A Spiritual Reflection

     At its most fundamental level, Christianity mandates that we renounce all worldly possessions and follow Jesus' example - be like Him in every action we take.  In reality, most of us can't do that.  The few who do are eventually recognized as saints, and are regularly credited with earthly "miracles" (in quotation marks for those who don't believe) after they die.  They are honored as having special connections to God and can help us to be heard.  St. Anthony of Padua is one such saint whose many miracles have earned him the title of Finder of Lost Things.  He has been my go-to prayer resource whenever I have lost or misplaced my cell phone, camera, keys, important papers and such, and has rarely, if ever, let me down. Recently, however, in utter despair over the relentless bad luck my youngest son has suffered since losing his job a year ago, I cried out loudly to St. Anthony for something else.  My prayer was simple: "Dear St. Anthony, my son has lost his job; please help him to find another one ." Amazingly, the next day my son got a phone call from someone who had found his resume online and told him she thought he might be a good fit for the company she worked for.  Over the next week he went through a lengthy interview process for the job, along with, apparently, 25 others, and was one of only two people actually hired.  He started yesterday. He is hopeful again.
     I can hear you skeptics out there thinking this is all superstition and coincidence. Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't, but my experience tells me it isn't. Thank you, Saint Anthony, for answering my prayer.

Three Perceptions of God

   I have been meditating a lot lately on the interpretations of God through the ages, and their impact on today's world. I have been reading the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, and the Koran. The God of Abraham revealed Himself to Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad, or so the stories go. The God of Moses handed down the Ten Commandments, which have been the hallmark of Man's relationship to both Man and God: He told us to respect and honor the one true universal being; do not murder, steal, lie, envy things held by others, or commit adultery; and respect our parents.  The God of Jesus told us who would be blessed (the Beatitudes) and to do unto others as we would have them do unto us (the Golden Rule). But the God of Mohammad tells us that those who say that God had a son are liars (Sura 18) and infidels who should be killed (Sura 47), and states that the purpose of the Koran is to "announce and warn" (Sura 18). There is much about the Koran that seems violent and intolerant, and I wonder why it is such a popular religion. I also wonder why our politicians call it a religion of peace. I wonder how many of them have read the Koran of which they so persuasively speak? It may be a religion of peace if you are Muslim, but it seems decidedly dangerous to be an unbeliever - an "infidel". 

  The Old Testament of the Bible is essentially a history of how God's relationship to Man began and developed.  As such, it certainly contains its own aspects of violence, but not in such a way that it seems that God is advocating for violence. In the New Testament, Jesus preaches only tolerance and patience, adherence to the laws of the Fathers in the Old Testament, and love for all. He never advocates violence as a solution to anything. On the contrary, He admonishes us to "turn the other cheek" (Luke 6:29).  The God of Moses and Jesus follow as one, but the God of Mohammad has completely different characteristics. The book ascribed to that God does not advocate tolerance, but unconditional, unquestioning, universal acceptance of its tenets, without exception. This is not religion, it is slavery.

Split Families Two

Well, she's done it again: today is the day AFTER Christmas, and my son still doesn't have his son. Now we have to pick the boy up at 10 AM this morning. Connor has again missed out on celebrating Christmas with his father's family, and will have it alone later today. For the record, I went back into our calendar and my photo albums, and verified that the only holiday that Ryan has had Connor since Thanksgiving of 2014 was on the Fourth of July, even though six of the holidays this year fell on weekends when he was supposed to have him anyway. And not only has she succeeded in preventing Connor from spending time with his father, she even turns the situation around and blames Ryan for the last-minute change. Unbelievable.  Then she tried to tell Ryan that he had Connor on Thanksgiving, so that meant that she should have Connor for all of Christmas. P.S. he did not have Connor on Thanksgiving - or Halloween, or Labor Day, or even my birthday last March.   She must think we are all idiots. A Court-order visitation schedule is the only option left.  I hope Ryan files the paperwork soon. This all needs to be in writing. She doesn't know how to share, nor does she play well with others.

Split Families

I have two grandsons. Each one is the only biological cousin to the other. My older grandson has parents who are divorced.  His mother is my younger son's former wife. They have legal joint custody on paper, but in fact, my son's ex-wife takes complete control over decisions. On paper, they are supposed to share visitation on major holidays like Christmas, but in fact, we have not seen our grandson for a major holiday since Thanksgiving of 2014.  As a result, he has not seen his younger, and only, cousin in more than a year.  Until my son can take her back to court and force her to change the way she treats him and their son, this is likely to continue. She seems to go out of her way to deny our grandson the opportunity to share celebrations with his father's family, and to get to know his paternal blood relatives. She also changes plans at the last minute, and never seems to be able to make a definite commitment as to pick-up time until the morning of, often resulting is disruption to our schedule and/or our plans.  She did it again today, which is Christmas Day, when our son was supposed to pick up his son at noon.  Suddenly, she needs to have their son with her as she travels from place to place today, and now my son can't pick up his son until this evening, when Christmas is virtually over and the rest of our family is gone. The boy again has missed another chance to see his cousin, as that family comes to us on Christmas Eve, and leaves on Christmas Day to go to my daughter-in-law's family.  2016 is a Leap Year, meaning that the next Christmas will fall on a Sunday. If the planning goes right, my son will have his son on that weekend. Then we may finally get the celebration we have been wishing for. One can only hope.

Electronic Cards

    
I've decided that I don't like eCards. You can't touch them; you can't hold them; you can't save them.  You can print them out, but it just isn't the same as receiving one in the mail. Real cards cost money, the stamp used to mail them also costs money.  That makes real cards a gift, and one that gives joy to the person receiving it. I don't think I will ever send an eCard to anyone, unless it's an invitation to a spur-of-the-moment party or something like that, but if it's an important party, like a wedding or anniversary celebration, I will always send a real card. I love all my friends and family, and my bought-and-mailed cards to them are my gift to them. I guess I'm just old-fashioned that way.
 

The Problem with Democrats

      I watched the second Democrat Debate last night-well, some of it-and continue to be amazed that the candidates still can't call our enemy what it is: radical Islam. Mrs. Clinton did refer to the terrorists as Jihadists, which is about as close as anyone got to labeling them at all, but let's face it: if we can't identify them, how can we even fight them, much less defeat them? France, a N.A.T.O. ally, has just  been savagely attacked by these radical religious extremists, and still the Democrats insist that this is someone else's fight. 
      These monsters have demonstrated again and again that they want to rid to  world of "Infidels", and are willing to die to accomplish that.  If we are going to defeat them, we have to be willing to do the same. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama has been cutting back on the size and abilities of our military forces at the very time that we need to be stronger, not weaker.  Ironically, here in Connecticut, our illustrious chapter of the AFL-CIO has asked their national organization to organize a boycott of and divestment in Israel, a sovereign nation and our only true ally in the Middle East, which has to defend itself regularly from Palestinian terrorists who also want to wipe Israel off the map . Unbelievable.   I think I am going to boycott the AFL-CIO.  Mr. Hollande said it right: France is at war. May God bless them in their fight.

The joy of Family

A son of a cousin of mine got married recently - in Spain. When my cousin first told me about it, I was pretty sure I would not be able to go.  In the first place, it's hugely expensive, and going to Spain for a weekend didn't seem like a good way to spend my hard-earned money, even for a dearly loved cousin.  In the second place, I hate flying, and the thought of spending seven or eight hours in a plane with several hundred other people left me cold, to say the least. In the third place, we really couldn't afford for both my husband and me to go, and I didn't feel up to traveling in a foreign country by myself, especially when I didn't know the language. But two things happened that made me rethink my situation.  First, John didn't want to go anyway, having been to Spain years ago and not being in the least interested in going there again, and second, my daughter Jenny said she would love to go with me, and agreed to make all the arrangements as long as we could stay for an extra day or two so she could see Madrid.  As it happened, it was the best decision I could have made:  the wedding was fantastic, we had a great time both at the wedding and in Madrid, and Jenny and I were able to begin healing a chasm that has arisen between us due to her decision to divorce her husband of two years. My cousin also said that he was very grateful to have us share the celebration with his family, and thanked us often during the weekend for attending. In the end, it was the joy of being with the family at such a happy event that made the trip worthwhile.