It’s been raining pretty hard at the hermitage with all sorts of flood warnings, so I wasn’t able to make it there. Sticking around home on the day off provided a perfect opportunity to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. And since the new rose bush is really pushing out lots of blossoms (I’ve already removed about 15), it was high time to make a first attempt at a little backyard shrine for our Lady. We can’t let the perfect get in the way of the merely O.K., at least for starters. If I waited for perfection nothing would ever happen as I would procrastinate in hopes of future whatever until the moment I was six feet under. While getting older, time is flying faster. Pictured are some tiles in front of three rows of concrete blocks brought in from the hermitage some months ago. The statue is made out of some sort of polymer and so is fairly light and susceptible to be knocked over with a gust of wind. Solution:
The hole was gorilla taped, the statue was flipped right side up and brought outside with the screws still sticking out about three inches from the bottom. Those were slipped in between the concrete blocks to provide some stability until the time comes to upgrade the shrine to something a bit more appropriate.
In this year of the 100th anniversary of Fatima I get nostalgic regarding the pilgrimages I made to Fatima at 16 years old in 1976 with Father Robert Fox and then in 2009 if I remember rightly with an entire busload of other permanent chaplains of the sanctuaries of our Lady of Lourdes.
A sense of urgency comes over me regarding the need to write something about Nostra Aetate and the true translation of the Latin regarding Islam. That’s really important.
An even greater sense of urgency comes over me regarding the need to write something that I’ve been pursuing with imams and terrorists right around the world, that is, the meaning of Sura 37:100-113. If understood correctly – and I do think I have a handle on it – that passage of the Qur’an goes to very heart of all that is Islam for any Muslim of whatever sect. It is the tell all passage. I think the time has come. Of all things, that latter commentary would center on something which will be a surprise: the Immaculate Conception.
Ahh! But doesn’t that sound sweet and nice and irrelevant!?! Sure. But being so dismissive about what goes the very heart of what it means to be Jewish, to be Catholic, and, in a much, much different way, to be Muslim, is a fatal mistake of catastrophic proportions. Why would our military and intelligence services ignore that which gives them the key to understanding the very mindset of the Islamicists they are trying to figure out so as to be able to conquer them?
Anyway, the backyard shrine scene, bucolic except that it is missing only a sheep (oh, wait, that would be little Jesus) and perhaps a donkey (oh, wait, that’s me), is not just a nicey nice setting. It is, instead, an inspirational reminder to write something about what is pictured in the header of this blog:
So, the day off was a day of inspiration. Oh, and I finally installed those 24/7 security cameras someone gave me. :-)
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
Perfect!
Very beautiful!