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My dear Jesus, what am I supposed to think about how you've allowed corruption into Your Church? Jesus, "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field." Okay, then why aren't all your priests and bishops perfect? Why are many in the laity going off the rails? Jesus, "While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well." So, I ask you, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?" What should I do, despair? Leave? Jesus, "An enemy has done this." Do not "pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, 'First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.'" Saints stay with the Church that Christ founded. We stay and use our gifts and our talents to be good wheat to build up the kingdom and make it strong. "If God were to remove all struggles from our lives, we would no longer receive the crown of glory." -- Blessed Franz Jagerstatter Hear the voice of St. Joan of Arc: We "were born" for this time, this place, and in this period of the Catholic Church. God always builds up Saints in times of trial, Catholic Pilgrims. Be good wheat. The Holy Spirit will hold the Church, just as Christ promised. Have a blessed Sunday.
Yesterday, I saw perhaps one of the most moving interviews. Matt Fradd was interviewing Peter Kreeft, who just recently lost his wife of 63 years. Matt Fradd asked him, "Do you have any advice for those that are newly married or about to be?" Dr. Kreeft said, "Do you think when you are very old and your wife is very old and ugly and wrinkled and fat and not very bright, or even nasty, you will still find her beautiful? If so, marry her." He continued, "The last view I had of my wife in the nursing home, about an hour after she died, I fell in love with her again. Here was a wasted, emaciated, wrinkled suffering body." And then after a pause and through tears he said, "It's as beautiful as a crucifix." "Because that body ain't gonna last, but the soul is. So if you don't love her soul, and just love her body, don't get married." Matt Fradd was speechless and choked up. I was crying watching Peter Kreeft talk about his bride. It was a very intense moment watching a husband fully describe what real love is. Dustin and I married at 22-years old. When you look at our wedding photos we look like fresh-faced babies. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, I see the effects of the aging process in both of us: The wrinkles, the grays, the pains that come more easily, less hair, eyes getting worse. There's nothing that can be done. Time will have its way. Sure, you can eat well, exercise, drink enough water, limit sun exposure, but, in the end, we all get old. And, oh, how I’ve fretted over this. Would Dustin love me when I'm not his beautiful Amy anymore? But, hearing Peter Kreeft talk about his wife helped me to realize that it will all be okay. Dustin loves my soul. He always has. I love his. I am the mother of his children. He is the keeper of our memories. I married him because I wanted to grow old with him, not young with him. That inevitably means our bodies will stop being youthful, but our love and our souls will be more beautiful then when we met. And that's why, after all this time, Dustin is more handsome to me than on our wedding day and I fall in love with him over and over again. Love your spouse well, Catholic Pilgrims.
Yesterday was fun. Whew! Since I got accused yesterday of only ever talking about HELL AND DAMNATION on here, I thought I'd show me tip-toeing through the...uh...Black-eyed Susans to make sure you all can see that I'm a nice person. 😉 Okay, enough of me being snarky. 😎 It's always interesting to me the reactions I get whenever I write about something mildly convicting. Some people only want me to write about how "Jesus loves us this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Never mind that Jesus doesn't always talk about warm, fuzzy things. Like in our Gospel reading from yesterday where Jesus was pretty harsh to the people of some cities in the north Galilee region. "Woe to you!" Others see what I have written and do the whole, "Oh, yeah, well what about this!?" Okay, but I want to talk about what I wrote about. A few who have never said a word before and just happen to show up one day proceed to sling all kinds of accusations at me. They want me to only talk about love, but they feel the need to be ugly to me. Like, hey, maybe stick around and see what else I've written over the many years. It is so important, Catholic Pilgrims, so important that we understand that we can't just talk about good-feeling things all the time when it comes to our faith life. Sin is real, evil is real, eternal punishment is real, and justice is real. God does love us more than we can possibly comprehend and He has called us to live a holy life and that simply can't be done if we ignore those things that endanger our souls. The good news is that God pours out grace and mercy to us all the time, we just have to cooperate with it. He provides us with Sacraments that help cleanse us and restore our souls to health--Confession and the Eucharist. We just have to frequent them with a humble, contrite, obedient heart. We all can have hope that God will give us everything we need to join Him in Heaven, Catholic Pilgrims. This is your one nice post of the year, tomorrow I'm back to FIRE AND BRIMSTONE!!!! Just kidding. Have a good day and live the faith boldly and travel well.
One of the greatest dangers for the soul is the belief that God would never send anyone to Hell. This is to ignore the many warnings in the Bible of Hell. And, I'm not sure what would be the point of Jesus coming and stressing over and over again the need for repentance if Hell wasn't real. I mean, what would be the point? What would be the point in an active belief in God at all? Usually, people who believe this way point to God being compassionate and, therefore, that means, He will just let us all into Heaven. If that is true, then why did Jesus have to come, die as the sacrificial lamb, resurrect, and open the gates of Heaven? Why close the gates in the first place? If you are just gonna let everyone in, what is the point of any of this? The danger is in this thinking is monumental to a degree I can't stress enough. God is perfect mercy AND perfect justice. I get why people would want to think this way. It essentially means that you can live however you want and God will still let you in. You can just be a "good" person because that's what civilized people do and you can ignore the parts of Christ's teaching and His Church that put you at odds with secular culture, thereby leaving you free to roam with little-to-no friction. This way of thinking will always leave you standing outside the edge of Sainthood and fully realizing who God made you to be. Saints will actual seem stuffy, and rigid, and overboard to you and, instead, you'll be more in awe of modernists who progress with the times. Hell is a place that we choose and God respects our wishes. If we have lived a life where we have chosen to ignore God and His teachings, if we choose mortal sin over repentance, we have told God that we don't really want Him. The Church and Jesus teach about the last four things: Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell. If Heaven is the only option because God is just so nice, then there would be no point in all the judgement talk in the Bible. For love of God, may we always strive to show Him that we want to be with Him and not just presume we can live however and He'll just be nice to us in the end. Live the faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims.
Today we hear the parable of the sower and seed. For me, it's the rocky ground that best represents what I experienced in my life. "Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots." Christ goes on to explain exactly what this means. This is the person "who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. but he has no root and lasts only for a a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away." In my younger days, I believed that Christianity was insurance that nothing bad would ever happen to you. I was under the assumption that being a Christian meant you'd live a perfectly happy life. There's a couple of reasons I thought this. 1. I was not given any history of what the early Christians went through and how so many died for the faith. 2. I never heard one sermon on suffering. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about why Catholics have, for the most part, crucifixes instead of bare crosses. A lot of Protestants commented that "Jesus isn't on the cross anymore" and "we need to think of the Resurrection not the Crucifixion." I agree with St. John Paul II when he said, "We are an Easter people!" However, we still need to understand suffering and persecution. When we strip the cross of Our Suffering Lord, we can easily forget that Jesus gave meaning to suffering. Not that we should go looking for it, but when it comes our way, if we unite it with Christ's suffering, it becomes more than just dumb suffering. It can be redemptive. I didn't know any of this. So, when tragedy came my way and I suffered greatly, those shallow roots of mine in the rocky soil were scorched. I was livid at God for allowing evil to happen to me. How could He? I was a Christian and didn't that mean nothing but sunshine and happiness all the day long? Thankfully, I found my way back and upon my conversion to Catholicism, seeds were planted in better soil because I got a better understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. I pray you have a blessed Sunday, Catholic Pilgrims.
Have you ever gotten snagged by a headline like this on a video? "See what this former childhood star looks like today!" The other day, I saw a short video that had a picture of an emaciated, drug-addicted woman as its thumbnail and it said, "This 80s Beauty Now On the Streets!" Well, I bit and started watching. I quickly noticed was that the lady on the cover and the lady actually in the video were not the same people. They had put an AI generated homeless woman on the front to lure people in. The actual "80s beauty" was a different person. I stopped the video and thought to myself, "What an utter waste of time. I was so curious about something that's so insignificant, so pointless that's it's a bit embarrassing that I got suckered in." Then, about a week later, I started watching a long video on what dog breeds not to buy. This is utterly stupid for me to watch because a. I'm not a dog person and b. I'm not even remotely considering getting a dog. But..I was curious. Yesterday, while I was reading St. Augustine's book "Confessions" for my podcast, he was talking about the sin of curiosity. He was talking about how when our senses want something beautiful they know where to find it. Our eyes look at a beautiful work of art, our ears will listen to a harmonious tune, our nose seeks out fragrant perfume, and our sense of taste seeks something delicious. He goes on by saying that oftentimes to satisfy our curiosity, we seek out things that are in the reverse of the beautiful. People will look at a corpse, they will go to the theatre to see disfigured people put on display, they will read about something grotesque. None of these things add value to our lives or draw us closer to God. The information age can easily cause us to slip into the sin of curiosity. It's not bad to be curious, but what we are curious about is the problem. Or, if what we are investing all our time in leads us away from valuable time spent with family, friends, or God then it is a problem. The good, the true, and the beautiful are the things we should seek, Catholic Pilgrims. Nearly everything else is noise meant to distract us. Have a blessed Thursday.
Hey, Catholic Pilgrims, remember our small-town church series? Well, it's back! Well, before I started doing my ancestry research, I thought little of Kentucky. But, turns out, I had kin in Kentucky for, at least, over a century. Earliest that I can find for when they arrived in Kentucky was in 1803, though it might have been sooner. Our small-town church today hails from Falmouth, Kentucky up in the north of the state. This isn't where my family was located; they were more in the middle and the southern part of the state. There was an earlier church built in 1860, but the one you see here was dedicated on September 12th, 1880. If you look on a map, this church sits right next to Licking River and that's a problem when banks overflow. In 1937 and 1997, floodwaters caused a lot of damage to the church and its property. Those waters might have taken a "lick" out of things, but they couldn't swallow up things completely. I've only ever spent time at the very top of the state and on trips driving through. Now that I know my family resided in the state for a good bit, I'll have to give it more of my attention someday. But, if you are ever in Falmouth, Kentucky, stop by and visit St. Francis Xavier Church. Have a good day, Catholic Pilgrims.
Two weeks ago, my son and I were driving from California to Missouri to see my dad. My husband had to go TDY, so he couldn't come with us. I thought it would be fun to stay at KOAs in the cabins they have in order to make it a fun trip. Last summer, our son had a blast at the KOAs playing in the pool, getting ice cream, and playing the other outdoor games they provide. Our first night in a KOA was in Utah on a Sunday. After we got settled in our cabin, I decided to go look for dinner. I thought it would be fun to get some things at the Walmart deli section and have a picnic. Well, there wasn't much I could eat (gluten-free), so I decided to go hunt for a restaurant. For anyone who has driven through Utah on a Sunday, you know that most things are closed. That was the case for the small town we were in and as I drove around not finding any place open, I started to get frustrated. I'm happy that the Lord's Day is observed, but it was just something I hadn't accounted for. My son was growing increasingly upset. He was worried that we weren't going to be able to eat. Finally, we found a BBQ restaurant that was open. When we got back to the cabin, we called my husband. Our son started getting teary-eyed when he was telling his dad that he had been worried that we weren't going to be able to eat anything. It occurred to me that he saw my frustration and he didn't know if I would be able to pull through for us. After the phone call, I said to my son, "Jeremiah, even if I had to go without, I would have gotten you food. I was just trying to find something for the both of us. It may take some time, but I will always take care of you." It occurred to me that we can have this response to God when it seems He is delayed in answering our prayers. It's not that we see Him get frustrated like I did in my human weakness, but we wonder if He will pull through for us. Though He may not always answer in the way or the time frame we expect, God's heart is always "moved with pity for us." He hears our prayers, He knows what we need most. We just have to trust Him and the process, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a good Tuesday.
Day Twenty of US landmarks and Catholic connections in our lead up to America's 250th Birthday. Today's location(s): ASSATEAUGE AND CHINCOTEAGUE, Virginia and Maryland Okay, as we all know, Maryland was established as a Catholic colony, giving Catholics, for a time, a place to worship. Virginia, not so much. Assateague island is divided between Virginia and Maryland and back in the days of the colonies, Jesuit missionaries would go to the Eastern shore to minister to the Catholics that were living there. It sounds like the few Catholics on the Virginia side would come to receive Sacraments from the missionaries. Assateague is an island that can really only be explored by foot or bike. My family loved weekend there seeing the wild ponies and exploring the island. This is where the lighthouse is and is mostly uninhabited. Chincoteauge is an island town butted up right next to Assateague and it has St. Andrew the Apostle Church there which originally served as a mission starting back in 1947. When my family visited in 2015, they were renovating the church, so we had Mass in a school gym, if my memory serves me right. Both as excellent places to visit and I would highly recommend. There is even a book for kids that is set there--"Misty of Chincoteague." It's about the wild ponies and my kids really enjoyed it when they were young. Have a great day, Catholic Pilgrims! Live the faith boldly and travel well.
Day Thirteen of US landmarks and Catholic connections in our lead up to America's 250th Birthday. Today's landmark: YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Growing up in Kansas and reading from geography books at school gave me the impression that Yellowstone was small and basically centered around Old Faithful. I had no clue it was as big as it is. So, in 2017, when my husband's cousin asked us to go on a family vacation there with her family for a week, I thought, "How much is there to see? We're gonna spend a week looking at a geyser?" lol. Well, I got properly schooled and learned why you need a week. I absolutely loved our time in the park and, I will say, Old Faithful isn't even the coolest thing to see. The Catholic Connection is slim, but I'm doing my best. Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Belgian Jesuit missionary, traveled all through the Northwest area working with the native tribes. He traveled in the area where the park is. He was called, "Black Robe" by the natives and had a pretty good relationship with them. There is a small Catholic Church at the north entrance called St. William's Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Pines to the west of the park. If you have any other Catholic connections to Yellowstone National Park, do share! Have a great Friday, Catholic Pilgrims and live the faith boldly and travel well.
Day Twelve of US landmarks and Catholic connections in our lead up to America's 250th Birthday. We have an interesting landmark today that spans many States: THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER This river was explored and documented by French Catholics, most notably Fr. Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet. Fr. Marquette has a statue in Statuary Hall in the Capitol representing Wisconsin. Father Marquette named the river: La Rivière de l'Immaculée Conception after the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Algonquin tribe had named the river Messipi, which means "Father of Waters" and that name was eventually adopted into Mississippi. Cities along the river that have a strong Catholic heritage are: St. Paul, MN Dubuque, IA Davenport, IA St. Louis, MO Memphis< TN New Orleans, LA There is actually so many Catholic connections to this river that I could cover, but for brevity's sake, I can't go on and on. This picture was taken in 2023 while I was out on a river cruise in Memphis. I've crossed the Mississippi so many times I've lost count. Driving from the east to Kansas City on I-70, I've driven across it many, many times. Thankfully, I don't have to do it in a covered wagon anymore. When I was looking up information on the river, there's even a pilgrimage that you can take starting at the headwaters in Minnesota and finishing up in New Orleans. I don't know about you, but this pilgrim is highly interested in that. Have a great day, Catholic Pilgrims. Live the Faith boldly and travel well!
Over a month ago I made a short 9-second video on why Catholics have crucifixes. It literally took me all of two minutes to make it. For the video, I wrote, "Why do Catholics have crucifixes instead of bare crosses? Because we need to be reminded of what nailed Our Lord to the cross." It has been one of the most controversial videos I have ever made with thousands of views, shares, and hundreds of comments. Loads of comments were the typical nonsense, straw-man arguments. "Stop worshipping statues." "Jesus isn't on the cross anymore. He hasn't been on the cross for 2000 years." The most snarky of comments was this: "So, basically Catholics aren't as impacted as the rest of the world and for some reason they need to be reminded constantly because they have poor memory." Poor St. Paul, I guess he wasn't as impacted as modern day Christians seeing as he wrote that "we preach Christ crucified." First, we don't worship statues. Just because we have a depiction of someone doesn't mean we worship the representation. We don't think the statues are literally that person. Second, no Catholic believes that Jesus is still on the cross. Not a single one. We are an Easter people, as St. John Paul II proclaimed. But, you cannot talk about Easter without understanding the impact of Good Friday. To the snarky man, I wrote back, "Well, seeing as we humans continue to sin, even though we, as Christians, know what Our Lord did, yeah, I'd say we all have poor memories and need to be reminded. Unless, of course, you somehow are the one person here on earth that doesn't sin anymore because you have been so impacted. If so, congratulations." St. Paul says in our second reading today from Romans, "But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." It is gazing upon a crucifix that I see the totality of Jesus' love for me. The cross is where He atoned for the sins that I could never atone for, it is where He saved me. I have a few empty crosses in my house, but they don't impact me the way a crucifix does. Yes, my Lord is risen, indeed, but I will always need to remember why He had to rise in the first place. Have a blessed Sunday, Catholic Pilgrims.
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