Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back at you. Friedrich Nietzsche There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dur, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible; and the eye of Sauron, the Terrible Few could endure. JRR Tolkien, The Silmarillion... Read more
My husband and I are members of the ultimate sandwich generation. Our situation is so extreme that it almost qualifies us to be our own generation, unique to us. We are a couple of old retired folk, complete with gray hair, creaky joints, and in my case, the full aging catastrophe of cancer and ailing heart. At the same time, we are babysitting our precious-beyond-words grandchildren, taking them to preschool, cuddling them through flu and love-love-loving them. Our grown children... Read more
If you leave the Catholic Church, does a trap door open under your feet and drop you down a chute to flaming hell? No. Is the Catholic Church a highway to heaven? Yes. Is the Catholic Church the only way to find Jesus? No. I recently published an article about Pope Francis’ decision to not allow married priests and women deacons. That article contained this paragraph, “The women who thought that perhaps the female half of the human race would... Read more
The Nevada Caucus is next up in the nominating process for the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. So far, we’ve had one caucus in Iowa, which belly-flopped, and an election in New Hampshire. These two votes have shown that Dems are wary of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders has a committed following, Pete Buttigieg is running stronger than anybody expected, and — Surprise ! — Amy Klobuchar is moving up. These votes didn’t tell us much of anything... Read more
Nothing we can do will earn us eternal life. Forgiveness of sin is an impossibility of ourselves. At the foot of the Cross, the ground is equally level, and that is the one place where we can be redeemed. Read more
Pope Francis has decided to say no to allowing married priests and women deacons. He was considering married priests and women deacons in the first place because our current system cannot provide priests to the people who live in the vast area of the Amazon. This leaves these people without access to the sacraments. The people who want to bring Pope Francis down were foaming at the mouth over the possibility of him allowing married priests and women deacons. According... Read more
Daughter of Charity Sister André Randon turned 116 yesterday. From Church Pop: Daughter of Charity Sister André Randon turned 116 in February. She is the oldest person in Europe and the second-oldest person in the world. 117-year-old Japanese woman Kane Tanaka is the only person to surpass her in age. Born Lucile Randon on Feb. 11, 1904, Sr. André converted to Catholicism at age 19. At age 25, she began caring for elderly and orphans at a French hospital. She... Read more
I pray for the persecuted church on a regular basis. But I usually do not pray for the people who are doing the persecuting. Likewise, I pray for the poor, the victims of violence and injustice, but I do not pray for the murderers, rapists, liars and swindlers. That is a mistake. The truth of it is that this life is very short, and when it ends, we no longer have the chance to turn things around. If a person... Read more
Bed sores, it turns out, will heal. My Mama’s life force is something to be reckoned with. For the umpty-dump time, she was supposed to die. But she didn’t. I wrote about her bed sores a couple of weeks ago. If you need to be brought up to speed, you can read about it here. She had slid down into silent staring. She had a sore on her back, and she was refusing food. Everyone thought that she would be... Read more
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