“Racism is a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing,
goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting.
Instances of racism continue to shame us,
for they show that our supposed social progress is
not as real or definitive as we think.”
Pope Francis

We’re sorry. But someone has to say it: If “blah, blah, blah” were a meal, many of America’s “religious leaders” would be master chefs. Instead, most simply remain silent while bigots, racists and political cowards promote the Big Lie and attempt to deny millions of Americans of their right to vote.

After the American counselor finished a lecture on “The American Way of Death” at one of China’s most prestigious medical schools, he asked a simple question: “As doctors and nurses, how do you tell a patient that he or she has a terminal illness and there is nothing more you can do for him?”

As the crow flies, it’s at least 80 miles from Bethsaida to Jerusalem and, although the Days of Unleavened Bread were still some time away, the urgency of the journey was palpable. The Teacher had said there was still much to share with his followers; yet the crowds - even in the tiniest hamlets - demanded to see him and his heart seemed filled with the pain of the widows and orphans, the lepers who had been rejected by their families, and the most physically and emotionally broken.

Wow! Could those pre-Middle Ages Benedictines curse!

They cursed landlords, people who were stealing their properties and just about anyone possibly doing them wrong. They cursed them at Mass and Vespers and in special ceremonies. And they cursed them for generation to generation for eternity.

“There are just certain people who should never
see the light of day as free men or women.”
Rev. Francis J. Flynn, Psy.D., CAP

“Behold the days are coming…”

Look! They’re coming from the East?

Or the West! Or the North? Or is it the South?

Can someone explain “America is a ‘Judeo-Christian’ or ‘Christian’ nation?”

“I am the Lord your God.
Do not steal.
Do not lie.
Do not deceive one another…
Do not defraud or rob your neighbor…

Those pesky kids!

There was a time when we sortta knew what to expect from them. But that seems to be slipping away with Climate Change.

No matter how close an eye we keep on them, they can wreak havoc!

And they don’t even have real names.

Amaryllis Fox is one of those quiet heroes you’ve probably never heard of and may never hear about again. She worked for a decade as an undercover CIA agent, cultivating relationships with arms merchants and preventing them from selling fissile material to terrorist groups.

In the “good ole days” of the Latin Mass and fish on Friday, it was easy to identify the classic Irish Catholic drunk.

[In those days, he was “a drunk” not today’s more sensitive “alcohol dependent individual.”]

In Lucian Read’s startling photo “Hell House,” Marine 1st Sgt. Bradley Kasal – nearly unconscious from loss of blood, unable to support his own weight after sheltering a fellow Marine from a grenade blast and still holding his pistol in his right hand and his Ka-Bar knife in his left – is carried to safety by Marine Lance Corporals Chris Marquez and Dane Schaffer. Kasal’s life-threatening injuries were sustained while he protected other wounded Marines during action in Fallujah in November 2004.

First, a detour.

Lady Gaga rocked!

“Accompanied by the President’s own United States Marine Band,” she hit that perfect, sweet spot note – “and the flag was flag was still there” - while television networks broadcast images of a sea of flags commemorating the more than four-hundred-thousand lives lost to the coronavirus plague or the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the flag of the National League of POW/MIA Families flying over the Capitol.

“Wednesday, one o’clock. You and Father Roger.
Alabama Jack’s.
I have a hankerin’ for crab cakes and beer.
Be there and bring you note pad.”

“What!?!,” I protested, not recognizing the voice
on the other end of the call.
“Who is this?”

“God. Just be there.
It’s outta the way. No one will recognize me.”

For a moment, let us celebrate courage.

Officer Brian Sicknick, 42-years-old, of South River, New Jersey, was a member of the U.S. Capitol Hill Police Department. Bluntly stated: It is reported that his skull was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher by insurrectionists…

“He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger
is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice.
And if you can live amid injustice without anger,
you are immoral as well as unjust.”
St. Thomas Aquinas

Henry Williamson was just 17-years-old when he joined the British Territorial Army for the sports - including boxing and swimming – the Army offered.

By the end of the year - 1914, more than a million young men had enrolled in the British military – believing they would quickly win the war in Europe and be home with stories to tell as they celebrated the Christmas holiday.

Have you ever wondered about God?

I don't mean prayed. Or even thought about God the way that theologians do with their strangely abstract ideas like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. But wondered - jumped into the awe and mystery of God, trying to sort Him out and make sense of God.

“But still when two or three shall meet,
And old tales be retold,
From low to highest in the Fleet,
We’ll pledge the Blue and Gold.”
From the United States Naval Academy Alma Mater

“Jesus said that he came to give life, so that people could have it abundantly;
it's hard to have abundant life if you're dead from a virus
that could have been avoided.”
Rev. Joseph Peters-Matthews
Vicar, St. Hilda/St. Patrick Episcopal Church
Edmonds, Washington

“… from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”
Abraham Lincoln