Questions & Comments from the email

From time to time I find similar questions or comments filling the email box and it seems like a cue to address them more broadly.

Q: Why is your email so hard to find?
A: An email asking me why my email is hard to find reminds me a little of Yogi Berra asking, “how can that guy keep striking me out, considering the stuff he’s throwing?” Joking aside, the email link on the right sidebar does get more difficult to find depending on how many ads I get, and the ads help keep the site going, but I will see about placing my lovely medieval graphic – of a bishop reading the prayers of enclosure over a newly-anchored woman – where it may more easily be found.

C: I ordered a sample of the decaf coffee for my boyfriend. He was skeptical, but when he took a sip, he exclaimed ‘Hey – this is GOOD’. So I will be ordering a couple of bags of coffee. You might want to note in a blog entry that you can get a 2 ounce sample for free. This might help people try it.
A: Thank you so much for purchasing Mystic Monk Coffee from this site. It is a staggeringly good cup of Java, isn’t it? I think the deal with the samples is if you order two (2oz) samples at $2.99 each they will ship the samples to you for free. As Father’s Day is June 15th, I’ve ordered a gift basket of decaf medium grind for my beloved FIL, who has declared it “the smoothest” coffee he’s ever tasted. I’m still trying to get him to try the delicious Hazelnut, but he’s an old-timer and thinks flavored coffees are not manly enough!

Q: If I ask you to pray for my wife, will you really do it?
A: Yes, humbly and with a great sense of privilege.

C: You can’t possibly pray for all the people you say you’ll pray for.
A: As Montell Jordan sang, “this is how we do it:” I keep a list nearby, and when someone asks, I put the name on the list, and the intention. Usually I also include the name of the person asking for prayers because they’re sharing in stress and anxiety. The list goes into my breviary (Christian Prayer; The Liturgy of the Hours) and when I pray either Midday or Evening Prayer or Compline (I rarely get more than two of the hours prayed) I take a point toward the close of prayer to remember all of these people, and to name them and their intentions. If I go to make a “visitation” before the Tabernacle, I include them in my prayer. When I pray a rosary or other devotion, I will close with a request that all of those “in my prayerbook” might be blessed and helped. Every week all of them go with me (and the trusty breviary) to Adoration, and the prayer is intense, as I’ve indicated here. So, yes, Jane, Margie, Liam, Lucy and all the others, plus folks I don’t know like Ted Kennedy, (plus folks who haven’t asked for prayer but have written long painful letters, like RC) get prayers.

My prayers, of course, are not any better or more effective than anyone else’s, but all prayer is good, even ones offered by someone as faulted and imperfect as me.

Q: Have been surprised to note that while all these people are linking to you, you’re not linking back.
A: Oy. I really mean to, I just keep getting side-tracked. This blog will be hosting Fr. James Martin on Thursday, June 7, for the sort of “comment-box” back-and-forth he’s doing at each of these blogs this week. At this link I provide a chapter of the book for readers to sample, and perhaps think up a question or two. More on that later.

Q: I’m looking at all different sorts of religions, trying to see where I fit. What do you recommend to let me know if I’d be a good Catholic?
A: Prayer. Whether any of us is a “good” Catholic is up for debate. A church may be instituted by Christ, but it is still run by faulty and imperfect, sinful humanity, so thank God for His Mercies! :-) But I think wherever anyone is in their spiritual journey, it is a very good thing to visit a Catholic church on the off-hours and sit before the Tabernacle. One needn’t be a Catholic to do so (I know of a Jewish lady who sits in church for an hour every week, just because she loves the quiet and the sense of peace, there. She also reads the bulletin!) Sitting there is unlike sitting anywhere else in the world. I actually sat before the tabernacle when I wrote much of my book, (Caring for the Dying with the Help of your Catholic Faith), and I know it helped.

Q: How was the issue of … um… human waste… handled when an anchoress was locked up in a single room. And did she follow the Hours? Or just pray?
A: The problem of waste w/ Anchorites was pretty much the same as it was for others at that time – chamber pots. Whoever was kind enough to bring them food would take away (and presumably clean) the chamber pots. Ugh, I know. I can’t imagine living back then.

Anchorites did pray (and even did some craftwork, needle work, knitting, etc); following the hours was not difficult since back then church bells helped everyone keep track of time. But my understanding is the anchorite would pray privately, not joining in any public praying of the hours. I could be wrong, though.