Abbey-Roads2

An ‘All Hallows’ Meme (Memes are kind of high school, don’t you think? Who cares - it’s Halloween.)

Fr. Martin Fox (Bonfire of the Vanities fame - a blog name I wanted!) tagged the first 5 people who acknowledged reading his post - so I’ll do it - especially since the joke I posted earlier today on this blog wasn’t well received. (It was so funny - for me.)

If you were invited to a Halloween/ All Saints Day Costume Party, which saint would you dress up as and why? (The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is not an option.)

St. Benedict Joseph Labre. Because he wore trousers and I like him - he was a wonderful contemplative and layman. I’d be much crazier than he actually was however - I wouldn’t show up at the party.

Which saint or other person would accompany you to the party?

St. Raphael Archangel, because he is the patron of pilgrims and he knew how to cook fish.

What famous quote would help others identify you?

“Lice? What lice?”

Describe your costume.

Ripped and torn too tight knickers over torn tights with a Franciscan cord, a Seinfeld pirate shirt under a a filthy waistcoat with a rosary around my neck. Bed hair like Joe Trojack’s, and little plastic glitter bugs all over my clothes and in my hair.

Which movie or film best depicts the life of this saint?

A Robin Williams film about a crazy homeless man - unfortunately, I can’t recall the title. It wasn’t about St. Benedict, but Robin’s character reminded me of him - or people like him.

What is your favorite book written about this saint or that he or she has written?

His biography - the title or author I can’t remember, in addition, the writings for the process of his canonization, of which I have a very old book, in French, that I can only read with great effort.

As Fr. Fox wrote, I tag the first five people who acknowledge reading this. (No one reads this blog, so I guess it ends here.)

If a crazy blogger speaks in a forest, does anyone hear him? Is he still crazy?

Or rather, the Monastery.

The monastery may be likened to a spiritual meadow, or oasis amidst the spiritual wasteland of our world. Shown here is a rather bleak photo of the monastery I was a member of for a short time as a novice, New Melleray Abbey. It’s an old community living there now, very small compared to the 150 members residing there in the 1950’s. (With approximately 35 monks or less today, some believe it is a community heading for extinction, but the monks have experienced such a drought of vocations in the late 1800’s or so as well.)

When I left, one of the monks drove me into town so that I could get my connection home. His advice for me came in the form of a psalm, Psalm 1 to be exact. (He had memorized the entire psalter.) Today’s responsorial psalm is Psalm 1:

Happy the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent (scorners)
But delights in the law of the Lord
and meditates on his law day and night.

I haven’t always followed these counsels. Most of my friends, well, many of my friends, have been relatively irreligious people, they would say they were ’spiritual’ but not religious. Most of these friends are no longer part of my life - due in part, to irreconcilable differences. I never preached to them, but my faith seemed to have been an irritation to them in many cases. Others may have been able to “blow it off” - my Catholicism that is, nevertheless I realized they were not a good influence in my life.

A co-worker said I was influenced by my liberal friends and their political views; to some degree I am, yet not governed by them. A person may speak and understand French, but that doesn’t mean he is French. One may be sympathetic to liberal ideas, even understanding them, without adhering to them, or being ruled by them. I no longer sit in the company of scorners, nor the insolent self-righteous.

Another dear friend mentioned in an email that he and his wife wondered why I am so solitary, why I am not very social. I rarely find any rapport with the religiously doctrinaire either. They can be just as annoying as my more secularized friends. Both groups have a propensity for absolutes. The way that leads to eternal life is indeed narrow, and sometimes those on the way of perfection are as well. The scorners, the scoffers, and the insolent are not always those outside the Church. especially when they believe they are more Catholic than the pope.

I don’t like to debate and argue and scoff all of the time - it’s annoying. My best friends respect my solitude, and they know I love them.

I like my solitude. A Carmelite once told me that solitude does not preclude friendship. Neither does silence imply one does not speak.

(The meaning of Las Vegas is ‘the meadow’ or a sort of oasis.)