GOD IS TRUTH

"The Devil was a murderer from the beginning,

not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in

him. When he lies, he speaks his native language,

for he is a liar and the father of lies."

~ John 8:44 ~

Christians with even the slightest Christian education know that lying is a terrible sin and that God is Truth in the ultimate sense. In the Ten Commandments, there is the admonishment not to give "false witness," there is the story of Annanias and Saphira, who were struck dead on the spot for lying to the Apostles, and most directly in the quote I have provided from John 8, we are told that Satan is the father of all lies. While the Lord is all truth, all goodness, all light, Satan is the opposite, and where you find a plethora of lies is exactly where you have found Satan, because Satan is the original author of every lie that is ever told.

The liar and those who repeat lies will have to answer for it on judgment day. Every lie that is told and willfully repeated without any effort to determine the authenticity of it is an occasion on which the "Christian" has said "yes" to Satan, the father of all lies, and "no" to God, thereby violating their baptismal covenant with Jesus, and establishing themselves as a servant of the dark one.

I realize the language sounds a bit archaic, but matters of heaven and hell often do.

Satan whispers into the ear of Jesus

We have a president who has told the American public more than 10,000 lies since coming into office. These lies are proven. These lies are not even hidden. There are copious videos that prove his lies.

There are also countless articles listing, demonstrating, and linking to proof that Trump is continually lying. His lying is EASILY proven. He constantly misrepresents himself and others, yet some self-described Christians repeat his lies. All they would have to do is watch the videos, read the articles and, most especially, read the Mueller Report if they want to learn about the most egregious lies and how they figure into his multiple crimes.

I am not telling you for whom you should vote. Voting is a political calculation. For instance, I have some friends for whom making abortion illegal is all they care about. They'd put their money on a barn-sour nag if they thought it would make abortion go away. Many of them will say, "all politicians lie," ignoring the fact that no one lies to the massive degree that Trump does. He is a world class, bald faced, unrepentant liar. In fact, he is the most prolific liar EVER.

You vote for who you vote for - but you don't have to repeat and perpetuate lies. That's what I'm talking about: THE LIES.

Instead of being a tool in the hand of Satan, check your statements with nonpartisan, reliable arbiters of fact. In the public sphere, that would be

FACT CHECK

SNOPES

POLITIFACT

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

There is no excuse to remain ignorant of the Truth, particularly if you are repeating the lies that are being employed to advance a political agenda.

I have a feeling that some Christians are repeating the lies and hatred of Trump and his cronies because they think that they have to do that in order to be considered a supporter of his and thereby a supporter of the hobby horse that made them vote for him to begin with.

Though the cognitive dissonance of supporting your hobby horse on the one hand and decrying the lies and dishonesty on the other may drive you mad, welcome to the club. I support the social justice platform of the democrats but I dislike the amoral engineering, such as when they talk about abortion being "health care" or act like it is some kind of positive good, which I find bizarre.

Neither party is suited to a Christian worldview, and that's just a fact. We are all trying to do the best we can to vote for what appears to be the least injurious platform, in a holistic sense, without losing our souls in the process.

Support what you find that is good but don't perpetuate the lies. Don't take on the sins of Trump and his minions or you will suffer for them personally.

Silver Rose

CONTEMPLATING FATIMA

Today is one of my favorite celebrations of our Lady in the Catholic calendar, the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. It memorializes one of the few modern, "certifiable" and certainly the most documented series of miraculous occurrences confirmed with objective proofs.

We actually have photographs of "the Miracle of the Sun" which appeared in the skies of the country of Portugal. Thousands of people experienced this phenomenal event, which was reported upon in the newspapers of the day.

Thousands of people watch "The Miracle of the Sun"

near Fatima, Portugal

Today marks the first of a series of apparitions seen by three children who lived in the tiny neighborhood of Aljustrel, which was part of Fatima Township. The apparitions began on May 13, 1917 in a place called Cova da Iria, part of the land that belonged to the parents of Lucia dos Santos. Lucia, age 10, was playing with Francisco (9) and Jacinta Marto (7) when the children suddenly saw two flashes like lightning, the announcement that something cosmically important was about to happen.

Jacinta Marto, Francisco Marto, and Lucia dos Santos

Seers of the miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

During that first apparition, Our Lady floated above a giant Holm Oak tree (which still exists today) and spoke to the children, specifically Lucia, and explained that she was from Heaven and had come to ask the children to come back to that same spot on the thirteenth day of the month for six months, at the same hour.

She told them many things, including the disposition of the souls of loved ones and extracted a very special promise from the children, that they would "offer themselves to God to endure all the sufferings that He may be pleased to send them, as both an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and an act of supplication for the conversion of sinners." They were promised that they would have much to suffer, but that God, by his grace, would comfort them.

The Holm Oak

At such a young age, to agree to such a life of suffering, is really a remarkable thing, in my mind, and highlights the unique temperament of these children. God doesn't pick these people randomly, you see.

Now, I could stop this story right here, and we already have a substantial orientation for contemplation and meditation. First, we would circle our mind around the tableaux of the three children encountering the Blessed Mother unexpectedly in an out-of-the-way place; their breathless, rapt attention to her image and her words and requests; and the astonishing agreement to live a life of suffering in reparation of the sins of the world. Could we make such an agreement?

The three child seers, intent upon the image of

Our Lady

Imagine oneself as one of the children, gazing upon the image of Our Lady, and place Her in your heart, gazing upon her there. Focusing upon her image, sit with Her and wait for Her to speak to your heart. If distracting thoughts come, put them aside and return your attention to our beautiful Lady within yourself.

There is much more to this story, as I've mentioned, including "The Miracle of the Sun" witnessed by thousands, and you can read about all these in the internet articles and the books written about this remarkable series of events. In fact, I encourage you to do so, partly because the astounding appearances HAVE been verified by so many and we have newspaper pictures and accounts. Thus, we can absolutely rely upon the veracity of the story and can safely take guidance and inspiration from it.

Enjoy this beautiful day!

Silver "Rose"
Copyright (c) 2019
All rights reserved

BLESSED SISTER MARIA GABRIELLA SAGHEDDU

Blessed Sister Maria Gabriella Sagheddu

1914-1939

My readers know I love to pick out the few women among the saints of the day because they're usually not discussed very much unless they happen to be one of the rare women that has garnered big attention throughout history. Today's choice is another of "the hidden ones" that I love to learn about, and then I pass it on to you. (She is a blessed, which is the first stage toward becoming a saint.)

The constant pains and disabilities that have grown on me and trapped me in their clutches have limited my ability to keep this habit on a daily basis. Also, there is often not a single female saint on any given day for whom the church has dedicated that day to her. I do not think it likely that there are fewer women who deserve sainthood than men. It is a comment on our religious culture that women are less noticed or highly regarded. This goes hand-in-hand with the culture, in general.

Do we expect women to be more religious and therefore we ignore them unless they're miracle machines? I don't know. Whatever the case, I like to pick out the women from the sometimes very long list of saints for each day and concentrate on those.

Another issue is that we seem to know so much less about these female saints than the male saints, making it doubly hard for women to find role models of the mystical life. Well, we'll just have to break new ground, won't we?

So, today we have Sister Maria Gabriella Sagheddu. She was a Trappist nun born in 1914, who is known as a patron of ecumenism because she was devoted to the concept of Christian unity, which strikes a chord with me, as I am keen on religious unity, such as can be experienced to whatever degree possible, given the different religious orientations. Blessed Sister Sagheddu clung to the idea that everyone would become one in Jesus Christ.

Years ago, when I was a nun in the Vedanta convent, we were all so excited to watch this series of talks with Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell called "The Power of Myth." I highly recommend it, if you can get a copy. It's probably on Youtube, come to think of it. I can't really do it justice in explaining its effect on me, but it often highlighted the similarities among different religions, which was a great education for me. We all have more in common than you might realize.

The Catholic Church is the home of Christian ecumenism, and I am sure this idea will surprise some people who think that everything that is not strictly Catholic is automatically "demonic."  It is too bad, because they miss a lot. If you read the Catechism, you come across this idea that, if a person lives their life in a Christlike way, they are already part of the body of Christ, perhaps without even knowing it themselves. It makes sense, doesn't it? Truth and authenticity just shines through this concept. Jesus IS Truth, and the church recognizes this. Jesus said that those who love him follow his commandments, so, even if you don't know him and have never heard of him, if you are living his commandments, you must love him in some mysterious, mystical way.  In some way, you are part of the body of Christ if you behave in a Christ-like manner.

Maria Sagheddu was one of eight children born to shepherds in a small town in Sardinia. From all accounts, she was an ordinary child, with faults and bits of brilliance combined. She was a very good student, but had a mercurial personality at times, such as when her mother told her to throw out some potato peelings after preparing the evening meal. She argued, then threw them out, then went and got them back again. Who knows what was going through her mind and whether some sense of asceticism and thriftiness was offended?

She had a tendency toward severity with the children to whom she had begun to teach the catechism when young, and the priest replaced her stick with which she used to punish them. He gave her a note to use patience, rather than the stick. Though a strong personality, she took the correction and altered her method from that time forward.

It seems a shame that she died less than 2 years after making her vows with the Trappists. She had offered herself as a spiritual sacrifice for the unification of the Christian Church during a special week dedicated to it in 1938. God took her at her word and brought her home to himself the next year.

She was only 25 when she died of tuberculosis, but it just shows us that one's mission in life is realized in God's time, long or short.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

JESUS PUNISHED THE RICH, BUT NEVER THE POOR

As I listen to and read world news, I am disturbed by a furious trend toward punishment as the cure for every societal ill, real or imagined

Recently, for instance, I heard that the small country of Brunei has just passed a law that adulterous and homosexual acts will be punished by stoning to death.

Stoning to death.

In our country, we have a so-called "president" who instituted  a policy that directly caused thousands of children to be taken away from their parents and incarcerated in cement-floored holding cells for an indeterminate time, with no plan in place as to how the children and parents would ever be reunited - all because the family came to this country, fleeing poverty and gangs, hoping for a better life.

Their kids were taken from them because, essentially,

their papers were not in order.

Donald Trump claims, falsely, that President Obama did the same thing. He did not. Trump is lying, once again. While the occasional incidental separation of children from parents convicted of serious crimes DID take place during the Obama administration, Trump's "Zero Tolerance Policy," as announced by Jeff Sessions (many videos available of the day he announced it) is what caused a huge uptick in the number of case of children separated from their families - so much so that the incarceration of these children and the conditions under which this was carried out, is a major scandal of this administration, in part because of the THOUSANDS of children and families thus brutalized.

I could write quite a bit about the punitive temperament of Donald Trump, but I just can't bear to let my mind touch him any more than I absolutely have to, other than to say that he and the people he represents form a large block of humans whose orientation tends toward harsh penalties, incarceration, and cruel practices.

"Sell your possessions and give alms; make yourselves purses

which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no

thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is,

there will your heart be also."

Luke 12:44

I have observed that the people who ignore Christ's preference for the poor, and the Biblical injunctions against the amassing of wealth, are the same people who, with angry hearts, continually castigate the poor and disadvantaged. They are the ones who revel in the punishment of lawbreakers. To them, harsh worldly laws that target the poor and disadvantaged, are more important than the commandments of Jesus and the apostles, despite many of them advertising themselves as the best Christians ever. They are the modern Pharisees.

It is all smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand, and

the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain; meant to

distract attention from the disobedience of the

modern day Pharisees for whom commerce is

their God.

To combat our cultural tendency toward this harsh punitive orientation, we need to cultivate the love of Christ and advocate for the poor and disadvantaged, just as he and his Biblical forbears did. Resist the political narrative that encourages hatred of desperate immigrants who come here searching for peace, safety, and survival. Resist the lies and obfuscations that would have everyone believe that massive numbers of people are "gaming the system," "faking disability," and illegally obtaining food for their children at our expense.

The Pharisees are using gullible people to advance their agenda, which is to further enrich themselves while feigning religiosity at the same time. In doing so, they are twisting and torturing the Christian faith beyond all recognition.

Try to stay focused on the heart of Christ and his commandments. I recommend meditation on His words. Ignore the countless justifications for cruelty that the Pharisees present to us.  Concentrate on the heart of Jesus' message, his continual preference for the poor and disadvantaged, and everything good will flow from there.

"If you wish to be complete, go and sell your

possessions and give to the poor, and you shall

have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

Matthew 19:20

May the Lord submerge your heart in His love.

Silver

ARE YOU TOO COOL TO BE SYMPATHETIC TO THE PAIN OF OTHERS?

"Rejoice with them that rejoice;

weep with them that weep."

Romans 12:15

I have many happy days in my retirement, despite painful disabilities, and if you ask me, "how are you?" on any given day, I will usually say that I am "great" or something similar, but there are days, like this one, when I wake up to excruciating pain and can barely walk, but walk I must. Anyone who lives in an apartment with a dog knows what I am talking about. We are in service to the animals - especially first thing in the morning when they just have to get outside to accomplish their ablutions.

So, there I am, with little doggy bag in hand, and a neighbor asks me how I am and I tell him that today I woke in horrible pain - that the change in weather got to my bones.

Instead of expressing sympathy, the guy completely ignored what I had said and started talking about what a great day he was having.

I have seen various iterations of this type of thing. The men tend to ignore the comment about pain and will pretend they haven't heard it. Or perhaps they DON'T hear it. I am not quite sure about that. The women, especially if the conversation is on Facebook, will usually give some unsolicited advice, laden with criticism for daring to "complain" about pain. (I often say that THIS is why men are in charge of the world. Women are too busy criticizing one another and flapping their lips around rumors and gossip.)

Sometimes, I am gifted with some cosmic poo poo armchair philosophy that demands that I not mention the pain when asked, but that I should be "grateful" instead, and I should "count my blessings." This is a nasty thing to do to someone. What it communicates is a negative assessment of one's character.

I have my own unsolicited advice for these people. If you do not care about the well-being of the person, don't ask. If you DO care, and you hear that the person is in agony of pain, then be sympathetic.

First of all, sympathy is healing and peace-inducing. Read the chapter of the quote above and consider why Saint Paul recommends it. I would also like to point out that sympathy is free. It doesn't cost you anything to be sympathetic to the sufferings of others, so why not be sympathetic?

If your reaction to someone else's expression of pain or unhappiness is irritation, what does that say about YOU? Perhaps you think your precious time is being wasted, or perhaps you do not know what to say. In that case, let me tell you. Use some version of this:

"I am so sorry to hear that! I hope it gets better soon."

Put some warmth in your voice and add a smile, if you can manage it and if you haven't given out your daily allotment of smiles.

I find it odd that I have to write a blog post like this one. It seems a no-brainer to me. I try to always be sympathetic and, if I am close to the person, I might ask if there is anything I can do to help alleviate whatever the complaint happens to be. I don't consider it my right to "train" the person in the art of pretending there is nothing wrong. It is not healthy to make other people erect a false front of blissful, uncomplaining perfection because it is a big fat lie.

Life is messy and sometimes painful. For those of us with chronic illnesses and disabilities, it is QUITE painful at times. Pretending otherwise is a waste of time. Now, if you want to pretend that your life is perfect and if you have a personal philosophy that requires you to never admit to a pain or difficulty, that's your business. Go ahead! Pretend the day away, but don't burden the rest of the world with your criteria.

To be fair, I have to visit the other side of this troubling coin, and that is the fact that there are people in the world who do nothing BUT complain. I had a person like this in my life for some time. The woman complained to me constantly, despite the fact that her life is much more advantaged than mine. She's been married to the same man her whole adult life. They have a bunch of great children. They own a large home in a really good part of town. Her husband makes good money, and they frequently travel overseas on vacation.

This woman did nothing but complain about her blessings. Example: She would complain that a specially formulated medicine cost $500.00. She had the money to pay for it. She was complaining that it was expensive. Or was she bragging? I was never sure. The fact that she was complaining about spending $500.00 on medicine to a woman who goes WITHOUT many things she needs felt like abuse to me.

There is no reason to entertain people like this - people who complain about their blessings. That is a different kind of pretense entirely. After trying to get this person to understand that she was punching down on me by complaining about her blessings to someone who had so much less than she, I finally had to stop talking to her on the phone. She didn't try to draw me back in or to modulate her inconsiderate behavior. She just stepped up her litany of complaints to other people.

Even THIS person got my sympathy when she wasn't complaining about her advantages.

My bottom line is that, unless you're dealing with a person who complains about her good fortune, please just try to be a little sympathetic.

Silver Rose

(Sannyasini Kaliprana)

Silver Cottage Ashram Hermitage

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Copyright © 2019

All rights reserved.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT IMMIGRANTS?

Lady of Shalott

By Waterhouse

The Lady of Shalott is a ballad by Tennyson that tells the story of Elaine of Astolat, a young noble woman kept prisoner in a tower on an island near Camelot. She is the victim of some curse that forces her to watch life pass her by in the glass of a mirror because if she looks at it directly, she will die. At some point, she sees the exceedingly handsome Lancelot in that mirror, falls in love and decides to leave her prison tower. She finds a boat and commandeers it, but she is dead by the time she reaches shore.

This is how I feel about the admirers of the current administration. They cannot look at it directly, with the clarity of direct vision. Instead, they have to view it from a magically altered mirror. If they admitted how deadly was their Lancelot, they wouldn't get in the boat.

It takes a remarkable number of mental machinations to quell the obvious cognitive dissonance inherent in the problems of our current administration. What must it be like to hold diametrically opposed realities in one's consciousness at the same time! On the one hand, supporters claim he is "Christian" and that "it's nice to have a Christian in the White House, for a change" (Despite having MANY Christians in the White House over the years!)  On the other hand, Trump and his entourage are obviously and specifically behaving like people who are HOSTILE to Christian values. One only has to measure the various bills and campaigns against the expectations of Christ.

From the moment he started campaigning, Trump has demonstrated hostility toward minorities, immigrants, the disabled, the poor, the old, and basically anyone who is vulnerable and disadvantaged, by kicking them while they're down. From the Muslim ban of his first year in office, to the ancient-style great wall (for which he swore Mexico was paying!), to saying that the Nazis of Charlottesville were "fine people,"  he has been unrelentingly blatant and obvious in his hatred of "the stranger." While he is unapologetic about his cruelty, I actually consider him just a figurehead. He did not start this trend. He is only benefiting from it, financially and psychologically.

The name "Trump" has become synonymous with fascism, misogyny, xenophobia, prejudice, gay bashing, cruelty toward the poor, the aged and the infirm, but there is a foul wind blowing all over the world just now. Every country has its version of Trump and the Trump party. I can hardly be expected to really do it justice in my little blog, but I just want to encourage my Christian brothers and sisters to continue to choose Christ. If you stop choosing Christ and start choosing against him, you are choosing Satan. It is as simple as that, because you cannot be, at the same time, a Christian as well as an advocate for policies that contradict Christian values. You would need a magic mirror to keep from keeling over in a dead faint from the hypocrisy.

Take one topic at a time and compare it to our faith.  Decide your opinion based on your faith, and not on what some political party tells you.

On the topic of the treatment of immigrants, all I am going to do is to offer you a few quotes from the Bible. Let them sit with you for a while, and then decide how you feel about DACA or Trump's wall or the Muslim ban. Meditate on it for a while. Seek God's guidance.

"You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and

for the sojourners who reside among you and have had

children among you. They shall be to you as native-born

children of Israel. In whatever tribe the sojourner resides,

there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord

God."

~ Ezekiel 47:22-23 ~

Now, think for a moment about the DACA program for the children who were brought here by their parents.

"Show hospitality to one another without grumbling."

~ 1 Peter 4:9 ~

Here's another, along those lines:

"Let strangers feast on your wealth and your toil

enrich the house of another."

~Proverbs 5:10~

Still thinking about immigrants, what's your take on this quote:

"But no stranger had to spend the night in the

street, for my door was always open to the 

traveler."

~ Job 31:32

How about that pesky Leviticus that so many "Christians" are keen to use against the gays?

"You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for

the native, for I am the Lord your God."

` Leviticus 24:22 ~

I hasten to point out, especially with this next quote, that the Biblical writers are encouraging us to be as kind to the sojourner as we are to ourselves. The purpose is egalitarianism - not an admonishment to make sure that strangers obey earthly laws. God doesn't care if the immigrant's papers are in order. He cares that we treat them equally among us, as evidenced by the other quotes.

"There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger

who sojourns among you."

~ Exodus 12:49 ~

Notice in the next quote that God expects us to welcome the stranger:

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty

and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed

me."

~ Matthew 25:35 ~

I could provide many more quotes in support of what I have provided here. From the Old Testament to the New, it has been made clear to us that the Lord expects us to be kind to the strangers among us. We are to help them and welcome them.

Does this comport with ripping children out of the arms of their mothers and storing them in cages, where they sleep on the floor and may never see their parents again? Does this match the vision of a wall from one end of our country to the other? Does it anticipate anti-immigrant activists dumping out the containers of water left in the desert for the thirsty stranger?

The Trump campaign mechanism continues to make claims that he is Christian and that his policies are Christian, and there are plenty of Christian radio show hosts, pastors, priests and the like singing his praises, though God alone knows why.

I hope YOU are clear on why.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

(Sannyasini Kaliprana)

Silver Cottage Ashram Hermitage

Albuquerque, New Mexico

THE LORD IS THE REWARD

Farm Land in Placerville

by

Silver S. Parnell

(Copyright 1996, all rights reserved)

New Age thought has crept into the common mind and has even infected some Christians with a philosophy that is contrary to Biblical teaching.

Many have adopted the craven, mercenary idea that all one has to do to ensure worldly success - financial and medicinal - is to "be a good Christian."

Jesus did not come to us for the purpose of giving us more ease and comfort here on earth. That is not the purpose of Christian life. In fact, he expressly told us that those for whom life is MOST comfortable, i.e., the wealthy folk, attaining the purpose of Christian life is harder than for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle (commonly thought to be a rather small gate into the city.)

The Eye of the Needle

Gate in Jerusalem

Our purpose is to attain HEAVEN. Whether or not life on earth is pleasant is irrelevant to that end.

The mystics tell us that heaven can be attained here on earth because heaven is in God and we can attain to that experience while still earthbound. This, in itself, makes life more bearable - at least for the time during which one is absorbed in God Consciousness. The Sermon on the Mount, among other scriptures, speaks to this reality.

Saints and sages of old have managed to remain in that God Consciousness throughout their lives, and that is the real miracle. Winning the lottery is not. Finding the love of your life is not. In fact, everything pales in comparison to merging oneself in the ocean of bliss that is the Lord.

The call of the mystics is what drew me to the Catholic church. It is our treasure and our patrimony, but it gathers dust while we play in the sand.

When I read on social media some nonsense like, "the way to attract friends is to be a good friend," it makes me want to run shrieking around the apartment, tearing my hair out. Christians should know better than to reduce life to these platitudes.

Magical concepts of like attracting like have captured the imagination of the hopeful for generations. It is the basis of all pagan religious practices, but it does not work! Has no one heard that phrase, "no good deed goes unpunished?" What about, "There's a sucker born every minute?" The world is full of people whose entire reason d'etre is to take advantage of the gullible good guy.

How many times have you done a kindness to someone, only to find them stealing from your left pocket while you gave to them from your right?

I am not saying one should stop doing kind things because of this. What I AM saying is everyone needs to stop thinking or expecting that our kindness will be repaid with kindness. Most of the time, we will be disappointed! The rules of commerce may reign supreme here on earth but they do not apply in the spiritual realm.

Think also of the Lord's admonition against inviting people to the banquet who can afford to pay you back. He tells us to deliberately invite people who absolutely CANNOT return the favor. Jesus is constantly telling us to abandon the stingy, avaricious ideals. In countless stories, he emphasizes that we must break the shopkeeper's mentality and deliberately take actions that run counter to the tit-for-tat business of life. We could not possibly pay God what our souls are worth, what salvation is worth. He gives to us freely, and if we are to be like Him, we must do the same.

We do not get earthly rewards for our faithfulness to God. God IS the reward.

Get this concept or lose everything.

Silver

MEDITATION ON JOB

Our old Catholic Church in Old Town, Albuquerque

(copyright (c) Silver Parnell)

For some time now, my life has taken on a tinge of terrible. Whatever can go wrong, does go wrong, no matter how right I behave. I had started to become glum. Was I under some kind of curse? Was I being punished?

Never to be one who gives up easily, I put aside these depressive ideas and practiced my "breathe and smile." I centered myself and, in an orderly fashion, began to clean the kitchen, reciting the Jesus prayer in my heart, while I slowly washed the dishes, pots and pans.

Breathe and smile. Breathe and smile.

"Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy upon me, a poor sinner."

Breathe and smile. Breathe and smile.

"Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy upon me, a poor sinner."

The story of Job came to mind, unbidden. Job's life went wonky, not because he was a bad person, not because he was saddled with sin, but because The Lord was so confident of Job's love for him that he let Satan test him and do horrible things to him. Satan thought he could turn Job away from God, but God knew better.

God used Job to help him give a lesson to Satan.

Meditating on this wonderful reminder brought a spontaneous smile to my lips, and I returned to the dishes.

Breathe and smile. Breathe and smile.

"Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy upon me, a poor sinner."


God bless us all
Silver

BUYER BEWARE - OR NOT?

Jesus Driving Out the Money Lenders From the Church

Quentin Massys

Even though I have been swindled, lied to, cheated and defrauded many times in my life, I cannot seem to effectively shield myself from being put on the losing end of nearly every business relationship. I should be a bitter and suspicious old lady, but instead I am still poised to give people the benefit of the doubt and to be trusting until someone gives me reason to be otherwise. I have tried to change this about myself, with no success, so far.

The Eye of the Needle Gate in Jerusalem

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of

a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God." 

~ Mark 10:25 ~

Those with the power (the money) in any situation are always the winners here on earth. I say this from the vantage point of a disabled, disadvantaged person for whom the arc of civilization bends toward barbarism, (apologies to dear Martin Luther King Jr. for bastardizing his beautiful quote.)

This week, I was defrauded by a furniture salesman and, after being bamboozled, I did some deeper digging on the internet and found something very interesting. The 'bad' reviews on Google, Yelp and other sites were primarily written by people who'd experienced the very thing I had! They were low income people who responded to the promise of easy financing, only to be switched to a 100% interest rate lease instead!

The "good" reviews for that outfit were mostly written by people who paid cash.

Isn't that always the way? If your life circumstances are good and you have some money to spend, merchants will fall all over themselves to serve you. If you're a disabled old lady on low income, and can least afford high priced items, disreputable merchants will take advantage of your disabilities and the needs that result from them and will try to make EXTRA money off of your misery. It really IS reprehensible.

Bactrian Camels in the Snow

The only thing that mollifies me somewhat is knowing that I am in good company. Many of the saints were not suspicious enough of other people to be truly adept at business. In fact, yesterday's saint of the day, Gregory of Nyssa, was said to be "easy-going, tactless, and inefficient in monetary matters" and he was cheated and deceived to the point that Demosthenes accused him of stealing church property and had him imprisoned! Somehow, the innocent party in business is usually the one who loses his shirt, so to speak.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Granted, Saint Gregory was not a saint because he was lousy at business, but sometimes the spiritual inclination of a soul will certainly present itself in this manner.

I am also reminded of Saint Therese of Lisieux, who found joy in thinking well of others.

"Nothing is sweeter than to think well of others."

~ Saint Therese of Lisieux ~

I have also noticed that suspicious attitudes toward other persons are very often lessened during those times when I am praying the most, such as now, during Lent, when the soul hovers more closely to the Lord through his suffering. Thus, there is something about my prayer life that is not serving me well in my negotiations through the day-to-day logistics of life on this planet.

It is not clear to me what I am supposed to glean from this state of affairs. Do I deliberately develop a more calculating and suspicious world view?

Or, do I do the more challenging thing? Do I stop trying to address the needs of my broken down old body, reduce my possessions (as recommended by our Lord) and follow Him without sleep or comforts for the pain-wracked old carcass which I blame for my inability to devote myself more forcefully to spiritual disciplines?

When I figure it out, I will let you know.

In the meantime, God bless us all.

Silver Rose Parnell

What are you doing for Lent?

I have cut back on writing this blog, so that I have more time for the book, but I will write a little something every now and then when I feel particularly inspired or I want to touch base with you.

What are you doing for Lent? Many people I know are doing some thoughtful and creative Lenten disciplines. I find it inspiring to hear about the different methods that some are adopting in order to get closer to the Lord.

Those of us over the age of 59, and others who are ill, are not required to adhere to the acetic discipline of fasting from types of food. Personally, I do tighten my diet during this time and, at the least, stay very mindful about how much and how often I am eating. The participation of the mind AND the body are an important aspect of the spiritual self-governance that we practice as religious people because, contrary to the beliefs of many in the Western world, we are not spirits stuck inside a skin sack. That is heresy. Human beings are both body and soul, therefore the physical acts we commit are every bit as important at the spiritual drills. One of the hosts of a Catholic radio program I heard today emphasized the necessity of including at least some physical mortification in our Lenten routine.

I find it interesting that most religious traditions in the world have some concept of the need for physical self-denial, to one extent or another. Evidently, this practice is basic to the life of the soul. The Hindu-based Vedanta monastics, with whom I spent a few years, are much more keenly aware of the need for this sort of discipline than the Catholics I know. In India, there are a lot of independent sadhus on the road to enlightenment, and we would be hard pressed to live as they do, many of whom beg every meal from the side of the road, wear little more than a loin cloth, and never see a doctor or a shopping mall.

This year, I am going mostly vegetarian, with the occasional anchovy or canned kipper for the sake of the omega III's. I try to treat food as medicine as a general rule anyway, for the spiritual benefit as well as the physical. My little nods in the direction of asceticism are really just tokens, since my body is already forcing a great deal of discomfort upon me every hour of every day.

Other practices include a more purposeful application of disciplines I try to do throughout the year anyway. "Fasting" from impatience is one of those practices that is a challenge for me. Deliberately practicing kindness to as many people every day as possible is a bit easier.

Keeping quiet about the particular things I may do out of the practice of kindness is absolutely required. My efforts to restrain myself from snapping at the stupid and the lazy are not exactly a credit to me, as I would hope that, by this age, I would have gotten a handle on that by now. So let's none of us get too chatty with our little "inspiring" stories about how practicing kindness has made us so great. We're just trying to catch up to where we SHOULD be already established, dontcha think?

Sometimes it is all I can do to smile at the rude and disinterested customer service person whose job it is to help me but who clearly has no interest in doing so. "Breathe and smile," I remind myself. Breathe and smile.

After I breathe and smile, which is fairly passive, I gift the person with a kind or friendly few words, even if my smile has disgusted them, which it appears to do, half the time. The rude and stupid are often fairly immune to kindness for some reason. It's not my job to understand it. I just breathe and smile.

Often I am not successful in maintaining this kind disposition of soul, and I walk away grumbling (or worse.) Lent is my opportunity to get a better grip on this sort of interaction with my fellow human beings and to end up with fewer episodes of snappishness than I would typically have at the end of each day. It is amazing how hard won are these few and paltry accomplishments.

In any case, I am interested in the sort of fasting that each of you has decided to practice during this time and I hope you will gift us all with a discussion of your methods and their intended outcomes in the comments below.

God bless us all!

Silver Rose

CUTTING BACK ON BLOGGING - FOR A WHILE

Neighborhood Trees

Copyright 2018 Silver S. Parnell

The eye doctor tells me that my macular degeneration is rapidly progressing, and she is handing me over to a "retina specialist" for future care. It is expected that I will be functionally blind at some point.

Multiple physical disabilities necessitate the purchase of expensive hardware, software, systems and services so that I may function independently. I need to shift my focus to the only work I am physically able to do, which is the writing and art, neither one of which is a reliable income producer for anyone, but I do have prior experience in each field.

For the foreseeable future, I will be concentrating on finishing my book and resurrecting my painting career. I do not have the physical stamina to do this AND write a blog.

I have hidden all my previous posts because I have had some issues with harassment from internet trolls, as well as some copyright infringement of my original intellectual property.

This blog will remain in place until such time as I have the leisure to write for it - if ever again. The donation button will be active, as will comments on this blog post. Anyone that wishes to contact me may make a comment to this blog post. It won't be published, but I will read it and respond. Leave your email address for reply.

Please pray for me, as I pray for you.

Silver

Post Script: The following is the latest update to my gofundme page:

The only specialist I can afford to see is at the hospital where the indigent are served, but the clinic is BLOCKS away from where I might park my car, and I am unable to walk that distance. (The distance from the lobby to the clinic is impossible.) On the other hand, the hospital does not have any system in place to take me in a wheelchair, except for the occasional volunteer. (I waited once for nearly 2 hours, in AGONY, for a volunteer to show up and take me to my appointment, which I missed, of course. It took a week to recover from that day of stressful physical challenge.) It is critically important that I resolve this transportation issue, not only for these hospital visits, but also for other issues of mobility necessary to my independent operation. I DO have a mobility scooter, but in order to use it outside of my residence, I need to get a vehicle in which to transport it, and a padded ergonomic seat that will allow me to remain seated for a longer period of time. While I am researching the cost of the necessary vehicle and equipment, I need to somehow accumulate the necessary funds. Many Americans are under the mistaken impression that disabled and poor people get all their needs met through the government, and it is not true. Only the bottom third of poor people get any needs met at all, and there are many needs for which there are no remedies at all. One of the social workers I've talked to about this transportation problem tells me today that she has seen many disabled people struggle with unaddressed mobility issues. She will try to find some other avenue of assistance, but she was careful to make me understand that she does not hold out much hope for finding anything to help me. Without family to come to my aid, I am fairly well stranded. I ask that you please share this update and my gofundme page. I would also be most grateful for any information anyone may have with regard to the best van and lift arrangement for a mobility scooter. Thank you, and God bless, Silver Parnell

STAY CALM AND CARRY ON

Jesus Meditating in the Astral World

Available on innerpath.com

Many of my readers, friends and acquaintances have had their customary calm disturbed by the chaos and lies blasting out from the White House. It has knocked us off our pins, ruffled our feathers, triggered us, etc. However each of us chooses to label it, the general agreement is that it has not been good for our collective psyche.

After spending some time trying to insert some healing Truth into this miasma of unscrupulous politicians fronting as religious crusaders, I have come to the conclusion that the people who would most benefit by the perception of Truth in their lives are the very people who reject it.

Donald Trump, as the point man for billionaire oligarchs, has touched upon deeply significant motivators within a segment of the population that is both angry and resentful that the course of human history is bypassing them and going in a direction that they believe is not right. I am not going to discuss the details or relative merits of their collective beef(s) because my purpose lays elsewhere in this blog post. I am just giving background on my decision. I am describing it as it appears to me.

Please, for the love of God, do not write me an angry email claiming that I am insulting you individually for anything I say about Trump or the other politicians or the people who have harassed me. If the shoe fits, wear it, but if not, don't. When talking about large numbers of people there are variables. I should think that would be obvious, but for some people, intent on having an excuse to feel offended, they ignore the straightforward benign nature of the thing so they can huff and puff and stomp around on social media. This is my disclaimer.

I have determined to give up trying to reach the unreachable. I am not thereby abandoning any mission for which I am responsible because I am not an original source of facts about politics. There are journalists and investigative reporters whose job it is to get that information out into the public. Previously, I have provided a list of those sources, as well as the names of fact checking outlets from which everyone is free to gather data, should they have any interest in exploring the True, actual things that have been said and done on planet earth.

No vow is being made that I will never comment on this topic ever again. I am not saying that. It is just a shift in focus that I am taking.

The only reason I stepped into this mess is because there were (and are) people saying that "the hand of God is on Donald Trump" and that God had ordained him to be president. In doing so, these "Christians" were misrepresenting the Christian faith, and I felt duty bound to step in and defend our poor Jesus, whose message was being adulterated beyond all recognition . Surely, I reasoned, if these people only knew the Truth about what was happening here on Planet Earth, they would want to know! Instead, I have managed to embroil myself in a war straight out of the Twilight Zone.

All of us who are of good faith, and there are many, have experienced this disturbing break with reality combined with spiteful, unreasonable, illogical attacks against us. Trying to have a conversation with many of the "true believers" has been like stepping in front of an oncoming train. They do not listen. They have a continuous loop of lies running in their heads, and they're going to throw it all at us, regardless of what we say. It is best to just get out of the way.

It appears that there are some honest people on The Hill. There are jurists and officials still blessed with integrity. Somehow, they will sort this out. As much as he would like to be "president for life," (which I heard him muse, at one point), Trumpism is a temporary feature on the political stage. I hope to live long enough to see us return to some sort of calm equilibrium where facts, statistics and experts are respected, but, in the meantime, I intend to join with anyone who is interested in remaining connected to spirit while the chaos swirls around us.

I regret being unable to correct the record, so to speak, with regard to Trump's claims to Christian values, but I am being guided to a better-lit path that is more authentic to my mission.

It is my belief that those of us who are committed to Truth need to spiritually link together, so that we can become a dynamo that generates our Lord's Love, beaming it wholeheartedly into the world so that everyone may be touched with it on the mystical plane. It is an ambitious goal, but probably more attainable than trying to convey facts and statistics to people who do not want them.

In asking this of you, dear readers, I am falling back on my contemplative tradition, which is what I know and love best. It has served me well in the past, and I hope it does the same for you.

In future posts, I plan to concentrate on the mystical life and to assiduously ignore current events, except inasmuch as we may pray for them to become more peaceful and sane.

God bless, guide and protect us all.

Silver Rose

FRIENDSHIP

"I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful,

that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do

not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity 

of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished

to be roses, nature would no longer be enameled with lovely

hues. And so it is in the world of souls, our Lord's living garden."

~ Saint Therese of Lisieux ~

My standard of friendship is the same for others as it is for myself.  Honesty, kindness and other signifiers of good character are important to me, as well as a sympathetic nature. I mourn with those that mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice, and I appreciate the same treatment from those I gift with my friendship.

Social status, wealth or poverty have no bearing on whether or not I would choose to befriend a person.

In response to Jesus' commandment to love my neighbor, I actually try to exhibit love and friendship toward whomever comes into my field  of activity. I am not perfect, and I do fail to do as well as I might toward this goal, but it does remain a goal of mine.

I firmly believe that the motives of other people should not be impugned without significant evidence, so I make a practice of assuming that, with the exception of a small percentage of sociopaths and misanthropes, no one deliberately chooses evil.

Believing that someone is wrong about a topic is not the same thing as attacking their character.

"Nothing is sweeter than to think well of others."

Saint Therese of Lisieux

Even with regard to the current political climate, I do not reject friends because they voted for Donald Trump. Adherence to my political views is not essential for friendship because I do not live on that plane of existence.

I do not impute evil motives to people who voted for Trump. Because I am pro-life, I almost voted for him. Then I researched the matter. I believe that most of Trump's supporters, if they understood the truth about him, would no longer support him. I credit most of them with being well-meaning, but misguided. They believe what he and his representatives say. I cannot account for why they are unaware of or discount the facts that are reported widely by professional journalists. I often find this frustrating, but it still is not enough to dissuade me from being friends.

A category by themselves are those who are "one issue voters" who choose to ignore or avoid knowledge of Trump's defects because they feel that the abortion issue is more important than anything else and they believe he will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who will make abortion illegal again.

I don't believe this method will accomplish the hoped-for aim. I also don't agree with the assumption that making abortion illegal is more important than anything else, but I certainly understand why some people come to that decision. These issues are complex, weighty and difficult. I choose to believe that people of good faith are doing the best they can to do the "right" thing.

Although I have never rejected a friend because of their support for a political figure or party, I have been rejected by friends and acquaintances who are mad that I don't support Trump. They are mad when I write about his lies and criminal activities. They accuse me of hate, and they break off the friendship, even though it patently obvious that Trump's words and actions are hateful. Objecting to hate is not hateful.

It has surprised me that many of these fair-weather friends have been Christians of various stripes. I perceive that what Trump does and says is the opposite of what Jesus said to do and say, and yet some Christians tell me "the hand of God is on Trump."  I am flabbergasted by the cognitive dissonance. I really don't understand it, and probably never will.

While most people around the world are disgusted by our "president," there is an Irish reader of my blog, who has several times donated toward it, who has suddenly started writing me unpleasant emails, from Ireland, of all places, where she is a big "supporter" of Donald Trump, which puzzles me. She's known since 2016 that my research has garnered my disapproval of the liar-in-chief. She can't vote for him, and his policies will not affect her, but she is so invested in him that she is mad at me for not being likewise inclined and feels insulted by what I have written about him. The whole thing is very odd.

I suspect that my so-called "Irish" reader is actually an American posing as an Irish person to hide their identity. I don't assume that my suspicion is a fact. That would be wrong. But I HAVE often wondered why that person has such a strong investment in the president of another country on the other side of the planet.

We have written to one another, off and on, for the last few years, and I was enjoying the spiritual friendship, but I really don't know who she is, whether she has given me her real name, or even if she really is Irish because, while I am pretty much transparent, here in blogland, she is using a phony email address through a service that disguises your real one. Who is she, really?

I wasn't about to take back what I said about Trump, but she was disingenuously claiming those comments had insulted her so that she could lambaste me, on the one hand, with criticisms of Democrats (with whom I do not identify and to whom I feel no loyalty) and self-congratulatory digs about having donated money, on the other hand. The chastisements were exhausting.

While I won't drop a friend because of some political affiliation, I will send someone packing who is dishonest with me or harasses me, which is what I had to do with this "Irish" woman.

"One measure of friendship consists not in the number

of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things
they need no longer mention."

Clifton Fadiman

Stepping back from this particular situation, I note that this phase in our political life has created an overall atmosphere of harsh dishonesty I find alarming, because it is fracturing relationships and sowing a general discord - apparently, around the entire planet and not just in America!  I thank God that I have a handful of kindly well-wishers remaining who, though they may disagree with me on one issue or another, are people of sterling character who do not abuse me.

If I have anything of value to offer readers about this topic, I would encourage everyone to consciously develop a criteria for friendship, based upon the values that you hold in common, rather than befriending someone because they voted for the same guy you did last time around or because they have a pleasing personality.

Silver Rose

Sannyasini Kaliprana