This Almsgiving Monday I want to recommend to you for your financial support the work of Mercy for Life, conducted by a little community of saints in Uganda. I’ve boosted them in the past and youse guys have helped them. But they can always use more help. Dennis Donovan writes Fausta Nalubega of Kampala, Uganda, organized a group of young Catholic volunteers like herself about seven years ago. They determine what the needs of the poor are in her area... Read more
…is that any child, much less billions of them, survives to adulthood: Read more
I am stealing these ideas from Deacon Nick Senger and will put them in this space piecemeal each Friday during Lent with my own comments in boldface. I will try to do some of this stuff, but there’s no way one person can do it all. If something grabs you, give it a whirl. Give up candy/sweets. I’ll try. But I reserve Sundays for cookies and I will use stuff like Crystal lite for drinks. Give up television time. Nope. That’s... Read more
There’s an old gag among Catholics about the ‘Judas Shuffle’. Judas, it is frequently noted, was the first Catholic to leave Mass early. It’s a funny gag and it has a real point: Mass is not supposed to be approached with a Minimum Daily Adult Requirement mentality where we slip in late, get the sacramental card punched for the week, and bug out early. If we are doing that, we are not cultivating a relationship with Jesus. We are simply... Read more
A Prayer from Soon to be St. John Henry Newman: God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I... Read more
A walk a day keeps the diabetes at bay, so I spend an hour or two ambling the neighborhood most days. It just generally feels good and it’s been helping me drop pounds slowly too (down to about 263-265, which makes me happy). Most of the time, when I walk, I make that my prayer time. Sometimes I say the Rosary, sometimes the Mercy Chaplet, and sometimes I will bring my handy dandy little Magnificat and say the morning prayers.... Read more
I decided to try something a bit different this Lent. The classic Lenten practices are almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Jesus talks about them in the section of the Sermon on the Mount dealing with works of piety (Matthew 6:1-18). He is, of course, not inventing these practices (they were already ancient in Judaism when Jesus came on the scene). Rather, he is commending his blessing on them and instructing us on how to do them right. The key is to... Read more
My wife and I were amused to discover that, according to The Rules, we have now achieved sufficient geezerhood to be exempt from the Church’s fast and abstinence discipline during Lent. We shall, of course, fast and abstain all the same. This means, in the American Church of the early 21st Century the following But I am always amused at the contrast between the absurdly gentle requests the Church makes of the faithful and the occasional stuff I hear from... Read more
I’m pretty lousy at doing Lent. So I’m a natural for yakking about it since (just between you and me) you’re pretty lousy at it too, no? Seriously, who says, “I am the greatest penitent of all time!” We all do a lousy job at Lent, by and large, because Lent is about repentance and mortification and preparation for death with Jesus on the cross and self-donating love that resolutely puts aside our own wants, needs, and desires in favor... Read more
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