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Thursday 10 January 2013

Finally, birds in Malta--well, sort of....

A more than weird thing happened to me in the Millennium Adoration Chapel today. In fact, more than one weird thing happened, but I shall mention one.

I was praying and realized I heard birds in the background from somewhere. At first, I was thrilled at the thought that not all the songbirds in Malta had been shot for sport.

Then, I realized, to my surprise, that I was listening to Meadowlarks, Cardinals, Flycatchers, Grasshopper Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, Cowbirds, Nuthatches, House Finches and North American Crows.

Yes, it was a CD of Midwestern Birds.

I could identify at least fifteen songs and calls. It was as if I was sitting at a lakeside in Iowa, Missouri, or Wisconsin.

I have thirty plus years of bird watching diaries. I know my birds...especially my Midwest birds.

Odd and eerie. Or, should I say, airy.

Do you like this monstrance?



To me, it looks like Jesus is caught in a Christmas hard candy, or one of those goopy lamps from the 1970s called lava lamps.


Why do....? Thoughts from Malta observations in shops, cafes, etc.

1. Men brag about being drunk

2. Women like shoes

3. Toddlers prefer pets to people

4. Trads cannot get together to get married

5. Cell phone breaks just when you brag about how long you have had it

5. Young men do not get married

6. Young women do not get married

7. Maltese women walk like princesses-and dress like Romans-very cool

8. The TLM is not in Malta

9. The Adoration Millennium Chapel looks like a Canadian New Age Aromatherapy Clinic

10. Everyone loves LOTR/ The Hobbit around the Western World




New Poll

I am putting up a new poll.

Please join in.

Walking in Malta and not being trendy



In 2011, I ruined a pair of Danskos in Valletta in two months and my current pairs are getting a beating here. The streets are not necessarily flat-paved, but cobblestone, stone, gravel, or just not there.

The dust lies thick and rocks and stones, from which this island is formed, dig into the leather.

No
No

No


I am glad I have sturdy walking shoes and am grateful for the friends who sent them to me last summer. I am hard on shoes, as I walk everywhere, at a hefty pace, and through all kinds of weather.

Ireland was a test. One pair succumbed to daily rain, mud, uneven pavements, unknown goo, etc.
Yes
Yes
"Oh, that is sensible." Sensible I am but not trendy, as the trendy footwear in Malta are tight fitting black boots, with pointed toes and tassles, or tiny pumps in various types of bling.

Out I go in a few minutes in my beat-up, well-worn clogs. I am SO boring.............

On the sea



Malta is a beautiful island and the people are friendly. If you can handle 65 degrees Fahrenheit on a January day, this is the place to be.

I can sit by the sea and watch the waves for a long time. I grew up on the Mighty Mississippi River and feel landlocked if I cannot see water.

This fact adds to the reason I love Malta, and England. Island people have their own closeness and cosiness  Last night, I had a fascinating discussion on politics and the dangers of the times with three highly intelligent Millennials.

This younger generation gets it. They see what is coming in the world and they are intuitive. They do not pretend or have their heads in the proverbial sands.

I wish them more than well. I wish them all the peace God can bring to their lives, which will be much more difficult than mine.

As seen in an earlier post, I was born in a time of solid families and ordered social mores.

I have linked that post. http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-dance-card-is-full-and-young-people.html

If the youth of today find peace, it will have to be within their own souls and own hearts. I pray they find that strength, here in the beauty of their homeland.

For those having trouble with the Net; and not cats on the keyboard types of problems

As Catholics know, the demons of the air are most likely in charge of the Net, as one can see by the abuse regarding child porn and other types of porn prove.

Some of you may occasionally have trouble with the Net, as I did today. Here is a prayer.


It was written by Fr. Z. .......A prayer before logging onto the internet: 


 Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

From St. Julian's Bay

My stay with good Catholic friends here is almost over. I am walking about St. Julian's Bay and the Internet is weak where I am. I shall post several things later in the day.

A Saint for Our Time-January 10th


 St. William of Bourges. Patron of  the University of Paris   From this site. 
  1155 - 1209

William Berruyer, of the illustrious family of the ancient counts of Nevers, was educated by Peter the hermit, archdeacon of Soissons, his uncle by the mother’s side. He learned from his infancy to despise the folly and emptiness of the riches and grandeur of the world, to abhor its pleasures, and to tremble at its dangers. His only delight was in exercises of piety and in his studies, in which he employed his whole time with indefatigable application. He was made canon, first of Soissons, and afterwards of Paris: but he soon took the resolution of abandoning all commerce with the world; and retired into the solitude of Grandmont, where he lived with great regularity in that austere order, till seeing its peace disturbed by a contest which arose between the fathers and lay-brothers, he passed into the Cistercian, then in wonderful odour of sanctity. He took the habit in the abbey of Pontigny, and shining as a perfect model of monastic perfection, was after some time chosen prior of that house, and afterwards abbot, first of Fountaine-Jean, in the diocess of Sens, (a filiation of Pontigny, founded in 1124, by Peter de Courtenay, son of king Lewis the Fat,) and some time after, of Chaalis, near Senlis, a much more numerous monastery, also a filiation of Pontigny, built by Lewis the Fat in 1136, a little before his death. St. William always reputed himself the last among his brethren. The universal mortification of his senses and passions, laid in him the foundation of an admirable purity of heart, and an extraordinary gift of prayer; in which he received great heavenly lights, and tasted of the sweets which God has reserved for those to whom he is pleased to communicate himself. The sweetness and cheerfulness of his countenance testified the uninterrupted joy and peace that overflowed his soul, and made virtue appear with the most engaging charms in the midst of austerities.
On the death of Henry de Sully, archbishop of Bourges, the clergy of that church requested his brother Eudo, bishop of Paris, to come and assist them in the election of a pastor. Desirous to choose some abbot of the Cistercian Order, then renowned for holy men, they put on the altar the names of three, written on as many billets. This manner of election by lots would have been superstitious, and a tempting of God, had it been done, relying on a miracle without the warrant of divine inspiration. But it deserved not this censure, when all the persons proposed seemed equally worthy and fit, as the choice was only recommended to God, and left to this issue by following the rules of his ordinary providence, and imploring his light, without rashness, or a neglect of the usual means of scrutiny; prudence might sometimes even recommend such a method, in order to terminate a debate when the candidates seemed equally qualified. God, in such cases, is said sometimes to have miraculously interposed.
Eudo, accordingly, having written three billets, laid them on the altar; and having made his prayer, drew first the name of the abbot William, on whom, at the same time, the majority of the votes of the clergy had made the election fall, the 23rd of November, 1200. This news overwhelmed William with grief. He never would have acquiesced, had he not received a double command in virtue of obedience, from the Pope, and from his general, the abbot of Citeaux. He left his dear solitude with many tears, and was received at Bourges as one sent by heaven, and soon after was consecrated. In this new dignity his first care was to conform both his exterior and interior to the most perfect rules of sanctity; being very sensible that a man’s first task is to honour God perfectly in his own soul. He redoubled all his austerities, saying, it was now incumbent on him to do penance for others, as well as for himself. He always wore a hair-shirt under his religious habit, and never added, nor diminished, any thing in his clothes either winter or summer. He never ate any flesh-meat, though he had it at his table for strangers. His attention to feed his flock was no less remarkable, especially in assisting the poor both spiritually and corporally, saying, that he was chiefly sent for them. He was most mild to penitent sinners; but inflexible towards the impenitent, though he refused to have recourse to the civil power against them, the usual remedy of that age. Many such he at last reclaimed by his sweetness and charity.
Certain great men abusing his lenity, usurped the rights of his church; but the saint strenuously defended them even against the king himself, notwithstanding his threats to confiscate his lands. By humility and resolution he overcame several contradictions of his chapter and other clergy. By his zeal he converted many of the Albigenses, contemporary heretics, and was preparing himself for a mission among them, at the time he was seized with his last illness. He would, notwithstanding, preach a farewell sermon to his people, which increased his fever to such a degree, that he was obliged to set aside his journey, and take to his bed. Drawing near his end, he received first extreme-unction, according to the discipline of that age; 1 then, in order to receive the viaticum, he rose out of bed, fell on his knees melting in tears, and prayed long prostrate with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross. The night following, perceiving his last hour approach, he desired to anticipate the nocturns, which are said at midnight; but having made the sign of the cross on his lips and breast, was able to pronounce no more than the two first words.
Then, according to a sign made by him, he was laid on ashes in the hair-cloth which he always privately wore. In this posture he soon after expired, a little past midnight, on the morning of the 10th of January, in 1209. His body was interred in his cathedral; and being honoured by many miracles, was taken up in 1217; and in the year following he was canonized by Pope Honorius III. His relics were kept with great veneration till 1562, when they were burnt, and scattered in the winds by the Huguenots, on occasion of their plundering the cathedral of Bourges, as Baillet and Bollandus mention. A bone of his arm is shown with veneration at Chaalis, whither it had been sent soon after the saint’s body was taken up; and a rib is preserved in the church of the college of Navarre, at Paris, on which the canons of St. Bourges bestowed it in 1399. 2 His festival is kept in that church with great solemnity, and by a great concourse of devout persons; St. William being regarded in several parts of France as one of the patrons of the nation, though his name is not mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. The celebrated Countess Maud, his niece, out of veneration for his memory, bestowed certain lands in the Nivernois, on the church of Bourges. 3 B. Philip Berruyer, a nephew of St. William, was archbishop of Bourges from the year 1236 to 1260, in which he died in the odour of sanctity. Nangi ascribes to him many miracles, and other historians bear testimony to his eminent virtue.
 

Mini-thought

Did you notice something in the world? The Good People are becoming Better, and the Bad are becoming Worse....