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| Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Hannah presenting Samuel to Eli |
I've been reading the first book of Samuel in the Old Testament. What a gripping historical narrative beginning with Samuel's mother, Hannah, and her longing for a child. God grants her desire and she offers her son, Samuel, to the temple priests as God's servant.
I think of myself as a honeybee. I flit from project to project, from book to book, from household task to household task like a little bee collecting nectar. Sometimes I start cleaning intending to do an entire floor and switch to something new after finishing one room. Often a distraction becomes the next project. Hey, that door is absolutely grimy; get out the soap and water and give it a good cleaning. And then there are the minor disasters like opening the refrigerator and having a jar of soup water fall out and shatter like last night while I was fixing dinner. (I don't waste anything including the water left from steaming vegetables or cooking potatoes. They make great soup stock.) Clean that up and move on to something else or just pick up the glass, cover the mess with towels and clean it up after dinner which is what I did.
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Jesus the Comforter by August Andreas Jerndorff (25 January 1846 – 28 July 1906) |
More and more these days, I think about the great loneliness. That's my description of the time after the death of a spouse. I'll be 78 next month and Larry will turn 80 in May. None of our parents lived to be 90. My dad died at 67, my mom at 83. Larry's dad died just short of his 86th birthday, his mom at 79. My mom outlived my dad; Larry's dad outlived his mom. Of course, no one knows except God the length of our days, but for sure the great loneliness is coming for one of us. I confess it frightens me to think of being the surviving spouse in the desert of grief.
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| Every Sunday is a little Christmas and a little Easter. How will we keep it holy? |
Do you remember the description of Scrooge at the end of A Christmas Carol? He was a man who "knew how to keep Christmas," something he learned from the three ghosts. Perhaps we need three ghosts today to help us "keep" Sunday: the Ghost of Sunday Past, the Ghost of Sunday Present, and the Ghost of Sunday Future. If those ghosts visited us today what would those visits look like?
Currently I'm reading Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos: the Last Self Help Book. I was intrigued to find out that it's one of philosopher Peter Kreeft's favorite books. Percy is a favorite of mine as well. His novels, in my opinion, fit the description "southern writers weird" -- like Flannery O'Connor. Percy didn't like to think of himself as a southern writer and, in fact, parodied the tradition through the character, Sam Yerger, in The Moviegoer. Nevertheless, I can never separate him from the southern genre.
You will never hear the term "illegal alien" from the U.S. bishops. Every law breaker violating our borders is a poor "refugee" and we must "welcome the stranger." But don't expect them to be welcomed into the bishops residence or the chancery.
Reading The Imitation of Christ this morning, I came across this:
My God and my all! What more can I have and what more can I desire than You? O sweet and delightful Word! Sweet to him who loves the Word and not the world, nor those things that are in the world.
WHY JESUS HAD TO UNDERGO THE AGONIES OF HIS PASSION
Over the centuries, many have pointed out that, since Jesus is God, He could have redeemed us merely by shedding one drop of His Precious Blood. According to this perspective, it could be asserted that we were actually saved the day of His circumcision, when the first drops of His Blood were shed. But this is not what the Gospel proclaims, but rather Christ crucified.
A similar misunderstanding is that Jesus had to endure His Passion and Death in order to appease the just wrath of His Father, Who was infinitely offended by human sinfulness. This requires viewing God the Father as one, who severely punishes his children when they disobey his commands. But this is not in harmony with the fact that God the Father so loved the world, even before we repented, that He sent His only Son to live among us and to lay down His life for our salvation. Thus all who believe in Him and are born of water and the Spirit in Baptism are able to share in eternal life with Him (Jn 3:16). Thus it is that Jesus did not lay down His life for us to appease the Father, but rather to please Him (cf., Matt 3:17, 17:5; Mk 1:11; Lk 3:22).
God gave us feelings. Why? From my perspective, feelings are an important part of being human. Think of a mother with her newborn nestled in her arms asleep. She is overwhelmed with feelings of love. Those feelings inspire her to nurture and protect that innocent bundle she's cuddling. Often feelings of attraction lead us to a dating situation. If our feelings take over, fornication or adultery may be the next step. If reason controls those feelings, the next step will be a journey of exploration. Who is this person that attracts me? Do we share the same faith, the same values? What obstacles are there to the relationship growing from attraction into love, courtship, and marriage?
If you're a regular reader, you know how much I like The Epoch Times. I think it's the best and most reliable newspaper on the market. I particularly like the Life and Tradition section. Two articles from the Jan 29-Feb 4th issue were not only worth reading, but worth passing on.
The first was "The Key to a Happy Life: Gratitude very quickly leads to joy." It began with the story of man with a medical condition that required a long stay in a nursing facility. When he was shown to his tiny, rather drab and cheerless room, very like a monk's cell, he didn't succumb to gloom but turned to the nurse and said, "I love it!" He chose happiness.
The other article was Why We Still Need Mister Rogers. I think Fred Rogers was one of the happiest men to ever live. I have his quote about kindness (above) hanging in our family room, a gift from one of our children. Change the word "success" to "happiness" and you have an important part of the equation: gratitude + kindness = happiness!
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| Take the red pill and stop letting the liars and fear mongers manipulate you! |
The mainstream drive-by media is, for the most part comatose and dying. The Pulitzer committee helped deliver assisted euthanasia in 2018 with its shared award to the Washington Post and New York Times for the 20-article scam-fantasy about Russiagate. Mostly based on anonymous sources, rumors, and innuendo from Trump-hating liberals, the articles lied and lied and lied again leaving wounded truth tellers in their wake like Michael Flynn. A 2022 article in the New York Post summarized the damage caused by the series:
I'm enjoying my granddaughter's book bingo for 2025. One idea struck me as super fun and wonderful.
"Read 3 historical plaques to learn a town's history."
Did you know that there is a historical marker database? It occurred to me to do a search and, sure enough, there is. I checked it for the markers in Woodstock and there are dozens here. If I expand the search to nearby counties, there are hundreds. Sounds like future dates!
The women's day of reflection which I attended yesterday focused on the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. Of all the virtues these three let us reach out and touch the hand of God. All the other virtues support these three which take the prominent place in the hierarchy of virtues.
Descartes, Trumpian Thomism, and ‘Pronouns’
Descarte's statement, proof of being, "I think therefore I am," always seemed a bit silly to me. Why not, "I breathe, therefore I am?" Or "I speak, therefore I am." But no, like John M. Grondelski points out in the article, Descartes created a dualism and a rift between body and soul. Read the article and think about it. Have you. read 10 Books that Screwed Up the World? by Benjamin Wiker? Descartes is among the screw ups. Ideas have consequences and some ideas have really bad consequences. Just look at how gender ideology, an insane idea, has destroyed the lives of so many children.
USAID isn't the only government "welfare" organization targeted by the new administration. Catholic Charities (CC), a well-funded NGO, is also on the chopping block these days. No tears from me, that's for sure! I'll be happy to see them get the boot.
It's time to turn Virginia red again and we have a chance to do that next year. There's only a one-seat Democrat majority in the House of Delegates. Sadly, the Democrats are a pathetic party who won't even protect a baby born alive after an attempted abortion and usurp the rights of parents over their minor children. I received an e-mail this morning from Sheriff Timothy Carter, who heads up the Shenandoah County Republican Committee:
California Settles with David Daleiden, Pro-Life Activist who Exposed Planned Parenthood:
I've been reading selections from St. Claude de la Colombiere's writings: letters, retreat notes, diary entries, etc. He often writes about the correct approach to feelings and how to deal with them. In our age, when so many people have tossed reason to the wind and act mostly on their feelings, St. Claude's wisdom is much needed.
The big question I have is whether the woke residents will reelect these incompetent and corrupt politicians who are primarily responsible for the devastation of a once beautiful state.
