Time Waste.

Well, the toxicity and sheer time waste of FB has finally got to me. I'm going to try to stay off of it as much as possible, going on in the morning to post the Saint of the Day and if so, the Franciscan Saint that we're celebrating that day. Otherwise, enough is enough. Those who have FB accounts must know what I mean. When it gets to the point where it just becomes second nature to do, then, with something that is just wasting your time and possibly not good for your health, it's time to cut back, if not quit.
As with my health plan, I asked, and still do ask, for the help of Our Mother and I will ask Her assistance with this challenge also.  Without Her intercession I will fall, as usual.

Dark and getting darker.

Why more young men and women aren't running off to join monasteries or convents I don't understand, just for the mere fact of getting away from this world. (I know it's God's Grace, I'm just venting...)  Every day we wake up to so many blatant lies perpetrated by the media and who knows who else, and basic Catholic teaching and doctrine just being twisted and ignored is really making me sick. And then one feels so helpless, because there really is nothing you can do but pray. And our prayer? I think when we pray, unless we're praying for something personal and specific, our prayers for 'world peace' and such don't necessarily get ignored, but I believe the chastisement is here and that prayer for 'world peace' is used for something else. The willful ignorance of man is shining brightly; the darkness of satan has perpetuated much, and men have grown fat by idolatry and greed, envy and lust. We can only save ourselves and our families. Let the good priests do what they can, until the skies become more clear. 

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Seraphic Father.

Thank You, Lord, for calling me to become a third order Franciscan, by giving me this extra grace to follow You, through the example of the Seraphic Father, St. Francis, to heaven. Where would I be if it were not for the Catholic Church, Holy Mass, and the third order, (or my wife who is also in the order, she also helps to hold me together), I dare not think.

O God, through the merits

of our blessed Father Francis,

 You enriched Your Church with

new offspring; grant that by 

imitating him we may despise

the things of this world and

ever rejoice in the partaking

of Your heavenly gifts.

Through our Lord... 

For that moment.

I had a beautiful revelation during my early morning Rosary today. Confusion and questions that have only smoldered under the surface became clear. I gazed upon Our Lord on the Cross with great love and tenderness. 

Unfortunately,  I can't remember what was revealed.  

It was like a waking dream, and like most dreams do upon awakening, after awhile, they slip away, not gone, just drift back into that sub-conscious to perhaps rest, or to influence, I don't know. But even now I know that I did learn something in the darkness of my kitchen, with only the small, weak spotlight on Our Crucified Lord to guide me. Perhaps with much reflection I'll remember, but I have a feeling that I won't. 

It was only for that moment.

Food.

The last few weeks Helen and I have been trying to eat right by way of a diet plan by a certain known doctor. We were very excited at the beginning (officially started July 10, but we were eating better the week before that), and we even survived the 'cleansing purge' of last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  But after almost two weeks of eating almost nothing but nuts and greens, we, Helen and I, decided that following a diet too closely that is basically based, in our opinion, on what the cave men ate, and worse, how they (we) evolved from apes, we'd better modify this way of eating quick. for one thing, it was expensive in many ways and many of the foods the diet called for were hard to find. But the main part that really bothered Helen was his way of thinking about evolution, and how it ran counter to Catholicism. As Franciscans, the idea of poverty, spiritual and physical, is something we keep in the fore front, not something we do when the time is right. True, we must take care of our bodies, but not at the expense of our soul.

My Guardian Angel

  On my way to work this morning, after my Rosary, I had a strong presence of my Guardian Angel. I had the incredibility strong feeling that he was sitting right next to me in the passenger seat. It made me very emotional. It was a feeling that I can only describe as being in the presence of something beyond me. Words are failing me, but it was almost as if the entire cab of the pickup was filled with a silent hum. I've always believed his name is Andrew, and he was making himself known, for whatever reason.

  Thank you, Andrew, for what, I do not know.

Leaving God behind.

(From my F.B. page last night. I was just a little cranked.)

I will not post the picture of Kathy Griffin. We've all seen it by now. I just want to speak my piece about this. I must assume that she believed she was perhaps practicing her craft, which, I'll be honest, I've never seen her do. I think she's a comedian, but I'm not sure. Perhaps she thought she was making a statement, which she did, but a vile and senseless one. Or she thought she was following her conscience, doing what she felt was right, in a protest to President Trump. Unfortunately our conscience doesn't always tell us right from wrong, good from evil. As weak people we would rather feed our senses which almost always gravitate towards darkness. It seems that everywhere one turns, people, in the name of 'freedom' say, do, write and exhibit any and all things that cross their minds. Fear of God is completely gone. When man puts himself first, God is left far behind.
Perhaps the next time any of us wants to complain, or ridicule or tear down someone or something either here or in our real lives, we should ask ourselves, is what I'm doing helping me on my road to salvation or hindering it?

The First Apparition

This Saturday is the anniversary of the First Apparition of Our Blessed Mother at Fatima. Perhaps this would be a good morning to find a Latin Mass and celebrate these two wonderful gifts, the Holy Mass and Our Mother coming to warn us. Even as I write this I've read of so much evil and mischief about today that truly much prayer is needed, more prayer than perhaps we are accustomed to. We are living in times that great saints are made, dark times when Holy Mother Church seems to be falling apart all around us. Rome gives us no backing, heck, they are going in the other direction. But take heart, today, the 11th, the Feast of SS. Philip and James, two of Our Lords' Apostles, they never gave up, even when facing death, even when dying. 
 So get through this day, like we do every day, with love, with prayer and with turning our minds heavenward. We can't all get to Mass every day, but we can pray and plead.

Retreat.

Leaving this afternoon for an Ignatian Retreat. Monday thru Saturday, a week of silence and meditation, during the first full week of Lent.

Please keep me in your prayers.

The Franciscan Ideal

Vos, Sancti Dei inclyti

Qui estis mente lucidi

Franciscum imitate,

Orate ut intrepidi

Hic simus semper fervidi

Et postmodum beati.

This liturgical antiphon in honor of the saints of the Franciscan Order points out the three principal means of perpetuating Franciscan perfection : retaining undimmed the Franciscan ideal; expressing it by heroic action; sustaining it by fervent prayer. The last words of the antiphon, "Et postmodum beati," assure us of the recompense promised to the faithful imitators of our seraphic Father.  -  (from) Franciscan Perfection.

First Friday, First Saturday.

First Friday and First Saturday Holy Mass,with Benediction, 6:00 pm, St. Lawrence Chapel, S. Windsor CT. First Friday Mass is also the Feast of St. Blaise, so there will be The Blessing of Throats. 

Candlemas

February 2nd, CANDLEMAS will be celebrated with a Procession at St. Lawrence Chapel, S. Windsor, CT. at 6:00 pm. Bring any candles that you'd like to have blessed and Fr. will bless them during the Mass.

Just Shut Up

I'm trying to wrap my head around the stance that many people (Democrats, Liberals, Modernists, etc) have taken concerning our President-elect.  How can they say, and mean, that he's 'not my President!' Are you an American citizen? Then he is your President. If your not a citizen then just shut up. This is not your country. Move to the background. The rest of you, your liberalism is showing. And we know that when it shines, it looks bad. Sore losers, the whole lot of you. This world has thrown Christ away as King so long ago that what He stands for and the gifts He gave us are just a memory to you. Try to do the right thing for once, not the thing that you think is right. Let the country move forward, God willing, with a conservative behind the wheel. Try to hold your tongue in place and your fingers off the keyboard. Pray a Rosary instead. Pray to the Holy Ghost for guidance. Let your guard down for once and allow God to talk to you.

Second Sunday After Epiphany.

Even setting aside any mystical interpretation, the fact that the Lord was pleased to be asked, and to go to a marriage, showeth plainly enough that He is the Author and Blesser of marriage. There were yet to be those of whom the Apostle hath warned us as forbidding to marry; who say that marriage is a bad thing in itself, and a work of the devil. Yet we read in the Gospel that when the Lord was asked, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? He answered that it was not lawful, except it were for fornication. In which answer ye will remember that He used these words: What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. - Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.