1 September - World Day Of Prayer For The Care Of Creation

The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation was established by Francis I on 6 August 2015 [1], "an observance started by the Orthodox Church" [2] on 1 September 1989 named Day of Prayer for Creation by the "late Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios I." [3]

On 1 September 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople "call[ed] upon the faithful to 'realize that the protection of the natural environment is the spiritual responsibility of each and every one of us....'" [4]  Turning his attention to the youth, Patriarch Bartholomew said, quoted in part below [5]:

“Ecclesiastical instruction must instill in their souls a respect for creation as ‘very good’ [Genesis 1:26], encouraging them to advocate and advance creation care and protection, the liberating truth of simplicity and frugality, as well as the Eucharistic and ascetic ethos of sharing and sacrifice.”

The words "simplicity" and "frugality" contradict notions that are all too common throughout successive generations: "the bigger the better", "the more novel the gadgets the more desirable", "the more one owns the happier", forgetting that the earth is finite with limited natural resources.

The time to reverse the course of devastation brought about by vanity, greed, exploitation, insufficient abstention leading to over procreation and an over-populated world may already be too late.

Prayer days reminding people of Creation do not appear to be helping.  Covid-19, as inconvenient as it is, has slowed down the world as it barrels itself toward oblivion.


[1] http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20150806_lettera-giornata-cura-creato.html
[2] https://www.ucanews.com/news/pope-applauds-initiatives-ahead-of-world-day-of-prayer-for-creation/89350#
[3] https://www.oca.org/news/headline-news/september-1-the-day-of-prayer-for-creation
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.

Archaeologists Discovered The Location Of Bethsaida

An article entitled Biblical village of Bethsaida where Jesus fed the 5,000, walked on water and helped a blind man to see is finally identified by archaeologists after 32 years of excavations  was published by Daily Mail  on 26 August 2020 [1].  Quoted in part below is from the article cited:

A Biblical village where Jesus is said to have performed some of his most famous miracles really existed, and today lies in ruins only a mile from the Sea of Galilee, archaeologists believe.

In the Bible, Bethsaida was home to disciples Peter, Andrew and Philip, and was where Jesus purportedly fed the 5,000, walked on water and helped a blind man to see.

Archaeologists have been working for 32 years to find the lost city, which was eventually cursed to destruction by Jesus because residents failed to repent in spite of his miracles.

...

Jesus was said to have cursed the village, warning it faced worse treatment than Sodom – a city destroyed by God in the Old Testament.  

Although Bethsaida did not meet the calamitous end Jesus foretold, it was ultimately abandoned.

Abandonment is a fate worse than destruction.  Be it a village or person, existence becomes quiet, with nothing to look forward to.  Silence longs for attention.  Moments linger, undistinguishable from eternity.  Even Christ on the cross experienced it [2]:

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8665771/Biblical-village-Bethsaida-Jesus-walked-water-finally-identified-archaeologists.html
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2027%3A46&version=NIV, quoted without references.

Herodias And Salome

The last blog post quoted Mark 6: 17-29. [1]   Herodias and Salome each played a major role in the beheading of St. John the Baptist.  Both were women but their respective character was not limited to them only or the female gender.  What went through their minds also go through the minds of men and women.

Herodias was already married to Herod's brother Philip before she married Herod.  It is assumed here that Herodias was not forced by Herod to marry him.  If she had been forced to do so, she would not have held a grudge against St. John the Baptist who chastised Herod for unlawfully marrying his brother's wife, and she would not have wanted to kill St. John the Baptist.

Based on the foregoing assumption, therefore, it can be concluded that Herodias married Herod who was the king so that she could be queen and have everything that comes with being one, such as her title, royal living quarters, personal attendants, fine clothing, accoutrements and so on.  This conclusion is supported by this statement from New Advent.org: "Herodias longed for social distinction, and accordingly left her husband and entered into an adulterous union with Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, who was also her uncle (Jos., Ant., XVIII, v, 1, 4)." [2]

How Herodias was able to gain Herod's attention would have depended on the circumstances at the time, just as those nowadays who want to gain wealth, fame, influence and power, or have something as basic as a more prominent position and a better paying job, whether male or female, who will do whatever that is necessary to get what they want, by flattery, by lies, by sexual favors and the like, but will probably not be doing a provocative dance in front of guests at a party like Salome who perhaps thought that she would be rewarded by Herod in some way.  If this had crossed her mind, it turned out that she was right.

Even though Salome might not have thought to have the head of St. John the Baptist on platter as a reward, she nonetheless was under the control of her queen mother whose wish Salome had wisely carried out by asking for St. John's the Baptist head even though she likely knew that it was wrong.  Salome probably reasoned that it was better to have others suffer and die than to risk her own comfort, just as people do around the world, exploiting Mother Nature and turning it into a toxic dump without giving it a second thought, leaving the mess for future generations to clean up.

Salome was not an innocent little girl.  She was a player.  She knew how to please Herod and Herodias.  What happened to Salome?  Quoted in part below is from The Last Dance of Salome  published by Catholicism.org [3]:

Cornelius a Lapide quotes one Nicephorus (probably St. Nicephorus of Constantinople, +829) describing the scene: “As she was journeying once in the winter-time, and a frozen river had to be crossed on foot, the ice broke beneath her, not without the providence of God. Straightway she sank down up to her neck. This made her dance and wriggle about with all the lower parts of her body, not on land, but in the water. Her wicked head was glazed with ice, and at length severed from her body by the sharp edges, not of iron, but of the frozen water. Thus in the very ice she displayed the dance of death, and furnished a spectacle to all who beheld it, which brought to mind what she had done.”

The dance of Salome is similar to the dance of people with ideals of making this world a better, cleaner place while at the same time they continue to leave their own larger than necessary carbon footprints and to satiate their insatiable greed.

Unlike the death of Salome, there is no detail on the death of Herodias.  The online references that were consulted mentioned that Herodias went into exile.  Quoted in part without references [4]:

Herod lost his kingdom on account of Herodias, with whom also he was condemned to be banished to Vienna, which was their place of exile, and a city bordering upon Gaul, and lying near the utmost bounds of the west.

This was not the Vienna of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or of Johann Strauss.  Herodias "died [in] AD 39." [5]


[1] https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/6, 17-29.
[2] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07292a.htm, quoted without hyperlinks.
[3] https://catholicism.org/the-last-dance-of-salome.html
[4] https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/what-ever-happened-to-herodias-and-salome/
[5] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herodias

Gospel Reading For 29 August 2020 - The Beheading Of Saint John The Baptist

Quoted below is from Mark 6:17-29 [1]:

17 Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.

18 John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

19 Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.

20 Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.

21 She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.

22 Herodias’ own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”

23 He even swore many things to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.”

24 She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”

25 The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

26 The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests
he did not wish to break his word to her.

27 So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison.

28 He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl, in turn, gave it to her mother.

29 When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Based on paragraph 26, Herod was too timid to break his prideful and "drunken oath of a king with a shallow sense of honor" [2] to his step-daughter, Solame [3], that he made in front of his guests so much so that he went as far as to order the beheading of Saint John the Baptist.  Herod did not have the courage to say "no" and to do what was right, even though "Herod was king – he did not have to stick to his oath – but he had no spine" [4] in contrast to Saint John the Baptist who was unafraid to speak God's truths.



[1] https://catholicreadings.org/memorial-of-the-passion-of-saint-john-the-baptist/, see also https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/6, 17-29.
[2] https://www.franciscanmedia.org/martyrdom-of-john-the-baptist/
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salome
[4] https://frchriszugger.com/2017/08/28/beheading-of-st-john-the-baptist-sermon/

A Political US Catholic Nun - Updated 28 August 2020

Quoted from the National Catholic Register [1]:

Sister Deirdre Byrne spoke passionately about the sanctity of life at the RNC saying, "While we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. They are the unborn."

Quoting further from the National Catholic Register [2]:

Good evening. I am Sister Dede Byrne, and I belong to the Community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Last Fourth of July, I was honored to be one of the president's guests at his Salute to America celebration. I must confess that I recently prayed while in chapel, begging God to allow me to be a voice, an instrument for human life. And now here I am, speaking at the Republican National Convention. I guess you’d better be careful what you pray for.

It seems like Deirdre Byrne already had a voice, loud enough to be noticed by an American president to be invited to a July 4th celebration.  Was it really her prayer that was answered?  Or was it part of a party's political plan to use her as a prop in the way she used God for her political agenda?

When she "recently prayed" did she in the back of her mind wished that she would be invited to be a speaker at the political convention knowing that it was scheduled to take place soon?

If she had such a close connection to God, why did she not simply pray for all the women seeking to abort their unborn to turn to God asking God to change their minds and give birth?  Would that not be a better miracle than the one she believed in, one that God, rather than political operatives, arranged for her to stand in the political limelight and give a speech?

Where is her humility in all of this?  In her speech, she said: "Humility is at the foundation of our order, which makes it very difficult to talk about myself." [3]  Yet, she did in a previous paragraph, as if she wanted public acknowledge- ment with seemingly a degree of humble bragging.

Why is it necessary to involve God in the making her political speech, and worse, making public her private prayer to God?

Even though Section 2442 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoted below without references, does not apply specifically to a nun, its implication seems to reach beyond that of a pastor based on the wording of the second sentence [4]:

2442 It is not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life. This task is part of the vocation of the lay faithful, acting on their own initiative with their fellow citizens.  Social action can assume various concrete forms. It should always have the common good in view and be in conformity with the message of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. It is the role of the laity "to animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice." [Emphasis  added.]

Nunhood is not "the vocation of the lay faithful." [5]

On a positive note, God still keeps His promise of the gift of Free Will.  Anyone, including nuns and clerics, can choose freely what they want to do and not do, and what they want to believe in and not believe in.  Like anyone else, they too, will one day have to face up to the truth and answer to God Almighty.


UPDATED: 28 August 2020

Quoted from Catholic Culture.org [6]:

The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life has argued against any tendency to ‘instrumentalize some topic for political ends,” in an apparent response to President Trump’s emphasis on the abortion issue. In an interview with Crux, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia said: “It would do great harm if some topic of bioethics is extracted from its general context and put toward ideological strategies.”

[1] https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/full-text-sister-dede-byrnes-speech-at-the-2020-republican-national-convent
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a7.htm, Section 2442.
[5] Ibid.
[6] https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=47676

"Of Rejoicing Spiritually in the Lord" By Saint Francis Of Assisi

The following paragraph is copied from the book Works Of The Seraphic Father St. Francis Of Assisi  [1]:

CONFERENCE XI.

Of Rejoicing Spirituality in the Lord.

ALWAYS, my beloved Brethren, have a holy joy in God, both interior and exterior.  If the servant of God endeavours to have and to keep spiritual joy, which springs from a pure heart, and is acquired by devout prayer, then the devils cannot harm him; they are forced to say: 'Since this servant of God rejoices alike in tribulation and prosperity, we cannot find an entrance into his heart, and are unable to injure him.'  But the devils rejoice exceedingly if they can extinguish or even lessen this joy and devotion, which come from prayer and good works.  For if the devil can once succeed in getting anything of his own into the heart of a servant of God, unless it be at once wisely and carefully destroyed and rooted out (as it soon may be) by the virtue of holy prayer, contrition, confession, and satisfaction, then in a short time of one hair he makes a rope, by constantly adding something to it.  Therefore, my beloved Brethren, as this holy joy comes from cleanness of heart, and the purity of continual prayer, we must principally endeavour to acquire these two virtues, that thus we may have this joy both exterior and interior, which I desire so greatly, and love so much to see and feel, both for myself and you, to the edification of our neighbour, and the confusion of the enemy.  Sadness belongs to the devil and his children, but to us perpetual joy and jubilation in the Lord.


[1] A Religious Of The Order, Translator. Works Of The Seraphic Father St. Francis Of Assisi.  By Saint Francis of Assisi, St. Pius X Press, 2017.  Pages.114-5.  ISBN 9781468130591.

A Hymn - Laudes On 15 August 2020

Quoted from  Divimum Officium, Laudes on 15 August 2020, Monastic version [1]:

O  Virgin, who shines with sun's rays surrounded,
And over whose head glows the twelve starred crown,
The moon of high heaven thy footstool is made,
Thou Queen of renown.

O thou Victress over hell and dreadful death,
Enthroned near Christ and ever our Mother,
Earth and the heavens sing loud of thy glory,
Thou sovereign Queen.

But evil still is menacing thy children,
Confided to thee by thy crucified Son,
O Mother, draw nigh, gainst the demon defend
By crushing his head.

Guard thou the faithful all who follow thy Son,
And bring back to the sheepfold of the Shepherd
Far wandering souls that are shadowed by death,
O save every one.

In kindness beg mercy for all poor sinners;
Also the sick, the poor, the sorrowful, aid;
Midst life's thorns grant light and peaceful assurance
Of our salvation.

Praise to the Triune Godhead everlasting,
Who hath caused thee, O Virgin, to be crowned,
And providently willed our queen thou shouldst be
Also our Mother.
Amen.

[1] https://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl, select date (8-15-2020) on top; Laudes in the middle; all, Monastic, English below.