Here and There

A few quick notes.

First:

The other day I was with mother and I was telling her about how a local priest conducted Mass, and the number of abuses he committed. (note: this is not my parish priest. I normally avoid my local parish, but there are times when it is the only option.) Mother listened patiently, and then said: "Instead of being critical, you should pray for him."

To which I said: "You mean, like for God to send an avenging angel or purifying fire?"

She just gave me The Look.

She was right. We should do what we can to bring an end to abuses, and our major tools are prayer, letters to appropriate officials, followed by more prayer.

I decided a while ago I was going to try and avoid airing dirty laundry over the internet, but I realized my heart never really changed, and wherever I went I often found myself rating the Mass and cataloguing mistakes, rather than praying and worshipping. I need to adjust my attitude. So while I pray for God to open the eyes and mend the hearts of some of His priests, I pray for him to do likewise for me.

Second:

I have been toying with the idea of doing a series of posts on Canadian history, particularly but not exclusively its history of war- I mean, more posts on that subject than usual. I realize that these posts don't get much in the way of comments and probably aren't the most popular, but after watching Passchendaele and the poor job it did in representing our history I feel like trying to do something to rectify the situation, even if it is for my thirty or so daily readers. So I have decided to go ahead with the series of posts.

I don't know why Canadians do so badly with our history. So often we try to make the figures of our past like the people of the present. In our history and media the writers and artists seem to honour people most like themselves: not those who believed, but those who doubted; not those who stood firm, but those who wavered; and anyone who seemed to have a sign of greatness must be reduced to the merely human, (unless they happened to be the personal hero of the artist) and if no wavering and weak character can be found in history, one must be invented so the modern audience can 'relate'.

So I'll be preparing a series of posts over the next few weeks, mainly leading up to Remembrance Day, telling the stories of some good people and a few rogues from our past. The stories will mainly come from war, but not all of them. I hope to start by the end of the week.