After six or seven reroutings through Columbus, through Cinci, through Cleveland, through Atlanta, we finally caught a direct flight in Cleveland to. . . Miami. A mere four hours later we drive north to Orlando. Reaching Kissimmee the devastation even this far inland was remarkable. I can't begin to estimate how many are without power, water, necessities. Phone lines are difficult and different buildings are impacted differentially. We have a small roof-leak problem that we'll attempt to patch with tarpaulins until the insurance adjustors adjust things.
Please pray for those of my neighbors more heavily hit whose homes are more seriously damaged. Also please remember those who have died, the estimates are not even possible at this time.
Later: I should note for those concerned that power is out in a lot of places in Orlando. I don't know precisely where Mr. Luse lives, but I suspect he may be in one of the areas where power has taken a while to be restored. I live fairly close to the airport and so my neighborhood and surrounding areas is a kind of priority when it comes to these things. Even cable is mostly back. Please pray that God withhold the wonderful gift of rain for a day or two. My guess is that 50-75 percent of all houses in this area are affected, and we are actually lucky considering reports coming from elsewhere.
Thank you for all your prayers, and please keep them coming! Restoring the traffic signals is a critical priority so that some of the chaos can be cleared up.
Where I am stuck (flight 1/2 hour too late) while my family weathers the storm on their own. Please pray for them as my guilt overwhelms my ability to be coherent. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit who is within me prays with groanings beyond human understanding when I lack the sense and the words.
God has truly blessed Texas. The country between Austin and San Antonio is really very, very lovely. The hills, the greenery, the creeks and streams are all quite beautiful.
Last night I watched as a colony estimated at more than 1,000,000 bats swirled out from under the bridge in Downtown Austin and skimmed along the shores of the river. Turning around I was able to see the magnificent edifice of the pink granite Texas State Capitol. And it put me in mind of another way that Texas is blessed among states--their legislature meets only about once every two years or so. Sure enough, they do damage to last for at least two years, but nevertheless, they aren't always mucking around making a mess of things.
Austin is a beautiful city and the work here is going as well or better than the work I have done at many another location.
Pay attention to your day. There is so much to be thankful of in the course of it.
Hope to be able to say more later. May God bless you all. Pray for a safe flight today and then another tomorrow as I head out to Columbus.
Prayer Requests
Pease continue to pray for Dylan
Please storm heaven for my friends in Louisiana, they've had a long string of misfortune and could do with some good news.
Please pray for Mr. Nixon's continued and comfortable recovery.
For a dear friend who is undergoing a troubling period in her life, besent with a number of problems, physical, financial, emotional. May God hold her close to His heart.
For the people of the Sudan that they may know peace and security and that they might learn to live together.
A correspondent writes and asks for prayers for healing--for an end to the ringing in his head
For a special intention for Linda and me.
For a St. Blog's parishioner in need of work to forestall financial catastrophe, that the Lord provide all that is needed in both material and spiritual blessings.
For a young lady of e-mail acquaintance who requests our prayers as she continues on the path of healing and attends a retreat in the near future. She needs all of our support and love.
A special request from two gentleman battling particularly troublesome and besetting sins for grace and help as they continue forward.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic-related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) For Katherine and Franklin, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(2)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. For Katherine and her friend Corren. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
of the Sovereign Nation of Texas.
Spent the evening watching the bats fly out into the night from underneath one of the main bridges in the city.
But only a brief time and I write to beg you to continue pouring out prayers on behalf of my Louisiana Friends as they cope with this dreadful setback. Please also remember Mr. Nixon who should be recovering from his surgery by now.
Sorry so short a note, expect only brief and spotty communications for the next several days.
Please pray for my very good friends in Louisiana who have just moved in and gotten settled. They are once again without work.
Referred to in Paula Huston's book, taken from The Oblate Rule of the Camaldolese Benedictine Oblates
The "Little Rule"
St. RomualdSit in your cell as in paradise;
put the whole world behind you and forget it;
like a skilled angler on the lookout for a catch
keep a careful eye on your thoughts.The path you follow is in the psalms -- don't leave it.
If you've come with a novice's enthusiasm and can't
accomplish what you want, take every chance you can find
to sing the psalms in your heart and to understand them
with your head; if your mind wanders as you read
don't give up but hurry back and try again.Above all realize that you are in God's presence;
hold your heart there in wonder as if before your sovereign.Empty yourself completely;
sit waiting, content with God's gift,
like a little chick tasting and eating nothing
but what its mother brings.
Much of Huston's book is a discussion of how this rule can be applied to those who must endure the rhythms and rigors of everyday life.
This is one of the reasons that I am reading Paula Huston's book:
from The Holy Way
Paula Huston. . . I've had to anchor myself in a single, central reality--my longing for God--an allow everything else to arrange itself accordingly.
In doing so, I 've made an interesting, if painful discovery: the path to simplicity runs right through the middle of me. In other words, the world may be a complicated and confusing place, but even if it were as serence as a Japanese garden, I'd manage to stir things up for myself. . . . Most of the clutter, in fact, has turned out to be internal rather than external, a result of the kind of person I am rather than the time and place in which I live.
Now, in point of fact, my internal lack of simplicity reflects itself all around me in my external environment. The interior environment inevitably leaves its marks on the exterior and the clutter I've mangaged to produce litters both landscapes.
Yesterday, praying a bit before Mass, I made the solid determination to return home and to weed out my collection of books. I was going to storm the shelves and relieve them of half of the clutter that simply remains there collecting dust. The reality was not so simple. Yes, they remain and to some extent collect dust--but what is left is too hard to narrow down. I was able to pull a few from the shelves, but really almost nothing in comparison to the huge stacks that fill the floor of one of the spare rooms.
Now logic dictates that even if I have read every one of those books (and I have not as more than half of them are Linda's and I tend to accumulate at a rate that greatly exceeds my reading speed) there is little likelihood of my return to them. And yet my past experience has been that every time I've gotten rid of some part of this core collection, I've spent a small fortune reacquiring it. Part of the collection exists because of the sheer beauty and interest of the books (old PBs of Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A.A. Fair, etc.). These sixties paperbacks have panache, and interesting covers. I see nothing nearly as interesting as my circa 1968 cover of Agatha Chritiie's Sad Cypress. Covers that, in fact, greatly excel the contents of the books they cover. I also have a very painstakingly acquired nearly complete collection of John Dickson Carr and Carter Dickson. My interest here is the enormous numbers of ingenious ways Carr found to have murders commited in essential locked rooms. Of course both Dr. Gideon Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale are his images of G.K. Chesterton--how accurate, I haven't a clue. And the covers--once again the sixties cover of The Sleeping Sphinx or Til Death Do Us Part are simply magnificent.
So, I've identified a central material attachment, one that will require long labor and much prayer to do away with--and of course a central commitment to seeking God's grace in the matter. But it is not a matter of my will. In this matter my own will is vanishingly weak, it is only through the grace of God that I will be able to achieve the distance I need from these books and turn this passionate love (mentioned yesterday) to a better object, the Author of Love Himself. Until then, I wait in joyful hope, knowing that He will deliver me.
Because of circumstances beyond my control my booklist has momentarily narrowed and slightly shifted.
I'm still reading Joseph Ellis's Founding Brothers and reviving my distaste for both Jeffersonian Business as usual and Hamiltonian business as usual. Mr. Perry makes some good points about these figures, but it does little to allay the momentary distaste I have for the casual amorality of some of their actions.
For the week I have dropped Lancelot, which I plan to pick up again on the weekend. I'll be doing a lot of travel and I find the Percy doesn't read well in fits and starts--you need to concentrate and really focus attention on large chunks at a time.
In addition, the time for the book group approaches and I have not yet gotten into Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynn Joes. I really hope it picks up a bit as the story moves along.
Finally, von Balthasar's study of St. Thérèse and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, while profoundly good, is a bit too academic for my needs at the moment. Passing through a period of dryness--perhaps sloth-induced, perhaps induced by the ennui of too many Florida days that look like the dregs and loose-ends of hurricanes, I need something a little more practical and a little more focused on my perennial problem--lack of simplicity. As a result I've taken up Paula Huston's The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life. I may follow this with a rereading of Richard Foster's remarkable study Simplicity I also have a work by St. John Chrysostom and Richard Mathes. I need to figure out what simplicity is really about and how to really put it into action in my life. Right now that necessity overrides almost all other considerations.
As I hop around the country on business trips for various purposes. Please pray for safe flights! Thanks.
Via Amanda, This delightful tidbit about how the Church is once again under persecution at Tyburn. There is a time for the aggressive pursuit of the rights of the oppressed and a time to have some sense of what this will entail to small groups and businesses. It is a pyrrhic victory if for lack of a ramp a shrine is lost.
All this He endured in working our salvation. For since those who were enslaved to sin were liable to the penalties of sin, he himself, exempt from sin though he was and walking the path of perfect righteousness, underwent the punishment of sinners. By his cross he blotted out the decree of the ancient curse. . . From a Treatise on the Incarnation of the Lord--Theodoret of Cyr
Prayer Requests
Pease continue to pray for Dylan
For Peter Nixon who will undergo surgery tomorrow.
For a dear friend who is undergoing a troubling period in her life, besent with a number of problems, physical, financial, emotional. May God hold her close to His heart.
For the people of the Sudan that they may know peace and security and that they might learn to live together.
A correspondent writes and asks for prayers for healing--for an end to the ringing in his head
For a special intention for Linda and me.
For a St. Blog's parishioner in need of work to forestall financial catastrophe, that the Lord provide all that is needed in both material and spiritual blessings.
For a young lady of e-mail acquaintance who requests our prayers as she continues on the path of healing and attends a retreat in the near future. She needs all of our support and love.
A special request from two gentleman battling particularly troublesome and besetting sins for grace and help as they continue forward.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic-related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) For Katherine and Franklin, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(2)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. For Katherine and her friend Corren. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
Amanda, who already has one excellent blog, has opened another, Through the Narrow Gate, dedicated to the glories and promulgation of the Tridentine Mass. I'd settle for having the Bishop approve a regular Novus Ordo. I'm told that we recently had one Tridentine Mass celebrated somewhere in the diocese. The first I had heard of in my nine years here. Pray for a change in our Ordinary's attitude toward this form of the Mass. I don't know that I'd go all the time, but I'd sure like the opportunity to experience it and decide.
See this delightful piece of reasoning, with all the moral astuteness of "To make omelettes you must break a few eggs."
from Founding Brothers
Joseph Ellis[Excerpts from letters to Coxe and William Short]
"The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the contest [the French Revolution]" he observed in 1793, "and was ever such a prize wond with so little blood? My own affections have been deeply wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause, but rather than it should have failed I would rather have seen half the earth desolated. Were there but an Adam and Eve left ine very country, and left free, it would be better than it is now."
[A later comment by Ellis]
But Jefferson was the kind of man who could have passed a lie-detector test confirming his integrity, believing as he did that the supreme significance of his larger cause rendered convention distinctions between truth and falsehood superfluous.
Along with his questionable actions in the treason trial of Aaron Burr, his conduct toward his slaves, etc., I'm finding myself hard-pressed to work up much respect for Jefferson these days. That will change as the data change. But for the time being, I think Jefferson. . . Clinton. . . Jefferson. . . Clinton. . . The latter certainly had an appropriate middle name, did he not?
It occurred to me today as I was irascible and casting about for something to do (I've disallowed trips to the book store because I can't fit my books on the shelves available now) that if I loved God one-tenth as much as I obviously love books, I would not only have ascended Mount Carmel, but I'd have gone back and brought my buddies with me.
As you are all well aware, that hasn't happened. So instead of feeling bad about it, I suppose I should carefully examine the gift God has given me in my great love for books. Perhaps in understanding what exactly I love, I will be better able to move closer to Him.
Too often we leave unexamined what has become routine or ordinary. We never look beyond the surface of what is to discover the spiritual "why." Perhaps it is in the discovery of this why that we are freed to move forward.
I don't know, but I am most hopeful. God made me this way for a reason--now I simply need to seek His purpose in those most intimate channels where love speaks to the heart. Eventually love will speak to Love in those same channels if I only allow it.
When I read this it really spoke to me, about life, about blogging, about how to deal with people.
Magnificat--August 2004--Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange
Among the causes of tepidity in lax souls, the tendency to derision should be particularly noted. Saint Thomas speaks of the derider when he discusses the vices opposed to justice: insult, detraction, murmuring against the reputation of our neighbor. He points out that to deride or to ridicule someone is to show that we do not esteem him; and derision, says the saint, may become a mortal sin if if affects persons or things that deserve high esteem. . .
Too often, we tend to use derision as a protective mechanism. It is often easier to ridicule than it is to formulate the statements that would be helpful to the person we are facing. I know that I am too often guilty of this--not usually here, but in my head. Sometimes it slips out of my mouth or through the censor that guides my fingers at keyboard. And it is a symptom of laxity. If I were more aware of the Person who dwells in each person who annoys me, I would feel less temptation to mock or insult. But the truth is, too often I am completely wrapped up in myself--in my hurt feelings and in the depths of my selfishness. I have no awareness of the great God whose spirit dwells in every person.