“If you are distressed by anything external,
the pain is not due to the thing itself
but to your own estimate of it;
and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
Marcus Aurelius

Oh, how we would have enjoyed knowing James Martin Weeks!

Oh, how we wish he were still alive to encourage and comfort Rolando Jose Alvarez Lago as he languishes in a Nicaraguan prison!

“Three things are needed for success in painting and sculpture:
to see beauty when young and accustom oneself to it,
to work hard, and
to obtain good advice.”
Gian Lorenzo Bernini

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith for ever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.”.

“Never Shall I Forget” from Night
Elie Wiesel

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil:
God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Those who remain silent are responsible.”
Edith Stein

(St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

UNUNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL:

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA by UPI special reporter Lance Modnoc

Who can forget Sarah Palin’s “death panels”?

Before we delve into those, let’s use facts to demythologize: Sarah Palin never said she could “see Russia” from her front porch.

“Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly
as the lack of courage on the part of the good.”
Leo XIII

Ordained a priest in 1964, 85-year-old Robert Terence McCahill began his mission career by serving for eleven years in the Philippines, travelling by motorcycle or on foot to be with farmers and others in their remote villages.

Have you ever wondered about God?

I don't mean prayed. Or even thought about God the way that theologians do with their strangely abstract ideas such as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. But wondered - jumped into the awe and mystery of God, trying to sort Him out and make sense of God.

We hope you will read and enjoy
this small and early Christmas gift –
the “title chapter” of
Father Skip’s book by the same name.
If you’d like a copy of the book,
please fire him an email or give him a call.

“Our most common link is that we all inhabit this planet.
We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children’s future.
And we are all mortal.”
John F. Kennedy

"I copied Jackson's style because
I thought he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen,
the greatest natural hitter I ever saw.
He's the guy who made me a hitter."
Babe Ruth

AN OPEN LETTER TO:

“THE PROUD BOYS” (although we’ve never figured out what you are proud of or why), the “3 PERCENTERS” (despite the fact that your name is historically inaccurate), the OATH BREAKERS (‘nough said), the IDIOTS WHO MARCHED WITH TIKI TORCHES IN CHARLOTTESVILLE (with an apology to idiots), and the MARAUDERS OF 1/6:

Desperate for the perfect Christmas gift for the thirteen-to-seventeen-year-olds in your life?

Fear not!

“Let me tell you that you have not arrived at a health spa,
but a German concentration camp.
You will find only one exit — the crematorium chimney.
If you don’t like the sound of this,
you can leave at once by throwing yourself on the electric fences.
If any of you are Jews,
you have the right to live no longer than two weeks.
Priests one month.
The rest of you three months.”
Kommandant Rudolph Hoss or one of his subordinates
in the announcement to prisoners arriving at
the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz

(Divina Inspiratione New Service. Islamorada, Florida – November 4, 2022)  

A scrum of international reporters –
summoned by predawn calls to their unlisted
cell phones - gathered on Wednesday
at Morada Bay on this mid-Keys island
for an historic 3:00 p.m. interview.
The Divina Inspiracione representative
filed this pre-American-election report.

One can imagine the obituaries, had there been newspapers in 1557:

Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich of Leigh, a conniving invertebrate, who betrayed his friends and the Truth in the pursuit of political power, died in his home on June 12.

“He who is committed to the poor must share
the same fate as the poor… to disappear, to be tortured…
and to be found dead by the side of the road….”
Saint and Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador

“God will bring every work into judgment,
including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Ecclesiastes 12:14

“…after this the judgment.”
Hebrews 9:27