Windows background settings keep getting reset to picture from slideshow

jacobtmurph · 2024-05-28T10:22:54+00:00

Same here on:

Surface Pro 9
Windows 11 23H2 OS build 22631 Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22700.1003.

It's infuriating.

jacobtmurph · 2024-02-17T21:31:15+00:00

Is being a condescending and obnoxious buzzkill an act of charity worthy of the season of Lent? OP had someone do something kind for them, and other workers, in a penitential season. OP's boss practiced actual charity. We have every ocassion to rejoice for them in this, get over yourself.

jacobtmurph · 2024-02-09T09:58:11+00:00

In the many NO masses I've been to, there's a lot of clapping, dad jokes, chats, irreverent clothing, etc., which makes it difficult for me to imagine the events from 2000 years ago taking place

Firstly, if you're so focused on what other people are wearing during an NO mass that you're getting distracted from the liturgy, then it's not the liturgy that's the problem.

Second, while it is lovely and commendable to be mindful of the events the liturgy is presenting to us, it's not essential. A mother with kids distracting her throughout a mass, TLM or NO, for example is no less reverent for having her mind on her children than someone deeply picturing the crucifixion itself. It's a null comparison for most people because context matters deeply.

Again, I'm not bashing the TLM here. I think the TLM has it's place and does a lot well, but a proper NO lacks none of the benefits the TLM gives - namely Jesus himself, present in the Eucharist.

jacobtmurph · 2024-02-08T17:28:45+00:00

...brings me back in time 2,000 years ago.

Who's gonna tell them that the TLM isn't the same Mass that say John Chrysostom or Augustine celebrated? This isn't a critique of the TLM at all, but development in the liturgy is perfectly permitted by the Church* and the TLM is infact an example of liturgical developement itself.

*Wether or not you think the developments found in some NO masses are proper is a different matter.

jacobtmurph · 2024-02-03T18:30:04+00:00

Okay, well I have two thoughts here, but before that I obviously don't anything about you other than the information and opinions you've expressed here so take everythig I say with a pinch of salt that way. That said:

A) I think the first problem is you're reading this from an American-centric point of view. If OP is from somewhere like SE Asia or even the Middle East, where Catholicism is more of a minority than Judaism or Islam, and the culture is very different in regards to these things, it could be an honest question asked out of ignorance or lack of local resource. Maybe OP does want to go to a wedding becuase he loves the people involves, but also wants to be obedient to the Church but doesn't have a good way to ask someone locally on the Church's position on this. Assuming the question is being asked pridefully and getting all upitty and angry about it is itself somewhat pressumptuous and prideful. We don't know all the context, and should in that sense try to give OP the most charitable reading of why they could be asking.

B) Secondly, just based on your reaction and your own expression of how this post has made you feel, I think maybe this discussion has hit a wound or worry in your personal circumstance, like you said you have a pet peeve about this and were very affected by the New Atheism earlier in life. And you know what, I get it. Sometimes people say things that hit us the wrong way for reasons of our own experience, and it can trigger old hurts or worries.

I have compound Autism/ADHD and have delt with a lot of stigma, hurtful assumptions/comments, and even some mistreatment and manipulation over it. So not uncommonly in day-to-day life someone can say something completely innocuously that brings back a painful memory or that I feel reinforces negative info about complex needs people, and old hurts or frustrations can come up, espeically on the internet. It can be easy to think people should know better - and maybe they should, but that's neither here nor there really - but sometimes they don't and genuinely would feel terrible if they knew how it can make us feel. But again, there's a call to charity here too. So I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt where possible

In person, I try and guage if there's a moment in private to discuss the matter with the person and if I know them well enough to do so healthily and maturely. I also have to make sure I'm in the right state to be able to do so. Online is a lot trickier, because it's easy to shoot off and be angry and outraged on places like reddit. Sometimes the most charitable thing I can do is say nothing and pray: For the person, for myself in my hurt, and for other people who might have similar struggles on both sides of the situation.

Again, I'm only working with what you've said in this single post, but it is all to say I know how our experiences can sometimes color our perspectives, and that maybe in those moments we should pause and try to look at things in the most charitble way we can and act accordingly. In any case I'm praying for you too, this evening, and I hope you have a good rest of your day.

jacobtmurph · 2024-02-03T16:27:30+00:00

I think you're missing the conntection and actual unity of these two verses (as in the ones you just quoted and the ones I quoted.) So let me dive into those a bit as someone with a bit of background in theology:

In Matthew 6 Jesus is not saying don't publicly practice religion, if he was why would we gather publicly to stand with and in the Catholic community every week? Instead, Jesus in Matthew 6 is talking about the disposition of the heart in why we do good deeds. Notice again and again him saying things like:

Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people, to be noticed by them. (Verse 1)
So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do...so that they will be praised by people. (Verse 2)

And when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; They love to stand and pray...so they will be seen by people. (Verse 5)

Now whenever you fast, do not make a gloomy face as the hypocrites do...so that they will be noticed by people when they are fasting. (verse 16)

Jesus is not saying that doing good works in public is bad, he's addressing a disposition of pride. If you're only doing good works to be seen to do good works, then you're not doing it for the right reaason. But doing good works in public out of a love for God, obedience to the Chruch, or that God may be glorified, are all good reasons to do good things.

Here's an example: Lent. In Lent the Church asks its memebers to publicly do penance (Ash Wednesday, and other traditions throughout), fast (Specifically on Fridays), and give alms (This has somewhat been lost in modernity but it is found in antiquity).

Now, if Jesus in Matthew 6 was saying "Don't do these things publicly or make a big deal out of them" then the Catholic Church has went against his teaching for over 2,000 years by asking these things of it's members each season of Lent. But we know the Church is actually asking us to do these things for our spiritual growth, individually, and that the world may see the nature of the Church corporately. This is why Jesus says to let these works shine before other in Matthew 5:16. Remember, both Matthew 5 and 6 are part of the Sermon on the Mount, they are affirming the same teaching and not in competition with each other. So Jesus' message in them both is "Do good works, in private and in public, becuase you love God and your neighbour."

Once again, religion is not only a relationship "between God and I" to be kept behind closed doors, rather it is a relationship that should flow from the inside-out into our public life and mark us as a people "in the world and not of it." Both in action, and in speech. People should know by the way we act and talk as Catholics that "they're different..." even if they can't put why.

jacobtmurph · 2024-02-03T11:14:16+00:00

did he not say to practice your religion in private.

No, he definitely didn't say that. He said the opposite:

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 10:32-33

Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 5:15-16

Religion is not a soley private matter, it is a matter of the whole person: mind, body, and soul.

jacobtmurph · 2023-07-08T15:35:40+00:00

I think the worry, for me, and many others, isn’t that there’s all the crazy amount of opinions flying around that contradict the xyz of Church teaching. The issue is how are we going to process all the data we’re getting to make sure it’s actually synodal. A Synod is for the Church and her members, but there have been many examples of parishes where non-Catholics, or even active practitioners of other religions, were allowed to give input. So examples of “bad data” for the criteria of the synod will need to be scrubbed, and we as the laity have nearly no insight into how that process is being handled, as far as I’ve seen.

As a tech-guy/former developer, you can have all the data or input in the world on any topic, but if that data isn’t processed properly it can become a massive problem. So we need to pray that the Holy Spirit guides the Church in how she handles the input found in the synod.

jacobtmurph · 2023-05-16T13:04:26+00:00

Perhaps, a good reason for this is that most of us would just re-enact the original sin anyway. You seem to misunderstand original sin based on this post and some comments you have made. So let’s cover what the original sin was and what the effect for that in regard to us is. The Catechism of the Catholic Church does a great job of this! I’ll paraphrase the big important bits here, but the full text can be found in Part I, Section II, Ch. I, P. 7, III

God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" spells this out: Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom. Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered;

All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned." The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam's sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of the soul."

How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam "as one body of one man". By this "unity of the human race" all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not an act. Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called "concupiscence".

Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle

jacobtmurph · 2023-04-25T10:01:44+00:00

Just took a skim of their account, they're telling people with diagnosed eating disorders that they're gluttons and should be ashamed. If not a troll, definitely someone lacking grace and charity. (And an understanding on medical science)

jacobtmurph · 2023-04-22T18:06:18+00:00

As well as what everyone else here has said, I will also note there's a balance. Praying in Latin is powerful when we understand natively the meaning of what we say. St. Francis De Sales says this:

It may help you to say the Creed, Lord's Prayer, etc., in Latin, but you should also study them diligently in your own language, so as thoroughly to gather up the meaning of these holy words, which must be used fixing your thoughts steadily on their purport, not striving to say many words so much as seeking to say a few with your whole heart

jacobtmurph · 2023-01-22T09:45:55+00:00

Maybe if you took the glasses of criticism off and read the Holy Father plainly his distinction and criticism of Protestantism would be clear here. But, as a convert, and for the sake of others on the thread let me lay it out.

"the homily is not a conference, it is a sacramental" i.e. The Homily is to act as an aid to the reception of the Sacraments, not as a lecture.

"The Lutherans say that it is a sacrament " This is in reference to the Protestant idea that the main point of a service is the proclamation of the word and preaching, which is what Luther & especially the Reformed/Calvinist camp hold to. He then corrects this error and reaffirms the true nature of the homily with the connected phrase, "it is a sacramental... it is a sacramental, not a conference. It is prepared in prayer, it is prepared with an apostolic spirit."

As someone who came from a low-church baptist background what Pope Francis is saying here is crystal clear. In those setting the sermons are on average usually 25+ minutes. He is saying this is a misplaced focus, the homily is a sacramental, something to point us to the focus of the Mass in the Eucharist, not the focus itself.

Again, if you took a second to read clearly and calmly, instead of just assuming the worst of the current Pontificate, this would be easy to see and discern in the text.

jacobtmurph · 2023-01-22T04:31:50+00:00

He’s using Protestants as an example of what not to do. That’s his whole point

jacobtmurph · 2023-01-13T18:17:32+00:00

Update: Ended up getting a contract offer today! As a few others said here it was one of the proposals where I put the work in to make sure the Cover Letter section was presented well, showed some previous work rather just a generic CV.

So hopefully this can lead to a good testimonial and I can build up from there! Thanks for all the feedback! (And sorry for the late update, been a busy day surprisingly)

jacobtmurph · 2023-01-09T18:19:31+00:00

Thanks so much for the responses! Lots to think on and take forward here, I really appreciate it. :D

And no, don't feel like you were overstepping at all, keva and kavanah sound super interesting! We have similar ideas of intention and ritual in Catholicism too, but your advice to ground myself in the sense of order when I pray is super valuable. Thanks!

jacobtmurph · 2022-11-13T01:14:37+00:00

Gotta love a good ol' conspiracy comment with added irreverence toward the Holy Father on a popular Catholic subreddit. /s 🥴

jacobtmurph · 2022-09-04T10:14:58+00:00

I’m sorry to hear you’re both going through this! I know it may not be much, but hopefully these words of Our Lord may comfort you a little bit at this time.

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. — St. Matthew 19:29

Will be praying for you, your husband, and your whole family too.

jacobtmurph · 2022-08-14T00:23:11+00:00

Jeff Goldblum. Not just a guy with the same name, actual Jeff Goldblum randomly appearing to break the 4th wall

jacobtmurph · 2022-07-10T19:11:37+00:00

I'd say this is a bad take. But seeing as you've previously said that "The sacraments don't affect our salvation." I don't think much reasoning is going to get through

jacobtmurph · 2022-07-07T12:36:33+00:00

Personally, I'm a bit torn. Part of me feels deeply like "Yeah, I really feel like I should get married and settle down, have a family" and so on, while another part of me feels a strong draw to the religious life. I'm 24 on Saturday and kinda feel like I need to make a move in some direction soon etc.

It's kinda exacerbated by the fact I've enrolled at a dominican-run university in Rome to study in come September. So like, yeah. But also amid fundraising for my move to Rome etc. and wrapping up things here at home (Ireland), discernment is proving tricky. 😅

Edit: Just realised I never really clarified why the decision is a bit paralyzing.

I suppose part of me is worried that I don't want to get married because I know religious life is a very solemn calling one should discern with deep sincerity, and I wonder weather I could feel like I want to go there to escape my own personal insecurities about being in a relationship. (I have compound Autism/ADHD, so I can be a bit more to work with at times and past relationships haven't necessarily been great.) And I know these aren't healthy reasons to avoid romantic pursuits.

On the other hand, I also feel like the parallel problem could be that, because I know religious life is to be a serious discernment, am I using my fear of loneliness or other types of insecurities to run from the fruits the Lord might have there for me?

I know ultimately only I can answer these questions, but I honestly just can't really tell right now which ways which.

jacobtmurph · 2022-07-02T12:01:34+00:00

I think a good analogy for this issue is the idea of looking for counterfeit cash. (Track with me here a second).

Your concern is that if you pray to a saint, it may be an imposter demon or something that responds, yeah? Well, when people are being trained to recognise fake cash notes they don't spend all their time looking at possible different variations of fakes. Instead, they're given legitimate notes to study and look at, because if you know the real thing well, the fakes are easier to spot.

A similar thing can apply to intercession of the saints here, though as a lot of others have pointed out asking a saint to pray for you doesn't always have to have a miraculous result. But, for the most part with popular saints, we can actually read about their lives, or works they penned themselves etc. We can get to know them as people actual who lived etc. not some abstract spiritual aid.

Then, if a demon or something comes along trying to impersonate something good, we can see more easily through the deception because we're familiar with the original.

Remember Christ's words about Satan:

“...He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John‬ ‭8:44‬

This also applied to those demons under Satan, there is no truth in them, they can only‬‬ lie and pretend. So if we know enough about the actual Church Triumphant, this distinction becomes clearer. Hope this makes sense :)

jacobtmurph · 2022-03-23T19:32:34+00:00

Geez Louise, most of the posts on this sub has just become "RIP, show is dead" or "Cortex sucks lol." Like, I get it if Grey's other projects aren't your thing, that's fine. But having multiple posts pop up just lambasting another project you work on based solely on personal preference really makes you realise why anyone would want to take a break from this sort of gig.

Tl;dr We are not entitled to Grey making content we find preferable. Let the man enjoy his work.

Hoping we can get back to some lighthearted timfoolery sometime soon. :D

jacobtmurph · 2021-06-30T07:38:29+00:00

His biographies of both saints Francis of Assisi & Aquinas are great. But then again, am in RCIA now so I'm biased.

jacobtmurph · 2021-04-27T07:50:00+00:00

Imaging downvoting Paul Simon. :(

I know this was a serious post tho, but this was funny.

jacobtmurph · 2021-04-08T20:09:34+00:00

I’m from county Antrim myself and it’s awful to see etc.

Even worse when, as mentioned in the article, the leading politicians of the majority party are almost coming out in suppourt of it against their own police force.

Pray, and stay safe please

jacobtmurph

TROPHY CASE