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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Giving up something for Lent. By Cesar Reyes Torres

Last year in 2014 I decided to give up meat for lent. I ate only fish as we are aloud per our catholic faith. It was not an easy task but considering the sacrifice that Christ made for me, and everything he was tempted with and that he turned down, I took on the challenge of not eating meat for 40 days and 40 nights. The first couple of weeks that I did this, it was challenging . It was challenging not because I wanted to eat meat so badly, but because it was everywhere. All of a sudden BBQs started presenting themselves in front of me. Out of nowhere I remember this guy coming into my office and offering myself and my coworkers lemon pepper marinated beef jerky. Fortunately I was able to just say no and go about my day and eat my Tuna Sandwhich. But on about the 23rd day I was out and about at the house of one of my church friends. Me, her and a couple of other church friends were gathered at her house for a morning meeting. I remember how happy I was to just be around them and joke around with them. We all sat down at the breakfast table and our gracious host served us breakfast and we ate homemade ham and cheese croissants with coffee. About an hour later after we were all about to leave for the rest of the day, I realized that I had just messed up my entire offering for lent by eating that ham and cheese croissant. At this point I could have gone 1 of 2 ways. I could have just said oh well that's that and gone out and eaten a cheeseburger or I could  have just admitted my failure and kept going with my offering for lent. I chose to keep going. What I learned with this offering was what lent was partially about. That giving up something for lent is a tiny fraction of a much bigger and deeper concept. I learned that being Catholic is awesome. That our faith is a stronger one when you take the time to appreciate its history which is founded in the bible and based on biblical teachings. I learned that sin itself is something that is real and it's something that is everywhere. It disguises itself and knows when and how to catch you off guard. It won't just come at you in the most obviouse places. It will come at you when you think you are safe. It will present itself in ways that you won't even realise are a sin.  And when you get hit by it, you can choose to say oh well and keep sinning or you can repent and learn from your mistakes and try hard to not commit them again.  After that day, I finished lent and for the rest of the 40 days I finished my commitment. Lent is a part of a larger concept. A concept that I think I understand much better now. When you apply the concept that sin is everywhere, to your entire life, then you can understand that your gonna fall sometimes. It's gonna knock you down. It doesn't mean the rest of your life is worthless. It doesn't mean that you just throw in the towl. It doesn't mean that you should just listen to the instigators that will encourage you to continue to stay down since you have already fallen. Christ gives us the opportunity to repent and move forward.  I'm not a theologian , and I'm sure that their is wiser people out there who are better versed on the meaning of lent. But faith has always been a relationship between your self and God. And I truely believe that this is a lesson that God wanted me to learn. He saw fit when and how I was gonna learn it. Im giving up meat for this years lent . 

Monday, February 16, 2015

Still Alice (film critique) By Cesar Reyes Torres

My biggest fear in life is to be nothing but a burden to people and to not be able to contribute anything to anyone's life or my life in general. The movie "Still Alice", shows us in very detailed form what Alzheimer's does to someone. Julianne Moores performance is tear dropping, and she depicts perfectly what it's like to see your self deteriorate and have everything beautiful in your life fade away and you being powerless to stop it. Your memories disappear, and you end up in such a vulnerable state that you will end up in a position where whether or not people take the time to care for you and keep you in mind, will depend on what kind of life you lived and the amount of love you shared. Alzheimer's sucks, it really just sucks , and if you wanted to describe a disease that rips away your most cherished memories, and your dignity, and makes you feel like a burden, then Alzheimer's is that disease. The movie is not long, and Julianne Moores performance is the only memorable one. I reccomend this movie, because to be honest it's scary, it's very scary. I would not wish that disease on my worst enemy. In most troublesome times in life, many people ask and pray to God for help. But imagine a disease that made you forget who God and Jesus were, and that made you look at a bible and make you wonder what it was. That's scary