A Writing Exercise

 The following is a writing exercise.  "Forgetfulness" is a poem by Billy Collins, our poet laureate from 2001-2003.  I enjoy Billy Collins' conversational style which leaves an aftertaste of thoughtful reflection.

Here I am trying to capture his conversational style, plus Collins' mood and pace.

Senior Moments

I went into this room to do something.

Something I needed urgently.

Something very important.

Something that has escaped me.

Perhaps I came here to get a book,

The title of which has run off,

Along with the author,

Accompanied with its subject.

Ah...my mind sometimes drifts

To other places and worlds

And rests anywhere, here and

There, or hither and yon.

Once I knew all the states' capitals,

Gettysburg Address, Nicene Creed,

John Milton's Paradise Lost,

No less.

Let me think; let me think.

I know I came here for a reason.

I have this feeling that it's

So very close...

Ah...Got it.

My reason hasn't retired with Billy Collins'

To the Southern Hemisphere.

I came into this room to find myself.

Incorruptibility

 News is awash with news about Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster's exhumed body. She died in 2019 and today her body shows no signs of decay.

She obviously is dead, but after four years, to look like this is unusual.  But is it a miracle?  What amazes me, is not her body, but her clothes--her habit.  They haven't decayed.

A World of Wonders

 Declare by Tim Powers is a new genre for me.  It's part fantasy novel, part thriller, spy story, and Catholic apologetic.  The author blends everything together, even I could follow the plot.

The name comes from the spy operation, following WWII.  The reader won't learn that until the last third of the book, because the background of the major character has to be established.

Andrew Hale is born without a father.  Gossip has it that his father was a rogue priest. His mother and grandfather raise him in England.  From an early age, he is groomed to be a spy. His godfather is some honcho in England's Secret Intelligence Service.

Andrew graduates from college and is teaching at Oxford, when he is yanked from the classroom into government service. He has to pretend he's a communist.  This is before WWII.  He is working in Paris with a French communist, Elena Ceniza-Bendiga.  They fall in love but can't do anything about it due to the politics of the time and their duties.  

The famous double agent, Kim Philby, is a character in Declare.  In fact, he will be Andrew's boss.  I'll tell you one spoiler: Philby and Hale are brothers, but neither one will learn this until the last chapters.

There are many supernatural elements, mixed in with Biblical symbolism and Catholicism. Philby is after a plant that offers immortality.  Hale is protected numerous times by an ankh (type of cross), that he wears. Philby, being a Russian spy, is being used by the British, or is he? By now, it's after WWII and Hale and Philby are trying to destroy the djinn that live on Mt. Ararat.

Confusing?  It's fantasy.  Elena pops in, here and there.  Elena and Andrew get together in the end and probably get married in the church, since both of them have become unabashedly pious Catholics.

Florida and Dios

 Since I'm in prison ministry, a friend gave me the book, Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda, to read.  It's about two inmates.  the beginning is inside a women's prison.  Florence and Diosmary are two inmates.  Their prison names are Florida and Dios. 

Isn't funny how prison gives people nicknames?  It's like their baptismal names aren't acceptable in prisons.  Maybe because it would be a reminder of whom they were meant to be.

Their life inside was more brutal than my experience.  Fights aren't common in my medium security prison and no deaths from violence, since I've been there.  Maybe convicts that attend church services are nicer.

Anyway, Florida and Dios are released.  They are on parole.  I thought it was odd that they weren't wearing ankle bracelets.  Florida hops on a bus and Dios follows her.  In fact, Dios literally is following Florida.  Florida can't shake her.  

While on the bus, Dios brutally murders a man she recognizes as a prison guard.  Since Florida is on the same bus, she knows she's implicated.

Florida, though, almost kills a man who befriended them and brought them to his camp.  Everyone got drunk, but she beat him mercilessly.  

Florida went home and Dios kills her mother.  In the end, Florida shoots Dios.  A detective kills Florida.  The detective has her own demons.  Her ex-husband abused her and she's always looking over her shoulder for him.

The novel begins with a mural depicting Dios and Florida.  Florida is running from Dios but kills her.  The mural seems to be alive.  The novel also ends with this mural.

On the whole, I found the story had too much violence for my taste.

Plans Gone Arway

 God's sense of humor is sometimes at my expense.  My plans today included a walk to the library.  Since it's cloudy, I checked the weather forecast.  Rain was not predicted for a couple of hours.  I had plenty of time.

On my walk, I passed by a bird bath.  There was no water in it, yet a little swallow was sitting on its edge.  I thought, not prayed-really, just thought that we could use a little rain.  The second that thought left my brain, rain poured down. Immediately, I thought, Lord, when I request serious needs, You ignore me.  But a thought to You, not even a prayer of petition, and You fulfill it!  Very funny.

I weighed my options: I could continue my walk and get to the library, drenched; I could duck into the church, which was nearby.  I thought the rain may be God's way of getting me into the church, so I went in.

I was on my way to sit in front of the Tabernacle, when I heard my name called.  Two ladies I casually know, were calling me.  They volunteer for St. Vincent de Paul and were working.  By the time, we finished our talk, it had stopped raining. 

It was a short shower.  I never made it to the Tabernacle.

At the library, a good friend, whom I haven't seen in quite a while, called me over.  

My plans never included getting wet.  On the other hand, my plans didn't include the blessings of friends.  

Thanks be to God.

The Eighth Day

 Remember the Beatles had a song called "Eight Days a Week?"   

Paul McCartney said the title comes from a chauffeur's response to "How's it going?"  He said, "Working hard, eight days a week."

The original meaning is different.  The Old Testament tells us that God created the world in seven days.  Since Jesus has come; it is a new time.  Sometimes, you will hear Sunday, referred to as the eighth day of the week. 

Sunday is called by some, the first day of week.  Other people call it the eighth day of the week because it is the eighth day of the new creation.  In fact, it is an ongoing eighth day, until the end time.  (Think of the 8 sign for infinity.)  The eighth day is still happening.  

I can see how the Beatles' song and the infinity symbol are related.  They both mean "I love you forever."  That certainly applies to Jesus' coming.  Both times.

Argonauta’s Picks for 2024-25

The Argonauta Book club met and chose the books we want to read.

Month                            Book                                        Author

September                Still Life                                    Louise Penny

October                    Rules to Live by                        Barbara Walters

November                People of the Book                    Geraldine Brooks

December                Remarkable Creatures                Sherry Van Pelt

January                    The Sunflower                            Simon Wiesenthal

February                   The Heaven & Earth Store        James McBride

March                        As Goes A River                       Sherry Read

April                        Demon Copperhead                    Barbara Kingslover

May                         Things I Wish I Told Mother      Patterson

June                          The Bee Sting                            Paul Murray

Titles and Author most likely are a bit askew.  I didn't check any of these.  This is off the top of my head.  I think you can figure them out.

We have been meeting for a long time.  Some of us think it might have been since the 1980's.  We've lost some people and we brought in some new, but a few years ago, we decided to not accept new people.  We're set.  Others wouldn't understand.

Pat's Poem

 My fellow scribbler wrote this:

The internet--what a great thing
--but if you're not careful--
   it can sting!

Looking for love, come my son,
  come my daughter.
As scripture says--come like an
   ox to the slaughter.

You may be old and I young--
   doesn't not matter
Said with forked tongue.

The thing is--you and I
   have naught.  
With your money, I
   can be bought.

Of course I could never
   tell you this--
it would destroy
  all chances of bliss.

You are like a fish
   not seeing the hook in the bait
Until you are devastated
   and it is too late.

                      My friend, Pat.

Playing Ball

 There was a video on Facebook of a dog on a balcony, on the second floor.  He would drop a ball, and sometimes people would pick it up and throw it back to him.  He'd drop it again and it was thrown back.  Facebook

Would you throw it back?  Are you the type of person to play with a dog?

Maybe I would.  It depended upon whether or not I was focused in conversation with someone.  Maybe I wouldn't notice a ball dropping down, unless it hit me on the head.

This got me thinking of the many times, playing with a ball involved others.  When my family lived in the city, we lived across the street from a school.  A couple of times the school's playground ball landed in my neighbor's yard.  You know; one of the big red balls.  When the neighbor came home from work, he picked it up and kept it.  Eventually, he gave it to my kids.  I don't know why he didn't throw it back.  Maybe he was waiting for the school kids to come ask him for it.  Maybe the kids weren't allowed to cross the street.  Anyway, we ended up with the ball.

Another time, I was visiting a "cloistered brother," in the Trenton, New Jersey prison.  I heard stories that once in a while a ball would come sailing over the wall and an inmate would throw it back over the wall.  A game of catch was played.

Lastly, is where I currently live.  When we first moved here, the neighbor behind us had one of those tall stockade fences. When the kids played wiffle ball, once in a while the ball would be hit hard and went over the neighbor's fence.  He kept the ball!  We even heard him yell, "What! Are you doing it on purpose???!!"

Actually, the kids called his fence, The Green Monster.

Canadian Surete

 If you read Louise Penny's books, you have this on your refrigerator.

Women Have Influence

 People unfamiliar with the Bible think women have no say, no influence.  If so, they need to read, The Women of the Bible Speak, by Shannon Bream.  Shannon Bream from Fox News relates the stories of sixteen women.  She picks two women's stories and compares them: 

Sarah and Hagar
Rachel and Leah
Tamar and Ruth
Deborah and Jael
Hannah and Miriam
Esther and Rahab
Mary and Martha
Holy Mary and Mary of Magdala

I didn't do this, but I would recommend that this book would make an excellent Bible study.  The scriptures compared to Bream's analysis would make lively discussions, not that Bream says contrary views, on the contrary, she highlights what a reader wouldn't notice.  The stories show how God's plans for our lives work, and that's not how we would think.  

The Jubilee Year

 What is a jubilee?

It's a celebration. It's an old English term (Anglo-French) jubilé  from Latin Jubilaeus, modification of the Greek iōbēlaios, from Hebrew yōbhēl ram's horn.

Of course, Catholicism follows the worship services of the Jews, after all, Jesus was Jewish. Jubilees come from Jewish traditions.  Leviticus 25:9, defines Jubilee as a sabbatical year after seven cycles of seven years--approx. every 50 years.

It was a real celebration, because people were free from bondage--all types.  Debts were forgiven (Leviticus 25: 23-38.  All prisoners (my "cloistered brothers" would be free!), all slaves were released, and all property would be returned to its original owners.  Plus, the land was not worked for a year.  Land and people rested.

I don't know how the Jews celebrate the Jubilee, today.  However, Catholics celebrate a Jubilee, every 25 years.  There is one in 2025.  Traditionally, the pope will open five doors that have been locked since the last Jubilee. The doors will be opened by the pope at the beginning of the jubilee, December 24, 2024 and locked back up on January 6, 2026.  This year, one of the doors to be unlocked will be a prison!  Oh, how I wish, my "cloistered brothers" could be freed, as the original law in Leviticus stated.

Pilgrimages to those churches will be many and local parishes' doors will emulate the tradition. I am sure everything will be carried out, with as much solemnity as is possible.  

Pope Francis before the holy door of St. Peter's Basilica during the convocation of the Jubilee of Mercy, April 11 (photo: L'Osservatore Romano)

ELISE HARRIS/CNA/EWTN NEWS NewsNovember 2, 2015

Thought Experiment

 What if Jesus loved you just as much as you love Him?