I turn to the Lord today...and also to J.R.R. Tolkien. Three of my favorite quotes from him seem apropos this morning.
1) "All that is gold does not glitter, not all who wander are lost, the old
that are strong do not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall
spring, renewed shall be blade that is broken, the crownless again shall
be king."
indeed, preaching in a few weeks on Christ the King Sunday will certainly be much easier given the election results
2) Frodo: "I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf:
"So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to
decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given
to us"
3) (from the film) "I'm glad to be with you Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things!"
I love this one because it shows that even as the world is crashing down around folks, as it has many times in the past, what really matters is love and friendship - the things that no one can beat out of you or kill from without. "Faith Hope and Love remain, and the greatest of these is love!" I still likely have Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family and friends, I still have great friends and I still have the Lord, and I think it is those realizations that have given strength to the persecuted of our glorious past.
I AM A WARRIOR to support my WARRIOR PRIEST!!!
ReplyDeleteFather...Stay strong and fight the good fight. If all our parish priests and pastors started TEACHING our faith, we might have less cafeteria Catholics in the pews today. Sadly, if all Catholics voted in line with church teaching, we would have had a different election outcome. I also fear it may be late and the U.S. church is on the same path as Europe. Bastinbob
ReplyDeleteWe need you Father, we are so sad and need someone to help us find our way. I will pray for you and your work as I pray for our country.
ReplyDeleteBless you, Father and thank you!! I found a link to your "Warrior Priests" piece posted on FreeRepublic.com, and it put a big smile on my face and hope in my heart ... as did these wonderful Tolkien quotes (it's time for me to watch the Trilogy again, I can tell) ... I will keep you in my prayers, Father, and I'm looking forward to being a regular reader of this blog!
ReplyDeleteBravo Fr. John ... I pray I will have the COURAGE to stand with you in the current and coming battles.
ReplyDeleteFather, the quotes you provide and the words you share echo a thought that occurred to me today. That, as a result of the election, I have been more mindful of the need to be a loving and good mother, a kind a patient wife, always a representative of our great faith. I imagine this is the case for many Catholics and Christians across the country, and hope that it remains true beyond the initial shock of Tuesday. Thank you for keeping hope alive, and for all that you do. We pray for you often!
ReplyDeleteFather Hollowell, I admire your faith, but it is so easy to give up now. We have lost America, there is no doubt. What are we supposed to do, just Pray. That did not work for my family and friends, because the devil is still in the White House, we have more gay marriage and now we get to smoke pot if we want. Sounds great, but now I getting older, we need to fight back. Where should we begin?
ReplyDeleteI am listening to a Church militant talk, and as the above comment says What can we do? my parish is talking about a major building campaign and talked nothing about voting etc. I need a true parish, I am so broken hearted about the church I have loved for years.
ReplyDeleteHere is an email I sent to 350(parishioners, friends & business associates)on Nov 7:
ReplyDeleteIf you are Catholic and you voted for Obama, you have betrayed your faith by helping
re-elect the MOST PRO-ABORTION president EVER.
I’m sure that some of you who fall into this category will delete this email because you are trying to hide from the truth. That’s your choice. But it doesn’t change the truth.
The truth is, as Catholics we know through our teachings that abortion is an intrinsic evil for which there is NO excuse.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.
2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.
The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
I pray that God has mercy on those who help to enable the act of abortion and I pray that they recognize the grave error of their decision and repent.
I also pray for those who understand that every child has the right to be born and ask you now, more than ever, to consider a greater involvement with a pro-life ministry.
2 days later I sent this:
Nov 9 2012
I am a Pro-Life Catholic and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the “other” Catholics (you know, the ones who voted for Obama) make me feel defeated. To the contrary I am ready to step up my efforts to spread the Gospel of life to anyone, any place, at any time.
The fact that we will have another 4 years of the same crap that’s been going on does not deter me from my mission. I’ve been on that mission since 2004 when my eyes were opened to the truth about abortion.
If you are feeling a little battle weary read Ephesians 6:10-19 and renew your commitment to defend your faith. Make an effort to spread the Gospel of life. Pray for an end to abortion, pray at one of the 5 abortion mills in Orlando, volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center or an adoption agency. Please don’t just read this, put your faith into action.
To all you “other” Catholics, unless you were in a coma the past few months you know the truth about the church’s teachings on abortion and once you know the truth you can’t “unknow” it. On the bright side, there is always an opportunity to repent.
I’ll pray for you.
Proverbs 24
Then on Sun Nov 11 I hung a 3ft x 6ft sign on the back of my van parked outside the exit to my church from 7:30am-1:30pm.
The sign read "If you voted for Obama you betrayed GOD" below that I have 3" permanent letters on my bumper that says "abortion is murder"
A lady told me that she overheard someone say they were going to ask my pastor to remove my van. I immediately found him in our parish center and told him it was my van. He tried to convince me to remove it but I refused telling him people need to know that they voted opposite the catholic teachings for a candidate that supports abortion. I told him abortion was one of the five non-negotiables but he ommented that as long as people voted based on another aspect of Obama's platform then they were not responsible for their voting against our teachings.
In Christ for Life,
Bill