Thomas Aquinas Prayer

A Prayer for the Virtues

O Almighty and all-knowing God, without beginning or end, who art the
giver, preserver, and rewarder of all virtue:

Grant me to stand firm on the solid foundation of faith, be protected by
the invincible shield of hope, and be adorned by the nuptial garment of
charity;

Grant me by justice to obey thee, by prudence to resist the crafts of the
Devil, by temperance to hold to moderation, by fortitude to bear adversity
with patience;

Grant that the goods that I have I may share liberally with those who
have
not, and the good that I do not have I may seek with humility from those
who have;

Grant that I may truly recognize the guilt of the evil I have done, and
bear with equanimity the punishments I have deserved; that I may never
lust after the goods of my neighbor, but always give thanks to thee for
all thy good gifts.

Plant in me, O Lord, all thy virtues, that in divine matters I might be
devout, in human affairs wise, and in the proper needs of the flesh
onerous to no one.

And grant that I may never rush to do things hastily, nor balk to do
things demanding, so that I neither yearn for things too soon, nor desert
things before they are
finished.

Amen.

(sorry for not posting a lot recently, but I'll be back to posting more regularly soon)

Happy Fourth Everyone!

In spite of my wish to be more profound about the Fourth of July, I thought I'd let Fred do the talking with his feet. Enjoy!!!

And Flopsy's Glad Too....

Aren't you Flopsy?



I definitely love these Monty Python sketches....

End of the Year Reflections

Wow. On Friday I finished my third year of high school. I still can't believe that I am done..... YAY!!! It has definitely been a memorable year. My third year in Latin, my first year of the Ryman program, "Dracula vs. the Lochness Monster with Ninjas," my first lead role at BYT as Mrs. Higgins, and last but not least, I finished my third and last year of Torrey Academy. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am for this program. It has changed me in so many ways. I have grown as a student (reading some of the greatest literature), as a person (learning to think and discuss articulately with my peers), and as a Christian (through contemplation of many of the texts and devotions). All three years have taught me so much in their own ways. For the last two years I have been privileged to have the same Torrey tutor, Mrs. Anderson. To you Mrs. Anderson, I just want to say thank you so much for all the knowledge and guidance you have given to all of your students. We will all dearly miss you. And to my class, Gabrielle, James, Christina, Kyle and Julia:

you guys have been so awesome and I am so grateful to have know you these last three years and I pray that as you go off to college that you continue to seek the Lord and His will for your lives. Thank you for all of the laughter and even the moments of heated disagreement :)
On Friday night our entire class attended the Torrey Banquet to celebrate our successful completion of the year. The student musicians were very good, MK and Kyle, you guys rock! and the food was actually pretty good (for banquet food). It was also a very exciting night. Both Julia and I won term paper awards! She won second place for the Faith of Our Fathers papers and then I won the "Aston Moffat Excellence in Scholarship" Award for my last term paper about the poet Petrarch. (in case you are wondering, Aston Moffat is a character from Charles Williams great work "Descent into Hell" who is a true scholar, compared with Wentworth, who could honestly care less about any sort of scholarship). It was so exciting and such an honor! I thought I was going to pass out I was so surprised. When they called my name I could barely believe it and I only moved from my seat once my fellow classmates began prodding me. :)
Anyways...
Thank you guys so much for everything. I will miss you.

W. Rabbit's House

For one of my final projects of the year was to build a themed miniature garden, so I chose Alice and Wonderland. At first I had planned to do an all-encompassing sort of Wonderland theme, but then I decided to narrow in my focus a little. I must say that the results were pretty awesome. I built both the box and the house (with some assistance) and then I painted the house and painstakingly thatched the roof with pine needles that my mother and I gathered from planters in front of our neighborhood Vons.


I also made the rabbit on the front porch. And I'm not sure if you can see it clearly in any of these photographs, but I added an arm in the window (Alice's). :) I'm really happy with how it turned out.

'Sup

My dad an I were driving home from USC yesterday when we drove to Del Taco to pick up something to eat. I ordered my usual meal of two burritos and a quesadilla, but my dad decided to order a meal (which consequently comes with french fries). When I was unwrapping the food in order to find the items I so anxiously longed to devour, an avalanche of small packets of ketchup came spilling into my lap. I paid no heed and began shoveling them back into the bag when I flipped on of them over and read: "Del Taco's Fancy Ketchup". May I venture to ask what qualifies ketchup as fancy? This may seem like a really stupid question... but I would like to know if anyone knows or has a guess. No reason. Just curious. :)

A Sonet for a Sunday Afternoon

A Sonnet: Burning (by Me)

Such loving hands define thy gentle form,
Each mark inspired by gentle God above,
How many lives each thought then did transform,
Full tales of noble chivalry and love.

How long they sleep in darkest corner hid,
Forgotten, through once loved by each man,
Restored to former glory like “El Cid,”
Though Time’s tiered mind has come and ran.

New shadows creep across the darkened sky,
Good friends laid waste and naked on the pyre,
Remorseless hands strike out, as they all cry,
E’er lost within the all consuming fire.

Bright tongues lift high and angry crimson glows,
The blood-like ink from which a river flows.

hehe

I laughed so hard when I found this that I nearly passed water through my nose!!

Yeah......

Blessed Easter!

Hallelujah the Lord has risen,
Jesus, You have conquered the grave,
Lift your voices, shout the good news,
Great is our God and mighty to save!!!

Amazing!!

I was listening to this song on my computer and I was suddenly remined of a video my dad showed me a while back. This man is pretty awesome!

Ponderings and Large Mammals

Huzzah! I finally finished the great presentation of doom on Wednesday! (quiet cheers as Armand lifts her hands in victory as the "Rocky" theme plays in the background) It is done! YAY!!!!! Anyway, the other night I was reading a section of C.S. Lewis' "The Silver Chair" (procrastination! shocking! gasp! falls over into a heap!) and I was interested by something that Puddleglum the Marshwiggle says. When the evil Witch has captured the four main heroes under her enchantment, and subsequently questioning their knowledge of reality (by asking them to define the sun or a lion [which they are unable to do to the Witch's satisfaction]), Puddleglum's will remains so deeply rooted in the reality he knows and recognizes as truth, that he is able to withstand the stupor that seizes the other characters. Upon breaking the Witch's enchantment Puddleglum says: "Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things--trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia." What an awesome testament for the existence of a God who is so much greater and more wonderful than we could possibly imagine He could be. If we imagine Him as anything less, we are just deluding ourselves in a false reality such as the Witch's. We can believe in something and Someone so much more powerful. Just some cool stuff to think about.

And then today I went to Ryman art classes and, for the second week in a row, we walked over to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (not that far away considering that we were only at USC) to do drawings of animals. So lately I've been making the acquaintance of a rather angry looking stuffed grizzly bear. He has been a joy to draw, other than my leg falling asleep :) But it is always interesting to see the groups and families that come to the museum to see all of the exhibits. You also get lots of people either watching over your shoulder or as one group of little girls did, sit down next to you and point out that your drawing looks like the bear. :) it was pretty cute. Some children simply need to be rangled by their parents (at one point I stepped back across the room with my teacher and some children stood uncomfortably close to my drawing and the parents did nothing about it!*sigh* anyway, at another point I stepped away from my drawing to view it again and (I didn't even notice until I was walking back towards it) but a bunch of guys were standing a few feet away from it and taking pictures of my drawing with their cell phones...grrrrr......Well, I have done my venting for the day... :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Breastplate

I rise today:
in power's strength, invoking the Trinity,
believing in threeness,
confessing the oneness,
of Creation's Creator.
I rise today:
in the power of Christ's birth and baptism,
in the power of his crucifixion and burial,
in the power of his rising and ascending,
in the power of his descending and judging.
I rise today:
in the power of the love of Cherubim,
in the obedience of angels,
and service of the archangels,
in hope of rising to receive the award,
in the prayers of Patriarchs,
in the predictions of prophets,
in the preachings of Apostles,
in the faith of confessors,
in the innocence of holy virgins,
in the deeds of the righteous.
I rise today:
in Heavens might,
in Sun's brightness,
in Moon's radiance,
in Fire's glory,
in Lightning's quickness,
in Wind's swiftness,
in Sea's depth,
in Earth's stability,
in Rock's fixity.
I rise today:
with the power of God to pilot me,
God's strength to sustain me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look ahead for me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to protect me,
God's way before me,
God's shield to defend me,
God's host to deliver me:
from snares of devils
from evil temptations,
from nature's failings,
from all who wish to harm me,
far or near,
alone and in a crowd.
Around me I gather today all these powers:
against every cruel and merciless force,
to attack my body and soul,
against the charms of false prophets,
the black laws of paganism,
the false laws of heretics,
the deceptions of idolatry,
against spells cast by women, smiths, and druids,
and all unlawful knowledge
that harms the body and soul.
May Christ protect my today:
against poison and burning,
against drowning and wounding,
so that I may have abundant reward;
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me;
Christ in my lying, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising;
Christ in the heart of all who think of me,
Christ on the tongue of all who speak to me,
Christ in the eye of all who see me,
Christ in the ear of all who hear me.
I rise today:
in the power's strength, invoking the Trinity,
believing the threeness,
confessing the oneness,
of Creation's Creator.
For to the Lord belongs salvation,
and to the Lord belongs salvation,
and to Christ belongs salvations.
May your salvation, Lord, be with us always.

Dracula

You all need to come and see this next weekend! MUST!!!! :)

The Misses Vickers

Super Happy Fun Time!

I'd forgotten how much I love the Getty! While we were at the Getty we visited an exhibit on French Illuminations. Now, you have to understand that for Torrey I did my presentation on The Consolation of Philosophy and thus I have this sort of strange love for all things related to it. So when I saw these, I nearly jumped out of my skin!



Illustrations from a manuscript from "The Consolation of Philosophy." They are just so beautiful, and to actually see them was neat.

Muffins!!

ALGERNON
If it was my business, I wouldn't talk about it. [Begins to eat muffins.] It is very vulgar to talk about one's business. Only people like stock-brokers do that, and then merely at dinner parties.
JACK
How can you sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can't make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless.
ALGERNON
Well, I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.
JACK
I say it's perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.
ALGERNON
When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, when I am in really great trouble, as any one who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink. At the present moment I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins. [Rising.]
JACK
[Rising.] Well, that is no reason why you should eat them all in that greedy way. [Takes muffins from ALGERNON.]
ALGERNON
[Offering tea-cake.] I wish you would have tea-cake instead. I don't like tea-cake.
JACK
Good heavens! I suppose a man may eat his own muffins in his own garden.
ALGERNON
But you have just said it was perfectly heartless to eat muffins.
JACK
I said it was perfectly heartless of you, under the circumstances. That is a very different thing.
ALGERNON
That may be. But the muffins are the same. [He seizes the muffin-dish from JACK.]
JACK
Algy, I wish to goodness you would go.

A Poem (by me)

The call strikes and the shadows descend,
Morose, like statues they stand,
Through their faint whispers no message they send
A sea of grey tombstones upon the dead land.
The call strikes again yet no one pays heed,
No ringer required for this bell,
All come to witness the hideous deed
And see one more friend sent to hell.
One step on the grass and the earth beneath shakes
A glint from the hand blinds the eyes
Yet not from the shadows a quiver or quake
The moment before someone dies.
A footstep replies from across the straight way,
The ominous call repeats once again,
Time has come finally for one man to pay,
Two shadows face off on the plain.
How long is the wait before it begins?
The terror is strung on the air,
The final result of man's mortal sins,
All passions and hatred laid bare
Four shoulders heave as they're turned back to back
The shimmer of sweat on the brow,
Eyes bright and fierce but compassion they lack,
Sworn to murder with one solemn vow.
Each step that they take seems as long as a year
Time herself has stopped dead in her tracks,
But from the shadows no sorrow nor tear
Swiftly two shadows turn to attack.
A clear shot rings out upon the thin air
Each shadow piously lowers his head
An offers to God one silent prayer,
For the soul of the one who lays dead.
The shadows move not, but fixed in one place,
This ghastly performance now done
No grief do they feel, nor joy at the face
Of death who feels pity for none.
Feelings devoid, the shadows depart,
Leaving one victor to stand,
Nevermore beating one cold senseless heart,
The final curtain, the duel to demand.

Nerves

Oh man, yesterday I had a voice recital and I cannot tell you how nervous I was! I usually do not get nervous about performing in front of others, including when I'm performing in plays (although for Torrey I was nervous about my presentation, but perhaps that was because I was presenting an argument that I created and that my teacher and/or peers could rip apart at any moment) but for some reason I was so freaked out. However once I actually go up to the microphone to sing, all of the butterflies in my stomach suddenly disappeared and I actually had fun! *sigh* I was so happy though once I was done. I felt like I did very well and my voice teacher, my parents, and many other people in attendance said I did a good job, so I'm happy. It was also a pleasure to hear all of the other singers who did phenomenal jobs. Huzzah! Anywhoo, I went to Mater Dei on Saturday to take the SAT tests. Again, I was rather nervous, but this was partially due to the fact that 1) I was taking the SATs, 2) that it was an entirely new campus to me and I had no idea where I was supposed to be (especially since they were having another gathering on the campus, so I followed a large crowd hoping that they were taking the SATs, only to find out a little later that I was in the wrong place *sigh*). At least the atmosphere at Mater Dei was nicer than when I took the SATs at a nearby public high school where every other word was a curse or where there were obscene things written on the desk I was sitting at...yeah....well, I am in the midst of writing a poem so hopefully I will have that to post sometime soon! :)

Which Jane Austen Character Are You?

Apparently, according to a quiz that my friend Jane sent me a while ago, I am Elizabeth Bennet from "Pride & Prejudice"

The first time I took this quiz I was Marianne from "Sense and Sensibility" but after i thought about it, this did not seem to really fit my personality. So I retook the quiz (this time carefully considering each question) and I was Lizzy (which is so cool, because I really love that character). So at the request of some of my friends I am posting a link to the quiz. Which Jane Austen character are you? Find out

Like a Painful Brainfreeze

My sister and I were flipping through the channels on the television the other night while we were waiting for another show to come on and we landed on the CBS show "CSI: Miami." I apologize in advance to anyone who reads this and loves to watch that show, because...well.....
First off, the colors of the show are so overpowering. Everything has a bright orange or yellow tint, but I assume that this is to give the impression that it is hot outside. Still, it almost gives you a headache to watch. We came in about five minutes late, just as the main detective "Horatio Caine" arrived at the scene of the murder. And, I must say I could not help but laugh! A the beginning of EVERY episode, he comes in, asks the coroner some questions, takes his hip sunglasses off, says something dramatic and "profound", puts the sunglasses back on, says something else dramatic and then swoops out of the shot. I cannot comment too much about the other actors on the show (we kept changing channels), but it gave me great pleasure when the entire cast met at the end of the episode and sauntered off into the sunset. I place this in comparison to my current favorite television show (that is still on the air) Numb3rs (CBS, Fridays at 10:00pm).
This show, also a crime-solving show, has good character development; you discover that you can relate to the faults and strengths of each of them. The acting on this show (including even the more minor characters) is great, and the best thing, it actually makes math INTERESTING!!! I know, weird huh...Anywhooo... I just thought I would share my dislike for CSI: Miami and my love for Numb3rs. :)