So I checked just finished checking my aol account for the first time in a million gazillion years. Here's an interesting forward my cousing sent me. I don't know how true is, but it would explains a lot.

Paul Harvey Story (BE SURE TO READ IT ALL)

Years ago a hardworking man took his family from New York State to Australia to take advantage of a work opportunity there. Part of this man's family was handsome young son who had aspirations of joining the circus as a trapeze artist or an actor. This young fellow, biding his time until a circus job or even oneas a stagehand came along, worked at the local shipyards which bordered on the worse section of town.

Walking home from work one evening this young man was attacked by five thugs who wanted to rob him. Instead of just giving up his money the young fellow resisted. However they bested him easily and proceeded to beat him to a pulp.

They mashed his face with their boots, and kicked and beat his body brutally with clubs, leaving him for dead. When the police happened to find him lying in the road they assumed he was dead and called for the Morgue Wagon.

On the way to the morgue a policeman heard him gasp for air, and they immediately took him to the emergency unit at the hospital. When he was placed on a gurney a nurse remarked to her horror, that his young man no longer had a face. Each eye socket was smashed, his skull, legs, and arms fractured, his nose literally hanging from his face, all is teeth were gone, and his jaw
was almost completely torn from his skull

Although his life was spared he spent over a year in the hospital. When he finally left, his body may have healed but his face was disgusting to look at. He was no longer the handsome youth that everyone admired. When the young man started to look for work again he was turned down by everyone just on account of the way he looked. One potential employer suggested to him that he join the freak show at the circus as The Man Who Had No Face. And he did this for a while.

He was still rejected by everyone and no one wanted to be seen in his company. He had thoughts of suicide. This went on for five years. One day he passed a church and sought some solace there. Entering the church he encountered a priest who had saw him sobbing while kneeling in a pew. The priest took pity on him and took him to the rectory where they talked at length.

The priest was impressed with him to such a degree that he said that he would do everything possible for him that could be done to restore his dignity and life, if the young man would promise to be the best Catholic he could be, and trust in God's mercy to free him from his torturous life.
The young man went to Mass and communion every day, and after thanking God for saving his life, asked God to only give him peace of mind and the grace to be the best man he could ever be in His eyes. The priest, through his personal contacts was able to secure the services of the best plastic surgeon in Australia.

They would be no cost to the young man, as the doctor was the priest's best friend. The doctor too was so impressed by the young man, whose outlook now on life, even though he had experienced the worst, was filled with good humor and love. The surgery was a miraculous success. All the best dental work was also done for him. The young man became everything he promised God he would be. He was also blessed with a wonderful, beautiful wife, and many children, and success in an industry which would have been the furthest thing from his mind as
a career if not for the goodness of God and the love of the people who cared for him.

This he acknowledges publicly.

The young man was and is Mel Gibson.

His life was the inspiration for his production of the movie "The Man Without A Face." He is to be admired by all of us as a God fearing man, a political conservative, and an example to all as a true man of courage.

And to think I admired him before I knew any of this! He is quite a man!

Paul Harvey.

Note:? This may well help in the understanding of why Mel Gibson's love for the Lord is why he has made such a powerful movie "The Passion" that's coming out next spring to demonstrate Jesus love and sacrifice for us.

Pretty crazy huh?

My mom likes to forward a lot of emails too. She knows that I usually don't read them because I don't really check my aol account and they eventually get deleted after a month, but she send them anyway. This one reminded me about Father Pat's homily today.

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first let me do this. He proceeded to crumple the $20 dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what was done to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20." Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. "But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO love you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE. "You are special - Don't EVER forget it." If you do not pass this on, you may never know the lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to, or the hope that it can bring. Count your blessings, not your problems. Never be afraid to try something new. And remember: amateurs built the ark ... Professionals built the Titanic.

The Gospel reading today was on Jesus's parable about "The Prodigal Son" and Father Pat spoke about how our sins do not define us entirely and that God will still love us in spite of them. That can be really hard to accept at times. Especially after falling so much, it's really easy for me to get caught up in my own shame and guilt that I don't want to go back. It's good to be reminded that God continues to be there and wants us all to be close to him despite our actions. We're all $20 bills.

After mass, it was off to the park for "Hella Fun Day" which was hella fun. Thanks Cristina for planning it. 10th week was my crazy week, and after working on papers and not sleeping for a few days, welps it was nice to have a break to fellowship with LOG (especially since we didn't have a meeting last week). Good times man. Sarah, Janice, Angie and I checked out the animals. There were oodles of ducks, and a couple of big non ducks but some kind of fowl that made weird noises, and a couple of turtles that jumped back in the water to hide. I need to get better at Badminton though, Mel and Joyce play all crazy. Sorry David, I'll do better next time. The sun was in my eyes and the wind was blowing. =P

Good luck on finals! Desidero avete fortuna tutti!