A Bittersweet Thanksgiving
OtherPrayer

A Bittersweet Thanksgiving

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Yesterday would have marked our 38th Wedding Anniversary. So a bittersweet day as I thought about the passing of my wife Socorro last year. Yet their was still sweetness in the bittersweet.

Partially that is due to a thankfulness for the debt I owe her. I feel a palpable gratitude towards her. One primary aspect of course is that she was the instrumental cause of my conversion. I was a prideful and arrogant jerk. Well still working on that. I disdained her faith thinking it ignorant and out of touch with reality. Yet despite all that she continued to pray for me. Praying for me daily and not in the “I’m praying for you” manner.

She had very little education and was not drawn towards reading books. Yet she knew Jesus and talked to him and interceded for us. With the many books I have read, I wish I had half the relationship with Jesus she had. She poured herself out for our family which was always her focus over herself. As I read St. Paul referring to this attitude, I think of her.

So while I failed her in many ways, I work hard in not failing to remember and pray for her everyday. To maintain praying the Divine Mercy daily. Not that when I think of it do I believe she needed much more purgation then living with me entailed.

Thank you Jesus for her and as I have written before, the Communion of Saints is much more real to me now.

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The Catholic Weird and Mysterious
LinkPodcast

The Catholic Weird and Mysterious

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Recently two sources for the Catholic weird, odd, and mysterious came to fruition. No I am not talking about Weird Catholic Twitter.

First off is Thomas L. McDonald’s “Weird Catholic” blog with stories like The Strange Legend of St. Christopher, and Whether or Not He Had the Head of a Dog. It is vey nice to see Tom return to blogging with his new site. This is a great little niche of the weird and the interesting.

Just announced from the Starquest Production Network is Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World.

Domenico Bettinelli, who is he co-host, announces it on his blog.

There’s yet another new SQPN podcast I’m contributing to that I want to share with you: Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. As the title states, the show features Jimmy Akin, the Catholic apologist, author, and national radio host1, and me discussing the weird, the strange, the unusual, the unexplained from the twin perspectives of faith and reason. Whether it’s paranormal activity, government conspiracies, natural oddities, miraculous events, or something else out of the norm, we’ll be discussing it on the show.

If you’re over a certain age, think of it like Leonard Nimoy’s “In Search Of” or “Unsolved Mysteries,” starring Robert Stack, but from two Catholic guys.

In contrast to other similar shows, we are neither completely skeptical nor completely credulous and we always include our Catholic worldview. And if you know Jimmy at all, you know that he excels at rational, logical explorations and explanations and brings his encyclopedic knowledge to bear on whatever subject he’s discussing.

The first episode is about ghosts and you might be surprised at our conclusions. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be talking about transhumanism, Bigfoot, and Area 51, just to get started.

…

Plus I will give a plug to SQPN’s podcast The Secrets of Doctor Who which is hosted by Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha. Having finished watching all the still-extent Doctor Who episodes I just love listening to their insights and criticism of each episode. This show spans all the seasons of Doctor Who – but not strictly in sequence.

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The Weekly Francis – Volume 238 – 08 August 2018
The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 238 – 08 August 2018

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

pope-francis2-300x187

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 15 July 2018 to 8 August 2018.

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.

Angelus

General Audiences

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “Every Church member has a responsibility to become holy, by taking care of others.” @Pontifex 1 August 2018
  • “Charity is the most effective form of witness, because in it people see the love of God.” @Pontifex 2 August 2018
  • “More than anything else, the life of a Christian is a grateful response to a generous Father.” @Pontifex 3 August 2018
  • “Support your priests with friendship and affection.” @Pontifex 4 August 2018
  • “The Eucharist is our “reservation” for Heaven: Jesus leads us on our journey towards eternal life.” @Pontifex 5 August 2018
  • “The disciples’ experience on Mount Tabor is an invitation to us to abandon worldly things and to contemplate Jesus.” @Pontifex 6 August 2018
  • “Jesus reveals the love-filled face of God.” @Pontifex 7 August 2018
  • “Evil tries to convince us that death is the end of everything. But the Risen Christ reveals a new dimension of eternal life!” @Pontifex 8 August 2018

Papal Instagram

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I investigated myself, and found I was innocent
Abuse

I investigated myself, and found I was innocent

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

With all due respect, Cardinal Wuerl, No. Bishops Investigating Bishops Won’t Do. Elizabeth Scalia says what needs to be said about this. Collegiality at its worse, although collegiality always seems to be at its worse. This is a totally a “not getting it” proposal. A by the numbers corporate approach at PR control. A ’For the good of the Church” mindset that thinks controlling scandal, controls scandal. The outrage over McCarrick and his enablers seems so feigned. Seeming like this is an inconvenience on his watch. The Church as a whole punted in regards to the repercussions for bishops who were either abusers or participated in coverups. Accepting their resignation was pretty much the most that would happen.

“It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians bishops are hanged.” To steal from G.K. Chesterton.

Over the years I have mostly avoided blogging on this subject. So many other did this much better. Still this is kind of an enough is enough moment and that we charitably must keep the heat up. This is not just some local phenomenon as it is quite evident that this is world wide with either bishops being complicit in sexual abuse, or turning a blind eye. Blind shepherds are not especially helpful for the sheep. Especially when the wolves also wear a miter.

This Statement by Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany at least totally gets this. May his tribe increase.

Karl Keating on Facebook says It’s time to decimate the Bishops, using the term with its original meaning. My skepticism would see this as a good start, and apparently he does to.

While I am no great prayer warrior, I do pray for my bishop each day. Like Moses we are needed to hold them up.

photo credit: sometimesong Wolf via photopin (license)

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North Florida G.K. Chesterton Society
Punditry

North Florida G.K. Chesterton Society

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

After talking to people at the Annual Chesterton Conference I found I was rather jealous of those who belonged to a local G.K. Chesterton society. I so enjoyed this conference that the idea of monthly meetings discussing GKC sounded very pleasant indeed.

The Jacksonville metropolitan area has a population of 1,631,488 and is the fourth largest in Florida according to Wikipedia. So wow their really should be enough interested people to start one. Even if only 9.1% of the population of the Diocese is Catholic. I know there are non-Catholic who like GKC, but as is evident by the convention attendees it seems they don’t stay non-Catholics.

I was asked about if I belonged to a local group, and when I replied that there wasn’t one – I got the ole “Well start one yourself”. This quite annoys me. I would rather gripe about not having one, than to work towards creating one. There is good reason that my time in the Navy and subsequent has leaned heavily towards non-supervisory positions. Working mostly on my own, although having no problem working with others. Just don’t make me the supervisor.

Still I would really loved if there was a “North Florida G.K. Chesterton Society”. So I did some limited googling to see if there were any kind of discussions of GKC locally. Found only one on a parish site about the fact that his cause might go forward.

So I am writing this post as a placeholder for anybody else doing such googling and interested in such an endeavor. If so contact me so we can get this off the ground. I will do what I can to make this happen.

Bishop Robert Barron wrote:

“I’m convinced G.K. Chesterton is a saint, and should be formally recognized as one. I ask for his intercession often…But why is now the right time for his cause to move forward? First, I think, because as the world becomes increasingly secular—especially the West—Chesterton offers a healthy engagement with skepticism. He never smeared his opponents, never exchanged fire for fire, never used vulgarity. He loved his intellectual opponents and counted atheists among his closest friends (e.g., Shaw). We’ve lost the art of charitable religious argument, of ‘speaking the truth in love’ (Eph. 4:15), and Chesterton can help us recover it.”

Bishop Barron also believes—as do many of us—that Chesterton represents a model of lay spirituality.

So really I should be asking GKC to intercede to make this happen. Plus if I showed any leadership qualities it could count as his first miracle.

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A Real Long Lent
Punditry

A Real Long Lent

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

The late Father Richard Neuhaus described the sexual abuse crisis as the “Long Lent of 2002”.

Still waiting for Easter.

The seemingly never ending stories continue apace. I guess I was naive enough to think that there were some lessons learned. If there were lessons learned they were the wrong lessons. I was not naive enough to think that coverups and other forms of hiding such problems would go away. I just did not believe that the scale of this would seem to remain the same.

Lay woman’s saga illustrates clerical sexual abuse of adults illustrates that moving an abusive priest to a different parish after a short sabbatical continues on. The whole McCarrick saga shows how diocese pretty much used hush money in the form of “confidentiality agreements”.

Our charitable credibility is strained to the breaking point when Cardinals and Bishops who worked with McCarrick are doing their imitations of Captain Renault from Casablanca. This is especially strained considering the “open secret” this seemed to be. I certainly remember stories concerning this going back to at least 2005. Still I can understand not giving them credence to some extent without more proof. I was certainly not a fan of McCarrick at the time and the deception he tried to pull with the letter given to him by then-Cardinal Ratzinger. Still I did not just want to believe this as a justification of confirmation bias.

Our fallen nature, scripture, history, and common sense illustrates to us to not be surprised by the goats among the sheep. It is the enabler of the goats that mostly draw my ire. My skepticism is such that I doubt that anything will happen to McCarrick’s enablers. The Sergeant Schultz’s proclaiming “I see nothing”. I can even believe that indeed some of them discounted the rumors as gossip or motivated by political considerations. Much harder to believe that they didn’t even know of the open secret. I would love to have my skepticism regarding this proven wrong and that figuratively heads would fall. My head would bow if such happened.

I started blogging in 2002 as the scandal first drew much attention. It has never been something that had challenged my then-“new born faith” or subsequent to that.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; (Jn 6:68)

I have read enough Church history to not be surprised by corruption in the Church. Mostly I am thankful for the grace I have received to know that I know the truth of the faith. At the same time I know that this is not just some intellectual belief, but a grace given. I can understand and have sympathy for those for of whom the scandal is indeed a stumbling block. The story I linked to above is horrific and yet the faith of that women was not abated. That a story of deepest corruption and sacrileges acts could still be a story of perseverance in faith.

Back in 2004 I suggested tongue-and-cheek some suggested religious apparel. One being substituting a mitre for a ceremonial millstone to remind them of:

“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.” –Luke

Bishop wearing a millstone
Bishop wearing a millstone

Now I wonder if this should leave the realm of parody into reality.

That post also offered millstone-inspired apparel for the laity.

“We are not baptized into the hierarchy; do not receive the Cardinals sacramentally; will not spend an eternity in the beatific vision of the pope. Christ is the point.” (Frank Sheed)

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What I saw at the Chesterton Conference
Other

What I saw at the Chesterton Conference

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Being a fan of G.K. Chesterton I was rather excited when I earlier found out that for 2018 the annual conference on Chesterton was to be held in Orlando. Living in Jacksonville this a a fairly short distance, giving me no real excuse for not attending.

The conference tilted The Test of the Imagination ran from the 2nd of August to the 4th. My expectations were that I would hear some interesting talks and get a chance to briefly meet some people I had primarily known of through EWTN, Catholic Radio, and their books. Along with meeting some people I have has some limited correspondence with. Possibly even people who knew of me via this blog.

The talks indeed were very good, along with being on a range of topics. What I was not really expecting was the range of interactions with others. Now I am the type of introvert who might sit at a table and just listen in to others. Sitting back until the moment when the class clown in me can interject some pun. In situations such as a conferences like this where people are encouraged to introduce themselves I feel better within such rules. After that I can become almost gregarious.

What I found interesting was the range of individuals, couples, and families attending. I should have known that such would be the case by those attracted to Chesterton. That he would attract the common man. Common as stars are common with each shining brightly of their own composition. I knew Chesterton, it was nice to get to know Chestertonians.

There were individual I especially wanted to meet. The fanboy in me was raising its head to want to talk them and impress them that I was such a fan. Thankfully I restrained that impulse. While I did get a chance to meet Joseph Pearce and to thank him for his works, especially his recent book on Narnia, it was a brief interaction where he signed a book of his that I bought. The same with actor Kevin O’Brien. It was also excellent to meet with Brandon Vogt and Nancy Brown.

I really found that all the interactions I did have were extremely positive. I was amazed at the wealth of knowledge I encountered and was often just willing to sit back and listen. Still I also enjoyed relaying some aspects of my conversion story along with my other interests. Between the talks and during the meals there was plenty of opportunity for such interactions.

I was especially impressed by the young people I met or listened in on. The members of the local Chesterton club there were especially impressive in the range and depth of their knowledge. Also I was facinated by the range of both cradle Catholics and converts. The board of the American Chesterton Society along with Dale Ahlquist are all converts where Chesterton was a major role in this. So while there were plenty of converts, there were also plenty of cradle Catholics.

One aspect of the conference I was not especially prepared for. I was hoping for some social interaction after the last talk. Yet the introvert in me did not want to intrude. In fact I had made sure I had books and video to read and watch when I expected to return to my room in the evening. Instead the “after glow” parties went on into the wee hours. Giving me more chances to listen to and talk to others. Including Dale Ahlquist on the last night.

I had suspected that the conference would be a lot of fun. Humor either surrounded or were parts of some of the talks. Plenty of opportunities to laugh out loud along with more somber experiences.

I Call You Friends – A Special C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien Play
Actors Kevin O’Brien and Dave Treadway reenact a discussion between Lewis and Tolkien about G.K. Chesterton’s Everlasting Man

This play written by Kevin O’Brien was especially wonderful and moving. Starting with a reflection by Tolkien regarding his friend’s death and moving to a pivotal night in C.S. Lewis’ life. I pretty much loved everything about this performance, which brought tears to my eyes. Powerful.

Chesterton in his autobiography wrote:

When people ask me, or indeed anybody else, “Why did you join the Church of Rome?” the first essential answer, if it is partly an elliptical answer, is, “To get rid of my sins.” For there is no other religious system that does really profess to get rid of people’s sins.

So it was fitting on the last day of the conference that confession was offered and then Mass. The Mass was quite beautiful with large parts sung in Latin. Dale Ahlquist’s daughter Sophia was exquisite as cantor. The main priest who celebrated the Mass was a “baby” priest from the Diocese of Orlando. He was also a Chestertonian and delivered quite the excellent homily regarding the readings and referencing and reading from GKC.

Another aspect of this conference is the number of people who had attended multiple conferences. There was much talk of this and previous conferences. At first it reminded me of Grateful Dead fans who followed the band. Now I realize like all Chestertonians they were greatful to be alive and were like Innocent Smith in Manalive willing to telegram “Man found alive with two legs.”

Well I am on a streak of one conference and now I am pretty much hooked and already looking forward to the conference in 2019. I had a blast, pretty much on every level.

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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 237 – 31 July 2018

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

pope-francis2-300x187

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 11 July 2018 to 31 July 2018.

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “God wants us to call Him Father, with the trust of children who abandon themselves in the arms of the One who gave them life.” @Pontifex 22 July 2018
  • “Prayer is never in vain: it always brings forth something new that, sooner or later, bears fruit.” @Pontifex 24 July 2018
  • “Grandparents are a treasure in the family. Please, take care of your grandparents: love them and let them talk to your children!” @Pontifex 26 July 2018
  • “Holiness is not only about the spirit: it is also the feet that take us to our brothers and sisters, and the hands that allow us to help them.” @Pontifex 29 July 2018
  • “Hear the cry of our many brothers and sisters who are criminally trafficked and exploited. They are not merchandise. They are human beings, and they must be treated as such. #EndHumanTrafficking @M_RSection” @Pontifex 30 July 2018
  • “Before helping others, we need to have a personal encounter with God: we need time to pray and to listen to His Word.” @Pontifex 31 July 2018

Papal Instagram

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Madonna del Ghisallo
Saints

Madonna del Ghisallo

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

From the always interesting Aliens in this World regarding “Marian Shrines for Cyclists”.

Our Lady of Ghisallo’s image is a painting of Mary, with Christ as a baby or toddler seated on her knee; He blesses the onlooker while she bends toward him, nursing him. But there’s a common variation on prayer cards where Mary is not nursing Him, but lifting toddler Jesus onto a bicycle seat! Medals of Our Lady of Ghisallo or the “Madonna del Ghisallo” are pretty common, too.

Our Lady of Ghisallo’s patronage of cyclists was made official by Pope Pius XII in 1949. The relevant feasts are October 13 and November 2 (because a lot of people go there to pray for dead cyclists’ souls).

Now that I am an avid cyclist I found this especially cool. Read her post for more details.

So I did an image search on this, and this was one of the first images I saw.

I enjoyed the whimsy of this:

Madonna del Ghisallo
Wood, natural pigments, watercolors, and beeswax, 9 1/2“h x 14 1/4”w x 3 1/4″d, Item No. 10406

Looking up the artist Gustavo Victor Goler I find that some of his other works also appeal to me. Although priced above what I would be willing to spend.

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Other

Submarine Churches

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

NPR ran an interesting article regarding churches that were inspired by The Beatles 1966 film “Yellow Submarine”.

Not long after the British-made film landed in the United States, “submarine churches” attracted urban, young people. They adopted the outline of a yellow submarine with a small cross on its periscope as their symbol and displayed it alongside peace signs, flowers and other popular emblems of the 1960s.

There were enough of the churches a year after the film’s release that they operated The Submarine Church Press, which published a national directory of 40 such churches, most with mainline Protestant or Catholic roots, and held a three-day “rap session,” or conference, in Kansas City, Mo. Attendees came from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis and Akron, Ohio.

”In the Beatles’ movie, the submarine was the place where they loved each other in a groovy way and got strength to do battle with the Blue Meanies,” Rev. Tony Nugent, a former co-pastor of a submarine church in Berkeley, Calif., told The New York Times in 1970. “It also shows that a church has to have flexibility and maneuverability.”

When a group of so-called radical Christians attended the National Council of Churches’ 1969 convention, they had a slogan: “The submarine church is surfacing.”

As you might imagine a lot of it was based on John Lennon’s song “All You Need is Love”. Apparently you needed more than this since these submarine churches soon passed below the surface. Not exactly surprising – “Imagine there are no submarine churches” to paraphrase Lennon. Pretty easy to do. I never really thought about how one-sided these lyrics were. All about receiving Love.

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