“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”
–St. Augustine.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ENGLISH! YOU ARE JUST AS PRETTY AS YOU WERE WHEN I MET YOU. AND YOU REMAIN THE MOST INTERESTING PERSON IN THE ROOM, WHEREVER I MAY BE.
Today, September 6, is English’s birthday. She will join me in Southside later this week for an extended celebration. Her birthday always occurs during Chatmoss Member-Guest week. English is a very good sport, as this has been going on for the last 23 years. She always takes it with good grace, and I will be thrilled to have her here. Because, English is the love of my life, the mother of our daughter, and my best friend. It is her birthday, but I am the one receiving the gifts. Happy Birthday sweetheart!
Dudley is less of a good sport. He will be here too, but grumpy about it. It is not that Dudley does not like Chatmoss; rather, Dudley dislikes riding in the car. And going to Chatmoss means a 8-10 hour round trip. Nevertheless, he will settle down in his favorite comfortable spot, where English will pamper and love him.
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Today in Church we continue reading from S. Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia. We might recall that the reason for this letter was to admonish the Christian community in Galatia. He had established a Christian presence in this Roman province on either his first (southern Galatia) or second (northern Galatia) missionary journey to Asia Minor (now modern Turkey).
However, since his departure, the young Christian community had been co-opted by those claiming apostolic authority, but who were in fact promoting a Judaic form of Christianity, imposing adherence to the Mosaic Law on all converts. These were the so-called “Judaizers.” They were a perennial distraction to the Apostle’s work, and a cause of much conflict in the spread of the Gospel.
Previously in this epistle, S. Paul argued that the rite of circumcision, required to enter into the Abrahamic covenant, had been superseded by the rites of the New Covenant. The sacrament of Holy Baptism not only replaced the rite of circumcision but opened the doors of grace to both men and women. Further, S. Paul argues, all of the requirements of the Old Covenant have been fulfilled in Christ. (This point is made clearly in the Epistle to the Hebrews.) The inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven brings to an end the necessity to follow the precepts of the Mosaic Law as a requirement of the Christian faith.
S. Paul then makes a distinction between the ceremonial law and the moral law. While Christians are no longer obligated to follow the ceremonial law (as this was fulfilled in the perfect offering of Our Blessed Lord upon the Cross), the moral law still stands and becomes the foundation for our “walking in the Spirit.”
In the Epistle for today, S. Paul turns to the struggle that takes place within the Christian – that between the Spirit of God given to us in Baptism (and sealed in Confirmation) and our fallen human nature that draws us towards sinful behaviors. We have a choice: we can either “walk in the Spirit” and find authentic freedom, or we can give into concupiscence and become enslaved to our baser passions.
When we respond to grace, either through the Sacraments, prayer, the reading of Scripture or the encouragement of other Christians, the Holy Ghost builds a moral character based on virtue, and drives out the vices that would seek to drag us down to hell.
It is important also to note that S. Paul includes the possibility of a Christian forfeiting his inheritance in Christ. S. Paul warns that our salvation is in jeopardy should we quash the voice of the Spirit of God by following our own baser passions. Holding on to mortal sin and being unrepentant will bar us from entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. This is explicitly stated in his first letter to the Corinthians, which we read on Trinity IX.
In Baptism, we are united with Christ in His death and become dead to our former fallen nature. In this great Sacrament, we “have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Our weakened nature makes absolute victory over our passions anything but a foregone conclusion, but it is possible! Desiring to do what is right is where we must begin. God will do the rest.
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Responding to the claim that ‘the Jews killed Jesus’
God loves the Jewish people
BY: Everett Piper, The Washington Times (August 30, 2026).
The antisemitism of the horseshoe right continues to run rampant.
By way of example, one proponent of Tucker Carlson’s view that modern-day Israel is the worst of all nations known to man posted the following to my Facebook page: “You keep arguing that we should read our Bibles. Please quote one book, chapter, and verse that says Christians must support the Christ-rejecting nation of Israel.”
Challenge accepted. Here is just a start.
“All the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” (Genesis 13:15)
“I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. … And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7-8)
“I will give [this land] to you as a possession, and I will give it as an inheritance to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 48:4)
“My covenant with [Israel] shall endure. … I will not withdraw my faithful love from him or betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or change what my lips have said. Once and for all, I have sworn an oath by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring will continue forever.” (Psalm 89)
“He remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant … the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.’” (Psalm 105:9-11)
“I will plant [the Jews] on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God.” (Amos 9:15)
“They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever.” (Ezekiel 37:25)
“This is what the Lord says: The one who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night; Who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar, The Lord of Armies is his name: If the fixed order departs before me — this is the Lord’s declaration — only then will Israel’s descendants cease to be a nation forever.” (Jeremiah 31:35-36)
“So, what advantage does a Jew have? Considerable in every way. … If some are unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Absolutely not. Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar.” (Romans 3:1-4)
“Has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! Do not boast that you are better than the branches. … You do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you.” (Romans 11:1-18)
“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29)
Finally, there is the quintessential verse as cited by Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” for which he was relentlessly mocked: “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” (Genesis 12:3)
These verses are just the tip of the iceberg. Dozens upon dozens of passages in the Psalms and the Prophets, as well as the entirety of the New Testament from Romans to Revelation, make the same point very clear: When God makes a promise, he keeps it.
Whether it be land for the state of Israel or salvation for the Body of Christ, God does not break his word.
Many will respond by parroting the likes of Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes and argue that it is only dopey dispensationalists who believe such eschatological nonsense. Do not be distracted by such mockery. Christians need not be pigeonholed into such manmade theological camps.
Scripture says what it says, and two things can be true at the same time. God can keep his promise to the Jews while also extending salvation to the world, through Christ. God is God. He can do both.
A final note to the smug supersessionists who walk among us: As to your claim that contemporary Israel is a sinful nation and has forfeited God’s promises as a result, where does it ever say that in the Bible?
Sure, it’s true that, by and large, Israel is a “Christ-rejecting” nation, but where does it ever say that the Jews are any more guilty of this sin than you or I, your nation and mine?
I have news for you: It wasn’t Israel that killed Jesus any more than it was Rome or Greece or you or me. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. … None are righteous; no, not one.”
Maybe, just maybe, it is time to start looking in the mirror and stop looking out the window and screaming about “the Joooos.”
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Mamdani Proves Chesterton Correct
By Patricia Hershwitzky (September 2, 2026)
Neither a monopolistic, anti-Christian capitalist nor a hardline atheist communist respects the human person. Both piggish capitalists and tyrannical politicians anoint themselves gods, abuse individual persons, and depress inalienable rights and freedom. Particularly since the dawn of the Industrial Age, which dramatically flipped the economy from rugged ruralism to mechanized urbanization, connivers from both camps have ensured only a few own or control most of the fruits of labor. Mega tightfisted corporations restrict the advancement and liberties of the majority of their employees. They frequently squash or absorb small start-ups in all areas of the economy. Opportunistic governments burden budding independent, small businesses, as well as their citizens, through myriad regulations and taxation, so the majority of the populace gets zapped by both extreme powers.
This glaring reality reared its ugly head most recently with New York Mayor Mamdani’s declared intrusion into the small grocery store business of his city in a way that threatens to destroy numerous independent and smaller bodegas and other individually owned markets by the hammer of manipulative government. G.K Chesterton might be gnashing his teeth if he were alive today. “The Catholic Worker” Servant of God Dorothy Day would likely be printing stories in her newsletters deploring this blow to the spirit of subsidiarity and God given rights of workers. How? A bit of background first:
The plight of the “assembly line” employee caught the attention of one particularly astute Pope in the late 1800s. Pope Leo XIII’s superior Church encyclical on genuine social justice: Rerum Novarum (1891) sparked debates about a socio-economic structure that best balanced the rights of both the business entrepreneur and the average family man attempting to survive if not thrive, in an increasingly dehumanizing work environment, it should not surprise that even then Catholics flirted with socialist solutions. Clever minds magnified the Pope’s empathy for the working man, and we still see that one-sided perspective today, though he also defended private property ownership. In other exhortations, Pope Leo XIII and other great Popes denounced communism. Still, tension between government and the citizen and corporate tycoons and the average worker intensified. We also witnessed massive attacks on persons, families and Faith through numerous tyrannical governments that starting emerging especially in the early 20th century under the falsehood of uplifting the people.
Some prominent early 20th century Catholics attempted to strike a balance with an economic theory known as Distributism. In a nutshell, champions like G. K. Chesterton—prolific Catholic writer and apologist— formed an ideal of subsidiarity, as outlined in Catholic teaching, that called for widespread ownership of production (agricultural and manufacturing). In other words, the more that average, local workers owned, controlled, and hopefully grew their own justly profitable enterprise, the better.
Chesterton would be joined by many others who insisted on keenly balancing the rights of laborers with due justice for those who provide means for production and employment. The superlative reason and logic of G.K. Chesterton, and the decades long advocacy for workers by Servant of God Dorothy Day, along with complementary input by other Catholics who understood the distinction between excessive capitalism and godless communism, framed a sound balance between public and private sectors. These wholly Christian idealists proposed an economic perspective that defended and promoted workers’ rights to success and ownership, whether on the farm or in the city against ruinous monopolies or suffocating government. (Chesterton favored redistributing farm land for the benefit of the many, and one can only imagine his dismay at whole corporations and even other nations controlling so much of it.)
A model of such, to some degree, is found in New York City, wherein a number of conscientious and bustling persons addressed a need for localized food access, including those known as bodegas, serving immigrant populations. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond their control, inflation and other negative factors reared its ugly head, and they are not experiencing barriers to delivering goods at affordable prices. Here was a perfect opportunity for government to assist, but that is not what has happened. Mayor Mamdani’s horrific scheme would have government overtake their consumer base. What Mamdani and his city cohorts are doing is as wrong as any nationalist farmland gobbler or mega franchise puppet master.
How is New York City government any different than mega supermarkets that have wiped out so many local markets while forcing able persons—not infrequently more talented than the corporate managers—to work for minimum wages? How many intelligent and capable risk takers could be participating in “spreading” opportunity and wealth for personal growth and well being but will now be absorbed as cogs in the larger machine of our economy?
Yet, that is not the worst of it. Consider that if Mamdani succeeds in this ill conceived take over, the eventual disappearance of the the small grocery stores and bodegas will not just end dismally for the city. These state controlled stores have never historically succeeded, but when they collapse, only the bigger chains like the Walmarts, Safeways, and Aldis will be able to rescue the delivery of food goods to the local population. So, the fate of the conscientious smaller grocer will be thrust from one extreme to the other—from communism to already wealthy capitalists. Of course, the average consumer is thereby also deprived of choice, even as their taxes will increase to cover the cost of government interference. A double if not triple whammy.
Let us recall and restudy the religious, intellectual, and advocational leaders who crafted the principles of Distributism because they deplored both excessive state intervention or intrusion into businesses and capitalist overlords securing, hoarding, and profiting by manufacturing and distribution of goods and services in top down control. Distributism promoted (and still does)) the redistribution of the means of production to as many people as possible. Though imperfect, like any theory, it is still the best one to ponder and infuse throughout our society.
I am praying for intercession by all holy souls, but including Pope Leo XIII, Dorothy Day and G.K. Chesterton who understood that power, no matter how benign it may disguise itself, or regardless whether in the private or public domain, is always a treacherous threat against the common good.
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An Angel with an Umbrella: When Rain Became a Blessing in Disguise
BY: Christy Romero (September 2, 2026).
“We are called to let go and allow Him to take control. He will send us all we need, and we must humbly accept the help of others.”— Julie Dortch Cragon, Talking to God
I am not a morning person. Waking up early to go for a walk requires an enormous sacrifice.
Usually, my husband is the one who pushes me out the door. He is my complete opposite—a determined morning person who loves to walk. Once I’m finally out of the house, I actually enjoy it. I love those morning walks with him: the quiet conversations, the shared prayers, and yes, even the occasional disagreements.
A month ago, my husband fractured his foot, leaving him unable to walk. This has been really hard on him, as well as on me, because I temporarily lost my favorite walking partner.
Heading out alone has been tough, but I found motivation by offering up my walks for his recovery, and using the time to listen to some really inspiring faith podcasts which feed my soul.
One morning last week, I woke up a little later than usual. By the time I was ready, the sun was already shining. I was very tempted to skip the walk altogether, but I knew I had to overcome my morning laziness and get myself to the golf course where I usually walk.
As I parked, I paused to pray. I offered up my walk for my husband—who would give anything to be walking beside me—as well as for a friend in the ICU after a stroke, another friend paralyzed in an accident last year, and a third one recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery. Carrying their suffering in my heart, I was ready to tackle the walk.
Stepping out of the car, I noticed a dark cloud looming to the east, so I headed west. I hadn’t gone a block before it started to sprinkle. “It’s just one cloud, keep walking,” I told myself.
Another block in, the skies completely opened up. Within minutes, I was drenched from head to toe. I took cover under a tree—which I knew was a bad idea, even without signs of lightning. I looked up toward the heavens, but the black cloud had expanded so much that I couldn’t even see a patch of blue sky.
“Seriously, Lord?” I said out loud. “I left the comfort of my bed, offered up my walk for all these people who would give anything to be here, and this is how You repay me?” I felt a bit like the prophet Jeremiah, crying out in frustration: “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped” (Jeremiah 20:7).
Since the tree wasn’t offering much shelter anyway, I decided to turn around and head back to the car. Amid the downpour, I heard a voice shouting. Assuming it wasn’t meant for me, I kept walking with my head down. But then I clearly heard in my native language: “Señora, le ofrezco una sombrilla!” (“Lady, let me offer you an umbrella!”)
I turned around. Parked in a nearby driveway, at a house that’s being remodeled, was a humble construction worker sticking an umbrella out the window of his car. I was already soaked to the bone—an umbrella couldn’t undo the damage—but his kindness touched me deeply. I walked over, took the umbrella, and thanked him with all my heart.
By the time I reached my car, the torrential rain was already subsiding. Sitting in the driver’s seat, watching the sun break through the clouds, a quiet realization washed over me. God had permitted the rain so I could experience a holy moment from a complete stranger: an angel with an umbrella.
And maybe… just maybe… He was also protecting me from something I couldn’t see.
It made me think of the stories from September 11th—like the executive who survived because dropping his child off at preschool made him late to work. How often do we view life’s little disruptions as curses when they are actually quiet protections?
The next time your kids are slow getting ready, or you are stuck in traffic, or you can’t find your keys, try not to stress or get angry. You might be exactly where you need to be. The next time a black cloud threatens your plans, thank Him anyway because maybe… just maybe… the dark cloud might just be a blessing in disguise.
I had hoped to pay it forward by passing the umbrella along to another drenched walker, but by the time I pulled out of the parking lot, the sun was shining brightly. No one needed it anymore. But the lesson remained: we so easily overlook the quiet miracles around us, yet a small, simple act of kindness can shift our entire perspective.
It took an unexpected downpour—and an angel with an umbrella—to remind me of that truth.
GFK
Observations From The Fifth Estate 