Author: djpasternak

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place but you and your family will perish. And who knows that you have come to your royal position, for such a time as this. Esther 4:14

What kind of time is this? In our life, in our country, in the world? If you are familiar with the book of Esther, you will know that she was a beautiful young woman raised by her uncle in the Jewish faith. There is much controversy about the authenticity of this book historically. In fact Martin Luther removed it from the Bible. It remains in the Catholic Bible and reflects a time much like our own.

At some point Esther became Queen through unconventional means by her Uncle Mordechai who was about to die because he was Jewish. Esther kept her relationship to Mordechai secret until the time came for her to rescue him and all the Jews in Susa condemned to death because of the lies of an evil, power hungry man. Prejudice conceived by lies and spread by the enemy caused division.

Division and lies are characteristics of Satan. If you think He doesn’t exist, look around you. There is an almost 50/50 division in our own country. Pro life verses pro death, pro God verses no God and all the other lies that stem from these divisions. This morning I saw a short video on two Marches that took place a week ago in Washington DC one after the other: The March for Life and the ‘Women’s’ March. You can find it on the TFP website; it brings to light the reality of Satan and his lies rampant in our country and the world.

To be continued

Cardboard stable, manger scene
White bulb radiant above the creche
Tiny arms outstretched open to the woman
Smiling on her newborn son

Little Jesus, Son of God
Residing in a lowly stable
Blessed Mother, faithful husband
Journeyed to the town of bread 

Feed my sheep, care for my lambs
Bread of angels given gladly
Blood and wine, body and bread
Mystery by which we are fed.  

12)  At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially but then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 13) For faith, hope, love, remain; but the greatest of these is love.  Corinthians 13

On the first Sunday of advent we had a guest priest and his homily was based on three words: waiting, remembering, and hope. He went back to the period in history when the Jews returned to Israel after their captivity in Babylon. They found everything destroyed, their beloved Jerusalem in ruins. It seemed hopeless after waiting forty years to see their homeland. How did they regain their hope? It was by remembering the past: being miraculously led out of Egypt by Moses, the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabees, etc etc. 

Fr Paul related this to the season of Advent, a time of waiting and remembering and finding hope in those remembrances. The miraculous entry of God’s Son into our world as one of us, born of a virgin, His life, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, and the promise of His return. All this because of His love for us.

This brings me to the third image that turned up one day  a few years ago that reminded me of the Little Jesus picture and the painting of the Infant Jesus of Mary Alice. World travelers and good friends of ours brought back a handkerchief from Medjugorje with an embroidered picture of the Blessed Mother on one corner. They stood in line in order to touch the cloth to the knee of  statue of Jesus oozing fluid. The words on the handkerchief were: If you knew how much I love you you’d cry for joy. These are Memories found to bring Hope and Love in this time of waiting for Christmas. Now we know in part…                ( Scroll Down to read Part 2 and Part 1 )

I should have written about these things years ago, but never thought I would forget the events or wait so long to write about them. It reminds me of St Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:9: At present I know partially; then I shall know fully as I am fully known. With this in mind, I continue the story

Our priest friend, Fr Bob, was introduced to us by another person I met while writing a feature story for a Journalism class  at county college. I was interested in the Apparitions of the Blessed Mother and found a woman who had been visiting Conyers, Ga, a site not yet approved. Christina also knew a great deal about other apparition sites like Medjugorje in Bosnia Herzegovina. She told me about the Blue Army Shrine for Our Lady of Fatima which was about 45 minutes away. Fr Bob was the priest assigned there at the time.

He remained for a some years and during that period I attended Masses at the shrine, went to him for confession and met to speak with him about obstacles in my life back then. He came to bless our house and ate with us a couple of times. My friend told me about his wife, Mary Alice, and gave me a book about her life written by a niece. Several of my friends went to assist him in correlating his wife’s diary writings, but I never heard if they ever completed the work; just one more unknown in this  story.

The book Angel Without Wings written by Father Bob’s niece, M. Katherine Mason Weil, documents her many sufferings and  also describes her as an extremely private and humble woman who didn’t want anything revealed about her spiritual gifts until after her death. I have no doubt about her holiness and spiritual  gifts because of our friendship with Father Bob. The picture below was copied from the book Angel Without Wings. It was one her many visions described therein and painted by one of the Dominic nuns she served with.

Many years ago I found this picture among the numerous random mementos kept in boxes placed there untouched for who knows how long. It so happened that this particular item was one of those ‘sacred findings’ that connected with other happenings in our life. The unfortunate thing is I have forgotten where, in what box it belonged. Was it among the treasures of my husband’s Italian grandmother? And if so, which one? There was however another possibility. Let me start from the beginning of this one.

During the 1990’s we met a certain priest who served at Our Lady’s Shrine near us. His was a late vocation that began after the death of his wife. He was there for us during a difficult period, always available and kind. There is much more to his story for another day. I will just say that his wife was most likely a saint who suffered greatly throughout her life. He was her caretaker for 31 years and became a priest after her death..

His wife spent a few years at a monastery in Lufkin, Texas. She had a devotion to the Child Jesus and great spiritual gifts. But though she had entered other orders, she was turned away from every one of them after a period of time. Lufkin was the last in the series of rejections and she went to live with one of her sisters in Ohio. That is where she met and married her husband, our priest friend.

Now back to the other possibility of where that picture came from. When my husband was a student at a school of higher learning in Texas, he and his brother went on a silent retreat to that same monastery in Lufkin. I didn’t realize this until after the priest we knew passed on, when I happened upon a box of my husband’s that revealed the location of his earlier retreat. I am not sure the picture of Little Jesus was there among his mementos but I still think it might have been.?

Stayed tuned for other segments of this story that includes two other visual mementos.

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.

In the 2008 presidential campaign Hillary Clinton used the slogan that: “Abortion should be safe, legal and rare.” It was first used in 1992 by her husband Bill. I remember it being said that abortion was not a major issue in presidential elections but it seems by the amount of discussion concerning abortion in regard to elections today, it is a major issue.

President Trump voiced his opposition to abortion both during his campaign in 2016 and also throughout his presidency. Hillary Clinton supported abortion at all stages of pregnancy up to nine months which would require partial birth abortions; that is, delivering the head of the baby and then inserting a needle into the neck and removing the contents of the brain and crushing the skull.

Early on as the candidates for office lined up, we heard many pollsters proclaim a strongly pro-life candidate was not electable. They attributed many failed campaigns to this ‘fact’; however, President Trump won over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

At one point recently I heard Trump falter on abortion softening his support for life. Just today I heard a recording of an interview on Meet the Press in which he condemned Ron DeSantis for outlawing abortion at six weeks. Plus Trump also supports exceptions that include rape, incest and life of the mother. He was unclear of when abortion should be outlawed.

I have heard that half the country are pro-life. As time passes and the facts are leaking out about abortion, sadly the former president will realize he has been duped by the very same ‘fake news’ he so adamantly condemned. His base is pro-life, pro-family and pro-God. Pray he realizes he needs their strong support and more importantly that without God he can do nothing. He needs our prayers!

In my last post, I’m afraid that in trying to circumvent the real core of my own thinking on President Donald Trump, I gave an example that might be taken by some as a negative. However, it was the opposite. To me that particular incident I happened to view stayed with me, because it reflected my own beliefs as a young person and now as a young old person.

In reflecting on its significance I realized that signature song of his “Young Man” had a meaning beyond the snappy beat. It signified the optimism I had when starting out. The deep down belief that anything was possible. Perhaps taken too far, it was sometimes delusions of grandeur on my part. Yet, better than the present indoctrination in the young generation today of ‘doomsday’.

Truly I did grow to appreciate and actually love this man with the unique hair color. He did what he said he would. He was courageous in standing up for life. He invoked God and Melania prayed the Lord’s prayer in public. He called out the swamp crowd. He cut the ridiculous regulations & on & on. We were actually becoming energy independent, feared by our enemies, respected once again. He must have worked day and night.

President Trump retained that precious gift of the young, optimism and a fierce drive to achieve greatness. And if God wants, no matter the obstacles thrown to block him, he will weather the 11,000,000 accusations and bring us back to that which made our country great: love of God and neighbor and all that is good. Plus we will be able to heat our homes and eat.