Drill Deep to Find What Trust Really Means

By Charlie Johnston

I am going to cover some important ground today. It is not new ground, but it is downright flinty in how hard it is. People are not usually ready for such until they have had some serious setbacks and reversals – and found things are not quite as they have confidently believed. I expect some blowback, but many of you are ready for this next level of wisdom. I know because I have been inundated of late with people seeking serious personal counsel – counsel because their most pious of expectations have been confounded.

Most genuinely pious people who say they trust God really think they do, but they do not. They think they have divined His will perfectly – and trust implicitly what are merely the interpretations they have made. Or they think that, like Jiminy Cricket, God has given them perfect knowledge down to the finest detail of what His plan for them is. Or that if you devote yourself to Him, He will never allow anything seriously temporally bad to beset you. Trusting God is knowing that you do not know the details and that you will regularly find yourself at the bank of the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit – and that God will open up a way or He won’t.

Though I make NO new prophecies here, I am going to share with you a few of the hard-won lessons from what I believe to be a lifetime worth of training.

First, interpretation is incredibly hard…and often it pleases heavenly beings to let you meander on in your misunderstanding in order that the lesson is remembered more deeply AND to cement in your mind that you will never contain the mind of God. It is like believing you can contain the ocean in a drinking glass. I said once that I was promised that I would live for several years beyond the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart – and so I was. But stupidly, even after many decades of training, I somehow forgot that if we follow God, we are eternal from the moment we are conceived. I understand better now that, so long as I cling to Him, so long as I am more useful here, He will keep me here, no matter how things seem in any given moment. If I am more useful to those here from the next world, He will take me. Either way, I will live. If He decides to give me some bonus years here after the Triumph, that will be nice, but is entirely His call. I wasn’t promised that I would live here, only that I would live. He told me true and I imposed my own gloss over it.

If you think your discernment is so perfect you cannot be fooled by the devil, he has already fooled you. Many of the greatest of saints have confessed to having been deceived by the devil for a time. If you think you are superior to all these saints in your immediate discernment, your vanity already marks you as a (hopefully) unwitting tool of the devil.

God insists on each of us exercising our free will and taking responsibility for it at every moment. If you are dubious about a potential course of action, it may be God warning you against it – or it may be the devil trying to prevent you from doing something especially fruitful. In the end, you must decide and take responsibility for the decision with humility before God. That means that you can NEVER be sure the course you choose is right, but you can ALWAYS be sure that so long as you call sincerely on the name of the Lord, He will look with favor on your efforts and steer you safely to His path, drawing graces even from your errors. Make a decision and live with it. Change it only if you genuinely see it to be errant, never because it gets you blowback from the world, including your friends.

Never justify your actions by saying, β€œthe Lord told me to…” This rule applies whether your actions turn out good or bad. This is something that has been hammered into me from the earliest days of my understanding. You may think, as I once did, that you are stealing honor from God for the good things that come from you. Wrong. ALL good things come from God – as even beginners in the faith should know. When someone is constantly claiming that God told them to do such and such, they are rarely honoring God. Rather, they are trying to claim unwarranted authority for their own preferences. When someone disagrees with them, they are intimating that that person is actually disagreeing with God. Always seek counsel – from God and from good men – and always take responsibility for your actions and your words. If it flourishes, thanks be to God. If not, try again…but without having blamed God for your own misunderstandings or errors.

For at least seven years I was told things which, when they came, would match up precisely with what I was told, but in ways I had not expected at all. My interpretation was wrong every single time for at least seven years. I cried a lot of tears of frustration. My angel finally explained that I was NOT told anything so I would know the mind of God, but so that when certain temporal events happened I would look deeper to see the spiritual reality behind them. They were a form of road signs. Each of us are God’s servants if we choose. None of us are God’s mini-me’s. Take responsibility for everything you do and don’t blame any of it on God. If you think you can surely discern even the seemingly most simple straightforward directions from the Most High, you have deceived yourself. Frankly, I am most suspicious of those things that are seemingly the most straightforward. And frankly, my angel sometimes proves my fidelity by my determination that I cannot understand with certainty even the simplest of commands – but simply make a decision and offer it to God, taking full responsibility for it, trusting that He will amend my errors so long as I hold fast to Him.

When I was publicly speaking prophetically, I avoided speaking about what people should do other than cling closely to God. Rather, I spoke of what was coming. Even then, when I dug too far into details rather than sticking with the big picture, I made two big blunders. These days a lot of people tell me that I was right in a meta-sense. It does not matter. I erred badly in my interpretation. When I was adamant about noting the error, some thought it was humility. I suppose it was, but it was simply obeying the lifelong command to take full responsibility for what you say and do. Yeah, you can be combative (as all know I can be), but if you persist in trying to make error into not error, you may be serving someone, but it is not the Lord.Β 

My understanding of my work from the earliest days was that I was called to help give people heart to get through what would be the greatest crisis yet in the history of the world; a crisis that would feel, in many ways, like the end but most emphatically was NOT the end. It was instead to be God’s renewal of the faith and the face of the world. If you only knew how many times I have misunderstood the details in the six decades since I had the first nascent understanding of what this all means! God lets you make your mistakes in hopes that you will persist despite your frailty and will become less stupid over time.

Contrary to popular belief, God does not play Jiminy Cricket and tell you in precise detail what to do (at least in my case). He gives you a broad picture, even if often detailed. Then you must do your research to determine if this is possible or reasonably plausible, then you must choose how best you can address it. Every step involves free will and discernment – all of which YOU must take responsibility for. This helps weed out demonic-inspired stuff – because you have to do your extensive homework – and prevents you from blaming God if you err. Yet it imposes a heavy discipline. Once you engage, you cannot know with certainty that you have got it right BUT you are not allowed not to act.

I was not directed to speak publicly about the Storm. I chose to do so as the best means I could think of to inoculate people. It was never about telling you about the coming Storm. That was coming whether I spoke or not. My thinking was that it did not matter that much whether people knew in advance: they would have to adapt to it with or without anything I said. So why did I speak? Very simply, I knew that by telling you this most improbable event which unfolded largely in the manner I said, it would give credibility to what I would later say: that this is NOT the end. And that would come at a time when people desperately needed to hear it credibly. But it wasn’t even that simple. Once I decided on that plan if things continued to play out (I came to this decision in 1993), my angel told me I would make at least one serious mistake he would not correct once I began speaking publicly – and that it would serve God’s purpose. I did NOT like that, but I was NOT allowed to not speak once I started. I tried to come up with a different plan, but the plan had to work as well to ultimately reassure people – not just to make it more comfortable for me. But this was the best way. I pray that my errors and the way I carried on after stepping back for a time will help others to do the same after they find that things they have been certain of turn out errant.Β 

Today, I am profoundly thankful for the training I so often chafed under. Already I see people grasping at straws trying to maintain their balance and make sense of a world gone stark raving mad. Some try to grab hold of an imagined rigorous traditionalism and hold to it scrupulously. When they scream that every Pope since Pius X is a fraud what they are really doing is whistling frantically past the graveyard. Others grasp at any prophetic word they can find, including a host of those that are contradictory. Many, shaken at having what they thought were pious plans overturned, are fearful that God has abandoned them. Others (oddly the genuinely more theologically inclined) posit vast centuries of massive conspiracy theories. All of it is an effort to maintain some semblance of control in a disintegrating world. Now is when God is teaching you that the only answer is real trust. You are not in control. You never were. You never will be. And you will never know God’s mind on this side of the veil. Quit flailing about wildly and surrender to God. Trust Him.

I was still in my 20’s when I was told that the time would come when I would not be able to see more than a single step ahead of me – and sometimes not that much – and that it was then that I would have to learn what trust really is. Trust is to surrender to God…to just take that next step in front of you (and yes, that event was the genesis of my philosophy of the next right step) as best you can see it while trusting that God will guide each of your steps as they happen and correct them when, in your humanity, you misstep. That is where we are.

When someone tells me that God told them exactly what to do – or to inform me of what exactly I must do, I know they think this gives their command added authority. Actually, it immediately erodes their credibility in my eyes. God HAS given me guidance through others at times to see if I am paying attention, but it always comes cloaked in humility rather than hubris. Take responsibility for what you say and do, whether you believe it comes from God or not. A woman told me recently that she realized I was someone to take very seriously a few years ago when I told her to take what I say with a grain of salt because I never know with certainty – but work hard to give my very best counsel. She said she has since applied it to everyone and it has been a powerful tool for discernment. You don’t know the mind of God. Take responsibility for what you say and do and pray that He will continue to direct your steps.

When someone tells me they always know whether something comes from God or not I dismiss them as a dolt who would dismiss the words of the Apostle Paul, so immature in their faith that they think a little knowledge is the sum total of it all, or so vain that they think they have captured the mind of God. Stop it and truly work out your salvation in fear and trembling – knowing how easily you are deceived and how you must cling to Christ at every moment to avoid deception and recover from the deception that you will inevitably fall into, nonetheless. When you think like this, you do not trust God; you trust Him to execute what you have interpreted as being His plan in precise detail – which is to say, you trust yourself. Walk humbly with God without ceasing to speak boldly of Him.

For those who seek and confidently interpret coming signs and wonders, you should remember that they are almost always so subtle that all but a literal handful miss them altogether. As a species we are ever playful pups eagerly looking for the next fireworks show. Sometimes God does give us the fireworks show, as with the sun dancing at Fatima or the parting of the Red Sea, but most of the time He does not. The star of Bethlehem was not a particularly bright star; it did not dominate the sky. In fact, it was so subtle that only a couple of wise guys from the east understood it for what it was. I fully believe in both the Illumination of Conscience and the Warning. I frankly hope they both play out as the great majority think they will – in a big blaze of glory that no one could possibly misunderstand except through determined, willful, and malicious ignorance. If it happened that way, it would make what I have always perceived to be my job (to give people heart to endure the Storm) a LOT easier. But I know God rarely works that way. As everything is imploding right now, could that not satisfy the requirements for the illumination of conscience? When absurdities are taught as truth you must believe, the reality is that everyone knows. What everyone must choose is whether they are going to live by what they know to be lies or to stand, however forlornly, for what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report. Once again, free will is insisted upon by God. Everyone knows and everyone must choose. I know, I know, all the people who have not had to undergo the instruction of almost a decade of getting their interpretations wrong every time will tell me in great detail why their interpretation is the only possible right one. It’s why so many advocates of Garabandal insisted that the blind Joey Lomangino would live to see the miracle from this side of the veil – until he actually died. That did not faze me in the least. In fact, what they were told was almost a tautology: that Joey would see on the day of the miracle. This obviously did not mean he would not die before the miracle, only that he would see when it came…which could have very well meant he would already have passed on to the next world where all infirmities are healed. But enthusiasts insisted that he would be alive here. In thinking they had perfect interpretation, they dealt themselves and Garabandal an unnecessary blow. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity under the sun.

Some get so excited about having a mystical experience, thinking it makes them special, that they seek out mystical experiences and think it gives them leave to direct everyone. Don’t you know that the devil can create mystical experiences – and if that is what you desire he is glad to oblige you? If you have had some initial mystical experiences, you have graduated first grade. You do not show authority by telling others what they should do. You look ridiculous and you are in danger of being given to the devil for some serious sifting.

Others think that dutiful obedience to God and piety will exempt them from any serious temporal evil. Seriously?! Have you ever even read the Bible? God’s servants are rarely notable for their prosperity; they are notable for their fortitude and patient endurance under severe trials – and occasional martyrdom. I have known some who, when they have suffered some great setback, think God has failed them. What a poverty to call such thin gruel, β€œfaith”!

I have been indulgent over the years when people boast of their preparations because I am not the sort who would snatch a teddy bear from a frightened child. Many people think β€œprophecy” is God giving them inside information so they can then kick Him to the curb and rely on their own plan. It is good to make prudent preparations, particularly with an eye to helping others, so long as you don’t rely on them. As it is written, God often intends that one man sows while another reaps. If you can make preparation and not lose your peace if all is taken from you in a blow, you are on the right track. But if your hope is in the stores you have laid up, your hope will be in vain, because it is in your cleverness rather than in God. Learn, with St. Paul, to be content in whatever state you find yourself, trusting that God has His reasons (Philippians 4:11); to have as if having not and to have not as if having. This is trust that does not depend on God executing your plan.

Right now, people inside and outside the Church are busily arguing that Christ is here and Christ is there – through rigid adherence to a supposed golden age of tradition that actually had its own severe challenges; through an unceasing multitude of prophetic words; and through novel and ersatz interpretations of salvation history. It all amounts to the same thing: do what I say and all will be well. Poppycock! When God is so insistent on free will that He will not interfere with it, why would you think He would want you to abrogate your free will to a mere earthly guru? Some will say, well, isn’t that what you do, Charlie? No. I give counsel – and my counsel consists of telling you that Christ is close TO YOU, right at hand and ready to help you if you ask Him. Added to that, I offer some counsel on how to listen effectively to Him and discern for yourself His call in your life.

Do not misunderstand obedience. Jesus set up a hierarchy and gave them authority on earth. Understand that in God’s economy, obedience does not signify what it does in man’s understanding. With man, obedience is a sort of submission of the lesser to the greater. With God, obedience to the legitimate authority He has ordained is a means of opening up channels of grace. This is why, when Jesus went up with His earthly parents after the temple, Scriptures record that He was obedient to them. Not that He pretended obedience, but that He WAS obedient. And He grew in goodness and grace. Some think I am obedient to my Bishop because I have the good fortune to have one over me who is solidly orthodox. But if I were in a Diocese with the most heterodox Bishop, I would be obedient to his authentic authority. Of course, a Bishop’s authority is not plenary: it is limited to faith and morals and cannot be obviously contradictory of Scripture or the Magisterium.Β 

The disposition necessary to weather all this is abandonment to God. Understand that if you follow Him you ARE immortal, but He is the casting director. If he has use for you here, here you will remain. When He has better use for you in the next world, there you will go. Do your daily work with confidence that whatever happens to you, He either intends it for you or allows it for your good. Do not ask, “Why me, Lord.” when trials come; rather ask, “What do you intend for me in this, Lord?” Good times and bad times are variations on the same thing. It is like the weather: whether it is sunny and mild or storming ferociously, you are still responsible for your journey. Walk on in confident hope that you will see the Lord in the land of the living. The Lord will perfect your faith through your fortitude in season and out of season.

Do not assume you know His mind. Whatever your plans, He probably has something else in mind. This is why the only preparation I make is to carry a backpack and hiking boots with me wherever I go. It is also why I relentlessly keep doing what I am doing for as long as I can. I do not know when – or even if – all will collapse or where I will be when it comes. But I trust that, wherever I am and whatever I am doing, God will open up a new way forward for me in His service when it pleases Him. Until then, I will wait upon the Lord knowing that if I am of good courage, He will strengthen my heart. That is enough.

Remember who our God is. He is Jesus who, when His followers gave him a little fish and a few crusts of bread, fed a multitude. We will never be able to feed a multitude – and Jesus does not expect us to. But He DOES expect us to give Him the little fish or crust of bread we can come up with – and then the multitude will be fed. Do the little you can right in front of you. Do not be distracted by the winds and waves. Do not let the satan deceive you that you are master of the wind and waves. Trust God in complete abandonment.

In the end, the only thing that will sustain a noble purpose through all the seeming trials and triumphs of your life is love – love for God actively expressed in love for your fellows along your way. What is needful is what I have told you from the start: Acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around you. Contemplate that deeply and you will be on the threshold of wisdom that will carry you through the Storm.

Β 

If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.

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130 thoughts on “Drill Deep to Find What Trust Really Means

    1. I totally agree, Beckita ~ deep thought and prayer, then move forward one small step at a time.
      Thank-you so much, Charlie. Looking forward to meeting you in July.
      Prayers for all here ~ katey in OR πŸ™πŸ½βœοΈπŸŒ§

      Liked by 9 people

      1. Oh good for you myownbackyard!!! Katey!!! You’ll LOVE seeing and being with Charlie in person!!! I’ve seen him twice and it’s quite like a little piece of heaven🀠

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Beckita, I believe this is one of the most important essays presented by Charlie and fully explains Charlie’s mission of proving signs of hope. This quote is the foundation of what Charlie explains here:

      ” Most genuinely pious people who say they trust God really think they do, but they do not. They think they have divined His will perfectly – and trust implicitly what are merely the interpretations they have made. Or they think that, like Jiminy Cricket, God has given them perfect knowledge down to the finest detail of what His plan for them is. Or that if you devote yourself to Him, He will never allow anything seriously temporally bad to beset you. Trusting God is knowing that you do not know the details and that you will regularly find yourself at the bank of the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit – and that God will open up a way or He won’t. ”

      I will try to amplify Charlie’s message from my own perspective. Life on Earth is by intentional design a mystery. Mystery about God and His activity is absolutely required to fulfill our mission for spiritual growth as a being living in the material world. When we exist in the bliss of Heaven, we have no desires and needs as we have to survive as fragile mortals living in a potentially treacherous world. In Heaven, there are no stressors by which we could develop virtues, such as courage, or truthfulness.
      I we were to be given firm knowledge of how the material world is working and future developments, then the stress required for spiritual development would be removed — no mystery, and no need to
      worry about what we do, what our effects (good and bad) are on others, and no worry about what happens next. If we were given certain knowledge, then we might as well retreat to any isolated mountain peak to contemplate our navel, for it would not matter by such assured knowledge whatever we might do– the mystery of life would be gone, and so would the opportunity to exercise our free will to work at the Golden Rule in praise of God for the betterment of the human condition.

      Liked by 6 people

      1. Agree, Jack, that there is a lot of mystery in so many aspects of both the temporal and spiritual world. This mystery keeps us aware of how our understandings and knowledge are a pittance compared to God’s Mind and Ways. Equally amazing is that, even as limited as we are, we mean everything to Him, so intimately loved each one of us is. We simply put up our own barriers to the more deeply rooted and experienced intimacy He yearns to have with us. We all have blind spots and secret fears to face. May Holy Spirit pour out on each of us anew, that we allow His obliteration of the barriers and blind spots while sending graces of Light, insight and completely open hearts to receive all God wishes to give us and where He wills to take us.

        I, too, appreciate this gem of a piece which actually holds many of the lessons Charlie has been teaching us over the years, some of it in review and some of it expressed from new stories and perspectives – for both Charlie and us – and I also think what’s going on here, is that – just as Charlie noted – readers are in a very open mode to receive this current counsel due to their personal trials AND all the breakdown going on around us at every turn.

        Liked by 7 people

        1. “Life on Earth is by intentional design a mystery”

          Yes, Jack and Beckita. It’s as St. Paul said: “We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity”

          Lord – help us with the charity…
          😎

          Liked by 6 people

  1. Charley,
    This is so rich- will need several readings.

    My ‘life verse’, as our Evangelical friends call it, is Luke 17:10
    “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do.”
    This was the (oft-repeated) yank on the leash until I finally began to grasp that I could plan all I liked,
    but shouldn’t count on the results I wanted.
    I so love “the next right step”.

    Liked by 13 people

    1. That has also been my mantra from my youth. But,,,being a good “good Catholic” I surely could not say the Chapter and Verse. πŸ™‚ These days I have added a non-scriptural addendum: I wite all my plans in pencil – and give God the right to erase as He sees fit.

      Liked by 8 people

      1. Ha! He chuckles that you think you need to give Him the right to do as He sees fit…but He loves His precocious children, anyway. And God bless you, Nancy, you have lived steadfast fortitude.

        Liked by 9 people

        1. Good point, Charlie. Newly revised non-scriptural mantra. “I write all my plans in pencil, knowing full well that God will erase as He sees fit.”

          Liked by 9 people

  2. Message received, loud and clear. Humility, as Jesus taught us. Jesus the Son of God Humbly followed the Will of God the Father and through the Holy Spirit enkindles in us the fire of love. If we truly have that love in us and humbly share it with others we can be a force that renews the face of the earth. A lesson in humility for me as to how God may answer our prayers quite differently than we expect. Recently, as the waning days of my time as a city police officer were winding down I was feeling quite overwhelmed with the number of hours we were being forced to work. I actually asked God if maybe I could get brushed by a car or something or get slightly injured in some way so that I could take some time off. (yes, I was delusional). That prayer wasn’t answered so I retired as soon as my time was put in but I was younger than when I envisioned retirement. I started working for the town where I lived as a reserve officer and was doing road construction details. I was only working a couple of months when yes, you guessed it. I got hit by a car. Nothing serious, got knocked down by a 17 year old girl who had never driven alone before. I humbly acknowledged my God who has a sense of humor and thanked Him for the lesson. Be careful what you ask for in prayer! I now only ask for guidance on taking the next right step…

    Liked by 18 people

  3. Ok Charlie, case in point. Bishop Strickland has called all faithful Christians to call out and stop the run away train of infanticide Bill in CA.

    The faithful have called, petitioned, protested, and prayed to stop this Bill as it moved through the Assembly, now to the Senate and Governor, who have there own agenda–wanting CA to become the tourist state for abortion.

    How else can we fight this without Divine intervention?

    Did I do enough? Did I speak to family and neighbors who I know don’t feel as I do…..no, I didn’t. They don’t want to hear anything about abortion, the jab, Trans lies, etc. So I don’t bother.

    I feel like such a failure in God’s army.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. No, Sasan–not a failure to God. Your faithfulness in prayer is God’s delight. There may well have been seeds planted that you will never know about in this life. Keep on praying! It is fruitful!

      Liked by 10 people

    2. T’isn’t you that is failing our Lord. He sees your attempts and that is sufficient. It is they that are failing. Did Jesus fail? He came to earth to show us how to live and we killed Him. He triumphed over death and loved us so much that He saved our souls. In acknowledging Jesus as our Savior and attempting to bring others to the Light, you win!

      Liked by 8 people

  4. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … πŸ˜‰

    https://www.catholicleague.org/pbs-promoting-the-anti-pope-myth/

    I hope the Wicked are “Taken” …. TODAY! …. but if those Rapture Protestants are correct I’m hoping The Lord remembers I’m trying to be a friend of His! πŸ˜‰
    https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/you-want-to-be-left-behind

    https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2022/06/13/get-ready-for-days-of-rage/

    https://summit.news/2022/06/13/queer-ethics-professor-calls-for-pedophilia-to-be-destigmatised-and-taught-in-schools/

    https://mises.org/wire/five-stages-totalitarianism

    Rural Crime is Spiking Worldwide ….. another SIGN!!
    https://relevantmagazine.com/current/nation/its-not-just-cities-violent-crime-in-rural-communities-has-inched-up-too/

    Yep! We got a 2-Tiered Three Wise Monkeys Just-Us System ;-(
    https://freebeacon.com/courts/virginia-judge-kicks-soros-prosecutor-off-case-for-concealing-criminal-records/

    https://jonathanturley.org/2022/06/13/pelosis-court-how-the-jan-6-committee-undermined-its-own-legitimacy/

    This just demonstrates that IT was all a Phony Show to create Sound/Video Bytes to keep the ignorant Democrat Bases inflamed throughout the Election Cycle.
    I’m also guessing that THEIR Internal Polling shows the Show did THEM little good plus the Last Thing THEY wanted is a real trial with depositions, fact finding, cross examinations and constant comparisons of Trump vs ChinaJoe and Jan 6 vs 100s of 2020 Blantifa Rioting mayhem and murder!
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/13/show-trial-january-6-chair-says-no-criminal-referral-of-trump-after-all-liz-cheney-disagrees/

    https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/13/january-6-for-non-dummies/

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/06/it_is_time_to_admit_that_the_american_left_is_malevolent.html

    Ignore ALL the Above and turn in YOUR Guns!
    https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/tucker-theyre-lying-about-red-flag-laws/

    https://newstarget.com/2022-06-13-pentagon-finally-admits-running-46-ukraine-biolabs.html

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/
    https://www.zerohedge.com/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE

    Liked by 7 people

  5. Out of curiosity, What do you keep in your backpack? I have only done Boy Scout hiking with my son’s troop, never a real journey like you did.

    Liked by 6 people

  6. I thank God every day (often several times each day) that He has allowed me the grace to continue on with my faith in His providence and the hope for all that is good and perfect. I would be a basket case without these gifts.

    I fail each day. I sin each day. I could not go on (with peace of mind) in this upside-down world without the gifts of faith and hope.

    Charlie . . . Your words of simple direction have been encouragement to me for almost 6 years, and I share this simple direction often . . . “Acknowledge God, take the next right step and be a sign of hope for others.”

    Thank you

    Liked by 11 people

  7. You have no idea how much I needed this today Charlie.
    Sister Jane Dominic, OP said that the spiritual life isn’t an ascent but a descent- where God puts you deep in the soil and covers you with dirt and then pours water on you. You feel like you’re suffocating and drowning- until you bear fruit.
    That’s kind of where I find myself- suffocating and drowning. Praying for perseverance to bear fruit and trust God no matter what.

    Liked by 15 people

    1. I love that image and it is so true! Being an avid gardener, it touches my heart all the more. We are definitely in the midst of the buried and drowned process right now😊, but doing our best to keep our eyes on the Master Gardener. I’m so glad God is capable of taking our messes and making them into something of value.

      Liked by 8 people

  8. This is actually a comfort because I have no idea what I am doing. I’m often frustrated, but even in that I can’t live from that place of anxiety and lack of trust. I’m being thrown a curve ball where it might be right for me to move again, and I have to at some point act. It is confusing to say the least, but you know, there’s nothing I can do about it at this moment. My Alanon sponsor says, “Where are your feet? That’s where you are,” and that direction will come day by day.

    I’ve made some mistakes ( this is my first time flying solo)- and all I can do is ask that God bring some good out of it please.

    I’m in RN school and that’s my priority so that I can help and not harm. And if that falls apart, I have what education I do have to carry with me.

    Thank you. Truly. I don’t feel as though this is all because I am inept at being an adult, though I’m still totally inept if you know what I mean.

    Liked by 12 people

    1. Briana, my prayers are with you in nursing school. It was hard and so, so worth it! I am now retired and I look back with amazement – how on earth did I do that? Persevere dear one. God will bless all you do.
      Katey in ORπŸ™πŸ½βœοΈπŸ’•

      Liked by 7 people

      1. Thank you for every prayer, Katey, I feel like I am drinking out of a firehose. Midterms are in a week (Pharm and Medsurg) and I am so overwhelmed my head is spinning. What a privilege, though, to do this.

        Liked by 7 people

  9. Charlie, I’ve relied on your pearls of wisdom for several years to direct my growth in seeking and living truth. It’s definitely been a time where I have taken much with a grain of salt. Recent circumstances in my life have underlined that TRUST means surrendering to His will, not Him to mine. I struggle with it often, sometimes in tears, but as we know He is faithful and He is here. I’m beginning to understand why Holy Mary says pray, pray, pray. I find I get through the rough times [my pilgrimage of life] when my concerns [prayers] are for others. [Good grief, it’s taken me 80 years to get to this point…hard nut to crack or slow learner]
    I thank you for your continual encouragement to us squirrely “puppies”.
    God Bless you, Charlie, and all who come to this community.

    Liked by 9 people

  10. “ersatz” not real or genuine. I had to look it up and I learned something new for today. πŸ™‚ Seriously,
    thank you, Charlie. This piece was what I needed for today.

    Liked by 9 people

    1. It’s one of those words – an adjective – that has entered the language. It originated in Germany (it’s German) during WWII – or maybe even the first War – when due to the Allied naval blockade they couldn’t get coffee. Germans aren’t tea-drinkers, as we in the British Isles are, but they lurves their coffee. So they had to resort to using acorns and such-like. Poor them.

      Mind you, to due to their submarine warfare, in both Wars, it was pretty much unobtainable in G.B. and Ireland as well. Even tea was in very short supply. For us Irish and Brits that was a true privation, as my parents often told me.

      Liked by 5 people

  11. “I have known some who, when they have suffered some great setback, think God has failed them. What a poverty to call such thin gruel, β€œfaith”!”

    Charlie, I credit you, your teaching about taking “tnrs,” as the conduit of God’s grace for me when I had to decide whether to publicly renounce God or declare my trust in Him. That moment came for me the night we found our son’s dead body, and I was allowed to hold him on the pavement by the EMS.

    In that terrible, horrible, unthinkable moment, I am so very grateful that His grace was there to carry me through not turning my back on Him. “Tnrs, tnrs, tnrs, what is tnrs?” My scattered shocked mind could only barely hold onto this simple thought, like a beacon. The temptation to blame God was real. I felt everything pause, to give me time to decide. Tremble, tremble, tremble.

    Now I can say I am closer than I was before my son died to understanding that I know nothing. I have a ways yet to go.

    I tremble at the thought I might have more of these tests in the future. That thought I generally get rid of asap and treat as a temptation. + TYG, I know you hold us in your hands. I believe, TY for Charlie+

    Keep on keepin’ on, and let’s keep praying for each other!

    Liked by 15 people

    1. Little light,
      Your story reminds me of Jesus returning to Bethany and finding Lazarus dead and his sister distraught:
      β€œLord, Martha said to Jesus, β€œif you had been here, my brother would not have died. Jesus said to her, β€œI am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
      LL, you were devastated by your sons death but, trusting that Jesus will raise him, you were able to hang on.
      β€œ And Martha replied, β€œI believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
      ” And the good thief asked ‘ Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom’. And Jesus said ‘I promise you this day you will be with me in paradise”.
      And that Hope entered your soul as a balm that day, trusting that God’s word is true for those who love Him.
      If you never “see” their conversion, do not lose hope. St Faustina reminds us of the last act of God’s mercy for those that have been recommended to Him through their prayers and especially the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
      β€œGod’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way. Outwardly, it seems as if everything were lost, but it is not so. The soul, illumined by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last moment with such a power of love that, in an instant, it receives from God forgiveness of sin and punishment. Although a sinful person is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God thus making use of all the prayers that other souls offer to God for them.”
      So, with this promise, now you can truly say:
      Jesus, I Trust in You.

      Liked by 7 people

      1. So Beautiful, PF, TY, for these words and your kindness.

        Truly, the only way I can continue to get up every day is to believe this. I had to make that decision early on, the decision for Hope, for God. Hah, but how very fragile it truly is.

        There is no way forward except for me to never leave God. I beg Him for this.

        Funny, somehow I prayed for this when we first became parents. At that point, in a million years I could have never of guessed this cross would be ours. Studying the Catechism, my conclusion is there was God, outside of time, pressing upon me that I needed to ask Him for the grace to cling to Him in trial, He wanted to give it to me, knowing our future.

        In a way that’s difficult to explain, that thought gives me great consolation.

        God bless you, yours and us, everyone. Keep on keepin’ on, my Squirrel friend.

        Liked by 8 people

        1. Littlelight: you’ve been to the very edge, where few of us have to go, and still, with God’s grace, you’ve pulled back. That was a mighty act of trust, and strength, on your part. May the very good God sustain you in that from now on, and please believe that in His unfathomable Divine Mercy He has your dear son, and you, in His arms.

          Liked by 4 people

  12. Thank you, Charlie. Your post today took me back to 2015 when me and my husband Bob first met you thanks to John Bailey. I know that for me, taking the next right step happens every day with the people who I encounter every day at Mass, at work, at the grocery store, and especially at home with our family and friends. The statement that will stick with me today is this one: “God lets you make mistakes in hopes that you will persist despite your frailty and will become less stupid over time.” Yep, that about sums up what many of us do when we don’t totally place our trust in Him. It is a one-step-at-a time daily journey. I’m less stupid than I was than even yesterday, and I give thanks to God He put you in my path to help remind me of that. God bless you Charlie, we are praying for you:)

    Liked by 10 people

  13. Charlie, I am so moved by the wonderful advice you’ve given us all along and, especially, for this particular piece now. When I struggle with trying to do what I think God wants me to do in this crazy world, your words and faith and steadfastness always help me. So, thank you so much. I smile when I can apply what I saw in London: β€œStay calm and mind the gap!!!”

    I facilitated a nonprofit board retreat today held in a beautiful Protestant church. One of their banners proclaim that we are β€œMade for More”. That has been on my mind as I drove home. As we rebuild our communities and take the next right step, our faith in God will sustain us. Thanks for ALL that you do in His name. MEC

    Liked by 8 people

  14. What a beautiful Piece here , Charlie!!!

    I will print this out tomorrow for there is much to digest!!!

    Maybe I’m crazy, but I feel it is because of YOUR YES to God that I am in such peace today in the midst of this storm!

    Thank you sooooo much for saying yes and helping us all to navigate these times!

    We are all blessed by your council!

    β€œI give counsel – and my counsel consists of telling you that Christ is close TO YOU, right at hand and ready to help you if you ask Him. Added to that, I offer some counsel on how to listen effectively to Him and discern for yourself His call in your life.”

    Liked by 9 people

  15. I think,Charlie, in this post you gave the definition of what “take the next right step” means, that is β€œWhat do you intend for me in this, Lord?”

    Liked by 7 people

  16. Pretty Good Charlie, one of your finest writings.
    Remember the Mora Minnesota meeting.
    Long time ago.
    Now one has to just watch youtube prophets, God is talking directly; looks like to every one.

    Liked by 3 people

  17. You made lots of good points Charlie.

    We grew up in a world that drilled into us a mindset that expects & plans according to the known information, we’ve been trained by the world to fail at faith & trust in God.

    Knowing the mind of God? People often don’t even know themselves; Can they keep their oaths, word, & promises? Can they live up to their high ideas, daydreams, and opinions of themselves? Without God’s aid, I know I’ll probably fail at most of these things. Knowledge & prepping alone won’t be enough without God. I read lots of information over the years, and I can say with certainty, I don’t know how events will play out and for how long, I worry I won’t be strong enough to endure in faith & in hope, nor make the right choices at a critical moment…

    Liked by 4 people

    1. AL2, so true! I THOUGHT I would be able to be strong, when push came to shove. Oops. Way cut down to peon status this week-end, even with no stress, just a little discomfort. Fasting on Fridays, fail. Eschewing Starbucks? One caffeine headache, and I’m in the line. (Why oh why is Starbucks the only coffee at the Republican Convention?) No carbs? Epic fail when sandwiches are the only offering. I guess God had one more way to keep me humble this week-end. I hope, at least, He got a chuckle.

      Liked by 1 person

  18. Why Charlie, you make me sound almost intelligent! Taking you and others β€œwith a grain of salt” (which is just another bit of your wise counsel) means I will not be devastated should you or anyone else turn out to be a massive fraud. It also keeps me from panicking at every thing that is said. That being said, you know how much I respect you and value your friendship and counsel. As I was reading your post to Mike this morning, he kept saying β€œwow” and β€œyeah”, because it is so appropriate, confirming and helpful in our continuing discernment of our next right step.
    Thank you again for your wise words. I love a guy who speaks plainly and lays it on the line! We are feeling encouraged and emboldened to take our next step, grateful for lessons learned and the good God is bringing out of our trials. You are in our prayersπŸ™

    Liked by 5 people

    1. Ha, Laura! You have outed yourself as the woman who told me that. It did NOT make me think maybe you didn’t respect me: it made me think jubilantly that you get me and where I’m coming from. God bless both you and Mike along your pilgrim way.

      Liked by 5 people

  19. An old friend just posted this. It is a good reminder to trust God one step at a time.
    β€œOK, I grabbed this quote from Dylan Dobson, but I like it! Have a great week.
    β€œWhat is God’s will for my life” is often too broad and daunting of a question. Instead, ask β€œhow can I trust God this week” and you’ll more likely be doing what he wants you to do with your life.”

    A very helpful article, Charlie. Thanks.

    Liked by 7 people

  20. “As it is written, God often intends that one man sows while another reaps.”

    Over the last year or so I have been pondering this deeply. I also read this same exact sentiment at DFOT, I can’t remember where.

    It made me think hard about people in my life, and others I observe from a distance, whose lives seem like tragedies despite their long-suffering faith. For these people, their hopes and dreams are largely unfulfilled in this life, they live and die enduring great sufferings. The world declares their lives tragedies, examples of what to avoid, and not do.

    What has always really rattled my composure, is that pious, Christian people, also make this declaration about the lives of long-suffering people who die without realization of their dreams. People I look up to. There is no prosperity theology here. There is just more stinky, unappealing suffering and trials than not.

    This confused me greatly, and honestly, can still trip me up.

    So very gently, I am coming to consider that the truth may very well be these souls are called by God to prepare a treasure only a future generation will harvest.

    I don’t know if this is correct or not, but it is the only conclusion that is in alignment with what we know to be true about God’s incredible mercy, and His love of suffering.

    Liked by 9 people

    1. Beautifully said, Littlelight. I observe that those firmly attached to God in deep and abiding trust have joy amidst their sorrows, because they k.n.o.w. within that God is Pure Love and they k.n.o.w. He brings incredible good from difficulties. We surely do have feelings which emerge from sometimes gaping wounds for which we must enter into a process with God to heal, but God is a.l.w.a.y.s. about the business of making all things new. And I continue to believe there is a type of very high honor we give to our beloved ones who go before us: As we heal, it is imperative to fully engage in the life with which God has gifted us, partnering with Him as He bestows healing upon us and leads us to joy amidst our sorrow. We know our relationships never end… they certainly change dramatically, but never end. As our dear ones who have passed continue to intercede for us – and this, before the Throne of God, once they’ve fully entered into their room in His House – do we bring them joy by refusing to engage in our inner healing process? Surely not. Their heavenly joy mingles with our heaven-on-earth joy, enriching each of us until that moment when we meet again and, together, share for eternity in heavenly joy.

      Liked by 8 people

      1. <B

        "Their heavenly joy mingles with our heaven-on-earth joy, enriching each of us until that moment when we meet again and, together, share for eternity in heavenly joy."

        I'm beginning to understand this in tangible, delicate ways. More than once, and with increasing frequency this thought has crossed my mind in the middle of some lovely joy or peace or thing gone well. Generally I dismiss it as too wonderful to be true. More vanity and hardness of heart there on my part. Jesus is so patient. How can we not love Him?

        Liked by 6 people

    2. Littlelight, this is so profound! I have actually never considered this aspect of suffering, but it makes so much sense! And, truly, how much peace could this perspective give to the one who suffers? Thank you for sharing this!

      Liked by 6 people

  21. “God’s servants are rarely notable for their prosperity; they are notable for their fortitude and patient endurance under severe trials – and occasional martyrdom.”

    Indeed… We live in a spoiled generation that hasn’t seen real trials & hardships, for many loosing their lifestyles, popularity, or job seems like the end of the world.

    I remember one of Our Lady’s messages saiying something to effect “the devil’s snares are so numerous, that hardly no one escapes those traps anymore.” Anyone thinking they’re triumphant obviously hasn’t been tested enough or is just fooling themselves. Most of us if we’re lucky find ourselves at the threshold of humility, but the danger of falling back down pride is easy. The devil is a ravenous predator who respects NO boundaries, NO breaks, NO rest, and NO free will; he will attack & devour even the elect if they become lax & soft if their spiritual & prayer life, at best a properly done daily recitation of The Holy Rosary repels him, at worst (for lack of a better word) it grants the graces to face the trials of that day. We are a soft generation that struggles & pannics over the simplest of trials, thinking too highly of ourselves, but many fall flat on their faces when barely tested – an epic fail… If one find themselves suddenly in a trial, it’s never too late to turn to Jesus & Our Lady in prayer for The Next Right Step…

    Liked by 9 people

      1. Charlie has done a really good job Beckita in coverring this difficult subject matter, that’s difficult for people to accept and face. The enemy knows our weaknesses better than we do, he won’t hesitate to strike us where it hurts the most, and going in for the kill for those who are overconfident & unprepared.

        Liked by 6 people

    1. “The devil is a ravenous predator who respects NO boundaries”

      Yep, Al. St. Peter – he who denied Jesus three times – said it: “The devil, your enemy, prowls around like a raging lion, seeking those whom he might devour”. He certainly knew what he was talking about!

      Liked by 3 people

  22. Don’t know how many of you are aware of what has been transpiring in Yellowstone National Park in the last couple of days. There has been historic flooding which will now close the northern part of the park for this season and phone calls are coming in from tourists living all over the country who are cancelling the plans they had to visit any part of the park this summer. Roads are washed out, while bridges, homes and other structures, too, have been destroyed in the swirl of this storm… a rather prophetic reflection of what we now face as it will take years to rebuild the catastrophic damage caused by the raging flood waters.

    Liked by 7 people

    1. I seen that headline earlier this week Beckita. I don’t know what to make of it… Is it as bad a thing as people think it is? Is not the Yellowstone magma chamber a little overly hot & active over the past while? Maybe some extra water is what’s needed to remove some of that dangerous heat energy, the loss of some human stuctures is nothing compared to a volcanic erruption that it would release.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. I understand that, on Sunday, an earthquake swarm hit an area near that’s known as Grizzly Lake in the park, but such swarms are not unusual. There’s been no reporting on a connection between the flooding and cooling underground heat. The floods have been caused by extra rain with a swiftly melting snow pack and since this is all above ground, I can’t imagine how it would have a big impact on the underground activity. That said, I’m certainly no expert in these things.

        Liked by 4 people

      2. Al2, that’s a big no. Adding water from the surface and trickling it down into the ground is a known facilitator for earthquakes in California and elsewhere, because the water helps create hydraulic conditions allowing slippage. Also, water trickling down into a magma chamber can create massive explosive eruptions. Some of the worst eruptions are from water getting into a magma chamber.

        I actually see this in two different ways. A whole bunch of water moved out of an area very quickly means less water available to soak in a trickle down, so the risk of increasing earthquakes or aggravating even small eruptions may now be less than it might have been if the melting had been slow. The cost was the flooding.

        Another possibility is that God knows a significant earthquake or eruption of some kind is coming and got people out of the way. Perhaps now He can create something spectacular there which everyone can see as something only He could do, but few will be hurt or killed by it.

        Of course, it might be just a flood. πŸ˜€

        Liked by 8 people

        1. Hi Steve, something like that…

          Water enterring a the fault line is bad and water enterring a subduction zone where one continential plate is going under the other continental plate is also very bad. I wasn’t sure if water on top of volcanic area was necessarily a bad thing, it’s not like the water is being forced downwards in that area? There’s no subduction zone in the park? Anyways, good point about the evacuation keeping people at a safe distance should something errupt, it may not be all bad as people think.

          Liked by 3 people

          1. AL2, I think you are thinking you need a big, long crack to get water down, like maybe the San Andreas fault, but water goes *everywhere* it can, through large faults and small and even tiny cracks. That’s ultimately where large underground aquifers come from – water migrating down or sideways or up through cracked rocks and sediments. The Yellowstone area is riven with all sorts of cracks and faults, and all the features we go to see there are water-oriented. I think most if not all of that geyser water comes from surface water percolating down, getting heated and moving upward under steam and expansion pressure and creating hot pools and geysers. If a large amount of water were to percolate further down into the magma chamber(s) underneath as part of a smaller set of eruptions, it could create the conditions for an enormous eruption. So water does not need to be *forced* down. It goes everywhere including down. The question when a possibility exists for a super-eruption is whether there is a mechanism for getting a lot of water to enter the magma chamber suddenly. The moderate earthquakes that would precede any eruption of any size can be sufficient to provide that entry mechanism, and then the only question left is whether there is a store of water somewhere nearby that can provide the necessary amount of water quickly enough to shock the system into explosive eruption. Is that set of conditions starting to create itself at Yellowstone? Only God knows. I don’t.

            Liked by 5 people

    2. Well, there goes our vacation! How is the area you are in, Beckita?
      In the event that we are allowed to go on vacation in September, Montana is in our sights. But God is in charge, not us! Last planned vacation was canceled in 2020. Wondering if we’ll ever travel again in my lifetime.πŸ€”πŸ€·πŸΌβ€β™€οΈ

      Liked by 4 people

      1. The Missoula area is just now warming up as it’s been a wet and cool spring thus far, Katey. There are sectors of this city which are near flood stage, but Yellowstone Park has a much higher elevation (7,000-8,000 feet) with its placement on a broad, elevated volcanic plateau than Missoula (3,200) with its convergence of five valleys.

        Liked by 3 people

  23. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … πŸ˜‰

    https://blog.adw.org/2022/06/why-does-jesus-say-that-the-father-is-greater-than-he-if-the-members-of-the-trinity-are-equal/

    We running out of “Later Time”!
    https://spiritdailyblog.com/inspiration/leaving-life-until-later

    https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251513/when-will-the-new-wording-for-the-prayer-of-absolution-used-in-the-sacrament-of-penance-take-effect

    https://www.catholicleague.org/biden-and-pelosi-silent-on-anti-catholicism/

    https://www.ncregister.com/cna/the-oldest-man-in-the-world-is-113-and-prays-the-rosary-daily-twice-a-day

    If your Pastor has NOT taken measures to insure that his Flock is protected during Mass/Parish Events, it be past time to build a fire under his butt ……. and the Parish Council!!
    THEY want YOU afraid to practice YOUR Faith …….. and The Bill of Rights!!
    https://www.lifenews.com/2022/06/14/nearly-naked-protester-screams-and-shouts-during-catholic-mass-to-promote-abortion/

    I have No Doubt that ALL of the below is part of The Agenda and Swamp DC is happy about it! …. Fear, Intimidation, Control and targeting of selected people, organizations and businesses to further The Agenda!! ;-(!
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10917579/Pro-life-Washington-GOP-lawmaker-office-firebombed-marking-SEVENTEENTH-arson.html
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/another-blow-us-food-market-fire-breaks-food-processing-plant-west-waupaca-county-wisconsin/
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/missouri-hawley-ag-garland-inaction-protests-supreme-court-homes

    Is β€˜Equity-Based’ Education Coming to a School Near You?
    https://reader.epoch.cloud/?publink=080ca26b6_13484ea

    https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/15/morning-greatness-27-democrats-vote-against-security-for-scotus-family/

    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/06/14/missouri-ag-says-red-flag-laws-a-green-light-for-gun-confiscation-after-tucker-warns-due-process-will-end-1250034/

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/nation-suffering-economy-gutter-democrat-congress-focused-kangaroo-court-president-trump-delivers-12-page-rebuttal-jan-6-committees-latest-lies-s/

    Is this Tabloid BS? THEY have coined a new term of late; Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) …. Nothing to see here! …. Right!!??
    https://www.vaccinedeaths.com/2022-06-12-blood-clots-microscopy-suddenly-died.html

    https://spectator.org/
    https://www.americanthinker.com/
    https://www.frontpagemag.com/
    https://newsbusters.org/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE

    Liked by 3 people

  24. I would post this on FB but I am not sure the fact checkers would appreciate (or even know) what I am saying. First, Charlie, I love your posts with your grandson. I hope he always remembers his “travels with Charlie.”
    I saw the picture today at the baseball game of Rangers vs. Astros. That brought back a flood of memories of when I lived in Houston. I used to keep track of the Houston Colt 45’s. I listened to the games on the radio as often as it broadcast the games and even went to a few games. Their stadium looked like sandlot compared to what was in your picture. They were a scrappy team. Thanks for the memories.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. Joyful, I’m not on social media, but my husband follows Charlie on twitter, I think. I love how excited he gets to read Charlie’s posts and see his pictures, which he shares with me πŸ™‚

      Liked by 4 people

  25. It has been a rough week for my family. Monday, which happened to be their 2nd wedding anniversary, my son and his wife lost their 2nd child at 17 weeks gestation. The little girl, Kerry Robin, was born much too early but my son baptized her while she still had life and now I can call on our little saint, St. Kerry Robin.

    It had already been such a rough pregnancy and I was overjoyed when the relics of St. Padre Pio were at a nearby parish. I went there, of course, to beg for the life of the child and asked the holy saint to take the baby as one of his spiritual children. I was overjoyed to hear that very day that the conditions of the pregnancy were improving. Is consternation too harsh a word to describe how I felt on Monday? At least until I found a holy card with a 3rd class relic of St. Pio and a notation that read, “St. Pio will wait at the gates of Heaven until all his spiritual children enter.”

    Yes, indeed, it is a vanity to think one knows the mind of God or misinterprets answers to prayer. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. A quote from the original “Q”, Qoheleth. (Book of Ecclesiastes) What does God intend from this? I can’t imagine anything better than a soul from my family who is now praying for us from among the heavenly ranks. Peace to all here. Trust the Biblical Q.

    Liked by 10 people

    1. The exact quote from the holy card of St. Pio, “I love my spiritual children as much as my own soul, and even more. I have restored them to Jesus with pain and with love. I can forget myself, but not my spiritual children, and I assure you that, when the Lord calls me, I will say to Him: ‘Lord, I shall remain at the gates of Paradise; I shall enter only when I have seen the last of my children enter.'”
      Thank you for waiting for me, too, St. Pio but until then, little Kerry Robin needs to be carried to Jesus and His Holy Mother. (Writing this through tears)
      Trust God’s plan – the Biblical Q.

      Liked by 11 people

      1. I’m so sorry, this is heartbreaking. Praying for you and your dear family, for your intentions, for healing, hope, courage, strength…awareness of God’s presence in the midst of this ongoing trial especially and Peace.

        Liked by 10 people

    2. Oh Dear Marisa, my condolences on the passing of your precious granddaughter. Praying especially for all broken hearts to be healed in faith, knowing as you have conveyed that your family has a special patron in Heaven. May she pray for us all. πŸ™πŸ•ŠβšœοΈ

      Liked by 10 people

    3. ” I was overjoyed to hear that very day that the conditions of the pregnancy were improving. Is consternation too harsh a word to describe how I felt on Monday?”
      Marisa sigue Stella Maris, oh how we all can identify with the above, when we feel assured that God has heard our prayer and things are working out.
      https://prayersto.com/holy_spirit/beloved-of-my-soul/
      DΓ©sirΓ©-FΓ©licien-FranΓ§ois-Joseph Mercier (1851-1926) was a cardinal, a Thomist scholar (of Thomas Aquinas) and the Archbishop of Mechelen in Brussels. He staunchly resisted the German occupation during world war l. Bringing food to the starving masses.

      He recommended that we should β€œquiet our imagination, close our eyes to everything visible and our ears to external sound and withdraw into the sanctuary of our baptized soul which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Once there, we should β€œSpeak to the Holy Spirit and Say:

      O Holy Spirit Beloved of my soul I adore you.

      Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, and console me.

      Tell me what I ought to do and command me to do it.

      I promise to submit to everything that you ask of me and to accept all that you allow to happen to me.

      Just show me what is your will.

      Amen

      Liked by 7 people

    4. Praying for your family, MARISA SIGUE STELLA MARIS.

      How tragic and painful for the young couple.

      πŸ™πŸ»πŸ™πŸ»πŸ™πŸ»

      Liked by 5 people

  26. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … πŸ˜‰

    https://www.catholicleague.org/biden-is-promoting-child-abuse/

    https://catholicvote.org/violence-after-dobbs/
    https://catholicvote.org/radical-group-janes-revenge-vows-to-escalate-acts-of-terror-against-pro-life-groups/

    https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2022/06/15/welcome-to-secular-relativist-hell-n1605190

    https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/06/16/did-gascons-decarceration-policies-lead-to-the-deaths-of-two-police-officers-n476599

    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/open-season-pro-abortion-terrorist-group-vows-to-ramp-up-violence-against-pro-life-pregnancy-centers/

    THEY are obsessed with furthering Abortion, Alien Invasion, anything LGBTXXX, Green Deals, squandering $$ Trillion$ whilst The USA dissolves …. as planned by Cloward, Piven and Alinsky ….. & ReichsfΓΌhrer-WEF Schwab ;-(
    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bidens-vaccine-mandate-threatens-to-make-military-pilot-shortage-worse-air-force-academy-grad-warns/

    https://thehill.com/policy/international/3525658-fourteen-markets-ban-screenings-of-pixars-lightyear-over-same-sex-relationship/

    https://thehill.com/homenews/3524589-biden-to-sign-new-lgbt-executive-order-amid-a-raft-of-bills-targeting-trans-youth/

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/06/yes_transgender_transformation_is_child_abuse.html

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/melina-abdullah-juneteenth-white-people

    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/red_flagged_nation_gun_confiscation_laws_put_a_target_on_the_back_of_every_american

    https://www.floppingaces.net/2022/06/15/the-high-plains-grifter/

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/
    https://stream.org/category/us/
    https://www.zerohedge.com/
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
    https://www.wnd.com/category/front-page/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Hi Crewdog,

      Are you noticing an increase in web search engine bias? Even duckduckgo is producing a lot more censored narrative propoganda than it used to.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Yes, Al

        That is a good Sign actually …….. THEY are afraid and desperate πŸ˜‰
        …. but more Dangerous!! ;-(

        Prayer, Vigilance and Readiness!

        GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

        Liked by 7 people

  27. Great article Charlie,

    The thing that sticks out to me is acceptance of whatever happens as permitted by God and out dirty to make a positive difference no matter what the situation.

    Also, not to become too attached to this world. People come in and out of our lives and some die. All in God’s plan.

    Thank you for your words of encouragement. Would you like our situation to the Israelites leaving Egypt?

    Liked by 6 people

      1. I see that too. Indeed, it’s all coming down like Babylon, Jewel. And it is like an extended Lent and Advent intertwined… and we are making a transition from the evil ways of this era to the milk and honey of the full Triumph of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart!

        Liked by 6 people

      2. What is the modern Babylon built upon? The internernet, global government (UN, WEF, WHO, etc…), medical technocracy, media, etc…

        Liked by 3 people

        1. I see modern Babylon built on everything that’s corrupt. When every major institution has failed us, we can be sure that corruption massively affects our culture and every culture around the world.

          Liked by 5 people

          1. Yes Beckita, it’s not really a place like in history’s past, as it’s more of a infrastucture of corruption, the big cities are drowning in it more than the small places.

            Liked by 3 people

  28. From today’s gospel:

    Good to reflect on me thinks πŸ€”

    β€œMt 6:19-23
    Jesus said to his disciples:
    β€œDo not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
    where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.
    But store up treasures in heaven,
    where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.
    For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

    β€œThe lamp of the body is the eye.
    If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;
    but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.
    And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”

    Liked by 5 people

  29. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … πŸ˜‰

    https://onepeterfive.com/forgotten-customs-of-corpus-christi/

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/11/us/trooper-traffic-stop-prayer-blake-cec/index.html

    https://www.ncregister.com/blog/macbeth-in-a-nutshell

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/16/Alabama-church-shooting/1151655430001/

    https://www.catholicleague.org/catholic-colorado-lawmakers-defy-bishops/

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nativity-school-of-worcester-now-prohibited-from-calling-itself-a-catholic-school/ar-AAYvYHu

    https://www.revolver.news/2022/06/uk-health-agency-confirms-99-percent-of-monkeypox-cases-are-homosexual-men/

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blackburn-plan-dewokeify-military-foiled-democrats

    https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/16/blinken-i-press-saudis-on-lgbtqi-issues-every-time-00040325

    Ya can call on Stooge Garland-DOJ all Ya want but THEY are Pressing-On with The Agenda until THEY are ousted …. and the DC Swamp Drained …. and only happening if Good-Guys Win … Biggly!!!
    https://catholicvote.org/catholicvote-other-pro-life-leaders-call-on-doj-to-address-pro-abortion-violence/

    https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/total-southern-border-encounters-gotaways-greater-population-23-us

    Well ….? DOJ/FBI/DHS catching all those 6 Jan Trespassers is so much more important …. Right!??
    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jun/16/15-people-terror-watch-list-were-captured-sneaking/

    https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2022/06/15/tony-fauci-the-quadruple-vaxed-double-masked-oracle-of-nonsense-has-covid-n579314

    Is there any doubt that the destruction of Middle Class USA is all part of The Agenda!??
    https://dnyuz.com/2022/06/16/stock-drop-has-erased-3-trillion-in-retirement-savings-this-year/

    We are fixin’ to find out if Suburbanites are willing to fight for Kith & Kin!!!
    https://www.foxnews.com/us/crime-spills-into-dozens-minneapolis-suburbs-sparking-fear-residents

    Considering the totality of the criminal Feral Gubermint mismanagement, suspicious Food Processor “fires”, Baby Food Shortages, Fuel supply/cost ….., I believe that Natural Causes may well NOT be the cause!!??
    https://www.westernjournal.com/10000-head-cattle-killed-kansas-us-faces-skyrocketing-prices-potential-food-shortages/

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jun/16/15-people-terror-watch-list-were-captured-sneaking/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE

    Liked by 4 people

  30. Alright, I’ve been sharing these posts from Gary Roe for a little while now. Even though Gary’s singular focus is grief related to the death of a loved one, as I read this one today, it tickled me to hear the same talk more boldly developed as originally heard from Charlie.

    If one removes the singular focus, the feelings Gary speaks of are universally understood. It doesn’t have to be loss of a loved one.

    https://www.garyroe.com/2022/06/16/grief-is-like-an-ongoing-storm/

    “Storms will come. We can’t control the storm, but we can choose how we’re going to respond to it – one step at a time.

    The storms of life are draining and challenging. They can take their toll on us. We need to be kind to ourselves as we go through this.

    I’m honored to with you in this storm. Thanks for reading.”

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Oh yes, Littlelight, there are all kinds of trials and losses in life which evoke grief with its ensuing mourning. Whew! Many are they who are experiencing this which says to me are ARE in the purification process. Blessedly, we know that in reaching to God – as in ways taught by people such as Sonja Corbitt – we can partner with Him to bring about healing, deeper faith and trust which brings forth peace.

      Liked by 7 people

    1. Awesome, Pawel! I love the Babylon Bee and J. P. Sears; thanks for sharing these videos. πŸ™‚

      Like

  31. I got this from Joette Calabrese’s Mighty Memos today. She posted it in honor of Dads. It’s hysterical! Enjoy! Happy Father’s Day to All!

    A Dad’s Life 2010:

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Littlelight! This is hysterical! When I looked up the “producers” on YouTube, I discovered that they made a sequel in 2020. Behold:

      Liked by 1 person

      1. “Ten years later and twenty pounds heavier…spent the last ten years in the same pants…I turn the Honey-do to Honey-done…can flip a half-bath in one day, Son..”

        Aaaargh!!! LOL!!! I love this. ;-D

        Like

  32. An excellent article. So much of the Truth of Christ and the teachings of the Gospel that are really presented for us to take into account. How many times in the Gospels has Our Lord told us to not worry, or trust in him, his word, the father, the spirit. They will protect us, lead us, Save us. These were not suggestions, but commands.
    No doubt it takes resolve and to let go of self with humility to let our Lord handle and decide how, when, where each person fits into his plans for the renewal of mankind and the triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

    Liked by 5 people

  33. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … πŸ˜‰

    https://www.wnd.com/2022/06/pastor-andrew-brunson-tells-wnd-wasnt-ready-persecution/

    https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-709642

    https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/16/thoughts-on-guns-violence-and-self-protection/

    https://www.aol.com/news/abortion-ruling-nears-u-supreme-100859712-182344083.html

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/17/iowa-supreme-court-overturn-state-constitutional-right-to-abortion/5191655487807/

    https://www.massresistance.org/docs/topics/Behind-the-scenes/Middle-school-teacher-surveys/index.html

    https://reclaimthenet.org/wef-wto-digital-tracking-people-objects/

    One of Glenn Beck’s SideKicks coined a “Good’ Phrase yesterday to describe the various Democrat Party/Left Militant &/or Violent Groups: Ethical Terrorism.
    If IT promotes and advances The godless Democrat Party/Global Left Agenda, it is “Ethical” to use violence or any other, normally unacceptable, means to an end!
    It’s where we are then! A Long Hot Summer well into the New Year perpetrated and justified by ALL The Usual Suspects and Victims be Damned ;-(
    https://spectator.org/democrats-selective-outrage-over-insurrections/

    Every Red State needs to re-establish/establish a State Guard!!
    https://reader.epoch.cloud?publink=0eed01666_13484ed

    https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/06/17/mark-levin-nothing-learned-from-january-6-committee-this-isnt-a-pursuit-of-the-truth/

    The Mask Cult was NEVER about Public Health! It was always about Election 20 Theft, Citizen Control and the Transform America/Global Re-Set Agenda that we are seeing unfold daily!
    https://brownstone.org/articles/more-bad-news-for-the-mask-cult/

    Nothing to see here! … Move Along!!
    https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/exclusive-fulton-county-gets-busted

    https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/pennsylvania-parents-fed-band-together-lawsuit-sparked-woke-first-grade-teacher

    https://www.floppingaces.net/2022/06/17/the-week-in-radical-leftism-6-17-2022/

    https://townhall.com/
    https://www.americanthinker.com/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE

    Liked by 4 people

  34. A Blessed Solemnity of Corpus Christi to all.
    Fatima prayer: My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You.

    Liked by 7 people

    1. ‘Adore Te Devote’, a traditional Gregorian chant composed by St Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thank you, SP, for finding this lovely arrangement. Those young adult voices give it an ethereal beauty which is so needed today to soften all the coarseness around us. πŸŽΆπŸ’™

        Liked by 1 person

  35. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … πŸ˜‰

    https://stream.org/the-joy-of-fatherhood/

    https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/good-news-in-canadian-artistic-ambitions

    https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/true-catholic-leadership-rooted-in-fear-god/

    Pastor Dana… Sunday.

    https://theanchoress.com/science-and-the-sacred-heart-hello-mandelbrot-set/

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2022/fighting-catholic-gaslighting

    Of Course! NCR is the CNN of “Catholic News” organs ;-(
    https://catholicvote.org/national-catholic-reporter-silent-on-attacks-against-pro-life-groups%ef%bf%bc/

    YUP!
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/06/18/neil-oliver-the-great-resetters-are-intent-on-retaining-post-pandemic-power-and-control-through-fear-and-finance/

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jun/17/bidens-false-claims-soaring-faster-prices-pump/

    Two-Tiered Just-Us System ;-( !
    https://jonathanturley.org/2022/06/16/thats-now-in-the-hands-of-the-fbi-newly-obtained-texts-by-hunter-shed-light-on-gun-controversy/

    https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/17/a-cretinous-beltway-reproduction-of-a-stalinist-show-trial/

    https://www.thedailybell.com/all-articles/news-analysis/if-gun-control-doesnt-disarm-the-government-it-is-authoritarian-propaganda/

    https://daytonews.com/2022/06/17/male-blood-donor-turned-away-from-clinic-after-he-refused-to-answer-whether-he-was-pregnant/

    I especially like the Pics of Kids riding in the car today compared to the Old Days.
    One of my earliest memories is riding prone on the back window shelf of my Folks 1948 DeSoto πŸ˜‰
    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/06/the-week-in-pictures-liberal-exhaustion-edition.php

    https://www.zerohedge.com/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE

    Liked by 5 people

  36. Happy Father’s Day to all fathers. Just wondering, does the Heavenly Father have,here in the Catholic Church on the Earth, a holiday dedicated solely to Him? Like Christmas for Jesus, or the Pentecost for the Holy Spirit. I know God is one in three persons but why not to add The Heavenly’s Father Solemnity to the liturgical calendar?

    Liked by 3 people

  37. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … πŸ˜‰

    https://blog.adw.org/2022/06/jesus-wants-to-feed-you-corpus-christi/

    https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/06/17/angel-quest-monasteries-linked-to-the-archangel-michael-share-mission-and-message/

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2022/i-am-a-restorationist

    Jabbing Infants is a Death Cult Agenda requirement!
    https://dossier.substack.com/p/america-is-now-the-only-country-in

    Death Cult Cheerleader … VP KamalBreath … In-Action! ;-(
    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/chris-queen/2022/06/19/kamala-harris-that-says-nothing-about-abortion-forces-christians-to-abandon-or-change-their-faith-n1606500

    Resistance!
    https://fox8.com/news/world-swimming-bans-transgender-athletes-from-womens-events/
    https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3529268-texas-gop-party-adopts-anti-lgbtq-platform-refers-to-being-gay-as-abnormal/

    Let’s see … if 5% are Murderers, Rapists, Drug/Human Traffickers, petty criminal &/or Terrorists that = 5250 and the below only counts the Catch & Release part of The Invasion …. so you can, conservatively, double the number. Coupled with ALL the Rest of the DC Swamp induced disasters …… Be Prepared!!!!
    https://justthenews.com/government/security/greatly-compromised-lawmakers-see-major-security-hole-after-15-suspected
    https://cis.org/Arthur/Disclosures-Biden-Has-Released-Nearly-105-million-SW-Border-Migrants-US

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jun/17/jan-6-democrats-praised-portland-white-house-insur/

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/06/stephen-hunter-the-massacre-spree-that-never-was.php

    I’d agree with most of the below but Schwab’s Dad was not a Nazi General as pictured.
    https://bombthrower.com/reimagining-the-world-economic-forum

    https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/20/why-both-republicans-and-democrats-are-wrong-about-bill-barr/

    https://townhall.com/
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
    https://newsbusters.org/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE

    Liked by 3 people

  38. I know many people in the ASOH community appreciate JT Brannigan’s commentary on this blog and consider him a friend. JT is the Godfather of one of my kids and we’ve been friends for a long time. His wife just texted my wife asking for prayers as JT passed out at his cabin in the woods. He’s in an out-of-state hospital where they’ve discovered multiple blood clots on both lungs. I know that JT greatly values the prayers of the ASOH community. Please keep him in your prayers. Thank you.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. I met JT when we were both visiting Doug’s Backpack. I enjoyed meeting him. Time for the Brazen Serpent prayer, I think.

      Liked by 1 person

  39. For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have mercy on J.T. and on the whole world.
    Jesus, place Your Healing Hands upon him.
    Mary, keep him under your mantle.
    Holy Spirit, breathe on him.

    Liked by 2 people

  40. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … πŸ˜‰

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/cross-stands-fire-destroys-texas-church

    https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251589/two-churches-in-nigeria-attacked-during-sunday-worship

    https://www.catholicleague.org/maligning-pro-lifers/
    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrats-ignore-threats-against-justices-churches-pregnancy-centers-deeply-disturbing

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/all-catholics-are-rapists-catholic-charities-building-vandalized-in-new-york-city/

    THEY will NOT investigate these Capitol Invading Insurrectionists anymore than THEY will “go-after” ClotShot Pushers, Border Invaders or ABORTION, BLM, ANTFA Violent Activists! …. SOON! THEY will be “Going-After” Thee & Me … Be Prepared!!
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/house-democrat-chief-staff-caught-repeatedly-defacing-poster-outside-office-marjorie-taylor-greene-biden-doj-refuses-prosecute/
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/06/20/tucker-carlson-outlines-the-alarming-plot-to-destroy-american-democracy-recently-intercepted-by-capitol-hill-police/

    YUP!
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/06/a_somewhat_overthetop_eric_greitens_political_ad_triggers_a_leftist.html

    https://www.westernjournal.com/disneys-woke-lightyear-tanks-us-box-office-mainstream-media-cant-seem-figure/

    https://alt-market.us/the-engineered-stagflationary-collapse-has-arrived-heres-what-happens-next/

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jun/20/doj-engaged-court-packing-steroids-immigration-jud/

    https://americanwirenews.com/air-force-recruitment-photo-blasted-for-swapping-american-flag-with-pride-flag/

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/west-point-cadets-taught-critical-race-theory-addressing-whiteness-docs-show

    https://breakingdefense.com/2022/06/navy-air-force-struggling-to-keep-planes-ready-for-take-off/

    https://taskandpurpose.com/analysis/military-guam-china-war-taiwan/

    https://townhall.com/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE

    Liked by 1 person

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