Mar 3 Katherine Drexel b. 1858 d. 1955 bl. 1988 c. 2000

Jack and Thommy,
Good morning, I love you
110221, 1212

Presidents’ Day. Actually, officially, Washington’s Day. I grew up with both a Washington’s Day and Lincoln’s Day, although the latter was never an official federal holiday. Today, we simply have the day off with banks closed and big sales. Presidency Day might make some sense, given the prestige and honor we give the office. But, presidents’ day? Not all presidents are created equal. Few of us can name the presidents, not even how many we’ve had in only 235 years of presidents. But Washington ranks up there in a pantheon of his own!
1218

110227, 1101
Picking up again almost a week later. Now two weeks since I’ve written anything for the blog, for myself, for whatever hope I have of the right people reading my missives. In the past two weeks a plethora of people have continued to stop by. Thank you. I not only owe you the feeloughts that have not made it into electronics but also my thanks for coming by. I do not understand the increasing number of people [well, the increasing number of hits] who come by/return. Not only is what I write undeserving of anyone’s attention – except Thom’s and Jack’s – it’s not accomplished much that I know of. Except: I did not expect anyone to be stopping by. I am humbled and amazed by and appreciative of everyone’s excursion into this space.

Two weeks. A very long time. I set a recent record in rejection in these two weeks. But, it’s like the lottery. With a lottery ticket in your pocket, you can imagine you’re a millionaire. No tickey no laundry. No winning if you don’t buy the ticket. In baseball, a .300 hitter is a hall of famer, an all star – and he’s also making an out seven of ten at bats! The same in the job hunt/consultation business. Without an application out there, without submitting a proposal, there is no chance of getting on board. It’s not whether you’re down, weighted down, knocked down. Everyone gets put down – even Jesus! As we come up on Lent, remember the stations of the cross. Down three times. And up each and every time. And he knew where he was going – Golgotha. For us, of course. To take away our sins. Got up on his own: while being lashed, spat upon, cursed, etc. Got up with the grace of God. As we too must, can, will.

Yesterday, I got a voicemail from my cousin. She’s going to Florida in March and was organizing a visit on her way back. It took almost to the end of the message to get the message. All along the way I was thinking the call was about her mother. Not this time. I called her back and we talked for almost a half hour orchestrating a drive by visit. She’ll be going north on route 95. We agreed she’d call when she had a guess as to when she’ll be on 95 east of Raleigh.

And.

Also, today, I got an email about my father’s return trip from Florida to Chicago. According to the email, not from him, he’s going to visit his brother in Florida then he’s going to stop in Charlotte [about 90 minutes from my place] to visit the niece of his dead wife then head on to Chicago.

When I talked with my cousin I also seriously thought about ridding myself of the stuff in my place. There’s more here than I’ll ever use again. The having it all is a privilege and a burden. It’s also a gift for y’all – come by anytime and have at it. I’d like to have the cleaner slate, too.

Organizing our third grader faith formation class to provide a dinner [and gifts] for the families our parish is hosting for a week has been as/more rewarding as the privilege to teach the class, to participate in the faith formation the children. The enthusiasm of the children and their parents has been a blessing to be part of. My class preparation – my studying the lesson, my getting immersed in the references, my whittling a 60 minute lesson down to 50 minutes – is a weekly cursillo-style study. It is a blessing to be given the few minutes a week with these children.

Tonight I’ll be a Eucharistic Minister. Our parish Liturgy coordinator sent out an email to a few of us doing a particular role which is evolving as our pastor/LC continue to evolve. I appreciated the extra effort the LC put into the email reminder. The number of people it takes for just one Mass to go well for celebrant and participants, for individuals and congregation and parish in mindboggling. And the work it must take, the preparation, the learning, the prayerful mindset for the parish’s LC as well as the LC for each liturgy: behind the scenes is where the action is!

Monday on my way into the 9:00 Mass, the LC for the Mass asked me if I were going ‘to do the reading for tomorrow.’ I demurred: without an explanation. I had a reason – I did not want to be the person taking over someone else’s usual slot without that person having had the discussion with the LC that she was being replaced. The Tuesday I did it, the hand of God put the woman and me together with the substitute LC before Mass. She was asking a question about which communion antiphon was to be used. The sub was put in the embarrassing situation of trying to explain to her that the LC had gotten me to do the reading. And, no, the LC hadn’t spoken to the woman. Thank God for the pre-Mass conclave. But, no thanks, I don’t want to be part of that. [oh by the way. The LC has decided my name is Jim. I told her my name, she wrote it down correctly on her assignment sheet for that Tuesday, but now she greets me with a hi, Jim.]

I’ve read a book a day now for over a week. From Vince Flynn [read his pre 9/11 books and wonder who else was ahead of our intelligence community.] to C.S. Lewis. I should be reading more psychology, management, et al. It is not time to punt on my professional development. My writing has also increased – this bio related as well as professional musings about family therapy and institutional decisions and their institutionalization contrary to the original intent.


March 3

Katherine Drexel b. 1858 d. 1955 bl. 1988 c. 2000

When I pulled up this saint – not because she’s a biggie but because I know someone who knew her personally – I had to ask myself why have I not before included in my routine selecting the Catherine saints. If I’m going to do William, Thomas, Kenneth, Joseph, John why not Catherine Mary? I’ll let y’all analyze that. But, Catherine is now in.

Sister Sandra and her sister began Project Respect in Nashville. I was given the opportunity to provide some support for her ministry. The ministry began as an after school reading/tutoring program for children in Nashville’s poorest [blackest] community. Not only did this post retirement pair of sisters bring Christ and Church to the children, families, community they brought an effective service. It was a blessing for me to help them raise money – which somehow was easy. Just put one of them in front of a benefactor to tell the story of the ministry, and, voila, a check was written. Sister Sandra was invited by the City schools to apply for a grant to expand the service. In the midst of the discussion of what she’d do with the grant money, she was told that, of course, she’d have to secularize the space and not include prayer or references to faith and all that. Sister Sandra simply stopped what she was doing and began to gather up her few materials. Cool, calm, collected, peaceful and polite, Sister Sandra began to leave. In horror, one of the participants asked her what she was doing. She kindly explained that Project Respect was a Catholic ministry and she would continue to provide as much service as she could without the city’s money if the city’s money was contingent on secularizing her service. The committee backed down – choosing to look away at this egregious violation of federal/state/local law so that the children in the community would get this service.

I did spend time helping with the tutoring as well. Helping with homework. Teaching math skills. Beginning and ending each session with a prayer of petition and thanksgiving. After the children left and we were cleaning up, it was wonderful to hear the sisters talk about their lives of service – remember, these were seventy year old black women in Nashville Tennessee – each with advanced degrees and academic and community accomplishments as well as their service to church and community. Learning at the feet of gracefilled women. Deo Gratias.


Vatican.com

Katherine Drexel was born in Philadelphia. Her father was a well known banker and philanthropist. Both parents instilled in their daughters the idea that their wealth was simply loaned to them and was to be shared with others.



When the family took a trip to the Western part of the United States, Katharine, as a young woman, saw the plight and destitution of the native Indian-Americans. This experience aroused her desire to do something specific to help alleviate their condition. This was the beginning of her lifelong personal and financial support of numerous missions and missionaries in the United States.



The first school Katherine Drexel established was St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico (1887).



Later, when visiting Pope Leo XIII in Rome, and asking him for missionaries to staff some of the Indian missions that she as a lay person was financing, she was surprised to hear the Pope suggest that she become a missionary herself.



After consultation with her spiritual director, Bishop James O'Connor, she made the decision to give herself totally to God, along with her inheritance, through service to American Indians and Afro-Americans.

Her wealth was now transformed into a poverty of spirit that became a daily constant in a life supported only by the bare necessities.



On February 12, 1891, Katherine Drexel professed her first vows as a religious, founding the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament whose dedication would be to share the message of the Gospel and the life of the Eucharist among American Indians and Afro-Americans.

Always a woman of intense prayer, Katharine found in the Eucharist the source of her love for the poor and oppressed and of her concern to reach out to combat the effects of racism.



Knowing that many Afro-Americans were far from free, still living in substandard conditions as sharecroppers or underpaid menials, denied education and constitutional rights enjoyed by others, she felt a compassionate urgency to help change racial attitudes in the United States.



The plantation at that time was an entrenched social institution in which the colored people continued to be victims of oppression. This was a deep affront to Katharine's sense of justice. The need for quality education loomed before her, and she discussed this need with some who shared her concern about the inequality of education for Afro-Americans in the cities. Restrictions of the law also prevented them in the rural South from obtaining a basic education.



Founding and staffing schools for both Native Americans and Afro-Americans throughout the country became a priority for Katharine and her congregation.

During Katherine Drexel’s lifetime, she opened, staffed and directly supported nearly 60 schools and missions, especially in the West and Southwest United States. Her crowning educational focus was the establishment in 1925 of Xavier University of Louisiana, the only predominantly Afro-American Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States at the time.



Religious education, social service, visiting in homes, in hospitals and in prisons were also included in the ministries of Katharine Drexel and the Sisters.

In her quiet way, Katharine Drexel combined prayerful and total dependence on Divine Providence with determined activism.



Her joyous incisiveness, attuned to the Holy Spirit, penetrated obstacles and facilitated her advances for social justice.



Through the prophetic witness of Katharine Drexel's initiative, the Church in the United States was enabled to become aware of the grave domestic need for an apostolate among Native Americans and Afro-Americans. She did not hesitate to speak out against injustice, taking a public stance when racial discrimination was in evidence.



For the last 18 years of her life she was rendered almost completely immobile because of a serious illness. During these years she gave herself to a life of adoration and contemplation as she had desired from early childhood. She died on March 3, 1955.



Katharine left a four-fold dynamic legacy to her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament , who continue her apostolate today, and indeed to all peoples:

– her love for the Eucharist, her spirit of prayer, and her Eucharistic perspective on the unity of all peoples;

– her undaunted spirit of courageous initiative in addressing social iniquities among minorities — one hundred years before such concern aroused public interest in the United States;

– her belief in the importance of quality education for all, and her efforts to achieve it;

– her total giving of self, of her inheritance and all material goods in selfless service of the victims of injustice.

Katharine Drexel was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 20, 1988

At Katherine Drexel’s death there were more than 500 Sisters teaching in 63 schools throughout the country.

Because of her lifelong dedication to her faith and her selfless service to the oppressed, Pope John Paul II canonized her on October 1, 2000 to become only the second recognized American-born saint.

I love you,
Dad
1240

Feb 27 Bl John of Gorze d. 975

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110213, 1227

The last February saint for saints and sons; a 27th saint.


February 27

Bl John of Gorze b. ~ 900 d. 975

From Angels and Saints we get that John of Gorze was born into a wealthy French family at Vandieres. Y’all weren’t born into wealth, but the resources given to you growing up certainly put you in the top 5% of family income. Money as a motive, even in business, is the wrong starting point. I’m not sure if it helps or not. I felt more free without a lot of money: without a lot of stuff. Jesus told the rich guy it is as hard as getting through the eye of a needle with a camel for a rich person to make it to heaven. John of Gorze seems to have risen above his rich beginnings.

John of Gorze renounced his wealth. Generically, we are admonished to renounce anything that we believe – through proper discernment of a properly formed conscience [would that proper weren’t a necessary redundancy] – interferes with our pursuit of heaven, of fulfilling God’s will.

John of Gorze made a pilgrimage to Rome. When seeking your vocation, where do you go to discern? A pilgrimage to your parish church? A chapel? A grotto? Notre Dame? How do you put yourself sufficiently in the presence of God to hear His will for you?

John of Gorze became a Benedictine monk at Gorze. In 960, John of Gorze was elected abbot of Gorze.

More information. This from Wikipedia entry via Google page. [Given the source, take the information with the proper grain of salt. Look at the cited references for yourself.

Saint John of Gorze (Jean de Gorze, John of Lorraine) (ca. 900—March 7, 974) was a Lorraine-born monk, diplomat, administrator, and monastic reformer.

John of Gorze was born at Vandières near Pont-à-Mousson to parents who were wealthy and well-known in the area. His father had married late in his life to a woman much younger than he. They had three children together. John's parents were able to provide for his education, and he studied at the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Mihiel in Metz.

At the age of twenty, he had already formed relationships with powerful figures of the region, including Count Ricuin of Verdun, and Dado, bishop of Verdun.

He became a Benedictine monk at the Gorze Abbey in 933 after renouncing his wealth as an administrator of landed estates and making a pilgrimage to Rome and Monte Cassino.

Having found no monastery with a strict enough discipline, John had formed relationships with like-minded men, such as Einald, formerly archdeacon of Toul. In 933, Bishop Adelbero of Metz (929-962) had asked John and Einald to restore and reform the decayed monastery of Gorze. Einald became abbot and John became his principal assistant. The number of monks at Gorze increased, and the Gorze reform movement spread to other monasteries.

He is reputed to have had a photographic memory, and also developed a bookkeeping system and capital investment policies (Dennis K. McDaniel, John of Gorze: A Figure in Tenth-Century Management).

It was claimed that the murmur of his lips reading the Psalms resembled the buzzing of a bee.[1]

In 953, he was sent as ambassador for Emperor Otto II to the Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III of Córdoba for two years. The purpose of this mission was to stop the attacks made by Andalusian adventurers from their base at Fraxinet. John of Gorze arrived in 953-954 with his companions at Córdoba with a letter from Otto as well as valuable gifts.

The caliph's ambassador, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, met with this emissary. The caliph, fearing that the letter of the German emperor might contain matter derogatory to Islam, commissioned Hasdai to open the negotiations with the envoys. Hasdai, who soon perceived that the letter could not be delivered to the caliph in its present form, persuaded the envoys to send for another letter which should contain no objectionable matter. ("Vita Johannis Gorziensis," ch. cxxi., in G. H. Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, iv. 371). An English translation of his account is published as ‘Niceties of diplomacy (953-56)', in Christians and Moors in Spain, trans. and ed. Colin Smith, Warminster, 1988, vol. I, pp. 62-75.

John, who contacted local Mozarabs, met Bishop Recemundus, who was acquainted with Islamic learning. When John returned to Lorraine, he brought with him manuscripts from Spain that made that duchy a center for the diffusion of Muslim learning and science.[2]

He became abbot of Gorze in 960 upon the death of Einald of Toul. He died of natural causes.
His feast day is February 27. John (Jean), abbot of St. Arnulph (Saint-Arnoul) at Metz, wrote a life of Gorze.

Sources
• Jean, Abbot of Saint-Arnoul, La vie de Jean, abbé de Gorze. Présentée et traduite par Michel Parisse (Paris, Picard, 1999).


I love you,
Dad
1253

Feb 24 Bl John Theristus 1129

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110213, 1213

Churning through the February Saints. If my goal is to be a month ahead, I’m three weeks behind myself.

When there is a conflict of service obligations, how does one choose. Family v. Church is not really a choice when confronted with the choice. I wish I could do both. Ora pro me.

See saintsandsons entry on Feb 25, 2008 for previous entry about Bl John Theristus. I have no new information about him after today’s quick scan through google. [I don’t like the bing formatting et al. Plus, I don’t believe there are no more sites via that search engine.]


February 24

Bl John Theristus 1129

Bl John Theristus or “Harvester” was a Benedictine monk who was responsible for a miraculous harvest.

Bl John Theristus’ harvest was literal and miraculous. How are you harvesting what you sow? More importantly, how are you harvesting what God sowed in you? What kind of soil are you? How are you transforming you to being ‘good soil’ all the time?

Bl John Theristus’s mother was a slave. God blesses each of us with His Love: with the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love. Regardless of who you mother is. Regardless of whether your mother supports our faith or nurtures the soil that you are for God’s seeds. You are your responsibility.

For a twelfth century saint, we really don’t have much in the tertiary sources.

John’s mother was Calabrian, captured by the Saracens, and brought to Sicily as a slave. John Theristus was born in Sicily as a slave.

As a child, John Theristus escaped and returned to Calabria where he became a monk.

I love you
Dad
1223

Feb 22 Bl John the Saxon d. 895

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110213, 1148

Happy Sunday. We had a raucous faith formation class today – how much the cappuccino contributed to my enthusiasm, I dare say quite a bit. It was a fun class. The students’ enthusiasm about our GIHN service is contagious and heart warming.

At St. Paul’s, third graders are eligible to be altar servers. Here I was telling the class that this is a service they can do soon – like at ten or fifth grade – but I was wrong. They can do that now. So, let’s see if we can recruit some from our faith formation classes.

Our various ministries operate in parallel universes. The opportunities for synergy are low hanging fruit.

Saturday – NC bounced back from Duke and beat Clemson. I was more interested in the Ohio State v. Wisconsin game. Two years – ish in Columbus made me a fan of the Buckeyes and Thad Matta. Wisconsin has beaten OSU six times straight at Wisconsin. And did it again yesterday.

I also picked up a book yesterday and finished it off in the wee hours of today. I’m not only a binge eater but a binge reader. Binging is not something I recommend. Moderation and all that….



February 22

Bl John the Saxon 895

I might have more sympathy for England and the Church of England under the onslaught of Danes in the 8th and 9th centuries if our home of Ireland weren’t so often and so viciously under the occupation and threat of England, into the 20th century.

But, in the 9th century, King Alfred the Great invited Bl John the Saxon, a monk in a monastery in France, to go to England and help restore the Christian faith in the wake of the severe and destructive invasions by the Danes.

John the Saxon was appointed abbot of Athelingay by Alfred. John the Saxon served with vigor and distinction until his murder one night by two French monks under his care.

I wish I knew more about this story of these French monks’ betrayal of their abbot. I suppose a lesson is that in the midst of a restoration, watch your back.

I love you,
Dad
1202

Feb 20 Colgan d. 796

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110211, 2232

A peculiar Friday. Up and out in time for the nine o’clock at St Paul’s. Time enough to pick up coffee on the way to drink while I worked in ‘my’ classroom after.

Our Ubergeros led the liturgy again today. Maybe our pastor is out of town? Fr. Scherer returned us to yesterday’s reflection on his problem with intercessory prayer because after Mass yesterday he and the deacon talked about it. The deacon suggested that maybe, being the deferential deacon that he is, maybe intercessory prayer is part of God’s Plan and not a request for an exception to it. As Fr. Scherer [he’s got to be about 75ish] said, you never stop learning, gaining wisdom, absorbing other people’s piety/holiness.

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, a world day of prayer for the sick. Recall Bernadette and her relationship with her family, her friends, her priest, her community and with Mary. Remember the promises Mary made to us via Bernadette. And pray for the sick often – sick of body, mind, heart, soul, intellect, emotion. We are sick in many ways. Me, for example. I’m blimping out! There are several sicknesses woven into this devolution. Ora pro me.

At the end of Mass, sauntering out along the aisle behind the last rows of pews, minding my own business, zoned in on getting plugged into my laptop, work to do, curious about the latest post-Mubarak resignation news and commentary, there was Marge at the baptismal font, the focal point of the church’s center aisle funneling of exiting traffic, our 9:00 Mass Liturgical Coordinator (she reminds me of Aunt Helen, she even has the same Long Island accent; but she’s at least four inches shorter and probably the same age), pointing her haggardly crooked finger at me. At me? There were three people following behind me. I couldn’t figure out why me.

I pointed to my chest and mouthed ME? In her in charge Ms Benign Napoleon way kept pointing and nodding her head yes. She asked me if I’d be willing to be a reader at Mass. Sure. I’m not going to be here next week but I want to be sure we have everything covered. What Mass do you come to? [I’m surprised she hasn’t that logged in her mind; or, maybe she was being polite. Marge is in charge of everything, it seems around our nine o’clock liturgy and obviously knows everything and everyone – she certainly talks to everyone, her forceful voice piercing any preMass silence.]

I told her to tell me what Mass she’d like me to read for and I’d be there. Next Tuesday? Ok. Then she asked for my first name. I’ve been on her liturgical team as a reader for the 5pm Mass twice now. Oh well. I told her. After she confirmed again next Tuesday, she said to my walking away back, “I’m surprised you didn’t talk to me before this.” I kept walking because when I looked over my shoulder at the comment, Marge was already in a conversation with someone else. Maybe I’ll follow up on that remark.

Maybe, probably, Marge’s asking me is a follow up to the encounter I had Wednesday evening. The woman I passed on the way out after adoration – who was going in to the Respect Life Committee meeting – is Marge’s liturgical coordinator protégé. She’s there every nine o’clock. Bet you a nickel she’s the one who suggested to Marge to ask me to read. Whatever.

Next Tuesday is the sixth week of ordinary time. February 15th has no biggie nor a William, Thomas, John, Kenneth, or Jesuit. But a couple of Irish: Berach and Farannan. (see previous entries for Feb 15th.)


Reading 1
Gn 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10

When the LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.

< Concupiscence run amuck! The inertia of evil. God’s Glorious creation with free will gone arie. He’s not talking about starting over here. This is it. Done. Finis. The grand experiment in infinite love over. … God regretted he had made man on the earth. I kinda know how he felt. I too have periodic pangs of regret over my creations of men on the earth. Regrets about my creating other disappointing outcomes but the greatest pain comes when I regret my creations from what I thought was from and for love, forever love, a fulfillment of sacrament and sacrifice, of a vow forever no matter what. Maybe the regret is over being duped et al. but the story of God’s regret is also similar to mine. There are Noahs in my life. I am the waiting and forgiving father vis a vis prodigal sons. >

< God’s heart was grieved. Oh Good Grief! In the depths of regret and grief what should a man do? In the image and likeness of God – or is it just projecting back onto Him? – we should do like He did/does. >

So the LORD said: “I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created, and not only the men, but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them.”

< Regret, Grief, Sorry; I am sorry I made them, I am sorry I did any of it. With the disappointment of man, all of creation tastes like ashes in my mouth. Everything else I did pales, withers, decomposes, in the throes of my regrets and grief and sorrow about the creations of my love. So, would that I could erase it all. Not necessarily to start over again just wipe it all out from the earth, from my feeloughts, from existence. Alas, I am not God. I am really not the creator, not even of my love. Once created, you are created by God for His purpose. Perhaps it is His will that I regret, grieve, sorrow and find my salvation through that briar patch. >

But Noah found favor with the LORD. Then the LORD said to Noah: “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.

< It only takes one. Fortunately for us, God sent His only begotten Son to be our One for once, for all, for ever. Deo Gratias. >

Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate; likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs,
a male and a female, and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female.

< I didn’t remember the “seven” pairs of clean vs. the one pair of “unclean.” It’s remarkable that all of our re-enactments of the Noah and the Ark stories only includes the “unclean” pairs. What’s that tell you about us? >

Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth.

< Not only does God choose to sustain His creature Man, but he empowers man to sustain his accompanying animals and creeping critters, and birds. >

Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made.”

< Regret. Grief. Sorrow. God preserves the one just man and his household. He permits man to keep alive the creatures of the earth. But, let’s try to get it right this time. Not quite the garden of Adam and Eve – Noah wasn’t granted a mulligan for mankind. Let not wickedness and evil take over your heart. >

Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him. < Is not this the definition of the Just Man? Noah definitely got off to the right start. Unlike Adam, do as God tells you to do. Thy will be done. >

As soon as the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth. < When God says He’s going to do something, y’all better believe him. >

The lector at daily Mass also leads the responsorial psalm.


Ps 29:1a and 2, 3ac-4, 3b and 9c-10 Responsorial Psalm

R. (11b) The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
adore the LORD in holy attire.

< Give to the LORD Glory, Praise; Adoration. In what you do, in what you say, in your very existence praise, adore, and glorify our God. >

R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.

< The LORD has a BIG VOICE. He speaks from clouds. He speaks from burning bushes. He speaks in the wind. He speaks in His creation. He especially speaks to us in the people He gives to us. Listen for God’s majestic voice in the whispers of friends and strangers. >

R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever.

< Say, Glory! Say it with umph! Say it with meaning! Say Glory! with all your heart. Do not boast in yourself, boast in God, let your very existence glorify the Lord. Our king forever! With power over heaven and earth; and the power of His Love freely and forever given to us. >



Mk 8:14-21 Gospel

< obviously, I don’t have the Gospel at Mass.


February 20

Colgan 796

Angels and Saints tells us that Colgan was a friend of Bl. Aleuin. I hope that you are also known for your friends who are called Blessed.

Colgan was called “the Wise.” What are you called? I pray that “wise” is among your monikers.

Colgan was also called “the Chief Scribe of the Scots.” [The Irish were also called the Scots in the eighth century; although, the Scottish were also called the Scots. Could be that Colgan also led a monastery in Scotland. Whatever.] One of the contributions of the Irish to civilization is our having copied the holy books and many of the essential secular tomes throughout the ages, especially during this early period. Some would argue, that this contribution alone ‘saved western civilization.’ We Irish are known to be writers – Amen to that and Deo Gratias.

Colgan was the Abbot of Clanmacroise, in Offaly, Ireland. The leader servant of the community; both secular and religious. When you lead, be aware that you are responsible for leading the spiritual as well as material/secular well-being of the people God has given to you. Think Abbot. Remember the many Irish Abbots; and the Williams too.



Foila is the Co-patroness of Kil-Faile and Kil-Golgan parishes in Galway, Ireland, and the sister of St. Colgan. Thought you’d like to know that too.

I love you,
Dad
2327

Feb 19 Odran d. 452

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110210, 2052

So. I went to the ‘open to all’ meeting for our sister parish in manta. A program our parish has sponsored since 2001. According to the leader of the group [it’s not a committee, it’s not a task force, it’s a group of people with an amalgamation of interests in support of this far away – Manta, Ecuador – community. I’m below the median age of the group of people in attendance tonight.

The Leader said that about one fourth of the parish supports the mission, one fourth are opposed to our spending money there rather than closer to home [that’s why any money is raised outside of the general funds of the parish, according to the Leader] and the other fifty percent ‘indifferent.’

The parish [this one-fourth of the parish, for all of us] supports 135 grammar school children at $120/year and 10 ‘university’ students at $180 a year (which pays for half the cost of their transportation to school for the year).

I went to the meeting, open to all, at the suggestion of one of the group’s active members with whom I spoke about the possibility of involving faith formation students, especially my third graders, in the mission. She told me that historically children have not been involved, certainly not the faith formation ministry as a whole. She indicated that it wasn’t something that the Leader thought made sense, too many barriers, including language.

I introduced myself to the Leader before the meeting started. I was there four minutes early, there were three people already in the room The other nine participants arrived over the next six minutes and the meeting started about ten after. One guy arrived after we started.

We went through the usual hellos including ‘why brought you here tonight?’ I told him. He graciously welcomed me, was glad I was there, and invited me to join and participate in the meeting.

In the introduction to the agenda – after an opening prayer (a big plus in my book; doubled that when we did a closing prayer too) – the Leader said “this is what we did last year. It worked pretty well. I don’t think there’s any reason to do anything different this year.” I was very quiet throughout the meeting. The Leader did nothing to elicit my participation or my idea, i.e., the reason I came – to see if there were a way for the faith formation students to participate in this mission.

The Leader’s, therefore, the group’s plan for 2011.

1. Scholarships. Renew the 135. The Leader explicitly told them that given our economy, not to expect any more. This is a February to April effort. Last year it was August before we had the 135 covered.

2. Our teens leader has said she is interested in leading a trip to the parish there to work on some environmental problem like pollution by a major industry there. There are three or four teens who have expressed interest in making the trip to the parish – not necessarily for this geopolitical purpose. Anyway. This year’s trip would be led by the parish teen leader. (good luck with that)


3. Craft sale. Two years have been successful – raising about $1,000. The Leader remarked that better marketing, including higher pricing, would improve this activity.

4. Christmas card signing. An annual event. Everyone in the parish is invited to sign huge cards.


5. Christmas gift. An annual event. Last year it was a jacket for each child. This requires raising money. As someone new to the parish, I was not solicited. I’m an avid bulletin reader and don’t remember a solicitation there either. But, every year, the children each get a present from St. Paul’s.

6. Angel tree. Many of the tags on the tree are specifically for the children we sponsor in Manta. By word of mouth, the supporters of the mission find out what color tag are ‘ours’ and they take those off the tree. Each year, all the tags allocated to the mission are taken. [In addition, individual sponsors, not all of them, send a gift to their child.]


7. Chili cookoff. Also a relatively new fundraiser. This led to the best discussion (only discussion) of the night. There’s the coordinator of the event and there’s needing many hands to help. Getting enough volunteers for all the many pieces is a challenge, especially for a person who is new to the parish, the group, or the activity. [There appears to be great individual memory for how to make an activity successful but no institutional memory. The chili cookoff does have a template with all the activities listed and the gantt chart laid out. All’s that’s missing are the people and getting the volunteers and ensuring everyone shows up and does their small part. Generalizing from this, there was the discussion (between Leader and one guy) about completing the template for each of the activities. And, for each activity, develop the volunteer recruiting and follow up system.] (I must admit, it was the absence of institutionalized memory and routines that was not only apparent it was exactly how the Leader described the group – not a group that’s hierarchical or with people in charge by a group of people who come together for the sister parish. It’s an organic rather than an organized group. Which, to give everyone their due, has done a lot for the children of our sister parish in Manta for ten years now.]

8. Soup Bowl Sunday. St Paul’s Teen Group does this each year and the money goes to the sister parish. In the lassaisez faire leadership model, our Leader leaves it to the Teen leader to take care of it – and then, like tonight, complains because some details were skipped, there wasn’t an announcement from the pulpit, and, thus, there wasn’t as much giving this year as last. I was at the Mass he talked about. Not only was there no announcement, there were only four or six teens rather passively holing their bowls soliciting contributions. Not to diss the teens. They were doing their part. Anything not done that would have been better is in part the absence of adult coaching and the absence of the template that would include ensuring the pulpit announcement and coaching the bowl holders. Teaching well off teens to beg is not easy.

Under challenges for 2011 was included a need for coordinators.

The Chili cookoff is listed as our major fundraiser. The person who filled in in a pinch two years ago, did it last year and will do it this year. She now has a good idea of what needs to be done. What she needs – more volunteers.

As a brief next to last agenda item, we had “need to improve awareness of sister parish program: photos/bulletins/board/parish activities/website. The Leader’s new ‘number one’ also made the general statement that if anyone has any marketing/PR ideas to get them to Leader. I guess that was an opportunity for me to suggest faith formation as a marketing channel. Or to volunteer to brainstorm with a PR subgroup – marketing, as a hospital ceo, is a second nature skill and interest. But, alas, I didn’t. I waited to see if the Leader would draw me in. Involvement of the faith formation students would involve that many families. Certainly make them all aware of the mission.

Videbimus. But. I’m not likely to read out again. He has my name from the hello at the beginning. I wonder if, in addition to the sponsors (less than 135 families) is the mission has the names and contact info of the one fourth of the parish who are involved/interested. He did not ask for the contact info from me.

February 19

Odran 452

Odran was friend and chauffer for St Patrick. According to tradition, he drove Patrick’s chariot.
That sounds like a great job! When I began working for Behavioral Healthcare Corp., I was doing several projects for the CEO. When it became necessary for me to have business cards it also was important [to some] that I also have a title. I suggested “Ed’s Gofer.” That was rejected. I became a vice-president that day. But the job was fantastic. Ed’s Gofer. What project did this new start company need done. Bill, you’re it. Get it done.

Odran died when he changed places with Patrick in the vehicle just before an ambush by pagans was sprung. Odran, friend and martyr.

Undertheoak.

From all we can learn, Odran became devotedly attached to the Irish Apostle. Odran was a constant personal attendant on Patrick’s missionary travels. Odran became a servant to St. Patrick, whom he served in the capacity of charioteer.

On St. Patrick's return from Munster, about the year 451, the Irish Apostle entered Hy-Failge territory. Here were two powerful chieftains ruling at the time: one was a wicked Pagan, Failge Berraide, who entertained a implacable hatred against St. Patrick, because he had destroyed the idol, known as Crom Cruach, an object of adoration among the Gentile Irish.

The other chief was named Failge Ros, who had conceived a great love and reverence towards the holy man. As the former had frequently boasted, that he would take the Apostle's life away, whenever the opportunity might be afforded ; the present stage of his journeying, which brought him along the highway, not far from Failge Berraide's Castle, seemed favourable for this son of Belial's purpose.

That district was then ruled over by the merciless pagan, Failge Berraide. This wicked man's design was basely to take away by assassination the life of our great Irish Apostle. Failge Berraide resolved on arresting the progress of the Christian Religion, by effecting the destruction of its greatest promoter.

Patrick’s charioteer, Odhran, had some prevision of the consequences likely to ensue. Odran concealed his knowledge concerning it from St. Patrick, whom he induced to occupy the driver's seat in the chariot, whilst Odran himself should have some short time for rest. The holy Apostle most readily assented.

They had passed from Birr, and were travelling along an ancient road, which bore in an eastern direction, north of the Slieve Bloom mountains, where their enemy lay in wait. Failge met the travelers on their journey. Rushing against Odran, whom he mistook for St. Patrick, the furious chief transfixed him, with a stroke of his lance. Horrified at the sight thus presented, the Apostle was about to pronounce a malediction on the murderer, when the dying Odran prayed it should rather descend on a very high tree, that grew on an adjoining hill, called Brig-damh. Yet, for his Satanic perfidy, the murderer was struck dead immediately afterwards; and as a just punishment for his grievous crime, his soul was buried in hell, while angels were seen bearing that of Odhran to heaven, where he joined the array of purple-robed martyrs.

St. Patrick furthermore announced, that the posterity of that wicked Foilge should wane, and lose power, in the principality; while, Foilge Ros and his posterity should rule therein, which prediction was fulfilled.

Orthodox Hymns of Saint Odhran

Troparion of St Odran tone 5

No task was too humble or too dangerous for thee,/ O Martyr Odran,/ for in thy station as a servant/ thou didst render the ultimate service/ giving thy life for thy master and Ireland's Enlightener./ Pray that we may have the courage to hold nothing back,/ that at the last Christ our God will not withhold His mercy from us.

Kontakion of St Odran tone 3

We salute thee, O Martyr Odran,/ ever seeking to follow thee in service to Christ's holy Church/ and praying for grace to shun the imperfect way of Ananias and Sophia,/ that we may give all we have in selfless devotion/ to Him Who holds all creation in His hands.


I love you,
Dad
2154

Feb 18 William Harrington b. 1566 d. 1594

Thom and Jack,
Good Morning, I love you
110210, 1057

Duke was down double digits most of the first half. It wasn’t until 9:32 remaining in the game that they took their first lead. Cameron was beserk! In any game, only one team wins. Last night Duke was the better team. The way they won, I’d bet now that Duke wins the return trip to Chapel Hill.

Today we had our hubergero duo officiating at Mass. ‘You are a priest forever….’ and deacons, too, are forever. For some guys, forever is a very long time. Each had their personal story about St Scholastica – not the saint herself, St Benedict’s twin sister, but someone and someplace named for her. We have Scholastica High School.

From this morning’s Mass –

Gn 2:18-25

The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”

< First, God made animals and birds whom man named. ‘But none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.’ So, we have a Biblical admonition against bestiality. >

So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man.

When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.

< “God said” not subtle. When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen. So, when “God said,” I suggest we listen. This proclamation got my attention. “God said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone.’” and pets are not the answer. The first answer to ‘aloneness’ is marriage. To the same degree that man should not be alone, woman is “flesh of man’s flesh” and should also not be alone. “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.” And, thus, woman is clung to, reciprocates the Hug of God. Be not alone. So, what does say about those of us alone? That question hung with me through Mass. How is it different to be by oneself vs to be alone? We are created man for woman and woman for man. We are created from one flesh to come together to be one flesh. In the same way as we are created by God to return to God. Ora pro nobis. >


R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.


Gospel

Mk 7:24-30

Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. … she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

< Fr. Scherer, after his aside with his Scholastica story, preached about intercessionary prayer. Is not our prayer suppose to be – not my will but your will, give me the grace to do your will. But, Jesus did tell us to ask what we wanted in His name. This gospel tells us to be persistent when we ask Jesus for what we want. >


February 18

William Harrington b. 1566 d. 1594

Yes, an English Martyr. Look back to Dec 20, 2010 for a litany of English Martyrs.

William Harrington was born at Mt. St. John, Yorkshire.

William Harrington confirmed his vocation for the priesthood after meeting St. Edmund Campion, a guest in his father’s house in 1581. It does matter with whom you hang. You never know whom you’ll meet. Seven steps to Kevin Bacon is also a game to play with your vocation. Bring yourself closer and closer to the persons who God has sent to bring you closer to him. Choose wisely.

Though the family did not persevere in the Faith, the youngest son never forgot Campion's example. Choose the model of the saints, canonized and in your life, to discern your vocation.

First, the man discerns his vocation. Then he has to figure out how to pursue it. Fortunately, Church and churchmen and the record of English Martyrs before him, showed William Harrington a path to the priesthood. He had to leave family and friends and country to find the place for his training and preparation for his English Mission vocation.

William Harrington went abroad, first the seminary at Reims, then to the Jesuits at Tournai (1582-1584) and would have joined the order had not his health broken down and forced him to keep at home for the next six or seven years. Persistence! Perseverance!

William Harrington was ordained at Reims, France, in 1592.

William Harrington returned to England to work in the English mission. Arrested in London in May 1593 for being a priest, William Harrington was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, After nine months of suffering at Tyburn, after having given proofs of unusual constancy and noblemindedness in prison, at the bar, and on the scaffold.

Only [???] a year in service to God and family/country/community before being caught fulfilling God’s will. Whatever your vocation, doing God’s will is one way to get you hung, drawn and quartered - maybe not literally like the English Missionaries but you are exposed to family, friends, community who are not in sync with your proper discernment of God’s will.

William Harrington was only twenty eight when he was sent back to God. Twenty eight. A full life, in spite of his family's opposition, in spite of his illness. Be true to our faith and live your full life like William Harrington.

I love you,
Dad
1145

Feb 18 John Pibush b. ~1560 d. 1601 bl. 1929 [see also saintsandsons 2-18-09]

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110209, 1957

On the way out of the Church tonight, a woman on her way in stopped to say hello. She also very kindly thanked me for how I “proclaimed the Word” at Mass on Saturday. There’s no way of knowing what difference it makes to read, literally, two or three sentences to the congregation: to the individuals listening to the Word proclaimed. This past Saturday it apparently made a difference to one person in addition to me. Deo Gratias.

In this coming Sunday’s (2-13) NY Times Magazine, online today, there’s an article ‘The Irish Affliction’ claiming to be about the effects of the sexual abuse scandal in Ireland. No doubt our having the Twelve Apostles of Ireland plus Columba and Patrick – and Brigid and Maeve et al. – would be a plus for us, both in Ireland and in our Church universal. One question the article addresses is ‘how much Vatican dominate’ the Irish Church should be? Of course, grandpa would remind us that we are the Roman Catholic Church, so get over yourself, Whitby was fourteen hundred years ago. At the same time, if a bishop is king in his diocese, does not universal mean as much the assimilation of each of our differences without losing the uniqueness?

Ken wrote me a note after the funeral for Uncle Frank: “Your effort to be at my Dad’s services was greatly appreciated and a real tribute to the ‘Nolan’ family. The last few years have been difficult but the support of family and friends at the end made the farewell a beautiful sendoff. …. Love, Ken Chris, and family.” Amen and Deo Gratias. The sendoff is important for the senders than the sendee. I hope you have a plan for yourselves. Oro pro vobis.


February 18

John Pibush b. ~1560 d. 1601 bl. 1929

[see also saintsandsons 2-18-09]

The dates tell you the man’s story in a nutshell – English Martyr. This John was the son of a Thomas. Solid English names y’all have. And Irish. And original with the Apostles. Find yourselves in the namesakes and patron saints and family members who have proceeded you.

At about twenty, John Pibush came to Reims on 4 August, 1580. John Pibush received minor orders and subdiaconate in September, and diaconate in December, 1586. John Pibush was ordained on 14 March, 1587. About two years later, John Pibush was sent on the English mission on 3 January, 1588-9.

That’s about how it worked at that time. The twenty year old arrives in exile at the Catholic seminary in northern France. Remember when you were twenty – you were still in town tied to your mother’s apron strings. [and still?] Try to imagine going off on your own, pursuing your faith and vocation, contrary to the wishes of family and against the law of the land. Not on your own so much when you arrived into the community of the faithful, especially of men with the same English mission calling. Man up. Discern your vocation. Make it so.

The training for priesthood requires not only a grounding in academics but a maturity of faith and person. Today, a college graduate and then some; someone past adolescence with a degree of maturity of life and spirituality.

The brief period from ordination to being sent on the English mission is not hard to understand. Reims and the other English seminaries across the channel were training bases for Englishmen dedicated to returning home as soon as possible to serve faith, family, community, and country. Whom do you aspire to serve? What is the foundation of your service? Better, Who is the foundation of your service?

John Pibush made it about four years before he was arrested at Morton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, in 1593. We never know how much time God gives us to serve. Some of the English martyrs were caught and killed within days of their return home. Some after twenty plus years. You do not have a promise of tomorrow. Let tonight be a full dedication to service to your vocation.

He was sent to London, where he arrived before 24 July 1593. The Privy Council committed him to the Gatehouse at Westminster, where he remained a year. How will you stand up under the withering imprisonment of those who oppose you because of your faith? The get out of jail free card is to renounce our faith and Jesus’ followers. Better that you stay in jail and be happy in the confidence of your faith than risk your immortal soul and the happiness on earth we are promised for sticking close to our faith, one another, Jesus.

After that year in prison, John Pibush was then tried at the Gloucester Assizes for being a priest. John Pibush was not sentenced but was returned to Gloucester gaol. John Pibush escaped the Gloucester gaol on 19 February (1594-5).

The next day John Pibush was recaptured at Matson and taken back to Gloucester gaol. John Pibush was then sent to the Marshalsea, London. In London, John Pibush was again tried for the same crime at Westminster on 1 July, 1595.

The man would not quit! No matter what. What made him so strong in living his faith, proselytizing our religion? God loves you! It’s the secret of A Father’s Love. How can you deny someone who loves you unconditionally, infinitely, no matter what? It is a miserable existence for those who reject that love.

John Pibush was sentenced to suffer the penalties of high treason at St. Thomas's Waterings. John Pibush, in the meantime, was to be returned to the Marshalsea. However, by the end of the year he was in the Queen's Bench prison, where John Pibush remained for more than five years. The sentence was carried out after one day's notice.

Add them up. The years in prison. His persistence in faith. His constant sacrifice of himself for the Love of God and Church and family and country. No matter what anyone said – there is no greater crime than treason, a secular version of a sin against the Holy Spirit. John Pibush professed his loyalty to the Crown, his love of country, AND his One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith.

I love you,
Dad
2030

Feb 18 Colman of Lindisfarne d. 676

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110209, 1705

I’m headed to St Paul’s for Wednesday adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – and, the opportunity of confession. An opportunity I pass up too often but also fulfill more than before. Well, not way before, when it was a weekly routine with my mother; then an expected and ordinary part of being in Catholic School; or later, an altar boy; it was an essential part of my piety of vocation discernment; an ordinary and expected pause in my weekly novitiate life - - for fourteen years, in the beginning, weekly confession was what I did. The move to Tuscaloosa put a kink in my reception of the sacrament - - not at first but quickly. The chaplain at the Newman Center was a million years old and resisted Vatican II with all his will and authority. I scouted the few parishes in Tuscaloosa for a priest I could talk to. I gave up on that. Confession became a report to God via the sacrament regardless of priest. Not particularly psychologically gratifying but, hey, that’s when faith kicks in. Fortunately, I found a Jesuit in Birmingham…. 1970ish is a long time ago. Here in Greensboro, since 2002, there is the confessional at OLG; the semi-annual communal confessions with a bevy of priests to choose from; Fr Scherer, counselor and confessor; for the year he was at St Paul’s Fr. Benjamin; now, well, there’s Wednesday’s with our pastor and the anonymous options always available. Not weekly but often; more than monthly; less than necessary. Ora pro me. And you?

From Saturday to now? Lector on Saturday evening. Half my faith formation class was at the Mass. I hope that I did not embarrass them. I hope that I was a hint of a future opportunity of service for them. Tracy S. was the other lector. I knew her but it took me until we were into the Eucharistic Prayer that I remembered - - she was the liturgy coordinator who help our class participate in the candle procession during advent. Now I won’t forget. Her daughters are altar servers: make a parent proud.

Superbowl Sunday. I picked the Packers. But, if you had asked me to bet at the two minute mark with the Steelers on their thirteen and with only one time out down six, I still would have bet the mortgage on the Steelers’ winning. I also picked the over – I figure listening to Tony Dungy is a good idea.

Monday, Tuesday, until now? One book read. Two tv shows watched. More writing on my fictional autobio. After going to St Paul’s it’s a straight shot to Cameron. It always amazes me when someone is kind or generous to me. The ticket to tonight’s game surpasses both kindness and generosity. Let it snow!


February 18

Colman of Lindisfarne 676

Colman of Lindisfarne (known for where he wound up) was born in Connaught. We must tell ourselves that where he is born is important to whom he is. It’s important that I, and your grandfather, were born in New York City. It tells another story that you were born in Nashville. It’s a story about you and your parents and your clan….

Colman of Lindisfarne (there are over a hundred Colmans in the Irish martyrology.) was a disciple of Columba. We should know Columba by now. We should know what it means to be a disciple of Columba. From Connaught to Columba tells us about Colman’s fundamentals. So does your city of birth and those you’ve followed and learned from tell about you. You have a the entire rest of your life to choose where your eulogy will say where you are “of” and under whom you were “disciple.” Choose better.

So famous were his virtues and learning, Colman became a bishop. Respond to the gifts God has given you and develop extraordinary virtue. Be famous for your virtue with whomever you hang, wherever you go. You also have more than your fair share of IQ points. You should be famous in your circle and beyond for your learning. Learning is a lifetime vocation and one for which you still have time to show the light you’ve been given. For both virtue and learning, you have been given extraordinary resources and talent. To underutilize either is a grievous dissing of God’s generosity.

As bishop (beginning in 661) Colman of Lindisfarne defended the Celtic ecclesiastical practices at the Synod of Whitby. We should know about Whitby. We should know about King Oswy who introduced the Roman rites into Ireland. What does it mean to you that Colman, a bishop, opposed King and other Saints/bishops and is still today, a disciple of Columba, an honored saint? How do you lead from your properly formed conscience, contrary to the current ecclesiastical and secular winds AND remain a saint?

Colman refused to accept the decision to adopt Roman Rites vs the Celtic ones - - might we allude to the present day’s debate about the Vatican’s imposition of their translation of the Missal on the version used in the United States? Does one holy Catholic and apostolic Church mean conformity for these details? It did at Whitby. It seems to be so today as well. I suggest we need more Colmans in our American Episcopal leaders.

Between the years 665 and 667 St. Colman founded several churches in Scotland, and, at length, accompanied by thirty disciples, sailed for Ireland, settling down at Innisboffin, County Mayo, in 668.

Colman led a group of Irish and English Monks to the Isle of Innishboffin, near Connaught. Colman settled many of these monks in Mayo, where he is remembered today as founding the diocese and an abbey there. Imagine, County Mayo, the Diocese of, over fourteen hundred years old! That’s Tradition.

I love you,
Dad
1752

Feb 17 Fintan d. 603

Thom and Jack,
Good Morning, I love you
110205, 1146

First Saturday – remember to say the rosary.

Today’s the feast of St. Agatha, among other things the patron saint for the prevention of fire. That part of Msgr’s meandering homily got me to thinking about what to get Kelly for her graduation from firefighter’s school. St. Florian is the world wide patron saint of firefighters. Maybe a statue of Agatha and medal of Florian for a gift? Wouldn’t it be great if Kelly is perpetually prepared to fight fires for us and St Agatha arranges that she never has a fire to fight!

Any other suggested presents for her graduation?

[Sure, her graduation elicits feeloughts about yours. But that’s for a conversation not a posting.]


February 17

Fintan d. 603

Fintan was a disciple of St Columba. Know about Columba, one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. Then search for a teacher for yourself with comparable qualities.

Fintan was a hermit in Clonenagh, Leix, Ireland. When disciples gathered around his hermitage he became their abbot. How did Fintan become their abbot – their mentor, their leader, their father confessor, their servant of God? How is it that people gathered around him to learn, to be his disciples? What is it that you do to draw others to you? And through you to Christ? Ah. That’s the secret. We are not in the business of drawing people to ourselves. But, through us, to Jesus. Like today’s epistle – we do not boast in ourselves but boast in God. Not a subtle difference.

A wonder worker, Fintan was known for clairvoyance, prophecies, and miracles.

So, work wonders. Do what is unexpected. Be righteous. Be committed to Jesus. Look into people’s hearts and find Jesus there; draw Him out; serve him.

Be a prophet – not the fortune teller kind but like an Old Testament guy, minding his own business, following the commandments, being pious, trying to live a holy life. And whamo! God calls. Go tell my people they’re screwing up and if they don’t straighten out, watch out. Your baptismal water, oil, blessing, grace, and vows call you to be God’s prophet.

Work miracles. Do good by doing right, that’s a miracle. Be loyal to faith and family, that’s a miracle, too. [Remember the song in Fiddler? Wonder of wonders, miracles of miracles…. Sung by Motel, the tailor, the lowly tailor.]


Fintan also performed very austere penances. I suggest you start with ordinary penances. To do penance puts you in the right mindset – vis a vis God and self. An extra prayer – say, for your father. A brief fast – say, instead of eating lunch, say the rosary. Do a good deed, a random act of kindness, a duty not met, something you pass forward…


From brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com

Saints and Angels gives us the penny version. Undertheoak gives us the whole enchilada; well, much more to chew on. Saint Fintan of Clonenagh 17 February.

Fintan, the prayerful. Will you be remembered as ‘a prayerful person?’ The current News Herald has a blurb from the Pope about the essential importance of our prayer life. Daily prayer. Frequent prayer. In a saintly way, constant prayer. But first, routine prayer – morning prayer, evening prayer, grace at meals. From such dollops of prayer, a feast of saintliness is served.

We have this verse about Fintan:

Fiontain the generous
Never ate during his time
But bread of barley corn
And water of earthy clay.

Fintan, a man of austerity. A man of penance. How do you emulate this great saint?

A very ancient vellum book . . states that Fiontain of Cluain-eidhniach, chief of the monks of Erin, in his manners and life resembled Benedictus, head of the monks of Europe.

< To whom are you compared? Benedict? Who is the Benedict of your calling? Are you compared favorably to the very best person in your arena? Are you talked about as the one who brings the best of the best to your work? To your relationships? If not yet, how will you get there? Try one of Fintan’s strategies, starting with loving God with all your heart. >

Colgan styles him "Fintanus Stationarius de magno Cluaineadnach;" the epithet of stationarius being applied to him from his praying, like many others of our early saints, with his arms extended in the form of a cross.

< I did that for a while, praying with arms extended like a cross. That while being in my privacy during my pious stage in high school; and again, privately, in my room or in the chapel in the novitiate. It’s not easy. It’s a penance. It’s a reminder – if Jesus had His arms held out like this for Him, nailed into the wood of the cross, and it hurts me this much, how much more did He choose to suffer for me. Try it. In humility not to show off. >

St. Fintan received his early education from a holy priest by whom he was baptized. While yet a boy, he was visited by St. Columbkille, who, on that occasion, foretold St. Fintan's future distinguished career.

[St. Columbkille is Scotland’s most revered saint and, in Ireland, he is honored second only to St. Patrick. A missionary, St. Columbkille is credited with taking Christianity to Scotland. His memorial day is June 9. The correct pronunciation of Columbkille puts the accent on the first syllable. The pronunciation then becomes “column kill”. Born of royal bloodlines in northern Ireland on December 5, 521, his proper name was Colum MacFehlin MacFergus. The name Colum means dove. As a young boy he spent much time in church and soon the suffix “cille,” the Gaelic word for Church, was added to his name. He was called “Colum-cille”—Dove of the Church. Well educated, he was a man of great faith who could have become a king but instead chose a life of service to God. After ordination, he worked among the poor in his native Ireland and was famous for his works of charity. When he was 42 years old, he was exiled from Ireland and sent to the territory known as Scotland with 12 companions. There he spent the next 34 years establishing churches and schools, and staffing them with many disciples who were attracted by his ardent penance, fervent prayer, sincere preaching, and deep confidence in God.]

< Is it chance that holy men cross our paths? And how do you respond to the chance? Do you even recognize them as holy? It is your prayer, it is your study of the saints that will help you see the saintliness of the people who come into your lives. It is this foundation that will help you discern whom to follow. The more you ‘see’ the sanctity of our saints and holy men and women, the better you will see past the clothes, the station, the hype and find the presence of Christ in their hearts – or His absence. >

Fintan later entered the Monastery of Tir-da-glass (now Terryglass, Co. Tipperary), where St. Columba then presided over a famous school. St Columba again. Know the man. And know his followers. More importantly, learn how his disciples, those who sought him out to learn – and what they sought to learn, how his disciples found him.

Fintan served a novitiate here. Then he and a few, two, some say three, companions, being anxious to find a retired place where they might devote themselves to the service of God, consulted St. Columba, and, accompanied by him, they came to Clonenagh.

< First, be humble and serve your novitiate. Put your lives in the hands of a Columba. Then, when you have properly discerned your vocation, the next step on your path to God, Consult your spiritual director and the other people God has given you to consult – e.g., father, grandfather, uncle. Do not be surprised if those sent to you also accompany you on your journey – actually and spiritually. The more the merrier; the more the better. >

At Clonenagh, St. Fintan and his companions passed a year, but, finding their solitude greatly broken in upon, they determined to abandon the place, and directed their course to the Slieve Bloom mountains, again accompanied by St. Columba.

< Be persistent in your pursuit of your vocation. Fintan discerned that his service to God was to be a hermit. Apparently, he did this so well that people heard about him and sought Fintan out to learn from him. The law of unintended consequences? You become very good at what you seek to be your life’s vocation and lo and behold God sends people to you. Now what? Do you stay and take on this new calling? Is it truly God’s will or a distraction, a play to your pride by the devil? How do you know? >

Fintan, looking back upon Clonenagh, saw a multitude of angels hovering over it. His disciples seeing him sorrowful, asked the cause. Fintan replied: "Because I see the place we have left filled with the angels of God, and these angels unceasingly minister between it and heaven". "One of us", Fintan added, "should return and abide there for the future".

< Do you constantly look for signs of God’s calling you? Especially when you are sure you have it right and you are off on the way, accompanied by your mentor, encouraged by those who love you. Do you look to God constantly and pray, Not my will but yours be done? Then, are you prepared to do God’s will. To surrender yourself to someone Greater than you? To give of yourself in a way God says is uniquely your duty? >

Whereupon Fintan said: "Whomsoever, O Father, you direct to return, he will instantly obey". Columba replied: "Go you in peace to that spot, O holy youth, and the Lord be with you. It has been divinely revealed that for you it shall be the place of your resurrection."

< Not my will, but yours. Plus, Fintan listened to Columba. Look around in your life. Who is your Columba? If you do not have someone in his place in your life, go quickly and find one. >

St. Fintan accordingly retraced his steps to Clonenagh and established himself there. This was about the year 548.

Great numbers flocked to this place to serve God under the guidance of St Fintan, amongst whom was St. Comgall, afterwards the founder of the famous Monastery of Bangor, who passed some years under his direction.

< You are known by those who come to you. How are you prepared to serve those God sends to you? It is impossible to know who your Comgall will be. You can be sure that you will have the responsibility for more than one other person in your life. Treat them all as future Comgalls. >

< This morning, Saturday, first Saturday, Feb 5, 2011, I was at mass at SPX and remembered a Saturday morning at St Henry’s. We had come to the first Saturday Mass, contrary to your ‘let me sleep in preferences. (and no small bit of weekly whining, reinforced, unfortunately by your mother’s questioning me in front of you, why do you make them do this?) We were in the back of the Church, a pew picked by Jack. Nothing memorable about the Mass. After the Mass was over. A man, sitting a couple of pews behind us. Someone I had not noticed. A man none of us knew; had never seen before; and I never saw again. After I genuflected to say good-bye to God, the man tapped me on the shoulders. “Your sons will never forget what you’re doing for them.” (I thought – yeh, they’re so happy with this weekly piety! A memorable piece of their childhood.) The man also said something about not having a father when he grew up. Then he repeated, “your sons will never forget what you’re doing for them.” I hope you haven’t forgotten. Ora pro nobis. >

The discipline observed at Clonenagh was very rigorous; the fasting and abstinence were so severe that St. Canice [Kenneth, another of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland] of Aghaboe and other holy men remonstrated with St. Fintan on the subject. Yielding to their representations, he relaxed the rigor of his rule in favor of his community. But, Fintan, himself, adhered to his former mode of life.

< This turn of events is not uncommon with our saints. We draw people to us by our purity, our extreme if you will. Be perfect as My Father is perfect. That’s what Jesus expects of us. [no matter what your mother says about the impossibility and unreasonableness of expecting and pursuing perfection.] So, Fintan had the grace to find a path to perfection – and perfection is extreme. You do not become the best by pursuing less than the best. You do not fulfill your purpose without setting your eyes on God – not higher aspiration, ya think? And Fintan listened. Fintan learned that expecting others pursue perfection on his road did not work for everyone. He listened to Kenneth and his other holiest of disciples and friends. Fintan modified his rule for others – not the goal of their perfection but the path to follow in their pursuit. No half measures. Just not Fintan’s necessarily. >

Fintan also had a saintly brother, Finlugh. Like them, I hope you remain the worlds’ best brothers.

I love you,
Dad
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Feb 5 My response to Gail Collins' Planned Parenthood Under Siege

Editor:

RE: Gail Collins’ February 4th column, The Siege of Planned Parenthood.

Ms Collins accurately asserts that “planned parenthood doesn’t use government money to provide abortions.” However, the truth is that money is fungible. Planned Parenthood takes my tax money and their accountants show that it is used for basic medical care. However, the tax money floats the organization’s abortion boat.

Let Planned Parenthood supporters replace the lost government funds with their own money. Then, let us all join together to assure that public, church, and charitable systems provide adequate health and medical services, not abortion, to the women and children who need it.

I agree that 20% of low-income teens in Texas having a baby deserve community effort to stop that. The abortion of the Forty One percent of pregnancies in New York City requires a greater effort.

Feb 5, Gail Collins' column: Planned Parenthood Under Siege

OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Siege of Planned Parenthood
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: February 4, 2011

As if we didn’t have enough wars, the House of Representatives has declared one against Planned Parenthood.

Maybe it’s all part of a grand theme. Last month, they voted to repeal the health care law. This month, they’re going after an organization that provides millions of women with both family-planning services and basic health medical care, like pap smears and screening for diabetes, breast cancer, cervical cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.

Our legislative slogan for 2011: Let Them Use Leeches.

“What is more fiscally responsible than denying any and all funding to Planned Parenthood of America?” demanded Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, the chief sponsor of a bill to bar the government from directing any money to any organization that provides abortion services.

Planned Parenthood doesn’t use government money to provide abortions; Congress already prohibits that, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. (Another anti-abortion bill that’s coming up for hearing originally proposed changing the wording to “forcible rape,” presumably under the theory that there was a problem with volunteer rape victims. On that matter at least, cooler heads prevailed.)

Planned Parenthood does pay for its own abortion services, though, and that’s what makes them a target. Pence has 154 co-sponsors for his bill. He was helped this week by an anti-abortion group called Live Action, which conducted a sting operation at 12 Planned Parenthood clinics in six states, in an effort to connect the clinic staff to child prostitution.

“Planned Parenthood aids and abets the sexual abuse and prostitution of minors,” announced Lila Rose, the beautiful anti-abortion activist who led the project. The right wing is currently chock-full of stunning women who want to end their gender’s right to control their own bodies. Homely middle-aged men are just going to have to find another sex to push around.

Live Action hired an actor who posed as a pimp and told Planned Parenthood counselors that he might have contracted a sexually transmitted disease from “one of the girls I manage.” He followed up with questions about how to obtain contraceptives and abortions, while indicating that some of his “girls” were under age and illegally in the country.

One counselor, shockingly, gave the “pimp” advice on how to game the system and was summarily fired when the video came out. But the others seem to have answered his questions accurately and flatly. Planned Parenthood says that after the man left, all the counselors — including the one who was fired — reported the conversation to their supervisors, who called the authorities. (One Arizona police department, the organization said, refused to file a report.)
Still, there is no way to look good while providing useful information to a self-proclaimed child molester, even if the cops get called. That, presumably, is why Live Action chose the scenario.

“We have a zero tolerance of nonreporting anything that would endanger a minor,” said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood. “We do the same thing public hospitals do and public clinics do.”

But here’s the most notable thing about this whole debate: The people trying to put Planned Parenthood out of business do not seem concerned about what would happen to the 1.85 million low-income women who get family-planning help and medical care at the clinics each year. It just doesn’t come up. There’s not even a vague contingency plan.

“I haven’t seen that they want to propose an alternative,” said Richards.

There are tens of millions Americans who oppose abortion because of deeply held moral principles. But they’re attached to a political movement that sometimes seems to have come unmoored from any concern for life after birth.

There is no comparable organization to Planned Parenthood, providing the same kind of services on a national basis. If there were, most of the women eligible for Medicaid-financed family-planning assistance wouldn’t have to go without it. In Texas, which has one of the highest teenage birthrates in the country, only about 20 percent of low-income women get that kind of help. Yet Planned Parenthood is under attack, and the State Legislature has diverted some of its funding to crisis pregnancy centers, which provide no medical care and tend to be staffed by volunteers dedicated to dissuading women from having abortions.

In Washington, the new Republican majority that promised to do great things about jobs, jobs, jobs is preparing for hearings on a bill to make it economically impossible for insurance companies to offer policies that cover abortions. And in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry, faced with an epic budget crisis that’s left the state’s schools and health care services in crisis, has brought out emergency legislation — requiring mandatory sonograms for women considering abortion.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on February 5, 2011, on page A17 of the New York edition.

Feb 4, Today's epistle

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110204, 1100

The reading from Hebrews this morning continues the theme – how to be a disciple of Jesus.


February 4, 2011
Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Heb13:1-8

Let brotherly love continue.
Do not neglect hospitality,
Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment,
and of the ill-treated as of yourselves,
Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have.


Jesus has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you.
Thus we may say with confidence: The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?


Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

I love you,
Dad
1104

Feb 15 Farannan d. 590

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110204, 0930

Yesterday was a quiet day. I got four solid hours of comfortable quiet and nonstop typing on several projects. I recommend the library at St. Paul’s for comfort and quiet. Thursday morning is library work day. There were four ladies – maybe my age, probably younger – diligently [and Quietly] putting up returned books and tapes/discs, progressing along the re-arrangement and expansion of space. The ladies were friends doing their work of love for the parish, for the parishioners – children and adults. There are many hands taking care of us – invisible hands, the hands of angels, the hands of God.

Then I spent the afternoon writing. It’s what I do. I can think and I can write; I wish I could also fast. [I also suggest Herman Hesse’s works.]


February 15

Farannan 590

Angels and Saints doesn’t give us much on this Irish saint. But probably all that we know about the man.

Farannan was a disciple of St. Columba (see below for brief Columba notes). Whom you follow determines where you go and how you wind up there. Choose wisely. Choose a Columba.

Farannan was an Abbot and, later, hermit. Maybe that’s like being a hospital ceo then becoming a recluse? Farannan ended in Allernan, Sligo. Maybe Sligo or Galway or Mayo – Nolan and Gavin families; there must be one who’d put up with me? Or you guys? Ora pro me.


St Columba b. 521 d. 597
(Catholic Encyclopedia online)

St Columba was The Abbot of Iona. One way to have your name associated with a place’s reputation – There is no Iona without Columba – in not only do good and excellent work but also stick with it for your body of work for your life. It’s counter culture – the average ‘life’ of a hospital ceo is less than five years. Be the guy who stays twenty five years. Do well and do good.

Columba was a royal of the Clan O’Donnell. He was born Colum meaning dove. A man who took his gifts and talents and resources and gave it all back to God, to us.

When sufficiently advanced in letters Columba entered the monastic school of Moville under St. Finnian who had studied at St. Ninian's "Magnum Monasterium" on the shores of Galloway.

< The pedigree is important. I am grateful for the gift of mine: Jesuits, Paul Weisberg and Paul Siegel: not to mention my father who rose to the top of his career. I hope I have done them proud. >

Columba at Moville monastic life and received the diaconate.

< The church has its progression of leadership. We recently had six deacons ordained in the Charlotte Diocese. We were blessed at St Paul’s by Mike Martini. He told us his story in his first Mass as deacon. His deaconate vocation started twenty years ago: TWENTY. With the full support of his wife and son. Also with the encouragement and support of deacons and priests along the way. I hope his first sermon is a taste of things to come. >

In Moville, Columba’s sanctity first manifested itself by miracles. By his prayers, tradition says, he converted water into wine for the Holy Sacrifice.

< Small steps. St. Teresa’s little way. For a saint of Columba’s stature small steps began with miracles at the beginning of his most holy life…. >


Having completed his training at Moville, he travelled southwards into Leinster, where he became a pupil of an aged bard named Gemman.

< Our vocation must be discerned properly, carefully, in loving devotion to God, family, faith, Church. Then along the way we must find those who will nurture our vocation and stick with them. It’s always an happy awakening when God sends us, like the Bard Gemman, into our lives. Our responsibility is to appreciate the people God has given us – including sons and father – and absorb the grace they bring us. >

On leaving Gemman, Columba entered the monastery of Clonard, governed at that time by Finnian, a remarkable, like his namesake of Moville, for sanctity and learning.

< Follow the bouncing ball. Columba did not wander randomly around Ireland. Columba followed the will of God, the vocation he heard with his entire being, and pursued it all with a laser fulfillment of the opportunities/people available to us. >

At Clonard, Columba imbibed the traditions of the Welsh Church, for Finnian had been trained in the schools of St. David.

< Remember this lesson. Columba sought his relationship with God via all the avenues available to him. He did not diss or avoid ‘the Welsh Church’s’ traditions. He assimilated them into his own piety and spirituality. This gave him much more to give to his disciples. >

Here also Columba became one those twelve Clonard disciples known in subsequent history as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

The Twelve Apostles of Erin, who came to study at the feet of St. Finian, at Clonard, on the banks of the Boyne and Kinnegad Rivers, are said to have been St. Ciaran of Saighir (Seir-Kieran) and St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois; St. Brendan of Birr and St. Brendan of Clonfert; St. Columba of Tir-da-glasí (Terryglass) and St. Columba of Iona; St. Mobhí of Glasnevin; St. Ruadhan of Lorrha; St. Senan of Iniscathay (Scattery Island); St. Ninnidh the Saintly of Loch Erne; St. Lasserian mac Nadfraech, and St. Canice [Kenneth] of Aghaboe.

About this same time Columba was promoted to the priesthood by Bishop Etchen of Clonfad.

Another preceptor of Columba was St. Mobhi, whose monastery at Glasnevin was frequented by such famous men as St. Canice, St. Comgall, and St. Ciaran. A pestilence which devastated Ireland in 544 caused the dispersion of Mobhi's disciples, and Columba returned to Ulster, the land of his kindred.

The following years were marked by Columba’s foundation of several important monasteries, Derry, Durrow, and Kells. Derry and Durrow were always specially dear to Columba. While at Derry, Columba went to Tours. Thence he brought a copy of those gospels that had lain on the bosom of St. Martin for the space of 100 years.

Columba left Ireland and passed over into Scotland in 563. Bede simply says: "Venit de Hibernia . . . praedicaturus verbum Dei" (H. E., III, iv); Adarnnan: "pro Christo perigrinari volens enavigavit" (Praef., II).

Columba was in his forty-fourth year when he departed from Ireland. He and his twelve companions crossed the sea in a currach of wickerwork covered with hides. They landed at Iona on the eve of Pentecost, 12 May, 563.

The island, according to Irish authorities, was granted to the monastic colonists by King Conall of Dalriada, Columba's kinsman.

It was a convenient situation, being midway between Columba’s countrymen along the western coast and the Picts of Caledonia. He and his brethren proceeded at once to erect their humble dwellings, consisting of a church, refectory, and cells, constructed of wattles and rough planks.


After spending some years among the Scots of Dalriada, Columba began the great work of his life, the conversion of the Northern Picts.


Together with St. Comgall and St. Canice (Kenneth) he visited King Brude in his royal residence near Inverness. Admittance was refused to the missionaries, and the gates were closed and bolted, but before the sign of the cross the bolts flew back, the doors stood open, and the monks entered the castle. Awe-struck by so evident a miracle, the king listened to Columba with reverence; and was baptized. The people soon followed the example set them, and thus was inaugurated a movement that extended itself to the whole of Caledonia.

Opposition was not wanting, and it came chiefly from the Druids, who officially represented the paganism of the nation.

< There is always opposition to change. Especially by those threatened with the loss of status, power, influence, ego. Beware of those people. Be sure you have someone watching your back. I know of what I speak. It seems that the most likely to resist change, to be the subterfuge for improvement and good news, are those previously responsible for the ‘spiritual’ well being of the people. This applies culturally as it happened to Columba. This also applies to any organization in which you bring change. Identify the Druids in the organization and watch out for them. >


The thirty-two remaining years of Columba's life were mainly spent in preaching the Christian Faith to the inhabitants of the glens and wooded straths of Northern Scotland.

< Find your vocation. Find your place. You and God and the people around you stick it out. >

The preaching of the saint was confirmed by many miracles, and he provided for the instruction of his converts by the erection of numerous churches and monasteries.

< Follow the lives of the missionaries. See how they brought salvation to the country. Identify how that also applies to any organizational change. Miracles? Sure! There’s always low hanging fruits. Make big changes easily – something never done there before – a miracle! Then plant your new religion throughout the organization. Put your people in place as the new priests and teachers and providers of the goodies at your disposal. Columba came from a royal family. Leading, redirecting, changing people’s minds and wills were all in his DNA. As they are in yours, by the way: from your father and grandfather fersure; your grandmother was always the president of one parish organization or another. Read. Study. Learn. Emulate. >

When not engaged in missionary journeys, Columba always resided at Iona. Numerous strangers sought him there, and they received help for soul and body.

< Have a home base. First and foremost, a foundation in God. Second, a place where people know where to find you. Let them come to you. Let your light shine for them, to draw them, to show them in your regular life that what you say is doable. >

From Iona Columba governed numerous communities in Ireland and Caledonia.

< This reminded me of Dr. Frist, Sr. and Dr. Fist Jr. (Tommy). They started HCA. They got the KFC franchise idea from their founder and applied it to healthcare. I worship the ground Dr. Frist walked on. He was a great man, a holy man, a wise man. Tommy was the man in charge by the time I joined HCA. He too was brilliant and kind. When I was asked before the LBO, ‘what’s it like working for HCA?’ I answered, is it appropriate to say that a $20 billion dollar company is like a family business. We lived the spirit of Dr. Frist – good people beget good people. And, the success of a hospital is based on three reasons – administrator, administrator, administrator. That’s Humbling! Not to mention the expectation to lead and succeed. >

Columba is said never to have spent an hour without study, prayer, or similar occupations.

< Today’s NH has a column elaborating on the place of prayer in our life: The Necessary place of prayer. It is not by accident that Columba was extraordinarily successful and constantly prayerful. >

Columba wrote 300 books with his own hand, two of which, "The Book of Durrow" and the psalter called "The Cathach", have been preserved to the present time.

St. Columba was tall and of dignified mien. Adamnan says: "He was angelic in appearance, graceful in speech, holy in work" (Praef., II). His voice was strong, sweet, and sonorous capable at times of being heard at a great distance.

He inherited the ardent temperament and strong passions of his race.

< me too? I confess, I hope so. >

It has been sometimes said that he was of an angry and vindictive spirit. But the deeds that roused his indignation were wrongs done to others, and the retribution that overtook the perpetrators was rather predicted than actually invoked.

Whatever faults were inherent in his nature he overcame and he stands before the world conspicuous for humility and charity not only towards has brethren, but towards strangers also.

He was generous and warm-hearted, tender and kind even to dumb creatures. He was ever ready to sympathize with the joys and sorrows of others. His fasts and vigils were carried to a great extent.

His chastity of body and purity of mind are extolled by all his biographers. Notwithstanding his wonderful austerities, Adamnan assures us he was beloved by all, "for a holy joyousness that ever beamed from his countenance revealed the gladness with which the Holy Spirit filled his soul". (Praef., II.)

Columba was not only a great missionary saint who won a whole kingdom to Christ, but he was a statesman, a scholar, a poet, and the founder of numerous churches and monasteries.

I love you,
Dad
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