SAINT PASCHASIA AND DONALD TRUMP

WINTER IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

When I was a nun in the Hindu convent, we didn't have a television or a radio until shortly before I left. A well-meaning devotee gave us an old television on which to watch educational things, and for some of us, it was a problem.

Lunch at the convent.
No television in the dining room!

It was a great, heavy ugly box, and the picture wasn't too good because this was in a big, crowded city and we had no cable for reception - just the rabbit ears. One of the middle aged nuns could not resist the temptation and was often found ghosting around the library, waiting for an opportunity to watch it. It was a real problem when we had overnight guests, because their bed was in that room, and every once in a while a guest would go back to the room to take a nap mid-day, only to find this random nun lolling about.

I never watched that television. I was so in love with the life of being a nun, devoted to God. I couldn't imagine taking my mind off bliss and onto commercials. Now, although I am no longer part of an institution and there is far more quality programming available on television and other screens, I am STILL highly selective. Last night, however, I had to tune in to what what I anticipated would be something embarrassing, at least - and horrifying, at worst.

Trump, during his address to the nation

January 8, 2019

Despite his continuous slander of American journalists, Trump exhibits no shame or sense of hypocrisy when he requests special, prime-time media coverage so he can start his bid for re-election in 2020 with a misinformation campaign calculated to gin up his "base."

Typically, a president will address the people on prime time when he actually has something to announce - something real, but last night, I watched in disgust as Trump lied his way through a smarmy announcement that appeared to serve no perceivable purpose, other than to terrify the unwitting and gain enthusiasm for a wall on our southern border. 

Trump announced a "humanitarian crisis" that doesn't exist and ignored the actual crisis that Trump himself started. He shut down the government in an effort to hold us hostage and force Americans to pay for the wall that he insisted MORE THAN 200 TIMES that Mexico was going to pay for. 800,000 government employees are not receiving their wages because of this. THAT is the "crisis" which threatens to destabilize our economy while it takes food out of the mouths of families and endangers their housing.

Most of us are appalled by all of this, but Trump's supporters resolutely listen only to him and swallow his penny-dreadful, melodramatic version of life, without suspicion or fact checking. He said it. It must be right.

Well, it isn't right by any stretch of the imagination. Wedged between his self-inflated and bogus tales of how he marvelously comforted scores of Americans who've supposedly had their family members murdered by hordes of illegal alien terrorists in gruesome fashion, he inserted some "statistics" that were already disproved by his own government's data! Instead of tens of thousands of terrorists captured at the southern border, there was actually only SIX (6) persons that were suspected of having terrorist ties. I would be embarrassed for him, if he wasn't such a deliberate con artist - which has been  his reputation his entire life.

I long for the days when I could afford to ignore what was happening in our government, when I could proceed through my days with paintings and prayers, while leaving the business of governance to our expert representatives, confident that they would carry out the mandates given them, more or less. Now, I can't help but watch as this political version of a daily 10-car pileup happens on the freeway of American life, because I have to be better informed and prepared for the letters and emails that I thereafter must send to the few government officials who haven't entirely lost their minds in this insanity.

I have a theory that it is much harder to become a saint these days - partly because of all this media: television, kindles, computers, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon. There is a lot of distraction, combined with a rather high degree of comfort. It makes it more difficult to focus than in the early days of the church, for instance.

The Martyrdom of Saint Alban

by

Matthew Paris

If we'd had television or even a printing press when Saint Paschasia was alive, then we might know more about the saint I have chosen for today. There are at least ten saints we celebrate on this particular day, as there are more saints than there are days in the year, so they all have to share.

Saint Paschasia, yet another young virgin martyr for Christ, was killed for her faith in Dijon, France toward the end of the second century. Saint Gregory of Tours later mentioned her, when she had been a saint of constant veneration for many years by that time. Other than that - bupkiss. She was evidently well known, but her fame was spread by word of mouth, and people don't live forever. Eventually, the history of her life fell out of the mouths of the people. It can't be helped. We had the written word, but it was expensive, being hand lettered on animal skins.

Saint Gregory of Tours

stone

by

Jean Marcellin

We take "the media" for granted, but there were more than 1,400 years between the birth of Christ and the invention of the printing press, which was just a faint portent of "the press" that Donald Trump rebukes daily.

There ARE some media outlets, like Fox News, that have a definite corporate agenda, but not all of them do. The really professional news outlets tell us who, what, when and where, i.e., the facts of the matter, and they do try to be as reliable as possible, relying upon proven data and statistics that has been fact checked in several ways before being published. 

Historia Franconum

by

Saint Gregory of Tours

(30 November, 538 - 17 November 594)

If you avoid the cultish purveyors of conspiracy theories and sample all of the big reputable outfits, you'll find the truth about a topic and can feel fairly sure of your conclusions. This is how I know that Trump was lying like mad throughout the entire broadcast last night. I read and watch a wide variety of media offerings these days, and proof of his lies are regularly trotted out for inspection on the news programs that Trump tries so hard to discredit.

We live in an alarming era and I can't afford to ignore the news while I float around the hermitage, singing and praying. The news that I ignored while I was in the convent was not scary news like we have these days.

Silver Rose

THOMAS AQUINAS AND DONALD TRUMP

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Doctor of the Church

Angelic Doctor

Feast day: January 28

I have been wondering whether or not all the demonstrating and the marches and the loud outrage against the new president of the United States is a healthy thing. He won the election, and, regardless of whatever help he got from a politically motivated head of the FBI and computer hacking done by Russia, aren't we supposed to just be gracious and give him a chance?

Today is the feast day of Saint Thomas Aquinas, who said:

"To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin."

Is it our place to "forgive" Donald Trump for sexually assaulting women and bragging about it on audio tape? Are we then to forgive him (or, worse yet, believe him) when he trashes the characters and reputations of the women when they come forward to confirm that yes, indeed, he DID do these things that he bragged about? There is at least one woman brave enough to follow through with a lawsuit against him. I don't know if the other dozen or so women who came forward to confirm Trump's own words will likewise sue, or if his new, even MORE powerful position has scared them off.

Are we supposed to "give him a chance" when he lies continually, both during his campaign and after his ascension to office? What about those tax returns? While making a grab for the nomination, he promised that, if nominated, he would release his tax returns. Now, he is actually elected to office and refuses to release them. Is an unrepentant liar supposed to get wholesale forgiveness?

Is it our job to forgive him for insulting the Mexican people who have come to our country by calling them criminals and rapists? Can any of us speak on behalf of the Mexican people?

What about the hypocrisy of Donald Trump smearing President Obama because of his use of executive orders while in office and then issuing a flurry of them IN HIS FIRST WEEK himself? The insults to our previous President remain unvindicated. The Republicans had announced that their sole aim was to prevent Barack Obama from having a second term, and they refused to pass any bill he presented. He HAD to issue executive orders to get anything done while in office. Trump has a Republican House and Senate, yet bypasses the legitimate, customary procedures, a mechanism that leaves a lot of detritus behind, since Trump doesn't bother to work out the details of what will happen as a result of his sweeping declarations.

The press, called "the fourth estate", has also been vilified by Trump and his people. Trump calls the press vile names and accuses them of lying; his press secretary attempts to force "alternate facts" down their throats during his bizarre and abrupt first meeting; and Steve Bannon, alt right scion and fake fact purveyor, flatly tells them to "shut up and listen for a while." Are we to endure this horrifying suppression of the First Amendment, the diminution of a press that represents the people of America in its attempt to get questions answered by our First Servant who is acting like the master of the house? Do we just sit back and watch while representatives of the press are called names in public venues? Who decided that it was within our rights to "forgive" Donald Trump for his boorish and crude treatment of people who are trying to gather the facts for US?

Can we, in good conscience, ignore Donald Trump's insults to our American Democratic system and all of the people who have pledged to maintain the integrity of the voting system? He lies and says there are 3 to 5 MILLION people who have voted illegally and refuses to provide a shred of proof, while every reputable source of information on this topic says that it is simply not true, and not even partially true. The years of education and experience that each of these experts has dedicated to this topic have been dismissed and discounted, simply brushed aside because the new president has such a grotesque ego that he can't stand the idea that he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million people.

The ego of the man is so perverse and has such a grip on his psyche that he is more than willing to hurt anyone he has to hurt in order to spread a lie that strokes that hungry ego.

These people, organizations and institutes of higher learning are being trashed, their valuable input dismissed, their reputations and characters just SHREDDED. Should we sit idly by and let these lies continue, unabated, without comment? Shall we sit and watch while all these people are humiliated?

What about the refugees and legitimate travelers from Muslim countries that have been stuck in an American airport for hours this morning, and the others that were preparing to come here, legally, and suddenly have lost all hope?

Again, I must repeat: WHAT ABOUT THE REFUGEES? There are legitimate refugees that are in desperate circumstances, fleeing from repressive regimes and ISIS?

What about the little girls who have been stolen from their parents, raped, and forced to convert to Islam and marry old men? Shall we sit here serenely, knowing that she cannot escape that old husband and his gropings? Her hopes dashed, she must endure the daily assault. Every day that Donald Trump prohibits refugees from taking refuge here in America, is another day of violence, death, beheadings and rapes of innocent people.

How many other desperate schemes of escape from the mayhem in Syria are in process but cannot proceed because Donald Trump, in the fashion of the new dictator, has summarily prohibited anyone from coming here?

Donald Trump is an arrogant, lying hammer, and all people in his path are nails. He is destroying America's reputation and he is HURTING PEOPLE.

We SHOULD be mad. We should be FURIOUS.

I am sick, disabled, poor and isolated - par for the course for the little hermit - but YOU are not! I pray that you will rise up and make your voice heard. Do not let this evil continue unabated. PUSH BACK against the evil. SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER.

Silver Rose Parnell

P.S.  I am working on transforming my Facebook page to one of inspiration. For the most part, I am publishing (1) Saint of the day; (2) Saint's quote of the day; (3) Bible readings (mass readings) for the day; (4) pictures of saints; (5) "Three Good Things of the Day"; (6) Artistic, creative and crafts posts; and (7) News items from reliable sources. Please join me there! Here is the FACEBOOK LINK TO MY PAGE