The Anchoress

How to Pray for the Nation

2010-03-21T03:52:39Z

Got this from reader Alexandra, and thought it was such incredibly simple (but profound) advice, that I had to share it. It really humbled and instructed me:

. . .when the Bush-Gore recount battle was going on, I asked my parish priest, a very wise man who loves Christ, how to discern God’s will. I wasn’t asking so much for his opinion on the politics of the day but when I am in one of these political battles and a religious person, can I discern God’s will in the course of trying to decide whether I should write letters, call my Congressperson, or whatever?

His simple answer was “God’s will will always be for the salvation of the individual involved.”

So I try every day now to pray for the salvation of the president, all members of Congress, and the American people. I cast my cares upon the Lord.

We are in a deeper battle here, which you well know . . . I also think in the end this all has to do with the salvation of souls, including the souls of our president and these politicians who deign to rule over the rest of us. I think we who believe must hold fast to Christ, the True Center, and bring as many along with us as possible.

Yes. How perfectly right. God’s will will always be for the salvation of the individual involved. And it follows that the salvation of the individual involved will lie in that individual’s conforming him/herself to the Word and Will of God.

Chew on that, for a while.

While you’re chewing, also take a gander at Deacon Greg’s excellent homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent. It’s a great reflection of the woman caught in adultery, the compassion and justice of Christ, resolve, penance and the nature of gratitude.

Christ’s final command to the woman is so simple, so direct. Go, he says. Begin. Leave this place. Set out on your journey. Go.

He could have ended with that. But he didn’t. What follows are words we are meant to carry in our hearts as we turn our gaze toward Calvary. They are words of mercy. Words of compassion. Words of grace in a world where grace is so often in short supply.

So…To anyone living with a painful past… to anyone who struggles with remorse and regret….to those who feel they have done something unforgivable…take heart. We can begin again. The words of the gospel remind us that God wants to give us another chance. For some of us, it may be a second chance – for others, a 22nd. But it begins with making a choice, taking that first step. Are we able to do it?

Of all the words in the gospel that we have heard over these last four weeks, these may be the ones that matter the most. They are the great legacy of Lent.

Go, Jesus says. And from now on, do not sin anymore.

He certainly has a way with words, doesn’t he? I can’t believe he’s not Irish.

Tonight my husband and I watched The Stoning of Soraya M; very disturbing film, with many parallels to Christ’s contrived trial and murder. I recommend it for Lenten viewing, for many reasons. But it is not easy to watch. It is not easy to realize that mobs with no interest in a given situation can be so easily electrified. It’s not easy in many ways. And it brings home today’s Gospel reading, even more fully.

Like Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden has also decided to use his religion for the purposes of political expediency. Reading that, and considering all that has passed in this nation in the last few years and the last few weeks, I am profoundly grateful for the instruction of a good priest: “God’s will will always be for the salvation of the individual involved.”

Pray for salvation. For everyone. It may be our best, most effective prayer.

We are certainly living in interesting times, aren’t we?

Sane Perspectives on Healthcare

2010-03-20T18:53:13Z

Watch Rep. Paul Ryan making sense, and clearly confusing Rep. Louise Slaughter:

H/T

Meanwhile, I wanted to share this, with a Hat Tip to Deacon Greg Kandra. He posted an excerpt from Cardinal Seans thoughtful musings on healthcare, and then tipped me off to this comment from one of his readers -although I have seen it on several sites, today, so I am not sure where it originated- which I am reprinting in full, because it is sane and sensible:

I have been a doctor for 19 years. 4 years in the Army and 15 years in private practice. I belong to a doctor owned group of approx 350 doctors in a multi-specialty practice. We employ 4000 people. In addition to being touted as one of the very best clinics in the nation (Acclaim Award winners) we have donated over a million dollars to the local city in grants, scholarships and charity. Regularly voted as top places to work by our employees. US healthcare at its very best. I am very proud of what we do and we provide tremendous care and value to our patients.

We seek to maintain a 3-5% profit margin annually. We operate in the very precarious business model of enormous volume, low margin. As any business owner knows, this is high-risk-low-margin of error model. Consequently any small changes to cash flow vectors, mandates widespread internal policy and practice corrections. Tiny changes = massive consequences.

As many people may know, Medicare and Medicaid, the current government paid ‘insurer’ – pays approximately 70% of the cost of care. ie its more expensive for doctors to care for these patients than we get reimbursed for. Say you are a contractor. Imagine the government mandating a significant number of your jobs whereby your out of pocket costs are ~ 30% + greater than your income. That is Medicare and Medicaid. In perspective, our group alone, year 2008 lost ~$12 million caring for our government patients. This is despite taking over 1 1/2 years to help move our fee-for-service traditional Medicare patients over to Medicare Advantage plans, which are privatized versions of Medicare that reimburse better…still not covering costs…but lessen our losses significantly.

Many people ask, why do private health insurance premiums continue to escalate? The liberals want you to believe its a combination of profiteering and waste. When in fact its due mainly to two other processes. The first is obvious: every year it costs more to care for patients and premiums are trying to keep up with this rising cost. But secondly, and less often discussed, is that every year private delivery systems lose more and more money caring for our government patients. Someone has to make up for these losses in order for your hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, pharmacies, group practices to remain solvent and profitable. Every year these delivery systems open their books to the private healthcare insurers – and the insurers must – they must in order for the entire system at large to stay functional, increase the amount they pay out to cover these losses. If they dont, both the delivery systems and the insurers die. So to keep the boat afloat, the payouts by private insurers MUST increase to subsidize the ever increasing losses doctors incur by taking care of our government patients. So, in a way, you could say that your increasing premiums are a tax that you are paying to cover the losses that are Medicare and Medicaid. It’s a clear and inarguable private subsidation of government cost. Enough said on that.

So to really feel the consequence and full impact of Obamacare, one must simply see the economic dominos. Most people can see how this bill will rapidly reduce private insurance plans and rapidly expand government plan patients. And take whatever number that is being reported, and multiply that by 3. That has been the experience in both Mass and Hawaii. Both government plans were overwhelmed with the enrollees as they significantly underestimated the government migration.

Ok, so now- how can anyone not see the obvious outcome? Government patients = significant loss of profitability. Initially the private insurers will do their best to continue to subsidize this loss, and there will be a huge escalation of premiums. But within a few months this will be unsustainable. Its a cycle that cannot be stopped. Higher premiums = higher recidivism to government plans = higher premiums etc. Within months, every single hospital, every single doctor office, clinic, nursing home, pharmacy – every delivery system reliant on private insurers will no longer be profitable. ie they will go bankrupt. These will most certainly be the headlines to come: Hospital XYZ shockingly announces bankruptcy; Hospitals can no longer remain open; Clinics across the country file for bankruptcy; Loss of Pharmacy access shocks the Nation; Doctors going bankrupt en masse creating healthcare delivery and access to care crises; Where can you go to get care?; Loss of access reported Nationwide

Yes a crises. A crises of access due to widespread business failure. You will not be able to get care for as long as it takes for the government to devise their emergency bailout package and as long as it takes for those insufficient dollars to try and get those doors back open again. But it will be too late, and it will be too expensive. There is absolutely no way that our government can capitalize our entire healthcare system. Try as they might, only a percentage of what we have now will ultimately survive. And those that do survive will be a shell of what they once were. The conditions will be frightening, and the consequences will be dire. The degree of disarray will be unimaginable and the underlap in access to care will be gaping.

I will not expand this discussion to predict what this means to our economy at large because I am not an economist. But anyone can be close to predicting what I am suggesting. Factors such as loss of work hours due to illnesses not treated, pressure on all the other private business models; let alone the out and out loss of enormous capital via the bankruptcy of this entire healthcare industry can clearly be the death nail to our country and imo is a clear and present threat to our very sovereignty. This can make the housing collapse look like a speed bump. This will be massive and rapid and lethal and complete.

I am not certain why this very obvious outcome has not been openly discussed more often – ie the rapid and massive bankruptcy of all of your health care providers and their delivery systems. But this is the inevitable outcome should this bill ever become law and implemented.

Thanks for reading. Please ping, copy and email your friends and try and get this word out. I know it’s a very late hour – but I do think the implementation is not an inevitability as multiple lawsuits may keep it on hold for a while – so public opinion will still be vital for many more months to come.

Unbelievable times. Please do your part and email and make the phone calls. This plea comes an honest and heartfelt love of our country and its citizens, and an honest and heartfelt love of my profession, avocation and the welfare of my patients.

Send this around to everyone you know. Read it to your neighbors. I’m filing it under “critical thinking.” Check back for updates:

UPDATE 1:
Althouse is posting Meade-taken-Pics from the capital protest. Meade is very cute, but this is my fave:

UPDATE II:
Apparently “deem and pass” is dead. I think a buncha people marching on DC may have something to do with that. Or, Pelosi has the votes to pass.

Year of the Priest: Military

2010-03-20T05:11:36Z

Excerpts from a great photo essay on military chaplains, coming to us via the Crescat, who loves to celebrate the manly priests:

Catholic military chaplain Cpt. Carl Subler on March 5 at a small U.S. combat outpost in Sha-Wali-Kot in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan (

See the whole inspiring thing here

All found via New Advent

Related:
The Stuff Priests are Made Of

Just Wonderful

2010-03-20T14:56:23Z

Courtesy of Deacon Greg, who emailed it my way with a note that he thought this nun’s story was going to be part of a homily.

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou is a nun currently living in Jerusalem. She grew up as the daughter of a prominent Ethiopian intellectual, but spent much of her young life in exile, first for schooling, and then again during Mussolini’s occupation of Ethiopia’s capitol city, Addis Ababa, in 1936. Her musical career was often tragically thwarted by class and gender politics, and when the Emperor himself actually went so far as to personally veto an opportunity for Guèbrou to study abroad in England, she sank into a deep depression before fleeing to a monastery in 1948.

Follow the links at BoingBoing for more on her remarkable story.

Please Pray for 2 young boys – UPDATED

2010-03-20T18:44:40Z

Readers may remember that DeLynn has kept us supplied with photographs and updates of the devastation and slow recovery of the village of Petit Goave, Haiti, since the January earthquake. She has informed me that her 11-year old son, Sam, has recently suffered a seizure, and an MRI reveals a mass affecting the brain.

Sam is building a reputation in basketball

DeLynn has given me permission to introduce you to Sam. She writes that consultations with a pediatric neurologist and a ped. oncologist have given them hope that this mass may (hopefully) be benign, but no matter what, surgery will be unavoidable. They are hoping to have a biopsy done by the middle of next week. My mother’s heart went out to her in complete sympathy when DeLynn wrote:

I have never felt this pain before. I do, however, have faith in my son’s Heavenly Father. I know He can carry us through this.

What agony for a parent, to go through these trials with their children! I am going to commend Sam and his family to the especial attention of the Holy Family of Nazareth, and ask also for the intercessory prayers by St. Nicholas, who is the patron of children, and of Cardinal John O’ Connor, who passed from a brain cancer.

I’ve also had a request for prayers for an 8 year-old named Jacob, whose liver appears to be failing. He was released from the hospital just a few days ago, when an initial liver ailment seemed to be getting better, but today I read:

Things are not going too well for Jacob. He was hospitalized again today, and now is on his way back to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis for a biopsy. Blood work indicates his liver could be failing.

I know we all keep lots of little boys and girls in our prayers, all over the world, and for all sorts of needs. If you are so inclined, please remember these two kids and their families in your prayers.

By the way, a long time ago, I asked for prayers for Liz, who is also dealing with brain cancer. She was 29 when I first asked; she’s 30 now, and still fighting. Please be generous in prayer.

UPDATE:
Just learned that reader Jan has had to rush her husband, who has been very ill for a while, to the hospital. Not sure what is up. Please also pray for her husband, Dan. Thanks.

Daze Gone By?

2010-03-20T04:26:14Z

There is a report that Congress is receiving phone calls at a stunning rate of 100,000 calls per hour. Doesn’t it seem to you that if this was the left so mobilized and agitated by a piece of GOP legislation, the press would be crowing that “the president and the congress must listen to the people…”

Also: Ethics? Rules? There’s no rules for the president!

And what’s a little fraud?

Heh. Good sign.

Comment Moderation

2010-03-20T04:49:22Z

Due to a staggering amount of spam and a few commenter antics that are beyond the pale (really? Trying to comment disguised as other commenters?) I am -until further notice- forced to put all comments into moderation.

I’m sorry about this. Hopefully people will settle down and full-scale moderation can be lifted after a while.

Pelosi Doesn’t Know from St. Joseph

2010-03-20T15:39:05Z

I’m sorry. Almost nothing that has come from this woman’s mouth has infuriated me like this.

This woman is a profound grotesque who gets virtually everything wrong here, from what feastday it is, to the kinds of Catholic religious sisters supporting her monster’s bastard of a bill.

Note, because it is important in the face of her stupidity, her mendacity, her slander and her willingness to use any-and-all means to achieve her ends, the Catholic sisters who vehemently oppose this health care bill, and are not considered news-worthy by the media, or relevant by this glammed-up guttersnipe, Pelosi.

First off, Nancy, this is not the feastday of “St. Joseph the Worker.” That feast day is May 1, and it is a simple (and optional) memorial. TODAY is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, in his role as the Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Provider and Guardian for the Child Jesus. A solemnity is not an optional feastday, and Pelosi, who was educated by religious sisters and went to a Catholic college, should know that.

Her ignorance is almost sublime. “Italian Americans” certainly do honor St. Joseph, but they do not “pray” to him. They ask him to pray for them, before the Throne of his most holy and almighty step-son, the Christ.

It is highly doubtful that St. Joseph, who was faced with an unimaginable event, one fraught with challenges, things unknown, social questions, difficulties and sacrifice, would be a happy endorser of a “life-affirming health care” bill that includes the federal-funding of abortions, sterilizations, contraception – undoubtedly, down the road- euthanasia.

In her upside-down world, Pelosi may think that this monstrosity she is laboring so mightily to deliver is “life-affirming;” that is because she is -like so many of her generation- unable to imagine life after her own. It takes a “my life right now is more important than any future life” mentality to be this committed to abortion, and to insuring that every means of preventing or ending life, at every stage, is introduced into the public mind as a Godly and enviable thing. It takes a mind that willfully misunderstand the nature of both light and life, as taught by the Church she professes to love, to stand there with a smug, “unicorns and rainbows” demeanor and spout these deceitful platitudes that are not grounded in any sort of reality.

I am disgusted to see this woman -in the same remarks where she sullies a Catholic saint and thumbs her nose at Catholic understanding, to then giddily talk about how she and her cohorts have deployed children “children as young as six, talking about what health care means to them” as propaganda shields.

This video makes me want to vomit. I try not to hate anyone, but this woman is tempting me mightily.

After all of that -and in a direct attempt to smackdown the Catholic bishops who rightly oppose this bill- the Pelosi ends with yet another slander of all Catholic religious woman, with the assistance (it must be admitted) of a few perpetually adolescent useful idiots who, as I said yesterday, “delight in poking into the eyes of authoritative teaching.” Not only does Pelosi exaggerate the number of religious women who support this bill, she frankly lies when she says that “just about every order you can think of” wants “to pass this life-affirming legislation.”

What an abominable woman; what a power-mad, ruthless, mendacious grotesque she is.

I have always argued against knee-jerk excommunications, and when Pelosi visited the Pope I suggested Catholics calm down and let the slow wheels turn, but this astonishing display has me almost choking with disgust and rage.

The Church scandalizes itself often; it is an imperfect institution where holiness and evil are activated against one another, and the battle is profound. Understanding that, one tends to the long view, and so when individual Catholics screw up and bring scandal, I am mindful of the fact that I too am a Catholic who -in my own way- can and do bring scandal to others. I understand that in my rage right now, I am probably “scandalizing” someone who thinks I should be “more tolerant of an opposing view” so I don’t particularly believe I am called to inventory the soul of another.

However, it is one thing for a Catholic to be publicly misguided, misinformed, socially maladjusted or even stupid. It’s quite another -and to my way of thinking, a genuinely evil thing- for Catholics to put on a cloak of moral authority by virtue of their church membership, and proceed to spin their deceitful webs while mindfully exploiting her greatest saints and teachings for the expressed (and unbelievably sleazy) promulgation of their legislative propaganda.

This goes beyond being a faulty human Catholic; it goes beyond being mistaken. It goes beyond “arguing in good faith.” What the Pelosi did today is a declaration that this woman is not averse to using methods of pure disorientation, to achieve her ends.

I am no authority. I cannot go so far as some in my email wish me to, and suggest that this is a woman who is actually manifesting diabolical disorientation in the world.

But right now, Nancy Pelosi has actually made me scream in horror, at her words. I know I should pray for her. I know I should. I know if I cannot, then my own soul is at risk.

I will pray for her. Maybe by nightfall I’ll be able to manage it. In the meantime, please pray for me, also, that I might settle down and embrace charity and open my heart to the Light of Christ. I don’t like feeling this way about anyone.

But first, I must scream a little more, and swallow back the bile, at the absolute horror she is become, and that she spews from her mouth.

Archbishop Chaput: The Captivity of Catholic Witness:

. . . supporters of health care reform at any cost, facts don’t seem to matter when a coveted goal seems within reach. The American bishops have repeatedly shown their support for good healthcare reform. They’ve worked tirelessly and honestly for more than seven months to help craft acceptable legislation. But they’ve also shown—and posted readily on the web—how and why the current Senate version of reform fails in at least three vital areas: abortion and its public funding; conscience protections for medical professionals and institutions; and the inclusion of immigrants. Congressional leaders have no one to blame but themselves for the opposition they’ve had to face. . . . If the defective Senate version of health-care reform pushed by congressional leaders passes into law—against the will of the American people and burdened by serious moral problems in its content—we’ll have “Catholic” voices partly to thank for it. And to hold responsible.

Ed Morrissey has more thoughts

Gateway Pundit calls her a “she-devil”. I’m thinking sad she-clown/useful idiot.

I’m going to go around and check out other reactions, so check back for a round-up.

UPDATE: The US ~~Council~~ Conference* of Catholic Bishops Issues a Request of Catholics, on Health Care Reform

Meanwhile, an angry Steve Schippert writes in an email:

It is fine to be non-practicing. Not my place to criticize… Right up to the point you try and cloak yourself in my faith for the theater of it all.

Catholic Online: has more

Bookworm: If you’re having trouble keeping up with the news, she’s rounding up

*Corrected via this prompt. I’m always happy to be given a heads up when I’ve made a stupid mistake because I’ve written too fast, or in anger. Anger is always -after one has vented- a rather stupid thing. And lots of people make odd mistakes. Thinking, for instance, that my anger in this piece is about Pelosi’s mistated feastday -as opposed to her using a great saint of the church as a political (and anti-life) prop- that’s kind of oddly thought out.

Exemplary St. Joseph

2010-03-20T04:55:25Z

St. Joseph Icon Via

From my pocket notebook:

What an exemplary man St. Joseph must have been! Wanting a wife and son, God entrusted him with His very own wife, His very own son, and for that matter, His very own mother, and His very own life.

Perhaps Joseph’s silence in scripture is what makes some feel so distant from him; I wish I knew him better, in as much as I am conceited enough to think I can know anyone.

In a stained glass window, I see Mary, asleep in the background. Joseph is in foreground, gazing upon the infant Jesus, who is in his arms. Is he thinking, “My wife, my son -not mine, God’s!” But how true this is for all of us: the beloved spouses and children we would die for – they are not ours; they are God’s. One of those beautiful and terrible truths.

St. Joseph, by your holy example, help me to always see my husband and kids as gifts placed in my keeping, and to serve them well.

Joseph looks at Jesus. Mary sleeps. Angels and shepherds and kings are gone. “My son. My singular event, like none other.”

As is each life.

The best thing about being a writer…UPDATED

2010-03-19T03:01:17Z

…it gives you an excuse to have a pretty notebook like this one in your purse:

Then you can fill your notebook with all sorts of things you want to remember. Train schedules, addresses and phone numbers that you need all the time but simply can’t remember. Random thoughts. Snippets of conversations you want to think more about. Bad poems written by yourself; better poems written by others. Quick little prayers. Things you have observed around you and pondered, and will want to revisit when you have more time. The name of the artist playing a jazzy piece you heard on the radio.

I’ve just filled this beautiful book, which my husband gave to me, and as I prepared to put it on the shelf, I leafed through it. Here is the arcane and random jumbling of my mind:

If you remain in me and my word remains in you, then you can ask for anything and it will be given you. — Gospel of John.

***
“The dumbest boy in the world is the one who, offered a dollar or a quarter from his Uncle, chooses the dollar. He is stupid because the Uncle will never play that game with him again. If he chooses the quarter, the Uncle will play it again and again. If the boy can put his ego aside, and allow his Uncle to believe he is the smarter, the boy will be the richer.” –Sermon
***
Priest: ‘I think I’ve lost my faith.’
Cardinal Cushing: ‘Don’t flatter yourself; you’re just bored.’ — Sermon
***
We are not meant to ’succeed’ at Lent, but to fail and know our dependence upon Grace.
***
At Adoration, I came to see the greatness and all-encompassing nature of God’s love for us. This is no illusion; it is the only reality.
***
Some days I completely understand the sense of abandonment. I know I am not abandoned. Intellectually I know it. But my heart feels abandoned, still. Like a child left behind in a marketplace. Everyone goes about their business and no one sees me alone, skittish and awkward and so very afraid. The feeling will pass; it always does, aided by both the intellect, and the knowing, but…here in this busy, sad, ill-swept marketplace…I am quite alone and horribly abandoned. And my grief is almost too much to be borne.
***
Send card to Julie. Don’t forget, stupid.
***
Know-it-all-son: I don’t pray; I don’t need to because God knows all.”
Me: But even Jesus prayed…
***
Psalm 73: “I was stupid and did not understand; no better than a beast in your sight. Yet I was always in your presence.” That’s my whole life: blind, confused, obstinate, selfish, embittered, stupid as a beast. Yet you loved me. What a radical you are, O Lord, so counter-intuitive. Please teach me; my heart is ready.
***
One is surly and unpleasant. One is angry because he hates his job, even as he knows he should be thankful to have one. One can’t find a job and complains that he cannot play guitar because his fingers “have become stupid.” Lord, what is going on? Don’t trust Lizzie!
***
Will you please make use of that baptism, Jesus, Your Majesty. Make use of that portal, to illuminate our understanding of your great love for us, your mercy, your constancy and your plan. Opened at baptism, never to be closed (even if we think we are closed, even if we actively hold the opening tightly shut) -there is still a minute way in, a crack between fingers. Our closing off is never perfect. Blast through our closing, via the slenderest slivers of access, with your radiant light, that we may find the plans you know you have for us. Plans of fullness, not of harm, to give us a future, and a hope. You, of course, are all of these things: light, love, plans, fullness, future, hope. Guide us to you. Amen.

UPDATE:
I am being asked where my husband found such a beautiful notebook. He says he picked it up at Borders Books and Music, but I know you won’t be surprised to learn you can purchase it through Amazon. When he realized I was close to filling it, he bought me another book -slightly smaller and with fewer pages- that he thought would fit my purse more easily. This one he got at Barnes & Noble, but you can read about it here too.

It is beautiful too, and I liked the red ribbon page marker very much (it’s red…what more need I say?). Like the first book, it has a magnetic closure which keeps it from getting sullied and unlovely. Is it more beautiful than the first? I guess that’s a totally subjective view. I have an especial warmth for the first one, because it was so unique, and took me by surprise, I think.

These and other really lovely designs can be found at the manufacturers website.

Buster -who has kept a journal, on-and-off, since he could write, and who always has a small notebook on him to jot down a thought or a lyric, keeps telling me I should pick up one of these moleskin books he swears by He says they’re durable and of excellent quality.

But they’re not pretty. Perhaps that is why he prefers them!