Graces and Grousing and Gladness — UPDATE

Thank you for your prayers after yesterday’s pathetic post. I did go to see Saint Philip Neri and I believe he helped me; I am sure your prayers and good wishes also helped. I ended up having a lovely lunch with Kathryn Jean Lopez, followed with a bit of Sambucca, which I had never had before. I drank it thinking, “well, either I’m better or I’m not but I’m tired of not having fun.”

Perhaps the Sambucca helped tame the stomach bug. Or made it too drunk to bother me!

In any case, I am going to venture forth into St. Peter’s today and will bring your prayers with me, especially for Alex, mentioned in the comments thread. I’m not what you’d call a “well-connected” person, but I’ll offer my own prayers, and who knows. Maybe I’ll trip over the pope, and beg a favor, as he makes his way to the local department store to pick up a few things, incognito!

And for today — let’s end with a word from Blessed John Henry Newman, a son of Saint Philip Neri via the Oratory (thanks to Magnificat Magazine):

As years roll on, by little and little one will discover that, after all, he is not, as he imagined, possessed of any real substantial good. He will begin to find, and be startled at finding, that the things which once pleased, please less and less, or not at all. He will be unable to recall those lively emotions in which he once indulged; and he will wonder why.

Thus, by degrees, the delightful visions which surrounded him will fade away, and in their stead, melancholy forms will haunt him, such as crowded around the pool of Bethesda…Then a man will beginto be restless and discontented, for he does not know how to amuse himself. Before, he was cheerful only from the natural flow of his spirits, and when such cheerfulness is lost with increasing years, he becomes evil-natured. He has made no effort to change his heart — to raise, strengthen, and purify his faith — to subdue his bad passions and tempers. Now their day is come; they have sprung up and begin to domineer…

Gain hearling from troubled waters. Make up you mind to the prospect of sustaining a certain measure of pain and trouble in your passage through life; by the blessing of God this will prepare you for it — it will make you thoughtful and resigned without interfering with your cheerfulness.

UPDATE: So much for optimism. I’m still sick. Can’t wait to go home.