THE BLOG RESTS

 

Father Bede Griffiths, Catholic priest

and

one of his Sannyasinis (Indian style renunciate nun)

    Over the last decade, I have just loved researching the saints, writing about them and about the hermit life, and I have always looked forward to writing each post, despite the many hours of real work that each one entails. It has been a labor of love.

    It was not my idea to start this blog, however. A friend of mine from my Vedanta days encouraged me to write it, but I think she probably envisaged something more contemporary and argumentative - and specifically something that would generate some type of income.

    I subsequently learned, however, that an automatic income would only come through "monetizing" my blog, which would allow advertisements chosen by this platform to be displayed over my blog, and I could not bear the idea.  First of all, advertisements are ugly. They do not match the aesthetics I have chosen for this publication. They offend my eyes and diminish whatever message I choose to offer in the midst of the verbiage.

    Instead, I chose to request donations, leaving it to the discretion of the reader as to what they could afford, but only a very few of my many readers ever donated - except for one lovely woman who said she lived in Ireland, who donated, then became enraged when she understood that I do not support Donald Trump. Why someone in the U.K. would be so invested in an American political figure is beyond me, but she felt that my disapproval of him was a personal affront against her. She became highly offended, and told me off furiously. None of this made any logical sense to me, but this is the condition of our world at this moment.

    Readers should donate, in response to the incredible amount of work that goes into unique and well-researched posts, as well as for the sake of simple Christian charity. But  I imagine that people have grown accustomed to getting many things for free on the internet, and I am not oblivious to the fact that the disparity of income in our country, though the worst of all the industrialized nations, is increasing in severity all the time. Many folks are scrabbling, just to survive. If I can help them survive in a serene way, this influence of serenity is part of what I want to incorporate into all my public dealings.

    Although I am not focused on contemporary news and politics, if I have anything to say on those topic, I will say it on Facebook under the moniker of "The Occasional Hermit," since the newsy posts will, fittingly, disappear in time to make room for newer items in the feed. See my Facebook page for those kind of topics, with the exception of weighty topics of more longstanding import.

Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady of Ocotlan

    One thing I learned from my decades of meditation is that where you place your mind's eye is where you take yourself, and if you concentrate on God, you get God.  That's all there is to it. If you concentrate on the other guy, you're going to get him. It's like driving a car. You have to look out the windshield in front of you to get yourself where you are going, while only glancing through the other windows on occasion to ensure that no one is about to crash into you, or vice versa.

    I am not giving up the blog entirely. Sometimes it will be necessary to warn people off dangerous religious fads and to correct the record when a conspiracy theory is floated about, say, the Pope, for instance, at which time I may return here and put in my two cents worth. But it can't be a daily thing. I have other things to do.

Our Lady of Sorrows

    I have quit this blog a couple times in the past, and came back to it eventually because the work of getting to know the various saints I have researched has been interesting to me. I loved the whole process of becoming more familiar, and drawing closer to a life of holiness that I could use as an example for mine.

    The research and the writing of these blogs, combined with the complexity of keeping myself physically alive, have taken up so much of my  time that I have not been able to finish the books I have started, so I am going to focus on those books until I get at least ONE finished and edited. Occasionally, I will return to this blog.

    If this blog had helped me support the hermitage, that would have been a different matter and, to be fair, I had no way of knowing whether or not it would do that.  Now that I know that it will not, it is time to reassess.

Saint Kinga of Poland

Relative

    I am conducting a review of the blog entries I have posted over the last decade and removing many of them, especially those that relate to "current" events, and relegating them to the "unpublished" category. 

    I remind everyone that posts about the saints are my intellectual work product and belong to me. While you are welcome to make note of factual material, such as birth and death dates, you may not copy the blog post for any purpose. If you would like to quote from my work, you may contact me in the comment section of this blog and we can discuss.

    I will still be available to moderate the comments on the blog, though I don't expect there will be many. The donate button (below my photograph at the top of the right column) will remain in hopeful active status.

    Saint Adela of Normandy

Relative

    Obviously, my primary occupation is my contemplative life, but, other than the occasional article written for this venue, I will be continuing work on my books and my haiku poetry. In addition, I have resumed a painting career that I left behind when I began to go blind. I have managed to keep the vision in one eye (thanks be to God!) and I am slowly learning how to paint in mono-vision, with no depth perception! 

    When I have a decent number of paintings available for sale, I anticipate creating another blog for those things and will also announce it here. The painting blog MAY be combined with the author blog for my novels, but I have not yet decided. 

    As always, you may contact me through my Facebook page. You can put a comment on any of my posts, but if you want to send me a private message, I will always take a look at my message requests, eventually.

    The donation button remains active, though a bit dusty and rusty.

    Thank you for reading. I wish you the very best, and God bless you all. You are in my prayers.

Silver Rose

JUST RELAX

If someone points out a defect in your favorite political candidate, and you feel a violent reaction; if you feel like taking a baseball bat to their head or pouring a rain of insults all over them; take a deep breath, take a step back, and maybe take a walk. Do whatever will calm you. RESIST that urge to go nuts on your friend and destroy the friendship with ugly personal insults.

Realize that, for some reason, you feel identified with the candidate to the extent that you are willing to go all scorched earth in other areas of your life, and understand that something is out of balance because you've taken the bad news personally. You have to remember that you are not married to the candidate, and you have to respect that every one of your Christian brothers and sisters has to exercise their own conscience and prudential judgment, which may not comport with yours.

Discussion can be fruitful, if calm and reasoned. It is especially important to exchange facts for facts and to avoid attacking the character of the person whose political decisions are not the same as yours.

There is an erroneous strain of thought some have adopted that if you do not vote for the Republican Candidate, you are committing a horrible sin and should be denied communion. This is ridiculous. It does not represent the position of the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, outlined the position of the Catholic Church, as follows:

"A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil,

and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion,

if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely

because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion

and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a

candidate's permissive stand on abortion and/or

euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other

reasons, it is considered remote material

cooperation, which can be permitted in the

presence of proportionate reasons."

Cardinal Ratzinger, 

Prefect for the Congregation

for the doctrine of the faith

I would customarily be voting for a pro-life candidate, except that the Republican offering this year appears to be a crazy man, insecure, vengeful, with a fascist world view. He actually threatened to throw his competitor in jail, were he to win the prize of the presidency. He treats women, minorities and the disabled with contempt, publicly mocking them and calling them names. We've all heard the vulgar conversation between him and Billy Bush of Access Hollywood, wherein he bragged about assaulting women. He recently denied having actually assaulted anyone, calling his words "locker room talk," but there is ample evidence that he had a reputation for many years of actually having assaulted women. He trotted out 4 women with complaints against Bill Clinton (who is not running for office), making the EWW factor much worse, during the 2nd debate.

In addition, the fact checking organizations have blown apart most of his assertions, giving him a 73% to 76% score of lies. Satan is the father of lies, and, although I realize that many politicians are liars these days, the lies that Donald Trump dishes out are incendiary. They are calculated to inflame his "base," which appears to be a bunch of really angry people. He expressed admiration for Putin as a leader (he's a dictator), and he invited "Russia" to hack our computer systems.

Most telling is that Trump is no longer working within the framework of his supposed party, calling them names and tweeting angry rants at 3 in the morning. Many Republicans that previously endorsed him have rescinded their endorsements and are distancing themselves from him.

Hilary Clinton is almost certainly the next president, but, as one Republican political analyst recently opined, we will outlive Clinton. We know how to deal with Clinton. We have no idea how to handle Trump, if he COULD be handled at all. I envision him insulting world leaders and getting us into a nuclear war.

Trump's promise to install good justices just isn't enough to justify voting for the evil man he appears to be. The damage he will do far outweighs the slim chance that he will keep his promises in the pro-life area. Keep in mind, he promised to release his tax returns upon getting the nomination, and as soon as he was nominated, he refused and continues to refuse. He doesn't keep his promises, and he is hiding something, probably another lie.

So, that is my thinking on this season's political offerings.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I understand why some people might vote for him. Several of my friends are voting for him because they are hoping that he will keep his promise by installing pro-life justices to the supreme court and by working on overturning Roe v. Wade. I notice, however, that he rarely talks about the pro-life issues and, when he does, he has no fire in the belly for the cause. 

Another thing to consider...we have had many supposedly "pro-life" presidents in the past, and abortion is STILL legal. It appears that people like Trump use the promise of a pro-life position to expand their base. I just don't believe him. Some people are willing to take the chance, and that's OK. I won't be calling them names.

Most of all, I recommend that we ALL remember the promises of Christ. We know how this story ends, in the long run, and all we can do in the meantime is the best we can, given the circumstances in which we find ourselves, no matter how contradictory and crazy. Most important is that all Christians have to hang together and avoid tearing apart the body of Christ because of political differences.

Stay calm, people.

God bless,

Silver Rose Parnell