At Heaven's Gate

Had a good talk with the spiritual da. Covered some territory. He immediately grasps the styrofoam peanut souls imagery.

He shares about having met Archbishop Sheen in New York many years ago. The Archbishop was alone in a bookstore, and the da was looking for books to read over the Christmas holy days.

Da said the priests sometimes endearingly called the Archbishop "Fulty", and so "Fulty" spent some time showing the da around the bookstore and selected five books, and purchased them for the da.

So now he is wondering just why that happened those many years ago, why he was meant to have met Archbishop Sheen. And then just the other day, the da found a Servant of God prayer card for this saint-in-the-process, and so he is praying to the Archbishop and renewing their acquaintance.

It all related well to styrofoam peanut souls, okeanos; the da knows how to float. But he says he is half in the box at times. And he must be at times, although his work with the world of the Church in that sense of administration and direct dealing with parishioner souls is no longer. He is more bagged while still embodied, and learning to float more and more. So, too, nothing.

Then we spoke of nothing's current suffering. Did it come as a result of accusations? No, it had started prior, but we agreed that the devil sure kicks hard when one is already down. So the da thinks it has to do with the prayer nothing had prayed, asking the Lord to show anything in its victim soul and hermit vocations, that is displeasing to the Lord, or lacking.

So we talk of writing, and he thinks that surely there aren't many who read blogs, and nothing assures him that its are rather tedious, so there aren't many if but one or two who read them. After all, how many are that interested in hermit and victim soul meanderings? Nothing did share a thought from after confession this morning, or perhaps during--that maybe the Lord is displeased that nothing has not been open enough in the writing. And we share laughs that those to ever be concerned, are not at all. Nothing to do with nothing and the next-to-nothing writing. The da suggested, may as well write freely (yet anonymously). Nothing is harmless enough.

Yes, a priest once said that about nothing. It was in a letter that was going to the Bishop, when people had written letters about it, and input was needed to quell the ado about nothing, that time back in Sr. Pio days. Doubt the priest's letter was ever mailed.

The da shared about a bishop when he was a young lad, and how he was asked to study Hebrew in seminary. So that remembrance brought great laughter from the da, and his face crinkled up and smile widened, head tossed back. Yes, he and McLaughlin were told to study Hebrew by the bishop who was quite an intellectual. The da said he lasted one day, McLaughlin two or three. Hasn't seemed to have dinted the da's ability to preach in the past 61 years. Don't know about McLaughlin. The da said he himself sinned against obedience when he didn't remain in the Hebrew course. But it was beyond him, he added. Many things are beyond us, 'tis true.

The da said nothing is going to be all right, will come through this episode in time. When the da says you're going to be all right, then you will. We talked about names, too, and how powerful are names, and nothing reminded him of the heavenly name one is given, after it is bagged when bodily dead, and dispensed to its next function. That is what brought us back to the other world in the Church, the mystic world of the Catholic universe, the ocean, and how it might be good to write about how to float, at least for souls to learn how to float between the worlds, or within that world, one to another, or to receive the clues from those already there, just as the da had made the connection again with the Archbishop "Fulty." (And no disrespect intended, but those of the Emerald Isle evidently share the right to be familiar, one to the other, and especially if they've spent time together in a bookstore in NYC, unexpectedly so.)

Then the da asked nothing to pray for a pro-football player who is injured, and nothing said it will pray for his soul and for God's will in his life. Nothing more. And the da laughed again that great Irish laugh of a great styrofoam peanut holy priest soul. Then he added that he's down in the box when it comes to his favorite pro football team.

He read aloud, emphatically, the other day's reading from Ezekiel, in which God gives it to the Shepherds of Israel for not properly tending their flocks, and Ezekiel passes the word as to what God will do to them. And the Israelites finally were released from Babylon, and never worshipped idols again. But the Shepherds were in major trouble. The da said that in seminary they were told that if any priest goes to hell, he will take many souls with him. And that was a serious warning, and taken quite seriously then. And it should be now, and probably is in many seminaries that have turned the corner from the lapse that was, and still tries to tentacle.

Then the da talked of rogue sheep, and how that was the one sheep that would be intent on finding the one spot where there was a hole in the fence, and would squeeze through, and the other sheep would run off after. (The da knows much about such matters of the farm, from his childhood.) So he says that analogy is used for Catholics who stray and influence others to follow. Rogue sheep.

Of course, there was talk of gardens, and da shared that where he is, some of those under his spiritual care have disagreed with his watering his flowers with a watering can. "Why don't you use a hose?" they chide. He tells them it is disrespectful to the flowers. How would people like to be hosed? It is harsh, and it wastes water, and the poor flowers have to spend half a day recovering from the hosing, as opposed to gently watering them at their base, right down into their roots in the soil. And it doesn't waste water, either.

So he asks nothing how it has managed watering the Mary Gardens during this pain siege. Nothing replies that it has used all effort to set out a violent, shooting sprinkler and move it four times before being done in. But it agrees with the da, and will go out and apologize to the plants and trees in the gardens, and may God bring gentle rains soon.

As for other things discussed, we will just have to see how it all unfolds. Whenever nothing passes through the keyhole of one door into a room of suffering, there is always another and another, and it never comes back the other way. There will be an effect, changes, deeper conversions and resolves--omnia pro Deo.

[The coreopsis "Heaven's Gate" bloom magenta in front of arborvitae "Rheingold" near the gateway to Our Lady of Fatima Memorial Rose Garden at Agnus Dei Hermitage.]