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Words can be recieved as gifts and words can be recieved as weapons. All communication has a sender and receiver. We may define a word in one way, think it wonderful and use it, but when heard or read is perceived differently than our projected meaning. When this happens communication fails. The moral of the story? Be careful what you say or right. You may hurt someone without knowing.

https://youtu.be/53rBoFXaJfE This is a very interesting presentation about the ethics of Google. Ok for them to express their opinion. They must be honest about their purpose. Know the truth.

https://www.centralmaine.com/2019/10/26/jay-ambrose-william-barr-is-right-about-religion/

This editorial touched my soul this morning as I read it.  The freedom this country gives us all is being blocked, challenged, criticized and in many cases the manipulated by writers and pundits who disagree with the age old wisdom of tradition. Certainly this is their right, but the publishers of mainstream media must be aware of the changing tide and that from a commercial perspective their liberal progressive perspective is slowly losing ground. More and more people want to see balanced objective reporting rather than radical extremism.  So if you disagree with what you hear in the mainstream media, do not support their sponsors. Boycott their products, vote with your spending.   The most powerful freedom in this country is the spending choice of consumers.  Remember that the next time you buy something.  Have a good day.

Every person is a song. Each person shares their song in body language, dress, behavior, spoken words and actions. Human songs are in different keys some in tune with many others, in contrast with major keys or minor keys. Standards in music are clear. We like this song don’t like that song. It is in tune with perfect pitch or not.  However when a song is terrible or we don’t like it the first thing we must do is turn it off, or, we try and understand the source of that song.  Additionally, the human singing that song must understand that their song may out of key then some may not understand them. And in fact may not want them around. We each must evaluate our own song and decide whether we wanted to be with people or be independent and an expression of our difference. If we take that particular stand then there will be people who don’t like our individual difference. If we worry about if people like us, or agree with us or are in tune with us then we will fail. If we focus on serving others and sharing our passion we will make a impact. If your song is wonderful, people will want to tune into you. If your source is the objective reality, people will be moved to sing with you. If not… that is the beauty of life.

I converted to Maronite Catholicism over 40 years ago. In my early years I was excited and enthusiastic about learning about Eastern Christianity, my prayer and learning. I transformed my faith and started thinking like an Eastern Catholic, rather then just following the Catholic teaching. When you see the truth of Jesus Christ and live the truth of Jesus Christ your every moment becomes a choice between consciously moving closer to the Divine Grace you have been granted or sliding toward death and destruction. There is no gray area. You may get stuck, frozen or confused and not make a conscious choice (or you fool yourself thinking you have) but eventually you move, make a choice and head in a direction.

But your knowledge can be a trap. You can begin to think very highly of yourself given your dedication to living a Christian life. You become so smart in your subjective rationalization that you ate flying high. My spiritual director calls it idiosyncratic intelligent curiosity. I think it may just be vain/glory. Vain/glory can draw you into complacency. Be wise. Avoid this spiritual danger.

Avoid this spiritual danger when pursuing knowledge of God

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thomasmertonpropheticwitness/permalink/628138910964102/ .

This comment by Thomas Merton is so true.

“The reason why so many religious people believe they cannot meditate is that they think meditation consists in having religious emotions, thoughts, or affections of which one is, oneself, acutely aware. As soon as they start to meditate, they begin to look into the psychological conscience to find out if they are experiencing anything worthwhile. They find little or nothing. They either strain themselves to produce some interior experience, or else they give up in disgust.”

—Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

Sit, breath, release, Let Go Let God…Kyrie Elieson.

By Larry Grard
WATERVILLE – Upwards of 75 people packed the Redington Museum parlor on the evening of Thursday, Jan. 10, for a presentation of Waterville’s vibrant Lebanese history, sponsored by the Waterville Historical Society.
Tom Nale and Joe Jabar, both of whom have deep roots in the city’s Lebanese history, provided informative and intriguing half-hour talks.
“What a great turnout on a lovely day,” Historical Society President said, a light-hearted remark considering the frigid temperatures outside. “We have two pillars of the community, both members of the bench, here for us.”
On Feb. 13 at 5:30 p.m., the cultural series will continue with a lecture on Franco-American Women in Waterville. There is no admission charge.
Nale spoke first on Jan. 10, detailing how his Sittoo (grandmother in Arabic) and Giddoo (grandfather), and many other Lebanese immigrants, endured the trip to the United States in the early part of the 20th century. The famine of 1918 had wiped out half the country’s 800,000 people.
“They were caged with chicken wire in the worst part of the ship with little food,” Nale said. “They sang songs.”
One group of Lebanese immigrants landed first in Canada, and traveled at night by foot to reach Waterville.
The great majority of Waterville Lebanese are Maronite (Eastern Rite) Catholics, and they were quick to organize a Maronite church of their own. The first family, that of Abraham Joseph, had come to Waterville in 1888. Two years laater, Lebanese families were attending Roman Catholic Masses at Sacred Heart and St. Francis. But by 1924, Father Awad came from the old country to establish the first Maronite church in the city. Today, the gorgeous St. Joseph Maronite Catholic C hurch on Front Street faces the Kennebec River, looking east.
The immigrants built tenements along the riverside, in an area known as “Head of Falls.” Those houses were torn down in the late 1960s.
“I can tell you where each and every house was on Head of Falls,” Nale said. “That was because I had a paper route. Me and Joe were altar boys, and we went to the church after our routes. When Joe and I were serving the church was absolutely full from front to back.”
The mills attracted most of the Lebanese, French, Polish and other immigrants to Waterville, but some Lebanese were Phoenicians, who were merchants. Al Corey had his famous music store on Main Street, and the Peter Joseph family only recently sold Joseph’s Market, which is still in business a stone’s throw from the church.
“We were all known as cousins,” Nale said. “To work on the railroad was a dream for those men. It was not hard work.”
Sen. George Mitchell became the city’s most celebrated Lebanese, although for a time his older brother, the late Johnny “Swisher” Mitchell, claimed that mantle. Swisher led undefeated Waterville High to the New England Basketball Championship in 1944.
Jabar referred to the Earl Smith “Water Village,” which explains some of the tenets of the Maronite religion. St. Maron was a monk in the hills of Lebanon.
Jabar’s father was born in Waterville in 1905, making him one of the early first-generation Lebanese. In 1922, George Jabar and Phillip Nagem became the first Lebanese boys to graduate Waterville High.
“He made $17 a week at the mill,” Jabar said of his father. “Then he got $20-$25 as a weaver. He became a union organizer in the 1930s. He was a natural.”
Those first-generation Waterville Lebanese instilled in their children the need for education.
“We had eight siblings in our family,” Jabar said. “Seven of them went to college.”
The Lebanese kids – including Swisher Mitchell – made the Boys Club their second home. Jabar said there is a 16 mm tape available of Waterville’s victory over Somerville, MA, in the New England final.
“Swisher would dribble, dribble, dribble,” said Jabar, who wasn’t a bad athlete himself in the mid-1960s. “He kept the basketball.”
The Redington Museum will be open to the public from Memorial Day week to Labor Day. Hours are 10-11 a.m. and 1-2 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

The Maronite Church was founded by a monk named StMaron and continues to be a tradition based on monastic practices. St Sharbel is our most recent model of a faithful servant. In the Cana Week Monday Safro the First Prayer shows the sacred focus of fasting

“FIRST PRAYER
Lord, have mercy on us and save us.
O God, may we submit to this holy fast
and accept it with all our will, with joy and good cheer; do not make us strangers to the reward given to those who fast.
Walking in the way of penitence and mortification we shall arrive in the eternal kingdom where we shall praise your glory, for ever. Amen.”

So what is the expectation of the faithful during Lent?  The 1736 Synod of Mt. Lebanon states:

“Every weekday of Lent (Monday through Friday) is a day of fasting and abstinence from meat and dairy products (eggs, butter, milk, etc.) Fasting involves eating and drinking nothing at all (except water and medicine) from midnight until noon. The rest of the day normal meals can be taken, but without meat or dairy products. Dairy products are excluded because they are animal byproducts. Saturdays and Sundays are exempt from fasting and abstaining, as are the following four feast days: St. Maron – February 9, The 40 Martyrs – March 9, St. Joseph – March 19 and the Annunciation – March 25.” This is a wonderful goal but not a requirement. The requirement now is fasting on Ash Monday and Good Friday.

I like to use an analogy of tuning a musical instrument.  To be perfect one needs to use a tuning fork. But if you tune by ear it still may sound ok. This is not precise but acceptable with some. The same with these kinds of suggested practices. Following the original 1736 practices is like using a tuning fork to be precise and ultimately closer to the perfection of Creation. But the current practices are OK. Jesus does give us the freedom to choose. The consequences or rewards of those choices are subject to multiple interpretations of the Magesteruim and our prayerful reason, but in the end are a mystery. I would suggest the Magesterium has the wisdom of the ages for the most part. That is the subject of another blog.