Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

Annete Dumbach & Jud Newborn, "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose", Oneworld, 2010, 238 pages [July 2013]

With God in Russia

"With God in Russia" by Father Walter J Ciszek SJ My twenty-three years as a priest in Soviet prisions and Siberian labor camps 1964, Ignatius Press, 433 pages

101 books Gen Ys must read before they die

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/101_books_gen_y_must_read_before_they_die

Marriage and Parenting 101

Talk by Jim Stenson
(delivered on 9 September 2005 to the parents of the PARED Schools, Sydey)

-you don't know what your 20 year old should be like, but you know what your son in law should be like!

-give more than you expect to get: marriage is not a 50/50 proposition

-preparing them for marriage and they may have a good career

-young people are looking for a life to imitate

-give praise

Suicide and moral relativism

"The high youth suicide rate bothered many young Australians. For each of the last seven or eight years as Prime Minister I, along with the Leader of the Opposition, would attend a conference in Parliament House which brought together young men and women from all around Australia to talk about personal beliefs and the values of our society.


I spoke about my own values, spiritual beliefs and what meaning I found in life. On quite a number of occasions the question was asked of me, why did I think the youth suicide rate in Australia was so high. It was not an easy question to answer. The high suicide rate clearly troubled those young people. I replied that one of the reasons was that we no longer lived in a society governed by absolutes. Everything in life had become relative. Taking one's life had been, years ago, one of those taboo, or absolutely unthinkable, acts, which only the most completely desperate contemplated. Perhaps society's steady descent into relativism was one of the explanations why suicide, especially among the young, had become more common."


John Howard, Lazarus Rising, Harper Collins (2010), p 491.

Just do it

JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

"There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark."

(The Two Towers, The Riders of Rohan, HarperCollins 2001, p 430)

I am not made for perilous quests

JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

"‘I do really wish to destroy it!’ cried Frodo. ‘Or, well, to have it destroyed. I am not made for perilous quests. I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?

‘Such questions cannot be answered,’ said Gandalf. ‘You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.’"

(The Fellowship of the Ring, The Shadow of the Past, HarperCollins 2001, p 60)

But that is not for them to decide

JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

"‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

(The Fellowship of the Ring, The Shadow of the Past, HarperCollins 2001, p 50)