November 11 ~ Veterans Day

PATRIOTISM is kneeling in the mud

The LORD is my shepherd…  Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid.  ~ Psalm 23:1, 4

Father Joseph Hogan was a chaplain in Europe with the U.S. Third Army.  One Sunday, he felt the presence of God in a way that touched him deeply.  He wrote: 

“I was saying Mass on top of a jeep.  The men were standing there with their guns slung over their backs and their helmets on.  The

ack-ack was pecking at the planes upstairs.  There was a torrent of rain coming down and a sea of mud to wallow in.  So I said, ‘Don’t bother to kneel down.’  And they didn’t, until the Consecration.  Then every man went down on his knees…  When they sloshed up to receive Holy Communion, they again knelt in mud puddles.” 
~ Joseph F. Hogan,  A Do-It-Yourself Retreat

In what way have you sensed God’s presence at Mass?

God has been profoundly real to me in recent years.  In the midst of outer dangers, I have felt an inner calm.  In the midst of lonely days and dreary nights, I have heard an inner voice saying, “Lo, I will be with you.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963
 

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