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O Emmanuel

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O Emmanuel  (Isa 7: 14; 8: 8),  our King and Lawgiver (Gen 49:10; cf. Ezek 21: 32), the Expected of the nations and their Savior (Isa 33: 22): Come, and save us, O Lord our God. Veni, Veni, Emmanuel captivum solve Israel, qui gemit in exsilio, privatus Dei Filio. (1) O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel! Gaude! Gaude! Emmanuel nascetur pro te Israel! Isaiah 7:14 Matthew 1:23 1 Timothy 4:9 Psalm 14:7 Phil 4:4

O Rex Gentium

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O King of the Gentiles  (Hag 2: 8),  and the Desired of all, You are the Cornerstone that binds two into one (Eph 2: 20). * Come, and save man whom You fashioned out of clay (Gen 2: 7). Veni, Veni, Rex Gentium, Veni, Redemptor omnium, ut salvas tuos famulos peccati sibi conscios. (7) O Come, Desire of the nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind; bid every strife and quarrel cease and fill the world with heaven's peace. Isaiah 2:4; 11:10 Psalm 47:8; Jeremiah 10:7 Daniel 7:14; Haggai 2:8 Romans 15:12 Ephesians 2:14, 20

O Rising Dawn

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O Rising Dawn,  (Zac 6: 12),  Radiance of the Light eternal (Hab 3: 4) and Sun of Justice (Mal 3: 20): * come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Ps 107: 10; Lk 1: 78). Veni, Veni O Oriens, solare nos adveniens, noctis depelle nebulas, dirasque mortis tenebras. (6) O Come, Thou Dayspring from on high, and cheer us by thy drawing nigh; disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadow put to flight. Isaiah 9:1; 58:8; 60:18-20 Malachi 4:2 Luke 1:78-79 John 8:12 Revelation 22:16

O Key of David

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O Key of David,  (Apoc 3: 7)  and Scepter of the house of Israel: You open and no man closes; you close and no man opens (Isa 22: 22). * Come, and deliver him from the chains of prison who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death (Ps 107: 10).                             Veni, Clavis Davidica, regna reclude caelica, fac iter tutum superum, et claude vias inferum. (5) O Come, Thou Key of David, come, and open wide our heav'nly home, make safe the way that leads on high, that we no more have cause to sigh. Revelation 3:7 Isaiah 22:22 Jeremiah 13:13; 51:19 Matthew 4:16; 16:19 Luke 1:79

O Root of Jessie

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O Root of Jesse ,  You stand for the ensign of mankind (Isa 11: 10); before You kings shall keep silence and to You all nations shall have recourse (Isa 52: 15). * Come, save us, and do not delay (Hab 2: 3). Veni, O Iesse virgula, ex hostis tuos ungula, de spectu tuos tartari educ et antro barathri. (4) O Come, Thou Rod of Jesse's stem, from ev'ry foe deliver them that trust Thy mighty power to save, and give them vict'ry o'er the grave. Isaiah 11:1, 10 Isaiah 52:15 Romans 15:12

O Adonai

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O Adonai  (Exod 6: 13)  and Ruler of the house of Israel (Matt 2: 6), You appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush (Exod 3: 2) and on Mount Sinai gave him Your Law (Exod 20). * Come, and with an outstretched arm redeem us (Jer 32: 21). Veni, Veni, Adonai, qui populo in Sinai legem dedisti vertice in maiestate gloriae. (3) O Come, O Come, Thou Lord of might, who to thy tribes on Sinai's height in ancient times didst give the law, in cloud , and majesty, and awe. Exodus 3:2 Isaiah 33:22; 63:11-12 Micah 6:4 Acts 7:30-31

O Wisdom

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O Wisdom  (Eccl 24: 5),  You came forth from the mouth of the Most High (Sir 24: 30), and reaching from beginning to end You ordered all things mightily and sweetly (Wis 8: 1). * Come, and teach us the way of prudence (Isa 40: 14). Veni, O Sapientia, quae hic disponis omnia, Veni, viam prudentiae ut doceas et gloriae. (2) O Come, Thou Wisdom, from on high, and order all things far and nigh; to us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go. Wisdom 8:1 Isaiah 11:2-3; 28:29 Proverbs 8:1-36 John 1:1-5

The End is in Sight and Other Random Things

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While the picture really doesn't have anything to do with the semester ending next week I liked it and wanted to use a picture in this post. In case I haven't mentioned this before, a large majority of the photos that I include in my posts are from the website Unsplash . Since it is the end of the semester and finals are happening for a lot of people, mine are next week, I was going to write a post about it being the end of the semester. But I am not entirely sure if I would be able to do that without boring people to death with it. So I am not going to do that. Instead I am going to just write about a bunch of random topics like I usually end up doing when I don't have anything specific in mind that I want to write about. Of course the end of the school semester also means Christmas is almost here. And that means that I have to start getting Christmas presents. The parental figures are easy to get presents for since my siblings and I always get them something togethe

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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  " 2  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a  joyful noise  to him with psalms.  3  For the Lord is a great God, and a great  King  above all gods.  4  For in his hand are all the ends of the  earth : and the heights of the mountains are his."  -- Psalm 95:2-4

The Longest Knitting Project Ever...

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Here is the story behind the pillows that I was making, that I said I would tell here. Middle Picture: the original idea. Right and Left Pictures: The pillow cases It all started back in January when I decided to knit a blanket for one of my cousin's who had just gotten engaged. After looking for the right yarn and Michael's, and Wal-Mart, I found fluffy white and black yarn at Hobby Lobby that I decided to use. Once I got several balls of yarn I started working on the blanket. The first blanket pattern I used wasn't turning out like the picture that came with the pattern, I think that was because I wasn't reading the pattern correctly. So I decided to ditch that pattern and start over with a different pattern. After five tries and a lot of tears, hand cramping, and frustration, there wasn't really any tears I just thought it sounded good, I gave up on trying to make anything with the yarn. It was a pain in the neck to use and by the fifth try it wasn

Foggy Night

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It was a foggy night And things were hidden from sight. Frosting up windows with dew. Hard to see But easy to hear. Thickly rolled the fog. ------------------------------------- That is the only part of a poem that I started writing a week ago. I started writing it after I came home late from work one day and had to drive through some really thick fog. There was supposed to be more to the poem, but I ran out of ideas and then forgot about it. Since we moved into town and out of the country, I liked the fact the I wasn't driving through thick fog in complete darkness to get home. Even though the street lights helped some, it was still really foggy out. Although I did have the help of streetlights all the way home I still don't like driving at night in fog, or rain/wind. The very first time I had to drive through thick fog at night was a few days after I first got my license and I was the designated driver for when Amanda, Yavi and I went to choir practice on Mo

Ready...Set...Stop...

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 As you can probably see from my word counter for NaNoWriMo , I am not doing that well in my writing. The reason for that is because I have run out of steam and writing ideas for my work in progress. I have also been doing research for a persuasive speech that I have to give next week on Thursday. But today/yesterday/whatever you want to call it, I found two writing prompts on Pinterest, what else is new, that started giving me ideas. Whether or not I use them to finish NaNo this year or not is another story. Even if I don't get around to finishing NaNo this year I can still try to work on my story the rest of the year. Besides not finishing NaNo, school has been going well. Though it is hard to believe that the semester is almost over already. In the spring I am taking a psychology 101 class, Microsoft Word II and a third document formatting class. The psychology class sounds like it will be really interesting. The other two classes that I am taking in the spring are continua

This Thing Called NaNoWriMo...

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Yes I am doing NaNoWriMo Or National Novel Writing Month, this year. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to or not because of school and moving. But I decided to do it. This is what my word count currently looks like. Part of the reason why I don't have a ton of words written yet is because I am having a hard time with finding ideas that work with my story. I did come up with an outline, that I am sort of following, but I also came up with another idea I want to try and slip into my story. Part of what made me decide to do NaNo this year was because it would make me start writing the story that is in my head. Even if I don't reach 50,000 words by the end of the month I am still going to work on my story. After November is over I might post a few snippets of my story, or I might post one or two short segments before then. Who knows. So that you can how I am doing with my writing I am putting a participation badge over on the side.While I go continue to write a

Searching

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This is an original poem that I wrote and wanted to share on here. It's not the greatest thing ever written, but I hope you enjoy reading it. Searching high, Searching low, Turning left and right. What is it That I seek? Does it have a name? Surrounded by everything, But always alone. Somethings in the air, And ready to be found. Ready to find What can't be seen. Searching in circles I go round and round. Sight, smell, sound, taste, touch. With all five I search, For what I can't see. Does it have a name? Will I know what it is When I find it? No one knows and No one seems to care. Blindly I search, Until I can search no more. When I stop I hope to find What it is that I have Been searching for.

This Crazy Thing Called Life

In the past month or so my life has gotten a little bit more crazy than normal. The reason for that is because my family and I are moving and we have been packing up the house. Last week we started working on the things in our new house that needed to be fixed. We all love our new house, though it doesn't feel like ours yet. Even though we will be in a neighborhood there is a library right across the street from the house. There is also a forest preserve across the street as well. On Sunday afternoon, after church, I learned how to paint a bedroom. I am sharing a room with two sisters and the light green color in our new bedroom needed to be updated. Now it is a very pretty blue gray color. My other sisters room is a little on the bright side, because three walls are painted purple and the last wall is painted pink. But they like it and they are having one of their friends paint a few fairies one one wall. Once we move in, it will be extra crazy around the house with all of

Life Stinks

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I was just reminded the other day that life stinks and that there really isn't a whole lot that we can do about it. Would it be nice if things went the way that we wanted them too? Sure it would be nice to have that happen. But life doesn't work like that and would we be truly happy? If life worked the way that we wanted it too, hardly anything would get done. Not to mention we would stop being happy with it all. Since having life go the way we want it to in order to be happy, what will make us happy? The answer to that question is fairly simple. In order to find true happiness in our lives we need to turn to God. When we turn to God and ask him for help we find ourselves on the road to finding true happiness. Will it be easy? No it won't be easy, but we just need to trust in God in order for it to start becoming a little bit easier each time. Of course if you don't ask God for help you won't be getting anywhere and life will still be stinking terribly. Onc

The End of the Dock

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This is another short, short story that I spontaneously decided to write and share on here. I hope you enjoy reading it. Walking to the end of the rickety old dock Kailee sat down on the edge and let her feet hang in the water. Ever since she could remember Kailee had spent three weeks out of the summer up at the cabin with her family and she always hated when they had to leave. Sighing Kailee wished that they didn't have to leave the next day and that their family vacation wasn't over already. As she sat there watching the sunset on the horizon Kailee felt the dock rock gently as someone walked down to the end. Not turning around Kailee knew who it was by the sound of the of their footsteps. As her dad sat down next to her on the end of the dock Kailee smiled and pulled her feet out of the water. Giving Kailee a hug her dad asked if she was ready to go. Even though she didn't feel like leaving, she nodded her head yes. Getting up, now that the sun had disappeared, K

Veneration

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Last night I had the opportunity to venerate the major relics of St. Maria Goretti !! It was an amazing experience. She came to a church in my area and there was over 15,000 people who came, some people drove 2-3 hours to be there. My family and I were at the mass that was in honor of St. Maria and there was people standing in the back of the church. The gym in the church's school was for overflow, but I don't know if anyone was in there watching the live streaming that the church was doing of the mass. It is a little washed out but I was able to get a picture of the reliquary. When I left the church a little after 9:00 p.m. the line of people who were waiting to venerate the relics wrapped around the side of the school building. The venerating was supposed to end at 11:00 p.m. but there was still people in line at 11:30. Here is a link to the website with the remaining tour dates of the relics. If she is going to be in your area I highly recommend that you go and vis

Fred the Jellyfish - An Original Short Story

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This is a short story that I was inspired to write by the picture. Even though I don't really know much about jellyfish I hope you enjoy reading my short story. A long, long time ago, in the depths of the ocean there lived a lonely jelly fish named Fred. He was always looking for friends to hang with in the blue waters of the ocean. But no one wanted to be his friend and that made Fred very sad.  As he continued to swim along and find new friends Fred wondered what it was like out of the water. But every time he tried to reach the top of the water, the waves pushed Fred back under. Not giving up Fred continued to try, until one day when he grew too tired of the waves constantly pushing him back under the water again.  One day as he was swimming along Fred finally made some friends in a large group of jellyfish. Happy to have some friends at last Fred stayed with them as they continued to swim around. After traveling the ocean with his friends and having the time of his

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...Oh My!

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This post only has to do with the last thing mentioned in the title. But that is besides the point. Anyhow, I decided to rant a little, because I need to do it right now. Since the beginning of the summer I have been having a bit of trouble with my car. The first round of problems were on the minor side and easy to fix. The second time my car had to get taken in to get fixed it was because it started shaking. We had taken it in to get it fixed, but the problem hadn't been addressed then. Before it got taken in to get fixed the second time, it stopped working on me while I was driving it. After that it got taken in and the problem actually got fixed. Now, for the past week or so, the car has been making grinding related noises. Since I am off today and tomorrow we took it in once I was out of class to get the problem fixed. Hopefully this fixes all of the problems for good. For the past few weeks the bottom of my computer has been heating up rather fast. Since it starte

Random Balls of Yarn

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Well it's actually only one ball of yarn and I just took a couple pictures to share here. I originally wasn't going to post at all this week, but then I changed my mind.  The idea behind my ball of yarn came off of Pinterest, like the majority of the things that I mention on here. A while ago, as I was scrolling through Pinterest, I came across a pin that showed you how to turn the scraps of yarn into one big ball without having to tie knots. So I saved it and decided to give it a try not to long ago. Well I couldn't figure out how to do it like how it was being shown in the picture, so I gave up and started tying a bunch of knots in the yarn. As I kept going and finding more yarn to add on, the ball ended up turning into what is seen in the pictures. Now that I am pretty much finished with adding yarn I have no idea on what I am going to do with it. I had thought of using it for a blanket, but I don't know if there is enough yarn for that. Not to mention

Have Courage and Be Kind

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If I am already kind to others and show courage, why do I still need to remember to that? It is one thing to say that we are kind, or that we have courage. But it is another thing to actually live those words out. There are many different ways to show that you have courage or are kind and to actually live them out. When you say that you do those words often do you really know what they mean? Here are the definitions of Kindness and Courage that are found in the American Heritage Dictionary : kind·ness    n. 1.  The quality or state of being kind. 2.  An instance of kind behavior:   Your kindnesses won't be forgotten. cour·age    n. The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.  By reading over the definitions for these words you know have a better understanding of what they actually mean. But how would they be put into practice? And how would you know when

Hardly Ever Perfect

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Last week I had written a blog post that I was going to share, but then I changed my mind. I changed my mind on posting it because I didn't think that it was good enough to share. I had started writing another post to share. But I didn't get very far with it because I couldn't think of the right words to say. Why as humans do we have this constant need for perfection? The way that I see it is that has humans we will always have a hard time being completely perfect. Below is the definition of the word perfection from the American Heritage Dictionary  (the definition for perfect can be found here ). Perfection:  n. 1.  The quality or condition of being perfect. 2.  The act or process of perfecting:   Perfection of the invention took years. 3.  A person or thing considered to be perfect. 4.  An instance of excellence. After reading the definitions for the words perfect  and perfection  you can see why people are always saying that things and people are perfect

Family Adventures and Bonding Time

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taken by me Since my mom's birthday and Labor day were the same day, she wanted to celebrate this past weekend. On Saturday we started the day off, since the kids didn't have soccer, by going to look at a house that is for sale in our area. It was a pretty decent house and on a nice quiet street. After walking around the house for an hour we went out to a nearby restaurant for lunch. I have been to the place where we went for lunch a few times before and they have good food. For church on Sunday my mom wanted to go to the Byzantine Liturgy, so we went. If you haven't ever been to the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, I highly recommend that you go to one. Taken by my mom After that the plan was to eat lunch in the car as we drove to a beach that a lot of our friends had gone too before and go swimming for a couple hours and then have dinner later. But by the time we left church and got there it was full. So we drove another twenty minutes to a different beach, but

7 Quick Takes Friday

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--1-- I finished the pillow last week. According to my siblings the pillow is the first project that I have finished in a while. It is only like that because I was trying to make a blanket with yarn that was really hard to use and figure out. And I already started working on the second pillow and I will post one or two pictures when I remember too do so. The yarn that I am using for the second pillow reminds me of cotton candy. --2-- School is going good so far. This week and last week I just had my speech class and starting on this coming Tuesday my two online classes are starting. One of my online classes is a continuation of a class that I took back in the spring, so it shouldn't be that hard and the second online class is just learning about the ins and outs of Microsoft Word. One thing that I like about my Speech teacher is that she has been doing activities in class that help us with listening.  --3-- A couple weeks ago I was at the library in town and

Always Say Thank You

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How often do you hear someone saying thank you? When was the last time that you said thank you to someone? * Thank you is a very simple and very easy phrase to slip into your daily conversations. No matter where you are or who you are with or what you are doing at that moment always remember to say thank you for any help that you receive. No matter where you are thank you is a phrase that you often hear and have said to you. It is often said to you by cashiers, the lunch lady, baristas, family members, and many other people that you will meet at some point in your life. While others may say thank you to you, how often do you say thank you in return? Just by simply saying thank you to someone say it with a smile, because it could make someone's day just hearing those two simple words. There will always be people out in the world who don't say thank you to someone who helps them, no matter how simple and easy it is to slip it into a conversation. While there will alway

Almost Finished

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As I'm sure everyone knows by now, I have been working on knitting a pillowcase and that I got the idea for it off of Pinterest. Well I have finished kitting the case and sewn it together already. If you want to get technical about it I actually crocheted the sides together. I did that because in the pattern that I followed it said that crocheting the edges together gives it a cleaner look than sewing it together. So I figured that I would give it a try since I had taught my self how to crochet several months ago. While the edges might not have turned out to be the straightest I still think that crocheting the sides together was a lot better than sewing them. So now that I am finished knitting and sewing it together I just need the pillow that will be going inside. Now that I am done crocheting the pillowcase I could just go back to working on a blanket that I started knitting two years ago and never finished, but I decided to start working on another pillowcase. This o

7 Quick Takes Friday

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--1-- Since it's been over a month since I did my last 7 Quick Takes I decided to do another one. I am also doing it because I couldn't think of anything else to really post about that would make a long enough post by itself.  --2-- Last week after I had put this post up on my blog, I randomly decided to check the audience views to see how many different countries were viewing my blog. Needless to say I was very surprised to see all of the page views that I had from Romania. Normally the US is on top with a couple other countries underneath.  <--- That is from Sunday when I checked the page views again to see if anything had changed at all.  --3-- With school starting right around the corner, literally, because it starts on Tuesday for me, I thought I would do something for one of my quick takes. Last week I bought the books that I need for the three classes that I am taking this semester and I was thankfully able to save myself