Brother Mark, be a peace. We have to understand that the way we express ourselves in one country is perfectly understood in the context we present. While in another part of the world or even another part of any given country, what we express draws a different perception. Therefore from time to time we misunderstand or are misunderstood, when our intentions are the best. I understand how you love to share the joy of your faith. But if you feel hurt by being misunderstood, in time you will learn from this and once you recover become a stronger wiser man. We have to bear with one another. God bless you and keep you in all your ways, and may His adorable Face shine on you and all those around you. Amen
Brother Mark, Please don't stop posting. I loved your post on silence. I am not offended by your reply as I feel that is your right.... I can't possibly judge you nor you me. We don't even know each other except for the few words we post on a forum. Please don't leave as I enjoy your posts. Be at peace, my friend!
My husband and I went away to Shenandoah National Park to drive Skyline Drive and see the leaves changing. It was a 4 day trip to get me away from my cancer treatment and was safe as nobody is there mid week....We hiked and stayed at a safe B and B where we were the only ones there for a few days. We had no internet access as US National Parks don't have that. There was no TV either. It was so incredibly wonderful to unplug from the world and immerse ourselves in the silence of nature. We were on 800 acres without lights. At night, you could count every star in the sky and there was a meteor shower. It was so amazing. Now we come back to real life and I am disturbed again. Too much information rushing at me and it's too much. My next chemo treatment is next Wednesday but I am glad God gave me the opportunity to run away to the silence for 4 days..... God bless everyone!
I am so glad God gave you this respite. We will all be praying for you on Wednesday. I think too much info--TMI as my kids used to say--is harming all of us. Fasting from it is a wise thing to do.
Dear Mark As you may know from past posts here, I am part of a small but faithful group who meets every Tuesday night to say the The Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. I am privileged to have a key that allows me access to the church (at least the church foyer but often to the body of the church). I regularly pop in , but not often enough, for a quiet visit. I try to get in at three to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Today the Statue of St Joseph drew my attention as thoughts of the Seven Sorrows and the Divine Mercies came together in my mind. They made me think of the mystery of sin and the universal pain that sin causes and the price that Jesus had to pay. Like yourself I unequivocally regard the active indulgence of homosexual tendencies as contrary to the Word of God and The Law of the Church. To me, homosexual marriage is a contradiction in terms: one excludes the participant from heaven, the other utterly corrupts the image of God’s union with His Church through which we come to eternal life. Homosexual union is bereft of life, life here or hereafter. I presume, Mark, we are at one in this opinion. St Joseph is the quiet man of heaven, The John Wayne of the New Testament. His Big Irons are the lily that rests on his side and the Child that rests in the crook of his arm. St Joseph’s presence is mostly silent. Jesus too was silent as was his mother who tended to ponder things in her heart. Sometimes “let your yes be yes and your no be no” can be used like a gun to one’s head. Did Jesus really mean it to be used in that way? Jesus was not a softie but neither was He a sophist. His is true Wisdom and is qualified to make such a call. It will come to all at the last judgement. I thought of St Joseph in heaven as he witnessed and accompanied in spirit his beloved Mary through all the sorrows she experienced on earth without his physical presence at her side. I thought of him as he witnessed from the heavens the dreadful suffering of his foster child, the only Child of The Father. And all this in silence just like the silence of a lamb to the slaughter. I too fail to see, Mark, how the judgement about you came to be passed. May Our Lady Untier of Knots come to your assistance.
There is a place in WV that has a large radio telescope in the mountains and it is a completely dead silence zone. Nothing electronic anywhere. Let’s all buy property there
Who is St Joseph? God made him the Lord of His earthly household and prince over all his possessions! St Joseph pray for us
When meditating upon Our Lords Stations of the cross we see St Joseph prayer and grief at the 4th station! Here Our Lord meets His most afflicted Mother! In this intimate moment I know Jesus on meeting His mother also met in her, His earthly father St Joseph! Because in marriage the two become one! And the Child on seeing one sees the other! Mary would have needed St Joseph at this grief stricken time more than any other time, even when they as parents had lost Jesus when He was twelve years old! At meeting Her son, Mary's prayer was in unison with her spouse St Joseph (who even though in limbo, suffered as he watched His foster son, Jesus The son of God suffer) and Mary and Joseph's joint pleas were heard by God the Father who answered their pure and humble prayers in the most sublime way! We see the efficacy of their prayers! At the 5th station we see St Joseph prayer enlist, Simon of Cyrene to assist Jesus in carrying His cross ( thank you Lord: How sublime!) At the 6th station.... we see St Veronica wiping the face of Jesus in request of Our Lord's most holy Mother Mary , Oh thank you to all saints who have offered respite to our Lord. More graces were wrought through this most sublime prayer of his most beloved and holy parents. He meets the holy women of Jerusalem between his 2nd and 3rd fall. Thank you oh Holy women of Jerusalem! but more especially thank you Mary and St Joseph for your supplication for Our Lord
When I see an ass that needs kicked may God ever give me the grace to give it a good solid kick and not to be the least hesitant to do so. Thank you Terry If being a good Catholic means being nice, I confess I am the worst Catholic in the World. Sexual Perversion is an Abomination that cries to God for Vengeance Popes that support such goings on are a billion time worse. ..and priests, like Fr Mark, who wish to remain silent about current goings on the Church at the moment will not have to worry about their Central Heating Bills in the World to come.. I hope you're taking note Fr Mark? Sorry about not being nice. I hope I didn't upset anyone. It would be awful if I upset anybody. I don't know quite where to look. ..and Fr Mark had such wonderful, wonderful meditations. Didn't he? Well I ask you? What am I thinking to be so horrible and unnice?
Padraig, Brother Mark has spoken of his interior struggles and has come to deal with it through a calm disposition of soul given him by the Holy Spirit. You have never lost your fighting spirit, the one you had before your conversion. But our Good God has refined it a little bit. Before, the enemy was the English occupiers. Now it is those who appear to tip toe through the Lord's garden, marveling at the flowers, instead of uprooting the weeds. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
I want to thank everyone for their replies. My pride was pricked, my ego insulted, so there was a bit of being childish in my response to P. I will continue to write, and actually this has been helpful for me. peace Mark
Holy Spirit inspired words for sure.. My own two pennies worth... Galatians 2:11–13 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Or simply
