Month: October 2023

Today is a memorable one for our family. Over four decades ago the number of members was increased by one. It happened about 5:00 am on a Friday morning. After a few hours of pain on my part, the most wonderful sound announced her arrival. The nature of the gift of God would be revealed over many years: the person created before she was in her mother’s womb only known fully to the Creator Himself, no small miracle, entrusted to us for a while.

Unrepeatable, not a clone, unlike her parents or anyone else on the face of the earth. Brought forth from a thought of the Almighty, the totally Real Intelligence, made in His likeness and image. Contrast this with the robot type of Artificial Intelligence, one unable to love, appreciate beauty, feel, hope… Soldiers without hearts, empty, artificial. Even if it were possible to produce something that looks, talks, walks, plays chess, it is not meant to be eternal as a child is; there is no love, no mother or father, an empty shell full of nothingness. No contest.

Are not five sparrows sold for a two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows. Luke 12: 6-7

Sitting on my deck past 10 am
My bathrobe on. My list upon the counter
My to dos not being done
The chair on the deck wet with dew
Hastily covered with a cushion
To keep me dry

A red hatted woodpecker 
Eats berries from the dogwood tree
Just above me near enough 
To almost touch the magnificent bird 
He flies away too soon
Huge, a wingspan as large as a hawk

A visitor welcome but uninvited
I wonder at the stillness
After he left the tree and me
Knowing he was sent to bring
An olive branch into my world
Despite the chaos that disturbs my mind 
And stings my heart

I have these stolen moments 
Before I walk inside and start my day
Just one more moment 
To google and identify my guest
An Ivory Billed Woodpecker
Rare, once thought extinct 
Seen in these stolen moments.
 
DJ Pasternak                   October 4, 2023

Sometimes it seems to me I am unable to do anything to change the world of vices: domination by the wealthy and powerful as my freedoms are undergoing constant attack, forced to pay taxes for schools promoting the pure evils of the day an agenda set to overtake everything good and sacred and replace it with the evil and vile.etc, etc.

Today is the feast day of St Theresa of Lisieux, the Little Flower. When she was a teenager she aspired to do great things: to become a missionary in India and join the Carmelite nuns. She was determined enough that while she and her father toured Italy she asked Pope Leo XIII to enter the Carmelite Monastary at the age of 15.

She lived there within the walls of the contemplative order until her death at 24 years of age. She spent her time doing menial tasks and spending time in prayer with rare visits from her family. She considered herself lacking in the ability to fully live the life of austerity, fasting, etc. In fact she described herself as a little bird wrapped in cotton a creature of comfort. She was in fact quite the opposite; resigned to the suffering she endured at so young an age.

So what is all the fuss about this “little saint”? For one thing a Mother Superior told her to keep a journal and she obeyed. The Story of a Soul became one of the most sold religious books to this day. She has countless devotees throughout the world; one of whom was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her words are lived out in the world today: I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth. Another quote might be worth knowing and acting upon is: You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.

St John Paul the Great declared her a Doctor of the Church, the youngest saint to have that title. Never underestimate what God has planned for you. His ways are far above our ways.