Etheldredasplace: 02/05/14

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

I need a new battery for my computer. There is a problem with it and my computer is telling me to get a new one. I have had trouble for ten days.

If the blog is not kept up for a few days, you will know why.

If someone can help, please let me know asap.

thanks to wikimedia commons for photo

STM

Two things...signs

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3313033.shtml#.UvKZWWJdXlM

http://www.freep.com/usatoday/article/5221445

Dusting dust off your feet

Luke 9:3-5

Douay-Rheims

3 And he said to them: Take nothing for your journey; neither staff, nor scrip, nor bread, nor money; neither have two coats.

4 And whatsoever house you shall enter into, abide there, and depart not from thence.

5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off even the dust of your feet, for a testimony against them.

How many signs do you need?

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says, “You are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again.”

Justice Antonin Scalia predicts that the Supreme Court will eventually authorize another a wartime abuse of civil rights such as the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II.

“You are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again,” Scalia told the University of Hawaii law school while discussing Korematsu v. United States, the ruling in which the court gave its imprimatur to the internment camps.

The local Associated Press report quotes Scalia as using a Latin phrase that means “in times of war, the laws fall silent,” to explain why the court erred in that decision and will do so again.

The signs of the times--500 years

http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/the-california-drought-as-seen-from-space-20140204

The Churches of St. Agatha

St. Agatha is one of my personal patrons for three reasons. The first one is that I am a breast-cancer survivor. The second reason is that she visited Malta and the third is that there is a sweet little North Yorkshire church named after her as well.

St. Agatha came from Sicily, but when persecution started, she took refuge in Rabat with some friends, where I was in October. The Crypt of St. Agatha remains one reason I need to go back to Malta. That Agatha prayed in Malta brings me closer to this young saint.

She left the small island and returned to Sicily only to be tortured and killed on February 5th, 251 in the persecution of Decius. It is a great mystery of evil that this young girl was so horribly tortured.

The catacombs in Rabat and the altar to St. Agatha date back at least to the 4th century. Sadly, I did not get to see her altar and catacombs, but I did see the famous St. Paul Catacombs.

Thanks to wikimedia

For a small virtual tour of the Catacombs of St. Agatha, check this out. http://stagathamalta.com/crypt.html St. Agatha's Church may be seen here on the left.

Another place where Agatha is honored is in Yorkshire. In Easby, Richmondshire, one can see wall paintings in the Anglican Church from medieval times.

Thanks to wikimedia

The 12th century church is still used but the Abbey was destroyed by Henry VIII. Apparently, the little church is a popular venue for Anglican weddings. I am sure St. Agatha smiles at the good Christian brides who go there if they stop and think of her on their "big" day.

I love Yorkshire and the melancholy abbey ruins which dot the dales. God willing, I shall walk to St. Agatha's, Easby myself some day.

I have never liked Subway....

http://foodbabe.com/tag/subway/

Sensitivity to Evil

Now, my GP is a saint. Really, he is the kindest and one of the best men I know, with six adult children all practicing their faith, a loving wife, and the daily rosary in his house.

He is a real pater familias.

However, he is not the usual. What I discovered today was an entire industry, yes, industry, not focused on service, but on money.

The lack of care, empathy, sensitivity to the poor, and general arrogance among the doctors, nurses and staff in two offices, including the superiority of attitude which they exhibited to old and young alike, astounded me.

Although American doctors have the latest equipment, what is lacking is the human touch. I have been to doctors in England, Ireland and Malta, all of whom, bar one, were human beings who had the heart of servants, and were generally interested in who I was-a person in need of some type of attention.

To be in a waiting room where I had to endure "Ellen" and women in horrid pornographic costumes on the television, where the magazines pushed extravagance and luxury, and where the general public responded like sheep being led to the slaughter, rather than questioning and aware people, demonstrated the fall of the American medical system in a few short years.

I can praise so many excellent hospitals and clinics, including some in Missouri. I can also fault the lack of care and the obvious business-like the ambiance of carelessness in some California clinics I had to visit years ago.

But, what I saw today was a complete lack of professionalism of the type shown for years by good doctors and nurses.

I ask questions, if I am going to have surgery. Why not? It was obvious to me that questions were not welcomed. I was shut down twice.

A general secularism has destroyed something beautiful here. It may be lost forever. Where money is god, people become ciphers, not human beings with needs.

When I asked if there were samples of the meds I needed as I could not afford to get them, I was told by the nurse, "We do not do that here, (pass out samples)." And the doctor said, "I do not know what you are going to do as the pharmaceutical companies only care about money." Hmmmm...The office had no advice about charities or programs for those who needed aid. I was treated as if I was an anomaly. Amazing.

I assume most people just go along with the flow, as they have been trained to be treated like bodies without souls. Perhaps so many people have forgotten their souls, they can only relate at the physical level.

That was the great spiritual revelation today. Not one professional I met spoke to my soul. They could only see the body, and not the entire person.

These professionals, young and middle-aged, see only the temporary, the immediate, and not the eternal goal of us all.

These men and women cannot adjust their sight to the real world of the spiritual. They have separated humans from their real form the soul, and re-defined them into mere organic machines.

Some commentators have been saying that Washington wants to destroy Medicare and Medicare supplements, putting all those people on Medicaid. This could be true. Then, no one will have any choices at all, and many people are chaffing that so many doctors are no longer accepting Medicare.

The American public is being held hostage by the medical systems, by Obamacare, by the general sins of vanity and pride. Where Mammon is god, there is no peace. We have become the ultimate utilitarian society.

I grieve at the passing of what was most likely the best medical system in the world. The system has been sold to the god of money. Sadly, he will take his dues in the end.

More Emergency Prayers

St. Joseph's Dorking, Surrey

Please pray for Father Dominic Rolls who is having serious cancer surgery on Monday. He is one of my very favorite priests in England.

At his parish there are these important signs of holiness

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament

Saturday mornings after Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
until 11.30am.
Monday evenings from 6.00pm to 7.15pm
Weekday mornings for 1 hour after Mass

Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession)

Saturday mornings from 10.15am to 11.30am
Saturday evenings from 5.15pm to 5.45pm

Thank you.

STM

Etheldredasplace