Age Profiling

 This morning at the Senior Center, we were collating the newsletter, and chatting.  One lady related a story of being stopped by the police for going too slow.  That's embarrassing, but not as shockingly hurtful as being asked if she wanted to call one of her children to help her.  

She was driving slow because she was looking for an address, it was also night time, and there were no cars around--except a cop with nothing to do, hiding in a driveway.  Luckily, she knows that policemen are right even when they're wrong, so she didn't argue.  She calmly and logically explained why she was driving slowly and the policeman accepted her reasons.  Whew!

Not so lucky was another friend.  She was lost and found herself crossing the wrong bridge and wasn't sure how to correct her mistake.  So she called the police.  She was embarrassed and not sure of the roads ...the result was that the cop took her license away.  !!!!  It cost her a small fortune to get it back.  She had to have an eye exam and a physical from doctors.  Then she had to get a driving permit.  After the permit, she had to go to driver education classes.  Whereupon, she was permitted to take the driving test to get a license.  She did all of it and succeeded.

People talk about being racially profiled.  How about being profiled because you're old?  

*Profiling--the act of targeting a person on the basis of observed characteristics.

God's Anger

LECTIO:

Ex 32:7-11, 13-14

The LORD said to Moses,
"Go down at once to your people,
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
'This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!'
"I see how stiff-necked this people is, " continued the LORD to Moses.
Let me alone, then,
that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.
Then I will make of you a great nation."

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,
"Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt
with such great power and with so strong a hand?
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,
'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;
and all this land that I promised,
I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'"
So the LORD relented in the punishment
he had threatened to inflict on his people.

STUDIUM:

When the Israelites were in Egypt they saw idolatry.  Maybe they thought the golden calf was Yahweh.  When they pictured God maybe they thought He looked liked a calf.  After all, their holy pictures and statues were destroyed and/or left behind.  Am I trying to excuse them?  
    But that's not the point.  The Israelites were worshiping Baal.  Moses up on the mountain doesn't know this, but God does and is furious.  Moses calms Him down by reminding God of His love and promises to Abraham's people.  

MEDITATIO:

If only the people had patience.  Eventually, God gives them the Arc of the Covenant with statues and everything.  They wanted visible, physical proof of Yahweh and they do get it. One lesson to learn from Exodus 32: 7-14 is to wait and trust in God.  

ORATIO:

I pray to have the grace of trust and perseverance.  I don't want to be like the Israelites worshiping Baal because Yahweh seems to have gone away.  I know You are always with me and I pray to never forget that.

CONTEMPLATIO:

Maybe I should ask Moses to intercede for me.  He talked God out of destroying the Israelites worshiping Baal, certainly he would make a good defense attorney.  Moses pray for me.

RESOLUTIO:

I resolve to keep up my daily spiritual exercises to never forget that God is my creator, my savior, my everything.  

Labor Day

With the arrival of Labor Day, I can’t help but think of the song, “Sixteen Tons”.  When I hear this song, the words, “another day older and deeper in debt,” I imagine I can feel a little of the oppressive burden of a laborer mining coal.

The song is attributed to Merle Travis and the line “another day older and deeper in debt,” came from a letter written by Merle Travis’ brother.  This phrase and the line, “I gave my soul to the company store,” are references to the truck system and debt bondage.  Under the truck system and debt bondage, workers were not paid cash; rather they were paid with non-transferrable credit vouchers that could only be used at the company store. Hence, it was impossible to save any money.  Workers who lived in company owned dormitories or houses had their rent automatically deducted from their pay.  This truck system and debt bondage lasted until a union was able to be formed—the United Mine Workers, and was able to end such practices.  Unions were forming around the turn of the twentieth century. Here are seven achievement the union won.

1.        Wage had to be paid that were commensurate with work and dangerous work, more.

2.       Payment had to be legal tender and not company scrip.

3.       Mines had to have good ventilation to decrease black lung disease. (Note, not end black lung, but decrease.)

4.       Enforce safety laws.

5.       Labor limited to eight hours.

6.       End child labor.

7.       Use accurate scales to weigh the coal so workers could be  paid fairly.

It wasn’t until 1933 that workers achieved “collective bargaining rights” – meaning laborers could sit down at the table with management and discuss conditions to benefit both parties.

Not until 1946 could miners get health and retirement benefits.

And in 1969, The United Mine Workers of America convinced Congress to force owners to provide compensation to miners suffering from Black Lung Disease.

Now, you see why we have a holiday celebrating “Labor.” People have worked hard throughout our history. Their contributions have made America strong and prosperous.  Certainly laborers have earned a three day holiday weekend.  And much more.

Mary Brings You to Jesus

 "A Month with Mary" by Don Dolindo Ruotolo is a devotional book. It was written by a priest for his spiritual directee in 1912. So it is over a century old. It reminded me very much of the "Imitation of Christ." "A Month with Mary" has Mary giving instructions about Jesus, every day. It's a meditation a day. It's about a couple of pages long. After each instruction is a prayer and then some kind of suggestion to do good work. Every day you read this.

As I said, Dolindo wrote each meditation as if Mary were talking. It's easy and something to do for Advent or Lent.  I did it during the summer to stay focused on Jesus.

I first heard of Don Dolindo from Roy Schoemann's youtube videos.  When praying, Schoemann often quotes from Father Dolindo.  I googled "Father Dolindo" and saw that he wrote in Italian, but there are a few English works, one of them being A Month with Mary.

Timshel

 East of Eden by John Steinbeck is a tome.  Fortunately, it tells a gripping story.  The title gives the plot away.  This is the story of Genesis.  Eden is Eden. The serpent is Cathy/Kate.  Adam Trask is Adam.  Adam has two sons that were almost named, Cain and Abel, but chose Caleb and Aaron.  Caleb has a dark side.  He struggles against the bad and even prays to make good choices.  Aaron is good and every one's friend.

   Caleb at one time asks, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

   There is a struggle between good and evil. How each character copes with these problem is the story.  Human nature is all about free will--timshel.

    It was a pleasure to read a good story that didn't have sex.  Oh wait!  A good third of of the book takes place in a whore house.  You need to read it yourself to see how a gifted writer writes about sex without it being porn.

Response

 There has been quite a reaction to an article in the Atlantic about the rosary as a symbol for extreme right views.  Here's my response:

Hello and thank you for waking me up this morning!

     This article  hit home with me.  The article by Daniel Panneton did the opposite of what he intended. He is the manager of an Anti-Hate Research and Education Project.  He also is a product of his time and culture.  His articles defend the current cultural climate.  Any criticism of mainstream media, government, opinion, he interprets as "Hate."  Defending the mainstream is his shtick.

      That being said, he doesn't think deep enough.  When there are pro-life people praying in front of abortion clinics, he doesn't see that.  He sees anti-government, radical religious nut cases shaking rosary beads.  They're holding up posters of bloody abortions and waving their rosary beads.  He sees people with rosaries accosting potential people who need help. When there are protesters protesting nuclear weapons, he sees them brandishing rosary beads. At the border with Mexico, Cardinal O'Malley reached out to people holding rosaries through the slats in the wall--what an affront to the law!   IOW, he sees the rosary as an obvious symbol, and doesn't hear the praying, nor think of the reason.  He's too entrenched in our secular world to have eyes that see and ears that hear. 

     People should criticize Panneton's article and call out the bigotry that the labeling inferred.  But I'd like to throw my opinion into the soup.  In my frame of reference, belonging to a Lay Dominican prison fraternity, Panneton is on to something in seeing extremism in the people who brandish their beads.  I see it, too.  Oh, I definitely see it.

The Latin Kings wear their rosary beads proudly.  They will willing explain to you that anyone wearing white beads is an "inquirer," the black and gold beads are for all members, two gold beads are for a leader, and if their rosary is all black beads, then they're murderers but they look upon it as enforcers/assassins. Honor killings aren't murder. Then there are the Netas.  They come from Puerto Rico and wear 78 red, white, and blue beads that symbolize the 78 towns in Puerto Rico. I know of one more gang, the Sureno.  They wear a necklace of 13 beads.

     Rosary beads are a popular tool for gangs. Gangs are extreme!  I also can assure you, that most, if not all, of these rosary bearers, never pray their rosary.  Daniel Panneton has obviously never prayed a rosary, either.  I will give him the benefit of doubt, that he didn't reflect too much before he submitted that article.  After all, he works hard to expose "hate."  I don't think he meant to water the seeds of anti-Catholicism.  But I do blame the Atlantic magazine for using misleading headlines, dubious captions, subtitles and pictures, to beguile readers into reading their anti-Catholicism nonsense. 

     Just as God can turn bad into good, so Satan can turn rosaries into extreme tokens.  We aren't fighting against "flesh and blood," but against the dark spiritual forces of evil.

Veritas!

P.S.  I have already called attention to this article in this post.

Family Meal Time

 The cost of living nowadays demands that both parents need to work.  The problem with this is the demise of the family meal time.  Families need to gather together to share conversation, ideas, concerns, values, and experiences.  Today, it is rare that this type of meal time is a daily occurrence.

The same is true of attending Mass.  The Eucharist is the divine meal.  Do you think there's a correlation?  People working, activities for children, and activities for adults, all have to fit around Mass.  Sometimes, Mass gets pushed aside.  Once you get out of the routine of going to Mass, you forget about it. 

Cristero War Coming in Nicaragua?

 The Vice President of Nicaragua has said, "those who are bitter disappear." Is that what has happened to Bishop Alvarez?  He has been an outspoken critic of Nicaraguan's president Daniel Ortega's government which has resulted in his arrest.  The government has repressed human rights, including religion. According to Ortega's spokespeople, the church is carrying out acts of hatred against the population, causing an atmosphere of anxiety, disorder, disturbing the peace and harmony in the community with the purpose of destabilizing the Nicaraguan government and  attack the country's constitution.  

The Nicaraguan media says that the bishop is in prison awaiting trial.  The bishop plans to answer hate with love and is calm with the peace that only the resurrected Christ can provide.

This situation reminds me of the book I recently reviewed, The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. The same situation occurred in Mexico, 1926--, known as the Cristero War.  The Mexican Government tried to violently repress the Catholic Church. The aftermath was felt for years.  From Wiki:

The effects of the war on the Church were profound. Between 1926 and 1934, at least 40 priests were killed.There were 4,500 priests serving the people before the rebellion, but by 1934, there were only 334 licensed by the government to serve 15 million Catholics. The rest had been eliminated by emigration, expulsion, and assassination. In 1935, 17 states had no priests.^[57]

The end of the Cristero War affected emigration to the United States. "In the aftermath of their defeat, many of the Cristeros – by some estimates as much as 5 percent of Mexico's population – fled to America. 

What will be the aftermath of a Nicaraguan repression?  Where will the people go?  When will the government find peace?

Time to Say Goodbye.

                                                                                              Behind Sue (seated), L to R: Alice Clack, Sue Bliven,
                                                                                                     Faith Flaherty, Carol Belcher, Pat Winiarski
  Another friend has died.  Sue Wade, who was instrumental in  getting me to join the writer's group has died. She didn't start the group but she was our leader for a long time and we owe much to her guidance.  She is the one who got us connected to local radio.  We read our stories on FM 102.9.  

She will be missed.

Intuition

 

The Church taught what I had instinctively always felt as a writer: the smallness of a life does not diminish it; the brevity of a moment does not reduce its importance; death is not the end.

Amen to that!  These words are from Sally Read’s Night’s Bright Darkness—a spiritual memoir. This book is a conversion story.  Sally Read is a poet, a writer, and a mystic.  I enjoyed her writing, not so much her experiences.   

I couldn’t exactly put my finger on the time (place, time, action) that her conversion happened.  It wasn’t an auditory message, like St. Augustine.  It wasn’t a personal apparition like Roy Schoemann had.  It wasn’t a physical occurrence as St. Paul had.  I think Sally’s was intellectual.  She figured out that there just might possibly be a God.  She wasn’t brought up as a believer, so she didn’t have eyes to see or ears to hear.  But she did have a mind to reason. 

Once she became open to God, grace flowed.  She was blessed with good friends who were spiritually mature, lay women and priests.  She also was a reader who voraciously read as much as possible.  Also her little daughter seemed to guide her thinking.  Her husband tolerated her new found religiosity and eventually accepted it as their family’s new normal.  

Personally, I think the quote I began with explains Sally’s conversion.  She was a poet, and as a poet she intuitively knew there was beauty in the world.  There is always more than what our eyes see, and ears hear, and hearts feel.  When Sally opened herself to the possibility of a Creator, she believed.

St. Bernard and the Spider

 

 This morning I was reading in my Breviary.  Today is a memorial to St. Bernard.  As I prayed and contemplated, I spotted a spider crawling on the table.  I watched it progress towards me.  It actually had the chutzpah to creep onto my prayer book.  Blasphemy!  Abomination!

Of course, God created all things, spiders too.  I know that, but spiders bite and I did not kill him for pleasure.  

One could think that I helped the spider to his heavenly home sooner rather than later.

Okay.  I slammed the book closed on it.

That was the end of my Office of Reading.  I didn't do Morning Prayer, either.  Nor Noon Day Prayer.

I just sat down now, to pray Vespers.  I opened the book gingerly.  There the culprit lie.  Right underneath the antiphon:

Come to me in your distress and I will save you.

I'm sorry I'm not sorry.

Spiritual Warfare

 Soon I will be posting a book review on Sally Read's Night's Bright Darkness, which I am currently reading.  This morning I read something that made me laugh so much that I'm still chuckling over it.  I just have to share because I hope you will find it funny, too.

Here's the situation. Sally is going to be baptized. (This is a conversion story.) Her best friend will be her sponsor, Christina.  Christina is very pregnant.  Sally's spiritual advisor is Father Gregory, who is a Ukrainian Catholic priest.  In Italy where they live, RCIA is two years.  Christine can't wait.  Father Gregory gets his spiritual advisor and academic mentor, Father Morerod to pull strings.  Not only does he make arrangements for Sally to bypass the two year requirement, he gets Cardinal Cottier to perform the ceremony.

As fate would have it, the date the baptism is also the date of an election change in Italy.  There is always rioting in the streets resulting from whomever wins the election.  These four people (Sally, Christina, two priests) walk from their respective domiciles.  But they somehow do make it to the church safely.  However, Cardinal Cottier did not.  He is in his nineties and since all transportation was in a standstill, he would have had to walk, which was impossible for him to physically do.  So the four amigos walk to him--in the Vatican.

That's what made me laugh out loud.  It was the picture of these four racing to the Vatican: one very pregnant, one in a long black robe (Ukrainian Catholic habit), one in a long white robe (Dominican habit) and Sally in her new red coat.  What an image!  I can almost hear the music "Charlie Chaplin's Walking Stick" playing in the background.

To top it off, a cloud of starlings flew overhead.

...They sank in their thousands as one mass and came so low they almost brushed our head.  We could hardly hear ourselves for the rush of air and wings.  Then they began to excrete.  They got us one by one..."It's spiritual warfare," Father Morerod smiled, "one last attempt from the demons for your soul."

An Important Accomplishment

 January 1, 2018, I set out to read the entire Bible.  I chose the "Pierced Hands Reading Plan" by Meg Hunter-Kilmer. You are supposed to read the entire Bible in a year (and the Gospels Twice!).  The plan was arranged to make the reading less tedious.  Who wants to plow through Proverbs for months?  So I started on New Year's Day, four and a half years ago.  I knew I couldn't read everyday, well I could, but I wanted to enjoy and understand what I read, so I read when I had the time to focus.  Hence, it took me four and a half years to complete the reading. Also, I used six Bibles I wanted to read and reference.  

1.  My "Go To" read was the top middle one in the picture.  Why?  The print is the biggest.  This is the Saint Joseph Edition of the New American Bible, 1986.

2.  Next, I would pick up blue Bible on the top, The Catholic Study Bible,1991.  I was using it because of its name--The Catholic STUDY Bible. Eventually, I learned that it was the exact same book as # 1.  The footnotes are identical.  But I referred to it for the few times they might possibly weren't.
3.  The next one is my oldest Bible.  It's the red one on top.  Using this Bible proves to you what a sentimental old fool, I am. It was given to me by Auntie.  Aunt May Sweetra was from Lithuania.  All her life she spoke "broken English."  She couldn't read and write very much, but she wrote in this red Bible (at the time it's red leather with gold pages were very impressive) Ant Mary SweEtra and I wrote June 7, 1964.  This date is the day I graduated from high school, Presentation of Mary Academy.  Auntie was really my great aunt--Grandma's sister.  Since this Benziger Brothers, Inc., Holy Bible's imprimatur was in 1958, it is hard on the eyes.  The pages are yellow and the print tiny.  The footnotes are even smaller and basically useless.  But I still used it at every reading and wrote comments in it.  I actually kiss it to thank Auntie for bringing the Word to me.

4.  I had a commentary.  Harper's Bible Commentary, General Editor James L. May, Harper & Row, 1988.  I used this to explain what I was reading.  

5.  Better than the commentary, was the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, New Testament, Second Catholic Edition RSV, Ignatius Press 2010.  This was the best, by far!  But I only have the New Testament--more than half of the Bible was missing.  I didn't have any of the Old Testament books and I couldn't see buying the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible books of the Old Testament when I have so many Bibles.  But if I had the money, I would.  The footnotes were extensive.  I used them the most.  

6.  The last Bible I used was Life Application Study Bible, New International Version, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois and Zondervan Publishing House, 2005.  This was excellent but being published by Protestants, the Bible was missing the Apocrypha (Those are the best stories.)  I liked how Jesus' Words are in red, their charts, maps, and diagrams.  

My Sentimental Favorite

Now you see why it has taken me four and a half years to read the Bible.  I learned, I enjoyed, and I have deepened my prayer life.

Grace be with you all.  Hebrews 13: 25

He/She

 

An Excellent Mystery (The Cadfael Chronicles, #11)
by 

Ellis Peters

Faith Flaherty's review

Aug 17, 2022  ·  edit

it was amazing

bookshelves: mystery

Read 2 times. Last read August 11, 2022 to August 17, 2022.

3 highlights (Private)

An Excellent Mystery by Ellis Peters is another Brother Caedfael mystery. I found this one different than the others. The protagonist is female. She was engaged to a crusader but he came home from the Crusades mortally wounded and broke the engagement off, so that his fiancee was free.

Her name was Julian. However, she didn't want to be free. She took her engagement as vows and finagled her way into his life. He joined the Benedictines and took the name Brother Humilus. Julian, with the help of a devoted servant, dressed as a young male and joined also, taking the name Brother Fidelis and consequently became the faithful caretaker of Brother Humilus.

Meanwhile, Brother Humilis' old lieutenant is seeking Julian to marry her. Of course, since Brother Fidelis is always beside Brother Humilis, he/she knows what's going on. Once Brother Humilus dies, in an accident, Brother Fidelis turns back to Julian in an ingenious way. (No spoilers)

A satisfactory conclusion.

Salesmanship

 Tonight, I went out to order pizza.  I went to the store and ordered it.  The price came to over $20.  I was particular ordering two medium to get the special deal of buying one pizza and getting the other half off.  The young man taking my order said that deal is only for on-line customers.  I said, "I'll go in my car and order it.  Isn't that ridiculous that I'm here and I can't get the deal, but if I take three steps outside and order it on my phone, I get the deal? Where's your manager?"  He apologized and said he couldn't help me, it's an online deal.

So I took three steps out and ordered it on my phone.  Then I went inside and asked, "Did you get my order?"  

Ridiculous.

The first young man who I spoke to, went and hid behind some boxes.  Another young man came and asked, "What did you order?"  I told him that I just order two medium pizza's on my phone.  We looked at their screen.  It was up high.  It looked like a TV screen with orders on it.  My order wasn't on it.  We both looked at my phone and I didn't hit "send."  Then it appeared on the screen.  He said that it would be ready in 8 minutes and I could wait in my car.  

I did.

He brought it out to me as I waited in my car.

I tipped him very generously.

The first kid missed out.

What lesson did he learn?  I hope he learned to be more helpful.  Why didn't he suggest ordering it on my phone and helping me to do it?  Did he think it reasonable that someone had to take three steps outside to order the pizza?  

What lesson did I learn?  Order on-line.

Rosary Terrorist

 Recently, the Atlantic magazine ran an article saying that the Rosary was a symbol of intimidation.  Well, it always has been a weapon against evil.  Pius V credited winning the battle of Lepanto because the people prayed the Rosary.  The devil hates it.  

I can hear the Dominicans laughing now.

The Last Thing is Love

Faith is foundational.  It is a gift. It' s different from other virtues. It's not opinion, suspicion, intuition, no doubt.  You got it or you don't.

Abel had it; that's why his sacrifice was better.  Enoch walked by faith.  Noah had faith enough to trus.t God.  Abraham obeyed because of faith. Sarah overcame doubts because of her faith. Isaac had a strong faith.  Joseph held to his faith.  The Patriarchs had faith to believe in glory. The faithful in Exodus walked with faith. Daniel closed the lion's mouth with faith.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had  unshakable faith.

We need faith, no doubt about it.  When we die, we have faith that we will meet God.  When we do we won't need it.  We won't have to hope or believe because God will be standing right in front of us.

All that's left is love.  Just love. That's all.

Community

 I went on retreat, today.  I call it a day of recollection because it was only a day. Anyway, I digress.  It was a Lay Dominican retreat on the topic of "community."  The retreat master was Father Timothy Danaher, O.P. and the place was Betania II in Medway, MA.  

Community is not only a problem in churches, it is a problem in our current American culture.  It's because we move around so much.  Hardly anyone lives in the same town they were born in.  Every time we move, we lose that community we had build up.  Attendance in churches suffer from this.  People move from parish to parish and still live in the same town.  COVID was a factor in that. My own parish still hasn't put hymnals and missallettes in the pews.  We still can only receive communion in the hand and there are still no altar servers.  No holy water either.

So I go to another parish where we have hymnals and missallettes, we can receive Communion on the tongue, we have altar servers and we can hug.

We thought of our childhood and the community we had.  Every outside of school activity was held in the parish.  I played softball for our parish.  Sister taught me piano.  My parish had a band.  Other sports were offered by the parish.  Don't forget the parish had a school that the entire parish supported with bazaars and fairs and raffles.  I can't forget Bingo!

That community is gone.  Presently, my church woman's club is dying.  We can't get any young people to join.  

That type of parish community is gone.  We have to think of something else.

2022-23 Argonauta

 My Book Club, Argonauta, has released its reads for 2022-2023.

1. September 8, 2022

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

2. October 13, 2022

Apples Never Fall Far by Liane Moriarty

3. November 10, 2022

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

4. December 15, 2022

Book to be decided; perhaps Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer by Maya Angelou

5. January 12, 2023

State of Terror by Hilary Clinton

6. February 9, 2023

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margo by Marianne Cronin

7. March 8, 2023

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert

8. April 13, 2023

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

9. May 11, 2023

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

10. June 8, 2023

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Other Suggestions

Freedom – Jonathan Franzen

Crow Lake – Mary Lawson

Jill: A Biography of the First Lady – Julie Pace

Brothers and Wives – Christopher Anderson

The Palace Papers – Tina Brown

The Girl Who Came Home – Hazel Gaynor

The Tender Land – William Krueger

The Tobacco Wives – Adele Myers

The Girl with the Louding Voice – Abi Dare

Juvenile Law

 My Lay Dominican Fraternity is abuzz with the news that the state ban on mandatory life sentences should be reconsidered for 18-20 year-olds.  This may happen.  Four of my "cloistered brothers" could be up for parole.  Since they are now in the 50's and have good records, they have more hope than they ever had that they may be freed.  

The reasoning is "that neuroscientists and behavioral psychologists know significantly more about the structure and function of the brains of 18- through 20-year-olds than they did 20 years ago.

Citing four experts, Judge Ullmann said he found that as a group, 18- to 20-year-olds are less able to control their impulses, more prone to risk-taking, and more susceptible to peer influence than those a couple of years older, because their brains are not fully developed."

 I can testify to that.  One of "cloistered brothers" once said, "I didn't mean to kill him.  I only meant to stab him."

This was from a young adult.  To me, that's proof that their reasoning ability hasn't developed fully.

Please pray for my "cloistered brothers."

Prosecutors Should Support Juvenile Justice Reform Legislation | HuffPost

huffingtonpost.com

2000 × 1000

The Hermitage

 

The hiking group was walking in the woods between Stall Brook School and St. Brendan's in Bellingham, MA.  Look what we found.  It's a perfect little house.  It looks like it has everything.  See the chimney on top and the stack of wood.  There's a sign in the window that identifies the house as a hermitage.  

The parking lot behind the church was lined with rosary beads.  It's hard to notice them because their color is dark brown, like the woods.  Here's the beginning. 

  And around the perimeter of the parking lot is 150 beads.  See.

Sacerdos Negativa

Via Negativa by Daniel Hornsby is a debut novel.  The title describes the major protagonist in the story, Father Dan.  Via negativa is a way of looking at God in terms of what He is not.  It is not the usual perception.  No one can get a handle on such a divine being.  Father Dan is not what you picture a priest, either.  He's kind of flaky and loosey-goosey.  IOW he's Sacerdos Negativa.

Father Dan has been retired, not his choice.  Hence, he's free.  He has always identified with the desert fathers, monks, and mysticism.  Now he has the time to experiment with asceticism with a twist.  He isn't going out to live in a cave, instead, he turns his car into a monk's cell.  This is his prayer mobile.

The book started out to be a comedy.  I laughed out loud at Father's Dan's antics.  He even picks up a coyote that was hit by a car.  He keeps it in a pet carrier, heavily sedated by feeding the coyote pills encased in spam.  Father Dan sets his leg and keeps the animal in the carrier for days, while he crosses the country.  

Tell me that's not ridiculous!  Father Dan names the coyote Bede.  Yes, named after Saint Bede, Venerable Bede, Doctor in the Church.  

Now think about it.  I think the coyote is Father Dan's alter ego. He is broken.  He isn't whole, not healthy.  The same is true of Father Dan.  The healthier Bede gets, so does Father Dan.  In the end, both are strong enough to leave their cells and go off and live.

Somewhere in the middle of the book, when Father Dan gets a gun, the laughs stop.  The comedy is dangerously close to tragedy.  Father Dan goes to kill a pedophile priest.  A runaway hides in Father Dan's trunk.  How's that look; a priest traveling with a young girl?  Father Dan's closest friend, Paul has died.  Finally, Bede bites Father Dan.

The story doesn't end there.  It actually has an "open-ended" ending.  Maybe there will be a sequel.  I hope it will be as entertaining as Via Negativa.