Sunday, July 22, 2012

Fading Glory


The sun is shining quite brightly here but our country seems to be going through a dark, wintry night. As trees are stripped down in the winter, I believe America is in a period where it will be stripped of its hypocrisy and the bitter fruits it has sown will be  "bared" for all to see. We've already seen this to a degree and I believe it will continue until "eyes are opened" to the truth of our sinfulness as a nation. Let people accuse me of a lack of patriotism but I won't pretend for the sake of the label "patriotic" to be blind to the sins of my country. I belong to the Kingdom of God first. People accuse Christians of negative thinking but I think we are more concerned with truthful thinking than whether it's  positive or negative. Besides, what is negative about purification and becoming more aware of our sins? Seems like a great thing to me and it brings about healing to boot.

I was reading an article yesterday on the recent shootings  and was shocked by the anti-Christian sentiment in the comment section. Do people really believe that God is to blame for this horror? Sin is to blame. And the author of sin is NOT God.

On occasion I get negative comments on my blog too. I usually delete them but once in a while I save them as a reminder of just how far people will go to offend Christians. As a Catholic I've been told that I'm going to hell (or worse). Once, a man left me a comment after a post about abortion and when I clicked on his link I landed on a site in which the author's sole purpose was to blaspheme God in any and every manner possible. I deleted him as a follower but could not understand why someone would go to such lengths to harass those who have Christian blogs. Or maybe I do know...he was as repulsed by my blog as I was by his. My blog, especially my post on abortion, deeply offended him; his blog and his post about Jesus (you wouldn't even want to know the scenarios he put Jesus in - perverse to say the least) deeply offended me. He wanted me to see his blog and knew I'd be disgusted by it.

The spiritual war going on reminds me of one of my favorite poems:


To the Immaculate Virgin, On a Winter Night
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lady, the night is falling and the dark
Steals all the blood from the scarred west.
The stars come out and freeze my heart
With drops of untouchable music, frail as ice
And bitter as the new year's cross.

Where in the world has any voice
Prayed to you, Lady, for the peace that's in your power?
In a day of blood and many beatings
I see the governments rise up, behind the steel horizon,
And take their weapons and begin to kill.

Where in the world has any city trusted you?
Out where the soldiers camp the guns begin to thump
And another winter comes down
To seal our years in ice.
The last train cries out
And runs in terror from this farmer's valley
Where all the little birds are dead.

The roads are white, the fields are mute.
There are no voices in the wood
And trees make gallows up against the sharp-eyed stars.
Oh where will Christ be killed again
In the land of these dead men?

Lady, the night has got us by the heart
And the whole world is tumbling down.
Words turn to ice in my dry throat
Praying for a land without prayer,

Walking to you on water all winter
In a year that wants more war.
         
         Thomas Merton






8 comments:

  1. It is very difficult when we write something on our Blogs which others do not agree with. I know.

    The answer ... dare I say it ... is to pray as hard as you can and as sincerely as you can for that very person.

    I've done it so often that it gives God a proper headache.

    As for comments in your Comment Box. I suggest you turn off anonymous comments (for a while at least).

    I've had to do that for a short while because someone was making serious anonymous allegations in my Comment Box on another one of my readers. It was not criticism or attack on me, but on someone else.

    When I stopped anonymous comments that same person made the same allegations to me on Facebook ... and inadvertantly revealed their identity because FB does not allow anonimity.

    Hope this helps a little Mary.

    But praying for the other person is the best solution; I find.

    God bless you. Keep smiling please.

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  2. Mary,
    I love the poem. Before Merton became a monk, he lived very much in the world so he had his finger on the pulse of it so to speak. Things were bad in his day but nowhere near what they are today. He is right about no one, or at least not many turning to Our Lady, the one who can obtain the grace we need.
    Despite the balmy temperatures, our country and others have entered a spiritual winter. Prayer, and sacrifice are the only things that will bring back the warmth and life.
    Thanks for posting this.

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  3. Thanks, Victor. I do pray for them. I had to turn the comment moderation off because I wasn't getting the comments for some reason. I would get them through my e-mail but not on my blog. I wonder if anyone else has had this problem?

    I'm sorry to hear that you've run into problems in your comment box too. I guess it goes with blogging.

    God bless!

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  4. Hi Karin,
    The poem is beautiful - I had it up on my other blog so I could go back and read it regularly. Spiritual winter is a good word for what we are going through and I pray God heals the wounds of this country and the world.

    Thanks for commenting!

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  5. Mary,

    It seems like there's a veil over the eyes of many in our country..A spiritual blindness that has caused this winter wandering. For so long they have turned from God they don't even recognize their poverty or blindness.
    I never imagined I would live to see the things we're witnessing..

    Thankfully, His mercies are new
    every day ...God help our country turn to Him. +

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  6. Hi Caroline,
    You're "veil over the eyes of many" struck a chord with me. Yes, that's exactly what it seems like, doesn't it?

    I loved your comment about His mercies being new every day! Beautiful!

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  7. Hi Madeleine,
    I'll go read it then :) Thanks!

    ReplyDelete