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Interior Conversations , June 14

6/28/2014

June 14, 2014. Morning:

Ronda: I am so careful to set the alarm. I check it several times. But last night I did forget and woke up late so I had to rush to Mass and felt all discombobulated. I watch the other older members of this community at the seminary and realize they are experiencing the same jolts of forgetfulness. But it frightens me just the same when it is me.

Jesus: You wrote yesterday in your novel about being afraid of weakness of old age. In the case of forgetfulness you are afraid of missing something. But what you are really forgetting that is more important is that I will be with you every moment of your day and night no matter what you are doing or not doing! Remember how peaceful your godmother became when she couldn’t do anything anymore.

Ronda: Yes.

Jesus: Now don’t throw yourself into My heart, but let Me gently take your heart and place it into Mine and just rest for a while.

June 14th evening:

Ronda: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, guardian angel of Diana, St. Diana, St. Helena, Matt Talbot, thank you for Diana deciding to try substance abuse counseling. I am overwhelmed. Tears of joy. 35 years of denial about this. Thank you Martin and Charlie for praying for her from eternity.

Jesus: It is a delicate moment for her. Gently pray for her all day and night, giving her into My hands. I love her infinitely more than you do. I made her so, of course, I know how wonderful she is and how more wonderful she can be when she is healed. Pray Jesus and Diana, Jesus and Diana, over and over again.

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Four Random Remarks

6/17/2014

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A student in my philosophy of love class described walking to Mass, a mile away, with a toddler through the snow, while 8 months pregnant just for the joy of being at Mass

I listened once more to the old disc of JPII singing hymns in many languages: it’s called Abba Pater. If you never listened I bet it’s on you-tube.

I met a retired violinist and violin teacher over lunch. In his family they all pray grace by singing the old hymn: “Dona nobis pacem.” What a sweet way to pray!

The same man is a great fan of Cardinal Newman. He reads books of Newman quotes. He said his favorite was: “You are never less alone than when you are alone!”

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Locutions and Observations

6/13/2014

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Since Jim Ridley, the web-master of goodbooksmedia blogs thought the
alleged locution I put up a while back
sounded authentic and inspiring, I am
putting up another:

Ronda: "The stress of waiting to see what will be happening to Carla is so great now. Help!"

Jesus: "Because the physical cross is to you mostly an artistic sight rendered by the Great Masters, you don’t live with that kind of physical agony in front of you as did the disciples, who saw men on crucifixes often right on the roadside. So, imagine now the stress they felt thinking that I, their leader, and the purpose of their lives would one day be suffering like that. Give to me that pain in your heart for Carla and Diana, in a different way and you will be able to stay close to them in your maternal love instead of trying to distract yourself from the pain for that makes you more distant instead of closer."

An observation about hatred of in-laws:
The wife or husband’s bad traits the mother-in-law or father-in-law often also has. For example the wife is compulsively clean and drives the rest of the family nuts. The mother-in-law has the same trait, but she doesn’t have the compensatory positive traits the wife has such as loving warmth. So the dislikes the mother-in-law even though he puts up with those same traits in his wife. “If the shoe fits…”

Shrewdness of the voices of demons: thinking of those who have too much stuff in their houses, I thought it was the Holy Spirit who chided me: which is worse to have too much stuff in the house, or to have an ego as big as a house? But then I realized that this is such a false alternative: why not have simplicity of life and an ego as big as a mouse!

More about difficulties in the wider family: If there are conflicts about values, we like to think “I will just have a good conversation with this person and set them straight.” So we rehearse in our heads how we will lead up to the discussion. What we don’t realize is that when there are deep-seated disagreements, just the fact that I start the conversation with something like “You know I bet if we talk this over we can come to greater agreement” rubs the other the wrong way. He will think – “I hate the way Ronda grabs me in social situations with her agenda!”

Someone was ranting about how absurd it is that any Catholic would like Obama given his anti-life record. My explanation of this contradiction is that social justice Catholics, whose families have always voted Democratic, just think that the reason for abortion is the poverty of the women, so improving justice for the poor takes care of most abortions. Meanwhile they stereotype Republicans as being rich guys who don’t care about the poor women, only about babies since they know nothing about all our pro-life outreach to the women. Even though such Catholics are wrong, we need to understand how they think to reach out to them better.

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Blog Nosh

6/5/2014

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Goodbooksmedia.com published a few years ago a book I edited of stories of late vocations to the priesthood written by the seminarians or presently priests themselves. It is called Last Call: Twelve Men who Dared Answer and can be found on this web under Books We Published.
Recently the TV program we did with interviews of 4 of these men showed on EWTN.
As of now the Missionaries of the Holy Apostles, founder of the seminary devoted to late vocations where I teach, have gotten 8 queries from interested men with late vocations! How thrilling! Pray for them.

I invented a new title for an old addiction. How about talk-aholics anonymous?

A student of mine, Matt Fradd, author of the popular, wonderful book about Deliverance from Pornography, put these words into a paper about his conversion. He said that he become truly devout when he realized that “God would rather die than risk living in eternity without me.”

From The Healing Power of Hope by Jean Maalouf:

“We may think our hopes for others are in their best interests. But this is not always the case. How many parents have ruined the lives of their children because they forced their hopes on them? How many spouses have ruined their marriages because of the hopes they had for each other? How many people – even nations – have tried to control others for the sake of hopes – the hopes for a better life for them? The truth is that hopes alienate while hope liberates.”

I have a friend in Hawaii who frequents this blog. Margaret sent me this poem she wrote. Since I liked it so much she said I could put it up here on Ronda View

As I Was Passing Kaheka Street
by G. M. LaRiviere

The dapper Japanese tourist was
walking on the sidewalk
when death swished by him
and stopped short of his grave.

The dude must have felt the air rush by
as the hanging palm frond dropped
from the sky that close to his head,

a hefty stalk made deadlier by
the towering height from which it shed
halting his stride and blocking his path.

Just one step forward a half-second sooner
and his vacation in Hawaii might have ended.

His face strained for composure but I
could see the veiled terror move
across his orbs, glazing them over,
his skin blanching whiter,
still he kept it together, his look,
now pensive, replaying the grisly scene
with his nerves shredded. I saw

that his near miss was mine also,
and I wondered which saint he prayed to

Originally published online at Poem in Your Pocket 2014 (Hawaii Edition)

More wonderful Vietnamese dinners for me. The Sisters who cook cut veggies very fine with exquisite sauces. One tray came with the addition of a beautiful large red flower. It turned out to be a tomato carved into the shape of a flower!

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Interior Conversations , June 14

Four Random Remarks

Locutions and Observations

Blog Nosh

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