ENCOUNTERING THE LIVING CHRIST -- OM NAMAH SHIVAYA
REPORT ON "CATECHIST DAY"
ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA CHURCH
41875 C. STREET
TEMECULA, CA 92592
SEPTEMBER 22, 2007
INTRODUCTION: We meet Christ with joy in our Creation and in each other. Jesus is here, we welcome Him as we journey together in prayer.
+In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
CHANTING: OM NAMAH SHIVAYA Huh? "I bow to Shiva."
Who? The Indian god of destruction, that's who. So, all you sweet, dedicated Catechists, meet Jesus Christ, alias Shiva in the mantra of the day.
The parenthesis beneath the mantra reads: "The blessed name of God, being one with His creation."
Either the innocent one who believes in Shiva as the Blessed God or the disingenuous one who wants to appear chique with a secret knowledge of Far Eastern Spirituality is leading simpler folk astray here. Who would have the testosterone to equate Jesus with the pagan God Shiva? "We meet Christ with joy..." and we send up a mantra to Shiva? This is frightening ignorance, at the least, and fraud at the worst. While they were at it, why didn't they offer a mantra to Shakti, the Indian God who engenders energy? Since we are talking about Jesus and Shiva and Shakti, and we say that Jesus is here "in each other", shouldn't we be talking about energy flowing from chakra to chakra? Maybe that's how Jesus is with us. If we're talking
mantras here, we may as well talk about male and female gods whose energy flows from chakra to chakra, just like Jesus' energy, right? Maybe you're talking about the tongues of fire" Start with a flame at chakra seven and drive your way down to chakra one and ground yourself in divine freedom between heaven and earth.
Whoever you are, you went to guide people on the way to developing a deeper relationship with Jesus. At least that's what the theme line says, "Encountering the Living Christ." You grounded them in a mantra to the pagan god of destruction. Do you think that because you are sent to an inland, back-water region that you can feel free to pass off your twisted concept of spirituality with impunity? Do you think that you are the only "advanced" spiritual theology person in Riverside County?" Did you ignore that there are others here who would know what "Om Namah Shivaya" would really mean?" Did you forget that the Catholic
Tradition of spirituality goes back to more than 2000 years, including the Essenes? Did you consider how brazen you are to invite your followers for the day to sing to Shiva rather than to Yaweh, Or Jesus? Did you consider that during such a gathering, Hallel-luia would have been just as effective? Do you even know what Hallel means? What would have been so wrong with singing, Yaweh, Je'shua, Marana-tha? That may be a big secret to you since you seem to be more versed in Indian paganism than in Hebrew-Judaic-Christian Faith.
Whoever you are, you have a lot to learn. You also must convert your heart back to the grace of the resurrected Christ. If this rant strikes you as being ultra-conservative, you may want to consider the truth of the fact that in Temecula, back in September, you praticed synchretism. That's a Greek word, so you may have to look it up. I don't know what the Indian synonym is. I do know that according to Catholicism, it is a sin. You can look it up.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Saturday, November 03, 2007
California is looking at sexually malfeasing teachers
Check this out.
ROBERT TANNER and JULIET WILLIAMS AP Writers California lawmakers say they will explore changes in how the state disciplines teachers accused of sexual misconduct.
Now this is interesting for a Catholic like I am. I'm sitting here wondering a couple of things. How is the suspension of the statute of limitations going to be applied against these unionized ne'er do wells? How hard is the state going to attack the perpetrators, living and dead? How many careers is the state willing to ruin within the confines of its own sandbox? It was easy dealing with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Rarely were the howitzers turned back on the accusers. In fact, SNAP was formed and Catholics attacked Catholic hierarchy and actually banded together with the accusers. Is that going to happen here? Is this going to give birth to an organization of unionized teachers that will turn against its own in outrage for their pedophilic behavior? Would this organization hunt down the managers and executives who shuffled the sexually active teachers into other posts under false pretenses? Worse, to save the hide of a friend with a smoke-filled back-room sweetheart deal?
I want to thank Mr. Tanner and Ms Williams for their courage in uncovering this secret. All honest people knew that it was not just priests who were molesting children under the color of authority. Trouble is, when it comes to sexual abuse of our underage citizenry, there is very little honesty, just emotional volcanism and groundhog hole diving for protection from casting too long a shadow.
What is going to be interesting here is not just the spectacle of watching the unions scramble for pretexts and excuses to protect their own, but the side show of what is going to be said about the sick behavior of many married people of both sexes who are guilty of this behavior. Who is going to retract the stupid comments that were made by many and sundry that if priests were not celibate males all this would never have occurred? How about all the garbage about homosexual priests acting out in a criminal way? I think no one, because as I noted above, this is not going to be an exercise in finding out cold hard facts but in an emotional scramble to protect the crass hides of the criminally warped purveyors and practitioners of extra-curricular underage sex.
So, I am going to sit back and watch what develops. You've had your fun with the Catholic Priests, now you're going to provide this Catholic with some fun of his own.
ROBERT TANNER and JULIET WILLIAMS AP Writers California lawmakers say they will explore changes in how the state disciplines teachers accused of sexual misconduct.
Now this is interesting for a Catholic like I am. I'm sitting here wondering a couple of things. How is the suspension of the statute of limitations going to be applied against these unionized ne'er do wells? How hard is the state going to attack the perpetrators, living and dead? How many careers is the state willing to ruin within the confines of its own sandbox? It was easy dealing with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Rarely were the howitzers turned back on the accusers. In fact, SNAP was formed and Catholics attacked Catholic hierarchy and actually banded together with the accusers. Is that going to happen here? Is this going to give birth to an organization of unionized teachers that will turn against its own in outrage for their pedophilic behavior? Would this organization hunt down the managers and executives who shuffled the sexually active teachers into other posts under false pretenses? Worse, to save the hide of a friend with a smoke-filled back-room sweetheart deal?
I want to thank Mr. Tanner and Ms Williams for their courage in uncovering this secret. All honest people knew that it was not just priests who were molesting children under the color of authority. Trouble is, when it comes to sexual abuse of our underage citizenry, there is very little honesty, just emotional volcanism and groundhog hole diving for protection from casting too long a shadow.
What is going to be interesting here is not just the spectacle of watching the unions scramble for pretexts and excuses to protect their own, but the side show of what is going to be said about the sick behavior of many married people of both sexes who are guilty of this behavior. Who is going to retract the stupid comments that were made by many and sundry that if priests were not celibate males all this would never have occurred? How about all the garbage about homosexual priests acting out in a criminal way? I think no one, because as I noted above, this is not going to be an exercise in finding out cold hard facts but in an emotional scramble to protect the crass hides of the criminally warped purveyors and practitioners of extra-curricular underage sex.
So, I am going to sit back and watch what develops. You've had your fun with the Catholic Priests, now you're going to provide this Catholic with some fun of his own.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
SOCAL H2O CONSERVATION --- BEWARE INCREASE IN RATES
Well, here we go again. Now it is a judge who orders us to conserve water. I for one will not conserve one single drop that would take me out of my comfort zone.
The last time I was in a conservation drive, I got screwed by the PUC and the San Diego Water Department. Some of you remember that year, the times of the saying, "If it's yellow, be mellow; if it's brown, flush it down."
The campaign and the the conscience of the consumers were so successful that the water meters registered magnificent conservation success and the water supply was in fact maintaining sustainable levels. This great success had some consequences. ONE, the water bills went down.
TWO, the water department was therefore forced to decide about whether or not to lay people off, keep gasoline in the fleet vehicles or raise the rates to bring the income back to comfort levels. You know what happened. The consumer lost. The civil servants won. Remember, this is in San Diego where every December General Dynamics would lay people off because it was the end of the government contract year.
Readers, whoever you are and no matter where you are. Do not conserve one drop of water nor one single kilowatt because you will be the one punished for your sacrifice. Judge, whoever you are, I abjure you to be honest in this matter and to force the utility to follow the rule of economics in these United States, layoffs come before the punishment of the consumer. You, judge, have to stand up for the consumer and reward the one making the sacrifice, not the bureaucrat printing out the bills. You see judge, the consumer has a long memory. If the elephant had died before this present drought, you would not be reading this. Unfortunately for you and for the utilities, there is always at least one elephant who survives long enough to excercise his memory.
Water conservation, "Bah, humbug." Why haven't we constructed an aquaduct from Lake Louise to San Diego? The Romans could have, would have. Are we too concerned over some minuscule form of wildlife that our urban life style has to enslave itself to wildlife preservation rather than to the preservation of urbanized capitalism? I, for one am not. See you in court, I guess.
The last time I was in a conservation drive, I got screwed by the PUC and the San Diego Water Department. Some of you remember that year, the times of the saying, "If it's yellow, be mellow; if it's brown, flush it down."
The campaign and the the conscience of the consumers were so successful that the water meters registered magnificent conservation success and the water supply was in fact maintaining sustainable levels. This great success had some consequences. ONE, the water bills went down.
TWO, the water department was therefore forced to decide about whether or not to lay people off, keep gasoline in the fleet vehicles or raise the rates to bring the income back to comfort levels. You know what happened. The consumer lost. The civil servants won. Remember, this is in San Diego where every December General Dynamics would lay people off because it was the end of the government contract year.
Readers, whoever you are and no matter where you are. Do not conserve one drop of water nor one single kilowatt because you will be the one punished for your sacrifice. Judge, whoever you are, I abjure you to be honest in this matter and to force the utility to follow the rule of economics in these United States, layoffs come before the punishment of the consumer. You, judge, have to stand up for the consumer and reward the one making the sacrifice, not the bureaucrat printing out the bills. You see judge, the consumer has a long memory. If the elephant had died before this present drought, you would not be reading this. Unfortunately for you and for the utilities, there is always at least one elephant who survives long enough to excercise his memory.
Water conservation, "Bah, humbug." Why haven't we constructed an aquaduct from Lake Louise to San Diego? The Romans could have, would have. Are we too concerned over some minuscule form of wildlife that our urban life style has to enslave itself to wildlife preservation rather than to the preservation of urbanized capitalism? I, for one am not. See you in court, I guess.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Where is the $93 Million SuperLOTTO Plus Winner?
I KNOW WHERE THE WINNER IS. The winner has gone to the FedEx/Kinko's store and made copies of the winning ticket. The winner has signed the ticket and has rented a safe deposit box at the bank. Then, the smart individual has gone to a reputable law firm and engaged a capable lawyer. The individual is in the process of creating a legal tax protection system before claiming the prize. The individual is having an attorney read all the fine print of the lottery laws, rules and regulations before claiming the prize. The winner is no doubt consulting the attorney of his/her choice about how best to avoid invasions into the bundle by outside interested, family included. The winner is protecting himself/herself from the high pressure tactics of the State of California to make the claim without the protection of a strong, raw- meat-eating lawyer. That's where the winner is. Back off, your invasive tactics are despicable to watch and they betray you for the unethical bunch that you are. Winner, where ever you are, I hope you really are where I say that you are. Best of luck to you.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
FILMAKER'S SHORT BIOGRAPHY
There are a lot of people out there looking for work. The link below will lead you to one of them.
http://eastsideccproductions.blogspot.com/2007/06/filmmaker-for-hire.html
This is a person who has a ton of talent in the film editing, film making area. He is a guy who never quits. A guy who went out in search of himself after high school and required about four years before he turned the right corner and liked what he saw. He then moved into a small, cramped apartment with his mother and father so that he could attend the school of his dreams. I
t was exceedingly impressive to see a 22 year old student spend 14 and 15 hour days at school just about every day of the week. He would then get on the commuter train after school and come back to the apartment to rest and prepare for another long day. Over time he even latched on to a part time job as a security guard in order to disencumber his parents from the full load of school, food and rent. It got a little bit better for him as he became more acquainted with the school system. Further relief from the long commute came with the introduction of online classes at his level. It took nearly five full years for him to get his mortar board, but he did it.
Now he is faced with a challenge of another nature. He is a single male, unattached, ready and raring to go anywhere in the English speaking world, even if English is the second language. He does have some experience in film making and has come to discover that he writes quite well too.
Take a moment to check out his simple website. You'll like what you see.
http://eastsideccproductions.blogspot.com/2007/06/filmmaker-for-hire.html
This is a person who has a ton of talent in the film editing, film making area. He is a guy who never quits. A guy who went out in search of himself after high school and required about four years before he turned the right corner and liked what he saw. He then moved into a small, cramped apartment with his mother and father so that he could attend the school of his dreams. I
t was exceedingly impressive to see a 22 year old student spend 14 and 15 hour days at school just about every day of the week. He would then get on the commuter train after school and come back to the apartment to rest and prepare for another long day. Over time he even latched on to a part time job as a security guard in order to disencumber his parents from the full load of school, food and rent. It got a little bit better for him as he became more acquainted with the school system. Further relief from the long commute came with the introduction of online classes at his level. It took nearly five full years for him to get his mortar board, but he did it.
Now he is faced with a challenge of another nature. He is a single male, unattached, ready and raring to go anywhere in the English speaking world, even if English is the second language. He does have some experience in film making and has come to discover that he writes quite well too.
Take a moment to check out his simple website. You'll like what you see.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
HELP WANTED -- COUNTER ASSOCIATES
Don't you just love it, "counter associates?" Of course you do. It is a sign in the window of one of the largest delivery services in the world. They are looking for "counter associates." I saw it and I laughed because I knew that they did not know what they were communicating to the world. They thought that we would think that they were looking for dedicated employees who were willing to do a good job for them. Actually, the sign says more truth than they imagine.
"Counter associates" are exactly what they will get. They will get people who are comfortable being in an adversarial relationship with the company. They will not be good employees of the company. They will be associates of the company who will counter the terms and conditions of the company with the demands of the union to which they will be coerced to belong. The new "counter associates" are in for some first hand lessons in adversarial relationships since they will be working next door to the supermarket that has one of the most vitriolic relationships known to man with its "counter associates".
It's going to be fun to watch.
"Counter associates" are exactly what they will get. They will get people who are comfortable being in an adversarial relationship with the company. They will not be good employees of the company. They will be associates of the company who will counter the terms and conditions of the company with the demands of the union to which they will be coerced to belong. The new "counter associates" are in for some first hand lessons in adversarial relationships since they will be working next door to the supermarket that has one of the most vitriolic relationships known to man with its "counter associates".
It's going to be fun to watch.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
I WORK FOR THE CHURCH
Part 1
These are words that recur a lot these days. They can be heard anywhere from a bar to a friend’s impromptu dinner party. Most often they bring forth a stream of questions from the unsuspecting listener. “Oh, that sounds exciting! What do you do? Is it nice? I’ll bet it’s quiet. How many people are in your office? Does the priest come by often? Is he your boss? How is he? I think priests look so cool in their robes and stuff. Does he wear his uniform, you know, the black clothes and the little collar thingy? Do you get to count the money? Do you have to work on Sunday too? I’ll bet it’s a fun place to work. How’s the pay? Do they have benefits like other places do?
These are just some of the reactions that I have encountered along the way during the fifty-plus years of my association with the Catholic Church.
The Church is an employer. The religious people of the Church are the Executives, the Managers, the Supervisors and the Professionals of the Organization as employer. As such, the Church is required to comply with the labor laws of the locale in which it operates. The Church in California must operate as a California Employer in harmony with the Federal Labor Laws of the United States of America, not a French Employer, nor a Canadian one, nor a Mexican one and not even a Massachusetts one or an Arizona one. Believe it or not, this reality can cause conflict in the collective conscience of the Church. The Church is not accustomed to be subordinate to secular authority. The Church is not totally comfortable in its role as employer because in most secular societies today, employers are regulated first, foremost and last, by the government.
It is therefore possible that a person with twenty years of experience as an accountant (let’s say, controller) in a non-profit, but non-Catholic Church enterprise who comes to work for the Catholic Church will discover several surprising behaviors in the new work environment.
First, there is the fact that “productivity” and the discipline required to achieve it is not a supremely precious value in the Church. After all, God has all eternity to get what He wants, right? Be ready for the surprise of your life when you realize that you are the very first “real” controller who has ever been hired in the parish where you are now working.
The one person who was in charge of the financial aspect of the parish for the past twenty years is as happy as a ten year old in the dentist chair when you ask for even the slightest piece of documented information. Just because you are a Harvard graduate with a CPA doesn’t give you the right to intrude in “her” files. Trust me, you don’t want to see her files. Start your own. Find a reliable and affordable software package, buy it, or get the Pastor to buy it, or learn how to use the one from the diocese that the 20 year wonder couldn’t decipher, and start from scratch. You’ll keep your blood pressure down if you do it that way.
It won’t take long before you will want to see the payroll records of the individual across the hall who, it is said, reports to you. She seems to miss an inordinately large amount of work. You’ll perhaps find that those aren’t kept in the parish. They are religiously sent to the diocesan office for review and processing. If you do get them in a couple of months and you do find out the nasty truth about the rate of absence of your “favorite” employee, I triple dare you to terminate this gem, or try to get the slouch terminated. You see, pastors are extremely reluctant to discharge a parishioner. Not just because they are humane to a fault (which they are) but also because they fear the vicious contumely that will arise in the community. This wave of vitriol usually finds its way back to the Bishop, back down through the Pastor and on to your stone cold outlook on life. So, either you look for work-arounds, suffer with incompetence or leave.
The employees of the Church are not the only ones who are in conscientious conflict. The Managers (Pastors) and Executives (Bishops) are too. The vocation of these people is a call to spread God’s Word and Love throughout the world. They are called to do it in an organization that is built on obedience, not compliance. One is a virtue the other is cold alignment. In a religious community, obedience trumps alignment all the time. In a religious community such as the Catholic Church, alignment with the government is not, therefore, as important as serving the needs of the Church.
So the Pastor for whom you may think you are working, considers you as a gift from the Bishop who gave him the permission to hire a true Manager/Professional even though the funds of the parish would take a hit. The Pastor and the Bishop may or may not be grateful that you took a $25,000 cut in salary which represents your boat and your nets left on the seashore to follow The Man. The Pastor perhaps had this plan on his mind for ten years but now that he is
blessed with the first part of the answer to his dreams he finds that he doesn’t have the s to permit you to bring the second half of his dreams to reality. So, just who is your employer? The Pastor or the Bishop? Even though your paycheck comes from the Bishop and your day to day relationship is with the Pastor, you’ll probably never know who your boss really is.
Thinking person that you are, you’re asking yourself, “If I don’t know who my employer really is, how do I gain ground toward the $25k that I left on the table?” That is an unanswerable question. You can’t work any harder than you’re going to have to work to construct accounting systems compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley and the rest of the regulatory legislation; you’ll have an uphill battle wondering what it’s going to take, short of cancer, to be disengaged from the 20 year veteran across from you on the other desk to say nothing of the individual who thinks that “It’s not all about work, you know?” and continues to work only 60% of the full time job agreement that she took on 10 years ago.
In conclusion to part one, I counsel you, Controller of mine, that you are blessed from above that you work in a closed office, far from the ravenous appetites of the Communion of Saints. Employment in that environment follows in part 2. Considering that blessing, you could decide that as Peter, James, John, Phillip, Andrew and the rest, you will follow Jesus and forget about ever going back to reclaim your boat and your nets. Anyway, pastors have 6 year terms, so
before you know it you can perhaps take your chances and try for the golden ring and apply for the controller’s job in the Diocesan Office. If that fails, and you believe in Providence and know that God will take care of you, you can stay and bask in the glory of your creatively self-accommodating work-arounds and be satisfied with the friends and relatives that you have outside of “work”.
If you decide that God is calling you somewhere else, either back to community development or Catholic Charities or maybe even to Honda America, leave quietly and in peace. Remember, the Church and God have all eternity to look forward to and we, their sons and daughters have the choice of many roads that can be taken to reach the Pearly Gates.
See you in part 2
These are words that recur a lot these days. They can be heard anywhere from a bar to a friend’s impromptu dinner party. Most often they bring forth a stream of questions from the unsuspecting listener. “Oh, that sounds exciting! What do you do? Is it nice? I’ll bet it’s quiet. How many people are in your office? Does the priest come by often? Is he your boss? How is he? I think priests look so cool in their robes and stuff. Does he wear his uniform, you know, the black clothes and the little collar thingy? Do you get to count the money? Do you have to work on Sunday too? I’ll bet it’s a fun place to work. How’s the pay? Do they have benefits like other places do?
These are just some of the reactions that I have encountered along the way during the fifty-plus years of my association with the Catholic Church.
The Church is an employer. The religious people of the Church are the Executives, the Managers, the Supervisors and the Professionals of the Organization as employer. As such, the Church is required to comply with the labor laws of the locale in which it operates. The Church in California must operate as a California Employer in harmony with the Federal Labor Laws of the United States of America, not a French Employer, nor a Canadian one, nor a Mexican one and not even a Massachusetts one or an Arizona one. Believe it or not, this reality can cause conflict in the collective conscience of the Church. The Church is not accustomed to be subordinate to secular authority. The Church is not totally comfortable in its role as employer because in most secular societies today, employers are regulated first, foremost and last, by the government.
It is therefore possible that a person with twenty years of experience as an accountant (let’s say, controller) in a non-profit, but non-Catholic Church enterprise who comes to work for the Catholic Church will discover several surprising behaviors in the new work environment.
First, there is the fact that “productivity” and the discipline required to achieve it is not a supremely precious value in the Church. After all, God has all eternity to get what He wants, right? Be ready for the surprise of your life when you realize that you are the very first “real” controller who has ever been hired in the parish where you are now working.
The one person who was in charge of the financial aspect of the parish for the past twenty years is as happy as a ten year old in the dentist chair when you ask for even the slightest piece of documented information. Just because you are a Harvard graduate with a CPA doesn’t give you the right to intrude in “her” files. Trust me, you don’t want to see her files. Start your own. Find a reliable and affordable software package, buy it, or get the Pastor to buy it, or learn how to use the one from the diocese that the 20 year wonder couldn’t decipher, and start from scratch. You’ll keep your blood pressure down if you do it that way.
It won’t take long before you will want to see the payroll records of the individual across the hall who, it is said, reports to you. She seems to miss an inordinately large amount of work. You’ll perhaps find that those aren’t kept in the parish. They are religiously sent to the diocesan office for review and processing. If you do get them in a couple of months and you do find out the nasty truth about the rate of absence of your “favorite” employee, I triple dare you to terminate this gem, or try to get the slouch terminated. You see, pastors are extremely reluctant to discharge a parishioner. Not just because they are humane to a fault (which they are) but also because they fear the vicious contumely that will arise in the community. This wave of vitriol usually finds its way back to the Bishop, back down through the Pastor and on to your stone cold outlook on life. So, either you look for work-arounds, suffer with incompetence or leave.
The employees of the Church are not the only ones who are in conscientious conflict. The Managers (Pastors) and Executives (Bishops) are too. The vocation of these people is a call to spread God’s Word and Love throughout the world. They are called to do it in an organization that is built on obedience, not compliance. One is a virtue the other is cold alignment. In a religious community, obedience trumps alignment all the time. In a religious community such as the Catholic Church, alignment with the government is not, therefore, as important as serving the needs of the Church.
So the Pastor for whom you may think you are working, considers you as a gift from the Bishop who gave him the permission to hire a true Manager/Professional even though the funds of the parish would take a hit. The Pastor and the Bishop may or may not be grateful that you took a $25,000 cut in salary which represents your boat and your nets left on the seashore to follow The Man. The Pastor perhaps had this plan on his mind for ten years but now that he is
blessed with the first part of the answer to his dreams he finds that he doesn’t have the s to permit you to bring the second half of his dreams to reality. So, just who is your employer? The Pastor or the Bishop? Even though your paycheck comes from the Bishop and your day to day relationship is with the Pastor, you’ll probably never know who your boss really is.
Thinking person that you are, you’re asking yourself, “If I don’t know who my employer really is, how do I gain ground toward the $25k that I left on the table?” That is an unanswerable question. You can’t work any harder than you’re going to have to work to construct accounting systems compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley and the rest of the regulatory legislation; you’ll have an uphill battle wondering what it’s going to take, short of cancer, to be disengaged from the 20 year veteran across from you on the other desk to say nothing of the individual who thinks that “It’s not all about work, you know?” and continues to work only 60% of the full time job agreement that she took on 10 years ago.
In conclusion to part one, I counsel you, Controller of mine, that you are blessed from above that you work in a closed office, far from the ravenous appetites of the Communion of Saints. Employment in that environment follows in part 2. Considering that blessing, you could decide that as Peter, James, John, Phillip, Andrew and the rest, you will follow Jesus and forget about ever going back to reclaim your boat and your nets. Anyway, pastors have 6 year terms, so
before you know it you can perhaps take your chances and try for the golden ring and apply for the controller’s job in the Diocesan Office. If that fails, and you believe in Providence and know that God will take care of you, you can stay and bask in the glory of your creatively self-accommodating work-arounds and be satisfied with the friends and relatives that you have outside of “work”.
If you decide that God is calling you somewhere else, either back to community development or Catholic Charities or maybe even to Honda America, leave quietly and in peace. Remember, the Church and God have all eternity to look forward to and we, their sons and daughters have the choice of many roads that can be taken to reach the Pearly Gates.
See you in part 2
THE PRETTY LADY AT ARCO
When's the last time you were the object of a random act of kindness?
Wife goes to the snack shop for a couple of hot dogs and drinks and she's carrying my only cash, one well used, totally wrinkled picture of Andrew Jackson. On the island outside I swipe one, "Denied". Swipe two, "Denied".
Did you get a chance to thank the person?
If you did, you're lucky. There's nothing worse than getting petted by the wings of an angel and not being able to express your gratitude for the great feeling that it gives.Last night, 2/2/2007 at about 9:05 PM I stopped at the ARCO station on Day Street before jumping on to the 60 WEST heading for LAX. I have a debit card with +$600 and a credit card with Fort Knox on it.
Wife goes to the snack shop for a couple of hot dogs and drinks and she's carrying my only cash, one well used, totally wrinkled picture of Andrew Jackson. On the island outside I swipe one, "Denied". Swipe two, "Denied".
I run into the store and luckily I'm the only one in line. I figure something's wrong on the island. I give card #1 to the cashier, "swipe, swipe, denied". There's a line forming, but I'm really getting curly hair on the back of my neck now. I reach for card #2, slide it into the cashier's hand and watch while he "swipes, swipes, DENIED!" Now the line is four deep and wife is at my left elbow with the eats and the Jackson. I'm sweating, and I'm growling inside, not knowing what kind of astrologically, star-crossed conspiracy has descended upon me. Is ARCO ganging up on me? At my right elbow, I feel a warmth. A gentle, swishing kind of presence. As the dogs and the drinks and the $20 all land on the counter at the same time, a very firm, commanding but extremely smooth voice says, "cover it with this."
I turn to see golden hair, well brushed and aromatic. Sweet smooth cheeks with a slight flush, bright blue eyes with a deep gentleness and a smile that could light the Taj Mahal. In her hand, a simple Master Card, outstretched to the cashier. I settle my eyes into hers, give her a wan smile and gently but firmly say, "you are so kind, but we will be fine with the Jackson. Please, Ma'am, it's OK. " The warm presence hesitates, doesn't retract the card right away, insisting that she meant what she said. I smile lightly, wink at her and say softly, "we're OK, Ma'am." She retracts her arm, and returns to her place at the end of the line.
I tell the cashier that the cash is for the eats and gas on number 7. He says OK, and punches it into the computer. My only money disappears. I turn to leave and I slide my gaze over to the Golden Haired Angel. I have a golf ball in my throat and a fog in my eyes, so with a weak smile and a lip-sync "thank you" accompanied by a wink, I leave and go to the pump to get what gas I got for my change from the 20.
I tell the cashier that the cash is for the eats and gas on number 7. He says OK, and punches it into the computer. My only money disappears. I turn to leave and I slide my gaze over to the Golden Haired Angel. I have a golf ball in my throat and a fog in my eyes, so with a weak smile and a lip-sync "thank you" accompanied by a wink, I leave and go to the pump to get what gas I got for my change from the 20.
I quickly squirt the gas into the tank and leave for LAX. I thank God for my 50 MPG Hybrid. Wife and I are silent from emotion for the first forty-five minutes of the trip. We then pray the rosary, making the Golden Haired Angel the object of our offerings. I don't know who you are, Lady, but God knows. I don't know if you even believe in God. What I do know is that two old people with credit cards that were the victims of an equipment malfunction told God to hold you close to Him, forever.
By the way, we didn't have enough money for parking, and the plane was late, so I drove around in circles for one hour before picking up our passenger and leaving LAX. We returned home on the strength of hybrid engineering, 62 Mile Per Hour cruise controlled speed, gas tank fumes and on the spirit of your spontaneous, generous act. If the world had more people like you, there would be a lot less crying at funerals because we would all be sure that another angel had taken God's hand and walked home with Him.
By the way, we didn't have enough money for parking, and the plane was late, so I drove around in circles for one hour before picking up our passenger and leaving LAX. We returned home on the strength of hybrid engineering, 62 Mile Per Hour cruise controlled speed, gas tank fumes and on the spirit of your spontaneous, generous act. If the world had more people like you, there would be a lot less crying at funerals because we would all be sure that another angel had taken God's hand and walked home with Him.
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