Aggravation

 

A lady on Facebook posted it, it is 
not my work. I display it here
because it deserves to be seen.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Microsoft is so desperate to enrich itself, it will dismantle itself, thinking that throwing all the changes at us will dazzle us with their expertise. I would be impressed if what they did fixed all the bugs and malfunctions. I really have had it with stuff that isn't working.

One of my favorite modes of fixing problems was to create a system image which I could restore at a future date. I had one that captured my system all in one functional piece without the bugs and malfunctions; I badly needed it a few days after creating it, but when I went to go to use it, it would not work. I was left with a hung computer and black screen. The only thing that allowed me back into the system was holding down the power button until it shut it self down. There is also a system called system restore that will restore windows and its drivers and so forth, but it won't restore your apps - they get erased and you get to reinstal them and then customize them according to your taste.

I have since fromatted the drive the backup was on because it was useless, left incapable of functioning by Microsoft's tinkering.

Another glitch was a sound driver which shut down the sound system until you adjusted the volume or the sound was used and I got a loud pop. Using the Control Panel in Device Manager, I right cliked on the drivers listed and chose to click on the driver i wanted which I knew would work properly without the loud pop every time a sound was emitted.

But most mysteriously of all, yesterday, the security icon in the sytem tray began displaying a yellow badge for some unknown reason. Clicking the icon to see what was needed got me a notice that someone had changed my access to the security app so I could not change anything. 

Well, the sound works properly, I have not made a new system image yet, so I don't knmow if that system will work or not, but at least the system can restart and a rescue thumb can be used to reset the computer if I want. About the only way the system will ever act normally again is if I reset the system down to the bare metal and start from scratch. I have backups of my programs and data, but it is very time consuming and a huge aggravation that I frankly, resent very much. In spite of the rule that I should always forgive people, that doesn't mean I have to like what they did, and I hope they find out the hard way, just how much aggravation they have caused by having to live through it themselves.

Forgiveness

The brazen serpent was a healing thing God sent
into the midst of the Israelites to be a means of
forgiving their idolatry.

I was watching "Jesus of Nazareth", and was struck by the fact that Jesus cast the demon out of the possessed man. He was glad to do it. Nobody else could have, nor was it the usual thing to happen in ordinary life.

Then I was struck by how unusual it was that anyone could address demons with such authority as to cast them headlong to the ground by the mere invocation of their name. No one did that sort of thing; it never happened.

We are in such times ourselves, and yet there is plenty of work for exorcists. Padre Pio is said to have cast out a demon from a woman. The man possessed by the demon was cut off from his fellow human beings by his misfortune the same as the woman whom Padre Pio freed.

Some such cases undoubtedly were cases of mental illness, but not all. There are many throughout history that we could say were possessed. Some led millions down into the pit of hell by their teachings and the political systems they invented. The years that have been wasted by such people, were marked by horrors and unspeakable acts.

Keep your mind and heart occupied; do not let them wander ungratefully and unnocupied or they will be full of insinuations of evil trying to separate you from Jesus.

If your thoughts are not fixed on Jesus they are not fixed on God, and are attracted by evil, and evil never has your best interests at heart.

If a man who loves alcohol gets his way, he will spend his time drinking instead of at least part time on jesus. If evil can arrange it, he will see to it that the man drinks his fill and then some, and falls ill or dies from his excess. The same is true of any other vice you can name.

If your mind wanders around unfocused, you need to focus it on something good. Do some good deed for a person, see that the hungry are fed, strike up a conversation with a loneley person. These things do not lead to sin, neither do they focus the heart and affections on Unruliness.

In all things we are capable of messing up the good deeds we try to do; it is a simple law of humanity that we are weak and ignorant and need the strength of God's love in our life to try to be like Him.

Surely if you try long enough, you will come across a moment you did good and you can be glad that you had something to show for your time on earth.

So if you are pastor, and have spent 12 years studying theology and philosophy and how to minister to your people, why should you hate forgiving their sins? If you at least were int he confessional absolving people of their sins, you have been doing something which pleases God and when you stand before Him as the Judge, you will be able to say :I forgave my people's sins".

Extraordinary

 This day is extraordinary and my life is made to be so as well.
Every year, the sun begins descending over the end of the building so I am in the shade, and the light is reflected off everything before me, mellow and clean and clear.

While people are busy building bombs, and tanks and battleships, I rest, enjoy the peace and thank God in my heart for the sensation of His grace flowing through me, so that the joy that comes from it is like the a waterfall, hurtling down at breakneck speed from the tallest heights of the mountain. 

The silence in the midst of all the tumult rests me, and I surrender to it, to the cross, to the nails and toil of soul that is life.

You may enjoy the silence and the peace that come with being alive and turning to God to fulfill His will.

He delights in filling you up, with cold cups of deep spring waters that have journied as clouds half way around the world to fall where you stand, making rainbows in His firmament.

From my vantage point on the cross, I may enjoy your delight as you sit near me listening.

Unbelieavable

Let us hold it together as if it is our life  because it is.

Assasination seldom solves the problem. Generally it degrades the situation, and people suffer more. Our people are already suffering enough; they don't need any more. 

Hurricane season is upon us, and already snowfall is predicted in the near future on the East Coast of the US.

There is much that needs to be preserved. The tradition of selecting our leaders and representivitves is a cherished one. Deneratiing that tradition and throwing out the Constitution and government is not desirable, and neither are the perpetrators of treason.

Need I remind people of the price we have always paid to preserve our government and ideals? The price was human life, human blood and grave sufering and death. We have not fought as we did to preserve what we deemed good and splandid.

Now is not the time to disencfranchise citizens or overthrow our government, its Constituion or its traditions. The people who seem to dream of such nightmares have nothing to offer the citizens of this country but hatred and violence.

Citizens do not hunt each other down; we do not need to, although the eagle which has always been a national symbol, has to struggle to find something to eat in the vastness of the nature in which is belongs.

The people who will not allow the people their say at the ballot box have nothing to offer. 

I hope I have given you some things to think about that are worth your attention and intelligence.

Prophecies

After watching a video concerning the prophecy of St. Padre Pio  of Pietrelcina of the Three Days of Darkness, I reiterate my caution concerning prophcies. Scripture itself cautions us to be careful in approaching prophecies since they can be imitated by the evil one and lack the light of God or any motion of the heart toward love.

It does not require much imagination to realize that events in our lives are approaching terrifying depths. Every day, anymore, it seems someone is dropping rocks onto cars passing overpasses, people are being shot and stabbed in buses and mass transit vehicles, and children obtain automatic weapons to take to class to use in the mass killing of their classmates.

To me, such events are a kind of darkness as real as any obscuration of the sun. It is already sufficient to realize that prayer brings spiritual strength and reassurance and even protection, as well as offering the promise of God to take care of those He loves.

As far back as 1917, the Blessed Mother warned humanity of the tide of darkness that was overtaking humanity and the planet itself. 

I wonder, as well, what apartment dwellers in the heart of cities are supposed to do who live where candles are forbidden as a fire hazard? While it is possible to gather non-perishable items for meals, there likely wont be electricity and therefore communications will be down.

Accompanying or preceding the three days, storms and earthquakes and strange and violent phenomena are prophecied. These things are already known to be imminent, and in recent years, weather patterns have abruptly shifted from more benign patterns to sudden unpredictable violence of unprecedented strength and power. Youtube is full of volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and vast wildfires. Whether these are part of the prophecy I don't know. Some things mentioned point to very strange occurrences that have not been seen or experienced before. People are urged to approach God asking for forgiveness of sins. That will be difficult to obtain if priests are not available or are not disposed to make the sacraments available. Nevertheless, we can ask to be forgiven because He can hear us even if priests are not listening or are ignoring their ministry. Besides that, we can pray for the forgiveness of the sins of OTHERS. We can even unite our suffering to that of Jesus as St. Padre Pio did, accepting even 50 years of their pain and suffering for the good of the souls for which he prayed and which he enjoined to the cross of Christ.

A return to the sacraments is requested by Our Lord, and that necessarilly means someone must make the sacrments available.

In any event, we are urged to turn away from habitual sins and to seek communion with God personally. Keep in mind, that people have ignored the sacraments and spiritual readings and penitential acts, consecrations or dedication to God. This has directly caused changes in wide spread weather patterns and the threat of great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in places known to be threatened by such events.

We can offer our sufferings for atonment of sins to satisfy the justice of God, by making mercy and love available where they would not be othersise.

By reading holy books and the Scriptures, we can be reminded of the mercy God has already shown, and promises to make available for those who turn to Him.

God promises to take care of the needs of His people, forgiveness of  sins, and mercy on judgement day.

As much as I may fear death as a human being, I fear more, falling short of the mercy of God and losing my soul forever. Our prayers can quell the tide of unpredictable random violence, making our cities safe again.

I relate these things again in order to urge people of the necessity to seek God while He may be found and while we still draw the breath of life. I urge people to offer their suffeings however small, for the reparation of sin, and to obtain the promises God has made regarding the three days of darkness. 

I repeat that God answers and pays attention to our prayers and is glad to grant what we need when we ask becauuse of His love. He blesses people who pray for the relief of others, with provision of what is needed to sustain life, including reasurrance of final salvation. There is no reason to live afraid of God to the point we despair of any good coming from approaching Him. He listens to our prayer and is aware of unspoken cries.

As far as Heaven is from us, Jesus knelt in prayer in agony of the anticipation of His crucifixion, keenly aware of the same distance. There were saintly people in history who comforted Him in  His passion the night He was betrayed and carted off to those who wished to kill Him. Jesus knows what that distance feels like, and it is like a three days of darkness. All of us experience darkness in our lives when hope seems to have abandoned us and solutions to our problems seems very distant. We are asked to keep the candle of hope burning in our hearts, to reassure the Lord of our love even if we are in the blindness of darkness. He can see us whether we see His light or not, and His love persists around us whether the light of day falls on us or not. 

Do not give up. Keep on trying and do not give up. Always apologize for your sins and ask for forgiveness so that you may have it, and succeed when it seems impossible.

If you read the lives of the saints or the Scriptures, you will find God making His promises to you as one of His children. In the lives of the saints, you can be inspired to benefit the children of God by providing grace and divine light through your faith in Him.

Do not believe that your prayers have no power; that is not a thought from God, ut from the evil one. I prayed for my brother and sister to have a place to lvie and to find what they needed when it really seenmed hopeless, but He heard my prayer. In my own case, He heard my own prayers for the same thing, and I am living in the answer to my prayers. It seemed impossible, and my sins to grave to have any chance that my prayers would be heard. The light of day reveals a brighter and more penetrating light than the sun. We all have access to the same God to whom I prayed and from whom I obtained what was needed on behalf of others. I may not have the wounds that Padre Pio did even as much as I desire them, but that does not mean that Padre Pio or some unknown saint in the world today does noot bear those wounds so  I may join my prayers to them for other people. We must try.

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Sometimes it happens, that something which moved us profoundly over times

 succumbs to the weariness of time, and it seems no longer to be as important as it did. It is the same as having forgotten to change the dreassing on a wound. Every wound needs a dressing to keep it free of infection or worse.

In the case of the Heart of the Lord, His wound is permanent. The remedy for our lack of enthusiasm is to turn again to Him and ask His Heart to enkindle our love again so that we might apply the dressing of our love to His Sacred Heart, even knowing it will never go away, nor will it ever suffer infection; we suffer infection and soreness and pain and weariness and weakness, and He is always dressing the wound of our love, so that it may be cleansed and made well again. The greatest joy lies in the love of that Heart wound in which we rest in our weary moments.

Adversity

 Mercifully, the weather is cooler this morning, and the air is somewhat cleaner than it was yesterday.

The striations on the face of the sun is a cloud of wild fire smoke. No, Jupiter has not moved in close to us, though one might be tempted to believe so.

Marine air is moving in to shove a heat dome away from us so the temperatures may drop to more normal rates. While the heat is bad, I do have a little box fan that sits on a cart for office suppplies that I can turn on to get a little relief from the heat. however, the fire smoke is at the mercy of the currents in the air, and fires in northern Califronia and Oregon can entrain smoke in the upper atmosphere or at ground level, and only a sufficiently strong wind current can change the conposition of the atmosphere to clear the air of pollutants. I pray for the change to set in soon, and a little rain to follow.

It does not need to be thaat way it is, and no doubt, a large scale change in the hearts of men might rescue us all from things like wildfire smoke. Unfortuantely, only turning off internal combustion engines can clear out the air. The pollution can clear ut when more normal atmospheric parameters are in sway. Winds off the ocean are the norm around here, or at least was the norm until recent years. If you watch Youtube videos it is easy to get discouraged about the condition of the atmosphere. Nevertheless, by the same token, it is easy to see catastrophic violence in the atmosphere brought about by excesses in patterns of disruption cuased by increasing warming and consequent displacement of airmasses. 

The overall normal pattern has always been the weather coming off the pacific ocean and travelling in large waves of the jet stream steering air masses from northwest to southeast. In recent years, winds have been shifted to the east where the atmosphere is overheated by unmoving high pressure causing inordinate heating of the atmosphere and a lack of rain. The result has been desert-like conditions in parts of the country usually bathed in clement cool moist airmasses.

Besides being unbearably warm, the air has been unusually hot and dry as well, similarly to a desert environment.

But lately scientists have noticed the development of rainy weather beginning in the Saharan desert. This has disrupted the hurricane season by helping prevent hurricanes from forming in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico . The hot dry air is being rerouted. Changes in the weather, climate, means more violent weather in the United Kingdom and Europe, with violent heavy rain and hail have moved in stalled in various places not used to such excesses. The excesses of inordinate heat and drought or massive rainfall has led to very  unusually strong winds and heavy hail falls as well as flash floods and large urban flooding to which the inhabitants are not accustomed.

I have always enjoyed the surprise thunderstorms and winter snow. Several years ago, we had very cold weather so that the ground was dry and freezing cold, and moisture overriding the area brought heavy blowing snow - it was amazing to see, but has not been repeated since. Conditions that might have set in, did not, and the cold was insufficient to cause much snow, or even much rain. The cold air masses don't carry much moisture, which has led to large regions of unsual drought.

All of these things can be the topic of prayer. It is a charitable thing to remember those who have nothing, losing even the rain to grow their crops. While great floods wipe out large regions, other areas become inhospitable.

All these conditions as well as wars and violence or health crises are amenable to prayer, and those suffering under adversity will welcome our prayers. If we pray often and with intensity, they will come to know of it and God's blessings may be seen visibly.

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I obtained thethings I wanted which were for others, but it cost me - a great deal.

Fulfilled

 It could be said that if a person lives in seclusion, he does not need a habit. But then what is the purpose of wearing a habit? They will keep you warmer in the cold, but hotter in the heat. But then, the more the habit is worn, the more it deteriorates. and in the case of some orders who espouse poverty in their solitude, one habit is the usual quota for a solitary. 

But regardless of these things, it is the Lord who gives us our habit,  to wear. To say it is not necessary for a solitary to wear a habit is to say, Jesus doesn't care, and disregards who sees the habit or the monk.

In the matter of anything the Lord might insist on, the solitary is seen by the Lord, and his attitude is known, and if the monk disdains his habit, is he not also disdaining the Will of the Lord? It should be sufficient that He has spoken; all that is necessary is obedience. It may not be necessary to wear the habit in order to carry out one's mission, but in carrying it out, the Lord also regards the depth of our obedience. The habit may make secular people uncomfortable, and some religious cite that discomfort as a reason not to wear their habit; we must not discomfort others; the Lord wore poverty on the cross, and He intends that we should experience that empty poverty with Him, and to the extent we make an effort to carry out His Will as faithfully as we can, we will also experience His joy, for in union with Him, it will be possible to feel what He feels.

Then there is the case where a secular person wishes to live his life religiously, for Jesus and in accordance with His Will. It may come to pass that a secular person feels such identification with Jesus, that he wishes to be seen as being such an obedient person, that his own will is submerged in Christ. If He states He wishes a person to wear a habit, why not permit him to fulfill the Will of the Lord? Some will say not to wear the habit because it will confuse the secular people, but if a person wears a habit out of obedience to God, it will not confuse anyone. 

If a life is lived in exemplary virtue, it will not confuse anyone, but clarify the simple mandate that we should obey God, because obdience is of God. and if authorities refuse to permit a person to wear a habit simply because they can say a person ought not to, then there is a conflict which ought not to have arisen, and indeed, if a person was seen to be fitting in wearing the habit, then there is no reason to oppose it, unless there be some personal moral problem.

Indeed, obedience may cause conflict with those whom it should evoke conversion, in the life of one in authority and in the life of one dedicated to God out of love for embracing His Will.

Indeed, during the disorders in France, many religious were beheaded because they proclaimed their committment to God by wearing their habit instead of repudiating their committment to God's Will  by taking off the  habit. Indeed, it might have been preferable to  renounce one's convictions and live, but to those for whom it mattered, that was not possible.

In these days, it is fashionable to renounce religious life and discard religious garb, in order to give allegiance to something that hates Christianity altogether.

If a lay person (secular) wishes to live in accordance with virtues of a religious life, why prevent him from wearing his habit it he feels the conviction? The people themselves will repudiate that person if they do not live up to the virtues of religious. Phonineness and selfishness are not the signs of religious virtue.

One ought not to overlook the desires of God. It is the desire that all people should love God, and He goes to great lengths to provide grace so there might be virtue, and love so that we may know love and thus know the love of God. He goes to extraordinary lengths to reach out to people to heal their sicknesses and forgive their sins so they might be fit to live with Him in eternal happiness. He sends lay people to convert to religious for sake of making it obvious what virtue is and what its existence accomplishes in human lives. 

A priest who is the pastor of a parish ought not to cancel confessions without reason. He is placed where he is so that God may dispense His mercy by forgiving their sins and restoring them to grace so they can carry out their vocations to please God and be happy. The secularisation of religious life has sterilised Christianity and rendered it infertile, and it displeases the Lord. He created us as we are but not without the invisible aid He provides that explains all things to people so they might discover the joy of loving God.

By the same token, we were not made for debauchery and immoral and lascivious living. We were not created to live an entire life for the purpose of gathering wealth, possessions and power, and souls who are dedicated to such things are destined for suffering, sadness, despair and emptiness. 

Ordinary people who are filled with love are occasions of God's mercy toward us. Questioning His motives for allowing misfortune in lives overlooks the fact that it is precisely in suffering and pain and death that we are freed of sin and all things that prevent our happiness, contrary to what people think. The natural way of thinking sees suffering and pain as something to be avoided because it is so unpleasant. But Jesus Himself deliberately appeared in our midst and healed us, fed us, and provided spiritual nourishment in His words and deeds, so all people might look on His life and realize where happiness actually lies.

Certainly, from a human perspective, the scourging He endured ought to have been sufficient, yet we see that it was not, because the desire to kill Jesus was so strong that it went to extra lengths to carry out torture to the nth degree, in a futile attempt to oblitterate Jesus altogther. Many a saint has realizes this and has embrace the unthinkable in participating in the life of Jesus, in the scourging, the coronation with thorns and in the nailing of His Body to the cross in crucifixion, so that the nails might fulfill their destiny and fasten us all to Him to be purified and made wothy of His love. It certainly seems that was His motive in undergoing such an eradication. Those who through exemplary love enter into such a conformity to His divine love, even fpr a brief time every day, will find the truth made manifest to them in unmistakable terms. The proud scoff at Him that He does not make things more obvious, but they lack spiritual insight and in its place is sheer empty desocation in which there is no love, no kindness and no regard for other people.

There is one Good above all others that ought attract  our hearts and minds, and it is the unflinching love of Jesus for us all in every circumstance, diminishing our our sorrows by replacing them with His love.

Be still for a few moments. In every hour, be still long enough to hear His whispering "I love you". One day a trasnformation begins and a person is fulfilled in all  possible ways.