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carlottawllms · 1 year ago

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A Million Reasons

Mason Mount x Reader Angst / Fluff

Author’s note: I know some of you don’t like when there’s other girls in the picture and in the beginning, it sounds as if there are, but it’s only for the build-up, so no worries for the rest of the fic!

I’m not too happy with the ending, but we’ll move. As always, feedback is very much appreciated. Enjoy! 🩷

Before yours and Mason’s relationship, you hadn't been friends for years. No years that had prepared you for the baggage that came with his name and profession. No time to cope with everything surrounding his job.

Of course, you’d known he was a footballer and didn't have a nine-to-five job. Just like you had expected that, as soon as you were seen with him, others would be interested in you too. It was kinda normal for his status in society. At a younger age, you’d been a huge fan of several stars too and had wanted to know a lot about them, so you hadn’t been surprised at all.

But nothing and nobody could’ve prepared you for the intensity of the whole situation and what it would do to you and the way you felt about yourself.

It was a random Tuesday afternoon that you reluctantly clicked on the link a friend of yours had sent you and once the photos popped up, your heart sank in your chest. It was photos of Mason surrounded by several beautiful woman and it didn’t take you long to recognise the location.

It was the pub he’d gone to with Luke and some of the other lads not even three days ago. After a much-needed win, the guys had called your boyfriend and asked him to join them to celebrate the three points for a bit. You’d basically ushered him out the door, telling him to enjoy the time with them as he still wasn’t able to train with them properly yet.

You didn’t bother reading the article as you simply scrolled down and stared at the pictures it included. It didn’t take you long to realise that they weren’t just any women, but quite well-known models and influencers and it made you wonder if, for some reason, they’d been invited for their gathering too.

Staring at the photos felt a bit like having it all playing out right in front of you. Their hands were all over Mason’s shoulders and arms, their coloured lips pulled into bright smiles as they looked up at him whilst he seemed to be in great conversation with them.

Two of those women hanging on his lips had messaged him on Insta before and talked about him regularly on their blog. In the beginning you’d found it a little funny how they were talking about how hot he was when you were the one he came home to and took to bed, but the times in which you didn’t care had ended a while ago.

Completely absorbed in your thoughts, you only realised that Mason had come home when it was already too late. He was standing in front of you, his brows furrowed and his hands in the pockets of his jogging bottoms.

It was a rare sight for him to come home to as normally you were either busy in the kitchen trying a new recipe you’d found or fast asleep on the sofa, treating yourself with a nap. The latter was his favourite as he could just snuggle up to you and rest for a bit too.

But today was different. Today you looked…agitated. “Are you okay baby?”

His voice was quiet and his eyes soft and for some reason it riled you up even more than you already were. “I would be, if it wasn’t for my boyfriend being a ladies’ man and looking cozy with these women here.”, you hissed, turning your phone around so he could look for himself.

Deep down you knew you were over the top and you felt a little sorry when Mason’s face fell, but the anger in your tummy wouldn’t stop bubbling. Not after what you’d been going through lately.

“I thought it had been just you and the lads. Did you just forget to tell me about these women? Or did you deliberately keep that from me?”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t know Mason, you came home that night and told me you had a nice evening with the lads. I don’t recall you mentioning any women and yet here they are.” Your voice was cold as you raised your eyebrow at him, challenging him for an answer.

You weren’t normally like this. Jealous wasn’t a word you’d use to describe yourself and so far, Mason had always made sure to tell and show you how much he loved and appreciated you every single day and there hadn’t really been a reason to be jealous in the first place, but those last weeks, if not months had eaten away at you and worn down the protective walls you’d built around your relationship.

Every tiny insecurity, every worry and every doubt had coalesced into this bubble of anger, pain and fear and the photos tonight had popped the already very thin surface, causing everything to spill out all at once in the process.

“y/n, they just ca-“

“Anything else you didn’t tell me?” You got up from where you were still sat on the sofa, arms crossed in front of your chest in a protective manner. “Have you maybe met them on any of these so called team evenings before?”

“y/n, are you taking the piss or something? What’s gotten into you?”

You could tell that he was getting a little mad at you. His voice no longer had this softness to it, but a rather rough edge and his eyes had gone a little hard as well.

“Into me?”, you laughed in disbelief; your voice a tiny bit high-pitched. “Mason, I’m not the one who went out with random women and decided to lie about it.”

“I didn’t lie and I didn’t go out with them!”, he boomed, his face flushed and contorted in annoyance at the way you seemed to ignore everything he said. “They just came up to us and talked, that’s all. I don’t know why or whatever. I didn’t think any of it and then just forgot about it. It’s ju-”

“Forgot about it or ‘forgot’ about it? Huh? Anything else you forgot to tell me?”

“y/n, what the…are you asking me if I cheated on you? Is that seriously what you’re saying right now?”

There was a flash of hurt washing across his face the second you didn’t deny it straight away, but instead stayed quiet and stared back into his dark eyes. Deep down you knew he hadn’t cheated and most definitely wouldn’t do that to you anyway, but you were at a low, everything hurt, and you couldn’t help but lash out at him in your own pain.

“No, I…I don’t know, I-“

“You don’t know?”, Mason asked hollowly with raised eyebrows. He felt sick to the stomach. Less than 20 minutes ago, he’d taken shit from his friends because he’d wanted to leave early so he could be back with you, and now he was faced with a version of you, he’d never seen before. A version that accused him of having cheated on you…with women he’d not even spared a second glance.

“I can’t believe this. We’ve spent…I…two years, y/n, two fucking years since I asked you to be my girlfriend and now you’re here saying you can’t be sure I haven’t cheated? Because of some fucking pictures a fucking magazine posted online? Do you hear yourself?”

“They were all over you, Mason! And fucking pretty, like literal models. Basically, every man’s weakness. There’s always some sort of truth behi-”

“Fuck you!”, he spat suddenly, making you flinch slightly. You couldn't remember ever seeing him this angry and it was obvious from a mile off that you’d hurt him a lot, but you couldn’t help it. It was all too much. “For two years, I’ve worshipped the ground you’re walking on and never given you a reason to doubt my loyalty, only for you to throw some photos right into my face, accusing me of being a cheater. Seriously? This is just…I just…fuck you.”

And with that, you watched him turning on his heels and rushing out of the living room. The front door crashing shut being the last sound before it all became deadly silent.

You simply stood there, staring straight ahead. Paralysed and unable to believe what had just happened, but the moment it all sank in, the pain you felt was unlike anything else before. You felt as if your heart had been ripped out of your chest, leaving you bleeding into the open and the sobs wrecking your body forced you to your knees only minutes after Mason had left.

The realisation that you’d probably lost him for good now hit you like a ton of bricks and whilst you tried your best to keep your breathing steady, you could feel how you became dizzier by the second.

Emptiness. That was all Mason felt when he flopped into the driver’s seat of his car and let the door snap close.

Two years of loving you and being the happiest man on earth. Two years down the drain.

He couldn’t believe that a few simple photos had caused his whole life to collapse right in front of his own eyes. Not after he’d spent the most perfect years with you by his side.

You were the love of his life, the one and only he’d wanted to spend his life with and after several broken hearts from previous relationships and encounters, he’d thought that with you he’d found someone who was different.

Obviously, he’d been wrong though. You’d believed some random journalists more than your own boyfriend’s words and the disappointment and hurt he felt? He couldn’t put it into words. And on top of that he was terribly scared. Scared of having lost you for good. Scared of how to go on without you. Scared of making a wrong decision about what to do now.

The thought of leaving you for good was terrifying, but he wasn’t sure if there was still any sense in staying with you after you’d made it very obvious just how little trust you actually put into him and his loyalty.

“FUCK!”, he shouted into the silence of his car. Head all but crashing into the headrest as he slammed his hand on the steering wheel. A few tears of hurt and frustration slipped down his cheeks, but Mason was quick in wiping them away angrily.

The ringtone of his phone eventually broke the silence in the car. A small part of him hoped it was you, but it was Luke's face that greeted him once he’d fumbled the phone out of his pocket, so he rejected the call straight away.

Luke, however, was persistent and rang three more times before Mason gave up and answered anyway.

“I feel personally offended that you rejected my call 4 times, but I forgive you.”, he joked, but Mason wasn’t in the mood to even crack a smile, so he simply huffed in response and Luke seemed to have got the message. “Mate, are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, no worries. Just a bit tired actually.”

“Nah, Mase. I’ve known you for years now, you’re not just tired. What’s up?”

Mason rolled his eyes. Couldn’t he just leave him be? All he wanted was to find a hotel he could stay the night in and lay down to figure out what to do. “Nothing, I’m fine.”

“I know it’s not nothing.”, Luke insisted and when his friend sighed deeply on the other side, it was all the confirmation he needed. “What’s wrong?”

“I got into a pretty bad fight with y/n and…I don’t know what it means for our relationship. If it still exists at all that is.”

Less than 15 minutes later Mason was sat on the Shaw’s sofa, a steaming mug of tea in his hands and both, Luke and Anouska, by his side. He’d given them both a quick rundown of what had happened, with both of them having tried to calm him down as best as they could and once he was done talking, a heavy silence fell over the three of them.

Anouska and Luke exchanged a couple of meaningful glances until she eventually was the first to speak up.

“She doesn’t actually think you cheated on her, Mase.”, she said carefully, her hand reaching out to squeeze his knee in reassurance.

“Sounded a lot like it though.”, he huffed. “She said she can’t be sure as there’s always some sort of truth behind those articles. I don’t know how that translates into she doesn’t think I’m cheating Anouska.”

His friend’s wife sighed quietly. She knew Mason wasn’t wrong and that from his perspective it all had painted a terribly bad picture.

“Mase, I…there’s actually more to the story.”, she started to explain softly. She wasn’t particularly ecstatic at the thought of revealing one of your best kept secrets to Mason, but she knew that you and him were endgame and was willing to cross the line a tiny bit in order to get you both back on track. You’d forgive her. And when Mason’s sad eyes looked onto hers, she knew it was the only right thing to do.

“She’s actually been struggling for about a month or two. Some of these influencers messaged you on insta and after you didn’t reply to either of them, they became…bitter I’d say.”

Anouska told him all about how these girls had been talking you down and basically throwing all kind of hate in your direction. Your face, your body, your choice of clothing…In their eyes nothing ever justified you out of all people being with the Mason Mount.

The more she talked about what you’d had to endure those last months, the worse it made Mason feel. He hadn’t known any of this.

He hadn’t known people online were basically stalking you and your friends’ accounts to find photos of you, only to use them against you. Or that they talked about how he’d be better off with them and posted edited photos of them in there with him in comparison to what you looked like next to him.

He hadn’t known how much shit you’d been going through and that it had eaten you alive and his heart broke at the thought of you trying to deal with it all on your own.

“She never…I just…she didn’t tell me. I…I didn’t…” His voice was shaky, laced by emotions and he wasn’t sure for how long he could keep the tears at bay.

“We know, Mase.”, Luke sighed, patting his friend on the shoulder. “I didn’t know until half an hour ago either. y/n told Anouska a week or two ago and made her promise not to say anything to you.”

“She’s one of my best friends, Mase. I couldn’t betray her trust.”

Mason nodded, understanding well where she was coming from. “I thought she was coping well with everything.”, he whispered. He felt incredibly heartbroken and wanted nothing more than to drive home and hug you close, but he wasn’t even sure you’d want him to.

“She was.”, Anouska smiled sadly. “Until it all escalated. I know people will say she could’ve ignored it like she’s ignored everything before that, but pain isn’t an easy thing to ignore and the kind of pain she’s been feeling lately settles deeply and only feeds your own insecurities unlike anything else. I told her she should talk to you, but I think she didn’t want to burden you with that.”

“I feel horrible.”, Mason admitted quietly after running his hands over his face a couple of times. “I never asked if she was okay, I…I should’ve talked to her, but she seemed happy and…god, I’m such an idiot.”

For him, the realisation that he hadn’t even asked if you were doing okay and instead just assumed you were, hit the deepest. He’d been so lost in his own little world, the worries about failing at the new club and his injury a constant companion in his day-to-day life, that he’d not even thought about the possibility of you keeping something that big from him.

He felt like he’d failed you. Big time. He was your boyfriend; he was supposed to protect you and be there for you and instead he was the reason you’d been feeling like shit lately.

“It’s not your fault, Mase.” Anouska tried to reassure him as best as she could, but her and Luke both could see how Mason was blaming himself for everything. “She hid it incredibly well. I wouldn’t have guessed this either, like I didn’t know she wasn’t feeling great until she told me.”

Mason sighed again. He just wanted to go home, hold you and tell you that you were the most important person in this world. But what if you didn’t want him to?

“Do you think she’ll push me away when I go home now?” His voice was quiet, the question coming out a little hesitant as he was terrified the answer to it could be yes, but Anouska simply shook her head.

“She’d never push you away, Mase. You’re her favourite person.”

“It certainly doesn’t feel like that right now.”, he chuckled sadly. “I’ll make things right, I promise.”

Mason didn’t think he’d ever driven home that quickly. He’d probably broken half a dozen rules, but in this moment, he couldn’t care less. He just wanted to be with you, to hold you in his arms and tell you everything will be alright.

All the lights on the ground floor were already off so he didn’t even bother checking all the rooms. He simply jogged upstairs.

And there you were; curled up on his side of the bed. Your delicate body was wrapped up in your favourite hoodie of his, but despite the fabric basically drowning you, it wasn’t difficult to make out your shaking shoulders and quiet sniffling.

He couldn’t even begin to imagine just how heartbroken you had to be and whilst he was still terrified you could push him away, he was quick in lying down next to you.

“You’re leaving me, aren’t you?”

Mason could literally feel his heart being ripped out of his chest at your words. With gentle hands, he turned you around to face him and once your bloodshot eyes, still filled with tears locked on his, he shook his head no. You looked so incredibly sad and broken, so absolutely tired of everything and when Mason pulled you into his chest, you broke down completely.

Hot tears soaked your face as well as Mason’s sweater, sobs wrecking your tired body despite Mason’s tight grip around you and no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t get yourself to calm down. It felt as if two months’ worth of tears and emotions were finally finding their way out.

“It’s okay, love. I’m here, I got you.”, Mason mumbled and you knew he tried to reassure you, but his words and the softness and love behind them only made you cry harder.

He hated seeing you like this, so fragile and sad, but he knew you had to let it all out in order to start fresh. Cupping the back of your head, he ran his fingers through your hair in calming motions, whilst his other arms stayed wrapped around your shoulders; effectively keeping you pressed up against his body.

It took you a long while to calm down and only when Mason felt that you’d stopped sobbing did he pull away slightly. He cupped your cheek, thumb wiping at your wet cheeks, and pressed his lips to your forehead.

“I went to see Luke and Anouska. Why didn’t you tell me how you’ve been feeling, love?”, he asked quietly, and you were surprised not to detect an ounce of disappointment or anger in his voice. “You know I’m always here for you.”

“I know.”, you nodded, voice still a little strained from the tears blocking your throat. “It’s just…you…you had so much going on with the injuries and the fact that your start here has been far from being ideal and…I just didn’t want you to carry my burden, too. I just…I wanted you to focus on your career and being in a good headspace, rather than your girlfriend having problems with your fans.”

“Baby.”, he sighed sadly. Tears now brimming in his own eyes. “Sit up for me please.”

You did as he asked. Peeling yourself out of his arms until you were both sat upright. Mason shuffled up the bed a little so he could lean against the headboard and once he was comfortable, he pulled you to straddle his legs.

“We’re in this together, love. The way you care about me is the same way I care about you. You don’t have to do this all on your own, I promise. I always have your back, love. Just let me help you.”

His warm brown eyes locked on yours were full of sorrow and sadness, but compared to earlier, they were back to being incredibly soft and loving as well. You couldn’t believe that after what you’d said, he was here with you.

“I’m sorry, Mase.”, you whispered. “I never thought you cheated. Or would ever do that for the record. It was just…”

“Too much?”, he offered, a small, sympathetic smile playing on his lips when you nodded. “I’m not mad at you, love. Just…next time tell me what’s going on in here, okay?” With his forefinger, he gently tapped your temple before moving a loose strand of hair away from your face. “I just want to help.”

“I know, Mase.”, you smiled sincerely. Wrapping your arms around his shoulders, you buried your fingers in his hair. “I’ve actually been coping well with everything, it’s just…It started a couple of months ago. It wasn’t more than a few digs here and there from these influencers in the beginning, but they kept going and when they messaged you on insta and you didn’t reply, everything went downhill. I knew they were just jealous and bitter, but they kept talking about my appearance and that I wasn’t showing myself with you more. They said you were probably keeping me hidden away cause you were ashamed and just waiting for the moment to end things.”

You could feel Mason tensing beneath your touch, itching to explode, but he knew you the same way you knew him, so he kept quiet and waited for you to go on; fingers gently running through the hair on the back of your head.

“I kept telling myself that you’re with me, that I’m the one you come home to and spend most of your free time with and for a while it worked, but it still ate away at me and slowly, I started asking myself the same questions they did. I wondered why you were still with me when you could do so much better and-“

“I couldn’t do better, y/n.”, Mason interrupted you gently, not able to take it anymore. “There’s a million reasons why you’re the most wonderful person I could’ve ever asked for and every single day, I’m so grateful you keep choosing me out of all people. I know I take you and the things you do for me for granted sometimes and I promise I’ll do better, but I need you to know that I appreciate them all so very much.”

He pressed a soft kiss to the tip of your nose, causing you to giggle softly and that sound alone had his heart leaping in his chest.

“All sorts of people expect me to be all sorts of things, but with you I can be me. Unapologetically so. And that’s worth more than I could ever explain to anyone. You’re my family, y/n. You protect me and fight my corner, you’re so insanely supportive in so many ways and no matter what I do, you never judge me. You’re the person that I know I can rely on even if I feel like the world has turned on me. You stayed with me when things got difficult, you changed me for the better and you’re the person I aspire to be. I want to be better for you every single day so you can feel what I feel when I’m with you.”

“Mase, I-”, you tried, but he simply shook his head with a loving smile on his face as he wiped away the tears rolling down your cheeks.

“And on top of that you’re so fucking beautiful. You take my breath away on every single day and it doesn’t matter if it’s in the morning when you’ve just woken up, when you’re wearing my clothes or are all dressed up for a date. No matter where we are, you’re always the most beautiful person in the room. You’re the most incredible human being I’ve ever met and I’m so grateful I get to be with you.”

“I’m so grateful I get to be with you, too.”, you whispered, your voice still a little shaky. “Thank you, Mase. I’m sorry I let them get to me with what they said and that I made it sound as if I thought you’d cheat on me. I know you’d never do that. And I know you’re with me for a reason and you’ve never done anything to make me feel as if you didn’t love me anymore. It’s just…I was trapped in this downward spiral and couldn't get out of it and...today when I saw those photos…it just all reminded me of what they’d said and-”

“I’m yours, y/n.”, he whispered before he leaned in and kissed you softly. “Two years down the line and I’m still as in love with you as in the very beginning, if not more. I still smile like an idiot when you text me. I still feel the butterflies going mad in my tummy whenever I see you and I’d do anything to hear your voice and see your smile. You know how much I love playing football, but y/n when I leave the house in the morning all I can think of is getting it over with quickly so I can get back home to you and yes, I know how much of a lovesick idiot that makes me.”

A quiet giggle slipped past your lips as it indeed made him sound absolutely whipped. Mason smiled back at you before pressing his lips to your forehead.

“Truth is, there’s not a single part of me, no matter how small, that is not completely consumed by you, y/n. You’re it for me, you’re my person and the only one I want to be with, and I promise you, I’ve never been so sure about someone or something in my entire life. It scares the shit out of me cause I don’t want to fuck it up and lose you, but I love you in a way I’ve never loved someone and if there ever comes a time after you, which I don’t hope, I could never love someone else the way I love you.”

“Mase.”, you pouted. Your heart was beating out of your chest and even if you’d tried, you wouldn't have been able to explain what you were feeling.

There was this insanely strong feeling of love rushing through your veins as you looked at him. Appreciation for him and how he’d handled the situation. Gratitude towards whoever had decided for him to be yours in this lifetime.

“I love you, too. So very much it scares me, but Mase, I love you so so much.”, you rasped. “Thank you for not giving up on me or pushing me away after I was so awful today. I love you more than I could ever explain.”

And with that, you gently grabbed his cheeks and leaned in for the most perfect and mending kiss you’d ever shared, trying to show rather than tell him how deep your feelings for him ran.

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the-somewhat-rambling-reviewer · 3 months ago

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Grumblings About Season 6, Episode 6, Surprise (Edited Slightly)

Larry claiming he had nothing to do with the planes but didn’t stop them due to soreness over Eleanor strikes me as a retcon. Having watched the phone conversation between him and June, it really seemed like he did, in fact, take down those planes to try to force June to give New Bethlem a chance, and her revealing what part she played in Eleanor’s suicide didn’t surprise him but didn’t really have anything to do with what he did; I imagine Larry would have outright said something along the line of, ‘Yeah, and now, I gave you a taste of what you did to me,’ if it had.

I did love June just casually accepting Larry killed Putman (yay) and married Naomi (eh) without any further questions.

On a nitpicky note, Nick answers the phone, and two seconds later, June has told him the whole story. If they weren’t going to have an actual phone scene between the two characters, a better way would have been to have Nick answer, and then, cut to him retrieving the letters.

When Nick was in Jezebels, I was thinking about how his father-in-law might take hearing about it, and then, it turns out someone finds him.

Can’t wait for this particular commander to die.

Janine is awesome with giving monthly female names to try to subtly find out about June.

Interesting flashback between June and Nick. I’ve always maintained, if not for Gilead, June never would have been interested in Nick, and it seems Nick himself has always clocked this.

Lydia is Lydia. She brings cookies to sex slaves as if this is anything.

I’m a little afraid what she’s going to do with the information Larry has been visiting Jezebels.

It’s so nice to see Janine is absolutely done with Lydia’s shit.

Maybe someone has, but it’d be really nice if someone directly said, ‘You sent women to be raped.’ Forced pregnancy and birth is terrible, but Lydia could have, at least, tried advocating for the handmaids to be artificially inseminated. When Esther was raped, like Larry noted, her objection was that it wasn’t done on a certain day, and her solution was to have the handmaids raped at the red centre rather than, at least, floating the idea that PIV sex should completely be taken out of the equation, something medical science is established to have made possible in the show’s universe.

For all I hate Lydia, however, I will note she has undergone character development, even if I’m not impressed with it. In the past, Lydia physically lashing out would not be followed by a genuine apology to the one she hurt. At most, she’d apologise to the commanders or other aunts.

Wharton was actively sinister.

Nick sending June to SJ’s. Really?

I’m not saying it doesn’t make some narrative sense, but I still hate it.

Hate it.

Also, I half-expected for SJ, upon recognising June, to just walk back to her desk all, ‘Nope!’

For once, I think SJ is underreacting. Like I said, I had no problem with her being pushed out of the train, but who in the hell pushes a baby out of a moving train? Or even just a stationary one? If someone wants to push someone holding a baby out of a train, the least they could do is take the baby first.

Right on cue, though, she sets me off with her hypocritical, self-righteous moralising.

Do I feel bad for both Rose and Luke? Yes.

Am I the one who raped both Nick and June in order to force conception, and then, stole the resulting daughter? No.

And she did not pay for anything she did in prison. On another note, I’ve read numerous people saying she was a handmaid in Canada, and no. The Wheelers holding her prisoner and making it clear they’d eventually completely kidnap Noah was wrong, but she wasn’t raped at any point. Noah was the product of a consensual encounter between her and her husband. She wasn’t forced to help execute people or perform the gruelling physical tasks we’ve seen handmaids have to perform.

As much as I don’t care about SJ and Wharton, I did love June’s line asking if Fred was like Fred when SJ and Fred started.

But it’s worth noting, Fred becoming what he did was in part due to SJ herself. Him hurting her wasn’t her fault, but her helping create a society where he was able to freely do so was. Him losing interest in her and their marriage wasn’t necessarily her fault, but again, her helping create a society where their relationship could never be the equitable one it once was is.

Breakfast of awkward. The reversal of SJ serving the once-Martha is briefly cool to see, but please, Rita, get out of this house post-haste.

It turns out I misinterpreted something SJ said, and I was under the impression Rita was actually living in SJ's house. When I thought about it, I wondered how/why Rita wasn't alerted when June was banging down the door, but it turns out, no, Rita is just living in New Bethlem and working at a job SJ got for her at a bakery.

I'd still like Rita and her sister and any other family the two of them have to get out of New Bethlem, but thankfully, this isn't as bad as I thought.

Charlotte Angela is too young to understand anything about chess, Larry. For everything else Naomi is wrong about, she is correct about this.

I’m not sure if I buy what the show is doing with Nick.

One, Nick knows that everything comes back to Hannah with June. It’s not a question of love. Plus, there’s Holly Nichole.

I’ve noted before I’m not sure Nick loves her and that, given SJ raped him and June both to produce her, I don’t blame him if he doesn’t. But he knows how much June loves her.

June doesn’t want Paris. She wants her oldest daughter freed, and she wants to be able to be part of Holly Nichole’s life in the way she was denied to be with Hannah. He’s offering her the second half, but it doesn’t help with the first half.

And keeping shipping completely out of it, Luke has been a father to Holly Nichole. Even if Nick did undeniably love her, circumstances have made it where Luke has been able to be there for her while Nick hasn’t been.

I didn’t even notice this until someone brought this up, but when Luke and June were arguing and he exasperatedly said, “She’s your mother,” to June about Dr Holly, he didn’t say anything about Holly Nichole being her kid.

One thing I did notice and love was, at the train station, he told her to take care of “our” baby.

Because, whether June ends up with Nick, Luke, or neither, Luke is irrevocably Holly Nichole’s family, and I don’t believe June would say, ‘Yeah, I’ll take Holly Nichole and my mother and leave Luke without access to his second daughter. Leave him to fight alone for our first daughter.’

I loved June’s face in the closet, and I knew it wouldn’t, but I was half-expecting for her to physically attack him and them to tumble out all Looney Tunes style.

And finally, I understand Nick was in a difficult situation, and he’s been through a lot recently. I can buy he’s decided he is going to try to be there for his preborn son.

I’m just not sure him telling Wharton about the plan instead of using information he has on someone else is something Nick, even heavily cornered, would do.

Thank you to everyone who read.

#the handmaid's tale

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snowblack-charcoalwhite · 1 year ago

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The way Condal, Hess and co write certain characters, especially Alicent, just makes them look like some kind of aliens who cannot comprehend the core of human nature and familial bonds (motherly love, sibling dynamic...) . I mean, fine, maybe they aren't parents honestly have no idea about their private lives nor do I want to know ), but that still doesn't justify the atrocious manner in which they have been portraying Alicent's relationship with her children. And I dislike the explanations that come from one part of the fandom (she married against her will, never wanted those children, never felt freedom...) I mean, I don't deny these, but they are not enough to explain or justify her weird (and sudden imo) detachment and dare i say, borderline hatred of her sons. Not to mention that this was the life of westerosi women, basically every one of them. Also, Ryan talked how Alicent and Viserys had "a loving marriage, just weren't in love " and generally holds Viserys in high regard, so he obviously doesn't see him as Alicent's abuser or anything. That's why i cannot understand what is the point of showing her so disgusted by her children and incapable of showing them love. Otto's influence? Maybe, but still not the greatest explanation. And she seems even harsher and distant to her sons this season than Otto ever was to her. She doesn't seem broken over Jaehaerys, she doesn't seem overly upset over Aegon (he's burned alive and is dying ffs and she won't shed a tear), Aemond is apparently an ireedemeable monster in her eyes fur some reason, even before RR... It's so frustrating that there are people who eat it all up and justify it as a genius and subtle storytelling with a lot of details that we "the whiners" refuse or are unable to grasp. Idk, I really liked her in s1 and although she was a bit inconsistent in ep 8 and 9 I hoped it would be retconed. Unfortunately, this season I'm watching a character I don't recognise anymore. And the worst thing is that she doesn't suffer from a lack of screentime like Aemond or Helaena do. Almost everything on tg revolves around her and yet I still have no idea what is her goal or who she is anymore.

Sorry for the rant.

Hello!

I could not agree with you more. Not sure if some kind of personal/family circumstances of HotD writers played a role in them fumbling the Greens family dynamic so badly but I am convinced that their "women good men bad" narrative policy did.

In "Driftmark" Alicent orders for Luke's eye to be cut out (and immediately, in public) - and then attacks Luke and Rhaenyra herself. But a few minutes (in show time) later she repents - and after that, apparently, she is all for "violence is reserved for men" agenda. That's where her disdain for Aemond (in whose name she was about to commit a public act of violence herself) is supposed to come from, I think. It doesn't even feel like she is horrified precisely by the fact that he might have almost killed (deliberately at that) his own brother. Lack of consistency and logic? Yes. Obliviousness at best, hypocrisy at worst (from Alicent, I mean)? Yes. But who cares, right? Alicent does not support the evil deeds of men - and that's what matters.

And her treatment of Aegon looks even more moronic. Girl, you put him on the throne against his will! After her meeting with Rhaenyra she knows it was a result of a misunderstanding (the favourite trick of this show, dammit - but it is a topic for a whole another conversation) but how is Aegon to blame for it?

I can relate to Alicent growing tired of being used and manipulated - but IMO (I agree with you here as well) this is not a good enough excuse for her to fully go into the "fuck yourselves, the lot of you" mode. But for the writers it is, at least it looks like it. They were trying to sell us the bullying of Aemond by Aegon (combined with the former's desire for power) being a sufficient motivation for Aemond to get rid of his brother (during the civil war where they are supposed to be on the same side no less) - and now they are trying to justify whatever Alicent does with her being a child bride and so on and so forth. I have no love for Viserys (or sympathy for Otto - where it comes to him pimping his teenage daughter out to the king) - but turning Alicent into this and expecting everyone to eat it up? Come on. Even some casual viewers are going "WTF" watching Alicent's scenes with her children, never mind those who are familiar with Fire and Blood.

And double yes to the point about the show very heavily focusing on Alicent to the detriment of many other characters (Aemond first of all). It feels like the writers believe that all that audience is supposed to know about Aemond now is that he is a bad guy - and they give him just enough screen time to show that. Meanwhile Alicent has loads of it - just so we could get a really good, really long look at her face and understand just how bad patriarchy failed her.

So, as I see it Alicent is now no more than a means to the end of hammering home the main idea of the show. How does she do that and what happens to her character in the process is unimportant - at least, to the writers and showrunners.

Sorry for the rant as well🙈

#asks #hotd #hotd season 2 #anti hotd #hotd critical #alicent hightower

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celticseawych · 1 year ago

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After a great deal of thought, here is my two cents worth on the allegations about Neil Gaiman.

I have been struggling with this, as, I am sure, many others have.

In my view, these women who are coming forward are genuine, despite it being on a right-wing outlet. My belief is based on NG's admissions of behaviours that, at best, were seriously misjudged. Also, Amanda Palmer's song

https://genius.com/Amanda-palmer-whakanewha-lyrics

It's very, very sad and disappointing, to say the least.

But I don't believe in completely canceling people. And here is why, if you will bear with me.

Protesting, expressing concern, boycotting are all excellent ways of registering opposition. They can bring about change.

Canceling people on the basis that they are irredeemably evil is counter productive. It allows for no debate. It leaves no room for redemption.

And it is also, very much, "casting the first stone".

It's the kind of behaviour favoured by fundamentalists and totalitarians.

It's predicated on a sense of moral superiority.

And it's nearly always focused on perceived sexual transgressions (including but limited to, "immodest" or "loose" women, divorceés but not divorcés, single mothers, women who have had abortions, members of the LGBTQ+ community, rape victims, etc, etc, etc, and, latterly, sexual predators).

Meanwhile, there is nary a whiff of outrage about the grievous offences committed daily in relation to other "sins".

Moral indignation is valid, of course, but, I would argue, needs to be tempered with the understanding that we are all capable of, and probably guilty of, truly reprehensible things. We should be honest enough to recognise this, even as we quite rightly recognise the pain of victims and the transgressions of others.

As a long-time lapsed Catholic, I still believe in the qualities of compassion, forgiveness, empathy and self-examination.

*****

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Matthew 7: 3-5

*****

and

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do"

Luke 23: 34

Please, let us always continue to choose love and compassion for everyone, even for those who we might feel don't deserve it.

#choose love #neil gaiman #good omens #good omens fandom #love the sinner not the sin #compassion #forgiveness #mercy #respect victims

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frmartinshomiliesandreflections · 8 months ago

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21st November- Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for:

Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time (Luke 19:41-44): ��He shed tears over it’.

And For

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Matthew 12:46-50).

Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA) Luke 19:41-44 Jesus sheds tears over the coming fate of Jerusalem.

As Jesus drew near Jerusalem and came in sight of the city he shed tears over it and said, ‘If you in your turn had only understood on this day the message of peace! But, alas, it is hidden from your eyes! Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side; they will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground; they will leave not one stone standing on another within you – and all because you did not recognise your opportunity when God offered it!’

Gospel (USA) Luke 19:41-44 If you only knew what makes for peace.

As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

Reflections (8)

(i) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

It has been said that to love someone is to have one’s heart broken. When someone we love suffers or dies, our heart breaks, and we give expression to our breaking heart in tears. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem. His tears were tears of love. He loved the people of this city; he wanted what was best for them, as love always wants what is best for the beloved. He wanted them to know the peace which his message could bring them. However, he foresaw that the rejection of his message, of himself, by the leaders of the people would bring suffering and death down upon the whole city. Their leaders failed to see that God was visiting them and speaking to them in and through Jesus, God’s beloved Son. They failed to recognize their opportunity when God offered it, in the words of the gospel reading. The Lord continues to weep today when those whom he loves fail to take the path to peace and happiness that he calls them and prompts them to take. He lived, died and rose from the dead out of love for all men and women, so that they would follow in his way, live by his truth and so find peace, that fullness of life which he so desperately desires for all. The gospel reading suggests that the Lord is often powerless before our refusal to accept his love and allow our lives to be shaped by his love. All he can do is weep. Whenever we find ourselves weeping over situations where violence and suffering prevail, because of people’s refusal to live by the gospel message, it is the Lord who is weeping through us. However, the Lord rejoices over us, declares us blessed, whenever we allow him to work through us to bring the light of his love into the darkness of our world, whenever we create a space, by what we say and do, for the Lord’s fuller coming into our world.

And/Or

(ii) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

Luke presents Jesus in a very emotional state in today’s gospel reading, weeping because the city of Jerusalem did not receive him, and did not recognize that in Jesus God was visiting them. The city will now have to live with the consequences of rejecting Jesus. The tears of Jesus are the tears of a love that has been rejected. Jesus came to reveal and make present God’s hospitable love for all, but many rejected God’s messenger of good news. There is a sense in which Jesus, and God who sent him, was helpless before such rejection. All Jesus can do is weep at human intransigence. Jesus cannot force himself on people; when rejected, he can only move on. He has come to seek and to save the lost, but the lost, and that includes us all, have to be open and responsive to his searching love. He walks with us and wants to enter into communion with us, but, every so often, he needs us to say to him, in the words of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over’.

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(iii) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

Luke tends to play down the emotions of Jesus in his gospel. Yet, in this morning’s gospel he portrays Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem. He weeps because he knows that the city, at least those who rule there, will not recognize him as the visitor from God who brings God’s peace. Jesus will be put to death in the city as God’s rejected prophet, God’s rejected Son. Jesus is helpless before this ill-fated decision that the city will make. All he can do is weep. Earlier in Luke’s gospel Jesus had said of Jerusalem that he had desired to gather her children as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but they were not willing. There is a sense in which the Lord remains helpless before human unwillingness to respond to his longing for us. There is only so much he can do to enter into a loving relationship with us; at some point he will need our willingness, our openness. He needs our free response. Yet, the good news of the gospels is that he remains faithful to us; he waits patiently for our response. Even if it comes at the eleventh hour, he welcomes it. His tears do not make him bitter or close his heart to us; his tears are always tears of love, a faithful love that endures in the face of human resistance.

And/Or

(iv) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

The tears that we shed often speak volumes about the feelings that we have for someone. In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus is described as weeping over the city of Jerusalem. Jesus had a deep love for this city and its people. Earlier in Luke’s gospel he had said that he had wanted to gather its inhabitants to himself as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing. Yet, Jesus must have foreseen that the leaders within the city, the members of the Sanhedrin, would reject him. In fact they would go on to choose a rebel against Rome in his place, Barabbas. It was the choice for rebellion against Rome that would result in the destruction of the city about which Jesus weeps in the gospel reading. Jesus was powerless before the choice that the people of Jerusalem made, or its leaders made on their behalf. Our choices always have consequences for good or ill. The Lord wants us to choose what he would choose, to make our choices in accordance with his will for our lives. He weeps when we fail to do so. The gospel reading suggests that the Lord cannot force himself upon us. He seeks us out but we have to allow ourselves to be found. He offers us a way and provides the means for us to take that way but we have to be willing to take it. Yet, the gospels suggest that the Lord will not give us on us easily. His tears do not make him bitter or close his heart to us; his tears are always tears of love, a faithful love that endures in the face of human resistance.

And/Or

(v) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus announced that God was powerfully reigning in and through his ministry, ‘the kingdom of God is at hand’. God’s life-giving power was at work through Jesus for the healing of the sick, for the forgiving of sinners, for the inclusion of the excluded and for the accepting of the rejected. Yet, today’s gospel reading reminds us that there were limits to this power of God working through Jesus. Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem because its people, especially its leaders, did not recognize the opportunity God was offering everyone in and through his ministry. For all his power, Jesus was powerless before their refusal to recognize that his coming was a visit from God. The power of Jesus was the power of love, the power of a divine love which is stronger than sin and death. All love, even divine love, must be freely received because it is in the nature of love to be a free gift. The tears of Jesus speak volumes about the capacity of human freedom to reject the gift of God’s unconditional love offered to us through his Son. The Lord’s tears could be shed for any of us because we can all fail to recognize the opportunity when God offers us. Yet, the good news, the gospel, is that our failure need never have the last word because God’s love revealed in Jesus is stronger than our failure and it endures in the face of it.

And/Or

(vi) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

One of the most distressing experiences in life is to be rejected by someone we love and care about. This is the kind of sadness that engulfs Jesus at the beginning of today’s gospel reading as he sheds tears over the city of Jerusalem. This city and its people always had a special place in God’s purpose. According to the Jewish Scriptures, it was the place where God had chosen to dwell. Jesus knew that the message of God’s kingdom, God’s reign of love, that he had preached throughout Galilee also had to be preached in Jerusalem, the city that was closest to God’s heart and, therefore, to Jesus’ heart. Yet, unlike Galilee, where Jesus’ message and ministry were often well received, Jerusalem proved to be impervious to his message. It would live up to its darker reputation as a city that kills God’s prophets. The powerful people of the city were soon to reject Jesus in the most violent way. God was visiting the city in love through Jesus and this love was rejected. An opportunity for the city to experience the peace that comes from receiving God’s loving visit was lost, and the gospel reading suggests that this broke Jesus’ heart. Jesus is helpless before people’s refusal to receive his love, God’s love. Jesus’ desire to be in a loving relationship with us is never in doubt, but his desire needs to find an echo in our hearts if it is to come to pass. He respects our freedom to reject his love and the peace it brings, but it continues to break his heart. Yet, he does not give up on us, just as he did not give up on Jerusalem. As risen Lord, the first place he instructed his followers to preach the gospel in was the city of Jerusalem, ‘beginning in Jerusalem’. The Lord continues to wait for our response. Indeed, he works for our response by sending the Holy Spirit in our lives to prompt us and move us.

And/Or

(vi) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

We have all shed tears at some time. Very often, we weep over those we love. We weep at the sickness and death of our loved ones. When we give our heart to someone in love, we know our heart will inevitably break. We accept the suffering that loving someone brings. The alternative is not to love anyone, which is the poorest form of life. Jesus was God’s love in human form. His love for others had a unique quality and the suffering which his love brought him also had a unique quality. Because he loved more than any human being could, he suffered more than any human being could, and that suffering often led him to weep bitter tears. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem. Jesus had earlier said that he had wanted to gather the people of Jerusalem to himself, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they refused his loving outreach to them. The rejection of his loving visitation to them brought him great suffering, which led to his weeping bitter tears over the city. ‘If you had only understood on this day the message of peace’. Their rejection of Jesus’ love would have tragic consequences for the city. Jesus was often powerless before human rejection of his love. We may love others but we cannot force their love for us; we are powerless before the mystery of their freedom to accept or reject our love. The Lord’s love for us is not in doubt. What is in doubt is our willingness to receive his love and to respond to it. One of the most important questions Jesus asks in all four gospels is his question to Peter in John’s gospel, ‘Do you love me?’ It is a question addressed to each one of us personally. We are all invited to make our own Peter’s response to Jesus’ question on that occasion, ‘Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you’.

And/Or

(viii) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

There are two places in the four gospels where Jesus is portrayed as weeping, at the tomb of his friend Lazarus in the gospel of John and just before the enters the city of Jerusalem for the last time in the gospel of Luke, which is today’s gospel reading. His tears at the tomb of Lazarus express his sorrow at the death of a beloved friend and the devastating impact of Lazarus’ death on his sisters, Martha and Mary, who were also friends of Jesus. The tears of Jesus in today’s gospel reading express his sadness over the failure of a city to welcome him as the bringer of God’s peace. Both set of tears spring from love. We weep over those we love and care about. Jesus had a deep love for the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. Earlier in Luke’s gospel he had exclaimed, ‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!’ It is a very maternal, motherly, image that Jesus uses of himself. The tears of Jesus in today’s gospel reading are like the tears of a mother who has been rejected by her children. Jesus’ statement, ‘you were not willing’, reminds us that the Lord’s tremendous love for us needs some response from us. At some level, our will needs to be brought into line with his will, our desire needs to correspond in some way to his desire for us. The good news is that, even the smallest of openings, faith the size of a mustard seed, as Jesus once said, is all he needs for his loving purpose for our lives to come to pass.

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Feast of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Gospel (Except USA) Matthew 12:46-50 My mother and my brothers are anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven.

Jesus was speaking to the crowds when his mother and his brothers appeared; they were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 12:46-50 Stretching out his hands toward his disciples, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers.

While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Reflections (7)

(i) Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today’s feast commemorates the presentation of the child Mary in the Temple of Jerusalem by her parents. We seldom think of Mary as a child. All the images of Mary we are familiar with are either of Mary as an adult or of Mary in heavenly glory. Yet, when we are first introduced to Mary in the gospels at the moment of her annunciation, we should probably think of her as a very young woman, no more than a teenager. She must have grown up as a child in a very faith-filled home. Otherwise she would not have emerged as a woman of such strong and generous faith at the time of the annunciation. Today’s feast celebrates the fact that as a very young child Mary’s parents presented her to the Lord in the Temple, gave her over to the Lord’s purpose for her life. It was as if her parents were saying, ‘Lord here is our child. We know that she belongs to you more than she belongs to us’. Mary’s parents were recognizing that her relationship with the Lord was even more significant that her relationship with them. Today’s feast reminds us that the most important relationship in our lives is our relationship with the Lord. Every day we try to present ourselves to the Lord, offering ourselves to him. Every day we pray that God’s purpose for our lives would come to pass and that God’s will would be done in our lives. In the gospel reading Jesus declares that those who do the will of his Father, in whose lives God’s will is done, are his brothers and sisters and mother. It was above all Mary who did the will of Jesus’ heavenly Father. In the prayer that Jesus gave us to pray, the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, ‘Father in heaven, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. Heaven is that state where God’s kingdom has fully come, where God’s will is fully done. To the extent that we do the will of our heavenly Father here and now, something of heaven comes to earth. When we allow God’s purpose for our lives to shape us, as Mary did, then we create an opening for God’s kingdom to come among us.

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(ii) Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The feast of Mary’s presentation in the temple in Jerusalem as a child celebrates an important truth about Mary: From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God, given over to God’s purposes. Because of her dedication to God from an early age, she was called by God to become a greater temple than the magnificent temple in Jerusalem. If the temple in Jerusalem was the house of God, the place where God was believed to be present in a special way, Mary became the house of the Lord in an even greater way, because she carried the Lord in her womb until she give birth to him. God came to dwell in her, through Jesus, because she was open to God’s presence from the earliest years of her life. She is the prime example of the group that Jesus refers to in this morning’s gospel reading as those ‘who do the will of my Father in heaven’. Today’s feast celebrates the fact that from her childhood Mary did the will of God, and was therefore ready to become the temple of God’s Son at the time of God’s choosing. We too are called to do the will of the Father in heaven so that we too can become temples of the Lord, people who carry the Lord’s presence to others, as Mary did. Writing to the church in Corinth, Paul says, ‘Do you not know that you are God’s temple?’ We ask Mary to pray for us now so that we may always do the will of the Father and so become temples of God as she was.

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(iii) Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honour of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century, and in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church. The feast stresses an important truth about Mary: From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God. She herself became a greater temple than any temple made by hands. God came to dwell in her in a marvellous manner and sanctified her in advance for her unique role in God's saving work. God came to dwell in her, through Jesus, because she was open to God’s presence from the earliest years of her life. She is the prime example of the group that Jesus refers to in this morning’s gospel reading, those ‘who do the will of my Father in heaven’. Today’s feast celebrates the fact that from her childhood Mary did the will of God, and was therefore ready to become the temple of God’s Son at the time of God’s choosing. We too are called to do the will of the Father in heaven and, thereby, to become temples of God, people who carry God’s presence to others. We ask Mary to pray for us now so that we may always be faithful to that calling.

And/Or

(iv) Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today we commemorate the presentation of the child Mary in the temple at Jerusalem. This feast celebrates the consecration of Mary’s life to the Lord. From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God by her parents, given over to God’s purposes for her life. According to the gospels of Matthew and Luke, in her teenage years, Mary was called by God to become a greater temple than the magnificent temple in Jerusalem in which she was presented as a child. The temple in Jerusalem was the house of God, the place where God was believed to be present in a special way. God wanted Mary to become the house of the Lord in an even greater way, because she was to carry the Lord in her womb, until she gave birth to him. God came to dwell in her, through Jesus, God’s Son. Because she was open to God’s presence from the earliest years of her life, she said ‘yes’ to this wonderful calling. She gave herself over to God’s will for her life. She is the prime example of the group that Jesus refers to in this morning’s gospel reading as those ‘who do the will of my Father in heaven’. Today’s feast celebrates the fact that from her childhood Mary had always done the will of God, and was therefore ready to become the temple of God’s Son at the time of God’s choosing. In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus declares that this true family are those who do the will of his Father in heaven. We look to Mary to show us what it means to say ‘yes’ to God’s call in our lives. Insofar as we can enter into Mary’s ‘yes’, we too will become temples of the Lord, like her. The Lord will be formed in us and we will offer him to the world by our lives, as she did.

(v) Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

When we hear the word ‘presentation’ in a religious context, we tend to think of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, the fourth joyful mystery of the Rosary. The church celebrates the feast of the presentation of Jesus on the 2nd of February. The church also celebrates the memorial of the presentation of Mary, on this day, 21st November. This memorial has been kept in the church since at least the eight century. It commemorates the consecration of Mary’s life to God. In the first reading today, God calls on the city of Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, to sing and rejoice because he is coming to dwell in the midst of them. These are words that could easily be addressed to Mary. She too can sing and rejoice because the Lord came to dwell in the midst of her, in her womb. Indeed, according to Luke’s gospel, she did sing and rejoice in response to this good news, in her prayer that has come to be known as the Magnificat. We too can sing and rejoice that the Lord has come to dwell within Mary, because through the Lord’s dwelling within her, he has come to dwell in the midst of us all. It is through Mary that God became Emmanuel, God with us. The Lord was able to dwell within Mary because, in the words of the gospel reading, she was someone who did the will of God the Father in heaven. She was completely given over to doing God’s will, to allowing God to do his will in and through her. This is the aspect of Mary’s life we are celebrating today, her giving over of herself to God and to God’s purposes. Through Mary, God has come to dwell among us in the person of Jesus, now risen Lord. Mary shows us how to respond to that wonderful initiative of God towards us. Like her, we are to give ourselves over to doing God our Father’s will, as that will has been revealed to us by Jesus.

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(vi) Feast of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

There is no scene in the gospels corresponding to today’s memorial. Yet, there is a presumption that Mary’s parents would have presented her to the Lord in the Temple of Jerusalem when she was a child. Christian tradition has understood that Mary’s presentation to the Lord by her parents symbolized the consecration of her life to the Lord. As her parents presented her to the Lord, Mary as an adult presented herself to the Lord, made herself available for God’s purpose, as expressed in her response to the angel Gabriel, ‘Let what you have said be done to me’. In a similar way, our parents presented us to the Lord on the day of our baptism. As we grow towards adulthood, we then confirm for ourselves what happened for us on the day of our baptism. Our confirmation is our personal confirming of our baptism, which we try to live out every day. Mary’s giving of herself over to God’s purpose for her life did not always come easy to her, because God’s ways are not our ways. In today’s gospel she and other members of her family approached where Jesus was teaching and stood outside anxious to have a word with him. However, rather than just going out to his mother, Jesus sent back word to her that he now had a new family. His disciples, those who did the will of God as Jesus revealed it, were now his brother and sister and mother. Mary had to learn to let go of her son to God’s purpose for his life. When we enter into a personal relationship with God, it is always God who does the leading and we who try to follow. God’s purposes are always greater and more mysterious than ours, and so there is always a letting go to God on our part. That doesn’t come easy to us, no more than it came easy to Mary, but if we allow God to have God’s way in our life, we can be assured that it will be the way of life for us and for all we influence.

And/Or

(vii) Feast of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This feast originated in the Eastern Church. It commemorates the presentation of Mary to God by her parents in the Temple of Jerusalem, when she was a child. It reflects the church’s understanding of Mary’s subsequent grace-filled life as wholly given over to God’s purpose. Today’s gospel reading suggests that there were times when she struggled to understand God’s purpose for her life, especially in relation to her son Jesus. She sets out from Nazareth with other members of Jesus’ family to Capernaum where Jesus was ministering. Perhaps, they wanted him to come home and rest. However, Mary subsequently discovered that this was not God’s purpose for Jesus or for her. Jesus sent word out to Mary and his relatives that they no longer had any claim on him because he was starting a new family of his disciples and from now on they would be his mother and brothers and sisters. There was much here for Mary to ponder. What she wanted for Jesus as a mother was not necessarily what God wanted for him as his heavenly Father. In that sense, Mary’s experience can be very close to our own. Like her, we may want to give ourselves over to God’s purpose, we may want to do God’s will, but, like her, we can struggle to discern what God’s purpose for our lives really is. We sometimes have to come to the painful recognition that what we want for ourselves and for others isn’t always what God wants. We can’t allow ourselves to become too sure of God’s desire for our lives or the lives of others. Like Mary, we have to keep ourselves open to where the Lord is leading us. Like her, we need to keep prayerfully pondering on our life experience, trusting in the Lord’s promise that those who seek will find.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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puckandgossip · 2 months ago

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so what story’s are actually true that we know about sammy? i’ve heard so many from “trusted anons” with “evidence” but the story’s are so far fetched. like how do we know she’s a zionist? how do we know she was after luke before jack (bc there’s no way luke told jack that she wanted him after they started dating bc surely considering they live together he was like hey luke im taking to this girl and luke recognised her and told him)? and how do we know the entire hughes bloodline hates her? there’s a literal video of her skating with jim at the family skate and they’re smiling 😭 i feel like people make up these story’s bc they can’t believe that jack have a gf.

if anyone does have any evidence for the things i’ve said (which are only a few examples of the things i’ve heard) then please share bc i’ve NEVER seen any valid evidence to go with these claims.

and while i’m talking about this i think it’s so fucking weird how people find old photos of her from accounts that aren’t hers, like are you that obsessed? and then say how ugly she used to look but they get mad when people say she got work done. like people change i look nothing like i did two years ago and yes i’ve changed my hair (i now have very defined curls) but my face looks different too.

this is just my take bc i know there’s the screenshot of her liking the SA joke and while im not condoning her liking the comment bc it’s not funny i think (this may be controversial) that it’s been completely blown out of proportion. like yes we shouldn’t joke about SA but something that’s trending at the moment is pretending to strangle yourself or saying i’ll kill myself when stuff doesn’t go well. like surely we should have an issue with that too bc we’re joking around about suicide.

again this is just my opinion and i feel like you wouldn’t judge me for sharing this bc other blogs just seem to hate her and on a total other note i wish she’d gotten a wag jacket to see the excuses for why she got one “she forced him to buy it” he’s a full grown man with free will “she’s begging for attention” her boyfriend bought her a jacket and she’s in a photo. GET. A. GRIP. DO YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN LIE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU DONT KNOW AND MAKE OTHER PEOPLE BELIVE IT.

no girl I agree with all you're saying. None of the stuff about her like you said, has evidence behind it, Except her liking the SA comment her friend made, but also like you said it was taken soooo out of proportion and I would say the same exact thing about the diddy comment by Reese, lets not act like everyone is mother teresa . And that is also why these blogs hold onto those two things for dear life and will not drop it, because it is the ONE thing they have "evidence" of.

Everything else, The plastic surgery, NO evidence just flat out bullying someone over looks and speculations that to me personally make no sense. And like you said, PEOPLE GROW UP AND CHANGE. why are we comparing her photos from years ago, to now? I look like a different person even from 5 years ago to now and surprise! no plastic surgery here! but then again, WHO CARES? it's 2025 you can put 50 women in a room and 40% will have something done to them, whether it is filler, actual surgery, etc. and also its your money and your body. Do whatever the fuck you want, you want bigger tits? Get a boob jobs, You dont like your nose? get a nose job if you want. It's your life and who tf are you to judge? but again zero evidence of it of course, just another thing with no evidence to pick at her about.

the whole jacks family despises her? Zero evidence once again. Why does she sit with them at games, why do they invite her into their own house, why are they around her? I think you people forget that you're talking about grown adults, not high schoolers. If Quinn, Luke, Jim, Ellen, whoever tf "despises" her and did not want to be around her, guess what? they wouldn't be, no one is being forced against their will. same thing goes for following her, because that also was a topic for some reason, these blogs saying "jack forced his friends and his family to follow her" like where do you even come up with this stuff? yes jack a grown man is forcing his grown family and friends to follow his girlfriend so she doesn't get upset, i'm convinced people dont know how the world works.

Her stalking Luke and wanting Luke before jack? Why the hell would Luke not tell jack that before dating her? Wouldn't you think luke would maybe say "hey! that girl is weird and she stalked me in Michigan and wanted me! maybe its not a good idea you go for her" before jack got into a relationship with her? and with how cautious that family is, i can assure you, Luke would absolutely say something.

and these few examples are just one of the MANYYYYYYYYYYYYY things said about her with zero proof. please do not believe what you see on some of these pages, because these narratives dont come from truth at all, they come from delusion, hate, and jealousy.

im tired of seeing girls and wags being dragged left and right for absolutely no reason except for the fact that they are dating popular hockey players, making fan girls upset and target them to take their hate and jealousy out on. Please grow up and speak to a professional if you are online behind a screen, making malicious and disgusting stories and narratives up about people you do not know. it is not normal and it is not okay. And you guys are lucky that Sammy didn't take the path to sue some of these blogs for the nasty things said about her, because yes that is an option because it is considered Defamation, lying on somebody like that. I even remember people saying she sexually assaulted her guy friend and someone even took a sex tape from twitter claiming it was her. Like seriously? What the fuck is wrong with some people. If I were her shit I would've sued a while ago.

and anon, you're welcome to say anything you want on here and talk about your opinions anytime you wish on this blog. You'll be heard here and just know there are THANKFULLY people who agree with you.

Leave the girl alone. You do not know her and it is just disgusting. Get a life please I beg at this point.

#s.marcus

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veeluvss · 1 year ago

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SURVIVOR

Chapter Nine

“You need to get back to work goddamnit!” Elle shouted. “Elle, are you not hearing me? I had a panic attack, I can’t just go back!” JJ shouted back.

“I don’t care if you had a panic attack JJ. We need insider information,” “You don’t care that I had a panic attack? Gee, what a supportive girlfriend you are.”

Elle sighed and rubbed her brow. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.” “You just said it. You said the words ‘I don’t care-” “JJ, just shut up!” “It’s not like I can go back now anyway, Emily won’t let me near the case.” “Well you butter her up like you always do and get back on the case. We can’t do this without you there, JJ.” “No. I don’t want to be near it.” “No? No. Fuck off, JJ you got us in this mess in the first place - you can’t just back out now.” “I can do whatever the fuck I want, Elle!” The argument grew more heated as JJ got off the kitchen counter. “And right now, I’m going out.” Elle grabbed JJ’s arm as she went to walk past her. “No, you’re not because now I know what that means.”

“Get off me!” JJ cried and pulled at her arm. “Get your murderous hands off me, you freak!” “Me? Me? Murderous? JJ you’re the killer, not me.” “Shut up, shut up, shut up, Elle!” JJ cried as her head began to hurt again. “JJ, you can’t go out again. Not now.”

JJ wrung her hands together, “I have to.” Tears filled her eyes and Elle felt the pang in her heart, she hated seeing JJ cry. “No baby, no you don’t.” “I need to, I need- I need to hurt them again.” “You’re just stressed, come on, let's go lie down,” Elle went to hold JJ but she ripped away, scared of the touch. “Jay.” “Stay away from me. Away.” “JJ, I can’t let you keep doing this.” “Then come with me, do it with me. Remember what you said - we were in this together.”

“That was before I saw what it did to you.”

“It’s the only way to get justice, you know what Emily said - they’re loved and appreciated still - we have to take that away. They don't deserve love!”

Elle knew JJ was right.

Meanwhile at the BAU

The team sat around the round table with the evidence before them. Most victims had died from GHB, no poison or anything like that which leaned towards a male unsub. However the anger shown by the unsub regarding the ‘rapist’ showed a potential female unsub. The team was conflicted.

“It’s possible it could be a male who knew a victim of rape? Perhaps a wife or a sister?” Luke suggested. “Possibly or we could be looking for a woman with combat training - it's less uncommon these days,” Tara added. “Let’s move on to victimology - why these guys?” Emily chimed in. “Well they were all found in alleys except the last one. That could suggest they were found in the act. What if the unsub was stopping these men raping people when they were killed?” “So our unsub is a vigilante,” Tara said.

“Exactly that. They’re killing the men to save the women - the other victims.” Rossi said. “Garica get their faces of our victims out to the press, don’t mention they’re dead - just say we want anyone who recognises them to come forward.” Emily said. “Yes boss,” Garcia said and began typing away on her computer. “I still don’t understand the latest victim. Found in his home, stabbed and then beaten - the unsub seeked them out, it wasn’t out of chance,” Tara said. “You’re right. The unsub changed their MO but why?” Just then, a local police officer entered their meeting room. “A witness claims to have seen two women leave and enter the last victim’s apartment this morning-” He said. “Two?” “Women?”

“This changes everything.”

Meanwhile with Elle and JJ

The two climbed out of the car as silently as they could and headed towards the alley where the scream came from. Both their guns were held out in front of them but clearly for protection. JJ’s knuckles were white from her grip and her teeth were clenched so hard it caused the vein to pop out in her head. “FBI, get away from her!” Elle shouted as they approached the two men over the young woman. Both men jumped back immediately but cursed. JJ reached out a hand and helped the girl up, she scurried from the scene and the guns were lowered. The men had their hands up, showing no weapons and JJ kicked first, straight at his private parts. He crippled and fell to the floor. Elle kicked the other and both men began to be beat up by the women. They didn’t fight back, in too much pain from the initial kicks and the threat of the guns. JJ hit hers harder, she stood over him, kicking him repeatedly in any place she could; the face, the ribs, the back, the stomach. Grunts and groans could be heard. Elle brought out her gun and shot hers. “Oi!” JJ screamed suddenly. “He can bleed to death, it’s fine.” “You’re going to cause attention.” “It’s nearly midnight, it’s fine,” Elle rolled her eyes and stood there as JJ grabbed her knife. She carved the name into her rapist’s head. He screamed out in agony and Elle laughed. JJ slapped him. “Shut up, you deserve this,” she hissed. “I wasn’t going to do anything,” the guy groaned, squinting his eyes in pain as the knife dragged across his skin. “Shut up!” JJ screamed and spat at him. Once the word was done, JJ was not. She began stabbing him repeatedly in the chest. Elle was gobsmacked. “JJ!” She cried and tried to grab her girl but JJ didn’t listen. She shoved her off of her and carried on stabbing. “JJ, stop!” Elle screamed and shot her gun to grab the girl's attention. JJ sat panting over the bleeding body. “You’re going to get us caught,” she said through her teeth. “You need to calm down, let’s go.” “I’m not done.” “You fucking are. Come on,” Elle grabbed JJ’s hand and dragged her away from the bleeding bodies. “You get too carried away.” Elle said. The pair got back to the car and JJ put her head against the cold metal, finally letting the bloody knife in her hand fall to the floor. It hit the pavement with a harsh noise and Elle came around the car. She put her hand on her girlfriend’s back and kissed the side of her head. “Let’s get you home.” “I wasn’t done-” JJ whispered. “You did enough today.” “It wasn’t right.” “It’s done now. Come on,” Elle said. She opened the car door and assisted JJ into her seat. She did her seatbelt as JJ was motionless, tears falling freely from her eyes. “I love you,” Elle muttered as she took in the sight of her bloody girlfriend before her. She never should have let her again.

#criminal minds #criminal minds evolution #jennifer jareau #jennifer jareau head canons #jennifer jareau imagine #elle x jj #elle criminal minds #elle greenway #elle greenaway #elle greenaway headcanons #elle greenaway x jennifer jareau #survivor

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basingstokemercury · 4 months ago

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The Way Station:

In which Adam goes from "clean-shaven" to "basically a beard at this point" overnight. Which makes total sense. I wonder if a certain production anecdote I heard has something to do with this...

Oh. You're in a mood. Figures after all that riding alone I guess.

STOP MAKING ADAM EVERY RANDOM PERSON'S THERAPIST HE HAS HIS OWN PROBLEMS TO DEAL WITH

Mum says Robert Vaughn is pretty famous. He seems cool.

Poor Marty... I thought they'd go the "she has a crush on Adam but he sees her as a kid" route, but it seems she forgot all about being interested in him the moment Luke came along.

So her mother just... left her kid to run off with some guy? Is that the story I'm getting?

Luke, by the way, introduces himself as Cody multiple times when he comes in, but next scene Adam's calling him Luke before Tim recognises him, and nothing is ever explained about this. Insight, anyone?

Interesting that throughout the conflict over Marty's future, Luke never suspects Adam of wanting her for himself. I guess he can tell when a guy's not interested?

And Adam is extremely fidgety this episode, which I guess makes sense with the "suddenly being held captive with a bunch of strangers" business. It's absolutely adorable.

Chewing a match, playing with a spoon, assorted messing around... I think someone might be just a little bored. And the one time he didn't bring a book...

This is a very good example of Adam's brand of courage in patience - waiting his moment, knowing when the enemy's vulnerable, not wasting strength and risking lives in a premature fight.

Why is it assumed that the women will do the cooking and serving? Surely at least Adam knows enough about food to help? Or the guy who runs a saloon?

So Marty's offered a choice between being a cook or saloon girl, when she has a talent for art and success for herself - all options she's being kept from by an overprotective guardian, which is pushing her not just to jump at the sup-optimal career offers but run off with a reckless criminal just for a way out. This is definitely a commentary on gender roles, right?

And Adam confronts a man who could easily (and likely remorselessly) kill him to protect a girl he barely knows, because, as he says, anybody deserves help when they're walking into trouble.

And has a very sweet one-sided talk trying to get through to her - who in his own life rejected him when he thought they were close? How many times has he had this conversation with Joe? He clearly has practice, I'm absolutely headcanoning that he's talked Joe through many a breakup and maybe even some with this level of messiness.

Which is ruined by Luke coming back, not because he actually cares but because his escape plan didn't pan out and he needs hostages. How romantic.

I can't blame Marty for buying it though, must seem like the fairytale ending of previous episodes where the outlaw comes back redeemed by the woman's love.

And she even (successfully) misleads the posse for him...

Until, of course, he has to ruin everything with murder.

"I can't spend the rest of my life in jail-" "You won't. You're gonna hang." Adam. Friend. Releasing just a bit of pent-up frustration there?

And aww a final gesture of maybe-redemption after all to ensure she finally gets that chance to make her name. How sweet. The end.

As wonderful as the family dynamic is I do love these stories that just zero in on Adam being his wonderful brilliant kind self.

The War Comes To Washoe:

Speaking of family dynamic...

Ben. Honestly. The war is coming to your house whether you like it or not, what happened to caring about others' need? Growth opportunity and all but I did an awful lot of wanting to punch him before that.

Oh look we finally mention that slavery exists and it only took more than three seasons! Go Adam!

Adam: I don't understand how you could sympathise with the cause that believes in slavery! Don't you see it's a bad idea to get involved with the daughter of a Confederate campaigner? I'm just trying to get you to think more carefully about your actions, okay? Joe: Well uh the South has a right to make its own decisions! And you just stay out of my love life or I'll make you regret it? Ben: Calm down, both of you! You're both overreacting to something that doesn't concern us! Adam: It does concern us- Ben: Nope we have a ranch to run go be useful!

Honestly. Come on.

Mum comments that Craigsmuir looks like BJ (it's probably the bad moustache) and now I can't unsee it thanks.

Joe. Joe be intelligent for once. How many girls have you told you love them more than anything? Are you incapable of recognising seduction tactics? At least Ben came around!

Okay he's actually considering turning on his father, Adam, and morality, for love. This is a normal thing to consider.

"Maybe by the time Adam gets back he'll have cooled off" JOSEPH DO YOU STILL THINK ADAM WAS THE GUILTY PARTY IN THAT ARGUMENT?!

Go Detective Adam and Trusty Sidekick Hoss! (Does this mean the Paiutes are siding with the Union? Or did a Union agent kill him, make it look like a different faction's work, and not search the body? I thought the Paiutes were supposed to have a good relationship with the settlers at this point...)

Antagonist: How do you plan on making me give you the information? Hoss: I could beat you up... Adam: I could let him...

Yeah. Someone's in no mood to play games today. Two someones, it seems.

And Adam rushes in just in time, disrupting the order of the convention, and it seems like he won't be allowed to speak-

When Joe's brotherly protective instincts finally come back, and he trusts his brother and won't let anyone push him around! Took you long enough kid!

Well done Joe. That should not have been this difficult though.

#bonanza #pondering the ponderosa

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holystormfire · 1 year ago

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Luke 24:13-35

Easter Wednesday - The Supper at Emmaus

Friend of the Humble (Supper at Emmaus),

Painted by Léon-Augustin L'Hermitte (1824-1925),

Painted in 1892,

Oil on canvas

Gospel Reading

Two of the disciples of Jesus were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking together about all that had happened. Now as they talked this over, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but something prevented them from recognising him. He said to them, ‘What matters are you discussing as you walk along?’ They stopped short, their faces downcast.

Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, ‘You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.’ ‘What things?’ he asked. ‘All about Jesus of Nazareth’ they answered ‘who proved he was a great prophet by the things he said and did in the sight of God and of the whole people; and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have gone by since it all happened; and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they did not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.’

Then he said to them, ‘You foolish men! So slow to believe the full message of the prophets! Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory?’ Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.

When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them. ‘It is nearly evening’ they said ‘and the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them. Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’

They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, ‘Yes, it is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’ Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread.

Reflection on the painting

Our painting combines today's Gospel story, where Jesus is breaking bread and the onlookers suddenly recognise him, with portraying Jesus as Friend of the Humble, the title of our painting. I do think this is a beautiful, gentle, gripping painting. Three generations of a family are depicted, sharing a meal. Before Léon-Augustin L'Hermitte painted this canvas it would be fair to say that artists always tried to represent Jesus as majestic, full of glory and maybe somewhat distant from normal day-to-day life. Our artist masterfully places Jesus in a contemporary setting of 1892, when this was painted. The painting emphasises that Jesus became human and that he did walk among us.

Vincent van Gogh was one of L'Hermitte's greatest admirers. In one of his letters he wrote: "If every month Le Monde Illustré published one of his compositions... it would be a great pleasure for me to be able to follow it. It is certain that for years I have not seen anything as beautiful as this scene by L'Hermitte... I am too preoccupied by L'Hermitte this evening to be able to talk of other things." Quite the accolade to have Van Gogh write about one's artistry this way.

As the risen Lord approached the two disciples, his first act was to draw them into conversation, asking them to share the nature of their discussion. He sought to hear their tale; a tale filled with sorrow and loss. He wanted to fully engage with them in their moment of grief. He accepted them as they were, demonstrating a profound respect for their current state on their spiritual journey. This is precisely how the Lord presents himself to us: he encounters us in our present circumstances, encouraging us to open our hearts to him, to express our deepest thoughts and feelings. It was only after attentively hearing the disciples' lament that the unrecognized visitor responded. His words cast their despairing narrative in an entirely new light. He made sense of their grief, by placing it in the greater narrative of God's plan - a narrative not concluded by death, but crowned with light and triumph.

by Father Patrick van der Vorst

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24worldnewsnet · 1 month ago

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Gary Oldman and Strictly hosts join Beckham in honoursActor Gary Oldman has been knighted alongside David Beckham on a King's Birthday Honours list that also recognises Strictly Come Dancing hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.The Oscar winner and the former football England captain are among 19 new sirs, while 21 damehoods have been announced, including singer and actress Elaine Paige and Regeneration novelist Pat Barker.There are MBEs for teenage world darts champion Luke Littler and Love Island star Georgia Harrison for her work on online privacy and cyber crime.Overall, 1,200 people are on the main honours listed issued by the Cabinet Office, of which 48% are women. The youngest person being honoured is 11 while the oldest is 106.The list features a range of well-known names, including from the arts, politics and sports, but it is primarily made up of people being recognised for their work in the community, including campaigners and fundraisers. Actor Sir Gary has enjoyed an illustrious career on screen and stage since the early 1980s and in 2018, won best actor at the Academy Awards for playing wartime prime minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. More recently, he won acclaim for his portrayal of an MI5 agent in Apple TV's Slow Horses.Daly and Winkleman are made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting.Both have had a long association with Strictly, which has aired 22 series. Daly started as a co-presenter with Sir Bruce Forsyth in the first season in 2004, while Winkleman originally hosted a spin-off programme. They have hosted the main show as a duo since 2014."I am ridiculously lucky and will celebrate with Tess by doing a paso doble," Winkleman said.Daly said she almost missed out on accepting the honour after the letter was sent to the wrong address - and added that she cried when she opened the envelope.Sir David's knighthood for services to sport and charity has been confirmed, having been widely reported earlier this month. The 50-year-old ex-footballer said he was "immensely proud".He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2003, and became an ambassador for Unicef in 2005 and for The King's Foundation last year, supporting King Charles' education programme and efforts to promote nature."I'm so lucky to be able to do the work that I do and I'm grateful to be recognised for work that gives me so much fulfilment," Beckham said.Evita star Dame Elaine also received her honour for services to music and charity. "I've been very lucky in my life and my career, I'm in a very privileged position," she told the BBC. "When you are in a position to help others, that is something I wanted to do."Dame Elaine says she has been "very lucky" in her life and careerSir Roger Daltrey, frontman of 1960s-formed rock group The Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust - known for its annual fundraising concerts at the Royal Albert Hall - has been knighted for services to charity and music. Sir Roger said he was accepting the knighthood "on behalf of all those unsung people who had worked to make the charity the success it had become".Georgia Harrison, 30, made her name on reality TV shows like Love Island and The Only Way is Essex. More recently, after her ex-partner was jailed in 2023 for posting intimate footage of her online, she has campaigned for sexual assault victims to be prioritised in the justice system and partnered with Thames Valley Police to encourage conversations about consent.Love Island star Georgia Harrison has been made an MBE for her work campaigning on online privacy and cyber crime"Speaking out after what happened wasn't easy, but I knew it was important," Harrison said. "I didn't want anyone else to feel as alone or powerless as I did. I've tried to turn something painful into something positive, and this honour is a reminder that we can make change when we use our voices."Darts player Luke Littler, 18 - the youngest winner of the PDC World Darts Championship

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qhalalimited · 3 months ago

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Intersectional Research in Tech Innovation: A Call to Action

It is never enough for a tech innovator to have a good idea. Innovations must go through intersectional research market test to ensure that they are well-received by target users. However, there is a pressing need for research to probe intersectional factors so that resulting tech innovations can solve problems for a wide range of users.

Probing the market

Innovation research involves probing to understand the problem space, needs, and opportunities before one can come up with solutions. Intersectional research allows innovators to probe the market to determine whether or not an innovation is worth deploying on a larger scale:

Does the proposed product/solution already exist? Did it succeed or not, and if it didn’t, what lessons can you learn from that failure? Does the product/solution solve a real problem for a large enough market? What is the perceived market and how large is it? Do potential customers understand the innovation and do they value it? How much are they willing to pay for it? Is there a real revenue opportunity?

Katie Lukes and Rob Hoehn offer more examples of questions that can guide market research around an innovation. The answers to these questions allow tech innovators to set clear research goals, identify gaps in the market and create bespoke, proprietary products or solutions. The answers to these questions might also highlight opportunities for collaborations.

Intersectional Research Analysis

These questions, though valid, assume a certain homogeneity in target customer groups. To be considered complete, intersectional research must integrate sex, gender, race, culture geography, quality or even availability of internet, language etc and other intersectional factors at every stage. The failure to probe the market at this level can result in, for example, digital maternal health technologies and programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa that exclude the very women who need them. (Ogochukwu Udenigwe, Sanni Yaya)

Ongoing research by Qhala reveals that many digital platforms that provide opportunities for gig work are seldom created to meet the unique needs of women, who tend to be disproportionately affected by security risks inherent in some platform work, such as delivery work, and who can find themselves being paid less than men. Digital platforms may also not be designed to meet the needs of physically impaired users, who have to depend on friends and family to effectively use the platforms.

Computer facial recognition features trained on biased datasets may not recognise women, darker skinned persons and non-conforming people as well as they might white male faces. (Gendered Innovations, Stanford University)

intersectional research is key to creating innovations that respond to real needs. However, that research must ask the right questions. The lack of research that takes into consideration intersectional factors remains largely unexamined and uninterrogated by tech innovators. As a consequence, the inequalities that exist in the non-digital world are simply replicated, even amplified, in digital innovation.

This is to the detriment of tech users, who are supposedly, the focus of tech innovation. However, complete research, that includes intersectional research analysis at every stage, can result in innovations that are inclusive and that stand a better chance of being commercially successful.

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frmartinshomiliesandreflections · 2 years ago

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23rd November >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 19:41-44 for Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time: ‘You did recognise your opportunity when God offered it’.

Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA) Luke 19:41-44 Jesus sheds tears over the coming fate of Jerusalem.

Gospel (USA) Luke 19:41-44 If you only knew what makes for peace.

Reflections (5)

(i) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

It has been said that to love someone is to have one’s heart broken. When someone we love suffers or dies, our heart breaks, and we give expression to our breaking heart in tears. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem. His tears were tears of love. He loved the people of this city; he wanted what was best for them, as love always wants what is best for the beloved. He wanted them to know the peace which his message could bring them. However, he foresaw that the rejection of his message, of himself, by the leaders of the people would bring suffering and death down upon the whole city. Their leaders failed to recognize that God was visiting them and speaking to them in and through Jesus, God’s beloved Son. They failed to recognize their opportunity when God offered it, in the words of the gospel reading. The Lord continues to weep today when those whom he loves fail to take the path to peace and happiness that he calls them and prompts them to take. He lived, died and rose from the dead out of love for all men and women, so that they would follow in his way, live by his truth and so find peace, that fullness of life which he so desperately desires for all. The gospel reading suggests that the Lord is often powerless before our refusal to accept his love and allow our lives to be shaped by his love. All he can do is weep. Whenever we find ourselves weeping over situations where violence and suffering prevail, because of people’s refusal to live by the gospel message, it is the Lord who is weeping through us. However, the Lord rejoices over us, declares us blessed, whenever we allow him to work through us to bring the light of his love into the darkness of our world, whenever we create a space, by what we say and do, for the Lord’s fuller coming into our world.

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(ii) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

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(iii) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

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(iv) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

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(v) Thursday, Thirty Third Week in Ordinary Time

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus announced that God was powerfully reigning in and through his ministry, ‘the kingdom of God is at hand’. God’s life-giving power was at work through Jesus for the healing of the sick, for the forgiving of sinners, for the inclusion of the excluded and for the accepting of the rejected. Yet, today’s gospel reading reminds us that there were limits to this power of God working through Jesus. Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem because its people, especially its leaders, did not recognize the opportunity God was offering everyone in and through the person of Jesus. For all his power, Jesus was powerless before their refusal to recognize that his coming was a visit from God. The power of Jesus was the power of love, the power of a divine love which is stronger than sin and death. All love, even divine love, must be freely received because it is in the nature of love to be a free gift. The tears of Jesus speak volumes about the capacity of human freedom to reject the gift of God’s unconditional love offered to us through his Son. The Lord’s tears could be shed for any of us because we can all fail to recognize the opportunity when God offers it. Yet, the good news, the gospel, is that our failure need never have the last word because God’s love revealed in Jesus is stronger than our failure and it endures in the face of it.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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