Mar 20 William of Penacoda d. 1042

Thommy and John

Good morning
I love you



March 20
William of Penacorda d. 1042

Under attack from Saracens aka Moors that’d be Islams, the Benedictine monks in the monastery of Sathgun in Leon, Spain fled. William fled with them to Penacorda where they established the monastery of Santa Maria de los Valles which was later named San Guillermo de Penacorda.

That’s the blurb we have from all the usual sources. To get a monastery named after him means that the Benedictines thought he was a special guy - holy? Defender of the faith? Teacher? However. And was there a point to be made in canonizing a man who escaped the Islamic invaders to re-establish a monastery?

And the point for us? Faced by our Saracens, it’s ok to flee to safe ground and start again. Oro pro vobis.

I love you
dad

Mar 30 John Climacus b. 525 d. 606

John and Thommy


Good morning
I love you

Happy April Fools’ eve.

What’s up? How ya doin’? Who are the whoms these days? Not only the peers and friends and family, also the teachers and mentors you’re hanging with? And, more importantly, those you’re looking for? ….

In the same way that interest accrues and necessarily increases wealth and provides security, so too with the people you nurture in your life: and those who nurture you….


March 30
John Climacus b. 525 d. 606


John received and excelled in an elite education. And you, how are you leveraging your talents, gifts, resources, and the educational opportunity we’ve given you?

John Climacus chose a life of solitude. An eremetical monasticism - ok two days in a row I’ve found the word useful, fun to think, write, say…. Eremetical. Not just the solitude, though I recommend periods of solitude for communing with God and self. The eremetical monks also had a community for shared prayer and liturgy plus periods together, sorta like a study group, to delve together into scripture, mysticism, and the writings and knowing of the church fathers. This is the life John Climacus chose for his vocation. Discernment of your vocation should take a similar path - college has been given to you as time and setting for discernment in your growing up. And the discernment process includes God and family and church and mentors and friends….

John Climacus went to Mount Sinai and chose to learn the practice of Christian virtues under Martyrius. Did I mention that the practice of Christian virtues is one of the foundations you are suppose to be reinforcing at this time in your life? Thus, the importance of a holiness mentor in your life: a confessor: a spiritual director. I was lucky, I got to attend a Jesuit novitiate after high school. Talk about immersion in spiritual development of the practice of the Christian virtues. Imagine how badly I would have developed afterwards if I hadn’t had some serious work done on my foundation.!?


After the death of Martyrius, John Climacus lived for twenty years in more isolation: studying the lives of the saints et al. A daily saint is not quite studying the lives of the saints but it’s a part of our foundational development as well as the sustaining of our practice of Christian virtues with models and mentors. Like the cycle of liturgical readings keeping us in the loop of scriptural prayer, our coming back to the same saints on an annual basis if not preferentially more often, we keep in touch with the life blood of faith and action.

In 600, at 75, the monks of Sinai persuaded John of Climacus to be their abbot. His reputation of holiness and wisdom as leader of the Christian community reached pope St Gregory the Great who asked for the monk’s prayers as well as supported the hospital and hostel that were built to serve the increasing number of pilgrims.

In 604, John Climacus returned to his hermitage to prepare for his death. Such preparation is a daily activity, part of prayer and awareness; Pascal’s wager if you will. And then at some point, preparation for death becomes a higher priority, a focus, a greater probability. If you’re lucky enough to make it to seventy or eighty, like your grandfathers, then you can bet death is coming sooner than later. But today, you’re not thinking that way. But my brother died at 5. I’ve had cousins die in their 20s, thirties, etc. I’m coming on 60. Live each day as if it is your last. You never know when the bridegroom will come for you….

In the seventh century, the local churches picked the saints, the people to emulate. John Climacus’ life of personal holiness, wisdom, teaching, caring, serving, and leadership made the church select him. In addition, we have writings from John Climacus which are extant and important still.

Scala Klimax Paradisi. From which John became known as Climacus, ladder. The abbot of Raithu, another John, asked John Climacus to give guidance about attaining the highest degree of religious perfection.

I suggest you peruse the Climacus - thirty steps with parables and historical anecdotes [Jesus’ 30 years of ministry?]. A picture of the virtues, practical applications of the precepts of our faith. Sure they’re drawn from the monastic life - we have much to learn from every sort of life on the Way to heaven. And since the monastic life is not in your wheelhouse, I suggest you take a glimpse.

This is a time given to you - immerse with zest….

I love you
dad

March 20 John, Sergius, and companions 796

Thommy and John,

Good morning
I love you

The waning hours of Sunday 3-29. Running out of March. The threats of April and closing in. But, tonight, I’m playing catchup with saints and sons….



March 20
John, Sergius, and companions 796


I didn’t find an elaboration about John or the companions beyond the catholic online blurb. Sergius has plenty of entries, including Tolstoy’s priest character - I recommend the book.

John et al. were a group of monks who resided in the eremetical monastery of St Sabas near Jerusalem. They were martyred by a band of Arabs who devastated the community.

Why would we have made these monks saints? And might Arab mean Islam? Ya think it was a crusade of sorts?

As an aside, from catholic encyclopedia…. the eremitical or solitary monasticism. St. Anthony may be called the founder of this type of monasticism.

This way of life took its rise among the monks who settled around St. Anthony's mountain at Pispir and whom he organized and guided. The strictest hermits lived out of earshot of each other and only met together for Divine worship on Saturdays and Sundays, while others would meet daily and recite their psalms and hymns together in little companies of three or four. There was no Rule of Life among them but, as Palladius says, "they have different practices, each as he is able and as he wishes". The elders exercised an authority, but chiefly of a personal kind, their position and influence being in proportion to their reputation for greater wisdom. The monks would visit each other often and discourse, several together, on Holy Scripture and on the spiritual life. General conferences in which a large number took part were not uncommon. Gradually the purely eremitical life tended to die out but a semi-eremitical form continued to be common for a long period, and has never ceased entirely either in East or West where the Carthusians and Camaldolese still practise it.

To be apart and remain a part - a different kind of strategy. And how do you play your part? Solitary and communal - both and.

Our faith, having faith, has its own language. Words do have meaning, finding a way to communicate with one another and moreso with God. Eremitical. Now that’s a word of faith, of religion. [we had communes when I was college age. Somewhat the same and not at all alike.]

I love you,
dad

Mar 20 Bl John of Parma b. 1209 d. 1289 bl. 1777

John and Thommy

Good morning
I love you


It’s been too long since I did a saints and sons. When I pulled up my ncyicb address, where I get my daily email from Catholic online, there were 29 unread emails. March third was my last entry. I’ve skipped almost all of March. In Lent. With some monster biggies. Another sign of my times.
So, on Sunday, 3-29-09, a step back to the most recent John/William/Jesuit/etc. …. 68 degrees in GSO, 28 inches of snow in Tulsa….


March 20
John of Parma b. 1209 d. 1289 bl. 1777

Aka, John Buralli. We pick up his bio when he is under the tutelage of his uncle, chaplain of the church of St Lazarus at Parma. Again, I regret we don’t easily have the bio of his boyhood as well as a bit of a blurb about his family life during his formative years. Oh well….

John of Parma quickly became a teacher of philosophy. Not only must he have been an astute student, he must have had connections - by family via the chaplain et al. as well as his own talents.

He entered the Friars Minor in 1233ish. As a learned priest and representative of the order, John of Parma taught theology at Bologna, Naples, and Paris - the biggies. He also assisted at the first Council of Lyons in 1245. Such explicitly witnesses to his great learning.

John of Parma also exhibited great sanctity we are told. I wish we had some substance of that in the catholic encyclopedia online et al. An indication of that is the recorded Joy of the survivors of St. Francis when John of Parma was elected minister general of the Franciscans in 1247 [until 1257].

John of Parma was dedicated to the full observance of the Rule. He must have exemplified it. And with the relatively recent passing of their founder, the Order was drifting and fractionating. John of Parma was dedicated to the Order’s observance of the Rule as well as his own. That is what you want in you your leaders.

John of Parma wanted to know personally the state of the Order. MBWA: a new concept in the thirteenth century - unfortunately, we’re still having to preach it to leaders today. In his rounds, he was received honorably by the monarchs: Henry III, (St) Louis IX, and the Spanish king. At the Friars Minor’s General Chapter in 1249ish, John of Parma codified his insistence that the Friars observe Francis’ Rule and not some watered down version.

He was so humble that when he visited the different houses of the Order, he would often help the Brother wash vegetables in the kitchen. He loved silence so that he could think of God and he never spoke an idle word.

The Pope sent John of Parma, his angel of peace, to the Orthodox Church to seek re-union. This meeting set the table for the Council of Lyons. What type of man would be a success on such a mission? And when you have such a responsibility, how will you emulate him?

In the mid-thirteenth century, arose the dispute between the Mendicants and the University of Paris.

[Mendicant Friars are members of those religious orders which, originally, by vow of poverty renounced all proprietorship not only individually but also (and in this differing from the monks) in common, relying for support on their own work and on the charity of the faithful. Hence the name of begging friars. ]

The Dominicans and Franciscans broke ground by not confining themselves to sacred ministry. They claimed equality with other professors at the universities. In such and similar work, the Church exempted the orders from the jurisdiction of the bishops. The opposition to the mendicants was particularly strong at the University of Paris. It was not only about academic status and ecclesiastical power. The mendicants were permitted to serve the faithful beyond the reach of the bishops - and the generous gifts that once went to parish priests for, e.g., weddings now were scooped up by popular mendicants. This freedom also enabled the Papacy to correct abuses within the far reaches of the church.

John of Parma went to Paris, 1253ish, to seek peace in concert with the Master General of the Dominicans. This struggle was unresolved and becoming universally nasty within the Church when John of Parma was up for re-election as leader of the Franciscans.

In addition to his efforts for the Mendicants, John of Parma gave his primary efforts to the renewal of the Order for which he received significant opposition within the Order. For the good of the Order, John of Parma stepped aside and supported the election of St Bonaventure, his successor as professor at Paris.

John of Parma retired to the hermitage of Greccio near Rieti - remember St. Francis’ connection…. John of Parma lived in solitude of prayer, writing, and teaching within the hermitage.

During his time at the Hermitage of Greccio, John of Parma was accused of Joachimism: A general term denoting several groups of Friars Minor, existing in the second half of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries, who, in opposition to the main body of the order, pretended to observe the Rule of St. Francis in its primitive severity. Attendance at the universities and life in towns required certain modifications in the life of the friars, perhaps somewhat different from what it may have been in St. Francis's time. The doubts that arose amongst the friars about the observance of the rule were generally settled by the sovereign pontiffs with a view of meeting new conditions, and at the same time safeguarding the letter of the rule. Whilst the greater part of the order followed without reluctance this natural and logical evolution, some more zealous friars, to whom every development seemed a departure from the first ideal of St. Francis, were strongly opposed to it.

Purists. Are they/we opponents? In what way are Purists a threat to the Order? In could be that it is this effort/desire by John of Parma to observe the Rule more like Francis that led to his removing himself from the candidacy for General? And his wisdom and love of the Order shown in his support of the more ‘practical’ Bonaventure? Could it be that this cost John of Parma canonization? What would such canonization now say about today’s Franciscans?

John of Parma was acquitted and returned to the Hermitage to continue his life of prayer and work. If I could clear my slate, I too would relish such a life…. [without debt, there is total freedom]

At 80, twice the expected life of thirteenth century men, John of Parma heard that the Greeks were abandoning the union he worked to accomplish at Lyons in 1274. He received permission from the Pope to go to Greece and try again. John of Parma died in the convent of the Friars in Camerino on 19 March, 1289.


I love you
dad

Mar 29, 2009 fifth sunday of lent

Thommy and John

Good morning
I love you

Happy Sunday -
Sunshine and wind in Greensboro; three inches of snow [so far] in Chicago.

How are you? How ya doin? What’s up? What ya doin? With whom? Why?
Who’s important these days? Including John Hope Franklin? If you haven’t read his From Slavery to Freedom, do it. You may have my copy if you like. [I was introduced to this book, this man, in 1970 by a friend of mine who was then a ‘black studies’ major: and she, a white Jew from Montgomery. It’s a 1947 book - imagine that. Not only the book, I suggest you get a piece of the man’s biography, if only from today’s Times. There was also a blurb in the news-record this week.]

And all the dad questions….

Yesterday, I half believed in horoscopes. I had a call out of the blue from a friend. Hadn’t heard from her I a while. We’d worked together in Columbus and have stayed in touch about work and family developments on and off. The horoscope said explicitly that I’d be getting an unexpected call from a friend whom I hadn’t heard from in a while. Go figure….

Angela’s call was to ‘get some wisdom’ and ask me ‘an ethical question.’ A high honor to be considered a source of wisdom or possessor of ethics. But, for her, I am. A reaffirmation of my self beliefs….

The specifics, after catching up on family stuff and a little bit about work, kept us going for a half hour. A licensed person, supervising unlicensed persons, was having the secretary use the licensed person’s password to get into the electronic medical record and sign his name to the unlicensed people’s notes. So wrong on so many levels. The good news is that ‘the system’ caught it; and the person in charge of the system has the courage to act on it.

Of course this isn’t just any licensed person [LP]. Ole LP is a favorite of the owner of the organization: an apparent untouchable. Angela is, justly, outraged that LP would even dare do this but wonders how best to present this to LP’s boss, knowing that the owner will be involved in both the personnel matter as well as the regulatory and legal and professional matters that necessary flow from this transgression. For this owner, “it’s the policy” is not sufficient to take action against a favorite.

Makes for a great case study on many levels. How about a moment with the secretary [S]. When asked by LP to do this, S should have said not only no but hell no. And then S should have reported the request to the company’s compliance hotline or to LP’s boss or to the person in the organization who takes ethical/compliance questions. So what do you do about her?

S is an inexperienced and not particularly competent secretary. The decision to fire S was made before finding out about LP’s transgression. S said that she did not know that she shouldn’t do such signing as her supervisor, LP, directed her. [with electronic medical records, each person has their own password. It is unlikely that S did not have access to the medical records at all so S had a password for S’s access.] Let’s uncloud the case - assume that S was an averagely competent secretary and did what LP asked/directed her to do.

How do you proceed? What questions do you ask? Of whom? Of course, this scanty amount of information presumes you know something more about healthcare operations. It’s a good case because all of the crucial principles are not only general business but common sense.

How would you approach LP’s supervisor and the owner about LP? Being righteous about ethical practice of professionals is not the road to take; albeit, use the righteousness as energy for pursuing the correction of the transgression….

And question how much of this circumstance is idiosyncratic to LP and how much of this is symptomatic of systemic decay.

This is what makes my work fun!



I was at a state hospital last week talking with them about the patient advocate’s role - and patient advocacy in state hospitals in general. NC psychiatric hospitals are in crisis. Horrendous patient events; loss of Medicare/TJC certification [to the cost of $1m+/month]. “Patient Advocate” is a job in the state hospitals. There’s a nine page, single spaced job description. In the private sector, the role is usually called ‘patient representative’.

Based on my study of the situation at this hospital, I am sure that it is not clear to any of the stakeholders in inpatient psychiatric treatment at state hospitals what the role of the advocate is; what is the place of ‘patient advocacy’. You see, by definition, every licensed person is a patient advocate. The job description of the non licensed persons includes their to being patient advocates. There are organizations galore - from NAMI to MHA - who declare that they are patient advocates. Patient advocacy in state psychiatric services is mandated by federal and state laws and regulations.

Patient advocacy is suppose to assure that all patients are accorded their rights at all times. And, in this system, when a patient or other stakeholder complains that rights are violated, the patient advocate investigates the complaint and pursues individual rectification and systemic improvement.

How does this function fit with Risk Management, Performance Improvement, Compliance?

Take a look at the publicly available reports - e.g., Medicare - and the hospitals’ responses to them and tell me where you see the role of Patient Advocacy. Look at the job description and tell me how patient advocacy means unannounced monitoring of the units - or how this is different that the nursing supervisor and unit managers making rounds…. A convoluted system and a half.




Sunday March 29
Fifth Sunday of Lent

No biggies today. Instead my comments about the readings….



Reading 1
Jer 31:31-34

The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
the day I took them by the hand
to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they broke my covenant,
and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.

Jeremiah is worth the read. Straight talker. Honest reporter/broker. His bio gives him credibility.

A new covenant because the old one has been broken so often. Not only has God kept his part of the bargain from the beginning of time, not only has he kept coming back, staying steadfast, regardless of what we have done vis a vis the original covenant, but He gave us a New Covenant, a better covenant. …. Not unlike a father to his sons. The secret of a father’s love - no matter what. … On the flip side. On the heart of each of us is written the Law of God, which includes, ‘I will honor my father.’ What does it say about the son who decides, I do not have to honor my father. Or the child who decides I do not have to obey my father? Or the people who tell the child, that he does not have to obey; and those who reinforce disobedience? How does such a son become a father? A husband? What kind of wife will such a son select? And the implications for their children?


But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Simple enough, don’t you think. Look on your heart. Unlike in Caesar’s world, God’s law is not capricious, it is truth. God’s law is our covenant of love. How often have you asked - what do I have to do to show that I love? God’s law, written on our hearts, tells us how to know Him.


No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.


We will know God, our Lord, because He forgives our sins. And, being created in his image and likeness, we too have at our essence the obligation to forgive sins. … Growing up, I went to confession every week. In the novitiate, I learned to do an examination of conscience three times each day. And whenever I got further from these practices of my asking forgiveness, it became more difficult for me to forgive. That’s one reason I taught you that the response to “I am sorry” is “I forgive you”. The best way to learn forgiveness is to seek and receive forgiveness. And the greatest source of that blessing is the sacrament of reconciliation. … I know it’s hard to come back to that sacrament in particular - and the harder it is to seek forgiveness, the harder it is to give forgiveness. Once the cycle is broken, once you meet with the priest, confess, and offer sorrow and penance, and receive forgiveness, the outpouring of grace experienced then will make giving forgiveness and freeing yourself from so much more easy and joyful. And the return to the sacraments, and the reception of the blessings and joy, will become the new cycle….



The new cycle is to ‘harden not your heart’ … or to pray the responsorial psalm…


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15

R. (12a) Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.


Start with God. He has already promised you forgiveness, reconciliation for the asking. As I too hold my arms out for our reconciliation, our embrace of our pater filiique.


R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.


In God’s presence, with the Spirit of our confirmation, we are new men, Christian men, full of the joy of our freedom, the joy of His love.


R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.


Try the entire 51st psalm. Take your time to read all of the psalms. Another way to get to know God. To get into the head of David and see how his life, his faith, his love and charity is an inspiration for yours.

We each have a willing Spirit within us. It is sustaining that Spirit to remain in God’s grace. And we cannot do that alone. We do that with God’s grace. Give me back the joy of your Love.



Reading II
Heb 5:7-9
In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.


Why pray? Prayer is the joining of Father and Son. Jesus prayed. All types of prayers. And all of our prayers are heard just like Jesus’ were, because of Him. Morning, noon, and night. Let every action be our prayer. “I offer you my thoughts words and actions of this day….” When our actions are our prayer, imagine what actions we will take - and equally, what actions we will no longer do….


Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.


Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered. If any Son had the power to disobey, if any Son had the foresight of his suffering for obeying, Jesus did. “not my will but thine be done.” As we come upon Psalm Sunday, the triumphant parade into Jerusalem - the pinnacle of time to be God’s Son, to be the fulfillment of God’s covenant: but not. Jesus’ triumph, in obedience to God, the Father, is the Triumph of the Cross. It is obedience in times of trial that we strive for…. And it is the covenant of Love that makes that obedience both desirable and possible.



Gospel
Jn 12:20-33

Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast
came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,
and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."
Philip went and told Andrew;
then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.


How do people come to you to see Jesus?


Jesus answered them,
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.


How are you the grain of our faith and love? To die to oneself, to do the Father’s will….


Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.


Again, Monsignor hit a homerun with his homily. How many teenagers [and others] wail that “I hate my life!” I wish I could transcribe what our pastor said from there on. I was distracted by the father/daughter sitting in front of me - their shared look and warm embrace. It is God’s life that we embrace, it is God’s love we take hold of, it is this life we take into eternity. Even when the path takes us to the pinnacles of psalm Sunday and the triumphs of Calgary.


Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.


We are one in the Lord. He is here with us always. Where two or three are gathered in My Name…. How are you His Servant… Honor the Father by serving the Son. And so the Father will Honor you.


"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour'?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."


In times of trouble, Mother Mary says to me…. Beatles. In times of trouble, say Father, glorify your name in me. Especially in times of trouble, see God’s Word as the Way through….


Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said,
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.


God speaks for our sake, listen, seek a clean heart, serve….


Now is the time of judgment on this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.


Holy week starts Sunday. Easter holidays, the Triduum, retreat a moment into God’s embrace….



I love you
dad

Mar 7 john ireland, john larke, jermyn gardiner d. 1544 bl 1929

John and Thommy,

Good morning
I love you.

Third Sunday of Lent. Another one day in a row for my efforts at discipline and productivity and good living…. One less hour of sleep this night - zero in all, actually. I read Grisham’s The Associate from about 1700 to 0130ish. A bit of inspiration to renew my twenty hour days of work. I certainly have enough to accomplish in the next three weeks to justify my churning the effort, punching the clock, prayer, exercise, and good eating to boot…. In this first day in a row, I’m a successful two hours into the ‘schedule’. Ora pro me.

I’m doing March 7 saints because I’m guessing Catholic online is still on daylight savings time and the email with today’s saints have not arrived. Plus, since I’m more than a few days behind on daily entries, March 7 is as good a day to renew as any….



March 7
Bl.s John Ireland, John Larke, Jermyn Gardiner d. 1544 bl. 1929


These three plus John Heywood, a layman, were brought to Westminster 15 Feb 1544.
They were charged with ‘attempting treason against the king in the matter of his dignity, title, and name of Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland, by words, writing, and acts’ and convicted. Ponder the charges. Apply them to yourselves. How do you dare attempt treason against the monarchs in your live vis a vis our faith and religion? How do you strengthen your faith? How do you live your faith when you know if you do, the monarchs in your life will accuse you of treason against them?

Will you take John Heywood’s road? John Heywood recanted and was pardoned. Pardoned by the state, by the monarch. I wonder how his life turned out? Like Judas’? Judas wound up rejected not only by the Christians, from whom he excommunicated himself, but also the Jews, his tribe and his family. Judas had time and opportunity to reconcile. Our tradition tells us he committed suicide - might that have been his remorse? Could he have begged forgiveness?

John Heywood? I don’t know his story hardly at all. How did he live after he “recanted” -i.e., retrenched himself into the abyss of the monarch - out of fear for what the monarch could, had proven would, do! How afraid are you of your monarchs? How can you Love God enough to overcome such fear?

John Ireland, John Larke, and Jermyn Gardiner were hanged drawn and quartered on 7 mar 1544.

John Ireland was chaplain to Thomas More. Whom do you provide spiritual sustenance to? I suggest that in the same way that most [?] people compete at the level of their competitor, our sanctity levels off at the same height as those we serve. To the degree that is true, I suggest you find your Thomas More to serve. One way to start, is to actually dedicate yourself to one of your patron saints, serve him, dare not to disappoint such a one who loves you so much. One who is demonstrably close to God; who explicitly seeks to bring you to God, like I do; actually more than I do….

John Larke was the priest pastor in Bishopgatge, Woodford, Essex and then Chelsea. John Larke, as did John Ireland and Jermyn Gardiner, opposed the religious supremacy of Henry VIII. We are baptized priests of our faith. We too have the responsibility to oppose the claimed supremacy of the monarchs in our lives who lead us away from the one true faith, the Holy Catholic Church. At whatever risk such prophecy and priestly duties creates for us.

Jermyn Gardiner, a layman, was secretary to Stephen Gardiner, to whom he may have been related. He engaged in controversy with the Reformers. His heroes were those martyrs especially who suffered for the defense of the papacy. Jermyn was an excellent, learned, and holy layman. To the degree that the ‘Reformers’ in your life lead you away from our faith, I suggest that you too choose as heroes those faithful who suffered in defense of the papacy: one of the advantages of having so many saints to know and choose from.

I love you
dad
3-8-9