Keep Up the Good Work

 If what you are doing is good and useful, don't worry about your after life.  What you will be after death depends on what you are trying to be in earthly life. 

Do your best each day.  As long as you try to learn what God is expecting from you, don't fear hell.  Pray to please God.

Yes or No

 Although I've been married to Ritchie for over 50 years, I've just realized that I've been married to a Thomist.  A Thomist is a follower of Thomas Aquinas.  Knowing Ritchie, I am positive he never heard of Thomas Aquinas.

"Does he play for the Montreal Canadians?"

You see, the man is incapable of giving a yes or no answer.  Yes and no are not in his vocabulary.  He just naturally doesn't answer a yes or no.  When the children were young, we used to try to get him to answer yes or no.

"Do you like this dinner?"

"I'm eating it, aren't I."

"Do you want coffee?"

"I'll get it myself."

This morning I heard someone say that Thomas Aquinas said:

Never affirm.

Never deny.

Always distinguish.

Ritchie does that naturally.  

Reasons

 There is a legend, (I don't think there's scriptural proof.) that the fight between the good angels and the bad, was over us--mankind. When Satan heard God's plan to have His Son become a human being, he objected.  Satan would not worship a Man.

Whether this is true or not, it is obvious that Satan hates us.  Since Satan hates God, then of course he would hate a mankind made in the image of God.  Also, Jesus became one of us, a man.  Aren't we blessed? And we're redeemed by Christ.  Jesus gave His life for us.

Finally, mankind, and not the angels, are heirs to the kingdom of God and eternal happiness.  What a blessing!  Too bad, Satan, you forfeited eternal happiness by your own free choice!  

My "cloistered brothers," would say, "If you can't do the time, don't commit the crime."

P.S. If Satan hates us, he absolutely loathes Mary, the Mother of God.  Makes sense, doesn't it?  She's the one who gave birth to Our Redeemer, Jesus.

Navy Hymn

 This morning, my prayer book called for the hymn Eternal Father, through your Word.  It was written in 1543.  I wondered how to sing it.  Here is the text:

Eternal Father, through your Word
You gave new life to Adam's race,
Transformed them into sons of light,
New creatures by your saving grace.

To you who stooped to sinful man
We render homage and all praise:
To Father, Son and Spirit blest
Whose gift to man is endless days.

None of my hymnals contained the hymn.  So I googled it.  I never did find it, but I found a similar hymn that brought me to tears.  This is the hymn that the orchestra on the Titanic played while the ship was sinking. They played this hymn in an effort to keep people from panicking.  Imagine them playing this knowing they were doomed.

Mysterion

 The apostles, and early Christians never used the word "mysticism."  Today, I hear it often.  Most of the time it is used by "New Age" people looking for a feel good emotion.  I'm defining mysticism as uniting oneself with Jesus.  

The aim is to unite yourself in prayer to Jesus.  This takes patience and perseverance.  

The Greeks called their pagan rituals of initiation, mysteries because they didn't tell anyone what the initiation rituals consisted of.  (Think of initiation rituals in college fraternities.) St. Paul in talking to the Greeks called God's plan, Mysterion, trying to connect familiarity to the Greeks.  St. Paul spoke of the joy of sharing the Christian life.  The Mysterion was God's Secret Plan.  (Ephesians 3: 8-11)

It is from the word Mysterion that the word "mystic" comes from.  "Mystic" led to "mysteries" because this type of prayerful union with God led to participation in God's Secret Plan.  (Think of the Mysteries of the Rosary.)

Hence, this was the aim of prayer for the apostles and early Christians--mysticism--to be united with Jesus in His contemplation of the Father.

Mysticism is the love of the praying person preparing for a deep union with Christ.  Reading about God is not the end.  Reading and the resulting knowledge won't change the prayerful person for the better.  It's the experience of being loved by God, that will change the person. Pray for this.

Frustration

I read "A Corner of the Veil" by Laurence Cosse with much frustration. The story begins with a religious order priest opening his mail.  One frequent writer was always sending him proofs of the existence of God. And the good priest patiently answered all the letters.  

One letter from the frequent writer left the priest trembling.  This time, again, the letter gave proof of God's existence.  However, this time the proof wasn't arithmetical, physical, esthetical, or astronomical.  It was irrefutable!  

But the reader isn't told what the proof is.

Whatever it was, left the priest trembling and the urge to prostrate himself on the floor.  He was joyous.  He needed to tell someone.  He called his friend and told him.  

We still don't know the proof.

The two men go to their superior.  He won't even look at the letter, but promises the priests that he will ask the advice of others.

The reader is getting frustrated.

Everyone who reads it hesitates to spread the proof due to speculation of the ramifications.  One civil authority quits his job and speaks of a mystical existence.  One of the priests becomes a hermit; another a monk.

What!  What is affecting everyone so dramatically?

The letter travels up the ecclesiastical ranks and shakes everyone.  But no wants to make it public.

Why?  What is this proof?

Finally, the letter makes it to the Vatican, not the pope, himself, don't be silly.  He's the Vicar of Christ.  One of the pope's secretaries, handles it.  And he decides to suppress it and extracts promises of secrecy from everyone.

We never know what the proof was.

The novel ends with the postscript:

What is a pontifical secret?

A piece of information the Holy Father must not learn under any circumstances.

                                                                            Vatican Chronicle, Summer 1995

 

A Humanitarian Crisis

 I want to call your attention to a humanitarian crisis that has been on-going for more years than I have been alive.  I'm talking about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  In 2020, Turkey and Azerbaijan together attacked Nagorno-Karabakh. The president of Turkey said that this is the fulfillment of the mission of our grandfathers in the Caucuses. That means genocide--to eradicate the presence of Armenians in the Caucasus.  

In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which was 95% Armenian, declared independence, and wanted to join Armenia.  From that day, there was a war between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. 

In 2020, COVID struck.  Everyone was preoccupied.  But this was the same scenario that happened during the genocide of Armenians in 1915. The world was preoccupied with WWI and the Ottoman Empire used the opportunity to commit genocide on Armenia.

During 2020, Turkey and Azerbaijan performed military exercises near Nagorno-Karabakh.  Then with the help of Turkish generals, Nagorno-Karabakh was attacked. Drones made in Turkey were used.  They even used phosphoric bombs which are prohibited internationally.  5000 to 6000 Armenian soldiers were killed.  Turkey and Azerbaijan took all the surrounding parts of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The war ended in 2020 with three partial agreements of ceasefire between Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.  The understanding was that there would be this corridor, Lachin Corridor, connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

But shortly after the ceasefire, purported envionmentalist blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road linking Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh.  Human rights groups say this blockade is creating a humanitarian crisis in the disputed region, leaving 120,000 ethnic Armenians living under siege, with no electricity, and with dwindling food and medicine.

Now, the Azerbaijani authorities prohibit even the International Red Cross to pass, which means that these people, living in Nagorno-Karabakh don't have electricity, gas, water, and little food.

What will happen to them?