"Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; and I wait for you all the day. Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies and loving kindness for us, as they have always been of old."
'The least of these...'
Psalm 25:4-6
“To escape the pain caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.”
Jean-Pierre de Caussade
"Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring. This is what baffles the power of Satan. He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it."
J. H. Newman
"God has a way of standing before the nations with judgement, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America 'You are too arrogant! If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power! And I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still, and know that I am God.'"
Martin Luther King
"Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt.
Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a person deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost.
It is therefore of supreme importance that we consent to live not for ourselves but for others. When we so this we will be able first of all to face and accept our own limitations."
Thomas Merton
Gold held up today on support, first at 1450 and then around 1500, after another crushing liquidation and bear raid. Silver was hit hard. Mining stocks were hammered. And then they bounced back.
The powerful trading houses on Wall Street have no concern for anything but their own personal greed. Several are serial felons who break the rules and bend the regulations and spread corruption at every opportunity.
Stocks were hammered, and after a rebound, smacked down into the close into the lows. They were massively overvalued. Many saw it coming, and warned you.
There are rumours going around everywhere. And this is understandable.
The government is going to shut everything down for two weeks. The market is going to close. There is going to be martial law.
Let's keep dealing with the reality of the situation as it is, and let the fears of the future and all the nonsense that surrounds it go its own way.
There is a new version of the influenza going around, and it is a bad one. We know what to do about it. We socially distance, which means not going out and about for the time being, except perhaps as one must.
We wash our hands, and guard against becoming infected and passing the infection on to others.
We saw exactly what was happening in China. I told you here, and said to be prepared to shelter in place. We knew it, but many ignored it, as we have ignored so many other signs and warnings.
Many listened to lying and incompetent conmen, and the stooges of the moneyed interests, and so now are surprised and shocked at the state of affairs. This is the oldest story in the world.
Get right, sit tight, take care of yourselves and your families. And try to remember who you are, and who it is that you serve.
I remember you in my prayers, as I did so today, and will tomorrow. Dolly and I had an espcially tasty lamb stew with rice for lunch and after a nice walk on a beautiful day, we both fell asleep.
We were up late last night. There was a scare with one of the little ones, six months, who could not breathe. A trip to the ER and a test, and it was all handled well, and the proper medication for something not the Covid-19 was given.
I am grateful that we are not in the middle of a hard winter, with ice, power outages, and impassable roads. I am very grateful that I was able to rig up a temporary fix and get my internet, phone and cable tv back. Being out of touch for the weekend was hard.
People were shocked today when Trumpolini said that this might last a while. Duh. How did we not know that? Because we listened to lies.
Life goes on. We are not exceptional. But we can strive to be human, to be kind and thankful and sensible, even if others do not.
Do not allow them to bring you down, and avoid them if you must, but love them anyway, and remember them in your prayers.
Have a pleasant evening.
