Go find roses in the snow!

St. Juan Diego, oremus!

O God, who by means of Saint Juan Diego showed
the love of the most holy Virgin Mary for your people,
grant, through his intercession,
that, by following the counsels our Mother gave at Guadalupe,
we may be ever constant in fulfilling your will.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Today is the feast of St. Juan Diego, the anniversary of the first time this poor weaver, farmer, and laborer heard our Lady's voice, urging him to tell the bishop to build a church on Tepeyac Hill in her honor. When the bishop asked for proof, Juan went to the hill and found Castilian Roses blooming from the frozen ground and he gathered them into his tilma. As great as the miracle of the winter roses was, they were not what got the bishop's attention for it the image of the Mystical Rose was imprinted on Juan's tilma ...

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and through his Cross, continued in the intercession of saints (especially his Mother!) and the Church in the world, He brings Life where there was only the frozen hardness of Sin and Death. Go! Share the flowers of grace you've received with someone this winter, reveal the image of Christ in each other and the beauty of Our Mother to the world.

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Introducing The Good Reverend Pudgemuffin

My favorite gentleman in the blogosphere is currently the Good Reverend Pudgemuffin at Are You There God? It's me, Atheist. He is a wonderful and impassioned seeker of Truth with regards to the existence of God, and from his blog's title, you can guess what side of the fence he falls. He is a fellow Ashevillain, and I highly regard his thinking and enjoy his irreverent skepticism which is humorous and critical without being snarkily polemical. Inspired, I wrote a lengthy reply to one of his entries, and he in turn devoted a whole entry in response to my response . Not to be outdone, I composed a response to the response's response, which I planned to keep hidden within his comments, but it far exceeded (more than double) the character limits. So thus ....

Noisy Gongs and Clashing Cymbals

To what shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, 'We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not weep.' For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, 'Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. — Luke 7:31-35 , Gospel for the Wednesday of the 24th Week of the Year In which the Pilgrim tries to quiet his heart of all the noise of criticism and complaint against Mother Church and learn to dwell in silence and love listening only for the Voice of God.

But now ...

Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the Kingdom of God? ... That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. —St Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 6:11 "But now ..." what words of comfort to us sinners. St. Paul reminds us that before we were plunged into the death of Christ by Baptism, we were defined by our sins. "That is what some of you used to be ." But now, though sinners we remain and continue to sin the face of grace, we are no longer defined by them. Rather than conforming to an image of death, we have been restored to the image of Christ in which we were made.

Our Lady of Ashes

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