Quick shots...

About nothing.

• King David and stats.  Today's first reading at Mass concerns the census David ordered and how he displeased God by it.  I wonder what God thinks about we who can get caught up with how many readers and followers and hits we get?

• A friend sent me an email informing me what her pastor's homily was about at Mass last Sunday - I replied to her that he must have had me in mind when he composed it:

"Father's homily this morning... was this big rant about how we're just fine watching TV and surfing the net but most of us don't go to daily Mass, pray the rosary, go to adoration or any other spiritual thing." 

• A day or so ago I finally got out to remove the little bit of snow we received and I shoveled instead of using the snow blower.  Later I had chest pains - but I knew they were just muscular.  Yesterday they were back - just for a moment.  This morning while I was praying, I heard four or five light knocks - or tapping - as if someone was tapping on the wall.  I mention this because one of my patrons, St. Pascal Baylon, is said to make tapping sounds for his clients to warn them of their impending death.  However, I don't think it is my time yet.  If I went to the doctor every time I feel chest pains I would be naked and starving, living on the street.

Did you know Matt Talbot collapsed and died on the street on Trinity Sunday?  Benedict Joseph Labre collapsed in the same way - but before he died, he was carried to someones home and died there.

Every day I pray for a happy death.*** 

• Fear of God is the first stage of wisdom, you know.  A healthy fear of God is very good.  "Though he should kill me, I trust in him."  That is from Job, though Therese made it her own - and meant it.  I do too.

• Terry at Idle Speculations, whom I like very much because we share a first name, has a nice post on holy fools.  (I also have a special fondness for people who share my birth date.)

Speaking of fools... "I am fortune's fool!" - I love that line from Romeo and Juliet and occasionally apply it to myself.

Image: Virgen de los Desamparados  (Virgin of the abandoned ones; the helpless, the powerless.)

***(Don't over react - I'm just fine - I know all the rules and cautions - I'm not at all concerned. The pains are gone now, and anyway they are from something else unrelated to the heart.)

Wounded Angel - Hugo Simberg