The ice in the water buckets tells me that it’s cold outside. NOAA (the government weather) was reporting, instead, 66 degrees Farhenheit. They’ve been having problems for a month or two it seems. Or maybe with Al Gore they’re trying to convince us that there’s super global warming. It’s so hot! And it’s Winter! Maybe all their weather spotters are on vacation and entered some numbers that would automatically be uploaded.
In other news, the sun is shining through the stained glass angels in the chapel of Holy Souls Hermitage. It’s been pretty cloudy lately, so that is a pleasant change.
I remember when I was a deacon and heard a sermon by the priest-celebrant on stained glass windows. The parish church had gorgeous stained glass windows from Germany from well over 100 years ago, depicting the mysteries of the faith and the examples of the great saints.
He mocked, however, those he called pious people, who see things through the rose-colored lens of stained glass windows, and said that we should all just see reality squarely in the face. I was not a little bit offended by this.
The mysteries of the faith and the encouragement of the saints are reality. What would there be apart from the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, including us? What more in-your-face-ness is there beyond the very Son of God being tortured and crucified on our behalf? Is such love some sort of un-reality, misleading, a lie? Is such love of our Lord to be damned?
When such a window in the hermitage chapel reminds me of my guardian angel who sees the Face of our Heavenly Father right now and always, I am not thereby removed from reality, but instead am invited to thank the Lord for creating reality and bringing us to Himself even after we shook our fists at Him in original sin.
His love is as real as the gaping wounds still on His risen body, His hands and feet and side, in His Sacred Heart. His love is as real as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass before which the angels are in awe.
Yes, we look to our Lord ad orientem, by way of the Sacred Mysteries, with the encouragement of the saints, and… and… with the protection and guidance and friendship of our guardian angels.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
I thought it was just me! They keep calling for nearly 60 temps here in our part of WNC so I keep thinking I won’t have to work so hard to keep the woodstove going – but this has not proven to be the case!
I was not raised with guardian angels or saints and it has been such a blessing learning more about them and learning to turn to them and pray. Enjoy the sunshine!
Thank you, Father. Stained glass from Germany is often very beautiful!
Like you, I know the saints are real. I was reading about them. Saint Margaret of Cortona is often pictured with a little dog! I have a little dog, who is my spiritual companion. Therefore, I believe. I know my reasoning is faulty, but I have true faith.
Hello Jennifer: I think what you’re trying to say is that you appreciate how our Lord, in Genesis, made the animals to be of help to us, and that, in seeing this help, in so very many way on so very many levels, we can rejoice in loving providence of God for us. And that’s totally cool, indeed.
Father, that is wonderful how you understood exactly what I was trying to say! This is exactly why Chacha (my snappy little Min Pin) is nothing less than my spiritual companion.
Is this not the essence of the modernist mindset: the supernatural is a figment of the imagination, while the only true reality is that which is ugly — or, at best, bland, gray, flat-footed and pedestrian? That is why so much of our modern church architecture and furnishings are so awful, and our liturgy is so often sub-par. And this mindset is so all-pervasive that I constantly catch myself thinking along these lines, even though I do not want to. The traditional liturgy, which I cannot get where I live, is a window on the true reality. May it re-assert itself in every corner of the world, and that soon!
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To your point, Father: The simplest argument I might give to that priest who is a little (in my opinion) confused about what reality is, is *Contemplative prayer*. Explain that one, Mister (most reverend) smarty-cassock! (I say that with the most profound respect and love for the office of the priesthood, by the way.)
By the way, I love that you’re in NC. Beautiful coincidence. We have the same Bishop, the same diocesan events — and likely know some of the same priests. How funny that I just stumbled upon you. Praying for you up there in the mountains from down here in the ‘burbs. Great to know you’re there.