Quis ut Deus?

Sancte Michael - ora pro nobis

(Turning to my green ribbon) - A most happy feast day to you all!

I do have a very heart-felt passionate post privately in the works at the moment that I will share as soon as it is ready. It is along the lines of dear Rob Martin's apologia aimed towards my detractors of any pursuasion in profound humility and burning charity. My heart is bursting, but it will have to wait.

What I will post though happens to be based upon a recent disappointment outside my diocesan Cathedral a few days ago. An obviously distressed gentleman with blankets in tow approaches me as I prepare to pay a quick visit. The gentleman confides in me his predicament - he is from interstate looking for his child, hasn't eaten for days, and is at the 'biggest church in Melbourne' looking for assistance. He laments that he looks like a 'junkie' with his tattoos, but is obviously not. He told me that he repeatedly went to see the people in the diocesan offices without much luck. I'll end it there - not accusing anybody of action or inaction.

However - this man was clearly in need of help, and I did what was within my means at the time, mostly with simple and sincere fraternal concern and my prayers.

Please do not assume that because I attend the Latin Mass, because the worship of my living and true God is at the centre of my very existence, that I do not have a burning love for my brother (which of course I should be expressing much more often). One can be willing to die for the truths of the faith, and yet still love one's brother more than oneself - exactly what we are called to do. One feels more passionate for one's brother because of the very fact that she loves the faith. Perhaps it is because she chooses to acknowledge the clearest and most active truth in our society - the scourge of sin. How appropriate a reflection on such a feast-day. There is nothing that brings more sorrow to my heart than to see a dead soul. This is not because I am proud, no, but because I profess to have some understanding of the profound nature of human dignity. It is because I have the living experience to know the difference between a soul that is alive, and a soul that is dead, and the fragile recovering soul completely dependent upon God, but vulnerable to the danger of relying upon itself.

So yes, preach your la-di-da smiley-face lolly-pop Jesus sermons, save the trees, but please make sure you die to sin first. We do play out our interior dispositions for the world to see, remember?

So, finally, I rejoice in my sufferings because it is upon such a back-drop that I grow in love for my brother, my soul delights in the providential care of my Master, and I know truly the protection of the most holy Angels.

Because I was once the child found in a gutter, and for the next hours, will be found at Michaelmas.

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diabolo esto praesidium...