World's Most Beautiful People
People magazine has published the "The World's Most Beautiful People" issue again this year. As Steve Doocy from Fox and Friends said "Really? Did they go to the bouroughs of the Netherlands to look?". No, they just take popular culture and decide who is most beautiful.
Topping the list is Angelina Jolie and the father of her child, Brad Pitt is not far behind. Really? This is the woman who has kept the blood of her current man around her neck, steals other women's husbands, gets pregnant by them and then travels to remote villages with her "family" in tow trying to look like Audrey Hepburn(ok, I'm not on board with UNICEF, but AH isn't a wack-job homewrecker either)?
I watch the 7pm news "magazines" and almost yack at their self-important pandering. Ugh. Those "reporters" fall all over themselves for the likes of these "beautiful people".
So, instead of griping and not doing anything about it, I've come up with my own "World's Most Beautiful People". Jesus and Mary are exempt because they have the "duh" factor. As in "Duh, they are our ideal". So here goes:
1. Pope John Paul II
Is it not obvious?
2. Fr Michael Scanlan
A man who said "Yes, Lord" so often, that now we have a Catholic University rooted in "dynamic orthodoxy". He also has toured the world spreading the Gospel, teaching and witnessing to the power of the Charismatic Renewal in the Church, praying over people-He has changed the lives of millions, either directly or because someone like me was influenced by him. All because he said "Yes, Lord". Gives you pause to consider your own response to the Lord, doesn't it?
3. Laure Krupp
In my day, the Queen of NET Ministries. When I was on NET she was the head supervisor-and no body had wisdom like that woman. She was well acquainted with pain and sorrow in her life and yet God used her dramatically in the lives of hundreds of "Netters". She took very little BS and had one of the best laughs ever.
4. St Therese of the Little Flower
Again. Need I explain? Talk about beauty outward and inward. Making little sacrifices throughout the day makes a soul beautiful. Especially since no one knew about it as she was doing it.
5. St Francis of Assisi/Pier Giorgio Frassatti
The man who hugged a leper. Who does that? The man who gave up his riches and family fame and fortune to embrace poverty. Who does that? The man who opted to bear the wounds of Christ and rejoiced to be worthy of such agony. Who does that? Hollywood? I hear crickets...
And Pior Giorgio? Holyhotness, batgirl! Have you seen him? Ok, that he's pleasant to look at aside, here is what John Paul II said at his tomb: "He repeats that it is really worth giving up everything to serve the Lord. He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone, and that only the revolution of charity can enkindle the hope of a better future in the hearts of people. " That, my friends, is beautiful in anyone.
6. Southie Kids
If ever anyone knew they needed God, it was the Southie Kids. What trials and difficulties they face. Yet those same kids came each week to minister to the elderly and feed the homeless. They are survivors.
7. Grace and Gabriel Michael (that kid had only one option for a Confirmation name: Raphael). My niece and nephew. Grace is strong willed and sensitive but she is the best friend to her friends. She asks kids if they want to play with her and makes sure that her friends get to have fun. Gabriel Michael is an 18month old flirt. Those big eyes and round cheeks with the long fluttering eye lashes and the big ol' goofy grin-how do you resist that?
8. Viggo Mortenson
Hello?! Aragorn? And have you seen his art? Holy moses.)
9. Every Secretary I've Ever Had. Those poor women. To put up with me is endurance that forms the soul.
10. The Women of the House of the Beloved
One is in Ireland serving with Kerygma Teams (and former Director of Student Life), one is the mother of 3 active and lovely children, another finally a mom after much suffering, another having lived through a debilitating illness has been the joy and laughter of our time together-so many others, beautiful women who I had the privilege of knowing, fighting with, loving, being loved by and growing closer to Jesus because of.
These are more beautiful than any Hollywood or American Idol star or starlet could ever be. And I hope to be as beautiful as them.
Forgot to ask:
WHO WOULD YOU ADD?
posted by TCYM Lounge @ 9:31 AM
14 Comments:
+JMJ+
From the Church Triumphant, St. Bernadette, of course!
From our own St. Blog's parish, Fr. Tucker. :)
Now I'm thinking of someone else, a young Benedictine monk I heard about on Mother Angelica Live once. He was quite handsome and he died very suddenly while he was still young. His first name was Anthony, but every time I try to recall his last name by chanting his first name, I keep coming up with "De Mello." That's definitely not it! :P
Does anyone remember who this Brother Anthony is?
+JMJ+
Also Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel! How could I have forgotten them? :)
+JMJ+
I'm so sorry to be monopolising your comments box, but I just remembered Brother Anthony's last name! He is Br. Anthony Costello, OSB. :)
Don't ask me for more specifics, though!
+JMJ+
Now, it's a bit embarrassing to be the only one leaving all these comments, but I just thought of someone else.
Monica Potter, a minor Hollywood actress, once said in an interview that she was planning to become a nun after her youngest child turned eighteen. She would have entered the convent at nineteen, her bios say, if she had not been pregnant. Well, okay, she's also divorced and a cast member of the sick movie Saw, but if she is still pursuing this vocation, then she's also a modern poster girl for second chances.
Also, I realise that my suggestions are less POD than yours, as I've named a lot of pretty people who also happen to be POD rather than POD people who also happen to be pretty. Sorry! :)
thanks, enbrethiliel!
BTW, what is POD?
I might have to make an addition as well: Devout Catholic Mothers.
Sure, dads are great, but here's why I say the Moms: Being devout Catholics they probably have 6,7, 10 children. They used to look quite fresh and pretty, but now they have bags under their eyes, their hair was done on the way to the car, "pressed" means a child curled up on her lap and left a mess of wrinkles. She has a weary joy about her when she looks over her family. Her hard work is evidenced by the behavior and generousity and sensitivity to God of her children. Devout Catholic Moms are some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Jeanne and Elaine, two sisters in their late fifties, both single and childless, who give their time to the Sacramental formation and religious education of the CCD kids at our parish, along with intense involvement in the neighborhood association for our inner-city area. You can see their souls shine.
Mother Dolores Hart OSB, of the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, CT.
She left behind a Hollywood career as a pretty young B movie star in the mid-1960s in order to pursue her vocation as a nun. A great woman who combines both outward and inward beauty (like the Little Flower and St Bernadette).
Judy Brown. She is my mother and the most beautiful woman I know of. 12 Children (all by my dad, of course), lost her youngest to leukemia, devoted wife of a farmer, the best cook (I'm not kidding! In South Louisiana, just being an OK cook puts you above 99% of the rest of the country, but she is the GREATEST: cooking for 12 kids day in and day out, plus the farm hands), gave up wearing make-up as a penance for me when I entered the Jesuits (and EVERYONE still comments on how pretty she is), maw-maw to 30 grandchildren, reads the Bible daily, mass about twice a week, brings Communion to the sick, never gives up her femininity but is the strongest woman I know... I am already collecting relics for when she dies and becomes a saint.
Jesuit John
I did my own list as per e-mail request.
jesuit john, that's beautiful. She sounds like she's just the kind of mom I had to add to my list: Devout Catholic Mothers!
+JMJ+
Hi again! :)
POD means "pious and over-devotional." It used to be a derogatory term for seminarians who weren't as "modern" as others thought they should be. However, the POD seminarians reclaimed piety for the great gift that it is and were proud of keeping traditions alive and sacramentals ubiquitous!
One of St. Blog's first members (currently retired), Fr. Bryce Sibley, popularised it by using it in posts about everything from vestments and birettas to Divine Mercy Sunday.
Check Out Laure Krupp's new book.
just search Amazon. It's a young Catholic's prayer guide of some sort....
Might be helpful in youth ministries..
Hi! I would add to your list Laure Krupp's younger sister Heidi Krupp. She is beautiful inside and out, totally devoted to what God wants for her life, a prayer warior and a CANON LAWYER!! Yup new grad from Catholic University!
What is it with that Krupp family? Fr Joe is such a witness to all kinds of kids in the Lansing diocese. Their parents have to be some kind of wonderful and holy.
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