WHAT IS TRUE LOVE?

Succeed In Life Center - Malaysia

The Australian ex-model Turia Pitt suffered burns to 65 per cent of her body, lost her fingers and thumb on her right hand and spent five months in hospital aft...er she was trapped by a grassfire in a 100 kilometre ultra-marathon in the Kimberley. Her boyfriend decided to quit his job to care for her recovery. Days ago, in an interview for CNN they asked him:

"Did you at any moment think about leaving her and hiring someone to take her of her and moving on with your life?"
His reply touched the world:
"I married her soul, her character, and she's the only woman that will continue to fulfill my dreams."

Lesson for Parents

A LESSON FOR PERMISSIVE PARENTS. Loving our children means keeping them from harm, protecting them from self-destructing and keeping them within the bounds of good morals and right conduct. We may not always succeed, but we keep on at it. And pray ceaselessly for them to travel the right road to their ultimate destiny. The right road, as our visiting pastor powerfully emphasized today in his homily.
"You gave her too much independence too soon," said Joe Keffer, Cullen's father. "You failed to protect her."
Touching words from a victim's father. We share the following story by Michael Rubinkam.
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Dad of 15-year-old who crashed SUV, killing 3, gets prison
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press
2 days ago
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HONESDALE, Pa. — A suburban New York man who allowed his unlicensed 15-year-old daughter to drive an SUV that crashed in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, killing three of her friends, was sentenced Thursday to up to 16 years in prison by a judge who called his behavior "reckless, stupid and selfish."
Michael Ware, 54, was given a lengthy sentence partly because he lied to investigators about giving his daughter the keys, allowing her to shoulder all the blame for the crash, said Wayne County President Judge Ray Hamill.
"What kind of father does this?" Hamill asked incredulously.
The crash on Aug. 30, 2014, killed Ryan Lesher, Shamus Digney and Cullen Keffer, all 15-year-old sophomores at Council Rock High School in suburban Philadelphia. Three others were hurt.
Ware, who pleaded guilty last month to three counts each of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment, apologized in a brief statement.
"I cannot begin to say how sorry I am," Ware, of Scarsdale, told the judge. "Neither I nor my daughter meant any harm to anyone that day. May those boys rest in peace."
His words rang hollow to the parents of the dead teens. They spoke in court of their pain and their anger toward Ware, who had allowed his daughter to drive on several occasions before the crash, including from New York to their vacation home in Pennsylvania.
"Your desire to be the cool dad devastated an entire community," said Ryan's mother, Lisa Lesher.
Hamill, his voice rising, repeatedly called Ware's actions "preventable, irresponsible, reckless, stupid and selfish" and said he had failed as a father.
Ware's lawyer, Robert Reno, had asked for a sentence of 12 to 23 months. Outside court, he called the sentence "ridiculous" and said there would be an appeal.
Prosecutors said Ware allowed his daughter to drive his Chevrolet Suburban from their Paupack Township home with one of her friends. She then picked up four boys and drove to a restaurant for breakfast. On the way back, she lost control of the SUV and flipped it.
"He basically gave his daughter a gun and put the bullets in it for her," said Wilson Black, Shamus' uncle.
Ware told authorities at the crash scene that his daughter took the vehicle without permission. The girl backed his story "so as not to get him in trouble," according to court documents. It wasn't until two months later that one of the passengers came forward and told police that Ware had given his daughter the keys.
Ware's daughter acknowledged responsibility to vehicular homicide counts in juvenile court and was placed on indefinite probation. She also was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service, pay restitution and write a 2,000-word essay on the impact of her crime.
The victims' parents said Ware not only was responsible for their sons' deaths but also had wrecked his daughter's life.
"You gave her too much independence too soon," said Joe Keffer, Cullen's father. "You failed to protect her."

St. John of the Cross

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Blanca Datuin
Yesterday at 7:19pm ·
Uncluttering my clutter yielded this copy of passages from "Dark Night of the Soul" (La Noche Oscura del Alma) by St. John of the Cross, which I had kept all these years. It was actually posted by a member of an egroup, I don't know whether It was Searchlight or another egroup. Anyway, it led to my discovery and great interest in the life of this saint who suffered a lot in his life as a Discalced Carmelite priest and mystic. In his spiritual crisis, he found such deep meaning that drove him even closer to God in a union described by this saint..

From the website on St. John:
The term "dark night (of the soul)" is used in Roman Catholicism for a spiritual crisis in a journey towards union with God, like that described by Saint John of the Cross.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th-century French Carmelite, wrote of her own experience. Centering on doubts about the afterlife, she reportedly told her fellow nuns, "If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into."[1]
While this crisis is usually temporary in nature, it may last for extended periods. The "dark night" of Saint Paul of the Cross in the 18th century lasted 45 years, from which he ultimately recovered. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, according to letters released in 2007, "may be the most extensive such case on record", lasting from 1948 almost up until her death in 1997, with only brief interludes of relief in between.[2] Franciscan Friar Father Benedict Groeschel, a friend of Mother Teresa for a large part of her life, claims that "the darkness left" towards the end of her life.[3]

 Blanca Datuin

2 mins ·

From Fear Not the Night by St. John of the Cross

MY DAY IS ENDING
Let go of what you have. As the night descends, remind me again that the soul that walks in love neither rests nor grows tired. I know that it is foolish and ignorant to think that I can achieve union with you without emptying my life of all my trivial passions. But I seem forever content to restrict my soul to childish things, of how much spiritual good and abundance I so easily pass up, blinding myself to the difference between what I am content with and the total transformation that you have offered me.
Descend on my soul like a river of peace: to take away my uncertainties, my fear of the dark.

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  Albert B. Casuga Mother Teresa could not abide the suffering of the poor and the sick in Calcutta, Her darkest nights of her soul brought her tremendous pain much like those suffering from leprosy. She got passed this stage only to die soon after. Los dolores de los dios dados. heart emoticon

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  Blanca Datuin I think it stems also from disappoinment when we feel God doesn't answer our plea for the sake of those we see suffering or for the sheep that have strayed away from His flock. .Relief from the "darkness of the soul" can be such a long wait, resignation a profound task.

Retirement

Blanca Datuin

7 mins · Edited ·

Is "retired" in your vocabulary? Some people say I'm crazy to still spending time to teach 3 days a week without pay (since the LAUSD dismantled the Division of Adult and Career ED and rendered us, 1700 teachers, jobless). This on top of a dozen other volunteer work. They tell me, join the senior club, enjoy, tour the world, dance, play mahjong. Really? Others bless me, an aging woman, for plodding on to reach out to the unfortunates and keeping the light. I say it's now pure...ly service to my Creator, a form of saying deo gratia, merci dieu. But actually, it's also for a selfish reason: When you give, you also get something in return, though perhaps, only to keep the mind from rusting, the heart from the pain of grieving for a loved one, and the body from crumbling altogether. Leonardo da Vinci once said, "inaction saps the vigor of the mind." And the spirit, most of all.