suffering
Sabbath Moments
February 12, 2011
Awareness of God
Today we join Colleen at Thoughts on Grace to share quiet moments we had with the Lord, or those when we experienced Him in the ordinary.
1. The snow comes down every few days and the temperature has been 0° or slightly higher until yesterday when the sun came out and we got a little warmer. For the past two weeks I’ve skipped working out because my fibromyalgia reacts badly to the chill. Instead, on the days I would have roused myself to go to the therapy pool, I stayed under the warm covers and meditated on matters of Faith and the Virgin Mary.
2. My fibro pain has gone higher with the lack of exercise and yesterday while I was grocery shopping and trying to get prescriptions filled at the pharmacy I could barely contain my irritation. Doctor’s office said I didn’t have to come in, they’d call the prescription in. OK, so far so good.
Got to the pharmacy. Somebody with a bunch of kids had a problem not having their insurance in order. Stand in line and wait for 20 minutes while they argue it out with the clerk.
Finally it’s my turn. Only two out of three prescriptions were there. Called the doctor’s office. “Well you have to come in or we can’t give it to you.” But just two days ago they said I didn’t need to come in and that they would phone the prescriptions in. They also said that if the doc wanted to see me, they’d call. I got no call. Body-wide pain levels rising.
Now I have to drag my sorry behind from Walmart to home where I wait a couple of hours and then drag it to the doctor’s office where I get to take 15 minutes to fill out an electronic patient form with questions they already have answered in their system, and then wait and wait and wait. I was gritting my teeth and telling myself to hold on – choking back my feelings of wanting to give somebody a piece of my mind for having inconvenienced me.
Pain levels were accelerating while I’m trying to get a grip on myself. The later in the day the higher the pain levels anyway. Plus, the prescription I needed was for my sleep meds. Without them I can’t turn my brain off to sleep. It’s one of the nasty facets of fibro I’ve tried to overcome without success.
So add anxiety to irritation and you have one very growly lady, because I know from the outset I have to drag myself back to Walmart and wait and wait and wait all over again while my whole body becomes one huge mass of flame. Then when I finally get home I have to fix dinner. Throw a little accelerant on the fire here.
Trying to get myself under control, I had taken the book “Kindness” by Father Lovasik to the doctor’s office with me to read while waiting. When I got to the section, “Strive to suffer graciously” it was as if the good priest had sat me down and held up a mirror to my face. He writes:
One of the most attractive features of holiness is to combine suffering with gentleness. [OK, tiger lady, get a grip.] This demands that suffering be almost wholly influenced by supernatural grace…. [Yep, I sure need that grace right about now before I turn into a gargoyle.]
Gargoyle
Kind suffering will make you look at what others feel rather than at what you have to bear. You will see your own crosses on other people’s shoulders, and consequently you will be all the more kind to them. The saints were silent in suffering, because they knew that what they suffered was itself a suffering to those who loved them. [Yes, just because I'm in a lot of pain and inconvenienced to the nth degree here, why should I inflict my bad mood on everyone around me? This is my problem, not theirs. It is unjust to inflict it on them. Smile and be nice.]
Make an effort to hide your pains and sorrows. But, while you do so, let them also urge you to be kind and cheerful to those around you. The very darkness within you should create a sunshine around you. In this way, the spirit of Jesus will take possession of your soul. [If there's anything I need at the moment, it's the spirit of Jesus. OK, time to calm down and let all this anger go. You can't change anything anyway. Just hang in there. You can get through it. In the eternal scheme of things this is nothing.]
And so, the super grouch went back to Walmart smiling at the good people there, got her meds, went home, fixed dinner still smiling, and thanked God for the pain meds and sleep meds that helped her get ready for a new day. And hubby was also very happy that his real wife came home and not some monster out of the black lagoon. A little 100 proof spiced rum topped the day off just fine.
If it hadn’t been for Father Lovasik’s book, I would have left a lot of unhappy people in the wake of my frustration, so I consider a lot of yesterday a Sabbath Moment.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
St. John of Matha and the Captives
February 8, 2011
St. John of Matha, Laurent de La Hire (1606-1656, Paris), oil on canvas and wood, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Today’s 1962 calendar celebrates the feast of St. John of Matha (1160-1213). Pope Innocent III approved his founding of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity (the Trinitarians) in 1198 for the purpose of ransoming captives from the Muslims. His community spread throughout France, Italy, England, Spain, and into north Africa where they were able to free many slaves. The ones well enough to be sent home went, but the Trinitarians were allowed to remain in north Africa to care for the ones too old or ill to go home.
Today’s feast is a reminder that slavery is far from over. Not only is slave labor practiced in the Sudan, Niger, Somalia, Chad, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Indonesia to name a few states, sex slavery is rampant in those countries as well as Cambodia, Thailand, middle Europe, Africa and the Middle East to name a few more.
One of the most concerning developments in the saga of human trafficking is the heavy trans-Atlantic sex trade and the growth of sex slave hubs such as Houston, Texas where United States politics facilitates transporting illegal immigrants by illegal immigrants for the sole purpose of prostituting girls as young as 11 or 12. Murder of these women is not uncommon if they are a threat to discovery. Our country, therefore, belongs on the list of countries facilitating human trafficking.
The scams worked on the slaves to get them here and keep them hidden are as varied as the evil human heart can devise. If the full numbers were to be discovered, every decent person would fall to his knees in a collective wail of anguish on the spot.
The Corporal Works of Mercy
Our time is St. John of Matha’s time to the nth degree. If ever we needed the intercession of a saint opposed to slavery it is now, and he is one we can turn to. He is a great example of living a corporal work of mercy which, unfortunately, was left out of the Catechism of the Catholic Church – #2447. (Every Catholic family should have a copy of this in the home for study and reference.) But just because it isn’t there doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply. In fact, it applies now more than ever.
You can find the seven corporal works of mercy listed in the Baltimore Catechism and the Catholic Encyclopedia. These are the ones I memorized in second grade, thanks to those good nuns who made sure we kids knew Church teaching.
They are to:
- Feed the hungry
- Give drink to the thirsty,
- Clothe the naked,
- Ransom the captive
- Harbor the harborless (shelter the homeless)
- Visit the sick
- Bury the dead
We cannot buy people out of sex or hard labor slavery today. The people enslaving others keep it hidden as much as possible because it is so lucrative – really dirty money but they get to live very high. Sometimes their governments protect the slavers. Pimps are slavers, too, holding their slaves captive by hooking them on drugs and beating them.
Government policies not to negotiate with terrorists negates buying people out of captivity, though private businesses and families have ransomed Somali pirate captives in recent years. So how can we ransom the captives today?
Ransoming captives is not a thing of the past.
The answer is by fasting and praying, assisting law enforcement in discovering traffickers, pressuring governments to stop human trafficking, speaking out against it wherever we can, sealing our borders and obeying our immigration laws, and helping in rescue efforts if we are able. We might submit a Mass stipend for the Holy Sacrifice to be offered for an end to human trafficking. Most of us can at least do the fasting and praying part if God has not called us to other ways of combating this dehumanizing crime.
The other slavery we need to ransom others from is slavery to sin. We are all captives of sin unless we struggle daily against the wiles of the devil. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, attendance at Mass whenever we can, offering up our pain and suffering for the salvation of souls, frequent Confession, daily prayer – all of these actions are spiritual almsgiving and a work of mercy.
St. John of Matha, pray for us and for all of God’s children who are enslaved physically or spiritually.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Why Do You Write?
November 22, 2010
St. Cecelia - 19th century stained glass window from Stationers' Hall, London
Today is the feast of St. Cecelia, the early Roman martyr who proved very difficult to kill. She is the patron saint of musicians. Music was a big part of my life for many years and St. Cecelia was always there in the background for me. She was one of the first women saints I was introduced to as a child and has always been special to me.
Life changes, though, and rather than creating or making music, I now just indulge in my appreciation of it. Writing has become the dominant skill I use most often, but would you believe it, I really don’t like to write. It takes too much discipline and I’m lazy. I’d rather discuss or talk than write.
What a terrible thing for a blogger to confess! Seriously, I think of myself as a teacher, a trainer, an encourager, an information broker, and a perpetual student, but not a writer.
Although I’ve written two short business books, a weekly newspaper column for a business paper, many training manuals and programs, a monthly newsletter since 1999, and other stuff I’ve forgotten about, writing for me is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Perhaps that’s why I don’t think of myself as a writer even though I spend a lot of time thinking about writing when I’m not writing.
So why do I do it almost every day? Because I am driven to do what Pope John Paul II asked of Catholics – to use the new media to evangelize the world and writing is the only way I can do this now in my life.
Gone are my days of public speaking, conducting training, leading choirs and teaching children, although I still sometimes fantasize about giving talks on Catholic subjects. No sense in looking back nor in wishing for that which cannot be. Better to make the most of what is possible with Christ as the center of everything.
Faithful Christians evangelize within the unique context of their past and present, their talents, learning, behavior, their physical and mental capabilities. We are all called to do this and writing now has become my avenue of reaching out to others to share God’s love of all. Most especially sharing how I suffer with joy since there is so much suffering in this world and there is no point in wasting any of it by failing to use it as a way to come closer to God.
What about you? Why do you write?
If you are a blogger or some other kind of writer, why not write a post on this subject and link back here or leave a comment?
Thanks for visiting and God bless you.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival
November 21, 2010
Hi and welcome to Sunday Snippets hosted by RAnn at This That and the other Thing. Visit her to read other blogger’s posts for the week.
Monday I wrote three posts on the late, great Polish composer Henryk Gorecki and his relationship with Pope John Paul II. You’ll find a specific sacred music composition at the end of each post, too.
- Henryk Gorecki, 1933-2010, RIP
- Henryk Gorecki and Pope John Paul II
- Story of Henryk Gorecki’s Beatus Vir
Content summary and link to Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks Regional Newsletter for November. If you attend the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite you’ll find Growing FSSP Apostolates in the Midwest a cause for rejoicing.
Sabbath Moments tells why I couldn’t post anything since Monday- suffering with joy moments – even though it didn’t feel that way at the time. I had to skip posting on the Psalms Saturday because I couldn’t do it justice, but next week will be better, I’m sure.
Io in true color – one of Jupiter’s moons. Click on the image to read the back story. From APOD.
Thanks for visiting and God bless you.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sabbath Moments
November 20, 2010
Welcome to the meme, Sabbath Moments, hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. These are the times when we just be with the Lord rather than do. Visit Colleen and check out the Sabbath Moments of others for some quick inspiration.
Monday of this past week I was feeling really good and got on a roll writing three posts on the late Polish composer Henryk Gorecki and Pope John Paul II. That day I also got the Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks Regional Newsletter uploaded and available in the newsletter section of this site.
“Terrific,” I thought. “If things keep up this way I’ll have most of my research done for my ebook on purgatory and move along toward getting my editingandproofing.com site ready for customers.”
Hah! Tuesday I came down with a sinus/bronchial tube infection that threw me off all my wondrously laid plans which vanished into the ether. I’ve been off-line since I started taking prescription drugs on Tuesday evening. Moving around doing ordinary things still sends me into paroxysms of coughing and when that happens my head feels like it wants to explode. Thank God for Bufferin!
As is usual for me when I feel ill, I grabbed my rosary and descended into a stupor. I have no idea how many rosaries I prayed or even if I finished one. What I’m sure of is that God in His mercy let a few souls out of purgatory this week because I offered up my suffering with joy for them.
I hope my Sabbath Moments next week will be more pleasant! God bless all of you who visited here.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Praying the Psalms – Psalm 44
November 13, 2010
King David Playing the Zither, Andrea Celesti (1637-1712 Venice), oil on canvas, private collection
Welcome to Praying the Psalms, a meme hosted by Jenny at Just a Minute, and add your reflections on these hymns of praise and pleading.
Verses from today’s psalm make me think immediately of our fellow Christians in Iraq, Pakistan, and India who might readily claim them as their own as they suffer the violence of Islam.
vs. 20-26 If we had forgotten the name of our God, or spread forth our hands to a strange god, would not God discover this? For He knows the secrets of the heart. Nay, for Thy sake we are slain all the day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rouse Thyself! Why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Awake! Do not cast us off forever! Why dost Thou hide Thy face? Why dost Thou forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our body cleaves to the ground. Rise up, come to our help! Deliver us for the sake of Thy steadfast love!
[What more can we pray on behalf of our brethren suffering at the hands of those who seek the death and destruction of Christianity? We who enjoy a modicum of security now many be in their place tomorrow.
O Lord, You know the secrets of our hearts. You know the desire of Your faithful people to live safely under the shadow of Your wings. For Your sake they were slain.
Give us the strength to be faithful witnesses of Your love and kindness, and to bear wrongs patiently. Console the families of the fallen. Have mercy on the afflicted and oppressed.
Deliver our brethren from the violence of false religions and scheming, rapacious individuals full of hate. Let not the Evil One prevail, but let all nations rise up to praise You forever and ever.]
To the King of the ages, Who is immortal, invisible, the one only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen! (1 Tim. 1:17)
Sabbath Moments
October 30, 2010
Sabbath Moments are those times when we rested in the Lord during the week as we go about our daily routine. Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this meme, so visit her to read about others’ Sabbath Moments.
Early this week I slipped on some water on the kitchen floor – sloppy drinking by the dogs – and wrenched my hips. Not good because of the joint replacements and muscle weakness due to fibromyalgia. I spent a lot of time under the influence of painkillers as I rested next to Francie, who is recovering from her knee surgery. All I could do was thank God for the chance to offer up the inconvenience so that pro-life voters will remain strong and get out to the polls.
In fact, I spent time praying to St. Michael the Archangel to get all pro-life voters’ guardian angels to get their charges off to the polls next week.
Last Sunday I bought a rosary I’ve been coveting in the parish book store for almost a year. It’s a “child proof” rosary, the wires wrapped several times extra at each bead so little hands can’t pull it apart. However, this old kid wanted the rosary because the bead size is large and works easily through my fingers and the colors are so “happy.” This rosary is like the Church, which has people of all colors, bound securely together in the love of Christ. When I pray on it I pray for all of God’s children, even the ones not yet part of the Mystical Body, that they will come to know Him and submit to Him.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sabbath Moments
October 16, 2010
Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this meme every Saturday. I invite you to go there and read how others “rested in the Lord” this past week.
Usually I have a few Sabbath Moments to report, but for the life of me, except for this morning, I can’t remember one of them. It’s because this week has been marked by a flurry of vet visits.
Our five year old rescue dog, Francie, began limping off and on over the last six weeks. We thought she was straining muscles, but on Tuesday she turned to go after a toy and immediately began squeeking and crying. We got into the vet that day and he scheduled her for xrays and tests the next day.
Thank God she doesn’t have hip dysplasia, but the tests revealed that my fine boned lass with the delicate air, the doggy with the spring-loaded legs, has torn apart the cruciate ligaments in both knees. How long this has been since it happened we don’t know because she is so well toned that her leg muscles were allowing her to act normally most of the time. We were clueless.
Friday we took her to a wonderful veterinary surgeon who operated on her right knee, fixed the tears in the cartilage, put in a suture on the outside of the joint that will compensate for the loss of the ligaments, and sent her home. Last night she wanted to be near me, with her surgical wound closest to me as if asking me to take away the pain. We are giving her pain relievers, but as an experienced joint patient, I can say they work only up to a point.
The only Sabbath Moment I can remember for this week is praying the Divine Office today with Francie snuggled up to me on the bed. That might sound strange, but she has been a gift from God to us, she is His creature entrusted to us, and I felt peaceful knowing the she, like me, is in His hands. As her master, I offer up her pain and suffering to God as part of my own.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
A Trip to the Dentist
October 8, 2010
Yesterday was another perfect fall day in Missouri. Just the right temperatures and humidity and glorious sunshine, which made our 3 1/2 hour trip to the Kansas City dental school more than pleasant. While Roger was driving I worked on editing and proofing a friend’s book set to be published next spring.
Too soon, though, it was time to get into the dentist chair and that’s when my back muscles started seizing up – an effect of fibromyalgia which also affects my leg and butt muscles when I walk the dogs or do any other serious walking. Now here was a perfect chance to suffer – a lot – for our country’s deliverance from the pro-death crowd, for the salvation of souls, etc. and, I confess, I blew it.
Considering that the visit was for gum surgery in preparation for the new caps and re-engineering of my bite, I was just plain scared that a twitch at the wrong time would send the intern’s scalpel in some very undesirable direction. Especially since this was his first attempt at this procedure on a living patient! So, although the Novocain that I hate was a given to get through the cutting, I chickened out and asked for nitrous oxide in hopes it would stop the cramping in my back. It did, although I don’t know why.
Now I felt guilty and had to apologize to God for not being willing to step up to the plate in what I knew would be a tough challenge without drugs. Still, there was plenty to offer up as the Novocain wore off on the way home. Really, I hate that stuff, but the alternative is worse.
Today, I have very little pain and haven’t needed any pain meds. You can hardly tell any surgery was done. The intern did a great job under the supervision of the faculty periodontist. No blade went off in the wrong direction. And it will be six weeks before the next ordeal in this saga.
I couldn’t help but think of little Blessed Jacinta Marto who endured chest surgery without anesthesia on purpose back in 1918. She had taken Our Lady of Fatima’s suggestion to heart: suffer for poor sinners who need to convert and accept the redemption Jesus obtained for them. No doubt God gave her the grace to endure it. Why couldn’t I do as much?
Have you ever felt that you chickened out of an opportunity to “offer it up”? Where do we draw the line between taking proper care of our bodies, the temples of the Holy Ghost, and permitting personal suffering for the good of souls and our own spiritual growth?
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Are Natural Disasters God’s Fault?
September 16, 2010
Crucifixion c. 1648, Giulio Carpioni, oil on canvas, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
This is the third and last, for a time, article on redemptive suffering, dealing with public and national sin. Father Remler, who wrote Why Must I Suffer? in 1935, talks about God’s patience with sinful man, noting that (p.10):
...He waited a hundred years before He sent the deluge which He had commissioned Noah to announce; He allowed forty years to elapse between the prediction made by Our Lord of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the fulfillment of that prediction by the Romans in the year 70; and He spared the city of Nineveh altogether because its inhabitants immediately left off sinning and hastened to do penance at the preaching of Jonas.
God uses many ways to call us to a right relationship with Him. It can be through other persons, a work of art or music, a book, or an event of nature or some other means. He always has the grace ready for us and grants it at our slightest inclination in His direction as St. Faustina wrote in her diary and as he showed St. Therese of Lisieux when she prayed for the condemned man. God is remarkably patient with us, but when sinners grow more bold because their evil deeds have not been chastised at once, eventually the hand of God will descend in justice and the good will suffer along with the bad.
However, we can often trace broad suffering back to their roots, as Father Remler wrote in 1935 (p. 10):
Nor is it always necessary that God send such chastisement for public sins, as He sent the deluge or the destruction of Jerusalem. There are many sins which contain in themselves the gigantic oak. If such sins prevail for a sufficiently long time, unchecked and unrepented, they are bound to produce such conditions in the social order as make certain calamities unavoidable.
Take, for example, the sin of godless education, that is, education of youth without religion. Where such a system has been adopted, the necessary results must be the following: After two or three generations the knowledge of God will disappear more or less completely among the people, the sense of right and wrong will be lost; good will be called evil and evil good; there will be no respect for the moral law; the depravity of youth will grow worse and worse; dishonesty and corruption will prevail in business, in the courts, in the legislature, and in the government itself; taxes will be misappropriated or disappear in the pockets of grafters; heavy expenses will be necessary to maintain the growing number of asylums, juvenile courts, reform schools and prisons; there will be no security to honor property and life; the relations between capital and labor will be strained to the breaking point, so that violence and bloodshed will become inevitable; family life will be disrupted by adultery, divorce and free love; national rivalries, jealousies and hatreds, provoked by commercial greed, grow more and more intense, until they lead to international wars with their unspeakable misery to millions. Nations that sow the whirlwind must reap the storm.
Such prescience! Has he not described our world today almost four generations later?
Consider the example of the poor nation of Haiti. Was God responsible for the terrible carnage of the earthquake earlier this year? Not at all. The seeds of destruction and loss of life were sown from before its founding by the colonialists and carried forward by one corrupt and violent, oppressive government. I am old enough to remember news of “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his Ton Ton Macoutes terrorizing the citizens, and the subsequent governments who continued the evil practices that kept their country in fear and poverty.
After the horrendous Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 in Japan, many countries beefed up construction requirements for earthquake zones. No one can say that such skills as are necessary to design and build earthquake proof structures were not available to Haiti. It was the graft and corruption of the Haitian government that is ultimately responsible for the death and destruction of the quake. It cannot be excused.
Another factor we cannot overlook contributing to the Haitian’s post-earthquake plight is the fact that Haiti cannot afford to feed itself. Why not? Because Bill Clinton, to keep Arkansas rice farmer’s crop prices stable cut a deal with the Haitian government which made the costs for Haitian rice crops too high to sell and importing Arkansas rice attractive. It was low cost or free to the Haitian government. Thus, a country with much fertile land and the capability to feed itself was reduced to the status of beggar. The United States government subsidized (paid for) the Arkansas rice and through corrupt politicians from both countries, ensured increased poverty and international dependency of the Haitians. The United Nations and other countries are involved in preventing self-sufficiency.
Just how long the Haitian people will continue to suffer in unsanitary and starving conditions remains to be seen, but progress is next to nil in clearing the wreckage from the quake and restoring adequate food and water. From this disaster to Hurricane Katrina to the tsunami in Indonesia striking at about the time Terri Schaivo was publicly murdered and Pope John Paul II died, we can see that normal events of nature have been occurring in the extreme and all are afflicted – both innocent and guilty.
Yes, God permits natural disasters. He is, after all, the Lord of all. But often these disasters are much worse than would have been necessary because of the need to atone in this world for public and national sins and our failure to do so. When are people everywhere going to stop blaming God and look to their own behavior?
Our world needs many people who will quietly offer up pain and suffering, fasting and praise to God so that a real conversion of heart will happen world wide. Christians know that God can and does intervene in our lives, and that if He was willing to spare the inhabitants of Sodom if only ten just men were found (Gen. 18: 22-32), we know that small numbers of devout people can bring down God’s grace of conversion on all. The chastisements due us for public and national sin can be ameliorated by the faithfulness of a few.
And when we find ourselves in a situation such as Haiti, Katrina, and other natural disasters, let us not chafe at the bit of suffering but instead offer it up in atonement for our sins and those of the world – those sins that cannot be expiated in the next world.
Readers, ask your priests to speak on this subject and invite as many people as possible to join in the great work of Christ, redemptive suffering, for deliverance of our country and the world from the grip of the Adversary. Ask God for the grace to endure joyfully whatever He sends you, knowing that your example can inspire others.
We are all His children. There is not one whom God does not love and desire to turn to Him with humility and confidence in His mercy and goodness. Follow the Fatima message of repentance and conversion and pray every day for mercy for this world.
To the King of ages, Who is immortal, invisible, the one only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (Tim. 1: 17).
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
For the previous two articles on public and national sins click on:
Expiating Public and National Sins
A Public and National Sin Requiring Atonement
A Public and National Sin Requiring Atonement
September 14, 2010
Crucifixion c. 1648, Giulio Carpioni, oil on canvas, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Today is the feast of the Exhaltation of the Holy Cross, the instrument by which we are saved. This series on redemptive suffering is a fitting subject for the week in which we contemplate the power of the Cross and the Seven Sorrows of Mary in the Church’s liturgical calendar.
Government Complicity in Disease and Killing from Genetically Modified Foods
While pro-life groups are focused on the need for redemptive suffering to atone for public sins of abortion and euthanasia, a direct and obvious killing of our fellow human beings, another more subtle attack on our fellow humans comes from the corruption involved in bringing genetically modified foods to market and the negative effect these foods have on humans and animals.
***
Let me interject here: I am an American who loves her country and is grateful to God for allowing me to be born and live here. Speaking of the public and national sins of our government is a patriotic call to stop the corrupt practices in the legislatures and courts leading to suffering and death around the world. We were founded on Christian principles but today those principles have been abandoned by all too many. I am part of the “me” generation responsible for the fulfillment of anti-God secular humanist ideas that are bearing poisoned fruit and feel I must speak out against them and for the restoration of Christ’s Gospel of Life in every heart.
***
I bring up the evil fruit of the genetically modified food practice as an example of a great injustice done by corporations and governments (not just America) in complicity to enrich themselves at the cost of the health and lives of those affected by it. Dr. Mercola has a number of articles on the subject at his web site, and suffice it to say, trusting the government regarding foods raised, sold, and consumed is hazardous to your health and ultimately to the future of man. This is, of course, gravely morally wrong from so many angles I can’t name them all.
Just because we can do something does not mean we should do it.
Just because we can alter DNA does not mean we should, even if the project starts out with the most noble of purposes, such as addressing world hunger. The means does not guarantee the desired end, and to embark on paths without proper care and proof that the path taken is morally right calls motives into question and leads to unintended consequences.
What are a few unintended consequences of the proliferation of GM crops?
Studies on third generation hamsters fed GM soy show that nearly all were sterile and hair grew inside their mouths. A study on rats by Russian scientists showed that more than 50 percent of the babies from mother rats that were fed GM soy died within three weeks, compared to a 10 percent death rate among the controls. What will happen with humans?
GM crops of cotton, soy, corn, sugar beets, canola, etc. were bred to resist Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup and other weed killers. The high percentages of these crops coming to the grocery stores is putting people at risk, both in the consumption of fresh vegetables and in processed food. The ubiquitous use of high fructose corn syrup is spreading the genetic modifications to food everywhere.
Genetically modified seeds are escaping farms and growing uninhibited in the wild, unable now to be controlled. Wildlife won’t eat GM foods. They seem to recognize something is wrong. But the GM foods can choke out natural food sources and wildlife will starve.
Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples, and then sues, saying they own the crop. Meanwhile, Monsanto is taking many other steps to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of normal seeds:
1. They’ve bought up the seed companies across the Midwest.
2. They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork that having normal seed becomes almost impossible.
3. Monsanto is pushing laws that ensure farmers and citizens can’t block the planting of GMO crops even if they can contaminate other crops.
4. There are Monsanto regulations buried in the FDA rules that make a farmer’s seed cleaning equipment illegal because it’s now considered a “source of seed contamination.”
Monsanto has sued more than 1,500 farmers whose fields had simply been contaminated by GM crops.
Monsanto has inserted a gene in it’s genetically modified seeds that render the offspring’s seeds sterile, forcing farmers to buy new seed every year. Doesn’t this cause food price inflation, interfere with the farmer’s profit margin and ability to provide for their families? Doesn’t this increase government costs of food stamp programs our taxes support? How many other ways is this immoral?
A little known but significant consequence of the collusion between Monsanto, the American government and the government of India is the high suicide rate among Indian farmers.
According to AlterNet, a leftist (progressive) activist news site that accuses “right wing” news media of vitriol and “hate talk” (just because a media outlet is admittedly “left wing” does not mean we cannot glean useful information from it):
“Since GM seeds are patented by Monsanto, their repeated use each year requires constant licensing fees that keep farmers impoverished. One bad yield due to drought or other reasons, plunges farmers so deep into debt that they resort to suicide. One study estimates that 150,000 farmers have killed themselves in the past ten years.”
In Dr. Mercola’s September 3, 2010 article: Blood on our Farms: Is Monsanto Responsible for 1 Suicide Every 30 Minutes? he writes:
According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, more than 182,900 Indian farmers took their own lives between 1997 and 2007. It estimates 46 Indian farmers commit suicide every day. That equates to roughly one suicide every 30 minutes!
Some will argue that natural events are to blame, such as lack of rain, but crop failures have occurred before, and it didn’t push thousands of farmers to end their lives by drinking pesticide.
No, the increased desperation can be traced directly back to the use of patented, and therefore expensive, seeds, and the unconscionable tactics of Monsanto.
Monsanto has been ruthless in their drive to use India as a testing ground for genetically modified crops. Over the past decade, millions of Indian farmers have been promised radically increased harvests and income if they switch from their traditional age tested farming methods to genetically modified (GM) Bt cotton seeds.
So, they borrow money to buy GM seeds, which need certain pesticides that were previously unnecessary, which requires even more money. When rain fall is sparse, the GM crops actually fare far worse than traditional crops – a fact that these farmers oftentimes don’t learn until it’s too late and they’re standing there with failed crops, spiraling debts, and no income.
And by next season, they have to do it all over again because the GM seeds cannot be saved and replanted. They must be purchased again.
India has started a government program for families whose farmers have committed suicide from these policies. Is this not an incentive to kill oneself if one wishes to provide for his family and is prevented from doing so by corporations in collusion with government? The Indian government is subsidizing suicide. Do you think American legislatures, courts and congress are blameless in this? I don’t.
Redemptive Suffering Atones
This discussion on public and national sin with Monsanto and other corporations engaged in similar actions is just a vehicle to show the drastic state of affairs in this world regarding our offenses toward God. I write this to demonstrate the need for faithful and loving souls who are daily developing their relationship with God to offer themselves in union with Christ on the cross to our heavenly Father.
The problems I’ve identified are too big for a single person to solve, but God in His mercy can solve everything. We need mass conversions to Christ and people living in a loving manner towards each other. We need trust in God and living His law of the dignity of the human person, a dignity trampled upon every day in ways we cannot even imagine. Let us never think that because we are not cloistered monks or nuns we cannot affect the world for good. St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Jose Maria Escriva showed us the little way. The lover (us) counts no cost in giving himself to the Beloved (God) any more than Jesus did not count the cost in sacrificing Himself for us.
Whatever God asks of us, He give us the grace to do. Each of us has a spiritual and temporal work to do that no one else can. Let us always seek to do God’s will in joyful trust. Especially let us ask God to see ourselves as He sees us, and to see the world as He sees it.
More articles will follow soon on expiating public/national sin. If you want to learn more about GMOs visit Dr. Mercola’s web site and search “genetically modified foods” for many more articles.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
The Question of Suffering – Expiating Public and National Sins
September 13, 2010
This is the first in a series of articles on expiating public and national sins through redemptive suffering. I am not writing on this subject to depress people, but to inspire readers to give joyfully to God all the pain in life that comes your way in imitation of our Savior on the cross for the sake of others less blessed. Also, I want to share understanding I’ve gleaned from spiritual reading and sacred scripture on the problem of suffering.
Why does God permit natural disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti, hurricanes Katrina and Ike, the tsunami in Indonesia, the floods in Pakistan, etc?
Why are evil dictators allowed to remain in office, killing their own people?
Why all the endless massive suffering in the world?
Why must innocent people suffer along with the wicked?
Why must I suffer?
These questions are reasonable for any thinking person to ask, and for the prayerful Christian, questions that must be asked.
Crucifixion c. 1648, Giulio Carpioni, oil on canvas, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Christians know that Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to suffer and die so that the gates of heaven would once again be opened to man after the fall of Adam and Eve.And because we all have the tendency to sin, we all have the need to repent, and we all must suffer in this life, imitating Christ, because of our own sins and the sins of others. He was innocent; we are not. Christ’s sufferings were sufficient to redeem every person created, but while God presents all of us with the opportunity to take advantage of Christ’s sacrifice, not everyone will accept it.
Sin has consequences we cannot escape. This world is full of pain and anguish and will continue so until the end of time because of original sin. Nobody escapes.
Redemptive suffering is the offering we make to God of our suffering for the conversion of others and for expiation of all sins. It’s not that Christ did not suffer enough, but that because He suffered and commanded us to follow in His footsteps we must, in joy (because God loves a cheerful giver), suffer in unity with Him. St. Paul puts it this way in Col. 1:24: I rejoice now in the sufferings I bear for your sake; and what is lacking of the sufferings of Christ I fill up in my flesh for His body, which is the Church.”
Jesus Himself said, Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (Lk. 23:26).
Lately I’ve been pondering one of the surprising (to me) reasons why we must suffer and offer it up cheerfully. The many news articles on various subjects I’ve been reading lately give plain examples of how public and national sins affect everyone.
In 1935 Franciscan Herald Press published the book, Why Must I Suffer? - A Book of Light and Consolation by Father F. J. Remler, C.M. Shortly after I was diagnosed with severe fibromyalgia and a number of other health issues I read this book, now in print again through Loreto Publications. Among the fifteen reasons Father Remler listed as to why we must suffer is to expiate public and national sins.
He writes on page 9:
As a member of society and a citizen of your country, you must unite with the rest in making the atonement and reparation which Divine Justice requires for the public and national sins committed in the community in which you live.
By public and national sins we understand certain sins of a graver nature which are committed on so large a scale and by so many persons in a community, be it a city, or a province, or an entire nation, that they are attributed to the community as a body and not merely to this or that individual.
Among the public sins he listed are:
- Irreligion and forgetfulness of God
- Godless education of the young
- Profanation of God’s Holy Name
- Cursing, blasphemy and perjury
- Desecration of the Lord’s Day
- Immodest and scandalous fashions
- Dishonesty, injustice and oppression of the poor
- Murder and genocide
- Immoral art, literature and amusements
- Adultery sanctioned by state laws
- Wild orgies of gross immorality and unrestrained license which periodically disgrace public festivities and celebrations, or occur in connection with balls, dances, banquets and the like.
In 1935 abortion was not discussed publicly nor was it legalized, but today abortion and euthanasia should be added to the list along with waging unjust wars.
Technology has made it possible to sin as a nation through actions of our legislatures and lobbyists, and in this regard I am thinking specifically of companies such as Monsanto who have devised a diabolical scheme to force dangerous genetically modified foods on the world, and of market manipulation by Wall Street and finance companies. We should also note the harmful drugs and vaccines approved by the FDA and deals cut by the government with pharmaceutical companies to forbid lawsuits by those who are injured by them.
What others would you list as public and national sins under Father Remler’s definition?
On p. 11 he remarks:
Public and national sins must be expiated in this world for the very simple reason that they cannot be expiated in the next. In the world to come families, cities, provinces and nations will have no continued corporate existence. There, men and women will exist merely as individuals, without being united by those social, civil, political and national bonds which are necessary in this life for the welfare and preservation of the human race. In eternity, they will individually enjoy the fruits of their life on earth – the good will possess the kingdom of God in heaven, while the wicked shall suffer for their evil deeds in the unquenchable fires of hell. But as public sins require public expiation, and this expiation cannot be made in this next life, it is clear that it must be made on this side of the grave.
OK, so a certain amount of suffering in this world is something we have to live with because of corporate/national/public sin. Moreover, what do we do about it other than bear the consequences? Will our suffering in imitation of Christ mitigate the consequences of these sins?
Come back tomorrow for the next article in the series and the beginning of the answers to the questions I’ve posed. Father Remler’s book is available in Barb’s Custom Shop. Just click on the link on the sidebar and it will take you there.
For the sins of His own nation
Saw Him hang in desolation
Till His spirit forth He sent.
(verse, Stabat Mater attributed to Jacapone da Todi, c.1230-1306, follower of St. Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226)
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
True Faith vs. Intellectual Pride
August 9, 2010
In my post Seeking God’s Will I introduced readers to my dear friend Father Philip Schuster, OSB (RIP). I am reading his book again as part of my ongoing journey of suffering with joy. His simplicity of heart was very inspiring and it opened my eyes to having greater trust in God. We will never achieve the holiness God desires for us if we don’t learn this lesson because our intellectual pride will always block our surrender to Him. To the extent we refuse to surrender we limit our ability to love.
Three Children of Fatima
Saints are not made overnight. Achieving great charity, and that is the meaning of being a saint, is done minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day with much toe-stubbing, ankle-twisting and knee-skinning along the way. The first step seems to me to empty ourselves of our intellectual pride - and sometimes that’s like bailing out a boat with a leaky bucket – so that we follow the exhortation of Jesus: Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a child, shall not enter into it. (Lk. 18: 17). Faith is to be received Jesus tells us, simply, as a child believes his parents, with open-hearted trust in God and an emptying of self. If we do not become child-like, we make no room in our hearts for faith.
Here is that beautiful, child-like simplicity from Father Philip:
Human reason or intellect enters into faith and has a very important place. But in faith, reason isn’t there to question what God has said or to determine what is true. For by faith we already know what is true. God has told us. Reason is there to study the meaning of it all, to see the beauty and goodness of it all, to make the truth my own, to respond to it and live it. But not to question it! For we know it is true, once God has revealed it.
As soon as you question what God has said, you indicate little faith or no faith at all. Consider what happened to Zechariah (see Luke 1:20). Faith demands that I keep an open mind to what God has to say, and that when I believe, I believe simply because God has spoken…
It just may be true that saying we believe is not necessarily proof of real faith. Perhaps we often accept some truth or some moral law, not because we are convinced that God has taught it, but because it seems right to us and fits our desires at present. Proof of this, at least proof enough for us to take warning, comes from the fact that if something taught by the Church today doesn’t seem reasonable to us, we hesitate or even refuse to accept it. Which more or less proves that we are guided all along by our own reasoning power and not by faith. For again, faith is essentially a simple accepting because God has spoken.
Father Philip cuts to the heart of the matter. When I think of the times I doubted in the past, it was because I allowed the devil to confuse me. He only does this when our willfulness rules us and we press forward into sin because we want to indulge. I can truthfully say that any time I asked God for a deeper understanding of a truth of the Faith, He always answered me. Sometimes He made me wait awhile. Sometimes He showed me right away. But He never denied me the grace to see the beauty, goodness, and harmony of it all, nor the grace as Father Philip writes, “to respond to it and live it.”
I’ll be back with more from Father Philip soon.
Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger – Painter of the Psalms
July 30, 2010
Since I began participating in the meme “Praying the Psalms” and stumbled on the work of Moshe Tzvi Halevi Berger, I have been thinking about this man and his work. What contribution might his paintings make to my spiritual life and my understanding of our heavenly Father? What of his life will contribute to my understanding of Orthodox Judaism? What might it tell of the minds and hearts of devout Jews at the time of Jesus? Of devout Jews of today?
These subjects may not be important to many, but I am always thinking of how we Catholics can possibly bridge the gap between our understanding of Christ and that of others. Who knows what role the answers to my questions will play in gathering others to Him? Perhaps none, but learning more will make me a better, more thankful Christian and deepen my awe of how God works in others. Of that I am sure.
To understand Berger’s paintings, it is important to understand the man. Born in 1925 in Transylvania, Berger is no ordinary person although he looks like the quintessential Jewish grandfather. He is someone I wish I could sit down and speak with for many days because of his fascinating life and work.
Berger is descended from a long line of Hassidic Rabbis. As a young man he was interned in a Nazi prison camp for several years and after being liberated completed medical school to became an oral surgeon. By 1957 he quit medical practice to study in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He also studied in Italy at Rome’s Instituto de Belle Arte and became a successful commercial artist. God was working in Berger in the midst of his secular success, however. His artistic focus changed dramatically when he began studying the Torah and Kabbalah. In 1982 as he began living as an observant Jew, he was experiencing that deep longing only God can satisfy.
A short departure here: the Torah is the five books of Moses. The Kabbalah is, according to Wikipedia
a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an eternal and mysterious Creator and the mortal and finite universe (His creation).
As in New Age systems that corrupt Christian teaching and mash eastern mysticism with Christian spirituality, some unscrupulous people promote the Kabbalah as holding the “secrets” of all wisdom. It’s all gnosticism and what the attraction to this perversion of truth holds for many is beyond me. I can say that based on what Berger writes about his paintings, he is giving expression to the mystery of God’s love for man in his art, making verses of the Psalms become visual. Superstition and gnosticism appear to play no part in his thinking or work.
After moving to the United States in the early 1980s, Berger gained renown for very large Kabbalistic murals he painted in Florida and Brooklyn, New York. The latter was six stories high. In 1988 he began his series of Psalm paintings which would take him fifteen years to complete. The year 1992 saw him move to Jerusalem where in 1995 he founded the Museum of Psalms in a building located in the courtyard of the synagogue built by former Israel Chief Rabbi, Avraham Yitzhak Kook. Berger lives in a single room next to the museum and visitors often are privileged to have him as a guide when viewing his works.
As if illustrating all 150 Psalms was not enough, Berger embarked on the task of painting 42 images on healing, light, and meditation called the Sun series. Based on the Zohar, these are no less deep than the Psalm paintings. Completed in 2007, they are part of the collection at the Museum of Psalms.
Another short departure: the Zohar is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five books of Moses). Wikipedia says,
The Zohar contains a discussion of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of Ego to Darkness and “true self” to “The Light of God,” and the relationship between the “universal energy” and man. Its scriptural exegesis can be considered an esoteric form of the Rabbinic literature known as Midrash, which elaborates on the Torah.
The goal of Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger in painting the Psalms was to “bring inspiration to the souls of many who seek spiritual enlightenment and do not live by bread alone.”
These are the very words Jesus spoke in Matt. 4:4:
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God
and Luke 4:4:
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God
derived from Deuteronomy 8:3:
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
Berger has had more than 100 one-man shows on three continents. Had it not been for the internet, I would never have discovered this great and unique spiritual art which rightly belongs to the Judeo-Christian heritage. In my next post I will write a little about the elements of symbolism in his works but for now, let me say that he has inspired me on my journey of suffering with joy.
Seeking God’s Will
July 23, 2010
Over the past couple of months I’ve been thinking of a dear friend, Father Philip Schuster, O.S.B., one of the monks murdered at Conception Abbey on June 10, 2002 by a gunman whose motives will forever remain unknown as he had no connection to any of the monks nor to the abbey and left nothing in spoken word or writing to say why he did it.
Lloyd Robert Jeffress got in his car with an AK 47 and a .22 caliber sawed off rifle and drove a couple of hours from Kansas City to Conception, Missouri to execute as many monks as he could find. Father Philip, age 84 and monastery porter, was shot in the torso and finished off with a shot to the head after he fell. The bullet hole remains in the hallway floor. Brother Damian, known as “the weather monk” was also killed. Two other monks who entered the hallway from their offices were shot, gravely wounded, and recovered after a long time. When Jeffress couldn’t find anybody else to shoot, he went back down the hall and through the same door to the basilica he had used to enter the monastery, and killed himself. In the midst of mourning the Abbot re-consecrated the basilica the next day.
I made a some private retreats at the abbey with Father Philip and visited him there with my husband on our way north to see friends. He had been the novice master of my pastor and he was just the person I needed at that time of my life. On one of my visits, he gave me a copy of the book he wrote, Seeking God’s Will Through Faith, Hope & Charity
Father Philip was everything a priest should be and solid as a rock theologically. He set a good example for me in the spiritual life and I often think of things he said in our conferences. One typical exchange between us happened when I was sitting in his porter’s office and we were discussing the rosary. Father pulled an old, really old broken rosary out of his breast pocket (it came from a monk who died in 1927 and I have one just like it from the same monk) and waving it in the air said, “I love praying the rosary. I don’t worry about getting all the prayers in. Sometimes I just get a good meditation on the mystery and don’t worry about finishing every decade.” In other words, keep to the purpose of what you’re doing and don’t sweat the small stuff. Of the monk who blessed our rosaries so long ago he said, “Father Lucas hung every indulgence under the sun on these rosaries. I don’t mind that it’s broken. Our Lady doesn’t mind if we pray on broken rosaries.”And Father Philip prayed on his so much he plumb wore it out.
If you boiled down the essence of Father Philip, it would be simplicity and faithfulness in conforming ourselves to God’s will. He was kind and gentle, but very firm about obeying God’s laws. He was utterly faithful to his monastic vows and using that old, broken rosary was a perfect example of his approach to the vow of poverty. He clearly knew what was important and what was not.
Because life itself is threatened with such great intensity from so many sides these days, and peace of soul can be elusive for the person in the world, I decided to read a little of Father Philip’s book again every day and share some passages with you here. This is a great book that never gets boring no matter how many times you read it. Father Philip was a gift from God to all, but especially to the tortured soul who needs to learn to suffer with joy, and I’m sure he brought many to God. He lived what he wrote.
From Chapter Two: Faith:
“He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Rom. 1: 17). In an age when personal freedom is so much stressed, it seems helpful and necessary to try to clarify our notion of faith.
Many of us were born into a Christian family. Many of us, especially Catholics, were baptized as infants, or when we were very young. I do not wish to see this practice changed. I agree with it. But it does have at least one danger. We are prone to think that faith, like love, comes easily, naturally, without real effort on our part. We assume that anyone who professes to be Catholic, and who goes to church, has a deep faith. I challenge that notion.
It is true that when the child receives the sacrament of baptism, the virtue of faith is implanted in the soul, like a seed. Whatever else that virtue may be at the time of baptism, it is an inclination, a force, that inclines us, helps us, gives us the attitude of one ready to believe, ready to be taught by God, relying simply on His wisdom, His fidelity, His goodness. Relying on God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
“Relying on God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.” Wherever lies or deception of any kind exists, there is Satan who is the clever master of re-direction and re-definition. We see and hear this every day in the news media. Something is forever being presented as something it is not and people rely on these deceptions to justify the unjustifiable. A fair question to ask is, am I ready to be taught by God, or do I habitually look elsewhere to be told what I want to hear?
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