Joy

A couple weeks ago in our pastor's Sunday homily (or was it on All Saint's Day?), he quoted St. Catherine as saying something like, "our journey to Heaven is made up of a lot of little heavens." It is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' comment-quoted on these pages before-about how when we get to Heaven we will see our Heaven started on earth, and conversely, if we go to Hell we will see that our Hell started on earth.

Both are worthy of contemplation-especially in this month of November when we meditate on death with more urgency. While I guess we can not be presumptuous to say we are 'on the path to Heaven', we can look to see whether those things we will have and do in Heaven are present in our lives today-and this might give an indication on whether we should change directions....

Do we sing? (Read Revealation) Do we live or at least attempt to live in the presence of God? (How often, for example do we actually realize this fact throughout our day?) Do we live with joy-even, of course, in adversity?

I think this last tells us alot about ourselves. Can we be joyful even when we hate our job, or when our security around us is falling apart, or when the demands on our time seem to be overbearing? Can we see joy in all these things because we see them as opportunities to work for the salvation of our soul and the souls of our loved ones (or their deliverance from Purgatory?) We need to live with joy because our Redeemer lives!

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So the House goes to the Dems and the Senate?. In years past I would have been up to all hours to get the details of every race. George will commented last night that we may have a more conservative House as the Republicans who lost were mostly moderate and the Dems who replaced them more conservative.

Rick Santorum loses.... I remember being in PA for a Homeschool conference, (I was selling books) a few years ago. Boy, the Catholic pro-lifers were angry at Mr. Santorum for his active campaigning for Arlen Spector who was in a tough primary race against a PRO-Life Republican. Two years later, the sentiment among Catholic homeschoolers in PA hadn't much abated. The news this morning is that Catholics abandoned him for Casey. I have felt that this "betrayal" was the cornerstone of his defeat all along. (I am not sure Casey is as pro-life and pro-family as he is cracked up to be, or as his father was, but time will tell.) Santorum's support of the President on Iraq policies didn't help of course either.

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Is the Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo a good read? I know it is a classic, but is it any good? I am thinking of reading it as I work through Birth of the Modern.

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Got the cold water working on the washing machine on Saturday (thanks to a friend who had a spare input valve-who would have figured?). Now am working on redoing the drain field for the washer. (We have separated drain fields for the septic, kitchen water, and washing machine.) Also changed the oil in the cars on Saturday. It was the first time I have done it for two of the cars as they were "new" (if you can call cars made in the 80's new). Go figure that the oil pan plugs are stripped. Still managed to get one of them off. Will have to go back and work on the other one soon.

That's all for today from Bethany, the small holding in Bethune. Tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of my father's death.