Friday, October 21, 2005
Saintly Discussion Topic: St. Teresa of Jesus

The winner in our poll for the next saintly topic was St. Teresa of Jesus (also called St. Teresa of Avila) who is a Doctor of the Church and a Carmelite. We recently celebrated her feast day on Oct. 15th. She was the first woman to be declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970 and in 1660 she was canonized a saint by Pope Gregory XV.

One part of her life:
Much of St. Teresa's life was plagued by illness. In 1538 it appears she suffered from malaria when her father took her from the convent and placed her under doctors care. Despite of this she remained ill and undertook experimental cures by a woman in the town of Becedas. These methods left her in a coma for three days and not able to walk for three years. It was during this time of illness and convalescence that she took to daily mental prayer, which led to her experiences with mystical prayer. She credited her recovery to St. Joseph. (SOURCE)

I think she shows us what many saints do is that it is not what happens to us in the beginning that makes us a saint but what we do about it. We are all called to be saints and the only way we do is if we trust in the Cross and pray that our actions show that God's will, not our own will, may be done.

She is the patron saint of bodily ills, headaches, lacemakers, laceworkers, loss of parents, opposition of Church authorities, people in need of grace, people in religious orders, people ridiculed for their piety, sick people, sickness, Spain

"My Lord, if you did not cover Your Greatness, who would dare to come to You so often to join a soul so full of misery with Your ineffable Majesty? May you always be blessed, O my God! The Angels, all creatures praise you for having adjusted Your mysteries to our weaknesses, so that we may enjoy Your riches without terrifying us with Your great power. Poor and fragile creatures that we are, we would never have dared approach you."(St. Teresa of Jesus)

Let's try and follow her advice: "You ought to make every effort to free yourselves even from venial sin, and to do what is most perfect," because as Christ, Our Lord and God, taught, all sin is wrong and we should rather take away our hand than have be sent eternally away from His love. Even if you believe so or not, it is His love that consumes us and makes us whole.

Image Source: Believed to be in the public domain, title unknown
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It's Friday, the Day of Our Lord's Passion

With today being Friday I plan to pray the Stations of the Cross. But, since today is also a day of remembering Mary's sorrows it is an appropriate day to pray Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Remember, today is a day of penance.

Image Source: Believed to be in the public domain, title unknown
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Thursday, October 20, 2005
John Henry Cardinal Newman

John Henry Cardinal Newman may become England's first canonized saint after the Reformation. A miracle attributed to him was revealed by a 60 year-old deacon whose spine was healed after prayers for Cardinal Newman's intercession.

"We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe." -- Cardinal Newman

Source: Catholic World News, 'Beatification soon for Cardinal Newman?' (October 20, 2005)
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005
The Immaculate Conception


As we look at the Hail Mary we see part of the Archangel Gabriel’s address in the exclamation: “full of grace." Grace is defined as a supernatural gift from God’s infinite goodness given by God to His sinful people for their eternal salvation. Mary is addressed as “full of grace” which shows that she must be in complete favor of God to have earned the fullness of God’s grace. This particular instance is a special one, in which God chose Mary to be conceived sinless to make her a house for God to dwell within.

Both Jesus and Mary are perfect although for different reasons; Jesus is God and therefore is without sin and therefore must be perfect. This is shown through Magesterium teachings, scripture, and definition. Sin, which is defined as “distancing oneself from God,” can not have any part in God because it is impossible for God to be distancing Himself from Himself. Mary, though, is perfect, but she was made perfect and preserved from sin by Her Son, who is eternal and preserved her before He became flesh.

In fact, the traditional collect prayer from the Mass of the Immaculate Conception well summarizes this: "O God, by foreseen merits of the death of Christ, You shielded Mary from all stain of sin and preserved the Virgin Mother immaculate at her conception so that she might be a fitting dwelling place for Your Son. Cleanse us from sin through her intercession so that we also may come to You untainted by sin. Through Our Lord."

Some point to the second line of the Magnificat with Mary proclaiming, "And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior," stating the use of "savior" means Mary could not be free from sin. The answer, of course, is that Christ did save Mary  - He simply chose to save her prior to her birth - the difference in methodology in no way detracts from the outcome of the act.

The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which was not infallibly defined until 1854 but believed long beforehand, states, "The most holy Virgin Mary was, in the first moment of her conception, by a unique gift of grace and privilege of almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin." 

While they did not use the phrase "Immaculate Conception," the Early Church honored the Blessed Virgin Mary as sinless since her conception. For instance, St. Ephrem (306-373 AD) wrote alluding to Mary’s sinlessness: "You and Your mother are the only ones who are totally beautiful in every way. For in You, O Lord, there is no stain, and in Your mother no stain." Hippolytus wrote in 235 AD: “He was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt from putridity and corruption.” And Origen wrote in 244 AD: “This Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten of God, is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one.” And there are many other such instances. The dogmatic proclamation in 1854 by Pope Pius IX merely ended a debate that had arisen in the past centuries - fueled often by the protestants.

Once again, it makes perfect sense that the Mother of God does not have sin upon her soul because Christ Himself must dwell within her. In truth, Mary is essentially important to the Christian life as the Mother of Christ and as our Mother, who Christ gave to us through His disciple John (cf. John 19:26-27).

We, as Christians, believe God is the perfect goodness, and likewise, we believe sin is the absence of goodness, where God is the perfect goodness. Therefore, I can conclude that sin is evil and a lack of God’s saving grace, even if only momentary, but a clear distance from God remains because we are not perfect like He. It is through our first sin that we lose our innocence and must work towards salvation as all people must do apart from those exceptions including the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose radiant light kept pulsing harmoniously from her soul through the grace of God, Most High.


Scripture attests to the Immaculate Conception as well though I feel it initially fundamental to dispute a common claim among other faiths that Catholics are in opposition to scripture on this matter. They state Romans 3:23 which reads, “For all have sinned, and do need the glory of God,” however this verse only shows that all are subject to the stains of original sin on the soul. Remember that Christ chose to save His mother from this sin in order to come into the world, but I also see it as a deep reverence for His mother in accordance with the fourth Commandment: “Honor thy mother and father.” It is quite clear that Christ showed great love for His mother already, and He showed even more through the Coronation and Assumption, which I will address at length further into this book.

Moreover, Romans 3:23 uses the English word “all” in place of the Greek word “PAS”, which was not the absolute that “all” encompasses today. I think this further highlights how even the best of translations are nothing compared to the original scriptures. This word taking the English term “all” is also seen in Matthew 3:5-6 and Luke 2:1 to name a few others where it is not the absolute that we see it meaning. For example, Matthew 3:5-6 states, “At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.” I certainly do not believe that the entire region went to the Jordan River including those that did not believe in the faith. I view it much more probable that a great majority went out, not everyone; it is clear that the word “PAS” meant a “just about everyone there is, but maybe not literally everyone,” better than it did “all”.

Furthermore, I feel it essential to state that Martin Luther, the man that began the Lutheran Church and broke away from the original Catholic Church, still held a great devotion to Mary including a belief in the Immaculate Conception: "It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin."

Further knowledge of the Christian faith continues to disprove the use of Romans 3:23 to be used against the Immaculate Conception. We as Christians believe Christ was free from sin but the verse does not even say “all but Christ”. We also believe that the mentally disabled and infants cannot commit actual sin, even though the verse does not specifically state this fact. Simply, Romans 3:23 must be translated using correct Greek and there would be no remote opportunity to oppose Magesterium teachings in that instance. I, though, do not see the point in tearing down the teachings of the Catholic Church concerning Mary as it is through Mary that we have a powerful intercessor and loving Mother that spares nothing from her children.

Onward, scripture does word the words "Immaculate Conception." Sacred scripture nevertheless holds vast information on Mary, but we must not just read the words but meditate on each and every statement as a truth given to us by God. The Bible begins with the book of Genesis, an account of creation and the fall, and this is the first place that Mary is referenced. In Genesis 3:15 it states, “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."

This verse is the first verse that references to mankind’s Redeemer since Jesus Christ came to destroy sin, Satan, and death. 1 John 3:8 further says, “The Son of God appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil,” who came into being through a love for men that far excesses our senses, where one would come to die for all of us while still enemies. This “enmity” in Genesis 3:15 is not between the man and the serpent but the woman and the serpent. Church teachings are that this is in reference to Mary, the one to come and destroy the serpent because of allowing Our Lord to take flesh within her.

Also, it is critical to reverberate the Magesterial teachings of Christ being the Second Adam. We all know that through Adam and Eve sin entered the world and it was through Christ, one man, that sin left the world by his death on the Cross. Yet, just as Eve assisted Adam in losing the faith by offering him the apple, Mary offered Christ her body to come and become man and assisted in bringing Our Lord to us. Out of all people Christ chose Mary as His mother and has given her to us as well; how breathtaking. Christ is called the Second Adam since creation was renewed through Him, and Mary is the new Eve who works alongside Our Lord.

We also know that the only one that can bear the sins of the entire world is God because He is both human and divine and any action of His, whether in his divine or his human nature, is of infinite value. This is how dying one death ended all of our eternal deaths. We could pay the price for sin, but that would be eternal death; instead, Christ chose to free us from the punishment that we deserve out of a love so fervent that He would humble himself to death even death on a cross.



Back to the verse in Genesis, we see reference to Christ by God’s statement that refers to the woman’s offspring. Some translations of the Bible use the word “seed” instead, but the main motive is still intact. This claim that through the women would be offspring, namely Our Savior is quite revolutionary. We already know that God knew of the need for a savior in the beginning, so in this verse, He speaks of Adam and Eve’s offspring, which would include Christ.

This conservation to the women that she would bear offspring, rather than to the man, shows that through a woman Our Savior, who the entire world resides inside, would be born. While scripture does refer to her offspring it also alludes to Christ, who has freed the entire human race through His sacrifice on the Cross where we become part of Him in dying so that we may also see the Resurrection. The entire human race was relying on Christ’s sacrifice, which is alluded to in the book of Genesis although not directly because the people of the Old Testament would not have understood.

Continuing with the verse in Genesis, a special relationship is seen between the woman and the serpent, and this relationship is one with enmity. “Enmity” is certainly an intense, powerful word beyond hatred and defined as “deep-rooted hatred”. We see by looking back to Genesis 3:15 that God Himself will place this enmity between the serpent (Satan) and Mary, who is the second Eve. It is clear that Mary is to be the personal enemy of Satan not Christ. Christ came to destroy the devil’s evil works, but God chose to make Mary as Satan’s personal enemy.

From the beginning, God had a plan for everyone with all of us able to reach Heaven if we chose, and Our Lord chose to save Mary from sin. This also put the enmity between Mary and Satan because Mary had no sin and was perfect and clearly saw the wrongdoings of the devil; she hated them because she was completely in God’s favor. We as sinners can fall into sin, but Mary was preserved from original sin and remained sinless in life, which made her Satan’s personal enemy.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly reveals, “Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary. At the very beginning there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a posterity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living. By virtue of this promise, Sarah conceives a son in spite of her old age. Against all human expectation, God chooses those who were considered powerless and weak to show forth his faithfulness to his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther; and many other women. Mary "stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established."

Mary had a special purpose, and this purpose was to become the Mother of God and help us achieve our salvation. She cannot save us, but her constant motherly presence pleads continually for our souls.

God is in possession of eternity, the simultaneous and complete possession of infinite life. For him, all things are as in the present (see: Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Book V)

Resources:
  1. Catholic Encyclopedia: Immaculate Conception
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia: Original Sin
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Catholic Comp. Project one: The Immaculate Conception

I have written a rather long but, in my opinion, sufficient explanation of the Immaculate Conception Dogma, which states that Mary was conceived free from sin. If anyone would like to read this please just ask though it is about 3 pages long.

This is the first Catholic Composition Project, a project looking to add scripture and support to help those new to the faith understand and have a one-stop-shop for information. I'd like any help I can on getting references from the CCC for the Immaculate Conception, links to good sites on it, or quotes by saints.

God Bless
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St. Luke the Evangelist


Feast (1969 Calendar): October 18
Double of the II Class (1955 Calendar): October 18

Today is the feast day of St. Luke, the patron saint of physicians, surgeons, goldsmiths, painters, and bachelors. He wrote the Gospel according to St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible. His name literally translates to "bringer of the light." According to tradition, he also "painted" the first icon. In fact the two most important icons in the world are attributed to him: "Salus Romani Populi" which is the Roman Icon at St Mary Major, and Our Lady of Częstochowa, which was the Byzantine Icon in Constantinople. The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa was later brought to Jasna Gora which is the largest Marian shrine in the world. Also of note, Częstochowa is believed to be written on the table the Holy Family used in Nazareth.

St. Luke was born a pagan in Antioch in c. 74 AD and possibly was a slave. He was one of the first converts. St. Luke met St. Paul at Troas and evangelized Greece and Rome with him. During Paul's two years in prison, St. Luke stayed in Rome. St. Luke died a martyr.

"According to tradition, he was an artist, as well as a man of letters; and with a soul alive to all the most delicate inspirations, he consecrated his pencil to the holiest use, and handed down to us the features of the Mother of God. It was an illustration worthy of the Gospel which relates to the divine Infancy; and it won for the artist a new title to the gratitude of those who never saw Jesus and Mary in the flesh. Hence St. Luke is the patron of Christian art."- Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.

St. Luke Day As a Former Holy Day of Obligation

The first catalog of Holy Days comes from the Decree of Gratian in c. 1150 AD, which shortly thereafter gave way to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX in 1234, which listed 45 Holy Days. In 1295, Pope Boniface VIII enacted the decretal Gloriosus, which "commanded that each of the feasts of the twelve apostles, four evangelists, and four doctors of the Church be celebrated as an officium duplex" (The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law by Anders Winroth and John Wei).

In 1642, His Holiness Pope Urban VIII issued the papal bull Universa Per Orbem which mandated the required Holy Days of Obligation for the Universal Church to consist of 34 days as well as the principal patrons of one's one locality (e.g. city and country). Those days were the Nativity of Our Lord, the Circumcision of Our Lord, the Epiphany of Our Lord, Monday within the Octave of the Resurrection, Tuesday within the Octave of the Resurrection, Ascension Thursday, Monday within the Octave of Pentecost, Tuesday within the Octave of Pentecost, Most Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, the Finding of the Holy Cross, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Dedication of St. Michael, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, St. Andrew, St. James, St. John (the December feast day), St. Thomas, SS. Philip and James, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, SS. Simon and Jude, St. Matthias, St. Stephen the First Martyr (the December feast day), the Holy Innocents, St. Lawrence, St. Sylvester, St. Joseph, St. Anne, and All Saints.  

Ultimately Universa Per Orbem helped bring more uniformity to the Church since some parts of the Catholic world observed even more holy days of double precept (i.e., mandatory attendance at Mass and rest from servile work). One of those former days which kept in some places as the Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. 

For instance, in modern-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, which were included in the ecclesiastical province of Mexico, the feasts were regulated by the Third Council of Mexico in 1585, as American Catholic Quarterly Review states: 

"In these parts besides those already mentioned, the faithful observed as holy days of obligation St Fabian and St Sebastian (January 20th), St Thomas Aquinas (March 7th), St Mark (April 25th), St Barnabas (June 1), the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin (July 2), St Mary Magdalene (July 22), St Dominic (Aug 4), the Transfiguration (Aug 6), St Francis (Oct 4), St Luke (Oct 18), St Catharine (Nov 25), the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin (Dec 18). 

Things to Do (Excerpted from Catholic Culture):
  • Read the Acts of the Apostles. St. Luke accompanied St. Paul on his missionary journeys — we could spiritually adopt a missionary and accompany him or her with our prayers.
  • St. Luke depicted Mary vividly in words. Learn and pray the three precious canticles preserved for us by him — the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis.
  • Pray for doctors and those who care for the sick through the intercession of St. Luke, patron of physicians.
  • Foods this day to honor St. Luke would include some beef dishes, as he is the patron of butchers. So perhaps a nice cut of steak would be in order? For dessert, bake some raisin Banbury Tarts to evoke the festivals of England on this day, or a cake in the shape of a book with decorations of a calf or ox for this evangelist.
  • Today is also known as "Sour Cakes Day" in Scotland because baked cakes were eaten with sour cream in Rutherglen.
  • This day is also "St. Luke's Little Summer," a period of summerlike days that occur around October 18 (like the term "Indian Summer," which officially occurs between Nov 11-20), named to honor the saint's feast day. In the past, St. Luke's Day was not observed by the secular world as much as St. John the Baptist's Day (June 24) and Michaelmas (September 29), so to keep in the forefront, St. Luke gives us some golden days before the cold of winter.
Prayer:

Let holy Luke, Thine Evangelist, we beseech Thee, O Lord, intercede for us, who for the glory of Thy name ever bore in his body the mortification of the cross. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal
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Boycott of American Girl

American Girl has recently come under fire and for good reason: it is in support of gay marriage and abortion rights. Until they stop funding and/or supporting directly or indirectly abortion and gay marriage I will not buy any of there products and encourage others to do the same.

More Information: Pro Life Action
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Monday, October 17, 2005
St. Ignatius of Antioch


Double (1954 Calendar): February 1
III Class (1962 Calendar): February 1
Memorial (1969 Calendar): October 17

Today the Church remembers St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was a martyr in early Rome c. 100 AD. He was devoured by animals instead of denouncing the Faith. St. Ignatius was a convert from paganism and lived a life of holiness. Legend says that St. Ignatius of Antioch was the infant Jesus held in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 9.

St. Ignatius of Antioch succeeded Peter as the Bishop of Antioch. In 107 AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch used the term "Catholic Church" for the first time, which described the universal Church established by Jesus Christ. In c. 107 AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch died as a martyr. Before his martyrdom, he wrote many letters like the one below. He is also an Apostolic Father.

Traditional Matins Reading (quoting St Jerome's "On Ecclesiastical Writers"):

Ignatius was the third Bishop of the Church of Antioch, St Peter the Apostle being the first. During the persecution under Trajan, he was condemned to be devoured by wild beasts, and was sent in chains to Rome. During this voyage, which was made by sea, he had to stop at Smyrna, where Polycarp, the disciple of St John, was Bishop. From this city, he wrote several Epistles: one to the Ephesians, a second to the Magnesians, a third to the Trallians, a fourth to the Romans. When he had left Smyrna, he addressed an Epistle to the Philadelphians and Smyrneans, and one to Polycarp himself, recommending to him his Church of Antioch. It is in this last-named Letter that he quotes from the Gospel which I have lately translated a passage bearing testimony to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I cannot pass by this mention of so great a man, without citing a few sentences from the Epistle which he wrote to the Romans. ‘ From Syria,' he says, ' even unto Rome, I am fighting with wild beasts, both by sea and land, both night and day, for I am fastened to ten leopards, I mean to the soldiers who have care of me. When I show them a kindness, they grow more brutal. Their injuries are my instruction, but I am not thereby justified. I long for the wild beasts that are prepared for me, which I heartily wish may rush upon me and torture me and devour me, and not be afraid to touch me, as has happened with other Martyrs. Nay, if they refuse to approach me, I will make them come on, I will rush upon them, that so they may devour me. Pardon me, my little children: I know what is for my own welfare.

‘Now do I begin to be a disciple of Christ, and care for nothing in this world, that so I may find Jesus. Let fire, or the cross, or wild beasts, or the breaking of my bones, or the cutting me to pieces, or the shattering of my whole body, yea, all the tortures of the devil—let them all come upon me, only let me enjoy my God.' When he was sentenced to be devoured by wild beasts, and heard the roaring of the lions, his impatience to suffer made him exclaim: ‘I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, that I may become the pure bread.' He suffered in the eleventh year of Trajan's reign. His Relics are at Antioch, in the Cemetery outside the Daphne Gate.

Prayer:

Look down upon our weakness, almighty God; and since the weight of our own deeds bears us down, may the glorious intercession of Blessed Ignatius, Thy Bishop and Martyr, protect us. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal


Writing by St. Ignatius:

I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God's wheat and bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.

No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sake is my one desire.

The prince of this world is determined to lay hold of me and to undermine my will which is intent on God. Let none of you here help him; instead show yourselves on my side, which is also God's side. Believe instead what I am now writing to you. For though I am alive as I write to you, still my real desire is to die. My love of this life has been crucified, and there is no yearning in my for any earthly thing. Rather within me is the living water which says deep inside me: "Come to the Father." I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or in the delights of this world I want only God's bread, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, formed from the seed of David, and for drink I crave his blood, which is love that cannot perish.

Pray for me that I may obtain my desire. I have not written to you as a mere man would, but as one who knows the mind of God.
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Should I Attend Mass?

If you ask yourself that question than read this site. Part of it: "For every Mass we hear with devotion, Our Lord sends a saint to comfort us at death (revelation of Christ to St. Gertrude the Great)."

Mary once told her faithful servant Alain: "My Son so loves those who assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that, if it were necessary, He would die for them as many times as they've heard Masses."

Image Source: Believed to be in the public domain
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Sunday, October 16, 2005
Not a Normal Sunday: Lost Rosary

Today was scheduled to be a normal Sunday where I just go to Mass and not have to participate. So, I brought my rosary and a great St. Padre Pio prayer book with prayers to the Eucharist (one of the litany of the Blessed Sacrament, my favorite litany.) About 5 minutes before the start of Mass, Father came over to me and said the lector had not showed up, so he asked if I could lector since I am a lector some Sundays.

I served as a lector on shorthand notice. But, after Mass I went back to my first pew and found out that my Rosary and prayer book were taken by someone. I haven't found them yet and only can pray I ever will. Please say a prayer that I might get these back. That was a very special Rosary, and I don't think I can ever replace that prayer book.
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