Saint John Bosco (Secular Franciscan)

Saint John Bosco

John Bosco’s theory of education could well be used in today’s schools. It was a preventive system, rejecting corporal punishment and placing students in surroundings removed from the likelihood of committing sin. He advocated frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. He combined catechetical training and fatherly guidance, seeking to unite the spiritual life with one’s work, study and play.

Encouraged during his youth in Turin to become a priest so he could work with young boys, John was ordained in 1841. His service to young people started when he met a poor orphan in Turin, and instructed him in preparation for receiving Holy Communion. He then gathered young apprentices and taught them catechism.

After serving as chaplain in a hospice for working girls, Don Bosco opened the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales for boys. Several wealthy and powerful patrons contributed money, enabling him to provide two workshops for the boys, shoemaking and tailoring.

By 1856, the institution had grown to 150 boys and had added a printing press for publication of religious and catechetical pamphlets. John’s interest in vocational education and publishing justify him as patron of young apprentices and Catholic publishers.

John’s preaching fame spread and by 1850 he had trained his own helpers because of difficulties in retaining young priests. In 1854, he and his followers informally banded together, inspired by Saint Francis de Sales.

With Pope Pius IX’s encouragement, John gathered 17 men and founded the Salesians in 1859. Their activity concentrated on education and mission work. Later, he organized a group of Salesian Sisters to assist girls.

- From Franciscan Media

Pax et bonum

Sigh

A few weeks back I floated the idea of creating an alternative Catholic/Pro-life news outlet to cover stories that don't get covered.

I even got in touch with someone who might be able to help create an online site for the articles, and did a couple of interviews for one article.

But an old bugaboo has surfaced its head.

I am an extremely introverted reserved person. It's a strain for me to interact with a lot of people, and especially with people I don't know. This is one of the things that has kept me from performing my music as a solo performer in clubs and bars. This is one of the major factors that lead me not become a priest; when I was in the seminary the crowds that came for seminary Masses and the required socializing after made me very uncomfortable.

When it comes to my news outlet idea, the thought of contacting and interviewing people made me freeze up.

I'm good at coming up with ideas or working behind the scenes, but not with implementing or being the front person and the center of attention.

Yes, I've acted in plays, been Santa, played in music groups, and taught for 25 years. But in all those cases I was playing roles; I could hide behind those roles.

When I was a reporter, I had to screw up my courage to call people. Once I called or went to see them I was okay, but getting to that point was stressful.

It's only gotten worse as I've gotten older. I more and more prefer not to be around people.

Maybe there;'s a reason why I like Emily Dickinson so much!

I have other writing projects - the Santa book, the poetry. I need to focus on them.

Pax et bonum

Servant of God Brother Juniper

Servant of God Brother Juniper

“Would to God, my brothers, I had a whole forest of such Junipers,” said Francis of this holy friar.

We don’t know much about Juniper before he joined the friars in 1210. Francis sent him to establish “places” for the friars in Gualdo Tadino and Viterbo. When Saint Clare was dying, Juniper consoled her. He was devoted to the passion of Jesus and was known for his simplicity.

Several stories about Juniper in the Little Flowers of St. Francis illustrate his exasperating generosity. Once Juniper was taking care of a sick man who had a craving to eat pig’s feet. This helpful friar went to a nearby field, captured a pig and cut off one foot, and then served this meal to the sick man. The owner of the pig was furious and immediately went to Juniper’s superior. When Juniper saw his mistake, he apologized profusely. He also ended up talking this angry man into donating the rest of the pig to the friars!

Another time Juniper had been commanded to quit giving part of his clothing to the half-naked people he met on the road. Desiring to obey his superior, Juniper once told a man in need that he couldn’t give the man his tunic, but he wouldn’t prevent the man from taking it either. In time, the friars learned not to leave anything lying around, for Juniper would probably give it away.

He died in 1258 and is buried at Ara Coeli Church in Rome.

- From Franciscan Media
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That Santa Book

Work continues on my Santa book - Santa's Diary is the working title.

I've combined together some posts from another blog I had, adding details and dialogue as I go. I'm also creating some new characters.

I'm pleased with the direction so far.

Pax et bonum

Saint Angela Merici

Saint Angela Merici

Angela Merici has the double distinction of founding the first of what are now called “secular institutes” and the first teaching order of women in the Church.

Born in Desenzano, Italy, she was orphaned in her teens. As  a young woman, with her heart centered on Christ, Angela joined the Third Order of St. Francis and embraced austerity. In a visionary experience, she felt called to found a “company” of women.

Angela was invited to become a live-in companion for a widow in the nearby town of Brescia. There she became the spiritual advisor of a group of men and women with ideals of spiritual renewal and service to those in need. While on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1524, Angela was struck with blindness. She proceeded to visit the sacred shrines, seeing them with her spirit. On the way back while praying before a crucifix, Angela's sight was restored.

At age 60, Angela and 12 other women began the Company of St. Ursula, named for a patroness of medieval universities and venerated as a leader of women. This constituted a new way of life: single women consecrated to Christ and living in the world rather than in a monastery. With Angela as their "mother and mistress," Company members did not live in community, wore no special clothing, and made no formal vows.

Angela Merici died in Brescia, Italy, in 1540. Clothed in the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, her body was interred in Brescia's Church of Saint' Afra. Four years later the Company's Rule that Angela had composed, prescribing the practices of chastity, poverty and obedience, was approved by the pope.

In the early 1600s, Companies that had expanded into France were re-organized into the religious Order of St. Ursula, to teach girls. Angela’s words continue to inspire the Ursuline nuns’ mission of education, a mission that spread worldwide. The Company of St. Ursula also continued to exist and is federated worldwide today with members in 30 countries. Angela Merici was canonized by Pope Pius VII in 1807.

- From Franciscan Media

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Titus Andronicus

In my quest to read all of Shakespeare's plays, I read Titus Andronicus.

Wow.

Not only is it a terrible play, it's a precurser to slasher films.So much bloody, violent, disturbing action. Rape, murder, dismemberment, cannibalism. Ugh.

Clearly an early play by Shakespeare. I wonder if this was actually partly written by someone else, and maybe he just added some bits? 

If this is ever staged locally, I won't go!

I hope the 10 plays I have to go are better.

Pax et bonum

Saint Francis de Sales, Patron Saint of Writers, and Secular Franciscan

Saint Francis de Sales

Francis was destined by his father to be a lawyer so that the young man could eventually take his elder’s place as a senator from the province of Savoy in France. For this reason Francis was sent to Padua to study law. After receiving his doctorate, he returned home and, in due time, told his parents he wished to enter the priesthood. His father strongly opposed Francis in this, and only after much patient persuasiveness on the part of the gentle Francis did his father finally consent. Francis was ordained and elected provost of the Diocese of Geneva, then a center for the Calvinists. Francis set out to convert them, especially in the district of Chablais. By preaching and distributing the little pamphlets he wrote to explain true Catholic doctrine, he had remarkable success.

At 35, he became bishop of Geneva. While administering his diocese he continued to preach, hear confessions, and catechize the children. His gentle character was a great asset in winning souls. He practiced his own axiom, “A spoonful of honey attracts more flies than a barrelful of vinegar.”

Besides his two well-known books, the Introduction to the Devout Life and A Treatise on the Love of God, he wrote many pamphlets and carried on a vast correspondence. For his writings, he has been named patron of the Catholic Press. His writings, filled with his characteristic gentle spirit, are addressed to lay people. He wants to make them understand that they too are called to be saints. As he wrote in The Introduction to the Devout Life: “It is an error, or rather a heresy, to say devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman…. It has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world.”

In spite of his busy and comparatively short life, he had time to collaborate with another saint, Jane Frances de Chantal, in the work of establishing the Sisters of the Visitation. These women were to practice the virtues exemplified in Mary’s visit to Elizabeth: humility, piety, and mutual charity. They at first engaged to a limited degree in works of mercy for the poor and the sick. Today, while some communities conduct schools, others live a strictly contemplative life.

- From Franciscan Media

Pax et bonum

Saint Marianne Cope

Saint Marianne Cope

Though leprosy scared off most people in 19th-century Hawaii, that disease sparked great generosity in the woman who came to be known as Mother Marianne of Molokai. Her courage helped tremendously to improve the lives of its victims in Hawaii, a territory annexed to the United States during her lifetime (1898).

Mother Marianne’s generosity and courage were celebrated at her May 14, 2005, beatification in Rome. She was a woman who spoke “the language of truth and love” to the world, said Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. Cardinal Martins, who presided at the beatification Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, called her life “a wonderful work of divine grace.” Speaking of her special love for persons suffering from leprosy, he said, “She saw in them the suffering face of Jesus. Like the Good Samaritan, she became their mother.”

On January 23, 1838, a daughter was born to Peter and Barbara Cope of Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. The girl was named after her mother. Two years later the Cope family emigrated to the United States and settled in Utica, New York. Young Barbara worked in a factory until August 1862, when she went to the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York. After profession in November of the next year, she began teaching at Assumption parish school.

Marianne held the post of superior in several places and was twice the novice mistress of her congregation. A natural leader, three different times she was superior of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, where she learned much that would be useful during her years in Hawaii.

Elected provincial in 1877, Mother Marianne was unanimously re-elected in 1881. Two years later the Hawaiian government was searching for someone to run the Kakaako Receiving Station for people suspected of having leprosy. More than 50 religious communities in the United States and Canada were asked. When the request was put to the Syracuse sisters, 35 of them volunteered immediately. On October 22, 1883, Mother Marianne and six other sisters left for Hawaii where they took charge of the Kakaako Receiving Station outside Honolulu; on the island of Maui they also opened a hospital and a school for girls.

In 1888, Mother Marianne and two sisters went to Molokai to open a home for “unprotected women and girls” there. The Hawaiian government was quite hesitant to send women for this difficult assignment; they need not have worried about Mother Marianne! On Molokai she took charge of the home that Saint Damien de Veuster had established for men and boys. Mother Marianne changed life on Molokai by introducing cleanliness, pride, and fun to the colony. Bright scarves and pretty dresses for the women were part of her approach.

Awarded the Royal Order of Kapiolani by the Hawaiian government and celebrated in a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mother Marianne continued her work faithfully. Her sisters have attracted vocations among the Hawaiian people and still work on Molokai.

Mother Marianne died on August 9, 1918, was beatified in 2005, and canonized seven years later.

- From Franciscan Media

Pax et bonum

A Catholic Reading Challenge!

Pax et bonum

Stand Together For Life - Roe Anniversary

To mark the 49th Anniversary of Roe, more than 90 pro-lifer's braved single-digit temperatures and gathered January 22 at Rochester's Planned Parenthood to create a memorial for those affected by abortion, to display the ultrasound van that has now helped 17 women to realize the life within them, to pray, to sing, and to celebrate the failure of Planned Parenthood in its efforts to open a new abortion clinic in suburban Brighton.

Father Van Lieshout, the rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral, spoke to the crowd, urging them to keep fighting for life. 

People placed flowers at the shrine.  

Pax et bonum

Church Fathers on Abortion

THE DIDACHE

“The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child” (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]).


THE LETTER OF BARNABAS

“The way of light, then, is as follows. If anyone desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge, therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following. . . . Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born” (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).


THE APOCALYPSE OF PETER

“And near that place I saw another strait place . . . and there sat women. . . . And over against them many children who were born to them out of due time sat crying. And there came forth from them rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes. And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion” (The Apocalypse of Peter 25 [A.D. 137]).


ATHENAGORAS

“What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers? . . . [W]hen we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it” (A Plea for the Christians 35 [A.D. 177]).


TERTULLIAN

“In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed” (Apology 9:8 [A.D. 197]).

“Among surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery.

“There is also [another instrument in the shape of] a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: They give it, from its infanticide function, the name of embruosphaktes, [meaning] “the slayer of the infant,” which of course was alive. . . .

“[The doctors who performed abortions] all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and [they] pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive” (The Soul 25 [A.D. 210]).

“Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does” (ibid., 27).

“The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex. 21:22–24]” (ibid., 37).


MINUCIUS FELIX

“There are some [pagan] women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your [false] gods. . . . To us [Christians] it is not lawful either to see or hear of homicide” (Octavius 30 [A.D. 226]).


HIPPOLYTUS

“Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!” (Refutation of All Heresies [A.D. 228]).


COUNCIL OF ANCYRA

“Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees” (canon 21 [A.D. 314]).


BASIL THE GREAT

“Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years’ penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not” (First Canonical Letter, canon 2 [A.D. 374]).

“He that kills another with a sword, or hurls an axe at his own wife and kills her, is guilty of willful murder; not he who throws a stone at a dog, and unintentionally kills a man, or who corrects one with a rod, or scourge, in order to reform him, or who kills a man in his own defense, when he only designed to hurt him. But the man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it dies upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees” (ibid., canon 8).


JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

“Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication. . . . Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?—where there are many efforts at abortion?—where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter? For with a view to drawing more money by being agreeable and an object of longing to her lovers, even this she is not backward to do, so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire. For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is thine” (Homilies on Romans 24 [A.D. 391]).


JEROME

“I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother. . . . Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder” (Letters 22:13 [A.D. 396]).


THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS

“Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for he says, ‘You shall not suffer a witch to live’ [Ex. 22:18]. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. . . . [I]f it be slain, [it] shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed” (Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 [A.D. 400]).

Pax et bonum

Why I Shovel Snow

I live in Western New York. Every winter we get a couple of snowstorms, sometimes with significant snowfalls. After every storm, I go out and shovel the driveway. If there's enough snow, I use a small electric snowblower my daughters gave me for Christmas a few years back.

Every time I go out to shovel, my wife frets. I'm an older fellow, and she worries I will have a heart attack. She keeps pushing me to hire a plowing service.

I know she's motivated in part by love for me. I also know that she's a worrier - she almost always assumes the worst will happen. 

Me? I'm stubborn.

The issue came up Monday. We got a storm with more than a foot of snow - some estimates run to 18 inches. So I dutifully went out to shovel and snowblow; she took the picture above as I did so, and posted it on social media.

Here posting led to a joking exchange with a friend, and the issue of hiring a plowing service came up (he gets his driveway plowed)i. They both noted my Scottish heritage as among the reasons I refuse to hire a plowing service - she talking about the snow-covered Highlands, he suggesting the alleged frugality of the Scottish.

Humph.

There are many reasons why I prefer to shovel and not to hire - and none of them have anything to do with frugality.

Here's a few reasons:. 

1. I lead a relatively sedentary life. Shoveling snow, mowing the lawn (another activity that raises the wife's eyebrow) and long daily walks with the dog are my chief forms of exercise. 

2. I view shoveling snow as a "manly" activity. In a society intent on emasculating men, I consider attempts to get me to stop as part of that emasculation, and my continuing to shovel as a kind of "barbaric yawp"!  

3. I'm on the older side. But as long as I can shovel,  I will do so. Hiring someone to plow (or mow),  will signal that I have officially become old. 

4. Pride (see 3)

5. I'm independent. I don't like relying on others to do things that I'm perfectly capable of doing. So when the car breaks down, or my tooth hurts, or the roof leaks, I'll seek out professionals. But shoveling snow? Bah. I can do that.  

6. I'm a cranky contrarian. Telling me to do something - especially if you do so repeatedly - inspires me not to comply. (I respond better when something is suggested once, valid reasons are given, and then I'm left alone to think about it.)

7. I use the time shoveling (or mowing or walking) to think, to pray, to work on something I'm writing, to take in nature, etc.

8. As the friend suggested: I like it. I enjoy it. I relish it. I take pleasure in it. I dig it (literally).So telling me not to do it is telling me to stop doing something that brings joy to my life.

What next? Give up popcorn? Beer? Haiku and clerihews? The Buffalo Bills??? 

Okay, so it does save money. But that's just a secondary benefit . 

Pax et bonum

PRESIDENT BIDEN’S POLICIES: DEPARTURES FROM CATHOLIC TEACHINGS

PRESIDENT BIDEN’S POLICIES: DEPARTURES FROM CATHOLIC TEACHINGS

Saint Charles of Sezze

Saint Charles of Sezze

Charles thought that God was calling him to be a missionary in India, but he never got there. God had something better for this 17th-century successor to Brother Juniper.

Born in Sezze, southeast of Rome, Charles was inspired by the lives of Salvator Horta and Paschal Baylon to become a Franciscan; he did that in 1635. Charles tells us in his autobiography, “Our Lord put in my heart a determination to become a lay brother with a great desire to be poor and to beg alms for his love.”

Charles served as cook, porter, sacristan, gardener and beggar at various friaries in Italy. In some ways, he was “an accident waiting to happen.” He once started a huge fire in the kitchen when the oil in which he was frying onions burst into flames.

One story shows how thoroughly Charles adopted the spirit of Saint Francis. The superior ordered Charles—then porter—to give food only to traveling friars who came to the door. Charles obeyed this direction; simultaneously the alms to the friars decreased. Charles convinced the superior the two facts were related. When the friars resumed giving goods to all who asked at the door, alms to the friars increased also.

At the direction of his confessor, Charles wrote his autobiography, The Grandeurs of the Mercies of God. He also wrote several other spiritual books. He made good use of his various spiritual directors throughout the years; they helped him discern which of Charles’ ideas or ambitions were from God. Charles himself was sought out for spiritual advice. The dying Pope Clement IX called Charles to his bedside for a blessing.

Charles had a firm sense of God’s providence. Father Severino Gori has said, “By word and example he recalled in all the need of pursuing only that which is eternal” (Leonard Perotti, St. Charles of Sezze: An Autobiography, page 215).

He died at San Francesco a Ripa in Rome and was buried there. Pope John XXIII canonized him in 1959.

Pax et bonum

Saint Berard and Compainions

Saint Berard and Companions

Preaching the gospel is often dangerous work. Leaving one’s homeland and adjusting to new cultures, governments and languages is difficult enough; but martyrdom caps all the other sacrifices.

In 1219, with the blessing of Saint Francis, Berard left Italy with Peter, Adjute, Accurs, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. En route in Spain, Vitalis became sick and commanded the other friars to continue their mission without him.

They tried preaching in Seville, then in Muslim hands, but made no converts. They went on to Morocco where they preached in the marketplace. The friars were immediately apprehended and ordered to leave the country; they refused. When they began preaching again, an exasperated sultan ordered them executed. After enduring severe beatings and declining various bribes to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, the friars were beheaded by the sultan himself on January 16, 1220.

These were the first Franciscan martyrs. When Francis heard of their deaths, he exclaimed, “Now I can truly say that I have five Friars Minor!” Their relics were brought to Portugal where they prompted a young Augustinian canon to join the Franciscans and set off for Morocco the next year. That young man was Anthony of Padua. These five martyrs were canonized in 1481.

- From Franciscan Media

Pax et bonum

Last Things (McInerny)

The library didn't have the Tony Hillerman mystery I was seeking, but then I spotted Last Things by Ralph McInerny. I had read some McInerny Father Dowling mysteries years ago and remembered enjoying them, so I thought I'd give this one a read.

It was a workman-like mystery, certainly better than some I've read. But given the really good mystery writers I'd been reading - like Hillerman or Margaret Coel -  not top tier. There were too many stereotyped characters and situations, too many of the typical conservative criticisms of the direction the Church has take. Once the victim was revealed, I immediately figured out the killer nearly a hundred pages before the end. And the ending, by the way, was a bit too pat. 

I'll read more McInerny. Maybe there are better books by him - perhaps some of the earlier ones in case this one was a matter of getting into a rut. And Father Dowling is still an interesting character.

Pax et bonum

Latest Reads

Just over a week into the new year I already have three books under my belt - all mysteries.

Two were by Sherlock Holmes tales by Arthur Conan Doyle - The Sign of Four and The Valley of Fear. The third was a Tony Hillerman, The Ghostway.

The Sign of Four was promoted by a friend as the best of the Holmes novellas. It does add details about Holmes - such as Toby and the Baker Street Irregulars. And it introduces Mary, the future Mrs' Watson. It was okay -  I still like The Hound of the Baskervilles better. Plus, this one displaces the kind of racist attitudes shown by the upper classes in England in the late Nineteenth Century, and that left me uncomfortable.

The Valley of Fear seemed like two stories lumped together. The mystery part wat the firt half of the novella, and, to be honest, I guess the main "surprise" in the first couple of chapters. There were a few details I did not guess, but I was right about the most important things. The second part of the book is the back story that helped to explain some elements of the mystery part. I found that part of the novella well-written and far more interesting than the mystery. 

As for The Ghostway, typical Hillerman. Well-written and interesting. I like the character of Chee: intelligent, determined, willing to take risks, and sometimes making bad decisions. 

I like the Hillerman far more than I did the Doyles.

Pax et bonum

Saint Angela of Folino

Some saints show marks of holiness very early. Not Angela! Born of a leading family in Foligno, Italy, she became immersed in the quest for wealth and social position. As a wife and mother, she continued this life of distraction.

Around the age of 40, she recognized the emptiness of her life and sought God’s help in the Sacrament of Penance. Her Franciscan confessor helped Angela to seek God’s pardon for her previous life and to dedicate herself to prayer and the works of charity.

Shortly after her conversion, her husband and children died. Selling most of her possessions, she entered the Secular Franciscan Order. She was alternately absorbed by meditating on the crucified Christ and by serving the poor of Foligno as a nurse and beggar for their needs. Other women joined her in a religious community.

At her confessor’s advice, Angela wrote her Book of Visions and Instructions. In it she recalls some of the temptations she suffered after her conversion; she also expresses her thanks to God for the Incarnation of Jesus. This book and her life earned for Angela the title “Teacher of Theologians.” She was beatified in 1693, and canonized in 2013.

- From Franciscan Media

Pax et bonum

January 6 - What We Should Be Celebrating This Day

While the media focuses on worldly, political things in Washington this day, let us keep in mind that today is the Feast of the Epiphany.

It is a day that that celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ.

In Western Christianity, the feast celebrates in part the visit of the Magi, and thus Jesus's manifestation to the Gentiles. It is sometimes called Three Kings' Day, and in some traditions celebrated as Little Christmas.

Sadly, we do not celebrate that feast on the right day in the U.S. The bishops have moved it to a nearby Sunday - helping to obscure its meaning and significance.

It's another way they water down and desacralize the faith. 

And then they lament how much many Catholics misunderstand about the faith or Church teachings.  

Oh, and by the way, Scripture does not say there were only three of them, or that they were kings. Those ideas developed later in the popular imagination, but are not doctrinal. Also, they visited the Holy Family in a house, not the stable. And remember, Herod ordered the killing of all boys under the age of 2 - so the visit could have been long after Jesus was born. 

Pax et bonum