The Lord carries us.

In the fourth mysteries of the Holy Rosary we have the Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple, the Carrying of the Cross, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven.

Mary carries the Christ into the temple in love and obedience to the Law.  Then Jesus carries the cross to Calvary in love and obedience to the Father.  Then the Father carries the Blessed Virgin to heaven in love for His Church.  In a sense there is obedience even on the part of the Father, because he is faithful to his covenant.  Mary is the Ark of the Covenant.

What an amazing connection.  I am too dumbfounded to write more.  What I will say is that what happens in the next set of mysteries is even more amazing.  This will be a meditation on Epiphany embodied in the word "behold".



Merry Christmas!

Worth more than Gold

What's worth more than gold?  What is gold worth?  My dad used to say that a thing is worth whatever you can get for it, and there is some profound truth in that statement worth some careful consideration.

Sitting next to my 11 year old mentally handicapped daughter yesterday, I had a very strange mental awakening.  I was feeding her and thinking about the economy and the price of gold.  I realized that to her gold was not worth any more than a raw carrot.  I found myself laughing out loud and thinking of my dad's statement. 

As the price of gold shoots up and the people of the world contend with the reeling economy, all my lovely daughter Stella knows is that her daddy will feed her.  She does not have the capacity to understand the workings of supply and demand, intrinsic value, Ponzi schemes, derivatives, bail-outs, debt, or anything of the sort.  She values the food on her plate and the attention and love that she gets from her parents and siblings.

She is straight forward, trusting --but demanding--, and simple in her needs and wants.  She relies on the love, sacrifice, and dedication of those around her and she is able to do that without --as far as I can tell-- any sense of guilt.  Her needs are met and she is happy.

I think that is worth more than gold.

The First Commandment

I AM the Lord thy God, thou shallt have no strange gods before Me.

As pointed out in a former blog, the Ten Commandments are beautifully ordered.  God is first, then His Holy Name, and then His Day.  Then follows the unfathomable love of God in the ordering of parents right next to God.  This is the archtype of the Church.  Such beauty.

The ailments of our day have reached a feverish pitch but I fear that it is only the beginning.  I say that because I see so clearly that this First Commandment has been all but forgotten.  It is forgotten by mothers who murder their unborn children, it is forgotten by judges who no longer have any regard for the law, it is forgotten by law-makers who have no regard for the underpinning of truth, it is forgotten by parents who fail to discipline their children, it is forgotten by children who have no respect for authority -much less their parents-, it is forgotten by priests who deny the existence of sin and who make light of the liturgy.

It is not my intention here to confess the sins of others.  The point is the common thread and therefore THE REMEDY!  We must LOVE THE LORD OUR GOD!  We must put Him back at the top of our lives and truly love him with our whole heart, our whole mind, and with all of our strength.  We can not even love one another if we don't do that first!

As Jesus said, on these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets.  It truly is simple.

We don't need some great minds to solve the world's crises.  We need LOVE OF GOD.   Each day must begin with a firm resolve to seek and to do the will of God, and to truly love Him. We can not love God if we do not put Him foremost in our minds.

What else would help?  To my mind, a good dose of silence.  Stop talking.  Turn off the electronics.  Look around and see what He created!  Listen.  Listen to others. So much of what we say is truly useless if not down right harmful.  And PRAY for Mercy and Peace.  Fast when you can.

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee profoundly.  My God, I believe, I adore, I hope in, and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope in, and do not love Thee.

La Salette

So, this is another little miracle.  It is the reason that I started this blog because these "Coincidences" are just too prophetic.

Tonight, at the end of our dinner while we were enjoying some delicious green grapes- something we rarely eat around here!-, my older son tattled on his younger brother for saying "Oh God" while playing outside with the neighborhood kids.  Little Matthew is just six years old so we had a talk about the commandments.  I told him that I would not punish him if he could tell me which commandment he had broken.  So we had a little catechism review.  Then I explained to him how serious respecting the Lord's holy name is, and told him about Our Lady of La Salette, how she said the grapes would spoil, among other consequences, if men did not keep the Sabbath and stop their blasphemy.  We decided to have a story time and go and look up Our Lady of La Salette on the computer.

It was on the 18th of September, 1846 that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Melanie and Maximin in the hills of La Salette, France.  She warned them of great trials to come which resonate with the prophecies given in other approved Marian apparitions, namely famine and persecutions.  She spoke specifically of sins against the the second and third commandments. 

Today at Holy Mass we heard the readings about the labourers who recieved the payment due to them for their labours and the seeming injustice of the eleventh-hour workers receiving the same as those who worked a full day.  The thoughts come to mind: "Is it really so hard to do what is asked of us when it is reasonable?  Is keeping the Sabbath and honoring  the Lord's name not something we wish to do out of great gratitude for all His great gifts to us?"  As Jesus said, it is the Father's generosity that moves Him to give the eleventh hour workers the same pay as the others.  God is so generous and loving that He gives us not only what is just, but rewards us with abundance.  Shall we not thank Him?

Among the many things prophesied at La Salette, one can not help taking pause at the predictions of clerical sins.  Yet Jesus himself said "I myself will shepherd them, for others have led them astray".   Is it not true that our liturgy is rife with a lack of respect for the second commandment also?   How quickly we forget our history and our patrimony.  There can be no New Testament if there was not first an Old Testament.  And did Jesus not say that not one jot or tittle would be removed from the Law?  

Here's the question:  what is the liturgy?  Is it our own invention, our own personal celebration to make ourselves feel good?  No, it is what God asks of us through Holy Mother Church.  It is deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition and is a Sacraficial Offering, the New Covenant.  God did not give detailed directions for worship in the Old Testament only to have them abandoned to whim and fancy in the New Testament. Niether did he take on the flesh only to ascend to heaven in glory and leave his children orphans. Christ Jesus gave us the Rock on which He built the Church and to him he gave the keys to bind and loose.

Yet at Holy Mass today we were assaulted with the "Becoming Church" campaign.    The Church's direction for liturgical norms is rich, beautiful, and glorious.  Her history is so beautiful!  When will the hearts of the faithful catch fire with love for Christ and His bride, the Church, and reclaim their most fitting heritage?  Oh how I pray for that day when we, the Church, will do the work of Christ with great love and think not about our reward but our service to Him who is so generous to us!  Yes, we are the church, the Mystical Body of Christ, and yet the faithful are so asleep that they fall for this subversive propaganda that they have to "become church" by contributing funds to a campaign. The faithful truly have been ground down little by little to accept the compromises of the devil.  Surely, this is a terrible chastisement, an apostasy, a great and deep sorrow, and a terrible war.

So just what are the chances of looking up Our Lady of La Salette on September 18th, 2001, the precise One Hundred and Sixty-fifth anniversary of the apparition?  It strikes me as just a wee bit more than chance.

Humility, Dust, and Flesh

How many times have we heard the story of the multiplication of the loaves?  It is so well known to all of us, even to those who have no faith.  I was aware for the first time very recently of the story's setting and how hearing the story in this light makes it all the more powerful.

In the 14th  chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, we read about how John the Baptist was put in prison for speaking out against Herod on the issue of marriage.  Herod wants to kill John but is afraid to because he fears the people who hold John to be a prophet.  He finally has John beheaded and his head then brought on a platter before his guests only in order to honor an oath he had made before his guests.  So, we see Herod's actions propelled by his concern for himself and what people will think of him.

Furthermore he offers his guests an abomination of desolation.  He offers them flesh that will not nourish them but leave them repulsed. 

 "13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart.  But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.  14 As he went ashore he saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them and healed their sick." Matthew 14:13-14.

Surely Jesus was grieving deeply at the death of his beloved cousin who had "prepared the way of the Lord", who had leapt for joy in his Aunt Elizabeth's womb at Mary's greeting.  Yet, Jesus is completely selfless even in this moment of horrific personal grief.  He has compassion on them because, as Mark's gospel tells us, they were like sheep without a shepherd.   So instead of asking them to go away and let him have some private time, He heals their sick, teaches them -feeding them with His word-, and then feeds them with miraculous bread in a brilliantly luminous prefigurement of the Eucharist.

It struck me that this is the Joyful Hope that we must try to imitate in these terrible times.  As Malachy Martin said not many years ago in reference to the third secret of Fatima, we will surely suffer dry martyrdom if not very wet martyrdom.  When we lose a friend in such a circumstance or we suffer ourselves for standing up for fundamental truths like the sacredness of marriage, let us remember this selfless example of humility and strive to bring hope to others. 

Remember that Jesus said "YOU give them something to eat".  To Peter who denied him - and how many times have we all denied him - He said "Feed my sheep".  We have to act ourselves no matter how insignificant our efforts seem.  Jesus will multiply and do the feeding but the food from us must be real tangible offerings to begin with.

It is worth remembering that Jesus was "True God and True Man".  His grief was real human grief, His resurrection was a real bodily resurrection, the multiplication of the loaves was real food that satisfied real hunger.  John 6: 55 "For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."  Jesus came to the world as the True God and True Man, The Word made flesh-- and He truly gave himself to us.  We need to give our little bit of dust back to Him and watch what He does with it.

In my back yard there are huge Douglas Fir trees.  I just spent $1000 to have a few of them cut down because they were threatening the house.  Well, these sixty-plus foot trees came out of the dust as tiny, vulnerable little seedlings.  I too came out of the dust. I remeber that every time I eat delicious vegetables out of my garden.  What can I give back to Jesus?  I give Him my will, my music, my art, my love of His amazing creation, and my feeble witness to Truth.  I will try to give alms and works of mercy too.  I've got some work to do!

Keeping Balance

For so very many years, I have been sobered by this thought, a thought that unsettles me increasingly:

Back in 1917 in a little villiage in Fatima Portugal, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children between May and October. She predicted that the war that was then raging, the one we know now as WWI-in which some 37,000,000 people were killed-would soon end. It did end the next year in 1918. She went on to say "but if people do not cease offending God, a worse war will break out during the reign of Pius XI". Then the world experienced the 7 years of WWII with all of its attrocities and the use of horrible weapons including the atomic bomb-an other 60,000,000 dead.

Where are we now? Have we ceased offending God? No! Sin is not only increased, it is practically glorified! Divorce as common as marriage, co-habitation, contraception, abortion, homosexual "marriage", and rampant pornography, sex, sex, sex, sex, and more sex!!! In the grocery store, in the kindergarten class, in the library. Worship the earth, global warming, -oh, I mean climate change, yes, that's what they call it now, yes, climate change- swallow the lie, pay the carbon tax, save the trees, sustainable development, don't offend anyone.....keep smiling, it's all good.

Children now use the Lord's name in vain routinely, something which cuts me to the core. The Sabbath Day is go-to-the-mall-day and fix-the-car-day and build-a-fence, paint-the-house, and mow-the-grass-day. Church? What's that?

No one needs to look far beyond the tip of his nose to see that mankind has a serious spiritual illness. If the earth is convulsing, it is because man has lost his sense of balance.

If this seems a bit disjointed, read on a bit; let's go on a little mental trip and come back to Fatima later.

Think about the beauty of what God made. We begin the Credo "We believe in One God, the Father the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and in Jesus Christ His only son, Our Lord............through whom all things were made...............We believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord the giver of Life.........."

Creation is astoundingly beautiful, incomprehensible really. Consider all of what science has taught us about God's creation. Can a single person comprehend it? I am filled with wonder at it all.

What is the most amazing part of creation? I think that it is the order of it all. It's all ordered so magnificently that it's mind boggling! Atoms, genes, gravity, light, chemistry, mathematics, resonance, cells, germs, physics, biology, biochemistry, astronomy, etc. It all follows a beautiful and often elusive order.

Then there is man. His body alone is magnificent! A lifetime can be spent on studying the body and who can fathom it? Then there is the mind, and then the spirit. What a marvelous trinity that is.

Then there is the human will. Is it ordered? Think about the 10 Commandments, are they ordered? Yes, I think profoundly so. The first three are about God: God is First, His Name is Holy, Keep The Sabbath. The fourth? Honour thy Father and Mother. God is to be honored by man and similarly children are to honor their parents. Very orderly I would say.

So now, back to the world of sin. What is going on today? Man has made himself God and has decided that he can destroy God's most magnificent creation-the baby in the womb-at will. So man denies God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If 60,000,000 dead in WWII is horrific, what of the 45,000,000+ EVERY YEAR by abortion!? The blood of the innocents cry to heaven for justice.

Denial of God, blasphemy of His Holy Name BY CHILDREN, and disregard for the Sabbath. The Bible too says that in the last times that children would be disobedient to parents. One, two, three, four.........

Now look back at the Fatima prophecy and compare the weight on the scales in 1917 as compared to now. Getting the picture?

God loves us so much and we are in a time of tremendous Mercy! This hour of Mercy is getting stretched very thin, VERY VERY thin!

If the world in 1917 was deserving of WWI, and in 1939 of WWII, we need to sober up quick and make use of this time of Mercy. The Lord is truly slow to anger and rich and abounding in Mercy and Forgiveness. BUT If men will not turn to Him, what is He to do?!

When a child learns to ride a bike he starts with training wheels to get the feel of it and to enjoy just riding and believing the day will come when training wheels won't be needed. Then his dad removes the training wheels and breaks his back for a couple of hours guiding the child without wheels, catching him, and helping to learn to balance. "Look around. Keep your head up. Watch where you are going. Sit up nice and straight. Relax and have fun!" And in no time the child learns the laws, the feel, and the limits of gravity. He may get a scrape or two and that's maybe a good thing to drive home the point that there are rules that are there in nature. The child always wears a helmet with the hope that it will only ever need to look nice and sparkly blue rather than needing to actually protect his head in a crash. Riding sure is wonderful!

Creation is so magnificent and our will is the thing that we must keep in balance. When we keep the balance according to the laws, we experience freedom and joy. Living in joy magnifies our freedom and we don't need to worry about the helmet we wear! We must keep joyful hope simply because that is the best way to live.

I don't know of anyone who rides a bike grudgingly without joy with the attitude that it is only a matter of time before he falls off. Right now though, there are a host of people riding drunk, no-hands through life on the precipice without a helmet. And if you are on a precipice, the helmet may not do you much good when you finally lose your balance.

Young people often look to mentors for inspiration. Perhaps they look to an Olympic Champion for inspiration on how to ride a bike competitively. That's what the whole brand endorsement industry is about, after all. "Be fashionable just like William and Kate!" How about we imitate a TRULY deserving model? What about trying in simple ways to be like Mary and keep a pure intention in everything we do? In my next blog I will try to give some concrete ideas about what that really means.

Let us pray for conversion-of our selves-and for peace.

The Father who is present.

What is a father without a child? It is the child who gives the father his fatherhood because without the child, their can be no father. What a beautiful paradox. The father gives the child life through the mother, and the child gives parenthood back to them.

Due to my own weakness, I struggle to simply be present to my children. Yes, I must teach them; that is my duty. Yet this symbiotic relationship is here too. I have discovered that being present to my children's sense of wonder, I can be a much better teacher. It's much harder for me to do this; it really takes effort and love. In the end, it really amounts to the children teaching me about what I need to teach them.

I had this realization very powerfully this past week when I took my six year old for a walk in the woods. He asks hundreds of questions. Then he asked the clincher: "Why do you always say that, Dad?" You see, to many of his requests to go here or there, I would always say "We had better not." It was out of habit, and I might just as easily have replied with an other similar habitual demand for obedience. But his question was genuine and it struck me immediately. I thought it through and saw that there was simply a true innocent observance of the fact that I do often reply without being truly present to his question.

Yes, let's go down that path into the meadow, I agreed. It was a magical moment where my son taught me without knowing it, and I was suddenly drawn into his presence and wonder fully, and I saw the true gift that he is to me. What I taught him, I hope, is that he can trust his dad, that exploring is not to be feared, and perhaps he even learned unwittingly to be present to others.

God the Father is present to us continually, and if we communicate with Him and trust Him with the innocence of a child, if we really go to Him as Abba, He will surely reveal the wonders of His creation beyond our imaginings. To St. Faustina Jesus said "The more you trust me, the more I will bless you!" Jesus, I trust in You!

'Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves."

John 14: 8-11

Come, Holy Ghost.

Meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, it is very informative and enriching to consider the relationship between the three groups of mysteries, the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious.

In the 3rd Joyful mystery Christ the King gives up his crown and becomes a helpless child, born into the cold of the night in poverty, for the love of sinful man.

In the 3rd Sorrowful mystery, Christ the King recieves a crushing crown of thorns in the ultimate act of humility. Bearing the cruelest of insults, spitting, and the unimaginable pain of the physical thorns, he accepts all of this for the love of sinful man.

In the 3rd Glorious mystery, Christ the King sends His Spirit, crowning us, with the fire of Divine Love. "O Come Down Love Divine, Come fill this heart of mine" we sing.

We often hear the words "God is love" which have always seemed trite and empty to me. Not that these words are not true, even ultimately true, but often those things which are most profound and intimate are lessened by our attempts to describe them. How does one describe the perfume of a rose to one who has not experienced it?

Our society needs to recover the beauty of true intimacy. There have been private revelations over the centuries, some of which have had heavenly messages for the seers only, for example revelations of the Holy Trinity which were not to be revealed. I often wondered what the point of that was. Then I slowly came to the realization that intimacy with God is the point.

God desires intimacy with all of His children, but He needs our cooperation to grow close to Him.
"If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." John 14:23

What is a law?

I have a wonderful six year old who loves to ask questions. He will eat an apple and say "Dada, what's an apple?" Riding in the car he will ask "Dada, what's a car?" At first these sorts of questions seemed nonsensical, but I have learned over the years to treat questions from my children with great respect because their sense of wonder and their innocent inquisitiveness is often profound and beyond immediate comprehension.

His questions of this sort are still coming. The latest is: What is a law?

I found myself trying to explain the different sorts of laws. There are the laws of nature, like gravity and inertia. There are juridical laws that governments make which have the common good at heart. (Sadly, in this impoverished country, laws are changed by judges through precedent or whim without even the consent of parliament.) There is the natural law which is written on the heart.

My son's other favorite question, which amazes me to no end, is "What happens if you don't?".

What happens if you disobey the law of gravity? Well, it could cost you your life. You can learn the law of inertia by leaving your seatbelt off. You may not die, or you may. There may or may not be a civil law to tell you to wear a seatbelt. And this brings us to the crux of all laws:

Laws, true laws. are grounded in reality and truth. Spend some time thinking and praying on that thought and you will come to see that our society is in trouble. Once the laws of a country stop having direct relation to truth, what is to stop them from becoming truly insane altogether?
The answer is scary: nothing.