Abbey-Roads2

Actually crawling to Mass!

An unbaptized African woman without legs, crawled two miles to Mass every Sunday…

Valencia, Aug 28, 2008 / 01:42 am (CNA).- The Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly in Chissano (Mozambique) took into their home this week a 25 year-old African young girl named Olivia, who despite not being baptized at the time and not having any legs, crawled 2.5 miles every Sunday to attend Mass. - Source

I am going to lose it now!

She couldn’t receive communion because she was unbaptized - how many people won’t go to Mass because for one reason or another they cannot receive communion?  How many people sleep in because they have a headache and skip Mass?  And this woman, without legs, crawled 2 miles to hear Mass.  She puts me to shame.

And detraction and calumny.

While reading an article defending the chastity and reputation of the Servant of God Cardinal Newman, the author referred to the accusations by contemporary gay activist, Peter Tatchill, as “coarse talk”.  Indeed such coarse talk is very common today, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, any talk about homosexuality in Newman’s day would rarely be mentioned in polite society, or outside a confessional.  It was a vice widely regarded with revulsion, in fact the term homosexual was invented in the mid 19th century, when medical science initially began to investigate its causes and courts were convicting people because of anti-sodomy laws.

Regarding Newman.

… the sense of a brutish 21st-century mentality being violently thrust upon a 19th-century individual of a very different cast of mind, the posthumous rape of a particularly delicate sensibility by a particularly coarse one…

Obviously the term “partner” he wouldn’t have understood at all - but then the words “gay” and indeed “homosexual” didn’t mean anything at the time. Homosexual acts were familiar to even the most sheltered soul in Oxford and Newman would have rejected the suggestion that he engaged in them with revulsion. - Timesonline

Now onto political mud-slinging.

As everyone in the United States knows, coarse talk is no longer restricted to the lower classes - it has become mainstream.  It is everywhere in media and entertainment, and never more obviously employed than in an election year, when opposing candidates are liberally defamed and calumniated by one another and their respective supporters - and us. 

The Obamanations.

The Obamas are perfect examples.  No, not what the mainstream media is doing, or what the Republicans are doing - but what we are doing - average Americans.  Because they are an affluent, professionally successful,  black couple - albeit recast as the “black Kennedy’s” - they are prime targets for racial stereo-typical humor.  If you surf the net, work in an office, or are on someones joke email circuit - you have seen the jokes and the photo-shopped images.  And yes - some are hysterical, simply because they are so opposite of who and what the Obama’s are and what they have achieved - and yet something deep down in white people still won’t let them get by with that without putting them in their place.  That said, it is akin to coarse talk, detraction, and calumny - somehow justified because the killing of unborn infants is an atrocity beneath contempt…

Pelosi-tics.

Then there is Nancy.  It is one thing to offer fraternal correction - especially when it is judiciously provided by the USCCB - yet it is quite another to rip her to shreds like the old hags of Paris (Les tricoteuses) did during the French Revolution, as the victims were goaded on their way to the guillotine.  The same with Sen. Biden - perhaps out of fear of death he once asked the doctors if he could keep his rosary under his pillow before going into surgery.  And now he is mocked for such a personal act of piety - by Catholics who should know better.

Mea culpa.  

I’m as guilty of coarse talk as the next blogger - and yes indeed - I laugh too.  But as Catholics we still need to respect the dignity of the human person and their faith - no matter how disordered, distorted or convoluted.  And yes - we need to point out errors when we see them, especially when those promoting error claim to speak for the Church, or when the proper authorities (bishops) do not defend the faith - but we should leave the mocking and sneering and coarse talk to the devil who inspires such antagonism.     

Husbands in trouble used to do them…

Kind of.  Remember when married men used to get kicked out of bed by their wives when the Mrs. was mad at them?  Maybe it was just a sitcom thing - but if real - it could have been a good penance.

No one kicked me out of bed.

I sometimes do silly penances.  Last night I decided to sit outside in the rain storm, without protection, to see what it would be like if I were homeless and had no shelter.  I realized only a fool would sit out in the rain without protection, and recalled how more fortunate homeless people sometimes sleep in their cars - while they still have them.  So I locked up the house and took the car out and found a nice place to sleep.

I know!

The nearby street lamp shone in my face, so I moved the car to a darker street.   I folded back the passenger’s seat as far as it would go, and made a pillow out of a winter hat and scarf.  After praying for awhile, I tried to go to sleep - I have a Honda Civic and I’m a big guy - so it was not very comfortable.  The rain intensified accompanied by fabulous lightning all around, but I just couldn’t get comfortable.  Around midnight I went back home and slept in my bed.  I’ll never be a good homeless person.

Summer camp.

I know it is a weird thing to do, but on occasion I’ll  deliberately inconvenience myself in order to understand what it feels like to have nothing left, not even your dignity.  So I did an “urban camp-out” last night, despite the fact the experience was not authentic - because I really do have a place to live - and I also had my identification in my pocket if the police stopped by.

“Oh yes - we love living in our car - it is so convenient.” - Imaginative response from a potential game show contestant.

Although I never persevere through a night - winter nights are the worst - I always understand that homeless people do not choose to be homeless and enjoy sleeping in a cardboard box or their car - or the gutter.  Some crazy ones say they ‘like the independence’, and many of us only remember those who make such hollow claims and repeat with conviction:  “They say they want to live on the street - they would prefer that over a shelter.”  Or, ”Many homeless choose  to live on the street - they like it.”  (Poor people, even those with mental disorders, often say such things in order to salvage their dignity.) 

“It’s the economy stupid!”  - Tagline from an election several terms back. 

So what is more strange?  Sleeping in one’s car for a penance in a lame attempt to understand - perhaps even share a little experience with the homeless, or claiming the homeless like their homeless poverty - and “especially in summer - it isn’t bad at all when it is nice out.”?

Coming to a neighborhood near you.

Please don’t forget the poor and the homeless and the shelters and charities who care for them just because it is nice out…  Especially since many more people are losing their homes now days in this harsh economy.

St. Joseph, who always found lodging for Mary and Jesus, help the poor and the homeless, and those of us who have nowhere to lay our head, and who are alone and afflicted. 

Benedict XV

I hate to be so pessimistic, but the world rejected the Papal Peace proposed by Pope Benedict XV and continued with WWI, so will anyone listen to Pope Benedict XVI in these challenging times?  In his recent Angelus address, the Holy Father made this plea:

“Recent tensions on the international scene are a cause for lively concern, says Benedict XVI.

“We must note, with bitterness, the threat of a progressive deterioration in the climate of confidence and cooperation that should characterize relations between nations,” the Pontiff said.

“We must deepen the awareness of being united by a common destiny, that, in the final analysis, is a transcendent destiny, to avert the return to nationalistic conflicts that in other historical periods have had such tragic consequences,” the Bishop of Rome continued. “The recent events have weakened the confidence in many that such experiences had been consigned to the past.” - Benedict XVI Laments Growing World Tensions