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DFNS.net
Naval Edition
Land Edition
CBRN Edition
Policy Edition
DFNS.net Naval
DFNS.net Naval Edition
DFNS.net Naval Blog
by DFNS · Published November 19, 2014
USS Ross Back in Naval Station Rota after 6th Fleet Ops
USS Ross (DDG 71) returned to Naval Station Rota, Nov. 18, after completing a four-month patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations. While on patrol, Ross, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile… [[ This...
Personnel Stays Response Ready with Fire Drills
Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Yokosuka Fuels personnel hosted a Mutual Aid Fire Drill that brought together Commander Navy Region Japan (CNRJ) and Yokohama City… [[ This is a content...
Human Systems Integration Used for Optimal Warship Performance
US Navy human systems integration (HSI) engineers at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) Human Performance Laboratory see transformed warship spaces as such that enable Sailors to… [[ This is a content summary...
US Navy Intelligence Forces Join BA14
As the US Navy operates forward to support real-world events, so does the Information Dominance Type Commander (ID TYCOM), as was evident during Exercise Bold Alligator 2014 (BA14), Oct. 29 –… [[ This is...
COMLOG WESTPAC chief says Fort Worth will be tested on first As-Pac deployment
The US Navy's (USN's) Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth will see an intensive schedule of exercise and operational use throughout its 16-month deployment to Singapore, Rear Admiral Charles Williams, Commander, Logistics Group Western...
China and Namibia reportedly discuss naval basing
China is planning to establish a naval support base at the Namibian port of Walvis Bay, The Namibian newspaper reported on 19 November. It quoted Chinese press sources and reported the Namibian Defence Force...
US Navy tests Raytheon's air and missile defence radar software
The US Navy has successfully tested Raytheon's software for the new air and missile defence radar (AMDR), which tracked a simulated anti-air warfare (AAW) target. …read more Source:: Naval Technology (Naval)
Teledyne completes Bolt acquisition
US aerospace and defence engineering firm Teledyne Technologies announced on 18 November that it had completed the acquisition of Bolt Technology Corporation. The announcement was made following the agreement by Bolt shareholders at a...
Northrop Grumman to deliver next-generation mission computer for H-1 helicopters
The US Naval Air Systems Command has awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman to deliver next-generation mission computers, as part of a programme to upgrade the Marine Corps' H-1 helicopters. …read more Source:: Naval...
Leidos' maritime autonomy system successfully completes at-sea trials
Leidos has successfully completed at-sea trials of its prototype maritime autonomy system. …read more Source:: Naval Technology (Naval)
New Report Says Surface Navy Should Go On Offensive
The U.S. Navy needs to embrace a more offensive surface warfare strategy which finds additional uses for long-range weapons and missiles, adds lasers and electromagnetic rail guns when available, according to a new study....
Leidos Completes At-Sea Testing of Prototype Maritime Autonomy System
Leidos (NYSE: LDOS ), a national security, health, and engineering solutions company, completed a total of 42 days of at-sea demonstrations of the prototype maritime autonomy system designed to control all of the maneuvering...
German Naval Staff Chief Visits EU NAVFOR HQ
Earlier today the Chief of the German Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Andreas Krause, visited the EU Naval Force Operational Headquarters in Northwood, London. The visit was an opportunity for Vice Admiral… [[ This is...
Navy researchers consider arming future large unmanned submersible with anti-submarine weaponry
ARLINGTON, Va., 18 Nov. 2014. U.S. Navy researchers will brief industry this week on a plan to outfit a future large unmanned submersible with anti-submarine weapons. Briefings are this Friday, 21 Nov. 2014 in...
Image of the Day: Super Stallion Prepares to Land
A CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter assigned to the Flying Tigers of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 361 prepares to land on the flight deck of the amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown… [[ This...
Naval Forces Rescue 1,500 North African Migrants
Naval forces rescued more than 1,500 North African migrants over the weekend in the Strait of Sicily, according to the Italian Navy. The Portuguese Navy's Offshore patrol vessel Viana do… [[ This is a...
UK, US Navies Join in Pirate Role Play
Royal Navy Sailors and Marines practised taking down pirates in the Indian Ocean. Plymouth-based HMS Bulwark and Portsmouth-based HM Ships Chiddingfold and Penzance, as well as Royal Fleet Auxiliary… [[ This is a content...
Yaroslav Mudry Leaves Malaysia, Heads to Sri Lanka
Russian Navy's Neustrashimy class frigate "Yaroslav Mudry" (727), a part of the Baltic Fleet (BF), departed the Malaysian Penang Port and is now on its way to Sri Lanka. The vessel will pass the…...
ESPS Navarra Hosts Spanish Ambassador to Oman
On Sunday 9 November the Spanish Ambassador to Oman, His Excellency Mr Juan José Urtasun, paid a visit to ESPS Navarra during her port visit to Muscat, Oman. Port visits such as this are...
HMCS Toronto Concludes Exercise Mavi Balina
Canadian Navy's HMCS Toronto completed participation in the Turkish-led Exercise Mavi Balina November 13 as part of her Operation Reassurance deployment in the Mediterranean Sea in response to… [[ This is a content summary...
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Aircraft Compatibility Testing Begins Aboard USS Gerald R. Ford
France Deploys Aircraft Carrier to Anti-IS Mission in Middle East
US Navy's Ford aircraft carrier begins compatibility testing


The Indiana District Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS), originally the Central District, was organized in 1857 in Fort Wayne. This online collection consists of various pictures during numerous conventions of the district, and pictures of the leaders and officers of the church body as well as church buildings. A number of the earlier conventions were held on the campus of Concordia Theology Seminary in Fort Wayne.
The Indiana District LCMS archives collection at the district's office in Fort Wayne also includes copies of various historical documents of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS). Those historical documents include the original constitution of both the synod and the Central District, and also a copy of the original catechism used by F.C.D. Wyneken who served as a missionary in the Northeastern Indiana area and then became the second president of the LCMS. If available, congregations that have closed, official acts of the congregation, i.e. baptisms, confirmations, weddings and births, have been included in the district's archival collection.
Now you can view pictures from the Indiana District archives online through the services of the Allen County Public Library.
How long should you keep things?


Darren Sissons is the newest addition to our team and brings a diversified background in Investment Management, joining the Campbell Lee & Ross Investment Management team as a Vice President & Portfolio Manager.
Darren was born in Wellington, New Zealand, where he graduated with a BA in Political Studies from Victoria University. He also has a Diploma in International Business Studies from Massey University, an MBA from York University and holds a CPA accounting designation. He lived in Taipei, Taiwan, for five years prior to moving to Canada.
Darren has spent the past 15 years in the investment industry managing global large-capitalization portfolios for Royal Bank, Scotiabank and two independent investment firms.
As a member of the Campbell Lee & Ross Investment Management investment team, Darren will contribute to our portfolio construction, portfolio management and security analysis processes, while enhancing our international expertise in European, Asian and Emerging Markets.
Darren resides in Toronto with his wife and two daughters. He is a frequent contributor to the Globe & Mail, National Post & Reuters, and is a regular guest on the BNN TV Network.


Rhianne - ginger and co.
Rhianne is an author of Fantasy, Adventure & Romance stories, and creates writing resources to help you take yourself from Novice to Novel. Little Novelist is a combined blog for writers and readers where she shares writing tips, author interviews, book reviews and news about her own books. In June 2017 Little Novelist won Blogosphere Book Blogger of the Year and her first novel The Collective was self-published in April 2017.


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40-Run N Shoot (Purple) 93 v Cobra Hustlers (Black) 61
Michelle Kurowski, Stephanie Bingham West 4th Street Women's Pro Classic NYC: Run N Shoot (Purple) 93 v Cobra Hustlers (Black) 61 , "The Cage", New York, NY, August 11, 2012
Michelle Kurowski, Diatiema Hill West 4th Street Women's Pro Classic NYC: Run N Shoot (Purple) 93 v Cobra Hustlers (Black) 61 , "The Cage", New York, NY, August 11, 2012
Toni-Ann Lawrence West 4th Street Women's Pro Classic NYC: Run N Shoot (Purple) 93 v Cobra Hustlers (Black) 61 , "The Cage", New York, NY, August 11, 2012

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Michelin stars
The man behind Bibendum: Paul Hamlyn, above, and chef Simon Hopkinson
It was Old Students' day at my Quaker boarding school, and an ex-pupil, Paul Hamlyn, who published film books, was wandering around with a blonde looking like he wished he'd never come. To make matters worse, I (then 14) went up to him and said: "Could you please send me your books free?"
Most generously, Paul did, we became friends, and indeed that moment of our meeting in 1950 led to my entering motion pictures. But that is another story.
Six years ago, I received an invitation with Paul Hamlyn's name on it, among others, to the opening of a restaurant called Bibendum. By then Paul had become one of the richest and most successful publishers this country had ever known, and had married a girl from our school who had been in the class above me. More importantly, everything Paul did was done with great style, so I went to Bibendum, found it extraordinarily excellent, and have been going ever since.
It is well known in its Michelin Building in Fulham Road, London. Like many institutions that do well over a period of time, it has been slammed mercilessly by the Egon Ronay guide. Although still giving it a star (why it's even in the guide, given what's written about it, I don't know), the guide refers to the chef, Simon Hopkinson, "treading water" and talks about lack of inspiration, disappointment and weakness in relation to the food. Far be it from me not to join an attack, but I think they're nuts. I have never known such consistently excellent food in any restaurant anywhere. I went there for lunch last Saturday (amazing value at £25 for three courses excluding service) and if I couldn't find anything to complain about, you'd better believe things were going well.
There have been times, though not recently, when the service was dodgy in the extreme. I recall Michael Caine ordering grouse and getting pheasant. I remember a period when, consistently, at least one person on the table got a wrong order and another would get nothing at all. I recall going in years ago with Burt Lancaster and seeing the over-snooty staff do nothing to stop a member of the public come in and be a damned nuisance at the table.
However, the food, whatever you eventually got, was always first class. I think it shines even more today. It is not nouvelle cuisine, or any of the variants that so many would-be chic places dole out. I would describe it, meaning to be complimentary, as the very best of 1950s cooking. Those were the days when there were standards. My lunch started with a fantastic bacon and endive soup. The chef said I should have the veal, not usually my favourite, but this was delicious, sliced in a tasty sauce (or should I call it gravy?) and topped with pimento stuffed with celery, fennel, and chopped shallots, all reduced in white wine with herbs. Other veggies, including a first-rate puree of celery, came on the side. Sparkle had cod cooked with herbs and juices; she's very fussy, and she said it was the best ever.
I was allowed only a taste of figs poached in red wine with cinnamon and creme fraiche and a blackcurrant sorbet. I grabbed for the plates to finish the lot, but Sparkle removed them from the table. She insists on my diet. All this in comfortable chairs, well-spaced tables and one of the best rooms in London with a large blue-tiled window featuring a white Michelin-man riding a bicycle. Simon Hopkinson is quite simply a great cook. There are not many of them about.
My wife and I always enjoy our frequent visits to London, and particularly enjoy breakfasts in one of the many restaurants and coffee shops. However, a visit to Fenwick's new theme restaurant, Joe's, in New Bond Street, has ensured that our choice of venue will be more discerning in future. We could not have croissants as they were "sold out". This was at 11am. A request for Danish pastries, as an alternative, received a reply of "We have only one left." A plain scone was then ordered, but, after some considerable time, toasted fruit scones were delivered. I believe they were toasted to camouflage the fact that they were not fresh. Our complaints, as we promptly left, met with a very take-it-or-leave-it approach. The sad fact is that this floor once had an excellent restaurant which was professionally managed. A change for the worse by Fenwick.
J R Connor, Glasgow
In answer to Jennifer Robb (Restaurant Watch, November 28), I am sorry, but as a frequent traveller I am not surprised that critics find little to write about outside London. There are good restaurants in the provinces, but they are scarce and, because they are scarce, normally require booking several weeks in advance. They are also expensive (although I admit many London restaurants reviewed in the press are not cheap). I have been to Manchester several times; apart from a good Chinese meal, I have not been impressed. The places my friends take me to popular, crowded, obviously successful are fine for the provinces, but I would not return to them were they in London. I have also found that many diners outside the capital have a different perception of what good food and good value is; often a place has been recommended to me because it is inexpensive. Value cannot be judged by price alone.
Marcia MacLeod, London NW6
I read with interest your restaurant reviews, but I am afraid that in this part of southwest France, Craig Brown, Michael Winner et al would be superfluous. All restaurants give good value for money, and eating out costs only a fraction of the horrendous charges quoted in your articles. One local establishment offers five courses at lunch time, plus wine, for 50 francs (£6). At a smart restaurant, one would pay about double that for an evening meal of, perhaps, foie gras entier with a mixed salad, a cutlet of fresh salmon in a light fennel sauce, grilled duck breast with a mushroom sauce and vegetables, cheeses and a wide choice of home-made desserts. Of course, you would probably sit next to the local gendarme, or the plumber and his family, rather than a pop star or minor royal, because here the emphasis is on good food and wine.
Lawrie Ellis, Penne d'Agenais France


Make Your Teen's Fears and Worries the Problem, Not Your Teen. Fears and worries are bad enough for teens, but it's even tougher when teens are made to feel like they're the problem. Often anxious teens are teased by other teens and called "chicken" or "fraidy-cats." Teachers and family members may think of the teen as "lazy" or "oppositional." When you're tempted to view your teen's anxiety symptoms as "bad behavior," remember that the general view of anxiety disorders is that they reflect a biological (as well as psychological) vulnerability. Your teen is struggling to cope with this vulnerability and doing the best he or she can. Criticism or other forms of punishment make it harder for your teen to face fears and worries, so be patient while you and your teen's therapist implement the treatment strategies that will, in the long run, reduce anxiety symptoms.
Stop Giving Advice. Many teens already know that their fears are exaggerated or inappropriate. Reminding teens that their anxious behaviors are crazy and that they don't make sense generally makes teens feel worse. Similarly, telling the teen to "just stop it" when they're seeking reassurance or exhibiting other anxious behaviors doesn't work either. No one hates the fears and worries more than your teen and your teen would have faced the fears already if they could. You may notice that your teen may be very anxious and fearful one day but not the next. This may lead you to believe that your teen is manipulating you or that the anxiety symptoms are willful behavior. However, some days your teen may be less plagued by worry, less stressed, less fearful and better able to face his or her fears than other days. This is the nature of the vulnerability. Lecturing your teen or giving other well-intentioned advice doesn't help and tends to make things worse.
Learn All You Can About Anxiety Disorders. If your teen had asthma or diabetes you'd want to know as much about the illness and its treatment as possible. The same is true for anxiety disorders. Fortunately, there are many fine resources, including lay and professional books, websites, and organizations. Join the Anxiety Disorders Association of America or the International OC Foundation (if your teen has OCD). Speak to your therapist about any of these resources. Information is power!
Develop Your Own Plan to Take Care of Yourself. Caring for an anxious teen is challenging and stressful. Parents try their best to help calm a teen who is whining non-stop or throwing a tantrum but usually their efforts don't solve the problem. Repeated attempts that result in inconsistent results can leave parents feeling frustrated, helpless and hopeless. For these reasons, it's essential that you have a plan so that you know what to do and not do during one of your teen's anxious episodes. For example, some parents find it helpful to take turns helping the teen manage anxious episodes so that the fears and worries don't overburden one family member. Or, you might join a support group such as the many available through the IOC Foundation (if your teen has OCD). Your teen's therapist will help you with this. Also, don't put your life on hold because of your teen's fears and worries. Parents who are burned out, unhappy, because they don't take care of themselves aren't much help to their anxious teen.
In The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens, Michael Tompkins and Jonathan Barkin, specialists in teen anxiety and stress, have developed skills for teens to identify the things that tend to stress them out and make a plan to relax and reduce stress in their lives. The workbook offers teens proven-effective CBT interventions with over 40 simple age-appropriate evidence-based activities.


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Q: Python: Issues training and predicting regression on Keras I'm working on a simple time series regression problem using Keras, I want to predict the next closing price using the last 20 closing prices, I have the following code according to some examples I found:
I write my sequential model in a separated function, as needed by "build_fn" parameter:
def modelcreator():
   model = Sequential()
   model.add(Dense(500, input_shape = (20, ),activation='relu'))
   model.add(Dropout(0.25))
   model.add(Dense(250,activation='relu'))
   model.add(Dense(1,activation='linear'))

   model.compile(optimizer=optimizers.Adam(),
                 loss=losses.mean_squared_error)

   return model

I create the KerasRegressor Object passing the model creator function and the desired fit parameters:
estimator = KerasRegressor(build_fn=modelcreator,nb_epoch=100, batch_size=32)

I train the model trough the KerasRegressor Object with 592 samples:
self.estimator.fit(X_train, Y_train)

And the issues start to show up, although nb_epoch=100 my model only trains for 10 epochs:
Epoch 1/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 6.9555e-05
Epoch 2/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 1.2777e-05
Epoch 3/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 1.0596e-05
Epoch 4/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 8.8115e-06
Epoch 5/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 7.4438e-06
Epoch 6/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 8.4615e-06
Epoch 7/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 6.4859e-06
Epoch 8/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 6.9010e-06
Epoch 9/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 5.8951e-06
Epoch 10/10
592/592 [==============================] - 0s - loss: 7.2253e-06

When I try to get a prediction using a data sample:
prediction = self.estimator.predict(test)

The prediction value should be close to the 0.02-0.04 range but when I print it I get 0.000980315962806344
Q1: How can I set the training epochs to the desired value?
Q2: How can I generate predictions with my NN?

A: The first thing is that you are most likely using Keras 2.0, and in that version the parameter nb_epochs was renamed to epochs.
The second thing is that you have to normalize your inputs and outputs to the [0, 1] range. It won't work without normalization. Also to match the normalized output and the network range, it would be best to use a sigmoid activation at the output layer.

A: Your network is not converging. Try changing the parameters. The loss should reduce consistently. Also initialize the parameters properly.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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I am a model from Estonia and I am obsessed with my hometown. I was born and raised in Tallinn and I believe that every single district of my city has its own charming piece. My passions are dogs, long car rides and seaside walks. Thankfully, Tallinn isn't a big city, so we can walk through amazing places all together!
Tallinn is a city of contrasts. There are skyscrapers near the medieval part of the city. Tallinn is a developing city that is balancing between preserving the old sites and building new ones. With me, you can focus not only on spots located in the centre of Tallinn, but also the outskirts.


Is This a Weekly Group Meeting?
IOP is a 12-hour a week program that includes a plethora of targeted groups, including CBT/DBT symptom management, body image, creative arts therapy, weekly multi-family group (MFG) for support and training of all loved ones, mindfulness, nutritional education and more. Each day or evening also includes a supervised and supported meal with the community. IOP is limited to six (6) participants at a time for a more individualized approach.
IOP is an adjunct to outpatient therapy and can also serve as a "step-down" for adolescents and women who are transitioning from Day Treatment.
In this 9-week Mindful Eating group program, participants will learn new skills based on mindfulness meditation to develop a more peaceful relationship with food and their body. Designed as an alternative to dieting, this program is appropriate for men and women struggling with overeating including binge-eating disorder, compulsive overeating, emotional eating, chronic dieting and overeating, and bulimia. The group is not appropriate for people with restricting disorders.
Teenage girls will meet weekly to learn principles of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and other techniques for emotional well-being; and support one another in their recovery processes. The group will integrate skills training, therapeutic social support, discussion of individual and group issues, and reinforcement of progress. Typically, group members may struggle with anxiety, depression, self-injury, eating disorders, and social relationship/social skills issues.
When Does the group meet and for how long?
Monday or Wednesday evenings based on client availability, $75 per session or BCBS/Aetna/Fidelis insurance.
The men's group provides a safe and supportive space for men to examine their relationships with body, food, self, and society. The group focuses on body image concerns, emotional eating, relationship issues & sexuality, nutrition, healthy exercising, communication, and coping skills.


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How to Understand Stereo Speaker Parts
by HowStuffWorks.com Contributors
"Stereo" is a shortened version of the phrase "stereophonic sound system," which refers to sound recording equipment that uses at least two separate microphones and separate speakers in the production of recordings. The different sounds and instruments are recorded on separate tracks and separate speakers are utilized [source: Britannica].
Let us now define and explain each key component.
Spider The spider is a flexible ring that keeps the voice coil in place. It also secures the back of the speaker cone to the frame, all the while allowing the voice coil and cone to continue vibrating freely.
Diaphragm The diaphragm is the surface where the sound radiates from. If you have a woofer speaker, the diaphragm is the speaker cone. If you have a tweeter speaker, the diaphragm is dome shaped.
Voice coil The voice coil is a small coil of wire that creates a magnetic field. This magnetic field varies depending on the amplified sound being sent to the speaker. The voice coil works with various parts of the speaker, including the stationary magnet. In order to produce sound, the voice coil coverts the electrical signals into mechanical energy. Using a heat-resistant voice coil will extend the speaker's life.
Voice coil former This is some sort of heat-resistant material that the voice coil is wrapped around.
Stationary magnet This is a magnet that provides a stationary magnetic field, which helps the voice coil create sound.
Dust cap This is a cover on the center of the speaker's cone. It protects the cone by keeping dirt out [source: Crutchfield]. //]]]]> ]]>
How Surround Sound Works
How Speakers Work
How Virtual Surround Sound Works


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Amy Wilson is a former female Australian football midfielder. She was part of the Australia women's national soccer team at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She retired in 2014.
AUSTRALIA NATIONAL TEAM
Olympic Games "SYDNEY 2000"
Women's Tournament
Match Worn Shirt
Wilson Amy
Fifa World Cup "GERMANY 2006"
Australia vs Brazil
Bresciano Mark
Australia made up for lost time at the Fifa World Cup "Germany 2006" and qualified for the Round of 16 before narrowly falling to eventual champions Italy. Buoyed by his strong club season, Bresciano played in Australia's opening game of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, being substituted before the team went on to score three goals and defeat Japan. He came on as a substitute in the second game against Brazil and, in the third Group Stage game, was instrumental in the 79th-minute goal scored by Harry Kewell against Croatia. The goal resulted in a 2–2 draw, a result securing Australia's place in the second round. Against Italy, Bresciano was judged to be in a scoring position in the 50th minute when fouled by Marco Materazzi, the Italian receiving a red card. Italy went on to win after being awarded a penalty in the dying minutes of the game, eliminating the "Socceroos." After being identified as a key player for Australia, Bresciano's overall performance at the tournament failed to live up to expectations, described by an FFA writer as "solid without being spectacular," although his role as a set-piece-specialist was highlighted.


HUD has sided with a landlord who is fighting St. Paul, Minnesota's aggressive rental inspection regulations, claiming that the program is forcing out minority tenants.
According to a news report, the HUD-sanctioned lawsuit was filed last week in an effort to stay the forced eviction of a Burmese family living in a seven-bedroom rental that the city says is deficient.
The landlord claims that the city is pointing out only minor blemishes to the exterior of the building in determining that it is uninhabitable. He says that he's met with inspectors multiple times in an attempt to resolve the issues, and that other building experts have confirmed that the structure is sound and in line with state building codes.
Nevertheless, the city issued an eviction order forcing the family out under threat of criminal prosecution, according to the report. City officials say the rules are designed to deter landlords who neglect properties.
St. Paul's ordinance was the subject of a previous appellate case that nearly made it to the Supreme Court, but was settled along the way. That case was based on HUD's disparate impact rules, which provide grounds for a discrimination claim when the overall affect of a policy, such as a rental inspection program, create a greater burden on minorities than others.
According to the report, this landlord won a previous bid by the city to demolish the building. The landlord says the current inspection violations include some peeling wood and paint, caulking and grout issues, and soil grading.


Chris Beauchamp, Head of Market Analysis at IG Group Holdings plc (LON:IGG), and Josh Mahony, Market Analyst, give their outlook for global markets as we head into the second half of 2016 in a very interesting and uncertain post-Brexit market environment. More of IG's market research can be seen here.
The UK's decision to leave the EU has left the UK reeling and without direction economically. Ongoing negotiations will play a huge part in future prosperity, yet perception of the outcome is just as important for investors over the coming years.
Central banks to react to the new norm: the UK now has to adjust to a new norm, with the Bank of England (BoE) policy expected to be accommodative for the coming years. The market is now pricing in an 87% chance of a BoE rate cut by August as a result, with a European Central Bank (ECB) cut looking likely too. Irrespective of wider implications to the UK economy, this shift from monetary tightening to easing warrants further sterling weakness. Given the increase in volatility following the referendum, it is now unlikely the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will hike in 2016.
Aversion to risk will drive diversification: the continued volatility and low yields in traditional assets will provide a boost for alternative assets. Gold is likely to continue its upwards trajectory and we could see another 13% rise by the end of the year, whilst silver will follow suit. After the bubble burst in 2014, alternative currencies are growing in popularity and Bitcoin is the 'one to watch' for 2016. It has seen a 55% rise already in 2016, and the shift out of sterling could see Bitcoin hit $900 by December.
Dividends at risk as flight to yield continues: further anticipated easing from developed market central banks and lower yielding bonds is driving a flight to dividend stocks. However the outlook for dividends is volatile. Concerns over the level of dividend cover on balance sheets – particularly in the FTSE 250 – mean dividend cuts are likely.
Large caps set to shine: after years of outperformance by UK midcaps over large caps dating back to the early nineties, FTSE 250 companies now face significant headwinds following the referendum outcome. A continuation of the bear market is to be expected, but large caps are set to shine as investors look for security.
Currencies showing the economic reality: the FX markets are currently the best indicator of the economic reaction to Brexit; showing that Europe is unattractive at this stage. With the Bank of Japan likely to ease policy once more, the big beneficiary will be the US Dollar (USD). The greenback is likely to significantly strengthen further throughout 2016.


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President Jokowi Tells Public to Participate in COVID-19 Vaccination Program
President Jokowi engages in a dialogue with working capital assistance (BMK) recipients at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java Province, Friday (18/12). (Photo by: Presidential Secretariat Press Bureau/Lukas)
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has called on the public to participate in a mass COVID-19 vaccination program that will be implemented by the Government.
"All citizens can participate in the vaccination. I hope nobody will refuse to be vaccinated," the President said during the handover of Working Capital Assistance to micro and small businesses at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java Province, Friday (18/12).
The President also reminded the public that the COVID-19 vaccines will be available at no cost.
"The vaccination is carried out for everyone so that we can return to normal life. It has also nothing to do with membership in the Social Security Agency (BPJS) since there was a rumor that only BPJS members will be vaccinated," he said.
According to him, the Government is still waiting for the monitoring stage to be completed by the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM).
"If the BPOM has approved to carry out vaccine injection, then the vaccination will be right away conducted to the public," the President said.
The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and Ministry of Religious Affairs have also been involved in ensuring the halal status of vaccines.
"The vaccines' halal status should not be a concern. This is a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he stated.
Furthermore, the President asserted that he will be the first COVID-19 vaccine recipient.
"I will be the first to get vaccinated in Indonesia to show that the vaccines are safe," he added.
On that occasion, the President also reminded the public to remain disciplined in implementing health protocols to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
"I am appealing to all of you to be disciplined in wearing masks, keeping a safe distance, avoiding crowded places, and always washing your hands after doing activities. We must constantly remind our colleagues, our friends, our neighbors, our environment," he said. (FID/UN) (RIF/EP)


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text:
Mordy – stacja kolejowa w Mordach, w województwie mazowieckim, w Polsce.

Tutaj kończyła się elektryczna sieć trakcyjna na linii Siedlce – Siemianówka przed jej całkowitą deelektryfikacją (sieć trakcyjna na odcinku Mordy – Ujrzanów została zdemontowana w 2013 r.).

W roku 2017 stacja obsługiwała 0–9 pasażerów na dobę.

Połączenia
 Czeremcha
 Hajnówka
 Mińsk Mazowiecki
 Siedlce
 Warszawa Wschodnia

Przypisy

Linki zewnętrzne

Stacje i przystanki kolejowe w gminie Mordy
Obiekty budowlane w Mordach

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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BigLever Joins Major Automotive Company to Spotlight the Key Role of Product Line Engineering in the Automotive Industry at Method Park Event
by Cathy Martin | Apr 21, 2016 | Media Advisory
AUSTIN, Texas – April 21, 2016 – BigLever Software today announced that the company's founder and CEO, Dr. Charles Krueger, will be a featured presenter at the Method Park "Talk in the Park" event on April 26, 2016 in Rochester, Mich. Krueger and key executives from a major automotive manufacturer and Method Park will present and explore the latest advances in PLE that are driving automotive manufacturing to new levels of innovation.
"Automotive companies today are faced with the challenges of managing the diversity of complex product lines across the full product family lifecycle – from portfolio planning to engineering, product management, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and service," said Krueger. "PLE has emerged as a game-changing engineering paradigm for addressing these challenges. By taking an innovative feature-based approach to managing product variation across the lifecycle, major automotive manufacturers have achieved significant competitive advantage and dramatic results, including increased quality and efficiencies, while at the same time, reducing time to market."
PLE addresses engineering complexity by dramatically simplifying the creation, delivery, maintenance, and evolution of a product line portfolio. It uses a shared set of engineering assets, a managed set of features, and an efficient means for automating the production of a product line. At the event, Krueger and other presenters will discuss how PLE is delivering major gains in efficiency through the creation of a "single source of feature truth" for all software, electronic, mechanical, and operations artifacts across the lifecycle.
Other significant PLE capabilities to be discussed at the event include:
Bill of Features – allows companies to use a Bill of Features to determine materials (mechanical, electrical, wiring, software, calibrations, requirements, designs, test cases, documentation, etc.) rather than a Bill of Materials to determine features.
Multistage Configuration – enables product line managers and marketers to better comprehend, organize, and manage complex product family trees based on product line features.
Feature/Option Bundles – simplifies the complexity of feature choice "combinatorics" by defining feature option bundles, allowing product line managers to effectively analyze and manage those bundles.
Presenters will also address how leading-edge PLE capabilities will be leveraged in AUTOSAR (Automotive Open Systems Architecture) to support the establishment of a common platform across the whole automotive industry, including manufacturers, software suppliers, and tool developers.
Additionally, BigLever and Method Park will preview the companies' latest collaboration – a framework for using Method Park's Stages Process Management System to model, automate, and manage PLE processes. This will enable companies to improve cross-functional communication and alignment in PLE deployments.
BigLever Session
Presentation: "Mega-scale Product Line Engineering for the Automotive Industry"
Presenter: Dr. Charles Krueger
Date: Tues., April 26, 2016, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Place: Royal Park Hotel, Rochester, Mich.
Krueger is an acknowledged thought leader in the PLE field, with more than 25 years of experience in software engineering practice and more than 60 articles, columns, book chapters, conference keynotes and session presentations. Through active involvement in key industry events and organizations, he brings innovative PLE concepts, new generation methodologies and success stories to the forefront of the systems and software engineering community. Krueger has proven expertise in leading commercial product line development teams, and helping companies establish some of the industry's most notable PLE practices across a spectrum of industries, including automotive, aerospace and defense, aviation systems, alternative energy, e-commerce, and computer systems. He received his PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Method Park's "Talk in the Park" events are driven by the interests and needs of the community. These interactive events provide an opportunity to meet leaders in topics critical to the industry, learn from their experiences, engage and make connections, and contribute to the discussion.
About Method Park
Method Park has a long track record in operating a successful consulting practice for software used in safety-critical systems in the automobile and medical technology industries. The company develops its own software solutions, bringing considerable know-how in areas where the highest standards of quality and safety need to be met. Method Park uses this expertise to offer its customers diverse solutions from a single source to contribute to the success of all its customer companies. Method Park is the knowledgeable enterprise for consulting, coaching, training, engineering services and products related to software development processes. Founded in Erlangen, Germany in 2001, Method Park has approximately 125 employees at its locations in Erlangen, Munich, Stuttgart, and Detroit in the U.S.
BigLever CEO to Spotlight Feature-based Product Line Engineering Advances in A&D Industries at National Defense Industrial Association Conference
Paper Co-Authored by BigLever to Spotlight Feature-Based Product Line Engineering at INCOSE International Symposium
BigLever Introduces Body of Knowledge to Enable Rapid Adoption of Product Line Engineering Across the Enterprise
BigLever Exec to Present a Keynote Address at ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering
Book Chapter by BigLever Execs Presents Feature Ontology for Product Line Engineering
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Saint Dominic de Guzman: Favored by Our Lady With Her Most Holy Rosary
Saint Dominic de Guzman, O.P., was born in 1170, seventeen years after the death of the great Cistercian, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who was so devoted to the Mother of God. As Saint Bernard, a son of the elder daughter of the Church, France, fought heretics and schismatics in his own day, invoking the powerful intercession of Our Lady, so would Saint Dominic, a Spaniard from Caleruega in Castile, rely upon Our Lady's maternal intercession to crush the heretics of his own day, the Albigensians. In the case of Saint Dominic, however, Our Lady herself provided a special weapon to use as he combated the heresy of the latter-day Manicheans who were actually killing faithful Catholics in southern France. That special weapon was, of course, her Psalter, her Most Holy Rosary, consisting of one hundred fifty Hail Marys in honor of each of the Psalms composed by St. David.
Saint Dominic was ordained in the year 1194 or 1195 in Osma, not far from where he was born, and became a Canon Regular according to the Rule of Saint Augustine as was the desire of the Bishop of Osma at that time, Martin Bazan, so that priests would live a more austere life in community as they chanted the Divine Office. Father Dominic de Guzman would be called out of his life at the cathedral in Osma about eight years later to accompany the new Bishop of Osma, Diego de Acebo, on a diplomatic mission to Denmark in 1203. It was when crossing into southern France that he encountered the hateful Albigensians. Father Dominic de Guzman, then thirty-three years old, and his bishop became convinced that it was necessary to fight this heresy.
As they passed through the south of France, the frightful character and extent of the Albigensian heresy which then infected the whole of the southern provinces first came under their notice. Upon their arrival at Toulouse, where they meant to stop but one night. Dominic discovered that their host was a heretic. Although their time was short, he was unwilling to go away without doing something for the soul of the innkeeper. Being a man of action as well as prayer, he promptly engaged the man in argument and continued all night with his exposition of Catholic truth. Before their early departure in the morning, he had the joy of seeing in the innkeeper renounce his errors and pledge his belief in the truth. Dominic, moved by this conquest and by the sad knowledge that there were thousands of others who shared the innkeeper's ignorance, began to dream of some religious body to the defense of the Church and the exposition of truth. (Saint Dominic, Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P., originally published in 1959 by B. Herder Book Company, republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1982, p. 8.)
That one conversation changed the life of Father Dominic de Guzman. It also changed the life of the Church Militant on earth as a new community of priests, the Order of Preachers, was officially approved by Pope Honorius III on December 22, 1216, thus bringing to a formal, canonical birth the group of men and women that had formed around Saint Dominic de Guzman after he had spent over ten years in southern France, principally in Prouille, to combat the gnostic, neo-Manicheans who attracted a following to their heretical gnostic beliefs by means of their skillful use of arguments clouded in half-truths and obscurities.
To aid in his spiritual combat as he provided a shelter to women who fled from the Albigensian heresy, Saint Dominic received the Holy Rosary from Our Lady in the year 1214 in Prouille. Oh, sure, some rationalists and revisionists who want "proof" for everything do not believe that this took place. Catholics, however, know the truth of the matter, as Saint Louis de Montfort wrote in his The Secret of the Rosary:
Since the Holy Rosary is composed, principally and in substance, of the Prayer of Christ and the Angelic Salutation, that is, the Our Father and the Hail Mary, it was without doubt the first prayer and the first devotion of the faithful and has been in use all through the centuries from the time of the Apostles and disciples down to the present.
But it was only in the year 1214, however, that Holy Mother Church received the Rosary in its present form and according to the method we use today. It was given to the Church by Saint Dominic who had received it from the Blessed Virgin as a powerful means of converting the Albigensian's and other sinners.
I will tell you the story of how he received it, which is found in the very well-known book "De Dignitate Psalterii" by Blessed Alan de la Roche [1]. Saint Dominic, seeing that the gravity of people's sins was hindering the conversion of the Albingensians, withdrew into a forest near Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances in order to appease the anger of Almighty God. He used his discipline so much that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a coma.
At this point Our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three angels, and she said:
"Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?"
"Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic, "you know far better than I do because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation."
Then Our Lady replied:
"I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter."
So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal, for the conversion of the people in that district he made straight for the Cathedral. At once unseen angels rang the bells to gather the people together and Saint Dominic began to preach.
At the very beginning of his sermon an appalling storm broke, out, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that all were very much afraid. Even greater was their fear when looking at a picture of Our Lady exposed in a prominent place they saw her raise her arms to heaven three times to call down God's vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their lives, and seek the protection of the Holy Mother of God.
God wished, by means of these supernatural phenomena, to spread the new devotion of the Holy Rosary and to make it more widely known.
At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic, the storm came to an end, and he went on preaching. So fervently and compellingly did he explain the importance and value of the Holy Rosary that almost all the people of Toulouse embraced it and renounced their false beliefs. In a very short time a great improvement was seen in the town; people began leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits. [1]. De Dignitate Psalterii. The importance and Beauty of the Holy Rosary, by Blessed Alan de la Roche, O.P., French Dominican Father and Apostle of the Holy Rosary.
This miraculous way in which the devotion to the Holy Rosary was established is something of a parallel to the way in which Almighty God gave His law to the world on Mount Sinai and obviously proves its value and importance.
Inspired by the Holy Ghost, instructed by the Blessed Virgin as well by his own experience, Saint Dominic preached the Holy Rosary for the rest of his life. He preached it by his example as well as by his sermons, in cities in country places, to people of high station and low, before scholars and the uneducated, to Catholics and to heretics.
The Holy Rosary which he said every day was his preparation for every sermon and his little tryst with Our Lady immediately after preaching.
One Day he had to preach at Notre Dame in Paris, and it happened to be the feast of St. John the Evangelist. He was in a little chapel behind the high altar prayerfully preparing his sermon by saying the Rosary, as he always did, when Our Lady appeared to him and said:
"Dominic, even though what you have planned to say may be very good, I am brining you a much better sermon."
Saint Dominic took in his hands the book Our Lady proffered, read the sermon carefully and when he had understood it and meditated on it, he gave thanks to the Blessed Mother.
When the time came, he went up into the pulpit and, in spite of the feast day, made no mention of Saint John other than to say that he had been found worthy to be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven. The congregation was made up of theologians and other eminent people who were used to hearing unusual and polished discourses; but Saint Dominic told them that it was not his wish to give them a learned discourse, wise in the eyes of the world, but that he would speak in the simplicity of the Holy Spirit and with His forcefulness.
So he began preaching the Holy Rosary and explained the Hail Mary word by word as he would to a group of children and used the very simple illustrations which were in the book Our Lady had given to him.
Carthagena, the great scholar, quoting Blessed Alan de la Roche in "De Dignitate Psalterii," describes how this took place:
"Blessed Alan writes that one day Father Dominic said to him in a vision: 'My son, it is good to preach; but there is always a danger of looking for praise rather than the salvation of souls. Listen carefully to what happened to me in Paris so that you may be on guard against this kind of mistake: I was to preach in the great church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and I was particularly anxious to give a brilliant sermon, not out of pride, but because of the high intellectual stature of the congregation.
'An hour before the time I had to preach, I was recollectedly saying my Rosary - as I always did before giving a sermon - when I fell into ecstasy. I saw my beloved friend the Mother of God coming towards me with a book in her hand.
'"Dominic," she said, "'your sermon for today may be very good indeed, but no matter how good it is I have brought you one that is very much better."
'Of course I was overjoyed, took the book and read every word of it. Just as Our Lady had said, I found exactly the right things to say in my sermon, so I thanked her with all my heart.
'When it was time to begin, I saw that the University of Paris had turned out in full force as well as a large number of noblemen. They had all seen and heard of the great things that the good Lord had been doing through me. So I went up into the pulpit.
'It was the feast of Saint John the Apostle but all I said about him was that he had been found worthy to be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven. Then I addressed the congregation:
"'My Lords and illustrious Doctors of the University, you are accustomed to hearing learned sermons suited to your aesthetic tastes. Now I do not want to speak to you in the scholarly language of human wisdom but, on the contrary, to show you the Spirit of God and His Greatness.'"
Here ends the quotation from Blessed Alan, after which Carthagena goes on to say in his own words:
"Then Saint Dominic explained the Angelic Salutation to them, using simple comparisons and examples from everyday life."
Blessed Alan, according to Carthagena, mentioned several other times when Our Lord and Our Lady appeared to Saint Dominic to urge and inspire him to preach the Rosary more and more in order to wipe out sin and to convert sinners and heretics.
In another passage Cathagena says:
"Blessed Alan said Our Lady revealed to him that after she had appeared to Saint Dominic, her Blessed Son appeared to him and said:
'Dominic, I rejoice to see that you are not relying upon your own wisdom and that, rather than seek the empty praise of men, you are working with great humility for the salvation of souls.
'But many priests want to preach thunderously against the worst kinds of sin at the very outset, failing to realize that before a sick person is given bitter medicine he needs to be prepared by being put in the right frame of mind to really benefit by it.
'This is why, before doing anything else, priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people's hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God, in His mercy, could hardly refuse to give them His grace. So I want you to preach my Rosary.'
In another place Blessed Alan says:
"All priests say a Hail Mary with the faithful before preaching, to ask for God's grace. They do this because of a revelation that Saint Dominic had from Our Lady. 'My son,' she said one day 'do not be surprised that your sermons fail to bear the results you had hoped for. You are trying to cultivate a piece of ground which has not had any rain. Now when Almighty God planned to renew the face of the earth He started by sending down rain from heaven - and this was the Angelic Salutation. In this way God made over the world.
'So when you give a sermon, urge people to say my Rosary, and in this way your words will bear much fruit for souls.'
"Saint Dominic lost no time in obeying, and from then on he exerted great influence by his sermons."
This last quotation is from the "Book of Miracles of the Holy Rosary" (written in Italian) and it is also to be found in Justin's works (143d Sermon).
I have been very glad to quote these well-known authors word for word in the original Latin [2] for benefit of any priests or other learned people who might otherwise have doubts as to the marvelous power of the Holy Rosary.
As long as priests followed Saint Dominic's example and preached devotion to the Holy Rosary, piety and fervor thrived throughout the Christian world and in those religious orders which were devoted to the Rosary. But since people have neglected this gift from heaven, all kinds of sin and disorder have spread far and wide. (Saint Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary.)
Yes, it is no wonder that "all kinds of sin and disorder have spread far and wide" in our day, especially since the false "pontiff" has refused on most occasions, other than a few isolated instances here and there, to exhort the large numbers of people who turn out for his "papal" extravaganza "Masses" to pray Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary, whose perfect number of one hundred fifty Hail Marys was, of course, altered by the insidious master of novelty and sacrilege and blasphemy named Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II, who claimed to be devoted to the Rosary! Saint Dominic made no compromises with error or blasphemy. He dared not "improve" Our Lady's Psalter.
Indeed, it was with the weapon of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary that Saint Dominic, who began gathering his little group of followers at around the exact same time that the great Saint of Assisi, Giovanni di Bernadone, Pietro di Bernadone's little "Francesco" (Francis), was gathering his little group of followers to shore up the Church Militant on earth at a time of the spread of heresy and the prevalence of clerical corruption. Saint Dominic's use of the Rosary and of sound preaching combined with Saint Francis's embrace of evangelical poverty and severe bodily mortifications to make it possible for the Thirteenth Century, at whose beginning they founded their religious communities and during which they died before the century was even a quarter spent, to be the apex of Christendom despite the troubles caused in each era by the ravages of fallen human nature.
Sister Mary Jean Dorcy related the founding of the Order of Preachers in Saint Dominic:
In the autumn of the same year [1215], Foulques of Toulouse set out for Rome to attend the approaching Council of the Lateran. Eleven years had passed since Dominic's first visit in company with the Bishop of Osma; they had been years of hard and solitary labor, and the work which he had visualized then was only now developing. Surely he was a man of tremendous faith or he might well have been discouraged as, coming for the second time within sight of the Eternal City, he remembered the years of his life that lay behind him, so full of patient work and seemingly blessed with so little fruit. It took more than mere human enthusiasm to visualize the task of reforming the world, when the only materials he had yet gathered for the struggle were the six companions of Toulouse. Innocent III still sat in the papal chair, and the Council of the Lateran formed almost a closing scene of a pontificate which must be held as one of the greatest even given to the Church. On the eleventh of November, 1215, nearly five hundred bishops and eight hundred abbots and friars, plus the representatives of all the royal houses of Europe, met in that ancient church to discuss the problems of the world. Few Councils, excepting that of Trent, have higher claims on our veneration, for in it were defined some of the greatest articles of Catholic faith. The Albigenses, like so many other heretics, were the involuntary means of drawing forth an explicit declaration of the Church's doctrine and discipline and defining regulations of reform and Christian observance. The energy displayed by this Council and the nature of the decrees are sufficient evidence of the state in which the world and the Church were then found. There was everywhere a decay and a falling off. Old institutions were weakening, while indications were everywhere of an extraordinary activity and restlessness of mind. Europe had taken centuries to shake off the barbarian invasions, and during the thirteenth century the new growth was beginning. It was one of those junctures in world history when God raises up great men to shape the world anew. Among those who built a new world at that time were the founders of the friars.
As yet the Church possessed only ancient forms of monasticism, with some institutes of later foundation which had a purely local influence, plus the military orders which were limited both in place and time. The Friars Minor were in fact several years older than the Preachers in their foundation, but they had not yet been formally established as a religious order; in fact it was a long time before even St. Francis himself would consider his followers as any more than a humble band of wandering poor folk dedicated to Lady Poverty. Dominic's ideal included a much wider field than any founder before or since has visualized. Practically speaking, he designed his Order for preaching and teaching throughout the whole world. To preach and teach presupposed that one was, first of all, a skilled theologian--hence the Order was clerical; secondly, that one would reach the thinkers among the heretics and deal with them in their own coin, which was at the time public disputation; and that the foes of truth should be fought wherever and whenever they were to be found. The motto Veritas is a good expression of the scope of Dominic's apostolate, for truth is universal and has no limits of time and place. With the Order bearing that motto, he could attack the enemy in places and situations that no man of the thirteenth century could visualize. (Saint Dominic, Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P., originally published in 1959 by B. Herder Book Company, republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1982, pp. 39-40.)
The rapid spread of the Order of Preachers--and their dispersal throughout Europe--was a fruit of Saint Dominic's deep devotion to Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary. Although he would base himself in the order's headquarters in Rome during most of the years following Pope Honorius III's final approval of the his new community, Saint Dominic returned on foot to Toulouse, France, in 1217 to send his friars off on their preaching missions throughout Europe:
During this time also Dominic made a friend who was to be intensely loyal to him and to his Order and to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude. This was Cardinal Ugolino (Hugh) Conti, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and afterwards Pope Gregory IX. He was a man of advanced age, but he understood and dearly loved Dominic and Francis, whose whole ideal was one of youth and progress. He counted his friendship with these two men as the greatest privilege of his life, and never lost an opportunity to help the two founders. A friend of Cardinal Hugh gives us the charming picture of St. Dominic, whom he met at the Cardinal's home. He tells us: "At that time Brother Dominic, the founder and first master of the Order of Preachers, was at the Roman Court and often visited my Lord of Ostia. . . . Many a time did we speak together of the eternal salvation of our own souls and those of all men. I never spoke to a man of equal perfection, or one so taken up with the salvation of mankind, although indeed I have talked to very many holy religious." This man and several others of note became interested in following Dominic, and some did so.
Not until May, 1217, was Dominic allowed to return to Toulouse. His return was very welcome to his children; yet their joy was sobered when, almost immediately on his arrival, he gathered them together and told them he was going to scatter them to begin their missions in the many countries where they were needed. Nearly everyone advised him against it. In other situations he had quietly accepted the judgment of others; in this he was firm. "Do not oppose me," he said, "for I know very well what I am doing." The seed will moulder if it is hoarded up; it will fructify if it is sown." His followers, whatever were their feelings on the subject, had too profound a veneration for his person and character to oppose him, and soon yielded the point. In the preparations that he made for the dispersion of his children he showed his anxiety for the observance and spirit of their rule. The convent of Toulouse he designated to be the model which was to be followed in all later foundations. Since he thought it well that the brethren should meet from time to time for mutual counsel and encouragement, he had two large rooms added to the convent, one for their meetings and one for their habits. Until now they had no rooms but their cells and refectory. He exhorted them to observe the spirit of poverty, and forbade all elegances and curiosities, even in the chapel. The cells of the brethren were models of poverty; a little cane bedstead and a miserable bench were the only furniture allowed, and the cells had no doors, being open like the wards of the hospitals at that time.
The Feast of the Assumption of 1217 was chosen by Dominic as the day for launching his new apostolate; it is significant that he chose a feast of our Lady for such an important event. He called the brethren to the little church of Our Lady of Prouille so that for one time--in many ways the first and the last time--all the various elements of his apostolate might be together under one roof. He had decided upon the missions, and his choice is indicative of the long road he had marked for his sons. Prouille and Toulouse, the cradle of the venture, came first; then the great university centers of Paris and Bologna; Rome, the center of Christendom; and Spain, his homeland. He himself was letting his beard grow so that he might go to Tartary when things were settled, if he could get permission to do so.
On the appointed day not only the brethren and the nuns were present, but great numbers of people from Toulouse and Prouille who had heard rumours of the dispersal. One of the spectators was Simon de Montfort [a leader of the Albingensians]. If legends are correct (as they sometimes are) there must also have been members of the "Militia of Jesus Christ" among the layfolk who crowded into the church to observe the ceremonies of departure. There were also a number of Cistercians present.
It was Dominic himself who sang at the Mass, and at the end of the Mass preached a sermon which, almost unique among his sermons, was a model of severity in tone. Generally his words were gentle and encouraging, his theme the Gospel and its every lovely message. But the people of Languedoc had finally exhausted the patience of this great man and saint. He was not the first preacher to have trouble reaching the better nature of the easy-going Southerners; Bernard before him had scolded and exhorted, and even cursed one of the cities which had proved adamant to his teaching. Even gentle Bishop Diego had observed wryly that "it is at least clear that the people of Verfeil have no common sense." Now, after more than ten years among then, Dominic was forced to realize that though his Order had begun here, it must look elsewhere for an apostolate. He prophesied to the started congregation that great misfortunes would come upon them. It was a sad farewell, and could not have made the parting easier.
After the address to the people, Dominic turned to the brethren. He reminded them of the purpose of their foundation and exhorted them to confidence in God and to unflinching courage in the cause of truth. After the sermon, according to some accounts, the brethren made their vows into his hands. Then the nuns of Prouille likewise made their vows, promising also by vow of enclosure to remain at the Prouille cloister. Then the Saint scattered the seeds that were to yield so great a harvest in the years to come, and the people listened weeping while he told the brethren where they were to go. (Saint Dominic, Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P., originally published in 1959 by B. Herder Book Company, republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1982, pp. 52-55.)
Saint Dominic returned to Rome, walking from southern France to Italy on foot once again, and became famous there for his preaching and his prodigies, including raising the nephew of Cardinal Orsini from the dead. It was an account on that report that Bishop Ivo Odrowatz of Krakow, Poland, told his two nephews, Hyacinth and Ceslaus, whom he had recently ordained to the priesthood, that they should take the time to meet with Father Dominic (known as "Brother" Dominic) before they returned to the northland:
A soft glow stole into Hyacinth's eyes. "Maybe we should also pray for another favor," he suggested. "What do you think, Uncle Ivo? Could you use some of Father Dominic's friars in Cracow?
Such was Father Hyacinth Konski's zeal for souls that he desired to help his brother Poles to have the best priests possible to teach them the Faith from which they had, for the most part, fallen away over the course of time. Father Dominic de Guzman had no priests to send to Poland. He did, however, suggest that Hyacinth and Ceslaus, ordained priests, join his own novitiate and then return to their homeland to preach to their own people. Bishop Ivo Odrowatz was a little amazed at the suggestion:
Now Ivo Odrowatz, who had come to Rome for one purpose only: to be confirmed in his new post as Bishop of Cracow, was somewhat stunned at the sudden turn of events. Could it be that these nephews whom he had trained and encouraged for years in God's service were being rather too hasty in their decision to follow the Spanish friar?
"Ceslaus has degrees in theology and law from the University of Bologna," he said slowly. "He's been a priest at the Cathedral in Cracow for about five years. . ."
"And this younger brother? What of him?"
The bishop gazed fondly at Hyacinth. "He, too, has a good education, Father Dominic. First at the University of Prague, then at Bologna. Like Ceslaus, he is now a canon of the Cathedral in Cracow. But do you really think. . .?"
Dominic smiled--undestandingly, affectionately. "Do I really think that men who are already priests can take to living as simple friars without a struggle? Oh, Your Lordship, have no fear! You have asked for workers, for apostles in the North. Soon you will have them. And not only in Hyacinth and Ceslaus. There are others in your retinue whom God intends for His service."
The Bishop stared, "Others, Father Dominic?"
"Yes, I see one now--standing by the window. And a second at the door. Come here, my sons. Tell me if it is not true that God has suddenly touched your heats with His grace--that now you are both convinced you must give yourselves to Him completely.
All eyes turned to where Dominic pointed, and the Bishop gasped. Advancing toward the Spanish friar were two of his lay attendants--Herman, who hailed from Germany, and a young Czech named Henry. They were good souls, honest and hard-working, but never had the Bishop suspected that they might be interested in the religious life. Indeed, until this very moment they had seemed quite content to spend their days as servants in the episcopal household.
Dominic was smiling. "Well, Herman? Well, Henry? What do you ask?"
With one accord the two fell upon their knees. Yes, they also wanted to be clothed in the habit of the Friars Preachers."
Miss Windeatt went on to describe Bishop Ivo Odrowatz's continued amazement at all of this:
"Bishop Ivo watched the little scene with a fast-beating heart. What an amazing day this was! He had come to beg for missionaries from Father Dominic de Guzman. Instead, the holy man had claimed both nephews and servants for his preaching Order. Yet even as he thought on this, reassuring words echoed in Ivo's ears:
"Why not give me some of these young men who have accompanied you here to Rome? In just a little while I would return them to you as true apostles."
Apostles! Apostles for Poland. God willing, the holy friar was right, thought the Bishop. Ceslaus and Hyacinth, even Herman and Henry, would do great things in the cause of Christ!"
Apostles, indeed! The novitiate having been completed, the friars set out for their 750 mile journey to Cracow, unaware that God would separate them on different paths to evangelize different peoples as they walked. Father Dominic accompanied them part of the way, resisting the temptation to proceed onto Poland himself, aware that he was going to die a little over a year from then, on August 6, 1221. Father Dominic did get Father Hyacinth to relate the history of Poland to him while they were walking, learning that the Poles fought a lot and were in need of being taught the Faith well.
"There have been feuds and battles without number in such cases," said Hyacinth sadly. "Brother kills brother and seizes his lands, so that he may be more powerful. Soon he meets a man who has done just the same thing. They fight each other, taxing the people to provide for their armies. Then thousands upon thousands of young men are killed. Many sins are committed, homes are destroyed, and there is no time to think about God, to provide training and education for the poor. Oh, my friends! Don't you see why apostles must hurry to the North? The nobles there must be taught to see Christ in other human beings! The peasants, fighting and dying in a foolish cause, must be taught the same!
Dominic's eyes shone. What an immense field for good lay in northern Europe! And how fine if he could go there with these zealous young disciples! It would be as fruitful a trip as the one he had longed to make to Asia in his early manhood. But even as he thought on this, a shadow crossed his face. Sixteen years ago, by express command of Pope Innocent the Third, Asia, had been denied him as a missionary field. He had been forced to set aside the glorious thought of dying as a martyr at the hands of the barbarian Tartars living there and to concentrated instead on rooting out the Albigensian heresy in southern France. Now, it would seem that, with the same spirit of abandonment to God's Will, he must set aside the thought of going to Poland. What strength he had should be spent in training others to be missionaries, not wasted in foolish day-dreams.
"By my spirit will go forth with Hyacinth and his friends," he thought. "God will grant this one favor at least. And He will also grant another. Someday Poland will be one of the truly Christian countries of the whole world. Many saints and martyrs will rise up there to love and bless the Holy Name of God. I know it! "(Mary Fabyan Windeatt, Saint Hyacinth: Apostle of the Northland.)
The two brothers, Fathers Hyacinth and Ceslaus, were raised to altars of Holy Mother Church themselves along with their holy founder, Saint Dominic. Saint Hyacinth spent himself tirelessly in behalf of souls in Central and Eastern Europe. His own feast day is commemorated this year on the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 17.
The Dominican Rite calendar, which we were privileged to observe during our time at Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel in Monroe, Connecticut, is full of marvelous exemplars of the spirit of Saint Dominic de Guzman. Indeed, Saint Dominic's religious family would give birth in the Thirteenth Century not only to Saints Hyacinth and Ceslaus but to Saint Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great) and his student, the Angelic Doctor himself, Saint Thomas Aquinas, whose Scholasticism is so, so despised by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and his successor as the head of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis.
The Fourteenth Century gave us Saint Catherine of Siena, a Third Order Dominican, and the beginnings of the work of Saint Vincent Ferrer, who died in 1419, who sought the unconditional conversion of Jews and Mohammedans in the Iberian Peninsula and in the same districts of southern France where Saint Dominic had been given the Rosary by Our Lady as he worked to combat the heresies of the Albingensians. And the Americas were blessed with Saint Rose of Lima, first native born saint of the Americas, and Blessed Martin de Porres, both of whose lives straddled the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Oh, yes, the sons and daughters of Saint Dominic spread far and wide into the far quarters of the world.
Each of the Dominican saints has held Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary high as they fought battles for the sanctification and salvation of their own souls and as they sought to do battle all of the various wiles of the devil in the world (heresies, scandals, tepidity, worldliness, etc.). Pope Saint Pius V, a member of the Order of Preachers, commanded that this Heavenly weapon that was given to Saint Dominic be prayed for the success of the combined Christian fleets in the Battle of Lepanto against the Turkish Mohammedans in 1571. And it was the weapon used by King John Sobieski of Poland to defeat the Turks yet again one hundred twelve years later in the Battle at the Gates of Vienna. Our Lady herself has pleaded with us to pray her Most Holy Rosary in reparation for our sins and those of the whole world, doing so especially as she appeared to Jacinta and Francisco Marto and their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917. Can we dare ignore the Heavenly weapon that was given by Our Lady to Saint Dominic de Guzman to serve as the means to fight heresy and to convert souls unconditionally to the true Church that her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope.
Consider these reflections contained in Saint Louis de Montfort's The Secret of the Rosary:
Our Lady one day revealed to Blessed Alan de la Roche that, after the holy sacrifice of the Mass, which is the first and most living memorial of our Lord's passion, there was indeed no more excellent devotion or one of greater merit than that of the Rosary, which is like a second memorial and representation of the life and passion of Jesus Christ.
Fr. Dorland relates that in 1481 our Lady appeared to the Venerable Dominic, a Carthusian devoted to the holy Rosary, who lived at Treves, and said to him:
"Whenever one of the faithful, in a state of grace, says the Rosary while meditating on the mysteries of the life and passion of Christ, he obtains full and entire remission of all his sins."
She also said to Blessed Alan, "I want you to know that, although there are numerous indulgences already attached to the recitation of my Rosary, I shall add many more to every five decades for those, who free from serious sin, say them with devotion, on their knees. And whosoever shall persevere in the devotion of the holy Rosary, with its prayers and meditations, shall be rewarded for it; I shall obtain for him full remission of the penalty and the guilt of all his sins at the end of his life.
"And let this not seem incredible to you; it is easy for me because I am the Mother of the King of heaven, and he calls me full of grace. And being filled with grace, I am able to dispense it freely to my dear children."
St. Dominic was so convinced of the efficacy of the Rosary and its great value, that when he heard confessions, he hardly ever gave any other penance, as we have seen in the story I told you of the lady in Rome to whom he gave only a single Rosary.
St. Dominic was a great saint and other confessors also ought to walk in his footsteps by asking their penitents to say the Rosary with meditation on the sacred mysteries, rather than giving them other penances which are less meritorious and less pleasing to God, less likely to help them avoid sin. Moreover, while saying the Rosary, people gain numerous indulgences which are not attached to many other devotions.
As Abbot Blosius says, "The Rosary, with meditation on the life and passion of Christ, is certainly most pleasing to our Lord and his blessed Mother and is a very successful means of obtaining all graces; we can say it for ourselves as well as for those who have been recommended to our prayers and for the whole Church. Let us turn, then, to the holy Rosary in all our needs, and we shall infallibly obtain the graces we ask for from God to attain our salvation.
There is nothing more divine, according to the mind of St. Denis, nothing more noble or agreeable to God than to cooperate in the work of saving souls and to frustrate the devil's plans for ruining them. The Son of God came down to earth for no other reason than to save us. He upset Satan's empire by founding the Church, but the devil rallied his strength and wreaked cruel violence on souls by the Albingensians heresy, by the hatred, dissensions and abominable vices which he spread throughout the world in the eleventh century.
Only severe remedies could possible cure such terrible disorders and repel Satan's forces. The Blessed Virgin, protectress of the Church, has given us a most powerful means for appeasing her Son's anger, uprooting heresy and reforming Christian morals, in the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, as events have shown. It has brought back charity and the frequent reception of the sacraments as in the first golden centuries of the Church, and it has reformed Christian morals.
Pope Leo X said in his bull that this Confraternity had been founded in honor of God and of the Blessed Virgin as a wall to hold back the evils that were going to break upon the Church.
Gregory XIII said that the Rosary was inspired by God that heaven might be more easily opened to us through the favors or our Lady.
Paul III and Blessed Pius V declared that the Rosary was given to the faithful in order that they might have spiritual peace and consolation more easily. Surely everyone will want to join a confraternity which was founded for such noble purposes.
Father Dominic, a Carthusian, who was deeply devoted to the holy Rosary, had a vision in which he saw heaven open and the whole heavenly court assembled in magnificent array. He heard them sing the Rosary in an enchanting melody, and each decade was in honor of a mystery of the life, passion, or glory of Jesus Chris and his holy Mother. Fr. Dominic noticed that whenever they pronounced the holy name of Mary they bowed their head, and at the name of Jesus they genuflected and gave thanks to God for the great good that he had wrought in heaven and on earth through the holy Rosary. He also saw how our Lady and the Saints present to God the Rosaries which the Confraternity members say here on earth. He noticed too that they were praying for those who practice this devotion. He also saw beautiful crowns without number, which were made of sweet-smelling flowers, for those who say the Rosary devoutly. He learned that by every Rosary that they say they make a crown for themselves which they will be able to wear in heaven.
This holy Carthusian's vision is very much like that the Beloved Disciple had, in which he saw a great multitude of angels and saints, who continually praised and blessed Jesus Christ for all that he had done and suffered on earth for our salvation. And is not this what the devout members of the Rosary Confraternity do?
It must not be imagined that the Rosary is only for women, and for simple and unlearned people; it is also for men and for the greatest of men.
As soon as St. Dominic acquainted Pope Innocent III with the fact that he had received a command from heaven to establish the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, the Holy Father gave it his full approval, urged St. Dominic to preach it, and said that he wished to become a member himself. Even Cardinals embraced the devotion with great fervor, which prompted Lopez to say, "Neither sex nor age nor any other condition has kept anyone from devotion to the Rosary."
Members of the Confraternity have come from all walks of life: dukes, princes, kings, as well as prelates, cardinals, and Sovereign Pontiffs. It would take too long to list them in this little book. If you join this Confraternity, dear reader, you will share in their devotion and their graces on earth and their glory in heaven. "Since you are united to them in their devotion, you will share in their dignity."
Whether we are Dominicans by profession or not, each us is called to live as Saint Dominic did by using Our Lady's Psalter, her Most Holy Rosary, to sanctify our own souls as we seek to do reparation for our sins and those of the whole world--and as we seek to fight the pernicious heresies and sacrileges and blasphemies of conciliarism in our own day that have tampered with that Holy Rosary as with Holy Mass itself. (Saint Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary.)
The Divine Office for Matins on this great feast day speaks of how Saint Dominic's mother had a dream about him while she was carrying him in her womb:
Dominic was a Spaniard, a son of the noble family of Guzman. He was born at Calaruega, in Old Castile, in the year of our Lord 1170, and was sent to be taught worldly and sacred learning at Palencia. He attained great success in his studies, and became, first, a Regular Canon of the Cathedral Church of Osma, and afterwards Founder of the Order of Friars Preachers. While his mother was great with child, she dreamt that what was in her womb was a little whelp dog with a lighted torch in his mouth, and that when she was delivered of him, he set all the world on fire. By this dream was figured that burning and shining light of holiness of life and power of doctrine, whereby he should enkindle godliness throughout whole nations. The end proved the truth of the image, for this is in good sooth what his work was, a work which he hath continued to do through the Brethren of his Order. (The Divine Office, Matins, Feast of Saint Dominic.)
Saint Dominic still enkindless godliness in the souls of those who are faithful to the weapon that Our Lady gave him to fight the Albigensian heresy, her Most Holy Rosary, which she told Lucia dos Santos and Jacinta and Francisco Marto that she wants the children of Holy Mother Church to pray without fail to console the good God, to make reparation for their sins and those of the world world, and to save sinners from the fires of Hell. Saint Dominic is indeed quite a contrast to the man who embraces heresy and reaffirms hardened sinners in their lives of perdition, Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
May we make Dom Prosper Gueranger's prayer to Saint Dominic de Guzman our own this day and every day:
How many sons and daughters surround thee on the sacred cycle! This very month, Rose of Lima and Hyacinth keep thee company, and thy coming has long since been heralded in the liturgy by Raymond of Pennafort, Thomas Aquinas, Vincent Ferrer, Peter the Martyr, Catherine of Siena, Pius V and Antoninus. And now at length appears in the firmament the new star whose brightness dispels ignorance, confounds heresy, increases the faith of believers. O Dominic, thy blessed mother, who preceded thee to heaven, now penetrates in all its fulness the happy meaning of that mysterious vision which once excited her fears. And the other Dominic, the glory of ancient Silos, at whose tomb she received the promise of they blessed birth, rejoices at the tenfold splendour given by thee for all eternity to the beautiful name he bequeathed thee. But what special welcome dost thou receive from the Mother of all grace, who heretofore, embracing the feet of her angered Son, stood surety that thou wouldst back the world to is Saviour! A few years passed away; and error, put to confusion, felt that a deadly struggle was engaged between itself and they family; the Lateran Church saw its walls, which were threatening to fall, strengthened for a time; and the two princes of the apostles, who had bidden thee to and preach, rejoice that the word has gone forth once more into the whole world.
Stricken with barrenness, the nations, which the Apocalypse likens to great waters, seemed to have become once for all corrupt; the prostitute of Babylon was setting up her throne before the time; when, in imitation of Eliseus, putting the salt of Wisdom into the new vessel of the order founded by thee, thou didst cast this divine salt into the unhealthy waters, neutralize the poison of the best so soon risen up again, and, in spite of the snares which will never cease, didst render the earth habitable once more. How clearly thy example shows us that they alone are powerful before God and over the people, who give themselves up to Him without seeking anything else, and only give to others out of their own fulness. Despising, as thine historians tell us, every opportunity and every science where eternal Wisdom was not to be seen, thy youth was charmed with her alone; and she, who prevents those that seek her, inundated thee from thy earliest years with the light and the anticipated sweetness of heaven. It is from her that overflowed upon thee that radiant serenity, which so struck thy contemporaries, and which no occurrence could ever alter. In heavenly peace thou didst drink long draughts from the ever-flowing fountain springing up into eternal life; but while thine inmost soul was thus shaking the thirst of of its love, the divine source produced a marvellous fecundity; and its streams becoming thine, thy fountains were conveyed abroad in the streets, thou didst divide thy waters. Thou hadst welcomed Wisdom, and she exalted thee; not content to adorn thy brow with the rays of the mysterious star, she ave thee also the glory of patriarchs, and multiplied thy years and thy works in those of thy sons. In them thou has not ceased to be one of the strongest stays of the Church. Science has made thy name wonderful among the nations, and because of it their youth is honoured by the ancients; may it ever be for them, as it was for their elders, both the fruit of Wisdom and the way that leads to her; may it be fostered by prayer; for thy holy order so well keeps up the beautiful traditions of prayer as to approach the nearest, in that respect, to the ancient monastic orders. To praise, to bless, and to preach will be to the end its loved motto; for its apostolate must be, according to the words of the Psalm, the overflowing of the abundance of sweetness tasted in communication with God. Thus strengthened in Sion, thus blessed in its glorious role of propagator and guardian of the truth, thy noble family will ever deserve to hear, from the mouth of our Lady, herself, that encouragement above all praise: "Fortiter, fortiter, viri fortes!--Courage, courage, ye men of courage! (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year.)
Saint Dominic de Guzman, pray for us.
Saint Dominic of Silos, pray for us.
Saint Hyacinth, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Ceslaus, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Albert the Great, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Raymond of Pennafort, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Catherine of Siena, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Antoninus, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Peter Martyr, O.P., pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius V, O.P., pray for us.
Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.
Blessed Martin de Porres, O.P., pray for us.
Blessed Jacobus de Voragine, O.P., pray for us.
Blessed Jane de Aza, pray for us.
Blessed Alan de la Roche, O.P., pray for us.
Blessed Reginald, O.P., pray for us.
Blessed Henry Suso, O.P., pray for us.
All ye Saints and Blesseds of the Order of Preachers, pray for us.


Lorna Collins was raised in Alhambra, CA where she earned honors in English. Between 1998 and 2001, she worked in Japan on the Universal Studios theme park with her husband, Larry. Their memoir of that experience, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park was published in 2005 and was a finalist for the 2006 nonfiction EPPIE award. Today she and Larry reside in Dana Point, CA.
Lorna co-authored the Aspen Grove sweet romance anthologies: Snowflake Secrets, Seasons of Love, Directions of Love (winner of the 2011 EPIC eBook Award for anthology), An Aspen Grove Christms, The Art of Love, and ...And a Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe. The first four were co-written with the same group of authors: Sherry Derr-Wille, Luanna Rugh, and Christie Shary. Cheryl Gardarian made her debut in An Aspen Grove Christmas..She joined Lorna, Sherry, and Luanna for The Art of Love and ...And A Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe.
In addition, Lorna and Larry have written two cozy mysteries: Murder… They Wrote and Murder in Paradise. They are working on two sequels.
Their latest collaboration is The Memory Keeper, a historical novel set in San Juan Capsistrano, California in the 1800s.
Lorna's first solo work, Ghost Writer, is a fantasy, romance, mystery, set in Southern California. She's working on another fantasy novel.
Several of her works have won and finaled in various contests.