Supernatural Sunday

 

Mass at the Missions went well, despite our old enemy the Weather, and everyone was happy, the Spirit moved. The Spirit moved! How lightly we take that phrase, the third person of the Trinity moved with infinite power amongst the people of North Central Texas. Really? Yes, really. That in mind, I recall a time outside Philadelphia, in a failed, asset-stripped steel town.

The church was beautiful, very, and had a perfect side chapel, I do not say that lightly. So that was used for daily Mass, the Divine Office and, at Noon, the Rosary. There I'd be, at 12, praying the rosary and sometimes a few people joined in but mostly not. No bad thing, say your prayers, LSP.

Well, one day I rolled up for the devotion, all very cassock and beads, and said the prayers, I forget which mysteries. And, as I recited out loud, was pleased to hear a few voices behind me joining in, the rosary's better in company.

Good, I thought, this habit of prayer's catching on. Then, when the devotion finished I turned around and no one was there. Had I hallucinated? Conceivable. To test things out I invited a friend to join me the next day, which he did.

The same thing happened, several voices joining in, they sounded like women, and no one was there apart from us. I asked him if he'd heard what I heard, and he had. He is now a priest.

Make of this what you will and as you do, remember Lepanto.

Stella Maris,

LSP

A Short Sunday Reflection

 

"I say old chap," I announced breezily to the Crucifer as we were getting ready for Mass at Mission #2, "Did you know the gerontocrat in nominal charge of our country has promised us a green, electric military by 2030?"

"No, I did not know that," replied the Crucifer, a retired artillery Captain (Vietnam) and active oil and gas analyst. "Well he has, said so in April on Earth Day. And it's all well and good until they run out of charging stations, what?"

My friend, a practical man who went to Yale when it was still a university, frowned and thought for a moment, "That's easy, they'll just bring up charging trucks with generators. Yes, generators running on gasoline." We chuckled, said our prayers and the Sacred Mysteries were celebrated in good order. 

Not the Crucifer, obvs, just a Texan assisting Mass

You know, not so long ago, back in the aughts, I'd have raised an eyebrow if you'd told me I'd be with a couple of mission churches in rural Texas. But I tell you what, it's been a real blessing and, curiously enough, by far and away the most diverse congregation(s) I've served, certainly the most intellectual.

What a blessing, farmers and ranchers, rodeo stars even, to people who make a living from the life of the mind, who write books as if by muscle memory. And all coming together to worship God as one.

I love that,

LSP

Annunciation

 

It's the great and glorious Feast of the Annunciation today, so to mark the angel Gabriel's message to Our Lady I said the Angelus and Divine Office at Mission #2's Marian shrine. I know, that sounds pious and curatelike but so what, there's no "rule," except that outdoor shrines to Our Lady have  power, even the humblest.

Then, in a spirit of Stella Maris it made sense to head to the lake. The water was down and clear, would there be fish? So on went polarized glasses and the piscine recce patrol commenced, know the water, catch the fish sort of thing.

Apart from a small school of Buffalo Carp, gliding like submarines seeking whom they may devour, nothing. The surge wasn't on, though it will be in a week or two. I'm looking forward to that and have to renew a license.

Back at the Compound birds and squirrels are fighting ferocious turf wars, it's like Donetsk, Kiev, Kherson, Kharkov or Mariupol except the protagonists are our furred and feathered friends. Speaking of which, if they were bigger would they eat us?

Dog's wouldn't, so much, and that's in their favor. Cats? Different story.

God bless,

LSP

WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought into the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.