Furthermore…

One bishop to other as they stare into coffin:

“There have been other incorruptibles, but this is the first politician!”

I was so surprised last night. After dark my doorbell rang and I hobbled over to open it. Switching on the porch light I saw a little girl of about six was there, with her daddy standing off behind her. She handed me an envelope the size of a Christmas card, so assuming it was mail for me that came to their house by mistake, I said “Oh…this came to you…” The dad didn’t say anything, but just smiled warmly.
At a loss for words, I said “that was very nice!” Glancing at the envelope, which showed no signs of coming by mail, I started to realize it was something she had made herself. I half wondered if I should look for something to give her, as I watched them turn and leave.
Inside, I saw it was an attractive, ordinary card – with a childish signature in orange crayon or felt tip. It must be they were neighbors, unknown to me. I feel like I failed to show the gracious appreciation I should have, when touched by a beautiful kindness. Sometimes I am so foggy minded!

Clerk to angry Devil applying for a vanity plate at motor vehicle bureau:

“No, HELL IS US” is not too many letters, but we don’t allow any religious words!”

Yesterday our discussion of the past Sunday’s reading was proceeded with a kind of Christmas luncheon, so after the festivities ceased we stayed in our dining chairs for the session rather than going to the usual meeting room. The reading from Isaiah (61:1-2a, 10-11) elicited a lot of interest. I had a prompting to share some thoughts on “Rejoice!” but the auspicious moment didn’t happen.

I was thinking that rejoicing is likely to emerge most naturally and fullywhen some great blessing, improvement or gift enters into a well established state of dejection or deprivation, such as sickness, poverty or spiritual emptiness. Jesus asked which debtor would be most grateful to be excused – the one who owed little ,or the one who owed much. A rich kid in the suburbs might be somewhat grateful to be given a new bicycle, but a poor kid getting the same gift would jump up and down overflowing with emotion – rejoicing.

One church usher to other, about bounteous collection:

“Since we attached cameras to the collection baskets, the numbers have gone through the roof!”

I received some audio cassettes of the Rosary a while back from a publisher with St. Joseph in its name. One of the things I observed while I was using them was their practice of adding “St. Joseph, pray for us” at the completion of each decade. I liked the practice, and struck on the idea of asking, along with St. Joseph, other saints and holy people who had special meaning in my life to “pray for us.”

So I added St. William, my name saint, St. Boniface,the patron saint of my grammar school, the patron of the young nun who taught our 1st grade, Sister Rose of Lima, and on and on: high school, college, parishes I haunted, documentaries I viewed, important holy people of our time such as Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and my favorite, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawks. Not exactly a true litany, but close enough for my satisfaction.

Oh – I omit the “pray for us” after each name, and only say it once, at the end of all the invocations. And then, for good measure, I thank my Guardian Angel for all his care.

Church choir in Christmas garb all have wide open mouths as they sing. Baby in mother’s arms in pew next to them also has wide open mouth as it howls.

There are similarities between abortion and slavery. Persons in positions of power enforce their will on weak, poor and helpless individuals or babies, under the protection of an unjust legal system put in place by political leaders who chose (!) to cater to the powerful and ruthless.
It is passe to try to justify slavery, but there is still a busy contingent speaking out about the value of looking the other way while other people exercise their freedom of choice (to terminate lives). It all starts with the secular article of faith that we can live out and manage without consequences totally uninhibited sex lives by the means of interfering with the ways of nature. Anything that might suggest that there are some gruesome flies in that ointment (such as all types of health problems, men too!) is perforce ignored, denied or squelched.
I don’t know to what extent the fiction is believed by girls and women, but abortion is presented and ’sold’ as efficient and harmless. In Russia I understand it is more common than almost anywhere else, the lingering corruption cultivated during years of governmental hubris. Now there is accumulating a body of evidence that ought not be squelched that it and other free sex behaviors do indeed have untoward consequences, apart from immorality and sin.

Gay leader to group of activists:

“Just when we start making headway with marriage, the majority preference is for living together!”

Yesterday we looked at the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent, B Cycle. The discussion brought out how different members of our group observe Advent, their traditional family devotions and customs. I proposed that one way of looking at the injunction to ‘prepare the way of the Lord’ is to see it as a call to teach little ones about the meaning of Christmas, convey to them the family traditions surrounding Christmas, and facilitate and prepare their ‘way’ to Jesus, to having Him play a significant part in their lives, modeled on and imitating their elders.