows part of the Hercules Cluster of galaxies. Light from that bunch of galaxies traveled for about 500,000,000 years before reaching us. What we see is the Hercules Cluster as it was around the middle of the Cambrian here, roughly when the first trilobite showed up. Taking the universe 'as is' makes sense: for me, anyway. I would much rather learn more about this wonder-filled creation, than insist that the Almighty is limited to what folks knew a few centuries back. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

A man trying to organize a men's choir said I had a fine voice. Given a choice, he asked, wouldn't someone prefer a beautiful voice to a powerful mind or athletic body? I agreed, but was a bit embarrassed: since I've got two out of the three. My wife's opined that if bad hips hadn't kept me from excelling at sports: I'd be insufferable. She's probably right. Self-Esteem Run Amok Since pride is a sin, is it wrong to be proud of my voice? Yes — and no. It depends on what sort of "pride" is involved. When "pride" is self-esteem run amok, it's one of the seven capital sins: along with avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1866 ) Ancient Greeks called it hubris . It's a bad idea in stories, from " Oedipus Rex ," to Milton's " Paradise Lost " and Paul Ryder's " Cosmic Monsters ." Most of us don't get the sort of reality check

Someone was very adamant that I should watch "The Dead Files".  I will be honest, I used to have an interest in these types of shows, but not anymore.  My eyes have been opened, but eyes being opened to the truth do not good unless we speak that truth. ... .CLICK HERE FOR MORE!

Some scientists say that a star's habitable zone may be wider than we thought. Others found a planet that's only a few times more massive than Earth, nearby: and about 11,500,000,000 years old.... ...As I said two weeks ago, I don't think that we're alone in the universe: or that we are not alone. Right now, we don't know.... ...Using Our Brains Whatever, and perhaps whoever, we find: I'm not concerned that we will learn 'things which man was not supposed to know.' More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From Peter Kennett, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) (M31, the Great Andromeda Galaxy, one of 54 galaxies in the Local Group , photographed in 2005.) Folks can see the Andromeda Galaxy from Earth's northern hemisphere: on a clear night with no moon, anyway. Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi gets credit for 'discovering' it: but I'm pretty sure that quite a few folks had seen it before he mentioned "A Little Cloud" in " Book of Fixed Stars, " somewhere around 964. Knowledge and Change In 1764, Charles Messier, another astronomer, put the galaxy in his catalog as a nebula: object M31. By the 19th century, astronomers realized that some light from the Andromeda "nebula" resembled light from stars. In 1925, Edwin Hubble used observations of Cepheid variable stars to demonstrate that the Andromeda Galaxy was another " island universe :" far outside our Milky Way Galaxy. Light from the Andromeda Galaxy passing Earth toda