Ironic Lent - Forty Days of Lent, or Fifty Shades of Grey?

 Sacred Heart Church

I went to Confession of Saturday( St. Valentine's Day)  before the 4PM Mass at Sacred Heart Church.  It was a doozy - Father had to excuse himself twice during my recitation of sins of commission and omission.  When Father Bill's stomach had settled we continued.

That said, I am forgiven. Now, comes the hard part.

Stay clean.

It seemed that my sacrament was tailor made by the readings from Genesis, St. Paul and Mark's Gospel - banishment, lepers, and cleansing.  I have recently had surgery to remove a huge tumor on my snot-locker and remain bandaged - is this an out ward sign of my spiritual malaise? During the Gospel of Mark more than a few of my neighbors turned with accusing fingers and cried 'Leper, UnClean!'

Hey, it;s 'cuz of my See-Through Irish pelt!

However the earlier passage of Yaweh grilling Adam and Eve about what they'd been up to and their subsequent banishment was what it is all about.

The Genesis passage is the orginal Fifty Shades of Grey

But Yahweh God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked.
I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' 'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?'The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'*
Then Yahweh God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.'
Then Yahweh God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this, Accursed be you of all animals wild and tame! On your belly you will go and on dust you will feed as long as you live.

* N.B. - Guy blames the woman and woman blames the snake. Man, ain't that the way?


For this sin, God 86'd the Snake and booted Adam and Eve** from the Garden.

The snake is of course Old Nick, formerly known as Lucifer - The Prince of Darkness.-Satan.

Like God, we believe that Satan is myth. A fairy tale that breeders tell their bratty kids to keep them quiet.;

Nope.  He there.  I housed him for far too long. That is until Father Bill passed on the good word to me.

You see, a priest does not 'forgive' my sins - Christ ( Joshua Bar Jospeh) did that with His death on the cross and His Resurrection.  The priest is merely standing-in (skype-ing)  for Christ.  All of the forgiveness is already cashed in.

Satan does not want us to collect and to continue acting with him and ignoring God's love of us.

Father Bill gave a great homily on Lent and forgiveness. Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, Catholics receive a cross of ashes on our forheads from a priest who tells us , "Memento, homo ... quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris" (cf. Gn 3:19).trans. -"Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return."

I am dust held together by water, but I will be dust again.

In the early Church, Father Bill reminded us, there were three huge sins that required public confession before the whole community

• Murder
• Adultery
• Apostasy

All three would have been pretty obvious to the neighbors and for such sin a person would be shunned, until he has publicly asked forgiveness of his brothers and sisters and performed penance - wearing sack cloth and ashes.

Today, only murder gets some notice and if one has a great criminal defence lawyer - no sweat at all.

Apostasy is denying the faith.  Playing God.

Adultery is very confusing and difficult to describe these days without drawing boos from our studio audiences.  Fifty Shades of Grey types tell us that Adultery is liberating.

The first liberator was the snake in the Garden.

Me?   I know how weak I happen to be - I have forty days to work on it.

I kind of like being forgiven.

** Never fail appeal to a high court - Mother of God

Hail Holy Queen
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve:
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Amen.

St, Valentine - Help Me Be Less of a Jerk

I take a backseat to no man, when it comes to being selfish, whiny and most of all a bearer of grudges.

I like to think that i bear no one grudges, but it ain't so.  I like to think that I am something of Stoic, nah. My liberal generosities?  Need work. Lots of work.

Where to begin?  Take a look at this paragraph from the biography of St. Valentine from Catholic On-line:

Saints are not supposed to rest in peace; they're expected to keep busy: to perform miracles, to intercede. Being in jail or dead is no excuse for non-performance of the supernatural. One legend says, while awaiting his execution, Valentinus restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter. Another legend says, on the eve of his death, he penned a farewell note to the jailer's daughter, signing it, "From your Valentine."

He was a real flesh and blood human being during the reign of Emperor Claudius the Goth ( Claudius II - not the Julio-Claudian step daddy of Nero).  Valentine was a priest who continued to marry Christian couples though the Emperor had banned all Christian worship and ministrations of sacraments by priests.  Claudius was one of long-line of warrior emperors in the 3rd Century AD.  He spent most of his time with his legions fighting Germans and Goths.  Whether he ever met Valentine is a matter of some dispute.  However, Claudius Gothicus was an old-timey Roman pagan with no tolerance for Christians.

Valentine refused to go-along to get along. He was imprisoned and legend has it that he even tried to convert the Emperor while in the joint - bold, but fatal.  He was beaten, stoned and beheaded.

Valentine was not selfish,or  whiny, and bore no grudge.  He is the Patron Saint of lovers and his feast, like everything that's rooted in faith -All Hallows Eve, Christmas, Easter ad etc.- was co opted by secularists and largely forgotten as a flesh and blood hero.

I pray today that St. Valentine helps me be less of a selfish jerk.

Happy St. Valentine's Day - Nothing Says I Love You, Like Hearing I Am Sorry, Again!

I fought the Flu Bug this weekend and am now off the canvas. Wobbly, bruised, dizzier than a gnat in an air-shaft, but back on my pins; rather, my broad manly rump is in this seat and my stubby digits are pounding the keyboard.

Happy St. Valentine Day! Love means saying you're sorry -over and over again. In the spirit of reconciliation that signals true love, allow me to offer this revisit to the theme.

If Love means 'Never Having to Say You're Sorry,' then the Irish are screwed, blued and tattooed.

Jesus, I am Sorry about 86 times a day and before 8AM.

I have a pluperfect penchant for missteps, malfunctions, maledictions, and malpractice; but, I run empty on malice.

My misdeeds tend to be sins of omission - Omit thought, planning or the feelings of another. I am Sorry. To paraphrase Boxing Great Billy Conn upon losing to Joe Louis after dominating the Champ the whole fight only to be knocked out for not being cautious, 'What's the Point of Being Irish If You Can't Be Sorry ( Stupid)?'

Celto-centrist I am not. However, there was an interesting story about the recent findings in Dublin, Ireland. ( click my post title)

It appears that St. Valentine, who received no goods or services in exchange for the flowers, sweets and posted Love notes worldwide to morrow, was buried in Dublin ( re-interred more correctly) in the last century. This from Irish News and Events correspondent Dermot O'Gara

Was St Valentine a true blue Dub?
by Dermot O'Gara



JUST about everybody knows that St Valentine is the patron saint of lovers. You may have known that he was a priest in Rome in the third century, and if you're really on top of your game, you may even have been aware that he died in jail, but you probably didn't know that his final resting place is Dublin.


In fact the good priests of the Carmelite Order have been looking after his remains in their priory in Whitefriar St, just off Aungier St in Dublin, for over 160 years.

We have a good deal of information about St Valentine, but separating the fact from the legend is a bit like trying to separate a teenage couple at a school disco.

Fertility festival
It seems he was martyred in 269, supposedly for marrying couples against the wishes of Emperor Claudius II who felt that single men made better soldiers. Legend would have it that he died for his faith on February 14th of that year, and that this is why we celebrate him on that day. However, it's likely that the fact that we celebrate St Valentine at this time of year is more to do with the ancient Roman spring fertility festival of Lupercalia, which like many other pagan holidays was christianised when in 498 Pope Gelasius decreed that February 14th would be St Valentine's Day.

But how did a Roman Martyr, who had never even set foot in what was later to become an island of saints and scholars, end up in a Dublin church.

In the 1820' and 30's, a Carmelite priest by the name of John Spratt had earned a reputation for his work with the destitute citizens of Dublin's Liberties. A man of apparently boundless energy, Spratt started the building process of the Carmelite church in nearby Whitefriar St in 1825.

Exhumed
Ten years later, he was invited to speak at the Jesuit Church in Rome, the Gesu. The elite of Rome came to hear him, including representatives of Pope Gregory XVI. As a token of recognition of the work of Spratt, the Pope ordered the exhumation of the remains of St Valentine from St Hippolytus cemetery near Rome to be shipped to Whitefriar St Church, in Dublin.

In November 1836, the remains were received with great pomp and ceremony, but with the death of Spratt some years later, the remains ceased to be of major public interest.

Some 40 years ago however, they were restored to the public eye having gathered dust for decades in the nether regions of the priory, and are now featured in a purpose-built shrine in the church itself.

This year on February 14th, at 11am and 3.15pm, as has become customary, there will be a special celebration of St Valentine in the place where he now rests, Whitefriar St Church. Carmelite priest, Fr Tony McKenny will celebrate mass and conduct a ring blessing ceremony for engaged and married couples.


People I Love often hear I am sorry.

St. Valentine's Bones Buried in Dublin, Ireland - My Misdeeds Rest Too Comfortably Above Ground.

If Love means 'Never Having to Say You're Sorry,' then the Irish are screwed, blued and tattooed.

Jesus, I am Sorry about 86 times a day and before 8AM.

I have a pluperfect penchant for missteps, malfunctions, maledictions, and malpractice; but, I run empty on malice.

My misdeeds tend to be sins of omission - Omit thought, planning or the feelings of another. I am Sorry. To paraphrase Boxing Great Billy Conn upon losing to Joe Louis after dominating the Champ the whole fight only to be knocked out for not being cautious, 'What's the Point of Being Irish If You Can't Be Sorry ( Stupid)?'

Celto-centrist I am not. However, there was an interesting story about the recent findings in Dublin, Ireland. ( click my post title)

It appears that St. Valentine, who received no goods or services in exchange for the flowers, sweets and posted Love notes worldwide to morrow, was buried in Dublin ( re-interred more correctly) in the last century. This from Irish News and Events correspondent Dermot O'Gara

Was St Valentine a true blue Dub?
by Dermot O'Gara

JUST about everybody knows that St Valentine is the patron saint of lovers. You may have known that he was a priest in Rome in the third century, and if you're really on top of your game, you may even have been aware that he died in jail, but you probably didn't know that his final resting place is Dublin.


In fact the good priests of the Carmelite Order have been looking after his remains in their priory in Whitefriar St, just off Aungier St in Dublin, for over 160 years.

We have a good deal of information about St Valentine, but separating the fact from the legend is a bit like trying to separate a teenage couple at a school disco.

Fertility festival
It seems he was martyred in 269, supposedly for marrying couples against the wishes of Emperor Claudius II who felt that single men made better soldiers. Legend would have it that he died for his faith on February 14th of that year, and that this is why we celebrate him on that day. However, it's likely that the fact that we celebrate St Valentine at this time of year is more to do with the ancient Roman spring fertility festival of Lupercalia, which like many other pagan holidays was christianised when in 498 Pope Gelasius decreed that February 14th would be St Valentine's Day.

But how did a Roman Martyr, who had never even set foot in what was later to become an island of saints and scholars, end up in a Dublin church.

In the 1820' and 30's, a Carmelite priest by the name of John Spratt had earned a reputation for his work with the destitute citizens of Dublin's Liberties. A man of apparently boundless energy, Spratt started the building process of the Carmelite church in nearby Whitefriar St in 1825.

Exhumed
Ten years later, he was invited to speak at the Jesuit Church in Rome, the Gesu. The elite of Rome came to hear him, including representatives of Pope Gregory XVI. As a token of recognition of the work of Spratt, the Pope ordered the exhumation of the remains of St Valentine from St Hippolytus cemetery near Rome to be shipped to Whitefriar St Church, in Dublin.

In November 1836, the remains were received with great pomp and ceremony, but with the death of Spratt some years later, the remains ceased to be of major public interest.

Some 40 years ago however, they were restored to the public eye having gathered dust for decades in the nether regions of the priory, and are now featured in a purpose-built shrine in the church itself.

This year on February 14th, at 11am and 3.15pm, as has become customary, there will be a special celebration of St Valentine in the place where he now rests, Whitefriar St Church. Carmelite priest, Fr Tony McKenny will celebrate mass and conduct a ring blessing ceremony for engaged and married couples.

People I Love often hear I am sorry.