Never presume and never despair.
Thought for the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I don’t intend to despair but I’ve felt kinda sad lately and it’s hard to shake off.
Hang in there, penguins fan. The ball has been hiked to us now. Our faith has to be lived, especially when many of the leaders are not living it. The Church is advanced through saints, not necessarily through the hierarchs. Judas, one of the 12, turned out to be a son of a gun. And Paul, who started out as a son of a gun, ended up being a saint. We’re not saved through “faith alone”, not even the true faith alone.
PF: Sadness is the proper reaction to many of our earthly experiences. People fail us, organizations fail us, we ourselves fail us. Pain is real.
We were promised an awesome *destination*, not necessarily a calm or pleasant voyage. (In my experience, the voyage tends to be a tramp steamer advertised as a cruise ship!)
The virtue of Hope is not some delusional pollyanna idea that we live in a perfectable world, or even that the world is moving in that direction.
The virtue of Hope is the gift to believe in the words that Christ spoke. He said that he goes to prepare a place for you. It would (quite literally) be a damned shame not to show up.
Hold fast.
Weather can bring on sadness. When the sun goes behind clouds the gloominess affects some people. In northern latitudes, especially in the winter months, people often sit in front of full spectrum light lamps.
Penguins Fan, or maybe you have ESP?
Well, the weather here has been mostly chilly and rainy, but what has got to me lately, in order of importance, least important first:
My son Charlie doesn’t want to play hockey anymore. On the grand scale of things, trivial and it’s both his choice and it’s getting too expensive to but I’m going to miss it
My mom died in February, and I will be let go from my job in December after 31 years.
Fr. Z just posted in his blog that in order to have a spiritual life, your life has to (in his words) suck, but after three years of behavior problems with my older son, it’s been hard to take.
I know that despair is the absence of trust in God. Thanx for the support.