I Am Peter’s Shadow

    Year after year as a young man I wondered time and time again, “Why would the Lord pick Peter?  He failed in the hour of need! He was boastful and hot headed!  Then he sinned by inaction no different than Adam!”  After gaining many a grey hair, all I can think of is how I am Peter’s Shadow! 

    Peter was the first Apostle to receive and act on the gift of Faith by telling the Lord he was the Messiah.  Peter wanted to protect the Lord but was called a Devil for trying to avoid the Lord’s death in Jerusalem.  Peter wanted no part in the Lord humbling himself to wash his feet, but when corrected displayed exuberance in saying wash my whole body!  Peter struck the High Priest’s slave in the garden with Christ, but denied Christ three times in the garden of man.  Peter did not come to the foot of the Cross, but ran with abandon to the empty tomb.

    I now recognize Peter is the disciple who’s spirit and temperament is closest to mine.  I can get exuberant, but make mistakes just as brilliantly.  I see the world in ways most others do not, but it does not mean I am always right or can even explain myself!  I know the Lord is my God, but in sinning abandon our Lord in both dark of night and light of the day. 

    This Good Friday, as I attend Stations of the Cross, I will recognize myself as Peter’s Shadow on Good Friday.  I know in my life I often abandoned Christ on the road to Golgotha.  I know when I refuse to participate in Christ’s suffering, I hurt Christ and his mystical body even more!

    So I will do as Peter did after Christ died.  See Peter was hiding in that Upper Room Easter morning, but it does not mean he was slothful!  Peter assembled the Apostles over the two days Christ spent in the tomb.  In that Upper Room he was feeding Christ’s shepherds!  It might have been in fear and sheepishly, but he began doing part of his vocation.  He just needed a cue card for his next steps on when and where to re-enter the world!

   As Peter’s Shadow this weekend I will take a page from his life.  I will look at the family God placed in my care, memorialize my failings since I will see them again at my judgement, ask the Lord for forgiveness, and get back to work serving those in my care while I await the Lord’s next command on Easter Morning.  I know the Lord will expect nothing less.

-ehw

St. Joseph

    Today is a special day for me....it is the Feast Day of St. Joseph!  So even though I am in an other state, working 14 hours a day (well 16 today), and it is 20 or so degrees outside I found the Cathederal on the way to work.  As luck would have it, I walked in at mass time! I noted the Bishop was moving along briskly.  So I then attended mass AND got to work on time!

     Today was the funeral for the cousins lost last week in childbirth.  One of the children's middle name was Joseph as well.  So I lit a candle for the children, and asked this great saint to look out for them on the path to heaven.  Just before leaving I said our Blue Knight St. Joseph prayer....

Dear St. Jospeh

Who took such good care of the baby Jesus and blessed mother Mary. 

Be our protector to. 

Guide us on the path that is safe and sure, all the way to heaven.

Amen

-ehw

Leading us to the Cross

    Walking by this statue of Mary, something told me to stop and look again.  So I did look again.  Suddenly a message screamed out at me, "FRAME A GOOD SHOT!"  I am not going to call it divine revelation by any means, but my inner artist saw something it just needed to capture.

    Take it for what you want.  See what you want.  I just saw Mary reminding me her Rosary leads us to study her Son, Jesus Christ.  When our moment comes we'll choose which sinner to imitate.   By studying Christ's mysteries though meditation during the Rosary, we will find ourselves better prepared for that moment.

-ehw

P.S.  Fujifilm X-T1 with a little fill flash to even up the scene a tinny bit.  Processed RAW in Capture One 8.  So far it all just works and is a lot of fun!

A Day of Ashes

    Today starts the longest 40 days of the year: Lent.  I kept up a small tradition of getting a photograph on the way to work at the church I attend for Ash Wednesday mass.  Today it was All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody, Georgia.

    One thing struck me in the morning mass, and it was the fact that Catholics on this day are called to put a sign of repentance on our foreheads.  A mark that we have sinned and now must begin to the repentance and change needed to draw closer to God.  God's mercy is boundless, but it is not available unless we make the internal and external corrections changing our live's to match God's law.  

    This evening (I unexpectedly had to take the big kids since the pregnant momma was feeling ill at noon) the priest specifically cited challenges of our times.  He reminded us of how easy the internet puts threats to marriage, sanctity, chastity, integrity and life in God in front of us.  In many ways, instead of making our lives easier it makes resisting the challenges of evil harder.  He reminded all of us, our guard cannot drop.  The reality is though, we are human and our guard will drop.  

    As a result, this season of reflection and penance is more necessary than ever for us.  It is our chance to refocus our lives towards God.  It is our chance to review where new threats from evil enter our lives, how they hurt our community here on earth.

    I think most people know this.  My wife reminded me tonight Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States.  Despite this fact, she said more people will attend service today on any Holy Day of Obligation on the calendar outside of Easter and Christmas! 

     So in a world which filled the headlines with wicked spiritual warfare from ISIS, a mayor fired a respected and honorable fire chief for the sin of speaking his faith like Pilgrims did, and people steal identities like a monsoon brings rain...we have a sign of hope from the Holy Spirit.  Today more Catholics (and the Anglicans I saw waving on the street for people to come in and visit) went to church to start righting themselves with God's law just because they KNOW THEY NEED GOD to achieve the potential greatness he laid in their souls at conception.  

    Pretty nice thought if you ask me.

-ehw

P.S.  Fujifilm XT-1 with 35mm.  Liking the camera more everyday.  It just works without getting in my way.