Boycott the CCHD Collection along with Other Thoughts for Thursday

• The CCHD (Catholic Campaign for Human Development) collection is coming up. This is the fraudulent pocket picking of pew sitters to divert Catholic contributions to groups that lobby for liberal Democrats and support abortion, contraception, and sodomy. Check out the Lepanto Institute report and see how the collection funds intrinsic evils. Don't give a plug nickle; do put in a note that you will not be supporting the parish until they issue an apology for passing the basket to enable evil. I made the video above 16 years ago. Nothing much has changed at the CCHD except it's worse than ever. It's way past time to eliminate that group for good. Add prayers and penance to your boycott. 

• Another beautiful, sunny Fall day here, but we sure need rain. It's so dry the fire risk is high. Our burn pile is beginning to look like a mountain. We had so much rain in the Spring it was like the rain forest. Now everything is brown and brittle. 

• Where have all the birds gone? We noticed about a week ago that all the birds had disappeared from our yard. Larry put out the feeders, but the only visitors are the nighttime  scavengers to the tray feeders. Not a single bird to the hanging feeders. No morning bird song; deafening silence. We've never seen that in the 23 years we've lived here. The only bird sightings have been a single turkey vulture flying over on two days this week. Eerie and strange. I miss the birds. But what if we were talking about disappearing children, a sad reality globally. P.D. James' novel, Children of Men, posits that scenario -- a world where no more children are being born. Men and women's fertility has petrified and the end of humanity on earth is imminent. The disappearance of the birds made me think about that. Fortunately, there's no lack of children at the chapel. We have a rich abundance of young ones and many expectant mothers. So thankful for their little sounds. As I've often said, "What's a tropical island without birds?"

• The holidays are coming with their joys and sorrows. How many people will be lonely and sad? I'm asking the Lord to open our eyes to someone who needs an invite for Thanksgiving, someone who would otherwise be alone. So much sadness in our world. What a gift to us if we could welcome someone without family to join ours.

• This morning I was going through my prayer box mostly reading funeral cards and missing so many friends who have gone on to their true home. I beg them not to forget to pray for me. I'm also reading The Art of Being a Good Friend and came across this quote which hit a nerve and made me think of how forlorn one feels at seeing an empty decaying house like one I often pass on my walks:

The eclipse of friendship through death is not nearly so sad as the many ways in which friendship may be wrecked. There are worse losses than the losses of death, and to bury a friendship is keener grief than to bury a friend. The latter softens the heart and sweetens the life, while the former hardens and embitters.

• Advent is on the horizon. I need to hurry up and finish my Christmas presents so I can focus on preparing my heart for Christmas and not worrying about the gifts under the tree. I'm over halfway there. This week I'll focus on finishing.

• Have a blessed Thursday. I'm praying for all my readers today, especially those who hate what I write. Please pray for me as well.