On Consecrating and Trusting

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Of the pillars of my Catholic Faith, two are very important (apart from my marriage): my consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary through the method of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe and my devotion to the Divine Mercy, as revealed to us by Our Lord through St. Faustina Kowalska. There are other “pillars,” but these I’ll discuss now.

I consecrate myself daily to the Blessed Mother recite the Divine Mercy chaplet. And oftentimes throughout the day I say “Jesus, I Trust in You.”

But what does all that really mean? It comes down to Divine Providence and trusting that your prayers are heard and that the intentions mean something and that God will hear and answer your prayers. Perhaps not in the way you scripted, but somehow “He has your back.” Quite often I fear that I entrust myself to Mary and then by my actions I take it back a little. And similarly, I trust in Jesus, but take it back.

How do I take it back? By actions and feelings, but mostly feelings. Fear and anxiety about problems currently being faced and a future that is scary… Why bother entrusting yourself to Mary and trusting in Jesus if your fears and worries imply that you don’t really mean it?

Trusting in Divine Providence is scary; it requires deep faith and an abiding conviction that God is real, not just some nice fairy tale or soothing concept that gives us comfort. God exists, He is real, He understands us and responds to our needs. He was one of us, and remains to this day among us on our altars and in our tabernacles in the Eucharist. We need patience and trust that things will happen in time; when we need it, not always when we want it.

But it is still scary. It’s like the future is some dark tunnel or hallway and there’s no light anywhere illuminating the interior. You know you have to go through the tunnel as that’s the way to the future. And so you step into it and realize that it doesn’t get brighter.

I love “Divine Mercy in My Soul,” the spiritual diary of St. Faustina. I wrote before that “The Diary beautifully describes the love and mercy of God. I feel it is a text that every sober Catholic should have. It often serves to lift my spirits in ways other books do not (save for the Gospels.) When I read it I feel like it is a long, soothing letter of comfort, consoling me when times are difficult.”

Throughout it Our Lord is telling her that it wounds Him when people do not trust Him; not trusting in His mercy or His Providence.

So I’ve been thinking about that; like I said above, either God and religion is real or it’s all a bunch of hooey. Too often, when our fears and anxieties about the future overtake us and we fret all night in bed and don’t get to sleep, it’s as if we become functional atheists. We believe there is a God but we don’t quite have the faith that He hears, understands and plans for us. Including providing for us. Either our Faith is real or it’s not.

The mystery is how He will do it. Therein lies some of the fear and anxiety as often it might not be quite how we’d envision. We’d have more confidence if we knew what He was going to do, but of course it doesn’t work that way.

It takes courage to go out into the deep, to cast your nets into the future and hope that the fish swim into the net.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Books on the Holy Face Devotion. And a chaplet.

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I introduced to you the Holy Face Devotion in these two posts: The Holy Face Devotion: what we need for our times and The Holy Face, Disfigured by Sin

In short, the Devotion to the Holy Face is a work of reparation to atone for blasphemy against the Lord’s name and the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days. In addition, it was also intended as a spiritual weapon to be used in the war against Communism.

There is a trilogy of books that are regarded as holding the basics of the Devotion. These are offered by TAN books (well, sort of. I’ll discuss that in a few sentences). The books are “The Golden Arrow,” the first half of which contains the autobiography of the Carmelite Nun in Tours, France who received the revelations from Jesus in 1846-1848, Sr. Marie of St. Peter. It also contains all of the messages of Jesus in the second half. The next two are written by Dorothy Scallan. First is “The “Holy Man of Tours: The Life of Leo Dupont (1797-1876), Apostle of the Holy Face Devotion,” and lastly is “The Whole World Will Love Me: The Life of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face (1873-1897).”

As I said, all are available through tanbooks.com, (just click on the titles, they’re links to their TAN page). Except for the biography of Leo Dupont, which is not in print. That is only available as an ebook. I emailed TAN asking if they have plans to return it to print, but they do not; although they customer service representative kindly told me she’ll pass my request up to her superiors. And here is where you readers can come in handy: If you would please go to tanbooks.com and access the contact information (at the bottom of the page, it’s basically CustomerService at TANBooks dot com but it’s easier if you click on that email link on their site.) and nicely, politely, respectfully request that “The “Holy Man of Tours: The Life of Leo Dupont (1797-1876), Apostle of the Holy Face Devotion,” by Dorothy Scallan (Sku: 1124) be brought back into print? Yes, it’s available by ebook, but paper is better! 😉 Thank you! Perhaps if there’s a sudden rise in interest they’ll reconsider and re-issue it. Maybe you can be persuasive; explain how the Devotion is sorely needed in these times… TAN seems to be increasing the number of titles on current events and a Catholic response to them.

If, however, TAN does not want to re-issue it, there is another biography of Leo Dupont that is in the public domain and available FOR FREE LEGAL DOWNLOAD online through the Internet Archive. You can get The holy man of Tours : or, the life of Léon Papin-Dupont, “who died at Tours in the odor of sanctity, March 18, 1876” written by M. L’Abbe Pierre Desire Janvier. It’s 517 pages and available in a wide variety of formats.

TAN also sells another good little prayer book on the Holy Face Devotion. It also has meditations and great spiritual readings on this; please consider: Devotion to the Holy Face by Mary Frances Lester

NOTE: AS OF THIS WRITING (JULY 2020) THE BIOGRAPHY OF ST. THERESE IS ONLY $5!!!!! It is currently among their monthly “$5-a-book” campaign. It has been in the past, that’s why I bought it a few months ago! TAKE ADVANTAGE! (I don’t get anything from sales.) 

Another thing to consider is the Holy Face Chaplet. The “…chaplet of the Holy Face is comprised of 33 round cross beads and 6 oval beads on a brown cord with a wood cross and picture medal of Jesus’ Holy Face. The little chaplet of the Holy Face has for its object the honoring of the five senses of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is well to recite it every day in order to obtain the triumph of our holy mother the Catholic Church and the downfall of her enemies! Includes instructions and prayers.’ This is available through EWTN here: CHAPLET OF THE HOLY FACE – CROSS BEADS  (Again, I receive no money from sales.) The Chaplet is also available from other sources and made from different materials, but EWTN is where I bought mine.

I’ve become a little addicted to reciting it, it is quite comforting. On the cross you recite the prayer: “God, come to my assistance; Lord, Make haste to help me,” and then the “Glory be…” Then on the each first large bead announce the sense of our Lord (for the first section, “Touch”) and say “My Jesus, Mercy,” followed by the “Glory Be.” Then on each of the six smaller beads say, “Arise, O God, let thy enemies be scattered and let those who hate thee flee before Thy Face.” Then repeat this for each of the next four sections, each one representing the senses of hearing, sight, smell and finally taste. After “Taste,” say “My Jesus, Mercy,” followed by the “Glory Be” on the next large bead. After follows three small beads which you would probably be curious about what to do about them, if you had the chaplet already. You recite on each bead, “Arise, O God, let thy enemies be scattered and let those who hate thee flee before Thy Face.” Then on the medal dangling from near the cross you say, “O God, Our Protector,  please look upon us and cast your gaze upon the Face of Thy Christ.” And that’s it! It doesn’t take long to say.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Holy Face, Disfigured by Sin

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The essence of the Holy Face Devotion, and why the Holy Face is the object, is reparation for sin; and since our sins were taken upon Our Lord in His propitiatory sacrifice on Calvary, there is a scriptural basis.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 contains many of the verses of the Messianic Prophecy of the Suffering Servant.

“Behold, my servant will understand; he will be exalted and lifted up, and he will be very sublime.

Just as they were stupefied over you, so will his countenance be without glory among men, and his appearance, among the sons of men.

He will sprinkle many nations; kings will close their mouth because of him. And those to whom he was not described, have seen. And those who have not heard, have considered.

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

And he will rise up like a tender plant in his sight, and like a root from the thirsty ground.

There is no beautiful or stately appearance in him. For we looked upon him, and there was no aspect, such that we would desire him.

He is despised and the least among men, a man of sorrows who knows infirmity. And his countenance was hidden and despised. Because of this, we did not esteem him.

Truly, he has taken away our weaknesses, and he himself has carried our sorrows. And we thought of him as if he were a leper, or as if he had been struck by God and humiliated.

But he himself was wounded because of our iniquities. He was bruised because of our wickedness. The discipline of our peace was upon him. And by his wounds, we are healed.

We have all gone astray like sheep; each one has turned aside to his own way. And the Lord has placed all our iniquity upon him.

He was offered up, because it was his own will. And he did not open his mouth. He will be led like a sheep to the slaughter. And he will be mute like a lamb before his shearer.

For he will not open his mouth.

He was lifted up from anguish and judgment. Who will describe his life? For he has been cut off from the land of the living. Because of the wickedness of my people, I have struck him down.

And he will be given a place with the impious for his burial, and with the rich for his death, though he has done no iniquity, nor was deceit in his mouth.

But it was the will of the Lord to crush him with infirmity. If he lays down his life because of sin, he will see offspring with long lives, and the will of the Lord will be directed by his hand.

Because his soul has labored, he will see and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my just servant will himself justify many, and he himself will carry their iniquities.

Therefore, I will allot to him a great number. And he will divide the spoils of the strong. For he has handed over his life to death, and he was reputed among criminals. And he has taken away the sins of many, and he has prayed for the transgressors.”

Courtesy: Sacred Bible: Catholic Public Domain Version.

In it, you see, are numerous verses regarding the Face of the Servant, that is is disfigured and despised, the face of a leper. And Isaiah 53:5 mentions that He was wounded for our sins. Take all of this and go to the all of Gospel accounts of the Passion of Our Lord, how He was buffeted about His head, spat upon, and Crowned with Thorns which most definitely disfigures the Face, and the Face of Christ becomes a symbol of the effects of our sins upon the Divine Countenance.

A Divine ratification of the devotion to the Holy Face began when Veronica wiped the Face of Jesus while He was on His way to Calvary. His reward for her kindness was the imprinting of His visage on the cloth she used. (The cloth is in existence today, see the “Sudarium of Oviedo.”)

One of the most beloved Saints in modern times, and a personal favorite of mine (right next to St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Faustina Kowalska) is St. Therese of Lisieux. She was very dedicated to the Holy Face Devotion, to the point where she included it in her religious name, “Therese of the Child Jesus and Holy Face.” She composed the following prayers to the Holy Face:

“O Jesus, who, in Thy cruel Passion didst become the ‘reproach of men and the Man of Sorrows,’ I worship Thy divine Face. Once it shone with the beauty and sweetness of the Divinity; but now, for my sake, it is become as ‘the face of a leper.’ Yet, in that disfigured Countenance, I recognize Thy infinite love, and I am consumed with the desire of making Thee loved by all mankind. The tears that flowed so abundantly from Thy Eyes are to me as precious pearls that I delight to gather, that with their worth I may ransom the souls of poor sinners. O Jesus, whose Face is the sole beauty that ravishes my heart, I may not see here below the sweetness of Thy glance, nor feel the ineffable tenderness of Thy kiss, I bow to Thy Will—but I pray Thee to imprint in me Thy divine likeness, and I implore Thee so to inflame me with Thy love, that it may quickly consume me, and that I may soon reach the vision of Thy glorious Face in heaven. Amen.”

Another: “Eternal Father, since Thou hast given me for my inheritance the Adorable Face of Thy Divine Son, I offer that face to Thee and I beg Thee, in exchange for this coin of infinite value, to forget the ingratitude of souls dedicated to Thee and to pardon all poor sinners.”

And: “Jesus! Thy dear and holy Face
Is the bright star that guides my way;
Thy gentle glance, so full of grace,
Is my true heaven on earth, today.
My love finds out the holy charm
Of Thy dear eyes with tear-drops wet;
Through mine own tears I smile at Thee,
And in Thy griefs my pains forget.

Oh! I would gladly live unknown,
Thus to console Thy aching heart.
Thy veiled beauty, it is shown
To those who live from earth apart.
Fain would I fly to Thee alone!

Thy Face it is my fatherland;
It is the sunshine of my days;
My realm of love, my sunlit land,
Where through the hours I sing Thy praise;
It is the lily of the vale,
Whose mystic perfume, freely given,
Brings comfort, when I faint and fail,
And makes me taste the peace of heaven.

Thy face, in its unearthly grace,
Is like the divinest myrrh to me,
That on my heart I gladly place;
It is my lyre of melody;
My rest – my comfort – is Thy Face.
My only wealth, Lord! is thy Face;
Naught ask I more than this from Thee;
Hidden in the secret of Thy Face,
The more I shall resemble Thee!
Leave on me the divine impress
Of Thy sweet, patient Face of love,
And soon I shall become a saint,
And draw men’s hearts to Thee above.

So, in the secret of Thy Face,
Oh! hide me, hide me, Jesus blest!
There let me find its hidden grace,
Its holy fires, and, in heaven’s rest,
Its rapturous kiss, in Thy embrace!

St.Therese Prayers to the Holy Face are courtesy: Our Catholic Prayers.

And thus you can see how the Face of Christ reflects our sins. He looks upon us and is aggrieved, our sins are like blows upon Him…

The Holy Face Devotion is, like I mentioned in the first post on this, a work of reparation for our sins and those of others. Specifically, blasphemy and the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days, as well as the destructive work of Communists.

More resources: America Needs Fatima: Holy Face Devotion; also, Holy Face Devotion in the UK (But great, wherever you live!)

I think I will add a Holy Face Devotion group of links in the sidebar.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Holy Face Devotion: what we need for our times

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During the late 1840’s. Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to a Carmelite nun in Tours, France, and revealed a message to her that was to be shared with the world. That message was the Devotion to His Most Holy Face. Sister Marie of St. Peter was tasked with making this “Work of Reparation” known.

This Devotion is intended to make reparation for the sins of blasphemy against the Holy Name of God and the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days. In addition, it is to be a spiritual weapon against Communists.

This is going to be the first of several posts on this devotion. I discovered it perhaps last year when I found some free pamphlets in a nearby church. They promoted various prayers to the Holy Face, most notably the well-known “Golden Arrow Prayer,” which may be familiar to you:

“May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in Heaven, on Earth, and under the Earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.”

There are other prayers associated with the Devotion, that is the best known. The others I’ll bring up in the next post or so. (Our you can look them up yourself 😉. They are in links I have at the end of this post.)

The apparition of Our Lord to Sr. Marie was timely. The French Revolution had infected Christendom with the errors of Modernism just over half a century before; among these errors were radical secularism, anti-clericalism and especially the seeds of what would become Communism. Just two years after the initial apparition, Europe was convulsed in Lefist riots and revolutions that shook the normal order. Karl Marx got to work on his Communist Manifesto. While his analysis and criticism of capitalism has merit, his solutions were like unto a cure being much worse than the disease.

Jesus anticipated the rise of Communism in the 1848 European Revolutions, much like Our Lady did at Fatima in 1917.

This is a devotion gravely needed for our times. Western Civilization is conceivably in a state of collapse as evidenced by the political and popular responses to the Coronavirus pandemic, riots and mob thuggery in our cities and Leftist infection of our cultural elites and the resulting aggressive action by the power centers they control in culture and society.

The Holy Face Devotion is the spiritual weapon of our times. In my next post I will have some more prayers and resources. But to get you started, you can go here: Holy Face Association.

I am writing this in front of the Blessed Sacrament and my Hour us almost up. I need to say some prayers before finishing. Later, readers!

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Martyrdom of Peter and Paul

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Today is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Peter was the ‘Rock’ upon which Christ built His Church and served as Her first Pope; and Paul, becoming the Apostle to the Gentile nations.

Both serve as guides to our Faith; Peter, being that first Pope, can symbolize fidelity to Her traditions, apostolic authority and the unity of Her teachings. Paul can symbolize evangelical zeal and utter devotion to spreading the Gospel regardless of the physical or material cost. He loved Christ so much that “it was no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Paul directly received the Gospel from Our Lord, possibly during the three days he was disabled in Damascus. This establishes that Paul’s message was actually Jesus’. (So much the contention that “Jesus never said anything about insert favorite depravity here in the Gospel.” Yes, He did; through Paul.)

The two bear witness to Christ and His mercy. Peter denied Christ three times on Holy Thursday and was forgiven when asked three times by Jesus before His Ascension “Do you love me…. feed my sheep, etc.” Paul was forgiven despite being the biggest persecutor of the Early Christians.

Despite theses deep failings, Jesus still used them to establish His Church and expand it throughout the world.

Always hope for us, who deny Christ far more often than Peter did in a day; and Paul, in tacitly abetting in the persecution of the Church by not standing up to it.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace and Creation II: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Blessed Stanley Rother, and All the Martyrs of Latin America

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And today begins the Second of the Nine Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation, and this one is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Blessed Stanley Rother, and All the Martyrs of Latin America. It runs from June 29 to July 7, 2020.

I will not post this every day as the prayers and intentions are the same for each day. I’ll just leave it here for nine days; if I need to blog in the interim, I will just blog a reminder afterwards. For the background, please read this post (especially if you need to learn about who Bob Waldrop, the creator of this Novena, was, and why I am introducing it to you.) Or go here: A Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation.

Don’t worry if you jump in at some point later in the 81 days. To paraphrase Bob “just pick up whenever you happen to join in.”

AFTER THIS SENTENCE, THE WRITING IS ALL THAT OF BOB WALDROP, not me, Paulcoholic.

…

Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace and Creation II: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Blessed Stanley Rother, and All the Martyrs of Latin America

“Getting Started:

Begin each novena prayer with a time of quiet prayer. You may find it helpful to pray some repetitions of the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner), a decade of the Rosary, the Chaplet of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, or a time of spiritual reading or lectio divina that will prepare your mind and your heart for the prayer to come. This could be a time for a daily examen, where you consider your actions of the day and how they relate to God’s call in your life.”

General Intention: the unjust exercise of authority, and the sins and structures of sin against life.

The Second Work of Justice and Peace: Hear the truth when it is spoken to you. Discern the signs of the times and speak truth — to power, to the people, and to the Church.

Act of caring for Creation: Start a compost pile and compost your organic waste.

God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me.

+ Let us pray together in peace, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, help the helpless, strengthen the fearful, comfort the sorrowful, bring justice to the poor, peace to all nations, and solidarity among all peoples. Give us strength to stand against the demonic powers which prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Open our eyes to see the beauty, joy, redemption, and goodness which comes through obedience to your Son our Lord. Teach us to be a refuge of hope for all who are oppressed by injustice and violence.

O Mary, blessed Lady of Guadalupe, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life: Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence and unjust wars, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time.

Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life.

Pray for us, Blessed Stanley Rother and all Martyrs of Latin America! Bring to our remembrance this day all people who are killed in wars, acteal martyrstortured in jails, disappeared in the night, starved for food, subjected to oppression, driven from their homes, unlawfully imprisoned, denied religious liberty, excluded from economic opportunity, marginalized by poverty, targeted by racial and cultural prejudices, silenced by violence and injustice. Help us to hear and remember the tragedy, joy, despair, and hope of the voices that call to us and to history for justice, reconciliation, and peace. Pray for us so that by the grace of God we will build a world without injustice. Amen.

Prayer to St. John Chrysostom on behalf of the U.S. Catholic bishops:

Most Glorious and Venerable St. John Chrysostom,
Grace shining forth from your lips like a beacon
has illumined the universe.
It shows to the world the treasures of poverty;
it reveals to us the heights of humility.
Teaching us by your words, O Father John Chrysostom,
intercede before the Word, Christ our God, to save our souls!

Pray for the bishops of the United States of America,
who do not teach or practice the Catholic faith in its fullness,
that God will deliver them to orthodoxy,
and reform their ways of living,
so that as exemplars of orthopraxis, they will protect all life,
from the moment of conception to the time of natural death.

Teach them true solidarity with the poor, so that they
understand the consequences of their moral abandonment
of entire nations of human beings to a collective fate of cruelty and violence
because they were in the way of the American Empire and
its gluttonous lust for oil, supremacy, and blood.

As you refused to obey the aristocratic commands of your era,
help our bishops turn away from the political demands
that cause them to preach a false gospel of moral relativism regarding war and peace.

Having received divine grace from heaven,
with your mouth you teach all people to worship the Triune God.
Instruct our bishops with the wisdom of the Gospel,
so that they repent of their material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war, and call all people, in authentic word and deed, to live in solidarity, peace, and justice.

All-blest and venerable St. John Chrysostom,
we praise you, for you are our teacher, revealing things divine!
Pray for us that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

O God, Who by the preaching and teaching of Saint John Chrysostom
has given us an example of fortitude in the face of persecution and political corruption, grant that we who reverence his life and ministry may also imitate
his example of fidelity to wisdom, truth, justice, and beauty,
through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Our Father . . . Hail Mary… Glory be. . .

Thoughts for the journey. In this Novena we honor Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe, protector of all children, whatever their social, political, or physical location may be. She is patron of all those who are oppressed and persecuted and patron of the Americas. We also remember the martyrs of Latin America, victims of cruel conflicts between world empires and corrupt ruling classes. Many of these killings were committed with arms and money provided by the United States, by military personnel trained by the United States. All of us must examine our consciences as to how we benefit from the evil done by our governments.

We name in particular Blessed Stanley Rother, born on a farm near Okarche, Oklahoma. Not a great student, he had to leave one seminary because of academic concerns, but was accepted elsewhere which was better equipped to help him meet the academic standards of ordination. Sent to the mission church of Santiago Aititlan in Guatamala, he not only celebrated the Sacraments, he helped the people better their lives. He introduced new crops, organized a farmers marketing coop, and did all he could to help them to help themselves. This brought him into conflict with the government, whose policy was that the indigenous peoples should be poor, and remain poor, so they could be exploited for the benefit of the ruling class. They were consistently supported in this evil by the United States government, which in the 1950s conspired with the Guatamalan ruling classes to overthrow the only freely elected democratic government that nationa had experienced. It is not too much to say that the guns and bullets used to murder Blessed Stanley Rother were paid for by the US taxpayers.

Throughout history, we have drawn circles around certain groups and said, “These people are not human — dispose of them as you choose.” The holocausts are too many to count. Do we really believe that human life is precious and deserves respect and protection? That depends on where the alleged person is located, socially and physically.

Some people simply aren’t considered to be real people. They may be too old, and too sick, and too poor, or located someplace “inconvenient.” Perhaps they live on land which is coveted by others more powerful than they. Maybe their nations have resources that we want. This was the attitude of nearly everyone in the United States, including sadly the bishops and most of the clergy of the Catholic Church in the United States, towards the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. We have for the most part stood by and done nothing as they were “caught in the crossfire.” All of us must examine our consciences concerning our complicity with the unjust murder that has gone on in the name of the US Government in Iraq and Afghanistan, Africa, Central America, and elsewhere in the world. We have stood in the streets, and instead of crying out against unjust war, we have instead screamed repeatedly — “Crucify them! Crucify them!”

Society has developed many ways to ease this process, starting with the NewSpeak vocabulary that describes these events passively so they don’t see so “bad”. Structures of sin always defend themselves vigorously. There is enough tragedy in this to go around more than once.

Abandonment by fathers, violence against women, unjust economics that encourage abortion, terrorism, mandatory contraception & sterilization, demonization of the poor (especially young single mothers), cartelized and corporatized health care and so on. Here is where we remember that the Lady of Guadalupe took upon herself the image of a young pregnant Aztec maiden in a place of oppression and injustice, demonstrating God’s love for everybody.

We find this message also in the mysteries of Blessed Stanley Rother and the many Martyrs of Latin America. They were condemned by politicians. The bullets and bombs that killed them were paid for by the powerful. They were targeted because they were poor. Their deaths were enabled by structures that dehumanize and depersonalize human beings. Like unborn children, a circle was drawn around them & they were proclaimed as fair game. Empires counted their deaths as collateral damage. Most of us stood by and did nothing, or actively supported our crusade of brutal violence against the poor. Their voices call to us for justice & remembrance.

How is my life — how is your life — open to the reality that Christ is alive and he loves each and every one of us? Jesus gave his life to save us and our societies from sin and oppression. Does that reality have an impact on the way we live? He was with the Martyrs of Acteal and the Four Churchwomen and the Blessed Oscar Romero and the Blessed Fr. Stanley Rother and all the other martyrs of Latin America at the time that demonic evil so cruelly ended their lives. He comforted them in life and in death. Jesus lives today and is at our side every moment of every day to enlighten, strengthen, and free us. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, of our journeys of justice and peace.

Act of Caring of Creation: Compost!

God designed this planet to work in accordance with natural laws. So when living organic matter dies, it goes back to the earth, decays, and is reborn as new plants starting a new cycle. This is the natural way our planet works. But we are the Americans! We have a Better Way! We should wrap our organic wastes in black plastic and bury it in holes! Surely we are Smarter Than God! Well as a matter of reality we are not smarter than God, and our fetish with stuffing black plastic bags with trash and burying them in the ground is a moral crime against Nature — which is the Creation of God. So a compost pile is not some foolish activity of hippies. To package your kitchen waste in black plastic, robbing the earth of those nutrients, contaminating them with chemicals and other industrial wastes, is (for most of us) sin. Think of this unnatural practice as. . . “environmental sodomy.” Holiness demands a better way, and that’s what composting is about.

If you don’t know how to compost, read this short article that I wrote and recently revised:

Compost! Because a rind is a terrible thing to waste.

If you want to grow your own food, the place to start is by making compost. Some people make this out to be much more complicated than it really is. Here is a basic recipe for making compost.

Select a place for a compost pile, and dig the ground up a bit. Put down a layer of twigs and small branches, and then make alternating layers of “brown and dry” materials and “green and wet” materials. Brown and dry can include leaves, shredded tree limbs and bark, newspapers (no shiny slick papers or colored inks), brown cardboard, dried grass clippings. Green and wet includes kitchen scraps, green lawn trimmings, green leaves, flowers, weeds, plants, etc. It’s best not to put fats or meats in the pile, as that will attract varmints, but they will compost if not eaten…

Wet each layer thoroughly, and toss a shovel of soil on each layer and a couple of small branches. Pile it up at least 3 feet high and 3 feet wide, & then leave it alone for a year. If it’s a dry summer, water it so it stays damp inside (like a wrung out sponge). After about a year, rake away the leaves still on top, and inside will be a nice, rich, dark loamy compost that smells like forest dirt when you sniff it.

If you can’t wait a whole year, you can make compost faster by fussing with it a bit. Every week or so go out and “turn it”, that is to say, use a pitchfork and move the compost to a different spot, so that what was “outside” on the pile is now inside, and what was inside is now on the outside.

If the compost heap starts to smell bad, something’s wrong, probably either too much “wet and green” or it has somehow gotten so compacted that air can’t get in. For the problem of too much wet and green, add more brown and dry. If the pile has become compacted, then stir it up a bit and add some small branches (the purpose of the branches is to keep the pile from compacting and to help air circulate).

If you dig into the pile, you will find lots of little creatures at work, rolly pollies, worms, etc. That’s good, because that’s what’s supposed to happen.

If you want a nice garden, the place to start is by building your soil. No chemical fertilizer has the advantages of home made compost, & it has the added benefit of recycling your food waste, lawn & garden trimmings on site, rather than sending them off to be buried wastefully in a landfill. Composting is the beginning of a beautiful home garden. Start your compost pile this week, a rind is a terrible thing to waste!

By Bob Waldrop

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Following Christ like St. John the Baptist

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Today is the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. I feel it is important for us to consider him as a patron and intercessor. Some thoughts along this theme came to me while praying the Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours (for today’s Solemnity.).

What do we know of the Baptist from Sacred Scripture that implies he should be a patron (or guide) for us?

His mission was preaching Jesus and announcing His coming. From the Gospel According to Luke 3:4 “…just as it has been written in the book of the sermons of the prophet Isaiah: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight his paths.”

And Luke 3:16-17 “John responded by saying to everyone: “Indeed, I baptize you with water. But there will arrive one stronger than me, the laces of whose shoes I am not worthy to loosen. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit, and with fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. And he will purify his threshing floor. And he will gather the wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

He was to offer testimony to the Light, of which he was not; in other words, he was to preach about Jesus, and not himself. For in John 1:6-9 the Evangelist says, “There was a man sent by God, whose name was John. He arrived as a witness to offer testimony about the Light, so that all would believe through him. He was not the Light, but he was to offer testimony about the Light. The true Light, which illuminates every man, was coming into this world.”

John 1:19-21 “And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him, so that they might ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed it and did not deny it; and what he confessed was: “I am not the Christ.” And they questioned him: “Then what are you? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

Later we witness the Baptist identifying the Lord and pointing Him out: John 1:29-36; “On the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him, and so he said: “Behold, the Lamb of God. Behold, he who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me arrives a man, who has been placed ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ And I did not know him. Yet it is for this reason that I come baptizing with water: so that he may be made manifest in Israel.”

And John offered testimony, saying: “For I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove; and he remained upon him. And I did not know him. But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: ‘He over whom you will see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I saw, and I gave testimony: that this one is the Son of God.”

The next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples. And catching sight of Jesus walking, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”

And later on in John’s Gospel when he recognizes the time has come for his mission to be over so that Jesus can realize what He came to do, in preaching the arrival of the Kingdom of God: John 3-30; “He must increase, while I must decrease.”

So, what can we learn from this? That we can be followers of Christ in the same manner that John the Baptist was:

  • We prepare others (and ourselves) for His coming; whether that is His Second Coming or just continued conversion to become more like Christ.
  • We reflect the light of Christ, meaning we preach His Gospel, and not our own. Too many people, including Bishops, priests and laity preach their own version of the Gospel of Christ. Repent, sinners, for you will learn that your pride of presuming to co-opt His Gospel will be that it may have been better for you not to have been born. 
  • We do it humbly: we are only proposing Christ to others, not forcing them to become Christians. We preach the Good News and let Him take over. We prepare the way. And like I alluded to above, we make certain it is His message, not ours.
  • We point Him out to others. We recognize Christ in those who do His will. Their lives are like the Christ who lives in them. Their message is subordinated to the Gospel; not that the Gospel is perverted to support their message.
  • We acknowledge when the time for our role in the process is done. Whether that means we get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit take over, or we recognize that perhaps our ego is in danger from the success of our work, and we begin to think it is our work, not God’s. I doubt John the Baptist worried about this; from Scripture it is clear that he understood what his job was, and that when Jesus finally arrived, that his role was over. I am just inferring the tendency of a “cult of personality” that develops amongst Catholic (and other Christian) bloggers and personalities. People become followers of them, and only incidentally of Christ.

And so we have how we can be followers of Christ like St. John the Baptist. We be little and humble, we understand who Jesus is and that we are not Him (in the prideful sense) we understand Who is doing the real work so that we do not get puffed up, we preach His Word and not our own slant, and we get out of the way if needed and let Him do the saving of souls.

Scripture passages courtesy Sacred Bible: Catholic Public Domain version.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

A Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, and Creation I: to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin

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And so begins the First of the Nine Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation, and this one is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Servant of God Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. It runs from June 20 — June 28, 2020. I will not post this every day as the prayers and intentions are the same for each day. I’ll just leave it here for nine days; if I need to blog in the interim, I will just blog a reminder afterwards. For the background, please read this post (especially if you need to learn about who Bob Waldrop, the creator of this Novena, was, and why I am introducing it to you.) Or go here: A Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation.

Don’t worry if you jump in at some point later in the 81 days. To paraphrase Bob “just pick up whenever you happen to join in.”

AFTER THIS SENTENCE, THE WRITING IS ALL THAT OF BOB WALDROP, not me, Paulcoholic.

…

Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation I: to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin (June 20 — June 28, 2020)

“Getting Started:

Begin each novena prayer with a time of quiet prayer. You may find it helpful to pray some repetitions of the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner), a decade of the Rosary, the Chaplet of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, or a time of spiritual reading or lectio divina that will prepare your mind and your heart for the prayer to come. This could be a time for a daily examen, where you consider your actions of the day and how they relate to God’s call in your life.”

General Intentions: For the redemption of structures of violence, oppression, exploitation, and despair with beauty, goodness, mercy, and peace. Reparation for sins against life.

The First Work of Justice and Peace: Live simply and justly in solidarity with the poor and marginalized and be a good neighbor. Make no war on them, rather, be one with them in spirit, truth, and love.

Act of Caring for Creation: Pick up trash in a public place.

God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me. + Let us pray together in peace, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, help the helpless, strengthen the fearful, comfort the sorrowful, bring justice to the poor, peace to all nations, and solidarity among all peoples. Give us strength to stand against the demonic powers which prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Open our eyes to see the beauty, joy, redemption, and goodness which comes through obedience to your Son our Lord. Teach us to be a refuge of hope for all who are oppressed by injustice and violence.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for those who serve the poor and who accompany them in their journeys; may we who keep this sacred commemoration experience the joy and love of the grace of your Son; may His most Sacred Heart, together with yours, pierced with sorrow for the evils of the world, be a sure refuge of hope in a time of trouble for all who are oppressed by injustice and violence.

The Magnificat of Mary. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant. From this day all generations shall call me blessed.

The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name. He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation.

He has shown the strength of His arm, He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of His servant Israel for He has remembered His promise of mercy, the promise He made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.

Dorothy Day: Dorothy Day, friend and partner of the poor, guiding spirit for the Catholic Worker, home always open to the unwanted, early, often lonely, witness in the cause of peace and conscience, eloquent pattern of gospel simplicity, Dorothy Day, disciple of the Lord, may we continue your gift of self to the needy and your untiring work for justice and peace. Help us to follow your example and dedicate our lives to the creation of structures of beauty and goodness, wisdom and mercy. Amen.

Peter Maurin: Peter Maurin, Holy Fool, teach us to give and not to take, to serve and not to rule, to help and not to crush, to nourish and not to devour. As we create a new society within the shell of the old, remind us that ideals and not deals, creed and not greed, are what makes humanity humane. Amen.

Prayer to St. John Chrysostom on behalf of the U.S. Catholic bishops.

Most Glorious and Venerable St. John Chrysostom,
Grace shining forth from your lips like a beacon
has illumined the universe.
It shows to the world the treasures of poverty;
it reveals to us the heights of humility.
Teaching us by your words, O Father John Chrysostom,
intercede before the Word, Christ our God, to save our souls!

Pray for the bishops of the United States of America,
who do not teach or practice the Catholic faith in its fullness,
that God will deliver them to orthodoxy,
and reform their ways of living,
so that as exemplars of orthopraxis, they will protect all life,
from the moment of conception to the time of natural death.

Teach them true solidarity with the poor, so that they
understand the consequences of their moral abandonment
of entire nations of human beings to a collective fate of cruelty and violence
because they were in the way of the American Empire and
its gluttonous lust for oil, supremacy, and blood.

As you refused to obey the aristocratic commands of your era,
help our bishops turn away from the political demands
that cause them to preach a false gospel of moral relativism regarding war and peace.

Having received divine grace from heaven,
with your mouth you teach all people to worship the Triune God.
Instruct our bishops with the wisdom of the Gospel,
so that they repent of their material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war,
and call all people, in authentic word and deed, to live in solidarity, peace, and justice.

All-blest and venerable St. John Chrysostom,
we praise you, for you are our teacher, revealing things divine!
Pray for us that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

O God, Who by the preaching and teaching of Saint John Chrysostom
has given us an example of fortitude in the face of persecution and political corruption,
grant that we who reverence his life and ministry may also imitate
his example of fidelity to wisdom, truth, justice, and beauty,
through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Our Father . . . Hail Mary… Glory be. . .

Thoughts for the journey. Today many swords pierce the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Injustice, oppression, violence, war, murder, the rape of Creation — all these and more are sins and structures of sin against justice and peace. We know that within our hearts are the seeds of the problems the world faces.

This redemption begins in my heart and your heart. It all starts, as they say, with the man — or the woman — in the mirror.

If we want to see a better relationship of Christ and the world, we must ask first about our own personal relationship with Jesus. Is he the Easter Bunny? Someone who makes us feel good, but who is remote and not really involved? A cultural construct? A topic in a religious education course?

Or is Christ a living reality in my life?

We are in this for the long haul, and it will be a long haul. We will not wake up on the 82nd day after 81 days of nine novenas and discover that we have prayed and worked ourselves into a new world of justice and peace that cares for Creation as God intended for all of us. There is much more work and prayer to come.

If we think we can do this in our own strength, we are wrong.

If we are going forward in the work of justice and peace, the place to start is with an examination of our own lives. How do my sins of omission and commission create and support structures of injustice and oppression? How do I participate in and profit from the social sins and unjust wars of this age? What must be redeemed in my life so that I live in solidarity with those our society has pushed to the edge and further, into the abyss? How can I change my life so that I promote peace, rather than demanding war? Can I end (or minimize) the ecological harm I cause to Creation by my lifestyle?

Have I abandoned Christ for secular saviors? Do I bury myself in the busy-ness of life and ignore God’s call?

As you pray these novenas for the next 81 days, let this be a time when your personal relationship with Christ blooms and flowers. Our prayer for everyone who takes up these novenas is that their hearts will be open to the reality that Christ is alive and he loves each and every one of us. He gave his life to save us and our societies from sin and oppression. He lives today and is at your side every moment of every day to enlighten, strengthen, and free you. OK, I am paraphrasing Pope Francis here, but I think the point is clear: the journey of justice and peace is a journey with Christ.

If we are to change the world, each of us must begin with himself or herself as we ourselves become the change we wish to see in the world. That change is the fruit of the Spirit that grows from our personal relationship with Christ.

Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin:

Dorothy Day was an early advocate of women’s rights who wrote for radical leftist newspapers in the early years of this century. She was a bohemian as they said in those days — but when she looked in her heart of hearts, she found it empty. By the grace and providence of God, she found our Lord and was baptized into the Catholic Church. Thus began a journey which led to the founding of the Catholic Worker movement, together with Peter Maurin and the other first Workers.

It’s clear from their writings that both Dorothy and Peter experienced a tender and intimate relationship with Christ. This relationship was the source of all that they were able to do for the cause of justice and peace. Dorothy was not a stranger to activism; for years she had struggled in the streets as part of the great social battles of the first years of the 20th century — women’s suffrage, the 40 hour week, the right to join a union, justice for workers.

Peter Maurin, a French peasant who came to the United States via Canada, taught that it was a great blessing to assist the rich in coming to the assistance of the poor. Too often, “never the twain shall meet,” and certainly, in this day and age, communication between the poor and the rich is as bad as it has ever been. Communication requires that each person who wants to be heard and understood must see and hear the “Other” as a human person. It’s not easy, and it takes practice.

The program that Peter and Dorothy offered to the world was direct, personal involvement with other human beings. They called us to open houses of hospitality, to engage in clarification of thought so we would understand what needs to be done, and to found agricultural communities as the seeds of new villages. They believed in the importance of the Eucharist, the Rosary, and many traditional devotions — because their work responded to their lively interior relationship with Christ. They were suspicious of the imperial State. They wanted the Catholic Worker movement to be an organism, not an organization, that drew its strength from the Eucharist and the real presence of Christ in the lives of the workers.

As the United States empire entered a time of great triumph, they called for establishing the seeds of a new society within the “collapsing ruins of the old. ” They taught that the poor should be fed by Christians, not by large government bureaucracies. Peter wrote many “Easy Essays” — short little works, almost poetry in their simplicity, each one packed with intense theological concepts about the human person and how we relate to one another in community. He also reminded us of the nobility — and the necessity — of manual labor (something we’d often like to forget in this day of convenience and instant gratification).

Dorothy and Peter worked to create and live structures of beauty and goodness. In the midst of the slums of New York, they provided hospitality to the poor while working for social justice. They learned that the works of mercy and the works of justice and peace are one and the same, different aspects of the same journey, all going the same direction.

Long before it was a theological mantra, the “preferential option for the poor” was a living reality in the life and work of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. They were informed critics of current events, prophetically looking for the truth in the signs of their times, and finding Jesus in the poor, rejected, and marginalized.

Their example inspires us today to consider how we can ensure fair distribution, subsidiarity, economic opportunity, justice, and food security for everyone everywhere. As we open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to the Spirit’s guidance, we can discern our response to the signs of these times. We then can see the structures of sin that bind us in poverty and war, and name the demons which oppress us.

We can buy farms and dedicate them for the purpose of raising food for the hungry. We can organize microenterprise co-operatives in every city to provide opportunity for the poor. We can look at our own individual situations, and adopt lifestyles of simplicity and frugality, rejecting the culture of materialistic conspicuous consumption in favor of a life of living simply, that others may simply live. We can minimize our use of fossil fuels and thus remove one of the major causes of war. We can buy our food directly from farmers, and stop funding the destruction of the family farm community. We can discern the cry of the widow and orphan in our own neighborhoods, and be the hands and feet of God in relieving distress and creating justice. We can open our own hearts to the reality of life in Christ, and embrace him as savior and friend.

Dorothy Day used to quote St. Catherine of Sienna — “All the way to heaven is heaven.” May this be our prayer, in Jesus’ holy name.

Caring for Creation

Our act of reparation during this 9 day novena, and going forward, is to pick up trash in a public place. You won’t have to look far, but I think there are extra blessings for picking up trash in low income neighborhoods. Trash is endemic everywhere. It is a sign of our careless attitude towards the gifts of this Earth that God has so freely given us. Much trash is useful — many items can be recycled or repurposed, but often we think only of our selfishness and do not take the time or the care to do the right thing by Creation and reduce our impact on the planet by recycling. Examine your conscience! Do you sin against God’s Creation by your casual attitude towards waste? Now is the time for actual works of penance, which is why we pick up trash in public places.

Courtesy: Bob Waldrop, St. Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House

…

(Paulcoholic, back. Thank you for reading and praying. Just a few thoughts of my own, here, on some of the language Bob used, particularly referring to the US as an “empire,” within a pejorative context. Well, it is painful, but the United States IS an Empire. While an Empire in and of itself is not a bad thing, ours is costly. Excessive tax dollars are spent on maintaining a military presence overseas we can hardly afford; money that could be spent domestically on infrastructure, healthcare, education and other things. In my thinking, there is little reason why we should still be maintaining military bases in Europe. They can potentially defend themselves. NATO served its purpose as the defense of the West against any potential Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion; after the fall of the Communist alliance NATO should have been mothballed and the European nations taken upon themselves some form of collective defense, if needed. While engaging in military action against terrorists might have seemed a good idea in the early 00s, in reality continued action in the Middle East has only served to create more terrorists. I’m uncertain as to the solution, but the way things are going there and domestically, I think we should cut our losses and our troops recalled. )

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

On Bob Waldrop and introducing the Novena of Novenas

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Today begins a special period of prayer, the “Novena of Novenas.” This was started several years ago by Bob Waldrop, the late founder of the St. Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City. Bob died on August 30, 2019.

I never met Bob in person although we had been friends on Facebook for around ten years. I first discovered him online in the early 00s. I was exploring my Catholic faith and seeing what was online (I am revert) and in the course of looking into various theories of Catholic living ran across his site on “Champagne Living on a Beer Budget.” This intrigued me, given my recent sobriety. I quickly learned that it had nothing to do with the drinking, brewing or fermenting of alcoholic beverages, but rather was an omnibus guide to frugal, simple living. I believe that it was from Bob’s numerous sites that I started learning that Catholicism wasn’t just about the sacramental and liturgical life. There is an entire system of thought rooted in Scripture, interpreted and implemented by saints, popes and laity, that brings into the political and economic sphere the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Soon afterwards I discovered Distributism, Subsidiarity and Solidarity; Personalism and Communitarianism. I’m lousy at applying many of them, but I try. Much later, monarchism and Tradition. (Bob was by no stretch of the imagination a monarchist. I think he was Traditional Latin Mass-friendly, but he was a Liturgical Music Director at a parish that only offered the Mass in the Ordinary Form. But his YouTube Channel does offer videos of chant and other pre-1962 hymns.)

I became entranced by Bob’s sites. I bookmarked them all including subpages in a browser folder entitled “Bobternet,” as his sites were massive (albeit disorganized, which he admitted) and contained copious amounts of information about a plethora of subjects, I figured he was a subset of the Internet and hence gave it that name. (He thought it hilarious when I told him years later on Facebook.)

Bob was a Catholic Worker, with “‘‘hair on fire’ rants on politics, economics, food, permaculture, sustainability, peak oil, climate instability, cooperatives, local foods, and etc.,” that afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted. He lived the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy. He was truly a disciple of Servant of God Dorothy Day and her colleague Peter Maurin (co-founders of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933). He believed in Jesus with a passion and adhered to the Church’s orthodox teachings. One might think that with his stance on social issues he would be a “cafeteria Catholic” and pick and choose what he preferred amongst the teachings, but his sites on the Church’s social justice teachings, from politics and economics, to war, the pro-life movement, poverty and human suffering, migrants and such, exuded orthodoxy with supporting documentation from Scripture, the Saints, Popes and the Catechism. This makes people uncomfortable, particularly those who prefer a quiet and tidy Christianity of Sunday Mass or ‘worship service’ followed by secular activities. “Just let me worship and pray once in a while, and please don’t remind me of my obligations to serve others.” Bob’s faith was an active Catholic Christianity.

Well, one of the things that he introduced was this thing called the “Novena of Novenas.” Nine consecutive individual Novenas, thus stretching across 81 days. He began them annually on the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (the Saturday immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.) This year it begins today, and ends on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in September. (I don’t think they always end on another important liturgical event, but I think it is way cool when they do as to me, it signifies a God-incidence.)

I will borrow (copy/paste) from Bob’s work on the Novena’s particulars, but I have included links directly to his sites so you can access the complete information (just be aware that when you do go there, dates are incorrect as he died during the last one, and no one is in charge of maintaining or updating his sites. All of the links are to the Internet Archive’s version of his sites. I will address that issue at the end of this post, so do not be concerned about the links.) One thing: I have never prayed this before, and so I do not know if the intentions change every year. I am going with the last one from 2019, as that was Bob’s last and he died during it.

OK, here we go (Bob’s writing is italicized. When I interrupt, it’ll be back to non-italicized font.)

“A Novena of Novenas
for Justice, Peace, & Creation

This “novena of novenas” is 81 days of intercessory prayer, reflection, and orthopraxis (“right action”) for peace among nations, justice for all people, and the care of Creation. We start on the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, — June 20, 2020 and end on September 8, 2020. Our novena dates wander around from year to year, since we always begin on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a movable feast, the date of which is dependent upon the date of Easter. (It’s the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, which is the Friday after the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ.)“

“A novena is 9 days of prayer, and recalls the 9 days that the Apostles spent praying in the “Upper Room” between the Ascension and Pentecost. This call to prayer consists of nine consecutive novenas -81 days!

Each novena has a general intention, the prayers, thoughts for the Journey, and an act of caring for Creation.“

All right, Paulcoholic here, and you might be wondering what this all has to do with the typical focus of Sober Cat, which is sobriety. Quite some time ago I changed the subtitle of this blog to “Catholicism, Recovery, Sobriety, Conversion, Prayer, Fasting, Repentance, Penance.” Mainly because I wanted to gradually expand beyond writing about “how to maintain sobriety and recovery by means of Catholic spirituality etc., etc., etc.,” And Bob’s stuff is within the realm of the subtitle. Also, and this is important: if you are reading this blog, then there’s a good chance you are or were an alcoholic or addict, or you know and love one. Recovery, to me, isn’t just about staying clean and sober. I firmly believe that once we establish our sobriety from booze and drugs, we continue that work, only extending outward from ourselves and to our neighbors. It does mean in part that we reach out to others we know or suspect are trapped by addictions, but it also means that we recognize the inherent sickness of the world around us and the fact that human society today, everywhere, is addicted to something. Just look around. There are power struggles everywhere leading to violence, intolerance and injustice. People make demands rather than appeals. We are addicted to materialism and the acquisition of more goods. Many people, including myself at times and perhaps you, root our identity in what we do for a living, how much money we earn and what we spend it on. Too many secular distractions abound that take us away from God. The Church is under attack from without and within. Face up to it: humanity today is sick and in dire need of a massive makeover that can only come from embracing the Gospel. “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.” (Words of Jesus in the Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, “Divine Mercy in My Soul,” paragraph 300.) Peace is not found in perpetuating injustices, in acquiring more material goods, using up the natural resources of our planet with little regard for future generations. Peace is not found in aborting future generations! Peace will not happen unless justice is established and in Catholic social teachings, justice means that everyone receives what is their due based upon the individual’s intrinsic dignity of being made in the images and likeness of God and in being His adopted children through Christ. All human life is sacred and unique, from womb to tomb, and was not put on this Earth to be exploited, enslaved, or oppressed for narrow political and economic goals. A Mercy-based culture.

And so we have the essential themes of the Novena of Novenas. Each one focuses on separate issues. But, back to Bob:

“Each novena is dedicated to one of the titles of Mary and one or more of the saints of justice and peace, whose prayers of intercession we invoke for our various intentions. It’s like calling up a friend and saying, “Please pray for me.” The “Works of Justice and Peace” of the first seven Novenas are from the statement of mission of the…Saint Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House.

Each of the 81 days we will also pray the Novena to St. John Chrysostom on behalf of the conversion of the United States Catholic Bishops, so that they will come to a better understanding of the necessity of authenticity in leadership. We think the orthodoxy (“right teaching”) of the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to a certain way of living. That’s known as “orthopraxis” — or right action..”

Me, again. Yes, the Bishops of the United States (and perhaps in your country, as well) are in need of conversion. Too many lack the courage and fortitude to be true shepherds of the Church in these times of Spiritual Warfare. The bishops should lead us towards a ‘certain way of living,’ but when they don’t the Holy Spirit raises up the laity to compensate for when the Bishops lack. The Spirit did that when He brought Dorothy Day into the Catholic Church, just in time for her to meet Peter Maurin and establish the Catholic Worker. The work of the Movement was seen by some to have been a major reason for the failure of Communism to gain traction in the United States in the 1930s. It seems we have come full circle. In the 2020s we are back to battling the forces of Marxism; forces we thought were defeated when the USSR collapsed. It wasn’t, it just metastasized. Oh, Bob wants to speak again:

“The spirit of this novena may be found in these words of Saint Oscar Romero. . . “It is very easy to be servants of the word without disturbing the world: a very spiritualized word, a word without any commitment to history, a word that can sound in any part of the world because it belongs to no part of the world. A word like that creates no problems, starts no conflicts.”

“What starts conflicts and persecutions, what marks the genuine church, is the word that, burning like the word of the prophets, proclaims and accuses; proclaims to the people God’s wonders to be believed and venerated, and accuses of sin those who oppose God’s reign, so that they may tear that sin out of their hearts, out of their societies, out of their laws – out of the structures that oppress, that imprison, that violate the rights of God and of humanity. This is the hard service of the word.”

“But God’s Spirit goes with the prophet, with the preacher, for he is Christ, who keeps on proclaiming his reign to the people of all times.”

At this point you may be asking, “OK, Paulcoholic. Enough already. Where’s the actual, you know, NOVENA? Helllooooo?”

Bob’s got you covered. Here he goes:

“Getting Started.

Begin each novena prayer with a time of quiet prayer. You may find it helpful to pray some repetitions of the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner), a decade of the Rosary, the Chaplet of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, or a time of spiritual reading or lectio divina that will prepare your mind and your heart for the prayer to come. This could be a time for a daily examen, where you consider your actions of the day and how they relate to God’s call in your life. 

All right. That’s it. You know about Bob Waldrop, you’ve been introduced to a whole muncha buncha things to think about; I am not now going to load you down with the actual First Novena itself. “What?!?!?!” you scream in horror. “After all this…”

“Hang on.” I interrupt. “That will be in the next post, almost immediately after this one. This blogpost is long enough, dontcha think?. But if you can’t wait a few minutes or so before I post the intentions and prayers of the First of the Nine, here’s a link to the whole kitten kaboodle:” The Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace and Creation

(Update! The First Novena is now up: A Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation I: to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin

NOTE: all of the links that I gave for Bob’s sites are to their last versions that have been scooped up by the Internet’s “Wayback Machine,” also known as Internet Archive. This is because his domains are going dark or becoming security risks from lack of updates, or are being coopted by squatters. So the only reliable place to get what Bob taught and shared is in the Wayback Machine. Thankfully, all links are self-contained, so that if you click on something in one site that links to another page of his, it remains within the Archive even if the link is to a different site of Bob’s.

Since his death, his work in helping the poor, the marginalized, and all those considered “expendable” by society is being carried out by other groups since, as far as I can find out, the Romero House has since shut down. (I was informed last Autumn by someone who knew him very well that the House’s operations were transferred to the Dorothy Day Center in Oklahoma City. The Romero House itself was on the verge of being condemned. My information may be dated, but the Romero website’s domain name has been abandoned and subsequently taken over by a website squatter hawking goods. This person, who is as unique an individual as Bob was, and who is a dedicated Catholic Worker, wrote a nice obituary on her blog. Please go here: GOD’s Garden Gnome Gone Home.) Perhaps if she reads this she can post an update on the Romero House and legacy, in the comments.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Feast of Matt Talbot

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June 19th also happens to be the feast day of Matt Talbot, the Irish hard laborer and ex-drunkard who if he ever gets around to interceding miraculously, will get beatified and then canonized, and become a patron saint of alcoholics and addicts.

If you are a reader of this blog, then you probably know of him; how he was a drunk, begging and borrowing money to support his pub crawling, lending money when he had it to support others’ drinking habits, and how on that awful day, when he had no money and worse, no beer, turned out he had no “real” friends either, since no one wanted to spot him any further cash, discovered he had no access to the drink and decided to “take the pledge,” total abstinence from the drink.

It worked, and Matt led a life of humble piety, going to daily Mass, reciting the Rosary every day, and reading many spiritual books, including “Total Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” by St. Louis De Montfort.

Matt’s basic plan was to transfer his “love for the drink” onto the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He took to heart the admonition to “seek ye first the kingdom,” and made a throne for the Sacred Heart in his own soul. “Where your heart is, there shall your treasure be,” and the treasure of Matt’s heart was Jesus’ Sacred Heart and His Most Immaculate Mother, Mary.

It is said that Matt’s piety, devotion and sacramental life lead him to live out the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous decades before they were ever conceived. In essence, he discovered them independently of Bill Wilson (AA’s Founder.) This should silence all Catholic critics of AA and the Steps who claim it fosters indifferentism. It does, if one’s Faith is weak, but if you simultaneously reach out and explore the spiritual riches of your Catholic Faith while also working the Steps, you should become a stronger Catholic. A good Catholic faith and prayer life, rooted in the Sacraments, the Beatitudes and the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy “just happens” to parallel the Twelve Steps.

I’ve written about him before, see Matt Talbot Post Archives and there are also links on him in the sidebar.

EDIT: The one thing I do not know is why his feast day is June 19th rather than June 7th, the day he died. Typically, someone’s feast day is their date of “entry into Heaven,” i.e, if they get beatified or canonized, their death day. If anyone knows…

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)