Whats going on

We slaughtered, dressed and ate the first 2 chickens from our current flock on Thursday evening. The chickens being young made a world of difference in the tenderness. Number 3 son caught the chickens. I broke their necks. All the boys plucked And I dressed it. Mrs. Curley cooked it.

Picked our first crop of turnips and turnip greens on Thursday also. I don't know if it is because Mrs. Curley forgot they were on the stove and boiled them much longer than usual, or if there is another reason, but these were good. I usually can barely tolerate them.

Friday night we went to the premiere of The Spirit of Freedom. It was an extremely well-done and a very professional presentation. It did unsettle one a bit to see your own children playing dead or being killed on screen. But since they were with us in the arts center, you knew it was okay.

Saturday morning flea market: after the price of the table, gas, and two cups of coffee, we probably cleared $11.15-but we got rid of a whole lot of junk. Disappointing? Yes. but now we know.

Finally, Mr. Culbreath is back with some great news!

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us .... Oremus pro invicem!

Please pardon this short interuption ...

for an announcement about ... Comments

As a reminder, I don't allow comments per se, but you can email me via the link above my name. I will respond and may refer to it or publish it in a subsequent post.

If you do email me, make sure you use subject line in the email which either mentions the blog or the particular entry. (If you the subject line says anything about replica watches or certain medical products, you can be sure I won't read it.) Somehow spammers have identified this email address, and I am getting a little spam-sure to grow. Some of the spam comes under a blank subject line.

Thanks. Now back to the regular programming already in progress.

Whats going on ...

Rain! Looks like we got some last night. And it is drizzling a bit today. We are supposed to slaughter a couple chickens today for dinner tonight. Can't believe I am saying this (cause we need the rain so badly), but I hope the rain stops for a while so we can pluck the chicken in dry weather. (Pic is my youngest with one of the future dinners taken a month or so ago.)

Plan on picking the first batch of turnips and turnip greens today also. Maybe we will have a totally homegrown dinner!!!

We have rented a table at the Camden Flea Market for Saturday. For a $10 investment (cheaper than an ad in the paper for a yard sale) I think it will be more successful than our past yard sales. Mostly we have junk-but that always seems to sell the best. And I will try to sell my walking sticks and our wreaths again-but I am not too hopeful. But it should be a fun day regardless.

Finally, my next installment of "The Ways of God" - for fathers is almost done. I would look for it tomorrow.

Oremus pro invicem!

The Yoke of our Lord

I was looking through some notes the other day from years back and found some commentary on this:

Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light. - Matt 11: 29-30

There are so many agrarian references in Holy Scripture because it was an agrarian society. This isn't true for most of us today, so sometimes the full meaning of the reference slips by us-as was the case for me on this passage.

I think we all know what a yoke is: it is a shaped wooden beam with means to bind or attach to the head of oxen (or horses). The purpose of the yoke is to direct the oxen in their field tasks. A beast in a yoke can not go their own way; their direction is controlled by their master

When Christ calls us to take up His yoke, I always viewed it as a cross, made "light" by Christ's help. But this forgets the purpose of a yoke-which is not of a burden, but of direction.

Christ's yoke is more of our willingness to be directed by Him-by the will of God. Taking on Christ's yoke is conforming our will to God's-opening ourselves to His action in our life; not going our own way, but being guided by His will. This is why the yoke is sweet and the burden light-because we are walking under God's direction, according to His will.

Another way to view all this may be what Fr. Lee Selzer (may his soul rest in peace) once told me (speaking of each of us): "My life is not about me; my life is about Christ."

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

All Saints Day in review and a request

Here is a group ensemble picture from our All Saints Day party a couple weeks ago.

Please pray for a gentleman in our parish and also a great friend of mine who had a heart attack two days ago. Procedures have been done and recovery is in the works, but at 81, every prayer helps.

Oremus pro invicem!

Funny Farm

Several weeks ago Mrs. Curley borrowed the movie "Funny Farm" from the library. It is a Chevy Chase movie from the '80's. We are not big fans of his, but Mrs. Curley thought the plot had potential. (Viewer caution: a couple instances of crude language and implied sexulity, however within the the context of marriage.)

As we watched the previews of "upcoming" attractions, which included every stupid comedy made in 1988-9, I looked at Mrs. Curley and asked here if she really wanted to watch this. We decided to give it a try-after all, it was already 2 weeks overdue at the library.

It turned out to be very funny (at least for us) throughout-except a 10 minute really dead spell about 3/4's of the way through.

It may not strike the funny bone of everyone-but for Mrs. Curley and I, it was personal. Here's the deal. This couple decides to leave the city and buy a farm in the country. They buy a dog who eats their ducks and then runs off. (Our dog ate the chickens and ran off.)

Every time something goes wrong, husband talks about "the early settlers" and wife replies that the early settlers only lived to be 29. (Everytime we hit a setback here, I told Mrs. Curley that 100 years ago they didn't have .... and she would reply that this was why people didn't live as long 100 years ago.)

For us, it was hilarious. Several times we had to rewind to hear what we missed while laughing.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us ... Oremus pro invicem!

Conference Call

As mentioned in my last post yesterday, Senator Brownback was to have conference call with SC supporters to explain his endorsement of John McCain yesterday. I did participate (at least by listening in) on the the call.

I won't record all the details, just my impressions.

Senator Brownback impressed me with his grasp and committment to life issues. For example, he understood that the time to pass a marriage amendment was when this first became an issue a couple years ago: then there was a public will and momentum (just as the best chance to pass a human life amendment was in 1973). If you don't act right away, people get used to the idea. Then it takes 20-30 years for people to see the consequences of these things. He understood these things well. (He commented we are now beginning to win the abortion issue, but are losing the marriage issue.)

Senator Brownback understood that there are problems with Senator McCain's positions on stem cell research and the marriage amendment, (and this is where I part company with Senator Brownback) but that he endorsed him as the most pro-life candidate who was electable. (This is essentially what NRLC said about Senator Thompson yesterday in their endorsement.)

Other topics and candidates were addressed, but I will leave my comments here. I'm glad I listened in.

Oremus pro invicem!

Politics

This subject has been on my list to blog about since the news last week. Reports from yesterday have moved it up on the list.

Today's (reported) National Right to Life (NRL) endorsement of Fred Thompson is one more sign that a fully pro-life president is a long way off, and maybe never achievable. Every one is a pragmatist it seems.

Let's take a look: Last week Sen. Brownback endorsed Sen. John McCain. Brownback was supposed to be the pro-life champion in the race. Yet 8 years ago NRL wouldn't endorse McCain because of suspect pro-life credentials, and these credentials have suffered since then: he supports embrionic stem cell research. (There is a conference call today for SC supporters of Sen. Brownback where he will explain his endorsement. If at all possible, I hope to be in "attendence".

Then Pat Robertson endorses Rudy Guiliani! Unthinkable. (No more comment necessary.)

Now, just a week after Fred Thompson proclaims that he doesn't think abortion should be made illegal, NRL endorses him.

Yet there are still at least 2 bonafide pro-life candidates in the Republican field. (Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee).

This isn't the general election where you might need to settle for the lesser of two evils. This is before the primaries have even started.

I think these endorsers are afraid that if they back a loser they will become irrelevant; they don't want to test their influence or power.

Yet, in my book, they become irrelevant when they fail to endorse based on principle-especially NRL.

Oremus pro invicem!

November 13th

Today is the feast of St. Stanislaus Koska (on the traditional Roman calendar). St. Stanislaus Koska is also my father's name saint, and this is the day Dad was buried. So we do celebrate this day here at Bethany.

It's always been a mystery to us why my Irish father was named after a Polish saint. Some say the Doctor delivering him influenced the decision. We just don't know.

I couldn't find a picture of St. Stanilaus on the internet, and I am too lazy to go get the icon we have downstairs and scan it in. But if you want to know more about him, the best source is always theThe Catholic Encyclopedia. Read the article on St. Stanislaus Koska here.

St. Stanislaus Koska - Pray for us!
Our Lady of Joyful Hope-Pray for us!
Oremus pro invicem!

The Spirit of Freedom

I think I mentioned some weeks ago (here) that our kids and their friends were making a Revolutionary War movie-partially near and on our property. Some of it was filmed at Andrew Jackson State Park outside of Lancaster, SC. The "premiere" is Friday night. The local paper in Rock Hill (where the director lives) carried a story on it yesterday. Here's a piece:

Recent Hollywood productions filmed in and around Rock Hill the past few years ... are all still waiting to be released in theaters. But (Zac) Brakefield, an 11th-grade Rock Hill homeschooled student, will debut the 30-minute feature film he wrote and directed Friday night at the Center for the Arts in downtown Rock Hill.

"The Spirit of Freedom" is a fictional tale set during the Revolutionary War, starring Zac and 22 other youths and adults from Rock Hill, Lancaster and other parts of South Carolina. All of the scenes were filmed in Rock Hill, at Andrew Jackson State Park and in the Kershaw County town of Bethune.

The story is focused on a small South Carolina town during the Revolutionary War. When British forces descend upon the colonial village, its citizens are faced with a choice: pack up and flee or stand strong to fight the enemy.

Read the whole thing here (you may have to register. I didn't have to register the first time, but the second time I looked for the story I had to register.)

Oremus pro invicem!

Heaven & Marriage

Sunday morning at Mass, Father John explained why there is no marriage in Heaven. There are two purposes to marriage: procreative and unitive. In Heaven, we are more intimately united to God and each other than we ever could have been on earth in a marriage, AND there is no longer any need for more procreation. For some reason I never thought of this before. Now it makes sense. (A piece on Catholic Exchange this morning makes the same point.)

************

This week: another busy one as usual. Of course I need to sell some books. We also have to start slaughtering chickens this week. We can't do them all in one day and freeze them because this is the week Mrs. Curley usually gets a bunch of turkeys on sale at the grocery store and stocks the freezer. So we will slaughter and eat; slaughter and eat, one day at a time.

Next year I think we may try to raise a couple turkeys so we can have our own.

Price of milk is so high we are thinking of getting goats. Now this won't actually save us any money, but at least we will spending our money in different places (i.e. the feed store instead of the cheapest grocery store.)

Military Chaplains

In this week's Catholic Miscellany (diocese of Chas. weekly) there was short piece on a documentary being produced "examining church and state tensions at the heart of the chaplaincy". I really don't know what this means exactly, but my point in bringing this up is that one of the chaplains featured is Fr. Gary Linsky who started the Men's Prayer Group at St. Joseph's in Columbia some 11 or so years ago. He was a newly ordained priest who is now an Air Force Chaplain.

From the documentary's website a journalist has traveled with Fr. Linsky to a FOB in Afghanistan via Black Hawk:

There, in the center, Sergeant Robinson set up a table for the altar and two rows of chairs. Seven soldiers showed up and the chaplain took off his army shirt and slipped on his priestly garb – a white alb that covered him almost to his boots with a stole around his neck, a cross sewn at its center point. Linsky kissed the cross then lifted the stole over his head and settled it around his neck. In middle of nowhere, with a congregation of seven people who were thousands of miles away from their homes, Linksy intoned chants and the hymns as though he were in a cathedral.

What a picture this paints. God bless our chaplains. (This reminds me to look into the Chaplain's museum at Fort Jackson in Columbia as a possible field trip for the altar boys....)

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

Boxes

Last week and before I detailed my progress on a rosary box I was making as a gift. I am quite proud of it (at the same time trying to remember that our successes are God's and our failures our own). It may be the best box I have ever made. So here are some pictures. (Unfortunately, I am better at making boxes than at taking pictures.)

The top and keys are cherry. The sides are maple. A miraculous medal is inset into the the front of the box, and a Franciscan crucifix is inset into the top.


Then there is a picture of me working on the box. I was clearing out the mortises for the hinges with number 2 son looking on, when our new kitten decided to take her resting place on my shoulders. She sat there until I got up.

Final picture is the music/trinket box I made for my daughter last Christmas. The wood is poplar with the "T" inlaid (and the keys) in Philippine mahogany.

So, there you go.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

In Memoriam

Today is the 8th anniversary of my father's passing from this world to the next. He was a good man and a good father. It is ironic, because his own father died when he was an infant. Yet he seem to have an instinct for fatherhood.

My Dad didn't marry my Mom until he was 37, but then together, they had 12 children.


In the book of Sirach, I believe, it says that a father's actions and examples affect 3 generations or more. Thus it is safe to say that my Dad (along with my Mom-they were definitely a team) is responsible for the faith of my children. It is the greatest gift they gave me.


DEUS, qui nos patrem et matrem honorare praecepisti: miserere clementer animae patris mei eiusque peccata dimitte : meque eum in aeternae claritatis gaudio fac videre. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

[O God, who hast commanded us to honor our father and mother: in Thy mercy have pity on the soul of my father and forgive him his trespasses; and make me to see him again in the joy of everlasting brightness. Amen.]

**************

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen. — Eternal rest grant to them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

First the business ...

The old website (http://www.requiempress.com/) and email addresses are finally back this morning. My new website has gone into hibernation until such time as it is needed again. While I lost of few days of valuable time, I did learn several things, both abstract and practical. - God's will be done!

I thank everyone for their patience. I am going to leave this notice on top for at least today. New posts will appear below.

Another deer

I hit a deer last night on the way home from CCD. I was on my street about 5 or 6 miles from home. There are no street lights, but the road is 55 mph. When I spotted them, two deer were about 80% and 90% across the street. The third deer hadn't started to cross yet.

I slowed as quickly as I could, but the 3rd deer was determined to get across even through my car. It ran into my front quarter just behind the headlight and then we hit it or ran over part of it towards the back end.

After stopping and acertaining everyone was okay (one son bumped his head on the window) we turned around to look for the deer. There was a pool of blood, but no deer either in the road or on the side. Maybe it went into the woods to die.

There is some damage. I don't know how major the damage is yet, but later today I will get underneath and see. The front driver's wheel is extremely close to the wheel well and I hear a clinking when I drive it. Plus the front quarter and driver's door is dented.

Thanks be to God everyone is okay!

As you may recall, Mrs. Curley hit a deer 3 years ago. That one totaled our mini-van (at least temporarily). Last night I was driving a mini-van. Maybe they are deer magnets.

Talking about Touching

Of course this is the "safety program" used by many dioceses including the archdiocese of Boston to satisfy the insurance companies and the secular media that they are "doing something" about sexual abuse by priests.

Here is what a mother told me was contained in the first grade program this year:

But the material she (the teacher) is supposed to cover is so graphic and alarming that I couldn't be at peace knowing what the intended lesson was. They had an uncle attempting to undress along with his nephew and you can guess his intentions, a child who comes into school beat up by her mother, and a little girl who is fondled by a friends big brother. It's almost like by presenting these scenarios to kids of this age they are almost inflicting abuse.

And here is the immediate result:

I have been approached by a few parents whose children have had backlash from the program, such as one little girl whose Mom didn't know about TAT and had two little boys pull down her pants shortly after having the class.

Judge for yourself. I don't believe I even have to comment.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

Our words

From this morning's prayer:

The one who speaks is to deliver God's message. - 1 Peter 4: 11

or it is rendered in another tranlation:

If any man speak, let him speak, as the words of God. - 1 Peter 4:11

It reminded me of something St. Paul writes:

...but be ye filled with the holy Spirit, Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father - Ephesians 5:18-20

Seems there is a trend here. It's not just that we speak charitably and without malice, it is that we speak (and write) praising God and in the words of the psalms-to each other! This is really not part of our culture. It seems it was the culture of the early Christians. How do we make it part of ours?

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

So far so good ....

Update: More progress-I have figured everything out, and now just need to finish implementation. There are a few books ready to purchase by paypal. The rest should be up by tomorrow noon.

The new website is in progress. You can view it by clicking here . The Requiem Press links on my side bar now direct you to the new site. And I have a gmail account now-so you can email me now by clicking the "email me" link above the "About Me" box.

Paypal isn't up yet on the new site, so you can't buy books yet-but hopefully I will have that resolved "soon".

Moving forward ... I know my old site will be back as soon as I complete this one!!!!

Oremus pro invicem!

Saving RP, or getting back in business

Update: It's not only me. I came across this site this morning. They claim over 200,000 websites are down and wonder why the mainstream media has no stories on it.

I don't mean to keep harping on this website and email thing-but they're still down and no real time-frame to the fix. First it was "3-4 hours"; then it was "shortly"; last evening it was: "I can't tell you how long, but it will be soon." (Is "soon" more or less time than "shortly"?)

I am not sure how all these things work, but I got my domain name and website/email from a webhosting company. Apparently many, many webhosting companies get something from this larger company (Navisite) -I am not sure of the connection. But the problem is with Navisite. Last night I sneaked my way into a conference call meant for the webhosting companies-not website owners like me. Boy were the webhosting companies mad.

I didn't understand everything that was being said, but I could understand things like, "You guys need to find some expertise. You are running into problems and have no plan and have no idea what you are doing." and "I have over 2000 customers with websites down, and you have no idea what's going on or how to fix it." and "Every server you get running knocks one down that was already running. You are making no progress. There is a fundamental problem and you guys don't know what you are doing."

You see the trend. So I am taking some proactive steps before RP goes out of business.

First, by the end of the day, or tomorrow I will have a new "website" up. I started working on it last night. It is a blog, and will simply have one entry for each of our releases with the blurb and price etc., and a Paypal button. Simple, but at least it will put me back in business.

Secondly I will be getting a new email and putting it up in the corner where my old email is now. Of course I don't have a list of my old email addresses, so it will be slow.

In the long run though, at least I'll have a back up next time.

All this may mean I will be scarce today as I have my normal stuff to do also, and it is CCD night. I'll check in when I can as progress is made. (My next The Ways of God should post by weeks' end or "shortly", whichever comes first.)

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

What's going on ... and a correction

Well, email and website are still down. I feel blind after a sorts.

I posted a few days ago that I had put up my 1,000th post. I am not sure this is accurate. When you look at the blogger dashboard, they count drafts also. I have a number of drafts never finished and some I never will. There are a handful that I posted and later retracted and have kept at draft status.

If I take all these drafts into account, then I have only posted 989 (this is 990) posts.

So if you had been celebrating, you get to do it again in a few days when I really hit 1000.

Oremus pro invicem!

What's going on

This is my new series: instead of "Varia" or "Random Thoughts" as I have used in the past, whenever I am going to slip together some unrelated stuff, I'll use "What's going on" (not as in a question, but as a statement, i.e. [this is] what's going on.)

First, email and my website are still down. Basically they have both been down since Friday. That means no book orders. I wonder what is happening to the hundreds of spam emails that come to me every night and weekend. Will they all get returned as 'undeliverable' or are they waiting in a que somewhere to be delivered? It is frustrating. I am told that all will be back to normal "shortly". Of course I was told that twice yesterday too. Oh well, I have other things to do than than to monitor my email and fill orders.... (But what if there's a book emergency and no email to troubleshoot?????)

Those waiting impatiently for my next installment of "The Ways of God" for fathers-never fear. The next article is coming along and should be up "shortly". I am a little late because of the next item.

My in-laws came on Friday and left last night. We had a good time-lots of laughter. On Sunday night we had a little campfire and sang a couple songs. Saturday was unusual; we went flea-marketing instead of our usual chores. It's getting cold down here at night-but even with visitors we have refrained from turning on the heat yet.

Garden is still looking good. Not all the spinach came up, but a good deal of my second planting did. The carrots are also looking well-but probably won't be ready for Thanksgiving-which was our original hope as the first planting was a failure. Our tomato plants finally died with the frost the other night.

It is about time to thin the chickens and fill the freezer. Mrs. Curley, who always buys several turkeys at the good sales prices in the week running up to Thanksgiving, is afraid that she won't have room for both turkeys and chickens in the freezer. We'll see.

Be back later. Oremus pro invicem!

CatholicExchange has an interesting mix of articles this morning. The first one is about Latin-but it starts by saying that Harry Potter's school with its 'classical' curriculum will encourage the study of Latin among young people and help with the revival. The next article is an anti-Harry Potter editorial. (Note that I have never weighed in here on HP and don't expect to anytime soon. I have an opinion, but I don't think it is a dogmatic issue as some on both sides see it. Of course without comment boxes-it is safer to say anything I like.)

The third article on CE this morning though was my favorite. Russell Shaw has a way of put things in a way everyone (even me) can understand. He is talking about prayer:

I'm no master of the interior life — just a slogger like everybody else. Lately, though, it's occurred to me that in the final analysis there are two, and only two, ways of praying for things. One is to pray that you'll get what you want. The other is to pray that you'll want what you get. There's a lot to be said for both, but, ideally, the second way strikes me as significantly better than the first.

..... Wanting what God gives rests upon a great act of trust. It is based on the recognition that God is our Father Who knows what we really need and can be counted on to give it to us. Our own powers of perception in these matters are clouded and distorted in many respects. Certainly we are entitled to ask for what we think will best suit our situation. But if we are truly wise, with a healthily childlike wisdom, we will receive whatever the Father sends us in the confident certainty that it really is best.

Often I think we can convince ourselves that what we want is God's will or at least should be God's will-as if we know better.

In CCD a few weeks ago we were reading in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that prayer and faith are intimately linked. Look at Abraham (our father in faith) who trusted God even preparing to sacrifice his son if it was God's will.

Praying that "you'll want what you get" - I like it.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

Website and email ...

still down. As reported on Friday, my website and email are down. They were up for a short while over the weekend I think, but are nowhere to be found this morning. Hard to get back to work when worrying about this.

Update: Still down-probably for most of the day I hear. Maybe this means I should take a day off?

Baptism

Yesterday Mrs. Curley and I (and the family) were at a Baptism-we were the Godparents. I held the little baby boy for quite some time during the afternoon. I had forgotten how small they could be.

The Baptism took place during the 9:00 AM Mass at St. Martin de Porres Chuch. The pastor gave a moving sermon on how we needed to pray for our friends and relatives who had fallen away from the Faith so that they might not perish.

Although it was an inner-city parish, it had the feel of a small parish and close community. The music was joyous and always praising God.

After the infant one was baptized, the pastor took the baby from his mother and presented him to the congregation.

The party was great. Mrs. Curley and her mother (who is visiting) made the cake. We saw some old friends we hadn't seen in a while. Our kids picked up with our friend's kids as if we lived next door. It was a wonderful time. (One of our friend's boys asked if we sleeping over-I wish we could have.)

As I drove home, I could still smell the baptismal oils with which the young infant had been anointed. It brought back memories and helped me contemplate Baptism. I have 7 children-the young infant's parents have have 8. So many doesn't lesson or de-sensitize you to the sacrament-but heightens it, as it gives you more times to contemplate it.

A wonderful day of God's blessings! (Note: Holy Card image lifted from Holy Cards for your Inspiration blog)

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! .... Oremus pro invicem!

Milestone missed and Wal-Mart

Didn't realize it, but yesterday I posted my 1000th entry on Bethune Catholic.

Yesterday's All Saints party was a great time as always. We had an inordinate amount of saints from the Diocletian persecution. Mrs. Curley and I did a presentation for the first time. We played Mr. & Mrs. Martin (parents of the Little Flower). Great food-great company! I'll try to get some pictures up in a week or two.

After the festivities, a few of us went to the local cemetary to get some plenary indulgences for the souls in purgatory. We went again today. Father had a long line for confession this morning-I assume people wanted to facilitate the plenary indulgences.

My email and the Requiem Press website has been up and down the past few days. It seems there have been server problems. I am a little concerned. I can't take orders; can't get email; and I don't really how concerned I should be. Sometimes it is working and sometimes not. The server (or the data) is supposed to be moved from Baltimore to Andover this weekend.

Now to Wal-Mart.... Has any of you ever bought soda or water out of the vending machines at Wal-Mart? It seems no matter which one we go to, we lose $0.25 to $0.50 every time. And we've seen other people lose money in the machines too. It happens so often, I am getting the feeling it is on purpose. The service desk is loathe to refund your money-and if you are a minor forget it. (My son lost a quarter-a BIG deal to him- and they told him to get lost.) Yet they must know-they must get loads of complaints. Although the lady Mrs. Curley talked to the other day (who had just lost a quarter) didn't bother trying to get her money-she didn't want the hassle for $0.25. I'll bet there are a lot of people like that. It would be interesting to find out if this is as widespread as it seems. (Like I don't have enough to keep track of already.)

Yes, I Know November

I love this poem. Here's a clip:

Yes, I know November
The tolling of the bell,
The whispers of the suf'ring souls
From mountain top to dell .....

All Soul's Day

I think I have posted this before...it is the introduction to our book "Daily Prayers for the Church Suffering", which gives a background on praying for the Church Suffering-the holy souls in purgatory.

"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." 2 Macc. 12:46

"There shall not enter into it anything defiled…" Apoc. 21:27

Praying for the souls of the dead is a tradition which goes back to our Jewish heritage. Judas Machebeus collected silver to send to Jerusalem to be offered for the sins of those fallen in battle. He understood that nothing unclean or defiled could stand before God and therefore provided for the offerings for the souls of those who had died so that they could see God. Reading of the Psalms bears out this understanding: "Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? or who shall rest in thy holy hill? He that walketh without blemish …" (Ps. 14:1-2)

Our Catholic heritage is no less rich in the theology of praying for the souls of our beloved departed.

In the gospel of st. Matthew, in the parable of the unjust servant, our Lord tells us that our debts must be paid. ("And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt" - Mt. 18:34).

St. Paul says that we are saved only through fire (1 Cor. 3:15). St. Peter likens our trials to gold being tested by fire. (1 Peter 1:7).

The councils of Lyons II (1274 A.D.), Florence (1439 A.D.) and Trent (1563 A.D.) reaffirmed earlier traditions in the Church of the existence and purpose of purgatory – that place where those who have departed in the love of God but before complete satisfaction has been made for their sins may be purged in order that they can approach God unblemished. Further, the custom and tradition of the Church Militant – the faithful left here on earth – of praying, sacrificing, and giving alms on behalf of those souls in purgatory to make satisfaction for their sins and thus to shorten their time of purging, was reaffirmed by these councils also.

Purgatory is truly a grace of God because it is the nature of God which demands that those approaching be unblemished, and thus without purgatory, many would never reach Heaven. St. Catherine of Genoa wrote that the soul, upon death, finally free of worldly attachments, is able to see itself as it really is; seeing the stains from its sins and desiring God, the soul throws itself into the fires of purgatory to be cleansed in preparation for the audience with God.

These holy souls in purgatory, the Church Suffering, can not help themselves. The Church Triumphant, those who have entered into their Heavenly reward; the Church Suffering; and the Church Militant – these three are in reality one Communion of Saints. As the Church Militant we ask the Church Triumphant to intercede for us before God; we offer our prayers, fasting, and almsgiving to aid the Church Suffering. At every Mass during the Eucharistic Prayer, we pray for the souls of our departed loved ones, those gone before us "marked with the sign of faith."

With all this Catholic tradition, however, it seems that prayers for the holy souls in purgatory have waned as a private devotion in recent years. Funeral notices for Catholics rarely plead for Masses to be said for the departed. The Truth that God is all-merciful has been distorted to exclude the notion of purgatory – even though this exclusion distorts the true nature of God and the true nature of God’s mercy.

The prayers in this booklet are not new and are not an anthology of all the beautiful prayers written over the centuries for the holy souls. Herein are simple prayers, one for each day of the week. The prayers followChrist’s way of the cross in petitioning for the Holy Souls. Each daily prayer is followed by the recitation of Psalm 129. Psalm 129 is especially appropriate as a prayer for the Holy Souls and for us, as it calls on us to contemplate more deeply our need to trust in God and the mercy we must receive from Him for our salvation. Psalm 129 also expresses the deep longing the souls in purgatory have for God as they cry to Him "de profundis" – "out of the depths".

It is hoped that this simple exercise, taking less than two minutes every day, will become a habitual and devout practice among the Church Militant so that the Church Suffering may be aided and granted their deepest longings.

This practice too, will help us advance in our own spiritual life. These prayers will help us to contemplate more fully our own day of judgment, our own longing for God, and our devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the altar. The devout practice of prayer and sacrifice for the holy souls focuses our attention on our own sinfulness and on our own need for God’s mercy. This act of charity for our suffering brethern will help us to become less selfish and more detached from the worldliness around us. The more we love, the more we have the capacity to accept God’s love for us.

Since the practice of praying for the souls in purgatory has slowed - many, many souls are waiting and longing for God; with no help coming from us. We need to bemore prayerful. We need to pray for our priests and bishops - and for those priests and bishops suffering in purgatory. We need to pray for our family and friends – and for thosefamily and friends suffering in purgatory. We need to pray for the conversion of sinners – and for those suffering in purgatory who have no one praying for them.

By praying for these souls that long for God, may our own longing for God be increased.

Oremus pro invicem! – Let us pray for each other!

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us!

A few notes

I was on the road for most of yesterday. And we will be out-celebrating-much of today. But there are a few things of interest out there before I go.

The first is this article on CatholicExchange by Paul Polito, CPA. Here is an excerpt:

Does living according to God's perfect will for us mean we will be poor? He may have a fantastic life planned for a person without material wealth; a life full of blessings, favors, friendships and miracles. It would require a beautiful humility to live that kind of life. His will may be for us to be extremely wealthy. "To each are given different gifts." We must not covet the gifts of our neighbors. Remember, God's plan for you, whatever it is, rich or poor, is just perfect for you. Don't fight it, enjoy it!

...Consider this alternative:

I depend on God to meet my needs. I do not spend money I do not have. I spend time with the Lord in prayer, among other things, laying out my needs as I perceive them. This practiced discipline helps me conform my life to God's will for me. When something I perceive as a need is not provided, it may be a sign that God has something better for me.

I think this article makes some powerful statements about materialism-but more about prayer and trust in God. In the past few years financial uncertainty has been part of our lives here. When we trusted in God, things worked out. When our trust failed, we got ourselves into trouble.

And in a somewhat related post, (seeing that money is part of the issue) Greencastle talks about the living wage.

Oremus pro invicem!

Happy All Saints Day!

This print of Disputation about the Eucharist by (Raffaello Sanzio 1509) hangs on my office wall. I thought it was an appropriate display for All Saints Day.

In looking on the internet for some information on this painting, I found that an image of this fresco was in the background during the synod in Rome on the Eucharist in 2005. Fr. Timothy Verdon (a leading specialist in sacred art worldwide-who was invited to the synod by Pope Benedict) comments on this painting here. His commentary opens thus:

What did this image centered upon the Eucharist communicate to the people of its day? The dynamic assembly painted by Raphael in 1509, with the glorified Christ displaying his wounds in the center, was above all an iconographic reminder of the universal judgment: the day on which Christ will come "amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. All the peoples of the earth will lament him" (Revelation 1:7).

For the sensibility of that time, the immediate impact, the primary message of the fresco, was of an eschatological character. It clearly showed the relationship between the Church militant upon the earth and the Church triumphant in heaven.

These are the themes we should be contemplating in November-along with praying for the Church Suffering in Purgatory. As in the fresco, we need to remember that devotion and reception of the Holy Eucharist needs to be at the center of our spiritual life.


Happy All Saints Day!

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

What do we do on Halloween?

I am not one who shuns it as 'the devils holiday', yet we don't do much to celebrate it either. Here's the scoop.

Growing up both Mrs. Curley and I celebrated Halloween in our families to one extent or another. She went trick-or-treating; my family had an in-house party in-costume. Certainly the holiday has changed. People had a greater realization in those days (maybe this was because we grew up in 'Catholic' New England) of the meaning of Halloween as a day to contemplate death. Today so much has changed. You'd be crazy to send your kid out alone at night knocking on people's doors (let's face it, most of us don't know our neighbors as well as our parent's knew theirs) unsupervised. The costumes have changed: the scary has gotten scarier and gross. And then there are the new 'sexy' costumes for little girls.

At the same time, if Halloween has been stolen by secular pagan society-shouldn't we steal it back by celebrating it's true meaning in our families and parishes?

Even when I was growing up, it seemed that Halloween had overtaken All Saints Day and All Souls Day in importance and celebration. I think this emphasis on Halloween in the absence of the All Saints and All Souls has helped produce the current situation. So I think the starting point is a rejuvenation of the celebrations of All Saints and All Souls.

Practically speaking as a parent of 7, you just can't do the costume thing for 7 kids for two different days right in a row. You have to make a choice. And the choice is obvious if you want to emphasize one over the other. We do All Saints Day big with our friends. We go to Mass and then have a community breakfast and then an All Saints Day celebration with costumes and games. Last night, in fact, I "tonsured" one of my sons who will be dressed as a monk.

Last year when teaching I took the day off to make this celebration.(I still don't understand why Catholic schools make their teachers work on Holy Days.) In fact I have always taken time off from work, no matter where I was employed, for our family and friends All Saints Day celebration.

On Halloween we have sometimes played games at home. We certainly have talked about the history of the holiday. Mostly we spend Halloween preparing for All Saints Day.

So this is what we do now and have been doing for at least 10 years. Our kids look forward to All Saints with the same anticipation I looked forward to Halloween as a kid. Happy Halloween!

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem! (let us pray for each other.)

Survey on life

You really need to read this whole post at A Funny Thing Happened. But here is a part:

A few months ago I conducted a very unscientific but interesting survey at our local hospital's women's clinic.The 22 interviewed included doctors, residents in OB-GYN training, nurses in OB-GYN, medical students, residents in Internal Medicine training and medical techs in OB-GYN.

6 out of 11 actively practicing Catholics call themselves pro-choice
5 out of 11 actively practicing Catholics participated in abortions, 3 under pressure and 2 willingly
13 of the 13 Catholics approve of or prescribe birth control, one under pressure
11 of the 13 Catholics say abortion should be legal (2 feel that abortion should be limited only to risk of mother’s death or fetal abnormalities; 1 is against legalization but feels there should be “room for discussion”)

As you can see, not all of the 22 participants were Catholic (and not all practicing), but I clipped the Catholic summary only for this post. Quite a sad state of affairs. Poor catechesis? Pressures of secular society and in particular the medical profession? I don't know.

Read the rest here on your own. Some surprising results on both sides of life.

On a related note, for the medical profession and catechesis, yesterday Fox News carried a story, headline: Pope Tells Pharmacists Not to Dispense Drugs With 'Immoral Purposes' yesterday. Here's the main points:

In a speech to participants at the 25th International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists, Benedict said that conscientious objection was a right that must be recognized by the pharmaceutical profession.

Such objector status, he said, would "enable them not to collaborate directly or indirectly in supplying products that have clearly immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia."

In his speech, the pope also said that pharmacists have an educational role toward patients so that drugs are used in a morally and ethically correct way.

Read the whole story here.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

Frost this morning

Thick layer on the cars. I guess we better get the last tomatoes off the vine. Yesterday was beautiful all day. This is the weather I like. From now until March it is perpetual fall albeit without the colors.

Spent a couple hours yesterday in the wood shop. I am making a rosary box as a gift. I am inlaying a (metal) miraculus medal in the front of the box and a (metal) Franciscan crucifix on the lid. Yesterday's time was spent carving out the profiles for the inlays. Then I glued up the mitred sides and cut slots for the keys. Today I need to finish putting the keys in the mitre joints. They are both decorative and structural. I have some work shaping the lid, a few other minor tasks, and then its sand and sand and finish.

Sliced my finger with a chisel yesterday. Sunday I got hit in the shoulder by a piece of wood that got bound up in the table saw fence. I am usually a careful worker-not trying risker cuts. But a good bruise on the shoulder every once in a while is a good reminder.

Oremus pro invicem!

I got a call last night from a senior at John Carroll Universtiy (I am an alumni of the graduate school) who wanted me to plan for my __ reunion coming up in the spring/summer-I assume by giving money.

I thanked him for calling and then asked him about the Catholic identity of the school, because I said, I have read things which call it into question, and I have no interest in supporting a "Catholic" school which isn't really Catholic. (I have blogged about this before).

He claimed it was Catholic-the 10:00 AM Mass on Sunday was always full and students were involved in many charitable works.

So I asked him about the Vagina Monalogues which are performed every year on campus with the administration's blessing. Here's how the conversation went:

He: Well I saw the Vagina Monologues when I was a freshman or sophomore here. The play doesn't have anything that controversial in it. It does show how women have been oppressed. And that's good to know.
Me: Not controversial? Isn't there a story in there about a minor girl being seduced by and an older women in a lesbian relationship? I would think this is controversial.
He: Oh that. Well yes, but that story was really about an older women helping this girl of 14, or 16 or 17 years or so explore her sexuality and where she should be. I don't think it is meant to condone minor girls and older women hooking up.
Me: Or any women, no matter the age, "hooking up" in a lesbian relationship? The Church teaches that sexual relationships outside of the confines of matrimony, whether homosexual or heterosexual, are not part of God's plan for us-this is a longstanding teaching of the Catholic faith going back to the beginning.
He: Oh of course. And you know that the proceeds go to a battered women's shelter?

I was about to make a point about the ends not justifying the means, but at this point I had a call on the other line, so we got interupted.

When I got back, I asked if Fr. Cozzens was still employed at JCU. I was told he was. Now at this point, I got a little mixed up about who he was. My recollection was that he was part of the Jesus-seminar crowd, which for one thing denies the Resurrection. However, in fact, he is in favor of married priests and homosexual priests. I don't know how far he goes with the latter, but I know he has written books about it. He came to Columbia a few years back and I recall he said some pretty outrageous things.

The young man I talked to indicated that Fr. Cozzens had the full support of the bishop.

So, how did we leave it? First I told him a story of when I was there (clipped from the blog post linked to above):

Around the time I attended JCU, Fr. Charles Curran, of (at the time) Catholic University, had just been censured by the Vatican for publically dissenting from Catholic moral teaching in his classroom and writings. The "Religious Studies Department" at JCU came out with a statement generally supporting Fr. Curran in the name of "academic freedom". To paraphrase, (if my memory serves me correctly), they wrote in their statement that 'while JCU didn't have anyone teaching that contraception, divorce, and abortion were morally acceptable, perhaps JCU should have someone teaching this - in the name of academic freedom.'

I was a graduate student in a small department at JCU. Very few people (less than 20) knew who I was. I wrote a letter to the editor of the JCU newspaper protesting such a ridculous statement: I believe that I tried to make the point that "academic freedom" is the freedom to teach the Truth, not lies. I tried to point out that it is nonsensical to hire someone who you know will teach lies - that is if you believe that Church teaching on moral issues is the Truth. I can't recall how eloquent or persuasive my writing was (I still have the clippings, but I am afraid to look) - but I am sure it could have used some editorial help.

I was attacked in the paper. One professor from the Religious Studies Department wrote in an op-ed column that my views were akin to Hitler - (such an original attack). I received one letter (in the paper) of general support from a faculty member, and one from a fellow-graduate student who defended, not my view, but from a characterization of being Hitler-like. Otherwise most articles and letters were against me from both students and faculty.

So I told him that JCU was not a Catholic university when I was there, and the news I had been reading these past few years didn't look like it had changed much-but I would take a 2nd look. I told him I was glad there was a strong Catholic identity in the student body and wished him well in his studies.

I am sorry I mixed up Fr. Cozzens with someone else; I wish I could apologize for that.

Maybe I gave this young man something to think about. It did seem he had some talking points ready about the V-Monologues-thus maybe it is an issue with alumnus.

I am sure there are many good things happening at JCU. However there are also other things happening too which I can't support.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us .... Oremus pro invicem!

Nostolgia

I was working in the garage on Sunday (not real work-making a present.) While looking for some hinges in the file cabinet, I came across a few pictures, which of course I will share with y'all.

The first two pictures are items I made some years ago. The clock is made of oak and was made for Christmas 1993 or 1994 for my parents.



The two boxes were made in the same time frame and I believe were given to friends. The one on the left is of (Philippine) mahogany and the one on the right is pine. I used to make these boxes and include 2 packs of cards, a score pad and pencil.

And the last picture is from some years before. This is the winning Kelly-Cup squad (best-drilled squad in the Corps at the Citadel) practicing. The picture is scratched up, but I am in there. The Kelly-Cup squad is made of 8 freshman with a sophomore Corporal and a junior Sergeant. I am proud to say I was the Corporal on the winning squad my sophomore year. I was the logical choice for Kelly-Cup Sergeant my junior year-but politics (in my view) won out and I didn't get the job. And note well that our company's squad didn't win that year. (You can see I still have strong feelings about this.)

The Last Crusade

I almost missed this-(Hat tip to The Bride and the Dragon): the Pope beatified 498 priests and nuns killed in the Spanish Civil War yesterday. Interestingly, Pope Benedict said in his homily:

Indeed martyrdom is a “realistic possibility” for every believer who lives his or her faith coherently. But in addition to the giving one’s life as a result of an act of violence there is also the “silent” gift in “everyday life” made by those who dedicate themselves to the poor, i.e. those who give an “important witness in the secularised societies of our times.”

The best book I know of on the Spanish Civil War is The Last Crusade by Warren Carroll.

I remember the first time I had heard anything good about Franco from anyone but my Dad was when I read Pat Buchanan's autobiography Right From the Beginning many years ago.

That is not to say that beatifying 498 Spanish Martyrs is equivalent to absolving Franco of all wrong-doing. But few realize that there was war against the Catholic Church in Spain in the 30's waged by the Communists.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

The Ways of God - Delight in Goodness

Thomas Aquinas writes:

...all goodness is pleasing to Him by nature, always and everywhere, whether it be in angels, in men, or in other creatures...Similarly all evil displeases God everywhere and always and in whatever it exists.

Dads, do we delight in the accomplishments of our kids? I'm sure we do most of the time. If you are reading this, I doubt your heart is made of stone. But there two points to make: 1. Do we delight in our children's accomplishments even when we are distracted with other things? and 2. Do our children know we delight in their goodness?

I am sure some of us are quick to praise. My Dad was. I knew when he was proud of me-and so did everyone around. If he met someone he knew while we were grocery shopping, (yes, my Dad did the grocery shopping-I think it had to do with loving his wife a lot) he made a point to tell that person how proud he was of me or whichever of his children were with him. We always knew Dad would notice our goodness.

I think this praise also gave us kids a better sense of sorrow for sin when we did things not to be so proud of. This is essentially the difference between perfect and imperfect contrition. Do we want our children to have sorrow for things they have done wrong because they were caught and getting punished (imperfect)? or because they have disappointed their parents-and ultimately God (perfect)? Look at our act of contrition:

I detest all my sins because of the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offended Thee my God who art all good and deserving of all my love. (emphasis added.)

Myself, I didn't inherit all this virtue of my father. I am very good a picking out faults (not just my own.) This critical nature of mine-while having uses-is not always so helpful in raising children. Yes, they need correction-but they also need praise. God delights in goodness-we should also. (Our delight in goodness should not be less pronounced than our rejection of evil.) Be quick to praise publicly and privately. They need to know you are proud of them in so many ways (they are sure to hear about it when they've messed up!)

There was second part St. Thomas mentions isn't there? Evil displease God. Does it displease us-or do we even notice when it invades our house?

Several years ago, Mrs. and I gave up television for Lent. Now we didn't watch a whole lot to begin with, but we had our favorite prime-time TV shows which we watched several times a week, along with new-release movies that we would rent.

After 40 days of no TV we sat down and watched our favorite shows. We were surprised at how much filth had been added to those TV shows in 40 days! - or was it us that changed?

We had been de-sensitized to the sex and violence on TV so much that we didn't even notice it coming into our house and family. It took 40 days of cleansing (replacing TV with prayer, spiritual reading and discussion) for us to realize what evil we were welcoming into our house and family.

We are affected by what we watch, even if it be in subtle ways. An ancient saying goes "the eyes are the window to the soul." Mrs. Curley and I have changed our viewing habits since then and movies we rent. We are more careful about what we welcome into our house.

I am reminded of this particular way evil can enter our family every time I read these lines from Psalm 101:

I walked in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of my house.
I did not set before my eyes any unjust thing:
I hated the workers of iniquities.
The perverse heart did not cleave to me:
and the malignant, that turned aside from me, I would not know....
He that worketh pride shall not dwell in the midst of my house:
he that speaketh unjust things did not prosper before my eyes.

TV is an easy example. But there are others, be it the things we read or the people we associate with or the way use our computer.

One central theme in the CS Lewis classic The Great Divorce is that if our souls are not compatible with Heaven-we won't enjoy Heaven, and thus, we will chose Hell. Our time on earth is the opportunity to mold our souls to be compatible with Heaven: we must do this by delighting in goodness and rejecting evil in all its forms.

We must realize again that our children will often imitate our delight in goodness (or lack thereof). Look at your children. (Of course they have their own personalities, natural virtues, and natural weaknesses.) Can you see if they delight in goodness, are they attracted to it? How about their friends? Are your children quick to praise their siblings, or quick to criticize? This may tell you something about yourself.

Finally, one way to keep on track in rejecting evil, is to add the St. Michael prayer to your family prayers every night.:

Saint Michael the Archangel,defend us in battle.Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -by the Divine Power of God -cast into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits,who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invcem!

November is fast approaching. Remember the special on quantity purchases of Daily Prayers for the Church Suffering at Requiem Press .

****************

Finally watched "The Incredibles" last night-loaned to us by a friend. Cute movie. Not sure it lived up to all the stellar reviews I received on it-but it was enjoyable.

Speaking of movies....Growing up we had lots of Bing Crosby records (LPs and 78's) in the house. One of our favorites was series which had the songs he sang in the movies. Each of these LPs would have the songs from 2-3 movies. We had 3 or 4 of the set. I think there may have been one or two we didn't have. We had seen some of the movies-which are among my favorites: Pennies from Heaven and Mississippi (picture on the left)-both for the movie and the music. Some of the movies we never saw. My Dad and Mom were pretty selective. Now I know why. I saw Double or Nothing and Waikii Wedding (both of which were included in the LP set we had) recently. Both were okay, with some great songs (The Moon Got in my Eyes, Its the Natural Thing to Do, and Sweet is the Word for You) , but not up to the standard of the former two mentioned-and both had at least slightly objectionable material for kids.

You keep learning how smart your parent were.

Have a good weekend.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

Baseball and Brownback

I would be remiss if I failed to mention the Red Sox in the World Series. I really love baseball and have followed the Sox since I was a kid. Yaz was something of a legend to me-he being THE star of my entire youth. I never blamed Bill Buckner for the passed ball-more I blamed Bill Stanley for the wild pitch that let it get that far.

In 2004 I moved away from all TV reception. That was the year the Red Sox decided to finally win the World Series. Of course by that time-living outside of Boston I knew none of the players anyway. I got my baseball from the Capital City Bombers a single A affiliate (this team no longer exists-replaced by another whose name escapes me.)

Now the Sox are at it again. I wish them well, but I won't see or hear (baseball is a good radio sport) them triumph.

*************************

Hat tip to Pro Ecclesia who carries a story about Senator Brownback meeting with Guiliani - exploring a possible endorsement. If it happens, I too will be very disappointed in the Senator. It seems that he is making the rounds (there is a menton of him already meeting with McCain)-but still-why go through the motions? Is this really a serious consideration? Why can most of us see what the Senator can't see?

I am late an have to go ...

Rain

and more rain. Yesterday we had steady rain broken by a few periods of nothing. It was raining when I went to bed-it may still be raining now. Steady rain-the best kind.

I took a look at the garden on my way to the mailbox yesterday. It is looking good. Besides a bumper crop of radishes and turnips, a lot of carrots are now up-even a few from the first planting which I had given up on. We will have some spinach-but not much and some broccoli. At this point it is our best fall garden.

I need to finish picking our first radish crop and get some more in the ground. I think radish seeds are all we have left for the fall planting.

Thanks be to God for the rain.

Yesterday was a long day. Spent most of it on my feet cutting and binding. Whew. Another one today-but different. Will be on the road a bit.

Uh oh, I have the next installment of "The Ways of God" almost ready.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!

More 40 Martys

More than once I have heard surprise that Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher weren't canonized until 1935-400 years after their deaths. And, if you think about it, the 40 martyrs, at least some of them, waited longer. Why is this?

Several factors contributed. First the cause for sainthood usually starts in the diocese where the prospective saint lived or at least had strong connection to. The Faith was underground in England until sometime (I can't recall when the laws were repealed) in the 19th century-even if the formal persecution has stopped 100 years before. So they all got off to a late start.

Then of course there is the question of whether these Catholics died for the Faith or some political purpose. This was not always a straight forward judgement for the English martyrs. Some of the beatified may have been involved or in contact with (or could be perceived to be involved) with leaders of various "Catholic" rebellions which occurred during the persecutions, for example "Pilgrimage of Grace" and other Northern England uprisings-which may have arisen out of fervor for the Faith, but were armed rebellions. Members of these rebellions were often put to death for their rebellion regardless of their motivation.

Sorting all these things out for all the Catholics who were executed took quite a bit of time-and was the motiviation for Msgr. Ronald Knox's paper on the Theology of Martyrdom (offered in booklet form by Requiem Press ) where he explores this topic in a more general context.

Another point to consider is that because the Catholic view in England was being suppressed, it took some time to get the true story of what happened out to the general world. Especially for the first martyrs (Carthusians, More and Fisher.) This is why Dom Maurice Chauncy -an eyewitness to his Carthusian Brothers' martyrdom - wrote 4 separate accounts over the years while he was in refuge in Europe-to spread the word about what really happened in those early years. It wasn't clear early on that the English Church was breaking away permanently. Thus Thomas More and John Fisher also suffered under these clouds of doubt.

You begin, in 1880 through about 1935, to see many books starting to be published in England (some of whose covers/title pages appear on my first post of the day) about the English martyrs because up to that point, their lives were uncovered ground in books. A few more books (also pictured in my post of the day) appeared around the canonization of the 40 in 1970.

Very interesting and complicated stuff. Thanks to TS for prompting this expansion.

40 Martyrs of England and Wales ... pray for us!

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-Pray for us!

More on the 40 martyrs

From the dedication of Lives of the English Martyrs edited by Dom Bede Camm OSB:

Note: that Thomas More and John Fisher were canonized first and separately (1935) from the other English and Welsh martyrs (1970). This 2-Volumbe set was published in 1904 as a compilation of the lives of tose beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and 1895.

The lives were written by Fathers of the Oratory of the Secular clergy and of the Society of Jesus.

Feast of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales

Looking for some books on these heroic saints? You won't find many in print. (Of course there is our - which is on sale for today only-but even this is not comprehensive.)

There are a number of survey books on these martyrs which you may be able to get 2nd hand (one may still be in print): Prey of the Priest-Hunters by Leo Knowles; Forty English and Welsh Martyrs by Clement Tigar SJ; Martyrs of the English Reformation by Dr. Malcolm Brennan (Angelus Press-this one may still be available). Then of course there is the comprehensive-but long out of print 2 volume set Lives of the English Martyrs edited by Dom Bede Camm OSB. (our booklet on Cuthbert Mayne comes from these volumes, as does the our forthcoming sketch of St. Thomas More. These volumes cover more than the 40 martrys as only a selection of all the martrys were canonized.)


Then we do have some books on specific martyrs. Again most of these will be out of print. The Pearl of York-St. Margaret Clitherow is one who has at least one book written about her. (Long-skirts has written a beautiful peom about the Pearl of York-I wish she would post it today.)





The Carthusian Martyrs some of whom are among the 40 have had several books written about them. Not the least of which is an eyewitness account by one of their brother Carthusians, Dom Maurice Chanuncy. He actually wrote the account more than once. We have two of the accounts here (maybe one day they will be avaiable again.)

Then in the late 19th century Dom Lawrence Hendriks wrote an account of the Carthusian Martyrs (The London Charterhouse). Dom Bede Camm OSB wrote a book about Sebastian Newdigate-another of the Carthusian marytrs.


At the same time (around 1890) there is another account of the Carthusian martyrs written in French by Dom Victor-Marie Doreau (Prior of the the St. Hugh Charterhouse in England.).







Then of course we have many larger works which include a chapter here or there on the Carthusian Martyrs; for example The History of the Carthusian Order in England by E. Margaret Thompson and John Fisher by Michael Davies.


(Update: I guess I got this backwards-they were celebrated on 4 May until the canonization in 1970-Thanks to Pro Ecclesia for clarifying this.) Of course the 40 martyrs are now more often celebrated on May 4 -but 25 October was their original feast day-so we can celebrate on both. Finally is a print from the French book of the Carthusians martyrdom at Tyburn.

Happy feast day. May we learn from these martyrs a greater love for the Mass.

Our Lady of Joyful Hope-pray for us! ... Oremus pro invicem!