• #10528 (no title)
  • 15 September 2020
  • Gourmet, Down South
  • The Author
  • Walking
  • What Endures. What Passes.

Dispatches From Dystopia

~ "What man by worrying can add one cubit to his span of years?"

Dispatches From Dystopia

Category Archives: Catholic Life

Candlemas / Groundhog Day / Imbolc

02 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by David in Catholic Life, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Candlemas / Groundhog Day / Imbolc

Tags

#Candlemas. #The Presentation

Last night, 1 February, The Church celebrated the Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of The Presentation of Our Lord, also known as Candlemas. The priests bless the candles used during the year at the altar and The Pascal Candle used during Eastertide.

Candles are associated with light and so it is appropriate that the Mass begins around dusk, as the light of the sun wanes. The Presentation of the Infant Jesus at The Temple in Jerusalem is recounted in The Gospel of St Luke. Simeon, a pious old man, sees the Christ Child and states that he can now die (depart) in peace, since he has just seen The Messiah. “A Light to enlighten the gentiles”. This is the ancient Song of Saint Simeon.  (St Luke 2: 29-32). Hence the attention on light.

Outside, the congregation lights individual candles as night falls, then follows the priest into the Church, with only the altar candles burning and the candles the people hold. Jesus is the Light of The World.

We sat behind a family of eight, Mom, Dad, a daughter and five sons. The daughter, around eight, was the eldest of the children. She was the Substitute Mom, admonishing her brothers to be quiet while Mom was out changing the youngest, still in diapers. It was one of those scenes that convey the simple love behind family life.

The Presentation marks the end of the Christmas season and the last time the Precipio is on view. It is a large depiction of The Nativity Story, taking up the entire St Mary Altar and its chapel.

This is also the last time during The Liturgical Year that Alma Redemptoris Mater is the Marian Antiphon, chanted as the Recessional at the end of The Mass. The Marian Antiphons are a series of beautiful chants,honoring Mary, Mother of God, largely ignored in the Church these days, due to a misinterpretation of the rules around the Novus Ordo Mass. The Church and the culture at large are poorer places because of their neglect.

St Benedict Church, Richmond, VS
Precipio

Saviour? 2020

25 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#Transformation

I just saw the word “Saviour” (capital S) in the subject line of an e-mail. Was it from an earnest evangelist proclaiming the birth of Jesus Christ, whom Christians revere as their saviour?

No. Want another guess? OK, I guess not.

It was the topic line in an email from a retailer, asserting that 10% off a gift card was a “Last Minute Saviour”.

This isn’t about a sacrilege on the part of the retailer, the context and the use of the word are perfectly OK. It is just a confirmation that people don’t think in terms of needing A Saviour. It’s kind of a joke to even admit to that need.

The Incarnation of God in human form is what this Solemnity of Christmas is all about. Jesus came into the world to save sinners from eternal estrangement from God. His mission, his purpose was, no, is, to draw humanity back to God, the divine source of humankind’s creation. And of all that is good.

Who thinks they need saving? This is the question. An alcoholic or addict whose life is trapped in the throes of their sickness may say yes. Those who have tried to succeed in the World on the strengths of their skills and failed may accept their helplessness. No longer trusting in their own strengths, they may seek the help of God. They may see their definition of success change and find satisfaction working a job that offers a new sense of freedom and power.

A human trafficker who sold thousands into slavery had a moment of metanoia, spiritual transformation, and subsequently redirected his life. He acknowledged the evil that he caused and sought to make amends for the wrongs commited. That person was the slave trader John Newton, who wrote a popular hymn in the Eighteenth Century about his conversion. That hymn is Amazing Grace. Most of us, Christian or not, are familiar with its words.

There is more that can be said, that needs to be said. But not right now. This is a day to put aside the books, to dance and be merry.

Class dismissed.

Reconciliation

14 Saturday Dec 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#Confession

It had been three months. Every week there are two chances, Thursday and Saturday. All I have to do is wait on line for a while, then when it’s my turn to go in and sit down. Or kneel at the Vatican II mandated partition. And on 12 December, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I didn’t put it off any longer.

I sit, facing Father. I told him if he is acting in persona Christi, that he is acting for Jesus. And if I had something to tell Jesus, I would not kneel behind a partition, but look right at Jesus as I shared the things I wanted no one to know.

So I confess. What I confess is less important than that I do. “You’re as sick as your secrets.” , is the 12 Step Recovery aphorism. What keeps me away is my commitment to looking good, no matter how uneasy with myself I can be. That’s called Pride, worse than Lust or Avarice or Acedia (that is the particular type of sloth called spiritual laziness).

I open my heart. Tell Father (Father, young enough to be my son). My sins are a reprise of that last confession’s sins. He gives me as a penance to ask the Blessed Mother to be my spiritual mother when I pray the last Glorious Mystery, Mary’s Coronation. And I do.

Sceptics will scratch their heads in wonderment. Cynics will be relentless in their scorn for my naïveté. But I don’t care.

I’m there in that room, with that priest, with Jesus, metaphysically present, because my experience with evil on this side of eternity compels me to trust God in all His Triune Majesty. And Love.

People talk about Cafeteria Catholics, those who pick and choose rites, doctrines, dogmas that make them comfortable; Christmas Midnight Mass, Ashes on Ash Wednesday, (If you are a celebrity or a politician, get your picture taken with that black smudge on your forehead.) Palms on Palm Sunday, and Easter, when happy Church returns.

But there are what I call Cookbook Catholics, who follow a recipe for Salvation, that they trust will keep them from damnation, formulaic believers, whom I cannot fault. Then there are those who have peered into the abyss where Evil awaits at the bottom. I have seen the addicts, the tortured, the brutalized, the raped. I ask God to fill my heart with His redeeming Love, so I can spread that Love in my little way.

Human Do-ing

27 Sunday Oct 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life, Spirituality, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#Ontology

We are human beings, all of us. That we exist as humans makes us human beings. That’s is how we “be”, ontologically speaking, just as Choco, my dear departed beagle, was a canine being. He existed as a dog. If you’re into the whole transmigration of souls thing, I suspect he had the highest form of earthly consciousness possible. Dogs keep quiet about how evolved they are, lest humans explode from jealousy.

I measured my day by what I did. I went to Mass, cooked dinner,took a nap, introduced a friend to some women in recovery at an afternoon AA meeting, and cleaned up after dinner. Now I am blogging. Funny how I often think I should be doing more, as if God looks at your time card.

What mattered, today, is what I did, today. The highlight was smiling at the toddler who sat on the same pew near me with her mother at Mass. It was a simple affirmation of the gift that being alive is.

Sunday

01 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life, cooking

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#ratatouille

1 September is a special day. In 1939, after a fabricated border incursion, the Wehrmacht of The Third Reich invaded Poland. The World has never been the same since that day eighty years ago. For your homework, read the W H Auden poem, September 1, 1939. He summarizes that time better than anyone else.

Rather than a post about World War II, I will move on to today. I went to Mass at 830 AM. I was awake then. I could make no promises for later. The Mass is about The True Presence of Our Lord. Father JDR made the point that Christ accepts us as we are, that we are made for eternity with God. We are neither as bad nor as good as we think ourselves to be. End of Homily, or at least my take on it.

After Mass I went to the newly opened Publix in a shopping center about midway between Church and home. The Publix people tore down an existing grocery store structure and built exactly what they wanted. It is a nice store. I bought the makings for ratatouille which I did not have on hand, egg plant, onion. green pepper, some nice canned tomatoes from Italy. I had mushrooms, garlic and zucchini at home.

They were very nice and helpful, as they always are. The young woman who helped take my groceries to my vehicle was one of several staff members who made me feel welcome. I told her this store is built on the site of an A & P,(remember them?) that operated here sixty years ago, near the house where we lived from 1962 to 1974. On balance, fond memories.

I prepped the vegetables and the ratatouille cooks as I write. I am awash with powerful sexual feelings. When I cook I feel creative and therefore sexual. I await J’s return from work, with her bronchitis, need to rest, and her repressed sexuality. But, I will be glad to see her. No matter the circumstances.

Mass+Brunch=A Good Day

12 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life, food

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Popeye

This was a Sunday that began with my feeling tired and wishing I could sleep some more. I went upstairs, looking to sleep some more and planning to skip Mass.( I had an excuse, as if Jesus cares about excuses). J and I decide to go. We get there in plenty of time. We extend comfort and condolences to friends who lost their 35 year old daughter very suddenly. We hear a good homily from our Deacon. We meet the seminarian, Armando, who will be something of parochial “intern”for the next year. He strikes me as a young man who will become a good priest. As always, there are plenty of cute babies and young children to boost the spirits of a man without grandchildren.

After Mass, we go to Maggiano’s to have brunch and people watch the mall customers passing in front of our window. The brunch at Maggiano’s is their best value and we had a coupon in our email. J had the crème brûlée French toast, which, for all intents and purposes, is a donut without the hole. I had the braised beef hash with poached eggs.

We get home. Now I take that nap. I fix a quick dinner, sit and rekax

I’m taking a Jeffrey Epstein /Ilhan Omar/ Donald Trump respite, watching Popeye cartoons. I always think, watching these cartoons, that we were perfecting animation in America, while the Germans were perfecting the tank, dive bombers and mechanized warfare.

St Edith Stein

09 Friday Aug 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life, History

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

# St. Edith Stein

Today is the Feast Day of St Theresa Benedicta Of The Cross, born Edith Stein. She was born in Prussia in 1891, one of eleven children in an observant Jewish family.

Possessing a keen intellect, she studied philosophy under Heidegger and Husserl. She had become atheist, but she admired the way her Catholic friends practiced their faith. Reading the autobiography of St Theresa of Avila brought about her conversion to the Catholic Faith. Later she would become a Carmelite nun and took the name Theresa Benedicta of The Cross. She became a cloistered contemplative nun, devoted to a life of prayer.

Her life paralleled the rise to power of the Nazis. Nazi anti-Semitism was based on their specious “racial theory”. So having Jewish “blood” was tantamount to a death sentence. The Carmelite order transferred her to The Netherlands, but she was ultimately taken by the Nazis from the convent, sent to Auschwitz, and murdered in the gas chamber, along with her sister Rose, also a convert and a Carmelite nun. Today is the seventy-seventh anniversary of their martyrdom.

Fittingly St Edith Stein is the Patroness of Europe. Europe today, like America, suffers a profound crisis of Faith, buffeted by Islamic immigration on the one hand and secular agnosticism on the other. The challenge for European Catholics is to witness the Faith, always with Love, for the Salvation of souls. What better Patroness to ask for intercessory prayer.

St Theresa Benedicta, pray for us.

Sleep Comes To The Old Man

03 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life, Cricket, History

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#cricket, #Holy Hour, #Old Film

I woke up at Three AM to go to Holy Hour at Four down at my church. Then I came home, started watching cricket, The first of the The Ashes Test Match series between England and Australia. I can honestly say I don’t have a dog in this fight. Both sides are great, with superb individual talents on both sides.

Then around 7:40 I left for First Saturday Mass at the Abbey. The football players at the affiliated Catholic high school were practicing. Football season is four weeks away, whether we like it, don’t like it, or just plain don’t care.

Mass was celebrated by a priest who seemed oddly “out of it”. I think he was OK. I had never been at one of his Masses before and I suspect this was just his style. He was old, in this case, about my age.

Back home for breakfast and more cricket. Then tiredness hit and I finally went to bed.

After sleeping a bit, I woke up, brewed some coffee and am now watching some film footage of Tokyo, in 1934 on YouTube. Japan was a police state, run by a military junta. It had seized Manchuria three years earlier. The Sino-Japanese War, the Asian precursor to the Second World War, would begin in 1937. Peaceful times, I suppose. There are scenes of Japanese military close order drill with young boys in samurai costume. In all likelihood, these children would be dead within eleven years. The vignette was creepy and simultaneously poignant. Wasted lives on display.

J is coming home from work. It is ex-wife #1’s birthday. I sent her a birthday text.

I feel like I have done enough today already.

Holy Hour. Mother’s Birthday

06 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life, Family

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#Centennial

Those of you who follow my blog know that I participate in the Catholic tradition of Nocturnal Adoration on the first Friday of every month. We pray and meditate in the presence of the Precious Body of Christ in the form of the consecrated bread.

I think I’m a better Catholic and a better person because of the time I spend with Jesus. I’m a better person, because I’m a little more compassionate and understanding of people, after I give up an hour of my time in the silence and darkness of a Saturday morning.

This morning was special because July 6, 2019 marks my mother’s 100th birthday. She probably hated being a stay at home mother, but I think she was good at it. She was there for us. And maybe that’s why we all turned out more or less OK. There were plenty of times she was bored out of her skull. She was a bright woman, who didn’t get a chance to go to college. She got a good job during a time when any kind of a job for anybody were hard to come by.

And she had some jobs that sucked too. One job was turning Bull Durham bags. Bull Durham was cigarette tobacco that was loose, for those intrepid souls who rolled their own cigarettes. Remember Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon?

The tobacco came in a white cotton bag, a cheap muslin, with a yellow drawstring.. The bags had to be “turned”. They were sewn inside out and people were paid at a piecework rate for turning them, Mother and her sister, Lizzie, and their mother, whom everyone called Tootsie, turned the bags. There was a little wire tool they used to get the job done. This was The Depression, y’all. And I suspect a lot of my readers may not have heard how hard things were.

So when Reynolds Metals, (think Reynolds Wrap) relocated to Richmond around 1940, Mother stood on line to apply for a secretarial job and was hired. She worked for a VP in the International Department, named Mr Zick, because she was fluent in Spanish and he needed a translator. She took Spanish at John Marshall High School. Imagine eighty years ago, one could do quite a lot with a high school diploma.

So she had this job, married my Dad. He went off to war and came back in one piece. Eventually she left work because of family demands. Mom and Dad had four children. I am number two.

Mother sang in the choir, taught Sunday School at Third Presbyterian Church. She would tell us that her neighbors on one side were Catholics, the Carrols, and on the other were Orthodox Jews, the Cohens. I have not vetted my mother’s recollections for accuracy, but her point was about getting along with others who aren’t like you.

And she made friends with African Americans, or as she respectfully called them “Colored People”. It wasn’t hard, we found, when we went about making friends. Our high school integrated in the Sixties and we made friends with the African-American kids. She and my father welcomed them into our home. In a way, it wasn’t a big deal. In another way, these simple acts of friendship and hospitality were revolutionary.

So the family is getting together to celebrate The Fourth and to remember Marian Maude ( cool name, huh?) on her birthday.

Between now and 1:00 PM, I hope to get in some more sleep. My surviving siblings (sister, younger brother) will be at the party. (My elder brother died in 2014). My sons, daughter-in-law, nephews, niece, her husband and great niece will be there too.

There will be food, general cuteness from my great niece, age 3, and fun.

Dependence Day Every Day

04 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by David in Catholic Life, Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

#The Most Holy Rosary of The Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is 5:15 AM. I have been up since around 2:30 AM. I made a pot of decaf, sliced some strawberries for J’s lunch, and packed her tuna salad, rice crackers, snacks.

When I finished I prayed The Rosary. Since I didn’t pray the Rosary Wednesday night, I prayed The Glorious Mysteries. There is, with praying the Rosary, the tension between faith and reason. The basic question, “What’s the point?” Is it just about praying the Hail Mary fifty times. I don’t get a Thank You Note from The Blessed Mother. How do I know she is listening? I think about Fatima. She told us offering The Rosary is important. But I get the feeling she is listening. She is my Mother. No she is not my invisible friend. She is my Protectress.

When I started wearing the brown scapular of the Carmelites, something changed in how I viewed the World, what my needs were, what I demanded in terms of material and psychological gratification. Go figure. We can’t imagine anything exists outside of Time and Space, that there is a Truth beyond what we can observe, perceive, and record.

But I try not to think too much about that. Just keep my eyes on the little courtesies of living with other people. That is challenge enough.

← Older posts

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014

Categories

  • #cricket
    • Cricket
  • #Grief
  • Addiction
  • Adult Children
  • Aesthetics
  • Age Play
  • alcoholism
  • American History
    • Politics
  • Amtrak
  • Animal Baby Cuteness
  • Anti-Marxist Activity
  • Art
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders
  • Automobiles,
  • Baby Names
  • Baltimore
  • Big Business
  • Birthday
  • Bloggers
  • British Empire
  • Capitalism
  • Cartoons
  • Catholic Life
  • Cats
  • Civilization
  • Class
  • Classical Music
  • cooking
  • Cricket
  • Cuba
  • Cycling
  • Delta Blues
  • Depression
  • Dogs
  • Erotic Writing
  • Exercise/ Fitness
  • Existential Despair
  • Fame
  • Family
  • Fantasy
  • Fashion & Grooming
  • Florida
  • Flowers
  • food
  • Foreign Films
  • Fruit
  • Futurism
  • Gay/Straight Dichotomy
  • Gender Identity
  • Gender Roles
  • Gentrification
  • Going Dark.
  • grafitti
  • Gratitude
  • Health Issues
  • Hedonism
  • Hidtory
  • History
  • Housework
  • kitsch
  • Literature
  • loneliness
  • Love and stuff
  • memoir
  • Mid Century Modern
  • Modernism
  • New York
  • Old Cameras
  • Otakon 2016
  • personal grooming
  • Pie Crust
  • Politics
  • Popular Song
  • Post Office
  • Railroads
  • recovery
  • Refugees
  • Relationships
  • Russian Orthodoxy
  • Sacrifice
  • sadomasochism
  • seduction
  • self-indulgence
  • Sexual Identity
  • Sexuality
  • sleep
  • Smartphones
  • Sobriety
  • Soup
  • Soviet History
  • Spirituality
  • Sport
  • Suburbia
  • Summer
  • Taste
  • Tasteless Gifts
  • Tattoo
  • Tea
  • The Villages
  • Tolerance
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Urban Brutalism
  • Vietnam
  • Wildlife
  • World War II
  • YMCA
  • YouTube-Videos

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Dispatches From Dystopia
    • Join 573 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Dispatches From Dystopia
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...