Month: November 2016

Go tell it on the mountain! The reason for the shouting? It’s Advent and that’s the time when we begin to peer around corners and to look up! We are looking for signs… Many of us are wondering if the stock market can hold this expansion. What will happen if off shores are brought home? Will costs go too high? We pray for a solution that brings us jobs, expands payrolls, and helps us to see "Made in America" more often. And that we’ll be able to afford "Made in America!" we also pray for rain all over North Carolina where timberlands are bitterly dry and fired threatens Gatlinburg, Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, and Knoxville. Come rain come! Chuck and I have been decorating since Thanksgiving. Christmas music plays constantly on the DVD player unless there is a Hallmark movie on. Not exactly. Football games prevailed also including Miami Hurricanes and Florida Stste, Miami Dolphins and New England were on, along with new episodes of Madam Secretary and Big Bang Theory. Can’t resist! I had to return my Apple computer to Best Buy for repair of the memory card so I’m hunting and pecking on my cell phone! Let me say I hope Apple moves quickly! And let’s all say a little prayer for rain or snow whichever you prefer! God bless you.

Most recently the colors in my house changed and the government changed. So lots of change… and "it’s done" and we have to settle in and take a deep breath and "get used to it!". Both changes took a lot of time and work and the result of my paint change, in my opinion, is wonderful…. the result of the government change isn’t so well known, and in fact is a bit scary. If I listen to the news channels I think to myself… "don’t Panic!!!" It really occasionally sounds to me like Donald Trump isn’t going to govern, but he is going to have people all around him, whom he trusts, who advise him. Maybe that is the way it has always been. And… one point that keeps coming up is nepotism. Am I correct in remembering that Robert Kennedy served in his brother’s White House as Attorney General? There is a wonderful picture of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy in close serious conversation over the Cuban missile crisis… There’s a case where brother and brother conversed over very serious matters. At this point, only prayer will help and we hope the Constitution can hold this country together, and maybe we’ll be surprised by good things. We can only pray!!!

Meanwhile… the Miami Herald tells me that winter is a comin’ in!!! Hartford, Connecticut has already seen weather in the thirties, and Miami is just now beginning to see weather in the 60s in the early morning! The lows over this coming weekend will be in the 50s in the Miami area! Whoopie we will be able to leave the air conditioning OFF!!! Light the first fire, enjoy each others’ company, and do something positive… believe God is with us! God bless you.

e dont all get really bad

At a little before 3am Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump and said something like.. "OK you got it… good luck" and then he made a speech and suggested that America will be great again… he will do good things like rebuild the infrastructure which Barack Obama promised 8 years ago… And a lot of other things that presidents elect say. A news man said, he can promise all he wants, but the way the founding fathers built the Constitution, power resides in Congress and that’s a spending issue, and Congress isn’t going to spend any money. Something to the tune of another 4 years of dead lock. And our bridges will continue to crumble. Interesting that the music playing in the background of Donald’s grand exit from the stage was the Stones’ "You can’t always get what you want … But you can try sometimes and you get what you need… " Fr Frank Pavone, founder of Priests for Life has expressed hope that a Trump presidency might bring us closer to the ending of abortion… the killing of unborn children. That’s a real hope, and that doesn’t cost anything but love. Let’s pray that we all step forward in the next 4 years and give a hand to making America great again… God bless America

Meanwhile I’ve got walls covered with paint splashes trying to choose a paint color to brighten up our house while Chuck is off hunting. I’ve cleaned out the library closet as I threatened to do….. and have a lot of stuff piled on the library floor. Now what to do with the "stuff…" I’m telling you, stuff sure takes up space. And Jackets! Who needs so many? Winter is a comin’ on, but my dear, who needs all these winter jackets? God bless you this autumn… and thank heaven the speeches and ads are over.

How many of us have arrived at church in the middle of a service…. an hour early for the one we "intended" to attend? I did this once at St Theresa in Coral Gables and I actually demanded the usher let me go in, "because ‘they’ started early!" Well it almost happened today but the Miami Herald, which I put on vacation mode until December, but that keeps getting delivered, had a big square announcement on the front…. "change your clocks!" I checked my cell phone, and indeed, it’s an hour earlier! So I got up at 8:30 which was really 7:30 and am now having some free time. So I’ve perused the daily Mass readings, read the Winn Dixie ad, signed up for some Winn Dixie specials, looked carefully at my walls to consider a new paint color, and have a little time left to say…. Change your clocks! YOU HAVE AN EXTRA HOUR!!!!

Last evening the University of Miami finally won a football game. They are out of the "standings" but it doesn’t matter. A win is fun and we finally got it after starting with 4 wins and then losing 3. How can anyone, a person, a team, a business, start out gang busters and fall so far? I guess it applies to all of us to think about that. Do we get lazy? Do we forget the "basics"? Do we fall to a tyrant? This last is scary at best. Most tyrants are originally "elected." We need to be very vigilant about this election and first be sure we vote. Why is it that we get to this day (2 days before election) and so many Americans are saying…. "I can’t make a difference?" Remember a few good men won wars for us… The Revolution probably had only a few thousand fighting men win our freedom. Only a few hundred at the Alamo and at San Jacinto in Texas won that big state. Only a few of us can make a difference. Strap on your courage and go "punch a button" or make a circle or an x at the election place near your house. God bless you.

We just celebrated 3 days of "others" where we concentrated not on ourselves, or politics, but on those who have passed. My neighbor Kathie tells me, and many Christians tell me, they do not celebrate Hallowe’en because it is about things like the walking dead, witches, and ghosts that aren’t Christian, but I do, "for the kids." I remember dressing up as Freddie the Freeloader in my father’s big pants, shoes, and shirts and dirtying up my face and running all hot and sweaty on the streets of Miami shouting "Trick or Treat" and eating too much candy. Remember to visit the people who give cookies last because the apples that people throw in our bags always crush the cookies! This last Monday night was Hallowe’en and Chuck and I decorated with lighted up witches in the windows, a couple of pumpkins with candles in them, a big witch hanging up from the porch post (when the kids come, we push a button and she cackles and her eyes light up) (makes some kids squeal), this year we had a lot of candles and the porch looked cool! I buy a lot of candy and sit outside from about 5:30, the little tiny kids come early, until 9pm when it’s all big young teenagers… and we give a lot of candy away and talk to the parents. It’s all in fun. We got a lot of princesses this year, several pirates, assorted goblins, and one Donald Trump. Talked with the neighbors who either bring their kids out, or are taking a break from candy giving. In my opinion, good fun. Immediately upon closing down at 9pm, all the ghostie and witch stuff has to be taken down because the next day is All Saints, a Holy Day in the Catholic Church when we remember the Saints who emulated Christ, burned with love for Him, and worked so hard on their prayer and behavior, always with their eyes on heaven. We remember all Saints this day, not only the ones everyone knows, Saints Peter and Paul, Saints Teresa and Therese, Saints Ann, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha and Lucy who are praised in litanies, but the almost unknown ones who were martyred for their faith many so young… each one a love story for God. A love that exceeds their love for themselves. That people emulate saints and ask for saints to pray for them is both accepted and assumed in the Church. I read a lot that Jennifer Hubbard writes. She lost little Catherine Violet in the Sandy Hook massacre of little children in Newtown, Connecticut. She writes for All Saints Day: "The saints, trusting in the promise of their great reward in heaven, are examples of fulfilling a purpose not of this world. They are the miracles in our midst. They are the martyrs; they feed the hungry, embrace the sick, and clothe the naked. They are blessed, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Luke 6:20). And i, through communion with them, am reminded in my seeking, mourning, sadness, and love, that, I, too, am blessed." We don’t worship Saints, we just remember what they did, ask for them to pray for us, and thank God for their beautiful lives that we can emulate. In the Saints’ humanity we can see the brightness of Christ. So, on November 1, we read Saint John’s vision in Revelation 7: 2-14, "These are the ones who wear white robes… washed white in the blood of the lamb." and we celebrate All Saints. The next day we celebrate and pray for All Souls. These are the people who have "passed on" in the hope that they too will see God’s face. We read the Scripture that tell us, "The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed in the view of the foolish to be dead, and their passing away was thought an affliction, and their going forth from us, utter destruction, But they are in peace…" Read Wisdom 3:1-9 for the whole of this peaceful, prayerful reading of God’s promises. Saint Paul writes: "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." ( Romans 5:5). As we weep for those who have passed on, our parents, our children, our friends, we must retain the hope that God would not let his beloved children suffer long. They are being purified if they need it, and we pray in faith that they will see the face of God. I think this is why mothers pray so much for their errant children! I know my mother prayed a lot for me to come back to the church. We have to want to see the face of God…. OK that is the amazing first three days of the last month of the Christian year which ends with the Feast of Jesus Christ King of Heaven and Earth, and then we go into Advent (and start the year all over again.) Let us pray hard this week for our hearts to be full of love, and for our country. God bless us and God bless America.