“'Simon, Simon, behold! Satan has demanded permission to have all of you, to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And once you have returned, you must strengthen your brothers.' And Simon said, 'Lord, I am ready to go with you, to prison and death.' Jesus answered, 'Before the cock crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.'"
Luke 22:31-34
We are called to acts of love, selfless acts that may be of little value in the eyes of a stricken world.
Sheila is my friend, a long time patron of Le Café, and a wonderful human being.
"We can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. There is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.”
Dorothy Day
And yes, dogs too. And birds and squirrels and all of God's creatures.
And especially the worthy and the unworthy poor, and those who are destitute in their hardened hearts being both blessed and blinded by the world, as they are all our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
This is what we are all about.
Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.
"The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering humanity. For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been to appear and dazzle the beholders.
But for Him Who came to heal and to teach, the way was not just to appear here, but to place Himself in the service of those who needed Him, and to be made known to them as they could accept it, not diminishing the value of His Divine presence by overwhelming their capacity to receive it."
Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word, 335 AD
"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.
Crafty and penetrating as he is, yet his thousand eyes and his many instruments avail him nothing against the majestic serene silence, the holy imperturbable calm which reigns through the providences of God. He makes a guess here, or does a bold act there, but all in the dark. If even devils, sagacious as they are, spirits by nature and experienced in evil, cannot detect His hand while He works, how can we hope to see it except by that way which the devils cannot take, by loving faith."
John Henry Newman, Christ Manifested in Remembrance
“There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.
The books which the Holy Spirit is writing are the living, with every
soul a volume in which the divine author makes a true revelation of His
word, showing it to every heart, unfolding it in every moment.
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, L'Abandon a la Providence Divine
"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."
Psalm 25:4-6
Well, today was an interesting day.
Stocks got hammered.
Gold and silver were body-slammed.
The Dollar was up slightly.
The VIX put in quite the impressive range, which no doubt was tied into the ghost of Y2K we experienced today.
Several of the online brokers were shut down for the day.
I'd be willing to bet that none of the pigmen were locked out of trading.
How did one Wall Street wiseguy put it, 'like shooting fish in a barrel.'
After figuring out that none of my orders were going anywhere I took the day off. And I am glad that I did.
Life is too short. And it's good to walk away from the game every now and then.
But the need to regulate and keep these jokers honest has never been more apparent.
And quite frankly it isn't happening.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in God abide in love, and love in then.
"What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric. O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from this troublesome Priest?"
Henry II, speaking about Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Christmas 1170, historical sources.[1]
"Truth be told, most politicians couldn't care less about the plight of the poor. There's so much profit to be made from poor people - think payday loans, high-interest rent-to-own stores, for-profit colleges, and overpriced mobile homes - that politicians and their crony-capitalist donors have a vested interest in keeping them poor."
Joshua Wilkey, My Mother Wasn't Trash, 2017
"The historical evidence is overwhelming. Many societies have done well for a while – until powerful people get out of hand. This is an easy pattern to see at a distance and in other cultures. It is typically much harder to recognize when your own society now has an elite less subject to effective constraints and more able to exert power in an abusive fashion. And given the long history of strong institutions in the United States, it appears particularly difficult for some people to acknowledge that we have serious governance issues that need to be addressed."
Simon Johnson, Jamie Dimon and the Fall of Nations, Economix, May 31, 2012
I am not watching bubblevision today. Pretty much for the same reasons I am not watching the network news and the RNC. It's like watching a drunk grabbing their keys and bolting for their car. It's hard to stop, and almost guaranteed not to end well.
And who is going to tell grandpa that he's not allowed to drive anymore.
But apparently Netflix did not post good results in their earnings call after the bell, since the stock is lower in afterhours.
Gold and silver were smacked down fairly hard. And the miners followed.
The Dollar rallied.
VIX rose.
I think quite a bit of this is for the stock option expiration tomorrow, and perhaps for the Comex metals option expiration on Thursday the 25th.
While we are mesmerized with the bread and circuses at home, dumpster fires are raging in the Ukraine and the Mideast. If Israel invades Lebanon, then it's Katy bar the door.
The young man is a married man now. A milestone long anticipated.
Few Americans really understand what their leaders have been doing in the world. It's discouraging to see how servile the media has become to the moneyed interests and their narratives. But apparently it is more the historical norm that we have been led to believe.
We who murder the prophets, and persecute the messengers who tell the truth.
While the band played on.
When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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