EVENING CAME….

Jan 9, 2010 | Latest

Evening Came and Morning Followed, the Second Day

   The angel choirs had returned to the highest heavens; the shepherds had returned to guard their flocks by day.  The fanfare of the first Noel had ended, and now Mary and Joseph had hard realities to consider.  They were a displaced family far from their home in Nazareth and it was not practical to return home immediately; their current lodging was a stable; there were surely monetary and employment considerations made more dismal by the littleness  of Bethlehem; even the political landscape presented problems:  the Roman authorities edict had brought them to Bethlehem in the first place and here Herod wielded a scepter that he was soon to unleash on infant boys of the district.  Mary and Joseph’s  Child was God, Savior and King, but these marvelous truths did not mean that the world’s troubles were not part of the Divine Plan for the Holy Family.

   For us, for a day or so, Christmas seems to melt away our concerns.  Good presents, good wishes, good food, good music good friends & family and good liturgies can make us forget problems for a moment.   Then evening comes and morning follows, and we may be given cause to wonder if His coming has really changed things.  If nothing else, we know of Herods and Grinches, some of our own construction, lurking to steal away the glad tidings of great joy from us.

   The glorious tidings came this year for me amidst the strangest set of circumstances of any Yuletide of my life.  Here’s what happened.

   It all began one day when a rabbit or a group of rabbits (a herd?) decided that our car was better fodder than the acres of edible stuff that surrounded it.  Peter Cottontail & friends hopped down the bunny trail and began gnawing away at the spark plug wires on the car.  Each morning and evening I would see three cottontails around the car.  I did not realize that I should have been fearing them.  Watching Bugs Bunny as a kid had led me to believe that carrots were food of choice for rabbits, but now I know that the soy that is used in the spark plug wires’ casing is their preferred winter dining.  My sympathies are completely with Elmer Fudd now.   Chewed wires can disable a car and did ours this Advent.

   Then Mom settled down for a long winter’s nap and really went overboard.  I could not wake her up, so I called the ambulance, and we were off to the hospital.  Thirty-six hours after dozing off, she awoke in the hospital room as if everything was perfectly normal.  This deep sleep and trip to the hospital was repeated 10 days later on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  One of the many doctors we saw during this time suggested that the best thing for Mom would be to take her home where she would be more comfortable.  I said that she needed to be able to get some food and water into her.  He said that if the goal was to keep her alive then an IV would have to be started and she would have to be in the hospital.  This did seem better than taking her home to starve and dehydrate.  After the second stay, we moved in with John and Wendy (brother-in-law and sister) and their five boys.  The convenience of this is that they live a block from the hospital, just in case we needed it again.   Otherwise it was not convenient for them, especially for son Phillip whose room we occupied.  Mom and I became a displaced family though the Whittum’s home is much nicer than a stable.

   We were still at the Whittums during the Octave of Christmas when we found out that our accumulated mail, about a week’s worth, had been stolen out of our mailbox.  I understand this was a common sort of theft this Christmas – the thieves were hoping to find gift cards and treats and whatever might be of use to them in a Christmas greeting.  I wonder if they were merry gentlemen with what they got from our box. 

   The Child has come, but we all have our troubles great and small.  What difference does His coming make?  Blessed Mother shows us.  Jesus’ coming is not a short-lived instance.  It is not a fanfare event.  It is a quiet coming into the heart where we can ponder and treasure Who He is and be always recollected in that grace.  Peace on Earth doesn’t do away with the warfare in Iraq or Afghanistan, but it does give us the peace that an Army chaplain said is realized in placing ourselves in the center of God’s Will.  We fail Christmas in letting difficulties great and small overwhelm that tranquility that should be present within us knowing that the Will of God, His Love, is to be found among them if we will ponder and treasure that Love in our hearts.

   Mom teaches this every day.  If she relied on things or people of this world for her happiness, she would be primarily dependent upon me.  That would be depressing.  Walking, talking, eating, drinking, bathing (but not sleeping!) are all difficult or impossible for her to do on her own.  Yet she is happy – ready to clap or smile or laugh or sing throughout the day.   Troubles – they don’t seem to exist for Mom.

   How did the events within the Will of God during Advent/Christmas turn out for us? 

   The Rabbit-Eaten Car.  John Whittum went out to the farm on a freezing night after getting home from work about midnight and put in the spark plug wires which nephew Brent had purchased.  So eaten were the wires that he couldn’t tell the firing order, but he was able to get it off the internet on his cell phone and successfully got the car going.  Phillip went out to the farm and shot some rabbits.  (This was good practice for his elk hunting trip a few days later.  He, of 16 years of age, got his first elk near Craig, Coloraodo.)

    Mom’s Sleeping.  All the tests, including an EEG, showed no reason for her deep sleep.  The doctors said she seems to be in exceptionally good health.  But greater than the good news on her physical condition was the great graces bestowed on her through the Divine Physician’s instruments, his good priests.  The first night in the emergency room came Father Bermudez who had just finished saying the 5:30 evening Mass after having flown back from visiting his home in Puebla, Mexico.  He anointed Mom and gave us Holy Communion.  The next evening, a Sunday, Father Thuerauf came again with Holy Communion.  Tuesday of that same week, Father Chiapa came to our home to anoint Mom and give us Holy Communion.  This was the first time in my lifetime that a priest had come into our home and the first time anyone in the family can remember that our Lord had come into the house.  On the second hospital trip Father Thuerauf came to the ER and anointed Mom.  Father Chiapa came the next day to the hospital  and gave us Holy Communion.  This is the Year of the Priest, and for sure I have never been more grateful for the priesthood and the powers that have been given to priests and for these three tremendous priests that in no way would let Mom be left starving for Our Lord. 

   The Stolen Mail.  While Mom and I were still at John and Wendy’s, my brother Jim went out to the farm to check on things and while there a call came from the post office that some of our mail had been found 10 miles from our house, on a back road west of Wiggins.  The person who found it was a high school classmate of my brother John.  All the mail had been opened, but the items had been put back in the envelopes and left in a pile.  This included three Christmas cards all from Virginia:  one from the Whittums (John’s parents), and two from Nokesville:  one from Steve and Erin Vander  Woude and one from Bob and Bea Pennefather.  Who would have thought those Christmas cards would have had such an adventure in getting to us.  There is at least one thing that the thieves made away with:  brother Dave in Reno had sent us some Christmas cookies that he had ordered.  This is a tremendous loss to be sure, but we are glad that the mailbox looters left what we presume to be most of the mail where it could be found and redelivered and without any residue of cookie crumbs to be found.

   There is much more to be told about this Christmas and the goodness and generosity that were shown to Mom and me, but it is too much for me to talk about now. Adequate gratitude is impossible to express, but the overwhelming charity we have experienced, which is an expression of God’s love in others, is something to be pondered and treasured.  And it is certainly something that prompts daily prayer of thanksgiving and of petition that God will bless and reward the generous. 

   Mom and I returned home, evening came and morning followed – a bitterly cold, windy, snowy morning.  The night brought -13 degree temperatures and a frozen water pipe to the kitchen sink.  I see rabbits, three of them, hopping around the car this afternoon.  But Mom’s awake and our mail, which is being held at the post office now, will be brought to us some day.   Ponder and treasure, and be at peace.  So easy, right?  Hey, I just checked and the water is flowing in the kitchen sink again.  Troubles do just melt away.  St. Teresa of Avila is right:  Todo se pasa.  Dios no se muda.

   For 2010 we will be posting on the 10’s:  10th, 20th and 30th of each month, except in February when we will do one on the 28th since there is no 30th.

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

Jesu, ufam Tobie.

Advent Ponderings 4

Dec 19, 2009 | Latest

ADVENT PONDERINGS 4

St. Matthew goes on to tell us that the angel then appeared to Joseph in a dream and said to him (addressing him with his full, honorable title), “Joseph, son of David, have no fear about taking Mary as your wife.  It is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived this child.”  His intuition is verified!  This truly has been the work of God and God’s messenger is telling him to proceed in his marriage!  Joseph must surely have been thrown into exhilarating joy tinged with wonder at what all of this meant.  The Gospel text continues, “When Joseph awoke he did as the angel of the Lord had directed him….” We can almost see him running through the streets in the early morning dawn to Mary’s house.  With reverent and eager awe he must have told her, “God has revealed your secret to me.  Come now into my home to be my wife.”  Joseph was entrusted by God to be the guardian of Mary’s virginity and the guardian of her secret.  He kept both trusts inviolably to the end of his life.

   How the young bride and groom must have rejoiced and talked together about all of these events – about what the title “Son of the Most High” meant, and about what giving him “the name Jesus because He would save His people from their sins” meant.  How exceedingly happy they were together in their poor, little home awaiting the birth of this Child whom neither of them fully understood.  “What manner of child would this be?” as had been queried at the birth of his cousin John.

   Then when Joseph came home one evening with the news of the decree from King Herod that they must leave their home and go to Bethlehem to register for the census, Mary must have received this news with mixed emotions.  She surely could not have liked the idea of traveling so far from her home and all the things she held dear when she was so near to the delivery of her Son.  And yet, perhaps, there was also some sigh of new expectancy and joy as she recalled one of the prophecies she had heard proclaimed in the synagogue at the Sabbath celebrations, “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the princes of Judah, since from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel”.  Mary knew well the exalted vocation of her nation as did all of her people.  Hers was not a sterile waiting for this expected ruler.  She had surely prayed for his coming and studied and pondered everything she heard about him.  One who was capable of singing the song of the Magnificat was indeed one who had retained many of the prophecies she had heard proclaimed in the synagogue Sabbath after Sabbath since she was a child.  Was this call to Bethlehem another indication of who this child in her womb would be?  Was there some connection between the familiar title “Messiah” and the title the angel had spoken, “Son of the Most High”?, between the angel’s description “He who would rule over the house of Jacob forever” and the prophet’s description, “a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel?”  Was this call to Bethlehem another opening of Mary and Joseph’s minds to God’s magnificent plan which would eventually reach out to encompass all mankind?

   Now with her heart and mind brimming with angelic messages and ancient prophecies and her womb fruitful with the Son of God, Mary with her husband, Joseph, promptly set out to make her way to the city of their ancestors.  The rest of the story is plainly laid open for us in the Gospel of St. Luke.  We have only to watch and adore as it reaches its climax with more angelic voices “singing mad songs above Bethlehem plains.”(3)

1        from a homily by Father Gregory Kant

2        from “Exile in the Stars” by Father James Donehue

      3     ibid

Advent Ponderings 3

Dec 15, 2009 | Latest

ADVENT PONDERINGS 3  

 St. Joseph was an extremely sensitive man. “All of his senses tingled with the awareness of God’s presence everywhere.”(1)  Because he was a man of such sensitivity and faith, because he was so pure and close to God himself, he would surely soon have sensed God’s action in this circumstance of his life.  Joseph, as well as Mary, lived in an atmosphere of the spiritual.  They easily referred everything to God and saw everything as coming from God.  And so Joseph moved on, even if in a puzzled and confused way, to the wondering realization that somehow this situation must be an act of God.  You and I would not have come to this conclusion, but St. Joseph was a man of superior faith.  “He saw God in the light; he saw God in the darkness.”(2)  God was as present to him as the piece of wood in his hands.

   Even as Joseph was sure that his beloved fiancée was not guilty of sin, he was nevertheless in anguish over the mystery before him.  He felt he could not marry her, but he could shelter her with his silence  By not taking her before the law court, he gave testimony to Mary’s innocence  Yet he still felt he would have to “put her away privately”, since this was the most respectful and only solution he could think of with his human reasoning powers.  He made his decision trusting in God as his fiancée had.  God would bring this situation to His own good end, even if first they both had to go through deep suffering.  The two of them suffered and waited, neither one knowing fully what was in the other’s mind and heart.

   Why did Joseph want to “put Mary away privately” if he did not suspect sin?  If this pure woman is not a adulteress and this pregnancy does somehow come from God, then there would be reason enough to fear the awesomeness of what was taking place in the life of his betrothed.  God has in some unheard of manner brided his bride.  Could he dare intrude on what God was doing?  Could he claim a child that was not his own?  Surely he would have been filled with fear of God and with a sense of his own unworthiness.  Perhaps he felt like St. Peter at the miraculous catch of fish saying to Our Lord, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man”, or like Isaiah saying to the angel, “I held my peace:  I am a man of unclean lips.”

   St. Bernard had this very same thought: “Joseph wanted to put Mary away for the same reason that made Peter seek to put away the Lord when he said, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man.”  St. Bernard also brings in the centurion who said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.”  Joseph felt he was not worthy to enter under the roof of marriage with God’s bride.

   All of this surely caused Joseph anguish as he considered putting away her whom he loved with all his heart.  He had decided that he would have to put her away not because he believed her to be guilty, but because he reverenced a profound mystery in her, one that he could not understand, to which he could only submit. Joseph’s heart must surely have broken at the very thought of giving up his bride-to-be.  But not for long because Joseph’s reasons were quick.  He would have come to a decision within a few days and, like Abraham, just at the moment when he was about to carry out his decision, an angel came to rescue him.  But not before he had suffered heartbreak.  We must not take from Joseph the glory of trial and suffering of which this event was undoubtedly the most searing in his life.  Joseph grew into new manhood from this suffering test.  It was a  test surpassing the test of Abraham when he was told to sacrifice his only son because the love between spouses is more intimately profound than the love between father and son.  And the love between these two extraordinarily pure spouses was an extraordinarily strong love.

Advent Ponderings 2

Dec 5, 2009 | Latest

Advent Ponderings on the Silent Saint — Part 2

    If this were not so, it would have been little shield for Joseph to have taken a pregnant girl into his home as his bride.  The townspeople would have forever been under the impression that this child had been conceived out of wedlock.  I, for one, cannot think that Almighty God would have allowed there to exist the appearance of scandal at the Incarnation of His Only Begotten Son.  St. Bernard corroborates this position.  He says, “It was needful that Mary be affianced to Joseph since the vigilance of her betrothed would thus safeguard both her chastity and her public repute.  What could more befit the wisdom and dignity of God’s providence?  By this providential arrangement there was someone to be entrusted with Heaven’s secrets, and the good name of the Virgin Mother was protected from slander.”

   If this premise is established, it then becomes evident that Mary’s pregnancy was a dilemma to no one but Joseph.  The townspeople would then think this was just the legitimate offspring of Joseph and Mary, as it is declared in St. Luke’s Gospel when he writes, “When Jesus began his work, He was about thirty years of age, being, so it was supposed, the son of Joseph….”

  With the annunciation of her own motherhood fresh upon her heart, we next see Mary setting out with haste to see the sign of her aged cousin’s pregnancy.  She went with haste; that is, without making any preparations and without giving Joseph an explanation.  She would remain with her cousin Elizabeth to assist her at the time of her delivery and to help care for the newborn infant John.  What a gracious nurse the young Mary must have made!  After a few months, she left Elizabeth, Zachary and John to return to Nazareth.

   Soon after her return, the signs of her own childbearing became evident to Joseph.  Immediately he must have been thrown into bewildered consternation.  “What is this? How can this be?”  His beloved affianced one with child?  If the thought of adultery passed through his mind at all, surely it did not lodge there for long.  He could clearly see that his promised one was still as radiant and pure as she had been before her sojourn to Aim Karim.  Or, perhaps, now she was even more radiant with the Godchild within her very body. 

   Besides this evident purity and candour emanating from his fiancee’s  entire being, a second reason why I do not think that Joseph suspected adultery is because the Gospel tells us that Joseph was a just man, and because he was just he was unwilling to expose her to the law.  If he were a just man who thought his betrothed had betrayed him, he would obviously have been obliged to expose her to the law.  Is not the Gospel telling us that he was just in the sense of holy, so holy that he could see beyond the external appearances to the spiritual.  He could see that his betrothed was still radiantly pure.  One look into her eyes would have told him that.  Her purity would not allow for such sin.  There had to be another explanation.

   I have read several authors who have also expressed this belief that it is impossible to imagine Saint Joseph attributing the sin of adultery to his beloved fiancée.  The two most prominent are St. Jerome and St. Bernard.  St. Jerome says, “Joseph knew Mary’s holiness hid in silence a mystery he did not understand.”  St. Bernard tells us, “St. Joseph would not have been just if he had connived with her known guilt.  He could not bear to expose her to a trial under the law because he did not think she was guilty of sin.  He saw and trembled at the signs of the divine presence in Mary.”  Father Denis O’Shea tells us, “Joseph did not think she had been guilty of sin.  He was a just man and so would not risk a miscarriage of justice by bringing her before a public court.  He knew she had not sinned.  He recalled her glorious, steadfast eyes, her lovely face, her modest mien, her air of candour and innocence, her whole person breathing purity.  It were profanation to doubt her!”

Advent Ponderings by Sister Joseph, PCC

Nov 28, 2009 | Latest

 By Sister Joseph, PCC:  Advent Ponderings on the Silent Saint

First of 4 Parts

   Saint Joseph is the silent saint who will not defend himself.  If only St. Matthew had given us two more sentences in his account of the Gospel pericope on Mary and Joseph we would have the solution to one of the most tantalizing natural mysteries in the Gospels.  What did Joseph really think when he discovered his beloved fiancée to be with child?  What made him decide to “put her away privately?”  Almighty God, the primary author of Sacred Scripture, knew that it would be beneficial for us to ponder and labor over the few sentences Matthew did give us.  As our minds grapple with the hidden meanings in the Scripture stories, our faith increases.  While none of us will ever know, until we reach heaven, all of the details surrounding the beginning stages of Mary and Joseph’s life together, may I have the privilege of adding my own meditations to this open field of speculation?

   To begin at the beginning, when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive and bear a Son through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and then left her, this young Jewish girl must have been filled with wonder and a subdued joy over what had just happened to her.  At this very moment, because of her gracious, obedient fiat, she was carrying the Son of the Most High God within her womb.  If she kept and pondered events that occurred later on such as the visit of the shepherds at the birth of this Son, and the words of Simeon to her at the time of His presentation in the temple, then she surely kept and pondered this first tremendous, incomprehensible occurrence in her life.  She kept and pondered it in secret.  The secrets of the King are for the King alone.

  Hers was never more of an enclosed heart than at this time when she felt the first stirrings of the Divine Seed within her virgin body.  How could she speak of having conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit?  Her silence was earth shattering with the power to burst forth into her Magnificat when she met her aged cousin Elizabeth.  But for the present she could not speak of it to anyone, not even to her beloved Joseph.  It was too delicate and too sacred for human conversation.  If God Himself would reveal the secret to Elizabeth, He would at the proper time also reveal it to Joseph.  This sacred secret was between God and herself.  The Greater would have to be the One to make it known to any other; it was not for Mary to reveal. 

   Mary owed reverence and submission to her lord Joseph, but she owed even greater reverence and submission to her Lord in heaven and in her womb.  Her silence was profound and heroic, causing no little pain to her own heart and to the heart of her betrothed.  Such a mature silence shows the strength and wisdom of the young Jewish girl whom God had chosen as His bride and as His mother.

   The Gospel narrative tells us that at the time of the announcement from the Angel Gabriel, Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph.  It was the Jewish custom of the times to celebrate weddings in two stages.  The betrothal in which the actual marriage contract was sealed, and the celebration of the marriage feast about a year later, which consisted of the bride’s introduction into the bridegroom’s home.  Dominican Father Boniface Llamera in his scholarly book, Saint Joseph, adds to this:  “Since the essence of matrimony was established by the betrothal, it would follow that the marital union was licit between the betrothed.  The Old Law neither prohibited nor authorized it expressly.  But we can believe that since the espousals had the force of true matrimony, the marital union was, implicitly at least, considered one of the rights of espoused persons.”  It seems to me that this must be the reason why the Gospel narrative begins by telling us that Mary was a betrothed virgin – to let us know that she was within the appropriate state for conceiving a child according to the Jewish culture of her day.

The Seton Difference

Nov 24, 2009 | Latest

The Seton Difference

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good                                                                                                                         

His mercy endures forever.

I give thanks for Seton and all the wonderful families that have come together to make her what she is. 

In thanksgiving for the good students who continue making Seton great, I am going to give headline like summaries of some of the articles/editorials/columns that appeared in the first two issues of the school newspaper. 

Beauty and the Beast announced as spring musical.                                                 

KC Dufrain returns to Seton to teach.

God is calling us to endure the heavy cross of suffering.

Seton students serve during the summer in the Dominican Republic, at a Diocesan Work Camp and in Africa with the House of Mercy.

Mrs. Wittman teaches a girls life skill class including First Aid, nutrition, etiquette and cooking.

Advanced Biology worth the extra work.

Maureen Terza becomes Mrs. Campbell.

Embarrassing 7^th grade remembrances.

Advice from Seniors and Mr. Heisler to 7^th graders.

New Sound System donated by PRO.  (Parents Resource Organization).

“Be wary that you do not allow the consumerism of our culture to fool you into replacing God with an [electronic device]”

Haiti Run includes assistance from Seton’s Big Sister and Little Sister group.

Ending of an advice column in answer to a question about how to fit all that Seton offers into a schedule:  “Pray…a LOT.  It is by the grace of God alone that I find that extra 25^th hour in very day to finish whatever project I had already written off as a lost cause.  I suggest praying to your guardian angel to help you manage your time more efficiently.’

Debate Corner:  Texting vs. Calling – which is better to improve our communication skills.

G.I.R.L. Time founded by Lisa Hill ’09 spreads throughout Northern Virginia helping teenage girls gain more self-respect and develop holy relationships.  GIRL = Girls Interested in Real Love

You might also want to check out www.seton-school.org  and read about Therese Dodge ’02 making her profession as a sister of Religiose del Sacro Cuore di Firenze.  How wonderful. 

And here is a partial falls sports summary: girls volleyball reached a #3 ranking in state on way to DAC title; boys soccer upset a higher seed team in the first round of the state tournament; boys and girls cross country placed 4^th and 11^th  at State Meet; boys played on a home school/private school football team; Jameson Hill swims with the elite in Stockholm and Berlin and signs letter of intent to swim at Georgia.  If you want to get inundated with info (all of it interesting), check out Mr. Koehr’s swimming site.  Looks as if Seton may well repeat as both girls and boys state champions.

   And Christ the King was once again given glory in the beautiful Mass and Eucharistic Procession last Friday.  The Christ the King statue still greets all who enter the main doors of the school.  The main doors have changed but not the statue. Things are alive and well at Seton.

   I am also reminded of a newspaper article written by Laura Elliot ‘93  which she entitled “What Makes Seton Different”.  It was an article about Andrew Mary.  I don’t have her article, so I will retell the story.

   Just before Thanksgiving vacation, Seton was invited to an out-of-state high school to look through their school which was shutting down to see if there was anything we could use.  Many other schools had already gone through the items, but Mr. Scheetz and I decided it was worth the trip to see if there might be something we could use.  Some of the things that we claimed for Seton that day were the big wood and glass cabinets that have been in Mr. Scheetz’s room ever since; the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes which I think is now by the cedar cross in the courtyard and the big crucifix that hangs in the new Corpus Christi building.   As I was going through the biology room, I opened a cabinet and discovered what appeared to be a human fetus in a bottle in some liquid.  I  called Mr. Scheetz over to see if he thought it was real.  “No doubt,” was his response.  We were shocked and dumbfounded and completely unsure what to do.  We were to return over the coming weekend to pick up our claimed items, so we decided we would return to Manassas and consult others about what should be done. 

   Several mothers we talked to said that we should have brought the baby back with us.  Mrs. Carroll took immediate action by calling the Pro-life office of the other diocese to see what could be done.  It seemed that all was to be taken care of, so Pete and I returned over the weekend for pick up.  I went back to the cabinet expecting that the baby would not be there, but he was.  We decided then to take the advice to bring the baby back to Manassas.  The drive back gave us a strange feeling.  I took the baby to the Carroll’s where I was also living.  I brought him up to my room and everything still seemed so strange.  Mrs. Carroll began making many calls to get advice.  The basic consensus was the obvious advice that we needed to bury the baby, but no one had a clear suggestion how we should go about that.

   During the time that Mrs. Carroll was making many calls, I began thinking we might not find a place or a priest.  It was the Feast of St. Andrew, November 30^th, and I decided to name the baby after him and ask for his intercession.  (I actually was not certain if the baby was a boy or a girl.)  I asked St. Andrew that we would be able to bury the baby by the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Mrs. Carroll was making no headway until she called Mr. and Mrs. Vander Woude and the newly ordained Father Vander Woude.  The VW’s volunteered a plot on their farm, and Father immediately volunteered to perform the burial rites for an unbaptized baby, and he suggested the Immaculate Conception as an appropriate day. 

   In the time that I didn’t know whether the baby was a boy or a girl, I decided to also give him the middle name of Mary.  So Andrew Mary was Seton’s tiny baby and we entrusted him to Blessed Mother for burial on her feast day.   Mr. Scheetz made a little wooden coffin for him, and Mrs. Carroll got some of the used linen finger cloths used at Mass with which Mrs. Scheetz lined the coffin.   

   The Vander Woudes welcomed little Andrew Mary into their home for a viewing.  It was a beautiful gathering on a chilly December day.  Chris Vander Woude ‘98 carried the coffin from the house to the newly dug grave, and Father VW offered the prayers for the little fellow.  Andrew Mary’s body was laid to rest, but one could not help but believe that his soul was already safely in the hands of his Heavenly Mother. 

Andrew Mary’s grave can be visited at the Vander Woude farm.  He is one person who makes the Seton difference, and I give thanks for his sacred life. 

A blessed Thanksgiving to one and all.

   The postings are going to be different now that we are entering Advent.  I will make a post for each Sunday of Advent:  Nov 29; Dec 6, 13 and 20^th. 

Viva Cristo Rey!  Christus Regnat! Jezu, ufam Tobie.

BLOGIC: An Introduction

Nov 14, 2009 | Latest

BLOGIC:  An Introduction

   Long ago, when Sean first asked me to write for OurSeton, I sent a few samples to see if they were what he was looking for.  One of those was a logic piece with a title that was long and cumbersome and another was a continuation of the theme with a longer and more cumbersome title.  Things happened, and I never used either piece.  More things happened and I decided to use them.  Then other things….you get the idea.   The time arrived to use the first, but it needed a new title.  I remembered from the very first posting that Mrs. Ferri had used the word elision to teach us where the word blog comes from.  I thought this was a perfect opportunity to put into practice this word and came up with the above title.  To be sure I was using elision correctly, I looked it up and sadly this title is not an application of the word. Elisions require that at least one letter of a word is left out as in o’er for over.  My word, blogic, uses all of the letters of blog and logic.   So I guess it is a fusion rather than an elision.  Still, it is a great word.  I think we should refer to whatever it is I am doing here as Blogic, rather than a blog.  Blog seems weighted and slow, as in bogged down.  But Blogic, because of the softened “g”, connotes wisdom, truth, reason, apple pie, the American way and all good things.

   There are many people who influenced my decisions to and then not to and finally to post a modification of the original piece.   In order of appearance in the decision historically:  Mrs. O’Herron, President Obama, Sister Rose Marie, St. Alphonsus Liguori, Leo White, Gage Arnold, Mysterious Person, Carter Stevens.  I thank all of you. (These people are identified at the end of this posting, except for Mysterious Person who will remain forever a mystery.)

    Here is an aside.  One thing that has been bothering me a little, is the normal process to get to Blogic.  One goes to OurSeton’s home page and then scrolls down to that picture and if really bored reads again that beginning of an introduction about me.  The next step is to click on read more.  This implies there is more to read about me biographically.  Instead, there is the latest posting.  Maybe the picture could be changed to one of Aristotle; the biography stuff eliminated.  [My sisters Kath and Mrs. Carroll wrote more of a biography – Kath taking my childhood and Mrs. Carroll continuing from where she left off.  I have never seen this and it may be lost to humanity.]

   Before we get to the original inspired by Mrs. O’Herron, let us consider what Sister Rose Marie told me.  She said that in whatever we write, we should follow the advice of St. Alphonsus Liguori:  [roughly paraphrased]  write only to promote the truth positively without criticism of others, then we shall never fail in charity.  I have given this some thought.  It seems that often times we come to understand the good by seeing what is bad in the wrong.  If this is the purpose of criticism, then it seems to be of value in promoting virtue. 

    Here is an example.  According to the Weekly Standard 11/24/08 there are three countries which have or are considering these: giving rights to nature (Ecuador); declaring constitutionally that some plants have an intrinsic dignity because of their cellular and molecular similarities to humans (Switzerland) [I think this must include the cucumber which I understand has many similarities to us]; devolving humans into a community of equals with chimps and gorillas (Spain).   It is probably beneath us to criticize these things, but being aware of them may help us to see what ails our planet that might lead to such ideas.  I contend it is lack of knowledge – not knowledge that’s an accumulation of facts and principles, but knowledge as a Gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Gift of Knowledge makes us look at creatures from the viewpoint of their relation to their Maker.  All is creature except for the Maker.  Therefore, knowledge would give us greater appreciation of Blessed Mother, the Angels, the Saints.  It would give us a better appreciation of the elderly, the baby in the womb, our neighbors and family, ourselves.  It would also help us to keep in perspective the gifts of animal and plant life as we relate all to the Maker.  Is it criticism to say that some of mankind has gotten a little out of whack in relating creatures to God?   I think I need to read more of what St. Alphonsus said on this. 

   This is too long now to give the adapted version of the piece Mrs. O’Herron inspired. We will do that another day.  Here are the identifications of the inspirers. 

Mrs. O’Herron:  mother of 8 alumni and a guidance counselor at Seton///// President Obama:  US President////Sister Rose Marie:  Poor Clare nun and sister of Seton teachers Dick and Bob Pennefather//// St. Alphonsus Liguori: 18^th Century saint, founder of the Redemptorists/////Leo White:  college classmate turned college professor/////Gage Arnold:  Class of ‘09/////Mysterious Person:  at one time, perhaps, resided south of the North Pole////Carter Stevens:  Class of ’08.

Jezu, ufam Tobie.

Until Death Do Us Part

Nov 5, 2009 | Latest

A couple of notes:

Congratulations to Seton dad Ken Cuccinelli on his election to Attorney General of Virginia and to alumni dad Bob Marshall on his re-election to his 10^th term as a Virginia Delegate.

Check out Glenn Gregory’s comment on the last blog entry – he waxes nostalgic and hilarious when he considers his World Culture days.

UNTIL DEATH DO US PART

November 3^rd , Mom and I were outside on a beautiful day:  perfectly blue skies, 60 degrees, not the slightest breeze and that November desert-like quiet. I said to Mom that it was so quiet because all the song birds had gone south for the winter.  Just then two robins came flying by and one, of course, was chirping.  But that was it.  It was so calm and tranquil.  Still thinking about the Small Ball Game, I think, I began making snowballs from the patchy snow that remained from the foot that had fallen a couple days earlier, and I began throwing them toward a big barrel that we sometimes burn trash in.  My success rate of making a basket was terrible.  I’d throw a right hand, then a left hand and after many throws had only made one of each.  My goal was to make a right and a left consecutively.  The barrel was 38’ away (I just went out and measured with a yardstick), and my failure may have been because, like snowflakes, no two snowballs were exactly alike.  We had been out for over an hour, and Mom was ready to go in.  So I  made two last snowballs, threw with the right – perfect throw.  Threw with the left – perfect throw.  Obviously, I am great under pressure.  It was a tremendously exciting moment which Mom did not seem to care about in the least.  But considering that it is November, I think Mom was right to be unimpressed.

   November has a beginning like no other month.  We first have the exultant joy of All Saints Day as we look forward to our place in the Heavenly Kingdom, then we are immediately brought back to earth, so to speak, as we consider the Poor Souls and are reminded of our own sinfulness and need for penance.  This somber mood prevails liturgically through most of the month dedicated to the Church Suffering.  And it prevails environmentally, at least in this hemisphere at this latitude.  The trees are silhouettes of their former selves having shed their recent glorious past; the birdsong has quieted; the crops are harvested except for the desiccating field corn which hangs limply on brown stalks; the green sprouts of winter wheat stand in contrast to the prevailing brown, but even it is a reminder that unless the grain of wheat shall fall into the ground and die, it remains lifeless. 

   The Mass readings as we approach the Feast of Christ the King call us to consider the Four Last Things:  Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.  We are asked to consider four things we know very little about.  We have undergone the death and rebirth of Baptism that has given us the life that no one can take from us, while we remain in this mortal body that we will one day, for a time, leave behind.    We can define death:  the separation of soul and body, but then we are left only with imaginings.  Lifelong partners from the womb, it must be a strange event to be suddenly separated from the body; to leave it behind to its decay while we now begin a quasi-assumption to our Particular Judgment.  Perhaps in this separation we will first truly appreciate what this union of soul and body is — how united they make us the microcosm of the universe and little less than the angels.  The separation will surely make us look forward to our reunion with the body at the resurrection.   The soul must come to Our Lord without its partner.  It gives us the image of standing naked before Him Who knows all things and from Whom we can keep no secret.  It is both sobering and liberating to consider this.  Sobering because we will clearly see how what we have been has made us who we are; liberating because the facades of this life are removed and no pretense is possible. 

   The soul will undergo its purification without the body, but we will know that the cleansing will make our souls suitable partners for the resurrected body in its glorified state. 

   The last three verses of “For All the Saints” gives us an idea of what we are saying here.

   The golden evening brightens in the west;

   Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;

   Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.

   But then there breaks a yet more glorious day;

   The saints triumphant rise in bright array;

   The King of glory passes on His way.

  From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast

  Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

  Singing to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Jezum, ufam Tobie.