I'm not laughing today.

I read a story of two toddlers gang raped in New Delhi.

New Delhi (AFP) - Angry crowds gathered Saturday in New Delhi to accuse police of failing to act over the rape of a toddler, with outrage mounting after the gang-rape of a five-year-old girl in a separate attack.The two-and-a-half-year-old girl was abducted from a religious event in west Delhi by two men on Friday night and raped before being dumped in a park near her home, relatives and police said.

In a separate incident on the other side of the city, the five-year-old was lured to a neighbour's house and raped by three men, a police officer told AFP. - Source

How cool is this? Could it be caused by the Vortex? Is it the Synod of Doom suddenly glimpsed?

CHINESE TV news reports have told how 

thousands of residents in TWO areas reported separately 

seeing a huge city form in the skies. - Source

City in the sky.

Onlookers, some who are said to have videoed the bizarre event, were said to be mesmerised as a towering city of sky scrapers appeared from the clouds.
First thousands reportedly saw a ghostly alien city floating over Foshan in the Guangdong province of China. 

A few days later people in the province of Jiangxi, China, also reported seeing a similar cloud city. - Source

Iron sky.

How cool is that?  One thing I didn't know was the conspiracy theories connected to these apparitions.  Holograms in the sky, simulating star wars or the Second Coming of Christ to deceive people.

Project Blue Beam is a prolific conspiracy theory which believes NASA will one day
simulate an alien invasion of Earth or second coming of Christ through holograms. - Source

It happened in 2011 too.

Makes you think...

Does the sun revolve around Uranus?

I think Flannery O'Connor is over rated.

"There's many a blog that could have been prevented by a good teacher." - Flannery O'Connor

Yeah.  Well.  No one cares.

What?

The Feast of Our Holy Mother St. Teresa of Avila

The Fifth Centenary of her Birth.

I do not want to distract from devotion to St. Teresa on her solemnity, except to say - her teaching informs my life and her influence is very often manifested on my blog.  If I lived in her time, and somehow we were acquainted, I would have been the toad the Lord sent to warn her about vain conversations and inordinate friendships.  May she pray for my salvation - the forgiveness of my sins and the grace to love the truth.

St. Teresa of Jesus, pray for for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

Happy feast day to all my Carmelite friends!

Signs in the heavens: This Sunday we will be able to see Uranus.

Reminds me of an ancient Irish quatrain, discovered on a pauper's tombstone, excavated next to a lonely hermit chapel near Dingle, Co. Kerry:

Deireadh Fómhair* dark o'night,

waked from compline to lauds, 

Uranus shineth bright,

aye, the whole world be in blight.

*Harvest-end/October

“I said ‘Way to go, Pope Francis. You told us to be honest; we were." - Cardinal Dolan

Good ol' American Cardinal.

This is funny:

"‘Boy, that sounds good to me. If you have a letter to the Pope, count me in.’ And sure enough I signed it.” - Cardinal Dolan Gives the Details On the 'Letter'

And that is exactly why I don't worry.

God bless Cardinal Dolan.

 Synod of Doom

Song for this post here.

The Miracle

rain on me ... rain on me ... oh, rain on me.

Listen to to the prayer of the faithful ...

o my jesus forgive us our sins ...

o my jesus forgive us our sins ...

save us ...

save us from the fires of hell ...

help us ...

help us ...

save us from the fires of hell ...

help us ...

help

help those especially

... especially

those

most in need

of thy mercy.

O my Jesus!

Kind of the way God might see us?

Monkey business. 

Sometimes people say they do not get my humor.  I understand that.  Because it's weird.  When you come from a weird background, humor gets a little twisted.  Yet it allows you some distance, a sort of respite or distraction from the pain.  It also helps to view things from a different perspective - avoiding the pitfall of taking oneself too seriously amidst much confusion.

Watching a PBS story on Japanese Snow Monkeys helped me to understand this.  Their human like behavior is what we find so endearing about them.  A scene repeated in the ads for the documentary shows one monkey ambushing another,  jumping on the back of the unsuspecting bather.  I'm not sure if a fight ensued - but it reminded me of how we interact with one another - how we fight.  In an earlier post I said I thought it was funny how one blogger takes down another.  They fight and tear each other to pieces - using their blog and website.  Though all the contenders are Catholic - they upset themselves and the entire 'blogosphere' with their issues.  One sees that with discussions on the Synod.  Though mostly speculation by a lot of people who know little to nothing about what is really going on - save from negative news sources or scandal 'journalists' they subscribe to .  If you are able to step back, disengage for a few moments - or a few days - you get a glimpse of the behavior.  I think it pretty closely resembles that of the Snow Monkeys.

Long story short - I playfully wondered if that is how God sees things.  I can't imagine God is agitating Catholics into a panic over the Synod, nor that he stirs people up to lambaste fellow Catholics who have different points of view on all the clamor surrounding discussions by the Synod Fathers.  The Synod is more or less closed - so who can know what the results will be? Hence my consideration - maybe God laughs at us - just a little.  The way we say things?  After all, those who do not hold back on condemnations seem to believe God will excuse them, saying, "you were a little hard in that battle but I forgive you because you did it for me and my little ones."  I trust God is merciful.

I don't know - but I get a kick out of it.  Catholic blogisticians online crack me up.   One blogger says the Synod is demonic yet admits she doesn't know what is really going on.  Another blogger who has a continuing campaign against Fr. Rosica says he's sacrificing everything else - hopefully not duties in his state of life - to blog breaking news reports on what is going on at the Synod - for the sake of those who have no voice.  I don't know - but I think that is sitcom material.  I'm not being sarcastic, nor am I mocking these folks. I'm not pretending to be above them, or better than them - I simply think it's funny.  After all, how many people use the cliche, "sick back with popcorn to watch" the silliness unfold?

I totally cracked up over this line from Fr. Z (Larry coined it): "Gnostic pool of crackpottery".  That just works, doesn't it?

When we take ourselves so seriously, and imagine that we are indispensable - it's funny.  Especially when you jump on another monkey's back while he's totally unaware, and the two of you wrestle each other in the pool.  It's very childlike.

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices. - St. Teresa of Avila

This pretty much says it all.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!

I love Canada and Canadians.

Happy Indigenous People's Day

You people immigrant - we here first.

Song for this post here.

We do not have to go far to find God.

S. Peter of Alcantara giving Communion to St. Teresa.

We are his tabernacle ...

"I wish I could tell all souls what sources of strength, of peace, and of happiness they would find if they would only consent to live in this intimacy." (Prayer of recollection)

I am offering a prayer for you that St. Paul made for his followers; he asked that Jesus dwell through faith in their hearts so they might be rooted in love.  That thought is so profound, so mysterious ... Oh yes, may the God who is all love be your unchanging dwelling place, your cell, your cloister in the midst of the world; remember that He dwells in the deepest center of your soul as if in a sanctuary where He wants to be loved to the point of adoration.  He remains there to fill you to overflowing with His graces, to transform you in Himself." - Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Everything is found there.  It is the secret of unceasing prayer.  Let nothing disturb your peace.  It is heaven on earth.  Nothing can separate us from Him.

If we stay a long times after Communion, we can follow in the interior footsteps of Jesus, into the very bosom of the Holy Trinity, and there accustom ourselves to this prayer of recollection, in the company of the Blessed Virgin and all the angels and saints in heaven - because heaven is truly within.  We never have to leave - no matter what our duties, even our sufferings, exiles, whatever loneliness.  We do not have to be saints to do this - we simply need faith, so that we may be rooted in love.  Amidst all the clamor and confusion - even terror - we have the one thing necessary within us.

Blessed Elizabeth tells us that in the beginning we have to know how to wait.

Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us.

Song for this post ...

I want to paint this.