7 Quick Takes Friday (Summa Time)

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Hello Summer! It's hot and sticky and wonderful despite it! I will now inundate you with links and things!

First off 1Flesh.org is up and running, so follow this link for awesome tips on Natural Family Planning. Bring Sexy Back!

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Fr. Robert Barron talks about "Love and Responsibility"

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Fr. Robert Barron talks about Marriage.

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Read some of Tristan Macdonald's beautiful poetry, inspired mainly by the Catholic faith (but also sometimes by Star Wars.)

Poetry!

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A drawing a did for the cover of a cd mix.

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Your 20s are NOT the new 30s

TED Talk!

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I will hear about The Book in just a few weeks! But not before I leave for Brazil!

hugs,
Fabi

I Confess

I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.

 

The Fava Bean

Well, my work for the day got cancelled—thank you for your steadfast ways gaming industry—so before I go do anything else useful with my day I figured I'd chat up the blogosphere.

This has been a crazy, beautiful amazing month. Thank you St. Joseph for your powerful intercession, you seem to be following me around even if I don't ask you to pray for me. I finally discovered where on earth my father got the idea that my name, Fabiola, means "offering to God". For the life of me throughout the years I've gone on all the "meanings of names" websites and the definition is always the same: bean, bean picker, fava bean... just beans. I always thought my dad was just trying to make me feel better, you know beans could be offered up to God or something.

So yesterday, I was looking up the feast of St. Joseph, which is March 19 and I know this well because it is my sister's birthday, but I wanted to see if I could find another day when he might be celebrated. There weren't any other feast days dedicated to him so I just scrolled down the Wiki page and I came upon how his feast day is celebrated in different countries. The first and most prominent party for good old St. Joseph happens in Sicily.

St. Joseph is considered by many to be the Patron Saint of Sicily for preventing a famine during the middle ages. "According to legend, there was a severe drought at the time, and the people prayed for their patron saint to bring them rain. They promised that if he answered their prayers, they would prepare a large feast in his honor. The rain did come, and the people of Sicily prepared a large banquet."

Now for the weird part people.

"The fava bean was the crop which saved the population from starvation, it grows well even in poor, rocky soil, and is a traditional part of St. Joseph altars and traditions."

So yes, the story is slightly idolatrous but still pretty cool.

And just to take the point home.

"In Roman times, the fava bean was considered food for the poor, used mainly as an offering to commemorate the dead on the first day of November. The name of an ancient Roman family the Fabi, comes from fava bean, as do the common names Fabio, Fabia and Fabiola." (source)

Pretty cool right?

So thank you St. Joseph for your prayers. Thank you for being there for me when Disney said no, so I could work on Lolek, and for the brilliant young man working at one of the schools under your patronage. I like him very much too. So I really do hope I get to glorify God with my life and offer myself completely to him, in thanksgiving for everything that he has done for me.
~

I drew this wee picture of Mary last week. Enjoy!

Have a happy July!

A Palette of Things

You know, the thing about being employed by legit companies is that they never let you show anything. It's like there is this library of accumulated work that no one is allowed to visit. However, a while back I did create some backgrounds for the "Mr. Potato Head Play & Create" game published by Callaway Digital Arts that are simple, but at least you are seeing some color on the screen. A bunch more aren't officially available yet so one day you may see them.

I can't wait until I can show the background concepts I've been doing for a Tinkerbell game! I'm learning so much! I don't think I'll ever be able to show the drawings I do for Hasbro, which is a shame, but if the toys of the concepts ever come out they will definitely be found here. Yay!

~

I'm so very grateful to all the people who have made the last few weeks a beautiful and joyful whirlwind. 

 These are the highly involved party bags I made. 

And it paid off because I was called a hobbit for giving presents at my birthday.

 My friend, Irene drew me a lovely card. Visit her website here :)

And a big shout out and thanks to BrandonVogt, for not only contributing to the last post, but for finding me a whole list of people who are willing to endorse my book.

~

I had this whole big plan for a birthday post with twenty-six super quotes, but it did not happen, so here are only six, and I feel like I'm sort of six sometimes so that works.

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"You are seeking for secret ways of belonging to God, but there is only one: making use of whatever he offers you" - Jean-Pierre de Caussade

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"Your objective is to receive grace now so that you can receive glory later, or even more simply put, to cooperate with God in his work to save your soul." - Andreas Widmer, The Pope and the CEO

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"If we go astray at the beginning and want the Lord to do our will and to lead us as our fancy dictates, how can this building possibly have a firm foundation?" - St. Theresa of Avila, Interior Castle

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"Men and women are on a journey of discovery which is humanly unstoppable–a search for the truth and a search for a person to whom they might entrust themselves."- Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio

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"You are ambitious: for knowledge... for leadership. You want to be daring. Good. Fine. But let it be for Christ, for Love." - St. Josemaria Escriva

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"Optimisim is wrong: evil exists, and life is a war against it.

Pessimism is wrong: good is stronger than evil, and good must win in the end.

So fight, because optimism is wrong. But fight with confidence and even joy, because pessimism is wrong...

Life is a fight, but the fight is fixed. 'His kingdom cannot fail.' " - Peter Kreeft

 ~

Have a lovely week!

- Fabi