"Pro-lifers don't care about babies/people after they are born"

Delivering supplies for immigrants



Clothes for the poor












Catholic Charities Drug Rehab Program (free)






Pax et bonum

Welcome to Gubbio

On Tuesday night, Gubbio joined our family.

 

We discovered him last Saturday when, just by happenstance, we'd stopped at a store to get some supplies for our bird feeder, and a German Shepherd rescue group was on site with some available dogs. The Good Looking One fell in love with Gubbio.

The name comes from the story of "St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio." The wolf had been attacking people and farm animals around the town of Gubbio, and St. Francis worked out an arrangements between the wolf and the townspeople. If they feed the wolf it won't attack them or their animals. Apparently the wolf eventually became almost like a pet to the town, and its remains are still preserved there.

 We had been looking for a a new dog after the loss of our beloved Ruby in September. We hadn't expected it to be a puppy - Gubbio is only about 12-weeks-old.

Ahh, housebreaking.

He's still not old enough to take for walks, or even to have all of his shots yet. I look forward to those walks.

Pax et bonum

A Game of Chicken? (Chick-fil-A)

Chick-fil-A
still honors the Sabbath day.
Alas, though, it caused its fans to sicken
when in the face of LGBT pressure the company turned chicken.

Pax et bonum

Mother Teresa - Be Faithful

Pax et bonum

Oh, those Democrats

Pax et bonum

You never know ...

 

DNA tests show

amid European roots

non-human traces

Pax et bonum

The Tau Is Our Habit

Saturday night I was at my school for the middle school play (I was the director). As I walked out from backstage before the play, a couple approached me and asked if I was a Secular Franciscan. I was wearing my Tau Cross in plain sight. They had Tau Crosses as well, and it turned out they were from a fraternity in Syracuse. We chatted for a while about our respective fraternities, and about the Secular Franciscan Order. Then I had to get back to getting ready for the performance (though we did talk briefly after the play as well; their granddaughter was in the cast.)

The moment was possible only because we were visibly wearing our habits - the Tau. That is exactly what the Tau is in the United States under the revised Rule of 1978.

Our habit.

As Secular Franciscans, we are supposed to wear the Tau wherever we are. At work. Shopping. While at plays or sports events or concerts, and so on. It is not just something we put on for fraternity gatherings.

Again, it is our habit..

As in the above situation, it allows Secular Franciscans to recognize each other. I have been in other situations in which the Tau has elicited questions from people, providing an opportunity to proselytize.

There may be some situations where we are not allowed to wear the Tau on a cord for safety reasons, such as when working with machinery. There may be work situations where (sadly) we are not allowed to openly display religious symbols. I used to work at a fundamentalist Christian school where such "Catholic" symbols were not allowed, for example. That's why I got in the habit of wearing a Tau lapel pin. I had it on, but it was just not visible.

But those are the exceptions. Anyone who is a Secular Franciscan should have a visible Tau. If a Franciscan is in situations where he or she could wear one, but do not do so, then one has to wonder why. Did the person lose his or her Tau and can't afford another? Forgetfulness? Bad habit? Ignorance? Not taking his or her vocation seriously?

As for me, I would feel naked without my Tau. I want all the world to know I am a Secular Franciscan.

Pax et bonum

All those years

All those years searching
for how it came to be led
him to sense a Who.

Pax et bonum

Some Recent Scifaiku And Horrorku

He felt odd eating
the creature that had eaten
fellow colonists.

That first, long winter
survivors were grateful for
cryo tube contents

In her last moment
she suddenly recognized
the werewolf's cologne.

through the rubble
a three-legged dog carries
a humerus

Pax et bonum