Gang Aft Agley

In case you don't know what the title of this post means, it's what Robert Burns says happens to "the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men." I had meant to write about St. Martin today, but I seem to have misplaced the book, so I'm going to see if perhaps it is buried under the mountain of paper on my desk at work. I might have taken it there with some misguided idea that I would find a few stray minutes to write, but that is unlikely to happen. So in the meantime, I will talk about monkeys.

This morning after Mass, a group of us began watching a series by Fr. Robert Barron called Conversion: Following the Call of Christ. One of things he said was that our ego is like a monkey on our back--a burden that is constantly turning our thoughts to ourselves instead of allowing us to look outward to the needs of others. This caught my attention immediately, and I have, unfortunately, been reminded of it several times during the day, and it is an intolerable burden. It's a useful image, though, and I hope that I can keep it in mind throughout Lent.

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Looking around for something else on the blog today, I came across this post from last Lent which also mentioned monkeys, but in this case, they were being distracting instead of being a burden. I can't say that they are being completely quiescent now, either.

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Friday, March 7, was the feast of Sts. Felicity and Perpetua, and my friend Deirdre posted this picture on Facebook. I liked it so well that I wanted to post it here, but I just didn't have time. Here is a link to St. Perpetua's account of the days preceding her execution. I had read the account of her martyrdom before, but not what she wrote herself. It's very touching and seems so immediate, as if she wrote it yesterday.  (In case you wondered, this part wasn't about monkeys.)

Well, I guess it's time to catch up on my sleep.

AMDG