This blog is based on references in the Bible to fear. God wills that we “BE NOT AFRAID”. Vincit qui se vincit" is a Latin phrase meaning "He conquers who conquers himself." Many theologians state that the eighth deadly sin is fear. It is fear and its natural animal reaction to fight or flight that is the root cause of our failings to create a Kingdom of God on earth. This blog is dedicated to Mary the Mother of God. "
Theme: Intercession & Responsibility Cigar: El Cheapo bundle stick — rough, uneven, penitential Drink: Evan Williams Black — honest, unvarnished, working‑class Virtue: Intercession & Responsibility
Reflection: St. John Vianney doesn’t give you a metaphor. He gives you a voice — the cry of souls who can no longer help themselves:
“They suffer… they weep… they demand with urgent cries the help of your prayers… Tell them that since we have been separated from them, we have been here burning in the flames!”
There is nothing sentimental in that. No soft edges. Just the blunt truth that love continues past death — and that responsibility does too.
Tonight’s cheap cigar fits the work. It burns crooked, tastes harsh, flakes ash like it’s shedding its own impatience. It demands attention. It refuses to let you coast. It’s a reminder that purification is not elegant. It is gritty, uneven, and real.
Evan Williams Black does the same work: straightforward, unpretentious, penitential in its own way. A drink that doesn’t pretend to be more than it is — and therefore pairs perfectly with a night meant for the dead, not for your palate.
This is the masculine heart of intercession:
not mystical fireworks, not emotional theatrics, but the steady willingness to stand in the gap for those who cannot stand for themselves.
Your smoke becomes a small offering. Your discomfort becomes a small mercy. Your prayer becomes a rope lowered into the fire.
And the souls — forgotten by many, remembered by few — wait for men who will take responsibility for the bonds of love that death could not sever.
If you wish me good, pray for my dead. If I wish you good, I will pray for yours.
Intercession is the friendship that continues beyond the grave. Responsibility is the love that refuses to abandon its own.
And purification is walked, not theorized — by them in fire, by you in charity.
Monday Night at the Movies
🔸 May 2026 – Martyrdom & Eucharistic Mystery
May 4 – A Short Film About Love(1988)
May 11 – Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
May 18 – Ben-Hur (1959)
May 25 – The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Martyrdom in May is not a theme but a progression. These four films form a single ascent: a man learns to see rightly, to love faithfully, to surrender vengeance, and finally to offer his life without reserve. A Short Film About Love begins the month by stripping desire of its illusions; it shows how distorted longing must die before any true gift of self can emerge. Make Way for Tomorrow then reveals the quiet crucifixion of fidelity — the kind of daily, hidden sacrifice that forms the backbone of every Eucharistic life. By the time Ben‑Hur arrives, the pattern is unmistakable: the blood of Christ breaks the cycle of retaliation and reorders the heart toward mercy.
The month culminates in The Passion of Joan of Arc, where the interior work becomes visible witness. Joan stands before her judges with nothing left to protect, her face becoming the icon of a soul fully offered. In her, the Eucharistic mystery reaches its final clarity: a life consumed in obedience, a body given up, a will aligned with God’s. The May sequence teaches that martyrdom is not an event but a formation — the slow, disciplined shaping of a man into something that can be placed on the altar and broken for others.
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937)
Victor Moore • Beulah Bondi • Fay Bainter
A domestic tragedy where aging, duty, and quiet heartbreak collide with the era’s most uncomfortable truth: families often fail the people who raised them. Directed by Leo McCarey, the film strips away sentimentality and exposes the moral cost of convenience. Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi give performances of devastating restraint—two ordinary people whose love is stronger than the world’s indifference.
Sources: walmart.com
1. Production & Historical Setting
Released in 1937 by Paramount Pictures, Make Way for Tomorrow stands at the crossroads of:
Post‑Depression realism — the economic wounds of the 1930s still raw, with aging parents often displaced by financial collapse. McCarey’s moral seriousness — the same year he won an Oscar for The Awful Truth, he quietly made the film he considered his best. The rise of social‑problem cinema — stories about poverty, aging, and the fragility of the American family. The shift from sentimental elder portrayals — no soft lighting, no comforting illusions, just the truth of what happens when love outlasts resources.
The world is small:
living rooms, boarding houses, train stations, and the polite suffocation of middle‑class respectability.
But the moral terrain is vast—duty, gratitude, sacrifice, and the quiet heroism of two people who refuse to stop loving each other even as their children retreat.
The cultural backdrop:
The elderly as economic burdens in a recovering nation
Adult children torn between compassion and convenience
Marriage as a lifelong covenant tested by poverty
The American home as both sanctuary and battleground
The growing fear of institutionalizing aging parents
The film’s power lies in its restraint: Bondi’s trembling dignity, Moore’s gentle optimism, and the slow, unbearable realization that love is not enough to keep them together.
2. Story Summary
Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi) lose their home to foreclosure after fifty years of marriage. Their five adult children gather—not to solve the problem, but to distribute the inconvenience.
No one will take both parents.
So the couple is separated:
Lucy goes to live with her son George and his socially anxious wife Anita.
Barkley goes to his daughter Cora, who treats him as a disruption to her routines.
The separation becomes a slow unraveling:
Lucy’s presence embarrasses Anita’s social circle.
Barkley’s cough becomes an excuse to send him away to California.
Phone calls between the couple become their only refuge.
Their children speak of them with polite cruelty—“practicality,” “space,” “timing.”
Then comes the luminous final day:
A reunion.
A borrowed afternoon.
A walk through the city like young lovers.
A dinner where strangers treat them with more kindness than their own children.
A dance.
A promise to meet again.
And then the train pulls away.
The ending is quiet, devastating, and morally unanswerable.
3. Spiritual & Moral Resonances
A. Fidelity as a Lifelong Vow
Barkley and Lucy’s marriage is the film’s moral center—steady, tender, unbroken even by poverty or separation.
Their love is a covenant, not a convenience.
B. The Sin of Polite Neglect
The children are not villains—they are busy, embarrassed, self‑protective.
The film exposes the spiritual danger of “reasonable” selfishness.
C. The Dignity of the Elderly
Lucy’s line—“The only fun left is pretending”—reveals the inner world of those who feel themselves becoming invisible.
The film insists on their humanity.
D. The Judgment of Ordinary Choices
No one commits a dramatic betrayal.
Instead, the tragedy emerges from small decisions:
postponements, excuses, rearrangements, “just for now.”
The moral cost accumulates quietly.
E. Love Without Rescue
There is no miracle, no reversal, no sentimental salvation.
Only the truth that love can be deep, faithful, and still powerless against the world’s indifference.
4. Hospitality Pairing — The Last‑Day Supper
A warm cup of black tea — simple, comforting, the drink of long marriages
A slice of apple pie — American sweetness with a bitter edge
A wool blanket — the texture of shared years and quiet endurance
A small table set for two — intimacy in a world that has no room for them
A setting for nights when you want to honor memory, fidelity, and the cost of loving to the end.
5. Reflection Prompts
Where have I mistaken convenience for compassion?
Whom have I quietly pushed to the margins of my life?
What promises have I allowed circumstances to erode?
How do I honor the elders whose sacrifices built my world?
Where is love asking me to stay faithful even when the world says “be practical”?
“Make Way for Tomorrow” and the Catholic Art of Dying Well
A Film Review and Spiritual Reflection
There are films that entertain, films that instruct, and films that quietly wound. Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) belongs to the last category—a story so gentle in its telling and so brutal in its implications that it lingers like a bruise. Orson Welles famously said it would “make a stone cry.” What he didn’t say is that it also exposes the spiritual poverty of a culture that has forgotten how to accompany the dying.
Viewed through a Catholic lens, Make Way for Tomorrow becomes more than a social drama. It becomes a meditation on the conditions necessary for a holy death, and a warning about what happens when those conditions collapse.
I. The Plot as a Parable of Abandonment
The story is simple:
Barkley and Lucy Cooper, an elderly couple who lose their home, are forced to separate and live with different adult children. Their presence is inconvenient. Their needs are embarrassing. Their love for each other is treated as a logistical problem.
The film’s final act—two old people savoring their last hours together before being separated forever—plays like a secular Stations of the Cross. There is no villain, only a society that has normalized the quiet disposal of its elders.
Catholic tradition has a name for this: the sin of abandonment.
II. What the Film Reveals About the Modern Deathbed
The Coopers are not dying in the literal sense, but they are undergoing a slow social death:
They are displaced from their home.
They are separated from each other.
They are tolerated, not loved.
They are managed, not accompanied.
This is precisely the opposite of the Catholic vision of dying well.
The Church teaches that the final season of life requires four things:
Presence
Sacraments
Reconciliation
Hope
The Coopers receive none of these. Their tragedy is not poverty—it is isolation.
III. The Catholic Counter‑Vision: How One Should Die
The Church does not romanticize death. It prepares for it.
A Catholic death is built on four pillars:
1. Die Reconciled
The Coopers are never given the chance to “put their house in order.” Their children are too busy protecting their own comfort to notice the spiritual needs of their parents.
Catholic dignity demands the opposite:
Confession, Anointing, and Viaticum are not luxuries. They are the final provisions for the journey.
2. Die Accompanied
The film’s emotional violence comes from the couple’s forced separation. Catholic tradition insists that no one should die alone—not physically, not emotionally, not spiritually.
The Coopers’ loneliness is the film’s indictment of modernity.
3. Die Surrendered
Bark and Lucy accept their fate with a heartbreaking gentleness. Their surrender is not Christian surrender—it is resignation. They are not offering their suffering; they are simply enduring it.
The Church invites something deeper: the conscious offering of one’s final suffering for the salvation of others.
4. Die in Hope
The film ends without hope. There is no eschatology, no promise, no horizon. Just a train pulling away.
Catholic dignity insists that death is not a train to nowhere but a passage into the Father’s house.
IV. The Film’s Prophetic Warning
Make Way for Tomorrow was released in 1937, but it reads like a prophecy of the 21st century:
Nursing homes replacing family care
Adult children overwhelmed by busyness
Elders treated as burdens
Death sanitized, outsourced, and hidden
The film is not about cruelty. It is about the quiet erosion of duty.
Catholic tradition calls this erosion by its true name: the breakdown of the Fourth Commandment.
V. What the Film Teaches Catholics Today
The film forces a question: Where will we die, and who will be there?
The Catholic answer is not sentimental. It is architectural:
Die where the sacraments can reach you.
Die where love is present.
Die where you are not alone.
Die in a place shaped by prayer.
This may be a home.
It may be a hospice room turned into a chapel.
It may be a hospital bed surrounded by family praying the Litany of the Saints.
The location matters less than the communion.
VI. The Final Scene as a Secular Memento Mori
The last moments of the film—Bark boarding the train, Lucy waving goodbye—are devastating because they feel unfinished. There is no blessing, no prayer, no ritual, no promise of reunion.
It is a death without the vocabulary of hope.
Catholicism supplies the missing language:
“Go forth, Christian soul.”
“May the angels lead you into paradise.”
“May the martyrs receive you at your coming.”
The Church refuses to let anyone die the way the Coopers are left: unaccompanied, unblessed, and unseen.
VII. Conclusion: The Film as a Call to Conversion
Make Way for Tomorrow is not merely a critique of family dynamics. It is a call to recover the Catholic art of dying well.
It asks us:
Will we accompany our elders?
Will we prepare for our own death?
Will we build homes where dying is not a crisis but a sacrament?
The Coopers’ tragedy is that they die socially before they die physically.
The Catholic answer is to ensure that no one dies spiritually before they die bodily.
The film shows what happens when a society forgets the dignity of the elderly.
The Church shows what happens when we remember.
Reflection: Rogation Sunday is friendship under resurrection light. Not the soft, sentimental version, but the kind forged by walking boundaries—land, conscience, vocation—and seeing who walks with you when the line gets real. Revelation is not abstract here; it is relational. It shows you who stands beside you when the perimeter is tested.
The Cameroon wrapper fits the day: warm, aromatic, steady—like a friend who doesn’t flinch when the terrain shifts. Jefferson’s Ocean does the same work: bright, expansive, salt‑kissed from its passage. Both remind you that friendship worth keeping is friendship that has weathered something.
Rogation is the Church’s old discipline of asking God to order the land, the work, and the heart. You walk the edges so you can see what needs guarding, what needs pruning, and what needs blessing. You walk so you can learn what is yours to carry and what is yours to surrender.
This is the revelation of Rogation:
not mystical fireworks,
not private visions,
but the clarity that comes from walking the line with Christ beside you.
And if someone wishes you good—truly good—they will offer something with weight. Not sentiment, not vague intention, but intercession with substance.
If you wish me good, offer up for me the bread of the Eucharist this Rogation Sunday—placed before the Lord who orders all things.
Friendship is proven at the boundary. Revelation is received there. And resurrection is walked, not theorized.
MAY 10 Sixth Sunday after Easter
Mother’s Day-St. Damien Of Molokai
Psalm 66, verse 16
Come and hear, all
you who FEAR God, while I recount what has been done for me.
It is just that we recount how God has removed our
faults and how he imputes no guilt on us when we sincerely repent and turn away
from our sins and ask for forgiveness. Once He has freed us, it is then that we
can gratefully receive the counsels of the Holy Spirit which show us our path.
The Shema Yisrael which is the same prayer the
Christ prayed every morning tells us that God is to be loved.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God,
the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your Heart, and
with all your soul, and with your entire mind, and with all your strength.
Christ is the living example of God’s love for us. His
heart could not rest until He repaid our debt. His soul was so
tormented for love of us that He sweated blood in the garden for us. His mind
was ever on us when He multiplied the loaves or healed the sick and with all
His strength, He offered his life as an eternal sacrifice before the
Father. He for love of us took the cup and drank it to the dregs during His
passion.
To help us understand this love of His for us is the
mission of the Confraternity of the Passion
International[1] who document the full suffering of
our Lord to show us how we are loved knowing that Christ and His mother weep
over lost souls and delight over converted ones.
Copilot’s Take
The
Catechism teaches that the confrontation with evil begins in the heart long
before it reaches the world. Evil gains influence through disordered loves and
disordered fears, and repentance is the act by which God restores the soul to
its proper orientation. When the psalmist invites the faithful to “come and
hear,” he is calling them into this interior battleground where God’s mercy
becomes the decisive force that breaks the power of sin.
To
hallow God, as the Catechism explains in its treatment of the Lord’s Prayer, is
to acknowledge His holiness in a way that reshapes the entire life. It is not
passive admiration but active consecration. When a believer recounts what God
has done, he is not merely remembering; he is declaring that God’s holiness is
the true center of reality. In that declaration, evil is exposed as temporary
and ultimately defeated.
The
Catechism also teaches that evil is confronted by truth spoken in love. Silence
in the face of sin is not humility but surrender. Testimony becomes a form of
spiritual combat, revealing the works of darkness and magnifying the works of
God. When the believer speaks of God’s mercy, he participates in the divine
victory rather than merely observing it.
The
Shema, prayed daily by Christ, becomes the pattern for this confrontation. To
love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength is to leave no part of the self
unclaimed. Evil thrives in divided hearts; holiness thrives where the whole
person is given to God. The Catechism’s teaching on the unity of the human
person reinforces this truth: the entire self must be consecrated if the entire
self is to be defended.
Christ’s
Passion reveals the definitive way evil is overcome. The Catechism teaches that
Jesus conquers not by counter‑violence but by obedient love carried to the end.
His agony, His silence before accusation, and His endurance of injustice are
not signs of weakness but the strategy of divine strength. Evil is exhausted
when it encounters a love it cannot corrupt.
To
hallow God is to enter this same pattern of victory. The believer confronts
evil not by matching its aggression but by rooting himself in the holiness of
God. This means living in truth, practicing repentance, offering mercy, and
refusing to let fear dictate action. The Catechism calls this the battle for
purity of heart, a battle fought daily and won only by grace.
Finally,
the act of recounting God’s works becomes a sanctifying force. It strengthens
the soul, exposes the lies of the enemy, and builds up the community of
believers. Testimony becomes both shield and proclamation: a shield against the
encroachment of evil and a proclamation that God’s holiness is the atmosphere
in which the Christian lives, moves, and overcomes.
THIS Sunday is preparation
for the feast of Pentecost. At the Introit of the Mass, the Church sings: “Hear,
O Lord, my voice, with which I have cried to Thee, alleluia. My heart hath said
to Thee, I have sought Thy face; Thy face, Lord, will I seek; turn not away Thy
face from me, alleluia, alleluia. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom
shall, I fear?
Prayer. O almighty and everlasting God
grant us ever to entertain a devout affection towards Thee, and to serve Thy
majesty with a sincere heart.
EPISTLE, i. Peter iv. 7-11.
Dearly Beloved: Be
prudent, and watch in prayers. But before all things have a constant mutual
charity among yourselves; for charity covereth a multitude of sins. Using
hospitality one towards another without murmuring. As every man hath received
grace, ministering the same to one another, as good stewards of the manifold
grace of God. If any man speaks, let him speak as the words of God. If any man
minister, let him do it as of the power which God administereth: that in all
things God may be honored through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Practice.
The virtues here
recommended are excellent preparatives for receiving the Holy Ghost, for
nothing makes us more worthy of His grace than temperance, prayer, charity,
unity, and hospitality towards our neighbors. Endeavor, therefore, to exercise
these virtues, and every day during the following week pray fervently to the
Holy Ghost for help in your endeavors.
GOSPEL. John xv. 26, 27; xvi. 1-4.
At that time Jesus said to
His disciples: When the Paraclete cometh Whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth, Who proceedeth from the Father, He shall give testimony of
Me: and you shall give testimony, because you are with Me from the beginning.
These things have I spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized. They will
put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh that whosoever killeth you
will think that he doth a service to God. And these things will they do to you,
because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told
you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you.
What
kind of sin is scandal?
It
is a frightful sin. By it countless sins are occasioned, thousands of souls are
carried to perdition, while the loving design of God for the salvation of men
is frustrated.
How,
in general, is scandal given?
By
saying, doing, neglecting to do something which becomes the occasion of sin to
another.
When
do parents give scandal?
When
they set a bad example to their children. When they do not correct them for
doing wrong, or neglect to keep them from what is bad and to teach them that
which is good.
How
do employers give scandal?
In
much the same way that parents give scandal to their children: when, by bad
example or by command, they keep their servants or other employees from divine
service, or neglect to make them attend it. When they themselves use, or give
to others, flesh-meat on days of abstinence. When they order the commission of
sin.
Rogation
Sunday
It
is only a few weeks since Good Friday when we commemorated the agonizing death
of Christ on Mount Calvary. This was an excruciating, shameful death even for
hardened criminals who deserved it.
But
for our loving Savior, the innocent lamb of God, one who had never offended God
or neighbor, it was something of which the whole human race should be ashamed
forever. What caused Christ that torment and death on the cross was our sins,
the sins of all mankind and not the spite and hatred of his Jewish opponents,
who were only instruments in the tragedy. Atonement had to be made to God for
the sins of the world, so that men could reach the eternal inheritance which
the incarnation made available to them.
However,
not all the acts of the entire human race could make a sufficient atonement to
God. A sacrifice, an expiation of infinite value was needed. The death of the
Son of God in his human nature was alone capable of making such an expiation.
That Christ willingly accepted crucifixion for our sakes, that he gave the
greatest proof of love which the world has ever known, by laying down his life
for his friends, did not make his sufferings any less, did not ease any of the
pains of Calvary. His agony in the Garden before his arrest shows this: he
foresaw all the tortures and pains which he was to undergo and sweated blood at
the thought of what awaited him. But he was to keep his Father's commandment
"not my will but thine be done." We Christians must have hearts of
stone, hearts devoid of all sense of gratitude, when we forget what Christ has
done for us and deliberately offend him! Alas, this is what all of us do
sometimes, and many of us do all the time. Christ died to bring us to heaven,
but we tell him, by our sins, that he was wasting his time. We do not want to
go to heaven, we are making our happiness here!
How
far can human ingratitude and thanklessness go?
Christ told us, through the disciples on Holy Thursday night,
that he had made us his friends, his intimates. We are no longer servants in
the household, who merely earn their daily wage and have no intimacy with the
family and no hope of ever sharing in the family possessions.
Instead,
we have been adopted into the family by Christ becoming man, we have been
guaranteed all the rights of children intimacy with the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit and the future sharing in the eternal happiness of that divine
household. Christ's incarnation made us God's children, Christ's death on the
cross removed sin. Sin is the one obstacle that could prevent us reaching our
eternal inheritance. Because God gave us a free will we can in a moment of
folly, a moment of madness really, deprive ourselves of the privileges and
possessions which Christ has made available to us. We can choose to exchange an
eternity of happiness for a few fleeting years of self-indulgence on earth. We
can fling Christ's gift of love back in his face and tell him we don't want it.
God forbid that we should ever act like this, that we should ever forget God's
purpose in creating us. It is a marvelous thing to be alive, if we have hope in
a future life. If nothing awaited us but the grave, then to live on this earth,
which is a valley of sorrow and tears for the vast majority, would be the
cruelest of jests. But of this we need have no fear. Life on earth is but a
short prelude to our real existence. If we use this brief period as Christ has
told us how to use it, death for us will be the passage into the eternal
mansions. Be grateful to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; love the Blessed
Trinity; prove your love by loving your fellowmen. By doing this you are
fulfilling the whole law and the prophets; and you are assuring yourself of the
place in heaven which Christ has won for you.
THE
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before the Ascension are observed as days of
solemn supplication, and are called Rogation Days. These three Rogation days
serve also as a preparation for the feast of the ascension, which reminds us
that we have the most powerful intercessor in our savior, who is now enthroned
at the right hand of the father. Since1929manychurches in theUnitedStateshaveobservedRogationSunday as RuralLifeSunday, or SoilStewardshipSunday.Services on thisdayexaminethereligiousaspects
of rurallife. In 1969theRomanCatholicChurchcancelledtheRogationDays.
In theirplaceChurchauthoritiesinstituteddays of prayerforhumanneeds,humanworks,andthefruits of theearth.Localbishopsmaynowsetappropriatedatesfortheseobservances in theirdioceses.
In
honor of Mother’s Day, here are a few quotes from John Paul II’s apostolic
letter On the Dignity of Women (Mulieris
Dignitatem) about the unique vocation of motherhood.[5]
John Paul II:“Motherhood involves a special
communion with the mystery of life, as it develops in the mother’s womb. The mother is filled with
wonder at this mystery of life, and ‘understands’ with unique intuition what is happening inside
her. In the light of the ‘beginning’, the mother accepts and loves as a person
the child she is carrying in her womb. This unique contact with the new human
being developing within her gives rise to an attitude towards human beings –
not only towards her own child, but every human being – which profoundly marks
the woman’s personality.”
“Motherhood implies from
the beginning a special openness to the new person: and this is precisely the woman’s
‘part’. In this openness, in conceiving and giving birth to a child, the woman
‘discovers herself through a sincere gift of self’.”
“Human parenthood is something
shared by both the man and the woman. Even if the woman, out of love for her
husband, says: ‘I have given you a child’, her words also mean: ‘This is our
child’. Although both of them together are parents of their child, the woman’s motherhood constitutes a special
‘part’ in this shared parenthood, and the most demanding part.
Parenthood – even though it belongs to both – is realized much more fully in
the woman, especially in the prenatal period. It is the woman who ‘pays’ directly
for this shared generation, which literally absorbs the energies of her body
and soul. It is therefore necessary that the man be fully aware that
in their shared program of parenthood he owes a special debt to the woman.”
John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem (1988), no. 18
·Take
mom out to brunch or dinner. Be sure to book in advance as Mother's Day
brunches are always very busy.
·Clean
the house for your mother or grandmother.
·Send
mom and grandma flowers. You can either pick them up or deliver them yourself
if you are nearby or use one of many online services that ship directly to her
door.
·Give
mom a gift she will really appreciate - a day at the spa or a weekend off.
·A
simple phone call to mom will suffice. Let her know that you love her and think
about her.
Excerpt from The Sunday
Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.
·Mother’s Day
Tea at The Plaza—Mom is always fussing over you;
now’s your chance to turn the tables -- in style. Treat Mom to afternoon tea at
The Plaza’s Tea Room. A tradition since the hotel opened in 1907, tea at this
NYC landmark has inspired scenes in popular films and novels, including
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Mom can enjoy a selection of sandwiches and
savories from the Fitzgerald Tea for the Ages and The New Yorker menus.
Joseph De Veuster, the future Father
Damien, was born at Tremelo in Belgium, January 3rd, 1840. His was a large
family and his father was a farmer-merchant. When his oldest brother entered
the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts (called 'Picpus' after the street in
Paris where its Generalate was located), his father planned that Joseph should
take charge of the family business. Joseph, however, decided to become a
religious. At the beginning of 1859 he entered the novitiate at Louvain, in the
same house as his brother. There he took the name of Damien. In 1863, his
brother who was to leave for the mission in the Hawaiian Islands, became ill.
Since preparations for the voyage had already been made, Damien obtained
permission from the Superior General to take his brother's place. He arrived in
Honolulu on March 19th, 1864, where he was ordained to the priesthood the
following May 21st. He immediately devoted himself, body and soul, to the
difficult service of a "country missionary" on the island of Hawaii,
the largest in the Hawaiian group. At that time, the Hawaiian Government
decided on a very harsh measure aimed at stopping the spread of
"leprosy," the deportation to the neighboring island of Molokai, of
all those infected by what was thought to be an incurable disease. The entire
mission was concerned about the abandoned "lepers" and the Bishop,
Louis Maigret ss.cc., spoke to the priests about the problem. He did not want
to send anyone "in the name of obedience," because he knew that such
an order meant certain death. Four Brothers volunteered, they would take turns
visiting and assisting the "lepers" in their distress. Damien was the
first to leave on May 10th, 1873. At his own request and that of the lepers, he
remained definitively on Molokai. He brought hope to this hell of despair. He
became a source of consolation and encouragement for the lepers, their pastor,
the doctor of their souls and of their bodies, without any distinction of race
or religion. He gave a voice to the voiceless, he built a community where the
joy of being together and openness to the love of God gave people new reasons
for living.
After Father Damien contracted the
disease in 1885, he was able to identify completely with them: "We
lepers." Father Damien was, above all, a witness of the love of God for
His people. He got his strength from the Eucharist: "lt is at the foot of
the altar that we find the strength we need in our isolation..." It is
there that he found for himself and for others the support and the
encouragement, the consolation and the hope, he could, with a deep faith,
communicate to the lepers. All that made him "the happiest missionary in
the world," a servant of God, and a servant of humanity. Having contracted
"leprosy" himself, Fr. Damien died on April 15th, 1889, having served
sixteen years among the lepers. His mortal remains were transferred in 1936 to
Belgium where he was interred in the crypt of the church of the Congregation of
Sacred Hearts at Louvain. His fame spread to the entire world. In 1938 the
process for his beatification was introduced at Malines (Belgium): Pope Paul VI
signed the Decree on the "heroicity of his virtues" on July 7th, 1977.
He was canonized on October 11th, 2009.
In Father Damien, the Church proposes an
example to all those who find sense for their life in the Gospel and who wish
to bring the Good News to the poor of our time.
Things to Do:
Be adventurous and prepare a Hawaiian
luau in honor of St. Damien.
A story about Father
Damien the leper shows us how no one or anything should stop us from making a
humble confession. One of Father Damien's greatest sufferings after he left for
Molokai was his inability to go to confession. Two months after his arrival on
the island, the Honolulu Board of Health ruled that no one on Molokai would be
allowed to return, even temporarily. This was a cruel blow to a man of such
delicate conscience as Father Damien, accustomed to receiving the grace of the
sacrament of Penance weekly. Since he was forbidden to leave, it seemed someone
must come to him. In September, a steamer stopped outside the shore settlement
of Kalaupapa with the usual load of provisions, patients banished from the
mainland, and this time with Father Damien's provincial, Father Modeste, who
knew the young priest was longing to see him. As he prepared to land, Father
Modeste was confronted by the captain. "I have formal orders to stop
you," he announced. There was nothing left but for Damien to come out to
the ship. He did, in a small boat rowed by two of his leper friends and
prepared to board. "Stay back! Stay back!" shouted the captain.
"I've been strictly forbidden to let you see anyone!" Father Damien
stood in the little boat, so near and yet so far. Quickly he made up his mind.
"Very well, I will go to confession here." And with his provincial
leaning over the railing on the deck, the priest confessed his sins and
received absolution. It is said no one on board knew French. Nevertheless, one
cannot help feeling that in this case the walls, the very skies, had ears. It
was truly heroic: a man making the choice between human respect and sacramental
grace. There is no comparison. Penance is the torrent that will cleanse us. Let neither pride nor human respect prevent
our making a humble confession.
In
honor of St. Damian “Work out like a
Polynesian warrior![9]
Bored of the gym? Practice the skills needed to survive on one of the
world’s remotest islands. For over a thousand years, the Rapa Nui people of
Easter Island have lived in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Their survival depends
on strength, resourcefulness and sometimes war. Today, the island's annual
two-week Tapati Festival celebrates their culture, and exhibits their athletic
prowess. So put that gym visit on hold for a moment and imagine what some
warpaint, a volcano and a 20kg banana weight belt could do for your fitness
goals! Here’s the set…More: Here's how to win the world's harshest race...
·1. Run-Begin with a pulse raiser. The
Rapa Nui run barefoot with 20kg of bananas hanging over their shoulders,
dressed in only a hami (loincloth). The route is a kilometre loop around an
emerald lake inside the Rano Raraku volcano.
oReplicate: No treadmill we know has this
adventure setting... Grab a sandbag (or a rucksack full of flour) and get
outdoors for a run. Build up the distance and speed slowly.
·2. Throw-The Rapa Nui whittle their
spears from long straight branches, then attach sharpened flints. Points are
accumulated by hitting banana tree targets. The thinner the tree, the more
points for your tribe.
§Replicate: Stop yanking on those gym cables to
improve your shoulder and back strength. Instead check out what field throwing
sports your local athletics club can offer. Banana trees not included.
o3. Carve. Easter Island is famous for the
mysterious moai stone statues. Today the Rapa Nui hold forearm-bursting,
speed-carving competitions – albeit on a slightly smaller scale to their
ancestors.
§Replicate: Think 1,000 bicep curls is the only
way to build forearm strength? Think again. Sculpt your cufflink crackers with
some wood carving of your own.
o4. Fish The Rapa Nui are incredible
underwater hunters. They can hold their breath for up to four minutes whilst
stalking their prey.
§Replicate: Take the plunge and see how far you
can go on a single breath with a freediving course.
o5. Ride-Galloping along the edge of sea
cliffs is not wild enough for the Rapa Nui. The jockeys ride bareback at the
Vaihu horse race – gripping just the horse’s manes and squeezing wildly with
their calves and thighs.
§Replicate: Don’t have a horse of your own? Get
the same workout from riding a mountain bike at any of these great spots.
o6. Paddle The banana carrying footrace
inside the volcano also requires a crossing of the lake. The Rapa Nui
competitors cross the water on boats made of reeds that are collected and woven
from the very same lake.
§Replicate: Turn your workout into an adventure
with an introduction to sea kayaking.
o7. Dance Easter Island’s dances are a
collection of the best cultural influences from their not-so-near neighbors.
It’s an exhausting blend of the haka from New Zealand, the hula from Hawaii and
the Latin passion of South America.
§Replicate: Tired of zumba-ing soullessly into
your gym studio’s mirror? Put some life back into your dance workout by making
it fun and social with friends.
o8. Slide Take two banana trunks to the top of a
volcano, lash them together, coat yourself in body paint and toboggan down at
speeds up to 80kph.
§Replicate: Ahem… OK, you’ve got us here. The
best option is to check it out for yourself!
Bible in a
year Day 309 Praying
for the Dead
Fr. Mike breaks down the doctrine of purgatory as we read about
Judas Maccabeus and his army praying for the dead in 2 Maccabees 12. We learn
that purgatory is a process of purification that our hearts need in order to be
ready to love God and to enter into his presence. In our reading of Wisdom
today, Fr. Mike emphasizes the insanity of worshipping idols and how it's more
tempting to make idols out of good things rather than evil things. Today's
readings are 2 Maccabees 12, Wisdom 13-14, and Proverbs 25:11-14.
THIS WE BELIEVE
PRAYERS AND TEACHINGS OF THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH
Prayer After Mass
Lord
Jesus Christ, take all my freedom,
my memory, my understanding, and my will.
All that I have and cherish
you have given me.
I surrender it all to be guided by Your will.
Your grace and Your love
are enough for me.
Give me these, Lord Jesus,
and I ask for nothing more. Amen.
A corporate‑romance comedy where efficiency, loyalty, and quick‑thinking collide with the era’s favorite masquerade: the fake marriage that reveals real character. Directed by William A. Seiter, the film showcases Rosalind Russell at full velocity—sharp, stylish, and professionally unflappable—while Brian Aherne plays the polished executive who discovers that the woman he hired to solve a business problem is the only one who can reorder his life.
Released in 1940 by Universal Pictures, Hired Wife sits at the intersection of:
Pre‑war American optimism — business confidence, corporate ambition, and the belief that competence can solve anything.
Rosalind Russell’s ascendant persona — the intelligent, stylish woman who outpaces every man in the room.
The screwball‑to‑romantic‑comedy transition — still fast, still witty, but with more polish and less chaos.
Office‑era realism — desks, telephones, contracts, and the social choreography of workplace hierarchy.
The world is tight:
boardrooms, apartments, taxis, and the public gaze that makes a fake marriage harder to maintain than a real one.
But the moral terrain is broad—loyalty, ambition, dignity, and the cost of underestimating the woman who keeps your life running.
The cultural backdrop:
Women entering professional spaces with authority
Corporate power games replacing aristocratic ones
Romance emerging from competence rather than fragility
The American workplace as a stage for identity, aspiration, and reinvention
The film’s power lies in its pace: Russell’s verbal precision, Aherne’s polished bewilderment, and the slow realization that the “hired wife” is the only one with real agency.
2. Story Summary
Stephen Dexter (Brian Aherne), a successful industrialist, faces a corporate threat that requires immediate legal camouflage: he must appear married to block a takeover.
He turns to his secretary, Kendal Browning (Rosalind Russell):
efficient
loyal
unflappable
and entirely capable of running his life better than he does
She agrees to the arrangement—professionally, briskly, without romantic illusions.
But the masquerade grows complicated:
Public appearances
Social expectations
A jealous rival
A real fiancée who doesn’t appreciate the “temporary” wife
And Kendal’s increasing visibility as the one person who actually understands Stephen
The fake marriage becomes a crucible.
The professional façade cracks.
Affection emerges where efficiency once ruled.
Russell’s performance anchors the film:
competence becomes charm, and charm becomes revelation.
3. Spiritual & Moral Resonances
A. Competence as Virtue
Kendal’s strength is not seduction—it is mastery.
The film honors the dignity of work done well.
B. The Truth Beneath the Masquerade
The fake marriage exposes the real relationship:
who supports whom, who carries the weight, who actually leads.
C. The Awakening of the Blind
Stephen is not malicious—just oblivious.
His arc is the slow recognition of Kendal’s worth.
D. Pride as a Soft Blindfold
He assumes he is the center of the operation.
The story reveals he is the beneficiary of her unseen labor.
E. Love Without Triumph
There is no grand moral victory—just the quiet realization that partnership grows from respect, not performance.
4. Hospitality Pairing — The Executive Desk Spread
A crisp gin highball — clean, efficient, the drink of clarity
A plate of salted almonds — office‑hour fuel, simple and direct
A sharp cheddar on crackers — competence in edible form
A leather desk chair — the throne of the overconfident executive who needs a woman like Kendal to keep him upright
A setting for nights when you want to reflect on work, dignity, and the hidden architecture of loyalty.
5. Reflection Prompts
Where am I relying on someone’s competence without acknowledging it?
What “temporary arrangement” in my life is revealing deeper truth?
How do I treat the people who hold my world together?
What masks do I wear in professional spaces—and what would happen if they slipped?
Where is respect trying to grow into affection, if I would only see it?
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