god have mercy

some news headlines for the last few days....

Gaza Death Toll Tops 375

The death toll in Gaza has reached at least 375 as Israel’s attack on Gaza has entered its fourth day. More than 1,600 Palestinians have been wounded and hospitals are running out of medicines and other products needed to treat them.
Israel Vows to Wage “War to the Bitter End”

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel is in a “war to the bitter end against Hamas and its kind.” Israel has rejected calls for a ceasefire, and Israeli troops and tanks continue to mass on the border of Gaza preparing for a possible ground invasion. Israel has declared the area around the Gaza border a closed military zone, ordering out journalists.
UN: 64 Palestinian Civilians Killed

Earlier today, Israeli warplanes dropped at least sixteen bombs on five government buildings in Gaza, destroying them and starting several fires. An Israeli air strike in northern Gaza killed two Palestinian sisters, aged four and eleven. The girls were killed when they left their house to dump the family’s garbage. On Monday, an Israeli air strike destroyed a home in the Jabalya refugee camp, killing five sisters. The five girls were between four and seventeen years old. In another incident, eight Palestinian students, ages eighteen to twenty, were killed while waiting for a UN bus to take them home. The United Nations said at least sixty-four Palestinian civilians have died since Saturday.
Four Israelis Killed in Palestinian Rocket Attacks

The Israeli attacks have not prevented Palestinian militants from firing rockets into southern Israel. On Monday, Palestinians fired at least seventy rockets, killing two Israeli civilians and a soldier. The dead included an Israeli woman in the town of Ashdod who was killed from shrapnel wounds while taking cover from incoming rockets at a bus stop. The Israeli death toll since Saturday now stands at four.

joyeux noel

merry, merry christmas! i hope everyone had a restful and mindful celebration! chris and i are with both sides of our family in denver and enjoying them (the new baby!) and the beautiful weather.

i wanted to share with you a wonderful movie that we watched on christmas day together. it depicts the truces of christmas eve on the fronts lines of WWI in 1914. it is beautifully done and so inspiring. it gives me a small bit of hope for peace, if not in the world, than in the possibility of it in some of us. watch the trailer here. and then go rent it.

oh and here is a less than recent picture of our nephew! he's so much bigger now!

brother mickey o'neill mcgrath

i wanted to share the art of a very talented person i heard speak last night! i've been buying his christmas cards for a few years now and having a print of his hanging in my house.

the holy family

mary visiting elizabeth (perfect for advent!)

i love his work and hearing him speak and seeing more of his paintings was wonderful. if you like iconic art and have a good sense of humor you may like him. visit him here.

Boston College

well, friends. here we are in boston, ma visiting the esteemed jesuit university, boston college.



i don't know if all my many, many readers (ha!) know that chris is considering getting his PHD and that the place we're most seriously considering is boston college. there are so many factors contributing to the decision to come to boston it's overwhelming. we love most parts of our life in camden and if we leave there's a good possibility we'll never find the wonderful things we have there anywhere else, ever again. but this would be the time for chris to get his doctorate if he wants to teach and this is one of the best programs out there, having most of the things chris would want in his study.

anyway, so far the campus is beautiful and the weather is cold. we will explore this area today and tomorrow our wonderful friends will be meeting us in the city and we'll explore boston - and figure out if we can even afford to live here.

any boston "musts"? places we have to go, food we have to eat?

51 gone

on the sunday before the beginning of advent season we remember those who have been murdered in camden city and camden county since the last november. last year there were 46 (if i remember correctly) people murdered. this year there have been 51 men, women and children murdered in camden city and 7 murdered in the county. this is the highest number in the last several years. at this point, camden is back at the top having been named the #2 most dangerous city in the nation.

we pray for those who have died, for those who have been left behind and for our city, that we would stop this madness.


yesterday, the first sunday of advent, our church celebrated and blessed the pregnant women among us. i love that this celebration follows the remembrance of those murdered. i think it's hopeful and beautiful. unfortunately, i've been sick but i heard the mother's were lovely... one, more notably so, cheryl - our community-mate! we're very excited!