On the Road to Bethlehem!

Mary & Joseph find a stopping point near a fallen down shed not far from
the chicken coop. Eggs for breakfast.

I recently received a meme suggesting replacing the "Elf on a Shelf" with Mary and Joseph making the trip to Bethlehem. What a wonderful idea! Since I have a statue of the expectant mother riding a donkey being led by dear St. Joseph, I decided to spend Advent journeying with them along the Advent road at Camp Kreitzer. They began the journey today outside under the pine trees not far from the chicken coop. 

Africa is the biggest country in the world!!

The Thinker
by Auguste Rodin

1) Recently at work a 20 year-old young man and I were talking about Russia and Ukraine. When I said that Russia is the biggest country in the world he said, "No it isn't. Africa is the biggest country in the world." I was saddened by his lack of geographical knowledge since he's graduated from high school. I gently said, "Africa is a continent, not a country." 

Who will be the next fatality?

I pray it’s no one in my family. But read this from Dr. Toby Rogers for a dose of reality:

“How long before the clot shot takes out a cabinet member or member of Congress? We already have two strokes following boosters — Senators Ben Ray Lujan and John Fetterman. Illinois Rep. Sean Carsten’s teenage daughter Gwen died unexpectedly in her sleep of a sudden cardiac arrhythmia at the age of 17 in June. These numbers are just going to keep increasing. I imagine we will see several world leaders felled by the clot shot in the coming year. We live in the dumbest of all possible universes.”

Check out Dr. Rogers sub stack page at tobyrogers.substack.com.

Sober and Serious New Years Eve

Today is the “other” New Years Eve. You know - the one that precedes the onset of Advent, the minor penitential season. How will you “ring out” the old liturgical year and welcome the new?

It seems to me to be a good time to reflect on the spiritual progress (or regress) of the past year and plan strategies for the new. I made four resolutions this year on retreat. I read them almost every day. If I can be faithful to them, I’ll be thankful. I count on the help of my guardian angel and patron saints to help. May Advent be a blessing for all of us as we invoke Our Lady Help of Christians.

May we all embrace Chesterton’s approach to Thanksgiving!

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”—G. K. Chesterton

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip pen in the ink.”

Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving, grateful for all things both pleasant and painful. All things come from God and He directs them toward our good. May we not waste anything, but embrace everything with humble submission to God’s will.

Will I kiss the cross today?

One of my favorite images from The Passion of the Christ is the scene where Jesus accepts His cross and kisses it. How it shames me! Jesus sees in the cross the salvation of the world -  my salvation! Can I not then recognize the value of my own suffering as cooperation with the sufferings of Christ. Do I “kiss the cross?” I think I will make that question my Advent meditation. Help me to kiss the cross, Lord, instead of grumbling and complaining like the Israelites in the desert. My Jesus, I trust in You.

Random Thoughts on Tuesday

• Do you ever feel like you’re on a speeding roller coaster? Life is filled with ups and downs, but it goes by incredibly fast. It’s hard to believe people will trade a few fleeting thrills here for an eternity of joy with Our Loving Lord.

This is a picture of...

1) A woman (L) and a man (R)
2) A man (L) and a woman (R)

3) Two women
4) Two men

The answer is #4 - Two men

The man on the left is Nikkie de Jager who knew from an early age that he was born in the wrong body. The man on the right is Dylan Drossaers who's "married" to de Jager. I assume that makes them both homosexuals, not male/female heterosexuals.

In 2020, after de Jager came out as transgender, he appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show where he later complained that he was "treated differently than other guests on the show" and that DeGeneres was "cold and distant" (cry me a river). De Jager is a Dutch YouTube beauty and make-up influencer while Drossaers is some sort of Dutch internet personality.

God's punishment can't be too far away at this point in time. 

Pray for Pro-Life Political Prisoners!

 Four red rose rescuers were sentenced Friday to 45 days in jail in Flint Michigan for a 2019 rescue mission. Their crime? Sitting in the waiting room of a killing center offering the moms help and refusing to leave. Often rescuers go limp rather than walk out of the death chambers identifying with the helpless infants who can't walk out. For that, they were charged with a felony!

The Russian Orthodox Perception of the Fatima Message

"The Reigning Icon" of the Mother of God
(see below)

1) I like to look at things from "the other side" every once in awhile. 2) This is merely an article from one Russian Orthodox Priest Outside Russia (ROCOR) 3) I assume that the Orthodox look at the Roman Catholic Church today the same way they currently look at the Collective West. 4) I thought this perspective interesting and agreed with statements highlighted in yellow. 5) I'm sick of being lied to. Perhaps the Orthodox interpretation of Fatima is closer to the truth than the lies we're told to believe. The True Message of Fatima? Introduction In six visions over a period of six months in 1917 three peasant children from a Portuguese village were told by the Mother of God of the destiny of a country called Russia. These shepherd children, who had never been to Lisbon, let alone heard of Russia, came to hear of this at the most important turning-point in the history of that country. Coincidence?