Ordinary Old Catholic Me

Praying the Rosary to Save and Preserve Our Nation Under God-the Joyful Mysteries

The world has always seen tough times. We, in the United States, have, comparatively, been spared the worst (though not all) of the ugliness. Americans of the post World War II generations acted as if the rights, endowed by their Creator, and recited in the papers founding the nation, would be secure in generations to come. More than that, we acted as if the fragile foundation could not be dismantled in multiple instances of societal suicide underscored by a rejection of the idea that God had anything to do with the founding or the life of the nation despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  The best iteration of a nation despite human imperfection, is devolving into chaos. 
A friend has been trying to generate a chain of rosary groups whose sole intention is the humble prayer that God intervene in these human events and save and preserve the nation founded on His Holy Principles. There are a lot of rosary groups. But you can never have too much prayer. We are exhorted to pray, always. So, for this week and for several weeks to come I am focusing on the Rosary with the intention that God preserve our nation, that we will maintain and follow the ideals upon which the nation was founded with His Grace. Will He intervene? If it is His Will. He knows what He is about. 
This week. The Joyful Mysteries. 
 
 

The Road to Forgiveness: Dazzled by Jess Echeverry

Some people suffer more than others, often at the hands of other human beings, even those who love them. Jess Echeverry had to learn how to rise above years of trauma, and to learn to forgive, but she knew she could not do that alone. She needed help. God, in His Providence, offered her His Suffering and His loving Heart. She joined hers with His.
Jess has published her story, and shares where it has led her. She tells "Ordinary Old Catholic Me" a little about it. 
She has been married to Deacon Carlos Echeverry for 20 years. She is a mother of five. As Lent begins, you will be able hear more of her "momilies" at "Divine Wisdom from the Kitchen" her Apple podcast about her path to "perfect forgiveness" and how you can apply it to your circumstances, a six week series. 

Lord, Don't Let Us Be O'ertaken

History is moving hard at all of us. I suppose it always does. But somehow things seem more dramatic today, particularly as the priorities which are becoming the hallmarks of society seem to be self-destructive, like abortion. To be a Catholic, to be anyone of faith, in these times--perhaps it was always so but we did not expect it to be so with us--is to be under constant mental and political assault. We are asked to hold contradictory thoughts as each equally valid. Doublethink and Doublespeak aren't fictions. They are our daily reality. It seems to get worse every day, and so much so when the teaching authority of the Church appears to have been superseded by our political leaders, with the cooperation and endorsement of all too many religious leaders. 
What is there for us to do so that we are no overtaken? It is easy to say pray. But hard to do. But it is where the battle must be and we are part of that battalion. I took Latin in High School, but alas it left me. I was looking for a phrase that might be a standard bearer. The best I could come up with was something like "I will fight for the Lord". The best I could get out of an online translation was "Pugnabit pro Domino". Hope the praying isn't as hard as the effort to translate!
 

Passion of Hope For Marriage-Julieanne Bartlett

What is there for a woman who wants to be married, but cannot seem to find someone with whom to share her life? "Prolonged singleness" can leave a woman lonely and ultimately in the shadow of despair. No surprise but that God, and the fullness of the faith in Catholicism, provides an answer. That's what Julieanne Bartlett discovered. She found married love later than most, at age 42, and she shares her story and her ministry for others, of all ages, from 28 to 78, helping them not to give up, if marriage is really that to which God is calling them. 

Don't Mistake This for Home

I suppose I cannot quite get away from the theme of pain and suffering. This last ten months may not be the worst history has ever had, in fact, it isn't, but it is arguably a different kind of tumultuous from that to which we in the United States are used. Not since the Civil War have we been touched with such crises and discord. The world and national events are in such a coalescence as to create a sense of immediate danger of eradicating our material and psychological well being. And then a tweet from a rare professing Christian in Hollywood, Patricia Heaton, reminds me that not only do we feel like we are not home in this world, we weren't meant to feel that way. Why? Because it is not home. The transformed pain and suffering, transformed in meaning, not in experience, is what we must endure to get to our true home. 

Improv to Improve with Tiffani Sierra

A marvelous conversation with Tiffani Sierra, the Chief INSPIRATIONAL Officer of her own company, "Improv It Up!" on how improvisation is not just for people who are in the acting business. It provides healing release and confidence to anyone who wants to experience it. The workshops she offers are for anyone, she's even worked with Catholic priests and seminarians have taken her classes to make it more natural and comfortable to bring the Word of God to the people. Tiffani tells us also how her faith brought her through really difficult times in conjunction with her life's work as a founding facilitator for "Improv It Up!" 

The Offer It Up Dilemma

2021. A New Year. An old dilemma, for this Catholic at least. The news is even worse so the freshness of the New Year seems already gone. What to do? We used to hear the phrase, "Offer it Up" as kids to counter the sense of futility. Join the suffering, the pain and joy of our days, to Christ's suffering which ultimately transformed suffering itself. I am hearing the phrase again in Catholic circles again. Easier said than done, no? Reflections on the difficuilty.

What Will Put "New" into this New Year

The old year, 2020, has been a bear. There is little to indicate that the new one, 2021, will be much better. That is a different feeling from the usual experience we have of the New Year. I have been as down in the dumps as many of us could be given the pressures from the outside. What, if anything, at least for the Christian, the Catholic Christian, from my perspective of things, might make this transition into 2021 "new" in a way that is healthy and potentially provide peace and happiness and, when you come down to it, the salvation of my soul and the souls of the rest of us? It took a while for me in my consideration of this podcast, but I think I found it, the Rosary. Call it a backup lifeline to Christ, after the Eucharist, which is our primary lifeline. Well, that's what I think it is. 

This Ordinary Catholic's Thoughts on Christmas 2020

Christmas is next week. It won't look like any that I have, or you have experienced, in the last let's say 70 years. I have been struggling with that. Maybe you have too. So, that's what this episode is about, tussling with the two Christmases, the secular version, the religious version and trying to keep the Babe who broke into Time in focus. 

The Why Me Syndrome

So if I believe that it was the suffering Christ who redeemed the world, how can I possible ask "Why Me?"  But there you are. I do. Thoughts on the subject of pain and suffering. And how "Why Me?" misses the point.