Ordinary Old Catholic Me

Pray Pray Pray for Trust

Praying is difficult for me. And it's even harder to pray to Trust Him. I am a creature full of fear about what happens if. . . .a million things. And what if I trust and still the worst happens? The point isn't whether the worst does or does not happen. The trust itself is what ought to suffice. The trust will lead to a response of peace, no matter what the outcome. But I battle myself always to see this. And even in prayer I am battling. Pray anyway. Pray all the more. 

The ”Privileged Way” or the ”Non-Negotiable Way”?

This is a big subject and, as usual, I barely scratch the surface. Is it required that we all be Catholic to be saved? I look to the history, in brief, and give some thoughts as an ordinary old Catholic girl. Best thing to do is for each of us to study, and pray, and see what the Lord is telling us.

Brand Two: My Will, Your Will, God’s Will

I have returned to considerations of the Play "Brand". His "All Or Nothing" should, perhaps, give way to the paradoxical but more compassionate, "All And Nothing". What do you think?

2022: Continuing the Journey through the Desert to the Promised Land

It has been a discouraging two years, and sometimes it feels like trudging through a desert without ever finding the oasis. I find myself murmuring--complaining--about God's purposes. A priest friend reminds me of the Psalms, which I have hardly ever spent any time with, and they remind me of God's Modes of Action from the beginning of time, through the Israelites Exodus to our own to the Promised Land.

Covid Christmas

I suppose this title rather speaks for itself. Here I am doing what is "right" but somehow something is terribly wrong. 

All or Nothing: Is that Your Will, My Will or God‘s Will?

It is amazing how sometimes circuitous are the ways that I discover what will become the subject of a podcast on Catholic life. So this week while watching You Tube Videos about "The Prisoner" a TV show back in the 1960s with Patrick McGoohan, I ran across a play by Henrik Ibsen, "Brand" which has intrigued me, and I hope intrigues you.

Heaven Meeting Earth

When Jesus was born, Heaven Met Earth. At every Mass Heaven Meets Earth. Lord, Grant me the Grace to see that, and never to forget it, so that my soul may be saved.

A Girl of Mount Saint Ursula

I guess I am waxing nostalgic this season of Advent. After watching the Bells of St. Mary's for the umpteenth time, I got to thinking about my grammar school and high school days at a Catholic School, The Academy of Mount Saint Ursula in the Bronx, an experience that straddled the days of a Bells of St. Mary's type of education to the Post Vatican II days, with its pros and cons. It was hard to watch the place that I grew up in change, I mean change in a physical way, with large parts of the property given over to good, but very different purposes, for the needy elderly, but so different from the seemingly simpler days of pure education in a bucolic oasis. I wanted it to look and be what it always was, and it deeply wounded me to see the comfortable familiar disappear.  Long into my adulthood when I went back, it looked the same. And then it didn't. I haven't quite made my peace with that reality, but one thing I know, it was in large part the Mount that gave me the tools to do well in a world that in every generation has its difficulties and challenges. It was the Ursuline founded Mount Saint Ursula to which I owe much of my life to here. And I cannot, and now realize I do not want to escape the fact that I am a Girl of Mount Saint Ursula. 
 
 

You Can‘t Be a Saint Unless You Evangelize?

Well, yes. But with a caveat, in my Ordinary Old Catholic Me opinion. Evangelizing comes in many forms, I have concluded. Some of them I can do. Some of them you can do. You can be the firebrand St. John the Baptist, but most of us aren't in that league. Being a faithful Catholic (not perfect obviously) is the key, so that all who know you know what you believe without contradiction, without compromise, but with charity. Not false charity that says everything is equivalent, but a real charity that brings the truth into the marketplace. 

Jesus, the Second Person of the One God

I hadn't intended a third installment on Who Do You Say that He Is? But I ran across a typed address from 1973 of one of my late pastors, Monsignor George Parnassus. There really is nothing from him on paper or recording, so this was a treat. And it fits nicely into the last couple of episodes of this podcast. I think he ties up the subject (as best as can be done by this Ordinary Old Catholic) very nicely. And Father Parnassus gets a little of the recognition he deserves besides!