James the Taylor, plus your post in January about your anniversary and staples in your tuxedo are my all time favorites. So funny in the telling, yet the ultimate point you made in both brought tears just the same. Thank you for all you all do at The Pillar!
--> Bravo, Sweet Baby, bravo! This is one of your "Greatest Hits". Thank you for sharing your gift of sober reflection, softened and made enjoyable - even entertaining - by a jocular wit.
--> On the other hand, the stories of Bl. Stanislaw Starowieyski and Nazir Masih are just sobering. I can let my imagination run sometimes and start to believe that I have it tough being an open, devout Christian in today's Western society. But, then I read what real persecution looks like, and I am called back to reality. Though I certainly do not want to have to be tested as they were, I pray that God give me the strength of Faith that these wonderful witnesses displayed. And may the Holy Spirit console all those precious souls who are similarly being tested in the world today. Bl. Stanislaw, pray for us.
-->(On a related note: My wife and I danced to JT's "Something in the Way She Moves" at our wedding reception. His whole catalogue is full of great songs, and I'm sure he gave a wonderful concert.)
so THIS ? is the "true" story of JD got his (your) Name? can't be beat Here is to each Mom and every Dad I like that he got to see His Mom while grandson gets to a concert . I have serious concert going sons as well as Perfoming artists. Baptised in the "Faith" some of their siblings ( I have six children) and I ( aged 82 born in the Indian Ocean) may at last see" Kindness and Truth ..meet" and "Justice and Peace- Kiss" So IHope and pray esp after ..NOV 24...and onto JAN 6 ..2025.. one hundred years after 1925. Cheers.
“I’m quite happy to stretch and reshape things a bit for the sake of a good tale…”
Fully agree. The point of a story is to entertain not to inform. My ethics is this regard are to never self aggrandize, brag, or steal someone else’s story. Other than that, changes will be made for the sake of brevity, flow, etc.
Thanks for this sweet story. I have a grandson named James and I sing it to him - oh, no, not again, Grandma! 😍 We have a tiny venue here in our tiny town and it works for us.
@JD Flynn, I really don’t mean to upend part of your statement, but I would like you to know the my family IS Norwegian and my parents named me Carl-Eric (my dad’s name is Eric). So it’s not all fibs 😉
What a joy to hear that I’m not the only Catholic in the USA with a hyphen!
How refreshing to “hear” something from SAINT John Paul the Great!
My wife and were graced with tickets to attend The Mass he presided at in Candlestick Park, who culminated his visit to San Francisco. What many people (even Catholics) don’t know is that his sermons and speeches were always explicitly Christocentric (unlike the current pope).
And at the end of the Mass, after the dismissal, the last thing he shouted into the microphone was:
“ALL PRAISE TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST !!! “.
He did this at each of the Masses he celebrated here in the U.S.
And every time It was censored out by ALL media present.
And it was obvious he didn’t hate America - having suffered under the heels of communazifasciocialism, he was in no way enamored of it the way the current pope is.
I’m going to push back on your assessment there. I just finished a dissertation on Pope John Paul II’s homilies and public addresses on his visits to Mexico. (I read A LOT of his homilies, with additional comparative sampling from other travels and events). The final write up only featured JPII’s 1990 and 1993 visit. His homilies were indeed, often Christo-centric, but also equally Marian. Especially in Mexico. However, most of Pope Francis’s homilies I would argue are also Christo-centric and I’ve also experienced him in person in Brazil. Is he as systematic thinker as Pope John Paul II with a clear vision for his entire papacy being an education for the faithful into a Christian Personalism of which Christ is at the centre of the anthropology? No. He’s a different man, and not a philosopher or theologian of the calibre of John Paul II. from the homilies of Pope Francis I have read/experienced, he is a man who loves Christ, knows him to be the way the truth and the life and says so.
You can love Pope John Paul II, but the shade for the current Pope is clearly unnecessary and is petty and disrespectful to the office.
Also, don’t forget Pope Francis survived Latin American “communazifascisocialsim” which often gets left out of the wider body count of 20th century. He’s no more enamoured of it than Pope John Paul II is. He just ‘got lucky’ in experiencing similar regime that was less competent than European totalitarian regimes. It was also NOT lost on Pope Francis that most of the worst political and theological troublemakers were often educated in Europe and bought their ideology back to colonise Latin America (and Asia and Africa). American Liberalism was just as dehumanising in a different way (as Pope John Paul II railed against in the 1990s especially, see Cenntesiums Annum).
So go and love Pope John Paul II, he’s a saint, doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk to the other guy who isn’t and it isn’t exactly charitable. My grandparents who sat on the Pontifical council
On the Family for 25 years under Pope John Paul II loved him and cried like children who’s father died when he passed. They also love Pope Francis (and attended the synod on the Family too) and both Popes have frustrated them at times, because we’re all human.
I love that you and your mom went to see James Taylor together!! When our son was 6, I scored a pair of great tickets to see James Taylor. My husband was out of town so our son was my date that night for his first concert. I hope you two had as much fun as we did 23 years ago!! Thank you and all the Pillar crew so much for all that you do!!
How wonderful! Even though we lived on the Western Slope for 17 1/2 years we never made it to a concert at Red Rocks. Too bad.
I love live concerts, they are so different from the recorded songs.
Your mom looks like a lovely person, thanks for sharing your personal story, Sweet Baby James!
James the Taylor, plus your post in January about your anniversary and staples in your tuxedo are my all time favorites. So funny in the telling, yet the ultimate point you made in both brought tears just the same. Thank you for all you all do at The Pillar!
--> Bravo, Sweet Baby, bravo! This is one of your "Greatest Hits". Thank you for sharing your gift of sober reflection, softened and made enjoyable - even entertaining - by a jocular wit.
--> On the other hand, the stories of Bl. Stanislaw Starowieyski and Nazir Masih are just sobering. I can let my imagination run sometimes and start to believe that I have it tough being an open, devout Christian in today's Western society. But, then I read what real persecution looks like, and I am called back to reality. Though I certainly do not want to have to be tested as they were, I pray that God give me the strength of Faith that these wonderful witnesses displayed. And may the Holy Spirit console all those precious souls who are similarly being tested in the world today. Bl. Stanislaw, pray for us.
-->(On a related note: My wife and I danced to JT's "Something in the Way She Moves" at our wedding reception. His whole catalogue is full of great songs, and I'm sure he gave a wonderful concert.)
Might it be more fair and perhaps closer to the truth to say that the bear wrestled you, JD? :)
I didn't know the story of Blessed Stanislaw Kostka Starowieyski (whose name I copied and pasted...). Thanks for sharing.
Now I can carry on reading the article ;)
so THIS ? is the "true" story of JD got his (your) Name? can't be beat Here is to each Mom and every Dad I like that he got to see His Mom while grandson gets to a concert . I have serious concert going sons as well as Perfoming artists. Baptised in the "Faith" some of their siblings ( I have six children) and I ( aged 82 born in the Indian Ocean) may at last see" Kindness and Truth ..meet" and "Justice and Peace- Kiss" So IHope and pray esp after ..NOV 24...and onto JAN 6 ..2025.. one hundred years after 1925. Cheers.
“I’m quite happy to stretch and reshape things a bit for the sake of a good tale…”
Fully agree. The point of a story is to entertain not to inform. My ethics is this regard are to never self aggrandize, brag, or steal someone else’s story. Other than that, changes will be made for the sake of brevity, flow, etc.
Billy Graham and Willie Nelson. Now there's a gig I would have paid good money to attend.
Nazir Masih is not his actual name; "masih" in Urdu means "Christian". He is Nazir, the Christian.
cool. thank you.
Thanks for this sweet story. I have a grandson named James and I sing it to him - oh, no, not again, Grandma! 😍 We have a tiny venue here in our tiny town and it works for us.
God bless!
Go Rockies (or, at least, get out of last place)!
@JD Flynn, I really don’t mean to upend part of your statement, but I would like you to know the my family IS Norwegian and my parents named me Carl-Eric (my dad’s name is Eric). So it’s not all fibs 😉
What a joy to hear that I’m not the only Catholic in the USA with a hyphen!
Your avid reader,
Carl-Eric “CE” Tangen
Whoa. I’m gonna have to sit with this news.
How refreshing to “hear” something from SAINT John Paul the Great!
My wife and were graced with tickets to attend The Mass he presided at in Candlestick Park, who culminated his visit to San Francisco. What many people (even Catholics) don’t know is that his sermons and speeches were always explicitly Christocentric (unlike the current pope).
And at the end of the Mass, after the dismissal, the last thing he shouted into the microphone was:
“ALL PRAISE TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST !!! “.
He did this at each of the Masses he celebrated here in the U.S.
And every time It was censored out by ALL media present.
And it was obvious he didn’t hate America - having suffered under the heels of communazifasciocialism, he was in no way enamored of it the way the current pope is.
Supposed to be “which culminated”……
I’m going to push back on your assessment there. I just finished a dissertation on Pope John Paul II’s homilies and public addresses on his visits to Mexico. (I read A LOT of his homilies, with additional comparative sampling from other travels and events). The final write up only featured JPII’s 1990 and 1993 visit. His homilies were indeed, often Christo-centric, but also equally Marian. Especially in Mexico. However, most of Pope Francis’s homilies I would argue are also Christo-centric and I’ve also experienced him in person in Brazil. Is he as systematic thinker as Pope John Paul II with a clear vision for his entire papacy being an education for the faithful into a Christian Personalism of which Christ is at the centre of the anthropology? No. He’s a different man, and not a philosopher or theologian of the calibre of John Paul II. from the homilies of Pope Francis I have read/experienced, he is a man who loves Christ, knows him to be the way the truth and the life and says so.
You can love Pope John Paul II, but the shade for the current Pope is clearly unnecessary and is petty and disrespectful to the office.
Also, don’t forget Pope Francis survived Latin American “communazifascisocialsim” which often gets left out of the wider body count of 20th century. He’s no more enamoured of it than Pope John Paul II is. He just ‘got lucky’ in experiencing similar regime that was less competent than European totalitarian regimes. It was also NOT lost on Pope Francis that most of the worst political and theological troublemakers were often educated in Europe and bought their ideology back to colonise Latin America (and Asia and Africa). American Liberalism was just as dehumanising in a different way (as Pope John Paul II railed against in the 1990s especially, see Cenntesiums Annum).
So go and love Pope John Paul II, he’s a saint, doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk to the other guy who isn’t and it isn’t exactly charitable. My grandparents who sat on the Pontifical council
On the Family for 25 years under Pope John Paul II loved him and cried like children who’s father died when he passed. They also love Pope Francis (and attended the synod on the Family too) and both Popes have frustrated them at times, because we’re all human.
Blessed Stanislaw’s life is the inspiration we need in the West right now. I wish I could share it !
I love that you and your mom went to see James Taylor together!! When our son was 6, I scored a pair of great tickets to see James Taylor. My husband was out of town so our son was my date that night for his first concert. I hope you two had as much fun as we did 23 years ago!! Thank you and all the Pillar crew so much for all that you do!!