Monthly Archives: November 2022

I just got off the phone with a dear friend. As many of you know, I spent the better part of fifteen years teaching Catholic moral theology to high school students in addition to my work as a school administrator. This was after my time in seminary and a five-year stopover in the world of broadcast TV news production. I am proud to say that I forged many lasting friendships with the young men and women who were in my charge every day. One such young man is now a college senior in Ohio. It was he who called me just now. And the news he shared was horrifying.

This young man had been born in New Orleans before moving to Texas with his family as a youngster. His father had not always been a Catholic but had entered the Church as an adult. The DRE at their parish in New Orleans, whom my friend describes as the most solid woman he’s known, was responsible for helping his dad enter the Catholic Church. This woman was rewarded for her efforts by becoming the godmother to my friend. They kept in touch over the years and he even says that they spoke regularly on the phone.

This woman – Ruth – was currently working as a pastoral associate at her parish outside of New Orleans. She was in the habit of having the retired pastor over to dinner every now and then. Yesterday (Sunday), she had invited Fr. over to watch the Saints game. A wanton thug apparently broke into the home and abducted the two. He then drove off with them before ultimately torching the vehicle with the pair still inside. He has been arrested and charged with murder.

Click here for the story from a local New Orleans station.

Please stop right now and pray for the repose of their souls. Then pray that justice – true justice – be done. The man responsible for this deserves no less than the forfeiture of his earthly life and to be sent to God for his judgment.

Go ahead, I’ll wait…

My friend concluded by telling me, “I mean, I know she’s in heaven. She was a good woman.”

And that’s when I stopped him.

“I am sure she was a good woman if you are vouching for her. However, we do not know if any of us are going to make it. In charity for her soul, pray. Pray and have Masses offered for her. If she loved the Church as you say she did, there is nothing she would want more from you at this moment.”

The same all-merciful and all-just God who will deal with her murderer will, we hope, look kindly upon the prayers of those offered for his servants who must still be purified before seeing His Vision. “Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of the tears of your Mother, hear our prayer and have mercy on us!”

Please pray for her soul and continue to pray for all the dead.

A guest at my Thanksgiving dinner last evening did what we all love to do and brought up politics at Thanksgiving dinner. It was no issue, really, as we get along, so to speak. His question to me was this. “You wrote a lice recently stating that you would update us the next day as to your thoughts on Trump’s re-election bid. Where is that piece?”

Well, it’s not here.

The truth is that I have much consideration to make still. So this time I will make the same promise, absent the word “tomorrow”.

There.

St. Thomas More, pray for us!

First, A Feast

Today we celebrate the feast of the great Spanish mystical theologian, John of the Cross who, along with St. Teresa of Avila, reformed the Carmelite Order.

Last Advent a friend and I decided to tackle St. John’s masterpiece Dark Night of the Soul. No easy task, that. I can tell you that it was one of the most challenging reads I’ve ever undertaken. I will have to return to it one day to find some greater comprehension.

John’s feast was moved to December 14 in the Nu calendar for no apparent reason but that’s OK because we’re all the same Church, right? Either way, as they say, “On Carmel’s heights, day and night, someone is always praying for you.” Thank God for that! Stepping off of soapbox now.

Second, Another Feast

This morning I continued the great tradition handed on by my dad. When I was 14 years-old, my father, who never cooked a day all year but insisted on assuming the responsibilities of Thanksgiving dinner in toto for his family of 16, woke me up at an ungodly hour. I think it was before 5AM. I am the youngest son in my family. Eight older brothers and he picked me for the task. Not sure if it was because he trusted me over them, if it’s because I faithfully accompanied him to early Mass every morning, or because I was the last one… “Its time to stuff a few birds,” he said. I stumbled out of bed, grabbed a cup of coffee and learned from the man how to feed an army on the native bird. I still remember cracking a joke that he didn’t find too amusing. “I’ve conducted a postmortem,” I said. “Looks like he died of blunt force trauma,” I remarked of the 25 lb turkey as I pulled it’s neck out of its thoracic cavity. “Poor bastard never stood a chance.” But dad took this day very seriously. He furrowed his brow and then said, “Hand me that can of beer. I have to batter the stuffing.”

The following year I was eager to help Dad again. I went to bed excited to rise early and spend time preparing dinner with the patriarch. Except it didn’t go down like that. He was no fool. It turns out he had only been training me – not for some distant future when I’d have my own family to feed but for the next year when he would finally get to sleep in. “Son, it’s time for you to stuff the birds…” And I’ve been doing it ever since.

And I still love this day. It reminds me of him. It reminds me of the importance of family, of being grateful to God for my Catholic faith, my many blessings, and of course, my wife and children, and all the friends we get to feed this year.

An additional note: one of the things Dad and I would do on this day would be to start the traditional Christmas music playlist. We’d have the classics going all morning in the kitchen while the parade played on a TV in the next room.

This morning I kept that one up too. When my kids asked me, “Where’s Mariah Carey?” I had but one response.

“One, kiddos, she’s a twit and also, no.” As I explained further, “Since my liturgical ‘preferences’ lie in 1954, my Christmas music may as well, too.” And then I played the following for them.

By the way, I totally want to host a party like the one above – gold Century 21 realtor’s jacket and all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

St. John of the Cross, pray for us!