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"Funeral Oration for Henriette-Marie of France, Queen of Great Britain," Translated from the French, with an Introduction
By Christopher Olaf Blum
Appeared in Summer/Autumn/Winter 2004, vol. XXIX, Nos. 2, 3, 4 Download PDF here
"The translator is a traitor," runs the old proverb, and how very true that is in the case of the oratorical works of the great Bossuet. Today this oration is studied even in the secularist schools of the French Republic on account of its remarkable stylistic vigor, and so it has now by turns charmed and amazed three centuries of readers. If some apology be necessary for turning Bossuet's classical French, whose beauty has often been deemed untranslatable, into prosaic American English, it is that few can now read French with anything like ease or pleasure, and that it is too great a shame that works like this be lost and forgotten by the Anglophone world. The essential excellence of Bossuet's oration can perhaps only be appreciated by those accustomed to listening to sermons. How rare is the experience in our day of eloquence in pulpit oratory, or even the well-ordered exposition of a theme. In the France of Louis XIV, precision and power of expression were great ideals, both for poets such as Racine and for churchmen. Nobles in Paris would even send their servants a day ahead of time in order by their physical presence to reserve a seat at a sermon by a notable preacher. Of all the great preachers of the day – and there were several immortals among them – Bossuet stands alone as the one who best combined theological vision, rhetorical craft, sensitivity to the beauty of words, and, not least, soulful and penetrating meaning.
For Catholics, indeed, the name of Bossuet should be pronounced with affection and esteem. Likened in his own day to the Fathers of the Church of old, Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1703) stands as one of the half-dozen or so great theological teachers of the Tridentine period, worthy of being mentioned in company with St. Francis de Sales, St. Robert Bellarmine, and Francisco Suarez. Bossuet was a bishop, first of a small diocese in southern France whose charge he resigned in order to devote himself to the private instruction of Louis XIV's son, and then of Meaux, just east of Paris amidst the dairies of the Brie; and although he had gained academic success at the Sorbonne while young, the thread tying his life into a unity was, as his biographer Jean Meyer has memorably said, that he was always "principally, and with humility, a pastor." The pastor's chief work, of course, is Christian instruction, and Bossuet's genius was catechetical and hortatory. His best-known book, The History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches (1688), is a patient analysis of the descent of Lutheranism into the "thousand bizarre sects" of which he speaks in this oration. Its theme, that Luther's espousal of private judgment must usher in endless theological change and confusion, is admirably sketched here using examples from seventeenth-century England. His other well-known book, The Discourse on Universal History (1681), shows, as does this oration, his firm faith in the Providential government of the world and, especially, of the Church.
Bossuet's belief in the essential goodness of ecclesiastical authority and his contention that the protestant principle of private judgment must ultimately destroy Christian observance are positions surely familiar to most readers, and not least of all from the writings of John Henry Newman. What is more foreign to us is his visionof European history, especially that of France, and his immense confidence in the ideal of a Christian social order. This oration is a useful and accurate summary of his political thought, expressed at greater length in the posthumously published Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture. Bossuet was a firm believer in the goodness of monarchical power, but his "absolutism," if that is indeed the best word for his politics, was always tempered by his prior conviction about the unity and divine authority of the Church. The reader of this oration cannot fail to see that its author is primarily a spiritual teacher, and a moving one at that.
For those with further interest in Bossuet or in Henriette-Marie, the following suggestions are offered: Quentin Bone, Henrietta Maria: Queen of the Cavaliers (Urbana, Illinois, 1972); E. E. Reynolds, Bossuet (New york, 1963); Louis de Bonald, "On Jacques-benigne bossuet, bishop of Meaux," in C. O. Blum, ed., Critics of the Enlightenment (Wilmington, Deleware, 2004). There is also a very able double entry on Bossuet in the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1909 edition, that gives special attention to his sermons.
FUNERAL ORATION FOR HENRIETTE-MARIE OF FRANCE, QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN1
JACQUES-BENIGNE BOSSUET
Et nunc, Reges, intelligite; erudimini, qui judicatis terram.
(Psalm II.10)
Now, O Kings, take heed. Instruct yourselves, you judges of the earth.
Milord,2
He who reigns in heaven and who establishes every empire, to whom alone belong glory, majesty, and independence, is also the only one who glorifies himself by giving the law to kings and, when it pleases him, by teaching them great and terrible lessons. Whether he raises up thrones or lowers them, whether he communicates his power to princes or draws it back to himself and leaves them to their own weakness, he teaches them their duties in a sovereign manner worthy of himself. For, in giving them his power, he commands that they wield it as he does for the good of the world. And in withdrawing that power, he makes them see that all their majesty is borrowed, and that, though they be seated on a throne, they are no less under his hand and his supreme authority. Thus he instructs princes, not only by words, but also by deeds and examples. Et nunc, Reges, intelligite; erudimini, qui judicatis terram.
Christians, whom the memory of a great queen, daughter, wife, mother of mighty kings, and sovereign of three kingdoms has called from all corners to this sad ceremony, this discourse will present one of those terrible cases that teaches the world how entirely vain it is. You will see in a single life all life's vicissitudes: unbounded happiness as well as misery; a long and peaceful enjoyment of one of the most noble crowns of the universe. You will see all the glory with which high birth and grandeur can endow one head, and then the outrages of fortune to which it is exposed; a good cause at first attended by good results, and then, by sudden reversals; extraordinary changes; rebellion long held at bay suddenly master in the end; unbridled license; laws abolished; majesty violated by attacks hitherto unthinkable; usurpation and tyranny under the name of liberty; a fugitive queen who finds no place of retreat in her three kingdoms and to whom her own country is but a sad place of sorrowful exile; nine sea voyages undertaken by a princess in spite of storms; the ocean astonished to see itself traversed so many times in so many ways and for so many different reasons; a throne shamefully overthrown and miraculously restored. Thus does God instruct kings. Thus does he show the world the nothingness of its ceremony and rank. If words fail us, if our expressions do not correspond to so vast and lofty a subject, the deeds will speak well enough for themselves. The heart of a great queen – sometimes elated by prosperity, sometimes plunged in an abyss of bitterness – will speak out. And if a subject be not permitted to extract lessons for sovereigns from such strange happenings, a king will loan me his words so that I may say to them, Et nunc, Reges, intelligite; erudimini, qui judicatis terram. Take heed, O great ones of the earth; listen and learn, you rulers of men.
But the wise and religious princess who is the subject of this discourse has not been merely a spectacle put forward so that men may study the counsels of Divine providence and the fatal revolutions of monarchies. She instructed herself, while God was instructing sovereigns by her example. I have said already that this great God teaches Kings both by giving and by removing their power. The queen of whom we speak understood two opposite lessons equally well. She appropriated as a Christian the lessons of good fortune and of evil. In the one, she was beneficent, in the other, invincible. While happy and prosperous, she made her power felt in the world by her infinite good deeds. When good fortune had abandoned her, she put on virtue more than ever. Thus, she lost for her own good the royal power which she held for the good of others; and if her subjects, if her allies, if the Church universal has profited from her magnificence, she herself knew how to profit from her misery and disgrace more than she had done from all her glory. This is what we see in the eternally memorable life of the most high, most excellent, and most powerful princess Henriette-Marie of France, Queen of Great Britain.
Though no one is ignorant of the great qualities of a queen whose story has filled the world, I feel obliged to recall them to your memory, so that their idea can serve us for the rest of the discourse. To dwell upon the princess's glorious birth would be superfluous: nothing under the sun equals its grandeur. In the early days of the Church, Pope St. Gregory praised the crown of France in incomparable terms, saying that she surpasses the other crowns of the world as the royal dignity surpasses that of the subject. If he spoke thus in the age of King Childebert, if he so highly elevated the Merovingian race, judge what he would have said of the blood of St. Louis and Charlemagne. Issue of this race, daughter of Henri le Grand and of so many kings, her great heart has surpassed her birth. Any place but a throne would have been unworthy of her. She did have something to satisfy her noble pride when she saw that she was to unite the house of France to the royal family of Stuart, who were come to the succession of the crown of England through a daughter of Henry VII, but who had held in their own line the sceptre of Scotland for several centuries and had descended from ancient kings whose origins are shrouded in the obscurity of the earliest days. but if she had the joy of reigning over a great nation, it was because she was able thus to fulfill the immense desire which ceaselessly besought her to do good. She had a royal generosity, and it was said that she lost what she did not give away. Her other virtues were no less admirable. Faithful repository of secrets and complaints, she said that princes should keep the same silence as confessors and have their discretion. In the greatest tumult of the civil wars, no one ever doubted her word or despaired of her clemency. Who has better practiced that obliging art which allows one to humble himself without degrading himself, and which so happily combines ease with respect? Sweet, familiar, agreeable as well as rm and vigorous, she knew how to persuade and to convince as well as to command, and to make reason valued no less than authority. you will see with what prudence she arranged her affairs; so skillful a hand would have saved the State if the State could have been saved. It is impossible sufficiently to praise the magnanimity of this princess. Fortune could not master her: neither the evils she had foreseen nor the ones that surprised her could dampen her courage. What shall I say of her unwavering adherence to the religion of her ancestors? She knew that this attachment had made the glory of her house as well as that of all of France, the only nation of the world which has rejoiced for the twelve centuries since her kings embraced Christianity to see none on her throne but a princely son of the Church. She always declared that nothing could separate her from the faith of St. Louis. Her husband the king paid her this lovely tribute just before his death: that religion was the only point on which their hearts were not united; and, while thus confirming the piety of the queen, this enlightened prince made known to all the earth the tenderness, the conjugal love, and the holy and inviolable fidelity of his incomparable spouse.
God, who fits all His plans to the preservation of His holy Church, and who, rich in means, employs all things for His hidden ends, in days gone by made use of the chaste charms of two holy heroines to deliver His faithful from their enemies' hands. When He wanted to save the town of Bethulia, He used Judith's beauty to set an unexpected and unavoidable trap for the blind brutality of Holofernes. The modest graces of the queen Esther had as salutary an effect, if a less violent one. She won the heart of her husband the king and made of an infidel prince an illustrious protector of the people of God. By a similar counsel, this great God had prepared an innocent charm for the king of England in the infinite graces of his wife the queen. From the age of fifteen she was capable of shouldering these cares; and sixteen years of prosperity, which owed without interruption with the admiration of the whole earth, were sixteen years of sweetness for that afflicted Church. The queen's credit obtained for Catholics that singular and almost incredible benefit of the successive governance of three apostolic nuncios who brought them the consolations that the children of God receive from communication with the Holy See.
Pope St. Gregory, writing to the pious Emperor Maurice, represented to him the duties of Christian kings in these terms: "Know, O Great Emperor, that the sovereign power is granted to you from on high so that virtue might be aided, that the way to Heaven may be widened, and that the kingdoms of the earth may serve the kingdom of Heaven." Truth herself dictated to him these beautiful words. For what is more proper to power than to assist virtue? What should force serve but reason? And why command men, if it is not to see that God be obeyed? But we must especially remark the glorious obligation this great Pope imposes on sovereigns: to widen the way to Heaven. Jesus Christ said in his Gospel: "How narrow is the way that leadeth to life!" What makes it so narrow? It is that the just man, severe to himself and an irreconcilable persecutor of his own passions, finds himself further persecuted by the unjust passions of others, and cannot hope to be left alone in that solitary and rude trail up which he climbs more than he walks. Make haste, you powers of the world, says St. Gregory. See in which path virtue advances, toiling, doubly in the narrow way, both by means of herself and by the efforts of those who persecute her. Succor her. Hold out a hand to her. As you see her already fatigued from the internal combat she wages against all the temptations which oppress human nature, at least shelter her from assaults from without. Thus you will widen a little the way to Heaven and repair the path whose steep incline and uneven footing will always render it difficult enough.
But if ever one can say that the way of the Christian is narrow, it is, gentlemen, during persecutions. For what greater evil can be imagined than to be unable to keep the faith without exposing oneself to torment, nor to be able to offer the sacrifice without worry, nor to be able to seek God without trembling? Such was the deplorable state of English Catholics. Error and innovation made themselves heard in all the pulpits, and the ancient doctrine, which, according to the Gospel oracle, must be preached "from the rooftops," could hardly even be whispered in the ear. The children of God were astonished that they no longer saw their altars, their sanctuaries, nor those tribunals of mercy which justify those who accuse themselves. What sorrow! They found it necessary to hide repentance with as much care as others hide crime; and even Jesus Christ saw Himself constrained by the great evil of ungrateful men to seek other veils and other shadows than those veils and those mystical shadows with which he willingly cloaks himself in the the Eucharist. At the arrival of the queen, the rigor relented and the Catholics breathed again. That magnificent royal chapel which she had built in her palace of Somerset returned the Church to her former dignity. Henriette, worthy daughter of St. Louis, there encouraged all by her example and gloriously upheld the ancient reputation of the most Christian house of France by her retreats, her prayers, and her devotions. The priests of the Oratory, whom the great Pierre de Berulle had led in attending her, and after them the Capuchin fathers, gave those altars their true decoration and the divine service its proper majesty. The priests and religious, zealous and indefatigable pastors of the afflicted English flock wandering in disguise and impoverished, of whom "the world was unworthy" (Hebrews XI. 38), came to take up again with joy the glorious marks of their profession in the queen's chapel; and the desolate Church, which before could not freely lament or mourn her past glory, made resound the canticles of Zion in a foreign land. Thus the pious queen consoled the faithful in captivity and restored their hope.
When God lets the vapors which obscure the sun escape from the abyss, according to the expression of the Apocalypse (IX-2), that is to say error and heresy, when, to punish scandals or to awaken the peoples and the pastors, he permits the spirit of seduction to trick the proud and to pour out everywhere a prideful acrimony, an ungovernable curiosity, and a spirit of revolt, He sets, in His profound wisdom, limits to the unhappy progress of error and to the sufferings of the Church. I do not undertake, Christians, to tell you the destiny of these last centuries' heresies, nor to mark the inevitable term in which God has resolved to circumscribe their course. but, if my judgment does not deceive me, if, recalling the memory of past ages, I make a just comparison to the present state, I dare to believe – and I see the wise concurring in this opinion – that the days of blindness are past and that it is henceforward time that the light return. When Henry VIII, an accomplished sovereign in all other respects, lost himself in those passions that ruined Solomon and so many other kings, and began to tear down the authority of the Church, wise men admonished him that in disturbing this one thing he imperiled all, and that, contrary to his own design, he bequeathed unbridled license to succeeding ages. Wise men foresaw it. But are wise men believed in turbulent times? Are their prophecies not rather the object of laughter? What a judicious foresight could not put in the mind of men, a more imperious mistress – I mean experience – forced them to believe. All that religion holds most holy was victim. England changed so greatly that she no longer knew what to preserve; and, more agitated on land and in her ports than even the Ocean that surrounds her, she found herself inundated by a horrible flood of a thousand bizarre sects. Who knows whether, being brought back from her prodigious errors concerning royalty, she will not push her reflections further, and whether, disgusted by her changes, she will not regard with complaisance the preceding state of things? Meanwhile let us here admire the piety of the queen who knew so well how to preserve the precious remnant of so many persecutions. How many poor, how many unfortunates, how many families ruined for the cause of the faith subsisted during the course of her life through the immense profusion of her alms! They poured out over all parts – unto the furthest reaches of her three kingdoms – and, extending by their abundance even to the enemies of the faith, sweetened their bitterness and gathered them into the Church. Thus not only did she preserve, she augmented the people of God. Countless were the conversions; and those who had seen for themselves tell us that during the three-year sojourn in her son the king's court, the royal chapel alone (not to mention others) saw more than three hundred converts piously abjure their errors in the hands of her almoners. Happy woman who so carefully tended the spark of divine fire that Jesus came to light in the world! If ever England returns to herself, if this precious leaven kneaded by her royal hands one day sanctifies the people, future generations will not have praises enough to celebrate the virtues of the religious Henriette, and will believe it owing to her piety that the most memorable work of the reestablishment of the Church was accomplished.
Yet if the history of the Church cherishes the memory of these deeds, our history will unfold the advantages she procured for her house and for France. Beloved and honored wife and mother, she reconciled her husband the king and her son the king with France. Who does not know how after the memorable action of the ile de Re and during the famous siege of La Rochelle, this princess, quick to make use of an important turn of events, saw the peace concluded that prevented the English from continuing their aid to the rebellious Calvinists? And in these last years, after our great king – who is more jealous of his word and of the salvation of his allies than of his own interest – had declared war on the English, was she not again a wise and happy mediator? Did she not reunite the two kingdoms? And since then did she not at every occasion apply herself to preserve this same accord? These cares now concern your royal highnesses, and the example of a great queen, as well as the blood of France and of England which you have united by your happy marriage, should inspire in you the desire to work unceasingly for the union of the two kings so close to you whose power and valor can mold the destiny of all Europe.
Monseigneur, it is no longer only by that valiant hand and by your great courage that you will gain glory. In the calm of a profound peace, you will have the means to distinguish yourself, and you will be able to serve the State without disturbing it, as you have done so many times in exposing a life as precious and indispensable as your own to the dangers of war. This service, Monseigneur, is not the only which awaits you; and one can hope for all from a prince whom wisdom counsels, whom valor animates, and whom justice attends in all his actions. but whither does my zeal lead, so far from my sad subject? I pause to consider the virtues of Philippe, and I forget that I owe you the history of the misfortunes of Henriette.
As I begin, I admit that I feel ever more deeply the difficulty of my undertaking. When I contemplate near at hand the unheard of misfortunes of so great a queen, I am dumbstruck, and my spirit, discouraged by so many insults to virtue and majesty, would never resolve to plumb so many horrors had not the admirable constancy with which this princess endured these calamities far surpassed the crimes that caused them. But at the same time, Christians, another care works upon me. It is not a work of man that I consider. I am not here as an historian who must unfold for you the secrets of ministers, the order of battles, or the interest of parties; instead, I must rise above men to make all creatures tremble beneath the judgments of God. With David, "I will enter into the powers of the Lord," and I must make you see the marvels of His hand and of His counsels, counsels of just revenge on England, counsels of mercy for the salvation of the queen, but counsels marked by the finger of God, whose imprint is so vivid and so manifest in the events that I shall recount that one cannot resist its light.
However far one might return into the past seeking examples of great revolutions, one finds that down to the present they are caused by either the indolence or the violence of sovereigns. When, neglecting familiarity with their affairs and their armies, they live only to hunt or – as one historian has put it – glory only in luxury and care only for inventing new pleasures; or when, transported by their violent rages, they safeguard neither law nor custom, they strip away the regard and fear of men by making the evils from which they suffer appear more insupportable than the ones they can foretell: either excessive license, or patience pushed to its extremity threaten the ruling houses.
Charles I, King of England, was just, moderate, magnanimous, and learned in his affairs and in the ways of ruling. Never was a king more capable of making kingship not only venerable and holy, but also amiable and dear to his people. For what can he be reproached save his clemency? I should like to say of him what a celebrated author said of Caesar, that he was clement to the point of having to repent of it: Caesari proprium et peculiari sit clementiae insigne, qua usque ad poenitentiam omnes superavit (Pliny). Let this be, if you will, the illustrious fault of Charles as well as of Caesar. Yet let not those who wish to believe that the unfortunate and the vanquished are all weakness persuade us that his courage lacked force and his plans vigor. Pursued beyond all measure by the implacable animosity of fate and betrayed by all his own men, he did not give in.
Despite the poor showing of his unfortunate armies, one could not rule him, though he might be conquered. Just as when a conqueror, he never refused what was reasonable, so also when a captive he always refused what was weak or unjust. It pains me to contemplate his great heart in those last trials. But surely he showed that rebels are not permitted to strip the majesty from a king who knows his own worth. And those who saw his visage when he appeared in the chamber at Westminster or in the square at Whitehall can easily judge how intrepid he was at the head of his armies, how sublime and majestic in the midst of his palace and court. Great Queen, I satisfy your most tender desires when I celebrate this monarch; and this heart – dust though it be – which lived only for him, revives and becomes sensible, even under this mortuary veil, at the name of a spouse so dear, a man to whom even his enemies will accord the titles wise and just, and whom posterity will place in the ranks of great kings if his history finds readers whose judgment be not mastered by the course of events or by fortune.
Those who are worldly-wise, being obliged to admit that the king had given neither occasion nor grounds for the sacrilegious excesses whose memory we abhor, blame them upon the ungovernable pride of the nation; and I confess that hatred for patricide could inspire this thought. Yet when we consider more closely the history of this great kingdom, especially the most recent reigns, where we see not only kings, but princes and even queens so absolute and so fearsome; when we examine the incredible facility with which religion was now overthrown, now reestablished by Henry, by Edward, by Mary, by Elizabeth, we find neither a rebellious nation nor proud and factious parliaments: on the contrary, we are obliged to reproach these people for having been too submissive, for they put their faith itself and their consciences under the yoke. Let us not, therefore, blindly accuse the native dispositions of the inhabitants of the world's greatest island, who, according to the most faithful histories, find their origin in the Gauls. Let us not believe that the Mercians, the Danes, and the Saxons ruined the good blood given them by our fathers so much that they were capable of losing themselves in this barbarism without other causes being involved. What, then, drove them? What force, what passion, what disorder caused these troubles and this violence? Let us not doubt it, Christians. There were hearts overcome by false religions, spiritual libertinism, the craze to discuss divine things without end, rule, or submission. Here are the enemies whom the queen had to combat and whom neither her wisdom, her mildness, nor her firmness were able to vanquish.
I have already said something about the license into which spirits are thrown when the foundations of religion are destroyed and when boundaries well set are removed. but, as the matter I treat furnishes me a striking example of these furious extremities unique in all the ages, it is, gentlemen, necessary to my subject to return to the principles, and to lead you step by step through all the excesses to which the hatred of the ancient religion and of the authority of the Church have been capable of leading men.
Therefore the source of all this evil is that those in the last century who were not afraid to attempt reformation through schism, finding no stronger rampart against all their innovations than the holy authority of the Church, were obliged to throw it off. Thus the decrees of the councils, the doctrines of the Fathers and their holy unanimity, the ancient tradition of the Holy See and of the Catholic Church were no longer sacred and inviolable laws as they had been in days gone by. Each made of himself a tribunal wherein he became the arbiter of his belief; and, while it seemed that the innovators had wanted to restrain spirits by holding them within the limits of Holy Scripture, as this was only on the condition that each of the faithful became an interpreter of it and believed that the Holy Spirit dictated to him the explication of it, there was no individual who did not see himself authorized by this doctrine to adore his own innovations, to consecrate his errors, and to ascribe to God all his own thoughts. Thence it was correctly foreseen that, license having no more governor, the sects would multiply to infinity, obstinacy would be invincible, and while some endlessly disputed and made their dreams out to be inspirations, others, worn out by so many mad visions and no longer able to recognize the majesty of a religion torn by so many sects, would in the end look for a fatal repose and complete independence in the indifference of religions or in atheism.
Such, and still more pernicious – as you shall see in what follows – are the natural effects of this new doctrine. Yet just as a swollen river does not lead to the same ravages everywhere because its rapidity does not everywhere nd the same slope and low banks, so also this spirit of indocility and independence, while equally poured out in all the heresies of the last centuries, did not produce the same effects everywhere. It received different limits as it was variously restrained by the fears, the interests, or the temper of individuals and nations, or, finally, by the divine power, which gives when it wishes a secret curb to the passions of even the men who are most swept away. If it showed itself in its entirety in England, and if its malignity there declared itself unreservedly, the kings suffered from this, but the kings were also its cause. They made the people only too aware that the ancient religion could change. Their subjects had ceased to revere its maxims when they saw them give way to the passions and interests of their princes. The very earth, too much disturbed and too little capable of solidity, was crumbling all around them and revealing frightening precipices. I speak of the bold and extravagant errors that were seen to appear every day. Do not believe that it was only a quarrel about the episcopacy or some squabble over the Anglican liturgy that agitated the Commons. These disputes were but feeble beginnings by which these turbulent spirits made, as it were, an essay of their liberty. Something more violent was stirring them in the bottom of their hearts: it was a secret distaste for all that had authority, and an itch to innovate endlessly after they had seen the first example of it.
Thus the Calvinists, bolder than the Lutherans, served to establish the Socinians, who were farther along than they, and whose party they enlarged every day. The infinite sects of Anabaptists came out of the same source; and their opinions, mixed with Calvinism, gave birth to the Independents, who were without boundaries, among whom one sees the Quakers, fanatical types who believe that all their reveries are inspired; and those named the Seekers, because seventeen hundred years after Jesus Christ they are still seeking religion and they are not close to stopping yet.
This, gentlemen, is the way that spirits once agitated, falling from ruin into ruin have divided themselves into so many sects. In vain the kings of England believed they could hold them on this dangerous slope by preserving the episcopacy. For what could be done by bishops who had themselves annihilated the authority of their sees and the reverence due their succession by overtly condemning their predecessors even to the very source of their orders, that is to say to Pope St. Gregory and the holy monk Augustine his disciple, the first apostle of the English nation? What is the episcopate when it separates itself from the Church which is its all, and from the Holy See which is its center, in order to attach itself, contrary to nature, to the royalty as its head? These two powers of such different orders do not unite themselves, but mutually embarrass one another when they are confounded. The majesty of the kings of England would have remained inviolable if, content with its sacred rights, they had not wished to gain the rights and authority of the Church. Thus nothing restrained the violence of spirits fertile in error, and God, to punish the irreligious instability of these peoples, abandoned them to the intemperance of their mad curiosity, such that the ardor of their insensate disputes and of their arbitrary religion has become the most dangerous of their maladies.
We must not be astonished if they lose respect for majesty and laws, nor if they become factious, rebellious, and obstinate. Religion is weakened when changed, and it is stripped of a certain weight that alone is capable of restraining the people. They have in the bottom of their hearts a kind of unrest which is set loose if one removes this necessary brake from them. They are left with nothing to treat with care when they are allowed to make themselves masters of their religion. Thus is born that so-called reign of Christ, hitherto unknown to Christianity, that must annihilate royalty and make all men equal, the seditious dream of the Independents, an impious and sacrilegious chimera. How true it is that everyone turns to revolt and sedition when the authority of religion is destroyed! but why look for proofs of a truth that the Holy Spirit pronounced openly in judgment? God himself threatens to retire from the presence of the people who alter the religion he established, thus leaving them to civil war. Hear how He speaks by the mouth of the prophet Zachariah (XI.9): "Their soul," says the Lord, "has changed towards me," as they had so often changed religion, "and I said to them: I will no longer be your pas- tor," which is to say: "I will abandon you to yourselves and to your cruel destiny." And see what follows: "he who must die will y to the death; that he who must be chastised will be chastised." Do you understand these words? "And those who dwell in the land will devour another." O prophecy: too real and too truly accomplished! The queen rightly judged that there was no way to remove the cause of the civil wars except by returning to Catholic unity, which through long centuries made the church and monarchy of England to flourish as much as the most holy churches and the most illustrious monarchies of the world. Thus, when this pious princess served the Church, she believed that she served the State; she believed herself to be gaining servants for the king by preserving for God His faithful. Experience justified her sentiments. It is true that her son the king found none more rm in his service than those Catholics, so hated and so persecuted, whom his mother the queen had saved. In effect, it is apparent that because separation from and revolt against the authority of the Church had been the source from which all these evils derived, their remedies will never be found except through the return to unity and through the ancient submission. It is the misprision of this unity that divided England. Now, if you ask me how so many opposing fractious and incompatible sects, who apparently must destroy one another, were able obstinately to conspire together against the royal throne, you are about to learn it.
One man stood forth with an incredible profundity of spirit, a refined hypocrite and an able politician, capable of undertaking all and of hiding all, equally active and indefatigable in peace as in war, who left nothing to fortune that he could take from it by planning and foresight; but moreover so vigilant and ready for all, that he never missed those chances presented to him; in sum, one of those restless and audacious spirits who seem to have been born to change the world. How dangerous are men with this kind of spirit, and how remarkable that they only appear in the history of those nations for whom their audacity has been deadly! Yet what will they fail to do when it pleases God to make use of them? It was given to this one to trick the peoples and to prevail against kings (Revelation XIII.7). For, he had perceived that what had captured the mind of this infinite melange of sects lacking set rules was the pleasure of dogmatizing without being rebuked or constrained by any authority ecclesiastical or secular. He therefore knew how to conciliate them and to make this monstrous assemblage into a formidable body. When once he had found the means to gather the multitudes by the appeal to liberty, they followed him blindly, provided only they heard the word. Then, occupied with the first object to move them, they kept going forever, without seeing that they were moving towards servitude. Their subtle conductor, who, in fighting, dogmatizing, in mixing a thousand different roles, in playing doctor and prophet as well as soldier and captain, saw that he had so enchanted the world that he was looked at by the whole army as a chief sent by God for the protection of independence, began to perceive that he could push them still further. I will not recount for you the too-fortunate series of his undertakings, nor his famous victories whose virtue was unworthy, nor that long tranquility that astonished the universe. This was the counsel of God to instruct kings not to leave his Church. He wanted to display a great example of all that heresy could do, how it is naturally indocile and independent, and how fatal it is to royalty and all legitimate authority. what is more, when this great God has chosen someone to be the instrument of his designs, nothing stops his progress. He either enchains, blinds, or subdues all that might be capable of resistance. "I am the Lord," he says by the mouth of Jeremiah (XXvII). "It is I who have made the earth, with all its men and the animals, and I give it to whomever it pleases me. Now I willed to submit these lands to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant." He calls him his servant, although an ifidel, because he has named him to execute his decrees. " And I ordain," he continues, "that all shall be submitted to him, even the animals": so true it is that all bows and that all is supple when God commands it! But listen to the rest of the prophecy: "I want these peoples to obey him and for them to obey also his son, until the time that others come." See, Christians, how the times are marked out, how the generations are counted. God determines how long the slumbers shall last and also when the world must awaken. Such was England's lot. And yet, in this frightening confusion of all things, how beautiful it to consider what the great Henriette undertook for the salvation of the kingdom: her voyages, her negotiations, her treaties, all that her prudence and courage opposed to the fortune of the State, and finally, that constancy by which, not being able to vanquish the violence of destiny, she so nobly upheld the effort! Every day she brought around one of the rebels, and, from fear that they would despair, she wished them to take refuge in her word. It was between her hands' that the governor of Scarborough returned that unconquerable port and castle. The two Hothams, father and son, who gave the first example of perfidy by refusing to open for the king the gates of the fortress and port of Hull, chose the queen as media- tor and would have given the place to the king, along with Beverley, but they were found out and beheaded, and God, who wished to punish their shameful disobedience by the hands of the very rebels, did not permit the king to profit from their repentance. She also won over a mayor of London, who was a man of great worth, and several other leaders of the faction. Almost all those she spoke to yielded to her, and if God had not been so inflexible, if the blindness of the peoples had not been so incurable, she would have healed their spirits, and the most just party would have been the strongest.
We know, gentlemen, that the queen frequently exposed her person in these secret conferences; but I have still greater hazards to show you. The rebels had seized the arsenals and magazines, and, in spite of the defection of so many subjects, and even in spite of the infamous desertion of the militia, it was still easier for the king to raise soldiers than to arm them. In order to gain arms and munitions, she abandoned not only the joys, but also the care of her life. She put herself to sea in the month of February, in spite of winter and storms, and, under the pretext of taking her eldest daughter the royal princess who had been married to William, the Prince of Orange, to Holland, she went to engage the States in the interests of the king, to win officers and munitions. Winter had not frightened her when she left England; winter did not stop her eleven months later when she needed to return to the king, but this journey did not resemble the first. I tremble merely to tell of the furious tempest that battered her ship for ten days. The sailors were alarmed to the point of losing hope, and several of them threw themselves into the waves. She, always intrepid even when the waves were high, reassured them all with her firmness. She excited those who accompanied her to hope in God, who had all her confidence, and, to take their minds away from the morbid talk of death that surrounded them, she said, with an air of serenity which seemed already to bring on a calm, that queens do not drown. Alas! Something still more extraordinary was reserved to her! Although saved from the storms, her sufferings would be no less deplorable. She watched her vessels sink and almost all her hope of helping the king. The vessel in which she traveled – conducted by the hand of One who rules the rages of the sea and stills the surges of the waves – was pushed back to the ports of Holland, and all the people were astonished by such a miraculous deliverance.
Those who escaped the storm swore an eternal goodbye to the sea and to ships; as an ancient author put it, they could not even stand to look at it. Nevertheless, eleven days later, O astonishing resolution!, the queen, barely removed from such appalling torture, moved by her desire to see the king again and to bring him aid, dared again to commit herself to ocean's fury and winter's rage. She gathered several vessels, filled them with officers and munitions, and crossed at last to England. But who would not be astonished at the cruel destiny of this princess? After having been saved from the sea, another tempest was almost fatal for her. One hundred canons thundered at her upon her arrival, and the house into which she had gone was pierced by their blows. How composed she remained during this frightening peril! And how clement was she to the author of such a dark attack! He was brought as a prisoner before her shortly thereafter; she pardoned his crime, leveling punishment against his conscience for the shame of having attempted to take the life of such a good and generous princess. She was so far above both vengeance and fear!
But will we never again see her close to the king, who wished too ardently for her return? She burned with the same desire, and soon appeared in a new guise. She marched like a general at the head of a royal army in order to traverse provinces held almost entirely by the rebels. She besieged and assaulted in passing a considerable place that opposed her march; she triumphed, she pardoned, and at last the king received her in a countryside where the previous year he had won a signal victory against General Essex. One hour later they were brought news of a great battle won. Everything seemed to prosper by her presence. The rebels were worried. If she had been believed, if, instead of dividing the royal armies and wasting time with the unfortunate sieges of Hull and Gloucester, they had marched straight on London, the affair would have been decided and this campaign would have ended the war. but the moment was lost. The fatal term approached, and Heaven, which in favor of the piety of the queen seemed to have suspended the vengeance it meditated, began to show itself. "You know how to vanquish," said a brave African to the cleverest general that ever lived, "but you do not know how to make use of your victory: Rome, which you hold, will escape you, and your enemy will take away from you both the means and the will to take it." (Livy) From this unfortunate moment everything went visibly into decline. The chase was up. The queen found herself with child, and in spite of all her quality could not force the two unsuccessful sieges to be given up, and all the State languished with her. She was constrained to separate herself from the king, who was almost besieged in Oxford, and they said to one another a very sad adieu, even though they did not know that it would be their last. She retired to Exeter, a fortified city, where she herself was soon besieged. There she gave birth to a princess and twelve days later saw herself forced to flee and to take refuge in France.
Princess, whose destiny is so great and so glorious, was it necessary that you be born in the power of enemies of your house?3 O Eternal one, watch over her! Holy angels, range around her your invisible squadrons and place yourselves as guards around the cradle of a princess, so great and so forsaken. She was destined for the wise and valorous Philippe, and owes France princes worthy of him, worthy of herself and of her ancestors. God had protected her, gentlemen. Her governess, two years later, snatched this precious infant from the hands of the rebels, even though she had not known she was a captive. Yet, the child was conscious of her own gran- deur and so refused all other names and insisted that she was the princess. And so she was at last taken to her mother the queen and was her consolation amidst sorrow, for she could expect that she would be the happiness of a great prince and the joy of all of France. But I interrupt the order of my history. I said that the queen was obliged to retire from her kingdom. In fact, she left the port of England in full view of the rebels, who pursued her so closely that she could almost hear their oaths and insolent threats. What a different voyage than the one she had undertaken on the same sea when she came to take possession of the sceptre of Great Britain, when she saw, so to speak, the waters bend beneath her and submit all their movements to her as ruler of the seas! Now, chased-pursued by implacable enemies who had the audacity to bring action against her-sometimes saved, sometimes almost taken, her fortune changing with each quarter hour, having only God and her inconquerable courage, she had neither the wind nor the clouds necessary to favor her precipitous flight. yet at last she arrived at Brest, where, after having suffered so many evils, she was finally granted a bit of rest.
When I reflect upon the extreme and continual perils on land and at sea which this princess risked over a period of ten years, while elsewhere I see that all undertakings against her person are futile at the same time as everything directed against the State succeeds astonishingly, how cannot I think otherwise than that providence, as much concerned to preserve her life as to reverse her power, had wished that she outlive her grandeur, in order that she could escape those deathly attachments to the earth and to the prideful sentiments which corrupt the worst those souls that are the greatest and most elevated? This was a counsel similar to that which in days past abased David under the hand of the rebel Absalom. "you see him, the great king," said the holy and eloquent preacher of Marseille, "you see him alone, abandoned, so fallen in the eyes of his people that he became for some an object of contempt, and, what is still more unbearable for one of great courage, an object of pity for others." Here, gentlemen, is an image, but im- perfect, of the queen of England when after such strange humiliations she was then constrained to appear to the world, and to be displayed, so to speak, to France herself, at the Louvre, where she had been born with so much glory, for all to see her misery. Thus she could well say with the prophet Isaiah: "The Lord of armies has done these things in order to annihilate the whole extent of human grandeur and to cast into ignominy what is most august in the universe." It is not that France was lack- ing in respect to the daughter of Henri Le Grand. The magnanimous and pious Anne, whose name we never speak without regret, received her in a manner befitting the majesty of the two queens. But the affairs of the king did not allow this sage regent to effect a remedy in proportion to the evil, as you will judge from the state of the two princesses. The great-hearted Henriette was constrained to plead for help; the great-hearted Anne was unable to give enough. If it had been possible to advance into these beautiful years whose glorious course we are now admiring, Louis, who hears from great distances the laments of suffering Christians, who, sure that the glory due the wisdom of his counsels and the rectitude of his intentions will redound to him no matter the incertitude of events, alone upholds the common cause and takes up his formidable arms across immense spaces of sea and land, could he have refused his arm to his neighbors, to his allies, to his own blood, to the sacred rights of royalty which he knows so well how to maintain? How England would have then seen the great power of the invincible defender, soon to be avenger, of violated majesty!
But God left not resources to the king of England: he lacked everything and everything was against him. The Scots, to whom he gave himself up, surrendered him to the English parliamentarians, and so the faithful guardians of our kings betrayed their own. As the parliament of England thought to discharge the army, this army, composed entirely of Independents, reformed the parliament, until then somewhat moderate, in its own image and so made itself the master of all. Thus the king was led from captivity into captivity; and the queen pleaded in vain to France, to Holland, even to Poland and the most distant powers of the North. She revived the Scots and thirty thousand of them took arms: with the Duc de Lorraine she undertook to deliver her lord the king, and success seemed inevitable for their cause was just. She regained her dear children, the only hope of her house, and confessed at this point that amidst the most mortal sorrows she was still capable of joy. She consoled the king, who wrote her from his prison that she alone maintained his spirit and that it was not necessary to fear he might commit a base act, because he would remember that he belonged to her. O mother, O wife, O queen most admirable and worthy of a better fortune, if the fortunes of the earth were worth something! In the end you must accept your fate. You had held up the State long enough. It was under attack by an invincible and divine force; nothing of it now remained but you, holding firm amidst its ruins.
Like a column whose solid mass is seen to be the most rm footing of a ruined temple when the great edifice that it held up falls on it without toppling it, so the queen showed herself to be the firm support of the State when after having for a long time carried it in fact, she was not brought low by its fall.
Who, however, could express her just sorrows? Who could recount her complaints? No, gentlemen, Jeremiah himself, who alone seems capable of equaling the lamentations to her calamities, does not suffice for such sorrow. She cries out with the prophet: "See, Lord, my affliction. My enemy gains in the strength and my children are lost. The cruel have placed their sacrilegious hands on that which was most dear to me. Royalty has been profaned and the princes are trodden under foot. Leave me, I will shed bitter tears; do not undertake to console me. The sword was struck without, but I feel inside myself a similar death." (Lamentations)
Yet, after we have listened to these complaints, holy Sisters,4 her dear friends (for she would have much wished thus to name you), you who have see her kneel so often before the altars of her only protector and into the bosom of which she has poured out the secret consolations she has received from them, put an end to this discourse by recounting for us her Christian sentiments of which you are the faithful witnesses. How many times did she in this place humbly thank God for two great graces: the one, for having made her a Christian; the other, gentlemen, what shall I say? Perhaps for having reestablished the affairs of her son the king? No. It is for having made the queen suffer. Ah! I begin to regret the narrow boundaries of this place in which I speak! It is necessary to burst, to pierce this enclosure, and make redound to great lengths a word that cannot be often enough heard. How her sorrows made her wise in the science of the Gospel, and how she well knew the religion and the power of the Cross, when she united Christianity with miseries! Times of great prosperity blind us, transport us, lead us astray, make us forget God, ourselves, and the sentiments of the faith. From thence are born monstrous crimes, refined pleasures, delicacies of pride, which give only too many foundations for those terrible maledictions that Jesus Christ pronounced in his Gospel: "Woe to you who laugh! Woe to you who are full and content with the world!" On the contrary, as Christianity finds its birth in the Cross, it is also strengthened by suffering. There one expiates one's sins; there one purifies one's intentions; there one lifts one's desires from the earth to Heaven; there one loses all the taste for the world, and one ceases to rely upon oneself and one's own judgment. We must not flatter ourselves – the most experienced in affairs make capital faults. But how easily we pardon our faults when fortune pardons them! And how we believe ourselves to be the most enlightened and the most skillful when we are the most successful and the most happy! Failure is the only master that can successfully call us back and wrench from us the avowal that we have sinned, which costs so much to our pride. So, when misery opens our eyes, we reconsider with bitterness all our false steps; we find ourselves equally guilty for what we have done and for what we have failed to do, and we no longer know how to excuse the presumptuous judgment that believes itself infallible. We see that God alone is wise; and in vainly deploring the faults that have ruined our affairs, a better rejection teaches us to deplore those that would cause us to lose our eternity, with this singular consolation, that we repair them when we deplore them.
For twelve years, God had held our unfortunate queen (boldly let us give her this title, by which she was made subject to the actions of grace) without respite, without any human con- solation, making her study under His hand His hard but durable lessons. Finally, worn down by her vows and by her humble patience, He reestablished the royal house. Charles II was recognized; the injustice to the kings was avenged. Those whom arms could not conquer nor negotiations convince came back all at once by themselves. Disappointed by their liberty, they had in the end detested its excesses and were ashamed to have had so much power. Their own successes horri ed them. We know that this magnanimous prince could have hastened his affairs by making use of the hand of those who offered to destroy the tyranny by a single blow. His great soul judged these means too base. He believed that whatever condition a king found himself, it was of his majesty to act only by laws or by arms. These laws, which he had protected, he reestablished almost by himself. He reigns peacefully and gloriously on the throne of his ancestors, and makes justice, wisdom, and mercy reign with him.
It is needless to tell you how the queen was consoled by this miraculous event. But she had learned through her miseries not to change amidst such a great change in her condition. Once banished, the world did not return to her heart. She saw with astonishment that God, who had made useless so many undertakings and so many efforts because he was waiting for the hour he had marked, when this hour arrived, took her son the king by the hand to the throne. She submitted herself more than ever to that sovereign hand that holds in the highest heaven the reigns of all empires; and, disdaining the thrones that can be usurped, she attached her affection to the kingdom where one fears not one's equals and where one sees one's fellows without jealousy. Touched by these sentiments, she loved that humble house more than her palace. She made no more use of her power except to protect the Catholic faith, to multiply her alms, and to succor more abundantly those families who were refugees from her three kingdoms and all those who had been ruined for the cause of religion or in the service of the king. Recall in your memory with what circumspection she attended to the feelings of her neighbor and how great was her aversion to the poisonous discourses of calumny. She knew the great weight not only of the least word, but also of the silence of princes, and how much empire calumny achieves when it is allowed even to be tolerated in their sublime presence. Those who saw her attentively weighing all her words judged well that she was ceaselessly under the view of God and that, faithful imitator of the Order of the visitation, she never lost the holy presence of the divine majesty. She recalled this precious memory also by prayer and by reading the book of the Imitation of Christ, where she learned to conform herself to the true model of Christians. She watched without resting over her conscience. After so many miseries and obstacles, she knew no other enemies but her sins. None of them seemed light to her; she made a rigorous examination of them, and careful to expiate them by penance and alms she was so well prepared that death could not surprise her even though it came under the appearance of sleep. This great queen is dead; and by her death she has left an eternal regret, not only to Monsieur and to Madame, who, faithful to all their duties, held for her a submissive, sincere, and enduring respect, but also to all those who had the honor to serve her or to know her. Let us no more complain of her disgrace, which now makes for her felicity. If she had been more fortunate, her history would have been more pompous, but her works would have been less full, and with these superb titles she might perhaps have appeared empty-handed before God. Now that she has preferred the Cross to the throne and has placed her miseries in the ranks of her greatest graces, she will receive the consolations that are promised to those who mourn. Let then this God of mercy accept her afflictions as an agreeable sacrifice! Let Him place her in the bosom of Abraham, and, satisfied with her sufferings, henceforward spare her family and the world such terrible lessons!
1 The text used for this translation is that of the Oeuvres Oratoires de Bossuet, edition critique de J. Lebarq, revue et augmentee par Ch. Urbain et E. Levesque, 7 volumes (paris: Desclee,1922), v: 515-546.
2 Bossuet is addressing Philippe of Orleans, the brother of Louis XIV, who was in attendance with his wife, princess Henriette-Marie d'Angleterre, the daughter of Henriette-Marie of France.
3 Bossuet here addresses the Princesse d'Orleans, who is in the audience.
4 The Sisters of the Visitation, in whose chapel the oration was pronounced.


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Bills Owner Kim Pegula Added To NYS Reopening Committee
It's safe to say that there are plenty of New Yorkers who would like the state to start opening businesses up again. The governor is hoping to do that safely too.
In order to make the best decision on whether or not to open businesses up or which businesses should be opened, Governor Andrew Cuomo has put together a committee of influential people to help him make the decision.
One person that would stand out to Western New Yorkers for sure is Buffalo Bills owner Kim Pegula.
There are 100 people on this committee and Pegula is not the only person from the sports world. According to Buffalo Rumblings, New York Knicks and Rangers CEO James Dolan, New York Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, New York Islanders owner Jon Ledecky, and Yankee president Randy Levine are also on the list.
"If you can make the economics work without ticket sales and have television revenue. We're in a different place. Be creative figure it out." - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
There will also be political appointees, labor leaders, hospital executives, and college and educational sector representatives on the committee.
It is likely that less heavily hit areas like Western New York might be able to open up faster than New York City.
Filed Under: Andrew Cuomo, buffalo bills, COVID-19 Coronavirus, COVID19, governor, Kim Pegula, New York State
Categories: Brett Alan, Sports, WNY News

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


To meet Michael Heizer, the sculptor and pioneer of Land Art, usually entails an arduous trek through the desert. Indeed, born to a family of geologists and archaeologists lead him to a fascination with mysterious sites marked by evidence of ancient technology, such as the shifting of huge stones, he has redefined sculpture in terms of size, mass, gesture, and process and working largely outside. His most important work is probably 'Double Negative' in 1969 and 1970, a project for which he displaced 240,000 tons of rock in the Nevada desert, cutting two enormous trenches—each one 50-feet-deep and 30-feet-wide and together spanning 1,500 feet—at the eastern edge of Mormon Mesa near Overton, Nevada.
Michael Heizer has also produced a number of abstract art prints, and his large-scale sculptures, often inspired by Native American forms, can be found in museums and public spaces worldwide. At artrepublic, meet a pioneer of Land Art.


Any Minute Now is an album by Trinidadian Soca artist Machel Montano and his band Xtatik released in 1999.
The album features guest appearances from Beenie Man, Burning Flames, and Red Rat.
A promotional video was made "Outa Space" featuring Montano and Beenie Man as 'Men in Black' in search of two female aliens.


The best transportation mode in Abu Dhabi is taxi. Even though there is public transportation and it is very cheap, most people use taxis because they are not that expensive.
To get from the airport, there exists a public transportation bus, you can find the details on Abu Dhabi airport website under: http://www.abudhabiairport.ae/english/to-and-from-the-airport/information/public-transport.aspx (Service A1 which ends up near Abu Dhabi mall which is very near to Ramada, Southern Sun and Hala Arjaan hotels). Please note there that NYU Abu Dhabi mentioned there on the website is the old location and not the new one. The cost is only 4 AED (about 1 Euro). In case of a taxi, it should be around 100 AED (about 25 Euros) http://www.abudhabiairport.ae/english/to-and-from-the-airport/services/taxis.aspx.
For the transportation between the hotels and NYU AD, the best way is again to use taxis. It should be around 20 - 30 AED (6 - 7 Euros).


The CSIR is developing adaptation guidelines for various types of human settlements in South Africa that are at risk because of climate change. The Green Book project stems from a grant awarded by the Canadian-based International Development Research Centre (IDRC) under a cities and climate change programme.
The project aims to influence the thinking of those who plan human settlements and provides them with practical tools on how to adapt to the projected climate changes. To help plan and build sustainable settlements for the future, researchers have to understand the impact of climate change on our cities, towns and neighbourhoods; the associated risks and the areas most vulnerable to the projected changes. The Green Book project, which is jointly funded by the IDRC and the CSIR, will draw on collaboration between researchers at the CSIR and external partners.
Researchers want to determine what types of settlements in South Africa are most at risk because of climate change. Some aspects are known, such as that coastal cities are at risk of rising sea levels, storm surges and inland flooding; that some of South Africa's inland cities will be prone to more regular occurrences of drought and that many people living in informal settlements are vulnerable. Some resource-dependent towns, such as those depending on mining or agriculture, may also decline in the future due to climatic changes. Research can help these town to adapt to these impacts.
Climate change is forcing engineers and planners to rethink the way they plan and design future cities, towns and settlements. For instance, it may include guidelines on how to provide better natural ventilation in cities to counter the heat island effect, coping with flash floods and the frequency of informal settlement fires.
The National Disaster Management Centre of the Department of Cooperative Governance will assist the CSIR in identifying avenues where researchers could influence policy and help disseminate information. The African Institute for Inclusive Growth will help the CSIR by conducting an economic cost benefit analysis of the adaptation options.
Climate change is a change in global or regional climate patterns. Climate change has been apparent since the mid- to late-20th century, and is attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.


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The current show at Little Theatre of Fall River is the hit 1950's musical, "Grease". It opened off Broadway on February 14, 1972 and ran 128 performances before moving to Broadway to run for 3,388 record breaking performances, closing April 11, 1980. The show was made into a very successful movie version in 1978 starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The audience is welcomed back to the reunion of Rydell High School's class of 1959. Miss Lynch, the English teacher wants everyone to celebrate the high spirited days of gum chewing, hot rod loving boys with D.A.'s and their wise cracking girls in their poodle skirts, bobby sox and pedal pushers. This version is directed by Deb Sadler, musical direction by Robert Perry and choreography by Janice MacDonald, Jeff Belanger and Alex Cruz. The show is high energy from opening to closing with a talented cast of 30.
Deb directs and blocks the show wonderfully and has her cast utilize every inch of the two story set designed by Shawn Elliot. She has Miss Lynch, Eugene and Patty open the show with "Alma Mater" in present day and then back in 1959, has the cast sing and dance to "Grease Is The Word" from the movie. Deb uses three other songs from the movie and eliminates two weak ones from the original show "Alone at the Drive-In Movie" and "All Shook Up" with neither one of them being missed. The vocal prowess of this cast is marvelous and their exuberant dance numbers stopped the show with expert execution by this hard working cast. The 1950's style dances shine in this show in many numbers including "Hand Jive", "Shakin at the High School Hop" with flips and tumbles. The five member orchestra is on top of the two story set and they are topnotch especially the sax solo in "Worse Things I Could Do". Stage manager Maryann Goulart keeps things running smoothly all night long.Even though the stage version is more of an ensemble piece than the movie, the two leads light up the stage with their talent. The head hoodlum, Danny Zuko is fantastically played by Bobby Sylvia. He captures the true essence of the 1950's character as Danny. Bobby shows off his splendid voice in "Summer Nights" where he and Sandy sing a duet about how they met(with differing versions sung by each of them) in "Sandy" when he is left alone at the drive-in (this song shows off his vocal range) and in the closing duet "You're the One That I Want". Some of his funniest scenes include when Sandy slams the door on him at the drive-in, when he lights up a cigarette while trying to win a race. Gorgeous brunette Samantha Johnson plays Danny's sweet girlfriend, Sandy. She makes the transition from wholesome girl to trashy Pink lady with ease at the close of the show , She contemplates this while she sings "Sandra Dee" reprise. Since it is a musical comedy, the message to change yourself to be accepted by others should be viewed in that context but not in real life. Samantha's voice soars in the poignant "Hopelessly Devoted" and in the closing duet "You're The One That I Want" with Bobby. She also sings the touching "It's Raining on Prom Night" and does a great job with a part from the original show that wasn't as fleshed out as some of the others. She and Bobby excel in all their dances, too. The hard hearted leader of the Pink Ladies, Betty Rizzo is played wonderfully by Jessalyn Sadler Correa who played Belle last year. She dances up a storm and shows her acting range in the comic and dramatic moments in this show. The comic moments include her many one liners and put downs of those around her and making fun of Sandy in the comic version of "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee". Rizzo's softer side emerges in my favorite song in the show, There Are Worse Things I Could Do" where she ponders her plight of possibly being pregnant. Rizzo's hoodlum boyfriend Kenickie is wonderfully played by Marc Jaillet. He swaggers about the stage in character and does topnotch work on his solo "Greased Lightning" where he and the boys dance all over the stage and on a real car.
Their friends are well portrayed, too. Statuesque Lynne Corriveau plays the sexy Marty who is in love with a marine. She belts out "Freddy My Love" while the girls back her up like the Supremes. Erica Borges is dynamite as Jan who is constantly eating, especially twinkies, cole slaw and other people's lunches and Greg Silver plays Roger who is called rump because he likes to moon people. Their duet "Mooning" is hilarious. "Rock N Roll Party Queen" is sung by Roger and Doody. The gang pants' Roger in the rumble scene. Tyler Indyck plays the nervous Doody marvelously who gets to belt out his big number,"Magic Changes" while strumming a guitar. Sonny, the school mooch and cad is well played by Cory Santos. The school bubblehead, Frenchy who drops out of school to go to beauty school is played by Maeve Donnelly who makes this dumb girl very funny. One of the funniest moments comes when Teen Angel descends on Frenchy who wears a pink wig in this scene and sings "Beauty School Dropout" to her and tries to convince her to go back to high school. Aaron Gendrau Visco is splendid as Teen Angel. His strong tenor voice fills the theater with its power. Peggy Deston opens the show as Miss Lynch sings "Alma Mater" with Eugene and Patty, welcoming the audience back to 1959 and the good old days at Rydell. Elizabeth Dennis sings "Raining On Prom Night" with Sandy. Another adult in the show is Vince Fontaine played with wonderful smarminess by Andrew Correia who wears leopard shoes Vince picks up Marty at the prom and makes out with her. Johnny Casino is played by Alex Leite. The rah-rah cheerleader Patty Simcox is played by Erin Cote and nerdy, Eugene is played by Brandon Carreiro who are excellent dancers with their funniest moment being when he ends up in her arms at the end of the songs at the dance. The tough talking, dancing dynamo from the other school Cha Cha is hilariously played by Hilary Pavao. So be sure to catch "Grease" for a trip back to the carefree days of the 1950's.
"Grease" (13 - 16 May)
LITTLE THEATRE OF FALL RIVER
@ BBC, 777 Elsbree Street, FALL RIVER MA
1 (508)675-1852


We find comfort in many strange places, Wikipedia is a case in point. You type in Forget-me-not and you find that you have a photo of "one of a large number of plants bearing that name" – isn't that nice? For once, I can feel reasonably confident in saying today's picture is a Forget-me-not.
In the Middle Ages blue was the colour of chastity and steadfastness. Whether this sprang from the same source as the forget-me-not's name, or if the one influenced the other – and if so, which did what to which – we can't know at this temporal distance. Which, of course, creates an ideal opportunity for speculation.
Second. It was late on Saturday evening and God, thinking He'd got through a good lot these last six days, was just tidying His desk – ready to pack up, go home and put His feet up. Suddenly, He heard a small voice whisper 'Forget me not'. All He had left was a little patch of blue stuff, so He used it to put together a small flower, and said, 'Forget-me-not shall be your name'.
All Together 1 2 3 . . .
In December 1873 the Smith County Pioneer published a poem by Brewster Higley. His friend Daniel Kelly wrote a melody to go with it. Luckily, Daniel didn't need to change many words to make the poem and the music fit together. The song, mixing as it did, melodramatic and patriotic images was an ideal fit for the time and the place – the recently settled state of Kansas and the brutal and basic lives of the early farmers.
Brewster wasn't the sort of person who, today, we would associate with this overly sentimental type of song. He was married five times. His first two wives died from some disease or other – there must have been plenty to choose from in those days. The third took their child and went back to her previous husband. His fourth was such a harridan that he ran away from her, taking refuge in Smith County, Kansas. Here he met and married his fifth wife – the one who, at last, gave him a reason to write poetry.
By the way – have you had a look at http://www.everopenstorybook.com yet?
These days there are plenty of ways to protect the environment – and we use them all. Social media campaigns, charities needing our money, legislation and so on. It wasn't always this easy. For much of the past, the environment was on its own. It didn't do so badly, though. Of course, there were considerably fewer of us humans around then, so we didn't do as much damage. Perhaps we should rather say, it took us longer to do the same damage.
Our picture this week is the Cuckoo Flower – also known as Lady's Smock. If the cuckoo still visited this part of the world, it would turn up at around this time of the year. So the flower was used by blackbirds as a warning of when they could expect a sudden and unplanned addition to the clutch.
But it's when it comes to environmental protection that the flower excels. No Society for the Protection of the Cuckoo Flower needed. No legislation to persecute wanton vandals, denuding the countryside of its pale lavender or white flowers, required. This plant has more powerful protection. A well known fact is that picking these flowers causes thunderstorms and if you take them indoors with you – your house with probably be struck by lightning.
I'll bet there are a great many endangered wild flowers out there who wish they could say the same.


You know how to run the financial operations of a well-oiled enging of growth? You are passionate about people development and working always smarter? Take our financial operations to the next level as our Senior Finance Manager! Plus we will not only accelerate your professional but also your personal growth.
We build businesses that innovate on transformational education for all ages, through mediums that range from digital publishing, educational technology, e-learning, mobile apps, events and our own university. We stand for ideas that enable people to be extraordinary and impact lives, we focus on teaching what school forgot to teach you. Founded in 2003 by Vishen Lakhiani, we are a team of 200+ people from 40+ countries, working to pushing humanity forward through reforming global education. You'll be exposed to some of the best knowledge, people, and resources available anywhere. Mindvalley is considered one of the top places in the world to work and has been written about in magazines, articles and on TV.
This position holds a crucial role in the company as it ensures the operational fluency. You are bestowed upon to safe guard the company's interests and assets and we will also trust you with managing our finance team. When it comes to taking up this role, we are really looking for someone who has that special kind of care, initiative and sense of urgency when it comes to work.
Big bonus points if you provide your video cover letter. Record yourself speaking in a 3-minute video and upload it to YouTube. Tell us about your mission in life and how you grow yourself each day on the path towards it. How does Mindvalley fit into that journey?
What makes you want to work at Mindvalley?
What qualifications, abilities, and strong points will help you succeed in this job?
What are your weak points and areas for improvement?
What do you like most about your current job? What do you least enjoy?
Why did you leave your last employer or why do you want to leave your current employer?
Please describe the perfect "next job" for you.
Would you be willing to arrange reference calls with supervisors you've had in the past decade, as a last step before the final offer?


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LEDA/PGC 212965 ist eine Elliptische Galaxie vom Hubble-Typ dE im Sternbild Andromeda am Nordsternhimmel. Sie ist schätzungsweise 249 Millionen Lichtjahre von der Milchstraße entfernt und hat einen Durchmesser von etwa 90.000 Lichtjahren.

Im selben Himmelsareal befindet sich u. a. die Galaxien NGC 898, PGC 9108, PGC 2187896, PGC 2189635.

Weblinks
 PGC Portal

Einzelnachweise

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The research aims to investigate the competencies of the family group members of an enterprising firm. Focused on family group-owned and -managed firms, the paper provides a comparison between different types of family firms (enterprising and non-enterprising) within a specific context, that is the textile/clothing district of Prato (Tuscany, Italy). Through a transgenerational resource assessment and in-depth interviews to the second and third-generation family group members of a business categorized as an enterprising firm, the research aims to point out a set of competencies that family members are endowed with enabling the firm to achieve value creation over time. A single case, Albini & Pitigliani, a freight forwarding and logistics provider, has been chosen to fill the theoretical category of enterprising families, so to offer opportunities for unusual research access. The case represents, in fact, an extreme exemplar to explore a significant, but rare and under-investigated, phenomenon. The findings highlight that success is considered by the family ownership group a multidimensional construct, including both wealth and non-economic objectives achievement. Transgenerational success is deeply linked to the synergistic interaction among the business, the family and the family members in accordance with the "distinctive familiness" paradigm. Entrepreneurial personal competencies of the family ownership members result to be strictly mingled with the familial culture and values which widely pervade the business approach. Instead of preventing success, the familial dimension of the organization is purposely used as a major source of competitive advantage which enhances the corporate image and guarantees reliability of business relationships.
Nosi, C., Zanni, L. (2008). Enterprising families and distinctive familiness. Family business and transgenerational value creation in Tuscany. In 4th Workshop on Family Firms Management Research, EIASM (pp.1-29).
Enterprising families and distinctive familiness. Family business and transgenerational value creation in Tuscany
NOSI, COSTANZA;ZANNI, LORENZO
Nosi_Zanni EIASM.pdf


The crack Shea Weber put in Henrik Zetterberg's helmet has spread to the Detroit Red Wings' psyche. As the conference quarterfinal series between Detroit and the Nashville Predators has gone on, Weber's King Kong impression has been overshadowed by his teammate Pekka Rinne's dominance of the Red Wings. Through the first four games Detroit has averaged 34.5 shots per game while Nashville has averaged a measly 22.8, good enough for fewest among playoff teams. Rinne's performance has stalled the regular season's seventh best offense and only allowed them to score more than two goals one time in four games.
At the other end of the ice, Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard has struggled with a 2.78 GAA and a .879 save percentage. While those aren't quite Illya Bryzgalov numbers, the bottom line is Howard has a 1-3 record and hasn't been the calming force his teammates in Detroit have needed.
It's never a good situation when a team is afraid to make mistakes while playing against a hot goaltender. There's stress at both ends of the ice. Obviously the Red Wings' lack of scoring hasn't afforded them the luxury of being able to make mistakes. Which is why the now infamous gaffe from game four is now threatening to linger all summer in the minds of Ian White and Jiri Hudler. Both of the two were sucked into the corner behind Nicklas Lidstrom by Martin Erat, leaving Kevin Klein wide open in front of the net in a play that infuriate even a pee-wee coach. Klein not only scored Nashville's game winning goal, he further that exposed that crack in Detroit. That play was the best example, but there are other times when the Wings don't seem to be thinking clearly. They're frustrated which is odd from a team of veterans, which has so much playoff experience that they should have ice running through their veins against the young Predators.
Even though their team is on the brink of elimination there's still hope for Red Wings fans. They've been peppering Rinne with so many shots that slipping one by him early in game five could put enough of a dent in his mental armor to turn that one goal into three or four. They just have to hope Howard can keep them in it for that long. Also on the plus side is that Johan Franzen should have a ton of energy after barely showing up for the first four games. Franzen should get Evgeni Malkin's number and send him a quick thank you text for taking all the heat from the national media for his disappearing act in the Penguins/Flyers series. "The Mule" is more of "The Goat" so far against Nashville. Detroit needs his clutch play worse than ever right now but so far Franzen has only one goal in four games. Even a little contribution from Franzen could be all the difference, three of the series' battles have been one goal games. Franzen scored in Detroit's only win.
The Red Wings have enough mental strength to come back in this series. Despite being minus 3 Zetterberg has played well throughout the series so far and Datsyuk has gotten on the score sheet three times. Their play, along with some good old-fashioned Jimmy Howard shot stopping, needs to plant an early seed of doubt into Rinne and the rest of the Predators before that crack breaks all the way through.


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The 15 Dumbest Video Game Titles of 2015
Coming up with a good video game title is hard, but devising a mind-bogglingly stupid title is even harder. Nevertheless, another batch of uniquely talented developers rose to the challenge this year, and their efforts deserve recognition. Here are the 15 dumbest video game titles of 2015.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls Japanese developers might not have a monopoly on lousy video game titles, but they certainly are the majority shareholders. The new installment of Danganronpa proves that Spike Chunsoft isn't even trying to come up with sensible titles for the series anymore – which is understandable considering the main star is a murderous robotic bear. This time around, the developer couldn't be bothered to keep track of what numbered sequel they were working on – it's just "Another Episode." Sure, why not? Also, I can't think of a worse group of girls to hang out with than ultra despair girls; sounds like quite the party.
Size Matters: A Step-By-Step Guide To Replacing Your PS4 Hard Drive
Between the mandatory disc installs, increasing popularity of downloadable games and content, and title updates that can balloon into the gigabytes, you may find the stock hard drive of your PlayStation 4 filling up fast. Instead of constantly choosing which of your old games you keep installed, you may want to consider a hardware upgrade instead. Not only is swapping in a bigger hard drive a cinch, it can also provide your system with a modest speed boost.
The Right Drive For The JobYour first task in replacing your PS4 hard drive is – surprise! – choosing a hard drive to replace it with. Sony designed the PlayStation 4 to be compatible with most internal laptop hard drives, so finding a suitable replacement shouldn't be a problem. Here are the main requirements you need to be aware of:
1. It must be a 2.5" internal hard drive, and no taller than 9.5 millimeters.
Test Chamber – Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Assassin's Creed Syndicate comes out this Friday, and lots of fans are curious whether the series' latest installment is up to snuff. Take a look as Kato, Kyle, and Brian discuss the game's systems, compare it to past titles, and get in a spot of bother.
This Test Chamber's footage takes place in the first quarter of the game, but after the introductory sequences with the whole of London opened up. Progression in the game is somewhat gated, so you'll have to become a hardened assassin to cut through Crawford Starrick's Templar web.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate comes out October 23 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For more on the game, check out our hopes and fears for the upcoming title.
Play Super Mario Maker Levels Created By The Game Informer Editors
The Game Informer editorial staff has been playing a ton of Super Mario Maker since it launched on September 11. While we've been posting our codes on our social media accounts, we wanted to give our community a single place they could go to find our levels.
To search for these courses, you must first be in Super Mario Maker's Course World. From there, find the magnifying glass under "Courses" and then enter the 16-digit code for the level you want to play.
This list will be continually updated as more editors begin feeling confident enough to publish their stages and share them with the world, so be sure to bookmark this page! In the meantime, check out the stages the editors have already published and let everyone know which ones are your favorites in the comments section!
Perfect Your PlayStation 4 Experience In Three Quick Moves
Thanks to its improved online experience, attractive price point, and slight edge in hardware performance, the PlayStation 4 came out of the gates at a full sprint, putting itself well ahead of the rival Xbox One in the latest console race. But despite its lengthy list of improvements over the troubled PlayStation 3, not all is well with the console.
After spending the last couple years using the PS4 as my predominant console for third-party games (still waiting on that deluge of promising first-party content, Sony!), I keep returning to three major gripes. Instead of living with the problems, I'm being pro-active about formulating solutions with some savvy purchasing decisions.
Get A Bigger Hard Drive
Why 1968? How America's Most Turbulent Period Informs Mafia III
The word "mafia" naturally conjures up images of bootleggers in zoot suits firing tommy guns. The mob had a field day with prohibition, but organized crime has never been isolated to a single time period. For Mafia III, Hangar 13 turned to one of America's stormiest years for inspiration.
The Mafia games have always told strong stories, and the studio wanted to honor fans' expectations by setting the third entry within the same fictional world as 2K Czech's previous work. While referencing events and characters from the series' past was a part of the plan, the team also felt it was time to move away from the common gangster eras of the '20s, '30s, and '40s. "To us, the word 'mafia' doesn't just mean the Italian Mafia," says lead writer William Harms. "There was also the black mob, there's the Irish gangs, there's a lot of different forms of organized crime, so we're really trying to expand the definition of mafia to include things outside of the traditional Mafia and incorporate them into the game."
Afterwords – Dissecting The Bloody Carnage Of Until Dawn
With Until Dawn, Supermassive has abandoned the Move-based gimmickry of its previous work in favor of a teen-horror adventure laden with life-or-death choices. We talked with creative director Will Byles about the game's major development challenges, twist-filled narrative, and what's next for the up-and-coming studio.
Until Dawn didn't have a ton of buzz going into release, but the positive critical and user reviews have some calling it a sleeper hit of 2015. How have initial sales been?We've been blown away by the community's reception of the game but cannot comment on sales numbers. [Editor's note: Until Dawn was the seventh best-selling game (not including digital sales) in August, according to NPD.]
Making Mario: A Look Back At The First 30 Years
Thirty years ago, a small team based in Kyoto, Japan, came together to create a new kind of action game. Drawing inspiration from prior projects, that team released Super Mario Bros. in 1985 – a title that would go on to help console gaming step back from the brink of ruin. Since then, Mario's influence has spread far beyond the games in which he appears. He helped turn Nintendo into an industry leader, and became a cultural icon. Super Mario Bros. started a revolution, and in the process, became one of the most recognizable franchises in the world.
We originally published this article in issue 271 of Game Informer magazine. We're sharing the story today online in honor of the 30th anniversary of the NES launch in the United States, which occurred on October 18, 1985.
Better Late Than Never: Five Popular PC Games Available For Console
The PC and console gaming communities aren't as far apart as they once were. While there are some experiences you can only get on one platform or the other, this year we've seen many talked-about PC games migrate over to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This list highlights five titles that got a lot of buzz surrounding their original releases, and are now available (or will be soon) to a brand new audience on consoles.
Goat Simulator PC Release: April 1, 2014 New Release: April 17, 2015 (Xbox One); August 11, 2015 (PS4)
Game Informer's Original Score: 5/10
"I don't completely regret playing Goat Simulator, but I also don't recommend it to anyone looking for more than disposable entertainment involving goats making people fall down and blowing up gas stations. I appreciate that Coffee Stain Studios is in on the joke, but acknowledging a game is bad doesn't suddenly make it good." — Tim Turi (full review)
The Worst Video Game Costumes For Halloween 2015
Here's a round-up of the video game-themed Halloween costumes we recommend you avoid for parties or trick-or-treating purposes. If you're thinking "These aren't that bad," just picture yourself wearing one of these costumes, and think about how easy it will be to mingle at parties in them. If the intent of your costume is to look as terrible as possible, this is the list for you!
If you're looking for outfits that do a better job of celebrating what we love about video games, we've compiled a list of this year's best costumes for sale.
The Awkwardly Shaped Tetris Costume ($48.99)


Bay Area's Most Trusted Moving Company!
Looking for professional movers? Moving long distance out of San Francisco or moving locally in the Bay Area? Look no more. At OCD Moving Services we are more than a business, we are a family. Moving interstate or across town, our promise to make your commercial move, house or apartment move a stress-free experience. We will work hard to make you a part of our family.
In general, moving can be frustrating. Especially if you don't have a reliable moving company in the Bay Area to count on. As the most trusted San Francisco movers, we promise you a safe and fast moving experience.
We offer additional moving services to help you with this potentially stressful time. Therefore, you can focus on your family and enjoying your new place.
Packing and unpacking services, auto transport, getting rid of your unwanted furniture and recycling are some of our professional moving services.
Our service areas cover all cities in the Bay Area such as San Francisco, CA, Walnut Creek, CA, Oakland, CA, Berkeley, CA, Alameda, CA and the surrounding cities. We welcome all moving types and moving sizes. From commercial move to local and long distance move, we can help.
Whether moving locally or long distance, moving to a new home is without a doubt stressful, with our expertise and personable staff at OCD Moving Services , we do our best to take the stress out of your move.
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We offer short-term storage solution for our customers during transitional living between homes, Home renovation, downsizing and more.
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First Of All Why do our customers vote us the most reliable and trustable moving company in San Francisco and Bay Area? The proof is in the pudding. Having 5-star ratings on Yelp, Google and Facebook make us proud and thankful.
The core foundation of our company is customer satisfaction. Our main values are to strive to be responsive, friendly, and reliable. We provide customers with more than just an efficient relocation, but also a stress-free, positive moving experience.
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Whether moving your family or your corporation, we provide reliable commercial moving services. Some of our services are local and long distance moving, home moving services, packing and unpacking, short term storage and many more special moving services.
These services are personalized to meet your specific needs. To acquire new customers, we depend on the quality of our work to grow our business. As most of our business comes from repeat customers and referrals.
When our customers move with us once, they will never have to look for another moving company in the Bay Area. El Sobrante, Oakland, and surrounding cities are some of our other moving service areas.
OCD Moving Services ensures it's customer's safety using trained movers and in addition to that using moving insurance to ensure the safety of your belongings.
Moving Piano, and don't know where to start? The great news is that we do.
Our movers have extensive experience in moving Pianos and other sensitive and heavy types of equipment, glass-fronted furniture, TVs and other electronics. Professional movers at OCD use complementary shrink wraps and heavy duty moving blankets to make your move less expensive.
To make your local or long distance move easier we also offer to get rid of your unwanted furniture.
Finally, Dumping and recycling are one of our top rated moving services. Our customers appreciate the fact that they have to worry about one less thing while moving their office or home to a new location or to our storage facility.
Why do our customers vote us the most reliable and trustable moving company in San Francisco and Bay Area? The proof is in the pudding. Having 5-star ratings on Yelp, Google and Facebook make us proud and thankful.
When our customers move with us once, they will never have to look for another moving company in the Bay Area. El Sobrante, Oakdale, and surrounding cities are some of our other moving service areas.
Dumping and recycling are one of our top rated moving services. Our customers appreciate the fact that they have to worry about one less thing while moving their office or home to a new location or to our storage facility.
Excellent service. Friendly people. Highest rating!
We used OCD Movers this week to move our larger furniture items to another home. The OCD team of four did an excellent job. They were fast, efficient, careful and friendly. Also, the price was very reasonable. I highly recommend them.
See you guys at the end of the year to move me all the way back home to the Bay!


Wrap your presents with ease, using this ingenious Gift Wrapping Thumb you can save yourself untold time and effort.
Some people just don't care what their wrapped gift looks like. Often we receive gifts that look like they've been wrapped by a dog who only has one paw, but that's not everyone! To some people wrapping gifts is an art form. It's something that takes time, delicacy and precision. For these people the Gift Wrapping Thumb is the perfect gift!
Let's get this straight, the Gift Wrapping Thumb is not a gift shaped like a thumb that is going to spit some sick rhymes; you might be getting confused with a gift rapping thumb. The Gift Wrapping Thumb is the all-important third thumb that you need when you are trying to tie those beautiful flowing bows in an attempt to make your front room look like a Christmas movie scene.
The thumb sits and holds the ribbon in place as you tie the second knot that will keep the whole thing in place, preventing your ribbon from becoming a limp and floppy thing that hands loosely over the gift you are wrapping. It allows you all the fun of twirling your ribbon with those blunt scissors without the pressure and stress of keeping it in place!