July 1^st, ‘12

O Canada

When I was a boy –

I was sure

God blessed our country;

We were the chosen few:

The place Christ sought

To return to –

To restore Zion,

Bring in a millennium

Of peace, we had

Peace keepers

In Cyprus and the Middle East,

Vast natural resources,

Pristine hinterlands,

An untamed northlands,

The most Rocky Mountains,

The first winter wheat.

Strong unions, the welfare state,

Assured health care,

Bi-lingualism, multiculturalism,

The best sea harvest,

Transcontinental transportation, communication,

And a just society.

But today –

There is no freedom

For the unborn;

Hate crime and bullying,

Religious freedom for the few,

Not for Christian peoples,

And we are at war

With Islamic militants.

Our gays, military,

Students and original peoples

Are suicidal. Liberals push

For Dr. assisted suicide

For our culture of death.

The counter culture is prevalent

As the number of jobless

And protesters and riots.

Our resources are depleted,

Nobody knows the end results,

Of pollution and pollutions

Of technology, of morals,

Or agricultural experimentation,

Or extent of medical,

And as the waters rise,

The crags aren't so high.

No,

If Jesus

Were to come back –

Today, I think

He would

Destroy the World

And we

Would make God

Justified

To do so

Oh Canada!

The singing heart

Happy St. John the Baptist’s Nativity Day, especially if you are celebrating in Quebec.

I thought I’d update my blog for June, Sacred Heart of Jesus month, with the lyrics for a praise song I wrote in the small hours of the night. One might put it to a tune.

Songs in the Night

You give me
O Lord, God of might
Songs in the night.
You give me
Songs of praise,
Lord God of power!

What could be more surreal?
Than have the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Shower His blessing of love
Burn within us merciful love.

Better than a good psychotrop
Filling us as a gift
Amazing grace from above
God, Holy Spirit of Love.

Triune God of this Hour;
This watch in the night
You have taken me,
Through my darkest hour,
To my destiny:
To dwell, with You,
With You under my roof,

To one day be
With You, for all eternity,
Where there is no lack of love,
Or lack of light,
Or lack of song –
To give You praise,

Like this night song,
Is insufficient
To give You
The worship
Due to You!

Almighty God,
Most powerful God,
Deserving of all my love
And worthy of all my praise

Night and days
Wonderful counsellor,
O Wellspring,
Without end.
Amen, amen and amen!

Happy Birthday Queen Victory

Waiting on the Lord

            This time of the year we are reminded that 40 days after Easter, Christ ascended into heaven. And so we are waiting for him to come again. And 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit, who the Disciples were told to go to Jerusalem to wait for there, descended upon them at the Feast of Pentecost, which is this Sunday. We are told more than once in the Bible to wait upon the Lord. The Israelite had to wait in the desert for the Promised Land. We have to wait until Paradise to be with our Creator.                                                                          

            If we want to make spiritual progress, we have to wait on the Lord. We need to wait in prayer. And God is waiting for us. He is like a father of a prodigal son, waiting for him to come home. If you have ever been in a stressed relationship, there is a period of time that you are waiting on a mate to be reconciled. It may be that they have been waiting for you too at some time. To me, that is what waiting on the Lord is like.

Yesterday was not only Ascension Sunday in Canada, although in the USA you may have celebrated it on Thursday, it was also Communications Sunday for Roman Catholics. Our Fr. John said in the homily that when the Lord died, it was much worse than having your cell phone taken away by a parent, for the Apostles. Or it was much worse for the first parents when they were exiled from Paradise. And it will be even worse for us if we don’t go there when we die. But for 2000 years we have had the Living Word among us.

And now the Lord sits at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us. The more time we communicate with God, at work, home or at Mass, the more spiritual progress we make. Communication networks can be used for great good or great evil. The Pope admonishes us to use technology for great good. Many take the evils of pornography, threats, hate, bullying, drugs and weapons sales for granted in cyberspace. May the Lord bless my use of the internet and may God forgive me for any time I have misused it.

Happy 24 Holiday, if you are celebrating this weekend in the Commonwealth.

The First of May

International Workers Day ‘12

            Today is also May Day, and the Solemnity of St. Joseph the Worker. Mayday is a cry of distress and Catholics, if not Christians everywhere, should declare an official panic. It is the day that my ancestors danced around a May Pole and today sexual liberalism is everywhere. While I can’t agree with the socialist’s agendas against Monotheism and right to life; I can’t agree with the Conservative’s against the progress of the labour movement either. This doesn’t leave me many friends. But in Morning Prayer this morning, the Canticle from Daniel 3 verses reads “For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation,/brought low everywhere in the world this day/because of our sins.//We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader,/no holocaust, sacrifice, oblation or incense,/no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you.//But with contrite heart and humble spirit/let us be received;/as though it were holocausts of rams and bullocks,/or of thousands of fat lambs,/so let our sacrifice be in your presence today/as we follow you unreservedly;/for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.”

            St. Joseph is the patron saint of St. Joseph’s, here in Belleville, where I often go during the week, when I can’t get to St. Michael’s church. He is the patron saint of Canada and worker’s hence: here it is a Solemnity Feast Day, now. While the first of May originally celebrated Communists victories; triumph’s which entailed persecutions of Christians, Jews and other martyrs, it has been embraced by the New Left and Catholics as a day of solidarity with marginalized, slaves and unions. It is obvious that any form of killing for a cause is wrong but I do not feel reactionary reductions of benefits for the poor and unemployed is anything more than claiming rights for earnings I’ve worked for having without embracing my responsibility to the human family. God blesses us with what we have in North America and He can take it away.

            Another right which is being abused is the right to choice. Who can deny that we should have free will to choose abortion or euthanasia as opposed to the right to life. But doesn’t this take away the right of the unborn to live? Or take away the right of a person to live as long as they can? The Catholic Church doesn’t take away freedom of choice, but defends life, and always has. Evangelicals have got on the band wagon also and are agreeing to this right to life as well. I think the error in our society comes before a state of emergency that seems to threaten family and personal freedom when we still feel we can enjoy the rites of Spring in gaily and liberally free sex. When we value the quality of life so dearly that we want to end it before a natural lifespan we aren’t embracing the responsibility that comes from having rights either.

            St. Joseph is remembered for his strong family values. Whether he was a widower and had a family, the cousins, which would be a better word to be used as a translation than brothers, of Jesus, or Joseph remained a virgin all his life; all look up to him as keeping Mary a virgin, and being the stepfather of our Lord. Maybe Mary taught Jesus to read and write or maybe it was Joseph: who probably took Him to the synagogue a lot, and instructed Him in the traditions that came down from his ancestor King David. Certainly his chastity is something that should inspire fathers today to be there for their unborn, their children, and the mothers of them. And it should inspire people to wait for marriage before sex. He should inspire people to accept humble work, if they can get it, and pray they are ready willing and able. And he should inspire people to be good stewards of whatever God gives them, and take care or look after families. Saint Joseph, the Worker, pray for me.

           

           

Food for Thot

The Feast of St. Mark

                Our Lord used a lot of references that were rural in inference. The Gospel writer St. Mark portrays this in the parable of the sower. The Word is the Lord and the Good News and the seed. The seed cannot grow if demons or birds snatch it away. If we are listening to the wrong words or having negative thoughts, good thoughts cannot grow. If our hearts are hard like stony ground we don’t have the word rooted in our hearts. When the weeds of daily care, concerns, wealth and image choke the seed as our spiritual growth in Jesus is stifled, we can’t focus on positive things. When the harvest is white and ripe sometimes the labourers are few. St. Mark was a martyr whose robe is white and a great harvester of souls. The Lord of the harvest is also the Bread of Life. When Christ fed the multitudes they still asked for signs. Jesus walked on water. The Lord is the Eucharist. The Father gave them bread from heaven, manna, and the bread of the presence.  Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” – John 6:26,27; NRSV

The Seed (Mark 4:23) My own paraphrase.

I heard they were scattered in a field

With messages which had taken seed

By the way scavengers ate it up

‘Til doldrums come and take it away

Some have had rocky occasions

Not too deep soon sprouted

Gladsome prematurity won’t sink

Long lasting past trouble

Amongst persecution young shoots

Sun burnt not deep nor grown dry up

Anxious pressure comes with messages

Give up at once

Amid brambles desires crowd choke

In too deep for riches soil wealth

Some roots don’t bear fruit from seed fallen

In good circumstance situations sprouts lent growth

Here yields accept bore fruit indeed

Thirty-fold sixty times one hundred per cent increase

You have been given the secrets of the Kingdom

Bear fruit increase and multiply

If you look and look but do not see

Listen and listen but don’t understand

Here if you did you’d hear our message

And be fruitful, filled with forgiveness

Put light beneath beads or a table or on standards

“Whatever is hidden away will be brought out into the open

And whatever is covered up will be uncovered

Listen then if you have ears!”

Divine Mercy Sunday

Friday the 13^th, April ‘2012

Turn Around

There is joy in my little old heart

And I must do my part

To gladden the heart of God

Giving up the past

Sin that would make you aghast

And saddened the Sacred Heart of God

There is hope in my heart to swell

With confidence say all is well

With me and Jesus Son of God

And now do the will

On the Way to heaven still

And the wedding of the Lamb of God

There is peace in my heart today

From the sacrifice made Easter day

Then followed flowed Holy Spirit of God

Once I craved unholy union

Now just Holy Communion

Lord fills me Divine Mercy of God

The little way heart accept it

With humbleness don’t reject it

Ones roll like the Little Flower of God

Stubbornness and pride

Forsake as incoming tide

Faith, Hope, Love abide with Triune God

Sunday Morning, April 15^th ‘2012

Brothers and sisters we are invited to a feast

Of the Body and Blood of the Lamb

We have been gathered for a wedding banquet

To be united with Christ our head

Each humble part brought together

In the Divine Mercy to be restored

Healed forgiven we offer thanks and praise

To God the Father through the Spirit and Son be adored.

Happy Easter!

Why is there a Jesus on a Catholic’s cross?

One might better ask why isn’t there one on a Protestant’s. I don’t want to get into the history of it, the early church didn’t start with a cross as the symbol of Christianity but it just about universally is accepted as such now. They have recently banned the wearing of a cross in Great Britain but they have ostracized and persecuted Christians of various denominations before. It would be well protested somewhere with bombing if they tried to ban Islamic dress anywhere. But it was mentioned at our local Belleville Catholic Men’s Fellowship that all Catholics should wear a cross.

However my main point is about the problem of suffering.  When I was a Protestant, we obviously had some sermonizing on offering up our suffering to the Lord. I have an impression rather that there is instruction from some pulpits to give the impression because Christ suffered, we shouldn’t have to do so. I realize Protestants are still being martyred for Christ, right alongside our Catholic brothers and sisters. I’m sure too Protestants have burned Catholics at the stake and vice versa. But today we hear, mostly from Conservatives and Republicans, that we can be comfortable, healthy and not give up our affluent society, because the Lord has blessed us. This even means we should support abortions, euthanasia, and not marriage for life between members of the opposite sex, by some people, who are for some social justice; from the “new left.” And I’m not saying that Protestants don’t teach and preach that we should take up our crosses.

I am saying that the issue of suffering gets put on the back burner a lot. If the image of Christ isn’t seen on a cross in every room, church, business or Cathedral, I tend to forget that I have to suffer for Christ. No I get to suffer with Christ and crucifixes just remind me of that. They remind me that Christ suffered and died for me.  I suppose so does a cross without an image of Jesus on it. But somehow when I was a Protestant, that all got forgotten, by myself, at least. We don’t pray to images of Jesus or any of the Saints, they’re statues, paintings, or just images. But every year, Catholics venerate the cross publicly. Many have great devotion to the cross or their crucifix, I know I do for it and mine. God doesn’t want us to suffer but he asks us to do so. So: if you venerated a Cross yesterday,  do so on a regular basis, even if you just admire Catholic art of the Crucifixion, and you respect the Cross, I’m sure you’ll agree with me it really puts a positive prospective on the Passion and suffering, but if your perspective is that a crucifix is an idol or shouldn’t be in your church, home, or place of business, perhaps you’ll reconsider.