A Series of Unfortunate Events

California earthquake series.

The experts are saying the frequency of foreshock-aftershock, along with bigger quakes, is a bit unusual. More are certain to follow.

(CNN)The earth hasn't stopped rumbling under Southern California since Thursday, when a powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake rattled Ridgecrest and the surrounding area.

The quake was followed by more than 1,400 aftershocks, according to scientists. On Friday, an even stronger quake -- with a magnitude of 7.1 --- rattled the region, leaving residents traumatized, Ridgecrest Mayor Peggy Breeden said Saturday morning.

"Many of them are sleeping outside tonight," Breeden said. "They're fearful to be in their homes. Many are choosing to just be with their neighbors ... in their sidewalks, in their driveways and some of them are in the streets."

There's been an average of one aftershock per minute since Friday's quake in the southern part of the state, according to the United States Geological Survey website. - Source

Helplessly Hoping

I need to disappear. 

I need to mortify my social media usage.

Betsy Ross is no longer politically correct?

Call her, Ms. Ross.

Colin Kaepernick made it a national issue.

The NAACP and Kaepernick associate the Betsy Ross flag with racism, slavery and white supremacy.

While searching for an explanation with what's wrong with Betsy? I came across the following story about Ms. Ross appearing to a gay writer to announce to the world that she was a lesbian.  Holy crap - how does that work with the claims of white supremacy and racist ideology her flag represents? 

“First I saw the colonial flag, then I saw this woman in old fashioned clothes, with a petticoat, then I saw the Betsy Ross house, and I knew it was her,” psychic medium Susan Lander explained. The author of Conversations with History: Inspiration, Reflections, and Advice from History-Makers and Celebrities on the Other Side, Lander is also a native of Philadelphia and says she had often visited the Betsy Ross house as a child. When Lander asked Ross why she contacted her, the American icon announced: “I am gay and I fly the flag of pride and liberty for all of us.”

"Betsy blew me away," Lander said. "I didn't see that coming. She dropped that statement down in 10 minutes. She had it all ready. She said it over and over: ‘I am gay, I am gay, I am gay.’ It was amazing." - Source

Happy 4th of July. 

Habit Change

I'm not sure what these sisters were doing, but the photo is from around the time nuns began modifying their habits - 1967.  The strange photo which I found here, Studs Terkel - Radio Archive, documents the sisters in a line dance.  It's so ironic, considering how the essence of religious vocation was a call to leave the world to follow Christ.  Today the number of members of these orders have diminished.  In many cases, they've completely reconstituted to secular life.  That's not to say religious in secular dress are any less religious for that, yet one can't ignore the collapse of religious life in certain congregations.  I know readers know that.

Interestingly, one of the top interviews on this page is with Father James Kavanaugh, discussing his book, A Modern Priest Looks His Outdated Church.  Kavanaugh lived to see the Church update itself - to its current crisis mode - he died in 2010.  He left the priesthood shortly after the publication of his book, and was twice divorced.  His celebrity, which got him on late night talk shows, was more or less short lived.  An obituary here.

Of course, the habit doesn't make the nun.

Br. Bonaventure of Jesus Crucified, OCD

Br. Bonaventure Potter, OCD

Requiescat In pace

I saw the notice last night on FB from the Washington Province.

Early this morning our dear brother Br. Bonaventure (Potter) of Jesus Crucified, OCD passed away. Brother was 93 years old and made his profession of vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the Order of Discalced Carmelites on February 28th 1948!

I called him my brother in Carmel.

We met when I was inquiring about entering Carmel while he was at St. Florian's in Milwaukee.  He knew I was also visiting a friend in town who had followed a New Age spiritual group while studing music at the conservatory there.  Brother worried so much about me - he gave me The Secret of the Rosary and much advice, fearing I would follow my friend.

He was dubious about me entering Carmel, then leaving only to enter the Trappists, and finally leaving to try my vocation as a 'pilgrim', he even called my mother from time to time sharing his concern.  He became quite a good friend of mine.  As I said, he was there for me from the early stages of my conversion and through my searching a vocation, and later on as well. He even came to see me when I lived in Boston.

The first or second time I visited St. Florian's, I once saw him praying before the Blessed Sacrament - in tears - weeping and moaning. From the Friar's chapel I noticed him standing in prayer - in the main church below.  He wept and prayed, without any knowledge I observed him.  I was always impressed with that.  He was the Carmelite who told me the community life of the friars was not like the Discalced nuns, and I shouldn't expect it to be.  He also cautioned me never to tell the Fathers that I'd like to live a nun's style of monastic life.  He said the Fathers were suspicious of men whose piety was influenced by that kind of religiosity.

After Boston, I lost touch with him, but I never forgot him.

Oh Br. Bonaventure, pray for us! Pray for me - you know why.

In thanksgiving for the holy vocation and witness of Br. Bonaventure, OCD.

Nearly all my spiritual fathers are dead now - just a couple left.  Hopefully they are closer to me now than when they were alive.

Climate Crisis

The Heat Wave In Europe Is So Bad That These Eggs Fried In The Shape Of A Human Skull - With The Stove Turned Off. 

What?