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Beverage Services
- The VENUE partners with two beverage caterers for all beverage/bar service, allowing you to choose one. The approved beverage caterer will provide all necessary labor, rentals, and beverages. The client will arrange all needs with the beverage caterer directly.
- VENUE 221 reserves the right to refuse or stop alcoholic beverage service to any individual or group at any time. The facility is required to enforce liquor laws as regulated by the state of Colorado.
- VENUE 221 reserves the right to refuse or stop alcoholic beverage service to any individual or group at any time. The facility is required to enforce liquor laws as regulated by the state of Colorado.
- Any event serving alcoholic beverages must also provide adequate food service. The VENUE reserves the right to prohibit events providing only alcoholic beverage service.
- No alcoholic beverages will be served to anyone under the age of 21.
- VENUE 221 and catering partners reserve the right to refuse alcohol service to anyone.
- VENUE 221 has a strict "no shots" policy.
- No Alcohol is allowed to be taken off of the premises.
- Beverage Caterer Contacts:
Oak & Olive
- Tori Wolff
- E: email@example.com
- W: DrinkOakAndOlive.com
PEAK Beverage
- Kelly Braunstein
- E: firstname.lastname@example.com
- W: PEAKBev.com
- Catering Services may be provided by one of the approved, full-service caterers. Food and beverage minimums may apply.
- All caterers must haul away all trash from the event.
- The select caterer will be responsible for setting the tables and chairs provided by the VENUE/client/rental company and restacking at the conclusion of the event.
- Any event serving alcoholic beverages must also provide adequate food service.
- Caterer is responsible for cleaning full service area and complying with the VENUE 221 Catering Agreement.
Damage and Liability
VENUE 221 and its agents and partners assume no responsibility for damages or loss of any merchandise or materials brought on the property at any time. The client is liable for all damages, expenses and losses including theft and property loss, caused by any person attending, or providing services connected with the client's use of the facility. Costs will be assessed and charged to the client and /or deducted from the Security Deposit. Replacement value may be used by the VENUE to determine the damage. Any loss or damage to the facilities caused by guests and/or staff hired by the client may result in additional damage fees.
Deliveries & Pick ups
Deliveries to VENUE 221 relating to the scheduled event must be delivered and picked up within the contracted event hours. All vendors must load and unload in the designated area.
On or before 30 days prior to your event, VENUE 221 requires you to provide a certificate of insurance for your event. The certificate must name VENUE 221, LLC. as an additional insured and is required to have at minimum of $1,000,000 in general liability and $2,000,000 general aggregate. The licensee insurance will cover all vendors' liability, please select professional service companies that can meet this requirement. If a certificate of insurance isn't received 30 days prior to your event, VENUE will secure one for you and you will be given a copy of the policy and billed $275.00 on your final invoice.
Licenses and Permits
VENUE 221 strictly adheres to the NFPA and the local Denver Fire Department fire codes and regulations. Required permits must be obtained from the Denver Fire Department and Denver Building Department.
Load In | Out
- Event load in/out should take place during the time specified in the Event License Agreement and be completed no later than the agreed upon time. Additional charges will be applied if the events load in/out takes place outside of the specified time. Specific areas will be designated for deliveries, unloading/loading, parking and event set up.
- Vendors of the event must arrange delivery time in advance of the event set up or they may be delayed due other scheduled activity.
Noise Limits
- VENUE 221 must approve all entertainment vendors 30 days prior to the event. The company providing entertainment must meet or coordinate with VENUE 221 management at least 30 days prior to the event to review any special accommodations.
- Amplified music must be kept at a reasonable level. Volume control will be at the discretion of VENUE 221 management. All outdoor activity must conclude by 10:00pm. At this time all event activity must move inside with doors shut due to city and county noise ordinances.
- VENUE 221 reserves the right to inspect and control all private events, including the right to monitor and control noise levels.
- If the client or client's vendors violate the noise limits and requests by the VENUE, the results will be early closure of bar services and/or immediate end of the event.
VENUE 221 parking is available on the surrounding streets and parking garages. Valet parking may be arranged for the event by the client. If valet is confirmed, the valet company will need to provide all applicable signage.
For promotional purposes, VENUE 221 reserves the right to take a limited number of royalty-free photographs of the user's activities in the VENUE. Such photographs shall be the VENUE's sole and exclusive property for the full copyright term, and the VENUE shall have the right to copy, exhibit, display, and otherwise exploit such photographs by any means and media throughout the world; provided, however, that the VENUE shall have the sole responsibility for obtaining any third party clearances, release and consent necessary for the VENUE's use of such photographs.
Rental Items
- VENUE 221 has for use and included in the facility rental rate the use of existing décor, lounge furniture, 5' round tables and banquet chairs. Should these items need to be removed for an event, a notice of request must be submitted 30-days prior to the event.
- VENUE 221 has partnered with Event Rents for all of your rental needs. These rentals can be arranged by the client or catering company directly.
- Event Rents
- Scott Bradshaw
- W: www.eventrents.net
- VENUE 221 facility and grounds shall not be used for any unlawful purpose. The VENUE reserves the right to refuse use of the facility and grounds to any organization or individual in the event that a program or its content does not comply with the VENUE's policies and guidelines. Plans for facility use must be discussed and/or submitted by the user to the VENUE prior to contracting.
- The user must agree that it will not practice, advocate or permit discrimination or segregation based upon race, creed, color, sex, age, disability or national origin.
Safety & Security
- For the safety of the client, all guests and guests of the client are permitted to have access to the contracted use space. Any non-contracted spaces are off-limits at all times.
- VENUE 221 reserves the right to require the client, at client's expense, to hire additional security personnel for the event should the VENUE determine it would helpful to ensure safety and traffic control.
- Any loss or damage to the facility caused by guests, associates and/or staff may result in a damage assessment fee.
- Children must be supervised at all times and staffing may be required in designated areas.
- The VENUE exercises the right to inspect and control all guests, vendors and associates, including but not limited to monitoring noise levels.
- VENUE 221 prohibits the use of any illegal activity or actions deems inappropriate.
- The VENUE will not be responsible for personal property, displays, exhibits, equipment or other items lost, stolen, or damaged in or around the VENUE.
Set-up | Cleanup
- All personnel/vendors connected with the event may not be on the premises prior to or after scheduled set up / clean up times, unless previously arranged with VENUE 221. The client may be charged an hourly rate for additional time needed.
- Cleanup is the responsibility of the client. Items not removed immediately following the event, will be disposed of with no liability to VENUE 221 and could result in charges against client's damage deposit. The VENUE is not responsible for any lost or stolen items.
- After an event, users must leave the building and grounds clean, and clear of debris and trash and in at least as good condition as it was found at the commencement of the event. Trash must be bagged and removed by the caterer.
- All rental equipment and materials must be removed from the rental area. Rented items must be properly placed in the designated area and ready for pick up. Charges for cleanup and removal may be assessed or deducted from the security deposit if premise is not left clean and clear. See also "Load In | Out".
- VENUE 221 is a non-smoking facility.
- Smoking of cigarettes and cigars may be permitted only in designated outdoor areas and is dependent upon current fire hazard conditions. If permitted, this may be subject to change and will be at the discretion of VENUE ownership based on current or forecasted weather conditions.
- Smoking of any drugs, including marijuana, is not permitted on the premise.
Specialty Staff (Optional)
A minimum of one event staff is required for all events and is included in the VENUE rental fee. Additional personnel may be required based on the event activity and/or layout of the event. VENUE 221 can provide specialty staffing services to assist in the success of your event.
All events must conclude by 11:00pm, with all guests off premise at the contracted time. Vendors need to begin tear down no later than 11:00pm. All equipment for the event must be removed immediately following the event, unless prior arrangements have been made.
Vendor Management
- VENUE 221 must approve all vendors and must receive a list of all participating vendors with appropriate contact information (phone number, email, name of party, etc.) by the 30-day walkthrough. The client is responsible for all vendor activity during the site tours, walkthroughs, setup, event and removal.
- All deliveries must be arranged prior to the event day and the delivery time approved if it falls outside of the contracted rental time.
- All vendors and supplies must be picked up at the conclusion of the event, unless prior arrangements have been made.
- All vendors must load in via designated access points.
- Vendors must begin tear down no later than the set times and be complete by the designated time. If additional time is needed it may be added for a fee. The rate of $400/ hour, not prorated, will apply for additional load in, setup or tear down time. The VENUE may work with the vendor to make arrangements for strike the following day.
Wedding/Event Coordinator
- VENUE 221 requires the use of a wedding/event coordinator for the day of your event. This person will be responsible for overseeing all vendors, taking care of wedding/event details such as timelines and decorations, etc. This can be a "day of" coordinator or a full-service planner of your choice and must be present at the 30-day VENUE walkthrough.
Policies are subject to change without notice.


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Save the date – season 2018
Dear All, Hope you had a lovely holiday season, let's start the new year with some interesting news. Some of you have already contacted me for tours in Venice next summer, but before that, here's a list of things you may find interesting while coming to Venice NOW. Carnival starts January 27th and ends February […]Read More Save the date – season 2018

subset: commoncrawl


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Nephi's Teachings in the Book of Mormon
Noel B. Reynolds
Nephi, son of Lehi, is the dominant figure in the Book of Mormon as we have it today. He is the founding progenitor of the Nephite people. He was their first prophet and ruler, and he was the first, possibly, of the Nephite kings. The Nephite people go by his name, and his successors, after his name, were named first Nephi, second Nephi, third Nephi, and so forth (see Jacob 1:11). This gives us an indication of the central position that Nephi plays in the history of this people, a people who endured over a thousand-year period. A thousand years later, as Mormon sets out to write his own history of the Nephite people, he proudly tells us that he is a pure descendant of Nephi.
Nephi was the first great record keeper of the Nephite people; he incorporated the record of his father into his records, and in the process, he defined both religious and political traditions of the Nephites for centuries to come. He is the most learned man in the Nephite tradition. He was educated at Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon tells us that Nephi's father taught him in "all the learning of the Jews" (1 Nephi 1:2). Nephi brought that Jewish educations and culture with him to the promised land.
I would like to begin our discussion of Nephi, then, with a life sketch. I would like to show what Nephi told us about himself. We would probably know a lot more about Nephi if the first 116 pages of the translation that Joseph Smith was making had not been loaned to Martin Harris and subsequently lost. After the loss of those pages, Joseph Smith was instructed to resort to Nephi's abridgement in the small plates to replace them, but the small plates give only cryptic accounts of the author, and much has to be inferred. Let's read the first verse of the Book of Mormon together and see what Nephi tells us about himself:
I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.
Well, Nephi speaks here of "goodly parents." What do you think of when someone says "goodly parents"? If you go to your Webster's Dictionary, it will tell you that goodly means "good looking." Well, is Nephi telling us that his parents were good looking? If we dig deeper and go to the Oxford English Dictionary, we will find that an older meaning for goodly, and the one that obviously applies here, is "of good quality," "being admirable," or "being excellent at your job"—in this case, at the job of being parents. Nephi thought highly of his parents as parents. And because he had goodly parents, in this sense, Nephi was "taught somewhat in all the learning of [his] father" (1 Nephi 1:1). Nephi explains, a few verses later, that the language of his father, Lehi, consisted of two things: First of all, "the learning of the Jews" (1 Nephi 1:2), as is evidenced quite widely throughout Nephi's writings by Hebrew literary devices that Nephi uses continually; the second component of the language of Lehi, according to Nephi, is "the language of the Egyptians" (1 Nephi 1:2). So Nephi is bilingual. He commands both the Egyptian and Hebrew languages. He also has all the learning that goes with the Hebrew language, an apparatus developed by scholars of the Bible and Hebrew writings over the centuries.
Nephi also says he has suffered many afflictions. We need to understand that he is trying to help us understand him; he is not asking for sympathy or pity. But we need to know that he suffered many afflictions. Through 1 and 2 Nephi, Nephi tells us what those afflictions were. Some come to mind immediately. What do you think of? Laman and Lemuel's murmuring is the most obvious thing, isn't it? And especially since Nephi immediately gets into some stories of conflicts with his brothers. He was put in some very severe situations and suffered greatly because of his brothers. Nephi also refers explicitly to some other things. He indicates that he suffered great personal pain when the Lord answered his prayer and told him what was going to happen to his future descendants, because not only did Nephi see the good things, but he saw that they would eventually fall into complete apostasy and be destroyed. He cites this as his greatest affliction.
Nephi goes on, then, to tell us of the goodness of God. Nephi is someone who is touched by the Spirit of God early in his life. He said that as a result of this, he had "great knowledge of . . . the mysteries of God" (1 Nephi 1:1). Now, when Nephi speaks of mysteries of God here in verse 1, we need to understand that he is not talking about deep, dark teachings about which most people don't know. Nephi explicitly refers to the simple plain and precious truths of Jesus Christ. Why does he call these mysteries? He calls them mysteries because those who are stiff necked and hardhearted cannot be touched by the Spirit of God to understand these plain and precious truths. To them, these truths are mysteries. And that is why Nephi uses this language.
I would like to say just a little bit more about Nephi's education. Lehi, himself, was a learned man, and he had had the best education available in Jerusalem while Nephi was still in his youth. It was the privilege of a wealthy family to hire tutors and scholars to teach the children. You might also ask yourself, If Nephi, the younger son, received this education, what about Laman and Lemuel? We might suspect that they were also educated. When a mother has the idea that her children should have piano lessons, they all get piano lessons. It takes better with some than others, doesn't it? We can see, from the ensuing events in their lives, that the education Nephi and his brothers got wasn't as effective with Laman and Lemuel as it was with Nephi.
We should talk about the family position that Nephi occupies. Because he is such a dominant figure, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that he was the youngest of four sons at the time the family left Jerusalem. There are also sisters mentioned, but not by name. We might suspect that some of them were older than Nephi because there is reason to believe, as Brother Nibley has shown us, that one or more of the sisters of Nephi may have been married to the sons of Ishmael before the departure into the wilderness, making these two families related by marriage. It is also possible that there were sisters in this family who were younger than Nephi. At any rate, it appears that when the two family groups separate when they reach the promised land, some of the sisters of Nephi are described as if they were single, going with Nephi to the new City of Nephi, which Nephi founded.
Being the youngest son is a big problem in this story, because the older sons feel that they have the right to be in charge. As a result, Nephi finds himself in the same difficult position that Joseph, son of Jacob, was in centuries before. Joseph became the ruler and teacher of his family, the chosen son. It [being younger and called to rule over older ones] caused him a lot of trouble. The same goes for Nephi, and we will see that trouble as it develops.
We can note some other interesting things about Nephi. Have you ever stopped to think what a world traveler he was? Very few of us, with all the modern travel systems that we have, have traveled as much as Nephi did. This was an incredible experience by sixth century B.C. standards. First of all, he crossed the full length of the Arabian Peninsula—that is, from the northwest corner of the Peninsula to the southeast corner—on foot! Not many people have done that. Then Nephi supervised the construction of a ship, which they used to cross, first of all, the Indian Ocean. Then they navigated through the complicated island geography of Southeast Asia. Look at a map sometime if you want to see how difficult that journey might have been. And from there, they crossed the world's largest ocean, the Pacific Ocean. Arriving in the Western Hemisphere, Nephi colonized an unknown land. At the time Nephi left Jerusalem, he was one of the younger members of the expedition. When the group arrived in the New World, Nephi was the acknowledged leader of the group.
I would also like to speak briefly about Nephi as a prophet, because Nephi is the preeminent prophet, perhaps the greatest prophet, of the Book of Mormon. At the time he left Jerusalem, Nephi was, as he says, exceedingly young, and he had great desires to know the mysteries of God. Let's look at 1 Nephi 2:16.
Nephi observed his brothers disputing with their father and then saw how their father, with the power of God, was able to quell their rebellion. Nephi wanted to know about these matters. Father Lehi had claimed to receive marvelous revelations, so marvelous that he would walk away from his wealth, his homeland of Jerusalem, and go into the wilderness. This was a great concern to all the sons, for it was also their inheritance that was being abandoned. Look at verse 16:
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers.
And then Nephi goes on in the next verse to tell us that he goes back and tells his older brother Sam what had happened: "And I spake unto Sam making known unto him the things which the Lord had manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit. And it came to pass that he believed in my words" (1 Nephi 2:17). So Sam believes Nephi's experience. Nephi had been touched by the Holy Spirit, and he says that what his father was saying was true. This is the beginning of Nephi's career as a prophet, and he learns to listen to the Holy Spirit as the Lord speaks to him in this manner. As we go on, we will see that Nephi receives many glorious manifestations from the Lord, including many great and important prophecies. Within a few chapters, it will be explained how Nephi asked to see the visions his father had seen. He receives those visions and gives a fairly detailed report of them to us. The longest passages in 1 Nephi are the reports of this great vision.
We should also take a minute to talk about Nephi's career as a ruler. Also in chapter 2, Nephi reports the revelation in which he was to become "a ruler and a teacher" over his brethren (1 Nephi 2:22). After speaking with Sam, Nephi goes to speak to Laman and Lemuel. Going on, we can read this in verse 18: "But, behold, Laman and Lemuel would not hearken unto my words; and being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts I cried unto the Lord for them."
Now, this is Nephi's second experience.
And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me [so he hears the voice of the Lord], saying: Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart. [And now the Lord makes a covenant with Nephi.]
And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands. (1 Nephi 2:19—20)
Now, at this point, Nephi is told that his brothers may rebel against him, and if this happens, they are to be cut off from the presence of God, but the Lord tells Nephi, "Inasmuch as thou shalt keep my commandments, thou shalt be made a ruler and a teacher over thy brethren" (1 Nephi 2:22).
Well, thirty years later, Nephi undertakes to make the small plates. The basic theme of the relationship between the Nephite group and that Lamanite group is the Lamanite claim that Nephi usurped his brothers' right to rule. These accusations are later reduced to a formula that resurfaces throughout Nephite history. When Lamanite armies or apostate Nephite armies seek to justify invasions of Nephite territory, they drag out these accusations. For example, if you will look at Mosiah 10:12, Mosiah records an oral tradition of the Lamanites that perpetuates a specific list of charges. Let's look at those charges.
The first accusation is that Lehi, and maybe Ishmael too, the fathers, were driven out of Jerusalem because of their iniquities. Look at how that contrasts with Nephi's explanation of why they left Jerusalem—a departure based on some glorious revelations, completely ignored and denied in the Lamanite tradition.
The second point in this oral tradition of the Lamanites is that Nephi had wronged them—that is, he had wronged Laman and Lemuel and others of their followers—when he took the lead of the group's journey in the wilderness. The Lamanites acknowledge that Nephi was a leader of the group through the wilderness here but claim that somehow, he had done wrong by taking the lead. You might ask yourself in a private moment how in the world Nephi could take the lead away from those big older brothers. How did they let that happen? Did he trick them somehow? What are they admitting to here? And, of course, Nephi's record tells us how this happened.
The third charge is that Nephi had wronged Laman and Lemuel during the ocean crossing. Compare that claim to the story we get from Nephi.
The fourth charge is that Nephi had wronged them in the land of their first inheritance—this is after they had reached the promised land—by fleeing into the wilderness with the people who would follow him, robbing them of the brass plates, the sword of Laban, the Liahona, and so on. Who did those plates belong to, anyway? Who got the plates? We know the answer because we read the story. Who got the sword of Laban? Well, can you see that 1 Nephi is written as an answer to these claims that the Lamanites and apostate Nephites will later perpetuate over the over the centuries to justify their position?
Nephi's brothers accused him, at one time, of wanting to be a king over them. Later, Nephi's own people desired him to be a king, showing clearly that he had not yet taken the step of becoming a king. Nephi states at that point that he did not want to be king, but we learned later that he anointed his successor to be king. There is a mystery here. Was Nephi a king? Neither Nephi nor anyone else ever states plainly in the record that Nephi officially assumes a monarchical role. Some passages could be read as supporting the view that he never took that step. Remember, there is a certain awkwardness for an Israelite king to occupy that role without being anointed by a prophet. But Lehi was the only prophet who could have anointed Nephi, and it seems that he did not take that step before he dies. How could Nephi do it for himself? We can see how awkward that situation was for Nephi.
If Nephi were not an anointed king, he still filled all the kingly functions for the Nephites until the end of his life, setting a pattern of kingship in Nephite society that would last until the institution of the reign of the judges five hundred years later.
Well, let's bring out one other aspect of Nephi's life. Nephi was a temple builder. Once Nephi had established his own regime in his own city, he undertook to erect a temple, following the model of Solomon's temple at Jerusalem, except Nephi's was not as grandiose, Nephi explains. The [the Nephites] did not have as many rich materials. You need to know that in the ancient Near East, building a temple was an important political symbol, because if a king were divinely approved, he could build a temple for God, and the temple, of course, houses the presence of God. So building a temple is an important political reinforcement of the legitimacy of a regime.
Well, the priestly hierarchy of Nephi's day had gone to great lengths to discourage the building of temples outside Jerusalem. In spite of this fact, archaeologists have now identified a number of sacred sites and temples in outlying areas of Israel. One example, the one most visible for us today, is the Temple of Arad. This structure is up on a hill, completely exposed above ground. We can go into it, walk through the rooms of the temple, see the Holy of Holies, see how it is set up, and imagine how Nephi, at this same general time period, could have been building a similar structure in the New World in the City of Nephi.
The Book of Mormon says very little about the functions of Nephite temples; however, we know they are an important part of Nephite life. We have some examples from the text: besides Nephi's temple, we read about people who were gathered at the temple in Bountiful at the time Jesus appeared to them. They chose the temple as the obvious place to get together; they were there for some specific purpose. Likewise, Benjamin's great sermon was delivered on the temple grounds at Zarahemla. So we have three specific Nephite temples mentioned—all mentioned casually, in passing, without any detailed explanation of how they were being used.
I would like to move now to a discussion of Nephi as a record keeper. The writings of Nephi set the pattern for the people of Nephi for a thousand years, and they provided the basic records underlying the Nephite tradition of writing. The principle records created by Nephi were called the plates of Nephi and are distinguished by us as the large plates of Nephi. (Now, that is not what Nephi called them. That is what we call them, to distinguish them from other plates.) Nephi had received the commandment to make these plates shortly after the family's arrival in the promised land, which was approximately ten to twelve years after Lehi's group left Jerusalem. Any records Nephi was keeping before were kept in some other manner. The plates Mormon used in his compilation were not begun until ten to twelve years after they left Jerusalem. That record, Nephi said, contained the book of Lehi, or Lehi's account. In it Nephi also put the more detailed history of his people, including their wars, contentions, and prophecies (the prophecies of his father and his own prophecies).
This record is passed on from one king to another, becoming the official record of the Nephite people for centuries. Finally, Mormon abridges it to produce the Book of Mormon. However, as I already mentioned, the first 116 pages of translation of this abridgement were lost and not retranslated. Instead, the Lord instructed Joseph Smith to translate Nephi's second record, which covers approximately the same time period as the lost manuscript. What did Nephi call this second record? Do you remember? He calls it by the same name as the first record—the plates of Nephi. It might surprise us that they both have the same name, so we call it the small plates of Nephi so that we can keep the two straight.
When did Nephi start writing the small plates, if he started writing the large plates ten years after departure from Jerusalem? Anybody remember? Thirty years after the departure from Jerusalem, Nephi received a special direction from the Lord. Look in 2 Nephi 5. Nephi was instructed to begin a new record. At this point, Nephi is no longer the exceedingly young man who was being taken from the Jerusalem environment. He is a mature prophet/king in the promised land, probably in his fifties, and certainly in his sixties by the time he finished this record.
It took Nephi ten years to write the first twenty-seven chapters (1 Nephi, plus the first five chapters of 2 Nephi). In 2 Nephi 5:34, he says, "Forty years had passed away." So Nephi gives us a time period in which this was written. He is looking backward. Nephi is already aware of the big contention that has developed between the Nephites and the Lamanites, and this is what he is dealing with in his record. This is not his journal being written by the campfire at the side of the trail as his family went through the Arabian Peninsula. This is something he is writing very carefully, very deliberately, thirty years later, looking back. He is using his first record as a resource and writing with very clear, mature, reflective purposes.
Nephi had two principal purposes for this record, and he points them out to us. Let's look at 2 Nephi 25:23 first, because this is his principal purpose: "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." So his first and principal purpose is to persuade his descendants to believe in Christ. Why? Because man can only be saved through the grace of Christ. He says, "It is by grace that we are saved, after all that we can do."
There is a second purpose articulated in other places in the writing. This is to provide the Nephite people with an unassailable defense against the accusations of the Lamanites and the apostate Nephites. The defense is that it was the Lord who installed Nephi as ruler and teacher, and that on various occasions, Laman and Lemuel had acknowledged and accepted Nephi as their leader. The small plates are carefully written to make these two points on many occasions.
Nephi advances a thesis for this record in 1 Nephi 1:20. Let's go back and look at that together. When you take English, they teach you to use a thesis statement in your essays or papers. Well, Nephi had been similarly instructed, apparently, and in verse 20 he says this: "Behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you [Nephi is speaking to the reader and telling him what he is going to show] that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."
Let's look at some key elements in this thesis: First, the "tender mercies of the Lord." What are the tender mercies of the Lord? Well, Nephi is going to show us. Second, "those chosen because of their faith." To Nephi, faith means obedience, so he means those chosen because of their faith and obedience. What will the Lord do to their people to show his tender mercy" Third, he will "make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." In other word, they will be delivered from the evils that beset them—enemies, troubles, afflictions. Well, Nephi develops this thesis in three different dimensions. When we follow these three dimensions through, we get a much better understanding of this book, 1 Nephi.
In the first dimension, the most obvious, Nephi tells six stories. They are all the same in the general pattern they follow. In each of these six stories, the murmuring of Laman and Lemuel threatens either Lehi or Nephi directly, whose physical welfare is at risk. In each of these stories, Nephi is obedient and faithful, and the Lord delivers him from these dangers by divine power. So we see the power of God delivering Nephi, who is chosen because of his obedience—this shows the tender mercies of God delivering Nephi from these dangers. Let's look briefly at these stories.
In the first story, the murmuring of Laman and Lemuel is confounded by Lehi. This is the story right at the beginning of chapter 2 when Lehi is commanded to lead his family into the wilderness. The family goes into the wilderness, and Laman and Lemuel complain loudly. Lehi speaks to them "with power, being filled with the Spirit, until their frames did shake before him [And] they durst not utter against him; wherefore, they did as he commanded him" (1 Nephi 2:14).
Nephi goes on to explain that in contrast to his brothers, he went and sought the Lord and did not rebel against Lehi like unto his brothers. So this is the first story, and it results in Laman and Lemuel being overcome by the power of the Lord that was given to Lehi as he spoke to them. That is probably the briefest and quickest of the stories, and it features Lehi. The rest will feature Nephi.
The second story begins in chapter 3, as Lehi receives a command from the Lord to send his sons back to Jerusalem for the plates of brass. How did Laman and Lemuel respond to this? They murmured! And so, Lehi sends for Nephi and says, "The Lord has given me a commandment, but your brothers have murmured." How does Nephi respond to this? This is the famous passage where he says: "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" (1 Nephi 3:7).
So, expressing faith and obedience, Nephi responds, and the brothers go back to Jerusalem. Well, it wasn't that easy. Their first two attempts to get the plates fail. Laban chases them off and they fear for their lives. How do Laman and Lemuel respond to this? Well, in their frustration, they take up sticks and they begin to beat Nephi and Sam, their younger brothers, who got them into this. They were going to quit after their first attempt and go home, but they tried again and lost everything. What happens now? Remember what happens at this point in time? An angel appears! What does the angel say? "Stop beating up Nephi. Why are you beating on him?" And then the angel has one more little message to deliver, something that is not exactly welcomed by Laman and Lemuel. Please look at the end of chapter 3, verse 29: "Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him [Nephi] to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities?" How about that! That is an important little verse throughout all of Nephite history, because if the Nephites were ever moved to doubt that Nephi was the rightful ruler, who told them [that he was]? An angel told Laman and Lemuel, who rejected the words of an angel speaking not to someone else, but to them. That is a pretty strong indictment, isn't it? This is the point. Nephi is telling these stories to put these facts in place.
Well, Laman and Lemuel decide to let Nephi take the lead, and the Lord delivers Laban into the hands of Nephi. The brothers successfully acquire the plates and return to their father's tent in the wilderness. So, divine intervention delivers them from Laban and his fifty. The great fear they have of this military leader [Laban] proves to be for naught.
Well, in the third story, Lehi receives a command for his sons to return to Jerusalem again, this time to bring Ishmael and his family down into the wilderness with them. This is so they might have more people and wives for Lehi's sons so they can start a colony in the promised land. This all went without incident. Ishmael said, "Sure!" and down they went. But during the return to camp, Laman and Lemuel recruit the sons of Ishmael to assist them in rebelling against Nephi again. Now, what does Nephi understand his role to be this time? Is he to stand idly by when these guys do bad things? What has the Lord appointed him to be? A ruler and a teacher. He is responsible, and so he stands up, younger brother notwithstanding, and calls them to repentance. They don't like it! They don't like it at all!
Enraged, they bind him with cords and, with murderous intent, left him to be eaten by wild beats. Nephi prays to the Lord for deliverance, his bonds are miraculously loosened, and he stands before his brothers a second time. Has he learned his lesson? Is he intimidated? Is he going to quit this ruler/teacher business? No! He starts right in again. Nephi is obedient. He trusts the Lord. He angers them again, and as they set on him a second time, the women intervene and soften the heart of Nephi's brothers to the point that they actually bow down and beg his forgiveness. So now you have the picture of Nephi standing here with his brothers bowing down and begging for his forgiveness. Who is usurping leadership here? Did he do it? See that they voluntarily bowed before Nephi is the point to that story.
In the fourth story, the group is crossing the wilderness of the Arabian Peninsula, moving toward the promised land. As Nephi and his brothers are hunting for food to sustain their families, Nephi's steel bow is broken. It is obvious this bow is a major source of food for them. Food runs out without this tool and general murmuring develops throughout the camp. Only Nephi holds completely faithful. Even Lehi succumbs to the murmuring! This is a turning point in the story, the point when Nephi emerges as the leader of the entire expedition. Nephi remains faithful. He makes new hunting weapons. He seeks the Lord's guidance, through his father and the compass (which had ceased to work during the murmuring). Lehi repents sincerely, as do the others. The compass then works and directs Nephi to find food. All are grateful and rejoice.
But this is a double story, because murmuring breaks out again with the death of Ishmael. Laman and Lemuel plot with Ishmael's sons to kill Lehi and Nephi. They aren't going to beat Lehi and Nephi up and put them behind a bush. They plot to kill the pair, to take their lives, so they can return to Jerusalem. The problem, from their point of view, is Nephi and Lehi, not their own wickedness or disobedience. They justify themselves in this by claiming that Nephi had wrongly appointed himself as their ruler and teacher, just a short time after the angel had told them the truth himself. They claim Nephi is lying when he says angels have ministered unto him, and that he has received visions from the Lord.
Well, this notion of Nephi as a liar is passes down to the Lamanite descendants, but who is lying? See, we know the story from Nephi's point of view. We know who is lying about this. In this extremity, what happens? How is Nephi delivered this time? The voice of the Lord speaks directly to the rebels. The Lord has sent them an angel and now speaks to Laman and Lemuel in his own voice and successfully chastens them, and Lehi and Nephi are delivered from this threat upon their lives. They repent and the group is blessed with food so that they do not perish. Again, they are delivered.
The fifth story begins after they reach the land of Bountiful by the sea where there is plenty to eat—fruit, honey. The Lord tells Nephi to go up unto the mountain and pray. Nephi prays, and the Lord commands him to build a ship to carry his people across the oceans to the promised land. Have these people ever seen a ship before? These people are desert people. Laman and Lemuel are amazed that Nephi thinks he can build a ship. Nephi was probably amazed to think that he could build a ship! He trust the Lord and tells his brothers he needs their labor. This puts Laman and Lemuel in a power position again, because without their help, Nephi can't do it. Laman and Lemuel think, "So, exercise your power and don't to it!" They refuse. Well, Nephi gets very discouraged about all this, and they are thrilled to see him discouraged. Again, they decide to kill him, so they rush to grab him to throw him over a cliff into the sea.
At this point, Nephi responds to their threat. (Compare their situation to the Israelites who were led out of Egypt, under the inspired leadership of Moses, who expresses complete dismay with their hard heartedness. As Laman and Lemuel rush upon him, Nephi stops them and warns them that he is filled with the power of God, and if they touch him, they will "wither as . . .dried reed[s]" (1Nephi 17:48). There must have been something in Nephi's countenance that convinced his brothers that maybe he was telling the truth, so they backed off and began to work for him. They worked for several days. Finally the voice of the Lord spoke to Nephi and said "Reach out and touch them," and when he did, they were shocked, but not injured. It convinced Laman and Lemuel that Nephi had been telling the truth. What did they do at this time? They fell on their faces before him to worship him. So again, we have this image of Nephi with his brothers paying obeisance to him, choosing him to be their leader and acknowledging his role.
One more story. This sixth story occurs while the group was crossing the ocean. Bored with the journey, Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael have a party. They begin to entertain themselves, to revel, or to "make themselves merry," as the scripture says (see 1 Nephi 18:9). They lapse into such great "rudeness," as Nephi calls it, that Nephi feared the Lord would condemn and destroy all for this misconduct. As ruler and teacher, Nephi again stands and rebukes them. Again, they reject his leadership—one time, two times, three times, four times, five times, they have been persuaded to accept him. The sixth time, they reject him again. The learning curve here is making no progress at all. The Lord stops the compass from working and sends a great typhoon that threatens to sink the ship. Frightened by impending death, Laman and Lemuel free Nephi, who is in terrible shape from being tied up so so long. Nephi prays and is answered by the ending of the storm. He takes the helm, the compass works, and he guides the ship safely to the promised land. Again, they are all delivered because of Nephi's obedience.
So, that is one dimension of 1 Nephi of the way Nephi defends his thesis that "the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance" (1 Nephi 1:20). The second dimension in which Nephi develops his thesis is his teaching that through the atonement of Christ, all who will come unto Him can be delivered from death, hell, and the devil, the true enemies of God's children. While the Lord's servants may be required to suffer many afflictions in this life and are certainly not delivered from all pain and suffering, the repentant will be delivered completely from their sins through the mighty power of Jesus' atonement. So, in this second dimension, Nephi sees this as always and completely true. That, of course, is the main sense for which his thesis is intended—this gospel sense that all men can come unto Christ and be saved from their sins.
Nephi goes further and develops his thesis in a third dimension, the dimension of prophecy. He develops the accounts that are given him, to his father Lehi, to Isaiah, and to other prophets, which accounts talk about a future day in which the Lord will "[make] bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations" (1 Nephi 22:10—11). Until that time, the Lord is working through people, and people can say, as Laman and Lemuel say, "You are not inspired. The Lord is not speaking unto you. You are making this up. Joseph Smith did not receive revelation"—whatever you want to say. But the day will come, according to these prophecies of Nephi, Lehi, and others, that the whole world will be able to see that these claims are valid. The Lord will "make bare his arms in the eyes of all the nations," for though the nations of the world may combine against the saints of God who are scattered throughout the earth, as Nephi reports in his vision, the power of God will at that time descend on His faithful people, and they will be protected by His power. They will be saved, even if necessary, as by fire.
This third dimension of prophecy is very important to Nephi, and he returns four times in 1 and 2 Nephi to the discussion of these particular prophecies to explain how it is that even though the Lord has made this great covenant with the house of Israel from the time of Abraham down to the present time, and even though Israel is being scattered throughout every nation—as Nephi explicitly says, "upon all the face of the earth"—and throughout the islands of the sea, the day will come when the Lord will fulfill that covenant and will bring Israel back to him. And it will be through the power of this great restoration of the gospel, of which the Book of Mormon itself will be a part.
Now I want to turn to the important pattern for gospel teaching that Nephi set in the Nephite tradition, because the pattern that Nephi sets up is a pattern that is followed by all the Nephite prophets thereafter. In the next lecture, after this one that concerns Nephi's teachings, we will look in detail at the way Nephi taught the gospel, and we will see that he identified a six-point formula, or pattern, that could be used to present the gospel, or doctrine, of Jesus Christ in a variety of ways.
Nephi and his brother Jacob apparently spoke of the gospel of Jesus Christ by the name of the "doctrine of Christ" (see 2 Nephi 31:2, 21; 32:6; Jacob 7:2, 6). They used these two terms for the teaching of Christ interchangeably (see Jacob 7:6). The elements of this teaching were presented by Joseph Smith in a shortened form, in the Wentworth Letter, as the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. They are: First, faith in Jesus Christ. We are to believe in Him and to obey Him. Second, to repent of all our sins, coming down into the depths of humility. Third, to be baptized by water. Here, Nephi gives us distinctive understanding about the meaning of baptism, for he represents our being baptized as a witness that we make, a witness to the Father, as we do when we take the sacrament, that we are willing to take upon us the name of Christ and to always keep His commandments, and that we are to remember Him always.
Once having made that covenant, through baptism, and repentance, Nephi says we will receive that cleansing power that brings the remission of sins and the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, who witnesses to us that the Father has accepted our repentance and our covenant. Nephi further explains that the Holy Ghost brings specific knowledge that it is the Word of God to individuals, that the Holy Ghost will show us "all things what [we] should do" (2 Nephi 32:5). So Nephi's fifth point is that with the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we can endure to the end. That is a fifth principle for Nephi, and he says that without enduring to the end, we cannot be saved. All who endure to the end will be saved, and that is the sixth point in his formula—eternal life or salvation.
Nephi was indeed the dominant figure in the Book of Mormon., in the record, in the history, and in the teaching of the gospel. I bear my testimony that Nephi was, as he claimed, a great prophet of God and that the things he taught are true, and are as true for us today are they were for his own descendants. They are as important for us today are they were for them. And as Nephi was promised, the Book of Mormon now becomes the means by which the fullness of the everlasting gospel can be sent forth throughout all the earth in preparation for that great day of the Lord that Nephi, his father, Isaiah, and other great prophets testified of. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


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Jantei Monogatari 3: Saver Angels (TurboGrafx CD)
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100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
User Score
5 point score based on user ratings.
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DescriptionThe events of Saver Angels take place after those described in the previous installment of the series, when peace on Earth has already been restored thanks to the efforts of Divan and Marie. Three cosmic spirits have lost their way in space and have to descend onto Earth, taking corporeal form. They enter the bodies of three young women who died recently: one in a traffic accident, another from disease, and the third one - a ten-year-old girl - after committing suicide. All three were avid mahjong players, and all three are now revived and endowed with mysterious mahjong powers. A special Mahjong Academy opens, and the Saver Angels (as the group begins calling itself) is ready to defeat any aliens and demons in that ancient Chinese game.
Saver Angels restores adventure elements that were absent from the previous game, and even enhances them. The player is now able to move in first-person perspective by pointing and clicking on a spot on the screen. Exploring locations, the player triggers scenes, which in turn lead to mahjong games. A special "mahjong mode" allows the player to choose an opponent from the story mode and challenge her (or him) to a mahjong match right away.
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Alternate Titles
- "雀偵物語3 セイバーエンジェル" -- Japanese spelling
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Unicorn Lynx (181684) added Jantei Monogatari 3: Saver Angels (TurboGrafx CD) on Mar 19, 2012
Tōko Asagami (麻上筒子):
Character Design (キャラクターデザイン):
Ai Orikasa (折笠 愛)Masumi Asamiya (麻宮萬純):
Yuri Shiratori (白鳥由里)Saki Asao (麻尾索紀):
Satomi Kōrogi (こおろぎさとみ)Chonpo (チョンボ):
Wataru Takagi (高木 渉)Yekaterina (エカテリーナ):
Junko Asami (麻見順子)Six Witches of the Orient (東洋の魔女6姉妹):
Wakana Yamazaki (山崎和佳菜)Principal Maria (麻莉亜校長):
Kumiko Takizawa (滝沢久美子)Charlotte (シャルロット):
Kumiko Nishihara (西原久美子)Adonis (アドニス):
Sho Hayami (速見 奨)Rampling (ランプリング):
Kotono Mitsuishi (三石琴乃)Ring Announcer (リングアナ):
Nobuyuki Furuta (古田信幸)Prince Arthur (アーサー王子):
Toshiyuki Morikawa (森川智之)Alice (アリス):
Yuko Mizutani (水谷優子)Uldora (ウラドラー):
Rin Mizuhara (水原リン)Narrator (ナレーター) :
Kenyu Horiuchi (堀内賢雄)
Character Design (キャラクターデザイン):
Noritaka Suzuki (鈴木典孝)Original Art (原画):
Noritaka Suzuki (鈴木典孝)Animation Producer (アニメーションプロデューサー):
Fumikazu Matsumoto (松元文一)Scenario (脚本):
Shunpei Tarui (Studio OX [樽井俊平 <スタジオOX>])Audio Director (音響監督):
Hideyuki Tanaka (Audio Tanaka [田中英行 <オーディオ タナカ>])Storyboards (ストーリーボード):
Nagashi Tare (垂 永士)Mechanical Design (メカニックデザイン):
Gorō Murata (村田護郎)Special Animators (スペシャルアニメーター):
Tatsufumi Tamagawa (Studio Cockpit [玉川達文 <スタジオコクピット>]), Yoshihiko Umakoshi (Studio Cockpit [馬越嘉彦 <スタジオコクピット>]), Shunsaku Kamitsuna (上婁晋作)


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A medical tricorder is a handheld portable scanning device to be used by consumers to self-diagnose medical conditions within seconds and take basic vital measurements.
Device should be able to do the following:
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– show ongoing personal health metrics such as heart rate.
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The vital signs are obtained from a gentle touch with the left hand on the Scanadu Vitals device touching the left side of the forehead. All measurements are sent via Bluetooth LE to the user's smartphone. The information is designed to be displayed, stored and shared via the Scanadu app.
The first edition of the device, named Scanadu ScoutTM is now being tested.
Scanadu Urine is a urine test kit designed for people to check for several health conditions by measuring the levels of chemicals (glucose, creatinine, protein, leukocytes, nitrites, blood, bilirubin, urobilinogen, ketone, specific gravity, microalbumin and pH) in a urine sample.


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Mind Matrix Review | Best Brain Supplements
Mind Matrix is a nootropic supplement that was made to help provide people with a natural alternative to stimulants that normally help them stay motivated through their work day. These stimulants can cause many negative side effects that are completely avoidable with the use of supplements like nootropics. Read about the best memory supplements here, Top 10 Brain Supplements.
Benefits Of Mind Matrix
- Improves focus
- Increases concentration
- Support memory
What Is Mind Matrix?
Mind Matrix is a nootropic supplement that is designed to help you achieve your maximum potential throughout your workday. Nootropics are usually made up of natural ingredients that have been used by eastern medicine for thousands of years. These herbs have been shown to help provide people with a wide variety of different positive health benefits.
These brain supplements help substitute your unhealthy routines with an all-natural solution. Many people utilize stimulants like caffeine, energy drinks, and nicotine in order to help them get through their day. These stimulants can provide a wide variety of negative side effects. The most common negative side effect people experience is the all too popular crash.
Some people go as far as to utilize illegal prescription drugs like Adderall in order to be able to stay up late and be as focused as possible. These drugs can be incredibly dangerous for people who are not prescribed them. In addition to the health aspect, people risk problems with the law by abusing these drugs. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through when there are natural brain supplements readily available.
How Does Mind Matrix Work?
Mind Matrix works by utilizing ingredients that are meant to help do one of a few things. Nootropics can help boost the amount of important neurotransmitters for learning and memory. They can also help boost brain health by utilizing specific vitamins and minerals meant to help improve cognitive health.
Mind Matrix Ingredients
Ginkgo Biloba: This natural herb has been used for thousands of years by eastern medicine in order to help people cure a wide variety of different ailments. It comes from one of the oldest tree species on the planet, the maidenhair tree. In modern science, we have seen that Ginkgo is mainly responsible for increasing oxygen/nutrient enriched blood throughout the body.
Acetyl L-Carnitine: This is an amino acid that is mainly responsible for converting choline, to the powerful neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is the most important neurotransmitter for learning and memory. Keeping acetylcholine in your brain is crucial for staying sharp and keeping your memories in tip-top condition. Neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's have been shown to be directly related low levels of acetylcholine in the brain.
St John's Wort: While once believed to be able to cure depression, modern studies have not been able to back up that claim. However, St. John's Wort is beneficial for elevating mood and also helping keep your brain free of distractions related to anxiety.
L-Glutamine: This amino acid works to boost your energy and mental stamina while helping alleviate stress.
DMAE: DMAE can help increase your mental stamina keeping you focused for long periods of time.
Vinpocetine: This ingredient comes from the periwinkle plant and is responsible for helping improve blood circulation, decrease anxiety levels, and help support memory.
Phosphatidylserine: This nutrient supports cellular signaling and messaging throughout the brain, helping elevate your cognitive functioning.
Pros of Mind Matrix
- Affordable
- Amounts of each ingredient are specified
- 90-day money back guarantee
Cons of Mind Matrix
- Some negative side effects
- No evidence to back up their claims
- No free trial
Mind Matrix Conclusion
Overall, Mind Matrix is a nootropic that has an identical ingredient list to many other nootropics on the market. Due to the fact it's so similar to other products, it is kind of worrying to see it not get that great of reviews online. For the strongest and highest rated memory supplements, view our list of Top 10 Brain Supplements.


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Is LGBT a Culture or a Curse?
Somebody stumbled upon my blog by searching this question. I thought about it and figured that it deserved a bit more attention than just a smirk.
First, I can't even wrap my head around it. LGBT as a culture. I would call it more a community than a culture. Let's ask google.
"… the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively…."
"..Culture is our way of life. It includes our values, beliefs, customs, languages and traditions…."
"…Culture is a word for people's 'way of life', meaning the way groups do things…"
It looks to me that LGBT is not a way of life or how groups do things. It is not a culture, it is not a way of life, and it definitely is not a lifestyle.
If LGBT is a culture, then Straight should be a culture. No matter how you look, that is not a culture. There is a bunch of LGBT people who hang out together, have events, have celebrations, have a " community" where everybody is welcomed.
In this day and age there are still people who have no clue about so many things. I do not want to be rude or disrespectful but, dear people, there is google and if you really want to be sure and find facts, please educate yourself.
It still blows my mind that there are people who do not know that:
Homosexuality is not the same as pedophilia
Psychologist is not the same as psychiatrist
Sexual orientation is not a choice but religion is.
Canadians actually speak English and not Canadian
Gays are amazing parents because they choose parenthood. It is planned and wanted.
You can't raise gay kids. It is not something you can teach somebody. They are born that way.
Calories are not the same. 1,000 burger calories will make you obese. 1,000 salad calories will probably make you just nauseous as it is a lot of greens.
Most of diseases are caused by stress and food you eat and not genetics.
We, humans, are causing global warming. Go read some scientific proof. It is not a myth.
Life is just a dream….
And just to let you know,
– I am gay but I do not have a gay life. I have a life.
– I am not having a gay job. I have a job.
– I do not have a gay marriage. I am married to a wonderful person and I share my life with them. We do laundry, we shop, we go on vacation, we sponsor kids in third world countries, we buy presents for friends and relatives, we renovate, we argue, we yell, we laugh, we agree and we disagree, and etc…
– My friends are not gay friends. I have friends from every walk of life – different age, different gender, different sexual orientation, and different faith. I do not choose friends based on their sexual orientation. I choose my friends based on their personalities and their values.
– I have a car, I do not have a gay car.
– We have a cat and she is not a gay cat.
– I pay taxes. I do not pay gay taxes.
And, just to sum up, nothing is a curse. It is just life. Things happen, but you are the one who determines if it is bad or good. Your attitude defines everything. So, LGBT is a curse only and only if you see it that way and most likely it is because you have surrounded yourself with bad people. There are bad people and good people everywhere – in every country, in every community, in every city, in every family.


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Once targeted by national Republicans as the U.S. Senate's most vulnerable Democratic incumbent, Sen. Mary Landrieu defeated GOP state Treasurer John Kennedy on Tuesday to claim a third term. Landrieu, who won by narrow margins in 1996 and 2002, survived another tight race against the backdrop of the diminished Democratic base of pre-Katrina New Orleans.
|Mary Landrieu's Speech
Landrieu told supporters gathered at Hotel Intercontinental in New Orleans, just miles from the home where she grew up the eldest daughter of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu.
With her victory, Landrieu joins a widening Democratic majority in the Senate. Precise party breakdowns were not determined late Tuesday night, but available results heralded a strong day nationally for the party, headlined by President-elect Barack Obama's victory over Sen. John McCain.
As Kennedy predicted in the waning days of his failed bid, Democrats will have control of both the legislative and executive branches in Washington, for the first time since Republicans took over Capitol Hill after the 1994 mid-term elections.
It will not be the first time Landrieu has worked under one-party government -- Republicans held the advantage briefly after the 2000 elections -- but it will be the first time hers is the party in charge.
Kennedy, now a two-time loser in Senate races, once under each major party's label, will return to the state Capitol to continue his third term as treasurer.
Kennedy said in a concession speech before disappointed Republicans in Baton Rouge.
The campaign played out largely as Landrieu's team quietly sketched out months ago, when the National Republican Senatorial Committee declared her their top target in what was then a well-publicized bid to regain the majority.
With a $3 million campaign kitty at the start of the year on her way to raising more than $10 million for the race, Landrieu used her money advantage to wage a hard-nosed campaign against Kennedy from the start.
She hammered her opponent on his change of parties and sometimes-changing positions on issues, labeling Kennedy "one confused politician," while touting her experience as centrist who can build bridges and work with Democrats and Republicans to get things done for Louisiana.
She said her seniority will help the state get more federal money for hurricane recovery, while arguing that Kennedy could not do the same as a freshman.
She reminded voters that she worked with Republican lawmakers to pass a bill that will give the state 37.5 percent of future oil and gas revenues from offshore rigs, with the payoff estimated at more than $40 billion in the coming years.
She also said that she got the Senate to go along with legislation to open an additional 8.3 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for drilling. Landrieu also said she has "delivered for the state," bagging billions of dollars for recovery after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
Kennedy, meanwhile, kept pace in money collections for the first two quarters of the year on his way to a $6 million-plus haul, but he was never able to close a gap that became obvious in late summer.
During those months Kennedy typically was able to air no more than one statewide television ad at a time, the first simply introducing himself to voters as a fiscal conservative.
At the same time, Landrieu was able to finance both positive ads framing her record and attack spots reminding voters that Kennedy has run unsuccessfully for other offices as a Democrat. The most recent was his 2004 Senate race as a Democrat, running to the left of centrist U.S. Rep. Chris John.
That race was claimed by David Vitter, a Republican who along with former White House political director Karl Rove helped persuade Kennedy to take on Landrieu.
When Kennedy first hit Landrieu with a negative ad, he had to suspend his campaign's positive spot, waiting until much later than Landrieu to air multiple commercials at the same time.
Those disadvantages made it more difficult for Kennedy to establish his message that Landrieu was part of a corrupted lawmaking process in the nation's capital.
"If you want to change the Senate, you've got to change the senator," he said at most campaign stops.
Whenever he or the National Republican Senatorial Committee ramped up attacks, Democrats were ready with the NRSC's opposition research from 2004, when the group cast Kennedy in the part of irresponsible liberal.
Kennedy also gained little traction in his effort to make the Senate race an extension of the presidential match-up, a strategy explained by McCain's comfortable lead over Obama in Louisiana polls.
When the Republican trumpeted his support for McCain and Landrieu's backing of Obama, Landrieu reminded Kennedy that he supported John Kerry for president in 2004; and she insisted that the Senate race "is between us."
Along the way, she was buoyed by endorsements from several Republicans, including former Gov. David Treen, St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis; Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand and St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain.
Strain even appeared in a television commercial for Landrieu, who was backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups generally associated with GOP candidates.
Landrieu said in an interview during the campaign that she expected the race to be her easiest "but not easy."
In recent polls, Landrieu led Kennedy by double digits, in one case by as much as 19 points, numbers that the Kennedy campaign discounted and margins that she hasn't come close to reaching before.
Running in 1996 for the seat left open by the retirement of J. Bennett Johnston, she squeaked past then-state Rep. Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, by 5,788 votes in an election that spawned claims of voter fraud and a congressional review before Landrieu eventually was seated.
Running for re-election six years later, Landrieu defeated then-state Commissioner of Elections Suzanne Haik Terrell of New Orleans, by 42,012 votes, or 52 percent to 48 percent.
Ed Anderson can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or 225.342-5810. Bill Barrow can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or (225) 342-5590.


text:
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My article on using CSS to create zoom layouts for low-vision people is now up at A List Apart. <http://www.alistapart.com/articles/lowvision/> It seems like a useful technique that I hope, but do not expect, WAI will endorse. -- Joe Clark | firstname.lastname@example.com Accessibility <http://joeclark.org/access/> Expect criticism if you top-postReceived on Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:12:14 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 13 October 2015 16:21:30 UTC


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Ooi Tang Xuan
"Tang Xuan has joined Heguru for more than a year. She was very slow in absorbing new information and she is always slow in reaction and cannot focus. For instance, it took two days for her to remember a new word. Thus, I have chosen to send her to Heguru and was hoping to improve her learning ability and critical thinking.
This program is very beneficial in improving her learning ability and developing her critical thinking. She becomes more focus, able to absorb new information, and more sociable. I am very impressed with her analytical skills.
She is now more creative and she is very good in arts and crafts. She also loves to lead and present herself. I think this program could potentially shape her brain potential and brings her a better future."
~ Tang Xuan's father


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We haven't had time to paint or anything yet, so it's pretty white, but we're hoping to find some time in the new couple of weeks to get some color on walls. I don't know if it's because it's bigger, or because we care about this place more than the old one, but it seems to stay a lot cleaner. It also helps to have a built in desk area (which I didn't take a picture of) to hold all of my paper and printers and stuff. We're also enjoying having our couch back to it's usual L shape, instead of as two separate couches. Anyways, here are some pictures. There's none of the bathroom or the bedroom...so...sorry. Those things don't really belong on here...and plus, the bedroom's a pit.
This is as wide as I could get with the lens...part of the living room, sitting area, sunroom, and kitchen.
The kitchen and part of the sunroom back there.
Nate watching George Lopez. Our nightly routine.
Yay! A hallway!
Nate in the living room, and part of our other little sitting area.
Look at those girly eyes...
Nate and the babies. Look at Bean's leg. Cracks me up.
Me and my baby girls


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Bill Thayer
The very name of the Iowa abbey, New Melleray, like the names New York and New Mexico, indicates that it has a bond or a relationship with a previous place of a similar name. Its connections as well as its roots go back far and deep, first, to old Melleray in France, and later to Mount Melleray in Ireland.
The ancient abbey of Melleray near Nantes on the northwest coast of France had been founded when the Cistercian Order was in the flower of its first development, and had been visited by St. Bernard of Clairvaux himself in 1142, eight years after its inception. Two of the founding brothers, spending the night in the forest, found in the hollow trunk of the tree under which they slept, a honeycomb, which supplied them with the food they desperately needed. This hollow tree marked the spot of the site of their new monastery, Meilleraie, which means honeycomb, and which in the long course of time has become Melleray.
The abbey flourished for hundreds of years, was reformed by the austere renovations emanating from La Trappe in the seventeenth p17 century and at the time of the French Revolution in 1791 was a strongly established monastery. Suppressed by the tyrants of the Directory in that year,a it was soon raided and pillaged by the revolutionary soldiery. Some of the monks were imprisoned and others went into exile, a few reaching La Val Sainte in Switzerland with Dom Augustin de Lestrange, and the vacant and silent structure of Melleray lay stunned in mournful loveliness, a prey of the winds and storms of Brittany.1
Then, in the continued course of the dangerous and exciting years of the Revolution and later during Napoleon's meteoric ascendency, a couple of these monks along with a few others from La Trappe and other destroyed Cistercian monasteries of France, while refugees in England, established a Cistercian monastery there. That splendid old Catholic family of the Welds made a handsome offer of land to them in Dorset, and assisted them in erecting their new home near their own castle of and a •half mile from the sea coast. Their foundation grew: other French refugees and a number of zealous English converts entered the order as novices and soon became full-fledged Trappists, in this first Cistercian house in England since the monstrous destruction of the monasteries by Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII.
Not long-lived was this abbey, known as St. Susan's, in the bigoted England of that day. Its progress and its conversions aroused prejudices and suspicions, and finally the British Prime Minister restricted the novitiate entirely to Frenchmen. He further demanded that as the members of the community had been tolerated in England only as French refugees they should return to France as soon as possible. This was complied with and in 1817 the dauntless abbot, Dom Antoine de Beauregard, — now that Napoleon was on St. Helena and the Bourbon monarch, Louis XVIII was on the throne — led his members, Frenchmen and Englishmen alike to the now hospitable shores of France. And here the Melleray thread of Iowa Trappist history once p18 again is taken up, but before it is further unravelled, an interesting word must be said to American readers about Lulworth and the grand triple-centuried Lulworth Castle.
The Lulworth monastic house, whose ruined cloister walls still stand around the green sward of the brothers' cemetery, became through the exile of its sons the parent house of six distinct monasteries: two in France, one of which was the revived Melleray; one in Ireland, Mount Melleray; one in England, Mount St. Bernard; and two in the United States, Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown in Kentucky and Our Lady of New Melleray at Dubuque in Iowa.
Lulworth Castle is further related to the United States in that its chapel was the locale of the consecration of the first bishop of the young American republic in 1790 — Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore.
On the 17th of July, 1817, on board the beautiful government frigate, La Revanche, which had been appointed by the French king for their voyage, Abbot de Beauregard and his peaceful band of Cistercian monks sailed into the harbor of Nantes and landed on the soil of France. The only monasteries left standing in that country after the hurricane of the French Revolution had swept by were the buildings of Melleray and the Grand Chartreuse. Dom de Beauregard could have bought the Grand Chartreuse but disliked its cold and bleak situation in the lonely Alpine valley. He succeeded in purchasing Melleray from several parties and received as a gift from a pious lady a farm attached to it. Earlier in that same year Dom Augustin of La Val Sainte had hoped to buy this abbey for his Trappist monks.
Again did this ancient abbey of Melleray begin to flourish. The first person to present himself for admission into the novitiate was a sailor from the frigate, La Revanche. So impressed had he been by the courage and holy demeanor of the religious brotherhood which he had helped escort back from English exile that he had raised sufficient funds to secure his discharge from the naval service and had come directly to the abbey-gate of Melleray to solicit admission. Within a few years the numbers grew rapidly and the silent corridors, the church and the gardens were peopled with industrious monks. To facilitate the religious life and exercises of the two national groups at the abbey, — the one of Frenchmen, not other of Irishmen and Englishmen — Dom Antoine made use on weekdays p19 of two Chapter Rooms, each under a different Father Master, where the brothers could accuse themselves in their own language; but on Sundays they met in common in one Chapter Room with the abbot who spoke both languages fluently. Much of the soil of their property was stony and sterile. Upon these fields they applied their skill learned from the improved methods of English farming, introducing new types of plows and the first threshing machine ever used in Brittany. The backward farmers of that part of France imitated these experiments with a great degree of success; and the high proficiency of farming on the rich Iowa soil which later was always to accompany the work of the Dubuque monks at New Melleray can be traced back to these skilled agricultural methods introduced at this time at old Melleray.
The gifted abbot, Dom Antoine de Beauregard, restored at Melleray the Rule of St. Benedict as it had originally been written. Eschewing some of the excessively strict regulations that had crept into the order by way of Dom Augustin, he preserved the correct austerity of the contemplative life as it had been practiced by Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Stephen Harding. Under his wise leadership the community grew from fifty-nine to one hundred and ninety‑two members. Then came the 1830 revolution which put Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans, on the throne and brought trial and near-calamity to both La Trappe, which had built itself up after Napoleon's downfall, and to Melleray, as well as to other houses of the Cistercian order. This revolutionary anti-clericalism had pursued Father Joseph Cretin at Ferney, where a mob had broken into the convent of Carmelite nuns and attempted to wreck his college; he had refused to pray for the "King of the French" after his Masses, and because of the government's persistent opposition he had been happy to come to Iowa with Bishop Mathias Loras.
But the attack of the revolutionary government on Melleray had been, if not so violent, much more formidable. Dom Antoine de Beauregard had correctly read the signs of the approaching storm as soon as the revolutionary change of government had taken place in Paris in July, 1830. As the Archbishop of Dublin in Ireland had recently solicited the establishment of a Trappist foundation in Ireland, and as Abbot Antoine had received offers of handsome supply of funds from Irish persons "of both sexes" for this purpose, the abbot quickly made plans for such a venture. He immediately sent p20 the prior of Melleray Abbey, Father Vincent Ryan, and another monk, Father Malachy, to Ireland to exploit this design.
As Dom Antoine expected, the storm finally broke, and in August of 1831 the French departmental prefect secured a governmental arrest by the power of which the religious community of Melleray was suppressed and dissolved. Dom Antoine had been a friend of the family of the overthrown king, Charles X, and so the new revolutionary government, making use of an old ordinance dating from Napoleon's time, was vindictively determined to abolish the community. Late in September, more than six hundred soldiers of horse, foot and gendarmerie surrounded the abbey and went through the formal motions of a siege. For the next seven or eight weeks an opera bouffe warfare was carried on by the military against the passive — and in many instances, highly amused — monks. Abbot Antoine was courteous, but firm in his resistance which he based on his rights as a free French citizen. But later when the troops with bayonets and bared sabers reinvested the abbey, the abbot and his French brothers put on civilian attire and discontinued the religious exercises until an appeal could be made to the courts.
However, as a large number of the Melleray Cistercians were Irishmen and Englishmen — British subjects — the English consul at Nantes entered into the fray on their behalf. They had been forcibly expelled from the monastery because they were foreigners, and ordered to depart from France. Confined to the St. James military prison at Nantes they were put on a bread and water diet and were refused permission to attend Sunday Mass. Mr. Newman, the English consul, protested in energetic terms, and pointed out that as the French government had, fifteen years before, conveyed the British Cistercians from England to France, it should now that it was expelling them from its shores be responsible for their return journey to their own country. The government agents immediately seized on this proposal as a safe avenue out of their embarrassment and arranged for a vessel in which the religious could sail.
Sixty-four of the British monks chose Ireland as their destination, and at the end of November a French sloop of war, the Hebe, departed with them from St. Nazaire for Cork, Ireland. Fifteen English Cistercian brothers remained at Nantes, and Mr. Newman arranged for their accommodations under his own protection. A number of them were soon to depart for England where they were to assist in the p21 foundation of Mount St. Bernard's monastery, which was to be a filiate of Melleray Abbey and a granddaughter of Lulworth. In fact, one of the members of old St. Susan's, Lulworth, — Father Benedict Johnson — who had gone to Melleray in 1817, became superior and prior of Mount St. Bernard's. This was likewise the case of the first abbot, Bernard Palmer, who had been first at Lulworth and then at Melleray.
Melleray itself, after the shouting and the rude jostling of the new government's prefects and politicians had died down, was left in the quiet possession of Dom Antoine and the remnant of his religious. Crippled in its exercises for a few years, the old abbey soon again became crowded with novices and postulants. By the year 1848 it was full to overflowing with almost two hundred members. Then Louis Napoleon began to loom in the offing, another revolution was on the way, and Melleray sent a number of its sons to Kentucky in America, to establish the Gethsemani foundation just one year before the New Melleray monastery was opened at Dubuque in Iowa by other Cistercians who came from Melleray by way of Ireland.
Meanwhile, on the first of December, 1831, the French war‑ship, Hebe, had arrived in the Cork harbor of Cobh in Ireland, and the sixty-four persecuted Trappists on deck were received with a tremendous welcome by the inhabitants, whose enthusiasm and uproarious joy struck the French sailors with great astonishment. The penniless exiles were embraced with warmth and generous hospitality. The prior of Melleray, Father Vincent Ryan, who with Father Malachy had been sent by the far‑seeing Dom Antoine de Beauregard to Ireland about a year before, had after many hardships and disappointments at last secured for temporary quarters a house and •about fifty acres of land at Rathmore just •twelve miles from Killarney. Prior Vincent then began negotiations whereby he was to obtain for a mere nominal rent •six hundred acres of rather barren mountainous land, near Cappoquin, in the county of Waterford, with the view of founding and establishing there an Irish Cistercian house. It was a Protestant gentleman, Sir Richard Keane, who made this favorable settlement with the prior.
Until this could be ready for occupancy, however, the brothers were compelled to live an intensely crowded life at Rathmore under the severest hardships. It was necessary that work should be rushed at their newly projected establishment to relieve them of their appalling p22 distress. The brothers sent there — near Cappoquin — for this work, were soon assisted by a demonstration of charity and cooperation that has probably been seldom equalled in this selfish world. Priests and people from many miles around came in crowds to volunteer their labor with pick, spade and hammer. Father Walsh, the pastor of Cappoquin, arrived with two thousand able bodied parishioners, most of whom were provided with building tools, or with agricultural instruments for fencing and ditching the fields. One day, four hundred men leaving their village at four o'clock in the morning marched four abreast with spades on their shoulders, led by the music of their band. In most instances the groups were accompanied by wives and daughters to care for the feeding of the men and even occasionally to help with the labor, most of which was on the hard moorland and the stony mountainside. At least ten thousand persons gave of their labor at one time or another in this great Christian task.
The carpenters among the brothers with the masons from the neighborhood began working on a commodious dwelling house which stood near the site already selected for the projected monastery. The hitherto miserably lodged and half-famished monks now on their own land began to live with at least a minimum of decency. It was Prior Vincent himself who gave the foundation the name of Mount Melleray to commemorate the mother abbey from which he and his brothers had come. At this time, it is of interest to mention, the monks had not ventured to wear the religious habit because of fear of the English penal laws which could still be enforced against them.
Their poverty did not delay them in preparing for the erection of their stone monastery. The first stone of Mount Melleray monastery was laid by Sir Richard Keane, their Protestant friend, after it had been blessed by the Bishop of Waterford. Thus on the 20th of August, 1833, in the presence of a great crowd of 20,000 people, was formally reestablished the solid foundation of Cistercian life in Catholic Ireland nearly three hundred years after its expulsion by the bloody rapacity of Henry VIII.
Work on the building of what was to be the Abbey of Mount Melleray continued until it was inhabited by the community in 1838. Meanwhile, the indefatigably zealous prior, Father Vincent Ryan, was elected the first abbot of the new community. Great preparations were made for a public ceremony for the reception of the abbatial p23 blessing, but at the last moment what was to have been a giant open demonstration of the Faith of the people of south Ireland was cruelly interdicted by the British penal laws, and the function was soberly performed in the private chapel of Bishop Abraham of Waterford.2
During these years the poverty of the community was extreme, and appeals had to be made several times to the faithful at large in Ireland as well as to those in England for assistance. The edifying lives of the hard-working brothers made these appeals effective. Among the patrons of Mount Melleray was the internationally renowned champion of civil and religious liberty, Ireland's own patriot and emancipator, Daniel O'Connell, who visited the abbey and gave what financial aid he could. The order grew steadily in numbers. In 1837, Brother Adrian McCarthy, a graduate of Trinity College, was both professed and ordained. In the following year among those admitted to the holy profession, were three more well qualified and highly educated young gentlemen, Brother Clement Smyth, Brother James Myles O'Gorman and Brother Xavier Melville. By 1840 there were over eighty members in the community; and this despite the fact that in the previous few years a number of the monks, especially the English members, had been allowed to transfer to Mount St. Bernard's Abbey in England.
In the immediately following years schools were inaugurated for the children of the neighborhood under the auspices of the Trappists, now that the penal laws were being gradually relaxed. An academy for young men was placed under the direction of Clement Smyth, now ordained, who was assisted in this endeavor by Brother Xavier Melville. The successful development of this academy led to the addition of a seminary department which was also placed under the superintendency of Father Clement.
In the community was Brother Macarius Keegan whose talents recommended him to Abbot Vincent as a collector of funds. Armed with letters from the Mount Melleray abbot and from the prior of Mount St. Bernard in England, he moved from 1838 on through English cities and counties, collecting with equal success from English noblemen, from liberal Protestant gentlemen and from the poor Irish p24 Catholic laborers. In 1845 Abbot Vincent sent him to America where he travelled in Canada and the United States, and, as it will soon be learned, took himself as far west as Dubuque in the state of Iowa.
The saintly Abbot Vincent died in December of 1845 beneath the graceful spire which crowns the noble pile of buildings so painfully and patiently erected through his efforts. Abbot Mary Joseph Ryan who was elected to succeed him, held the office less than two years; the members of the community having petitioned the Holy See to be united to the French Congregation of the order in France, the abbot resigned the abbatial dignity in October of 1847. His resignation was accepted by the Holy See, and a bull was sent from the Propaganda for the election of a new abbot as well as for uniting Mount Melleray Abbey to the Congregation of La Grande Trappe in France. Father Clement Smyth, whom Abbot Mary Joseph Ryan had appointed as prior and who also continued to serve as president of the seminary, acted as superior of the community until a new abbot would be elected.
The choice of the monks as they gathered in the Chapter Room on the 4th of April, 1848, fell on the young and outstanding Father Bartholomew Bruno Fitzpatrick, one of the future founders of New Melleray Abbey in Dubuque, who for the next five and forty years was to shape the path of progress and advancement of the American institution in a general way, and of Mount Melleray Abbey in Ireland in a most particular way. On the occasion of the solemn blessing of this third abbot of Mount Melleray on the 14th of the following September a Papal Brief was read aloud wherein the Abbey of Mount Melleray was declared exempt thenceforward from episcopal control and subject only to the authority of the General Chapter of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance.
The canonical visitation — which is a formal visit for the purpose of inspection and examination of the religious and temporal affairs of a monastery — of Mount Melleray from that day on has been made by the abbots of La Grande Trappe and Melleray in France. One of the customs restored because of these visitations was the ancient one of the Cistercians of burying their dead without coffins, a custom which had long been departed from at Mount Melleray as a concession to popular prejudices.
This was one of the most trying periods in the history of Ireland. The terrible Irish Famine was on. It was the awful years from 1845 p25 to 1849, during which Abbot Bruno Fitzpatrick was ushered into the office of superior, that pestilence, starvation and reckless English misrule united their forces to depopulate the land. The monks of Mount Melleray showed their heroic mettle by carrying on a herculean program of charity. Poor as their food was, they hastened to share all of it from their farm with the suffering masses. The records of those agonizing years will show that almost every day from four hundred to seven hundred destitute and distressed individuals obtained relief at the abbey. Meal and potatoes were all the food consisted of, but the gratitude of the starving crowds was the most celestial dessert the monks ever tasted — the monks, who only through unflinching self-denial and the exercise of the strictest economy of their own slender resources were able to give what they gave. This valorous band of Cistercians in 1848 numbered a hundred souls, just about the capacity of the house, under Dom Bruno's prudent and solicitous direction.
1 One of the links in the relationship of Dom Augustin de Lestrange of La Val Sainte with Iowa was the predilection of Bishop Loras for the Trappists because one of Lestrange's followers, Father Alexis, fleeing from Napoleon's wrath, had taken refuge with the Loras family at Lyons. As a further result of Father Alexis' influence, two of Loras' nephews, reared with him in the same household as they were almost the same age, became Trappists. Romuald and René Tallon, sons of Loras' eldest sister, entered the Bellefontaine Trappist abbey. René died there in 1830 and Romuald later became one of the Cistercian officials at the famous Staoueli Trappist monastery in Algeria, Africa, and he corresponded with Bishop Loras up to the time of the latter's death.
2 In The Red Book, a collection of his social essays, published by Wm. Powell, in Dublin, in 1835 appears a curious section entitled "Form and Ceremony of the Consecration of the Very Rev. Father Vincent Ryan, Abbot of Mount Melleray Abbey, Which Will be Performed in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Waterford, on the 14th of May, 1835." However, the blessing was given on May 17th, 1835, in the Rt. Rev. Dr. Abraham's private chapel.
a Something is wrong here: the Directoire only came into being in 1795.
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