Change Your Batteries!

 

I was reading in the family room when I first heard the soft “beep-beep”.  Of course, I ignored it.  It was perhaps a half hour later when I again heard “beep-beep”.  It was this time I had to get up.  I walked around the lower lever of my house, then sat down in the kitchen, waiting for that sound again, and there it was:

Beep-beep!

Where was that from?  Well, it was January, a month when I used to change my smoke detector batteries (that are now guaranteed for 5 years, or is it 10?).  I don’t know when I last changed them and so I changed them all.  And I didn’t hear that sound again.

It was the next afternoon, however, when I heard the soft “beep-beep” again.  What was that?  I was in the kitchen, and the soft sound seemed to have come from a hallway (?).  I looked in the bathroom, the living room and the dining room.  What has batteries in here?  Does everything with a battery beep when it gets low?  (a flashlight?)  Then I saw my furnace thermostat.  That has batteries in it, and the time and temperature were alternately displaying (but didn’t it always do that??).  So, I took that apart and replaced the three AA batteries there.  Then I sat in the living room near the thermostat --- for about two hours.  No more beeps.  I guess that did it.

Until the next morning when I heard the soft “beep-beep” again.  Where the (??#$@$#) is that?  Staying in the family room where I was, I waited.  Then it sounded again.  Once more I went to a room where I thought the sound originated, and heard nothing.  Were mice making that soft noise, and quiet when I was in the room?  Back in the kitchen I again heard “beep-beep”. 

Is there a roadrunner in the house?

I gave up, and added mouse traps to the shopping list.  It was a few hours later while I was playing with my new phone (which Verizon gave me, getting me up to 4G!  Yea!).  While looking at the phone, I glanced at the nook below my kitchen cabinets, and saw my old phone laying there.  The hollow between the cabinets where it lay masked the direction of any sound from it.  Looking at it, I realized that after Verizon had transferred data from it to the new phone, I had not turned off the old one.  Opening the old phone, I saw a flashing hollow battery image on the screen.  I turned the phone off, and then for the heck of it, put it on the charger for a while.

No more beeps. 

See, God answers even unsaid prayers!

It’s a new year.  Change your batteries, or you may be getting beeped!

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Today starts what is called Ordinary Time in the Catholic Church.  Yesterday we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus, which marked the start of His public ministry and His Church. 

We often pray for God’s kingdom to come, and many times we think we are speaking of end times: “Thy kingdom come”, as said in the Our Father prayer.  That, however, is not how the Catholic Church understands the Kingdom of God; it began with Christ.  He marked the beginning of God’s kingdom on earth.  He, and his disciples, spread that kingdom, to each individual on earth.  We become part of His kingdom when we accept Him into our hearts.  “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth” is referring to it coming to us, and we participating in it by our actions.  We join the kingdom He started, on earth and (because He died for our sins) in heaven, and by our actions we help His will to be done on earth.

We often think of Revelation and its talk of future coming of God with trepidation, as we might.  We are sinners.  But we are prepared if we confess our sins and renounce them and, convert --- change our lives to live as Jesus taught us, as a part of His family.  We begin living in His kingdom here on earth by following Him.  We have nothing to fear.  There may be a future Second Coming at some time, which only the Father knows, but the coming we see (even in our dreams) is His coming to us now, changing our hearts, conquering the Evil one in and around us, if we choose to be part of Christ’s kingdom, now. 

This is Ordinary Time; it is a time of fighting the evil around us, as Jesus taught us to fight.  I recently joined a new prayer group with people from around the country.  When we prayed, I felt part of a large family, God’s family.  I choose to be a member of that family, praying together. “Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  We are part of making His kingdom come, His will being done, when we join together in prayer.  “Where two or more are gathered in My name, I will hear their prayer.”

It is the first day or Ordinary Time, but in 68 days it will be the first day of Spring.  Ordinary Time is a time for evangelization, new growth in the Church, spreading of His Kingdom.  Spring is a time for beginning new earthly growth.  Spiritual growth and earthly growth, we are here for both.  And the start is a time of joy, for He is with us always.

Charge up your batteries.  We don’t want to make any soft beeping sound that no one hears.  We want hearers of God’s word to clearly understand where it comes from, and realize it is not an irritant, but telling them something very important.

Saturday Night Rosaries

 The sunrise yesterday was beautiful, with bright red streams of clouds in the blue sky, stretching from one end of the horizon to the other.  It was awesome.

Later that morning I received an email from friends.  It told me of a rosary which was being prayed online, each morning at 6:30A, and on Saturday nights all four rosary mysteries were prayed starting at 10:30P.  The note said that some holy people were joining in, so I decided to nap early in the Saturday evening and call in to the rosaries. 

It seemed that some people phoned in as I did, and some were on a video call.  As the rosaries progressed, people were invited to lead a decade.  There was a priest, and people from states all around this country, and Ireland.  There were families, mothers and children, husbands and wives, and one decade was led in Spanish.  I don’t know how many people participated in the rosaries last night, but I felt I was truly part of the worldwide church, praying for God’s mercy on this country.  I felt the time was well spent, and will participate in the future.

This morning the Sunday EWTN mass sermon, on this last day of the Christmas season and the start of Ordinary Time, had the priest telling of how we are made in the image of God, and what that means.  In particular it means we can think and reason (unlike animals), and we can freely decide (not by instinct).  Then he mentioned how HE HAD LED A ROSARY ONLINE, and how when he got to a part where he prayed for Catholic politicians who were acting in favor of abortion --- his connection was cut off.  He believed it deliberate and expects we will see more of this in the future.  He noted how our history is being erased from our schools and monuments.  Things on which people might think and reason are being eliminated --- those in power will think for them. Our likeness to God is being taken away from us.

It was in some ways a sad sermon, but one also reminding us to be prepared.  Whether it is taken from our Bibles or not, Christ has said He will return, and we need be prepared.  It will be a thing of beauty, like the morning sky I saw, for those who are prepared. And people all over the world will praise Him together

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Last night, for the first time I can ever recall, I had a dream about the end times.  I saw dark clouds rolling in rapidly, and I saw dragons in my neighbor’s house, then the dragons shattered like clay pots.  For some reason, I just saw things, I did not feel any fear.  I tried calling my friends, but for some reason couldn’t find their phone numbers, so I write this.

I don’t claim to be a prophet, nor do I want to scare anyone.  Some think me addled by the stress of our times, and others think old age is setting in, and perhaps the events of yesterday contributed to my dream.  Like things I have documented here for many years, I just write what it seems I am being led to do.

And it all may mean nothing, or nothing I understand, but perhaps it gives meaning to you.

Anyone who crosses this path is being prayed for by me, as I pray for God’s mercy on our country, and will continue to do so with that Saturday night rosary group. 

Jesus, I trust in You. 

The Definition of Sin

 

I read recently about the latest destruction of history: classical writers and philosophers are being removed from our schools and libraries.  No more Shakespeare or Aristotle; those men at some point were sinners in offending modern minds.  From now on, the history of the world will be as modern minds define it.

It is sad these vocal leaders of our country and schools hold such powers, and that so many support them.  They define what for them is sin; sin used to what was called an offense against God, now they treat as any sin an offense against them.  Sin was defined by God as something to avoid for it offended Him; but leaders will now MAKE YOU avoid their new definition of sin.  God gave man freedom to choose.  As modern gods, our leaders will allow no such freedom.

It took many centuries for God to explain sin to the Jews, at one point giving them Ten Commandments to be clear about what they should not do, and later sending His Son to show them how to live, but still they could choose.  He explained to them the impact of their choice: loss of eternal happiness, for sin is an offense against God, and in choosing to sin you are choosing not to be with Him in eternity.  Choosing to sin is choosing not to love Him.  Love of God is a choice we have to make, and it has an eternal impact.

Forgetting for a moment the good things we celebrate about historical figures, for we celebrate the good not the bad they may have done, but historical figures are examples that show us that sinners can change and sinners can be loved for the good in them, even as God their Creator loved them so much.  He sent His Son to die for them and us, and He told us sins can be forgiven and forgotten.

Our modern “leaders” act as atheist gods.  There is no forgiveness in them.  Write a Facebook post they call sinful, and they push for you to be mocked and fired from your job.  “Crucify him” they seem to (and may soon literally) say.  They don’t try to see the good in people they disagree with on some point.  God created people, maybe that’s why He more readily loves them, even the frail, the weak, the less-than-perfect, and even those who sin against Him.

This week Europe celebrated that Down’s Syndrome births are down 50%.  They killed those babies which would not have as perfect as they wished.  Hitler and Stalin did the same thing, and didn’t understand why the world didn’t agree with them.  Maybe that’s why the socialism now taught in our schools is so popular among the young; they think it a good thing to get rid of the ones not as perfect as they themselves are.  They are taught the imperfect sin against them, as they define sin and they will make them sin no more, or eliminate them.

I pray the Prayer for Humility each night.  The ending lines are “It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and in dying (to self) that we are born to eternal life.”  I fear that prayer may someday be erased from history.  Our young see no need to be humble; they are the greatest gods they know. 

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My last post mentioned that we might resolve in 2021 to help God change the world.  Last night I happened to visit the website for Acts XXIX (www.actsxxix.org), an organization which notes prominently that “God wants His world back.”  It would be a very good thing if you listened to some of Fr. John Riccardo’s podcasts there --- starting with the first one.  He puts very well the world situation, and so begins an evolving discussion with God on how we might help to give Him His world back.

 

A Special Day

Today is a special day.  We typically define good vision as being 2020; what did we see this year?  Today is the end of a year of most unusual challenges, and the beginning of new, important, opportunities in this coming year.  If you read this early enough on New Year’s Eve, you might watch the mass homily on EWTN (repeats at about 12:40P and 7:40P); it is a most special sermon.  Or, if you have access to the book The Better Part gospel meditations, you can read the Gospel of today and why John wrote those opening words of his Gospel.  He is saying at the beginning that this is the start of an opportunity to unify the world from all its differences, and it started with Jesus Christ.

And it also begins with John telling us to begin doing what He’d have us do.  As a New Year’s resolution, we need to ask Him for His will for us in this next year, and resolve to do it.  A most important New Year’s resolution on this special day, the start of our helping Him to change the world.

This is the ending of the Christmas Octive, the birth of Christ, and the beginning of our birth in Him.

Review: From Christendom to Apostolic Mission

 Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles.  That is ending --- we have seen it die…. This hour of testing calls us to recover for our age the apostolic mindset and the bright hope of those first Christians of the Cenacle.

 

The short preface of this book lays down the truth and its challenge:  We’ve gone from an age of Christendom to an age of Apostolic Mission.  The remainder of this short book (90 pages) focuses on the differences between the two ages --- often one of a subtle change of emphasis --- and how the Apostolic Age gained prominence by re-defining moral and social good, and the purpose of life.

The authors note how the advance of science in recent centuries, making human life more pleasurable, crept into the spiritual realm of faith, creating a new world vision.  No longer Christian caring for the poor or the sick or the aged, progressivism touts to eliminate them.  Bad things are to be eliminated, and good things (things I want now and not in some future eternity) are to be provided or accommodated in the way I get them.

As progressivism spread, many Christians became “in name only”, accepting what they liked of the Church and the culture --- for now --- and expecting accommodation from other Christians.  Eternal life is not a concern of most people in this new age.  Priestly formation developed in a Christian age doesn’t prepare priests to exist in an Apostolic Age.  “The Church is still in a Christendom mode, using outmoded strategies that were devised in a different context.”

The authors note that a new focus on believers is needed, to strengthen them against a relativistic culture, as is a new priestly formation.  Communities of believers (and priests) are needed to provide ongoing support.  “In and Apostolic Age the Church needs to be not less but more exacting of her members.”

“A string of American mythological narrative views America as the hope of the world.”  “Whatever have been the genuine virtues and accomplishments of America, … that America remain faithful to the best of its traditions has little to do with the Christian faith and is miserably inadequate to the genuine need of humanity.”

“We know that America in no sense is the hope of the world.  That honor belongs to Christ alone as He works through His body, the Church.”  “There is nothing surprising, nothing that should touch our Christian hope, that America would not be susceptible to the corruption of a fallen humanity.”

“The great apostoli task of our time is to gain a genuine conversion of mind and vision.”

This short book, authored by the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., lays out a challenge much like Christ did to his apostles.  It also says that is what the university is teaching their students.  I hope they get many more.  This is a very informing book, and a good read to stay positive.

It's A Wonderful Life

I just finished watching the movie It’s A Wonderful Life, staring James Stewart.  If you do nothing else this Advent season, watch that movie.  I see you can watch it for free at various sites online, and it will be on NBC at 8PM Christmas Eve. You need some joy this year; take it where you can find it.

Merry Christmas

 

A Little Laughter is Needed

 A friend commented that I am too serious and/or worried about things.  I, like so many others in this time, am stressed, and the title of this blog seems contrary to my postings.  So I looked at some older posts of mine here, and they made me laugh.  That is a good thing.  You might want to try it.  

Just scroll down the page and on the left hand side of the blog you will see LABELS, which are the titles or categories I assign to each blog.  Click on the title: Laughter, and glance at the half dozen posts with that label.  Some made me laugh, a good thing.   :-)