It’s the beginning of a quote from either Lewis or Clark, I cannot recall which one.
“Ocean in view! O the joy!”
These words were uttered when one of the two above mentioned explorers first spotted the Pacific on their westward journey.
Today I literally shouted the same when I laid sight of the Atlantic.
We’ve begun our annual summer vacation. It’s four families with 8 adults and about forty kids and a handful of grandkids. Outer Banks, North Carolina.
But my reason for saying that line has to do more with fear than joy. You see, tomorrow morning at 4:45 AM my wife signed me up to go sixty miles off the coast in a small fishing boat with instructions to “bring back a good haul for the week.”
I hate fish.
I have only fished once in my life.
I am terrified of the ocean. It’s so vast and people have been dying in them since the Dawn of time.
So say some prayers I make it back. On the upside, I’ll probably get sick and vomit everything I ate on the 22 hour drive to get hear (straight through) so at least I’ll be nice and trim for the rest of the beach week proper.
Thank you all for the prayers. So far the journey has been uneventful except for the fact that we found ourselves in Mableton, GA just in time for a 6:30 TLM.
This could be the fate of any of us and will likely be the fate for all of us. I’m not talking about the resting in honored glory part but the “known but to God” part. Who will remember your name four generations hence and remember to pray for your soul which will likely and hopefully be in purgatory?
Pray for the dead in your lifetime.
Stay confessed.
And yes, God bless all those who gave their lives for our freedoms.
Friends, the priest preaching this sermon is Fr. Michael DeGrogorio, OSA. Fr. Michael is the man who is responsible for establishing the National Shrine of St. Rita at St. Rita’s parish in Philadelphia. It is he who counseled a much younger version of myself all those years ago to ask St. Rita’s intercession and to be specific in my prayers. I began the first of many, many novenas and nine days later met my wife. When we married, it was in this magnificent church and Fr. Michael was there with us. His words about this great saint of the impossible are as moving as they are true.
She is not distant from us. She is very near to us and she is also near to Our Lord. He “graciously grants favors through her intercession which are considered impossible to human skill and effort” as the novena prayers say. By now you all know of my rabid devotion to her. I think it can be rightly said, and fellow devotees will correct me if I am wrong, that any who have found her – or rather whom she has found for God – are immediately drawn into her life and never let go.
This morning I awoke to a text from a friend, fellow blogger St. Louis Catholic, wishing me a happy feast day. This means I’m doing my job in spreading devotion to her. I went to confession at a church downtown. On my way out, I stopped to hold the door for a very expectant young mother and glanced down at the wicker basket in the gift shop. It was filled with those socks with the saints on them. The church was named in honor of St. Jude, Rita’s male counterpart in helping desperate souls. The socks at the top of the basket were of St. Rita. I laughed. The woman at the counter asked what was funny and I launched into ten minutes of the life of St. Rita. On my way back to my car I got an email from a regular reader who told me that he had been offering one of his intentions in his novena these past nine days for me and my family. Another dear friend sent me messages of prayerful union on this day. A priest-friend texted with links to celebrations of her feast from around the world. I cannot tell you all how much these things mean to me.
And what would mean even more? Learn from her. Learn her way of understanding, her way of resignation, her way of peace-making. In all she did and in every state in life, she pointed to Our Lord who so loved her as to give her one of His thorns. We should all be so blessed.
May God bless each of you and know that you continue to be in my novena prayers daily.
Folks, I got off all that social media nonsense a while ago. Sorry but I'm not on Twitbook, Facepalm, YouHu, WingWang or any of the others. Maybe an event will happen to make me change my mind like Peter and Paul coming down with flaming swords and commanding it be so. Until then, read the blog and if you feel a comment is in order or you feel like sharing a tip or suggestion for a topic, email me at harvey@harveymillican.com.
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 