the weak and frail one in the desert

Today is also the memorial of Abba Arsenius, one of my favorite desert Christians. Arsenius was a wealthy, brilliant, and highly-placed man in the Roman Emperor's court, the chief tutor to the children of two different emperors. He came to conversion of life, abandoned his former life as a courtier, and went out to the desert to follow Jesus. He was faithful for many years, and was granted great wisdom and gifts of counsel. Here is one of the stories of Arsenius.

There was a monk from Rome called Arsenius who lived at Scetis near the church. He had a slave to serve him. The priest, knowing his bad health and the comfort in which he used to live, sent him what he needed of whatever anyone brought to the church. Having lived twenty-five years at Scetis, he had acquired the gift of insight and became famous.

One of the great Egyptians heard about him and came to see him, thinking he would find him leading a life of great corporal austerity. He entered and greeted him. They said the prayer and sat down. Now the Egyptian saw he was wearing fine clothing, and that he possessed a bed with a coverlet and a small pillow. He saw that his feet were clean and shod in sandals. Noticing all this, he was shocked, because such a way of life was not usual in that district; much greater austerity was required.

Now the old man had the gift of insight, and he understood that his visitor was shocked, and so he said to him who served him, "We will celebrate a feast today for the abba's sake." There were a few vegetables, and he cooked them and at the appointed hour, they rose and ate. The old man had a little wine also, because of his illness; so they drank some. When evening came, they recited the twelve psalms and went to sleep. They did the same during the night. On rising at dawn, the Egyptian said to him, "Pray for me," and he went away without being edified.

When he had gone a short distance, the old man, wishing to edify him, sent someone to bring him back. On his arrival he received him once again with joy and asked him, "Of what country are you?" He said, "Egypt." "And of what city?" "I am not a city-dweller at all." "And what was your work in the village?" "I was a herdsman." "Where did you sleep?" He replied, "In the field." "Did you have anything to lie upon?" He said, "Would I go and put a bed under myself in a field?" "But how did you sleep?" He said, "On the bare ground." The old man said next, "What was your food in the fields, and what wine did you drink?" He replied, "Is there food and drink in the the fields?" "But how did you live?" "I ate dry bread, and, if I found any, green herbs and water." The old man replied, "Great hardship! Was there a bath-house for washing in the village?" He replied, "No, only the river, when we wanted it."

After the old man had learnt all this and knew of the hardness of his former life, he told him his own former way of life when he was in the world, with the intention of helping him. "I, the poor man whom you see, am of the great city of Rome and I was a great man in the palace of the emperor." When the Egyptian heard the beginning of these words, he was filled with compunction and listened attentively to what the other was saying. He continued, "Then I left the city and came to this desert. I whom you see had great houses and many riches and having despised them I have come to this little cell. I whom you see had beds all of gold with coverings of silk, and in exchange for that, God has given me this little bed and this skin. Moreover, my clothes were the most expensive kind and in their stead I wear these garments of no value. Again, at my table there was much gold and abundance, and instead of that, God has given me this little dish of vegetables and a cup of wine. There were many slaves to serve me, and see how in exchange for that, God troubles this old man to serve me. Instead of the bath-house, I throw a little water over my feet and wear sandals because of my weakness. Instead of music and lyres, I say the twelve psalms and the same at night. Instead of the sins I used to commit, I now say my little rule prayer. So then, I beg you abba, do not be shocked at my weakness."

Hearing this, the Egyptian came to his senses and said, "Woe to me, for after so much hardship in the world, I have found ease; and what I did not have before, that I now possess. While after so great ease, you have come to humility and poverty." Greatly edified, he withdrew, and he became his friend and often went to him for help. For he was a man full of discernment and the good odour of the Holy Spirit.
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May families be filled with saints!

Today is the memorial of St. Macrina the younger. She's called the younger to distinguish her from her holy paternal grandmother, St. Macrina the elder.

But, they were not the only heroically virtuous ones in their family.

Both of the younger Macrina's parents are saints: St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia.

All three of her younger brothers are also saints: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Peter of Sebastea. Some sources also say that St. Gregory Nazianzen was her cousin and foster-brother. Gregory may have been a popular name in the family because the elder Macrina was a disciple of St. Gregory the Wonderworker.

But back to today's member of the family, the younger Macrina. Born in about 327, she had as normal of a childhood as was possible when Mom, Dad, and Grandma are all certifiable Saints, growing up pretty, pious, and learned under the tutulege of her Mom and Grandma, both of whom beside being holy were also scholars. At age twelve, the standard age in those days, she was betrothed to a Christian lawyer, but the young gentleman died before the wedding, and she then refused all other suitors.

About this time, her Dad and then her Mom died, and she, with her Grandma's help, dedicated herself to the upbringing and education of her younger brothers and cousin, seeing them all safely launched into holy and learned adulthoods. Once this duty was done, she entered a cenobium for women (we'd say "monastery" these days, but monasteries hadn't been invented yet.....) that her Mom had founded after Dad died, where she lived a life of intense prayer as its amma until her death in 379. Her kid brother St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote her biography.
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Two saints for this day

Today is the memorial of two one-of-a-kind saints:

St. Camillus de Lellis --- lover of Christ, lover of the sick



Camillus was the son of a military officer, born in 1550. His mother died when he was still a toddler. Following his father's trade, Camillus became a soldier while still very young, fighting first for Venice and then for Naples.

Camillus also has an addiction to gambling, and lost so much that he had to take a second job working construction to repay his gambling debts. He was working on a building belonging to the Capuchin Franciscans when they brought him to conversion.

He left the military and entered the Capuchin novitiate three separate times, but injuries from his fighting days forced him to leave each time. He went to Rome seeking medical treatment, and there became a protege of St. Philip Neri (that God-bitten character!). Camillus moved into San Giacomo hospital for incurables to live, and, eventually, became its administrator.

Aware of his total lack of education, he began elementary school at the age of 32, studying with the local children, and after long study was ordianed a priest. He formed the Congregation of the Servants of the Sick, now commonly called the Camillans, dedicated entirely to the care of the sick. Camillus honored the sick as living images of Christ.

As it says in today's Office of Readings passage, a citation from a biography written by one of his companions:

.....The mere sight of the sick was enough to soften and melt his heart and make him utterly forget all the pleasures, enticements, and interests of this world. When he was taking care of his patients, he seemed to spend and exhaust himself completely, so great was his devotion and compassion. He would have loved to take upon himself all their illness, their every affliction, could he but ease their pain and relieve their weakness.

In the sick he saw the person of Christ. His imagination was so vivid that, while feeding them, he perceived his patients as other Christs. He would even beg of them the grace of forgiveness for his sins. His reverence in their presence was as great as if he were really and truly in the presence of his Lord. In his conversations he talked of nothing more often or with greater feeling than of holy charity. He would have liked to plant this virtue in every human heart. .....

After many years of selfless service, he died on this day in 1614.


"She pushes all before her" --- Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha

I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus. He must be my only love. The state of helpless poverty that may befall me if I do not marry does not frighten me. All I need is a little food and a few pieces of clothing. With the work of my hands I shall always earn what is necessary and what is left over I’ll give to my relatives and to the poor. If I should become sick and unable to work, then I shall be like the Lord on the cross. He will have mercy on me and help me, I am sure. ---- Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha



Tekakwitha was born in 1656, the daughter of a Mohawk chief, the head of the Turtle clan, and his wife, a captive Algonquian woman who was a Christian. When Tekakwitha was four, she lost mother, father, and her brother in a smallpox epidemic, and she was left badly scarred and nearly blind. Her name means "she pushes all before her," and most likely refers to her habit of feeling in front of herself so she wouldn't run into stuff, but that name was also appropriate because she seemed to have a gift from childhood for domestic management, for imposing order on chaos. This talent kept her tolerated by her surviving relatives, who otherwise considered her a burden and who were upset that she would not allow herself to be married off.

When the Jesuit missioners arrived in her village, she was one of the first converts, in 1676 when she was twenty, and was baptised with the name Kateri, Mohawk for Catherine. This was to the extreme displeasure of her relatives. When their treatment of her degraded from grudging neglect to outright abuse, she left, and moved to a settlement about 200 miles away that was entirely Christian, living a life of deep prayer and strict austerity. When on a visit to Montreal she met some religious sisters, she was drawn to their life, and set out to form a community of sisters in her village, but was discouraged from that by the pastor; however, she herself made the vow to the counsels in 1679, becoming the first consecrated person among the Mohawks, in fact among any of the original nations of North America.

Never strong or healthy, and weakened by her austerities, she died at the age of 24 in 1680.

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Getting back in gear

I'm getting my blogging back in gear again after some days of blogging temptation.

For some unknown reason, it seems all the ideas that have been popping up for posts the last week or so have been "Controversies R Us", and I've always tried to keep this blog oriented to those things that do not change, a quiet back cove of the parish. So, I haven't been posting. But, just for your entertainment, a topic list of the half-written passed-up posts:

1)"Let them drive automobiles"; coping with clueless socially isolated politicians
2)Wealth and poverty are relative terms
. . 2a)Just because they are relative does not make them insignificant or less a problem
. . 2b)Speaking honestly about these problems is not class warfare
3)What is up with St. Blog's Parish and disrespect for elders?
4)the Catechism and offenses against truth (and there isn't even a current blogstorm....)
5)the Second Vatican Council's only anathema (and it's not August sixth.....)
6)Sacramental Church without Sacraments --- curcuit riders, "viri probati", and the return of the "simplex priest"?

and there were some others I didn't start to write. Aren't you glad I've got some resistance [grin]
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Faction fighting, still!!

Well, humans have been doing it forever. Only one generation into Christianity, St. Clement of Rome, who was the third or fourth pope (I don't have my chart in front of me) had to send an apostolic letter to the Church in Corinth, because they had tied their church up in a tangle of faction fighting again.

The same thing that it was so important for Pope Clement to teach the fractious Church in Corinth is equally important for us to learn in the fractious Church in the United States of America.

from the Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians:

Why are there strife and passion, schisms and even war among you? Do we not possess the same Spirit of grace which was given to us and the same calling in Christ? Why do we tear apart and divide the body of Christ? Why do we revolt against our own body? Why do we reach such a degree of insanity that we forget that we are members of one another? Do not forget the words of Jesus our Lord: Woe to that man; it would be better for him if he had not been born rather than scandalise one of my chosen ones. Indeed it would be better for him to have a great millstone round his neck and to be drowned in the sea than that he lead astray one of my chosen ones. Your division has led many astray, has made many doubt, has made many despair, and has brought grief upon us all. And still your rebellion continues.

Pick up the letter of blessed Paul the apostle. What did he write to you at the beginning of his ministry? Even then you had developed factions. So Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote to you concerning himself and Cephas and Apollos. But that division involved you in less sin because you were supporting apostles of high reputation and a person approved by them.

We should put an end to this division immediately. Let us fall down before our master and implore his mercy with our tears. Then he will be reconciled to us and restore us to the practice of brotherly love that befits us. For this is the gate of justice that leads to life, as it is written: Open to me the gates of justice. When I have entered there, I shall praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the just shall enter through it. There are many gates which stand open, but the gate of justice is the gateway of Christ. All who enter through this gate are blessed, pursuing their way in holiness and justice, performing all their tasks without discord. A person may be faithful; he may have the power to utter hidden mysteries; he may be discriminating in the evaluation of what is said and pure in his actions. But the greater he seems to be, the more humbly he ought to act, and the more zealous he should be for the common good rather than his own interest.

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Life, Justice, and Going to War

by Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, an excellent exposition on Catholic morality and "just war" theory and its applicibility to the our country's current armed conflict(s), heavily footnoted. [beware, Adobe Reader required]

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What I've been up to......

my sisters decided that I needed a memorable 50th birthday party1

The four of them, all together, drove up from our old stomping grounds in NE Ohio on Friday. After they came by my place for a little plotting, they went to their hotel, and we reassenbled early on Saturday morning.

After some driving around making decisions, we had breakfast at Ma Fischers, a notorious 24-hour-breakfast restaurant, then pilgrimaged to several stores looking for a piece of medical hardware they wanted to make a present of without going to the internet --- but we didn't find it. So we shrugged shoulders and went to the Penzey's Spices store; I'd heard their fine reputation but never been there. All five of us indulged in spice purchases --- I got bellpepper flakes, orange peel, salt-free Italian herb blend, and salt-free California seasoned pepper.

Next stop was the [temporary] West Allis Farmer's market, where I did all kinds of ogling and bought some snap peas and pattypan squash. and my sisters decided that the Anchor Hold needed just a little something. A few purchases at the Market and a quick K-Mart stop, and back to my place. A big hanging plant with purple flowers now graces the old clothesline rack, and



here's two of my sisters planting my new herb garden with basil, thyme, rosemary, and tarragon. After a late lunch and talk at the Grand Avenue food court, I went home for an evening's rest, and they went to Summerfest with Julie of West Allis, who has been Susan's penpal for 30 years or so.

7:15 am, we are back out and running, to Mass at the Cathedral, then a stop in the Cathedral Treasury [the parish museum] and a few introductions, then breakfast at Mykono's Cafe, just two blocks from the cathedral. To the hotel for change of clothes and assorted phone calls to my brothers-in-law and nieces and nephews, then off to Summerfest for the day!



And this is us, the Five Sister Musketeers, enjoying the fine Lake Michigan shore. We wandered around the stages, then spent most of the afternoon at the gospel choir competition. One of the choirs was All Saints CATHOLIC Church --- the emphasis was theirs --- and they were so good that one of the sisters says that next time they do this we have to assist at Mass there, instead of Cathedral [raised eyebrow?]

For the evening, we went to the Big Backyard stage, where there was a young, quite handsome country singer who was quite good (but I don't recall his name). Only one sis was allowed to be with me on the access platform, but we could see the other three at a picnic table and they must have been enjoying themselves because they were dancing......

They went back to Ohio bright and early this morning, in order to have the holiday with husbands and children before work begins again on Wednesday. Wild and wonderful. And it's right that we really ought to see each othr more often than two or three times per decade!
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to encourage Ehren Watada, and others so situated

Great bunches of the holy Church's earliest martyrs were girls who wouldn't marry whatever papa picked, and young men who wouldn't join the military or wouldn't kill on command once they were in.

So, from the year 295, the story of St. Maximilian of Tebessa, also called St. Maximilian the Great Martyr, who, heavens no, he couldn't go.

On the 12th day of March during the consulship of Tuscus and Anolinus [295], when Fabius Victor had been brought into the forum at Tebessa, together with Maximilianus, and their advocate Pompeianus had been granted an audience, the last declared, "The temonarius Fabius Victor is present, together with Valerianus Quintianus, the praepositus Caesariensis, and the fine recruit Maximilianus, Victor's son. Since he is acceptable, I ask that he be measured." The proconsul Dion said, "What are you called ?" Maximilianus replied, "Why do you want to know my name? It is not permitted to me to serve in the military since I am a Christian". The proconsul Dion said, "Ready him". When he was being got ready, Maximilianus replied, "I cannot serve in the military; I cannot do wrong; I am a Christian." The proconsul Dion said, "Let him be measured". When he had been measured, an official reported, "He is five feet ten inches tall." Dion said to the official, "Let him be marked." And as Maximilianus resisted, he replied, "I will not do it; I cannot serve in the military."

2. Dion said, "Serve so that you do not perish." Maximilianus replied, "I will not serve; cut off my head; I do not serve the world, but I do serve my God." Dion the proconsul said, "Who has persuaded you of this?" Maximilianus replied, "My soul and he who has called me." Dion said to his father Victor, "Advise your son." Victor replied, "He himself knows --- he has his purpose --- what is best for him." Dion said to Maximilianus, "Serve and accept the seal." He replied, "I will not accept the seal: I already have the seal of my Christ." Dion the proconsul said, "I will send you to your Christ right now." He replied, "I wish that you would do so. That is even my title to glory." Dion said to his staff, "Let him be marked." And when he was resisting, he replied, "I do not accept the world's seal, and if you give it to me, I will break it, since I value it at nought. I am a Christian. It is not permitted to me to bear the lead upon my neck after [having received] the saving seal of my Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, he whom you do not know, who suffered for the life of the world, whom God surrendered for our sins. All of us Christians serve Him. Him we follow as the source of life and author of salvation." Dion said, "Serve, and accept the seal, so that you do not suffer a terrible death." Maximilianus replied, "I will not die. My name is already with my Lord; I cannot serve in the military." Dion said, "Have regard to your youth and serve; for this befits a young man." Maximilianus replied, "My service is for my Lord; I cannot serve the world. I have already said: I am a Christian." Dion the proconsul said, "There are Christian soldiers in the sacred retinue of our lords Diocletian, Maximianus, Constantius, and Maximus, and they serve." Maximilianus replied, "They themselves know what is best for them. But I am a Christian, and I cannot do wrong." Dio said, "What wrong do they who serve do ?" Maximilianus replied, "You know well what they do." Dion replied, "Serve, lest, having scorned military service, you begin upon a terrible death." Maximilianus replied, "I will will not die; even if I do depart the world, my spirit will live with my Lord Christ."

3. Dion said, "Strike out his name." And when it had been struck out, Dion said, "Because you have disloyally refused military service, you will receive the appropriate sentence in order to serve as an example to others." And he read his decision from his tablet, "Maximilianus, since you have disloyally refused the military oath, it has been decided for you to be punished by the sword." Maximilianus replied, "Thanks be to God." He was 21 years, 3 months, and 18 days old. And when he was being led to the place [of execution], he spoke as follows, "Dearest brothers, with an eager desire, hurry with as much courage as you can so that it may befall you to see the Lord and that he may reward you also with a similar crown." And with a joyous face, he addressed his father as follows, "Give that guard the new clothing which you had got ready for me during my military service, so that I may welcome you with a hundredfold reward and we may glory with the Lord together." And so he suffered death shortly afterwards. And the matron Pompeiana obtained his body from the judge and, having placed it in her carriage, she brought it to Carthage, and buried it beneath a little hill near the martyr Cyprian and the palace. And so, after the 13th day, the same woman died, and was buried there. But his father Victor returned to his home with great joy, thanking God that he had sent on ahead such a gift to the Lord, he who was about to follow shortly afterwards.

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A life of struggles, a life of forgiveness

The most remarkable thing about James Cameron was that he never held a grudge.

A commentary about James Cameron, one of the more well-known saints of this fair city. The funeral will be at the Cathedral on Monday morning, Juneteenth Day, the feast of liberation, which is also the 18th anniversary of the opening of the museum he founded, dedicated to forgiving and never forgetting. (For, those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.)

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Eternal rest and perpetual Light, O Lord!

Deacon John Wargin, the master of ceremonies for +Richard our auxiliary bishop, died yesterday in a traffic accident while he and +Richard were going to a remote part of the diocese on the chrism trail. Deacon Wargin was driving, missed a stop sign. Two people in the other car and +Richard were also injured but were treated and released the same day.

and James Cameron, founder of America's Black Holocaust Museum, also died yesterday. He was a survivor of a lynching in 1930, and devoted his life to forgiving and not forgetting.

Funeral arrangements pending for each.....

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Two great saints today

"Lord, grant me to see my own sins, and not to judge my brother"

Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings, you have power over life and death. You know even things that are uncertain and obscure, and our very thoughts and feelings are not hidden from you. Cleanse me from my secret faults, and I have done wrong and you saw it. You know how weak I am, both in soul and in body. Give me strength, O Lord, in my frailty and sustain me in my sufferings. Grant me a prudent judgment, dear Lord, and let me always be mindful of your blessings. Let me retain until the end your grace that has protected me till now. ---- St Ephrem's prayer for strength in weakness



Today the Church celebrates the deacon and doctor, the desert Christian Ephrem the Syrian. He wrote great volumes of prayers, devotional poetry, and works of theology. He was one of the periti at the Council of Nicea, having accompanied his bishop, +James of Nisibis, there. Post-conciliarly, he dedicated much of his writings to the defense and propagation of the rulings of the Council. He also worked against the Gnostics; they were propagating their heresy by writing popular music, Ephrem countered by writing orthodox pop tunes of his own, becoming known as "the harp of the Holy Spirit."

He retired to a cave hermitage in the vicinity of Edessa, continuing to write, and occasionally going to the city to preach. During a famine in 372-3 he coordinated the food distribution, operated a string of soup kitchens, and also opened and ran several hospitals for the ill, until he fell ill, probably a result of overwork, and died in 373.

St. Ephrem's most well-known work, known as his "Great Prayer", isa treasure in my life and I believe it will be fruitful in the lives of all of us.

St. Ephrem's Great Prayer

[Making a prostration]

O LORD, Master of my life, grant that I may not be infected with the spirit of slothfulness and inquisitiveness, with the spirit of ambition and vain talking.

[Making a prostration]

Grant instead to me, your servant, the spirit of purity and of humility, the spirit of patience and neighborly love.

[Making a prostration]

O Lord and King, grant me the grace of being aware of my sins and of not thinking evil of those of my brethren.

For you are blessed, now and ever, and forever. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of Kings, You have power over life and death. You know what is secret and hidden, and neither our thoughts nor our feelings are concealed from You. Cure me of duplicity; I have done evil before You.

Now my life declines from day to day and my sins increase. O Lord, God of souls and bodies, You know the extreme frailty of my soul and my flesh. Grant me strength in my weakness, O Lord, and sustain me in my misery.

Give me a grateful soul that I may never cease to recall Your benefits, O Lord most bountiful. Be not mindful of my many sins, but forgive me all my misdeeds.

O Lord, disdain not my prayer - the prayer of a wretched sinner; sustain me with Your grace until the end, that it may protect me as in the paSaint It is Your grace which has taught me wisdom; blessed are they who follow her ways, for they shall receive the crown of glory.

In spite of my unworthiness, I praise You and I glorify You, O Lord, for Your mercy to me is without limit. You have been my help and my protection. May the name of Your majesty be praised forever. To you, our God, be glory. Amen.

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Great sinner, greater saint: Columba, the one who loved books

O Lord, grant us that love which can never die, which will enkindle our lamps but not extinguish them, so that they may shine in us and bring light to others. Most dear Savior, enkindle our lamps that they may shine forever in your temple. May we receive unquenchable light from you so that our darkness will be illuminated and the darkness of the world will be made less. Amen. --- a prayer of St. Columba



Today the Church also remembers Columba, bard, monk, missioner, and penitent, and just plain interesting character.

He was born in Ireland, at about the same time that the young Patrick was a slave there, to a noble family, direct descendants of the great Niall. He had a great love for all kinds of learning from childhood. The legendary version of his life attributes this to the toddler Columba having eaten a cake with the alphabet letters baked inside it. He studied the bardic arts, and then, after he became a Christian, apprenticed in the monastic life under two hermits who also became saints, both of them named Finian. Then, he took up the life of a wandering bard, monastic variety, going all over Ireland wherever there were souls to be saved and new books to be read, priorities not necessarily in that order.

Now word came to Columba that a new book had arrived at the hermitage of Finian (who may have been one of the two he apprenticed under --- but Finian was a extremely common name at that time). So he went to the place where Finian, and his new book, dwelled; publicly preaching and praying and reading the new book during the day, and secretly copying the book at night, against the command of Finian, who was very attached to having an only copy. On the night Columba finished copying the last page of the book, he was discovered, and Finian claimed the copy for himself, since there was no permission to copy. After much arguing, the case was appealed to the High King of all Ireland, who ruled in favor of Finian in this very first copyright case --- "To every cow its calf, and to every book its child book."

Columba lost his temper entirely, and called down the wrath of the O'Neills (his ancestral clan) against the High King and his armies. There was a great battle, which was won by the O'Neill forces, but at the cost of a thousand dead. Every soul of whom was a millstone on the soul of Columba. One thousand souls killed, for the sake of a book and bruised pride. In penitence, he vowed to never look upon his beloved land again.



With a few companions, he sailed away; and kept sailing until they came to an island where, even at the top of the highest hill on the clearest day, there was no sight of Ireland --- Iona. There, he did penance, and he established a monastic community. From there, he sent missionaries to spread the Christian faith among the Picts and the Angles in the place now called Scotland.

And, he did once visit Ireland again, blindfolded. Many years after his exile, messengers came to him, informing him that the High King was attempting to outlaw the bardic arts, upset at certain bards' misbehavior and also peeved at the bards' parodies of his exalted self. After much pleading, Columba agreed to be taken back to his land, to defend its stories and songs and the people who created and preserved them before the throne of the High King. Having successfully defended the bards, and having read the riot act to those individual bards who had triggered the trouble, never having looked upon the land he still loved, he returned to his exile, and lived in holiness and penitence to a revered old age.

For a beautiful book on this, go to your local public library, to the children's section, and borrow The Man Who Loved Books, by Jean Fritz. And remember that great sinners can be redeemed and restored, and become even greater saints.

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On the Ember Days --- 7, 9, 10 June 2006

Our daily bread does not come from Cargill or from Archer Daniels Midland.
It doesn't come from General Foods, Kraft, or Nabisco,
or even from Brownberry or Natural Ovens of Manitowoc.

Our daily bread is given us by the Lord,
the creator of the heavens and the earth.
It comes from the fertility of the good earth;
it is nourished by the sunlight
and by the snows and the rains in the proper seasons;
it is nurtured and gathered and prepared
by our sisters and our brothers
who work very hard for very little
on our farms and ranches and in our gardens,
in our canneries and bakeries and dairies and slaughterhouses.

This we must remember:
Our food does not come from Pick 'n Save or from Sentry Foods or from Jewel-Osco.
Costco and Sam's Club cannot create a single green bean or tomato.
Only God can.

God created the earth, and He created the earthworms, and the soil microbes.
God created the plants, and also the trees that bear nuts and fruits.
God created the bees, the hummingbirds, and all the other little pollinating creatures.
God created us, and commanded us to nurture the plants and the animals, to care for His garden.
He told us to have dominion and to subdue them, shaping them to our needs.

We can plant seeds. We can tend animals.
Yet, only God can make a plant grow.
Only God can create calves, chicks, lambs, ducklings, and piglets.
Only God has power over the often-chaotic patterns of the weather.

So, four times each year,
at the turning of the seasons,
Mother Church, being very wise,
gives us some days to fast and pray
that the earth may be fruitful,
that our plants and our livestock will stay healthy,
that the rains and the dry times and the snow cover come at the proper times,
that the cyclones and the floods and the insect swarms stay far away from us,
that our sisters and our brothers who do the work
that takes our food from a seed planted to a can on the grocery store shelf
will always be treated with respect and with justice.

These days, the Ember Days, are this week.
Let us not forget.

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Sometimes one has to die.

What do you do when you are a eager shining new Christian, you are an obedient member of the court of an absolute monarch, and your absolute monarch is an absolute mess?

Sometimes you have to die.

Mwanga II came to the throne following the unexpected death of his father, Mutesa I. He had an older brother, but that brother was determined unfit to be king. Mutesa was a wise and tolerant ruler. He had welcomed the newly-arrived Muslim and Catholic and Anglican missionaries and had declared religious liberty in Buganda, but had himself remained a traditionalist --- he refused to be circumcised, a requirement to become a Muslim, and he would not abandon his wives, required by both varieties of Christian.

Mwanga II was not nearly so tolerant, however. Not that he had any real beliefs at all, except in the superiority of his royal self. He'd study Islam with the Arabs, or Anglican Christianity with the British, or Catholic Christianity with the French, or consult the shamen, whatever looked to be most advantageous economically and politically to his royal self. And, he considered it his right to be pampered in every imaginable way by the pages of his court --- including their service as his boy-toys.

When pages became Christians, they became extremely resistant to immediate blind obedience, and would hide, run away, or outright refuse to relieve the king's sexual tensions. Higher-ranking court Christians would actually tell the king that he was wrong!

There were sporadic executions --- such as three Anglican pages killed for going to catechism class after Anglican lessons had been forbidden. But the persecution began in earnest when James Hannington, first Anglican bishop of Uganda, was approaching the kingdom, from a direction that the local traditionalist shamen considered inauspicious, and Mwanga sent soldiers to massacre Bishop Hannington and his entire party. Mwanga's majordomo, Yosefu Mukasa Balikuddembe, a Catholic, told him that the killing of Bishop Hannington was evil and wrong, and Mwanga had him executed.

So, in mid-May, 1886, Denis Ssebuggwawo snuck out to Catholic catechism class, and took one of the traditionalist pages withn him, who had shown an interest in Christianity. Unfortunately, this page was Mwanga's current favorite boy-toy, and Mwanga wanted him, now!, and was furious to find out that he'd gone to catechism class --- and was likely to tell the king to buzz off, like all those miserable Christians did sooner or later.

So the king gathered all his pages. The head pages, who were both Christians, gathered their believers around them, and gave them strength. Karoli Lwanga, a Catholic and in charge of pages of the inner court, baptised those who had not yet been baptised. Moses Mukasa, an Anglican and in charge of the outer court, had not received permission to baptise, so the newest Anglican converts went to their trial still catechumens.

In the assembly hall, after a long harrangue about the duties of pages to obey their rightful king, Mwanga called out of the assembly "all of you who pray." And all of the Christians, Anglicans and Catholics alike, stepped out, as did a few of the Muslim pages. Another member of the court weeded out the Muslims, and the Christians were condemned to death, marched, with a few casualties along the way, to the traditional royal site of Namugongo, and burned alive on this day in 1886. The persecutions continued at a lower level for a few years more, until the death of Mwanga and the enthronement of his successor, who was an Anglican Christian.

The entire list of those martyrs whose names are documented can be found at this link.

The Catholic martyrs were canonized in the early 1960's, and to the best of my knowledge this was the first time the Catholic Church had dealt with a mixed group of martyr-companions. Though it will not be the last --- just two examples: Sophie Scholl and companions, known as the "White Rose" martyrs, are a mixed group, Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran; and the martyrs of the Guatemalan persecutions, though mostly Catholics, include also Lutherans and Mennonites.

Yosefu, Karoli, and companions, and all holy martyrs, pray for us.

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Refusing to fear

In this essay, Seeking unity: Overcoming discord in the church, Father Timothy Radcliffe op, formerly Master General of the Dominicans, seeks to reconcile that internecine warfare that currently mars the holy Church.

Here's an excerpt:

First of all we have to stop being afraid of each other. Our home in the church seems threatened. It is neither the people of God on pilgrimage to the Kingdom, of which some Catholics dream, nor is it anymore the solid institution for which others hope. And we see other Catholics as menacing our home. For some Catholics any mention of Opus Dei, or Mother Angelica or the Legionaries of Christ produces a frisson of horror. The sight of a deep clerical collar and a biretta can make one panic. (I had thought of wearing a biretta for these lectures, just to see the reactions!) These are just the sort of people who are seen as turning the church around, undermining our dreams of renewal. To those of you who feel that I say: Do not be afraid. God has promised the Kingdom. We are on the way there. We do not know how or when it will come, but one day all injustice and oppression will be ended and we shall rejoice in the perfect freedom of Christ. We will reach the home for which we long, even though every bishop in the world belonged to Opus Dei.

Communion Catholics can also be free of all fear. They may see menace in every liberated feminist nun, in every bearded and sandaled priest. A copy of the National Catholic Reporter brings on the trembles. When I was a young and longhaired priest in my late 20s, I remember being scornfully told by a grand woman: “You do not look like a priest.” To which I could only reply, “Which particular priest don’t I look like?” But to those Catholics, we too can say: Do not be afraid. The church is not about to crumble. Even though every bishop in the world was a hippie, the church will survive. Forty years after the Council of Nicea in the fourth century most of the bishops were Arian, but the church did not collapse. Jesus said to Peter, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.” To see one’s fellow Catholics, whether of the so-called left or right, as an ultimate threat to one’s home is a failure of faith.

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Christian Carnival's finally up

Stop waiting, and sure as little green apples it arrives!

The 124th Christian Carnival is now ready for customers at the Parableman.

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Catholic Carnival

I was waiting until the other Carnival was posted to post both together, but it looks like this week's Christian Carnival has been weather-delayed. However, this week's Catholic Carnival is open for business as usual. I contributed the essay on offering up to the Carnivals this week.

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St. Justin and the Six Movements of the Eucharist

Today is the memorial of St. Justin, a philosopher of the second century and martyr. A noted philosopher even before his conversion to Christianity, he continued to teach in the schools after his conversion, and also was famous for his public defense of the Christian faith.

St. Justin, in chapters 65-67 of his First Apology (which he wrote to the emperor to defend the Christians from accusations of atheism, promiscuity, and cannabalism), writes about the six movements through which the Christian people have celebrated the holy Eucharistic Liturgy from the beginning to this very day --- the earliest explanation we have of the movements of the Eucharist.

From St. Justin:

But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has assented to our teaching, bring him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized [illuminated] person, and for all others in every place, that we may be counted worthy, now that we have learned the truth, by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments, so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water; and he taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands. And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying Amen. This word Amen answers in the Hebrew language to "so be it". And when the president has given thanks, and all the people have expressed their assent, those who are called by us deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away a portion.

And this food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, “This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;” and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, “This is My blood;” and gave it to them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.

And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.

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the virtual anchor hold is 4 years old today

Today is May 30th. Four years ago this day, the virtual Anchor Hold was born, out of the internecine warfare that mars the face of our holy Church.

Only about ten days before, two of my dearest listserv acquaintances, Mark Shea from the REBORN listserv, and the late Gerard Serafin of FreeCatholic and a few other places (Gerard pray for us!) had written to the lists about their shiny new blogs, and I went over to give them an ogle. On May 23rd, one of my graduate-school classmates delivered a nasty retirement present to my retiring archbishop, and the early long Dormition Fast of 2002 began, and the Catholic portions of the internet seemed to explode, often with statements that appeared to have little correspondence with reality. There was so much that needed said, by someone who actually belonged to this local church, so, less than two weeks after I read my first blog, I was writing my own.

I didn't know how to bold or italic or make a link that actually worked, so the first few days were painfully and embarrassingly plain. My first-day posts were an introduction, a reply to Sean of Nota Bene about what had happened here, and a prayer request for our archbishop.

There are ten lessons, truths of faith and life, that were learned, or painfully and powerfully reinforced, in the first few turbulent months of this site, which will remain true no matter what the current troubles are or who might be the current pariah. Or even if the current pariah should come to be me. The site's anniversary is an excellent time to review them:

1) The details of our long-ago-confessed and long-ago-absolved sins and stupidities are the business only of God. They are most definitely not the business of those who would turn them into cudgels.

2) The details of the sins of other people are none of my business; I've enough troubles with my own.

3) Sins and stupidities do not negate goodness, wisdom, love, or generosity.

4) The Accuser of the Brethren can have no foothold among us if we refuse to play his foul game. We must not accuse others, only ourselves. We cannot defend ourselves, even justly, by accusing anybody else of anything; not if we seek to live truly submitted lives.

5) The Church has wisely declared that the Lord can and does use imperfect instruments to build his Kingdom, and that the sacraments are not dependent on the perfection of their ministers. If we insist on having only perfect bishops who have only perfect priests, we will have neither bishops nor priests; for all of us have sinned, every single one of us has done spectacularly stupid things, and even the strongest and most faithful of us come equipped with two clay feet.

6) Where the bishop is, there is the Catholic Church, which the Lord has promised to protect and sustain, and there is no other place where one can be certain of that.

7) When chaos is breaking out all over and the world is spinning and shaking, one reaches deep down inside, down to the foundations of the soul, and finds one of those things that are known to be true and will not change, and one clings tightly to that until the chaos subsides. Two of those unchanging true things are "God made me to know Him, and to love Him, and to serve Him, and to be happy with Him forever and ever in Heaven" and "God is all-good and deserving of all my love."

8) I have myself sinned and have done some incredibly dumb things; I have no right to ridicule anybody, ever.

9) The judgment I judge is the judgment I will be judged by; the forgiveness I offer will be the forgiveness I receive. So how dare I even think of stringent judgment or withholding my forgiveness?

and 10) from the public chapter of faults, the last formal teaching, of my gentle and devoted retired archbishop, who was the designated pariah when this site was brought into being four years ago: I have learned how frail my own human nature is, how in need of God’s loving embrace I am. Empty-handed for me now means a willingness to accept my humanity totally, just as Christ accepted that same human nature out of love. But for me it also means to be fully receptive to whatever God wants to place in those hands, to be ready with empty hands to receive new life.
But I am also aware much self-pity and pride remain. I must leave that pride behind. Each day I will try to leave room for God to enter into my life more and more. Ultimately I understand that the humanity God so loved and sought to redeem, including my own humanity, will be transformed by his loving embrace and grace.

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A little pondering on Offering Up

this was written for a wild-and-wooly listserv called "freecatholic" today.

At 09:31 AM 5/27/2006, [Somebody] wrote:
>Karen Marie Knapp wrote:
> > "Handling it" and "offering it up" are
> > like a trick dog walking on two legs
> > only ---- it's not a wonder that it does
> > it badly; it's a wonder it manages
> > it at all.
>
>I do wish that someone could explain
>to me fully and clearly about this
>"Offer it up" principle. I've learned
>a pretty fair amount about the RCC
>and its unique traditions, and I keep
>seeing references to this, in cases
>of intractable pain or even minor pain,
>but I never quite "get" it.

OK, I'll give it a try. Please be patient with me.

As we both know, Jesus Christ of His own will was crucified, dying,and conquering sin, death, and alienation from God for each and every human in his self-oblation and resurrection. He also instructed each of us to take up one's cross and follow Him --- to death, since crosses are for dying on. And St. Paul taught that he (and each of us) could make up in our own suffering what was lacking in the suffering of Christ. Wha? Jesus is God, what could be lacking? But it is still revealed that our trials and sufferings can make a difference.

I've come to believe, from sheer observation, that not having a cross is not one of the options for any human being. The only option each of us have is what each of us does about it. The cross can be accepted, carried freely, embraced, and offered to God as gift and sacrifice --- or one can be bound to it unwillingly, fighting and struggling, and be crushed and broken by it.

It's also, the difference between slaughter and sacrifice. Both involve slitting the throat of a really tasty animal, but it only brings the values of sacrifice if it is offered as gift. Otherwise, it is just dinner.

>One of the moe puzzling references to me
>was fiction, indeed, a murder
>mystery in which a very intense young
>priest poisoned his mother, who was
>dying of terminal, very painful, cancer,
>because he saw that she wasn't
>taking all her morphine on schedule, and
>thought that she was saving up the
>pills to have enough for suicide, and he
>wanted to save her soul from the
>sin of suicide, while taking that of
>murder onto his own soul. One plot
>twist was that his priest friend told
>him after he'd done it that she was
>not taking the meds, not for saving them
>up, but because she was "offering
>it up", deliberately. I did get that that
>was a _good_ thing, and a heroic
>sort of thing for the mother to be doing,
>but there's still something (a
>lot) lacking in my understanding of the
>whole principle of deliberately
>suffering unnecessary pain. Is it
>supposed to be a living penance, giving
>you less time in purgatory, or "adding
>to Christ's suffering" in some way,
>for a penance for all the world's sins,
>or something else entirely?

I have, a few times, had the kind of pain where the types or amounts of pain meds necessary to get rid of the pain also fog the mind or induce lethargy. At the end of life, pain relief can even mean drugging into unconsciousness. And choices have to be made, how much of the pain to alleviate over against how much ability to reason, to understand, and (important to this discussion) to pray and to make gifts, one wants to retain. Sometimes, one can't have them both. Some choose, sometimes heroically, not to alleviate as much of the pain as they could, in order to be able to function mentally and spiritually, including making the offering gift. For pain beyond the physical warning function is by itself just torturous suffering; it can only be an offering unified with Christ's and efficacious in the redemption ---- remember St. Paul's "making up what is lacking in Christ's suffering"? --- if it is given as gift. A slaughter is only a slaughter, but a sacrifice is given.

>And if it's pain that you _can't_ get out
>of, how is "offering it up" done,
>and how is it virtuous, since you
>don't have choice?

Granted that there is very little choice about the pain (or the bereavement, or the destitution, or the whatever), but there are choices about what one does with it or about it. One doesn't have to offer it to God, live as well as possible in the present, and so on. One can, and more than some do, rant and rave at all and sundry, stubbornly deny there's anything wrong, use it as a reason that the whole universe should revolve around oneself, and/or curl up and become an inert lump without putting up a fight. Happenings are just happenings, but what one does concerning happenings can be virtuous, or not, or even evil.

I'm glad that St. Paul wrote that how we handle suffering and affliction can actually make a difference. I think it would drive me to despair if the afflictions of this life had no meaning but torture, no use in hope.

I hope I've made some sense.

karen marie
==================
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"They have the Holy Spirit; how can we NOT baptize them?"

Last Sunday, while everybody everywhere (including +Timothy) were preaching on "God is Love", according to the two readings by St. John, there actually was a first reading, from the tenth chapter of Acts.

In that reading, St. Peter is confronted with a dilemma. He's been summoned to the home of a Gentile. Not just any Gentile but a Roman, and not just any Roman but an officer of the occupation forces. A believer. One on whom God's Spirit has descended in power. It took some doing by God, including a prophetic dream that is described just before the passage assigned Sunday, but St. Peter did give the only right answer --- "How can't we baptize these people, they have the Holy Spirit same as us?"

Even after this, it took a while for the universality of salvation to really sink into St. Peter. St. Paul has to call him out about it at least once. Yet it is true that there are those among all the nations whose God is the LORD.

Of course, now that we all know that, we can look back with perfect 20/20 hindsight and see that it is not that much of a surprise.

Yes, the LORD chose a people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet Abraham had two sons, and the LORD made promises to both of them. This is the LORD who always keeps His promises.

When His people were captive in Egypt, He brought them forth with His outstretched arm and pillar of fire --- and a mixed multitude with them who threw in their lot with the LORD and his people. Rahab, from Jericho, and Ruth, a Moabite, are admitted to the LORD's people and are the ancestors of David the King, and this even though Moabites were to be excluded from the people for 40 generations, and even though Rahab had been a sex worker. They claimed the LORD, and the LORD claimed them.

When God gave the instructions for constructing the Tent of Meeting (and later, the Temple), it was arranged in areas that were progressively more protected and set apart, more and more holy. At the very center was the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and where the pillar of fire would descend, where only the high priest would enter, and only once each year after great preparation. Then there was the court of the priests, where the incense and the "show-bread" were offered (remember, St, Zechariah was chosen one day to make the incense-offering and....), then the court of the Levites, then the courts for the men and the women of Israel, ans a court where those of every and all nations could enter and worship the LORD. The LORD was the God not only of Israel, though He chose them, but is the one only God in all the world.

Jesus defended the rights of all people of any nation to worship the LORD His Father in the Temple. The one place in all the world set aside for those of all nations to worship the one true God, the temple service providers had taken over for a marketplace, leaving no place in the Holy Place for non-Israelites to worship the true God. Jesus drove out the animals and chased away the currency exchanges from the Court of Gentiles. For the Temple is a house of prayer for all peoples, not just the one people. For all of us whose mothers' mothers weren't Jewish, as those whose mothers' mothers were.

So, looking back, is it really any suprise that the Spirit of the Lord fell on the household of a Roman non-commissioned officer? The LORD chose all sorts of people to be His own ---including public sinners like Rahab, and people from notoriously irredeemable nations like Ruth --- and He reserved a great court of the Temple for them. A surprise?

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"A Son becomes a Father" returns to the Father

Father Todd Reitmeyer, one of the early Catholic bloggers and the keeper of the blog A Son becomes a Father, died yesterday afternoon in a boating accident while vacationing with his family in Texas.

Eternal rest grant to Him, O Lord, and let perpetual Light shine upon him. May the soul of Father Todd, and those of all the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.

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Reminder: Rogation Days, May 22-24

Before I leave for the ordinations this morning, a small public service reminder. The Rogation Days are Monday through Wednesday of this coming week (unless your bishop has moved them because you are in the southern hemisphere...). Remember to check your holy water supply and refill it if nrcessary when you attend Liturgy tomorrow. And, during the Rogation Days, do bless your vegetable garden and your faithful stands of rhubarb and asperagus, and sing the litanies over them, as our Catholic ancestors have done generation after generation. Our food does not originate in the grocery store; it originates with God.

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The Lord will send us shepherds

On Saturday, five men will be ordained as priests here in Milwaukee. Do follow the linked names to their testimonies.

Richard Wendell

James Jaeger

Nathan Reesman

Jason Lavann

Robert Kacalo

Pray for them, and those being ordained this season where you are, and for all the Lord calls to ordained service to His Body, the Church.

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Praise and Worship in the Beauty of Holiness

to continue with my contributions to the discussions over at Gerald Augustinus' place, it's time to recite some of the wonders and glories of my pretty good parish.



We are buried with Christ in baptism, and rise up again with Him to fullness of life. We remind ourselves of this each time we come, signing ourselves with the holy waters of our baptism. We are then drawn, pulled in our depths,



to the altar of God, who gives joy to our youth, where our Lord offers Himself to us, for us. And. above the altar, to honor it, and to keep our wandering attentions where they belong,



the corona, "a form of honor canopy suspended from the ceiling, without pillars", the architectural dictionaries say; but in this case a true crown, a crown of thorns, the crown we gave our Lord and the only one He ever wore on our earth. And, a crucifix, very explicit about the stretched sinews and the glorious wounds. And it works on the human level, also, for as one is distracted there, the apostles in the window catch the eyes, and the apostles pass one's gaze to the archbishops' portraits, which take one to the corona, and the bolt from heaven that split the Temple curtain twain, and the toes of the crucifix, put one's attention right back where it ought to be, the altar of the Lord.

We are there, the Church militant upon the earth, together with the saints in heaven, the Church triumphant, physically represented by the apostles in the windows and the archbishops in the upper arches, by Maria Mater Ecclesiae whose image is in my sidebar,



by Blessed John, and by the other saints whose images will fill the other shrine spaces in due time. And we worship.

And nobody is begrudgingly there because of the pain of mortal sin. A wise elder of the parish, named Dennis, pointed that out to me a few weeks ago; that there were no sullen folk leaning against the back wall holding it up, as there were in my childhood parish. (my childhood priest had a special soft spot on his soul for those unwilling people, his "pillars".) Now there are some people, like my cybernemesis Terrence, who would see that as a bad thing --- but I don't. I think it is a great thing that everyone who comes is there to worship our Lord in beauty of holiness, or at least are there seeking because they want to desire to worship and praise our Lord. Of course, now the challenge is to bring our friends and acquaintances who have no desire to worship to have that desire, to know that Jesus loves them and wants them to come to Him and be with Him, alongside of us with Him. In the beauty of holiness. Receiving Jesus in the very closest way possible, body, blood, soul, divinity --- and in a true way becoming what one receives.

Besides Mass, Morning Prayer is celebrated each morning, and the church is open all day every weekday for prayer and adoration. There are abundant opportunities for continuing religious education for adults, as well as formation for children in cooperation with the neighboring parishes, and an active and sound RCIA program. Also many opportunities for service to others, including a free cafe offering lunch six days a week along with bible studies and 12-step activities. The Cafe even lets me serve!

All in all, even though Gerald Augustinus declared it non grata, it's still a pretty good parish......

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Tabernacles are Wonderful

Gerald Augustinus at The Cafeteria Is Closed has been soliciting stories of wonderful parishes and beautiful tabernacles. I've refrained from emailing him with mine since he has already posted several times making it clear that my parish is parish-non-grata. However, here's the tabernacle as seen as one steps onto the church.



the picture was taken a few days before the consecration of the cathedral in 2001, before the furnishings were in. The normal furnishings of the Chapel of Reservation are four kneelers and four benches, and there is room for more when needed.

I like to sit with the Lord here early on Sunday mornings.
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It's been a while since I've told a desert story

There were two brothers living in the desert who were also natural brothers, and a demon came to alienate them from one another. One day the younger one lit the lamp, and the demon got involved and knocked over the lampstand. Seeing that the lamp was overturned, his brother struck him in anger. The younger brother apologized, saying, "Be patient, my brother, I will light it again." And behold, the power of the Lord came and tormented the demon all night.

The demon went and told the one who ruled over him what had happened. A priest of the pagans overheard the demon’s tale and went into the desert, became a monk, and from the start persevered in humility. And he used to say, "Humility takes away all of the enemy’s power," just as he himself had heard from the demon, "When I agitate the monks, one of them turns around and apologizes, and destroys all my power."
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A Rosary Army Soldier Called to Glory

Rosary Army Soldier Joyce Malawey, whose screen-name was "Philomena", passed away last night.

Eternal rest grant to her, O Lord,
and let perpetual Light shine upon her.
May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

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A Bright Week hymn

by St. Hippolytus of Rome:

It is Pascha; the Pascha of the Lord,
O You, Who are truly all in all!
The joy, the honor, the food and the delight of every creature;
Through You the shadows of death have fled away,
And life is given to all,
The gates of heaven are flung open.
God becomes man
and man is raised up to the likeness of God.

O divine Pascha!
O Pascha, light of new splendor,
the lamps of our souls will no more burn out.
The flame of grace,
divine and spiritual,
burns in the body and soul,
nourished by the resurrection of Christ.

We beg You, O Christ, Lord God,
eternal king of the spiritual world,
stretch out Your protecting hands
over Your holy Church
and over Your holy people;
defend them, keep them, preserve them.

Raise up Your standard over us
and grant that we may sing with Moses
the song of victory,
for Yours is the glory and the power for all eternity!
Amen.
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for true? yes, for true!

He is truly risen!

Yes He is
We have seen Him

I thought He was the gardener at first, but then He called me by my name and I recognised Him

When I went to anoint His body God's messenger told me He'd meet us in Galilee

The two of us were truly dejected and talked Scripture with Him on the road, and when we stopped for supper we recognised Him in the breaking of the bread

The bunch of us had locked ourselves in, we didn't want to get arrested, and He came right in to see us, right through the locked door

It was definitely Him we recognised Him we know His voice the wounds are still there and He lives He really does

He met us at the lakeshore and cooked us breakfast after our long night fishing

We know His voice the wounds are there it's definitely Him and He lives!
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He is risen indeed!

Rejoice, heavenly powers!
Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Saviour shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people!

My dearest friends,
standing with me in this holy light,
join me in asking God for mercy,
that he may give his unworthy minister grace to sing his Easter praises.

It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and voices
we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father,
and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal Father!

This is our passover feast,
when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is the night
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night
when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin.

This is the night
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.

This is the night
when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?

Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O Happy fault,
O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!

Of this night scripture says:
"The night will be as clear as day:
it will become my light, my joy."

The power of this holy night
dispels all evil,
washes guilt away,
restores lost innocence,
brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred,
brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed
when heaven is wedded to earth
and men and women are reconciled with God!

Therefore, heavenly Father,
in the joy of this night,
receive our evening sacrifice of praise,
your Church's solemn offering.

Accept this Easter candle,
a flame divided but undimmed,
a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.

Let it mingle with the lights of heaven
and continue bravely burning
to dispel the darkness of this night!

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all humankind,
your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.
.

We have our invitation

courtesy of St. John Chrysostom:

If any man be devout and loveth God,
Let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast!
If any man be a wise servant,
Let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord.

If any have laboured long in fasting,
Let him how receive his recompense.
If any have wrought from the first hour,
Let him today receive his just reward.
If any have come at the third hour,
Let him with thankfulness keep the feast.
If any have arrived at the sixth hour,
Let him have no misgivings;
Because he shall in nowise be deprived therefore.
If any have delayed until the ninth hour,
Let him draw near, fearing nothing.
And if any have tarried even until the eleventh hour,
Let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness.

For the Lord, who is jealous of his honour,
Will accept the last even as the first.
He giveth rest unto him who cometh at the eleventh hour,
Even as unto him who hath wrought from the first hour.
And He showeth mercy upon the last,
And careth for the first;
And to the one He giveth,
And upon the other He bestoweth gifts.
And He both accepteth the deeds,
And welcometh the intention,
And honoureth the acts and praises the offering.

Wherefore, enter ye all into the joy of your Lord;
Receive your reward,
Both the first, and likewise the second.
You rich and poor together, hold high festival!
You sober and you heedless, honour the day!
Rejoice today, both you who have fasted
And you who have disregarded the fast.
The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously.
The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith:
Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.

Let no one bewail his poverty,
For the universal Kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one weep for his iniquities,
For pardon has shown forth from the grave.
Let no one fear death,
For the Saviour's death has set us free.
He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it.

By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh.
And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry:
Hell, said he, was embittered
When it encountered Thee in the lower regions.

It was embittered, for it was abolished.
It was embittered, for it was mocked.
It was embittered, for it was slain.
It was embittered, for it was overthrown.
It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.
It took a body, and met God face to face.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is risen, and thou art overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion
Unto ages of ages.

Amen.

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What we have done, what You have done

It requires great self-denial and resignation of ourselves to God to attain that state wherein we freely cease from fighting. ....Whoever rightly attains to it, does in some degree feel that Spirit in which our Redeemer gave His life for us. (John Woolman)

Behold, behold, the wood of the cross,
on which is hung our Salvation;
O come, let us adore! (Liturgy of Good Friday)

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You,
for by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

O my Lord, Messiah and (truly!) King,
You have been lifted up, and have triumphed.
You Yourself mend our lives, and draw us to Yourself,
and make Yourself our greatest yearning, greatest gift.

We who lifted You up from the earth ---
not far, not nearly to the sky, let alone the heavens ---
intending only evil; or not intending at all, "just following orders,"
just another execution in a busy day

It was for us that You took everything we gave,
that You offered Yourself, unresisting,
(and You, our Messiah and Lord, are God;
You had the power to save Yourself)
so that when we had done our very worst
Your forgiveness and Your triumph would rescue us,
very thankful and truly humble.

We know what we have done.
We know of what we are capable.
We look upon Your cross
and our sin remains before us,
we cannot ignore the truth of ourselves.

We deny You. We are cowards and run away from You.
We drag You all over the city, from courtroom to courtroom.
For You, our King, we weave a crown of thornbush to force upon Your head.
We beat You. We mock You. We parade You through the streets.
We disdignify You, stripping You of everything.
And, clothed only in welts and bruises and Your own blood,
we nail You to a cross to torture You to death.

Our sin is always before us,
and yet,
and yet,
so also is Your mercy,
so also Your forgiveness,
so also Your great offering.

And, in time's fullness,
the sign of Jonah ---
even Death itself is conquered, vanquished;
so we might proceed from life to Life true and eternal,
Life that knows no end.

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Jesus is betrayed

We also betray each other.

The Institution, by Lisa Basarab for Gerard

Like a wrench turned inward
Flashing pain, and gone
Then squeezing, pounding
All of life

A grip of fear so real
That all becomes hell
Swirling, mashing black
In dreams

Nightmares without release
With jeering, fractured finger
Seeping unholy accusation
Pointing, pointing

Like a knife backstabbing
Like a serpent striking
Like a nail in my heart
A plea

To kill my God in me
To sever bonds with Him
And make of me a shade
Pulled so down

Down in mire so weak and pale
The squalid self abyss,
Marrow-deep fatigue (and
Endless night)

No light, no piercing stream of light
No hint of water
For me on a jury's slate
Only guilt

Of my own making, breaking a
Heart so cold from stone
Jabbing guilt, always guilt
Never mercy

Never.

Why no priestly absolution,
Just a toll to pay and pay?
A slim, tortuous road bending
So far, so far

You promised in His words to me
A feast on my return
A fatted calf
Not noose

To string along and up a swaying
Body in surreal ease
Poked like a child on a swing
Whee!

But the glee of games is gone
For my heart's hunt-ripped effigy
Searing, burning,
Flamed

On the spit of upright clerics
Turning folly into shame
Shame, shame!
(An ancient game.)

And so, alone, I hurt
Slipping into nowhere else to go
Except a shrinking Body
Tree-hung

Battered limbs, blood-splashed
Spittle-strewn and slung
With friends looking up
In misery

Save me, sweet Convicted One
In faint aches of rage I spew
that steal Your breath
From mine

Lift the noose away, heal the ache around
To squelch only every urge to bolt
And not Your pain
In me

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Re-presentation

Jesus and his disciples went to a certain upper room (that happened to be not very far from Jesus' mother's apartment), and there they shared the Passover meal together, and inconceivably more.



As the Passover made each generation of Israel actually present in the exodus from Egypt, so the Eucharist makes us truly present at the Lord's one Sacrifice through all the ages. It is the evil child who says, "The LORD brought our ancestors out of Egypt." Note, not himself, just his great-great-grands. We are as much present, as much implicated, as our ancestors in the first century AD.

And we believe that it was in this night when the Lord Jesus instituted His first priests in the new covenant, saying to them, "This is My Body... this is My Blood of the new everlasting covenant..... do this in memory of me." Now, of course, this doesn't mean priests are perfect. Even the first ones, Jesus' Twelve, weren't such a great lot. One would sell Jesus for 30 silver pieces before the night was over. Nine others would scamper away like a bunch of scared mice. Another, before morning dawned, would deny repeatedly ever having known Jesus. Yet, they were the ones chosen by our Lord.

[Pray for priests!]
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Another very special Way of the Cross

by Lisa Basarab at the Feast of All Saints website, an Upside Down Way of the Cross. [Particularly well-loved by our dear Gerard Serafin during his life.]

Jesus is Pontius Pilate to You

Our Lord daily offers you the choice of innocence or guilt, God’s will or the selfish will. You can choose your creator, or you can exalt yourself. Which will it be? You have ample evidence that sin is destructive. Won’t you remind yourself in the face of the most alluring of temptations that heaven is better? That our Lord created you for Himself?

Jesus is the Cross to You

Our Lord said His yoke is easy, His burden light, but following Him can sometimes seem unbearable. You might cry out in anguish, begging Him to reveal His expectations of you, asking for relief from the trials of your life. Yet He may seem only to provide more pain. It is difficult to remember that from the crucible of suffering comes the greatest good if we are aligned with Him.

Jesus is Your First Fall

Our Lord often appears as a stumbling block to inward eyes. If it weren’t for His harsh commandments, we would be free –-- the noble savages of Jean Jacques Rousseau, able to pursue a natural world of goodness. But we are called not to nature, but to ultimately transcend the natural and become like God. Even though you stumble and are foolish to the scions of this world, you will triumph. As you fall in Christ, collapsing within His grace, the greatest freedom will be yours.

Jesus is Your Mother

Truly, although our Lord provided a most blessed Mother to you in His most beautiful of handmaids, He Himself is always and everywhere all that is good to you. He nurtures you and feeds you with His own Body. He sends His peace and each breath that you sigh. He dries your sorrowful tears and takes you to His heart. He, in the great Triune mystery of God, is your family. In Him are you born. In Him are you sheltered. In Jesus, your Lord, your God, your All.

Jesus is Your Simon of Cyrene

With each drop of blood, whether actual or figurative, on your own walk of Calvary, our Lord is there to help you persevere. He carries your most onerous scourges on this walk of life, blessing each grunt and every step taken to Him. No burden is too heavy for His merciful care, and no weight too little. Never apologize for seeking His aid.

Jesus is Veronica to You

Jesus is always your advocate. He cares not what the crowd thinks of you. He is not persuaded by public opinion. He will wipe your soul and keep you clean while the mud is slung in persecution of your faithfulness to Him. In the end, His judgment is the only one that counts. Do you believe this? Do you act accordingly? Will you accept the tender ministration of a Lord who loves You?

Jesus is Your Second Fall

He permits your fall because it can lead you to Him. O happy fault that leads to so great a Redeemer! As you lie in the dust of your sins, Jesus offers the grace of humility to become like Him, the servant of all, superior to none. The taste of dust is not pleasant, but it tames the insistent demands for the best, the highest regard, the nicest position, the most convenient course, the gourmet scents of hell.

Jesus Mourns for You

How often do you break His heart? How often do you make your own heart sacred and ignore His? With every sin, every substitution of your own will for His, He mourns because it means you are leaving Him. We humans have far more than fifty ways to leave our Lover. Each way hurts more than the last. Even wounded He waits for you, so that He can kiss you and heal your wounds and seal you in His embrace forever. He calls you Beloved!

Jesus is Your Third Fall

Jesus is your dead end. When you are most desolate, most dejected, most bereft, you have no other place to go but the Lord if you want love. You are deluding yourself if you believe anyone could care more. It is only our Lord who knows you better than you know yourself. He is the wall you meet when you are at your wit’s end. In this confrontation with Him you can see truly who you are and what your life must be –-- a glorification of Him.

Jesus Strips You

Jesus is the kindest gardener. He snips and prunes and sometimes seems to tear into you like a machete. You might cringe, but remember that while some flowers shrink from the sun, they cannot grow without its light. What you think of as misfortune, injustice, mistreatment, may only be the best fertilizer you can receive. Sometimes fertilizer stings, but your merciful Lord brings good out of pain and wants you to grow in beauty. What He strips from you is dross hiding your beauty.

Jesus Nails You

You play games. You hide from Him, make desperate or half-hearted bargains with Him. You hope He doesn’t catch you, but He nails you every time. His vision penetrates the depths of your soul. He knows your most anguished fear, your most pervasive frailty. Constantly exposed to Him in all your pettiness, all your infidelity to Him, all your pridefulness, He loves you and considers you precious. He delights in you, and you are His pearl of great price.

Jesus is Your Death

Jesus is the gate of death through which you move into eternal life. Jesus has neutralized all the terrors attached to death and removed its finality in your nightmares. In Him even death cannot conquer joy. Through death He says to you: "Come, you blessed of my Father, and possess the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning!"

Jesus is Your Removal from the Cross

Jesus takes you from all the agony of the world and raises you to His heart. He releases you from anger, bitterness, the desire for more and more acquisitions, the pain of discouragement, the wrenching knowledge of your own inadequacy. Once a prisoner, you are now free! You will know the endless joy of love without bounds, extricated from your self-imposed tethers.

Jesus is Your Tomb

One definition of tomb is "last resting place." Jesus is this for you if you dare accept the gift of everlasting love and peace within the heart of the Almighty. To be forever in Him, never separated from Him, always sharing in His majesty is His offer. He made you to be as He is –-- radiant, pure, crystalline in brilliance. Do you accept His invitation to bask in His divinity? He wants, with greatest fervor, to crown you with His glory. Do you say Amen?

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By Your holy Cross You have redeemed the World

For a Lenten Friday, the Stations of the Cross: a New Tract for the Times.

Adoremus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi,
Quia per sanctam Crucem tuam redemisti mundum.
We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You,
Because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.



I. Jesus, true and total Innocent, you were condemned and sentenced to death, though You had committed no crime, by a cynical politician who simultaneously denied all responsibility for the decision. Oh, how often do I do what is expedient instead of what is best or most just? How often do I go along to get along?

II. Your cross, Your instrument of execution, is brought to You. You are not bound to it struggling and unwilling, but You take it up of Your own will. Lord, I know that for every one of us, not having a cross is not one of the options, yet how consistently I set out to avoid bearing it. I could bear it with You and offer it as gift, but so often I fight and struggle and am bound and dragged, crushed and broken by it.

III. Yet, You are very weak. Up all night, marched all over town then scourged until nearly dead, the cross is heavier than Your body can carry, and You fall down. Yet You got back up, picked up the fallen cross, and went on. How often do I fall down and just give up and stay there?

IV. You meet Your mother along the road. She shares one of God the Father's attributes --- You are her only-begotten Son. She loves You, and witnesses Your suffering, and can hardly help but suffer with You; yet she consents to this, and continues to follow You, all the way to the end and beyond.

V. Even the guards can see Your bodily weakness, and they want to get You to the execution grounds still alive so You can be crucified. So they grab a guy off of the street and force him to carry Your cross, so You only have to carry Yourself. The evangelist identifies this guy, Simon the Cyrenean, as "Alexander's and Rufus' father," a sign that the people the evangelist were writing for knew Alex and Rufus as fellow believers. Was this where Alex and Rufus first encountered Christ, coming in from the fields with their dad?

VI. A lady in the street, bold in her mercy, performs an alms-deed for You. Seeing You nearly blinded by sweat and blood, she of her own volition wiped Your face with one of her veils. Am I ever bold in mercy, or am I chickenhearted, only being merciful to the respectable and deserving, when it's easy and without risk?

VII. Even with help from Alex's and Rufus' dad, this journey is more than Your bodily strength can endure, and You fall down again. You do not stay down though, and the guards do not force You up by Your bindings; You get up Yourself, and continue on. How often am I not persistent in going towards the good, and I give up and wallow in my woes?

VIII. A group of women were touched by Your suffering and Your sentence, and they mourn for You. And You, who so loved all humankind, pitied them, and gave them a prophetic warning of the days to come for them. Not good tidings. But a true warning.

IX. Nearly there, the grade changes --- execution sites are up on hills to better make an example of what happens to those who breach the Pax Romana --- and You fall yet again. And You still do not give up, but rise and continue. No matter how many times I fail and falter and fall, I must continue to get up and go on. Do I?

X. You have finally arrived at the execution grounds. Your last few possessions are now taken from You, including Your clothes. The guards are none too gentle, and the forming clots and scabs from Your scourging come off with Your undertunic, opening all those wounds again. You are totally dispossessed, without even the dignity of being allowed to cover Your nakedness, absolutely exposed. When the day comes when I am Called, I must go to God empty in order to be filled totally with Himself; yet do I cling tightly to physical or psychic "stuff": money, houses, toys, honor, respectability, dignity? You were entirely disdignified; why would I be more deserving of dignity than You?

XI. And then You were crucified. You stretched out Your arms and the guards nailed then securely to the crossbeam. They took Your feet and nailed them also, and they raised You up from the earth. Not far, not nearly to the skies, let alone the heavens. They posted your name and crime above Your head: King of the Jews. And they left You there to die. You are all-good and deserving of all my love, and yet I have given You this.



XII. After between three and six hours of humiliating and shameful exposure and slow suffocation on the cross, having fulfilled all Your Father's will and having seen to the future care of Your mother, You handed over Your spirit to Your Father and died. Because it was the afternoon before Sabbath, there were orders to break the legs of the condemned so they would suffocate faster and not be left hanging there on Sabbath. Because You had already died, though, they did not break Your legs, only assured themselves of Your death by driving a spear through Your heart. Water and blood flowed out, the spring of salvation that I so often take for granted and fail to appreciate and give thanks for.

XIII. A wealthy and well-placed follower, Joseph of Arimathea, asked for and received permission to take down Your body and give it burial. Your mother, and John, and the other Marys, were already there at the cross, had been there the whole while. Joseph and Nicodemus came, and took Your body down from the cross, and laid it, for the last time, in the arms of Your mother, and she clung to it; but it was very near to sundown and Sabbath, so Joseph and Nicodemus had to take the body from her. Am I always as loath to let go of You?



XIV. Joseph and Nicodemus hurriedly wrapped Your body in linens and put it in Joseph's own tomb, not yet used for any burials, since it was not far away and Sabbath was very near. After Sabbath they would return and finish the rites and practices of burial, for there was no more time now, Sabbath was upon them.

And so we entered the one day in all of history when it can be said with any truth at all that God is dead.......



To all human appearances this day, hope has been crushed, the light extinguished, darkness is triumphant. But, this is only an appearance.

There is one who has guarded the light with her whole life, who knows that even this cannot be the end, and continues to guard and cherish the light in her heart as she always has. She waits, and gathers in the crushed and hopeless disciples and encourages them to wait with her and not despair; and so they wait.

Mother of God, Light in all darkness,
intercede for us.
Be a companion to us,
and bring to our confusion and darkness
the Light you bore,
the Light you guard and cherish.
Although we do not yet see light,
do not let us fall into the abyss,
and assure us that there is still light
until such time as the Light shall return.

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Happy Name Day, Bishop Richard!

a prayer of St. Richard of Chichester:

Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults
Which Thou has borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother,
May I know Thee more clearly,
Love Thee more dearly,
Follow Thee more nearly,
Day by day. Amen

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More on the virtue of hospitality

from Sojonet: Illegal hospitality: A church's guide to civil disobedience.

It all boils down to that a Christian has to do what a Christian has to do.....

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