Retire the Fairy Godmother and Watch your Mailbox for the Invitation

Do you sometimes wish you had a fairy godmother who could wave her magic wand and sprinkle her fairy dust to resolve all your problems? I've been thinking about my own challenges (Mother Teresa would never let her nuns talk about "problems;" everything was a challenge or an opportunity.) and it occurred to me that everything, every single thing, is a gift! The alarm on the septic going off, the water in the basement during a heavy thunderstorm, the tick disease that puts you in the hospital -- all those challenges are opportunities. 

As my mom always said, "Offer it up for the poor souls in Purgatory." What an opportunity to put my sufferings to work! Why waste them when they can do so much good?

And if people fail you or condemn you or treat you with disrespect or shun you, or persecute you, those are the gilded invitations, the special ones that take you directly to the feet of the King where you can say, "My Lord, I trust in You. In Your wisdom and love, take care of everything!"

Pope Leo Affirms True Marriage

The pope sent a strong message against cohabitation and in favor of Christian marriage during the Jubilee of Families. What a needed message for our modern world! And what a repudiation of Francis' scandalous remarks that cohabitation is true marriage. It isn't!

I recently had a conversation with a handyman doing some work for us. He and his live in partner both came from sad family situations. His mother was divorced several times. Her parents were divorced as well. They've been together for sixteen years, but have no intention of marrying. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that he's a lapsed Catholic.

Death and Its Temptations: Praying for Pope Francis!

illustration painting of the Death as know as Grim Reaper holding the scythe against the eclipse
on the background, digital art style, Generate Ai Free Photo

I was praying for the pope this morning after reading the section in The Spiritual Combat on the temptations that precede death. What a frightening time that must be as we all will learn unless we die suddenly.

Tell Me Again Why We Should Trust the Climate Change "Experts?"

I'm a weather channel watcher. A week ago we had warnings of a big winter storm for tomorrow. It started out with a prediction of about nine inches of snow and then seven and then snow disappeared from the forecast altogether. 

A Song with a Message about the Emptiness of the Secular Paradise

When I listened to this, I immediately thought of two things:

Socrates' comment that the unexamined life is not worth living 

And the Hound of Heaven

My Anonymous Friend and the Hound of Heaven

I have an anonymous friend who comments on almost every post I write. Since I don't know whether my friend is a man or a woman, I'll use the generic he to talk about him. My friend has a consistent style composed of a personal attack on me which includes name-calling with lots of colorful adjectives and generally an extraneous comment irrelevant to the post, e.g., an attack on the pope or priests or whatever. I stopped posting his comments about a week ago, but every day, there he is like a moth attracted to a flame.

Now, I'm curious about my friend because he spends so much time on a blog with which he vehemently disagrees. Strange. I occasionally comment on an unfriendly blog when I'm searching for something, but rarely sign up or return to see the reaction. It's predictable, why bother? But my anonymous friend comes back again and again and again to launch the same old attack against me. What's the point?

Awhile back I decided to pray a Hail Mary or a Memorare for him whenever he leaves a comment.

Immaculate Mary, Your Praises We Sing

December 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception

As we get ready for Christmas the Church gives us a beautiful reminder that God Himself prepared in the days before He sent His Son. He gifted the Blessed Mother with her Immaculate Conception, saving her from the effects of original sin at the very moment she was conceived in the womb of her mother, Ann. That preparation is a reminder to us. God didn't start out by choosing apostles, teaching them, and sending them out to the world. No, He began at the very beginning preparing the hearts and minds of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. St. Joseph himself revealed to Blessed Catherine Emmerich that he was saved from original sin immediately after his conception. So God prepared a holy home for His Son before Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb.

I think the message for Christians is that we need to be saved personally before we can evangelize others. How can we help to "remove the beam of sin" from the eyes of others, if we haven't repented of our own sins and sought God's forgiveness, especially in the Sacrament of Confession. How many of us are out saving the world while we ignore evil and faults in our own lives?

We are called to be witnesses to the world, but our witness begins with giving an example of repentance. In Advent especially we should listen to the call of St. John the Baptist, "Reform your lives." We cannot hear the good news if our own ears are ringing with the world's noise. We can't hear the angels' hosannas while we listen to the siren song of the evil one. We can't help others to see the truth if our own eyes are filled with images of heterosexual lust from the catalogues of Victoria's Secret and homosexual lust from the catalogues of Abercrombie and Fitch. In today's world protecting our eyes is more important than ever because evil is mainstreamed in mall windows, grocery store magazine racks, and on the Internet.

We need to pray constantly for protection and conversion. A good model for us is St. Augustine whose mother, St. Monica, pursued him literally and in prayer until he finally succumbed to the Hound of Heaven.

Pray the conversion prayer of St. Augustine today to prepare yourself to be a soldier in the army of Christ.