Drone ship back to port. It looks like it welded itself to the barge and the workings have their work cut out for them to free it...

ChubbyCherub said:

I don't really know 100% what the exact sin

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Self -interest, same as Eve and Adam in the Garden

ChubbyCherub said:

so it would seem to me that I am indeed sinning

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The fact you acknowledge your 'sin' of self-indulgence is the first step towards repentance, that is changing to put God's will ahead of your own. It is most often no miracle overnight process, but like seeking God, it is a learning process of ups and downs. One must grow to understand why His will is better than our own of self-interest, and not simply saying 'oh I get it', without experiencing it. You know.. like executives who have never done the labour of whatever it is they oversee but think they know it all.

Learn how a retired widower manifests his gift of service in innumerable ways, for his good and the good of others, thanks to charisms.
Rick MicKinney and his granddaughter, Theresa, named after his departed wife (photo: Courtesy of Rick McKinney)

The day his wife died, Rick McKinney was scheduled to receive a lifetime-achievement award from a local library association, and he was preparing to retire from his career as a law librarian at the Federal Reserve Board. Although Theresa, his wife of 41 years, was hospitalized, McKinney was not expecting her to die.

What do you do when you lose your beloved spouse and your career?

Talk to McKinney, a faith-filled Catholic, and he’ll initially tell you about the consolations he received from God after his wife’s death. Driving to the viewing, he was blessed to see the only vehicle in Maryland with a license plate that said “Theresa.”

“I felt like God was saying, ‘I have Theresa in my hands, and I’ve got you too.’ I knew God was there,” he recalled. “It helped a lot in terms of adjusting to a life without my wife.”

McKinney is also blessed to have two grown daughters, and he initially spent time helping them cope. But during that first year, he learned that a workshop entitled “Called & Gifted” was being held by a Catholic group in his parish of St. John Neumann in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The workshop helps people discern their charisms, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church (799) defines as “graces [aka gifts, favors] of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of men, and to the needs of the world.” The workshop also included something called the “Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory.” McKinney wanted to know more, so he signed up.

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Israeli leader insists there can be no Palestinian state​

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to oppose any attempt to establish a Palestinian state, a day before the U.N. Security Council planned to vote on a U.S.-drafted resolution on Gaza that leaves the door open to Palestinian independence.

Iran says it could rejoin US nuclear talks if treated with ‘dignity and respect’​

Iran’s foreign minister says it has had requests to reopen negotiations, which collapsed after nuclear site bombings

[Foreign minister] said Iran did not have any undeclared nuclear sites, and Tehran could not yet allow the UN nuclear inspectorate to visit bombed nuclear sites for security reasons.

The previous five rounds of talks between the US and Iran were brought to an abrupt and acrimonious end on 12 June when Israel, with US support, attacked Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day war that ended with Donald Trump claiming the sites had been obliterated.

Trump last week said he had been receiving messages that Iran wanted to reopen negotiations, but privately Iranian officials say they are not yet receiving coherent offers from Washington either directly or from key regional mediators, such as Qatar, Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Pope Leo XIV lamented that there are cultural spaces where the Gospel is “distorted by particular interests” during a meeting with the Catholic Biblical Federation at the Vatican on Monday.

“New generations inhabit new digital environments where the word of God is easily overshadowed. New communities often find themselves in cultural spaces where the Gospel is unfamiliar or distorted by particular interests,” the pope said Nov. 17.

The Catholic Biblical Federation is an international organization — led by Cardinal Luis Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization — whose main goal is to promote the knowledge, dissemination, study, and pastoral ministry of sacred Scripture around the world.

The pontiff made clear that the group’s mission and vision “should always be inspired by the conviction that the Church draws life not from herself but from the Gospel.”

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Members of the Lebanese Catholic diaspora are anticipating Pope Leo XIV’s three-day visit to Lebanon, taking place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, with great hopes the new pontiff will continue his papal predecessors’ solidarity with the Middle East’s most Christian country.

While Lebanon’s current population currently stands at 5.8 million people, an estimated 14 million to 18 million people of Lebanese origin live in other countries, according to a 2024 Australian National University Migration Hub report.

Since the mid-1970s, millions of Lebanese have left the country after witnessing decades of instability and destruction brought about by the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War, military invasions by neighboring Israel and Syria, and, more recently, the country’s 2020 economic collapse.

Though many fled their homeland in search of peace and security abroad, many Lebanese held on to their Eastern Catholic identities and passed on their religion to their children, including the parents of U.S. vocations director for the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, Father Charbel Boustany, FFI.

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The Archdiocese of Detroit plans to welcome Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa for a pastoral visit in December to help fundraise for efforts in the Holy Land.

“It is a blessing for the faithful of Detroit to welcome Cardinal Pizzaballa, whose courageous witness in the Holy Land strengthens the entire Church,” saidArchbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit in an announcement.

Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, is set to visit Detroit Dec. 4–7. He will celebrate Mass and take part in events to fundraise for “the dire situation and enduring hopes of the Church in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem,” the archdiocese reported.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has roots dating back to 1099 but was reestablished in 1847 by Pope Pius IX. It encompasses Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus.

Members of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem work to preserve the holy sites visited by Jesus and the saints of the early Church.

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Desk trauma said:

Totally normal reaction to people reading a different translation.

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Makes sense.

The Archdiocese of Detroit has announced a restructuring process that will lead to church closures and parish mergers as a result of declining church attendance, its archbishop said.

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger announced in a letter over the weekend that due to a shrinking Catholic population in the archdiocese, a two-year restructuring process will see some parishes close while others will be collected into groupings called “pastorates,” led by one pastor and his team.

He said the “struggle to care for buildings and parish structures where there are very few people” is preventing the Church there to focus on “areas where the Church is growing.”

Weisenburger said that currently there are 900,000 Catholics in the archdiocese, and fewer than half of those attend Mass regularly. Many parish buildings were constructed at a time when there were 1.5 million Catholics in the archdiocese.

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'We reached an impasse'

A prominent Princeton University professor, author and member of the Heritage Foundation's Board of Trustees announced his resignation from the influential conservative think tank on Monday amid lingering fallout from Tucker Carlson's recent interview with Nick Fuentes.

Robert P. George, a Catholic conservative legal scholar who serves as the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and had been a member of the Heritage board since 2019, announced in a Facebook post that he resigned in response to Heritage President Kevin P. Roberts not retracting an Oct. 30 video defending Carlson.

“Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content. So, we reached an impasse," George wrote.

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Oompa Loompa said:

Deflecting, are we?

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No. You seem to have selected and highlighted cities with a bias for no discernable reason.

Beautiful!

A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump seeks to combat “ridiculous woke policies that discriminate against Christians and families of faith” seeking to serve as foster parents.

Trump signed an executive orderThursday titled “Fostering the Future for American Children and Families.” The executive order laments that “Some jurisdictions and organizations maintain policies that discourage or prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.”

Trump ordered Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “publish annually a scorecard that measures and is used to evaluate State-level achievement of key outcomes and metrics that reduce unnecessary entries into foster care” that evaluates states’ “partnerships and collaboration with appropriate non-governmental allies, including faith-based organizations” as well as several other factors.

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FireDragon76 said:

I'm a vegan now, but that's pretty much how I remember it working out.

I try to eat healthier but I'm under no illusions how hard that is for most people who aren't born with a silver spoon in their mouth, or how much food gets class coded.

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It must be very difficult to be a vegan considering how much animal products is in everything. Do you also not use honey or wear leather? Just curious.

JimR-OCDS said:

We usually bow at the Nicen Creed when we say "
by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man."

Usually, I have seen that in the Church, when the Holy Spirit is said, there is a bow.

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Yup. That’s usually the norm wherever I go.

Praying for the safety of the persecuted Church!

In a landmark move to protect children, especially girls, from forced child marriages, a provincial assembly in Pakistan on Friday passed the Child Marriage Prohibition Bill.
The Balochistan Child Marriages Restraint Act 2025 sets 18 as the legal age for marriage in Balochistan Province and introduces severe penalties for those involved in child marriages. The provincial governor is expected to sign the legislation into law this week.

Under the legislation, an adult male contracting a child marriage, and anyone who facilitates it, will face two- to three-years imprisonment and a fine ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 Pakistani rupees ($353 USD to $707 USD). Courts may add an additional three-month imprisonment if fines are not paid.
People who solemnize marriages, known as Nikah Khawans, along with Nikah Registrars and union council secretaries, will be legally required to verify the Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) of both parties before solemnizing a marriage. Failure to do so will be a criminal offense punishable by up to a one-year imprisonment and a fine of up to 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($353 USD).

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Agreed. He will be held responsible for all the souls he leads astray. Enough is enough!

May our lady intercede for both of them! Amen!

Chesster said:

Mathew 9:10-13, And as he (Jesus) sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

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Yes. I’m not jumping to conclusions yet.

essentialsaltes said:

Acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson resigns: Sources​

Richardson was installed after his predecessor was fired by DHS Secretary Noem.

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With all the budget cuts to FEMA, and people laid off, since Trump became president. I think FEMA will go away . That's why you don't hired business person, that had multiple business bankruptcies. It's also the reason, that there's laws. So, business and developers are forced to have safer building's and business. Because shady business people, will get rid of safety regulations, so they can save a dollar. Instead of caring for people safety, health or food .

BelieveItOarKnot said:

Do you know who this ARMY consists of? Where their KINGDOM is?

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What is described is not an army of people, but a huge mass, which the Lord will send to literally fulfil all the graphically Prophesied things fo the Lords Day of vengeance and wrath.
2 Thess 2:8, refers to the death of the Anti-Christ 'beast', when Jesus returns.

Roberta often brings insightful news.

WFGTR