GOD MUST LOVE VARIETY BECAUSE HE CREATED SO MUCH OF IT!

 

Today's post is a bit of a Sunday ramble, but I think it holds up, at the end.

Every Christian knows that one of the basic understandings of our faith is that God created each of us in His likeness and image.

"And God created man to his own image: 

to the image of God he created him: male 

and female he created them." Gen 1:27

 

What I find very interesting is that, while we are all created in God's image, none of us is much like any other! Even twins have physical differences, what to speak of the vast psychological differences of each person.

I find this fascinating. What could it mean about God's motives, or is God Himself intrinsically one and a variety? Father, son and Holy Spirit and SO much more?

I am not a theologian, and can't tell you the answer, but I suspect even the theologians probably do not really know. It is likely one of those delicious Catholic "mysteries." Even our greatest minds cannot know much about God's intentions, in particular. We only really know what God Himself has told us about His reasons. There isn't a lot of that. Instead, we have to trust that everything He created is "very good" and behave accordingly.

"And God saw all the things that He

had made, and they were very good."

Gen. 1:31

The fact that God created us in freedom, especially in our freedom of choice, is a concomitant factor of our diverse natures. I imagine that God did not want to create slaves that would love Him and engage with Him out of pre-programed, forced duty. 

Whatever his reasons, He obviously intended to create each one of us as a unique individual, like no other. There must be something intrinsically "very good" about this plenteous expression of diversity, otherwise the Lord would not have done it. And each of us is beautiful in His sight, I am sure of it. He would not create anyone who is not basically "good" in their natures. But that "free choice" I mentioned determines what we do with it.

Whether or not we glorify God by the free exercise of our decisions is another matter entirely, as the history books are full of tales of the mistakes of others who have gone before us, so we can't say that everything every human does is good. That is another topic, separate from the innate goodness of variety.

A related, but more mundane example about how diversity is essential to even the health of our bodies: 

I recently consulted my doctor about some dietary changes, and she talked about older patients needing much more protein (because of reduced ability to digest, as one ages), as well as the necessity for variety of animal protein sources. She told me about how animal protein is better than plant protein because it is "complete" in amino acids, for one thing. The multiplicity of available vitamins, minerals, and whatnot in our food sources are another indication of the need for and goodness of variety that our bodies express.

Given all the variety I've discussed, I am naturally wondering how we are "made in the likeness and image of God." I strongly suspect that we are "like" Him in our spiritual souls, our heart of hearts.

A deceptively mundane example: I really love watching wholesome family dramas in which the members are expressing love and affection for one another, within the context of the ups and downs of life. I rarely watch television, but occasionally, on Sunday, I will watch PBS. Today there is a marathon of "Call the Midwife," one of my favorite television series.

I find it very interesting that, although I was raised without parental love and was, in fact, emotionally brutalized by a sick and self-absorbed mother and an opportunistic and sociopathic sibling, I enjoy watching the family-oriented television dramas very much, and I easily understand the love and caring, the values and higher aspirations of human love.

You'd think I would be unable to understand any sort of love at all, given how I was raised, but instead, I feel tremendous affection and empathy for the human race altogether. I have no trouble loving people, no matter how odd, obstreperous, or difficult to get along with. I can't even work up animosity for the folks who treat me badly. I want the best for everyone. It isn't that I do not notice the cruelty. I do what I can to protect myself. I know that being loving and kind will not prevent them from mistreating me again, so I am careful to guard against future abuse, but it just isn't in me to join them in the dark place in which they live.

Everything depends on that free will and what we choose. Will we be true to God's most wonderful gift of our creation? THIS place of love that resides within us all is where we are most like The Lord. This is where we are made in His likeness and image. But, at the same time, we must choose to be faithful to it.

My family was anti-religious and, particularly, anti-Catholic. My mother had gone to Catholic school, and the nuns had been mean to her, I am told. From the time I was a young child, then throughout my 20's and 30's, I was on a journey in search of God, studying various religions, and even joining a Hindu-based convent for some time, but this search culminated in a radical conversion to Catholicism that began when I read the Catholic mystics while a nun in the Hindu convent. Gradually, gradually, I turned to the Catholic values and religion. From one choice to another, I learned of the faith, followed it, committed to it. It hasn't been easy, and there are no earthly rewards for adhering to the faith. In fact, it is usually a painful cross, but once I understood the stakes, I was "all in."

I am particularly focused on the topic of diversity today, thanks to the toxic public comments of the vulgar convicted felon that currently resides in the White House. Before allowing the families time to grieve, and without reference to any facts whatsoever, he is blaming Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hiring practices for a recent mid-air collision that killed many people.

"D.E.I." is the shorthand he uses for his idea that women, minorities and the disabled are being given jobs for which they are not qualified, and this idea is just another lie he is passing off - like all his other misogynistic, racist and ableist prejudices.

The D.E.I. programs were created because minorities, women, the disabled and the otherwise different were being denied the opportunity to COMPETE for jobs and housing.

The preference is for white males, and there is a descending order of prejudice below that.

People of color were mostly denied access to the higher paying jobs and/or were underpaid in comparison to white people occupying the same or similar jobs.

Qualified women were denied access because of their sex. Many times, women were rebuffed because they were not sexually attractive to the men who run every corporation and business. Countless numbers of women have been fired for not agreeing to sexual relations with their bosses. I myself was pushed out of more than one job for this very reason. Once I was pushed out of a secretarial job for gaining weight.

Disabled people were being denied jobs and housing because of their disabilities. Most work facilities were built or occupied buildings which did not allow for wheelchair access, for instance.

In short: Perfectly qualified individuals were being denied access to the same field of competition. The purpose of the D.E.I. programs is to make sure that qualified individuals are competing on an equal playing field.

These D.E.I. programs were NOT created to give UNqualified people preference over qualified persons. Anyone who says otherwise is misinformed or blatantly lying.

In addition to the sexual harassment I experienced in some of my clerical jobs, I witnessed people of color being actively discriminated against in housing.

More than 40 years ago, when I was apartment shopping in Los Angeles, I was standing in front of an apartment complex, talking to the landlord, when two young black women approached us. It was immediately apparent that they were already very upset, and they proceeded to yell at the landlord because she had told them just the day before that the apartment was already rented but, just as they suspected, she continued to show it to other people - to white people.

The apartment manager seemed stunned. It was an unexpected confrontation and she clearly did not know what to say. Clearly, the accusations were true, as was apparent by the "the look" that the landlord gave me. Clearly, she was expecting that this pretty young white girl standing in front of her would be sympathetic to her racism. But she was very wrong. 

As for the two young black women, what could they do but make their charges and then walk away? I noticed, as they turned their backs and made their way down the sidewalk, that they were dressed as well as I was, well-groomed and shod. But they were black and, upon meeting them the day before, the landlord, seeing that they were not white, told them the apartment was rented in order to get rid of them.

Without missing a beat, I gave the landlord a "piece of my mind," and told her that I would not want to rent an apartment from someone who had racist housing policies.

Then I ran toward the two young women, who were walking away from us, and I tried to talk to them, to reassure them that I would NOT cooperate with this travesty, that not everyone was in agreement about this toxic social ill, but they were so angry, they assumed that I had gone ahead and rented the apartment out from under them, and accused me of it. 

I tried, and failed, to get them to listen to me and understand that I had rejected the apartment. I imagine that lifelong suppression of their dreams and basic survival had given them assumptions about ALL white people so that they were unable to perceive a "friendly" when they ran across one. So both "sides" are prejudiced against the other - something that would, at least in part, be rectified by rubbing elbows with one another on a job site, office, or apartment complex.

They turned their backs on me, and walked away. This is a perfect example of why we need D.E.I. policies, in order to counteract racism, sexism and ableism.

D.E.I. policies are those policies that ENSURE that the best qualified person is hired, no matter their race, gender or disability. Donald Trump has turned this reality on its head. Right now, he is in the middle of a wholesale firing of expert government workers so that he can replace them with know-nothing, incompetent, disqualified lackies whose only qualification is that they are devoted to HIM. But he blames D.E.I. policies for everything bad that happens in government.

Trump and his movement is the worst thing that has happened in government in a long time because he deliberately exaggerates the animosities between different groups of people, using dishonesty as his primary tool to separate people from one another. 

While he is encouraging people to face off against one another, Trump is making diabolical changes to our government, using illegal methods. There are such a flurry of Executive Orders that I imagine he is intentionally flooding the zone to cause further confusion. What do we fight first?

"You are of your father the devil, and

 your will is to do your father's desires. 

He was a murderer from the beginning, 

and has nothing to do with the truth, 

because there is no truth in him. When 

he lies, he speaks according to his own 

nature, for he is a liar and the father of 

lies." John 8:44

Photograph by "Z"

on Unsplash

Does this mean that Trump and his minions are NOT "made in the likeness and image of God," since he uses Satanic methods and has values that are the antithesis of Christ's specific commandments?

No. What it means is that he chose the way of lies and this free choice deformed his nature. He isn't the first corrupt leader to claim to be an adherent to Christianity so that he could bamboozle the public. Claiming to be Christian but behaving otherwise is a path with a terrible price.

Christ's parable about the tares being sowed among the wheat is instructional on this topic.

24. Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed 

good seed in his field; 25. but while men slept, his 

enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and 

went his way. 26. But when the grain had sprouted 

and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 

27. So the servants of the owner came and said to 

him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? 

How then does it have tares?

28. He said to them, “An enemy has done this. The 

servants said to him, “Do you want us then to go and 

gather them up? 29. But he said to them, ‘No, lest while 

you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with 

them. 30. Let both grow together until the harvest, and 

at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First 

gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn 

them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Matthew 13:24-30

Obviously, people who claim to be Christian but whose choices and behavior are not in concert with Christ's commandments are the tares among the wheat. The "enemy" that planted the tares is Satan.

One thing I LOVE about Catholicism is that there is always time for the repentant to come to Christ, confess their sins, and be forgiven, in a very definitive fashion, until the time runs out. But Hell is not empty, unless you think Christ is a liar.

"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ 

will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who 

does the will of My Father who is in heaven 

will enter." Matthew 7:21

Clearly, the free choice to follow the will of God the Father, to the extent He has made his will known to us, is crucial to whether or not we go to live with Him in Heaven when we die. 

Jesus clearly tells us that prejudice and discrimination are the opposite of his most important commandments: 

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment

 in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with 

all your heart and with all your soul and with all 

your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest 

commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love 

your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and 

the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40

God has commanded us to love one another as we love ourselves. We cannot be selfish and at the same time be obedient to what God has asked of us.

If we are really Christians, we want the best for our neighbor, in equal measure to what we want for ourselves. Prejudice is obviously, blatantly inconsistent with this commandment.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs are meant to fight the prejudice that is abhorred by God.

There is nothing wrong with refining the program, better tuning it to its mission, but the wholesale destruction of it, without anything to replace its mission, is diabolical. Satan loves to see this chaos.

If God wanted to make SURE that all his people ended up in Heaven, He could have MADE us adhere to His two most important commandments, which would make prejudice and discrimination impossible, but He would have had to give up on the idea of being surrounded by his loving creation. Love, in order to BE love, has to be a gift given freely.

By trashing a program that works to demonstrate our love of neighbor, Trump is demonstrating values that are the opposite of Christian values.

By claiming widespread corruption in these agencies, without any proof, and destroying them without any due process or replacement of services, the current administration is demonstrating hostility toward the American people who are not part of the 1% of Americans who are rich white men and their families.

MOST of us, in one way or another, will suffer greatly by the elimination of services, just as we have suffered over the last 5 or 6 DECADES, as the wealth of our country has gradually been shuttled up to the top 1% of Americans. If you take a look at this chart, you can see that, since 1970, wages have stagnated, rising only 25% in actual money, but when compared to the increase in living expenses, have not increased AT ALL. CEOs of corporations, and corporate profits, however, have soared over those same 5 decades.

The above chart shows the years

1970 through 2005

In addition to the D.E.I. programs, this administration, using an unelected shadow government of gullible teenagers and young men barely out of college, led by an unelected immigrant billionaire (Elon Musk) are being given top secret information, as well as the private financial information of all Americans in an assault on the Treasury Department.

I pray today that Trump and the members of his unelected shadow government become real Christians, that they fall in love with God, fear His might and His reprisals and acknowledge His sovereignty, repent of all their lies and scams, confess all their evil intentions and that they choose to be obedient to the commandments of The Lord - before it is too late.

I pray that GOD take pity on the people who claim to be Christian but who are confused, who follow the lies of the enemy, thinking they are doing a blessed thing when they are actually trodding the road to Hell. May they be saved from their selfish orientation and illuminated with God's Truth and Love.

I pray that GOD take pity on the folks who claim to be Christian, but who know they are scammers trying to bamboozle honest people. May the fear of God be instilled in them so that they repent of their sin and turn their faces to The Lord.

We are all in need of God's pity, my friends, and here is my prayer of the daily recognition of it. I wrote it for myself and it has no imprimatur, but it can be an example for something that you pray for yourself.

My daily prayer of submission

Please Lord Christ, help me to perfectly follow 

each one of your commandments. 

My will is to be more faithful to Thee in every way. 

I pray that you help me do everything in exactly the 

manner and with the attitude that is Thy 

most perfect wish for me. 

Please, Lord, take from me every erroneous idea 

that I may hold, and replace it with the pure beauty 

of Thy ultimate Truth.

I know, Lord, how very easy it is to put a step wrong 

and start to follow the road to perdition, so I offer to 

Thee the ultimate sacrifice - that of my free will. Take 

all of it Lord, and replace it with your holy will.

Please, Lord, save me from every evil inclination. 

I submit myself to Thee.

Amen

Please, friends, join me in the prayers for the Trump Administration and also participate in some kind of prayer of sacrifice of our own will and replacement of it with His. Do we trust Him enough to abandon our selfishness and residual evil inclinations while we take the yoke of His will onto our shoulders?

I have the conviction that it will help us to order our behavior more perfectly toward the Lord's commandments, in order to find ourselves bathed in the light of the beatific vision when our time here on earth is done.

I pray for you, that The Lord enlightens you and helps you follow His holy road. Please also pray for me.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

SAINT AMELBURGA AND DONALD TRUMP

                                          

Saint Amelberga

Died about 690

My 1st cousin, many times removed

I originally wrote this blog two years ago and hesitated before resurrecting it from the dark confines of the "draft" bin because it discusses modern politics, and I try very hard not to write too much about it, but I am struck by the fact that STILL, two years after writing this post, Donald Trump is STILL a hot item in the news because he was just convicted of 34 Federal crimes he committed in his effort to hide his payoff to a porn star in order to shift the result of the elections in 2020. It didn't work, he lost, his crimes were discovered, and 12 jurors convicted him unanimously. Trump is falsely claiming that President Biden set the New York justice system on him, but that ISN'T how the justice system works, especially considering the separation between the Federal and the State courts. He is also falsely claiming that he was not told what the underlying crime WAS, which is ridiculous, because I know what it was and I am nobody.

This comes right on the heels of losing that libel case that E. Jean Carrol brought against him with regard to the sexual assault he committed against her at Bergdorf Goodman's years ago. He was convicted of THAT also, and is contesting the verdict and the $84 million fine.

There are more than a few folks among my acquaintances and friends who actually still like Donald Trump and, although I just don't understand it, that is no reason upon which to base a friendship, so we gamely stick with one another, despite the lack of compatibility on that score. Politics is inflammatory, but like all fires, the incidents are temporary. People come and go. Scandals come and go. We ARE faced with rather big and somewhat dangerous scandals at the moment, but even World War II ended at some point, right? We just have to hang on to one another and hope that it ends up with our country still intact. If you can't bear to hear anything unattractive about Trump, I suggest you stop reading here, so you can save your amygdala from exploding.

***

Typically, when I write these diary entries, I am just concentrating on the saint of the day, preferably someone I am related to or who has some role in inspiring me in my spiritual life. News of the day is not usually part of that, but last night (2022) I watched the first televised hearing about the January 6th attempt to overthrow our government, and I simply can't write a diary entry without including it because it is not "business as usual."

A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN HISTORY

The Trump era and its culmination in the violent insurrection will be a pivotal moment in the history of the United States and possibly one that heralds the death knell of American democracy, depending on how this investigation shakes down and whether or not the responsible parties are held to account. It is distressing to be living through this epoch, and it impacts all our lives to some degree, especially on the heels of the Covid pandemic, which is still active.

The committee found that Donald Trump was at the center of the conspiracy to overthrow our government. He fueled it with the utterly ridiculous "big lie" that he supposedly won the last presidential election. All of the election officials and all of the judges to whom Trump has appealed have found that there is NO evidence of any fraud that would change the results of the elections. As a matter of fact, it was the other candidate who won by many millions of votes. It wasn't even close.

The major television channels were showing the hearing last night, but Fox, in a desperate bid to keep their viewers from being exposed to the truth, ran an ADVERTISEMENT FREE, hour-long Tucker Carlson show in which he pushed the completely false and debunked conspiracy theory that the FBI was behind the insurrection and the violence. They lost millions of dollars of advertising revenues just to keep their viewers from channel surfing. They obviously wanted to keep them from learning the facts.

(Fox "News" is a streaming channel for subscribers and, since it is not on the public airways, the FCC does not regulate them. Therefore, they can lie as much as they want because they have NO journalistic ethics to which they must adhere.)

In addition, there are interviews with active participants, such as members of the group that calls itself "the Proud Boys" in which they detail how they were organized and prepared for the attack on the Capital, well in advance of the day. They relied upon then-president Trump's marching orders.

Many law enforcement personnel were injured, some were killed during the insurrection, and 4 officers committed suicide immediately thereafter, it was such an overwhelming experience for them. The videos and testimony retriggered my PTSD all over again.

SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY

The thing that is really bothering me is that nothing has changed since January 6, 2021, and Trump's followers that are in positions of power are still trying to subvert American Democracy, in the Senate and elsewhere. They continue to spread ludicrous disproven conspiracy theories generated and encouraged by entertainers like Tucker Carlson, despite knowing the truth. It is a cynical, dishonest bid to hold onto power by energizing and manipulating the emotions of people who trust them.

Few Republican officials have had the courage to stand up against the personality cult of Trump and his power-mad allies, despite nearly all of them privately expressing the knowledge among themselves that Trump's "big lie" is, indeed, false.

While in office, Trump packed the court and government agencies with partisan, unworthy shills loyal to him instead of our system of governance. Few have done the right thing and called him to account for his attempt to overthrow our government because they owe him and, in many cases, were part of that seditious conspiracy. 

So far, only foot soldiers involved in the conspiracy and insurrection have been arrested and charged. This process is ongoing. Hundreds of insurrectionists have been charged. More than a thousand people have been interviewed. But the real movers and shakers behind the conspiracy, the ones who bear the MOST responsibility, have gone free and mostly untouched, thanks, in large part, to the court packing and placement of Trump allies in key government positions. 

I do not need to provide the storylines and details behind this situation because the facts are available to everyone, provided one is interested in the actual news, rather than nutty conspiracy theories dished out by entertainers and callow, power-mad politicians.

Powerful Washington  players admit the truth behind the scenes, but they dutifully follow Trump in public, including his daughter, Ivanka. This is where it gets interesting for me personally and gives me something to think about with regard to the influence of family members on one another. Ivanka Trump knew that Bill Barr was right and that Trump's story about the election being stolen from him was a lie. (Trump himself knew he did not win.) But in public, Ivanka kept up the façade. 

SAINT AMELBERGA'S FAMILY

As I have mentioned before, it is not unusual for saints to run in families, just as it is common for liars to proliferate in other types of families. The values and aspirations of family members are communicated to descendants and, while there is no guarantee that everyone in a devout family will be of good character, I find it very interesting to study these holy families. I often imagine what it would have been like if my father and mother had been less narcissistic and had stayed together and taken us girls to church. I like to imagine that my dozens of sainted ancestors and cousins may have been praying for me, in order to make up for the deficits of my immediate family.

Therese of Lisieux is a member of one of these distinguished families. As a Carmelite saint, she is one of my favorites.

Saint Therese of Lisieux

Saint Amelberga was said to be either the niece or the sister of Blessed Pepin of Landen, my 39th great grandfather, making her my first cousin, 39 or 40 times removed. Due to the dates of death, I veer more toward her being the niece of Blessed Pepin.

Blessed Pepin had three children who were sainted: 

Saint Begga of Landen, my 39th great grandmother
Saint Bavo, aka "Allowin," my 38th great uncle
Saint Gertrude of Nivelles, "my 38th great aunt

My 39th Great Grandfather,

Blessed Pepin I and wife

Saint Itta

Blessed Pepin was, like Donald Trump, a political figure, but instead of lying, manipulating and inciting violence in order to grab power, as Trump did, Blessed Pepin falls on the side of holiness. 

The historical record shows that, at great risk to himself, Pepin took the king to task for his adulterous lifestyle, resulting in temporary banishment from court. Trump, in comparison, is a proudly vulgar man who bragged about grabbing women by their genitals and was credibly accused of rape and sexual assault by nearly 20 women, 17 of whom sued him in a court of law. His comment that if Ivanka was not his daughter, he would be dating her, gave most responsible mothers the shivers.

Pepin suffered for his holiness but would not abandon his principles in order to retain power, whereas Trump and his cronies are willing to resort to violence and fraud. Even today, Trump is loudly proclaiming the fantasy that he won the last election by a landslide and that it was "stolen" from him. Even his family knows it is a lie, but they present a united front to their fans.

Pepin defended the interests of the Church and worked to promote the spread of Christianity, rather than the spread of conspiracy theories that the loudly vocal far right wing is now doing.

Amelberga, as a member of this illustrious and holy family, had a lot of beautiful examples to follow. All five of her children were declared saints. She and her husband each retired to monasteries after the birth of the youngest. Amelberga was given the veil by Saint Willibrord of Echternach, who himself was the son of ANOTHER saint. (Another family dotted with saints!)

Not a lot is known about these early saints of the 7th century. Amelberga is a patron saint known to protect people from arm pain, bruises and fever! Sounds like a good saint for those inclined to sports injuries!

Saint Gudula

One of Amelberga's daughters

CONFUSION ABOUT SAINTS AND THE MYSTICS

A friend of mine recently suggested that I try to make friends with other like-minded Catholics with an interest in prayer and the mystics, but every time I join one of the groups I find the strangest things posted there. I have had to leave the last Catholic group today. The posts sound more like THE OCCULT than Catholic mystics. The most recent was a long exhortation about how the author hunts and kills DEMONS from people's houses and other locations. More than a bit frightening.  I don't like to think about Satan or his demons and stay as far away from them as possible, including keeping my mind on God, our Blessed Mother, the angels and the saints instead. 

In many of these groups, Catholics proclaim the bizarre and untrue idea that all the other religions are "Satanic." They think this of the New Age religions in particular, but also believe it of Hinduism and Buddhism, and it simply is not true. In fact, our Catholic Catechism says right in there that if someone behaves like a Christian, he or she is actually a part of the faith, unbeknownst to even themselves!

There are plenty of saintly people of other religions whose virtue is easy to recognize.

Our dear Lord is not as stupid as some people make Him out to be. He sees into people's hearts and knows when someone is sincerely seeking Truth. Our Lord, who is all beauty, all truth, all blessedness certainly recognizes the sincere heart!

Many folks have been turned away from the Catholic faith by the exclusiveness of some Catholics. I myself was turned away in the late 1980's because I had been divorced 13 years previously. That is NOT the rule of The Church, but I've told that story before, so there is no need to go into it again here.

Other people have been repelled by The Church's many scandals. It is our own fault if they go to other religions when they see how we have hidden the child molesters and protected them.  If anything, we should be humble. Instead, we sashay around the internet blabbing about how other religions are "satanic." It is ludicrous.

Well, it is a difficult time for us all, and we need to hold onto the Lord as best we can. In addition to my gradually increasing daily pains, I am in the midst of a struggle to maintain my apartment in the face of some really unjust rental increases that the City of Albuquerque has laid onto the backs of the poor (me among them.) On top of that, they have told me they are removing my access to my parking and my garage, impeding my ability to leave and enter my residence. Please pray for me, as I pray for you.

God bless us all!

Silver Rose

THE BLOG RESTS

 

Father Bede Griffiths, Catholic priest

and

one of his Sannyasinis (Indian style renunciate nun)

    Over the last decade, I have just loved researching the saints, writing about them and about the hermit life, and I have always looked forward to writing each post, despite the many hours of real work that each one entails. It has been a labor of love.

    It was not my idea to start this blog, however. A friend of mine from my Vedanta days encouraged me to write it, but I think she probably envisaged something more contemporary and argumentative - and specifically something that would generate some type of income.

    I subsequently learned, however, that an automatic income would only come through "monetizing" my blog, which would allow advertisements chosen by this platform to be displayed over my blog, and I could not bear the idea.  First of all, advertisements are ugly. They do not match the aesthetics I have chosen for this publication. They offend my eyes and diminish whatever message I choose to offer in the midst of the verbiage.

    Instead, I chose to request donations, leaving it to the discretion of the reader as to what they could afford, but only a very few of my many readers ever donated - except for one lovely woman who said she lived in Ireland, who donated, then became enraged when she understood that I do not support Donald Trump. Why someone in the U.K. would be so invested in an American political figure is beyond me, but she felt that my disapproval of him was a personal affront against her. She became highly offended, and told me off furiously. None of this made any logical sense to me, but this is the condition of our world at this moment.

    Readers should donate, in response to the incredible amount of work that goes into unique and well-researched posts, as well as for the sake of simple Christian charity. But  I imagine that people have grown accustomed to getting many things for free on the internet, and I am not oblivious to the fact that the disparity of income in our country, though the worst of all the industrialized nations, is increasing in severity all the time. Many folks are scrabbling, just to survive. If I can help them survive in a serene way, this influence of serenity is part of what I want to incorporate into all my public dealings.

    Although I am not focused on contemporary news and politics, if I have anything to say on those topic, I will say it on Facebook under the moniker of "The Occasional Hermit," since the newsy posts will, fittingly, disappear in time to make room for newer items in the feed. See my Facebook page for those kind of topics, with the exception of weighty topics of more longstanding import.

Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady of Ocotlan

    One thing I learned from my decades of meditation is that where you place your mind's eye is where you take yourself, and if you concentrate on God, you get God.  That's all there is to it. If you concentrate on the other guy, you're going to get him. It's like driving a car. You have to look out the windshield in front of you to get yourself where you are going, while only glancing through the other windows on occasion to ensure that no one is about to crash into you, or vice versa.

    I am not giving up the blog entirely. Sometimes it will be necessary to warn people off dangerous religious fads and to correct the record when a conspiracy theory is floated about, say, the Pope, for instance, at which time I may return here and put in my two cents worth. But it can't be a daily thing. I have other things to do.

Our Lady of Sorrows

    I have quit this blog a couple times in the past, and came back to it eventually because the work of getting to know the various saints I have researched has been interesting to me. I loved the whole process of becoming more familiar, and drawing closer to a life of holiness that I could use as an example for mine.

    The research and the writing of these blogs, combined with the complexity of keeping myself physically alive, have taken up so much of my  time that I have not been able to finish the books I have started, so I am going to focus on those books until I get at least ONE finished and edited. Occasionally, I will return to this blog.

    If this blog had helped me support the hermitage, that would have been a different matter and, to be fair, I had no way of knowing whether or not it would do that.  Now that I know that it will not, it is time to reassess.

Saint Kinga of Poland

Relative

    I am conducting a review of the blog entries I have posted over the last decade and removing many of them, especially those that relate to "current" events, and relegating them to the "unpublished" category. 

    I remind everyone that posts about the saints are my intellectual work product and belong to me. While you are welcome to make note of factual material, such as birth and death dates, you may not copy the blog post for any purpose. If you would like to quote from my work, you may contact me in the comment section of this blog and we can discuss.

    I will still be available to moderate the comments on the blog, though I don't expect there will be many. The donate button (below my photograph at the top of the right column) will remain in hopeful active status.

    Saint Adela of Normandy

Relative

    Obviously, my primary occupation is my contemplative life, but, other than the occasional article written for this venue, I will be continuing work on my books and my haiku poetry. In addition, I have resumed a painting career that I left behind when I began to go blind. I have managed to keep the vision in one eye (thanks be to God!) and I am slowly learning how to paint in mono-vision, with no depth perception! 

    When I have a decent number of paintings available for sale, I anticipate creating another blog for those things and will also announce it here. The painting blog MAY be combined with the author blog for my novels, but I have not yet decided. 

    As always, you may contact me through my Facebook page. You can put a comment on any of my posts, but if you want to send me a private message, I will always take a look at my message requests, eventually.

    The donation button remains active, though a bit dusty and rusty.

    Thank you for reading. I wish you the very best, and God bless you all. You are in my prayers.

Silver Rose

FATHER FRANK PAVONE AND HIS OBSESSION

I wish that American Catholics were as enthusiastic and one-pointed about evangelizing the culture with the beautiful faith of Christ as they are about pursuing political remedies for abortion. It looks very much as if one aspect of an enormous and hugely nuanced and modulated faith has been surgically excised and then soaked in a Republican bath, like a piece of lime floating in a gin and tonic - with plenty of ice.

For the sake of the unlikely possibility that America will return to the days when abortion was illegal, the "pro-life" movement is ignoring every other aspect of a truly pro-life philosophy and have put into office cruel and brutal despots who seem to care more about hurting vulnerable people, especially the poor, and in helping the handful of billionaires becoming more rich and powerful than in doing anything else.

Outlawing abortion is one proposed method of supposedly eliminating abortion. Someone, somewhere along the way decided that "pro-life" meant only and exclusively that one was devoted to making abortion illegal. People who advance this devotion to this particular method call themselves "the pro-life movement," but that is a misnomer.

Outlawing abortion is a piece of a fruit which is a piece of a tree, and it is not even the only fruit of that tree. It is one of many fruits produced by the tree. Without the tree, the fruits would not exist, and if you were to produce such a fruit out of thin air, in some magical fashion, it would not make sense if one did not know that there was such a thing as a tree that produced it.

Catholicism is pro-life, but not in this miserably truncated sense of "pro-life" being ONLY the pursuit of a law that outlaws abortion.

In the context of Catholic faith, a "pro-life" orientation encompasses an enormous number of factors. After all, the subject of "life" is not easily reduced, is it?

For instance, the health of people and the life of the planet, in general, are obviously factors in a global and cohesive "pro life" outlook, but these are issues to which the "pro-life leaders" are hostile. Since "pro-life" Trump has been in office, he has ripped away many safety regulations that affect all life on the planet - and not just the ones that directly speak to climate change.  I could write 12 blogs about those measures alone.

Everyone having enough food is another pro-life topic. One in six children in America don't have enough to eat.  Throughout the Bible, we are told that we should feed the hungry and clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, love our neighbor and enemy alike, befriend the alien and visit the prisoners - but the Republican platform does the opposite of all that, while at the same time claiming to be the party of life!

Modern Republicans CUT food stamps and seek to cut more - while children go hungry. In fact, they encourage their minions to look down on the hungry children of poor people, claiming that the poor are just lazy. We are back to the days of Ronald Reagan, who inveighed against "welfare queens" and their families, routinely criticizing women having more children which Republicans claim they are only doing for the purpose of getting a bump in their welfare checks. This is NOT pro-life! None of it! At this point in history, the only people who benefit from Republican governance are the very wealthy white men at the top of the pyramid, which is exactly why Republicans desperately need abortion to remain legal, because the campaign to outlaw it is the only tool they have in their arsenal. It is the only way they can get the poor and middle class to vote against their own best interests.

While I write this, a bill is being introduced to cut medicaid again - something Trump promised NOT to do when he campaigned. The only program available to help poor, disabled seniors who make between $1,000 and $2,000 a month, the Medicaid Waiver program for disabled people, will be one of the first programs cut, if Trump succeeds. Millions of grandmas and grandpas will suffer. Today, as one of those grandmas, I am going without one of my medications because it costs $450.00 a month and there is no substitute. I am praying that I get approved for this program, which is a long, complex process full of red tape which, even if I qualify, will have to be repeated in only a year because there is very little money available for these programs and Americans are obsessed with the idea that there are "millions" of grandmas "gaming the system." It isn't true, but Americans are being encouraged to compete against and vilify one another.

The first thing Trump did, out of the gate, was to ban certain types of people from coming here (Muslims), followed quickly on its heels with a "zero tolerance policy" that was deliberately calculated to discourage refugees from coming over our borders, resulting in thousands of brown children being ripped out of their families and incarcerated in cramped cages in hastily erected detention camps where other children are caring for babies, viruses are endemic and untreated, and children sleep on cement floors behind barbed wire. The government refuses to give flu shots to these kids who are living in cramped, crowded conditions. It reminds me of our treatment of Native Americans, when we gave them pox-infected blankets.

There are some fake memes being circulated that claim that President Obama did this "first," but it is as close to a lie as you can get. Obama did not treat every refugee as a criminal, but where criminals with previous known crimes DID step across our borders, he did incarcerate and eventually deport them. In fact, he was called the "Deporter in Chief." Obviously, the children of the incarcerated alien could not accompany him to jail, so there were a few children who had to be taken care of - but nowhere near the numbers we have now, and not under current unhealthful conditions.

[I would insert a note, here, that it isn't the idea that our borders should be safe and protected to which the more liberal population objects. NO. Everyone wants our borders protected. It is the manner in which it is done that is at issue. Trump is fond of spreading the lie that Democrats want "open borders" and a free-for-all. That claim is just stupid.]

Watch the Jeff Sessions video HERE

Jeff Sessions announced the new policy and plainly said that children would be removed from their families in an effort to deter refugees from coming here, and that, if families do not want their children taken from them, they should stay home - as if all these poor people, fleeing for their lives from gangs and corrupt governments, are sitting in their homes watching television and heeding his words!

Thanks to Trump's "zero tolerance policy," we have had something like 4,000 children in our custody. A judge has ordered them returned, and some have been, but the program was so poorly administered, we do not know where some of the parents are. Many children will never see their families again. This is an horrific "pro-life" cause that needs to be addressed but which the "pro life movement" is either ignoring or defending, saying that it is "the parents' fault" that we stuffed them into cages. Not true.

"Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer

stiff-necked. For the LORD, your God, is the God of

gods, the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and

awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes;

who executes justice for the orphan and the widow,

and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him.

So you too must befriend the alien, for you were 

once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt."

Deuteronomy 10

The pursuit of justice so that authoritarian regimes do not go hog wild and start killing the citizenry is another pro-life concern ignored by the self-named "pro-life movement." Even forgiveness and prayer for one's enemies slips into this category, since the escalation of hostilities, if allowed to progress in the heat of the moment, can (and sometimes does) become armed conflict that kills people. Even the restraint of the tongue has a place in this "pro-life" orientation because what one says is very important and can exacerbate a situation to the point where it endangers the lives of people.

"I tell you on the day of judgment, you will have to 

give an account for every careless word you utter." 

Matthew 12:36

"Pro life" Trump's vulgar tongue, his misogynistic, prejudiced taunts are often taken up by his followers and spat out upon everyone in their vicinity - online and in person. Disabled people are not immune to his filth, enduring taunts, jeering and mimicking. Even I have experienced discrimination at the hands of a Trump follower who told me, "I believe in Trump's law. If you don't have two arms cut off or two legs cut off, you aren't disabled." This man, an employee at the Smiths on Constitution and Carlyle in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ridiculed me for not being visibly disabled, told me there are "too many of you" (disabled people) and when I asked him how we disabled people were supposed to do our shopping if we couldn't park in handicap parking, he said to me, "I guess you won't." He was stone cold in his approach, and exceedingly arrogant, treating me as if I was a scam artist he was ferreting out. Trump nation.

Frank Pavone campaigns for Republicans and defends all of the above, in defiance of specific norms and rules against promoting political parties that have long been established by the curia. It makes him a "hero" to his followers, but his superiors have an entirely different perspective.

I could go on for a few pages with examples of different aspects of a pro-life philosophy that are being ignored by the "pro-life movement." Homelessness comes to mind.

"You shall give generously to [your poor brother] and

your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him,

because for this thing the LORD your God will bless

you in all your work and in all your undertakings."

† Deut. 15:10 †

The primary fallacy in the "logic" of the pro-life movement is this: In addition to ignoring all but one pro-life cause, they are completely ignoring the root cause of the one aspect of "life" they care about - the abortion crisis in America. Women do not have abortions because they are legal. They have them because, for some reason, they believe they need one. When abortion was illegal, there were still plenty of abortions being done. They were just being performed under cover of darkness; hidden, dangerous and expensive. Many times, both woman and child were killed. Often, the woman suffered damage to her reproductive organs and could never bear children again. None of that is "pro life."

If no one felt the need for an abortion, there could be an abortuary on every corner and they would all stand empty. There would be no "customers."

Clearly, the fact that abortion is legal is not the cause of abortion.

We could debate, at length, what exactly IS the cause, but that's not the purpose of this blog post. One cannot do the topic proper justice in a blog post. Research, canvassing, facts, studies and statistics that prove the causal relationships are what is required - and none of that is easy or quick or simple.

Evangelization isn't simple either. I am seeing a theme here.

Our elegant, thoughtful, faith-inspired, nuanced, complex, many-layered faith has been turned into a hammer with the hyper-focus, one could even say the obsession, surrounding a proposed political "solution" that isn't likely to be achieved and wouldn't accomplish the stated aim anyway. Why?

It seems fairly obvious to many of us that the Republican Party, in a cynical attempt to grab and keep power, has convinced a segment of the American population that if they vote Republican, then the Republicans will outlaw abortion and everyone can congratulate themselves that they've won a war for Jesus.

By enforcing the ideas that (1) the legal availability of abortion is the cause of abortions; (2) a "pro-life" orientation only pertains to whether or not abortion is illegal; (3) the Republicans are the only party that says it is "pro-life," and (4) you therefore HAVE to vote for them if you are Christian, the Republican Party has latched onto a huge segment of Americans.  If you take apart their faulty logic, which is excruciatingly easy to do, it is clear that their vise-like grip on Christians is based on a pack of self-serving lies. A 2008 article from "America - The Jesuit Review" discusses this in part, HERE in a piece titled "Voting One's Conscience."

Our popes have tried to get us back on track with this topic, discouraging priests and others from aligning themselves with political parties instead of The Church, but the propaganda arm of the GOP is far better than that of The Church, which is suffering a crisis of confidence in the wake of horrific child-abuse and sex scandals. The Republicans are the ones who are telling us that no good "Christian" can vote for anyone other than a Republican and still be in obedience to the faith. That isn't true, of course. Our popes tell us this isn't true, but the prospect of being a "pro-life" crusader for Christ is too tantalizing and, instead of heeding the teachings of The Church, many Catholics look to the Republicans to define their faith and morals for them.

"A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil,

and so unworthy to present himself for holy communion,

if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely

because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion

and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a

candidate's stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia,

but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is con-

sidered remote material cooperation, which can be

permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons."

~ Pope Benedict XVI ~

As a result of trading in their faith for a political party, Catholics and Christians of every stripe have begun to treat political figures like demi-gods, giving them the same reverence and awe that they used to slaver onto priests, bishops and popes. Despite the fact that Donald Trump's actions and words are the antithesis of Christian teaching, he is being treated like the savior of the world. Rumors abound, to the effect that he is the leader who will set into motion the great "End Times" that includes the second coming of Christ.

Popes, bishops and priests who try to re-direct the attention of their flock and who point out the flaws in the words and actions of these political leaders are attacked by the "faithful," denigrated and slandered, while the few priests who cater to the so-called "pro-life" movement are turned into superstar "saints" who are, for all intents and purposes, given carte blanche by lay people to behave as they like, and who sometimes buy into the adulation of the masses.

This is what has happened to Frank Pavone, who, since 2011, has been in hot water with his superiors and became more and more an authority unto himself, culminating in an horrific sacrilege of incorporating the body of a dead aborted baby into a sacred mass in which he placed the dead body on the altar in November of 2016 as a political stunt calculated to steer Catholics toward voting for Donald Trump.




[This photograph, from the video, is CENSORED because it shows the corpse of a dead fetus that he had displayed on the altar, in an alarmingly sacrilegious manipulation designed to grip the emotions of Catholics.]

"We have to decide if we will allow this child killing

to continue in America or not. Hillary Clinton and 

the Democratic platform says yes, let the child-killing

continue (and you pay for it); Donald Trump and the

Republican platform says no, the child should be

protected." 

Fr. Frank Pavone

Pavone had been given the baby's body by a pathologist who had been routinely tasked with its disposition. Rather than have the child "disposed of" as medical waste, like an amputated arm or an unwanted cancer, he gave it to Father Pavone for the express purpose of burying the child, but Pavone did not do that. Instead, Pavone began a series of carnival-style mockeries of a sacred mass, even going so far as to live-stream and videotape and post it on Facebook. The photo, above, is a still picture from that video. The 44-minute long video also shows him elevating a poster that displays graphic abortion methods. (This video has been subsequently removed, I believe, from Facebook, though I have no doubt you can find a copy somewhere on the internet. Nothing is really erased from the internet.)

Priests are specifically enjoined from working on behalf of any political party or candidate, but Pavone went rogue, long ago, urged on by the fawning sycophancy of his followers. This is what happens when you isolate and remove one piece of a philosophy. It turns into a fetish.

To this day, it does not appear that the baby's body has been buried. Instead, it is apparent that Pavone is keeping it for possible further use in his propaganda campaigns. That poor baby has no rest, unless you think floating in a chemical solution in a glass jar  in some back room of a church constitutes being put "at rest.'

In response to an onslaught of complaints about the dead baby mass and its video, Pavone's diocese immediately began an investigation and issued a statement saying that "Priests for Life" is not a Catholic organization and not under their control and that the mass using the child and the posting of that video are "against the dignity of human life and is a desecration of the altar."

"The Diocese of Amarillon deeply regrets the offense

and outrage caused by the video for the faithful and

the community at large. The action and presentation

of Father Pavone in this video is not consistent with

the beliefs of the Catholic Church."

~ Bishop Patrick J. Zurek ~

As early as 2011, Pavone had already been recalled to his diocese and suspended from priestly functions outside the diocese to answer for his lack of transparency with regard to the finances of his pro-life organization and his refusal to cooperate with his superiors when asked.

"Whatever set this conflict off, it's unfolding has exposed, 

in my opinion, a deficient attitude from Fr. Pavone in regard 

to the clerical obedience he owes his bishop and even in his 

understanding of the purpose of priesthood."

~ Edward Peters, Canon Lawyer ~

Most recently, I see that his insubordination has grown in leaps and bounds. When asked the name of his current bishop, he refuses to give it but asks, instead, "you mean my slave master?"

I have listed some of my sources, below. If you read the post on Patheos by Mary Pezzulo, there is  good reason to believe that Pavone is in possession of two baby corpses that died in the late 1970s and that he is using them in his traveling horror show.

In the post from Keith Michael Estrada, Also on Patheos, there is a timeline of events that will be helpful in understanding what has happened, over time, with this renegade priest and his minions.

My position, if you haven't figured it out yet is that we should not be sacrificing every other part of our religion for the sake of pursuing the dream of making abortion illegal.  The ghoulish carnival barker in a priest collar who uses the bodies of dead babies to win converts to Trumpian Republicanism misrepresents the faith and shouldn't be followed by the laity under any circumstances. Lauding this misguided man will help to ruin him and the faithful should just stop doing it.

In addition, we need to wake up to the fact that our horrifying "pro life" trade-off in which we have traded our entire religion for the sake of making abortion illegal, has resulted in the installation of a fascist government that is hostile to life, in general, and, if not curtailed soon, may be responsible for the death of all life on our planet. It sounds extreme, but this is where we are. Climate change is altering the planet rapidly while, at the same time, American democracy is falling off the rails, thanks to an insane and brutally dangerous occupant of the Oval Office, who is being supported and encouraged by a Republican Party that has orchestrated a fetishized, cynical propaganda campaign, using a bastardized vision of faith as a tool.

By removing crucial regulations, backing out from the climate accord, denying science, and allowing big donors to pillage the earth, Trump is making the earth an unfit home. Topping this off with more tax cuts for the ultra rich coming down the pike, combined with more cuts to an already inadequate and failing social safety net, the effects will be catastrophic - and very soon.

It isn't just the types of policies that are dangerous, it is Trump's methods, redolent of the abuse of office and brutality most often found in third world banana republics with primitive dictators at the helm. Whoever dares to even utter a word of disapproval is walked out of the government offices under armed guard. Often their relatives are also made to suffer, such as the case of Lt. Col. Vindman, the highly decorated officer who obeyed a congressional subpoena and gave testimony during Trump's impeachment hearing in the House. His twin brother, who had nothing to do with any of this, was walked out with him, in a very public retaliation, calculated to put fear into the hearts of anyone on The Hill who might have thoughts of opening their mouths and speaking Truth or advocating for justice and the rule of law.

Fortunately, some members of the intelligence community, which is being aggressively hollowed out by Trump's retaliations and slander, are fighting back. But when the guy at the top of the pile is calling out their wives BY NAME and thereby threatening her and the children - publicly - it can give you pause.

All of this is right out of the authoritarian playbook. Hitler and others have used these methods. Lies, slander, fear, retaliation, brutality; all of these are common to the dictator.

Frank Pavone is enabling all of it, offering up his Catholic followers in the same way he offered up that dead baby on the altar. All of it is obscene and none of it is endorsed by the Catholic Church. As mentioned before, his supervisors and all the ecclesial authorities above them have tried, and failed to rein him in. His bishop has objected to Pavon's "incorrigible defiance of my legitimate authority as his bishop," but Pavone is emboldened by the adulation of the crowd and has not shown any sign that he has taken to heart the attempts of his superiors to guide him.

It won't matter, even if Pavone could somehow get a law passed, outlawing abortion. We are all going to be dead before long, anyway, if the natural results of the Trump Administrations removal of regulations and sanctions have their natural result. Scientists have said we have about ten years in which to turn this toxic boat around. After that, it goes over the waterfall. Human beings, animals, trees, plants, insects - even the cockroaches. We'll all be dead. Not very pro-lifey, if you ask me.

Silver Rose
Sannyasini Kaliprana
(c) Copyright 2020, All rights reserved.

TIMELINE OF SOURCES, IN ORDER OF PUBLICATION DATE

September 9, 2011
Letter to U.S. cardinals and bishops from Msgr. Harold Waldow, of Amarillo Diocese suspending Pavone from "public ministry outside of the Diocese of Amarillo" (online copy)
LINK HERE

September 13, 2011
Fr. Pavone appeals suspension by his bishop to Rome
Catholic News Agency
by Michelle Bauman
LINK HERE

September 29, 2011
Canon lawyer analyzes issues in Fr. Pavone case
Clerical Whispers
LINK HERE

January 19, 2012:
Amarillo bishop suspends Father Pavone's activities outside the diocese
Archdiocese of Baltimore article
LINK HERE

November 7, 2016
A Catholic priest put an aborted fetus on the altar in an appeal for Donald Trump
The Washington Post - Acts of Faith
by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, reporter
LINK HERE

November 8, 2016
Fr. Frank Pavone uses aborted fetus in message for Election Day
National Catholic Reporter
by Brian Roewe
LINK HERE

Nov 8, 2016
Breaking: Diocese of Amarillo opens investigation into Fr. Pavone's actions; Decries video as "against the dignity of human life and is a desecration of the altar."
Aleteia
LINK HERE

November 9, 2016
Bishop launches probe of priest who posed with fetus on the altar
Religion News Service - Beliefs column
by David Gibson
LINK HERE

November 15, 2016
A scary, confusing timeline: The child (ab/mis)used by Father Frank Pavone
Patheos
Proper Nomenclature by Keith Michael Estrada
LINK HERE

October 16, 2019:
Diocese of Amarillo: Pavone Not a Priest in Good Standing
Patheos
Steel Magnificat; Everything is Grace
by Mary Pezzulo
LINK HERE