Continue reading “Farewell Holy Father!”
Category: Life
The Third Station
Jesus Falls the First Time
All the Heavenly Host look on in wondering sorrow as You fall under the weight of the cross. It presses on Your stinging shoulders and dares you to rise.
It is my callous, spiteful, lustful, wrathful, envious, faithless heart, ingrained in the wood of that cross, that crushes Your bleeding body. Oh Lord, it crushes me too, but I haven’t the strength to lift myself.
And so, You struggle on, carrying it and me, to Calvary. For You know that it is only on that bloody hill, that I will finally be released from this heavy burden.
You are determined that I should live free, despite what it costs You.
And now, I can hear You call to me, “Pick up your cross and follow Me.”
Gracious Lord, I cannot carry it myself. Help me!
A Word of Advice
That didn’t take long. The media has my blood boiling over their coverage of 
the Pope’s abdication and the upcoming conclave. I’m not surprised, but it still rankles. Well, Mother always said, “If you can’t say something nice about someone…”
So instead I’ll rant about Customer Service.
Companies spend fortunes on sophisticated computer systems and training for their customer service representatives, all with the aim of easing the task of helping their customers with a variety of problems.
Here’s a little word of advice: cut it out! I don’t care what company you are, or what you sell, your customer service system is mostly composed of FAIL.
Having worked in IT for many years, I know the horrors of wearing a headset. Later, when I ran my own company, the lessons I learned in the trenches were invaluable in keeping my customers from wanting to kill me. Let me share them with you:
Continue reading “A Word of Advice”
Meet the New “Chesty”
(Photo by Sgt. Dengrier M. Baez)
Chesty stands on the door step of Home of the Commandants during the puppy’s visit to Marine Barracks Washington, D.C., Feb. 14.
Chesty, a 9-week-old pedigree English bulldog is soon to become the future Marine Corps mascot after the completion of obedience and recruit training with a ceremony scheduled for March 29.
After completing training, the young puppy will earn the title Marine joining the ranks of his well-known predecessors.
I hope he didn’t piddle on the Commandant’s shoes. That could be a career ender! His predecessor went after the Sec Def’s dog while on parade. Good boy!
h/t marines.mil
Happy Birthday Mr. President!
…Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.
~ from the First Inaugural Address
The Second Station
Jesus Takes Up His Cross
This is why you took on human flesh. This is the instrument of my salvation. How you welcomed it! How I run from mine.
My hard and darkened heart cannot understand a love that would surrender a Throne to live with me. Or one that willingly suffers a horrible death so that I can live.
You see my broken soul in the wood of that cross, and you embrace me.
“Where Shall We Go for Our Pope?”
Benedict XVI is a week away from his abdication, and the media is in its normal lather about all things Roman Catholic. When they’re not slamming the Church over sex-abuse, womens’ ordination, married priests or another of their favorite straw-men, they mostly prefer to pretend that Catholics don’t exist, or at best are a quaint bunch of superstitious people who pray to Mary and follow a man in a white hat. That is, until there’s a papal election to cover, and then they fall all over themselves 
Dan-Browning the secrecy, antiquity, and mysterious nature of a ritual that is more spiritual than temporal.
Of course, the most titillating storyline is, who will it be? Vegas bookies already have odds on the top candidates and will happily take your action. I’ve heard all kinds of names bandied about, including one that I’ve been talking about for the last four years, Timothy Cardinal Dolan. I met Cardinal Dolan when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee. He is a big, loud, genial, unpretentious, scholarly, and most of all a very holy man. I could see then that he was a man on whom God had laid His hand for greater service.
We’ll see.
The Italians, who are pretty used to this sort of thing, have a saying that the cardinal who goes into conclave a pope, comes out a cardinal. There is great wisdom in that on many levels. I was a little over one year old when Pope Paul VI was elected, but I do remember the elections of John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. What I have seen and what the media often misses, is that the conclave is a work of the Holy Spirit. The man who stands on that balcony will be the pastor of 1 billion souls. May God have mercy on him!
For those who are interested, here’s a neat little interactive graphic on how popes are elected.
The First Station
Jesus is Condemned to Death
Patiently, silently, you stand there, determined to do your Father’s will for love of me. Even though your human nature recoils at the pain and humiliation you have undergone, and have yet to face, you do not waver.
You hear the crowd’s jeers. A few, short days ago, they greeted you with, “Hosanna!” You see the desperation in Pilate’s cringing eyes, so full of fear and confusion. You know he doesn’t have the courage to pronounce you innocent and set you free. He takes the coward’s way and washes his hands of your fate. He wants nothing more to do with you.
Jesus, did you see me hidden in the crowd too? Cursing you, when only a short time ago you healed me of my blindness and sickness. And did you see me in Pilate’s chair, washing my hands of the responsibility for the horror you now face for my sake?
And yet, this is all done according to Your will. Oh have mercy on me Lord, a sinner and a coward!