Time to talk of other things ...

 Reflections on St. Bernard of Clairvaux   Feast Day : August 20 | Doctor of the Church After reading Pope Benedict XVI's tribute to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) during his General Audience to St. Bernard on October 21, 2009, I was immediately drawn to the saint's unabashed dedication to Jesus and the most Blessed Virgin Mary.     St. Bernard of Clairvaux (which translates to "Clear Valley") was a prolific writer who said, " Jesus alone is "honey in the mouth, song to the ear, jubilation in the heart (mel in ore, in aure melos, in corde iubilum) " - earning him the moniker "Doctor Mellifluus" or "the Honey-Sweet Doctor". His singular praise for the most BVM is clearly seen in this homily:  " In danger, in distress, in uncertainty ", he says, " think of Mary, call upon Mary. She never leaves your lips, she never departs from your heart; and so that you may obtain the help of her prayers, never forget the exam...

 Reflections on  St. Maximilian Kolbe    Today August 14, on the Feast of St Maxmillian Kolbe, my thoughts go back to a cold and bleak December 1991 morning when we visited the notorious Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz I with its disingenuous  wrought-iron sign over the entrance gates that said "" Arbeit macht frei " (German for "work makes you free"). It remains one of the most haunting experiences of my life but there was silver lining when we came across the memorial to St Maxmillian Kolbe in cell 11.    The remarkable St Maxmillian Kolbe:   Born Rajmund Kolbe on January 8, 1894, in Zduńska Wola, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), he was the son of a weaver. As a boy, he reportedly had a vision of the Virgin Mary offering him two crowns—one white (purity) and one red (martyrdom). He said he accepted both. He entered the Conventual Franciscans, taking the name Maximilian, and was ordained a priest in Rome in 1918, where he also earned ...

 Reflection of St Clare   "We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become." - St. Clare     Here's the biography of St. Clare of Assisi, drawn from Pope Benedict XVI's General Audience of 15 September 2010 St. Clare of Assisi (1193–1253) Pope Benedict XVI called her one of the best loved saints, who lived in the 13th century as a contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi, and whose life shows how much the Church owes to courageous, faith-filled women who spark renewal in the Church.  Pope Benedict XVI drew on solid historical evidence for her life, noting that reliable sources survive, including early biographies like that of Tommaso da Celano and the canonization proceedings the Pope opened just months after her death, which preserve testimony from people who had known her for years. Her flight from home Clare was born in 1193 into a wealthy noble family and gave up her rank and riches to embrace humility and poverty in the manner St Francis of Assis...

August 10 -  Reflections on St Lawrence Fresco of St Lawrence by Blessed Fra Angelico   Saint Lawrence (225–258 AD), a holy martyr, was born in Spain in the first half of the 3rd century, and his life was marked by piety and charity. He was one of seven deacons who served the Church in Rome.  In the year 258, Emperor Valerian issued an edict demanding the execution of all bishops, priests, and deacons. Pope Sixtus II was captured and executed, but before his arrest, he prophesied that Lawrence, a deacon in Rome, would follow him in martyrdom three days later.    As the Roman Prefect targeted the wealth of the church, he summoned Lawrence and commanded him to surrender the church's treasures. He sent for Saint Lawrence and said, “You Christians say we are cruel to you, but that is not what I have in mind. I am told that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups, that you have golden candlesticks at your evening services. Now, yo...

    August 4: Feast of St John Vianney St John Vianney aka Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney (1786-1859), fondly remembered as the ' Curé of Ars', is the patron saint of parish priests.    His extraordinary witness shows us the powerful healing that comes through God's mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. By dedicating his entire life to the salvation of souls, the Curé of Ars proved that true wisdom and holiness stem from humility and total trust in the Lord.   Vianney’s remarkable sanctity and commitment to his small rural parish of 230 people in Ars, France (near Lyon) drew over tens of thousands of pilgrims each year - many sought to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation from him. So great was the number of people who came to Fr. Vianney that a railroad was laid with a special track to his parish to accommodate trains full of pilgrims. Soon people journeyed from all over Europe to attend his Masses or sit in his confessional where he spent at least 11 or 12...

 Reflections on St Alphonsus Liguori   I first learned about St. Alphonsus Liguori through his moving interpretation of the Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis) where the reflections after each station are short, personal, and devotional in tone — designed to stir contrition and love rather than intellectual mediation. Over three hundred years ago, he created a simple structure where each of the 14 station follows the same pattern: an opening call and response (" We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You... because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world "), a short meditation on the scene, and a closing prayer. It soon became one of the most reprinted and translated versions, especially popular in English-speaking Catholic parishes around the world. Who was St Alphonsus Liguori? St. Alphonsus Liguori devoted his life to bringing God’s mercy to souls, especially the poor and spiritually neglected. He is also a Doctor of the Church, and the founder of the Order of the...

 The award-winning David Austin Rose  Lady Emma Hamilton Rose A few years ago, an avid rosarian and long time friend, gifted me a charming rose plant which has proven to be a heart-stealer.   The rose in question is Lady Emma Hamilton ,  a David Austin English Rose producing dark red buds with dashes of orange, that open to chalice-shaped blooms of rich tangerine orange, with yellow-orange on the outside of the petals.  These enchanting blooms are set against very dark, bronzy green, polished leaves that slowly become dark green with age.  The flowers themselves have a strong, delicious, fruity fragrance with hints of pear, grape and citrus fruits. The growth is fairly upright but quite broad and bushy. More about David Austin and his roses David Charles Henshaw Austin, a British breeder, started breeding roses purely out of curiosity at age 21, in his spare time, working with Gallica and Floribunda varieties. He wasn't trying to build a business — he just ...

  Reflections of St Mary Magdalene        July 22nd is the Feast of St Mary Magdalene , the woman with seven demons who was cured by Jesus [Luke 8:2] before becoming one of his most ardent follower, who stood at the foot of the cross [John 19:25] - so it should come as no surprise that Jesus Christ chose Mary Magdalene to be the first one to see him after his Resurrection, commanding her, " Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God '" [John 20:17]      This prompted St. Thomas Aquinas to bestow the title " De Apostolorum Apostola " which translates to the Apostle to the Apostles .  In 2016, Pope Francis raised July 22 from a memorial to a feast day equal to that of the other apostles. It is widely accepted among secular historians that Mary Magdalene was a real historical figure, probably a wealthy Jewish woman from Magdala, a place with a notoriously unfaithful to the Laws of Moses b...

 Stone Fruit Tasting in Hickman, CA I was privy to an eclectic  3-hour  invitation-only stone fruit tasting at Dave Wilson Nursery in Hickman, CA which felt a little like Alice stumbling into fruit wonderland. It was a blind taste exercise where we were presented with 30 tree ripened fruit at room temperature (stone fruit are best enjoyed at room temperature when the volatile aromatic compounds provide the indelible floral, violet-like, and fruity bouquet) and were asked to provide feedback on each using a score card to rate key characteristics like Visual appeal of the fruit, Ripeness, Texture, Acidity/Tartness, Sweetness and Flavour besides an Overall rating. Stone fruits of the prunus genus include peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and nectarines and grafts/hybrids like aprium, pluot, cherum, pluerry, nectar plum etc. Central Valley in California is home to some of the most extensive farms of such stone fruit in the world.   Some of the fruit variaties we t...