In Memory...Always

Memory is one of God's great gifts because it keeps alive the people and events of the past so we can, in a certain sense, relive and reappreciate them. We can also learn from these memories, since in hindsight they often provide lessons that teach us how to live better lives. Equally important, though, our memories can be shared with others, with future generations, so they too can benefit from the experiences that have formed us into who we are. We shouldn't, then, hide these memories, but should pass them on, telling the stories of those who have gone before us.

My everyday thoughts, and I expect yours too, are often interrupted by memories, some sought and many unbidden, memories that call me back to other times and places. But Memorial Day is different. On this day we make a conscious decision to remember some very special individuals: those who have sacrificed their lives for our country, for their fellow citizens, and for the timeless values enshrined in our Constitution. 

For many Americans these memories are very personal, reminding us of family members, other relatives, friends, and those with whom we served. For me, today calls to mind a long list that includes many friends, shipmates, and Naval Academy classmates who made the ultimate sacrifice, most during the Vietnam, conflict. I've probably mentioned some of these men in previous Memorial Day posts, but that's okay; we really can't mention them enough. Indeed, hardly a day passes when I don't think of some of them and pray for them and their families. Here are just a few.

2nd Lt Henry Wright, USMC, was a Naval Academy classmate (1967) and a friend. Henry, only 21, was our first classmate to lose his life in combat. Henry led a platoon to the relief of a company under attack south of Da Nang during the communist Tet offensive. He led an attack against heavily entrenched enemy positions and was mortally wounded while directing covering fire for the evacuation of wounded Marines. During the action he carried his wounded radioman to safety and tended to him until the arrival of a corpsman. Henry died on February 6, 1968...forever young.

Captain Ron Zinn, US Army, was my brother Jeff's West Point classmate (1962) and roommate. Because we lived only 50 miles from West Point, Ron often spent weekends at our home and treated me like a kid brother. (The photo is of Jeff and Ron on their graduation day.) Ron was an amazing young man, a world-class race walker who represented the USA in two Olympic games (1960 and 1964). But he was an Army officer first and during his tour in Vietnam, he died as a result of small arms fire during a firefight in Gia Dinh province. Ron was only 26 when he died on July 7, 1965. My brother, Jeff, also a Vietnam vet, died on January 19, 2010 

There are many others, most of them classmates who died in Vietnam or while training for combat: Hal Castle, Bart Creed, Jim Hicks, Guido Carloni, Tom Lange, and so many more. And I have to add another classmate, Mike Smith, astronaut and pilot of the ill-fated Challenger space shuttle...all good men. How did Our Lord Jesus put it?

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" [Jn 15:16].

We thank them all today and every day for their sacrifice; and we thank God for their letting us share in their lives.

Have a prayerful Memorial Day.

Homily: 25th Anniversary

Note: It seems hard to believe that my ordination to the permanent diaconate was 25 years ago today. I and 20 other men were ordained by Sean O'Malley, then the Bishop of Fall River, at St. Anthony's Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Yes, it was a wonderful day, followed by so many other wonderful days. 

Ordination Day, May 24, 1997

I thank God for calling me to the diaconate, and I thank Dear Diane for her decades of love and support. Without her deep faith, I'd still be stumbling around looking for the path God desired for me. I also thank the late Fr. Gerald Shovelton, who was my pastor at Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich, Massachusetts. Fr. Gerry somehow recognized God was calling me and guided me throughout the years of formation and afterwards. It's always helpful to have a few saintly people in your life.

This morning I assisted at daily Mass celebrated by another Fr. Gerry -- Fr. Gerry Cunningham -- who said too many kind things about Diane and me and made the Mass even more special than it always is.

My homily follows...

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Readings: Acts 16:22-34; Ps 138; John 16:5-11

After 25 years as a deacon, I’ve come to realize that 25 years really isn’t all that long. I think this has something to do with my age. After all, I was past 50 when I was ordained. The second realization is that I’ve learned a lot in those 25 years, and I trust I’ve changed at least a little. You'll have to check with Diane for the truth of that. 

Perhaps I should really say, I’ve been changed, because I’ve really done very little myself. That’s the odd thing about vocations; they always begin with God’s call. We merely respond. In truth, though, I have two vocations.

The first is my vocation as husband. This was a calling I really couldn’t avoid. You see, I knew I would marry Diane the first moment I met her. It might have been a blind date, but I saw the future clearly.

The second was my vocation as a permanent deacon. For over 20 years I’d thought about the diaconate, on and off, mostly off, until my pastor told me he was certain God was calling me. Diane and I talked about it, prayed about it, and finally responded and accepted it. After years of formation, I was ordained and then we faced the humbling reality of allowing God to blend these two vocations.

I didn’t always listen to God, and made a lot of mistakes, but He’d always call me back. As you might expect, I occasionally made the big mistake, believing it was my vocation, my ministry. Of course, it’s not. God calls. We respond…or try to. Then His Spirit, the Advocate, as Jesus called Him in the Gospel, leads, and guides, and continually surprises.

Most of us, if we’re faithful Christians, want to follow Christ. But too often we actually think we can plot the correct path all by ourselves. Not only that, we want to be honored and praised for doing so. I suppose we want the fruit; we want others to recognize and accept the proof of our right thinking, of all the good we do. Do I have to tell you that this is totally, completely wrong? 

I recall a bishop once remarking how he admired those who developed successful ministries. And then we place his words alongside those of St. Therese as the 24-year-old saint lay dying: “My ministry will begin -- after my death.”

Even bishops can be wrong…sometimes.

Just consider Paul and Silas in today’s reading from Acts – arrested, stripped, flogged, imprisoned...I don’t know about you, but I suspect I’d be feeling pretty bad about things if that happened to me.

But what did they do? They prayed together and sang hymns into the night. Then an earthquake opened the prison doors and removed their chains. Did they escape and run? Nope, instead they evangelized their jailor who was about to commit suicide. He actually took them to his home, tended to their wounds, and he and his family were all baptized.

Do you see the deep faith of these two men?

Do you see that the ministry of evangelization, the primary work of the Church, was not something they did? It was the fruit of their prayer, something God did through them. They thought not of themselves, but only of God. It wasn’t their ministry; it was God’s work…Opus Dei. And they were simply filled with joy that God would use them no matter the cost to them.

Even after 25 years, I’m still a long way from that kind of faith.

Let me tell you a secret. We deacons can be a complaining lot, especially when we get together. The Church, you see – or at least parts of the Church – even after 50 years, still hasn’t figured out exactly what to do with us. And so, we groan and moan about not being used as we believe we ought.

But then I remember what the word deacon means. It means servant, one who serves others not himself. We’re called to be servants, but servants to whom? Quite simply, we’re called to serve God’s people, all God’s people. That’s right, anyone and everyone. By doing so, we serve God and His holy Church.

When it’s put that way it’s pretty straightforward, but it demands a level of humility that escapes most of us. I've always thought of humility as the foundational virtue, the virtue without which all other virtues simply cannot be. My father had a funny line about humility. He used to say, "Humility's a strange commodity; once you know you have it, you just lost it."

In a sense, that’s the second secret. 

I’d been a deacon only a few years when a priest I knew asked if I’d speak to some seminarians who were only a year or two from ordination. 

Surprised, I asked him, “Speak to them? On what?”

“Oh, on the permanent diaconate, of course.”

Well, in the midst of my little talk, I revealed that second secret. You see, I’d spent years as a layman in our parish and knew a lot of the parishioners. I also knew that many were far holier than I was or would ever be. And yet as a deacon I was called to serve them, to counsel and encourage them, to pray with them, to preach to them, to teach them.

That’s when I realized I could do none of that. That was all God's work, perhaps done through me thanks to His Holy Spirit. You see, those young seminarians, once ordained to the priesthood, would likely be assigned to a parish where they knew very few people. It would take those holy young priests a while to recognize and accept that those they served would often be far holier. But God always seems to call us from our weaknesses, doesn’t He? For it’s then He is most productive.

Brothers and sisters, open your hearts and souls to the work of the Holy Spirit in your lives. Let the Advocate do His work.

God still uses earthquakes, little events to shake up our lives, to cause us to turn to Him in faith and hope, so we can see the needs that surround us. You and I may not be imprisoned, but so many in our world are locked up, living in prisons of their own creation. You may be the one whom God chooses to set them free.

God love you.

It's All About Abortion!

"I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly" [Jn 10:10]

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For years, really for decades, I've believed that for the Left, the key issue, the issue that overrides all others is abortion. 

For them abortion is more important than pushing their Marxist economic plans through legislative and executive action.

Abortion is more important than destroying free markets through the fascist control of large corporations and the resulting destruction of small business.

Abortion is more important than infecting our educational system with their hatred of our nation and our Judeo-Christian religious and moral values.

Abortion is more important than exerting authoritative dominance over the lives of the people through a centralized, controlling healthcare system that delegates life and death decisions to faceless bureaucrats.

Abortion is more important than dismantling our military and our nation's ability to defend itself against hostile powers that are seen as allies in ensuring the Left's dominance of the people.

Abortion is more important than disarming our nation's citizenry so the people will be forced to submit to the Left's all-encompassing internal control.

Abortion is more important than their desire to suppress the basic, God-given rights of the people: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom to defend oneself and one's family...

Indeed, to the Left, abortion overrides all other issues because it's central to their primary goal: to replace God with themselves.

As faithful Christians we believe God created each of us in an individual act of love. We take the prayer of the Psalmist seriously:

You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! [Ps 139:13-14]

Life, then, is a gift from God, a gift of creation. To destroy that life is not only to deny the gift, it is also to deny the Giver. Abortion, because it destroys the most innocent of all human life, is the most horrendous of sins. The Church, in the Nicene Creed, praises the Holy Spirit by extending to Him the title, "the Lord and giver of life." Can there be greater evil than the attempt to usurp His power by destroying life as soon as His gives it? 

One "power" is, of course, ultimately behind this abomination, this vain attempt to take unto himself the power of God, and that is Satan. Interestingly, over 50 years ago (1968), Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical, Humanae Vitae, warned that the contraception mentality would lead to many other evils. He predicted artificial contraception could lead to other, often more serious sins, that:

• Would "open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards" [HV, 17];
• Lead "a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods to forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection [HV,17];
• "...when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife [HV, 17];
• "...unless we are willing that the responsibility of procreating life should be left to the arbitrary decision of men, we must accept that there are certain limits, beyond which it is wrong to go" [HV, 17].

The Holy Father continued by reminding us that the family, the Church, and the civil community must remember that liberty has its limits. In his words:

"Everything therefore in the modern means of social communication which arouses men's baser passions and encourages low moral standards, as well as every obscenity in the written word and every form of indecency on the stage and screen, should be condemned publicly and unanimously by all those who have at heart the advance of civilization and the safeguarding of the outstanding values of the human spirit. It is quite absurd to defend this kind of depravity in the name of art or culture or by pleading the liberty which may be allowed in this field by the public authorities" [HV, 22]

Far too many today, Christians and others, seem to believe that freedom of speech should have no limitations. As a nation we long understood that the founding fathers believed the people have the power to limit even speech when it obviously fosters or actively encourages that which is intrinsically evil, especially those evils that strive to undermine the well-being of the people and destroy the very Constitution that enumerates their God-given rights. Today, because we openly deny the strong religious element in the foundation of our nation, we also publicly deny that good should be supported and encouraged and evil should be recognized for what it is and condemned.

Because real evil is allowed to flourish, we can expect to encounter more of the same. This is why, if the Supreme Court accepts the opinion of the leaked draft overturning Roe v. Wade, we will surely encounter much violence in our streets this summer. Keep in mind, as I have said before, the most violent people in our nation are those who support abortion, those who support the violent, painful, dismembering slaughter of the most innocent among us. Pray for them, and love them as God loves them, because only He can change hearts so filled with hatred. 

Satan, by the way, has made a crucial error. By leading so many to abort these unborn infants, he has created a powerful, heavenly army of grace-filled warriors who stand in God's Presence. They are no doubt devoted to praying for the end of abortion in our nation and throughout the world. And how good is that!

What's Happened?

For Dear Diane and me April and May have been strange months. 

The first thing that happened was a car accident. I was sitting at a red light when pickup truck smashed into the back of my wonderful Kia Sorento. As it turned out, the other driver was uninsured and because of the extent of damage and the age of my car (2011), the insurance company had to total the Sorento...so sad. I really liked that car and took excellent care of it, hoping I could drive it for a few more years. Anyway, we had to get another car, so on Tuesday we went to a local Subaru dealer and leased a new Outback. It cost me far too much, both the up-front and monthly payments, but we took the plunge. The car is very nice, really too nice and too luxurious for us, and with far too many bells and whistles that will no doubt take me weeks to figure out. We had thought about getting either a Forrester or an Outback, but this was the only car of either model in their current inventory. Supply chain problems have also affected the automobile industry.

Then, last weekend, right after we left home for a weekend trip to Pensacola (Diane's hometown), we got a call from a neighbor telling us a large branch (actually, a very large branch) had broken off the huge live oak tree in our backyard and fallen on top of our roof. I don't believe there's any severe damage, but I won't know for sure until someone gets up there and checks it out. (I'm too old and too smart to do it myself.) Right now, I'm trying to get someone to look at everything and give me an estimate on branch and possibly tree removal. It's all very tiresome and I expect it will be expensive. 

Oh, yeah, I also broke a tooth and have to find a dentist that takes our insurance. As I said, strange times.

But then I realize how well we have it compared to so many others and all these personal worries and concerns just fade into the background. It's probably a lot easier for a retired couple like us to cope with all the problems the world has tossed our way. Today's younger generations must not only deal with a challenging economic situation, but also navigate society's moral decay and its effects on families. 

When we look at our economy, we find increasingly high inflation exacerbated by growing shortages of needed products including basic food items, baby formula, diesel fuel, equipment parts, almost everything. The supply chain problems likely resulted from the draconian COVID shutdowns of our economy, combined with the so-called Green New Deal and incentives that have kept people out of work. These policies -- along with continued massive spending by the Biden administration, the total lack of an energy policy that reflects reality, and a Fed that for too long has provided cheap money -- resulted in the gift of high inflation and a depressed stock market.

Society's moral decay is a whole other matter that must be fought through courageous action and prayer. I'm nearing the end of my life -- not real soon, I hope -- but young families today must be very worried about the future. My only advice is to hold tight and vote for those who are willing to fight legislatively for the soul of our nation. Vote, too, for those who actually understand the roots of inflation and its solution: tax cuts, less intrusive regulations, true energy independence, and most important, decreased government spending. We have survived similar periods -- just ask Jimmy Carter -- and we will survive this too, provided American voters don't go stupid on us and the current Congress practices a little restraint during the final months of 2022.

Pray for our nation.

Thank God for WHAT?

Let me begin simply by repeating the chant of a large collection of pro-abortion screamers who were trying to disrupt worshippers at a Catholic church: 

"Thank God for abortion!" 

Yes, indeed, that's what they shouted at anyone and everyone within earshot. Of course, for someone who actually believes in God, such a chant is pure blasphemy, since it attributes an intrinsic evil to God. I have, however, become convinced that pro-abortion fanatics, and this also includes most of today's Democrat Party politicians, really don't believe in God. Oh, they talk about God as their biggest supporter, they attend church services and take advantage of the photo-ops, and they always refer to themselves as "devout." But it's all just talk, just smoke and mirrors...you know, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." 

The pro-abortion pols who claim to be Catholic apparently have no problem discarding Church magisterial teaching when it seems politically expedient to do so. We are left to conclude that they have raised their personal beliefs above the Word of God and the Church's deposit of faith. In other words, they have replaced the Living God with themselves, a bunch of little god wannabes. This is the great temptation to which those who crave power always fall prey: to become a god. 

Our Vice President, too, joined in the cacophony and in a recent speech repeatedly screamed, "How dare they!" She was all upset that any Supreme Court Justice, or any legislator, would try to prevent a woman from doing whatever she wanted to her body. Kamala Harris conveniently failed to mention that there's another body involved, and that the woman's decision to abort brings about this innocent person's violent death. Her near frenzied support of abortion is difficult to understand since she is a black woman and abortion providers have specifically targeted minority women. In truth the population of black Americans would be double its current numbers if abortion had not been legalized by the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision. Any black American who supports abortion is grossly ignorant, a pure Leftist ideologue, or just suicidal...or, more accurately, self-genocidal. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I believe the Left has made a crucial error by reacting as they have to the illegal leak of the court's draft majority opinion. All they have done is released the crazies who will show the rest of the country what complete weirdos the abortion-loving fanatics really are. I realize I will be criticized for labeling them, but I've always believed that telling the truth is a charitable act and should not be avoided when to do so would lead others to sin. Just check out these photos of current protests.

Yep, these folks will certainly convince all those average Americans to join the next pro-abortion protest in their quiet neighborhoods...yeah, right.

Lest we get distracted by all the weirdness in the streets, let's keep one thing in mind: abortion is the work of Satan and those who support abortion are joining in his evil work. Of course, ultimately, they will fail. They just don't know it. Pray for them.

And to alter that ugly chant slightly, let me quote the Catholic poet, Joyce Kilmer:

"Thank God for God."

Strange Skies - ET Phone Home

This morning., right before 6 a.m., Maddie and I left the house to take our morning walk. It was still about 3/4 of an hour before sunrise, but the eastern sky was starting to glow a bit. Venus and Jupiter were both showing off their brightness, and Mars and Saturn, farther to the south and higher in the sky, were dim but still visible. But what really amazed me was a weird cloud formation that looked like a heavenly portrait of one of those aliens the UFO-crazies claim abducted them. I've included the photo below:

It certainly doesn't look natural, does it? Makes one think a skywriter was out early this morning before he sobered up. I took the photo standing in our street looking due east. Venus and Jupiter are both visible to the right of the weird cloud. 

Anyway, lest you think aliens were sending us a coded message in the morning sky, when Maddie and I returned home I noticed a text from NASA (Yes, NASA sends me texts about all their launches and other doings) on my phone informing me of the launch of a spacecraft with the clever name, Falcon 9 Block 5. It had lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 5:42 this morning. We often observe these launches since our home here in The Villages is due west of Cape Canaveral. I'm pretty sure this early morning launch was the cause of our pre-dawn weird cloud formation. The upper winds in our lower atmosphere can do strange things to vapor trails and rocket exhaust. 

Sadly, I was hoping for something a bit more eerie, some unexplained phenomenon that the government would try to cover up; but alas it seems even ET in the morning sky can be explained.

Hope you like the photo though. Click on the photo for a full-sized view.

The Most Violant

We hear a lot about violence today. The Left screams about the so-called violence of January 6 "insurrection" at the Capitol; although from what I've read, nobody who took part was armed, so I'm not sure how they intended to overthrow the government. Of course, the Right tries to shout just as loud about the far worse summer of violence by the thugs who carried out the violent and often deadly dirty work of BLM and Antifa in the streets of our cities. But the most violent Americans of all are those who support abortion. They encourage or actively take part in the slaughter of the most innocent human beings among us, and they do so with almost indescribable violence. If anyone actually saw what is done to an unborn child during an abortion, I don't know how they could possibly support this unspeakable act of violence.

Today on the news I saw several videos of large groups of pro-choice protesters attacking police officers. To put this into perspective, over the years I made probably ten trips to Washington, DC to take part in the annual March for Life in January. And I also attended several similar marches in Boston and here in Florida. During all these marches -- or "protests" as the media labels them -- I never saw any violence from the pro-life participants. In fact, the only violence I ever saw or experienced came from pro-abortion protestors who tried to interfere with the marches. They often threw objects, including bottles, at the marchers and always accompanied these acts with screams of profanity-laced insults. Even more amazing, I never saw a pro-lifer try to respond in kind. Yes, indeed, to be pro-abortion -- and, folks, if you call yourself "pro-choice," you know full well that you're really pro-abortion -- is also to be pro-violence.

When our ostensibly Catholic President blathers about the wonders of abortion and how the Supreme Court is trying to take away this "sacred right," all I can do (after I try to avoid getting sick to my stomach) is pray for his immortal soul. That he would utter such drivel, really a stream of blasphemies, and then receive Our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist...well, that is the ultimate blasphemy. Speaker Pelosi is no different, except she seems to be able to read her teleprompter a bit better than President Biden. In the end, though, she mouths the same talking points that try to change evil to good. And through their verbal attacks they encourage physical attacks. Just listen to their words.

Thank God for those five Supreme Court Justices who seem poised to overturn the unconstitutional and murderous Roe v. Wade decision of January 22, 1973. I believe the Left made a huge mistake by leaking that draft of the court's likely decision. Too many Americans are ignorant of what abortion really involves and what the Left hopes to achieve. This controversy will not only force the truth out into the open, but also show the nation the kind of violent people who support this evil. Of course, the decision would simply return to power to the states where it would be decided by legislators and executives who are elected by the people. 

The pro-life view is simple to state and easy to understand: 

1. Life is sacred. 

2. An unborn child is a human life, the most innocent of all human lives. 

3. Abortion, then, is nothing less than the intentional slaughter of an innocent human life. 

Pass it on.