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Hiding Place

3/26/2016

As all my regular readers know, I have this hatred of tech because I am so bad at it. But I found an unexpected reason to love it. Now, when I am teaching, the minute a question arises I have no answer for, someone hits his/her iPad and finds the answer!
One cute one was this. I was teaching my students about God’s omnipresence and I thought of the old Gospel Song: There’s No Hiding Place Down Here. Immediately they found it on their computer and we could also listen to this old 1930’s song!

I am very manipulative, but I try to soften it a bit by telling my victim beforehand: “Now I am going to try to manipulate you.”
In my dialogue with Jesus I asked about this habit:

Ronda: Do you think it is good to do those cutsey manipulative things with people telling them I am manipulating them beforehand?

Jesus “seemed” to reply: It would be even holier to patiently await the unfolding of events, but as a bridge those jokes are better than petulant nagging with underlying rage.

Some new friends
who are very spiritual liked those “messages” from God from 2008
I entitled God Alone is Enough.

I put lots of paragraphs from them on this Blog a while ago. At the end of the printed version it says that if anyone wants to read some of these that started again in 2014 and are ongoing I would e-mail them.
Here are some you might like also, remembering that I am not claiming that these had to have come from Jesus, vs. from my unconscious, sub-conscience, or?????? I think always that they are better than anything I think so probably from a good supernatural source.

(Note: I don’t quite know what to make of the fact that Jesus seems to want to talk to me a lot in my own lingo except that He did that with others in the past in locutions, talking in their kind of language, such as regal language as in calling Himself her king when talking to Teresa of Avila, who lived in the time of kings.)

May 26, 2014
Ronda: I am reading about the horrible demonic temptations and physical sufferings of Blessed Angela of Foligno.

Jesus: Because of your physical and spiritual comparative frailties, I did not permit such temptations for you, but I have given you much mental pain, darkness and aridity to purify you. I am bringing you out of that period into a time of greater union and joy even as the pain of maternal anxiety for your daughters continues. Do not fear! Hour by hour, minute by minute, bring your thoughts and feelings to Me.

Ronda: Thank You for my so wonderful on campus Vietnamese sisters, and so wonderful Distance students lapping up the insights on obstacles to love that the Holy Spirit has given me throughout so many years. (These are in the book Way of Love). It is wonderful that they are bringing forth such good fruit.
Jesus: I have always told you that I wouldn’t have anyone to teach the truth if I had to rely only on saints!
Ronda: I see, in my heart, You smiling as you say this.
Jesus: Think of your dear mentor Dietrich Von Hildebrand and how he became much more holy in his last years and also Alice Von Hildebrand now, the same. Do you see that what I am giving you as words in the heart now, 6 years later than the ones you assembled as God Alone, are sweet and tender and less philosophical? That is because you are overflowing with philosophical insights, and what you need more are sweet and tender good thoughts to overcome your anxiety.

May 27, 2014
Ronda: I know that You are even more present in the chapel in the tabernacle, but somehow I resist going there and prefer my little room for prayer in spite of distractions.

Jesus: I want your room to be as close as possible to an “anchor hold” for you because when the seminarians come back (after the summer break) rarely will the chapel be just you and I. When you don’t have guests, I want you to be very, very, close to Me here in your room. I have given you this very small sign of a feeling in the center of your body. It is not a sensational sign like a stigmata or transpiercing, but it is so you can feel drawn inward since you are often much too outward. During your time of quiet prayer, after reading or giving Me your concerns, go into that place and say My holy name, quietly. I cannot give you My peace, as I so wish to do, if you are always excited or agitated by your works and dreams. These are good but they need to be transfused with My peace if you are to be purified and sanctified. Do not do or plan anything you don’t have to do until after Holy Mass and make this inward time truly the most desired part of your day. I will talk to you this way during your quiet time to woo you into this new rhythm.
Ronda: Yes. I surrender.

I thought for half a day that everything had come together and that I could launch forth into the future without anxiety.

Jesus: To be My bride is to be like Me both as I was on earth and now as I am in heaven. So, in your soul there must be the partaking of the pain in the hearts of all those you meet; sometimes hidden pain and, at the same time, small pieces of the joy you will one day have in heaven. Do you understand? These fluctuate in you moment by moment and are part of the cross of being more contemplative. I could take away the pain part, but then you would be less like Me, and ultimately much less the holy self you can become with My love expanding even more your heart. Peace is not the absence of pain as you wish it would be. Because you have such conflicts with some others, you want to avoid partaking of the many layers of pain in their hearts and souls, but you cannot become closer to these others without such mutual participation in each other’s pain.

May 22, 2014
Ronda:
A sort of a prayer on who I am:
Oh, dear Jesus, without You I am a co-dependent, rage-aholic, workaholic basket case indeed!
But with You, I was saved from young adult suicidal tendencies to become:
A Catholic, a wife and mother – maybe “C-“ in some ways but in others ways, eventually “B+”?,
A witness as a daily communicant,
A Catholic philosophy teacher – about “B+” but with innumerable students who loved me and benefitted greatly,
A Catholic writer – “A-“ in terms of popularizing Catholic philosophical and spiritual truth !
A Catholic speaker for parishes, conferences, TV and radio - A – maybe, judging by responses.
A Dedicated widow - “B+” in terms of following my own rule of life.
A good friend to many, many people You have sent to me.
A receptive client for the healing of me by many therapists and spiritual directors!
So, dear Jesus, why do I still feel so insecure?
I hear You tell me –

Jesus: “My sweet little Ronda. I love you so much. I let you feel insecure, so that you will the more rush into My arms for comfort and strength. I promise you that if you give me the time each day to come to you in My way, even if You don’t always feel My presence or understand, I will carry you over the rest of Your life into My home. Trust! Trust! Trust!

I woke up next morning with this thought: Of course, if everything revolves around my roles I feel insecure vs. in a more contemplative mode seeing my life more as being moved into the being of God!

May 23, 2014
Praying today while reading on and off the mystical writings of Bd. Angela of Foligno, it seemed to me that Jesus is telling me:
Jesus: “See how original and unusual Blessed Angela of Foligno was? Can’t you see that from your unusual background onward, your life has been unusual yet blessed? You are always imagining that you have to be like some ideal image of a contemplative nun. But I have made you something so different. I want you to be a very active but mystical personality in my Church. That has risks, but also pluses.
Yes, I want to modify certain extremes of a kind of restless, ditzy, as you would say, ADD type. Yes, I want peace for you in the depth of your soul, but meanwhile, you mustn’t chide yourself so painfully for being jumpy even during your prayer time.
You are correct in thinking that I want to squeeze from the last decades of your life even more writing, speaking, teaching and witness to others. But, simultaneously, at this time of summer with less obligatory work, I do want for you to come closer to Me, not just in quiet prayer time but all the day. With all this I want you to be joyfully, very joyfully, confident. Every time waves of anxiety course through your body, gently bring it to Me, offering it for your daughters in their present struggles.”

May 25, 2014
I read some Bd. Angela and took a nap. When I awoke I felt a deep intense inner sense of God.
Ronda: Jesus, I am so unsure. I do something full of spontaneity, but then wonder if it is just ego-mania or truly just manic.
Jesus: Because you are so analytic, as a philosophical thinker, you can take absolutely anything and see many different angles and judgments of it. This is a shadow side of the gift. I don’t want you to do that. I want to use your whole self with all its facets to build the kingdom of love. Do you see how this analytic side helped you write a friend to keep him from over-reacting about Pope Francis? It is good to pray to the Holy Spirit before doing anything but I will bring good out of it even if you do something that is not perfect. Just bring it to Me every time you have anxiety about it. You cannot have My peace, if you are always analyzing everything too much. Part of this is fear of being disliked so that when you go forth spontaneously you think that someone will judge you harshly. Now, let go of all of this and hide in My heart. See, I am taking you deeper within Me. Can you feel the difference? Instead of wondering if this admired person or that would question this, remember that you are not he and I go differently into him than I do into you. I want you to feel Me inside you so that you will stop obsessing about the future and just know that wherever you go or stay I am there.
Ronda: Yes! Yes! Yes! Jesus, I trust in You.
Jesus: Now, love and do as you will.

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Line Up

3/7/2016

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For new readers:
I don’t not say that for sure in the following dialogue with Jesus that this is Jesus speaking. It fits under the category of words in the heart which we are allowed to take seriously as from God unless there is something in them contrary to Catholic truth, or, if an “action item” not contrary to what our spiritual director or other trusted mentors think.

Ronda:
I am praying about this need to have everything lined up so much beforehand. I think it comes from anxiety that I may someday have nothing meaningful to do, and surely that comes from lack of trust that the meaning of life is to grow in love, which I can certainly “do” anywhere. Now, of course, I know that, but it is because I want to do something that uses my particular talents, not show love, say, by emptying bed pans in a convalescence home!

Jesus:
I am smiling. I will always use the talents I have given you, but maybe in different ways than the ones you are used to. Just as your twin can teach dance-movement to old folks in convalescence homes sometimes, you will always be able to explain truths to someone!

The residents were not unanimous in their appreciation of Dr. Chervin's tutorial talents.

Even as a post-graduate philosophy student, Ronda displayed a formidable charismatic zeal for expounding and explaining the Catholicity of Truth.

Ronda continues to support her twin sister's edifying ministry of geriatric ballet.

When I was living in California, many years ago, I met a wonderful charismatic TV interviewer, Carol Blair. Later, a few years back, when staying with my daughter, Diana, in California I connected up with Carol again. She was writing a biographical book called Faith for the Journey about the experience of being a widow with 6 boys. This book has now been published by Creation House . It would be a wonderful book for any widow to read, but also someone divorced raising children as a single parent, and also by anyone who is afraid of being a widow.

I am reading this terrific Daily Meditation book called My Daily Eucharist.
Today’s reading is from Blessed Fulton Sheen and runs like this:

“If the sunlight and moisture and chemicals of the earth could speak they would say to the plants:

‘Unless you eat me you shall not have life in you.’

If the plants and the herbs of the field could speak they would say to the animals:
‘Unless you eat me you shall not have life in you.’

If the animals and plants and chemicals of the universe could speak they would say to man:
‘Unless you eat me you shall not have life in you.’

So, too, the Son of God says to us that unless we receive of Him, we shall not have Divine life in us. The law of transformation holds sway, the lower is transformed into the higher; chemicals into plants, plants into animals, animals into man and man into God, without, however, man ever losing his personal identity.
Hence the word that is used for Communion is ‘to receive’ Our Lord, for literally we do receive the Divine life.”

Alex Gotay is a student of mine on line who went from being a Puerto Rican gang members in New York City, who converted and became a Catholic youth leader, wearing outrageous tattoos to attract the youth. Here is a link to a 10 minute video he uses to introduce himself before speaking dates to youth. It is spectacular. https://youtu.be/3kIdQm9JrUM

Confession Face to Face or behind the Screen?

My favorite confessor is a priest who celebrates many Extraordinary Form Masses and prefers confession behind a screen. It happened though that I asked him to hear my confession “on the wing”, not at a usual confession time here at the Seminary. So he heard my confession face to face. I was so touched by the sweet compassion in his face. I always feel, at such times, that the priest’s face mirrors the mercy of Jesus.

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Lenten Incentives

2/22/2016

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Advice from my spiritual director that everyone could benefit from for Lent:

Try embracing crosses of daily annoyances.

Pray before speaking to anyone.

Trust, listen, surrender.

After the Fall there is suffering. Because of Jesus on the Cross we have to embrace suffering. I should not fear the Cross.

Now in my elderly years, like St. Thomas Aquinas toward the end of his life, I need mystical prayer now, not more achievement.k here to edit.

Padre Pio:
To read about God is to pursue God.
To meditate God is to possess God.

A new friend of mine, Dave Dowd, wrote a book of poems called:
Love, Life, Family and the Boston Red Sox
He is a militant Pro-Lifer, and a lover of the Tridentine Mass, but also a long time Red Sox fan. So, since the book starts with the baseball poems, this could be an ideal book to give to someone you know who loves sports and who you would like to also understand the militant pro-life cause as well.

Here are some lines from different poems in the book to give you a taste:
The image of a book being “a little footprint on the beaches of life.”
Spiritual Directors are like buoys in the channel.
(When protesting evil such as abortion), intensity comes from giving ones all.
(From a poem called Urban Nightmares): “lovers hurled from promiscuous beds.”
(From Sons of Vikings): “We’re going for a sail even though the ship is sinking.”
Fallen Nature Love: Laughter Rises as Pitchforks.
“ If flight has failed…he buries his head in the sand.”
“Godless men of empty words; death’s dirge sing.”
“Particles from sin are slime on the soul.”
“And while man stumbles and falls, the devil collects rent.”
(From a Poem called Harvesting Voices of Hope - about Project Rachel) “She’s searched cemeteries for her lost soul. In her dreams she’d see her prancing sweet foal.”
“As teachers, not taught, pressed grapes with no wine.”
Goofy Boy from Boston:
“He did not know how well he wrote, He just tried …to write the right thing.”
“Reveals the warmth where hearts can play.”
(About Jesus) “Most of us run from His type of fame.”
“Sadness is a weak emotion; Joy’s a stronger better potion.”
“His Love never leaves, we’re the dumbos who do.”

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maddening MATTERS TRIVIAL

2/8/2016

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Even among strong magisterial Catholics
we can have conflicts about seemingly trivial matters. Trivial, that is, to the one who isn’t arguing about that matter. My latest was where one Catholic was insisting that priests should never plan to put a joke into the beginning of the homily and another was insisting that a little planned joke is good to lighten up the congregation.

Pondering the vehemence of this dispute, I got the sense that without passion we wouldn’t do anything…so even if we go overboard in arguing about small matters, perhaps that can’t be helped. Praying about this, Jesus seemed to tell me that we humans cannot encompass the overarching truth of the Trinity or the Church. If you are humble, you will appreciate what others see even when it doesn’t appeal to you.

Someone recommended to me a biography of St. Peter Canisius by James Broderick, S.J. St. Peter Canisius was a doctor of the Church, a Jesuit, who tried to re-evangelize Germany during the peak of the “successful” Lutheran Reformation. Here is a beautiful line from this book where another Jesuit wrote to St. Peter Canisius about his first Holy Mass:

“How condescending that (in the consecration) when the priest calls, Jesus comes.”
We think of our times in the Church as very conflicted and heavy. How about the time of Peter Canisius where he had to try to reach out to Catholics who had become Lutherans when 90% of the Catholic priests apparently had concubines!

I am reading a beautiful book of meditations called My Daily Eucharist , compiled and edited by Joan Carter McHugh.
Here is a sample page about the Eucharist of Padre Pio
“The Holy Mass of Padre Pio in the little chapel was his life, his calvary, his crucifixion, his paradise. It lasted about 3 hours. I would follow him with great attention and emotion in the various phases of the celebration. At the Memento for the Living, his meditation was deep, lengthy, interminable, and interrupted only by some painful sighs. He proceeded slowly in the painful ascent of his mystical calvary, and he arrived exhausted to his crucifixion. The moment of Consecration was the climax of his passion, it was the crucifixion with Jesus. As he pronounced the words of the Consecration, one noted on his pale and exhausted face, the signs of indescribable internal suffering, the horrible martyrdom of the tortured one on the cross.
He looked like Jesus Crucified." (written by Padre D’Apolito in a bio of Padre Pio)

We live in strange times…I was in a restaurant and I am hearing in the distance a Bach Brandenberg Concerto. I can’t imagine where this music is coming from. Well, it turned out to be background music for a TV ad for installing patios! Turn over in your grave, Bach?

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March for life week

1/26/2016

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Something good for the week of the March for Life:
Quoted in the Magnificat: Year of Mercy Meditations:

Mother of the 7 Maccabean Martyrs

“One, Severa Mukakinia, watched the Hutus butcher all 7 of her children. She’s been gang-raped so many times she’d lost count. She’d been left for dead, dumped in a local river.

But she didn’t die. She lived to discover that she was pregnant from one of the genocidal rapes. Many people counseled her to have an abortion…

But this woman came to the conclusion: ‘Why should the child suffer for the crime of its father?’ She decided to give birth to the child….

She named her baby daughter: Akimana: Child of God.

A wonderful quotation:
Don’t look down to see who it is by until the end. I bet you’ll be surprised:

“IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR US TO KNOW EACH OTHER EXCEPT AS WE MANIFEST OURSELVES IN DISTORTED SHADOWS TO THE EYES OF OTHERS. WE DO NOT EVEN KNOW OURSELVES; THEREFORE, WHY SHOULD WE JUDGE A NEIGHBOR? WHO KNOWS WHAT PAIN IS BEHIND VIRTUE AND WHAT FEAR BEHIND VICE?NO ONE, IN SHORT, KNOWS WHAT MAKES A MAN, AND ONLY GOD KNOWS HIS THOUGHTS, HIS JOYS, HIS BITTERNESSES, HIS AGONY, THE INJUSTICES COMMITTED AGAINST HIM AND THE INJUSTICES HE COMMITS. … GOD IS TOO INSCRUTABLE FOR OUR LITTLE UNDERSTANDING. AFTER SAD MEDITATION IT COMES TO ME THAT ALL THAT LIVES, WHETHER GOOD OR IN

ERROR, MOURNFUL OR JOYOUS, OBSCURE OR OF GILDED REPUTATION, PAINFUL OR HAPPY, IS ONLY A PROLOGUE TO LOVE BEYOND THE GRAVE, WHERE ALL IS UNDERSTOOD AND ALMOST ALL FORGIVEN.”
SENECA
(NOTE THIS NON-CHRISTIAN STOIC, DOESN’T SAY EVERYTHING IS FORGIVEN, EVEN UNREPENTED SIN.)

I was criticizing a priest in my head during a Mass in our larger area, for being so formal and unfriendly seeming during the celebration and humility. So, after the Mass there was a reception. The priest was greeting the people. Up close he is a tiny sweet old man, greeting us with such loving enthusiasm, each one.

I introduced myself as teaching at the seminary because I wanted to give him my book, published by Goodbooksmedia, LAST CALL, about Late Vocations. When he heard my name he said "Oh, you are she. I read your books." And he gave me such a smile.”

I felt bad about being so critical.

An absolutely beautiful quotation From Dostoevsky’s novel The Possessed:

“My immortality is necessary if only because God will not be guilty of injustice and extinguish altogether the flame of love for Him once enkindled in my heart. And what is more precious than love? Love is higher than existence, love is the crown of existence; and how is it possible that existence should not be under its dominance? If I have once loved Him and rejoiced in my love, is it possible that He should extinguish me and my joy and bring me to nothingness again? If there is a God, then I am immortal.”

A bad week!
I got into substantial arguments with 2 of my closest friends. As we worked toward reconciliation I came up with this funny way to put why I was hopeful: “Do we have enough money in the bank of our friendship to cover this unexpected expense?”

RECONCILED AT LAST, MY TWO ESTRANGED FRIENDS GLEEFULLY AGREED TO RESUME OUR ACCUSTOMED REGIMEN OF FRATERNAL JOVIALITY.

On a Catholic radio show, the interviewer asked me why I write books. My answer was simpler than I thought it would be: “I would say because I have gotten so much insight out of reading, I have a need to convey any idea I think is helpful to others beyond the circle of my immediate students.”

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Sound and Fury

1/12/2016

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This is a beautiful story from a book (Moscow Was My Parish) by an American priest stationed in Moscow in the 1950’s. He writes about the passing through Moscow of English, Irish, American and other priests and nuns who had been imprisoned by the Communists in North Korea but finally released. The Russian Communists arranged this release and had them come through Moscow on their way to their countries of origin. Here is how he describes an old priest who had been forbidden to say Mass for more than 2 years in the prison in North Korea but now could celebrate Mass at the author’s little chapel in Moscow:

“He got as far as the Gradual. Then he began to cry, his great shoulders shaken with sobs, and it took him almost an hour to finish. Afterward he said, “It was even greater than my first Mass.”

I always wondered why people at work, such as men mowing lawns, the teens in public places play such loud music on earphones. I had an experience last week that explained this in a positive way.

A friend who adores Rachmaninoff wanted me to hear his 3rd Piano Concerto while he was driving me from one place to another. He put it on high, high volume. At first I thought it too much but then suddenly it was as if nothing but this music existed. The volume shut out all other passing thoughts.

I got into a state of bliss. Afterwards I talked to him about how great music and other art is redemptive in the sense that it takes out of the many sounds around us or the many sights around us, what is most beautiful. In that way it is a foretaste of heaven.

I have been embroiled in a controversy involving a Catholic leader on the web who writes vitriolic damnation of priests and bishops for their complicity or negligence concerning certain terrible sins of Catholics.

I am trying to explain how zeal is good, but being a zealot is not; and, on the other side, how compassion for sinners is good, but not tolerance of the sin.

Dietrich Von Hildebrand wrote a fantastic book on this called Morality and Situation Ethics. He explains why self-righteousness is a sin of pride that cannot be excused just because the self-righteous one is correcting laxity. Both pride and sins of the flesh are evil. The Christian approach, instead, is to speak the truth with love, realizing always that “there but by the grace of God go I.” I have a summary of this book of some 7 pages that I use in class. If any reader is interested, I can e-mail it to you. Just write me at [email protected].

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A Week Away

1/4/2016

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Dear readers,
I spent Christmas week in North Carolina with the daughter, Carla, trying to deal with chemo pain and the family, and other guests.

Here are some highlights that might be of general interest:

Since I couldn't get Carla to agree to let me take her to Lourdes or Fatima or Guadalupe...I thought, heh, we have charismatic Guatamalan healers in the parish here, some of whom are friends of mine. She agreed to let them come to pray over her in her desperation.

They are a lovely, humble couple. She did feel some heat from the hands laid on, but did not feel any better, however she saw Mary in the face of the wife, and when the deacon husband prayed partly in Spanish, she, who doesn't know a word of Spanish not only understood what he said but actually prayed in Spanish with him, she says aloud, but I didn't hear anything!!!!

Then, the best was when thanking them for coming she said,
"IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT YOU ARE SO LOVING THAN IF I GET OR DON'T GET A HEALING!!!!"
Is that not holy?????

Some thoughts from my mentor, Marian Catechist Gary McCabe:

Every person breathing in the world at any moment is a little rainbow: the sign given to Noah that He would remember his Covenant by forgetting our sins.

What a Foolish God -- so full of paradoxes.

What a Silly Infant -- in need of our help to accomplish his Mission!

The “dragon” of Revelation always wants to devour the little baby Jesus who is growing the kingdom in our souls, families. This isn’t just at the end-time but it is always happening.

St. Augustine wrote that on the last day those who are justified will have been washed in the blood of the lamb and will be in white garments with Christ even larger, to form us all together into a Host offered to the Father. He will consume us and take us up. This is going on always in each Mass. We think we are consuming Him, but He is consuming us, that God will be all in all.

Some conflicts, of course, as in every family visit, Jesus seemed to tell me on the way back to the seminary where I teach:

“As you recall each scene of the visit be thankful for all the good and work toward forgiveness of others and yourself about what was not so good. Have as your framework that given the fallen nature of humanity it is absurd to dream that your children would be perfect, in any way you wish them to be, or that you could exempt them from suffering."

Here is a quote from Bonaventure:

"Life in this earthly exile is a sort of suburb of the heavenly kingdom. Every day savor in advance something of the eternal beatitude."

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Imparting a parting prayer

12/19/2015

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I loved the graphics our Jim Ridley put on the last blog with the contrast between the luminous peace of the nativity picture after the cartoon of wild crammed house guests!

May you, dear readers of my blog, have that luminous peace in contemplating the Word made Flesh no matter how much chaos is around you. Of course, there can be lots of love and joy with the family even amidst the chaos! Praise the Lord!

"Love and joy... even amidst the chaos."

When we leave places where we have a good “support system” even for a week on vacation, we sometimes feel anxious. I sometimes get the image that instead of going off alone, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, my guardian angel and all my favorite saints will be dancing me into the airport and in the place I am visiting!!!

Nativity by Brian Kershisnik

I happened to hear a eulogy where the priest talked about how this man had realized that it is not the destination but the journey that counts.

I was enraged. I thought, sarcastically, as if an Olympic star would be practicing in the local gym and then be told he/she wouldn't go to the Olympics because it was the journey not the destination that counted; as if a fiance would be told it would fine to just be engaged but never married!

I thought a more effective way of getting across to someone who was at the funeral and loved the eulogy would be to just say what I would like to have differently for my eulogy.

Here were my suggestions, for what it’s worth:

The priest would say:
“We all knew her egregious faults of which we were the daily victims, but we loved her anyhow because we saw how she struggled with them out of love for God and out of wanting to love us the way Jesus does.

“I know Ronda wouldn't want you to think that she went straight to heaven, but that, instead, she would want to hear that you prayed for her soul whenever you thought of her, that she would be purified in purgatory of her over-attachment to her own ways, fit to have a heart large enough to be ready for a heaven of beauty, truth, goodness and love with her Saviour.

Pondering the Year of mercy, I thought for mercy could be seeing not the bathos, but the pathos, in the hearts of others?

Some time back I told you about Ever Green a great novel by a friend of mine, Sandy Anderson, in Arizona. The book made Book Salon. Now I just finished reading her second novel The Last Hound which is a fictional application of how strong Catholics might try to evangelize lapsed Catholic sinners, in this case a same-sex attraction man.

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off on an ADVENT-ure

12/17/2015

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From book about William Pardow S.J. by Justine Ward:

"The complete singleness of outlook that is stamped by God in the eyes of the child as it comes straight from His hand, and gazes with fresh, unspoiled vision at a world which has not yet ruffled its still surface."

St. Therese of the Child Jesus

My daughter, Carla, who is suffering such pain probably from after-effects of heavy chemo therapy said when told that suffering is a mystery.
“No, suffering is not a mystery at all.
Due to original sin we ruined everything and what is a mystery is all the joy.”

Bl. Alexandrina da Costa

Ven. Marthe Robin

Bl. Chiara Badano

Chiara Corbella

St. Terese of the Child Jesus

Carla’s twin, Diana, gave me for Christmas Michael O’Brien’s Fr. Elijah in Jerusalem –What an antidote to our skittishness about the future of the world is his perpetual theme that we must just suffer in the heart of Jesus for the world and the Church.

I am off to visit Carla for Christmas for a week starting Dec. 19, and there will be 10 plus people in a small house, so I may not blog. If you are reading this now please pray that it may be a holy Christmas for all in every way.

And don't spend Christmas without Fr. Eckley Macklin's beautiful new book,
The Christmas Loaf.

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Old Dinosaur

12/9/2015

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Old Dinosaur moment: I hear that now in public schools they are no longer giving out books but only note pads with digital stuff on that the kid reads and then hands back! Grief! Hard and soft-cover books – my precious! Actually my first shock along these lines was going into some people’s houses in Los Angeles and finding no bookcases, only large screen TV.

Another old dinosaur moment was when someone convinced me I needed a Master credit card, not just a debit card. I balked when I found out that this requires an additional portion of the on-line bank statement vs. just one screen with debits deducted every time I used the card. I explained my chagrin this way:
10 year old little Ronda used to walk 4 blocks to the bank in NYC and deposit $5 which the cashier entered into a little book in pencil!
So I adapted to bank statements, then to long lines at the bank in LA during lunch hours, then to credit cards, then to ATM's, then to on-line records but with the money coming off the debit card automatically...
the idea at 78 years old of a new, slightly different system for Master Card where it comes up on a different icon on the web, still one more, concerning my precious little dollars ....oy veh!

However, I succumbed because this way my assistant can have a companion credit card and get stuff for me without my having to dole out cash. Since I don’t drive any more this is convenient.

Every Saturday morning I am driven by a pro-life priest to pray in front of the abortion clinic. On the way I was talking about my long search for utopian Catholic communities that take mavericks like me. The priest mentioned Madonna House in Canada as just the ticket.

We got to the clinic and there was a maverick student from our college singing in an operatic voice loudly at the end of each decade of the rosary, meanwhile holding 2 umbrellas over my head the head of another prayer warrior. The priest, who is 76 years old, refused the umbrella because he thinks of getting his head wet as a good penance. I suddenly said to the priest: "This is Madonna House! I don't need a de jure community at all!

The loving friends all around me, mostly mavericks, are the de facto community God has given me. Jesus seemed to smile and say "Did you think I was a square???"

Years ago I got a "locution" from Jesus seeming to say "I don't want you in a community. I want you to be free to go anywhere in the Church..."

Be sure to read the Cardinal Sarah of Africa book God or Nothing. It will give you great hope. He mentions that one of the Popes consider that God’s home is now Africa. I felt when I finished as if I had been wrapped into a cacoon called the heart of God in Africa.

True story I always think of on Thanksgiving Day: A man whose wife divorced him felt sad that he was alone on Thanksgiving so he fried a hamburger and molded into the shape of a turkey so he could say, when others asked what he did on Thanksgiving, that he had a nice turkey dinner. Sad!!!!

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