Time Waste.

Well, the toxicity and sheer time waste of FB has finally got to me. I'm going to try to stay off of it as much as possible, going on in the morning to post the Saint of the Day and if so, the Franciscan Saint that we're celebrating that day. Otherwise, enough is enough. Those who have FB accounts must know what I mean. When it gets to the point where it just becomes second nature to do, then, with something that is just wasting your time and possibly not good for your health, it's time to cut back, if not quit.
As with my health plan, I asked, and still do ask, for the help of Our Mother and I will ask Her assistance with this challenge also.  Without Her intercession I will fall, as usual.

Dark and getting darker.

Why more young men and women aren't running off to join monasteries or convents I don't understand, just for the mere fact of getting away from this world. (I know it's God's Grace, I'm just venting...)  Every day we wake up to so many blatant lies perpetrated by the media and who knows who else, and basic Catholic teaching and doctrine just being twisted and ignored is really making me sick. And then one feels so helpless, because there really is nothing you can do but pray. And our prayer? I think when we pray, unless we're praying for something personal and specific, our prayers for 'world peace' and such don't necessarily get ignored, but I believe the chastisement is here and that prayer for 'world peace' is used for something else. The willful ignorance of man is shining brightly; the darkness of satan has perpetuated much, and men have grown fat by idolatry and greed, envy and lust. We can only save ourselves and our families. Let the good priests do what they can, until the skies become more clear. 

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Seraphic Father.

Thank You, Lord, for calling me to become a third order Franciscan, by giving me this extra grace to follow You, through the example of the Seraphic Father, St. Francis, to heaven. Where would I be if it were not for the Catholic Church, Holy Mass, and the third order, (or my wife who is also in the order, she also helps to hold me together), I dare not think.

O God, through the merits

of our blessed Father Francis,

 You enriched Your Church with

new offspring; grant that by 

imitating him we may despise

the things of this world and

ever rejoice in the partaking

of Your heavenly gifts.

Through our Lord... 

For that moment.

I had a beautiful revelation during my early morning Rosary today. Confusion and questions that have only smoldered under the surface became clear. I gazed upon Our Lord on the Cross with great love and tenderness. 

Unfortunately,  I can't remember what was revealed.  

It was like a waking dream, and like most dreams do upon awakening, after awhile, they slip away, not gone, just drift back into that sub-conscious to perhaps rest, or to influence, I don't know. But even now I know that I did learn something in the darkness of my kitchen, with only the small, weak spotlight on Our Crucified Lord to guide me. Perhaps with much reflection I'll remember, but I have a feeling that I won't. 

It was only for that moment.

Food.

The last few weeks Helen and I have been trying to eat right by way of a diet plan by a certain known doctor. We were very excited at the beginning (officially started July 10, but we were eating better the week before that), and we even survived the 'cleansing purge' of last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  But after almost two weeks of eating almost nothing but nuts and greens, we, Helen and I, decided that following a diet too closely that is basically based, in our opinion, on what the cave men ate, and worse, how they (we) evolved from apes, we'd better modify this way of eating quick. for one thing, it was expensive in many ways and many of the foods the diet called for were hard to find. But the main part that really bothered Helen was his way of thinking about evolution, and how it ran counter to Catholicism. As Franciscans, the idea of poverty, spiritual and physical, is something we keep in the fore front, not something we do when the time is right. True, we must take care of our bodies, but not at the expense of our soul.

My Guardian Angel

  On my way to work this morning, after my Rosary, I had a strong presence of my Guardian Angel. I had the incredibility strong feeling that he was sitting right next to me in the passenger seat. It made me very emotional. It was a feeling that I can only describe as being in the presence of something beyond me. Words are failing me, but it was almost as if the entire cab of the pickup was filled with a silent hum. I've always believed his name is Andrew, and he was making himself known, for whatever reason.

  Thank you, Andrew, for what, I do not know.

Leaving God behind.

(From my F.B. page last night. I was just a little cranked.)

I will not post the picture of Kathy Griffin. We've all seen it by now. I just want to speak my piece about this. I must assume that she believed she was perhaps practicing her craft, which, I'll be honest, I've never seen her do. I think she's a comedian, but I'm not sure. Perhaps she thought she was making a statement, which she did, but a vile and senseless one. Or she thought she was following her conscience, doing what she felt was right, in a protest to President Trump. Unfortunately our conscience doesn't always tell us right from wrong, good from evil. As weak people we would rather feed our senses which almost always gravitate towards darkness. It seems that everywhere one turns, people, in the name of 'freedom' say, do, write and exhibit any and all things that cross their minds. Fear of God is completely gone. When man puts himself first, God is left far behind.
Perhaps the next time any of us wants to complain, or ridicule or tear down someone or something either here or in our real lives, we should ask ourselves, is what I'm doing helping me on my road to salvation or hindering it?

The First Apparition

This Saturday is the anniversary of the First Apparition of Our Blessed Mother at Fatima. Perhaps this would be a good morning to find a Latin Mass and celebrate these two wonderful gifts, the Holy Mass and Our Mother coming to warn us. Even as I write this I've read of so much evil and mischief about today that truly much prayer is needed, more prayer than perhaps we are accustomed to. We are living in times that great saints are made, dark times when Holy Mother Church seems to be falling apart all around us. Rome gives us no backing, heck, they are going in the other direction. But take heart, today, the 11th, the Feast of SS. Philip and James, two of Our Lords' Apostles, they never gave up, even when facing death, even when dying. 
 So get through this day, like we do every day, with love, with prayer and with turning our minds heavenward. We can't all get to Mass every day, but we can pray and plead.

Retreat.

Leaving this afternoon for an Ignatian Retreat. Monday thru Saturday, a week of silence and meditation, during the first full week of Lent.

Please keep me in your prayers.

The Franciscan Ideal

Vos, Sancti Dei inclyti

Qui estis mente lucidi

Franciscum imitate,

Orate ut intrepidi

Hic simus semper fervidi

Et postmodum beati.

This liturgical antiphon in honor of the saints of the Franciscan Order points out the three principal means of perpetuating Franciscan perfection : retaining undimmed the Franciscan ideal; expressing it by heroic action; sustaining it by fervent prayer. The last words of the antiphon, "Et postmodum beati," assure us of the recompense promised to the faithful imitators of our seraphic Father.  -  (from) Franciscan Perfection.

First Friday, First Saturday.

First Friday and First Saturday Holy Mass,with Benediction, 6:00 pm, St. Lawrence Chapel, S. Windsor CT. First Friday Mass is also the Feast of St. Blaise, so there will be The Blessing of Throats. 

Candlemas

February 2nd, CANDLEMAS will be celebrated with a Procession at St. Lawrence Chapel, S. Windsor, CT. at 6:00 pm. Bring any candles that you'd like to have blessed and Fr. will bless them during the Mass.

Just Shut Up

I'm trying to wrap my head around the stance that many people (Democrats, Liberals, Modernists, etc) have taken concerning our President-elect.  How can they say, and mean, that he's 'not my President!' Are you an American citizen? Then he is your President. If your not a citizen then just shut up. This is not your country. Move to the background. The rest of you, your liberalism is showing. And we know that when it shines, it looks bad. Sore losers, the whole lot of you. This world has thrown Christ away as King so long ago that what He stands for and the gifts He gave us are just a memory to you. Try to do the right thing for once, not the thing that you think is right. Let the country move forward, God willing, with a conservative behind the wheel. Try to hold your tongue in place and your fingers off the keyboard. Pray a Rosary instead. Pray to the Holy Ghost for guidance. Let your guard down for once and allow God to talk to you.

Second Sunday After Epiphany.

Even setting aside any mystical interpretation, the fact that the Lord was pleased to be asked, and to go to a marriage, showeth plainly enough that He is the Author and Blesser of marriage. There were yet to be those of whom the Apostle hath warned us as forbidding to marry; who say that marriage is a bad thing in itself, and a work of the devil. Yet we read in the Gospel that when the Lord was asked, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? He answered that it was not lawful, except it were for fornication. In which answer ye will remember that He used these words: What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. - Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.

Holy Mass in the Catacombs (real fear.)

I'm having a awful hard time figuring out what all these people are afraid of, now that Mr. Trump has been elected President. Is it because they are illegally here in this country?  If so, they should have been concerned about their deportation before, if that's what they are worried about now. Oh, wait, they weren't worried before, because the government had no intention of prosecuting them anyway. For the government they were a potential Democratic vote. The way I see it if your in this country legally you have no worries. I work with many people from different countries whom settled here in the last 10 years and everyone of them is here legally. No worries. Buddhists, Muslims, they are here legally. America (and the world) in general has been pulled so far to the left in the last 50 years that what passes for normal nowadays is really far from it. If any of us has survived going through grade school and then college and does not think in a modernistic and  liberal manner and you still are a practicing Catholic it is only by the grace of God. I believe Our Blessed Virgin Mother had some say in the recent political event that is shaking this country to its roots. Heaven said no, it is not time for the catacombs. That is just my gut feeling. We must continue to pray the Rosary, 15 decades a day, for now to stem the tide that seems to be overwhelming us. Liberals are really not nice people, true liberals, that is. This election has slipped through satans' hands and he is not happy.

Nov. 4, St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop, Confessor.

For a bishop must be without crime, as the steward of God: not proud, not subject to anger, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre: But given to hospitality, gentle, sober, just, holy, continent; Embracing that faithful word which is according to doctrine, that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine, and to convince the gainsayers. For there are also many disobedient, vain talkers, and seducers: especially they who are of the circumcision: Who must be reproved, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre' s sake. - Titus 1; 7-11

The Recollection.

My wife, Helen is in Florida this week visiting her sister and brother in law.  My son and I are home, holding down the fort.  Monday, Tuesday, no problem with dinner, he gets home before me and he doesn't mind cooking, but in fact my wife has left us with many options to choose from this week, some frozen, so all we have to do is thaw, heat and eat.  Good for us men.  At 61 and 30+ years of marriage I'm pretty much spoiled and pampered when it comes to doing domestic chores.  I've forgotten how to cook, really, except to make the pasta and a salad.  I did some laundry last night, but Odin (our son) had to give me a quick instruction on the washing machine; I've only used it a couple of times in 2 years.  With all my aches and pains Helen and Odin have pretty much taken over many of the chores, jobs and responsibilities that they know I struggle with now.  And heaven knows I appreciate it, even if I don't let them know enough, due to my bad communication skills when it comes to those things.  But they understand and through all that they do I see they do it for love of me.  They really don't mind, and I never ask them to do anything extra, the work just gets done. This does leave me with a bit more time, although I'm not retired yet, but more extra time at night and on the weekends, which I really don't know how to use wisely.  A big problem is during the day I have energy, but I'm at work, work takes precedent and then at night, in the evening, after supper, I burn out pretty quickly, and most of my motivation is gone.  Watching a movie with Helen or quiet time in the semi-darkness, before the crucified Christ is the best I can do.  A few pages from a book, then silence.  The silence though, ah, the silence is the most mysterious part of the day, a time when my beforehand expectations run high and then God gives me my lot in life, this ending to the day, after the Office, this time for recollection on the day I leave behind.  I say leave behind but do we really ever leave the day behind,  do we simply say, 'I did this, not so well, I offended here, and here, and here, but I'll try harder tomorrow' or do we struggle with the thoughts of darkness that is this examination of conscience.  We are called to dwell on these 'sins of the day' because these are the acts with which we offend God.  We can look at all the good things we did and accomplished on this day and God loves us for them, but this time of day, in the darkness, in the silence, is the time of the realization, the truth between me and myself, with our Lord standing by, watching.  And even after many years of this quiet time, the examination is no easier, if anything I'm worse at it than before.  It's a little like Confession; the older one gets, the harder it is, the more one learns, the more one tends to think perhaps too much... perhaps it is best to just let the silence take over, the silence who is the Holy Spirit, who is our guide here on earth.  I think of these things now, in the middle of the day, and at times everything is crystal clear, my path through this day and into the night lays before me with no hindrance, no confusion.  Tonight will be different.  Prayers done, the house quiet, the silence will surround me  and I will slowly ease into that darkness, my own self made darkness of the day, where my sins will, hopefully, prayerfully, be brought before me to examine again.   

The Quiet Place.

The longing for a place that offers peace and solitude during a stressful time; we all long for that place sometime in our lives.  Human nature calls us to it, that longing for a quiet spot that helps us to unleash the clamor into the air, to give it up, let it rise up and let God deal with it.  A place for which to re-gather ourselves back with God, who always seems so far away in times of disquiet, times of stress.  
  Perhaps we dream (fantasize?) of a place like the one we read about or saw a picture of, a cave-type grouping of stones or a wooden hut deep in the woods, perhaps used by a saint.  Or maybe that corner in your own house that you never really found the time to arrange, that room with a view or the comfy chair. In the real world, our own real worlds, the day to day world of our lives those quiet places are hard to come by.  We go off in the morning (or whenever) to our jobs, whatever they may be, and are usually absorbed into them for the rest of the day.  Oh yes, with the occasional  time to send God a quick message ("Bless us O Lord, for these thy gifts...") but usually not much more, the work day takes over until the evening and then perhaps we can more easily lift our mind and heart to Him.  It is an uneasy life we live, knowing that we never do enough, we are always one step behind.  We read the stories of the saints and long to be like them, to speak like them, act like them, pray like them... Sometimes we forget that they were just like us, men and women of this earth, who like us strove to be more like our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Why them and not us?  Stupid question.  We have our lot in life, our vocation, husband, wife, religious, whatever.  God has given us the grace we need, it is up to us to use it to get to heaven.  It was the same for the saints.  Each was given grace by God and, like the servants in the parable, them, like us are to use that grace to our advantage,  Use it wisely, that is what the saints did.  We are called to do the same.  We are called to think outside the box, to think in the supernatural, in order to grow in the grace of God.  That means to not daydream of that perfect place to speak with God or to put it off until this coming Sunday or if God permits, time before the tabernacle during the week.  The time to speak to God is now, when we are sitting at our desks, or driving that truck, digging that ditch, correcting that paper or leading a country.  Take a moment to acknowledge Him, to ask our Mother for a favor or ask our Lord for His intersession.  The saints did this all the time, they practically lived in that state here on earth.  Raise your mind to God, live in the supernatural as much as you can.  Talk with our Mother and to the saints.  Plead.  They will listen.    

The Small Lesson.

It takes me about 40-45 minutes to get to work in the morning.  The drive is mostly back roads, country roads really, here in CT, and I drive slow.  I pray my second Rosary, then listen to some chant or whatever is shuffling around in my old I-pod.  Always very uneventful.  Lately though, the past few months, on and off, you might say, I've been troubled.  Many things have been happening in my life, neither good nor bad, (but I only realize that now, the good or bad part), just things, events, happenings, whatever.  I guess I've mostly looked at all of this in a negative light, but not in a real alarming way, mostly just in the vein of a big sigh and an 'Oh well...'  This way of looking at things will wear a man down and place him far from where he should be, which is in line with God.  The problem is, as fallen beings, it becomes easy to look at things that way, from a purely man-centered way.  One finds themselves in these situations and try to get themselves out, to lift themselves up but use only themselves as the way and the means.  God is not forgotten about, usually, but let's say He's put off to the side.  Our pride says 'I can handle this, just watch, just give me a minute.'   What I'm trying to say is God is in control.  Oh really, you might say, tell me something I don't know.  Which is true, nothing earth-shattering or new about that.  But do we really think about it, contemplate it or pray about it?  I don't.  I just haven't, not in the way one should.  Now this whole bit of thought came about because I put a certain situation into the hands of the Blessed Mother, saying 'I leave this to you, you know best.'  And She does, because She does God's Will.  And then the answer came and the situation was resolved, pretty much but for some reason everything lingered in my mind, not like unanswered questions but a picture put before me by perhaps our Mother, saying, 'See, this is how it is.  You pray, you ask sincerely, and if it is in your best interest, determined by God, things happen.  But you must do your part.  You must accept what God gives you, because everything comes from God, the good and the bad, praising God and thanking Him for your lot in life.'  The good and the bad.  I thought about that, my health issues, my physical woes, my being overwhelmed at times by life itself, to be thankful and rejoice in all of this because each and everything that flows to me is from Him.  Thoughts came flashing back from books, talks whatever, saying the same thing but for whatever reason these words never stuck.  Heard and forgotten.  But today was different, for some reason.  Perhaps the state of the world, the darkness that is out there that has infested almost all walks of life, has started to wear down even my optimistic attitude, perhaps this ray of light this morning pierced through that dust of satan just enough to make a difference, I don't know.  But I was able to see more clearly, for those few moments, a small bit of His Plan that made perfect sense to me.  Tonight, as I finish writing this, my mind tired and worn out from another day, the sharpness of the revelation is gone, leaving me with only a sweet memory and a lesson I hopefully won't soon forget.          

She lingers...

The Marian Retreat in Ridgefield is almost a week gone but the effects are still lingering.  Our Mother is a powerful intercessor, more than I ever realized, and made most interesting by learning how and why God gave her so many graces.  Mary, like Her Son, helps to draw us to Heaven by helping us stay focused.  Not an easy thing to do in this world.  A week-long silent retreat helps to get one's head back on, maybe not completely straight, but back on and looking in the proper direction.