Ordinary Old Catholic Me

Too Horrible to Be a Saint?

I am always grateful when someone poses a question that generates a podcast. I may not have the exact question right but as I understood it--are there some things done in the life of a saint murder for instance, that are so beyond the pale that it seems incongruous the person should be considered a Saint, someone we look to as a figure of holiness? I may not have found the best answer. But it is worth the tussle!

Navigating Evil and the End of the World

If you don't believe in God and His Plan and His hope for our Repentance and Cooperation in that Plan, then maybe you aren't worried about the End of the World. Me? I am worried plenty. Where will I stand when the Time comes? Where will you? There is a lot at stake. Do you see that we are in yet another potential time of the Anti-Christ? The idea for me, I realize is to worry less but to rely on God by preparing now in fervent and regular prayer that I will stand with Him while the Devil is confounding us and steering us toward evil by making it look like the good it is not. And that I will continue to stand with Him and welcome the Day of His Second Coming knowing that I have not abandoned His Truth.

Subordination Is What It Is All About

That letter to the Ephesians where Paul describes the relationship of a man and woman in marriage is a stumbling block to modern Catholics. And my thought today is that it ought not be.  That was how Christ saved us, by becoming subordinate to His Father and to a situation in which there was to be certain death. How then can we women act as if subordination to our husbands is beneath us. And the fact is that true love, that the man is supposed to provide to his wife, is to be completely about the other, his wife, true service and selflessness. And that too is the gift of subordination. 

Pray Even When You Don't Feel Like It

Some might say I seem to be an energetic, relatively happy person. Sometimes I am. But my core, alas, is more "gloomy Gus", the lifelong pessimist. And in a world that looks like it is going off the rails, I can't even find a spark of optimism of late, and I too often feel like running away, and leaving behind everything, including my faith. I don't even want to pray for everything looks too dark. But there it is. That's the crux. I must pray, especially when it seems impossible. Especially when I do not feel like it. I hope you take my advice this occasion. I hope I take my advice. 

Hope Against Hope

When we get to the.  .  .ahem. . . latter end of the stages of man, one notices more the reality that we all share. We lose the bloom of youth, and the status quo of middle age and start to decline, some ever so slightly, some more so, but if we live long enough, we see that no one is spared, not even the most successful of stars, or entrepreneurs, believers or non-believers. And no avoidance the material world can provide will distract us any longer. It is either meaningless or Meaning Exists. 

God Literally Within

What happens on the Altar during Mass is beyond profound. And yet, we are so casual in response to it, to Him. What do I see? What should I understand? What do I feel? It is really the key to eternal life. 

Thoughts While in a Less than Good Mood

You get the idea. But there is a solution. It is the Will of God. Ain't easy to follow it. I wish I were better at it. But we are all human, and fallen. And need God's Grace ever. Particularly in the celebration of the Mass. 

The Boom Has Been Lowered and I Can't Help Offering My Thoughts

It was another eventful week in the Catholic Church. As one friend said to me today, "It's exhausting!"  That certainly is true, but it is also something we have to reckon with as the faithful whether we like it or not. Pope Francis took a step, which was somewhat expected, regarding the status of the Traditional Latin Mass. It was a bigger step that many had anticipated. It basically erased the actions of two prior Popes and restricted the Latin Mass, the Extraordinary Form in a serious, and some feel, draconian way. I add my puny comments to the plethora of those that have flooded the internet this past week. 

Final Thoughts About George Mackay Brown and the Choice of Catholicism

I have so much more to learn about this poet extraordinaire who happened, by the Grace of God, to choose Catholicism as his faith on the earthly road to heaven.
I am glad I have learned what I have, and he reminds me of the majesty of its universality and the fact that God comes to us daily in the Bread of Life. He IS the Bread of Life. We must remind ourselves always of that. 

George Mackay Brown and the Forces that Formed Him

Continuing with a discussion of my discovery of a poet and short story writer, George Mackay Brown and marvelling at how he found his way to Catholicism. I intended that this be the final second part, but I got even more interested in him, and want to do a third part, next week. I am so glad I have "met him". I hope you are too.