My parish put up its creche. I brought my grandchildren to see it and say a prayer. They didn't want to. They were embarrassed because their friends might see them.
I was telling this to the Faith Formation Director and she said she knows. Children don't want to go to Church or Faith Formation Classes. It's not cool.
I don't know what to do to change the culture, help my grandchildren. Come Holy Spirit!
Louise Penny's novel, The Beautiful Mystery is very well researched. I gather that Louis Penny is not Catholic, yet her knowledge of monastic life and Dominicans adds great authenticity to her tale.
The monks are Gilbertines, an order that disappeared from sight around the 1300's. In the novel, their monastery is on an island in Canada--very isolated. They were very specialized in singing chants. To raise money, they released a CD. The monks got the money they needed. Also, however, came the fame, which they didn't want. This cause the monks to be divided. There were those who wanted to do more CDs and those that resisted. The conflict led to the murder of the choir director.
This is where Chief Inspector Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir, come in. They track down the murderer. Additionally, is the story line of Gamache's boss and Jean-Guy's drug addiction. The book actually ends with Jean-Guy abusing drugs--again and angry at Gamache. Now I know Jean-Guy eventually married Gamache's daughter, so Jean-Guy and Gamache must come together again, somehow. I've just got to get the next book. to find out. Louise Penny is clever, isn't she?
The murder mystery is interesting. I'm not a music person, myself. But since I've read this novel, I'm listening to Gregorian chant and trying to appreciate it. Appreciating chant would have given me a taste of the mystery's theme. If I loved chant, I would have understood the monks better. But murder? Well, music is said to tame the savage beast. Chant is said to be conversing with God.
A Dominican even enters the scene from 400 years ago. No, he's not 400 years old, but the Inquisition had been looking for the Gilbertines since they disappeared from sight. Their fame brought them to the attention of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (Inquisition). 400 years!! Now you know why the Dominicans are called "hounds of the Lord." But I don't think the Gilbertines need fear the Dominicans, this friar fell in love with their chant, as he helped solved the murder. He's the one who understood the ancient markings on the scroll, the murdered monk was clasping in his dying hands.
This novel had all the elements that I love: religion, murder in a monastery, monks, Dominicans, cops, and tension between employers and employees. And it leaves the characters hanging just enough for me to order the next book in the Gamache series.
Brother Wolf, is Eleanor Bourg Nicholson's second novel with Dominican Father Thomas Edmund Gilroy. I don't know why I started with the second novel, rather than the first, anymore than I know why I've put off reading them until now. Well, I do know; I'm a fool, that's why. I thought they'd be silly.
Mea culpa! Mea Culpa.
I loved it. I couldn't put it down. All day I rushed to get home to reading. I dreamt about it. I talked about it. Did I mention that I loved it?
It's an easy, fast read, probably because the reader wants to see what's ahead. It's a gothic novel, set around the turn of the 19th century. It has vampires, and werewolves, and romance, and gypsies, curses, demons, exorcists, and whatever else you want.
Athene is the young maiden who you will be rooting for. Her father is oppressive. Her mother is deceased. Her father is an ex-priest and joins the group of werewolf hunters to find and save the brother of one of the nuns. Yes, there are nuns, monks, friars, priests, brothers, professors, believers, and not...
Athene and everyone do battle against the forces of evil. And you know who wins. Light always overcomes darkness.
I'm hooked and I'm reading Nicholson's first novel and any sequels forth coming.
It is the worst. One of my "cloistered brothers" has died. It is shocking. People talked to him hours before he died. He did have a little stroke a few weeks ago and was on medicine.
It's so sad. He was fairly young and looking forward to this being his last Thanksgiving and Christmas, inside. We were all grief stricken.
We had Mass today, which was called our Thanksgiving Mass. Of course, Mass is a Thanksgiving, anyway, so we added prayers for Jorge.
It will take us a while to process this tragedy.
https://aleteia.org/2023/11/16/video-a-staggering-fortune-and-the-servants-odd-way-of-using-it/
I can't get the video, but you can by clicking on the link. I'm posting this take on Matt: 25:14-30 because I came across a different and unusual look at this parable.
The Master is a crook. Matt 25: 24
I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter...
Jesus is saying the Master is not an honest person. Also, the amount of money he gives to his servants is incomprehensible. Who does that!
Anyway, the servants, imitating their master, extort, or rob, or whatever, increase the amount of money their Master gave them and are praised for it. Because they are like their Master, dishonest.
The only honest man in the bunch is the accused lazy servant. He was given a certain amount of money and returned the exact amount he was given.
Imagine the activities of the first and second servants. They were praised because they were like their boss. But the third servant was prudent to a fault and he was punished for it. Since this parable is supposed to be about the parousia, perhaps the message is not to sit around waiting. We have to keep working for the Second Coming. What else could be the message?
There's a parable in Luke 15: 1-7, where Jesus goes after the lost sheep. I know that leaving 99 sheep just to go after ONE, is silly. But thinking that way is missing the point.
We expect God to forgive sinners, but going after us, searching for us, and then joyfully forgiving us, proves that He must truly love us.
A friend sent me an email asking me to watch this video. I consider it alarmist and smacks of a conspiracy theory. It's also familiar. You see this type of theory every time there's a tragedy. It's scapegoating, gaslighting, and unoriginal.
I first saw this type of intrigue when I was in college. We read about people who believed that President Roosevelt purposely put the entire naval fleet in Pearl Harbor to be bombed by the Japanese. He as Secretary of the Navy wanted new ships and Congress wouldn't vote the money. So when president, and he had news that the Japanese were rattling swords, he put the naval fleet in Pearl Habor. Budda Bing/Budda Bang! He got a brand new navy.
When you watch this video, you will see that the Israel Defense Force deliberately left the Gaza border open. Why? So Netanyahu would have an excuse to attack Gaza.
Get it?
Roosevelt=evil. Netanyahu=evil.
Do you believe it? As for me, I leave it all to God. He knows what's going on and He has a plan. Psalm 112: 7
Whatever. Here's the story.
My sister is ten years older than I. She always liked to color, even now. Aren’t we lucky that today adult coloring is considered a good stress reliever? She still colors.
But I’m thinking back a few years—as far back as the 1950’s. My sister and I are young. I could have been 5 or 6 and she is 15 and 16. It’s Christmas and we always received the usual pajamas and underwear, socks, and always a surprise, or two. Even though the pajamas, socks, and underwear weren’t a surprise, it was nice to see what new designs and colors they were. Another sure gift was a coloring book and a new box of crayons. My sister
Yes, coloring was and is fun, but the best part is yet to
come.
Our Christmas trees were always real. However, the Christmas
tree stand wasn’t a stand. It was a pail
with rocks in it. The trunk of the tree was
fitted securely into the middle of the rocks.
It was my job to water the tree to keep it fresh, by making sure the
pail always had water. My sister wrapped
Christmas paper around the pail to make it look like a present.
We decorated the tree nicely. We always had plenty of tinsel and we wrapped
angel hair around as many light bulbs that we could. I think we had the prettiest tree on the
street.
The best part is coming. My memory, one of my favorite
memories, is Christmas night.
We put on our new Christmas pajamas and socks. We got out our new coloring books and crayons
and paints. We shut off all the lights in the house, except the Christmas tree
lights. Then we flattened ourselves onto our tummies
and crawled under the Christmas tree.
And we colored.
There, under the tree lights, my sister and I, and no one
else in the whole wide world knew where we were or what we were doing. It was just us, doing our sisterly tradition.
It was magical.
The legend around the ring highlights a bishop who in a meeting with the leaders of the Tapirapé people, an autochthonous tribe in Brazil, was awed by their faith and resilience. He asked for their forgiveness for the way his people had treated their people. More important, he asked forgiveness for the church’s complicity in oppressing their people over the centuries.
The bishop removed his gold ring, the symbol of his liturgical office, and presented the ring to the leader of the community, saying something to the effect of “Though we cannot return all the gold we’ve plundered or restore all the lives we destroyed, we long to try to make things right. Take this ring as a symbol of my desire for what the church will be—no longer taking but giving.”
The Tapirapé chief accepted the ring and reciprocated the bishop’s gesture by removing his black tucum ring and giving it to the church leader as a symbol of their forgiveness and in celebration of their newfound solidarity.
From that moment onward, the bishop wore that tucum ring as the sign of his ecclesial office.
It is made from the fruit of the tucum palm tree in Brazil. Nowadays, people who are in sympathy with the poor in South American, wear the ring.
Today is Tuesday in the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time. The first morning reading is from the first book of Maccabees.
The Maccabees was the name of a family. They lived and were prominent in the city of Modein—a little north of Jerusalem. They kept to themselves being kosher in a time when the king and the people practiced pagan sacrifices. Their leader, Mattathias, couldn’t take any more of the pagan worship, and warred against the king and his followers. The reading quotes Mattathias:
Arrogance and scorn have now grown strong; it is a time of disaster and violent anger…
This quote fits Israel, today. Hamas was arrogant and scornful enough to attack Israel. Israel is defending itself causing much anger and disaster.
No matter the times, people don't change.
Louis de Wohl's Lay Siege to Heaven is historical saint fiction about St. Catherine of Siena. It's a fictional account of her life. All the stories, the bits and pieces that I've picked up, here and there, are pulled together quite nicely.
Catherine lived in a time of toxic political scheming and discord. Italy did not exist, at that time. The cities were like separate countries and always warring against each other. It wasn't even safe for the pope to live in Rome. During Catherine's time, the pope lived in Avignon, France.
Catherine felt called to live the life of a consecrated virgin. She did not enter the convent and it was a good thing she didn't. She would never have been free enough to do what she did.
She roamed here and there, to help people. She helped out in hospitals and visited prisons to bring the love and mercy to prisoners. She wrote letters to the various princes who wanted to war against other cities. Her letters to the pope helped convince him to return to Rome.
Somewhere she learned to read. The book says God taught her. But she wasn't schooled, yet she dictated letters. She wrote The Dialogue; God's conversations with her.
She received the stigmata, but requested that the visible signs of this gift, not be shown. She didn't want the publicity.
Many people read Louis de Wohl's books on different saints. Now, I can see why. The story is easy to read and very understandable.
The discussion with my "cloistered brothers" centered on Timothy Radcliffe's new book, Questioning God. This is Father Radcliffe's latest book. It is a discussion between two theologians: Timothy Radcliffe and Lukasz Popko. Both are Dominican priests.
We didn't get very far, because we were hung up with our own opinions. Radcliffe points out that the first words recorded that God speaks in Genesis is "Where are you?" (Genesis 3: 9) My brothers laughed at that because we humans are always crying out to God, "Where are You?" Even Jesus asks that very same question, (Mark 15: 34)
We decided that the questions weren't meant to ask for a location, but rather disposition. Both humans and Jesus on the cross, were asking for a feeling, or assurance, that God was present. Intellectually, we know that God is omnipresent but it takes a minute or so to have the presence of mind to trust God.
Jesus dying on the cross is the perfect example. He would have been resurrected, if He didn't die first. We must trust Him.
Where is God? He's waiting for us to prove our faith.
If you look at the procession of these friars, during the recitation of the Rosary, you'll notice that the cross is backwards. I understand that this is a Dominican tradition. Back in the day, when Bishops were the only ones allowed to preach, the Bishop's cross led processions. When the Bishop wasn't present, the cross was backwards.
Father John linked the Old Testament to the New, in this morning's homily. Today's homily was about Mary's visit to Elizabeth....
