Fr. Z and I are best friends now.

I had a dream that we had drinks together and shared our love of traditional vestments and Renaissance art.  I explained to him I kept it secret until now because I was hurt he hadn't friended me years ago.  I was very shy about meeting him, convinced that he disliked me, so I hesitated to tell him how fond I am of him, and how much I wanted to be his friend.  He said he wanted that too.  It was so nice.  We had drinks and talked about rubrics and vestments and chant.  I woke up feeling great affection for Fr. Z.

I know it was a dream, but it made me think.  I don't want to criticize or complain about people online anymore.  I don't want to argue and disagree and be disagreeable and always critical of people who may be unhappy or angry about something.  I want to be content to let others do that - if they choose to do so.  I'm content to let others be in their opinion and judgement.  If I disagree, what does it matter?  If someone contradicts me, that is good.  If I am envious or feel slighted, I need to deal with it and not put it on others.

I hope I can do that.

Merry Christmas ... Dear Friend

photo source

First.  If you sent me an e-card, or an email with attachments and I've never heard from you before - I don't open that stuff.  (Sorry, but my computer has crashed too many times.)  So - I know you and you, and that friend sent me this or that - and I thank you for thinking of me.  It wasn't necessary.

Second.  If we used to be friends, if we used to send cards, emails, call, all that stuff - and we really, really actually knew one another ... Merry Christmas.  It's all good.  It's good.

Third.  There are maybe five dear friends in my life - well, maybe six or sixty.  A couple are dead now.  The rest I haven't heard from - except for one or two or three.  That's cool too.  You know what they say, If they say 'We should get together' say why?


Merry Christmas, dear friend.


Thanks for letting me go ...


[The secret is letting go.]


Many thanks.


Song for this post here.  It used to mean something to me - now, not so much.  Amazing.  That's the odd thing about conversion ... the vain rejoicing is completely drained out of such things.


[Oh.  One more thing.  If you don't like the blog, what I write, or what I paint and talk about, or even how I live my life - we could never really be friends anyway.  How freeing is that?]


It's all good!

Christmas Eve Morning: Prayer at Mass ...

The Adoration of the Infant Jesus - Filippo Lippi

"Come quickly we pray Lord Jesus, and do not delay!" - Mass In the Morning

That's the excitement of a little kid.  It's also the desperate call of the families whose sons and dads have been shot and killed - on our streets, in their squad cars, in war zones.  That is the cry of those who have lost everything in storms and financial crashes, through terrorism and persecution.  That's the cry of the poor ...

Come quickly ... that those who trust in your compassion,

may find solace and relief in your coming.

I did a quick check online of the news.  I also checked some blog links and 'news portals'.  Legitimate news sites report the news, what's happening - 'and the news is rather sad' to quote the Beatles.  As for the bloggers and gossip portals - they seem to be still fighting, still pointing out one anothers faults/sins, complaining and crticizing ... It seems to me these folks must be missing something in their lives - I think there must be a hole in their soul or something.

Jesus says: Come to me, all you who labor and find life burdensome ... give it up.  Give up what you can't fix.  Give up what you can't control.  Give up the endless theologizing and moralizing and blogging for dollars...  Call a Christmas truce.

Listen!  Do you hear what I hear?

Whoever is a little one, come to me ... - Proverbs 9:4

Happy Christmas!

Monastery Brews... how to build an Abbey.

Chapter House of Ovila

 

 

Brick by brick...

The monks of Vina, California are rebuilding the Hearst import of a Spanish Cistercian monastery, Santa Maria de Ovila that has sat dormant, and in pieces in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for years.  Imagine, a well designed monastery...  Funding comes in part through the sale of Belgian Abbey-style ales.

To help raise proceeds for rebuilding, in 2010 the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Chico began brewing the Ovila Abbey beers, a series of Belgian Trappist-style ales, in conjunction with the monks. - Source

I've tried them - they are quite good.  High alcohol content, very tasty, not too pricey - and worth it.

I've also tried the Trappists and they are better.  If you are interested in becoming a monk, do not overlook the tried and true and approved, there are several Trappist monasteries in the United States, Vina being one of them.

Monks in a small Northern California town are rebuilding a 16th Century Spanish monastery with help from what may seem an unlikely source: beer.

The first phase of the building's decades-long restoration project in the Sacramento Valley town of Vina has been completed, with the Chapter House of Ovila now standing, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In the 1930s, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst bought the former Trappist monastery— the Santa Maria de Ovila — and imported it from Spain for an estate that was never realized. He had planned to use parts of the church for an indoor swimming pool changing room.

Once that project was scrapped, Hearst donated the monastery's pieces to the city of San Francisco, but the dismantled building sat forgotten in Golden Gate Park for more than 60 years.

The Vina monks eventually convinced the city to let them rebuild it there, and with the help of the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in nearby Chico have raised millions to get started. - Source
 

Catholics love to drink!  Put the 'merry' back in Christmas, drink Trappist beer!

Ovila

Quadrupel (Quad) | 10.40% ABV

Very contemplative...

and better than coffee.