Archive for the ‘catholic devotions’ Category

Here is the indulgence calendar for June

Remember indulgences can only be earned for yourself or the dead so folks like the management of the Dodgers, you’ll just have to do regular prayers for them.

Here is the blank, fill in your own names version.

Update: Speaking of the Dodgers and Prayers:

A quick reminder, a game vs the Angels means seeing Ohtani, the biggest draw in baseball

The LA Dodgers had scheduled a pride night and had invited the anti-Catholic “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” a drag group that attacks the Catholic Church. After a letter from Marco Rubio noting the offence to Catholics the “sisters” were disinvited.

Gay groups whose hatred of faithful Catholics is only slightly eclipsed by the sisters threatened to pull out and the Dodgers caved like a wet blanket.

It goes without saying that if this had been a drag group that made fun of Islam the Dodgers would have run from these guys and denounced them publicly as bigots, but as it’s the Catholic Church the Dodgers are all in on hate.

What remains is what the response should be, I think it should be two fold, one spiritual and one secular.

The spiritual response that I would suggest is a Eucharistic Procession to and around Dodger Stadium, much like the one that took place in DC last week:

Over the weekend, the nation’s capitol saw a Eucharistic procession, the first of its kind organized by the Catholic Information Center (CIC), to bring “Christ’s Real Presence onto the streets of our downtown D.C. neighborhood.” 

Fr. Charles Trullols, director of the CIC, said that he was inspired by the Eucharistic processions of Pope St. John Paul II, who led processions through Rome’s streets for seven years. He continued to say that the U.S. needs God to be put back into Americans’ lives, hoping the procession would help the country, including those in the White House. 

“The CIC houses the closest tabernacle to the White House, and I have absolute faith in the many graces God will bestow onto our country when Christ’s real presence is carried through the streets of D.C. The procession will express our belief that Jesus is passing by and bestowing his love and help on all of us,” Fr. Charles Trullols said

I’m sure the Hispanic community of LA would really get into such an event, perhaps even bearing a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe the Patron of the Americas. But the real advantage is that whenever you have the Eucharist you have the body blood soul and divinity of Christ and whenever you Christ to a situation you are working toward the good.

Of course a secular response might be appropriate too and there is a very simple one that might stop this in it’s tracks.

I’m sure California has laws concerning creating a hostile work environment and I’m also sure that there are more than a few devout Catholics who work for or play for the Dodgers.

Imagine if one or more of them filed a complaint with the appropriate agencies noting that inviting a group openly hostile to their faith as official guest constitutes a hostile work environment. Imagine the lawsuit that could follow. Imagine if this is promulgated in the largely Catholic countries that the dodgers recruit from.

The Dodgers have sown, let them reap.

In fairness all of this is consistent with the warming of Christ at the last supper:

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.

Remember the word I spoke to you,  ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me also hates my Father.

John 15:18-23

We’ll see much worse before it gets better.

Update: I just noticed that while the Dodgers put out their announcement on the twitter feed it’s not included in their spanish language twitter feed @losdodgers

I wonder why?

Remember if you want someone included in next month’s Calendar you can leave the name as a comment to this post.

And of course if you want the blank one so you can fill in the names you want that’s here

Rabbi: Jesus, please explain why you stopped the reading before Isiah spoke of the day of vengeance of our God, especially during a time of such oppression?

Jesus: The day of vengeance is in the future. I’m not here for vengeance, I’m here for salvation.

The Chosen Physician, Heal Yourself 2022

Yesterday my family and I were at the minor league ball park in Worcester thanks to a 4 pack of tickets my youngest won at work. There was according to weather.com a 20% chance of rain and those numbers came up so we waited 45 minutes for the game to start and very much enjoyed the heat lamps that were all around the covered to warm ourselves up.

By the bottom of the 7th it wasn’t looking well for the home team who couldn’t manage to get the key hit to drive in the tying runs when the chance presented itself so I moved up to where the heat lamps where. Most of them were still had groups of people but one of them near home plate was empty so I parked myself there as I urged the home team to throw strikes while on the mound and have a good eye at the plate.

Within a minute or two I was joined by a tall gentleman about my own age and we started talking about the game, the various players and the online league which I run (posting to come soon) etc which is the type of thing that the pace of baseball allows and is one of the joys of going to any ballpark. His son-in-law had season tickets so he often was able to catch a game and spoke highly of the various season ticket combos offered.

At one point my wife decided to refill her water bottle at the water bottle refill station. Seeing me with the fellow she walked by and made a flirty remark about me and my hat. The fellow grinned as guys do when that happens to a fellow and I explained that the flirting lady was my wife of 35 years. At that point the reason for my presence there became clear.

One of the things I talk about on my “Your Prayer Intentions” radio show and have as part of my regular prayer rotation is an offering to notice the works of God all around us and one of those works is to put people where they need to be.

At this point the man’s face became more serious and a change came over him. He told me two years ago that his wife of 38 years had in his own words “died suddenly”. I didn’t press him on what had happened but as it was near the end of the month I asked if he was catholic to offer his wife a place on our monthly indulgence calendar for me. It turned out he was and eagerly jumped at my offer and so I took her name and will be remembering her there and in next week’s radio show along with him family. When my oldest walked by he too took the name to ad it to his prayer list.

The fellow was very grateful. It was very clear that he misses her terribly and that there is a giant hole in his life from her loss, which his son in law has helped fill with the season tickets and as we were leaving found us again to thank us for our kind words and prayers which he needed desperately and that God had seen fit to put us there at that rainy game so I could be under that sun lamp to be there and offer consolation and prayer. Daily baseball is an excellent tonic and distraction for a soul in pain but sharing that pain when one might not normally do so is even better.

But that’s not all that went through my mind when this was happening.

The age of the gentleman, about my own or maybe a year or two older or younger and the “sudden death” of his longtime spouse immediately suggested the COVID shot to me. It’s a story I’ve read about and seen time and time again online and while I did have a vaccinated in-law die of COVID his many other complications before the outbreak didn’t make his death all that “unexpected”, this was the first person I had met who had experienced such an unexpected loss.

Now in fairness I don’t know if in this case the culprit was the shot as I wasn’t about to interrogate him on the matter but it hits me that there are thousands of people who like him have suddenly lost spouses, children and loved ones “unexpectedly” who CAN trace the problem to the shot and have to live every day with that loss that shouldn’t have happened and frankly didn’t have to.

When I ponder that I think of Biden and Fauci and Trudeau and every petty tyrant in government and in corporate America who made people choose between the jab and their livelihood and/or education and think of how much pain and suffering they have to answer for.

It’s in those moments that a good Catholic has to remember that Christ died for ALL sinners without exception and pray that all those involved in those events take advantage of the mercy that Christ offers while they have the chance because the alternative to Christ mercy for our sins is his justice according to our deeds.

And the clock is ticking.