The First Black Swan of the Season

Posted on by charliej373

Black swan swimming

By Charlie Johnston

Whenever there is a sudden paradigm shift in electoral patterns – something that goes dramatically contrary to previous patterns – you need to determine whether it is a fluke or a real shift. If it is merely a fluke, you can safely return to traditional analytical models. If it is a genuine shift, you need to update your analytical basis to take it into account in future planning. That is a lot easier said than done. You always have a transition period when, though you are not flying blind, you are flying with Vaseline smeared all over your goggles. If it is what I call a “black swan” event, one which turns previous modeling assumptions upside down – and represents a huge break from traditional patterns, you need to focus intently on all the factors involved to develop a plan for future election cycles.

In unstable times of great turmoil, black swan events become significantly more common. In 2016, America elected the first man in its history who had never held elected office or served as a high-ranking military man. In 2018, across the country, suburban areas suddenly flipped from Republican enclaves to Democrat enclaves – and for the first time since such things were recorded, suburban men voted majority Democrat (though by a razor thin margin). Both of these cycles were black swan events. These were the first genuine electoral black swans, in my estimation, since black voters in the early 1930’s, over a couple of election cycles, dramatically switched from overwhelming Republican loyalty to overwhelming Democrat loyalty.

In 2018 I was intimately involved in a smattering of state legislative races in Texas. I thought we would either sweep the seven races I was quietly involved with or go six for seven. To my dismayed astonishment, we only won one of seven. The suburbs in Dallas and Houston flipped hard to the Democrat side. It was so unexpected I at first thought there had been some massive voter fraud involved. But as I considered that the results were similar in a multitude of counties with different election officials, I quickly dismissed the idea of any significant increase in fraud than is normal. A few days after the election, I saw numbers that showed it was not just a Texas phenomenon, but a national one. Suburbs across the country moved dramatically and spontaneously into the Democrat Column. Political operatives from all over started explaining that they had seen it coming. If so, none spoke up about it until after it happened. I just flatly acknowledged that I had not seen it coming at all. I’ve never been big about pretending I was right all along: when I am wrong I want to see what happened and how to adjust so as to get back on track under the new paradigm. Pretending you were right all along makes it significantly more likely you will be wrong going forward. People love to kid themselves that a paradigm shift is actually a fluke, because if it is a fluke you don’t have to change anything you are doing. If it is a paradigm shift you have to dramatically re-tool. The truth is that in most paradigm shifts, the people on the losing end do not recover because they spend years convincing themselves it was all a fluke. That was when the fluke of black voters going Democrat became a permanent situation. In 1932 and 1934, Republicans convinced themselves this was just a peculiar reaction to the Depression and that as soon as things smoothed out, black folks would “come home” to the Republican Party. It was a soothing balm to Republican leaders and operatives – but it lost the minority vote for at least four generations.

There is an old saying about small, family-owned businesses: the first generation makes the money, the second generation spends it, and the third generation loses it entirely. In contemplating 2018, I came to think that there is an element to suburban life that is similar. A big chunk of suburbanites think they are immune to the consequences of bad policy. It was the World War II generation that built the suburbs, making cozy homes with easy access to their jobs, but away from the dysfunctions of the cities. The second generation, my parents, were the suburban backyard barbecue generation. It was a good life. The current generation, secure in the stable template built by their grandparents, think the consequences of irresponsible policy will never catch up to them. They think they can safely indulge in some virtue-signaling bad policy without suffering any serious blowback.

Recent polls have shown serious erosion of support for Democrats among minority blocs. Oh the Democrats are still dominant – but instead of getting 90+ percent of the black vote and 60+ percent of the Hispanic vote, the numbers have been reduced to 70+ and a near 50-50 split, respectively. If those numbers come anywhere near holding in actual elections, Democrats would be eviscerated across the country. It would be a third consecutive black swan event.

In Texas last year, I was beguiled into a false sense of security because of the special state senate election on September 18 that sent Republican Pete Flores to victory in a district that borders Mexico and takes in a swath of the San Antonio suburbs. The Democrats had held that seat for 139 years. Flores did not eke out a narrow victory; he won by a decisive six points. I thought it was a harbinger of good things to come and that it confirmed my analysis of the dynamics of the election cycle. Instead, it was one of very few big ones of those pro-lifers got deeply involved in that we did win.

I am never satisfied with glib explanations of setbacks that only account for a slice of the results rather than the totality of them. It is one of the few areas where my mind insists upon an… ahem…holistic explanation. How to square the Flores’ results with the larger suburban collapse a month and a half later has preyed on my mind ever since. Those recent polls showing significant minority erosion for Democrats gave me a new template. Flores’ district is 66 percent Hispanic – and only a small sliver of it is suburban San Antonio. Thus, my initial interpretation of Flores victory was wrong. It was not a confirmation of the overall Republican message last year. Rather, it was the first sighting of the emerging black swan of minority blocs moving toward Donald Trump and Republicans – and away from Democrats. In that analysis, all the pieces of the last cycle fit together snugly.

I was tentatively working my domestic political analysis from this new paradigm when the special election in North Carolina Congressional District 9 strongly bolstered the framework I am working up. Democrats thought their man, Dan McCready was poised to score a great upset in this traditionally Republican district. The demographics had been changing, McCready had just run a hard-fought race in the same district with all the name ID that garnered. His lesser-known Republican opponent, Dan Bishop was at a big disadvantage in name ID – and McCready had heavily outspent Bishop. Democrats figured the suburban shift would propel them to victory, combined with the safe minority counties that predominate much of the district. Republican Dan Bishop won by just 5,000 votes. Democrats claimed a moral victory because of the close margin. But the voting pattern analysis is shocking to anyone steeped in the conventional wisdom of the last four decades. The suburban areas did, indeed, move heavily towards the Democrat, continuing the trend that emerged in 2018. What proved the margin of victory for Bishop was that all but one of the minority-dominant counties in the district moved sharply away from the Democrats.

Democrats, aware of the erosion of support with minorities, have been shrieking that Trump and Republicans are all racist or white supremacists – even calling minorities who support Republicans white supremacists. They hope this will halt the erosion of minority support. It seems the only people buying the constant cries of racism other than the ones making the charges, are white suburbanites. More and more minorities, who actually have to live with the consequences of stupid virtue-signaling policies, are asking themselves what is so racist about them wanting to have the same sort of safe, prosperous communities that suburbanites enjoy. In the process, they are noting the vast gulf between Democrat promises and Democrat performance: almost all of the violently dysfunctional hell-holes in America have been run exclusively by Democrats for two or more generations. And so, minorities are visibly now walking away from the Democratic Party.

Whether Republicans will capitalize on this, shifting their strategy and tactics to take advantage of the new paradigm is doubtful. Operatives hate to do things differently than the way they always have. Beyond that, the bigger the organization, the slower it is to react to genuine paradigm shifts historically. On the other hand, Democrats are sure they will keep what they have long had – and so, take it for granted – while convinced that they are taking the rest of the country by storm. Timidity where boldness is called for (a Republican characteristic) is dangerous, but preening hubris where prudence is called for (a Democrat characteristic) is deadly.

If I were developing a theme template for conservatives for the next cycle, I would emphasize these priorities:

  • Expand outreach to minority communities, emphasizing the bread and butter issues that are lifting them up, while integrating minority members into the party leadership and infrastructure.
  • Hammer away at the fact that long-term Democrat-led cities are violent, dysfunctional, impoverished ghettoes, contrary to what the left always promises will result from their policies. They always promise the paradise of El Dorado but usually deliver some form of Venezuela.
  • Emphasize that leftist voters typically flee their own nests after despoiling it (see Illinois, New York and California) but then, like crows and blue jays, vandalize the nests they usurp, having learned nothing from their previous failures. Note that strong economies, good schools and safe communities can be quickly wrecked by succumbing to the siren song of lefties trying to enact the same policies that despoiled the states they came from.

There will probably be more black swans before we are all through, but I am grateful that I am starting to make some sense of the newly emerging patterns.

*********

I had a great presentation in St. Paul, Minnesota this last Sunday. The crowd was lively,St. Simeon intelligent, and very serious about their faith. You may know that Minnesota uses the slogan, “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Lest you think it hyperbole, it actually has 11,842 lakes. Ah, the modest understatement of a gentle state.

I will next speak in Kansas City. It will be on Saturday, Sept. 21. We will begin with a Rosary at 6:45 p.m. at the Irene B. French Community Center at 5701 Merriam Dr., Merriam, Kansas 66203. For information contact Connie at constancebrickner@gmail.com or leave a message at 913-248-0686.

I picked up this beautiful Icon of St. Simeon holding the child, Jesus, at the People of Praise festival in Eagan, Minnesota on Friday. The iconographer is Mike Wacker (pronounced Walker) who has trained under Kati Ritchie, whose studio I will tour on Tuesday.

180 thoughts on “The First Black Swan of the Season”

  1. My recent visit to the lush green suburb of Buffalo, NY, gives a snapshot that confirms — at least in my family — this surprisingly strong support for Dems. (Although I wonder if they’ve been Lefties all along). I was the only person out of a dozen and a half blood relatives who support conservatism and Donald Trump.

    Driving around their beautiful middle/upper-middle class neighborhoods (in a Lexus, no less), all I could think of was how SHELTERED they were from some of the really dire and disastrous things going on around the country. These sunny neighborhoods have been the same for generations — beautiful and largely unchanged, protected from the evil and conflict in the world. (Go Bills! Go Sabres! Pass me another beer!) And my family will lazily watch NBC/ABC/CNN to make them feel righteous and smart about current events…..

    We need a big Storm to whip through and shake things up….to wake them up.

    Liked by 16 people

    2. Oh, this is rarified air up thread at the top, PD. I’ve got nothing to add of value, just thought I’d piggyback on your lead spot here and enjoy the vantage with you for a moment. O.K., thanks.

      Liked by 5 people

      1. Make yourself at home, MP. Yeah, nice view up here on the perch reserved for Charlie, Beckita and others lightning quick with that POST button.

        ……ok, I think my 15 minutes are up. Back down we go.

        Liked by 6 people

        2. Yeah, we did that, didn’t we. I’m more apt to explore canyons and old mine shafts 2-3 columns back with Doug, because that’s where we find the oft overlooked nuggets (e.g. – Grace, “The Miracle Baby”). Your company is always welcome. You can even ride the ole’ mule, or Doug’s wagon if you prefer. Just bring a pick and a head lamp.

          Liked by 4 people

    3. Patrick…words of hope…my brother-in-law is originally from there, now living New Mexico. There was a family funeral, bringing down some N.Yorkers. My husband adamantly told me “no talk politics” because of my Christian Conservative positions , and in the past for NY relatives it was how great Clinton’s and the like were. Well, what a refreshing change when they brought up how surprised they were at Trump putting America first !!!! AND that they did not vote for him last time, but will next time!!!! I still have whiplash thoughts when I think of that conversation!!!

      Liked by 11 people

  2. Charlie, I am persuaded your analysis is accurate that well-off suburban voters engaged in virtue signaling (if only to their own, private egos). But what made voting Democrat/anti-Trump a sign of virtue. My guess is that employed suburbanites do not engage in serious analysis or even attention to real news, but permit familiarity with the evening news on the major networks, and major newspapers to inform themselves of current affairs– and all the major media had been screaming incessantly that Trump is treasonous, a white racist, and a bully. The MM were effective in their anti-Trump propaganda. By contrast, lower middle class and working poor KNOW DIRECTLY that job competition from illegal immigrants, and technically trained folks who over-extend their visa time, directly hurts their own job opportunities.

    Republican campaign ads ought to be emphasizing that Trump’s America First policy, with its emphasis on stopping the illegal immigration, is important for protecting citizens from unfair job competition (foreign and domestic), crime, and drugs. Republican ads ought to emphasize that law enforcement protects good citizens. Virtue signaling ought to revert back to voting Republican.

    Liked by 11 people

    1. I need to add. During my life time, up until the disputed election of George W Bush, the Democrat and Republican Parties could be nasty, such as at the nomination hearing for judge Bork, but each had the best interests of the country on par with self-serving partisanship. This started to shift during Bush’s terms. It became extremely divisive under the Obama terms, as Americans were targeted as minority factions so that the common good was often not the primary political objective. Currently, the Democrat Party is comfortable with abandoning the common good, and basic decency, to gain votes and power. Politics for the Democrat Party has shifted from different ideas from Republicans for achieving the common good of the country to doing and saying anything to gain special interest votes, even if the country is badly hurt.

      Liked by 5 people

  3. Great piece and very good news Charlie. .had son Globetrotting Tom & Liz over last night…they do traveling nurse along the west coast..they were happy as all get go to be done with Seattle and all the craziness. .love Cali n r going back there tomorrow for 3 month job and then hopefully to east coast. Too big a mess they say along west coast. In the end, we all agreed we are all voting again for President Trump. He will win big. Why wouldn’t we???!!! Trump wins. .we win..btw they are trying to have a baby..prayers please😆😆😆

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      1. Thanks Mick..yes..iceland …came home for a few weeKS in Ohio..now back in air currently on way to their next 3 month job in Sacramento California. .lol..Tommy was too thin. I worry. Plz keep him in ur prayers. I’ll Pray today for all your loved ones aND you too dearest Mick🤗😇😘

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            1. You always make me laugh, Linda! I could barely write papers when I was in school; I had a real dread and fear of paper-writing (honestly… I majored in Math so that I could avoid writing papers in college). But thanks for the compliment, and the giggles. 🙂

              Liked by 2 people

                1. You betcha, Linda. Here are a couple silly kid-stories for you:

                  On my 37th birthday, Mary Grace (who was 6 at the time) looked at me and said, “Mommy, now you’re old.”

                  On that same birthday, Cyprian (9 at the time) made me a card. On the front he made his best attempt to draw the Divine Mercy image. On the inside of the card, instead of writing “Happy Birthday, Mom!” or a message that a kid would ordinarily write, he put a quotation that he’d heard many times in a St. Faustina video that we had: “How long will I put up with you, and how long will you keep putting me off?”

                  Liked by 7 people

                    3. Beckita, that’s the funny thing about Cyprian when he was little: he was completely guileless as well as completely tactless. The quote he put in my card was neither an attempt at humor (because he was always a very literal child who never “got” jokes), nor was it a cloaked dis (just not his style at all). He simply picked a random quote of Jesus’ words from the Divine Mercy movie, never considering that they might be understood as anything other than a random quote of Jesus. That’s what made it so hilarious at the time, and that’s why my family still laughs about it even now.

                      Liked by 3 people

                  3. 😂😂😂you just made me burst out laughing. ..oh my gosh kids say the darnest cute things Mick…thanks for sharing and be sure to write them ALL down..Mick’s Memoirs 🤗😇😘

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                    2. Actually I always wanted to write a book. I may someday. I have an interesting story of my grandmother, Corrine Champagne was her name. Isnt that a beautiful name??? Corrine wanted to marry this one guy but my great grandparents didn’t allow it ..kept the letters from her from this nice fellow..so she married my grandfather edmond LeBlanc. Gramma had 6 kids n came home to grandpa with her best friend and offed herself in a stove for heavens sake. I guess back then the stoves were all gas??? All the 6 kids (my mom included) were given away to other families (no real adoptions in those days. Depression era) and they all have amazing stories..grandpa edmond moved to Canada after gramma offed herself and had conversion very late in life. My mom would not 4give him but I did and offered mercy Sunday for him a few years back..not sure if it was just my imagination or what but when I closed my eyes, I felt like I saw him smile at me and tip his hat. He was quite a handsome fellow..lol..I was going to entitle novel “Grains of Sand!” Shoot…someday I might write it yet…it’s all in my head…the one son had epilepsy. .I guess his name was ta rouge (which meant little red???) globetrotting Tommy has red hair too like Ta Rouge. My mom always thought tommy resembled her beloved Ta Rouge but unfortunately Ta Rouge died in an insane asylum in a grand mal seizure as back in those days, they didn’t know how to treat epilepsy. .oh the stories..lol..Oh all those “Grains of Sand.” 😆

                      Liked by 2 people

                    3. Wow, Linda; I’ll buy at least one copy if you ever do write the book. And I thought MY extended family had a lot of drama….

                      Poor Ta Rouge, God rest his soul. I had a slightly older cousin who also had epilepsy. He died at the age of 12 when he had a seizure in the bathtub and drowned (never did get the complete story, but I seem to remember that his professional caregiver was negligent).

                      I love red hair. I’m glad that Ta Rouge and Globetrotting Tommy were/are redheads.

                      As soon as I read your grandmother’s name, I thought, “What a lovely name!” And then the very next thing I read is, “Isn’t that a beautiful name???” Ha! It’s either that great minds think alike, or you and I are both a little off. 🙂

                      Liked by 2 people

                    4. Hehehehe great minds think alike Mick!!! 😆 when I met you and Charlie I felt like we all already knew each other… it was sureal. Maybe it’s the spirit of the movement , but the familiarity seemed quite supernatural 🤗😇😘 I could hang out with ya real easy peasy Mick😀that’s sad about your cousin too😢😢😢 grand mal seizures can be so dangerous. My mom used to have them and my other son frankie, when 5 had a febral seizure due to high fever..xoxoxoxoxoxo

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                    5. Linda, I know what you mean… when I met you, it was like we’d been buds since way back. I agree that it’s the family spirit that we have here at TNRS-ASOH. I do hope that once the Storm has abated and true peace comes, we can have a family reunion at Mt. Meeker. How awesome would THAT party be? 🙂

                      Liked by 3 people

  4. What a beautiful icon of St. Simeon holding Jesus! Thank you for this analysis of the Black Swans, Charlie. It does make sense. Along the lines that you are talking about, I heard about a group of conservatives who went into Baltimore and cleaned up the city streets. Here is a link to a short article / video on that. They did it quietly in service, tried to work with the city to get dumpsters, follow their ordinances, but after being stonewalled and ignored, they just quietly went ahead and helped. This is the second month in a row they’ve done it, and they are planning to come back next month. Now that is TAKING THE NEXT RIGHT STEP to help our neighbors. It gives me a SIGN OF HOPE!

    Liked by 11 people

    1. Thank you for following up on this quiet persevering sign of hope. I’d heard and seen the first cleanup but didn’t know of the second.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Charlie, thank you for coming to MN! Your talk was fantastic! It was really a great group. 🙂 God bless you with safe travels and more wonderful presentations among the faithful.

    Liked by 6 people

      1. I don’t get it at all. Does anyone know of a real instance when Trump lied or made racist comments? I know what MSM prints so I am really looking for a real instance. I am a Trumper and a conservative so this is not a trouble making question. I’ve looked all over and dont see what star they are hitching their wagon to.

        Liked by 5 people

        1. It’s a valid question, St. Joan. There is no evidence Trump is a racist, in fact, there is much evidence to the contrary. My family repeatedly called him a liar without giving any examples, but that was probably over insignificant misstatements or exaggerations when making a point (unlike Obama’s deliberate “you can keep your doctor” lie or Clinton’s blushing “I did not have sex” lie to cover up his perjury). Fortunately, none of my relatives called him a racist because I might have spoken up.

          The Left’s wagons are in disarray heading in all different directions, wheels are coming off, some are smashing into each other, while others are ablaze, but all of them are careening out-of-control toward the cliff’s edge.

          Is there any doubt they will try to take the rest of us with them?

          Liked by 3 people

          1. So much of what Trump says and does is self-inflicting wounds. I agree with almost everything he says and does and I also agree with those who object to his way of saying those same things. Every day for me is a lesson in not listening to the words but absorbing their meaning. Lord save us all!!!

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            1. I have heard it described like this: Conservatives take Trump seriously but not literally,and anti-Trumpers take him literally but not seriously.

              He has completely turned the cart upside down and that was NEEDED. He is the most bold, fearless and courageous President I’ve ever known, in recent times. He is unafraid and he pushes back against the bald-faced lies. He tells the press how wretched they are to their faces, and he plays them all like a violin. Is he a great guy? I dunno, probably not, but he is a great President.

              Liked by 2 people

              1. The only thing I know for certain is that folks on both sides of the spectrum continually astound me with the lengths they will go to make Trump into something he is not. This applies to any cause celebre for that matter.

                The key to healthy perspective is to endeavor to think less like men, and more like God.

                Liked by 3 people

                1. Ah, like Obama supporters referred to him as The Lightbringer and his detractors were convinced he was indeed, the Anti-Christ? I’m 59.9 years old and I’ve been seeing people do that since…..forever.

                  What is dangerous, I think, is how irrational politics has rendered the average person, or so it seems. Trump isn’t the real issue, the real issue is the bifurcation of what used to be a consensus on virtuous behavior and shared values. Instead of acting virtuously people are simply signaling their virtue on Twitter and other forms of social media, like performing seals.

                  Just had an extended conversation with my 26 year old son who laments the nihilism everywhere among his age group. I always try to place things in perspective of my spiritual worldview, the same one he was raised with, but I can see his everyday interactions with his peers is eroding his hope. Please pray for him, he is away from the Church and steeped in the hopelessness all around him. Many thanks.

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                  2. Yes. Nor was it my point that it’s about Trump (or any other controversial/public issue of the day). What I think is dangerous –– and my many years long cadence here will bear me out –– is the often fruitless fretting, analyzing, and over-analyzing of the woe/woes of the day at the expense of what God is truly asking us to do… what’s doable in the truest sense.

                    That’s not to say that understanding stuff is not important. I just happen to think that understanding what God wants us to understand ought to take precedence.

                    I’ve said on more than one occasion that it’s not what we know, or what we think we know, but how we think. Fact is, I could care less if anyone affirms what I say, but I am delighted that I find Charlie, B, and others here expressing basically the same thing in their own way of expressing it.

                    A solution: “endeavor to think less like men and more like God.” As B would say, we can do this.

                    I would love to hear solutions from everyone at this point, because Lord knows we’ve sure piled up a boat load of problems and dropped ’em on poor Charlie’s head.

                    Liked by 1 person

                2. That’s a great point, MP. People are being met, where they are. And they/we are all over the board! POTUS to the extent that he is being appreciated for his benevolence, I have observed, has brought countless brothers and sisters back to faith/God. Credit where credit is due, and trust and faith where it is due. 😉

                  Liked by 1 person

                  1. In order to get that healthy perspective, I take it right to God and simply ask. Then I let it go. Whether or not I listen all that well remains to be seen, but my comment above expresses what I make of a tiny grain of that dialog.

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  8. “In 2018, across the country, suburban areas suddenly flipped from Republican enclaves to Democrat enclaves – and for the first time since such things were recorded, suburban men voted majority Democrat (though by a razor thin margin). Both of these cycles were black swan events.”

    Any chance that these are not true Black Swan events but are voter frauds perpetrated by big tech, who have already been implicated in election manipulation, and Globalist deep state operatives pulling out the stops to regain power?

    Liked by 4 people

    1. I would put the chances at zero. The way the election machinery works in this country is that each county (along with a few subsets of electoral boards) is an independent electoral authority. There are 3007 counties in the U.S. To coordinate a massive conspiracy with, at least, over a thousand independent counties in on it and nobody talking is, literally, as close to impossible as can be. This is not to say that there is not still substantial election fraud in the country. I think in 2016 it amounted to over 10 million votes fraudulently counted for Democrats. I think it was actually DOWN a couple million in 2018. Besides the overwhelming logistical problems, there are markers that a seasoned veteran can see to indicate voter fraud – and these were not in evidence beyond expected levels in 2018. Another problem for the Democrats is that their capacity to commit large-scale voter fraud is limited to large hot spots that they already predominate in. This does not allow for an equal distribution across the country, as would be necessary to flip the suburbs en masse.

      I understand your concern. My first thought on election night was similar – but even on that night I knew that such seamless collusion between even four to 10 counties – several with Republican election officials, was nigh impossible. There is no national election authority, only local ones. This shift was real, as much as I initially did not want to believe it.

      Liked by 7 people

  9. Fr Rocky from Opus Dei had great talk about Pope Francis and the so called crisis thing in the church this am on morning air relavant radio. .it was interesting and we’ll balanced and put me at great peace. This is tues sept 17th. It’s still on for 3 more minutes but will come available later for re listen..quite good

    Liked by 4 people

    1. The homily given by Fr. Matthew at the EWTN Mass, yesterday, has been uploaded to You Tube, Linda. I listened to it and it’s a big deal. While no organization or person is perfect or without problems, EWTN broadcasts worldwide and the people there have striven – and I think have done an excellent job – to preach the fullness of Truth, upholding and proclaiming Magisterial Teaching. I think it’s a sure bet that the priests of the order that Mother Angelica founded have been discussing these difficulties in the Church in light of the actions and inaction of Pope Francis for a long time. I’m also willing to bet that the priests gave their assent to Fr. Matthew being the priest to deliver this homily which, in my opinion, is anointed with holy boldness.

      I especially appreciated Fr. Matthew’s expression of love and prayer for Pope Francis and then Father went on to say the hard things… and I think Fr. Matthew did an outstanding job of addressing some of the problems with Pope Francis. Too, Fr. Matthew stressed this is not about stirring up hatred for the Pope. In fact, it’s altogether just and right for the prelates, like Cardinal Burke and Bishop Athanasius, as well as any priest and lay person to request that Pope Francis uphold Church teaching and offer clarity in what he says and does. I jumped right into the call for prayer and fasting and will continue for the duration of this prayer initiative. Our Church deserves such support, for – I believe like many – that the Amazon Synod poses great danger.

      All that said, I remain at peace even in the fierceness of what we now see. We know Christ’s Promise to protect the Church holds true in every age. Our ancestors in Faith have gone through struggles within the Church in the past, even as the crises now afflicting Mother Church in Her present Passion are quite unique. Calling on each and every one of the Holy Cohort in Heaven to pray for us as each of us keeps the faith, living it with fidelity, and hopefully striving to grow in a holiness born of love… love poured into our family and friends and expanded to reach all those around us.

      Liked by 16 people

      2. Thanks for this, Beckita. I’d gotten an e-mail yesterday from a friend about the homily on EWTN, but I wasn’t sure how to track it down so I could watch it.

        Thanks for your wise words. God bless you and Father as you keep on keepin’ on. 🙂

        Liked by 7 people

        1. Thanks for your kindness, Mick. Isn’t it just so necessary to discuss the hard things with – I’ll say it again, for me as much as for anyone – charity in truth? Criticizing to the point of adding fuel to the fire of hate and anger which hardens as resentment and condemnation for anyone simply burdens our own souls rather than doing any good.

          I did pray for your Cyprian yesterday, Mick. Wish him a belated Happy Feast Day, would you?

          Liked by 6 people

          1. Thanks for your prayers for my kid, Beckita! I’ll be sure to wish him a Happy Feast Day on your behalf. (I can already see the lopsided smile on his face when I tell him, “Beckita prayed for you yesterday.”) 🙂

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            3. Dearest Beckita, Linda, and Kim… I just told Cyprian that each of you prayed for him. Sure enough, he got that oh-so-cute grin of his; and he said, “Please tell them ‘thank you,’ and that I’ll pray for them too.”

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              2. Will do, Beckita. He also asked me to ask you, Linda, and Kim to please pray for him as he discerns regarding his vocation. (He’s seriously contemplating applying for August 2020 admission to the major seminary).

                Liked by 8 people

                  1. Thank you, Jen. I know he’ll appreciate it, especially when I tell him that the prayers are being said by the Jen that he met in South Bend way back when. 🙂

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                  1. Thank you, Audie. He is a great kid, and one of the most faithful prayer warriors that I know. I’m certain that he will keep you and your loved ones in his prayers (as do I). 🙂

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                4. Mick
                  Joining my prayers with the others for your son,Cyprian, as he discerns his vocation. May the Holy Spirit guide him throughout his journey. May God bless your family, and all of the TNRS steppers.

                  Liked by 2 people

                5. Mick, I will be praying for your son, that he goes where the Lord leads him. How wonderful to have children seeking the Lord’s will for their lives. Cyprian must have wonderful parents (and the Holy Spirit working through them)!

                  God bless.

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          2. “Criticizing to the point of adding fuel to the fire of hate and anger which hardens as resentment and condemnation for anyone simply burdens our own souls rather than doing any good.”

            Amen, B. So often guilty of this, particularly with family.

            Liked by 3 people

            1. How humble of you to say so, Patrick. We’re all trying and, hopefully, we’re all working on something or some area in which we can improve. I think every parent must love to see his/her kid strive to grow… so I think Abba must be so pleased when we give it all we can… and when we fall, Jesus dusts us off and seats us right beside Him at the Table of Life, nourishing us with food that keeps us going. That kind of treatment inspires persistence. 🙂

              Liked by 3 people

              1. Beckita, your statements sound similar to some of the writings of Anne the lay apostle. Such comforting words. As a parent I understand it. More difficult when dealing with myself. Growing up in the abusive alcoholic home doing something “wrong” usually meant a whack and a shunning.
                Tears of comfort when viewed how you and Anne stated it. Thank you, dear Beckita.

                Liked by 4 people

                1. So grateful it brought you solace, HttP. I, too, was raised in an abusive alcoholic home and I know Christ can not only heal, to the core, the wounds born of such a dynamic, He actually transforms them. Praying for you, Dear HttP, that the Medatrix brings you graces for wound transformation. Praying, too, that all who are at work in reconciling the things of the past which may burden us, can anchor their identity in the truth that each one of us is the beloved child of Abba who proclaimed at our baptisms the same Love expressed at His Son Jesus’ Baptism.

                  I went the counseling route and was blessed by a man of faith who facilitated the reconciling process in ways that allowed me to explore my inner world via faith expressed in Scriptures. A companion “therapy” was the time carved out to just sit with Eucharistic Jesus and allow Him to love me, going into the recesses of repressed memories which I could not retrieve. I was told some things are so painful, they remain in the subconscious, unable to be recalled. The best part of time spent in Sacred Silence adoring the Lord was how Jesus allowed me to enter into contemplating the reality that no one is a victim forever… unless we choose to be. Freedom is possible. He IS the Way, the Truth and the Life of such a freedom… and He waits for us to partner with Him in making a New Beginning.

                  Time for a redux moment. Photo taken of the tabernacle after adoring Jesus. The radiating power of Love.

                  Liked by 5 people

            1. Ha! You’re hilarious, Linda! However, you and Mike are more than welcome to come by for a visit if you’re ever again in our neck of the woods (I’ll even take you to my hometown’s “world-famous” ice cream parlour). 🙂

              Liked by 3 people

              1. Yes, if mike hadn’t had to work that next day we would’ve stayed over and went to have ice cream with ya’ll and Charlie…we lamented our absence there the whole way home😢🍦🍨🍧

                Liked by 1 person

          2. Thanks so much, Kim! Now my kid will have TWO lopsided grins!

            We actually have some friends who also have a son named Cyprian. It’s pretty funny because neither couple “stole” the name from the other; our families hadn’t even met yet when the boys were born. Our Cyprian is 23 now; there’s is 20.

            Liked by 6 people

      3. Thanks so much for addressing this homily Beckita. .I’m usually at Mass or listening to Relevant Radio so I was just surprised. I guess my head is sort of in the sand on all these issues as I’m just working, praying, fasting and trying to just put one foot in front of the other like Charlie teaches us to..lol..even politics is too much for me lately. Ugh..such confusion everywhere we turn these days. But like Charlie says..we don’t get heaven until we get heaven (hopeful, not presuming) Fr Rocky did give good talk this am too though on all this on morning air..I’m sure it’s uploaded already too. The longer this storm goes on the more I just HAVE to acknowledge God, TNRS and try try try to be that sign of hope to those God puts in my path. God bless you, Beckita and thank u again for helping me on this issue.🤗😇😘

        Liked by 6 people

        1. I’m sorry..I didn’t like this homily at all..only happened on it cuz I was waiting for globetrotting Tom n liz, the dynamic duo who are now in Sacramento ca to get up so I could make them eggs on toast…lol..I was SHOCKED..UGH..but Fr Rocky on relavant radio made me feel better about it on morning air relavant radio Tuesday sept 17 already uploaded if ur interested to hear a different take..ugh…life is getting confusing…one day at a time…lol

          Liked by 1 person

      5. This may be a ? For the Steve. I got the u tube video for Frs. Homily and it plays with no sound. I tried other u tube videos and the sound is fine. This happens occasionally. Any ideas.
        Thanks Bob

        Liked by 2 people

        2. Bob, my guess is that that video is muted via YT controls. You have control over your computer’s sound level via your computer’s control panel or preferences. YT videos have their own internal controls. Both must be on for you to hear sound. Look for the control bar underneath the video for a Sound icon and check to see if it is muted or reduced to almost zero sound. Some YT videos don’t have that control but most do. I encourage you to poke around that video and others and compare until you find what you need. Please let us know if my guess turns out to be helpful or not. 🙂

          Liked by 2 people

          1. Thanks, I checked, as I have before when this happens and speaker shows it is on and at max volume. My wife is a bit of a tech and we haven’t been able to figure it out. Some seem to work and some don’t, usually ones which are embedded in a link are the problematic ones. If I go to utube to look up a song or a speech they usually work fine but in this case the ones from EWTN have no sound. If anyone has the print of the homily I will prefer to read it that way vs reading captions which takes more time and concentration. I am using google chrome if that means anything.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Bob, Someone else may have more technical advice, but here’s a couple to try:
              The EWTN priests website that has past homilies- starts at the 7:30 mark. May St. Isidore intercede…In 1997 Pope John Paul II declared Isidore of Seville the patron saint of the internet. (He tried to record everything ever known in an encyclopedia that was ultimately published after his death.)

              https://franciscanmissionaries.com/homily/

              Or if you have a smartphone, download the EWTN app; click on ‘Video on Demand’, then tap “Daily Catholic Mass”, and then 9-16-2019.

              Liked by 2 people

  10. I live in Georgia, where I witnessed first-hand the Stacy Abrams and Jon Ossoff campaigns. I said at the time, those two campaigns should have been very revealing to political operatives about the shift going on in the suburbs. Your comment about the suburbs and the third generation is spot on and pretty much sums up my daily experience. At first, it was the gated community, yoga loving mothers who would go on and on about sexist men and female empowerment. I always found this ironic, since the majority of these women were able to afford their affluent suburban lifestyle because they married very capitalistic men! These women either refuse to see this connection or are morally blinded by their hedonistic lifestyles. Then the men in the suburbs, just to keep the peace at home, go along with the virtual-signaling. Both these groups think their relative wealth and status insulates them to the political and social upheaval surrounding them. Now, we have their millennial children moving home (who have been brainwashed in college to believe religion is naive, capitalism is evil and communism the savior of humanity) voting and in some cases running for local office. This is the toxic brew bubbling in the suburbs and flowing into the ballot box. Makes me want to run for the mountains where hard living might keep you humble and wise.

    Liked by 11 people

    2. Some look at the burbs as the land of milk of honey, and yet they are truly built and sustained on MOUNTAINS of debt. More so, probably, mountains of pride.

      Gotta be prepared, there too, to help pick up the pieces afterwards and lead to the true Land of Milk and Honey.

      “Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth.” Luke 3:5

      Rough roads, tough climbs… blood, sweat, toil and tears between now and then. What a grace that truly is.

      Liked by 10 people

      1. How Ilam Omar is not being formally investigated after all the evidence discovered on her lying about her identity is just more proof of the precarious nature of our American judicial and governing systems. Abrams now makes a living speaking on how the election was “stolen” from her.

        Liked by 5 people

  11. I first time I really considered the possibility of Republicans winning over a considerable number of African American voters was the other big story of 2016: the death of poor Harambe. The international firestorm that erupted over Memorial Day weekend was so over the top. There were so many people who said publicly that the child should have been left to die at the hands of the gorilla. Naturally conservative types defended the zoo and the need to shoot Harambe for the sake of the boy from the beginning. All of this was said when the race of the child was unknown. Then Monday or Tuesday rolls around and the world learns that it was a black child at risk, which caused a chain reaction of silence, back pedaling, and squirming. Black democrats and conservatives found themselves on the same side while laughing at the Harambe memes that circulated for a long time.

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Wow! Goldensun. I forgot all about the Harambe kerflufle. Good point about the backpedaling. It was somewhat similar to the whole MAGA-hat wearing perpetrators who hung a noose around Jussie Smollet and tossed bleach on him. Many black people took a lot of flack for not coming out and supporting this supposed “hate-crime” victim. Still not done getting to the bottom of that waste of police resources.

      Liked by 5 people

  12. Charlie, we were so blessed to have you come to MN to speak. A big THANK YOU! to Kris for making the arrangements. For many years I have been a silent reader, and always look forward to your enlightening posts, and the spirited comments that follow. Your site has brought the message of “Acknowledge God”, “TNRS”, “Be a Sign of Hope”, and “Trust in God” into our hearts and souls. The Storm swirls and threatens and I may at times struggle to Trust, but that is improving as I replace worry and turn in trust to God. I Thank You and the special people on TNRS for this progress. We must always remember God’s overwhelming LOVE for us.

    Liked by 8 people

    1. Welcome to commenting, Shanminn! Amen to God’s overwhelming LOVE… and the gift of what Charlie has and continues to do for us… and the gift of this community gathered to accompany each other in these days.

      Liked by 6 people

    2. SHANMINN I know, right? Once you “see” and “meet” the man behind the message it all just “clicks!” Lol… so glad you got to meet him too. I’ve never seen such joyful ease. 😁

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Shanminn, yes we were blessed to have Charlie come to MN and it was so nice to meet you. I like your comment about replacing worry with trust. That is certainly something I need to do! Thanks for coming to the talk.
      Kris

      Liked by 2 people

  13. Charlie,

    I understand your explanation of black swan events…yet how does it apply right now? There are no elections, that I know of. It helps to understand the suburban component and nice to know of the minority component. Is it to help us grapple with a downturn and learn to know that we may not have assistance in suburbia snd that those in our nearest cities might be our advocates and co-workers?

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Little one, how does knowing what is happening on the ground right now help or apply?! I think you must have misstated your question. Would you seriously rather not think about it until after the time to use it is past? Your question is so baffling to me I am convinced you must have meant something I just don’t understand. I mean it is pretty obvious how having good intelligence and good analysis of a situation in the midst of a growing crisis is not only useful, but vitally important if you are going to have any chance of managing that crisis successfully. Why don’t you re-load and try again – and I will try to answer.

      Liked by 5 people

  14. My sister has lived in Texas for 20 years. She is shocked about how many Californians have moved to Texas. I am wondering if they moved because they ruined California with leftist policies and they could not live there anymore. She is concerned they will turn Texas blue. I told her she needs to educate them as best she can.

    Liked by 8 people

  15. I am referring others from my Republican Women’s group to read “First Black Swan.” Charlie, Thank you! Dallas County went Democrat in 2018 more than usual. We have Dr. Tre Pennie [Dr. of Education] runing for congress in South Dallas against Eddie B. Johnson; he is so prolife and tells it like it is for Democrat ruled areas.

    John Mauldin (financial analyst) bought 2 downtown condos and converted them into 1. Then he found out the Dallas city police and fireman pension fund was in dire straights and will need a lot more increase in taxes. He quickly sold it after marriage and moved to Puerto Rico; maybe he can change the politics there with all the Democrats and corruption. He was long involved in politics.

    I have always had signs with reasons to vote Republican at polling places.

    Liked by 8 people

  16. Shrewd analysis of changing culture and changing times Charlie. As they say, politics is downstream of the culture.

    To the curious point of a shift to the Democrats in suburban areas and the surprising shift of Men as a reason for that:

    We spent Wednesday through Friday visiting the Lehigh Valley of Pa. My impression … the economy is solid as a rock in the Lehigh Valley. Evidence? An almost mind boggling number of huge semis hogging the highways and moving freight to and through the manufacturing belt around Allentown Pa. I mean a steady stream of hundreds of trucks moving. All day long. And freight trains as well. Evidence of BUSINESS and …. well …. pretty good times.

    The economic data is pretty dang solid.

    https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.pa_allentown_msa.htm

    From the chairman of the Lehigh Valley Development Corp:

    “The Lehigh Valley held steady in 2017 as the fifth-busiest metro area in the Northeast, a region led by New York-Newark-Jersey City.

    And with a gross domestic product of $39.1 billion, the Lehigh Valley set a record in terms of total economic output.

    The Lehigh Valley’s economy has never been better. Yes, never,” said Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. “It’s the largest in our history, surpassing those good ole days of Steel.”

    The blast furnaces went cold in 1995, followed by the closure of Bethlehem Steel’s flagship plant 20 years ago this month, noted Cunningham, who was 32 years old at the time and three months into his tenure as Bethlehem mayor.

    “With all the change of two decades, it’s hard to remember that economy,” Cunningham said in prepared remarks. “Some in this room came of age after it was gone. For them, it’s always been history.”

    With a much more diverse economy of 2018, the Lehigh Valley region is better off today than when the steel mill roared, Cunningham asserted.

    “Our air is cleaner, as is the river, jobs are safer, our economy is more diverse, our downtowns are vibrant again, technology has improved and expanded health care, our manufacturing base and the economy,” Cunningham said in his presentation. “The economy and population are growing as new businesses and people come here or start here.”

    Eyeballs confirm this economic assessment to me. Good Times.

    Now, what is curious under these sustained good economic times is the political environment in the Lehigh Valley. Driving through there past all the humming plants and economic activity, almost being forced off the highways and byways by BUSINESS on the move, I formed the opinion that “these people would be NUTS to vote for the Democrats!”

    Yet, what happened in 2018?

    https://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-lehigh-valley-election-night-roundup-20181106-story.html

    A pretty solid Republican Congressional District replaced the retiring Republican perennial with a Democrat. A woman Democrat.

    “9 Democrats, 9 Republicans headed to Congress from PA

    Two years ago, Pennsylvania sent 13 Republicans and five Democrats to Congress.

    In January, the state is poised to have an evenly split delegation on Capitol Hill.

    Democrat Susan Wild becomes the Lehigh Valley’s first female member of Congress.”

    A solid economy shifting from Republican to Democrat. Trucks rolling. Go figure?

    I have run into a new term the past few days: CANCEL CULTURE

    What is the Cancel Culture?

    “A modern internet phenomenon where a person is ejected from influence or fame by questionable actions. It is caused by a critical mass of people who are quick to judge and slow to question. It is commonly caused by an accusation, whether that accusation has merit or not. It is a direct result of the ignorance of people caused by communication technologies outpacing the growth in available knowledge of a person.”

    For more on Cancel Culture see the link.

    https://www.society19.com/uk/what-is-cancel-culture-and-why-should-we-stop-it/

    Cancel Culture is Alinsky politics on steroids. Rule 13

    “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

    The politics of divide and conquer executed through demonization of “The Enemy”.

    The advent of Social Media and Fake News has upped this Alinsky tactic to a level of personal and institutional destruction never, ever witnessed in America prior to our time. “The Enemy”, whoever that is, can be evaporated via allegations and insinuations and a campaign of innuendo carried out on the Internet by sickos and paid agents shouting slogans and lies over and over and over into the eyes and minds of Facebook and Twitter addicts. Perhaps a dozen people can create 100,000 fake identities and 100,000 fake opinions masquerading as Truth and massive Public Opinion.

    We’ve talked about “Truth” and its relationship to Public Opinion. The ability to mold, shape and form Public Opinion in the hands of really sociopathic people is nothing short of a national security crisis far more dangerous than ISIS, Al Qaeda or Illegal Immigration.

    We can see the Alinsky targets almost every day in the 24 hr news cycle. New targets pop up all around us. Who are these individuals and institutions targeted for evaporation and CANCELLATION? A few obvious examples:

    Donald Trump
    Bret Kavanaugh
    White Men and their Privilege
    Certain Rich People but not All Rich People
    Straight Men and Women
    NRA
    Second Amendment
    National Borders
    National Sovereignty
    Free Markets
    Private Property
    Constitution of The United States of America
    U.S. History and its central personalities especially the Founding Fathers and Southern Generals
    First Amendment
    Christians
    The Holy Roman Catholic Church
    God The Father
    God The Son
    God The Holy Spirit

    All targeted for Cancellation. All under intense attack. The list is by no means complete. All of these targets and more are pummeled ….. every.single.day.of.the.week.

    If Public Opinion is the only criteria for Truth and the objective facts are not relevant or meaningful or effective constraints on thought, impulse or action anymore in America then the Lehigh Valley of Pa may be something of a canary in the coal mine. The actual real economic conditions no longer mean anything in the formation of political opinion. In fact the actual real economic conditions are, if anything, suppressed and buried from public awareness and discussion with deliberately “Fake and Misleading News” being substituted through the Social Media and the MSM creating a completely false perception of economic conditions. What is the Truth?

    Polls say ….. oh, wait. Forgot. A Yuuuge part of the opinion forming and shaping and reality obfuscation machine.

    This song was allegedly played by the surrendered British soldiers at Yorktown while they retreated.

    The World Turned Upside Down

    If buttercups buzz’d after the bee
    If boats were on land, churches on sea
    If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows
    And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse
    If the mamas sold their babies
    To the Gypsies for half a crown
    If summer were spring
    And the other way ’round
    Then all the world would be upside down!

    In this kind of an upside down world where God is targeted for Cancellation and expulsion from the society of men — which is exactly where we find ourselves today — then what is left for mankind?

    What was it that Charlie called it? Oh, yeah. A Mad Scrabble for Power.

    Take a look at the Lehigh Valley and its truth. Then look at the representation in the 7th District of Pennsylvania. All upside down. Canary in the coal mine. Are those people all nuts? Or just suffering the greatest Gaslight in history by people obsessed with Power? Is the rest of America nuts too?

    Liked by 8 people

    1. Wow and wow, Storm Tracker Ed. New to my vocabulary but mighty descriptive of the situation writ large: CANCEL CULTURE. And why should we cancel culture? Because we know better. Yep.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Storm tracker ed, yes, I agree with you wholeheartedly. They are AGAIN trying to impeach President Trump and smear Justice Kavanaugh’s good name YET AGAIN!!! It all boils down to one thing: abortion. It is so sick and twisted and demonic what is going on in our poor country. Just sick😢😢😢

        Liked by 6 people

        1. I have read another take on this whole pile of stink. It is a diversion tactic to keep people from noticing the shenanigans going on in New York with the 2nd Amendment. From what I understand the New York legislature is attempting to impose their version of taking away the 2nd amendment on the whole country. If it is struck down, then it opens all the rest of the states who have very strict carry laws up to being unconstitutional. Anyone else know anything about this? I read it on ChicksontheRight.

          Liked by 3 people

      2. IS, the irony to me is that tune the British played on their way to Surrender Field at Yorktown.

        The mighty, civilized, thought invincible, world of the British Empire in 1781 was turned upside down by a ragged rabble in arms that used non-traditional tactics and weapons to wreck the status quo.

        A stunning unbelievable outcome.

        The British played that tune linked above on the way out in dejected disbelief. Amazed at the outcome.

        If we do not rouse ourselves to respond to the rabble of our own times …. the internet and TV bandits with aims and interests inimical to our American value system and status quo One Nation Under God Indivisible With Liberty and Justice for ALL ….. then I nominate this tune to be played by all Americans on the road to our own Surrender Field which lies at the end of the road for us … If Good Men Do Nothing.

        The tune on the way in to Freedom and Liberty and the tune on the way out. Same tune.

        Take a good look. This is what abject American surrender to the Culture of Death and its rabble in arms could very well look like in the not too distant future:

        This is how Surrender Field looks today:

        I think the good citizens of the Lehigh Valley and all those suburban areas turning blue across the country ought to think about this …. hard.

        Liked by 3 people

        1. I don’t know. College edumacated does something to people’s brains. I wonder if they offer Virtue Signaling 101 or maybe its Shakespeare in Light of Cancel Culture Studies. Thank you for the links, STE.

          Liked by 2 people

  17. Hello to all here. There are many issues i have read from top to bottom on this collumn. Pres. Trump to Pope Francis. The issues in the Vatican and how it is filtering down to the parrishes.

    The bottom line folks is this. Within all this adversity to our souls, we must find the Peace and Love of God in our hearts. It is only in having God’s Presence in our heart will we truely find peace.

    Liked by 10 people

    3. quote from Missionary of Wall Street
      “Before we head to the streets, I stop in the church to pray, maybe even do a daily confession. I put myself in the hands of the Holy Spirit and ask Him to carry me through. When I do this sincerely and with deep faith, I always find I have joyful, confident perseverance through the long night of darkness.

      Once you have the habit of joyful perseverance, you’ll keep going even when everything seems to be working against you. Even the weather.

      Then success will sneak up on you and surprise you.

      In today’s world of me first, love—true love—is in short supply. Lost souls hunger for love. And when they sense true love in a missionary’s spirit on the street, inevitably they’re drawn in. -from The Missionary of Wall Street”
      https://www.regnumchristi.org/en/new-book-shares-the-adventures-of-the-missionary-of-wall-street/
      https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/missionary-of-wall-street
      https://www.marketscreener.com/FEDERATED-INVESTORS-INC-12604/news/The-Missionary-of-Wall-Street-The-Next-Chapter-29224643/

      Liked by 1 person

  18. A solid report and analysis, Charlie, of the unusual political situation in our country. On a few occasions, a personal attempt to exert some influence on a local or national issue, has left me with some insight on the factors that drive the ultimate decisions in any given campaign. In my opinion, elected officials vote one way or another for the following reasons, in order of importance;

    1. Self Interest, e.g. political career advancement.
    2. Indirect financial gain, a quid pro quo deal where they, a relative or a business associate, sooner or later obtain a high paying job or contract with the winning corporation or a related company that benefited from their vote.
    3. A boost in self esteem amongst their peer group, such as name recognition in the media extolling their critical involvement in passing the project. Needless to say, 1 and/or 2 would ultimately follow.

    Yet, there are a few exceptions. In my book, a few of those who sacrificed all to accomplish the good works which God prepared beforehand that they should walk in them, were;

    𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥 – his thoughts when he was appointed Prime Minister on May 10, 1940;
    “I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. I felt as if I was walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and this trial.”

    𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐧 – renowned for her selfless work in creating sterile clinical settings during the US Civil War, she saved unknown thousands of wounded soldiers lives. Clara was referred to as the “Angel of the Battlefield”. So became so respected in authority amongst Union Army Generals that at one point, General William T. Sherman once said of her, “She ranks me.”

    𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 – lived from 1759 to 1833. As a result of an encounter with the living Christ in 1785, he dedicated his life to abolish the Slave Trade. As an MP from 1780, it took him and his supporters from 1787 until 1807 to achieve the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. This abolished the trading of slaves within the British Empire.

    However, although the owning of slaves with Britain was against the Law, it continued to be permitted within British colonies. Wilberforce persevered with the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery, until and after 1826, when he resigned from Parliament because of his failing health. That campaign led to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which effectively abolished slavery in the British Empire. Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured.

    Dave

    Liked by 6 people

  19. Charlie

    First! Thank you for your work.

    Trump’s campaign advisor Brad Parscal posts some black swannish numbers from Trump’s NM rally.
    https://mobile.twitter.com/parscale/status/1174027975261474817

    Parscale is well worth following . If you are not familiar with them Ace of Spades Decision Desk (AoSDD) does fabulous political grunt work too.

    On another note, back when the Tea Party was being coopted and subverted by the GOP, there was an active Precinct Project going on that never took off (I had offered Freedom Works my programming skills for free if they would host it. They were to busy building an energy sink instead, and my repeated inquiries where never answered).

    The infrastructure ti implement the Precinct Project is there with Parscale and AoSDD (my gut tells me Bannon would help too, just tell him you are Catholivpc). It will take a savvy political guy to stitch them together. If The Lord leads you to it, the Nation would honor your work.

    Grace and Peace,

    Liked by 4 people

  20. Please come and join us this Saturday night (09/21) in Kansas City to listen to Charlie talk, as per the below. There is NO charge, and we will be glad to see you – so please spread the word! All you have to do is show up, and listen! That is it! 🙂 It is not at the same location as when Charlie spoke last time, so please check out the address below.

    Kansas City, Ks (Johnson County)
    •September 21 (Saturday) – 6:45 pm (Rosary), 7:00 pm (Talk)
    •Irene B. French Community Center – Jenks Gym
    •(near IKEA at I-35 and Johnson Drive)
    •5701 Merriam Dr. , Merriam KS 66203
    •Contact Connie at constancebrickner@gmail.com or leave a message at 913-248-0686

    *********************************************************

    Liked by 5 people

  21. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/09/the_left_hopes_to_destroy_christianity_by_changing_it.html

    https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/rogermckinney/2019/09/17/the-scandal-of-christian-socialism-n2553224

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/redefine-woman-activists-urge/

    https://christianlifedaily.com/justice-kavanaugh-provides-a-lesson-in-overcoming-evil-with-good/

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/these-are-human-beings/

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/09/17/Arizona-high-court-rules-business-can-refuse-to-make-same-sex-wedding-invites/8631568754345/?sl=13

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/anti-christian-messages-texas-churches-spray-paint

    https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2019/09/19/trumps-total-culture-war-n2553314

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/09/did_lgbtq_cultural_supremacy_enable_high_risk_behavior.html

    https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/09/19/violate-your-oath-and-turn-on-american-citizens-at-your-legal-peril-gun-grabbers-n2553286

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/failed-climate-change-predictions

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    Liked by 3 people

  22. Highly recommend listening to Patrick Madrid first hour today thurs sept 19 last 15 minutes. It’s all on whats REALLY going on with talks of SCHISM and WHO is really starting up thsee talks. There is no American schism coming. It was really an eyeopener. He mentioned fellow who wrote the piece but I didn’t catch his name and it’s not uploaded yet (hour 1) anyhow Patrick Madrid ended with when there’s a storm, get on the ship..or the barque of Peter. It may stink with all the filthy animals aboard and you may have trouble sleeping, bUT those who jumped off & tried to swim it on their own didnt fare to well. The church, the barque of Peter was meant for these storms and will yet again survive… you just won’t believe who is initiating this so called schism…can’t wait until it is uploaded so you can listen for uourselves🤗😇😘 tnrs asoh

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I will have a listen later, Linda.

      We are definitely in a time where we must take great care in our thinking as we read what is being written about our Church. There are SO many voices, good voices of faithful evangelists who are praying much and contemplating what is before us. Let us all continue praying for great wisdom and discernment as we live through what we are at this juncture. In reality, the full truth is not yet in the open. The enemy’s calling card is comprised of chaos, confusion, and working in darkness so as to snare us in his wiles. We need not fear; simply walk gently and sure with focus on God while trusting in His Ways and Thinking so far above our own. With this in mind, it is notable that even the wisest among the sages of our times does not exactly know what is unfolding or how God will lead us through it all even as He nudges us to next right steps when we acknowledge Him along this way of transition. It’s an intricate balance, I think… this business of allowing God to lead us while remaining at the ready to take next right steps, knowing full well we will mess up, yet surging on in taking the risk of doing the very best we can rather than freezing in fear for lack of perfection. The beauty of it all, as we co-create with God, is that we become more deeply dependent on Him and more fully aware that all goodness springs forth from Him. (Charlie, thank you for all the things you have contemplated deeply and the ways you have so carefully prepared us, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Thanks for revisiting those habits of the mind and concepts which promote deliberate thinking and doing. As well, great thanks to all in this community who continue to discuss, ponder and discern these things.)

      For sure and certain, Patrick Madrid is spot on with the takeaway message of remaining in the Barque of Peter.

      Liked by 4 people

      2. Lovely Beckita! It is like you read my mind for the last several months, fine tuned, sorted and beautifully and concisely displayed everything! Yes, Amen, yup, true-dat and Thank you! I have found my self repeating a phrase in different different ministries and circles of influence…”Let’s play the long game, and make sure we find ways to love”. To me it’s a way of preparing people to expect disappointments day to day and stay focused on our eternal mission. I was listening when Patrick said that about the stinky, chaotic but life saving Barque of Peter and being a former Fashion Consultant a silly thought came to mind; ear plugs, a window and the right shoes. Ha! We got this!!! I am so blessed to have this community!

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I love your exhortation about the long game with focus on loving, Mommy. Laughing with you on your fashion consultant summation. 🙂 We ARE blessed to be here!

          Like

  23. Is It Time to Abolish the USCCB?
    Leila Marie Lawler
    “If I must speak the truth, I feel disposed to shun every conference of Bishops: for never saw I Synod brought to a happy issue, and remedying, and not rather aggravating, existing evils…”
    — St. Gregory of Nazianzus, 382 A.D.

    The charitable association that had been the bishops’ conference (called the National Catholic War Council) in the United States early in the 20th century became, in the Sixties, a force for social and religious change under the suave and ambitious leadership of then-Bishop Joseph Bernardin. The conference ultimately became known as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

    Bernardin cloaked his autocratic rule beneath a veneer of consultation and collegiality. In the most urgent doctrinal crisis of his era, he ensured that bishops would refrain from taking disciplinary action against those who dissented from Humanae Vitae’s teaching against birth control. He was also the architect of the Alinsky-inspired Campaign for Human Development, a centerpiece of the USCCB, which funds activism directly contrary to the moral law—abortion, LGBT politics, contraception, feminism, et al.

    Bernardin’s reign was characterized by what George Weigel aptly calls “the sting of authoritarian Catholic liberalism in the 1970s and 1980s.” Those faithful who sought recourse for abuses of doctrine and liturgy through the usual channels of authority never really understood how little hope they had. The body of bishops in their conference was pitted against them. As Weigel writes in First Things:

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/is-it-time-to-abolish-the-usccb

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Hi, Joseph! Nice to see you again.

      This is quite a thought-provoking article. Personally, I have long wondered what the point of the USCCB even is. Also, I have a good friend who works for the USCCB. She was so excited when she went to work for them some time ago; now, she’s quite disillusioned and contemplating finding a different job. The saddest and most telling thing that she told me is this: “There are maybe 300 people, presumably most of whom are Catholic, who work here; and I can count on 2 hands the number of people that I see at daily Mass.”

      Liked by 3 people

  24. Who benefits from all this talk of schism?

    By Phil Lawler (bio – articles – email) | Sep 17, 2019

         

    Why are we even talking about schism? Who began this extraordinary conversation, and whose interests are served by it?

    Ross Douthat of the New York Times admits that he used the term “schism” long ago, as a theoretical possibility—which he now (rightly) regards as remote. But now Pope Francis speaks calmly about the prospect of schism, and even says that it does not frighten him—which, as I’ve pointed out, is frightening in itself.

    How did we come so far, so fast? How did we reach a point at which the nation’s most prestigious secular newspaper raises the notion that American Catholics might split from the universal Church, and the Pontiff treats that prospect as a serious possibility?

    Have the Pope’s American critics threatened to break with Rome? Never! Quite the contrary, the most important critics of this pontificate insist that they—we—are doing our utmost to preserve the unity of the universal Church, to maintain our strong ties with “all who hold and teach the catholic faith that comes to us from the apostles.” Cardinal Raymond Burke, often cited as the leader of a rebellious faction, has in fact repeatedly and adamantly pledged his loyalty to the Roman Pontiff. One cannot cause a schism by defending the established doctrine of the Church.

    (One can, on the other hand, cause a schism by holding a meeting of a nation’s bishops, seeking to change teachings of the universal Church, and ignoring admonitions from the Holy See to drop this divisive plan—as the leaders of the German bishops’ conference are doing right now. Yet when the New York Timesmentions schism, the threat is said to come from “some conservatives—especially in the United States,” rather than from the rambunctious “progressives” in Germany.)

    So again I ask: How did this conversation arise, about the alleged threat of an American schism. And if you follow Catholic conversations on the internet, you know the answer. The topic has been raised—and promoted, and repeated, and touted as an imminent threat—by the Pope’s busiest and most aggressive online defenders.

    Which prompts another question: Why are these folks—who have so enthusiastically championed the Pope’s moves to alter Church teachings on issues such as marriage and the Eucharist—so anxious to talk about breaking with the Pope? And again I think I know the answer.

    Why did President Lincoln maneuver the Confederacy into the bombardment of Fort Sumter? Because he saw that war was imminent, and he wanted the South to take the first shots. Similarly, the most “progressive” Catholics recognize that they cannot engineer the radical changes they want without precipitating a split in the Church. So they want orthodox Catholics to break away first, leaving them free to enact their own revolutionary agenda.

    So let me conclude with a heartfelt plea to my fellow Catholics, and especially to my more excitable friends on the internet. Don’t take the bait. We are not thinking of schism. We are thinking of—and working and praying for—the preservation of Catholic unity, a unity that keeps us in full communion not only with the Bishop of Rome and with our fellow Catholics around the world today, but also with all the faithful Catholics of previous generations. It’s our Church: the Church of thhjbjhe apostles and saint and martyrs and of us poor sinners. We’re not leaving. Hell no; we won’t go.

    Liked by 2 people

  25. Viganò Speaks: the “Infiltration” Is Real
    Julia Meloni
    Jonah began his journey through the city, and when he had gone only a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (Jonah 3:4-6)

    A year after his bombshell testimony on the cover-up for Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò remains a prophet in exile, exposing the filth in a Church that needs to be burned clean. As Inside the Vatican’s Robert Moynihan notes, the Italian prelate is an unlikely hero. He’s a “small man with intelligent eyes, exquisite manners, studious, hardworking.” But this 78-year-old with thin-rimmed glasses bears in his bones the burden of prophetic speech. He bears the weight of being (as Moynihan puts it) a kind of modern-day Jonah, called to preach to Nineveh before the potential destruction comes.

    These days, Archbishop Viganò is warning of an invidious campaign to infiltrate the Catholic Church. In a bombshell interview with Moynihan published last week, Archbishop Viganò tells of a “project” that “goes back centuries”—“in particular, to the creation in the middle of the 1700s of Freemasonry.” This “very deceptive” plot against the Church included some of her own senior members.

    “This is described in the book Infiltration by Dr. Taylor Marshall, so you may find some indication of this process there,” says the Archbishop. He is referring to the bestselling book which argues that, “for over a century, the organizers of Freemasonry, Liberalism, and Modernism infiltrated the Catholic Church in order to change her doctrine, her liturgy, and her mission from something supernatural to something secular.”

    Viganò believes that this process of infiltration “became strikingly evident in modern times,” and that we are now witnessing the “triumph of a 60-year-old plan” to revolutionize the Church with “a Jesuit on the See of Peter.” As Viganò recalls, many key Vatican II revolutionaries were Jesuits who maneuvered to replace the council’s prepared schemas with ones they had drawn up. Most prominent among them was Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J., frequently touted as the council’s most important ideologue.

    “This was the beginning of an opening… in the process of creating a new Church,” says Archbishop Viganò.

    ❧

    He isn’t the only one speaking of a “new,” Jesuit-fashioned Church. In La Nuova Chiesa di Karl Rahner (“The New Church of Karl Rahner”), Stefano Fontana soberingly traces the genealogy of Pope Francis’s “open Church” back to Rahner, the towering radical suspected of heterodoxy under Pope Pius XII. As Fontana shows, Rahner negotiated a “surrender to the world” which is being registered in this pontificate’s signature agendas—from Communion for adulterers and the ordination of married men to the enthronement of “conscience” and the rapid abandonment of evangelization.

    Historian Roberto de Mattei likewise calls Rahner the Pope’s “grandfather,” arguing that the two Jesuits are linked through a third—Carlo Cardinal Martini, leader of the St. Gallen mafia and Pope Francis’s “father.” “The agenda of Cardinal Martini, which is the same as Rahner’s, offers us the key to understanding the papacy of Pope Francis,” says de Mattei, pointing to the Cardinal’s fiery last interview calling for the autonomy of conscience and Communion for adulterers.

    Today, St. Gallen don Walter Cardinal Kasper and others are euphemizing Pope Francis’s ruptures with the past as a glittery “paradigm shift.” But Archbishop Viganò says the “exotic,” “sophisticated” slogans are just being used “to mislead, to deceive.”

    He explains that, in the past, a “huge machine of media propaganda” applied a hermeneutic of rupture to Vatican II. Today, he says, a slick “media machinery, including photos of Pope Francis with Emeritus Pope Benedict, and so forth, has been used to argue that the ‘new paradigm’ of Pope Francis is in continuity with the teaching of his predecessors.”

    “But it is not so,” he warns. “It is a ‘new church’.”

    ❧

    Benedict XVI “said this would be a catastrophe,” says Archbishop Viganò of the project to make a new Church. He’s referring to the Pope Emeritus’s letter this year on the sexual abuse crisis. To borrow Michael Brendan Dougherty’s summary of the “explosive, acid” text:

    Benedict charges that a revolutionary spirit from the world entered the Church in the 1960s. Possessed by that spirit, arrogant theologians determined on creating “another Church” destroyed the traditional moral theology of the Faith, leading to a complete breakdown of moral discipline in the clergy and even a generalized spirit of blasphemy, which Benedict intimately and unforgettably connects with the phenomenon of child abuse.

    Today, as the Amazon synod looms near, that malefic spirit seems to have brought with it seven others. Everywhere we hear klaxon calls warning of heresy, apostasy, and schism. Two powerful traditionalist prelates, Raymond Cardinal Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, have called for 40 days of prayer and fasting to drive those spirits out.

    Publicly, Pope Francis is playing it cool, saying he’s just a copycat of Pope John Paul II and a faithful implementer of Vatican II. It’s the prophets who are lighting angry blazes. Ask the Holy Father and he’ll say it’s an “honor” that they’re “attacking” him. He almost dares them to keep raising their voices and playing with fire. “I pray that schisms do not happen, but I am not afraid of them,” he defiantly declares, warning the “schools of rigidity” that their “pseudo-schismatic” ways will “end badly.”

    “Pope Francis is saying that because he knows the Amazon Synod may provoke a schism,” argues Viganò in another interview with Moynihan last week. “He is ready to say others are making the schism, but (by his actions in continuing to support the Amazon synod) he is provoking it himself. Is this the attitude of a pastor who cares for the faithful? It is his own duty to prevent a schism.”

    ❧

    “But what is your message really: that God is about to chastise the Church, as Nineveh was threatened with destruction, or do you believe there is still a chance to renew the Church, through prayer and a renewal of priestly and lay spirituality?” Moynihan asks Viganò.

    Fixing his eyes on the burning, purifying thing that must come, he replies: “The two possibilities you offer are not mutually exclusive. There may be both a chastisement, which will shake and diminish the Church, and also a reform and renewal of the Church, making her more resplendent in holiness. Both are possible.”

    Today, here in Nineveh, the prophets are speaking—and time is running out for all of us, great and small, to heed them.
    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/vigano-speaks-the-infiltration-is-real

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Great to see you here again, Joseph! Hope all is well with you and yours. For us all, now: when we find long articles which we wish to share, it’s better to quote passages we choose to highlight and/or add our personal thoughts to, then provide a link to the piece rather than using the comment boxes for pasting in long articles.

      Liked by 2 people

  26. I’m not seeing any Good News Today, Gang ;-(
    Fifty Years of PC, a corrupt Alphabet Fed/State Bureaucracy & a Usual Suspect Media in full “Wise Monkey” Routine if it comes to ANY Liberal “Victim” Group …. and ANY Group not “With de Agendas” gets Demonized or Worse …… Check out the early days of Nazi Germany or any Communist State to see how the Future in The USA turns out! ;-(

    https://www.lifenews.com/2019/09/18/elizabeth-warren-killing-babies-in-abortions-makes-democracy-work/

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/09/watch-far-left-msnbc-conspiracy-theorist-joy-reid-says-white-christian-men-want-apartheid-in-america-video/

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/09/19/julian-castro-campaign-manager-claims-opposition-to-illegal-immigration-is-racism/

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/09/boom-womens-march-dumps-latest-anti-semitic-board-member-who-was-appointed-earlier-this-week/

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/09/19/matt-gaetz-exposes-al-sharpton-racist-antisemitic-rhetoric-quotes-msnbc-joe-scarborough/

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/09/bomb-threat-and-chemical-attack-disrupts-pro-life-students-for-life-event-in-rochester-mn-one-arrested/

    https://www.breitbart.com/education/2019/09/19/police-man-arrested-for-bomb-threat-at-minnesota-pro-life-event/

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/american-airlines-mechanic-sabotage-plane-isis

    https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2019/09/19/hezbollah-scout-identified-possible-targets-terror-group/

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/09/19/report-mark-zuckerberg-admits-facebooks-clear-bias-dependence-on-activist-fact-checkers/

    https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/09/19/61-retired-judges-back-peer-who-allegedly-helped-criminal-alien-avoid-ice/

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    Liked by 2 people

  27. Hey all, a glorious Friday here in Michigan! In just 2 days we see Fall, and who knows what we’ll be blessed with weather wise…. I absolutely LOVE God’s blessing of Fall for us in Michigan!!! Come see it sometime if you haven’t before!

    Anyway, I wanted to know if anyone has ever heard of the Charismatic speaker Kim Clement?? I won’t post it here (unless you want me to Charlie & Beckita), but I just watched a video that shows him prophesizing back in 2007 about Trump becoming a “trumpet” for our times and that “a president” would become a “praying president” who wins 2 terms in the future….. now, again, I don’t endorse this video necessarily, but I just wondered if anyone has heard of this guy?? However, that said, to me this totally jives with what Charlie has spoke about before too…. 😉

    God bless!
    Bill

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I have a friend who shared this prophecy with me when it was released, Bill, and I just did a wee bit of review research on the late Kim Clements. Interesting as it is, since we’re focusing on what is before us as we continue honing habits of the mind which will continue to serve us well as we navigate these uncharted waters, it seems fitting to note it, just as you have, without posting a video. Happy you’re enjoying the beautiful Fall weather! It’s one of my favorite seasons too.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Beckita and Bill. I’ve seen several of Kim Clements videos. I must admit that many things he prophesied came true. Not sure he was fond of Catholics however. Just my 7-cents worth.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. I’ve never heard of Kim Clement, Bill; but I wholeheartedly agree with you that fall in Michigan is simply amazing. That’s one of the things I love most about living here.

      Liked by 3 people

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Published by charliej373

Charlie Johnston is a former newspaper editor, radio talk show host and political consultant. From Feb. 11, 2011 to Aug. 21, 2012, he walked 3,200 miles across the country, sleeping in the woods, meeting people and praying as he went. He writes on cultural, global and political issues from an orthodox Catholic perspective. He emphasizes that we find God most surely through the ordinary, doing the little things we should with faith and fidelity. His constant refrain is that, to live real joy, we must acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around us. He lives in the Archdiocese of Denver in the United States.