Damien of Molokai

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http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2817

Hello Friends,
Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Damien the Leper. He was born Jozef ("Jef") De Veuster in Belgium, and was later ordained priest in Honolulu, Oahu for missionary work there. He volunteered to aid the leper colony on Molokai, immediately building the church of St. Philomena. He also built homes for the lepers, dug graves for those who had died, and nursed the sick tending to their ulcerous wounds. His presence was a turning point in the lives of the demoralized colonists.
In the course of his sixteen years of labor Damien too contracted Hansen's disease (leprosy), dying a "martyr of charity" among his parishioners.  Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday October 11, 2009. 
You can find his full story, along with photos, at the above link. You will also find his life story and photos on Wikipedia. 
For those who wish to help people who continue to suffer from Hansen's Disease, the following link offers opportunities.  
http://www.damientheleper.org/

Commentary

The Bogaardts are a far flung family. Isn’t the internet wonderful. We are finding more and more Bogaardts. A thank you to all who are following our Jack of All Writer’s blog. We will search for additional photos.

From Gerard:

One of the Bogaardt's, Dolly Gerarda Bogaardt, was my father's first wife. He married first in Soerabaja on 6th February 1929 (divorced Batavia Indonesia on 17th September 1929) to Dolly Gerarda Bogaardt,born Modjokerto (near Surabaya) 3 apr. 1904 , dr.of Ernest Theodoor Bogaardt and the native woman Kassirah . He later married in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, on 7th November 1929 Gertruda Catharina Geutjes. They returned shortly thereafter to Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies now Indonesia, where three children were born; Karin, Jan and me, Gerard. When I was born in 1940 the family moved to Malang from where we were in 1942 interned by the Japanese, but we as a unit all dsurvived, although other family members lost their lives. Silenced Voices by Inez Hollander portriats our war experiences. 
See also :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrianus_Johannes_Lemmens#References

The Centurion

Monday Morning

There was a knock on the door. The men looked at one another fearfully, not knowing if they should answer. "Perhaps it's Him," Thomas said?

"No," answered Peter. "He came through the walls last time."

"Shall I answer it?" asked James.

"No, please! What if it's a Roman come to arrest us too," said Matthew, still terribly frightened from all the events of the past days.

"But He's risen. We've already seen Him," countered James.  "Don't you think He'd protect us?”

"Listen, God helps those who help themselves," Matt said, being practical despite the stress.

The knock was repeated, and everyone seemed to want to duck out the back door. 

"Open it," said Peter, "We can't lock ourselves away forever."

Gingerly, James opened the door a crack. His face blanched.

"Who is it," the others asked ready to run.

"It's, it's..." he opened the door wider to give the others a look.  How could he shut out a Roman Officer who already knew their whereabouts? 

Everybody backed off aghast.

"Please, don't be frightened," said the Centurion taking a halting step in.  "I'm not here to arrest you.  I...  I want to join your company."

The men bristled with suspicion. Even Peter was unsure, although all eyes turned to him for directions.

"He's one of us," said a youthful voice from the back of the room. Still, they all looked at Peter, and back at the Centurion. The air was electric.

Peter turned around to look at John. "How do you know," he asked?

John staring past Peter into the hopeful eyes of the soldier answered matter of factly, "He was at the crucifixion."

"Please," the soldier knelt down begging, "I've brought you something," he said. He unwound the leather strap wrapped around a purple cloth. Peter nodded assent, and the disciples began to gather closer to see what the soldier held.

In his hand lay the head of a spear. "I thought you'd want it," the Centurion mumbled, tears in his eyes.

panSTARRS

I've chased Ceres as it slid past El Nath in Taurus and beyond. Any asteroid that dim takes peripheral vision and a lot of star map searches. Most of all it takes patience. For a break from the tough work of following an asteroid, I took time out to search for the comet. I knew by now it would be very visible and maybe have a nice tail. Of course comets are sun grazers, so to see it I had to search from just before sunset to just after. That means the sky is still quite bright above the western horizon. No matter, a veteran like me doesn't give up easily.
To date I have managed two views of Comet PanSTARRS: one from the area of Moorpark College; the other from my own front yard. I found the comet on 12th of the month after a half hour of sweeping the horizon.. In our sharp clear sky it hung directly above a distant tall tree that became a pointer. The tiime, 7:46 was just after sunset and before the deepening twilight.It hung like a bright tight shaft of light, the tail fanning out and upward. I gazed until it dropped into the murky atmosphere, fading in a blur.  I just had to try to find it again, this time from my own yard.
It's terrible when you bring out cloud bait. Several nights of clouds and mists have blocked the comet out. After much searching I caught a good view of it between the trees on the west of our property. It wasn't near as nice and bright, rather blurred and hazy, probably because the sky wasn't cooperating. But see it I did. So did our neighbor who considered it fabulous since it was her first ever view of a comet. We'll definitely try again as PanSTARRS rises farther north and dims as it moves away from us.

Definitely Ceres

Several nights ago when I searched for Ceres, I attempted to find the asteroid using only Astronomy Magazine's published mini star chart (March issue, p. 43). My early "By George" comment was premature. I thought I was in the right location, and what I saw fit its 8th magnitude dimness. Nevertheless, I needed to re-capture the dwarf planet to prove I was seeing correctly.

I wasn't. The point of light I thought was Ceres was just a star. Like all stars, it stayed put in the same location. I redoubled my efforts to find the dim dwarf planet two nights ago. This time I found the faintest point of light where Ceres absolutely had to be, per the map. I tingled thinking I'd actually captured my first asteroid, but didn't want to announce an error again. I would have to make sure that this particular point of light would move by the next night. If it did, it would be farther north on its path as it edges closer to El Nath.

I couldn't scan the sky yesterday. Clouds and rain prevented it. Tonight, the California sky is crystal clear. Sure enough, Ceres isn't where it was two days ago. In fact, it has moved considerably to line up with El Nath. I have indeed captured my first look at an asteroid. The faint dwarf planet is exactly where Astronomy Magazine's star map shows it to be tonight. Using only my 10 x 50 binocular, I can barely see the elusive asteroid from the corner of my eye. But it is definitely where it is supposed to be today, March 6.

I'm sure to catch it more easily on my next search as it moves past El Nath. And by the weekend, I'll be dragging out my telescope for a better view.

Romero

Just watched an old movie called "Romero". Very powerful indeed. Archbishop Oscar Romero is a modern day martyr. To get the full movie just go to You Tube. You'll find it easily if you internet search under Archbishop Oscar Romero, the movie. More of us should be so ready to give our lives.

Duh

There's something about traipsing around the country that thwarts a faithful astronomy hobbyist. Although there were a few good nights for binocular astronomy in West Sacramento, there were more than a few not so good nights. Here in Redding, the sky is a wash. Oh well, with luck it will clear up enough for a continued scan for asteroid Ceres.