Thinking about Gratitude for the Three Fs: Faith, Friends, and Family

Gratitude!

I was thinking about it on Saturday while we celebrated 250 years of this great country. And how grateful I was to see all the enjoyment of the day with family and friends. What a blessing going in the pool with our little two-year-old grandson who sat on the steps and splashed with glee. What joy! What laughter! O beautiful for summer skies and little toddlers' feet!

The Danger of "the Tumultuous Torrent of Fugitive Ideas"

Stop and think!

I always enjoy reading Chronicles magazine. The article I read today described divisions in the political right. It isn't just the Dems who reflect chaos these days. The author made the point that language is being used on both sides of the aisle "less as an instrument of reasoning" and more as a justification for "tribal loyalty" with premises that "remain unexamined" resulting in "impoverished discourse in which both factions retain an appetite for shock and awe but very little for restraint, calibration, or discovery."

Wow! Too true!

What author Chloe Mastour describes isn't just evident in political disagreements. It seems to be the default position today in many areas and is particularly evident on social media. Many adopt fixed and unchangeable positions. No amount of reasoned argument can touch them. And sometimes those with opposite views, are equally fixed and unchangeable. 

Sunday Meditation: Thinking About Faith

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.

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Baptism of Jesus by Giotto de Bondone

What a good day to thank God for my baptism, the day I was freed from the bondage of sin through the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. Every time I turn on water today or hear the stream in the back yard or take a drink I want to remember the great goodness of God in letting me be born of Catholic parents who were serious about the faith. Up to now, the greatest day of my life was the day I was baptized because it opened the way to eternal life. It opened all the treasures of the kingdom. Only through my baptism did the Holy Eucharist and the other sacraments become my birthright. So today I will pray my rosary in thanksgiving for my parents and for the tremendous love they had for me by taking me to the church for my baptism. 

The COVID Scam Continues: Cartoonist Anne Gibbons Explains it all for you!

Hey! Just give all the elitists who made millions billions with their massive human experiment a pass. Really....they meant well. Killed your kid or your grandmother?...so sad. Ready for the next booster?

Feast of the Holy Rosary and the Victory at Lepanto

What a great day to reflect on the power of the rosary to win decisive battles like the victory at Lepanto in 1571. God raised up a crusader, Don Juan of Austria, to defeat the Islamic navy through the sign of the cross. Look closely at the sails and see the standard of Christianity, the cross, vs. the standard of Islam, the crescent. Chesterton, in his famous poem on the battle, depicts the crescent as the devilish smile on the face of Selim II as he calls on demonic spirits to give his forces the victory. 

This next painting shows the miraculous vision of Pope St. Pius V when Our Lady appeared and let him know the Holy League secured the victory. 

Thought for the Day from G.K. Chesterton

"Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God."

This quote comes from Chesterton's "Chistendom in Dublin" in which he describes his experience at the 1932 Eucharistic Congress. Here's a bit:

"Lenin said that religion is the opium of the people… [But] it is only by believing in God that we can ever criticize the Government. Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God. That fact is written all across human history; but it is written most plainly across that recent history of Russia; which was created by Lenin…Lenin only fell into a slight error: he only got it the wrong way round. The truth is that irreligion is the opium of the people. Wherever the people do not believe in something beyond the world, they will worship the world."

And God Said..........

I checked out a book from our parish library last Sunday that is giving me a lot to think about.  The title is Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Old Testament, Genesis 1-11.   One of a whole series of books, it is a collection of writings from early Church fathers and saints.  The quotes are included in this book in order that the subjects of the quotes appear in The Bible.  It is or could be an excellent companion guide along side Holy Scripture.  Each of the quotes below corresponds to specific verses which are noted in the book. 

What The Devil Is It All About Anyhow?

I read books in order, a fact clear enough to me.  I don’t know what the next book “in the list” will be until I’m reading it, usually, but it is nonetheless always clear that a continuing message runs through
all of it consistently. 

The last three or four books I’ve picked up have not held my interest beyond the middle of the book and I’ve struggled lately to understand why this long standing pattern in my reading seemed to have been derailed.  One night I woke around 3:00 and after praying for a while, I had the desire to get out of bed and read Ecclesiastes.  So I did.  (You should too.)  And went back to bed.  

But even that, so I thought at the time, didn’t put me “on the right path”, I’ll call it, until

Great Men and the People Who Influence Them

This conversation about Donald Trump and G.K. Chesterton fascinates me.  When someone left a comment to my post last week about Dale Ahlquist and the American Chesterton Society I thought it a curious thing and I was glad, Mary Ann, when you, a great follower of Chesterton and a long standing member of "the club" picked up on it with your own post. 
Two facts I believe to be important need to be inserted here.

What the H, E, Double L is the Pastoral Approach? Well, I'll Tell You

The definition of “pastoral” when used as a noun means, “a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life.”  In other words it is romanticized and washed of things like drought, weeds, wolves, snakes, insect pests, and life threatening injuries that can occur in the course of performing the duties of life on a farm. 

On This Second Friday of Lent...

artist Leon Bonnat  (1833-1922)

...I'm meditating on the cross of Christ.

It may be the greatest paradox of all time: the greatest DEFEAT, the defeat of the cross, won the greatest VICTORY, the victory of salvation. God, the Word made flesh, by allowing mankind to kill Him, opened the gates of heaven for us. Man kills God; God saves man.

I'm trying to wrap my poor mind around that fact.

Does any one of us, in view of the cross, have a right to be angry or bitter against a brother or sister who's wronged us? No wonder Jesus calls us to forgive from the heart!

Chesterton has one of his characters in The Ball and the Cross say, "The cross cannot be defeated...for it is Defeat."

If you want to be a winner, embrace the cross -- the Cross with a capital C and the multiple crosses in your life with small c's. Every person's life is filled with crosses, crucifixion by thumbtack as my sister says. Some of them are self-inflicted because of our own sinfulness. Will we flee from our crosses or bow to the will of God, accept them, and offer them with Christ to "make up what's lacking" in His sufferings as St. Paul says in Colossians 1:24

May God make this for you and me a Lent that brings us into a more intimate union with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

"O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine."

Another Lenten Suggestion

Ah...the senior moment! I began the last post on Lent with a specific suggestion in mind and then forgot to include it. I obviously need to consume more coconut oil (which is supposed to help lubricate the "little grey cells" as Hercule Poirot would say).

My own Lenten reading matter is going to be from one of my favorite authors, G.K. Chesterton. The book, Lent and Easter: Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton, is published by Liguori and available here.

Chesterton is often called the "apostle of common sense." But he is much more than that. His theology is described as the "theology of joy" based on his subthemes of "wonder, gratitude, and appreciation" (from the introduction). To read Chesterton is to be on a romp through life like a little child stopping to smell the flowers, pet a bumble bee, frolick with a puppy, chase a firefly, catch a snowflake on the tongue, and dance in the rain puddles. I love Chesterton because he knows how to argue with the enemies of God without being angry and bitter, takes himself and his brilliance lightly, and is often hilarious without striving to be. He enjoys the good things of life with an absolute sense that God meant it to be that way and without misusing any of them. He loves the ordinary, everyday pleasures of hearth and home, pantry and table. In fact, if I had to guess his genus and species, I would say he embodies all the lovely realities of a hobbit sprinkled with magic fairy dust and practicing a bit of wizardry. Doesn't he, in fact, look like a wizard