Feast of the Visitation

And Mary said:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

Brother Michael the Lessor TOR
He had a dream...
October 1976 - Feast of St. Francis

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed: 

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children forever."

Mary remained with her about three months

and then returned to her home.

Those that know me, know that Michael the Lesser is a fugitive from the monastery.  That's me in the picture above, mugging for the camera.  I was Brother Michael TOR.  I still own the cord that's around my waist and the crucifix, which was a gift to me from Brother Ambrose who was my boss at the mission goods store where I was assigned to work, hangs on the wall in my living room.  Those were two years that I would not trade for anything. They were hard years in a way because you were living in a small community and little petty things tended to grow in importance and little annoyances became major issues.  But, for the most part, it was a good life. I remember one day I was cleaning the sacristy and took a couple of old rugs out to beat.  As I came out of the house onto the back porch, I saw the sun glowing through the trees in the and in the distance I heard a crow cawing and it was a moment in my life where everything was in line, everything was perfect, and those moments, I have learned, come few and far between.  

As brothers, we said the daily office. In the morning was Lauds, and if you ever wanted to know what a cacophony sounded like, come and listen to twenty-four late teen and early twenty-something men try to chant in the morning.  After dinner was Vespers and the best hour of the day was Compline or as it was sometimes called, night prayer.  There was a rhythm to the day and it was punctuated by these times of prayer.  What used to annoy almost all of us is that Compline started promptly at ten o'clock, the same time that the news began.  Father Pat could give a rat's patoot about that, we never started Compline late.  

But, it is Vespers that I want to mention today.  Part of Vespers is the Canticle of Mary which is the reading at Mass today. For two years my evening featured this beautiful prayer that was said by our Blessed Mother when she visited her cousin, Elizabeth.  I got to really, really love this part of our daily public prayer.  If you read through the prayer you will begin to understand who Mary is.  Protestants say that we worship Mary.  Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.  Mary would not approve of our worshiping her.  She always points the way to Jesus.  She had just been chosen to be the very Mother of God and she does not puff herself up with pride, no, she begins her prayer with the words, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord."  She at once shows her great humility.  Mary speaks very little in Scripture, but when she speaks, she points the way to God. 

On this great feast day, my fondest hope is that I can imitate Mary in her great humility.  There never has been anyone who could claim to have any greater honor.  The old Ark of the Covenant has been replaced by the new and the tabernacle of Israel was now a virgin mother who carried inside her who would be the very Bread of Life for us. 

There are those that think that our prayers to Mary somehow diminishes Jesus.  Nothing can be further from the truth. Mary brings our prayers to her Son.  She pleads for us to get another chance.  To us, she always points to her Divine Son and she is quoted as saying, "Do whatever he tells you to do."

In all things, we are called to imitate Christ.  We are to imitate His love for the poor, for those who are in distress and we are to imitate Him in loving His mother.  Scott Hahn, a convert to Roman Catholicism, says that if we admit that Jesus lived a perfect, sin-free life, then we have to admit that He never even one of the ten commandments.  He goes on to say that if this is true then Jesus honored His father and His mother perfectly.  Further, if we are adopted sons and daughters of God, then our spiritual mother is the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We, in imitation of Christ, give her the same honor that her Son gives to her.  Honoring Mary, therefore, takes nothing away from God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. So, if you have a problem with honoring Mary, please talk to Jesus, He is the one who started it!  

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. (1)   Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen. 

Footnotes
(1) These are the words of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary when she agreed to become the Mother of God.  It forms the first half of the prayer called "The Hail Mary"

Forgotten ?

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,

because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours

and everything of yours is mine,

and I have been glorified in them.

The prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper, for me, is one of the most powerful passages in scripture. In reality, we are made privy to an intimate conversation between Jesus and The Father.  Jesus in this prayer is reporting on His mission to God's people.  He prays in that moment for the assembled Apostles, but he is also praying for you and I as well.  

On the day we were Baptised there was imprinted on our soul the mark that forever makes us the property of God our heavenly Father.  His ownership of us is real and he has the right to compel us to obey He instead gives us the choice to love Him as Father and to obey Him and accept our role as His adopted children and to become his ambassador or if we choose, we can go our own way.  The choice is ours. 

The right to choose is fraught with danger.  When we go our own way we are like ships whose rudder is not connected to the wheel and is subject to the whims of the current and wind.  The current and wind may take us in pleasant directions, at least for awhile. But, eventually, we will be cast upon a reef, our keel will be broken and our ship, as sturdy as it was, will fall victim to the ravages and perils of the sea and as for us, we will taste the saltiness of the sea as it closes in over our head.  As we founder, we still have the ability to cry our for help to the Father that loves us, and He will respond.  But, by this time, our stubborn pride that got us into this mess in the first place, may still our voice as our accumulated errors cause us to continue to depend only on ourselves. 

It is God's will that all of us be saved.  But it is also God's will that we come to Him, not as slaves compelled by law, but more like a young girl who is delighted to see her daddie come home from work.  She immediately drops what she is doing and runs to him and lets him know she loves him.  

God does not expect too much of us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He loves us as we are right now and He will love us as we mature and grow into spiritual adulthood. God knows that not everyone can be a St. Francis of Assisi, forsaking the stuff of earth completely and living a life totally dedicated to poverty, chastity, and obedience.  But he does now we can treat everyone we meet as if we do possess those virtues.  He realizes that Mother Teresa was a special being who was open one-hundred percent to taking care of the poorest of the poor and that not everyone can do that.  But he does know it is possible for each of us to care for those less fortunate and to share the bounty and riches He has placed into our care.  

In short, we are all, repeat all, called to be saints.  We should not aim to arrive at  Purgatory at life's end, no, we should aim for heaven, aim as high as we can by sharing the Love we have received with those who need it most.  There is no one that is poorer than one who lives without God.  We may not be erudite enough to preach to the masses but we can certainly preach to one person, silently, by showing them the joy we have in serving them tenderly because it is the will of our Father and we live to do His will. 

The Reach of The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is the one institution that has had the most impact on this world, bare none.  No other organization has lived through so many different world orders.  Many different world orders have seen their sunrise, their flourishing, and their sunset. The Church has been there and has witnessed it all. 

The Catholic Church has been a beacon through many tough periods in history. During the Dark Ages, she kept the light of human knowledge burning through her monasteries and learned monks. She formed the first institutions of higher learning, gave birth to what we call the modern hospital, and through it all she has always taught the truth of the Gospel without change and without bowing to the wisdom of the current trends in secular thought. For the Church, the truth that Christ taught, the truth that the Holy Spirit infused into the Church, the truth that the apostle passed down from the beginning remains the truth that is taught today. She has been a faithful steward of and protector of the Deposit of Faith. 

The Catholic Church alone bears the marks of what the true church should be.  She is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.  She seeks to unite all under One Body and One Blood. The denominations by their very nature only serve to weaken the unity that Jesus Himself called for at the Last Supper.  When Martin Luther, filled with sinful pride, to an ax to the root of the one, singular, holy church that Christ founded he began a process that continues until today, the removal of pebbles from the Rock that is the foundation of the Church.  The Church is in no danger of falling as Jesus promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against her.  So despite the miasma of a multitude of "truths" being taught in the name of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church remains today as it was in the beginning, the organization that keeps alive the true teachings of Jesus Christ on earth.  

The Catholic Church reaches deeply into modern society.  She is the voice that will not allow the conscience of man to fall asleep. She is hated by those who would rather give vent to the evil in their hearts.  She is despised by those who want to live in the cold and silent darkness of sin and who perpetuate a culture of death.  

The Church through the centuries has been the first to dispense alms to the needy, to victims of famine, and disease.  She is the only organization who waits for opportunities to be of service. In her charity, she does not ask a man's religion nor does she weigh his wallet.  Where there is a need she gives. 

She is the very Bride of Christ but those that hate her describe her as the whore of Babylon because their eyes are blinded to the good fruit the Catholic Church has brought forth through the centuries. Instead, she is accused of killing more people than were alive at the time of the Inquisitions, while the truth is that few perished because of these courts and many more were brought to salvation.  In our own times, she was accused of working hand in glove with the Nazi government and keeping a sinful silence at the plight of the Jewish people at the hands of Hitler.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Pope Pius, at the end of the war, received and thanks from many Jewish leaders for the people he saved by hiding them in monasteries and in Vatican City itself.  

The Roman Catholic Church is the Church that Christ founded. As such, she is the vehicle of salvation for mankind.  Other denominations cannot say this about themselves.  The fact remains that the very Bible that these denominations, was pulled together under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  The Church decided upon the Canon of Scripture that served everyone for fifteen-hundred years until the reformers led by the arch-criminal Luther removed from the Sacred Pages whole books that did not fit into their novel and unbiblical views of salvation. 

The Roman Catholic Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic organization was firmly built by Christ on the rock that was Peter.  The current Pope can trace his lineage back in an unbroken line to Peter.  Never in two-thousand years has even one Pope taught error from the Chair of Peter and there have been some very bad popes indeed!  In spite of the fact that there were some popes who had only their own pockets in mind, even they did not endanger the purity of God's truth by teaching error. Quite the contrary, the evil popes taught nothing as they lined their pockets and ran roughshod over the commandments of God.  The fact remains that the good popes have outnumbered the bad ones by a vast majority.  It should be noted that the Pope is protected from teaching error, but he is not protected from committing sin. Those that state that the Catholic Church cannot be the church of God because these bad popes ruled forget that these men were just that, men, able to commit acts of great turpitude such as the evil popes did or committing acts of great holiness as the saintly ones did. 

So, reject the Catholic Church at your peril. The Church believes that everyone who calls Jesus "Lord" is a fellow Christian even if they are not in full communion with the Church and they can and will attain heaven if they lead holy lives for God sees no difference in Gentile or Jew, man or woman, slave or free.  However, he has given His Church great tools and powers in the Treasury of Faith to ensure that we come to be with Him in heaven.  The way to heaven is a narrow and sometimes steep road.  The Church provides places in which to place your feet and stepping stones to help ease the journey.  The Church will bring you to the Valley of Peace, where pain no longer exists and we will once again be one flock with one Shepherd who is the Lord. 

Remembering

"In the world, you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world."

Today is a day for remembering the people that have made your life what it is today. As I get older, my list of people that I have to remember becomes longer and longer.  I look at the tragic circumstances that took some of these people from me.  For example, there was a boyhood acquaintance, not a close friend, but a classmate, who was hit by speeding train. I remember to this very day his young body laying in that casket.  I remember going to the funeral of my father's "Uncle George."  He was found alone in his apartment laying on the floor.  And of course I remember with great sorrow the death of my mother who was a victim of the medical arts, a victim of a doctor who just did not care.  Then there was my father, a victim of R.J. Reynolds, who died gasping for breath after a lifetime of smoking. 

I am sure that you can remember the deaths of people in your family, or people that you knew.  Take your car and drive into the country and you will see evidence of tragedy everywhere as large plots of land have been set aside for the burial of ourselves, our relatives, and yes, even ourselves.  So what is this nonsense that Jesus said that he had conquered the world? 

Thank heavens, Jesus HAS conquered the world.  Part of this is, of course, that he has conquered sin and death. Before Christ, death and the devil laughed at the plight of the human race. After Christ, it is us that do the laughing because when death stung Jesus, death stung itself to death! 

On this memorial day, take a few moments and remember those that died before us.  They are now in heaven enjoying the Beatific Vision, being with God and the saints forever.  They are in a place where there is no pain, there is no suffering.  They know everyone and everyone knows them. 

Take a few moments as well to remember those who died so that you can be free to worship as you want to.  This year I will remember in my prayers in a special way a local man who gave his life for his country:

Army Spc. Wesley R. Wells 

Died September 20, 2004

Naka, Afghanistan 

Head in the Clouds

They said, "Men of Galilee,

why are you standing there looking at the sky?

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven 

will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.

The apostles, now down to eleven because one of them betrayed the Lord and had committed suicide were once again confused, scared, and not sure what was going to happen next.  They had been instructed to return to Jerusalem and to wait.  They could not get back to that upper room fast enough. Their Lord and Savior had once again left them, they felt alone and afraid. 

They had seen Jesus ascend upwards towards heaven and they watched until they could see Him no more.  They stared into the sky and then He was gone.  They watched a bit longer and then two men dressed in snow-white garments appeared and told them to get a move on, that Jesus would return in the same way as they had seen Him leave.  

They were in the same room where not long ago, the Lord washed their feet and told them that to be a leader, one had to be willing to be a servant to all. He gave them a great example of His love that night. He took the form of a slave and washed their feet. Then He gave them for all-time His most Sacred Body, Blood,  Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist.  He followed this up the very next day by completing the Passover feast by drinking the fourth cup of wine on the Cross, taking upon his soul the sins of all. 

Now, the apostles were doing what they did best, they were waiting and praying.  They did not know what was going to happen next but they followed instructions and were waiting in that upper room. 

We too sometimes find ourselves locked away in our rooms waiting. We pray and wait for the Lord to answer our prayer, to give us our marching orders. It is okay to wait and listen.  But we must be ready to throw open the door to our upper room and be ready to advance once those orders have been received.  We know what happened to the Apostles, Pentecost happened.  When the time came, with the help of the Holy Spirit they threw off the shackles of fear and boldly proclaimed the Word of God.

Next week is Pentecost Sunday.  Let us spend the seven days between now and then, praying and getting ready to give to the world what it needs, Jesus.  The two men in white were sent to stir up the apostles and set them on the path that the Lord wanted them to follow.   They speak to us today as well.  Prepare ye the way of the Lord! 

Watch Out What You Pray For

Jesus said to his disciples:"Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

Okay, I will admit it.  I have a hard time understanding this bit of scripture.  I, myself, have prayed in the name of Jesus and have not received what I prayed for.  To prove to you how long standing this problem is let me tell you what happened to me in the fourth grade.  We had learned in third grade that the Blessed Mother, Mary, had been assumed into heaven, body, and soul and was with Jesus, in heaven in the flesh.  In the fourth grade, I had the bad luck of being assigned to the classroom of Mrs. R. Reid, one of three lay teachers that taught in the hallowed halls of Saint Joseph and Saint Ann School in the Brighton Park neighborhood, southwest side of Chicago, in the 60's.  I think that Mr. Moreset, the janitor, had more teaching ability in his thumb than Mrs. R. Reid had in her whole body.  For some reason, we did not get along.  She failed to understand that I had no interest in jumping through hoops for her and providing homework for her to grade, especially homework that involved that devil's curse, "The New Math." I was constantly on her "S" list because of her complete lack of understanding.  One time, when she received the news that the math homework assigned the previous day, alas, was not going to make an appearance in her inbox, she smiled a devilish smile at me, and after stationing a snitch to write the name of people who talked while she was gone, she left the classroom.  Whilst she was gone I earnestly prayed for her to be assumed into heaven, just like the Blessed Virgin Mary. I figured it was a double win. She would get to experience the happiness of heaven without having to die and I would be rid of her once and for all and without me having to pray that she be killed by a lightning strike.   I figured if this assumption business worked once, Jesus could do it again and spare me a lot of trouble. Alas, it wasn't to be and to make a long story short, I was the subject of an impromptu parent - teacher conference attended that very morning by my mother, Mrs. Reid, and the beloved principal of our school Sister Victoria.  My prayer had fallen on deaf ears. It was not answered.  Well, I know now that it was actually answered but the answer was, "No."  

Asking things of God is a good thing to do.  We are encouraged to approach God and ask for what we need.  Our wisdom does not approach that of God's wisdom.  God will grant our every request, of that we are guaranteed!  But if this is so, why didn't Mrs. Reid float up to heaven on that lovely winter day so very long ago?  It is because God knew that removing that particular obstacle for me, while it would cure a current craving, it would do no good in the long run. Thus, Mrs. R. Reid stayed with her feet on the ground and bit by agonizing bit Michael learned the joys, as best as he could, of the New Math. My prayer to God, like all prayer, is asking our Father if He loves us.  His answer is always a big, "Yes" even if we interpret the answer received as a big, "No."

We must be alert to watch for the answer to our every prayer. In life, we most likely have received answers to our prayers that we did not recognize as answers to our prayer.  We have to keep in mind that God WILL do for us what is in our best interest. 

On this memorial day weekend, please spend a moment or two thanking God for those who have served in our military, putting themselves in harms way so that we might enjoy the freedoms that we have.   

Tears Are Flowing Like A River

http://www.poetrybyloree.com/393.html

I am not a bad writer.  True I am no Hemingway or even Poe and right now I am doing the kind of writing that I do not do very well.  Yesterday, at a concert in Manchester England an angry lone terrorist took it upon himself to end the lives of at least twenty-two people. We will probably find out that this murder was done in the name of God. I  cannot fathom why people find it necessary to kill in the name of God.  Is God so weak that He cannot fight for Himself?  I know my Church teaches that the Muslim worships the same God as I do, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob. I do not believe that these terrorists that find fulfillment in cutting off the lives of innocent men, women, and especially children know a thing about God. A person that professes to love God cannot be a lover of violence. So, I do not know who the radical Islamic terrorists pray to, I know it is not the God who went to the Cross for us. I know it is not the God who loves us with an unspeakable love that will draw us to Him in eternity if we want it and show that we want it by being faithful to the commands of His Son.  To hate is to defy God for God is love and hate is abhorrent to Him.   God does not even hate those that hate Him. He waits, He watches, He whispers, hoping that the example of Love that was shown to all by His Son will break through the cobwebs of hate that block salvation to those who insist on having their own way. If God could cry, his tears would flow like a river for He sees what we do to each other in His name and he realizes that we do not have the slightest idea of how much He loves and wants to draw us to Him.  Today we mourn for the twenty-plus people whose lives were ended and for those who were injured whose lives will never be the sam again. The grayness of cloudy morning where I am sitting writing this seems apt and proper.  Let us pray.

My God and Father, once again Cain has raised his hand against Able and the soil of your garden accepts the blood of your children. My Father, for those who have died in this latest atrocity, please be merciful in your judgment. To those who were injured in body, Lord, speed their healing and restore to them robust good health. And for those whose spirits have been injured, quash the thirst for revenge in their hearts, dear Lord, for the sword raised in anger will remain until it finds another sword with which to clash.   I pray that you move your hand and help end the violence. Let us regain the knowledge our ancestors had about how sacred life is. Let this rampage of the evil one end and rescue your children Lord for we know not what we do.   Amen.  

Please Explain Yourself !

Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.

Always be ready to give an explanation

to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,

but do it with gentleness and reverence,

keeping your conscience clear,

so that, when you are maligned,

those who defame your good conduct in Christ

may themselves be put to shame.

For it is better to suffer for doing good,

if that be the will of God than for doing evil.

Yesterday, I wrote about the world and how if the Church is doing a good job the world will hate us. Today, we are asked to always be ready to explain why we are a Christian.  We are told to do so gently and reverently.  So, what do you say if someone asks you why you are a Catholic Christian?   How do you respond? 

First, how would someone determine if you were a Christian? Could they tell just by looking at you?  Could they tell by a close examination of your conduct that you were different than someone who does not profess to be a friend of Jesus?  If we go back to our roots in the first century we can see that Christians of that era were known because they loved each other so much. Do we exude the aura of love in what we do and say?  Or, are we just another regular Joe (or Jane) that works nine to five and collects a paycheck to pay the bills and maybe, just maybe, have a little bit of transient joy by engaging in the things of this world.  If we could not be convicted in a court of law of being a Catholic Christian than it is unlikely anyone would bother asking why we seem different because we aren't.  If we practice our religion on Sunday and that carefully pack it away for the rest of the week, then it makes no difference in our lives.  We in effect become an undercover Catholic.  We keep our pious lives safe and secure and  no one is the wiser. 

But, if you get asked, what do you respond?  Do you break out your Bible and thump it and scream that they had better accept Jesus as their savior or suffer the pains of hell forever more?  There is nothing like going for the jugular vein.  The direct approach wastes no one's time and unfortunately discourages the person because the yelling and screaming gets lost in the noise generated by the world itself.  There will be nodding and agreement and once you walk self-righteously away, everything you have said will be filed away in the same place that the person files the information attained in late night infomercials.  

It is important to have a reason for your belief that is both honest and true.  And this reason should be self-evident in the way you conduct yourself and your words should simply confirm that what you have shown them on the outside is matched by what comes from inside. What could the reason be?  Can you put it into words?  I think our hope comes from the fact that in the Church we are united by one Bread and one Body.  I think that we are united in a spirit of love and honest and responsible conduct and gentle treatment of all we meet. We are that way because we know and believe that we are special.  We are not just ordinary Joes or Janes.  We are adopted children of the Father who loves us with a love that is impossible for us to fully understand.  It is this love, that we have in our hearts that we just have to share with those around us.  This sharing of love, this kindness in a world where a smile might be met with a fist, is what we have that the world does not have and what it longs for. 

Words can be powerful things.  Writers are skilled at arranging words to make a point.  Orators are skilled at swaying emotions through the use of vocabulary, inflection, and gesture.  But what if you are a person who cannot write and you are too shy to stand before a group of people and to try to sway them with pearls of wisdom dropping from your vocal chords?  It is very simple.  You live your life giving love and patience to all, accepting the good and the bad with equal joy and people will notice that there is something different about you.  This will attract them to you and eventually they will see that you are you because of Christ within you.  Our Church is not built on great orators or writers, both of which are needed. Our Church is built by those that use their life to make a difference to each person that they meet. 

Finally, do not be too concerned if your good attitude and mode of living brings to you rejection.  It will come.  Do not be concerned if you are the victim of persecution for that goes hand in hand with being a Christian from the beginning.  Your hope and your strength are not centered in this world, they are centered in heaven.  Your victory has already been won and that is why you can hope while the world dwells in hopelessness.  Let the brightness of your soul shine forth with the radiance of a thousand billion suns and let the world come and see why you shine so brightly.

The Church vs The World and how it affects you.

If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;

but because you do not belong to the world,

and I have chosen you out of the world,

the world hates you."

When Jesus spoke these words, he could have been speaking about the world we live in today. We know, some of us from experience, that it is not easy to be a Christian in the second millennium, but then, it wasn't easy in the first or even during the time of the Apostles.  

What makes us different than the animals is that we have a soul that is immortal and we have a mind that knows this and is self-aware of its existence. Our mind cannot fathom a world that does not include it.  I've said before that my one problem with dying is the knowledge that while I am busy shutting down, my former neighbor will be getting ready to go to EPCOT center. My friends and family will probably after they hear of my death, wonder what the church will feed them after the funeral service. In Washington D.C. our legislators will spend more time doing nothing useful.  In other words, life on this planet will continue and more than likely, thrive without the presence of Michael The Lesser on it, whose main contribution is filling up an internet blog with prattle! 

If we all realize that our fate is a common one, no matter if there is a God or not, why don't we play nice with each other?  A Christian person should be leading the way by giving a good example, by being kind, and being forgiving to others.  

Look at the benefits of being a Christian.  First, living a Christian life will make the time on earth that we have much more pleasant.  Next and the most important thing is we receive eternal life at the end of our time on this little blue marble that floats in the Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.  When you join, let's say an auto club, you usually get some sort of premium, a map case, a dog whistle, a brillo pad, it doesn't matter, it is a free premium because you are paying to become a member.  A Christian gets what a Christian gets absolutely free because we cannot buy our way into heaven. The news, nay, nay I say, The good news is that heaven and eternal life with God is a free gift given to us by the Father because He loves us so very much.  Okay, the last sentence was over the top, but still it was true! 

It is kind of ironic that as the indication that the Church is doing a good job is that the world hates it more and more. So, where does this leave us on May 20, 2017?  We need to step up our game. We need to be more Christ-like in our lives.  We must be willing to accept the retribution, without anger, actually with joy,  and we must continue to try to live out the Word as best as we can.  We must love more, help more, work more, and especially pray more.  WE must always remember the command of Jesus to love one another as He loved us.   The hatred of the world can be overcome if we put our hearts and souls into the effort. 

God bless you today, please, take a moment right now, and pray for someone that you know that needs it.  Pray and thank God that you are on of his adopted children.  Do it now.  Schedule a five-minute prayer break for yourself every day, put it in your phone's calendar like you put the  other ordinary  things that you just have to do. Make prayer a required time in your day.  Saint Francis, who worked his whole life trying to imitate Jesus said at the end of his life,  "Let us begin today brothers, for until now we have done nothing."   Let us begin, the time is right and the time is NOW!

I Want You !

They strengthened the spirits of the disciples

and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying,  

"It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships

to enter the Kingdom of God."

The 21st Century has brought to the Church more martyrs for the faith than were created in the early years of Christianity.  What is it about the name of Jesus that fills the pagans with such fear?  Is it that they know, instinctively that the victory of Jesus against His enemies is a done deal and they want to try and change that?  Is it that the power of Love that Jesus represents is too powerful for them to overcome so that they have to resort to violence?

On July 26, 2016, Father Jacques was peacefully saying Mass for his congregation when two Muslim men entered the church and murdered him by slitting his throat. Jacques was reported to have said, "Satan go" when he was confronted by his killers. Both of these Muslims pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic state. 

Jacques is but one of many modern martyrs that have been killed by followers of a perverted version of Islam. What distinguishes a Christian martyr from an ordinary believer?  Well, of course, there is the fact that the martyr is dead. But it is before death that the martyr distinguishes him or herself. This type of person has given their all to Christ and they have held nothing back.  Their life is one of service and of love. Well, many good Christians live that way and are they any less holy than a martyr?  No, because holiness does not come to us because of our actions, it comes to us because of the attitudes we hold inside.  To be holy, one does not have to stand on the street corner shouting scripture but one must hold that scripture in their heart and act on it.  A martyr goes one step further in that they will act on scripture even in the face of death.  Their commitment to Christ and His Church is total.  Their whole life is a testimony to the love of God and their loyalties are forever united with the precepts of Christ.  They are in effect, whole people, or holy. Of course, you can be holy without being a martyr, or can you? 

Each of us has a decision to make. Do we follow the world or do we follow Christ?  Do we acknowledge Jesus as Lord of All, including Lord of us?  If we do, then the stuff of martyrs is within is. A blood martyr has given their all and sacrificed life for Jesus and has given us an example of total commitment.  On the other hand, there are modern day people that give their all in an unbloody way by caring for the poor, the homeless.  There are those who sacrifice comfort and safety to help those that cannot help themselves. These people are the bloodless martyrs and they, like those who sacrificed their physical life, are shining examples of what we should be like. 

In America, it is becoming more and more likely that we may see our fellow Christians, Catholics, and Protestants alike may be called to the ultimate sacrifice for Jesus.  The craziness of radical Islam is not unknown in America.  Each of us has to be ready to step forward when our name is called.  We must be proud and loud and ready to serve our Master. 

Mother's Day 2017 - Remembering My First Mentor

http://wptest.churchmice.net/easter/

Anna Jarvis is a name that most people are not too familiar with.  She had an idea in the year of 1908 to hold a memorial for her mother at her church.  She began a campaign to have a special holiday declared for mothers.  The Congress, using the thought processes that have made them famous up until this day, refused to declare a holiday for mothers because they felt they would next have to declare a holiday for mothers in law.  In 1914, Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday to honor mothers.  

This was all very good and the Hallmark company entered into the fray. They realized that there was money to be made with this sentiment for mothers and they developed a line of Mother's Day cards.  Anna Jarvis was not pleased with Hallmark as she was of the opinion that people should write personal notes to their mother on this special day instead of relying on artificial words penned by professional sentiment peddlers.  The commercialization of the holiday she lobbied for annoyed her so much that she organized boycotts of Mother's Day, and we know how that turned out!

My mother, Violet, has passed from this life.  She was a good woman and did her best with me in my youth.  I was a bit of a problem child in that I suffered from what today would have been diagnosed with a learning disability.  I had one heck of a hard time understanding math.  Back then, my teachers all said that I was not working up to my potential while in fact, I was and I just did not understand certain mathematical concepts. My mind was sluggish when it came to numbers but I routinely tested two grades higher in my reading and reading comprehension skills so I was no dummy.  But I was also very frustrated.  What follows is a chapter from my book, "Glimpses of God" in which you will hear about the world I inhabited in fourth grade.  You will see the role my mother played and she taught me a lesson that I carry with me to this very day.  I know it is kind of long and you may not want to read the whole thing, although I think you will be amused if you do, I have marked in bold the relevant paragraph if you want the express version. 

Every September was a new start. I had new shoes, a new haircut, fresh paper, sharp pencils, new BIC pens, you know the kind that they shoot through two by fours and they still write. I also had a never been used three ring binder with factory fresh paper but most of all at least for the first few days of school I carried a new attitude promising myself that I would do better in school and would claw my way by hook or crook out of the dummy tank. The September I started fourth grade I came into the game with all of these things, fresh from vanquishing Sister Emerita and her letter writing campaign and ready to take on the challenge of a new school year. In every era, some disasters make the headlines. In the beginning of the century there was the sinking of the Titanic, later there was crash and burning of the Hindenburg and still later great earthquakes that destroyed cities in Alaska. For me the stage was set for a disaster that for me would dwarf those disasters. The actors were ready and fate shouted; “Action.” Then enter stage left we see Mrs. R. Read. Mrs. R. Reid was a middle-aged teacher of average build who camouflaged her true self with rosy cheeks and a nice smile. She dressed in sixties teacher style and her hair were always coifed in a bun. That nice smile was there to draw you in, sort of the way a cobra will attempt to hypnotize its prey before striking and consuming it. You would have thought that as a lay teacher she would not have had access to the teacher’s pet list since she did not live in the close confines of the convent, but she apparently did obtain a copy of the list and the favored few of third grade continued their reign of blackboard erasing, handing out of papers and putting the names of people who talked while teacher was out of the room in her fourth grade kingdom. 

Mrs. R. Reid was the empress in her domain. Other teachers both nuns and lay teachers alike held sway in their kingdoms but Mrs. R. Reid was an absolute despotic monarch over hers. She was an absolute disciplinarian and was quite inventive in the punishments she could come up with. As the school year progressed, my good intentions and my good attitudes started to decay very quickly melting as if it were a pyramid of sugar caught in a drenching rainstorm. 

Early in the year, she passed out a small envelope containing twenty-five small slips of colored paper. She explained that these were tickets and we would receive some tickets when we did what we were told and we would lose some tickets when we failed to make good. You did not get tickets for doing your homework, that was a requirement and besides since her lectures were so fascinating you would want to rush home to eagerly complete each assignment and therefore it followed that finishing the assignment would be its own reward. No, you received tickets for doing things like erasing the blackboard, handing out papers, putting the names of people who talked on the blackboard and by bringing in Betty Crocker Coupons. So right from the start, you could see that the tables were tilted towards the teachers’ pets. About the only thing I could hope to get tickets for would be to bring in Betty Crocker Coupons. I guess these were coupons on the top of Betty Crocker products such as cake and cookie mixes that could be exchanged for premiums. Mom’s back then mostly stayed at home and had time to do things like baking. Unfortunately for me my mother, when she did bake, did not use Betty Crocker products. She used Jiffy Mix products. Betty proudly sold her wares for fifty-nine cents while Jiffy Mix sold for just a dime at the Hi Lo store on Kedzie Avenue. With three kinds consuming food and tuition money not to mention the general upkeep of the kids, there just was no contest in our house as to which products would be used. There were other ways to earn tickets which I cannot bring to mind, but I was able to get some of the valuable pieces of scrap paper but never really enough to exchange for pens, paper, or other supplies you could use them for and during the annual World’s Finest Chocolate sale ten tickets would get you a square of chocolate or three chocolate covered almonds and if I wasn’t being punished, I would dole out three of the valuable tickets just so I could wrap my lips around some of those almonds, mmmm! You also were paid tickets for selling chocolate or Christmas cards or whatever they decided we were selling that year. We will talk more about these yearly sales in a little while. The ticket system, while not completely fair is not the reason why to this day I have a dislike for Mrs. R. Reid. The year I had with her as a teacher changed me as a person and for the longest time, not for the better. 

Mrs. Reid’s fourth-grade class was relegated to a basement room which was not as nice as the regular rooms on the first three floors. There were exposed pipes, probably wrapped with asbestos. I think that it was kind of poetic justice that Mrs. R. Reid would hold court in the dungeon- like atmosphere of the basement. I have to be fair to her. I know that out there are people that will say that she was a fine teacher and the best that they ever had. Luckily for me, this is not their autobiography so I need not consider their opinion. Never since Mrs. Reid have I had a teacher that was so outstanding in unfairness. She had considerable ability to classify children into rigid categories which they were never allowed to escape from. Thus, once I was placed into her “dummy” category, I was there in her eyes for life. She never would call on a dummy in class unless she absolutely knew she could embarrass you because she knew there was no way that you knew the answer. Please understand that I am not saying that she only treated me this way, no, out of the forty or so kids there were about four others occupying the dunce classification, and she never called on a dummy for anything. Even in my fourth-grade mentality, I knew this was unfair. Let’s face it, folks, even a real dyed in the wool dummy just might have a correct answer now and then. With Mrs. Reid, I did more homework. Not all of it mind you, but more of it than I did for that great teacher and potential winner of the Nobel Prize, Sister Emerita, whom, when I compared her to Mrs. R. Reid, I loved and admired so very much. The reason I did homework for her is because there was a penalty if you did not do it. The penalty was you had to write your multiplication tables from 1 X 1 to 12 X 12, doing this once was considered one penalty. I don’t know if I am clear about what a penalty was, you would start with 1 X 1= 1, next line 1X2=2, all the way up to 1X12=12. Then you would go up to the top of the page again and in a second column start with 2X1=2 next line 2X2=4 etc continuing until you got to 12X12=144. While I was never able to amass a fortune in tickets because I lacked Betty Crocker coupons, I was able to become a virtual millionaire in the penalties. If you wanted penalties, I was the guy to see. At one time I remember I had amassed five hundred opportunities to write my time's tables. I was an expert so let me tell you that you can fit all of the times tables from 1 X 1 to 12 X 12 on both sides of one sheet of paper. Each penalty had to be on a separate piece of paper, so we were buying lots of five whole punch notebook paper that year! About now you may be thinking; “Why didn’t Dofus just avoid penalties by turning in the homework?” That is a good question, I am glad you asked. Although my grades in fourth grade were better than in third and I was turning in more of the homework, I was still failing badly at New Math, once again I just could not understand it and back then I had a very low threshold for frustration. I accumulated penalties because I seldom turned in my Math homework and was awarded five penalties each time I missed an assignment. Once I tried turning in the worksheet from the workbook with my name on it and nothing else, but that earned me a bonus penalty, she really did go over the papers! Then as time went on the frustration got even greater and I did less and less of the assignments. Mind you, when it came to passing tests say for English and History, there was little problem for me. I was a good reader. 

Mrs. R. Reid, unlike the beloved and saintly Sister Emerita, was no letter writer; she would have her revenge on me and once the decision was taken without hesitation she went straight for the jugular vein and used that modern invention called the telephone. One day Mrs. Reid left the room for a few moments right after I told her my Math homework sadly would not be arriving in her inbox that day. She stared at me for a moment and she smiled, but it was a smile that sent shivers up and down my spine. One of her pets was stationed at the blackboard to take down the names of anyone who talked and she left the room. She was gone for a few minutes and then came back and started the lesson. About fifteen minutes later there was a knock at the door and the principal Sister Victoria motioned for Mrs. Reid to come into the hall. After Mrs. Reid stationed her snitch, she called me to follow her. I went out in the hall and there with Sister Victoria was my mother. Mrs. Reid had called her and she came down for a conference. In front of my mother and Sister Victoria, Mrs. Reid asked me straight out if I had my math homework to turn in today. I said no and she told me to go back into the room and put my name on the board for not having my homework. She was big at putting people’s names on the blackboard. I think that she thought that shame of having your name on the board would cause you to do your best to turn in your work. It didn’t work in my case, I was used to it. I hung my head and slowly went back into the room and walked to the usual spot on the board and with my classmates giggling at me, only Dennis in the back refused to laugh or giggle, I wrote my name on the board and shuffled to my seat. Believe it or not, this, as I reflected on it later in life, gave me a glimpse of God. I thought of the shame Jesus felt as he carried the cross to Calvary, not that I can compare my not doing homework to his work on the Cross for us but the feeling of eyes upon you knowing that they were looking you with scorn really hit home. It turned out that I would be turning in all of my assignments from that day on. We all carried a green assignment pad and wrote down the homework assignments in it. My book was only slightly used at that point. By the end of the year, it would become well used and dog-eared. At the end of every day, I would have to bring my assignment notebook to Mrs. Reid and she would have to certify that I had written down all of my homework assignments. One day I forgot to bring it to her and she forgot to sign the book and I knew I would be in trouble. I decided that there was no harm in forging her signature since I had all of the assignments written down. I practiced her signature a couple of times and got it exactly right. I can still sign her name better than she could. If you could compare my rendering to one of the genuine ones in the assignment book, you would maybe see some very small variations, but no one, not my parents nor Mrs. Reid ever stumbled on to the fact that I forged her name. I only did it once, on a Friday so the next week’s assignments would begin on a new page. Mark down one point for me!

Violet Spoula
Someone tried to "colorize: this photobooth picture, not me! 

At this impromptu powwow that Mrs. Reid called between her and my mother, one good thing actually came out of it, while not a glimpse of God, it was a life lesson that I will remember for the rest of my life. When I got home, instead of the expected, and because of my slothful ways well deserved dressing down, my mother told me that she had noticed that when I was going to the blackboard to write my name, I had my head hung down low. She told me that I should always be proud of whom I was and no matter what I had the dignity that came with just being who I was no matter what so I should always hold my head up high. I remembered that lesson from that day on and although things would happen in my youth and in adulthood and I would get in trouble again and have to put my name on the board, I would always remember the wisdom she spoke on that day and now I remember that no matter what that I should be proud just to be me. 

I spent the rest of the school year doing homework and times tables. I eventually got all of my penalties done, but it took hours and hours. I did really know my time's tables by the end of the year! The way she made me feel small, the teasing from other kids, the pressure I felt because I felt dumb and alone caused me to start biting my fingernails. Mrs. Reid was on this like a great white shark would take to meat. She tried her best to get me to stop, but it was a compulsion that was not under my control. Doctors today say that this disorder called Chronic Onychophagia is caused by stress and anxiety. Mrs. Reid, for me, was THE local distributor of stress and anxiety. I carried my nail biting habit all the way up until my freshman year in high school; it was an embarrassment and more cause for kids to tease me. On rainy days we would have lunch recess inside. Our class would have it in our classroom. We played this game where five kids would stand in front of the class and we would put our heads down and our thumbs up and the five in front would circulate through the room and push a kids thumb down and go back to the front of the room. We then were told to pick our heads up and those that had their thumbs pushed down would stand up and try to guess who pushed their thumb down. What a fascinating game huh? One time I had a turn-up front and pushed down the thumb of Patricia Glowacki, a notorious teacher’s pet, and blackboard writing snitch. She immediately guessed it was me that tagged her and we were allowed to ask how she was able to guess correctly. She said, “Your finger was wet Ewwww.” The class laughed and I was mortified. But we digress here. In the long run, I am glad that I had this nail-biting disorder. I think that as I grew and saw other people with things wrong with them, I was able to empathize and sympathize more with them. In the long run, I guess my Chronic Onychophagia was a good thing. 

On the last day of school, the pastor came and handed out report cards. There was some question as to if I was going to go on to the fifth grade or not. The pastor called me up looked at my card, shook his head discreetly and wordlessly handed it to me. I went back to my desk and opened it; “Promoted to Grade Five.” Oh, remember we started the year with that little envelope of twenty-five tickets? Well, I have to tell you that is about the same number of now valueless tickets that I threw in the wastebasket as one of the pets brought it around as we cleaned our desks for the last time. God was showing me through Mrs. R. Reid that things of this earth would over time lose their value. Who would think that there was that much power in some scrap paper? What a Glimpse of God this was and it really came from a most unlikely source; thank you, Mrs. R. Reid. With my report card in my hand, I realized something else. Oh, Joy! Oh, Rapture! I was FREE so I sayFarewell to the old Mrs. R. Reid, I hardly knew thee!

Commercial Time: My autobiography, "Glimpses of God" is available through Amazon.com - type "spoula" as the search term. 

So, on this very special day that we set aside to honor our mother, I just want to encourage you to be grateful for your mother and to remember her not only on this day but during the whole year. 

For Violet, I pray, my dear mother, that you have found the rest and the joy you never seemed to be able to find in life.  I love you and miss you very much.  You worked wonders with me Mom, I think I grew up to be a good reflection of all that was good in you. 

Jesus and the Lottery

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,

and will do greater ones than these,

because I am going to the Father. 

And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,

so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it."

Dear Lord, I want a winning lottery ticket, in Jesus name, I pray, Amen.  Well, it's off to the Shell station on the corner to buy my guaranteed "in Jesus Name" winning lottery ticket!  Man, am I going to have fun with all those greenbacks!  Or, have I set myself up for failure?   

Now, there is no reason why Jesus cannot grant me a winning lottery ticket. He knows me.  He knows how I think and what I would do with all of that money. If it is His will, it will happen.  But, it is foolish to pray for something so temporary as little green pieces of paper. The Lord knows what will help us achieve our goal, and that is heaven. 

Prayer is a privilege that we have by virtue of being created by God.  Christian prayer is a privilege that comes to us when we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We have a twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year hotline to God, a phone that will never go unanswered.  How sad it is that we do not take more advantage of this wonderful thing. 

It is through prayer that we will get to know Jesus and to cultivate a relationship with Him.  At any moment we can ASK, SEEK, & KNOCK.  We can always be assured that we will get what we ask for. It may not be a winning lottery ticket.  We have to remember that when we pray we are asking God, "Do you love me?"  His answer, no matter what it is, no matter what form it takes is always, "Yes, I love you, and you are precious in my sight.  I love you more than you can imagine. I want you to be with me forever in Paradise."  He will give us what we need when we need it for that is what a loving Father does for His children. 

  

A Place of My Own - Heaven

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father's house, there are many dwelling places.If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.

Today I want to muse about heaven. Heaven is the place all of us Christians want to be once our life is changed and we close our eyes in death.  Some people have been heard to say that they don't want to go to heaven because none of their friends will be there.  Well, I would make better friends then!  

Of late there have been a few books written by people who have supposedly gone to heaven and have returned. I read one of them that relates the story of a little boy's visit to heaven and to Jesus.  I found the story very interesting. The book's title is "Heaven is for Real."  Colton is a child who got very, very sick indeed from a burst appendix and apparently died and went to heaven and visited with Jesus. While he was there he visited with his grandfather whom he never knew, learned that he had a sister that had been stillborn.  He relayed these facts to his parents when he was "sent back."  There was no way he could have known about the stillborn sister and he did not recognize the grandfather's picture until one was shown to him that showed his grandfather as younger.  The boy said that no one is old in heaven.  He also related what his father and mother were doing while he was in the operating room being worked on by the surgeons.  They also kept showing pictures of Jesus and he rejected all of them until he was shown one drawn by an artist who had a near death experience and visited heaven.  They showed Colton the painting Prince of Peace by Akiane Kamarik and he said nothing. His father pressed him for his comments and the boy said that this painting looked just like Jesus. 

Here is the painting - Is This Jesus?

Prince of Peace by
Akiane Kamarik 

That is a synopsis of Colton's story.  Is it true?  It most certainly could be true. What heaven will be like cannot be described in human terms.  Through my personal experience, I can tell you that heaven will be a place of great joy, I know this as fact, not as something I take on faith.  The details are for another post.  

My hopes for heaven are simple, like the old song.  Heaven will be a place where no one ever goes hungry or cold, nor will they grow old and die.  I believe that we will know absolutely everyone in heaven and will talk to them as we speak to our best friends and spouses here on earth. I believe that our minds will understand all of the mysteries of the universe.  There will be no hate or prejudice and we will all have a great love for one another. 

I've never owned a place of my own on this earth and there was a time in my life that I mourned over this fact.  But, today, I realize that no matter what we own here on earth, we can take none of it with us except that which we carry in our heart.  My place in heaven will rival and surpass the palaces in this world because it will be with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Saints.  Maybe, I can be on a first name basis with St. Francis of Assisi, and speak with St. Michael the Archangel about how he defeated the devil.  A tent on the edge of heaven will be infinitely better than a mansion on earth. 

So, that's what I have to say about heaven.  What are your thoughts? Feel free to share a comment below.