Why so much early voting?

Several states have encouraged early voting, some in person and some by post. I will be on the road, working out of town and staying in a motel, on election day. I have voted absentee, for the first time. The television has shown long lines at boards of elections, some with only black people in lines.

I know why. The black electorate is enthusiastic about the candidacy of Barack Obama, but, that is not the main rationale. They, as I, do not trust the polling places on Tuesday. The fascists have tried to rig and steal elections. Remember, Florida in 2000, and Ohio in 2004 and other places, by computer fraud, disenfranchisement and discouraging voters, by any means necessary. The special targets are negro citizens, though, not exclusively. I cannot be confident, that, my Democratic vote will be counted as a Democratic vote. Ohio is the home of Diebold, the company, that, makes automated teller machines that photographs users and dispenses receipts, yet makes unverifiable voting machines; they currently use another name for that division.

The early voting is an attempt to pre-empt Republican chicanery. The false charge of voting fraud is there to muddy the waters and cause doubt of real votes. One may be wrongly and falsely registered, even multiply so, but that is not voter fraud; that is registration fraud, at most. Most, virtually all, of the bad registrations will never vote. A person, out of ignorance, may be multiply registered; he will vote once, if at all.

What to do with a troublesome priest?

The trial of Jesus goes on forever. It continues through his brothers. Only their names, their faces, their dates, and their birth places change. — Jerzy Popiełuszko

The worst has happened. Someone wanted to kill and he killed not only a man, not a Pole, not only a priest. Someone wanted to kill the hope that it is possible to avoid violence in Polish political life. — Lech Walesa

Jerzy Popiełuszko was found 30 October 1984, he had been tortured and murdered, eleven days before, by secret police. He was a labor priest of great spirituality and courage enough to criticise the regime. Poland was under martial law. The free labor movement was crippled and forbidden, and only the church was allowed to have public gatherings. Popiełuszko was the spark in this crucible. He was chaplain to the steelworkers.

He said masses for the polish nation. They included poetry and national song. He believed the church could not be neutral, and must speak for the people. ‘Patriotic struggle to reinstate human dignity’ was solidarity. He frequently spoke of truth and freedom, dangerous words of sedition to most governments. Non-violent resistance is equated, by authorities, as criminal violence.

Radio Free Europe broadcasted his sermons. The government was determined to silence him, one way or another. Now, his words from Warsawa’s St. Stanisław Kostka, encouraged the nation to protest. Anti-communists, outside the country, enjoyed this disruption to the regime. The people approved of his words. A quarter of a million people came to his funeral. All Poland knew this priest. His murderers were convicted, the government held on a few years longer. This was filmed in a fictionalised biography as To Kill a Priest. A non-fiction book, of the same name, was written by Kevin Ruane.

He believed in Jesus and His people. The church is slow to act on the status of such civically troublesome priests. This year, Jerzy Popieluszko was recognised as a Servant of God.

God commands compassion

Consider the Sunday mass readings for the 30th week of ordinary time. A positive of the new mass is the additional reading. In most of the old masses, there was an epistle and a Gospel; in the new mass, the first reading is, usually, from the Old Testament. To-day, it is a wonderful one:

"You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans. "If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate. — Exodus xxii. 20-26. NAB

Advenam non contristabis, neque affliges eum: advenæ enim et ipsi fuistis in terra Ægypti. Viduæ et pupillo non nocebitis. Si læseritis eos, vociferabuntur ad me, et ego audiam clamorem eorum: et indignabitur furor meus, percutiamque vos gladio, et erunt uxores vestræ viduæ, et filii vestri pupilli. Si pecuniam mutuam dederis populo meo pauperi qui habitat tecum, non urgebis eum quasi exactor, nec usuris opprimes. Si pignus a proximo tuo acceperis vestimentum, ante solis occasum reddes ei. Ipsum enim est solum, quo operitur, indumentum carnis ejus, nec habet aliud in quo dormiat: si clamaverit ad me, exaudiam eum, quia misericors sum. — Exodus xxii. 21-27.

Thou shalt not molest a stranger*, nor afflict him: for yourselves also were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not hurt a widow or an orphan. If you hurt them, they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry: And my rage shall be enkindled, and I will strike you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor, that dwelleth with thee, thou shalt not be hard upon them as an extortioner, nor oppress them with usuries.† If thou take of thy neighbour a garment in pledge, thou shalt give it him again before sunset. For that same is the only thing wherewith he is covered, the clothing of his body, neither hath he any other to sleep in: if he cry to me, I will hear him, because I am compassionate. — Exodus xxii. 21-27. DRC

What would a darwinistic, capitalist of the american, so called, Republican party, or a xenophobe, or a calvinist make of this? Would his ears be shut? How many candidates for office consider these words of God as religious values to campaign on?

God considers the alien, the widow, the orphan, the poor and hates their oppressors, and the usurer also. He promises to hear the plea of the stranger, the pauper, the homeless and abandoned. God commands us to be like Himself; compassionate.

The Scriptures mention four such victims of sin, whose condition cries to heaven, for justice. The first was Abel’s murder, fratricidal killing. The second was the sin of Sodom. Here is the third instance. The fourth is the laborer robbed of wages by his employer. The second pair, are social and economic issues, where the transgressors prey on the weak.

All these acts share a similarity of evil. Those who sin, in these manners, do not love their neighbor. And this leads to the day’s Gospel:

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." — Matthew xx. 34-40. NAB

God command us to exercise charity!
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*The exegist Dom Antoine Augustin Calmet points out, that, the ancient celts put to death the murderer of a stranger, while a murderer of a non-stranger was removed from the community.
† Cato the Censor equated usury with murder. Aquinas saw usury as charging twice, for the item and the use of the item. It is charging for time, time is not for sale. Dante places the usurer, in the inner ring of the seventh circle of hell, with sodomites and blasphemers. Shakespeare has Shylock say about Antonio, Merchant of Venice, in act I, scene iii:

I hate him for he is a Christian,
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest.

This election there is an Issue 5, in Ohio, which will retain recent legislation, which among other points, limits usury to 28%. A well financed campaign, by the strip mall loan sharks, wants this repealed. Some of their false arguments, are that this is against freedom, and individual choice and would put people out of work. If it is defeated, the rate can be 14 times greater. Some of their allies are: Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Christian Alliance, National Taxpayers Union.

scurrilous, scabrous, scandalous slander

The Republicans are desperate and losing badly in this presidential race. They are resorting to their bag of slime: scurrilous, scabrous, scandalous slander and the pejorative aspersion has always been their weapon of choice.

# 1 John McCain
At the Hofstra event, he falsely used the term ‘class warfare’, and accused Barack Obama to be desirous of wealth distribution. After Wall Street is slated to receive hundreds of billions from americans, after they scammed, skimmed and stole as much as they possibly could, McCain did not worry about wealth distribution. No, when Republicans, plutocrats, their aspirants and lackeys speak of class warfare, they fear the possibility of economic and social justice. There was the signal, that, the Republicans would red bait and declare all those against them, against the country.

# 2 Sarah Palin
“Senator Obama said that he wants to spread the wealth and he wants government to take your money and decide how to best to redistribute it according to his priorities. Joe [the Plumber ?, Biden ?, Lieberman ?, Blow?, Mama?] suggested that sounded a little bit like socialism.”

# 3 George (the pudding) Voinovich
“With all due respect, the man[Obama] is a socialist.”

# 4 Michele Bachmann
“What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America.”

Now, the term ‘socialist’ can mean many different people and ideas. There are christian socialists, a term, for a political party, that has not made inroads into public discourse, in this country. After the hate filled, murderous disaster of hitlerism in Germany, there arose the Christian Democrats under Konrad Adenauer to lead that country, and there are such parties in other lands. Adenauer of Germany, and Charles de Gaulle and Robert Schuman of France led Europe out of the ashes. These Christian Democrats were sometimes socialists, sometimes not. Generally when a country has two strong parties, of socialists, the christians are conservative and the “social democrats” are not, yet both can be democrat[ic]. There are social democrats, now, that term is foggy. Some are democrats and some are communists or damn close, especially in those countries that have been freed of communism in the great movement of 1989 and quickly thereafter.

In the US, the latter type, the marxist, leninist, cæsarian, militarist, stalinist kinds are the only ones referred to. This is what these current, vituperative attacks allude to. Remember, the Republicans used to call Roosevelt and Truman, Kennedy and Johnson ‘communists’. Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved democracy and capitalism in this country, and defeated fascism, and hitlerism in Europe — all this to the displeasure of the Republican party. Also, remember, that, the supporters of gwbushjr love comparing chimpy to Truman, and Truman distrusted, and disliked Republicans immensely.

Saint Luke the Limner

Viktor Mikhajlovič Vasnetsov. Fresco sketch of Jesus and the Gospels for Kiev’s Cathedral of St. Vladimir. 1884-89. Moscow.

Saint Luke was a greek physician from Antioch, who lived in Troas. He served Paul in the same capacity as Mark served Peter. Luke wrote a Gospel and a history of the early church, Acts of the Apostles. He followed Paul to the end of Paul’s life. Luke died in Thebes of Boetia. Many modern biblical scholars, and scholars in related studies, have marvelled in the historical and geographical exactness Luke wrote. Luke was a man with several talents.
Luigi Gregori went from Rome to Notre Dame Indiana, in 1874. He painted murals on the basilica’s walls and ceilings for seventeen years. Over the sanctuary, Gregori painted a quartet of Prophets and the evangelists. Now, not only did he limn the life of the early church, he limned portraits in paint. In this painting of Luke, there is contained two aspects of Luke. He is shown with his iconic ox and as a painter, a double identification. Many mediæval painter guilds named Luke as their patron. To-day many hospitals have also been named after him.

In Vasnetsov’s work, a youthful Jesus is shown with the four heavenly icons, of the four evangelists and the Gospel. Vasnetsov did not paint in the iconic tradition, a tradition he knew well. His grandfather painted, or more correctly wrote, icons. His father, Mikhajl Vasilijevič Vasnetsov, was a priest. The murals were painted for the new church, which celebrated nine hundres years of christian Russia.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

part of frieze at St. Ignatius of Antioch. c.1930. Cleveland, O. A church that survived, on appeal, in 2009, a suppression by the diocesan ordinary.
The icon supra, is of the manner of martyrdom of Saint Ignatius of Antioch. Now, the first bishop of Antioch, was Saint Peter the Apostle. Antioch was the papal see, til the time Peter went to Rome in 42. Saint Evodius was bishop next, and Saint Ignatius thereafter, both men appointed by Peter, and disciples of Peter and John. Ignatius was also known as Theophorus. He was an early apostolic father, and he introduced antiphonal singing at mass.

When Ignatius, was bishop (and patriarch) of Antioch for about forty years, he was taken as a prisoner, from Syria, to be executed in the Flavian amphitheatre in Rome, for the blood lust of Trajan, whom he had presented himself to, when Trajan was in Antioch. Trajan began the interview with Ignatius, “Who are you, (unlucky) wicked wretch, who set yourself to transgress our commands, and persuade others to do the same, so that they should miserably perish?” Ignatius gave a defense of the faith, and Trajan pronounced, “We command that Ignatius, who affirms that he carries about within him, Him that was crucified, be bound by soldiers, and carried to the great Rome, there to be devoured by the beasts, for the gratification of the Romans ”. Along the way, he wrote several letters. In one, he willingly welcomes his martyrdom. In Smyrna, recommendations, and influence, could have freed him. He did not want the interference. He died in this manner 17 November 107.

I am the wheat of God, and I am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts ... May I have joy of the wild beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray they will exercise all their ferocity on me. I will entice them to devour me promptly ... If they will not do it willingly, I will force them to it.

Ignatius, has the oldest surviving written usage of the word ‘catholic’ to describe the true church, which was founded by Christ our Lord. Ignatius fervently believed in the Eucharist, the Incarnation and communion with Jesus, in this life and the next:

He who really possesses the word of Jesus can truly hear His silence, that he maybe perfect.

Saint Teresa of Avila

Gianlorenzo Bernini. Ecstasy of St Teresa.1645 -52. Santa Maria della Vittoria. Rome.

She, that we know as, Saint Teresa of Ávila, was known in religious life as, Saint Teresa of Jesus, was born, Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, in 1515, immediately before the religious revolt, that did not touch Spain. Spain was the world power then. Spain was finally free of all foreign occupation. Spain sought to maintain one religion only. The centuries of moorish mohammedanism and their jewish intermediaries were not appreciated. Spain was christian, and christian meant catholic. Spain was first in Europe and first in the world.

Teresa’s father’s father, was a converso, and a wealthy man, that, married well. Her mother was very religious. In this atmosphere, it was not surprising, that as children, Teresa and a brother, Rodrigo, were caught running away from home, by their uncle. They were going to moorish Africa to become martyrs. Why? she was asked,“I want to see God, and I must die before I can see Him.”

She entered her heavenly reward on the 4th of October 1582. The next day was the 15th of October, hence to-day is Saint Teresa of Ávila’s day. Yes, the next day was the 15th, this was when the Julian calendar gave way to he Gregorian.

In between, she lived her life. She and Saint John of the Cross were founders of the Discalced Carmelites. She was a great mystic and an important spiritual writer on prayer ( The Life of St Teresa by Herself, The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila, Letters). She was recognised as the first female Doctor of the Church. She was so recognised, in Spain, centuries before, although she did suffer opposition, and periods of illness. During the illnesses she lived this important prayer life.

She is remembered for experiencing deep spiritual ecstasies. After her death and burial, she was found to be bodily incorrupt and having the odor of sanctity. Her heart was transverberated. Transverberation, is the wound imparted by an angelic arrow.

She had a sense of humor and exasperation:

Dear Lord, if this is how You treat Your friends, it is no wonder You have so few!

To argue over who is the more noble is nothing more than to dispute whether dirt is better for making bricks or for making mortar.

From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us.

Some of her other thoughts:

Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.

Granting that we are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense; for they, as it were, see that He is looking upon them, while others may go for days on end without even once recollecting that God sees them.

Take care not to miss this wonderful opportunity. Say the 'Our Father' slowly without rushing. He is listening very close to you. This is the best way to praise and honor His name.

Let him never cease from prayer who has once begun it, be his life ever so wicked, for prayer is the way to amend it, and without prayer such amendment will be much more difficult.

With the help of our guardian angel we can try to see it reflected in God as in a mirror, for we will never come to know ourselves if we do not try to know God.

Whenever I read in the lives of Saints of how they converted souls, I seem to feel much more devout, more tender, and more envious of them than when I read of all the martyrdoms that they suffered. This is an inclination given me by Our Lord; and I think He prizes one soul, which by His mercy and through our diligence and prayer we have gained, for him, more than all the other services we can render Him.

We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are, those are things which seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty.

Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don’t remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don’t understand the great secrets hidden inside of us.

Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.