Category Archives: Personal

The Catholicpunk Manifesto: now available almost everywhere!

The other day I announced a new book I wrote. Well, distribution of The Catholicpunk Manifesto has increased! You can now obtain an ebook copy for yourself through Amazon Kindle and through (as of now) a half-dozen or so other digital publishing sites via Books2Read: click here for the list of these additional options.

0000 GOODCOVER

There will be a paperback version, but I have to work out some issues with Amazon and Draft2Digital. The paperback edition should be available (hopefully) within a week or two? NOTE: Draft2Digital is a company that offers self-publishing opportunities to a growng number of people who seek to diversify away from (or in addition to) Amazon. I love Amazon, most of my sales for The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics and The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts come from them. But, it is prudent not to have all your beer bottles on one cooler, as they say, and Draft2Digital offers distribution to a wide array of epub sites. For those ‘in the know,’ I had used Smashwords previously as my Amazon alternative; Draft2Digital acquired Smashwords in 2021 and is slowly merging accounts. Within a few months, by Smashwords account will be merged into my Draft2Digital one, and my Smashwords storefront will have a new look.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

No Temples in Heaven

There are no temples in Heaven, not now, nor after the Second Coming and Resurrection of the Dead. This serious beginning belies a fanciful development.

Revelation 21:22 – “And I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb.”

(Via Catholic Public Domain Version of the Sacred Bible.)

Why do I bring this up? Why, because today is St. Patrick’s Day. Although his feast day has no real connection in and of itself to the afterlife (apart from being the day of his death and entry into Heaven) it sparked a certain nostalgia for me because as it is St. Patrick’s Day, I am wearing a hoodie sweatshirt emblazoned with “St. Patrick’s School” across the front. That school was my elementary and junior high (middle school in some places) when I was a kidlet in Oneida, New York, USA . My Mom bought the hoodie for me at a Knight’s of Columbus Breakfast back home, about 20 years ago.

In my nostalgia, I thought about the long number of years that parish has been around (mid-19th Century) and of all the people who have been members. Those dead, those currently living, and perhaps those yet to be born.

Now I start to get fanciful.

I often think about what Heaven (the post-Resurrection version) might be like. Whatever form the “New Earth and a New Heaven,” might actually take, I like to think of Heaven as a place where all the Saved, regardless of the times they had lived in, can meet and come together in whatever manner and capacity that we would have. I think that is interesting, that we will no longer be separated by space and time. No longer restricted to the time we were born in, we might be able to see Earth as it was long ago, or far ahead. How else would everyone be able to fit? 😉 People can move in time as well as space, and with the eternal nature of time, cause and effect may be meaningless.

We can meet those who didn’t live during our time on Earth, centuries ago and centuries hence. Since time is different in Eternity, we can see Earth in various periods. Earth could be like it is now, albeit good and pure and everlasting. For example, one might travel to the space corresponding to Germany, in the time corresponding to the early 1940s, but the horror will not be there. A pure and paradisiacal 1940s Germany, stripped of the Nazi evil, would be that corner of the “New Heaven and the New Earth.” “All things are made new.”

Many of the Scriptural images of Heaven depict it as a feast. A wedding feast or other some sumptuous banquet. This next part may be even more fanciful, but the sentimental and nostalgic side of me thinks that while many things may be “made new again” in Heaven, what will become of the churches that once were? Churches, temples, and such have always been a part of human communities. Obviously there is no need for temples in Heaven, as we will be in the presence of God and can worship Him directly. Heaven itself is the temple. Here’s the potentially fanciful thing: I think that churches, and other places of worship, will be the “banquet halls,” where many of the feasts take place. Imagine that: you’re in Heaven, and dining at a feast. The “dining hall” you’re in corresponds to where your childhood parish was, or the parish you shared in adulthood with your spouse and children, only since it no longer serves as a temple of worship, it now serves as that place where all who were ever members of it can dine together. Across the generations and even centuries of time, all can continually meet and dine together in one continuous banquet. Come and go as you please, there will always a table, never any waiting.

Thoughts of Heaven comfort me.

The book, A Travel Guide to Heaven, by Anthony DeStefano, influences my thoughts. It comforted me greatly in the trying times after Mom’s death.

NOTE: This is a “retropost,” a post from an old blog I wrote on “The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven (& Purgatory) and Hell” that I shuttered a few years ago. Individual posts are being transferred to either In Exile or Sober Catholic, whichever seems appropriate. Some are backdated, others postdated, in case you’re confused as to why you never saw a particular post if you’re a diligent reader. The process should be completed by early 2022.

 

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Blood from the Ceiling, Richard Nixon, and Giant Buzz Saw Monsters

OK, so I was in this dream where my wife Rose and I were in my old house back home in Oneida, NY. She was in the bathroom when she noticed blood dripping from the ceiling. She called for me and after moving aside the ceiling tiles (this differs from the real ceiling) we saw a hand drenched in blood. Rose screamed about the dead body (we only saw a hand, didn’t really feel like looking into the matter any closer) and asked me to call 911.

I did, but got elevator muzak for several minutes before being transferred to the next available representative, which turned out to be silence. I hung up and tried again, but each time getting the same thing. So I used the phone book to get a direct number to the Oneida Police Department, but couldn’t find the number. So I called the direct line to a nearby police dept in Rome, NY.

Someone showed up, agreed that there is in fact a dead body in the bathroom ceiling, and promised to contact the Oneida PD to deal with it. After he left out the back door, I heard a loud thumping or booming noise coming from the cellar. I opened the cellar door and there was this big man dressed in an Energizer Bunny costume, banging away on the drum. This annoyed me so I kicked him hard in the drum which sent him falling backward down the cellar stairs, crashing into the cement wall at the bottom. His drum broke wide open, covering him in flour.

I then woke up since Rose noticed something wrong with me and was gently shaking me.

I went back to sleep and had another dream where Rose and I drove from my old house to Sangertown Square Mall, near Utica, NY. It has seen better days, all the big box retailers had gone and only small Mom-and-Pop stores were left.

Nevertheless, there was an employment agency and we decided to get a job. We both got temp jobs looking after an office Richard M. Nixon had there. He only used it when he was in Utica. I asked, “Isn’t he dead?” “Oh, no!” I was assured by the small grey girl behind the receptionist’s desk.

Nothing much happened until some old guy came in and told us about the armoire next to the windows; it contained special communications gear. I said “We shouldn’t touch that,” but he said, “No one would care.” So we pulled open the doors which revealed video equipment that would be more at home in a 1950s sci-fi movie. We turned one on which showed an alert broadcast about some hideous Buzz Saw Monster flying around and slashing everyone. We all decided to remain in Nixon’s office, as that seemed safer. Afterward, the TV stopped working except to play a Battlestar Galactica marathon (the original show, of course) so I went out to get a newspaper. The only one I could find was the Oneida Daily Dispatch, the Utica Observer-Dispatch wasn’t available. The Dispatch headlines seemed more concerned about the lockdown proposed by the governor to keep people safe from the Buzz Saw Monster and the effect it would have on its paper carriers.

That was all.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Thirty-three years

Thirty-three years ago today, on March 19, 1988, my sister died. She had fought a battle with cancer and lost. Nowadays she probably might have been a survivor, but with the treatment available in the 1980s, no.

I was living in Washington, DC at the time, and when I heard the news I got numb.It was my first real experience with someone dying. There had been family members who had died before her, but they had all been people more distant from me, no one in my litany of siblings, now lacking a name.

I left my apartment and wandered around downtown DC. The streets were deserted, at 2 or 3 AM people were long gone. A city, deserted.

I visit her grave every few years; my wife and I only live maybe 90 minutes or so from it. It has been several years since we were last there. I have no idea when the next will be

Nothing much else to say, I just had to make note of it, here.

She is missed.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Find a Grave

Given that the Vatican recently extended the plenary indulgence for visiting a grave during the Octave of All Saints to all of November, I thought it opportune to bring back this retropost. (What’s a retropost? Read the italicized paragraph at the end. It’s the one before where I ask you at the end of every post to please buy my books.)

I discovered through a conversation on Facebook an interesting site called: Find A Grave. Millions of cemetery records and photos of gravesites (tombstones) are listed there. There is also a search function where you can locate specific records.

I already found someone who’s grave I had searched for a few years ago. An old and dear friend of my family. My parents tended his grave for several years after his death in 1980, and the last time I was ever there was with my Mom in 1996. After she died in 2005, I went on a major nostalgia/sentimental binge and tried to locate his grave. I couldn’t. I went to every cemetery in the immediate vicinity of my old hometown, looking at a photo of my Dad kneeling at the grave, trying to match that image with the landscape. Nope. I don’t know how I forgot, but he was buried in a cemetery a few miles south of town. I found him! 🙂

NOTE: This is a “retropost,” a post from an old blog I wrote on “The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven (& Purgatory) and Hell” that I shuttered a few years ago. Individual posts are being transferred to either In Exile or Sober Catholic, whichever seemed appropriate. Some are backdated, others postdated, in case you’re confused as to why you never saw a particular post if you’re a diligent reader. The process should be completed by the end of 2020, and all posts finally “will to have been published” (tense of future past 😉 ) by the Easter 2021.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Willing to be ridiculous to obtain the miraculous, so please help

I tried posting this on LinkedIn either as a stand alone post or a profile description, but it exceeds the maximum length for either. Then I remembered that I have two blogs and so I decided to make use of them for this personal matter. The post title is an allusion to a famous quote of Mother Angelica, the Foundress of EWTN. She said, “Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous. When you have God, you don’t have to know everything about it; you just do it.” This kind of post sounds ridiculous, and proper people with proper concerns about proper appearances probably wouldn’t bother, but I am looking for the miraculous, and so be it. (However, I know quite a bunch about what I’m looking for, so there’s that…)

In this time of pandemic, with the relevant health concerns, (or scares, depending upon your POV) I am considering a career change. I hinted at my day job on a prior LinkedIn profile description (now edited out in favor of the current transitional one) but I would now like something different. What have I done for a living? Nice that you should ask: I am currently laid-off (due to the pandemic) from a thrift store chain where I received used goods at an outdoor remote donation center. What was a temporary job “until something better came along” has endured for over six years now. So, loyalty and perseverance are expressed character traits! I found that I actually enjoyed the work, hard as it was at times given the need to work in all types of weather and dealing with all types of individuals. I found the diversity of people and their offerings interesting, especially when they talked and told stories about themselves or their goods. I’d often wonder about the history of unusual or odd donations. Also, during periods in between receiving and sorting/stocking duties I found plenty of time to read and think, which assisted my enduring for 6 years. I even got a great idea for a novel which I have been puttering with.

My company is considering reopening next week (June 1st) in an upcoming “Phase.” Although I do welcome the opportunity to return, I have also enjoyed staying safe at home these past few months. I have health concerns which render me susceptible to COVID-19, although my health care professionals think I’ll survive. But given the impermanence of unemployment insurance, generous though it is, work is a need for personal dignity, economic sustainability and independence. I find myself wanting something that can make better use of my past professional, academic and general life-skills. And thus I am pursuing a career-change. I am seeking a remote (telework, “work-at-home”) position in what might variously be called “content creation,” or “freelance copywriting” or “copyediting,” in other words, you have a site or product that needs words, well, I got loads of ’em and I know how to use them, too! Another position that I would be interested in is chat-based customer service. After completing training on your company’s products and services and assimilating appropriate knowledge, I can serve customers who have issues and problems in a chat interface. (I prefer the written word to the spoken.) I use a Mac, hopefully this is not an impediment to any proprietary software.

If you’re interested, or have job leads, or even advice and prayers, please email me at the addresses found here: MY CONTACT INFO. You can also reach me through LinkedIn; my profile is Paul Sofranko on LinkedIn. The “About Me” page on my busier blog tells much. I am diligent, loyal, and possess a great work ethic. Salary is negotiable, I’d prefer flexible hours, or if fixed hours, then afternoons through evenings (i.e. “second shift.”) I am looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you for considering me, I do appreciate any interest.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

November!

November is just a few hours away in my time zone on Earth and it’s my favorite month. Sometimes referred to as the “Month of the Dead” because the Solemnity of All Saints (November 1st) and the Commemoration of the Souls of the Faithful Departed (known also by the shorter name of “All Souls Day” and falling on November 2nd) occur with it; not to mention cultural practices involving dead people by others sharing this globe. It is also a month of devotions for Purgatory.

I just love it. It’s a reminder of our mortality and that we are only here temporarily. Eventually we’ll die and wind up somewhere for Eternity. We are all living “In Exile” here (nice name for a blog. Hmmm.. 🙂 )

It’s also the month my Mom died in 2005. An event that was a tragic part of a series of events alienating me from my blood family. It brought the month into a clear focus for me and spurred me to explore its wonders. It opened up for me the vistas of death and beyond. On death as a passage and the gate through which we pass to our destiny.

Sometimes I yearn for death; not as an escape from Earthly problems but just as a desire to go Home. November helps me to ponder that and be reminded it isn’t time yet (I think) and I have things remaining to do down here.

I just have to do them.

 

 

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Alive for another year!

This blog remains alive for another year. (Seriously? You call this, “Alive?” ONE POST in the past year?!?!?!)

I almost terminated it last year due to inactivity along with no clear idea as to what to do with it. Well, I had some ideas, I just never followed through with them. (Turning it into a newsy, opinion blog was never one of the ideas. Too much noise out there as it is, no one needs to hear more of it from me.) But my hosting provider offered a coupon equal to the domain registration fee, and I took it and as a result whoever reads this got treated to one post about dead squirrels.

This year they did the same, but I waited a few days until I paid for the whole hosting account as well as the domain fees for Sober Catholic and my wife’s site Artist4God. And the coupon disappeared. So. That takes care of that. But then I heard a little voice saying ‘Try Customer Srervice Chat. Ask what happened, and maybe they’ll give it to you.” I did and they did and here this thing is for another year, and perhaps beyond.

Why? Good question.

This has got to be the oldest continuing blog with no sustained, continual purpose. It’s even had several name changes.  Dribs and drabs of direction and points, but….

I was going to download the posts and transfer some to Sober Catholic, perhaps edited, and in looking over a bunch I thought, “Darn, I’m good sometimes!” (Tongue, inserted in cheek. Wink.)  So, I’ll ponder and plan. (Again.)  (Oh, I think I had the idea at one point to turn this into my primary “social media” outlet, rather than use Facebook, et al. Use this and reshare where needed. That’s worth revisiting.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Squirrel Death Scene

My wife and I recently went on a 1,250 mile (roundtrip) vacation. It was in multiple stages; first up was Schroon Lake in the eastern Adirondack Mountains followed the next day by a road trip across Vermont and New Hampshire which ended at the Atlantic seacoast in York, Maine. And then the return trip with a stopover at one of the world’s best used bookstores, Berry Hill Bookshop in Deansboro, NY.

Am I going to blog about that? Will I be spending copious amounts of digital ink writing about the Adirondacks and how much I have loved them since childhood? Or about the quaint rural scenery crossing Vermont? Or how New Hampshire seemed to be not much different from central or western New York? How about the majesty of the Atlantic storm swells crashing against the rocks by the Nubble Lighthouse in Maine? Or my wife’s ecstatic happiness over finally seeing an ocean for the first time in her life? Nope! None of that! What am I, a travel writer? (Actually, maybe later I will. 😉 )

No. What I am going to blog about is a mysterious and gruesome death scene we saw while driving up the on-ramp of Exit 12 for the I-89 Southbound interstate in New Hampshire.

Squirrels. Dozens of them; nay, make that hundreds of dead squirrels littering the on-ramp and its shoulders. If that wasn’t enough, the carnage extended for quite a distance along the right two lanes of I-89 Southbound.

Neither of us could figure out what had happened. What could have caused such a monstrous scene? I wish I had photos. Despite have two pretty good cameras, both were not considered we never thought of them. Besides, at highway speeds we couldn’t have gotten decent pictures anyway.

For all intents and purposes it looked like the aftermath of a Great Squirrel War and these were the unfortunates who lost their lives in whatever cause they believed in. Or some public mass execution of squirrel criminals by the local squirrel authorities.

Who can say, but we had never seen such a thing ever before.

NOTE: despite the somewhat humorous tone of this piece, it did happen. We really did see hundreds of dead squirrels lining the roadway.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Mass of the Ages

Today I went to a Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (also known as the “Traditional Latin Mass.”) It was a Missa Cantata, or “Sung Mass.”

I had some idea of what to expect; I had gone to one (also a “Missa Cantata”) before, perhaps 15 years ago. I had no clue then as to what was going on. This time I was better informed from prior study.

I loved it, although I still didn’t quite understand everything. My knowledge of Latin is about what you’d expect: my only sources of it are EWTN Masses and Looney Tunes cartoons. 😉

Adding to my lack of adequate comprehension was that much of the Mass is silent; the priest says most of what he says quietly, unlike the Ordinary Form of the Mass (the one you’re used to.) I tried to follow along in a missal the parish had but was largely unsuccessful. I had been advised by numerous people that I should dispense with using a missal for the first few times I attend an EF Mass; I should just “experience it,” to “take it all in” and basically treat it (at first) like a devotional, such as a Holy Hour. Then, once more familiar with the whole event from just observing, find a missal and follow along. So, for the next few times I go I will ignore the missal.

The priest is offering the sacrifice on behalf of the people; we observe and unite our prayers to his. The offering of the Mass is between him and God, we are present but in a less participatory role than in the OF. I may have said this with less than precise terminology. If in error, I will accept charitable correction. But this is what I believe I’ve gleaned from my study and observation. The Mass is a sacrifice, the priest offers it, we observe. The OF Mass has altered this understanding, and I think the manner in which it was done has been detrimental to contemporary Catholicism. The emphasis seems to have shifted from worshiping God to the Mass being some sort of communal celebration about us.

Anyway, it was a transcendental experience; despite my newness to it I sensed that something was different, something otherwordly was taking place. A kind of awesome mystery. I felt completely detached from the outside world, something that rarely ever happens to me at an Ordinary Form Mass. I can just imagine the experience after I am more familiar with it.

This is the “Mass of the Ages,” the Mass the Catholic Church celebrated for centuries prior to Vatican II. I felt somehow connected to those who had celebrated it before… not just ordinary priests and laity, but saints. This is the Mass that St. Maximilian Kolbe offered.

They say that Vatican II created a rupture in the continuity of tradition between the contemporary Church and the one of ages past. I will not comment on that but it is apparent that we lost a lot. Although I will not become bitter, angry and resentful over “what we lost,” for I well know what those emotions can lead to, I will develop a much greater interest in the liturgy and its importance in life. I already have to some great degree taken the liturgy to be something more than something done on Sundays or how you pray. I do live a fairly liturgical life: from taking a keen interest in the liturgical seasons and deriving a personal connection or life application from them to praying the Divine Office. The liturgical year contributes to the ebb and flow of my life, almost like the temporal seasons and their connection to growing things.

I will be attending the Mass in both forms. My wife shows little interest in the EF. That’s all right. I like a good OF Mass said with due and proper attention to the rubrics. (The OF lends itself to abuse.)

I will blog about this more over the coming weeks.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)