Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn spent a lot of her teenage years secretly battling against the Nazis.

Hepburn was and is extremely well-known among most as a talented actor and a 50s icon. And those who have read her biography will know that she did much more than just that.

During the war, Hepburn moved to Holland, as her parents thought it was a neutral country, safe from invasion. But they were wrong.

When the Nazis cut off food supplies, Hepburn, only a teenager, faced severe malnutrition.

She performed ballet in front of audiences that were terrified of the Nazis. These illegal performances were called zwarte avonden, or ‘black evenings’, used as a way for suffering musicians, targeted by the Nazis, to make money. They were called ‘black evenings’ as the windows were blacked out so that the Germans would not discover them.

She then donated the funds to the Dutch Resistance. These funds helped to support the hiding of Jews within the Netherlands.

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“The best audiences I ever had made not a single sound at the end of my performance.”

Hepburn said this, indicating that the audience could not even clap at the end of her performance as they were so afraid of being heard by the Nazis.

Hepburn, malnourished, starved, and only a teenager, still continued to dance.

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She also did other brave things as a teenager, including during the 1944 bombing campaign. The fifteen-year-old was tasked with running to American and British fliers shot down in the countryside to take messages and food. This was because she was one of the few who were fluent in English.

However, at one point while doing so she saw Dutch Nazi police approaching the fields where she was.

Calm and collected, Hepburn began to pick wildflowers. The police asked for her official papers, and then let her pass. Any other girl of her age would most likely not have known what to do.

She also had to deliver the local Resistance paper, Oranjekrant, which the Nazis had banned.

“I stuffed them in my woolen socks in my wooden shoes, got on my bike, and delivered them.”

And her bravery is also displayed when she hid a British soldier in her home, as her son Luca Dotti describes:

“My mother told me it was thrilling for her — it was risky, he was a stranger in uniform, a saviour, and therefore a knight and hero.”

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All these actions are even more impressive considering Audrey Hepburn was just a teenage girl. She had a terrifying secret life, risking her life to protect others, but in the end, this further amplified her strength of character.

Why did Germany not destroy the Eiffel Tower during World War II?

Brent Cooper

On August 23rd, 1944, Hitler sent a message to Field Marshal Walther Model and von Choltitz demanding that Paris be held at all costs. Hitler said if Paris could not be held it should be turned into a field of ruins.

The Allies were rapidly advancing on Paris. Hitler’s position was if he could not enjoy Oaris, no one would.

Von Choltitz put the order in his pocket and showed it to no one else. Nor did he give orders to enforce it.

Von Choltitz learned later that Model’s headquarters had received the order from Hitler but did not pass it on. They did the same thing as he did. His staff had found it on the network and given it to him. Some Germans in France agreed with von Choltitz and Speidel that Paris should not become a field of ruins.

Presumption

October 26, 2022 Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time Readings for Today

Video “Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.  Depart from me, all you evildoers!’”  Luke 13:27 Jesus makes it clear that there are some who will come to Him presuming their entrance into Heaven but their presumption will be met with these frightening words: “I do not know where you are from.  Depart from me.”   Presumption is a dangerous sin.  It’s dangerous for two reasons.  First, when people are presumptuous, they are living in denial of the truth.  In regard to God, presumption means that the persons act as if they are in a relationship with God when they are not.  They may say holy things, act holy and even believe they are holy, while in fact they do not know our Lord at all.  Thus, presumption is when one lives in denial of the truth. Second, presumption is dangerous because the presumptuous person will not repent of his or her own sin. This is because their denial makes it impossible for them to admit their sin.  Without admitting their sin, they cannot subsequently admit their need to change.  They remain steeped in their false thinking and their sin. Jesus presents this teaching not to reveal that He is harsh with those who are presumptuous; rather, He presents it as an act of great mercy for those stuck in this sin.  It takes this startling revelation to shake a person free of this sin.  In this case, it is the fear of one day hearing these words from Jesus that will help those who are stuck in presumption to break free and to face the truth.   Reflect, today, upon any way that you are not being honest with yourself or with others.  Let the shock of the final outcome of any presumption in your life shake you free of this sin so that you can humble yourself before God now, before it is too late.  Remember how deeply our Lord loves you and let that love help you to face your life with honesty and integrity. My loving Lord, I love You deeply and pray that my love may always be honest, genuine and complete.  Help me to see, in my life, any ways in which I fail to love You with my whole heart.  I give my life to You, dear Lord, without reserve.  Jesus, I trust in You.

What was the dirtiest country you ever visited?

Dr. Anjali Shah

Looks like houses in a slum, right? And it should be the dumping ground.

Believe it or not, it is a river.

If you look closely, you can see that the garbage is floating on the water. It is the Pasig River in the Philippines. Pasig, the largest lake in the Philippines, flows approximately 25 kilometers (16 mi) from Manila Bay to Lagun de Bay. The problem is that it crosses the most populous city on the planet, Manila, and as a result, it has become a local dumping ground. After World War II, when the city's population exploded, the river was used to dump factory waste, household waste, sewage and just about anything you can think of. In the 1990s, Pasig was considered biologically dead, meaning it could no longer support any aquatic life due to low levels of oxygen.

But our story does not end here.

The image on the right is the Pasig River today. Since 2008, the Asian Development Bank and the Filipino government took an initiative to rehabilitate the river. The program required bringing together the people of the city, various government agencies and environmental experts.

Filipinos themselves had run out in numbers, not even expecting to see AfDB and slowly, the Dead River began to return to life. Last year, the river won the Asian River Award for its "beauty" and "utility".

Pasig River won the first prize Asia Riverprise.

That's all i know

Loving And Amazing World

An old man meets a young man who asks:

“Do you remember me?”

And the old man says no. Then the young man tells him he was his student, And the teacher asks:

“What do you do, what do you do in life?”

The young man answers:

“Well, I became a teacher.”

“ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.

“Well, yes. In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”

The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher. And the young man tells him the following story:

“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it.

I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.

Shortly after, my friend noticed the his watch was missing and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you.

Then you addressed the class saying, ‘This student's watch was stolen during classes today. Whoever stole it, please return it.’

I didn't give it back because I didn't want to.

You closed the door and told us all to stand up and form a circle.

You were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.

However, you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.

We did as instructed.

You went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it. You kept searching everyone's pockets, and when you were done you said ‘open your eyes. We have the watch.’

You didn't tell on me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either. That day you saved my dignity forever. It was the most shameful day of my life.

But this is also the day I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor did you even scold me or take me aside to give me a moral lesson.

I received your message clearly.

Thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.

Do you remember this episode, professor?

The old professor answered, ‘Yes, I remember the situation with the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket. I didn't remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.’

This is the essence of teaching:

If to correct you must humiliate; you don't know how to teach.”

Que faut-il faire pour ne jamais avoir de cancer ?

Jean Grimon

J'essaie de rendre cette réponse le moins pessimiste possible ^^

Techniquement c'est difficile d'avoir 0% de chances de développer un cancer, car sans parler des facteurs de risques, les cancers sont la preuve que l'organisme humain est complexe, et que cette complexité est possible car il est imparfait. Les erreurs de la machinerie cellulaire qui provoquent les cancers sont les mêmes erreurs qui permettent l'évolution (c'est un raccourci)

Par contre vous pouvez jouer sur des facteurs environnementaux qui peuvent augmenter les risques de développer des cancers, et ceux qui vont qui vont aggraver le pronostic des cancer. En général les deux son liés.

Les principaux facteurs sur lesquels on peut agires sont : le sport, le tabac +++, le poids (ni trop faible, ni trop élevé), les vaccinations (HPV 16/18, pour les filles mais aussi possible pour les gars), le stress +, la phobie médicale (ne pas aller chez le docteur ou ne pas parler aux infirmières parce qu'on à peur), l'alimentation également.

Sachant que même si vous déclarez un cancer, vous aurez bien plus de chances de guérisons sans séquelles si vous avez le profil classique plutôt que le profil tabagique/obèse…

Ne pas oublier qu'aujourd'hui une grande partie des cancers ne sont plus synonymes de mortalite imminente, et certains ont même des pénibilités de moins en moins marqués.

A tel point qu'il serait dommage aujourd'hui de vivre da's lnombre de la menace du cancer… après j'ai bien conscience que je ne suis qu'un gamin de 25 ans^^

Conversion of Heart

October 25, 2022 Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time Readings for Today

Video Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”  Luke 13:20-21 Yeast is a fascinating thing.  It is so small in size and yet has such a powerful effect upon the dough.  The yeast works slowly and somewhat miraculously.  Little by little the dough rises and is transformed.  This is always something fascinating for children to watch when making bread  . This is the ideal way for the Gospel to work in our lives.  Right now, the Kingdom of God is first and foremost alive in our hearts.  The conversion of our hearts will rarely effectively take place in a day or in a moment.  Sure, each day and every moment is important, and there are certainly powerful moments of conversion we can all point to.  But conversion of heart is more like the yeast causing the dough to rise.  The conversion of heart is usually something that takes place little by little and step by step.  We allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives in a continually deepening way and, as we do, we grow deeper and deeper in holiness just as dough rises slowly but surely. Reflect, today, upon this image of yeast causing dough to rise.  Do you see this as an image of your soul?  Do you see the Holy Spirit working on you little by little?  Do you see yourself changing slowly but steadily?  Hopefully the answer is “Yes.”  Though conversion may not always take place overnight, it must be constant so as to enable the soul to progress to that place prepared for it by God. Lord, I do desire to become holy.  I desire to be transformed little by little every day.  Help me to allow You to change me every moment of my life so that I can continually walk the path You have laid out for me.  Jesus, I trust in You.

“The Boys who ran away to New York...”

“In 1985 two boys from Darndale in Dublin, Keith Byrne (10) and Noel Murray (13), both made headlines around the world when they hopped on a Dart and ended up in New York escaping authorities in three countries.

Keith Byrne said that he and his friend went to the United States because he wanted to see his favourite television star, B A Baracus, of The A-Team.

Their adventure started when they went out to play before dinner time, Keith said in an RTÉ Radio documentary broadcast last month: “My mum said: ‘don’t go far, your dinner’s nearly ready,’ ”he recalled. “I said: ‘I won’t.”

But they did. They took the Dart to Dún Laoghaire and snuck on to a ferry to Holyhead. Emboldened by their success, they avoided the ticket checkers and got on a train to London. Eventually they wound up at Heathrow airport with nothing but a few coins they’d nicked from a charity fountain.

Once there they asked a random passenger where his plane was going and he told them New York. They told the ticket checker and security their parents were behind them, and boarded an Air India plane.

“The plane was only half full so no one came near us,” he said. Their ease at slipping past the authorities was even more surprising given the fact that, two months earlier, an Air India jet had blown up off the southwest of Ireland, killing 329 people.

Byrne recalled being unable to eat a very hot Indian curry and watching the James Bond film A View To A Kill.

Their journey came to an end when they left JFK airport and asked a policeman for the way “into town”. They were taken to a police station where they immediately became the centre of attention. Authorities were taking no chances and they were put in a hotel suite with five security guards. “There was BLTs, chips, everything, fed us like lords. We loved it,” Keith said.

Their exploits made the front page of the New York newspapers.

Keith Byrne is now 43 and Noel Murray is 46. Both live in Darndale.”

PHOTO: Keith Byrne with his mother, Theresa, at Coolock Garda Station, 1985.

Dermot O'Shea

The Irish Abroad

Que puis-je faire pendant 10 minutes chaque jour pour changer ma vie ?

Voici une méthode qui non seulement changera votre vie, mais si elle est effectuée correctement, elle transformera votre vie pour toujours.

Par ce processus puissant, vous pouvez expérimenter un état extrêmement heureux, qui aura un impact positif sur votre productivité, votre concentration, votre paix mentale, votre santé et divers aspects subtils importants.

Normalement, votre esprit est trop occupé à se souvenir des souvenirs passés ou à imaginer des événements futurs, sans arrêt, mais il reste rarement dans "ce moment" (ici et maintenant).

Nous ne donnons du repos à notre esprit que dans un sommeil profond, mais par cette méthode, nous pouvons donner à notre esprit un peu de repos, consciemment tout en étant éveillé.

Voici le processus:

1. Asseyez-vous dans une position confortable
2. Prenez 3 respirations profondes et expirez très lentement
3. Maintenant, pendant 10 minutes, ne faites rien!
4. Laissez tout se passer, mais «vous» ne faites rien.
5. Pour ne rien faire, aucun effort n'est nécessaire, donc soyez sans effort, abandonnez-vous simplement…
6. Laissez votre corps se détendre
7. Laissez la respiration se dérouler telle quelle, mais «vous» ne faites rien
8. Laissez les pensées se produire telles quelles, pas besoin de les supprimer ou de les contrôler - les pensées apparaîtront et disparaîtront bientôt automatiquement, tout comme les marées dans l'océan.
9. Pas besoin d'accorder de l'importance ou de l'attention à vos pensées, laissez-les simplement aller et venir, mais «vous» restez immobile.
10. Restez dans cet état sans effort, pendant au moins 10 minutes ou aussi longtemps que vous le pouvez.

Cela peut sembler très simple, mais veuillez ne pas sous-estimer le pouvoir de "l’effort".

Shri Paroksh Yogi ji (un mystique himalayen anonyme) appelle cette "méditation sans effort".

Il dit:

Pour réaliser votre vrai moi, abandonnez tous les types d'efforts, physiques et mentaux, ignorez tous les types de pensées et soyez simplement comme vous êtes… sans effort!

Pour rendre ce processus plus puissant et plus efficace, vous pouvez commencer par la méditation guidée Maha Rudra Kriya (lien disponible dans la description du profil Aham Jogi)

Puissiez-vous vivre une vie heureuse

Aham Jogi (अहम जोगी)