These posts are beautiful. They are a testament to how much love surrounds you Brian. I will continue to pray.
The following (Psalm 92) was first psalm of morning office today and as my wife and I Prayed it, I thought and prayed for Fr. Tony. Please let him know, Brian, we are praying for him and you. Peace It is good to praise the Lord, and to sing psalms to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your mercy in the morning and your faithfulness by night; on the ten-stringed lyre and the harp, with songs upon the lyre. For you give me joy, Lord, in your creation: I rejoice in the work of your hands. How great are your works, O Lord, how immeasurably deep your thoughts. The fool does not hear, the slow-witted do not understand. When the wicked sprout up like grass, and the doers of evil are in full bloom, it will come to nothing, for they will perish for ever and ever; but you, Lord, are the Highest eternally. For behold, Lord, your enemies, how your enemies will perish, how wrongdoers will be scattered. You will give me strength as the wild oxen have; I have been anointed with the purest oil. I will look down upon my enemies, and hear the plans of those who plot evil against me. The just will flourish like the palm tree, grow tall like the cedar of Lebanon. They will be planted in the house of the Lord; in the courts of our God they will flourish. They will bear fruit even when old, fresh and luxuriant through all their days. They will proclaim how just is the Lord, my refuge, for in him there is no unrighteousness. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
More prayers for Father Tony it is such a good cause I can't help remembering it. It is very,very pleasing to God to pray for priests in such a terrible situation. They are the apple of God's eyes. But for anyone who can actually physically assist such a poor person, well it must delight God and He will reward them. Perhaps if he has never heard of him the Father might like to read the life of Father Dolindo who was forbidden to say mass for most of his life precisely because of false accusations. https://catholicexchange.com/a-gift...dolindos-miraculous-infusion-of-intelligence/ “A Gift Straight from God”: Don Dolindo’s Miraculous Infusion of Intelligence Maura Roan McKeegan “My whole life, at its essence, has been nothing other than a series of countless instances of extraordinary graces alongside agonizing miseries,” Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo once said, in an autobiography he wrote in 1923 out of obedience to his confessors. “This is the summation of the lives of many souls.” From his father, Raffaele Ruotolo, he had received at birth the highly unusual name “Dolindo,” which means “pain” and “suffering.” Raffaele thought the name up himself, and it proved to be prophetic, as Dolindo’s life was filled with suffering from beginning to end. Yet paradoxically, Don Dolindo considered his suffering to be a beautiful gift from God. “I asked Jesus for the gift of suffering,” he writes in his autobiography. “Every morning I asked Him for love, suffering, humility, faith, meekness, generosity, and patience. Suffering did not delay in arriving and has never left me from that moment on, but has continued to grow, and this is the most beautiful gift that my Lord has given me.” His love for suffering was rooted in his unquenchable desire to abandon himself entirely to God’s love with no trace of worldly attachments. “My soul is like a passion flower:” he explains in his autobiography, “it blooms in suffering and hardship but withers quickly in prosperity. This God knows all too well.” His first taste of suffering came when he was not even a year old and had to endure painful surgeries on both of his hands, to extract decaying bone, and on his cheek, to remove a tumor. But even worse was the suffering he endured from his father, who was so stingy that he refused to spend money on proper food and clothing for his children, and so punitive that young Dolindo would run and hide himself in a desk drawer when he heard his father coming home. Despite his trials—or perhaps because of them—Dolindo was a contemplative child who had a special devotion to Jesus’ sufferings in the Passion and, after receiving his First Communion, began practicing secret penances and waking before sunrise to walk to the local church for early morning Mass. Meanwhile, Raffaele refused to send his children to school. Instead, he forced Dolindo and his older brother, Elio, to memorize information taught to them by their older sisters at home. The boys were not permitted to eat until they had recited everything they had learned, and each evening after their father looked over their schoolwork, they would receive a beating. Though young Dolindo studied hard in order to recite the required lessons, he understood nothing of what he was learning. Between the hunger and the beatings, his poor mind had shut down. “I must say that those endless days of suffering and severe punishments, with no respite or reprieve, so extreme for a child of tender years, resulted in reducing me to a complete and utter imbecile,” he writes. “I was no longer able to understand anything.” When Raffaele finally gave in and allowed the boys to attend junior high, Dolindo twice failed his entrance exams, later failed his final exams, and finally had to repeat the school year. Eventually, his parents separated—an extremely uncommon occurrence at that time—and Dolindo was sent to boarding school. “I was still in a blur and oblivious to what was going on around me,” Dolindo remembers in his autobiography. “I … quickly became notorious for my stupidity. As always, I did well with memory work, but where intelligence and reflection were required, I was completely incompetent.” Front of holy card Then, on June 15, 1896, everything changed. On that day, Dolindo had donned a clerical vestment (as the school was a formation house for future priests), and was reciting the Rosary with his classmates. Before him, he had a copy of this image of the Blessed Mother: What happened next was so important to him that, in addition to writing about it in his autobiography in 1923, he also wrote the story in 1956 on the back of this holy card that bore the same image of Our Lady. Back of holy card On that June day, when Dolindo was 13 years old, the image of Our Lady was leaning against a book in front of him. He gazed at the image and prayed: “O, my dear Mother! If you want me to become a priest, then give me the intelligence, because, as you can see, I’m utterly stupid.” As he knelt there, he was overcome by sleepiness and dozed off. Suddenly, the image moved—“due to the wind or some special grace, I couldn’t say”—and touched his forehead. At that moment, he was awakened from his stupor with his mind sharp, alive, and lucid. “I could talk about anything and could speak poetically,” he writes on the holy card. “I was a different person. But then, as it is now, only for everything that glorifies God. For all the rest, I was and remain a true stupid person.” After this miraculous, instantaneous infusion of intelligence, Dolindo soon earned a new nickname in school: “The Encyclopedia.” He composed poems, plays, papers, and essays that received praise and admiration, and quickly rose to the academic top of the entire school. “Little did they know,” he writes in his autobiography, “that it was all totally a gift straight from God!” This grace of intelligence was to remain with him for the rest of his life, and is evidenced in his prolific and brilliant writings, which continue to touch many hearts today. When obliged to write about his painful childhood memories in 1923, years after his father had passed away, Don Dolindo said that his “poor father meant well.” He blessed his father’s memory and prayed he would be in God’s glory.
The first court appearance in a criminal matter is generally the arraignment, which consists of a reading of the charges and an initial plea by the defendant (here, Fr. Tony). When a defense attorney is involved and has already been provided with a copy of the charges, it is customary to "waive" the reading of the charges. So, it sounds like it was a pretty typical initial court appearance. Now the hard work begins - I will continue to pray for Fr. Tony and his attorney!
Such a wonderful story, I was happy to see this post since Don Dolindo was on my mind. I find myself saying the Surrender Novena more frequently these days. I was out in a very heavy rain storm this morning, and it reminded me of Don Dolindo's "Umbrella Apostolate". He was blessed with the gift of reading souls, and knew the spiritual needs of those who he encountered. On rainy days he would bring his umbrella as he walked the city streets. When he saw someone walking in the rain he would invite them to take shelter under his umbrella, and he would have the opportunity to "plant a good word". I was thinking how blessed those souls were to walk with him under his umbrella, and how I wished he was there with me today.
I was still up in Pennsylvania and had lunch with Fr. Tony today. I’m waiting for him to wade through court documents containing all the charges against him and to give me a copy of them, so we can start working on this. Of course, I have to keep reminding myself and the small handful of friends locally I’m working with that we aren’t his defense lawyer. All we can do is conjecture and then inform the lawyer of our theories. And be patient, and trust in God, even while knowing his court case is in less than two months now. This could easily be maddening, frankly. It’s hard when you want to charge forward with investigation and analysis and theorizing, but in reality you’re just a spectator and the state prosecutors and defense lawyers hold all the cards.
Padraig I knew Cardinal Pell was a holy and devote prelate for Australia and at the time I blasély believed we (in Australia) had many holy prelates, however up until his incarceration, I never knew to what extent his heroism extended, I feel ashamed in a sense, to think that I was so naïve. You don't know what you've got until its gone! Australia was certainly hit with a blow when he was so cruelly defamed and more so after his untimely death (secret society induced, imho). God allowed this, maybe Australia didn't deserve such a strong and saintly Cardinal, for now we face the consequences of the new global reset, virtually alone! I am hoping we the remnant Catholics of every country rise with one voice proclaiming to a sick confused world, the peace, the rest, the divinity and the Love of Our Eucharistic Lord before the build back belittling begins!
Dear Brian I am in a similar situation. All of my 7 children have had to take the jab to remain in their jobs here in Australia. I did not accept the jab and so am no longer employable as an RN in Australia. 2 of my 4 sons are also RN's, I have been praying and weeping for the last three years that no ill effect shall befall any of my children however now I hear that one of my sons who is the in charge RN of an ICU, a very healthy young man, has been diagnosed with three health problems all surprising and unbelievable, one being a nevi on his left eye. This is extremely worrying. When Jacob was just eleven years old he had a malignant melanoma removed from his arm, Jacob was referred to the foremost specialist in Australia in Sydney, Professor McCarthy, who then removed about 7 dysplastic nevi from Jacob. We were told he had dysplastic nevi syndrome and so Jacob has grown up very aware of having 6 monthly skin checks and removal of all dysplastic nevi. Amazingly this nevi in his eye was dismissed by the eye specialist, as just a freckle and now Jacob needs another referral just to see a specialist again which will take months as here in Australia the medical system to see specialists has become a joke. My prayers for your wife Sue and may God bless Sue, Fr Tony and my Jacob with consolations and blessings. Dearest Mother Mary be a mother to them right now. Amen Jesus I trust in Thee, and surrender all to Thee. Please remember Jesus my human frailty and fill me with the graces I need to rejoice in your Will. Amen
Holy Mass will be offered for Fr. Tony and for Josephine & family. Trust that the Lord holds us all in the palm of his Hand.
Apologies to Josephite for getting the name wrong. I'm afraid that I also got it wrong on the Mass request, but God know who I meant.
